Left 4 Dead Maps Resurrected in Left 4 Dead 2 Over Forty New Final Fantasy XIII Screens Just In Time For The Weekend PlayStation Network Plans To Implement Premium Content Subscription-Based Model Microsoft Game Studios Hiring Epic Liason/Producer For Gears of War & Shadow Complex Madden NFL Arcade Game Changers Video Toys“R”Us Goes Game Stop, Geoffrey the Giraffe Now Accepting Used Console Trade-Ins

By the time November 2010 rolls around, we could all be residing on the moon, eating space cheese, and zipping around with solar powered jet packs. In the event that doesn’t happen though, we might still have Microsoft’s Project Natal to look forward too. Read more…

Hate sitting on your couch watching your Roomba do all the work? Boring you say? You could get off your ass and do it yourself, but that would require actual movement. No sweat. A team of geeked-out developers with a cleaning fetish hacked into a few Roomba units and dressed them up like Pac-Man, Pinky, Blinky, and Clyde. Enjoy the power pellet vacuum fest below. Read more…

Able Planet’s original intentions were to help those with hearing loss, but they have now decided to enter the mainstream headset world with their sound-enhancing technology. Thus was born the PS500MM headset, designed with PC gaming in mind. The question now is: Is it worth the price? Read more…

The “anything you can do I can do better” competition between the Sony PlayStation 3 and the Microsoft Xbox 360 for the title of ”Master Swiss Army Knife Console King Toaster Oven” continues as Sony announced their partnership with Netflix on Monday. Remember when video game consoles didn’t cost 500 dollars and just played video games? I do.

Starting next month, PS3 owners (who are also Netflix subscribers) will be able to instantly stream thousands of movies and TV shows from the Netflix catalog to through their PS3. The only stipulation with the service out of the gate, is that PS3 owners will need to have a free Netflix-provided Blu-ray disc (available from netflix.com/ps3) in their console to utilize said service. This may be something that is eventually phased out by a future firmware update, but that’s purely speculation at this point.

Sure all these “extras” are nice to have, but its getting to the point where console manufacturers are going to need their own “Jimmy Football” and a slew of infomercials to justify the cost and explain the “jack of all trades”  functionality. Geek-gate tested! Geek-gate approved! Hit the jump for the full press release. Read more…

With Modern Warfare 2 coming out in a month, we here at Ripten thought it might be just a tiny bit cooler to run around with an actual gun in real life instead of just in a game. I mean, right? That would be cooler, right? Okay, well we can’t actually do that for several reasons, not the least of which is that we just don’t trust ourselves not to shoot people in the face.  That’s what gamers do, right?

Echo1 has us covered with the next best thing: an airsoft rifle. If you don’t know what that means, it’s essentially a BB gun that shoots “harmless” plastic pellets. This one we have here should look familiar to you if you’ve played pretty much any shooter in the last 15 years, and it’s full scale and made of metal. How about you peoples show us some lovin’ and maybe you can get yourself one of these bad boys for FREE! Read more…

I recently got a chance to test out the Volo Pro V Gamer 100 and 200 series HDMI cables, and at first I didn’t know what the difference was. After inquiring, I was told the 200 is a thicker gauge of cable and has a metal housing at the end, therefore offering more protection. To test this, I threw both cables down the stairs and then ran both of them over with my minivan, and they both still worked fine afterwards (though the paint job on the metal housing looked worse than the slightly scratched plastic on the Pro V 100).

I didn’t see much of a difference in picture quality between the two, before or after their “accidents”. They both look better than the generic HDMI cable I had previously, though not significantly, and HDMI cables in general look better than component (and everything else). Overall, I was impressed with the 10-foot-long Volo cables and kept them hooked up to my 360.

Now if you have a PS3 or an Xbox 360 and you aren’t using HDMI cables, you aren’t getting the most out of your gaming system. HDMI is, after all, the cable of choice for Jesus himself. Don’t worry, though — Ripten has got you covered! We’ve teamed up with TRU Company to send out 25 of their Pro V Gamer cables specifically designed for gaming consoles. All you have to do to enter the contest is Read more…

Yesterday, we brought you an unboxing video of the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Prestige Edition, courtesy of Infinity Ward community manager fourzerotwo. The Prestige Edition was fully packed, with an art book, a copy of the game, a download code for COD Classic on XBLA and/or PSN, and a pair of night vision goggles. Ridiculous, right? Of course, with the inclusion of night vision goggles, everyone assumed this bundle would skyrocket into the $300 range easily, but fourzerotwo & Infinity Ward announced today on Twitter the actual price at $149.99 for both PS3 & Xbox 360 versions.

While I’m glad it’s not two kajillion dollars like our in-house analyst had predicted, $149 is still a lot to pay for a game bundle. I’ll probably be picking it up, provided I have the cash in November when it’s released, but that’s because I can think of 149 different uses for the goggles. What about you guys? Is anyone willing to plunk down a Benjamin and a Grant* on the full Prestige Edition, or will you just go for the $60 regular edition/$80 Hardened Edition?

*I promise, I’ll stop talking in dead presidents… eventually.

Japanese site AppBank spotted an iPhone version of the fantastic Resident Evil 4 on the Japanese app store, and managed to get a lot of screenshots and the above video. Of course, the app has now been pulled; most likely due to a leaked release, I’d say. The footage is pretty extensive- if this is a fake, they’ve done a brilliant job of making it look real.

It’s surprising how many games there are that actually use microphones on the Xbox 360: Guitar Hero Metallica, Rock Band 2, Disney Sing It: High School Musical 3: Senior Year, Lips and The Beatles: Rock Band. This fall, Microsoft is poised to release a new wireless microphone that’s compatible with all of those games, and presumably more.

Although I have no use for a microphone myself, I’m sure someone loves the look of it and wants to rock out cordless. If you’re willing to spend $49.99 on the microphone, you should look forward to it hitting store shelves this fall.

No, silly. That’s not happening in this lifetime.

I joke all the time about Crysis running on a cell phone, but the guys at TechCrunch have managed to do so- or at least make it look like its so. Rather than running Crysis right through the phone, TechCrunch ran the game on a PC then streamed it to OTOY, a mobile streaming server, which then redirected it to the Omnia. Pretty cool, I think.

While the guy demoing the software in the video is controlling the game with an Xbox 360 controller, the controller’s actually connceted to the PC. Don’t get any ideas about Crysis coming to consoles, now.

But it’s gonna happen eventually.

Currently, the only two ways to control the iPhone in games are with the touchscreen or the accelerometer, and someone obviously took an issue with this. From this supposed “problem” the Gamebone controller was born. With an 8-way D-Pad, built-in Bluetooth connection, and multicolored A, B, C, and D buttons, the Gamebone is an admirable attempt at iPhone gaming control- but Gizmodo brings up some good points with the controller.

Firstly, the games would have to be compatible with the controller, and I have a hard time believing that successful iPhone developers would go out of their way to develop something compatible with this controller. Secondly, without a physical connection the iPhone, the iPhone would just be a screen, without a stand, but 22moo, the developers behind the Gamebone, claim they’re going to remedy this after the controller is released.

The developers seem to have the right mindset going into this though- they’re asking users to suggest a price for the Gamebone, since they don’t have any price point yet. My main question, however, is why a bone?

Game Crazy has recently released a nifty little app for the iPhone/iPod Touch. The app is free and gives great info on new releases and games coming out soon, along with a store locator and the ability to view trailers. But easily the best thing about the app is that it gives you the current trade-in values and the prices for used games. Pretty cool and, again, it’s free.

Now I wonder if GameStop will come out with an app?

Source: Joystiq

Seeing as it’s arguably one of the best consoles of our time, the Dreamcast had way too short of a life. We all know that this is mainly the fault of the piratablity of the games, but the hardware could’ve used a little tweaking too. WERD of the Benheck forums knew this all too well, and took the matter into his hands, by encasing the Dreamcast’s innards in a tablet PC screen.

The unibody Dreamcast tablet sports a 15″ screen, along with a GD-ROM loading drive. It runs off of batteries, and can last for about 3 to 3.5 hours off of said batteries. Just to make sure that it was working fine, WERD made a video of the Dreamcast tablet playing Xtreme Sports and House of the Dead 2. Hit the jump for the video.

Source: Benheck Forums

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Want maxed out Crysis quality graphics on your computer or television without having to buy the game up front, or better yet, dump thousands of dollars into a PC that can support it? Well, the team at Rearden Studios promises that “OnLive” will be just that.

The brainchild technology is the result of seven years of hard work spent developing an interactive video compression aspect which, according to Rearden, allows a multitude of OnLive servers spread across the country to stream videogames to your PC, Mac, or TV via a subscription based service with no more than a millisecond of lag. All of this makes the first paragraph sound all the more impressive. Read more…

Square Enix’s latest in the Dragon Quest series (coming to the DS on March 28th in Japan), is all the talk.  Pre-orders are rampant at local 7-11’s and you see more and more people with slime toys every day.  A new feature that is being added uses the Nintendo WiFi technology to let you discuss the game with other people and gloat through your DS.

Read more…

This Instructables page has all the instructions and information you need to make your very own solar-powered DS. Creator “dark sponge” says that since he added the solar panels he has “never had to plug it in to charge it.” The panels, as you can see, are attached directly to the DS; and they don’t appear to change the portability of the device- and hey, the panels only cost $3.75 each. Not bad considering the amount you could save on charging the DS.

Obviously, if you decide to attempt the modification, read the instructions very carefully; you could ruin your precious DS! If in doubt, I suggest getting someone who knows what they are doing, or contact dark sponge for help. A fantastic mod, but a little risky for me- I’m rather fond of my DS.

Some companies release special edition DS’s when their software hits the market.  Square-Enix decided that with Dragon Quest IX, a case will do just fine — and I agree. Read more…

All you readers mark your calendars because this is the PS3 you will more than likely want to import. The “Cloud Black”, as they are calling it, is being released to the world (okay, just Japan). Even with a just a small amount of design change, it is beautiful. Read more…

Famitsu has some pictures of the special PS3 pack you can purchase with the latest in the Yakuza game series.  I think it’s rather stylish — I wonder what real Yakuza think. Read more…

That’s right, you can now use your iPhone to fight global warming. How, you say? Simple — buy the new app called ‘A Real Tree’ and you will actually be buying a real tree (go figure) that will be planted on your behalf somewhere in this crazy world of ours. Read more…