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Gaming Thread 10/20/13

Well, here is the screen on the 2DS

more stuff below

PC Stuff
Nvidia had press conference this past week, nothing too interesting to come out of it outside of: announcing a 780 TI version which is supposed to slot between the 780 and the Titan cards (out next month)

Shadowplay which is a GPU level based streaming to Twitch
that they renamed their streaming tech to their Shield to Gamestream and that with the handheld's HDMI out, it goes into a console mode that lets you use it use a different to play your PC games on your TV.

Really, it was a quite uneventful press conference until they dropped a pretty big bomb. They announced that they have created a mod for monitors that makes them have veritable refresh rates. Now, this may not actually sound that interesting until you realize that if they work the way it's supposed to, this means the death of screen tearing which has been a long time coming. Should also bring a little boost to the quality of 3D Vision. They are going to have two flavors, you can buy the boards for you to install yourself (no price was given) or wait till next year for the OEMs to have it built into their new monitors. It works with the Kepler cards (660 and above). May not be 'sexy' news but it's a pretty big deal.

They also have another presser on Monday which no one really knows what it's going to be on. It's just dubbed 'super secret'.

Apple conference on the 22nd
Don't think this is considered video gaming related but Apple is having a conference on Tuesday. Main things people are expecting is the new iPad which should be 64bit and different colors and that they might be showing off a new Apple TV which with the iOS 7 having built in controller support should make it into a quasi console with it's regular stuff.

Gaming Stuff

In news that shouldn't really surprise many, Square announced Kingdom Hearts 2.5 for the PS3 to release next year. It will contain:
•Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix
•Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep Final Mix
•Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded

Also at the Japanese version of the D23 Expo, Square showed off some Kingdom Hearts 3 gameplay

•Well, looks like Microsoft's Games with Gold beta launch isn't going anywhere as they announced that they're going to keep the train moving with making it's an ongoing benefit on the 360.

•Sad that this hasn't gotten much press since they announced it but Microsoft has used the biggest spade they have when competing with Sony. Using Azure (which means compute and simple stuff like dedicated server multiplayer) is completely free for any game on the upcoming Xbox One.

In the battle of nextgen basketball games, you have NBA 2K14 in one corner:

And in the other you have NBA Live 14

• With being a month out for the new console releases, it's last call for game delays and two stepped up to the plate.

The first one is that Ubisoft is delaying Watch_Dogs till at least April of next year. Their stock price took a beating for doing so though (dropped almost a third)

The second one to step up was Sony itself as they pushed back the release of the upcoming DriveClub till sometime early next year. It needed from the footage they have shown but it does leave Sony in a bit of a bind when it comes to physical PS4 exclusive games from them as they're now only going to stores with Killzone: Shadow Fall and Knack. Throw in that a paired down version of DriveClub was their cornerstone in starting their Instant Game Collection (they've replaced it with Contrast) on the PS4 and well....yeah

• Sony announced that Flower, Flow, Escape Plan and Sound Shapes will be out for the PS4 during launch. Sound Shapes IMO is worth picking up.

• Japan gonna Japan. Here is a new trailer for the upcoming re-release of Criminal Girls on the PSVita

• Stardock announced Galactic Civilizations 3. You can buy it now for $40 which gets you into the beta or you can spend $99 to get everything that they release for the game (ie expansions).

• The owners of the money printing machine, Puzzles & Dragons, GungHo bought a 51% controlling stake in Supercell (Clash of Clans) for a whopping $1.5 billion dollars. Well, they're the two current giants of F2P with GungHo pulling in almost $120 million a month through Asia and Supercell pulling in a respectable $90 million a month in the west so it should be interesting in how they merge. Going to be interesting in if/when this bubble bursts with the amount of cash being thrown around

• Haven't checked it out yet but the 0.22 update to Kerbal Space Program has come out. The main thing that it add is the career mode. And new update means a new fun trailer. Buy it damn it, there is tons of content for the small price of $23

Not one but two new story trailers for Ryse

• After sitting atop the console sales board for the last 32 months, the PS3 knocks the 360 of it's perch with the release of the GTAV bundle (it was a pretty good deal).

Random sales
The IOS adaptation of the boardgame, Stone Age is currently on sale down from $6.99 to $4.99. I really dug this myself as the online multiplayer is good and it pares down some of the intricities of the actual boardgame. Appshopper link

As the year winds down, it's about time for Out of the Park to start putting their seminal baseball sims on sale. This year's iOS version of the game is currently down to a buck. The series may not be as robust as the PC game but the meat is still there. Worth the buck. Appshopper link

Flat out, though Battle of the Bulge for the iOS is an original boardgame made specifically for the iPad, it's one of the best on the appshop. It's just a really good war boardgame with enough depth to keep you on your toes. It's down from it's $10 price to a modest $5.99. Appshopper link

Groupees is really hit or miss on their PC build a bundles but their current "Let's Build a Doujin Bundle 2" is really good. It's $4.29 for all of the games but the main ones that I think people should check out are: Exceed 3, KAMUI, Armed Seven but the big ones is the first half of the Higurashi series and Hatoful Boyfriend. The first three games are pretty solid shmups. If you can get over the fugly graphics (which you can fix a little bit with the PS2 graphic patch), Higurashi is one twisted little murder mystery visual novel (think a book with graphics and multiple choices). Hatoful Boyfriend is more about the oddness of playing a decently written romantic visual novel staring pigeons. LINK

Amazon has some decent sales on PC games, namely Bioshock Infinite for $10

New releases this week

Lego Marvel Superheroes (everything) - Never really got into these games but this is the latest one and except for the Wii, it's on everything under the sun.

Phoenix Wright: Dual Destinies (3DS) - Well, Capcom really didn't want to release this game over here but they did finally relent though by giving us at least an eshop release. Run ya $30

Batman: Arkham Origins (PC, 360, PS3 and Wii U) - I keep forgetting this game is coming out and to be frank, I've been kinda over the Arkham games about half way through Arkham City.

That's it for the week,
The Dude