The Google Play store hit 25 billion downloads this week. To celebrate, the online store is offering a bunch of 25-cent apps from some major developers throughout the week.

The Google Play store, home to more than 675,000 apps and games for Android-powered devices, hit 25 billion downloads this week, less than four years after opening for business.

To celebrate the milestone, discounts on a number of apps will be available over the next five days.

Anyone interested in picking up some cut-price software will have the chance to choose from a range of titles created by high-profile developers such as Gameloft, Electronic Arts, and Rovio. With an asking price of just 25 cents, Google Play is sure to see a spike in paid-for downloads in the coming days.

Google Play, called Android Market until earlier this year, is also offering special collections, such as “25 movies you must own, 25 banned books, 25 albums that changed the world and our 25 top selling magazines, all at special prices,” Google’s Jamie Rosenberg wrote in a blog post announcing the news.

Arch-rival Apple hit 25 billion downloads with its iOS App Store back in March, taking only slightly less time than Google Play in terms of how long the stores have been up and running. In fact, in terms of downloads and apps available (Google Play has 675,000 compared with iOS’s 700,000), Google Play and the iOS store are now pretty much neck and neck.

But there are now more Android devices in the hands of users than iOS-powered devices, so it surely won’t be long before Google Play surpasses its rival in terms of download numbers.

“Twenty-five billion is more than twice the distance, in miles, that the Voyager 1 spacecraft has travelled since its launch 35 years ago,” Rosenberg wrote on the official Android blog. “It’s the amount of time, in minutes, that have passed since some of our earliest ancestors began to set foot in Europe. And now, thanks to all of you, it’s a Google Play milestone. We look forward to the next 25 billion.”

If you're really missing Street View on your iPhone since you upgraded to iOS 6, you may be pleased to know that in a couple of weeks Google's Maps mobile Web app will include the feature.

When Apple launched Maps as part of iOS 6 recently, users were largely pleased with the look but disappointed with its usability – which is kind of important when it comes to finding your way somewhere. Stories surfaced of absurd inaccuracies, you know, cities in the sea, farms labeled as airports, that sort of thing.

Apple has said the more that people use its Maps app, the better it will get. Meanwhile, Google is reportedly working on a new Maps app for iOS, but it could be a couple of months before it sees the light of day. This has left many iPhone users who’ve upgraded to iOS 6 and who used Google’s Maps app on a regular basis scratching around for a solution.

Of course, alternatives are available, but the whole Maps mess may have left a few iOS 6 users wishing they’d held off upgrading until either Apple sorts Maps or Google releases its own Maps app.

However, there’s some good news for those who’ve switched to using Google’s Maps mobile Web app – Street View functionality, which gives users a ground-level view of the immediate area, should be on its way in a couple of weeks. Apple’s Maps app offers no such feature.

The information comes courtesy of New York Times’ columnist David Pogue who, in a piece about Apple’s Maps misstep, tells how he used the Cupertino company’s new app to guide him to a speaking engagement, explaining that while both the GPS navigation screen and spoken directions were clear, they took him to the wrong location. He was late for his talk.

Apple’s Maps “may be the most embarrassing, least usable piece of software Apple has ever unleashed,” Pogue wrote.

He laments the loss of Street View on his handset, but says that “in two weeks” Google will be including it as part of its Maps mobile Web app. His information comes directly from the Mountain View company, he said.

It was reported on Wednesday that in its forthcoming iOS Maps app, Google intends to combine Google Earth with Maps, though there’s no clear indication as to when it might be ready.

Maingear's new Alpha 24 blends gaming PC DNA with all-in-one style.

All-in-ones are good for many things, but gaming usually isn’t one of them. The small size of these trendy systems often demands the sacrifice of graphics performance. The discrete GPU is usually a laptop component – if one is included at all.

Maingear is seeking to break that mold with its new Alpha 24 Super Stock gaming system. This 24-inch touchscreen all-in-one comes with a Core i7-3770K processor and an Nvidia GTX 680 graphics card when configured for maximum performance. Others models will have less powerful hardware, but even the entry-level variant offers a Core i3-3240 and GeForce GTX 650. Other options include solid-state drives, gobs of RAM and various Intel third-generation processors.

Nvidia’s desktop version of Optimus is used in the system to keep its power draw low when the computer is not being used for gaming. The discrete card is turned off and graphics duty is switched over to the Intel IGP. As with the laptop version of Optimus, this transition is seamless and doesn’t require user action.

The company also stressed that the components are user serviceable and upgradable. Intel’s Mini-ITX form factor serves as the basis of the machine, and makes it possible to pack in customizable hardware of immense power while keeping the size of the system down.

Other features haven’t been sacrificed to cram in the powerful hardware. The display is 1080p, a CableCard TV tuner is optional, and HDMI-in is available. This could make the Alpha 24 Super Stock a perfect compact gaming center because consoles can be connected to it and played via the monitor while the PC is turned off.

Pricing for the Alpha 24 starts at $1,349. The system is available to order immediately.

Too lazy to use a PlayStation 3 controller? Now thanks to an unheralded update, you can control the console's Netflix app via your phone.

An update recently hit the iOS and Android iterations of the Netflix app that seemed to simply offer stability improvements and boosts to the program’s overall functionality. That’s always welcome, but this particular update also included a new feature for the app that, for whatever reason, the developers at Netflix completely failed to mention: Specifically, this update allows users to control the PlayStation 3′s Netflix app from the comfort of their mobile phone of choice.

Here’s how it works: Assuming you have all the necessary hardware (a PlayStation 3, iOS or Android phone, and a wireless, Internet-enabled network), you simply start the Netflix app on your mobile phone as well as the PS3 version of the app, select a video on your phone, then choose whether you’d rather watch the program on your handheld or on the PlayStation 3. Obviously this only works as long as the two devices are connected by the same wireless network, but assuming you can manage that it’s quite simple to use your iPhone or Android device as a makeshift remote control.

More crucially, it’s also far more practical than using the PlayStation 3′s Netflix app as it was originally designed. Though the home console iterations of Netflix are functional and allow you to watch the service’s many streaming programs on your local HDTV, they lack truly robust search and account management functions. The iOS/Android app however, is far more akin to the PC/Mac version of Netflix and makes searching through the company’s thousands of movies and TV shows as simple as swiping your finger or tapping out a few characters to prompt a text search.

The video embedded at the bottom of this post comes courtesy of Engadget, and since the developers of the Netflix app made no mention of this new feature in any of the update’s official documentation, it is the first anyone heard of the extra functionality. As you can see in the clip, it’s very simple, and seems like the kind of thing Netflix would want to promote, so we really can’t come up with any solid reason why it was such a stealthy addition. So far we’ve heard no reports of instability in this new feature causing massive issues with people attempting to watch their favorite shows, so while we enjoy the newly communicative relationship between our phones and PlayStation 3s, we’ll have to continue wondering why Netflix never mentioned this aspect of the update.

In an effort to curb the game's rampant cheating issues, Runescape developer Jagex has decided to let its players play judge and jury.

The practice of “botting” has traditionally been a rather large issue in Runescape. For years now the game has been plagued by players who attempt to sidestep the MMO genre’s traditional experience and item grind systems by automating the process. In effect, these players are tasking “‘bots” with playing the tedious parts of the game for them, while they go about their otherwise thrilling lives.

Unfortunately for these less-than-devoted gamers, Runescape’s creators forbid this kind of thing in their game and have recently begun taking drastic measures to cut down on the number of people who are only “playing” the game in the loosest sense of the word. In November of last year, developer Jagex unveiled new ‘bot-culling techniques that resulted in 1.5 million cheating accounts being banned from the game. This event was appropriately dubbed “‘bot nuking day” and according to Jagex it removed 98 percent of all the ‘bots in the game.

However, it seems that this mass banning wasn’t enough to drive home the message of how little Jagex cares for these ‘botters. Now, instead of working up fancy new automated systems that can be countered with a bit of human ingenuity, the developer hopes to turn the banhammer of justice over to Runescape’s legitimate player base for a bit of organized vigilanteism. “Those found to be using illegal software will be permanently banned and their account deleted — with no chance of appeal should they continue to ignore our warnings,” Jagex stated via the official Runescape blog. “As we hunt for and identify botters, you — the good citizens of Gielinor — will be the ultimate deliverers of justice!”

The really neat bit though is how Jagex plans to handle these surprisingly formal trials. According to the blog, offending players will be whisked away to an area called Botany Bay where a makeshift courtroom will inevitably declare them guilty. Actually, if Jagex detects your account is cheating, there is no real recourse — you’ll be sent to Botany Bay, and at your trial the jury of other human players will not vote “guilty” or “not guilty,” but instead will simply vote on what manner of spectacular death will be visited on your virtual self. Options include crushing, being devoured by an ancient horror and being smote out of existence by an angry deity. 

Intriguingly, Jagex is offering tangible in-game rewards for people willing to sit on these juries. Join a jury three times and the company will reward your devotion to justice with a “a wieldable pitchfork of vigilantism.” Participate in three more and you’ll unlock additional character emotes. Four more trials after that and your character will be granted “the gloriously pointy pitchfork of justice.”

We have to hand it Jagex for coming up with a novel, entertaining way to deal with its cheating issues, but given the scope of the issue — estimates place the number of ‘bot accounts created daily at somewhere between 100,000 and 200,000 — this method of toying with offenders before banning them seems somewhat inefficient. Then again, maybe the inherent entertainment value of sentencing your fellow gamers to die in a virtual world defined by one’s inability to actually perish might outweigh what would otherwise be an unmanageable issue. Either way, it’s heartening to see Jagex so devoted to finding a solution that works both for the company and for its devoted fans.

Natsume is rolling out all the stops for the 15th anniversary of Harvest Moon (and by "stops," we mean "adorable plush dolls.")

In August of 1996, a lesser-known publisher of quirky Japanese video games released Harvest Moon, a game that would go on to cement the “life simulation” subgenre long before The Sims or Farmville attempted to make boring tasks as addictive as heroin. Despite its relatively low profile, Harvest Moon attracted a fanatically devoted niche audience, and over the past 15 years that subset of gamers has only grown more devoted to Natsume’s quirky little line of virtual farming titles.

To celebrate the franchise’s 15th anniversary, Natsume has decided to go all out and re-release nearly every Harvest Moon title to date on our various downloadable content services. Alongside the numerous Harvest Moon games already available for download on the PlayStation Network Store to either the Vita or PlayStation 3, the publisher has revealed plans to release the special edition version of Innocent Life: A Futuristic Harvest Moon on October 2, as well as a vague promise that more Harvest Moon classics will be available in the near future. Nintendo 3DS owners, in turn, can look forward to a re-release of the GameBoy Color’s Harvest Moon at some point before the end of the year.

Never one to rest on their laurels, Natsume also has a major new offering in the works for Harvest Moon fans: Come November 6, the Nintendo 3DS will see the debut of the brand-new Harvest Moon: A New Beginning. Periodically released Harvest Moon sequels are rather de rigueur these days, but this particular one is a bit special. To tie in with the 15th anniversary celebration, Natsume is offering fans who purchase the $50 15th Anniversary Edition of A New Beginning from the company’s online store a big, fuzzy bonus. Specifically, “Natsume’s largest plush yet: a squishy, huggable, twelve-inch cow.”

Why? Because gamers love nothing more than largely useless, value-added collectible trinkets. Plus, Natsume’s fortunes as a company have long been heavily tied to the Harvest Moon series, and the developer wants to frame this offer as a way to thank its devoted fans. “We’re so pleased to present many of our classic Harvest Moon titles on the PlayStation Network, Vita, and the Nintendo 3DS eShop throughout 2012,” said Natsume president and CEO Hiro Maekawa. “Whether you’ve played our full Harvest Moon library before or are a newcomer to the series, it’s amazing to look back and see how Harvest Moon has evolved over the last 15 years.”

“It’s even more thrilling for us to see how popular the series is today — pre-orders for the Anniversary Edition of Harvest Moon: A New Beginning have been incredible!” Maekawa added with obvious excitement.

Interestingly, Natsume has also announced a less notable promotion to celebrate the anniversary that has all but been overshadowed by that huge plush cow. Those who opt to pre-order Harvest Moon: A New Beginning through the Natsume site, but don’t want to drop an extra $10 on the 15th Anniversary Edition version can instead spend $40 for the standard iteration of the game. Those who choose this route will also receive an adorable plush animal, though this one is the smaller, arguably less-attractive Yak that you see pictured above. So now that we have a final release date for the game, feel free to rush out and pre-order the title as soon as you’d like, but think long and hard before you choose to align yourself with either the plush cow or its less-expensive bovine rival.

Like a giant interactive whiteboard, the InFocus MondoPad brings presentations to life, but is it simple enough for classrooms and boardrooms to really take advantage of?

Earlier this year, InFocus introduced the Mondopad, a hybrid television and computer built specifically to conquer the classroom and boardroom. Like Sharp’s competing Aquos Board, this all-in-wonder machine promises to make “presentation, annotation and collaboration” easier than ever before with video, drawing and even multitouch capability. Recently, the Wilsonville, OR-based company came by Digital Trends HQ and dropped one of for us to play around with. We played around with it and offer our impressions below.

Out of box

The Mondopad is big. Take that concept you have of a flat-screen TV and toss it right out the window. The Mondopad measures 38.3 x 53 x 5.5 (H x W x D-in inches) and weighs 96.5 lbs. Wrangling the Mondopad from its box is a two- or three-person job, to be sure. You can wall-mount the Mondopad (very carefully) but it comes with two large “feet” that fit up and into the bottom of the cabinet to act as a stand.

If you want to use your own audio system, you can, but InFocus includes its own self-amplified sound bar, which mounts directly under the screen. It uses two 3-inch drivers and a ¾-inch tweeter on the far left and right sides and houses a 25 watt-per-channel amplifier as well.

Also in the box is a 720p webcam and microphone array for video conferencing, a wireless mouse and keyboard and a stylus.

It’s not a tablet!

To be frank, we’re not fans of the name. This is for a couple of reasons: First, Mondopad just sounds funny. The name got more than a few chuckles around our office during the few weeks the device was in residence. Second, the name implies that the device is a monster-sized tablet — and it isn’t, despite the fact that a great deal of the press seems to have bought into that notion.

Sure, thinking of the Mondopad as a tablet brings to mind a simple interface with touchscreen capability — that’s probably a good thing for InFocus’ marketing department — but to refer to the Mondopad as a tablet seems misleading and inaccurate, because it is so much more than that. Under the hood of this tank is a full-fledged PC running on Windows 7 Pro, a 2.5GHz Core i5 processor, 4GB of RAM, a 250GB hard drive and Intel HD Graphics. It also features six USB A ports, a USB B port, two Ethernet jacks, built-in Wi-Fi, two HDMI inputs, S-Video, component and VGA inputs, and comes with a wireless mouse and keyboard. Does that sound like any tablet you’ve ever heard of?

We understand that “touch-screen PC” doesn’t sound as good, but let’s call it what it is.

What it can do

If a PC can do it, the Mondopad can do it. But in addition to basic PC functionality, the Mondopad supports easy presentations, document annotations and video conferencing thanks to a sensitive touch-screen, built-in whiteboard, web camera and customized user interface (shell).

How it works

When you boot up the Mondopad, you are greeted with a home screen with nine icons (which InFocus calls apps) lining the bottom. The “getting started” icon takes you to a brief tutorial, “view and share” pulls up a folder where Mondopad-related files are stored, “browser” pulls up an Internet Explorer window without needing to leave the Mondopad interface, “white board” is self-explanatory, “Video Meeting” pulls up the integrated VidTel software for video conferencing, “extras” allows access to some common Windows functions (like the control panel)  without having to leave the Mondopad shell, “reset meeting” closes all files, whiteboards and video meetings and the “schedule” icon will bring up a daily calendar.

Video conferencing through VidTel allows almost anyone to join in a virtual meeting, whether they use VidTel or another service like Skype, GoToMeeting, webex or Google Talk. If you don’t want to run a full-on video meeting, you can simply share your whiteboard through a password protected IP address and make a conference call. When you’re done with your presentation, you can email everything you did directly from the Mondopad.

The Mondopad connect app takes sharing and control a step further by allowing its screen to be shared with mobile devices and tablets (iOS and Android apps available) or, conversely, the Mondopad can have content shared to it, or even relinquish control to a mobile device. This takes place via Wi-Fi, and since the Mondopad acts as its own Wi-Fi hotspot, clients need only log into the Mondopad as an access point to get started.

In use

The InFocus home screen skin keeps things looking and feeling simple, but it is possible to leave the Mondopad’s shell and work directly from Windows 7 Pro. The route out of the shell and onto the Windows 7 desktop isn’t readily apparent, nor is the process easy to memorize. We found ourselves hunting and pecking for the way out. We always found it, but only after a couple of minutes.

We did have a little trouble with the VidTel software initially. We found most of the instructions on how to use the software at VidTel’s website, but even after attempting setup ourselves, we were unable to have colleagues dial in remotely using non-VidTel applications such as Skype. One of the advantages to VidTel is that it is a cloud-based service and allows video conferencing through multiple channels like Skype and Google Talk. All we wanted was to give someone a number or email to “dial” and that seemed like a lot of work. Ultimately, we ended up using launching Skype from Windows and used that as our teleconferencing platform. That worked relatively well, save a few disconnects which we blame on our own network issues.

To be fair, we were able to successfully dial into InFocus’ support team using VidTel and the experience was smooth and simple. We received outstanding customer support from InFocus any time we needed it, getting succinct answers to our questions and, when needed, had our Mondopad remotely controlled by the support staff for quick and easy solutions to our problems.

With all of that said, we think that anyone interested in purchasing and using the Mondopad should ensure the dealer selling it to them is prepared to provide some level of introductory instruction to get them up and running unless they have a competent IT guru on hand prepared to jump into the Mondopad head first. Even a 30-minute instructional session could save hours of trial-and-error and the accompanying frustration of learning a new, complex tool.

We were particularly impressed with the included webcam and microphone. The camera’s angle is wide enough that it was able to cover our entire boardroom and the sensitive microphone delivered crystal-clear audio that rivaled that of our expensive Polycom conferencing phone.

We found the Mondopad’s 55-inch screen made a spectacular TV screen as well. Brightness, contrast, black level and shadow detail were all excellent. In a media room setting, the Mondopad would be great for watching movies and sports.

Do we need this?

There is no doubt in our minds that businesses and educators could benefit greatly from a device like the Mondopad. With it, the distance learning experience could significantly be enhanced. We envision classrooms in the US connected with classrooms in Japan, sharing information in new and exciting ways. We can just see rows of students with iPads contributing to lessons from their seats, and then taking the whole thing home with them to study. This is the sort of futuristic, Jetsons-style technology we’ve been waiting over 50 years for.

But while we have no doubts the Mondopad is ready to take on the world, we’re not so sure the world is ready to take on the Mondopad. There are still some who need convincing when it comes to the idea that digital textbooks are superior to paper texts, never mind the notion that a 55-inch HDTV should replace a chalkboard or a whiteboard and toxic-smelling markers. But we have to start somewhere and we applaud InFocus for leading the way.

After a disappointing first foray into gaming headsets, Skullcandy makes a comeback, joining with Astro and producing three new headsets

Skullcandy is an audio company with a young demographic and a modern, hip visual style. Given that M.O., yesterday’s announcement that it will release a new line of gaming headgear doesn’t come as much of a surprise — but there’s more to the story than that. More on that in a moment. First, here’s the dish on the new gear.

 Three new headsets have been tendered: available now is the Skullcandy SLYR (slayer)- a wired, stereo headset which is retailing for $80. Features include a stashable microphone, inline audio mixer and 3 EQ presets.

 Two wireless iterations are also on the way. The  PLYR2 and PLYR1 will power on for the 2012 holiday season and early 2013 respectively. Both PLYR models feature 2.4Ghz wireless technology, while PLYR1 will also boast Dolby 7.1 Surround Sound. The PLYR2 is expected to run $130 while the PLYR1 (always more coveted) headset will be the priciest at $180. All three are compatible with Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC.

For those less than impressed that Skullcandy is taking a shot at the gaming market, we understand. But we think you should know that some major changes have recently taken place that put Skullcandy in a very good position to grab a big chunk of this market.

Skullcandy has dipped its toe into the gaming headset pool before. In late 2009, it released the GI series of gaming headphones, which were met with a lukewarm response at best. By the company’s own admission, these were little more than its existing GI headphone line with a microphone slapped on them. Why then, should we expect Skullcandy’s three new offerings to be any different?

In April of 2011, Skullcandy acquired Astro Studios, a company lauded for its high-performance, ultra-premium gaming headsets. Prior to the merger, the two companies could not have been further apart in terms of the public’s perception. But now that the two have joined forces, things have changed dramatically inside corporate headquarters, and it’s a safe bet we will see some sweeping changes in Skullcandy’s new gaming products as a result. 

Founded in 1994, Astro Studios quickly made a name for itself among gamers looking for high-end headsets. In 2008, Astro became the official headset provider of Major League Gaming, and its product line has grown. The last few years have not been quite as kind though, and the lucrative and high profile MLG license has since changed hands to Turtle Beach. But if the acquisition plays out as hoped, it could alter the landscape of gaming peripherals.  

We spoke with Gernard Feri, category manager for Skullcandy gaming, who shed some light on why the company decided to get into gaming headsets in the first place and how things have changed internally since then.

“There was a request from the Skullcandy demographic to create some cool Skullcandy look-and-feel gaming headsets. And this is before Skullcandy really had a deep investment in product development.” said Feri. “It’s not that we put product development on the back burner, it’s that we put most of the focus on building our brand and making sure we were known… knowing that later on down the road, we would focus on product development.” 

And that’s exactly what happened. Skullcandy had built a big name for itself, and now it was time to dig deep into product development. The process had already begun, but as Feri describes it, his product development team started small, then exploded.

“In the year 2010, before I joined, there were about eight of us in the product development team. By early 2011, there were close to 30 of us.” Feri stated. 

Skullcandy had built itself a who’s who of mechanical, electrical, and acoustical engineers. It even brought on the former “golden ear” from Bose as head of R&D and acoustics. Then, two short months later, Astro’s wealth of development resources were suddenly available. That’s when Skullcandy started work on the three new headsets it has just announced, which benefit from a blend of its own development efforts along with technology trickled down from Astro’s well-regarded products. 

We’ll wait for our sample of the SLYR headphones to arrive before we pass judgement on how effective this strategy has been, but all signs point to the fact that Skullcandy could become a force to be reckoned with in the gaming headset market. 

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Apple's new iPhone 5 is a pretty piece of equipment. But these four videos show how to change all that in no time.

With each year’s release of a new iPhone, YouTube fills to the brim with videos of people (and companies) “testing” the durability of Apple’s handset. This year is no different. While so-called drop tests (like this one) can be useful for (clumsy) people looking to purchase a new handset, many such videos have slipped into the realm of absurdity. Beyond that, a surprising number of early adopters appear to have purchased an iPhone 5 with pure destruction in mind. Below, we’ve rounded up the four best, most preposterous ways to completely annihilate an iPhone 5. Enjoy.

Gravity

Hammer and knife

Glue 

.50 caliber machine gun

Need your fix of Tokyo Jungle's Darwinian evolution on the go? Sony's working on it.

Yesterday afternoon, the PlayStation Network Store greeted a game that could easily be the sleeper hit of the year. Tokyo Jungle drops you into the paws of dozens of different wild beasts amidst the ruins of post-apocalyptic Tokyo and tasks you with simply surviving. This means hunting, fleeing, finding food and eventually reproducing with a suitable mate. If that sounds like a brilliant premise, that’s because it is, but despite our affection for the esoteric wildlife simulator, the game could be improved. Given how relatively average its aesthetics are, why couldn’t the game have been developed for the PS Vita, allowing us all to hunt the dystopian landscape on the bus or while stuck in line at the DMV?

While the Tokyo Jungle developers at Sony Japan have yet to announce plans for a handheld version of the game, they do seem to like the idea and have opted to take advantage of one of the PlayStation 3′s functionality gimmicks to give players the next best thing to a full-fledged portable iteration of the game. Thanks to the surprisingly powerful hardware inside Sony’s flagship handheld machine, the Vita is capable of running PlayStation 3 games in “Remote Play” mode. This means that your PS3 is actually loading the game, and using its hardware to process all the necessary information, but the visuals and sound that would normally be piping out of your television are instead transplanted into the Vita. Thus making Tokyo Jungle effectively portable (though Remote Play will stop functioning once your Vita and PlayStation 3 are no longer on the same wireless network).

This news comes courtesy of Shuhei Yoshida, president of Sony’s Worldwide Studios. Though he offers no information on when we can expect to see the Remote Play patch, Yoshida did offer a pretty clear indicator of the company’s intentions in this recent tweet: “We are preparing for PS Vita Remote Play patch for Tokyo Jungle NA and EU versions, please wait a bit for the release timing info.”

While we wait for the patch — particularly those of us with too few televisions and too many live-in romantic interests — this seems like a very solid chance to convince anyone who has yet to pick up Tokyo Jungle to give the $15 game a shot. Yes, it’s quirky, but think of it as an animal-themed Metal Gear Solid set inside of a bizarrely oppressive, yet arcade-style world. If nothing else, the sheer number of unlockable beasts to find within the game should keep you occupied for months, and if you can’t find some entertainment value in ripping through scores of beagles with your newly acquired velociraptor before leading a harem of sexy ‘raptor ladies back to your own personal pile of hay to kickstart the next generation of frighteningly-intelligent dinos, we just don’t know what to tell you. 

Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed Ezio Trilogy and EA's Mass Effect Trilogy Edition are the result of a weakening video game retail market.

Video game retail continues to decline as casual and hardcore gamers alike move to digital platforms for their gaming purchases. GameStop is slipping away while Steam, iTunes, Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network and others continue to deliver content directly to consumers. What’s a major game publisher to do? Start releasing bundles of games with greater frequency. Both Electronic Arts and Ubisoft are releasing budget packages for two of their most successful franchises with the Assassin’s Creed Ezio Trilogy and the Mass Effect Trilogy Edition this November.

The first of these is actually a PlayStation 3 exclusive. On November 13^th, Ubisoft will release a PS3 only package with Assassin’s Creed II, Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, and Assassin’s Creed Revelations included, just in time to capitalize on Assassin’s Creed III’s release. The package is just $40, an impressive figure considering that each of those games is sold individually for $20 or more.

EA’s Mass Effect Trilogy Edition on the other hand is for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC. Out on November 7^th, this will actually be the first time the original Mass Effect is available on Sony’s system. No word on what DLC for any of the three games in the science fiction series will be included on the disks.

Both of these packages reflect a dramatic shift in how big publishers are approaching the retail video game business. In multi-million selling franchises, anthology collections are typically reserved for years when there’s no new entry in the series, for when enough time has passed that a standalone release has reached maximum saturation, or to promote a major new release. The Metal Gear Solid Collection for PlayStation 2 for example came out four years after Metal Gear Solid 3 and just weeks before the release of Metal Gear Solid 4 in 2008.

While that logic holds for Ubisoft’s Assassin’t Creed Ezio Trilogy—though the turn around for this is unusually fast—Electronic Arts’ release of the Mass Effect Trilogy Edition would never have happened even just four years ago. Mass Effect 3 has only been on shelves for six months, and the company is releasing a brand new standalone version of the game for Wii U at $60 two weeks after the Trilogy Edition. In the past, this would be seen as an insane move, destroying potential sales of the first two games through a renewed push  for the latest sequel through the holiday. Today, though, EA’s release is a reflection of the overwhelming competition in the shrinking retail market.

Sony's Call of Duty Black Ops: Declassified PS Vita bundle doesn't come with a physical copy of the game.

The Call of Duty Black Ops: Declassified PS Vita bundle due out this fall could be just the item Sony needs to build moment behind its portable, but a new report suggests the package isn’t quite the value you might think it is.

Sony is aggressively pricing its consoles this holiday. The company introduced a brand new 250GB model of its six-year-old PlayStation 3 game console on Monday, but rather than drop the price of the machine, it actually raised it from $250 to $270, bundling a game in to justify the jump. The PlayStation Vita portable console, meanwhile, has reportedly sold just over 2 million units worldwide. Those are the sort of sales that forced Nintendo to slash the price of the Nintendo 3DS from $250 to $170 just months after its release in 2011, but Sony is sticking to its guns. No Vita price drop. Instead it’s releasing bundles with new games like Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation and Call of Duty Black Ops: Declassified.

A new report from Videogamer, however, demonstrates that the $250 price tag on the Call of Duty Black Ops: Declassified bundle isn’t too big of a money saver. The copy of Declassified that comes with the PS Vita isn’t a physical copy of the game, just a download voucher. Now a download voucher for a $50 game isn’t a negative. The game itself costs that much regardless of whether there’s a physical copy or not. The problem is that the bundle only comes with a 4GB proprietary memory stick for the system. While it’s unknown how much data Declassified takes up as a download, large Vita games can come close to filling that card. Uncharted: Golden Abyss for example eats up 2.7GB, while FIFA 13 eats up 2.8GB.

Declassified will likely be even bigger. Nihilistic, the studio making Declassified, already released one Vita shooter this year, namely Resistance: Burning Skies. That game takes up 3.1GB on a Vita memory card.

Were Sony’s memory cards for the Vita cheaper, the value trade would be balanced. Since an 8GB memory card will cost an additional $30, though, it still seems like Sony is cutting an unnecessary corner when it should be doing everything in its power to incentivize the purchase of a Vita.

Learn how to get the best gaming performance for your money with our layman’s guide to picking a graphics card.

If you have any interest in PC gaming outside of watering virtual rhubarb in FarmVille, you probably need to equip your rig with a graphics card (also called a GPU). Modern titles like Crysis 2, Battlefield 3 and Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 will chug along on integrated graphics that came on your motherboard, or not even load at all.

Yet GPUs are one of the most complex, jargon-filled products available. How can you make sure you get the most bang for your buck without getting misled by marketing claims, or worse, by evangelical enthusiasts who believe everyone needs to drop $500 on the latest and greatest? Just follow along with your resident Vigilant Geek.

What does a graphics card do?

Think of the graphics processing unit (GPU) at the heart of a graphics card as a sort of translator: It takes data coming from the CPU and transforms it into imagery. More complex visuals, such as high-definition games with all the bells and whistles turned on, require more complex GPUs in order to keep up with the firehose of data generated by modern games. High-end graphics cards can also significantly cut back on the time it takes to complete photo and video editing tasks, since more expensive GPUs have more processing cores, which allows them to process more computations at once.

Do you even need a graphics card?

If you don’t play games or edit graphics and have a modern computer, the answer is likely “No.” The processors found in modern-day PCs pack integrated GPUs that can handle casual 2D gaming and even high-definition video playback just fine. As a general rule of thumb, most computers bought in the past two years that have an AMD APU, or an Intel Core i3, i5 or i7 processor should be up to snuff for average graphical loads. Older computers may need a graphics card to watch HD movies, but you should be fine with a low-end model costing $100 or less.

Modern integrated graphics may be able to play 1080p HD movies, but they don’t hold up well during 3D gaming. You might be able to pull off playable frame rates in older, less intense titles like World of Warcraft, but if you want to play more recent games you’re going to need a discrete graphics card.

And, if you are going to buy a discrete graphics card, there are two things to look out for to make sure you’re not overpaying to fill your needs.

Do you need the latest and greatest graphics cards to play games?

Each generation of graphics cards stays at the forefront for a year or so before being replaced by newer, better, faster cards. The current generation of graphics cards — the AMD Radeon HD 7000 series and the Nvidia GeForce GTX 600 series — sport a new GPU architecture and vastly enhanced energy efficiency over previous models. Does that mean you should focus on modern cards alone in your quest for kick-ass graphics?

Not at all.

Buying last-generation cards is a great way to save some cash on a graphics card purchase. Now that the GTX 600-series is out, you can pick up a GTX 570 for between $250 and $300, or a former top-of-the-line GTX 480 for under $200. Those cards run hotter, draw more power and aren’t quite as speedy as, say, the newer GTX 670 (which costs more than $400), but they are still more than capable enough to play modern games at very good frame rates on a single display. Power gamers might not be completely satisfied, but average gamers should be.

I’d get nervous buying video cards more than a generation or two old, however.

One issue with buying older cards is that they’ll be even longer-in-the-tooth when the next generation of graphics cards and top-end games appear, but they’ll also be even cheaper (assuming they’re still available). If performance is a concern, you can drop some cash for a second graphics card of the same type and run a dual-card setup that increases frame rates — and generated heat– by a significant amount. Dual-card setups can run into stability issues from time to time, however.

Another possible issue is that older cards may not have the same features built into current cards. If you have a special need, like multiple monitors, do some homework and make sure the card you’re looking at supports it.

A potential pitfall when buying graphics cards

For the most part, the specs on graphics cards go fairly linear: The bigger the number, the better the performance. The one spec that could possibly give gamers a headache relates to the GPU’s memory. (Memory is also called RAM.) First off, you’ll want at least 1GB to 1.5GB of GPU memory to play modern 3D games, and more is preferred if you’re playing top-end games like Battlefield 3.

That part’s simple; the tricky part is making sure you have enough memory bandwidth to process and display those games smoothly. Memory bandwidth determines how fast the GPU can access your card’s RAM buffer, which is determined by your card’s memory clock speed and memory interface.

Think of memory bandwidth like a highway. Wider lanes — a wider memory interface — mean more traffic can stream down the highway simultaneously. A higher memory clock speed means that the traffic travels faster. In a nutshell, a higher overall memory bandwidth means that traffic is less likely to jam up and more likely to reach its destination quicker. That’s a good thing.

Gamers should stick to cards with at least a 192-bit memory interface, though 256-bit (or higher) is even better for demanding games, especially if you plan to turn on the bells and whistles and jack up the detail settings. Large textures and antialiasing utilize a lot of memory. Also, look for a card with GDDR5 memory, which is far faster than the DDR3 RAM found in older graphics cards.

If you’re looking for a card for a home theater PC that won’t be playing games, it’s OK to look for lower specs. For instance, the $110 Radeon HD 7750 is a great low-power HTPC card with just 1GB of memory and a 128-bit bus. It will struggle to play anything but the most basic games, however.

The memory interface and bandwidth are crucial specs that many everyday buyers don’t even know about, and manufacturers sometimes take advantage of your ignorance by offering cards with a decent amount of RAM, but a skimpy interface and clock rate. All the RAM in the world won’t make a difference if the information hits a bottleneck during transfers. Virtual traffic jams suck just as hard as physical ones.

What graphics card should the average person buy?

If you’re sticking to a single monitor of standard resolution, a mid-range graphics card costing between $200 and $250 (such as the Radeon HD 7850 or GTX 560 Ti, especially if you can find a GTX 560 Ti with 448 CUDA cores) is the price-to-performance sweet spot. One of these cards should be capable of playing virtually all games with smooth frame rates — though you may need to switch away from the highest detail settings in barnburners like Battlefield 3 or Crysis: Warhead.

If you can spare a couple of bucks more, the Radeon HD 7870 offers a fairly decent jump in frame rates over the aforementioned models for around $260, which is comparable to the GTX 570 released by Nvidia last year — both in price and performance.

If, on the other hand, you have a little less money to spend, the $140 Radeon HD 7770 can also play modern games but you’ll need to stick to modest graphics settings and steer clear of antialiasing options, which put a big drain on frame rates. The older, more power-hungry Radeon HD 6850 and Radeon 6870 fall into the same boat.

You should only really consider straying into graphics cards costing $300 or more when you’re running a multi-monitor setup, or demand to see the best possible experience and silky smooth frame rates on a high-res display. When you’re in this price range, the Nvidia GTX 680 is the best of the bunch.

[Image credit: Peter Gudella/Shutterstock]

Sennheiser hopes to win the hearts and eardrums of gamers with the U 320

“All gaming devices obey the new U 320,” commands Sennheiser, the audio specialist which today, released its new multi-platform gaming headset. The smack-talking tagline is a prime example of the kind of pleasantries you’ll no doubt be exchanging with fellow gamers if/when you pick one up.

Sennheiser, who has 65 years of audio experience under its belt, has dipped its toes into the gaming world before. Most recently, the company made headlines with the X 320 gaming headset which, if not ill-fated, was certainly ill-fitted. According to Sennheiser, the U 320 remedies that particular issue, allowing you to remain cool and comfortable throughout your gaming experience via its patented CircleFlex™ techonlogy, which features automatically adjusting ear pads.

The new model is a multi-platform, universal gaming headset, that’s designed, not just as a means to berate your buddies, but as a high-quality listening device that allows you to pick up the robust and detailed soundscapes of today’s PC and console titles. The headset also features a noise-canceling mic, reducing ambient noise so that your entire squadron doesn’t hear your mom telling you to clean your room before she grounds you.

The U 320 multi-platform gaming headset will be available late this fall for $170 and ships with a a two-year warranty.

Nintendo finally confirmed the 23 titles in the Wii U launch line up on Wednesday, with impressive support from EA, Ubisoft, and Activision.

There will be plenty to play on November 18^th. Nintendo has confirmed that the Wii U launch line up will include 23 games.

The Nintendo Wii U’s coming out party in New York City earlier this month was surprisingly light on details about the console’s release. Nintendo was clear about the price—$300 for the system with 8GB of memory and $350 for the system with 32GB of memory and a copy of NintendoLand—but concrete information on everything else from the Miiverse online network to what games would be available was scarce. Bayonetta 2, The Wonderful 101—These are exciting games but will they be available on the November 18^th launch day? That Nintendo said 51 games were coming in a “launch window” that extends to March 2013 only confused matters.

Now things are clearer. As reported by USA Today on Wednesday, there will be 23 games available alongside the Wii U on the day it is released. Only three of those games will be Nintendo first party titles: New Super Mario Bros. U and NintendoLand will be available on the first day as promised, and they’ll be joined by the Nintendo published karaoke game Sing Party.

Ports of major publishers’ 2012 games, including FIFA 13, Darksiders II, Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge, Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, and Tekken Tag Tournament 2 will also be available. There are even some 2011 stragglers sneaking in like Warrior’s Orochi 3.

Especially impressive is Activision’s roll out. The publisher has been, to date, cagey about Nintendo’s new system, but all four games announced at the New York event will be rolled out on launch day. Skylanders Giants, Wipeout 3, Transformers Prime, and Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 will all be available, and while only two of those are potential million sellers, it’s still a strong commitment to put four boxed products out simultaneously.

Ubisoft is also going big, with Your Shape: Fitness Evolved 2013, ESPN Sports Connection, Just Dance 4, Rabbids Land, Assassin’s Creed III, and the promising original ZombiU.

Rounding out the list are Scribblenauts Unlimited, Game Party Champions, and Batman: Arkham City Armored Edition from WBIE, and Epic Mickey 2: The Power of 2 from Disney.

That’s three more retail games than Nintendo had for the Wii launch in 2006, and while Game Party Champions probably isn’t going to rev many engines, it’s an impressive display of quality. That Nintendo will have November’s biggest releases, Assassin’s Creed III and Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 available, right alongside their releases on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 bodes well for the system.

Many Xbox Music features will be ported from Zune Music, and based on the Xbox dashboard update for beta testers, the same applies to the cost of the service.

No surprise here: Microsoft’s leaked Xbox Music service pricing model is no different from every subscription music service out there. Unlimited streaming music on Xbox will cost £8.99 (about $14.50) per month, or you could elect for a slightly discounted upfront cost of £89.90 ($145.15) per year.

With the intention of letting select Xbox owners try out the new Windows 8 interface, Microsoft accidentally leaked the pricing model with the dashboard update, according to The Verge. From what could be determined based on photos taken of the interface, users will be offered a 14-day free trial (Spotify offers 30 days of its premium service for free, for the record) and it also looks like Microsoft will offer a free, ad-supported version of its music service. But in order to use Xbox Music on your console at all, beta testers are reporting that you’ll be required to own a subscription to Xbox LIVE Gold.

The pricing model is similar to Microsoft’s existing Zune Music Pass service, which currently charges $9.99 per month or $100 per year, and it’s likely that the U.S. subscription cost to Xbox Music will be structured similarly. Like Spotify, it could be a possibility for the service to offer additional tiered pricing models based on the amount of access that you’d like.

Microsoft is clearly looking to compete in the music streaming market, with Xbox Music replacing the Zune brand that’s soon to be canned. Xbox Music is essentially a big rebranding effort of an existing service that Microsoft hopes will reenergize its foray into music, a sector that the company has been falling behind compared to its competitors.

From what we know so far, our expectation is that many of the Zune Music Pass features will be ported to Xbox Music. Users will be able to access Xbox Music across multiple devices, including the Xbox, desktop PCs, smartphones, and tablets that are running the Windows 8 operating system, and the service even includes Zune Music’s “Smart DJ” function, which plays a mix of similar music based on the songs in your collection. It also appears that the ability to sync your playlists with other devices will make its way from Zune Music to Xbox Music.

Although the music streaming industry is crowded enough as is with just about every major tech company — Sony, Samsung, and Google all have streaming products, and you can’t discount popular services like Pandora, Rdio, Last.fm and Spotify. And it should be noted that none of these services have yet to debut a Windows 8 specific app, making Xbox Music the de facto music streaming service for Windows device owners once its launched. 

The launch date of Xbox Music has yet to be announced by Microsoft.

Nintendo's Wii experienced supply problems for two years, but according NOA's president, Wii U supply should be strong enough to satisfy.

Will the Wii U supply at launch be enough to satisfy everyone?

While sales have bottomed out over the past two years, Nintendo’s Wii has remained a startling success with around 97 million consoles sold since 2006. Nintendo sold 30 more million Wiis than Microsoft sold Xbox 360s since 2005 and around 34 million more than Sony sold PlayStation 3s. Funny thing is, Nintendo could have done better. The Wii was so successful, so popular between 2006 and 2008 that Nintendo had trouble keeping up with demand. It literally couldn’t make them fast enough. With GameStop and other retailers already closing pre-orders for the Nintendo Wii U, it seems Nintendo may experience supply problems all over again.

Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime said in a new interview that Nintendo plans to keep enough Wii U machines on shelves to accommodate most customers. “We’ve learned a lot of lessons from the launch of the DS, the launch of the Wii, and the launch of 3DS,” Fils-Aime told Forbes, “And our supply chain is solid. My job is to work with retailers, work with other business partners to create demand for the product, and have the consumer get excited. And I we’re well on the way to doing that. My expectation is that we will do a phenomenal job helping the consumer understand the benefits of Wii U, and that our retailers will do a wonderful job of merchandising the product and getting it into consumers’ hands. We want to satisfy all of the demand that’s out there. That’s our goal.”

In the twenty-four months following the Wiis release, some speculated that Nintendo was intentionally keeping units off the market to drive up consumer demand. If the Wii U is scarce this fall, it won’t be because Nintendo is keeping retail supply light. Numerous reports over the past six months have indicated that Nintendo has had problems manufacturing the Wii U’s signature controller. In August, it seemed that Wii U’s release would be delayed in Europe due to those manufacturing problems.

One thing’s for sure: Nintendo will be making money on every Wii U sold. While Nintendo refused to confirm for us that the Wii U is profitable directly out of the box, Digital Foundry suggests that the $300 base price for the console will net a tidy sum over manufacturing costs.