According to Gizmodo, the US Consumer Product Safety Commision has recalled 57,000 $55 Wii wireless guitars produced in China, from store shelves across the country. For the math challenged/lazy, that’s over $3.13 million. The manufacturing error was caused by a faulty circuit board that causes leaking battery acid that can seep through the bottom of the guitar, possibly even penetrating clothing & skin.

Personally, I’m shocked, considering the near-perfect record of items manufactured in China. Maybe if they were to outsource these types of products to Mexico, this wouldn’t happen. Hit the jump for the press release. Read more…

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I’ve been playing Bionic Commando Rearmed on the 360, and let me tell you, even with the relatively superior (emphasis on relatively) d-pad on the wired controller, it is a serious pain: when I crouch I get spun around, when I want to fire my grappling hook diagonally it fires forward - we all remember how horrible Street Fighter II Hyper Fighting was? Yeah, it’s still just as bad.

So it comes with great, great relief and welcome that reports from the Leipzig show floor are coming of a new, redesigned 360 controller with an improved d-pad. The rest of the controller seems to be look the same, but the d-pad has been re-engineered to have eight-way input (hello shoryukens), and in general just feels smoother, more responsive, more tactile - better in every way. Read more…

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