PSA: Nintendo 3DS XL now available in US, AC adapter included

Nintendo 3DS XL now available in US, AC adapter included

That Japan-exclusive Pikachu clamshell might be slightly out of reach for US buyers, but starting today they can pick up a regular 3DS XL to the tune of $200. The oversized Nintendo handheld surpasses its predecessor in just about every category, shining through our review gauntlet with more battery life, a more comfortable grip and a more luxurious screen. On top of the usual fare, US buyers will also receive a power adapter, a necessary accessory that was oddly left out of the Japanese and European releases. Oh, and if you're looking for something new to play on that shiny hardware, New Super Mario Bros. 2 hits the US eShop today as well.

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PSA: Nintendo 3DS XL now available in US, AC adapter included originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 19 Aug 2012 15:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Project Holodeck and Oculus Rift hope to kickstart every gamers’ VR dream for $500 (video)

Project Holodeck and Oculus Rift hope to make every gamers' dream a $500 reality via Kickstarter video

Star Trek: The Next Generation may be coming to your living rooms soon courtesy of some hot new Blu-ray pressing, but one of the most compelling pieces of the technology shown on that series still remains elusive: the holodeck. Don't get down, sunshine, because we might soon be making our first, tentative steps into a virtual courtesy of Project Holodeck. It's underway at USC's School of Cinematic Arts as well as the Viterbi School of Engineering and starts out with a pair of Project Oculus glasses. These glasses, which were shown off at E3 by none other than John Carmack, cram a 1,280 x 800 display into a pair of glasses that present a wide, truly immersive field of view. Pair that with a PlayStation Move for head tracking and a Razer Hydra controller and you have the beginnings of a proper virtual reality environment.

An early concept of what the complete system might feel like can be found after the break, a couple of people acting out a sequence from Skies of Arcadia, which could be called a spiritual inspiration for the first game designed for Project Holodeck: Wild Skies. In it, two people "pilot a massive airship through a exotic world of floating islands" -- though whether they look as kawaii as their Dreamcast predecessors remains to be seen. When you might actually get your hands on the system is also unknown, but one piece of the puzzle, the Oculus Rift glasses, are said to be hitting Kickstarter any day now -- for an anticipated price of just $500. Bat'leth and copy of Workin' out with Worf not included.

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Project Holodeck and Oculus Rift hope to kickstart every gamers' VR dream for $500 (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Jul 2012 20:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nintendo announces $199 3DS XL with 4.88-inch top screen, available August 19th

Nintendo announces extra large 3DS LL with 488inch top screen

Folks holding their breath for a "3DS Lite" might want to exhale -- Nintendo has decided to go a different route. Company head honcho Satoru Iwata revealed the 3DS LL this evening on Nintendo Direct, featuring a 4.88-inch and 4.18-inch top and bottom screens, respectively. The new hardware adds over an inch to the current 3DS' display, and ships with a 4GB SD card, to boot. The oversized handheld doesn't adopt the Circle Pad Pro's second analog input, however, retaining just a single thumbpad on the console's port side. Japanese gamers will be able to pick up a 3DS LL in white, as well as in two-tone red / black or silver / white on July 28th for ¥18,900 (about $235). In the US, of course, the handheld will be rebranded as the 3DS XL, just like its predecessor's supersized variant, hitting Yankee shores (in red and blue, no less) on August 19th for $200.

Nintendo announces $199 3DS XL with 4.88-inch top screen, available August 19th originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 21 Jun 2012 23:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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E3 2012: the year of the lackluster blockbuster

E3 2012 the year of the lackluster blockbuster

The Electronics Entertainment Expo is no place for the easily distracted, every inch of convention center carpet devoted to capturing the attentions of calloused video game journalists. In spite of the customary flash however, it's hard to come away from this year's festivals without a creeping sense of disappointment, that for all the showmanship, we didn't actually see all that much at E3 2012 -- an in-between year that seemed lackluster even by those standards.

It's diminishing to break such a show up into clearly delineated binaries like "winners" and "losers" certainly, but if impact can be measured by lasting buzz, Epic's certainly sitting pretty at the close of the event. It's telling, really, that Unreal Engine 4 generated some of the most excitement around the show. In a year when Sony and Microsoft are no doubt focused on churning out next generation consoles, one of the show's highlights came in the form of a gaming engine -- a backend on which the next generation titles will be built.

Continue reading E3 2012: the year of the lackluster blockbuster

E3 2012: the year of the lackluster blockbuster originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 09 Jun 2012 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nintendo’s Hideki Konno discusses the 3DS and the element of surprise

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As E3 was coming to a close, we sat down with one of the men responsible for Nintendo's 3DS, Hideki Konno. Konno's official title is manager / producer, but because he's involved at such a high level with both software and hardware development on the 3DS, our conversation covered quite the range of topics. When asked about the handheld's performance in the last year, he drew parallels to the success of the DS that preceded it and he hopes that the 3DS will experience a similar growth curve. Due to the mention of the DS, we inquired about the possibility of a larger 3DS. While Mr. Konno wasn't able to confirm plans for a super-sized version of the current-gen handheld, he did express his affinity for the DSi XL's increased real estate -- he finds the larger screen is much easier to gaze upon. You can draw your own conclusions as to exactly what that means. When chatting about mobile gaming, we asked about the impact of smartphones on the outfit's handheld. Konno offered that Nintendo prides itself on surprising gamers with new "compelling experiences" that handsets can't provide.

We asked if any of these new experiences would involve the integration of both 3DS and the Wii U, and Konno replied that he's confident about those explorations taking place in future. In fact, a version of the Smash Brothers series is currently being developed for both 3DS and Wii U simultaneously. He indicated that it would be hard to believe that the two versions being developed in parallel wouldn't provide some unique interactions between them and their respective platforms. Additionally, while it sounds like the Miiverse will only be available on Big N's next-gen console at launch, Mr. Konno communicated that -- depending out how well it's received -- we're likely see the social element brought to the mobile gaming arena, too.

Michael Gorman contributed to this report.

Nintendo's Hideki Konno discusses the 3DS and the element of surprise originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 Jun 2012 16:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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E3 2012 wrap-up

E3 2012 wrapup

Greetings from -- actually, scratch that, we're all back home now, but we had a blast spending the week in sunny, smoggy downtown Los Angeles -- even if this year's Electronics Entertainment Expo wasn't exactly the most exciting in recent memory. After all, neither Sony nor Microsoft gave us much in the way of new hardware, and Nintendo, the one member of the big three with a new console for 2012, didn't show off much that we hadn't already seen. We did, however, get our hands on a fair share of hardware and we're generally impressed by some software innovation, like Microsoft's SmartGlass. If you happened to miss something during the gaming news deluge (not to mention the fact that Computex happened to be going on at the same time), feel free to catch up on our coverage after the break.

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E3 2012 wrap-up originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 Jun 2012 16:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Peter Molyneux divulges DLC details for Curiosity, we apply for a loan

Peter Molyneux divulges DLC details for Curiosity, we apply for a loan

Peter Molyneux's first post-Lionhead game, Curiosity, holds a big mystery and now it promises DLC with a colossal price tag. The game -- the first of 22 experiments -- will reveal a secret to the gaming guinea pig who deals the final blow to a single black cube. Shortly after its release, chisels that pack a mightier punch to the monolith will arrive as DLC for those who long to crack the container open. Prices for the downloadable tools will start around $1 (59 pence) for an iron implement and reach up to roughly $78,000 (£50,000) for a one-of-a-kind diamond version that hits 100,000 times harder. Once the secret is revealed, 22 Cans will use social media to study how the winner proves the milestone and spreads the news. Curiosity is expected to drop in about six weeks for iOS and PC, but feel free to begin pondering the secret of life, the universe and everything that lies inside the digital fortune cookie.

Peter Molyneux divulges DLC details for Curiosity, we apply for a loan originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 Jun 2012 13:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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E3 2012: not quite ready to go mobile


Perhaps E3 2012 will be remembered as the year that even Nintendo acknowledged the existence of smartphone gaming -- if only begrudgingly so, dragged kicking and screaming into the early '10s. It's a brave new world here, a strange one in which everyone and their grandmother has become a gamer by default, carrying high powered portable computers in their pockets at all times. But even as all the major players took time out to give a nod to the ever enlarging juggernaut that is mobile gaming, its an element that still feels like a bit of a redheaded stepchild inside the Los Angeles Convention Center, where console gaming is still far and away the dominant force -- it's a presence relegated to brief mentions in larger press events and pushed to the sides of the convention floor.

It comes as no surprise, of course, that Nintendo didn't dwell on the matter during its show opening keynote on Tuesday. The mere fact that company president Satoru Iwata made reference at all to mobile operating systems is something of a sea change for an executive who has thus far stubbornly refused to even "consider" developing for the Androids and iOSes of the world. And the news from Sunday doesn't do much to shake that stance. While mobile operating systems were name checked, it was only in reference to users' ability to access social information from the Wii U on their browser.

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E3 2012: not quite ready to go mobile originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 Jun 2012 13:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Epic senior technical artist Alan Willard talks Unreal Engine 4 for next-gen consoles

DNP Epic senior technical artist Alan Willard talks Unreal Engine 4 for nextgen consoles

There's no PS4 or Xbox 720 behind the curtain, Alan Willard assures a dark room full of eager video game journalists. Nope, it's just a current high-end piece of PC hardware. In spite of the company's position as a creator of one of the industry's leading game engines, Epic doesn't get a peek at Sony and Microsoft's next generation consoles before the companies are ready for their grand unveiling. "We won't know final hardware specs until everyone else does," the company's senior technical artist tells me after the presentation, adding with a laugh, "If they do, I don't know anything about it."

The company spent this year's E3 cycling media in and out of its small meeting room on the second floor of the convention center, dimming the lights and showing off just what Unreal Engine 4 has to offer -- or at least a pretty good idea of what it will offer when it's finally ready for prime time. It's clear from the excitement on the Epic employees' faces that all involved are relieved to finally show the demo off for gatherings of eager writers. No surprise there, of course. After all, the engine has been in development in some form or other for eight or nine years -- several lifetimes in the roman candle-like world of video game development.

Continue reading Epic senior technical artist Alan Willard talks Unreal Engine 4 for next-gen consoles

Epic senior technical artist Alan Willard talks Unreal Engine 4 for next-gen consoles originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 Jun 2012 09:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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SOEmote tracks our face, transplants our expressions onto an Everquest II persona (faces-on)

DNP Sony SOEmote handson

Sony's PlayStation division may have been the main focus this week at E3, but Sony Online Entertainment has something unique of its own to show off for MMORG players. Specifically, folks who are into the PC title Everquest II will soon be able to access a facial recognition feature called SOEmote (S-O Emote). It's no secret that these types of games require massive amounts of communication between players, and SOEmote is an attempt to make in-game conversations more personal than ever. Utilizing any webcam, the software is able map and track your noggin at 64 points, allowing your onscreen character to replicate any facial movements you make. We got a chance to mess around with a beta version of the software, and the results are impressive to say the least -- pretty much all of our facial expressions were accurately recreated. Join us past the break for more details and a hands-on faces-on video demo of it in action.

Continue reading SOEmote tracks our face, transplants our expressions onto an Everquest II persona (faces-on)

SOEmote tracks our face, transplants our expressions onto an Everquest II persona (faces-on) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 Jun 2012 06:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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