(Special Article)

It's been about 6 months since I put up the The Remix Collection: Volume 2 for download, and since then about 30 of you have downloaded it and the first volume. ...yeah, okay, so it's not much, but it's a good amount for my standards. Either way, the third volume of the RXC is now available for download! Check my downloads page for the link and share it around with your friends!

This time around, this album features Persona, Sonic the Hedgehog, Pokémon, Rayman, Super Mario Bros., Portal, Kirby, and Mega Man, and, for the first time, Fire Emblem, Animal Crossing, and Metroid enter the lineup. Enjoy!

(As always, the songs in the RXC are not made by me unless otherwise stated in the song description. The Remix Collection is simply a gathering of various remixes, medleys, and mashups across YouTube and Newgrounds. Every artist is given credit for their work; please go to their channel or page to congratulate them on their work if you like what you hear.)

(News)

UPDATE: The official page regarding the changes to the policy is now live here. It flat-out describes removal of DRM and used game policies. The below bullet points in the original story are still relevant, however.

While still in somewhat of a vague manner, Microsoft has announced through Xbox Wire that the DRM policies that plagued the Xbox One will no longer be present and reselling games will now be available to consumers instead of having the ridiculous restrictions previously in place.

The announcement is here.

The main points to take from the announcement are the following, pulled straight from the above site. Important points are italicized and/or bolded.

"Q:    Does Xbox One require an “always on” Internet connection?
A:    No, it does not have to be always connected, but Xbox One does require a connection to the Internet. We’re designing Xbox One to be your all-in-one entertainment system that is connected to the cloud and always ready. We are also designing it so you can play games and watch Blu-ray movies and live TV if you lose your connection."

This means the removal of the 24-hour online check.

"Q:    Can I use my current gamertag on Xbox One and will my Gamerscore and Achievements transfer?
A:    Yes. Your current Xbox Live Gamertag will stay with you on Xbox One if you choose to keep it, and your hard-earned Gamerscore and Achievements will indeed carry over from Xbox 360."

Gamerscore and achivements are now transferrable to the Xbox One from your Xbox 360.

"Q:    Will Xbox One allow players to trade in, purchase and play pre-owned games? 
A:    We are designing Xbox One to enable customers to trade in and resell games. We’ll have more details to share later."

That last one is the kicker. You will not be restricted in terms of reselling your games or playing pre-owned games; whether this affects the forced download of your retail games remains to be seen.

However, the website also mentions that a Gold membership is still required for online play, and you are still forced to have the Kinect permanently plugged into the console.

(News)

An update to the PS3 firmware is now available, which is meant to add the feature to disable trophy-get notifications. However, users are experiencing bricking issues after updating, so it would be wise to not update your PlayStation 3 console until a fix is launched.

(News)

Through Miiverse, the director of New Super Mario Bros. U has announced that an update is now available that allows players to play the game using the Wii U Pro Controller. This is meant to coincide with the release of New Super Luigi U, which is launching June 20th.

(News)

For those planning on buying the first DLC for New Super Mario Bros. U, called New Super Luigi U (which is essentially a massive challenge mode with Luigi as the main character), at launch, Club Nintendo is giving out the chance to win a special Luigi pin if you complete the registration survey for the content by August 1st. The form for the giveaway will pop up after finishing the survey. Filling it out before this deadline will also land you 40 reward coins instead of 20. New Super Luigi U will launch on Wii U on June 20th for $19.99, and a special retail version of the content will be available for $29.99 on August 25th. Keep in mind that NSMBU is required to play the DLC.

Click here for the official information page on Club Nintendo.

(Recommendation of the Week)

The fourth installment of the Animal Crossing series is now out, and has been since this Sunday. It's already blown up in sales, setting a new 3DS eShop record and a new record for the series as a whole, selling over 200,000 copies in the first week alone. It's been out in Japan for about a year now and is still selling strong. A lot of the custom creations and creative possibilites shown from Japanese players, the ability to buy it digitally, and the option to customize your playstyle with the use of ordinances got me interested in picking the Animal Crossing series back up after originally being disappointed with City Folk. I'm a week in and things are really starting to pick up and I'm quite happy with my purchase thus far.

By original problem with Animal Crossing on the GameCube and City Folk on the Wii was that I had to swap out the discs to play a game that was intended to be played every day (or at least frequently), and so far, having New Leaf digitally makes a world of a difference. I can play New Leaf from 10 to 2 and immediately switch to Super Mario 3D Land or Fire Emblem: Awakening until 7 when the expensive bugs come out and I can then switch straight back to New Leaf, all without ever changing the game cart. It makes the game much more accessable in the way of playability. From the gameplay standpoint, it's holding up more than previous Animal Crossing games so far in that it's way easier to save up and collect Bells (the in-game currency), in turn making it easier to get your hands on furniture or expand your house. The only downside is that it takes a few days for everything to become available, but once everything is open and ready to go, managing your town as its new mayor is a lot of fun. Speaking of mayoral duties, you can further customize your town by setting up public works projects, allowing you to add things like new bridges or park benches to your town, making you feel more in control of the game instead of having to abide by strict rules set in place in previous games. The best part of New Leaf is easily the multiplayer and social media functions; using a Wi-Fi connection, you can upload screenshots (taken by pressing L and R simutaneously) to Twitter or Tumblr by opening the 3DS internet browser (which doesn't require you to close your game) and visiting i.nintendo.net. If you prefer your friends to see your creations and your town in person, however, you can easily allow them access into your town through the internet. The visits are all in real-time; you can communicate with your visitors with an in-game chat and, if it so pleases you, chase after them with your axe. There aren't seperate friend codes, either; for a friend to visit, they just have to have swapped friend codes. This simple approach to multiplayer and the fact that more and more people are buying this game every day allows for you to get in touch with your friends and have fun with them in a whole new way.

Experience the game that's bringing people together this summer by picking up Animal Crossing: New Leaf for the Nintendo 3DS, either at retail locations or on the 3DS eShop for $35, or by getting the limited-edition 3DS XL bundle for $220 that comes with a white Animal Crossing-themed 3DS XL and a copy of ACNL pre-downloaded to the SD card.

(News)

After the E3 Direct, Nintendo has pushed out loads of trailers for us to watch, giving more info for various games. A Link to the Past 2 is being given the official title of The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Two Worlds, and the 3DS Yoshi's Island sequel will be called Yoshi's New Island.

(News)

First footage of the new Fairy-type in Pokémon X and Y was shown in a new trailer. October 12, 2013 is the release date for Pokémon X and Y.

The Wii U 3D Mario game was shown for the first time: Super Mario 3D World. It teased 4-player co-op and the return of Princess Peach as a playable character, as well as a new power-up: a Cat Suit. The suit allows Mario to climb up walls and dash to the ground. Super Mario 3D World launches in September.

A gameplay trailer for Mario Kart for the Wii U was shown, showcasing the new characters and tracks. Anti-gravity loops were shown to be in the game, making similarities with Crash Nitro Kart, as well as underwater and flying sections, a returning feature from Mario Kart 7. Motorcycles will be returning from Mario Kart Wii. It was titled Mario Kart 8. Better multiplayer features were announced. It will launch Spring 2014.

Wii Party U was announced. It will feature new board games and new minigames that take advantage of the GamePad. "Tabletop Minigames" will use just the GamePad. Over 80 minigames will be in the game. Wii Party U will release in October and Wii Fit U will come out in the Winter.

A new Art Academy game will be launching for the Wii U. It will have Miiverse connectivity and is aimed towards the artists on Miiverse. It'll be in the eShop this summer.

A third-party reel was shown, showcasing footage of AC4, Batman Arkham Origins and Origins Blackgate, Disney Infinity, Just Dance 2014, Rayman Legends, Scribblenauts Unmasked, Disney's Planes, Shin Megami Tensei IV, Skylanders SWAP Force, Splinter Cell Blacklist, Sonic Lost World, and Watch_Dogs. Various eShop-exclusive titles were shown, varying from a coaster creator to platformers like DuckTales Remastered, Shovel Knight, and Mutant Mudds Deluxe.

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD footage was shown for the first time, showing off the new lighting and shading. The Wind Waker will be assigned to the D-pad permenantly, as will the ship's grappling hook and cannon. A "Fast Button" will be added while sailing. The Tingle Tuner is now the Tingle Bottle, which allows you to connect to Miiverse instead of the GBA. It will be released in October.

Footage of Wonderful 101 was shown, describing the abilites of the heroes and how to use them. A cooperative 5-player mode was talked about as well. It'll launch in August.

Donkey Kong Country Returns 2 was announced, showing some levels and swimming. The enemies will be a horde of vikings who are attacking Donkey Kong Island. The game will be in full HD to take full advantage of the Wii U's technology. Dixie Dong will be returning as a playable character. It's official title is Donkey Kong: Tropical Freeze, and will launch this year.

Bayonetta 2 was given a cinematic trailer, showing off Bayonetta's new look. Gameplay was then shown. A release date for 2014 was given.

A new trailer for Project X was shown, showing off some gameplay and the visuals, which look great. It is apparently and open-world game. It was given a 2014 launch window.

The last game shown was Super Smash Bros. 4, showing the difference in art styles for the 3DS and Wii U versions, as well as stages and characters. Final Smashes will be returning and the Animal Crossing villager will be a playable character. Mega Man will be a new character as well. 2014 is the release window.

CLOSING COMMENTS: These trailers all look absolutely amazing. I'm excited for every single game here, and Smash Bros. looks fantastic. The announcement of the new characters was definitely a big surprise. I can't wait to get a Wii U now.

(News)

Sony announced that Final Fantasy X and X2 will be coming to PlayStation Vita, along with remakes of God of War 1 and 2. A new Vita bundle with the first five episodes of The Walking Dead was announced as well. A new episode of The Walking Dead will launch in the Summer.

New footage of The Last of Us was shown. Gameplay for Puppeteer was shown off as well, immediately followed by gameplay of Rain. A game called Beyond: Two Souls got a new story trailer. Gran Turismo 6 was teased with a cinematic trailer. All of these games are PS3 exclusives.

The first cinematic trailer for Batman Arkham Origins was shown. In it were small snippets of gameplay. It looks relatively unchaged from previous Arkham games, save for new features and such. PlayStation owners will get exclusive skins for Batman, such as 1960's Batman and Knightfall.

A special PS3 Grand Theft Auto V bundle, which includes a special GTAV headset, will launch in early September for $299.

The PlayStation 4 model was shown for the first time. It looks similar to a slanted PlayStation 2. A stand will be included to allow it to stand vetically, but it can lay horizontally as well, akin to the Wii U. It was teased that the PS4 intends to do similar functions to the Xbox One, but with a stronger pull towards the games aspect of the system. Video Unlimited works like Netflix and will be available on day one, as will Music Unlimited. The music playing through this service can stream to phones. Redbox has some sort of deal with Sony as well.

A brand-new Sony IP was shown off with a cinematic trailer called The Order. It showed off a steampunk rendition of London. Playthroughs of the game's demo (supposedly) will be uploaded to Sony's Facebook and YouTube accounts.

New small trailers were shown for the set of games that were announced during the PS4 reveal conference, such as inFAMOUS: Second Son and Killzone: Shadow Fall. Footage for Knack was shown off as well. Killzone: Shadow Fall, Drive Club, Knack, and Second Son will launch during the PS4 launch window.

A new game called The Dark Sorcerer was announced with a cinematic trailer. Seems like this is what that weird face render thing in the PS4 conference was for. The trailer quickly turned around to comedy, so perhaps the game will take this tone as well.

The creators of Bastion are bringing a very artsy game called Transistor to PS4 as a console exclusive. The trailer made it seem like it's exploration-based. It will launch next year.

The host boasted about their take on Indie games, and then showed footage of Don't Starve on PS4. Mercenary Kings seems like a spiritual successor to Scott Pilgrim. A game called Octodad will launch onto PS4 as well. A remake of Oddworld was announced to be coming to the PS4. During the Stream, Sony Europe confirmed that Indies can indepentantly develop for the console, something that both Sony and Nintendo now allow, but Microsoft does not.

Diablo III on PS3 and PS4 will have exclusive Sony-referencing items.

A new Japanese trailer for Final Fantasy Versus XIII was shown, finally giving some look into the game that fans have been clamoring for. Gameplay was shown off, showing combat and methods of exploration. The American release will be rebranded as Final Fantasy XV. Kingdom Hearts 3 was also announced with a small teaser trailer. Both games will be exclusive to PlayStation 4.

They chose to follow up those juggernaut announcements with Assassin's Creed IV gameplay. Fast assassinations were shown off, as well as environmental travel. The lush environments look much nicer and more engaging than those of Assassin's Creed III. Dual-wielding pistols and rapid-fire was shown off. The demo was cut short by technical difficulties. Because of this, they moved on to more information about Watch_Dogs, this time with an actual demo. The graphics look very crisp and the sound direction catches my attention, as does the lighting engine. An additional hour of gameplay and a new outfit for the main character will be exclusive to the PS4, but Watch_Dogs itself is a multiplatform title, as is AC4.

NBA 2K14 and Elder Scrolls Online were both shown, the former with a sort of tech demo trailer and the second with a cinematic video. ESO will come to PS4 in Spring of 2014.

A cinematic trailer for a new game called Mad Max was shown.

Over 140 games are in production, most of them exclusive. Sony straight-up announces full support for used games and no games will require online checks of any kind, delivering a swift kick to the groin to Microsoft. The PlayStation Plus status will be carried over onto the PS4. A free PS4 game will be given out every month, the first of which being Drive Club PS Plus edition.

Supposedly, PS Plus will be required to play online; however, it is under $5 for a subscription and gives access to plenty of used games, already making it a better deal than Xbox LIVE Gold. The PlayStation Cloud Service will allow players to stream their PS3 games to their PS4, PS4 to Vita and back, and Vita to stream PS3 games.

To finish off this insane success, Sony showed the first clips of Destiny gameplay, and it looks beautiful. It showcased weapon mods, co-op, and its wonderful graphics. Destiny will launch in 2014.

The kicker: THE PLAYSTATION 4 WILL BE $400 AND WILL BE OUT THIS HOLIDAY SEASON.

CLOSING COMMENTS: Sony had an absolutely outstanding conference. The games teased look great and they had plenty of gameplay as opposed to cinematic trailers. Square Enix dropped the bombs of Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts, and the Assassin's Creed IV and Watch_Dogs gameplay looked great. I'm very excited for my switch to PS4; these games and the graphics look downright gorgeous and the Microsoft-killing announcements make me happier than ever. And the price point...WOW.

(News)

The first game shown was a sequel to the guitar game Rocksmith, dubbed Rocksmith 2014, lead by lead guitarist of Alice in Chains. It includes a new mode called Session Mode that allows you to choose the other instruments that play with you. They react to how you play to make a smooth-sounding song. Rocksmith 2014 is coming out October of 2013. ...wait, then why is it called Rocksmith 2014?

Splinter Cell: Blacklist is coming out August 20th, 2013, with the return of the Spies VS Mercs multiplayer mode. A trailer was shown for the game, giving some story details.

While Rayman Legends was supposed to be released earlier this year, Ubisoft has taken the time to show more footage for the delayed game in the form of a CG trailer and a gameplay trailer. It was given a September 3rd release date and will launch on PS3, Xbox 360, Wii U, and PS Vita.

The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot is a game in which you collect as much treasure as possible while protecting your treasure and pillaging other people to get their treasure, with the ultimate goal of getting the biggest pile of loot. The closed beta is apparently now open for registration.

South Park: The Stick of Truth was given more footage...not of its gameplay, but of its cutscenes. South Park: The Stick of Truth will launch on PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.

A new driving game called The Crew was announced along with a cinematic trailer and gameplay. As evidenced by the trailer, it's a driving MMO of sorts in that you can befriend other people and build crews with them. You'll be able to customize cars down to the performance parts in your quest to take down rival crews across numerous cities. You can create cars on tablets and smartphones and transfer them into your game. It will launch early 2014 on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.

Watch_Dogs was brought up along with new information and a cinematic trailer, making the game look even more desirable than it already did. You'll be able to hack everything from city power lines to fire alarm sprinklers to distract your enemies.

Just Dance 2014 was announced, scheduled to launch this year in October. ...seriously, what's up with Ubisoft's naming strategy here? 6-player dances were announced and it will launch on "all consoles". New game modes were shown in the trailer that let you phase between songs and shape songs with you dancing.

Splinter Cell and Assassin's Creed movies were mentioned and a partnership with Microsoft and Nickelodeon was announced. A new "TV show" called Rabbids Invasion will be an Xbox One-exclusive interactive episodic game.

A new trailer was shown for Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, depicting the new Assassin, Edward Kenway. Some gameplay was shown, showing tropical environments and various locales.

Two new Trials games were teased. Trials Fusion will launch on PS4, Xbox One, and PC, and Trials Frontier will come out on mobile devices.

A new game called The Division depicts a post-apocolyptic world and features tablet integration. It's a cover-based third-person open world shooter with RPG elements. Plot twist: it's part of the Tom Clancy series. It will launch on the PS4 and Xbox One.

CLOSING COMMENTS: Definitely interested in Watch_Dogs, a little bit more interested in AC4, but other than that, everything seems kinda normal. Nothing really groundbreaking or shocking that caught my attention. Some trailers dragged on and the host had some really awkward and failed jokes. Could've used something really big.