Games and gear

'Dirty Dancing' game shimmies onto PCs

No one puts Baby in a corner, but someone is about to put her in a video game.

Codemasters Online Gaming announced plans this week for a game version of Dirty Dancing to coincide with the film's 20th anniversary. Codemasters describes the upcoming PC title as a "premium, action puzzler casual game" through which players can experience main character "Baby" Houseman's 1963 summer adventures at a Catskills resort.

This will, of course, include doing some major choreographed hip grinding with resident dance gurus Johnny and Penny and working alongside the team at the fictional … Read more

Nintendo Wi-Fi service reaches 5 million users

Nintendo said Wednesday that its Wi-Fi Connection service--which allows Nintendo DS users to play wirelessly against each other--has surpassed 5 million users.

All told, the video game giant said, users have initiated more than 200 million sessions, playing games like Animal Crossing: Wild World, Mario Kart DS, Metroid Prime Hunters and others wirelessly.

And despite the attention paid to next-generation video game systems like the Nintendo Wii, Sony PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Xbox 360, the DS is currently the best-selling system of all, having moved 470,000 units in April, according to NPD Group.

Autobots, transform and nerd out!

If you've looked at a television, a movie screen, or a billboard at any time in the last year, you're probably already aware that Transformers is coming. And if you've done any of those things in the last 20 years, you probably already know the story: transforming robots from another planet fight other transforming robots while Earth hangs in the balance.

Let's see...robots, cartoons, new movie coming out...yep, this means merchandising and lots of it. The Transformers movie is going to get toys, toys, and more toys. Transformers is getting everything from action figures … 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

'MySims' is going to put some major cutesy into the Wii

We managed to get a sneak peek at EA's upcoming Wii The Sims game, MySims. It's cute. It's really, really, really, really cute.

Unlike the make-a-Sim/live-your-life gameplay of The Sims or The Sims 2, the Wii's MySims focuses much more on helping out friends and building up a village. The result is a game that's part The Sims, part Animal Crossing, and part Lego Star Wars (without the blasters or lightsabers). You can build structures--starting with your own home but eventually others' homes, stores, and even dance clubs--out of basic blocks. Once you have … Read more

'Star Wars' fans out in force in L.A.

LOS ANGELES--I'm really wishing I brought my X-wing with me down here today.

As I arrived at the Los Angeles Convention Center for the opening of Celebration IV, the biggest Star Wars fan fest ever--which just happens to be timed to the 30th anniversary of the release of the original Star Wars--I saw endless numbers of people decked out in the attire of both the Empire and the Rebellion.

Which made me think I should suit up and join the fight. Alas, I left my wings at home.

But anyway, there are thousands of people here, many of whom … Read more

When remotes are out of control

We've given up: The endless proliferation of remotes in our household is out of control. We've tinkered with so-called universal models, but they either don't seem to work or, more likely, we're just too "challenged" to figure them out.

The only solution, at least in the near term, may be a reduction in their rabbit-like numbers by consolidating them in sub-categories. To wit: The new "Universal Gamer" may not take care of everything in the house, but it at least claims to work with the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 2 (if not … 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

What is the extent of 'Second Life' problems?

The blogosphere was in a bit of a tizzy Wednesday over problems plaguing the virtual world Second Life. The question is: Are the problems people are worked up about new, or ongoing? And does it really matter?

The main issue raised in the original blog entry on Gamer.Blorge.com was that Second Life is experiencing six hours of downtime. To hear other blogs, like TechCrunch, position it, this is kind of a noteworthy occurrence.

The truth is that Second Life is frequently down on Wednesdays, because that's when its publisher, Linden Lab, releases updates to its client software. … Read more