Nintendo promised this morning in their Nintendo Direct presentation that they plan to produce two system updates this spring and summer.
As you can see in the image above, these updates will bring quicker speed to the Wii U user-interface. Users have complained about this one for a while.
The spring update will also bring the Virtual Console to the Wii U. While the full VC catalogue will not be available at launch, they will come to the Wii U in batches. The bad news? You’ll need to re-buy your old games. The good news, however, is that they’ll come at a reduced price. Re-buy NES games for $1.00 and SNES games for $1.50.
Capcom can finally wave their nice big “I told you so!” flag. DmC Devil May Cry is officially a hit worldwide after it toppled FIFA 13 from the top of the UK weekly sales charts. FIFA 13 had been king of the hill for several weeks, but it seems that the allure of Ninja Theory’s reboot to the demon slaying series was just too much.
DmC Devil May Cry marks the first time since Resident Evil 5 back in 2009 that an all format game has reached the number one spot on the list.
For the last several months, FIFA 13 and Call of Duty: Black Ops II have been duking it out for supremacy with the occasional new release shaking up the list every now and then. The last game to seriously contend with FIFA 13 was Far Cry 3, which debuted at number 2, and that has now dropped to the fourth.
For those interested in gaming habits across the pond, here is the entire top 20 list.
1. DmC: Devil May Cry 2. FIFA 13 3. Call of Duty: Black Ops II 4. Far Cry 3 5. Need for Speed: Most Wanted 6. Just Dance 4 7. Football Manager 2013 8. Hitman: Absolution 9. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim 10. Assassin’s Creed 3 11. LEGO The Lord of the Rings 12. WWE ’13 13. Dishonored 14. Sonic and All Stars Racing Transformed 15. Skylanders Giants 16. Forze Motorsport 4 17. LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes 18. Medal of Honor: Warfighter 19. NBA 2K13 20. Borderlands 2
In just four days Temple Run 2, the follow up to the incredibly popular endless runner, has garnered over 20 million downloads in the iOS App Store alone. Not only that, but despite being free, it’s already become one of the highest grossing apps because of in-app purchases. People sure do love buying little knick-knack things.
To show just how incredible Temple Run has been for Imangi Studios, an app like Angry Birds Space amassed 10 million downloads over a three day period—and that was across multiple platforms. Temple Run 2 hasn’t even hit Android yet.
This is one of those cases where a simple (and old) idea was executed to perfection. There’s nothing particularly innovative about either game, but they’re entertaining as heck, and perfect time wasters.
Sony's current console line up a little too monochrome for your taste? Look towards the sunrise -- a more colorful PlayStation is about to arrive in Japan. Starting next month, Japanese gamers will be able to decorate their living room with PS3s in "garnet red" and "azurite blue." Sony says the colorful variants will be available in limited quantities when they launch on February 28th, packing a 250GB HDD and priced at ¥24,980 ($279). The colors appeared in Europe over the weekend, too -- flaunting 500GB HDD and a €330 (about $440) sticker price on Amazon.de. No word on North American availability, though we wouldn't be surprised to see it show up in a bundle somewhere down the road.
Since its release on all platforms more than a year ago, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has been a bit of a nuissance for PlayStation 3 owners.
The experience was marred with game-breaking bugs, some of which still haven’t been resolved. Even worse, the downloadable content that the Xbox 360 and PC crowds were enjoying was being held back. Bethesda simply couldn’t get the extra stuff working for the PS3.
Finally, after a good time spent waiting, the PlayStation 3 crowd will have access to all the DLC they’ve been missing out on. Every piece of content is bound for the PlayStation 3 in February. Here’s the word from the official Bethesda Blog:
PlayStation 3: Dragonborn will be the first add-on arriving on PSN in February. Hearthfire will release next, followed by Dawnguard, and all three should be out in February. The 1.8 update will also release, just prior to Dragonborn. We’ll keep you posted as release dates get finalized both on our end and with Sony for each and its various languages. Last but not least, each one will be 50% off during their launch week on PSN.
That bold emphasis is the work of the blog post. And, yes, the DLC that hits the PS3 next month will be 50 percent off during its initial week on the PlayStation Store.
Finally, if you count yourself among the PC crowd, Dragonborn will be available starting February 5th.
What do you think, PlayStation 3 gamers? Is this release and brief apology sale enough to get your love, or is it coming too little too late?
The DualShock controller that’s been the mainstay of Sony’s home consoles since 1997 (it hit North America in 1998) might have reached the end of its legacy with the PlayStation 3. According to a “senior games studio source working on an upcoming Sony game,” as per CVG, Sony’s newest console features a controller design apart from the DualShock line.
CVG further muses that some rumors point towards a new Sony controller modeled after the look of the PS Vita. That means a touchscreen in the center and motion sensors packed into the device. They also suggest that Sony’s hard at work with adding biometric readers to their new input unit.That last bit has been rumored for a long time now.
Given the Bluetooth nature of the DualShock 3, I find it hard to believe that Sony’s potentially named PlayStation 4 would abandon the controllers entirely. I wouldn’t be surprised if the PS4 features a new line of controllers, but also allows for DualShock 3 connectivity specifically for the arena of backwards compatibility. Plus, gamers love options, and the ability to use classic DualShock controllers in new games would be a major selling point.
We’ll be following the PlayStation 4′s inevitable unveiling closely, and we’ll be sure to hit any controller highlights. The DualShock design, for a lot of gamers, is one of the best this medium’s ever seen.
Sony might be firing the starting pistol on the next generation of game consoles earlier than we thought. Hiroshi Sakamoto, the company's vice president of home entertainment, told Chilean tech site Emol "we must wait until May at the earliest" for the PlayStation 4.
"That's still a big secret, but our friends are preparing Sony PlayStation," Sakamoto teased, as translated by the Google magicians. "I can only say that we are focused on the E3 gaming event, scheduled for June's announcement may be in that minute or even earlier in May."
E3, in June, is the enormous annual show -- like CES for gamers -- that was expected to see the debuts of both the PlayStation 4 and next Xbox. But Sony might be taking a leaf out of Apple and (lately) Samsung's book and holding its own separate launch event to hog the limelight.
Asked if a pre-E3 event would be a proper announcement or just a teaser, Sakamoto replied, "Probably the first, in that time we expect to deliver great news, but we must wait until May at least."
While the launch would show us what the hardware looks like, whether it has any controller gimmicks and what we can expect in terms of exclusive games, we almost certainly won't get our hands on the PS4 until much later in the year.
The PS2 reached Europe in November 2000, while the PS3 launched in Japan in November 2006, but we had to wait until March the following year. Seven years on, a near-simultaneous worldwide launch is all but guaranteed.
The PS3 was £299 when it launched, a year later than its bitter rival the Xbox 360. After a couple of redesigns and major price drops, it finally outsold Microsoft's console a few months ago. The PS4 is likely to be cheaper, thanks to third-party components (as opposed to the PS3's expensive and hard to code proprietary Cell chip).
The whole tech industry worked itself into a later over the astonishing world-changing properties of 4K TVs at CES -- so I'd be amazed if the PS4 didn't support the ultra hi-def resolution. Sony has TVs of its own to sell, after all.
Fresh on the heels of the biggest entertainment launch of 2012 – Call of Duty®: Black Ops II, Activision Publishing, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard (Nasdaq: ATVI), and their award-winning development studio Treyarch are kicking-off 2013 with the announcement of Revolution, the first massive Downloadable Content (DLC) Pack for the record-setting game. Since the launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops II, millions of fans have taken-on the game’s ambitious near-future fiction, engaged in over 427 million hours of near-future warfare in non-stop multiplayer action, and survived hordes of Zombies. Set to launch January 29th first, exclusively on Xbox LIVE® for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft with other platforms to follow, Revolution delivers an unprecedented level of content, and for the first time in Call of Duty® DLC history, a new bonus multiplayer weapon.
"With Black Ops II, the team set out to challenge assumptions about what fans should expect from Call of Duty, and there’s no exception with Revolution," said Mark Lamia, Treyarch's Studio Head. "It starts with the massive amount of content that Revolution offers: four distinct multiplayer maps, an entirely new Zombies map and new Zombies mode, and a new bonus weapon. But quantity is just the start — it’s the variety of new gameplay options in Revolution that sets it apart, making it our most compelling DLC offering to date, and a must-play experience for Call of Duty fans."
Revolution takes players to unexpected new locales the world over. “Downhill” is set in the ski country of the French Alps, where players fight their way down the slopes and through a ski lodge, while avoiding the moving hazards of the mountain’s gondola system. Opponents must dodge the floodwaters in “Hydro” as they contend for dominance of this hydroelectric dam facility in Pakistan, filled with treacherous spillways. “Mirage” pits players in competition amidst the sand dunes of a dilapidated luxury resort in the sandstorm-devastated Gobi Desert, where a range of long-distance and close-quarters combat will mix up the action for all play styles. Finally, “Grind” transports players to the historic birthplace of skateboarding, California’s Venice Beach, where they will battle it out through the ramps and half-pipes of this massive, epic skate park in a multiplayer environment comprised of unique curved architecture requiring players to adapt and learn new ways to take cover. Each map in Revolutiondelivers a uniquely exhilarating new landscape for tactics and battle.
Revolution also delivers a lethal bonus multiplayer weapon, the “Peacekeeper.” This powerful SMG, accompanied by its own set of weapon challenges for additional XP, is unlocked to all Call of Duty: Black Ops II fans that pick-up Revolution.
Additionally, Revolution transports players to the Far East, where they will attempt to overcome a zombie infestation inside a series of collapsed skyscrapers towering over the remains of an obliterated Chinese city. In this new and original Zombies map, “Die Rise,” players will wield powerful, upgradable Wonder Weaponry as well as combine new buildable devices to fight a relentless army of the undead throughout Escher-esque sceneries over a deep and perilous chasm. And in a twist, Treyarch has added a new game mode, “Turned,” where players can finally complete against each other as a zombie!
LAS VEGAS -- There might be a real solution to your online gaming at home after all, thanks to D-Link.
The networking vendor announced today at CES 2013 the first 802.11ac-based router designed specifically for gamers, which it aptly calls Gaming Router (model DGL-5500). In a way this is the first major upgrade to the first router of this type, the DGL-4500 GamerLouge, that D-Link released more than four years ago
Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang unveils Nvidia Shield, a brand-new gaming device that leverages Android and the Tegra 4 quad-core processor.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET)
LAS VEGAS--Who says you can't teach an old chipmaker new tricks? Not Nvidia. At CES, the company announced its own gaming device, Nvidia Shield, which will bear its brand name as well as its quad-core Tegra 4 processor.
Project Shield is small -- smaller than a Wii U controller. Fittingly, it looks like a portable Xbox controller with a small flip-up screen. It's got analog joysticks, buttons, and controllers. Nvidia promises between 5 and 10 hours of gameplay on Shield.
Still a prototype, the final name and design could change before the product goes to market, as soon as in a few months, an Nvidia spokesperson said.
"It's pure Android," says Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang. There's nothing proprietary about it; all jacks are standard and the platform is open. It comes with a microSD card slot.
Shield can connect to the cloud to play Android games, TegraZone games, and PC games for PCs with compatible GeForce graphics cards. It also supports multiplayer mode.
Microsoft's SmartGlass and Microsoft's Halo 4 apparently aren't quite getting along on Windows Phone 8 devices. Using SmartGlass, Halo 4 players can normally access their stats and other info about their android supersoldier using the long-established Waypoint service -- except for Windows Phone 8 users, apparently. A forum thread dating back to Halo 4's November launch highlights the issue -- as Xbox.com forum user "Scion Eon" puts it: "Whenever I try to log into SmartGlass on my phone while playing Halo 4, I am immediately greeted with a message that says 'Your device is missing certain required features.'" As it turns out, Mr. Eon isn't the only one experiencing said connectivity issues -- specific to Windows Phone 8 devices -- and Microsoft's aware of the situation.
"We are aware that there is an issue with the Xbox SmartGlass experience for 'Halo Waypoint' on Windows Phone 8 devices, which may prevent users from accessing Halo 4 player stats," a Microsoft rep told us this afternoon. Thankfully, Redmond's also taking care of a solution. "We are actively working on a fix and expect to have a solution within the coming weeks. We appreciate your patience as this gets resolved and apologize for any inconvenience this causes," the statement reads. Of course, should you want to access Halo 4's Waypoint functionality on SmartGlass before that fix, you can always use Microsoft's competitor's devices. But then who'd do that?
ROCCAT made its debut in the States a year ago and now the German gaming outfit is looking to get a jump start on the happenings at this year's CES. The company has announced the Ryos, its first mechanical gaming keyboard with per-key lighting and up to two 32-bit ARM Cortex processors. This method of illumination allows the peripheral to display key functions and macros in addition to information like health stats. The unit also sports 2MB of internal flash storage, up to four Cherry MX key switches in a variety of colors and an included SDK. No word on pricing yet, but the Ryos is expecting to ship during Q1 2013. If a few more details are what you're after, take a gander at the PR that awaits just past break.
Nintendo promised this morning in their Nintendo Direct presentation that they plan to produce two system updates this spring and summer.
