This news might not surprise most people but Assassin’s Creed III PC version has been delayed. This has now become common for Ubisoft to delay Assassin’s Creed games on the PC. Eurogamer caught the news from a source, which also included the following image:
The PC version of Assassin’s Creed III which was supposed to launch along side the Console version on 31st October, will now release on 23rd November.
Resident Evil 6 is expected to hit stores next month on October but 2nd modded Xbox 360 users are already playing the game. The game has been leaked on private gaming torrent tracker BlackCats Games by user DevilSlayer.
The game is available as a “JTAG Rip” and is sized at 6.97gb. Resident Evil 6 will be available on retail in two discs, although the uploader claims the second disc only contains other languages.
Note: This leak is legit, the rip has confirmed to be working by multiple sources.
Which platform will you be getting Resident Evil 6 for?
Sony announced earlier today that they have acquired the cloud gaming service Gaikai for $380 million. They plain to use the company’s assets to build and improve their streaming services company wide and not just gaming.
Thanks to the deal Sony customers will be able to “to instantly enjoy a broad array of content ranging from immerse core games with rich graphics to casual content anytime, anywhere on a variety of internet-connected devices,” according to SCE (Sony Computer Entertainment) President and CEO Andrew Smith.
Gaikai founder David Perry had the following to say about the buy out:
Sony has built an incredible brand with PlayStation and has earned the respect of countless millions of gamers worldwide.
We’re honored to be able to help Sony rapidly harness the power of the interactive cloud and to continue to grow their ecosystem, to empower developers with new capabilities, to dramatically improve the reach of exciting content and to bring breathtaking new experiences to users worldwide.
Gaikai is a unique gaming streaming service very different to its main competitor OnLive in the sense that it does not require any downloads to work but instead streams content directly in the browser. Read more about the company on their official website.
With the fourth of July just a couple of days away, gamers and fans are no doubt getting ready for the upcoming festivities. Ubisoft thought this to be a great opportunity for the release of a brand new trailer and some major announcements for Assassin’s Creed 3.
The trailer is titled Fourth of July and starts off with a child singing Amazing Grace in the background as colonists get blown away by British soldiers. The naval warfare mission shown at Sony’s E3 conference this year is included here as well. Over all the Independence trailer is mostly the assembly of trailer clips that have been on the web before.
The release of the trailer was bundled with details of the limited edition version of the game for North America. For the PS3 and Xbox 360 the Limited Edition will set you back $119.99 and will include the following:
Bad news for PC gamers would be that the consoles get exclusivity for the Limited Editions. The PC version of the game however, will get a Digital Deluxe Edition which will be retailing at $64.99. This edition will include the following:
PC gamers shouldn’t be that down since the official press release maintains that Assassin’s Creed 3 will definitely arrive on Windows at the same time as of the consoles. It was previously rumored that the PC version of the game might suffer a delay.
Assassin’s Creed 3 releases later this year for the PS3, Xbox 360 and hopefully the PC on October 30th.
Vivendi’s been silently planning to sell its 60% share in Activision Blizzard for quite sometime now and now since everything’s official the rumor mill can’t help but turn quicker and quicker.
According to Reuters the main potential buyers for Vevendi’s shares include Time Warner, Tencent and Microsoft. The sale has not begun as of yet but according to a close source to Vevendi’s board the company has gone ahead and told its bank “to go and talk to possible buyers”.
Could this lead to Xbox exclusive COD? Or even WOW on future Microsoft consoles? Guess only time will tell.
Nintendo has released their Q1 results and it doesn’t look good folks. They posted a total of $220 million loss for Q1 was analysts expected due to the increasing differences in currency rates.
The profitability of the “Nintendo 3DS” hardware is improving, but the hardware has been in negative margin. Therefore, although the selling, general and administrative expenses decreased compared to the first quarter of the previous fiscal year, the result was an operating loss of 10.3 billion yen,.
Nintendo will release the “Wii U” system, the successor of “Wii,” mainly in Japan, the United States and Europe at the end of this calendar year, and propose a new play style of home entertainment with its unique controller
embedding a 6.2 inch touch screen.
The company’s flagship handheld, the 3DS sold 1.86 million units, the Wii sold 700k units while the DS sold 540k units. Nintendo aims to sell 18.5 million 3DS consoles this fiscal year.
Software numbers for the 3DS look promising as they’ve sold a total of 52 million units for this quarter including 7.39 million sales for this quarter.
Hopefully for Nintendo the 3DS XL will improve these numbers even further.
Its here boys! Its finally here! Rockstar has just released the second trailer for GTA V featuring the three protagonists revealed earlier. So without further-a-do check out the trailer embedded below:
You hyped up yet? Let us know what you think of the second trailer in the comments below.
Samsung has been taking over the mobile market by storm after moving on to manufacturing smartphones based on Google’s Open Source Android operating system. The company recently took over Apple as the world’s top smartphone manufacturer. Keeping up the momentum Samsung announced a couple of new phones last August which included the budget friendly Galaxy Y.
Samsung has a lot to live up to, after releasing the highly successful Galaxy S II customers have started to expect nothing but excellence from the electronics giant. The Galaxy Y aims to offer the latest smartphone capabilities at an affordable price making the phone perfect for students, but is it? How does it compare against other phones at same price point and does it live up to the Galaxy name? Find out in our review below.
The factory unlocked Galaxy Y which we received comes in a small white box pictured above, yours may vary. As you open the box you’re greeted by the phone, as you go deeper you find the instruction manual, warranty card and rest of the accessories including the charger, USB cable, earphones and an included 2GB micro-SD card.
The battery included is a 1200mAh unit, which does make the phone last quite a while which we will discuss in fine detail later. The charger included has a fixed microUSB connector unlike the Galaxy S II which had a removable cable, luckily Samsung has included a separate USB cable which is quite redeeming.
The Galaxy Y features the following specifications:
* Quad-Band GSM and dual-band 3G support
* 7.2 Mbps HSDPA
* 3” 256K-color QVGA TFT touchscreen
* ARMv6 830MHz processor, 290MB RAM
* Android OS v2.3 (Gingerbread) with TouchWiz UI
* 160MB of internal storage, hot-swappable MicroSD slot, 2GB card included
* 2MP (1600×1200) fixed focus camera with in-built geotagging which records QVGA@15FPS
* GPS receiver with A-GPS
* Stereo FM radio with RDS
* 3.5mm audio jack
* Document viewer
* Accelerometer and proximity sensor
* Swype keyboard comes with the phone
* MicroUSB port (charging) and stereo Bluetooth 2.1
* Social network integration
The Galaxy Y has a 3-inch display, lets get one thing straight this ain’t no Super AMOLED. The TFT LCD screen on the Galaxy Y has a super low resolution of 240*320 pixels which in this day and age should be extinct. The low resolution in-turn results in a lower quality display and poor colors. The screen proved to be pretty responsive though which kind of makes up for the poor display, it’s a budget phone after all. A proximity sensor is present right above the screen but unfortunately there is no light sensor so you will have to adjust the brightness manually.
The Galaxy Y has a design similar to the original Galaxy but smaller, the front features one main home button and two capacitive back and menu buttons. The front is a typical black face with silver accents. The back is something we don’t see everyday, a bright silver back cover with a very good texture that makes the phone very comfortable to hold.
Moving to the sides now, the left side of the phone sport’s the volume up and down button which are silver just like the back. Unfortunately there is no dedicated camera button like the Galaxy S II which is a shame. The right side of the phone has the the power button like many other Samsung phones. The top of the phone has the 3.5mm headphones jack and microUSB port placed inside a rubber enclosure.
The phone has a 2 megapixel camera which is way below the minimum in this day and age, but as we’ve come to know megapixels aren’t everything. The sensor on the Y is a mediocre at best; the colors a dull, pictures have very little details and the exposure is very erratic as sometimes you will get a very bright or very dark picture. The software bundled in the camera app is very good though, the UI is great and many of the picture options like Panorama mode and smile shot are great to use. Video quality on the phone is pretty much the same, great UI but very poor QVGA video capture at just 15fps shouldn’t be used for anything other than MMS’ing. The Galaxy Y isn’t meant to be a camera phone, not by a long shot so we can’t really blame the phone here.
The Galaxy Y comes with a 830MHz ARMv6 processor which performs pretty good, the phone performed very smoothly during my time with it. The one time I experienced sluggishness when I had more than 5 programs including the web browser and Skype open at the same time. RAM is on the limited side though at just around 290MB which doesn’t give huge room for overclocking but it’s substantial for the casual crowd.
Storage is pretty limited on the Galaxy Y with just 160MB of internal storage, while is almost nothing for apps. I would defiantly recommend getting APPS2SD or a similar app to increase storage for your apps. A 2GB microSD card comes packed with the phone which is pretty substantial.
Speakers on are very poor, you can’t even hear your ring tone if you’re in a crowded place like a park or a shopping mall. Quality is a bit better if there’s less background noise but it isn’t the best experience ever. If you want to listen to music or watch a movie on the phone a headset or earphones are definitely recommended.
The phone comes with the latest Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread with Samsung’s own excellent TouchWiz UI which is my personal favorite Android skin. Navigating through the Menus is very snappy with almost no lag at all due to the light skin. TouchWiz features full Social Network integration so you’re always connected, perfect for them youngsters. Gingerbread’s most annoying feature, at least for me has always been the battery life. The Galaxy Y surprisingly holds itself pretty well with the phone lasting around 11 hours of heavy WiFi, Skype calls, Internet browsing and watching videos. On a normal days it would last a bit more than a day which is excellent.
Samsung has started packing three keyboards with all it’s phones, one is the stock Samsung keyboard, the Gingerbread keyboard and the ultimately awesome Skype keyboard. An FM radio app is included as well, the phone doesn’t have a radio chip though so you have to use your earphones.
The TouchWiz themed music player is pretty good for a phone this size, it’s perfectly optimized for the Galaxy Y’s smaller screen. The app includes both an equalizer and 5.1 channel surround sound option which makes the audio pretty good on headphones but on proper HiFi systems it’s nothing to write home about.
Pre-installed apps on the Galaxy Y include YouTube, Quick Office, Android Market, Google Maps, Gmail, Google Latitude, Google Talk, Places, Navigation, Samsung Hubs and other Samsung Apps.
Overall the Samsung Galaxy Y is a very nice package for the price, expect the phone to be very popular with the young ones out there. The specs might not blow you away but if you’re trying to get started in the world of smartphones and don’t want to take a huge risk then the Galaxy Y is for you.
TechDeville gives the Samsung Galaxy Y S5360 3.5/5 stars.
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Ice Cream (The next version of Android) is said to be a mixture of Android 2.3 Gingerbread and Android 3.0 Honeycomb which sounds awesome but it seems that Google might also be planning to add Google TV to the mix. Google TV failed to radically capture markets but incorporating it will the popular smartphone operating system might prove to be a very smart decision.
This decision could lead tablets, phones and TVs running on the same OS which would offer a much streamlined experience, heck we could even be able to have Android powering our house if this keeps up. This rumors sounds really good but we’ll have to wait till Google IO 2011 for the official announcement.
Source: GTVSource
Final Fantasy the king of the JRPG scene revolutionizes the genre with each installment. The series always strives to offer graphics, music, gameplay and presentation at a higher standard and succeeds to give an unforgettable experience every time. Final Fantasy XIII is the first of the series to come out on the current gen consoles and just as expected it is a fantastic game but not without its flaws.
XIII takes place in the protected society of Cocoon which lies above the world of Pulse. Cocoon is the highly civilized world while Pulse is filled with the so called “Savages” and dangerous monsters. The citizens of Cocoon are always under threat from an invasion from Pulse so they rely entirely on the Fal’Cie, god like creatures that provide cocoon with food, weather and even light. Cocoon’s Fal’Cie are considered as protectors while Pulse’s Fal’Cie the enemy. In Final Fantasy XIII players take the role of 6 Cocoon residents who in unexpected events are turned into Pulse l’Cie enemy of Cocoon. Now our Heroes, servants of the Pulse Fal’Cie must fulfill the tasks or suffer a fate far worse that death.
The first half of the game is pretty dull and confusing. A lot of the story is thrown at you without any context or explanation. Also in the first few hours you get a stripped down battle system with easy encounters. The player doesn’t even need to concentrate, just press the Auto-Battle button a couple of times and you’re done. Apart from that the game stays so frigging linear in the first 3 hours that it gets almost boring.
Later when the Paradigm and Crystarium systems become available the game really gets started. Characters win Crystarium Points in battles and then use it for stat boosts, skills, magic etc. Learning new skills opens paths to stronger ones for instance learning Thunder opens paths to learn Thundara.The available commands/moves in battles vary from character to character, but old favorites like Attack, Summon, Defend and series staples like Fire, Lighting, Blizzard are available. Magic cannot be used outside of battle so HP is fully restored after every battle, also players cannot escape from battles although there are items that help avoiding battles. If a player loses the battle they have either the option to try again or return to the last save point.
A new element in the game never implemented in the previous Final Fantasy games is the Padagrim shift system. They are basically classes or stances the characters temporarily take on during battles. They are a bit different from the job system as the in the Padagrim shift system attacking classes can only attack while healers can only heal. There are a total of 6 classes first limited to some characters but later available to all of them. The commando is the main attacker of the party, they deal high non elemental damage, the Ravagers are the Black Mages, they deal elemental damage and chaining combos is easier with them. The other four are Sentinels, they protect other party members and take less damage, Medic the healers, Synergists buff up the party while the Saboteurs inflict status aliments.
Summons my personal favorite element of the final fantasy series make a return as Eidolons, which can only be used by the L’Cie. All the summons have been given a futuristic overhaul and the power to change shapes (called Gestalt mode). Summons use Summon Points instead of Health points to indicate their health, after the Summons points are reduced to zero the Eidolons would disappear.
Moving along to the graphics sections now. The PS3 version runs at native 720p at around 25-30fps while the Xbox360 version runs at 576p at constant 30fps. The differences are very minimal otherwise, I just felt that the Xbox360 controller was more comfortable to use for the game and the Xbox360 version was available bit earlier so I got that. The lighting effects and shadows are brilliant on both versions. Graphically the game is a visual masterpiece just as expected from the franchise. A lot of effort has also been put in the character models as each and everyone of them look unique and extraordinary.
I really liked the music score, one of the best sound tracks of the year. The music blends perfectly with the mood of the story. I really loved Snow’s theme which features a beautiful upbeat melody.
Final Fantasy XIII is a game which some people will like while others will hate. The developers have tried something fresh leaving behind all the other JRPG copycats. In my opinion the game’s craftsmanship cannot be denied, so get the game I’m sure you will enjoy it.
Score: 8.5/10