Mario Weekend – The Roast of Mario November 16, 2012

CollegeHumor.com has always had a bunch of great people writing for them that really understood video games.  Now, many people nowadays will go to their spin-off website dorkly.com to watch exclusive 8-bit animated video game parody videos, but for me, this is the one that I’ll never forget.

All the classic and modern video game characters come together for a special event, the roast of their good friend Mario.  I’ve always been a huge fan of celebrity roasts on Comedy Central or at the Friar’s Club. I love stand-up comedy and other kinds of crude insult humor, and when I caught this video online it fit my taste in humor perfectly.  If you ever wondered what would happen if Mario ever got roasted, you’re about to find out.  It is just as brutal as you hoped!

I hope you’re all enjoying Mario Weekend!  You can be sure that more content is coming leading up to the Nintendo Wii U’s launch!

Mario Weekend – Little Miss Gamer November 16, 2012

Well, for those of you who just saw Mario get um…really mad I’ve got a bit of a blast from the past for you.  I just want to remind you that Mario didn’t ALWAYS save the Princess, occasionally the Princess would have to save him! That’s right Princess Peach had her own video game, and in a complete role reversal, she was tasked with saving Mario!

Little Miss Gamer was a fantastic review series made by PBC-Productions, the guys responsible for the ground-breaking Captain S webseries.  In it, the host talked about some of her favorite games and gaming memories from across all of gaming generations, and in this episode she talked about the Nintendo DS and the Princess’s exclusive game for the handheld, Super Princess Peach.

The Little Miss Gamer series hasn’t produced a new episode in a few years, but the website is still active and occasionally updated.  If you want to check out more of her great videos or Captain S, check out PBC-Productions!

Stay tuned!  Lots more Mario content to come this weekend leading up to the Nintendo Wii U launch!

Mario Weekend – Mad Mad Mario November 16, 2012

Okay, its time to get really raunchy here on the site, so if there’s any kids reading this they probably should go look elsewhere right now.  Gone?  Okay.

Have you ever wondered just how Mario really felt having to save the Princess time after time after time?  Well, he’s mad.  In fact he’s really mad.  Enter the Mad Mad Mario series, a very adult-language series where Mario gets…well…mad…really mad.  Take a look for yourselves…if you dare!

Stay tuned to the site!  Lots more Mario content coming all weekend!

Halo 4 Spartan Ops Episode 2 Released Today November 12, 2012

SPARTAN OPS is cooperative campaign that released exclusively to Halo 4.  It allows a group of friends to get together and continue the Halo 4 story after the conclusion of the single-player campaign.  At launch, Halo 4 only had the first episode playable, for a total of one CGI cinematic and five chapters.  Today, the second episode has been released free of charge, bringing in a new cinematic and five new chapters.

More episodes will be coming in the following weeks and the developers are promising that Spartan Ops will bridge the gap between Halo 4 and the yet unseen Halo 5.

Halo 4 is out now exclusive to the Xbox 360.

Xbox Smartglass iOS Version Released November 8, 2012

iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch users can breathe easy right now as Xbox Smartglass has been officially released to their platforms.

The Smartglass app brings a whole slew of new possibilities to gamers and game developers by adding the increased functionality of a smartphone to supported games and programs.

iOS users can download Xbox Smartglass from the Apple App Store. If you already have Microsoft’s Official Xbox Live app installed, just update it and it will become the Smartglass application.

Smartglass is also out for Windows 8 and Android platforms.

iOS 6.0.1 Released November 2, 2012

Apple has released iOS 6.0.1 for compatible iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch devices.  It is just a small update for iOS 6 and doesn’t really bring in any new features for the interface, just some important bug fixes.

The iOS 6.0.1 update is a 45MB download for iPhone users with iOS 6.0 installed.  You can install it through iTunes or the Automatic Update feature of iOS 6.  However, the iOS 6.0.1 update requires a minimum of 768 MB free space temporarily to perform the update without iTunes.  Once the update is completed the free space will be returned.

Halo 4 Spartan Ops Season 1 Trailer November 2, 2012

Halo 4 is launching with a lot more than just a single player campaign and a multiplayer mode, it’s also getting a full cooperative campaign the likes of which hasn’t been seen in quite some time.

The Spartan Ops campaign will be an entirely separate cooperative campaign where you will join friends of other Spartans to continue the story of Halo 4 beyond the single-player.  The game will only launch with a few episodes, but 343 and Microsoft have promised that more episodes will be coming for free in the weeks following the release of the game.  This is all leading up to the launch of Halo 5.  Yes, you read that right, there will be a Halo 5.

Halo 4 is coming November 6th, 2012.

Halo 4 Forward Unto Dawn Part 5 November 2, 2012

Its Friday, that means the fifth part in the live-action episodic Halo movie has been released today.  It’s all been leading up to the release of Halo 4, which is coming out on Election Day.

At gameXcess.net we have been discussing doing a review of this series for quite some time.  I believe that given the structure of the story, Forward Unto Dawn should be considered a movie, and not as an episodic series, and as such should be reviewed after all the parts have been released to the internet or the Director’s Cut was released to disc.  Once the Director’s Cut is released, it will be considered for review.

The full Director’s Cut of Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn is coming November 6th, 2012 with the Halo 4 Limited Edition.  It is also expected to get a release to Blu-Ray Disc in December, 2012.

Windows 8 Released October 27, 2012

Yesterday, Microsoft released their latest operating system for the PC.  Windows 8 promises to bring a whole new interface and widen all the capabilities of what a PC can do, like make full use of touch and gesture based systems.  Microsoft SmartGlass, which enhances the capabilities of the Xbox 360 and allows for second-screen possibilities while using SmartGlass compliant games and apps, is included with Windows 8.  SmartGlass is supposedly also out for Android phones, but has not yet been released for iOS devices yet, although that is expected to be coming soon.

Microsoft promises that if a computer is capable of running Vista or 7, it should be Windows 8 compatible.  64-Bit operating systems running Windows 7 should be able to simply upgrade to Windows 8.  32-Bit operating systems probably will need to do a backup and clean installation.

A new and upgrade copy of Windows 8 Pro is out now for the price of $69-$79.99 US.

Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn Part 4 October 26, 2012

It’s Friday and that means that the fourth part of Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn has been released to Machinima Prime and Halo Waypoint!

For those of you who would prefer to watch the video in the comfort of your own couch, you can watch it through the Halo Waypoint app on your Xbox 360.  If you can’t wait that long, just check it out below, courtesy of Machinima Prime!

Not enough?  Come back next Friday for the next part!

Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn will release its feature-length director’s cut with the Halo 4 Limited Edition November 6th, 2012.  It is also expected to come to Blu-Ray Disc in December.