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You may have trouble getting your Hearthstone on.
Above: Overwatch is Blizzard's upcoming third-person shooter.
Image Credit: Blizzard
Blizzard acknowledgesit is dealing with a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack that is preventing some people from getting online with the publisher’s Battle.net services. The company took to social media to confirm the issues, and it says it is monitoring the assault. Earlier today, the notorious cyberattack group Lizard Squad began spreading alleged personal information for key Blizzard personnel including chief executive officer Mike Morhaime.
We’ve reached out to Blizzard and Lizard Squad for comment.
We are currently monitoring a DDOS attack against network providers which is affecting connections to our games. https://t.co/YsDZ0CYdFX
— BlizzardCS (@BlizzardCS) April 14, 2016
Lizard Squad posted the message “Get ready” before any Battle.net issues started, and then it began tweeting messages like the following.
US Blizzard #Offline– WoW #Offline, Diablo 3 #Offline, Starcraft 2 #Offline, Hearthstone #Offline @fbiarelosers @AppleJ4ckxoxo
— Lizard Squad (@LizardLands) April 14, 2016
This comes after the Lizard Squad account retweeted a post that includes images showing a person breaking into the personal email of select Blizzard employees. You can see one of those images below — although others are still online and feature what looks like phone numbers and other sensitive information.
Above: This is one of three screen grabs showing alleged information of a Blizzard employee’s email.
Image Credit: Twitter
Lizard Squad has attacked Blizzard in the past. In 2014, the company slammed both the World of Warcraft company and Sony Online Entertainment, publisher of Everquest, with a DDoS. The group then went on to attack both Microsoft’s and Sony’s online gaming networks during the 2014 Christmas holidays. That barrage took Xbox Live offline for 24 hours, and it knocked PlayStation Network off the Internet for five days.
These attacks eventually forced law enforcement to take notice. Cyberattacks turn into felonies if they cause more than $5,000 in damages. Considering that Xbox Live, PSN, and Battle.net likely make at least that much every hour from digital sales, Lizard Squad could face serious charges.
“The FBI is investigating the matter” a spokesperson for the Federal Bureau of Investigationtold GamesBeat in December 2014. “Given the pending nature of the case, we cannot comment further.”
It seems like that case might’ve resulted in some arrests recently.
A global raid on lizard squad members took place today, 36 arrests. I'm the only one left. Goodbye.
— Lizard Squad (@LizardLands) April 1, 2016
We’ve reached out to the FBI to ask whether it has made any arrests recently. We’ll update this story with any new information.
As for Blizzard and Battle.net, the attack is primarily causing connection troubles and a serious amount of lag. The publisher is warning players about it in its game launcher, on Twitter, and in its forums.
Past attacks from Lizard Squad, which uses a sophisticated set of tools, have lasted for days.
Arrest us.
— Lizard Squad (@LizardLands) April 14, 2016
Blizzard Entertainment® is a premier developer and publisher of entertainment software. After establishing the Blizzard Entertainment label in 1994, the company quickly became one of the most popular and well-respected makers of compu... read more »
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Nimble’s #1 Rated CRM Adds Value by Synchronizing Google Apps for Work Contacts, Calendar, Gmail and Drive into a Unified Sales and Marketing Manager for Business
SANTA MONICA, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–April 14, 2016–
The integration bundles Google Apps for Work with Nimble’s #1 Rated CRM solution to deliver the first CRM that works for you by synchronizing your company’s combined Google Apps including Contacts, Gmail, Calendar and Drive.
NimbleInc. announced today it has become a Google for Work Partner, helping them deliver an Integrated Sales and Marketing CRM Suite to power productivity and relationship management for millions of small businesses everywhere.
The integration bundles Google Apps for Work with Nimble’s #1 Rated CRM solution to deliver the first CRM that works for you by synchronizing your company’s combined Google Apps including Contacts, Gmail, Calendar and Drive. Nimble CRM then works seamlessly with you everywhere you work using Google Apps and beyond.
Social Sales & Marketing CRM Designed for Google Apps for Work
Nimble minimizes the hassle of manual data entry by automatically building your CRM from Google Apps for Work data and then enriching contact and company records with relationship insights via its unique social profile matching algorithm. Nimble automatically integrates your Google Apps suite by providing a unified CRM of your team’s Gmail, Contacts, Calendar and Drive attachments. Manage relationships intelligently with Nimble inside Google Apps and everywhere you work via our Smart Contacts App for Chrome. Nimble provides the core CRM features you need to grow your business including sales intelligence, group templated email sending, sales pipeline management/reports and powerful native Android/iOS mobile apps.
Learn More
Join us for a Webinar April 28 at 10 AM PDT – Register Here
Learn more on our blog – Read More
Learn How Customers are Growing with Google and Nimble – Read More
Google for Work Partner Details – http://www.nimble.com/google-apps/
Nimble Pioneered Simple CRM That Works For You, Everywhere You Work
Nimble invented intelligence relationship management by blending traditional CRM with social sales relationship insights to enable business professionals to effectively engage social customers. The Nimble Smart Contacts App works in every app in the browser including the email inbox, calendar, contacts, social media sites and many other business apps. Nimble adds contact and sales management directly into your existing Google Apps for Work workflow.
To learn more about these exciting integrations, and how your organization can benefit from social, contextualized selling and support please see: http://www.nimble.com/google-apps/
Nimble Delivers a CRM Dashboard on Top of Google Apps for Work
Nimble’s smarter social sales and marketing CRM deep integration with Gmail, Drive, Calendar, Contacts, Inbox, and Chrome adds value to any existing Google Apps for Work account in the following areas:
Google Chrome – The Nimble Smart Contacts App for Google Chrome allows you to bring the power of Nimble with you everywhere you work. Gmail – Easily integrate Nimble alongside your Gmail workflow to see all important contact details, deals, events, and more. Nimble automatically syncs messages to your related Contacts, Companies, and Deals. Google Calendar – Sync all of your calendars, schedule events, and enrich your daily agenda with Nimble’s social contact insights. Google Drive – Attach any Google Drive file to your Deals, Contacts, and Companies for easy cloud collaboration.Bring Your Network to Work With You
“CRMs fail due to lack of use. Nobody wants to constantly be in their CRM, manually editing and updating contact records. Nimble is the first relationship platform that automatically creates records with rich insights and logs all email and social interactions,” said Jon Ferrara, CEO at Nimble. “The combination of Google Apps for Work with Nimble’s Small Business CRM Productivity Suite will enable millions of businesses across the world to build relationships that accelerate business growth.”
Nimble – One of the Most Loved CRM’s on the Google Apps Marketplace
Nimble has been recognized for pioneering a Social Sales and Marketing CRM and continues to receive accolades including being Nimble Named Best CRM Finalist in Prestigious CODiE Awards 2016, CRM Watchlist honorable mentionfrom well-known CRM analyst Paul Greenberg, Nimble being crowned CRM Market Leader & Ranked #1 in Satisfactionby G2 Crowd for Winter 2016, and being named King of CRM by GetApp . Nimble was also previously recognized as 2015 Hot Vendor in Social Selling by Aragon Research, #1 Sales Intelligencein Customer Satisfaction and overall High Performer. Nimble was also named #1 in CRM Value Gridby G2 Crowd and recognized as the #1 CRM for Small Businessby TechnologyAdvice, Highest Rated Softwareby Small, Mid-Size and Enterprise Business Users, Highest Rated CRM, Highest Rated Sales Intelligence, Best Software 2014and Highest Rated Ease-of-Setupby G2 Crowd, a leading source of business technology reviews.
ABOUT NIMBLE – Nimbleis the Google Apps for Work Partner that pioneered social selling relationship management for individuals and teams to intelligently nurture relationships across email and social networks such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Nimble combines the strengths of traditional CRM, classic contact management and social media into a powerful social selling solution. Nimble was founded by Jon Ferrara, the co-founder of GoldMine, a pioneer of SFA, CRM, Relationship Management and Marketing Automation. Nimble has helped hundreds of thousands of users manage billions of relationships since pioneering the Smarter, Social Sales and Marketing CRM.
For more information, visit www.nimble.com. Nimble can be found on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Vimeoand YouTube.
View source version on businesswire.com:
Nimble Inc. Contact:
Michaela Prouzova, 310-929-5921
michaela@nimble.com
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Video games had humble beginnings, as anyone playing Pong in a dimly-lit bar in the 1970s can tell you.
Video games had humble beginnings, as anyone playing Pong in a dimly-lit bar in the 1970s can tell you. From those roots, gaming has grown to be perhaps the dominant form of artistic and cultural expression in the 21st century. It’s a field where technology blends seamlessly with creativity, where art competes with the demands of commerce, and where massive, world-spanning cutting-edge games can stand side-by-side with small independent creative visions. Unfortunately, through these changes, writing about games hasn’t seemed to progress.
That’s where we come in.
At Game Rant, we believe that gaming deserves writing that matches its creativity and vitality. We don’t just share the same headlines that everyone else does. We strive to provide in-depth content you won’t find anywhere else. We don’t just tell you what we think: we generate discussion with our in-depth, expert-driven content. Reviews . We don’t just tell you if a game is awesome. We want you to understand the experience playing it, as well as the story behind the game. Game reviews can and should be just as mature and in-depth as the best film criticism, and that’s what we go for. Original insight . An industry that changes as quickly and decisively as gaming needs to be understood by those most affected. We let you understand where the field is, and where it is going. From technological advances to business shakeups, we keep you up-to-date on what matters most. Informed Analysis: Our writers are gamers, programmers, and industry insiders. Everything we write comes from that crucial intersection of knowledge and fandom, giving you a broader insight than you’ll find anywhere else. Thoughtful discussions . Our opinions aren’t the last word- they’re just the beginning. We we want to generate interesting, fun, troll-free discussions of games and gaming.
We’re passionate experts. We love gaming, and we want to share that passion with you, and hope to create a space where you can share your thoughts. We love the history of games, and can’t wait to see where they go next. We’re excited to bring our brand of thoughtful and informed opinions with them.
An owner of every console since Atari, Anthony is willing to try any video game, good or bad, but prefers the ones that involve a deep and involving story. With the Ocarina of Time gladly sitting as his favorite game of all time, Anthony is a sucker for any game that has players wielding a fabled sword, but can still appreciate everything from a solid sports title to a game with a deep multiplayer experience.
By eventually combining his love of video games with his skills in film, Anthony hopes to bring some unique content to Game Rant in the future.
Follow Anthony on Twitter @ ANTaormina
Riley Littleis Game Rant’s weekend editor, also helping manage Game Rant’s social media wing. He was born in Huntsville, Ontario, Canada and landed a gig with Game Rant along with Ryan and John, by running into Rob Keyes at Comic-Con and on the flights back to Canada. After keeping in touch and sharing some common interests (i.e. video games) Rob offered Riley and the trio a chance to write articles for the site.Riley’s best memories of video games come from the SNES with Donkey Kong, but games really took his personal interest with the arrival of N64. Smash Bros., Mario Kart, and Mario 64 revolutionized gaming for Riley and he instantly fell in love. The best game series of all time in his opinion… SUPER SMASH BROS. No, it’s not perfect but the nostalgia puts it over for him.
Aside from gaming, Riley loves fishing and plays hockey (yes, very Canadian I know). He is a Toronto Maple Leaf fan, but most of the time he wishes he weren’t. Riley recently returned from shooting a Bruce Lee travelogue for Northern River Productions, a project which details all the locations Bruce Lee shot his movies in, very cool stuff.
Yes, you may click the image to enlarge and see this awesomeness that is this Ninja Turtles cover starring Riley.
Follow Riley on Twitter @ TheRileyLittle
Most marketers today accept that cookie-cutter marketing won’t cut it anymore — but applying an identity-driven approach can hold a host of challenges.
Image Credit: Shutterstock
Most marketers today accept that cookie-cutter marketing won’t cut it anymore — but applying an identity-driven approach can hold a host of challenges. In our upcoming webinar, we’ll show you how to overcome those challenges — and increase conversions by treating your customers like the individuals they are.
Everyone loves getting special attention — from a friend, a family member, or, yes, even from a marketer. It’s true!
When consumers check their email first thing in the morning, they expect personalized content tailored specifically to them. Unfortunately, in some cases, marketers underestimate the demand for personalization and deliver forgettable batch-and-blast newsletters instead — a guaranteed way to lose subscribers. It’s been stated time and time again that personalization is a must for today’s marketers, but many continue to struggle ineffectively using this essential tool.
In our VentureBeat Insight reporton customer identity, 80 percent of consumer-facing companies don’t understand their customers beyond basic demographics and purchasing history. Our report — based on 506 surveyed marketers — also showed that 96 percent of marketers say that building a comprehensive single view of customers is a challenge. Given the troubling statistic regarding two key elements of personalization — data collection and data unification — it’s understandable why so many marketers struggle to incorporate identity into their customer strategy.
The amount of identity-related data used by marketers (or machines) varies, with name and email addresses taking the lead. Our statistics show 57 percent of marketers use email addresses as data sources for personalization, while names made up 45 percent, and location 41 percent. Low-ranking identity-related data, such as psychographics at 8 percent, performed poorly because the information is less available to marketers or too complex to decipher.
However, gathering identity-related data — like what device you use to access the internet — can lead to significant findings, such as Orbitz showing Apple users access more expensive hotel results than Window users, because Apple users spend 30 percent more on average.
Digging deeper into the numbers, we found a majority of marketing automation users cite data unification as the greatest challenge to increasing marketing ROI — 24 percent, to be exact. 22 percent said more relevant content was a challenge to increasing marketing ROI, while 15 percent said cross-channel message coordination. Indeed, the biggest hurdle to identity unification is customers using multiple devices and channels, with data captured and stored in different databases. Because of these problems, email is often used as the “key” to identifying the same user on different devices or channels. However, until that information is given, it’s hard for marketers to make the connection.
Incorporating identity into your marketing strategy may seem difficult, but there are solutions. And today it’s definitely needed to expand your business with new consumers and to keep your current ones engaged –which is why, if you sign up for this webinar, you’ll learn essentials you need to know about personalization from Andrew Jones, Analyst at VB Insight. Hear how to unlock vital customer data and how to perform the identity process in the most efficient way possible. Don’t let your consumers continue to be strangers; learn how to identify your user base now for all its worth.
Don’t miss out!
In this interactive web event, you’ll:
Unlock the customer data that you’re missing today Streamline your identity process, including detail-rich demographic information often overlooked Hear insider secrets for getting that personalized message hit the customer right in the sweet spot — driving serious bank to your bottom lineSpeakers:
Andrew Jones, Analyst, VB Insight
Rishi Dave, CMO, Dun & Bradstreet
Wendy Schuchart, Moderator, VentureBeat
More speakers to be announced soon.
This webinar is sponsored by Janrain.
We have come to know the The Legend of Zelda series well, as each new title Nintendo release loosely sticks with the same formula, while adding new features to each iteration.
series well, as each new title Nintendo release loosely sticks with the same formula, while adding new features to each iteration. Whether it be mask morphing or riding the skyline on a giant bird, the Big N always delivers enticing new mechanics. Over the years I’ve created the perfect Zelda game in my mind, although I’ve never been able to put it down on paper. Today, that changes; well, sort of. The Legend of Zelda is an amazing franchise that many gamers hold near and dear to their hearts, and Nintendo has been thriving to keep the franchise at a steady high. Here are five things I believe would propel the Zelda series to greater heights.
Bring Back Time Travel (young/adult Link)
One iconic game mechanic in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is the time traveling aspect. However, Nintendo never built upon it. Seeing how areas and/or people changed in Hyrule over the course of 7 years was a perfect way of expressing environmental storytelling. It would be insanely cool to see how Nintendo could take advantage of this legendary game mechanic.
On a slightly different note, it would also be interesting to have Link start as a child, then through the course of the game you watch him grow into an adult. Sure it\’s different, but as Nintendo knows, bold ideas can go a long way.
Play as Sheik
Sheik is character that has always had a strong presence in Nintendo\’s Super Smash Bros. series. She also recently made an appearance in Hyrule Warriors as a playable character. She is quite a popular character considering she\’s only been featured in one game in the main series ( Ocarina of Time ). I think Nintendo should flesh out this character, as her ninja-like abilities could surely mix up the gameplay for Zelda franchise. Hyrule Warriors is a testament to that, and shows she has got what it takes to tear enemies apart.
RPG Elements
In Zelda: Skyward Sword you were able to upgrade your weapons. Sadly, there wasn’t much depth there, or any other big changes that followed. I want an upgrade system on a whole new scale. Sure, I want to upgrade my bow and arrow, but I also want to upgrade my horse to run faster, and my magic to be stronger. I want Din’s fire to reign over enemies and send them into eternal hellfire! Okay… maybe not that serious.
Returning to Past Places/Times in the Series
Unlike any other company, Nintendo can sell games based purely on the nostalgia they bring to people. They need to incorporate that more into Zelda . Everyone loves Easter eggs and throwbacks to previous games in the series. Let me walk into Clock Town, or even Lon Lon Ranch once more in glorious 1080p, HD. It would be insanely cool to see a past Chosen Hero fighting off some baddies in the distance, and it would also be an opportunity to fix some timeline errors.
Voice Acting
I know what you’re thinking, typical thing to hear from a fan. On various occasions Nintendo has given (slightly bad) reasons not to pursue voice acting in the Zelda franchise. However, how cool would it be over hear local townspeople talking about the terror and havoc Gannondorf has caused? Link could build relationships with other characters, and you might actually care for them, which is something that\’s been absent from the franchise. Also, Voice acting being featured in the game doesn\’t mean Link has to speak often, or even at all for that matter. Nintendo is (presumably) working on a live-action Zelda series, and I can\’t imagine this would be any harder than that.
So how do you feel about this? Do you think The Legend of Zelda series should take more bold directions? Do you want voice acting in Zelda ? Leave all your thoughts in the comments section below!
Written by Brett Medlock
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Konami Japan reveals that a secret event inside Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain can now be triggered under the right conditions.
Although the exact specifications of the event are still unknown, Konami has gone on record as saying that there are a very strict set of conditions that must be met before players gain access to it. Konami has hidden things in Metal Gear Solid 5 before, but this event will take a lot more than repeating the same mission seven times. Apparently, one of the requirements is complete nuclear disarmament on the same regional server.
Of course, that’s just one of the conditions players need to meet. Konami released a list of what Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain players will have to do in order to participate: Players must have completed Mission 31. Players must not own or be developing a nuclear weapon. Certain conditions related to “nuclear proliferation” must be met on the regional server on a player’s corresponding gaming platform (such as PlayStation 4 or PC, for example) All nuclear weapons on a given regional server must have been dismantled.
If getting all of the players in a game that shipped over 5 million copiessounds like a daunting task, it’s important to keep in mind that the requirements are restricted to regional servers. It seems most of the player base is interested in seeing what Konami’s event will be, as rumors of the event and its corresponding cutscenessurfaced a few month ago and resulted in a drastic decrease in nuclear weapons on each platform.
Konami has added that the event will automatically trigger once the conditions are met and a player returns to their main base after completing a mission. The entire event, from its anti-nuclear message to its near impossible-to-satisfy requirements, has Hideo Kojima’s fingerprints all over it, despite the well-loved game director’s extended leave from Konami.
It seems ambitious for Konami to believe that so many players can co-operate together in order to unlock an event, but Metal Gear Solid 5 is special even as far as AAA titles are concerned. Kojima’s brainchild has always had an uncanny ability to connect with fans, so much so that Konami recently announced they were supporting an amputee gamer’s decision to develop a prosthetic limb inspired by Snake. With that kind of dedication from its players, who’s to say Konami can’t unify an entire regional server under a message of peace?
Do you think gamers will be able to work together long enough to help each other trigger the event? Did you already watch the cutscene when it leaked? Let us know in the comments.
Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain is available now for PS4, PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and PC.
Source: Konami Japan(via Polygon)
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Konami announces plans to help develop a prosthetic limb inspired by Snake’s in Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain for a young double amputee gamer.
Konami ‘s newest initiative is called The Phantom Limb Project, in which the Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Limb publisher will work with Sophie de Oliveira Barata and her team of engineers, roboticists, and product designers to construct a “highly stylized and multi-functional” limb for the 25-year-old amputee gaming fan James Young. Young lost an arm and a leg after being pulled onto the tracks between two separate trains of the London DLR metro system.
Although Young is without two arms, the man is a hardcore fan of video games, as he continues to partake in the medium. In fact, ever since the incident, he’s taught himself to rely solely on his right hand when wielding a controller. However, Barata and Konamiseek to restore his left limb completely in a bid to make Young’s physical interaction with the world more manageable.
Barata’s Alternative Limb Projectis different from other organizations in that it collaborates with amputees in need on distinctive designs for their prostheses. After all, it makes sense for the one wearing the new appendage to be comfortable with its shape and style.
Sophie de Oliveira Barata’s past work is rather dynamic, ranging from steampunk arms to legs resembling those of a cyborg’s. For those completely unfamiliar with the artist’s conceptual flair, Barata’s production of the “crystal leg” worn by performer Viktoria Modesta in the opening ceremony of the 2012 Paralympics is probably the most recognizable of her creations.
With Young being a fan of Konami’s stealth action series, the studio felt compelled to assist with the enterprise, and is helping chronicle the project with a 3-part documentary that will log the entire process’ progress. There’s no telling what the final product will look like, but there’s a possibility that it could resemble the bionic arm worn by Snakein MGS 5 .
As of late, Konami’s name has rarely been associated with news as optimistic and uplifting as this particular story. For starters, the studio had an extremely public falling out with one of the industry’s most prominent creators, as Konami and Hideo Kojima’s relationshipended very badly. Not to mention, a few months ago, there were claims that the company’s treatment of its employees was terrible, with Nekkei releasing a damning work environment report. Nevertheless, it’s always possible for some ships to correct their course, so it’s nice to hear of the Japan-based firm helping create some positive change in this world of ours with The Phantom Limb Project.
Konami ‘s most recent game, Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain is currently available for the PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.
Source: The Phantom Limb Project(via GameSpot)
The Big N is taking their first steps toward cross-buy functionality between Wii U and Nintendo 3DS with Mario vs.
Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars . This new game in the Mario vs. Donkey Kong series takes all the assets from its predecessors and builds upon them, while introducing new ways for players to interact online.
The same Mario vs. Donkey Kong gameplay remains intact for this new game in the series. You shape and shift the world around ‘mini’ Marios (via the touchscreen) to get them to their destination. The same basic rules you know from previous titles are at play, and you can’t deny its amusement and charm. The game doesn’t stray too far from the path of its predecessors; however, each level is uniquely crafted and will keep you playing until you inevitably have to eat, sleep, or go to work. Puzzles get tough fast, but it is a great feeling once you finally overcome them. It also never felt like a chore to collect (or re-collect) stars for online tipping, which was something I feared, and I applaud Nintendo for the great execution of this new feature.
What is online tipping you ask? It’s a key mechanic introduced in Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars . When completing a level, you can earn up to three stars based on your time and coins collected throughout the puzzle. After building up your earned stars, you are able to take them to the online space where you can play levels created by other players. If you enjoy a level another player has crafted, you tip them some of your stars. These stars in turn help them make more awesome levels. Same goes for levels you create: if other players like your work, they can help you continue building. It’s a bit like team work and earning a reputation.
Speaking of level creation, it’s back and features a wide array of unique tools. Magnets and cannons galore, you’ll find this MvD to have much more variety in creation devices than its predecessors. The game is also extremely easy to navigate via the 3DS touch screen and Wii U GamePad. The bigger the screen the better, so if you’re a level-creator junkie, the 2DS and original 3DS isn’t the best choice for this game.
As I mentioned at the top of my review, this is Nintendo’s first game to offer cross-buy functionality, which is hopefully a growing trend for the company. If you play the game on both Wii U and 3DS, the levels you create on either console are accessible with both systems through Nintendo’s online community, Miiverse. It’s a nice feature that certainly makes sense for the series. However, Miiverse is the only thing that connects the Wii U and 3DS versions. Any ‘story mode’ progress you make will not ‘cross-save’ with the other platform. This just a minor annoyance, but I recommend you start the game on your preferred system. Might I add, I also recommend the 3DS version the over Wii U. The 3DS’s portability comes in handy often. And while Wii U version of the game looks slightly better, it takes place almost completely on the gamepad, with very little TV screen interaction.
Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars insures us that this series is still just fun and addictive as ever. Its new online ‘tipping’ system is original, and gives gamers more incentive to keep building. While Cross-Platform functionality is limited, you can’t argue with getting two games for the price of one.
Written by Brett Medlock
Pros: Cross-Buy Level creator is better than ever Unique online
Cons: Limited cross-platform communication While fun, not much we haven't seen before
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A dedicated gamer discovers a hidden change in Konami’s latest patch for Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain brings a popular character back to the game.
Despite its massive success, Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain has received a fair amount of criticism from players, most notably because of the way the story wraps up. Interestingly, one of the game’s features that has many fans upset is the fact that one of’s most popular characters, the sniper Quiet, leaves the game after mission 45, unless players fulfill a very specific set of requirements ahead of time. Now they don’t have to.
In the latest patch for the open world stealth game, developer Konami made a small update that allows players to get the sniper Quietback on their team for additional missions. However, Konami failed to make any mention of the update in their patch notes. Instead, the hidden gem was discovered by a gamer who shared the finding on Reddit.
Apparently, if Metal Gear Solid 5 players replay the “Cloaked in Silence” mission seven times, the tag for the mission changes from [Replay] to [Reunion], and players are able to bring Quiet back to the Diamond Dogs for support.
It’s intriguing that Konami would make such an adjustment, considering it takes a dedicated player replaying that one level numerous times in order to discover the hidden feature. Granted, the mission is the one where players first engage with Quiet and bring her back to Mother Base, but other than a desire to replay the mission out of enjoyment or for a high score, there’s really no reason for players to expect something like this would happen.
The decision on Konami’s part to allow players to reunite with Quiet is surprising, since the character’s departure is supposed to feel meaningful. That being said, Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain is now in its third month, and is up against healthy competition going into the holiday buying season. As a result, we wouldn’t be surprised to hear Konami made the move to swing attention back to Solid Snake and his crew in time for the holidays.
With that in mind, it’s quite possible Konami wanted to give players a chance to discover the change before making it known itself. What do you think about this discovery? Will you be replaying the mission to get Quiet back? Let us know in the comments.
Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain is now available for PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.
Source: Reddit
Content marketing isn’t just another arrow in your quiver — our panel of top marketing professionals argue that when it’s used correctly, it’s a nuclear-grade weapon in the war for customer engagement and real ROI.
Image Credit: Shutterstock
Content marketing is consistently the most important — and the least understood — marketing tool. In our upcoming webinar, we share the insights from the imminent VB Insight report about what it takes to create compelling content that gets discovered and really connects.
“Content marketing has exploded over the last few years,” says panelist Chase Hooley, senior manager of content marketing at MapR Technologies. “We’ve bought in to Seth Godin’s saying: content marketing is essentially the only kind of marketing that’s left.”
Content marketing, he says, “is about the only way to get our target audience’s attention anymore. They have the power to block our ads, they have the power to leave the website if they don’t like what they see.”
And that’s why creating content with real, measurable value for your target audience is the essential backbone of content marketing. “Once we’ve got their attention, then we can get down to the analytics: what’s working, what’s not,” Hooley says.
What’s working is measured in increased sales opportunities. In fact, MapR’s content marketing efforts drive the majority of the those opportunities, and help shorten sales cycles.
A content marketing strategy is built from the ground up. MapR spent three months talking with marketing agencies and conducting interviews with sales reps, internal subject matter experts, and customers to build out audience personas and buyer journeys for each of them. Keyword research on each persona’s micro-moments — those intent-rich instances when a potential customer comes to a decision or forms a preference — guide content development and determine the impact of engaging at that essential moment.
While interactive ebooks, articles, and videos are important pieces of the puzzle, the blog has been a focus for MapR from the start. Content is heavily SEO-optimized, and focuses on building reciprocal links so that it ranks well and pulls in engaged, interested traffic.
“They’re coming to our blog to read and consume and basically become better at what they do for a living,” Hooley says. It creates a solid demand gen platform as potential customers consume that content. “Then, he says, “we can start to move them through the buyer’s journey and help speed up that process. The blog is definitely foundational.”
And choosing the right technology is essential. Hooley relies on the content management platform Kapost which is key to keeping the team better aligned and to better plan content strategy.
From an ROI standpoint, Hooley notes, Kapost’s content-scoring metrics, which highlight the best-performing content, drives content promotion, strategy, and creation.
What’s the future of content marketing? For Hooley’s team it’s a content recommendation engine on the MapR platform. “Between the qualitative research we’ve done and crunching all the other analytics we’re able to pull on our platform, our goal is to create a more relevant and engaging experience on our website toward the end of this year.”
To learn more about content marketing tech, analytics, and ROI — plus fundamental content creation strategies — register for this free webinar with our panel of content marketing experts.
Don’t miss out!
This webinar will be based on Stewart Rogers’ VB Insight report, which will be published in February, 2016.
This webinar is sponsored by Searchmetrics, Inc.
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Fallout 4 ‘s extremely popular canine companion, Dogmeat, goes on to win The CW Television Network’s Top Video Game Dog Award at this year’s World Dog Awards.
Make no bones about it. Fallout 4 players are barking mad for Dogmeat, the Sole Survivor’s German Shepherd sidekick, and those gaming fans decided to make their voices heard by casting the majority of the votes for the pup to win The CW’s Top Video Game Dog Award.
Technically speaking, though, it wasn’t the actual in-game character that won the trophy, but it was Dogmeat’s real life inspiration, River, which is the pet of a Bethesda lead level designer, Joel Burgess, that received the honor. Of course, there was stiff competition hounding the German Shepherd for the award, as the popularpooch was up against Metal Gear Solid 5 ‘s D-Dog, as well as Chop from Grand Theft Auto 5 .
As seen in the tweet below, Bethesda hosted River along with her owners and handlers back at its studios to celebrate and congratulate the proud tail-wagger for the coveted win of the much sought after Golden Hydrant. Surely, being bestowed such an award prompted River to express plenty of relief after the fact.
Congrats to River on winning @TheCW’s Top Video Game Dog for her work in #Fallout4 pic.twitter.com/PMNDcngZqO
— BethesdaGameStudios (@BethesdaStudios) March 15, 2016For those unaware, The CW’s World Dog Awards aired Thursday, January 14 on the American network, and it honored man’s best friend in a variety of other categories beyond video games, such as those in the world of television, film, as well as community service. Bearing this in mind, we here at Game Rant are obviously are behind the times with this news, so we regret the lapse in reportage.
Taking into consideration the fact that Dogmeat is not only an adorable companion, but also a fierce combatant, the Fallout 4 pup’s win is much deserved. However, there have been several occasions in the post-apocalyptic RPG that could portray the character in a negative light, such as the instance of Dogmeat’s wanton carelessness, which led a player getting killed. Plus, it’s no secret that the Sole Survivor’s pet often goes missing in action, and it takes careful detective skills on the parts of the game’s fans, as players usually find the missing dog in strange places.
At any rate, Fallout 4 fans are likely looking forward to the open world title’s first bout of expansion materials, as the DLC’s release dateis not far off, with it launching on March 22, 2016 for all platforms. Naturally, if developers have made it a possibility, a lot of players will probably want to bring Dogmeat along for the hunt once the add-on finally goes live.
Fallout 4 is out now and is available for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
Source: Bethesda – Twitter(via)
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In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, John Carpenter reveals that Konami was almost sued due to similarities between Metal Gear Solid and Escape from New York .
These past few months have had no shortage of strange stories involving Hideo Kojima, Konami, and Metal Gear Solid . From Hideo Kojima reportedly being firedto Konami bizarrely claiming that the legendary developer is just on vacation, the Kojima/Konami situation has had some interesting developments, to say the least.
The latest strange story surrounding Kojima, Konami, and theseries isn’t about something that happened during the development of the ridiculously successful Metal Gear Solid 5 , however. On the contrary, it’s just been revealed by celebrated filmmaker John Carpenter that he was once approached with the idea of suing Konami over the original Metal Gear Solid for copyright infringement.
Ultimately, Carpenter didn’t move forward with the lawsuit. He explained why in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter:
“[CanalPlus] wanted to also go after the video game Metal Gear Solid , which is kind of a rip-off of Escape From New York, too, but I told them not to do that. I know the director of those games, and he’s a nice guy, or at least he’s nice to me.”
It’s no secret that Hideo Kojima’s work has been heavily influenced by film, and he has outright admitted in the past that Solid Snake is meant to pay homage to Snake Plissken from Escape from New York . Even so, there are striking similarities between the characters that arguably cross the line of just being an “homage.”
Beyond their clear physical resemblance and the fact that they share a name, Snake Plissken and Solid Snake are both stealth operatives with smoking habits. Furthermore, Naked Snake and Snake Plissken share a fairly uncommon visual characteristic, with both men sporting eye patches at various points in their careers.
Luckily for Kojima, Konami, and fans of the Metal Gear Solid franchise, Carpenter didn’t move forward with the lawsuit, which could’ve been very damaging to the series. That being said, future legal trouble may be just around the corner for Konami, as a certain head transplant doctorhas expressed plans to demand compensation from Konami for using his likeness in Metal Gear Solid 5 without his permission. We’ll have to wait and see how that plays out, but considering the uncanny resemblance between the real world doctor and the fictional one from the game, it seems like he has a pretty solid case.
Do you think Metal Gear Solid is too similar to Escape from New York ? Do you feel that John Carpenter made the right call by not pursuing the lawsuit? Let’s discuss the potential copyright infringement lawsuit that was nearly levied against Metal Gear Solid in the comments.
Source: Polygon
Nintendo has a whole heap of awesome first-party titles on the Wii U.
Nintendo has a whole heap of awesome first-party titles on the Wii U. Sadly, when it comes to some third-party developed games, it seems the console is left hung out to dry. The Wii U doesn\’t have the install-base like its competitors. Therefore developers are less likely to crank out the blood, sweat, and most importantly, costs that it takes to bring their titles to the Wii U. However, some games being absent from the Wii U\’s line-up is an atrocity. Here are five titles that need a shelf in Nintendo\’s library.
Resident Evil: Revelations 2
The originalmade it\’s grand debut as a Nintendo 3DS exclusive, and the game was well received. A little over a year later, the horror title spawned a remake onto home consoles (Wii U, PS3, 360) with mildly enhanced visuals. It seems criminal that the sequel wouldn\’t make its way to either Nintendo platform, given that the original was birthed on the 3DS. Not to mention that Revelation\’s sales were at its highest on Nintendo\’s handheld.is slated to release episodically on all other platforms this month.
Soul Calibur 2 HD Online
Soul Calibur 2 released in August 2003 on GameCube, PlayStation, and Xbox. What was remarkable is that against all odds, the game sold best on the GameCube. This is an incredible feat because the platform had the smallest install base of the three. It\’s no secret why Nintendo\’s version sold like hotcakes. The power of Link, of course! Hyrule\’s hero himself was a playable fighter exclusively on GameCube. This was a game every GameCube owner had on their shelf.
Sadly, Bandai Namco won\’t be bringing Soul Calibur 2 HD Online to Nintendo\’s Wii U, as they believe the demand wouldn\’t be high enough. Call me optimistic, but I think Soul Calibur 2 has a place in many Nintendo gamer\’s hearts, and without a doubt those gamers would hop on SC2: HD Online for Wii U.
MineCraft
Minecraft is a worldwide phenomenon. Kids love it, adults love it, hell your dog probably loves it. With such a mass appeal to so many gamers, it is a little frustrating that there hasn\’t been any (known) attempts of Nintendo reaching out to developer Mojang(or Microsoft for that matter) to get MineCraft on Nintendo platforms. The playful silliness of Minecraft and it\’s bizarre pixelated art style goes hand-in-hand with Nintendo\’s obscurity. Also, the Wii U\’s GamePad is the perfect companion for MineCraft , allowing quick and easy item swapping, they\’re best friends just waiting to happen!
Resident Evil (REmake)
The original Resident Evil first gave children nightmares in 1996. Several years later in 2002, CapCom developed a remake that released exclusively on the Nintendo GameCube. However, this wasn\’t merely a port. The music, characters, and cut scenes, all were completely revamped. And due to CapCom\’s decision to feature pre-rendered backdrops, the game still looks stunning to this day. Last year CapCom announced they be releasing the Resident Evil \”REmake\”on multiple platforms, excluding the Wii U. It\’s upsetting since the \”REmake\” first spooked us Nintendo\’s GameCube.
Telltale\’s Series (The Walking Dead, The Wolf Among Us, etc.)
Developer Telltale has had a marvelous past couple years. Their game series aren\’t only being cranked out in the masses, but they\’re actually great! They have managed to port their games to pretty much every gaming device available, including handhelds. However, there is no sign of them on Nintendo\’s Platforms. This just seems a little obscure considering Telltale\’s willingness to port all their titles to every other console in the market. The Wii U could offer the presentation of the console versions, with the simplistic controls of a touch device. I\’m not sure which side of the pendulum is being negligent, but it would be great to see all of Telltale\’s games on the Wii U.
What games do you think are missing from Nintendo library? Do you agree with my choices? Leave all your thoughts in the comments below!
Written by Brett Medlock
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What do Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram and a gazillion other digital platforms have in common?
What do Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram and a gazillion other digital platforms have in common? They all treat usernames like a baby treats a diaper instead of the precious and lucrative resource they are.
Because usernames are dished out using an archaic first-come, first-served model, early adopters snag the dictionary-friendly handles. Everyone else gets smacked with alphanumeric nonsense. Soon perfidy and confusion take over as the black hats win and power users settle for names like “boogie2988”, “Rclbeauty101”, and “realDonaldTrump” even while “boogie”, “beauty”, and “trump” languish.
First-come, first-served emerged with domain name registrations. Back then, claiming a domain name was an esoteric chore, so anyone who figured out the hows and whys deserved their three-letter dot com. As demand and accessibility grew, the flaws of first-come, first-served became obvious (more on that later), but by then it was too late. Early tech companies had already adopted the domain model for their identity systems, and later companies thoughtlessly followed the tradition. So here we are with almost every web service severely misallocating a key asset.
The underlying assumption behind first-come, first-served is that early users are more valuable than late users. This is not only false, it’s backwards!
When you’re desperate for your first 1,000 members, you figure your best usernames to be a small price to pay. But remember that you haven’t completely figured out your product yet, your onboarding process is untested, and your service is light on content and features. In other words, your early retention rate will be terrible, so all your good names will end up like a clump of dry hot chocolate powder goo at the bottom of a cup. While early adopters are great for buzz, they’re not motivated by usernames and have a one-night-stand mentality anyway; they’ll spread your product for a day and then leave you in the morning for the next shiny service. Save your best names for later!
Abandoning first-come, first-served won’t be easy; three types of members will revolt: Squatters will hate you, scammers will abandon you, and spammers will betray you for someone else. Think of the starving server admin in China who can’t register hundreds of your best account names at a time. Or the copyright infringer in Kentucky who misses rent because he can’t snag “apple.”
Michael Lee, partner at law firm Morrison & Lee LLP, has spent many years cleaning up after haphazard registration systems. “The effort needed to maintain the status quo is staggering. Dummy pages clog up search results, customers don’t know what they’re liking or following, and increasingly desperate brands have to resort to expensive lawsuits. There are big question marks abroad, too, especially in China where their trademark system is not always equitable.” He points to a recent lawsuit between GoDaddy and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, where the Academy, in essence, tried to unsuccessfully block the registration of all domains containing the word “oscar” and “academy awards.”
First-come, first-served even turns benign members into villains. When Pinterest launched, I registered “nimble” with high hopes. Years later, my Pinterest page is, well … sparse. Meanwhile, legitimate companies like Nimble CRM, Nimble Systems, and Nimble Storage are sunk. Did I deserve “nimble” because I got in early? Obviously not. Will I ever let “nimble” go? Hahahahaha, that name is my retirement plan!
Twitter’s famous blue check markisn’t the solution to first-come, first-served; it’s a desperate and clunky hack that proves the system is broken. Consider it a warning: Build your identity system the right way or suffer the wrath of endless whining support tickets (“But, but do you know who I am, Mr. Dorsey!??!”).
I wrote this post to inspire brainstorming about alternative systems. To kickstart the process, here’s an idea in three simple steps:
Step 1: De-emphasize usernames by asking members to login with their email
Step 2: Members start with a three-word username, so my Pinterest account would be: pinterest.com/adam-is-nimble
Step 3: Let members earn their way to two-word and then one-word usernames. After six months and 1,000 pins, I can shrink my name to pinterest.com/adam-nimble. After 2 years and 5,000 pins, I can transform into pinterest.com/nimble. It goes without saying that anyone who types in “adam-is-nimble” will be redirected.
With this system, your best users will own the best names and the majority of one-night-stand types and scammers will give up before they cause any harm. And that’s just for starters. With a little effort you’ll:
Drive participation. LinkedIn is pushing its members to write articles. I’d submit a dozen today if it meant I could get a better username out of the deal. “Game-ify” your service. Earning a better username will be fun! Fun makes your product stickier. Improve retention. If someone’s worked hard to upgrade their username, they’ll have more to lose by leaving Create envy and curiosity. A person who sees another member with a short name will grow curious. What’s going on? How can I do that too?Copyright enforcement becomes MUCH easier because you’re handing out fewer one-word names per day and can more closely monitor them. People will also be hesitant to request potentially infringing usernames, knowing that they could lose years of work if they get into trouble.
Know anyone with a novel identity system? Devised a clever one of your own? Tweet meand I’ll post the ideas in a follow-up. (I know there’s no blue check mark next to my name, you’ll just have to trust it’s me.)
Adam Ghahramani is head of digital product for a creative agency in New York City. Find him at adamagb.comor make friends on Twitter ( @adamagb).
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Wolfram Hempel and Yasser Fadl, the founders of deepstreamHub which was launched a year, said the startup wants to be the platform of choice for developing real time apps in areas like social messaging, geolocation services, or the Internet of Things.
Berlin-based deepstreamHub, a platform for building real time apps, has closed a $1 million seed round from Blue Yard Capitalto further develop its cloud platform for app developers.
This marks the first investment for Berlin’s Blue Yard Capital, a new VC fund launched in Januarythat raised $120 million to invest in early stage startups.
Wolfram Hempel and Yasser Fadl, the founders of deepstreamHub which was launched a year, said the startup wants to be the platform of choice for developing real time apps in areas like social messaging, geolocation services, or the Internet of Things. Its real time backend as a service, based on the open source server deepstream.io, allows developers to integrate data with sites and services like Slack, GitHub, payment providers or IoT endpoints.
“This is not just about creating another real time data service, it’s about using the power of real time concepts like data-sync, pub/sub or request/response to create a combined and open platform that gives developers access to a wealth of tools and third party integrations,” said Hempel. “This makes it significantly more powerful than what is available today.”
“deepstreamHub aims to deliver every update within the same region in less than 16.6 Milliseconds – or one frame on your screen. This makes it a good fit for demanding use cases like multiplayer gaming or trading apps,” added Fadl.
This article first appeared on Tech.eu.
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One Fallout 4 player and dedicated science fiction fan uses assets from Bethesda’s post-apocalyptic RPG to create a giant battle in the vein of Star Wars .
The YouTuber, modder, and Fallout 4 player known as Cosmic Contrarian is back again to bring yet another large-scale battle to the Boston Commonwealth. This time around, he’s altered the elements of Bethesda’s open world title to resemble a point in history that was long ago in a galaxy far, far away by incorporating the style of the Star Wars franchise.
In order to bring this sci-fi mashup to life, Cosmic Contrarian had to utilize a bevy of different mods for, such as the Star Wars Imperial Brotherhood of Steel Overhaul, which made the power armor in the game resemble that of the film’s Stormtrooper outfits. Plus, it was necessary for the YouTuber to make use of the retro-futuristic title’s Seasons mod, as he needed snow on the ground to change several areas of the Wasteland into spots that would look like the ice planet Hoth.
As seen in the video below, the footage begins with Brotherhood of Steel airships standing in for Star Destroyers looming in the sky, as Fallout 4 ‘s Liberty Primes taking on the role of Star Wars ‘ AT-AT Walkers stalk the ground below and set off a conflict that builds to an all-out war. Interestingly enough, though, the focus goes on to shift away from the skirmish and centers solely on a lengthy duel between Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker, with Cosmic Contrarian making use of the title’s Lightsaber Renew modand Jedi and Sith Force Powers mod to provide the characters with their mystical powers.
As previously noted, this is far from Cosmic Contrarian’s first foray into modding different battles from film franchises into Fallout 4 . In fact, one of the YouTuber’s more popular clips involves his recreation of Lord of the Rings ‘ Battle of Helm’s Deep, which obviously put a post-apocalyptic spin on the action found in Peter Jackson’s fantasy movies based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s books. Not to mention, the modder also put the futuristic war from The Terminator in the Boston Commonwealthwith the game’s Generation 2 Synths standing in for the titular killer robots.
Of course, Cosmic Contrarian’s incorporation of all the aforementioned film franchises into Fallout 4 isn’t perfect, as the game has its own limitations that modders have to work around, but the effort is certainly impressive. With that in mind, there’s no telling what the YouTuber will be able to cook up next.
What did you think about Cosmic Contrarian’s version of Star Wars within Fallout 4 ? Which pop culture series should the modder tackle next? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Fallout 4 is out now and is available for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
Source: Cosmic Contrarian – YouTube
In a recent press release , From Software, known for the Dark Souls franchise and Bloodborne , revealed the release date for Dark Souls III (March 24th), only it was for the version to be released only in Japan.
(March 24th), only it was for the version to be released only in Japan. The press release also stated that the EU, NA, and AUS versions of the game would have a release date revealed later on, but the wait wasn’t long. Announced just today by BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment America was the release date for the North and South Americas: April 2016.
Dark Souls III is the latest installment in a series known for its difficulty. For the third installment, there are a few major changes that veterans of the series will notice. For starters, the introduction of “Skills” that alter the damage of certain types of weapons will allow players to further customize their experience and strategize accordingly. In the words of From Software themselves, an example: “Increase an axe’s attack power with War Cry or break an enemy’s guard with a quick upward swing from Ready Stance.”
The series’ creator, Hidetaka Miyazaki, also has a lot of aspects of his previous project, Bloodborne , that have been implemented into the Dark Souls series for the third installment. For instance, in Bloodborne there are no shields, and therefore no blocking. While Dark Souls III will have shields, the focus will be on rolling and evading, as in Bloodborne . In addition, Estus Flask drinking animations will take a tad bit longer and stamina will not regenerate as quickly on top of an increased character movement speed.
Nintendo has taken great strides to bring AAA experiences on the go, and with the New Nintendo 3DS\’s enhanced processor, we\’re seeing more of that than ever.
Nintendo has taken great strides to bring AAA experiences on the go, and with the New Nintendo 3DS\’s enhanced processor, we\’re seeing more of that than ever. However, the Big N has a handful of AAA games that would play and look (with some proper resolution tinkering) incredibly well on the big screen. Here is the top five Nintendo 3DS games I want to play on my Wii U.
5. Bravely Default
Bravely Defaultis arguably one of the the most visually impressive games on the 3DS. The game doesn’t push the hardware like Resident Evil: Revelations, but features a rather gorgeous art style that will have you in awe from start to finish. Graphics aside, Bravely Default is equipped with an action packed adventure, with tons of areas to explore, and even more secrets to find. It is the Final Fantasy game everyone had been waiting for. There was a lack JRPG\’s on Nintendo\’s console and Bravely Default\’s traditional system is exactly what it needed; this game deserves to be showcased in high definition on the big screen.
4. Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance
Square-Enix has never shied away from re-releasing their games. As you may know, almost every game in the series is inevitably re-released on a different platform in a \’special edition\’ fashion. Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II have recently been remastered in HD and released on PlayStation 3 alongside a gaggle of spin-off Kingdom Hearts titles. However, there is one game in the series that has been stricken to one platform: Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance for the Nintendo 3DS. It\’s no secret that this title is one of the best looking games on Nintendo\’s handheld device. The game is bursting with colors and sets the bubbly, cheerful tone the series is known for. This Kingdom Hearts iteration looks on par, if not better than its recently remastered predecessors. I think this 3DS title blown up on the big screen would undoubtedly deliver on the presentation front.
3. and 2. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D & Majora\’s Mask 3D
These two legendary Zelda titles are the latest to be remade for Nintendo\’s handheld. Aside from a few subtle gameplay enhancements, the real big change for these updated versions are the visuals. When put side-by-side, these remastered Zelda titles look leap and bounds better than the originals. However, if you want to play these updated classics, you have to play on the 3DS. The 3DS is a great way to play these games, but for those who aren\’t into handheld gaming… well… they are out of luck. Given the appeal and worldwide appreciation for Ocarina of Time and Majora\’s Mask, to bring these two (enhanced) classics to the big screen would certainly be awesome fan service.
1. Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth
Traditionally, every new iteration in the Persona series hits the home console first, then additional versions are ported to handhelds, much like Persona 3 Portable and Persona 4 Golden on Sony\’s mobile gaming devices. However, Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth was first birthed on the Nintendo 3DS, and oddly enough the first time the series debuted on a Nintendo platform.
Persona Q is bursting with personality. Its corky, cartoony art style is charming and truly fun to look at. The game features new character models and a fully voice acted cast; the presentation is top-notch. Atlus has stated that this game is a part of the series \’canon\’, and a fresh new chapter in the growing Persona franchise. Bringing this handheld title to the big screen would allow more gamers who aren\’t keen on mobile gaming to get their hands on this exceptional game.
So what do you think? Do you want to play these 3DS games on Wii U? Do you think Nintendo 3DS games will ever be available on the Wii U eShop? Leave all of your thoughts in the comments section below!
Written by Brett Medlock
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‘StarCraft’ is 15 Years Old
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15 years ago,1998, the world embraced a plethora of activities: France hoisted the World Cup, Bill Clinton was in his second term as the President, and StarCraft released on PC.
released on PC. The landscape of gaming has changed dramatically since then, butitself has continued to be a shining staple of how a polished product can make an old game remain highly relevant for many years after its release.
Originally intended to be a simple in-between game crowd pleaser for the WarCraft series, the original StarCraft went through a radical redesignwhich would see the game completely scrapped and restarted in the development process – a move which would later prove to create one of the best real-time strategy franchises ever conceived It launched to overwhelmingly positive reception and would transform both the gaming industry and eSports scene, as well as setting a high standard for the genre.
Its successor, StarCraft 2 , would go through over 16,000 buildsbefore it was deemed satisfactory as a sequel, a process which would see fans wait over 10 years to continue the fight. Despite the wait, gamers worldwide were thankful that Blizzard was so patient in the development process across the series, resulting in consistently entertaining games. With over 15 years in its storied history, the StarCraft series is one worth celebrating – and that’s exactly what Blizzard intends to do.
Any gamer who plays an online game of StarCraft 2 before April 17th will be given the ’15 Years of StarCraft’ Achievement, which will unlock the classic character portraits shown above in the header image. The Achievement itself is worth 10 points, but is mostly there as a trophy-case achievement for longtime fans. Veteran gamers may remember the classic portraits from the original StarCraft booklet, which gave a detailed history of each race and their respective units and factions.
Whilst no one can take a guess at how many games have been played across the series worldwide, one can fathom that the number is in the billions, with death tolls possibly (or even probably) beyond the trillions.
Blizzard also released a commemorative wallpaper which features a marine, zergling and zealot – it can be downloaded here.
We here at Game Rant hope Blizzardhave a great year as they celebrate the Koprulu Sector’s 15th birthday.
Source: Blizzard
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It\’s been a couple of months since Nintendo announced the first Mario Kart 8 DLC content.
It\’s been a couple of months since Nintendo announced the first Mario Kart 8 DLC content. Among the surprises in this Mario Kart 8 DLC is the fact that you can play as Link, the first non-Mario Nintendo character to grace a Mario Kart game; and the inclusion of Zelda and F-Zero-themed levels among the 8 new tracks. But how does the content hold up?
Let\’s get something out of the way: Mute City and Hyrule Castle, the F-Zero and Zelda-inspired tracks, are absolutely top notch, easily on par with any of the game\’s original top tracks. They are so good, in fact, that they make the wait for Zelda U, and for a (highly unlikely) F-Zero HD game for the Wii U, much more painful to bear.
The main innovation that Mario Kart 8 brought to its franchise – the vertigo-inducing anti-gravity – came largely from F-Zero, and now it\’s all come back full circle to Mute City in Mario Kart 8\’s DLC. This track has some of the landmark F-Zero elements such as boost pads, healing pitstops (in this case they refill your coins, not your health), and even a cylinder pipe (though you\’re not allowed to rotate around its circumference like you could in F-Zero GX, unfortunately). On that note: the influences are certainly coming more from F-Zero X and GX, and not the franchise\’s 2D, Mode 7 classics. Perhaps this is a good sign for a potential F-Zero Wii U title, which would be just about the best news for those of us who adored F-Zero GX.
If you\’re going to spoil these levels for yourself, make sure you do so in 720p60!
Mario Kart had absolutely nothing to do with any Zelda game prior to this, but that doesn\’t mean that the Hyrule Castle level couldn\’t do honor to the franchise. The Hyrule Castle track is actually a combination of Hyrule Field, Hyrule Castle, and the Temple of Time, and it\’s all beautifully crafted. Many staples of the Zelda franchise appear in the level, as they should, such as soldiers, Deku Baba that play the roles of Piranha Plants, and the Master Sword. Even the coins are replaced by rupees (and a nice touch in that the coin item is a yellow rupee).
The rest of the levels are decisively less memorable, yet still of similar quality to the game\’s original tracks. Yoshi Circuit, Excitebike Arena, and Wario\’s Gold Mine are my least favorites (though that last one may grow on me), but Dragon Driftway, Rainbow Road SNES, and Ice Ice Outpost are all beautiful, exciting, and fun. Still, the DLC\’s main course is in the F-Zero and Zelda tracks I\’ve described above. It\’s those tracks that are the best realized, and more instantly gratifying to play through. However, only time will tell which tracks stand better the test of time for both casual fun and competitive play.
There is one thing I wish this DLC had given us: Captain Falcon. We got Link, after all, so why was Captain Falcon out of the question? I would have taken him in a heartbeat over either of the fursuits Mario and Peach got. But at the other end there is one thing I\’m positively glad this DLC gave us: the ability to see Link act like this:
What are your thoughts on this Mario Kart 8 DLC? Do you find it on par with the rest of the game?
Written by Alex Balderas
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In an effort to cover both the single player and multiplayer aspects of Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, two writers here at Nintendo Enthusiast have been tasked with reviewing the game: Alex Balderas, who got his first taste of the series with Monster Hunter Tri for Wii, and Matt Costello, who joined Alex\’s debilitating hunting addiction with the release of Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate for Wii U.
In an effort to cover both the single player and multiplayer aspects of Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, two writers here at Nintendo Enthusiast have been tasked with reviewing the game: Alex Balderas, who got his first taste of the series with Monster Hunter Tri for Wii, and Matt Costello, who joined Alex\’s debilitating hunting addiction with the release of Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate for Wii U. Both of us have a long history with action games, and we like our games deep, hard, and relentless. As such, we are loving the living hell out of our short time with Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate. We say \”short\” because the 30 hours of gameplay we have each put into this game is no comparison to the 800 hours we have each put into the previous game. For the purpose of this review, both of us were provided with a download code by Capcom, mediated through a third staff member.
It\’s difficult to find a way to talk about our experience with Monster Hunter as a franchise, and Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate as a game. Describing what the game plays like to a newcomer is a gargantuan task that Alex already attemptedback when Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate came out, so we won\’t go down that path again (if you want to read about the variety of weapon styles, monsters, and what the \”grind\” of Monster Hunter is like, please read that review). Attempting to convince readers yet unconvinced by the franchise is also not going to get us anywhere. We can\’t tell you what you\’ll like and what you won\’t. That\’s for you to decide. We can only tell you what we\’ve liked, what we didn\’t, and why.
Going into Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, we were obviously very excited to play a successor to one of our favorite games of all time, but also very critical over how the changes and additions to the game might have affected the core experience. The first thing in our minds was how the brand new jumping mechanic and the increased verticality of the levels was going to affect the monster fights. Would it all feel janky? Maybe the monsters were optimized for combat in flat areas, and having more vertical levels would break the balance and make it too easy. Or maybe the controls would be too clunky to make the vertical play enjoyable.
But everything that could have gone wrong here, didn\’t. Though jumping is dependent on your location (with the exception of two weapons that allow you to jump anytime you want), there are plenty of steps, cliffs, mounds, bridges, and scalable walls from which to jump toward enemies. When climbing walls, the player can quickly evade into any direction, which allows for both quicker travel and for avoiding enemy attacks. When approaching cliffs with your weapon unsheated, your character will automatically climb them as long as they\’re not too tall for that. And even when jumping into a wall, or jumping from one platform to another, the character will automatically grab onto their target location, making movement much more fluid than ever before. With that, not only is most of the perceived \”clunkiness\” of previous Monster Hunter games gone, but you often feel like a badass hero as you perform unlikely feats, like jumping down a 60ft cliff and hitting a monster with your weapon in mid-air, followed by mounting it and riding it like a rodeo bull. As your companions witness the madness, they also get easy hits on the monster, hopefully helping you topple the monster into the ground, where he can be dealt even more punishment. They let you act like a true wild hunter in this game.
The demo provides a tantalizing taste of the monster hunting experience.
In fact, you are forced to act like a true wild hunter, because some of these monsters are so smart and so tough that they won\’t take anything less. We have written about the monster A.I.in this franchise before, but Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate takes the \”intelligence\” in \”A.I.\” to a whole new level. Just like climbing and jumping is a fluid experience for the player, so it is for the monsters. Imagine our surprise when we fought a Rathian and, arrogantly assuming we had that one in the bag already, were surprised by its several new moves, and its ability to chase us up and down any cliff, knocking down the bridge from which one of us was about to attempt mounting it, and generally keeping up the pressure regardless of the distance we tried to maintain.
Other monsters have surprised us by having not just one \”rage mode\”, but two. It\’s bad enough when an enraged gigantic shark builds a layer of unbreakable ice around its body and becomes even more relentless in its attacks, but then it inflates its belly and completely changes its moveset, forcing the players to adapt on the fly. Or die, like we did.
Something else that was streamlined is the entire offline portion of the game. In previous games, the player was pretty much thrown into a village, given a tedious tutorial on how to gather herbs and mushrooms and combine them to make potions, and then left alone for the rest of the game, with only the occasional input from the NPCs. It was unguided, and good for no one but self-starters, or players for whom playing online was not even an option. This time it\’s a much more guided experience. The player will move between various towns and try to solve the NPCs\’ woes to advance the story. Hunts and gathering quests are the bread and butter of the game, as always, but now the sometimes-monotonous quest routine gets broken up by the occasional story and action sequence (like fighting a bad beast on top of a ship as you move from one town to the next), and by the new \”expedition\” quests, which are improved versions of the Moga Woods free roam mode from Monster Hunter Tri and 3 Ultimate. Furthermore, upgrading the different facilities available for the player, such as the Cook, the Smithy, and the traveling Merchant, is more logical now, as these NPCs themselves will give you the specific quest that will give the player the upgrade. It\’s easier than ever to simply bust open your 3DS whenever you have 15 minutes to kill, and quickly do a quest that will improve your Cook\’s kitchen so that you have better status boosts next time you hop online for a lengthy multiplayer session.
Ah, the multiplayer sessions. It\’s one thing for us to talk about how nice the upgrades to the single player are, but truly, we wouldn\’t be here if not for the multiplayer. It is because of the online multiplayer that we have so many hundreds of hours of playtime in Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate. Both Matt and Alex are administrators for the Nintendo Enthusiast forums; we can confidently say that about 95% of our important decisions, debates, and arguments, have happened in the midst of Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate online multiplayer sessions. Because of this, we were very sad to find out that its sequel, Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate on 3DS, didn\’t have any voice chat to speak of. But we couldn\’t let this misfortune hold us back, and we came up with an alternative of our own: using Wii U Chat while we play Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate on our 3DS. This is the future, people. If you ever get a chance to play a multiplayer game with a friend and have some sort of videochat software available, please do it.
We could belabor other issues with the game, such as the organization of online lobbies being a little awkward, or with the tutorial section still being too long and tedious, but truly, this is petty to us. Complaining about such things, as important as they are for many other games, is like going to a 5-star restaurant, getting served the best freaking steak you\’ve ever had the pleasure of eating, and then complaining about the server being rude, or the lighting not being moody enough.
And what a steak! Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate\’s online is, so far, and in spite of us mostly having tried it as a 2-man group, mindblowingly good. Every time we\’ve played, we\’ve said to each other, \”I can\’t believe it\’s this good.\” We\’ve said, \”I can\’t believe these monsters are this much smarter.\” We\’ve said, \”I can\’t believe these levels are so cool.\” But more than that we\’ve said, \”Wow, we both jumped and hit the monster at the same time!\” and, \”Did you see me do that thing where I climbed the wall and immediately jumped off and dropped the monster and mounted him before you took it down before it threw me off?!\” and, very often, we\’ve said, \”Hey, check this out!\” right before doing some crazy Legolas-type stunt.
All this and we are, by our count, barely at about 10% of the multiplayer, if at that. We are getting our asses kicked by monsters so tough (and they are much tougher than in offline, and tougher than in Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate), so smart, and so surprising, that we can\’t even envision what\’s going to come in the future. We actually sat there, last night, asking each other these questions: \”Whoa! I didn\’t realize the Rathian would be so different, that was brutal. Can you imagine what the Deviljho is going to be like? Can you imagine what the elder god fights are going to be like? Can you imagine fighting a Gore Magala and a Deviljho together? Can you imaging fighting them together and the Deviljho is infected by the Gore Magala\’s rage virus?\”
We are as children when we play this game, playing \”hero\”, being heroes , thinking about the ultra-cool fights that await us in the future, and just being excited to keep learning and keep applying what we\’ve learned to beat these monsters that just keep getting harder and harder.
Having said all these high praises for the game might make us look like we\’re telling literally every person out there with a 3DS to go out and buy it on day one. It\’s not like that. We know Monster Hunter isn\’t for everyone. Monster Hunter is for people who like a very hard challenge, who like earning their enjoyment through hours of hard play, and who like spending time playing with their friends and collectively discovering tricks and techniques that won\’t be found in the game\’s manual. Like a good relationship, Monster Hunter requires a lot of give-and-take, and a lot of effort. You won\’t be having your honeymoon a day after you begin that relationship with Monster Hunter. But it will steadily get better and better, and each time you think you\’ve reached the peak and it can\’t get any better, it gets better , and then it gets better again , and again and again.
We are hard like a hammer for Monster Hunter.
But maybe when you first give the game a try, you won\’t feel anything. That\’s fine. Like we said, monster hunting isn\’t for everyone. If you have played the demo with and without friends, if you\’ve given it a fair shake and you just can\’t get into it – well, at least now you have another game series to ignore. But those that feel like there is something here for you, do not give up. Try the game offline. Try it online. Try it with a friend through the free demo if you have to. Try it with voicechat. Try reading the game manual and a guide on the weapons so you find something to your liking. Try it with a Monster Hunter veteran that can teach you the basics of the game to lower that skill floor a little bit. If you feel anything at all for the gameplay in Monster Hunter, please stick with it, because you don\’t want miss out on a hell of a ride that can give you hundreds of hours of magnificent fun.
At the end of the day, we give Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate our highest recommendation based on our experience, which has been thoroughly outstanding in the short time we\’ve played it. Will it be for you? Who knows, it\’s a niche game if we\’ve ever seen one. But it\’s living proof that niche games can be masterpieces when they are unapologetically designed and crafted around their core gameplay, with little regard for attracting others games\’ audience.
Written by Alex Balderas
Pros: Potentially hundreds of hours of intense fun. Among best social games on 3DS. Controls and level design are vastly improved from previous installments. Unparalleled amount of content. Even "clone" monsters are fairly unique.
Cons: Tutorial is still slow and tedious. Has a high skill floor. Requires extensive time investment from new players. It's not on Wii U.
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