Now that Steam, PSN, and Xbox Live are widespread and feature-rich, it’s easy for some of us to assume that we’re already living in the all-digital future. With super-fast fiber-optic internet connections and huge hard drives, many gamers haven’t touched physical media in years. Sadly, not everyone is so lucky. Within the United States, many of us are stuck with ...
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Doom, the original and best first-person shooter, is 20 years old today
20 years ago today, at the stroke of midnight on December 10, 1993, Id Software uploaded a two-megabyte file that would change the history of gaming forever: doom1_0.zip. Doom, which was released as shareware, quickly spread across FTP servers and bulletin board systems, becoming the first PC gaming phenomenon and popularizing the FPS genre, and pioneering 3D game worlds and networked ...
Read More »NSA spied on Xbox Live and World of Warcraft to infiltrate terrorist groups
While you might fondly call the hell-raising inhabitants of online gaming haunts like DotA, Counter-Strike, and Xbox Live terrorists, the NSA and CIA both felt that certain online gaming communities are home to the real thing. So, they did what any good security agency would do, and started spying on bored gamers who are forever killing 10 rats and crafting epic ...
Read More »Xbox One consoles bricked by backwards compatibility prank
We haven’t had backwards compatibility in our game consoles for very long — around just two generations. The desirability of the feature is so widespread, though, that people are willing to follow questionable instructions on the internet to “unlock” the capability on their Xbox Ones. Believing that the feature is intentionally hidden away not only shows just how much we ...
Read More »The PS4 and Xbox One: How this generation’s homogeneity could kill the game console
Two consoles, both alike in resolution,In fair America, where we lay our scene,From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,Where electronic blood makes civil hands unclean… After a protracted battle that lasted seven years and resulted in what can best be described as a dull stalemate, a new act in the Console War has finally begun with the release of the ...
Read More »Lick and sit: Valve is developing controllers for your butt and tongue
Regardless of how you feel about Valve’s Steam Machine and Steam OS, it’s tough to argue that the truly innovative (for better or worse) aspect to the Linux gaming initiative isn’t the Steam Controller. A traditional gamepad silhouette that replaces analog sticks with touchpads, as well as adds a small touchscreen in the center, is certainly weird. However, a Valve ...
Read More »Piixl’s powerful Jetpack Steam Machine attaches to the back of your TV, promises joyride
Not too long ago, we had our first look at the first third-party Steam Machine to be revealed. Now, Piixl is showing off its Steam Machine, the Jetpack. Rather than an actual set-top box, however, the Jetpack is a rectangular, flat unit that sits on the back of your television, saving precious space on your TV stand. A little over ...
Read More »PS4′s Gaikai game streaming service to launch in 2014, Microsoft mum on retaliation
When Sony bought Gaikai 18 months ago for $ 380 million, it was clear that the entertainment titan had big plans for the cloud service. Now, Sony is hinting that we’ll start seeing products based on those plans within a year. A developer beta will supposedly begin early in 2014, with a full North American rollout before the end of ...
Read More »PS4 off to extraordinary start, trounces last-gen launch sales
Now that the PS4 is out in North America, Europe, and Latin America, we finally get to see for ourselves how the public is reacting to the new generation of consoles. Not everything has gone as smoothly as possible, but the traction has been quite impressive. A mere two weeks into the PS4′s life, and Sony has already sold more ...
Read More »Leaked AMD roadmap shows Excavator arriving in 2015 – and possibly the end of AMD’s big-core x86 business
A new, unofficial roadmap from AMD has shed light on the company’s plans for the 2014-2015 timeframe, There are some specific reasons I’m uncertain if this roadmap is legitimate — but since it’s also rather interesting, let’s dive into what it shows. If accurate, AMD’s FX series of products is essentially moribund, the next mainstream CPU upgrade won’t arrive until ...
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