I knew that Robin Williams named his daughter for The Legend of Zelda, but I did not know that Mario has a 27-foot vertical. Live and learn, I guess.
Transistor is out today for the PC and PlayStation 4! The game is pretty great, and I've been enjoying my time with it so far. I'm especially loving the music, from the soundtrack itself to the fact that there's a dedicated hum button. Yes, at any point (well not during fights) you can just press the hum button and hum away.
The digital soundtrack is now on sale, and you can get the 23-track album for $9.99 in either MP3 or FLAC formats. Or even better, get the physical version of the soundtrack for $14.99.
Of course, you can always stream on YouTube and Spotify as SuperGiant are just nice like that. You may want to hold off on listening to the music at least until you start playing. Some of the songs (like "We All Become") are better to hear in-game for the first time to really get the impact of the wonderful themes.
Looking Good, Lara: The latest batch of HD PC shots up at Dead End Thrills focus on Crystal Dynamics' Tomb Raider reboot, and are looking mighty fine.
Word has it that Hyrule Warriors launches for Wii U in Japan on August 14, 2014. That comes direct from Famitsu and there's of course no news on a Western date yet. However, some bits and pieces have been translated, such as the game's inclusion of "unexpected" playable characters. There's an image of Impa in the article! Maybe Impa is among them?
This is being developed by Dynasty Warriors' own Omega Force under the supervision of long-time Legend of Zelda series producer/director Eiji Aonuma. According to Famitsu, Team Ninja head Yosuke Hayashi is working on Hyrule Warriors as a producer alongside Hisashi Koinuma.
I'm strangely hopeful for someone who isn't super into either series. Something about this combination speaks to me and it's another thing to play on Wii U. Feeling good about it so far, ahead of E3. That's one sale you can count on, Tecmo Koei. Plenty more left to go.
Hyrule Warriors coming out on August 14 in Japan [NeoGAF via Go Nintendo]
As of a recent update, Skype for Xbox One now allows users to Snap their video or voice-only calls into other apps. That means it's possible to chat with people over Skype while simultaneously playing a game or watching a movie -- which, yeah, that's a nice feature to have.
Another thing that would've been good to see supported from day one, but I'm not going to dwell on it. Don't forget: Skype will no longer require an Xbox Live Gold membership starting in June.
A New Snap Experience for Skype for Xbox One [Skype]
Sometimes wisdom comes from unexpected places. In this case, from a puppet controlled by an introspective game developer.
Microsoft won't give up on the Surface because of failures of past iterations. No, it's intent on making an impression on the tablet market. As such, Microsoft revealed the Surface Pro 3 today.
It seems that Microsoft's primary goal with the design of the Surface Pro 3 was to do away with consumer uncertainty about whether they should buy a laptop or a tablet. That's because Microsoft wants this tablet to replace your laptop.
As far as specs go, the Surface Pro 3 will have models that feature Core i3 (starting at $799), i5 (starting at $999), and i7 (starting at $1,549) processors, up to 512GB storage, and up to 8GB RAM. The tablet has a 12-inch screen with 2160x1440 resolution, and is only 9.1mm thick. It'll be available on June 20 in the US and Canada.
Announcing Surface Pro 3 [Microsoft Surface Blog]
Let's forget that many of the mysteries in Westeros can most easily be explained by the word "magic." What are some of the scientific reasons behind some of the stuff we see in Game of Thrones?
Nintendo is no longer supporting its Wi-Fi Connection service as of today, marking the end of online functionality for Wii, DS, and DSi games -- but, notably, not the end of the Wii Shop Channel, DSi Shop, and video services. You can still make use of those.
We knew this closure was coming but these things sure have a way of sneaking up on you. Nintendo has a list of affected titles over here, featuring the likes of Animal Crossing: Wild World and City Life, Mario Kart DS and Wii, Dragon Quest IX, Super Smash Bros Brawl, Endless Ocean, and Pokémon games leading up to the not-very-old-at-all Black/White Version 2.
Lot of casualties. No more Wii Speak, either. Even for games of lesser quality, it's often sad to see a part of them (or the whole thing, in the case of MMOs) "die" when it's inevitably no longer practical to support the limited audience making use of online play. Time keeps on slipping.
The prize pool for Valve's Dota 2 International has already exceeded $6 million—$6 million!—officially making it the largest tournament in gaming history.
