slim

The PS3 Slim may not have backwards compatibility, but owners of the newest Sony console can get a taste of what it feels like when the God of War Collection releases this holiday season.

The collection will include both original PlayStation 2 God of War and God of War II games on one Blu-ray disc. Also, each title has been completely revamped with antialiasing graphics (less jagged edges), 60-frames-per-second performance, and a 1280x720 resolution (720p). The disc will also enable trophy support for both games.

The God of War Collection is set to launch this holiday season for $40. God of War III … Read more

Episode 47 of the Digital City, where we install Apple's new Snow Leopard OS update; discuss the current round of game console price cuts; check out some Netbooks with HD displays; and find out why Time Warner Cable's new "Mystro" cable box firmware update makes us want to give up on TV altogether.

Related links: >>All things Snow Leopard >>New price cuts upend console value landscape >>Rise of the high-def Netbooks

>>Watch the Digital City live every Friday at 3pm EST on CNET Live! >>Subscribe to Digital City on iTunes &… Read more

Microsoft official confirmed the worst-kept secret in games: the Xbox 360 is receiving a price cut on its top-end Elite system starting Friday. In other words, the long list of leaked catalog circulars weren't fakes. What this means is that the 120GB hard-drive-toting Xbox 360 Elite that used to be $400 will now be $300--the same cost as a PS3 Slim.

The Xbox 360 Pro, with its 60GB hard drive, will drop to $250 instead of $300, and will keep being sold until it vanishes off shelves. Kudos, by the way, to Microsoft for actually lowering the price on … Read more

Sony heralded the new PlayStation 3 Slim as more energy efficient than previous models, but that's an easy feat considering the older PS3 'Fat' models were some of the most power-hungry home video appliances available, with power consumption similar to that of a 50-inch plasma TV, for example.

To test Sony's claim, we put the PS3 Slim through a battery of power consumption tests and the results really are impressive: the PS3 Slim generally uses less than half the power of the original 60GB PS3, no matter what task it's performing. Check out the comparison:

All measurements … Read more

Episode 46 of the Digital City, where we debate the merits of the PS3 Slim, show how to get your free Windows 7 upgrade, and discuss new games from Batman: Arkham Asylum to GangStar for the iPhone.

Related links: >>Skip the PS3 Slim and get one of these Blu-ray laptops >>Should I buy a new laptop now, or wait for Windows 7? >>Are gaming handhelds too expensive?

>>Watch the Digital City live every Friday at 3pm EST on CNET Live! >>Subscribe to Digital City on iTunes >>Join the Digital City Facebook fan page &… Read more

We've covered just about everything you need to know about the PS3 Slim, but the sleuths over at Engadget HD (via a translated version of AV Watch) found a chart that indicates the PS3 Slim can bit stream both Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio. That change actually isn't that surprising, since the original limitation on the "old" PS3s was due to an older HDMI chipset; newer HDMI outputs have no problem bit streaming the high-resolution soundtrack formats.

We have a PS3 Slim review sample onhand, so it was easy to confirm the rumor. We had … Read more

This week, we finally met the much-anticipated PlayStation 3 Slim, which features pretty much the same hardware as its predecessor but has a thinner chassis, vertically and horizontally.

As my colleague Josh Lowensohn notes, however, the PS3's more compact cousin is part of a shrinking-console trend over the last several years. And that got us wondering: in this era of ever-tinier gear, which other gadgets would you most like to see getting smaller?

Vote in our poll, and as always, feel free to sound off in our comments section below.

In the wake of the PS3 Slim price-cut landslide of news, one small wound still lingers, and has now gotten worse: the PSP Go is still $249.

Now that the PS3 Slim is $299, and the Xbox 360 Elite is well on its way to the same price, the ceiling for console gaming is finally coming down. This isn't a surprise; it happens every gaming generation. But, considering the components of multipurpose systems like the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, this generation of consoles has hovered at higher prices than consoles of the past. Now, however, all three home consoles are within $50 of each other. The next sensible step would be for the Wii to take a price cut as well, and it most likely will happen this holiday season in some form (be it a real cut or a new bundle with Wii MotionPlus and Wii Sports Resort, for instance).

However, while consoles have been seeing price drops, handheld game systems have been seeing an odd recent trend--price increases. The PSP Go, which was seen as Sony's handheld comeback, actually costs more than a regular PSP, despite having fewer features. At $250, it's not just the cost of the original PSP; it's also only 50 dollars less than a PS3. The Nintendo DS Lite, which costs $129, received a revamp in the form of the improved camera-equipped DSi, which can also download more affordable games...at an increased price of $170.

Handheld game systems aren't just taking hits in terms of system costs, either. While DS cartridges and UMDs at $19.99 and $29.99 a pop once seemed like affordable alternatives to 50- and 60-dollar console boxed games, downloadable games on PSN, Xbox Live Arcade, and WiiWare are routinely being released for $15 and less.

As our own Jeff Bakalar reflected, handheld game systems are dinosaurs, in a sense. They hearken back to a time in the early '90s when there were no smartphones or cell phones at all, no MP3 players, no portable video outside of a Sony Watchman. A handheld like the Game Boy afforded portable entertainment that nothing else could. Now, DSis and PSPs have to compete with iPhones, iPod Touches, a flurry of other handhelds, and even the occasional Zune. Many of these can also play games now, forcing Nintendo and Sony to include features like cameras, MP3 playback, and video downloads to justify the cost of purchase.

Maybe we're calling this flatline too early here at the CNET emergency room, but are dedicated handheld game consoles on their way to extinction? We hope not.… Read more