HP’s newest gaming notebook is for more casual users
After taking a long break from making gaming notebooks, HP finally got back in the saddle last year when it unveiled the Omen, a slim gaming laptop priced at $1,500. It generally earned respectable reviews on account of its stylish design and decent performance, but had lots of competition at that price, and its rivals often won when it came to sheer horsepower. To cover its bases, then, HP announced the Pavilion Gaming notebook, which starts at a more palatable $900 — and might have fewer competitors at that price.Slideshow-324979
Though the Pavilion looks the part of a gaming laptop with its backlit green keyboard, it’s heavier than the Omen, weighing in at 5.46 pounds, versus 4.68 for the more expensive model. As you’d expect, it runs Intel’s new sixth-generation Core processors, which is a good thing because the Omen was dinged in reviews for running older silicon than competing machines. Also, the 15.6-inch screen starts at mere HD (1,366 x 768) resolution, with Full HD offered as an upgrade option. (The Omen comes standard with 1080p.) As for graphics, the Pavilion uses an NVIDIA GTX 950M GPU — a step down from the 960M offered in the more expensive Omen. Storage options include up to a 2TB HDD, up to a 1TB hybrid drive or a combination 2TB hard disk and 128GB SSD.
Other specs include up to 16GB of RAM and battery life rated at a little over eight hours (that’s presumably with no gameplay going on). The Pavilion is also offered with an optional RealSense camera setup in lieu of a normal webcam, which would allow you to take advantage of Windows Hello. Rounding out the feature set, you’ve got dual Bang & Olufsen speakers, three USB ports (two of them 3.0), HDMI output and an Ethernet jack. The Pavilion arrives November 8th with a starting price $900. That puts it in the same class as machines like the Alienware 13, which costs around the same, but has a slightly better 960M GPU.Slideshow-326586
ICYMI: HoloLens gaming, walking talking robot phone and more
Today on In Case You Missed It: The RoBoHon is a 7-inch tall smartphone robot that can also dance, walk and talk and basically simultaneously creep out and amaze all your family and friends. Microsoft is busy dreaming up the next HoloLens game that we really want to play: Code-named Project X-Ray, it sends robots to do battle with you, right in your living room. And a virtual reality headset app wants to help train surgeons in a way that doesn’t endanger any real people.
We also touch on the scout quadcopter that maps out terrain for its friend, a walking robot. Finally, we are rounding out the show with a Space Week nod for what an Italian astronaut regularly eats aboard the International Space Station.
If you come across any interesting videos, we’d love to see them. Just tweet us with the #ICYMI hashtag @engadget or @mskerryd.
HoloLens ‘Project XRay’ lets you blast robot armies with a ray gun fist
Microsoft took time during today’s Windows 10 Devices event to give the audience a more in-depth look at what its new HoloLens AR system is capable of. Minds were blown, jaws were dropped and more than a few digital robots were blown to smithereens during the 8-minute demo.
The game is called Project X-Ray. Microsoft developed it in-house as an experiment in “mixed-reality entertainment” and involves using the HoloLens controller as a ray gun to blast digital enemies which emerge from the room’s walls. Running around your living room while wearing a $3,000 headset (what Microsoft is reportedly planning to charge developers) probably isn’t the safest of indoor activities, but dang this game looks insanely fun regardless.
Source: Microsoft (YouTube)
‘Far Cry Primal’ will take humanity back to the stone age
What would happen if you took the large, open-world chaos that defines the Far Cry series, removed the guns, vehicles, modern weapons and political character motivations? You’d have Far Cry Primal — a survival epic staged in a re-imagined stone age. It’s a different, but intriguing idea. The player takes on the role of Takkar, a lone hunter trying to survive on his own in the savage land of Oros. Really, the trailer says it all.
It’s hard to imagine a better direction for a Far Cry game without guns. In addition to surviving the elements, Takkar will have to fight off packs of dire-wolves, hunt wooly mammoths, avoid deadly saber-toothed tigers and deal with the wrath of hostile, warring tribes. All the elements of the series are here, it just looks different. Still, it’ll be awhile before we get to play it: Ubisoft has slated the game for launch in Feburary of 2016. Check out the official page at the source link below for more details.
Source: Far Cry Primal
Playdate: Waging war in the ‘Star Wars: Battlefront’ beta
The wait is almost over, Star Wars fans: a new Battlefront is almost upon us. On Thursday, EA will open the Star Wars: Battlefront beta to all players, giving the gaming community it’s first mainstream taste of online competitive multiplayer Star Wars since 2005. Can’t wait? Tune in to Engadget Playdate at 6PM ET (3PM PT) on Twitch.tv/Joystiq, the Engadget gaming homepage and right here — Tim Seppala and I made a deal with Jabba the Hutt and nabbed a few PC and PS4 beta codes early. Play your cards right (by answering stupid questions in our chat) and one could soon be yours.
http://www.twitch.tv/joystiq/embedWatch live video from Joystiq on www.twitch.tvhttp://www.twitch.tv/joystiq/chat?popout=
[We’re streaming Star Wars: Battlefront beta at 720p through OBS, so rest assured this game will look dramatically better on your PS4 at home.]
Watch how game music went from beeps to Sound Blaster
You can’t enjoy retro games without digging the music, and a YouTube video (below) shows exactly how those tunes evolved. As explained by the 8-Bit Guy and Obsolete Geek, early PCs and Apple machines used “beeper speakers” that were driven strictly by your computer’s CPU. Those only produced crude sounds, because forcing the CPU to do more actually hurt gameplay. Computers and consoles eventually got dedicated sound chips, but each used a different number of “voices,” producing the distinctive differences between, say, a Nintendo NES and a Commodore 64 system.
Clever programming improved the tunes in those systems, but eventually PC sound cards came along with 9-channel Yamaha synth chips, giving music designers larger palette. A bit later, the Commodore Amiga arrived with a sampling chip, resulting in the distinctive late ’80s and early ’90s sounds heard in games and pop music. Modern systems generally just play music files straight from MP3s, but the music itself owes a big debt to the creativity it took just to get it to work back in the day. If you don’t believe it, listen to some chiptunes or ask the composers themselves.
Source: The 8-bit Guy
Nintendo launched a multiplayer web portal for Splatoon stats
How do you get your Splatoon fix when you’re away from your Wii U? With SplatNet — the game’s newly christened web portal, of course. Okay, it’s not actually that new: Japanese players have had access to the website for months, but Nintendo only just recently got around to translating the portal for international audiences. It’s a convenient online hub that lets users check their weekly ranking, plan future matches with friends, view equipped gear and more.
Companion websites are nothing new for online mulitplayer shooters (Battlefield players have BattleLog, for instance), but it’s a fairly new concept for Nintendo. As usual, Mario’s version has some quirks — SplatNet has Twitter integration to automatically let your friends know if you’re playing, but the feature is only active on Friday and Saturday. Still, it’s something new to do with your Nintendo Network ID, and it does allow Splatoon players to see which multiplayer maps will be in rotation for the next 12 hours of online play. That’s win-win. Check out SplatNet for yourself at Splatoon.Nintendo.net.
Source: Splatoonus, Splatnet
Razer Music is a content sharing and creation portal for musicians
Ever notice that conspicuous green glow radiating off of Deadmau5’s desk during his Twitch streams? There’s a reason for that. It turns out the artist has been working with Razer to help launch a new music service — one tailored specifically to promote and educate artists that use the company’s gaming hardware for music production. It’s called Razer Music, and it launches today.
Razer describes the Razer Music as a digital content platform for musicians — a community portal teeming with video tutorials, detailed articles and production tips from well-known musicians who have made a habit of using the Razer Blade gaming laptop to create their work. It’s more of a resource for budding musicians than consumer-facing service. At launch, the site will host content from Deadmau5, Metro Boomin, Feed Me, Dyro and others, with updates from Project 46, Carnage and other artists coming in the near future.
It doesn’t seem like you’ll need to be a Razer customer to take advantage of the company’s new music portal, but if you are, there’s a bonus: anyone who owns a 2015 Razer Blade laptop will be given a licence of Image-Line’s FL STudio Producer Edition music production software for free. Not a bad bonus, as far as pack-in software is concerned. The rest of us will have to be content with the site’s core offering of music production education, show and tour dates for featured artists and downloadable sample tracks. Check out Razer Music at the source link below for more details.
Source: Razer Music
Amazon-owned Twitch finally overhauls its Fire TV app
You’d think that since Amazon owns Twitch, Fire TV devices would be the lead platform for its apps but that isn’t the case. However, the latest update for the streaming service favored by gamers on Bezos’ set-top box is pretty significant and mirrors a lot of what’s available on the console and mobile apps. It even outdoes them in a few ways. Of course you can watch plenty of live streams and the top games being played, but the update also brings in profile pages so you can check out exactly who those broadcasters are and check out their archived videos while you’re at it.
There’s apparently a quick-selection tool for emojis too, so accessing Kappa and FrankerZ at a moment’s notice should be pretty easy. Oh, the Twitch blog post says that 1080p support for newer Fire TV devices is on the table as well, in addition to being able to log in with your own account. It all sounds pretty basic, but the app was really lacking up to this point. Interested? Hit the Amazon Appstore to check it out for yourself.
Source: Twitch
Microsoft demos ‘Project XRay’ mixed reality game for HoloLens
One of Microsoft’s most exciting products to date is HoloLens, and today the company revealed a new mixed reality game for the headset called Project XRay. The title was developed internally, according to the Executive VP of the Windows Devices group, Terry Myerson. Similar to the Minecraft experience on HoloLens, Project XRay also looks incredible — particularly because you can turn most any room into your own gaming canvas. Here, though, you’re wearing a holographic weapon on your arm, which you’ll need to defend yourself from a robot attack. Once they start crawling out of the walls, you can shoot lasers at them — yes, lasers. “Holograms behave just like real objects; they can interact with environments and with each other,” said the Microsoft representative on stage about Project XRay.
In other news, Microsoft announced that HoloLens will reach developers in 2016 for $3,000. For now, we’re really hoping we’ll get to experience Project XRay ourselves once the event is over.
Get all the news from today’s Microsoft event right here.
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