Hardware > Earlier Games
Nintendo shrinks Wii for Crimbo
Nintendo has officially unveiled a new version of the original Wii console, a smaller, top-loading model that shows the Japanese firm hasn't quite given up on its old tech yet.
While many expected Nintendo's focus to shift following the arrival of the Wii U, the company clearly believes there's still a market for standard …
Steam stats show surge in honest PC gaming
PC gaming is on the rise… if the popularity of Valve's Steam platform is anything to go by, that is.
Over six million people were simultaneously logged into Valve's digital distribution service this past weekend, the highest number it has ever seen.
Steam statistics 2012
The five million mark was reached in January 2012, a …
Pong creator turns nose up at Nintendo Wii U
Atari founder Nolan Bushnell has doubts over the long-term success of the Nintendo Wii U, after admitting he doesn't get the tablet-controlled console.
"I actually am baffled by it," said the Pong creator in an interview with the New York Times. "I don't think it's going to be a big success."
Bushnell - often hailed at the …
Minecraft coming to Raspberry Pi in hackable edition
Minecraft will soon be available for the Raspberry Pi, and in true Pi fashion will be hackable.
The Pi guys have blogged that they “sent a bunch of boards out to Notch and the guys at Mojang in Stockholm a little while back, and they’ve produced a port of Minecraft: Pocket Edition”.
The port, dubbed Minecraft: Pi Edition, …
Ten Xbox 360 games you may have missed
Games Round-up Our second helping of our console game roundups, caters for those playing on Microsoft's Xbox 360.
Sure you may be preoccupied connecting up smartphones through the new SmartGlass feature, but we wouldn't want you to be caught out for Christmas and be lost among the hundreds of new titles, unsure of what to purchase.
So perhaps …
Ten PlayStation 3 games you may have missed
Games Round-up While summer was a fairly dry time for games releases, this autumn has gone haywire in the build up to Christmas and as a result, it feels like more titles are being handed out than knighthoods.
As usual, we've sifted through the good and the bad to compile a list of any worthy ones you may have missed. While the following ten …
Man strives to shatter Call of Duty world record
We all know gamers spend too long on their consoles, but even the craziest of enthusiasts tend to hit the sack when the sun rises. Bedtime, however, was the last thing on one madcap Australian's mind this week, as he attempted to set a world record for the longest videogame marathon known to man.
Retail worker Okan Kaya played …
Taito's Double Dragon
Antique Code Show It was the summer of 1989 in a not-so-sunny Prestatyn Pontins, so the majority of our holiday's evenings were spent in the resort's arcade hall. Being my first foray into the seedy underbelly of cutting-edge - well, for 1987, when the game debuted, at least - videogames, one of the first arcades I ever played was the side- …
Wii U 'has been JAILBROKEN' via legacy games, say homebrewers
A squad of techies claim they've cracked Nintendo's anti-piracy defences in the Wii U days after the games console hit US shelves.
The hack, the gaming equivalent of jail-breaking, allows home-made games, pirate copies of titles and other unauthorised software to run on the Wii U, according to wiiuhacks.com. The attack appears …
Ten... PC games you may have missed
Product Round-up So now my Panda is Level 90 I thought it might be time to get my head out of the Brewmasters keg and have a look a selection of other games that have been released while I have been in my MMO reverie. If you don't fancy playing COD: BO2 or Halo 4 and are bored of relentless franchise titles then take a look at the games below. …
Wii U disassembly reveals unusual innards
Nintendo launched Wii U Stateside this past Sunday and while some users have complained of slow performance and freezing issues - something the firm has since addressed - teardown reports suggest potential hardware breakages should be relatively cheap to repair.
The heatgun and screwdriver equipped iFixit team cracked open the …
Author of '80s classic The Hobbit didn't know game was a hit
Every few days, Veronika Megler gets email from a stranger.
Some thank her for teaching them English. Others acknowledge her role as an influence in their decision to pursue a career in computing.
Megler was never a teacher, nor a mentor, to those who send the messages.
But her correspondents remember her fondly as one of the …
Sony surges past 70 million PlayStation 3 sales
Sony is commemorating the shipment of 70 million PlayStation 3 consoles this week. Reaching the milestone essentially puts it neck and neck with Microsoft's Xbox 360 in terms of overall global lifetime sales.
The figures relate to the number of consoles shipped to retailers rather to than customers, so we have little idea how …
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 game review
The knives have been sharpened, the vitriol pumped, the maps cleared of bodies and the zombies starved. It can only mean one thing: Call of Duty: Black Op 2 is upon us.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 Flagging the issue
It's the series where reviewers can never win, and Activision's coffers never fail to be filled. Where one wrong …
Reader input required: review our reviews
Site News The Register has been running hardware and software reviews for some years now, mainly though not exclusively through its sister-site, the written-for-consumers Reg Hardware.
We're planning to make some improvements, but before we put them in place, we'd like to hear what you, the reader, would like to find when you click to …
Rockstar ramps it up with Grand Theft Auto V reveal
Rockstar's GTA V publicity went into overdrive today with a new trailer and more details about what the game has in store for fans.
For starters, the publisher says GTA V's game world will be bigger than San Andreas, GTA IV and Red Dead Redemption combined. Memorising your way around may prove tricky, especially as the entire …
Microsoft flings free Xboxes to long-term Live lovers
Microsoft is giving some of its long-standing Xbox Live members a limited edition Xbox 360, free of charge, in celebration of the online service's ten year anniversary.
A number of gamers expressed their joy this week when they received an Xbox Live Limited Edition Xbox 360 in the post without prior warning.
Microsoft's Larry …
Nintendo Wii U set to out-sell predecessor at launch
Nintendo will shift more Wii Us in the first three months of release than it managed with the console's predecessor, analysts claim. But an estimated 53 million sales by the end of 2016 puts projected long-term success of the tablet-inspired console quite some way behind.
Nintendo is said to have 5.5 million Wii U units in stock …
Fans splurge $220m on Halo 4 in first 24 hours
Redmond reports that Halo fans have broken its sales records, spending $220m in just 24 hours as they seek their latest fix from the franchise that is once again headed by Master Chief John-117.
"Consumer demand and excitement for Halo 4 is even greater than we anticipated," said Tony Bartel, president of video game retailer …
Blizzard blasts 'frivolous' security lawsuit
World of Warcraft developer Blizzard has said claims made in a lawsuit which alleges it engaged in "deceptive and unfair" business practices are entirely "without merit".
The lawsuit, filed by gamer Benjamin Bell in the US, insists Blizzard is forcing online players of Diablo III, Starcraft and World of Warcraft to pay $6.40/£8. …
Ten gaming headsets
Product Round-up Recently, I have battled underwater in Guild Wars 2 and fought through the Temple of the Jade serpent in The Mists of Pandaria. Luckily, during my adventures, I have had the opportunity to test some of the best gaming headsets money can buy, but which headset allowed me to hear every bubble burst and even the quietest Windwalker …
Assassin's Creed 3 game review
"His name is Desmond Miles and he has brought us to the end." So begins Assassin's Creed 3. Frankly, if you believe this really is the end then you'll believe anything. No, rather than an end, AC3 is a fresh beginning, a place for new hero Connor Kenway to "rise" as the game's tagline puts it – form an orderly queue behind …
Angry Birds Star Wars game review
Rovio expanded its most popular franchise yet again today, transforming Angry Birds for sci-fi fans with a Star Wars theme.
While the game is essentially Angry Birds Space with a dollop of Jedi and a mix of the previous games in the series, those yet to find themselves bored of flinging feathers will love it. Fans of George …
Orc Assassin Rogue wins Senate seat
Colleen Lachowicz, aka Rogue Orc Assassin Santiaga in World of Warcraft, has won a seat in Maine's State Senate.
Lachowiz became one of the weirder stories of the US election when her Republican opponents decided to pick on the fact she's an avid WoW player. Lachowiz's character, Santiaga, has reached the 85th level.
Maine's …
Microsoft mulls 'Xbox Surface' slate for games
Microsoft wants to release a 7in gaming tablet, with hardware planning for an "Xbox Surface" already in the works, sources claim.
Details of the device - which was first mooted in June when speculation pointed towards an E3 games show reveal - indicate the use of custom ARM chippery and high-bandwidth memory geared specifically …
Xbox SmartGlass comes to iOS
The iOS version of Xbox SmartGlass hit the App Store this week, bringing Microsoft's advanced remote console controllability to those with Apple devices a week after the release of the Android version.
Microsoft's Xbox SmartGlass technology turns mobile gadgets like the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad into interactive second screens …
Nvidia heralds Steam for Linux debut with 'double-speed' drivers
The Linux version of Valve’s Steam games download shop goes live today, chip maker Nvidia has revealed.
Nvidia said “Steam gaming platform that officially opened to gamers today” while announcing new Linux-optimised version of the R310 drivers for its GeForce graphics chips, including the new GTX 600 series.
According to the …
Skyrim DLC lets players FLY DRAGONS
Bethesda has unveiled its latest DLC pack for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. As well as the introduction of a fresh villain, gamers will be able to fly on the back of a dragon.
Insert Bill & Ted sample: "Exccellllent."
While full details of the Dragonborn DLC have yet to surface, this week's trailer offers a glimpse of what …
In the loop: how Halo defined a new decade of first-person shooters
Feature The glint of alien sunlight on green body armour; the spark of purple crystal shards arcing their way across the battlefield; the roar of a Warthog’s engine as it bounces across uneven terrain; and the dull thud as the butt of Master Chief’s gun impacts Covenant skull… familiar enough occurrences these days given the impact Halo …
Classic game 'Elite' returns … on Kickstarter
Elite, the classic BBC Micro game immortalised as winner of Reg Hardware's Antique Code Show All-time Classic Award, has returned as a Kickstarter project.
David Braben, one of the developers of the original game and founder of Frontier Developments, writes on the game's Kickstarter page that the next instalment of the game, “ …
Slideshow: A History of First-person Shooters in 20 Games
The long-anticipated release of Halo 4 and the latest Call of Duty, November is shaping up to be a great month for first-person shooters.
Halo 4
We've decided to look back at the great FPS games of the past, so here are what we think to be the 20 most notable titles from the last 30 years.
During that time, there have been …
LucasArts' Dark Forces
Antique Code Show With the release of Doom in 1993, and Bungie’s Marathon, the year after, the first-person shooter was firmly on the gaming map, so it was no surprise LucasArts wanted to be there. If there was one thing a Star Wars fan wanted, it was to get in on the action, to grab a blaster and take out some Stormtroopers. In 1995, Dark Forces …
Sony promotes Vita with QUAD-JUBBED WOMAN
Sony has begun advertising the PlayStation Vita in French magazines by comparing the device to a woman with four breasts.
"Deux faces tactiles, deux fois plus de sensations,” breathes the Gallic ad - photographed and posted on Twitter - to promote of the handheld's front touchscreen and rear touchpad. Translation: two touchable …
Sony admits PSPs will not fly off shelves, says phones and PS3s will
Sony has said that it doesn't think it will be able to sell as many of its portable game devices - PSP and Vita - as it had hoped.
In August, the Japanese electronics firm said it reckoned it could shift 12 million game devices this fiscal year, but it reduced its forecast to 10 million in its quarterly earnings announcement …
Android games console jumps to Jelly Bean for penultimate test phase
Android-based games console Ouya has entered the Engineering Verification Testing phase, which essentially means the team is evaluating how the box runs ahead of the planned shipment of developer kits this coming December.
The hotly-anticipated games console - which made a big splash in the gaming world after a high-profile …
Halo 4 game review
If you’re a Halo fan, it’s a no-brainer of course. You’ll buy Halo 4 whatever I or anyone else says. You’ll enjoy it too, no question, especially if you’re after its upgraded multiplayer experience. But if you’re hoping the game's solo campaign will let you relive the magic of the original Combat Evolved, you may be a little …
Slideshow: A History of Horror in 20 Scary Games
Complimented on the cobwebs, skeletal remains and general stench of death in my flat the other day, I suddenly remembered it was Halloween this week, so here's another nostalgic slideshow to celebrate.
This time it's a collection of 20 pant-cacking games, titles that raised the hair on the back of our necks or at least raised …
Xbox mod spreads KILLER Borderlands 2 GERM
A bug in Borderlands 2 has spread like virtual flu, permanently killing off characters if they die during a game. Worse, some players are deliberately spreading the infection to gamers they don't like, it has been claimed.
The issue only affects Xbox 360 players - the sound you can hear is our very own PS3-loving 'Anonymous …
World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria review
Review A couple of years ago I was addicted to Farmville and I've always had a soft spot for Pokémon. As much as I hate to say, it the Mists of Pandaria is coming over all Pokéville 2. Everyone is battling minipets or farming, which all feels a bit twee but I can’t deny it’s also extremely enjoyable... except when I see my baby polar …
Stone shatters kid Rock: Gamers not as flush as they used to be
Stone Group has killed off the Rock Group operation, which built hefty gaming laptops and notebooks, claiming it saw "no potential" in its future.
Staffordshire-based PC builder Stone bought the assets of Rock Group in late May 2008 after the firm was placed into administration by Nick Boardman, who founded the business some 16 …
Valve taps testers for Linux Steam
Valve is seeking participants for its Steam for Linux beta test and has asked experienced users of the open source platform to apply.
The company confirmed it would launch Steam for Ubuntu back in July, but failed to hint at any release dates. It did, however, promise a port of Left 4 Dead 2, and a month later claimed that games …
Rockstar unloads Vice City for smartphones
Rockstar Games is celebrating the tenth anniversary of PS2 classic Grand Theft Auto: Vice City by releasing it on mobile platforms.
The game - which hit shelves on 29 October 2002 - will be available for a wide range of iOS and Android devices, feature high-resolution graphics and include several enhancements for the mobile …
