For those of you that love your mobile games but hate being tied to that small screen, Google has just launched a new offering that will allow you to explore and play mobile games on your PC or laptop.
Google Play Games Beta allows you to experience bigger, bolder versions of select mobile games on Google's gaming platform for PC.You can use your mouse and keyboard to gain agility and boost your performance and accomplish a few more feats in games than you might be able to just using you phone.
As this is in beta only there is currently a short list of games that you can enjoy - you'll see many of your favorites like Angry Birds 2, Asphalt 9: Legends, Jackpot World - Slots Casino and Rise of Empires: Ice and Fire. While the list might be short, for now, it does offer plenty of options to test out. However, those that might want more option might want to checkout Bluestacks (see our previous post). This cool little app allows you to run almost any Android app and isn't limited t just games.
If you haven't checked out Blizzard's Overwatch yet then here is your chance! The company is making Overwatch free to play next weekend with full access to all 13 maps and 22 characters. For those that enjoy the game Blizzard will save your weekend's worth of progress should you choose to take the plunge and purchase the game. Just be sure to use the same Battle.net, Xbox Live or Sony Entertainment account that you played on.
The free to play weekend if open for gamers running either a PC, PS4 or Xbox One! And you'll have a full weekend of gaming excitement between November 18th and 21st! For more details and to learn how you can participate, read on below!
One thing to note is that PS4 and Xbox One players will need a
PlayStation Plus and Xbox Gold subscription to take advantage of this
offer while Windows PC users will be required to have a Battle.net account.
This month marks 10 years since Sony launched the PlayStation 3 and with it their very own online store. To celebrate, Sony has announced they will be offering up discounts on several of your favorite iconic game and movies titles in a massive two-week “PlayStation Store 10th Anniversary Sale.” The sale will feature some of the biggest hits from the past 10 years and will cover the PS4, PS3, and PS Vita.
Games can be had for up to 60% off for none PS+ members and up to 70% off for PS+ Members. Game titles can be found from almost any gaming genre and include several top titles. The full list is available on the PlayStation Blog:
Example game deals (less w/ PS+ membership):
Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy (PS4) $24.49
The Heavy Rain & BEYOND: Two Souls Collection (PS4) $19.99
Far Cry 4 + Zombi Bundle (PS4) $29.99
Wild Arms 3 (PS4) $5.99
Rogue Galaxy (PS4) $5.99
XCOM: Enemy Unknown Plus (PS Vita) $6.99
Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories or Vice City on PS3 (PS2 CLASSIC) $3.99
Metal Gear Solid VR Missions (PSONE CLASSIC) $2.99
Movie Titles:
Man Of Steel (2013) $8.99/6.99
Taken Trilogy $23.99
Wolverine Double Feature $17.99
21 Jump Street $9.99
Sony’s initial deals will run from now until 8 a.m. PT on Nov. 15, at which point a new set of discounts will go live for the second week of the sale. To recognize and acknowledge those who have been with PlayStation Network from the very beginning, members with accounts of 9.5 years or more will receive an exclusive PS4 avatar. Details will be sent to those eligible via email. Additionally, there is a special edition 10th Anniversary PS3 and PS4 theme for all. You can download those here: PS4, PS3.
Take notice all you gaming geeks out there, if you own Nvidia Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 the time is now to submit your claim for your refund! The pending class action lawsuit against Nvidia that we had reported on a few months back has finally settled and been approved. That means it is time to get stake your claim to your cold hard cash!
US residents who purchased an Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 graphics processing unit between Sept. 1, 2014, and Aug. 24, 2016, can now submit a claim for $30 cash for each qualifying device. In order to verify ownership and stake your claims you'll need to provide a verification code or proof of purchase.
Verification codes should be listed on the notices of the settlement, if you received one. If not, you can submit a sales receipt, credit card receipt or statement, a shipping manifest, a purchase order, an email confirmation, or other similar documentation. If like most geeks I know you don't keep that stuff handy (shame on you!), you can also submit a Product Identification Number found on the box, back, or bottom of each GPU or in the settings for the GPU via the software of your choice.
Once you have all your information in order, simply head to the GTX 970 settlement site, submit your claim and sit back and wait on the cash to roll. Can't be much simpler right?
The settlement is still subject to a final approval hearing, which is set to take place on December 7. Following that your check should be in the mail -- haha. Usually it takes a fews, and you'll likely forget it is coming, but unlike some other things we can think of (cough MIRs) these settlements are typically paid in a pretty timely manner.
In celebration of the launch of EA Sport's Madden 17 Microsoft has teamed with EA and the NFL to give 32 lucky gamers a chance to win a custom NFL themed Xbox One S featuring their favorite team's colors and logo!
The team at Microsoft put together 32 unique custom Xbox One S (1TB)
consoles – one for each NFL team – and are giving fans a chance to show
off their team pride like never before and win one. So whether you’re a
Cheesehead, a 12, a member of Steeler Nation or have your NFL
allegiances sworn elsewhere, you’ll have three ways to enter the
sweepstakes and claim a custom NFL Xbox One S as a trophy all of your
own:
Click to enter through your Xbox 360 or Xbox One dashboard
Follow @Xbox and RT the Madden NFL 17 #XboxSweepstakes Tweets
Each of the 32 NFL custom Xbox One S (1TB) consoles will come with a copy of Madden NFL 17
for Xbox One, letting you jump into a football frenzy right away. In
addition to the 32 grand prize winners of a custom NFL team Xbox One S
console, Microsoft will be giving away ten (10) runner-up prizes consisting of an
Xbox One S Madden NFL 17 Bundle (1TB). The Xbox One S Madden NFL 17 Custom Console Sweepstakes runs from today, August 23rd, and will close on September 6th. The full contest rules can be seen here.
You can read more and see high resolution images of just what you can win on the Xbox Wire.
Listen up you gaming geeks out there! If you purchased the Nvidia GTX 970 Nvidia may owe you some cold hard cash, thanks in part to some bad advertising and misleading specifications that has led to a proposed settlement in a class-action lawsuit.
For those that don't recall, shortly after the GTX 970 rolled out, users started noticing issues with the cards 'alleged' 4GBs of VRAM memory. In short the card's memory allocation didn't work correctly and wasn't allowing games and applications access to the full 4GBs of memory. Additionally, when access to the additional memory was available users saw significant drops in performance.
Nvidia later admitted that the design of the card was to blame, which split the card’s memory into 3.5GB and 512MB segments. Nvidia’s CEO later explained that the memory segmentation was an inventive way to make the GTX 970 a 4GB card when it normally would’ve been 3GB.
In addition to the issues with crippled memory, it was later discovered that Nvidia also made false claims on other specifics. The card was originally listed as having 64 ROPs (Render Output Unit), when in fact it was found to only have 56. The L2 cache capacity was also misrepresented at 2048KB but in reality it ended up being 1792KB.
At the time some online retailers felt the need to offer refunds, which many of you geeks out there likely took advantage of. However, others felt a little more slighted and filled lawsuit over the issue. The lawsuits largely claimed that Nvidia misled its customers. Allegations that Nvidia has continued to deny. The proposed settlement would not force the company to admit to any liability or false claims, rather they would issue a cash refund for those impacted.
According to the proposed settlement (via The Register) GTX 970 owners will be reimbursed $30 per card. Essentially the amount that they feel makes up the discrepancy between what customers should’ve paid had Nvidia been honest about the memory and ROP discrepancies from the start. The court will hear the petition to approve the settlement on Wednesday, August 24, as first reported by Top Class Actions. A total of 15 lawsuits seeking class-action status would be settled if the proposal goes through.
As the agreement has not yet been settled there are no details as to how GTX 970 owners can claim their refund. However, it appears as though eligible owners that have previously registered their cards will be notified of the settlement by October 23, and all claims will need to be filed by December 21. We'll be keeping track of the settlement so that once there are more details about filling claims we can update our readers so they can get their $30 refund.
That old quote that "All things old become new again" may in fact hold true, well sort of! We all know geeks love their nostalgic old PC's and gaming consoles. So it shouldn't come as a surprise that companies are starting to look at ways to cash in on that love affair with the past generations and Nintendo is looking to do just that.
Nintendo Entertainment System has announced the new NES Classic Edition, a mini replica of the original console that will come packed with 30 of your favorite original Nintendo titles.
“We wanted to give fans of all ages the opportunity to revisit Nintendo’s original system and rediscover why they fell in love with Nintendo in the first place,” said Nintendo of America President and COO Reggie Fils-Aime. “The Nintendo Entertainment System: NES Classic Edition is ideal for anyone who remembers playing the NES, or who wants to pass on those nostalgic memories to the next generation of gamers.”
For $59.99, you'll get the preloaded games, an HDMI cable, an AC adapter and one NES Classic Controller, which obviously looks exactly like the ones you're used to. Other details of the system are a bit sparse for now, so we don't know what the hardware looks like, or whether or not you can upgrade or add more games to the console over time. We also don't know overall storage capacity, yet Nintendo promises you can save games with multiple suspend points.
The full list of games includes Balloon Fight, Bubble Bobble, Castlevania, Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., Double Dragon II: The Revenge, Dr. Mario, Excitebike, Final Fantasy, Galaga, Ghosts' N Ghoblins, Gradius, Ice Climber, Kid Icarus, Kirby's Adventure, Mario Bros., Mega Man 2, Metroid, Ninja Gaiden, Pac-Man, Punch-Out!! Featuring Mr. Dream, StarTropics, SUPER C, Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 2, Super Mario Bros. 3, Tecmo Bowl, The Legend of Zelda and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link.
[Update:] We now know have a bit more detail regarding additional games and the potential or upgrades. The folks at Kotaku asked Nintendo, “On the same note: does Nintendo plan to sell other NES games for the mini-NES beyond the 30 it comes preloaded with?”
Nintendo then responded by saying, “No.
The console is a standalone device, so it cannot connect to the
internet or any external storage devices. The 30 games included with the
system were chosen to provide a wide variety of top-quality,
long-lasting game-play experiences.” Given that, we don't expect to see official support for additional games or upgrades. However, we know that this doesn't mean that geeks out there won't stop there. So we fully expect to see some hacks down the road, to what extent those might be? We'll just have to wait and see!
Even though I might not be a major gamer I am a major geek when it comes to getting hot deals. So it shouldn't be a surprise that I'm always excited when Steam's annual sales come around, and this year is no different!
As one of Valve's major events held each year, the 2016 Summer Picnic Sale features tons of discounts on a vast variety of games featured in the Steam store. This time around, Steam is doing things a little different, and doing away with some of the daily deals and other features we saw in previous sales. This means unlike their other major sales events you won't have to constantly check in to the Steam site to see what discounts are being featured on Steam's front page.
Previous Steam sales typically assigned games one of two prices at any given point: a normal discounted price and an even-more-discounted price that only took effect when Valve was featuring the discount on its front page. If you truly wanted to save, you had to be glued to Steam's site. Now, any discounts Valve features on its main Steam page are just that—highlighted deals, but deals that will remain the same whether they're currently being featured on the page or not. Of course this takes a little of the fun and adventure out of it but it definitely makes it a bit more helpful and ensures everyone has access to the same deals at any time.
As a special offer in the Summer Picnic Sale, select games are available in themed complete-the-set bundles! This is by far going to be one of the best deals you can get during the sale since it will allow you to buy the entire set of games for additional savings. Don't worry if you already own one of the games, Steam has said they will automatically be removed from the price!
For those looking for an even better deal you can score additional savings at Best Buy this week. They are offering 20 percent off a second card when you buy any gaming currency card. So should you buy two cards of the same amount, that works out to a total discount of 10 percent. That's not a huge amount--$10 if you were to buy two $50 cards--but it's still essentially free money. The Steam ale and all these offers will be available now through July 4th at 10am Pacific.
Have you found any hot deals or great game discounts woth mentioning? Feel free to share what you find below so we can consider purchasing them.
For those gamers out there that are obsessed with live streaming their own games, or watching other gamers in action, a new deal between game giant Blizzard and social media giant Facebook will offer you a new way to get your fix!
Blizzard has unveiled a new partnership with Facebook that will let you stream several of Blizzard's most popular games directly to your Facebook fans and followers through Facebook Live. More over the deal will also create a cross platform partnership that will allow you to use your current Facebook login and information rather than a new Battle.Net to play Blizzard's games.
The collaboration will begin later this month with the integration of games such as World of Warcraft, Heroes of the Storm, Hearthstone, Diablo III, StarCraft II, and Blizzard's most recent blockbuster release, Overwatch.
"Blizzard games are best when played with friends, so it's important to us to provide our players with features and services that make it easy and fun to share their experiences with each other," said Gio Hunt, executive vice president of corporate operations at Blizzard Entertainment. "We're working closely with Facebook on this integration for Overwatch, as well as our other games, and we look forward to sharing further details on our plans as development progresses."
As part of the collaboration between the two companies, Blizzard recently hosted multiple livestreams via Facebook. The first series of streams centered on Heroes of the Dorm, Blizzard's collegiate tournament featuring its popular team-brawler Heroes of the Storm. Last week, Blizzard hosted a livestreamed launch event for Overwatch on Facebook.
"Blizzard has a passionate community of players, and an incredible track record for launching innovative and high-quality gaming experiences," said Leo Olebe, global games partnerships director at Facebook. "Our collaboration on Overwatch demonstrates Facebook's commitment to partnering with AAA game companies, while further empowering Blizzard gamers to connect and share the content they're most passionate about with the friends they play with around the world."
The Microsoft gaming development team at Rare, yes that is the actual name, has announced a new competition built just for fans (or would be fans since the game isn't out yet) of their latest game Sea of Thieves. With six lucky and the winners being offer the chance at an all-expenses paid trip to the UK studio to play the game before launch. The announcement video is below, while more details follow further down.
For a chance at winning this all-expenses-paid adventure, Microsoft and Rare are
asking fans to create something that conveys their excitement for Sea of Thieves, and
then share it with the world on social media via an image or video. The more
creative and entertaining the entries, the better chance fans will have
at winning the contest. This will be based on the judge's very selective and subjective opinions. In fact they have stated their selections will be based on the following three criteria:
33.00% - Creativity - you must show something new and different
33.00% - Entertainment value - you'll probably need to make them laugh
33.00% - Level of excitement for Sea of Thieves - don't be ho-hum about the game!
Once finished, fans must share a link to their image or video with us on Twitter @SeaOfThieves, or on Facebook via Facebook.com/SeaOfThievesGame, including the hashtag #SeaOfThievesContest.
For a full run-down of the rules, be sure to check out our official rules page here.
There will be 6 prizes total. The prize(s) will be as follows: Each winner will receive a trip (for winner only) to Twycross, UK, for
the opportunity to tour Rare Ltd and meet Rare game software
developers. Includes:
Round trip coach airfare from major airport closest to winner's home
Transportation between airport, hotel, and studio
Three (3) nights standard hotel accommodations
Daily meals
A tour of the Rare Studio
According to GameSpot, Sea of Thieves has been described by Microsoft as "the best game Rare has ever made," and given their rather extensive list of games that may or may not say a lot! The game that was first teased during E3 2015, with the promises to be a
first person pirate adventure game with opportunities for exploring
jungles, roaming the high seas and enjoy multiplayer naval combat.
As of yet a release date has not been revealed and Rare
has acknowledged on their official site that they have had very specific reasoning for limiting details about the game until now,
but hopes this contest will generate buzz and excitement before the
release.
Sony is giving gamers an early holiday present with the announcement of a pre-holiday price cut on the PS4. According to today' post, starting tomorrow, October 9th, you gaming geeks out there will be able to pick up the PS4 starting at the new price of $349.99 USD / $429.99 CAD (MSRP).
In addition to the $50 price cut for basic systems and lower priced bundles, you'll also see price cuts to some of Sony's other more popular bundles in the near future as shown below.
Clearly Sony is hoping that these price cuts will entice gamers looking for hot deals for the holidays to join the PlayStation family. Unless otherwise noted the cheaper consoles are expected to be the standard 500GB units and this price cut is presumed to be permanent, not for the holidays only.
“Our goal at PlayStation has always been to offer the best place to play at a compelling value to gamers,” said Shawn Layden, president and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America. “We’re continuing to deliver on that commitment with this new price for PS4, making the console even more accessible to a broader audience this holiday. With highly anticipated games like Call of Duty: Black Ops III and Star Wars Battlefront launching soon and blockbuster exclusives like Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End on the horizon, there has never been a better time to join the PS4 community.”
The rewards for PlayStation Plus members are stacking up, with loads and loads of new free games each month. This month Sony promises the PS Plus lineup will have a great mix of flavors with games from several different genres! Starting on the first Tuesday of the month, a new lineup of free games comes to PlayStation Plus members.
For October 2015 we will see new games released on Tuesday the 6th and those games will including the following:
Super Meat Boy, PS4, PS Vita
Broken Age, PS4, PS Vita
Unmechanical: Extended, PS4, PS3
Chariot, PS3
KickBeat, PS3, PS Vita
Kung Fu Rabbit, PS3, PS Vita
Unfortunately Sony has also announced that Driveclub PlayStation Plus Edition will no longer be available as a free download for Plus members starting on October 6th, 2015. If you haven’t downloaded it yet, be sure to go to PlayStation Store and get it now! For more details or to sign up for a PlayStation Plus membership, check the official page on PlayStation.com (it will update soon).
When most geeks think streaming the first thought that comes to mind is likely video streaming through NetFlix or Hulu or audio streaming through Spotify or Rhapsody. Few if any would think of video game streaming (unless of course you used the now defunct OnLive service) and if they did it would likely be game video streams on sites like Twitch, Ustream or the new YouTube Gaming service. However, today that may change as NVIDIA has just announced GeForce NOW, an on-demand gaming service for the company's SHIELD family of gaming devices.
"GeForce NOW is all about instant gratification. But it took us a decade to invent the technology behind the service that streams GeForce GTX-quality graphics to SHIELD devices," Nvidia stated in a blog post. "GeForce NOW is your game library in the sky. See all the titles we offer from a game series at a glance — like the LEGO collection or the Batman Arkham series — for binge gaming. Use voice search to find your favorite games. Search through games by category. Or quickly browse the latest and most popular games."
NVIDIA has said that GeForce NOW will stream games at 1080p and 60 frames per second (depending on the users connection speeds). This will make it the first non-beta cloud-gaming service capable of such his resolutions and frame-rates. It will launch with over 50 titles included in your $7.99 membership fee. Most of them are slightly older games such as Batman: Arkham Origins, Lego Marvel Super Heroes, and Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, to name just a few.
NVIDIA will also offer newer "Buy and Play Instantly" titles like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt ($60) and Saints Row IV ($20). In other words, some games will be available for sale. As a bonus those just wanting to try out the new program will get a free three month trial when it launches next month. You can find more details via NVIDIA's Shield Blog.
As expected YouTube has just launched their new dedicated gaming site, YouTube Gaming which is now live on the web and available for download for Android and iOS devices.
The new site already features more than 25,000 dedicated game pages with content ranging from live streams to cheats, tips and tricks. It will also support a DVR feature, and automatic conversion of streams into YouTube videos.
"YouTube Gaming is built to be all about your favorite games and gamers, with more videos than anywhere else. From 'Asteroids' to 'Zelda,' more than 25,000 games will each have their own page, a single place for all the best videos and live streams about that title. You'll also find channels from a wide array of game publishers and YouTube creators," reads YouTube's June blog post.
The aim of the new site is to create a direct head-to-head competition against Amazon's popular gaming site Twitch, mirroring many of the sites popular features. Google hopes that by adding in a standalone gaming channel users will now find it easier to follow their favorite games as search results will be more gaming oriented and not feature tradition YouTube results. As YouTube notes, "typing 'call' will show you 'Call of Duty' and not 'Call Me Maybe.'"
Keeping up with these games and channels is now super easy, too. Add a game to your collection for quick access whenever you want to check up on the latest videos. Subscribe to a channel, and you'll get a notification as soon as they start a live stream. Uncover new favorites with recommendations based on the games and channels you like the most.
A newly announced program by Sony offers PlayStation Plus members the chance to vote on which games they want as a 'Free to Play' for the coming month. This new program, dubbed Vote to Play, offers gamers the chance to chose between a few different options, with the game receiving the most votes being added to the monthly line-up of free downloadable titles that PlayStation Plus members already receive as a perk for membership.
Sony will officially be kicking off the new program this week and accordingly has has announced the three titles that will be released, which include Armello, Zombie Vikings, or Grow Home as well as brief introduction trailers for each one with their respective developers explaining what their games are all about; you can watch those below.
Armello
A grim fairy-tale board game come to life, combining deep, tactical card play, rich tabletop strategy, and RPG elements. Set in a vibrant magical world with a tinge of darkness, Armello thrusts players into an epic struggle for power as they quest, scheme, explore, vanquish monsters, perform the mad king’s royal edicts, and face off against other players, with one ultimate end goal in mind — storming the palace and becoming King or Queen of Armello.
Grow Home
You play BUD (Botanical. Utility. Droid), a robot on a mission to find the Star Plant and save his planet. Discover a strange open-world: a planet of floating islands, with precipitous drops, caves and waterfalls to navigate, all rendered in a minimalist but beautiful art style. Grow the giant Star Plant and use your unique climbing abilities to reach ever higher ground, but be careful as you ascend because one wrong move and it’s a long way down!
Zombie Vikings
From the creators of last year’s indie hit Stick It to The Man! comes a new co-op, four-player stab-you-in-the-gut-a-thon with a dead-funny adventure. Hack through the boiling gingerbread swamps of Molgaga, take a cruise through the intestines of the Midgaard Serpent, fight giant troll poultry, and find out how Söccer was really invented.
Voting begins at 8:30 AM PDT on Thursday, August 13. If you're a Plus subscriber, you can cast your vote by accessing Vote to Play from the PlayStation Store's Plus section on PS4, or through the What's New or Notifications areas of the PS4 dashboard. Voting will continue until August 24 at 8:30 AM, with a winner being announced sometime after that. Whichever game wins will be free for Plus members throughout September, who will also be able to get the other two games at a discount.
If you don’t already have a PlayStation Plus account and would like to learn more on the benefits of PlayStation Plus, such as the Instant Game Collection, access to online multiplayer on PS4, exclusive member discounts, cloud game saves and more, click here.
Often considered one of the hottest gaming sales of the year, the Steam Summer Sale is reportedly going to kick off a bit early this year. According to reports and leaked emails sent from PayPal, gamers will only have to wait a couple more days to get major discounts on some of their favorite game titles!
For those that remember, last year we saw Steam change things up a bit by featuring several different kinds of sales, including daily deals, that changed every 24 hours, flash sales, which were only live every eight hours, and community picked games which also involved community participation to help keeps fan engaged and checking back with the site.
During the community involvement phase gamers got to vote on two sets of games, and earn trading cards along the way. You could also earn a Summer Adventure badge by earning special trading cards you can get from voting, as well as trading in the Community Market, crafting badges, or buying more games.
As of right now it is uncertain how many of these aspects we'll see this year or if we'll see Steam doing something else new and different. One thing is for certain though, you can expect to see some great offers! We shared several tips for getting the best of the best deals in our Steam Summer Sale 2014 post so be sure to check those out. For good measure we'll add a couple additional tips below.
Wishlist, Wishlist, Wishlist!: One of the biggest tips from every Steam Sale is use your wishlist to get the best deals! Adding games, even those not on sale, will trigger notifications when they do go on sale. So build that list now and then you can sit back and watch the sales for other games you might be interested in but weren't targeting.
Team up with your gaming friends: Organize a few group buys, Steam Sales are usually a great time to get big discounts on multiplayer games. Even more so with friends. In the past we've seen scenarios where buying four copies resulted in one being free, making this the opportune moment to get your multiplayer fix cheaper if you bring friends along.
Watch the clock and time your buys: If you see a game you want on sale check the details out on the game's page and see how long the deal lasts. If it is a daily wait until later in the day to buy. Often times you may see that same game go on a flash sale. Just try to avoid the last minute rush.
Check in as often as possible: Keep a close eye on the Steam home page, you never know when you might have missed a deal and it will suddenly be a hot ticket item on the home page. Additionally, until we know the details of the types of sales Steam will offer, we don't know if they might slip in an occasion 'hidden deal' or not..you never know!
One final tip, and this should really go without saying, don't feel like you need to wait for the sale to make your purchases. Steam and other sites already have some great everyday deals that can be had with a little side work. Sure the sale offers a ton of great deals all in one place without having to do that work, but that doesn't mean better deals can't be found. Finally, have fun and happy shopping...that is what gaming and sales are all about right!
Sony has announced another collection of great games that will be available for free of charge to all PlayStation Plus members to download this month. As always the collection features a wide variety of gaming genres with some popular titles mixed with a couple maybe lesser known games.
All the games listed below will be available for subscribers starting next week on May 5 when the PlayStation Store refreshes. If you haven't already done so, now is a good time to download April's free games.
PlayStation 4
Ether One
Guacamelee Super Championship Turbo Edition
Race the Sun
Hohokum
The Unfinished Swan
PlayStation 3
Hohokum
Race the Sun
The Unfinished Swan
PlayStation Vita
Hohokum
Murasaki Baby
Race the Sun
The Unfinished Swan
PlayStation Plus has been a big hit with gamers since its launch last year. The membership program which can be joined for as little as $5/mo with a yearly subscription, or $9.99 for a month to month basis, offers gamers not only free games each month but discounts on titles, free online games saves and other features.
The Make-A-Wish foundation has a long standing history of supporting great causes and we all know that gamers, tech geeks and the likes are always doing their part to support any worthy causes they can. Starting next month, popular game retailer GameStop, will be asking those that can for donations to help support those gamers and geeks that need a little distraction from the challenges they face with their life threatening illnesses.
From May 1, through May 31, 2015, customers who shop at GameStop and www.GameStop.com will have the opportunity to donate $1, $5, $10, or more to Make-A-Wish per purchase. For every Make-A-Wish donation, GameStop will offer a bounce back coupon good for 10% off their next purchase of pre-owned games, and PowerUp Rewards members will receive triple PowerUp Rewards points on their donations. Additionally, this year, customers can also support the cause via in-store donations at Spring Mobile and Simply Mac, members of GameStop’s family of technology brands, and Kongregate customers will be able to donate via online transactions. Last year, GameStop raised $300,000, and this year, GameStop has a goal of raising $500,000 for Make-A-Wish.
“GameStop has a deep history with Make-A-Wish, and we are thrilled to have another opportunity to support such a meaningful organization,” said Rob Lloyd, chief financial officer of GameStop, and Make-A-Wish North Texas board member. “We know the power of granting a wish to children in need and are honored to give our customers the chance to feel the joy in helping to make wish kids’ wishes come true.”
The funds GameStop collects from its Make-A-Wish campaign will support shopping sprees for children facing life-threatening medical challenges. In 2014, GameStop granted some 335 "wishes." This year, GameStop worked with 12-year-old gamer Jahred Joyner, who has AGS leukodystrophy, to fulfill his wish.
For those that may not be visiting GameStop over the next month but still wish to make a donation you can visit Make-A-Wish at www.wish.org to learn more details on how to donate..
The pairing of virtual reality company Oculus and telecommunications giant Samsung made big headlines last year when the two announced a joint venture dubbed the Gear VR “Innovator Edition”. The collaboration between the two companies involved using some of Oculus' own technology featured in their Oculus Rift headset coupled with Samsung's Galaxy series smartphones to provide users a virtual reality experience without wires or the need for a PC.
The launch of the device sparked much interest even though the devices carried the “Innovator Edition” label, which is similar to a beta tag. This was a concession made between Samsung and Oculus after the phone
company wanted to “productize” the hardware while Oculus said it wasn’t
ready.These 'beta' products are current available to the general public, but don't carry the full fledged 'consumer' tag, meaning they don't carry all the bells and whistles Oculus and Samsung intend to add the the finished product.
Good news though, during a speech at this year's Game Developers Conference Oculus VR CTO John Carmack took the stage to discuss the Gear VR
headset, and he revealed that Oculus and Samsung will release a consumer
version of the mobile virtual-reality device before the end of this
year.
The new Gear VR 'Consumer Edition' will launch alongside the next line of Galaxy products from
Samsung most likely in the Fall. Which could place it alongside the next Samsung Galaxy Note launch. This should give developers some time to prepare
software for the launch. Carmack aslo revealed that this consumer product
will come with a major media campaign from Samsung that will include
commercials and other kinds of promotions.
"We have a plan, we have a date," Carmack said. "Oculus is going to
go as hard as we can, to sell as many units as possible, to unleash the
full marketing power of Samsung with the next edition of Gear VR."
Virtually reality has been a hop topic over the past several months with many major players joining Samsung and Oculus to announce their own offerings into the market. In just the last year, companies ranging from Sony and Microsoft to tiny startups have announced their plans to build virtual reality devices. Even smartphone makers like HTC and game makers such as Valve have unveiled prototypes.
The Strong—home of the International Center for the History of Electronic Games (ICHEG)— today has announced the opening of the new World Video Game Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame, which will be a new addition to The Strong museum in Rochester, New York, will recognize individual electronic games—arcade, console, computer, handheld, mobile—that have maintained long-term popularity and influenced the industry or pop culture.
Inductees to first class of the World Video Game Hall of Fame will be announced at The Strong museum in Rochester, New York, June 2015 and will be on permanent view in the museum’s eGameRevolution exhibit.
Nomination are now open and anyone may nominate a game to the World Video Game Hall of Fame. Strong has set aside a select set of criteria each game should match, listed below. Nominations for the inaugural class will be accepted through March 31, 2015.
Icon-status: the game is widely recognized and remembered.
Longevity: the game is more than a passing fad and has enjoyed popularity over time.
Geographical reach: the game meets the above criteria across international boundaries.
Influence: The game has exerted significant influence on the design and development of other games, on other forms of entertainment, or on popular culture and society in general. A game may be inducted on the basis of this criterion without necessarily having met all of the first three.
So geeks, gamers and anyone else interested, if your favorite game matches the criteria listed then visit the hall of fame nomination page to list your favorite games. Finalists will be determined by an internal advisory committee; a separate selection committee of journalists, scholars, and those familiar with video games will choose the eventual winners.
Which games do you think should make the cut? I know I for one could probably compile a long list! Post your favorites in a comment below.
