PC gaming news and reviews

The latest PC gaming news and reviews of gaming PC hardware, software and accessories.

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Sphero acquires LittleBits and its set of scientific toys
The popular STEAM education company Sphero announced today that it has acquired LittleBits. You may remember LittleBits as the company behind toys that teach kids about electronics, and Sphero has made a name for itself creating educational coding robots. Together, the companies plan to bring STEAM and coding products to more classrooms, homes and educational programs.
After a year of Epic Games exclusivity, ‘Hades’ heads to Steam Early Access
Hades, the next game from Bastion and Pyre developer Supergiant Games, is coming to Steam Early Access on December 10. The game has been available in early access on the Epic Games Store since December of last year.
Researchers create electronic lens that works better than the human eye
A new breakthrough could soon revolutionize the design of almost every optical instrument in use today, including cameras, eyeglasses and telescopes. Combining recent developments in artificial muscle and flat lens technologies, a team of researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have created a new lens that functions a lot like the human eye. Not only is the instrument capable of focusing in real-time thanks to an elastomer muscle, it features none of the bulk of a traditional spherical lens. It can even do some things the human eye can't, including adjusting for astigmatism and image shift, two variables that lead to blurry vision.
Wandering the VR halls of 'Westworld Awakening'
My name is Kate and I've been brutally murdered in an old west farmhouse. Moments after meeting my doom, I'm awake. Barely. I'm in a sterile room with two people lording over me. They talk to each other while I try to understand what's happening. My limbs no longer seem to respond to my desires. The same thing happened when a maniac ended my life what seems like only moments before.
HBO's 'Westworld Awakening' VR game arrives August 20th
HBO has announced a Westworld virtual reality game, and you won't have to wait long before you can play it. Westworld Awakening -- which it produced with Survios, Kilter Films and the help of Westworld's showrunners -- will hit Oculus Store, Viveport and Steam Tuesday, but only for headsets linked to PCs. There aren't any current plans to release it for Oculus Quest. The game will also be playable in hundreds of VR arcades across the planet, and there's a pretty intense trailer to whet your appetite.
‘Doom Eternal’ multiplayer trailer highlights strategic gameplay
Id Software and Bethesda breathed new life into Doom with their 2016 entry into the gory FPS series, but fell short when it came to the game's multiplayer mode. "There was not a lot of Doom in our multiplayer in 2016, and players noticed that," said executive producer Marty Stratton at E3 2019. The explosive Battle Mode trailer for the sequel, Doom Eternal, proves the game's designers are rectifying that.
British Airways is offering VR entertainment on flights
British Airways is set to trial VR entertainment on select first class flights from London Heathrow to New York JFK. From now until the end of the year, customers on these flights will have their own 3D cinema in the sky, and will be able to watch a variety of films, documentaries and travel shows in 2D, 3D or 360° formats.
Oculus co-founder Nate Mitchell is the latest to leave Facebook
One more Oculus co-founder is heading for the exits. Software architect Nate Mitchell has decided to leave Facebook, explaining it only as a decision to "move on." He didn't say where he might be going next, but planned to "recharge" and spend time with his family. He still vowed to be "part of this [VR] community" -- he'll just have a "much smaller role," at least for now.
Wonderscope uses AR to teach literacy and tackle bullying
After Pokemon Go put augmented reality on the radar of a mainstream audience, developers have intensified their efforts to find useful applications for it. Google, for example, added AR navigation to Maps, overlaying arrows on the world in front of you. Others have used it help you shop for furniture by virtually placing it in your living room or letting you test out makeup with a little software magic.
Valve's VR headphones started life as two speakers taped to a skate helmet
As Valve is continues its forays into VR hardware, the company has shared some insights into the development process for the headphones included in its Index VR kit.
Epic vows to support 'Ooblets' studio following exclusivity harassment
Indie studio Glumberland, developer of cute and quirky life simulator Ooblets, announced its decision to sign a PC exclusivity deal with Epic Games last week. It essentially secured the company's future, but it has also become the target of widespread harassment as a result of locking its PC title to the Epic Games Store.
Faster algorithm could lead to more realistic sounds in VR
Producing realistic sound models in VR is tricky, even compared to conventional video games. You don't always know how objects will sound in a given environment or where the listener will be, and you don't have the luxury of waiting hours for conventional sound modelling to finish. Thankfully, Stanford researchers have found a way to produce those models in a viable time frame. Their algorithm that can calculate 3D sound models in mere seconds -- not real-time, but quickly enough that you could pre-calculate sound models for very specific situations.
HTC's standalone VR kit will stream PC content via WiFi
We're still some way away from getting compact VR headsets that tap into cloud VR services via 5G, but for now, HTC has cooked up something that will let standalone 6DoF kits take advantage of a PC's processing power. In early Q4 this year, the Vive Focus Plus will gain a new feature dubbed Viveport Streaming, which gives it access to all Viveport content on a PC over a 5GHz WiFi connection. This means with that free update, the Vive Focus Plus will effectively double as a wireless headset for any VR-ready PC. The catch? You'll need to be a Viveport Infinity subscriber to enjoy such convenience.
'Away Mission' is a free-roaming 'Star Trek' VR experience
When Starfleet calls, Trekkies will answer, and Starfleet's latest call to action involves the world's first free-roam Star Trek experience. Later this year Sandbox VR will launch the first Holodeck VR experience, where fans can enter the world of Star Trek to complete a mission involving problem-solving, combat and -- of course -- phasers.
GOG Galaxy 2.0 aims to put all your digital games in one place
Competition is supposed to be good, right? It means a bigger selection and better prices, so it's great for consumers. But when the Epic Store launched last December, gamers were pissed. Because it meant their digital games collection was now fragmented between even more services. Gamers like having their collection all in one place, and for most that means sticking with Steam. That isn't great for rival sites like GOG. While it was created as a place to buy classic titles, it's evolved into a marketplace that sells a lot of indie games and even some AAA fare. It added some Steam-like features in its GOG Galaxy launcher, which incorporated things like play stats and leaderboards. But still, there was the fragmentation problem. Galaxy 2.0, now in closed beta, is designed to fix that problem by bringing everything back together.
'Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker' is the latest addition to Nintendo's Labo VR
The Switch might not be the first device you think of for a VR gaming experience, but you can't fault Nintendo's experiments with the medium. Earlier this year we got Super Mario Odyssey and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild on Labo VR, and now the next title to land is Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker. Within this mini VR adventure you'll be able to explore four courses in 360 degrees and even go for a VR ride in a mine cart, as you guide Toad through his popular puzzle adventure. The free software update is available now.
Inside the virtual production of ‘The Lion King’
The new Lion King movie is visually spectacular. A two-hour remake that frequently defies belief. Pride Rock is, of course, a fictional place but in director Jon Favreau's film it feels eerily real. The creatures, too, move just like they would on the plains of Africa. They're utterly believable until they talk and sing to one another about family, responsibility and the circle of life. Disney has been remaking its animated classics for some time now. But The Lion King, which hit theaters on July 19th, sets a new benchmark for what's possible with computer-generated animation. The secret behind it all? An experimental form of filmmaking that, through VR, allows studios to shoot virtual sets with old-fashioned direction and analog camerawork.
Brain-controlled VR lightshows could lull you to sleep
By most accounts, technology wreaks havoc on our sleep. Even tools meant to help us sleep better can make insomnia worse. But sleep and tech don't have to be mutually exclusive. Artists and researchers from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) University have created a virtual reality tool to induce sleep. The device, Inter-Dream, combines ambient music controlled by artists with kaleidoscopic visuals controlled by the user's brainwaves, via EEG.
Firefox Reality VR web browser arrives on Oculus Quest headsets
Mozilla just expanded the reach of its Firefox Reality VR browser to one of its bigger platforms yet: the Oculus Quest. Owners of Facebook's stand-alone headset can surf sites, watch videos and dive into VR experiences through a browser that both emphasizes privacy (Enhanced Tracking Protection is turned on by default) and puts VR web activities front and center in a portal. The features will seem familiar if you've used Firefox Reality on another platform, including voice search, but that's not necessarily a bad thing if you aren't happy with the usual Quest browsing.
Amazon Prime Video comes to Oculus VR headsets
You now have yet another major video service to watch on your Oculus VR headset. Amazon has released a Prime Video VR app that allows Oculus Quest, Go, and Gear VR owners to stream the internet behemoth's shows in a virtual space. There will even be 360-degree videos to watch, although there are just 10 "handpicked" titles that include the climate change documentary Greenland Melting and the animated short Invasion.

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