E3 2011: E3 Updates; Xbox Live to Feature Youtube, Minecraft, and much more; PS Vita and Wii U News. Plus, some free stuff.

I told you guys I would post again soon. 🙂

Anyway, this week has been all about E3. From what I’ve saw and read, I’m pretty impressed with what’s coming out soon. So let’s get right into it.

First, let’s talk about game releases. The schedule for game releases looks INCREDIBLE. BioShock Infinite, Modern Warfare 3, Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, Saints Row: The Third, Far Cry 3, Ghost Recon Future Solider, Battlefield 3, Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, Driver San Francisco, Tomb Raider, Gears of War 3, Mass Effect 3, Hitman: Absolution, and of course, Halo 4. Just to name some. Naturally, all of these games look and sound amazing. I have a feeling that I’ll be completely broke by the end of 2012. If you haven’t seen any of these games (or even knew that they’re being released), here are the links:
 BioShock Infinite E3 Trailer
Modern Warfare 3 E3 Gameplay
Assassin’s Creed: Revelations
Saints Row: The Third
Far Cry 3
Ghost Recon Future Solider
Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception
Halo 4
Hitman Absolution
Battlefield 3
For a full list of trailers and gameplay, check out this link.

Next, the two big device reveals were the Wii U and PS Vita.
Wii U Features:

The Console:
-45 nm processor

The Wii U Controller & Console

-Approx. 1.8″ tall, 6.8″ wide, & 10.5″ long
-Internal memory
-USB and SD memory card ports
-Slot-loading optical disk drive
-Sensor Bar port
-AV Multi Out port
-HDMI out port

The Controller:
-Built in accelerometer, gyroscope, speakers, front-facing camera, microphone, and a 6.2″ touchscreen
-2 circle pads, 1 digital pad
-Select, Start, Home, Power, A, B, X, and Y Buttons. L/R Bumpers and ZL/ZR Triggers.
The Wii U is reported to launch after April 2012.

Now for the PS Vita:

-5″ touchscreen

Say Hello to the PS Vita

-Rear touchpad
-Sixaxis motion sensing
-Three-axis electronic compass
-Standard Playstation buttons (circle, triangle, square, x, start, select), Home,  Volume, L, R, Power, 2 Analog Sticks, and 1 D-Pad
-Front and Rear facing camera
-Supports Bluetooth
-Will also feature Wi-Fi and 3G versions
The PS Vita is reported to launch during Holiday 2011. The PS Vita will cost $249.

Microsoft announced that a Youtube functionality and PC smash-hit Minecraft will be coming to Xbox Live. Xbox Live, Youtube, and Minecraft all together? That pretty much sums up my life. It couldn’t get any better than this.

In other news, you can download the Portal 2 soundtrack via the Official Portal 2 website for free. (Just click on “Official Portal 2 website”, which will then direct you there. Then click on ‘Download Volume I’). Additionally, you can download the individual tracks for your Android or iPhone by clicking the links underneath the tracks that say ‘Android’ or ‘iPhone’.
Also, Rockstar Games has released a free kindle version of L.A. Noire: The Collected Stories on Amazon here. Even if you don’t have a Kindle, you can still view it on your computer by selecting [Your Name]’s Kindle for PC.
Yeah, you’re welcome.

Speaking of L.A. Noire (which is an awesome game, if you haven’t checked it out), the Rockstar Pass for L.A. Noire only has a few days left to get current and future DLC. The cost is 800 MS Points/$9.99 and includes: The Badge Pursuit Challenge, Chicago Piano Gun, The Naked City Vice Case, A Slip of the Tongue Traffic Case, Three Suits, and two future DLC’s: Reefer Madness Vice Case (release: July 12) & Nicholson Electroplating(June 21) Arson Case. This offer is only available until June 14th. Then the price will go up to $12/960 MS Points.

Thanks for reading and keep on playing,
–Taylor Paige

Sources:
Videos via Machinima
Wii U News Via Wikipedia
PS Vita via Wikipedia
Minecraft on Xbox Live via IFC
Rockstar Pass Info via 1up

News 12.4: The Assassin’s Creed Post

Well, it has certainly been a while since I posted last. During that time, a lot has gone on in the gaming industry. The Call of Duty and Assassin’s Creed series saw new releases before the holiday season hit, Rockstar Games released it’s amazing trailer for the upcoming game for L.A. Noire, and speaking of Rockstar, the talk of GTA V being released in 2012 has made it’s way around the web.

Of course, all of these topics will be covered in future posts, however, I’ve been really impressed by Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood lately. With that said, this entire post will be dedicated solely to Assassin’s Creed.

First and foremost, a new FREE DLC for Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood will be released on December 14th for both Xbox Live and Playstation Network. It will be titled: “Animus Project Update 1.0” and will include a new game mode (Advanced Alliance) and a new multiplayer map: Mont Saint-Michel. While that may not seem like a lot, who cares? It’s free!

Secondly, the Assassin’s Creed series may see another addition in 2011. Yves Guillemot, CEO of Ubisoft, said the following response to a question asking about an Assassin’s Creed release in 2011:

“There will be something around Assassin’s. That’s the only thing we can say.”

Ubisoft executives said that it is their goal to have Assassin’s Creed games released on a yearly basis.

Well, if Ubisoft plans on releasing a new game each year, then they can hopefully expect to see some serious bank considering that Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood did so well on it’s first week. In Europe, AC: Brotherhood sold over 1 million copies in less than one week. In all, the Assassin’s Creed series has sold over 20 million units.

For those of you wanting to find out more information on the AC series, please check out the awesome Assassin’s Creed Wiki page.

Assassin's Creed

Assassin's Creed II

Ezio's Back in Assassin's Creed Brotherhood

Happy Holidays,
–Taylor Paige
©2010 taylorpaige09

Sources:
AC 2011 via Kotaku
AC sales via MCVUK
AC DLC via IGN
Images Courtesy of Wikipedia
Video Courtesy of the Official AC Youtube Channel

Game News 6.17: E3 2010, 10 Dumbest Moments in Game History, & What Should You Get Your Gamer Dad for Father’s Day?

So after being gone for a while due to some technical difficulties, I’m back and ready to fill everyone in on what’s been going on in the game news. Obviously, one of the biggest (if not the biggest) gaming event, E3, is going on this week in Los Angeles. Unfortunately, I couldn’t make it to E3 this year, but at least I can report and analyze it. If you watch G4 then you can get E3 coverage or visit your favorite gaming website for full Live coverage of the event. As of right now,  I haven’t gathered EVERYTHING E3 possible, as that would take hours. But expect to see it soon. Between balancing my personal life with my blogs, things have gotten a bit hectic. Thank you for your patience. 🙂

Father’s Day is June 20th, if you want something inexpensive What They Play has created a list of some affordable apparel that you could give as a gift. Of course, giving out console accessories (mics, Xbox Live Gold Subscription Card, MS Points, skins for the console, Wii Sports Resort Accessories, even an additional controller) and used games are also other options you could go for. See the site here. Or ya know, you could always take the easy way out and get them a gift card.

Obviously, I have a lot of news to cover. With that said, I chose the first thing that stood out to me. The top 10 dumbest moments in video game history, posted by the great folks over at damnlag.com have noted many stupid moments including: Pac-Man 2600 for the Atari, many systems that have FAILED, and a few stupid quotes by Nintendo’s 3rd president, Hiroshi Yamauchi. Those quotes include the following:

“I have been saying this for some time, but customers are not interested in grand games with higher-quality graphics and sound and epic stories. Only people who do not know the videogame business would advocate the release of next-generation machines when people are not interested in cutting-edge technologies.”

“[People who play RPGs are] depressed gamers who like to sit alone in their dark rooms and play slow games.”

“There are many people in the industry that know nothing about games. In particular, a large American company is trying to do engulf software houses with money, but I don’t believe that will go well. It looks like they’ll sell their game system next year, but we’ll see the answer to that the following year.”

You can read all 10 moments here.

And oh yeah, there’s this cool Fallout: New Vegas interview via Gameplanet with the senior designer of the game. <<<—click the link to read the interview, bro.

Next time I’ll be talking about how the new Xbox 360 (yes, NEW(and slimmer!)) consumes 10% less power for those of you who are concerned about that type of thing.

Fallout: New Vegas E3 2010 Trailer:

–Taylor Paige
©2010 taylorpaige09

Father’s Day via WhatTheyPlay
Fallout: NV via GamePlanet
Dumbass Moments via DamnLag
Fallout: New Vegas Trailer via Impersonator280 on Youtube

Game News 5.24: New Walkthrough & Review Soon, Red Dead Redemption Is Not So Dead, & E3 Is Coming

Sooner or later here, I’ll be doing walkthroughs and reviews of a few games. Can’t quite specify which yet, because I really don’t know.

So it has been kind of a slow news day so far. The only thing I got out of my e-mail is that Red Dead Redemption has done pretty good and there is some stuff about E3 @ gamespot.com

Of course, Gamespot is doing coverage of E3 over at e3.gamespot.com and here’s a nice little list for you guys featuring the Gamespot Editor’s Choice for Most Anticipated Games of E3.Civilization V shows up on the list, as well as Rock Band 3, Dead Space 2, Fable III, Gears of War 3, Marvel vs. Capcom 3, & Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. Gamespot has also posted a poll asking it’s users to submit their vote for their most anticipated game of E3. You can vote here.

Apparently, Red Dead Redemption’s sales are pretty good. The game has sold (over, by now) 550,000 units in the first day in North America. The game has also sold about 65% of their units to the Xbox 360 in the UK. This marks the second No. 1 for Take-Two since BioShock 2.

Red Dead Redemption: Life in the West:

–Taylor Paige
©2010 taylorpaige09
E3: http://e3.gamespot.com/
RDR: http://www.qj.net/qjnet/news/red-dead-redemption-moves-half-a-million-units-in-na-on-day-one.html
RDR: http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=247812