Nintendo Has A Surprise

Last week a company announced they was releasing an GameCube styled Classic Pro Controller for Smash Bro's Wii U. 

Whilst licensed the pad has to be connect to a Wiimote. Nintendo has decided that isn't good enough. Introducing the GameCube USB Adapter

Yes when we return to Smash Bro's on Wii U we'll be able to use the "perfect" controller. As you can see it accepts 4 pads for the classic local experience and connects via two USBs (assuming 1 is for power) I wonder if this will work with Mario Kart 8. I am fairly sure this makes the Wii U the most backward compatible system ever. 

Apparently we'll learn more at E3.

Abe's Take

This. Is. Awesome! Now I have two questions 1) where can I get that pad. And 2) dose these mean GameCube games are coming to VC? Considering the pad only has 3 sholder buttons I doubt it'll work on just any game.

Battlefield: Hard line leaked, announced and then trailered

Well that was a wild twelve hours for battlefield fans. First micro transaction catch up items appeared in BF 4 and then a whirlwind of rumour, leak and announcement for Battlefield: Hard line

Ever since Medal of Honour was shelved everyone wondered what would replace battlefield this November since Titanfall hit in March. It was thought that Battlefront would take it's slot but it turns out we're getting a Spin off but what is it? Future? Past? Turns put its Cops and robbers. Before you worry check out the gameplay vid




Yep Battlefield gets a full Police makeover. Gone are the military vehicles, uniforms and setting. In are civilian vehicles (super bike looks nice), fancy uniforms and general crime.

With a heavy focus on gadgets (which you are free to use anywhere), open environments and unique mission objectives it looks like the multiplayer will be farely unique. It's unknown if the "classic battlefield" modes return.

Drawing on cop shows the story mode has been separated into episodes and offers multiple ways of complete your objective. Which is something the BF3 and 4 stories desperately needed

Abe's Take
Between Titanfall, Far cry 3 and BF4's rocky launch. I like many others have grown tired of the modern military shooter. The Cops and Robbers theme has be somewhat underused. Payday and APB being the only ones that come to mind. For now I am on board for this

Minecraft Comes to Xbox One

Well it's been a while but we're finally getting concrete details about Minecraft Xbox One Edition.

Next-Gen Minecraft hits in August and will cost $19.99 (UK price will be same or less) however there will be an upgrade system. Owning the 360 Version (Digital and retail apparently) will let you upgrade for $4.99 which is good for long term fans. Worlds and most skin packs will transfer across to the new version. However worlds can not be transferred back. (I'm unsure if this only applies to new worlds or if the old worlds increase in size on the new version. The new worlds will probably be 25 times larger which should eliminate our only real complaint about the 360 version. No details have yet to appear about Minecraft PS4

Abe's Take
Finally

Even More Zelda: Hyrule Warriors Screens Featuring IMPA

Well looks like someone left a gate open because even more Zelda: Hyrule Warriors screens have appeared online. Showing a new player character and some pre hero stuff

Some new details have appeared. First the game will support co-op across TV and Gamepad, The game will feature multiple player characters and in true Zelda fashion multiple weapons can be found in chests and effect how the character plays. Bombs and magic wand have been confirmed so far.

Royal Guard Impa has been confirmed has the first not Link Player character, She weilds one hell of a katana. Her design is a nice blend of Classic Zelda and the Warriors series. (I wonder who put the Eye of Truth on her breast plate ... Team Ninja).

Impa's Close Up

That's one hell of a Katana

That's one hell of a DOWN & A

Looks like the sword is damn heavy

MUSOU!

MUSHOU!!

Pre Hero Link's Close Up

I wonder if this outfit will appear in Smash Bros

That'll... hurt

a nice look at one of his weapon sets

MUSOU! looks Link's will draw on all his history

Nice to see somethings never change

Triforce power?

Twilight portal?

I wonder who Team Ninja designed

Still unsure who this is

Is that a weapon.... or a HAND?

this chap looks VERY Zelda like

Gurdo Valley? 

Fairy Fountain?

Hyrule Castle

Desert Temple?

Hyrule Field 

Fresh Screens/Detials of Hyrule Warriors

Well looks like that trailer we saw for Hyrule Warriors wasn't some crazy fever dream as fresh screens and details have appeared in this months Famatzu magazine.

First up details. Hyrule Warriors is set to hit Japanese stores on August 17th, a western launch cant be that far behind. The story will revolve around Zelda being kidnapped (surprise!) by a Witch call "Shea" and Link's quest to rescue her.

A surprising detail is that Dynasty Warriors developers Omega Force are not developing this alone they are working with Team Ninja of Dead Or Alive fame. Whilst both studio's leaders Hisashi Koinuma and Yosuke Hayasahi are producing the game, Lead Zelda developer/director Eiji Aonuma is overseeing the games development .

Koei Tecmo is pretty happy with the game so far, They expect to "sell a million easily" and hope this will lure Zelda fans into trying more Warrior titles (making the recent announcement of Samurai Warriors 4 as Playstation Exclusive even odder)

 

It's nice to see Link's Hurricane Slash/ UP & B 

Link's design is a little different to his normal games

Here's link not wearing his normal outfit... Hylian Knight maybe?

That's... A lot of Boob for a Zelda Game

Not quite sure Who this is but i am sure he robbed a Monster Hunter
On the way to work

Abe's Take
I'm Quietly excited about this game, I accentually called this existing back in the Wii era. Although I am slightly worried about how quiet this game has been. That being said E3 is just around the courner and I'm Sure this will be there.

What We Want To See At E3

E3 is coming guys and it seems like it might be a doosey with publishers announcing titles (Farcry 4, Halo 5) before E3 just to free up space in their E3 presentations.

E3 is always big but this year it's a fight. Microsoft and Sony have to make good on all those promises about their next-gen hardware. Nintendo has to show their Wii U still has some punches left in it.

Capcom.

Abe - I want to see Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate come to Wii U. Considering the Wii U versions of 3U was deemed a "smash hit" by Capcom I'd like to see some Wii U Monster hunter action. If not MH$U then maybe Monster Hunter Frontier GG ?

Chris - DRAGONS DOGMA! Either a "Portable" game on 3DS or a Next-Gen sequel but Co-op needs to come to DD [Play as a Pawn in Co-op? a million times yes -Abe]

Ben - Dead Rising Online/ 4

Wild Card - A Capcom developed Zelda for 3DS, A new lost planet... a proper one!

Ubisoft

Abe - Man Ubisoft has been on fire over the last few years, I am interested in what Assassin's Creed game is coming to Old-Gen systems since Unity is New-Gen only. Speaking of AC, I hope we see something new from Unity. The Alpha footage looked very very very pretty but also looked VERY Assassins Creed 2. I am hoping to hear about Ubi's Wii U plans as they haven't mentioned any since delaying Watch_Dogs Wii U for the second time and announcing that only (the Excellent) Child Of Light and not Valiant Hearts was coming to Wii U.

Ben - Farcry 4!!! More Assassin's Creed in boats!

Chris - Co-Op!

Aaron - Farcry 4, Assassin's Creed "comet" and "unity"

Konami

METAL GEAR SOLID V!

2K Games

Saints Row Fun In GTA Online

Abe - GTA Online - Heists, map expansion (Liberty City and with a little work Red Dead Redemption game world would seem easy enough) and Next Gen port

Aaron - Borderlands: Pre-sequel! maybe a teaser for Borderlands 3?

Ben - Borderlands for Next-Gen

Activision 

Everyone - Will COD's core gameplay actually different in multiplayer?

Abe - Will Destiny end up looking like an MMO with hundreds of people standing around?

EA

Abe - With 6 unannounced titles on their way to E3, I hope they Battlefield alone to breath and give something else a spin. I wonder if the Rumours of New-Gen mass Effect Trilogy is true.

Ben - Battlefront 3 and any other Star Wars would be great.

Microsoft

Abe/Chris/Aaron/Joe/Ben - Halo 5, Halo: Collection, Halo TV, Halo Film!

Chris - Fable Legends... Surrender your secrets!

Abe - Sunset Overdrive , State of Decay's future, Titanfall content expansion

Wild Card - Backwards compatibility, preferably one where you don't have to pay to replay games you own would be a big win VS Sony.

Sony

Abe - How much is Playstation Now gonna cost?, How much is Project Morpheus? and just how badly is The Order being miss represented?

Nintendo

Abe - Looking forward to their New IP and Gamepad games. Also very interested in their NFC Figure games. Also the mysterious Project X

Joe - Smash Bros, New 3DS games and more Fire Emblem

Chris - Hyrule Warriors! Zelda U! Majora's Mask?

Wild Card - Platinum games making Star Fox, New Metroid, Retro making an New IP and what 3rd parties are going to licence Nintendo characters... Pokemon X Monster Hunter Anyone?

Others

Ben - Fallout or Elder Scrolls please!

Abe - Tomb Raider 2 (provided it keeps focused), Batman Arkham Knight and and FPS with a tight Focused story with out the bombastic globe trotting.

Anita - Limbo 2, Miencraft X1/ 3DS
 

Halo 5: Guardians Annouced, Halo: Master Chief "Leaked"

Well looks like publishers cant wait till E3 as games are being announced left, right and centre. One unsurprising game that got a surprising early announce was the next chapter in the Halo series.

Yep Halo 5 the next chapter in Microsoft's flagship exclusive has been announced BEFORE E3. We don't know too much about the title other than its running on an entirely new engine that will "power Halo on Xbox One" (meaning future games will run on the same engine). They're aiming for 60 FPS, Dedicated servers and all that sort of goodness. 343 Studios is also saying that the new Spartan is an "new character" theories run from  Cortana, A human from the time of the forerunners to a custom player like halo: Reach. i'm sure we'll find out more at E3 and other events leading up to it's Fall 2015 release date

The other big Halo news was the apparent leaking of Halo: Master Chief. People have been expecting a Halo 2 remake after Microsfot refused to say Halo 5 will hit this year, but apparently we was short sighted. several sources are saying Halo 1, 2, 3 and 4 are all getting remastered for Xbox One as a collection. Details just aren't there right now but looking at Halo: Anniversary (pictured above) we can make some guess' about the collection.

• New Graphics, Classic Gameplay - Though the graphics will receive and make over the gameplay will be the same as the original releases.
• Extra Features - H:A recieved Kinect support and an collectable database.
• Classic Campaign, Modern Multiplayer - Given that this collection features 4 games it would be difficult to give each game it's own multiplayer. It's likely that like H:A each game will have a selection of maps ported to the halo 4 multiplayer mode... unless the collection uses a beta version of halo 5's engine (343 did say they was developing the multiplayer first)  

Abe's Take

Halo 5 is expected and i wonder what new direction the series will go, i enjoyed Halo 4 alot and cant wait to see 5.

The collection is much more interesting than just Halo 2 remastered. I felt that Halo's first New-Gen title shouldn't be just H2 tarted up. I was hopping for another ODSt style spin off but i imagine that'll be after 5

June's FIVE Games With Gold

Good news Everybody! Have you been enjoying your Bi-Monthly (that's twice a month not random sexy time) free games for the last year but sadly there isn't 2 free games next month... THERE'S FIVE!

Yes 5 games are coming in June. 2 are the regular 15 day affair, 1 is a bonus birthday game and 2 are Xbox One games. Yes it has finally happened monthly free games for the New-Gen Xbox though there is a catch. The X1 games are only yours whilst you have Gold. So No Gold, No Play. We're unsure how this affects family members on the same Xbox as the One only needs 1 gold account to enable all to play online. Will family members need a gold account to play these games as they wasn't "bought like the 360 version? Dont Worry 360 owners this hasn't changed on the old-gen machine.

June's Games are 1st Dark Souls (360) & Max & The Curse Of Brotherhood (One). Then from the 16th it's Charlie Murder (360) & Halo Spartan Assault (One) and available all month long Super Street Fighter 4: Arcade Edition (360), Which happens to be a good deal as the upcoming Ultra Street Fighter 4 can be bought cheaper and earlier as DLC for SSFIV:AE

Abe's Take
Whilst its good to finally see Games With Gold finally arrive on Xbox One I am a little disheartened about the PSN+ subscription lock out whilst maintaining the limited "buying" window. I suspect this was done in an attempt to preserve the featured games sale value. Something that has caused issues on Steam and PSN+

I can't help but be annoyed that Dark Souls is a free game, not because of the game itself but I recently bought it during the "Spring Sale" - I'd like in future that Games With Gold either locks out a game for several months after a sale or put GWG games on sale AFTER so people who missed the title has a chance.

Xbox One Now Kinect Less OPINION: Fail

Well it took a year. One year, 52 weeks, 365 days and that's as far as I'm prepared to go on that. 
WARNING: This Article is basicly a giant "Abe's Take" 

UPDATE: Xbox One Owners wanting a little more than a "promise" are banding together on the official forums in attempt to get microsoft to address the situation. Some hoping for a compensation others hoping they reverse the choice  

As of June you will be able to buy an Xbox One at a minor discount without the Kinect which will make some people happy and may even stimulate sales.

Not me though...

E3 2013 - E3 2014 that's how long it took for every major detail about the Xbox One to do a U-turn and the console no longer resembles it's self. Many a "fan" has been calling for this from day one and Microsoft out right denied it would ever happen, phrases like "the Kinect IS the Xbox One as much as the controller is" and "Kinect is next gen" Surrounded the system at it's announcement event, E3 and even it's launch party but apparently Microsoft just had to to that last U turn. Apparently made in the name of "choice" but giving the gamer the choice whether to buy a Kinect or not maybe the devices downfall.

The previous Kinect wasn't quite what was promised when it first appeared as project natal but if you speak to developers their concerns wasn't things like lag, play space or image quality, It was install base. They just didn't know if their game would reach a kinect user or not. The decision bundle it's new version with every unit stuck accord with developers and every lunch title fore the X1 used it in some way. Battlefield 4 let you lean around corners (as would Thief months later), Dead Rising 3 had you commanding allies and luring zombies with out having to navigate though a tiered menu and shaking zombies off using the controller instead of a rapid press QTE. Even the UI and functions of the X1 are tailored to the Kinect there is no RECORD THAT button and it's far easier and quicker to navigate the menu's and invite friends using the Kinect. They'll have to add buttons for the Kinect functions cluttering up the UI further.

A Kinect less X1 should of appeared further down the line in the form of the oft rumoured "lite" version that would been with out a blu-ray drive and delivered at a low cost.

Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire Revealed

Well looks like Pokemon fans on website and forums and keep quiet as Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire are getting a make over. Yes we're a tat late but we also bring NEW news

Fans have been begging for a return to the Hoenn region pretty much after Heart Gold/ Soul Silver was announced and whilst they get their wish, everything will not be the same as it once was. The announcement trailer for Omega Ruby and Omega Sapphire used words like "new adventure" and "dynamic world" leading some people to believe these will be pseudo-sequels.

Whilst we don't know much a new teaser popped up online showing some alpha gameplay footage



Yep it appears instead of just porting the GBA data across and fancying it up a lot Nintendo and Gamefreak have decided to remake Ruby and Sapphire in the 3d engine used in X and Y. This might seem a surprise but you have to remember that the Ruby/Sapphire 'Mons are in X and Y's coding as its possible to (painfully) transfer (see below) pokemon from the original GBA games to the 3DS games.

"Fans" are now crying out for an Emerald remake but that seems unlikley as there was no "Electric Yellow" or "Mind Crystal"  in previous generations as most of these games extra features usually end up as part of the next generation's core game. We also haven't seen "Pokemon Z" (rumoured to be a DLC expansion to X/Y) yet.

Abe's Take
Seeing as transferring Pokemon from Ruby Sapphire means sending a mon from the GBA games to the first two DS games (Pearl/Diamond or Heart Gold/Soul Silver) to the second set of DS games (Black/White 1/2) and then into Pokemon bank I think this will sell well enough... Which reminds me i best go buy Heart Gold some-point before November.

Also i saw a comment about these games announcement that i'd like to share "Pokemon Ruby and Fire Red are part of my childhood" anyone else feel old now...?

Call Of Duty: Advanced Warfare Leaks

Call of Duty the big annual yearly released. "hated" by gamers, loved by gamers. This years entry looks like it's going to switch some of those around.

First let's look at the trailer WARNING contains Kevin Spacey

It's nice to know Sledge Hammer games have been watching recent SciFi action movies recently. Exosuits, stocky gloves, hoverbikes and Titanfall's jump boosters (and jump kicks it seem). All (seemingly) shaking up the core COD experience

I'm sure we'll learn more during CoD's official revel on the 3rd May IF they are still going ahead after the leak.

Abe's Take

My personal (and others) complaints with COD has been the familiarity of each entry. The tone, the engine and even the settings have been the same. The Treyarch games attempted to break this up with "period" games with WW2, Cold War and the future. Whilst effective to a degree the core gameplay and flow has been the same.

IF Advanced Warfare brings it's all of single player tech over to Multiplayer and has some interesting level designs this could lure disheartened CoD players