Filed under: Gaming

*Price includes Tom Clancy’s G.R.A.W., NHL ’07, Live Arcade Volume 1, three-month Xbox Live Gold membership, 1,250 Microsoft points, a wireless modem, and three years of Sympatico high-speed internet from Bell Canada.

With “next-generation” consoles being released every three to four years nowadays (save for Sony’s PlayStation 3, which has a stated 10-year life span), some people (read: parents and spouses) are a little hesitant to throw down upwards of $300 for a system that will probably be gathering dust in the attic even before the wireless controllers need replacing. Well Canadian children will soon have a new angle to work when begging their folks for an Xbox 360, thanks to a package that Bell Canada will be offering from November 5th through sometime next year which includes Microsoft’s latest console, a handful of games, and broadband service for CAN$59.95 a month (or CAN$54.95 for you lucky Quebecers). The catch here is that you need to sign up for an unusually long three-year commitment; furthermore, it’s unclear if you’ll be able to purchase the nearly-worthless console at the end of the contract or be given the opportunity to upgrade to an Xbox 361 once it hits stores. It’s also not clear what kind of upload / download speeds you’re getting with this offer — an important piece of the puzzle in deciding whether or not this bundle is a good value. Still, if you’re the type who’s already renting your apartment, leasing your car, and paying way too much money to Rent-A-Center each month for your home theater gear, this promotion may be right up your alley.

[Via digg and HappyBeggar]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Filed under: Cellphones, Gaming, Handhelds, Portable Audio, Portable Video

Filed under: Games, Handsets, Multimedia, Samsung

DS and PSP be damned — if you happen to be in Korea, that is. Looking a bit like a D307 on performance-enhancing substances, Samsung’s new SCH-B450 is designed with entertainment in mind, and it’s packing enough tech to make the 2-megapixel camera possibly the least interesting feature of the device. Frankly, the spec sheet is a bit overwhelming: you get TV-out, A2DP, a motion sensor for Wii-like interaction, a game-friendly keypad, 3D acceleration, S-DMB reception, Immersion’s VibeTonz, and that clever (yet frighteningly fragile-looking) dual hinge design. The B450 is sadly destined for Samsung’s home market only, but we can always pick up a D307 and play make-believe, right?

[Via Akihabara News]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: Gaming

What, you thought Best Buy liked Nintendo better than Sony? Never one to play favorites (except to customers who buy those shady warranties), the big-box retail giant has also put some tantalizing PS3 titles up for pre-order to join the Wii games we saw the other day. Like the Wii listings, the PS3 titles also cite December 1st as a release date — probably just a placeholder — although the $60 prices are more in line with Xbox 360 games than the $50 Nintendo will be charging for its discs. Among the nine titles online are classic franchise sequels such as Resident Evil 5, Tekken 6, and Devil May Cry 4, along with Indiana Jones, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, and Smackdown Vs. Raw 2007, but the lack of details or screenshots on Best Buy’s site means you’re better off skipping the Read link and heading straight over to Joystiq if you have any interest in these games.

[Thanks, khrokon]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: Games

Square-Enix has announced that the excessively-titled Dirge of Cerberus: Lost Episode – Final Fantasy VII will be available exclusively for Amp’d handsets this summer. It’s already the most popular 3D mobile game in Japan, taking place shortly after the events of Final Fantasy VII, and thrusting you in the role of one Vincent Valentine who, you guessed it, must save the world from evil. The mobile version is being timed to coincide with the August release of Dirge of Cereberus: Final Fantasy VII for the PlayStation 2 and will initially be single-player only, although Square-Enix promises to let you get your multiplayer fix at a later date. And if you aren’t lucky enough to have Amp’d service, or if fancy 3D graphics just aren’t your thing, you can always grab an NES emulator and bust out some classic 8-bit Final Fantasy — although we can’t say Square would approve.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Gaming

Okay, Engadget readers. You managed to get to the bottom of the Sony Blu-ray demo mystery. Now, we’re counting on you to solve another one. What you see pictured here is Maxell’s Picochet RFID card reader. It’s been out in Japan for a couple of years, and has been marketed for such mundane tasks as reading time cards for beleaguered salarymen and storing healthcare records in hospitals. However, the card has just cleared the FCC, and according to Sega’s documentation (yes, that Sega, they filed on this), the version sent in for testing is going to be Sega-branded, and is planned for use with ” devices prepared by Sega.” Now, last time we checked, Sega isn’t exactly making a whole lot of devices anymore. So, what are they planning to do with this thing? Is it for a PC version of the company’s popular Sangokushi Japanese arcade game, which uses RFID readers as part of the gameplay (possibly, given that there are console and PC versions of the game for platforms from the PC to the DS)? Is it a Wii or PS3 peripheral? Or is Sega going into the industrial RFID business? It’s a mystery, dear readers; one we’re confident you can help us solve.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: Cellphones, Gaming

Despite Nokia's best attempt at a snazzy E3 booth and plenty of 3D game examples on display, the only real draw to their booth was the booth babes. A trio of the cute girls even had their very own line of gamers waiting to have a picture taken with them. Otherwise, the whole booth had a roughly 10:1 ratio of staff to visitors. The games really weren't that bad, and the 3D graphics are always interesting to see running on a random Nokia phone, but nobody much seems to care either way. Click on for pics of all the excitement.

Filed under: Games, Nokia, Symbian

Despite Nokia's best attempt at a snazzy E3 booth and plenty of 3D game examples on display, the only real draw to their booth was the booth babes. A trio of the cute girls even had their very own line of gamers waiting to have a picture taken with them. Otherwise, the whole booth had a roughly 10:1 ratio of staff to visitors. The games really weren't that bad, and the 3D graphics are always interesting to see running on a random Nokia phone, but nobody much seems to care either way. Click on for pics of all the excitement.

Filed under: Cellphones, Gaming

The latest ambitious endeavor by Microsoft might have “monopoly” written all over it, but we have a feeling they wouldn’t want it any other way. Microsoft’s new Live Anywhere that they announced at today’s E3 keynote takes their Xbox Live concept and extends it to the PC, Windows Mobile and even Java-enabled phones. Whether you’re at your PC or rocking a mobile, you’ll be able to track your gamer tag, message friends, purchase content for that device or set it to download to another device, and of course compare rankings with your buddies on various gaming titles. Halo isn’t going to run so well on your RAZR, so for actual cross platform titles, Microsoft is sticking with XBLA-esque games that can translate easily to different platform, such as Bejeweled. There will, however, be major games that can be played on your Vista PC and Xbox 360. Microsoft is banking heavily on third party support for Live Anywhere, in the form of mobile friendly value-adds for 360 games, and just straight up phone-friendly casual titles. In order to get more support, they’re claiming to approach this from a “platform agnostic” (hah!) angle, and after supporting the 360, Windows Vista and Windows Mobile, will move on to Java, S60 and possibly even Palm if they deem it worth their while. Microsoft obviously has the muscle to launch a service like this, and the features they demoed look quite entertaining and welcome, but we’ll still be (pleasantly) surprised if they actually manage to pull it off. Keep on reading for screenshots and impressions.

After the keynote we got a personal showing of prototype Live Anywhere functionality, mainly running off of a Windows Mobile device. Here’s what we saw.

Teh Gamez. Once again, if you were hoping for some mobile version of Halo or even something like Geometry Wars, you’ll be sorely disappointed. With that said, everything looked fairly snazzy, and there is definitely a difference between games supported by the more powerful Windows Mobile and those plain-jane Java phones.

In keeping with its XBLA roots, Live Anywhere allows for trials of games, which are suddenly terminated with a request for payment to purchase the full version. A bit janky, but at least they offer trial versions in the first place.

Be sure to bother MajorNelson with challenges to beat your high score, everybody else seems to.

That Gamercard is looking good.

There’s enough platform support here already that it quickly seems like overkill.

Friends and what platform they’re on.

Messaging isn’t just email, it can include  video, voice, or even game content.

Java version doesn’t look too different, but most of the games are different.

Our friendly presenter.

They finished up with a bit of Gamercard trading, which works over IrDA between phones and syncs across all platforms. In this case they showed the Xbox 360 Dashboard show the request, ask for approval, and then update automatically once the request was approved with the other mobile phone. Pretty slick.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: Gaming, HDTV, Peripherals

At Microsoft’s E3 presentation today, one of the most eagerly awaited pieces of infomation concerned the company’s plans to offer an external HD DVD player for the Xbox 360. And the company delivered — sort of. Yes, they showed off a slide with a picture of an external player designed to match the 360. And the slide did state that the player will be available “this holiday.” And, yes, that slide included images of HD DVD flicks that it will presumably be able to play. But the crucial details, such as a ship date, pricing, and, perhaps most important, info on whether or not the player will support HDCP or HDMI, were nowhere to be found.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: Gaming

If there was one highlight of Nintendo’s press conference earlier today, it was the Wii Remote. While Sony showed off what games on the PS3 would look like, Nintendo’s focus was on what they would feel like. So, it’s not surprising that, from the moment a tux-clad Shigeru Miyamoto bounded onstage and conducted a virtual orchestra using the remote, to a climactic tennis game, the unique Wii controller was the centerpiece of the show. So, what did we learn about the Wii Remote today that we didn’t already know? For one thing, Nintendo confirmed that the remote does indeed include a speaker, which is used mainly to provide ambient sound connected to actions: fire an arrow, and you’ll hear the bowstring being pulled right in your hand. There’s also a microphone for voice-controlled gaming. The Wii Remote also includes motion sensors in both the nunchuk and the trigger controller, allowing both left and right hands to act independently and direct onscreen actions. While using the Remote may not be as intuitive and simple as Nintendo’s execs want us to believe, one thing’s certain: it definitely looks like a fun way to play golf. Or baseball. Or tennis. Or the drums. Or drive a car, truck or plane.  Nintendo also had an answer for anyone who isn’t quite ready for the Wii Remote: the Wii Classic Controller. We’ll stick with the Wiimote for now, but will pick off one of these for when we just have to kick it old skool.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: Games, Amp'd, MVNOs

Matt Damon and best friend/business partner Ben Affleck will soon be providing us with entertainment at more places than just the cineplex, as the two are set to take over the small screen as well -- on your cellphone. Unfortunately for fans of their acting talents, Damon and Affleck's contribution to the world of mobile content will come in the form of a video game from their production company, LivePlanet, that utilizes the location-awareness functionality on players' mobiles. Called PhoneTag, the subscription-based game is basically a real-world, touchless version of tag, where competitors join a match and use their handsets to track down friends or strangers in real world spaces, hitting a "capture" button when their prey is close enough. This online offering will be available exclusively from Amp'd Mobile, and will feature safehouses sponsored by establishments such as Starbucks, where players can congregate to become untraceable on their opponents' maps (and obviously pass the time drinking copious amounts of coffee).

Filed under: Gaming, Storage

If, like us, you were curious as to how Nintendo's expectedly hard drive-free Revolution was going to be able to compete with Sony's and Microsoft's drive-toting next-gen consoles, let your fears be allayed. In a recent CNN Money interview with Iwata-san, the N-man divulged that the Rev would come with an SD slot to complement its 512MB internal flash memory (for, you know, downloading games n' stuff), but that it'd also have USB ports for external storage solutions, like flash drives and hard drives. That's not going to be a huge boon if the Rev isn't going to have crazy media features like the 360 has and the PS3 is expected to, but it's still nice to know we're not gonna be left in the lurch on the storage thing.

[Via Joystiq and PSFK]

Filed under: Gaming

Though you may be in a heap of trouble with your home town rag and residents, oh five teenage girls from Portage County, Ohio, we salute you and your April Fool's prank: dropping or suspending seventeen Mario Bros. question cubes around town. Now, granted, if we saw something like that on April first in our fair city of New York, it might seem a lot more commonplace than Ravenna, Ohio, but the point still stands -- if you think Al Qaeda ever played SMB, you've probably forgotten that those games inspire the good in people, remember? The controller smashing huffy puffy video game addicted 11 year old good in people., in fact Unfortunately that didn't stop the HAZMAT and Fire Department crews from stepping in to defuse the situation, so to speak, and for it the five girls could face serious criminal charges. Too bad, because if those guys would have just jumped up and hit them from beneath they might instead have walked away with a sweet power-up (or an extra man).

[Via Joystiq]