HTC today announced that it will start shipping its standalone Vive Focus VR headset globally sometime later this year, finally opening it up to markets outside of China where it debuted last November. In preparation for the global launch, registered developers in “most countries” now have access to HTC’s Vive Focus developer kits. The Vive Focus is a different animal than the regular Vive (or upcoming Vive Pro) or setups like Samsung’s Gear VR. With the Vive Focus, HTC is attempting to bring VR

I’ve just placed second in Mavericks: Proving Grounds, the 400-player battle royale game from Automaton Games and Improbable. In addition to proudly placing higher than I typically do in a battle royale game (besides Surviv.io, which I actually won), I did something in Proving Grounds I’ve never done in a BR match before: I tracked another player by following his footprints. You won’t leave a trail of footprints everywhere you go, for instance, while running across clean pavement, unless your bo

If you’re in the market for a relatively cheap gaming laptop, Lenovo’s Legion Y520 is worth a look. It’s not the most powerful system on the planet, but using coupon code SAVEXTRA5, you can bring it home for $617.45. Without the coupon code, this laptop sells for $650 on Lenovo’s website, which is down from its regular list price of $850. That’s a bit much in our opinion, but at $617 and change, you could certainly do worse. As configured, the Legion Y520 sports a 15.6-inch display with a 1920×1

Electronic Arts unveiled its plans for sweeping changes to Star Wars: Battlefront 2 last week, including an overhaul to the progression system that removes Star Cards from crates, a return of the Crystals currency, and limits on what you can buy with them—which is to say, cosmetic items only. The update went live today, revealing that it’s also unlocked all hero characters and ships: No more having to grind your face off for credits before you can start chopping people to bits as Darth Vader. Un

Epic Games announced today at GDC that a new replay feature is coming soon to Fortnite. The system promises to help players adjust their tactics, as they’ll be able to “jump back into a game” to see what went right and wrong. “I think the replay feature will certain upgrade everyone’s content and allow them to create even better videos, better content,” Ali-A says in the video above. The Fortnite replay tool will be available on all platforms. A video showcasing the capabilities of the Fortnite

Any attacker gaining unauthorized administrative access would have a wide range of attacks at their disposal well beyond the exploits identified in this research,” AMD stated in a blog post. In other words, you’re already hosed if a bad actor manages to gain administrative access to a system or network. AMD’s assessment is in stark contrast to that of CTS Labs, which most would agree handled the situation poorly. Nevertheless, even CTS Labs has since acknowledged that it could have done better.

Jamal Rashid’s ambitious GTA 5 visual overhaul mod NaturalVision Remastered first caught my eye last year. “With the newest update, I’ve transformed NaturalVision Remastered from a simple graphics overhaul to something much bigger,” Rashid tells me via email. The sky colors in this picture were inspired by Forza Horizon 3 during late evening/night transition. The ambient tones, fog colors and sky colors were somewhat inspired by Watch_Dogs 2. I like how the sky colors mix together.

Welcome to our round-up of the best Metroidvania games. Others, like Dead Cells, experiment with fusing the metroidvania with other genres to create a powerful hybrid. Cave Story+Daisuke Amaya’s seminal indie metroidvania is available on PC as Cave Story+, which features the original 320×240 visuals and the updated version. Steamworld Dig 2Approachable, and not too difficult, the Steamworld Dig games deliver a gentle hit of Metroidvania action supplemented by lots of Terraria-style digging. Dead

Even the world’s most prolific creators had to start somewhere, and for indie sensation Stardew Valley’s creator, Eric Barone, somewhere was a game called 17CF Quest. It’s endearingly awful, but it’s fun to see where Barone first cut his teeth in game design. In an interview with GQ, Barone opened up about his history with game development, saying that he had never wanted to make computer games commercially. It was called The 17CF [Quest], or something like that. If anything, I just find it insp

Lucky for us, Lukas Kunce of Amanita Design, creators of point-and-click classics like Machinarium and the Samorost series, was kind enough to sit down with me away from business card firing range. We had a nice chat about their most recent game Chuchel, what they’re working on now, and the future of adventure games. We also learned a bit about what the studio is working on now, including a horror game and another built of 3D scans of cardboard creations. For fans of fluff, we also discussed whe

Warhammer Age of Sigmar is a tabletop board game that was launched by Games Workshop in 2015. Warhammer Age of Sigmar Champions is an upcoming AR trading card game heading to PC this year, courtesy of PlayFusion. Billed as an “all-new way for tabletop war gaming and TCG fans to experience Warhammer Age of Sigmar”, Champions combines physical trading cards, a digital trading card videogame, and PlayFusion’s so-called Enhanced Reality Engine. Those interested can sign up for news and such over her

Except the new players didn’t actually have to pull off an active reload to get that damage buff. In Spec Ops: The Line, enemies will shout at you to let you know they’re about to throw a grenade. But they never actually throw a grenade at you. In Spec Ops, enemies react to grenades tosses at them and run away to look smart, but not outside the AOE so they still get hurt. When you throw a grenade at enemies, there’s a reaction radius that will tell the AI to run away.

Hitman’s best level is going free for a limited time. Part of the game’s Spring Pack, the free download extends from now through April 3 whereafter the Sapienza mission is yours to keep for good. And before you go, let me share this excerpt from Phil’s 85-scoring Sapienza mission review:Sapienza’s freedom is an important distinction over Paris, but there’s another factor that makes it work so well. In The Showstopper mission, targets Viktor Novikov and Dalia Margolis host a fashion show and auct

I’ve spent the last few months following Lance McDonald’s Bloodborne alpha cut content videos, wishing he’d move onto Dark Souls so I could write about them here. Yesterday, praise the sun, the series turned its attention to optional Dark Souls 3 boss Oceiros, the Consumed King. Pretty happy with this for my first look at Dark Souls 3 cut content.” The below, McDonald explains, is how Oceiros almost featured in Dark Souls 3’s full release, without any of his own tinkering. At the end of the vide

To this end, one questline has now been seen through to conclusion, some 13 years after first gracing Gielinor. The pirate-themed questline is, as you may expect, one of Runescape’s longest running stories having launched in 2005. The ultimate branch, named ‘Pieces of Hate’ has players plundering for loot, fighting zombie raiders, tussling with sea monsters, and upgrading the Book o’Piracy—a rum-powered tool that lets players teleport across the world. Publisher Jagex reckons players should aim

Davey Wreden, creator of the The Stanley Parable and The Beginner’s Guide, discussed his current game design goals during an indie panel at GDC 2018 today. “Why does a person want to put in hour after after on this one game as opposed to playing a different game? Firstly, to become better or to optimize, “the enjoyable feeling that you are better now at the game than you were when you started playing.” The bizarre, impossible-sounding goal I’ve set for myself is to create a game that does all of

To pass some of the longer journeys, I keep imagining all the things Sea of Thieves could do, but doesn’t, armchair designing an imaginary game as I play. The subreddit has been doing the same thing , which suggests that the essence of Sea of Thieves is excellent. I feel strongly about that even though I don’t think sturgeons live in the kind of waters depicted in Sea of Thieves. The same idea, applied with a much lighter touch to Sea of Thieves, could have a similar effect. Whether or not any o

For starting off with the two most familiar cliches in indie gaming, Children of Morta feels surprisingly and welcomely distinct. They’re all members of the Bergson family, some sort of guardians fighting against some mucky force called the Corruption. Austin: I did, and good thing too, because unlike most roguelikes where the action drives everything, Children of Morta has a fairly compelling narrative. The Bergsons are a family of peacekeepers who defend Mount Morta from an ancient, evil corru

The Razer BlackWidow Ultimate has an IP rating of 54, the highest of all mechanical gaming keyboards. Whereas the Corsair K68 uses flood gates, the BlackWidow Ultimate has switches that are inherently water and dust resistant. Will the Razer BlackWidow Ultimate survive the same rigorous trial as the Corsair K68? Though the Razer BlackWidow Ultimate easily handled the torrent of crap, its durability was raised into question when I tried to clean it. At the moment, I recommend gamers to remain cau

Earlier today Nintendo hosted a showcase for some flagship indies coming to Switch this year. Among those was Lumines Remastered, a new and improved version of the 2004 PSP title. That original ended up releasing for a whole swathe of other platforms – including PC – but the good news is that the Remastered version is coming to PC too. If you’re keen to check out the series before that, the original is available on Steam right now. If you’re unfamiliar with Lumines, it’s a music-oriented puzzle