Keepin' it real fake, part CLXXIV: MiWi2 Wiipoff spotted in London shop

We're pretty sure that Nintendo doesn't have anything to fear when it comes to the MiWi2, a Wii knockoff that was first spotted by Engadget Korea back in June. However, we were surprised to see the fake on sale somewhere outside of Asia -- or really anywhere for that matter. Yes, unknowing parents may have accidentally snagged one of these rip-offs instead of the real deal at an unnamed London shop, but rest assured, your little darlings probably let you know once they unwrapped it and realized you got them the wrong damn thing.
[Via: Engadget ]

Keepin' it real fake, part CLXXIII: 8-bit Xbox 360 / PS3 consoles only serve to dash dreams

We've seen some pretty low tricks when it comes to giving what appears to be a gaming console to a junior, but we're pleading -- nay, insisting -- that you don't ever buy in on either of these in an attempt to pull the wool over a kiddo's eyes. Straight from a shady warehouse in China comes Rodisson Technologies' totally ridiculous Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 clones, both of which can only play 8-bit titles. The worst part, however, isn't the complete lack of effort in knocking these systems off with any level of pride; rather, it's the 10,000 item minimum order quantity. Thanks, but no thanks.
[Via: technabob ]

PS3 teardown: 30% fewer parts, $300 cheaper

When the gang at iSuppli first tore open a PlayStation 3 back in November 2006, they pegged the cost to build the $500 model was $805 in materials. Now they're back and looking inside the $400 version, which they estimate is $448.73 in parts -- still a loss leader for the company, but only by about one Ulysses S. Grant this time. The number of components has also dropped from 4,048 to just 2,820, and both the Cell processor and NVIDIA GPU have slimmed down from 90nm to 65nm. They suspect Sony might be able to lower costs and turn a profit sometime in 2009, but while you may be rooting for this generation's underdog, don't get your hopes up for a price drop any time soon.
[Via: Engadget ]

Bandai rolls out new Tamagotchi Music Star designs, earplugs not included

Bandai's been busy in their genius labs brewing up some "high tech" amusement, and they have the newly announced Tamagotchi Music Stars to show for it. You've probably been dying to create a digital diva or virtuoso all your own, and now you can, with six different options such as Glam Rock, Techno Sound, and Rising Star to choose from. Your character gets to join a band, go through hours of practice, auditions and rehearsals before making it big. Sound exhausting? Well fame comes at a price, kid. No word yet on price or availability, but you can check out their site for lots of info and a few shots of the designs. Oh: and rock on.
[Via: Engadget ]

Documents suggest Microsoft knew Xbox 360 could damage discs all along

Microsoft long ago fessed up that the Xbox 360 was capable of scratching discs, and it even offered a (somewhat limited) exchange program for damaged games, but some recently unsealed documents from an ongoing lawsuit now suggest that the company was well aware of the issue for about as long as the console has been around. According to The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Microsoft first discovered the problem in September or October of 2005, and it even went so far as to send a "team of engineers" to stores across the US to determine the best course of action. Apparently, they came up with three options, two of which proved to be impractical, and one of which (installing small bumpers in each and every console) proved to be too expensive, leading Microsoft to offer the disc exchange instead. What's more, the documents apparently also revealed that some Microsoft employees thought that the warning labels on the console were insufficient, and that the company has received complaints about the problem from more than 55,000 customers as of April 30th of this year. No word on any movement just yet in the lawsuits themselves just yet but one of them, filed back in July of 2007, is seeking class-action status on behalf of everyone that's bought an Xbox 360.

[Via: Engadget ]

Stolen Xbox recovered by victim using controller, science

People will go to great lengths to steal your gear -- no big surprise there. In a nice, semi-ingenious twist, though, one Xbox 360 thief on campus at Missouri State has gotten caught by the dupe himself. Thievery victim Ryan Kestenbaum was able to connect the controller (which the crook had left behind) up to the console, which of course meant that it was nearby. He then went on a fantastic journey with the controller, allowing the LEDs -- which flash if the controller is out of range -- to guide him to the room of the thief. Kestenbaum contacted the dorm's advisor, and the Xbox was recovered, although it had sadly been reformatted and all of Ryan's saved games were gone. He said he plans on prosecuting the thief "to the fullest extent of the law," which we hopes means he'll be getting back the thousands of bottle caps lost.
[Via: Daily Tech ]

Sony to release new handheld sometime in the future

According to Eurogamer, sources close to Sony say that sometime in the future, a new PlayStationPortable will be released. While there's been no official word, the game site is reporting that there could be an update to the current PSP (which might be called the PSP 4000), and in the not-too-distant future (2010 or 2011), Sony will introduce a completely new model, confusingly dubbed the "PSP2." David Reeves, SCEE president has recently been quoted as making vague, suspicious statements such as "there are currently no plans for a PSP2," and "I go to Tokyo quite a lot and no one has referred to it - I think they have their hands full at the moment." Nice try Reeves, but If you keep up these kinds of thinly veiled allusions to a new system, we suspect it's only a matter of years till this cat's out of the bag.
[Via: Yahoo! ]

Keepin' it real fake, part CLXXII: Wu Fit -- it's Wii Fit, without the supply chain issues

So far as we can tell, the Wu Fit (see what they did there?) doesn't actually come with the Wii Fit software. But unless we're being badly deceived, the knockoff balance board should operate just fine with the official game (seriously!) -- assuming that you can find it by its lonesome, which you can't. The best (er, "only good") part? It's actually in stock for $92.95, which is more than the Big N can say about its genuine counterpart in much of the world. It's okay, we know you're seriously considering this over that eBay auction -- we promise not to tell.

[Via: Engadget ]

SimCraft Apex Racing Simulator Offers Vomit-Covered Thrills [Racing Simulators]

We have seen racing simulators plenty of times in the past, but few can offer a vomit-inducing three degrees of freedom (roll 40°/pitch 25°/yaw 40°) like the Apex SC830. In fact, the SC830 is so realistic in its motion that it is good enough to train racing professionals. It features a custom USB "Plug-and-Play” hardware interface, high-fidelity motion actuators and knuckles, easy to enter and exit cockpit, adjustable mounting surfaces and a lightweight tubular aluminum framework (I'm sure it also costs a fortune). The SC830 is expected to launch during this year's CES.

[Via: Gizmodo, The Gadget Blog ]

PlayStation Home already hacked?

Well, that was fast. A poster by the name of StreetskaterFU has outlined what he claims is a method of hacking into PlayStation Home's servers for download, uploading and deleting files. We're not able to verify his directions, but if true it would be a potentially calamitous oversight on Sony's part. Additionally, a PS3hax forum poster claims to have used StreeskaterFU's method and changed the movie posters and trailers and both outlines his methods and provides video proof (embedded after the break). We haven't seen any signs of this during our time with Home, but let us know if your virtual moviegoing experience has been drastically altered.


[Via: Engadget ]

Slot loading Xbox 360 enjoys its 15 minutes, heads to eBay

There's a good possibility you felt some sense of jealously when eying RDC's meticulously modded Xbox 360, and now you can act on said envy thanks to the supreme convenience of the online auction house known as eBay. That's right kids -- the slot loading Xbox 360 that was shown here just under a month ago is now on the auction block, and the $250 minimum bid means that you're paying a ridiculously small premium for all the blood, sweat and tears that were undoubtedly poured into this creation. Of course, that figure is apt to head skyward in a hurry, but maybe that would encourage you to get off your keister and craft one yourself. No time like the present to beef up that weakening DIY muscle.
[Via: Xbox-Scene ]

Valve releases Team Fortress 2 update

Team Fortress 2 received a fairly significant update today, which adds a number of gameplay tweaks to Valve’s multiplayer shooter – mostly for the Engineer and Spy classes. Following the update Engineers will be able to upgrade teleporters and dispensers to a third level, providing faster recharge and dispensing rates, while Spies will gain the ability to recharge their cloaking devices by picking up ammo.


The update also includes some new user interface features, such as a revamped HUD to show things like deaths by critical hits, players that are overhealed, and giving more information to medics when people are calling for them. Valve also revealed that next in line for the class updates will be the Scout, particularly focusing on making him more useful for the Dustbowl and Goldrush maps. They're soliciting ideas from fans, so head to the forums if you have any.

Finally, the company also mentioned that they are working on a “massive” update for TF2 on the 360 which will include all the new content that the PC version has seen in the past year, and revealed some engine improvements from Left 4 Dead will be coming to TF2.
[Via: Jose Vilches ]

Nintendo faces class-action lawsuit, hotter-than-ever sales for Wii

Nintendo's fended off class-action lawsuits over "defective" Wiimote straps in the past, and if you remember, they also replaced about 3.2 million of the straps (a/k/a "all of them") around the same time too -- way back in December of 2006. Well, the same lawyer's back for round two with a new, nearly identical suit, but this one also alleges that Nintendo knew that the defect existed and was negligent in their failure to report the problem to the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Nintendo's probably not stoked about the news -- but we've got a feeling that the company's record-breaking sales will balm the wounds a little. According to NPD data just released, the company sold 2 million Wiis and 1.56 million DS units in November, an all-time hardware sales record for a month other than December. Yeah, who cares about a few busted up TVs and black eyes in the face of those numbers?

[Via: Gamecyte ]

Lego console wars: NES vs. PSX... fight!

The been-there-done-that competition of the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii are a total yawn this holiday season, so we thought we'd give you a console war with a few more interlocking plastic building blocks mixed in to keep things interesting. These two otherwise-unrelated case mods each bring their own strengths to the competition: while the Lego PSX mod might be more technically impressive, it looks totally amateurish next to the classy Lego NES stylings. But, like with all things in life, there can only be one winner. This is America, after all.

[Via: Engadget ]

Quake ported to Chumby makes for an adorable first-person shooter

At first glance, you may wonder if Chumby is simply too lovable to rock a version of Quake, but after peeping ChumbyLurker's port of the game, we'll be darned if the two aren't perfect for each other. He's been gracious enough to make it available as both source code and a disk image, and installing the game is as easy as plugging in your USB drive and turning the machine on. On the video we've seen, the 350MHz device appears to keep up with things quite well, but the best part would have to be that the mouse and keyboard control inputs have been eschewed in favor of the accelerometer -- when Chumby leans forward you move forward, ditto left and right. The bend switch is used to fire, and the touchscreen used to jump or activate items. Unfortunately, there's no network support at the moment, so if you feel the need to go multiplayer, it looks like you'll be stuck with your Nokia handset. You can see a video of the thing in action after the break.


[Via: Bunnie's Blog ]

Logitech's G13 gameboard turns it up to level 80

Check it PC and Mac gamers, Logitech just announced its G13 Gameboard. With a trio of game modes, built-in 160 x 43 pixel LCD for stats and messaging, 25 programmable keys, and a programmable joystick, Logitech says that the G13 "offers up to 87 ways for you to control your game." It comes with pre-configured settings for World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare to name a few. Otherwise, you can setup custom button-profiles as you please and even create macros on the fly without having to pause your quest. Available in US and Europe sometime this month for $80.
[Via: Engadget ]

Sony says it has no plans for revamped XMB, Netflix service

No real surprises here but, in a recent interview with GamePro, Sony's John Kohler said that the company doesn't have any plans to pull a Microsoft and redesign its XMB interface, nor does have any intention to offer Netflix service on the PS3 in the foreseeable future. More specifically, while Kohler says that Sony is willing to make changes "if consumers pound on our door loudly enough," it's not likely to make any "grand-scale changes" to the XMB "because it's something that's been so well-received." As for Netflix, Kohler expectedly shifted the focus to Sony's own download service, saying simply that "our efforts will continue to be there, because our customers want to own the content." Not surprisingly, Kohler didn't exactly invite any door-pounding on that matter, though there's certainly nothing stopping anyone that feels so inclined.
[Via: PS3 Fanboy ]

Walmart brags about its "tens of thousands" of Wiis for sale online

Walmart's reassuringly boasting that they've got plenty of the oft-out-of-stock Wiis on hand for your online holiday shopping needs today. There are a host of different Nintendo-related deals to go with it, too. The Wii itself is available for $249.24, there's a "Value Bundle" which includes the console, a game, an accessories pack and an extra set of controllers for $329 (or $20 off), and they have some games on sale, as well. What's next? Walmart mouthing off about the "millions of iPhones" they have available?
Update: Well, that didn't last very long! As some commenters have helpfully pointed out, it appears that those "tens of thousands" of Wiis have been reduced to "zero" -- they're already sold out.
[Via: Game Daily ]

TN Games HTX Helmet lets you feel those headshots

Impact gear isn't exactly the hottest peripheral out there for game consoles, but TN Games is apparently finding plenty of hardcore gamers willing to splurge on its FPS Vest. Now, the outfit is finally getting official with its HTX Helmet, which we first heard about as the year began. Utilizing the company's 3rd Space technology, it's designed to be used in conjunction with the 3rd Space Gaming Vest and will enable wearers' to feel blows to the head when fired upon. We're talking bullets whizzing by, impacts of shots -- the works. If, for some incredibly odd reason, that sounds like your idea of fun, be on the lookout for a 2009 release.
[Via: Engadget Chinese ]

Mad Catz Street Fighter IV joysticks surface for PS3

We at Engadget will always have a special place in our hearts for Street Fighter, and if you can't help but agree, you might be unable to resist picking up one of these. Mad Catz has introduced a new pair of joysticks for Sony's PlayStation 3: the Street Fighter IV FightStick Tournament Edition and the Street Fighter IV FightStick. The first will only be available in "very limited quantities," and it'll pack the exact Sanwa joystick and 30-millimeter buttons found in the official Street Fighter IV arcade machine; the latter is a more commoditized version with a more vanilla 'stick and plain jane buttons. Both devices are scheduled to ship on February 20th of next year, with pricing set at $149.99 and $69.99, respectively.
[Via: PS3 Fanboy ]

Microsoft touts Xbox 360 Black Friday sales

The Xbox 360 experienced “record-breaking console sales” over the busy shopping period known in the United States as the Black Friday weekend. According to Microsoft, the 360 outsold PlayStation 3 consoles three-to-one, noting that it's 2008 Black Friday sales were also 25 percent higher than the same period a year ago.

It seems the combination of low prices along with the New Xbox Experience and Netflix support is making the Xbox 360 a very hot buy. What’s more, this success is not exclusive to the United States, with Microsoft claiming Xbox 360 sales have surged worldwide since the September price drop, where it says console sales “are up as much as 400 percent.” Of course, data regarding the Nintendo Wii's sales on Black Friday was notably absent from the announcement, so we’ll just have to wait for the NPD report.
[Via: Jose Vilches ]

Emotiv's Epoc mind-controlled device delayed till next year

Not so long ago, in the cold, frosty month of February, we heard about mysterious headgear (an update of Project Epoc) that, if worn, could be used to do stuff like play insanely simple video games (emphasis on insanely). We also heard that this USB unicorn of the gaming universe would be ready by "Christmas" -- whatever that is. Well, according to Big Download, who spoke with a PR rep from Emotiv, the device has been delayed until "sometime" in 2009. The reason for the delay? The company wants to "make sure" the device works "as planned." Glad to hear it -- since we weren't interested in it as a fashion statement alone.
[Via: Engadget ]

Amazon kicks off Cyber Monday with $99 Nintendo DS

Let's face it: this year's recession-busting Black Friday sucked, featuring a few good deals but no single blockbuster worth getting up at 2:00 am to stand in the cold. Over the weekend we still maintained a bit of hope that Cyber Monday would bring something worth getting excited about, and while right now it looks like we're set for another disappointingly bargain-free day full of nothing but work and turkey sandwiches, one deal did catch our eye. Amazon has a Nintendo DS up for just $99; that's $30 less than you'll find it elsewhere -- if you can find it elsewhere. The catch is it's the "Limited Edition Pink Ribbon" version, and pink and white is not exactly the perfect color scheme for those about to rock. However, a deftly-placed AC/DC sticker might let you feel the joy of supporting a good cause this holiday season ($5 goes to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation) while also avoiding any embarrassing taunting from thoughtless friends.
[Via: I4U ]

Atari 2600 stuffed into Game Gear, Sega Nomad seen casting envious glances

Oh sure, there's bound to be some protrusion when shoving a retro console into a gaming handheld, but inelegant styling was a way of life for Sega back in the mid-90s. Modder Chris Koopa has achieved the impossible by stuffing an Atari 2600 (or the important parts, anyway) along with 40 games into a hacked up Game Gear and enabling it to operate for nearly a full workday with just five AA batteries. And yeah, there's totally a 2600 cartridge slot to allow for playback of original titles. You know you're oddly interested in seeing more, so tap the read link for a few shots from the rear / side.
[Via: technabob ]

Man hacks GameCube controller for the Wii with tremendous effort

Admit it. You've got an old GameCube from yesteryear laying around, and the slow economy (and fear for your life) is holding you back from running to your nearest brick-and-mortar to pick up a Classic Controller for your Wii. You know you want to play Super Mario 64 to work off that turkey, but you can't justify laying out the cash. Fret not; YouTube user marcan42 has you covered, courtesy of a PIC18F4520 microcontroller and makeshift GameCube connector, along with a chopped off Nunchuk extension cord. Of course, you could just pick up a different model, but that would be way too easy. We didn't say it was pretty, but if you're still intrigued, check the full vid after the break.
Update: As a bunch of commenters have pointed out, this can be done already by plugging the GameCube controller directly into the Wii. However, this mod lets you do it wirelessly -- err, if you don't count the big microcontroller and mess of wires.

[Via: Engadget ]

Nokia Quake III gains on-phone server, Bluetooth keyboard and mouse support

Remember when playing Quake III at a decent resolution required a $5,000 Alienware? Man, those were the days. Now, we can't help but be thankful for a few special Nokia handsets (the N95 8GB, E90 and N82 in particular) that can all handle the game by their lonesome. In fact, the latest version of the software adds a few remarkably awesome extras. For starters, users can now take advantage of on-phone server support, meaning that your handset can actually host a Quake III multiplayer battle (and may we recommend the server name "trashaccident?"). Also of note, the devs have tossed in support for Bluetooth mice and keyboards. We know, right? Tap the read link for all the juicy installation instructions.
[Via: Decoder ]

World Golf Tour - Time Waster

Just how far can you go with an online game? By some measures, World Golf Tour could be considered a Time Waster that is all grown up. It's trying to be a desktop-quality game provided online.
The game play is pretty much par for the course, as far as golf games go (sorry, I couldn't resist), and the course imagery is gorgeous, maybe a little too much so. As is typical in golf, there are only a few things that move: in this case the player, the ball, and the flag. Unfortunately, it's pretty obvious that these are rendered in 3D on top of a static image of the course, making them look out of place.
Worse, to achieve the beautiful effect of having photographic imagery for the game, you are confined to a set number of vantage points, many of which are fine when the ball lies in the center of them, but become very awkward when the ball is not. The terrain very obviously has undulations in it, and the ball seems to react fairly reasonably to the terrain, but you can tell that the ball's movement is somehow disconnected from the scene.
Although all of this seems like criticism, the truth is that these are compromises that are reasonable for such a beautiful free online game, if it wasn't for one fatal flaw: Flash. Unfortunately, on my reasonable speedy machine, Flash seemed to act up on every third shot, and would cause my shot meter to jump around sporadically, making it impossible to make a decent shot, never mind a good one. Now, I'm not very good at this as it is, but in one 9-hole round I had at least 8 shots completely ruined by a freezing display.
Now to be fair, World Golf Tour is still in beta, and hopefully they can iron out this very ugly divot in what is otherwise a fairly decent fairway.
You can play a skills game for free without signing up for an account, but to play a full round or to play with your friends, you'll need to sign up for an account and give away your email address and birthday. Is it worth it? I guess it depends on how much you like golf.
[Via: Download Squad ]

Xbox 360 outsells the original Xbox, Microsoft heads down to the trophy shop

In the manner of a modern day fable on par with The Little Engine That Could or Rocky, Microsoft has just announced that sales of the Xbox 360 have outraced total sales of the original Xbox, a mere two days after the 360's third birthday on November 22. Do you feel yourself getting teary-eyed? Sure, the gang in Redmond could have stopped believing, or reaching for that rainbow (or whichever tired cliche you prefer), but it looks like all the hard work has paid off -- Microsoft has won a race with itself, and in doing so has given us all hope. To put this in perspective, a total of 25 million original Xboxes were sold during its lifecycle of November 2001 - May, 2005 (roughly three and a half years). The company has yet to release precise sales figures for the 360, but between price cuts in Europe, Black Friday, and the New Xbox Experience, they expect to ride out the tail end of this year with a huge sales boost. Great job, guys! We knew that some day your company would be a success.
[Via: Joystiq ]

PS3 firmware v2.53 bringing full screen Flash support

It seems like just yesterday (or last month, to be more exact) that we were enjoying the spoils of firmware 2.50, and now, Sony's giving us a little pre-Thanksgiving treat with version 2.53. Slated to hit the wires sometime on November 26th, the latest PlayStation 3 update will bring along full-screen Flash support (huzzah!) among other minor tweaks. Check the full changelog in the read link, and get ready to get your download on tomorrow.

[Via: Engadget ]

Lively from Google going the way of the dodo

Not that we were huge fans of Lively to begin with, but I'm sure someone out there loved it. Right? No? Perhaps that explains Google's announcement that, "despite all the virtual high fives and creative rooms everyone has enjoyed in the last four and a half months, we've decided to shut Lively down at the end of the year." So grab those screenies before 2009 and your avatars and rooms go dead.
One or two of you may cry out in anguish as a few million vertices are silenced with the click of a mouse: "why Google, why?" Well, I'm sure it wasn't the fact that it was PC-only (and Firefox or IE7-only). Or that it wasn't the most stable thing Google has produced. Or that it was, ya know, like Second Life Lite but for chat. Because, clearly, the world needs a few zillion more Second Life-style chat clients, right?
If you are to believe Google, it's because they want to focus on their core business. You know, search and ads and apps that don't look like Animal Crossing. Besides, they can always roll this into Sketchup, so you could have a virtual barn raising. We can dream, can't we?
[Via: Download Squad ]

NXE hitting 360s with red ring, freezing and sorta-sexy-avatar issues?

If you wouldn't mind looking up from that avatar creation screen for a second -- yes, we're aware of how much that t-shirt selection means about you as a person -- you might notice that your Xbox 360 is dead. At least, a few hapless souls on the Xbox forums seem to think NXE is to blame for such atrocities. Numerous folks are reporting variously bad red ring configurations, random freezing and a huge pile of blockbuster titles that won't just play themselves. The biggest problem is that Microsoft isn't universally treating problems caused by NXE as an "oh, our bad" sort of situation, and at least from anecdotes we're seeing has charged quite a few folks $100 to fix their freshly-out-warranty Xbox 360s -- not to mention separating them for weeks from their precious murder simulators.
[Via: Engadget ]

Hori's Wii Classic Controller: if you're really into autofire

Fans of the old-timey GameCube will rest easier tonight knowing that Hori is now manufacturing its variation of the classic controller, creatively named the "Classic Controller." We've seen other gamepads in this style, but not many that get it as close to the original design as this -- plus it has those insane autofire switches. These bad boys are available in black, white, and blue on December 4th in Japan, and you can pre-order them now for $29.90 over at Play-Asia.

[Via: Nintendo Wii Fanboy ]

Valve offers its entire PC games catalog for $100

If you’re already planning to buy the PC version of Left 4 Dead, you might be interested to know Valve is running a great deal on its entire back catalog with the Valve Complete Pack. For a mere $100, gamers can score all 22 titles released within the studio’s twelve years of development history, including every Half-Life game and Counter-Strike iteration, as well as Day of Defeat, Team Fortress 2, Portal, and the aforementioned zombie shooter.

Individually, that amounts to about $234 according to the company. With Left 4 Dead currently selling for $45, you’re basically getting all of Valve's previous releases for $55. Those who bought the Orange Box last year already own the priciest stuff in this bundle, otherwise this sounds like a deal well worth investing in. More details including the full list of games available can be found here.
[Via: Jose Vilches ]

EA SPORTS Active is hardly the Wii Fit slayer we were hoping for

Our exercise-averse bones were certainly shaking at rumors of EA's supposed onslaught on the Wii Fit-dominated "video games don't have to be fun, they can also make you sore and grumpy" market, but we must admit we're a little disappointed in the end product. EA SPORTS Active for the Wii eschews Nintendo's Wii Fit peripheral entirely, instead opting for a leg strap to hold a nunchuck controller and track the movements of your rippling thigh, while an electronics-free resistance band is there to make everything harder. The good news is that Bob Greene, Oprah's personal trainer, was involved in Active's creation and the wide assortment exercises it will subject you to, so you know it's going to turn you into an eternally beautiful and endlessly influential TV talk show host in a few short weeks. Speaking of, did everybody see that 30 Rock episode with Oprah in it? Can we just give Tina Fey all the Emmys right now, or do we have to wait until next year? Video of EA's Active is after the break.
[Via: Engadget ]

Dell to offer Xbox 360 Arcade and Rock Band 2 for $199 on Black Friday

The Black Friday deals have already started to flow in over on the HD front, but now that we're closing in on America's most mayhem-filled shopping day of the year, we're beginning to see stellar deals from nearly every CE category. One that caught our eye here recently was from Dell's list, and it involves what's already the cheapest gaming console on the market today (the Vii notwithstanding). On November 28th, Dell Home's website will offer the Xbox 360 Arcade with seven games including Rock Band 2 for $199, and while we highly doubt you'll receive any guitars, drum sticks or sweat bands for that price, we suppose there's always a remarkably small chance that you will. Keep the faith and raise the horns, brothers / sisters.
[Via: Engadget ]

Walmart, Kmart announce Black Friday-esque deals for days other than Black Friday

Want to get a jump on your holiday shopping or find a couple of insane bargains to keep for yourself? A few retailers are offering what they've dubbed "Black Friday-style" price cuts for tomorrow -- Saturday, November 8th. Walmart's got a sweet 15.4-inch Compaq CQ-139WM (with 2GB of RAM and a 160GB hard drive) laptop for $298, in addition to a PlayStation 2 bundled with a $30 WalMart gift card for $129, and a PlayStation 3 with a $100 gift card for $399. Over at Kmart they're offering up a rad 32-inch Sylvania LCD HDTV for $439.99 (they usually go for for $550). They also have several deals for Sunday, November 9th, including the Wii Fit for $89.99. Is it safe to assume that every Friday (not to mention Saturday and Sunday) until Christmas will be "black"? For the full, mind-blowing rundown, hit the read links.
[Via: CNET ]

Intel Core i7-equipped Falcon Northwest Mach V gaming desktop hands-on

Benchmarks and reviews of Intel's Core i7 processors are pouring in, and while mere mortals must wait till later this month to get their hands on the hardware, we spent much of our weekend working overtime with Crysis, Fallout 3, and Age of Conan on an $8,238 Core i7 965-equipped Mach V gaming desktop from boutique PC manufacturer Falcon Northwest. It's got the works and then some: liquid cooling, dual ATI Radeon 4870X2 graphics cards with 2GB of RAM on-board, 12 GB of DDR3 RAM, Blu-ray, HD-DVD (yes, you read that right), and over a terabyte of storage. Based on our dozen or so hours of grueling, utterly boring hands-on tests, all three games were plenty playable maxed out at 1920 x 1080 resolution with 4x anti-aliasing -- only Crysis ever dipped below 40 frames per second, and we never saw Fallout 3 under 60. We sincerely hope you appreciate the backbreaking, soulcrushingly hard work we do for you -- more photos and benchmarks (including Crysis) in the gallery. [Via: Engadget ]

Marware's Game Grip for the iPhone complicates what should be simple

We've seen a few accessories for augmenting the gaming experience on the iPhone which would give the device awesome functions similar to a game controller, such as the elusive and yet-to-materialize iControlPad and the totally fake JoyPod. Well, Marware's Game Grip is sort of like that -- silicone sleeves that your phone fits into -- except that it doesn't actually do anything beyond providing 'handles' for your phone while you game. Oh, and it exists. So let's refer to it as the 'enjoyment enabler' of your iPhone 3G or iPod touch 2G which can be used with headphones (just like normal), can be charged while gaming (just like normal), and has a 'cord management system' (kind of not normal). If that's not enough to convince you to reach for your wallet, the "lifetime guarantee" and ludicrously zany look of the thing will probably get you to bite... it's $49.99 and available for pre-order right now.
[Via: Engadget ]

Pandora devs announce memory upgrade via confusing brainteaser

We'll be honest with you: we don't read the GP32X board nearly as often as we'd like -- but we did manage to cull from its archive this cold, hard fact: Pandora is now going to ship with 256MB of beautiful, delicious RAM, AND 512MB of flash memory -- that's double what we initially were told to expect, and Craigix confirmed that Ubuntu is now running 20 percent faster with the upgrade. This windfall comes at no additional cost to the patient, patient consumer. Our advice though? Next time there's a seriously righteous spec bump happening, try not to couch it in a riddle.
[Thanks, Jared E]
[Via: Engadget ]

Nintendo's DSi gets unboxed nice and early

If you can't stand waiting till Summer 2009, and you don't live in Japan, it's your lucky day. We've uncovered an unboxing of Nintendo's new DSi which should thoroughly whet your appetite (though whether that will hold you over for a whole eight months is another story). If you follow the read link you'll discover a plethora of photos of the packaging and device, including some pretty nice macro shots of all the slots, ports, and LEDs. We've included a couple of pics after the break, but if you're a stickler for details, you'll want to take a gander at the whole set.



[Via: Engadget ]

Psyclone's TouchCharge Kit for your 360 controller finally puts WildCharger to good use

We keep waiting for "wireless" contact charging pads to blow our minds and revolutionize the way we use gadgets, but perhaps we're just being idiot optimists. Or perhaps not. We're seeing great possibilities with this latest implementation of WildCharger's tech, the TouchCharge Kit from Psyclone for Xbox 360 controllers. The kit includes a rechargeable battery pack with the appropriate contacts and of course the charging pad. If you need to keep four controllers charging simultaneously, the $69-per setup pricetag might put this out of reach, but the Federal Reserve wouldn't be dropping interest rates right and left if it didn't want us racking up hundreds of dollars in consumer debt for game peripherals, right? EB Games has this up for pre-order now, should ship on December 15th.
[Thanks, Ken C.]
[Via: Engadget ]

Sony's PS2 effectively becomes "an open platform" in Europe

Seriously, calm down a minute. Your world has not just gotten infinitely better, although hearing the words "PlayStation" and "open platform" in the same phrase may make you think otherwise. In a relatively quiet announcement made at Casual Connect in Kiev, Ukraine, Sony Europe's George Bain proclaimed that developers would "no longer have to submit a game for content approval," effectively making the PS2 "an open platform." He pointed out examples from Russia and India, noting that they could now "create low-development cost titles and release them in their market." In all honesty, we have our doubts that this decision will make any real waves in North America, though Bain did mention a "global approval system" to replace the separated processes currently serving Europe, Japan and America. Now, if SCEA comes out and says something similar about the PS3, then you'll hear some real excitement in our voice.

[Via: Joystiq ]

Sony makes it pretty clear: no PS3 price drops this holiday season

There's no doubt that Microsoft's Xbox 360 will have the price advantage this holiday season, and if you were hoping to see a bona fide price cut following Sony's introduction of the $399.99 80GB PlayStation 3, you'll probably be waiting 'til late 2009. Speaking at the Gamer 3.0 conference in London this week, Sony's own Ray Maguire was quoted as saying that the pressure for a price drop from consumers was always there, but given that it "has a business to run" and shareholders to please, it probably won't be decreasing the PS3's price before the end of 2008. He also stated that "at the moment, there's a market place for the PS3," and that "the price of the console [won't] be an issue at all." In all honesty, he's probably right -- after all, this will be the first holiday season where Blu-ray isn't competing with some other physical HD format, and c'mon, you know you'll pay a premium to dabble in Life with PlayStation.
[Via: PS3 Fanboy ]

$99 60GB Xbox Live starter pack to be released next week

Hints of a 60GB Xbox Live Starter Pack popped up in Europe in August, but according to GameStop and a leaked Circuit City ad, the $99 upgrade should land in American stores sometime next week. Just as we'd heard, the bundle will include three months of Live Gold, a wired headset, and a 60GB hard drive -- just the thing to meet that new 128MB New Xbox Experience storage requirement. Too bad Microsoft isn't going to discount this bundle quite as heavily as that $30 20GB package for Arcade owners, but we won't complain too loudly -- hell, if MS would just cut the price on that ridiculous $149 120GB unit, we'd be all smiles.
[Via: Xbox 360 Fanboy ]

Open source "Game Boy" has five awesome parts, zero games

The Arduino-based, DIY GamePack is sort of like the Mignon Game Kit we saw in 2005, but it definitely looks much, much radder. For a mere $249.93, all the necessary parts -- CPU, "Inputshield" customizable, vibrating controller / button component (say, for right or left-handed configurations), "TouchShield Stealth" OLED display unit, and "MeCap" lithium battery pack -- can be yours. Once you've cobbled it together, of course, the real fun begins -- it's pretty much a blank slate with little more than code for a color-changing dot to start with, so if you want to play any "games" on that new "Game Boy" of yours, you're going to have to write them yourself. See a video of the device in action after the break.

[Via: technabob ]

Sony simplifies PSP-3000 lineup, only offering one SKU

Hope all you would-be PSP buyers out there are into that PSP-3000 Ratchet & Clank Entertainment Pack that just went on sale a couple weeks ago, because it's going to be the only bundle available from here on out. That's the word straight from Sony, which says that "ongoing discussions" with retailers have led it to kill the previously-announced $169 4GB Memory PSP-3000 bundle in favor of offering a single SKU -- although the company helpfully points out that you can still score a 4B PSP Memory Stick PRO Duo for an additional $45. Yeah, thanks for the tip, guys. The current Mystic Silver bundle will be joined by a Piano Black version sometime in December, so you're not totally limited option-wise, but we're not exactly pumped about throwing extra money at a game we don't necessarily want -- we'd happily drop the extra cash on a non-interlaced screen, however.
[Via: Engadget ]

Z-Rox - skill testing Time Waster

How good are you at identifying well-known alphabetical characters and shapes? Well, I'm pretty good at it. I can even read, and stuff. So at first I wasn't sure how a game that had to do with identifying shapes and letters would be all that interesting.
But what if you can only see a one-pixel slice of a letter at a time, and you have to imagine that that slice is scanning from top to bottom? Basically, you're looking at a little line that changes size and moves back and forth, but is representing a shape or letter. Well, it certainly gets more challenging.
Z-Rox is a quick little online game that presents letters and shapes in exactly this way, and challenges you to identify them. For letters, you just enter the letter as the answer, but for shapes you must type the name of them.
[Via: Download Squad ]

Nintendo cranking on Wii production for the holidays, still making no promises

Hard to believe, nay, mind-boggling, that two full years after Nintendo launched the Wii in America we're still looking at shortages. In the midst of "economic turmoil," no less. Back in April, Reggie Fils-Aime proclaimed that he was "passionately upset" about the difficulty consumers were having in finding Wii consoles, and now that yet another holiday season is upon us, it's clear that he's made some changes. In a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times, he admitted that Wii production was up from 1.6 million units per month (during this time last year) to 2.4 million units per month (now), though he wouldn't go so far as to say you'd have an easy time finding one. In fact, he stated that "once you see [a Wii console] on the shelf, you ought to buy it." Also of note, those still scouting a Wii Fit may be in luck, as the Big N could decide to ship more units to America rather than Europe now that the greenback is gaining strength versus the euro. Good luck hunting -- we'd recommend you start looking, um, yesterday.
[Via: GameDaily ]

New Xbox Experience videos let you vicariously play dress up

You already know the Xbox 360 is getting new community features, a revamped dashboard, Avatars, and of course Netflix video -- all things we've been excited about since we saw them in action at E3 this year. There hasn't been much to go on since then, but we recently came across some short videos exhibiting Parties (which let users socialize and make plans while engaging in separate games and activities) and Avatar customization options; hopefully they'll hold you over until the features go live November 19th. We won't be held responsible for the brain deterioration caused by the vacuous marketing-speak accompanying the moving images, however. "It is where you get to enjoy entertainment -- that's the vision." Yes, it is.
[Via: Engadget ]

Guitar Hero: World Tour drums not Rock Band 2 compatible; Gene Simmons guitar controller not compatible with taste

Guitar Hero: World Tour has only officially been on shelves for a day or so now, but unhappy PS3 customers are already making a fuss -- the game's new drumkit isn't compatible with Rock Band 2. That's a major disappointment -- having redundant guitars because Activision and Harmonix can't play nice is annoying enough, but two drumkits is downright ridiculous -- and it's doubly irritating because Sony promised it would bring the hammer down and make sure all these peripherals were cross-compatible. The Xbox 360 kits seem to work with each other, so it's probably just a bug and Harmonix is apparently working on patch. In the meantime, you can probably take out your frustation with this crazy Gene Simmons axe-shaped guitar controller that's due out on Halloween -- we're not sure if we'd pay $80 for the privilege of pretending to be in KISS while playing a video game, but if you're in the Army, Amazon is taking preorders now.
Read - Guitar Hero: World Tour drums incompatibility
Read - Gene Simmons Axe Guitar
[Via: Engadget ]