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.
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.
Check out my gallery below and follow me on on Twitter @RicF, also check out our YouTube Channel for more videos.
Games shown at the Electronic Entertainment Expo video game trade show are usually playable only by the few industry insiders who make the trip to Los Angeles each year. But Nintendo and Best Buy are teaming up to make sure people across North America can get their hands on a select list of Nintendo’s E3 games. Demos of the games will be playable at 110 Best Buy locations, including 89 in the United States and 21 in Canada. The games will be playable 4-8 p.m. local time on Wednesday, June 12, and 1-5 p.m. local time on Saturday, June 15.
Note that participating Best Buy stores are subject to change. Best Buy locations in the following Canadian cities are scheduled to participate:
Canada Locations:
Ontario
North York
Toronto
Mississauga
Windsor
London
Ottawa
Kingston
Brampton
Oakville
Quebec
Montreal
Lasalle
Manitoba
Winnipeg
Saskatchewan
Saskatoon
Alberta
Edmonton
Calgary (2 locations)
British Columbia
Vancouver
Langley
Richmond
Nova Scotia
Dartmouth
US Locations:
Alabama
Birmingham
HuntsvilleArkansas
Fort Smith
North Little Rock
Arizona
Phoenix
California
Culver City
Elk Grove
Emeryville
San Jose
Tracy
Visalia
Colorado
Denver
Connecticut
Manchester
Delaware
Wilmington
Florida
Brandon
Fort Myers
Gainesville
Kissimmee
Miami
Pensacola
Georgia
Augusta
Duluth
Savannah
Smyrna
Iowa
Cedar Rapids
West Des Moines
Illinois
Bloomington
Schaumburg
Indiana
Greenwood
Kansas
Overland Park
Wichita
Kentucky
Florence
Lexington
Louisville
Louisiana
Harvey
Massachusetts
Cambridge
Dedham
Worcester
Maryland
Frederick
Glen Burnie
Wheaton
Michigan
Ann Arbor
Flint
Grand Rapids
Rochester Hills
Minnesota
Eden Prairie
Missouri
St. Louis
North Carolina
Cary
Fayetteville
Pineville
Winston-Salem
New Jersey
Iselin
West Paterson
Woodbury
New York
Albany
Amherst
Long Island City
Syracuse
Valley Stream
West Nyack
Ohio
Fairborn
North Olmsted
Reynoldsburg
Toledo
Oklahoma
Oklahoma City
Oregon
Portland
Pennsylvania
Erie
King of Prussia
Pittsburgh
Reading
Whitehall
South Carolina
Greenville
North Charleston
Tennessee
Brentwood
Knoxville
Memphis
Texas
Arlington
Austin
Houston
McAllen
The Woodlands
Tyler
Utah
Sandy
Virginia
Charlottesville
Glen Allen
Virginia Beach
Just came from doing some grocery shopping and noticed this wicked deal, Call of Duty Black Ops II for $20. They have the PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii U versions on sale unfortunately no PC version. I missed this game in the winter but for $20 you can’t pass on this good of a deal.
So yesterday Precursor Games launched a crowd-funding campaign for Shadow of the Eternals. They are looking to raise 1.5 Million Dollars to bring this episodic game to the Wii U and PC in Q3 2014. They are hoping to create a total of 12 episodes in all and are asking for your money to do it. Some are calling this a spiritual successor to Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem. Now this is a relatively new company which, after looking at their website, appears to be filled mostly with Ex Silicon Knights employees, which for better or worse includes Denis Dyack. Denis Dyack was the Writer, Producer and Director for Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem. Now this is not a Kickstarter campaign, so I would tread carefully with this one, as there is no way to back out after you pledge. Teaser trailer is below.
Ok, lets get something straight right now. This is not another doom and gloom post about how Nintendo won’t be around in a few years. This is a post to remind people and maybe even Nintendo about what they seem to be forgetting. I thought I would write my opening post here at Geekoholics by saying they are not nearly as far off mark as everyone is claiming. But I understand that they have somehow gotten a little off course since the Wii U.
I think the first issue that Nintendo has with the Wii U is the name. Instead of the Wii 2 or something completely different they chose the Wii U. I feel that this doesn’t do enough to send a message to people that this is in fact a new console and not just another Wii. Even in the original E3 press conference no one was sure if this was a new controller for the Wii or if in fact it was a new console. I feel that if they do want to get people buying the Wii U they need to do a better job of educating people that this is in fact a whole new HD Wii 2!
The Second issue that Nintendo needs to address is the games. Now I think this is a twofold issue at the moment. Firstly, they need to get some good games on the way from their own first party studios. We want a new 3rd person Mario game in HD! We want a new more grown up Zelda in HD! People buy Nintendo consoles for the great first party Nintendo games, but we don’t just want rehashes, we want something new from Nintendo that pushes the new hardware, something that we haven’t seen for a while. Maybe a new Starfox in HD? Or what about a new Fire Emblem in HD on your TV, that is not a 3DS port? Or what about a new third person Donkey Kong? These are the kinds of games that they need to be developing.
Secondly, They have to get third party developers excited and developing for their system. We are already hearing about too many games that are bypassing the Wii U. Without that support the Wii U will always struggle. For whatever reason Nintendo seems to be scaring away developers instead of embracing them and helping them to develop for their system. Third Party Support is key here.
Thirdly, I think it is very important to land some 3rd party exclusives that make sense for that system. As great as i think it was getting Bayonetta 2 as an exclusive, it really is not the kind of game that they should be aiming for as a Wii U Exclusive. They did great with the Lego City Undercover, they need more of these kinds of creative games that work to the strength of their system. They need to start working with 3rd party developers to get unique content for their system instead of just the quick hash of current gen games. Without these no one is going to feel the need to buy a Wii U. Give me a reason to buy your console over the other guys!
The Third issue that for whatever reason seems to scare Nintendo is online. They need to get their online strategy figured out and fast. They have so much potential with so many great games, and backlogs and yet they have far and away THE WORST online out of all the current gen consoles. What happens when the PS4 or Xbox 720 come out and change the rules even further then they already are in regards to online? Nintendo needs to stop being so terrified of the Internet and embrace it like everyone else has. The next gen is ONLINE! They need to realize this and make changes to address it. They need a unified account structure for all 3DS, Wii and Wii U under one account, not linked to the actual consoles.
Lastly, as much as it pains me to say this, they need a price drop. Not even because i think the Wii U is overpriced, but they need people talking about it again. I think so many people can smell it in the air that they are not buying because even though Nintendo says they won’t do one, they feel that they are going to soon, some people just need that little nudge. If they price dropped and get some good content out/on the way, i know they would start selling again.
I think Nintendo isn’t that far off track, but if they don’t start implementing some of these, they are going to veer off a course that will be very hard to recover from.
A collector in Italy has decided to part with his massive video game collection, words can do no justice to the size of this collection and Museum of Gaming would be a much better fit. Check out the auction for hundreds of pictures including rare systems, games and collectables. Check out some of the items included below but definitely have a look at the auction for a trip down memory lane. Oh one more thing, the bidding starts at a reasonable $550,000.
-The games count over 6850 pcs. with about 6780 boxed and 70 loose, and are in various format NTSC Japan or Usa and also PAL.
-The consoles are over330, with 307 system boxed and 24 loose, and even in this case we have all the different standards.
-The controllers are about 220 with 167 boxed and 52 loose. I included all the kind of controller, from the simple joypad to the special controller like all the konami bemani to the densha de go train controller, and the arcade joystick as well.
-The accessories are about 185, and in this category I put the ac adapters, the various av cables, the rumble packs, the memory cards, battery packs, the converters for the region locked games, and various other items like screens, printers etc.
Don’t forget to turn on your Wii U and snag the new Nintendo TVii app. Nintendo promises that their TVii app will be a game changer for how we watch our TV content. If you aren’t sure what Nintendo TVii is watch the video below.
Available Dec. 7th exclusively in Canada, the Wii Mini will be available for $99 which includes the system, red Wii-mote and nunchuk. The price is right but unfortunately it comes at a cost, the Wii Mini has no internet capabilities and can’t play Gamecube games. Wii Mini is designed exclusively to play Wii games and that’s about it. I’m sure most gamers won’t miss these features but with the Wii U now available I just don’t see the sense in releasing this downgraded Wii console.
GEEKOHOLICS 
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