Bleeding Edge Byte 011: Pacific Designs Rolling Lite Review

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Accessories, PC / Laptop, Product Reviews, Videocasts

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Pacific Designs sent us their Rolling Lite briefcase bag, and we put it through the wringer over the past month. Surprisingly, this thing is solid, providing a seemingly endless number of pockets along with a dedicated space for a 15” or smaller laptop. Check out this episode for our review of the Rolling Lite.

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Club Nintendo Gets More Goodies: Game and Watch DS, Multi-Cart Cases

Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Accessories, Nintendo, Nintendo DS, Retro, Strategy

Club Nintendo Japan has got more items to keep the Nintendo fanboys back in the States drooling. Chief among them is an exclusive title, Game and Watch Collection for the DS, which features ports of many of the old-school Game and Watch games, including Donkey Kong. Another great-looking item is a DS game case, roughly the size of a CD case, that has room for 9 DS cartridges and includes 7 different DS lite styluses in a variety of colors (one for each day of the week?)

We can only hope that one day Nintendo will realize its folly and create something similar to Club Nintendo for the USA. For now, you’ll have to keep your eyes peeled for eBay auctions of what are sure to become some highly sought-after items.

Read More | Club Nintendo of Japan via Cubed3

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Miyamoto Talks Wii

Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Accessories, Corporate News, Nintendo, Nintendo DS, Wii

Shigeru Miyamoto talked about the Nintendo Wii with Famitsu magazine, and IGN has a summary and translation of some of his comments. The main thing that IGN picked up on was that the number of buttons on the Wii controller might not be finalized, with Miyamoto reportedly saying, “We’re still debating on the area of how many buttons to use.” This might have been misread in context, however, and may have just been talking generally about the development process for the Wii. He also talked some about the goals for the new console; he wants it to be technology “that you’ll want to turn on every day…like a television.” Certainly, with the DS, Nintendo has been successful at picking up the more casual gamers, but Miyamoto hopes to capture this feeling with the Wii as well. Most telling was Miyamoto’s comments after hearing about the results of the Famitsu game console poll, and is really an indication of how in-grained their “blue ocean” strategy of going after typically non-gamer oriented markets is. Miyamoto’s response, “Was there a selection for ‘I don’t want any of them’? I’d like to know this, because we’re fighting this ‘I don’t want any of them’ selection” really shows the dedication that Nintendo is pushing towards the non-gamer, or perhaps the gamer that has gotten tired of the direction the industry is heading.

Read More | IGN

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Get Ready For Playstation Bundles Over $1,000

Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Accessories, Hardware, PlayStation 3, Rumors

If you’re thinking of saving up the money to buy a Playstation 3 at launch, you might want to start now. European retailer Play.com is offering the Playstation 3 for a pre-order bundle with the 60 GB HDD and 3 games - Warhawk, Singstar, and Formula One - for the equivalent of about $1,000 US dollars. Unfortunately, there aren’t too many other sites with prices and bundle offers listed, so it’s not clear yet whether this will be the norm for large retailers like Target and Amazon.com.

Personally, we could see this going either way for Sony. One possibility is that the PS3 will be this year’s must-have Christmas item, and people will be willing to shell out over a grand just to get the system (even if it comes with some games they don’t want), meaning retailers will make a killing. On the other hand, this could further add to the negative reaction that Sony’s been receiving for the price of their console, and could push gamers towards cheaper alternatives like the Xbox 360, Wii, or even a new desktop PC.

Read More | 1Up

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Edge UK Talks To Satoru Iwata

Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Corporate News, Nintendo, Wii

Edge UK magazine is publishing a series of interviews with the three heads of the competing console manufacturers, Satoru Iwata, Phil Harrison, and Peter Moore, and the first subject featured is Satoru Iwata, head of Nintendo. The focus, of course, is on the Wii, both its unusual control method and name. On
the Wii controller, even experienced Nintendo employees had problems, with Iwata stating:

“I think it’s an unusual feeling for players once they begin using two different controllers with two hands. For example, even inside Nintendo, those who had been working on the Zelda and Super Mario products, some of them are saying now that we have to change completely the way we play the game.”

He also commented on Sony’s inclusion of motion sensing technology, saying it “was something we expected, actually. Because this is not the first time this has happened…we really don’t think that other companies having a similar approach and technology will affect the advantage the our controllers bring to the Wii.” They discuss briefly the plans for the virtual console, and Iwata stated that the design for the Wii is basically complete, with small tweaks being made to the hardware and components. The unusual name also had to be a topic, but Iwata believes there should be no problems with the name, and hopes “that someday in the future [people] will like it.”

Read More | Next Generation

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Sony Scoffs At Playstation 3 Downgrade

Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Corporate News, Hardware, PlayStation 3, Rumors

Yet another rumor about possible performance problems with Sony’s Playstation 3 made the rounds this week. This time, suggesting that due to heat and other issues, the PS3 Cell processor would be downgraded, and wouldn’t match the performance that Sony was promising at E3. Today, Eurogamer got the straight information directly from Sony, and one could almost feel the dismissive tone in their words. A Sony spokesman was quoted as saying, “Developers have been working with PS3 dev kits for anywhere between eight and 12 months, and to suggest that we’d now take the decision to downgrade the hardware at such a late stage, is, well, ridiculous.” One has to wonder why the Playstation 3 seems particularly targeted for rumors and wild speculation, but realistically, the bloom came off the rose a little bit at E3 after Sony dramatically scaled back on their previous showings, and introduced the dual SKU launch and pricing. Still, the amount of attention these “some guy said” rumors is getting seems out of proportion to the weight of the sources.

Read More | GamesIndustry.biz

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Mizuguchi Speaks on Lumines

Posted by George Hatzidimitriou Categories: Corporate News, PlayStation 2, Portable/Mobile, PSP, Strategy, Xbox Live Arcade

Game Informer has put up an interview with Tetsuya Mizuguchi, founder of Q Entertainment and of Lumines and Rez fame.  Mizuguchi speaks at length on the four(!) upcoming versions of Lumines in the works.  First up, is Lumines Live, an Xbox Live Arcade version of the title in which a plethora of skins, music tracks and various other features such as online ranking and versus mode will be constantly added and made available via the Xbox Live marketplace.  No exact details were given yet, but Mizugiuchi mentions seasonal skins/music and confirms Madonna as being on the soundtrack.  Next is Lumines Mobile, which has been licensed to Buena Vista Games and is being developed by Gameloft.  Also mentioned is Lumines Plus a more or less direct port of Lumines to the Playstation 2.  While Lumines Plus will feature a few unspecified new additions, online play has yet to be determined. Finally, Mizuguchi divulges some new info on Lumines 2, the sequel to the original PSP Lumines.  Lumines 2 is set to feature over 100 songs by artists of various genres, full motion video, and a brand new mission mode.  He also mentions the development of a Disney themed version of Meteos, possibly with online play and muses about the possibility of Lumines on the Playstation 3.  Overall, it looks as though we’ll have no shortage of Lumines titles in the coming summer/fall seasons.

Read More | Game Informer

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Funding Request Deadline Is Nigh

Posted by Thea Davis Categories: Culture

A DKK 2 million pool was earmarked for new video games aimed at youth in the 2006 Nordic Council of Ministers budget. And this is just the first round; the plan is for the fund to increase each year until 2012, making a total of more than DKK 70 million available for games development in Nordic countries. Projects submitted for funding will be evaluated on several criteria, and any funding will be awarded accordingly. Erik Robertson, head of the Nordic Game Program, said, “We have been pleased by the level of interest already shown by Nordic developers. But we also know that the industry in the Nordic countries is full of new ands creative ideas, some of which just need seed capital to kick-start them, so there is still time for people with off-beat ideas and unusual projects to get in touch.” Game developers in Nordic countries have until 30-June-06 to apply for a share of the funds.

For more information on the program contact:

Erik Robertson, Director of the Nordic Game Program
erik@nordicgameprogram.org
+ 46 40 36 76 70
http://www.nordicgameprogram.org

Read More | Nordic Monthly Review

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Guitar-less Hero Games On The Way?

Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Hardware, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Rumors

RedOctane President Kai Huang talked with Next-Generation.biz today and dropped more interesting hints about their plan for next generation consoles. According to the article, there’s a “very very high likelihood of additional Hero games”. Not all that surprising considering what a boon Guitar Hero has been for the company, but it’s still good to hear that they’re working on new ideas.

Huang also pointed to the online arena being the next big stage for the Hero titles:

“We will [utilize online features]. As far as games like Guitar Hero and other music games that we have in the pipeline are concerned, I think there are going to be significant changes to the gameplay.”

“Online is definitely going to be a huge component of what we’re planning, whether that’s downloading new music or characters or skins or online play features, those are the things that are really going to be the major changes for next-gen.”

Put the two pieces together, and you have another indication that RedOctane might be working on some sort of cooperative rock-band game with multiple instruments. Do we have to buy a peripheral for each though? And just how big is the “Drum Hero” controller going to be.

Read More | Next-Gen.biz

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The Dark Side of Gaming

Posted by Thea Davis Categories: Culture, Editorial

Adult and youth gamers alike often brag of marathon gaming sessions wherein they play hour after hour. Some gamers go further, quipping that given their druthers they’d wile away every single day playing, 24/7. Is this much devotion healthy? Such extreme habitual gaming can morph into a serious disorder. In fact, the problem is becoming so prevalent that some doctors in Europe were inspired to open the first detox clinic for gamers. Debate rages within the medical field as to whether video game addiction is on par with serious disorders like drug addiction, and whether it should be classified as “addiction.” Regardless, the problem can be a serious one, as it’s been shown that addicted gamers tend to have corresponding mental health issues, like depression.

Read More | NBC 15

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