Nintendo Direct – October 1st, 2013 October 1, 2013

Nintendo has posted up the latest Nintendo Direct.  In it you can find the latest previews for Nintendo’s upcoming games on the Wii U and 3DS, including Super Mario 3D World, Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, and Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze.  There are also some major announcements made on upcoming games, like the latest confirmed character for the next Super Smash Bros game.

Personally, while it’s great to see these new games, I’m most happy for the announced updates to Nintendo Zone.  Instead of just having one StreetPass tag with the most recent user who visited the Nintendo Zone Location, you’ll be able to get up to six StreetPass Tags.  This will make StreetPass enabled games like Warrior’s Way, Find Mii, and Mii Force a lot easier to complete, especially if it is hard to find other 3DS owners on a daily basis.

Wii U Firmware 4.0.0 U Released October 1, 2013

The latest update to the Nintendo Wii U has been released recently.  The new firmware, version 4.0.0 U, brings in some minor bug fixes and optimizations, but the biggest selling point of it is that it will finally allow regular Wii games to be viewable on the Wii U controller screen.  This is something that a lot of players have been requesting as playing games directly from the Wii U controller without the need of a TV is a huge selling point of the system.  However, Wii games are still not playable on the Wii U controller, you will still need a separate Wiimote, Wiimote Plus, or Nunchuck to play your Wii games, depending on what the game requires.  The new update is just shy of 700MB, but will take a while to install.  I recommend running the installer from your Wii U controller and leaving it docked on the charger while the system updates.

Just be aware, you may not be able to access Nintendo Network features without the new firmware update.  Nintendo’s Terms of Service has been updated and when you complete the firmware update to the new version, the Wii U will force you to sign back into your account and accept the new Terms of Service before it will allow you to access Nintendo Network again.

rain Launch Trailer September 30, 2013

The next major downloadable title for the Playstation 3, rain, is expected to launch tomorrow.  Since it was first announced, the concept behind rain has fascinated me.  I don’t know if it is the art style, choice of music, or gameplay but there is just something about rain that separates it from all the other games that have been coming out recently.  To celebrate its imminent release, here’s the game’s official launch trailer.

rain is coming October 1st, 2013 exclusive to the Playstation 3 through the Playstation Network Store

BEYOND: Two Souls TV Spot September 30, 2013

It looks like with just eight days to go before the release of the latest game from Quantic Dream, Sony has been ramping up the hype machine for the PS3-exclusive game BEYOND: Two Souls.  Starring actress Ellen Page, the game revolves around the character of Jodie, who has spent her entire life in the company of a supernatural best friend named Aiden.  I had the pleasure of previewing this game at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, and I have been waiting patiently for this game’s release since it was announced at last year’s Sony E3 Press Conference.  In fact, I saw huge displays going up for the game at my local Best Buy just last week.

If you happened to catch a football game this Sunday on Fox, you may have seen this TV spot for the game.  For those of you who may have missed it, here is the entire 60-second TV spot.

That’s not all.  By preordering the game at GameStop, you can become eligible for a free upgrade to the BEYOND: Two Souls Special Edition, which will include special behind the scenes videos and an exclusive playable scene.  This new trailer includes all the details.

BEYOND: Two Souls will be out on October 8th, 2013 exclusive to the Playstation 3.

The Last of Us Alternate Ending September 29, 2013

At PAX Prime this year, Naughty Dog showcased some never before seen footage from the ending of their PS3-exclusive hit The Last of Us.  Originally, they had a slightly different ending written than what was used in the game, and it even went as far as to be voice and motion captured.  Take a look at it for yourself and see if they should have kept it in.

Just be aware, there are spoilers in this video.  It is best to finish The Last of Us before watching.

The Last of Us is out now exclusive to the Playstation 3.

Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes Opening Cinematic September 25, 2013

Once again, Kojima Team has released the opening cinematic for one of their highly anticipated upcoming games in the Metal Gear Solid series, Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes.  Ground Zeroes is intended to be a prequel to the events of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, and there has been some dispute over whether or not Ground Zeroes and The Phantom Pain will be released wrapped in the same game package, or if they will be released separately.  This video’s title seems to resolve that dispute.  If you ask me, this looks more like it will serve as a prequel in the same way that Metal Gear Solid 2‘s Tanker mission was a prequel to the rest of the game which took place on the cleanup facility Big Shell.

What you are about to see is what looks to be a final version of the game’s opening.  I know that this footage was originally shown when Ground Zeroes was announced at PAX last year, but this video features the new English voice actors, as well as new credits listing the English cast of the game.  We already know that Kiefer Sutherland will be doing the voice of Snake in this game, but what I didn’t know is that the game will also include the voice work of legendary voice actors Robin Atkin Downes, Christopher Randolph and Tara Strong.  Even if you’ve already seen the original PAX announcement footage, the new English voice work makes this worth a second look.

Releasing the opening cinematic for a game early is nothing new for Kojima’s Team.  The first time I can remember them doing something like this was during Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty’s second major event showing.  Instead of releasing a trailer, they chose to release the opening cinematic of the game, which detailed Snake’s incredible stealth bungee jump off the George Washington Bridge.

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is coming to PS3, PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One.

G4 Lives On September 23, 2013

A few years ago I chronicled what I considered to be the Fall of G4.  In the two-part story I detailed how a once great network had slowly lost its relevance after it saw a corporate merger.  At the end of the article I gave a piece of advice to the people who currently ran G4, specifically I stated that they should bring back all of their old shows or they might as well shut down.  Well, earlier this year, it seemed like G4 was going to take my advice, but not the bit that I wanted.  G4 announced they were shutting down in January 2013.  Low ratings coupled by a lack of decent original content, as well as apathy from the gamers they had alienated from the network years prior had made the network one of the lowest rated channels by most of the major TV providers.  Instead of focusing their energy on improving the station with decent gaming relevant content, G4 announced they were going to drop their content altogether and they were going to become the Esquire Network.

This was an exceptionally odd choice as it made absolutely no sense to completely change the focus of an entire network.  Where did they think their audience was going to come from?  This was an even worse decision than what Comcast had done to it years earlier when they merged G4 with Tech TV and canceled or recast most of their shows.  The remaining two shows that were being produced by G4, Attack of the Show and X-Play, were going to be cancelled, the entire staff would be let go, and the station would be completely replaced by a slew of new shows and syndicated content.  It would have been nice for all that effort to have gone into making G4 better, but that’s a discussion for another time.  The worst part was that G4 would not continue their live coverage of the major gaming events, so there would be no G4 coverage of E3 2013, an E3 where no less than two major consoles would be previewed.  Some of the major talent including Adam Sessler and Kevin Perrera jumped ship early, but others including Morgan Webb, Kristen Adams, and Candace Bailey stuck around to the end.

I have to admit, even as a person who has had their problems with G4 in the past, it was sad watching the station slowly wind down as the station’s shows lead up to their final episodes.  Over the past few years, G4 had produced some decent content, including their Top 100 Video Games special, they just weren’t showing it consistently on their station.  On top of that, I have to admit I loved seeing the Quantum Leap reruns every night.  G4 had been airing almost nothing but syndicated content of the last three months of their existence, including some really great final episodes of X-Play, on top of great Sci-Fi shows Heroes and Quantum Leap.  After Attack of the Show and X-Play aired their final episodes, it almost felt as if the station was caught in a perpetual loop, but it was a loop of some great content.  It felt like such a shame that the station’s best content would come out just as they were going to be ending.

However, the Esquire Network would be coming, and the station certainly wasn’t holding back on that.  The problem was that the Esquire Network sure was taking its sweet time launching.  The first bumpers I saw for the network included a launch date of April 2013, then that was pushed down to Summer 2013, until they finally they announced a solid launch date of September 23rd, 2013.   In the meantime, new content did eventually come to G4 this summer when the show American Ninja Warrior started their new season.  American Ninja Warrior looked like it was originally scheduled to air after the Esquire Network launch, as if you look closely on the backgrounds of the set you can see no mention of G4, but plenty of Esquire Network and NBC posters.  Likely the constant delays of the network’s launch prompted American Ninja Warror to air when the station was still G4 branded, however this wasn’t much of an issue since episodes from earlier seasons had aired on G4 in the past.  The upside was that the show’s most recent season was pretty good, and attracted quite a favorable response from people watching it.  Heck, I loved it.  I would watch it regularly with my girlfriend’s father, and he enjoyed it so much he wanted to compete in it for next season.

Well the Summer slowly ticked away and I knew the station would not remain for much longer.  My plan was to release the third part of my Fall of G4 series on the exact day that the station was finally shut down, closing the book on a once-great network which had been ruined by corporate muddling.  I had been preparing that final story since I heard the announcement of the Esquire transition, and it seemed like that transition was going to take place today.  However, as you can tell, that is not what happened.

There was some talk earlier in the month that the Hurst Corporation was noticing G4’s ratings this past summer as the station was airing rebroadcasts and new episodes of American Ninja Warrior, and decided that cancelling the station and changing it into something completely different was not the good idea they originally believed.  I remember reading this story after it was being scooped off the tabloids, and while I was hopeful that it was true, I was not going to believe it until I saw it for myself.  Well, I guess even I need to put my cynicism aside occasionally.

Today, if you turn on your TV and just happen to have a digital cable package, you’ll notice that G4’s station is still alive and well showing their usual syndicated content.  However, if you happen to be interested in the new shows the Esquire Network announced (and some of them did indeed look interesting), the Esquire Network did in fact launch today, just not on G4’s channel.  As originally reported in the tabloids, the Esquire Network is now on the channel previously called the Style Network.  If you ask me this is a much smarter decision as the Style Network was a completely redundant channel which only served rebroadcasts of the E! Network’s shows.

So, you’re probably asking yourself what is the point of keeping G4 alive after everything that had happened to it?  Well, I have to say that I am cautiously optimistic.  Obviously Hurst now knows the value of the G4 brand, and maybe they might know that it holds a place in the hearts of many gamers who watched their content many, many years ago, and still provided great live coverage of major gaming events.  Sure everyone is gone, but maybe this is a good chance for the network to start fresh with new people delivering new gaming related shows.  Even today, there isn’t really a network like G4.

You didn’t shut down, G4.  You made that decision and changed your mind about it.  Now I want you to take my other bit of advice and bring back your shows.  Do exactly what you did for the Esquire Network, create a whole new lineup of gaming related content.  If you need more time, show rebroadcasts of the years worth of great shows you produced.  I would love to see old episodes of Cheat!, Icons, or The Screen Savers.  Heck, you could probably reair shows like Game Makers and Portal and they would still be just as relevant as they were when they originally aired.  Heck, it would probably cost next to nothing to bring back Cinematech with new episodes.  Or if you want, do a new G4TV.com series where you broadcast discussions from knowledgeable gaming experts talking about the events of the day.

If you can bring in some great gaming shows, I can assure you when the new G4 launches, I will be there watching and I think there will be a lot of others who will as well.

iOS 7 Released September 19, 2013

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.

Rest in Peace, Hiroshi Yamauchi September 19, 2013

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

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!