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Microsoft Does an Xbox One-80; Online Not Required

Holy pivot, Batman!  In a stunning one-80 (you’re impressed, aren’t you?), Microsoft issued a mega press release through the executive fingers of Don Mattrick, President of the software giant’s interactive entertainment business, highlighting two big changes.  First: that ridiculous, once every 24-hour online connectivity/piracy check is no longer in place.  In fact, gamers will only need to connect to the Interweb to validate the game disc after the game is purchased; from then on out no Internet required.  Second: no more fine print or confusion whether or not Xbox One games are trade-inable.  In other words, and to quote Mr. Mattrick, “There will be no limitations to using and sharing games, it will work just as it does today on Xbox 360.” Touch the link below for the official press release from El Presidente, as well as for more of the juicy details.

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Webmaster Reaction: 1Up.com Out of Lives

All good things must come to an end.  We heard it first from our parents, and we’ve likely all experienced it in one way or another through our personal and/or professional lives as we’ve grown up and experienced the real world.  Although my primary professional career currently resides in the oil and gas industry, with the previous five years consisting of a four year tour in the Marine Corps, and a quick 7-month stop in wind energy manufacturing, my side business is this: the web.  I started building and running websites in the mid-90’s as a freshman in high school, and have been obsessed ever since.  Outside of the Marine Corps, which I absolutely loved, but voluntarily walked away from, the web is my true passion.  It has never felt like work to me, and I see myself building websites and running web ventures until I’m buried six feet underground.  Late last night however, I stopped in at 1Up.com, which is one of the largest video game online publications around, only to notice that no new content had been posted since March.  Then I came across this bomb of a post: a “this is it/farewell to 1UP” letter from the now-former editor in chief, Jeremy Parish.  Seeing this news, even four months late (the closure announcement was published in late Feb), really hit home: not because I was a fan of 1UP per say, but because as an online business owner, I experienced that exact, painful process in the Summer of 2007.

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Shadowrun Returns: The Name Of The Sequel and What I Screamed In My Head

Every gamer has those few handpicked games that are as heliocentric to their own world as the sun is to our solar system. Those few games that we take personally. And I don’t mean “your momma” seriously, I’m talking “back…the…fuck…off…” seriously. Slapping a PS Vita out of a 10 year old hands’ seriously. For me, Shadowrun for SNES was one of those games. Continue reading “Shadowrun Returns: The Name Of The Sequel and What I Screamed In My Head”

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Breathe Easy: PS4 Game Pricing Announced

Remember this rumor?  We can finally put the $70 video game chatter to rest, at least for a few years for both the PS4 and Xbox One, so go ahead and turn off the oxygen machine, and relax.  Although Microsoft released the much needed good news after their recent media firestorm due to the “always online” fiasco, Sony just recently announced the news through the highly-reputable, PC Gaming-heavy website, ShackNews.  Although Sony only mentions first party launch titles as part of the $60 pricing model, I would wager it is safe to expect all third party and future software to follow suit, at least for the first few years of the PS4’s existence.  If you’ve been gaming enough to remember when the last price hike occurred, then high five; well, you probably just Googled it, but whatever – the last hike from $50 to $60 hit our respective wallets in the late days of the long-lasting PS2.  Can we expect the same towards the end of the PS3’s existence, or will $60 hold true until next-next-gen?  Hit the link below for more thoughts as well as the exact quotes from Sony’s mouth.

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The Last of Us Reviews Look Good (Really Good)

The Last of Us Reviews - SlightlyQualified.com

We, like most folks throughout the gaming world, are excited for The Last of Us.  If you are new to SQ Nation, welcome; those of you who have been hanging out with us for our first few epic months in the Internet’s backwoods have likely seen the slew of trailers we’ve posted about and drooled over, and four days ago, the long-awaited “Uncharted-on-Steroids” title has finally arrived.  Have we picked it up yet?  No.  I blame my 9-5 job, as I’m constantly traveling, but as soon as I’m back home I plan on picking myself up a copy and giving it the attention it most definitely deserves.  Speaking of attention, the reviews from the major gaming media outlets have all thrown up synonymous scores, and they all rhyme with perfection: 10.

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iOS Games We Like: Nimble Quest

Nimble Quest Logo - SlightlyQualified.com

Out of the four of you that read this site, who remembers the old school cell phone and TI-83 calculator game, “Snake”?  Remember that pixelated game of addiction, or am I alone on this?  Well since my high school math days in Algebra I, video games, and calculators have come along way.  Now kids are playing on iPhone 5’s and Samsung  Galaxies in junior high math class, when I didn’t even have my first cell phone until I was a sophomore in college, but I digress.  Fast forward to just a few weeks ago, when I dropped a measly $.99 cents on an intriguing little iOS/Android game called, “Nimble Quest”.  If you couldn’t guess by the post title, we like this one – a lot.  Hit the link below for more on this awesome electronic addiction.

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It’s Science: Majority of Gamers Could Be Women By End of 2013

British Gamer Girls - SlightlyQualified.com

With the American media dominated by CNN and Fox News, many of us turn to other country’s news outlets for a more objective approach to not only what goes on over in our hemisphere, but throughout the entire world.  So like many Yankees (or White Sox fans; no offense, New York), I have news sites like BBC in my regular web rotation; it is through their recent technology news archives that I come across this incredibly interesting news story: gaming experts in the UK are predicting that by the end of the 2013 calendar year, the majority of British gamers will be female.  Shocking?  Yeah, I would say so.  Hit the link below for the full report!

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Real Life McLovin in School Yearbook

McLovin for President - SlightlyQualified.com

Yearbook photos: everyone remembers them, and no one likes them.  Not then, not the week after, and definitely not twenty years later when you see how goofy you truly looked back in the day.  They do provide a good laugh, however, especially when that super weird kid in your class goes that extra, nerdy mile to make yearbook picture day that much more ridiculous.  My first reaction when I saw the hilarious funny picture below was witnessing McLovin from Superbad for the first time in the movie theater; I was shocked, amazed, yet smiling the entire time.  It was then I realized that it wasn’t actually Superbad which I thought of, but rather Christopher Mintz-Plasse from another great comedy, Role Models.  Hit the link below and I guarantee you’ll have the same reaction.

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