There's general agreement that Sony stumbled out of the gate with the PlayStation 3. Months of intense hype were followed by a late launch (fully a year after the Xbox 360) and a staggering $600 price tag for the deluxe model.
Even worse, the PS3 didn't initially have any real must-have exclusive titles, and despite the power of its vaunted Cell processor, multiplatform games from third-party developers didn't look appreciably better than the respective titles on the Xbox 360.
Since then, the company's been modifying the PlayStation product line to better fit the competitive market landscape. As of August 2008, a new "bargain" PS3 is available with a larger, 80GB hard drive, and a "deluxe" model is due in November, doubling the capacity to 160GB.
Both, however, lack backward compatibility with PS2 games and do not come with flash card readers. If those features are a must, it might be best to pick up the 80GB "Metal Gear" bundle version on eBay w... More »
The DS and PSP are last gen platforms – and the only true next-gen portable platform is the iPod Touch.
That was the message from Apple this week, as the company finally revealed its intentions to snaffle market share in the traditional gaming space – after years of fervent speculation about its plans.
Speaking exclusively to MCV, the company confessed that its new marketing campaign encourages consumers to buy iPod purely “to play our games” – and even marked the device out as a real threat to Nintendo and Sony’s handheld efforts.
Greg Joswiak, head of iPod and iPhone marketing told us: “It’s not just the screens that are superior to DS – it’s the graphics capability, the computing power and the App Store distribution model.
“I had an analyst tell me in September – and he was right – that the DS is the past of gaming devices, and iPod Touch is the future of gaming devices. It certainly has our competi... More »
Google's hotly anticipated push into operating systems for mobile phones was a media sensation, but HTC's version of its Android-powered device is falling short of the hype. Critics say the "Google phone," which went on sale Oct. 22, is a little clunky with design flaws like no earphone jack and an oddly jutting chin. Close, but no iPhone killer.
Zune video MP3 player - Price: $230
Microsoft's latest answer to the iPod, with 120 gigabytes of storage and a 3.2-inch high-resolution color screen, is a vast improvement over the original Zune, which debuted in 2006. But the new Zune faces the same problem as the iPod: Smartphones and other Web-enabled devices chock full of features (think iPhone) threaten to render these one-trick players obsolete.
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Apparently someone leaked the install files for the NXE on the internet and it is now available for all to try out. Now just to let you all know, YOU CAN NOT CONNECT ONLINE WITH IT TILL NOVEMBER 19th, it will not allow you, so if you plan to game, do not use this.
Also there is no guarantee that Microsoft will not ban your console or get angry at you, so USE AT YOUR OWN RISK.
Now to install this, it is really simple, all you have to do is download the update files, you can get them HERE at digiex.net. After you have the file, you just put it on the root of a USB drive, slap that bad boy into your Xbox 360 and turn it on. From there you will be asked if you want to update and now your off and running. Again, use at your own risk.
The PLAYSTATION 3 computer entertainment system demo of Atari and Eden Games' innovative action survival creation Alone in the Dark: Inferno is now available on the PLAYSTATION Network.
Atari and Eden Games have given the title a blazing rework for its PLAYSTATION 3 system debut on November 18.
Press Release: PLAYSTATION(R)3 System Gamers Can Now Get First Look of The Sizzling Gameplay and Red-Hot Enhancements for Atari's Innovative Action Survival Experience
NEW YORK, Oct. 30: Responding to the feedback of media and gamers, the development team has turned up the heat to deliver an even more entertaining, immersive and action-packed blockbuster experience with a host of sizzling gameplay enhancements, red-hot content and an even more hellish storyline which has inspired the name Alone in the Dark: Inferno.
Gameplay elements including camera, inventory system, and hero control have all been reworked to maximize story immersion and at... More »
A patent application filed on October 23rd that surfaced at NeoGAF reveals that talk of Sony creating a break-apart controller that surfaced back in July of this year might not have been as far-fetched as was originally thought.
The patent is for a method by which a system could track the movement of one or more controllers, with video tracking the position of the controllers and ultrasonic frequencies used to determine their distance from the console.
What this means is that two different controllers would submit data to a video input device like the PlayStation Eye, with the Eye's microphone picking up on both the visual lo... More »
Though many previously bundled applets now will ship separately to Windows 7, Windows Media Player remains part of the core OS. Windows 7 will ship with Windows Media Player 12, which includes some surprising new features.
The UI itself is brighter and lighter than WMP11. Some buttons and toolbar items have been moved around, but the experience should be pretty familiar to users of version 11. What does represent a big change is the removal of the Now Playing button, which in WMP11 switches to a view showing the current playlist.
This is because WMP12 completely separates library management from what's currently playing, with two distinct player modes; Now Playing view, and Library view. Library view contains all the library manipulation features that should be familiar from WMP11. Now Playing view contains the current playlist, visualizations, and videos.
There's also a new taskbar miniviewer that works with the new Windows 7 taskbar, and WMP... More »
The copy protection police have struck again. The new HD Netflix streaming service on the Xbox 360 requires an HDCP compatible display device. If you try play a movie while not connected to an HDCP compatible display, you will get the “Secure HDCP Link Not Found” error.
For all the people that have a non-HDCP LCD monitors hooked up via DVI to their Xbox 360, you are SOL. What is not clear is whether your resolution be limited to 480p if you have an older Xbox 360 with only component outputs.
This situation kind of mirrors the DVD upscaling issue with the Xbox 360, with the work around being use the VGA adapter in order to get DVD upscaling via analog outputs.
What is Netflix worried about? Who in their right mind would waste their time capturing HD Netflix movies via HDMI? Answer, Nobody!
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