Light Start – HTC VR, charging with water, Starcraft HD, and Quake Champions

HTC will be launching its own VR online storefront, Viveport, later this year

HTC are taking the plunge and opening their own storefront for virtual reality content. Well, if you were the company behind the Vive you might do the same. Called Viveport, there’s a beta test of the global version of the store coming soon. HTC are looking to have users access “…VR–like information, edutainment, social media, 360˚ video, news, sports, health, travel and shopping”, as well as Vive Home, the hub area where users can access widgets and other nifty things. HTC’s Viveport has to compete with Valve’s Steam, which already has a VR portal attached and which is required for HTC Vive VR titles and content but it seems as though HTC are aiming Viveport at general users more than at hardcore gamers. We’ll be keeping tabs on this – we’re expecting an explosion of VR stores to pop up and it’ll be interesting to see who the survivors are at the end of the day.

Source: HTC via The Verge

How to make a cellphone charger when you’re lost in the wilderness

We’ve all had those days where we just forget to charge our phones before we leave the house and have to watch as its life slowly bleeds away, notification by notification. If you’re far from actual electricity, there’s not much you can do. Unless you’re near a stream and happen to have a collection of bits and pieces that can be fashioned into a small generator. The concept has been in use for ages (by hydroelectric dams) but this is a much more portable way to do things and it’ll also charge your phone, if you need it. This could be handy information to have in the event of a massive calamity. We don’t want to let the apocalypse get in the way of Pokémon Go.

Source: Thomas Kim (YouTube)

Word has it that there’s an HD remaster of the original Starcraft on the way this year

Starcraft, the science-fiction RTS title from Blizzard, has been around since 1998. It’s also still being played, by far more people than you’d expect for a game that is legally allowed to drink. So rumours that Blizzard is going to be launching a remastered version of Starcraft is a welcome one. Starcraft HD is thought to be getting an announcement later this year, according to several sources, so it might be making its first appearance at a Starcraft II tournament in Mexico in September. Something more should be announced in November, according to reports, but Blizzard has yet to confirm any of this. We’re hoping that we’re going to get both Starcraft and Brood Wars when the (possible) announcement takes place. We’ve got eyes on September.

Source: via Ars Technica

Quake Champions is set to bring twitch shooting back to your multiplayer

Anyone remember Quake 3 Arena? If you do then the gameplay footage of Quake Champions, a new multiplayer title that harks back to the days when you were excellent at dodging everything right up until that evil bugger hit you with the railgun, should get you at least a little excited. Champions looks like it has retained the speed of play and impact of weapons but there will be new characters and a new set of weaponry for gamers to wield when the game launches. Speaking of launch… Bethesda and iD don’t have a release date as yet. We can expect a beta test next year, so some time around the end of 2017 sounds about right…

Source: Bethesda