Let’s start this week’s early edition with some numbers. This year’s Summer of Arcade on XBLA appears to be an outright disappointment – for fans, creators, and Microsoft. SoA is normally the high point of sales for the marketplace, with top shelf games inspiring lots of sales. Fans expressed some disappointment with the selection this year, and that’s translated into poor sales as well. Gamasutra has some statistics regarding the number of first week players making the leaderboards. That’s not as reliable as actual sales figures, but free review copies can be countered by those who played but didn’t log scores online, making it inaccurate but not terribly so. Most telling of the statistics are the numbers put up by Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD and Wreckateer, this year’s Kinect title. THPSHD topped the list this season with 98,000 players in its first week. Good but not great, especially for a timed exclusive. Wreckateer, on the other hand, tanked with only 6,629 first week players. How bad are those numbers? Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, which was not an exclusive, launched the week after SoA ended and it had 145,709 players.

Now that we have the disappointing sales figures out of the way, how about some news?

2K’s X-COM: Enemy Unknown is less than a month away from its October 9, 2012 release date. So it’s past time we hear about the pre-order bonus. Ordering yours now will net you the “Elite Soldier Edition,” which includes the Elite Soldier DLC for free. That content includes:

• Classic X-COM Soldier: New recruit inspired by the original X-COM: UFO Defense – soldier with the blonde, flattop hairstyle returns fully modernized.</li
• Soldier Deco packs: Customize your soldier with aesthetic upgrades to armor, including the new Hyperion and Reaper kits.
• Complete color customization: Colors and tints for all armor sets in the game let you customize your squad’s look.

A little good news, a little bad news for Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes. Taking the stealth game into an open world for the first time opens up plenty of new possibilities but it’s coming with a drawback as well. While having a day/night cycle opens up new avenues for replayability, the loading screens are a definite negative. That’s right, both of those will be in the game. The day/night cycle will affect certain parts of the game, troop movement for example. I imagine certain targets will change position throughout a day as well. And hopefully this means it won’t be raining all the time like the screen shots indicate. That sounds awesome. Loading screens, though? That’s so 2002. It’s an odd choice on modern consoles, and one I don’t recall seeing on any other open world games in this generation (which doesn’t mean much, just that I don’t recall seeing it). Then again, did they choose loading screens in order to accomodate a higher level and detail and immersion in each area? And how often will it be loading? This may not be a big deal at all, it’s just an odd thing to hear for a modern game.

This might be slightly old news as the game is launching today, but six more characters have been revealed for Tekken Tag Tournament 2, making the total roster count 61! That’s a lot of potential beatdown. The six new reveals are Dr. B, Miharu, Sebastian, Slim Bob, Violet and Unkown. Yes, Unknown is the character’s actual name, not a placeholder because I don’t know it. She’s a creep girl with an outfit that looks like half a Venom symbiote.

If you’re like our very own Wrath.o.tron, you’ve ruined more than one perfectly good pair of pants in anticipation of Borderlands 2. As exciting as it is that the game will finally be in your hands in just one short week, Gearbox doesn’t want you to forget about the first add-on coming October 16th. The extra “Mechromancer” character has finally been given a name, Gaige. Personally, I think she’s going to be the most interesting part, so you really should pre-order now. That pre-order gets you access to the Borderlands 2 Premium Club and will get you Gaige and her robot companion, Deathtrap, for free. If you’re not part of the club they’ll charge you $10 (800 MSP) for a punk chick with a robotic arm.

Speaking of DLC, Microsoft has locked in three timed exclusives for Resident Evil 6. We don’t have much in the way of detail, but the Marketplace site for the game confirms “3 new modes exclusive to Xbox 360 coming soon. Microsoft will announce 3 timed exclusive modes for Capcom’s Resident Evil 6 available after the game’s release on 2nd October. Further details TBC.” Without details I can’t say how much it will matter, but if you’re a Resident Evil fan and you have your choice of console….

This week’s update for PlayStation Plus isn’t very extensive, but they are some good bonuses for the right people. As an old school gamer three of the updates speak to me. Double Dragon Neon has been on my radar since it was announced. Nice to see I’ll be getting it free on day one. If you don’t already own Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game (what’s wrong with you) you’ll now be able to get it free. Actually, I’ve had this one since day one but never got much past the first level. It’s the kind of game I really want to play in co-op but my wife didn’t like it and there’s no online option. Still, for free, give it a whirl – especially if you like the old side scrolling beat ’em ups. Next, it’s not free, but you do get 10% off and early access to Jet Set Radio. This one doesn’t hit the way back machine quite as much, but this HD upgrade to the classic Dreamcast title does include the original soundtrack, which really was something special at the time and still should be now. Lastly, subscribers get a 33% discount on the digital edition of Max Payne 3. The discounts on that one actually get a little confusing. If you’re just buying the game it will be $59.99 or $40.49 for PS+. If you want to bundle it with the Rockstar Season Pass (valued at $89.98) it’s discounted for everyone, $67.49 for regular PSN users and $60.74 for PS+.

That’s it for this week’s early edition. Come back Friday for more on news on our favorite hobby, ship in a bottle.

Many games on the iPad and other mobile devices get pegged as a “time waster” by the gaming community. The title would be more offensive if it were any less true for a large portion of the games available. Simulation games that used to enthrall me for 5-10 hours have been stretched out on mobiles using a system that requires you to wait for events to complete, or pay to have them speed up. The Simpsons Tapped is EA’s first entry to this genre of game. Similar to Tiny Tower, Dragonvale, Tiny Town, Smurf’s Village (it reminds me most of Smurf’s Village). Tapped has you rebuilding Springfield after it’s destroyed by the Power Plant’s Chernoble style explosion. If only Homer would have put his tablet down and pushed the green button. (See what they did there, they made a joke about you playing their game too much during the intro to make it seem like you’d be addicted really quick.)

Sarcasm aside I find myself checking on New Springfield about twice a day. The odd collect-them-all based need has me hunting for Bart, wondering when Marge will return, and dancing when I finally finish the Van Houten house. Keeping the spirit of all Simpson’s games the humor is phenomenal. You can also expect that the artwork will look identical to the cartoon series, sparing no expense.





Truthfully the game is fun, just not ridiculously enticing. I can’t decide if it’s my co-addiction to Dragonvale, or the blatant plea for cash from EA (everything in the game that could possibly speed up the process costs a minimum of $5). But I find myself worrying about the game minimally. I also have no motivation to create an Origin account and follow my friends. Why EA refused to integrate the game into Apple’s Game Center is beyond me. Stop pushing me to Origin and simply let me use what I have. It’s truthfully the only reason I have friends in Dragonvale. For a free game that lets you rebuild Springfield and harass your favorite characters Tapped Out does the trick, just don’t expect to be playing consistently in 6 months.

Sound off below, or feel free to leave your Origin ID for other tapped addicts, if you’re gonna rebuild Springfield, you should have friends doing it too.

You know those pants you’ve got that are all soaked-through with excitement-piss because Borderlands 2 is coming out in 10 days? You may want to put those back on for a moment. (more…)

How do you feel about sequels? How do you feel about Capcom? If those two answers don’t coincide you probably won’t like their plans for the future. In its annual report earlier this week, Capcom explained their plans for shorter development cycles, more sequels in less time, and fewer people working on each title. This could be a winning strategy if you have a solid franchise and are looking to capitalize on name rather than innovate physics, movement, control schemes, etc. between each title. [Yeah, it means their Activisioning. Can I trademark that word?] They also intend to shorten sales cycles to 2 1/2 years to match the demand with the more rapid sequel. That is slightly offset by their intention of supporting titles with DLC for the first two years. Under the new plan, major title development teams will be limited to 100 members, and multiple sequels will be in development at once. Again, not entirely new, as Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed III was in development before Brotherhood and Revelations released. With their plans to release more titles per year they’ll be outsourcing “process-work” but the “core portion” of development will be done in house. Frankly, Capcom hasn’t interested me for several years anyway. If their new strategy flops then I don’t really care. If it works, they could redeem themselves to many gamers. Plus, there’s the added benefit of a shorter credits sequence at the end of games if only 100 people work on them.

The 1.8.2 patch that’s incoming for Minecraft on XBox360 will include Creative Mode. Most of those super-impressive constructions you’ve seen from the PC version were built in this mode that doesn’t require you to harvest raw materials for building. While the update will be free, according to 4J’s Paddy Burns, it’s still weeks away. Other elements will be included in the update as well. Hopefully we’ll get a more solid window soon.

I’ve been trying to avoid spoilers for Assassin’s Creed III so I haven’t watched many of the dev diaries and various other footage Ubisoft has been releasing. Most of that seems like hype and not news so I can reconcile it in my head for not including it in VGQH. If I see something tht looks newsworthy though, I read it. What I found this week probably still isn’t really news, but this concept art for Connor in Mohawk armor is just too awesome to ignore. And, it doesn’t really spoil anything because I don’t even know if the outfit made it into the full game. Maybe it’s an unlockable, DLC, story-related, or just concept. I cna’t wait until October 30th to find out.

For the little boy in me there are two things that will always capture my attention: robots and dinosaurs. Oh, High Moon Studios, you know how to play to my inner destroyer. The Dinobot Destructor Pack DLC is coming to Transformers: Fall of Cybertron next week. The pack will include four of the transforming robot dinosaurs for use in multiplayer, apparently one for each class. Possibly even better than the presence of Grimlock (T-Rex), Slug (Triceratops), Snarl (Stegosauraus), and Swoop (Pteranodon) will be using their body parts in the multiplayer character creator.

If giant robots and dinosaurs aren’t your thing, there may still be some DLC news to excite you. The Mechromancer DLC for Borderlands 2 has been tentatively scheduled for October. The game itself releases on September 18th, meaning you’ll be just about ready for that fifth class on October 16th. If you pre-order the game you’ll be getting the add-on for free. Latecomers will find themselves paying 800MSP/$9.99. Additional DLC is planned for the title, with at least four expansions coming between launch and June 2013. You can pick up all four with season pass for 2400MSP/$29.99 or one at a time at $10 each.

Ubisoft had their Digital Day in Paris this week and had a few big reveals:

Despite mediocre sales for the franchise, and generally bad reviews for the most recent title, Ubisoft is going ahead with Call of Juarez: Gunslinger. The last game, The Cartel, was supposed to carry the western feel into a modern setting. Instead, it just sucked. The series is returning to its wild west roots with this downloadable game. Famous outlaws like Billy the Kid and Jesse James will appear in-game. A new addition to the series is dodging bullets in addition to increased accuracy in their version of bullet time. No release date yet, but look for more information soon.

Ubisoft looks to be building their downloadable presence as they also announced Thunder Wolves, a co-op arcade shooter for XBLA and PSN. According to the game’s blurb, “There’s a job opening for a crack helicopter pilot with the notorious Thunder Wolves. Our group of experienced combat professionals has dodged more bullets and blown up more bridges than the US 7th Army, and we are currently looking to replace a reliable member who was killed in action.” Sounds corny as hell, but I kind of can’t wait to hear a release date on it.

Finally, Ubisoft announced Trials Evolution‘s first DLC pack will be coming this fall for 400MSP. The pack will include 36 tracks, a BMX bike, and some new course editor tools.

Is it really September? The summer has really flown by but I really feel as if I’ve amde the most of it. Not only have I had fantastic trips to Ireland, Moab, and Orlando, but I’ve been very active by competing in my first Spartan race, first triathlon, and first half-marathon. That last one happened this past Saturday at the Bonneville Salt Flats. It was a different kind of race than you’d expect. If you’ve never been to the Salt Flats, think of it as a vast expanse of natural concrete. By vast, I mean this stuff goes on so far that you can actually see the curvature of the earth. And by natural concrete I mean this is not like a dirt road; the salt is packed and dried so hard that 80mph winds and torrential rains didn’t actually soften the surface at all. Instead, there was about half an inch of standing water on the race course. It’s flat, so it can’t run downhill. It’s natural, so there’s no built in drainage. But, even with all that water, the ground was still hard enough to support vehicles without rutting. It’s a very strange phenomenon. As for my results, I wouldn’t say it was impressive but I’m quite pleased with my time.

But, you all came to read gaming news, not my mediocre race results. So let’s get started with a few highlights from PAX Prime:

Ted Price of Insomniac introduced an new IP, Fuse. This is actually a rework of Overstrike that they announced at E3 2011. After three consoles worth of success with Sony exclusives (Spyro, Ratchet, Resistance), this is their first multiplatform title. All we know so far is that this will be a four player online co-op and that the game’s website is set to launch on September 12th. Oh yeah, we’ve also got a screen shot.

The recent trademark filing from Square Enix has proven to be the next Final Fantasy game. Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII was revealed over the weekend, but not as a sequel to Final Fantasy XIII-2. The game begins with 13 days left on the Doomsday Clock and also includes day/night cycles that will affect NPC interaction. Lightning will have transforming weapons and a massive wardrobe. The game will be set on four islands known as Navus Partus and you’ll be using a monorail to get between them. That’s basically all we know for now, but a 2013 release date has been mentioned as well.

Also revealed at PAX Prime were two new characters for PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. Once again, the announcement of Nariko (Heavenly Sword) and Sir Daniel Fortescue (Medevil) seems to confirm the leaked list seen several weeks ago. The game is still scheduled for November 20, 2012.

In case there is any confusion, Hideo Kojima wants to make it perfectly clear, Project OGRE is not Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes. Also, Big Boss will be the main character in Ground Zeroes and he can now drive vehicles, a requirement for the game’s open world nature. This game also sees Kojima’s return as he is making it himself and it is still planned for current gen hardware. Which probably means it’s coming next year, but no confirmation on that yet.

We’ve been hearing rumors for some time that Brothers in Arms: Furious 4 had evolved. Randy Pitchford of Gearbox confirmed at PAX Prime that it’s actually evolved so much it is now an entirely new IP. According to Pitchford, Gearbox “kind of started to go in a place that started to get a little way from what the core of what the Brothers in Arms brand is all about… it needed to be unshackled.” Now that it won’t be tied to the planned franchise, I’d kind of like to see it tied to its obvious inspiration, Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds. Expect to hear more about this when it’s “reannounced” at Gearbox’s community day, September 15th.

If you were one of the many upset by Gearbox’s decision not to include female protagonists in Aliens: Colonial Marines, your voice has been heard. The franchise has always been associated with strong female leads and the introduction of Jennifer Running means the game will maintain that pedigree. Randy Pitchford wants “everybody to be clear that there are playable females in both the mulitplayer and the campaign.” Good news. The game is set for release February 12, 2013.

343 Industries spent PAX highlighting some of the changes to Grifball and Capture the Flag modes in Halo 4. In the new version of Grifball, attackers will now be able to throw and catch the ball. Defenders, meanwhile, will have swords and hamemrs at their disposal. Killing the ball carrier with the sword will automatically give you possession. Using the hammer pops the ball loose for anyone to grab. A revised Oddball mode also includes the passing mechanic. A new addition to Capture the Flag is the “Flagnum” weapon. Equipping the Flagnum lets you use the game’s flag as a melee weapon once you have it.

From a Capcom press release: “Capcom is currently undertaking a thorough investigation into reports that Resident Evil 6 is being sold ahead of its official October 2 release date. At this time, all we can add is that it would appear this unfortunate incident is limited to a small quantity of stolen copies of the German USK PlayStation 3 version of the game.” That’s really all there is to the story. A few copies of the game were stolen and made it into stores early. You can probably find a copy online if you want it that badly. But, keep in mind that it will be stolen property, in German, and very expensive. You should probably just wait a month.

Remember the recent Ratchet HD collection that didn’t include Ratchet & Clank: Deadlocked? I’m not sure why they waited, but the 2005 game is being remastered for a PSN release. Now word on a date, but “soon” should have you hopeful.

I’ve never been interested in the multiplayer component of the Assassin’s Creed franchise, but Ubisoft has promised that the version coming with Assassin’s Creed III will be the most extensive yet. Leveling up your character, using the new, in-home Animus, will reveal more of the Abstergo storyline. According to Damien Keiken (Director, Ubisoft Annecy), “As you progress in the game and level up your character, you access these files and videos. Every month you’ll have new challenges to unlock new content that will continue the storyline throughout the year.” Changing weather will seriously affect your strategy in the game, but that’s only the beginning. I’m curious to learn why Abstergo would release a home version of the Animus to the public. Isn’t revealing their plan for a world domination a bad thing? This sounds big enough that I’m actually getting more excited for October 30, 2012. I thought the continuation of Desmond’s story and a whole new assassin would be enough. Now I’m getting promises of more Abstergo story too.

The Remote Play function of your Vita will be getting a serious boost very soon. Shuhei Yoshida recently tweeted that he was remote playing ICO HD from his PS3 to his Vita and it’s “beautiful on OLED.” We are told to expect “more info soon.” HD versions of God of War and Shadow of the Colossus are expected to follow soon after.

Finally, for those late to the party on Gotham City Impostors, it’s now free to play on Steam. All prior DLC is also coming free with the latest version. Still looking for confirmation, but it appears this will also be shifting to free to play for PSN and possibly XBLA. Get your Batz or Jokerz ready. This will now be a quite literal “free for all.”

And that does it for the early edition. Check back Friday as I’m sure they’ll be plenty of new announcements, even without PAX feeding the news fires.

Say “goodbye” to August. Fall isn’t officially here yet but it’s definitely that time of year. If you’re into NCAA football, the season is on. The Utes opened last night by embarassing Northern Colorado 41-0. The pros in the NFL start next week. In the world of video games the blockbuster titles are starting to roll out for the busy holiday season. Before you know it you’ll be stuffing turkey and buying presents.

Sony is opening the Fall season with a deluge of retro gaming to get you motivated for the new stuff. The 1.80 firmware for PS Vita has launched, bringing PSOne Classic support with it. Europe’s list of Classics is much more extensive, but the North American batch is off to a good start:

• Arc the Lad
• Cool Boarders 2
• Final Fantasy VI
• Hot Shots Golf 2
• Jet Moto
• Syphon Filter
• Tomb Raider
• Twisted Metal 2
• Wild Arms

If you’ve already purchased any of these for PS3 or PSP they’ll be in your download list. You can download them straight to your Vita, assuming you haven’t already reached your system cap for that game. This list is pretty meager considering the library available. Hopefully more will be added to this list soon.

Techland, the developer behind Dead Island, has a new project in the works. Little is known about Project Hell except that it’s currently only being developed for PC. Consoles have been discussed as a possibility, but at this point in the cycle it’s anyone’s guess whether the console targets will even be this generation. We do know that project is a first person hack and slash that started life as a Dead Island mod but looked so good it’s become its own game. It’s too early for a release date, but we do have some concept art.

Remember that trademark I mentioned recently for Hearthfire? The assumption at the time was that this was the next DLC chapter for Skyrim. Turns out that’s exactly the case. Unlike Dawnguard, this new chapter won’t focus on as much story or combat. This add-on gives you the option of settling down. You’ll finally be able to buy yourself a plot of land, build a house complete with a library and garden, and start a family. Gardens, fish hatcheries, and beehives make collection easier. If you don’t want to tend to the day to day tasks of your new home, you can hire a steward to handle it. This seems like a strange add-on but I can see it being very popular. It’s releasing for XBox 360 on September 4th for 400 MSP.

Don’t get your hopes up for that same DLC on PS3 though. As you’ve probably noticed, Sony’s console hasn’t received Dawngaurd yet, let alone Hearthfire. According to Bethesda’s Community Lead, “gstaff,” you may not ever get it. According to “gstaff”

“It’s been a few weeks, and we wanted to make sure everyone knows where we’re at with Dawnguard. Skyrim is a massive and dynamic game that requires a lot of resources, and things get much more complex when you’re talking about sizeable content like Dawnguard. We have tried a number of things, but none of them solve the issue enough to make Dawnguard good for everyone.

“The PS3 is a powerful system, and we’re working hard to deliver the content you guys want. Dawnguard is obviously not the only DLC we’ve been working on either, so the issues of adding content get even more complicated. This is not a problem we’re positive we can solve, but we are working together with Sony to try to bring you this content.

“We wish we had a more definitive answer right now. We understand the frustration when the same content is not available on all platforms. When we have an update, we will certainly let you know. We deeply appreciate all the time and support you have given us, and we’ll keep doing our best to return that.”

It’s strange coming out of Star Wars Celebration VI and not hearing anything about Star Wars: First Assault only to find out it’s penetrated the internet with all sorts of empty domain registrations. A trademark has also been filed for the title to cover everything from pencil sharpeners to “interactive entertainment software.” My guess is that this is nothing important. I’m expecting a simplistic online game as part of a new promotion for the franchise. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. George will tell us when he’s ready.

Metal Gear celebrated its 25th anniversary this week (I’m so old). At an event for the celebration, Hideo Kojima had a closed doors showing of a new game in the franchise, Metal Gear: Ground Zero. Everyone was sworn to secrecy, but this is the age of the internet. “Well other people are talking about it so… next Metal Gear shown, and it looks… HOT.” “Snake crawled, avoiding searchlights, killed guard, rode jeep, called in helicopter for evac.” “Sounds like Metal Gear, but the scale & atmosphere… Wow.” I’m not going to out anyone who said these things, but I trust the sources to have actually been in the premiere. The demo ended with a Snake in a helicopter and Ride of the Valkyries playing. The Apocalypse Now is hard to miss. According to all reports this is going to be an open world game, a first for the franchise, but will still include all of the steath action appropriate to the franchise. Kojima did make one major announcement publicly, Avi Arad (of Marvel fame) is producing a film based on the series. Dates and details for both projects are pending.

Metal Gear‘s Raiden and Evil Cole from the inFamous franchise have officially been added to the cast for PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. Both characters were on the leaked list of characters a few weeks ago. A private beta is currently in progress (I’ve played a little but this isn’t really my style) and a limited public beta is scheduled in the EU for September 11-18. The full game releases November 20, 2012.

The season pass for Borderlands 2 has been announced, outing four planned DLC add-ons. The add-ons “each feature several hours of gameplay and introduce new adventures, allies, enemies and environments.” The season pass will be $20, a $10 savings versus buying each pack separately. The game, as you should know, launches September 18, 2012.

Borderlands 2 developers Gearbox Studios is working on “a few” next-gen titles according to Randy Pitchford (Founder, President, CEO). As for what those games are, he’s not saying. He did mention that doesn’t care about the future of motion controls, but his enthusiasm about the “many steps between now and the holodeck” indicate that’s not entirely true. This mostly just has me wondering about all the secrecy from Microsoft and Sony. The developers have announced you have new systems coming, but you haven’t. Why not?

Of course, Gearbox isn’t the only developer building on the mysterious next generation. Team Bondi (L.A. Noire) has finally made an official mention of Whore of the Orient, and it’s coming to PC and next-gen consoles. The official blurb reads “Shanghai, 1936. Whore of the Orient. Paris of the East. The most corrupt and decadent city on the planet, where anything can be had or done for the right price. Plaything of Western powers who greedily exploit the Chinese masses. Boiling pot of Chinese nationalism, with the Kuomintang ruthlessly trying to suppress Communism and the labour movement. Home to the International Police Force, a group of Western cops hopelessly trying to keep the lid on and keep the peace.” The game has a great premise, though the issues Team Bondi had recently have mea little leery. This is why I’m anxious for next-gen consoles to be announced. Not necessarily because I’m ready to buy a new one, but because I want to hear more about the games I know are coming for them.

That looks like all the news for this week. Enjoy your long weekend. Try not to do anything productive. Stay inside and play video games all weekend. I’m not actually taking my own advice but I wish I were. Instead I’ll be running my first half-marathon Saturday morning out on the Bonneville Salt Flats. And what better way to cap that off than heading a little further west to Wendover for the imbibing of adult beverages and the losing of money? Maybe on Sunday and Monday I’ll be able to partake of that mythical activity known as a nap.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the first time the names Solid Snake, Big Boss, and Outer Heaven were first heard. Fast forward to today, The Metal Gear Solid franchise is one of the most popular and revered video game franchises in history. Yesterday Konami held an event to celebrate the silver anniversary of the series. At the show Avi Arad, producer of such Marvel movies as Iron Man and the Amazing Spider-Man, along with the games creator Hideo Kojima announced that a Metal Gear Solid movie is in develpment at Columbia Pictures. There wasn’t much else said about the movie, but the announcement to me is exciting enough.

IndieRoyal’s new bundle puts Shattered Horizons in the headliner spot, and that alone is reason enough to pick this one up. (more…)

Star Wars Celebration VI was an amazing time. Unfortunately I was too busy to get into the two panels about Star Wars 1313 but I did speak with several attendees and it seems nothing new was really shown. It’s still running on a “high end PC” and no platforms have been announced for release. The only new “footage” revealed came from the demo being paused and presenter swinging the camera around for new angles and a 360 view of the game. When asked if there would be Jedi in the game the presenter was a little cagey, although he did promise no lightsabers.

In other news:

[Rumor] GameStop’s recent management conference has revealed a November 18th release date for the WiiU. The event is closed to all but the company’s managers and this information was supposed to kept secret, but we live in the age of the internet. Other sources have been tested for confirmation and so far the rumor seems well-substantiated. Nintendo apparently has plans in place to publicly reveal the date sometime in September.

In other next gen news, Remedy Interactive has declared the next gen systems are a “quantum leap forward” from the current generation. As they should be. But when are they coming? No answers to that question, but Remedy is working on a next-gen game with a “relatively small team.” According to Remedy’s Head of Franchise Development, “Can the new consoles really be that much better than the old ones? Be assured: They are. It is a quantum leap forward.”

Team Ninja has revealed two more fighters for Dead or Alive 5. Helena “Fortune’s Heiress” Douglas and Lisa “La Mariposa” Hamilton are the latest additions to the game, scheduled for September 28th. In a surprise move, the two characters have had their absurd body shapes toned down to levels more appropriate for a real human and their outfits are functional rather than sexual. Ha! Right, like that’s going to happen. Giant, nearly exposed breasts all around.

if you’re one of the many that have been waiting for PSOne Classics on your Vita, today is bringing you a few gems. MonkeyPaw has announed the release of Alundra, Arc the Lad I and II, Tomba, and Vanguard Bandits for your handheld with today’s store update. The Vita seems like the perfect home for classic RPGs so these are great games to finally see release.

Microsoft has finally caved to the free-to-play model for the XBox 360. Happy Wars, the 15 v 15 multiplayer action game will be releasing this Fall. It will be free for Gold members. Details on the paid transactions within the game have not been shown, but “lavishly rendered” in-game items are being touted.

That’s basically it for a slow news week. But I was sent some new screenshots for Grand Theft Auto V. I don’t have much explanation for any of it. But they look pretty, and they could hint at what we can expect to in our “spare time” in Los Santos.

The Nintendo 3DS XL came out here in the states a little over a week ago. I have taken the last week to really spend some quality time with it. Nintendo was smart enough to release a brand new Mario Brothers game on the same day as the XL. Giving us all a reason to not only buy the new console, but play it for a good chunk of time after.

The first and most obvious pro is simply the size of this 3DS. While other technology companies are making their gadgets smaller and smaller, Nintendo said, “Nay! We will go the way of fast food and make this bigger and possibly more fattening!” The most obvious super-sized feature are the larger screens.Each of them 90% larger.

The second big one for me are the upgraded buttons. The three buttons beneath the touch screen have been turned into larger clickable buttons. Rather than those from the original 3DS seemingly hidden under 1/8″ of plastic. Another improvement is on the 3D slider. There is a noticeable click and lock when the slider is turned all the way to off.

And last but not least, I noticed a much longer battery life. Keep in mind, I had the 3D turned off and the volume turned down the majority of the time I played. The battery lasted me roughly 6 to 8 hours. It took a couple evenings of three to four hour gameplay before it needed some juice. With the previous 3DS, I was having to plug it in by the end of any extended play session.

All and all I love this model much more than the last. I like the heavier weight and button placement. Much more comfortable for those longer gaming sessions. The XL also has a sexy matte finish instead of the glossy semi-gradient that collected more fingerprints than a private dick. I can only foresee two situations where this version wouldn’t be worthwhile. The first, if the main user is a child. The new XL could be a  little unwieldy for them. The second would be if you bought the original 3DS for $250. Spending another $200 on Nintendo right away could feel a little expensive.

To Nintendo’s credit, making the switch was very easy. I was able to transfer all of my Ambassador titles quickly and easily over wi-fi. And I even had a brand new Mario game to play on day one. If you are in the market for a 3DS and you can afford the extra $30, I highly recommend the XL.