Hasta La Gadget!

If multiple batmobiles, a bat-usb stick, and a bat-puter aren’t enough to convince you Bruce Wayne is a vain egomaniac, maybe these Batman: Arkham City batarang controllers will give you pause. In traditional bat-gadget fashion, these Xbox 360 and Ps3 controllers boast a cheesy bat-aesthetic (such as bat-start and select / back buttons), dual rumble motors, comfort-soft grips, and seven switchable splashes of LED color. Although physically the two controllers are pretty similar, Ol’ Bats seems to favor the PlayStation 3, giving its controller not only the popular Xbox 360 button / analog layout, but an internal battery, detachable charging cable, and batman-themed USB RF receiver, to boot. The Xbox variant? A dated, wired affair — but hey, at least it’s got that Xbox guide button, right? The controllers will be on display next week at E3, courtesy of Power-A, and will hit store shelves when Batman: Arkham City ships in October, leaving you little excuse not to be geared up and ready when the bat-phone rings. Hit the break for the official press release… or, you know, have Robin do it for you.

Continue reading Batarang controllers to be thrown at E3, come back in October

Batarang controllers to be thrown at E3, come back in October originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 04 Jun 2011 21:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Joystiq  |  Power-A  | Email this | Comments

Ever since Johnny Chung Lee was snatched up by Microsoft’s Project Natal team to work on Kinect, we’ve been curious to see how his Wii head-tracking skills would come to fruition on the device. This week, an Inside Xbox episode shows us how it will work with Forza 4, and the Kinect enabled head-tracking appears to run fairly smoothly compared to others we’ve seen (just try getting similar results on Gran Turismo 5 with a PlayStation Eye). There’s no word about other titles planning to make use of this new feature, but we’ll surely find out more while we’re at E3 next week, and possibly get some hands heads-on time while we’re at it.

Kinect enabled head-tracking previewed in Forza 4 spotlight video, turns heads (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Jun 2011 23:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink VG247  |  shinnntube (YouTube)  | Email this | Comments

Splitfish is finally bringing its flagship PC and PS3 mouse controller to the Xbox, albeit packing an odd wireless caveat. Although the FragFx Shark 360 is billed as an identical twin to its PS3 counterpart, this half-gamepad and rodent combo, much like a XIM adapter, needs a wired Xbox 360 gamepad to act as an intermediary between itself and the console. That wired controller plugs into the Shark’s wireless USB dongle; the macro-equipped “fragchuck” and mouse themselves are completely untethered. It sounds a little janky, but if your faith in mouse superiority is strong, you may be forgiving it for its faults come late August. Hit the break for a full list of features and glittery PR wonder.

Continue reading Splitfish FragFX Shark to surface for Xbox 360, make friends with wired controller

Splitfish FragFX Shark to surface for Xbox 360, make friends with wired controller originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 May 2011 18:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Splitfish  | Email this | Comments

There may have been a good reason for that wide beta test Microsoft ran to test out its new disc format for the Xbox 360. While it will allow for an extra 1GB of storage space for new games and (it hopes) stop piracy, apparently some consoles contain drives that cannot read the new XGD3 discs. The details can be seen in the email pictured above posted by Reddit user Avery Penn and were verified as real by the Xbox Support Twitter account, but now it’s responding to inquiries by saying the replacements are in response to a previous update and not the upcoming one that has been in beta. Adding to the confusion, Microsoft Europe confirmed the initial report and points affected users towards the support page to get sorted out. One way or another, affected owners can expect to be mollified by getting their Xbox 360s replaced with new 250GB Xbox 360S models plus a free year of XBL for the trouble. We haven’t gotten an official response about the plan yet but are still checking, so your plan to hoard old consoles and get free replacements en masse is probably equal parts premature and Seinfeldian genius.

Update: Microsoft has responded, confirming that the earlier statement was incorrect and this is not related to the update being beta tested. If you’re wondering how many people are in for a swap, all we could find out is that something less than 10,000 of the 50 million or so Xbox 360s sold worldwide are affected. Check after the break for the official word, but if you have one of the boxes and are connected to XBL you should expect to receive a notice in your email.

Continue reading Some Xbox 360s won’t read discs; Microsoft to comp owners with a new system, year of XBL (Update)

Some Xbox 360s won’t read discs; Microsoft to comp owners with a new system, year of XBL (Update) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 18 May 2011 11:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Joystiq, Eurogamer, Kotaku  |  Reddit  | Email this | Comments

Bored of blowing stuff up on your PS3 or 360? Then take some time out to paint flowers, butterflies, fruit and other lovely things with the uDraw Game Tablet. It’s coming to the big boys’ consoles after a decent debut on the Wii. Don’t worry though, you won’t have to sully your hardcore gaming shrines with any soft-edged blue and white silliness — manufacturer THQ says it has “exclusively designed” the tablet for the more serious platforms. Unfortunately the company paints a pretty ambiguous picture when it comes to a release date – it merely says the tablet will be out “this holiday”. Fine, we’ll just go back to blowing things up until National Applesauce Day rolls around.

THQ brings uDraw Game Tablet to the PS3 and Xbox 360, redesigned for big boys originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 May 2011 07:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink joystiq  |  THQ  | Email this | Comments