It will be hard for attendees to miss Nintendo at this year’s festival. They have not one but two tents, and they are even sponsoring one of the larger stages. They are also handing out temporary tattoos, which by the end of the long day at the Chicago stop, were plastered all over the concert-goers. The tent holding the 3DS demo kiosks was, by far, one of the larger tents on the festival grounds. Inside were plenty of 3DS units running full versions of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, Super Monkey Ball, Resident Evil: The Mercenaries, Super Street Fighter IV, and Dead or Alive Dimensions. Additionally, the staff was having a blast showing people the AR games.

I got hands on time with a few of the games, but since none of them were very new or exclusive to the tour, I’ll just say this: Super Street Fighter IV looks fantastic in 3D, Dead or Alive Dimensions felt unnecessary in every way, and Resident Evil: The Mercenaries was pretty boring and didn’t effectively use the 3D. AR games are still fantastic, but there has been little to no mention of new AR content, so far.

The most interesting thing about my time in the booth was the way the people manning it were handling perspective players. When I picked up a 3DS that was running Street Fighter, I was immediately approached by one of the staff. He then started asking me if I like fighting games and whether they were “my favorite type of game.” I told him I played all types of games, that fighting games weren’t my favorite, and that I wasn’t even good at them. That’s when he pointed out that most special moves could be performed on the touch screen. I assured him that these were things I knew, and he left me alone. However, it was cool to see how educated they were about the hardware and the software.

He then asked my wife what kind of games she liked, and when she responded “Angry Birds,” he took her on a tour of the AR games. These seemed to be the thing people in the booth were most excited about.

A couple of minutes into my time with Dead or Alive Dimensions, the same guy asked me what I thought. I told him the 3D seemed unnecessary, and he agreed with me. This, quite honestly, shocked me a bit. I figured he would want to hype me up on the 3D and get me excited for the system. It was pretty refreshing when he didn’t try to explain why the 3D actually made the game better.

At first, Nintendo at Warped Tour didn’t make a whole lot of sense, but after watching concert-goers stream in and out of Nintendo’s tent, and seeing the look on their faces when they picked up a 3DS for the first time, it all clicked. Nintendo needs to get this device out into the world and in front of as many faces as possible. While it may not be the target demographic for the system’s buyers, all these kids have parents and now their kids will ask for a 3DS or show their parents the glasses free 3D. It’s hard to believe it works, but the proof is there in the big Nintendo tent at this year’s Vans Warped Tour. If the tour is coming to your town, be sure to stop by and check it out. It’s one of the best ways to get a large amount of time with the device and truly decide whether or not the 3DS is for you.

Here is a trailer for the next round of DLC for LA Noire. By now you probably need some new cases to crack and Rockstar is going to give it you with the Reefer Madness DLC on July 12th. The trailer is short, but it’s to the point. Cole Phelps is probably the guy who started D.A.R.E., spoilers.

Embed via Joystiq

NeoGaf found this image of a Resistance 3 PS3 bundle and right on the front is a logo for a PSN pass. With the cryptic warning “Network features only available in countries that have PlayStation Store”. While Sony hasn’t announced the PSN Pass us and everyone else is taking a wild guess that this will be a license code that lets you play Resistance 3‘s multiplayer or you can buy it should you purchase the game used. Hence the need for the PlayStation Store.

This of course is nothing new and is almost the norm at this point. Do PSN passes, and online passes turn you off from games? Does it actually encourage you to buy games? Or does it not even matter as much as we’d like to think it does?

Tomorrow is the big day if you own a copy inFAMOUS 2 or are a PlayStation Plus member, which spoilers EVERYONE can be right now. Those two groups of people get to start playing in the multiplayer beta for Uncharted 3. Around 2PM Pacific time the PlayStation Store will update and the beta client will be available for download. Naughty Dog has been nice enough to post this trailer to show us what the beta will look like and you’re going to be surprised by just how cinematic they are making it. While Uncharted 2‘s multiplayer was just kind of deathmatch in the Uncharted universe this looks to be a solid attempt at making something truly unique.

Look for an impressions podcast from the staff, and we’re sure it will be talked about on Bullshot!

Think back, way back to April of 2010 when you picked up your copy of Splinter Cell: Conviction. In that box was promise of access to the Ghost Recon: Future Soldier beta. Well, with Ghost Recon’s many delays the answer to the question “When does the beta start?” has gone missing but it looks like we have finally got our answer. The Ghost Recon Twitter account has tweeted that the Ghost Recon: Future Soldier beta will begin this coming January with the game in stores before the end of March. Now, where did you put that copy of Splinter Cell?

In a video interview with Gamespot, Microsoft Studios head Phil Spencer says that Halo Anniversary will use Kinect. While it was not mentioned how exactly the game will use Kinect it was confirmed on the Halo Waypoint message boards that it will not be intrusive and not be used to control the game. So we’re talking voice commands or menu control. Probably something like that. It’s even been rumored that it could be for use in an unannounced Forge mode. Either way I’m sure we’ll here more as Halo Fest quickly approaches.

November 15th, 2011 marks the 10th anniversary of two things. The release of Halo and the launch of the Xbox. For those who can’t remember or weren’t there for the early days of Microsoft’s first console you may not remember the original canned ham sized controller. Pictured above and internally named “duke” the original controller was a behemoth with XYAB buttons that could all be pressed simultaneously with one thumb. It was a mess and quickly rectified with the Xbox Controller S a much smaller, more comfortable controller.

Why did I just spend almost 100 words reminiscing about the original Xbox’s controller? Because, 343 Industries is going to get a few of them modded to work with the Xbox 360 and then let people play Halo Anniversary Edition at Halo Fest. Halo Fest which will run inside of this year’s PAX Prime is going to be a 3-day love in to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the franchise. So, if you’re going out there you might want to start warming your hands up now because that’s a lot of controller to hold onto.

Via Giant Bomb

Nintendo has registered some domain names that may give you a slight case of deja vu. WiiFitU.com, WiiPartyU.com, and WiiUPlay.com are among the dozens of domain names that Nintendo recently registered. Whether Nintendo is buying these just in case, or if these are confirmed Wii U titles remains to be seen since Nintendo hasn’t commented on it, but I mean….come on. Its Nintendo, of course these games are coming out. Of course the Wii U launch titles are going to be mini-game collections. How else are we going to see the machines immense power?

via Nintendo Game World

THQ announced today that it has notified Homefront developer KAOS Studios and Red Faction: Battlegrounds developer THQ Digital Warrington that they will be closed within the next 60 days. Neither of these should come as much of a surprise to those paying attention. Homefront sold decently well, but is a technically flawed not very fun to play game. Red Faction: Battlegrounds is said to be quite a stinker though I never played it.

Wellington has one more game to release July’s Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team a twin stick shooter meant to tie-in with Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine. The Homefront IP is now in the hands of THQ’s Montreal studio. Which I guess confirms a sequel to Homefront. Yay?

I have good news and bad news. The good news is that there will be a Signature Edition of Assassin’s Creed: Revelations. The bad news is, you have to pre-order the game at Gamestop. The good news is, it’s a free upgrade. So what does your pre-order edition of Revelations include? How about an exclusive multiplayer character, an exclusive single player mission, a weapon capacity upgrade, an animated short film, and the game’s soundtrack. Not a bad deal for pre-ordering. The only question left now is, what’s left to put in the collector’s edition?