Gaming

The Steam Box Is Real, But It’s Not Just From Valve

Valve made a big splash on Monday when it announced SteamOS, its own gaming-flavored Linux operating system, but SteamOS was just one announcement in a trio. The second one’s here and yes, it’s a Steam Box. https://gizmodo.com/steams-got-its-own-operating-system-now-1371883607 Just like we heard way back when, Valve’s Steam Box initiative isn’t a one-size fits all deal; Valve…

All This Game Boy Luggage Needs Is a Konami Code Seat Upgrade

If you were a kid who grew up with a Game Boy, aside from school, you took that portable console everywhere you went. But now that you’re a smartphone-toting grown-up traveling all over the country for business, you can trade in your Game Boy for ThinkGeek’s adorable Travel Boy carry-on—no batteries required. https://gizmodo.com/a-beach-towel-game-boy-that-never-runs-out-of-batteries-841323116 Designed to…

Can Valve create the perfect game machine and win against MS and Sony?

Steam is the most popular electronic desktop game distribution method in the planet. So popular that its developers think it will be a great idea to make a Steam Box, a custom gaming and media PC that will connect to your TV and compete with the Xbox One or the PS4. One of the steps…

The Surprisingly Long History of Nintendo

Believe it or not, the history of Nintendo goes all the way back to 1889. And before you ask—no, they were not selling Mario figures carved from wood. Originally named “Nintendo Koppai”, the small business based in Kyoto started by Fusajiro Yamauchi produced Hanafuda Cards. For those unfamiliar, these are simple playing cards that are…

New Star Wars RPG appeals to your inner Han Solo

Fantasy Flight Games is the latest publisher to create a Star Wars RPG, bringing a custom dice system and a galaxy divided by theme to your gaming table. Start your adventures amidst scum and villainy at the Edge of Empire. As it goes with galactic empires, so it goes with Star Wars RPGs. Empires rise,…

A Brilliant Madman Rigged a Player Piano to Score Classic Video Games

A YouTuber who goes by the name of ‘roboband‘ has posted this delightful clip showing a couple of player pianos and a robotic drummer scoring and creating the sound effects for classic Nintendo games—in real time! On the technical side the setup uses a series of solenoids, Raspberry Pis, and custom software to create the…

A Speaker Helmet That Maybe Takes First-Person Shooters Too Seriously

You’ve already got the hyper-realistic machine gun controller, but you’ve probably noticed that playing a war-themed first-person shooter on your basement couch just doesn’t feel like you’re actually at war. There’s definitely something missing—and that something surely has to be Hyperkin’s new ComRad that packs speakers and a boom mic into a realistic looking helmet.…

DC Adventures RPG gives you every hero you ever wanted

The four books that comprise the DC Adventures RPG present you not only with a tried and tested superhero RPG, but also an incredibly deep roster of DC characters and the most comprehensive overview of the DC universe I’ve ever seen. DC Adventures doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel. It uses the Mutants & Masterminds…

A 10-Second Bomb-Defusing Game Puts Red Wire/Blue Wire in Your Hands

For a coding contest where competitors had a limited amount of time to come up with a novel game that plays out in just 10 seconds, SassyBot Studio created this stressful-looking bomb defusing challenge that has players trying to figure out what wire to snip. Bomb Defuse Simulator 2013 took just 72 hours to create,…

This Gaming PC Is Smaller Than a Controller But Still Packs a Punch

There are plenty of gaming PCs designed to replace consoles, but if you’re short on space that normally means accepting something underpowered like the Ouya. But this little guy, called the Gigabyte Brix II, is both powerful and petite. https://gizmodo.com/heres-what-100-worth-of-gaming-console-looks-iike-ins-496277518 Its cute little 4.5-inch square frame—which is smaller than an Xbox controller—is actually hiding a…

All Gadget Teardowns Should End In an Explosion

We’ve seen your typical, sterile, tiny-screwdriver-filled teardown of Nvidia’s Shield that showed there’s actually a lot crammed in there. But Nvidia decided to do a teardown of its own that’s just a little…rougher. https://gizmodo.com/nvidia-shield-teardown-a-lots-crammed-into-this-stran-987565085 Admittedly this is pure marketing, what with that exhaustive spec rundown mid-explosion, but that doesn’t take away from the good (clean?)…

Pound On This Arcade Button Watch For Unlimited Time Checks

The case for not wearing a watch these days is a strong one, but dammit, sometimes it’s just fun to strap a unique timepiece to your wrist. Like one that prominently features a classic arcade button that you can mash whenever you want to see the time. Now isn’t that more fun than digging your…

Sony has announced that the PS4 will only support four controllers at once—unlike the Xbox One, which will allow eight players to game at the same time.

A Hyper-Realistic Archery Sim Is the Safest Hunger Games Proxy

You don’t see a lot of first person shooter games that opt for a bow and arrow in lieu of a machine gun, but that’s probably because no one has created a bow interface as authentic as what Masasuke Yasumoto at the Tokyo University of Technology has developed. His bow, modelled after an authentic traditional…

13th Age RPG delivers an incredible fantasy storytelling experience

It would be easy to dismiss 13th Age as another D20-based fantasy role-playing game, albeit one with gorgeous art. But underneath that deceptively simple surface there are elegant storytelling gears that move in surprising ways. We talked to the creators about how it works. 13th Age is published by Pelgrane Press, and was co-designed by…

The coolest things we saw at Gen Con 2013

This year’s Gen Con gaming convention featured a murder mystery, a demonic siege, record attendance and a truckload of exciting new releases that had gamers buzzing. Here are some of the coolest things from Gen Con. Image via Gen Con Facebook Gen Con is North America’s largest tabletop gaming convention, and almost 50,000 unique attendees…

This game about a runaway slave mom and her baby will break your heart

Kotaku’s Evan Narcisse says that “within two minutes of playing Thralled my chest got tight and my head started to throb.” The iPad game puts you in the role of a slave mother fleeing with her baby. He says it was so powerful that it made him cry. https://kotaku.com/i-really-need-this-creepy-game-about-a-runaway-slave-to-1184668918

Microsoft: Xbox One and Kinect Will Definitely Not Be Sold Separately

Microsoft has had an indecisive month or two recently, contemplating a series of U-turns in its attempts to compete with the forthcoming PlayStation 4. But now, it seems to have settled on a final decision about one of the most controversial flip-flops: every Xbox One WILL come with a Kinect. https://gizmodo.com/the-xbox-one-is-worse-for-everyone-if-kinects-not-mand-1113731041 About that, there now…

What if Pixar made the Pacific Rim sequel?

It’s a valid question. And if Pixar did somehow get the rights to make a sequel to Guillermo del Toro’s wonderful monsters-vs-robots movie, it could look something like this great art by artist James Chung. Chung posted this Pixar/Pacific Rim mashup, called “Pixar Rim,” over on his Deviant Art page. Where he also has some…

Watch Sony’s PlayStation 4 Gamescom Press Conference Live

While we already know pretty much everything there is to about the PS4, there are still a few precious details left to reveal. Here’s a stream Sony’s Gamescom press conference, which should be starting any minute now: Live streaming video by Ustream