Greatest Games: The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time



Yes, in the second installment of Greatest Games I am going to talk about what is widely regarded as the best game of all time, and is almost always one of the first games mentioned when the topic of “favorite” or “best” games comes up, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Right up there tied for first with games like Super Mario Bros. 3 as my favorite games of all time, Ocarina of Time is one of those games I can say has had an enormous impact on my life and my love of games. I can definitely say that if it wasn’t for games like this, I wouldn’t have the love of video games that I currently do.

Trials Evolution Review



For those of you who played Trials HD, you will basically know what you are getting into in this sequel, but that’s not to say the game hasn’t changed at all. Trials Evolution features the same challenging, and often times frustrating, dirt bike obstacle course gameplay as the previous game, with added multiplayer and a larger variety in the locations and layouts of tracks to make for a more complete experience. Trials Evolution will keep you replaying tracks over and over to either just complete them, get a better ranking medal, or simply show up your friends by posting a better time than they did.

New Super Mario Bros. 2 Announced




Nintendo just announced that New Super Mario Bros. 2 is coming to the 3DS this August. As the follow up to New Super Mario Bros. on the DS, and New Super Mario Bros. Wii, this game will also be an old school side scrolling platformer just like its predecessors.

The announcement was made by Nintendo president Satoru Iwata during the Nintendo Direct conference in Japan. Some screen shots were released with the announcement, and it doesn't seem like there will be anything out of the ordinary to this game, at least nothing that we know of yet, but I'll let you decide for yourself.


Halo 4 On Conan O'Brien, TONIGHT!



It’s official, Halo 4 is set to release on November 6th. Rumors started popping up yesterday about the release date of Halo 4 based on tweets by Senior Producer at 343 Industries Allison Stroll, and Microsoft’s Major Nelson. It was said that there would be a more official statement made this morning, and here we have it:

“We are beginning a new saga with Halo 4 and embarking on a journey that will encompass the next decade of Halo games and experiences," said Phil Spencer, corporate vice president of Microsoft Studios. "Millions of fans worldwide have been eagerly awaiting the opportunity to step back into the boots of Master Chief, and, with Halo 4 leading the charge, we're confident 2012 will be the most successful year in Xbox history."


Microsoft hasn’t been shy about presenting its Xbox products on late night television, and with Halo 4 they will be at it again. Members of 343 Industries will be on Late Night with Conan O’Brien tonight at 11pm on TBS, but it’s unknown exactly what they will be showing.

Oddly enough, the release date is actually the same day as election day here in the US. Could this mean there might be a few people reluctant to vote in favor of playing the next big installment in the Halo franchise?

New Mario, New Luigi, New Pikmin



In a recent interview with the spanish newspaper El Mundo, the creative legend behind many of Nintendo’s great franchises Shigeru Miyamoto let some things slip about new games coming for both the Wii U and the 3DS (link). Miyamoto said to El Mundo:

 "I'm working on several projects but I think that I cannot talk about them all [laughs]. Some are small but important projects for Wii U. Also on a new Pikmin, which will take advantage of the new HD screen resolution, and on Luigi's Mansion for 3DS."

I don’t know about you, but I am be EXTREMELY excited for the next long awaited entry into the Pikmin franchise, but the Pikmin and Luigi’s Mansion slip is taking a backseat to a new mario game for the Wii U that Miyamoto said would be shown at E3 this year. What lends even more credence to his statements is that Nintendo officially responded to Eurogamer by saying:

"In a recent interview, Mr. Miyamoto confirmed that a new Super Mario Bros. game for the Wii U system will be shown at this year's E3 Expo," a Nintendo spokesperson said. "We'll have more to announce about our plans for the E3 Expo at a later date."

It isn’t really unexpected that a new Super Mario Bros. game would eventually be coming out for the Wii U, but with the recent aquisition of SuperMario4.com by Nintendo, could this next game be the ever awaited sequel to Super Mario Bros. 3? In any case, we should all know fairly soon considering E3 is just around the corner.

Greatest Games: Journey



I am sitting down to write this only moments after finishing Journey for the second time, and although it may be too early after the experience to tell, I can honestly say that this is one of my favorite games I have ever played. I may go as far as saying that this game is the best game ever made. If not the best game, I can say it is the most unique experience I have ever had while playing a video game. Keep in mind though, I have yet to play That Game Company’s previous game Flower.

Notch's New Game is in Space



Notch has finally announced what he will be working on next. The game is currently called 0x10c, which, as you may be thinking, is a pretty weird name for a game. There has not been any word from Notch on how to pronounce it, but the correct way to say it could be “zero times ten to the power of c”. Maybe some back story from Notch himself will help here.

“ In a parallel universe where the space race never ended, space travel was gaining popularity amongst corporations and rich individuals.

In 1988, a brand new deep sleep cell was released, compatible with all popular 16 bit computers. Unfortunately, it used big endian, whereas the DCPU-16 specifications called for little endian. This led to a severe bug in the included drivers, causing a requested sleep of 0x0000 0000 0000 0001 years to last for 0x0001 0000 0000 0000 years.

It's now the year 281 474 976 712 644 AD, and the first lost people are starting to wake up to a universe on the brink of extinction, with all remote galaxies forever lost to red shift, star formation long since ended, and massive black holes dominating the galaxy.”


The game is going to be “hard science fiction”, which is explained further here http://0x10c.com/doc/hardscifi.txt, and it is going to contain a fully functioning 16-bit cpu computer which already has full specifications on the site here http://0x10c.com/doc/dcpu-16.txt. Apparently there will also be a lot of engineering, space battles against AI, mining, trading, looting, seamless landing on ships, and an advanced economy system.

I know, this already sounds pretty crazy right? And who knows what the creator of minecraft will come up with from here. At the very least name can be explained by translating 0x10c from hexadecimal to 16^12 which equals 281 474 976 710 656. So basically, that means the event that caused the sleep occurred in 281 474 976 712 644 - 281 474 976 710 656 = 1988. Even so, if you want to find out more for yourself just visit http://0x10c.com/