Dec 10

NES Controller Coffee Table has a Nintendo Inside

Posted in: gaming, nintendo, Tech Toys, Today's Chili, video games
If you’re looking for the ultimate accessory for that NES Guitar we mentioned earlier, try this Nintendo controller coffee table, which actually has a functioning Nintendo Entertainment System built into it. The controller is 10:1 scale and looks exactly like the original controller for the NES, and even includes the screw-holes and etching carved into the bottom of the table to match the ones on the actual controller. 
The whole thing is a custom job, but the clincher is the fact that built-in to the table is a fully functional NES, with cable that stretches up to your television if you want to connect it up and play some old school classic video games. Oh, and when you do start playing: the buttons, d-pad, and the start/select buttons all work, so the coffee table is its own controller. 
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Dec 09

App review: Infinity Blade (iPhone)

Posted in: app, Apple, AppStore, game, Games, gaming, ios, iPhone, ipod touch, IpodTouch, itunes, review, Today's Chili

Aww, would you look at that, the iPhone’s trying to play big boy games! Following in the well received footsteps of Rage HD, today marks the debut of Infinity Blade, the second in what’s hopefully a wave of gorgeous-looking iOS games boasting advanced 3D graphics, if not 3D gameplay. Epic Games has put aside the chainsaw-equipped projectile weaponry of its wildly successful Gears of War console series to deliver the first mobile game built around its Unreal Engine 3. You won’t be surprised to hear that it’s utterly delicious to look at, and the visuals certainly helped transport us to this alien realm of swords, axes, shields, and magical rings — where body armor is optional, but helmets apparently are not. Jump past the break to see this visual feast in motion and to soak up some more of our impressions.

Gallery: Infinity Blade screenshots

Continue reading App review: Infinity Blade (iPhone)

App review: Infinity Blade (iPhone) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Dec 2010 17:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dec 09

Cypress Hill backup singer sees himself in Grand Theft Auto, sues Rockstar

Posted in: Games, gaming, Law, lawsuit, legal, Today's Chili
Our friends, this next post is fraught with danger, excitement, and West Coast rappers with names like B-Real, Sen Dog, and Michael “Shagg” Washington. Indeed, the latter is alleging that Rockstar appropriated his likeness for the character CJ, a hood in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas whose life apparently shares many details with his own troubled upbringing, “including how the teen-agers in his gang rode around on bicycles,” according to his lawyer. It seems that way back in 2003 the Cypress Hill backup singer met with reps from the game studio for a two hour interview “to talk about street life,” and the next thing you know, San Andreas is released and you have criminals riding around on bikes! Coincidence? Mr. Shagg doesn’t think so, and he’s asking for twenty-five percent of Rockstar’s profits from the game — approximately $250 million — because they’ve “stolen his image and never paid him.” Now that we think of it, isn’t there an obsessive gadget blogger in that game that looks awfully familiar? We’d better call our lawyers.

Cypress Hill backup singer sees himself in Grand Theft Auto, sues Rockstar originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Dec 2010 16:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dec 06

NPH to Host Video Game Awards

Posted in: gaming, Today's Chili, video games

drhorrible.jpg

If you need any proof that video games are now mainstream, consider this. Spike TV will air its 8th annual Video Game Awards live on Saturday, December 11, and the host will be Neil Patrick Harris. Besides NPH, the show will play host to big names from Hollywood and gaming: presenters and attendees will include “It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia” cast members Danny Devito, Kaitlin Olson, and Rob McElhenney; Guillermo Del Toro; Nathan Fillion; Olivia Munn; Annalynne McCord; Nick Swardson; Dane Cook; and Tony Hawk.

Besides awards, the star-studded event will feature 13 world premieres of games for 2011, including “Batman: Arkham City,” “Resistance 3” and “Thor: God of Thunder.” But will NPH bring a song and dance number to the show? I’m hoping for a splashy number dedicated to Angry Birds.

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Dec 06

Android 2.3 definitely supports game controls, may (or may not) be PlayStation-related

Posted in: Android, ericsson, game, Games, gaming, Google, playstation, sdk, sony, Sony Ericsson, SonyEricsson, Today's Chili

Google’s really been big today on emphasizing that Gingerbread is better than ever for game development, and that’s already bearing itself out thanks to a page culled from the Android 2.3 SDK where we see a handful of new keycodes in the system clearly targeted for gaming: L1, L2, R1, R2, Select, Start, and so on. Does it have anything to do with the Sony Ericsson Zeus Z1 and all the PlayStation phone noise, though? We imagine it lays some of the groundwork, but all told, it’s hard to say — after all, PlayStation famously uses shapes for its primary controls, and we wouldn’t be surprised if Sony were working on a separate development environment of some sort for PlayStation-branded titles rather than letting it all flow through the official Android SDK proper. We also don’t yet know whether Sony Ericsson’s gaming efforts are coming in the Gingerbread or the Honeycomb timeframe (though we’re definitely expecting news next February at MWC), but one way or another, game devs should find it a little easier now to map the controls they need.

Android 2.3 definitely supports game controls, may (or may not) be PlayStation-related originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Dec 2010 19:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dec 04

Mad Catz ships Rock Band 3 MIDI Pro adapter, gives your keyboard and drum set new life

Posted in: adapter, controller, gaming, guitar, keyboard, Microsoft, Music, nintendo, peripheral, playstation 3, Playstation3, ps3, sony, Today's Chili, wii, xbox, xbox 360, Xbox360

Talk about just in time. With merely weeks to go before Mr. Claus makes his wintry journey ’round the globe, Mad Catz has decided to finally ship a peripheral that was introduced way back in June. Without a doubt, the MIDI Pro adapter is one of the more intriguing music game accessories to hit the open market, enabling Rock Band 3 owners to use most MIDI keyboards and drum sets with the title. The box is shipping as we speak for Sony’s PS3 and Nintendo’s Wii, and the Xbox 360 variant should be headed to Best Buy in the coming hours. If you’ll recall, this guy’s also designed to work with the forthcoming Rock Band 3 Squier guitar / controller, and it even features a velocity sensitive adjustment for MIDI drums designed to reduce cross-talk during play. At $39.99, it’s a no-brainer for those who already own a MIDI instrument or two, but we just might be more excited about the hacking possibilities than anything else. DIYers, get at it!

Gallery: Mad Catz Rock Band 3 MIDI Pro adapter

Continue reading Mad Catz ships Rock Band 3 MIDI Pro adapter, gives your keyboard and drum set new life

Mad Catz ships Rock Band 3 MIDI Pro adapter, gives your keyboard and drum set new life originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 04 Dec 2010 03:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dec 03

Play Real Instruments in Rock Band with the Midi Pro Adapter

Posted in: gaming, Miscellaneous Tech, Music, Tech Toys, Today's Chili, video games

Mad Catz Midi Pro Adapter

Most of us have dreamt of putting our Rock Band skills to use playing in a real concert for thousands of cheering fans, but have no talent for a real guitar or an actual drum set. If you, on the other hand, know how to play the guitar pretty well but the orange button on your Rock Band guitar controller is a little out of reach, the Midi Pro Adapter from Mad Catz will give you a way to plug in your actual instruments to your XBox 360 or PlayStation 3 and get your game on with a controller you’re more familiar with. 
For $40 retail, the Midi Pro Adapter will allow you to plug in your real instruments, have them recognized as controllers, and automatically map different actions to the directional pas or the controller buttons. You can tweak the settings manually if you want, or just start band practice with the default configuration and see where it goes.
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Dec 02

The XIM3 Lets You Game on the XBox 360 With a Keyboard and Mouse

Posted in: gaming, Miscellaneous Tech, Tech Toys, Today's Chili, video games, xbox 360

XIM3

Fans of first-person shooter games and real-time strategy games usually fall into two camps: the ones who refuse to play with anything but a full keyboard and mouse and the ones who refuse to play on anything but a controller. Now, with the XIM3 XBox 360 peripheral, you can connect a keyboard and mouse and use the on-screen controls to map your keys to controller functions, bridging the gap between PC gamers and console games. 
The XIM3 markets itself as a high precision keyboard and mouse adapter for the XBox 360, but PC gamers who wish they could play titles like Halo: Reach and other console exclusives will be happy just to have an option. Pricing and availability on the XIM3 have not been announced just yet, but according to a post at SlashGear, the device’s predecessor, the XIM2, retailed for $149.99, so the new model will likely be more expensive.
 
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Dec 02

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 and AMD Radeon HD 6870 square off in dual-card showdown

Posted in: AMD, gaming, GraphicsCard, NVIDIA, radeon, Today's Chili

Whether you’re an NVIDIAn calling it SLI or a Radeonite referring to it as CrossFireX, a multi-card graphics setup is nowadays almost a prerequisite for experiencing the best that PC gaming has to offer. It’d be negligent of us, therefore, not to point you in the direction of the Tech Report crew’s latest breakdown, which takes an investigative peek at dual-card performance on NVIDIA’s latest and greatest GeForce GTX 580 and naturally compares it to a wide range of other alternatives on the market. AMD’s latest refresh, the Radeon HD 6870, is among those options, though it’s worth remembering that the company’s real high-end gear isn’t due for another couple of weeks. All the same, most people will be buying their holiday rigs right around now, and if you want an exhaustive guide as to what’s what on the graphics front, the source link is your best, um… source.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 and AMD Radeon HD 6870 square off in dual-card showdown originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Dec 2010 11:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dec 02

OnLive ushers in the MicroConsole with all-you-can-eat game plan for $10 a month

Posted in: gaming, Today's Chili

OnLive wants to be the Netflix of video games, that much is clear, and today it’s rolling out a flat-rate monthly pricing plan called PlayPack to help seal the deal. It’ll cost $9.99 a month when it launches January 15th, giving subscribers access to a back catalog of forty retired and indie titles, including a number of games entirely new to the OnLive service. What’s more, if you bought the company’s $99 MicroConsole, you’ll get access to that entire flat-rate catalog free until the formal launch, meaning you’ll have fourteen full games instantly ready to play the moment you boot it up. OnLive founder Steve Perlman tells us you can pay month-to-month and cancel PlayPack anytime you want, and OnLive will still store your savegames for a full year in case you decide to rejoin — or if you want to mix and match flat-rate and a la carte titles without losing your precious progress. So, when are those MicroConsoles going to arrive? If you were among the first to buy, you could get yours this very afternoon, and Perlman says there are “thousands and thousands of boxes” shipping right now. PR after the break.

Continue reading OnLive ushers in the MicroConsole with all-you-can-eat game plan for $10 a month

OnLive ushers in the MicroConsole with all-you-can-eat game plan for $10 a month originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Dec 2010 09:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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