Sony's PS4 virtual reality headset to be announced in March

Sony developing Virtual Reality headset for PS4

Sony is preparing to reveal the final piece of its PS4 hardware strategy at TGS by showcasing a PlayStation-branded virtual reality head-mounted display, CVG has learned.

[Update: Following the publication of this article, CVG has been told by people connected to the matter that there are no longer any existing plans to publicly showcase the virtual reality headset at the Tokyo Game Show.

In August, when Sony abandoned its initial strategy to reveal the device at Gamescom, CVG was told at the time that the reveal had been be pushed back to the Tokyo event. Now the expectation is to showcase the headset in 2014.

Executives at Sony have demonstrated the VR display to a select number of developers at E3 and Gamescom, and will also conduct closed-doors meetings at TGS.

Sony originally intended to reveal the headset at Gamescom but plans fell through at the eleventh hour. The company is currently weighing up whether the PS4 device should be pitched as a key differentiator for the console or a non-essential add-on.

The matter has been slightly complicated, but not derailed, by the growing industry support for Oculus Rift. Sony's device will be a categorical rival to Oculus, and for months there have been rumours suggesting the two companies are seeking a partnership.

A games developer familiar with Sony's plans, who wished to remain anonymous, told CVG that Evolution Studios is currently working with the device to simulate a cockpit view on its

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The Last of Us: Left Behind review

It says much of the quality and depth of The Last of Us' characters and world that Naughty Dog could have picked any one of a number of threads to explore in this, the first and only story expansion for its seminal action-adventure. The strained relationship between Joel and his brother Tommy; Marlene's journey from Ellie's guardian to head of the Fireflies; the story of Ish, the enigmatic survivor whose notes detail his harrowing experiences in Pittsburgh - any might have worked.

Instead, Neil Druckmann, Bruce Straley and their team have chosen to explore one of the defining relationships of our young heroine Ellie's life - her close friendship with a fellow teenage survivor, Riley. Those that have played through The Last of Us already know how this story ends and likely have an idea of how it might play out, and so it is to the developer's significant credit that Left Behind manages to defy foreknowledge to tell a story that is touching, revealing and important.

Left Behind presents an unexpected duality, contrasting the Ellie with whom we are familiar with one whom we've never met. Ostensibly, it is a snapshot of a pivotal time in Ellie and Riley's friendship that plays out against the backdrop of a post-outbreak world, a world in which quarantine zones and death are everyday considerations and where trips to the mall and carefree teenage frivolity are wholly alien concepts. To pick out any single instance of this juxtaposition would be to deny you the joy of discovery. Suffice to say that exploration is its own reward, and it's as amusing as it is poignant to witness the two friends walk amongst the relics of an opulent past and wonder aloud at the bemusing superficiality of it all.

In its way, Left Behind also serves as an examination of Ellie's later relationship with Joel. It offers insight into the depth of the bond that exists between the two and provides a deeper understanding of this relationship by exploring events that are only alluded to in the main story. In doing so, it once again turns the pseudo-father-daughter relationship on its head and offers still more to ponder in the main story's ambiguous ending. While there's certainly value in playing through The Last of Us again prior to starting Left Behind, there's also a surprising amount to be taken from venturing through the main story

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PS Vita Slim (2014)

PS Vita Slim (2014): First Impressions

What is the Sony PS Vita Slim?

The new PS Vita is the 2014 edition of Sony’s handheld console. It is cheaper, slimmer and lighter than its predecessor. Although Sony is keen to say it is still simply called the PS Vita, we’re sure it’ll quickly adopt the Vita Slim moniker.

The key selling point of the new Vita is its design, as the software and processing power under the hood are near-identical to the last model. It's slimmer, and has an LCD screen rather than an OLED one.

For existing PS Vita owners, those design tweaks make the latest model feel quite different from its predecessor.

PS Vita (2014) - Design

Sony has listened to gamer feedback to make the Vita easier and more comfortable to hold for long periods of time. Even when picking up the new handheld for the first time, the difference is clear.

25 per cent of the original Vita’s weight has been shaved off to make the latest model feel considerably lighter than the original. It's a welcome change. The original was by no means a heifer at launch, but in a direct comparison it feels like quite the dead weight.

The PS Vita Slim has a new soft, matt finish on the rear and the finger grips have been enlarged to help you endure those extended gaming sessions. These touches make the new model much more tactile and finger-friendly than the former gloss finish. The rear touch panel is still glossy though, so your fingers won’t notice a change there.

To help reduce accidental presses, the rear touch panel has been reduced by around 30 per cent. From our brief play with top Vita title Tearaway, the smaller touchpad doesn’t affect the way you play whatsoever. And it is still large enough to feel accessible and convenient without having to stretch your fingers too far.

Changes to the buttons are some of the more subtle design alterations, with the symbol buttons and d-pad receiving minor cosmetic changes. The start and select buttons under the right analogue stick are now small and round rather than oval, and the PS Home button is no longer backlit.

Instead there are a duo of LED lights at the top of the device to indicate power and battery levels.

The best new feature of the PS Vita Slim is Sony’s abandoning of

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Valve Steam Controller Hands-on

Pro

-Precise

-Novel and fun to use

Cons

-Can it keep up with mouse and keyboard players?

Valve has several hurdles to hop before it can turn PC gaming into a living room experience. Besides getting the Steam Box to market with its 13 hardware partners and pushing the SteamOS, it needs to get PC die hards to give a controller a chance.

That's the task the Valve Steam Box controller has before it, and it's no easy one. It needs to offer the versatility and precision that approximates the mouse and keyboard setup.

While Valve has opted to license its SteamOS to hardware partners, it will be manufacturing its own controller. During an offsite event at CES 2014 I had the chance to take Valve's Steam Box controller for a test drive across multiple genres of games.

Now Valve won't be the only one making a Steam controller, those third-party hardware partners will be entering the fray as well. It also won't be forcing anyone to give up the mouse and keyboard. That classic gaming setup may not be couch optimized, but it will be an option for those who value the old ways of fragging a foe.

Valve staff on site at the event told us that the controller we were trying out is not a final build. The Washington-based gaming empire is a bunch of perfectionists, if nothing else. They told us they already had tweaks in mind for the button layout, the form factor and overall feel of the controller.

With that in mind here are our impressions of Valve's Steam Box controller, after diving into a little single player gaming on an internal Valve Steam Box.

Light, nimble and precise

Holding the Steam Controller for the first time I was shocked by its weight, or lack thereof. It's light, to the point where I thought it might be hollow.

That's likely because Valve's final Steam Box controller will be wireless, and the demo versions I used were wired by microUSB. Having a battery in there will definitely add some heft. 

The build is plastic, of course, but feels like quality work. The matte finish shrugs off fingerprints and felt as comfortable and natural as an Xbox One controller.

The most unique aspect of Valve's controller has to be the touchpads. Instead of the analog sticks of a standard console controller you've got two touchpads for

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Oculus Rift Crystal Cove prototype unveiled with bizarre OLED display

Oculus has unveiled the latest prototype of its Oculus Rift virtual reality headset at CES 2014, known as “Crystal Cove”.

The prototype next-gen virtual reality headset attempts to improve the virtual reality experience by doing away with motion blur that caused some people to feel very poorly.

Previous iterations of the Oculus Rift used traditional LCD screens, but the Crystal Cove prototype has OLED technology which has lower latency so the images respond more quickly to the user’s movements.

Crystal Cove also has a full positional tracking system that uses a camera to track over 24 IR dots located all over the headset. This means you’ll be able to lean and crouch in game, as the camera will see your head moving in the 3D space. Hopefully, this will help motion sickness too.

There’s a rather special OLED screen in the Oculus Rift Crystal Cove prototype that Oculus is calling a “low-persistance-of-vision display”.

“Low persistence is really, really important. It’s probably the most important thing we’re showing”, said Oculus founder, Palmer Luckey to Polygon. “It doesn’t sound really exciting, but it’s incredible the difference low persistence makes. You really have to see it. It’s mind blowing.”

Basically, it utilises the same concept that lets you watch movies filmed at 24fps. Although the images only flash one at a time, your mind is capable of filling in the blanks to create a semi-seamless motion.

Oculus is intentionally reducing the amount of information your eyes see with the Crystal Cove, so your

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7 Games We Want Announced this year 2014

New year, new games

The future is NOW, and we want it to be as bright as can be. But when it comes to game reveals, this new year will have to work hard to even come close to 2013. Those 365 days saw the unveiling of the PS4 and Xbox One, along with Titanfall, Destiny, Smash Bros. Wii U/3DS, and dozens more massively hyped games. 2014 will need some big titles to match that, and we know just the games that could get our hearts racing.

This week’s top 7 has us dreaming up the releases that we not only want revealed in 2014, but are also the ones that the industry needs right now. But there’s one important ground rule with this list: No Half-Life 3 Episode 3 (and HL3 is even less likely). We’re not wasting valuable list space on a game that we all know will never come out--and no Last Guardian either. Our list is filled with games that at least have a remote possibility of happening, such as...

7. Star Fox Wii U

Why we need it in 2014: Because we deserve an honest-to-goodness reboot of the space fighting fox and friends. Not “Star Fox Becomes King of the Dinosaurs.” Not “Starfox On Foot With A Bazooka.” Not “Star Fox 64 with Different Voice Actors in 3D.” We need Fox, Peppy, Falco, and yes, even Slippy back in our lives, better than we remember them. Star Fox Command kinda had that, but it was burdened with gimmicky touch controls. This is the year to get it right.

Who should make it: Nintendo, clearly. Despite our gripes with previous games, they’ve yet to truly messed up Star Fox--it’s just that Nintendo added things that weren’t the best fit for the series. Strip away all the new and strange mechanics, put the little critters back in their jets, give us Bill and Kat back, and you have yourself a new blockbuster. Of course, we’d also be fine with Nintendo handing this big boy over to Platinum Games. Fans have been rumbling about this potential mash-up for a while, and with the developer’s track record, it might just be the refreshing pair of eyes that this old franchise needs.

6. Next-gen Crash Bandicoot

Why we need it in 2014: Because we know it’s coming. Well, maybe “know” is too strong a word, but hints have

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Which Steam box should i buy?

Valve's Steam Machines have been stealing the headlines at CES 2014, with Gabe Newell unveiling an impressive roster of third-party consoles all hoping to nudge your current gaming machine out of the living room.

There will certainly be more to come, but for now we've rounded up the Steam Machines that have been announced so you can pick through the details and find your favourite.

Some of the specs have been confirmed, some haven't been locked down, but it's worth remembering that many of these Steam Machines can be customized.

The idea is that it works for you.

Valve's Steam Machine

Valve sees itself as an enabler for third parties to swoop in and offer SteamOS on their devices, but that hasn't stopped it welding a Steam Machine of its own. Valve's black box reminds us of the Xbox 360 Elite but a darned sight more powerful.

The 300 prototype units shipped in December came varied in their organs.There was a mixture of Nvidia Titan, GTX660, GTX760 and GTX780. Meanwhile processors varied between Intel i7-4770, i5-4570 and i3.

We've no idea what price Valve might be putting on its own Steam Machines, but looking at those graphics cards it's safe to say that they'll be the dearer side of an Xbox One.

CyberpowerPC

The CyberpowerPC Steam Machine is one of the better looking of the crowd. It comes in two flavours, both with 8GB of DDR3 RAM and a 500GB HDD as standard.

The $499 (about £305, AU$550) 'A' model has a 2GB AMD Radeon R9 270 graphics card with an AMD 3.9GHz dual-core processor.

The 'I' version is more expensive at $699 (about £425m AU$780) but will come with a 2GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 760 GPU and holds a 3.5GHz Intel Core i3 processor. Expect to be able to get your hands on these in the second half of 2014.

Digital Storm Bolt II

Digital Storm's liquid-cooled entry is a high-ender, but the Bolt II could be worth the cash if you're looking to harness maximum power. It's also going hybrid, letting you choose to boot either Windows or SteamOS.

Completely customizable, the Bolt II has four configurations, one of which packs an Intel Core i7-4770k processor, Nvidia GTX 780 Ti graphics card, 16GB of RAM, 120GB SSD, 1TB hard drive - and a steep price of $2,584 (about £1,574, AU$2890).

However we're told the starting price for the

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Guinness World Records reveals the greatest gaming moments of 2013

Guinness World Records has released its 2014 gaming edition revealing the latest and greatest gaming achievements from the past year.

The latest Guinness World Records Gamer’s Edition marks the seventh one in the series that are annually released to celebrate the most dedicated gamers on the planet.  

Standing out amongst the list is Michael Thomasson, recognized as the owner of the largest video game collection in the world.

The 43-year-old video game college teacher from Buffalo, USA, has a whopping 10,607 games at his disposal estimated to be worth around £423,000. 

Even more impressive is the fact that Thomasson had to restart his collection from scratch twice.

Once after selling it off in 1989 to buy a Sega Genesis and again after selling to pay for his wedding in 1998. But after buying two games per day with a $3,000-a-year budget he’s finally made into the big book. 

Another teacher from California has entered dance-gaming history for enduring a massive 49 hours, 3 minutes and 22 seconds on popular dance-simulation game ‘Just-Dance 4’.

Carrie Swidecki, who considers herself an ambassador for ‘exergaming’ says: “I never want to wake up from this dream!  13 years ago I was 210 pounds, and then I discovered how easy it was to exercise using videogames. I lost 75 pounds, went down 10 sizes, set 5 World Records.  I have become an advocate to fight childhood obesity in schools!”

Alongside individual gaming feats, the Gamer’s Edition also includes significant moments in the last 12 months

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10 Best Indie Games on Xbox

The Xbox Live Arcade has a library that's bursting at the seams with game offerings, so much so that you might find it overwhelming at times.

If you haven't yet been tempted to buy an Xbox One, don't despair. There's plenty of life in the Xbox 360 yet, especially if you've yet to properly explore the titles available from the Xbox Live Arcade.

We've picked what we feel are the best of the lot, with release dates all the way up to 2013.

If you think we've missed any titles that you put in your top ten, feel free to let us know in the comments below.

Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon

Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon may be related in title to its sibling Far Cry 3, but is vastly different in terms of game content. Blood Dragon is a cyber shooter that is like walking into an 80s version of the future.

It’s rammed full of comic clichés, is gratuitously violent and pretty foul-mouthed. We sometimes think the joke wears a bit thin, but it's definitely worth your time.

Price: £9.99

Platform: Xbox 360

Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition

Although the Xbox 360 Edition of Minecraft is a little leaner than the original PC version, the world is still only limited by your own mind and imagination.

Of course, Minecraft is a game that doesn’t need much of an introduction, but for those not familiar with the game, it’s a game that requires you to build your own blocky, virtual world. There are challenges to be achieved and points to strive for, but really it is just about enjoying the creation process.

You will have to protect your little world against the night monster though, so beware.

Price: £13.49

Platform: Xbox 360

Trials Evolution

If you played Trials HD, Trials Evolution is its successor and offers 50 single-player career levels that are terrific fun. This physics-based motocross title also has a multiplayer mode that is very accessible. You won’t need pro skills to have fun with Trials Evolution, which makes it even more enjoyable.

If you fancy trying your hand at building your own track, there is a course creator included that will allow you to share your creations with players around the world.

The crisp graphics and slick controls only add to the appeal of this motocross title.

Price: £9.99

Platform: Xbox 360

Battlefield 1943

If you’ve ever

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10 Best Indie Games on PS4 and PS3

With the PS4 launch not yet a distant memory, we've taken a tour of the PlayStation Network to find out which games you need for your PS3, PS Vita or brand new Sony box.

PlayStation owners are lucky to have such a vast amount of games available on the PlayStation Store, so sometimes it's helpful to have someone to do the trawling for you.

We've picked ten of our favourites from PSN for you to choose from, but of course there are some older favourites we've missed out like Flower, to keep things fresh.

Hopefully, we've been helpful, but if there's a great game we've missed out, please feel free to add it in the comments below.

Contrast

Contrast was one of the first titles to be made available for the PS4 with a PlayStation Plus subscription. The game is set in a 1920s dreamscape, where you must shift between the physical 3D world and the 2D shadow world.

You play as Dawn, the imaginary friend of a little girl named Didi and solve increasingly difficult puzzles  as you traverse a world full of circus performers, magic and cabaret.

It’s free for anyone wielding a PlayStation Plus account for PS4, but on the PS3 it will set you back £11.99. It’s certainly worth every penny.

Price: £12.79 or Free with PlayStation Plus, £11.99 for PS3

Platform: PS4, PS3

Minecraft: PlayStation 3 Edition

After the Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition was released in May, there was great anticipation for the release of a PlayStation version of the block-building creation game. Finally, on December 18, developer Mojang answered our prayers.

However, currently there’s only a PS3 edition of Minecraft available, with PS4 and PS Vita versions of the game in the works for launch sometime in the near(ish) future.

For anyone who isn’t familiar with the blocky Minecraft world, you are able to build your own world out of coloured blocks, defend those creations against enemies and generally explore.

The Xbox 360 edition stayed in the top 10 of the UK All Format Gaming Charts for months, so the PS3 version is worth a look.

Price: £12.99

Platform: PS3

Doki Doki Universe

This cross-platform adventure game is one of the last to arrive in 2013, and is quite the unusual journey for the average PlayStation gamer.

You play as a robot named QT3 who must travel around and prove his humanity before being

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Games of January 2014

The 2013 holidays were stuffed with new releases, so if you're looking for a break, now's your chance. Not that January doesn't have anything to offer, mind you. 2014's debut welcomes a number indie ports, next-gen remakes, and a long-awaited KickStarter project from Tim Shafer and the Double Fine Productions team. 


Assuming you aren't already buried under a mountain of untouched games, and have some money left to throw around, let us guide you through the new releases of January 2014.

January 7

Don't Starve: Console Edition

Platform: PS4

EU: TBD 

How long can you hack it in an alternate dimension crawling with mutant spiders, warrior pigs, starving monsters, and other creepy crawlies? Find out in this PS4 port of Klei Entertainment's Don't Starve, a top-down, action adventure game that tests players' ability to survive an unforgiving world where the penalty for death is starting from scratch.

Set in a randomly generated, 2D environment, Don't Starve forces players to forage for food, build shelters, research new survival tools, hunt for food, and mix resources to create more effective (and sometimes stranger) equipment. Exploration and experimentation are key, and players can expect to die often as they dig in to the game's secrets and hidden features. How you play is up to you, but watch that hunger meter and keep your fire going unless you want to be snatched by shadow demons. Did we mention the shadow demons? Yeah, good luck with that. Read our Don't Starve review for more insightful tips.

January 14

Assassin's Creed III: Liberation HD

Platforms: PS4, PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PC

EU: January 15 

Aveline de Grandpré headlines this Assassin's Creed spin-off, which was first released as a PS Vita title back in October 2012. Now up-rezzed, remodeled, and re-released for download on PSN, Xbox Live, and Steam, Assassin's Creed III: Liberation HD will see the female assassin once again using her skill for stealth and murder to stop a Templar plot in 18th Century New Orleans--this time for console audiences.

Aveline's quest will play like prior Assassin's Creed entries. From Louisiana to Chichen Itza, she will parkour her way through historically-inspired locations while assassinating targets, stalking Templars, and pickpocketing the occasional chump along the way. Her adventures will also see her pairing with Assassin's Creed III's Connor to retrieve an ancient relic and further the Assassin's Creed narrative. Find out what improvements

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Top 7 Zombie Games

Mmmm...Brains...

What would you do if shambling corpses rose from the dead and began walking through town, chowing down on your Aunt Gertrude's gams? You're probably thinking you would be the complete badass in your survivor group. After all, as a gamer, you would have the most experience dealing with the walking dead--from, y'know, playing The Walking Dead. You've smashed more zombie brains, shotgunned more rotting faces, and mastered more corpse-killing weapons than you can count, all thanks to video games.

We will all owe zombie games our lives when the inevitable apocalypse comes to pass. And that's why we've gathered together the games that got us to this level of undead-slaying efficiency. Check out our list of the best zombie games that you can get your hands on and start training for the end times now.

7. Zombies Ate My Neighbors

The only reason LucasArts' legendary top-down shooter isn't higher on this list is that its focus is on movie monsters in general. But the shambling undead play a huge part in the gloriously campy chaos that is Zombies Ate My Neighbors, considering they're the first--and most prominent--enemy that Zeke and Julie encounter. Their appearance is classic zombie: clothes tattered, arms outstretched, a vacant, goofy half-smile on their decomposing faces. But when you watch your neighbor get devoured by these rotting corpses, they become downright terrifying.

Sure, these zombies are somehow vulnerable to water; one spritz from a squirtgun is all it takes to make them explode in a spray of bones. Yet, despite their frailty, their brisk pace and unyielding pursuit of anything with a brain is chilling, particularly to a youngster first experiencing the wonders of 16-bit. And that strange, chewing-meets-laughing Grawnaha sound they make is petrifying. 

6. Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare

What if zombies infested the wild, wild West? Well, Undead Nightmare is your answer. The Red Dead Redemption DLC has all of the characteristics that made the main storyline so great, only now almost everything you encounter is a walking bag of rotting flesh. You'll meet up with the same familiar characters from the standard campaign--who will probably be getting chewed on by brain eaters. There are new weapons and quests to find, towns to defend, and mythological horses to tame--plenty to keep you occupied well beyond the 6-hour story campaign.

The Undead Nightmare DLC is just about big

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10 Scariest Games Ever

1. Amnesia: The Dark Descent

The year is 1839 and you play as Daniel, an amnesiac who wakes in Brennenburg Castle with a letter, from himself, stating he deliberately wiped his own memory and instructing himself to murder Alexander, the Baron of the castle. Daniel only remembers three things: his name, where he lives and that something is hunting him. There is no combat mechanic, so you are forced to hide, and to run. As Daniel spends more time in the dark hiding from monsters, he gradually descends into insanity, seeing and hearing things that aren’t there.

2. Slender

Slender is a free first person survival horror game based around the urban legend of the Slenderman, a tall, faceless, suit wearing individual who makes a habit of abducting children. In the middle of a dark wood, you have to collect 8 cryptic notes explaining the true terror of the Slenderman, before succumbing to his horror. It is a chilling game with incredible atmosphere that greatly succeeds in furthering the terror spread by the urban legend.

3. Cry of Fear

Cry of Fear is a first person survival horror mod of Half Life utilising Valve’s source engine. You play Simon, another amnesiac who wakes in a dark alley in a twisted version of Stockholm. Desperate to find out if he has gone insane, Simon will confront horrific creatures to get to the truth. Although based of the source engine and maintaining Half Life’s stellar combat mechanics, Cry of Fear is a total conversion mod and utilises new tools and abilities, making for a chilling experience.

4. Dead Space

Set in a dark and distant future, mankind has the ability to “crack” planets: literally crack a planet open and harvest its resources. When a religious artefact related to a twisted cult is discovered on the planet Aegis VII, The Ishimura mining ship goes dark. Isaac Clarke, whose girlfriend is stationed aboard The Ishimura, is part of the engineering team sent to uncover what is really going on. What follows is, in our humble opinion, one of the best and most terrifying gaming experiences of the last decade.

5. Manhunt 2

Rockstar London’s psychological horror game follows Daniel Lamb and his escape from Dixmor Asylum for the Criminally Insane. Daniel is an amnesiac and his journey brings him face to face with insane inmates and mysterious, deadly organisations. The gameplay centres on stealth

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9 Companies fighting to stay alive in 2014

As we enter a new year of hope for a rapidly expanding tech industry we also have to take stock that the times ahead, while full of promise, could also be fraught with trouble for some.

In 2013, we lost games publisher THQ and video retail chain Blockbuster among others, so the streets are not necessarily paved with gold for all. Some are merely paved with broken dreams and diminishing returns. Hopefully, all will hop and skip their way over the slabs throughout the 12 months successfully, like Michael Jackson in the Billy Jean video, but these are the companies we think are most at risk and will have to wear their most grippy-soled dancing pumps.

BlackBerry

The once mighty BlackBerry (née Rim) had a troubled 2013 and it's hard to see how things can improve radically over the course of 2014. The end of last year saw the axing of former CEO Thorsten Heins, a soft-launch of BlackBerry 10 handset the Z30, almost as if the company was embarrassed by it, and the confirmation that without the help of new partner Foxconn, the firm would have to exit the phone manufacturing business entirely.

Its share prices have fallen steadily and continue to do so, regardless of the ambition of new CEO John Chen. He recently announced that the company's recent enforced changes and new positioning in the market are in a good position to return to profitability by 2016. This will mean a greater focus on the company's BlackBerry Enterprise Services and BBM on multiple platforms. But with major rivals spending more on alternative solutions to attract business customers - such as Samsung's Knox - and other messaging competitors having an upper hand across the devices recently supported by BBM, the more obvious perils lie this year, not further down the line. 

HTC

In all honesty, we would be devastated if HTC had a tricky 2014, it has already had a rocky 12 months regardless of the launch of what many consider the best Android phone on the market. But it is for that reason that there could still be troubles ahead for the Taiwanese firm. If the best smartphone couldn't turn the company into a profitable organisation, what can?

Early hope will lie in its follow-up handset, currently dubbed the HTC One 2 or HTC M8 (as a codename). Many expect it to be launched as soon as

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How AMD and Nvidia are tackling PC gaming optimization

Over the last few years PC gaming has become significantly more approachable to the everyday gamer, thanks to a combination of more affordable hardware and the availability of discounted digital game libraries through places like Steam and Green Man Gaming.

While the price has gone down for both PC hardware and titles, more recently Nvidia and AMD have tried to alleviate even more gamer headaches with optimization software. To this end, Nvidia opened its GeForce Experience beta to the public in January, and AMD launched its Raptr-powered Gaming Evolved application in September.

On the surface, the two applications almost seem cut from the same cloth. Both simplify the process of downloading new graphics card drivers to a one-click software update. Similarly, the software packages also set all your graphics settings following some basic guidelines that prioritize a faster frame rate or greater visual fidelity.

Continuing the similarities, the pair of apps were developed with the explicit purpose to help fine tune visual settings for less tech savvy gamers. After all, not everyone knows the difference between tessellation (the splitting of polygons) and ambient occlusion (the way light radiates and reflects) to save their overheating GPU as the FPS craters.

While the two apps are much the same in nature and purpose, that's where their commonalities end. We recently spoke with Nvidia and Raptr, the online gaming partner that powers AMD's Gaming Evolved app, to uncover how each are figuring out PC optimization and what they might have in store for the gaming masses in the future.

The numbers game

Raptr is a 7-year old game tracking service that helps users keep tabs on how long they've been playing games. Beyond clocking hours it's also an online community site that ties together users' Xbox, PlayStation Network, and PC gaming accounts for those achievement/trophy obsessed.

Raptr CEO Dennis Fong explained that although the optimization piece is new to his company's offerings, it's not actually that much further than what Raptr was already doing. The company itself tracks over 2,000 computer games with more than 20 million users. It also uses technology that can tell whether gamers were playing a single or multiplayer title, what games they've installed and what hardware makes up their rigs.

In a micro-sized version of the Raptr service, AMD's Gaming Evolved pulls crowdsourced data from a user base edging over one million.

"The way we designed the system

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Google: What to Expect in 2014

Google had a superb year in 2013, adding around 35% to its share price and producing some fantastic devices, but where does it go from here?

Mountain View has spent much of the last year joining up its products, so 2014 will likely see more of their rhetoric becoming a reality – perhaps not through new products but features added to their current line up.

It wants to integrate its services with more aspects of your life, so climb aboard as we make ten Google-shaped predictions for 2014:

1. Beyond KitKat

The recent release of Android 4.4, codenamed KitKat, was a relatively minor update to Android, as Google sought to perfect its mobile OS – and it was a disappointment for those who were hoping for a shiny new version of Android.

However, it's now even more likely that a fresh version of Android will land mid-2014, possibly at Google I/O. What's more, as each version of Android is codenamed with a dessert or confectionary following on alphabetically from its predecessor, it creates obvious speculation about which L-based sweet it could be.

It could be "liquorice" but we'll put our money on "Lion Bar" after the recent love-in with Nestle.

Between Android 4.1 and 4.4, the look and feel of Android hasn't altered much, so expect this to be a big part of Android 5.0, perhaps echoing iOS's colourful design after year's of Android 4.0's gloomy all-black theme.

2. Chromecast for everyone

Google's had a good year with Chromecast but expect much bigger things in 2014. Aside from the obvious global roll out, Mountain View has already said that it's looking to create an open SDK, so third party developers can create their own apps and uses for Chromecast.

The result, at least in the short term, could be app streaming from a much bigger pool of core Android apps, which means you'll be able to enjoy what you see on your phone in the comfort of your living room. What's more, Android 5.0 could see app streaming features as a key improvement.

3. Google does the robot

December's purchase of Boston Dynamics, the robot-building super-brains responsible for BigDog and the Cheetah Robot might have raised a few eye-brows, but 2013 has seen it suck up a slew of small robotics businesses.

Google insiders have called this spending spree a "moonshot' headed by Andy Rubin, the brain behind Android. However, the New

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