'Dirt Rally' to 'Quantum Break' and the HTC Vive: Upcoming video game titles, console with their release dates

2016 as a watershed year for virtual reality? The HTC Vive follows hot on the heels of Oculus's Rift with an April 5 release, while PC and console gamers anticipate launches for "Dirt Rally," "Dark Souls III" and "Quantum Break."

HTC Vive

For: Windows PC

Available: April 5

At $799 and representing the high end of the spectrum in home VR, following the $599 Oculus Rift launching in March and $399 PlayStation VR set for October, HTC's partnership with PC gaming giant Valve has yielded the tricked-out Vive, which uses discrete Lighthouse cubes to track movement around a room -- hence its reputation as the most mobility-friendly of the three VR headsets -- embeds an outward-facing camera in its visor so users can see what's going on in virtual reality as well as in the space around them, and packs in the custom SteamVR controllers as well. Needs a hefty PC to power it.

Dirt Rally

For: PlayStation 4, Xbox One

Available: April 5

Having launched via Steam's early access on Windows PC in April 2015, and received as a resounding return to form for racing specialist developer Codemasters and its tentpole "Dirt" franchise since, the exacting motorsports simulation provides players with the technical challenge of mastering 70-plus stages over 6 courses inside nearly 40 vehicles both contemporary and classic.

Quantum Break

For: XBO, Windows PC

Available: April 5

The studio behind cult favorites "Max Payne" and "Alan Wake" returns with an ambitious hybrid of episodic TV and video game action. Main character Jack Joyce gifted with the ability to halt the passage of time, and he'll need to use it to stop the game's villain. At key junctures in progress, players can then watch 20-minute episodes that are edited in response to their actions and show things from their enemy's perspective.

Dark Souls III

For: PS4, XBO, WinPC

Available: April 12 (Japan since March 24)

Another descent into the intricately detailed, deviously difficult dungeons planned out by "Souls

Flexible Camera Developed That Can Be Wrapped Around Objects

A team led by an Indian-origin professor at Columbia University has created a novel sheet camera that can be wrapped around everyday objects to capture images that cannot be taken with one or more conventional cameras. "Cameras today capture the world from essentially a single point in space. While the camera industry has made remarkable progress in shrinking the camera to a tiny device with ever increasing imaging quality, we are exploring a radically different approach to imaging," said Shree K Nayar, computer science professor at Columbia University. "We believe there are numerous applications for cameras that are large in format but very thin and highly flexible," added Nayar who graduated from the Birla Institute of Technology, Ranchi, in 1984. Nayar's team designed and fabricated a flexible lens array that adapts its optical properties when the sheet camera is bent. This optical adaptation enables the device to produce high quality images over a wide ...

Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon, Yahoo back Apple in its fight over encryption with FBI

The nation's leading tech companies joined security experts, independent programmers and civil liberties advocates who filed court papers backing Apple in its fight with the FBI over an encrypted iPhone used by an extremist killer. Several law enforcement groups, meanwhile, filed briefs in support of federal authorities who are seeking Apple's help in hacking an encrypted iPhone used by Syed Farook, one of the San Bernardino mass shooters. These "friend of the court" briefs come in advance of a March 22 hearing in which Apple is asking U.S. Magistrate Sheri Pym to reverse an order requiring Apple to create a software program that overrides iPhone security features. That program would let authorities try to unlock Farook's phone by guessing its passcode; Apple says it would make all other iPhones more vulnerable to future attacks. Relatives of five people who were killed, along with one survivor of the December 2 attack, also filed a brief saying the FBI's ...

BlackBerry updates BBM with enhanced privacy, more content control

Canadian mobile manufacturing company BlackBerry on Monday launched a new BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) update that will provide users enhanced privacy and control over messages and content. The update, rolled for iOS, Android and BlackBerry smartphones, is available without any subscription fees. "The new release provides unmatched level of privacy and control to BBM users without any subscription fees. Keeping control over the messages and content that they share, BBM users can be ensured that what they share is always theirs to control," Matthew Talbot, senior vice president (BBM) at BlackBerry, said in a statement.

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