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Nintendo TVii available on Wii U in North America on Dec. 20


Nintendo announced this morning that its Nintendo TVii for Wii U will launch in the US and Canada on December 20. Nintendo TVii, originally intended as a launch application, enhances the console's connectivity with the living room glow box. It provides a single navigable experience of cable and satellite shows, as well as on-demand services through the WiiPad.

Netflix, YouTube, Hulu Plus and Amazon Instant currently have separate, functional apps on North American Wii U consoles.

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Star Citizen's Roberts supports Elite, Project GODUS, says you should too

Chris RobertsStar Citizen head honcho Chris Roberts may be busy heading up the revival of the space sim genre, but he's not too busy to make a case for a couple of high profile Kickstarter projects. In a lengthy post on SC's official site, Roberts shows his support for Elite: Dangerous and Peter Molyneux's Project GODUS and urges backers of Star Citizen to do the same.

Roberts outlines a number of reasons why SC's overwhelming Kickstarter success has invigorated the dev team, chief among them the sense of satisfaction stemming from the ability to send a message "to the business and marketing machines that normally decide which games are made. You said they are not the taste makers for you, that you want your voice heard on what kind of game you play and you want to have a greater involvement and connection to the development of that game."

Both Elite and GODUS are well short of their Kickstarter goals and nearing the end of their fundraising window. Roberts outlines what each game brings to the table and even touches on Molyneux's tendency to over-promise and under-deliver before ultimately concluding that Elite and GODUS are worthy of support for both gameplay reasons and the opportunity they're affording gamers to continue changing the industry.
With crowdfunding you cut the middle man out. No retailer. No publisher driven by the demands of its shareholders for quarterly profits. Instead you build the game directly for the audience that wants the game for the right reasons -- because they want to play it. This is an exciting shift in the dynamic and something gaming needs unless everyone wants no other choice other than to buy yearly sequels to one of a limited number of gaming brands that the big publishers focus on.
[Thanks to Ken for the tip!]

BioShock Infinite's first five minutes


So, obviously: spoiler warning.

PSA: Need for Speed: Most Wanted DLC reaches Ultimate Speed today


Criterion's latest racer, Need for Speed: Most Wanted, presents its first premium DLC pack today. The Ultimate Speed pack has five new rides up for grabs – the Pagani Zonda R, McLaren F1LM, Lamborghini Aventador J and Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse – with 25 subsequent challenges for each to overcome.

Fairview also has one new Most Wanted rival prowling the streets in a Hennessey Venom GT Spyder, which you may then take down and claim for yourself. The Ultimate Speed pack is available on Xbox 360, PS3 and Origin right now for 800 MS Points ($10).

Mechwarrior Online 'Conquest Mode' update is massive

Image Mechwarrior Online's final update of 2012 is Conquest Mode, allowing players to capture locations in the Inner Sphere. The update brings three new mechs, including the Twin Dragons in the above video, the River City Night map and some New Year's goodies. See the pics and video right in here. ... Continue Reading

Zen Pinball HD loaded into the Android chute

Zen Pinball HD now on Android
The folks at Zen Studios will not be content until their digital pinball wares exist on every platform known to man. Today the developer lets loose Zen Pinball HD onto the Google Play store, a free download for Android 3.0 devices and up.

Zen Pinball HD includes the "Sorcerer's Lair" table gratis – within the app, you may purchase up to 15 additional tables through micro-transactions, including selections from Zen Studios' lauded Marvel Pinball series of tables. In fact, the developer is offering a special sale price for each of those Marvel tables over the next week: $.99 each. You don't have to be a billionaire playboy to appreciate a good bargain.

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Dante's bling free when you buy Devil May Cry from Capcom

Free Dante's bling when you buy DmC Devil May Cry from Capcom
While Dante oozes style, we just kind of ooze. We could never pull off Dante's flashy pendant seen above. It's free to anyone who purchases a copy of DmC: Devil May Cry through the Capcom store.

Of course, you don't have to wear the pendant. You could just hang it somewhere, or lay it on a table near you while you silently prepare a sandwich during a Devil May Cry 4 installation. Yeah, that's right, we're bringing that gag back.

DmC: Devil May Cry launches on January 15, 2013 for the PS3 and Xbox 360; and on January 25 for the PC.

PSA: Stranger's Wrath HD now available on Vita

PSA Stranger's Wrath HD now on Vita
Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath, you'll remember, is one of the weirdest of a series of weird games: It's a first-person shooter, essentially, based in Oddworld. The new PS Vita version of the game is now available for download through PSN, for $15. An HD version of the quirky shooter (which originally came out on the Xbox and later PC) was made for the PS3 last year.

The Vita version of Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath features the enhanced graphics of the Just Add Water remake, and makes use of the Vita's front and back touchscreens for "extra controls."

If you haven't had a chance to play one of Oddworld's best, it's time to log into PSN and check it out.

Final Penny Arcade 3 DLC on Steam this week, card game coming to iOS

Final DLC for Penny Arcade 3 coming Thursday to Steam, card game to iOS
"The Beginning of the End" is the final set of free DLC coming to Penny Arcade's On the Rain Slick Precipice of Darkness 3, and Zeboyd Games has announced that it's arriving on PC and the Xbox this Thursday, December 20. The DLC, which aims to fill in the story between the first three episodes, will bring a new playable character to the series, along with new enemies and new spells to fight them with.

As you can probably tell by the title, the DLC will set up the final game in the franchise, which is due sometime in 2013. This week, "The Beginning of the End" will only arrive on Steam and Xbox Live Indie Games, but Zeboyd says it'll be out for iOS, Android and Mac very soon.

And elsewhere in interactive Penny Arcade news, Playdek and Cryptozoic have created a digital version of the Penny Arcade deck-building card game – it's coming to iOS this week as well. Penny Arcade: The Game: Gamers vs. Evil will be out on Apple's platform tomorrow for $4.99. There are so many different options out there to play with the Penny Arcade license that they should probably upgrade it to a nickel at some point.

Street Fighter X Mega Man's chiptune soundtrack now on Bandcamp

Street Fighter X Mega Man's chiptune soundtrack now on Bandcamp
Street Fighter X Mega Man's superb chiptune soundtrack is now available on Bandcamp, complimenting yesterday's release of the game. Composed by San Francisco-based electronic music producer A_Rival, the 22-track album fuses Mega Man's sonic sensibilities with classic pieces of orchestration from Street Fighter's past.

The soundtrack, which includes character themes and scores from the game's various menus, is being sold through Bandcamp's name-your-own-price model with a minimum price of $0.00. So, hypothetically, this could either be the cheapest or most expensive piece of music you've ever purchased. Regardless of which end of that spectrum you feel is most appropriate, at least do yourself the favor of downloading these sweet, chippy jams.

Dead or Alive 5 Santa DLC checks off both naughty and nice today

The elves over at Team Ninja's workshop have completed the latest round of costumes for Dead or Alive 5. Well-timed Santa suits for each brawler are bundled into six fighter-specific sets, available now for 240 MS Points ($3) each on Xbox Live Marketplace and PlayStation Network. There's also the option of two larger set packs costing 640 MS Points ($7.99) each.

We've got a bunch of screens in our gallery below, in case you're wondering what a Ninja Santa looked like. Go ahead, it's only natural to feel curious about something called Ninja Santa.

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Thieves steal 7,000 Wiis from a warehouse in Seattle

Thieves steal 7,000 Wiis from a warehouse in Seattle
In the dead of night between Saturday and Sunday, thieves stole 7,000 Wiis from a Seattle Air Cargo warehouse, Seattle PI reported. That's without the "U," mind you.

The thieves made off with 7,000 consoles, two 53-foot trailers and a box van from the warehouse, for an estimated haul of $2 million. The King County Sheriff's Office is looking into the theft. Not to say that we're professionally trained investigators here, but we would suggest officers keep an eye on Ebay. That's what we would do, at least.

Serj Tankian composing the beats behind Morning Star



Morning Star
, the first mobile FPS from Alex Seropian and Tim Harris' studio, Industrial Toys, will feature a full musical score from System of a Down frontman Serj Tankian. Seropian and Harris are pretty serious about their premiere, and this sounds like part of that effort to make a truly hardcore mobile game.

"We've been big fans of Serj's for quite some time," Seropian says. "The opportunity to collaborate with him on Morning Star gave us a way to take the game to a whole new level. We knew his score would be unique, but it's his ability to interpret a scene or gameplay element and come up with something that makes it moodier, more dramatic or just more awesome that's really got us pumped."

Tankian, a self-described poet and political activist along with his musical duties, composed the music in the above trailer, for those interested in a teaser.

"I'm really enjoying working on Morning Star because it gives me the ability to create new musical worlds to complement the new visual worlds in the game," Tankian says. "Though most of the gameplay will be action-oriented cues, the stunning artwork and static scenes have inspired unique sounds unheard before."

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How Under Defeat HD fills your HDTV

Welcome to Living in the Past, a weekly column about what's new in old games. Now get off our lawn.

Under Defeat
Vertical shooters don't really mix well with HDTVs and their 16-by-9 aspect ratios. They would if people were crazy enough to turn their TVs sideways, but that's generally not the most feasible option. Most shooters released on HD systems relegate the game screen to a relatively small window to compensate, leaving a lot of dead space on the screen.

Under Defeat HD features a mode, new to the PS3 release of this Dreamcast-era game, designed to fill the whole widescreen display, called "New Order." It works well, and makes a convincing argument that 16-by-9 display can work ... for Under Defeat.

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PSA: Rage: The Scorchers DLC out today

PSA Rage The Scorchers DLC out today, here's some screenshots
Rage's first bundle of DLC, "The Scorchers," is available now on PC and Xbox 360 for $4.99/400 MS Points, with the identically priced PS3 version dropping with this evening's PSN update. The package adds a new clan, new weapons, new areas to be angry in, a new "Ultra-Nightmare" difficulty level and the added ability to keep playing the game, even after the story has ended.

We're sure at least some of that stuff is represented in the new screenshots below, but we can't get past the weird gross fungus guy to check. Eugh.

Grab the Nubuwo Winter Bundle, help fund the FAMI-MODE 2012 DVD

Grab the Nubuwo Winter Bundle, help fund the FAMIMODE 2012 DVD
The third video game music menagerie from Nubuwo is the Winter Bundle, and it's available on the Kickstarter for the FAMI-MODE 2012 DVD, a documentary of Tokyo's live chiptune concert. The Winter Bundle includes two halves of more than 80 songs each, the indie pack and the Fami pack, with either half up for $7 or the full bundle for $10.

The indie pack includes Rainbow Moon Melodies, Slipstream Volume One (revisiting music from Wipeout), El Huervo Trilogy (including music from Kometen, Hotline Miami and Clairvoyance) and the FTL: Faster Than Light soundtrack. The Fami pack includes the holiday chiptune album 8-Bit Jesus, Mega Man cover album Mega Ran Fifth Anniversary Edition, Killed by Koopa Stage One and FAMI-MODE 2012 Live Recordings.

The Kickstarter itself funds the FAMI-MODE 2012 DVD, but if it makes you feel better, look at this as a simple way to get the Nubuwo Winter Bundle on the cheap. The Kickstarter has to succeed for the goods to be distributed in this way, though – there are eight days left to raise $4,700 on this thing. Rock and fund on, chiptune lovers.

Angry Birds Star Wars force pushes its way onto Facebook

Angry Birds Star Wars on Facebook today
Angry Birds Star Wars is on Facebook, bringing everyone one step closer to the dark side. The Facebook version allows players to compare scores and compete against their friends, and will have five new levels each week to keep the flinging fresh.

Angry Birds Star Wars has three power-ups just for the Facebook version, the Blaster Droid, Saber Sling and Thermal Detonator. It also includes the Clone Bird ability, which duplicates a bird of the player's choice. Keep in mind that Angry Birds Star Wars on mobile is fun, satisfying and clever, for the most part, and that surprised us just as much as it did you.

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2012's games: the movie

Image In a world ... where a bunch of games came out, one man had the courage to cut a bunch of scenes from them together. This winter, the games of 2012 unite to learn the true meaning of friendship. ... Continue Reading

Disney Interactive revealing 'Disney Infinity' next month

Disney Interactive revealing 'Disney Infinity' next month
Disney Interactive will unveil a new "gaming initative" called Disney Infinity on Jan. 15, according to an invitation received today by Joystiq. Disney Interactive co-president John Pleasants and Disney/Pixar CCO John Lasseter will speak at the event, suggesting that Disney Infinity is a Big Deal.

The lenticular card also suggests a big deal.

An interview with Disney CEO Robert Iger in October revealed plans for something called "Toy Box," which would have Disney and Pixar characters interacting in games across multiple platforms. It's possible that Disney has renamed that project "Infinity." We'll find out in January.

Indie Royale Xmas Bundle 2.0: Offspring Fling, Colour Bind, Serious Sams



The Indie Royale Xmas Bundle 2.0 is live today for one week, offering the following six games for the "minimum" price possible, or whatever you want to pay above that: Colour Bind, Offspring Fling, Serious Sam Double D, Serious Sam: The Random Encounter, Puzzle Bots and Little Kingdom.

The bundle includes a free, award-winning game from Offspring Fling developer Kyle Pulver, called Namiko, and pay $8 or more to snag the Rhythm 'n' Bits album from Yoann Turpin. All of the games are available on Steam, except for Little Kingdom and Namiko, while Offspring Fling is the only game available for Mac and Linux as well as PC. Get bundlin'!

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What's In A Name

http://www.joystiq.com/2012/10/31/whats-in-a-name-red-barrels/

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Quotable

I'm not afraid of any topic or I wouldn't walk away from any topic because it was controversial. And I wouldn't run towards any topic because it was controversial. There's a story I want to tell.

— Irrational Games (BioShock Infinite) creative director Ken Levine on tackling social issues in games.

The Joystiq Podcast

The Joystiq Podcast

Super Joystiq Podcast 030: Gears of War Judgment, Far Cry 3, 2012 VGAs

Latest episode: Friday, December 14th, 2012

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