Gaming News - Page 1527

Fans of Xbox Live are soon going to have to dig a little deeper into their pockets to continue playing online. Starting November 1st, Xbox live is getting its first price increase in its eight year history.



In the United States, one-year Gold memberships are bumping up ten dollars to $59.99 USD. Monthly subscriptions will rise from $7.99 to $9.99, and three month subs will rise from $19.99 to $24.99. Microsoft is running a special deal right now for U.S. customers that will allow them to lock in a year for $39.99 to give them a little buffer before having to pay the higher price.

Years back when Sony launched the PS3 one executive made the prediction that the PS4 would probably not have a physical drive for disc games like the current PS3. After the massive fail that was the PSP Go and its download only catalog Sony has rightfully rethought the download only market.

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Sony's Kaz Hirai has stated that the PS4 will have an optical drive and support physical media. He told MCV, "We do business in parts of the world where network infrastructure isn't as robust as one would hope." Hirai continued saying, "There's always going to be requirement for a business of our size and scope to have a physical medium. To think everything will be downloaded in two years, three years or even ten years from now is taking it a little bit to the extreme."

Both AMD and Intel have been talking about new CPU/GPU combination processors for a long time. When we first heard of the combination processors chipmakers were predicting that they would be the end of the discrete GPU. Whether that will play out remains to be seen, but I doubt it. We would have expected the first CPU/GPU hybrid to come from Intel or AMD, but Microsoft has beaten both to the punch.

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Microsoft's Xbox 360 team unveiled the new SoC that will power the coming slim Xbox 360 250GB gaming console. The SoC is built by Global Foundries on the 45nm process and combines the GPU and the CPU onto one chip. The goal Microsoft had in mind was making the construction of the gaming console cheaper in an effort to eek all the profit it could out of the console.

If you were so inclined, you could hack your PS3 right now to allow you to play games from the HDD or install homebrew software that you might want. The catch is that most of those hacking solutions involve opening up the case and voiding your warranty. That can be a big hassle for a lot of gamers.



A company called PS Jailbreak has announced a new hacking solution that doesn't require you to open up your PS3 or add any chips to the machine. It will work with the old fat PS3 and the new PS3 Slim as well. The device is a USB flash drive that you plug into the PS3. Once plugged in a GUI launches and walks you through the setup of the software.

The Sony PS3 Slim has been on the market for a while now and if you have been waiting to buy one or to upgrade your existing fat console, this may be the time to do it. I know I am eyeing one of the new PS3 slim bundles after my first generation 60GB fat PS3 died a premature death recently. Sony is offering a free game bundle good now through August 21 if you buy directly from Sony online.

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The games that you can choose from cost up to $59.99 on their own. Titles you can choose include MAG, Uncharted 2, White Knight Chronicles, MotorStorm Pacific Rift, Heavy Rain, and ModNation Racers. Those are all some of the better titles that have landed for the console in a while. The price for the bundle with any of those games is $299.99.

Rock 'Em Sock 'Em robots have been around since I was a little kid. My brother and I used to play them a lot and frequently you never knew who won because the heads would just pop up of their own accord.



A couple designers have cobbled together a high tech version of the game using an old school plastic game along with some servos and other gear to make a motion control version. The controls use Chronos watches packed with sensors.

If you didn't get a chance to give Microsoft's newest toy for the Xbox 360 a go at E3 last week, the Kinect sensor will now be available for trial at any Microsoft Store across the U.S. The downside? There are only four in the country: Scottsdale, AZ, Mission Viejo, CA, Lone Tree, CO, and the newest store opened today in San Diego, CA.

3D this, 3D that; as time goes by the push for 3DTV in the household looks to be cementing itself deeper and becoming a new standard. There are several early adopters already in the way of 3D-enabled displays and Blu-ray player updates. Even Sony is getting all serious about it with firmware updates for the PS3.

But how about Microsoft and its more beloved than ever Xbox 360 (thanks to a little known add-on called Kinect)? - Well, in Microsoft's opening press conference at E3 they made no mention of making 3D a standard feature on the 360 and were 100% focused on Kinect.



This is not to say they've turned a blind eye on 3D, but apparently their reasoning for not showing interest in it at this time is due to slow adoption rates. Microsoft don't feel 3D support would be demanded enough on a whole and would rather leave the decision up to game developers to implement it for their specific titles.

In the future as 3DTV grows Microsoft promises to take notice and add support. "We closely and constantly evaluate consumer trends. If there is demand, we've demonstrated in the past that we are able to quickly dedicate resources to respond to consumer interest."

We just got done telling you about how Microsoft will begin selling its new and improved Xbox 360 later this week, but let's go over some of the Kinect for Xbox 360 details right now.



Kinect pronounced like 'konnect' will go on sale starting November 4th in the United States. It was interesting that Microsoft did not announce a price during its recently concluded E3 2010 press conference. That may suggest that a price has not yet been confirmed by the software giant.

What we can tell you about Kinect or as it was formerly known Project Natal is that it totally kicks ass. Using the Kinect sensor that includes not only three cameras (by the look of the below press image) and microphones, it is able to really change the way you think of gaming. You see all kinds of futuristic movies and see some cool (yet fake) technology and wonder how far we are away from reaching it. Well, I'd say around 5 months and we'll be there.

After two weeks, we have a 6-way tie for first place!

Mark, Brandon, Jonathan, Don, Jacob and Chad are all tied for first place! And the rest of the guys are hot on their tails with one each. Remember, the top 5 win a free Razer Abyssus gaming mouse, so this contest isn't over yet!



Learn more about Tech-Facts here and how you can make money and win a Razer gaming mouse.