Gaming - Page 1188

Since the dawn of the Internet, many have attempted to save minors from experiencing the beast that is the world wide web. Age-gates are used for a number of video game websites as well as other adult material on the web that vary from asking "Are you over 18?" to something a tad more thought provoking like requesting the user's birthdate. Nintendo's Wii U has introduced its own age-gate of sorts for minors who would like access to the Nintendo Network at the cost of their guardians.

When a user registers their account to be connected to the Nintendo Network, they'll be asked if they're over 18 years old. If they are, the user can just continue on and finish the sign-up process without thinking twice of their honor of being an adult.

If a minor creates their profile and registers for the Nintendo Network, they'll be asked to obtain the approval of their parent or guardian by having the amount of $.50 charged to the adult's credit card.

Anand himself has grabbed out his tool belt, and ripped Nintendo's latest, just released, next-gen console, the Wii U, and gave it a teardown treatment. The Wii U isn't too hard to open up and begin looking inside, according to Anand.

The included Wii U optical drive uses a custom format, offering 25GB of storage on-disc. Max sequential read speeds are actually pretty good compared to current-gen consoles, at 22MB/sec. There's two separate 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi controllers, one for the usual Internet connectivity, one for the Miracast display streaming between the Wii U and the GamePad display.

There's some Samsung eMMC included, and Toshiba NAND on the back of the board. Four 4Gb (512MB) Hynix DDR3-1600 devices are baked inside, with the memory shared between the CPU and GPU. We should have around 12.8GB/sec of peak memory bandwidth in the Wii U. Comparing this to the 5.6GB/sec available on the Wii, and we're looking at just over double the internal bandwidth - which isn't too bad at all.

Skyrim lovers get ready, as Bethesda have unveiled twelve new images to the upcoming Skyrim DLC, Dragonborn. Dragonborn is considered, by some enthusiasts, as the game's first "real" expansion, going above and beyond previous DLC packs by introducing an entire new, and very large territory to explore.

Gamers will be able to leave Skyrim, to travel over to the island of Solstheim, located northwest of Vvardenfell, and was previously mentioned in Bloodmoon. Bloodmoon being the second expansion to the 2002-released The Elder Scrolls III - Morrowind.

The terrain of Solstheim has been described as "ash wastes and glacial valleys", with Bethesda teasing that when you're on the island, you'll "encounter the Dark Elven Settlers of Raven Rock and the native Skaal as you unravel the mystery of a Dragonborn's return". New towns, dungeons and quests will be available to the player, with it ending in what should be your biggest battle yet - the first Dragonborn.

Grand Theft Auto V is set to pretty much be one of the biggest games of 2013, and one of the biggest games ever released - but with no PC version in sight, it is disappointing.

GTAForums, a community dedicated to everything GTA, has some more details on GTA V thanks to a recent Q&A session with Italian website, Multiplayer.it. GTAForums published the finding in a recent thread, and there are some very big details on the game:

Of course, this is all on an un-refined, unfinished demo of the game, and does not, at all, mean that everything here is correct. The final version will undoubtedly sport some huge improvements in performance, as well as changes in the above information.

People buying the WiiU might be upset that they must basically be in the same room as the WiiU to use the WiiU GamePad. While the recommended usage distance is in fact 26 feet, the designers of the wireless chipset used in the tablet say that it is capable of much, much more, but Nintendo wanted to be sure they wouldn't be sued by someone trying to use it too far away.

Ultimately, the range comes down to the amount of wireless interference present in the installation location. If you're in an apartment building in New York City, you'll likely have much less range than someone out in the middle of nowhere, a location where not even cell phones get reception.

In the latter situation, Dino Bekis, senior director of Wireless Connectivity at Boradcom has said that people could likely get up to 100 feet of range. It also depends on what your house is composed of and different factors. The bottom line is that Nintendo went pretty conservative on the number to ensure that all users would receive a decent experience.

Microsoft is celebrating its Xbox Live 10-year anniversary this month as it was officially launched back in November 15, 2002, but Sony has hijacked their party, popped their festive balloons and punched every celebratory cake in sight with its news of updated sales figures for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Move controller.

Sony has announced today its PlayStation 3 has reached a total of 70 million units sold worldwide since its debut back in November of 2006, one year after the Xbox 360 was made available. Even with a one-year head start, Sony has caught up with Microsoft's Xbox 360 as they reached their 70 million units sold worldwide mark just last month. Seeing how Microsoft has always struggled selling its Xbox 360 in Japan, I'm sure Sony's dominance of the region helped reach today's goal.

Sony also announced its PlayStation Move controller has hit the 15 million units sold worldwide mark two years after its debut in 2010, which currently has over 400 titles supporting it.

With the Nintendo Wii U getting ready to launch this Sunday, Nintendo chose today to announce its TVii and all streaming video services will be delayed weeks after the launch of the console.

In a press release sent out today, Nintendo indirectly announced the delays through the description of the TVii and video-on-demand services.

Here's the description Nintendo sent out for the Nintendo TVii:

The second trailer to Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto V is here, and boy what a trailer. It shows off that the super-huge open-world game is set to be just as large as they've stated it to be - with the game world bigger than Red Dead Redemption, GTA IV and San Andreas, combined.

The second official trailer shows more of the characters off, the game world, some of the environments, vehicles (planes included) and more. It doesn't look, from this trailer at least, that the game is going to be more of the same, but on a much, much bigger scale. This isn't bad, but I'd love to see Rockstar push the GTA game into a completely new direction.

We already know there's going to be three protagonists in GTA V, where you can switch in and out of these characters at any time - the camera zooms up into the sky, locates the character of choice, and zooms back in giving you control of the next protagonist. Very cool. The trailer looks like it's using either a higher resolution than the consoles it is going to be released on (Xbox 360, PS3) or they've used the render res (most likely just under 720p) and slapped on some AA. Hopefully it looks that good, and runs that well, when it's released.

Before Halo 4 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 took over my gaming time, I was playing Need for Speed: Most Wanted on a very regular basis. Its driving mechanics felt a tad heavy compared to previous Criterion titles, but after spending several hours with the game, I became used to it and enjoyed my time with it before first-person shooters took dominance over all games.

If you have yet to pick up Need for Speed: Most Wanted and are the type to try a game before you spend your hard-earned cash on it, then you should head over to Xbox Live or PlayStation Network as EA has announced a demo for the game is now available.

The demo gives players access to the Aston Martin V12 Vantage with the ability to stumble upon the Porsche 911 Carrera S, Audi R8 GT Spyder and the Ford Focus RS500, which can be driven as well. Each vehicle will have its own unique races, challenges and mods that can be unlocked through play and players can receive a total of 50,000 Speed Points in the demo, which can then be carried over to the full game if they decide to pick it up.

Yesterday, we reported on PC copies of Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 including a Mass Effect 2 disc instead of the second disc of the game. If you were one of those unlucky few, your luck has instantly changed overnight as BioWare has got a sweet deal for you.

BioWare, who are the developers behind the Mass Effect trilogy, has seen the mixup as an omen which have given these select few a surprise Mass Effect 2 disc. With that said, BioWare is reaching out to those few who were accidentally given Mass Effect 2 discs and giving them the complete Mass Effect Trilogy they never wanted.

Sony announced earlier this year it would be making its widely successful premium membership service, PlayStation Plus, available to PS Vita owners without any additional costs to PS Plus members. Today, the company has finally announced the PS Plus service will be made available on the PS Vita on November 19th.

The PlayStation Plus service for the PS Vita will have its own Instant Game Collection and on November 19th, will give PS Plus members access to the following titles:

As with the PlayStation 3 version of PlayStation Plus, the PS Vita Instant Game Collection will be regularly refreshed, but seeing as the current library of titles for the Vita is lacking, I'm curious to see just how many games Sony can make available without Vita owners opting out of buying games in hopes their game of choice will be free on PS Plus.

Update: BioWare has announced they will be giving PC players affected by this mishap a very special gift.

If you were one of the millions of Call of Duty fans who attended midnight launch events last night to pick up your copy of Black Ops 2 as soon as it was legal to do so, then you're probably sound asleep as you played the game to hell until the sun came up. But a small minority seem to be having issues with their newly acquired game, specifically the PC version.

Reports have been spreading across the Internet of people whose second Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 disc not containing the second part to the game's installation process. Instead, it's a Mass Effect 2 disc. YouTube user zeroiez even took video of his experience when attempting to install Black Ops 2 on his PC, with many an expletive flying in Treyarch's direction.

Any Grand Theft Auto fan knows that with each successive game, the game world itself gets much bigger. Well, it looks like Grand Theft Auto V is set to be the biggest of them all. The digital edition of Game Informer's December Issue is out, and it includes a mammoth amount of information on the game.

There will be not one, but three protagonists in GTA V, which can be switched between at nearly any time during the game. There's no confirmation on whether there'll be cooperative play, but with three players to choose from, I don't see how it can't feature the wicked ability for co-op.

Randomized events make a return, as well as some of the characters from GTA IV. The biggest thing with this feature in Game Informer is that they unleashed the news that the game world is going to be bigger than Red Dead Redemption, San Andreas and GTA IV... combined.

We kinda knew this was in the works, and I think we're going to see Half-Life 3 rolled out with it. But, during a visit from 4chan.org's /v/ board for his birthday, Valve boss Gabe Newell received some presents from some randoms from the Internet.

He had to pay $2.50 to unlock a real-life Mann Co. crate that included a TF2 Soldier hat inside, and he hung around to talk to fans of his, and his games, that came from all across the United States. The first question asked, and paraphrased from the above video, "Is Valve working on a new Source engine?"

Newell replied with "We've been working on new engine stuff for a while", adding "we've just been waiting for a game to roll it out with". Someone then follows that question up with "is it more than just an extension to Source? Like, is it an entirely new engine?" Newell, the hero that he is, replies with "yeah."

Some new details on Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto V have been released thanks to a Game Informer feature detailing a lot of previously unknown information regarding Rockstar's next open-world title.

One of the first things detailed is the main character in Grand Theft Auto V, or rather, main characters as the game will feature three playable characters who will be switchable by a simple button press which will allow players to experience the same mission through a different angle. Each character has their own back story, skill set and even their own friends who players will be able to interact with.

Heists will play a big role in Grand Theft Auto V as each playable character will have their own job to do during a heist. For example, one heist can have one character rappelling down the side of a building, another character with a sniper rifle in another building to provide support while the last character flies a helicopter for the sake of flying a helicopter.

Have you been keeping tabs on the latest Wii U news, but have yet to pre-order the console and live near New York City? Seeing as how pre-orders for the Wii U are going fast, it might be in your best interest to attend Nintendo's midnight launch event at Nintendo World.

The launch event is scheduled to take place on Saturday, November 17th at 6 p.m., but if I know one thing about New Yorkers, it's the fact that they tend to wait in line for things way earlier than people expect. I wouldn't be surprised if there were people waiting in line at Nintendo World days, maybe even a week before the Wii U launches.

Aside from being one of the first to purchase a Wii U, Nintendo of America's President Reggie Fils-Aime will be there to count down the launch of the company's next console and hand off a Wii U to the first person in line. Not only that, but Nintendo will have New York-themed T-shirts with Mario's image on it for sale at the event, whose proceeds will be donated to the American Red Cross to support Hurricane Sandy victims.

Rumors have unfortunately been confirmed, with Blizzard's expansion pack to StarCraft II has been delayed, Heart of the Swarm was scheduled for a Christmas release, but has been delayed until some time in 2013.

Heart of the Swarm originally was meant to add seven new units to the game, and remove three existing numbers for balancing reasons. But behind closed doors, Blizzard have changed their plans, dropping the planned Shredder and Warhound units for the Terrans due to balancing problems, replacing them with Widow Mines - variants on Spider Mines that fire splash-damage missiles, and tweaks to the Hellion, Ghost, Battlecruiser and Reaper units.

Protoss players will receive three of the four new multiplayer units, while the Replicant has been thrown away over fears that it would encourage players to spam masses of identical units. There are also single player modifications where an expanded plot would continue where Wings of Liberty finished.

Every time I hear something new about the upcoming Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, I get a little bit more excited. For instance, I just learned that Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 will allow players on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 to stream they're gameplay live to the internet so friends and random people alike can watch you play.

"With Call of Duty: Black Ops II, people can live stream their gameplay directly from the game or watch the best players live on YouTube, which is an awesome next step for the eSports community," said YouTube's Sang Kim, head of game partnerships.

Now everyone will be able to watch you get that amazing headshot, or tea bag the player you just knifed in the back. Whatever your playing style, you'll be sure to get numerous comments on YouTube, both good and bad. This live streaming of play is a really cool feature and ushers in the future of eSports.

Ever since the Wii U was announced at E3 2011, gamers around the world have been hoping Nintendo steps up their online network game seeing as competitors Microsoft and Sony have completely left them in the dust with Xbox Live and PlayStation Network. Nintendo has assured gamers it will not repeat the same mistakes it made with the Wii and 3DS with Nintendo's Friend Code system. When you consider the Wii U will launch in a little over a week, it's natural to be concerned Nintendo has yet to give any real details surrounding its upcoming online network. The phrase "better late than never" certainly rings true here as Nintendo has finally released some details of how the Wii U's online network will work through its YouTube channel.

Before getting into the nitty gritty of the Wii U's online network, Nintendo first describes the experience Wii U owners will have when they first turn on their console. You'll first need to create a user account for the Wii U with a total of 12 user accounts possible per console. Once a user account is created, the user will create their Mii to attach to the account.

After a user account is created, they will go on to create a Nintendo ID which will be used to eShop purchased, video chat and Miiverse. Iwata-san says the Nintendo ID will live beyond the Wii U console as more Nintendo products will support the use of the Nintendo ID as well as PCs and mobile devices. He also states the Nintendo ID can be used with other third-party network services, which leads me to believe services like Origin and UPlay will be compatible with a user's Nintendo ID.

Disney Epic Mickey 2 is just two weeks away from being released, but if you never played the original game that came out for the Wii in late 2010, then you pretty much have no idea what you should be excited about. Instead of taking a gamble in hopes Disney Epic Mickey 2 is something you'd enjoy, DIsney Interactive has just announced a demo for the game has been released on Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network.

The demo for Disney Epic Mickey 2 will have players controlling Mickey Mouse as he works his way through the game's opening tutorial, to then play through some early levels of the game which includes the memorable magical laboratory of the sorcerer, Yen Sid.

Players will also meet Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, which happens to be the first cartoon Walt Disney ever drew, to experience some of the game's co-op abilities.