Gaming

If you’re looking to step up to a 60GB Xbox 360 but have an irrational fear of Amazon, Circuit City just put it up for pre-order. The price is still $349.99 but ship date is August 6, two inexplicable days later than Amazon. The site lists an HDMI output with upscaling DVD player, which is nice to see. Other than that, all else looks to be the same — no Circuit City bonuses like cables, games, or other schwag.

[Thanks, Dave]

So it seems that NVIDIA has been sneaking its 9700M / 9800M GPUs into potent gaming laptops for a little while now, but we’re finally getting some official-ish verbiage on the new-ish families. The GeForce 9700M GT, 9700M GTS, 9800M GT, 9800M GTS and 9800M GTX should all be available as we speak in some of your favorite portable LAN machines, with the latter capable of a mind-melting 420 gigaflops. For more on the graphical powerhouse that could be sitting within your machine right now, check the read link.

So much for early 2008 or even July for that matter. Sony’s David Reeves now confirms that PlayTV — the €99 PS3 TV tuner / DVR add-on — will hit the UK on September 10th. The service will then march onto the continent before completing the European rollout in December — Australia and New Zealand get theirs in January or February. Notably, the service will in fact record television in the background without interrupting your regularly scheduled gaming regimen thanks to the recent 2.41 firmware PS3 update. Phew, for a moment we felt threatened by a lack of manufactured distractions.

[Via gamesindustry.biz]

It’s neck-and-neck but Nintendo looks to have just slipped past Microsoft in terms of total US sales for current generation game consoles. What’s more, it’s pulling away with a 3:1 sales lead for the month of June. NPD Group reports more than 666,000 Wii consoles were sold in June compared to 405,500 PlayStation 3s and 219,800 Xbox 360s. That makes for a total of 10.9 million Wiis sold in the US since it launched in November of 2006. Impressive. Even more so considering that Microsoft had a one year head-start to reach a second place position of about 10.4 million US console sales.

We promise this is the last Rock Band 2 post of the day (okay, maybe hour), but we were just pulled aside at E3 to peep some less-than over-the-radar product sheets for some upcoming Mad Catz accessories. First off, the Premium M.I.C. ($50) is said to have “studio quality” sound all the while including control buttons — something we didn’t realize was missing from the original Rock Band mic until we thought about it. Then we spotted the Portable Drums ($60), which is great news for those of you who excel at drums but like to play Rock Band on the road. They can be used on any surface and even come with foldable drum sticks. Next up, the Official Cymbals ($30 for a pack of 3 or $15 each) for the new Rock Band 2 drum kit are coming from Mad Catz. Remember those three 1/8-inch plugs on the back of the drum kit head? Yeah, these plug into those. Finally, the Kick Drum Screen doesn’t really do much, but it certainly will make you look like a pseudo-real drummer (depending on the angle). Mad Catz says all of these random accessories will hit store shelves this fall. Oh, and apologies for the image quality — these were literally taken in the corner of a crowded room with maybe two seconds of view time per page.

While we love Rock Band 2 as much as the next guy, playing that miniaturized plastic controller will forever look a little dorky (or just make us look like giant men, which is kind of cool). Nothing wrong with looking dorky — heck, we make a living of it — but Mad Catz’s new full-size Stratocaster and Precision Bass controllers for Rock Band 2 are bringing the cool back. They’re exactly what you think they are: actual Fender Squire axes turned into Rock Band 2 controllers, with the size, heft, and weight you’d expect from dad’s electric guitar. Of special note was the Precision Bass controller, which has a dual flipper and thumb rest to allow fast pickers to do their thing Entwistle-style. They are also wireless, will come with a foot pedal for overdrive, and the guitar controller will have a whammy bar, of course. Unfortunately, Mad Katz didn’t add the optical sensor for display calibration, but we’ll forgive them for now. Look for these for $199 in Q1 2009 for both Xbox 360 and PS3. We caught them live at E3, and they look as impressive as they sound. Peep the gallery below if you dare.

Although Sony announced that the updated 80GB PS3 “Core” configuration would come to the States in September, it looks like other parts of the world will be getting it a little earlier — Sony Computer Entertainment Europe chief David Reeves told reporters last night that the new SKU would hit Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Australia and New Zealand on August 27th. Worldwide pricing wasn’t announced, but Sony confirmed that the new model would cost £299 in Britain and €399 in Europe. Sadly, it doesn’t look like the Playstation Store’s new video service will be making the trip anytime soon, but Reeves said that Sony is “working on it.” That’s great — we’re still more interested in a 60GB launch console, though.

[Thanks, Matt]

If you’re jonesing to get your Rock Band 2 on like we are, you’ll be all over these new shots of the game’s upcoming controllers that we got all grubby on today at E3.

First, the new guitars not only look better, but they will include some welcome hardware tweaks. The new axe includes an optical sensor that will make syncing the game to your display a breeze. Rather than go through that annoying tap..tap…tap synchronization scheme, all you’ll need to do is hold up your controller to your display and it will figure things out with you based on your screen’s refresh rate. In addition, the new guitars have been updated with slicker fret controls that make it easier to slide from one to the other. Meanwhile, the strum bar has been tightened up a bit. No clicking, though — the guys at Harmonix say no one “dreams of playing a metronome” anyway. A dig at Guitar Hero? Perhaps, but if you’re looking for some click feedback from your controller, look elsewhere.

Then there’s the new drum kit. We already knew that this thing was coming with pressure sensitivity, but the results in play are pretty impressive, adding some serious dynamics to your pad-whacking. The kit also includes three auxiliary outputs to which you can connect cymbals, currently under development by Mad Katz. They promise that the cymbals will be triggered differently than the traditional round pads, adding to your drum solo score.

Speaking of drum kits, the sold-separately and uber-tech Ion “Drum Rocker” kit was also on display. This is the same kit that can be attached to a real drum sound module for those of you who want to take your Rock Band chops and turn them into an actual, stand-alone act. The kit looks very solid, plays like a dream, and for $300 is almost worth it.

On the software side, Harmonix promises 500 songs by year-end. Song browsing has been made to mimic the current music store, and set lists are now officially a part of the game. World Tour mode adds some sim options like choosing a manager or even letting your mom set up your gigs all the while cleaning your underwear. Really. We wouldn’t make that up. There are also some new venues to check out, including Tokyo and Tijuana. Finally, a “no-fail” mode has been added for those moments when you have some less-than-coordinated guests over and don’t want to embarrass them. And don’t forget, Harmonix has stated that “most” songs from the original game can be ported over to the new one barring any licensing issues though which they’re currently working.

So there you have it, kids: Rock Band 2 in full gory glory.