Well, christmas 2013 has come and gone, meaning we all had pressies and do dads under the tree (real or digital)

Here’s a roundup from each of the station team of what they got/treated themselves to this Christmas

Lonesamurai –

Well, no tree for me, so as I spent Christmas in the studios this year, I treated myself to a few things on the STEAM sale, plus I jumped back on World of Warcraft (the Mist of Pandaria upgrade was on special offer and I finally caved and resubbed)

Ok, first off, World of Warcraft – Mist of Pandara. (https://eu.battle.net/shop/en/product/world-of-warcraft-mists-of-pandaria)
Yeah, its been out a year now, but patch 5.4 just came out recently and it peaked my hatred of Garrosh Hellscream, so I had to jump at the chance to slap him around abit. The BIGGEST thing I am loving about this expansion is the Pet Battles! Sure, they are a blatant Pokemon rip off, but damn I am loving playing them and they really break up questing in areas aswell
Yeah the questing hasn’t changed much outside of the new areas, but it has a renewed feel to it, especially when you find rare pets to battle aswell
Ok, I concede the community is still incredibly harsh, but ignoring trade chat and sticking to my guild helps
Fun Factor – 7/10, worth upgrading if you like WoW, and the unlimited starter edition is great for people to try the game out

Next up, SimCity Cities of Tomorrow Expansion Pack. (http://www.simcity.com/en_GB/buy/ep1)
I sat and tried this for a few days and honestly, it’s disappointing
The new buildings and changes make very little difference to your cities and the biggest gripe the community has with the game is the size of city plots. Instead of increasing this though, the devs have decided to go upwards instead of outwards and now future city buildings have multiple layers that you can build up
The game still doesn’t feel polished and there are still bugs that have been mentioned loads of times
Fun Factor – 4/10, if you have SimCity and enjoy it, get the expansion, but ONLY if you see it on special offer, it’s not worth full price at all

Crimsonshade –

It’s not very often that I get anything truly techie or videogame-y for Christmas, but this year has to be one of the rare exceptions, since ever since Pokémon X (http://www.pokemonxy.com/en-us/root/) came out worldwide I’ve been mentioning it several times in front of various family members and placed it high on my Amazon Wish List – so I knew, inevitably, it would become my main present this year. Yet I must admit, even up to the moment I tapped that glorious “X” icon, I felt a small sense of trepidation about whether the game would even live up to the lofty expectations I’d given it. Despite all my desires to get the game and enjoy the new 3D aspect and customisability and social options, having covered the game from its initial announcement all the way up to release, I’d also learnt of many features I WASN’T keen on. NPCs rating you on your “stylishness”? Poké-amie?

While I haven’t yet played the game long enough to properly judge either of these features, nor the Horde Battles and other touches I’m also iffy about, after two hours of play I must say I’m already in the mindset that even if they DO turn out to be crap, this is still going to be one of my favourite Pokémon games. One of the reasons for this has to be the battles, which are simply BREATHTAKING. The viewpoints, animations and even the way the Pokémon now faint and are recalled into the Poké Ball on defeat all feel directly lifted from the 3D Console games like Colosseum, Stadium and Battle Revolution. And while the 3D Slider doesn’t actually add much to the scene, throughout every battle now there’s a real sense of depth and of opponents standing a distance away and then getting up close for physical hits. It’s beautiful, in the way I never expected from a handheld Pokémon.

Another thing that pleasantly surprised me is just how extensive customisation of your character is. Oh yes, we already know about how the game now offers three male and three female pre-designed character models to choose from as your initial appearance in the game; and how you can later buy clothing to customise it further. But did you know you can actually give your in-game character two different NAMES? As well as setting your actual character name at the start of the game, pretty early into the actual story you’ll meet up with a group of “friends”, who will give each other nicknames. They’ll then offer to give you one too; and whatever you decide will be the name those NPCs, and a few others across the game, will call you by instead of your Player name. In a homage to early Pokémon games, as well as being able to type this name yourself, the NPCs will suggest three alternatives that you can choose from if you prefer. In a nice touch, these nicknames are generated based on your chosen Player name – for example, I chose to call my character Jay and was offered Big J, Li’l J and J-Meister as options. (In case you wondered, I wrote my own)

I still have a lot more play ahead of me before I can come to a final, fair opinion as to just how good Pokémon X is. But for now, safe to say, Santa was good to me this Christmas.

Predictedcyborg –

For me, the typical family Christmas. By that I mean waking up at my Dad’s spending most of the day there, then going over to my mother’s for Christmas dinner. Mmm, that turkey! Got only one thing I could review.

I like to go to at least one weekend event a year if I can, so what I wanted was a portable speaker that I could plug into my iPod Nano. Thus I received the Kitsound Invader Portable Speaker (http://www.kitsound.co.uk/product/KSINVADER) for Christmas and it is this I shall talk about.
The speaker cost about £15 (I was allowed to choose one myself based on what I needed) and feels fairly solid as well as being small enough to comfortably fit in one hand. The actual speaker part twists out of the base and back in, the base contains the three buttons: on/off, Vol Up and Vol Down. The box lists the three main features of the speaker, one being ‘fluorescent colour’ and it certainly has that. Mine is bright orange which’ll make it easier for me to find it in a dark tent should I choose to go camping again for my next gaming festival event. The battery has ‘up to 6 hours’ of playlife and recharges in 2 hours after being plugged into a USB port through a provided cable which also comes with a jack plug connected to link up more than one of the small speakers in a line for more power.

I haven’t been able to test the 6 hour playtime life of the battery, but for what it is the small speaker is fairly impressive. The audio is clearer than I was expecting to get from something this size and because you can twist down the speaker part into the case it makes the kit nicely portable, which is exactly what I needed from it as well as protecting what is the most delicate part of the thing. The buttons are a little bit stiff, but that’s only a minor complaint in the scheme of the thing. Not sure if I can recommend getting it if you want something amazing, but as a fairly cheap portable speaker that you can stand some chance of locating in a darkish room it’s right up there. I’ll be taking it with me to my next event and hopefully it’ll prove to be durable as well as portable.

7/10 for the small speaker.

Poultergeist0 –

Christmas is always one of my favourite times of year, unlike some people from the station *cough* Lone *cough* (Bah Humbug ~Lone)

So after the season of joy is over and we are all left penniless this January we should all look back over our holiday takings. There are a few bits i’d like to share with all of you, so you can all evaluate how much better your presents were this year.

Let’s kick of with the beginnings of a legend. I’ve decided to start building my own PC (yes I’m still 100% console at heart but I need more editing power in my life) and what’s a PC without a case with MILLIONS OF FANS!!!!! So I got the Cooler Master Cosmos II (http://www.coolermaster.com/microsite/cosmos_ii/design.html).

This master of cooling comes with 10 fans that will quite literally Blow you away (why does my brain come up with this awful excuse comedy) it also has enough space to fit 13 HDD, 4 Graphics cards, motherboard, you neighbours cat and a partridge in a pear tree. Standing a mighty 70.4cm this Titan gives me all the cooling, compartments and buttons that i need.
theirs a load more spec stuff you can check out here http://www.coolermaster.co.uk/product.php?product_id=6781
(but to be honest I don’t understand any of it i just sat spinning the fans for 4 hours Christmas day)

The next two pressies are much more my speed Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate and Windwaker HD that’s right the biggest Nintendo fan in here is up his WiiU collection to 6 games now… (Shut up it’s a good console)

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate (http://www.monsterhunter.com/?lang=en)
Now i’ve always had a hit and miss relationship with the Monster Hunter series, I really wanted to get Monster Hunter G for the PSP and badgered my mum for ages till she got it me for my 13th birthday, but I didn’t understand what to do the game, the game was very text heavy tutorial wise and i never got what to actually do. But now that I’m older and (Contrary to popular Belief) wiser monster hunter 3 is a great experience; planning hunts with friends, scavenging loot and monster parts for armour and specialising yourself in certain weapons to benefit your play style. The game just seems to make sense this time around and although my characters are total green horns I’m having fun researching each monster and planning how to take them down.

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate gets a: Well-Cooked Meat/10

Windwaker HD (http://www.zelda.com/windwaker/)
Mwahahaha you don’t think i’m gonna leave this to a micro review do you? oh no my friends you’ll have to check back at the end of the month to see how well i Wake said Wind but if it still feels like the original but with super clean Graphics the it’s gonna be worth getting.

One thing i can talk about is the Collectors item, included with the Windwaker collectors edition comes a 4” tall Ganondorf figure, the figure itself is made from molded colour plastic so should stand the test of time allot better than a painted model, in the UK version the figure comes with a plastic bell jar which to be honest looks nice and will keep the figure safe but it does feel a bit cheap and thin. the US variant however gets no such case but on the flip side the smaller plastic base in my opinion looks better.

The Collectable Wind Waker Ganondorf Figure gets a: Triforce of Power/10

Finally a small aside must go to a book I received from my mother this Christmas, a big blue book about a madman in a box. Well eleven different madmen that have saved the galaxy for the past 1200 years.

Doctor Who: The Vault (http://www.harpercollins.com/books/Doctor-Who-Vault-Marcus-Hearn/?isbn=9780062280633) includes the trials and tribulations of the Doctor and the lovely BBC crew that brought him to our Televisions, Detailing the history behind the original concept to the rebirth in 2005 and beyond.

Doctor Who: The Vault gets a: allons-y/11

Hope you all found yourselves with Glad Tidings this year and keep the spirit all year long.
In the words of Tiny Tim “God Bless Us Everyone”
(is that enough?.. that fills the quota for Christmasy stereotypical bullshit right?.. Cool)
Happy 2014 everyone.

For five years, World Wrestling Entertainment (otherwise known as WWE) has been hard at work developing the “WWE Network” – a TV Network owned by the WWE which would host exclusive content – such as non-wrestling shows made for the network that feature its “Superstar” talent – as well as becoming the official platform by which its Pay-Per-View wrestling shows would be distributed through in the future.

Starting February 24th, 2014, residents of the United States will finally be able to enjoy the fruits of their labour, when the WWE Network launches online. For $9.99 a month, subscribers will get access to the 12 WWE pay-per-view events WWE produces annually, starting with this year’s WrestleMania – WWE’s most popular Pay-Per-View. The Network will also broadcast future episodes of NXT – its wrestling promotion that showcases fresher talent with the aim of turning one or more of them into full WWE Superstars by the end of each season – as live TV shows for the first time; and will also host brand-new shows exclusive to the network and archive footage from the yesteryears of WWE, WWF, WCW and ECW.

A screenshot of the WWE Network Playstation App. The WWE Network will hit PC, Playstation, Xbox and Roku TV Boxes (see below)

Originally, the plan for the WWE Network was for it to be an independent cable network people could sign up to and receive like their existing TV Network, but this was shot down. WWE Chairman Vince McMahon then toyed with the idea of making the network a pay-TV channel like HBO. The idea would have been that existing TV Networks could licence the WWE Network from them and then offer it as an additional channel to their own customers for an additional monthly subscription. McMahon said WWE had deals ready to go with major distributors for a network that would have generated fees of 20 cents per month, per subscriber; but this cost and the terms of the deals being offered by the distributors were “too restrictive”; and he walked away.

“I said, much to the chagrin of my staff, I’m not going to sign it.”
– Vince McMahon

Instead, the WWE looked at how Netflix was able to create an OTT service and became convinced that its own rabid fan base would embrace a similar approach. “Our fans are early adopters of new technologies,” McMahon said, adding that the service will need about a million subscribers to break even. Michelle Wilson, WWE’s chief revenue and marketing officer, added, “This gives us control of our destiny and a better user interface … We think this is the future.”

So, the new WWE Network will be an online, “Over The Top” TV Network, which will be available online in your browser, or through specially-made WWE Network apps hitting Playstation, Xbox and Roku TV boxes. United States subscribers will have access to the Network via their chosen device for free between February 24th until March 2nd as a one-week trial to celebrate the Network’s launch, which will include one live NXT Episode.

While WWE are still quiet on when other territories will receive the Network, the company has stated that they plan to expand its reach further “by year’s end”. With the United Kingdom being WWE’s second biggest-selling territory, we highly expect an announcement for a UK launch in the next few months 🙂

Mirror’s Edge was an interesting title that didn’t quite work, so when EA’s Patrick Söderlund stepped forward in June last year and said a sequel was always going to happen, it came as a slight surprise to the rest of us. But even if Mirror’s Edge 2 is on it’s way, Rhianna Pratchett, who wrote the first one, isn’t on board. She’s a self-described “casualty of that [Mirror’s Edge] development process,” and wishes the new team all the best.

“Go with God, I say,” she Tweets. “Create cool stuff. We always need more of that.” When Pratchett came on the team, Faith was nothing more than a template; Pratchett created the character, and continued her adventures in the DC comic book version. Oddly enough, the comic was a prequel, and so is Mirror’s Edge 2, but that doesn’t seem to make a difference to EA; presumably the comic isn’t canon.

Pratchett’s sanguine about the whole thing. She knows she’s just hired help, and nobody from the studio’s talked to her in years, so she gave up on that possibility a while ago. “It was a difficult project for all,” she Tweets, “and I no longer have any contacts [at DICE].”

EA’s open-world Mirror’s Edge 2 adventure hasn’t got a release date yet, but when it does come out it will be for PC, PS4 and Xbox One.

Evolve is a new co-op shooter from Turtle Rock Studios, the same people that brought you the post-apocalyptic hit Left 4 Dead. The February issue of Game Informer will feature a 12-page spread on the upcoming title that is described as a…

…sci-fi multiplayer-focused shooter pits a four-player crew of alien hunters against a separate player-controlled monster that grows larger and more powerful over the course of matches. Each hunter features its own unique items and abilities, and while the monster may be outnumbered, its size and an assortment of devastating attacks make it a more than formidable foe.
-Game Informer

Evolve is slated to release on PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 this fall.

Sony announced today Playstation Now, an online network that will allow the streaming of many PS3 and PS2 games on multiple devices, eliminating the problems the company had been having with backwards compatibility on their next-gen console, the PS4.

The network was revealed the crowd by PlayStation chief executive Andrew House while he was on-stage at CES in Las Vegas today. He claimed it will allow for the first time many of the company’s back catalogue such as The Last of Us will be playable on many different devices, including Bravia TVs, tablets and of course the Playstation 4. The service is expected to make use of Gaikai, a cloud gaming service that Sony acquired back in 2012 and will allow users to be able to pause the gaming stream on one device and then resume it on another if they wish. Access to the library will be through a system that allows either the puchase of a single game to stream or a monthly subscription fee that will give access to the entire PS Now library, although a fee is yet to be set in stone. The service will also include things like multiplayer and trophies.

“PS Now will allow users to engage in the world of PlayStation, whether they’re existing fans or have never owned a PlayStation platform.” House said.

The service will launch in the US over the summer with a beta trial in January, but no dates have yet been announced for the system to come to Europe.