Weekly Rundown: June 9 – 15, 2012

berg — Sun, 17 Jun 2012 02:34:57 +0000

This week got off to a quick start with new product announcements and releases. This week I’ll divert a little from “gaming” specific news, in light of developments in technology and entertainment. Join me, won’t you?

1. Apple’s WWDC keynote 2012

As a Mac user, each year’s WWDC keynote is a point of interest/distraction for me, and this year was no exception. This WWDC showed us Apple’s improvements to their MacBook Pro and Air lines, and a new MacBook Pro model featuring a thinner body with a Retina Display. In addition, we saw (another) preview of OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion) and iOS 6, which promises to integrate the desktop and mobile platforms, a feature which is of great interest to the entire Suddenbrain team. From a business perspective, this WWDC was also interesting because it gave us all an opportunity to see how Apple’s new CEO, Tim Cook, would handle Apple’s biggest yearly event, having to be compared against Steve Job’s “reality distortion field”.

2. Indie Game: The Movie

The long awaited film Indie Game: The Movie finally released to the public this week. It tells the tale of several independent developers journey to create unique indie games. As both a gamer and aspiring game developer, this movie was both inspiring and entertaining to me. If you are into games, game development, or are generally inspired by people following their dreams, so to speak, then watch this movie immediately! You can buy it now at the Indie Game The Movie website, Steam, or on iTunes. I suggest you get the movie directly from the website, because it is DRM free and you get some extra content (commentary, etc.). The Steam version has the extra content as well, but it runs as a Steam game, which means you can only watch it on your computer. Anyway, get it now!

3. Skyrim DLC News Continues

The trickle of Dawnguard DLC continues to be come in, especially due to various hints at E3. Most notably, we’ve known that the new Vampire Lord character type will get a new perk tree. It has been revealed that a new perk tree will be added to the Werewolf character type as well, which will be progressed through by feeding on victims. Additionally, the scope of the Dawnguard experience has been clarified to say that it is about 10-20 hours in length. This puts the expansion somewhere between the Knights of the Nine and Shivering Isles expansions from Oblivion. Regardless, more Skyrim is always good, so count us in when Dawnguard come out for PS3 (hopefully) later this summer.

4. 38 Studios Shutdown

The game studio behind Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning has been going through various financial problems since the release of their debut title earlier this year. Unfortunately, it seems that things are getting worse as the company’s CEO is now being sued over money owed to various financial institutions. Many fans of Reckoning are disappointed, if only because it means that it is unlikely that the Reckoning IP will see any more DLC or a sequel. That is unless some other company buys the rights to the game, but even that has it’s risks. It’s never good to see a great game company go under like this, especially one so early in its development.

5. Vizio PC/Laptop Product Line Announcement

This week television company Vizio announced that they were stepping into the PC/Laptop business with a new line of products. From a design perspective, these new devices closely resemble Apple’s iMac and Macbook Pro and Air, which is by no means a bad thing. Focusing on sleek, simple, custom design, these new products turn even my head (a devout Apple user!). The kicker with these computers is the ability to double as a true television via a built in HDMI port. This could be a real game changer on the Windows/PC market. The devices went up for pre-order this week, featuring very competitive specs (i5/i7 Intel processor models, 24/27″ screens, 1TB hard drive, wireless keyboard/mouse, USB3 ports). The Thin+Light model comes with a SSD (customizable size) and only weighs 3.39 lbs. Right on the heels of Apple’s WWDC, this product announcement has PC enthusiasts excited.

If I find myself in the Windows/PC market, I would definitely consider these options at the top of my list. Check out Vizio’s new product line at their website.

What do you think? Will you be buying a Vizio PC? What else got your goose this week? Leave us a comment below.