Gaming

THE dust has settled, and the victor is left standing alone. In this case, it's got a samurai sword in one hand, a bow on its back and a PSVR headset on. Flanking the opposition from both sides with The Last of Us Part 2 and Ghosts of Tsushima and a stampede down the middle of everything from Death Stranding to Tetris Effect and Spider-Man, no-one else really stood a chance against the Sony behemoth. Death Stranding's E3 trailer is bloody, baffling and beautiful The only downside for Sony, really, was the furore of them throwing their weight around to block crossplay for any Fortnite player who had ever played on PS4. This may seem like a minor issue, but the problem and Sony's reaction to it show a big beast abusing its market dominance to the detriment of their customers. The Japanese giant may--correctly--think that this sort of behaviour will shore up its dominance this generation, but is exactly the sort of behaviour that let the Xbox 360 dominate the PS3. Back to the good stuff, … [Read more...] about Sorry, Xbox One fans – Sony won E3 hands down

USING a combination of freely available tools and code, some madman has created a playable Magic Eye poster out of the original Doom video game. Each frame of the game is generated as a random-dot autostereogram, the type of popularised in the 90s by Magic Eye books and posters. Created by a developer who goes by the name of blogum and uploaded to itch.io, OMDO features the first three maps of iD software's 1993 classic DOOM. As with all autostereograms they initially appear like static, or a random collection of coloured dots. However, if you use the correct viewing technique a 3D image will appear in place of the dots as things line up for you. This involves either focusing your eyes some distance in front of the image you're trying to view -- going cross-eyed, effectively -- or some distance behind it. MOST READ In GAMINGPLAY SAFE Gaming addicts can get NHS help from TODAY – do you have these symptoms? GAME FACE What is Fortnite and how many children play the video game? … [Read more...] about Doom turned in to PLAYABLE Magic Eye poster – but can you see it?

IMMERSION is a word that gets thrown around a huge amount in gaming. Developers chase it, players demand it--but Tetris Effect defines it. With a PlayStation VR headset strapped on, tetrominos falling in front of you, and Tetsuya Mizuguchi's unique vision flooding your senses it's almost impossible not to get utterly lost almost immediately. It's a world designed to mess with your brain that is at once both utterly alien and entirely familiar. Your focus is on the field itself, and the surrounding visuals start almost subliminally thanks to the tunnel vision that Tetris encourages. As the levels change, so do the visuals the and music. Clearing lines results in bursts of colour popping across the board, and the more you clear the brighter the bursts. A four-line clearance practically fills your field of vision with colour, and the reaction of the music to your success adds to the effect. As your adrenal glands pump hit after hit of dopamine through your brain the experience becomes … [Read more...] about Tetris Effect is the most immersive VR experience you’ll ever have

FOUR years after the launch of Destiny, the much-hyped scifi shooter from the studio that gave the world Halo, it looks like fans may finally be about to get their hands on a version of the game worthy of the initial hype. This latest reinvention of the game comes as the third expansion to the second game in the series, with High Moon studios on board to help out. It's got a darker tone to it, radical changes to some core gameplay systems and a new competitive mode that is a whole lot of fun. One one level Forsaken is giving the players what they want--but a certain amount of the changes are the opposite. It's a decision to throw some conventional conservative wisdom out the window, try some new stuff they think is cool, and to hell with anyone else. Bungie is "opening up the sandbox and the gameplay in ways we're uncomfortable with," according to design lead Lars Bakken. His reaction suggests there's almost an expectation that major changes will be needed post-launch to this once … [Read more...] about Destiny 2: Forsaken is making Bungie uncomfortable – and getting us excited