Bitar is the most significant individual to turn himself in over the course of the 15 month-long journey to prosecute three of the previously most popular U.S. poker sites online. Once landed, Bitar said that he fully understands why Full Tilt should have never reached a point where it was unable to repay player funds, and that his return to the U.S. is part of an effort to make sure the players do get repaid soon.

Authorities allege the poker site had owed $350 million to its worldwide base of users while it held only $60 to $70 million at the time for covering payments and accusing Bitar of defrauding users by lying to them. Charged with gambling, bank fraud and money laundering, Bitar could face up to 145 years in prison.

[via Wall Street Journal]

Hardware

There’s little that a person in my position, being one who reviews buckets of mobile devices such at tablets and smartphones each month along with stereo equipment, mobile apps, and the like, about the hardware here being anything but superior. Superior to the relatively low-quality state of the physical buttons on smartphones, that is. When you handle essentially any modern smartphone with a fold-out keyboard, you’ll find that the software doesn’t exactly keep that hardware in mind when it works in the future state of the touchscreen-only mobile environment.

The PS Vita’s hardware works perfectly in sync with the software and this system not only has a collection of buttons and joysticks that work perfectly well, they harmonize in an awesome way with the two touch surfaces (on front and back) of the device. The best way to show you how the hardware functions well on this device is to let you in on a couple of games we’ve tested that show the full functionality – the first being “Escape Plan” which instantly shows you the oddity – and awesomeness – of the back touch panel.

The rest of the controls you can see lower in this review in the Games section – we’ve got Mod Nation Racers Roadtrip (a racing game, imagine that,) and Ultimate Marvel VS Capcom 3 (a fighting game, of course,) to show you the full range of buttons taps and knob pulls. The only complaint I’ve got with the device in the way of hardware is the proprietary plug at the bottom of the device going out to USB – simply because it can be plugged in the wrong way without you knowing it. You’ve got to make sure the PlayStation logo is facing forward or nothing will happen.

There’s also the fact that this system has expandable memory that’s made specifically for Sony devices and is not cross-compatible with any other non-Sony system. This is a bummer for those of you with relatively giant 32GB cards that cost you $25 online while a similarly sized unit will cost you $100 in Sony memory card form. That said, the card we’ve got works perfectly well and can be replaced readily, switched and utilized.

The system feels natural to use, Sony clearly took a good amount of time testing the way a person plays a game, holds a controller, and is able to interact with the screen for this system. The only controller or handheld gaming unit I’ve used that feels better than this one to use is the original PlayStation controller itself – nothing will ever be as good as that, ever. This is the next best thing.

The display is amazing, has perfect viewing angles down to the smallest sliver, and is as sharp as I could ever ask it to be for how much the system costs. If weeks or months down the line any of the buttons change quality – get loose, start to stick, anything like that, I’ll come back to this review and add a note. Until then, this system is great in touch surfaces, physical buttons, and display brightness.

Software

For our full software review, head back to the post PS Vita OS Review your humble narrator posted earlier this week. You’ll find that not only is this a system that’s impressive enough to wow us here on the PS Vita itself, it appears that it’s preparing to move to other hardware as well. It would not surprise me to see a PS Vita smartphone inside the next 12 months – not one bit. It’s great stuff! Have a look at how it works in part here in the intro and the app “Welcome Part” :

Then check out the Camera and Web Browser here, taking special care to note that the camera is not made to be used on a regular basis, instead mostly made to interact with future games that will interact with it.

Then note that you’re able to purchase a massive amount of games and videos (or rent videos, if that’s your thing) from the PlayStation Store. This store allows you to purchase games made specifically for the PS Vita, legacy games from the PSP, and minis, not to mention apps like Netflix. Games can be downloaded with Wifi or through your 3G connection, both working fine and slick – though for the larger games, of course, you really will want to be going with Wifi.

You’ll find that the PlayStation Store is fine for downloading apps you’ve already seen previews of outside the PS Vita itself, but that it still has many of the same problems that other mobile console app stores have: namely the ability to discover great apps (though it does improve upon this over other stores with the all-powerful sale section) and a complete lack of previews of games. No screenshots, no videos, nothing. We’re hoping for an update to this bit in the near future, otherwise adoption of new games will continue to be scant.

Games

The games we’ve played have been massively impressive and entertaining without a doubt, and that goes for both games downloaded from the PlayStation Store as well as the cartridge games that have been released at the launch here in the first week. First have a peek at the next step in one of the most epic fighting game lines in history: Ultimate Marvel VS Capcom 3. And note that I certainly should have picked Ghost Rider instead of the Hulk – silly me!

Then check out the racing game Mod Nation Racers Roadtrip. This game would have been the ultimate come-up on the Mario Cart-like line of games on its own, but it adds an undeniably entertaining set of customization elements including the ability to create your own racer character, your own vehicle, and your own racing track. That’s the whole shebang! The racing then is both intuitive with the controls you’re given – all of the buttons utilized! – As well as being downright fun on this platform.

This is the same on each game we’ve played thus far. It’s going to be difficult to find a game that isn’t just fun to try out here on this new system, especially since the controls are, again, very intuitive and comfortable to use. One drawback over playing games on your smartphone instead is the loading times. You’ll see several times in the hands-on videos above that there’s more than enough time for you to head to the kitchen to get a snack while your game loads up after you’ve started it.

Daily Use

I’ve tried to stick the PS Vita in my pocket to bring it to a restaurant, attempted to play it while a passenger in the car, and used it on the bus. The last of these three things was great except for the fact that I felt like holding such a gigantic and bright-screened device invited a mugging on my person. Playing it in the car is great if you’re often finding yourself a passenger, but me being a husband and a father, I’m either driving or having a conversation with my wife or child – so there’s really no time for me to use this device. The same goes for a restaurant setting: I’ve gotta be feeding my child or speaking with the people I went out to eat with.

So when would a person find time to use this device? I’m really not sure. If you’ve been using some other kind of handheld gaming system and have a use for it, this might be great for you for an upgrade. If you’re thinking about getting into mobile gaming, I’m not so sure you’re going to have an easy time adapting to it. You have to find time to use this device unless you just so happen to be this system’s real target audience: high-school students. In that case – play it all day long, it’s great!

Wrap-up

This device is without a doubt the most advanced and awesome mobile gamine unit in the short history of mobile gaming units. The Nintendo 3DS looks and plays like an inexpensive toy compared to this fully-fledged PlayStation packed into a mobile unit. You’ve got the ability to play console-level games here, and it’s no joke.

In addition, you could potentially use this as your one “smart” device if you don’t already have a tablet or a smartphone and want one just for the data. Hook it up with some AT&T 3G and enjoy the certainly capable browser and keyboard, watch some Netflix, and play a game or two while you’re at it. This is a unique piece of hardware with controls you wont find anywhere else, and it’s got a store that’s more than able to satisfy your needs for digital content, be it games or videos or basic apps.

Should you buy it? Sure, why not? There’s one whole heck of a lot of things you can do with this entirely versatile piece of hardware with its above average operating system, and it certainly has a future and a strong present! Have at it!

Based in the thriller genre and rated T for Teen, this game has the character Alan Wake waking up in a Nightmare. You’re asked to fight with light, face off against your demons and those surrounding you, and generally be terrified throughout the entirety of this wholly unique environment. Sounds sort of like Silent Hill, doesn’t it? This game isn’t quite so blatant with its monster use, and the mystery behind the same has certainly added an element of intrigue to purchasing and trying it out.

The fact that it’s only $29.99 on Steam has something to do with it too. Remedy’s Aki ‘AJ’ Jrvilehto had the following to say on the subject:

“We are very happy with the sales and hitting number one on Steam at launch was nothing short of amazing. We recouped our development and marketing expenses during the first 48 hours. And yes, we’re certainly very excited about PC.” – Jrvilehto

CEO of Remedy Matias Myllyrinne spoke to the subject as well, saying how fabulous it’s been to see the game take off:

“We made it a priority to create the best PC version of the game we possibly could, as opposed to a sloppy port we ourselves would hate to play, and judging by the amount of encouragement and positive feedback that has been pouring in, that’s really paid off! Rest assured that we are still listening to your requests and will maintain efforts to make necessary updates to the build now that it’s been released.” – Myllyrinne

Sounds fantastic, yes? Now get out there – or down into your basement in the dark, as it were, and play it!

[via Play.™]

The game series Medal of Honor surrounds a “relatively unknown entity” of handpicked soldiers asked to serve their country, each of them controlled by you, the user. This team of warriors is known as Tier 1 Operators, and are, as the description reads, “living, breathings, precision instruments of war.” This is a serious game with serious war situations, not a wacky kick your feet up billion-gun fun fest like some of this games opponents in the first person shooter environment.

That said, this game series is more than just entertaining. Past games have been available for digital download for PS, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3, and this next release will certainly be as well. We’ve yet to hear if it’ll be available for Apple computers as many such games have been as of very recently, and we’re not expecting any other consoles at the moment – but who knows, another titan could come at any minute! We’ll be checking this game out when it comes out – see you in the field!

What you get with GeoSociety is not only the same basic set of controls you get with Pokemon, but the same general plot line as well. All the strage components are there, from you waking up in your mothers house without a clue of what you’re supposed to do in the world to your very own training center where you choose from one of three monsters to carry around with you the rest of the game! The big difference is in the details: there’s no Gary, for example, to annoy you throughout the game.

You still get to battle, to collect monsters throughout the game to do battle with – you even get to explore the world with essentially the same pixel-heavy graphics that the Pokemon franchise has loved for so long. The battle sequence is also turn-based, you can choose which moves your monster is doing, and you battle both wild monsters as well as other human opponents with their own contenders. Then there’s the bonuses: like being able to run instead of having to walk through the whole game. No need for a bike!

This game will cost you $1.99 on the App Store right this second and I can’t believe how fun it really, really is. I’ve literally not had this much Pokemon-related fun since I played Pokemon Red on my original GameBoy. Grab it!

This role-playing hybrid first person shooter space western game has one of the most undeniably exciting game trailers we’ve ever seen, and if the “billion” guns doesn’t get you going, the graphic design splashes and Wall-E dubstep certainly will. The original 2009 name had only one competitor in the works since it was released: and that’s this: 2K Games follow-up, simply titled Borderlands 2. Inside this game you’ll find more elaborate maps than ever before, more weapons than you’ll ever find time to use, and a two-player mode with split screen – just like you SHOULD have with a game such as this, of course.

Hit the desert with your favorite rocket launcher whilst passengering your friends in a dune buggy and murdering all of your unfriendly bad robots, and do it in September! There’s one whole heck of a lot of depth to this game, and be you a single player of an online multiplayer fan, you’ll have no trouble getting in to this plot line (or lack thereof.) Look like a game you’ll be dipping into this late Summer?

ALSO check out more information on the pre-release and Premiere Club now!

This Premiere Club includes a Gearbox Gunpack, a Vault Hunter’s Relic, and your very own Golden Key! What more could you want?! This game comes out on the 18th of September and will be one of the most epic games you’ve ever played in your life. You’ll be able to roll around on foot destroying your human-sized or gigantic robot-sized enemies, grab hundreds of different weapons and upgrade them accordingly, or just blast through the nightmare in your very own dune buggy.

This game will have both storyline modes and multiplayer modes and cinematics that will blow your socks off – have a peek at the last few seconds of the video to see some light playing with hair and have a heart attack. Also be sure to watch out for the dubstep at 2:30 – Wall-E style! The Premiere Club includes the following:

You’re gonna love it! You’re also going to have to pre-order from GameStop if you want a ticket to the Premiere Club, so do that!

Home Screens

There are two screens from whens you can access your apps, the first being your home screen. The home screen is comprised of as many panels as you wish, each having room for 10 total shortcuts to apps or features. To the left of your home screens you’ll see some dots, these dots showing you which of your several home screens you’re currently active in. If you’ve got any core applications open, you’ll also be able to see an arrow pointing to the right – this arrow leads you to your LiveArea Screens.

LiveArea Screens

This is the second screen that you’ll be able to access apps from after your home screen. Here you’ll find a series of cards called LiveArea Screens that each have a core app in them, each core app given a card like this for various possible reasons. Each Screen (or card) is activated by tapping (and is accessed via the bubbles on your home screens as well) and has a “start” button in the center if you simply want to get to the app itself surrounded by various items that can range from leaderboard scores, tips, instant connections to friend nearby, and a display of who is playing the game (if it is a game) when you’re looking at it.

In the upper right-hand corner of each LiveArea Screen is a folded back corner – peel it back with your finger to take the app out of the LiveArea and exit the app altogether. If an app is in the LiveArea Screens, that means it is open and functioning. If it is not, you’ve exited and it is closed.

Lock Screen

As a sort of foreshadowing of what’s to come, the first screen you see when you turn the device on from sleep is the lock screen with the same sort of peel-back feature as your LiveArena Screens. Here you’ll also see a clock and date and your top bar minus your Notifications bubble. Peek this screen back like a sticker to get into Vita OS.

Notifications

The top bar of Vita OS looks extremely similar to Android and displays information basically in the same way. The difference is that when you’ve got apps open, you can see a line of them represented by tiny bubbles one next to another. On the very right there’s a bigger bubble that shows you your activities – mostly you’ll be using this to show how far your downloads have come – each notification is also a link to the service it’s informing you about, too, so if you’ve just completed your download of a game or the newest episode of Saturday Night Live, you can head right into it.

Content Manager

As all mobile-based operating systems should, Vita OS has a portal through which you can manage and transfer your files to and from your desktop computer. Through this app on the PS Vita you’re able to copy content to or from your PC or backup, restore, or delete backup files. If you’re transferring files, you get the option of moving photos, music, video, and applications – this including the applications themselves or just the data from them.

Connecting this system to our MacBook Pro, for example, was as easy as a single downloaded application for the laptop, installation process, and instant connection – from there it’s only simple taps on the PS Vita to do any management of files.

Hands-on 1/4 : Intro and Welcome Park

Welcome Park

While some devices come with a set of “quick start” cards and nothing else, Vita OS here on the PlayStation Vita comes with an app called Welcome Park. This app has a user interface that reminds one of the fabulous block-color excellence that went on in the film version of Hitchhikers Guides to the Galaxy for the guide itself – if you’ve never seen it, it’s worth it for the guide sections alone – great GREAT graphic design in full effect.

This app gives you a great look at what the PS Vita hardware is capable of with each different touch and sensor action and shows how Vita OS can bring it all together as well. And this set of lessons is done with games, so it’s great.

Party

In order to sell a PS Vita to every person on earth, Sony has created a set of apps that’ll encourage you to make your friends pick up a unit. One of these apps is Party – in it you’ve got controls that allow you to speak to and engage with your “Party” of friends that have connected to you through this app. Like the rest of the friend-connected apps, this app works through the PlayStation Network and has an ultra-simple interface which allows you to set up or join a party then speak with your friends and join the games they are playing.

Friends

Though its discovery engine is essentially non-existent through the PS Vita itself, the Friends interface is where you’ll be able to connect with friends and edit your own profile on the PlayStation Network. If the Vita OS is going to work out as a standalone operating system on this device that grows through player interaction, your ability to find and connect with other PlayStation Network players through this device itself will have to become more of a reality. Friends does connect directly with “near,” on the other hand.

Hands-on 2/4 : Party / near / Friends / Group Messaging

near

The only built-in app on the system here with the PS Vita to have a lower-cased letter starting its name, near is a GPS location-aware app which allows you to show off what games you’re playing, how well you’re doing at those games, and discover other PS Vita players around you. It’s as simple as that – and should we see more devices adopting Vita OS and near in the future, this will only become more and more exciting as the map will begin to fill up quick.

The LiveArea screen for near is a good example of what’s possible at this halfway step between homescreen and app – options!

Group Messaging

This app allows you to send messages out to your friends without needing to be in a Party. While a Party is made more for events that last for a short period of time, Group Messaging works more like texting where it doesn’t matter if a person is actively engaged on their device at the time the message is sent or not. It’s here that you may very well start to notice that the keyboard you’re using is not that unlike Android’s own most recent couple of iterations of a keyboard: switch to alternate keys with the option keys in the lower left, get a satisfying “tic” noise for every button tap.

Trophies

Like each of the other devices you’ve got connected to the PlayStation Network (ie your PlayStation 3), you’ve got this space to check out your awesome accomplishments for each game that you’ve got on your device. You can either just bask in the warm glow of your own trophies here or compare with people you’ve connected with in Friends.

Photos

From the photos app you’ve got just about the simplest digital interface for a camera we’ve ever seen. You can switch to your back-facing camera or front, switch the aspect ratio of your photo, turn off/on location data attached to your photos, and preview the photo you last took. You can also go to a gallery of all of your photos and video or switch the camera over to video capture. You will not be capturing any award winning masterpieces with the PS Vita, and the Vita OS is clearly not made for heavy-hitting cameras, so don’t expect any Sony cameras to be running Vita OS any time soon!

The Photos app also has your connection to your gallery of images and video accessible in the LiveArea for the app as well. Just look at those masterpieces! This is also where your screenshots are stored – PS Vita is able to take a screenshot by you pressing the PlayStation button and the Start button at the same time – snap!

Network Operator

This app helps you work out your data plan with AT&T in this case, and will likely only be appearing on mobile data connected devices in the future.

Hands-on 3/4 : Trophies / Network Operator / Camera / Browser

Browser

The web browser that Vita OS uses appears very much to be a prime-time-ready look at the web, with an interface on the right-hand-side for heading back and forward, seeing multiple tabs, searching, and seeing favorites along with settings at the bottom bubble. Inside your setting you’ve got such items as security and javascrip which you can turn off or on. Scroll down and the URL bar disappears up with the top of the page, this browser acting like an app that’s fully aware of the display size its working with and certainly making the best of it.

Videos

Probably the most heavily tread LiveArea card in the whole operating system is the one made for Videos as Sony’s own PlayStation Store has movies and TV show episodes for sale – so essentially your whole LiveArea is covered with links to videos you can go to the store and pay for. The Videos app from there is a very basic interface with separations between All, Rented, and transferred in from your PC, with these screens and the videos themselves having screenshot disabled so you can’t break any snapshot laws. Inside a video you’ll also find a very basic set of controls with the ability to scrub through a video based on different intervals if you wish – 1 to 5 minutes to get through Inglorious Basterds with just a handful of clips – very convenient!

Music

The menues and interface for Music is essentially the same as Videos with the added benefit of being able to play, pause, and move through tracks from the LiveArea card the only real big difference. There’s also the fact that PlayStation doesn’t have music in its store which allows for a much cleaner LiveArea panel devoid of ads for new releases.

Hands-on 4/4 : Music / Videos / Remote Play / Content Manager / Settings

Remote Play

This rock and roll feature allows you to connect the two most powerful gaming device you’ve got in your collection to one another to control the Playstation 3 with the PS Vita. We can’t help but guess that this is the start of the connections that will eventually also include controlling the Sony smart TV from your smartphone, the Vita from your PlayStation, and back and forth and so on. Setup is simple and quick and painless.

Maps

Google Maps is what powers this application, the interface not unlike what we’ve seen from iOS or Android in the past. You wont get turn by turn directions read aloud to you here, but should you have a navigator in the vehicle with you to read them out loud, you’ll be golden. This device has a GPS sensor which allows for your location and the location you’re headed to to be found easily, and the PS Vita does appear to have an excellent sensor in place as locations are found without much delay at all. Car and walking directions are included here (while the Android version also has public transport and more.)

Settings

The settings you’ve got here allow for basic changes to the device’s setup with some of the options appearing to not quite have a complete set of options behind them. The “Power Save Settings” for example only has one item in its list: Auto Standby with an option to change the time from 1 minute to 5 minutes and everything in between. You can also sign in or out of your PlayStation Network account, get privacy settings for your account, adjust your sound and display options, and work with parental controls through your Security options. There’s also a Screen Lock here, both it and the Parental Controls inflicting a simple PIN number which you select and keep a secret.

User Interface Navigation

There are one whole heck of a lot of buttons, panels that sense your touch, and sensors in and on this device, but you’ll only need the main touchscreen to get through the operating system itself. There’s often a “back” button in the lower left of the display to move backward through sets of information while the blue-lit PlayStation button most of the time performs the same function, while pressing the PlayStation button enough times will bring you back down to the home screen – after it shows you your LiveArea first for quicker app switching if you wish.

On the whole, the majority of the buttons do not do anything until you are inside games that require them. The only lag we’ve experienced from Vita thus far haas been in loading screens before apps have opened – though such high-powered apps should be expected to take a bit to load, yes? We’ll speak about that more in the next in this review series, one focusing more on the hardware of the PS Vita rather than the Vita OS.

Wrap-Up

This operating system is pretty awesome, and that not just considering the fact that it’s sort of new, just having been debuted over the past few months here on the PS Vita. This operating system is smooth, makes a lot of sense, and has a big future in more places than just on this one piece of hardware. We’re rooting for Sony to continue development on this operating system so that it can be used on smartphones perhaps, but especially smart TV units – it’ll work great!

This device comes out this week, and is the first place the Vita OS will be shown to the United States and the UK. Stay tuned here on SlashGear to our series of reviews of the PS Vita and its operating system Vita OS. Let me and us know exactly what else it is that you’d like to know about the device and its operating system now and we’ll do our best to let you know the truth!

If you’re thinking about how Sony is positioning the Vita in its world of hardware, you’ve got to listen to Don Reisinger and Chris Davies. For Reisinger, start with the column by the name of The PS Vita will be Sony’s Last Portable. Though it’s seen by Reisinger as a winner and a device that “puts Nintendo’s 3DS to shame”, he’s also of the opinion that it could put the entire mobile-gaming devision of Sony out of production. While it’s possible that Sony may move away from producing its own gaming-only devices – there’s also the idea that the software will survive the fall.

Perhaps the most striking of the column series is this one from Chris Davies in which he describes the Vita OS as the hero here, quoting Yoshio Matsumoto in his affirmation that the Vita OS is the “thin edge of the wedge” on gaming hardware. Sony’s Four-Screen Strategy Needs Vita OS says Davies, and we’re inclined to agree with him. By the way – stay tuned to SlashGear for a full review of Vita OS by the end of the day!

Next there’s two hands-on posts, the first being your humble narrator’s look at the Sony PS Vita 3G complete with AT&T 3G. Then there’s Chris Davies Sony PS Vita is here article which shows off the vodafone UK version of the device.

Next check out the game list at launch as well as the PS Vita teartown from iFixit and the $50 M in advertisements Sony’s dropped to promote the system.

Finally let yourself understand why Microsoft is right not to sell a PS Vita competitor courtesy of, once again, Don Reisinger.

On the other hand, because the last version of Pokemon has now become depreciated because it was made for the last generation of Sony and Nintendo handhelds, the makers of Pokemon have hinted at a new release in the works. Just this morning it was revealed that the next version of Pokemon may well be coming to the PS Vita and Nintendo’s 3DS, and we can hope against hope that it’ll be coming to mobile devices as well soon. But who are we kidding – if Don Reisinger couldn’t convince Nintendo, noone could.

Here’s my question to you, Pokemon fans: do you think a full-fledged Pokemon game for iPhone or Android (or both!) would be a hit if released in the next couple of months? For those of you still playing Pokemon on your original Game Boys – first of all, high five, that’s the only version I’ve actually kept – RED! Then answer me this: what if Nintendo were to release a legacy version of Pokemon to the iTunes App Store and the Android Market like RockStar did with Grand Theft Auto 3? Would it be a hit?

I’d play it even if it were only green and black!

In the interview there was of course lots of chatter on games and the future of the Valve system itself and how it functions, but in a question regarding “inputs or outputs that you’re experimenting with,” Newell bore fruit. The wearable computer solutions Newell speaks of are “look like the old wearable computing solutions, the difference being that they’re way higher resolution, way lighter weight, [and] much better battery life.” Interestingly enough, he notes that biofeedback and biometrics are the main subject of these devices, whatever they may end up being, while virtual reality in the sense that you’re fully immersed visually did not specifically come up.

Perhaps is the fact that we’re outside of the game, no matter how much of it we’re experiencing, that keeps us interested in playing. As Gabe notes, it’s not even a matter of creating something that’s missing in the industry today:

“It’s not a question of whether or not this is going to be useful for customers, whether or not it’s going to be useful for content developers, you know, it’s figuring out the best way we can get these into people’s hands.” – Newell

Will we see glasses comparable to what we’ve seen as recently as CES 2012? Perhaps body suits that bring pressure to the chest, smells to the nose, and Avatar-like abilities to the game? Or maybe gigantic screens is all we’re speaking about instead:

“Well it’s exciting when you, you know, some of the prototypes that I’ve seen are basically the equivalent of a hundred inch display with considerably lower power requirements than a typical smartphone display, so if you just look at it straight up as a presentation technology that’s pretty interesting. It seems like some of the hard engineering problems are getting solved and a hundred inch display is way better than a ten inch display. The other thing that’s interesting is that a lot of these systems tend to allow you to overlap on a per-pixel basis the sort of real world with the virtual world.” – Newell

We’ll stick with Newell over the next few months to see if he’s really on to something here. With Valve doing more business than ever before, we can’t wait to see what turns up in their labs, even if they only play a small part in the manufacturing of hardware.

[via Penny Arcade]

This game is being screamed and hollered for in basically every Imangi forum and game search board on the web at the moment, and the developers at Imangi are assuredly working as hard as they can to get the game out to the public. If you follow any and all of the Twitters of the developers and the Imangi official stream, you’ll find that they’re attempting to update information on other games as well, but nothing will beat down the fact that the Temple Run game for Android release is the most hotly anticipated of their entire line:

• Imangi Studios
• Temple Run
• Keith Shepherd
• Natalia Luckyanova
• Kiril Tchangov
• Imangi Studios Facebook

*Temple Run for iOS is currently the #18 “all time” top free app in the iTunes App Store. As soon as it’s released to Android, we’re going to see some more records breaking without a doubt. There’s also some similar apps out there right this moment trying to capitalize on the lack of Temple Run on the Android Market, but don’t believe the hype! Check out the timeline below to stay up to date all the way back through time on all things Temple Run!

The process you must go through to get an application uploaded to any official app market today does not include an extensive copyright infringement search, so it is left up to the companies who hold the rights to said games to find them and file a complaint. Much in the same way we spoke recently about how YouTube would not be able to function if it had to check each video for its legitimacy before it allowed it to go public, essentially the same seems to be true here with app stores. What they’re relying on instead is the public to act as police while they remain the judge.

If you find any sort of PokeMon app or essentially any Nintendo-related game on any app market and you suspect that it may have been uploaded illegally, first check to see what the name of the developer is. If it’s not the same as the group that developed the game before it was brought over to the mobile world, you’ve got yourself a scammer – and you should report them to the app store you’re in as soon as you can.

If you see something, say something folks. This is not the same as developers getting their name out there with demos, it’s nothing like testing games when their creators want them to be sent out for free for that purpose. It’s scammers profiting from the hard work of others, plain and simple.

Also meanwhile we’ll just have to continue to wait for Nintendo to break down and start in on the mobile world with apps – the world needs its PokeMon on iPhone, and it needs it now!

[via Ars Technica]

Stalbow let the world know that the game will indeed have features that put it in a whole different environment – the moon! We’ve seen a space level in a past release of a secret in Angry Birds Summer Pignic – this level also showing off one of the times Samsung tied in with the Rovio crew for promotion of their Galaxy line. As Stalbow said on the development of this Space release:

“Science and education are very important to us, and we’re very excited to have NASA and National Geographic as launch partners on Angry Birds Space.” – Stalbow

We’re hoping that this leads to more awareness of the NASA space program and National Geographic’s efforts to push space travel and exploration as well. Angry Birds has become a platform for not only entertaining gameplay, but the quick spread of brand awareness as well. When you get this popular, you’ve got to just run with it, run like crazy!

[via Yahoo!]

What we’re looking at here is a device that’s been out in Japan for some weeks now and is set to be Sony’s biggest bet on mobile gaming yet. Inside you’ve got a massive quadcore SGX543MP4+ GPU, this powering a fantastically giant 5-inch OLED touchscreen at 960 x 544 pixel resolution surrounded by your favorite PlayStation controls and additional physical buttons that will allow this machine to be not only a portable monster for physical cartridges, downloaded games, and acting as a PlayStation 3 controller – perhaps the most interesting feature of the device in and of itself. This device can be used as a wireless PlayStation 3 controller and connects to your PlayStation 3 to complete the structure that is the mighty 2012 Sony Four-Screen Strategy – which Sony is very much banking on this season.

This device at first appears to be so massive that it’ll never work as a so-called “mobile” device, portable only if you’d be willing to toss it into your backpack. Instead the only thing impeding your carrying around this device in your pocket is the twin analog sticks and the entire device’s abnormal length. The PS Vita is also extremely light – and not in a way that makes it feel cheap – the combination of tough plastic, solid buttons, and a fully creak-free construction across the entire device makes this a hero to be sure.

In addition to the idea that this device can connect to many odd devices with its many connectivity abilities, we’re looking forward to testing the back panel off for its touch sensitivity. Look at that fantastic pattern – how could it be bad in any way at all?!

The thing at this point you’re going to want to pay attention to is the difference between how I’m interpreting this device and its build, software, and overall experience from Chris Davies and his UK unit. They’re essentially the same, and certainly there’s no big difference between the software and hardware, so it’s up to you to get what you need out of our dueling reviews!

That said, feel free to ask any and all questions of either of us so we can do as full a set of reviews as you want and need to decide whether you’re going to purchase not only this device but the games that you’ll certainly be thinking about should you do so.

As you advance through the grid, you’ll find that your ability to move to different squares changes based on what move you made last. If you head straight through several of your moves, you may find yourself crashing into a wall because you don’t have the ability to gain a great enough turn radius. If you don’t advance enough squares by moving as far from your current space to the next, your opponents may out-race you.

And your opponents can block your moves as well. Any player can potentially figure out where their opponent is going to land next by checking the amount of squares and direction they last moved. Blocking an opponent is as simple as moving into the selection of points your opponent was bound to head into next. Once you’ve mastered the art of blocking, you’ll be good to go to win almost any race.

This game is out on the iTunes App Store right this second for a grand total of $0.99, and its worth every penny. You can play against a robot, against an opponent you’ve got sitting next to you by switching your phone back and forth between one another, opponents on a wi-fi network, and opponents through the web on Game Center. It’s fun stuff!

Samsung fans will also note that the 22nd of March is also the day that the Samsung Galaxy S III has been tipped (though denied in kind) to come out – so a possible cross-release may well be in order. Can you imagine Angry Birds in outer space on a Galaxy from Samsung? It’s certainly not the first time they’ve worked together on a release. Have a peek at the teaser video they’ve released already, straight from Rovio:

You can also head to space.angrybirds.com to see the slingshot on the moon that you see above, and note the gigantic lens flare that shows up if you highlight it. Source code on the site reveals an imminent change back to a non-teaser state for the site in which sharing links and page links to Rovio are once again in place ala AngryBirds.com. We’ll expect this game to be release on Android, iOS, and desktop for Mac at the end of March. For now – think of the possibilities!

This game Temple Run has been a smash hit for some weeks now, especially so since the developers changed it from a pay to download game to an entirely free release. This game has been downloaded for the iPhone an undeniably awesome 36 million times and it does not look to be losing steam any time soon. For Android we do have word from the developer that the game is coming soon, possibly by the end of the month, but nothing entirely solid.

The developers at Imangi have been hard at work for some weeks but have not produced the game for Android as of yet, and will be pushing the game hopefully to every OS including Ice Cream Sandwich inside the first quarter of 2012. Will you jump on board when the time comes? How about if the game isn’t free at release time?

Since this set received more than its prerequisite number of votes needed to bring it into reality with Lego through Cuusoo, busting up the records with a massive 10,000 votes, production has begun. You’ll be able to pre-order this set right this second through a group called J!NX and the full general release will happen sometime this summer. This set is composed of a massive 480 pieces, most of them tiny squares, and includes two of the game’s most recognizable components: the characters Steve and a lovely little green creeper.

Both the creeper and Steve will come with the set as “Micro Mobs” and the whole set will be able to keep your Minecraft nerd self satisfied with the ability to place these little guys under the ground in the dark – right where you go when you play the game. Sound fun to you? Grab a set right now or you WILL miss this release — J!NX has the set, again, on pre-sale for a grand total of $34.99. The general release will be $19.99, but don’t expect to find it in stores since even though there is a “general” specification to the non-pre-release, there are going to be a limited number sold total. Good luck!

*This was mistaken information, folks, the price of the set will be $34.99 no matter when you buy it!

[via Joystiq]

There’s nothing quite like the Big Lebowski when it comes to comedy films – and when it comes to action shooters, there’s really nothing exactly like Max Payne. This latest installment has a slightly drunk but always ready for a good adventure Max ready to take on a mission from a millionaire who appears to have lost his trophy wife to kidnappers. If that doesn’t ring a bell, perhaps you’d better skip to 1:03 and check out the sipping of the White Russian.

From there, take a peek at these comparisons when you’re watching the trailer in its entirety. Note also that this game will be coming on May 15th to Xbox 360 and PS3 then two weeks later to PC machines. Also there’s a pre-order for a special edition out now available until the 2nd of April. Also note at the end of the trailer how they say the trailer was made entirely from in-game footage: we must assume this means from cinematics, but you never know!

For your Wi-fi version of the Vita at final launch (which will take place on the 22nd of February) you’ll be paying $249 USD, while the AT&T version with 3G connectedness you’ll be paying $299 – plus a monthly data plan. Data plans include two different sets of prices, one for 250MB for $14.99 and 3GB for $30.00 – that’s per month. Data you’re getting will be used to connect you to web-based games and download games for offline play on the PlayStation Vita unit itself. The “first edition” bundle you’ll be grabbing this week contains the Wi-fi or the 3G model and a 4GB memory card, the game Little Deviants, and a limited edition case, all for $349.99.

As for games, you’ve got choices of the following right out the gates:

Army Corps of Hell
Asphalt Injection
BEN10 GALACTIC RACING
Blazblue: Continuum Shift EXTEND
Dungeon Hunter Alliance
Dynasty Warriors Next
EA SPORTS FIFA Soccer
F1 2011
Lumines Electronic Symphony
Michael Jackson The Experience
Plants vs. Zombies (PSN Only)
Rayman Origins
Shinobido 2: Revenge of Zen
Tales of Space: Mutant Blobs (PSN Only)
Touch My Katamari
Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3
Virtua Tennis 4: World Tour Edition
Escape Plan (PSN Only)
Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational
Hustle Kings (PSN Only)
Little Deviants
ModNation Racers: Road Trip
Super StarDust Delta (PSN only)
UNCHARTED: Golden Abyss
wipEout 2048

You know good and well that we’ll be playing the heck out of the Michael Jackson Experience, Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3, and UNCHARTED. For those of you that already have a unit: which games have you played? Once we post out full review, are there any games you’d like us to test out? Let us know in comments below!

For those of you heading to the store today, you’ll be getting the PlayStation Vita for $349.99 for the 3G model. Again this is a bundled price which will also score you a case, a 4GB memory card, and a free edition of the game Little Deviants. This bundle is the same one sent to pre-order purchasers. For those of you wanting to grab the Wi-fi only model, you’ll be paying $249.99. When the 3G launch bundle shipping next week hits, it will cost users just $299.99.

The PlayStation Vita launched in Japan at the end of 2011 in essentially the same form factor you’ll be getting from the store today. This model comes with a 5-inch OLED touch-screen display, PlayStation controls on either side of this display, and dual thumbsticks. This device also features a new operating system dubbed PSVita OS which could very well be coming to Sony smartphones over the next couple of years. Users purchasing the PlayStation Vita today will be able to download old PlayStation Portable titles from the PlayStation Store or physical games releasing over the next few weeks and months.

This build is also completely unofficial, so don’t expect a full build any time soon, especially not from the folks at Valve (the developers of the Portal series.) Having literally just played the first dozen levels of Portal 2 again earlier this week, I must say – this does look rather exciting. Should these rogue developers be able to produce the Portal series in its entirety, Android might just become home to a whole new breed of PC game lovers.

This game has been ported on Unity Engine and give a quick hands-on video here courtesy of the folks who plan on bringing GLaDOS to us via the mobile environment anew. You can find the pre-developed apk file for this game in the same forum post the video originated in, but I and we warn you: take caution. There’s no telling whether this build will do good or evil to your device. Instead it’d be best to wait for a further build down the line, much safer that way.

[via DroidGamers]

This version of the game is made to work in your home for multiplayer, sure, but where it really explodes is its online play where you’ll get to rock out one of your four teams that correlate with one of the classic characters from the series: Sweet Tooth (The Clowns), Dollface (The Dolls), Mr. Grimm (The Skulls) and the Preacher (The Holy Men). Not only are you encouraged to play epic battles on the PlayStation Network, you’ve got several modes of play including the brand new terror known as Nuke Mode.

In Nuke Mode your goal is to take your opponent’s team leader hostage, sacrifice them to your missile launcher, and knock out a piece of your enemy’s giant metal statue. The metal statue your opponent has is being held high by a helicopter. How all of this makes any sense in the real world, we do not know – but it seems entertaining! This newest version of the game also contains a whole new set of vehicles including Death Warrant (aka a Ford Mustang), a Roadboat (one gigantic beast of a vehicle indeed), Vermin (for capturing your mice friends,) and the ever classic Sweet Tooth ice cream truck.

Again this game is out right now and you should pick it up as soon as possible – then watch out for us, because we’ll be crushing!

What you’ve got to do in this game – available for both the iPad 1/2 and the iPhone – note that we’re reviewing it on an iPhone 4S here – is keep yourself in the game. In the hands-on video I compare this game to the greatest schoolyard game you might never have played: Spread the Eagle. This game from your middle-school days was one in which you didn’t necessarily have to do anything at all in order to stay in the game, but because you want to have fun, you go nuts with action. The same is true here, to a degree, as the monsters surrounding your building want to have a great time, and if you give them condos to eat, they most certainly will!

If you give them the wrong color condos to eat – you’ll notice they’re color-coded – you’ll find that they are prone to getting angry. There are so many symbols and markers, graphics that’ll blow your mind, and animations that you’ll be surprised are sitting pretty here on a game that costs less than a buck, and it’s all controlled with one of two actions: swipe left, or swipe right!

Feed the right colors to the right monsters, then try to match up three of the same color condo to switch your monsters out and drum up additional points. There are several modes of play, but the game concept remains the same through the whole of them: keep the monsters happy, and keep your tower straight. This game is a must-buy for those of you wishing to see the full graphics capabilities of your iPad or iPhone – but don’t let your grandmother play it, she’ll likely freak out. Monsters Ate My Condo is available on the iTunes App Store right this minute for $0.99 cheap!

For it’s truly the everywhere gaming model that Sony is latching onto here, with gamers that want an unending stream of games at their fingertips at the heart of it all. It’s not just gaming on the go that these players desire, Sony has decided, its inexpensive gaming, games that can be downloaded and accessed anywhere, all the greatness of the mobile world that’s been missing in the hardware world. Smartphones and tablets are the opponents of the PS Vita, so says Sony.

The folks at Interpublic Group of Companies group Deutsch’s executive vice president and creative director, mister Jason Elm, spoke with the NYTimes about the campaign they’d whipped up for the current continuation of the worldwide release of the PS Vita. He’s got no qualms with wanting the gamers of the earth to plug in and tune out:

“[This campaign's audience is] very socially plugged in, mobile, out and about, both physically and on the Internet. Gaming is no longer playing alone in a basement by one person with one machine; it’s all networked.” – Elm

The operating system on the device has been suggested as being a viable candidate for additional wireless-data-connected devices as well, with Yoshio Matsumoto, Director of Business and Sony Computer Entertainment SVP, speaking on how this device is just the thin edge of the wedge:

“[Translated:] I’d like to point out that I mentioned the first thing Vita is is a hardware that provides digital entertainment only, and there there is the Vita OS which at the moment is just the OS made to provide it. The OS will continue to provide entertainment of all kinds, and though it’s made here to provide for a portable machine the best gaming experience for game enthusiasts, this is the thing edge of the wedge first.” – Matsumoto

So what we’ve got here is the successes of the mobile world in a smartphone-esque operating system running on a fully PlayStation 3 connected handheld gaming powerhouse. It’s as if it couldn’t possibly fail, yes? We’ll see how the PS Vita fares here in the USA after it’s been out for an extended period – soon!

This controller will connect to your mobile device, by it your iPod Touch, your Android phone you iPad, or what-have-you, with Bluetooth. This is an extension of the already popular iCade line created by ThinkGeek, each new bit released by the team creating a cross-over gaming experience that shouldn’t be missed! As ThinkGeek GeekLabs’s oan Ty Liotta notes,

“We’re excited to extend on the success of the original iCADE. And with millions of iOS and Android devices in circulation it only makes sense to widen the field and bring the fun of iCADE to every possible device.” – Liotta

This controller is battery powered and has eight fully fucntional buttons, controlling everything from the original Pac Man to Super Mega Worm to more modern games as well. Developers can get in on documentation for the controller here and start making their games ready for the oncoming of this magical device in full force soon! Games like Box Cat, Muffin Knight, Plum Crazy, and more are already ready to work with the controller before it’s released! This controller has been revealed at the 2012 Toy Fair in New York City and will be available for purchase later this year for $24.99 – we’ll be sure to let you know how fabulous it truly is!

Android Temple Run fans should take note that once speaking with the official crew behind the game we’ve discovered that the original March 9th date was never an official marker for the game to come out, only a guesstimation mostly passed on as a rumor. The postponing of this game’s release isn’t so much an error or a fix as it is a simple reality: the game was not necessarily going to come out today anyway. But so it goes, and so goes the game to a later date and we to the waiting box once again.

For those of you rocking an iPod Touch or an iPhone in the meantime, you can head to the iTunes App Store right this second to pick this game up for free. This game also works on iPad and we can expect that it’ll work on any sized Android device once its released as well. Jump and skip and flip and collect those coins soon!

[via Android Community]

The storyline here is loosely based around the idea that Batman impersonators would certainly take to the streets if Batman ever went missing (it’s happened before!) and tossing in a whole clown-car full of Junior Jokerz, this game blows the top off of what was established in Gotham City and pours a bunch of hot sauce into it. Inside the game you’ve got the option of playing to your own skillset and are able to turn your character in to whatever you want it to be – hair, weapons, makeup and all!

If you’re unable to see this game in your download area for any of the platforms you’ve got right this moment, just wait! This game is slated for yesterday and today and is being rolled out to each system as they’re prepared to bring the fun! Meanwhile we’ve got the game here and are testing it out tonight – so get ready for some fun in the interim if you’re up for it!

The first few games that have been listed by Ubisoft that are certainly affected by the transition time are Assasin’s Creed, Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. 2, Might & Magic : Heroes VI, Splinter Cell Conviction, The Settlers 7: Paths to a Kingdom, and The Settlers. While this list appeared at first to be the only set of games affected by the downtime, it’s not being reported from multiple sources and gamers emailing us directly that games such as Assassin’s Creed Revelations and Driver San Francisco are being knocked out now as well. In addition, all Ubisoft websites except for their Consumer Service and official forums have been guaranteed to be staying up during the transition, but we’ll see as the transition continues.

Uplay PC games are completely unplayable during this period, and players playing ANNO have been sent a guide which tells them to start off in offline mode, then once they’re in the main menu, to log in with their account data and they’ll be good to go. Try this out with similar games to see how they work as well! Meanwhile know this: Ubisoft currently has the servers nearly turned over at this point and are restoring what they can when they can as we speak. Everything should be back up by the end of today!

Have a peek at the preview for this modification in the video below. It’s not that this modification will bring you any sort of awesome futuristic abilities, but you will have a friendly little orb to help you fill the long walks across the plains. This Fall of the Space Core, Volume 1 modification will be just the first of many mods from the Valve crew as the “1″ bit suggests. Can you imagine Skyrim full of Portal guns – the madness of dragons flying through the ground and out of the wall is too much to handle!

Head down to the Steam Workshop and check out the creation and get yourself in on the project. You simply MUST help out to bring this sort of crossover action to the game and future games if you ever want to see the ultimate battle to rule them all: dragons verses Batman in Skyrim. Of course there’s a need for such a thing, what do you think this gaming universe is all about? There’s also one whole heck of a lot more mods out there already – check them all out!

[via Steam Workshop]

It was in an interview with Digital Spy that Shcafer was speaking about the original Phsychonauts, saying how he’s been wishing he’d be able to create a sequel. Things aren’t so simple as that, of course, as he notes, as it’s not just a developer you need to create a game on such a scale as what Psychonauts 2 would need.

“I mean I get a lot of, on Twitter or whatever, daily questions about Psychonauts 2. And I would love to do Psychonauts 2, I’ve actually pitched that to publishers several times and no-one has taken the bait so far. So it is hard because fans often don’t know how the business works, with the difference between a developer and a publisher, it’s hard to explain that. I’d love to do that game, but I’d have to convince someone to just give me a few million dollars, that’s all.” – Schafer

It just so happens that Notch Persson read said article or was informed in advance that Schafer wanted to do such a project – or perhaps it’s all some big conspiracy to make us love the idea of the game in the near future. Notch spoke on Twitter to the effect of Mojang being interested in making a new game happen.

Their conversation has continued to the effect of hey how are yous and so forth thus far, but we must assume that the mix is going to happen at some point in the next week. Look out for magic soon if this all pans out!

There’s been a leak of the omnipotent colorway everyone always seems to want, white, for the phone that’s coming down to crush us all: Nokia Lumia 900. The entire Canon PowerShot range has been overhauled to include Wifi, waterproofing, GPS, and a whole lot more. The titan known as Skyrim has been brought to a whole new level with the Skyrim Creation Kit for your PC. And if that weren’t enough, you’ll be able to play Skyrim on no less than a brand new Xbox 360 Kinect Star Wars kit starting on the 3rd of April!

There will be no Samsung Galaxy S III release in March. Verizon will be rebooting their double data promotion soon. It’s time to get giddy with Windows 8 gaming as its own line-up is revealed. The Apple iTV rumors continue, and HTC HERO FORCE is not the name for the studio HTC has created for its hero devices in 2012 – but I wish it was!

In this game created by some of the most notable names in gaming and comic book fantasy you’ll be not only diving into a story so thick it’d take you days and days upon days to read the entire text included in the game without even playing. Inside you’ll find yourself so deep in the world of Amalur that you’ll often forget that the objective includes some of the most action-packed sequences since Skyrim. And let’s face it: this game will be compared to Skyrim one way or another, so it’d better stand up strong right up unto it!

And it shall, as Rolston lead design teams behind Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind as well as Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, these both coming right behind the Skyrim masterpiece of 2011. The only thing you’ll not be selecting is the shape of your face, as Reckoning cuts a bit more to the chase than Skyrim does, with basic faces, hair, and a few trinkets around you before you jump right in. And jump right UP you shall, as you begin this game in a pile of corpses, you yourself having been dead before the game began.

This story is no ordinary monster, even though your quest is indeed to destroy all evil and save the future of the world you’re on. As you advance, you choose your skills and shape your person, costume and epic weapons included. Make this your next deep dive after you’ve completed your months of food and water-less nights of Skyrim – soon!

When you download this game, you’ll find that in its completely free form, you’ll be given Hawaii as a map to fly around in. When you’re connected with Games for Windows Live, you get extra features. You can also get extra features by downloading them via Microsoft’s online store, this falling right in line with our most awesome futuristic gaming model born of this mobile revolution we’re in: free to play and in-game upgrade. Freemium is another name for this model, and Microsoft will be more than willing to tease you with the most awesome flying around with a promise of more on the way.

So clear the end of your February calendar out because you’ll be doing two things: first, playing Microsoft Flight, then second: following SlashGear’s Mobile World Congress 2012 coverage. You know you’ll love both, they’re both free! Have a peek above at a trailer for the newest installment in what’s up until now been called Flight Simulator X, then head to our portal for the rest. You can follow us all through Spain while you’re flying in Hawaii via our tag [MWC 2012] – seeya then!

[via Major Nelson]

For those of you reading this in the future, this particular down-time took place on the 2nd of February, 2012. This maintenance period has for the most part left online play unaffected, while those who had signed into their accounts before 6 AM PST today should have been able to stay logged in throughout the down time. The services you know and love that are down and will remain down through the night will be the PlayStation Store via the PlayStation 3 and PSP, and Media Go.

In addition, PlayStation HomeMusic Unlimited and Video Unlimited services are unavailable until tomorrow. Account Management and Account Registration are also being said to be down while all the good stuff stays active as it should be. The good stuff includes gamers abilities to collect in-game trophies – each of these trophies then set to upload to users accounts when maintenance ends. Meanwhile you could also just play some offline games or break out the old Ball in a cup attached with a string and have a little old-timey fun then too. It’s only one day!

A reminder to all: the place where Sony announces down-times in advance is over at the PlayStation blog – or you could just stick around SlashGear where you love to get your PlayStation news and we’ll let you know both in advance and day-of like we always do. Cheers!

The first thing you should know here is that Final Fantasy XIII-2 is a time-traveling game with plotlines that fit in several places after the original XIII. There’s one timeline 700 years into the future, one 100 years into the future, and one just 10 years into the future, each of them after XIII. Reviewers seem to have mixed feelings on this installment of the game for a variety of reasons, but one thing seems clear: everyone who has reviewed this game has played several Final Fantasy games before.

“Final Fantasy XIII-2 feels less like a standalone sequel than a concerted effort to bring back fans disappointed by the last game. Somewhere within the bowels of Square Enix, there’s a memo that details every major criticism of XIII. The sequel addresses enough of those points to make it feel different from FFXIII, but without making the game as a whole all that much better.” – Garrett Martin of Ars Technica

The story for this game, to be fair, will give any new person to the series quite a run for their money – but like every single Final Fantasy game before, this is part of the whole project. Final Fantasy games are sort of like chapters in a book series – not necessarily a series that’s meant to go together, but one told many times in the same sort of tenor. The greatest part of this series is still in-tact here as well: the combat system.

“I found “XIII-2″ more absorbing than its predecessor, in part because I’ve gotten used to its “paradigm”-based combat. Instead of controlling all three characters in your party, you control just one — though you can switch the paradigms used by the other two so they concentrate on physical attacks, magic or defense. Boss battles force you to constantly adjust your paradigms, so while the fights are fast-paced, they require strategy.” – Lou Kesten from AP for ABC News

So what this game really adds up to is a rattlingly difficult to follow storyline littered with entertaining bits of combat and fabulous graphics. There are loads of entertaining cinematic segments, the whole game feels good to play, but in the end it comes up short – unless you compare it directly to its predecessor.

“Weirdly enough, on a piece by piece basis Final Fantasy XIII-2 manages to one-up itself in almost every department. At the same time, you get the distinct feeling that Square Enix has lost its way with the franchise, especially in the story telling department. The game is littered with moments throughout that just don’t add up. For a game that starts out as strong as Final Fantasy XIII-2 ,with Lightning battling through Valhalla, it immediately squashes all hopes of a exciting journey by beginning to loosely explain what is transpiring, and what your ultimate goals of the game are to be.” – Bill Hess of Attack of the Fanboy

You’ll be able to pick up Final Fantasy XIII-2 for your Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 for the cool price of $59.99 from all great places sweet games are sold. If you’re a Final Fantasy fan, this game is of course not to be missed – unless you’d rather spend the cash on several iterations of the game from years past. Never played Final Fantasy VII? Maybe a quick dash to the store and $10 later you’ll have the greatest RPG experience of your life in your hands instead!

BONUS: You can also download the demo direct from your Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 today – go grab it and test away!

People submitting to CUUSOO requires that you get an idea, create the project you dream of, post it up to the site, get 10,000 supporters, and whammo! You’ve got your own project. If your project passes the CUUSOO review here, it will be produced by LEGO and you the creator will receive 1% of total net sales throughout the project’s lifespan. Have a peek at the CUUSOO concept here in this fancy animated video:

Then know that the creator of this Minecraft project was none other than the developers of the game itself: mojang. To get the project going, mojang worked with a couple Minecraft fans to produce some awesome sets that would help to inspire CUUSOO users to bring them into the LEGO fold. It appears that the set above might be the one to be winning in this situation, but the ones below are magnificent as well, of course! Read this statement from mojang and jump with glee!

Minecraft is about placing blocks to build anything you can imagine in the virtual world. You can build anything you imagine with LEGO bricks in the physical world. Minecraft and LEGO were meant to be together.

We’ve invited a couple of the LEGO fans behind the earlier LEGO Minecraft projects, suparMacho and koalaexpert, to collaborate with us to shape the idea. We’re also interested in your ideas, and will select the best LEGO Minecraft models to also join our efforts.

As the official Mojang LEGO Minecraft project, we will work with the LEGO Group to secure a licensing agreement and donate the 1% royalty from LEGO CUUSOO to charity. Let’s make LEGO Minecraft happen together!! =D

Will you pick up the Minecraft lego set? It really truly is a match made in heaven – if you’ve played with both you’d have to agree!

[via CUUSOO blog]

Though we’ll never know if Pincus really did make the “numbers” remark word for word, we can now read a memo leaked from the inner sanctum at Zynga, this memo showing off exactly what it means to be a part of Zynga and their development crew. Pincus makes it very clear here that they have no regrets in creating games that essentially copy the models of others, justifying it by saying that other people do it too, and they get copied too, so why can’t they do it? It’s like a kid saying he saw it on television, so why can’t he just shoot the neighbors dog?

I’ll not be posting the entirety of the note here, but the important bits will be shown. This memo was sent out inside the last month and has been leaked to the web this week:

“Everyone,

There’s press today about one of our mobile games, Dream Heights, that just launched in Canada and worldwide soon. As we become the Zynga of Mobile and more broadly, as Zynga grows by further innovating on best of breed social mechanics, we should expect the industry to sit up and take notice of our growing portfolio.

I’m proud of the mobile team’s hard work and the industry has taken notice.

…

Google didn’t create the first search engine. Apple didn’t create the first mp3 player or tablet. And, Facebook didn’t create the first social network. But these companies have evolved products and categories in revolutionary ways. They are all internet treasures because they all have specific and broad missions to change the world.

We don’t need to be first to market. We need to be the best in market. There are genres that we’re going to enter because we know our players are interested in them and because we want and need to be where players are. We evolve genres by making games free, social, accessible and highest quality.

With regard to Dream Heights and the tower genre, it’s important to note that this category has existed since 1994 with games like Sim Tower and was more recently popularized in China with Tower of Babel in 2009 which achieved 15 million DAUs. On iOS there has been Yoot Tower, Tower Up, Tower Town, Tower Blocks and Tiny Tower. Just as our games, mechanics and social innovations have inspired and accelerated the game industry, its 30 year body of work has inspired us too.

And, this has always been the case for our company and the rest of the industry. Zynga Poker, FarmVille, CityVille and Words with Friends, none of these games were the first to market in their category but we made them the most fun and social, and the most popular. Our teams continue to build and improve these games every week which has been an important part of our success model. We run our games as a live service and we continue to iterate, innovate and improve on them to give our players the best possible experience.” – Pincus

Does this look like a set of words that brings about the shaking of hands between Zynga and the groups they’ve copied from and the groups that’ve copied from them? Certainly Pincus feels justified in saying it all, and it was definitely time for him to step up and speak the company’s mind, but is it enough? We’ll see!

[via Forbes]

The second unit will be a bit more unique – unique to people that’ve not yet experienced the current Xbox TV world, that is. This little unit will cost significantly less than the larger Xbox made for gaming, this little unit made instead to sit on top of your television and work with you via Kinect. This unit will be using Kinect controls, just like you can now with Xbox TV’s Kinect-based set of gestures, and will feature all the great abilities Xbox 360 has right now working with your television to bring all the Smart TV functionality you could possibly want.

This has been described in part, or at least in wishes in an article written up this past week by Don Reisinger. This fellow has compared Microsoft’s Xbox to the Apple TV more than once, and filets them a new one divining the existence of this futuristic Xbox TV set-top box as he does so. Would you purchase an Xbox 720 unit if it were small enough for the average person to afford but impressive enough to use as your one and only smart TV unit?