Gaming Centre Robbed, Gamers Fight Back Defending A DS

Gamers at the PC Gamerz gaming centre in Hawaii were robbed by some idiots. Sadly, despite the apparently evil and sociopathic nature of gaming presented in mainstream media, no-one did anything to stop them… until they tried taking someone’s DS.

The owner of said DS decided to fight back, which prompted everyone else to wake up and attack the robbers. The robbers have since been arrested, and the world is safe again, thanks to the Nintendo DS.

Full story version is available at KHON2, if anyone wants to read about gamers getting good press. They’ve also got some of the security camera footage, and there are some pretty good blows in there.

[KHON2]


E3 2010 – Xbox 360 Kinect Named, Here’s A Video!

Microsoft formally named the Xbox 360′s motion controller without the Wiimote, dubbing it the “Kinect”. I’m sure there’s a decent marketing reason for it, but it doesn’t spring to mind immediately. Anyway, Justin managed to get a “Behind The Scenes” video of it from E3 which he posted on sister/brother/cousin site E3coverage.com

High Points – It makes a Skeleton, Voice Recognition and putting a ring on it.
Low Points – My bank manager suddenly feels the need to cry…

[E3coverage.com]


Coming Soon: Steam For Mac

Just when we were all thinking that gaming was dead on the Mac (aside from some fantastic indie stuff, and World of Warcraft), Valve have announced that they’re going to be heaving Steam over to the Mac. And not just the Steam platform, but future releases from Valve will work on both PC and Mac. Heck, they’re even touting the ability to play a game on the PC then finishing it off on the Mac using their Steam Cloud voodoo.

There’s more detail over at our sister site Gametactics, but I’m quite frankly happy with the slight warm glow of playing Portal on my Mac. I just hope this is a triumph and Valve make a note of this future huge success… Can’t I make Portal jokes!? C’mon!

[Gametactics]


KontrolFreek Sponsor Pro-Gamers To Promote Joypad Adapters

KontrolFreek has announced they have sponsored professional gamers Kelly Kelley, Jamal Nickens and Mark “Applesauce” Smith, all from the World Cyber Games (WCG).

pressfpssmall

Why are they sponsored? Because KontrolFreek want to hawk these adapters called FPS Freek and SpeedFreek that extends your joypad analog sticks to where it suddenly becomes far easier to aim and control, and since control means the difference between winning and losing, they wanted people who knew that difference to speak about them.

Take the wise words of Applesauce… Mark Smith… for example: adapters adaptors
“When you’re playing to win, it’s important to be comfortable while taking advantage of products that are available on the market, and competing in gaming tournaments is about winning. The FPS Freek add-on’s for my controllers gives me more precision. Simply put, I wouldn’t play without it.”

I do have to wonder how much these plastic caps actually improve your accuracy. At least it beats buying a different controller.

Full PR after the jump.

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Must Own Geek Gadget – Darth Vader Nintendo Wii Sensor
Bar Holder

darthvader_wiisensorbarFor the ultimate geek, we came across this Darth Vader Nintendo Wii Sensor Bar Holder. This stylish Darth Vader sensor bar holder is made out of high quality resin and costs a pretty penny at $49.99 USD and will be released this coming November. Truly this is for someone who loves Stars Wars so much that they must have Darth Vader holding their precious Wii sensor bar like a light saber.

Here’s all the specs of it:
* Sculpture-quality Darth Vader character is cast in high-density resin
* Vader’s specially crafted Lightsaber safely supports the Wii Sensor Bar while maintaining full range
* Wii Sensor Bar not included
* Official Star Wars item licensed by Nintendo and LucasFilm Ltd.


Toshiba Qosmio X500 Laptop Looks Very, Very Pretty

Toshiba UK has decided to announce a new laptop, the oddly named Qosmio X500 Gaming Laptop.

Qosmio X500_angled

Consisting of a rewritable Blu-ray drive, 18.4″ screen, processing via Intel’s Quad Core offerings and Nvidia, it’s billed as a brilliant laptop for those that need to play something on the move. And quite frankly it looks damn good. The red trim on black? Gorgeous…

The main specs:

  • Intel® Core i7-720QM (2.8GHz, 6MB L2, 1333MHz FSB)
  • Up to 8GB DDR3 RAM (1066MHz)
  • Up to 1TB HDD (500GB 5400 rpm + 500GB 5400 rpm)
  • 18.4″ Full HD TruBrite® LCD screen (1920 x 1080p)
  • 6x BD-RE optical drive (Blu-ray rewritable)
  • nVIDIA® GeForce® GTS 250MNV (1GB)
  • Integrated Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/Draft-N
  • Bluetooth 2.1
  • 3x USB 2.0 Sleep-and-Charge ports
  • 1x USB Sleep-and-Charge/e-SATA combo port
  • 5-in-1 card reader

Toshiba say it’ll be out by late October. Full press release after the jump…

[Via Toshiba UK]

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Sega Dreamcast – 10 Years Of Fandom

It brings a slight tear to my eye when I say this, but it’s been 10 years since the Sega Dreamcast was unleashed onto the shores of North America.

dreamcastlogo.jpg

On the awesome date of the 9th of September, 1999 (9/9/99), the joyous white cuboid of happiness descended onto US stores, causing a stampede at the tills (500,000 consoles sold in just a fortnight, a record at the time) and filled the lives of people with great looking games and the promise of internet gaming.
Sadly, at the start of 2001, Sega had deemed it to be a failure, with sales being dwarfed by the Microsoft Xbox, Sony PlayStation2 and the Nintendo 64, and shortly afterwards stopped production.

WIth that in mind, let’s look at some of the games that were unleashed shortly after the start of the console’s life to try and celebrate what could have been great…

Power Stone -- Fighting game on the 3D plane (as opposed to 3D rendering but still directly facing the opponent), with scenery weaponry and the ability to play with 4 people simultaneously in the sequel.

Soul Calibur -- “Tekken with Swords” as my family put it. Arena fighting in 3D, using weap…ons…

Sonic Adventure -- Sonic The Hedgehog, in 3D, marketed in Japan with quite frankly weird adverts (although this is apparently normal)

Thank you Sega. It was good while it lasted…

(Yes, I know that the DC was released in Japan the previous year and in the rest of the world after this date, but this is the one that everyone remembers it by)