Quest for holy grail of game controllers
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The quest for a wireless, robust video game controller is a hit and miss task.
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Tycho:  It's floating around now, out there on the Wub, and it calls to you.  Or maybe it does, I don't actually know.  In any case, it can be got from 3D Downloads, the Fileplanets, GamersHell, or WorthDownloading.  Download it from mulltiple sites simultaneously for a naughty thrill.  God only knows how this would run on my Vista rig at home, but it's a Vista rig, so you can probably guess.  (CW)TB
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Some last minute advice about the hot tech toys
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Tycho:  In case you are wondering, cats apparently need regular maintenance, like cars.  And, like an oil change, this juicing process can be done (I'm told) at home, preferably with the curtains drawn and a couple inches of sawdust laid down.  That's right: you can wring out your own cat's asshole.  This is the kind of helpful information you can expect when you visit Penny Arcade.  Don't everybody run home at once.    I've been playing a lot of Prism on the DS, even though the Zelda cartridge seems to squeal as I remove it.  I understand there's some kind of Ghost Ship?  I forget all of my cares, and also the cares of Princess Zelda, once those beams begin to refract.    They've ginned up some ridonculous crap about light eating space monsters to support their gameplay, which is very solid, and requires no extraterrestrial photophiles.  It's a puzzle game.  When I put pieces of a puzzle together, I never think about how alone each piece must feel, longing only to congregate with similarly knobbed partial images.  So, discard that.  Discard also the truly nasty presentation, no doubt a result of hard time done in already the Mobile and PC Casual markets.  Part these imperfections like tall savannah grass, and gaze into the game's rich core:  the creation of sometimes very complex circuits.     Inside each puzzle grid, the player is given some combination of Light Emitting Entities, Reflective Mirrors, Splitters, or Prisms.  You must jigger the aforementioned until light of the correct colors is distributed to targets around the edge of the field.  That's it, and the fun comes from how complicated this process can become.  There are quite a few cooperative puzzles as well - where each player has access to half the grid, and they must work together to route everything.  If you try this mode - and I request that you do so, as you only need one (1) cartridge and a willing accomplice - I recommend that you each turn your DS sideways, so that the UI is along the bottom.  That will make it so that "left" and "right" and "up" and "down" all mean the same thing to each of you.  Trust me, you want this.  The game is hard enough without the horror of fully relative terms.    Prism actually taught me something fairly significant about why I play games, and I think it's because the gameplay is so clean and the presentation so spartan that I could pick up on it.  I like games that generate communication.  This is why team-based shooters, roleplaying games, and tactical games are my delight - every one of these entails a suite of custom language to describe it, they require constant dialogue, and, most importantly, all other things being equal these games can be won by the efficient use of language.  Working out puzzles together in Prism has a strong logic component, but in large part the challenge was communicating ethereal notions succinctly.    I suppose this is also why I torment you here, thrice weekly: even when playing a game by myself, I am harvesting the experience so that it may be reconstituted here.  So, thank you for reading.  You dignify my leisure hours.          The Playstation 3 in the office has been more than acceptable for playing the sometimes short, often bad games that have arrived on it - but this holiday, with the titles to prove out the claim, I had to "get mine" in the bawdy parlance of the young.  What tipped my hand wasn't the four hundred dollar system on offer, rather, it was the three hundred and seventy nine dollar model.  These are probably mostly a mail order proposition, but any of those rare twenty gig models the platform launched with got bumped down by the new price.  It's inexpensive by PS3 standards, but it's positively cheap for a Blu-Ray device.  Now fully franchised, flexing all the rich benefits of Sony citizenship, you may expect me to be even more brutal in my critique.
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The reception of Nintendo's Wii video game console has been enthusiastic &#151; too enthusiastic, apparently, for the straps that are supposed to keep the game controllers in the hands of players.
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Tycho: Keek directed me to a radical (and potentially even "badical") article on BioShock over at Gamers Wif Jobs. I've been wondering about the recent PR shift the game has gone through, because I don't just keep hearing that it is a "shooter first," but I keep hearing specifically that it is a "kick-ass shooter," even though it's a game where you learn about Objectivism underwater while helping jealous composers get revenge. I've never doubted that the game will be great, by whatever road it reaches that greatness. The recent WWE slant just had me curious about whether I'll be able to perform a suplex in-game. You may not think that is important, but it is totally important.(CW)TB
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I'm not so good with buttons, especially those that control video games. When I play, it's a full-body experience with a lot of arm movement as I try to move my little guy on the screen. The physical activity does nothing to influence the game, but it's good exercise and provides plenty of amusement to my brothers, significant others and anyone else watching.
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One of the selling points of the Wii gaming console is its motion-sensitive controller. But there are reports of the controller breaking, causing it to fly out of the hands of users.
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Tycho: This thing is pretty huge. I don't mean in terms of kilobytes - I mean it's packed tight with powerful features. Upscaling of content has been in demand, and it's been delivered. Like the 360 Elite, you need to be hooked up via a managed connection (i.e., HDMI) to upscale a DVD. Past that, it will knock up your old PS/PS2 games to 1080p, but the results we've gotten here haven't been supernatural - still appreciated, though.The real flavor is elsewhere: specifically, the ability to stream video, pictures, and music from "a DLNA compliant device," which you'll find just about every computer already is. That's only half of it. The Remote Play option of the PSP (the one that lets you enjoy certain types of content stored on your PS3 via your PSP) is deeply enriched by this capacity. You can do this much already. But with the next update for the Playstation Portable - 3.50, to be released before the end of the month - you'll be able to access your PS3 remotely via any wireless connection. I must say, starting a download at home while I'm still at the office sounds pretty Goddamn good. Also, while we are loving the PSP, am I the only person enthralled by the idea of R-Type Tactics? (CW)TB
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The last few days rumors have been circulating that Sony was preparing to announce a new rumble-equipped controller for the PS3. As you may know, the current PS3 controllers don't shake, which we assume was because Sony got slapped with a lawsuit for alle
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Game animator I-Wei Huang is getting rave reviews for his steam-powered robots. How does he hack RC kits with steam engines? And will he ever make a rideable robot? By Griffin Wright.
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Key components for the upcoming game console are in short supply, company says.
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The new PlayStation 2 game makes ingenious use of the gimmicky EyeToy controller, but glitches and repetition keep it from taking off. By Chris Kohler.
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We've gushed over Razer's gaming equipment before, having been particularly fond of its mouse designs. From Crave, CNET's gadgets blog.
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The O'Reilly Network has a new article this morning targeted towards those out there wondering what page controllers are and what is so life-changing about using them in your code.
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By Hiawatha Bray, The Boston Globe  Dec. 16--The wireless controller for the new Nintendo Wii video game  console is light, compact, and dangerous -- at least to TV sets.
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Multiple sources have confirmed that rumble-enabled PlayStation 3 game controllers are now playable at this week's Tokyo Game Show.