January 2014

Second Dimension: The Warriors Code Interview


Posted on January 31, 2014 by Broken Joysticks

The fighting game community (FGC) has grown from holding local events to smaller venues to occupying ballrooms at four-star establishments with talent from all across the globe attending. Major sponsors such as Capcom, Namco Bandai, and others are responsible for the development of some of the world’s most famous franchises in gaming, and are showcased at a central tournament featuring the top fighting talent from across the world. With major prize pools, fighting games are now reaching a platform that can be compared to traditional eSports.

Each week, I’ll be posting interviews I’ve had the pleasure of conducting with members of the fighting game community. The interviews will touch upon their history in the FGC, where they got their start, and what they’d like to see from video games in general.

This week’s guest is  the one and only Spab Daddy, BIFU | Spab Rog.Read More


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Downloadable DS Games Coming To Wii U?


Posted on January 30, 2014 by Les Major

Anyone who has played the Wii U might have thought of this at some point. You’re looking at the controller in your hand, then up to the TV, then you ponder what it would be like if you could play your favorite DS games on the home console. Surprisingly enough, it sounds like Nintendo is planning to do just that by releasing DS games on the Wii U eShop! This of course is big news considering the unfortunately bad year Nintendo has experienced recently. Why?Read More


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January 30th Nintendo Download


Posted on January 30, 2014 by Jason Nason

Nintendo Wii U Virtual Console

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (Nintendo) – Rated: E – $7.99

Travel through the Light and Dark Worlds in this classic Zelda adventure. Return to an age of magic and heroes! When an evil magician named Agahnim begins kidnapping young maidens in Hyrule in a quest to break the imprisoning seal on Ganon, a young boy named Link is called upon to stop him. Link must venture into twisting mazes, dungeons, palaces and shadowy forests as he searches for the maidens and Princess Zelda. Traversing both Light and Dark Worlds, he must navigate eight dark dungeons, fighting evil enemies and huge bosses. Help our hero prevent Ganon and Agahnim from shattering Hyrule forever. Whether you are a young knight, a heroine-in-training or a seasoned warrior, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past will delight!

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Nintendo Launches Two-Week Indie eShop Sale


Posted on January 30, 2014 by Jason Nason

Nintendo announced that starting today several indie games currently available in the Nintendo Wii U eShop will feature price drops, with the limited-time discounts running through February 13th. Anyone who already owns one of the below titles, or purchases one of the listed games at full price, will qualify to receive a 60% discount off all of the other games!

“We noticed there were a lot of high-quality games by independent game developers in the Nintendo eShop,” said Collin Van Ginkel, co-founder of Two Tribes Publishing. “This type of special promotion helps us introduce games of other developers to our fans who may not otherwise discover all the great games available on Wii U.”

The indie games that are participating in this exciting two-week Nintendo eShop sale include:

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Sony Begins Sending Out PlayStation Now Beta Invites


Posted on January 29, 2014 by Rae Michelle Richards

Last evening Sony began sending out invites for their upcoming PlayStation Now game streaming service, IGN.com has reported. The streaming service is entering a small closed beta period ahead of its official release sometime later this year and requires a 5MB internet connection and the use of a PlayStation 3 is recommended according to the invite email.

PlayStation Now is an online streaming service that will allow gamers to play titles from the console maker’s nearly 20 year history on the PlayStation 3, PS4 as well as Sony Bravia televisions and Smart Phones. The technology behind PlayStation Now based off of GaiKai’s streaming services, whom Sony purchased for $380 million dollars in 2012.

We don’t have a definitive list of launch titles for PlayStation Now but when the service was shown at CES 2014 both Beyond Two Souls and The Last of Us were both playable. We also do not have details on a pricing structure, launch window or whether or not PlayStation Now will tie into PlayStation Plus.

If you got into the beta, we’re super jealous!


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Nintendo Shipped 1.95 Million Wii U Consoles Last Quarter


Posted on January 29, 2014 by Rae Michelle Richards

It hasn’t been a particularly cheery time for Nintendo Japan as the Wii U is failing to meet projections and with the company’s profits expected to fall short next quarter; these certainly aren’t the money printing heydays of the original Wii back in 2007. While we won’t speculate about where Nintendo is heading, because frankly everyone has their own opinion and mine is probably way off, we can report back some of the numbers that recently came to light.

Nintendo had expected to ship 9 million Wii U units by the end of their fiscal year in March. Their latest projections state that they now see themselves moving 2.8 million consoles – with 1.96 of them moving during the Christmas season that just past. In the end this will cost the company a projected loss of 25 billion yen ($242 million) ending March 2014. That’s a lot of numbers to go through but at the end of the day it means that Nintendo is losing money despite the strong sales and critical acclaim for their most recent 3DS titles.

The console manufacturer has tried to drum up support for its latest home console with a small price cut, the release of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD and third party titles like The Wonderful 101 last fall. 3DS also saw a number of high profile releases over the course of the last year including Pokemon X & Y, Fire Emblem and The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds.

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Square Enix Launches Collective


Posted on January 28, 2014 by Jason Nason

Square Enix launched the pilot phase of its new community platform, Square Enix Collective yesterday. Collective will showcase independently developed game concepts direct to the gaming community, allowing the community to decide which concepts should become a reality.

The platform is initially launching with a pilot phase and will run for 28 days, showcasing three projects from three different studios.

“There are lots of really talented small teams around the world with great game ideas. For those teams, getting visibility, momentum, funding and distribution can be very tricky and that’s where we hope Collective can help,” said Phil Elliott, project lead on Collective.

The community will choose which projects they want to see go through to a crowdfunding process via a partnership with world-leading crowdfunding platform Indiegogo. Projects which successfully raise funds may also find support from Square Enix through the development process, and assistance in distributing the final project across leading digital channels once completed.

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Microsoft Acquires Gears of War Rights From Epic Games


Posted on January 27, 2014 by Joshua Rust

Gears of War is unanimously one of the flagship titles for any of Microsoft’s consoles. To date, the franchise combined has sold over twenty-two million copies – grossing in just over $1 Billion dollars. With this acquisition, Microsoft hopes to continue giving the fans even more Gears of War games and merchandise. Currently, there are four Gears of War titles but it’s likely we can expect to see more news on this soon – perhaps E3? We can only hope…Read More


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Plants Vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare Gameplay Trailer


Posted on January 23, 2014 by Joshua Rust

Earlier last week, PopCap Games and Electronic Arts unfortunately pushed Plants Vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare back. Fortunately, it was only for one extra week. While this game doesn’t follow the formula for the first title in this franchise, it looks to be equally intriguing. Some of the key features include 24-player multiplayer mayhem, customization options for both zombies and the plants, and four-player online co-op. The Xbox One version will feature offline split-screen co-op and SmartGlass & Kinect functionality as well.

To help ease the wound of Plants Vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare’s slight delay, PopCap & EA have released a new trailer to smooth it overRead More


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The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Trailer Swings In


Posted on January 23, 2014 by Joshua Rust

The Amazing Spider-Man is set to make his return to video game consoles via developer Beenox and publisher Activision this year. Historically, I personally believe that Beenox has done an outstanding job with the Spider-Man games. They are looking to continue this trend with a new Spidey game, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which will release sometime in the spring of this year. While the storyline will not follow the movies’, which is truly not a bad thing, it will feature some of the enemies featured in the film. Don’t worry true believers, there will also be more classic villains for you to take down as well – Beenox has confirmed.

This new trailer features one of those classic villains…Read More


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LOTR Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor Gameplay Surfaces


Posted on January 23, 2014 by Les Major

GameSpot has released some gameplay footage that shows what Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment’s new Lord of the Rings title Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor looks like from Monolith Productions. So far it seems to be somewhat Assassin’s Creed inspired with random rival generation which makes Orc foes that you build a history against called the Nemesis System. All this taking place between The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Interestingly, this is possibly the first non canon LOTR video game. Read on for the video!Read More


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PlayStation Network Maintenance January 27th


Posted on January 23, 2014 by Jason Nason

It was announced today that Sony will be performing network maintenance on Monday, January 27th from 12:30 PM to 6:30 PM Eastern Time with the maintenance expected to last approximately 6 hours.

If users have signed in to PlayStation Network any time since January 20th they will still be able to play games online and access partner apps such as Netflix during this maintenance period, however the PlayStation Store, PlayStation Home and Account Management will not be available during this time.

Be sure to sign in to PlayStation Network prior to Monday, January 27th in order to access online game play and partner apps during the planned routine maintenance.

Source: Sony


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January 21st Nintendo Download


Posted on January 23, 2014 by Jason Nason

Nintendo Wii U eShop

Wii Fit U Free Trial Offer Ends Jan. 31

There’s just one week left to take advantage of the Wii Fit U Free Trial Offer. Users who own a Wii U console and a Wii Balance Board accessory can download Wii Fit U from the Nintendo eShop on Wii U for free, then keep it forever by syncing a Fit Meter accessory to the game. The Fit Meter can be purchased separately at a suggested retail price of just $19.99. Wii Fit U offers more than 70 activities, while the Fit Meter tracks activity levels on the go.

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New Teaser and Release Date for Conception II


Posted on January 22, 2014 by Jason Nason

Atlus revealed a new teaser trailer for their upcoming RPG title Conception II: Children of the Seven Stars today, and also let loose on the release date for the game. The title will be released on both the PlayStation Vita and Nintendo 3DS on April 15th, 2014.

So, what can you expect from Conception II? There will be plenty of dungeon crawling in a fully 3D environment, punctuated with a battle system that puts emphasis on positioning around a monster. Conception II has beefed up the party size up to eleven characters, including 9 Star Children, 1 heroine, and you, the protagonist. Every battle is sure to be a challenge!

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