Well it’s that time again. Oh yes kids, it’s Gaming Weekly time.
Roll Out!
Last week on Gadget Helpline and our Gaming Weekly write-up we mentioned the start of the issues with GAME and Gamestation stores starting a massive fire sale of their pre-owned stock. Then a mere 24 hours after we wrote about this, word started to spread that the GAME group was in much deeper water than just being overstocked.
On Monday we wrote about GAME going into administration and having two weeks to find itself a buyer before the massive multi-store chain will be shut down, putting over 10,000 employees out of work.
You can check out the full story here.
Well, as the week has gone on the news hasn’t gotten any brighter for GAME, as even if it were to miraculously have a quick change in fortune, it would apparently not last long as several of the big-name games publishers have all refused to stock the stores with their new releases.
Oh No!
Game developers such as EA, Microsoft, Activision and even Nintendo have all pulled support for the company and won’t be supplying any games to the stores. However, GAME’s current shining knight is Sony, who have confirmed that they will still be shipping units of the PS Vita and a number of games for its Playstation 3 console to stores.
News is also coming in that a few well-known brands are interested in buying up the company (probably at a steal), including the American giant (and ASDA owner) Walmart, Amazon, Gamestop and now reports that OpCapita, the parent company of the Comet chain of stores, has made a buyout offer for GAME Group.
If any of these go through you can expect that EA, Microsoft, Activision and Nintendo will all come rushing back to aid.
X-HBO-X 360, Geddit!
U.S Xbox 360 users will be getting a treat soon as Microsoft (and Xbox’s) Major Nelson has taken to the twittersphere and has linked out to a new video hinting towards the release of a new HBO app for the Xbox 360.
Those lucky Americans will be given access to all their favourite HBO programming from the premium box office channels. Subscribers to the HBO collection are awaiting the new HBO Go app for the 360 but will still have to wait, as the 30 second clip (below) is just a teaser for the actual announcement.
UK gamers will once again have to take a back seat with regards to the functionality of our consoles, but there is always hope that when the U.S gets a feature we may get the same (or similar) in the months to follow.
Until then we will have to make do with searching for our HBO content on various UK channels and piecing together what will be an awesome amount of television goodness.
More Xbox news and those pesky next-gen Xbox 720 rumours really will not go away – they are becoming such a nuisance that Microsoft themselves are now dedicating a lot of time to telling fans that there definitely won’t be a new Xbox console anytime soon.
Microsoft has issued an official statement regarding the future of Xbox. “For us, 2012 is all about Xbox 360-and it’s the best year ever for Xbox 360,”
“While we appreciate all the interest in our long-range plans for the future, we can confirm that there will be no talk of new Xbox hardware at E3 or anytime soon,” Microsoft told IGN.
So what does this mean?
Well, it means there is a new Xbox console in the works of course, but it also means that this console will definitely not be announced or seen any time in 2012, which means a no-show at the E3 gaming expo this summer. Whilst plans are definitely underway for a new console, any rumours on what it entails will be just speculation. However, with Microsoft still committing a large amount of time and resources to the Xbox 360, there should be no reason to worry about the future, as games like GTA V, Halo 4 and Bioshock Infinite will be coming our way in the next year, and we should all be thankful for what we have got, or will be getting.
PICTURE BREAK!
It’s been a while since we have had a gaming (and normally Mario) inspired picture break, so here is an extra-long one to make amends!
Source: loldwell.com
Hey Kids, do you like Skyrim?
Do you also like violence?
Well that’s great, as fans of the MMORPG/FPS (First Person Slicer) will be pleased that a big ol’ update will be coming to the game in the next couple of weeks for console users, and in the coming days for those folk playing the game on PC using Steam.
The update itself will be a mixture of new gameplay features (more on that in a mo) and a large list of bug fixes.
So gameplay wise what will you get? Well, a host of new and bad-ass kill scenes is what!
Bethesda has added new kill moves and animations for melee weapons, as well as kill cameras for magic spells and bows.
That’s it really, but here is a full list of the update and what it entails:
UPDATE 1.5 (all platforms unless noted) NEW FEATURES
- New cinematic kill cameras for projectile weapons and spells
- New kill moves and animations for melee weapons
- Shadows on grass available (PC)
- Smithing skill increases now factor in the created item’s value
- Improved visual transition when going underwater
- Improved distance LOD transition for snowy landscapes
BUG FIXES
- General crash fixes and memory optimizations
- Fixed issue with Deflect Arrows perk not calculating properly
- In “A Cornered Rat,” the death of certain NPCs no longer blocks progression
- Fixed issue where Farkas would not give Companion’s quests properly
- Fixed crash when loading saves that rely on data that is no longer being loaded
- Followers sneak properly when player is sneaking
- Fixed issue with weapon racks not working properly in Proudspire Manor
- Arrows and other projectiles that were stuck in objects in the world now clean up properly
- Fixed issue where “Rescue Mission” was preventing “Taking Care of Business” from starting properly
- Fixed issue where certain NPCs would fail to become Thieves Guild fences
- Fixed issue in “Diplomatic Immunity” where killing all the guards in the Thalmor Embassy before starting the quest would break progress
- In “Hard Answers,” picking up the dwarven museum key after completing the quest, no longer restarts the quest
- Killing Viola before or after “Blood on the Ice” no longer blocks progression
- Fixed issue where Calixto would fail to die properly in “Blood on the Ice”
In “Waking Nightmare” fixed occasional issue where Erandur would stop pathing properly - Fixed issue where letters and notes with random encounters would appear blank
- Fixed rare issue where dialogue and shouts would improperly play
- Lydia will now offer marriage option after player purchases Breezehome in Whiterun
- Fixed issue where if player manually mined ore in Cidhna Mine, jail time would not be served
- Fixed rare issue with skills not increasing properly
- Fixed issue where the Headsman’s Axe did not gain proper buff from Barbarian perk
- In “A Night to Remember” it is no longer possible to kill Ysolda, Ennis or Senna before starting the quest
- Fixed issue with the ebony dagger having a weapon speed that was too slow
- Fixed issue with “The Wolf Queen Awakened” where backing out of a conversation with Styrr too soon would block progress
- The third level of the Limbsplitter perk now properly improves all battle axes
- Fixed a rare issue where Sanguine Rose would not work properly
- In “Tending the Flames” King Olaf’s Verse will no longer disappear from explosions
The update will be available online from now and will be coming to the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 consoles in download form in the next couple of weeks.
Apple’s new iPad lands in stores today, annoyingly entitled “The new iPad” instead of going with the assumed moniker of “iPad 3”. So, for the sake of being rebellious we are just going to refer to the “new iPad” as the iPad 3, ’cause we are dangerous like that.
The iPad 3 comes offering a next-generation gaming experience on a tablet, with its Quad-Core graphics chip and high resolution Retina Display, but the one question we have for Apple is this: Do you actually expect us to do serious gaming on this?
Now we at Gadget Helpline are all for a good round of Fruit Ninja, Angry Birds or the occasional toilet trip with Burn the Rope, but what we cannot fathom is treating the iPad as a games console and settling in for the long haul with an FPS or MMO game.
With Apple constantly telling us the iPad is a gaming device you would be forgiven for accepting this fact, but anyone who has tried to play modern console classics such as GTA III on the console will attest to this fact: Whilst it’s cool to have, it’s no fun to play on the iPad!
So as much as Apple will continue to tell us that the iPad 3 has processing power close to that of the Xbox 360 (Check out Infinity Blade II and Real Racing II HD, both of which offer near console-quality graphics from a tablet that’s less than 1cm thick), we will have just to accept that until a wireless controller is released, the iPad is still a mobile gaming device and not a console-rival.
Of course this is just our opinion and we welcome the opinions (not rage) of the iPad gaming fans out there in our comments below.
Until then, I have some green pigs to topple.
And Finally…
We like comics, we like games, we like TV and we love zombies, so we surely will love the Walking Dead RPG? Won’t we?
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