Computer Games

This article is made possible by Intel's GameDev BOOST program -- dedicated to helping indie game developers everywhere achieve their dreams Throughout Kevin He's career in the tech and gaming industries, something has always bothered him. While rendering and other technologies evolved tremendously over time, animation woefully lagged behind. As an engineer, He wanted to find an efficient way to create more lifelike animations, and he was convinced that advanced physics simulation and AI could solve that problem. So in 2014, He struck out on his own to start DeepMotion. The goal of the San Mateo, California-based company is to provide developers with powerful software development kits (SDK) that'll allow them to create realistic animations for games and other applications.

People that worked with me on this episode; Doki Tops of Utomik.com and Cris Reed of The Level Up Experience. Quick word; The games industry is doing realy well during this lockdown. All good, but lets make sure that we, as an industry, will also look after people that are being hurt, financially, physically and emotionally. It is our audience(s) that is under pressure by COVID–19, the corona virus. Let's make sure we also do our part to make the world healty and secure again!

Every afternoon Flora, 9, and Kate, 10, turn on their laptops and iPads to collaborate on a play called "World War III," a futuristic tale of two sisters who try to save the world after being blown back in time by a bomb. The close friends, who live a couple miles apart in St. Paul, Minnesota, used to hang out together to dream up dialogue and plot twists. Now, separated by coronavirus social distancing measures, they Skype on one screen and, on the other, type in a Google doc. No longer able to meet up with friends at the movies or the mall, Flora's brother Brodie, 15, stays in touch on FaceTime and Snapchat and through online games Minecraft and Rainbow Six Siege. He says communicating online with high school pals helps him cope with real-world worries about the coronavirus.

It's hard keeping your kids entertained during the coronavirus quarantine, but here are some ways parents figured out how to make it fun. Purchases you make through our links may earn us a commission. Our colleague Mike Snider from the USA TODAY Money team is here to share some news about how you can access Minecraft content for free. Microsoft wants to help students keep flexing their mental muscles even if they aren't in the classroom, with many schools closed during the coronavirus crisis. So kids and parents can explore some free "Minecraft" challenges, made available for free today through June 30 in the Minecraft Marketplace, found within the game played by more than 90 million each month.

The Magnus outfit is one of the many new skins that were part of the recent Season 5 leaks. A Viking-themed legendary male skin outfit, it depicts the traditional Viking look.

In this time of quarantine and isolation, we all need to keep up both our social interactions and our spirits. Playing video games with friends online is the perfect solution. You don't have to be good at them, that's not the point – online games provide a location to meet up, chat and have experiences together that may or may not involve blowing stuff up. Here is a range of titles that can be learned and enjoyed by both complete beginners and veteran gamers. Whether you have an old laptop or the latest smartphone, there's something here you can play with pals even if they're far away.

Reporters Without Borders has found a radical new platform for distributing banned journalism in some of the world's most repressive countries: Minecraft. The advocacy group has opened a new virtual space on a dedicated server for the popular video game called'The Uncensored Library,' accessible to any of Minecraft's 145 million monthly players. Inspired by the neoclassical architecture of ancient Rome and Greece, the library will be filled with books containing the text of news stories that have been censored in their countries of origin. To begin with, the library will be stocked with stories from five countries that rank near the bottom of Reporters Without Borders' World Press Freedom Index, including Egypt, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Vietnam. The stories will be published in English and whichever language they were originally written in.

Sure, multiplayer-heavy video games, like Fortnite and Call of Duty, tend to monopolize the buzz and attention. But the past few months and years have given us some truly incredible solo experiences, too, like Stardew Valley and Red Dead Redemption 2. If you're getting bored of competitive online gaming, or that's not your cup of tea in the first place, you have plenty of great single-player games to choose from these days. Which games should you get if you're looking to go offline for a while and enjoy some solo time on the couch or during your commute? God of War, Spider-Man, Horizon: Zero Dawn, and Uncharted 4: A Thief's End are all incredible single-player games on the PlayStation 4. Spider-Man and Horizon: Zero Dawn are open-world action games with large maps and dozens of activities to choose from. Uncharted 4 is like an interactive movie, while God of War is a father-son adventure story that trades in the series' trademark button-mashing action for slow, considered, and careful combat.

In the recently released game Coffee Talk, you play a coffee-shop barista who stands at a counter, through long, rainy Seattle nights, making drinks for customers as they tell you about their lives. Your only interaction is pressing a button to move the conversation on and occasionally crafting a drink using the available ingredients. The beautiful pixel art interior of your shop, the fleeting glimpses of passersby outside, and the jazzy soundtrack replicate things we love about hanging out in real coffee places. Also, this is an alternative version of Seattle populated not just by humans, but by elves, demons and other fantastical beings, so your clientele is pretty varied. Elves tell you about their love lives, insomniac werewolves seek calm and quiet – you listen and you try to make drinks that will soothe them.

It is a truth, universally accepted, that video games do not translate well to the big screen. From Assassin's Creed to the Super Mario Bros movie, the result is usually a compromised monstrosity, ignorant of the source material and quickly disowned by the studios, directors and actors responsible for it. There have been exceptions – Detective Pikachu was weird but fine and the Resident Evil films have their fans. But films based on games are usually a mess. Have licensing managers been looking at the wrong screen the whole time?