2011 - The Best Year In Video Games

It’s that time of the year again where we are due to assess the cream of the crop from this years biggest Xbox 360 releases. Today I will be providing a run down on the games, the people, the stories and the disappointments that followed. Of course not many people would argue that 2011 has been one of the biggest years in gaming, the 3DS was released, new consoles were predicted and massive games were played my millions around the world. There...

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Skyrim - Patch 1.3

Another Skyrim patch (namely 1.3) is now available for download from Xbox Live. The patch, which is already available on Steam for the PC version, improves stability and fixes several problems with the Radiant story engine and fixes the issues raised in their previous patch. The latter issues like Dragons flying backwards and resistances not working have now been resolved and therefore this should be downloaded immediately if you were foolish...

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Industry Changes in 2011

A few years ago editorials and articles across the globe were outraged at the high price of gaming. People were furious that developers had increased store prices to cover their ever higher production cost and it was falling on the public to pick up the pieces. It’s strange then to think that it is now common place for free gaming in 2011. On mobile devices, social networking sites and MMO’s the free game is extremely common and developers...

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Halo 4 - Character Changes

Finally some news on Halo 4 – even if it is just an interview I’m still excited. Halo has of course been one of the standout successes on both of Microsoft’s home consoles and it look like the fourth outing is going to run the same path. 343 Industries recently confirmed that we won't be seeing the same old Master Chief in Halo 4 that we are used to. In an interview the Halo franchise director, Frank O'Connor, confirmed that the Chief's armour...

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Gamer being sent to War?

To demonstrate that a new audio system “takes you there” a New Zealand branch of a headset company are taking a 24-year-old Kiwi gamer into a real war zone: Iraq. Let’s face it – it’s not the perfect backdrop for an advertising campaign. This is not about politics and no matter how you feel about the conflict there has obviously been a significant human cost. The Middle East is not a playground and I’m sure the families of the men and women...

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Windows Store

Microsoft have started to aggressively market their new App Store challenger, the Windows Store; explaining that this will offer developers more customers, more money and more freedom. The main corporate advantage is that developers will keep 70% of all the money made from their app sales as standard which is also set to increase to 80% when sales exceed 25,000. This means that alternative App Stores will have to decrease their sales share...

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3DS Ambassador Update - GBA Promotion Release

Nintendo have finally decided that tomorrow will be the day that their 3DS Ambassadors will be released their 10 Game Boy Advance games. In fact this is the first time that the full list has been publicly detailed. This has come several months after releasing half of its Ambassador Program games to the public. I mean they did initially say that we would all get the game before the end of 2011 but boy did they cut that fine. Currently the...

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Metal Gear Solid: Ultimate Edition

Zavvi are offering a Limited Edition Xbox 360 version of the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection. This used to be a PlayStation 3 exclusive and contains the same selection as their Ultimate Edition. This Xbox package is available for pre-order now and costs £69.99. The Limited Edition is due to be a Zavvi exclusive across the UK and Europe with a mere 6000 copies on the PS3 and 4000 copies on the Xbox 360. In total only 8000 (PS3) and 5000 (360) units...

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Xbox Dashboard Update

The new Xbox 360 dashboard has been released today but continued to be plagued by problems up until release. Users have been flagging issues to Microsoft’s customer services all day which have ranged from video issues to bricked consoles. One of the most common issues is that some Xbox Live accounts are completely unable to connect to the service. Microsoft’s Major Nelson has been tweeting all day with updates on the progress of this issue...

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Microsoft vs Sony

Over the last few weeks various sites have given their opinion in the console war and which one has particularly won 2011. All arguments that I have read have actually come off the back of some very well thought out decision processes. A few weeks back IGN, in particular Colin Moriarty, published an opinion piece suggesting that the PS3 will beat the Xbox before this generation is over. He gave a very deep opinion of the conjectures of lifetime...

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Skyrim Patch 1.2

As I’m sure most of you are aware the open world epic, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, has been released with its fair share of glitches that have been very publicly noted over the past few weeks. Bethesda have now confirmed that their update patch will be released this week and should rectify all the major issues players are experiencing. The main feature of this patch will be to fix the game-breaking bug that has plagued many PS3 based games....

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Skyrim's 40/40

Just a quick update to tell you Bethesda's gigantic open world fantasy epic Skyrim is the first western game ever to receive a 40/40 review score in long-running Japanese video game magazine Famitsu. Famitsu asks four separate journalists to review each video game, requesting that they each submit their own score out of 10. Skyrim, according to Andriasang, received four 10/10 scores, and has therefore hit the impressive 40/40. Skyrim does...

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3DS Ambassador Update - GBA Promotion

I thought I’d provide a quick update for us 3DS Ambassadors. Firstly several websites have advertised a delay in the ten free GameBoy Advance games promised to the early 3DS adopters advising us that Nintendo have pushed these back until 2012. In fact one of the websites quoting this change was the Spanish Nintendo site that confirmed the GBA game s would be available ‘from next year’. The 3DS Ambassador scheme rewards early adopters who bought...

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Xbox 360 Dash Update

It’s almost Christmas and Microsoft have a nice present for all of us Xbox owners. The new dashboard has been confirmed for launches on 6th December to all Xbox Live members. The free update redesigns the Xbox 360 interface style, bringing it in-line with Microsoft's Windows and Windows Phone products to allow Microsoft to push their connectivity in the future. The update also adds Kinect style functionality and cloud saving for Xbox Live Gold...

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Gaming For Cash

We all want to make money and we all want to live the good life. Wouldn’t that statement be much better if we said this instead? We all want to make money playing video game and we all want to live a good life working with video games. In this case the person I am thinking of is Toby Smith, his unlikely business proposal on Fivesquids was an attempt t play virtual bodyguard in various Xbox 360 FPS games. His proposal was to play as your...

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Skyrim Patch Announced

As I’m sure you are aware the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has had a few rough edges over the past few weeks. Luckily developers Bethesda have announced a patch for their open world RPG that will launch at some point the week beginning Monday 28th November. Bethesda employee Pete Hines said that the batch will improve ‘long-term play on PS3’ as this has become quite an issue with that version of the game. When the save game becomes too large the...

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What did Skyrim teach me?

So 2011 might have been the best year to be a video gamer ever… we got great games, massive releases and new trends, features and pre-releases. As the nights draw in the gaming sessions will get longer and we have a great collection of games to spend time with too. Over the past few months we seem to get a classic ever few weeks and a few weeks ago we got the best of the bunch in the form of Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim. I have already stumped hours...

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Skyrim - DLC

By now I’m sure you have all had a run at the fifth Elder Scrolls game, Skyrim, dare I say it some may have completed the main quest too. If this is the case then you are either running off the remaining side quests or looking to the god of Bethesda for their first confirmation of DLC. The extra content has been confirmed by Bethesda and they have also explained that they will be looking to make more substantial pieces then they did for Oblivion....

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Played too much Skyrim?

As I’m sure any regular readers will know but the game I have been most looking forward to all year is finally here. It’s in our Xbox’s and our Computers, ruining relationships, destroying social activity time and getting people sacked from their day jobs. The last week has flown by in a blur of dragon attacks and fire spells. Anyone who has ever played Tetris for more then an hour will know that video games slowly creep into our real lives. I remember...

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Skyrim - Glitches Galore

Bethesda have always been know to ship games with strange bugs and glitches. It’s become a common place to almost expect some strange occurrences during the initial release period. Morrowind have a lot of game breakers and the occasional texture, wall, NPC issue but was all in all a very playable game. We remember being able to steal stuff without anyone caring and loved breaking the game by playing two or more of the different houses. Oblivion...

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Xbox - The Next Generation

We all know that Microsoft have a new Xbox on the way in some form or other but can we speculate what developers have in mind. The main developers and publishers clearly know Microsoft's got another Xbox on the way from Tweets and their regular slips of the tongue. For the moment, though, all lips are sealed. Of course the Xbox 360 remains immensely profitable, more profitable this year than any other, but the second a successor takes shape, you...

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