Here is a great comparison video between the 2nd generation Sony PSP and the newest iteration. As you watch the video you can see the aesthetic upgrades are minimal and the 3000 really only shines in it’s video and audio upgrades. The screen is brighter than the 2000 and allows for progressive scan video, but as a trade off you do take a hit on batter life, about 20% less battery life. The microphone allows for Skype capabilities, but you can always by a microphone upgrade for your existing 2000 instead. If you do not have a PSP yet this is a good buy for you, I own a PSP 1000 (original launch PSP, with missing pixels) and the new 3000 has me contemplating a purchase.
What do you think, worth a purchase or will you wait for the 4000?
Recently there has been quite a buzz flying around with news of a new NIntendo DS. This time it seems that it isn’t just a new color or making it slimmer, but actually getting different functions.
Nintendo has announced that it will release an upgraded model of its popular handheld, the Nintendo DS. Featuring a camera, music playback and more modernized features, it will come to market in Japan this year at a price not far above the current mode.
Looks like Nintendo is looking ot push their DS into the forefront of handheld gaming even further. Was Nintendo worried about the new iPhones gaming capabilities? I doubt they were trembling over the PSP since they have been consistently beating them out. The price point is also looking attractive, I may see a new DS in my future.
The upgraded DS will be released in Japan this year at a price of “under 20,000 yen” ($189). For reference, the current DS sells in Japan for 16,800 yen ($159).
What do you get when you cross a toaster with an old school NES console? One might think jelly in your console but alas you would be wrong. You get a Nintoaster of course. A classic gaming console that can play Super Mario Brothers 3 and unfortunately can’t toast bread anymore. The funny thing is this guy chose a white toaster so that if you glance quickly at it you might think your playing a Wii. Although this does look pretty damn cool there really isn’t any advantage of having your NES in toaster form, one upgrade would have been if you could eject your games using the toaster lever on the side, flying cartridges FTW.
So I recently decided to upgrade my wireless network as I bought myself a new Linksys Wireless N router and thought I would begin the fun task of resetting everything currently going to my old router. This is where the fun begins, so I set up the new router on my desktop, which took me a bit since the installation CD was programmed by a gang of sadistic asshats that for some reason felt a need to turn off my connection and then tell me that it wasn’t working. I sorted that out via technical services and the first thing they told me to do is discard the CD as we would just set everything up manually, which was a lot easier.
After setting that up it was time to move to my laptop, this actually wasn’t too bad, but then it was time to move to all the consoles. I started with my Xbox 360, bad move, I found my network SSID with no issues but for some reason the Xbox kept asking me for a WEP key!? This was odd since I never set one up on the router, instead I had setup a more secure WPA Personal passphrase. After banging my head against the wall and trying to call up the router tech support I resorted to the master, DrunkPandas. We tried fiddling around with the damn thing and then he asked me the golden question, what adapter was I using on my 360. Well of course the old black one that I had setup on my original Xbox, I wasn’t paying another $1000 bucks for another one. Well there in lies the problem the old black model Microsoft Wireless Adapter is not compatible with WPA and can only accept WEP.
So what does this all mean, don’t try to use the old black wireless adapter with anything past WEP encryption, it just wont work and give you headaches, like me. Since the PS3 and Wii have built in wireless adapters that accept WPA and WEP, PS3 actually accepts WPA2, this was a none issue and went very smoothly. Curious how this will work out on my DS and PSP next?
Overall:
New Wireless Router N - $100
Calling tech support - Free
New Xbox 360 wireless adapter - $100
Getting a headache - Priceless
I just cant get enough of these videos. These Mario games that this guy have made are full of detail and awesome to just look at and enjoy. The upgrades of the Covenant lase, Energy sword, shotgun and Marine machine gun are awesome. Even though it has the Halo theme running through it, it does retain that Mario feeling, which makes it even more awesome. Hearing that Halo music blare at the beginning and then seeing Mario show up on screen is just fantastic. Stay tuned as I dig up more of these for you guys to view.
Some of you have already probably received the message on your Xbox Live account from MS that service will be interrupted on April 1, 2008
This is what Gamerscore Blog wrote:
We’re hearing that Xbox LIVE and Xbox.com will be down for routine maintenance for about three hours on Tuesday, April 1, from 2-5 AM PDT (0900-1200 GMT).
Here is what the message from Xbox Live reads on our machines:
Xbox Live will be unavailable for approximately 3 hours on April 1st 2008 to upgrade the service starting 2PM PDT.
Subtle yet different, the quote from Gamerscore Blog leads us to believe that it is just normal site maintenance while the one in our Xbox Live accounts lets us know that it is some kind of upgrade? Perhaps a new “spring update” for us all or just a dirt dirty April fool’s joke to toy with our emotions! Rather interesting since people were so up in arms after the past Live outage, risky to say the least, perhaps it has something to do with the new Halo maps?
So not sure what to give your tech gadget obsessed family members this year, well look no further than the Halo inspired USB flash drives. Not only can you store form 1 to 4 GB of info but you can get it in the shape of the great Spartans but also come preloaded with Halo content, artwork, excerpts from the upcoming Halo novel, and a special episode of “This Spartan Life.” If you guys are like me you carry a USB drive on your keys and one in your laptop bag, hehehe, I guess I should upgrade to a Halo version now.
For all the official details and pricing click here.
We don’t usually post comics here, but today’s Penny Arcade hits the nail on the head when it comes to PC upgrades. To play a lot of the titles this Holiday season, you’re going to need one killer rig.
It’s a bit over the top, but this is one of the reasons I slowed my uptake of PC games and moved to consoles. I just don’t have the time, funds, or desire to keep upgrading my PC.
Hop on over the Penny Arcade to see a bigger version of the comic (in case your puny eyes can’t read it here).
The Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights demo for the Xbox 360 lets you play around with the career mode and buy one of 3 cars, a Mazda RX7, a 1969 Chevy Camaro SS or a Saleen S7, I chose the Saleen and tricked it out. This game tries hard to not let you forget that it is affiliated with HIN, there are mentions of it everywhere! The demo lets you play around with the different performance upgrades, vinyls and visual parts (hoods, scoop, spoilers, etc.) which is pretty interesting but their system is not even close to Forza, sorry guys.
The demo let’s you play on 1 race track against 6 opponents and once I tricked out my car it was no contest. The cars handle horribly, almost as if your car were on an ice rink. There is little to no control in corners and their is some damage physics so when you hit a wall it is noticeable, but I still was doing 165 mph with NOS afterwards. I pretty much bounced off of every wall and still won the race by a lot. The car models are not bad, but the graphics overall leave much to be desired.
There is an interesting aspect of the demo where you get DNA achievements based on different feats you perfomredduring the race, they are like skill points pretty much and will play out more in the full game. you can supposedly use your friends DNA to be part of your pit crew, I don’t know about you but I don’t want another man’s DNA anywhere near me.
The only thing worse than the bad gameplay is the horrible voice acting. The model they hired to act in this game as your guide should be shot on site. She tries to be hip and cool and it sounds very forced. From playing the demo I can’t recommend this game with a good conscience to anyone unless there are nude HIN videos hidden in the final game. Shame on THQ for putting this game out into the world.
No matter if you are an Xbox 360, PS3 or even a Wii fanboy I think we all have to tip our hats to the new generation of consoles and the power they bring to the table.
I recently heard about the requirements for the new John Woo game, Stranglehold on the PC and it’s borderline ridiculous requirements.
“The game will require at least 15 gigs of hard drive space, 2 gigs of ram and a Nvidia 7800 or higher / ATI x1300 or higher graphics card.”
That is a lot of machine required to play a FPS game on your computer, a buddy of mine recently ran into similar problems, but not as extreme, when he purchased Halo 2 and Shadowrun for the PC, he could not run Shadowrun on his rig. This is why PC gaming is a problem in my eyes, you have to constantly upgrade your computer just to keep up with the newest titles. Games are built for consoles and the only thing you have to worry about is upgrading to a different system every few years to stay with the curve of technology.
Each new console and handheld runs games with high quality graphics and you never have to be concerned about disk space or RAM, just buying the game and being able to get it unwrapped from it’s plastic straight jacket. Putting the problems of hardware aside (which PC systems are very prone to as well if not more if you factor in viruses) these consoles are designed to have you gaming with little to no effort or worries by the gamer, you have to respect the consoles and their pushing of one another to bring this technology further and faster every year.
As a huge fan of Starcraft I wonder what the requirements for the new Starcraft II game will be, at least for me if they are too exagerated Blizzard can count me out.
We're like Spaceballs... we're making Loot Ninja everything. Coming soon we'll have hats, shirts, hoodies, possibly banana hammocks if one Editor has his way...
Check out the shirt prototypes here and the hats here
No matter if you are an Xbox 360, PS3 or even a Wii fanboy I think we all have to tip our hats to the new generation of consoles and the power they bring to the table.
