Filed under: Gaming

While the supposed Wii Fit shortages are nothing compared to the now infamous Wii shortages we’ve seen, at least one of those ever-insightful analysts now claims to deduced the cause of them, and he’s laying the blame squarely on the big N. According to Wedbush Morgan Securities’ Michael Pachter, Nintendo has shipped some 2 million Wii Fit units to Europe, while reserving a mere 500,000 for North America, which he surmises can only mean that Nintendo is deliberately redirecting ‘em in order to take advantage of the strong Euro. Pachter seems to think that Nintendo will still make out alright in the end, however, saying that, “they know that Americans will be just as fat a few months from now,” when it’ll have more units available.

[Via GameSpot]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Share This

Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals

While we of course rock oh-so-very-hard on Rock Band’s drums, the pedal just never felt right under our weakling calves. The problem is naturally exacerbated for folks in wheelchairs, since there’s no way to avoid the kick drum or re-route it to another button — at least out of the box. Some folks at Kinetic Communications modded up a doorbell to work as the kick drum button and screwed it to a drum stick. Not the prettiest mod in the world, but it got their wheelchair-bound buddy drumming for about $20, and it shouldn’t be hard to replicate their instructions.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Share This

Filed under: Gaming

The folks at Konami have been trolling the forums again, kids, and this time they’re fighting back. Reps from the game-maker have issued a statement on the company forum addressing the furor over the inflated cost of the forthcoming, limited edition Metal Gear Solid 4 bundle. According to Konami, the bumped up price ($600 for a 40GB version of the PS3, plus Dual Shock controller and MGS4 game) is due to the special material used to create the gunmetal gray system and controller casing. The company seems to take issue with the fact that some are calling it simply a “paint job,” and points out that the run of units is only 10,000, and the package also includes a version of the game with an extra disc of additional content. To put it another way: this is the deal of a lifetime!

[Via Wired]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Share This

Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals

If you’re anything like our boy Ryan, you’ve been wearing that Wii Fit out ever since you took delivery. Unfortunately, you’ve probably been doing a bit of unintentional jogging when logging miles back and forth to the local mini-mart for batteries. If you can’t seem to keep your Wii Balance Board charged, Nyko has introduced a novel solution: the Energy Pack for Wii Fit. Our pals over at Nintendo Wii Fanboy were able to get ahold of this very unit and put it through its paces, and generally speaking, they were quite impressed with the $20 peripheral-for-a-peripheral. Head on over for the full writeup and a smattering of pics.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Share This

Filed under: Gaming

It’s not confirmed by Sony just yet, but Videogaming247 says it has it on “good authority” that the upcoming version 2.40 firmware update for the PS3 will at long last bring with it in-game XMB, as well as the slightly less-anticipated trophy support. If those sources are to be believed, the update will be dropping sometime in June, with some speculation further pointing to a release in advance of Metal Gear Solid 4’s June 12th launch. There’s apparently still some testing to be done to ensure that the in-game XMB will work with all titles, however, and it seems like features like trophies and user-music via XMB will only be supported in games created with the new developers tools that have apparently already been released in advance of the firmware update.

[Via PS3 Fanboy, thanks John]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Share This

Filed under: Gaming

It’s not the first time we’ve seen a controller hacked for use with the PSP, but this mod by Acidmods member Blizzrad takes things a bit further than most, with it relying entirely on hardware modifications in order to work, meaning it can be done on any PSP regardless of the firmware. It’s also one of the cleanest-looking mods we’ve seen to date, with the only evidence of tampering on the PSP itself being a discreetly placed controller connector right above the power switch. Of course, that also means it’s considerably more difficult for most of us to do ourselves, but we can at least get a glimpse of what’s possible courtesy of the video after the break.

Continue reading PSP hacked for use with DualShock controller

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Share This

Filed under: Gaming, Handhelds

Not much else to say beyond the title of this one — MWeston has recently confirmed over at the GP32X boards that Bluetooth will indeed be included on the forthcoming Pandora mega-emulator. He noted that BT was added because of an exceptional deal they landed and to “make competing devices look that much less interesting.” Right, so what exactly is this bundle of awesomeness competing against exactly?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Share This

Filed under: Gaming

If you’ve been wondering just how you’re going to play Guitar Hero on the DS, the answer is upon you. For the extreme in cringe-worthy videos, we present the Guitar Hero: On Tour promo, replete with some of the worst faux-rock music and singing your ears and eyes have ever been subjected to. If this doesn’t make you want to impale yourself on the nearest sharp object, nothing will. We’re not sure if they were going for irony here — all we see is fail… oh, and the game looks pretty impossible to play too. Video after the break.

[Via Digg]

Continue reading Guitar Hero: On Tour promo video makes grown men cry

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Share This

Filed under: Gaming

ASUS seems to be bringing a lot of new toys out to play at Computex, but we’re suddenly most intrigued by the Eee Stick, a pair of motion-sensing game controllers that looks like nothing more than a pair of Wii nunchuks. We’re hearing that the left nunchuck can also work as a 3D mouse, but it’ll be interesting to see if ASUS plans to actually pitch the $70 set to game developers, or if it’s just another gimmicky controller that’ll inevitably get dumped for the comforts of WASD. Gameplay video after the break.

[Via Engadget Chinese, thanks Anonymouse]

Continue reading ASUS Eee Stick motion controller brings Wii to the Eee

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Share This

Filed under: Desktops, Gaming

It wouldn’t be a decent pointless chip marketing program if you didn’t get minor computer builders supporting the “spec” in an effort to make a name for themselves. AMD GAME! just got its first product announcement from Vigor Gaming, and it’s quite the yawner. Vigor is sticking the required AMD components into its Force Recon SP desktops, with a “mainstream” version running an Athlon X2 5600+ processor, ATI Radeon HD 3650 graphics and 2GB of RAM for around $1,845, while an AMD Game! Ultra configuration bumps up to a Phenom X4 9650 chip and Radeon HD 3870 graphics for $2,733. Both systems are naturally based on AMD’s 770 chipset and run Vista. Vigor offers free overclocking for the brave and custom painting for the aesthetically challenged.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Share This