The world’s fastest motorsport comes to the world’s most powerful portable games console as F1 2011 launches tomorrow, Wednesday 22nd February, for the PlayStation Vita as one of the system’s launch titles.
F1 2011 for PlayStation Vita features all the official teams, drivers and circuits from the 2011 season. Players can compete for motorsport’s ultimate prize across a full season, including practice and qualifying sessions, enter an individual Grand Prix or jump into Time Trial mode. An additional and extensive Challenge mode has players completing a wide range of objectives including checkpoint, gate and overtaking challenges.
Multiplayer modes will allow players to go head to head or compete in a two-on-two cooperative career mode, all enabled by the system’s WLAN connection.
For now, check out the launch trailer courtesy of Codemasters:
iiNet, one of Australias leading internet service providers, have very recently began their campaign to find Australia’s top geek of 2012. This is the second time that the company has hosted this particular competition and the first time attracted many entrants.
If I recall correctly, the first competition was run in 2011 and yielded a very attractive female geekette as it’s winner. This person was Cassandra James from Tasmania, who it seems, is a budding comic-book artist and is set to be heading to this years Comic-Con convention in San Diego.
The winner of this years contest will be eligible to win a trip to one of four conventions, which are: Comic Con, Penny Arcade Expo, South by Southwest or Consumer Electronics Show. These four events tie in with the different types of geeks that the contest is asking for.
iiNets community manager had the following to say on the contest –
“No matter what you’re into, if you’re passionate about something you can be considered a geek, which is why we’ve introduced a variety of entry categories including art, tech, gaming, Internet and fandom,” Mr Fisk said.
“We’ve upped the ante this year. As well as bigger and better challenges, we’ve introduced TopGeek TV – a fortnightly series hosted by award-winning comedian and self-proclaimed geek, Lawrence Leung.
“Being a massive geek myself, I was so excited to be asked to host iiNet’s TopGeek TV that I got a nosebleed. I’m intrigued to see whether the chosen geeks can eclipse me in obsession and obscurity. If they try, I will crush them like an AT-AT on the Planet Hoth.” says Lawrence.
If this years contest is anything like the last, I’m sure that geek culture will be held up high and with a lot of respect, unlike similar geek-related media projects *cough*bigbangtheory*cough*. Even better the contest will be broadcast online between the 30th of March until the 10th of May this year.
So be sure to enter yourself, or nominate a friend for this years contest by heading to this site. More information can also be found at the link mentioned in the previous sentence.
Get ready to party yet again, Aussies! Mario Party that is. After being announced last year for the Wii, Nintendo of Australia have now announced that Mario Party 9 will be hitting shelves on March 8th. As we’ve mentioned before, this sequel is a new direction for the series, with many new features added in to separate it from it’s many brethren.
The first thing that players will notice is the boss battles. To defeat Bowser and the rest of the Mushroom Kingdom baddies, players will have to collect mini-stars. This is done in a different way than usual though, as players will all be aboard one vehicle at once and take turns behind the wheel, with over 80 new mini-games in tow to play.
While there still is competition to gather these stars, you will have to work together to take on several bosses, leading up to the big B himself. If you deliver the final attack to Bowser at the end, the odds can also tip in your favor for winning the whole game itself. Those who would rather just play the mini-game fare are also in luck, as a Free Play mode will be included that rids the board game environment entirely and allows up to four to enjoy the meat and potatoes of the experience.
All of this sounds refreshing for the series and thankfully, this Mario Party 9 is headed to the system that is in dire need of releases, the Wii. So dust your WiiMote off and get ready to join in the festivities, as we are now under a month away from Mario Party’s grand return!
Independent iOS developer Mojo Bones, developers of Tongue Tied, are already hard at work on their second title – The Curse. The Curse is a story-driven puzzle game, tasking players with solving the mystery of an ancient book to defeat the Master of Mischief – The Mannequin. Each of the books contains 100 cryptic pages, with a unique puzzle to overcome on every page. Players will need to reveal hidden riddles, test their reflexes against the clock and flex their memory skills to unlock the games ultimate test – the infamous ‘Puzzle 101’.
Through out the game, players will need to face off against the mysterious adversary – The Mannequin, who has the ability to read minds, play tricks and challenge the player to various tasks. Only the best players will be able to solve the 100 puzzles and banish The Mannequin back to the page of the mysterious book.
Alongside the unique visual style of Mojo Bones, the title will also feature:
• A cryptic, story-driven puzzle game unlike any other.
• Designed for all ages and skill levels.
• Unleash the curse and face 100 puzzling pages spanning various categories.
• Come face-to-face and interact with The Mannequin: a fiendish adversary.
• Unlock and solve ‘Puzzle 101’ – your final and ultimate challenge.
• A swinging soundtrack inspired by 1930s jazz.
• Universal App.
• Game Center support.
• Available for iOS & Android devices.
For more information on Mojo Bones, The Curse, or their first title Tongue Tied, visit the Mojo Bones official website, Facebook or Twitter. Be sure to watch the trailer below for a sneak peak at the mysterious book and get a glimpse at what looks to be an amazing addition to the App Store – The Curse.
If you’ve been keeping a close eye on the wardrobe options for Serah and Noel in Final Fantasy XIII-2 then you’ll know that one franchise crossover has already been announced. In addition to the robes of Ezio from the Assassins’ Creed series (yet to appear as DLC), players can seemingly also look forward to a Mass Effect contribution.
According to Siliconera, a source has claimed that some Bioware themed costume/s will be making their way to Square Enix’s sequel as yet another piece of DLC. None of this has been officially confirmed, but with the release of hype mega train Mass Effect 3 just around the corner, it would make sense to hear something soon. Would some N7 armor sit well in Final Fantasy XIII-2?
Some of you may remember the fish seen above. It was featured in a classic Dreamcast game that was all about raising a pet called a Seaman, and the game itself was called Seaman. While many loved this game back when it was released on the Dreamcast, it seemed that it would be the only time we ever saw the human faced fish on a game console. But apparently that is not the case.
Nikkei has reported that Seaman may be revived on the Nintendo 3DS via an online edition. Andriasang reports that Nikkei mentions a plan from Nintendo to revive other publishers’ games on the 3DS as a way to bring both fresh and nostalgic titles to the handheld system. While not providing any specifics, the paper did use Seaman as an example. Just imagine… the creepy faced fish who liked to throw feces at the screen may soon be able to do it in 3D…
When Bandai Entertainment fell by the wayside and announced that they would stop releasing new titles and would no longer be licensing any new shows it hit one series’ fans extremely hard. Those fans were fans of the K-ON!! series. Bandai Entertainment had licensed and released the first season of K-ON! in North America last year but would not be releasing the second season due to their anime division’s closure.
This left fans of the series in limbo, until today. Sentai Filmworks has revealed today that they have licsend the second season of K-ON!! and would be bringing the 26 episode + OVA to DVD and Blu-ray release later this year. They also announced that they would be working with Bang Zoom! Entertainment on the dub which means there is a good chance that the voice actors from the first season will reprise their roles despite the change in company.
Never let it be said that PC gaming is dead. Remedy, developers of Alan Wake, have revealed that the company has already made its money back from the PC version of Alan Wake after the game being available on Steam for only 48 hours. This means that the launch of the game last Thursday on the PC already covered the porting cost of the title by Saturday night.
Remedy’s Aki Järvilehto stated on their forums that the company is “very happy with the sales and hitting #1 on Steam at launch was nothing short of amazing. We recouped our development and marketing expenses during the first 48 hours. And yes, we’re certainly very excited about PC.” Does this mean we may see Alan Wake’s American Nightmare on the PC eventually? It seems quite likely at this point in time.
With the PlayStation Vita being released worldwide to everyone who didn’t buy a pre-launch bundle it only makes sense that some video game deals would be popping up at various retailers. However, much to most deal seekers surprise, the deals have been very slim in North America. However that has just changed as GameStop and Target (and Best Buy with price match) revealed a promotion where those who buy two PlayStation Vita games receive one for free.
At GameStop only Sony published titles are eligble, which means you can pick up the following titles below and activate the deal:
Uncharted: Golden Abyss
ModNation Racers Roadtrip
Wipeout 2048
Little Deviants
Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational
Target and Best Buy’s offer extend to all PlayStation Vita games, however it seems that some Targets are not offering the promotion so it would be best to call ahead to see if the deal is honored at the location nearest you.
When the Nintendo 3DS was released last year it was seen as a symbol that handheld gaming was in a slump and the sales of the new handheld gaming device were rather poor. However the Nintendo 3DS has long since been on the rise and Nintendo has revealed today that they company has sold 5 million units in Japan since its launch on February 26, 2011 until yesterday.
Nintendo has also revealed data from Media Create which shows that the GBA hit the 5 million sales mark after 58 weeks with the DS hitting that level after 56. This means that the 3DS hitting 5 million in only 51 weeks makes it the fastest selling handheld from Nintendo ever. Quite an accomplishment from a system which some were thinking was going to die by the end of 2012.
