Duke Nukem 2 To Hit iOS Next Month

Duke Nukem's two-dimensional VGA romp through the alien-ridden, distant future year of 1998 is coming to various iOS devices next month, in celebration of the game's twentieth anniversary. Originally released in 1993 for MS-DOS, Duke Nukem 2 will be available for $1.99 and will be compatible with iOS devices iPhone 4S and newer, including iPad Minis and last-generation's iPod Touch.

As seen in the trailer, Interceptor Entertainment's iOS port uses virtual button controls to navigate Duke through the game's 32 levels. While Duke's pre-3D adventures were a little bit more Contra than they were Doom, the franchise's sense of humor had already been firmly cemented in place, much like his hairstyle.

Garnet Red PlayStation 3 bundled with God of War: Ascension And 500GB HDD Arrives This March In US For $349

Sony apparently sees 2013 as a chance to colorize its aging PlayStation 3 console, today announcing yet another new color for the superslim packing 500GB of storage. To match the blood red tattoos found all over God of War star Kratos' body, Sony colored this one garnet red, and is pairing the console with God of War: Ascension -- thusly, the bundle arrives on March 12, the same day God of War: Ascension is scheduled to go up for sale. Unlike its "Classic White" brethren, you won't get a full-year subscription to PlayStation Plus in this bundle -- a disappointment considering this one costs $50 more. It does, however, include not just a copy of God of War: Ascension, but also God of War Saga (which collects the first three God of War games) and God of War: Origins Collection (which bundles the two God of War PlayStation Portable games). That's a total of six God of Wargames included in this bundle, so you'd better really be into spending time with Kratos should you pick this up.

Xbox 720 Will Reportedly Throw Lots Of Processing Power At The Video Game Console Crisis

Home video game consoles seem somewhat quaint at this point, and it’s not an issue of graphics capabilities or raw power, on which scales they both still beat out mobile devices. But in terms of content delivery, smartphones and tablets blow away the old guard of the video games field. ‘More power’ will still likely be the clarion call of the next generation of consoles from Sony and Microsoft, and new details leaked around Microsoft’s Xbox 360 successor, codenamed Durango, suggest they’ll have specs to boast about.

A leak from VGLeaks offers a look at what kind of CPU and GPU will be inside Microsoft’s next-gen console, and it includes 8 CPU cores at 1.6GHz, with a custom 800MHz graphics processor in the GPU. There are 8GB of RAM on board, with 32MB of fast embedded SRAM at double the throughput speed, and a 50GB-capable 6x Blu-ray drive. Wireless connectivity protocols include both Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi Direct, and there’s still a Gigabit Ethernet port for gamers with low latency multiplayer demands. It’ll also come with USB 3.0 and HDMI 1.4a, which supports 3D over HDMI, Ethernet, audio return channels and 4K resolution

The rumored specs for the PS4 mean that it can beat the Xbox 720 on paper, at least when it comes to teraflops, giving it a theoretical 50 percent advantage in raw computing power according to previously leaked info on Sony’s next-gen machine. But the CPU/GPU combo should be similar for both, making it easier to port between these consoles and the PC for developers. An easier development process for game-makers that gives them greater potential reach will likely be a key component of the next generation of home consoles, now that they’re competing for game studio attention with mobile platforms, where game porting and development cycles are a lot less demanding of a time and resource investment.

Big specs are an investment in the future of a platform, especially for game consoles where CE companies sink lots of money into R&D and don’t even make a profit on hardware for the first few years. The Xbox 720 is likely designed for at least a 10 year active life, and that’s part of why it boosts the processing power outlined in these leaks. But that’s an old model, and one that hasn’t yet had to face the test of the rapid iteration cycle of smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices.

The big story at CES 2013 this year wasn’t 4K or 8K TVs or the smart home, it was the increasing power of mobile processors, as exemplified by new Qualcomm and Samsung chips. These processors can handle graphics that, while not on par with consoles quite yet, makes up much of the ground remaining between them. The Xbox 720 and PS4 may help put a further narrowing of the gap a bit further out of reach, but when these launch, I don’t think we’ll be talking about their success in terms of which has the better specs – that discussion began to die the moment you could beam a game you were playing on your iPhone wirelessly to your TV.

Angry Birds-Maker Rovio Crossed 263M Monthly Active Users Last Month

Rovio, the Finnish makers of Angry Birds, said they crossed 263 million monthly active users in December, with 30 million downloads in Christmas week alone and 8 million downloads on Christmas Day. The figure is about 30 percent higher than the 200 million monthly active users the company had at the end of 2011.

For perspective, 263 million monthly actives is nearly as many as Zynga has. Zynga reported 311 million monthly active users in the third quarter of last year, and tracking site AppData says that the company currently has 264 million monthly active users on Facebook.

Rovio, which found its landmark hit on the iOS platform on its 52nd attempt at launching a game, has set increasingly lofty (and some say, crazy) goals year after year. At an interview I did with the company in November, the company’s chief marketing officer Peter Vesterbacka said he wanted Rovio to be the first entertainment brand with 1 billion a users a day (or as many as Coca-Cola interacts with).

The path to that involves not just smartphone games, but loads of licensed merchandise, animated shorts, a feature length film, and potentially hundreds of activity and amusement parks in China and throughout the world. China recently became Rovio’s biggest market by daily active users.

The company expects that around half or more of its revenue will eventually come from real-world goods (not virtual ones).

NVIDIA unveils Project SHIELD, an Anrdroid gaming handheld at CES 2013

NVIDIA has showcased it’s Project Shield, a handheld Android gaming device at it’s press conference during CES 2013. Powered by the newly announced Tegra 4 processor, the Shield comes with a 5-inch flip-up screen that has a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels, amounting to 294 pixels per inch (ppi). The screen is mounted over a DualShoch3-like controller and the device also features an HDMI port for video output, a microSD card slot storage expansion and a micro-USB port as well.

NVIDIA boasts of a running time of around 38 hours on the device with the 3,400 mAh battery that comes in the Shield and also, an audio system which gives incredible sound levels. According to the company, the shield is a “pure Android” device , so expect it to come with the standard Android UI and also, all the games and Apps from the Google Play Store.

Showing off the prowess of it’s Tegra 4 processor that comes inside the Shield, NVIDIA connected the Shield to LG’s 4K television  and demonstrated HD video and real-time gaming on the display without any degradation or lags.

Apart from all the Android games, users would also be able connect to the cloud and play games with the same capabilities as seen on the NVIDIA Grid. Also, users would be able to connect Shield to their PC using NVIDIA’s GeForce Experience software as using it, they’ll be able to remotely access the games installed on their PC and play it on the Shield.

There is no word on the pricing or release of Shield as of now, but NVIDIA says that the gaming device will be start shipping in the second quarter of this year.