Noo... I just bought the PSP-2000. I never bought the original because it was a bit pricey and chugged sluggishly on several games. The PSP-2000 with improved memory and sleeker build did much better. The new will have an improved LCD screen as reported in USA Today and a few other places.
The revamped PlayStation Portable with the improved liquid crystal display and a built-in microphone will go on sale Oct. 16 in Japan at the same price of the previous model 19,800 yen ($180), said Shawn Layden, president of Sony Computer Entertainment Japan.
That's not too bad actually. They are improving and replacing the older models. Something to be expected in the CE world.
While I was still traveling back from E3, news of the Mythos beta going on hiatus for an unspecified period of time. This was announced on their Website.
This came just a few days after a press release from Flagship Studios that they were still open! This had impact of course, on their currently running MMOG, Hellgate London.
San Francisco, CA (July 14, 2008) -- Flagship Studios has announced today that despite rumors to the contrary, the company is still operating.
“It is with deep regret that I must announce that Flagship Studios has laid off most employees. However, the core management and founding team members are still at Flagship.” said Bill Roper, CEO of Flagship Studios. “The past five years have been an incredible experience for us, but unfortunately, we couldn’t sustain the size of the company any longer.”
Flagship Studios owns the rights to all its technology and IP, including Hellgate: London and Mythos. Due to the current situation, Flagship will not be taking any new subscribers for Hellgate: London, and all current subscriptions will not be billed.
The 3rd U.S. Circurt Court of Appeals upheld on Tuesday a 2007 lower-court decision that the Child Online Protection Act violated the First Amendment since it was not the most effective way to keep children from visiting adult websites.
Both courts also found that the standards for material that had to be hidden from open browsing were so loosely defined that any content not suitable for a four-year-old would have been hidden behind a age-verification firewall.
"Unlike COPA, filters permit adults to determine if and when they want to use them and do not subject speakers to criminal or civil penalties," the court wrote.
Now... we know that video games improve hand-eye coordination (Yes, there are lots of studies, including one on a group of young medical students), but improve your health? On the heels of the Wii Fit (which was the brain child of Shigeru Miyamoto - Mario, Donkey Kong), come Ubisoft's "My Weight Loss Coach" for the DS which just shipped, and they are about to ship a program to help people quit smoking.
Of course hundreds of us aging gamers (Mea Culpa!) bought the Nintendo DS with "Brain Age" as our excuse - even my mother has one!
Indie game developers are finding a market with the big Three of Console Games, Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony. According to this Analysis, the big three are finding innovative exclusive titles at a relatively low financial risk by going with Indies. Reaching out to the Indie developer helps them keep up with new talent, and helps them find titles beyond the expensive, but familiar franchises that dominate the market.
First we hear about the use of the Nintento DS's WiFi capabilities at sporting stadiums for ordering food and drinks from the concession stands and obtaining game scores & playback, now the PSP get's a Google search function.
Sony Computer Entertainment America sent word today that with the next firmware upgrade (4.00), which will be available this week, the PSP will get Google Search added directly to the portable's XMB (XrossMediaBar). The search functionality will be listed as "Internet Search" under the Network category on XMB.
Neat idea, and something I'm going to have to try out.
Are we mainstream or are we mainstream? According to this Variety article, Paramount Pictures has signed Leonardo DiCaprio to star in a movie named "Atari" as it's founder, Nolan Bushnell.
Gamespot has more to say, and tells us that Bushnell has recently been pretty vocal about his feelings about the modern games industry. He has called current games "pure, unadulterated trash," Sony "arrogant and capricious," and added that he thought some titles on the market are "truly despicable."
The 64 dollar question is... "Will you watch this?"
NVidia is planning to make all your PC games 3-D as reported by CJNet News. It's a software driver that they are developing that beginning this summer, any PC with an Nvidia graphics processor will have the ability to run a game in normal mode, or in 3D, with the aid of 3D glasses.
So here's the challenge. How to make those glasses stylish and not geeky? Only time will tell. Will it really work that well? Which series video cards will they work with?
Soon anyway... and some online retailers are promoting it as an ideal Mother's Day Gift. *cough* Walmart...
The Wii Fit Balance board retails for $89.99 and I may just have to pick this one up myself. When I saw it at E3 last year, the people lining up to try it weren't the 20 something young men, but the 30 something women with whom it struck a chord because the program they were running was the yoga and fitness program.
The little balancing game they were running was also interesting, and little trouble-maker me had to try something that alarmed the demonstrator. Instead of just leaning my weight to tilt the virtual board to get that ball rolling from one side to the other - I was on level 4 and there was a little hump between. I rolled it to the extreme other end then hopped on the other. Guess what? It worked. I batted the ball and it flew up into the air, over the hump onto the right side.
After shrouding themselves in a "cone of silence" for three years since the company was formed, Kings Isle Entertainment revealed themselves to the public for the first time.
Game Daily tells us more and checking their website shows an impressive cast of actors... er... developers on the commander's deck.
Creative Director Tom Hall's flagship games include: the Commander Keen series, Wolfenstein 3D, Spear of Destiny, DOOM, Rise of the Triad and Anachronox. Other credits include Congo Cube, Hyperspace Delivery Boy and most recently, Area 51.
Todd Coleman (Director) and Josef Hall (Technical Director) both hail from Wolfpack Studios, developer of Shadowbane.
They have studios in Dallas and Austin, and of course... they are hiring!
