About time that I finally open up GameSnips.com for some beta testing.  I'm only announcing this on yankidank.com right now because I need to still finish some parts of the site and test for bugs.  The site is not what I was hoping for just yet, but it's still kick ass.  If you like Digg and video games, this site WILL be your new homepage.  There are still some spots that need to be fixed, right now the forum userlist is seperate from the main site users so you have to register for each part seperately.  Eventually it will only require one log on for the whole site, but that probably won't happen for a little while.  Let me know what you think on the GameSnips forum and start posting and voting for some articles.  Right now voting is open to anyone, so you don't even have to sign up for an account just yet.  But if you do sign up for an account you'll be eligible for prizes down the road and you will be able to keep track of stories that you've voted and commented on through your profile.

 

 

 

TEAMXBOX.COM - This what we call a great deal! Amazon has announced a new promo for the month of October that will get a buyer of an Xbox 360 a free copy of Gears of War or Viva Piñata.

Order either an Xbox 360 or Xbox 360 Core system during the month of October, and we'll throw in a pre-order of either of Microsoft's highly anticipated titles, Gears of War or Viva Piñata as a free thank you gift. Gears of War and Viva Piñata are $59.99 and $49.99 values and will be released this coming November.

To receive your free gift, simply add your choice of game, along with an Xbox 360 gaming console, to your shopping cart and proceed to checkout. Your Xbox 360 will ship immediately and your game, on its release date (see the game detail pages for these dates). But remember, this offer is only good throughout the month of October, so order yours today.

ENGADGET.COM - If you've got no use for the LCD-equipped G15 keyboard, but still lust for dozens of extra buttons to push, you might be interested in the slightly less costly G11. Logitech's self-proclaimed "gaming keyboard" sports the same basic features as its more luxurious sibling, but omits the LCD in favor of bringing the price down to a more respectable level. While it may not be immediately evident what makes the 'board so "gamer-centric," ExtremeTech took a long look at the G11, and unearthed a lot of potential for coders and macro-freaks as well as late-night MMO gamers. While noting that the device boasted the usual assortment of keys, the crew was thoroughly impressed (albeit a bit overwhelmed) with the 54 "G-keys" that could record any macro imaginable. It was noted that keystrokes, although comfortable, rendered a slight "click" when depressed, and they were occasionally sidetracked by mistaking a lower G-key with the Control key. Nevertheless, the illuminated keys (and media controls) were deemed "worthwhile," and the superbly implemented Keyboard Profiler software allowed for on-the-fly macro recording including pauses and combinations. Overall, reviewers felt that the G11 was nothing more than "a shiny keyboard that glows in the dark" if you weren't obsessed with macros, but insinuated that it was a solid value at $70 if you used the bevy of G-keys as frequently as ASDF.

GOTFRAG.COM - 2006 will forever be known as the year of gaming network performance. We have seen more gaming-related network advances announced this year than in any other. Many major communications companies have begun to recognize our massive market and are poising themselves to profit from us. Now, we are always looking to squeeze the most performance we can out of our connections. We are the gamers that don’t just play because the graphics are pretty; we are out for blood. We play to light up that scoreboard and become a local legend, even if just on one server. We asked for a price to be put on the head of our greatest enemy: Lag. Some of these companies have spent years in development trying to not only define that price, but to give us powerful weapons against it. Some of the powerful weapons that have been added to our available arsenal are software-based, such as PlayLinc, Xfire, and SteelSecurity, and others are based on hardware, such as the KillerNIC. These solutions range anywhere from free to almost $300. This is a considerable amount of money being spent to only eliminate one particular bottleneck; however, these companies realize how this can detrimentally affect gameplay, and how we will pay well to simply reduce it.

Today’s definition of Lag is a culmination of negative effects which occur while in game. Lag is defined as anything that creates a stuttering or skip in our framerates - this could be anything, from an excess of graphical processing and CPU limitations to network latency and the fact you are still playing on your grandma’s dialup. Products like SteelSecurity look to reduce lag by optimizing, cleaning, and implementing preventative measures on your PC. Products like the KillerNIC attempt to reduce lag by offloading the network computations to an entirely separate processor on the NIC. While these solutions will help -- and probably gain you a few extra frames and a lower ping -- there is quite a bit of money required for this relatively small gain.

So here we are in the middle of Q3 2006, and the announcements haven’t stopped. However, today I bring you something that is beyond what anyone else has ever attempted -- something that is proven solid, and on a massive scale in comparison to all other product announcements this year. Imagine a world where you could live in New York, connect to a server in California, and have a ping as low as 30-35ms. Imagine a private network, implemented nationwide, for gaming traffic only, where the normal congestion of the internet does not even come into play. Imagine no longer, because it has arrived.

ENGADGET.COM - Yeah, so we already know most, if not all, of the gory details, but we're here live in New York for Nintendo's US press conference for the Wii anyway. We'll have updates on the regular, stay tuned!

9:20AM EST - Perrin Kaplan is on stage doing an introduction.
9:21AM - Reggie! He walks on, "We will reveal all the relevant information for the Wii." "Today marks our next planned step in driving this industry forward."

9:23AM - "Our strategy is based on one core belief: brining gaming back to the masses. It's literally that simple. Appealing to current gamers as well as broadening the market. Four landmarks we've brought to market. Today marks the fifth. The first, the Nintendo DS."

9:26AM - "How we changed the user interface, with two screens, voice activated microphone, changed the definition of what a video game could be. 2nd: Introduction of touch-sensitive games. Nintendogs, Brain Age. DS supplements your life instead of replacing it. Is it working? Definitely. New Super Mario Bros. exclusively for DS. Sold to 1M players in less than two weeks. What's driving growth are new players enjoying new types of games. In past four months, New Super Mario Bros. represents 35% of first party sales. Touch-generation represents 39% of sales."

9:27AM - "So far in 2006 everyone is pleased with industry revenue growth at 8%. Nintendo DS is up 142% over last year. Take away DS, industry only at 2% growth. Nintendo WiFi Connection is the 3rd. 4th, the Wii controller."

9:29AM - "The Wii Remote. The reaction has been astounding. The 5th step is today. We're not just altering the interface between player and game, but in the household. Here's the hard news: Wii November 19th, worldwide debut happens right here in the Americas, same place as Nintendo DS. On Nov. 19th, avail. in 25,000 retailers in the Americas."

9:30AM - "MSRP: $249. One price, one config, one color: white. This simplicity allows us to maximize volume throughout the Americas. Our shipment goal worldwide is 4M consoles during the 43 days between launch and Dec 31. The Americas will receive the largest share, a continuous flow of units." Continued...   

JOYSTIQ.COM - A financial analyst estimates that 80% of retailers will demand the more expensive 60GB PS3 at launch (the oh-so affordable $599 one). If Sony then allocates according to this estimate, that would mean only 80,000 of the 400,000 available US launch units will be of the cheaper $499 kind. This would be consistent, however, with higher sales of Microsoft's 360 premium package last November, and what Sony would obviously hope for while still being able to market their console as "starting at $499!"

The report also quotes one Sony manager suggesting the unlikelihood of both full-game downloads on the PS3 due to "storage and bandwidth constraints," and a holiday price reduction of the PS2. So for those already sold on the PS3 at launch, which version do intend to buy?

JOYSTIQ.COM - Activision announced today that Call of Duty 2 for the Xbox 360 (average review score of 90%) has sold over a million copies in the US making it the first game to do so on Microsoft's next-gen platform. The World War II first-person shooter was a system launch title in November of 2005, and while it may be the first game to reach the one million unit milestone, Wikipedia also recognizes Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion as performing the same feat in less time.

GIZMODO.COM - Tired of the Xbox 360's "look-how-hard-I'm-trying-to-look-hip" aesthetics? Mod it, young man. That's what Ben Heckendorn did, transforming the Xbox 360 into a much smaller, laptop-like fun adapter. Something like that. The laptop mod incorporates a 17-inch high definition LCD along with a built-in keyboard and Wi-Fi and stuffed into a shell that's no more than 2.8-inches deep.

 

The laptop 360 is water-cooled and cools more efficiently than a regular Xbox 360. Maybe Microsoft should've put Mr. Heck on the 360's development team.

Pictures of the laptop Xbox 360's construction, along with the creator's running commentary, can be found on Heck's portion of the world wide web. – Nicholas Deleon

Xbox Laptop 360 [benheck.com via SlashGear]

ENGADGET.COM - If you've tossed around the idea of modding your DS, but never bit the bullet due to the ridiculous amount of loopholes you had to jump through to get your homebrew game on, DS-Xtreme has got you covered. While the precise details of how this thing works its magic are a bit scarce, we do know that the company claims this wonder-working cart will allow you to not only run your favorite homebrew applications on your DS without any software / hardware hacks or workarounds whatsoever, but it also rocks a built-in GUI that interfaces with Windows XP via USB 2.0 for some remarkably easy drag 'n drop action. All this sounds mighty impressive, especially compared to the PassMe alternative that required a old fashion GBA flash card, linker, and a DS game just to get you up and running; the DS-shaped cartridge features 512MB (4Gb) of built-in storage space, USB 2.0 connectivity, a full sized onboard EEprom "complete with some serious custom engineering," and a snazzy GUI that apparently makes managing your apps a breeze. If you've been fantisizing over an easier way to get homebrew material on your Nintendo DS or DS Lite, the DS-X flash cart appears to a dream come true, but considering there's no specific release date nor price, we're forced to play the "wait and see" game on this one.

GAMESPOT.COM - Sony's PSP handheld has seen a steadily growing set of features, thanks to frequent system software updates. Since its launch, the PSP has been given an Internet browser, Macromedia Flash capabilities, and support for RSS. At the March PlayStation Business Briefing, Sony Computer Entertainment CEO Ken Kutaragi also announced plans for a camera attachment and GPS receiver, scheduled for release in Japan in September and October respectively.

In a recent poll, Japanese Web site ITmedia asked its readers to vote on the new PSP features, both announced and otherwise, that they want the most. The least popular features, gaining 3 percent of the total votes each, were the camera attachment and support for electronic money. Another 14 percent of the votes went to the GPS receiver, which will enable the PSP to act as a portable navigation system and could be put to novel use in games as well.

However, the bulk of the votes went to support for the 1seg service. 1seg, so called because it uses one of the 13 segments allotted to terrestrial digital television broadcasting, began earlier this year and allows viewers to watch programming on a range of portable devices. A 1seg tuner for the Nintendo DS is already in the works, and was announced alongside the Opera Web browser in February.