Metal Gear Solid 4 seems to be taking forever to be released, but the time is nigh. This potential killer title ought to hit the streets sometime in Q2 this year, and if you’re one of those who promised to pick up a PS3 only when MGS4 is released, it is time to let out a huge whoop of joy. Sony has just announced that it will be shipping a PS3 bundle that includes a DUALSHOCK 3 wireless controller as well as Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, all for $499. When you think about it, that is really a bargain considering how high the original 60GB PS3 price point was when it was first introduced a couple of years ago. This $499 bundle will see you go home with a big smile on your face, complete with the 80GB PS3 model.
CES, as always, promises to be interesting with tons of news as well as new releases. Word on the street has it that Sony will be gaining more brownie points with gamers this CES thanks to a brand new feature for their handheld that allows users to “call friends, talk trash to fellow gamers or catch up with acquaintances via Skype for PSP system.” What do you think about this new development? Will it make you drop your DS Lite like a hot potato and rush out to get a PSP, if you haven’t yet picked one up already? Or do you, being a hardcore Nintendo fan, just grind your teeth in seething anger and hope somebody comes up with an equivalent on the DS Lite? Anyways, just look out for more news and developments from CES 2008.
Most people take their World of Warcraft seriously, and as well all know, RPGs do require a healthy amount of imagination in order for it to work. Lately, computer-based RPGs have taken out a whole lot of that work from the players themselves since the machines are powerful enough to convey the message that the game developers wanted to - but that doesn’t detract from the fact that many people do sometimes wish that the characters the play in the virtual world could be fleshed out for real, in say, the form of an action figure. Ed Fries, former vice president of Microsoft Game Studios, has partnered with gaming giant Blizzard Entertainment to come up with FigurePrints - a premium service that allows World of Warcraft players to create 3D statues of the individual characters they play in the game. 
The PlayStation 3 has already bolted out of the stable door (with a sputtering start, I might add), but it is its predecessor, the PlayStation 2 that still keeps on going strong after a seven year run. Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) celebrates the console’s seventh birthday since its release in the US on October 26, 2000. Since then, more than 120 million of these consoles were sold, garnering more than a billion units of PS2 software sold worldwide, leaving us with an extremely healthy attach rate of approximately 10 games per console. Granted, the attach rate figure is probably much higher than that since many Third World countries that suffer from piracy sell pirated PS2 games for as little as $2 each.
