(Posted by: Harrison Milfeld)

Any self-respecting gamer today shouldn't have to talk long about the NES, but considering it's celebrating its silver anniversary, I shall offer my two cents. 

The Nintendo Entertainment System is seemingly the first console I loved; actually, more like this generation's first gaming love. The NES was never taken seriously when it was offered to various stores in North America. Hell, after the great Video Game Crash of 1983, nobody wanted to take the gaming industry seriously again. It wasn't until then Head of Nintendo of America, Minoru Arakawa, sought to make the console a big hit in America by telling retailers that the company would set up the displays for the product. Again, video games were in shambles during 1985, but Nintendo thought differently. The company's first stop was to sell the NES in the toughest of markets: New York City. Nintendo President Hiroshi Yamauchi said at the time that if the console succeeded in New York, then it would succeed elsewhere. 

The rest, as we all say in a cliche manner, is history. Video games were back from the dead, Nintendo gave birth to a multitude of franchises, which in turn lead to a console generation worth of "Nintendo hard" titles and memories. Happy Birthday, NES; my first true love. Your legacy lives on through the Wii's Virtual Console and the thousands of people (like me) who still love to blow into cartridges. 

So, what's your favorite NES game or memory? Tell us in the comments section. 

(Posted By: Eric Rees)

Bungie announced today via the ever lovely Bungie.net that their newest darling Halo: Reach will be receiving it's first DLC (Downloadable Content) on November 30th. The map pack will cost 800 Microsoft points, 10 dollars for you who can't do the complex equation, and will also come with achievements! 250 extra points for your Gamerscore incase you have already maxed out the game. Hit the break to see more pictures and descriptions of each of the maps.

(Posted By: Eric Rees)

Yes you read that right, I'll give it a moment to sink in. 

Now that you have settled down here is the news; the iPad will be sold in Verizon stores by the end of this month. But, this announcement does not mean that this iPad is CDMA capable, which makes the announcement slightly less shiny and new. 

For those who aren't down on the new fangled cell phone lingo, CDMA is the network that Verizon runs their signals off of. The iPad as it is now runs off a GSM network that ATT uses. This is an announcement that you can pay for the iPad and then pay a monthly fee to run their at home network so you can use your new tablet. 

While not necessarily groundbreaking this does pave the way for the unicorn down the road, the Verizon iPhone. The rumblings seem to be getting stronger towards Big Red finally getting Apple's money printer sometime soon.

(Posted by: Alex Deckard)

Okay, I’m only going to say this once, so listen up.

Blizzard, piss off.

There.  I said it.  Frankly, I’m worried that if I say it again a bunch of WOW players will bust in to the building I’m in and attack me, but it needed to be said.  Blizzard has started banning all players caught cheating at Starcraft II.  Doesn’t sound bad, right?  Look at that sentence again.  Specifically the word “all” and the lack of the word “multiplayer” or “online”.  Yeah.  Blizzard has started banning any player caught cheating in the multiplayer OR SINGLE PLAYER modes on Starcraft II.  Why would they do something so absolutely stupid?

Find out after the jump.

After four attempts to play Wheel of Fortune for the SNES  I completely lose my mind. -MZ

I fail on the name enter screen....yeah...-MZ

(Posted by: Harrison Milfeld)

Valve has pulled the curtain away from their next title, and it's not the long-awaited Half-Life 2: Episode 3. No, Valve instead announced Defense of the Ancients 2 (technically DotA 2 for future reference), which will be coming to PC and Mac sometime in 2011. For those who are confused, let Valve explain what the title is all about. The company behind Half-Life and Left for Dead has described DotA 2 as "a massive sequel to one of the most played games in the world." In retrospect, DotA 2 will be a continuation of a popular real-time strategy game that focuses on players controlling their herds of minions. 

Game Informer has the first bits of information regarding the game, stating that the game runs of Valve's much-hailed Source engine. Voice chat is also included with the game as well, along with gameplay that seems to be quite faithful to the series' roots. Steam-works achievements will be available as well to coincide with the title's vast community.

DotA 2 also will be having one the series' lead designers on Valve's iteration. IceHog, as he called, was a lead developer/designer before he was hired by Valve last year. He previously was working on maintaining the recent version of the game, DotA: All Stars.

If screens or videos are released, Gameshoe will update as soon as possible. Stay tuned. 

(Posted by: Harrison Milfeld) 

The chances of seeing Duke Nukem Forever released before Gran Turismo 5 don't seem silly anymore, don't it? Well, comical comparison aside, Gran Turismo 5 has been pushed back from its intended release date of November 2, to Holiday 2010. Now, be forewarned though, the new date isn't concrete given GT5's numerous delays. Consequently, the game could easily fall into early 2011, so don't hold your breath.  The following statement was posted by the Official Playstation Blog today about GT5's delay: 

"We can confirm that Gran Turismo 5 will not be available this November 2nd, but the game’s release will be coming this holiday season. We sincerely apologize to GT fans for the delay, however, creator Kazunori Yamauchi and the team at Polyphony Digital want to make certain they are creating the perfect racing experience, and we are confident that this ambitious game will exceed expectations when it launches. We’ll have more information for you in the near future."

It's a shame to possibly see one of this year's big PS3 titles be pushed back further, but hopefully Polyphony Digital can give us a solid 2010 date. For now, I'm setting the over/under of GT5 releasing after Duke Nukem Forever at two months. Any takers? 

New Let's Plays from new video guy Matt Z! Enjoy!