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360 Blu-ray Drive In Question Again, More Asian Companies Claim
Posted by James Pikover 7 days, 22 hours, 46 minutes ago.
We heard it once before and Microsoft outright denied it. This time we expect nothing different, but then again this one is a bit more specific. Such details could of course be fabricated, but when reports like this keep popping up, it means either there's a conspiracy going on (perhaps a PR stunt) or that it's true.
This one says that the drive will be out and about by 3rd quarter, that Pegatron, an OEM subsidiary of ASUS will be making them, and that no denial from Microsoft has been made. Yet.
It's your move Microsoft. We await your claims, and furthermore advise for the truth!
Comments ()Fanatec Shows Off Official Porsche Driving Wheel for PS3 and PC
Posted by James Pikover 9 days, 17 hours, 5 minutes ago.
Racing wheels don't generally come in crappy packages like the Wii Wheel. They generally cost a bunch, and for their price are pretty damn good pieces of hardware. This, of course, means that only a few dedicated companies ever really produce them, with Logitech being at the forefront with their official Gran Turismo racing wheels.
Fanatec is looking to crush the Driving Pro GT, set for release later this month. At $350, it's $200 more than Logitech's wheel and features wireless USB connectivity, three force-feedback motors, cordless pedals, a 1GB USB Porsche-shaped key flash drive and much more.
For the price, we're not surprised at all the features it sports, such as 2 different shifters and sports car-quality leather on the wheel. Then again, it's also priced just $50 short of the PS3 by itself, let alone with any games. We'll have to see how well it performs, especially against Logitech's newer wheel, but if they really had to work 7 years just to prove to Porsche that their wheel was the best, well. 'Nuff said.
Alienware Reveals m17x Notebook, Ready to Destroy
Posted by James Pikover 10 days, 17 hours, 58 minutes ago.
Ever on the bleeding edge, Alienware just announced today that the m17x, the m15x's bigger, bulkier but more powerful brother, is out to look at. Oh, and buy too, if you should so choose.
Should you be in the market for a gaming laptop that will last you around 3-5 years easy, don't care about low battery life and want a huge and heavy machine to lug around, this is a serious machine to consider. Dual videocards, dual hard drives with an optional bay hard drive (up to 1.5TB total), 4GB RAM...hell, this isn't a desktop replacement, it's a miniture desktop.
Feel free to check it out and build your own custom machine, just to see how much monopoly money it'll cost.
Apple Updates iMacs, Adds 8800GS Without Broken Drivers
Posted by James Pikover 11 days, 17 hours, 35 minutes ago.
It's not hard to believe that there are only a few Mac gamers visiting this site. Sure, there's using boot camp to run Vista/XP, but with the previous hardware, the only thing worth running was World of Warcraft. Which, consequently, was the only actual game we could name offhand that ran on a Mac anyways.
The most recent update to Apple's desktop lineup is a sturdy machine, however. There's no doubt that running on a 3.06GHz processor, 512MB of NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS graphics, 2GB of memory, and a 320GB 7200rpm disk for $2,199 isn't too shabby. Expensive, yes, but it's Apple, remember?
Why is this relevant, important, or whatever? There are a few reasons, which will probably play out more in the future. Companies like id are working to have games across all platforms (and they meant all platforms), other companies like EA are slowly coming around to Macs. And truth be told, this is PC Gameworld, not Windows Gameworld.
More importantly, however, is the update you'll see tomorrow that has something to do with the whole subject anyways. And, of course, there's the fact that the NVIDIA drivers aren't broken. But if you find something wrong, let us know for ridiculing purposes (we kid, we kid).
9900 To Propell NVIDIA Above And Beyond...ATI?
Posted by James Pikover 12 days, 16 hours, 42 minutes ago.
This sounds too odd. NVIDIA has been at the top of its game in everything but good drivers the last few months. We can't imagine that ATI's been so fortunate to suddenly have a killer graphics card to wipe the floor with te 8800's, or even some of the 9k series cards.
But that's what speculation would have us believe. I don't know that I believe it in the slightest, namely because NVIDIA always puts on their A-game, and rushing to get a faster card out on the market when they have such a majority over the competitions just sounds...irresponsible.
If true, that means that the 9900 will be out somewhere around July, pushing 1-billion transisters per card, GDDR3 memory, and results we'll wait to hear. Even if ATI produces a killer card with their lovable drivers, it looks too far-fetched for everyone to suddenly drop NVIDIA so quick. Updates when it's burnt to the ground or held high by NVIDIA exec's.
Nintendo Scoffs Price Cuts, Claims Existence of Supply-Demand Economic Infrastructure
Posted by James Pikover 12 days, 16 hours, 51 minutes ago.
As if this was a completely unsuspecting turn of events, Nintendo announced that they will not be dropping the price of the Wii. It forces those of us who spent the money on a PlayStation 3 and/or Xbox 360 to chuckle just a bit, not because Nintendo has suddenly decided to tighten up, but because the Wii is already overly inexpensive.
Knowing full well how the Wii was the only console to actually make money for Nintendo from the start and that it was the cheapest console on the market since release, and is only competing (if that's what it can be called) against the 360's "Xbox Live Arcade" version, which is just $30 more, they obviously see no need for a price drop.
Why should they? The only expensive part in the whole console isn't even the console, it's the Wii remotes. If a price drop should come to anything, it should be to those expensive controllers that people are buying Wii Play for exclusively.
CPU Is Dead, Officially: With Love, From NVIDIA
Posted by James Pikover 14 days, 20 hours, 38 minutes ago.
And it looked like such a nice, blissful week. We though this silly feud that's been going on between Intel and NVIDIA was going to stop being so public and get back to the actual hardware, but we were wrong. Horribly, horribly wrong.
Terrifying as that may sound, NVIDIA VP of Content Business Development Relations Roy Taylor put his company's stance on the whole matter down in stone. "A war has just started" he went on to say, "Basically the CPU is dead. Yes, that processor you see advertised everywhere from Intel. Its run out of steam."
Thems fightin' words. I don't know that the CPU is dead, just changing. Processor speed seems to have reached a limit at around 3.2~3.4GHz straight out of the box, but obviously the last few years have seen a shift from frequency to the number of cores.
There's plenty of fun in the email, and lots of great quotes like "This team [Nvidia] is like a Ferrari team." Ahh, spring. It's the war of the roses all over again.
PS3's 3rd-Gen Cooling, Helping Your Electric Bill
Posted by James Pikover 15 days, 4 hours, 37 minutes ago.
For those who remember, the PS3 hasn't had any problems. Well, nothing compared to its closest competitor, at least. And like the PS2, the PS3 is getting revamped constantly, shaving dollars off the top while keeping it just as powerful, if not slightly better.
This is one of those slightly better things. Furukawa Electric announced outright their development and work on the new heatsinks for the PS3. They report that it'll keep the PS3 just as cool as the earlier generation while dropping up to 70 Watts, from approximately 200 to 135 from launch.
Not only that, it's also half the weight. Sure, it only cuts out 350 grams, but any weight loss for fatty tubbo the heavy machine is great, and if we can enjoy a thinner electric bill too, all the best to them.
Screw Dancing Shoes, Get in the Bath With Your PSP
Posted by James Pikover 15 days, 17 hours, 28 minutes ago.
How low must society sink for such things as the waterproof PSP baggy to come to existence? Seriously, who in the hell needs this crap? Unless you're a scuba diver, I can't imagine any reason why you would want to play the PSP in the bath.
Unless you were under 18, in which case being in the bath is probably boring and alone-time. In which case, the bag, from Cyber Gadgets in Japan, is an amazing device. It not only is a plastic bag that seals, but it has more than the standard ziplock functions for underwater maneuvering!
Seriously kids, this is looking to be the gaming peripheral of the year. If you don't have one, you aren't cool.
PSP Fanboy via Impress
Next-Gen Game Consoles Selling TV's, With Proof
Posted by James Pikover 15 days, 17 hours, 52 minutes ago.
This may come as a shock to you, but the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 are meant to be played at 720p (or 1080p if you own Gran Turismo 5 Prologue). They aren't meant to run those extraordinary graphics on a typical SDTV (note, crappy normal TV).
For the rest of us, the study from Frank N. Magid Associates isn't really anything special. We already knew that it was happening. Why would you buy a next-gen console if you know you'll be forced to play it on an old TV? Most people wouldn't.
What we didn't know were the numbers. Apparently 18% of HDTV buyers said they picked one up specifically for their gaming console. 4/10 said that they are planning on buying a second on too. 25% of households now have at least one HDTV, which is around 28 million. If the average household is 3 people, that's a hefty chunk of the population.
Now if we could only get real high speed internet like in Japan...
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