Software & Gaming

Earlier this week Valve announced the Steam OS. That however, was just the beginning. Today beta testing for Valve's ‘Steam Machines' was announced and you can be a part of it. To become eligible for beta participation you must follow these steps: Join the Steam Universe community group Agree to …

It's a great, great time to be a PC gamer. Not only is having a mid-range gaming setup going to cover you against most of the next-gen console developments, but Valve is set to produce its own Steam box system within the next six months using PC hardware – so …

Grand Theft Auto have detailed the cost of their microtransactions – which range in price between £1.99 and £13.49 according to a report on Eurogamer. EuroGamer claims they have a source ‘with early access to the mode' and said ‘while details may still be tweaked prior to its final release, …

South Park, one of the most popular and often controversial cartoons around, has had a game in development for a while and now we finally know when we will get to play it. Look for it December, but while we wait, it's worth noting it's somewhat troubled history. The Stick …

Rockstar isn't done making money just yet, after earning more than $1 billion in its first week and making Grand Theft Auto V the fastest selling game of all time, its only right to release the soundtrack. ‘The Music of Grand Theft Auto V Collection' spans across three albums with …

While my wife has always loved vegetables – god knows what her parents did to convince her of that idea – it's taken me well into my young adult years to understand that they can be tasty, that they're good for me and that I feel better if I eat …

Has the release of the next-gen got you all excited for the new developments in graphics, connectivity and gameplay? Don't be so dull, there's more to it than that: like how the consoles sounds when you hit the on button. With that in mind, here's a PS4's start beep. [yframe …

Over the past few days I've spent a few glorious hours playing through the first handful of levels of Zachtronics' new release, Ironclad Tactics. As a fan of both card games and RTS mechanics, I was intrigued by the fast paced, turn system and when I heard it had a …

This week we are running a little competition on our Facebook page – to win a STEAM game of your choice. All you have to do is join our funny Facebook comment thread over here and give a caption to the image. It means you can put all your spare …

Have you recently switched over from IOS and found yourself lost without IMessenger? Well there is an app now in the Google Play store that can emulate the experience and connect to your Apple ID. However, there is a compromise: your security and privacy. This app has been a bit …

Ordinance survey maps, nobody uses those any more right? Of course not, we all have GPS. Besides we're gamers, the only ordnance we know anything about is off map artillery. That said, it seems those maps aren't totally useless, as someone used it to map out the whole of the …

While some people's efforts to put games within games, seem to be more for the fun of the challenge and the novelty than anything else, when it comes to the Occulus Rift, it seems like it might be possible to go all Inception and go several layers deep, creating a …

If you've been playing Grand Theft Auto V over the past week and have wondered why the “store” is currently empty, or found it particularly hard to earn money in the single player, the reason could be that Rockstar is intending to offer micro-transactions, where you buy in-game cash, with …

DICE has released details of its new and improved Battlelog system. Battlefield 3 had you exiting the game and returning to a webpage every time you wanted to change multiplayer servers or play some campaign on your own for a while; it was a confusing and unnecessary experiment. However, now Battlelog …

Despite scientific evidence on the matter being somewhat inconclusive, a new survey is suggesting that a large portion of people still believe that video game violence can lead to the real version being perpetrated by the player, even though a similarly large number of people also think games can be …

Steam OS has been revealed as the first of three announcements Valve has planned for this week. What many were expecting to be the ‘Steambox' console turned out to be a whole new stand alone operating system, based on Linux architecture, designed for the living room. Valve has already improved …

Project Reality, a mod that took eight years of hard labour on various game engines to create, is now set to grow from a simple mod to a whole standalone title focusing on realism, immersion and teamwork. All too often those types of shooters end up being tactless affairs with …

Despite the near universal praise of GTA V and its rampant success, there's been a few kill joys in the media that decided to take it upon themselves to bad mouth the game and the industry, by suggesting that violent games breed real world violence. Myself and Carl covered some …

Tech entrepreneur and internet mogul, Kim Dotcom, recently announced that between 28th and 29th September, at the Digital Nationz show – New Zealand's first digital entertainment expo – he would play 100 people at Call of Duty, Modern Warfare 3 and for every person he beats, he'd donate $100 to …

If you've been keeping even a lazy eye on the gaming press headlines for the past couple of weeks, you'll have noticed that GTA V has been kind of a big deal. It's been hyped, raised controversy, but most crucially for Rockstar and its publisher Take Two, it's sold a …

It only took two days before Apple's fingerprint sensor got hacked. Germany's Chaos Computer Club cracked the protection around the Apple fingerprint sensor on the new iPhone 5S, only two days after the device went on sale worldwide. The group posted on their site saying that their biometric hacking team …

Last week Gabe Newell hinted at a steam box announcement sometime soon. Now there is a website with space for three clocks, the first countdown has already begun, and it ends in 32 hours at time of writing. The signs pointing towards a console announcement are strong, the url ends …

Crytek, the development group responsible for one of the most beautiful game engines to date, Cryengine, and subsequent games Crysis and the original Farcry, have challenged software makers to create a programme that could use open source street maps to render open world environments, in turn saving on development time. …

Japanese game publisher Square Enix is set to release the Android version of the hit game Final Fantasy V, originally released just short of 21 years ago on the Super Famicom/SNES. The wonderful little RPG will re-debut on Android devices next week on the 26th of September, following the release on …

Oh dear, let's not hope this is going to be a growing trend with Kickstarters, as it could really dampen people's interest in giving to fledgling developers. Another big Kickstarter project has run out of money, with not much hope in sight of completing it. The game in question is …

Console orientation has been something the last generation experimented with, all of them – Wii, PS3, Xbox 360 – offering either vertical, or horizontal as a potential option. Each of them had feet on the ‘side,' but could be mounted either way. Likewise, the Wii U has a stand and …

Google Chromecast, the $35 dongle that made the ‘smart' tv redundant, has it's first competitor, with Sony announcing it's Google OS based ‘Bravia Smartstick,' priced at £100.  However, at that higher price point does it stand much of a chance? It doesn't really have the  sleek and simple design of …

Listen up fellow commodity transporters. Put down your track tools for a second, this is big news. Chris Sawyer, the man behind the original beloved classic that was Transport Tycoon (and Deluxe) has announced that he's working on an upcoming mobile remake of the game and it's coming in just …

It's not uncommon for hardware makers in all sorts of tech areas to take a loss on the initial release. Sony did it with the PS3, Amazon did it with the Kindle Fire – it's a way to make sure you sell lots of the base kit, in the hope …

Sony has stated that demand for the Playstation 4 could outstrip supply. Pre order stock has officially sold out, with 1 million consoles reserved in the first week of pre orders. Microsoft faces a similar problem with the Xbox one, with many countries having to wait until 2014. PS4 pre …