Here are a ton of images from the “black carpet” at tonight’s Spike TV Video Game Awards. Highlights include Jennifer Hale, Ali Hillis, and Hideo Kojima.
Author - Jerry Paxton
So, the Spike TV Video Game Awards are on now! And, we are recovering from the amazing “black carpet” while watching the show. We are compiling our photos and videos and will get them all on shortly. Here are a few for now:
Images
Spiders and Focus Home Interactive have released a new trailer for their upcoming cyberpunk-RPG, Mars War Logs.
Trailer
Denver, CO – December 6, 2012 – ARCHOS, announces the retail availability of the highly anticipated GamePad, a new type of tablet that combines physical gaming button controls and an ARCHOS patented mapping tool with a full AndroidTM-powered tablet experience. Bringing physical buttons and analog thumb-sticks to mobile gaming, the ARCHOS GamePad blends power with unique mapping software that allows you to link the virtual controls of any game to physical controls. A thin and light Android 4.1 Jelly Bean device, the GamePad also features full access to Google PlayTM and Google Mobile Services and is now available in Europe for 149.99€ with a North American release scheduled for early Q1 2013.
“Android device users spend more than 9 hours a month gaming on their devices and yet are not completely satisfied with the touch-screen experience,” says Henri Crohas, Founder and CEO of ARCHOS. “We feel this area of gaming is proven and will continue to grow. With the introduction of the GamePad we are uniquely positioned to feed the demand of gamers who want a better gaming experience on a tablet.”
By combining the GamePad’s 14 physical buttons and dual analog thumb-sticks with the revolutionary ARCHOS game mapping tool (exclusive to ARCHOS), the GamePad brings the physical aspect back to the gaming experience. Adding to the experience is the 16 million color, seven inch, five point capacitive, 1024 x 600 pixel screen. At only 10 mm (0.3 inch) thin and with a weight of 330g (0.7 lbs), the ARCHOS GamePad is the perfect on the go gaming console.
FEATURES & SPECS
- Operating System: Google Certified Android 4.1 Jelly Bean
- Smooth Gaming Experience with 3D Graphics: Quad-core Mali 400 MP GPU paired with a 1.6GHz Dual-core CPU.
- Memory: 8GB of internal memory with microSD slot or up to 64GB of additional space.
- Mini-HDMI: Use the mini-HDMI port to connect the GamePad to your TV for a big screen viewing experience.
- Google PlayTM: 700,000 apps and games and includes DRM support for downloading books, magazines, music, movies and TV shows.
- ARCHOS Media Center applications: tailor made apps for video and music that include metadata scraping, auto-subtitles and of course, the best format and codec support around including 1080p video decoding.
- For more information about GamePad visit www.ARCHOS.com.
BURLINGAME, Calif. – DECEMBER 6, 2012 – Team NINJA today revealed that the new generation of DEAD OR ALIVE® combat, DEAD OR ALIVE 5 PLUS (working title), is coming to the PlayStation®Vita handheld system alongside NINJA GAIDEN® SIGMA 2 PLUS, the highly anticipated sequel to the hit PS Vita launch title. DEAD OR ALIVE 5 PLUS brings the signature fighting style of the popular DOA series to PS Vita with all-new system-specific features complementing the stunning graphics and new martial arts techniques of the recent console release. Faster, bloodier, and more beautiful than ever, NINJA GAIDEN SIGMA 2 PLUS takes the legendary action game to the next level on a versatile new battleground. Developed by Team NINJA, both games will be published by TECMO KOEI America and are scheduled to ship in the first quarter of 2013.
“DEAD OR ALIVE 5 PLUS and NINJA GAIDEN SIGMA 2 PLUS both bring the art of combat alive with graphics that rival any console game alongside tight controls designed to fully harness the power of the PS Vita,” said Yosuke Hayashi, Team NINJA leader. “Whether unleashing martial arts moves or striking down enemies as a deadly ninja, players will discover that handheld gaming has never looked—or played—better.”
Building on the popular DOA series’ signature fighting style, DEAD OR ALIVE 5 PLUS brings the spectacular graphics and new martial arts techniques of the recent console release to the PS Vita with all-new system-specific features. Players will take on the roles of the cast of DEAD OR ALIVE fighters in an intense, action-packed brawler set in visually striking locations from around the world, with each stage featuring backdrops that change and interact with players. With a sensual yet realistic style, characters are rendered in incredibly lifelike detail. New touch controls bring a completely new experience to fighting games. Simple taps, swipes, and pinches on your opponent trigger a variety of devastating moves. Using the Vita’s motion sensor, you can even play vertically for a first-person, full-screen view of your opponent. Both novice and expert players will also find even more ways to up their game with new training-focused modes and a new display of advanced frame data that reveals twice the amount of information for each move compared to previous versions. Tournament players will spend hours analyzing the best moves for their fights.
NINJA GAIDEN SIGMA 2 PLUS brings the most intense, action-packed ninja adventure to PS Vita with stunning graphics, new modes, and plenty of blood. In the game, Ryu Hayabusa, the iconic super ninja of the Ninja Gaidenfranchise, returns to the Sigma series to prevent the resurrection of the evil Archfiend by hunting down the Demon Statue stolen by the wicked Black Spider Ninja Clan. Players will battle from Tokyo to New York as Ryu encounters vicious enemies and acquires an extensive assortment of ninja weaponry along the way. The action lights up the Vita’s impressive OLED screen with graphical quality exceeding the original Ninja Gaiden Sigma Plus. An intuitive control system uses the front and rear touch screens and motion controls of the PS Vita, and new players will appreciate the inclusion of Hero Mode, which automatically boosts their attacks when their health is low. New modes include “Ninja Race,” where players compete with enemies at breakneck speed to reach the end goal, and “Tag Mission,” in which players can switch between two ninjas in real-time while defending the AI-controlled partner.
Team NINJA will release more information on both titles in the coming weeks/months.
NEW YORK — December 6, 2012 — Paradox Interactive and Zeal Game Studio are taking subterranean mining to soaring new heights with new downloadable content (DLC) for A Game of Dwarves. The new content pack, entitled Star Dwarves, enables the game’s titular miners to spruce up their mines with all the trappings of deep space, adding a wealth of new sci-fi furnishings and tools to their lairs. Of course, a terrifying space monster or two have also come along for the ride, but that’s a small price to pay for having your very own cryosleep bed to spruce up the old mineshaft.
Star Dwarves adds new props, new enemy, and new dwarves to A Game of Dwarves, from sci-fi-inspired generators, holographic statues, and spiffy captain’s chairs to untold horrors like the Beardprober – a monster who studies beards in the worst way imaginable. Thankfully, the dwarves can combat these invaders with new military classes, including the rifle-toting Redshirt, and the Knight, a melee fighter who relies on training he acquired a long time ago in some place far, far away.
A Game of Dwarves: Star Dwarves is available today for $4.99. Buy the new DLC here:http://www.agameofdwarves.com/
SAN FRANCISCO & LONDON — SEGA® of America, Inc. and SEGA® Europe Ltd. today announced that Creative Assembly™, award-winning creator of the Total War™ series, and SEGA® Group have entered into a multi-title licensing deal with Games Workshop® to create videogames based in the Warhammer® universe of fantasy battles.
A new high-calibre development team has been set up at Creative Assembly’s UK studio to work alongside the existing Total War, Alien™ IP and Mobile teams on the first Warhammer title in the deal, scheduled to launch from beyond 2013.
“With this year being our 25th anniversary,” said Tim Heaton, Studio Director at Creative Assembly, “it seems fitting for us to embark on such a dream project with such a well-established partner. The incredibly rich and detailed Warhammer world is something we grew up with, and has left an indelible imprint on us as both designers and gamers.”
“We’ll be doing the Warhammer universe justice in a way that has never been attempted before. We’re bringing those 25 years of experience and expertise in extremely high-scoring games to bear, delivering a Warhammer experience that videogamers will absolutely love.”
“We have enormous respect for SEGA and Creative Assembly and have felt for a long time that the combination of the enormously rich setting of the Warhammer world, and their stunning development talent is a match with huge potential,” said Jon Gillard, Games Workshop’s Head of Licensing. “Now that we’ve managed to bring these two giants of gaming together it is safe to say that some truly amazing products are going to be unleashed as a result. We are excited at the possibilities, and are enthusiastically working with the team at Creative Assembly already.”
This first Warhammer game joins the eagerly-awaited Total War: Rome II™ and the untitled Alien IP as one of five projects currently in production at Creative Assembly, now one of the largest developers in Europe.
For future updates and career opportunities please visit www.creative-assembly.com.
The Creative Labs Inspire T6300
Back in October, Creative Labs announced two new speaker systems designed for audio power – the Inspire T6300 and T3300 speaker systems. We recently got the chance to check out the more complex, 5.1 surround sound system, the Inspire T6300. Visually, the T6300 speaker system features a mostly-black, classy look with eye catching, silver rings around the satellite speaker drivers. The front satellites are also larger than the rear and center ones in order to increase visual appeal. Additionally, there system comes with a small dongle that controls the on/off as well as overall volume. The Inspire T6300’s sub-woofer is pretty standard and fits in with Creative Labs other sub-woofer designs on the market. The speakers and sub-woofer are actually very portable in size, and would easily fit into a cluttered dorm room or home office.
Installing and setting up the Creative Labs T6300 speaker system is very easy. Simple arrange your speakers in the desired locations and then plug the cables in from the Inspire T6300’s sub-woofer to your sound card. With the T6300, Creative Labs has actually attached the audio cables to the sub-woofer. This means that you will never lose them if you have to move the system somewhere else, which is nice. Fortuitously, we still had the Sound Blaster Z sound card in our gaming rig when setting these up, so we thought it would be nice to see how the speakers handled Creative Labs own sound card.
The Creative Labs T6300 speaker system features two new technologies that the company has developed: The “DSE” (Dual Slot Enclosure) and the “IFP” (Image Focusing Plate). These technologies are designed to maximize the T6300’s room-filling power. The Dual Slot Enclosure feature basically means that the speakers have a fully-functional port tube in them, which is said to increase volume and allow the speakers to better reproduce mid-bass levels. The Image Focusing Plate technology is designed to increase the sound field of the T6300’s satellite speakers in comparison to other speakers without the IFP.
Image Focusing Plate Diagram
The big question is, do these technologies make a difference to the listener? In theory, they absolutely make a difference in terms of sound volume and quality. You can easily test the DSE feature by covering up the ports on the satellite speakers. Doing so significantly decreases sound volume and quality. The IFP is somewhat harder to test without physically removing or altering it which we did not want to do with a review unit.
As far as the speaker system’s performance is concerned, the proof is in the proverbial audio pudding. In using the Inspire T6300 during numerous rounds of not only Call of Duty: Black Ops II and Far Cry 3 but, also, watching The Avengers with it, the speaker system handled everything I could throw at it and was more than capable of pumping out some serious bass and room-filling sound. I only wish that Creative Labs would have added an AUX-IN port and headphone port to the system. These features could have been added into the control dongle or perhaps one of the front speakers to add additional value to the user.
Overall, the Creative Labs Inspire T6300 5.1 speaker system is a very decent surround sound system for about a $110 dollars – especially for your favorite video games and action movies. It is a speaker system that “chews” up whatever sound it’s given and throws it out to you like a hardball. While not my ideal system for delicate sounds (musicphiles and audiophiles might want to look elsewhere), the system does a fair job of that as well – especially when paired up with Creative Labs SBX Pro Studio audio processing technologies. Just make sure you check your bass levels or your neighbors might complain as their windows rattle – sorry, neighbors.
The Creative Inspire T6300 5.1 speaker system will be available on creative.com starting around December 20th, and selling for $79.99.
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Pros
- Speaker system puts out a lot of sound.
- Portable size allows for easy room integration.
- Easy setup.
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Cons
- No headphone or AUX-IN port.
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Technical Specifications
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Today, Namco Bandai and LEVEL 5 have released a behind-the-scenes video from the development of their upcoming Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch. Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch is rated E10+ and is slated to launch exclusively on the PlayStation 3 on January 22, 2013 in North America.
Video
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. – Dec. 5, 2012 – Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: EA) and award-winning developer Crytek GmbH today announced a creative partnership with renowned filmmaker Albert Hughes to produce an online video series inspired by the upcoming sandbox shooter, Crysis 3. Entitled, “The 7 Wonders of Crysis 3”, this cinematic series will set the stage for this latest installment in the Crysis series and introduce weapons, enemies, and gameplay features new to the franchise. These cinematic shorts will also showcase the stunning visuals, dynamic environments of the urban rainforest and intense adaptive warfare fans can expect when Crysis 3 ships on February 19, 2013 in North America and on February 21 in Europe.
“When EA and Crytek approached me about being involved in creating ‘The 7 Wonders of Crysis 3’ video series, I liked the idea of creating emotional stories using only computer generated images,” stated Albert Hughes. “The challenge of producing something intensely human without ever seeing a human on screen was incredibly compelling, and the technology of the CryENGINE that Crytek developed enabled me to do that and venture into a completely unique medium of storytelling.”
At 20 years old, filmmaker Albert Hughes shot to stardom when he and his twin brother, Allen, wrote and directed the seminal film, Menace II Society. Albert then went on to co-direct such critically-acclaimed films including Dead Presidents, From Hell andBook of Eli. For “The 7 Wonders of Crysis 3” video series, Albert was intimately involved with the development team at Crytek, writing the scripts, storyboards and shot plan for each video that was created entirely using in-game assets powered by Crytek’s revolutionary CryENGINE® 3 technology.
“The goal with ‘The 7 Wonders of Crysis 3’ video series is to reveal the incredible world we have been building for Crysis 3 and to let CryENGINE take center stage to highlight the power of our state-of-the-art game engine,” said Cevat Yerli, Chief Executive Officer of Crytek. “We’ve worked closely with Albert on this project and think that the 7 Wonders series will show the leaps and bounds that Crysis 3 is making over its predecessors.”
Powered by Crytek’s proprietary CryENGINE, Crysis 3 advances the state of the art with unparalleled visuals and dynamic shooter gameplay. Players take on the role of ‘Prophet’ as he returns to New York only to discover that the city has been encased in a Nanodome created by the corrupt Cell Corporation. The New York City Liberty Dome is a veritable urban rainforest teaming with overgrown trees, dense swamplands and raging rivers. Within the Liberty Dome, seven distinct and treacherous environments become known as the 7 Wonders. This dangerous new world demands advanced weapons and tactics, including the Nanosuit. Equipped with superhuman powers including cloaking, armor and enhanced visor abilities, the Nanosuit is the ultimate tool that allows players to assess, adapt and attack whatever the 7 Wonders throws at them. In addition to the Nanosuit, players will wield the powerful Predator bow and devastating alien weaponry to become the deadliest hunter on the planet.
The debut episode of “The 7 Wonders of Crysis 3” entitled “Hell of a Town” will debut on December 12, 2012. Developed by Crytek and powered by the proprietary cutting edge CryENGINE technology, Crysis 3 will be available for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system, PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and PC. For more information on Crysis 3, please visitwww.crysis.com, and for the latest news visit www.facebook.com/crysis or follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/crysis.