Digiex

Nintendo have made an official announcement about the Pokemon Crystal release on the Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console. Crystal will be released on January 26, 2018 for $9.99.

Pokemon Crystal will also have Pokemon Bank compatibility, meaning its now finally possible to bring Pokemon all the way up to Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon from every single core Pokemon game ever released.

For those that prefer physical releases, there will also be a boxed version that contains the game's download code released in Europe and Japan.

In addition it has been confirmed the Japanese version of Pokemon Crystal will allow you to obtain the GS ball in Goldenrod City's Pokemon Communication Center after beating the Elite Four. It has been confirmed the international releases will also be able to encounter Celebi, however as to how hasn't been confirmed yet. We suspect this will likely be from obtaining the GS ball from the Goldenrod City Pokemon Center after beating the Elite Four, as the event was programmed in to the international game when originally released on the GameBoy, however never used.

Needless to say it will be nice to officially have all the original Generation 1 and 2 Pokemon games available on the 3DS.

View: YouTube Trailer for Pokemon Crystal

Will you be purchasing Pokemon Crystal?

Humble Bundle is giving away Homefront on Steam for a limited time.

Homefront is a first-person shooter video game developed by Kaos Studios and published by THQ. The game tells the story of a resistance movement fighting in near-future against the military occupation of the Western United States by a unified Korea. It was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2011.

If your in to first person shooters and have some free time Homefront is certainly worth checking out, I remember quite enjoying this on the 360 back in 2011.

Link: Homefront on the Humble Store

Humble Bundle is giving away the complete edition of Sid Meier's Civilization III for free. The game launched back in 2001 so you will have to have been a PC gamer for a fair while to remember this one.

Civilization III, like the other Civilization games, entails building an empire, from the ground up, beginning in 4,000 BC and continuing slightly beyond the modern day. The player must construct and improve cities, train military and non-military units, improve terrain, research technologies, build Wonders of the World, make war or peace with neighboring civilizations, and so on.

If that sounds interesting to you head over to the Humble Store and claim your free copy of the game, which can be redeemed on Steam.

View: Civilization III Complete Edition on the Humble Store

If you were a gamer or a kid growing up in the 90's then you probably played Tomb Raider 2 back then, or at least heard of it. A group of fans have got together and started to re-make the game in the Unreal 4, with stunning results.

The team behind the project have now released a playable demo for all to enjoy.

View: Tomb Raider 2 The Dagger Of Xian [Unreal 4 Fan Remake] Screenshots and Demo Download

After not updating the Wii U for over a year and a half Nintendo released the 5.5.2 update, which patched some vulnerabilities in the web browser which had been used by the community to launch Homebrew on the Wii U.

However its rumoured the Crunchyroll App can also be exploited for Homebrew purposes. With that in mind if you have updated to 5.5.2 we'd recommend download the Crunchyroll App, just in case. Better to be safe than sorry right?!

Nintendo have released a new Wii U system update, after not updating the Wii U since January 2016.

The only thing Nintendo state has changed is in firmware version 5.5.2 is "Further improvements to overall system stability and other minor adjustments have been made to enhance the user experience" what this translates to is patching the web browser exploit used to gain access to homebrew.

Surprisingly however the IOSU and Kernel exploits have not been patched, just the web browser entry point required to install these exploits.

So if you have followed Digiex's Wii U Permanent Homebrew Channel / Launcher Exploit Tutorial [Haxchi 2.0 Wii U Hack] and installed the Homebrew Channel to a DS this should still work fine, as should all your homebrew.

Haxchi and CBHC work as normal if already installed.

However I would still suggest not updating, as you gain nothing and lose the only way to ever install the Homebrew Launcher in the unlikely event you mess something up at a later date.

If you followed the tutorial linked to above you should have already blocked your Wii U from auto updating, if not then follow this guide here to block Wii U System Updates if you care about Homebrew and Hacks.

Backing up your important data is something not everyone does, backing up that important data off site in another location, also known as a cloud backup is something even fewer people do.

Until recently having a cloud backup is not something i've done either, however it is something i've thought about for a couple of years now, but could never find a system I was happy with.

You might be wondering why a backup of your most important data in a different location to your house is important?

Well what happens if your computer / backup hard drive got stolen, or some natural disaster such as a flood ruined your computer and backups? you would loose everything unless a copy of that data existed somewhere else.

The most easy solution is to backup your most important data up to the cloud, however for maximum security and privacy you only want to store encrypted data no one else can make use of, which is where things get a bit more difficult.

I've looked at a lot of different solutions and come up with something inexpensive that works great for multiple Windows or Mac computers.

View: Personal Encrypted Secure Cloud Backup - All You Need To Know

I'd also be interested to learn about your own cloud backup system if you have anything in place.

Nintendo have announced that Pokémon Gold and Silver will launch on Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console on September 22nd.

This re-release will be compatible with Pokémon Bank, meaning it's finally possible to import Pokemon from all previous Pokemon game in to Pokemon Generation 7. Unfortunately, the game will not be available for the Nintendo Switch.

Nintendo also confirmed today a deluxe version of Pokemon Sun and Moon called Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, will be available on November 17th.

Needless to say i'm pretty happy i'll finally be able to import my Gold and Silver squad from my original GameBoy save.

View: YouTube Trailer for Pokemon Gold and Silver

The Humble Bundle store is currently giving away free copies of Rising Storm Game of the Year Edition which can be redeemed on Steam. Rising Storm is a stand-alone expansion for Red Orchestra 2 and includes all multiplayer content from the base game.

Rising Storm allows the player to fight across iconic locations from the famous island-hopping campaigns in the Pacific from 1942 to 1945. Players will experience beach assaults, jungle fighting, close quarters night fighting and more across Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima and Saipan, among other iconic battles. The player is able to take the part of either side, American or Japanese, battling it out online in multiplayer on up to 64-player servers.

Click the link below to claim your free copy, the game is free for the next 1 day and 19 hours at the time of writing.

View: Rising Storm Game of the Year Edition at the Humble Bundle Store

Update: This offer has ended.

For anyone who's looking for a new PC game to play your in luck. Saints Row 2 is currently free on both Good Old Games and Steam.

Saints Row 2 brings true freedom to open-world gaming. Players can play as who they want, how they want, and with whomever they want in this sequel to the much acclaimed and tremendously successful Saints Row.

Set years after the original, the player finds himself in a Stilwater both familiar and strange and challenged with bringing the Saints back as the rightful kings of Stilwater and bringing vengeance to those who wronged him.

Download:

Saints Row 2 on Good Old Games

Saints Row 2 on Steam