Read more: Nintendo to reveal its first smartphone game on Thursday

In a move to compete with Twitch.tv, the leading video game streaming platform, Google launched YouTube Gaming (  Wednesday, a new site that features people live streaming the games they play, instructional walk-throughs and much more.

The site has been in the works for almost a year and YouTube clearly wants to capitalize on the explosive growth in video game watching as a spectator sport. Much of that growth has been fuelled by competitive video gaming, known as e-sports, which are already huge in Asia and growing in North America.

YouTube Gaming is squarely aimed at Twitch.tv, a video game live-streaming site which was bought in August last year by Amazon for $970 million (U.S.). Google was reportedly also interested in purchasing that site, but Amazon beat them out.

Read more: YouTube Gaming website now LIVE

Eco, from developer Strange Loop Games, is described on Kickstarter as a "global survival game," which implies that it's similar to open-world survival games like Rust and Ark: Survival Evolved that are all the rage these days. But in Eco, players are forced to work together to ensure not just their own survival, but that of the world around them, which is affected by just about every action they take.

"The world of Eco will be home to a population of thousands of simulated plants and animals, each living out their lives on a server running 24 hours a day, growing, feeding and reproducing, with their existence highly dependent on other species," the Kickstarter pitch states. Things get complicated when humans—which is to say, players—get involved. Resources must be gathered and used to survive and prosper, but unlike other games in the genre, every resource taken impacts the environment, "and without careful planning and understanding of the ecosystem, lands can become deforested and polluted, habitats destroyed, and species left extinct."

It's apparently even possible to wipe out the entire food chain, resulting in "server-wide perma-death," which is why the game will also provide tools of governance that will enable players to propose, debate, and vote on laws that will affect everyone on the server. A player-run economy, technology and research, and even server-set options for world-ending scenarios like a meteor strike are also planned.

The Kickstarter has been running for two weeks and is currently sitting at a little over $85,000 of a $100,000 goal. Stretch goals include a land ownership system with taxation and building rights, and increasing server capacity to support 100+ player counts. Those aren't necessarily the most exciting stretch goals ever conceived, but the overall simulation sounds potentially fascinating, even in single-player mode, which the game supports—although multiplayer is obviously where the action is.
From PC GAMES

Evolve is, well, evolving. Turtle Rock and 2K intend to support their asynchronous hunting game for a long time, and it all starts here with one massive, boulder-shouldered brute called the Behemoth. He’s the first new monster to be added to the game, and he’s really quite something. In fact, he’s the most fun you can have in Evolve.

Facing off against the Behemoth are four new hunters; a rag-tag collection of cyborgs, bug-eyed aliens, and radar-pinging bats. They make up the ‘Hunting’ Season Pass, whilst the Behemoth came as a pre-order bonus for Evolve. If you were later to the party than the most eager orderers, let me be your guide to if the new DLC is worth looking at.

Read more: Evolve's Behemoth monster gets more fun with more new additional hunters

A world leader in connected devices and software for gamers, today announced the launch of the Razer Orbweaver Chroma, a customizable, mechanical, ergonomic gaming keypad that is specifically designed for tournament-grade controls and color synchronization with other Chroma-enabled devices.

Building on the success of the original Razer Orbweaver, the all-new Razer Orbweaver Chroma provides gamers with 20 fully programmable Razer Mechanical Switches; an eight-way directional thumb-pad; adjustable hand, thumb and palm modules; and now, with all of the beloved lighting features first seen on the Razer BlackWidow Chroma keyboard.

Read more: The Razer Orbweaver Chroma Mechanical Gaming Keypad that gives you Infinite Control and 16.8...