November’s Big Releases, Updates For All

This November we will have a wealth of new games to play. There will be many big name titles coming out for the holidays, and there should be something for everyone. First up is the long awaited alien-shooter Halo 4 coming out on Nov 6. This new game will start the next Halo trilogy, and introduce a new enemy and new game elements. Also coming out on Nov 6 is NASCAR The Game: Inside Line. This new racing game will be a hardcore simulator, but is also to be friendly to beginners. On Nov 13 comes the one and only Black Ops 2. This year’s Call of Duty should add some spice to the series with an entirely rethought story and campaign. Hitman Absolution, the next game in the Hitman stealth series, comes out Nov 20 with more replay value in its contract mode. Pro Evolution Soccer 2013 will also be coming out on Nov 20. Soccer fans can look forward to the next year’s sports gaming, with better gameplay, graphics, and more modes than ever. More November releases

A free dashboard update…what’s better? All Xbox Live subscribers and Playstation users will get an update that will greatly improve their console experiences. The Xbox update will include many things including Internet Explorer, improved voice recognition, a ratings and recommendations section, 9 more supported languages, and customizable homescreens. Microsoft says it wants it to feel more like Windows 8. Sony is also doing a dashboard update. Sony’s Playstation update is more focused on their store; now, everything in a game series is on one store page. More on the Xbox update  More on the PlayStation update

Sources: VGReleases, BGR, and USA TODAY

Top 10 Selling Games This Month

This week we are looking at the top 10 selling games of September and what Nintendo and Microsoft have been up to.

Statistics based off VGChartz’s data show the latest, most popular games, compiled from Sept 1st to 22nd. Whether this helps you decide what to buy, or bragging rights on whose favorite game is really more popular, here it is:

• 10. NHL (PS3) with 45,000 copies sold
• 9. Tekken Tag Tournament 2 (PS3) with 52,000 copies sold
• 8. NHL (Xbox 360) with 76,000
• 7. Borderlands 2 (PC) with 110.000
• 6. Borderlands 2 (pS3) with 287,000
• 5. New Super Mario Bros. 2 (3DS) with 400,000 (during reviewed time)
• 4. Guild Wars 2 (PC) with 500,000
• 3. Borderlands 2 (Xbox 360) with 613,000
• 2. Madden NFL 13 (PS3) with 724,000
• 1. Madden NFL 13 (PS3) with 877,000

Read more.

Nintendo has been busy this week while Sony has been sleep, meanwhile Microsoft has gone in lock down mode. Nintendo recently released Mario’s first DLC, three map packs for coin rush mode. They also gave a surprise video about the new animal crossing game for 3DS. Recently Microsoft went into lock down by closing off sections of their facility, so they could work on the Xbox 720 in peace. Read more.

More details on Halo 4

Halo 4, the newest game in Microsoft’s flagship franchise, will pick up exactly where Halo 3 left off, with Master Chief and Cortana in the Forward Unto Dawn drifting toward a planet. The game is packed with new stuff starting with new enemies and weapons and the start of a new story. In fact, there will be a whole new faction, the Prometheans. These strange robotic creatures are somehow related to the forerunners, a species of human-like creatures that lived in the galaxy in the past. The Prometheans fight very differently than Master Chief’s previous enemy, the Covenant. The Prometheans use many new tactics to bring you down, which should add new depth to the game. The crawlers, the Promethean equivalent of grunts, can crawl up any surface, so hiding behind pillars, walls, or on ledges won’t be as useful as it used to be. The knights, the Prometheans main unit, use their shields, speed, watchers, and teleportation abilities to destroy you. Watchers are an aerial support unit that are deployed by knights, they can use a tractor beams to throw grenades back at you, put a hardlight shield between you and a knight, or they could heal the knight. There are different types of knights and crawlers, so there should be plenty of variety. Halo 4 also has a new take on story telling by making the game more personal. Finally, the game will be in full HD. Before you say that Halo Reach was in HD, recall that true high-definition skins and textures to cover an entire game’s levels and maps would never fit on one game DVD like we buy. That’s why Halo 4 is almost undoubtedly coming on multiple disks. Halo 4 will be not only the must-have game on Xbox when it comes out on November 6, but looks to be a game to remember.

The Wii U games

With the Wii Us release you can look forward to plenty of games. For the first time since the Nintendo 64, a Nintendo console is being released alongside a Mario game, New Super Mario Bros. U. This new Mario game will provide solid but possibly unoriginal game play. Another promising Wii U game is Nintendo Land. Set up like a theme park, with 12 attractions ranging from Mario chase to Takamaru’s Ninja Castle. The Wii U will also have an exclusive zombie game, called Zombie U. This game puts you in London where you get to fight zombies, but with a few twists. We’ve also got Pikmin 3, the next game in the critically acclaimed series. Lego is also making a new game, Lego city: undercover. More focused on open world gameplay then past games. There will also be “special edition” versions of Assassin Creed 3, Batman Arkham city, and Mass Effect 3. While there will be others, these will be the best at launch.

Tech This Week: iPhone 5 and more Apple, Wii U gets detailed

All the greatest things in the world of technology for Thursday, September 13th.

The moment we all we all wondered, watched, and waited for: Apple’s iPhone 5 event. Only yesterday, Apple showed the world its sixth generation iPhone. This new iPhone catches up on some hardware specifications, but brings in a new design which is certainly fresh. While announcing the iPhone 5, Apple also unveiled a new line of iPod Touch and iPod Nano devices. The iPod Touch has a better camera, and not comes with Siri as well. The iPod Nano has a larger, touch-enabled screen. But now to the iPhone. The new 4″ screen has the width of a widescreen TV, and has an improved 720p Retina Display screen. The device is also lighter, despite its new dimensions. While it currently runs iOS 5, the iPhone 5 is formidable, given improved battery life (8 hours talk time on 3G) and the faster A6 processor. The device is expected to get iOS 6 very soon. Lastly, the new Apple devices will feature a new “Lightning” docking port which is slimmer and faster. Overall, the device is a certain step up from the iPhone 4S, but in my opinion is most improved in design. Original design has seemed scarce in the mobile world, and Apple has always been able to break that trend. Recently though, new devices like the Lumia 920 or Galaxy S III have challenged Apple’s title for originality. For $199 on contract, you will be able to pick up an 16 GB model on September 21st, for $299 a 32 GB and for $399 a 64 GB. Read and see more.

 

Coming now in black and silver, the iPhone 5 focuses on a new design with a taller screen and thinner body.

After all the wait, we finally get a date and price on the Wii U. It seems to have been a long time coming, but Nintendo has recently announced that their new console would be released on November 18th (November 30th in Europe), just in time for the holiday season. Each console will come with the Wii GamePad, a tablet controller which gives players even more ways to interact with a video game, including touch, voice, and a second screen for inventory, power-ups, or other game-enhancers. The GamePad can even play some games while the TV is in use. The 8 GB model will run you $299, while the 32 GB model is $349, including a charger, a stand, and a copy of one of the launch titles, Nintendo Land. The Wii U will bring with it a variety of other games including New Super Mario Brother Wii 2, the sequel to a previous multiplayer Mario game on the Wii. The console is most importantly now supporting HD resolution gaming, so you can now enjoy all of your favorite Nintendo characters in high-definition. In the U.S. and Canada, all major cable and TV providers are said to support the Wii U’s TVii software on the GamePad, giving consumers access to DVR and TiVO options for your television. Read more.

 

The Wii U’s design is similar to its predecessor, but actually quite refreshing. It’s also equipped with a new HDMI.

 

Via: Engadget, USA Today

The Wii U

The Wii U, Nintendo’s new console. The Wii U is the start of the next generation of consoles. With it Nintendo finally brings H-D graphics to their console. It also introduces the Nintendo gamepad. This handy controller has a decent-size screen in the middle of it like a tablet, but that’s we’re comparisons end. The gamepad unlike a tablet has dual analog sticks, a directional pad, plenty of buttons, and a grip on the back with two trigger. It also serves as a remote control, like a Wii Remote. The Wii U will still use Wii controllers, but along with the gamepad. The gamepad generally controls a “special” character in a game, while the Wii controllers are regular characters in a multiplayer game. The Wii U itself looks much more like an Xbox 360 than a Wii. There is a very large line up of games for the Wii U, varying from Mario and Nintendo classics, to popular shooters and platformers of other consoles. The Wii U comes out this Christmas season and is definitely something to look forward to.

What about Sony?

This year at E3 there were many amazing games and hardware from Microsoft and Nintendo, but not Sony. Microsoft showed off it’s new smartglass, Nintendo gave more info on the Wii U, Sony showed us the Wonderbook. Sony was very lacking at E3 this year–actually they’ve been lacking for a while. Their last big achievement was releasing the Vita, and that release have been less than phenomenal.

The fact that they have not released any info on any new hardware is not helping their case, either. They only have a small list of good games, too. With Sony falling behind this is a good time for Nintendo to catch up and Microsoft to get ahead.

E3: The Games

E3, Electronic Entertainment Expo is a big get together for video games, technology, and related stuff.

This years E3 many new games and hardware were seen. Many were promising and original. Some of these were Halo 4, New Super Mario Bros 2, The Last of Us, Watch Dogs, Pikmin 3, and Assassins Creed III.

E3 always has tons to show but E3 2012 had lots of surprises.

The Next Call of Duty: Black Ops 2

Said to “redefine the series”, Black Ops 2 is the next heavily anticipated game in the Call of Duty series. The game is going to be set in 2025, nine years after Modern Warfare 3. That’s just one reason why there are so many experts working on the game, trying and make it as realistic as possible–even more than the already credibly real gameplay of previous CODs. One of the many changes brought to Black Ops 2, is that you can change people’s fate. In earlier games, NPCs are programmed where and when to die. But in Black Ops 2, you can now save people or lose people unpredictably. This means there can and will be many endings (and difficult achievements) depending on who dies, who doesn’t, and where. The game already has far more pre-orders than it’s predecessors, but that’s hardly surprising with all of it’s promising changes.

Remembering A Classic: Donkey Kong

Donkey Kong is a classic arcade title that helped define not only the platformer genre but also Jumpman, later known as Mario. First released in arcades, Donkey Kong was an instant hit. Nintendo’s president put an employee named Shigeru Miyamoto in charge of the game. The game was originally going to be based off of the TV-show Popeye, but Nintendo did get the licensing rights in time. So Miyamoto had to thank of something else. The result? Jumpman, Pauline, and Donkey Kong. The purpose of the game is to climb to the top of the tower to rescue Pauline. The game spans four intensely difficult levels. Donkey Kong is the game which started all Mario games; without it, there would be no Mario.