Number 17

 Happy 35th birthday HAL Labs

So I rang in the New Year last night with a party, where I drank alcohol, threw darts in an area people were walking through after drinking that alcohol, and had good times with old friends. Today, I continued the festivities by going with my mom and dad to see The Wolf of Wall Street and eating a steak dinner with them and my brother afterwards. I have not slept since roughly 8PM, December 31st. 

The long anticipated Grand Theft Auto Gameplay Trailer was released earlier this morning, and it’s safe to say that it likely left many a gamer wide eyed, with their jaws firmly planted on the ground.  The sheer epic mass that is the newly designed Los Santos is breathtaking.  The trailer depicts a plethora of environments - from high rises to the great outdoors and everywhere in between – and it becomes clear that we’ll likely get lost more than once in this beautiful world that Rockstar has built for us.

Welcome to the next part of PixlBit’s sneak preview for the hottest and most surprising games coming in 2013! Last time, we told you about some of the big guns for the upcoming year, but what about those unknown quantities? There are quite a few brand-new, never before seen games on the horizon, and that’s always exciting. So without further ado, we present the new kids on the block.

Welcome to the final part of PixlBit’s comprehensive look at the Final Fantasy series. In our last installment, we went through the PlayStation 2 era, which took the series into uncharted territory, for better or worse. This time, we look at the most recent Final Fantasy games, which have gone on to become the most divisive and controversial games in the series so far. Join us as we explore the Seventh Generation years!

There are some rabid game collectors out there, and Ken Levine and his team over at Irrational Games are banking on that fact with two impressive special editions of BioShock Infinite. The Premium Edition comes with a staggering amount of swag, while the pricier Ultimate Songbird Edition includes a large and very detailed statue. If your inner Gollum is starting to mutter “precious” read on for all the juicy collector details.

Today at Gamescom 2012, Capcom officially announced a brand new IP set in futuristic Neo Paris, known as Remember Me. The title, which has been announced for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC, will star a female protagonist known as Nilin who is described as a “memory hunter.”

While video games are a major hobby in my life, that's not all I spend my time on. Music has been an important part of my life and I adore all kinds of music. Rock, pop, country, classical, hip-hop, folk, the list goes on. Whether its popular or underground, I am constantly looking and listening to different kinds of music. So in this new blog series, I'll nerd out on different music that I like or dislike. Topics will vary from artists to albums to genres to anything I can think of. As long as it's music related I'll discuss it in this series.

Game Informer teased a new Gears of War announcement yesterday and has now fully revealed the game. Gears of War: Judgment will be the next game in the franchise, and will seemingly feature both Baird and Cole in a more prominent role. Furthermore, Epic Games president Mike Capps confirmed on Twitter that People Can Fly is developing the game.

UPDATE 2 - Ubisoft has confirmed the Revolutionary War setting by revealing the game's official box art (click through to see it!) 

With this new generation of handhelds it has become clear that home console fighting games can be brought to portable systems without cutting down the original in any way shape or form. To that point, BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend, a massive game, has been ported wholesale to the PlayStation Vita with absolutely no concessions.

Final Fantasy is one of the most celebrated series in video game history. It spans 14 epic games across five console generations and is loved by fans around the world. But the funny thing about Final Fantasy is the fact that each adventure takes place in a completely different world with new lands to explore, party members to meet and villains to defeat. The only time a Final Fantasy game has continued its story was with the spinoff of FF X, which was given the awkward-but-accurate name of Final Fantasy X-2. That changes now, with the divisive Final Fantasy XIII getting a direct sequel on January 31.

With 2011 coming to a close, it's that time of the year once again. A time to reflect on the year past, the experiences had, and the games that defined another year in the history books. Today begins the first of three days of awarding the absolute best games of the year across both genres and systems, as well as one game of the year that transcends all boundaries. These are the...

Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 3D is an adaptation of the PSP version, itself a continuation of the last generation PlayStation 2 PES games. From what I gather, the PES games on the PlayStation 2 are some of the favorites of the soccer sim community, thus making this 3DS adaptation a continuation of the better games of the series… with 3D. I’m not fully versed with said games, but I can say that PES 2011 3D provides an extremely deep soccer simulation that clearly caters to hardcore fans of the sport. This isn’t entirely appealing to me, due in part to the aggressive, nearly insurmountable AI (for a beginner) and my general disinterest in the sport. However, the game is occasionally enjoyable and with some of the best stereoscopic 3D of the launch 3DS titles, it does a great job of validating how great the 3D effect actually is.

Once in a while, a game is released that breaks the mold of normalcy to create an experience that goes beyond that of gaming. Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon is an exceptional example of a rare experience that immerses a player in a world full of conceptualizing humanity at its greatest, and at its worst. It sugarcoats nothing and depicts some of the most blatant representations of realistic tragedy located in a sadly beautiful world. It's a game full of complexities that aims to take itself seriously, and succeeds wholeheartedly.

This week's Nintendo Download features a total of seven new titles across the three different services.

Nintendo and Capcom announced today that the Classic Controller Pro is scheduled to ship bundled with Monster Hunter Tri this spring.

Warner Bros. Interactive recently revealed a new trailer for their upcoming title, LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1 - 4.

American McGee's Alice told the tale of a much darker Wonderland universe, set years after the original familiar story written by Lewis Carrol. Alice, a PC only title, became an instant cult classic among gamers and fans of the novel alike.

Similar to the original DSi, Nikkei news has revealed the latest iteration of the the DSi. The system will feature much larger screens, 4" each, a .75" increase from the current DSi Model.

The ESRB recently spilled the beans on yet another title. Data East Arcade Classics is a Wii compilation title with a 2010 tentative release date.