News: Gaming and industry

[Shepard]

Developers' Most Anticipated Games of 2013
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-12-21-developers-most-anticipated-games-of-2013

[Scott_Pilgrim]

Πολλά διαμαντάκια στο 2013 και ειδικά από μικρότερους Devs!!!

[Shepard]

NVIDIA Project SHIELD revealed as Tegra 4 personal gaming device
This week NVIDIA’s CEO Jen-Hsung Huang spoke onstage during CES 2013 about a brand new NVIDIA push for the future of gaming, that being NVIDIA Project SHIELD. Speaking on how their engineers are gamers and how gamers want to make what’s most innovative and fantastic in this universe, Huang showed a video which constructed, piece by piece, starting with the NVIDIA Tegra 4, moving on to show three 3400 mAh rechargeable li-ion batteries, and an audio system all it’s own – a tuned port and custom bass reflex. From there it only gets better.



The world’s first custom-based reflex system lives inside this device, this understanding and knowing when you set the device down so it can stop rumbling around, and right on par with a dedicated Jambox – so sayeth Huang. This machine works with Android and is able to “drop back into Android” at a press of the SHIELD button right up front and center.



This machine works with a 5-inch 1080p touchscreen display and has HDMI out, micro-USB, and full-size USB. The whole system also has one giant customizable tag on top. The shield bit on top is able to be customized however you like – we’ll be pumping that up with SlashGear and Android Community marks without a doubt.



This machine is set up to work with Android, so you’ll be working with Android games, of course, but it’s also connected to the cloud – so you’re able to play games with the same prowess we’ve seen made possible with NVIDIA GRID. Have a peek at more information on NVIDIA GRID from earlier today in the timeline below and make sure you stick close to SlashGear for more on this device and the ecosystem that surrounds it all week long and into the future through our NVIDIA Tegra portal!

Spoiler: ΕΜΦΑΝΙΣΗ

A video shown on-stage during NVIDIA's press conference just unveiled "Project Shield," a gaming controller / portable console running the just announced Tegra 4. The controller looks an awful lot like a PlayStation 3 DualShock 3, albeit with an HD screen attached. NVIDIA's promising 38 hours of gaming out of the rechargeable lithium ion batteries built-in, a swanky audio system "on par with" jamboxes, and a full-on Android gaming experience. A micro SD sits next to an HDMI output, one USB port, and a standard eighth inch audio jack, directly below the customizable 5-inch "retinal display" touchscreen. Update: It's a 1280 x720 screen at 294 dpi, for the record.

NVIDIA's hoping Shield will replace your average controller as well -- perhaps with that newly detailed Grid system? -- and company CEO Jen-Hsun Huang showed off its use in-tandem with a swanky LG 4K television on-stage, navigating through media without pause. He also gave us a taste of a few games running on it (Blood Sword: Sword of Ruin and a boxing title) via NVIDIA's Tegrazone gaming store. But beyond just Android games we've already seen, still-in-development Unreal Engine 3 title Hawken was also given a multiplayer run, and looked notably more attractive than the previous two titles.

As good as the handheld's newfangled Tegra 4 chip seems to be, it still can't hold a candle to Nvidia's own GTX 680 -- Huang explained that the Shield can play more than just Tegrazone games -- it can take over your gaming PC, too. He explained that Nvidia's GeForce Experience software can pipe PC gaming to the handheld over your local network, giving Shield owners access to their Steam library (navigatable by Big Picture Mode, of course) directly from the device. It looks like users will be able to purchase PC games through Tegrazone, too.

Huang showed the crowd Need for Speed: Most Wanted running in real-time on the device. It's ... well, it's really impressive. There's little (if any) perceptible lag, and this is a racing game we're seeing (as in that lag really matters). The next game up is Assassin's Creed 3, which looks similarly impressive on the Shield's 5-inch screen. Finally, we're seeing Steam launched directly from Tegrazone, and it launches directly into Big Picture Mode. Beyond just playing games via streaming, it looks like we'll be able to buy them directly on Steam, through Shield. We'll be getting a closer look at Project Shield later this week, and we'll be sure to put it through its paces. Oh, and we'll ask for a price and release window, as we've yet to hear official word on either. Can't wait? Tide yourself over with NVIDIA's official press release after the break.

[Shepard]

Valve to reveal Linux-based Steambox in 2013 – report
According to reports out of Germany, Valve’s long-rumoured Steambox will turn up this year.



According to German IT news site Golem, Valve engineer Ben Krasnow attended SSIM 2013 and there confirmed that the company has a console-like piece of hardware in the works.

The Steambox is said to run on Linux, not Windows, and will be revealed during 2013. Steam’s couch-friendly Big Picture mode, Linux client and controller experiments certainly lend a tang of believability to the unverified report.

Krasnow is also said to have promised further hardware reveals this year, and mentioned that Valve is working on AR and VR tech as well as secret projects.

Crash Bandicoot redesign spotted at Vicarious Visions
Crash Bandicoot has been spotted lurking in the background of a photo taken at Skylanders developer Vicarious Visions.



A poster showing a re-designed Crash can be seen in the top left of a photo on Facebook from Vicarious Visions’ 2012 game jam.

GameInformer blew the image up a bit, and you van see Crash standing on a little tussock of some sort, sporting a very different look.

Although the poster may just be a bit of fan art, it is visually reminiscent of the Skylanders style, causing speculation that the Naughty Dog-created character may make an appearance in the phenomenally successful series.

Vicarious Visions did once developer a Crash Bandicoot game, for Game Boy Advance. The property was last published by parent company Activision.

[Scott_Pilgrim]

Πως σε έχουν καταντήσει ρε Crash...

[litanies]

^με ενισχυμένα χέρια?

[Shepard]

Forget OUYA, Sunflex unu wants to be your Android gaming buddy
Turning Android into a gaming platform is getting popular, with OUYA‘s Kickstarter success, then NVIDIA’s Project SHIELD announced yesterday, and now the Sunflex unu hoping to earn a place in your living room. Pairing an Android-based slate with a gamepad controller, a wireless QWERTY remote, and a regular remote, the dockable unu easily hooks up to a big-screen TV for media streaming and gaming duties.



Sunflex isn’t giving specific specs right now, but based on the previous prototype version of the unu – the Snakebyte Eins – we’re guessing at the same combination of either a 7- or 10-inch display, and a 1.6GHz Rockchip RK3066 dualcore CPU and Mali-400 GPU under the hood. The usual WiFi, Bluetooth, and cameras are also onboard.



As Sunflex sees it, unu gives you the best of a regular tablet with the flexibility of playing Android games on your TV, with a button-mapping app included to help titles expecting a touchscreen to work with the unu gamepad. There’s also media streaming thanks to Android’s various on-demand apps, such as Netflix.

Pricing isn’t mentioned, though Sunflex was talking of a €199 ($260) sticker back when it was showing off the last prototype. There’s growing competition in this space, however, and the company will need to work hard to stand out from the crowd.

[Scott_Pilgrim]

Έχουμε χάσει τη μπάλα..

[Shepard]

NVIDIA Project Shield Hands On | Engadget At CES 2013


Valve-backed living room PC system debuts today
Valve and Xi3 will today show off a modular computer designed for Steam and the big screen TV in your living room – a “Steambox”, in other words.


http://images.vg247.com/current//2013/01/20130108_steambox.jpg

The hardware was developed by Xi3 but financially backed by Valve. It’s not ready for launch yet, and Xi3 is calling the hardware shown at CES 2013 a “development stage” product. But there’s a picture of the chassis available; it’s said to be the size of a grapefruit. Check it out below.

The new product hasn’t got an official name yet, but has been codenamed “Piston”, and is designed specifically for Steam and its Big Picture mode, with Xi3 making specific reference to home use as well as LAN parties.

“This new development stage product will allow users to take full-advantage of their large high-definition TV displays for an amazing computer game experience. As a result, this new system could provide access to thousands of gaming titles through an integrated system that exceeds the capabilities of leading game consoles, but can fit in the palm of your hand,” Xi3 CEO Jason A. Sullivan said.

The modular computer will be on show at Valve’s CES 2013 booth, but beyond a mention of Valve’s investment, Xi3 has declined to give further comment on the two companies collaboration.

Although the press release specifically mentioned that no technical details would be provided right now, Xi3 marketing officer David Politis told Polygon that it is similar to the X7A line in both specifications and likely price – so about $1,000.

It will have up to 1TB of internal storage and allow for component upgrades such as RAM and even CPU, coupling the console-like convenience of standardised hardware with PC future proofing.

Polygon reports from the CES 2013 showfloor that the prototype Piston on show had HDMI out, two mini display ports, four USB 2.0 ports including one dedicated to a keyboard, four USB 3.0 ports, ethernet, four eSATAp ports, and both optical and bog standard audio out.

It’s not clear if this is the hardware referenced in yesterday’s reports of a Linux-based Steambox to debut in 2013.

[Scott_Pilgrim]

Όλα αυτά, σε ποιο κοινό απευθύνονται;;;