Microsoft ends back up in hot water after it was discovered that the NSA has been using popular online hangouts to spy on people, some of which includes Linden Labs' Second Life, as well as Activision Blizzard's hugely popular World of Warcraft. However, the real crime was that the NSA has been using Kinect and Xbox Live to do just what everyone was afraid of with Kinect 2.0. The previous news was slightly softened by Spike's VGX awards show, which was so cringe-worthy it ended up getting its own memes, and Good Old Games has taken another pro-consumer step forward, offering DRM free titles and 30 refunds... now if only Steam can follow suit. Speaking of Steam, the SteamOS is currently available to download for free, but it's not quite user-friendly. These stories and more in this December 14th, 2013 edition of the Gaming Blend Weekly Recap.
Sunday
No Man's Sky Is Spike VGX's Big Winner The show was a contemptible mess, but one game stood out from all the wreckage.
Xbox One Suffers PC-Style Slow Down Due To Memory Issues So much for being convenient and less cumbersome than PCs.
Gran Turismo 6 Vs Project CARS: Graphics Comparison Shows PC is Untouchable Everything about Project CARS just floors the competition.
Riot Games Backs Down On Season 4 Contract For League of Legends Players Basically, players are now free to stream whatever game they want.
Yes, Joel McHale Saved The Train Wreck That Was Spike's VGX Awards It was no easy task but he pulled it together and pulled through.
Spike VGX Winners Include GTA 5, Last of Us There was some minor debate about the GOTY but Gran Theft Auto V pulled it out like a rabbit from a magician's hat.
Dying Light is 1080p on PS4 No word yet on what the resolution will be for the Xbox One.
Monday
Tales Of Borderlands, Game of Thrones Adventure Game Announced By Telltale The new games will take existing properties and expand on them with a completely different twist.
Tomb Raider For PS4, Xbox One Launching in 2014 “Definitive” versions for the new gen consoles, that is.
Xbox One Hard Drive Can Hold Only 20 Games It'll require some hard drive space Tetris to fit more games on there.
GTA 5 Online DLC Let Players Build Their Own Missions Rockstar will also unleash some additional single-player DLC to help expand the content of the game.
Xbox and Kinect used by NSA for spying purposes was done without Microsoft's consent Well, that's what the Redmond company is saying... that doesn't really make it true.
NSA Monitors Kinect Messages, Biometric Data, IP Addresses Via Xbox Live The National Security Agency is monitoring a bunch of games, including Kinect and World of Warcraft.
World of Warcraft: NSA Spy Journal So what's the daily excursions like for a spy playing WoW? Click the link and check it out.
Tuesday
Xbox One Breaks Sales Record While PS4 Pulls Ahead Not only has the PS4 pulled ahead but it's done so by about 500,000.
Doki Doki Universe Handful Of Others Hit PSN Some highly anticipated PS4 titles are available digitally via PSN.
GOG.com Offers 30 Day Refunds For PC, Mac Games The next big question is if Steam should offer the same sort of functionality?
You Can Now Use PS4 DualShock 4 Controllers On Xbox One A new adapter makes it convenient to plug in and play with a number of different gaming peripherals on the Xbox One.
Pete's Game of the Generation: Skyrim Gaming Blend's managing editor picks his game of the generation.
ROM: Read Only Memories, Ultionus: Tale of Petty Revenge Join Steam's Greenlight Two interesting new games with very controversial content land on Steam's Greenlight service.
More Xbox One Game Demos Will Arrive in the Future Says Major Nelson
Xbox One Digital Game Prices Raised To $59.99 You're now paying the same price for digital content that you're paying for physical game copies... except, you're getting less.
Dust 514 Uprising Update Improves Vehicles and Game Options CCP hasn't completely given up on the F2P shooter for the PS3.
EA, Microsoft, GameStop Named Best Places To Work By Human Rights Campaign It sure beats Foxconn, eh?
Fighter Within Gets Eviscerated By Game Informer, Receives One of the Worst Scores Ever It wasn't just Game Informer tearing the game a new one.
What Do You Think About Knack For PS4? A series of questions regarding Knack? What could go wrong?
Fallout 4 Boston Setting Revealed by Casting Documents The evidence mounts up. Bethesda's next big game is potentially in the works.
High End Steam Machine From Digital Storm Will Cost $1,469 The Steam Machine featuring the GTX Titan will be featured in the Digital Storm rendition of the Steam Machine.
3DS System Update Plays Nice With Wii U Nintendo is finally catching up to the current generation of gaming.
Xbox One Restricts Nearly Every Feature Without Xbox Live Gold Well, you get what you don't pay for.
Xbox Controllers Can Be Used For PS4 Games Play PS4 titles using all sorts of controllers and peripherals.
Vita's Super Crate Box, Free Runner, 2 Furmins Inbound More small mobile titles invade Sony's portable platform.
Steam Machines Ships This Week Valve moves forward with the Steam Machines, sending out the prototype units for beta testers.
GTA 5 Online Deathmatch, Race Creators Beta DLC Hits Xbox 360, PS3 Rockstar finally delivers new content for Grand Theft Auto V.
Thursday
Elder Scrolls Online Release Date Set For PC, Xbox One, PS4 The MMO based on Bethesda's popular Elder Scrolls property gets an official release date.
PS4 Is Top Selling Console, Xbox One is Fastest Selling Console NPD rolls out the stats and they're about as muddied as ever.
KontrolFreek Accessories Now Available For Xbox One, PS4 This is great news for people who like the controller accessories.
Nyko's Xbox One Charge Kits Available For Pre-Order If you pre-order from Amazon it's $10 cheaper than GameStop.
Hearthstone Beta Preview Pay-to-Win? Maybe. But it's Not Pay-to-Enjoy. Find out what Pete Haas' experience was like in the Hearthstone beta.
Forza 5 Cash Shop Prices Adjusted; Turn 10 Says People Misread Them The creative director of Forza 5 attempts to make amends for the microtransaction fiasco that transpired following the release of the game.
Grapple Knight Mega Man Style Side-Scroller Seeks Help on Kickstarter The platformer brings a fun level of engagement to the arena but it needs a bit of help on Kickstarter.
Sanctum 2 Draws To A Close With Last Stand DLC The FPS tower-defense title receives its final bit of DLC.
Total Launch Cost Of Xbox One: $591, Total Launch Cost of PS4: $460 Find out what the break down is between both consoles and how much you'll pay when it's all said and done.
Friday
Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII Gets Collector's Edition Square Enix announces a very big bundle of awesome for the collector's edition of Lightning Returns.
Assassin's Creed 4 Single Player DLC Freedom Cry Launching Next Week By the time you read this, you'll need smaller amounts of anticipation as the time frame of release will be as close as ever.
Grand Theft Auto San Andreas Now On iPhone, iPad
Fallout, Fallout 2, Fallout Tactics Now Free Could it be? Yes, it is. Grab them while you can... DRM-free and free. Just grab them! Grab them as if your life depended on it!
Gran Turismo 6 Infinite Credit Bug Lets You Afford The Jaguar XJ13 Well, at least there's a fix for that microtransaction problem.
SteamOS Beta Now Available The problem, however, is that it's not for newbies.
Ryan's Game of the Generation: Uncharted 2 Ryan rolls out his reasons as to why he chose Uncharted 2 as the game of the generation.
Pokemon Bank Launching For Pokemon X, Y In Two Weeks Store more items and Pokemon throughout your adventures with the new Pokemon Bank.
Best Buy States PS4 Is Selling More Than Xbox One Well that just further clarifies which one is the market leader so far.
Saturday
Minecraft Xbox 360 Edition Sells 10 Million Copies, PC Version Tops 13 Million Minecraft continues to steamroll through the sales charts like some kind of unstoppable, digital mega monolith.
Wii U Sales Increase by 340%, Passes Four million SKU Install Base Nintendo's little Wii U that could actually can and it did and it's doing. Never underestimate the underdog.
Double Dragon 3D, Ecco The Dolphin Hit Nintendo Consoles This Week Some of Sega's classics arrive on Nintendo's eShop.
Diablo 3 Reaper of Souls Closed Beta Launches With Patch 2 The public testing is taking place right now if you wanted to get in on the action.
ARM Acquires Geomerics A run of the mill acquisition news story. There's nothing informative or entertaining about it. Click for your own boredom.
Alien Isolation Screenshots Leaked The screenshots for Alien Isolation showcase the real Aliens game that gamers have been craving.
That wraps up this edition of the Gaming Blend Weekly Recap. You can check out a top 10 list of the best games of the generation for the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 below, courtesy of the newly revamped and improved GamesHQMedia. Enjoy.
One Piece’s Joe Manganiello Met Up With One Of The Most Badass Actors From Season 1, And I Really Hope These Two Share Screen Time On The Netflix Show
I Just Found Out That Jennifer Lawrence And Robert Pattinson Are Going To Be In A Movie Together, And It Reminds Me Of Their Missed Twilight Connection
The Story Behind How Phil Dunster Ended Up Playing Jamie Tartt On Ted Lasso Is Unexpected, And The Author Of The Show’s Book Told Me Why He Loved It
