Four years ago, Nintendo discontinued making physical appearances at E3 in favour of digital presentations – deciding that, as trailers and video make up a large part of what gets shown off for a video game, it’s cheaper to just put the whole event on-screen than actually send people to turn up at the event and talk. This year was no different, but Nintendo DID see fit to make a joke of on-screen presentations with the intro to this year’s Digital Event, with clips of a CGI audience who would heckle Reggie Fils-Aime twice during the course of the event – and subsequently get laser-eyed or beaten up before moving on to the next presentation. It’s a charming Nintendo-isation of the realities of E3 and a perfect demonstration of what Nintendo’s about – making you smile.

Yes, Day 1 of E3 kicked off today and to kick off proceedings, Nintendo took the “stage” for its annual Digital Event. In an hour of non-stop reveals, trailers and on-screen appearances and interviews both real and digitized, over a dozen games were revealed or had further information shown off about them; and we even heard of a new Nintendo toy line coming out and how it’ll tie in with Mario Kart 8 and future Nintendo titles, plus a new character reveal for Smash Bros.!

Over the coming hours I’ll be writing articles on each game and what was revealed. But here’s a quick run-down:

• Super Smash Bros.: Mii characters become playable fighters for the first time and can be customised for three specific types of fighting.
• Amiibo: New line of NFC-enabled toys from Nintendo that will be compatible with Mario Kart 8, Super Smash Bros Wii/3DS and many future titles.
• Yoshi’s Wooly World: Gameplay footage, discussion of the concept, 2-player co-op revealed.
• Captain Toad’s Treasure Tracker: Puzzle game featuring Toad as main character, release Winter 2014.
• Open-World plans for a future Zelda title discussed.
• Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire: New Trailer launched with some game-play footage and first look at Groudon and Kyogre’s new formes.
• Bayonetta 2: will include original Bayonetta; and Zelda and Samus costumes.
• First look at Hyrule Warriors, launching September 19, 2014.
• Digmbot gets angry on Twitter following last announcement.
• First look at plans for a new, as-yet untitled Kirby game coming 2015.
• Xenoblade Chronicles: New footage.
• Mario Maker: Create-your-own-Mario-level Wii U game revealed.
• First look at Splatoon, “a 4-on-4 game about controlling territory” – by dressing as squids and shooting ink. Seriously.
• “One more thing”: Lady Palutena joins the fight in Smash Bros; two S.FM staff members go crazy at the news.

There was a lot of exciting news to be seen in the hour-long presentation; and Nintendo even ended by saying that they still have much more to reveal that they just didn’t have time for. Personally, I think the titles they focused on this time around were carefully selected and made a lot of sense – mostly big titles, a few First looks in the middle, new first-party titles being announced that aren’t anything like what you may have expected, an interesting third-party effort to round off and Smash Bros. buffering both ends. I was personally surprised to see Mario Maker announced – the ability to make your own Mario levels had been a common fan request for Mario titles from almost the beginning; but while fans have often made their own self-developed game engines to do the job themselves, or have ROM-hacked the official games to introduce their own levels (we at Sanitarium.FM do NOT condone this practice!), over the years the idea of a Nintendo-authored, official tool or feature to do this just began to felt like a pipe dream. Now it’s finally happening, my question is – what took you so long, Nintendo?!? (Admittedly, the Wii U may well be the best platform for the tool what with it’s controller with built-in touch-screen offering an excellent interface for level creation; and the large TV screen offering tons of space to work with – a DS screen may not have offered anywhere near the real estate for the game or its interface.)

However, my pick of the crop has to be the announcement of Amiibo – the idea of NFC-enabled Nintendo figures was actually discussed in the Wii U promotional material before it even launched; and with Skylanders already showing how it can be done, it’s about time Nintendo got into the game too. The idea of the figures not just representing the characters though, but also acting as storage to keep your own character’s stats and enhancements on within compatible games seems like an interesting concept though; and seeing how the figures will be cross-compatible with multiple Nintendo titles which are likely to be very different in play – Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros. aren’t even in the same genre! – it may well turn out to be something quite big indeed for Nintendo. Stay tuned!

The rumors of Halo 2 Anniversary weren’t only true, they were better than true.

Master Chief will indeed return on Xbox One with a remastering of his epic 2004 sequel – arguably the most anticipated and beloved game in Xbox history – and he will hit Microsoft’s newest console with the original Halo 2 multiplayer completely intact.

Microsoft and 343 Industries will, in fact, release Halo: The Master Chief Collection on November 11 – nearly a decade to the day since Halo 2’s November 9, 2004 arrival – and it will include Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, Halo 2 Anniversary, Halo 3, and Halo 4. All will run in 1080p and 60 frames per second and include their full multiplayer suites in their original forms, with the added bonus of running on dedicated servers. Oh, and it’s also packing your ticket to the Halo 5: Guardians multiplayer beta that begins in December 2014, as well as the digital film Halo: Nightfall, an episodic release that will premiere on November 11 and run in multiple weekly installments

Lets take a look at what was announced…

The main part:

    All four Master Chief Halo games on one disc
    Custom playlists that allow you to string together missions across multiple games
    Halo 5 beta key included

All four games – developed as a collaboration between 343 Industries (user interface, online infrastructure, etc.), Saber Interactive (Halo 2 Anniversary campaign), and Certain Affinity (multiplayer) will ship on a single, $60 Blu-ray disc; the individual games will not be available as separate digital downloads. You’ll run a single master user interface, from which you can queue up anything you want. All campaign levels are unlocked from the get-go, and playlists created and curated by 343 will allow you to experience moments from across all four campaigns in a variety of ways. For example: want to play all the Warthog levels in every game? Jump into that playlist and you’ll be able to do just that.

Meanwhile, multiplayer matchmaking will offer the usual assortment of playlists you’ve come to expect from Halo games – Team Snipers, Rumble Pit, etc. – and let players vote on which map they want next. But what’s cool is that you may be presented with three choices that span three different games. Say, Halo: CE’s “Wizard,” Halo 2’s “Lockout,” and Halo 3’s “The Pit.” Whichever gets the most votes is the game that MCC will launch, after which you’ll be taken back to the multiplayer lobby with your friends. Finally, the Extras menu is home to the Nightfall digital feature as well as the launch pad for December’s Halo 5: Guardians multiplayer beta. It will run from December 27, 2014, and end on January 22.

This Collection packs a whopping 4,000 Achievement points, as they’ve been allotted 1,000 per game from Microsoft. Some of those will be exact replicas of their original Gamerscore-earners, but some will be new, too.

Personally, I’m looking forward to the collection, keep an eye on the Sanitarium.FM website for more news as we get it!

Microsoft has announced Forza Motorsport 5 Game of the Year edition.

Which will include the original game, plus 18 extra tracks and the Top Gear car pack featuring ten downloadable vehicles.

The game will cost £50/€70/$60 when it launches on July 22.

Do you think Forza 5 deserves GOTY edition?  Personally I do and it is the first new gen racer off the start line.

But let us know below.

Even though Steam has put a dampener on Steam Machine plans by announcing that SteamOS will be delayed to at least 2015 “to fix issues with the Steam Controller”, partners to the project are still continuing to design, prototype and demonstrate their own Steam Boxes ready for sale as soon as SteamOS officially launches. Taking the stage again to kick off today’s action for day two of COMPUTEX Taiwan, ASUS announced two new Steam Machines under it’s gaming-orientated brand, ASUS ROG.

While both machines may run SteamOS, the two ASUS ROG Steam Machines share very little in common when it comes to either size or features. We’ll start with the smaller machine first – the ASUS ROG GR8 (ten bucks says you’ll pronounce that like “great”) comes equipped with a Core i7 processor and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti graphics card inside, but is incredibly slim – ASUS wouldn’t give the exact dimensions, but did state it took no more than “2.5 litres” of space on a desk. The device is also capable of supporting 4K HD output – though you’ll have to supply your own screen – and also supports Miracast, making it a plausible console alternative. ASUS claim the device’s size-to-power ratio is the best it’s ever made.

Meanwhile, the ROG G20 is not only bigger, but more powerful as well. While it keeps the Core i7 Processor of its smaller sibling, the G20 swaps the graphical chippery for the GeForce GTX 780 – truly a gaming machine. ASUS claims that because it uses a hidden airflow tunnel for cooling, it’s capable of “near silent” operation; and has supposedly measured it to emit just 25dB of noise while idle. We at Sanitarium.FM point out that an idling machine is always quieter than one actually being used for gaming, which is what SteamOS is primarily about, and the real test for how “quiet” a machine may be is in measuring its loudness during a hardcore gaming session. The hidden airflow tunnel does, however, result in a machine that has no visible exhaust system whatsoever, which is unusual for gaming-orientated computers. For that added touch of class, the G20 also has built-in lighting – and even here ASUS feel the need to show off, claiming that the lighting is capable of cycling through millions of colour shades. Really, ASUS? Millions?

ASUS have decided to withhold further details of both Steam Machines until Valve reveal their own Roadmap for Steam OS’ eventual launch, which as stated at the top of this article has suffered some delays. Additionally, as is typical of Computex reveals, ASUS are currently keeping mum on expected retail prices for the machines as well. We expect more details to appear alongside Valve’s next announcement.