When the HTC Vive headset first released, room-scale virtual reality made it possible to truly transport to a virtual world. Gaming in VR has largely stuck to a bite-sized experience though, letting people get back to the real world before too long. But earlier in 2017, Australian YouTube personality Jack McNee said goodbye to real life and spent more than a day in virtual reality, winning a world record in the process.
The marathon, which was documented on the LPVR YouTube Channel, had him playing Tilt Brush for 36 consecutive hours, 2 minutes, and 16 seconds. It has now been confirmed by the Guinness World Records, beating the previous record, set by tech journalist Georgie Barrat, by roughly 11 hours.
One of the requirements for the record is to stay within a single VR app. McNee’s game of choice was Tilt Brush, smartly picked for its freedom. Throughout the event, McNee drew characters from The Simpsons, Adventure Time, Pokémon, and more. Since the whole event was live-streamed, he was able to entertain himself by playing rounds of Hangman and Pictionary with viewers.
According to the official guidelines, McNee was allowed a few small breaks to relieve himself, but meals were hand-fed during play. He was also not allowed to sleep throughout the gaming session.
While the goal of the stream was to break the previous world record, a secondary goal was to collect donations for The Reach Foundation. This is a non-profit organization dedicated to aiding children in need, whether physically, socially, or financially.
For those looking to break a VR world record, there are other records using a virtual reality headset. In April, Alejandro Fragoso and Alex Christison of Cyberlink set the record for continuous hours watching VR Movies. The duo watched for more than two days straight, totaling 50 hours without any sleep.
Before challenging either of these Guinness World Records, be sure to contact the organization for official confirmation. It is also a pretty good idea to keep a few people around who can properly monitor vitals. With the HTC Vive now $200 cheaper, the bar for earning a world record just got a little bit lower.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.