January 2007
39 posts
Logitech G7 + func 1030 Falling Short
I really appreciate a nice mouse. For FPS and design work, I require the most accurate, high-resolution mouse I can get. When I finally could afford to obtain what I considered the best I found out it occasionally sucks.
I bought the Logitech G7 Wireless Mouse and a custom printed Func Industries 1030 Mousepad about 3 months ago. Since then I’ve found that sometimes the tracking goes...
You saw it here first
Lazy Wii Guy
3 Burger King games boost BK profits by 40%
The glutton buttons proved to be as addictive as the food, and Burger King is now reporting that because of the sales of the three games, their company has achieved a 40% increase in profits for the financial quarter, with a total of 3.2 million game sales so far. Isn’t that more than Lost Planet and almost as much as Gears of War? Jeez. read more | digg story
Homestar Runner Games Now Available on the Wii
Nintendo Wii owners can now play several of the Homestar Runner games using their Wii-mote. Just point the Wii browser to the linked URL and enjoy! Additional games are coming soon, according to the site. read more | digg story
Wii News Channel Comes Early!
The Wii News Channel has launched. Here are some of the first shots of what the News Channel looks like. It’s now available with the latest system update. read more | digg story
iTunes + Netflix = Cancel Cable?
A blogger over at ZDNet realized that he could cancel part of his cable, order his shows on iTunes, watch movies on Netflix and save $300 a year. read more | digg story
More Quake Wars Screenshots
3 more screens appeared on Firing Squad this morning. Can’t wait for this to drop.
WoW Burning Crusade Sells 2.4 MILLION In 24 Hours
WoW: The Burning Crusade expansion sold a whopping 2.4 million copies during the first 24 hours in North America and Europe, making it the fastest selling PC game of all time. read more | digg story
Burning Crusades Muscles In
Burning Crusades has brought World of Warcraft back on it’s warpath of life destruction. For a while there, I thought I might actually quit playing World of Warcraft and switch to Eve. I had initiated a number of alternative plans. I’m still playing Eve Online however I’m training up at 15 day skill at the moment and haven’t been in tough with my fleet in about a week. I...
Wiimote+Nunchuck on HL2
So most people have seen the earlier video of some guy playing HL2 on his laptop with the Wiimote by itself, and it looked pretty clunky. Pat Glint, or PJG2005 decided to make his own version by embedding a driver inside the game itself, making the controls much smoother and take use of the nunchuck as well. Check it out. read more | digg story
Half Life 2: Episode 2 to come in two flavors
The Black Box is only available on PC and includes Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Portal and Team Fortress 2. It retails for $39.99. The Orange Box is available for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 and includes Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episodes One and Two, Portal and Team Fortress. It retails for a modest $59.99. read more | digg story
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade Interview
Pro-G has a great interview with a member of the Blizzard World of Warcraft Classes team. He discusses The Burning Crusade, features included and left out, the adjustments made for casual gamers, and the possibility of new classes.
Click here to check it out.
Netflix Launches Streaming Video - IPTV Heats Up
Netflix has started an experimental new server called Watch Now. The server includes on-demand streaming video directly to a subscribers computer. Currently the service is only for Windows PC’s using a downloadable viewing application. The service unit is hours viewed, and subscribers have more or less hours to watch streaming video depending on their subscription. The $18/month service plan...
For the Horde
I’m at work reading about all the world of warcraft hordes waiting in line for burning crusades. I’ve got mine pre-ordered as well but I’m not in much of a rush. Azeroth will always be there waiting for me.
I played Quake 4 today in preparation for QuakeCon. I think I am going to try to attend this year and maybe take my computer in for the BYOC… depending on how well I...
WoW: Burning Crusade launches tonight
The Draenei will be unreleased, the Outlands shall be explored, millions of people will log on to experience Blizzard’s World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade expansion.”
Expect server issues. read more | digg story
Apple LOL
A lot of funny videos lately. Why not post one more.
First Goatse in SF Apple Store
Yesterday during the MacWorld expo the Downtown San Francisco Apple Store was Goatse’d. At least 5 computers displayed goatse as wallpaper. For the full story and more pictures checkout the laughing squid story.
That guy leaning on the table: “oh god why”
iPhone Usage Video
Skip forward to about 40 seconds into the video. This is a great close-up video of the interactions built into the iPhone.
QuakeCon to Pick Up E3's Slack
Recently, E3 has announced changes to the focus of E3 2007 from a large media-oriented trade show to a business-centric, intimate conference. It seems that E3 has said it no longer wants to be the trade show event where the best and brightest in the video game industry come to show off their latest work.
Which will be the one must-attend trade show for video game enthusiasts in the future?...
Blizzard to hold Burning Crusade Midnight Signing...
Blizzard will be holding Burning Crusade signing events at four lucky midnight releases in California. Here are the places, addresses and number of copies direct from Blizzard. The line are scheduled to begin January 15th. They will be issuing wristbands to guarantee signed copies of the World of Warcraft expansion.
Fry’s Fountain Valley
10800 Kalama River Ave
Fountain Valley, CA 92708...
Sony "droppin" dis gold PSP in Japan
BOOM!
Sony has announced a gaudy gold version of its PSP for that ‘everything I touch turns to gold’ look. It will be available in Japan February 22nd, priced at ¥20,790 (that’s about $174)
If you like this thing and are all done crying over lik-sang, look for it on ebay soon.
ATI Posts Catalyst 7.1 Reference Drivers + NVIDIA...
The AMD ATI Website has posted version 7.1 of their CATALYST reference drivers for ATI graphics cards. Reports are of varied performance upgrades including as much as a 12% incrase in performance in all ATI Radeon X1000 Series products.
This comes days after NVIDIA released their new version 97.46 Windows Vista x86 RTM drivers. For a full list of update notes checkout the release notes here.
Nintendo Posts 1Bn Profits in 2006
Nintendo Japan has posted a revision of their 2006 forecast. Net income is now 120,000 million yen or roughly $1043478260.87. That’s one billion, forty-three million, four-hundred seventy-eight thousand, two-hundred sixty dollars.
Click here for the full, official PDF report from Nintendo.
Buy an OLPC of Your Own, No Longer
UPDATE: OLPC reports there are no official plans to sell their laptop to consumers.
The backers of the One Laptop Per Child project plan to release the machine on general sale next year. Customers purchasing an OLPC will pay $200. The price pays for their OLPC as well as another OLPC to go to a developing nation.
The system has a 366 MHz processor, 128 MB of RAM and no hard drive but...
Apple iPhone Announced, Details
Well, they announced it. Apple iPhone will come in a 4GB ($499) and 8GB ($599) model shipping in June 2007. It appears the main features are it’s multi-touch screen with gestural interface, hi-res screen that allows for real web browsing (not the crappy mobile version that smartphone users should be used to) and inline email photos, as well as a combination of iPod, phone, browser and...
Guitar Hero 2 for 360 releasing in March
The title says it all. Guitar Hero 2 for 360 coming in March! read more | digg story
Gears of War Update and New Content Available Soon
There will be a Gears of War update on the 9th of January preceding the new Gears of War Content to include two new multiplayer maps and a video both available for download via Xbox Live Marketplace starting January 11th.
Gears of War has sold 2.7 million units since it’s launch making it a franchise that Microsoft plans to eek more money from like Halo. Expect a Gears of War RTS soon. :p
...
Second Life Releases Client Source under GPL v2
Linden Labs, developers of the fringe subculture catch-all MMO game Second Life, have released their client’s source code to the public for development under the GNU GPL version 2. It’s amazing news because not long ago this guy was calling for an open source virtual game world based on second life. The release of the client is a good first step.
“Stepping up the development of...
New Command and Conquer 3 Screenshots
Two new C&C3 screens!
Click here for the full size images on Firing Squad.
Xbox 360 v2 - with HDMI - available "soon"
According to Engadget, the Xbox 360 v2 codenamed Zephyr will be available for purchase soon. They have an insider at Microsoft’s Xbox team who is feeding them the juicy deets. The new Xbox 360 v2 is apparently supposed to feature HDMI support for full 1080p, a larger, 120gb hard drive and acooler 65nm processor.
I would suspect that this new version of the 360 will launch this spring, when...
Sony Exec-"Everything that we put on store shelves...
He says other entertaining things such as “At this particular point in time there aren’t enough PS3s to go around”.
Something tells me he’s bluffing. read more | digg story
Upcoming (Japanese) Wii Virtual Console Games
NES Games (500 Wii Points)
* Ikki: A short, snappy ninja action game from Sunsoft.
* Ice Climber: The massively popular platform game.
* Kid Icarus: Another classic platformer from Nintendo.
* Zelda II: The Adventure of Link: Originally released for the Famicom Disk System.
SNES Games (900 Wii Points)
* Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu: Fourth installment in the acclaimed...
Nintendo's Wii Play to be released 2/12/07
The upcoming game Wii Play is scheduled for release Feb. 12th. The game features 9 mini games and will come with a controller. The mini games are: A point-to-shoot shooting range, Table Tennis, Laser Hockey, Billiards, Fishing, Charge, Tanks, Find Mii and Pose Mii.
Horray more party games…
Halo 3 Beta Opening Again Soon
New information regarding how to enter the Halo 3 Multiplayer beta has been released. It appears pretty much anyone who sort of gives a damn can get into it now.
One way is to purchase the upcoming open world action game Crackdown. Produced by Real Time Worlds, Crackdown will ship on Feb 20th. When the beta test begins in the spring, those of you who have purchased Crackdown can use it to...
New Burning Crusades Screenshots
Firing squad has posted a set of about 8 new Burning Crusades screen shots. Check them out here.
Burning Crusades is the new expansion for World of Warcraft due out January 16th.
Update Y2K7: Let's Get Internetin'
Well, well, well, it’s 2007 and there still hasn’t been a major catastrophe on new years. I’m really disappointed.
But not as disappointed as I am with my Nintendo Wii. I played Zelda until I got my fill of “Zelda gameplay”. The game is the same as any other Zelda title except you have to use wrist jerks instead of buttons and sometimes you get to point at the...
How to buy Tekken 5 for PS3
I guess you can buy Tekken 5 for your Playstation 3 through the online storefront by creating a fresh account and saying you’re from Hong Kong. Then you have to add money to your account in low quantities so Sony doesn’t check up on your credit cards home address. For the full text, click more.
“Firstly, you need to add a new user to your PS3. Keep in mind it cannot be a new sub...
Xbox 360 topped US hardware sales chart over Xmas
Market analysts NPD have suggested that the Xbox 360 was the best-selling console in the US over Christmas - with the Nintendo Wii trailing by just 200,000 units. According to the firm’s preliminary estimates, as reported by CNBC, around 2 million Xbox 360 units were sold in North America from November up until December 25. read more | digg story
XNA Game Studio Express - Amateur games ahoy!
The flash game development scene thrives because it allows people who would otherwise not be able to grasp a higher-level programming language like C# create games. The effort saved by the ease of ActionScript is spent tweaking game mechanics, sketching new game play concepts and expressing the unique perspectives of many amateur flash game developers.
This fresh look on game creation may be...