The Nintendo Wii U video game console released today in the USA with its asymmetrical gameplay promising to marry traditional and tablet gaming. I was one of fewer than a dozen gamers who managed to snag a console at the local GameStop, thanks to a personal tweet from the corporation informing me of the commencement of preorders back on September 12, when Reggie Fils-Aime announced the console's launch date and price. Since then, GameStop has presold 1.2 million units — more than double of the original Wii preorders six years ago, which speaks well of both the supply and demand for the system.

Here I present my unboxing of the Nintendo Wii U's deluxe model, reviewing the hardware, peripherals, and initial setup and configuration. I got both Nintendo Land and New Super Mario Bros. U — 2 of the 26 launch day titles but have not yet played either; as I lack a video capture device for HDMI consoles, I'll leave that footage to the pros.

I eventually did get the system update downloaded, upgrading my console from 1.0.1 to 2.0.0, necessary to enable SD and USB storage devices.

Did you preorder up a Nintendo Wii U? If so, share your experiences here! If not, you may need to resort to scalpers and resellers: at this moment, over 4,000 units are available on eBay for anywhere from $4,65 to $2,999.99.

College students are a remarkable lot: despite the crushing burden of a full curriculum of courses, they find the energy and outlets for the creativity with which they've been brimming since youth, finally equipped as they are with the resources and structure that an academic environment provides. Do they solve the energy crisis, or create the next Facebook? Nope — they re-imagine their childhood video games as football half-time shows!

Following the example set by Cal Tech almost exactly five years ago, this past Saturday, the Ohio State University Marching Band (also known as The Best Damn Band In The Land [TBDBITL]) treated fans of the home game against Nebraska to a sweeping rendition of music and animation, ranging from retro gaming classics to the latest first-person shooters. Check it out:

It's fun to watch the musicians scamper at 1.5x speed — but no matter the playback rate, the animated Epona is jaw-dropping.

Congratulations to OSU on an excellent game!

(Hat tip to Bob Rawson)

Enjoying the Xbox Live Summer of Arcade? Then continue the deluge of quality downloadable titles with some upcoming independent games!

The third annual Summer Uprising starts September 10, 2012, and runs through September 20, during which time nine Xbox Live Indie Games will be released. The games do not share a common theme or developer but have been selected by an independent panel as representative of the quality that the platform is capable of. Check out the trailer:

From that brief preview, I'm most intrigued by City Tuesday, which sounds like a video game adaptation of the Jake Gyllenhaal film Source Code: "In City Tuesday you play a man who is stuck reliving the same five minutes before a terrorist attack. You must learn from the city's residents and the environment where the bombs are stashed and diffuse them before time is up." As long as it's not as repetitive of Majora's Mask, I'm in.

Other games look interesting, too: Gateways, from the name to the gameplay, is reminiscent of Portal, while qrth-phyl is inspired by the classic game of Snake. Smooth Operators, on the other hand, looks like a tower management game in the vein of Tiny Tower, which doesn't do much for me. Neither does Diehard Dungeon: I just don't like randomly generated dungeons, even in games as highly lauded as Spelunky.

As always, there will be free demos available from which you can get your own impressions of the featured titles. But unlike the Summer of Arcade, there is no incentive to buy multiple titles, such as getting them in a bundle or receiving a rebate off additional purchases. The "Summer Uprising" label appears to be strictly for solidarity and promotional purposes. I would've thought that the success of products such as the Humble Indie Bundles — or even Ouya, an entire console inspired by the sort of indie games found on the Android mobile operating system — would suggest a newfound health for independent games and developers … but every little bit helps!

When I was a kid, video games were one of the primary occupants of my extracurricular time. Sure, I read books and rode my bike and went to the movies — but I don't remember any other activity inspiring the dedicated sessions gaming did. I'd stay up until 5 AM to make it to the next town in Dragon Warrior IV, or to beat Bionic Commando in one sitting (since there was no other way to do it).

A quarter-century later, I find myself being pulled in more directions than ever, with fewer opportunities to commit myself to any one pursuit in-depth. Weeks or even months go by without me turning on a game console — partly by choice, partly not. My lament for the occasional absence of gaming from my life isn't wholly attributable to how much more violent and complex the games have gotten, and it's certainly not a reflection on gaming being a childish or immature pastime; sometimes, life just doesn't allow me to crack open those new titles, like Portal 2 or Arkham Asylum, in a timely fashion.

For that reason, I can relate all too well to this recent Cracked.com parody music video, "A Tribute to Everyone Who is Getting Too Old for Video Games" by Bill & Dave:

Will we ever put away adult things and resume our childish play? I can only hope…

(Hat tip to Lorien Green)

Some stories make natural transitions among media: books to movies, movies to video games, television to books. Other directions are both less commonplace and less successful. Kotaku, perhaps tongue in cheek, nonetheless lists one reader's top ten sci-fi and fantasy books that deserve the video game treatment:

1. The Integral Trees (Larry Niven)
2. Uplift (David Brin)
3. Forever War (Joe Haldeman)
4. Eight Worlds (John Varley)
5. Discworld (Terry Pratchett)
6. Eight Worlds (David Weber)
7. Blood Ties (Tanya Huff)
8. Caves of Steel (Isaac Asimov)
9. Watership Down (Richard Adams)
10. Foundation (Mercedes Lackey)

Most of these books I'm familiar with but have not read myself. As Kotaku's Discworld has already been adapted to electronic entertainment, though not recently. Not listed is Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game, which was in development as a downloadable game for cell phones, XBLA, and other platforms but was ultimately cancelled. Foundation I thought would make a good Civilization-type game until I realized it was not the book by Isaac Asimov. But Civilization is exactly the model this list's author suggests for a Watership Down game. That is the item with which I take the most umbrage, solely because I count the animated adaptation of Richard Adams' novel as among my favorite films ever. I don't see how any game experience could do it justice.

Is there a reason that more books haven't been adapted to game? Do books lack the "brand recognition" necessary to be a commercial success? Am I too mired in tradition to consider this potential bounty of material for the next generation of sci-fi and fantasy games? If so, what games do you think could successfully make the leap?

Coming to the silver screen on November 2, 2012, is the Disney film Wreck-It Ralph. Whereas TRON broke the barrier between player and computer, allowing them to compete on level playing fields, Wreck-It Ralph looks at the interaction through the glass and how video game characters feel about their programmed roles in life. John C. Reilly voices the main character, a mash-up of Donkey Kong and the Rampage monsters, with cameos galore by the heroes and villains of recognizable game franchises from Capcom, Namco, Hasbro, and more. Check it out:

This trailer transports me back to when video games weren't cool, and any mention or image of them in a movie was vindication: suddenly the plot and characters melted away, and I just wanted to know, what game was that?! In Wreck-It Ralph, I could see myself forgetting to care about the main character in favor of seeing which of my old friends he'll bump into next. I can't help but wonder if Solid Snake will make an appearance, having previously pondered his fate at the hands of a cruel god.

What do you think: is this indeed a cheap trick with expensive licensing, or will Wreck-It Ralph stand on its own?

(Hat tip to Steve Weyhrich)

For the last three years, and I hope for many years to come, LoadingReadyRun's Unskippable has been doing for video games what Mystery Science Theater 3000 did for bad movies: talking over the worst scenes and making them more than bearable with their comedic commentary.

But every now and then, the alumni from MST3K, now operating under the banner of RiffTrax, take their own shots at interactive electronic entertainment. This tradition dates back to 1997 and an E3-exclusive PlayStation Underground demo disc. Now, having teamed up with Joystiq, they're back in action, taking pot shots at Mega Man, Final Fantasy, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Metal Gear:

This montage comes just six months on the heels of RiffTrax and IGN serving up this satire on Gears of War 3:

Years before either of those videos debuted, one fan took advantage of RiffTrax's own Cuts.com service to create this ten-minute medley of Metroid riffs:

Some video games need the help of these comic geniuses. Thank you for your good service, gentlemen!

(Hat tip to Annie Lynsen)

A recent storyline in the Knights of the Dinner Table comic book has our company of HackMaster role-players struggling with a shrinking community. When confronted with competition from television, video games, mobile devices, and more entertainment outlets than you can wave a wand at, how do they reverse the decline in appeal of pencil-and-paper gaming? … and could those efforts prove more entertaining than the game itself?

Yes, says Rolling High, a new Web series from Penfound Productions, which strike the opposite extreme of The Guild: rather than feature the antics of hardcore gamers immersed in their virtual reality, Rolling High chronicles the recruitment and experiences of untested gamers new to the likes of Dungeons & Dragons. The first episode debuted yesterday, with a Kickstarter campaign soon to fund the rest of the season.

In this premiere, as in KoDT, we see characters wanting to realize their self-perceptions by inserting themselves into a fantasy world, role-playing not a created character so much as the person they want themselves to be. I expect future shows will reveal more about the characters through the foil of the fiction, making a lively and accessible show for both veterans and virgins alike. (Though is it just me, or is the DM's audio a bit out of sync?)

Could Rolling High be the next Guild? Rolling High may not have the star power of Felicia Day, but some would argue that, despite the previous successes of Buffy and Dr. Horrible, it was The Guild that made Day a star among geeks.

Stay tuned on Twitter and Facebook for updates about their Kickstarter campaign and more episodes!

When Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik of webcomic Penny Arcade hosted the first Penny Arcade Expo, or PAX, in Seattle in August 2004, they couldn't know that the 3,300 attendees was just a taste of things to come. But PAX has grown consistently in the nearly a decade since, and this celebration of gaming and gamers — be they video, computer, card, board, or role-playing — is now held every spring in Boston and fall in Seattle, attracting up to 70,000 fans from around the world.

The third annual PAX East was held in Boston over the weekend of April 6. Kicking off with a keynote speech by Prince of Persia creator Jordan Mechner, the show offered an extensive expo hall in which publishers showed off their upcoming hits for 2012; dozens of panels, speeches, and workshops for gamers interested in learning more about the industry; competitions and tournaments; a bean bag-filled handheld gaming lounge; arcades of both coin-ops and Kickstarter-funded indie games; and more.

For highlights from the show, check out the below image galleries of PAX East 2012.

PAX East 2012

Photos from the third annual Penny Arcade Expo East, held at the BCEC in Boston, Apr 6-8, 2012.

42 Photos

PAX East 2012 Cosplay

Cosplayers, or gamers dressed in costume, at the third annual Penny Arcade Expo East, held at the BCEC in Boston, Apr 6-8, 2012.

15 Photos

Making appearances at PAX East 2012 were Robert Boyd of Zeboyd Games (Breath of Death VII, Cthulhu Saves the World, Penny Arcade: On The Rainslick Precipice of Darkness), Margaret Weis (Dragonlance), Kathleen DeVere (LoadingReadyRun, Desert Bus for Hope), coin-ops from the American Classic Arcade Museum at Funspot, Lolth the Spider Queen of Wizards of the Coast's Dungeons & Dragons setting of the Forgotten Realms, Gearbox Software's Borderlands 2, Square's Theatrhythm Final Fantasy, and more. Cosplayers included Sheik, Pyramid Head, Solid Snake, Master Chief, Chrono, and a Shy Guy.

Tomorrow is the first day of PAX East — so let's close the books on a previous video game event!

Last month, I had the pleasure of attending GameFest, the opening weekend of The Art of Video Games exhibition at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC. I pitched PCWorld, inheritors to the former GamePro magazine, to cover the story, which normally would've been an uphill battle. Fortunately, I had a connection: I'm already an employee of their parent company. They were happy to run my feature story, "Smithsonian Art Of Video Games Exhibit Opens With Gaming Festival", for which the editor asked I focus on two panels that examined the history and future of gaming.

In addition to text for PCWorld, I also published a GameFest photo gallery with Computerworld. What follows are the remainder of the still photography assets I grabbed during my weekend at the Smithsonian. Enjoy!

(more…)

Tomorrow marks the commencement of GameFest, a three-day festival celebrating the opening of a new Smithsonian exhibition: The Art of Video Games. A year ago at this time, the public was invited to vote on what games should be featured in this exhibit. Now, in 2012, we are invited to attend a grand gala that features Nolan Bushnell, Hideo Kojima, Billy Mitchell, and more. Check out the trailer, released today and featuring a chiptune soundtrack by 8 Bit Weapon:

From the event's Web site:

The Art of Video Games is one of the first exhibitions to explore the forty-year evolution of video games as an artistic medium, with a focus on striking visual effects and the creative use of new technologies. It features some of the most influential artists and designers during five eras of game technology, from early pioneers to contemporary designers. The exhibition focuses on the interplay of graphics, technology and storytelling through some of the best games for twenty gaming systems ranging from the Atari VCS to the PlayStation 3. Eighty games, selected with the help of the public, demonstrate the evolution of the medium. The games are presented through still images and video footage. In addition, the galleries will include video interviews with twenty developers and artists, large prints of in-game screen shots, and historic game consoles … Five featured games, one from each era, show how players interact with diverse virtual worlds, highlighting innovative techniques that set the standard for many subsequent games. The playable games are Pac-Man, Super Mario Bros., The Secret of Monkey Island, Myst, and Flower.

See you there!