Corning Incorporated, the makers of Corning Gorilla Glass, announced a new partnership with compound material supplier Pixelligent Technologies to develop optics for the coming age of consumer AR headsets. The collaboration is said to rely on Pixelligent’s optically transparent compounds and Corning’s glass manufacturing technology to “help reduce product-development time and expand availability of AR […]
Elite Dangerous (2014), one of the first truly massive VR-compatible space sims, is releasing its biggest DLC for free today to all players who own the base game. Initially announced last month by creators Frontier Developments, the previously separate Horizons expansion has now been folded into the base game. Before today, Horizons cost $30 on top of the […]
According to the original organizer of the initiative to jailbreak Oculus Quest 2, an XR developer was successful in bypassing Facebook services on the device. Here’s the full statement from the group, which was founded by Robert Long, a senior software engineer at Mozilla working on WebXR: A researcher from the XR community has gained […]
Researchers at Stanford and Samsung Electronics have developed a display capable of packing in greater than 10,000 pixels per inch (ppi), something that’s slated to be used in VR/AR headsets and contact lenses of the future. Over the years, research and design firms like JDI and INT have been racing to pave the way for […]
The upcoming PS5 exclusive Destruction AllStars was originally slated to be part of the PS5 launch lineup, but today Sony announced a delay. The game will now be coming out in February 2021. As well as that, Destruction AllStars will also launch as a PlayStation Plus game, whereby it will be available for ‘free’ for PS Plus members for two months beginning in February. For more information on the delay and the PS Plus launch, read the full news item to learn more about it.
Unity has long been a public supporter of OpenXR—an industry standard designed to streamline VR development by making it easier for apps to support a wide range of headsets—but the company has yet to deploy support for the standard. As a key figure in OpenXR (owed to it being one of the leading VR game […]
Sony recently unveiled Spatial Reality Display, a 15.6-inch 4K panel that includes both eye-tracking and embedded lenticular lens array so users can view 3D content with the naked eye. In contrast to the $3,000 Looking Glass Holographic Monitor, which is decidedly much chunkier due to its optical array and light field rendering tech, Sony’s Spatial […]
I loved My Time at Portia. I never finished the game - as I have little time for games outside of work - but I did like it enough to buy an additional copy on PS4 after getting the PC version via Humble Bundle. I spent about 40 early-pandemic hours wandering around Portia, building up my homestead and mining for stuff before I had to regretfully move on.
So I was delighted to wake up this morning and see games journalism internet positively littered with news that Portia is receiving a sequel - My Time at Sandrock. Here's the trailer (thanks IGN!):
On the game's Kickstarter page, developer Pathia Games says that they are fully funded to finish the game, but they are looking for an extra $100,000 to complete some advanced multi-player features.
"When we started working on Sandrock, it was supposed to be a downloadable addition to My Time at Portia. But as we delved deeper into game production, we realized that in order to fully express the tale of Sandrock, we needed to start from scratch. We required better graphics, better optimization, more story, and more satisfying gameplay systems: basically, we needed better production values across the board. On top of that, we really wanted to include a form of multiplayer that would really meet expectations for our players, and My Time at Portia’s programming structure just didn’t support that."
Pivoting from Portia's wooded/river laden area to a more frontier-like environment gives Pathia the chance to explore some new gameplay ideas. "Water is a premium in Sandrock, with the only source being from Martle’s Oasis. Wood is also a rare resource, as not many trees grow in the area. Most of the trees around the oasis were cut by the original settlers: nowadays, you’ll have to find alternatives. The good news is that there are vast amounts of relics around these parts, some of them even hidden in plain sight!"
The team at Pathia is looking to release the game into early access in March 2021, with a full release expected in Spring 2022. Following that, Sandrock will be released on "GOG, Epic Store, WeGame, and other PC platforms. The PS4, Switch, Xbox One, and next-gen console versions will release in Summer 2022."
Seems like a long time to wait, but if the game is anywhere as great as Portia, the wait will be well worth it.
Publisher Activision and developers Treyarch & Raven Software have announced Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War's Zombies Onslaught Mode will be a timed exclusive to Playstation platforms until November 1st 2021. After that date, it will become available for Xbox & PC players. To be clear: Onslaught Mode doesn't encapsulate the all of COD Zombies. The regular variant of Zombies you've come to know and love is still available for all users on launch.
This unfortunate situation is similar to the Survival Mode in last year's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare reboot too. For more information on Onslaught Mode, read the full news item to learn more about it.
Acting as a prequel to Camp Sunshine, Fossil Games have announced the 8-bit blood-soaked Horror RPG Sunshine Manor.
You play as Ada, dared to spend the night in the haunted Sunshine Manor where Ada encounters ghosts, demons, blood-soaked horror and more. Unlike the previous game, Fossil Games will be supporting Linux directly this time and they've just released a free version with Sunshine Manor Prologue so you can try it right now to get a feel for it.
The game takes inspiration from movies such as From Beyond, Friday the 13th, and The Nightmare on Elm Street, while mixing gameplay mechanics from games such as the beloved – and long-running - The Legend of Zelda, Resident Evil and Silent Hill series. Check out their Kickstarter trailer below:
A brand new engine written just for Sunshine Manor.
Discover and explore the ever-changing haunted Sunshine Manor.
Transport yourself to the Demon Realm and banish Demons!
Beautiful hand-drawn 8-bit graphics.
A deadly game of Cat & Mouse where the Demon can be anywhere.
An 80s Soundtrack written just for Sunshine Manor.
Harness Ada's Psychic Powers.
A fantastic story-driven narrative.
Free the trapped Ghosts and enter the Demon Realm
Lots of scares, spooky scenes and nods to famous franchises.
Devious puzzles to tax your brain box.
The kickstarter has a goal of £20,000 and of that they've already managed to gather £7,643 in around a day so it looks like it's quite popular. It does sound like a lot of fun, with an unusual protagonist who certainly isn't a damsel in distress with their psychic powers that can be used to fight off demons.
Do you have a Guitar Hero Live (PS3) 6-fret guitar or perhaps one from the Wii U that you want to use on Linux? Prepare to dust them off.
The new hid-ghlive-dkms driver from developer Pascal Giard, was created as they "really wanted to play a 6-fret guitar on Clone Hero". For those not aware, Clone Hero is a free rhythm game (a clone of Guitar Hero - get it?), which can be played with any 5 or 6 button guitar controller, game controllers, or just your standard computer keyboard.
Pictured - Clone Hero on Linux.
Currently this new driver only supports the Wii U and PS3 dongles, with support for the PS4 version being looked into and will hopefully work with it when they figure it out.
Once again another case of why open source is important: preservation. Ensuring that hardware you buy can continue working many years after the original creature moves on. You should be able to use your hardware and accessories wherever you want. Another great project. The developer has mentioned they do intend to get this up-streamed into the Linux Kernel too.
Own a PlayStation 4 and want to stream games from it to your Linux desktop? Chiaki is great for that and a fresh upgrade is out to keep it working.
As a reminder: it's a free and open source project, not backed by Sony and totally unofficial. Impressive though, and it actually works quite well. Sony recently upgraded the PS4 firmware, and each time that happens it tends to break Chiaki, thankfully though it doesn't happen too often.
Chiaki 1.3.0 is out now which adds support for the 8.0 firmware, partial touchpad support is in for the DualShock 4 which currently only works on Linux and only if you build from source, they've moved from QtGamepad to SDL2 and some other fixes made it in. It's an essential upgrade.
They Bleed Pixels, a fiendishly difficult action platformer inspired by H.P. Lovecraft and classic horror recently released on the Nintendo Switch which gave the PC version a nice tech upgrade too.
While technically this has been out for a while, as the itch.io release of They Bleed Pixels back in June had all the upgrades it wasn't updated everywhere else. As of this week though, it's now live on Steam too. Much like the recent 64bit upgrade to Quadrilateral Cowboy, this tech upgrade was done by game porter Ethan Lee.
So what's new? Much improved and expanded gamepad support including hot-plugging, additional pad support, PS4 and Switch glyphs are now supported and the icons will correctly switch on-screen, the cut-scenes have been improved to fade properly, 64bit support Linux and macOS, checkpoint save/load optimizations and plenty of bug fixes.
Extra tight controls: One-button attack system favors skilled combat over complicated combos and button-mashing. Super precise platforming controls let you stop and start on a dime while pulling off gravity-defying dashes and double jumps.
Eleven massive levels to fight through and explore, each with unique visuals and music. Unlock additional bonus levels and guest levels from indie game developers based on their own creations: They Bleed Ponycorns, They Bleed Stardust, exp.
Unique checkpoint system rewards fancy kills with a save spot you can carry with you. Hold on to it for extra points or drop it right away to preserve your progress.
Becoming a monster stabbing master with individual level rankings as well as 150 skill-based achievements. There's lots to aim for after you've completed the game.
Standard and Novice difficulty to match your skill level.
Record, playback and share your best playthroughs with online leaderboards for speed and high score!
Lush pixel art motion comics tell the story a young girl haunted by eldritch nightmares.
I really like Wales Interactive's live action movie games. Sure, they can be a little hokey, but my family loves gathering around the TV and yelling at these games. We play "pass the controller", each taking a Mad Libs-style turn at working our way to an inevitably unsatisfying conclusion. I have one son who can be relied upon to choose the more counter-intuitive and antisocial option under any circumstance, torpedoing any chances we have at success. After the dust settles, I usually go back and play the game for real, trying to unlock all of the options available. It's a low-pressure good time.
So I'm all in on the newly announced Five Dates - developed by Good Gate Media and soon to be published by Wales Interactive. It sounds like it is going to have tons of moan-out-loud moments for us to hurl popcorn at. Check out this description, from a recent press release:
"Vinny, a millennial from London, joins a dating app for the first time while living in lockdown during the coronavirus pandemic. With five potential female matches, Vinny explores whether compatibility, chemistry and connection is still possible in a world where physical touch is no longer an option. He must pluck up the courage to video date with wildly different personalities."
Yup. The wife and kids are going to have opinions, which will make for an entertaining evening for sure.
The acting in these things isn't half bad, and the performers look lively and fun.
Five Dates will release on PC & Mac on 17 November, closely followed by PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch (date TBC).
