Best New Toys and Games

In gaming, even the most fantastic storylines are ultimately rather linear, with player choice generally only coming into play at certain key points. One developer wants to change that. Working with a London-based team, he's managed to invent self-telling stories. Wait, what?

Good news, everyone! Oculus VR has just recently announced the release of the Oculus Rift Development Kit 2. They've packed in some pretty sweet features this time around; anyone who's interested in making virtual reality games should be very, very excited.

I can remember my long, youthful days of summer at the community pool, fierce neighborhood kickball games, and evenings of catching fireflies. I also remember riding my bike for hours each day. The feeling of freedom while riding to a friend’s house or the exhilaration of speed while flying down a steep hill would have only been made better if I could have shouted, “Eat my chalk dust!” Chalktrail will let your kids do just that. But more importantly, by adding a piece of sidewalk chalk to your kid’s bike or scooter, Chalktrail will let your kids create artwork while getting some exercise. The makers of Chalktrail like to call this blend of activity and artistic creativity, “Artivity.”

While I can't deny that the Virtuix Omni looks pretty awesome, it's not exactly perfect. Using it requires special anti-friction shoes, and learning the ropes is challenging, at best. With that in mind, I'd like to introduce The Virtualizer: a virtual reality platform you can use in your socks.

More and more kids are forfeiting active play for sedentary play, like playing video games. More and more we're seeing overweight and obese kids, and that's partly due to the increase in inactivity. VIGATAR is a machine that will allow kids (and adults) to play video games while still being active. It is an exercise machine that doubles as a video game controller.

“Pursue the silent-0dB gaming environment,” exclaims the marketing banner. Indeed, Palit's looking to provide all the performance of Nvidia's relatively powerful GeForce GTX 750 family graphics chips with none of the fan noise attached to most implementations.

To celebrate the release of The Last of Us Remastered, Naughty Dog has made an exciting announcement. For one night only, they'll be putting on a theatrical production of the game, at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica. If you haven't played the game, it could be the next best thing to doing so.

Although I enjoy traditional gaming controllers, they aren't so great for immersion. There's no sense that you're actually in the game; you aren't really physically interacting with anything. That's what the folks behind the ATOC Gaming Gun are trying to address - and they're doing a very good job.

When the PlayStation 4 first launched, it was considered by many to be a gimmick at best. Sony's looking to change that. Now that it's cleared out some of its more unscrupulous users, it plans to release a free update this summer called "Set Maker." It'll let people host their own talk shows.