This will definitely be hard for Nintendo to recover from.  The best way, I think, is for them to get busy on exclusives that make the uniqueness of the system dazzle.  If they get even one or two Must-Have games that are specifically unique to the Wii U, then the system will start selling and EA will come aboard and others will follow.

Last I heard, the Wii U is getting some exclusive Sonic games, which might help. I agree, they need more exclusives to sell the system. So far, most of the games have been versions of other games on the other consoles with added content. Would love an official game where Mario and Sonic are able to play through each of their respective worlds. With a bit of co-op and unique abilities for each character, something like that could be interesting.

For most people, the Wii was the only system, not the other one they paired with their 360 or PS3.  The thing is that Wii was selling for more than just gamers.  That's the reason it dominated.

Sleeping Dogs is out now on US PS+. Saw no mention of it anywhere, but happened to be browsing the store and there it was. Probably the best thing on offer in quite a while.

That's unexpected. Considering how long it took for GT5 to come out, I'd have expected it to be a launch title. Unless they plan on making two versions of it But that's an odd decision considering the PS4's right around the corner. I don't really see the need for it this late in the game. On the upside, looks like they've finally fixed the smoke if looking at the screenshots is any indication.

Ouch, that's gotta hurt for Nintendo. I have to think that the addition of the tablet has made things much harder to program, not to mention the extra commitment that devs aren't willing to give. It would have been much better if they'd have made that optional rather than mandatory, which would have opened up more potential developers. Not to mention the fact that Nintendo really messed up on informing the Wii crowd exactly what it was, ie is it an upgrade or a new machine?

It figures. It shows how little my area has changed since then. Looked shitty back then, looks shitty now and looking at that timelapse would lead you to think there's hardly been any development.

Bah, as much as I like the borg, please, no more! They've been overused and any appearance in the new movies would mean they're creatively bankrupt. Create on your own damned ideas, J.J!

Nice! I'd love to see another Road Rash. It's been so long since the last one and I've always been puzzled as to why EA chose to abandon it.

While the knife fight was cool, it didn't really feel like something that would end the game with, but more like something that would have been in the middle. It just felt way too easy for what it was. I felt an accomplishment completing Uncharted 2, but this, not so much. Felt more like, "Ok, let's end this already." Didn't feel like as much thought had been put into the ending, not like the story was fully realized.

Just got San Andreas to prepare myself for this. Looks sweet.  What's always confused me about the titles though is the naming and numbering. San Andreas is technically the 5th game in the series, but isn't counted as part of the main series while being one of the more popular titles, but how do they dictate the main series? I mean, what sets them apart from the rest aside from the numbering? Is there a recurring storyline that runs through the numbered titles? Is it mainly when there are big graphical updates?

AFAIK, the 2D titles are their own chronology, the GTA3, Vice City and San Andreas are separate, and GTA 4 and 5 take place in another new chronology. While these things take place in similar settings, they aren't the same universes. In other words, the events of San Andreas didn't happen, or won't happen, in the world of GTA 5.

I guess that makes sense, though I`m still confused why they would number one of them and not the others. Their naming conventions baffle me.

As for women, I thought I`d remembered there was a character selection screen that you could pick from several different women in the first few games, but that would have obviously changed with their focus on story starting with GTA 3.

And I was right:
http://gta.wikia.com/Protagonists_in_GTA_1

Well, yeah, I`d agree, I guess. Though I would have expected a more intimidating final showdown at the very least and it wouldn`t have had to be a big boss either, but as it is, it built up and it built up and then it just seemed to fizzle. I guess the biggest showdown towards that part is when Nathan`s hallucinating which isn`t something I`d have expected near the end like that.

Just got San Andreas to prepare myself for this. Looks sweet.  What's always confused me about the titles though is the naming and numbering. San Andreas is technically the 5th game in the series, but isn't counted as part of the main series while being one of the more popular titles, but how do they dictate the main series? I mean, what sets them apart from the rest aside from the numbering? Is there a recurring storyline that runs through the numbered titles? Is it mainly when there are big graphical updates?

So, just finished this one recently and I'm honestly quite surprised at how it ended. I was building myself up towards a big boss fight like the second one, which never came. It almost felt like it something had been cut from it as it felt like it ended rather abruptly and way too easily. I kept expecting another villain mastermind to appear after the two others perished. Overall, there was some fine gameplay, but it never rose to the awesomeness of Uncharted 2.

That's good to hear. I knew you were committed. I just wanted to tell that story to show the drastic measures some have used. And at the same time, that same group wonder why they aren't more popular. I look forward to more integration.

Well, at the very least, don't scrap the forums, whatever you do. And I know it sounds silly to mention as it's very drastic, but it's exactly what happened on a site I was familiar with. Instead of trying to find a way to build traffic to the forum, they gutted the forum completely from the site, destroying a whole segment of the fanbase and community and instead encouraging fans to use facebook. It struck me as a move coming from someone not fully understanding how communities work, as they both have their uses, one focusing and encouraging group discussions while the other being more of a one-way affair often used for PR purposes to send out news updates.

Sounds like they should have just lengthened the flash version.

So, you want more page views for your articles, correct? I've thought about it, and it sounds like maybe the forum should be more integrated into the main site, more seamlessly perhaps via a forum skin that would display the latest content via a forum sidebar. Used to be that screen real-estate was more precious when monitors were smaller, but with bigger monitors now being the norm, a sidebar isn't such a big deal, and it would be a compromise I'd be willing to live with if it meant for more page views for the site content.

I might be out of the loop here, but PS5? Don't you all mean PS4? Or did Sony just decide to skip over the PS4 and call it the PS5?

As for GT6, I'd love it to have a bit of free roaming and not just be track-based..

not sure how many posters they can come up with

You know, that ship awefully looks a lot like an Excelsior class from that angle.

Damn, I want this game now.

She actually kind of looks like the April O'Neil from the 80's cartoon series and I'm willing to give her benefit of doubt since she hasn't had much material to really push her out of her comfort zone.

Life of Pi made out big. Hope people actually get to see it now It was a brilliant movie that nobody seemed to be talking about when it was released and I felt it was an underdog.

Yeah, I know what you meant. I feel it needed to be mentioned anyway.

Yeah, this is really quite fascinating. The same thing happened, again in Russia, in 1908, where the boom leveled an entire forest, which to this day hasn't regrown. Left scientists puzzled for nearly a century, and I think this new event will lead to more clues if they can study it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_event

Good Riddance. That channel was on a slow death watch. By the end, it wasn't offering anything worthwhile.

Makes me sad seeing the Millenium Falcon like that.

Well, I'll admit I haven't played the sequel, so it may have more story than the first one.

Half-Life, I could see as a movie, especially if it carries over the atmosphere, but Portal? It's largely a puzzle game that has some story. Can't really see it as a movie property.

Don't you mean LucasFilm? LucasArts is their game company division

Yep I meant Lucas Films, but Lucas Arts chucking it as well would probably improve things too.

LeChucking it then? I agree though. I know it likely won't happen, but I do wish they'd take at least some inspiration from the EU while moving forward as it does include some good characters. I like how the Thrawn trilogy handled the clone wars better than the Prequels however invalidated it may be and we'll never see anything of that nature, but any new SW could still feature the characters and have them going in a new direction.

Don't you mean LucasFilm? LucasArts is their game company division

Fair enough, but at the same time, the characters of Talon Karrde and Mara Jade are some of the more popular EU characters that would make sense to have in the movies if they do have any, since it's those novels that kickstarted the EU. So, even if they don't appear as major characters, it would be nice to have them do a cameo to acknowledge the impact they've had. Thanks for laying that out, Tilt. I knew I had heard about that before, but was having trouble finding reference to it

Would be even better if they could combine both. Have Luke train new Jedi, and have Talon Karrde and Mara Jade as new characters to the movies.

I'm surprised Micheal Bay isn't in on this.

A purpose and intention? Sure hope that's in the movie! 

Based on that flash version, you can skip chests if you want to, so I'm assuming that if you wanted to stay with the Zelda style, you could skip the upgrade. The chests are how you unlock different modes.

Here's a Flash version, which I assume is a sort of concept demo:

http://jayisgames.com/games/evoland/

This can be viewed in one of two ways.  Either they're not doing too well and they want to prevent themselves from overextending, or they're doing really well and they simply don't need to expand as they've reached a comfortable saturation point. The way I read it, they don't seem to be in trouble like the article seems to be implying. Not at the level of Borders anyway. Companies often go through periods of expansion and then don't for several years. It's nothing new.  It's likely they knew they were going to do this from the beginning of an expansion period.

Hah, that's awesome. Care to share it with us?

Yeah, this one seems pretty solid and major news outlets are picking it up. Orci's also tweeted and confirmed it.

Although I'll say this. I don't know if I can really trust Abram's words anymore. He's said so many things over the course of the last two years, some of which have been contradicted, by himself even, that his nose must be getting quite a bit longer. So, whenever he says anything, I never know if he's telling the truth or if he's pulling our legs.

You know, with that R2 cameo in Star Trek, it's almost as if it was a sign for what was to come. It now comes across as rather ironic.

Sure, because you're a bot and you'd play better than everyone else, right? right?

I've signed up, but I'm not holding out much hope for the game.

I wonder how the status changes, as I've filled in nearly everything, leaving the guild fields empty and I got Above Average. Pretty smooth system though. It's one of the better ones I've seen.