Last week we announced our nominees for the best games of 2012. And now, the winners...

This has been an odd year for gaming, and one that will likely be remembered as a transitory one for the industry. The arrival of the Wii U was one obvious measure of that, because it ushers in the next generation of consoles, but perhaps far more importantly, the quality of digitally distributed games keeps rising.

That doesn’t just mean we have more access to games, it means there are more ways to think about how to approach development. Some of the best titles of the year were created by independent developers and small studios operating outside the traditional industry structure, and that is certainly going to increase in the coming years.

We have seen more variety this year than ever before when it comes to quality games. An episodic game is one of the best of the year. An independent game made us rethink how to approach co-op gaming. The next generation of handheld gaming is just starting to realize its potential. And through it all, the bedrock of the industry, the AAA titles released this year, have offered some of the best games we’ve ever seen.

It has been an impressive year for the gaming industry, and all signs point to an even better one in 2013 because of it. For now though, we look back at the best of the best, and are honored to present our best games of 2012.

Best Action/Adventure Game

Hitman Absolution

Although the stealth-action genre may be somewhat on the decline as more and more franchises go the Splinter-Cell route and encourage the idea that no one will see you if you kill all the enemies, Hitman Absolution found a way to blend action and stealth, plus give players so many options that no two playthroughs are the same. It’s challenging, surprising, and the inclusion of the player-created Contracts makes it replayable for a long, long time.

Runners Up: Dishonored, Sleeping Dogs

Read our review of Hitman: Absolution here. 

Best Competitive Multiplayer

Halo 4

343 Industries knows Halo. The new studio knows what makes the series work, and what fans love about it. There were concerns about the franchise when Bungie left, but the Halo brand is in good hands, and the multiplayer remains the crown jewel. Mix in an even more robust Forge, and Halo 4 is a dream come true for Halo fans, as well as those who have been looking for more multiplayer action.

Runners Up: Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier

Read our review of Halo 4 here.

Best Co-Op Game

Journey

More and more developers are finding ways to offer a co-op mode to players, but even in the best of these offerings the co-op is generally just more players doing the same thing. Journey, on the other hand, made us rethink what co-op was. You play with people you can’t talk to and you don’t know, yet the solitude of the world and the random nature of the personal encounters is so entrancing, that it is one of the more powerful co-op experiences ever made.

Runners Up: Borderlands 2, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier

Read our review of Journey here.

Best Driving Game

Forza Horizons

The Forza series is currently the king of the racing sims, and those mechanics have made a surprisingly easy transition to the open-world, arcade-like setting in Horizons. This isn’t Forza 5 by any means, but it is the best driving game of the year.

Runners Up: Need For Speed: Most Wanted, Ridge Racer: Unbounded

Read our review of Forza Horizons here. 

Best Fighting Game

Tekken Tag Tournament 2

The world’s best-selling fighting series returns with more content than ever, and finely polished controls that reminded us why Tekken is the king of both the iron fist, and the sales charts.

Runners Up: Persona 4 Arena, Virtual Figher 5: Final Showdown

Read our review of Tekken Tag Tournament 2 here. 

Best FPS

Borderlands 2

This was a remarkably tough category to call, but in the end Borderlands 2 is just a game that is made with fun in mind. It doesn’t really care what you do or how you play, so it presents you with several options to choose from. Thanks to its popularity, there is always someone you can team up with and play. But remarkably, the single-player game is almost as fun solo. That’s the mark of a game that we’ll be playing for a long time to come.

 Runners Up: Dishonored, Far Cry 3

Read our review of Borderlands 2 here. 

Best Graphics/Art

Max Payne 3

In terms of design and style, few games reached the beauty of Rockstar’s Max Payne 3, which featured some of the best-looking designs and graphics that we’ve seen all year. There was a huge emphasis placed on the look and feel of Max’s gritty world, and that saturated the entire experience for the better. Both bleak and beautiful, the art of Max Payne 3 became a character in its own right.

Runners Up: Dishonored, Halo 4

Read our review of Max Payne 3 here. 

Best Puzzle Game

Lumines Electronic Symphony

Although there have been several big releases on the Vita since its launch in February, there is one game we keep going back to. Lumines is just hypnotic. If you hate the electronica music than you’ll probably not enjoy it as much as those that do, but the simple and yet infinitely complex puzzles are addictive and can be replayed forever.

Runners Up: Quantum Conundrum, Fez

Read our review of Lumines Electronic Symphony here.

Best Re-make/Re-release

Persona 4 Golden

A slightly obscure release that came in the final days of the PS2, Persona 4 Golden has been given a new chance to impress fans with a deep story and fully realized cast of characters. The thing about this re-release that makes it stand out is that the original game was brilliant, but mostly forgotten, which was an absolute shame. It was an amazing game before, and its re-release as a handheld title just made it better.

Runners Up: Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, Zone of the Enders

Read our review of Persona 4 Golden here.

Best RPG

Borderlands 2

Borderlands 2 managed to straddle the divide between being just a first-person shooter and something more. The FPS mechanics made it worth playing, but it was really the RPG elements that kept us playing for hours, days, and even weeks. Mix in outstanding writing and a variety of mission types, and the game could be played for years to come.

Runners Up: Diablo III, Mass Effect 3

Read our review of Borderlands 2 here.  

Best Shooter

Max Payne 3

Although Borderlands 2 was our favorite FPS of the year, in terms of true shooters in the most literal sense, our choice for the best of the year goes to the gritty, action-packed Max Payne 3. From the first moment you start, you are thrust into a well-thought-out world, facing smart enemies that are not just going to lie down for you. A dark and compelling narrative helped to further you along, but it was the shooter mechanics and the trademark bullet-time controls that really made this title a success.

Runners Up: Borderlands 2, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier

Read our review of Max Payne 3 here. 

Best Sports Game

NBA 2K13

Once again, 2K Sports’ basketball franchise takes the top honors. Each year annual franchises like this face the difficult question of how to build on the previous year’s offerings and introduce something new that attracts gamers. Tweaks to the gameplay are expected, but you need more than that to really wow fans, and a few minor changes aren’t enough anymore. For three years in a row now, the NBA 2K series has done just that.

Runners Up: FIFA 13, SSX

Read our review of NBA 2K13 here. 

Best Writing

The Walking Dead

There were several well-written game scripts this year, which is incredibly encouraging for the future of the industry, but one game really rose above them all. How many games this year had people admitting that it made them cry? The Walking Dead was able to illicit an honest emotional response from people, something that all entertainment and art aspires to. You cared about the characters, which made their plight so much worse.

Runners Up: Assassin’s Creed III, Spec Ops: The Line

Read our review of The Walking Dead here.

Platform

Best Digitally Distributed game

The Walking Dead

Of all the categories this year, this is the one we wish we could give all three nominees awards. They are all exceptional titles. The Walking Dead was our choice for myriad reasons, but it was very close. We can’t wait to see what the future of this medium has in store.

Runners Up: Journey, Papo & Yo

Read our review of The Walking Dead here.

Best Handheld game

Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack!

Both Sony and Nintendo put a heavy emphasis on their handheld systems this year, but the big franchises and breakout hits are still just slowly making their way to the new platforms. There are some gems though, and our favorite this year was this platformer that offered a near-perfect take on the genre, and had one of the coolest final levels of all time.

Runners Up: Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance, Super Stardust Delta

Read our review of Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack! here. 

Best PC only game

PlanetSide 2

The free-to-play business model is one that is gaining strength, and that will certainly be helped greatly by PlanetSide 2. There are several ways to give SOE your money if you choose, but you can enter into the game without spending a penny, and then experience one of the best shooters of the year at no cost. You just can’t beat that.

Runners Up: Diablo 3, Torchlight II

Read our preview PlanetSide 2 here. 

Best PS3 exclusive

Journey

One of the biggest criticisms we can level at Journey is that we want more. That is an excellent criticism to face. From its incredible art to its unique take on co-op, Journey is among the first of a new breed of independent and artistic games that have us invigorated for the future of the industry.

Runners Up: Papo & Yo, Starhawk

Read our review of Journey here.

Best Xbox 360 Exclusive

Halo 4

You can make an easy argument that the first Halo saved the Xbox, which instantly made the franchise the flagship series for Microsoft. Some things never change. With a campaign that restarts the franchise in a new direction, a multiplayer mode that offers a bit of everything, and a 10-episode co-op mode that basically is a free game-within-the-game, the Halo series once again proves why Microsoft has put such faith in the franchise.

Runners Up: Fez, Forza Horizon

Read our review of Halo 4 here.

Best Wii/Wii U exclusive

ZombiU

Of all the Wii U launch titles, there was one that really felt like it was close to realizing the full potential of the new system. Nintendo’s own offerings locked down the party aspect, but it was this game that really incorporated it into a something compelling. ZombiU takes a standard game style – you against zombies – and then turns it on its head by incorporating the GamePad in a way that makes playing this game unlike anything else out there. ZombiU can scare you, enrage you, and enthrall you, and it does so in a way you’ve never seen before.

Runners Up: Nintendo Land, The Last Story

Read our review of ZombiU here. 

Game of the Year

The Walking Dead, Season 1

And finally we come to our game of the year. There was a great deal of discussion over this category. We all had our favorites, not to mention our personal biases, but when all was said and done there was no question that The Walking Dead deserved the honors. You can justifiably criticize several aspects of what you could call a fairly simple game – at least in terms of gameplay – but the fact remains that no game moved us as much this year, no game had us talking more, and no game made as deep a mark on the future of the industry as The Walking Dead. It is a masterpiece of gaming, and something that will be remembered for years to come.

The third (and presumably final) iteration of Ninja Gaiden 2 will debut on Sony's Vita handheld toward the end of February.

Today seems to be the day that Tecmo Koei has marked on its calendar with big, bold letters reading, “reveal all Vita release dates.” Hot on the heels of revealing a release date for the handheld’s upcoming Dead or Alive 5+ the publisher has also officially served up a release date for the Vita incarnation of Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 Plus (or, as Tecmo Koei calls it, “Ninja Gaiden ∑2+“).

According to Tecmo Koei, the game will reach Sony’s flagship handheld gaming device on February 26. As usual that release date only applies to North America; European gamers will have to wait until March 1 to get their hands on the portable action title. 

While the publisher didn’t reveal much beyond those dates, this is a new version of a very old game so we know quite a bit about it already. As that unwieldy title suggests, the Vita game is an adaptation of the PlayStation 3′s Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, which, in turn, was an adaptation of 2008′s Xbox 360-exclusive Ninja Gaiden 2. The official Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 Plus website hosts a list of new features added to the handheld iteration of the title, including a “Ninja Race” mode that pits players against one another in a competition to see who can finish the game’s stages most rapidly. Further, Ninja Gaiden 2 Sigma Plus is said to include four playable characters: Default series protagonist Ryu Hayabuse, Dead or Alive’s Ayane, Ryu’s apprentice Momiji and the worryingly top-heavy Rachel are all featured in the game, and each brings with them “newly-designed costumes.”

Translation: Expect the three female characters to be even more scantily clad than they were previously.

All of these new features should prove tempting to existing fans of the series and Vita owners who crave a difficult yet gory adventure, but we’re more concerned about how Tecmo Koei intends to utilize the Vita’s touchscreen functions. Sony’s handheld features a touchscreen both on its front and at its rear, and to date very few developers have found a way to use this hardware without it feeling like a gimmick tacked on at the last minute. The modern Ninja Gaiden games rely on lighting-fast reflexes and sharp focus, so hopefully the publisher doesn’t do anything to detract from these aspects while attempting to appease whichever Sony executive demands that all Vita titles take full advantage of the handheld hardware. We won’t know how this thing pans out until February, but in the meantime, let’s keep our fingers crossed that Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 Plus survives the jump to the Vita with all of its bloody fun intact. If not, Tecmo Koei is going to have to sell the game based purely on copious T&A, and after years of seeing that in the Dead or Alive franchise such shallow marketing attempts are getting a bit tired.

Google has revealed a list of apps and services that will not make it to 2013.

The year isn’t over yet, but Google appears to have already announced at least one New Years resolution. The search engine giant revealed a list of features that will not make it to 2013; a move the company has referred to as “winter cleaning.”

“Last January we renewed our resolution to focus on creating beautiful, useful products that improve millions of people’s lives every day,” read Google’s official blog. “To make the most impact, we need to make some difficult decisions. So as 2012 comes to an end, here are some additional products, features and services we’re closing.”

As of January 4, Google will be eliminating some of the less popular Google Calendar features. Users will not longer be able to create new reservable times for their Calendar through Appointment Slots, although existing slots will remain active for one more year. Two Calendar Labs called “Smart Rescheduler” and “Add a gadget by URL” will also be removed, and Google has suggested alternatives on its blog. Other features that Google plans to eradicate include the “Check your calendar via sms” and “Create a calendar via sms (GVENT),” which will no longer be available as of today.

Google is also making some tweaks to its Google Sync feature. On January 30, users will no longer bet able to set up new devices using Google Sync, but existing connections will not be affected. Google Sync will continue to support Google Apps for Business, Government and Education. For other individual users, the company is implementing sync features using open protocols through IMA, CalDAV and CardDAV.

Along with these previous announcements, Google is also discontinuing its Calendar Sync function as of today. Google Sync for Nokia S60 will also be eliminated on January 30 along with a service called SyncML, which is a feature that syncs a user’s contacts and is compatible with a small number of older mobile devices.

In addition to these calendar and syncing capabilities, Google will be shutting down two other apps and services. The Issue Tracker API, a tool for developers that tracks and updates issues with client applications, will be discontinued on June 14, 2013. Google’s virtual loyalty punch card app known as Punchd will also be eliminated as of June 7, 2013.

As Google notes, these are some of its less popular features and apps, so users won’t be missing much with their disappearance. As the company said when it announced that it will not be developing apps for Windows 8, Google is “very careful” about where it spends its time and resources, so hopefully we’ll be seeing some new improvements in 2013. 

Give the gift of stealth this holiday season, with a copy of Hitman Absolution Professional Edition for the PlayStation 3.

Continuing our march through the holidays, we continue our seasonal giveaways with a shift towards gaming. For the fourth day of our “Better Than Socks” giveaway, we are happy to offer a copy of Hitman Absolution Professional Edition for the PlayStation 3 to one lucky winner.

At first glance you’d be forgiven for not seeing the connection between this game and Christmas, but there are several similarities. Although Agent 47 isn’t known for his mirth and jolly nature, both he and Santa are well known for checking their lists. Granted, they exist on opposite spectrums, with Santa leaning towards the “nice” and Agent 47 firmly focused on the “naughty.” And the similarities don’t end there. Both sneak around without being seen, and Agent 47 has probably made his way down a few chimneys in his time. Plus while Santa tends to leave presents, 47 leaves other things like explosives and poisoned sushi. Two peas in a pod.

Hitman Absolution is a game worth your time, or the time of the gamer in your life that could end up with this under the tree. The Professional Edition that we are offering contains the PS3 game, a book featuring art from the game, and a DVD highlighting the making of the game.

For your chance to win, all you have to do is post a comment below and tell us what your favorite game of the years was. If you aren’t a gamer and don’t have a favorite title, just let us know and we’ll consider you entered. The contest runs from now until Monday.

If gaming isn’t your thing, then keep checking back with us every day from now until Christmas, as the Better Than Socks Holiday Giveaways continue.

When you think of Android phone makers Panasonic is not a name you usually think of, but that isn’t the case in Japan. Now it seems that the company is preparing to enter into the 1080p smartphone race with its own high-end handset.

Courtesy of a server log, a model number P-02E with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 and running Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean.  Could this be a second attempt at the European released Panasonic Eluga earlier this year?  According to reports, Panasonic may be readying a release of the 1080p HD smartphone in 2013.

Recently Panasonic had announced it’s intentions to refocus its efforts back to Japan, and if so we may only see the P-02E released in Japan. Still, it would be nice to see a 1080p Panasonic handset reach Europe and the United States– we can dream at least.

Would you give the P-02E a shot?  Do you think Panasonic can make their mark on the already packed Android market?

Guild Wars 2 publisher ArenaNet is very serious about stamping out cheating in its fan-favorite MMORPG, and alongside a huge rash of player bans the company has decided to outline its anti-cheating gameplan.

Cheaters have been the primary scourge of massively multiplayer online games since the subgenre first emerged. Guild Wars 2 is no exception to this truism, and since its debut in August publisher ArenaNet has been scrambling to come up with a viable plan to prevent lazy gamers from ruining the experience for those who hope to enjoy Guild Wars 2 the way its developers intended.

The most problematic group of cheaters for almost any massively multiplayer title is undoubtedly the “botters.” These are players who use third-party software to automate their character’s in-game actions. This becomes a huge problem for MMO creators, as most of these games heavily rely on long, involved quests and item collection tasks to artificially extend a game’s potential shelf-life. What a player can accomplish in a single-player roleplaying game in a matter of minutes often takes hours in a massively multiplayer game, but by offering players periodic rewards, these otherwise tedious activities are able to release a burst of dopamine inside a player’s brain, thus keeping him or her playing (and keeping the game’s creators wealthy enough to continue development on the title and make a nice profit as well). In automating these tasks, botters effectively remove all of the less exciting, effort-filled bits of the game and instead skip right to the neat end-game content, or, if they’re professionals, they may use this technique to pick up huge lots of in-game items which can then be sold for real-world cash, either through legitimate or black market channels. These would your stereotypical “Chinese gold farmers.”

Given the effect this can have on a publisher’s bottom line (not to mention the rage other players might feel at discovering that their peers are cheating), ArenaNet has decided to publicize its recent decisive strike against the legions of botters. In a lengthy post recently added to the official Guild Wars 2 website, the game’s security coordinator, Mike Lewis, lets players know that during the month of November the company banned a whopping 34,000 player accounts due to reports of botting and other activities strictly outlawed by the game’s end user license agreement. Further, he claims that the overall population of botters in ArenaNet seems to be shrinking — though, to be fair, he also notes that this coincides with a decrease in the game’s overall player population. According to Lewis, ArenaNet monitors worldwide bot activity within its game and since October the average number of botters active at any given time has dropped from over 2,000 to “a much healthier 20.”

Lewis then goes on to thank the game’s remaining players for their efforts in reporting botters to ArenaNet before outlining the system the publisher has in place to combat this issue. Have a look:

Collecting and analyzing data is very important to us at ArenaNet. Data is the most powerful weapon in our arsenal against bots. We’ve gathered massive amounts of information about the habits of both normal players and automated bot players. We contracted a team of data specialists to help us build comprehensive tools that comb through this data and find effective ways to single out and terminate bot accounts. Automating this process has been a major focus of the ArenaNet security team, and we’re now seeing the considerable fruits of this labor.

Another way we identify and combat bots is through manual observation. Our GM staff is equipped to monitor the game around the clock and detect bots from within the game itself. We have a considerable task force assigned to patrolling the world and eliminating bots, as well as helping us continue to improve and refine our automatic detection tools.

Last but not least, we’re in a good position to monitor and investigate bot reports as they arrive from players. Aided by our analysis tools and strengthened by manual investigation as necessary, GMs are able to react quickly and efficiently to bot reports and terminate offending accounts in short order.

Whether ArenaNet is successful in its crusade against botters remains to be seen — no MMO to date has been able to completely wipe them out — but at least it has a plan and is working toward making the online title that much more friendly for those who simply want to team up with a group of friends to kill fantastic creatures. Fans can’t really ask for more, though we wonder if these efforts will be enough to stem the slowly-growing exodus the game has seen since launch.

Tecmo Koei developer Team Ninja has officially revealed the Vita-exclusive Dead or Alive 5+ alongside a release date, screenshots and not much else.

Did you enjoy Tecmo Koei’s recent fighting title Dead or Alive 5, but wish you could somehow take its virtual fisticuffs with you on the bus? Perhaps you wish it was possible to kick a scantily-clad female ninja off a rooftop while sitting at work, bored out of your skull. In either case, developer Team Ninja has you covered.

A new page recently appeared on the Dead or Alive 5 official site that reads simply “Dead or Alive 5+ for PlayStation Vita 3.19.2013.” These words are accompanied by a handful of screenshots from the handheld iteration of the fighter. No truly useful details are offered beyond that release date, though the images we’re given are quite impressive and could very easily be mistaken as screenshots from the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 version of Dead or Alive 5 cropped to fit within the dimensions of the Vita’s high-definition screen.

Though we officially know very little about Dead or Alive 5+, that title and recent history gives us a good idea of what we should expect from Team Ninja’s handheld title. Both Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 and Street Fighter X Tekken saw Vita iterations released months after their console counterparts, and each included all the content found in their predecessors as well as a number of extras. Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3, for instance, included all of the DLC costumes released for the game prior to its Vita debut, while Street Fighter X Tekken’s Vita incarnation offers players free access to the 12 DLC fighters released for the title six months after it first hit store shelves. Given the abundance of DLC costumes already available for Dead or Alive 5 on the Xbox Live Marketplace and PlayStation Store, we’d expect Dead or Alive 5+ to include some, if not all of these bonus outfits.

Alternately, if Team Ninja is feeling really generous, it might take the same approach as Netherrealm Studios when bringing Mortal Kombat to the Vita. Not only does that handheld title include all of the DLC released for its console counterparts, it also adds an entirely new Challenge Tower that includes an additional 200 missions for players to enjoy. Mortal Kombat is currently the high-water mark for console-to-Vita ports, so it would take something truly impressive for Dead or Alive+ to unseat Netherrealm’s gory fighter.

Beyond that, it’s anyone’s guess what Team Ninja has planned for this game. A new character? New stages? Poorly-planned ad hoc multiplayer functionality that loses all relevance in any region outside of Japan? All of these are possible, and we expect the developer to offer up a comprehensive list of the features planned for Dead or Alive 5+ in the near future. Until then, mobile fighting game fans will just have to content themselves with the largely excellent (if somewhat shallow) home console versions of Dead or Alive 5.

Are you sad that Nintendo's Wii Mini is exclusive to Canada? Don't be. The slightly smaller iteration of the Wii isn't all it's cracked up to be.

When Nintendo announced the Wii Mini console, it left many people scratching their heads in confusion. Not because Nintendo has opted to redesign the Wii — the company has been releasing new versions of its gaming machines ever since the original Nintendo Entertainment System  – but instead because prior to this announcement the company publicly stated that it would no longer be making games for the system. Even more confusing was Nintendo’s decision to only offer the Wii Mini in Canada. Regional excluvisity isn’t that strange in and of itself, but normally we see products restricted to either Japan or North America as a whole. By contrast, Canada seems like a very small market in which to launch a “new” console.

Unfortunately for those Canadians hoping to take advantage of the Wii Mini’s $100 price point, the above issues are far from the oddest aspects of the Wii Mini. In a new report published by Eurogamer, the Digital Foundry has dismantled a Wii Mini and discovered some strange design decisions within the console’s hardware.

While the article praises the Wii Mini’s rugged, child-friendly design and the huge number of extant games initially released for the original version of the Wii, it slams Nintendo for what it politely describes as cost-cutting measures designed to ensure that the company could still turn a profit on each unit sold, despite the Wii Mini’s minuscule price tag. Most glaring among these measures is the utter removal of online functionality. Not only has Nintendo stripped out the Wi-Fi hardware that was included in the Wii Mini’s predecessor, it’s also designed the console in such a way that Nintendo’s own USB Ethernet adaptor won’t work when plugged into the new machine. As a result, the console also ditches support for the Wii’s already-paltry online offerings; If you pick up a Wii Mini you won’t be able to use it to download classic games via the Virtual Console. As the Wii Mini also fails to support backwards compatibility with GameCube titles (another feature innately found in the original Wii), those who purchase a Wii Mini are restricted to those games available for the Wii library.

Oh, but that’s not all. In what may be the most baffling decision we can recall Nintendo having made, the Wii Mini offers no support for HDMI or component cables. In fact, the only audio/visual cables that will function with the Wii Mini are those ancient red, white and yellow composite cables you likely haven’t seen since the late-90s. Given that Wii games only support resolutions up to 480p this isn’t as huge an oversight as it would be on an Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 or Wii U, but with modern televisions increasingly moving away from composite cables in favor of high-definition connections, this choice seems purely profit-driven.

Finally, the report again slams Nintendo for designing a system dubbed the “Wii Mini” that isn’t actually that much smaller than the original Wii. No solid dimensions are offered, but Digital Foundry describes the name as an “exaggeration,” and states that “it’s a little shorter and lighter than our launch unit but it’s just as chunky.”

In closing, the report offers a damning indictment of the Wii Mini. “Unfortunately, the sad reality is that the Wii Mini disappoints on almost every level,” it states. “It’s not a good-looking piece of kit at all, functionality has been stripped down to the absolute bare-bones, and perhaps worst of all for a product actively being marketed on its dinky form-factor is the fact that it’s not actually that much smaller than the original model. What we have left is a console designed for young children, marketed at a price low enough to qualify it as a toy.”

More and more cities are jumping on the broadband bandwagon, and Seattle is next on the list to launch an ultra high-speed gigabit fiber Internet service.

The home to Amazon, and neighboring Microsoft, Nintendo America, T-Mobile, and VALVE, Seattle is no stranger to cutting edge technology. The tech-soaked city is making sure it stays on top and has entered into an agreement with a startup called Gigabit Squared to have a gigabit broadband network implemented, bringing 1 Gbps connections across the city. According to GigaOM, the parties signed a Memorandum of Understanding and a Letter of Intent that will allow Gigabit Squared to start raising the funds needed to create the demonstration fiber network. 

According to a statement released by the city, “the plan will begin with a demonstration fiber project in twelve Seattle neighborhoods and includes wireless methods to deploy services more quickly to other areas.” The upgrade to Seattle’s existing city-owned fiber network consists of three parts: a fiber-to-home element for the 12 Seattle neighborhoods that’ll reach 50,000 homes; point-to-point wireless; and a mobile broadband service. Thirty-eight buildings in the city will be installed with fiber transmitters to supply the point-to-point coverage outside the 12 fiber-to-home areas.

Gigabit Squared took on the Seattle project as part of its arrangement with the Gig.U project, which is aimed at supplying gigabit Internet in college towns to further improve the conditions for innovation. Announced in October, Chicago was the first city the startup partnered with for Gig.U. 

In addition to Seattle and Chicago, Kansas City and Bruistol, Tenn., have announced plans for gigabit networks. These locales are skipping over traditional Internet service providers and putting more control over the broadband into the hands of cities and private businesses. It seems unlikely that the telecommunications sector will quietly let this push into their turf continue, so we’ll be on the watch for their counterattack. 

Image via David Herrera