IGN (linked above) has posted its review of the official Sony wireless keypad for the PlayStation 3, and seems to have a problem with its general design more than anything.
They note that the biggest issue is the top mounted nature of it, but essentially QWERTY keypads for game controllers don't really work that well and its probably best to pick up a microphone and talk.
To quote: But regardless of the poor touch support and ill-advised key design, the biggest issue I had with the Wireless Keypad is that Sony opted to design it as a top mounted add-on. I don't want to seem partial one way or another, but I definitely think Microsoft had it right when they made their keypad attachable between the handles of the Xbox 360 remote.
The keys seem much easier to view and access when they are located just below your thumbs on the thumbsticks. To be fair, the choice in top versus bottom attachment may have been out of Sony's hands. It's possible that Mi... More »
Today, 7-Eleven announced that they will start carrying certain video game titles for sale, including Fallout 3, Gears of War 2, Call of Duty: World at War and World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King.
Additionally, they will make several prepaid game cards available for companies (and games) like Nexon, Habbo, Gaia, Guild Wars, Runescape, Aeria, City of Heroes, ijji and Neopets.
Press Release: Gamers never die; they just grow up … and continue to play ... and play ... and play. Today, the average gamer is not in his teens, but in his early 30s and, not surprisingly, most likely male. They play at home, at social gatherings, at work (shhhh) and online.
That’s good news for 7-Eleven, Inc. whose customer base skews heavily male between the ages of 18 and 34. The world’s leading convenience retailer is ready to take the proverbial plunge into video game sales after dabbling in it over the past years with successful Slurpee® beverage promotio... More »
Video game consoles left running round-the-clock can send your annual electricity bill soaring. That's probably no surprise for most gamers. But the Natural Resources Defense Council, a New York-based conservation group, has conducted a study of gaming machine energy use to raise awareness among gamers and pressure manufacturers into making more energy-efficient machines.
The NRDC's study found that Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii machines in the U.S. use about as much electricity in a year as every home in San Diego combined. Much of the energy comes from machines that are left on, but not in use, the NRDC said.
Of the three consoles, Sony's PS3 was the biggest energy hog, followed by Microsoft's Xbox 360. Nintendo's Wii is by far the most energy efficient-and even uses less electricity than its predecessor, GameCube.
To quote: With more efficient devices and by utilizing existing power-saving features, consumers ... More »
A couple days ago we reported on a few holiday adverts that are part of a “bigger campaign”.
Today Sony's Senior Vice President of Marketing & PlayStation Network Peter Dille detailed their PlayStation: Entertainment Unleashed ad campaign officially via PS Blog as follows:
This is one of the fun parts of my job, when we get to unveil our TV commercials and give you, our loyal fans, a preview of our spots before they hit the airwaves. This year’s campaign is dubbed “Entertainment Unleashed” and for good reason.
The campaign actually began quietly a few weeks back with three fifteen second “tease” executions. Hopefully, you’ve seen these by now. These initial ads depicted various people catching glimpses and reflections of beautiful PS3 game footage magically appearing ... More »
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 US space agency NASA said it successfuly conducted a first test of a deep space communications network modeled on the Internet.
"This is the first step in creating a totally new space communications capability, an interplanetary Internet," Adrian Hooke, NASA's manager of space-networking architecture, technology and standards, said in a statement.
The US space agency said Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineers used software called Disruption-Tolerant Networking, or DTN, to transmit dozens of space images to and from a NASA spacecraft some 20 million miles (32.4 million kilometers) from Earth.
NASA said the software protocol, which must be able to withstand delays, disruptions and disconnections in space, was designed in partnership with Vint Cerf, a vice president at Internet search giant Google.
DTN sends information using a method that differs from the normal Internet's Transmission-Control Protocol/Internet Protocol, or TCP... More »
The New Xbox Experience, a.k.a. the new Xbox 360 Dashboard, hits today. If you've got an Xbox 360 that's connected to the Internet, you're going to be prompted to update your console as soon as you turn it on.
No exceptions; this is what your machine will look like until either it dies, you die, or Microsoft decides to make ANOTHER Xbox Experience.
Unfortunately, unlike Batman, you didn't have time to prepare. Here are the ten things you should know about the new Xbox experience so you can be set for today.
1) Installation is quick. Owners with hard drives that aren't 100% full will be able to update with no problem, but Xbox 360 Arcade fans that rely on memory cards can get in on the free 512MB card deal from Microsoft. We'd recommend you go for the 20GB hard drive for $20 if anything.
The update won't be as fast as the 10-second patches you're used to for standard Xbox Dashboard upgrades, but clocking in at somewhere between five... More »
AceKardTeam has shared via YouTube a video of their flash cart working on the Nintendo DSi in a LAB environment. However, they admit that even though they can get it running, it is almost impossible to make a commercial product out of it.
To quote: This is a lab work, it works ONLY in LAB. Even though we can go this far, it is almost impossible to make a commercial product.
There is a major problem that can't be resolved, at least for now. It seems DSi did many sanity checks to make sure there is no more fcards.. we will keep researching and good luck to all.
BTW: We assume there are more than one modes on DSi, we still haven't found any way to access the SD card slot in origin DS mode.
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