Xbox, PS4, Nintendo News

More changes, announcements, and deals with Nintendo's latest video showcasing their latest news.
The first WiiU bundle is set at $390, while this may seem pricey, it's actually a pretty sweet deal.
I don't fully recommend buying this bundle unless you have your heart set on getting ZombieU.

ZombieU Bundle                                                  Regular price
- WiiU Deluxe, Nintendo Land                             - WiiU Deluxe ($350) includes Nintendo Land
- ZombieU                                                           - Pro controller ($50)
-Pro Controller                                                     - ZombieU ($60)
Total of ($390)                                                     Total of  $460

Additionally, new communities as well as the google maps app on the WiiU are available as of today.
A new feature for the WiiU will be an automatic 10% return on all your online purchases which will be added to your Nintendo funds, meaning you get online credit to use for purchasing titles online through the e-shop.

Nintendo is also releasing a sweet deal if you haven't picked up a 3DS yet.
Purchase a 3DS XL + the upcoming Luigi's Mansion and receive Starfox 3D for free, there are other titles as well you can choose from.

Here are the games being released during march
Walking Dead Survival Instinct March 26th (WiiU)
Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate will be available for both 3DS and WiiU on March 19th
Luigi's Mansion (3DS)
Castlevania Mirror of Fate (3DS)  released March 5th
Fire Emblem has more DLC available today (there are now 3 dlc maps 3DS)
Animal Crossing (3DS)
Harmo Knight is another rhythm game where jumping and hitting things plays songs, which looks rather fun but I'll stick with my Final Fantasy Theatrhythm.
As well as various e-shop games

PS4 has potentially leaked what appears to be a prototype of their next controller, using what appears to be some sort of small digital screen on their controller. Sony will announce their next console on feb 20th in New York, which may cost around $400.

Xbox's next console looks to further tackle the use of Kinect as well as having technology that will extend the contents of your screen to incorporate your living room wall for added peripherals, kind of like a projector showing an image that extends your screen.

~Djr7

WiiU Upcoming Games

Xenoblade Chronicles Sequel?

Nintendo's latest announcement comes as a full package of news regarding the WiiU.

Platinum Games has been very busy getting a lot of games out of it's production line, and is almost integrated with Nintendo with the amount of work they are doing with Bayonetta, Wonderful 101, and other games on Nintendo. New highlights and video footage showed The Wonderful 101 and it's crazy action heavy experience; I hope it delivers to a higher level that shows Nintendo can get better IP's out on the big screen.

Wonderful 101

The biggest gaming news from Nintendo's Iwata is the announcement of some brand new exclusive games coming to Nintendo. Shin Megami Tensai X Fire Emblem mash-up, who knows what this will be as most mash-up games are usually those of the fighting style but I see this sticking to the JRPG atmosphere and it will be very interesting to see where this leads. I love the Fire Emblem series a lot and I am very excited to see some info about this hopefully at E3.

A Xenoblade Sequel looks to be in the mix as the trailer for this new Xeno game ends with what looks like the main character from Xeno-Chronicles. The game looks to incorporate large monsters in a higher action based game similar to Monster Hunter, but the game mixes swords with guns and even Mecha's.

An HD remake of Zelda Windwaker seems to be their test on HD with games. The graphics are much more high def and still feel wonderfully cartoony. Windwaker will be released in Fall and will keep us busy as we impatiently wait for the Zelda WiiU.

Iwata announced that a playable form of the next Mario WiiU as well as the next Mario Cart at E3, apparently they have evolved but does that mean they will be better? Kirby's Epic Yarn is making a new game with Yoshi as its main character. Yoshi's Island and Yoshi's story creator is supervising the development.

Quite possibly the most important information that I took from the announcement was how Nintendo is moving forward as a company focused on bringing higher quality games at the expense of time. More time is being added to their titles and this will hopefully see Nintendo shine the way they did in the N64 days. Iwata explained that the new Zelda game and Smash Bros. game are taking their time to make sure they create some of the best games Nintendo has ever produced.

I'm really looking forward to what Nintendo will be bringing us, and how happy I am that they realized the lack of games upon the WiiU's release.
~Djr7

WiiU Various Info and Controller Inspection

MiiVerse, Nintendo's online software

I'm kicking myself for not pre-ordering the new Nintendo system, since it's sold out freaking everywhere. Well that still didn't deter me from picking up Ninja Guidan 3 and a Pro Controller.

First off some info on the WiiU. Adding friends has always been a pain in the ass for Wii and 3DS owners, but now nintendo has (finally) integrated a proper online software that allows you to add friends based on your nintendo network ID that you set. You can add actual people using ID's but both parties need the other ID in order for this to work so you cannot see incoming requests of ID's which is useless for adding strangers online. There is however another way to add friends much easier in terms of random people you encounter, through the MiiVerse. You can search for users by typing in names and they will actually get requests to be your friend, I haven't heard anything about quickly adding friends during online games or through some sort of recently played option but I will find out when I get my own WiiU. Apparently the MiiVerse is like Nintendo's own facebook of a social gaming hub, which sounds exciting and fresh compared to UI's and lists. 

Another thing to note is that a lot of features wont work right away, you have to download a day 1 software update that will make most of the WiiU's features unlocked. Media stuff such as Hulu and Youtube wont be added till around Christmas, but Netflix is up and running. Voice chatting is pretty neat but I don't know exactly who you can video chat with, if it's with all your registered friends then it seems pretty cool to me. 

The consolse's online store is well implemented and allows for retail purchases of games. Web browsing is nicely delivered as well. 

The console appears to have a few complaints across some departments but overall it's pretty awesome for the first of the next gen consoles. 

Onto the Pro controller, this sleek and sexy piece of hardware is the upgraded GC,PS3,Xbox controller that doesn't steal either setup but creates its own. The controller is charged like the PS3, the button layout has both analog sticks on the upper section rather than alternated like Xbox and GC. The analog sticks themselves are the same size as the GC thumbstick, and also have the same directional angles, which is smaller than the Xbox and PS3 sticks. Overall they "feel" better than any controller thumbstick to date. The buttons feel nice and D-pad is situated very shallow onto the controller and doesn't protrude as much as other controllers, but are still easy to feel without looking at them. The most noticeable change is how shallow the triggers are, they feel more digital, like buttons shaped to triggers; make that the second most noticeable thing, the controller is the lightest of all current controllers. Overall I really like the controllers design, the sleek glossy black shape feels great to touch and I cant wait to play some Ninja Guidan with it.