Sources with Bloomberg report that Facebook is developing an app that will rival Apple’s Find My Friends app for its ability to track your location.

Privacy advocates must surely be girding their loins even as we speak. Bloomberg is now reporting that Facebook is preparing to release a friend finder app that will track your location.

According to “two people with knowledge of the matter,” the new app will see release in mid-March, and will leverage Facebook’s Nearby functionality to serve as an always-on tracker that will let users find their friends via their smartphones. Such a service would allow people to connect at local events or, you know, flat out stalk one another as they see fit. And, of course, Facebook can use your location to better serve more relevant ads.

The app is already drawing comparisons to similar products like Apple’s Find My Friends, Google Latitude, and last year’s SXSW darling Highlight. Even Foursquare’s Radar feature allows people to track what venues their friends are going to in real-time. Yet no solution has managed to break into the mainstream as users may be wary about how their location data might be abused.

However, according to Facebook’s recently-announced fourth quarter earnings, mobile users are now outnumbering desktop users for the first time. For a “mobile first” company with 1 billion active users (and one that hinted at mobile experiences being a focus in the coming year), this move could make GPS tracking among users a real trend.

Privacy analysts may have some reason to worry. Despite Facebook devoting 10 percent of their server power to privacy issues, it remains unclear if the company will allow users to opt out of the feature. What’s more, Facebook reserves the right to retain your location data so long as it deems it useful for its services. The app could be seen as a privacy nightmare if it suffers a security breach that compromises users’ locations.

Or not. It all hinges on how people decide to use the app when it lands in March. If opting out is available, it might be D.O.A.

Fire Emblem: Awakening is not as conservative as you might expect for the eleventh entry in a quarter-century-old series. In fact, the changes it brings makes for far more moving game of strategy.

Retired Lieutenant General Jerry Boykin, who is now the vice president of the Christian conservative lobbyist group Family Research Council, is one of the louder voices opposing the Pentagon’s recent decision to allow women in the United States military to serve in combat positions. “The combat environment—now containing males and females—will place a tremendous burden on combat commanders,” says Boykin, “Not only will they have to maintain their focus on defeating the enemy in battle, they will have to do so in an environment that combines life-threatening danger with underlying sexual tensions.” Lt. Gen. Boykin has clearly never played Fire Emblem: Awakening.

Intelligent Systems’ strategy game is founded on the idea that friendships, and especially those between the sexes, make for the best fuel for soldiers. Making personal relationships central to the story of a role-playing game is not a new idea, but Awakening evokes powerful emotions by forcing you to treat strategy and intimacy as one and the same.

Getting to Know All About You

The eleventh game in a series that stretches back to the original Nintendo Entertainment System, Awakening tells the story of Ylisse, a kingdom besieged by neighboring countries as well as an ancient evil dragon named Grima. At the beginning of the game, you create your own character who after up with the royal family of Ylisse becomes their tactician. In your charge are the country’s finest soldiers, a group of lovable freaks and geeks as diverse the weird specialists from old G.I. Joe cartoons, but twice as charming. There are plenty of anime stereotypes at your disposal like stoic swordsman Lon’qu, academic witch Miriel, and androgynous monk Libra, but all of Emblem’s characters reveal themselves to be more than an archetype as you get to know them.

Before you can chat with the knights, archers, and mages in your war party, you have to get to know them in combat. Awakening is a strategy role-playing game in the vein of Final Fantasy Tactics and XCOM: Enemy Unknown. There are dialogue scenes that bookend fights and you can organize your party’s equipment, shop, or talk to characters while on the world map, but the vast majority of the game is spent in chess-style battles. A limited number of party members are thrown out into forest, desert, and castle maps broken into a grid, and you take turns with the enemy moving into position and facing off. Each character has just a single attack move depending on the weapon they’re holding—the character you make for example can use magic books as well as swords—but they can also use items or heal in the case of clerics.

Relying on individual characters’ strengths will only lead to defeat. The secret to success in Awakening is pairing characters together. Archer/dandy Virion isn’t very mobile on his own and weak to boot. Pair him up with cavarlywoman Sully and you’ve got a fighting pair that’s got brawn, the ability to travel great distances, and can attack from range when need be. The joy of strategy games is learning how to use the best tools at the right moment, but Awakening’s distinguishing spice is finding out who in your party works best together.

 

Love on the Battlefield

Awakening’s warriors don’t just level up and gain new skills as they fight, though. The relationship between paired fighters improves as you go. When Virion and Sully smack around a bandit together, a little heart will pop up over their heads on the field. Keep them together long enough and you can watch a scene between the two of them after the fight. Not only do they get more efficient in the field, they get to know one another better. All of these little vignettes make for a richer reward then just a character that can stab people better with a spear. In the case of those two, it’s actually heartwarming when Sully asks Virion to marry her when maxing out their relationship.

Fire Emblem’s sentimentality can be ferocious. Played on its default settings, the game has to be played patiently and defensively. If the character you made or Ylissian prince Chrom get taken out, that’s an automatic game over, but everyone needs to be protected in equal measure. If someone dies in a fight, they’re not just out for the battle, healing on the sidelines. They’re dead for good. Consequences for failure like this can make a strategy game blissfully intense. XCOM was lionized last fall for its Ironman mode where the game saves automatically and your leveled-up units can die for good. The squad in Fire Emblem aren’t units. They’re people, friends and lovers, and the threat of losing them in every fight adds an incredible layer of tenderness to the tension.

Awakening’s stakes can be lowered. Switching the game to Casual instead of Classic will let downed fighters come back when the fight’s over. It’s easy to meet everyone in the game on Casual, and you can pair up everyone. But like a breezy weekend hookup, Fire Emblem gets boring fast on Casual. The strategy is sound and entertaining on its own in this game, but something needs to be at stake for it to matter.

Conclusion

Intelligent Systems’ game is far from perfect. For one it’s not very good at teaching its subtleties, and hours of progress can be lost because no one ever said weapons could break or that healers can’t cast spells on themselves. Despite the fact that you can tweak almost every setting in the game from what stats are shown on screen to the opacity of the grid on the map, the difficulty settings can’t be changed on the fly. The most significant problem with the game is inconsistent presentation. In story scenes and fights, Fire Emblem’s characters are weirdly proportioned 3D characters. On the map, they’re teeny pixel figures. In dialogue, they show up as beautifully drawn cartoon figures. Then there’re major story moments with animated vignettes, where everyone’s a cel-shaded, human proportioned figure. None of it’s ugly per se, but it’s hard not to wish for a consistent presentation.

But just because they wear a variety of faces, that doesn’t make them any less well wrought and it doesn’t make fighting with them any less fraught. Fire Emblem: Awakening is a special game. Keeping your friends alive is a far more potent motivation than just saving the world from an ancient evil.

Score: 8.5 out of 10

(This game was reviewed in the Nintendo 3DS using a copy provided by the publisher)

L.A. Noire’s characters are intensely detailed and strikingly lifelike, but if you dial back the game’s polish a bit for a look at how the characters were created, you’ll see that they came very close to being eerie and unsettling.

When L.A. Noire made its retail debut in 2011 it was hailed for featuring some of the most lifelike characters ever seen in a video game. This was largely due to the work of a company called Depth Analysis, which specializes in intensely detailed motion capture technology. Motion capture tech has been a staple of game development since the early 90s, but the system employed by Depth Analysis takes the concept to a whole new level of detail, allowing in-game characters to feature the same minute facial tics and unconscious physical reactions that commonly appear in real-world conversations but are almost entirely absent from the virtual world. L.A. Noire developer Team Bondi used Depth Analysis’ technology to complement the game’s hard-boiled, noir detective story, and as a result the act of interrogating witnesses in L.A. Noire is one of the most detailed, realistic CGI experiences to emerge from the gaming industry in recent years.

However, for all of the benefits that Depth Analysis’ intensive motion capture process delivers, it’s also got a dark side. The motion capture seen in L.A. Noire is the end result of what must be extensive audio production and editing work, not to mention countless hours of both voice and motion capture acting. Without all of this effort (which would otherwise be largely invisible to players), the characters in L.A. Noire could have been very different. Frighteningly different.

Below this text you’ll find a newly-released vignette courtesy Depth Analysis that attempts to document the unintended hilarity that emerges from simultaneously capturing an actor’s voice and facial expressions simultaneously. Ostensibly the video is supposed to be a funny, interesting look behind the scenes of a big-budget, blockbuster video game release, but it also gives us a look at the capabilities of the technology as well as showing us new high water mark for the uncanny valley. 

It also is pure nightmare fuel.

If you are hunting for more sources to download Android apps and games then you’ll find a bumper batch in here. We take a look at the pros and cons of alternative Android app stores for users and developers, and then discuss a few of the best options.

Google recently announced that there are now over 700,000 apps and games in the Google Play Store. You would imagine that might be enough for most people. As the default location, it is obviously the most popular place to go for Android apps. The 25 billion download mark was surpassed at the end of the summer, but there are actually a lot of alternative Android app stores out there. We decided to take a look.

Why use another Android app store?

There are actually quite a few reasons that you might venture beyond Google Play. Most of the alternative Android app markets out there offer something to set themselves apart. Here’s a quick rundown of the main incentives.

• Free apps and promotions: You might enjoy a free app of the day, a discounted premium app, or some other money-saving offer.
• App recommendations: You might want to uncover some recommended apps that don’t pop up in the Google Play top ten charts.
• Curated list: You might want a smaller selection of app choices that have been filtered for quality or for a specific age group or purpose.
• Localized portal: You might want an app store that specifically caters to your country.

If you are an Android developer, you’ll also want to consider alternative Android app stores in order to maximize your exposure and ultimately your income.

What are the risks and problems?

The big risk is malware. In our Android app security basics article, we recommended sticking to Google Play and avoiding third-party app stores. The security policy on different Android app stores will vary. Some will perform similar safety checks to Google, others won’t. If you are going to take the risk then consider installing one of the top Android security apps first.

You will need to go into your Settings > Security menu and tick Unknown sources to allow downloads of non-Market apps.

Other problems you may encounter relate to a poor user experience. There are also app stores that carry pirated versions of apps and games.

For developers, the problems are more complicated. The terms and conditions may result in enforced promotions, the developer portal might be less than transparent, and updates can take longer to push out.

Best alternative Android app stores

There are a surprising number of Android app stores, but we can safely say that many of them don’t offer much in the way of enticement. We’ll run through some of the top options here that actually offer specific benefits to draw you in and then list out some others at the end.

Amazon Appstore for Android

The highest profile alternative to Google Play is definitely the Amazon Appstore, and it’s the default location for Amazon’s Kindle line of tablets. It offers a much smaller selection of apps and games, but everything has passed Amazon’s quality control standards. It is polished and easy to use.

For consumers, there are two obvious advantages to using the Amazon Appstore. The free app of the day promotion has featured some great premium apps. You can also use the Test Drive feature to try out apps in your browser before you buy.

It is limited to the U.S. and a smattering of European nations right now (UK, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain).

For developers it could be a good source of extra income, but there have been rumblings about Amazon’s right to choose when to do promotions. Some developers have reported huge download numbers off the back of the free app of the day promotion, but no resulting increase in sales. You are also likely to do better with tablet optimized apps than smartphone apps in general.

GetJar

You’ll find a huge repository of free apps here for various platforms including Android. It’s fairly basic, but apps are divided into categories and sub-categories to make it easier to find what you want. You’ll also find likes or dislikes and comments on each app from users. It can also connect with Facebook. On the downside, you will encounter sponsored recommendations, but they are clearly marked.

Through the GetJar Gold system and the GetJar Rewards app, you can discover apps tailored for your requirements and you can earn rewards that will give you premium apps and upgrades to your favorites for free.

GetJar’s clever draw is to offer premium apps to users for free to generate traffic and then monetize that traffic with advertising dollars. Developers might be tempted by the virtual currency tie-ins and the option to target new users with different kinds of promotions. It is possible to integrate GetJar Gold into your apps, and it has 50 million users. Be warned though, the submission process might take a while.

Slide ME

This alternative Android app store has a global reach and a decent user base. It offers free and premium apps in various categories and they all pass through a quality control process. One of the attractions for users is availability globally and support for various payment options including PayPal. It’s also easy to filter your searches and you’ll find good app descriptions.

There is probably a greater enticement for developers because Slide ME offers the chance to target a wider international audience. Apps are more likely to stand out because the choice is more refined. Developers can set prices and choose to offer their apps for free. There is also a Slide ME ad network. It is even possible to get a greater percentage of the revenue generated by your app with Slide ME, than the standard 70 percent you’ll get in most places.

F-Droid

The very specific focus of F-Droid is free and open source software (FOSS) Android apps. It’s pretty basic, but there is some categorization and the list is searchable. You’ll find a big selection of free apps here and they all promise no tracking, no ads, and no dependencies. It’s worth checking out for free apps, especially if you support the open source movement.

Obviously developers will only want to venture here if they intend to release their creations with no expectation of profit.

Appoke

The focus here is on social recommendations and so there are Twitter and Facebook tie-ins. You can also share opinions on apps and see what apps friends are using easily. Most of the apps are free and, like with GetJar Gold, you can earn credits and use them to get premium apps. You can also buy apps with PayPal.

Appoke is still in beta and although it offers an accessible user experience, the apps on offer are quite limited. The social side of it is a good idea, but if your friends don’t use it then it won’t work for you.

The list goes on

There are a lot more alternative Android app stores out there, but many of them have small user bases. For developers it’s always worth trying to widen the net and offer your apps in as many places as possible, but some of the smaller options are going to represent a pretty poor return for your time and effort. For users seeking apps, if a store doesn’t offer some unique hook to pull you in then it’s tough to see why you’d bother.

If you’re still looking for more Android app distribution options or sources then here’s a quick list:

Appia, App Brain, Aproov, Android Pit, Handango, Handster, Mobango, Opera Mobile App Store, Soc.io, Insyde Market, AppsFire, and there’s also the Baidu App Store in China, and Yandex in Russia.

If you have experiences, good or bad, with any of the alternative Android app stores mentioned, or even if you want to mention another one, please post a comment.

Laptop reviews involve a lot more than cruising YouTube at the coffee shop. Here’s an in-depth look at how we test laptops at Digital Trends.

You’ve read our laptop reviews. You’ve read our conclusions. And now you’re wondering how we came to them.

Good question. Reviews often lack context, which is evident in the wildly different scores some laptops receive from different publications. Conflicting opinions can actually make buying a laptop more difficult if the review’s criteria isn’t made clear.

Allow us to lift the veil. Here we’ll explain the benchmarks we use for objective testing and the perspective from which we approach subjective topics. We don’t expect everyone to agree with our opinions, but we hope that sharing our process will leave you better equipped to decide what laptop best fits your needs.  

Also check out our list of the best laptops as chosen by our reviewers. 

The hands-on experience

The senses of sight and touch allow us to make first judgments about the laptops we receive for review. Different laptops are made of different materials such as plastic and aluminum. While metal is generally considered “premium” compared to plastic, that’s not always the case – a thin piece of metal may feel less sturdy. We strive to describe both the materials used in a laptop’s construction and how those materials hold up in real-world scenarios.

During our time with a laptop – usually a week – our initial impressions are tempered by the passage of time. A finish that was at first beautiful and unique may become annoying if it attracts dirt and fingerprints too easily, and a design that seemed mundane may grow on us through its utility.

Ultimately, hands-on impressions are subjective, no matter how much time we spend with each laptop. However, our experience handling many laptops gives a unique perspective on these products, making it possible to develop informed opinions about where each product we review stands against the competition. At the least, we want our readers to leave a review with a strong idea of how a laptop looks and feels in the real world.

Interface interaction

Quality of the keyboard and touchpad is always important, and we devote an entire section to these vital user-interface tools.

We look for keyboards that offer solid key feel. To be more specific, we look for keys with a crisp action that quickly rebound when a finger is removed. Keys should not wobble or skew when pressed along a key’s side instead of the center, and there should be no flex along the width or length of the keyboard when a key is completely depressed.

Touchpads need to have buttons with similar qualities, preferably in the form of separate left and right keys. Alternatives are acceptable if their quality holds up. The pad itself should respond quickly to touch and allow a finger to glide across it without friction. Multi-touch gestures should be included, and we look for them to operate without a jerky or uncertain feel.

Most of our reviews barely mention touchscreen quality because most implementations provide nearly identical feel. Instead, we spend time talking about related features like a convertible laptop’s hinge or a touchscreen all-in-one’s software.

Display and audio impressions

Though the design of a laptop is in the eye of the beholder, the display and audio systems on these products straddle the line between what is subjectively pleasant and what can be objectively measured.

We attempt to incorporate a bit of both in to our judgment of a these components. Using the laptop naturally reveals the quality of the display, but there are also tests used to provide a measurable impression. We use the Spyder4Elite color calibration tool and its built-in quality measurement suite to test the display’s brightness, black levels, color gamut, contrast, and screen uniformity. We don’t report all of these numbers in every review unless they stand out in some way. Our benchmarks are conducted in a darkened room to make sure ambient light does not skew the results.

Audio quality is judged by a number of subjective tests. A typical benchmark includes YouTube HD, podcasts, and streaming music. During our tests, we constantly adjust the volume to see how (or if) performance degrades as the speakers become louder. We also report on bundled audio quality tools, such as equalizer’s or noise cancellation features, if they are installed.

Hot stuff

Heat is always an issue for laptops. Fast processors give off plenty of warmth while operating, but the slim frame of a laptop leaves little room for airflow. The way a notebook deals with the buildup of heat directly impacts usability.

Ideally, a laptop should not warm significantly on either the top or the bottom, but it’s rare that this is the case. We take note of where a product warms as we use it both on a desktop and in our laps and measure hot-spots with an infrared thermometer. The results are often referenced in our reviews. 

In addition to this real-world testing, we use stress test programs such as OCCT and Furmark to simulate the maximum possible load that a laptop might encounter. While doing this, we also make note of reported CPU and GPU temperatures to see if they become hot enough to be a potential source of instability.

We also measure fan noise during our temperature tests. We use a decibel meter in an environment where ambient noise does not exceed 38 decibels. Noise is measured during idle, at full CPU load, and at full GPU load.

A lasting impression 

Battery Eater is our primary synthetic benchmark, and we use both the Standard and Reader’s Test. Standard simulates an extremely high workload. Reader’s Test simulates simple productivity, such as reading and editing Word documents. There’s usually a large gap between the results produced, and that’s to be expected. The load placed on a laptop significantly impacts endurance.

We also test battery life with the Peacekeeper browser benchmark. This simulates how long a laptop will last when used for heavy Web browsing. The benchmark runs continually until the battery gives out.

All of our battery benchmarks are conducted at 70-percent display brightness with Power Saver selected in Windows power management. However, we will use a manufacturer’s custom power management settings if they ship with the laptop and can be configured to keep the display lit during our tests.

The test chamber

Most of our judgments take place during real-world use. For example, we usually use the laptop being reviewed to actually write the review, meaning the reviews you read on our site are written on the laptop pictured in the review’s photos. When it comes to performance benchmarks, however, each laptop has to spend some time alone, cranking through an array of tests.

Our current suite includes:

• Sisoft Sandra (processor)
• 7-Zip (processor)
• PCMark 7 (full system performance)
• 3DMark 06 (graphics)
• 3DMark 11 (graphics)

Laptops designed for gaming are also judged by gameplay experience in titles Diablo 3, Far Cry 3, and Skyrim. We use FRAPS, a well know benchmark program, to take accurate framerate readings. Interpretation of the results matters as much as the numbers themselves. A laptop that scores very well in our processor benchmarks, for example, may fail to impress us if it also posts a poor score in PCMark 7, which tests multiple components and then bundles them in an overall result.

Reaching a verdict

The most difficult part of every review is the verdict. This is where we decide if we’re going to recommend a laptop and determine how the outcome of each section fits together to form a final score.

Verdicts are usually handed down from the perspective of what the laptop is built to accomplish. Poor battery life on a gaming laptop won’t significantly impact the score, but an ultraportable with the same problem could lose several points.

Competition must also be considered. Laptops are becoming better with each passing year as each brand tries to better its peers. Most of today’s laptops offer an experience that is reasonably pleasant, and none fail as a computer. But most people need just one laptop, and they want the best available, which is where the little details – such as key feel and fan noise – make a difference.

Value is also important. We don’t expect to see a high-resolution display and quad-core processor in a laptop that ships at $500, and we won’t knock it for lacking those features. A laptop that costs $1,500, however, may lose points if it skimps on hardware.

We hope that everyone reading our reviews will be able to understand our thoughts and our conclusion. Even if you don’t agree with our final verdict, the information.

Editor’s Note: This story was originally published November 2011 and updated February 2013 to reflect new changes in our review process.  

[Top image courtesy of Dmitriy Shironosov/Shutterstock]

The Planet Hulk and World War Hulk storylines are some of the most popular published by Marvel Comics in recent years, so it comes as little surprise to hear that the company’s film wing might be working on a feature adaptation.

If there’s one thing fans of Marvel’s film output enjoy more than actually watching Marvel Studios films, it’s speculating wildly on what the firm might do next. Such is the case with today’s revelation, though as far as possible future scenarios go it’s endlessly, undeniably plausible – and should make any fan of Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk character from The Avengers very excited. These are all still rumors, but consider the news below filled with plenty of potential (albeit unverified) spoilers.  

In 2006, Marvel Comics began publishing a storyline in the pages of its Incredible Hulk comic book dubbed “Planet Hulk.” The basic concept of the story is that a group of the most intelligent, supposedly benevolent superheroes in the Marvel Universe known as the Illuminati (consisting of Iron Man, Reed Richards, Blackbolt, Namor, Professor X, and Doctor Strange) gather together to discuss an ultimate solution to the problem of Bruce Banner periodically turning into a giant green rage monster and smashing up the place. You can’t really kill the Hulk, so the only real idea these great minds could come up with was to bamboozle the beast into boarding a space ship that would ostensibly take him to a malfunctioning rogue satellite that requires his special skills. Instead, once Hulk leaves the launchpad, the spaceship flies off in a random direction and those who created this scheme are left thinking that the Hulk will spend eternity floating through the inky void of space.

Keep in mind that those who conceived this plan are considered their reality’s greatest heroes.

So Hulk gets shot into space, ends up crashing on an alien planet and after time in the gladiator pits, the Hulk launches a violent coup against the draconic ruling class. Eventually Hulk becomes king – and alongside a group of new, powerful alien pals – the green monster decides to return to Earth to rain down vengeance on those jerks who first shot him into the space in a huge Marvel event known as World War Hulk. If a new report from Latino Review proves accurate we may see both stories on the silver screen as part of Marvel Studio’s upcoming Phase Three initiative.

According to the rumor – with no official confirmations or denials, this info must be treated as a rumor – the end of The Avengers 2 will find Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk lost in space. This sets up a solo Hulk movie that would cover the events of the Hulk’s time on the planet Sakaar, as well as establish necessary plot points for The Avengers 3 which would deal with the Hulk’s violent return to our planet. There’s no word on the scope of these films, but the Planet Hulk/World War Hulk storylines dominated Marvel Comics from 2006 through 2008, so there’s no dearth of material for Marvel Studios to adapt.

As much as we stress that this information is a rumor, we wouldn’t publish it unless it was exceedingly plausible. The Planet Hulk storyline has already been made into an animated film, and Ruffalo’s contract for six films clearly includes the option of a standalone film. The character is best utilized when beating on people – as seen in the Hulk’s numerous scene stealing moments in The Avengers – so a Hulk film that is entirely based around combat makes complete sense. 

Beyond that though, Latino Review’s info matches up with everything we know about The Avengers 2. Its predecessor established Thanos as the sequel’s prime antagonist and as Thanos lives in deep space it makes a lot of sense that the Hulk might find himself blasted into the inky void during combat with the mad titan.

Likewise, the idea makes sense from a marketing standpoint. The Planet Hulk and World War Hulk storylines center on the Hulk but include almost every important Marvel Comics character, giving a feature film adaptation instant appeal to both hardcore comic book geeks and anyone who might like to see impressive new superpowers. Plus, this allows Marvel Studios to introduce a number of new characters it might want to employ in future feature films. That’s in keeping with the overarching Marvel Studios gameplan that we’ve seen to date, and there’s little reason to expect it might change.

Resident Evil: Revelations may not be the only Nintendo 3DS game to move over to home consoles. Konami says that Castlevania: Lords of Shadow—Mirror of Fate could get an HD release in the future.

After its release in March, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow—Mirror of Fate may make the same transition from handhelds to home consoles that Capcom’s Resident Evil: Revelations, the Nintendo 3DS game, is planning on making. Konami producer and Castlevania evangelist David Cox said on Monday that not only could Mirror of Fate HD be released, it technically already exists.

“We created everything in high definition,” Cox explained to Computer and Video Games, “All the textures, all the levels, high-poly models, everything—and we kind of shrunk it down into the 3DS. Then we lost bones from characters, you know, we dropped the resolution of the textures and everything to make it fit. At Mercury Steam we have an HD version of the game sitting there in a computer somewhere.”

If it does make the leap to an HD console, it will have to either be a new version of the game completely, or a Nintendo Wii U exclusive. Nintendo has exclusive rights to the version as it exists now. “We want as many people to play it as possible. Obviously we have an exclusivity deal with Nintendo right now though and they’ve been very supportive of the product.”

Other developers have worked around restrictions like these before, though. Tecmo Koei for example published Ninja Gaiden and Ninja Gaiden 2 for the Xbox and Xbox 360 in a partnership with Microsoft, making both games exclusive to those respective consoles. It ultimately worked around that deal by slightly altering both games with new content and releasing them on PlayStation 3 as Ninja Gaiden Sigma 1 and 2.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow—Mirror of Fate was originally planned for release in the fall of 2012 but Konami delayed the game in August without giving a specific reason. It’s possible the game was simply not of sufficient quality at that point. Digital Trends’ early look at the game at E3 2012 found it to be in rough shape for a game purportedly close to release.

Twitch, the eSports broadcasting service, is entering a new phase: The premium subscription phase. Twitch Turbo lets people watch video game broadcasts ad-free for a monthly fee, but will audiences bite?

Twitch continues its 2013 expansion with Twitch Turbo, a new paid subscription service to its streaming video game television service. Subscribers to Twitch Turbo will be able to watch eSports matches free of advertising as well as receive additional perks like custom community tools (chat text colors, etc.) and priority customer service. The service will cost $8.99 per month, a relatively high price compared to other streaming entertainment services. Netflix by contrast is just $7.99 per month. Since Twitch’s audience has grown from 16 million to 23 million subscribers in the past nine months, it’s easy to understand why the company is interested in ramping up monetization.

“The average viewer watches over an hour and a half of videos each day,” explains Twitch CEO Emmett Shear, “Over two-thirds of our logged-in users chat each day. We wanted to find a way to provide the ultimate Twitch experience.”

Twitch Turbo represents the second significant expansion for the streaming eSports company. On Wednesday, Twitch announced that it had partnered with Activision Blizzard to bring its game broadcasting tools to home consoles starting with Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. Xbox 360 owners have access to tools that let them upload Black Ops 2 play, commentary, and webcam footage seamlessly. The service will be available on Sony’s PlayStation 3 soon as well.

The crossover in audience between Twitch and Call of Duty is strong enough to support Activision’s decision to partner with the service, but that crossover should also give insight into the potential of Twitch Turbo. Parting that audience from its money is no easy task. While Call of Duty games like Black Ops 2 earn $1 billion in revenue within weeks of release, those players are reticent to spend more on additional services. When Activision opened the Call of Duty Elite service in 2011, 10 million players signed up but only 2 million agreed to pay the $50 per year fee. By the end of 2012, Call of Duty Elite was forced to become a free service.

Call of Duty Elite and Twitch Turbo are more similar than they first appear. Both premium subscription services were based around adding value through small perks and preferential treatment and appealed to similar audiences. At $108 per year, Twitch Turbo is a more expensive proposition than Call of Duty Elite. The service will be an interesting experiment for Twitch but it is not a guaranteed source of new growth.

Keep your new Apple iPhone 5 pristine with one of the cases from our case roundup.

If you want to keep that shiny new iPhone 5 looking pristine and sexy, then you need to grab yourself some decent protection. Whether you want something to match Apple’s stylish flagship design, something to safeguard it from accidents, or something to show off your personality, we’ve got you covered in this iPhone 5 case roundup.

When it comes to accessories, the iPhone line has always inspired some imaginative entries, and the latest release is no exception. Even before the queues start to form at Apple stores across the country, the market is already flooded with iPhone 5 cases.

We’ve got unbreakable iPhone cases, gorgeous iPhone cases, retro iPhone cases – in short, we have an iPhone 5 case to suit everyone.

If you haven’t upgraded yet then check out our best iPhone 4 and 4S cases.

Knomo iPhone 5 Leather Case ($35) This case has a stylish, premium look finished in real leather. The frame is tough polycarbonate and there’s a TPU lip to give it a little flexibility for snapping on and off. You’ll find easy access for your iPhone controls, but like many other cases, it can cause the flash to white wash your photos. You have a choice of the understated black leather with green frame or much louder burnt ochre leather with black frame.

Snappgrip for iPhone 5 ($100) Funded through Kickstarter, the Snappgrip case is for photography fans. The basic case offers protection for your iPhone with all the usual cutouts and the textured surface is good for grip. The real attraction of Snappgrip, though, is the snap on camera controls, which convert your iPhone 5 into a traditional point-and-shoot camera. You’ve got shutter, mode, and zoom controls which connect via Bluetooth and work with the companion iOS app. There’s also a wrist strap and a tripod mount.

Slip Stopper for iPhone 5 ($20) Apple works hard to reduce those dimensions and create a svelte smartphone so slapping a bulky plastic case on your iPhone 5 can feel wrong. With Slip Stopper, you can get a little protection without losing that form factor or the design highlights. It’s basically gel resin panels that you affix onto the iPhone. They add comfort and grip when you are holding the phone and you’ll benefit from a little shock absorption and scratch resistance.

Hex Fleet Core Case for iPhone 5 ($35) Here’s a classy look for your iPhone 5. The Fleet Core case has a perfect fit frame wrapped in water resistant waxed canvas. The grey pinstripe finish gives it a business look, but you’ll find plainer alternatives at the Hex website if you prefer. It’s a premium look and there’s no need to remove the case to use the phone because you have all the standard cutouts.

Acase Superleggera Pro Dual Layer Protective Case ($20) The initial release of the Acase Superleggera Pro for the iPhone 5 was botched and customers complained about a loose fit. The good news is that the case has been redesigned for snug protection. It’s a fairly svelte offering with a layer of shock absorbing silicone and a polycarbonate cover with a rubber coating for grip. It has silicone pads to protect your ports and there are cutouts for the camera and controls. It comes in a wide range of colors.

iPhone 5 Ballistic Shell Gel (SG) Series Case ($35) Triple layer protection from Ballistic will safeguard your iPhone 5 from drops and bumps. There’s a shock absorbent polymer, a tough polycarbonate shell, and soft silicone. The combination is great for protection and grip. If plain black doesn’t suit you, there’s a choice of colors for a two-tone effect.

X-Doria Kick Case for iPhone 5 ($30) You’ll find a range of two-tone color combinations for this kick stand case from X-Doria. The top portion of the case is smooth and glossy with all the cutouts you need and the bottom portion is matt rubber for grip and stability. The pop-out kickstand allows you to prop your phone securely in portrait or landscape view.

Pad & Quill Little Pocket Book for iPhone 5 ($55) Here’s a little pocket book case that combines leather with Baltic birch wood. It is a high quality option handmade in the USA and it has a really distinctive look. It also has room for all of your credit cards and other bits and pieces. The wooden frame surrounded by durable leather closes snugly around your iPhone 5 to offer great protection and there’s an elasticated band to keep it in place. There’s full access to ports and controls, including the camera (though not the flash), thanks to precision cutouts.

OtterBox iPhone 5 Defender Series Case ($49.95) This could be the perfect iPhone 5 case for anyone with butterfingers. The OtterBox Defender offers an inner polycarbonate shell, a screen protector, and an impact-absorbing rubber outer layer. There are also rubber plugs to protect the ports and a holster for wearing the phone on your belt. It comes in a range of two-tone color designs. It may be a bit bulky, but it will keep your iPhone looking as good as the day it was born.

Cygnett Vector 3D Tough Case for iPhone 5 ($18.99) A stylish, textured case available in purple or black – the reasonably priced Vector by Cygnett is a good option. It’s impact resistant, it’s easy to grip, and it has raised edges and a screen protector to keep that touchscreen in perfect condition. The 3D textured material is tough and the case offers full access to functions and ports.

Belkin View Case for iPhone 5 ($19.99) When you have a gorgeous piece of design like the iPhone 5 you could be forgiven for not wanting to cover it up with a case. The View Case from Belkin offers basic protection without compromising that stylish look. It features a fully transparent polycarbonate back with a polyurethane band around the outside. You can choose from a variety of color highlights for the impact-resistant edging.

Griffin KaZoo Case for iPhone 5 ($24.99) Whether you’ve splashed out cash on an iPhone 5 for your child, or you just love cartoon animals, the KaZoo case from Griffin might just tempt you. These basic, soft silicone cases offer full access to controls, ports and the display. Why not wrap your iPhone in a colorful animal character? You have a choice of a monkey or an elephant.

Seidio Surface with Metal Kickstand ($34.95) This slim case comes with a handy magnetic kickstand for propping up your phone, which snaps easily away when you aren’t using it. The case is very slim and the durable plastic has a soft-touch coating for comfortable handling. It comes in a variety of colors.

Grove bamboo case for iPhone 5 ($79) The most expensive case in our lineup justifies its high price tag with a intricate, hand-finished design made in the U.S. Unlike cheap plastic cases that look worse as they collect scratches and scuffs, the all-natural bamboo shell takes on an attractive patina in time, and is surprisingly tough. You can also get your case laser-engraved with a number of patterns right from the factory, or even a custom design.

Case-Mate Barely There Case for iPhone 5 ($30) This slim case combines a hard outer shell with a silicone liner, which cushions your device. It will give you basic protection without adding much bulk. It’s a classic, minimalist design with a comfortable soft-touch finish. It comes in a wide range of matte colors with a subtle inlaid logo.

iLuv Diary Premium Leather Book Case for iPhone 5 ($34.99) Here’s a clever combination case that offers premium leather on the outside and a tough polycarbonate shell on the inside. It’s a book-style case and when you open it up you’ll also find a sleeve with a couple of slots for credit cards. The advantage here is full 360 degree protection when the case is closed and easy access when you open it.

Sena Hampton Flip iPhone 5 Case ($54.95) If you want premium leather, but prefer a vertical, flip-open design, the high quality Sena Hampton Flip case could be the one for you. Crafted from luxurious full-grain leather, this is a classy option that offers good all-round protection. It comes in black or brown and it also features a couple of credit-card slots.

Incipio Kicksnap iPhone 5 Case ($34.99) Here’s another option for anyone looking to do some hands-free movie viewing on their iPhone 5. The Kicksnap case from Incipio has a built-in kickstand that flips out easily. It’s crafted from a rigid plextonium frame with an NGP soft-shell core. Like many iPhone 5 cases on the market, it is tough on the outside and soft on the inside for shock absorption.

STM Opera Protective Case for iPhone 5 ($29.99) This TPU case hugs your iPhone 5 tightly and it will guard against damage and give you extra grip. It is extremely thin and light with all the cutouts you need and a nice textured backing. It comes in a range of colors including blue, gray, pink, white, and black. Found an iPhone 5 case that you’ve fallen in love with? Post a comment and tell us why you’d recommend it.

Whether or not you’re a fan, the Hitman HD Trilogy isn’t an essential purchase, but it charts the series’ evolution over the past decade.

The title Hitman HD Trilogy is a bit misleading. While the newly released HD collection from Eidos Interactive and Square Enix does indeed pack together the three Hitman games for consoloes released prior to 2012, it does not qualify as a complete set since the first game in the series - Hitman: Codename 47 - continues to be exclusive to PC. It’s not fair to hold the absent PC game against this Xbox 360 and PS3-only collection, but it’s a glaring absence that deserves mentioning. If you’re looking for a fully comprehensive collection of pre-2012 Hitman games, this is not the set you’re looking for. It’s likely the best that you’re going to get, however, and that’s okay.

The Hitman HD Trilogy gathers together Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, Hitman: Contracts, and Hitman: Blood Money into a single box. Blood Money is identical to the current-gen 2006 release. It comes on its own disc, it uses the same set of Xbox 360 Achievements, and it appears to be completely unchanged in any conceivable way.  There’s just a new title image printed onto the disc. The game continues to hold up very well. It lacks the improvements introduced in last year’s Hitman: Absolution, but levels like the opera house or the Christmas party are just as memorable as they’ve ever been.

The two earlier games are lumped together on a disc of their own. The HD refresh, which also of course includes support for widescreen displays, is a welcome improvement, but it’s still impossible to ignore the fact that these are old, old games. Hitman 2 suffers the most, unsurprisingly, with a control scheme that feels awkward and poorly optimized for current-gen gamepads. It’s more a product of the game than the quality of the port; Hitman 2 certainly works in the context of what it is, but you can definitely feel the 10-year gap since its release peeking through.

Contracts fares better, with the original game’s improvements on Hitman 2 carrying over just as well here. The gamepad controls make much more sense and the addition of an easily accessible map improves the playing experience considerably. Contracts is also likely the reason that we’ll never see a properly comprehensive Hitman HD collection; many of the first game’s levels were refreshed in the 2004 release, and those same sections of Codename 47 have always suffered by comparison.

On the technical side, the two older games don’t seem to have been put through any kind of significant remastering process. The resolution is upped to 720p and widescreen displays are now supported, but the textures and character models don’t appear to have been swapped out with new ones. If any remastering work was done at all, it’s very subtle.

The only real flaw with this collection is the fact that these games, even Blood Money, are as imperfect as they’ve ever been. Hitman: Absolution is a nearly perfect execution (no pun intended) of the ideas laid out in the original game, but the titles released between Codename 47 and Absolution serves as snapshots of both the technology available at the time of their development and the evolution of the series as a whole. None of them, not even Blood Money, deliver capably on the promise of putting players in the shoes of a smooth professional killer.

Achievement and Trophy hunters will no doubt appreciate having new awards to shoot for, though Gamerscore junkies ought to note that the 1,000 points of cheevos splits evenly between Hitman 2 and Contracts. Blood Money still uses the same Achievements that it did before, but note as well that it’s a brand new release on PlayStation 3 with this collection.

Conclusion

Given all of that, newcomers to the Hitman series should probably just stick with Absolution to see what 47 can really do. There’s definitely value in revisiting these three older games, particularly the superior Blood Money, if you have fond memories of playing the originals. You also might want to take a peek if you’re freshly done with Absolution and would like to see how the series developed into last year’s release. The Hitman HD Trilogy is an artifact, however, capturing three earlier moments in video games when things weren’t quite as shiny or artificially intelligent as they are now.

Hitman HD Trilogy was reviewed using an Xbox 360 version of the game, as provided by the publisher.

The original Assassin’s Creed was supposed to let people collaborate on taking down Templars, but the technology and story kept co-op out of the game. Now it looks like Ubisoft is re-approaching the idea of cooperative Assassin’s Creed.

Ubisoft met with a fair amount of skepticism from the press when it announced in 2010 that it was brining multiplayer to Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood. Why would a story-heavy game about stalking opponents need a multiplayer mode unless it was just a cynical attempt to satisfy market trends? The doubters were shocked to find that Ubisoft Montreal made what is still considered one of gaming’s best multiplayer modes. According to Assassin’s Creed III mission director Philippe Bergeron multiplayer was always the plan for the series, but not as it ultimately appeared in Brotherhood and later entries. The original Assassin’s Creed was supposed to have a massive co-operative mode.

“[It] just became too hard to do: The engine couldn’t support it, and then the metaphor we had above it didn’t support it. Co-op was one of those big thing at the beginning that just didn’t make sense in the end,” Bergenon told OXM in a retrospective, “For us it was really part of the single player experience, to have in-and-out co-op, and in the end we never thought it made sense in the storyline that we had for the Animus. There was no way to reconcile having multiplayer or co-op in an ancestor’s memories.”

The original Assassin’s Creed follows the story of Desmond as he explores the memories of his ancestor Altair, an assassin fighting against the Templar Order during the Crusades. Bergenon is right that a co-operative mode would have stretched the limits of narrative logic in the game even if Ubisoft’s 2007 engine could have accommodated it.

This past fall though, Ubisoft introduced a spinoff to the series that allows narrative justification for co-op. Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation for PS Vita is a wholly separate story from Desmond, positing that people can relive the lives of past assassins free of a genetic link. With those narrative shackles taken off, Ubisoft is free to explore co-op in future games and it appears that they will do so. A questionnaire sent to Assassin’s Creed fans in November suggested that Ubisoft is considering putting drop-in co-operative play in the next game. The question asked if the “possibility for a friend to join the game in order to help me at any time during the solo mode” was a “must have.”