With the release of Persona 4 Golden, Atlus hopes to revive the best roleplaying title of the PlayStation 2 generation for a new era of handhelds, inadvertently trumping all modern roleplaying games in the process.

When Persona 4 first debuted on the PlayStation 2 in 2008 late it was an instant critical and financial success. It followed quickly on the heels of Persona 3 (and the subsequent Persona 3: FES re-release), and while that game was a massive hit as well, Persona 4 saw Atlus doing all it could to both polish its own fundamental game design concepts and to wring every last ounce of power from the aging PlayStation 2 platform. It succeeded in both regards, and Persona 4 now proudly stands among the very best games the PS2 has to offer, and as one of the best Japanese-style roleplaying games ever created. It was also overlooked by many, coming so late in the PS2′s life, and after the release of the PS3.

Of course, these days the PS2 is merely a fond memory, and Japanese-style roleplaying games have become a rarity, replaced by online first-person shooters and endless rhythm game franchises. Seeing this as an opportunity to revive Persona 4, Atlus has opted to bring Persona 4 Golden to Sony’s PlayStation Vita handheld. While most other developers would simply upgrade the game’s graphics a bit and maybe throw in a new area or two, Atlus has decided to construct the definitive version of Persona 4 (in much the same way that the 2010 release of Persona 3 Portable brought a more feature-packed version of Persona 3 to the PSP). Along with all the content found in the earlier PS2 release, Persona 4 Golden includes two new characters, updated high-definition graphics, new costumes, new weapons, new Personas to discover and a number of streamlined gameplay and combat options. Content-wise, that certainly put Persona 4 Golden above its predecessors, but does that make it a better game?

Everything Old Is New Again

Persona 4 tells the story of a group of Japanese high school students who are unwittingly drawn into a battle for the fate of the universe. That sounds like a pretty stereotypical plot for any roleplaying game, but Persona 4 immediately sets itself apart from the competition in a number of dynamic ways. First, the game’s aesthetics are gorgeously stylized and colorful. Where other games might want to focus on the gritty struggle to survive, or the horrors of battling demons, Persona 4 presents itself to you almost gleefully. It’s characters and plot are well aware of the gravity of the game’s situations, but despite this they all maintain a level of cheery, self-assured invulnerability that you’d expect to see from largely naive teens. Likewise, the game’s audio perfectly matches this vibe, shifting casually from mellow jazz to upbeat hip hop to surprisingly catchy rock tracks at a moment’s notice. If you can play through Persona 4 Golden without getting at least one song indelibly stuck in your head, then you’ve got more willpower than I do.

The gameplay in Persona 4 is broken up into two distinct sections: daily life and plumbing the depths of the game’s massive dungeon system. In the former you play the role of a relatively normal high school student. You have to study, attend classes, meet with social clubs and occasionally romance one of the available locals. In turn, the dungeon exploration aspect of the game is relatively standard as well. You and a group of up to three friends are tasked with traveling downward through a number of colorful, thematically-appropriate dungeon settings where you’ll face off against monsters and hope to discover fantastic loot. These sections both serve as traditional roleplaying game elements and to further the game’s plot, but the really interesting bit is how they intertwine with one another.

We’ll get to that in a second, but first we have to explain what a “Persona” actually is. While not quite a ghost and not exactly a Final Fantasy-style summon, the Personas serve as guardians for their owners while exploring the game’s dungeons. Your characters each have standard weapon attacks, but in addition to these you’re able to call on your Persona to use its magical abilities to attack your opponents. Further, these Personas are almost full-fledged characters of their own, as they level up alongside your human characters with regular use. As you progress through the game, you’ll discover that your enemies are increasingly immune to certain kinds of attacks, and thus it’s wise for a player to keep a stable of three or four fully-leveled Personas with varying skillsets with them when they decide to enter into battle.

Now, back to the intertwining. While you can generate new Personas by discovering certain items after battle or merging multiple Personas together, the key to putting together a strong army of Personas is in establishing Social Links with the people you meet during the day. Spend time with the right person and your relationship with them will improve, allowing you to summon increasingly powerful Personas. Each of these people you can interact with corresponds to a certain sign of the zodiac and they, in turn, offer more power to Personas who share that same sign.

Yes, it’s a complicated system, but the changes made to Persona 4 Golden make things simpler than they’ve ever been. Those items I mentioned that can be used to spawn new Personas are far easier to collect now that the mini-game following most battles has been altered to allow for more strategy. Explaining the whole thing would take a few thousand words, but know that once you’ve gotten used to that particular mini-game, you’ll be able to snatch multiple Personas at a time along with a host of bonuses for both your character and his Personas.

Veteran Persona 4 players will recognize this change as a small one in the grand scheme of things — Persona 4 Golden features well over 100 hours of gameplay, so the grand scheme is pretty big — but that’s how most of the additions to Persona 4 Golden work: If you’ve played Persona 4 previously you won’t have missed these elements, but once you’ve played Persona 4 Golden, with its streamlined menus and simplified travel systems, you won’t ever be able to go back to the game’s original incarnation.

Wide-eyed Anime Tropes

Atlus could tweak Persona 4 endlessly, adding new features and subtracting poorly polished concepts, but in the end the real reason to play Persona 4 Golden is that it offers an epic, engaging roleplaying adventure that features a cast of wonderfully conceptualized characters with unique personalities and an abundance of likable traits. Whether you find yourself drawn to Chie’s kung fu skills and self-doubt or Yukiko’s prim, proper appearance (which hides a mile-wide silly streak), this game offers at least one character that anyone can relate to.

On the other hand, the anime aesthetic and tonal qualities of Persona 4 are undeniable. If you can’t stand wide-eyed characters and melodramatic acting, then this probably isn’t the game for you. Then again, while it does wear its anime influence on its sleeve, Persona 4 is far, far deeper than the vast majority of teen-focused cartoons. It does feature all the familiar tropes (the stoic badass, the pretty girl who  is conflicted about her family, etc.), but it also goes beyond the common concepts found in anime to explore topics like teenage sexual repression, homosexuality, the impact of broken homes on children, and the finality of death. Persona 4 may not be Dostoevsky, but it’s certainly a far more thoughtful, emotionally charged game than one might first expect on seeing its colorful aesthetic.

Depending on your point of view then, you may either be excited or upset to hear that despite all the copious additions to Persona 4 introduced for its Vita debut, the game’s plot sees the least change out of all of its various aspects. The only real change is that you are now able to strike up new relationships with flunky detective Adachi, as well as with Marie, a girl created specifically for Persona 4 Golden.

When you first meet Marie, she appears to be yet another denizen of the Velvet Room, a mysterious extra-dimensional room that you can only access via blue doors scattered throughout the game. The people who live in this room are not quite human, but seem to have a strong interest in how human life works. Marie, more so than any of the Velvet Room denizens we’ve seen to date, is an impatient brat. She starts off as cold to you, and though she will warm up as you spend time with her, she never really grows out of the “annoying teen girl” schtick she seems to cling to so fervently. As with all things in this game, there’s a reasonable explanation for that, but you’ll have to spend a few dozen hours playing the game before you discover what it might be.

Normally this might be a huge flaw, but Persona 4 Golden has one major addition that makes replaying this massive game a real joy: True portability. It may not seem it based on what I’ve written so far, but almost every aspect of Persona 4 can be boiled down to a stop-motion turn-based effort. The battles are turn-based, conversations only advance when you hit a button, and its rare that anything in the game will occur without your direct involvement. As a result, it’s very easy to slip the Vita into Sleep Mode during gameplay without fear of losing any progress, making this game ideal for long car trips, or killing time while waiting for the bus. As much as I enjoyed Persona 4 in its PS2 iteration, I don’t think I have the willpower to sit in front of my TV for another 150 hours. But given the opportunity to replay the whole thing in tiny, bite-sized chunks as it’s convenient for me, I jump at the chance to play Persona 4 Golden.

That convenience seems to be a theme with Persona 4 Golden, as perhaps the most minute change actually has the largest impact on how the game is played. In the original iteration of Persona 4, if you were working your way through a dungeon only to be killed by a random monster, you’d have to restart the game from the last place you saved. Usually that just so happened to be hours ago. Instead of subjecting players to this kind of torture yet again, Atlus decided to include a new menu option that offers players the chance to restart from the beginning of whichever dungeon floor they perished on instead of reloading a save file. It seems like a small tweak, but it makes a huge difference in how fast one can complete the game. Not that this experience should be rushed, but it’s such a relief to see that we won’t have to slog through the same areas over and over again simply because a certain enemy is extraordinarily difficult.

Conclusion

Persona 4 Golden is what Persona 4 should have been all along. It’s a massive roleplaying game with compelling characters and interesting, intuitive gameplay mechanics that motivate players along not with design cliches, but by offering new, interesting things to see and explore. Though it’s modern setting and anime style may not appeal to everyone, those who can see past these “issues” to the core experience beneath will find themselves enjoying a game that certainly earned a place as one of the best PS2 titles, and has now established itself as one of the best games available on Sony’s Vita handheld.

More impressively, the wealth of changes and additions seen in Persona 4 Golden make it one of the few re-releases that should appeal equally to fans of the original Persona 4 and those who’ve yet to experience the series. Atlus has jam-packed this game with new content, and even if you’ve explored every nook and cranny of Persona 4 on the PS2, you’ll find plenty of novel things to do and see in its handheld incarnation. While it probably doesn’t have the power to sway those who absolutely abhor roleplaying games, those who enjoy the genre should view Persona 4 Golden as the current high water mark for these sorts of games, and, for that matter, as a perfect reason to go out and buy a Vita. Even if everything else on the system leaves you cold, at least you’ll have this one epic adventure to enjoy over the course of the next few weeks, months, and years.

Score: 9 out of 10

(This review was written using a copy of Persona 4 Golden for the PS Vita provided by Atlus.)

Oprah appears to be a fan of Microsoft's new Surface tablet, but she was caught using its biggest rival to share the message.

While some holiday shoppers may be pondering which tablet to snag this season, Microsoft’s Surface has gained one colossal supporter: Oprah Winfrey. Well, sort of.

“Gotta say love that SURFACE! Have bought 12 already for Christmas gifts. #FavoriteThings,” she tweeted on Nov. 18.

However, there is a subtle hint of irony embedded in the renowned television show host’s tweet that careful observers were sure to note. Oprah praised Microsoft’s first self-branded tablet from an iPad.

Zagg was one of the first to make this observation on Monday, and Oprah’s social media post has since garnered attention from The Los Angeles Times, CNET, TIME, and Tech Crunch among other media outlets. Oprah’s pro-Surface tweet has spawned 418 retweets to her legion of more than 14 million followers since then.

This isn’t the first time a celebrity has publicly endorsed one of Microsoft’s mobile products. During the company’s Windows Phone 8 event at the end of October, CEO Steve Ballmer introduced silver screen superstar Jessica Alba as an avid supporter of the new mobile operating system. Soon after, No Doubt front woman Gwen Stefani also appeared in an ad for Windows Phone 8. It remains unclear if this attention from Hollywood will do much to bolster Windows Phone 8 or Surface sales this holiday season, but it certainly has sparked some attention.   

Microsoft has yet to reveal any specific sales numbers for the Surface, but Ballmer previously told a French newspaper that Microsoft’s tablet is off to a “modest” start. (We look forward to hearing the updated sales now that Oprah has bought 12 of them.)

The Redmond, Wash.-based company later issued a statement regarding Ballmer’s words, saying that Microsoft’s approach to selling the Surface has been modest, while “reception to the device has been fantastic.” 

Shipments of Google's Nexus 7 tablet could reach five million by the year's end, according to component suppliers.

Shipments of the Nexus 7 tablet for 2012 could be higher than the Google had originally expected – in fact, it may even double Google’s initial predictions.

At the end of this year’s second quarter, the search engine giant expected to ship 2.5 million Nexus 7 units for 2012 in total. Now, however, Taiwan players in Google’s supply chain are saying that the shipment volume could reach 5 million units based on the number of orders released, according to DigiTimes.

Shipments typically peak around October or November to meet end-of-the-year demand, but sources have told DigiTimes that Nexus 7 shipments are expected to stay strong throughout November and December. To be exact, these unnamed sources in Google’s Taiwanese supply chain expect Nexus 7 shipments to remain in the range of seven hundred thousand and one million units throughout these two months.

Following the success of its 16GB Nexus 7 ($200) and its 32GB Nexus 7 ($250), Google released another version of its seven-inch tablet just one week ago. On Nov. 13, alongside its brand new Nexus 4 and Nexus 10 devices, Google announced that a 3G-enabled edition of its 32GB Nexus 7 will be available for $300. AT&T has already sold out of this new Nexus 7 model following its launch, though no sales numbers were revealed.

The 7-inch slate has been gaining momentum since it was released back in July. Google has been relatively tight-lipped about the tablet’s sales, but its hardware partner ASUS spilled some sales secrets to the Wall Street Journal at the end of October. The Nexus 7 is reportedly coming close to selling one million units per month, which is just about double the rate of its sales at launch.

However, while Google may be seeing unexpected growth in the sales of its Nexus 7, the tablet will be facing impeding competition this holiday season. Apple’s iPad Mini and fourth generation iPad, which launched last month, reached three million in sales in their first few days of availability. While Google is projected to hit five million, Apple tablets have likely already surpassed this.

Telltale's episodic adaptation of Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead has finally arrived, and it's as emotionally jarring as you'd expect.

Just before Telltale’s episodic video game adaptation of Robert Kirkman’s comic book series The Walking Dead first debuted in April, fans of the property had a laundry list of concerns. Would a video game be able to capture the oppressive atmosphere that has made Kirkman’s books such a macabre joy? Would Telltale have the courage to push their game intto the shockingly dark territory that The Walking Dead books usually plumb for their most emotionally resonant moments? Do people still want to play a classic adventure game in an era where gaming is defined by endless first-person shooters and bombastic explosions?

Then Telltale released Episode 1 of The Walking Dead and all doubts were immediately cast away, replaced instead by a sense of awe at how well-crafted and engaging Telltale’s game was. Of course, fans then expected the worst and assumed that the developer wouldn’t be able to match the quality of the first Episode in its sequel. Telltale proved doubters wrong there as well. Over the course of four increasingly violent, increasingly frightening, and increasingly depressing episodes, Telltale has repeatedly topped itself to the astonishment of fans and gleeful critics alike (now would be a good time to have a look at our reviews of Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, and Episode 4).

And now comes the final chapter, Episode 5 of The Walking Dead, the appropriately titled No Time Left. If you were expecting Telltale to finally drop the ball, we’ve got bad news for you: The Walking Dead Episode 5 is not just a fantastic end to this first season of the game, it’s also the best Walking Dead Episode to date.

This Is The End

If you know only one thing about The Walking Dead, it’s that the property centers on zombies. However, if you know two things, you know that in truth the game, comics, and television series are not so much stories about the zombie apocalypse as they are stories of disparate groups of survivors attempting to remain sane and alive amidst the apparent end of days. A strong focus on that second aspect has been the backbone of all of Telltale’s Episodes so far, and in that regard Episode 5 does not disappoint. It may not be the most violent episode, but what it lacks in straight-up gore, it more than makes up for in shock value. Not in the “cheap jump scares” sense that plagues so many modern survival horror games, but instead by building a complex, multi-layered world that constantly kicks players when they’re down. There is no happy ending once the credits roll on Episode 5 (but if you’ve been expecting that, you likely haven’t been paying very close attention).

The other key theme of The Walking Dead has always been that no one is safe. No matter how much you like protagonist Lee or the adorable Clementine, either one of them could be torn apart by zombies or shot by another survivor at the drop of a hat. It would be easy for this concept to wear thin on players very quickly as too many deaths would simply desensitize them to the plight of the characters in the game. Too few deaths however, and you lose a sense of tension. To solve this problem, Telltale’s writers have spent five episodes crafting some of the most complex, nuanced human characters we’ve ever seen in a game. Each person, though obviously not an actual human, seems to have his or her own motivations, fears, and hopes for this bleak new reality. By building The Walking Dead on a classic adventure game template, Telltale made it easy to connect with each individual, which only makes it that much more harrowing when a character you’ve come to know and love is killed. Most games can’t even form a connection between a single protagonist and a player, so it’s very impressive that Telltale is able to create connections so effortlessly, even if it then twists these connections to heighten the game’s horror atmosphere.

If you thought this would be the point where I drop the bombshell that both Lee and Clem are killed off in horrific fashion during Episode 5, sorry, but that would be revealing too much of the plot. Though it does make the game more difficult to review, if you take nothing else away from this, trust that you are better off experiencing The Walking Dead’s expertly-crafted plot for yourselves, as Telltale intended. Ideally, in a dark room, with few distractions and maybe a stiff drink to take the edge off when your nerves become a bit too frayed.

That said, those of you who were hoping that Telltale would continue to ramp up the dark tone of The Walking Dead should be very pleased by Episode 5. It’s not quite as blunt as Episodes 3 or 4, but the incidents you experience are as emotionally resonant and actively moving as anything in the series to date. Once the credits have started rolling (by the way, you should definitely sit through the credits; trust me on this one too) you should be sitting there, mouth agape at what you’ve just experienced and how thoroughly Telltale is able to draw players into a relatively traditional survival-horror story purely by virtue of amazing writing and realistically complex character building.

Sadly, The Walking Dead’s story is so good that it casts a stark relief on the rest of the games industry. After playing The Walking Dead, it’s difficult to return to other, more traditional blockbuster titles, as the majority of developers are either unable or unwilling to match the quality of the writing seen in Telltale’s game. On the other hand, this episodic adaptation of The Walking Dead has been selling quite well for Telltale, so maybe this is an indication that players, if given the choice, would readily gravitate toward good writing and well-crafted characters, instead of the rote run ‘n gun action we see so often.

If It Looks Like A Zombie And Sounds Like A Zombie

In our reviews of The Walking Dead to date, we haven’t spent much time discussing the game’s technical aspects. Not because we dislike what Telltale has done with this game’s aesthetics and sound, but because they’re so good that you simply don’t notice them. Yes, it’s impressive that Telltale’s artists were able to nearly replicate the Walking Dead art of Charlie Adlard for the video game. Yes, it’s impressive that Telltale assembled such an excellent cast of vocal talent and that the game’s ambient sounds are perfectly capable of terrifying players by themselves. However, it’s far more impressive that by the time Episode 5 was ending, we’d completely stopped paying attention to how the game looks and sounds, in favor of focusing entirely on the story. Ideally, graphics and audio should exist to serve the story, and it’s almost depressing that The Walking Dead stands out specifically because it’s one of the few games that manages to get this concept right.

It should also be pointed out though, that with Episode 5 it seems that Telltale has finally mastered the engine it created for The Walking Dead. Though we adored the past four episodes of The Walking Dead, each had a few minor glitches and scripting errors that, while far from game-breaking, did serve to momentarily disrupt a player’s suspension of disbelief. It’s difficult to stay engaged when a character disappears from a scene at random or certain lines become unsynced from a character’s lip movements. It’s never been a huge issue for the series, but it’s nice to see that Episode 5 appears to have sloughed off these minor flaws. Even with the issues which inevitably crop up when reviewing a game prior to its official release, I didn’t once notice any oddly aberrant behavior, or glaring moments that were obviously mistakes.

There is one bit of novel technology in The Walking Dead that we can’t help but mention: The game’s decision making system. As with previous episodes, Episode 5 allows players to make various dialogue choices during gameplay that can have surprisingly dramatic effects on the game. We interviewed Gary Whitta, writer of Episode 4, shortly after its debut, and he told us that while all the divergent story lines eventually get to the same key points by the end of the game, it’s very easy to have a drastically different experience than your friends did merely because you happen to be a bit more kind-hearted. The end result is a game that plays out like a personality test, with no real “rewards,” just different scenarios to experience based on your choices. Episode 5, being the final episode of the first season, is where most of these story threads merge back together, and it’s really great to see a decision you made months ago in one of the earlier episodes finally pay off in a big (or not so big) way. Again, no spoilers, but I predict that a lot of you are going to be kicking yourselves over choices you made in the past.

If I have one qualm about The Walking Dead Episode 5 though, it’s that it marks the end of this adventure. We’ll eventually be playing through a second season of The Walking Dead, but it may be asking too much to hope that anything you’ve done here will carry over to Season Two in any really meaningful fashion. From a design standpoint I understand why Telltale wouldn’t want to push a bunch of loose plot cords to the next season, but at the same time there’s an undeniable sense of finality once Episode 5 has come to a close. This, it seems, is the danger with episodic entertainment: You get used to playing new adventures every month, and then when a company runs out of stories to tell, you’re stuck waiting anxiously for something to fill that entertainment void. Hopefully Telltale doesn’t make us wait too long for Season Two.

Conclusion

It should be apparent by now that we adore The Walking Dead, but more important than how we feel about it, is why we feel so strongly that each of you should rush out and buy each episode. Here is a game, released in the same time span as big-budget blockbuster games like Halo 4 and Assassin’s Creed III, that trumps both of those multi-million-selling titles purely because it’s such a fundamentally sound gaming experience. Instead of relying on flashy graphics or ambient sound designed to push $5,000 surround sound systems to the brink, Telltale Games has created an adventure that succeeds on the strength of its writing, and thus should be enjoyable not just for hardcore gamers or people who get off on killing zombies, but also for anyone who likes the idea of being sucked into a witty, dark, emotionally intense tale for twenty-plus hours of their lives.

Though Telltale’s game doesn’t really do anything terribly original, the elements in this game are so well-crafted that they serve to create a whole that is far more than the sum of its albeit impressive parts. No hyperbole: The Walking Dead is the perfect modern adventure game, and given its necessarily tight pacing and the length of its individual episodes, it may even trump Kirkman’s own Walking Dead comics as the best rendition of this universe to date. 

Then again, even if it isn’t better than its comic book source material, The Walking Dead is still an utterly perfect distillation of everything that makes Kirkman’s writing so great: Realistic human characters, oppressive atmosphere and an unending drive to emotionally torture players by destroying the lives of a small group of desperate survivors. Top that with intuitive, surprisingly diverse gameplay options, and a game engine that delivers great graphics and audio, and it’s easy to see why The Walking Dead has attracted such a vast, rabid fanbase. Hopefully this kind of support ensures that Telltale will keep creating new Walking Dead Episodes until all of the world’s shambling corpses are reduced to dried up skeletons choking the streets of Savannah.

(This review was written using a digital copy of The Walking Dead: Episode 5 provided by Telltale Games.)

2K Sports has recently made a strong case that its NBA basketball franchise is the best sports series out there right now. Of course personal preference will slant this opinion, but in terms of smooth gameplay, plentiful content, and just general fun, the NBA 2K series does not fail to deliver.

With the Wii U arriving in North America today, it brings with it several ports of successful games that were recently released on other platforms, integrating the Wii U’s unique features, specifically the GamePad. But with any port of a title to brand new hardware, there are unavoidable sacrifices that have to be made due to the unfamiliarity developers face with the new hardware, and development cycles that are at the mercy of the hardware manufacturer who is certain to keep the specifics of that new hardware as secret as possible for as long as possible to avoid leaks. It is a problem all new hardware faces, and the Wii U is no exception.

That results in games that tend to be a bit rough around the edges, and in many cases the titles are forced to make major cuts in the features. EA Sports is perhaps the biggest victim of this, having cut entire game modes from its Madden and FIFA ports, but they are not alone. And yet somehow, NBA 2K13 managed to avoid this pitfall completely.

There are a few minor things missing – you can’t buy virtual currency online and the Virgin competitions are absent, but neither feature really makes much of a difference to the game itself. The lack of virtual currency makes it tougher to bulk up your team in “MyTeam” mode, but saving your money and forcing you to play the game naturally may not be a bad thing.

The inclusion of the GamePad is handled well. During a standard game, the touch screen becomes your coaching tool, allowing you to scan through several options like strategy, quick plays, and substitution options, which you can change with a button press. The substitutions have always been a thing you have to  learn to embrace on the 360/PS3 versions, while this makes it easy and intuitive. This is helped by the ability to check the fatigue, performance, and stress levels of players in the new “Gatorade Biometric Scan” by touching that player during a game. You can do that thanks to one of the Wii U’s best features, the GamePad’s ability to show the full game on the touchscreen, making it possible to play NBA 2K13 without the TV on.

This ability to play on the GamePad is also available in the MyPlayer mode, but the coaching options have been swapped for the ability to track your player’s progress. As with the coaching tools, when you hit the icon on the touchscreen, the GamePad will display information on your shot selection, and generally inundate you with stats. It’s neat addition, but will likely end up being just eye candy more than a helpful tool for most.

But despite the inclusion of the GamePad and the full complement of game features, there were a few cuts made to ensure the timely arrival of the game on the Wii U. A bit of the much-hyped Jay-Z production additions have been shaved, and little things like the music video that proceeded each game has been removed, although this is a very minor quibble.

A larger issue is the graphics, which are still good, but not as crisp as the 360/PS3 version. They move well enough, but there is just a slight dullness to them in comparison – but only in comparison. If you haven’t played NBA 2K13 on the other systems, and maybe even NBA 2K12 as well, then you won’t notice the downgrade.

The game is also polluted by the occasional glitch. More than once while saving, my game froze and forced me to back out into the Wii U Menu. These glitches seem to all be relegated to the menus and not the gameplay though, which makes them forgivable, if frustrating.

The controls also take a bit of getting used to on the GamePad. They were designed for a smaller control that encourage the combination of the analog sticks and shoulder buttons, which is relatively complex. You’ll have to relearn how you play. You can always use the Pro Controller, but that will cost you the coaching tools. It isn’t a big deal, but it’s something you’ll have to get used to.

Conclusion

2K Sports’ NBA 2K13 is easily the best launch day sports title for the Wii U. The inclusion of the GamePad makes the game easier to use than ever before, at least once you acclimate yourself to the bulkier GamePad.

It is still a port though, and like all launch day ports sacrifices had to be made. The bugs may be worked out with a patch or two, but the graphical downgrade, although slight, is a shame when you consider the power of the Wii U. Still, 2K Sports are definitely on the right track, and NBA 2K13, regardless of which system you play it on, is still the king of the sports titles.

Score: 9 out of 10

 (This game was reviewed on the Wii U using a copy provided by the publisher)

Video game composer Gordy Haab wins the award for Best Song at the Hollywood Music in Media awards thanks to his score for Star Wars Kinect.

Gordy Haab is a fearless video game composer. It takes nerves of steel to compose new music for the Star Wars universe. Just tinkling around with John Williams’ themes is enough to send the franchise’s fans into an apoplectic fit. Haab on the other hand has dabbled in George Lucas’ world multiple times now, working on BioWare’s Star Wars: The Old Republic and Star Wars Kinect. His work in the latter netted him his latest reward.

The song “The Felucia Podraces” from Star Wars Kinect received the Best Song in a Video Game award at the Hollywood Music in Media Awards last week. The awards are for composers working in not just video games, but film, television, and music videos as well.

Haab spoke with Digital Trends about the pressures and joys of working on a series like Star Wars. “They wanted [Star Wars Kinect} to live within the universe of the Star Wars sounds. That was sort of the confines from which we were working, but we had free rein to write our own original take on it, and certainly our own original themes,” said Haab, “But we weren’t required by any means to use the John Williams theme unless we wanted to. So we did have some creative license in that sense.”

He and his writing partner Kyle Newmaster were not responsible for the writing of “I’m Han Solo.”

Perhaps you are going over to grandma’s house for Christmas dinner this holiday season and you’re going to once again be fascinated by her old rotary telephone. With the move to digital and touchscreens, we’ve lost that retro appeal in our homes, but that doesn’t have to be the case. The Pyle Retro Home Telephone Collection is a unique smartphone dock that reminds us of days gone by.

There are four models in the range and they are all handcrafted from real wood, featuring real brushed copper parts. They work with your regular landline, but the kicker is that they are also compatible with your iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, iPad, and other mobile devices, including tablets and even MacBooks. All you need is a standard 3.5mm connection.

Some of these retro home telephones, like the $89.99 PRT15I, look just like a classic rotary phone, whereas the $109.99 PRT35I comes with a built-in iPhone charging dock, in addition to the rotary dial and classic handset. Standard features include last number redial, ringer high/low selectoin, and one-button pick-up.

Check out the full press release below or head over to PyleAudio.com for more information. Prices range from $89.99 to $109.99 MSRP.

Whether it’s a zippy Ultrabook or a gaming dynamo, if you’re in the market for a new machine, follow our guide to narrow down your options and find the laptop that best suits your needs.

Buying a new laptop is often an intimidating process, especially if it’s been a while since you bought your last computer. The technology often changes so quickly that a machine that seemed dazzlingly one year is already passé by the next, making it difficult to keep up. When faced with such a daunting array of choices, it can be tempting to throw in the towel and pick whatever happens to be on sale.

Yet for many of us, a laptop is one of our most-used possessions. It follows us to the office, to campus, and to the neighborhood café. It tags along on long train rides and weekend getaways. We unwind with it on the couch and snuggle up with it in bed. Is it any wonder, then, that buying a new laptop can seem like such a momentous decision?

In this guide, we demystify the many options facing the average laptop-buyer. We can’t make your decision for you, but we can hopefully make it a bit easier. First, we’ll cover some major choices you’ll need to make; then, we’ll discuss the different categories of laptops on the market.

Mac vs. PC

If you mention to friends that you’re looking for a new laptop, likely the first thing you’ll hear is, “Are you buying a Mac or a PC?” By now, we’re all familiar with the rehashed Mac vs. PC stereotypes. The truth is, Macs and PCs are simply good at different things. Want to edit video, run massive simulations, or re-work an 800-layer image in Photoshop? You should probably get a Mac. Want a gaming-friendly computer that’s easy to tinker with, and that offers powerful specs without destroying your budget? You should probably get a PC. If you do opt for the latter, be sure to check out our list of the best laptops for Windows.

Touchscreen vs. traditional screen

This decision may pose more of a challenge, largely because touchscreens haven’t shown a major presence in the laptop market until relatively recently. However, given Windows 8’s numerous touch-friendly features, manufacturers are now scrambling to produce the snazziest and most affordable touchscreen laptop.

For consumers, this may still be a bit of a risky choice. Some laptops are not weighted for easy touch manipulation, tilting at the hinges every time you press the screen. And while a touch-sensitive screen and multi-stroke touchpad may seem like the best of both worlds, the over-abundance of inputs may end up seeming counter-intuitive, especially to more traditional users. Touchscreen devices also pack a considerably more expensive price tag than their traditional counterparts – at least for now. But if you’re already in love with Windows 8, nothing else really compares.

Convertible vs. non-convertible

Convertible laptops may offer a workable compromise for those who want the touch screen experience on a laptop with the convenience of a tablet. With convertibles, the keyboard swings around and under the screen to provide easy touchscreen access – unlike hybrids, where the keyboard detaches altogether from the tablet-like screen, and which therefore can’t really be called a laptop to begin with. Unfortunately, the jury’s still out on the future of convertible laptops and hybrids, but they’re certainly some of the trendiest models on the market right now. Check out our list of hybrids and convertibles and see if any of them strike your fancy.

New vs. refurbished vs. used

If you’ve got your heart set on a laptop that’s a few hundred dollars outside your price range, it may be worth looking into refurbished and used options. A manufacturer-refurbished laptop represents a good middle ground. For these, manufacturers take floor models, demonstration laptops, and devices that’ve been returned, restore them to factory settings, and pass them on to you for about half the normal cost.

Many people choose to sell back or trade in their fairly new laptop so that they can buy a newer model. Generally speaking, manufacturers will go out of their way to get that laptop in tip-top shape and in “like-new” condition. Manufacturer-refurbished computers still come with a limited warranty, so you know at least you won’t get a total lemon. Dig around Newegg or eBay a bit, and you should find the manufacturer’s own listings of their refurbished models. Dell, Lenovo, Apple, and HP all have their own outlet stores as well. 

Major laptop types

All laptops are not created equal. Most aim to fill a specific niche, so it’s important to understand what kind of laptop fits your needs before you start shopping. Of course, every kind of laptop represents a tradeoff between price, mobility, computing power, and entertainment potential. You can get started by checking out our list of the best overall laptops, or jump right into the particulars.

Ultrabooks

Thin and light, Ultrabooks are easy to carry and perfect for the person who brings their laptop everywhere but doesn’t want to sacrifice power. Ultrabooks use low-power Intel Core processors, solid-state drives, and have a unibody chassis. They’re fairly bare bones in terms of ports, and the majority don’t have optical drives. The lack in ports here can be attributed to the UltraBook’s thin body, which has to be less than 0.8 inches thick in order to be called an Ultrabook. Offering more power thanks to their faster processors, extra RAM, better storage, and larger displays with high-quality 1080p resolution, they definitely differ from the below netbooks in both specs and price. Ultrabooks start at about $600 but can be sold for well over $1,000. Though some may think the Ultrabook is on its way out, they’re not dead yet. 

Netbooks

Like Ultrabooks, netbooks boast extreme portability, a lightweight profile, and long battery life. While some have predicted the death of the netbook in the wake of tablet popularity and Windows 8 fervor, for now, the category continues chugging along. In part, the endurance of the netbook may owe something to its affordability. Even the best netbooks generally start around $400, about half the price of an Ultrabook. Unfortunately, they also come with about half the functionality. That being said, it’s hard to beat a netbook on bang for your buck when it comes to Web browsing, word processing, and other basic uses. Netbooks are great as student laptops, and serve well as backup computers, especially if you want to take a device on a trip without being terrified of it getting stolen.

Value laptops

While we’ve argued before that you shouldn’t buy the cheapest laptop, value laptops will always retain their place among wallet-conscious consumers. Several of the best budget laptops represent a pared-down version of a successful mainstream laptop, offering users decent specs while doing away with unnecessarily flashy extras. The key to buying a value laptop that will last, rather than become frustratingly inadequate after a season, is to look for components that would have been considered top-notch a year or two ago. That way, even as your value laptop ages, it can keep up with what we expect our computers to do.

Retailers like Target are offering huge discounts on Nintendo Wii U games, an unusual move following the release of a brand new gaming console. Are these price cuts say the Wii U's in trouble or is this a sign of a fast-changing business?

A new console launch has always been a boon for retailers almost more than game console makers themselves. Releasing new hardware is an immensely expensive endeavor between ramping up manufacturing, marketing, and shipping the device, not to mention double timing the development of games for that early window. For the businesses selling those new consoles, it’s all good news. Consumers get hyped for a new machine, especially when it’s in short supply, and they’ll buy whatever games are available, at full price or in extravagant bundles. A strange thing is happening with the Nintendo Wii U, though: Retailers are heavily discounting Wii U games.

Target is running a promotion where customers get 50 percent off a third Wii U game when they buy two at full price. Toys R Us goes one better, offering a 40 percent off a second game when you buy one at the full $60 price tag.

According to analysts, though, video game retailers have to adapt to a new market where getting people through the doors is much harder than it used to be. Discounts on Wii U games aren’t a measure of Wii U’s success or failure, just a sign of how retail has changed. “Keep in mind that they don’t have many Wii U hardware units, and that the total shipped to the US is probably well under 1 million for the launch,” Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter told GamesIndustry International, “So their risk is that they sill 100,000 or so titles at no profit. It’s a loss leader to drive traffic. I don’t think it’s a signal about the health of console sales at all.”

Then again, Pachter’s analysis might be off. Within the past year, retailers have been burned by a lack of consumer enthusiasm for a new Nintendo console and had to aggressively discount new games to generate sales, and not just brick and mortar retailers. Amazon, for example, offered $10 off a second Nintendo 3DS game when a customer purchased one the week the handheld launched in 2011. That’s not quite as steep a discount on games as those offered by Target and Toys T Us on Wii U games, but it’s comparable timing.

Pachter is right about this: These discounts are not a measure of the Wii U’s success or consumer interest in the platform. They are simply representative of the fact that people are less and less likely to pay $60 for a physical copy of a video game at a store.

The long-shelved Red Dawn remake finally hits theaters this week, with an exciting focus on action and an uneven story that asks audiences to suspend just a bit too much of their disbelief.

I opted to skip out on a repeat viewing of the 1984 version of Red Dawn before heading in to see this week’s FilmDistrict-distributed remake. The newer movie has so much baggage already following its delayed release and changed villains that I figured if I could walk in and spend 90-odd minutes watching an action movie about a ragtag group of young adults fighting back after the invasion of the United States by a foreign power, that would be enough. Throw in a spirited “Wolverines!” shout or two, and you’re golden. The Red Dawn remake does indeed feature a very similar setup to that of its predecessor and you will see young adults shouting “Wolverines!” at the top of their lungs. Just don’t expect much more than that.

The movie opens with a montage of newsfeed footage that serves to cast North Korea in a dangerous light. We learn all of the reasons why we’re supposed to believe that this is a worrisome overseas enemy, despite the undisputed fact that the U.S. military force is superior in every conceivable way. This brings us to Red Dawn‘s most difficult-to-swallow pill: the far-fetched idea that North Korea and Russia would join forces and unleash an electronics-destroying superweapon that cripples the U.S. military and opens the door for a full-scale invasion. If you’re able to swallow that idea and keep it down, accepting the rest of Red Dawn‘s ridiculousness is a breeze.

That’s not a bad thing either, as there’s a likable action movie here, albeit one that is deeply buried beneath an uneven script and a too-heavy hand in the editing room. Red Dawn is one of those rare 90-minute movies that manages to feel much longer than it really is, ditching a three-act structure in favor of a more dynamic narrative. The execution is very “safe” in some ways, with bloody violence kept to an absolute minimum and a PG-13-friendly script. The actual plotting is more unexpected though, with several key character deaths that actually feel earned and justified in the context of the larger story.

The action is where Red Dawn shines the brightest. Chris Hemsworth (The Avengers, Cabin in the Woods) exudes the same energy and charisma as an action hero that landed him the lead role in Marvel Studios’ Thor, a cast that he joined well after this remake was originally completed. He gets some help as well from Josh Peck (ATM, What Goes Up) and Josh Hutcherson (The Hunger Games, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island), as well as a late-arriving Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Watchmen, The Losers). The rest of the supporting cast certainly shows up and does their job, but there’s little room in an ensemble such as this one for anyone other than the principal names to shine.

That said, the characters are all paper-thin, with motivations and interpersonal conflicts only vaguely explored through stray bits of dialogue. Most of the development time is spent establishing Hemsworth’s and Peck’s starring Eckert siblings, brothers who were driven apart at some point in their past following the death of their mother. This information reveals itself in fits and starts as the first two-thirds of the movie unfolds, and the source of the conflict is never explicitly put into words until fairly late. You have to wonder if an earlier cut of the movie did more relationship-building within the gathered ensemble; as it stands, the end result only paints a vague picture of what these characters mean to one another.

Then there’s the changed villains, which transformed from Chinese invaders in 2010 to North Korean invaders in 2012. I’m just going to come right out and say it: this was an extremely ill-advised decision. There’s certainly an argument to be made that North Korea makes more sense as the villain in a modern context, and it’s great that the main antagonist, played by Will Yun Lee (Total Recall, Die Another Day), actually is of Korean descent (which makes you question what the filmmakers were thinking before the change), but it’s still hard to get past the fact that the “North Korean” invaders have obviously had their original Chinese dialogue dubbed over.

Even if you can swallow the idea that North Korea could maintain control of the United States’ Pacific Northwest (with Russia in command along the eastern seaboard), the premise of this electronics-neutering super-weapon bringing down the U.S. in a surprise attack just doesn’t add up. Such an attack might take out vast swaths of our military might, but this is also a movie that celebrates the idea of a Marine and his gun being the most dangerous weapon in the world. If that truly is the case, why doesn’t America immediately fight back with its superior numbers and take back the captured turf more decisively? The superweapon plot twist is revealed fairly late in the game, and it amounts to yet another difficult leap that audiences are expected to make.

Conclusion

Red Dawn isn’t the disaster that it could easily have turned out to be, but it still demands just a bit too much suspension of disbelief to really sell the premise. The uneven writing and poorly developed characters don’t help, but the far-fetched claim that this is a thing that could happen is what really sinks this remake. The original Red Dawn played on Communism fears during the Cold War era and it absolutely worked within that historical context. This remake arrives against the backdrop of a very different world and it’s a much tougher sell as a result.

Gearbox Software returns for a second round of Borderlands 2 DLC in Mister Torgue's Campaign of Carnage.

Gearbox Software is committed to delivering significant chunks of DLC for Borderlands 2 fans and Captain Scarlett and Her Pirate’s Booty, the first of four promised packs, set the bar high. The follow-up, Mister Torgue’s Campaign of Carnage, represents a little bit of a backwards step. While it’s still something I’d recommend to any fan because, at the end of the day it’s “more Borderlands,” the content in this new campaign expansion is less impactful and misses a lot of golden opportunities to further expand on the core game.

Campaign of Carnage sends Vault Hunters to the new Badass Crater of Badassitude location, where yet another vault has been discovered for treasure hunters to scour. Unfortunately, vaults are a pretty popular thing on Pandora these days and everyone with a gun and a set of balls wants a crack at collecting the treasures locked away inside it. That’s where the titular CEO comes in: Mister Torgue is a muscular, explosion-loving meathead who basically amounts to “Macho Man” Randy Savage (R.I.P.) with a sociopathic streak. He comes up with the idea of pitting prospective Vault Hunters against one another in a series of arena battles; the last person standing becomes the lucky looter.

You might read this and think that Campaign of Carnage offers a new twist on the previous game’s Mad Moxxi DLC. And you’d be wrong. While the narrative is built around pitting you against the folks ahead of you on Mister Torgue’s leaderboard, the framework remains pretty standard for Borderlands 2 in that you’re presented with a series of “Story Missions” that serve to advance the plot. This isn’t a knock against the DLC at all, it’s simply a fact. There are some arena battle missions in Campaign of Carnage, but the structure of the unfolding story is pretty much the standard for this series.

It’s a fun story too. Your task isn’t as simple as facing off against the higher-ranked combatants. All need to be drawn out and impressed into fighting you by your blood-spilling actions. In fact, the mission variety in Campaign of Carnage is back to where it was in vanilla Borderlands 2. At one point, you’ll need to start a barroom brawl. Another calls for racing against time around a paved racetrack; admittedly a bit of a misstep, but a noble attempt at the very least. The fundamentally great run-and-gun shooting is still at the heart of the action, but the circumstances that bring you to each new encounter feel undeniably fresh.

That same praise goes for the characters as well, with a mix of newcomers and returning favorites marked by the same high standard of writing that Borderlands 2 boasted. Fans will most definitely be happy to see Tiny Tina show up again, especially since she’s still the same murderous misfit that she was before. Mister Torgue is also welcome as a constant companion, with his hyperbolic speech patterns and overbearing demeanor casting him as the most hilarious of dudebro send-ups. Other new characters are equally memorable, especially those who fill out the ranks of the leaderboard that the story has you climb through.

Unfortunately, for all of the hits that Campaign of Carnage brings, there are an awful lot of misses as well. So many missed opportunities, in fact, that you have to wonder if Gearbox wasn’t working on a deadline to get this DLC out by a certain date. One example: the new environments are brimming over with motorcycle-riding bandits, but there isn’t any kind of new vehicle — motorcycle or otherwise –to be found. Or how about the fact that the main feature of the Badass Crater of Badassitude is a giant arena, but there’s no Mad Moxxi’s Underdome-like “arena mode” mode to be found, either before or after you complete the story.

The new dangling carrot comes in the form of Torgue Tokens, a type of currency that can be spent at Torgue-only weapon machines found all over the DLC’s maps (as well as a new set of slot machines). You’ll get these from the assorted story missions and sidequests as well as random enemy drops at roughly the same rate that you see Eridium. The tokens are best saved and spent on the gold “Legendary” weapons that are always featured in every Torgue machine’s Item of the Day slot. It takes awhile though, with gold-quality items costing a whopping 600+ tokens.

Campaign of Carnage also adds a single new raid boss for endgame players to tackle, which amounts to one less than the two that were featured in Captain Scarlett. No spoilers, but the new level 50 super-boss adds some interesting wrinkles that were touched on in Master Gee the Invincible but feel more developed here. The final story boss is also pretty farm-worthy, offering a level of challenge that falls close to but isn’t quite on par with the game’s raid bosses. All of this, of course, is part of the eternal pursuit in Borderlands for more loot. The new once-per-day raid boss drops Seraph crystals just like his two DLC predecessors, and you’ll want to hoard those to buy the pink Seraph class weapons

Once again, Borderlands 2‘s latest DLC offering is a highly recommended outing for any fan, even if that recommendation is slightly less emphatic than it was for DLC1. Gearbox seems to be using these content packs as test chambers for trying out new ideas, and the continually evolving endgame in Borderlands 2 continues to be the most compelling aspect of those efforts. Mister Torgue’s Campaign of Carnage may take fewer chances, but it’s still more Borderlands. And for that, fans can be thankful.