Category Archives: General Post
Gran Turismo franchise nears 68 million sales
Sony’s flagship PlayStation racing franchise Gran Turismo is approaching 68 million lifetime sales.
According to datarevealed by series creator Polyphony Digital, 67,890,000 Gran Turismo games were sold between the original’s PSone debut in 1997 and September 2012.
In comparison, Sony said in June that it had shipped over 21 million God of War games to retailers worldwide since the series debuted in 2005.
The original Gran Turismo has sold 10.85 million copies. 2001′s Gran Turismo 3 A-spec, the first game in the series to be released for PS2, is the best-selling GT title, having shifted almost 15 million copies. 2010 PS3 release Gran Turismo 5 has cleared nine million sales. Here’s a rundown by title:
- Gran Turismo: 10,850,000
- Gran Turismo 2: 9,370,000
- Gran Turismo 3 A-spec: 14,890,000
- Gran Turismo Concept Series: 1,560,000
- Gran Turismo 4 Prologue: 1,400,000
- Gran Turismo 4: 11,600,000
- Gran Turismo 5 Prologue: 5,350,000
- Gran Turismo PSP: 3,860,000
- Gran Turismo 5: 9,010,000
- Total: 67,890,000
Gran Turismo series producer Kazunori Yamauchi confirmed that Gran Turismo 6 was in development back in 2010, although he has left fans to speculate whether the game will arrive on PS3 or PlayStation 4.
This August Yamauchi suggested that the Gran Turismo 6 release date will remain a secret until Polyphony can be certain of its launch plans, telling press at the GT5 Asia Championship 2012: “If I carelessly say when it will be released, you’ll end up with people saying things like ‘it’s been delayed again’ so I will no longer say at this type of event.”
Source: computerandvideogames.com
Dropbox Review
Along with Microsoft’s Live Mesh, Dropbox was one of the first services to show how useful and versatile the cloud
could be, providing simple synchronisation of the contents of a single folder – the “Dropbox” – across multiple computers, OSes and users.
Dropbox provides 2GB (Can earn up to 15-20GB free)of free storage and up to 100GB for $20 (£13) per month. A client has to be installed on each device – Windows, Mac, Linux, Android and iOS versions are available – and once installed you can sync files between them and your online Dropbox simply by dragging items into the Dropbox folder.
Other users can also share and sync with a folder. You can set this up by right-clicking a folder or through the Sharing tab on the web-based interface. Either way, it’s very simple. Once your folders are set up for syncing, you can keep track of events and change preferences through an icon in the System Tray.
In a way, Dropbox’s simplicity is a double-edged sword. On one hand, the concept of dropping files or folders into the Dropbox and knowing they’ll sync across all your devices is simple, and works brilliantly. On the other hand, there’s no way to sync specific files and folders – your Music folder, say – without moving them into the Dropbox, which doesn’t really suit the way Windows works. This limits Dropbox’s usefulness as a backup and restore program.
On the plus side, Dropbox’s excellent versioning features mean there’s no need to worry about files syncing after you’ve wrecked a key file; you can always drag it back from a previous copy.
Dropbox isn’t particularly media-savvy. It has photo-sharing and photo gallery features, but nothing outstanding. It’s also quite slow with big uploads, taking three and a half hours for our initial 500MB backup. However, it’s speedy at synchronisation. Photos added to one Dropbox appeared on another machine within 1min 44secs, while changes to a picture were synced to other systems within 1min 7secs.
For all its limitations, Dropbox is great because it makes sharing and syncing files so easy across most devices. Other services offer a more rounded package, but Dropbox is as useful now as ever.
| Sign up to Dropbox here |
Battlefield 1942 free on Origin to celebrate 10 year anniversary
Electronic Arts has made classic FPS Battlefield 1942 free as a “thank you” to Battlefield fans. The gift is being offered “in celebration of the ten year anniversary of the Battlefield series and Battlefield 3 Premium surpassing 2 million members worldwide.”
Of course, it’s also a clever ploy to get more people to try Origin, EA’s PC gaming client.
You can download the game here.
“When we launched Battlefield 1942 ten years ago, we had lofty ambitions to create a first-person shooter that would push the boundaries of innovation, creativity and design. We evolved the FPS gameplay formula by introducing the world to all-out warfare via land, air and sea,” DICE VP Karl Magnus Troedsson said in a release. “We wanted to thank our fans who have supported us throughout the years by restoring Battlefield 1942 for a digital re-release and give everyone a chance to play the game that started it all.”
Nintendo: HTML5 support for Wii U browser, but no Flash
Microsoft’s latest dashboard update for the Xbox 360 introduced the ability to browse the web via Internet Explorer, but web browsing on games consoles isn’t exactly a new phenomenon. Nintendo’s Wii, for example, offered this facility over five years ago via The Internet Channel (essentially a customised version of the Opera browser), and the company’s next-generation console, the Wii U, will also offer access to websites.
Nintendo has revealed a few details about the console’s browser, which is based on the NetFront Browser engine, used for embedded browsing in a vast range of devices such as smart TVs, set-top boxes, public information terminals and gaming devices, including Nintendo’s own 3DS handheld.
Unsurprisingly, the Wii U’s browser won’t support Adobe Flash – or any other plug-ins for that matter – but it does support current HTML5 standards. The browser achieved a reputable, if not remarkable, score of 323+8 (out of a possible 500 points) via HTML5Test.com; by comparison, the Xbox 360’s Internet Explorer 9 browser achieved a comparatively poor score of 120+8.
However, while the Xbox 360 includes multitouch browsing support via the new Xbox SmartGlass apps – allowing users to navigate and browse the web on the console using gestures such as pinch-to-zoom on a compatible smartphone or tablet – the Wii U gamepad does not support multitouch inputs.
The Wii U will launch across North America on 18 November, and in Europe on 30 November.
MOGA Mobile Gaming System for Android Smartphones Available from T-Mobile
It’s no secret that smartphones (and tablets) are generally ill-equipped for certain games, at least as far as physical controls are concerned. So T-Mobile is offering a solution in the form of the MOGA Mobile Gaming System, created by PowerA.
The pocket-sized MOGA works with Android devices (versions 2.3 and higher) and connects via Bluetooth, giving users a full suite of controls for gaming, including dual analog sticks, two shoulder buttons, four action buttons, and start and select buttons.
While tablets will have to be set down on a surface or propped up during gaming sessions, smartphones can be docked in the controller, so the display is at an ideal angle right above the MOGA.
The MOGA, priced at $49.99 is available for purchase online now at T-Mobile’s website, and will be on sale in T-Mobile retail stores starting November 14.
Video Preview:
A.I, camera, graphics and gameplay issues revealed for ‘Assassin’s Creed 3’
The latest edition of the Polish gaming magazine, CD-Action, includes a lengthy article featuring the upcoming multiplatform title, “Assassin’s Creed 3.” The publication today revealed some of the issues that they ran into while completing the open-world action-adventure video game, including some faults to the A.I. (artificial intelligence), graphics, camera and gameplay). You can check out some screens from the latest Assassin’s Creed video game in the slideshow at the top of this article and the details below (courtesy of “l Khasim l” from the Ubisoft forums for the translation):
A.I:
- The enemy AI is not very great, sometimes you can run away from enemies by running in circles around a hay bale, or soldiers falling to their deaths from rooftops while chasing you, friendly NPCs also don’t adjust to your speed very well and sometimes run to you only to stand still for a couple of seconds, then repeating it
- Riding horses in the Frontier is not a good idea, horses are described as “incompetent”, making free-/treerunning a faster way to travel, though riding helps in winter when the snow slows you down a lot
Graphics:
- There are visible clipping issues, for example the lockpicks sometimes don’t fit in the keyholes, enemies’ bodies and weapons sometimes float in the air, and carts sometimes ignore horses “parked” on streets, “ghosting” through them, braids and ponytails also clip through faces
A brief history of: Call of Duty
We like to think that games such as Zelda and Sonic have influenced us in our day to day lives, but so have more recent entries into the library of video game history. Call of Duty is one such title, that has been responsible for many aspects of the culture today, and despite the love-it-or-hate-it relationship it has with gamers today, its still going to be around for quite a while.
Here’s a look back at nine years of explosions and facial hair.
Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and others scramble for new top-level domains like .app, .xbox, and .book
.app is one of the most contested top-level domains, with 13 applicants including Google and Amazon. Microsoft has applied for a total of 11 domain names, including .Xbox, .Hotmail, and .Windows. Apple appears to have only applied for one, just .Apple, and Google has applied for over 100 domain names including: .Android, .Dog, and .Blog.
We already knew some applications: Google announced recently it had applied for .docs, .youtube, and .lol, and British non-profit Nominet has applied for .cymru and .wales. Organizations will have to pay a minimum of $25,000 per year to keep the domain, and not all applications will succeed. 231 domain names have more than one application, and 731 applications overlap.
Applications will be dealt with 500 at a time, and more than 1,000 could be live within a year. The first of the new top-level domains will go live in the first quarter of 2013. ICANN says “this is a historic day for the internet and for the more than 2 million people that depend on it, because the internet is about to change, forever.”
Batman Arkham: Armored Edition on Wii U + Images
Batman Arkham City for Wii U has been announced today Nintendo showed gameplay footage on the new console today at their E3 press conference. Warner Brother’s Martin Tremblay came along with the reveal and gave us a look at the game on the new console. The Wii U game pad will be used to aid in additional gameplay mechanics, including the touch pad and interaction within the environment.
Win a copy of Paper Bees (iOS)
Following the successful review of the iOS game Paper Bees (Read the review here) I am proud to announce we have a couple copies of the game to give away. To enter the competition please submit your name and e-mail address below. Make sure you e-mail address is correct as this is how i will get in contact with you to tell you that you have won.
I will pick a winners on the 10th of June and message the lucky people. Good luck and i look forward to seeing who has won.
Find out more details on the competition page here.
