In an interview with the Gaming Business Review, an online site ran by M2 Publishing, Tim Sweeney detailed recent developments in Epic Games, as well as his visions of the future.

The interview obviously took place during Game Developer’s Conference 2015, which is traditionally held in San Francisco, CA. We highly recommend that you head there and read the whole interview, but we could not miss out on a question that is shaping the industry right now:

GBR: How big do you see virtual reality becoming over the next five to ten years as a business?

TS: Virtual reality and Augmented Reality will literally change the world. They will be the next computing platform.  There’s a market for billions of these devices because everybody who has a smartphone today will — perhaps in as much as decade from now — much prefer entertainment in a completely immersive experience that takes advantage of your entire field of view and has full body input through miniaturized cameras and other technologies.  But we’re in the early days of it now.  Let’s be clear, everything is in the development kit stage.  It is for early adopters and what we’re seeing now is really just the Palm Pilot to the platform that will evolve into something iPhone-like in its quality.

There’s no point in denying it, after seeing billions of dollars earned by 3D movies which rely on ‘cheap tricks’ to achieve depth (try finding animated feature movies without 3D being the ‘default’ option), next step will bring us technologies such as Microsoft Hololens, production versions of Facebook-owned Oculus VR (John Carmack keynote) and second-generation Google Glass, which is developed in near-secrecy by the search giant and a practical monopoly in glasses, Italian giant Luxottica.

After operating for almost 20 years as an independent studio, Epic Games made waves across the gaming and development community when they accepted an investment from Tencent Holdings (HKG:0700) last June (2014). The Chinese powerhouse paid up $330 million for 48.4% of the company, setting the valuation just a bit below $680 million.

Tim Sweeney continued to be the CEO, while his lifelong business partner Mark Rein still continues as in his role of Vice President.  Not selling themselves outright like idSoftware did with ZeniMax Media, Epic Games continues to be independent studio, consisting out of product (games) and technology development units. Their recent announcement about making Unreal Engine ‘free’ opens a path for even more ‘premium freemium’ titles which base their revenue model on microtransactions.

The post Tim Sweeney: Virtual Reality will Literally Change the World appeared first on VR World.

Virtual reality is undoubtedly an immersive feast for the eyes, and accompanied by surround sound headphones that pump in realistic high-def sounds to our ears, users are pulled into a digital world.

But what about our other senses? What about those who actually want to smell their digital universe?

The attachment is a novel idea, but as you can see it’s a rather bizarre piece of hardware that traps your visage in a claustrophobic mask that looks quite uncomfortable.

The FeelReal Mask is a curious VR peripheral that aims at injecting more “reality” into your virtual reality sessions by simulating the sense of smell to virtual reality (yes, really). It will also deliver minor temperature fluctuations to simulate hot air, wind and even water mist.

It’s rightly labeled as a “mask” considering when you strap it on to VR hardware you’re pretty much obscuring your entire face, trapping your features in a bizarre claustrophobic contraption for the sake of “total immersion”.

The FeelReal Mask as showcased at GDC 2015. (Photo Credit: The Verge)

Since you’re mouth will be completely covered up, the mask features a Bluetooth microphone to ensure you’re not completely vocally cut-off from the outside world.

It seems like a novel concept from the start, but once you see what you have to go through to get your senses doused in the “full VR presence”, the FeelReal Mask will most likely scare everyone off. Smell is an inherently important sense, and is more closely tied to memory than any other of our five senses, so successfully tapping this reservoir could lead to potential interactive gold.

But how does the mask work? Loaded with a cartridge that produces seven unique smells that waft through “odor generating vents”, the oddity is tethered to the headset by Bluetooth and powered by a battery with a four-hour life cycle.

Hot and cool air are funneled through dual-sided vents along your upper cheekbones to simulate wind and the like, whereas the water mist lightly sprays at separate dual-sided vents along your cheeks.

The “odor generator” is right under your nose–like literally right under your schnozz while wearing the headset–and delivers the following scents:

• Ocean
• Jungle
• Fire
• Grass
• Powder
• Flowers
• Metal

The mask is attachable to just about every piece of VR tech out there including the Oculus Rift, Project Morpheus, Valve’s Vive headset and even Zeiss VR One.

The Verge tried out the hardware at GDC 2015 and likened it to “smell-o-vision” for VR.

The publication described it as “strapping a foam block over your mouth and nose, putting yourself at the mercy of its air vents,” and saying that it’s basically a “gas mask arranged into a little smiling face.”

While the FeelReal Mask is certainly a unique specimen in terms of adding smell to VR, we’ve seen other peripherals that aim to bring total immersion to the virtual world.

Hardware like the Dexmo exoskeleton from Dexta Robotics and the mo-capping CyberGlove are helping bring the sense of touch to virtual reality, laying the framework for technologies that could very well introduce hardware of Lawnmower Man-like proportions.

But I think senses like smell (and taste for that matter) are best left to the real world.

The post FeelReal Brings Sense of Smell To Virtual Reality appeared first on VR World.

The Game Developers Conference 2015 was the opportunity for Liminal Games to showcase its new open world RPG to fans and the press. Made with the CryEngine, The Memory of Eldurim is described by its creators as a mix between Skyrim and Dark Souls.

This small team that consists of only three full time developers and is constantly adding more content and pushing almost weekly updates for their game.

As the interested GDC patrons swarmed The Memory of Eldurim part of CryEngine’s floor Liminal Games issued a challenge. The task was to defeat the first boss in one try without dying yourself. There were many challengers but they failed one after another until the chosen one managed on Thursday. Her reward was admiration from the crowd and a free copy of  the game.

This little task was made with the intent to show the Liminal Games’ gameplay direction with The Memory of Eldurim. The plan is to make the game enough challenge for the players that they have to work for it but not frustratingly hard. Hitting the sweet spot between giving a hardcase his pleasure or making people quit is something they are working on. Dying on the first attempt to defeat the boss is expected but successful tactic should become clear before the ragequit phase.

Liminal Games says it is pleased with CryEngine and considers it a perfect platform to deliver their story. They are the first indie company approved by CryTek to use that engine. Unlike the standard RPGs The Memory of Eldurim does not have the usual 1 to 99 leveling formula but uses a system similar to one from The Elder Scrolls series. Doing stuff makes stuff better. Hitting enemies with the sword makes the player better with swords while taking savage beatings hardens him with more health. This design is incorporated into many aspects of the game.

GDC attendants that tried the demo praise the game’s mythical atmosphere, amazing graphics and gameplay itself. They were offered the exploration of a large island with a temple overlooking it from a summit that gives only a glimpse of what can be found in this world.

The Memory of Eldurim is currently available on Steam Early Access for $18.99 as an early alpha game client.

The post GDC Reveals The Memory of Eldurim Demo appeared first on VR World.

Sony (NYSE: SNE) has recently confirmed that the Project Morpheus VR headset will require a wired connection to “ensure high-speed data transfers”.

Speaking with Gamespot at this year’s Game Developers Conference (GDC 2015), President of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios Shuhei Yoshida had some interesting things to say about the company’s new virtual reality peripheral.

According to Yoshida, Project Morpheus’ internal hardware is “pretty much done”, but the Japanese console-maker will continue to add in “lots of tweaks and improvements” before it’s ready to ship.

Earlier at GDC Sony slated an early 2016 release window for the VR headset, revealing a slew of specs and a brand new prototype to be demoed at the event.

But there’s something the prototype assets seemed to leave out: the required wire that tethers the headset to the PlayStation 4, and an extra box that will basically process the image data directly to the headset.

Although its a prototype model, this press pic doesn’t adequately portray the headset’s required direct-wired connectivity.

During the interview Yoshida state that Sony won’t be releasing a wireless flavor of Project Morpheus, stating that wired HDMI connections were a must to transfer full 1080p HD at refresh rates of 120Hz–which is responsible for that “immersive VR feel”.

Essentially a wired connection is required to maintain the headset’s reduced latency rate (less than 18 milliseconds) to keep that authentic virtual presence. If there’s too much lag, the illusion of VR breaks down entirely.

It’s worth mentioning that all VR headsets, from the Oculus Rift to the newly announced HTC Vive, will be wired to their respective sources.

Since Project Morpheus’ source is the PlayStation 4, that means an extra bit of hardware is needed to ensure the PS4’s only HDMI out slot isn’t taken up by the headset.

Sony will ship the Project Morpheus with an external “Processing Box” that attaches via HDMI and USB, and currently has its own power input, meaning things are going to get even more trip-worthy.

Yoshida says that the 1080p video signals are being sent to the headset, meaning data is being fed from the PS4 through the external processing box and out towards the headset.

Richard Marks, Sony’s Director of Research and Development, explained what the external box actually does in a recent interview with Tested at GDC 2015:

“We call it a PU, and it’s a box that takes the output from the playstation 4 and it splits it, splits it for something for the headset and something for the television.

And it does this conversion of the 120Hz output of a PS4 that something a TV can display, and it doesn’t get warped. That let’s the people in the room that are there to see what you’re seeing.”

According to Digital Foundry, the Processing Box “features a processor that runs the social screen – an external display output that takes one of the stereoscopic views, ‘undistorts’ the image, zooms into the main area of interest and beams it out via HDMI to your HDTV”.

Essentially Morpheus will need to be tethered to the console by way of this external processing box at all times in order to function, which seems to go against the sleek, stylish form factor that Sony tries to depict.

So in order to operate Project Morpheus you’re going to need an ecosystem of PlayStation products: the PlayStation Camera, the PlayStation 4 that powers it, the external processing box, and a DualShock 4 or PlayStation Move controller to interact with it.

And, of course, the VR headset itself.

One of Sony’s major tenets with Project Morpheus is a “user friendly design”, but instead of focusing on environments outside of VR, they just ensure the headset is physically comfortable to wear.

Good news is the controllers will be wireless, but they’re a modified version of the PlayStation Move free-hand peripherals which are basically Sony’s answer to the Wiimote. The DualShock 4 is also compatible with the headset if you prefer a more direct gamepad approach.

Bear in mind the recent photos of the Project Morpheus are prototypes, and they’re not finalized, so that’s probably why we aren’t seeing the dangling HDMI cord or the extra processing box in any of the photos.

While this isn’t something that will necessarily inhibit your experience with Sony’s VR hardware, it can help you better understand the logistics of the device and how to weigh your expectations before 2016.

Yoshida also had something to say about Project Morpheus’ games library. It looks like Sony is having a hard time winning over publishers to the new hardware, as AAA has its thriving home base centered on the current console and PC platforms.

The Project Morpheus looks quite sleek in this state, but it’s non-operable. The reality resembles something a little different.

“Large publishers tend to wait until there’s enough of an install base,” he said, discussing how VR is still an early gambit for most big-name publishers. To help resolve the gap, Yoshida affirms that Sony’s first-party studios are making VR-ready games for the platform.

In any case, let this be a reminder that it might be too soon to get super excited about virtual reality.

Thing are going to be messy, and there are going to be cables and peripherals everywhere–look at the Vive’s ecosystem that’s comprised of the SteamVR Lighthouse, Vive Controller, the VR headset, and the fact that you’ll need to wire it up to a PC.

And it’s likely going to be expensive, too. So tamper your expectations and save your cash, and we’ll do our best to point you in the right direction.

The post Sony: Project Morpheus VR Headset Won’t Be Wireless appeared first on VR World.

During Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 4 session at the Game Developers Conference, Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) CEO Jen-Hsun Huang announced the vendor’s latest GPU in the Titan family, the Titan X. Huang hasn’t shared hardware details of the card, but what we do know is that the GPU will feature 12GB VRAM, twice as high as what was seen on the first-generation Titan.

Also revealed was the transistor count, which sees an increase from 7 billion to 8 billion. The memory bus interface is at 384-bit, the same as the earlier iterations in the Titan series. TDP figures were not mentioned as well, although considering that the card is based on the Maxwell architecture, it is likely we’ll see significant improvements in power draw. Nvidia is retaining the metal cooler and shroud, with the manufacturing process of the card also set to remain at 28nm.

The idea behind unveiling the Titan X during GDC was to highlight the graphic capabilities of the card, which was used to drive Weta Digital’s (the studio behind The Hobbit films) “Thief in the Shadows” VR demo running on Oculus’ VR headset.  Nvidia will reveal all the features on offer with the Titan X at its GPU Technology Conference, which is being held later this month in San Jose.

The post Nvidia’s Titan X Is The Most Powerful GPU In The World appeared first on VR World.

Zotac has recently announced their very own Steam Machine to join Valve’s expanding SteamOS-powered mini-PC lineup.

Featuring a compact Zbox-like form factor, Zotac’s new SN970 Steam Machine packs a wallop thanks to its beefy Sixth Generation Intel processor matched with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M GPU with 3GB of GDDR5 for higher-end graphical performance.

One of the big features of the SN970 is that it’s a 4K ready Steam Machine that supports full UHD at 60Hz, which is a welcome feature especially in the mini-PC realm.

Gamers can also hook up to four display monitors up to the device thanks to its 4x HDMI 2.0 ports, making the device a potential nexus for entertainment.

“We are honored to be working closely with Valve to bring gamers a system that will redefine PC gaming,” said Tony Wong, CEO of Zotac International.

“The Zotac Steam Machine delivers a fully optimized gaming platform with full emphasis on graphics. We have employed the latest Intel CPU and NVIDIA GPU technology so gamers can keep the graphics sliders on ultra, and enjoy smooth, 4k gaming.”

Like every other Steam Machine, Zotac’s SN970 runs Valve’s proprietary Steam OS right out of the box, which is aimed at simplifying the user experience for optimum accessibility and performance.

Zotac has yet to reveal pricing details for mini-PC, but Valve announced at GDC 2015 that we should start seeing the Steam Machines shipped out this November.

Whether or not the SN970 will be able to take on the current juggernauts of living room gaming–the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One–all depends on the price. If Zotac can maintain an attractive price point then gamers will be much more likely to jump onboard the mini-PC market, considering this particular model supports 4K gaming and has some beefy specs to boot.

Below we have a full list of specs on the Zotac SN970 Steam Machine:

Key Features

• SteamOS preloaded
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M MXM Graphics
• 4x HDMI 2.0, supports 4K UHD @ 60Hz
• 1x HDMI in
• 2D/3D NVIDIA Surround Sound
• Dual Gigabit Ethernet

Specifications

• 6th Gen Intel Processor
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M 3GB GDDR5
• 8GB DDR3 RAM
• 64GB M.2 Solid-State Drive
• 4x USB 3.0, 2x USB 2.0
• 1×2.5″ 1TB HDD
• 802.11ac WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0
• Mic-in, Stereo Out
• SD/SDHC/SDXC Card Reader

The post Zotac Announces 4K Ready Steam Machine appeared first on VR World.

Virtual Reality is quickly becoming more and more immersive, but there’s one problem that ruins the illusion: lag. When a user moves their head and the virtual world doesn’t respond as quickly, the illusion is ruined.

This is where AMD’s (NASDAQ: AMD) new Liquid VR API comes in. Liquid VR uses a number of different methods to make sure the VR headset is responsive as possible. These methods are Latest Data Latch, Asynchronous Shaders, Affinity Multi-GPU, and Direct To Display. All of these methods are optimized for AMD GPUs, and support multiple GPUs working in-sync.

Latest data latch promises to reduce the latency by increasing the efficiency of CPU-GPU parallelism. With this method the GPU would be provided a bigger buffer of data from CPU, making more rendered data available so less rendering time would be needed to display virtual worlds.

Moving on to asynchronous shaders, these allow the GCN shaders on the GPU to warp the image of a user’s viewpoint before sending it to the VR headset to further reduce latency. Effectively for every viewpoint the VR headset requests, the GPU will create more data than required so re-rendering isn’t necessary.

The Affinity Multi-GPU feature allows GPUs to work together in creating the stereoscopic image. Effectively each GPU would render a single eye’s viewpoint before combining them into one stereo 3D image.

Finally Direct to Display is simply a plug-and-play feature allowing cross compatibility of VR headsets with Radeon GPUs.

All in all Liquid VR is a promising early step towards a much-needed API for VR gaming. As this API matures AMD will have no trouble getting VR headset vendors on board.

The post AMD’s Liquid VR SDK Aims to Take the Lag Out of VR appeared first on VR World.

At GDC 2015 Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) took the stage to announce the Nvidia Shield console, the “world’s first 4K Android TV” set-top boxwith a beefy emphasis on gaming.

Set in a sleek and angular form, the Nvidia Shield console takes aim at the consumer’s living room space by providing 4K-ready TV streaming as well as high-performance gaming. Essentially it aims to marry the best of both worlds with 4K HD video and “PC-like” game performance all at a reasonable cost.

While the new box does multimedia streaming, Nvidia makes it clear that it’s primarily aimed at gamers.

At the GDC reveal Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang outright claimed that the new Shield console is “35 times more powerful than the next set top box”, and even goes as far as to say it delivers twice the performance of an Xbox 360.

Harnessing the power of its new Nvidia Tegra X1 “mobile superchip”, the Nvidia Shield will run a number of demanding Android-ported games like Crysis 3, Doom 3: BFG, and the Borderlands: Pre-Sequel, Metal Gear Solid: Revengeance and more.

Huang affirmed that over 50 games would be available upon launch.

The Tegra X1 is only half of the equation, though; the other half leverages the power of the clouds via the supercomputer that runs Nvidia’s new GRID subscription-based game streaming service.

What’s unique about the GRID service is that subscribers can remote play games that are streamed from a faraway supercomputer. It’s bit like the PlayStation 4’s Remote Play with the PS Vita handheld, only on a bigger and much more powerful scale.

And the GRID service will have major AAA games like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Batman: Arkham Knight, Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes and many, many more.

Nvidia has strongly affirmed that the Shield microconsole will be the portal that leads to the “next generation of Android gaming”, promising “PC-quality graphics” and fluid performance.

For those who prefer marathon gaming sessions, Huang promised that the Shield’s controllers would have at least 30 hours of life–which is a nice touch to be sure.

As for video streaming, the set top box comes with a nifty remote with a built-in microphone for easy hands-free searching. As far as 4K TV goes, the Shield can stream local and internet-based 4K video from a Gigabit Ethernet connection through HDMI.

It’s light on internal memory, with just 16GB on board, but it’s expandable via microSD and sports two USB 3.0 outlets for extra HDD’s. Considering how big 4K video files are you’re going to need every bit of extra space you can get.

With a number of peripherals all vying for control of the living room, it’s interesting to see Nvidia embrace a kind of Xbox One-style approach to the next generation of Android TV microconsoles.

As far as power, performance and functionality, the Nvidia Shield console is attempting to find that sweet spot between gaming consoles and PC’s, but only time will tell if it hits the mark or not.

The Shield console is slated to release in May 2015 for a price point of $200, and will come with the set-top box and a controller, plus all the applicable cords and hook-ups.

Below we have a full spec sheet as well as compatibility and other features.

Gaming Features

SHIELD controller compatible
NVIDIA GameStream
NVIDIA Share
NVIDIA GRID game streaming serviceSoftware UpdatesSHIELD software upgrades directly from NVIDIAPower40W power adapter

Weight and Size: Weight: 23oz / 654g, Height: 5.1in / 130mm Width: 8.3in / 210mm, Depth: 1.0in / 25mm

Operating System: Android TV™, Google Cast™ Ready

Included Apps: PLEX

The post Nvidia’s New Shield Console Leads The Charge In Next-Gen Android Gaming appeared first on VR World.

Sony (NYSE: SNE) Computer Entertainment President of Worldwide Studios Shuhei Yoshida took the stage at GDC 2015 today to unveil new details on the company’s Project Morpheus VR headset, including specifications and a 2016 release window.

“Project Morpheus will be launching as a consumer product the first half of 2016,” Sony said in a recent Tweet.

A new prototype was revealed on-stage, along with “near-finalized specs” that underlines the VR headset has very low latency that’s registered at under 18 milliseconds to increase “immersion in virtual reality”, and features new dual 5.7 inch 1920 x  1080 OLED displays with a 120 Hz refresh rate.

“Our goal with VR is to deliver a sense of presence, making the player feel as though they’ve stepped inside the world of a game. The new Project Morpheus prototype brings us closer to that goal, as it improves the visual experience and tracking accuracy, both of which are critical to achieving sense of presence.”

The prototype also sports more accurate position tracking thanks to three new LED’s for a total of nine LED’s for “robust 360 degree tracking”.

• OLED display: In exchange for the 5 inch LCD, the new Morpheus VR headset is equipped with a 5.7 inch 1920 X RGB X 1080 resolution OLED display. This new screen expands the field of view and enables low persistence, removing motion blur.

• 120hz refresh rate: The previous refresh rate spec has been doubled for this new prototype, which means games for Morpheus can be rendered at 120fps. When combined with the OLED display’s high refresh rate and the power of PS4, Morpheus is able to output amazingly smooth visuals.

• Super low latency: We know how critical low latency is to delivering a great VR experience, and we’ve reduced latency to less than 18ms, about half of what the first Morpheus prototype had. Low latency is critical to deliver a sense of presence, at the same time making the VR experience comfortable to players.

• More accurate tracking: To make positional tracking more precise, we’ve added three LEDs to the headset – one on the front and two on the side – for a total of nine LEDs to support robust 360 degree tracking.

• User-friendly design: We’ve made the Morpheus VR headset easier to put on and take off, with a single band design and quick release button. The headband supports the weight of the unit on the top of your head, so there is no pressure on your face. Other components have also been adjusted and configured to make the headset lighter, so that players do not find the headset cumbersome or uncomfortable to use.

As revealed before, Project Morpheus will be compatible with the PlayStation 4 and will feature PlayStation Move-like peripherals for wireless controller input.

It’ll be interesting to see how Project Morpheus continues to take shape throughout the months, and how Sony aims to finalize the peripheral’s design.

While VR might still be new in various ways, it looks to be the undisputed future for gaming as a whole, but Sony will have its work cut out for them when they take on big rivals in the VR sector like Valve’s and HTC’s Vive as well as the Oculus Rift.

The post Sony’s Project Morpheus VR Headset Coming First Half of 2016 appeared first on VR World.

UPDATE: The remastered Wasteland 2 Game of the Year edition is also coming to the PlayStation 4, Eric Schwarz, Line Producer at inXile Entertainment announced on the PS Blog.

“Ever dreamed of being a Desert Ranger? Soon enough, that will become a reality. We’re excited to announce we’re bringing our crowdfunded RPG Wasteland 2 to PS4, after an award-winning debut on PC.

“With Wasteland 2 Game of the Year Edition, we’re eager to open up the wastes to an even bigger crowd, along with tons of enhancements and improvements.”

Original story is as follows:

The renown post-nuclear RPG Wasteland 2 is coming to Xbox One, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) today announced at GDC 2015.

The news came as part of Microsoft’s recent announcement of new ID@Xbox games at this year’s Games Developer Conference (GDC 2015), and the new Wasteland 2 Game of the Year Edition is built in the new Unity 5 engine with a host of new graphical overhauls for a nice graphical boost.

Other touch ups to Wasteland 2 include a bevy of enhancements like a new perk system, new voice acting for “all major speaking parts”, a brand new precision strike system, updated character models for all party members, and more.

The reveal promises at least 80+ hours of gameplay with a total of 7 squad members to recruit, and players will be able to meet more than 300+ characters to meet along the way.

“With Wasteland 2, the impressive lineage of the series has been preserved but modernized for the fans of today. Immerse yourself in tactical turn-based combat, RPG-style character advancement and customization, and deep choices that affect the narrative and memorable cast of characters.”

Microsoft and inXile Entertainment don’t have a pinpointed release date yet, so for now Wasteland 2 is just “coming soon” to the Xbox One.

I wonder if the game will come with their trademark physical cloth maps?

Below we have a list of the other ID@Xbox games announced at GDC 2015:

• Bedlam (RedBedlam): Based on the novel by award-winning British author Christopher Brookmyre, this is a shooter for everyone who remembers gaming in the ‘80s and ‘90s!

• Beyond Eyes (Team17): How does a blind person navigate the world? This unique title might give you some sense of what it’s like to live in a world without sight, as you control a young girl in search of her lost cat.

• ClusterPuck 99 (PHL Collective): This competitive sports game features eight-player local competitive action.

• Cuphead (Studio MDHR): A run-and-gun adventure, with plenty of 1930s style animation to keep things interesting! It will make its console debut on Xbox One!

• Earthlock: Festival of Magic (Snowcastle Games): An exciting, nonlinear role-playing game.

• The Flame in the Flood (The Molasses Flood): A rogue-lite river journey through the backwaters of a forgotten post-societal America. It will make its console debut on Xbox One.

• Fortified (Clapfoot Games): An exciting new take on action-strategy games that combines shooter, real-time strategy, and base defense mechanics.

• Game 4 (The Behemoth): One of the weirdest turn-based strategy games you’ll ever play, with plenty of The Behemoth’s unmistakable style.

• Goat Simulator (Double Eleven): You are a goat, and you are on a rampage. What more do you need to know? More goat to the people!

• LA Cops (Team 17): This top-down strategy shooter celebrates everything awesome about ‘70s cop fiction.

• Magic the Gathering: F2P (Wizards of the Coast): The world’s most beloved collectible card game goes free-to-play! It will make its console debut first on Xbox one

• Mighty No. 9 (Comcept): This Kickstarter darling is the brainchild of acclaimed developer Keiji Inafune, the creator of Mega Man. True side-scrolling perfection!

• Pixel Galaxy (Serenity Forge): It’s one heck of a hectic shoot-’em-up, inspired byKatamari Damacy. Grow, make friends, and survive together!

• R.B.I. Baseball 15 (MLB.com): The legendary Major League Baseball franchise returns with fresh game modes, authentic ballparks, improved animations, and deep stat-tracking.

• Rivals of Aether (Dan Fornace): This fighting game challenges you to uncover the elemental mysteries of Fire, Water, Air, and Earth.

• Shadow Blade: Reload (Dead Mage): Guide a young ninja on his journey to seek the teachings of the last remaining ninja master as he embarks on a quest for revenge.

• Shovel Knight (Yacht Club Games): Steel thy shovel! The amazing retro sidescrolling adventure is coming to Xbox One!

• SMITE (Hi-Rez Studios): The next evolution in multiplayer online battle arena space. Assemble your team, choose your hero, and destroy your opponents. Stay tuned for details on the Xbox One beta, coming very soon!

• Submerged (Uppercut Games): You’re trapped in an ancient, half-submerged city, with next to nothing. Explore the flooded cityscape and scale its buildings in a fight to survive!

• Super Dungeon Bros (React! Games): A multiplayer dungeon-crawling extravaganza with a rock music theme. Get your bros together and get ready to rock out!

• SWORDY (Frogshark): In this multiplayer physics brawler, you will hit your friends until they explode. You really have to see this one to wrap your head around this craziness. We’re pleased to say Swordy will debut first on Xbox One.

• The Sun and Moon (Digerati Distribution and Marketing): It’s a platformer with a twist: You can dive into the ground, reversing your gravity while conserving your momentum. Winner of the Ludum Dare 29 competition!

• ZHEROS (Rimlight Studios): This 3D action brawler – set in an alternative future universe – is rife with engaging combat and outrageous characters.

The post Wasteland 2 Coming to Xbox One appeared first on VR World.

Unity 5 is now available across the globe, and for the first time ever users can download the game engine for free.

The news comes straight from this year’s Game Developers Conference (GDC 2015), where the developers showcased the brand new engine as well as revealed a new pricing structure to make Unity 5 more accessible to developers.

For starters the Unity 5 Personal Edition will be free of charge, but you won’t be able to earn royalties.

The Professional Edition is priced at $75 per month or $1500 lifetime, and comes with a license to Unity Cloud Build, a new addition that lets users “leverage the power of cloud computing”.

With Unity Cloud Build, “users can automate the creation and distribution” of their builds by “monitoring your team’s source control, and when changes are detected, it builds your project for multiple platforms in the cloud”.

Essentially it’s a tool that can automatically update and optimize projects for specific platforms without needing to be changed directly, and is tailored for convenience and ease of use across a team of developers.

To showcase Unity 5’s new capabilities, the team released The Blacksmith, a video entirely comprised of in-game footage that highlights everything from graphical fidelity, lighting and shading, physic engines, and more.

As for specifics, the footage shows off a variety of new features including, enhanced and rather eye-catching high-resolution real-time shadows renders and custom shaders for realistic hair and beard renders.

As for lighting, the video showcased the new real-time global illumination system for immersive indirect lighting, custom color-grading to make the scenes more dynamic, and a variety of customized motion blurs that create the illusion of movement in an easily recognizable way.

Below we also have a few other videos that demo Unity 5’s new capabilities, including the Architectural Visualization featurette and the Viking Village walkthrough.

Key features of Unity 5 include the following updates:

• New artistic toolset
• Physically-based standard shader
• Real-time global illumination
• HDR reflection probes
• New editor featuring PhysX 3.3 and an updated animator
• New Audio Mixer
  New Physics engine
• Updated animator with new features like adding State Machine Behaviors and a new Asset Creation API
• Deployment to 21 different platforms
• Web GL Preview
• Upcoming Oculus Rift Support
• iOS Metal Rendering Support
• Unity Cloud Build Toolset

Click here for a complete list of patch notes for Unity 5.

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UPDATE: IGN has revealed that the PC version of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain will release on September 15, 2015 whereas the console flavors will release on the previously revealed Sept. 1 date.

Also to make the sting more pronounced, PC gamers won’t be getting physical copies or the handsome MGSV: TPP collector’s edition, which is featured above.

Finally we have the video interview that IGN accidentally leaked yesterday, where Hideo Kojima sheds more light on the entirety of the series and how it was created. It’s an interesting look at the heart of Metal Gear and it adds more depth to our excitement for The Phantom Pain.

Original story is as follows.

Thanks to a premature video upload that was spotted by NeoGAF users, IGN has accidentally leaked the release date of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain to the world just a bit ago.

According to the footage, fans can expect to play Snake’s new tactical espionage adventure on Sept. 1, 2015 worldwide across consoles, and Sept. 15 on PC. Yes, PC gamers have to wait a full two weeks for their port. Yikes.

The video has been taken down, but not before GAF’ers were able to slice it up and extract pieces of it to the internet.

Oddly enough it looks like a Snake won’t break his role as the strong silent type even though there’s been big hype surrounding Keifer Sutherland taking the VA helm.

MGS franchise creator Hideo Kojima had this to say about Snake’s vocal personality, saying that the tough-as-nails assassin “won’t really speak much at all” and that the “characters around him” will pretty much move the story forward.

“As much as possible, Snake will act based on the player rather than doing things like making spontaneous comments or flirting with women.

“In fact. this time, Snake won’t really speak much at all. MGS5 is an open world game focused on giving freedom to the player who will drive Snake’s action. Snake himself will be more of a silent protagonist similar to Mad Max in Mad Max 2.

“It’s the characters around him who will expand the story.”

Since Snake will be so quiet, many fans are questioning why Konami chose to go with Keifer Sutherland rather than keep David Hayter–who’s voiced the renown character since he had a voice–in his iconic role. I mean…why switch things up when Snake barely says anything anyway?

Since it was a premature leak we don’t have any new screenshots or video to show you, so take a quick look at last year’s TGS 2014 gameplay trailer and know come September, you’ll be able to do the very same things.

Source: NeoGAF 

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Valve has confirmed that it won’t be holding a big press conference at GDC 2015 today, contrary to rampant internet rumors of a Half-Life 3 reveal on 3/3 at 3pm.

The news comes straight from Kotaku, who spoke to Valve marketing director Doug Lombardi to confirm the whole thing is a “big mix up”. Valve apparently has no plans to hold any kind of huge press conference today at GDC.

It turns out the confused 3pm “event” is actually a game physics presentation from Valve programmer Sergiy Migdalskiy that aims at teaching “fundamental elements and practical considerations for using collision detection and physics simulations in games”

How did this happen?

HTC and Valve have teamed up to make the Vive VR headset a reality, leading to speculation that Half-Life 3 could be a perfect launch title.

On the heels of HTC (TPE: 2498) ‘s big announcement in partnering with Valve to make their VR headset “Vive” a reality, gamers started speculating that Half-Life 3 would be a perfect game to release on the new peripheral. It could be a match made in heaven, and it would certainly shake up the games industry.

Then a particular BBC News article came up that seemingly cemented the news. The article had a quote from HTC Chairwoman Cher Wang saying that “We are co-operating with Half-life, and I think… I hope, you know, it will be on it.”

This little bit of interview text had gamers speculating rapidly across forums and social media, fueled to an inferno thanks to this little tidbit in the BBC article:

“Valve is expected to provide more details about the launch at its own presentation at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco on Tuesday.”

In reality, Wang’s words have been misconstrued; she “hopes” that Half-Life will be on the Vive VR headset–but we all know how far rumors have been known to reach. Plus the BBC article in question has been updated with the following text that pretty much nixes hope.

“But the BBC understands that Valve’s own employees were surprised by Ms Wang’s comments as they were not working on a Half-life game for the new helmet at the moment,” an update on the article reads.

The part about a press conference on March 3 at 3pm was mostly fabricated by Reddit posts, which then spread across to Twitter and pretty much had the entire gaming world expecting to see a Half-Life 3 reveal in the afternoon.

Chances are that if Valve’s own marketing director says that it’s a “big mix up”, then it most assuredly is.

This is just another one of those failed Half-Life 3 rumors that drove the internet into a frenzy, and we’ll likely see more rumors spawn until Valve issues some sort of concrete news.

Source: Kotaku

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