We’re just about halfway through 2018 (which has somehow taken both too long and no time at all). As is tradition, we’ve shaken our our brains around to see which games from the last six months still make our neurons fizzle with delight. Then we wrote about them here, in this big list feature that you’re reading right now this second. And what games they are! 2018 has been a great year so far, and our top picks run the whole range, from hand drawn oddities made by one person, to big mega-studio blockbusters that took the work of hundreds. And each of them is special to us in some way. Just like you are too. Click through the arrows to see the full spread of our faves so far. Better luck next year to the games that didn’t make the cut this time. Graham: Into The Breach’s greatest idea is that it’s a turn-based game about interrupting your opponent. At the start of each of your turns, you’re shown what the enemy intends to do. A big beetle … [Read more...] about The bestest and most top PC games of 2018 so far
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Can the Forsaken expansion turn around Destiny 2’s fortunes on PC?
Given how Destiny 2 has hemorrhaged players since its release last September, it seems almost perverse to name its next expansion, which will also be the game's biggest so far, 'Forsaken'. But perhaps it's also a sign of confidence. According to Bungie, this DLC represents the fruits of months of community feedback (read: fury) over the perceived wrongs of vanilla Destiny 2, and specifically its puddle-deep endgame. We broke down the key features coming with Forsaken earlier today, and the changes on the way as part of the game's second year of content look to be substantial. But will they be enough to turn the game's fortune's around on PC? That's the question put to our writers who are either lapsed players, or in at least one case, still hopeless addicts. Speaking of which…First impressionsTim Clark: Okay, okay. We pretty much all know I'm somewhat of an unreliable narrator on this one, because I never stopped playing Destiny 2, despite being all too aware of the stuff … [Read more...] about Can the Forsaken expansion turn around Destiny 2’s fortunes on PC?
2018.1 is now available – Unity Blog
Unity 2018.1 marks the start of a new cycle that introduces a major upgrade to our core technology, which gives artists, developers and engineers the power to express their talents and collaborate more efficiently to make their AAA dreams a reality. Let’s start with a few of the highlights, and then you can dig into the details of all the features. The first two highlights described below, the Scriptable Render Pipeline and the C# Job System, represent the first versions of two major features, which will continue to evolve to help you unlock beautiful graphics and increase the runtime performance of Unity. While you go through the list of new features, you can download Unity 2018.1 here. Scriptable Render Pipeline (SRP) Available in Preview with Unity 2018.1, the new Scriptable Render Pipeline (SRP) places the power of modern hardware and GPUs directly into the hands of developers and technical artists, without having to digest millions of lines of C++ engine code. SRP makes it … [Read more...] about 2018.1 is now available – Unity Blog
Magic Leap raises $461 million in funding from Saudi Arabian investment arm
Mixed reality startup Magic Leap announced today that its raised an additional $461 million in funding, provided by The Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia. This additional funding might be used to incentivize developers to build specifically for its new platform, with the Creator Portal SDK slated to be available in 2018. As reported by TechCrunch, the Saudi Arabian fund raised $400 million of the investment, with Magic Leap adding that “new investors” made up the remaining amount. The total Series D funding now totals to $963 million, Magic Leap says. Magic Leap secured $502 million in funding last year from Singapore-based investor Temasek, meaning the company has now raised around $2.3 billion. The company revealed its Magic Leap One headset back in December, which is said to utilize digital lightfield technology to seamlessly blend virtual objects with the real world. No set release date … [Read more...] about Magic Leap raises $461 million in funding from Saudi Arabian investment arm
The story of The Crossing, Arkane’s lost game
When asked about The Crossing, Raphael Colantonio and Viktor Antonov, two of the game’s leads, liken it to an ex-girlfriend. They were passionate about the project. They still have love for it. When they walked away, it was painful. But they’d never go back. Rather, they took the lessons learned and applied them to the rest of their respective careers. The Crossing, at its core, was an experiment. It was a test to see if single-player and multiplayer could be one in the same, replacing a game’s AI with real-world players. It was also an homage to and examination of Paris — the city where both lived at the time. It was a risk, financially and commercially, that never came to fruition before Arkane Studios, on its own terms, cancelled the project. The team went on to develop the critically-acclaimed Dishonored series, and most recently Prey. The Crossing is in both the DNA of these games and Arkane itself. To find out what happened, we talked to some of the … [Read more...] about The story of The Crossing, Arkane’s lost game