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Tokyo Game Show: Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 for PS3 (gameplay video)

Posted: 26 Sep 2009 03:41 AM PDT

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Koei Tecmo has a giant at this year’s Tokyo Game Show, and their flagship title surely is Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 for PS3. It was playable and looked pretty cool. The same is true for Quantum Theory by the way (another Koei Tecmo action game) whose early version was impressive graphics-wise (but pretty buggy unfortunately).

Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 for PS3 is scheduled for release in Japan on October 1.

Here’s a video I took at the Koei Tecmo booth:

Tokyo Game Show: Official (and gory) God of War III trailer

Posted: 26 Sep 2009 12:20 AM PDT

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Sony’s God of War III for PS3 is playable at the Tokyo Game Show 2009, looks great and will go on sale in Japan in March 2010. The upcoming God of War Collection for the PS 3 (American version) will include a playable God of War III demo by the way (but the one seen at E3 2009).

This is Sony’s official God of War III trailer (here’s an earlier one):

Daily Crunch: Supper Time Edition

Posted: 26 Sep 2009 12:00 AM PDT

DIY: 9 easy projects that can help you get your hack on

Posted: 25 Sep 2009 08:00 PM PDT

8-phaser_4_fullVoiding warranties is half of fun of owning gadgets. I mean, who doesn’t want to take something apart to see what makes it work? And besides, you’ve got that workbench in the garage and a couple tools lying around, why not do something with them?

Luckily, the crazed modders at MaximumPC have compiled a list (with instructions) of nine “gateway drug” mods. They’re easy enough if you have the right tools, and will definitely be fun to mess around with. I for one am looking at that Star Trek phaser mod and wondering, exactly how far can you overdrive a Blu-ray laser?

In-vehicle txting ban works, at least in California

Posted: 25 Sep 2009 05:00 PM PDT

442887_chartAs we talked about the other day, sending text messages while driving is bad, okay? And in some states it’s illegal. So do Americans listen? If you make it against the law to send text messages, will only outlaws text?

It looks like people listened. The law took effect in January and according to a study done by the Automobile Club of Southern California, has caused 70% of the drivers who would txt while driving before, to stop. As impressive as this sounds, it should be 100%. I mean, is it REALLY that important to send a text message? It can’t wait until you can pull over, or get to your destination?

Of course, this study was done before the iPhone gained the ability to MMS, so who knows if the trend will last.

[via IntoMobile]

Review: Alienware M17x gaming laptop

Posted: 25 Sep 2009 04:32 PM PDT

DSC_0077Short Version: Billed by Alienware as “the most powerful laptop in the universe,” the M17x is simply an amazing piece of hardware. It combines the latest in hardware with an extremely high-quality finish to create a laptop that is incredibly fast and well-designed. Unfortunately, it also might be the most expensive laptop in the universe.

Long version: The M17x is Alienware’s latest laptop, and they really went all out on this one. It’s a powerhouse of a gaming laptop, and runs pretty much everything I could throw at it flawlessly. From a performance standpoint, you definitely get what you pay for with this machine.

Here are the specs on the version that they sent us for review:

Processor: Intel Core 2 Extreme Quad QX9300 2.53 GHz (that’s the 12mb cache version)
OS: Vista Home Premium 64-bit
Video Card: Dual Nvidia GeForce GTX 280M, 2GB running SLI
LCD: 17-inch WideUXGA 1920×1200 (at 1200p)
Memory: 4GB dual channel DDR3
Hard drive: 1TB total (2x 500GB 7,200 RPM Raid 0)
Optical drive: Slot-load dual layer Blu-ray combo with DVD writer

As you can see, it’s a very strong machine. Yes, you pay for this level of performance, but if you want something that will give you the hardware-level edge over your competition, this is the machine to do it. But the hardware is only half the story. This machine has the looks to impress as well. Alienware built the case out of anodized black aluminum, which makes it feel like one hell of a sturdy unit. They also added some new touch controls across the top of the keyboard, in addition to the typical indicator lights. The touch strip allows you to eject the optical media, turn the volume up and down, turn off the wifi, and activate or deactivate the “Command Center” (more on that later) and the discrete graphics mode. This is rather handy, and except for some obvious exceptions, standard on most laptops nowadays.

The battery life on most gaming laptops is pretty bad. Alienware has managed to avoid this issue for the most part by adding a discrete video card to the motherboard. What this means is that when you unplug the power from the machine, it automatically disables the dual Nvidia cards and switches you to the onboard video. This results in a significant hit to performance, but it also adds about an hour and a half to two hours worth of battery time. The bad thing is, if this happens on accident while you’re in-game, your framerate will drop to almost a standstill. You also have to be cautious not to accidentally hit the button on the touch strip that does the same thing. I spoke with Alienware, and they said that currently, there isn’t any way to disable that particular button.

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The overall appearance on the M17x is outstanding. The aluminum case looks very nice, and gives the laptop an almost automotive feel. It does add to the weight, but honestly, this isn’t intended to be a portable laptop that you carry around everywhere. Alienware also went all out with the lighting. They’ve put LEDs under the keyboard, behind the speaker grill, and underneath the touch strip above the keyboard. The really fun part is that you can change the color of the LED’s from in the Command Center, and there are different zones which allow you to vary the color of the lights from one side of the keyboard to the other. Personally, I turned all the LEDs red while I played some L4D in the dark, which gave the whole experience a particularly creepy air.

The Good: Alienware’s M17x laptop is an extremely powerful gaming machine. It’ll run your favorite games with no hesitation, and then ask for more. The Nvidia chipset performs brilliantly, and makes even the newest games (I tried Batman: Arkham Asylum) an absolute dream to play. The full size keyboard also makes it a great laptop for schoolwork, or whatever else you might decide to use it for.

The Bad: There are a couple of things I wasn’t fond of. That touch button that disables the Nvidia cards is really a pain. The weight is also an issue. The thing weighs 13 pounds with the power adapter. But we already knew that it’s not a computer for road warriors. It’s also extremely expensive. The system we were sent to review has an MSRP of $3898. Is it worth it? Yes. And honestly, if you are looking at Alienware, you’re not expecting it to be cheap anyway. Also, it comes with Vista. If you wait a bit, though, 7 will probably be the default.

Bottom line: If money is no object, and you want a semi-portable machine that will provide you with destktop-level gaming performance, buy the M17x.

Update: Disaster! While taking pictures this morning for the review, the system quit booting. After multiple attempts, the recovery CD finally did work, but it was quite the hassle. I blame Vista, and think that waiting for Windows 7 (or installing Ubuntu, which would fly on this thing) would be the way to go.

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Chinese iPhone pricing revealed: it’s the exact opposite of ours

Posted: 25 Sep 2009 03:04 PM PDT

China Unicom, the country's second-largest carrier, will offer the iPhone starting in mid-October. And in pricing that is rather the opposite of the low upfront cost and high monthly pricing at AT&T, they'll be selling the device almost at cost and pairing it with plans that make ours look positively extortionate. Prices will start around $300 for an 8GB iPhone 3G, which seems a bit high until you consider the fact that they'll be paying less than $20 per month for service.


Tokyo Game Show: Undead Knights for PSP (video)

Posted: 25 Sep 2009 02:41 PM PDT

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I took the chance at Koei Tecmo’s booth at the Tokyo Game Show and played Undead Knights on the PSP for a while. As the name suggests, the game is about zombies. And there are knights, lots of them, who you can turn into zombies and let them kill off enemies for you. Undead Knights is PSP-exclusive and will go on sale in Japan on October 15 (USA: September 29).

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Here’s a video I took (I tried to play with one hand and shoot the video with the other):

CrunchDeals: Pre-owned Nintendo GameCube for $29.99

Posted: 25 Sep 2009 02:30 PM PDT

gamecubeSeriously, if your weekends are void of human contact and your nights are spent alone on Reddit, buy this GameCube. It’s $30. Then head over to eBay or Gamestop and snag some used games on the cheap too. My god, man, it’s only $29.99. For a GameCube! Buy it!

Yeah, I know it’s pre-owned, but who the hell cares. If you get 20 hours of game time on it before it craps out, it would still be worth it. I think I might buy one myself…

Review: The Flipside Wallet 2.0

Posted: 25 Sep 2009 02:00 PM PDT

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Wallets are a very personal thing. Generally speaking, once you find one you like, you stick with that one until it wears out, and then spend weeks trying to find a replacement that’s the same style, only to realize that they don’t make them anymore, and you’re going to have to find something else. This was my dilemma, so when I was asked to review the Flipside Wallet, I was a little dubious about how well I would like it, given how particular I am.

Now to be fair, I’m bifold guy. I know some people prefer a long checkbook style wallet, or carry a trifold, but I’ve always been a fan of the bifold style. My last wallet, a leather bifold that’s been with me through two states, four jobs, and five moves finally started to wear to the point that I couldn’t use it any more. I was starting to panic.

Then, the Flipside wallet showed up. After figuring out how to open it for the first time, I was surprised by the quality of the design. The wallet is made from an industrial plastic, similar to the type used in pelican cases. It opens much like a flip phone, with one side intended for credit cards, ID, and things of that nature, and the other side has a clear plastic holder for cash. There’s a center divider that provides additional storage for credit cards on the right side, and a space for a photograph on the left. I did attempt to put my ID in the photograph slot, though my drivers license was obviously too thick to fit. I wouldn’t advise doing it.

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The case is spring loaded, and when you move the latch to open it, it will open smoothly and quickly. The hinge is not just plastic however, there is an aluminum bar that looks like it would outlast the plastic. The metal plates inside are held together with tiny aluminum screws. This implies the possibility that if you were to break a side or a retaining clip, you might be able to order a replacement.

The Good: It’s built to last, the aluminum plates will protect you from RFID hacking (remember, those Real IDs are coming in 2010), and it’s small enough that you could put it in your back pocket, but be aware that its stiffness really only qualifies it for your front or jacket pocket. Also, how many other wallets offer a one year warranty?

The Bad: They are a little expensive at $39.95. Also, the one I was sent to review was the color “Orange Crush” and it’s horrible. If you are fixated on putting your wallet in your back pocket, this might not be for you.

Bottom Line: While this is a product that we made fun of in the past (what haven’t we made fun of) it’s actually not bad. A plastic wallet that you carry in your front pocket might not be for everyone, but it is for me. Just not in that awful safety orange color.

Video: Resident Evil 5 played with the PS3 Motion Controller

Posted: 25 Sep 2009 01:30 PM PDT


Sony laid out its motion controller plans the other day at the Tokyo Game Show and mentioned that Resident Evil 5 and LittleBigPlanet would be the first games to take advantage of the system. Well, freaks and geeks, wanna see some actually gameplay? ‘Course you do.

Go ahead and skip to 2:50 when the action starts. It looks good enough, I guess. Hopefully when the product launches though, you don’t have to use the motion controller along with a normal PS3 controller like the dude is using in the demo. That would be, well, lame and a cop-out on Sony’s part.

How should RIM react to increased competiton from Apple, Palm?

Posted: 25 Sep 2009 01:00 PM PDT

Poor RIM. One or two analysts lower your stock rating from "buy" to "neutral" (or the equivalent), and then your stock drops some 16 percent. You know who to blame, too: it's those busybodies at Apple and Palm, what with their iPhones and Palm Pres eating into your bottom line. (Never mind that your own "iPhone killer" was sorta meh.) What is RIM to do?


Portable media players will have a mandatory volume limiter in Europe soon

Posted: 25 Sep 2009 12:30 PM PDT

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It’s expected that the European Commission will pass legislation that will require manufacturers to include a noise limiter on portable media players. This is being done, of course, because listening to said devices at extraordinarily loud volume levels is quite dangerous; up to 10 percent of users are in danger totally destroying their hearing by keeping the players on too loud.

The limit—and all of this is set to go down next week, so get your complaining in now if you’re against the idea—will be set to 80 decibels.

Some players, says the Daily Mail, can output sound up to 120 decibels, which is about the same intensity as the sound of a jet engine taking off. You don’t want to be exposed to that for any length of time.

Of course, there will always be the "I don’t want Brussels telling me what to do" crowd, but look at it like this: yes, I’m sure that within 8.2 seconds of the limiter being put into place someone will come out with a hack or software override. The point is, how many people are going to go out of their way to implement the work-around?

I find it hard to believe that 80 decibels isn’t loud enough for the average person. Maybe some higher end headphones would do the trick, that way you don’t have to blast your music just to be able to hear it on the subway?

Flickr

Baby Name Finder finishes off the list; there really is an app for everything now

Posted: 25 Sep 2009 12:02 PM PDT

Do you often find yourself thinking, "Oh, crap. We forgot to name this baby. We need a name, stat!"? I know I sure do. While most people tend to spend months toiling over their child's name, digging through their family history and fretting over each potentially offensive rhyming variation, you're a modern parent. This is 2009, after all - we have the power of the Internets right in our pocket. We've got better things to do than spend time coming up with the name our child will live with for the rest of their life.


And there will be new plastic MacBooks too

Posted: 25 Sep 2009 11:51 AM PDT

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When Apple news is thin, you do what you can. Some sites divide what little rumor and hearsay there is into tiny portions and dole them out like communion wafers to the Apple faithful. Maybe that’s overstating a bit. On reflection, no — no, it’s not. In this case, we had a little speculation last night that maybe the long-dormant iMacs would be getting a refresh within the next month. And in the morning, what is this? New theories that perhaps Apple’s other neglected hardware would be receiving a bump? Inconceivable!

Take a look at the solid info we’ve got here on the MacBook update:

While it’s unclear how many models or configurations Apple will introduce as part the redesign, Ben Reitzes — an analyst with Barclays Capital who’s been following the Mac maker for years — sees the company offering several, at various price points.

Though details are few and far between, Apple is expected to achieve these markdowns through largely existing tactics

…we could see a lower priced line soon, positioned below the new MacBook Pro models…

That pretty much sews it up, don’t it. Essentially the news is “Something might happen sometime soon. Maybe not.” You heard it here first.

Video: In case you (somehow) missed the Halo Legends clip

Posted: 25 Sep 2009 11:30 AM PDT

So, this is what that Halo anime series, Halo Legends, looks like. It needs to be said that my knowledge of anime is more or less non-existent (I saw Akira once when I was around 16-years-old. It didn’t change my life.), so pardon my inability to critique it with any degree of competence.

Geekologie says it "look[s] okay," which I think is good, right? I mean, Microsoft did hire a lot of those "name" studios to put this thing together, so anything less than "okay" probably would have been a disappointment.

So yeah, the series should be somewhere this fall. I guess I’ll give it a shot. It’s not like there’s anything particularly interesting on TV these days.


This is how you transport a 510 ton object (slowly and with a giant land barge)

Posted: 25 Sep 2009 11:10 AM PDT


Simply amazing. I had no idea that such a transportation vehicle existed for standard roads. But sure enough, Fagioli manufactures the beast and calls it a Self Propelled Modular Transporters (SPMTs).

The SPMTs uses hydraulic drive motors mounted on the axles and cruises along at an average of 5km/hr. The modular platform can be configured to meet just about any task. If you need more capacity, just hook more together. Each axel – and there are a lot of ‘em – can hold 36te gross and 32te net. Impressive, but it still doesn’t have anything on the NASA crawler-transporters that moves at one mile per hour and weighs 2400 tons alone.

Hey, disco party people, how about some Windows 7 commercials?

Posted: 25 Sep 2009 11:01 AM PDT

It’s not a Windows 7 Party without some tunes, right? Thankfully Microsoft has created a set of commercials with catchy beats, nice visuals, and no stilted, low-paid actors apparently preparing to get it on in the worst Cinemax late night movie ever.

Enduserblog has all of the videos for your perusal but I picked out a few more good ones after the jump.

It’s nice to see good commercials for Windows 7 itself – that’s important, especially in general adoption – and thankfully they’re not using the same video team that they use for internal, informal videos.

The AT&T iPhone MMS update is now live

Posted: 25 Sep 2009 10:42 AM PDT

Welcome to the future, everyone! As we mentioned earlier this morning, AT&T is rolling out MMS for the iPhone today. If you're one of those folks who couldn't be bothered to sit in iTunes and click the "Update" button for hours on end, go check now. We just got hit by an onslaught of reports saying that it had gone live and, sure enough, we just got our update.


CANCELLED: Laptopburka closed down, cites bad press

Posted: 25 Sep 2009 10:30 AM PDT

burkaWell, it looks like we won’t have the infamous “Laptop Burka” to kick around anymore. The owner of the company contacted us to let us know that they are pulling the plug, due to being “murdered” in the press. Their website is down as of this posting.

Before Marc shut down the company however, he sent us one of his products to review. We are still going to do a review of the product, just to be fair to Marc. Perhaps it was a great concept that everyone made fun of? There was another great idea that people made fun of. It’s called the airplane. And those two boys at Kitty Hawk went ahead with their idea, despite the fact that everyone told them that man wasn’t supposed to fly. So maybe we made fun of Marc, and maybe, just maybe, man is meant to sit under a sheet and use his laptop after all.

So watch for our upcoming video review, where we’ll give you our honest opinion of the LaptopBurka or “Geeksheet” as it was going to be known. And give innovation a chance.
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