This morning Apple announced the next batch of new iPhones, the new iPhone 5s and 5c. The 5c is a new version of the iPhone 5 that has better battery life, a new plastic outer body and comes in a range of different colours. Nothing too exciting here but the iPhone 5c makes for an excellent entry level smart phone with pricing on 2 year contracts starting at $99.
The real exciting news from the event though was the announcement of the iPhone 5c. New features begin with a new A7 processor, M7 motion coprocessor, a fingerprint identity sensor called Touch ID, new iSight 8MP camera with a larger sensor for improved photo quality, new HD face time camera, better battery and pre-loaded with iOS 7. Unfortunately though the 5s shares the same form factor and screen size as its predecessor. I was really looking forward to an iPhone 6 with a new design and larger screen. That said though if your in the market for a new iPhone the 5s looks to be a pretty impressive device.
Both the iPhone 5c and 5s will be available on September 20th, for existing iPhone 5 and 4s owners iOS 7 will be available September 18th.
Clickl the links these links for more information on the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5C, what did you think about todays announcements?
So I happened to be walking through my local London Drugs (sorry guys Canada only) and saw something that wasn’t quite right. Sitting there on the shelf was a copy of Killzone Mercenary for sale a whole 4 days before release. Obviously I had to buy it, when I was at the til though I was expecting to get shot down as their system would probably warn them about the street date. Well lucky me their system didn’t notice the slip up and I’m now the proud owner of an early copy of Killzone Mercenary. Your milage may vary but if you’re in Canada you might be able to find your own copy of Killzone early at London Drugs, good luck.
Los Santos: a sprawling metropolis full of self-help gurus, starlets and fading celebrities struggling to stay afloat in an era of economic uncertainty and cheap cable TV. Amidst the turmoil, three very different criminals risk everything in a series of daring and dangerous heists that could set them up for life. Grand Theft Auto V is coming September 17, 2013 for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Check out the newest trailer and screenshots below, are you excited for Grand Theft Auto V?
In a surprise move this morning Nintendo announced that they’re finally dropping the price of the Wii U Deluxe set to $299.99. This new Wii U bundle will include The Legend of Zelda Wind Waker HD and be available on September 20. Also if you notice the Wii U gamepad now has some cool Zelda themed artwork for this special bundle. Is this enough to make you consider the Wii U or is it too little too late?
Xbox’s Major Nelson unboxes the new Xbox One for the first time. See what’s inside the Day One edition. Also get a closer look at the controller, headset and play and charge kit in another series of video just released by Microsoft.
If you were on the fence or even thinking about getting a Wii U, now may be the right time to run out and get one. This long weekend Walmart Canada has the basic set for $199, which is in my opinion a fantastic deal. Don’t have a Walmart in your area? No problem, we have confirmation that Futureshop will price match this promotion. Our very own writer Dayne just picked up his own Wii U for $194 after getting Futureshop to price match and beat Walmart’s price. Your mileage may very, so if $5 isn’t worth the hassle just head down to your nearest Walmart and take advantage of this wicked deal.
Hey everyone, I have a couple codes sitting here that I need to get rid of and I figured what better way than to have a little contest. The first game is a download for Gears of War on Xbox 360, I know it isn’t exactly new but the price is right. Also I’ve got a code to download both The Witcher and Witcher 2 for PC, just in time for you to maybe play them both before The Witcher 3 comes out next year.
The rules are easy, to be eligible to win leave a comment on this post saying which game you’d like to win, share this story and make sure to LIKE US on Facebook. Contest ends at 8PM July 21st and I’ll draw the winners at random.
You know the saying that they save the best for last? Well that pretty much sums up my last day. I saw a lot of games and a lot of sweet surprises I didn’t expect. To start the last and biggest day of course I started at the Activision booth and Call of Duty Dog, I mean Ghost. The best part of the demo was the theater it took place in, full leather recliners and mega surround sound. Call of Duty looks great but they just showed the same game play areas that they revealed at their Sunday event so nothing really new was unveiled. Honesty after seeing the new mechanics that Titanfall and Destiny bring to the shooter genre I can’t help but feel like Call of Duty is really looking like an old dog, that needs to be taken out to pasture. I did get a cool T-Shirt though and sat with super space pimp Cheapy D.
Destiny is the new franchise from Halo creators Bungie and it looks like it may be my game of show edging out Titanfall but only by a hair, things can change as these games get closer to launch. Whats not to like, Destiny is a class based MMO shooter with dynamic world events, quests, mounts and of course epic loot. Destiny was demoed on PS4 by a group of devs and looks to be pretty far along as they actually allowed me to film the demo and they usually don’t let you unless they’re pretty confident in the final product. The reason Destiny may be my game of show is that it has the most replay-ability and of course the multiplayer looks wicked. Watch my video and see for yourself.
Next up was Ubisoft and they definitely had one of the strongest line ups they’ve ever had. A big surprise up their sleeve was Tom Clancy’s The Division, an open world RPG, 3rd person, MMO shooter that is visually stunning and doing something we’ve never seen before. You can watch the demo I was basically shown HERE but we were treated to an extended demo of real time game-play. In our demo a 3rd player dropped into the game via an app on their tablet and was controlling a support drone that could tag targets, heal and even battle with the party. This feature is pretty awesome as you can still play with your friends if you were on the road and earn experience even when you aren’t at your console. The Division is a title to keep an eye out for and from what I saw it’ll definitely be on my radar.
Next up was South Park the Stick of Truth, the new RPG from Obsidian entertainment who most recently brought us Fallout New Vegas. South Park the Stick of Truth is an RPG in a style reminiscent of the Super Mario RPG games. You’ve got an open world with traps, enemies and puzzles but when contact is made with an enemy the game switches into your classic Japanese style turn based battle system. South Park the Stick of Truth is literally a playable version of the South Park show with all the wit and banter expected from your favorite characters. The demo had one of the longest lineups at E3 and it didn’t disappoint, I usually don’t laugh out loud at video games but I was busting a gut every time Cartman opened his mouth or dropped the F-bomb. Unfortunately when I asked about a release date all I was told by the devs was that it would be available some holiday season and they really got a kick out that smart ass answer.
A definite highlight of the Ubisoft booth for me was getting a private demo of Assassins Creed Black Flag from the game’s lead designer Sebastian Berton, he was the guy responsible for the new Naval battles introduced in AC3. Behind closed doors I was shown a demo with the main character Edward Kenway accepting an assassination mission and having to track down his target on a small secluded island. Quickly though a simple assassination turned into the target fleeing onto his ship and Kenway having follow for some good ship to ship combat. After the target’s ship was disabled we were then able to board and take out our contract, resulting in a nice reward and a new ship to add to our fleet. A cool new feature that seems to be the trend was that we could use a tablet for displaying a real time map, sending our fleet out on missions and much more. Unfortunately I couldn’t take any footage or pictures but the developers definitely are taking good advantage of second screen functionality. The world in Black Flag is huge, filled with side quests and dynamic missions. For example after our victory we came across a small island with a ship wreck, after closer examination we found a corpse clutching onto a treasure map. So then we were off searching for some pirate booty (sorry I couldn’t resist) on a small island with ruins and a Spanish expedition party. In typical AC fashion we were treated to some nice environment traversal to the location shown on the treasure map, BTW we had the map displayed on our tablet the whole time so no fumbling in menus which I might add is pretty nice. Meanwhile as we reached the top of the ruins an optional mission occurred where the Spanish were holding 2 pirates captive, after stealthily taking care of the guards we now had 2 extra bodies in our army and a nice treasure to boot. I won’t lie I’m a huge Assassins Creed fan and from what they showed it looks like they are definitely listening to the fans and fixing many of the wrongs from AC3. All in all I had a really good time checking out the Ubisoft booth and I can already feel my wallet hurting. I did also check out Watch_Dogs but there wasnt anything diffrent than what was shown during the Sony Press Conference.
After Ubisoft I went to check out Disney Interactive’s booth where I saw Fantasia Music Evolved and Disney Infinity. At first I was pretty skeptical of Fantasia, Harmonix released a trailer that was pretty terrible in my opinion and left people wondering what the hell is this game? Well after my demo I can say that we might have another fun music game to get our hands on, figuratively speaking. Fantasia takes advantage of the new Kinect on Xbox One and the motion tracking is definitely improved from the original Kinect. Fantasia allows you to conduct the music and remix songs using the motion of your arms like Mickey did in the movie Fantasia and that’s where the name and influence come from. Check out the video above of Queens Bohemian Rhapsody being played live and demonstrating the game play. Finally I got an extended demo of the toy box mode from Disney Infinity, Disneys answer to the Skylanders franchise. Using the Disney Infinity base you can bring your toys to life, now you can play with your favorite Disney characters in story mode and the limitless toy box mode. Check out the extended demo I got below, I safely say that you’ll probably want to hide this one from the kids or your going to be stuck buying a bunch of new Disney toys.
At this point my final day was almost over and I was was pretty much wiped, fortunately I had my fill of E3 and felt like I got to see everything I was looking forward to. Over the coming weeks I’ll do more write ups on games I played and saw. I’ll also do a breakdown on the new consoles and offer my opinions. I can say right now though if I had to only buy one system I’m definitely leaning towards the PlayStation 4. I will buy both consoles of course but Sony is just killing it and doing so much right with the development of the PlayStation 4. With that we end another E3, next up is PAX in a couple months where we’ll get to see more of these titles again and get even more hands on time. Thanks for reading and feel free to message me if you have any questions regarding E3.
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Wow, would simply be an understatement for the opening day of E3.
Xbox came out swinging by revealing games, games and more games. Not only did Microsoft show a suite of excellent exclusive games, they opened their conference with the first gameplay trailer of Metal Gear Solid V a move that would certainly make any core gamer happy. Little time was spent on anything but games however Microsoft did reveal their exclusive partnership with Twitch for video game streaming. Unfortunately the conference was marred by a couple technical glitches, and a poor sexist joke that probably should of been kept at home with the boys. That being said though there were some great reveals by the Xbox Camp, most notible would have to be Titanfall from Respawn Entertainment. Respawn are the original creators of the Modern Warfare franchise and this game looks awesome. It’s a fast free running shooter with mech combat all rolled into one, and it looked stunning. The Titanfall reveal was definitely the high point of the conference which was a good one regardless of the missteps.
Xbox One Conference Low Points
Next stop EA, sports sports sports naw just kidding they had celebrities too! Seriously though EA had a great conference without any technical glitches. The usual suspects that fill EA’s coffers were all on display, new Madden, NBA and FIFA games were displayed as expected. Surprisingly though Garden Warfare was a new franchise reveal, from a company that isn’t known for doing anything but the usual yearly fare. Garden Warfare is a multiplayer first person shooter based in the Plants vs Zombies world, that looked like a fun new take on the genre. Of course other EA work horses Need for Speed and Battlefield 4 showed great demoes as well. In what seems to be another move to win back the hearts of gamers EA also revealed their biggest surprise a new Mirrors Edge game that fans have been demanding since the originals release.
The clear winner of the press conferences though had to be Sony. Sony’s conference was long and dragged at times but they came with the bombs and shot the opening salvo in this next round of the console war. Sony had 10 stations on stage where games were being demonstrated live during all points of the conference and showed drop in and drop out multiplayer in titles that supported it. Sony definitely delivered when it came to reveals with new exclusives from Square we saw Final Fantasy, and Kingdom Hearts which are sure to satisfy the hardcore. A new title from Ready at Dawn called The Order 1886 is a Victorian Era multiplayer survival shooter that looks to show a lot of promise. A definite highlight of Sony’s show was the exclusive gameplay reveal of Bungie’s new title Destiny. Destiny looks to blend the world of fast paced multiplayer shooters with those of Loot driven MMO’s to breath some new life into what some may call the tired shooter genre. With that said though the real news of the conference came in the form of several megaton bombs that Sony dropped directly aimed at their competitors. Firstly the news that PlayStation 4 supports used games just like any other system released to date was huge. Microsoft has been severely criticized over their policies and the fact that they are still unclear have gamers in outrage and Sony obviously decided to side with their consumers on this issue. Next was news about DRM and that PlayStation 4 has no authentication that requires you to be connected online, period. Finally the last surprise was that the PlayStation 4 will be available this winter for $399 and with that Sony literally dropped the proverbial mic. I was 4 rows from the front of the venue and with each of these announcements the crowd went wild. There was a definite energy in the air of excitement for the next generation and Sony might have won a huge battle before the systems are even released.
I’ll try to do a roundup each day but things are pretty crazy here, just watch the Facebook page and here for any news. Check out some pics and video from day zero and remember to follow us on twitter @RicF
GEEKOHOLICS 
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