The Video Games Crash of 1983/2013

Reasons for the video gaming crash of 1983 2013.

The crash of 1983 happened because there was quality control with games and people stopped buying them.

Increasingly gravitating toward versatile, multi-purpose platforms like PCs and mobile devices. As a result, an increase in the number of gamers won't necessarily translate into an increase in demand for consoles.

discuss

In non-order:
1. Steambox
2. PS Vita
3. Ouya
4. Nvidia Shield
5. GameStick
6. PlayStation 4
7. Xbox One
8. iOS
9. Android
10. Neo-Geo X

RROD

Who the hell cares let it crash, nice to see 3DS and Wiiu left off the list becuase too will long after m$ & pony are long gone the way off $ega.

da whole thing seems premature

Nintendo will save us. No worries.

Digital distribution helps to negate one of the big parts of the Great Crash

is it me or have publishers have drastically lowered their output in the last few years. loling @EA

Steambox is going to make this happen

>>8 The mobile market is all about to crap itself dead with F2P gaming.

Just look at the rock solid success of the Ouya, which proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that people want the mobile game level of quality as their primary platform.

I hope steambox will be a success, just so desktop hardware manufacturers will finally start making decent linux drivers for gfx cards and so on.

Almost as important as the decline of worldwide farting.  Almost.

>>12
I hope that Academic degree in farting finally got you that job at TARGET!

Cock monster!!!

I sucks dick

farting on my face all night long

cock on my head from SFBE

pooping on the face of all of you's

The day has finally arrived: The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD is now available in Europe (and North America) as a physical release!
Back in 2003 The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker emerged on the GameCube and brought with it a fresh graphical style that divided fans completely. Instead of the traditional design seen in Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask, The Wind Waker took a cel-shaded approach and even did away with the typical Hyrule Field, introducing the vast Great Sea instead.
It was still Zelda at its core, though, and it didn't take long for fans to accept this new cartoon Link and the different style of play. Indeed, Toon Link is now a predominant figure and became the design of choice for the DS adventures Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks. He's even been a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl and will be returning in the upcoming Wii U and 3DS iteration.
However, as the developers have admitted in a recent Iwata Asks, it wasn't perfect and improvements have been made in this new version, including a swifter sail, which can be bought and attached to King of Red Lions to speed up the sailing sections so many complained about. Of course, the game is totally playable on the GamePad only and Miiverse is integrated with the addition of the Tingle Bottle, which can wash up on the shores of other players around the world. Some North American players have had the game for a while, as it was made available on the Wii U eShop a little earlier in the region so there are already plenty of messages to find!
The Wind Waker is regarded as the best Legend of Zelda title by many, with its luscious looks, great characters and excellent gameplay and now with the new high definition Wii U edition it looks all the more impressive.
You can have a look through our The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD review to find out more about it. Needless to say we certainly enjoyed it!
The Wind Waker HD is available in various forms. First of all there's the aforementioned eShop version and there is also a special limited edition Wii U bundle for those who haven't taken the plunge yet.
Have you set sail on your adventure already? Let us know how you're doing in the comment section below.

Is Nintendo going back to its roots?
As we all know, Nintendo started life not as a video game maker (that would have been hard in the 1880s) but as a card manufacturer. The company seems to be going back to its roots to celebrate the launch of Pokémon X & Y, as a site has just gone live in Japan with the title "Pokémon Hanafuda".
There's a single image on the site at present — of fan-favourite Pikachu, naturally — and although the relevant copyright details appear at the bottom of the page, some have questioned the legitimacy of the venture. Could this be an attempt by unscrupulous types to make a bit of easy money out of the new 3DS release? Or is it merely a low-key move by Nintendo? We'll find out in due course, but in the meantime let us know if Pokémon Hanafuda is something you need in your life.

Family, friendly - fun?
After developing something of an unenviable reputation on WiiWare, Arc System Works' Family series of sports games has been reborn as a dependably decent option on the 3DS' eShop. Following on from Family Tennis 3D and Family Kart 3D, Family Table Tennis 3D is the latest in the line, and while it isn't quite up to the standard of those last two games, it still offers up fun, small-court service with a friendly arcade atmosphere.
The family in Family Table Tennis 3D is the anime-inspired clan of Japanese everyboy Billy and his sister Sarah. Besides the kids, you can choose to play as Daddy, Mommy, Auntie, Gramps, Nan, and Cuz. Each character has different ratings for speed, power, accuracy, and control: Billy and his mom are average across the board, Sarah is speedy but weak, Daddy is strong but slow, and so on.

In the game's main Tournament mode, you'll choose a family member and a difficulty level (either Beginner, Journeyman, and Pro), and challenge a set of four opponents in a row for a title. There's also Free Play, which lets you select a difficulty, character and court before tweaking the scoring and number of games per match to your liking, and a Quick Play mode that jumps you right into a random exhibition match - a great option for getting in a game-on-the-go.
No matter which mode you pick, once you get on the court the gameplay is simple, arcadey fun. You'll serve and volley across a tiny table, with two shots at your disposal: hitting the 'A' button rallies up a straight, powerful drive, while 'B' pulls off a slower, sidewinding cut. Everything controls well, and there's certainly some classic strategy involved in just those two choices, but a bit more spectacle comes into play with the game's 'stagger' system. By hitting the ball far to one side and making your opponent dive for it, you can make them lose their balance. If they manage to return the ball while off-kilter, you'll see an exclamation mark above your character's head, indicating that you're set up for a smash - a super-powerful shot that's tough (but not impossible) to send back.

These smash shots are a lot of fun to pull off, but unfortunately, the character-specific smashes that gave Family Tennis 3D such personality are entirely absent here, and they're sorely missed. Each family member controls differently enough to feel distinct, but the simple back-and-forth volleys can become a bit predictable without anything to mix it up. Success boils down to serve, smash, repeat - and while that's still fun in the way that other tennis games (and - to be fair - real-life table tennis) are, we miss the delightfully dysfunctional whimsey of watching Daddy clobber his children with a super-charged Ballistic Smash.
If you're looking for something beyond typical table tennis, there are also three Minigames that add some welcome variety. Human Backboard is a volley competition where the aim is to keep a back-and-forth going for as long as possible; when one player slips up, the other gains the points, and the first to 100 wins. Survivor mode - as the name implies - tasks you with besting as many members of the family in a row as you can, but aside from potential bragging rights, it doesn't really offer anything new.

By far the most interesting mini-game, however, is Hit and Split Table Tennis. Here, the table is divided up into blue (left) and red (right) sections, and your goal is to match your opponent's moves for both shot-type (drive or slice, as indicated by different coloured ball trails) and location (red or blue sides of the table). It's an engaging gameplay mix that requires quick thinking and quicker reflexes, and for score-chasing types, trying to top your best run can quickly become an addictive challenge.
As with the other eShop Family games, multiplayer of any kind is conspicuously absent from Table Tennis 3D, and it's a massive missed opportunity. The AI is certainly decent enough, and gives a good challenge on the Pro difficulty, but arcade-style sports games like this practically beg to be played with real people, and the family-filled roster of this series in particular calls out for some friendly intra-clan competition.
Graphically, Table Tennis 3D continues the Family tradition of a colourful but unremarkable aesthetic that's more functional than flashy, but the edges feel a little rougher here. The smooth, anime-style character models look good, smash shots are visually exciting, and the thickly cel-shaded ball is a nice touch, but the low-resolution background textures are almost distractingly bad. Perhaps it's because of the zoomed-in view, but the blurry, blocky courts look straight out of a first-generation PlayStation title, and are noticeably at odds with the more modern character models. There's also an unfortunate tendency for the ball to bounce right through your player, which - aside from any visual sloppiness - makes lining up last-minute shots trickier than it should be. At least the courts are appropriately quirky; six are available from the start, and they're all firmly in the video game vein, with a beach-side setup, a forest, a school gym, an enormous carousel, an ice palace, and even the moon.

The audio accompaniment is thankfully more consistent - it's upbeat and fun, with sweetly catchy songs and snappy sound effects. Unfortunately, if you've played Family Tennis 3D or Family Kart 3D, you've heard it all before; pretty much everything seems to be recycled from these earlier efforts. The Japanese voice acting is a great fit - even if it's a bit over the top at times - and hearing players chime in throughout the matches adds some wonderfully unintelligible charm to back up the game's anime style.
Conclusion
Family Table Tennis 3D is a fun, friendly game that should satisfy anyone looking for a simple match, but players expecting a deep or polished experience are better off at another table. One particularly appealing mini-game makes up a bit for the lack of multiplayer, but the absence of any character-specific shots or abilities and a rough graphical presentation are more conspicuous faults. If you're a true table tennis fan looking for a digital fix, this is a solid service of arcade-style gameplay; but if you're just looking to get in a few volleys and don't mind a slightly larger playing field, Family Tennis 3D unquestionably serves up the better game.

Name appears on the title screen
Recently, Nintendo has made a habit of outsourcing or collaborating with other studios on many of its key titles, and it would appear that Wii Fit U is no exception.
According to Kotaku's Stephen Totilo, Pandora's Tower developer Ganbarion is involved with the forthcoming Wii U title, as its name appears on the title screen:

It's not known how deeply Ganbarion has been involved with development of the game at this stage. Pandora's Tower director Toru Haga recently praised the Wii U as "unique" and "exciting".
Wii Fit U is released in December, but you'll be able to download and play a one month trial version in November.

If purism turns out to be the great enemy of the Republican primary in 2016, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has placed himself on the wrong side of history.

[READ: What Ted Cruz’s Obamacare Stand Means for the Tea Party]

The GOP idealist has been the front man of the shutdown, the face of the war against Obamacare. From his summer tour to his 21-hour filibuster impersonation, to his private meetings with House Republicans, Cruz has become synonymous with the House GOP's strategy – so much so that Democrats in Congress have dubbed him Speaker Cruz.

Cruz has taken a gamble, betting his hand that Republican presidential primary voters are hungry for his brand of GOP activism. It's not the first time he has taken on the establishment against the odds, after all, if the Republican power brokers in Texas had had their way, he wouldn't have made it out of his own Senate primary in 2012.

But Cruz is being beat up on the Senate floor and behind closed doors by his fellow Republicans who have accused him of driving the GOP off a political cliff without any plan to repair the brand or a road map of where he is headed next. During a GOP luncheon Wednesday, reports indicate Cruz heard an earful from senators who were fed up of what they deemed a selfish conquest.

"There's a lot of consultants making money off this and lots of TV ads going on. The problem with it is, it's one thing to be good at politics. It's another thing to be not good at strategy," Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., told CNN.

[ALSO: Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and the Future of GOP Foreign Policy]

Meanwhile, a potential 2016 rival, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., is diving into the shutdown as a negotiator. Thursday morning, Paul called upon lawmakers from both parties to meet with him on the Capitol steps for a cup of coffee and an airing of grievances. In the end only one Democrat, Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., made an appearance, but the literal singing of "Kumbayah" added a brief respite from the bitterness of the shutdown.

Up until the final minutes of the shutdown, Paul was trying to convince congressional leaders to pass a short, one or two week funding bill to stave off a shutdown. Something, he said, that would have allowed a little more time for negotiations.

This, of course, could be his own political strategy. Paul was caught on a hot mic Thursday discussing his concerns about the shutdown with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. He openly confessed he is concerned about how the GOP is perceived. After explaining to McConnell how a recent interview he had taken part in went, Paul told his senior senator it's time for Republicans to start looking for an exit strategy regarding their efforts to defund Obamacare.

"I think if we keep saying, 'we wanted to defund it. We fought for that, but now we're willing to compromise on this," Paul explained. "I know we don't want to be here, but we are gonna win this, I think."

GOP pundits watching the events unfold, say that Paul has positioned himself in a much more amiable position than Cruz.

[MORE: Why a Government Shutdown Is Good for Ted Cruz ]

"This is a very important battle in the long-term war leading up to the 2016 presidential primaries. This is an important moment where different Republicans thrust in the spotlight can demonstrate leadership and the ability to coalesce different factions of the right," says GOP strategist Brian Donahue.

Donahue argues that while a few conservatives will certainly be absolutists on the question of defunding Obamacare, independents will be weary of a candidate who was willing to bring the country to the precipice of a shutdown to delay Obamacare, a law that passed in 2010 and upheld by the Supreme Court.

"Some voters do believe that a government shutdown is just plain bad, and they don't want the Republicans to be seen as the party of 'no.' They are the ones who are going to be cheering Rand Paul's approach," Donahue says.

As scores of Republican lawmakers urge the Obama administration to intervene militarily in Syria, a handful of Republican senators want to keep the U.S. on the sidelines.

Tomahawk cruise missiles are in place and could be launched as early as Thursday against key military targets in Syria, a response against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's deployment of chemical weapons on civilians.

[READ: Congress Wants to Give Input on Syria ]

Freshman Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, was among the first to voice his opposition to a possible missile strike in the region.

"The United States armed forces doesn't exist to be a policeman of the world," Cruz told Fox News Monday, "I certainly hope the reaction isn't simply lobbing some cruise missiles in to disagree with Assad's murderous actions."

The statement gives important insight into what kind of foreign policy approach the potential 2016 presidential candidate subscribes to and a clue into how the GOP may be evolving its approach on foreign policy.

His libertarian, anti-interventionist viewpoint is yet another voice among the younger generation of Republicans in the U.S. Senate and in direct conflict with the older longer-serving defense hawks serving there such as John McCain, R-Ariz.

And he's not alone. Another potential Republican candidate for the presidency in 2016 also strays from GOP party leadership on foreign policy.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has long been a thorn in the sides of old guard Republicans, crusading against foreign aid to Egypt and for cuts to the Defense Department. And up until now, he has carried many of his campaigns against the old guard GOP foreign policy, alone.

Paul has also been an outspoken advocate against military intervention in Syria, blasting President Barack Obama for his decision to arm Syrian rebels this summer without a vote of approval by Congress.

[PHOTOS: Alleged Gas Attack Kills Dozens in Damascus ]

He even sponsored bipartisan legislation with Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., that would prohibit Obama from using any congressionally appropriated funds to escalate U.S. involvement in Syria.

"The President's unilateral decision to arm Syrian rebels is incredibly disturbing, considering what little we know about whom we are arming," Paul said in a statement about the issue. "Engaging in yet another conflict in the Middle East with no vote or Congressional oversight compounds the severity of this situation."

But Cruz and Paul, while they may be the future of the GOP, are still a small coalition within their party.

A vote for Paul's plan to stop foreign aid to Egypt, while closer than ever, failed by a wide margin 83 to 13 in July.

More Republican lawmakers still take their cues on the party's defense strategy from Senate veterans like McCain, who has been urging the Obama administration to be more involved in the conflict in Syria from the onset.

McCain says America has "sat on the sidelines for too long" as more than 100,000 Syrians have died in the civil war and millions more are fleeing the country as refugees.

"It is not in our national security interest for this conflict to grind on, as some suggest. To the contrary, as we have clearly seen, the longer the conflict in Syria goes on, the worse and worse it gets and the more it spreads throughout the region," McCain said in a recent joint statement with fellow defense hawk Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.

"Instead, we must work to end this conflict as soon as possible by taking decisive steps that can shift the balance of power on the battlefield against Assad and his forces. Anything short of such actions now would only allow the conflict in Syria to continue."

[VOTE: Should the U.S. Intervene in Syria?]

But Doug Bandow, a senior policy expert at the CATO Institute and former special assistant to Ronald Reagan, says Graham and McCain's dominance on foreign policy may be coming to an end. And a recent Reuters poll showed only 9 percent of Americans approve of military intervention in the conflict.

Bandow argues that in a post Iraq-war world, Republican voters across the U.S. are hesitant to intervene in conflicts in the Middle East because they no longer believe the U.S. has the ability to make a difference in the region.

He argues, politically, Cruz and Paul, have entered the spotlight at exactly the right time.

Cruz and Paul might be in the minority now, but by the time 2016 rolls around, voters might see the majority of GOP presidential candidates on a debate stage emulating the message the senators send today.

"The enthusiasm and attention Cruz and Rand Paul get, all of that, suggests a growing interest and support for their viewpoints," Bandow says. "The party is moving in their direction."