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The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD Launches with a Wolf Link amiibo
REDMOND, Wash., Jan. 21, 2016 – The Nintendo games launching in the first part of the year are going to include some fun amiibo functionality. Games like The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD for the Wii U console and Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games™ for the Nintendo 3DS family of systems, both launching in March, use a wide variety of different compatible amiibo figures. Some new amiibo figures will also launch in March, including the legendary Wolf Link amiibo that is included in every physical version of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD, as well as three new figures in the Animal Crossing amiibo series, featuring fan-favorite characters like Timmy & Tommy, Kapp’n and Rover. The previously announced Ryu, Roy and R.O.B. (Famicom Colors) amiibo figures will also launch in March.
“New amiibo figures and functionality will keep surprising fans in 2016,” said Scott Moffitt, Nintendo of America’s Executive Vice President of Sales & Marketing. “All the upcoming amiibo prove that the must-have figures are continuing to evolve in unexpected and fun ways.”
When the physical version of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD launches on March 4 at a suggested retail price of $59.99, it will include a beautiful Wolf Link amiibo figure based on the same character from the classic game. Purchasing The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD and Wolf Link amiibo bundle will currently be the only way to get this amiibo figure. When tapped to the Wii U GamePad controller, this legendary lupine opens the Cave of Shadows, a challenging new bonus dungeon in the game. After completing the Cave of Shadows, players can save their remaining hearts to the Wolf Link amiibo, and then use those hearts inside the Cave of Shadows to replenish life energy. After conquering the cave, players can save a record of their remaining hearts to the Wolf Link amiibo and attempt to beat their score at any time. Some of the data stored on the Wolf Link amiibo figure can also be used with The Legend of Zelda game for Wii U, which launches this year. More details about this functionality will be revealed in the future.
In addition to the Wolf Link amiibo, other amiibo figures in the Super Smash Bros. series like Link, Toon Link, Zelda, Sheik and Ganondorf will work with The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD. By tapping the Link or Toon Link amiibo, players can replenish their arrows. Tapping Zelda or Sheik will refill the player’s hearts, while, in a devious twist, tapping the Ganondorf figure will actually make Link take double the damage!
On March 18, new amiibo figures in the Animal Crossing series will launch in stores, including characters like Timmy & Tommy, Kapp’n and Rover. Digby will also be made available as a stand-alone amiibo. The next series of Animal Crossing amiibo cards also launches in March, bringing the grand total of available amiibo cards to be used in games like Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival for Wii U and Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer for Nintendo 3DS to a whopping 300. Let the collecting begin!
Fans who are ready to compete in Rio de Janeiro with Mario, Sonic and the gang in Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games will also have to warm up their amiibo-tapping fingers. When the action-filled game launches for Nintendo 3DS on March 18 at a suggested retail price of $39.99, both Mario and Sonic amiibo figures will be compatible*. By tapping the Mario or Sonic amiibo figures to the New Nintendo 3DS system (or on a Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo 3DS XL or Nintendo 2DS system using the NFC Reader/Writer accessory), players can boost Mario and Sonic’s outfits with that character’s power for the day.
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Pokémon, some of the Pokémon amiibo will be made available again at select retailers. Fans should be on the lookout for Charizard, Jigglypuff, Greninja and Lucario to once again return to shelves right next to Pikachu.
Finally, Star Fox Zero delivers a new beginning for the classic shooter series. With a unique control scheme that uses both the TV screen and the screen on the GamePad, players pilot multiple vehicles through intergalactic levels with Fox and his classic crew. The game launches exclusively for Wii U on April 22 and will feature amiibo compatibility. More details will be revealed at a later time.
You know, I have to hand it to Acer. Once derided for being a manufacture of cheap computing goods that were also cheap in quality (I recall various horror stories of laptops whose screens would fall apart with very little force, among other tales), these days the company has made a niche for themselves in making electronics that are solidly built and offer something interesting while still remaining fairly priced. So it is with their latest product lines as announced by the company today: the R1 and the H7 series of monitors, and the next generation of its XR series.
Let’s be up front here. None of these monitors would qualify as “gaming” screens for those who take gaming seriously. However, all three models offer vibrant IPS panels with 178-degree wide viewing angles; and each has a different, unique touch for their price.
Take the new R1 series monitors, which seem very much geared towards the Apple creed that “thinner is always better”. Acer claims this range contains the “world’s thinnest” monitors with under 7mm thickness, and that its ZeroFrame design maximizes the view with an ultra-thin bezel. Monitors in this range will be available in a range of five sizes – 21.5, 23, 23.8, 25, and 27-inches wide – and will be capable of pixel resolutions up to 1920×1080 (making them 16:9 widescreens). Monitors in this series will first hit Europe this month (January) with prices starting at €139. North America will see them later in the first quarter of the year with prices starting at $130; other territories are to be confirmed.
For those who prefer function over form, the next set of monitors might be more interesting. Acer’s second new range of monitors, the H7 series, will include USB Type-C connectors allowing devices to be connected to the screen. While USB Type-C is still not hugely common, the standard is gaining traction and is already used to charge and for fast data transfer between smartphones, USB Hard Drives and other peripherals; and is likely to become more popular as time goes on. While still widescreen 16:9 format, screens in this range will not only have a higher screen resolution than the R1s – with a stated max of 2560×1440 – but will also be larger, with 25 and 27-inch models. They won’t be as thin, but will feature the same ZeroFrame design, to maximise the screen space. Europe can expect these monitors to reach their shores February, America later in Q1, with prices in both territories starting at 500 euros/dollars respectively. Acer claim USB 3.0 in a monitor is a “world first”, although Lenovo also announced similar monitors mere hours before.
Last but not least, Acer also revealed the next model in its range of XR series monitors. The snappily-named XR342CK feature a curved 34-inch 21:9 panel at a resolution of 3440×1440, and could reasonably pass as a good gaming screen as it uses Freesync technology for a super-fast refresh rate. Naturally it has a price to match – this model is only currently confirmed for Europe, and will retail at €1,100 in March, with other territories to be confirmed later.
Update 3: Valve has issued a statement regarding today’s issues.
“Steam is back up and running without any known issues,” a Valve spokesperson told GameSpot. “As a result of a configuration change earlier today, a caching issue allowed some users to randomly see pages generated for other users for a period of less than an hour. This issue has since been resolved. We believe no unauthorized actions were allowed on accounts beyond the viewing of cached page information and no additional action is required by users.”
Update 2: Steam appears to be back online, and the issues have seemingly been resolved. Valve has still yet to release any kind of official statement regarding today’s incident.
Update: It now looks as if the Steam store may be down; numerous users, myself included, are unable to access it and are receiving an error when attempting to do so.
Also, while it’s still unclear what’s going on, Steam tracking website Steam Database has suggested this is all due to a caching issue. That said, the site recommends not attempting to remove your credit card, PayPal account, or anything of the sort. Whether that is indeed the best course of action remains to be seen, as Valve has still yet to officially comment on the situation.
Original Story: Steam is running into something of a catastrophe right now, giving players across the world access to other people’s accounts. It’s not yet clear how this is happening, but it’s a doozy.
Various players across the world are logging into their Steam clients to find that their homepage has changed to Russian or another random language. When they check the “account info” section of Steam, they find that they have access to another user’s account, complete with e-mail addresses, buying history, and other private information.
Going to Steam’s website will also grant you access to a random user’s account.
Based on some rudimentary testing I’ve done on my own Steam client, it seems like trying to view purchase histories and licenses will bounce around other random accounts, too, which is fun…
The account that my client accessed is using Steam Guard, the tool Valve provides to help prevent unauthorized account access. So clearly that hasn’t helped.
We’ve reached out to Valve for more information and will keep updating you guys as we learn more.
Until then, join us laughing at this, cos we all know it’s about right…
Every Pokémon Trainer worth their salt knows that with every new generation of Pokémon that launches, the officially announced Pokédex is never all the Pokémon out there to be discovered. Certain legendary Pokémon are always hidden from public eyes, waiting to be revealed by Nintendo later in the Generation’s lifetime to tease us and get us hyped for a potential exclusive giveaway in the future – and the current Generation VI is no exception. We’ve had Diancie and Hoopa; but today, The Pokémon company has revealed the latest “new” Pokémon for Gen VI; and there’s a very good reason to be interested.
Officially revealed in the January 2016 issue of CoroCoro magazine; and today announced worldwide by Nintendo in the form of a Youtube video on The Pokémon Company’s official channel, the third – and final – hidden Pokémon for Generation VI has been named as Volcanion (in Japanese: ボルケニオン Borukenion or Volcanion). Known as the “Steam Pokémon”, Volcanion is the series’ first dual-type Fire and Water Pokémon, with power to “blow away mountains” according to fan analysis of in-game Pokédex data.
Little else is known about this new Pokémon, but Nintendo have hyped that more information will be revealed “soon”. For now, just take a look at the official Youtube reveal:
Paul Kubit, Sr Game Designer for World of Warcraft, dropped a ton info about how Professions will work in Legion.
One huge reveal is there will actually be Profession questlines.
Here’s a run down of everything he talked about:
– Goal – Giving you more stuff to do
Example: you log in on sunday and want to relax by doing professions so we’re going to change recipe acquisition.
– You won’t just log into this expac and learn every recipe you need from a trainer.
We want you out in the world to go on adventures to find recipes.
Example: Tailor starts quest in Dalaran, trainer asks you to go find cloth. It fails, find a new person to help you make it work! Rest of the quest line deals with learning stuff from a Nightborne who also learns from YOU about Dalaran.
Example: Mining – you learn from characters on how to mine more efficiently.
New ore: Ley Ore
– Mining and Herb nodes are SHARED in Legion. Druids won’t steal your nodes!
– Moving recipes out in the world
– Profession questlines, which will teach how to use new materials and deal with other issues and consequences from the questline
– Gathering nodes in Legion will Finally be shared
– Recipes will have ranks Ranks
– Tradeskill UI update
– Can set recipes to a favorites list
– Learned/unlearned tab
– Unlearned gives details about how to get those recipes
– Obliterum – dust or ash which is used to make crafted things into more powerful items
– Obtain Obliterum by taking them to a special forge to destroy crafted items
– Crafted items are special
– – All high level jewelcrafter Necks have guaranteed gem slot & class specific buffs
– – Engineer helms shoot bullets because they are made of gun parts
– – Minor glyphs are usable items, used to augment spells themselves no limit on how many you can use
– Major glyphs will be removed from the game
– Archaeologists have an expansion length quest line
– Cooking will be able to cook bacon and Nomi will show-up to teach new recipies
– Fishing will feel like a an adventure
– First Aid will have all new content related to it to make it an adventure
What do you think of the changes? Let us know int eh comments below!
