GDC

While the biggest profits in the gaming market naturally come from big titles, big developers, and big publishers, there is an undeniably big indie culture thriving there as well. While PCs have long been the home of indie games and developers, consoles have recently tried to woo this vibrant crowd as well. Microsoft’s latest move at GDC 2017 tries to sweeten the pot even more by allowing anyone, which is to say indie devs, to make and publish games for the Xbox without going through rigorous scrutiny. Unsurprisingly, there are some rather big caveats to keep in mind.

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While walking around the expo hall at GDC, I found an interesting gadget. After spending some time on the Virtuix Omni, I needed a breather. And the 3DRudder provided the perfect opportunity to sit down and take a load off.

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Since GDC is primarily a conference for developers, the show floor is different than say E3 or CES. There are less consumer products being shown off, and more development tools being showcased. However, one product that was on the show floor that I had to get my hands (well, feet) on was the Virtuix Omni.

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Xbox chief Phil Spencer has apologized for the Microsoft GDC 2016 party, after the company was blasted for hiring dancing girls on podiums as entertainment. The tone-deaf event took place after the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco on Thursday evening, ironically following a Microsoft-sponsored "Women in Games" lunch that took place earlier in the week.

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Something I've wanted to do since I was a little kid was grab a lightsaber and fight bad guys with it. So when I was told that I'd be seeing a demo from ILMxLAB during GDC, you can be that I was pretty excited. After strapping on an HTC Vive and getting my controller ready (after being told I'd only need the one controller, I was pretty certain of what I'd need it for) the familiar text popped up: A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.

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The Portal games are among my favorites for a number of reasons. I'm a big fan of solving puzzles and condescending robots, and those games really satisfied both areas. The second game wrapped up the story of Chell pretty neatly, but there's still a lot more to explore at Aperture Laboratories. While at GDC, Valve gave me a peek into some of the various Pocket Universes that we'll be able to explore in The Lab.

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Game developer Ninja Theory is making a video game called Hellblade that is using some very impressive motion capture technology to get a real actresses movements and emotions into the virtual world. The game is focused on a female Viking warrior called Senua who is battling insanity. Ninja Theory showed off a demo of how it is capturing motion from actress Melina Juergens and putting it into the game at GDC.

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The Samsung Gear VR (powered by Oculus) is set to get its own version of the upcoming VR version of Minecraft. This Microsoft-owned game was previously announced to be coming to the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset as well as the Microsoft HoloLens holographic headset - now it's coming to the mobile VR universe as well. This will not be the first time the non-VR version of the game hits mobile - that's been out for several years.

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By now you've heard the big news about PlayStation VR, Sony's new PlayStation 4 virtual reality headset: it's being released this October, there's going to be plenty of games available, and it will cost $399. While that last bit certainly isn't a lie, it is a bit misleading, unfortunately. Part of the reason the pricing is such a big deal is because the PlayStation VR drastically undercuts the $599 Oculus Rift and $799 HTC Vive, but there's a few accessories required that Sony has neglected to put in the box.

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Today we're going to run down the full lot of Oculus Rift launch titles - everything the company has announced will be coming to the VR headset as soon as possible. In these titles are some of the most fantastic games ever conceived for virtual reality - as well they should be. This company built itself on the idea that virtual reality is the future of gaming. As such, they've attracted some of the most amazing developers in the realm to create titles that'll absolutely blow you away.

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Yesterday, Sony finally took the wraps off of their highly-anticipated PlayStation VR headset. With an entry price of just $399, it's significantly less expensive than the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. After the announcement I had a chance to test out the headset and see how it stacked up against the competition.

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I've mentioned before that you need an open mind when going into any VR title. And when you hear that there's a game about climbing rocks in virtual reality, you really do need an open mind. The Climb lives up to its name, as you'll spend the whole game climbing. But your arms won't get too tired.

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