The best-selling fighting series of all time makes its way to the Wii U, along with a few new features made specifically for Nintendo’s new system.

With all the games appearing on the Wii U, both original and re-releases, one of the more noticeable absences has in the fighting game genre. When the Vita and the 3DS recently debuted, both systems had plenty of fighting game options, and many more have been released since. Oddly, the Wii U is a different story.

Surprisingly, there are no signs of any of Capcom’s fighting games, no Mortal Kombat, and not even a more obscure fighting game like the recent Persona 4 Arena. No, only one fighting franchise answered the Wii U’s call for content. Thankfully, it just happens to be the biggest fighting franchise of all time.

Tekken Tag Tournament 2 arrived on the Wii U with a few new features and game modes, as well as all the content that was packed into the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions. When we originally reviewed it, our own de facto fighting game expert, Earnest Cavalli, loved it, and named it one of the best games of the year. While I agree that it is a great game, there are a few things that rubbed me the wrong way. I mark some of these down to personal preferences though.

The Wii U version of TTT2 contains all the content you may have seen before, along with two new game modes: Mushroom Battle, and the return of the long absent fan favorite, Tekken Ball. Both modes are minor additions, but they are welcome ones.

Longtime fans of the series will likely remember Tekken Ball from years back, and although it hasn’t been included in a Tekken game since 1997, fans should have no trouble picking it up in stride. For those that aren’t familiar, it pits two players against each other, separated by a line that neither can cross. A beach ball is then dropped, and it becomes active when one player hits it. The other player needs to hit it back or risk it connecting and causing damage. The more the players volley it back and forth, the more powerful it becomes. It’s just as you remember it, right down to the often frustrating hit detection on the ball, and the annoying frequency in which the ball is lobbed behind you, leaving you to slowly and awkwardly shuffle backwards to feebly attempt to get it.

Mushroom Battle is the better new addition, but it is also a very shallow one. As you and another fighter square off, occasionally mushrooms will be released into the arena. Whoever can grab them will grow in size or increase their speed, while the occasional poison object will shrink players. Adding more options would have helped really flesh this mode out, but as it is, it’s a gimmick, but a fun one.

The Wii U version also features Nintendo themed costumes for every character. Some fighters may wear the familiar plumber garb, while others will don a green Link-like cap. It is purely aesthetic, but cool.

The real difference is found in the GamePad itself. The game features Remote Play, allowing you to play the full game on the GamePad itself. If all Wii U games don’t soon feature this, it will be a crime. But when playing on the TV, the GamePad offers four preset combos that you can trigger with the touch of a button. This isn’t anything new for fighter that feature the option of touchscreen controls, but the four choices are rudimentary, and anyone playing against you on a non-GamePad controller will be at a huge disadvantage. It is a nice option for beginners, but it also feels a bit cheap. this also highlights something inherently wrong with games like this on the Wii U. If you and a friend want to play on the TV, one will have the GamePad, while the other will have a nunchuck or the Pro Controller. whichever you prefer, it is an uneven experience, and limits the versus options.

During menus, the GamePad offers bios on each of the characters, which is a nice touch. Strangely though, the game has a bizarre issue that stops you from opening the Wii U’s menus or exiting the game during certain sections.

But where the GamePad is more keenly felt is the gameplay itself. For some perplexing and almost inexcusable reason, you cannot use the left analog stick to move your player, forcing you to use only the D-pad. Taking away that option is pointlessly prohibitive. It also makes it harder to try to pretend that the GamePad is an arcade controller, which makes the placement of your right hand on the buttons awkward. The Pro Controller is the better choice, but if a game’s design is such that the primary controller (not to mention selling point of a new system) is not the best choice, there is something wrong.

Conclusion

In all other regards, Tekken Tag Tournament 2 is an identical port of the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions, just with a few new game modes, and – sadly – a much smaller online community that will hopefully expand.

While I did not enjoy the core game quite as much as Earnest, I can understand his passion for it. It’s packed with enough competitors, game modes, and moves that fight fans should happily embrace the Wii U version. Just be prepared to learn how to move all over again via the GamePad.

Score 9 out of 10

(this game was reviewed on the Wii U thanks to a copy provided by the publisher)

A recently announced app challenges users' vision through a series of color blindness tests.

Mobile developers have created apps for virtually every need imaginable. From the common to the obscure, if you’re looking to solve a problem chances are you’ll find an app to fit your needs. Well, the mobile industry can now add another notch to its belt. EnChroma has just unveiled the first scientifically validated app to test for color blindness among users. The test, which is suitable for both adults and children, is free for Android and iOS platforms and can also be taken online. 

EnChroma’s test is based on a certain type of image known as a pseudo-isochromatic plate. This image consists of a random pattern of dots that vary in color and brightness. These variations exist to hide simple geometric patterns in the image, such as a circle, square or diamond. The only way the user will be able to spot these shapes is to be able to distinguish the colors from one another. The test starts out fairly simple, but the shapes get more difficult to pick out as the challenges progress. The colors are contrasted in the early stages, but as users move forward the shades become more closely matched and the shapes become ambiguous. Coming from someone who scored in the perfect color vision category, it’s somewhat of a struggle toward the end.

Beside the shapes is a sidebar with meters measuring deficiency in the four different categories: Protan/ L-Cone Deficiency (red and green), Deutan.M-Cone Deficiency (a different shade of red and green), Tritan/ S-Con Deficiency (yellow and blue), and Confidence (black and white)

The app provides the user with a diagnosis of their performance immediately upon completion. If a user shows any deficiency, it will specify what type and to what extent when necessary.

Like the images in the test, color blindness can come in different variations. According to EnChroma, about 10 million Americans and 284 million people worldwide have trouble distinguishing red and green colors. Many of these people do not even realize they are colorblind, EnChroma revealed in a written statement.

“In the diagnosis of poor color vision, the standard testing method requires a trip to the doctor’s office,” Don McPherson, PhD, vice president of products at EnChroma said in the statement. “Not only is it scientifically backed, it’s free to take and is easily available at your fingertips.”

According to Enchroma’s VP of technology Andrew Schmeder, more than 1,000 people have tested their vision since the test became available last week.

News reports are streaming in from across the globe of giant, angry monsters attacking our most densely populated metropolitan population centers. Fortunately for us delicious humans, these reports are all advertising an upcoming Guillermo del Toro movie.

At the moment, there exist two separate kinds of people: Those who are aware of Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim and those who are going to be pleasantly surprised by its existence momentarily.

Alright, here’s the situation: Guillermo del Toro, as you likely know, is one of our finest modern directors when it comes to fare most easily described as “science fiction,” “fantasy” or any of the other film genres that people who read a website largely focused on technology and video games would most likely find entertaining. Pacific Rim, in turn, is a modern reimagining of the classic “kaiju” subgenre of science fiction films: We know little of its plot, but what we do know paints Pacific Rim as a giant monster movie similar to live-action films like Godzilla and Gamera, or anime titles like Voltron.

Not excited just yet? Then perhaps you should scroll down a bit and hit “play” on the clip embedded below this text. That clip, presented as is without any specific nods to del Toro or the film’s production, is an example of viral advertising. While it doesn’t explicitly frame itself as an ad spot for Pacific Rim, it does set up all of the film’s key selling points — terrified hordes of fleeing civilians, frantic newsmen and women barely able to describe what they’re witnessing, largely unseen yet undeniably horrifying giant monsters — while also offering just enough vague information to motivate prospective viewers to take to the Internet in a quest to discover more about this intriguing, mysterious movie.

Now that we’ve sussed out this clip for what it truly is, let’s also fill in a few of its more notable informational black holes. First off, a release date: Barring any catastrophic changes of plan, Pacific Rim will make its US theatrical debut on July 12, 2013. Next, a cast: According to IMDB, Pacific Rim will feature a diverse cast including such noted thespians as Idris Elba, Ron Perlman, Charlie Day and Rinko Kikuchi. Lastly, what little we know of the plot: We already covered the existence of the giant monsters, but the real draw for Pacific Rim may lie not in its antagonists so much as in the way humanity fights back against its nascent abominable foes. These being giant monsters, standard weaponry has little effect on them, so instead humanity takes a page straight of the Japanese giant monster fighting handbook by sending giant, human-pilotted robots to battle Earth’s latest menace. A quick Google Image Search reveals some minor images of these robots, and as you can see they feature aesthetics that are equal parts modern, Michael Bay-esque CGI, and classic Japanese monster movie-style fighting ‘bot.

Now that you’ve been brought up to speed, how are you feeling? Excited? Underwhelmed? A bit worried to see viral advertising already rear its ugly head in the lead up to a film whose premise should automatically sell the project to anyone who has any concept of what the word “cool” actually means? Regardless of how you feel, the important thing is that you’re now aware of Pacific Rim. With that, our job is done and we can collectively go back to awaiting what might very well be the resurrection of the painfully-dormant kaiju subgenre.

Reports have surfaced about Microsoft's next operating system, Windows Blue, and it will reportedly bring with it a number of changes.

It’s only been a month since Windows 8 was released, but do you already find yourself wondering what comes next? If reports by ZDNet and The Verge are to be believed, Microsoft’s next operating system will be called Windows Blue. According to The Verge’s source, Microsoft’s bent on making Windows Blue “the next OS that everyone installs.” Perhaps the company will offer the update for a price much lower than usual … or even for free. 

Just like any other software upgrade, we can expect user interface changes to come with Windows Blue. The extent of the redesign is unknown at this point, as is whether or not it will retain Windows 8′s aesthetics. Another major change that you might come to like if you also own a Windows phone is that when Windows Blue comes out, developers will be required to make apps that work on both computers and mobile devices. All the Windows 8 apps available right now will still work with Windows Blue, but once the new OS hits the market, Microsoft’s Windows Store will stop accepting Windows 8-only apps. 

But perhaps the biggest change you may encounter with the new OS is Microsoft’s plan to release an upgrade every 12 months. This is a big deal since the company’s known for pushing out a new version of Windows once every few years. This more frequent update schedule is reminiscent of Apple’s OS X, and even of mobile operating systems like iOS and Android, ensuring you always have the latest of what Microsoft can offer – assuming you choose to update your system every year. Unlike past Windows versions that cost quite a lot (a Windows 8 upgrade license costs $40, while a full version costs $70), these yearly updates will reportedly cost you a lot less, perhaps somewhere around $20 – just like OS X. Microsoft plans to release its new operating system sometime in mid-2013. 

When Far Cry 3 debuts on the PC on December 4, players will find themselves prompted to download an important patch. We've got full details on the patch, though we're still wondering just what makes this update so important.

In the course of developing a PC game, there are times at which it behooves a company to simply say that the game is good enough as is and should be released to retail, despite a handful of extant, niggling issues. Obviously no one likes the idea of releasing an unfinished game on an unsuspecting public, but given the scope of modern games and the relatively limited schedules developers face in creating new titles, it just makes sense that, from time to time, a developer may rush a game out the door lest the project fall hopelessly behind schedule and end up costing the company more money than it has yet had a chance to bring in.

While the above was completely hypothetical, we may be witnessing a similar situation unfold with the soon-to-be-released PC version of Far Cry 3. This morning Ubisoft issued an announcement in which the publisher explains the ins and outs of an imminent patch for the game, scheduled for release prior to the game’s retail debut. This too is a semi-common occurrence in the gaming industry, where a company realizes that it has a chance to squash a few final bugs before the general public gets a hold of the game, though this particular patch is intriguing due to how important Ubisoft has made it sound.

The otherwise innocuous 1.01 patch has been dubbed “critical” by Ubisoft which claims that downloading and installing the patch is necessary for anyone who would like to “benefit from an optimal game experience.” So what, pray tell, does this patch contain that makes it such a must-have download? Take a look:

Multiplayer

• Improved overall Multiplayer stability and performance.
• Added SHOW TOP, SHOW YOU, PAGE UP and PAGE DOWN options in Leaderboards.
• Fix the voice chat issue that would mute players by default.
• Lobby chat can now be accessed when a controller is connected.

Co-op

• Fixed graphical issues on loading screen hints.
• Fixed the issue that would prevent maps from being displayed or randomized the first time a user enters Public Co-op.
• Health regeneration option no longer has inverted functionality.
• “Flare gun” kills are no longer considered as Assist kills.

PVP

• Fixed ground texture resolution.
• Grass surrounding fire spawns no longer remain red on Firestorm maps.

Map Editor

• Improved white objects thumbnails legibility.
• Users can now start a private match in 1 player on user created maps.

Single Player

• Improved game stability and performance.
• Fixed issues with flickering on specific water textures.
• Fixed small UI glitches related to different display resolutions.
• “Weapon cache” mission: Mission Zone and Mission Marker no longer stays on mini-map and on screen after mission completion.
• Crafting items are now auto selected when entering a new crafting category.
• Added sound when zooming in and out the camera with the mouse scroll button.

Google's cloud-dependent Chromebooks haven't taken off yet. Is a touchscreen and a more Surface-like experience in order?

Google unveiled its cloud-dependent Chromebook notebooks almost two years ago … and things haven’t been going very well since. The company routinely trumpets numbers about Android device activations, but it has been remarkably silent about Chromebooks (sales figures reported a year ago were shockingly low). Sony was apparently working on a Chromebook, but we’ve yet to see it, leaving Acer and Samsung as the only manufacturers who’ve bothered to make the devices. Both companies launched new Chromebooks for the 2012 end-of-year season. While the Samsung Chromebook is seeing some success, few expect the new models to rocket Chromebooks to new heights of popularity. After all, mainstream consumers are focused on tablets.

However, a report from Taiwan’s China Times says that Google may be planning to launch its own line of Chromebooks. What’s more, these Chromebooks will apparently feature a touchscreen. Since Google placed the order itself, the devices might signal a direct move from Google into the Chromebook business. 

We can’t help but notice a few things, though. An inexpensive, highly portable, touch-capable, cloud-based device with a real keyboard sounds a lot like Microsoft’s new Surface tablet with Windows RT. Have Chromebooks been ahead of the game all along, or is the fundamental problem with Chromebooks that users are just not willing to be so dependent on cloud services?

Get in touch

The idea of touch-enabled Chrome OS devices isn’t exactly new. Google was talking about Chrome-based tablets almost a year before it seeded developers with the first Chromebooks, and Google engineers have regularly acknowledged that touchscreens could be coming to Chromebooks in the future. Google’s open-source Chromium OS project (the basis of Chrome OS) has also been looking at interface variations for touchscreens, and Chromium has been laying foundations for touch-based functionality for some time. 

Google already makes its own tablets in the form of the Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 (and their likely follow-ups), so it seems unlikely that the company will push forward immediately with a Chrome OS-powered tablet. That would just muddy the waters and confuse Google’s platform message, which basically boils down to Android for smartphones and tablets, and Chrome OS for more-traditional notebooks (and even small form-factor desktops like the Chromebox).

Future touch-enabled Chrome OS devices are likely to take a form similar to touch-enabled Windows 8 notebooks or Microsoft’s Surface devices. At a minimum, that means a touchscreen with a touch-enabled user interface, and it may also mean a traditional clamshell notebook form factor or some sort of convertible design enabling more tablet-like operation. Either way, if Google makes a Chromebook, it seems pretty likely the device will have a traditional keyboard (even if it’s basically a detachable peripheral or cover for a tablet).

The potential similarities with Microsoft’s Surface don’t stop there. Chromebooks have been criticized for essentially being just a platform for Google’s Chrome browser. Almost everything a user does – e-mail, word processing, spreadsheets, even image editing – happens via cloud-based Web applications. Most of the time, Chromebook users are just running the Chrome browser (albeit usually with lots of tabs). Recent versions of Chrome OS have beefed up local storage and added a desktop-esque launcher and Chromeless windows so that Web apps feel a bit more like native apps. This approach is very similar to the one-full-screen-app-at-a-time model employed by Windows RT, Android, and iOS. Users can switch between tasks (really browser windows), and the Chrome Web Store offers a way to pick up utilities and bookmarks for Chrome-savvy Web apps. The overall feel of the Chromebook isn’t much different from Microsoft’s Modern UI as exemplified in Windows RT.

ARMed and dangerous

With the addition of a touch screen, and perhaps a convertible tablet design, Chromebooks might find they’re not competing with tablets or Intel’s Ultrabooks in the same way they’re competing with Microsoft’s Surface with Windows RT. With Surface, Microsoft is trying to wed the tablet world with the traditional PC. Touch-enabled Chromebooks would likely be trying the same thing: offering a touch interface, but also letting folks have a traditional keyboard and pointer when they need it.

With the Samsung Chromebook, Google also brought the Chrome OS to ARM-based devices. Rather than relying on an Intel processor, Samsung’s latest Chromebook sports a Samsung Exynos 5 Dual processor, based on ARM’s Cortex A15 design. Although Chrome OS doesn’t run Windows applications, the ability to run on both Intel and ARM architectures lets potential Chromebooks tap both the battery-sipping technology of the tablet, as well as the more powerful x86 world – most likely as represented by Intel’s forthcoming “Clover Trail” update to its Atom processor line.

Hardware isn’t the only place Google might choose to compete with Surface. In Google Play, Google has a content ecosystem that’s easily competitive with what Microsoft can offer via its Xbox services (and Microsoft’s deal with Barnes & Noble is shoring up Microsoft’s e-book offerings). While Microsoft’s Surface ships with a native version of Office, one of the major points of Google’s cloud-based apps approach is to compete with Microsoft Office via Google Apps. Right now, every Chromebook comes with 100GB of cloud-based storage free for two years.

Google can also compete on price. Microsoft alienated many of its hardware partners, particularly Acer, when it decided to start making its own Windows hardware. After all, Microsoft pays nothing for Windows software licenses but it collects a fee from OEMs for every Windows RT license they need, which means Microsoft competes against other would-be Windows RT device makers at a distinct cost advantage.

Microsoft’s Surface with Windows RT starts at $499; Surface Pro with the full Windows 8 will cost even more. However, Samsung’s Chromebook – the most expensive Chromebook on the market – currently starts at $249, which is essentially half the price of the least expensive Surface; and other Chromebooks, like Acer’s C7, are even cheaper. In terms of hardware specs, Samsung’s Chromebook compares very favorably with the Surface. 

If Google were to enter the Chromebook market, it could easily follow the pattern it has set with the Nexus 4 smartphone and its Nexus tablets and sell them at cost or near cost. With tablets and smartphones, Google is banking in app and media sales to generate profit in the long term. Being browser-driven and cloud-dependent, Chromebooks will never have the same app market as smartphones. Google is unlikely to see the same app and content revenues from Chromebooks that it does from smartphones and tablets.

However, Google still has potential long-term revenue streams from Chromebooks from Google Drive, Google Apps, and other cloud-based services. With current Chromebooks, that 100GB on Google Drive is only free for two years; after that, people need to pay for it, meaning, with the prospect of revenue down the road,  Google might be able to justify selling Chromebooks at or near cost  as users adopt Google Apps and Google Drive.

This chain of reasoning is a long series of “ifs,” but it could mean that Google-branded Chromebooks would not only undercut the small existing Chromebooks market (just as Google’s tablet offerings undercut Android tablets), but also that the price gap between Chromebooks and Surface could become even more glaring.

Challenges

Simply adding touchscreens to Chromebooks isn’t a guaranteed path to commercial success. Chromebooks would still face many challenges in the marketplace.

Right now, Chromebooks suffer on some performance fronts. Samsung’s latest battery-sipping ARM-based Chromebook boasts 6.5 hours of battery life – a number that would’ve been jaw-dropping a few years ago but now lags well behind mainstream tablets and even some mainstream notebooks. Intel-based Chromebooks are even less impressive, though perhaps Intel’s forthcoming Clover Trail CPU’s will change that.

Another downside for Chromebooks is that they lack native apps. Although almost everyone agrees that HTML5 and related technology are the future of both the Web and mobile computing (with mobile Flash being the highest-profile casualty), the success of the Apple App Store – as well as competitive efforts like Google Play, Amazon’s App Store, and even the nascent Windows Store – indicate native apps still rule the day. Given a choice, most people would rather play Angry Birds or watch a movie using a native application rather than a Web-based app. HTML5 may be the future, but native apps still offer features, capabilities, and (most importantly) performance that can’t be matched by Web technologies.

And there’s another big if: Microsoft has yet to prove that either consumers or businesses are willing to embrace touch-enabled notebooks, let alone devices like the Microsoft Surface that are essentially hybrids of tablets and notebooks. Microsoft hasn’t released any numbers for Surface sales yet, and we don’t expect to see them until after the holiday season – although Piper Jaffray had the iPad solidly outselling the Surface on Black Friday.

Bottom line

If Google decides to bring touch capabilities to its Chromebook line, it could add some much-needed energy to the brand and make Google’s bet on the Chrome desktop operating system seem like it was ahead of its time. However, right now, Web-based, cloud-dependent apps do not offer the features or performance of native apps running on tablets, devices like the Microsoft Surface, or on traditional notebooks. Until cloud computing and Web-based apps are truly ready for the mainstream, Chromebooks may find they remain little more than a curiosity.

Do video game series need a new entry every year to thrive? Ubisoft, Activision and others push out new games for series like Call of Duty each year to keep the business running. 2K Games thinks its series like Grand Theft Auto thrive on a slow schedule.

Ubisoft, Activision, and many others: Go ahead and ask those publishers where the big money is. Franchising! Establish your intellectual property and keep it out there. Call of Duty hasn’t missed a year since 2005, a non-stop stream of guns and bullets with ever-increasing sales and scale. Assassin’s Creed has donned its cowl on a perennial basis since 2007 (though 2008 was a bit of a cheat with the Nintendo DS release Assassin’s Creed: Altair’s Chronicles.) The thinking is that if you’re going to spend the massive sums necessary to make HD games, you’ve got to keep product out there earning.

At least one publisher refuses this strategy. Don’t expect 2K Games to push its development partners to get Borderlands 3, BioShock 4, or Grand Theft Auto VI on shelves within a year of their predecessors.

“It’s our view that if you want intellectual properties to be permanent, then you run the risk in circumstance of having consumers fall out of love with that franchise,” explains 2K parent company Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick. He points to Call of Duty: Black Ops II’s flat sales compared to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 as an example. “[Activision] obviously views the world differently. Ours do better each time. Our view is it’s hard to make permanent intellectual properties if you annualize it, with the exception of sports titles. So far that’s proven to be the case. IP that is annualized eventually seems to hit the wall and we don’t want our IP to hit the wall.”

This isn’t to say that Take-Two isn’t reliant on brands. The company relies heavily on titles made by Rockstar Games to turn a profit, and its suffered losses in recent years when those Rockstar games haven’t connected with consumers. Grand Theft Auto IV and Red Dead Redemption helped the company turn in record earnings in 2008 and 2010, but this year the lower than expected sales of Max Payne 3 (in addition to the delay of titles like BioShock Infinite) hit the company hard.

Taking the time and capital necessary to produce a great game like Borderlands 2 is paying off for the company, though. It let Gearbox Software take its time with development and in the meantime maximized the possible audience for the original Borderlands in between.

Activision should look to its own history of saturating the market with franchises. Over-releasing titles in the Tony Hawk and Guitar Hero series killed those properties and the publisher is running the risk of doing the same for Call of Duty. 

5th Cell goes bigger and better for the debut console appearance of its wordplay-focused puzzle series in Scribblenauts Unlimited.

As it turns out, the best fix for virtually any situation is a Death Ray. That’s the main lesson I took from my time with 5th Cell’s Scribblenauts Unlimited, a Wii U launch title (also available for Nintendo 3DS and Windows platforms) that does double-duty as the series’ debut console appearance. The game’s colorful, cartoonish world may seem friendly and inviting, but it’s actually a cold, uncaring place where joy seems to always walk hand-in-hand with misery. At the center of the devastation is Maxwell, a childlike demigod equipped with a Magical Notebook that conjures anything written on its pages into reality. You can use your powers for good, of course, but it’s often simpler and easier to just order up a Death Ray and be done with it.

Scribblenauts Goes Global

There’s no morality mechanic to judge you in Scribblenauts Unlimited, but there is — in a series-first — a proper narrative. It turns out that Maxwell is one of 42 children, and his notebook was a present from his parents. Unfortunately, lavishing a child with such power gives way to bad habits, and Maxwell comes to be a bit spoiled. When he uses his powers one day to conjure up a rotten apple for a hungry beggar, his “help” is repaid in kind with a curse placed upon Maxwell’s sister, Lily. And so our snotnose punk sets off, notebook in hand, into the world of Scribblenauts Unlimited in search of Starites. These will ultimately be needed to save Lily, but they also serve the dual-purpose of unlocking additional portions of the world as Starite count milestones are reached.

Yes, there’s a whole world to explore in Scribblenauts Unlimited. Unlike the previous games in which players simply take on a series of challenges chosen off of menus, here you’ll visit an assortment of more open locations selected off of an overworld map. A handful of discrete, typically multi-stage challenges — much like the puzzles of previous games — awaits in each location. Completion nets a fully formed Starite. You’ll also be able to give Maxwell’s unique brand of aid to folks who are scattered around the open locations in exchange for Starite shards; collect 10 and you add another whole Starite to your collection.

Kind-hearted souls will no doubt come up with more friendly ways to solve the puzzles of Scribblenauts Unlimited, but the concept of helping out your fellow humans can be very loosely interpreted through 5th Cell’s twisted lens. An early puzzle features a man being driven insane by the loud snoring of his bunkmate. Begging me to find a solution to his problems, I tapped him with my stylus to open a pop-up menu, chose the “Add Adjective” option there, and with a single word, struck him deaf. You’d think he’d be alarmed by such a development, but no. The now-satisfied deaf man simply leaned back in his chair with a contented cartoon grin on his face.

There’s not a whole lot more to Scribblenauts Unlimited than that; the fun is what you make of it, quite literally. Younger audiences with a bright outlook on the world and a fresh crop of life lessons in their heads will undoubtedly make Maxwell’s world a happy and friendly place. The absurdly sadistic or patently weird solutions dreamt up by older, more battle-hardened gamers simply add another layer to what’s possible. Nothing different from the core of what Scribblenauts has always been, really. The structural changes to the game as a whole are for the better, but 5th Cell thankfully manages to keep the spirit of its charming puzzle series alive and well amidst the change.

The only major new addition comes in the form of the new Object Editor, which allows you to go in and alter the look and even the behavior of anything you dream up. There isn’t any kind of tutorial to get you started, though the robust touch-based toolset is pretty self-explanatory. Scribblenauts games often feel frustratingly limited in terms of what you can create, and the Object Editor seems aimed at correcting this. You could, for example, create a green-tinted “magic brownie” that adds adjectives like “hungry,” “silly,” and “lazy” to whomever eats it. Or you could create a giant, electricity-spewing dog that sets off a nuclear explosion when it’s exposed to fire. No matter what your creation is, it can be shared online via the game’s Punctuation Plaza location (so long as it complies with the basic rules of conduct barring copyrighted and objectionable material).

Who Needs A TV?

It’ll be interesting to see if Scribblenauts Unlimited comes to represent a wider trend of releasing Wii U games that are best played entirely on the Wii U GamePad’s small screen. The only real second-screen support is just what you’d expect: all of the same sort of touch-based controls that were a feature in previous, portable games in the series. You use the touchscreen to tap the things you want to interact with, type out words in the notebook, even move Maxwell around if you so choose. You’ll rely on the GamePad’s triggers and right analog stick for zooming in/out and panning around each environment, but Scribblenauts Unlimited is still largely a touch-based game.

All of which means that what you’re seeing on your TV screen as you play is a carbon-copy of what’s on the GamePad screen. It’s a futile exercise to swap your attention back and forth between the two displays. Not only is there no point to it, it also actually serves to slow down your play. The only value of having a second screen handy is in Scribblenauts Unlimited‘s multiplayer option, which allows a second player to drop in and take control of Maxwell’s creations. It’s neat, but not exactly game-changing.

Conclusion

Scribblenauts Unlimited ought to appeal to anyone who enjoys the other Scribblenauts game. Fundamentally, the experience remains the same here. There’s a wide world of varied locations to explore, which feels appropriately “bigger” for this debut console release. The puzzles are largely unchanged, and that’s for the best, though 5th Cell continues to struggle with delivering a Scribblenauts that feels truly challenging. Fun is largely what you make of it in Scribblenauts Unlimited; whether that means giving a hungry man an apple, solving the world’s polluted waters woes with a Death Ray, or striking an old man blind so that you can safely retrieve a lost baseball from his lawn is entirely up to you.

Score: 8 out of 10 

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

The Niantic Project, a bizarre shadowy world of portals to other dimensions, secret documents, and the battle between the Enlightened and the Resistance. The plot for a new movie? No, it's a lovingly crafted viral marketing campaign for a mobile game, and it could end up becoming bigger than the game itself.

According to the Niantic Project’s Facebook page, something is very wrong. The world is changing, and we haven’t even noticed. What we know about this confusing and sometimes frightening project comes from partially redacted secret documents, often containing references to two distinct factions – the Enlightened and a Resistance, and of individuals known as Sensitives; along with the discovery of unusual prototype devices that use technology we don’t quite understand. Dig more and you’ll hear bizarre conversations about XM satellite signals, portals, and even abductions.

What’s this all about? Is it a leaked government project, the ramblings of a paranoid maniac, or the plot of a future episode of Fringe? Nope, it’s all part of a rich universe created by Niantic Labs, a Google-funded company building a location-based, augmented reality, multiplayer game named Ingress. Augmented reality, now there’s a buzzword that has been around so long it can get an eye roll, but there are no rubbish aliens overlaid on your camera screen here.

The Niantic Project has been slowly revealed over the past months through a website, a Google+ account, and a variety of YouTube videos. Exactly what it’s all about is still something of a mystery to those on the outside, but we know portals are discovered around your city and can be claimed for your team or attacked if they’re already owned by the enemy. But the game is almost inconsequential next to the storyline the team has built around it, one which owes more of a debt to sci-fi film and TV than it does to games, and goes way beyond standard mobile game marketing campaigns. So much so, that if it continues to grow and evolve, it could become bigger than the actual game it advertises.

Niantic Project’s story

The story begins at Comic-Con earlier this year, when an artist named Tycho, who was handing out posters with images he said came to him in a vision, was ejected from a panel by security after talking about portals to other dimensions with the creators of Buck Rogers.

Then we have Ben Jackland, a regular guy who posted several videos on YouTube, cataloging problems he had with a used phone he purchased through an auction. The phone wasn’t registered with the manufacturer, had been stolen by the seller, and wouldn’t work properly either, going haywire next to certain buildings and monuments. Upon breaking the phone down, Ben discovered a Niantic Project chip, and was last seen after his apartment was broken into – the phone and chip were taken.

Almost all of the leaked information on the Niantic Project come from two mysterious people: Roland Jarvis and P.A. Chapeau. There are numerous internal documents and audio clips which talk about the project, plus survey data too, often discussing objects from other worlds being brought into our own and a mind-virus spread by Shaper portals, which could have been tested on Sensitives by Niantic operatives.

As one goes deeper into the mythology, you learn about Resonators, XMP Bursters and your own part in the conspiracy. But most importantly, how to hack portals in the real world.

Movie-style viral marketing

A creative backstory for your MMORPG is one thing, but Niantic Project’s storyline goes well beyond what’s expected for an apparently straightforward, albeit unusual mobile game. It’s an evolution of traditional Web-based viral marketing – create something cool, and let the public spread the message for you. But Niantic has gone far beyond a flashmob video or adapting a popular meme to gain attention, instead taking inspiration from some of the very best viral TV and movie campaigns of recent memory.

Lost is an obvious influence, and there’s a definite similarity between the stories, but the way the information has been presented, encouraging us to go and find more, better resembles The Blair Witch Project, Cloverfield, Super 8, District 9, and The Dark Knight. All of these films created a world that was similar to our own, then the teams perfectly infused their mythology into it.

It’s also reminiscent of Lonelygirl15, the YouTube series featuring a teenager named Bree, whose stereotypical videos gradually introduced a storyline filled with the occult and secret sects. It eventually spawned its own games too, but this wasn’t the original intention.

The invitation

Wonderful creativity aside, Niantic has also adopted one of Google’s most beloved viral campaign tools in its quest for international recognition: the invitation. Restricting access may seem like an odd thing to do, and sometimes it’s done for legitimate reasons, but often it’s there solely to build buzz. Invitations to Gmail were once like Internet gold, as were Google+ invites to many people, and by only letting a few people try out Ingress, Niantic are hoping their invitations achieve the same degree of desirability.

Overall, it’s a quite astonishing degree of effort and detail to put into a mobile game. One has to wonder if we have been shown the complete picture yet, or whether Niantic has more to come.

Is it working?

Well, we’re talking about it and you’re presumably reading about it, so it’s not doing too badly. A Google search of Niantic Project returns nearly 550,000 results, and there are thousands of tweets referencing both Ingress and Niantic Project on Twitter. A Wiki has been set up to help guide newcomers through the story, and Niantic’s Google+ page has been shared upwards of 16,000 times at the time of writing, and its official Facebook page has more than 7,200 Likes. Both good numbers, seeing as content only began at the beginning of November.

However, a check of Alexa’s ranking data shows Niantic Project’s homepage traffic has been falling after the launch spike, and it’s the same story when it comes to Google Play’s Ingress installations, with the graph showing a sharp drop off after the first set of beta users downloaded the app. This could be Niantic’s signal to send out some more invitations. The level of interaction at the beginning of the campaigns is also fascinating, as it was before Niantic was revealed to be a game, and people were genuinely intrigued by the story. Sadly, much of the recent conversation revolves around begging for invitations.

Ingress the game “transforms the real world into the landscape for a global game of mystery, intrigue, and competition,” but the backstory is fascinating enough that even if you don’t care about the game, it’s still enjoyable to discover. We’re really hoping Niantic continues to build the mythology, which could go on to transcend simple viral marketing and inspire people to add their own story strands (fan fiction, if you like), as Ingress becomes more widely known. If this does happen, Ingress‘s advertising campaign could become more successful than the product it was supposed to be promoting, which means Niantic is right about one thing, the world really is changing.

Ingress is currently available as a closed-beta app on Google Play, and there is an iOS app in development.

Will Apple and Samsung really part ways completely? Is the patent war inevitably going to lead to a nasty break up? We take a look at Samsung and Apple's relationship.

Apple and Samsung are riding high at the top of the smartphone market. Approaching a 50 percent share of all smartphones sold, the companies look untouchable right now. That mutual success is built upon a foundation of co-operation. Samsung has long supplied parts for Apple devices and you might argue that Apple has provided “inspiration” for Samsung devices. These giants of tech have a lot of fingers in other pies, from laptops to TVs and beyond, but the mobile space is where they have clashed.

Bringing considerable financial muscle to bear in the courtroom has led to the biggest legal battle in tech. This is a heavyweight clash the likes of which we’ve never seen, yet while armies of lawyers go to war in courtrooms around the globe, business continues to flow and phones continue to sell. But lately, the rumblings of a complete split have been growing louder. We’ve heard rumors that Samsung will raise prices or cut off the supply of parts to Apple. We’ve heard that Apple is courting new suppliers and preparing for change. Is a break up inevitable?

If you want to view Apple and Samsung’s partnership as a marriage then you could argue this legal clash is the messy divorce and the kids they’re fighting for custody over are the profits that were the fruit of their once cozy union. So what happens if they do go their separate ways?

Where did it all go wrong?

If we rewind a couple of years, all was rosy between the two companies. Samsung parts accounted for an estimated 26 percent of the iPhone 4. In 2010 Apple spent billions on components from Samsung and accounted for 4 percent of Samsung’s total revenue. Then Samsung released the Galaxy S smartphone which was hailed as a real competitor for the iPhone. With the Galaxy S, the stage was set. After Samsung finally began to climb the smartphone charts in 2010 and 2011 by creating increasingly iPhone-like devices, Apple decided to litigate.

Is Samsung the victim?

In most divorces there is a perception that one party is initiating proceedings. The person being divorced is often cast as a kind of victim and they get the sympathetic vote from bystanders. Whether it was a natural response or a premeditated strategy, there’s no doubt Samsung has donned the victim mantle here and it has proven to be a great move.

Samsung has always maintained that there is a firewall between its mobile and component divisions. The company did seek a settlement with Apple over the patent infringement claims when the issue first came up. Apple filed a lawsuit in April 2011 and won its biggest courtroom victory to date in California in August this year, which left Samsung with a $1.05 billion damages bill. In the aftermath Samsung released an internal memo stating, “We initially proposed to negotiate with Apple instead of going to court, as they had been one of our most important customers. However, Apple pressed on with a lawsuit, and we have had little choice but to counter-sue, so that we can protect our company.”

The line is that Samsung didn’t really want to break up in the first place. Apple has aggressively pursued court action and refused to try and talk things out. This has definitely caught the public’s imagination. Everyone loves the underdog and when you’re as wealthy and successful as Apple, it’s tough not to appear as a bully, even if your target is a hugely successful multinational electronics giant.

Slow and steady

The idea that these companies are at each other’s throats and execs are out for revenge is probably fantasy. The emotional side of this drama is played out in the comment sections of tech websites like this one, as people identify with one tribe or the other and argue on their behalf. Apple and Samsung are both far too focused on profits to be swayed by any other motivations and it’s naïve to think otherwise. Even Jobs’ famous “thermonuclear” outburst about destroying Android would only be pursued in so far as it served Apple’s interests in the marketplace.

It makes sense for the top two companies in the mobile space, the closest rivals, to spread their dependencies and push apart, but it is a slow process. If this was an emotional split then Samsung would cut off the supply to Apple overnight and cripple its business. Apple would cancel lucrative orders with Samsung immediately and gamble with suppliers elsewhere. The trouble is that both companies would lose money if they did that. Agreements are in place and Samsung can’t renege on them. Apple can’t afford to have supply issues, especially in the run up to the holiday season.

So they continue to occupy the same house, like a divorced couple waiting for the market to pick up before they sell. They are only together until they come up with better options. It’s one of many relationships of convenience in the world.

What happens when they split?

A complete parting of the ways could be good for both companies. Apple can invest some of its huge cash reserves into creating a robust supply chain with suppliers who aren’t competitors. Samsung can focus on its own growing phone business and channel some energy into the next big thing as the smartphone market approaches saturation. Provided the split happens gradually and neither side tries to unexpectedly pull the rug, then they can both emerge relatively unscathed.

The big caveat on that is the outcome of the legal drama. The patent war has tipped in Apple’s favor in U.S. courtrooms, but it’s less clear cut in the rest of the world, with some judgments going Samsung’s way. Barring a series of one-sided results, it doesn’t look like this will do either company any real long term harm, or good.

You could even argue that this slow, high-profile split has been good for both Samsung and Apple. The public loves a good feud. The entertainment industry even manufactures them because they’re good for business. A battle galvanizes support and generates tons and tons of publicity. Since this conflict started, Samsung has claimed the top spot in the smartphone charts and Apple has continued to increase profits. This split, no matter how acrimonious, hasn’t adversely impacted the only measure either company cares about – business is booming. The longer they can stretch this out, the better. 

We hope you enjoy how Planetside 2 looks, sounds and plays, because Sony Online Entertainment has no intention of allowing you (or anyone else) to change it.

As long as there have been massively multiplayer online games, people have been wanting to hack them apart, rejigger their components and rebuild the whole thing as they see fit. In singleplayer games this isn’t much of a problem for the people who initially designed the game — and can actually extend a game’s lifespan significantly (see: Half-Life) — but in an MMO, where everyone you meet is a virtual representation of an actual paying human customer, it makes sense to rein in player creativity in the interest of ensuring that everyone has a fun, fair gaming experience.

This seems to be the line of thinking employed by Sony Online Entertainment in regards to its recently released massively multiplayer online first-person shooter Planetside 2. In a newly published forum post, psuedonymous SOE representative “Twist” outlines the firm’s stance on players modifying the game. In sum, the company will not stand for it. 

It is vital that you not run software which modifies the Planetside 2 client in any way. If you do this, you are indistinguishable from various hacks that work in the same manner. The result of this is that you will be banned from gameplay and lose your characters/items.

We cannot make exceptions to this. We do understand there are relatively harmless apps that fall in this category, but if we allowed those they would simply be used as a shield excuse by players trying to cheat. This same rule applies to data that Planetside 2 uses for gameplay. Do not modify any of these files or attempt to modify them in memory.

There are some applications that modify the windows or directx environment without changing the client. These may also result in suspensions unless we specifically exempt them and declare them ok to use. 

The most simple guidance here is do not use third party programs which change the Planetside 2 gameplay in any way unless it has been specifically cleared by SOE.

A second post was added a short while later to further clarify that widely-used voice communication and game management software (read: Steam, Teamspeak, Fraps, etc.) are not included in this ban, and players are free to use such tools as they please.

Getting back to the main point though: Sony’s outright ban of Planetside 2 modifications is unexpected in this era, but not out of character for the company. Long-time MMO players will remember the months-long debate that raged throughout the playerbase of the original Everquest regarding modifications. At the time the standard practices of the MMO industry hadn’t been as fully established as they are currently, and Sony Online Entertainment (being the publisher of the biggest MMO of the era) faced largely uncharted waters in deciding what to do with modifications to its game. Given that even relatively innocuous modifications to the game’s user interface could give certain players in-game advantages over others, SOE eventually ruled to outlaw modifications altogether, a stance it seems to have maintained to this very day.

It should be noted though, that SOE is largely alone in its thinking. Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft, for instance, has long featured a wealth of UI alterations created by other users (though Blizzard has been adamant that none of these actually offer in-game benefits), some of which have even been gradually adopted by the game’s official user interface. We won’t debate whether SOE or Blizzard is more correct with how they treat their players within their respective games, but we will point out that one of the key arguments behind Blizzard initially allowing modifications in World of Warcraft was that beyond a certain size, it becomes nearly impossible to track and police player-made modifications within an MMO community. SOE may have been able to maintain a tight grasp on the original Everquest, but that game never came close to a million players (it topped out at about 450,000 players in 2003); If Planetside 2 hopes to be taken seriously as a big-name MMO in 2012, it’s going to have to attract at least that many dedicated players — and likely twice that number. Making sure every one of those individuals is using a sanctioned user interface would undoubtedly be a daunting task, and we wonder if it might not just be easier to give the playerbase the freedom to create new UIs. It certainly didn’t cripple Blizzard’s game.

Yet another rumor suggests that Matthew Vaughn quit directing X-Men: Days of Future Past for a very good reason: The Kick-Ass and Stardust director will helm Star Wars Episode VII.

One month ago, there was no new Star Wars movie in the works. Today, there’s a whole new trilogy in the cards, produced by a Disney-owned Lucasfilm. If that isn’t surprising enough, series creator George Lucas is abandoning his role as director and writer, ceding those creative duties for the first time since 1983’s Return of the Jedi. With a 2015 release date for the untitled Star Wars Episode VII, both Lucasfilm and Disney are naturally working fast to assemble creative forces. While there have been innumerable rumors about who will direct that next installment, there now appears to be a front runner: Matthew Vaughn.

Collider.com claimed shortly after the announcement of Lucasfilm’s acquisition that Matthew Vaughn would be directing the next Star Wars. actor Jason Flemying, a long-time collaborator of Vaughn on movies like Layer Cake, Kick-Ass, and others, corroborated the rumor on Tuesday.

Britain’s DIY Television attended a UK premiere event for Martin McDonagh’s movie Seven Psychopaths, tweeting, “We chatted to the lovely Jason Flemyng who pretty much let slip that Matthew Vaughn will on Star Wars IV duties oops!”

DIY clarified that Vaughn would not be traveling back to 1976 any time soon.  “We mentioned earlier about Matthew Vaughn’s involvement in Star Wars IV when we of course meant Star Wars VII. We’ll blame the cold.”

There’s circumstantial evidence that suggests Vaughn will be taking on a new, unannounced project. The director abruptly announced earlier this year that he would not be directing X-Men: Days of Future Past, handing that movie over to Bryan Singer. Vaughn directed 2011’s X-Men: First Class, a fantasy action movie with an ensemble cast not unlike Star Wars, receiving both critical praise and strong commercial feedback. Getting a chance to direct one of the most celebrated and lucrative film series in history would certainly justify jumping ship from one property to another.

Star Wars VII already has a writer on board. Lucasfilm contracted Michael Arndt, writer of Toy Story 3 and Little Miss Sunshine, to write the screenplay for the first flick in the new trilogy. Two more writers were hired as well, including Lawrence Kasdan, the writer of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. It’s suspected that Kasdan and Simon Kinberg (Mr. & Mrs. Smith) were hired to pen Star Wars VIII and Star Wars IX.

In the magical world of Walmart you can apparently get a brand new phone called the Samsung Galaxy S3 920. It is apparently a red smartphone with a Nokia label and Windows Phone 8. Wait… what?

Okay, so this is clearly a mistake by someone at Walmart, but funny enough that we just have to call it out. The Galaxy S3 920 spec sheet seems to point towards this being a mislabeled S3 with a Nokia Lumia 920 picture, but hard to say what exactly they were trying to convey here, perhaps this is an ultra-rare Walmart-only Samsung-Nokia joint-product that runs Windows Phone 8 and Android. Jokes aside, the good news is that this particular listing is only “sold in limited stores” so no one accidentally bought this thing online.

Time to let this one go, but you really do have to wonder, what exactly was Walmart thinking here? Was this an accident, or did one employee decide to sneak this in as a big joke to see if anyone noticed? If it was just the wrong picture, I’d think it a mistake– but Walmart directly calls this the “Samsung Galaxy S3 920”. What do you think, total mistake or intentional?

Browse the best Windows Phone 7 apps for your HTC HD7, LG Quantum, Samsung Focus and more, from basics like weather apps and task managers to the ultimate IM client and Foursquare app.

Windows Phone 7 is not yet a major player in the smartphone space, but we think it will be soon. With the release of Mango (version 7.5), the OS is finally beginning to mature. A few weeks back, Microsoft revealed that the platform now has 25,000 apps, so we decided to take a little tour and find some of the best apps in the Windows Phone Marketplace. These apps represent the best we’ve seen so far, but this list will be periodically expanded and updated. If you have suggestions or want to share an app you love, please let us know in the comments below! We’ve only begun to dig into the store, so we’re sure there are plenty of other apps we haven’t yet tried out.

Be sure to check out our many other guides to the best iPhone apps, best iPad apps, best Android apps, best Android games, and best iPhone games.