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Nvidia launches GeForece GT 240

James Hyde — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:24:26 +0000

While we wait for Nvidia’s next gen chip, codenamed “Fermi”, the company has followed its old style of re-branding and re-releasing old chips. Well, not quite this time, as the new GT 240 chip is still the same technology, but is built on 40nm process and includes DirectX 10.1 support — at a time where the big deal is DirectX 11.

The new graphics card is mainstream oriented, and should offer decent performance and low power consumption, at a decent price. The chip is outfitted with 96 stream processors clocked at 1360MHz, while the graphics core runs at 550MHz, with idle power load at just 9W. It’ll retail later this week for $99.

DJ Hero review

James Hyde — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 04:19:40 +0000

In the midst of all the Modern Warfare 2 madness and onslaught of news, we’d like to bring you something a bit more lighthearted: a review of DJ Hero for Wii. As a sidekick to Activision’s Guitar Hero, DJ Hero focuses on DJs and their world, and contains artists like Black Eyed Peas, 50 Cent, Justice, Marvin Gaye, Beck, Beastie Boys and N.E.R.D., with over 100 songs and over 90 mixes by real DJs.

DJ Hero comes with a DJ mixing board controller, and the gameplay process is very similar to that of other “Hero” games from Activision, you punch the correct keys as best as possible, scoring the best score you can. While listening to the songs, of course. There’s a huge assortment of songs, which span almost every genre, meaning you’ll probably find something you like in there. The songs are mixed by well known DJs, and you won’t find them anywhere else — they’re exclusive to DJ Hero. While you can’t create your own DJ, you can play as some fairly decent ones, and if you’re good, you can unlock superstar DJs like Daft Punk (complete with their outfits).

The gameplay is not difficult to learn, especially if you’re familiar with music games. The new controller is easy to learn, which features a turntable with a platter and a mixer, with three buttons on the turn table which you have to press (and turn at the same time). While it sounds complicated, the learning curve is fairly easy and you’ll master it within an hour of playing. A good addition is that you can separate the two and switch them around, in case you’re left handed. A great touch. The gameplay is quite basic, as mentioned before, you try to hit as many notes as possible, but if you aren’t good, you won’t fail the level, you’ll simply earn less points, meaning it’s going to take you longer to progress and unlock new items.

You can also use the “party play” function, and just sit back and enjoy the music, and you can study the keys of the song in detail if you wish. There is multiplayer, which will need two turntables where you compete against each other, or you can hook up a guitar from Guitar Hero, where one can mix while the other rocks on the guitar. Visually, the game looks great, the venues are very colorful and wild, just like a normal club (albeit a popular club). It’s even more impressive that it’s on the Wii, since the system isn’t exactly known for its power under the hood.

The music, as expected, is top notch, the collection of tracks and remixes is great, and it easily rivals Guitar Hero in terms of fun. Despite the rather disappointing multiplayer and a few technical glitches, DJ Hero is definitely a game that fans of music (and plastic instruments) will enjoy.

The Good:
Gameplay
Lots of tracks
Lots of unlocks
Solid controller

The Bad:
Disappointing multiplayer
A few technical glitches

Overall score: 8/10

Xbox 360 wireless N adapter available next week

James Hyde — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:40:08 +0000

Microsoft’s new wireless adapter, which support the new, and much faster N WiFi standard, will be shipping next week for $99 — quite a lot for something that comes as standard with the PS3 and the Wii (although those don’t feature N speeds). The old wireless adapter will still be available and retail for $75.

Dual-gpu ATI 5970 spotted in the wild

James Hyde — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 23:20:30 +0000

ATI’s upcoming dual-gpu based card, the Radeon HD 5970, comprising of two 5870 chips — which themselves are the most powerful graphics chips today — has been spotted in the wild over at PC Perspective. The card, measuring at 13.5″ inches, needs both a 6 pin power connector and an 8 pin connector as well, meaning it’s gonna draw a lot of power when fully throttled. The card is expected to be in stores this December.

Nyko launches DSi camera accessory

James Hyde — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 06:33:19 +0000

Nyko, the master accessory maker — well, not really, but they do make a ton of accessories for games of all kinds — have released a lens attachment to the Nintendo DSi camera, which offers 8X zoom to the rather weak 0.3 Megapixel camera. But at least it works, as you can see on the image above. Won’t win you a Pulitzer in photojournalism, but at least it won’t burn your pocket; $25 is all it set your back.

QuickDev16 card offers SNES homebrew

James Hyde — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:49:27 +0000

The Quickdev16 card, which plugs into an SNES, offers quick and easy access to SNES homebrew — the cartridge packs an Atmel AVR ATmega644 chip with a boot loader, a USB connection with which to upload a ROM, 16 megabits of SRAM, plus an RS232 converter (whatever that is). Who whole (tiny) package can be had for only $120 — cheap, when considering we’re talking about “game development” here. If you’re up to it, there’s more details about the card here.

Altec Lansing releases “stage gig” speaker

James Hyde — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:06:54 +0000

Good news to all the Guitar Hero and Rock Band fanatics, speaker-maker Altec Lansing has released the “Stage Gig”, a single speaker that sits at the bottom, facing the playing bad, just as if you’d have if you were a real musician, performing on a stage. But since you’re not on a real stage, and since you’re holding plastic guitars in your hands, you might wanna shed $100 for another plastic attachment that emits sounds of your fake plastic band right on your face.

New Xbox 360 updated locks out “unauthorized” memory units

James Hyde — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 19:45:09 +0000

The upcoming update of the Xbox 360 dashboard and firmware will lock out unauthorized third party memory units. Third party memory units, especially “unauthorized” ones, usually hold far more capacity — several GBs more –e than Microsoft’s own units, and are also far cheaper. Some of the third party units feature connectivity with SD and microSD cards as well. If you’re one of those using them, you’re out of luck, and you should save your stuff on an “authorized” unit. Meaning shedding lots of cash for it.

Carbon-fber/red Xbox 360 controller exclusive to GameStop

James Hyde — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 15:32:32 +0000

GameStop has unveiled its exclusive Xbox 360 controller, which is painted in black carbon-fiber with red inserts. The looks of it isn’t the only odd thing about this one — it’ll retail for $70, including a play and charge kit. Surely GameStop can give us a better deal than that?

MP5 Wiimote submachine gun controller

James Hyde — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 15:26:25 +0000

There have been a few odd Wiimote-based controllers over the years, from attachments that made the Wiimote act like a “gun”, to actually looking like a gun, which is the case with Heckler & Koch MP5 Wiimote controller, which comes with built in Wiimote, nun-chuck and Wii Motion Plus, all in one great, black sub machine gun. The controller was spotted at an expo in Hong Kong, so no word on if we’ll ever see it retail.

Logitech announces G110 gaming keyboard

James Hyde — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 19:29:45 +0000

Logitech, makers of the very popular G11 gaming keyboard, have revealed its successor; the G110. The new keyboard doesn’t have as an aggressive look as the predecessor, but the technology inside has been improves somewhat; the G110 features 13 programmable keys, automatic game detection that loads custom profiles for each game, and red or blue LED back-lighting on all keys. There’s no mention of price or release date at this point, but we expect the initial price point to be a notch above the older model.

Black Wiimote bundle revealed

James Hyde — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 19:16:46 +0000

Nintendo has revealed a new, black Wiimote bundle, which includes the Wiimote, a Wii Motion Plus attachment, and a sleeve, all in shiny black. The new bundle will be available on November 17 and will retail for $50, which is a good deal, considering a Wiimote and Motion Plus attachment would run you $10 more if bought separately. If you wish to complete your black Wiimote controller, the black nun-chuck will be sold separately for $20.

Xbox 360 wireless controller pack revealed

James Hyde — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 03:34:53 +0000

Microsoft is making plenty of offers for this year’s upcoming Holiday Season, and the company just announced the Wireless Controller Pack, which includes a black wireless controller and 4 Arcade games, which are; Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2, Lumines LIVE!, Bomberman LIVE! and Ms Pac-Man. It’s a great deal, considering the controller itself retails for $50, and the games retail combined from $20-30. The controller bundle will be released this November.

New Wii Sports Resort bundle announced

James Hyde — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 23:24:40 +0000

Nintendo’s Wii Sports sequel has been selling very well in all territories, and now they’ve announced a new Wii Sports Resort bundle, which will include not one, but two Wii Motion Pus attachments. The first bundle retails for $50 and includes one attachment, while the second one will only be $60 — a measly $10 more gets you one more Wii Motion Plus. It’s a great deal, considering that the Wii Motion Plus itself retails for $25.

New Xbox 360 wireless N adapter to cost $100

James Hyde — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 21:40:59 +0000

Microsoft’s new wireless adapter for the Xbox360, one that supports the new N standard (offering greater speed and range), has revealed that it’ll cost $100. The older adapter will not be discontinued, rather, it’ll be lowered to $80.

These prices are still far too high, considering that the PS3 and the Wii have WiFi built in. The new adapter, with its high price, will be arriving in stores next month, just in time for the next Xbox 360 dashboard update.

Sony releases silver PS3 controller

James Hyde — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 15:42:20 +0000

Sony has released a silver version of the PS3 controller, also known as the DualShock 3. While not as cool as the Japanese ceramic white controller, it still adds some flavor to your PS3 controller collection. The new controller carries the same price tag as the regular black one: $55.

Nyko brings optical zoom to the DSi

Gibran Nawaz — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 23:16:33 +0000

In case you have the urge to get 8x optical zoom with your DSi, Nyko has a solution with their upcoming Zoom Case. The case itself offers protection from surface scratches, but the main idea is to have a budging zoom lens flying out of your “portable” system.

The camera itself is detachable so it doesn’t render your DSi to look permanently ugly, but one has to question what Nyko was thinking when they created this contraption. Nyko’s Zoom Case will hit American retailers later this year from $20-$40.

Read (Nyko)

Logitech Wireless Guitar Controller for PS3 Released

Brian — Tue, 12 May 2009 21:47:08 +0000

With all the hype about Guitar Hero and Rock Band, it was just a matter of time before another controller in the form of a musical instrument (in this case another guitar) would come out. And Logitech will not allow itself to be outdone as it unveiled its Logitech Wireless Guitar Controller for PLAYSTATION 3 and PlayStation 2 computer entertainment systems.

Following the introduction of the Logitech Wireless Guitar Controller, Premiere Edition (previously available only in select markets), the new black guitar controller is expected to be available worldwide later this month. The Logitech Wireless Guitar Controller is licensed by Activision Publishing, Inc. for the award-winning Guitar Hero franchise.

“Logitech’s new guitar controller delivers the same unparalleled Guitar Hero experience offered by our previous premiere edition to an even broader group of gamers and at a great value,” said Ruben Mookerjee, Logitech’s director of product marketing for gaming. “Everything about the Logitech Wireless Guitar Controller is premium – from the authentic wood material and flawless black finish, to the noise-dampening design of the strum bar and buttons, to the authentic accents provided by the metal frets.”

The Logitech Wireless Guitar Controller for PLAYSTATION 3 and PlayStation 2 computer entertainment systems is expected to be available this month in the U.S. for a retail price of $199.99 (U.S.) and will be available in Europe in June.

(Source) Press

Free Realms to get trading card game

Jeff Baker — Mon, 04 May 2009 20:45:43 +0000

What? You didn’t see this coming? I mean, FreeRealms is marketed almost dominantly towards kids so it’s no surprise Sony has taken appropriate action.

Anyways, it was recently announced that a deal between Sony Online Entertainment and Topps was inked resulting in a FreeRealms trading card game.

The first batch shiped to retailers includes 180 different trading cards broken down into both booster packs and starter decks. Kotaku is reporting that the starter deck will sell for $9.99 and include 40 cards, a playmat, an exlusive in-game pet, t-shirt and racing cart. The booster pack, however, will ship with just cards and will sell for $3.99.

The real thing that will have kids coming back for more, however, is that eat set will include a loot card which players can redeem for a virtual items.

3Dconnexion Launches SpacePilot PRO

Brian — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 12:52:57 +0000

Most game developers have focused on improving the digital imaging of games today and apparently the need to complement them with suitable interface devices has become apparent. With that in mind, 3Dconnexion introduces the SpacePilot PRO to provide easier access to the power of professional 3D applications, fewer interruptions in the design workflow, and superior comfort.

Specifically, the SpacePilot PRO features a new color LCD Workflow Assistant, second-generation QuickView Navigation technology, Intelligent Function keys, and an improved design for enhanced comfort and control.

“3Dconnexion’s 3D mice have rewritten the rules on the way design engineers and professionals interact with 3D environments,” said Dieter Neujahr, president of 3Dconnexion. “Our new SpacePilot PRO builds on our market-leading industry experience, delivering the most powerful 3D mouse we’ve ever made. It enables increased performance that ultimately results in better designs, created in less time.”

(Source) Press