Wii U Out Now In USA. Europe Release Date Is November 30 2012 (Australia Too)

The Wii U is out now in America! Wii U releases in UK, Europe and Australia on November 30th 2012! It will cost $300 for the Basic Set and $350 for the Deluxe model. This marks Nintendo's first-ever high-definition videogame console supporting 1080p quality visuals.

This officially marks the beginning of the "next-generation" of videogame consoles, the 8th generation. It will be available in both a 8GB Basic Set or a 32GB Deluxe set. The basic is white-colored and the deluxe is black-colored. The major hook of the Wii U is the Wii U GamePad, a tablet, touchscreen-based controller (It has a giant screen in the middle, with the Analog Sticks on both sides, a D-Pad on the left, four face buttons on the right and trigger buttons (L, R and ZL and ZR). It also has Motion Control (built-in accelerometer and gyroscope),  a sensor strip, rumble force feedback, built-in camera and microphone, Infrared Transceiver (allowing you to use the Wii U GamePad as a TV remote) and near-field communication capabilities. The sensor strip could be incredibly revolutionary, as it can read cards or figurines like the Skylanders codes by simply placing them onto the corner of the controller itself!

The Wii U also supports all of the previous regular Wii accessories including the Wii Remote and Nunchuck, Wii Balance Board and a very Xbox 360-like standard controller called the "Wii U Controller Pro".

One of the neatest features of the Wii U is the ability to play your console games on the smaller Wii U GamePad touchscreen while someone else watches or plays something else on the TV screen. You can even use your Wii U GamePad to control all of your digital services such as your DVR, television channels,  Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, Blu-ray/DVD Player, etc., giving the Wii U broad entertainment capabilities. It also has a built-in web browser, and you can "toss" what you're viewing on the net using the Wii U GamePad's touchscreen by flicking it to your TV screen, at which point it will appear on the TV. Nintendo is also talking up the ability to use the Wii U GamePad screen to get new views and gameplay experiences by combing it with the TV screen.

So far the Wii U launch has been a huge success, as the system has sold out at many retailers in the USA, and is selling for over $500 on ebay!

Zelda Kickstarter Second Quest Project From Braid Artist. Graphic Novella Will Tackle Modern Gaming Issues and the Failures of the Zelda Series to Evolve

A Zelda Second Quest Kickstarter project takes a highly controversial essay "Saving Zelda" by Tevis Thompson about how the Zelda series has been fundamentally broken since Ocarina of Time, and marries it with Braid artist David Hellman who have teamed up to create a graphic novel that tackles the modern state of gaming and the failure of the gaming industry, in their eyes, via established conventions that they believe are in error. And have led to what they perceive as the failure of the modern Zelda series and many modern videogames.

The story will focus on "the non-Princess", who discovers she has the ability to draw out memories from objects while in her home town of the "already-saved" sky (a twist on Skyward Sword's Skytown). She then is able to piece together scattered legends that reveal that everything she thought she knew about herself, are not true.

The comic will make many statements about the state of the industry today, and tackle issues ranging from the failure of AAA games, to how gaming treats women, to the issue of unnecessary handholding that make games too easy.

Clocking in at 50 pages, they are attempting to raise $50,000. The comic will be distributed via FanGamer. You can snag both a digital and physical book for only $35, among other tiers, so be sure to back this project if you're interested in the statement its making!