games

Where last year's show felt empty, E3 2013 was anything but. Show-goers were treated to a barrage of new software to gawk over, a lot of which are brand-new franchises. Taking into consideration criticism from my past lists, I'll be highlighting only games that featured gameplay of some kind. As long as someone played it at E3, it's fair game. Sorry, trailers and teasers won't cut it this year!

Even if you've seen a plethora of images and videos showing the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 from every possible angle, the following high-quality 3D renders, with 360-degree pan and zoom, give you a fuller impression of each console.

Using modeling programs like Blender and Maya, designers JC Volumic and Sylvain Bernard created very accurate 3D renders of the Xbox One and PlayStation 4. The interactive experience, hosted on Sketchfab, lets you check out just about every conceivable angle of the two highly anticipated gaming devices. Most modern smartphones should be able to view these renders, too.… Read more

Today's HDTVs are packed with Smart TV suites, fancy picture processing, and other extras that add functionality and/or affect picture quality. For a serious gamer, none of that matters compared to the responsiveness of the TV, and often the extras just get in the way.

The culprit is input lag. That's the term for the delay, in milliseconds, between a TV receiving a signal and the results of that signal appearing on the screen. Those milliseconds are irrelevant for TV shows and movies, and they don't even matter for most games -- the majority of gamers probably wouldn't even notice if their TV was laggy. But if you're an attentive, skilled gamer, especially one who plays "twitch" games like Call of Duty, Halo, or fighting games, especially in online multiplayer environments, input lag can mean the difference between virtual life and death.

CNET just started testing for input lag, and so far we've corralled a handful of 2013 TVs. Here are five of our favorites so far, in ascending order of lag in Game mode -- or the least laggy picture mode, if Game isn't an option. For reference, we grade under 40ms of lag as Good, 40 to 70 as Average, and more than 70 as Poor.

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When the iPhone arrived six years ago, it was the hot commodity. It didn't take long for Apple's sleek, powerful smartphone to dominate the mobile phone market -- and one of its greatest draws was a rapidly growing software marketplace, curated and quality controlled, bringing extraordinarily useful features to what was essentially a pocket-size computer.

However, competitors weren't far behind. Some have continued on, others have failed, but by far the biggest is Internet giant Google's mobile operating system, Android. In fact, the number of Android devices activated outnumbers iOS devices by a mile -- 750 million Android to 600 million iOS.

Nevertheless, as we and many of you well know, the iTunes app marketplace seems vastly superior in quality of content, in spite of Apple's barriers to entry, such as a registration fee for app sellers, and the fact that Google Play is rapidly catching up in terms of quantity and downloads. Apple has pipped 50 billion downloads across over 900,000 apps, while Google Play is currently counting down to that number across 750,000 apps. But there's an even greater discrepancy in app revenue. A massive 76 percent of the entire revenue generated by apps goes to iOS -- leaving the other 24 percent of the pie to all other operating systems.… Read more

Dots is a very attractive and ultimately fun twist on the classic Match 3 genre of mobile games. Using familiar tropes such as the 60-second time limit, high score tracking, and multicolor game board, it's immediately accessible, but just different enough to be engaging beyond the initial playthrough.

As expected, Dots places dots onscreen in a number of colors. You have to drag your finger across them in order to take them off the screen. The five-second tutorial covers this nicely and prepares you for the 60-second high score run. Try to match as many adjacent dots as you … Read more

In the fictional "Game of Thrones" world of Westeros, only one thing seems more inevitable than the show's unending wanton violence and each of the story's heroes meeting an untimely death: winter is coming.

Fans of the HBO show based on George R.R. Martin's novels will know that the problem for the various Westorosi clans is that exactly when winter will arrive and how long it will last is anyone's guess. Summer in the fantasy world may last for years, but when winter sets in -- and there's no apparent way to predict when that will happen -- it can last for generations.

Now, at last, science is stepping in to aid fans and Ravens alike by positing an explanation for why all efforts to adopt an effective system of fictional meteorological forecasting seem so hopeless. A group of graduate students from the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Johns Hopkins University have published a research paper (PDF) suggesting that the most likely cause of the unpredictable weather in Westeros is that the world is orbiting not one, but two stars.… Read more

With one small feature, iOS 7 might introduce the biggest change in iOS gaming since the App Store.

There's something I've wished for on both the iPhone and iPad for years: a true, universal, dedicated game controller. iOS 7 has granted my wish: indeed, one of the small but very significant additions to the next mobile OS announced at WWDC allows for third-party controllers. It's funny this happened to be announced during E3, because it just might be the trigger to change the mobile gaming industry.

Why it's big Third-party accessory-makers have tried making game controllers … Read more

If you're hoping to preorder the PlayStation 4, turning to Amazon might not be your best bet.

The company's initial supply of "Launch Edition" PlayStation 4 units has been exhausted. Amazon has now resorted to selling the "Standard Edition," which won't be available until December 31. When clicking on the "Launch Edition" option on Amazon's page, the company indicates that it's unsure "when or if this item will be back in stock."

Luckily, those looking for a PlayStation 4 on launch day -- which Sony is keeping … Read more