News

Drones are here. What was once called RC is now called drones. Horizon Hobby is no stranger to the RC hobby market and what better way to show off their years of RC knowledge than by releasing easy to fly camera drones. They specialize in easy to fly kits that come fully ready right out of the box. We've got the Chroma 4K kit on the review bench and it is a blast to fly.Next Page »

We are currently on an input device binge. The PDP Afterglow Prismatic Wired Controller roles onto the test bench. We found that the controller performs well and doesn't feel cheap. Next Page »

The industry is changing. Scratch that, it has changed. Mobile games are really starting to come out as a giant market segment, but fear not, the PC has tons more to offer. What do you do when you want a great gaming headset that will work for everything? Look no further than the Kingston HyperX Cloud II Pro Gaming Headset.Next Page »

We saw this at CES... And now you get to see what's in the box.

You want to get your kids outside and want them to have fun. Sure, they can still play stick ball... but that's so last century. Enter the Arctic Hobby Sky Rider 111. With this mechanical bird, you can take to the air and have a blast.Next Page »

Cooler Master may not be the first name you think of when talking about mice, but they have released a couple well-received products in the past year or so under their Storm sub-brand. Today, ASE Labs has their most recent release, the Cooler Master Storm Spawn gaming mouse. This mouse is supposed to slot in below the Inferno, but is it able to stand on its own as a great mouse?Next Page »

It is no surprise that the Nintendo 3DS is selling very, very well in Japan. It is sold out, period. Stock comes in, it sells out.

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According to the reports, 400,000 Nintendo 3DS units were sold since the device's launch on Saturday. A sell-out was expected. Most retail outlets in Japan had their preorders sold out prior to the launch of the portable-gaming device and were already taking orders for the next shipment.

The Nintendo 3DS will be one of the more interesting launches this year, thanks to its unique feature-set. The platform, which went on sale in Japan for 25,000 yen (about $300), allows gamers to play 3D titles without the need for special glasses. It comes with two screens and boasts an accelerometer and gyroscope to give developers a few more options for their video games.

In Japan, 400,000 units sold is just the beginning for Nintendo. The company said last year that it expects to sell 1.5 million 3DS units in Japan alone by the end of March. The European launch is set for March 25. The U.S. launch is scheduled for March 27 with a $249 price tag for the device.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-20037185-17.html

It seems that Wirefly spilled the beans on the network that the Sony Xperia Play will be on. I wonder, who will be buying this phone? It might be one of those jack of all trades, master of none, type of deals... Or it could be the greatest thing to happen to mobile gaming. Who knows... Actually, I do. Sony's history of past systems yields my thoughts to lean to the failure category. Remember Sony, once people buy the device, they own it!

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Verizon customers could have a tough choice to make. After all, the Xperia Play is no slouch when it comes to specs. The phone will come with Android 2.3 Gingerbread installed right out of the box. A 4 inch LCD display weighs in with resolution at 480 x 854, and there is a front-facing camera. Of course, you can't forget that slide-sliding game controller that has game players excited.

Is Wirefly's intelligence correct? By Sunday evening, we should know. Sony Ericsson has had its troubles finding a carrier to subsidize its smartphones in the U.S., but because the Xperia Play is so unique, the joint-venture does have a good shot at getting a major U.S. carrier to sign on the dotted line.

Mobile World Congress is set for this weekend and that's when many new phones will be announced and released.

http://www.phonearena.com/news/Sony-Ericsson-Xperia-Play-to-launch-on-Verizon_id16559

Or did they mean the bottom line? Nintendo doesn't like all these new and fun games coming out for mobile devices that give you the ability to time waste at any point. One of the problems of a Nintendo DS/i/XL/etc is that you need to carry it along with you. Most people have their phones with them already and they don't want to fire up a portable gaming console for a break that might last 5 minutes. In addition, most people don't want to pay more than $10 for a mobile game. I'll even go further and say that most people probably don't want to even pay for anything.

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With retail titles for the upcoming Nintendo 3DS expected in the $35 to $45 range, Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime actually thinks it's cheap, $1 and $2 mobile games that are "one of the biggest risks today in our gaming industry."

Speaking to Geoff Keighley in the latest episode of GameTrailers TV, Fils-Aime contrasted "full-fledged" 3DS games like Steel Diver with a flood of cheap games on mobile devices like the iPhone that are "disposable from a consumer standpoint."

"Angry Birds is a great piece of experience," he said, "but that is one compared to thousands of other pieces of content that for one or two dollars I think create a mentality for the consumer that a piece of gaming content should only be $2."

Nintendo needs to get its head out from its rear-end. These indy companies make money because people like their product and it has reply value and word of mouth. Why is it that Nintendo's biggest games (on their consoles) are made by Nintendo, itself? Why is it that games are so expensive now for graphics updates? Seriously, we're entering another dark age of gaming thanks to the consoles. I hope Duke Nukem Forever brings PC gaming back to the forefront.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/32855/Nintendos_FilsAime_LowPriced_Mobile_Games_Among_Biggest_Risks_To_Industry.php

Everyone that owns a legit copy of Starcraft 2 is now shafted from playing due to an authentication server issue. I'm getting a GLOBAL_INTERNAL_ERROR when trying to sign into Starcraft 2. Now I can't even play single player. See why DRM is bad? I really hope this spurs people to really look into making a Starcraft 2 LAN server. Blizzard really screwed us legit gamers on this one.

http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/1764408156

Arctic Sound reinforces its introduction headphone lineup with another great set. The P321 offers quality sound at an affordable price. If you're a gamer that needs to be careful of what's coming out of your wallet, then the P321 is for you.Next Page »

Gaming headsets aren't all alike. Some are very expensive just because of a brand name. Some are feature packed and come with a good price. The Arctic Cooling Arctic Sound P531 USB Gaming Headset falls into the latter category. The P531 brings true 5.1 channel sound for your listening pleasure.Next Page »

Okay everyone, if your a PC gamer you may have missed this demo release yesterday. The Ball just released the demo on Steam, and the official web page.




You can pick this demo up on the Steam page, or The Ball Official Site.

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The Ball is a first person action-adventure game featuring a full single-player experience built on Epic’s Unreal™ Engine 3 technology. As a swashbuckling archaeologist working on the slopes of a dormant volcano somewhere in Mexico, you get stuck in a cavern. It doesn’t take long before you realize this is more than just a cave. You reveal ancient ruins that have been hidden from outsiders for centuries and discover a mysterious artifact, a gold and metal shelled Ball. As you progress towards solving the mystery of this amazing place you must unlock the secrets of the Ball and learn to control this ancient artifact. Venturing deeper into the volcano, you reveal some of mankind’s greatest secrets and you will start to encounter not just puzzles and traps, but also various strange creatures – the guardians of this mystery. These creatures have to be overcome, using only the Ball to defend you.

That silly "unauthorized controllers may explode so we don't support them" crap Sony talked about the other day? Apparently that was Sony legalese for "we are going to intentionally disable third-party controllers that we don't like." Fantastic, Sony. I feel much safer.

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Owners of various PS3 peripherals, including (but not limited to) the Yobo PS3 Joybox, the XCM Cross Battle Plus Adapter and the SplitFish FragFX, are reporting compatibility issues after the release of PS3 firmware 3.50. Some conspiracy theorists believe the rampant failure of these devices is linked to Sony's ongoing battle to circumvent further use of the PS3 jailbreak, which requires a USB tool to activate.

1UP suggests that this issue may be a side effect of Sony's discovery (and subsequent disabling) of "counterfeit" PS3 controllers. A recent consumer alert on Sony's official website states that "SCEA does not support continued functionality of counterfeit or unlicensed controllers in system software updates and these devices may cease to function in the future because of system software updates."

The 1UP report adds that "no third-party controllers that are officially licensed by Sony" have been disabled in the latest update. Considering the affected devices haven't been officially licensed, it's unlikely that a fix will be offered. A SCEA representative told us that "SCE does not support continued functionality of unlicensed controllers."

Linky.

That third paragraph is incorrect, by the way.

Sony, who designed the PS3 with a deliberately open standard for USB devices so the system would support PC peripherals, apparently have decided that going completely full-blown crazy in their overreactions to things they don't like is the way to go. I'm starting to wish Sony never offered any of this extra freedom over the 360 in the first place if they were going to remove it in the future.




Of course, something to keep in mind is that it is entirely possible that this was an accident, but I personally doubt it.

It was bound to happen when they released the MotionPlus add-on for the Remote. People asked, "why not build this into the Remote?" Nyko even has a product that does just that. It is called the Wand+ and is a third-party add-on for the Wii. We hope to get one for review soon.

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We played FlingSmash in February of this year and quite enjoyed it, as our First Impressions show, but its projected release date of Summer 2010 has been and gone without the game hitting shelves. Now retailer Gamestop has released boxart of the game showing the game is set to be bundled with a Remote, seemingly containing MotionPlus built-in.

Titled "Wii Remote Plus", the controller itself looks only slightly different, with a slight curve below the four lights the only alteration visible at this resolution. As FlingSmash requires MotionPlus this is obviously a new controller containing the add-on, but could the game's delay have been caused by the newly developed Remote?

http://wii.nintendolife.com/news/2010/09/flingsmash_shows_off_a_new_wii_remote_with_motionplus_built_in

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Well, nobody saw this one coming. Sony has patented an external device that allows you to play PS2 games on a PS3. The device contains RAM, CPU and GPU, but no disc slot, as the PS3 will spin the disc. But while first impressions may suggest this is an unnecessary and expensive method for playing what can almost be classed as retro games, it's actually the best method from a gamer's perspective.

Linky
I wouldn't advise you to actually read the article, though. Tons of incorrect information about the way the original PS3 BC worked.






I'm okay with this. Basically, it works the same way that the launch PS3 did, only with the PS3 connected to an external box to do the actual PS2 processing. So long as Sony doesn't get obnoxious with the pricing ($50 would be the sweet spot, considering it probably costs Sony $20 to make the components that go into it), I think this is probably the best solution for all. It might even relight the fire under the PS2 market that Sony keeps saying isn't dead. I would obviously prefer an SKU with it integrated, particularly now that we have the cooler-running and supposedly-more-reliable Slim PS3, but I suppose this is a good compromise.

Also, if Sony are really nice and make it region free (unlike the original PS3 BC), I would snap one up in an instant, even though I own a CECHA PS3. Next Page »

So, after »that whole Linux fiasco happened (which is currently tied up in courts, just so you know), Sony probably thought that they were safe from any major threats to their system. Then this happened.

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Who needs George Hotz anyway? A USB modchip for the PS3 has emerged from the mists this morning, purporting to allow the dumping of games onto nearby storage -- the console's internal HDD and external drives are both a-ok -- as well as the subsequent playing of said games without the need for the original disc. Could it be the backup/piracy nirvana Sony loyalists have been awaiting for so long? Well, there's a video showing the little USB device apparently working, and the PSX-Scene team say they have personally verified that it does what it claims to do, but skepticism remains advisable here. The PS3 has been a fortress of hacker unfriendliness, so we'd rather kick back, relax, and wait for some braver souls than us to do the testing. For now, the video awaits after the break.

Linky.

Just... wow.


What it basically does is work the same way that Pre-2009 PSPs did with Pandora Batteries, in that inserting the proprietary drive into the USB port kicks the system into service mode so you can fiddle with it. Basically, this exploit exists for the same reason as it did on the PSP, because that is the method that Sony themselves use in order to fix PS3 consoles that ended up with screwed up firmware installs and other low level issues. This supposedly allows everything from dumping your PS3 games to the hard drive (internal or external) to downgrading the system firmware. And because the dongle interacts with the hardware on a machine code level using Sony's own software, there is nothing Sony could do to prevent its use until they change the hardware itself to no longer allow the system to boot in that way (which is what they ultimately had to do with the PSP with the 3000).



One thing that must be kept in mind is that, regardless of where you usually come down on the "open platform versus closed platform and consumers rights therein" argument, this is completely, totally crazy illegal. Not because of any whining Sony will do about their hardware being hacked, but because the way this thing was developed was apparently by the guys that made it getting their hands of one of the dongle's that Sony's guys use themselves, copying the hardware and dumping the software, then copying both to their own drive design. Because of that, when this explodes like it obviously will, Sony will probably be able to successfully block the sale of them in America/Britain/etc. Not that that really matters, I suppose.

Laser mice have been around for several years now and these days most peripheral manufacturers have more than one in their product stable. Today, ASE Labs has the Cooler Master Storm Inferno laser mouse, the second mouse in Cooler Master's Storm series of gaming accessories.Next Page »

ASE Labs prides itself on fair and honest reviews. We test many products and one of the hardest things to do is to write a review about a product that is lacking. What we have here is the M551 which we thought would be a good addition to the Arctic line up since the M571 was very good. We were wrong and it just proves you can't assume anything.Next Page »

Arctic Cooling is the latest company to expand its market portfolio and create new products to crowd the consumer marketplace. Their first inputs devices are gaming inspired products. The Arctic M571-L is a laser mouse with features that make it run with the big boys, but not with their price.Next Page »

Logitech tries to refresh its product lines every once in awhile. This serves a few purposes. For Logitech, this means a steady stream of revenue. For the consumers, it usually means a better product than before. The G110 is just such a product. It takes over for the G11 that was released about three years ago and bests it in every way.Next Page »

Valve is one of the biggest publishers to throw its support around non-Windows operating systems. Today, they've released the Steam client for Mac OSX. In the coming months, Linux will be fully supported. I believe we'll hit some type of critical mass for Linux support and Valve is doing a great thing in supporting the free (as in freedom) OS.

http://store.steampowered.com/about/

Steam is a double-edged sword. It is a DRM system (albeit, one of the better ones) which means that I really don't like it that much. DRM takes freedom away from the consumer. We'll see what happens in the future with Steam on Linux.

Hey Blizzard, are you listening? Starcraft 2 for Linux NOW!

Sony announced firmware 3.21 yesterday. What long-wanted feature does it bring to the PS3 XMB? Finally add .mkv support? Cross game chat? Automatic trophy syncing? No!

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The next system software update for the PlayStation 3 (PS3) system will be released on April 1, 2010 (JST), and will disable the “Install Other OS” feature that was available on the PS3 systems prior to the current slimmer models, launched in September 2009. This feature enabled users to install an operating system, but due to security concerns, Sony Computer Entertainment will remove the functionality through the 3.21 system software update.

In addition, disabling the “Other OS” feature will help ensure that PS3 owners will continue to have access to the broad range of gaming and entertainment content from SCE and its content partners on a more secure system.

Linky.

That's right ladies and gents, Sony is once again doing the "we don't want you to have this feature you paid for anymore" conga line by introducing another force-upgrade firmware solely dedicated to removing stuff Sony promised wouldn't go anywhere.

A simple reason why DRM doesn't work; you screw your own customers. Let's take a look at Ubisoft's new game, Assassin's Creed 2. The game REQUIRES you to be logged into to their activation server the entire time. This means activation AND play time are tied to their own servers. If they go down, the product you paid for is now useless.

And that just happened. Their servers are down and the people that paid for the game can't play it. A huge thread on Ubisoft's forum is erupting. http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/4721051016/m/7481010838/p/1

Response: http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/4721051016/m/7481010838?r=6531081838#6531081838

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I don't have any clear information on what the issue is since I'm not in the office, but clearly the extended downtime and lengthy login issues are unacceptable, particularly as I've been told these servers are constantly monitored.

I'll do what I can to get more information on what the issue is here first thing tomorrow and push for a resolution and assurance this won't happen in the future. I realise that's not ideal but there's only so much I can do on a weekend as I'm not directly involved with the server side of this system.

Since you already bought the game, we don't care about fixing the issue ASAP. We can wait till tomorrow. How many gamers purchased this game and found this? Don't support companies that put this type of lunacy on their products! DRM is just wrong and takes away consumer rights.

Atari is celebrating the 30th anniversary of Missile Command by giving it a free version for play on the internet. The new version has been updated and reimagined by OMGPOP, operator of the omgpop.com website. Housed in a mini-site dedicated to the game, the remixed Missile Command captures the original iconic DNA of the 1980's phenomenon, and adds compelling new dimensions and attitude - highlighted by the entirely online multiplayer gameplay, a first for the franchise. Missile Command is free to play and available at http://www.missilecommand.com, http://www.atari.com/missilecommand and http://www.omgpop.com/games/missilecommand.

The year was 1980 and all across the planet people had the very real fear that one day the world's super powers would finally use their nuclear arsenals. Missile Command was in many ways a reaction to those fears. The premise of the game was simple: the player must protect six cities from an ever increasing swarm of ballistic missiles. Control was taken care of by a fast and accurate trackball that was notorious for pinching the skin of players' fingers. That didn't seem to affect the public appeal of the game which became an immediate arcade smash hit and one of the biggest sellers of the Atari 2600 system.

Now Atari and OMGPOP have built upon that legacy with this exciting online version. With enhanced features such as power-ups, new enemies, upgrades, and an entirely online multiplayer co-operative gameplay option, the new Missile Command has all the makings of a modern classic.

"Missile Command is a pop culture phenomenon that millions upon millions of fans have enjoyed throughout the years," says Jim Wilson, President and CEO of Atari, Inc. "The new Missile Command maintains the appeal of the original while bringing it to today's casual and social game players. It is an example of how Atari's games portfolio is well positioned for today's growing online games market."

"Working with Atari was terrific," says OMGPOP CEO Dan Porter. "To be able to work on a classic that many of us grew up playing and add the social and multiplayer features was a great way to bring the game to the millions of teens on omgpop.com."

Do you remember when Missile Command came out? Get some nostalgic gameplay by checking out those websites. It is pretty fun and still the same pick up and play gameplay.

Source: Atari

Logitech's newest gaming keyboard, the G19, has been released with much praise from reviewers. The color LCD and ability to change the backlighting color of the keys are just some of the features of this new gaming keyboard. Unfortunately, the keyboard seems to have taken a step back in one area critical to the intended use... the typing ability is worse than the older G15. The keyboard may pack a bunch of cool features, but is it worth it with that glaring problem?Next Page »

Professional douchebag Bobby Kotick, hot on the heels of Activision announcing Tony Hawk will cost £100, as well as them posting crazy profits and market share increase, responds in an interview that if he was in charge of game prices... he would raise them.

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With retail and consumers alike still getting to grips with the prospect of shelling out £54.99 for November’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick has admitted that he would like to push prices even higher.

Linky.

I really have to wonder how far publishers will milk this "oh no games are so expensive" bullshit before the entire industry backlashes and stops buying altogether. The COD price increase was hilarious enough, considering the PC version of the exact same game costs 20 pounds less.
I also laugh at the people who think this is the kind of thing digital distribution will solve when it will allow publishers even more control over game prices and eliminate used game sales.

In fact, Activision are being such douchebags of late, particularly when Kotick says stupid crap like this right after having the balls to blast the PS3 for costs, I may reverse my self-imposed EA ban and move it to Activision instead. Activision is being more of the "evil publisher" than EA ever was anyways. This whole mess is honestly nearly as bad as Nintendo raising the price on their-made-a-profit-from-the-beginning Wii in the U.K. under the silly pretext of exchange rate deficiency (even ignoring the hedge that the Wii's absurd U.K. price already created), then saying flat out the next month that the Wii costs half as much to make as it did when it first came out. I feel sorry for you Brits.

There is a upcoming internet gaming service that takes the games away from you and places them on a server. OnLive promises to be only $50 per year along with the needed hardware (or PC/Mac, no Linux?). All the real work is done on the servers, the client is a thin piece of hardware. How will this cope with lag (input lag as well)? I doubt this will fly for FPS, perhaps more casual games may find a fit.

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Based here in San Francisco, OnLive timed its formal unveiling to this week's Game Developers Conference, where it will be showcasing the technology and 16 initial games it will launch with. The service is currently in a closed beta, but is expected to go into a public beta this summer, and to launch this winter. According to Perlman, OnLive's technology will make it possible to stream the games in such a manner--high quality, no matter what kind of system the user has--by virtue of a series of patented and patent-pending compression technologies. And instead of requiring users to download the games, OnLive will host them all and stream them from a series of the highest-end servers. Users will have only to download a 1MB plug-in to get the service up and running.

I totally called it.

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It finally looks like we have unofficial confirmation of the DSi's virtual console.

Check out Kombo for the whole story, but the highlight--as I'm sure we can all agree, is the revelation that the DSi will allow you to download Game Boy and Game Boy Advance games.

Linky.

Since the DSi is functionally limited, all this will ever have is Game Gear and Gameboy games (I'm doubting NGPC emulation would be in the cards), plus the obvious "ha ha screw you DSi owner" GBA titles. That's fantastic. Usually worse versions of Master System games, and an admittedly large quantity of quality original Gameboy games that nonetheless have the graphics of calculator apps most of the time, no doubt to be sold as straight roms with no optimization whatsoever. Really, sign me up.

Have I mentioned how much I want the DSi to bomb? Maybe that will be Nintendo's wake up call to stop acting like Apple does.

Said By Blorge

Microsoft recently announced that the company would be laying-off 5,000 employees due to a drop in profits. This is the first mass layoff in the history of Microsoft. However, news has trickled out that the Xbox division will be suffering the brunt of the job cuts.

Word has been trickling out that the Entertainment and Devices Division (EDD) will receive the brunt of the mass layoff. The EDD division consists of the Zune, PC gaming and the massive Xbox division. The EDD is headed up by the well known faces: Shane Kim, Don Matttrick, Phil Spencer and the friendly Aaron Greenberg.

Linky.

I think this may have two possible ramifications:

• Its getting rather close to time to start developing a 360 successor. What are the odds the Microsoft delay it for a while?
• After the partial failure of Vista (as well as the total failure of unifying PC gaming with the Games for Windows Program and XBox Live on PC), will we see Microsoft start to ignore the gaming division entirely to instead worry about making Windows 7 a success (remember, that is the part of Microsoft that actually makes money)?

While I doubt that the second will actually occur, one musn't forget the mess that Microsoft shareholders started making around August last year surrounding the gaming division's money making potential. And that was when Microsoft wasn't particularly woried about its finances despite losing billions of dollars on the XBox.

Overall, I think it will be an interesting year for the 360; especially when you look at Microsoft's approach compared to Sony's. I'm curious to see what approach pans out.