Category: Video Games

The folks over at ThinkGeek have just started carrying this fun little Japanese import. It’s a portable alarm clock that’s shaped like case from the classic Nintendo NES joypad. Looks like they went with the color scheme from the Japanese original Famicom system though.

The folks over at MaxConsole got their hands on these exclusive preview screenshots of the upcoming dashboard update for Microsoft’s Xbox 360 console. Of note are a new, cleaner look for the Xbox Live Arcade, a better organized Live Marketplace and most importantly, a link to the “Launchpad,” where you’ll be able to play demos and XNA homebrew games if you’re signed up for the XNA Game Studio program.

The headline says it all. According to Sony’s European website the PS3 has been delayed until March 2007 in the PAL territories of Europe, Russia, Middle East, Africa and Australasia. Launch date remains November 17, 2006 for North America and Japan, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see that date slip given Sony’s recent track record.

These miniature Atari 2600 joystick and paddle controllers function as both a keychain and a functional video game console. Certainly they’re a bit cumbersome as keychains, but you cannot deny the cool factor here. I’ve seen differing information on which versions feature which games, but from what I can decipher, there are three versions, one with Asteroids and Millipede (joystick); and one with Yar’s Revenge and Centipede (joystick) and one with Breakout, Pong and Warlords (paddle).

PlayStation Magazine has published an unconfirmed report from unnamed sources that state that Sony is working on a new model of the PlayStation Portable (PSP) for release in 2007. PSM’s Editors believe that the upgrade will be a revision of the existing hardware at the same retail price as the current model.

Microsoft today released the Beta of their XNA Game Studio Express software development kit. The SDK will allow independent developers to create games for Windows Vista and the Xbox 360 (soon). Now you still have to know how to program in C# in order to use this software, so it’s not for the uninitiated.

Electronic Arts and Criterion announced today that Burnout 5 is in development and slated for release sometime in 2007 on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. The new game will offer an expansive universe with tons of traffic to destroy.

A couple of months back, I posted about my concerns that my Xbox 360 had overheated and died as a result of the next-gen game Prey. Now Kotaku is reporting about an Xbox 360 developer who reported an esimated 30-50% failure rate on Xbox 360s used in the testing games, with even higher failure rates on the zombie-killer Dead Rising.

Xbox insider Major Nelson is reporting that Microsoft has released a new backwards compatibility update which provides support for the following games: Aggressive Inline Aquaman: Battle of Atlantis All Star Baseball 2003 All Star Baseball 2005 Burnout 3: Takedown Catwoman Crash Bandicoot: Nitro Kart UPDATED Counter Strike Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth Dead to Rights Digimon Rumble Arena 2 UPDATED ESPN Major League Baseball Fatal Frame 2 Ford vs.

Not to be left out of the pack, the Nintendo DS Lite is jumping on the multi-color bandwagon this fall with the release of two new colors, “Onyx” and “Coral Pink.” These are expected to ship in the US on September 13th.

If you ask Lionhead Studios founder and game designer of legend, Peter Molyneux, the answer is ‘yes.’ In a speech he made at this week’s Leipzig Games Convention, he was quoted as saying: I’ve realised I’m an incredibly lazy person when I play games, and actually slouching back on the sofa, playing on my beer belly, is my most comfortable position.

IGN has posted this video showing a direct feed of the Sony Playstation 3’s “dashboard” user interface. At this point, it looks strikingly similar to the PSP’s interface: No real surprises here… The ability to pull up system menus while playing a game is really the only “new” thing for Sony, and this has already been done on the Xbox 360.

Scheduled for a September 19th release, the Xbox Live Vision camera add-on was accidentally put out on the shelves of a Toys R Us store on August 18th, and this lucky buyer managed to get his hands on one over a month early.

Dana Jongewaard, Managing Editor of the Official Playstation Magazine has posted a fascinating story on her blog which sums up the public (negative) sentiment surrounding the forthcoming Sony Playstation 3. She even went so far as titling the article “Why I am buying a 360 this November.”

Gamesradar has done a side-by-side comparison of the Sony Playstation 3 and the Microsoft Xbox 360, using an accurately sized display prop provided by Sony. I’m not sure what the Japanese market will think about this beast, given the past failure of larger consoles in that market.

SEGA has announce a Fall 2006 release date for their new compilation, the SEGA Genesis Collection. The title will be released for Sony’s Playstation 2 and Playstation Portable systems. The disc will include 30 titles from the Genesis system including classics such as Altered Beast, Sonic The Hedgehog, Shinobi III, Phantasy Star and Golden Axe.