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GDC award for culture critic Anita Sarkeesian led to bomb threat
A bomb threat was made regarding a speaker and award recipient at the Game Developer's Choice Awards (part of the annual Game Developer's Conference) in San Francisco this past March. Anita Sarkeesian (pictured above), host of Tropes vs. Women in Video Games, a YouTube series that naturally examines the way women are depicted in video games, was the intended target. As Kotaku reports, an anonymous email was sent to around 25 of GDC's organizers stating the following: "A bomb will be detonated at the Game Developer's Choice award ceremony tonight unless Anita Sarkeesian's Ambassador Award is revoked. We estimate the bomb will kill at least a dozen people and injure dozens more. It would be in your best interest to accept our simple request. This is not a joke. You have been warned."
Jeri Ellsworth talks castAR's accidental beginnings and its augmented reality future (video)
By now, followers of castAR already know that Jeri Ellsworth created the projected augmented reality glasses back when she worked for Valve Software. But not everybody knows that its invention was, well, an accident. "I was trying to figure out why people got sick when they wore virtual reality rigs," said Ellsworth to us as we chatted in the tiny castAR booth tucked away in the corner of Moscone North during GDC 2014. "I put a reflector in backwards so that it wasn't projecting into my eye ... There was a piece of reflective fabric in the room, it bounced an image back to me, and it was beautiful."
Watch Sony explain Project Morpheus and its VR plans for PlayStation
Virtual reality is (quite suddenly) a big deal. Sony introduced its Project Morpheus prototype headset for the PS4 at GDC, just days ago, and now the company has uploaded the hour-long presentation, including its development, awkward prototypes, the criteria it's eventually aiming for and some early demos. It's almost like you were there -- which is entirely the point of VR.
Harmonix's 'Fantasia' gets a multiplayer mode, new songs
Harmonix is letting us in on a few more details about its upcoming game Disney Fantasia: Music Evolved. During a demo last week at GDC the company showed us a new discovery realm of the game called "The Hollow," a new multiplayer mode and took the wraps off of six new tracks coming to the colorful music-conducting game. Similar to the underwater world we saw at E3, The Hollow is a part of the game meant for exploration rather than structured gameplay -- and the forest scene has a ton to explore. Much like the other discovery realms in the game, parts of world start to come into color the more songs you play, with a little taste of your completed songs incorporating itself into the world. Areas of The Hollow we saw had magical mushrooms that you could play (not that kind of magical shrooms; these), as well as fairies you can interact with and an elk with playable bells in its antlers. It all looks pretty amazing, and is something we could definitely see ourselves spending hours exploring.
GDC's alternative arcade: a gallery of crazy, homemade game controllers
The idea of the gamepad is so entrenched in our mind, it's easy to forget that there are other ways to play video games. No, we're not talking about the PC gamer's keyboard and mouse, or even the traditional arcade stick -- but custom, purpose built controllers made to augment a specific experience. At GDC 2014, we found an interactive gallery full of them. The event, Alt.Ctrl.GDC serves as a showcase for indie game experiences that aren't fully accessible without specialized hardware, but to us, it was simply an alternative arcade of creativity.
Titanfall on PCs will soon support 4K and NVIDIA's latest graphics tricks (updated)
Many gamers already argue that the PC version of Titanfall is the best-looking of the bunch. Pretty soon, though, it won't even be a contest. Respawn plans to update its robotic shooter to handle both 4K displays as well as a host of technology from NVIDIA's GameWorks program, including full support for multiple GeForce cards, improved antialiasing and more realistic shadow effects. The upgrades aren't all that surprising. Some modern video hardware is powerful enough for 4K gaming, and developers have already used GameWorks to spruce up flagship titles like Assassin's Creed 4 and Call of Duty: Ghosts. Still, the visual improvements are bound to make a big impact -- Titanfall is one of the most important games of the year, and a good excuse to pick up a new gaming rig. Update: Right now however, Titanfall is getting some tweaks on its servers that will change how it plays on PC and Xbox One. The updates will roll out over the next day, but you can see a changelog on Respawn's forums here. There are a number of fixes and updates included, and among them it appears the controversial Smart Pistol is having its effectiveness reduced, with slightly lower accuracy from hip fire and decreased damage when it's not locked-on. A troublesome glitch that allowed Burn Cards to be duplicated has also been fixed, and point values for certain actions in Hardpoint and Capture The Flag games have been adjusted.
Peter Molyneux wants more from VR than what's available
"I just want to make a world which I can be a god in," jokes developer Peter Molyneux (Fable, Curiosity) in a San Francisco hotel suite. "Imagine being able to make and construct a world under your own rules." He's speaking with us at GDC 2014, painting a picture of what he would do with access to a perfect virtual reality interface. Despite his history of building deity simulators, he doesn't have any plans for building the ultimate virtual god game -- today's virtual reality leaves him wanting. "The problem is that, as a designer, I'm like a greedy child. I just want more." That's not to say he doesn't recognize how far virtual reality has come in recent years. Dragging on an electronic cigarette, Molyneux recalls using awkward "virtual reality" headsets in 1980s arcades. "It was a very different kind of VR," he says. "The Oculus Rift and the Sony stuff is a great step forward, but I want more. Really, what VR is, is immersion. I want my eyes to be immersed, my ears to be immersed ... I want to touch things in the world and I want to be able to see my hands." The technology to create the perfect Matrix-like playground he envisions simply isn't available yet -- not that it's stopped him from building god simulators.
Exploring virtual reality on PlayStation 4 with Shuhei Yoshida and Richard Marks (video)
It was 2010 when Sony engineers first explored virtual reality concepts. The idea of a VR headset sprang from another project at the company: PlayStation Move, a wand-like motion controller for the PlayStation 3. Company engineers attached the controller to head-mounted displays, enabling a form of homemade VR via motion and depth tracking. Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios head Shuhei Yoshida was asked to try these early prototypes, one which put the player into the role of Kratos in God of War 3 and the other a mod of Half-Life 2 where you could lift up and look at your own gun. "That was a totally compelling experience, so I became a believer," Yoshida told us in an interview this week, post-Project Morpheus announcement. "It was a 'wow' moment!"
Microsoft aims to power up PC and mobile games with DirectX 12
The time for teasing is over. Today at GDC, Microsoft pulled back the curtain on DirectX 12, a shiny new edition of its venerable graphics APIs that some lucky developers can start mucking around with later this year. Microsoft Graphics Development Manager Anuj Gosalia talked up a storm out in SF: he noted that DX12 would (among other things) yield performance boosts across all of Microsoft's platforms, including Xbox One and Windows Phone.
castAR's vision of immersive gaming gets closer to final production
Five months ago, Technical Illusions gained over a million dollars in funding thanks to a highly successful Kickstarter campaign for castAR, a projected augmented reality project that company founders Jeri Ellsworth and Rick Johnson brought over from Valve when they were laid off almost two years ago. Ever since the campaign's success, the company has been ramping up prototyping on a rapid scale so that the final unit can be sent off for mass production. Along the way, the company has grown from two employees to 11, and Ellsworth has since moved from Portland to Seattle to be with the team (dragging her collection of 80-plus pinball machines along with her). Ellsworth has also just hired the services of a Japanese company (she won't name which) to provide her with improved optics and thinner circuitry, which she admits is better than the homemade solutions she and her partners have cobbled together so far. This all means, sadly, that castAR is still very much in progress, which is why even though Technical Illusions is here at GDC 2014, we were unable to look at the final castAR hardware. We were, however, able to take a look at castAR's latest prototype that has never before been seen outside of Technical Illusion's office until this week.
Future DualShock 4 update for PlayStation 4 will add option to dim light bar (updated!)
It may seem like minor news, especially considering the hoopla over Sony's Virtual Reality this week at GDC, but the PlayStation 4's DualShock 4 controller is about to get a firmware fix. In an interview with Geoff Keighley of Spike TV, Shuhei Yoshida, Sony PlayStation's head of Worldwide Studios, confirmed that a future firmware update (we're not sure if it's console- or controller-specific like on Xbox One) will give gamers the option to turn off dim the controller's light bar. If you own a PS4, then you know just how preciously short-lived the DualShock 4's battery life can be. The ability to muffle that glaring light should help extend the DS4's longevity, but only slightly. Still, it's a major boon for the community, and those of us that like our controllers to be less of a night light and more of a gamepad. Update: Yoshida clarified on Twitter that the firmware update will only dim the DualShock 4's light bar, not disable it entirely.
Intel flaunts 8-core Extreme Edition Haswell with support for DDR4 memory
Since Intel's next Haswell chips are aimed squarely at enthusiasts, what better place to unveil them than at the Game Developer's Conference? Aimed at power users, the 4th-gen Core-i7 Extreme Edition CPU will feature eight unlocked cores and 16 threads, trumping the last model's six cores. It'll also support the latest DDR4 memory standard for much higher transfer speeds and lower power drain than DDR3. Also arriving soon is an unlocked 4th-gen "Devil's Canyon" Core chip for overclockers and a "Black Brook" reference all-in-one PC packed with tech like the RealSense 3-D camera (see the video after the break). Finally, Intel revealed that its 5th-gen Broadwell 14-nanometer processors will be available unlocked and with Iris graphics. While those chips were delayed, the new 4th-gen CPUs will arrive in mid-2014 -- so it might be prudent to put off any upgrades. Update: Intel has informed us that the unlocked 4th-gen chips are code-named "Devil's Canyon," not the Extreme Edition CPU. We've updated the post to reflect that.
Daily Roundup: Sony Project Morpheus hands-on, new Oculus Rift dev kit and more!
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
Facebook's game notifications are getting more detailed, slightly less annoying
Everyone is friends with that one guy who can't stop playing Facebook games -- and who more importantly, can't stop asking you to join him. Now a request from your BFF can tell you he's in the market for an extra cow in FarmVille without forcing you to load up your own virtual farm up to see what he wants. At GDC Wednesday Facebook announced it's giving developers the option to add a little more detail to notifications. So instead of a generic "request" you'll know specifically what your buddy is hoping for. Facebook is responsible for an astounding 735 million referrals into games every day, and more than 375 million people play Facebook-connected games every month. Detailed notifications are a small change, but one that could make the Facebook gaming experience slightly less annoying for everyone.
Prototype headset mirrors your phone screen in an awkward attempt at virtual reality
The verdict on virtual reality seems to be in: the future of the technology is in fully immersive, face bound ski-goggles that block out your physical perceptions in favor of digitally created wonderlands. Well, unless you're looking at Seebright's AR/VR head-mounted display prototype. The company brought an early version of its developing headgear to GDC and it's.. well, very different. Unlike the hardware we've seen from Sony, Oculus and GameFace, Seebright's headgear leaves the user's peripheral wide-open by suspending a smartphone above their field of view and reflecting it in front of them with a low-hanging mirror. To be honest, it's a little bizarre.
Using the PlayStation 4's virtual reality headset, Project Morpheus (update: now with video!)
The cat's out of the bag and... uh, on our head? Okay, we can do better than that, but what we're trying to say is that we just used Sony's new PlayStation 4 virtual reality headset: Project Morpheus. You already know the specs and all that good stuff; we're here to tell you what it's like using the still-in-prototype-form virtual reality headset for the PlayStation 4. Good news: It's pretty great! Surprise! Join us below for a closer look.
Valve's new Steam controller feels familiar, but strange
Valve's original vision for a PC gamepad was an arresting deviation from the norm: touch-sensitive control pads in place of dual analog thumbsticks and a full-on touchscreen in lieu of actual buttons. The company's latest revision -- codenamed "D0g" after the character from Half-Life 2 -- skews a little more traditional, replacing the curious touchscreen with eight regular buttons. Is it a loss worth lamenting? We caught up with Valve at GDC 2014 to find out.
Epic Games' Unreal Engine 4 now available by subscription for $19, headed to OS X and more
Unreal Engine 3 set the standard for games last generation, powering breakout franchises like Gears of War and Mass Effect. We don't know if Unreal Engine 4 will have the same impact, but today's move by Epic Games to massively democratize this game engine is certainly a step in the right direction. Today, Unreal Engine 4 is going subscription: For $19/month you get, "access to everything, including the Unreal Editor in ready-to-run form, and the engine's complete C++ source code hosted on GitHub for collaborative development." That's according to Epic Games head Tim Sweeney, who spoke at a GDC event this morning. Any game published commercially must also pay 5 percent of gross profit to Epic (which could get lucrative very quickly for Epic). It's a move aimed directly at the evolving world of contemporary game development, where indie hit-makers like Jonathan Blow take the stage at Sony's PlayStation 4 unveiling in place of triple-A studios. We were shown a simple Flappy Bird clone for iOS, for instance, as an example of the flexibility of UE4 (the demon lord seen above is an example of the other end of the engine). Beyond the subscription service and full access to the source code (which is a big move unto itself), Unreal Engine 4 is getting OS X support. There's also evidence in the source code that Epic's working on Oculus Rift, Linux, Steam Machines and HTML5 support. But we already kinda knew all that, right? So we asked Tim Sweeney for a deeper dive into today's news and what it means for Epic Games as both a game engine maker and a game studio. Head below for the full video!
The new Oculus Rift costs $350 and this is what it's like
If you're still not paying attention to Oculus VR and the Rift headset -- the folks at the forefront of virtual reality's recent rebirth -- what are you doing? Okay, we'll forgive you. It's still just a development kit after all, and even the latest prototype ("Crystal Cove") is far from the expected final product. Today though, you've got one less excuse to stay in the dark: The second Oculus Rift development kit is available for pre-order; it costs $350; and it's really, really impressive. That's two reallys.
Headset combines virtual and augmented reality with holodeck-like results
Two months ago, Sulon Technologies broke cover with a video showcasing a bulky augmented reality and virtual reality system. Fast-forward to today. The chunky backpack and headset combo has been replaced by a much, much smaller second prototype -- it's just a headset with a power cord coming out the back. Oh, and it's got a name: The Cortex. If you're a tinkerer, you can pre-order the dev kit version to follow this new prototype -- the company claims this more polished hardware will be shipping out in Q4 of 2014. It'll cost you $500 to get this particular peek into the future, though, so read on to find out what it's like wandering around with the dev kit's hacked-together portable predecessor on your melon.
