Wii U

Pokémon is impossibly good. I mean to say that it’s impossible that a game first released in 1998 has kept me away from my Xbox 360/PS3, the pinnacles of gaming technology, for a solid week. By all conventions of technology, Pokémon should be nothing more than a fond memory. Like the briefcase cell-phone, the room-sized personal computer, and the VHS, Pokémon should have been defeated by newer technology a decade ago.

The story? Non-existent. A couple dozen lines of poorly-written dialog don’t constitute a story. The graphics? Sub-par. The gameplay? Like, three buttons and an off-switch. Pokémon is an anomaly. It shouldn’t exist in its current form. Yet it does, and does so very well. But what if Japanese developer Game Freak finally decides to stop proving wrong every convention of technology and instead starts utilizing the best hardware available to create a Pokémon game that the world has been waiting for?

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It's pretty universally acknowledged by gamers that Nintendo's going to need to put in a stronger showing in the online play department with its next-gen platforms. The online features of the Wii and DS just haven't been able to compete with Xbox Live or PlayStation Network. Paid DLC won't change that on its own, but it's definitely a good start.

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This is a dark time for Nintendo. The popular and industry reception to the announcement of the Wii U at E3 this year was not, shall we say, entirely positive. The sales of Nintendo's new handheld were not, shall we say, stellar, necessitating a price drop the Nintendo 3DS. Nintendo's stock is at a, shall we say, five-year low. All of this adds up to a loss in profits. Nintendo predicts 82 percent lower profits this fiscal year. This is, shall we say, terrible.

The company is far from broke. In spite of all the bad news, they still predict $257M in profits this year, but that's a lot less than the  $1.41B it previously expected.

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EA Sports has their mitts (get it, baseball?) on Wii U dev kits. They've spent enough time with the Wii U to confidentially say Nintendo's next console can do "anything" the PS3 and Xbox 360 can.

"It's still moving," said EA Sports VP Andrew Wilson to Eurgoamer, "but I think we'll be able to do anything that we can do on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on the Wii U."

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Our own Kevin Kelly was down at the Comic-Con this past weekend, and got his hands on Darksiders 2. A fan of the first game, Kevin was very impressed with what he saw of the sequel. Here's a bit of his preview, detailing the differences between the first game and the second:

"The original Darksiders was a mixture of God of War and Zelda, with combat and platforming puzzle elements borrowed from both, and Darksiders 2 follows that same path while adding a heavy dose of role-playing. Madureira stopped short of calling the new game an RPG, but said it comes pretty close. He also said that the team was nervous about changing the protagonist from War to Death, especially since the first game was a success. Joking that they did it 'just to be annoying,' Madureira and team overhauled much of the interface and gameplay in the process. This time you'll get armor and weapon drops as well as cash when you defeat enemies, and those equippable items will be visible on Death, and will affect his stats."

Check out the rest of our Darksiders 2 preview.

ZEN Studios struck a nerve among gamers with its Marvel Pinball downloadable release for Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network. Fusing two things that are awesome -- namely, superpowers and pinball -- the game has been praised for its elaborate tables and beautiful visuals. And now, finally, it's coming to other platforms.

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Zen Studios is keeping the ball rolling with Marvel Pinball Vengeance and Virtue that will keep bringing new characters to their popular line of Marvel Pinball tables based on characters from the Marvel universe. Next up will be Johnny Blaze / Ghost Rider, who will be one of four characters appearing in Vengeance and Virtue, which is set in the depths of hell.

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Batman: Arkham City DLC will make Rocksteady's next Batman game an ongoing one, with players able to download future "episodes." According to whom, you ask? According to none other than Batman himself, of course!

In an interview with site Comic Booked, the voice of the Dark Knight, Kevin Conroy stated his plans for future work. "The thing about Arkham City is that it’s going to be an ongoing game," Conroy said. "You’re going to be able to download future episodes of it, so it’s going to be going on for quite a while. I’ve been recording it for a while. So that will continue."

There's really no other Arkham City news, and Conroy's statements, while cool, are also somewhat vague. After all, this could simply mean more challenge maps. But with the recent reveals of Talia al Ghul and Solomon Grundy in Batman: Arkham City, it seems Rocksteady is more than willing to continue pulling from the rogues gallery.

What do you think? Will we see an extended storyline from Arkham City DLC, or would you actually want more challenge maps instead? Leave your thoughts below!

Source: Comic Booked

According to the The Darkess 2 panel from Comic-Con 2011, there is a live-action feature film version of The Darkness currently in development. Mandeville Films, the studio behind the Academy Award-winning The Fighter, will produce. According to Darkness creator Marc Silvestri, the film will be a full-blown, true Hollywood movie. "This will not be a watered down version of The Darkness," he said.

For more information from The Darkness panel at Comic-Con, head on over to our The Darkness Comic-Con 2011 panel write-up.

Irrational Game's Ken Levine has no plan for a Wii-U Bioshock, or any other game for that matter. You may remember a montage of developers praising the Wii U from Nintendo's E3 2011 press conference. Ken Levine was one of the devs who was featured in the pro-Wii U video, leading many to speculate a Wii-U BioShock was on its way. In an interview with IGN, Ken Levine denied this, "Just to be clear, there are no plans. I'm not saying it can't happen, but we have no plans to do any games for that platform."

Levine may not have plans for Nintendo's platform yet, but it's something on his mind. He feels the Wii U, along with the PSVita, are geared towards the core gamer. To read all of his thoughts on the Wii U, keep reading.

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It's time to check out the first video appearance of The Riddler in Batman: Arkham City, via the below video:

 You'll want to rewind a few times to pick up the clues.

"What are these clues you speak of?" you may be asking. Hit the "Read More" tag for an explanation to that riddle.

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In this X-Play preview of Batman: Arkham City, we've got tons of gameplay footage and closeups of the villains wreaking havoc to satiate your Dark Knight hunger pains. And if that's not enough, Blair Herter also dives into Catwoman's gameplay to give us a sample of feline ferocity. Check it all out in the video below:

Aliens: Colonial Marines is a game that drops marines onto LV-426 after the events of James Cameron's classic Aliens to fend off a xenomorph horde with pulse rifles, power loaders, and just about anything our heroes can get their hands on. But if this sounds like mumbo jumbo for franchise fans only, don't worry: we scoped out the game at E3 and it looks to be just as heart-racing as any top-notch shooter.

"In one sequence, the player can  set up sentry guns to hold off an oncoming horde, lovingly lifted from a deleted scene in the film, and of course, there are Power Loaders, the giant exoskeletons used to transport heavy cargo and swat away at alien Queens. Even better, these Power Loaders are armed to the teeth with guns and flamethrowers. Most interesting though was the four-player drop-in/drop-out that allows you to take on the xenos with three of your buddies instead of only AI jarheads."

I don't know if you knew this, but I have an Alien tattoo on the back of my neck. Sorry you had to find out this way, Dad. I'm pretty pumped to load up my M56 Smart Gun and put these beasts down. And if that doesn't work, I've got my trusty shotgun handy... in case of close encounters.

Still, don't take my word for it! Read all of Eric Eckstein's Aliens: Colonial Marines E3 2011 preview and judge for yourself!

A few weeks ago, we learned that Robin (of Batman and... fame) would be playable in Batman: Arkham City. Along with the news came a picture of the Boy Wonder, who looked like a brooding Eminem, complete with buzzcut, surly expression and what looks like a facial tatoo. Today, courtesy of the Batman: Arkham City forums, we got another picture (in which Robin looks kinda like Eminem in a Robin outfit, complete with a hoody/cape.) as well as an idea of the concept behind this Robin.

From Arkham City senior concept artist Kan Muftic:

"We wanted to create a Robin that players would identify as a contemporary character and move away from the traditional 'Boy Wonder' image that most people know. Our vision of Robin is the one of a troubled young individual that is calm and introverted at times but very dangerous and aggressive if provoked. The shaved head is inspired by cage fighters, because we thought that Robin might be doing that in his spare time to keep him on his toes. Still, we kept all the classic trademarks of Robin’s appearance, such as the red and yellow colors of his outfit, the cape and the mask. We really hope that people will discover our Robin as one of their new favorite characters in the Batman universe. He is back and he means business."

Robin sounds pretty badass, if a little emo. Two full Robin pictures are under the cut, for you fans of Detroit Hip Hop from 2002.

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Forbes.com recently spent some solid, quality time with Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo America's president and chief operating officer, and Reggie dropped all kinds of details on Nintendo's plans for the Wii U. The standout fact, for me, is that you will be able to watch movies and TV shows from the Wii U's controller... with your Wii U console turned on, of course.

When asked if Netflix movies could be viewed on the controller, Reggie replied:

"Theoretically, that’s possible."

Reggie also detailed Nintendo's plan for an online network, saying, "We’ve seen what our competitors have done, and we’ve acknowledged that we need to do more online, starting with the launch of our eShop on Nintendo 3DS, and we’re going to continue to build our online capability."

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