Archive for the ‘News’ Category


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Pokemon X/Y Announced for October 2013

Tuesday, January 8th, 2013

This morning Nintendo fulfilled many a gamer’s dream and announced the upcoming 3DS installments of the long-running main Pokemon series, Pokemon X/Y.

The trailer, which you can watch at the end of Nintendo’s Pokemon Direct above, shows off perhaps more Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles-style characters than people were expecting (ie. kind of squat), a properly 3D game environment with properly 3D character and Pokemon models, three new (presumably starter) Pokemon: the grass element otter in a hat Chespin, the fire element kind of lame looking fox thing Fennekin, and the oh boy another water-type frog Pokemon Froakie, as well as a promise of perhaps even more “all new Pokemon” (which smart people should be on the fence about if it is true as explained before by ShinyVictini).

Any way you slice it, Nintendo is sure to sell a lot of 3DSs come October when the new Pokemon game duo is launching worldwide.  We’ll keep you updated as new info is announced, but in the mean time enjoy the few screenshots and logos that Nintendo has released thus far:

 

 

Posted in 3DS, News | 1 Comment »

Official Pokemon Meet-Ups Across Canada

Thursday, September 20th, 2012

Nintendo is hosting official Pokemon meet-ups on Saturday, September 29th at 4:00pm local time in Canadian cities including Halifax, Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Saskatoon, Edmonton, Calgary, and Vancouver. 

The Saskatoon meet-up will take place in The Bowl on the University of Saskatchewan campus.

Nintendo says that these meet-ups will be “A fun experience training and battling with other Pokémon fans. There will also be some cool Pokémon giveaways while supplies last!”

If you’re a Poke-fan, you can check Nintendo’s official website here for the locations of the Pokemon meets around the country.

Posted in News, Nintendo | No Comments »

Mass Effect 3 Ending DLC Detailed

Thursday, April 5th, 2012

Through their official company blog Bioware has given us a few extra details on how they plan to address the near-universal (hah, space) criticism for their “endings” in Mass Effect 3.  In what’s being called the free “Mass Effect 3 Extended Cut DLC”, Bioware will add “extended scenes that provide additional context and deeper insight to the conclusion of Commander Shepard’s journey“.  There’s also a small FAQ in the blog post that essentially states once again that you don’t have to pay for the DLC and it in no way diminishes their “artistic integrity” by actually changing anything that fans have complained about.

While I’m glad that we’re getting an extra scene or two to beef up what was otherwise a rather unceremonious ending for such a large sci-fi series, I still feel that Bioware could be doing more to quell all of the nerd rage that’s simmering on the Internet.  Unless one of the other theories that have emerged on the web about the nature of the ME3 ending are correct, it still is an undoubtedly lame way to end everything off regardless of whether or not it’s padded with an extra couple of minutes.  A lot of people have said that it’s Bioware’s series and they can end it in anyway they want, and that’s certainly true, but you can’t deny that there are good and bad ways to end a long-standing series.  If, for example, the Wii U Legend of Zelda game came out and after playing it for 60 solid hours a magical hippopotamus came out of the sky before you could fight Ganon and made him disappear while simultaneously turning you into a daffodil and that was the end of the LoZ series, most gamers would have some very justified qualms and questions about the ending.  If Nintendo then patched this ending so that you saw all of the other characters also turned into various flowers and where Ganon was transported to it would indeed answer a lot of questions, but it still wouldn’t make the ending any more logical, tolerable, or acceptable. 

We’ll keep you informed regarding any further developments with the ME3 Extended Cut DLC, but I can’t say my hopes are too incredibly high for an extra couple of scenes at this point.

Posted in 360, News, PC, PS3 | No Comments »

April Fools – Virtual Boy Games Coming To 3DS eShop

Sunday, April 1st, 2012

Nintendo announced today that Virtual Boy games are finally coming to the 3DS eShop.  Due to the very limited run of the Virtual Boy not many people have been able to experience the 22 games that were available for the system.  They also announced that Nintendo Club members who reach the Platinum level in 2012 will be able to choose as their prize the Official Virtual Boy 3DS Viewer, a classic Virtual Boy-shaped shell that will allow you to slide your 3DS inside.  Far better than the hats, pins, and statuettes available to Platinum members in the past, things are looking up for Club Nintendo in North America.

I personally own a Virtual Boy and I would be very happy to be able to play Virtual Boy Wario Land or Galactic Pinball (two of my favourites) again on the 3DS.  While I understand that people had qualms with the system’s monochromatic graphics, I have enjoyed every minute of playing with the Virtual Boy and have never completely understood why it failed so terribly.  Here’s to the Virtual Boy living once again through its grown-up ancestor the 3DS.

Source

Posted in 3DS, News | No Comments »

April Fools – Sony VAIO Q Series Ultrabook Launched

Sunday, April 1st, 2012

Sony did have some good news today to counterbalance the rather shocking PS Vita news.  Via their corporate blog Sony both announced and launched a new VAIO Ultrabook.  What makes this Ultrabook special is that it is by far the smallest laptop ever mass-produced.  With a screen size of only 1.25″x0.75″, the VAIO Q can easily fit in pretty much anybody’s pockets.  The specs that they managed to pack into this device (as listed above) are also astounding and almost blow my huge custom gaming computer out of the water.  Needless to say, such a capable, 3D-enabled computer of such miniscule dimensions is really putting the heat on portable video game consoles, as why would you want to carry around devices with bulky 3″ screens when you could play Crysis 2 at Max DirectX 11 settings anywhere you wanted?

I’m going to have to drop by my local Sony store pretty soon to check this out because I still have a couple reservations.  The monocle that they show that’s used to make the screen appear larger looks slightly uncomfortable.  I hope that they had the foresight to put padding on it or something to reduce strain when gaming for a couple hours at a time.  The keyboard and trackpad are also so small that they’re basically mutually exclusive, meaning that you could probably only manage to use one of them at a time.  There is a dock that allows you to attach regular USB peripherals to the VAIO Q and I hope that it comes with it for free, because I can imagine that most people that will but this device will probably want to supply their own keyboards and mice to ensure that they can be used at the same time, especially for gaming purposes.  Make sure to check out the announcement video or the official product page to see a few of the different ways in which this clever piece of tech can be used.

We’ll have an impressions article about whether or not this will end up being a good gaming device in the next couple of days when we get a chance to visit a Sony store and try it out. 

Posted in News | No Comments »

April Fools – PS Vita Distribution Halted Due To Apple Injunction

Sunday, April 1st, 2012

Apple has continued its series of lawsuits against just about everything with a multi-touch touchscreen, this time targeting the PS Vita.  The lawsuit, which has apparently been in the US courts since the announcement of the system as the NGP but kept quiet in the media by both sides, shows Apple claiming the PS Vita’s menu “is a flagrant and shameless imitation of our iOS interface”.

Apparently the courts have granted not only an injunction against the importation of new PS Vita units from Japan, but also the removal of remaining units from store shelves and online retailers within the next 48 hours.  Sony is still hopeful that they can beat the pressure from Apple as Jack Tretton, Sony USA President, posted on his Twitter feed, “We hope to see the Vita back in production and back on sale within the next seven days”.

So, if you were on the fence about getting a PS Vita, now would probably be your best (and perhaps last) opportunity to get one.  Just be sure to pay extra for overnight shipping if you’re ordering it online, because if your order doesn’t get processed in time you’ll be out of luck like Sony themselves.

We’ll keep you posted on any further developments in this unprecedented dispute.

Source

Posted in News, PS Vita | No Comments »

April Fools – Assassin’s Creed Kinect Announced

Sunday, April 1st, 2012

Ubisoft announced an Assassin’s Creed Kinect game today without a solid release date.  It seems that instead of being a spin-off of Assassin’s Creed 3 that it’s going to be another chapter in the already much too long Ezio saga surrounding Assassin’s Creed 2.  We still don’t have a Kinect for the Game Usagi office and this new entry into the Assassin’s Creed series isn’t really making us chomp at the bit to get one either.  The controls, like in many other Kinect games, look too involved to be engaging or fun even in small amounts.  If Microsoft wants the Kinect to be taken seriously, this is certainly not the way in which to do it.

Posted in 360, Kinect, News | No Comments »

April Fools – New Awesome ThinkGeek Products

Sunday, April 1st, 2012

No, this is not a paid advertisement, we just wanted to let you know about all of the neat and original new products that the gamer/nerd product megagiant ThinkGeek has unveiled today.  We’ll tell you about the gaming-related ones here, but you can go to thinkgeek.com to check out all of the other cool Star Wars, Star Trek, etc. ones too.

First off, as pictured above, there are Minecraft-themed Peeps called Creeps!  Peeps are one of my perennial favourite Easter candies (for those who don’t know they’re like sugar-coated marshmallows).  At $5 a case they’re significantly more expensive than regular Peeps, but they make up for it with their awesome look.  I want some even though I’ve yet to play Minecraft myself. Read on to find out about the other new products they’re offering.

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