Gaming - Page 1224

A few of the guys here love Angry Birds, they post news about it when they can. Oh wait, it's me who does it (in my defense, it's an amazingly addictive game!!) Well, I just got an email from the people behind Angry Birds and thought I'd share it for those of you not on their mailing list, as Angry Birds is one of the most popular games on iOS/Android devices, it might appeal to a lot of our readers.

The geeks around these parts slant to the more hardcore than geeks that might normally be looking at gaming PCs from Digital Storm. Most of us probably roll our own rigs, but there are times when machines offered out of a box ready to go have their appeal. This is one of those times. Digital Storm has unveiled a new gaming rig called the Sub-Zero Liquid Chilled system. The machine uses liquid cooling on the CPU and some of the other hardware inside.

I'm not really meant to post gaming news, but games like Deus Ex and Portal 2 are too big to not post... so I hope you enjoy reading it here at TweakTown! Valve have delayed the hotly anticipated physics nut busting Portal 2 by 4 months, but... they've spun it into something funny.

I will admit that I was excited at the prospect of OnLive when I first heard about it. Once I learned more about the system and realized that you had to pay monthly to access the OnLive network and still buy the video games, I wasn't nearly as interested in the service. I have tried OnLive and in my instance, it had some lag and the graphics weren't as good as some stand-alone games I have on my gaming PC, but it was certainly playable.

Microsoft brings controller-free entertainment to Australia today, with Kinect for Xbox 360 launching at retailers in time for Christmas.

I really like to play Rock Band with my kids and friends every now and again. The thing I hate about Rock Band though is that the controllers that go with the game to take up lots of space. I have two-guitar controller, the drums, mic, drumsticks and other stuff that I have to find a place to stash after we are done playing. That can be a challenge and typically I end up with the drums upstairs, the drum sticks under the bed, and guitar controllers other places.

The Nintendo Wii is known for its innovative control system with motion that has been imitated in various ways around the gaming industry now. THQ has offered up a new and cool controller for various games and uses called the uDraw Game Tablet. The tablet is an accessory for the Wii that will land in time for Christmas in the US.

I have said it before, when it comes to FPS games the only way to roll in my opinion is with a mouse and keyboard. I can't play with a gamepad in my hands from an Xbox 360 without flailing about on screen like a noob. I know there are some people out there that are hard-core Xbox 360 gamers and can play with the gamepad with some leet skillz, but I am not one of them. If you are an Xbox 360 gamer that likes FPS and other games where you need to be able to hit many buttons at once, the Avenger might be interesting to you.

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The Avenger is a sleeve that grips your own Xbox 360 controllers and puts all sorts of weird levers and stuff on the controller. It looks like the Borg assimilated the thing. According to the company that makes the thing it is designed to increase the manual dexterity and accuracy of the gamer when plying games like Call of Duty and others. The Avenger also claims to improve response time.

Users can activate up to nine buttons at once with the Avenger installed and the thing ships with a stabilizer tripod, tension straps hair triggers, and sensitivity adjusters. It looks really weird and I think it will have a steep learning curve. Considering that it's only a sleeve for your controllers, it is also expensive at about $60. You could buy a new gamepad for that much.

I'm not one to get an input device just because it's cool or popular. I like cool and popular gear, but more importantly, the stuff has to work and have a purpose. I think that the Microsoft Kinect motion controller for the Xbox 360 has a good use on the console, but on a computer, I am not convinced that there is any reason for it to be there. A geek has now hacked the Kinect controller to work with Mac OS X.

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The controller apparently works with the OS, but it is unable to actually control anything. The potential to control something is there, but I just don't get the need for this at all. I can agree that its cool to get it to work on the Mac, but the reality is outside of modding fans having Kinect work on anything other than the Xbox is of dubious value. If you are one of these modding fans that wants to hack into the device the guy who made the Mac mod used an open source tool called libfreenect to do the deed.

The guy crafted a Mac port for the software and offers it on his own site for you to download. I can only assume that the point of Kinect is for game control like on the Xbox, I'll stick with the mouse and keyboard that have served me well for years and year's thank you.

It's no secret that Steam is the alpha dog in the pack when it comes to the digital download gaming scene. But success breeds contempt in the business world, and there are several outlets that are openly blaming Steam for their woes and taking steps to retaliate.

When it comes to gaming, some genres simply aren't good for use with game pads and controllers like the Xbox 360 uses from the perspective of PC gamers. Sure console gamers will argue that the gamepad on their Xbox 360 rocks for Call of Duty and some will even claim they will pwn PC gamers using a mouse and keyboard. The PC gamers out there know the score though.

You can say what you like about Microsoft and the way it runs its business and competes in the technology market, but the company knows how to market its wares. My kids are going bonkers over the Kinect technology for the Xbox 360 after seeing commercials for Kinectimals on TV. I am a bit torn on the tech; we rarely play the Xbox 360 in our house leaning more towards the PS3 and Wii. If you are on the fence about the Kinect as well, a new hack that has surfaced may help push you over the edge towards purchase.

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The Kinect has been hacked to run with Windows 7 computers already. A New York-based firm called Adafruit offered up a bounty of $2000 for the group or individual who could come up with an open source driver for the Kinect that would let it work for things other than the Xbox 360. According to reports, that bounty has now been collected and a video has been posted on YouTube showing someone using Kinect with a Windows PC.

In the video, you can see the Kinect camera motion tracking the user running on a Windows 7 PC. That is pretty cool and I guess Kinect would be an interesting way to control games for PC users too. Considering PC gamers tend to be more hardcore than their console brethren and stick religiously to the mouse and keyboard I question how many people will want Kinect for gaming control on their PC. Still, that is certainly a cool development so soon after Kinect launched.

For a long time gaming on a mobile phone really sucked. The graphics were bad, the games stunk, and most of us just didn't play mobile phone games for the most part. When the iPhone landed all of that changed for many of us with a big screen and serious mobile gaming chops. Today the market is flush with all sorts of mobile devices that can play some games and one of the things really needing work now on some platforms are the controls.

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A geek has taken in upon himself to improve the gaming controls for the Dell Streak, and he has done an epic job of it. The builder goes by the name 0TheRain0 and he took an old SNES controller and hacked it to work with the Android-powered Dell Streak. The hack required the use of a Streak connector taken from a real accessory and some hard work.

The mod also uses a Teensy USB microcontroller board. When all was finished the SNES controller plugs into the Streak's PDMI port and is recognized by the device as a USB keyboard. The controller can navigate the menus on the phone and claims to work with any game emulator on the market. Check out the video below to see it in action.

Wave your hand across the screen if you'd like to see a few reviews of Micrsosoft's upcoming gesture/body based gaming revolution.

If you are a Wii gamer, you probably have a MotionPlus accessory that you use for some of your games. I think that we can all agree that having that MotionPlus accessory sticking off the end of your controller isn't the ideal way to get better control in your games. Nintendo is working on a new controller that has MotionPlus built-in. Sunflex has announced the Snakebyte controller claiming the title of first third-party controller to integrate MotionPlus.

Nintendo has been busy the last few months with the celebration surrounding the 25th birthday for Mario and for the original Nintendo game system. Nintendo is offering up some sales details on the Wii and its accessories to show off how many units it has moved even if the popularity of the Wii is waning today. The number of controllers sold by Nintendo is impressive.

When it comes to mobile gaming I stick to my iPhone or iPad. I have a couple PSPs here in the house along with a couple Nintendo DSi systems that my kids play. We haven't used the PSPs in over a year now so the PSP format altogether isn't very appealing around my house. When I first heard of the PSP Go I thought it sounded cool enough until I realized that the games you have for your old PSPs were useless on the new Go. Many people felt that way and many retailers were mad that they could not sell software for the Go making it a bag of fail.

I thought piracy was only big on the PC? Oh how people are wrong...

There are many music games on the market today with offerings like Rock Band and Guitar Hero at the top of the market. There are other smaller and lesser-known music games though and some of them have some awesome controllers. Power Gig is a music game that works sort of like Guitar Hero in that you have a wireless guitar controller to play with, but Power Gig uses a real six-string guitar.

The gaming world has many iconic characters that have been part of some of the most important video games around. A few of these iconic characters include fan favorites like Pac-Man and Mario. Nintendo has been celebrating the 25th birthday of Mario all year long and has offered some cool facts about the game and is offering up some cool new bundles of hardware for Mario fans.

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The latest hardware bundles include special edition glossy red Wii and DSi XL game systems. The red Wii bundle includes a glossy red console, the new Super Mario Bros. Wii game, a red Wii Remote Plus controller with built-in Motion Plus capability, a red nunchuk, and the Wii sports game that typically comes with the Wii. The coolest part is that the special edition console has a price that is affordable at $199.99 while supplies last.

The red DSi XL bundle has Super Mario Bros. themed graphics, includes Mario Kart DS game and a pre-loaded Brain Age Express title. The DSi XL bundle will also be offered only while supplies last and will sell for $179.99. Nintendo has also unveiled a new FlingSmash bundle that has a game with pinball action and the new Wii Remote Plus controller inside for $49.99.