Professional

The upcoming Friday The 13th, The Game feels like a long time in the making. The series was at its peak in the '80s and '90s and yet it's taken until 2016 for a game that can replicate the premise of the series well enough, to appear. The developers aren't …

Amid many lacklustre releases, delayed launches, and even the odd scammer, Kerbal Space Program (KSP) is a shining example of a crowd funded game that delivered on all fronts. And long after its final release, it continues to do so, with the developers making big changes in the new Turbo …

As much as companies have made great strides in improving customer service over the past few years, offering social media responses, live-chats on websites and more localised call centres, they're still far from perfect. To help improve that, Facebook is looking to recruit chat bots to answer more people's questions, …

As much as the early crop of virtual reality games are exciting and innovative, the catalogue is still pretty small. Things will be different in a year or two, but for now, if you want to try out some of your favourite gaming classics in virtual reality, you can do, …

Lucas Pope is well known for his development of interesting and innovative titles. Papers Please, with its simplistic graphics and surprisingly gritty tone, won a whole host of awards when it was released in 2013, so the fact that a new playable demo is available for his next game, Return …

Picking your character's gender in-game is something offered by a lot of titles without a sex-specific story to tell, helping people feel represented in-game. However Rust, by Garry's Mod developer, Facepunch, does this in a more naturalistic style, by assigning players a gender based on their Steam ID and doesn't let …

If you're trying to get support for your fan-project, a thumbs up from the original developers is a good one, perhaps the main designer could give you their approval to proceed. In the case of the Metal Gear Solid VR tribute though, they got the jackpot: David Hayter, the voice …

Google is back as the black sheep of the tech world for many end users this week, after it announced that it would be shuttering, Revolv, a maker of smart-home hubs that Google purchased less than two years ago. But this raises a bigger concern for technology fans, as much …

Amazon is a company with many tentacle, with many fingers, in many pies, but game development seemed like a surprising choice for the long-time retailer. More surprisingly still, it announced its own game engine, Lumberyard and now we have our first look at what you can make with it. It's …

Shadow of Mordor was a real break out franchise when it debuted in 2014, so the idea of a sequel has been floating around for a while now. Although nothing has yet been officially announced, it seems very likely that another is in the works, as a stuntwoman has listed …

In the latest instance of Apple looking to distance itself from government interference, it has announced that it is now designing its own servers in-house, because it's concerned that someone is modifying its servers after they've been shipped from the manufacturer. In some cases, it believes hardware was added to …

It turns out that even if you're a robotic teen girl, you can be just as susceptible to falling in with the wrong crowd, as Microsoft found when it launched its learning AI, Tay, on Twitter. Designed to converse with younger social networking users in a more engaging manner, as an …

CryEngine has proven to be one of the more impressive graphical engines since its debut with version 1. Now today, Crytek is launching CryEngine V and has also announced a change in business model, allowing developers wanting to use the engine to ‘pay what they want'. “CRYENGINE V launches today …

ASRock has really upped its game over the last few years. A decade ago, the company was most successful at the budget end of the market. But that image has long gone. Recently, we looked at a decidedly high-end X99 chipset board in the shape of the ASRock X99 WS-E/10G. …

Sad news hit long-time PC gamers this week, as it was announced on Monday that Lionhead studios, the company responsible for classics like Black and White and the original Fable, was being shuttered by parent firm Microsoft. Fortunately though, it looks like just having worked there will get you in …

As much as game development engines have come on a lot over the past couple of decades, they are in some ways still rather clunky. Using a 2D interface and input peripheral to play with a 3D world isn't particularly intuitive, but what if you could step into that third …

Yesterday, Microsoft made the out of the blue announcement that it would be cancelling Fable Legends and proposed the closure of Lionhead Studios. On top of that, Press Play Studios was also shut down in the process. Following on from this, Microsoft has gone ahead and altered its list of …

Microsoft is making some big changes to its studios based in the UK and Denmark this week. The company just announced today that firstly, Lionhead Studios will be ceasing production on Fable Legends and the studio will likely shut down following on from that. Secondly, a studio in Denmark will …

SilverStone CS01-HS is a type of PC case we haven't seen before as it is intended for customers who want to build their own NAS. CS-01 (it stands for Case Storage) is a Mini-ITX case that supports 2x 2.5-inch drives and 2x 3.5-inch drives while this HS (Hot Swap) version …

One of the biggest issues faced by those hoping to showcase virtual reality games, is that conveying why they are awesome can be really difficult. Player motion alone is boring and in-game footage doesn't explain what the player is doing. Blending the two together however, is a much better solution, …

Last week, we reported on the current state of games developed for Microsoft's Windows 10 store system. Games released on the Windows Store need to be developed as a ‘Universal App', which is different to your average .exe file, this means that there are certain limitations on features, some of …

Update: A few weeks back, Ubisoft and EA were butting heads a little bit over a trademark for the word ‘Ghost'. EA had applied for the trademark in relation to its Need for Speed development studio, Ghost Games. However, Ubisoft argued that this could have an impact on its Ghost Recon …

Back in the mists of time (it was 2006) Bigfoot Networks launched the Killer NIC network adapter with a PCI interface and an astonishing price of US$280. It was an interesting piece of hardware that promised to reduce ping times and latency for gamers by bypassing the Windows networking stack …

The Asus RT-AC5300 is a unique wireless router. Its slightly odd looking design is due to its eight antennas, providing three separate wireless networks – two of which are quad-stream 4×4 802.11ac. It’s of most benefit to environments with an extreme amount of wireless traffic, and for people who want …

With the release earlier this month of the Vulkan API, many have been wondering just how effective it could be in improving in-game performance on current-gen hardware. It turns out quite a lot and not just on high-powered desktops either. In a new demo crafted by Epic Games, we get …

For many gamers, Runescape was a once-upon-a-time game they played, back when they were young and childless, back when they had the time for MMOs but before they could afford subscription charges. Looking to tap into that five-minutes-a-day gaming that has helped lure in people to titles like Cookie Clicker …

The Khronos Group is once again pushing open-API standards this week with the official launch of the cross-platform graphics API, Vulkan. The API just hit version 1.0 and is now ready for developers to make full use of and implement into games. Many of you will know of the Kronos …

If you hoped to spring out of bed this morning and step aboard an oceanliner from the '20s, only to murder unsuspecting passengers and other ‘hunters' like yourself in glorious HD, we have some sorry news for you. The remastered version of The Ship: Murder Party, has been pushed back a …

Hearthstone has been a hugely successful game for Blizzard, because it took elements of Magic the Gathering, streamlined it and made it more accessible to everyone. Eternal is looking to take the next step on that developmental ladder, taking inspiration from MtG, Hex and Hearthstone, to create something that blends …

If you haven't heard of Denuvo, you're probably a law abiding game purchaser and deserve to pat yourself on the back – as long as you aren't pre-ordering too many titles. If you have though, you'll no doubt be aware of how frustrating it's proved for various piracy groups as …