Sep 18

Pre-ordering Dragon Ball Z Kinect from Amazon lets you turn Super Saiyan (or not)

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If you’ve ever wanted to cosplay Dragon Ball with Super Saiyan hair, it looks like you will be able to do so if you were to pre-order the upcoming Dragon Ball Z Kinect from Amazon. According to Amazon’s product description, it seems that if you live in North America and you were to pre-order the game, you will be able to get a Goku Hair Hat.

“Pre-order Dragon Ball Z for Kinect and get a Goku Hair Hat. The Goku Hair will be packaged with the game. Offer valid when shipped and sold by Amazon.com. Limit one per household. Amazon reserves the right to change or terminate this promotion at any time.”

The Goku Hair Hat is apparently the image pictured above. We’re not sure if that is the actual product or if it’s just a placeholder, because if it was the former we have to say it looks pretty cheap and not very impressive. Either way we’re sure that with or without the Goku Hair Hat, Dragon Ball fans will still buy the game so if that’s you, you can head on over to Amazon and place your pre-orders.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance cancelled for Xbox 360 in Japan, Microsoft’s Xbox 360 is the no. 1 selling console in the US for the 20th consecutive month,

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Sep 17

Dragon Age III: Inquisition announced, built on new engine

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We all knew it was coming eventually, and today BioWare and Electronic Arts confirmed our suspicions by announcing the next Dragon Age game. Dragon Age III: Inquisition is its name, and even though we don’t know much about it at all, there are still a few talking points to get excited about. For starters, it’ll be landing sometime in late 2013, but don’t be fooled into thinking that this latest installment is being rushed out the door.


The game was announced in a BioWare Blog post penned by longtime employee Mark Darrah. He spends most of the blog post talking about past projects he’s been a part of, ranging from the very first Baldur’s Gate (along with Tales of the Sword Coast, BGII, and Throne of Bhaal) all the way up to the Dragon Age series, which has him in the role of executive producer. He’ll be playing a major role in the development of Dragon Age III as weels, and assures readers that the DAIII team consists of BioWare veterans and talented newcomers alike. Specifically, Darrah states that many of the people who worked on Dragon Age: Origins have returned to work on Dragon Age III.

As stated above, Darrah doesn’t get too specific when it comes to Dragon Age III details, but he does let a few interesting tidbits loose. He isn’t willing to talk about story at this early point, but he does say that series fans should be able to figure some stuff out from the title alone. Dragon Age III has been in development for the past two years, with production ramping up about 18 months ago. Even better is that BioWare will be using a new engine with Dragon Age III, with DICE’s impressive Frostbite 2 engine serving as the foundation.

That’s it as far as actual information goes, and it seems that this blog post is geared more toward reassuring fans that Dragon Age III will be worth their time than anything else. To some fans, BioWare has been slipping lately – many fans complained loudly about Dragon Age II‘s move away from the gameplay in Origins, and even more complained about the ending in Mass Effect 3, which many felt was ultimately a big letdown when held up against the rest of the series. With this blog post, BioWare is suggesting that its getting back to its roots with Dragon Age III, and if the studio is serious about that, then it should have no problem getting back into the good graces of longtime fans. Keep it tuned here to SlashGear for more information about Dragon Age III – we’re expecting new details soon, and we’ll share them when we have them!


Dragon Age III: Inquisition announced, built on new engine is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.


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Sep 12

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance cancelled for Xbox 360 in Japan

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Bad news gamers in Japan, if you were looking forward to playing Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance on your Xbox 360, well you’re out of luck as Kojima Productions has confirmed via its website that the game has been cancelled for the Xbox 360. Instead the game will only be available on the PlayStation 3. However it seems that this cancellation for the Xbox 360 is limited only to Japan, so for gamers in other countries it looks like you’re still good to go. Some have speculated that the cancellation might have to do with poor Xbox 360 sales in Japan, but either way if you’re in Japan and you want to play Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, it looks like your best bet is to get it imported.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Microsoft’s Xbox 360 is the no. 1 selling console in the US for the 20th consecutive month, Skyrim: Hearthfire DLC now available for download on Xbox 360,

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Sep 11

SlashGear Evening Wrap-Up: September 11, 2012

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Tomorrow’s the big day, folks. Apple is set to hold an event tomorrow, and all signs are pointing to the reveal of the iPhone 5. Ahead of the event, however, came plenty of iPhone 5 news and rumors today. We heard today that iPhone 5 pre-orders will open up on September 14, and one analyst is saying that 10 million iPhone 5s will be sold this month alone. We also take a closer look at what we can expect in iOS 6 (which will be launching with the new iPhone) and we recap all of the news and rumors that have surfaced in this very long lead up to the reveal.


On the eve of the iPhone 5′s reveal, Samsung looks ready to pounce with an LTE lawsuit, and we received some new details about the new iPods that have been tipped for reveal alongside the iPhone 5. Pictures of what appear to be Vodafone Nano SIMs for the iPhone 5 surfaced today as well, and Samsung may soon be releasing a new advertisement meant to pull consumers away from Apple’s next iPhone.

Of course, all of the day’s news wasn’t exclusively about the iPhone 5, with Everything Everywhere holding its highly-anticipated 4G event in London today. We were there to see what all Everything Everywhere had to announce, and it turns out it was quite a bit, starting with the re-branding of the company to be named simply EE. 4G LTE service from EE rolled out in four UK cities today, and EE also announced plans for fiber service. We found out which phones will support EE’s 4G LTE, put EE’s network through its paces with a good old speed test, and found out that EE will be the exclusive carrier of the Nokia Lumia 920 in the UK.

Samsung gave us some new details about the Galaxy Note II’s Airview feature today, while Motorola and Intel began teasing a device which will deliver “edge-to-edge power.” Some new information about Google Glass surfaced, Nokia City Lens has left beta and is now available on a number of Lumia devices, and Lucid was seen showing off its new Thunderbolt external GPU today. Mark Zuckerberg took some time to talk about Facebook’s struggles in the mobile arena, and we found out that Terraria will soon be coming to Xbox 360 and PS3. Google has rolled out an update for Google Drive on iOS and Android, Apple’s Jonathan Ive has reportedly spent $17 million on his new mansion, and finally tonight, we heard that some retailers are opting not to restock BlackBerry devices.

That does it for today’s Evening Wrap-Up, but be sure to follow our liveblog of Apple’s press event starting at 10 AM PT tomorrow morning! Enjoy the rest of your evening, everyone!


SlashGear Evening Wrap-Up: September 11, 2012 is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.


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Sep 11

Terraria coming to Xbox 360, PS3 next year

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Well here’s a surprising bit of gaming news: it turns out that indie gem Terraria will be making its way to Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network next year. Publisher 505 Games announced the console version of the much-loved PC title today. Sadly, there isn’t a solid release date for the console version of the game yet, with 505 Games and developer Engine Software merely saying it’ll be out “early next year.”


Terraria launched at a time last year when Minecraft fever was in full swing. For those who’ve never heard of Terraria before, here’s a quick breakdown: Terraria is a 2D side-scrolling adventure RPG in which the main goal is to explore, build, and craft. It sounds a lot like Minecraft on paper, but in practice the two are actually quite different. Terraria has some strengths over Minecraft (like combat), whereas Minecraft has some over Terraria (like building). Terraria was met with great critical reception upon release, and went on to be a big seller on Steam – the PC version has sold over 1.6 million copies since release.

In a statement today, Terraria creator Andrew Spinks expressed his excitement in the fact that the game is coming to consoles. “I can’t say how excited I am to finally have Terraria come to Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3!” he said. “To see it come so far is a complete shock, especially after such humble beginnings. It’s always been my dream to have as many people as possible know and enjoy Terraria as much as I have, and this is another big step in that direction!”

Spinks also teased that 505 and Engine are planning some additional content for this console release. Naturally, we don’t know what that new content is yet, but that’s definitely something to get excited about. Re-Logic (developer of the original PC version) added quite a bit of content after Terraria first launched, but has now halted production on the game as it works on other projects. Perhaps PC players will get this bonus content that will be included in the console version? A Terraria addict can only hope. Stay tuned for more information.


Terraria coming to Xbox 360, PS3 next year is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.


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Sep 10

Ben Heck fashions a pocket computer with an Xbox Chatpad and Arduino Uno

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Ben Heck fashions a pocket computer using an Xbox 360 Chatpad and an Arduino Uno

It’s great to see Ben Heck focus his efforts of do-gooder projects like that foot-controlled wheelchair, but we’ll always have a soft spot for the modfather’s more nostalgic undertakings, like this BASIC pocket computer. Heck created the device for the latest episode of his web show, and if you’re following along at home, you’ll need the Chatpad from an Xbox 360 controller, an Arduino Uno and a LCD display — a Hitachi HD 44780, in this case. The modder-turned-host is quick to point out that the project’s purpose isn’t solely nostalgic — you can also use it to control real world objects, which in the Heck’s case means a ghost on a pinball playfield. Check out a video of the invention in action after the break.

Continue reading Ben Heck fashions a pocket computer with an Xbox Chatpad and Arduino Uno

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Ben Heck fashions a pocket computer with an Xbox Chatpad and Arduino Uno originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 10 Sep 2012 22:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sep 10

Bethesda’s Pete Hines doesn’t think we need new consoles yet

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Bethesda VP of PR and marketing Pete Hines has been in the news a lot lately. With the current unrest over the lack Dawnguard on PS3, Hines has been tasked with fending off angry gamers on Twitter, and most of what we know about Bethesda’s current struggle has come from him. Today he’s in the news again, but this time its completely unrelated to Dawnguard‘s development woes. Instead, Hines tells MCV that he’s in no rush for the next generation to arrive, as there’s still plenty left to do with current generation machines.


When asked if the industry needs a new round of consoles, Hines started by outlining what’s good with the current generation hardware we’ve been using for years. “I don’t think the current generation of consoles are holding us back,” he said. “There is still plenty that we are able to do visually, technically and from a story-telling standpoint. And there’s this huge built-in audience now.” Hines then went on to outline a couple of problems developers face when manufacturers introduce new consoles.

According to him, the problems are “two-fold.” The first is that it can be hard for developers to make games for new consoles when the dev kits they receive typically aren’t a snapshot of the final product. The internal hardware almost always changes from the time developers receive their first dev kits to the time the consoles actually launch, which results in the developers trying to “hit a moving technical target.” This, obviously, can cause some problems for developers who are trying to have a game out the door at the same time new consoles launch.

The second problem Hines has with new console generations is that “your install base always starts at zero.” It’s true that a lot of people buy new consoles immediately after launch, but many consumers also stick to their old consoles for a while, leaving developers to decide between making games for the new consoles exclusively or for both new and old hardware. That seems like it would complicate things a bit, at least until more people start upgrading to next generation consoles.

To be fair, however, these are problems that every developer faces at the beginning of every generation. To hold off on the next generation because developing for constantly-changing hardware can be a headache or because the split in audience forces a developer to choose who to cater to doesn’t make much sense, as those problems are inevitable regardless of when the next generation arrives. In any case, if the rumors are true, the folks at Bethesda could be facing these issues as soon as next year, so the next generation may be launching sooner than Hines would like. Stay tuned.


Bethesda’s Pete Hines doesn’t think we need new consoles yet is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.


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Sep 08

NPD: Darksiders II sold 247k copies in August, takes top software spot

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NPD has released its sales statistics for the US video game market in August, and Darksiders II has taken the software crown. That’s in a month where every category tumbled year-over-year, with total software sales falling by a significant 20% to $515.6 million. The decline in software sales didn’t sting as much, with that number only dropping 11% year-over-year before resting at $252.8 million for the month.


Hardware sales took the biggest hit, tumbling a whopping 39% to come in at $150.6 million. Looking at the software side of things, Darksiders II managed to take the top spot on the chart for the month, but NPD later confirmed to GamesIndustry International that the game only sold 247,000 copies in its first week and a half – Darksiders II was released in the US on August 14, and NPD’s cutoff date for the month was August 25.

That has to be a bittersweet moment for struggling publisher THQ. On the one hand, it must be nice to see Darksiders II take the top spot, but it’s almost certain that THQ was counting on more sales than Darksiders II managed to pull in. It may not be all doom and gloom though, as it’s important to keep in mind that NPD’s numbers don’t figure in Steam or international sales. Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter says that worldwide sales of Darksiders II may have climbed as high 1 million by now, but also pointed out that THQ needs to sell in the area of 2 million copies to break even on the game.

“I think that the sales are below what they had hoped for,” Pachter said. “I presume it sold around 500,000 globally in the first two weeks (the NPD cutoff was Aug 25), so it’s probably over 1 million now, but my understanding is that breakeven is greater than 2 million units, so it’s not likely to get much higher than that.” Pacher continued by saying that we should give Darksiders II another month to see if its sales improve. Have a look at the full NPD top 10 software list for the month of August:

1. Darksiders II (360, PS3, PC)
2. New Super Mario Bros. 2 (3DS)
3. Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance (3DS)
4. NCAA Football 13 (360, PS3)
5. Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes (360, PS3, PC, Wii, DS, 3DS, Vita)
6. Sleeping Dogs (360, PS3)
7. Transformers: Fall of Cybertron (360, PS3)
8. Batman: Arkham City (360, PS3, PC)
9. Call of Duty: Black Ops (360, PS3, PC, Wii, DS)
10. The Amazing Spider-Man (360, PS3, Wii, DS, 3DS)

Sadly, if Darksiders II sales don’t pick up, we may not see another release in the franchise. THQ has been struggling in a big way lately, and new president Jason Rubin has made it clear that he has no problem whatsoever cutting projects and franchises that aren’t performing in line with company expectations. While it’s great to see Darksiders II rank as the top-selling game for August, that may not be enough for a publisher that has no choice but to cut initiatives that aren’t bringing in cold hard cash. Let’s just hope that Darksiders II is more successful than these NPD numbers (and Pachter’s analysis) lead us to believe.

[via GamesIndustry International]


NPD: Darksiders II sold 247k copies in August, takes top software spot is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.


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Sep 08

Visualized: what Zynga workers do when they’re not playing FarmVille

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Visualized what Zynga workers do when they're not playing FarmVille

Zynga’s staffers might have had a laser-like focus on releasing FarmVille 2 this week, but that doesn’t mean the company has forgotten how to take a break. One employee (thankfully, also a Reddit member) has revealed that the developer’s San Francisco headquarters has a giant, 16-screen video wall for gaming in the cafeteria — and yes, they’re playing Halo in that photo rather than some future, first-person version of Mafia Wars. It’s no surprise that the employees aren’t playing their own games all the time; we’re pretty sure that even the most avid Facebook gamers would burn out if they did. Nonetheless, it’s hard not to smile at the thought that the same people urging us to buy new crops are sticking plasma grenades in their spare time.

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Visualized: what Zynga workers do when they’re not playing FarmVille originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 08 Sep 2012 02:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sep 07

Microsoft’s Xbox 360 is the no. 1 selling console in the US for the 20th consecutive month

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If you’re in the market for a new console and you’re wondering if you should get the PlayStation 3, the Xbox 360 or the upcoming Nintendo Wii U, well here’s something you might want to take into consideration as Microsoft has announced that according to the NPD Group, the Xbox 360 is the number 1 selling console in the US. This is apparently the 20th month in the row that the Xbox 360 has proven itself to be the best selling console in the US. According to the stats, the Xbox 360 has sold 193,000 more units than its competition (PlayStation 3 and the Nintendo Wii) and is still holding a 48% share in current-gen console sales in the US. Pretty impressive, huh? While it doesn’t necessarily make it the best console for you, it might be worth taking into consideration especially if you’re looking to play multiplayer games and you want a large pool of players to play against.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: 2012 Xbox LIVE Update public beta now available, Custom Xbox 360 Halo 4 special edition gets a closer look,

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