Nintendo has announced that The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages and The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons are now available in the Nintendo Switch Online library. With Game Boy and Game Boy Color titles being part of the service’s base subscription, that means all subscribers, not just those subscribed to the costlier Expansion Pack, can now access the game.

The library of Zelda titles playable on the Switch continues to grow as well. Also playable on the platform across the Nintendo Switch Online and Expansion Pack libraries are The Legend of Zelda and Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link for the NES, A Link to the Past for the SNES, Link’s Awakening DX for the Game Boy Color, Minish Cap for the Game Boy Advance, and Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask for the N64. Meanwhile, the Switch’s own native library includes Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom, Skyward Sword HD, and 2019’s Link’s Awakening remake.

Now, if only they’d bring The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess to the Switch, right?

According to Capcom’s 2013 financial report for the fiscal year ending March 31st 2013, there was a statement where the company talked about “moving forward with the development of new title ‘deep down’ for next-generation consoles, representing the culmination of Capcom technology and our next leap forward”.

It also stated that the company was “currently developing ‘deep down’, which integrates the latest state-of-the-art technology for next-generation non-portable consoles such as the soon-to-be-released PlayStation 4” and while when mentioning its new Panta Rhei engine, stated that, “The counterpart in collaboration for the ‘Panta Rhei’ game engine is the title ‘deep down’ for next-generation consoles. We are pushing ahead with development in tandem with the title development team.”

It doesn’t name the Xbox One explicitly but there’s no denying the significance of a line like “next generation consoles” over simply naming the PS4 alone. As of now, no release date has been announced for Deep Down.

“We have taken time and care to create our wet track system, so that it has a real effect on the player experience. The wet surroundings will have varying affects across a range of surface types, we wanted the player to have to rethink their racing styles and adapt to this new feature.”

Star Stable is essentially a massively multiplayer horse-riding simulator. You travel to the typical barn for the summer to train your horseback-riding skills only to learn that it will be demolished soon by the heathens of the corporate world. It’s an easy story to relate to (unless you’re an Objectivist) and provides enough incentive for the missions you’ll undertake. The story isn’t mean to overshadow the entire horse riding experience, which is even better.

The missions here aren’t like what you’d find in typical games. In keeping with a lot of social network games, they’re actually more like small tasks or challenges to complete for progression. As such, this makes them incredibly linear and easy to complete. I appreciate that the developer Pixel Tales wants to keep the emphasis on the riding aspect of the horse game. Really, as someone who approaches both open-ended objectives, sandbox games and set piece-heavy titles with equal aplomb, it’s only to be expected that a game like Star Stable would dial things back a bit.

This dialling back also extends to the overall riding aspect. Once you create your own character and choose a name from the pre-created choices, you’ll be able to ride a horse into the wild blue yonder. The horses themselves encompass every single shade you can imagine and come off as real as you would imagine with their strong yet graceful profiles. Many of us may no doubt raise our eyebrows at the aspect of being able to select only female characters, but hey, if Mass Effect hasn’t taught you about gender equality then nothing will. And honestly, even hardcore gamers remember that awesome feeling of having Epona for the first time in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time without worrying about the hang-ups of having to play as a girl.

And that’s where Star Stable ultimately succeeds. It introduces an altogether laid-back aspect of gameplay with its cartoony art style and control scheme. You steer using the A and D keys, while speeding up or down using the mouse wheel but riding around feels natural and easy. The overall game is built around enjoying the experience. Sure, there aren’t any deeper meanings to be assuaged but sometimes it’s just about giving people that same feeling they can’t get in real life. Being able to just roar through the fields with friends, keeping pace as you explore the mysteries of the world, and ultimately finding that love and respect for your trusty steed. It may sound incredibly simplistic but still enjoyable, nonetheless.

Star Stable is being constantly updated with new challenges and missions but you can also take part in a fair bit of exploring and racing. And when I say “fair bit”, I mean quite a lot. Usually, after unlocking an area, these new activities become available but when you strike out on your own and take the world in by itself, you’ll find the time just melting away. Kudos to Pixel Tales for being to craft such a rich world yet one that is easily accessible.

Star Stable’s graphics are good not only because they actually look good while lending a distinct identity but can run on even the least powerful of machines without any trouble. The game isn’t without its bugs which consist of invisible walls and some collision detection issues but it’s fairly smooth and trouble-free throughout.

Despite being available for free, you can also pay a small amount to gain Star Rider membership which essentially gives you all the content from the start along with some weekly Star Coins, which can be used to buy accessories, decorations, horse feed and much more.

This can’t be stated enough but even if Star Stable isn’t your kind of game, you should check it out. It’s one of those experiences that any one, from any age can enjoy and comes highly recommended for parents wanting to play with their children.

Belgacom and Onlive have launched an on-demand cloud gaming service in Belgium which allows exclusive one month free unlimited access to more than 200 PlayPack games for Belgacom Internet customers.

“Belgacom is the first telecom operator in Belgium to offer cloud-based gaming to its customers through its exclusive partnership with OnLive, the world’s first on-demand instant-play video game service,” reads the press release.

“The OnLive Game Service delivers hundreds of top-tier video games instantly over the Internet, letting customers play whenever and wherever they like, without the need for specialized computers, expensive game consoles or large downloads. Belgacom is offering its Internet customers a free one-month subscription to the OnLive PlayPack, which includes unlimited access to a selection of more than 200 video games.”

Belgacom offers an exclusive one month free PlayPack subscription (normally € 9.99/month) with unlimited access to more than 200 games from more than 60 major publishers, with more games added weekly. The special PlayPack subscription offer is available through 30 September 2012 to any Belgacom Internet customer, 18 years of age or over, who registers online at www.belgacom.be/onlive.

Games include Batman: Arkham Asylum, Homefront (Large-Scale Warfare Multiplayer), F.E.A.R. 3 (multiplayer), Borderlands, Just Cause 2, Red Faction: Armageddon, Sid Meier’s Civilization V, LEGO Batman, World of Goo, Flatout 2, Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords, Prince of Persia and many more.

 Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

Game4u will be holding a FIFA 11 online tournament, inviting all football and gaming enthusiasts to take part. The tournament kicks off at 7 PM on Saturday, 3^rd September 2011.

Those interested in participating can share their PSN ID and register here.  Registrations close on 31^st August 2011 at 11AM. It will be a knockout tournament with one match per player, allowing each player to play for 6 minutes. The final match will be played for 10 minutes.

For rules and regulations of the tournament please log on here.

Updates will be posted on Game4u Facebook page (search: Game4u) while the tournament is being played.

Keep an eye out for the next tournament announcement.

EA announced new online modes for SSX namely, explore and global. Andy Katkin revealed a lot more details:

• A huge world built by NASA date and Google Earth.
• Incredible gameplay: race it, trick it and survive it are the pillars of SSX gameplay.
• Social play. We put a huge focus on multiplayer and online gameplay.

“In explore you can drop into any of the planet’s iconic mountain ranges. Each time you have a personal best we’re going to upload a ghost of your run that lives permanently and that all your friends can see, even when you’re away from your console.”

Stay tuned for more updates on GB.

In case you are late to this whole affair. Diablo 3 requires a persistent online connection, which resulted in a massive outrage in the online communities. It was believed that this move was made to combat piracy and is extremely anti-consumer. However, Blizzard denied this today. Robert Bridenbecker, Vice President of Online Technologies at Blizzard had a lot to say regarding this controversy, “I’m actually kind of surprised in terms of there even being a question in today’s age around online play and the requirement around that.”

“We’ve been doing online gameplay for 15 years now… and with World of Warcraft and our roots in Battle.net and now with Diablo 3, it really is just the nature of how things are going, the nature of the industry. When you look at everything you get by having that persistent connection on the servers, you cannot ignore the power and the draw of that.”

“Internally I don’t think [DRM] ever actually came up when we talked about how we want connections to operate,” he said.

“Things that came up were always around the feature-set, the sanctity of the actual game systems like your characters. You’re guaranteeing that there are no hacks, no dupes. All of these things were points of discussion, but the whole copy protection, piracy thing, that’s not really entering into why we want to do it.”

“I’m a huge purveyor of online sites and from my standpoint, I don’t look at DRM solutions and go, ‘Wow, those are awesome.’ I look at those and say, ‘Wow, those kind of suck.’ But if there’s a compelling reason for you to have that online connectivity that enhances the gameplay, that doesn’t suck. That’s awesome.”

He said that gamers have nothing to worry about and this will be not intrusive but a part of evolution.

Via Eurogamer

Franchises like Pokemon, Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Grand Theft Auto, and more recently, Mass Effect and Assassin’s Creed have become synonymous with the word “addictive.” Addictive means the ability a game (in this case) has to hook you to it so badly that one cannot stop but thinking about going back to the game and keep on playing it. Very few games can claim to be addictive in true sense of the words. And those that do have that attribute are very tough to put down, and stick out in our memories for very prolonged periods of time.

As an ode to all those games that have kept me hooked for countless of hours and have made me come back to them to get some more of  the best of their parts, you have this feature, listing out the 10 Most Addictive Games This Generation.

BUT BEFORE WE BEGIN, I’d like to bring to your notice that this list concerns only this generation, so games only on the PSP, DS, Xbox 360, PS3, Wii and post 2004 PC games can be featured in this list. Also, addictiveness varies with each person’s opinion, so I’m pretty sure that most of you will disagree with the placements, or the choices in general, of this list. Anyway, I hope you enjoy. Sit back, relax, and tell us what you think of the list in the comments section below.

10. StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty

Countless hours have been spent on this game, both online and off. The single player campaign offers a really fun and addictive bunch of hours of gameplay, and the online competitive multiplayer is probably the most played multiplayer component in any RTS in the past few years. And I’m not even counting the number of times players (me included) have played the Random Map and other various single player modes. That this game is addictive is a no-brainer, and so is it being featured on this list.

9. Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars

A Grand Theft Auto game on an Addictive Games List is a no-brainer, even if it’s a handheld iteration of the franchise- and not a console one- we’re talking about. The very nature of the game makes the player come back to Liberty City for more- an entire city spread out before you, and you can do countless amount of stuff- race, steal cars, explore the city, destroy surveillance cameras, complete missions and side missions, buy houses, kill people and cops for no reason at all, trade drugs, play through the countless mini games in the game and then some more. Liberty City in Chinatown Wars is expansive as hell, and feels more open and free than that of GTA IV, even if it is lacking in an entire island.

8. World of Warcraft

By this time, most- if not all- of us have experienced the magical addictiveness of World of Warcraft, a game released back in 2004, that cemented Blizzard’s position as one of the top developers in the industry. World of Warcraft probably is the best MMORPG to have been released till date, and even franchises like Final Fantasy haven’t been able to dethrone it (especially not Final Fantasy XIV). While it may look outdated sometimes, it still has the same level of quality that addicted us, and still has us hooked, so many years ago.

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