gaming

Sling called out by Major League Baseball

Is watching an out-of-market baseball game illegal? Potentially yes, according to Major League Baseball.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Esq. a lawyer for the league's Advanced Media division said Slingbox's capability to placeshift MLB content--that is, allow owners to watch their subscription channels from a remote location--is illegal, and MLB is mulling a lawsuit.

"Of course, what they are doing is not legal," MLB general counsel Michael Mellis told the publication. "We and other leagues have formed a group to study the issue and plan our response. A lot depends on ongoing discussions. … Read more

Blizzard suing 'WoW' gold sellers

World of Warcraft publisher Blizzard Entertainment has filed suit in U.S. federal court against a popular gold-selling operation for spamming players with ads for virtual gold, according to the Warcry Network and other sources.

In its post, Warcry's Razorwire blog quoted a Blizzard employee as saying, "We felt that it was important to share with the community just how serious we are in our efforts to combat (in-game gold spamming). Blizzard has filed a federal lawsuit against the operators of Peons4hire, a popular gold-selling organization."

Blizzard spokesperson Shon Damron, in an e-mail, confirmed the lawsuit.

It'… Read more

10 years of Lara Croft

Back in 1996, Eidos Interactive released the ground-breaking adventure game Tomb Raider from Core Design. Not only did Lara Croft quickly become the most famous female video game character ever, the quiet, exploratory nature of the adventure game was a refreshing change from the other major console titles of the day.

After some successful and not-so-successful sequels, the franchise bounced from one development house to another and finally landed with Crystal Dynamics, which was able to reinvigorate the series with last year's release, Tomb Raider Legend.

In honor of Tomb Raider's 10th anniversary, Crystal Dynamics is remaking the original adventure game with its new Tomb Raider Legend engine. A brand-new demo for Tomb Raider Anniversary gives us all an opportunity to see how far Lara Croft has come in a decade.… Read more

PS3 DVD upscaling: A big improvement

Before yesterday's firmware update, the PlayStation 3 couldn't upscale standard-definition DVDs to high-def resolutions--a once high-end feature that's now built-in to nearly all DVD players with HDMI outputs. But what's the real benefit of upscaling (or upconverting, as it's also known)? Despite some of the marketing hype claiming that upscaling will make your DVDs appear in true high-def quality, the increase in picture quality will never come close to matching that of native HD material (HDTV broadcasts, HD DVD, and Blu-ray). Moreover, the video quality improvement is completely dependent on how good the upscaling and … Read more

PS3 1.80 firmware upgrade adds media streaming, DVD upscaling

Slowly but surely, Sony's beginning to unlock more and more of that multimedia horsepower under the hood of the PlayStation 3. The 1.80 firmware upgrade--available as an automatic download to PS3s everywhere--adds a variety of features to the console, most of which bolster the system's AV prowess. The main upgrades are as follows:

upscaling of games and DVDs: DVD movies, PlayStation 1 and PlayStation 2 games can now be upscaled to HD resolutions up to 1080p (games can upscale via component or HDMI, while DVDs are only upconverted via HDMI). streaming of digital media to PS3 via … Read more

'Lost' game for iPod now available

Tonight is the season finale of Lost, and although I'm excited to see what happens, I'm also certain the show will leave us will an unbearable cliffhanger. I felt like rioting at the end of last season. How dare ABC toy with our emotions like this?

Well, to keep rabid fans from doing anything they might regret later (do they get Lost in prison?), Gameloft has created an iPod game of Lost that is downloadable from Apple's iTunes store for $4.99.

The game looks pretty cool and challenging, actually. It has 27 levels, weapons, wild animals, … Read more

Will U.S. get 80GB version of PlayStation 3?

Sony said Wednesday that it is considering putting out a new version of its struggling PlayStation 3 game console in the United States with an 80GB hard drive. That's the storage capacity that will come on the South Korean version of the PS3.

To date, the PS3 has come with a 60GB hard drive. A 20GB version was discontinued in the United States but still sells in Japan.

According to the Associated Press, Sony Computer Entertainment representative Satoshi Fukuoka said that the company is thinking about adapting the storage capacities of the PS3 for different regions.

"Increasing capacity … Read more

A sound idea: Little birds have plenty to say

Japan's Tomy is making little plastic replicas of American birds that, in an interesting cultural twist, will sing with an American accent. Northern Cardinal, American Goldfinch, you name it. Tokyomango says they're "touch sensory," meaning that the song begins as soon as the bird is handled. (I still like Tomy for the corny basketball-suspended-in-water games it made eons ago.)

Before you invest in one of these plastic twerps, you'll want to select the proper birdsong to match your mood or decor. Check out real calls at Whatbird.com or the best American bird sound library … Read more

Will next arcade machines hit the jackpot?

The "Megatouch Elite Edge Ion" may sound like a Sharper Image air filter, but the prosaically named machine could make game arcades look like the floor of the Bellagio. (OK, maybe the Flamingo.)

Although it resembles those irritatingly chipper video slots that feature dozens of ways to empty your wallet with every spin, the Megatouch is designed to play all types of non-gambling games--102, to be exact--ranging from trivia to sports, according to Chip Chick. It even has a joystick to go along with its touch screen, something you won't find among the nickel slots in … Read more