More early bean-spilling has occurred, this time on the part of EA and Bioware.

A leaked post, which has since been taken down revealed the details of the new expansion coming soon for Star Wars: The Old Republic, which will be called Knights of the Fallen Empire. Details are still sparse but we now know that you’ll be able to create a Level 60 character instantly, recruit new and existing companions and be able to play through a new “continuous story” which will be release on a regular basis. Also it’ll be free to all subscribers and launch October 27th.

“A man can have anything… If he’s willing to sacrifice everything. Step into an epic story-driven adventure as your character becomes The Outlander, a veteran of the Great Galactic War. A third faction threatens the galaxy as we know it, and your choices will determine the fate of both the Sith Empire and Galactic Republic. Knights of the Fallen Empire includes the first nine chapters, fueled by BioWare-style cinematic storytelling, that kicks off a new player-driven story arc that puts you at the center of a conflict where your choices have impact on outcomes including unexpected twists and betrayals. Choose your path…join or betray companions, old and new…and shape the future of the entire galaxy as well as your own. Best of all, this is only the beginning…”

E3 is waiting on the doorstep right now, so expect more details to emerge during EA’s spot in the press conferences.

Youtube had said in the past year that they wanted to concentrate on promoting the gaming side of their big video network. A lot of us probably rolled their eyes at that because Youtube’s record of looking after gamers’ videos hasn’t always been… great. Although some of that is down to copyright laws being a bit outdated, but that’s something for an entirely different article.

However yesterday Youtube announced Youtube Gaming, a seemingly streaming-based platform with dedicated channels for specific games and a new, moderated chat system. Which if you’ve ever heard of Twitch will sound mighty familiar.

Youtube are hoping to gain a slice of the streaming pie with this, and it is nice to see a place just for gaming videos and streams so that viewers interested in them can find what they’re looking for a bit easier. Subscribing to channels on the service will allow you to receive notifications when the channel is about to go live. And of course, Twitch’s response to its announcement on Twitter was golden.

. @YouTubeGaming Welcome Player 2. Add me on Google+. #kappa

— Twitch (@Twitch) June 12, 2015

Youtube Gaming will launch this summer and will be available in both website and app forms (PC, iOS and Android).

Oculus Rift has been in development for what feels like forever. Today, on Twitch, the company took the wraps off of the final version of the Rift VR device and shared a ton of new information with its “Step Into The Rift” event.

Firstly, Oculus showed off the actual headset. Covered in fabric, and purportedly light enough to hold with one hand, the final version looks much different than the development kits most of us are accustomed to seeing.

They also detailed the 360 degree audio system built into the Rift. They have also streamlined and refined the constellation tracking on the front of the unit, promising to have low latency tracking of subtle movements via one unobtrusive desktop sensor.The new Rift replaces the familiar fabric straps with what look to be hard plastic ones. The team claims that putting it on is as easy as slipping on a baseball cap, and that the new ergonomic features reduce the pressure on the front of the face. They have also worked to allow users to adjust the distance of the lenses so that you can center them between your eyes. And, in a move sure to please many, they have also altered the design to be more accomodating to those that wear glasses.

They then moved on to reveal that you can stream Xbox One games to the Rift, and that every Rift will include a wireless Xbox One controller and adapter. Xbox head Phil Spencer then came out on stage to tout the Rift’s integration with Windows 10.

Much of the rest of the conference was spent showing off short trailers of games coming to the Rift. In attendance were CCP with Eve Valkyrie, Gunfire Games with Chronos, and Insomniac Games with Edge Of Nowhere. More mention was also made of Damage Core, VR Sports Challenge, Esper, AirMechVR and Lucky’s Tale. it was an impressive looking lineup, and more was promised to be revealed at E3.

Anna Sweet, head of developer strategy also came out to discuss some of Oculus’ strategy moving forward. She repeatedly affirmed that Oculus is committed to building the best platform for games. To that end, Oculus will be investing $10 million to “accelerate independent game development” on the Rift.

Another focus of the event was the announcement that the Rift will work right out of the box with Windows, Nvidia, AMD, Unity5 and Unreal Engine 4. All of this is a push on Oculus’ part to have the Rift be as user and developer friendly as possible, and it seems to be paying off as some of the biggest names in PC gaming are already firmly on board.

The final bit of time for the show was spent showing off the alternate control method for the Oculus, deemed Oculus Touch.

These controllers are meant to be held in the hand and allow the user to interact with the virtual game world in a more realistic manner. The can track hand motions through sensors inside the rings. An example given was being able to point, wave, give a thumbs up, and even pick up a gun off a table and fire it with a natural motion. The Rift team refers to this as “low mental load”, meaning that they want using your hands in game to be as natural as using them in real life.

All in all, it was a very interesting presentation, although I’m left with many questions. of course, Oculus will be at E3 nest week, so they might get answered then.

What do you think? Are you excited? Or still skeptical? Let me know!

Steam recently sorted out their refund policy after years of it not really having much of one. It’s now possible to claim a refund for a game, as long as it’s within fourteen days of purchase and less than two hours have been played.

Sounds pretty fair, but indie devs are beginning to complain that some unscrupulous gamers are taking advantage of it, by buying games, playing through them in less than two hours and then getting their refunds. Essentially, they claim that gamers are playing their full games for free, and if that’s true it’s not good.

Qwiboo, developers of Beyond Gravity, and Puppygames, developers of Revenge of the Titans, are two of these indies, who have backed their claim with graphs. And truthfully it does seem that they have a point…

It’s sort of worrying if this is a trend that is going to keep up. Hopefully Valve will tighten the rules to stop serial committers of “refund demos” before it costs a small indie studio their livelihood.

As we know, soon Windows 10 will be released to the public with a latest Windows update allowing for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users to reserve their copy if they wish.

However, as with every update some things will not be making their way across to the new version. We’ve already seen this with Microsoft’s attempt to remove the Start button for another system for Windows 8, which didn’t really work out as it will be making a return for Windows 10.

This time, Windows Media Centre is biting the dust, as well as the long-lived Solitaire, Minesweeper and Hearts games; although the latter is being replaced with newer versions named Microsoft Solitaire Collection and Microsoft Minesweeper.

Here’s the full list of depreciated features:

• If you have Windows 7 Home Premium, Windows 7 Professional, Windows 7 Ultimate, Windows 8 Pro with Media Center, or Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center and you install Windows 10, Windows Media Center will be removed.
• Watching DVDs requires separate playback software
• Windows 7 desktop gadgets will be removed as part of installing Windows 10.
• Windows 10 Home users will have updates from Windows Update automatically available. Windows 10 Pro and Windows 10 Enterprise users will have the ability to defer updates.
• Solitaire, Minesweeper, and Hearts Games that come pre-installed on Windows 7 will be removed as part of installing the Windows 10 upgrade. Microsoft has released our version of Solitaire and Minesweeper called the “Microsoft Solitaire Collection” and “Microsoft Minesweeper.”
• If you have a USB floppy drive, you will need to download the latest driver from Windows Update or from the manufacturer’s website.
• If you have Windows Live Essentials installed on your system, the OneDrive application is removed and replaced with the inbox version of OneDrive.