CES 2012: Microsoft Announces Kinect for Windows

At CES 2012, Microsoft finally announced that it was bringing the Kinect to Windows. The Xbox 360 version of the Kinect has reportedly shipped over 18 million units to date. That’s not surprising. The silent-but-massive casual player fanbase is absolutely in love with the device.

What makes the creation of a Windows-centric device interesting is how much attention Microsoft is paying to the ever-growing Kinect modding community.  These dedicated fans have been hard at work, tweaking the existing Kinect hardware to function far beyond its official capabilities. Modders have found ways to use it to play non-supported titles, such as Skyrim. Fashion designers have used it as part of their shows. Microsoft even has a campaign that shows the Kinect helping stroke and brain injury patients in rehabilitation centers. Basically, modders have made the Xbox 360’s Kinect a far more functional device.

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Tokyo Game Show: Persona 4 Arena Footage

If you like Guilty Gear/ BlazeBlue / Hokuto No Ken/ Sengoku Basara X/Arcana Heart 3 or pretty much anything Arc System Works and Daisuke Ishiwatari touch, then you should be interested in Persona 4 Arena. Shoryuken.com has 45 minutes of Persona 4 Arena footage taken at the recent Tokyo Game Show.

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Third Strike Online: The Return of Gill/The End of Your Dignity

You'll See This A Lot...

When Capcom announced the release of Street Fighter III: Third Strike Online, it brought tears of joy to millions of fight-game-fanboys the world over.

Often considered the most underrated fighting game of all time according to a survey I fabricated (read: lied about) for this article, SF3:TSO’s release simultaneously caused Vietnam style flashbacks to many of those who suffered through the video-game equivalent of anal rape via the final boss: Gill.

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GolgoHypeMachine – Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes HD

Capybara, the genius developers behind Superbrothers: Sword & Sorcery EP and Critter Crunch, are brining their immensely popular Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes to XBLA and PSN. For those, like me, who missed the first go-round on the DS, the game plays kinda like a RPG adventure board game with combat that fuses puzzle and card-fighting elements, all with new sprites done in glorious HD.

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GolgoHypeMachine – FEZ

Fez is a fresh take on a classic 2D platfomer that allows players to rotate the world around them to find new areas and solve puzzles. Developed by Polytron Corporation, Fez features retro-inspired graphics, a wonderfully composed soundtrack, and gameplay somewhere between Super Paper Mario and Echochrome. This little beauty has had my interest since it was debuted as a proof-of-concept video over three years ago.

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GolgoHypeMachine – Moon Diver

Moon Diver, formerly known briefly as Necromachina, is on its way to PSN and XBLA. It’s a four player co-op side-scrolling platformer with RPG elements that plays like Castlevania meets Strider. Kouichi Yotsui, the lead designer and planner for Strider and Osman, is at the helm for Square-Enix on this project. Excited yet? I am.

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GolgoHypeMachine – Islands of Wakfu

Square-Enix and Ankama Group are bringing the world of Dofus and Wakfu to XBLA with Islands of Wakfu. Islands of Wakfu is a dungeon crawler beat-em-up bullet hell co-op RPG. Sounds good to me!

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