Another update on what's happening

Nerd Fortress Podcast Update

Listeners may be wondering "Why hasn't there been a new episode?" for more than quite a while now. Truth is that going back and re-watching Kamen Rider Wizard is going to take some additional time so I decided to hold off on it as a topic for the podcast for now.

The other main reason is that Devin and myself have been doing other things lately and have decided to talk about the previous generation of gaming consoles since the next generation of consoles are coming out in the next 2 weeks starting with the Playstation 4 on November 15th here in North America and then the X Box One on November 22nd in Europe and North America. Also, we are going to try and get this episode recorded before the holidays start here in North America which means that would be our last show of 2013!

And the 3rd reason is that I've been mostly busy playing Batman: Arkham Origins and Kamen Rider: Battride War on the PS3 which have really taken a lot of hours to get through as far as the main storyline goes for both games, but I will go into more detail about both games on the next episode.

We will definitely keep you guys posted!

You can follow us on Twitter for further info and updates on the podcast!

My Twitter: https://twitter.com/SuperSentaifan

Devin's Twitter: https://twitter.com/devinthecool

You can also send us comments, criticisms, feedback, suggestions, etc. at OfficialNerdFortressPodcast@gmail.com and also get a hold of us on Facebook and Tumblr! Thanks for being patient as well as your understanding and sticking around with us.

The Nerd Fortress Podcast: Episode 2

The Nerd Fortress Podcast: Episode 2

After a week of editing, the 2nd episode of The Nerd Fortress podcast is finally here!

This time, we talk about the Toei Channel as well as how the fansubbers feel about it, talk about some of the games that we saw featured at the Sony press conference before Tokyo Game Show kicked off, give a minor update on Mighty No. 9, then talk about Japanese import games as well as Chroma Squad and Ultraman's long overdue induction into the Guinness Book of World Records and introduce a new segment giving our anime, gaming and toku recommendations as well as much more!

This episode was recorded on Friday the 13th, and we weren't really at our best. And you will definitely hear that while listening to this episode. So please forgive us for not being as focused as well as knowledgeable, and organized during this episode! Hopefully, we should be back 100% next week. Please leave us you're comments, criticisms, feedback, etc. at officialnerdfortresspodcast@gmail.com or get in touch with us on Facebook, Tumblr or Twitter as well as tell other people about the podcast and be sure to download this episode to you're portable MP3 player, iTunes, etc.

Newest info on the PS4 and XBox One

If any of you have been living under a rock, or don't have excellent internet connections and still prefer actual gaming magazines for you to get you're latest gaming news, the Playstation 4 and the XBox One have both been announced. Microsoft had originally intended the Xbox One to be a console version of Valve's Steam platform on the PC, but it was so badly explained as well as marketed that tons of 360 fanboys and fangirls switched to the PS4 because of Microsoft's security concerns and because of this whole public relations nightmare, Don Mattrick resigned from his post as the President of the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft and became the new CEO of Zynga, who's best known for social media games like Farmville and Mafia Wars.

Microsoft has also been doing a lot of back-peddling to try and repair the damage done earlier this year when the Xbox One was announced and the PR nightmare that followed soon after while Sony Computer Entertainment divisions in both America and Japan have unveiled the Playstation 4 as well as announced the price which makes it $100 cheaper than the $500 MSRP that Microsoft is charging for the Xbox One! Fast forward to the present where just recently Sony finally announced the release date for the PS4 at the Gamescom trade fair in Cologne, Germany.

The Playstation 4 will be available to everyone in North America on November 15th and will be released in Europe on November 29th which will also be when the console will be released in Australia and will be available in 32 countries! Unfortunately, Microsoft hasn't released an announce date for the Xbox One, and the release of the console will be delayed in the European countries. A list of launch titles for both consoles have recently been released for both consoles which will be released during the first 3 months of both respected console's release dates.

Both consoles will have Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, Battlefield 4, and Call of Duty: Ghosts released on them as well as the latest entries in the Madden and NBA franchises. Also, keep in mind that a lot of the games coming for this holiday season will also be coming out for the PS3 as well as the 360 since both Microsoft and Sony will still be supporting these consoles for a few more years. The only real difference that you will see will be the graphics and the visuals because the graphics and visuals are supposed to look much better on these next generation consoles, but as to how much better remains to be seen.

For a full list of launch games that will be available on day one as well as within the launch window, please check out: List of PS4 launch titles and List of XBox One launch titles and take a look at the comparison chart located here at: Playstation 4 Vs. Xbox One Comparison Chart before making you're decision!

E3 2013 Overview and my personal opinions

For everybody that's a gamer, the Electronic Entertainment Expo or E3 for short is the time of year where we all get to find out what's coming up for the current generation and for the big 3 in the gaming industry to show off their best software and also show off live demos of upcoming games that are currently being developed.

Exactly 2 weeks ago, Microsoft unveiled the Xbox One and even though the console itself is an amazing piece of technology, there's just a whole lot of things that Microsoft is doing wrong with this console like having you to be connected to the internet for a game authorization process every 24 hours, being highly restrictive when it comes to used games and wanting to loan games to any of your friends for example. If you want to let a friend borrow a game for the Xbox One, you have to have them on your friends list on Xbox Live for 30 days, and you can only do this once! That's right, you can say "R.I.P." as far as letting friends borrow your games is concerned!

With all of this now being public knowledge among the gaming public, this absolutely hurt Microsoft's press conference at E3 this year. The new trailer for Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain was debuted to kick off the press conference, then the senior vice president of Xbox, Don Mattrick and Metal Gear series creator, Hideo Kojima came out and said a few words then went straight to the games.

Among these games were Below, Crimson Dragon, Dead Rising 3, D4, Forza Motorsport 5, Halo 5, which is a part of the new Halo trilogy being developed by 343 Industries, a Killer Instinct reboot, Kinect Sports Rivals, Quantum Break, Ryse: Son of Rome, and Sunset Overdrive which are all Xbox One exclusive games.

Electronic Arts and Ubisoft then had their press conferences which I'm not really going to go into since they are both developers and publishers for Microsoft and Sony, except for the fact that Aisha Taylor hosted the Ubisoft press conference for a 2nd year in a row and did a much better job than she did last year! Then the Sony press conference began after a bit of a delay just to make sure that everything was working properly and to correct a few things which is an E3 tradition at this point by now!

Sony then came out and showed off their list of impressive games with absolutely very amazing graphics which can also be applied to the games showed off for the Xbox One. And then, Jack Tretton who is the CEO and president of Sony Computer Entertainment of America came back out and began a series of rapid fire jabs at the Xbox One by putting all of our worst fears for the PS4 to rest by saying that we can still let our friends borrow our games, trade them in at Gamestop, it won't require any sort of online authentication for disc based games, and purchasing a game means that it is owned by the consumer forever!

Nintendo decided not to have a press conference this year for E3 for whatever reason and had an E3 edition of their Nintendo Direct online show instead. Nintendo showed off a great amount of games for the Nintendo 3DS and the Wii U as well as some indie games for the Wii U version of their E-Shop and also showed off a  montage of the 3rd party titles that would be coming to the Wii U. They also showed off actual gameplay footage of Bayonetta 2 which will be a Wii U exclusive which doesn't sit right with the people who payed for buying the original on the Xbox 360 or the Playstation 3. Nintendo also showed off some new games for the Wii U and the 3DS including Super Mario 3D World, a sequel to Super Princess Peach released for the Nintendo DS on February 27 of 2006, Pokemon X and Y for the Nintendo 3DS which will be the Pokemon franchise's official 3D debut, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, and last but certainly not least....

Yes, there is going to be a new Super Smash Bros. for both the Wii U and the Nintendo 3DS sometime in 2014 which is next year, and that the secret characters will be none other than the villager from the Animal crossing series, the "Blue Bomber" himself, Mega Man! Or as he's known by his original name in Japan, Rock Man (ロックマン). And just recently, the Wii Fit trainer was revealed to be another secret character for the game as well. And it's not the Mega Man from the box art of the original Mega Man game on the NES that was made for Street Fighter x Tekken, it's the actual Mega Man that we all know and love and am happy to see returning for another guest appearance!

There's games that I didn't cover, and that's perfectly fine because this is just an overview of this year's E3 from my own perspective! Microsoft, just what in the world happened to you? It's because of what their practices are for the Xbox One that a lot of loyal Xbox fans are going to be buying a PS4 instead of an Xbox One which is very shocking. It seems to me that Microsoft is doing everything that Sony did with the Playstation 3, but just much worse. And Microsoft has continued to either give people the run around, or flat out ignore the issues that a lot of people are wondering about with the Xbox One, and only more than a few details have been 100% concrete which is ridiculous!

Sony came right out, guns blazing and did the complete opposite of what Microsoft did at E3 despite the fact that they showed off what they had in terms of games and they even showed off what the Playstation 4 console would look like. And not to mention that Sony actually showed that they give a damn about their consumers, which is something that Microsoft is hardly doing at all with their consumers which include the now former Xbox fans that have been with them for 7 and a half years. And it must have took some very serious balls for Jack Tretton to be up there on that stage and deliver the verbal pounding to Microsoft by saying that they wouldn't be doing the exact same things that Microsoft are doing with the Xbox One and bullshit everybody with shit eating grins on their faces.

Microsoft introduced the Xbox One, but didn't focus very much on games and focused more on the multimedia aspect of the Xbox One by touting it as a replacement for your cable box even though you still need an internet connection and a subscription to a cable provider. The only mistake that Sony made when it revealed the Playstation 4 was not show off the actual console which was rectified during their presentation at E3 this year. Xbox One does have some awesome games, but most of them are going to be on the PS4 and the PS3 as well as the PC for all of the PC gamers out there, but that's not enough to justify a $500 console with restrictions on used games as well as what you can and can't do with your console that you just purchased!

Sony is the exact polar opposite of what Microsoft is doing and they are actually listening to their consumer base which is a very good thing. Nintendo had a good showing as well even though they didn't have their own press conference which ended up working for them in the long run and they are on even ground with Sony even though Nintendo has their own set of problems to deal with. If this was going to be how Nintendo did their presentations for E3 from now on, it wouldn't bother me a single bit because this gives them much more time on what they want to focus on and how they are going to be presenting their latest and future lineup of games without having to do anything like they did at E3 last year which would make perfect sense.

With all of that being said, here's my verdict for E3 2013:

#1. Sony

#2. Nintendo

#3 for the 4th year in a row: Microsoft

Anyways, sorry this blog post was a bit long everyone, and hope you enjoyed reading my opinions and thoughts on what happened at E3 this year! Will let you guys know what happens with the podcast on my personal twitter, so stay tuned!

Playstation 4 has been announced!

This past Wednesday at Sony's super secretive event, Sony finally announced the Playstation 4!

And it looks like that it's going to be more socially focused. Unfortunately, the cell processor that powered the Playstation 3 will not be powerhouse for the new console which has been coming back to biting Sony in the butt as of recent times. And there will also be personalization which is something that everybody likes!

Here are the official specs for the console itself!

There will also be new things that people have been asking Sony about for years, like cross game chat which can be found on the X Box 360, as well as a new controller which was also shown at the Playstation Meeting 2013 event in New York City. The new controller does away with the traditional 'Select and Start' buttons which have been a mainstay for the console ever since the original Playstation console and replaces them with a 'Share' button which will allow gamers to share their victories or favorite moments of what they are playing by scanning the last few moments of gameplay, tagging it and then returning the player to said game of choice. And gamers will also be able to share their images and videos to their friends on social networking services like Facebook and twitter.

The traditional "Select and "Start" buttons have now been replaced by an "Options" button!

The Playstation 4 will also enhance social spectating by enabling gamers to broadcast their gameplay in real-time to friends by using live internet streaming services like Ustream. During live broadcasts, friends can make comments on the streamed gameplay and, if a gamer gets stuck on a challenging level, friends can also join the game in completely new ways. For example, friends can offer health potions or special weapons when a player needs them most during actual gameplay.

Some other differences with the new controller is that it will have a sensor for the Playstation move accessory as well adjusted shoulder buttons, new analog sticks, a new directional pad and a touch screen and it will also support motion detection thanks to a three-axis gyroscope and a three-axis aceelerometer and improved vibration!

The controller also features several output connectors. A stereo jack which will allow the connection of a headset to speak and hear audio simultaneously, a micro USB port and an extension port are also included. It can be charged via microUSB, a dedicated charging station, or the console itself when the console is turned off.

There is of course, some bad news though here! The Playstation 4 will not be backwards compatible with the 3 previous Playstation console games because of the cell architecture of the Playstation 3 and a new cloud based streaming service made possible via Gaikai, a company purchased by Sony, which will render Playstation, Playstation 2, and Playstation 3 games and stream them to the Playstation 4.

You also won't be able to carry over everything which includes you're game saves from the Playstation 3 to the Playstation 4 either!The main reason for this also has to do with the architecture between the 2 consoles. However, Sony is considering transferring some games over if things aren't too demanding in terms of emulation. All of the PSN games as well as the game saves for them won't be carried over either unfortunately!

The thing that really strikes as weird or just plain worng is the fact that the actual console itself wasn't shown because even Sony doesn't even know what the design of the console will be and will possibly be determined and made for Sony's E3 presentation this June at the Los Angeles Convention Center! The PlayStation 4 will be released during the holidays later this year.  

Could Sony be announcing the Playstation 4?

We all know that Sony has been secretly developing the next Playstation without much information leaking out and every bit of information that has managed to get out has been classified as strictly rumor! But as of last March, a plethora of news concerning the successor to the PS3 has been made available including some of the specs, and even anti-used games measures which will combat the used gaming market. However, this information is purely speculation and hasn't been confirmed or denied by Sony!
The successor to the PS3 is code named "Orbis" and the code name for the new console from Microsoft is code named "Durango" and that Sony was going to let Microsoft go first by announcing they're new console, but it seems like this isn't going to be the case! 
Recently, this video was posted on the official Playstation Youtube channel as well as the North American Playstation blog which basically tells us that Sony will be having an event on February 20 of this year. The event will be held in New York City and will be livestreamed on the internet which is only 5 days away from the 'Destination Playstation' event starting in Arizona which showcases the biggest and best games that Sony has on it's plate for the year ahead.
Meanwhile, members of the gaming industry press as well as investors have been handed an invitation to the event which have offered no further information which has added more fuel to the fire when it comes to the rumors of Sony and the Playstation 4! The only thing that we do know so far is what the specs of the development kits will be for the developers who would want to develop games for the new console and not much else.
Development Kit Specs: System Memory: 8GB Video Memory: 2.2 GB CPU: 4x Dual-Core AMD64 "Bulldozer" (so, 8x cores) GPU: AMD R10xx Ports: 4x USB 3.0, 2x Ethernet Drive: Blu-Ray HDD: 160GB Audio Output: HDMI & Optical, 2.0, 5.1 & 7.1 channels
Please keep in mind that these are the specs for just the development kits and not the console itself! We will just have to wait until February 20 to see whether or not the Playstation 4 will in fact be revealed before E3 or something completely different. I will be keeping you guys updated with further news as it becomes available!