By McKinley Noble | 06-19-2013 | 1:30PM For some reason, developers simply can't pull together a good Superman game. Any time Earth's mightiest hero flies solo, he inevitably crashes, which has yielded laughable releases across the years. Man of Steel doesn't quite escape this trend, and at most, we can only give it praise for being a decent-but-limited brawler. Taking place in the same universe as the blockbuster film of the same name, Man of Steel plays things safely by cribbing its combat system from Infinity Blade. Much of the action is prompted by stringing together combos via touchscreen swipes, as Supes fights off Kryptonian invaders in one-on-one fights. However, Man of Steel gets a...
By Patrick Shaw | 06-19-2013 | 12:00PM Harebrained Schemes announced on Tuesday that Shadowrun Returns, its anticipated turn-based, tactical role-playing game set in the cyberpunk-themed Shadowrun universe, will be released on PC, Mac and Android and iOS-based tablets on July 25th. Based on the popular Shadowrun pen-and-paper RPG published back in 1989, the new game has generated a tremendous amount of excitement around its upcoming release—including netting more than $1.8 million in funding through Kickstarter (nearly five times its initial funding goal of $400K). While Shadowgun Returns originally had a target release date of June, the game will launch next month with a slew of features including a full-blown game...
By McKinley Noble | 06-19-2013 | 9:00AM Although NVision brings you Android, tech, gaming and movie news around the clock, even we can't get to everything worth seeing on the Internet. But to help you out, here's today's required reading for June 19th, 2013. • Ars Technica reports that newly appointed Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Tom Wheeler is a bit of a radical. He wants to end the ban on unlocking smartphones, which would massively shake up the industry. However, it wouldn't be easy. Not only would the paperwork take forever, but copyright laws may have to be rewritten. • Yesterday, we wrote a piece on AT&T's innovative solar-powered Street Charge stations, but CIO...
By Jason Venter | 06-19-2013 | 6:00AM Sometimes it seems that every time we turn around, the Oculus Rift device is in the news again because a new publisher is announcing support for an exciting project that will be coming to the promising VR headset. Investors seem to have noticed that same trend, which likely explains how Oculus VR Inc. was able to make news yet again, this time by securing $16M in Series A funding. According to a press release the company issued recently and reported on Joystiq, this new round of funding was co-led by Spark Capital and Matrix Partners, with additional assistance from Founders Fund and Formation 8. “Oculus began with a simple mission: to put players inside the game,” said Palmer...
By McKinley Noble | 06-19-2013 | 12:00AM This year's second Android-specific "Humble Indie Bundle" has officially kicked off, and as usual, the lineup features plenty of incredibly solid game for a budget price. Technically, there's no price at all, since the whole system works on a "pay what you want" scale. But regardless of the open-ended model, Humble Bundle with Android 6 has nonetheless pulled in over 50,000 buyers so far, thanks to the following mobile titles: Aquaria Fractal Organ Trail: Director's Cut Stealth Bastard Deluxe Pulse (Android-only) This should actually be pretty exciting for the Android community, since many of these titles...
By CaraEllison | PCGamesN In Scotland, it is mainly called Torchlicht, and it is used as part of an ancient mating ritual up in the craggy Grampians where there is a secret Internet connection in a series of caves that have been there since the Picts roamed the hills. Scots use Torchlicht as a way of calling other gaelic nerds to mate and LAN, and for them there will be a great 'pairty' tonight, as what we down south call 'Torchlight' is actually free to download for the next 48 hrs. Imagine what's going on up in the mountains tonight. Imagine. My secret Scottish communique indicates that on the Internets they are having some sort of Torchlight giveaway, in that you can download it for free here, right now,...
By Patrick Shaw | 06-18-2013 | 6:00PM Paramount Pictures’ apocalyptic blockbuster, World War Z, storms theaters around the world this Friday. And to celebrate its anticipated release, the official mobile game based on the film will be available to download on Google Play for $0.99 for one week. After which, the game will return to its normal price of $4.99. Developed by Phosphor Games Studios, World War Z on Android pits players against ravenous hordes of flesh-eating undead in an arcade-style, on-rails shooter experience. You can watch us gun down zombies in our gameplay video (embedded in high-definition above) for a better idea of the kind of gruesome experience it delivers. The game originally launched a...
By McKinley Noble | 06-18-2013 | 4:00PM There's lots of things that we simply don't have in the 21 century yet, like dehydrated pizzas, powerlacing shoes, auto-drying jackets, flying cars and hoverboards. Freely available energy shouldn't be one of them. But thanks to a new project launched by AT&T, Goal Zero and Pensa Design, we might be looking at a new trend in mobile technology with easy-to-build, minimalistic solar-powered charging stations. Dubbed "Street Charge" by its manufacturers, the innovative energy stand will be installed in various New York parks and several other public areas. It's definitely a keen experiment, if not just for the prospect of seeing how helpful and...
By McKinley Noble | 06-18-2013 | 2:00PM Google has been trying to turn over the laptop market with their attractively budget-priced Chromebook devices, but their traction has been admittedly slow over the years. However, the Mountain View company might be seeing a huge spike in revenue soon enough. As relayed on the official Google blog, the entire United States will see the brand everywhere possible, with Wal-Mart now carrying the Chromebook line in all of their stores, starting with the $200 Acer C7 model this week. Google estimates that this will help increase the presence of their laptop line three times over, rather than simply relying on Best Buy and Amazon. But if the Acer C7 Chromebook isn't really your...
By McKinley Noble | 06-18-2013 | 12:45PM Netflix and Dreamworks have officially signed a business deal that will bring new franchises to the popular streaming service. As reported by Market Watch, Netflix has agreed to partially fund some of the movie studio's development costs for 300 hours of "new, original programming" in order to gain exclusive rights to certain releases for a limited amount of time, with their series to debut in 2014. That first Netflix exclusive will be Turbo: F.A.S.T., an adaptation of the similarly-named, upcoming July film. Dreamwork has a healthy selection of properties to choose from for other projects, especially since the studio is responsible for creating Kung Fu Panda,...
By McKinley Noble | 06-18-2013 | 9:00AM Although NVision brings you Android, tech, gaming and movie news around the clock, even we can't get to everything worth seeing on the Internet. But to help you out, here's today's required reading for June 18th, 2013. • Everyone's abuzz about Kayne West's new album "Yeezus"—and it seems no one can decide if it's actually good. The Los Angeles Times takes a swing at it in their own review, pointing out the flaws and high points. • It's hard to be an Olympic athlete. Not only do you train for years to hone your craft, but you usually don't make much money. That latter part obviously bothers track & field star...
By Jason Venter | 06-18-2013 | 3:00AM If you pay much attention to the hip-hop scene, you can’t help but be familiar with the name Jay-Z. The New York-loving rapper is one of the industry’s most successful, and he recently announced that a new record is on the way. Titled “Magna Carta Holy Grail,” that forthcoming project is sure to be a huge sales success, even though its first million downloads won’t cost consumers anything. As reported on VentureBeat, the new album will be available to a select number of Samsung Galaxy owners starting July 4, three days before its proper retail release. To be eligible to receive the free music, you’ll need to be one of the first million people to download an...
By Patrick Shaw | 06-18-2013 | 12:00AM Earlier this month, news broke that a company named MiKandi was developing a new application for Google Glass that lets its wearer view pornography through its head-mounted display. Google quickly squashed those plans, but now it looks as though the upcoming Oculus Rift will be getting its first x-rated virtual reality video game. Developed by a team whose previous work, according to them, includes high-profile game franchises like Call of Duty and Madden, Wicked Paradise will utilize the Oculus Rift technology and head-mounted display to cast players in their own first-person erotic adventure. “Imagine playing Leisure Suit Larry but instead of watching a screen, you are inside the...
By Ryan Scott | 06-17-2013 | 1:30PM The line between mobile gaming and regular, full-blown, hardcore, beautiful-HD-on-your-TV-with-a-proper-controller gaming is getting increasingly blurry here in 2013. But what's it going to take for total (metaphorical) retinal detachment to take hold? Well, two excellent Android gaming devices—one you most certainly already know, and one you probably don't—graced the floor of last week's E3 gaming expo, and they're in a great position to go head-to-head with all the other next-gen game systems on the horizon. Given that you're reading this digital magazine (or website, depending on your content-browsing habits), I have to assume that you're at least...
By Nick Wilson | PCGamesN IO Interactive have announced that they've laid off nearly half of their current workforce in a restructuring effort to refocus on the Hitman series. This new focus has meant that all other projects have been canceled effective immediately. Hannes Siefert, previously the production director, will take over as the new studio head as part of the restructuring. The news, as reported by GamesIndustry, came from a Square Enix Europe representative: "We are making significant changes at IO Interactive as we align our business against a changing and challenging market. Hannes Seifert, formerly Production Director for 3 years at the studio, will take over the position of Studio Head at...
By McKinley Noble | 06-17-2013 | 8:00PM Warner Bros. has a lot riding on Superman—and it looks like their gambit is paying off handsomely. In its weekend box office marks alone, Man of Steel is projected to have earned over $125 million as the #1 film of the week, showing a strong Father's Day earnings rate that significantly surpasses that of Superman Returns from almost seven years ago. The Hollywood Reporter, Variety and Hollywood.com agree that this is a major victory for Warner Bros. Pictures and DC Comics, with the Zack Snyder-directed film trending better than expected. By comparison, even Box Office Mojo is noting that the revenue gap between the two Superman movies is...
By McKinley Noble | 06-17-2013 | 6:00PM Even though the U.S. Government has open access to millions of phone records in their information network, is the invasion of privacy really that bad? Officials from the National Security Agency don't seem to think so, especially since the number of cases they investigate is incredibly low in relation to the sheer amount of personal information they filter every year. According to the Associated Press, the NSA claims that's amounted to fewer than 300 cases, so far. To add further context to that figure, comScore has previously stated that 129.4 million people own and use smartphones in the United States, which doesn't even compensate for landlines and other traceable...
By McKinley Noble | 06-17-2013 | 3:45PM Instagram has had a rough go of it this year, with the Facebook-owned company seeing their app become less popular after axing their Twitter support. But it appears there's more to it than we thought, with the move laying groundwork for something bigger. According to industry rumors, Instagram will soon allow its users to share short self-shot videos in addition to photos, taking a notable shot at Twitter's own Vine. TechCrunch further elaborates on an earlier report from The Desk, stating that the reveal will come on June 20th—the same day that Facebook has slotted away for a "special" event. If true, that throws a little bit of water on other rumors that...
By McKinley Noble | 06-17-2013 | 11:45AM There's plenty of places in the world where you simply can't connect to Internet, and if you're really unlucky, you may live in a region where it's ridiculously expensive. But Google wants to change that with "Project Loon" and an army of balloons. As detailed in the project's official Google+ profile, these aren't simple helium-and-string contraptions, but elaborate polyethylene plastic and solar battery-equipped satellites that will orbit the planet at 20 kilometers above the Earth's surface. And right at this moment, Google is brazenly barreling onward with New Zealand's South Island, where 30 balloons have been released into the...
By McKinley Noble | 06-17-2013 | 9:00AM Although NVision brings you Android, tech, gaming and movie news around the clock, even we can't get to everything worth seeing on the Internet. But to help you out, here's today's required reading for June 17th, 2013. • If you're worried about the inevitable machine invasion, you'd better start watching for the little things, too. Switzerland-based École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne is hard at work on an adorably lethal cat-sized robot. • Recent news about domestic spying from the U.S. Government has the public in a fit over privacy, but there's a catch to that attitude. As The Next Web smartly sums up, digital privacy is...
By McKinley Noble | 06-17-2013 | 6:45AM Despite the innovations and technical leaps that Netflix has made in recent years, one of the service's most glaring issues was an inability to support multiple user profiles. Instead, your instant queue and recommendations are dictated by the main account, a general headache for most households. But Netflix executive Todd Yellin had some good news for the company's latest press tour, showing outlets like Engadget a new tablet-based interface that would finally allow you to edit and manage content for different people. At a glance, it looks like one Netflix account will yield up to four user profiles, with hilariously awful selectable icons to differentiate one TV watcher...
By Ryan Scott | 06-16-2013 | 12:00PM Within Google Play, Android phone and tablet users have a lot of apps to choose from. In this weekly rundown, we give you a peek at five of the very best Android apps—both free and paid—to help you get the most out of your Android mobile device. Alerts & Deals by Smoopa (Free) Get it now on: Everyone loves a good bargain —and these days, between all the various retail and online outlets we have to choose from, shopping around for a good price can sometimes be a daunting task. The Alerts & Deals app does a lot of the heavy lifting for you, though: You give it a wish list of stuff that you want, along with the target price you're willing to pay...
By Jason Venter | 06-16-2013 | 6:00AM The industry moves at such a rapid pace that we don’t always have enough time to provide detailed coverage for some of the exciting stuff that happens between the bigger announcements. Each week, we’ll gather some of those news tidbits and share our thoughts on why we believe they deserve to be highlighted, even though for one reason or another they didn’t quite make it to center stage during the preceding seven days. We think you’ll agree that they’re still quite interesting. Filmmaker Tries to Take Back Happy Birthday Song By now you might have heard that if someone wants to use the familiar “Happy Birthday to You” song in a movie or...
By Jason Venter | 06-16-2013 | 12:00AM On June 14, the White House indicated that it will be ordering federal agencies to look for ways to do a better job of sharing the airwaves with consumers and businesses, according to a Reuters report. Tablet and smartphone users will benefit from a larger share of the spectrum than has currently been allotted to the public sector. At present, the spectrum is divided up among a variety of important agencies that use it for services that include law enforcement, weather forecasting, and even national defense. However, the Obama administration believes that those agencies can perform their duties without claiming so much of the precious spectrum. The administration is interested in seeing...
By Ryan Scott | 06-15-2013 | 12:00PM Mobile gaming is bigger than ever, and that comes with some ups and downs. On one hand, it means lots of increasingly awesome games that give even proper console heavy-hitters a run for their money; on the other hand, it means a lot of subpar choices to wade through on Google Play. In this weekly roundup, we've got you covered: Here are five Android games that are worth your precious time (and in some cases, even your money!). Andor's Trail by Oskar Wiksten (Free) Get it now on: Andor's Trail is yet another sweet fantasy Rogue role-playing game for Android devices. Every time I cover a game from this genre, I see at least a couple of Google Play reviewers...
By McKinley Noble | 06-14-2013 | 1:30PM Another year, another E3 in the books—and the forecast for the gaming industry couldn't possibly look any different than it did just a matter of months ago. In a change from the way things are usually done, several publishers and developers decided to play their hands well before the big show this year, but there was still more than enough hype to go around game announcements and console news alone. Now, let's take a look at the biggest headlines from the past week and why they made a huge impact. Sony's PS4 Will Be $399 By far, this was the biggest shot fired at Microsoft during Sony's E3 keynote. After months of rumors about specs, games and...
By Jason Venter | 06-15-2013 | 6:00AM Best Buy stores have become a retail battleground for companies like Microsoft, Apple, and Samsung. The latter two companies have already opened specialty stores inside the larger Best Buy buildings, and even Microsoft itself operates a number of similar stores at a select few locations. This week, Microsoft announced that it will be adding an additional 500 store fronts, this time devoted entirely to the Windows platform and related hardware and software. According to a blog post announcing the new partnership, plans also are in place for 100 Best Buy and Future Shop locations in Canada. “Unlike a lot of store-within-a-store concepts, this will actually be a department-level...
By Matt Purslow | PCGamesN If you're a devotee of the Assassin's Creed franchise this news may be music to your ears: you'll be playing as a hooded murderer for the next three years at least. Talking to Kotaku, Ubisoft have said they are committed to making a new game for the series every year, and have three in production right at this very minute. "We are making sure the teams who are creating the different iterations have enough time—two years, three years, so that they can take risk and they can change the concept enough so that it can be appealing and fresh," said Ubisoft's Yves Guillemot. He went on to say that the studio have the next three titles in the works, and explained that...
By McKinley Noble | 06-14-2013 | 5:00PM Serious waves of change are rolling at Yahoo, with CEO Marissa Mayer buying up websites and online properties left and right—and even her company's apps are getting a refit. For example, the latest one to get an update is Yahoo! Sports, the app once known as "Sportacular". Why on Earth that name ever stuck is beyond us, but the new branding and the new app design suits Yahoo! Sports' coverage a lot better, with a variety of Holo-friendly updates to boot. Per the app's Google Play page, here's the short list of newly-added features: Refreshed design - New redesign with improved scores and simplified navigation. Login to your Yahoo! Sports...
By Patrick Shaw | 06-14-2013 | 3:00PM Since it was founded back in 2000, Cambridge, England-based video game studio Ninja Theory has focused exclusively on developing high-profile releases for major consoles including Heavenly Sword, Enslaved and the recent Devil May Cry reboot. That is until its latest effort, Fightback, an arcade-style mobile beat-’em-up in the bulging vein of action flicks of the 1980s. Its tank top-sporting protagonist even resembles a beefier version of one of the genre’s most iconic heroes: John McClain from Die Hard. Fightback publisher Chilingo has also released a new E3 trailer (watch it in high-definition above), which provides us with our first taste of the game’s over-the-top...
You may not know it, but NVision is a relatively young app. But since launching on Google Play last year, we've surpassed 350K downloads and launched a new slick handset version of NVision available free for all Android phones. And we couldn't have done it without readers like you. As a thank you to our readers, we're going to be doing regular Google Play gift card giveaways! Every week (or so), we'll be giving away a $10 Google Play gift card code, which can be used to download apps and games on Google's online marketplace. So what do you have to do to win? Simply follow the instructions below. How to Win: Go to NVision's official Facebook contest post here. And then tell us in the comments...
by NVision Staff Developed by Chicago’s Phosphor Games Studio (Horn, Dark Meadow: The Pact), World War Z is the official video game adaptation of Paramount Pictures’ upcoming apocalyptic blockbuster. The game loosely follows the plot of the new film: After a zombie plague ravages most of the modern world, players are tasked with defending themselves from seemingly endless mobs of flesh-eating undead. The game mostly consists of engaging in guided, on-rails shootouts with zombies, but there’s a bit of exploration for special items and supplies involved that helps break up the action, too. You can watch us play through an early portion of World War Z's story mode above. While we noticed some frame rate issues...
By Jason Venter | 06-14-2013 | 6:00AM Myriad Genetics Inc. (MYGN) is a publicly traded company that until recently was having an intriguing request for continued patent protection considered by the Supreme Court. Yesterday, the court ruled unanimously to reject one portion of that original patent, which until now had essentially granted Myriad Genetics ownership of important human genes. As reported in the Washington Post, Myriad Genetics currently holds patents on numerous genes that have been famously linked to breast and ovarian cancer. That ownership is problematic, because the body produces those genes naturally and any treatment for related cancers must necessarily rely on the knowledge of those genes. Essentially, such...
By McKinley Noble | 06-13-2013 | 1:30PM Android devices have been one of the biggest forces behind mobile gaming in recent years, but despite all the tech innovations, there hasn't been a tablet built specifically for games. That changes now, with the debut of the Wikipad 7. Merging the best of two worlds into one gadget, it's an Android tablet that can dramatically change the way you play games on the go. Here's a few major things that help it stand out from the rest of the pack. It's built for gaming. More than anything else, the Wikipad 7 is most famous for its lightweight controller, giving you a full A/B/X/Y button layout, two analog sticks and a directional pad. Not only is it a step above...
By Matt Purslow | PCGamesN In the last console generation, both PC hardware giants had a hand in either Sony or Microsoft's boxes - it was ATI's hardware that powered the 360, and NVIDIA's 'reality synthesiser' behind the curtain of the PS3. But a funny thing's happened this time around - NVIDIA are out of the race, back to supporting the PC exclusively. And it shows. Today, NVIDIA SVP of content and technology Tony Tamasi told the throng at their E3 event that the GPU manufacturer is "giving people a better than console experience". "The PC is the most powerful gaming platform out there," said Tamasi, before clicking over to a slide worthy of fistpumps: He went on to describe...
By McKinley Noble | 06-13-2013 | 8:00PM After a soft beta launch in January this year, the "new" Myspace has stripped away its old layer, dumped its games library and formally pushed its new interface to the public. Now adapting what the old Myspace usually did best, the new version of the network now functions solely as a social music streaming service. According to the Associated Press, the goal for the new Myspace is to help budding and established artists (inlcuding filmmakers, actors and entertainers) connect to their fans, with the website attempting to helm a vastly different ecosystem supported by online radio stations and an official mobile app. Eventually, those plans will also include an Android...
