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 new Xbox 360 Dashboard OS update is coming soon and it is going to be one of the biggest changes to the Xbox 360 since the system hit the market.
It is going to include the first complete redesign of the Xbox interface called the NXE by all the cool kids. The New Xbox Experience (NXE) is going to be the best thing to hit the Xbox and it is going to completely redefine how we use it.
One of the niftiest things at Penny Arcade Expo 08 was seeing the new Xbox dashboard. Xbox Live's own Major Nelson showed it off. He made sure to stress that it is still a work in progress and that there was an army of programmers over in Redmond that were cranking out code and testing it as he gave the demo.
As a side note if you ever go to a game expo or press event and Major Nelson asks you not to film something in the presentation and you do it anyway and then go on and keep on filming after he notices you and calls you out and you don't stop it then y... More »
Courtesy of gr8npwrflOZ, this video shows a demo of a keyboard, and the developer has reportedly tried a hard drive although things run quite slowly.
To quote: This is a free standing plug-in mod for the PSP that will allow you to plug in USB keyboards, mice, and joysticks.
Video is available below, via YouTube!
Update: The mystery behind Microsoft Hardware's "Say Goodbye to Laser" teaser appears to have been solved, in record time.
Readers of sites including Engadget and Gizmodo have uncovered references to and photos of a new Microsoft "Blue Track" mouse on sites including the German version of Amazon.com and the YouGame online store. Among other things, the logo on the front matches the image at the end of Microsoft's teaser animation.
Microsoft Hardware, the unit that makes t... More »
Chilly Willy has released the first official build of his PSP port of Basilisk II, a 68k Macintosh emulator supporting OS 7.01 through 8.1. Based on the Basilisk II JIT project, this PSP port features use of UAE CPU emulation, along with new SoftFloat FPU emulation for increased compatibility.
In addition to 44kHz audio support, this version of Basilisk for PSP supports on-the-fly change of desktop colors and resolution, as well as support for mounting the PSP’s memory stick as a media device. Other features include support for the extra RAM on slim units and the ability to use TV-out.
Download: Basilisk II MAC OS Emulator v1.1.0 for PSP / Basilisk II MAC OS Emulator v1.1.0 for PSP (with Guide)
Changelog:
* Emulates a Mac II series machine running OS 7.0.1 through 8.1, depending on the ROM used.
* Us... More »
It's not every day you hear a game being touted as "genre-defining" ... it seems our "sarcasm keyboards" aren't quite working. Sure, we hear it all the time, but World in Conflict: Soviet Assault has an interesting mix of genre to get our attention, as well as Joystiq's.
Calling itself an "Action-Strategy" game, it eliminates the need to build bases or collect resources -- you've mainly got to deal with fast-paced action and split second strategies.
Imagine, if you will, an alternate Cold War where you're forced to battle the Soviets. The game boasts completely destructible environments and competitive online play (head-to-head and team-based) along with a hefty single-player campaign (from both the US and Soviet angles).
In online play, you get your choice of a specialty: Infantry, Armor, Support, or Air. You'll get tweaked controls for console owners, offering more streamlined interfaces. In addition, a fully 3D camera lets you sweep around th... More »
Our sources close to Microsoft have confirmed that the company wants to reach out for the retail market presence. Microsoft wants to open and create many retail shops dedicated exclusive to Microsoft and its products.
This is something that Apple did with its many Apple retail stores around the world. Microsoft will put its retail people in the shops with hope that these skilled people will be able to show the true Microsoft experience.
We can only guess that the shop will be filled with lot of software but it’s likely to include some peripheral stuff such are keyboards and mice as well as some MP3 Zune players. You can count on some computers but the last paragraph is something we suspect not something that has been confirmed.
If they put all that we just listed, it will definitely look like a Microsoft copy of Apple retail stores. Maybe even some windows phones?
It worked well for apple so Microsoft has the chance.
The guys over at www.XCM.cc let us know tonight that their new XCM XFPS RateUp Adapter for PS3 has arrived!
Features include:
Compatible with all PS3 games.
Compatible with all versions of PS3 (NTSC/US, PAL, NTSC/JAP).
Can map the controller button keys to any key of the keyboard.
Compatible with 95% of different kinds of mouse and keyboards.
High sensitivity, precision and smoothness.
Built in Turbo (Auto Fire) functionality.
Can adjust the mouse sensitivity from 2 extra wheels, with 16 levels of adjustment for X and Y sensitivity to adapt perfectly to every mouse.
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