Gaming Hardware

Novint Technologies, the folk who brought the highly innovative and award winning Novint Falcon game controller is proud to announce the release of the highly anticipated Penumbra: Black Plague HaptX Edition that will be able to function just fine with the aforementioned gaming peripheral. This game might sound familiar to some, as it is the sequel to Penumbra: Overture. Of course, you can always download the game over Novint’s Web site (http://www.novint.com) and from N VeNT. This new title will retail for $29.95 a pop, although you can also pick it up via a special Penumbra: Overture bundle for $39.95.

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Granted, outselling the original Xbox is not exactly an achievement that is hard to surpass (different if we’re talking about the Sony PS2), but Microsoft has managed to outsold its old console with the Xbox 360. Relatively speaking, that is an achievement by itself. Official NPD data that tracks North American console sales has released its findings, stating that the Xbox 360 took 30 months to reach the 10 million units sold milestone. This period of time, in contrast with the original Xbox, is 20% faster. Whoop-dee-do - unfortunately, the Xbox 360 doesn’t look to do well in other regional markets as it still lags far behind the Wii and PS3 in Japan, and doesn’t look set to break into the Japanese market until perhaps the Xbox 720 comes out, if ever.

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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.

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HD DVD, we hardly knew ye. After a rather short and intense battle with Blu-ray, it is sad to see that you have finally conceded and raised the white flag. With Toshiba, the main proponent of HD DVD closing down its operational plants and manufacturing outlets for HD DVD products, the entire entertainment industry is all set to pick up Blu-ray as the high definition standard for today, and perhaps even tomorrow, assuming high definition digital downloads do not catch up in popularity and standard DVDs die a quick death. Microsoft has just announced that they will end production of the external HD DVD drive for its Xbox 360 console, although Microsoft will continue to honor the peripheral’s warranty support.

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You might not have heard of GestureTek Inc., but this company is a pioneer and world-leader in vision-enabled gaming and entertainment systems. It will be releasing its new gesture-control technologies at the 2008 Toy Fair that will bring an added dimension to gaming. While many people would be tempted to make a comparison of this with the Wiimote,I am sure that there are enough merits on its own that sets it apart from Nintendo’s hugely successful console controller. Without much further ado, read on more about GestureTek’s offering after the jump.

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No, not because the PSP itself was too large to handle and the kid sprained his back or anything, but because Sony’s handheld console apparently overheated after gameplay and burned the kid in the process. This Michigan middle school student has now ended up with a possible leg disfigurement. It seemed that the PSP was already turned off and tucked away safely in his pocket where in the middle of band practice, the entire PSP melted through his jeans pocket, resulting in second degree burns on his leg. So far, the folks at Sony have not yet commented on the incident although they did issue a reminder on their website that third party batteries and charging equipment could be the cause of such and accident.

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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.

Source: Joystiq

Despite folks from both the PS3 and Xbox 360 camps (more of the former than the latter, as they play the role of sour grapes) claiming that the Wii is just a fad late last year when the next-gen console war kicked off in full gear, the Nintendo Wii actually managed to hold its ground throughout the entire year of 2007 despite suffering from hardware shortages (imagine 1.8 million manufactured consoles per month flying off the shelves completely) as well as a dearth of games compared to the Xbox 360. It is still as hard to find this holiday season as it was during last Christmas, so you can expect that 2008 will be the same while Sony fanboys continue to ask everyone to wait until they see the next triple A title come along (how many of these false messiahs have we heard about that will turn around the PS3’s fortunes and failed miserably?)

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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.

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Wrestling is big business after the slump in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and we have seen many a wrestling personality make it big along the way. Of course, let us have a moment’s silence for those brave men who have fallen (with Chris Benoit being the latest in a long line of deaths) before we go on. Wrestling fans will be pleased as punch to see officially licensed WWE video game accessories being made available on Game On’s website, but unfortunately for most people, the entire inventory of its online launch was sold out due to overwhelming demand, all the way from Alaska to Australia. According to the company, it will be flying in new products directly to its fulfillment facility in order to meet the holiday season demand and beyond.

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