Hasta La Gadget!

It’s time to jump back in the big pile of mobile smart gaming device excellence with NVIDIA’s own Project SHIELD handheld monster. This little beast works with the NVIDIA Tegra 4 quad-core processor and will be able to both play Android games natively and stream higher-powered games from the NVIDIA GeForce GPU-powered PC you’ve got in your home. Here we’re seeing this little beast play an enhanced version of Arma Tactics.

The game you’re seeing here will be available on the Google Play app store as well as the TegraZone for Tegra-toting smartphones and tablets rather soon. For now you’ll be seeing the highest-powered version of the title on the machine we’re also not going to have in our hands for several months. You’ll be battling it out with battlefield tactics on a wide playing field with a set of controls that, on other devices, will only be available on-screen.

Here you’re able to use essentially every control button on the Project SHIELD hardware, those being the ABXY buttons, joysticks, directional pad, and four buttons near your pointer fingers. Triggers, in other words. You’ve got the touchscreen up front as well to change the direction in which you’re viewing the ground.

You’ll be running through randomly generated missions with randomized objectives on the fly – this game is everything you’ll have wanted as a big fan of the PC-bound Arma titles of the past. Here on Android you’ll be getting as close to possible without the full streaming connection to Arma’s PC titles.

Have a peek at the timeline below to see additional Project Shield hands-on bits and pieces from the past few months and get pumped up about the final drop!

[via NVIDIA]

NVIDIA Project SHIELD demoes Arma Tactics is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

In the trailer you’re about to see for the next bit of storyline for the Dishonored video game legacy, you’ll find yourself not in the shoes of the protagonist. Instead you’ll be the assassin who actually did murder the Empress – and though you feel the guilt of doing so weighing on your mind, you’ve still got a job to do. Of course you’re still “Dishonored”, so to speak, but you’re under a cloak – and you’ve got one massive amount of shadowy skills to bash your way forth with.

While the original Dishonored story followed a man by the name of Corvo Attano, “the last bodyguard to the Empress”, this time you’re playing one of the assassins that inadvertently ruined Attano’s life. While it’s not said explicitly in the trailer you’re about to see, we can’t help but wonder if you and Attano will be meeting by the time this whole saga is over. Your name this time is Daud, and for six months you’ve had the weight of the world on your shoulders.

You’ll be BAMFing your way from one wall to another, knifing your enemies in the back here and there, and electrifying all those who would oppose you without end. This DLC for Dishonored will have you working with tricks you’ve seen before as well as a whole bunch of new bits and pieces only a real hardcore OG assassin would know.

This downloadable addition to your Dishonored experience will require that you already own and have installed the game (or have the disk in your drive if you’re on a console). You’ll be downloading Dishonored: The Knife of Dunwall starting on April 16th for PS3, Xbox 360, and PC all at once. Make with the cash drop!

Dishonored DLC Knife of Dunwall flips the tables: now you’ve done it is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Rockstar will be releasing Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories and Vice City Stories to the PlayStation Network next week. The games will be available for $9.99/9.99 euros/7.99 pounds a piece. These games are the prequels to their PlayStation 2 counterparts, and they bring in a variety of new features introduced in later installments of the franchise, including motorcycles, more in-door environments, clothing options, and more.

GTA: LCS takes place 3 years before Grand Theft Auto III. Players will notice a nostalgic feel to the game, as it essentially has many similarities. However, there will be some significant changes in the scenery to the game. For example, the construction site located in Fort Staunton in GTA III will be a little “Italy District” in LCS instead. Also similar to GTA III, you will be unable to swim in LCS. Jumping into the water will kill you.

GTA: VCS features some major changes, as well as several, similar aspects from its counterpart. The hand-to-hand combat system has received a major upgrade, where players are now able to grapple/throw enemies. There is a new “empire-building” feature in the game that allows players to operate businesses on property obtained from enemy gang members. One of the classic elements included in the game is the option to take on side missions.

While both games did have an online multiplayer feature on the PlayStation Portable, it’s still up in the air whether or not those features will be available on the PlayStation 3. These games should serve as a great distraction until Grand Theft Auto V comes out. GTA V is expected to come out on September 17th of this year. Fans have been waiting anxiously to get their hands on the game, and Rockstar attempts to curb their cravings by releasing a plethora of screenshots.

[via Rockstar]

GTA Liberty City Stories and Vice City Stories heads to PSN next week is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Hyperkin’s upcoming RetroN 5 gaming system will allow you to dust off those old, video game cartridges you have lying around and play them once again. The RetroN 5 improves upon the old RetroN 3 by adding support for more, old gaming consoles. Like the RetroN 3, you will be able to play game cartridges made for the original Nintendo, Super Nintendo, and Sega Genesis, but unlike the RetroN 3, you can also play games made for the Famicom, Super Famicom, Sega Mega Drive, Game Boy Advance, Game Boy Color, and original Game Boy.

The new RetroN gaming system also allows you to use your old gaming controllers with the system as well. There are 6 available controller ports. The Sega Genesis and Famicom controllers will use the same port, and the Super Nintendo controllers will be used to also control the Game Boy games. The retro gaming system will also feature Bluetooth wireless controllers that can be configured to work for any game.

The RetroN 5 is basically a hardware emulator for classic games. The system allows “Save States” for games, overclocking to speed games up, brightness adjustments, volume adjustments, and more. There is also an HDMI output that allows you to play your games at up to 720p resolution. Hyperkin has also fixed the “blurry” issue that most classic games have when being played on HD televisions. The RetroN 5 can also improve the audio of games, but that’s entirely up to the gamer. Some people like the original 8-bit music in their games.

Hyperkin is hoping to keep the price of the RetroN 5 low. It’s aiming for a $100 or less price-point, but the company isn’t able to promise anything. Considering that the RetroN 3 was $69.99, and Hyperkin’s SupaBoy (handheld Super Nintendo) was $79.99, we could be looking at a $90-$100 price tag for this system. Hyperkin is also hoping to launch this system during the summer, with a speculated release date being sometime in July.

[via SlashDot]

RetroN 5 revives classic video game cartridges is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Julie Uhrman, the founder and CEO of Ouya, states that the gaming console will not support online multiplayer when it launches. She hopes that the the developers will be able to get the feature up and running by the end of the year. But fear not, local multiplayer will still be supported, so you’ll be able to play side-by-side with your friends (presumably up to 3 of them). Uhrman hopes to bring back the era of “back-couch” game play.

Ouya is the highly anticipated gaming console that runs on Android’s OS. The console is set to ship to its Kickstarter supporters on March 28th, and it’s goal is to take on its console gaming competitors, the PS3 and the Xbox 360. The system runs on an NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor, 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage. You are able to increase its storage size by connecting an external USB stick or hard drive to USB port on the system.

Uhrman says that the $99 system is a major draw for gaming developers, because unlike the PlayStation or the Xbox, it won’t cost developers a fortune to release a game for it. There are currently 481 games being developed for the console, and the developers are able to monetize their games by adding in-app purchases, subscriptions, or freemium features, something that Uhrman says is very difficult to achieve with traditional consoles.

Online multiplayer is set to launch by the end of the year, and will include leaderboards and achievements. The addition of online multiplayer will help make MMORPG’s more successful on the Android operating system. Along with online multiplayer, Uhrman says that they’re in the process of hooking up video streaming services, like Hulu or Netflix, onto the system so that the console can double as a replacement TV box (similar to Roku).

[via Forbes]

Ouya online multiplayer to launch by end of the year is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.