iOS 7 Released September 19, 2013
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I know most people will probably mention that iOS 7 actually released yesterday but as I was completely unable to upgrade any of my various Apple devices to the new operating system yesterday due to Apple’s Verification system timing out any time I tried to install the update, I do not consider yesterday iOS 7’s launch date. Since I was able to install it today on three devices without issue, I’m going to officially consider today iOS 7’s launch.
iOS 7 brings an entirely new interface to compatible Apple portable devices allowing you to have a lot more functionality without needing to go through as many menus. It also speeds up device performance and improves your device’s security, as it includes a whole bunch of new bug fixes. You can check out all the details here on Apple’s iOS 7 site.
Currently I’ve been able to upgrade to iOS 7 on the iPhone 4, iPhone 4S and iPhone 5. If you’re planning to update your iPad or iPod Touch, you might want to check with iTunes to see if your device is compatible with iOS 7. You will need to install iTunes 11.1 to update your device from your computer or sync your iOS 7 device to your computer. On iTunes, iOS 7 is a 1.12GB download, if you plan to wirelessly update your device through WiFi, you will need around 2.9GB of free space in your device to perform the upgrade, although the download size of the iOS 7 update on certain devices is just under 800MB.
iOS 7 will launch pre-installed in all new iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C models which launch tomorrow.
The Best Pokémon Theme Covers September 19, 2013
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With the launch of Nintendo’s Gotta Catch ‘Em All Sweepstakes in the US, the Pokémon Company released an entirely new remixed version of the Pokémon TV show’s classic theme song “Gotta Catch ‘Em All”
If you ask me, it’s terrible. In fact most of the online media agrees with that sentiment. However if you’re interested, the video does include a secret code to access the Gotta Catch ‘Em All Sweepstakes, but just be aware you’re only eligible for it if you live in the US.
So if there’s a terrible cover of such a great song out, that means that a song over ten years old has to have some other covers of it that have to be great right? Absolutely. There are a lot of great covers of the Pokémon Theme Song that have been posted to the web over the years and being that Pokémon X and Y are going to be released on October 12th, 2013, I think now is the best time to post up some of the best here on the site!
First off I want to post the cover that inadvertently inspired this whole article. As you guys know, That Dude in the Suede (now known simply as Suede) is doing a fantastic review series on all the Pokémon movies. While he has only reviewed three theatrical films up to this point they have been great and he ended his first review with a small snippet of this cover. Lets see what happens when Pokémon Meets Metal, here’s 331Erock
Okay, for some people that may be a bit too…metal. What’s say we get classy? Lara is a really talented musician who does all kinds of video game and movie theme covers, and she did this great cover of the theme song performed on a piano and violin thanks to the magic of editing. Oh, and she did the violin piece dressed as Misty.
Finally it’s time to get to my favorite cover of this bunch. Lets Metal up Your Pikachu, here’s Eternal Legend.
If you’re interested in downloading your own mp3 of this song, you can grab it from Eternal Legend’s site.
Rest in Peace, Hiroshi Yamauchi September 19, 2013
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Hiroshi Yamauchi, the former President of Nintendo, past away this morning. This man has been described by many as one of the smartest, best and most ruthless businessmen in the world. Reportedly he never played a video game in his life, but he oversaw Nintendo’s operations during the years when it transitioned from a simple toy company to an international conglomerate which single-handedly brought video games back in the mainstream after Atari’s crash. He continued to manage Nintendo through many console generations as it became one of the biggest video game companies in the world until he was succeeded by current Nintendo President Satoru Iwata.
You can read his full obituary here on Gamasutra.com.
Hiroshi Yamauchi, Rest in Peace.
Mountain Dew Game Fuel May Return September 19, 2013
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Mountain Dew’s relationship with gaming has been around since the days of the Xbox. With the release of the Xbox One right around the corner, Mountain Dew is prepared to launch their Every Two Minutes campaign, which will give participants the chance to win a new Xbox One by buying specially marked bottles of Mountain Dew.
When visiting the promotion’s official site for the latest details on the special event, I happened to notice something that I don’t believe Mountain Dew has mentioned elsewhere. Around the time of the release of Halo 3, Mountain Dew made a special flavor to promote the game, dubbed “Game Fuel.” Up to this point, Mountain Dew has always been known as a gamer’s drink (it was mentioned in Jonathan Coulton’s song “Code Monkey”), but the release of a soda literally called Game Fuel was the first time I can think of that a soda company actually put the fact that it was for gamers right on the label!
Game Fuel was discontinued shortly after Halo 3‘s release. I never drank it myself but one of my sister’s friends who was a big fan of Mountain Dew Code Red said she really liked Game Fuel. Game Fuel would come back a few years later to promote World of Warcraft, and even got a second flavor along with it, Blue, but that too was only a limited promotion. Since then, Game Fuel has not come back to the US, although I heard it was brought back in the UK not too long ago.
Well, it looks like the US may see the return of Game Fuel this fall. On the new Every Two Minutes site, there is a detailed list on what the point value is on every Mountain Dew product that will participate in the promotion ranging from 2-liter bottles to 24-can packs so players will know what to look for in the store when the promotion begins. However, when looking a the list I noticed something odd. One of the point values specifically mentioned Mountain Dew Game Fuel 20oz bottles would participate in the Every Two Minutes promotion. Since this couldn’t possibly work for old bottles of the soda that are still lying around, it must mean that Mountain Dew plans to rerelease Game Fuel in time for the Xbox One launch!
If the site is teasing the anticipated return of Game Fuel it is the only one I could find that is. As of the time of this writing, Mountain Dew’s Official Site has no mention up of Game Fuel’s return, and the official Game Fuel website hasn’t been updated since the World of Warcraft promotion ended in 2009.
Could Game Fuel be coming back? Watch this space!
If You Bought Grand Theft Auto V For Xbox 360 You Will Need a Hard Drive September 17, 2013
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Today, I’ve noticed a major spike in traffic here on the site and on my YouTube Channel because a lot of people are picking up their copies of Grand Theft Auto V for the Xbox 360 and noticing they are unable to play it because their Xbox 360 is not equipped with the minimum 8GB of storage space required to play the game. The easiest solution to this is to buy the Xbox 360 Hard Drive.
If you happen to have a 250GB Xbox 360, you won’t need to worry, so long as you have 8GB of storage space free. Older Xbox 360 models equipped with Hard Drives shouldn’t be affected either. However, Xbox 360 Arcade Models or 4GB Slim models are not equipped with a Hard Drive and will need to be upgraded.
If you have a 4GB slim and wish to upgrade, you can currently pick up a 320GB Hard Drive for around $129 US. I make mention of the price specifically because I want anyone to be wary of any deals (especially on sites like Amazon.com) which offer extremely low-priced drives. In most cases these low-priced drives do not work. They either won’t be detected at all by the Xbox 360, won’t be compatible with original Xbox games, or will cause E34 errors.
Here’s a handy video guide on how to install a 320GB Xbox 360 Slim Hard Drive.
You can also try to install the game to a Xbox 360 compatible USB flash drive but Microsoft does mention this may cause game issues with installed content. You will need a large enough flash drive to hold all the GTA V game data, and you will need to format that drive to the 360’s specifications before installing the GTA V content. This will make the USB drive unusable in your PC or Mac until you wipe and reformat it again.
Rainbow Six: Vegas Now Free Through Games With Gold September 17, 2013
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Did someone call for Team Rainbow? Xbox Live Gold Members on the Xbox 360 can download Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Vegas free of charge until the end of the month as a part of the Xbox Live Games With Gold Promotion. The game will take up around 6.6 Gigs in your Xbox 360’s memory storage, so people using a 4GB Xbox 360 will need to have a properly formatted USB drive or Xbox 360 Hard Drive to store the game.
Oh and just a small bit of information for those of you interested in playing the game’s multiplayer. Make sure to download the Rainbow Six: Vegas Black and Rainbow Six: Vegas Red multiplayer expansions along with the game. They are available as free separate downloads on Xbox Live Marketplace, and include a lot of new multiplayer maps. File size for each multiplayer pack averages around 660MB each.
Microsoft’s Games With Gold Promotion is expected to continue until the release of the Xbox One in November. No word has come yet on what games will be available for free after Rainbow Six: Vegas is no longer part of the promotion, however when the program was announced, Microsoft did say Halo 3 will be a part of it, so that is likely to be coming down the road.
inFAMOUS Podcast September 16, 2013
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Maniac talks about the inFAMOUS series from Sucker Punch and Sony. The series currently has 2 PS3-exclusive retail titles, a graphic novel series, a downloadable standalone expansion, and a PS4 retail game on the way. In this unscripted Podcast, Maniac discusses his personal experience with the series, its characters, and what the future holds for it.
The Video Game Handheld War Part 7 September 13, 2013
Posted by Maniac in Histories, Video Game Handheld War.add a comment
The first year of the PSP versus DS battle was now a memory and the DS was far ahead due to a lower price point and more successful titles, however Sony was not out for the count and had a lot more planned for their handheld. While Sony was happy to continue to support the PSP with regular software updates, Nintendo had learned from the success of the various Game Boy revisions they released over the years and believed that regularly updating their handheld line with new hardware revisions was the best way to go. While the UMD format was taking off, Nintendo was working on the first major system revision for the DS.
In 2006, Nintendo released the DS Lite. This was the first major hardware redesign for the Nintendo DS. Like the Game Boy Pocket or Color before it, while it only launched in one color, the DS Lite shipped in a variety of different colors including black, coral, or white, giving players a small amount of personal customization options like we would see in today’s cell phones. It was smaller and thinner than the original DS, but the system’s dual screens were larger and sharper than the original DS, and it had an improved battery with new power saving options to extend battery life. It could still play all DS games and interface with all other DS systems through its internal WiFi. The best part was even with the reduced size, it still featured a Game Boy Advance slot and a lot of developers were working on special peripherals to make use of it with DS games including a Rumble Pak. The price was a reasonable $129 US, far less expensive than Sony’s counterpart.
Nintendo players were mixed on the DS Lite’s release. On the one hand, it was a little upsetting to early DS adopters to see Nintendo release a hardware revision so soon after the platform’s launch. On the other hand, the smaller DS Lite was attractive to new DS adopters who may have been on the fence about picking up the platform. The system sold like crazy internationally, with huge system shortages at retail in Japan for months. It looked like Nintendo was cementing its handheld reputation all over again.
On the other side, with the first hardware revision out for Nintendo, the gaming press asked Sony if they planned to release a new hardware revision for the Sony PSP. Sony balked at the question, saying that they had no plans to revise the PSP’s hardware and that any further updates to the system would come in the form of free firmware updates, which up to that point had added a bunch of new features to the PSP including an Internet Browser.
Sony may have been holding firm on their support for the PSP but in reality their handheld was struggling. While it saw a few great exclusive titles for the platform that rivaled the PS2 in graphical quality, instead of choosing to pick up the platform, gamers instead complained that these games were not being released on platforms that people already owned. After the release of Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories was such a critical hit, instead of being excited about the chance for a brand new game that could bring all of Liberty City on a portable system, gamers were furious they would need to buy a PSP to play the next Grand Theft Auto game, and that it didn’t release on the PS2.
The UMD movie format was also starting to reach its peak. After the initial successful launch, more movie studios threw their weight behind the format and released many popular titles that the PSP’s players would be interested in buying, by 2006 Walmart, one of the biggest retailers in the US, pulled their support for selling the format. They claimed that the format’s low sales didn’t justify them stocking the format, although other retailers including Best Buy and Circuit City pledged to continue supporting it. More titles were being released for the format on a regular basis, including popular movies like The Matrix and cult classics like TRON. In fact, some studios were experimenting with what could be done with the format and released music albums like Nirvana’s Nevermind on UMD. Heck, some studios even released Digital Graphic Novels on UMD, including an interactive Silent Hill graphic novel, and a graphic novel version of the original Metal Gear Solid game.
Even with all this behind them, by 2007 the Sony PSP still couldn’t compete against the outstanding sales figures of the Nintendo DS and DS Lite, and Sony started to work on the first major hardware redesign for the Sony PSP. The plan was to make the system lighter and thinner than the original model PSP, take out what was never used, and bring in what players were asking for since the platform’s launch. Sony improved the PSP’s CPU to make it able to cut down on game load times, removed the IR port on the top of the PSP, and redesigned the UMD slot to make the system slimmer. But most important of all, Sony announced that their new model PSP would feature TV Out, the most requested feature players wanted, so PSP owners would finally get to play their PSP games on their SD and HDTVs. Sadly, most of this functionality could not be brought over to the early PSP adopters, and they would need to upgrade their PSPs to take advantage of the system’s new features. Dubbed the PSP-2000 in Japan, or PSP-2001 in North America, the new slim PSP was Sony’s best chance to finally overtake Nintendo’s dominance on the handheld market.
How did they do? That’s a story for next time!
Pokemon Rumble U NFC Figure Unboxing September 11, 2013
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Nintendo released a slew of NFC equipped figurines to work with the new downloadable Wii U game, Pokémon Rumble U. The NFC figure interacts with the reader built into the Wii U controller, which can read and write data to the figure as you use it in-game. The figures are sold only at GameStop and cost around $3.99 US.
The downside of the NFC figures are that every container is random and unless you’re buying a figure secondhand from someone who knows what they already have, you’re going to be buying a random figure every time you buy one at GameStop, and there’s a chance you could buy multiple figures of the same type.
In this unboxing, lets see what Maniac caught.
Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX Unboxing September 10, 2013
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It’s Tuesday, time for an unboxing! This week, Maniac unboxes Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX for the Playstation 3, a remastered compilation disc with the ReMIX versions of Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts RE: Chain of Memories, and all the cinematics from the DS exclusive Kingdom Hearts 365/2 Days. Anyone who preordered the game got a special artbook included, and we’re going to take a look at that as well.
Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX is out now exclusive to the Playstation 3.
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