Hasta La Gadget!

Any gamer that has been around for more than a few years will remember the Sony PlayStation 2 and will have fond memories of countless hours spent gaming on the console. Throughout its 12 years of life, the venerable PS2 was one of the best-selling videogame consoles ever produced with over 150 million units sold since it debuted in 2000.

If you’re a fan of the PS2, this will be a little heartbreaking to hear. Effective immediately, Sony has stopped shipping PlayStation 2 consoles to Japanese retailers. That means once existing stock is depleted there will be no more new PS2 consoles.

The original fat PS2 consoles were replaced by slim consoles in 2004 to stoke sales (and reduce costs) long after the PS2 originally launched. The PS2 enjoys a massive library of games, and game developers have continued to produce games for the platform many years after it debuted. Personally, I don’t see the PS3 having the same sort of longevity that the PS2 enjoyed, but without any imminent plans for the release of a PS4, I could be wrong.

[via Kotaku]

The Walking Dead, which won five awards at this year’s Video Game Awards, is having a major sale for today only. Episode 1 is still completely free, as it’s been for a couple days now, but episodes 2 through 5 are all 50% off each. This means you can get the entire series for just $10 through Xbox Live.

Microsoft’s Larry Hryb (a.k.a. Major Nelson) announced the deal today. All five episodes normally cost 400 MS Points each ($5 each), meaning that you’d be paying $25 for the entire series if you were to pay full price, but for today only, Xbox Live is offering all five episodes for only 800 MS Points, or $10.

$10 is an amazing deal, considering that game took home top honors at the 2012 Video Game Awards, winning Game of the Year, Best Performance by a Human Female, Best Adapted Video Game, and Best Downloadable Game. The studio behind the award-winning game, Telltale Games, also won Studio of the Year.

It’s not all sparkles and ribbons, though. The retail release of The Walking Dead ended up being plagued with freezing issues on the Xbox 360, making it practically unplayable. Telltale released a statement saying that the issue was only on 4GB Xbox 360 Slim consoles, but a handful of users were reporting the issue on other console versions as well. The developer is still looking into the issue, so if you’re wanting to buy the game, we’d suggest opting for the downloadable version.

The Walking Dead Episodes 2-5 are 50% off today on Xbox Live is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

I think most parents who go to GameStop or other places where they sell used game consoles expect those devices to have been inspected and cleaned of any digital content before being resold. It looks like in at least one case, that notion is completely incorrect.

A man named Mark Giles recently purchased a used Nintendo 3DS for his son from a GameStop in Colorado. The boy, who is five years old, began playing with his new console only to discover that it came preloaded with nine pornographic images. Apparently, the person who traded the console in at GameStop hadn’t bothered to clean the photography from the memory and GameStop didn’t bother to check before reselling the console.

GameStop issued an official statement that says the company has official policies on refurbishing used items before selling them. However, the company admits that sometimes devices slip through. The man was given a brand-new 3DS console for his son along with some games. However, he says that the damage has been done and that his son can’t unsee the images.

This certainly wouldn’t be the first time that a device was resold with somebody else’s content on it, and it surely won’t be the last.

[via Fark via Huffington Post]

What can’t the Raspberry Pi do? Well, it definitely can operate as an AirPlay receiver for Apple’s Wi-Fi audio streaming protocol, it turns out. Cambridge engineering student Jordan Burgess managed to convert one of the $25 open computers into an AirPlay receiver along the lines of Apple’s AirPort Express, using open source software, a USB Wi-Fi adapter, an SD card, a micro USB cable and the Pi itself.

The process for setting up the Pi once you have all the hardware ingredients is fairly simple, especially if you’re comfortable working with Terminal and with the basics of installing an operating system onto the Raspberry Pi. Still, this isn’t for users who aren’t comfortable outside of their computer’s standard GUI. But if you’ve got the time and the skills, you can save a fair amount using this version vs. others. Burgess estimates that the total build cost is around £30 ($48 U.S.), vs. $100 for the Apple TV or AirPort Express. Speakers with the tech built-in also cost well in excess of that on average.

There are some caveats, however, and the biggest may turn off audio quality enthusiasts hoping to set some of these up and running in their own homes. Burgess notes that the Raspberry Pi lacks a good digital-to-analog converter (DAC), meaning that you’ll get background noise and distortion when you plug the Pi directly into the 3.5mm output of a set of speakers. A USB sound card is a possible fix for this limitation, however, and some home theater receivers act as DACs if you’re using it as a way to add AirPlay functionality cheaply to your existing living or media room setup.

With a few more refinements to help increase audio quality, this could be a cheap way to help wire an entire house for sound, Sonos-style, so long as you’re already committed to using Apple devices and iTunes.

We have talked a few times about the coming video game from EA and Visceral Games called Dead Space 3. Last time we mentioned the game it was getting voice command support for Microsoft Kinect users. EA has now announced that the downloadable demo for the shooter be available on the Xbox Life Marketplace and the PlayStation Network on January 22, 2013.

The demo will put players into the shoes of Isaac Clarke and his co-op companion Sergeant John Carver. The demo will see players crash land on the planet Tau Volantis. The planet is covered in ice and teeming with Necromorphs. The game promises the same kind of nail-biting action we’re used to seeing in the franchise with a mix of horror, action and suspense.

Dead Space 3 is set to launch on February 5, 2013 in North America on the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC. Xbox 360 gamers can get access to the demo a week early if they sign-up on the official demo website.