With Microsoft Kinect set to launch next week, and Sony Move already out there, the motion-based gaming wars are officially underway. After four years, Microsoft and Sony can finally compete on the same playing field as Nintendo. But Nintendo still has a couple of legs up in one aspect of motion-based gaming: strange, outlandish accessories designed to make gaming more true to form. Here are some of the oddest Wii peripherals and designs that we’ve seen over the years.

Continue Reading

Used video game stores are a lot like used record stores. They function like some sort of communal, hipster  gathering place where dudes can hang out and make fun of whoever walks in—the same kind of placeholder segue setting you see in every Kevin Smith movie that takes place in New Jersey. They differ from used record stores, however, in that they’re not… shoot-yourself depressing.

There’s a low-key, hopeful hustle & bustle, like how an old-folks home might look like if everybody visited their grandmas a couple of times a week and took them back home to play polish horseshoes.

Used record stores now only exist to be a place in a ‘watch-how-they-fall-in-love’ montage in a romantic comedy. They’re quaint, dusty, cute, and useless to all but a few aging baby-boomers who like to get reminded of how they used to be able to do the no-pants diggity and not wake up with AIDS covering their balls. The fact is there are way more old gaming consoles out their than there are old record players, which means even used games as far back as Vanilla Ice still get picked off the shelves, sometimes.
So who, pray, might a person find at one of these charming establishments? A variation of five different kinds of people, mostly.

Continue Reading

Video games are often hailed as a cost-efficient hobby. Once you’ve paid a few hundred dollars to get the console, you can entertain yourself for days, weeks or months with one game alone. But those Modern Warfare 2 night vision goggles that just hit the news wire got us thinking: Not everyone’s a frugal gamer, and for these individuals, there’s a market of ridiculously costly accessories. Here are the most expensive ones we could find, cheapest first:

Continue Reading

We can detect your deep shock at the idea, the very idea, that Nyko would create any sort of product for a Nintendo portable gaming system, let alone a high capacity battery, but, believe it or not, it’s a completely true story! They’re really doing it! Madness! MADNESS!!!

OK, the sarcasm is getting just a little thick, even for us. Yes, Nyko is rolling out a battery for the 3DS, which desperately needs it. By all accounts, the 3DS has an absolutely terrible battery life of just three hours, so a spare battery was not only a good after-market accessory, it might actually be crucial for hardcore gamers. It’s definitely crucial to anybody hoping to distract a small child on a long trip.

The Power Pak+, as Nyko is calling this one, doubles the battery life, so instead of a pathetic three hours, you’ve got a sad six hours. It’s actually a replacement for the factory-standard rechargeable battery, screwing into the 3DS, and will set you back about $20. It hits American shores March 27th, and will no doubt start seeing huge purchase numbers March 28th, when everybody gets the 3DS home and discovers just how bad the battery life really is.

Yesterday’s Super Bowl allowed advertisers to reach a record number of viewers (111 million). So perhaps it should be no surprise that Sony eschewed the convention of an event-based launch for its long-rumored, highly anticipated PlayStation phone in favor of a Super Bowl ad spot. While Sony didn’t get into the meat of the gaming phone, it did indicate that it’s on the way and that it will be called the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play.

Continue Reading

The Sony PlayStation Phone was starting to remind me of the Garmin Nuviphone–awesome when you first hear about it, but so slow to materialize that you really don’t really care that much anymore.

Well, my interest is stoked again. The PSPhone has made a few appearances recently, the biggest of which was on Chinese site  IT168. The site had a rather in-depth breakdown of the phone that provides a look at what it’s all about.

Continue Reading

How do you take away the beautiful, slim profile of a flat panel TV? By weighing it down with a last-generation video game console, that’s how.

At least that’s what Sony decided to do with this new BRAVIA KDL-22PX300 TV. The 22-inch TV gets pretty big and boxy thanks to the built in PlayStation 2 console. Plus, the console is built into the base, so it looks like there’s no hanging this one on the wall– unless that hardware is removable (in which case why not just buy a TV and strap your old PS2 to it).

Continue Reading

Microsoft is preparing to launch the Microsoft Kinect motion-based add-on for the Xbox 360 tomorrow, and has upped the number of units it expects to sell over the next two months. According to CNET, a Microsoft spokesman revealed: “…we’re increasing our forecast from 3 million sensors sold this holiday to 5 million. That’s bigger than any launch in Xbox history.” So be good kids, it looks like there’s a good chance that a Kinect will be waiting under your tree next month.

Continue Reading

It’s been a while since we were really excited about a cell phone–they’re all starting to look pretty similar–but the Sony PlayStation phone definitely breaks the mold and sparks some new buzz around the mobile. If Sony’s commercials with the wise-crackin’ little kid are any indication, the company realizes that it has one big advantage over the iPhone and other handsets: mobile gaming. So it’s not surprising to see it attempting to leverage that advantage in the cell phone market.

Continue Reading