Tim Sweeney, the founder of Epic Games and one of the best experts in computer graphics and video games in the world, believes that virtual reality will have dramatic influence on gaming. Moreover, rapid development of VR will mean that 10 years from now it will be impossible to distinguish …
Read More »Would you pay for YouTube? Google think so
It's no secret that YouTube is the go to source for instantly watching online videos these days, with YouTube access being a consideration when people are buying anything from tablets and phones, to consoles and TVs, let alone PCs. But now that YouTube is in such a dominant position, as …
Read More »Spies probably have the keys to your phone
Everything your phone transmits to and receives from your network providers phone tower is encrypted, so that only the network operator can receive your calls and data and route them as you request. This is all encrypted with a set of keys on the sim card inside your phone and another set …
Read More »Report suggests that PS4 will outsell Xbox One 40% by 2019
A new report from Strategy Analytics claims that the PlayStation 4 will maintain its strong lead over the Xbox One, outselling Microsoft's console by 40 per cent by 2019. The results of the study were released this week, predicting sales figures for both consoles over the next four years. According …
Read More »Studio behind Xbox One Phantom Dust reboot shuts down
Microsoft had a pretty decent E3 presentation in 2014, one of the games to be teased at the show was a reboot of Phantom Dust, which was being developed by Darkside Games. Unfortunately, the independent studio has now shut down after Microsoft decided to take the game in another direction. …
Read More »Assassin’s Creed Unity patch to abandon companion app
Ubisoft has gone ahead and released the fifth Assassin's Creed Unity patch, several months after the title's initial launch. Now those who still aren't done with the game can play with all of the chests unlocked, removing the need to play the companion app. The patch has already hit the …
Read More »Lenovo faces criticism over shipping PCs with Superfish installed
Lenovo has a bit of a situation on its hands after customers and the security conscious noticed that some Lenovo PCs were shipping with an install tool known as Superfish on-board, which can result in adware as well as put communications at risk. It turns out, that some customers aren't too …
Read More »Google warns against FBI demands for expanded hacking
Currently, government agencies and local police forces in the US, are only able to obtain permission to hack into the computers and other electronic devices of suspects in their region and only then once they have a warrant. However, now the FBI and other organisations want to expand that power …
Read More »Want to buy 50,000 Bitcoins?
In a rare opportunity, thanks to the United States Marshals Service and Ross Ulbricht of Silk Road fame, you are now able to bid on 50,000 seized Bitcoins. These Bitcoins are currently worth around £7.7 million (or $11.9 million USD) and were seized from Ulbricht when the feds snatched his laptop away from him in a San …
Read More »HTTP/2 is finished and will be coming to your browser soon
The Internet Engineering Task Force has just reached a consensus and finished finalising the next major update, to the HTTP standard that we all use every day. The specification builds upon and is an alternative to, but does not obsolete, the HTTP/1.1 standard that was first introduced in 1999, that we currently use whenever …
Read More »New Guild Wars 2 profession ‘The Revenant’ detailed
The latest Guild Wars 2 profession has been revealed, it's called ‘The Revenant' and being one will involve wielding the spirits of the past. The new profession will be the ninth in the game and will feature in the upcoming Heart of Thorns expansion pack. The Revenant has just been …
Read More »Early details of Xbox One universal apps and retail dev kit plans revealed
More details surrounding the Xbox One's integration in to the Windows 10 ecosystem have come to light, showing that the upcoming universal applications will be able to run in the background, bringing a higher level of multi-tasking to the console. Additionally, Microsoft may finally be bringing the option to turn …
Read More »The Stomping Land dev has gone silent again, model designer leaves
The Stomping Land has been a prime example of crowd funding gone wrong. The game managed to raise over $100,000 on Kickstarter before coming to Steam Early Access and then once it hit Steam, the main developer behind the project went silent. The project leader, Alex Fundora eventually spoke out …
Read More »The £85K charity bid for the very first 20th Anniversary PS4 fell through
A while back Sony held a charity auction for the very first 20th Anniversary Edition PlayStation 4 console. The auction appeared to be a success with the winner bidding £85,000, unfortunately, he failed to pay up but Sony still kept its own promise and matched the winning bid in a …
Read More »Gabe Newell death threat game makes it back on Steam
Paranautical Activity has reappeared on Steam, several months after being pulled when one of the developers threatened Gabe Newell's life over Twitter. Since then that particular developer quit and then rejoined the company and now the game itself is back on Steam. To make up for his transgressions, the team …
Read More »Amiibo will unlock portions of NES, SNES games
What Nintendo will actually do with its Amiibo figurines has been up for much debate since the little NFC equipped models were released last year. Off the bat they gave us extra costumes in certain games and our own AI cooperative partner in Smash Bros, but these are cross title …
Read More »Kaspersky claims NSA hid spyware in HDD firmware
Hot off of the heels of breaking news on the biggest digital bank heist run in history, Kaspersky labs, the anti-malware firm, has released a new batch of information that indirectly paints the NSA and the US government as having inserted malware into the firmware of commercial hard drives. While …
Read More »The New Nintendo 3DS sold 335,000 units in first week
Nintendo's new 3DS seems to be off to a good star, having sold around 335,000 units since its launch last week in Europe and North America. Two big contributing factors would be the launches of The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask and Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate. The information comes from …
Read More »Microsoft to notify Office 365 and Azure customers of government requests
Microsoft is now the first major cloud provider to make use of the ISO/IEC 27018 international standard for cloud privacy. From now on, Microsoft Azure and Office 365 customers will be notified when a government data request is received, allowing for more transparency. The standard was published by the International …
Read More »Xbox One ultimate game sale is live
Microsoft has launched the ultimate game sale on Xbox Live, bringing discounts on many Xbox One and Xbox 360 titles, giving Xbox gamers the chance to save up to 85 per cent on some games. Those who have an Xbox Live Gold subscription will get an extra 10 per cent …
Read More »Microsoft to charge $600 for extended Windows Server 2003 support
Microsoft has opted to put a price on extended support for servers running Windows Server 2003, after the software reaches its end of life over the summer. According to reports, companies will be charged $600 per server for the first year of support following the end of life date, which …
Read More »The Halo Needler is now a real dart gun
There are many iconic guns in the Halo series, but perhaps one of the strangest was the Covenants Needler (or Type-33 Guided Munitions Launcher as you may know it). It fired piercing needles that embedded into a target and then after a second or so each dart exploded with predictably bad …
Read More »Google to give developers more time to fix bugs before revealing
Google's Project Zero was announced last year as a new way to help improve online security by identifying vulnerabilities in software and services. Upon finding a vulnerability, it is reported directly to the company in charge of the software or service affected, the developers then have a certain amount of …
Read More »Dota 2 reaches over 1,000,000 simultaneous online players
One of the wonderful things about the Steam platform is that it is incredibly open with its statistics, showing how many people are playing different games and how many users are online at all times. This is something that is pretty unique amount digital distribution platforms and it allows us to …
Read More »Bungie adds new ‘loremaster’ to Destiny writing team
Bungie has gone ahead and hired former Guild Wars 2 writer, John Ryan, to be the new ‘loremaster' for Destiny, it has been confirmed. The company aimed to strengthen its writing staff working on the game, following the departure of lead writer, Joseph Staten, just a year before release. The …
Read More »Sony has abandoned The Last Guardian trademark
Sony unveiled The Last Guardian a number of years ago, initially as a PlayStation 3 exclusive. However, despite the long and troubled development cycle, the company has refused to announce its cancellation and has remained certain that it will come out eventually. Unfortunately, that may longer be true as Sony …
Read More »Dying Light patch brings mod support
Earlier this month, Dying Light developer, Techland, promised to bring full mod support to the zombie survival title. Now the studio has made good on that promise, with a new patch restoring the ability to mod the game. Full mod tools are also on the way. Patch 1.4.0 unlocks the …
Read More »Kaspersky details billion dollar digital bank heist
According to anti-malware security firm Kapersky, many of the world's major banks have been hit by digital thieves over the past year and a half, with the attackers making off with at least $300 million, but potentially as much as a billion (£648 million), after using malware and social engineering …
Read More »Microsoft responds to Turkey investigating violence in Minecraft
Minecraft is likely one of the last games you would expect to come under fire for violent content but that is exactly what has happened over in Turkey. The country's Family and Policies Minister, Aysenur Islam, has launched an investigation in to the game under the impression that it promotes …
Read More »Parallels 10 brings Windows 10 to Mac
You can now throw the Windows 10 Technical Preview on your Mac with the latest version of Parallels. Parallels Desktop 10 now gives Windows 10 as an option for the virtual machine, alongside Ubuntu and the older Windows 7/Windows 8.1 ISOs. Parallels works by creating a virtual machine on your …
Read More »