Night Hunter

http://gamingbolt.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/1370944081-mad-max-2.jpg Avalanche Studios’ Mad Max was first announced way back in 2013 and will be releasing in a couple of weeks from now. Obviously it’s been a long wait for Mad Max fans but judging by the previous gameplay trailers, the game seems to bring its own set of mechanics that may work well within the open world aspects that the title provides. So what else is there? Our brilliant folks who are producing content for GamingBolt’s Youtube channel have published a video outlining what you can expect from Mad Max in the most brutally, honest way possible. You can watch the video below the post. Mad Max launches on September 1st for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC. S: http://gamingbolt.com/

Vaio computers are planning a comeback in the US, though this time Sony isn't the one making or selling them. In March 2014, Sony sold its poorly-performing laptop division to an investment fund in the midst of an ongoing global downturn in PC sales. The new group, dubbed Vaio Corp, has been selling computers in Japan and now is looking to broaden its horizons to the United States by focusing on high-end laptops, The Wall Street Journal said on Wednesday. Vaio Corp will begin offering laptops at Microsoft retail stores in the US in October, Vaio CEO Yoshimi Ota told the Journal. The company also has its sights set on Brazil where it will team up with a Brazilian PC maker to construct and sell Vaio-designed computers. Like many PC makers, Sony hit hard times trying to eke out a living selling laptops at a time when consumers were opting for mobile phones and tablets. Sony's Vaio computers generally garnered good reviews but were considered too expensive to compete with lower-priced, mass-market rivals. And even now, the Vaio lineup is having trouble catching on in Japan, where its market share is less than 1 percent, according to data from research firm Euromonitor. So what makes Vaio's CEO believe the laptops have a chance in the US? Ota told the Journal that he thinks Vaio can do well in the US by targeting high-end users rather than going after mass market consumers as Sony did. The company wants to reach out to graphic designers, photographers and other professionals who use MacBooks because there are no good alternatives among Windows PCs, Ota said. Sony's mistake was that it focused on market share instead of profitability, Ota added, a mistake Vaio will presumably try to avoid. "We are not interested in cheap models for everyone," Ota said. The situation with Vaio strikes a familiar chord. In 2004, IBM sold its poorly-performing PC division to Chinese maker Lenovo. And now Lenovo is the top PC vendor in the world. But does Vaio stand a chance of making a dent in a PC market that's stuck in the middle of a downturn? IHS Technology analyst Rhoda Alexander told the Journal that although Vaio is small, it could benefit from the Sony brand name, providing "a good starting point" to expand abroad. But Euromonitor analyst Karissa Chua said that Vaio will "struggle to gain significant market share and may eventually be forced out of the market," adding that since the sale, Vaio hasn't rolled out any innovative products to distinguish itself from rival vendors. Vaio will kick off its return to the US this fall with its VAIO Z Canvas, a hybrid computer that starts off as a tablet but can turn into a laptop via a wireless keyboard. Powered by an Intel Core i7 processor, the Vaio Z Canvas offers a 12.3-inch screen with a resolution of 2,560x1,704 pixels and can handle as much as 16 gigabytes of memory and 256GB of internal storage via an SSD card. The Vaio Z Canvas will be available at Microsoft stores in the US and at Microsoft's website, starting October 5 and up for preorder in September, a spokeswoman for Microsoft said. The laptop will be a Signature Edition PC, which means that it will be free of bloatware and other pre-installed software that often slow down the PC. This will be the first time the Vaio Z Canvas will be available for purchase from a US retailer, the spokeswoman confirmed. But price will be a sticking point. The Vaio Z Canvas will start at $2,199 in the U.S., a high price when compared with such rival machines as Microsoft's Surface Pro 3, which comes in a model packed with a 12-inch-screen, an i7 chip, 8GB of RAM and 256GB of onboard storage that normally sells for $1,549. Vaio has plans for other devices, the Journal said, including a document-sized laptop with built-in cellular connectivity as well as desktop PCs. Other products on the drawing board are communication devices, wearable gadgets and factory-automation machines instilled with artificial intelligence, pushing Vaio into areas beyond the laptop. Source http://www.cnet.com/

http://ec0c5a7f741a6f3bff65-dd07187202f57fa404a8f047da2bcff5.r85.cf1.rackcdn.com/images/hjCLQmjufnyR.878x0.Z-Z96KYq.jpg Team Fortress 2 has a new mode! It's called Pass Time, it's in beta. It's an American Football/Football (delete as applicable) style mode, but also there are guns. Your team's job is to grab a ball from the centre of the map, and punt it into the glowing target deep in the enemy's base. If you're carrying the ball, you can't use a weapon. You do, however, get a brief speed boost—and can see the location of all teammates and enemies highlighted around the map. You can also pass the ball—allowing for the possibility of it being intercepted. It's pretty exciting. At least, it was across the brief period I played. I went in to grab a screenshot, immediately scored a goal, declared myself King Of All Team Fortress 2, and left. Interestingly, the mode was envisioned by Bad Robot and co-developed by Escalation Studios. "PASS Time marks Bad Robot's first foray into rapidly iterative content, and they're really excited to get feedback on their beta so they can work with the TF community to evolve the game," says the TF2 blog's announcement post. "This is a new way of doing things for them, and they're looking forward to working with you to see how it grows over time." To recap, the production firm co-producing the new Star Wars film has teamed up with Valve to create a new sports-influenced capture-the-flag style mode for Team Fortress 2; a game about hats. Videogames are weird. s: http://www.pcgamer.com/

http://0cb8dd5d2dc142d08f0f-eb3b436d25971e5860b39e72b0600342.r94.cf1.rackcdn.com/images/VWYottqADDnn.878x0.Z-Z96KYq.jpg Rainbow Six Siege, which was originally scheduled to come out on October 13, has been delayed. Ubisoft announced today that the game will come out on December 1."This wasn’t an easy decision, but based on the feedback we’ve received, and based on our own internal tests, we felt there are adjustments and improvements we can make, including improving the co-op experience across all game modes, weapon and gadget balancing, as well as menu and interface navigation," Ubisoft wrote. "We’re taking a little more time to make these changes, and we think it’s the right call."The closed beta will still begin on its scheduled date of September 24. The delayed date will give the studio more time to testing and tweak infrastructure and matchmaking, allowing for "a higher-quality experience at launch," Ubi added. Source http://www.pcgamer.com/

http://gamingbolt.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/101-1024x576.jpg Mike Norris from Guerrilla Games has revealed new information regarding Horizon Zero Dawn. First of all he defended against claims that this is only a game about robots and machine guns. “There is an interesting story and raises some philosophical questions about who Aloy is and what humanity looks for and who we are as people, who she is and why we are here. It’s not just robots, dinosaurs with machines guns. It has a really interesting story line too.” Secondly there are a ton of mysteries in the game. “Secrets are in abundance on Horizon. So if you look at that, that may not be a cave wall but there is actually a history there is written there. There are a lot of mysteries that we have not talked about yet but there are certainly a lot of mysteries for that particular history written on that cave wall.” Marl further revealed that three things never changed when they first pitched the game to Sony back in 2011. First, a playable lead female character, vast open world and machines. Mark also revealed and detailed several role playing game elements such as leveling up, crafting, perks, choosing outfits and choosing weapons. He also teased that are other RPG elements which they plan to announce a bit later. Regarding shooting he explained that the word shooting most of the time implies to gun but there are no guns in the game and it uses primitive technology. Mark stated that the game is a deep tactical strategy game which will ensure that the player will learn more about the machines such as their weak points. Exploration will also play a big part in the game and players can explore mountains tops, depths of valleys and ancient cities. Furthermore there are no load screens in the game. In short this is a completely seamless world. Technically the game is one big area since there is no loading but it comes packed with a number of different environments including deserts, lush jungle like region ,and a forest area along with a full day-night cycle and weather system. However the cool thing is that there is a reason why these specific regions exists and it all ties in with the story. He also revealed that the game is not necessarily set on Earth. Finally he also shared his thoughts on the development cycle of the game. It was tough to build over the Killzone engine and revamp it for an open world game. Several mechanisms were changed such as the machine’s navigation map, streaming logic and lighting effects. Source http://gamingbolt.com/

Qualcomm’s next-gen GPU will focus on VR gaming, superior camera performance http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/SnapdragonUpdated-640x353.pngQualcomm announced its new Adreno 530 architecture at SIGGRAPH this week, and the company has big plans for its next-generation GPU. Qualcomm has been steadily improving the performance and capability of its Adreno hardware with each successive generation, and the upcoming 530 and the lower-end variant, the 510, are no exception. What’s changed this time around is that Qualcomm doesn’t just want to provide a solution that plays common titles like Candy Crush or Game of War. The Adreno 530 is meant to address the core of the gaming market, with support for both augmented and virtual reality (AR and VR respectively). With the Adreno 530, Qualcomm is predicting performance improvements of up to 40% compared to the older Adreno 430, while power consumption is expected to fall by 40%. Those are significant gains from a 20nm – 14nm transition, but there are ways to pull off such improvements — Nvidia’s Maxwell vastly improved performance and performance per watt over Kepler while remaining on 28nm, and it’s possible that the Adreno 430 had some low-hanging architectural fruit that Qualcomm optimized while simultaneously benefiting from the transition to 14nm. While the Adreno 430 already supports Vulkan, the Adreno 530 is the first chip designed for that API from the ground up. http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Adreno530-640x291.jpgThe gains in video processing and GPGPU performance are also impressive. We were a bit surprised to hear Qualcomm talking up heterogeneous computing as a major focus for this chip. Thus far, AMD has been the only company to make GPGPU compute the cornerstone of its product strategy. Qualcomm already uses GPU offload for certain camera processing tasks, and the company’s video processing capabilities have taken a huge step forward in this new architecture. The Adreno 530 will be fully OpenCL 2.0 and Renderscript-compliant, The 64-bit virtual address feature is important, since the upcoming Kryo CPU is a 64-bit ARM processor. This slide implies that Qualcomm has implemented some of the same functions that AMD first debuted with Kaveri, which would make sense, since QC has always been a member of the HSA Foundation. What this means for software or ecosystem development remains to be seen. The other side of the Adreno 530 are the improvements to the chip’s camera design. Qualcomm is calling its next-generation image signal processor (ISP) “Spectra,” and it brings a number of new features to the table.http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Spectre-640x332.jpgçSpectra is designed to allow for effectively zero shutter lag, improved low-light photography, offers superior digital zoom, and implements algorithms to reduce radial noise and color artifacts in hardware. The ISP supports dual front or rear cameras for depth-based photography and can perform both pre and post-processing to ensure superior image quality. Other common features like image stabilization have been improved as well. Smartphone cameras have made huge strides over the past five years, but they still pale in comparison to a DSLR in certain environments. We don’t expect that gap to vanish (there are technical reasons why high-end cameras are superior to even the best smartphones), but we’re happy to see manufacturers continue to shrink the gap. As for the rest of the SoC, the rumor mill has been busy. Kryo will reportedly support LPDDR4 (likely) but core count rumors have been all over the map. Some have suggested that the Snapdragon 820 will top out at just four CPU cores, but as much as we’d like to see companies haul back on the core count reins, it’s not guaranteed to happen. The phone-crazy Chinese market puts a high value on CPU core counts, and Qualcomm can’t really afford to hand MediaTek or Rockchip a marketing coup. On the other hand, if the Kryo’s performance is strong enough, Qualcomm might decide to highlight its superior performance as an advantage. Devices with Adreno 530 are expected to be in customer hands within the first half of next year. Given how long it takes to validate handsets, that implies volume production by the end of Q4 2015. S: http://www.extremetech.com/

http://gamingbolt.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Star-Wars-Battlefront-31.jpg One of the many issues with Star Wars: Battlefront, the DICE helmed reboot of the classic Star Wars themed action game franchise is that it has no single player campaign of any kind. EA’s Peter Moore explained his reasoning for this omission in a recent interview with Gamespot. “Well, you never kick yourself about these things. You make a decision, years out, and you plan for what the world looks like when a game ships in two or three years. That’s about the intuitiveness about the executive producer, and his or her vision for the game.” “Between when a dev team starts work on a game, and when it finishes, the world becomes a different place. I remember when we started work on Star Wars: The Old Republic; at the time, the model to go for was subscription. By the time we had the game ready, the model to go for wasn’t subscriptions. That’s why we had to stop the game, and rebuilt it as a free-to-play title with microtransactions, but even then there were some people who said they wanted to keep their subscriptions.” “So, there’s two phenomena with that statement. The first is that yes, you might be right. The second is that very few people actually play the single-player on these kinds of games. That’s what the data points to,” Moore stated. Technically, he is not wrong- the original games indeed lacked a single player campaign completely. While there was a single player mode, it was not a campaign. That kind of single player mode has also been confirmed for the new Battlefront game, when DICE confirmed that Missions would let players play by themselves, with bots on the map. S:http://gamingbolt.com/

http://3ebd2a0c0ea48a333aea-1f531def8e8befb67be56667ce3edd11.r77.cf1.rackcdn.com/b8651104dc157749a73b4783b2f21ce0edbd1387.jpg__940x420_q85_crop-smart_subject_location-590,187_upscale.jpg The Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 multiplayer beta kicks off in just over a week. Until then, this trailer will help you get familiar with the modes, maps, weapons, and all-new specialists on offer in this sneak preview of the juggernaut competitive shooter. The beta will include access to eight specialists, each of whom has their own distinct special abilities, and a smattering of customizable high-tech weaponry. That includes a nanomachine mine launcher, which you can see eating a dude's limbs off about 40 seconds into the trailer. Just because the specialists have more personality than the generic create-a-class goons of yore doesn't mean they won't still die terribly. The beta, which is open only for those who pre-order the full game, will run from August 19 to 23 on PS4, and then on Xbox One and PC from August 26 through 30. Looks like you'll probably have to wait a little longer for the eSports-friendly Arena mode. S: http://www.gamesradar.com/

The Force will need to be strong with old Luke Skywalker. http://cnet3.cbsistatic.com/hub/i/2015/08/11/38707e52-42e6-4ff7-9d46-cc7a9942a0f8/da2089dfb335efae14b3edb9e9990eab/starwarsfirstordertfa.jpg YouTube channel Star Wars Korea released a new TV spot for "Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens" on Sunday. While most of the footage in the 30-second movie trailer has appeared in previous clips, the first few seconds feature new footage. It shows just how strong the dark side has become in the 30 years since the Empire was defeated in the Battle of Endor. In the clip, which you can watch below, we see hundreds -- if not thousands -- of Stormtroopers who belong to the First Order, the evil organization that is all that is left of the old Empire. The troops are all looking up at the leaders of the movement, who will include Captain Phasma (Gwendoline Christie), General Hux (Domhnall Gleeson), Supreme Leader Snoke (Andy Serkis) and others. In the background are several TIE fighters and what appear to be new AT-ATs, painting a brief picture of a truly formidable army. It looks like the heroes of the former Rebel Alliance -- now known as the Resistance -- have their work cut out for them. The battle will begin later this year, when "Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens," directed by J.J. Abrams, is released. It premieres in theaters on December 17 in Australia, and December 18 in the US, UK and elsewhere. S: http://www.cnet.com/

http://gamingbolt.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Crackdown.jpg Crackdown 3 was by far the best game at Microsoft’s stunning Gamescom press conference. Featuring destructible environments, Reagent Games plans to deliver a new and unique experience for Xbox One owners. Crackdown 3 is essentially the first game on the Xbox One that will utilize Microsoft’s cloud services to improve performance and add enhanced effects such as destruction. In an interview published by Xbox’s official channel, Dave Jones from Reagent Games details how they are using the power of the cloud to push the game to an all new level. He also talks a bit about how destruction will affect gameplay and how it will be a different experience everytime the player plays the game. Crackdown 3 will launch exclusively on Xbox One in 2016. Source http://gamingbolt.com/

http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/tethys-arcs-head-640x353.jpg A new image released by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory shows an incredible new surface feature discovered on Saturn’s icy moon of Tethys: enormous, red arcs that span most of the moon’s northern hemisphere. They’re strikingly obvious, even from space, and scientists involved with the Cassini probe which took the pictures have no clear idea of what they are, or what causes them. There are ideas, of course, but for now the red streaks of Tethys are one of our solar system’s most galling mysteries. Cassini first took detailed pictures of the arcs in April, surveying the moon now that its northern half has moved into its summer phase and is thus bright enough for real investigation. It took a variety of pictures at different wavelengths, then combined them in the false-color image embedded below. The arcs really are red, and they really do stand out from the color of the surface around them, but the harsh red-grey distinction has been intensified to make the arcs easier to see. NASA will use Cassini to take more detailed readings of the Tethys surface in November, which should grant more insight into the nature of these enormous features. Until then, scientists can only speculate — and speculate they have!http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/tethys-arcs-2-640x456.jpgRed like this is somewhat unusual in the Saturn system. It’s indicative of a number of possible chemicals — none of them known to be abundant in the area. It’s possible that they are the result of contamination of ice, but the question remains: contaminated with what, exactly? And is that contamination streaked across the surface like this? Geographically young surfaces, like Jupiter’s Europa sometimes display this sort of red coloration, but the streaked pattern is still mysterious. One possible explanation is outgassing, in which a moon (or asteroid, or comet) squirts enormous volumes of gas out of a heated, pressurized interior. Tethys is going into its summer, as mentioned, and it could be that these arcs will be gone in short order — a form of surface contamination that marks the passing of Tethynian (?) seasons. It’s been theorized that these streaks were noticed when illumination of the surface made them visible, but perhaps they weren’t visible before because they simply didn’t exist without that extra solar heat to create them. http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/tethys-3.jpgTethys, zoomed out, and without the color correction. Credit: NASA/JPL There are other ideas, however. The resolution of these pictures still leaves a lot to the imagination, as every pixel in the above image stands in for an area about 2,300 feet (700 meters) across. It’s possible that the red material is coming from below the surface, via fractures that are too small to be detected at that level of detail. Interestingly, the same color-enhancement process that makes the red streaks more visible has also tinted the left section of the image a yellowy color. That’s because the radiation from Saturn’s magnetosphere is constantly slamming into this particular hemisphere of the moon, modifying it chemically. This wouldn’t be visible to the naked eye, but with color filtering in place we see that Tethys has actually be planet-burned by its proximity to a gas giant. Source http://www.extremetech.com/

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/03396/rane-m_3396379b.jpg Two cranes being used in the restoration of a bridge in a central Dutch city have fallen onto a row of buildings and local media report up to 20 people have been injured.Ton Koot, a spokesman for the local fire brigade in Alphen aan den Rijn, told national broadcaster NOS that heavy machinery was being moved to the scene on Monday in case people were trapped under rubble and needed to be rescued. Mr Koot said he did not know how seriously injured the victims were.http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/03396/crane-1_3396380b.jpgAmateur video shown on NOS showed the cranes on a pontoon carrying a large section of the bridge when they began to shift and topple over onto a row of houses.Further details were not immediately available. Source http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

Angry Birds 2 is off to a hot start. Developer Rovio has announced that the bird-flinging sequel has passed 10 million downloads since its release for mobile phones and tablets on July 29. The entire Angry Birds franchise has tallied more than 1 billion downloads since it originally debuted in 2009. Angry Birds 2 is a free-to-play game, so big download numbers are to be expected. Rovio did not share any information regarding how many of those 10 million players have spent real-world money on it. Angry Birds 2 is off to a hot start. Developer Rovio has announced that the bird-flinging sequel has passed 10 million downloads since its release for mobile phones and tablets on July 29. The entire Angry Birds franchise has tallied more than 1 billion downloads since it originally debuted in 2009. Angry Birds 2 is a free-to-play game, so big download numbers are to be expected. Rovio did not share any information regarding how many of those 10 million players have spent real-world money on it. Source http://www.gamespot.com/

There's a new trailer for Superhot. Sorry, I mean SUPERHOT. Sorry, I mean SUPER. HOT. SUPER. HOT. SUPER. H—and, once again, it's another super exciting video showing off more time-dilated manshooting, gunshooting and abstract violence. It's like F.E.A.R. meets Frozen Synapse! Sort of!There's a new trailer because the (seemingly unnamed) development team have just released a beta version to people that backed the game on Kickstarter for $40 or over. Here they are talking about that in a Kickstarter update:"Ladies and gentlemen, we’re hyped to announce that the beta has just been sent out to everyone eligible! Thank you one more time for your awesome support and trust, for spreading the word of SUPERHOT and for all the love we got from you! This is a great day for us, and I hope it will be a great day for you too, once you find the SUPERHOT beta steam-key in your email inbox and activate it in the steam app!"Take your time and enjoy it! And once you're done, let us know if you liked it! Either by sending us an email, tweeting or on the secret backer forum. Also, feel free to post screenshots / videos of the beta if you'd like to, we're cool with that."Note that the beta is limited, we only send it to the people who pledged the $40 tier and above. We’re a bit shy to release an unfinished game, but were doing it exclusively for you! There is no way to “buy into” the beta."There's a playable prototype available on the site if you didn't pledge that much (or at all), but it's a bit basic compared to the footage above, and doesn't look nearly as nice. Superhot doesn't yet have a release date, but it's coming, and it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead. Source http://www.pcgamer.com/

Microsoft's new operating system, Windows 10, launched on Wednesday and is currently rolling out in phases. It now appears the first phase was a big one, as Microsoft says on its official blog that Windows 10 has now been installed on 14 million devices. Many more upgrades are still to come. "We still have many more upgrades to go before we catch up to each of you that reserved your upgrade," Microsoft marketing boss Yusuf Mehdi said. "Rest assured we are working 24×7 to continue the upgrade process and are prioritizing the quality of your upgrade experience over anything else," he added. "We are grateful for your excitement and enthusiasm and we appreciate your patience over the days and weeks ahead as we carefully roll out Windows 10 in phases to all of you that have reserved." http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_large/1179/11799911/2914256-win101.jpg People who reserved a Windows 10 upgrade will be notified through the system tray (see image) when their upgrade is ready. If you didn't reserve an upgrade already, you can do that here. Mehdi said demand for Windows 10 has been off the charts. "We're humbled and grateful to see the response to Windows 10," he said. "We have seen unprecedented demand for Windows 10, with reviews and customer feedback overwhelmingly positive around the globe. We are doing everything we can to upgrade the world to Windows 10 as quickly as possible over the coming days and weeks ahead." Overall, Microsoft hopes Windows 10 can reach 1 billion devices by 2018. As part of a special offer, Windows 7 and 8 users can upgrade to Windows 10 for free for the first year after launch. "Windows 10 delivers a refined, vastly improved vision for the future of computing with an operating system that's equally at home on tablets and traditional PCs," he said. Source http://www.gamespot.com/

http://36646d87786feafc0611-0338bbbce19fc98919c6293def4c5554.r0.cf1.rackcdn.com/images/Uzvcp1XdSZTI.878x0.Z-Z96KYq.jpg Whole months worth of my teenagehood were lost to the original Rise of the Triad, and the 2013 reboot wasn't too shabby either. So it's exciting that something Rise of the Triad related is being teased. I'd speculate that it's a sequel, but that's just a guess.The tease comes via the official Rise of the Triad Twitter account, which tweeted the above image, a link to a YouTube video, as well as the text "soon" and "please stand by... your bazookas". The video is embedded below, and features the above image soundtracked by what I'm guessing is music from the forthcoming game. It's a good time for a new Rise of the Triad: fast-paced, twitch-oriented shooters are definitely making a comeback, especially with a new Doom looming on the horizon. The more of these games the better, if you ask me. Running and gunning for life. http://www.pcgamer.com/

http://3ebd2a0c0ea48a333aea-1f531def8e8befb67be56667ce3edd11.r77.cf1.rackcdn.com/b9c5613dce1fb7979b6890c8f2058c1f4df40676.jpg__940x420_q85_crop-smart_subject_location-514,129_upscale.jpg Rise of the Tomb Raider will hit PlayStation 4 a full year after it arrives on Xbox One. Square Enix announced today that the next chapter in Lara Croft's rebooted story will release on PS4 in holiday 2016, after hitting PC in early 2016. The Xbox One and Xbox 360 versions are currently set to release on November 10, 2015 - up until now, it's been somewhat unclear how or when it will appear on other platforms. The sequel follows Lara Croft in another grim survival situation, this time in the Siberian wilderness, with plenty of mercenaries and at least one bear to fight off as she, y'know, raids tombs. Source http://www.gamesradar.com/

http://3ebd2a0c0ea48a333aea-1f531def8e8befb67be56667ce3edd11.r77.cf1.rackcdn.com/187baaef18689bde3735ffeaf23fa9b2a000fce8.jpg__940x420_q85_crop-smart_upscale.jpg The Call of Duty Zombies mode is such an integral part of the series these days that it's hard to imagine a Treyarch CoD game without it. That wasn't always the case however, as Treyarch lead Mark Lamia told Wil Wheaton in a new episode of the PlayStation-sponsored Conversations With Creators web show. "I probably shouldn't even be here as a studio head because I let this thing happen at a time when development was strained and the team was in a difficult place trying to release a historically authentic cinematic World War II game," Lamia said. "And then you hear, 'Have you heard? They threw a zombie in there! It's a Nazi zombie! Everyone likes to kill Nazi zombies, it's a fun new game co-op mode!' And I'm like, 'This hasn't been greenlit, what's going on?'" The zombies mode was thrown together during a crunch period, where the team was working overtime to meet development goals, so scripters and programmers made do with what they had. The zombies' movement, for example, was taken from motion capture of actors giving the performance of injured soldiers wandering the battlefield after an air raid. Word spread around the office about the project and individuals began to volunteer their time to make the mode a complete asset. "It was total grassroots," Lamia said. The problem came from the disparity between having a silly-but-fun zombie-killing mode in a game that was being advertised as a gritty, authentic portrayal of WWII. "We made this deal with Activision … that it wouldn't get marketed. We wouldn't market this," Lamia told Wheaton as he recreated his meetings with Activision executives. "[i said] 'It's okay. Let us release it as an Easter Egg. After everyone's already experienced the artfully-crafted, beautiful Call of Duty that we've been working on for years, let them experience that game. After the credits roll, this'll surprise at the end.'" Lamia noted how strange it seems now to not promote the zombies mode, a sentiment reflected quite well by the fact that CoD Zombies has grown into such a major phenomenon that Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 will feature Jeff Goldblum as a mustachioed magician. Source http://www.gamesradar.com/

http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/XboxOne-640x353.jpg While Windows 10 isn’t officially available until the end of July, early adopters have been running the Insider Preview for months now. And as of a few days ago, those of us running the latest build can take advantage of the Xbox One game streaming functionality in the Windows 10 Xbox app. In a post on the Xbox Wire, Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb walks us through the process of enabling this shiny new feature. If you want to give it a go for yourself, start by heading to the Settings menu on the Xbox One. Under Preferences, you should be able to toggle on a setting titled Allow game streaming to other devices.http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Xbox-App-640x353.png Next, make sure you’re running the latest Windows 10 build and the newest version of the Xbox application. Launch the app, navigate to Connect, and select Add a device. Provided you’re on the same network, you should be able to select your Xbox One from this menu. Plug in a controller, go to the Home tab, and then select your console under the Game Streaming section.http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Remote-Play-640x363.jpeg Of course, Microsoft isn’t the first out of the gate for local game streaming. Sony allows you to stream PS4 games to the Vita and PlayStation TV over Remote Play, Valve offers in-home streaming in the Steam client, and even Nintendo offers off-TV play for many titles on the Wii U. It’s nice to see Microsoft finally taking advantage of the massive Windows market, but why did it take so long? I called out the Xbox One’s lack of game streaming over a year ago, and Microsoft is just now rolling out that functionality. We can add this new feature to the long list of improvements that Redmond has made in an attempt to right the ship after the initial debacle. The strict DRM, the focus on television, and the reliance on the Kinect were all missteps, but there were also countless small issues that needed to be corrected after the troubled reign of Don Mattrick. With the major price drops, the backwards compatibility announcement, and now the game streaming roll-out, Microsoft’s Phil Spencer has done a superb job revitalizing the Xbox One. But is it too late to undo the damage done to the Xbox name? The PS4 quickly took hold as the dominant platform this generation, and Microsoft has been playing catch-up ever since. Personally, game streaming is a must-have feature, so this update is a major selling point for me. I currently keep my PS4 in my home office, and frequently stream to the PlayStation TV in my bedroom. Now, the only thing keeping me from pulling the trigger on an Xbox One is a lack of notable exclusive games. But with Quantum Break and ReCore on the horizon, hopefully that will change in 2016. Source http://www.extremetech.com/

http://3ebd2a0c0ea48a333aea-1f531def8e8befb67be56667ce3edd11.r77.cf1.rackcdn.com/2dea09fbed5fb147b5f8a7ecafe8df500bb63d06.jpg__940x420_q85_crop-smart_upscale.jpg So despite Sony being all about the Force at E3 and all gameplay being shown off on PS4, Star Wars Battlefront seems to be coming to Xbox One via EA Access first. We reported back in April when Xbox's Aaron Greenberg tweeted that Xbox One players would have Star Wars Battlefront early and now Phil Spencer has apparently confirmed this is the case. This is somewhat surprising given PlayStation's obvious presence at Star Wars E3 showing. (Image via Bravointel's Twitter) http://3ebd2a0c0ea48a333aea-1f531def8e8befb67be56667ce3edd11.r77.cf1.rackcdn.com/0aee99c3a587c8901b30402f00c3c417fb4a8c29.png__620x383_q85_crop_upscale.jpg There's also Sony branding clearly labelled at the start of every trailer and it was reported by BravoIntel back in June that PS4 was the 'lead platform' for Star Wars Battlefront. We've asked for an official comment from EA on this matter. There's no news yet as to how much will be playable via EA's paid Early Access subscription but given that Battlefield Hardline had ten hours of exclusive gameplay pre release, there's the potential for some serious bragging rights over PS4 owners. Source http://www.gamesradar.com/

From the creator of this epic Destiny LEGO gun comes another video game weapon made using real LEGO bricks--and it's also quite impressive. YouTube's ZaziNombies' latest creation is a LEGO version of Team Fortress 2's community-made Tomislav gun. It was built using an estimated 2,500 LEGO bricks, is about three feet long, and weighs close to ten pounds. Take a look at the video to learn even more about the gun and how it was made. Source http://www.gamespot.com/

Samsung was the most popular smartphone maker in the second quarter, but overall, the handset space looks to be a bit weaker than anticipated. http://cnet3.cbsistatic.com/hub/i/r/2014/04/15/f85f3316-0a1f-49ea-b66b-81c22fa1112a/resize/370xauto/7731e411657d8784edd9ccdf75a6ec26/samsung-galaxy-s5-apple-iphone-5s.jpg Smartphone shipments will grow 8.2 percent year over year in 2015, but that's down from an expected growth rate of 11.6 percent, research firm TrendForce reported on Monday. The firm said it revised the market's expected growth down due to a "negative economic outlook" worldwide and its belief that there will be less demand than anticipated for smartphones. Worse yet, that growth rate is far below what the smartphone space registered in 2014. "Compared with the high 26.5 percent growth of 2014, this year's smartphone shipment growth is entering a plateau period," Avril Wu, TrendForce's smartphone analyst, said in a statement on Monday. "Therefore, vendors are likely to face serious challenges when shipping their products in the near future." While not as aggressive, the slowdown reflects a similar issue being faced in the tablet market, where demand has fallen considerably. The concern for mobile vendors, at least for the time being, is that the mobile device market is starting to plateau as over a billion devices hit store shelves and customers worldwide are no longer voraciously buying up new devices. In March, research firm IDC said it expects the tablet market in 2015 to grow by just 2.1 percent to 234.5 million units, down from its prior estimate of 5.2 percent. The firm noted that so-called "2-in-1" devices, which can be converted from a tablet into a notebook and back, will account for most of that growth. IDC, like other research firms that have predicted a significant slowdown in tablets, said the issues started in the fourth quarter of 2014, which saw "much lower [demand] than we expected." The disappointing smartphone shipments estimate accompanied TrendForce's look at the smartphone market in the second quarter of 2015. The firm found that Samsung led the space with 26.8 percent of the market, topping Apple's 16.4 percent share. China-based handset makers Huawei and Xiaomi followed in third and fourth place with 7.6 percent and 5.9 percent market share, respectively. TrendForce was particularly impressed by Apple's showing, saying that its market share was "a remarkably strong shipment result in the off-peak season." The firm noted that iPhone sales tend to drop in anticipation of the launch of newer models -- Apple is expected to reveal the next generation of iPhones in September. So far this year, that hasn't happened. In total, TrendForce said it expects Apple's total shipments in 2015 to be up 15 percent year over year. However, TrendForce isn't so sure how Samsung will fare by the end of the year. While Samsung was the top vendor in the second quarter, the research firm's estimates show China-based vendors, including Huawei, stealing the "low- to mid-range product market." In total, the firm expects Samsung to have lower-than-expected shipments this year, totaling 45 million units. "Samsung's ability to reverse its fortune may hinge on the success of its Galaxy Note 5," TrendForce said, referencing the expected launch of a new phablet from the company. "If this device is able to attract consumers with upgraded specs and new features, then Samsung will avoid the high possibility of negative shipment growth for this year." In China, however, things are looking awfully bright for Huawei. TrendForce said that the company, which builds handsets as well as telecommunications technology, will be the first to reach 100 million units shipped this year, and will see its year-over-year shipments grow nearly 40 percent in 2015. Source http://www.cnet.com/

http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/660/cpsprodpb/1751D/production/_84371559_ashley_madison.jpg Customer data has been stolen from Ashley Madison, a dating website for married people who wish to cheat on their spouse.The hackers said they had obtained information including "all the customers' secret sexual fantasies and matching credit card transactions".The site's operator confirmed there had been an "intrusion" but not its extent.One security expert said a small percentage of the site's user account data had been published online.The hackers, who called themselves the Impact Team, said they had managed to steal the real names and addresses of the site's users, including those who had previously paid to "delete" their accounts.People could hide their profiles for free, but the website charged them $19 (£12) for a "full delete".The hackers said the service was a "complete lie" because some personal information was kept.Security researcher Brian Krebs said the hackers had published a small percentage of user account data and planned to post more until the website closed.'Criminal intrusion'Ashley Madison says it operates in more than 50 countries and has 37 million users, more than a million of whom live in the UK.It promotes its service with the tagline, "Life is short, have an affair."The website is owned by Canada-based Avid Life Media.Avid Life Media said in a statement: "We apologise for this unprovoked and criminal intrusion into our customers' information."We have been able to secure our sites, and close the unauthorised access points."Any and all parties responsible for this act of cyber-terrorism will be held responsible."In May, casual dating website Adult Friend Finder was also hacked. Thousands of its customer records were leaked online. Source http://www.bbc.com/

Activision this week released a surprise bundle consisting of Prototype and Prototype 2 on Xbox One (and then PS4). Despite the company's claims that these versions offer improved frame rates, evidence suggests otherwise, at least on Xbox One. Digital Foundry has examined the Xbox One versions of both games and found them generally lacking. Prototype is said to run at 30 frames per second, with occasional dips to the mid-20s. And while it runs at 1080p, it's not as if the game's visuals have been completely overhauled, making it unclear why it doesn't run at 60 FPS. The site calls it "passable in its remastered guise, if a somewhat barebones conversion." Prototype 2, on the other hand, fares more poorly. DF says it's "among the worst performing games on Xbox One to date," with stutter during cutscenes and a framerate in the 20-25 FPS range while moving around the city. Comparing it with the Xbox 360 version, the frame rate in the Xbox One release is lower in multiple areas. The Xbox One version also has a good deal of screen tearing, something not present on PS3 while still running at a better frame rate. At best, it looks as if the Xbox One version is fighting to offer an experience on par with that of the last-gen versions, just at a higher resolution--things like texture quality and draw distance haven't been improved. It's possible the PS4 version handles things better, but that remains to be seen. In light of this, it's perhaps not a surprise that the Prototype Biohazard Bundle, as it's called, was released so quietly. It's not as if you're getting much of a discount, either--it costs $50 on both Xbox and PS4, though Activision said that it plans to offer each game on its own starting on August 11. Source http://www.gamespot.com/