Watch_Dogs Wii U Dated

News that we surely brighten our newest member and a selection on Wii U owners. The twice delayed Wii U version has finally be given a release date.

Early thie morning Ubisoft Mexico annouced the game would be hitting Latin American shelves in November, Now Ubisoft have officaly given the EU release date of November 16th, which just happens to be the same time as both Assassins Creed: Rouge, and Unity. With both AC games missing the Wii U this was the date was expected, and as it stands this will be Ubisoft's last "mature" title for the system.

No other details was given about the Wii U version, it's unknown if it'll appear as a bundle with all the DLC or if it will get any DLC at all. All we know abouyt this version is the gamepad will feature a "interactive map" which seeing as the Wii U 6 month delay was to "enhance the game for the gamepad" seems a little... light.



Abe's Take
I predicted this would arrive alongside the Assassins Creeds which makes sense to Ubisoft but mid November is rather full for Wii U (and gaming in general). It's up against several big sellers for Nintendo's system including Sonic, Skylanders, and Lego Batman 3, but also is the expected release date for Smash Bro's for Wii U. If the game doesn't come with at least all the story DLC then Ubi has clearly sent it out to die so they can point to it and go "see that's why X game isn't coming to Wii U"

Humble Store Sale & FREE GAME

We are big fans of the Humble Bundle here, We great great games at great prices and charity gets an awful lot of money. When they announced their Humble Store it was a great way for PC gamers to get the games they wanted, at a discount and support charities all at the same time.

And so now begins "Humble Stores' End of Summer Sale" where many titles are 40% or more off. That's not all as there are also "dollar deals", Flash Sales and a free game every Monday. Because this is a US site it means that its Tuesday here but still Monday there for the next 8 hours. So get over there and grab today's free game. Warlock: Master of the Arcane an 4X (Civ) fantasy game.

So that's a free game every Monday, Daily deals, And saving across the board. So head on over to the Humble Store. Grab the free game and have a look at their stock. Also check out their Humble Bundles.  They have an Indie and Star Trek comic flavours

Miiverse Artist's Epic Williams Tribute

It's been nearly a month since the legendary Robin Williams died and the world continues to morn his loss even as other legends join him; Richard Attenborough and (most recently) Joan Colins. Williams loss has hit gamers that hardest, Most gamers grew up with his films but he was also one of us. Williams was a big World of Warcraft fan and they will be bringing in an genie tribute to him in their next expansion. But his very favourite was The Legend of Zelda so much so he name his daughter after the princess, Nintendo is looking at doing their own tribute but Gamers have yet to make theirs. 

The above image was drawn by Miiverse Artist "Craig" using the Art Academy Sketch Pad app, It took him 13 days to complete this rather magnificent piece of true art. This labour of love is so detailed it's hard to believe it was done on the gamepad alone. Craig also added the legendary Hook quote "to live... to live will be an awfully big adventure." Since his death there has been thousands of tributes and many of the clever or simply charming and is a testament to the man of joy.

Abe's Take
We didn't report on William's death because I simply couldn't bring myself to do so, This man was a corner stone of my childhood along with the medium we all shared with the man. I know this loss was felt by many. In my house hold we celebrated his life's work and watched our favourite Robin William's films and we felt the joy the man gave us again. I had originally planned on ending this with the "genie you're free" scene from Aladdin but he wouldn't want the joy to end so instead I though this would be more fitting.

Amiibo Explodes Onto Amazon UK

We finally have UK pricing for the Amiibo range as well as which figures are included in Smash Bro's Series 1. What we wasn't expecting is how well they are all ready doing on Amazon UK.

UPDATE: Getting reports the Amazon Canada have had a similar invasion.

UPDATE 2: Seems to be everywhere Amazon EU and US also reflect this.

It's only been 1 day and all ready the Amiibo's have exploded on Amazon UK's best-sellers chart. The sample here was taken from their movers and shakers list which shows what products have moved in the chart over the last week. This the top 9 from the all formats movers and shakers. Link is currently doing the best having reached the ranking of 32, followed by Samus at 51 and Mario at 57.

Which is rather impressive seeing as they are (currently) Wii U exclusive and only (currently) work on Super Smash Bro's, and again this is the all formats Hardware/Software/Accessories chart, Who knows what's going to happen as we run up to Christmas and the games rumoured November release .

Now on to the details. Each figure has been given a RRP of £10.99 which is cheaper than we was expecting (the American price is $12.99 and usually they just stitch the $ for £) and cheaper than Skylanders Swapforce figures at £15.
The Series 1 characters are Mario, Link, Peach, Samus, Fox, Pikachu, Kirby, Yoshi, DK, Marth, Wii Fit Trainer and Villager. There are all ready shortages appearing for some characters like Marth as they apparently come in smaller amounts. The 2nd series is expect (though unconfirmed) to land in December.

So it would probably best pre order here, to secure your favourite.

Abe's Take
I am presently surprised by the price as i was expecting them to end up rivalling Disney Infinity's £15 pound price tag. I am slightly upset about the staggered launch but this dose allow me to buy my favourites in each group instead of having to make difficult choices right away... "for my daughter"

Here Comes A New Challenger... Well A Team Member

As we hurtle towards Christmas and the impending tidal wave of Autumn/Winter releases. Things tend to shift from news, as everyone gets dives deep into their new games and various winter festivals, and towards reviews and features.

Today we are pleased to announce J. Maxey will be joining our little team and will produce various reviews and features. The first of his "Hourglass" reviews is live now viewable HERE and over at our reviews page. These reviews will look at some gems, classics and failures from gaming history. Warning; lets just say a little... "honest" and some games may not survive the process.


Maxey: Thank you for welcoming me to the blog I feel very humble to be accepted as a part of its staff. I would like to thank Abe and Tanasha for trusting me with an inch of space along with my shibunken goldfish, and stresssball zebra for allowing me the patients necessary to review.

On the move towards halloween, I will be running over a selection of new and older games holding a spooky or darker aestethic under the title "hourglass" these reviews may vary in quality as undeniably will the games themselves...additional notes thrown in here and there to prevent the average Divekick champion in the back falling asleep.

Abe's Take
It's great to get fresh blood on the team and I am sure Maxey has a lot of retro reviews and look backs planned. This should help us fill up the reviews page

Minecraft X1 Release Date Confirmed

Boy it has been a hell of a wait, after being announced at last years E3 most assumed we'll have Minecraft on Xbox One by Christmas... we did not. IT's been over a year but we finally have a release for the crafting phenomenon on Microsoft most recent shiny box.

Friday, Yes THIS Friday. That's the 5th September and we as such we now have extra information. First up is the price £15.99 for new players but if you own (or have played the original version whilst connected to Xbox Live) you can upgrade to the Next Gen version for a teeny tiny £3.99, which is rather a good deal (which only applies to the first year of the new games release.). Further good news for repeated customers ALL DLC packs will transfer from 360 to X1 so feel free to buy that Dr Who skin pack or that Skyrim mash-up pack you've been hesitantly hovering over. Retail version will hit around Christmas

The game worlds will be 36 times larger which is great for people like us who enjoyed the PC version but played console version in splitscreen with friends and family, but felt trapped be the small worlds. Existing players will be able to load up the 360 version and upload their worlds to the cloud and then upgrade them for X1 for free. so you'll have a base of operations set up. Custom servers and expanded multiplayer are coming post launch along side the regular updates the game receives.

Abe's Take
Fun Fact: This game has been so anticipated here in the GKUK towers the X1 has been welded to the main TV (and not the gaming ones) since launch because of my partners desire to play this.

Zombie NEWS!

Now (sadly?) this isn't news of actual, factual zombies attacking the popular people from secondary (high) school or a virus spreading though the world. This is three news stories that skipped us by.

State of Decay coming to X1.
The title says it all really. The wildly successful (2nd best seeling game on Xbox live) and freshest zombie game (no DEAD in the title for a start) will be coming to the Xbox One
The upgraded port will feature both DLCs but with features and characters transferring back from Lifeline (DLC 2) to Breakdown (DLC1) and then to the core game. The team also plan on adding fresh content to the game, though the team was eager to point out this will be more missions and characters for the "system" (SoD's random world events), and not full DLC type things. The team all ready has the 360 version running on the X1 but aren't happy with just porting it and as such are reworking the art assets and animations to bring it more in line with Next Gen gaming (again devs are eager to point out it wont be a true next gen game). Here is a wildly loose trailer for it.



Resident Evil REmake RErelease gets trailer.
The 1080p HD upgrade to the Gamecube remake (known to fans a REmake) is set for early 2015 and looks... well a lot like the game GC game. They have done work to the character textures, brought in a new lighting engine and seemed to of hired cleaners to give the mansion a good polish. Gameplay will be unchanged from the GC version too, however there will be a "modern" control method. Fans of Resident Evil Revelations (news for you shortly) don't get excited as this control method is only the movement being in relation to the character not the screen. Check out the trailer and a comparison screen shot below

Resident Evil Revelations 2 formally announced.
The wildly successful 3DS (and mildly successful HD port) game that merged classic Resident Evil pacing and setting, with gameplay from the recent titles rather well. The game was leaked via 360 box are a few weeks ago but with no details. Now we have an announce trailer, vague details (Chris and Jill will not return) and platform details its coming to PC, 360/X1 and PS3/4.  Yes for some reason this is skipping 3DS and Wii U despite sales of the 3DS original out sold the others combined and the Wii U version did "well".



Abe's Take
I have a whole range of feelings on these. State of Decay was a gem. Zombies being more an environmental threat and survival being the main goal, made the game feel exceptionally fresh. Permadeath made exploration an risk but ever dwindling supplies made it necessary.

The RErelease on the other hand doesn't look good enough for a game that's jumped from the GC era to now. The extra polish highlights how rough the game's classic animations are. It will be interesting to see what reviews make of its combat as modern survival horror games (ZombiU, Dead Space and Silent Hill) are punished for "unreliable" combat. Personally i think combat should be unreliable in a horror games as it strips us of our years of skill and makes us vulnerable again.

As for RE:R2 I was excited when it sounded like we was getting a sequel made by the same guys but now, now I am saddened that I wont be able to play it on the two systems I own the original on. Though there are rumours that it will in fact appear on the NEW 3DS.