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There's a new fad starting to gain traction. You take your shiny plastic electronic devices, sand them down and leave them looking like brushed aluminium. It's not an unpleasant change, but one that could be so easily screwed up. Here's the question: would you risk taking sand paper to your brand new PlayStation 4 or Xbox One?

It has been suggested by fans and shareholders for years. It has been rumored from many major media outlets. It has been teased by Nintendo brass themselves in January. And now it is official. It's not Mario, but Nintendo is bringing arguably their second largest franchise to iPad in 2014, and I for one could not be more excited.

It’s no secret that WoW’s age old formula is beginning to feel outdated by this point, but it looks as if the Warlords of Draenor could be the shot in the arm the classic MMO needs.

Sure, the Wii U is a struggling system - despite a recent resurgence - and the butt of everybody's joke, but one has to wonder: what happens if the Wii U does eventually 'blow up.' Unlikely, sure, but there were developers who said the same thing about the PS3 only a few years ago, and look what happened there. The Wii U isn't at optimal health, but to get to a point where the current, perhaps future, version of Minecraft would make money may not be that far off. I seriously doubt, however, that Nintendo blindly makes that plunge, especially now.

With the announcement of GTA V, I had to be convinced to buy it. The trailers promised a return of humour, of mad characters, of different missions and of PARACHUTES. It was enough to pique my interests, but not enough to make me buy on day one. I certainly noticed one thing though: the hype metre for the latest in the series was off the scale, but this had been the case since GTA Vice City, and it isn't enough to make a great game.

While many of us were far from happy about Microsoft's "acquisition" of Rise of the Tomb Raider, some took it further than others. That's the problem with having such ready access to people via the internet: it's not difficult to hunt them down and attack them when something they're involved with becomes controversial, even if the person being attacked had nothing to do with the decision. That's what happened yesterday with Tomb Raider and Rhianna Pratchett.

It is no secret that Microsoft has completely rethought its views on their Kinect. At both their E3 press conference, and at Gamescon, the Kinect failed to get any attention. Even the new bundles - Fifa 15, Call of Duty, and Sunset Overdrive - are only available sans Kinect. If twitter is to be believed, Phil Spencer has not only given up on the over priced and under-utilized Kinect, but is also proud of it.

There aren't enough games set in the Wild West, and yet almost every single one that makes it to release is hailed as the best thing since Buffalo Bill said "let's take all this hardship and violence and turn it into a family friendly show." Hard West, developed by CreativeForge Games, is the next big game to tackle the topic, and it looks like it's going to continue the tradition of knocking our collective socks off.

Tomb Raider was a heavy hitter once, a long time ago. The first three games are almost synonymous with PlayStation nostalgia, but that was years ago and the time since has been filled with mediocre sequels and disappointing attempts of modernizing the franchise. Tomb Raider, the second reboot for the first lady of gaming, was a step in the right direction, but today’s announcement that its sequel will be “100% exclusive” to Xbox One is going to kill off the…

It's nice to get some hands on time with a game that can be fully appreciated in just a short period. Late last month, I was able to play a number of Nintendo's E3 titles in Toronto, Ontario. Most games would require thirty or forty minutes of playing to fully appreciate, but Pokemon Art Academy was great, even with just a small window of opportunity to try it out.