Sony Plans for Big Titles

You can click on anything that is TEAL and it will take you to a video or URL link

SONY revieled new trailers for:

Beyond: Two Souls (Ellen Paige the lead voice actor) (PS3)

Playstation All-Stars: Battle Royal (PS3/VITA) (Holiday 2012)

Assassins Creed III: Liberation (VITA) *Also comes as a console pack with a crystal white VITA*

Some demos were played including:

Playstation All-Stars: Battle Royal (PS3/VITA) (Holiday 2012)

Assassins Creed III (PS3) *Also comes as a console pack with exclusive DLC* (10/30/12)

Far Cry 3 (PS3) *PS3 owners will get free DLC*

God of War Ascension (PS3) (3/12/2013)

The Last of Us (PS3)

SONY also had other surprises for us

1. Nathan Drake and the Big Daddy from the BioShock series are going to be playable in Playstation All-Stars: Battle Royal
2. PS One Classics are coming to the VITA
3. Video apps, such as Hulu Plus, Crackle, and YouTube, are coming to the VITA as well
4. Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified was announced for the VITA
5. A new story book interactive app named, WonderBook, will allow players to be involved in their stories.  Announced books were Diggs Nightcrawler from MoonBot and Book of Spells by J.K. Rowling which takes place in the Harry Potter universe.
6. Playstation Suite has been given a new name, Playstation Mobile and announced that HTC will be the first non-Sony smartphone to be Playstation certified.

E3 Video Overload

You can click on anything that is teal to view a video of that game

Here we have tons of new demos of 

Borderlands 2

Aliens: Colonial Marines 

Transformers: Fall of Cybertron

Tomb Raider

Forza Horizon

Dead Space 3

Metal of Honor: Warfighter

Cyrsis 3

Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance 

DMC: Devil May Cry (January 15th, 2013)
Watch Dogs

There were also new trailers for these titles: 

XCOM: Enemy Unknown

Dead Space 3

Madden 13

SimCity Social (exclusive to Facebook and releases in a few weeks)

SimCity (February 2013)

Star Wars: The Old Republic

Metal of Honor: Warfighter

FIFA 13 

Need For Speed: Most Wanted (October 30th of this year)

     DICE and EA announced Battlefield 3 Premium service for all platforms.  Users will get extra content, similar to Call of Duty Elite.  The service is $49.99 and available today for PS3 users.  It will be available for Xbox 360 and PC users next week. Here is a different video.

Microsoft E3 Coverage

               

IF YOU CLICK ON ANYTHING THAT IS TEAL, IT WILL TAKE YOU TO A VIDEO OF THAT GAME!!!!!

                Many things happened in the hour and a half Xbox 360 conference at E3.

                The show started with a new trailer and demo of Halo 4.  It showed off interesting new enemies which seem to be smarter than past enemies.  These creatures seem to be like robotic bugs.  They can teleport and even throw your grenades back at you.  It will be released on November 6^th of this year.

                SplinterCell: Blacklist was announced; it will have use of the Kinect to give commands to NPC’s and even shout at enemies to distract them.  It will be released in the spring of 2013.

                EA Sports announced that both Madden 13 and FIFA 13 will get use of Kinect.  A player can give orders and create strategies with the voice option.  Madden is out August 28^th and FIFA will debut this fall.

                There were new trailers for titles like Fable: The Journey, Gears of War: Judgment, Forza Horizon, Ascend: New Gods, Loco Cycle, South Park: The Stick of Truth, and Matter.

                Microsoft showed that Bing will now be able to search not just by title but also genre and will also show what different apps a movie can be viewed on be it Vudu or Netflix.  They also announced that they will have 35 new service providers and announced four of them; Nickelodeon, Paramount Pictures, Machinima, and Univision. 

                For sports entertainment they announced NBA and NHL for Xbox.  ESPN will also become 24/7 with content.  Nike+ for Kinect was also announced as a personal fitness game.

                The biggest announcement was Xbox SmartGlass.  This uses devices with screens to interact with the Xbox.  This means all smartphones, tablets, and computers will use this app.  This means that you may be playing a game and the app on your smartphone will reveal more information about it.  The app on a phone or tablet can also act as a remote control for the Xbox dashboard.  They also announced Internet Explorer for Xbox, which can also be controlled by SmartGlass.

                A new demo was shown for Tomb Raider, Resident Evil 6, and Wrecketeer. 

                The show wrapped up with the reveal of Dance Central 3 with a surprise performance by Usher and a demo of Call of Duty: Black Ops II.

                Check back later for more E3 coverage here on the Spec Tech blog!

Nintendo Breaks the Silence. New Wii U Details!

Well this is a surprise, Nintendo has announced new features of the Wii U before E3.  At E3 they want to focus more on the content coming to the console.

  Some changes have come to the Wii U is the Game Pad.  They have replaced the circle pads with traditional analog sticks.  It will also have Near-field Communication technology.  This has not been explained, but a leaked Rayman Legends trailer showed a player scanning real world objects into the game, similar to the Milo tech demo of the Xbox Kinect.  The button layout has changed slightly, but they have added a TV button; this allows the player to control their television with simple tasks like INPUT, channel surfing, and volume control.

                Nintendo also announced the Wii U Pro Controller, with looks like the Classic controller from the original Wii.  There were no other details given.

                Miiverse was also announced as a social network app.  This will allow a player to communicate with other players of the same language.  It will show what everyone is playing and even have text bubbles of people communicating.  This is similar to what the Xbox 360 dashboard and PS3 Home screen can do, but this is much more interactive as you can even send hand drawn images as comments.  Nintendo announced that this will eventually come to the 3DS, PC, and mobile devices as an external app. 

                Breaking news! The Wii U comes in White or Black!!!!!!

                Thanks for reading.  Come back tomorrow for news from the Microsoft and Sony press conferences and other gaming news! E3 2012 baby!

Many E3 Trailers

Well, it’s the Friday before E3 starts and we already have trailers for highly expected titles such as Tomb Raider, Metal Gear Rising: Revengance, Sonic and All-Stars Racing: Transformed, Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance, and more! Check them out below and come back on Monday for more news from the Microsoft and Sony press conferences; will the Xbox Durango or PS4 show up? 

All sources from YouTube, Gametrailers.com, and IGN.com

Tomb Raider

Metal Gear Rising: Revengance

Sonic and All-Stars Racing: Transformed

Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance

Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch

Dishonored

Summer Stories

                I’m sad to report that no one entered in my contest, so there is no winner.  


I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone good luck on their finals and to have a great summer.  During the summer, check back on the Spec Tech blog for special stories like a video review of Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode II, a video review of Lollipop Chainsaw, and complete coverage of E3 as well as keeping you up to date on all things tech. 

New Wii U rumors surface

Hello and welcome back to a regular edition of Spec Tech.  This week, Facebook buys Instagram, rumors from Wii U, Samsung Galaxy III launches, and the largest tablet screen is presented.
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Facebook bought the very popular app, Instagram for $1 billion.

 No one knows exactly why this deal was made, but it could be that Instagram wanted to spread to an even wider audience. Facebook not wanting competition could also be a factor.
 I will report more on this story as information becomes available.

 A rumor has surfaced that Nintendo’s new home console, the Wii U, will launch with a $300 price tag later this year.    More information about the Wii U should surface at E3 this summer with the debut of a new Super Mario Bros. game and Pikmin 3.

 Another rumor has surfaced on the next Nvidia Tegra 4 chip.  Officially called the Cortex A15, this chip will make quad-core tablets even faster.

 A Q1 2013 release is expected to debut in a 10-inch tablet.

 Take this next bit of news with a grain of salt.

 A Foxxcon employee revealed that the iPhone 5 will release in October.  It is rumored to be 4G and come with a 4.6-inch screen.

 The next Samsung Galaxy, rumored to be the Galaxy 3, is hosting an event in London on May. 3.

 Some say it will be completely different from the Galaxy 2, while others say it will be a minor update. 

 Stay tuned for more information.

 How would you like to carry the largest tablet being sold in bulk?  The Toshiba Excite 13 has a 13.3 inch screen with 1600×900 resolution.  It will launch with Android 4.0: Ice Cream Sandwich.  It is only 0.4 inches thick, weighs
2.2 pounds and has two cameras.  The internals are a Tegra 3 CPU, 1GB of RAM, Micro-HDMI and an SD slot.

 It will be available in June with 32GB for $650 or a 64GB version for $750.

 Intel has read my mind and answered my prayers.

 In my reports I try to keep my opinion out, but not this time.  I, personally, think that tablets are dumb.  I don’t understand why there is such a strong demand for them when laptops are much better and can do so much more. I always thought that tablets and laptops should combine, and at last they will!

 Intel introduced a hybrid ultrabook; both a laptop and tablet.  With the help of Windows 8, it is much easier to create a device like this. No other details were given.

 I would like to remind everyone that my video review contest is still running.  You have until May.1 to submit your video reviews to be the story for Spec Tech on May 3. 

  Post your videos on YouTube and email me the link at smsetser@valdosta.edu.

 The question for this week is, “Would you buy an ultrabook hybrid?”  Submit your answers online at vsuspectech.blogspot.com or email me at smsetser@valdosta.edu.