Monday, March 28, 2016

News::What's on your HDTV: 'Archer,' 'The Walking Dead' season finale

This week Archer season seven premieres on FX, while The Walking Dead prepares for its season finale. Of course, VR games have arrived including Adr1ft, while the new Rollercoaster Tycoon comes to PCs via early access, and Resident Evil 6 arrives on the new generation of consoles. We also have a day-and-date Ultra HD Blu-ray release, as Concussion is available in 1080p or Ultra HD and, of course, the new Star Wars movie will be available via digital outlets starting Friday, before the Blu-ray arrives next week -- I have a (legit) early copy, and it's as excellent as you would expect. Look after the break to check out each day's highlights, including trailers and let us know what you think (or what we missed).

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News::'Contra' for phones looks just as tough as the console versions

The Contra game series is notoriously tough (there's a good reason it's synonymous with the Konami code), and it doesn't look like it'll be any easier in its smartphone version. Konami and Tencent have released a trailer for Contra Mobile which shows that it'll be just as frenetic as the console versions you've played in the past, complete with larger-than-life boss battles and turrets aplenty. There's even a player-versus-player mode if you don't think the AI is cutthroat enough.

Via: Polygon

Source: Contra: Neocity Warehouse (YouTube)



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News::Oculus takes you into the colorful alien world of 'Farlands'

High-end virtual reality is here, by way of the long-awaited consumer Oculus Rift. But to get the most out of that headset, you're going to need entertaining VR experiences. Thankfully, Oculus has you covered. Along with the launch-day game lineup it revealed a couple weeks ago, at GDC 2016, the company's now unexpectedly introduced Farlands. This virtual reality adventure, built with Unreal Engine 4 and designed specifically for the Rift, lets you visit and explore a planet filled with exotic life.

Source: Oculus



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News::Xbox One grabs 360 games 'Halo Wars' and 'Soul Calibur 2 HD'

The Xbox One is beefing up its library via backwards compatibility, allowing players to boot up some of their favorite games from the Xbox 360. This week, Xbox One users get Halo Wars, Soul Calibur 2 HD Online and The King of Fighters '98: Ultimate Match. It's a fighting game fiasco with a side of real-time alien-shooting strategy.

Source: @majornelson



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News::Sony is open to bringing PlayStation VR to PCs

PlayStation VR is one of the more affordable advanced virtual reality headsets hitting stores, but it has a big catch: you need to own a PS4 (and a PlayStation Camera) to use it. What if you'd just like to try it with your computer instead? You may well get that chance. According to a translation of a Nikkei interview with Sony's Masayasu Ito, the company is "considering plans" to let you use PlayStation VR with a PC. After all, he says, the PS4 and PCs share similar parts (namely, similar processor and graphics architectures) -- it wouldn't be a big stretch to support both.

Via: Reddit, Polygon

Source: Nikkei (translated)



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News::Oculus Rift review: High-end VR is here -- if you can pay

Phones and tablets are getting boring. And the excitement around smartwatches was, to put it kindly, short-lived. And then there was virtual reality. What used to seem like a science fiction pipe dream has, in the span of a few years, become the next potentially groundbreaking technology platform. So saying that the Oculus Rift has a lot to prove is an understatement. If it fails, it could destroy the virtual reality market before it even gets started. No big deal.

But after spending a week with the Oculus Rift, I have no doubt that its approach to virtual reality is indeed the real deal. It's well built and easy to set up, and there are already a few games and apps that'll make VR believers out of the most ardent naysayer. The only problem: It's $600 and requires a powerful gaming PC. Just as with every new technological milestone, it has the potential to change the world. But at this early stage, only a few can afford it.



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News::In a world of smartphones, Nintendo's 3DS reaches five years old

Nintendo's (not quite) first steps into 3D were shaky. Some of us complained that the 3D effect hurt our eyes, while others found the battery life on the first-generation 3DS just awful. (It was.) However, with bigger (and some flatter) iterations along the way, the handheld has started to hit a groove. Five years since it hit stores in the US, there's now a strong stable of quality games, and the company is bringing back some older SNES hits , as long as you've got the newer hardware.



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