As part of today’s Nintendo Direct, Reggie-Fils Aime announced that the public will have an opportunity to demo some unreleased Wii U titles at their local Best Buy during the week of E3. Nintendo’s “E3 for the People” will only be available in the United States and Canada through Best Buy.

Rather than reserve the privilege to E3 attendees only, Nintendo has bypassed the LA expo and gone straight to the consumers with this surprising move. Nintendo has also previously announced that they will not be holding a press conference this year, although we can still expect to see a large Nintendo presence at E3 like we always do.

You can catch the full Nintendo Direct report after the break.

Read More

Black★Rock Shooter: The Game is an action RPG title for the PlayStation Portable based on the Black Rock Shooter franchise created by Ryohei “Huke” Fuke. The franchise includes an Original Video Animation (OVA), Manga, Anime, iOS game and the focus of this review, the PSP title. The PSP title was first released in Japan on August 25^th, 2011 and finally localized for the US and UK on April 23/24^th.

For those unfamiliar with the franchise, it’s based around a character aptly called the Black Rock Shooter (BRS) who wields a massive cannon, firing rocks at enemies. Each entry into the BRS series occurs in their own unique universes – with no continuum between them. The only thing these varying universes have in common is the Black Rock Shooter herself.

Read More

EA spokesperson Jeff Brown told Kotaku yesterday that there are no EA titles currently in development for Nintendo’s Wii U. Brown did not rule out the fact that EA may develop titles for the Wii U in the future but at this time it seems to not be in the publisher’s best interest.

EA launched multiple Wii U titles at the console’s launch, including Mass Effect 3, Need For Speed Most Wanted, Madden and FIFA titles. EA pledged early support for the system at the 2011 media briefing but seems to be backing away at this point, probably due to lackluster Wii U system sales.

I’m not sure about you guys but it’s been a long time since I was genuinely addicted to a game, really in to one sure but “give me a sec” responding when something you’d otherwise put down the controls for? Something THAT addictive, which brings me nicely along to the game we’re reviewing today, Velocity Ultra by Futurlabs.

Read More

Today whilst minding our own business on twitter, the user @neonbath asked if anyone would write up something on what exactly makes a scary game, well, scary – It’s actually a question that requires more than just a basic reply so we’ll dig in our heels in deep and investigate the disgusting and the scary.

Read More

Following the general consumer resentment towards online passes, EA has decided to cut the initiative for all their future titles. Online passes were initially bundled with new games as a one-use code that would permit access to the online features of games, including online multiplayer.

The biggest point of contention was within the used-game market as consumers would have to shell out an additional $10 for an online code if they didn’t get one with their game – a cost that sometimes brought the total of a used game + online pass over that of a new copy.

Jason Rubin, former THQ president (May ’12 – Jan ’13), has spoken with GamesIndustry International about the shocking limitations 4A Games was subjected to while developing what many would consider one of the top titles of this year. 4A is currently a Ukraine-based development team working for Deep Silver (of Koch Media) after having been auctioned off following THQ’s bankruptcy.

Read More

Kazunori Yamauchi, producer of the Gran Turismo franchise, has announced that the latest iteration of Gran Turismo will be released this holiday season for the PlayStation 3. Gran Turismo 6 will expand on the vast number of cars that were available in GT5, bringing the total number of cars over 1200.

In addition to the updated car inventory, GT6 will also include up to 33 locations (up from 26), improved car customization, race communities and improved physics.

Gran Turismo 6 will also support multiple device platforms, including smartphones, tablets and PCs which are going to be tailored around the “community space.” You can check out the teaser trailer after the break.

Read More

With all the buzz of new consoles rapidly closing in on us, many customers are finding it odd that developers are choosing to release games across both old and new platforms, such as PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 versions of Battlefield 4, superficially these actions could be quite puzzling but the deeper you dig the more sense it makes.

Read More

Before I go a single line further let me be absolutely transparent here, make no mistake this is a rant, a rant of a woman frustrated at the current state of the industry. Not to problems you may instantly assume such as the onset of a new console generation, the rapidly expanding blockbuster title budgets and of course the closure of countless studios which were once all staple parts of every games diet.

Read More