Oculus Rift secures $16 million in venture capital

Oculus Rift has not only caught the eyes of gamers, but the interest of investors. The new funding will allow for more prototypes and experiments, and the eventual release of a consumer version of the much buzzed-about VR headset.

Read more: Planning to double staff, build new prototypes »

Max Payne 3 is making a surprise appearance on OS X this week. Rockstar Games has announced that the game will jump and slo-mo dive into the Mac App Store on June 20th. Like its PC counterpart, the Mac version will feature higher-resolution textures and character models and "advanced graphics" over the console iterations.

Read more: Mac min-specs »

Starting with Battlefield 4, all games using Frostbite 3 will be "optimized exclusively" for AMD cards, IGN reports. Given that Frostbite 3 has become EA's engine of choice for its upcoming slate of games, this could be a significant blow to rival graphics card manufacturer Nvidia.

According to their report, "while Nvidia-based systems will be supported, the company won't be able to develop and distribute updated drivers until after each game is released."

Read more: 'Very true to the original game and very modern' »

If there's one thing people love more than social games, it's investing in social game companies. Capitalizing on the runaway success of Candy Crush Saga, Midasplayer (aka King) is looking into going public and launching an IPO.

If you've logged into Facebook any time in the past few months, it's likely you've received an invitation to play Candy Crush Saga, currently the most popular game on the social network. The match-three game locks progression behind walls that can be bypassed through money or hassling friends.

Read more: But what about Zynga? »

Mickey Mouse was once a video game celebrity, thanks largely to a handful of beloved platformers starring the Disney mascot. Castle of Illusion was among the most fondly remembered, and in the era of HD remakes, another visit to the castle was inevitable. Judging by hands-on time at E3, Sega is striking a delicate balance between nostalgia and revisionism.

Read more: 'Very true to the original game and very modern' »

Nintendo announced last week that it would be trying its hand at a free-to-play game sometime this fiscal year. We expected the company to bank on one of its franchises, but we didn't see this coming: it will be a sequel to Steel Diver, the 3DS launch game.

Read more: Four-player battle mode »

There are two certainties when dealing with Nintendo: a) Princess Peach will get kidnapped again and b) their franchises will always make the jump to handheld. One Nintendo series has managed to escape the grasp of their portable empire, however: Pikmin.

Apparently, Nintendo has been keen on bringing its strategy series to handheld, with series creator Shigeru Miyamoto admitting that the company "experimented" with both DS and Game Boy Advance prototypes. However, "we really felt that the portable machine simply didn't have the capabilities to create the Pikmin gameplay in a way that we felt like it needed to be represented," Miyamoto said.

Read more: 3DS version wouldn't 'feel like Pikmin' either »

Dark Souls 2 game director Tomohiro Shibuya raised some fan concern when he said this new game would be "more straightforward and more understandable." Long-time fans of the series worried that the notoriously difficult game would be compromised for the sake of a larger audience. Shibuya clarified that he simply wants a smoother difficulty curve and clearer story elements. In addition, co-director Yui Tanimura now says that he was referring to reducing tedious tasks throughout the game.

Read more: Areas were 'a little bit tedious or time-consuming' »

Here's the next DLC pack for Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. "Vengeance" will be coming to Xbox 360 first on July 2, and PC and PlayStation 3 later.

The add-on includes four new maps--Cove, Detour, Rush, and Uplink--as well as a new zombie map set in a Wild West town. The latter will also introduce a new version of the Ray Gun, aptly named the Ray Gun Mark II.

Read more: Four maps and a ray gun »

Those of you who have been wishing for a comedic morality play to take along with you can celebrate. Double Fine's adventure game The Cave will be headed to iOS devices sometime this summer.

Read more: Touch-based movement »

Next-gen games from EA Sports will use the company's shiny new Ignite engine. However, EA Sports is targeting PS4 and Xbox One, without any mention of PC. FIFA 14, the lone annual sports franchise still appearing on PC, isn't using it. EA Sports executive VP Andrew Wilson has explained why, but says the engine might make the jump to the PC at some point.

Read more: Average PCs need to match next-gen consoles »

After a couple of CG trailers and no gameplay, Eidos Montreal is finally showing fans what how Thief is going to play on the PS4. The developer revealed the footage at the Sony booth, offering a 10-minute segment of the mission that was playable at the show.

Watch: Gameplay then Q&A »

Surgeon Simulator 2013 is already perhaps the most realistic simulation of the yahoos and cowboys who pass for surgeons nowadays, I type with my thresher-savaged right arm reattached upside-down and back-to-front. And soon, it'll undoubtedly be so. Developer Bossa Studios has announced it's adding supporting for the Oculus Rift VR headset and Razer's Hydra motion controller.

Read more: Coming "soon" and on show this weekend »

Final Fantasy XIV is approaching the finish line of a lengthy relaunch process that has been in the public eye for almost a year. Part of that has been preparing the game for PlayStation 3, but the port's showing at E3 2013 made me less eager to witness this rebirth.

Read more: Hot-bar and less-than-hot visuals »

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt owes its legacy to a primarily PC focus, and CD Projekt Red plans to follow through with that tradition as much as possible on consoles. That means that, to whatever extent console manufacturers will let them, the studio plans to offer free downloadable content, but cautions that it doesn't know the console business models yet.

Read more: 'There are different business models on consoles' »

Infamous: Second Son is starring a brand new protagonist, but that's not the only change coming to the franchise for its first PlayStation 4 outing. A brochure implies that the game may get some form of multiplayer mode, which if true, would be a series first.

Read more: 'Online players TBC' »

DRM-deficient digital distributor GOG has launched a mighty summer sale, cutting 50% off the ticket price of most its games, both new and old. This means you can snap up a ludicrous number of bargains. On top of that, GOG's running even bigger one-day sales and, oh my, is offering Runic's fine action-RPG Torchlight for free to get things rolling.

Read more: Loads of D&D games for $21 in first daily deals »

After selling 250,000 copies in two days, it was pretty clear State of Decay would do pretty well for itself. The open-world zombie 'em up passed 500,000 sales within its first week, publisher Microsoft Studios has announced, declaring it "the fastest selling original game ever on Xbox Live Arcade." The "original" bit is to exclude Minecraft, see.

What now? Undead Labs is still working on patches, apparently doesn't have too much to do on the PC edition, and making a sandbox mode. Beyond that, well, there's still its dream of a full-on zombie MMO, codenamed 'Class4'.

Read more: Class4 needs greenlight from Microsoft »

Telltale has narrowed down the launch window for The Walking Dead's $5 DLC '400 Days' from summer to July. That's it. Yup. The DLC introduces five new characters, who each star in their own story as they live through the first 400 days of the zombie apocalypse.

Read more: Affected by Season 1 choices, and affecting Season 2 »

Harebrained Schemes is bringing its successfully crowdfunded cyberpunk fantasy world Shadowrun Returns to PC and tablets on July 25, a little later than originally planned. But, as promised, the developer is including a nice little bonus: all the campaign files to go with the game's editor.

Read more: Following in Trent Reznor's footsteps »

The Microsoft press conference debuted quite a few games, but it had a distinct lack of Crackdown. That doesn't mean the franchise is dead, though, as Microsoft Studios general manager Phil Spencer says he'd like to see it return when the stars align properly.

Read more: 'Given right team and time' »

DoubleDutch Games and No Time To Explain creator tinyBuild today announced SpeedRunners, a PC platformer where you're a superhero who simply needs to run off the edge of the screen. Only, all the other heroes will do their best to slow you down and pull you back. It's four-player local competitive multiplayer, see.

Watch: Wacky racing in the announcement trailer »

Injustice: Gods Among Us took the top position for a second consecutive month on the NPD charts. While impressive, there was also little competition. In fact, only three new releases made the list this month, and two of them aren't even technically new games. Metro: Last Light debuted at a respectable 6th place, while the new 3DS and Wii U ports of Donkey Kong Country Returns and Lego Batman 2 charted. The lack of new releases caused an 84% decrease in unit sales year-over-year, NPD analyst Liam Callahan points out.

Read more: Xbox 360 dethroned »

While IndieCade's E3 booth may not be as boisterous as others at the show, its impact cannot be denied. IndieCade has been home to games such as Braid, Dear Esther, and Skulls of the Shogun long before they were on anyone's radar and this year looks to continue that trend. Here are some of the more notable games I got to check out.

Read more: IndieCade E3 favorites

There was a common theme amongst game publishers last week at E3: many of them were announcing new racing games. In fact, every E3 press conference highlighted some upcoming racer. I spent time with every big new racing game at the show, and walked away with impressions of each. With so many options available, which E3 racer is right for you?

Read more: Forza, Gran Turismo, DriveClub, Need for Speed, and more »