In case you didn't know, Reggie Fils Aime from Nintendo of America is making an appearance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon this evening. Many have been speculating that this would be the public reveal of the Wii U, but since launch is nearly a year away that isn't too likely. Instead it seems as though Nintendo's facebook page has spilled the beans, showing the above picture with the following caption, "The sign outside Reggie's dressing room at Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Tune in tonight!" It seems as though the focus will be squarely on The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. I hope Reggie has a bit more to show than the trailer we saw at e3. I hope this is worth suffering through the show for!
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IBM is still being quite secretive about the multi-core CPU it is providing for Nintendo's Wii U, but details are slowly leaking about what it has under the hood. The "Watson" chip is said to be a custom Radeon GPU, and while it's not exactly cutting edge it is capable of surpassing the output of the Xbox 360 and PS3. The chip is similar to the R770 found in AMD's last-gen cards like the 4890, but he custom core also supports Direct X 10.1, whereas the Xbox 360 can only run Direct X 9. It also supports an Eyefinity-like multi-display tech for up to four SD video stream, something Nintendo was being wishy washy about at e3. So it is a powerful system, but not cutting edge. These are not final specs however, and are subject to change before launch next year.
Source: Engadget Valve's Steam downloadable game service just launched five free-to-play games, Spiral Knights, Forsaken Worlds, Champions Online: Free for All, Global Agenda: Free Agent, and Alliance of Valliant Arms. This marks the first time Valve has tried this strategy on Steam. Extra items and equipment will be available for a premium, but the games themselves are completely free. In order to entice more users, Valve is giving away free content that is normally premium for those that download the games this week. With large-scale, epic RPGs becoming less and less commonplace lately, CD Projekt’s The Witcher from 2007 was a breath of fresh air into the genre and sparked hope that solid single-player RPGs weren’t dead yet. It stood tall and made the statement that there would be more compelling adventures to follow, and many gamers, myself included, patiently waited for the release day of the sequel. Yet, somewhere along the line, the vision got clouded, the execution got sloppy, and 2011’s The Witcher 2 conveyed a mere shell of the pedigree that The Witcher had promised.
Bungie is finally set to reveal what their Aerospace project is all about on July 7th, the last day of their 20th anniversary celebration. From their site: Here are 7 reasons you should come out and celebrate with us this year:
I can't wait to see what Bungie has in store for us. In other related Bungie news, the developer released a new mobile app today, be sure to check it out. Wondering how powerful the Wii U is? Well it is powerful enough to run Crytek's Cry Engine 3, that much is known. Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli had this to say about the developer's support for the new Nintendo system, "Crytek’s support for Wii U is definitely going to happen. We aren't showing it but we are pretty much running it already.” That is in stark contrast to id Software's statement, which showed hesitation due to the system's potential audience. Hopefully we see more Western developers like Crytek take a positive outlook on the potential Wii U offers, if only for its graphical prowess.
Source: develop Software
01. L.A. Noire (360, PS3) 02. Brink (360, PS3, PC) 03. Lego Pirates of the Caribbean: The Video Game (Wii, 360, NDS, PS3, 3DS, PSP, PC) 04. Portal 2 (360, PS3, PC) 05. Mortal Kombat 2011 (PS3, 360) 06. Call of Duty: Black Ops (360, PS3, Wii, NDS, PC) 07. Zumba Fitness: Join the Party (Wii, 360, PS3) 08. NBA 2K11 (360, PS3, Wii, PS2, PSP, PC) 09. Just Dance 2 (Wii) 10. Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars (Wii, NDS, 360, PS3, 3DS, PSP, PC) Click "read more" for hardware results, as well as an analysis of the results. Duke Nukem Forever finally released in the UK, after about 15 years in development. In fact, I remember anxiously anticipating this game in the 6th grade. But the wait might have been worth it for UK gamers, who bought the game in droves. Luckily they didn't seem to see early reviews, which are mostly below average. Duke Nukem Forever even managed to beat out tough competitors like L.A. Noire and Zumba Fitness. Hail to the king baby!
For some reason there are still a lot of gamers out there who think that all Wii U brings to the table are the same touchscreen controls we saw on the DS. Here is footage of the Ubisoft Wii U developer roundtable held last Wednesday night that will show you just a small amount of the potential the new Wii U controller brings to gaming.
Homefront developer Kaos Studios has been closed by THQ, despite being well received commercially if not critically. An interesting choice for THQ, considering most publishers are more concerned with sales than review scores. Development of a Homefront sequel has been transferred to THQ's Montreal studio. THQ states that the laid off employees will be able to interview at other internal studios, such as Montreal and Toronto. Rumors suggest that many of those laid off have already landed elsewhere, but as always I wish all of those effect the best of luck.
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