Games and gear

As any avid--and increasingly, non-avid--gamer can tell you, the Nintendo Wii is harder to find than an urban square mile without a Starbucks. Up until recently, I was one of those people vainly rechecking Amazon.com and calling every Best Buy, Circuit City, and CompUSA within a 30-mile radius to see if they had any in stock. It was frustrating, of course, but not for the reasons you may think. Constantly hearing "not in stock" wasn't the problem; rather, it was annoying because the whole process took a lot of work. And this was after I thought … Read more

With the Game Developer's Conference coming up next week in San Francisco, rumors are flying fast and furious about what big announcements will be made by the guys who make those little plastic boxes that sit under your TV.

One rumor making the rounds is about a new feature for the PlayStation 3 called PlayStation Home, which would combine elements of the Nintendo Wii's Mii avatars with the Xbox 360's achievement points, creating an appealing social-networking tool. According to popular game blog Kotaku, this will be part of Sony Computer Entertainment President Phil Harrison's keynote address. … Read more

It may look like a medieval torture device, but the headgear pictured here is designed for gaming, of all things. And if you're paranoid about EMFs eating away at your brain, avert your eyes from this item now.

Called "Project Epoc," this neuro-technology apparatus includes "sensors that tune into your brain's natural electric signals, detecting player thoughts, feelings and expression," according to Ubergizmo. It also connects to consoles and computers, supposedly allowing your thought pulses to influence if not control the game at hand. (We're not making this up.)

But if you're … Read more

We speak not of Sega mascot Sonic the Hedgehog's romantic obsession with gold rings (creepy as that may be), but of Crush, an upcoming platform and puzzle game for the Sony PSP that we saw at Sega's spring press event here in NYC.

This puzzle game caught our eye with its unusual 2D/3D design. Players traverse the find-the-exit levels by temporarily "crushing" the game's geometry down to a 2D view, allowing the main character to get to otherwise impossible-to-reach places. It's similar in some ways to Super Paper Mario for the Wii, and … Read more

When public relations companies send games to reviewers, they seldom send just the game. Usually it's the game, plus some colorful tissue paper, a snow globe, a mouse pad, or something like that. That's known as "swag," which is used by marketing departments and public relations firms to help build up hype about products.

Sometimes said marketers/PR reps make strange choices.

We recently got sent Wario: Master of Disguise for the Nintendo DS. It's the usual story of Wario stealing treasures and whatnot, this time using a magic wand (read: DS stylus) that can … Read more

From Friday through Sunday, the New York City Comic Convention took over Manhattan's Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, and Will Greenwald and I were there to brave the hordes of Star Wars cosplayers to bring you plenty of super sweet news coverage. Actually, scratch that. We get along just fine with Star Wars cosplayers. No horde-braving is necessary.

--Digital age plays villain, hero in future of comics (CNET News.com)

--Halo ActionClix and other nerd games (Crave)

--Web comics, print comics, and really really big print comics (Crave)

--More than comics at comic convention (CNET … Read more

If the Halo video games, action figures, and dubious body armor aren't enough Master Chief goodness for you, then you'll be happy to know that the alien-fighting supersoldier is getting his own collectible miniatures game. WizKids, makers of the HeroClix and HorrorClix miniatures games, is creating a new "-Clix" game based on Halo. Halo ActionClix will feature dozens of tiny, plastic Master Chiefs and Spartan soldiers, each equipped with tiny, plastic weapons, and able to pilot not-quite-as-tiny plastic vehicles.

Like the other -Clix games, Halo ActionClix is a tactical tabletop game where players can collect tiny … Read more

I start off every day by reading my favorite Web comics. It's the online, nerdy version of paging through the funnies in the newspaper. In the last decade or so, Web comics have gotten pretty big, with huge comics like Sluggy Freelance, User Friendly, PVP, and Penny Arcade getting thousands upon thousands of hits every day. However, these Web comics usually stay almost entirely on the Web, with only the most successful comics materializing in the form of trade paperbacks and print compilations. As it is, Scott Kurtz's PVP is one of the only Web comics to become … Read more

Nintendo can't seem to make up its mind. The company was no longer manufacturing GameCubes or developing titles for the console, according to company spokesperson Perrin Kaplan (quoted in a GameDaily interview earlier this week). That prompted a slew of teary-eyed GameCube retrospectives and obituaries. Now comes word from Nintendo's U.K. arm (as reported at Eurogamer) that the company is "still continuing production of GameCube hardware and GameCube software."

That's enough for Kotaku to declare the 'Cube as being "still alive and well," but it's missing the real story. Whether or … Read more