Nintendo Reveals New 3DS Models!

Nintendo revealed today its New Nintendo 3DS system, an upcoming version of the 3DS hardware that features a second stick built in, in addition to new shoulder buttons.

The new system was confirmed today during the Japanese Nintendo Direct. The New Nintendo 3DS and New Nintendo 3DS LL feature a smaller analog "nub" above the A, B, X and Y buttons. Likewise, existing buttons have been colored to match the old-school SNES controller.

The hardware will also arrive with new shoulder buttons which will be situated next to the existing ZL and ZR buttons. Check out a front-on view below.

  Additionally, the system will features a better CPU than previous models, according to Nintendo, which allows for faster eShop browsing and downloading. The New Nintendo 3DS' more powerful internals will be used for at least one game, Xenoblade Chronicles, which is being developed exclusively for the updated hardware.

It is also set to come with a built-in NFC on the bottom touchscreen for the upcoming launch of the amiibo NFC figures, while sliding custom covers will also come with the device, allowing owners to customize the hardware. Nintendo also claims that stereoscopic 3D will also be better than it was in previous devices.

Both models are scheduled to launch in Japan on Oct. 11.

We've reached out to Nintendo for details of a North American release; however, the company has already confirmed no New Nintendo 3DS system will launch for North America or Europe this calendar year.

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PS Vita Sales Are Still Disappointing...

The latest sales figures of 2.2 million devices announced by Sony don't seem to be meaning well for the company. Especially if we take into account that the 1.8-million point of that total number was already reached in May. Some simple arithmetics makes for 400 thousand PS Vita units in the third quarter of 2012, which is extremely low even in comparison to the sales of Nintendo 3Ds, the Sony handheld's main rival released in February 2011, which sold over 3.5 million units in less than 3 months since it came to the market.

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PSP Or 3DS? Making it clear...

If you are tierd of choosing between PSP and A 3DS, Rejoice gamers on the go, it's time to draw a line in the sand and decide which handheld video game system rules supreme. Is it Sony's workhorse, the PSP, or Nintendo's juggernaut, the 3DS?

The PSP has been around since 2005 and has sold millions of units since its debut. The Nintendo 3DS launched in March 2011. While 3DS sales have been impressive, they fell short of Nintendo's original projections. But which system is better?

The Nintendo 3DS boasts a glasses-free 3-D screen. You can adjust the 3-D effect with a sliding control and even turn it off if you prefer. The 3DS also comes with some augmented reality games built into the system. It's compatible with older DS games, although those games will only play in 2-D. Some gamers might feel a little queasy after playing with the 3-D and augmented reality games.

But the PSP has two advantages over the 3DS: It's significantly cheaper and it has an enormous library of games. As of this writing, the 3DS will cost you around $250, while the PSP is at a more modest $130. There aren't many games out for the 3DS. Sure, you can boot up your old DS games on the system but is that worth the $250 price tag?

So which system reigns supreme, the workhorse PSP or the new kid on the block, the 3DS? For my money, the PSP is more compelling. The price is lower, there's a huge selection of games and I don't feel like I've been sailing across choppy waters after playing for more than 15 minutes. But what's your take?

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Five reasons to buy a PlayStation 4.

Come November, both the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One will be on sale, over seven years since their predecessors hit shop shelves.
Despite the four month wait, gamers are already taking sides over the next-generation of consoles in a similar fashion to The Twilight Saga.
Nevertheless, those who are neutral in the console war may only be able to afford one of them on launch or may only have enough space under the Christmas tree for one console-sized gift.
So which next-generation console should you choose? Here are five reasons why you should buy the PlayStation 4:

1. DESIGN

Whereas the design of the Xbox One has been compared to a VCR box, let's be honest, the PlayStation 4 is considerably smaller and better looking in comparison.
The console can sit either horizontally or vertically and (like its rival) has a partly glossy and partly matte casing.

2. GAMES

Sony made it clear during their E3 Media Briefing that the PlayStation 4’s primary focus is games.
While the console’s launch window isn’t as strong as the Xbox One’s, exclusives such as InFamous, Gran Turismo and Killzone are likely to make for a very strong line-up for the PlayStation 4 in the long run.

3. ONLINE

Despite the PlayStation 4 requiring a paid PlayStation Plus account to access online multiplayer, gamers shouldn't be disappointed by the news.
The service is still extremely strong and Sony aren’t afraid to give away free titles on a regular basis, which can give your gaming collection a massive boost – something Microsoft are only just exploring.

4. PRICE

At £349.99, the PlayStation 4 is £80 less than its main competitor (priced at £429.99).
With that extra £80, you could purchase two additional games or the PlayStation 4 Camera (RRP £54.99) – the console’s equivalent of Kinect.

5. REGION-FREE

Like the Xbox One, the PlayStation 4 isn’t tied down to one particular region, which means gamers can import games to play on the console.
With Sony having a much bigger influence in Asia than Microsoft, this is extremely beneficial for gamers who don’t want to wait for the PAL conversion of certain titles.
However, a word of warning, publishers will be able to impose restrictions if they wish.
The PlayStation 4 goes on sale in November 2013.
Are you going to pick up the PlayStation 4? Let us know in the comments.

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ANGRY BIRDS STAR WARS ON CONSOLES IS A SLAP IN THE FACE.

Angry Birds Star Wars will be coming to consoles this October. This comes hot off the heels of the original Angry Birds trilogy coming to consoles in August that nobody wanted. Thirty dollars for three old free or next-to-nothing iOS games was bad enough, but Star Wars is plain insulting. According to a listing that popped up on Amazon today, the game will carry a price tag of $39.99 on current gen consoles and Vita, $29.99 on 3DS and a whopping $49.99 on Wii U. While these prices have not been confirmed by Activision, Amazon rarely lists prices for pre-orders that aren’t correct (at least at the time), so they seem legit. Honestly, though, even if they ended up being $20 across the board (which won’t happen), it’d still be too much. Why? Because it’s a disc with two free (or next to nothing depending how they’re purchased) mobile games.

Clearly the purpose of this release is to use the name of a hugely popular game to take advantage of kids at Wal Mart who see “Angry Birds” and “Star Wars” on the cover, or worse, uninformed parents/grandparents who know little Johnny loves those Angry Birds and buys this without knowing.

Slapping iOS games on a disc and charging exponentially more for them is a disturbing trend that needs to stop. Mobile games are certainly a threat to home console gaming, but when left in their own environment they are generally harmless. The mentality that these games are worthy enough to sell for the same price as brand new console exclusives is dangerous and could lead to less new IPs and more “throw some endless runners at them."

- See more at: http://www.hardcoregamer.com/2013/07/17/angry-birds-star-wars-console-releases-a-slap-in-the-face/#sthash.K1CE5CGg.dpuf

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End of Ps2... No more FIFA.

With EA sports announcing that it will be releasing its final title on the PlayStation 2, Fifa 14 on September 24th 2013, this officially ends one of the longest console runs of all time.

The PS2 took the United States by storm on October 26th 2000 when it was released in North America.  Sony’s PlayStation 2 knocked the Dreamcast out of production, and reigned as the only 6th generation console for a couple of months until the release of the Gamecube and Xbox.

Many factors helped the PS2’s longevity, but what is it about this system that kept developers creating games for this system for thirteen years, and consumers eating them up? Some people point to the backwards compatibility which allowed an even more diverse game base. Just like the PS1, the system was also loaded with amazing IP’s for every genre you could think of. This allowed them to reach one of the broadest audiences of any system.

Also when compared to the other 6th generation systems, it shined. Many people shyed away from the original Xbox because of frequent hardware problems and an extremely bulky controller. The PS2’s hardware however were extremely durable and provided a smaller controller which allowed for more children with smaller hands to play and less fatigue.

When you look at the pricing of the system compared to its successor, the PS3, it was extremely inexpensive. The PlayStation 3 offered the cheapest model at $499 dollars, which was still $200 more than the PlayStation 2 released at. With the XBox 360 being released at a cheaper selling point, while being released at the same time as the PS3, many fans jumped ship and purchased a 360. With most games still being released on the PS2, and ten dollars cheaper than seventh generation games, many stuck with the PlayStation 2 version.

It has been a great thirteen year run for Sony with this hit console, and although September 24th 2013 will mark the end of any type of PS2 product production, the joy in this system will never end. This is one of the systems that will stick around in bedrooms and living rooms for a very long time.

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Famicom turned 30 today. Explaining Data Recorder.

So, the Famicom turned 30 today. In honour of that, let's look at one of the coolest accessories ever made for the console, one that sadly never made it out of Japan.

In 1984, Nintendo released the Famicom Data Recorder, a tape deck peripheral for the console. Yes, cassette tape.

The Data Recorder was a pretty handy piece of hardware! It could be used to run homebrew games programmed by users, but even cooler, Nintendo opened up some of its own games for use with this editing capability, meaning players could create their own Excitebike tracks then save them to a tape (explaining why the original NES version of the game in the West had options to "save", even though you could do no such thing).

Perhaps the best thing about it, though, at least for Japanese kids of the 80s, was that it doubled as a regular tape deck, right down to the fact it had a built-in microphone (for recording) and its own external speaker.

Sadly, the Data Recorder was expensive and didn't sell that well, the experiment replaced -and greatly improved upon - a year later with the release of the Famicom Disk System.

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How does the light gun for a video game work?

Lots of home video games and arcade games use some sort of gun as an input device. You point the gun at the screen and pull the trigger, and if you hit the target on the screen, the target explodes.

To create this effect, the gun contains a photodiode (or a phototransistor) in the barrel. The photodiode is able to sense light coming from the screen. The gun also contains a trigger switch. The output of the photodiode and the switch are fed to the computer controlling the game.

At the same time, the computer is getting signals from the screen driver electronics.If you have Know  How Television Works, you know about the horizontal retrace and vertical retrace signals used to align the picture on the screen. The screen driver electronics send pulses to the computer at the start of the horizontal and vertical retrace signals, so the computer knows where on the screen the electron beam is located during each frame.

The computer normally uses one of two different techniques to figure out whether or not the gun is pointed at the target when the user pulls the trigger:

• The computer blanks the screen and then paints just the target object white. If the photodiode senses darkness after one vertical retrace signal and then light after the next, the computer assumes that the gun is pointed at the target and scores a hit.
• The computer blanks the screen and then paints the entire screen white. It takes time for the electron beam to trace the entire screen while painting it white. By comparing the signal coming from the photodiode with the horizontal and vertical retrace signals, the computer can detect where the electron beam is on the screen when the photodiode first senses its light. The computer counts the number of microseconds that pass between the time the horizontal and vertical retrace signals start and the time the photodiode first senses light. The number of microseconds tells the computer exactly where on the screen the gun is pointing. If the calculated position and the position of the target match, the computer scores a hit.

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5 awesome iOS games go free to mark App Store anniversary.

Five years ago this week, Apple forever changed the mobile world by introducing us to the App Store, and to celebrate, a slew of seriously cool games are totally free today. None of these games have ever been free before, so be smart about it and grab them, like, five seconds ago:

Infinity Blade II
There's a good chance you already own this graphically rich combat game, but on the off chance you don't, you have no more excuses -- unless you have a really, really old phone, because Infinity Blade II is still one of the most graphically intense games you can download. But provided you have an iPhone 4 or higher (it's pretty sluggish on a 3GS), pick it up!

Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery EP
Artsy, inventive, scary, quirky -- however you describe it, Sword and Sworcery is a singular experience. Explore a beautiful realm, solve musical puzzles and do battle against creepy foes while using your iOS device in a multitude of clever ways. Our advice? Grab it on your iPad to truly enjoy the throwback visuals.

Where’s My Water?
Disney's multi-gazillion dollar iOS franchise isn't just charming and cute -- it's also a smartly-designed physics puzzler that deserves a spot on your iPhone.

Tiny Wings
The Little Birdie That Could! Built by German developer Andreas Illinger, this gorgeous, simple game about a bird with wings too small to fly bumped the unstoppable Angry Birds off the top of the App Store charts when it debuted in 2011. It's gotten even better since.

Badland
The most recent iOS game on this list, the highly-rated Badland lets you guide a weird bat-thing through a planet out to kill you every flap of the way. Normally $3.99, it's a steal.

A selection of free non-game apps are available as well, including journal app Day One, photo text-overlay app Over, the huge cookbook How to Cook Everything, Barefoot World Atlas, and, perhaps most impressive of all, Traktor DJ, a pro DJ software tool that usually sells for $20.

The App Store launched with a mere 500 apps on July 10, 2008. In May of this year, Apple announced that it passed the 50 billion download mark.

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One more competitor. Nvidia gaming on go!

Nvidia, a leading graphics card producing company is upto release its brand new handheld gaming console known as Nvidia Shield. Nvidia says that it will purely be a android based handheld console. HD 720p graphics brings a brand new gaming experience to gaming on go! It is powered by Nvidia TEGRA 4 processor which is powerful enough to handle games. Apart from this Nvidia shield can play music, videos and has a wifi conn. Previously Nvidia announced the console's release date as june 27, but now it has been postponded. Let us wait...

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Nextgen X-Box with AMD CPU dosent support X-BOX 360 cds...

The next-generation Xbox will be powered by an AMD "Jaguar" chip— Microsoft's long-rumored CPU of choice for its next console — and won't be compatible with current Xbox 360 games, according to a report from Bloomberg. Microsoft's next-gen console is said to use the same AMD system-on-a-chip that will be utilized in the PlayStation 4 , which Sony unveiled in February. The x86 architecture chip powering the PS4 is an eight core, single-chip custom AMD processor, according to Sony. Bloomberg reports that the game discs made for the Xbox 360 — which is powered by an IBM PowerPC CPU — won't be compatible with the new system. The current Xbox 360 supports some original Xbox games through software emulation. According to The Verge , Microsoft is planning an Xbox-related announcement event in May.

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