The rumors about the PSP 3000 being released soon are now no longer rumors. Sony officially announced the PSP 3000 at their press conference at Leipzig. The system will have a built-in microphone, an enhanced LCD screen and will be the same size as the PSP 2000. It looks like the system will be launched on October 15 in PAL areas and will cost an estimated $292. While the system looks sweet, I think I’ll wait for the price to come down a bit before I upgrade…

Via ConsoleSpot

written by Will Snizek \\ tags: Announces, bit, Conference, ConsoleSpot, LCD, Leipzig, microphone, October, PAL, press, price, PSP 3000, screen, Size, Sony, Sony PSP, system, Via

Nintendo has never been known for having good relations with third-party developers and it seems like they have no plans to change their ways.  E3 last month was a great example of how they simply fail to develop good relations.  None of the developers or publishers attending E3 knew a single thing about Wii MotionPlus until the moment Nintendo had their press conference.  LucasArts was more pissed off than any of the other companies considering the fact that Wii MotionPlus would have worked well with ‘The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels’, which is an exclusive title developed by LucasArts for the Wii.  

With that said, I have to wonder if Wii Motion Plus will be adopted by many developers, considering the fact they were basically left in the dark.  I’m sure we’ll eventually see some games, but that will probably be a year from now.  If Nintendo wants to continue their success, they simply need to improve the way they treat third-party developers.  Most of the third-party games we are seeing on the Wii tend to be gimmicky, cheap and simply pointless.  Improved third-party relations would increase the quality of Nintendo Wii games and certainly extend the life of the console.  Have they learned anything since the Game Cube?

written by Will Snizek \\ tags: Conference, Hurt, LucasArts, MotionPlus, Nintendo, Nintendo Wii, Party, press, Third

Nintendo’s E3 Conference should have been a Monday Morning “Bored” Meeting.  There was nothing exciting about that what so ever.  I guess Animal Crossing was their show stopper!  If your looking for what video games they previewed and mentioned about we’ll list it here:

• Star Wars: The Clone Wars
• Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party
• Call of Duty World at War
• Guitar Hero On Tour Decades (DS)
• Pokemon Rangers Shadows of Almia
• Cooking Navi
• Shaun White snowboarding (Wii)
• Animal Crossing (Wii)
• Wii Sports Resort
• Wii Music
• GTA Chinatown Wars (DS)

The best game on this list has to be GTA Chinatown Wars.  The game will be set in a modern day Liberty City set in a new DS engine.  I’m not quite sure how well the GTA series will be on a beautifully colored Aquamarine DS.  The contrast of blood would stand out though.

Image Via Kotaku

written by Juan Perez \\ tags: Animal Crossing, Animal Crossing (Wii), Bored, Call of duty: world at war, Chinatown, Clone, Conference, Cooking Navi, game, GTA Chinatown Wars (DS), Guitar Hero On Tour Decades (DS), Hero, Liberty City, Monday, morning, news, Nintendo, Nintendo E3, Nintendo Wii, nothing, Pokemon Rangers Shadows of Almia, Pokemon Rangers Shadows of Almin, Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party, Shaun White snowboarding (Wii), showcase, Star, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, video, WarsGuitar, Wii Music, Wii Sports Resort

We expect an exciting press conference this Monday from Microsoft at E3. There are plenty of rumors out there, so we’ll try to only report the ones we feel are credible. The biggest rumor we expect is the announcement of Halo 4. Word on the street is that the game will NOT feature Master Chief as the main character. If this is true, it could possibly hurt the franchise. I just hope the lead character will be up to snuff.

Other things we expect:

• ‘Rock Band 2′ will be featured.
• ‘Dragon Age: Origins’ should be talked about.
• Microsoft will add some hype to ‘Dead Space’
• Perhaps we’ll hear something about Fable 2 having online co-op.
• Xbox 360 price cuts and new SKU!

With any E3, it’s hard to say exactly what will happen, but we’re fairly certain that at least a few of the things I mentioned above will take place.

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written by Will Snizek \\ tags: announcement, character, Chief, Conference, E3, franchise, game, Halo, master, Microsoft, Monday, NOT, press, Rock Band, Rumor, Street, word

With the news presented of Apple’s iPhone 3G at an Apple technical conference in San Francisco on Monday, many sources noticed Steve Jobs’s health as well. “Concern over APPLE Steve Jobs’s physical appearance…” read a headline on the Drudge Report, which linked, without further comment, to photos showing the Apple CEO on stage at the Apple conference.

In response to a question about his health Tuesday, an Apple spokeswoman said Jobs was hit with a “common bug” in recent weeks but he still felt it was important to participate in the Apple conference. The spokeswoman said he’s now on the mend with the aid of antibiotics.

Jobs’s health is occasionally the topic of chatter because he was diagnosed with a rare form of pancreatic cancer four years ago, for which he underwent surgery that Apple said was successful. (Apple didn’t disclose that Jobs had been ill until after he was on the mend.) Mr. Jobs is also widely considered nearly irreplaceable at Apple, where he has been the architect of a dramatic resurgence in the company’s fortunes over the past decade. Fortunately for Apple, no replacement is needed.

Via WallStreetJournal

written by Juan Perez \\ tags: appearance, Apple CEO, APPLE Steve Jobs, backseat, Concern, Conference, Drudge, headline, health, Internet, iPhone, Monday, Mr. Jobs, news, note, product, Report, San Francisco, spokeswoman, Steve Jobs

In hopes to further advertise Guitar Hero World Tour, which will add drums and vocals to the series, Tony Hawk and Paula Abdul banded together to show their support for the little known game at the Wall Street Journal’s All Things Digital conference.

As you can tell from the video, Tony Hawk takes his Fisher-Price playing seriously and doesn’t do any outrageous hijinks to showcase his inner rock star. So what will take over your guys’ living room this fall…Guitar Hero or Rock Band?

Via All Things Digital

written by Carlos Macias \\ tags: Conference, Digital, doesn, Fisher, game, Guitar, Hero, Hero World, Journal, Paula Abdul, Paula Abdul Present, price, Rock, Rock Band, series, showcase, Star, support, Tony Hawk, Tour, video, Wall Street

The guys over at 1up.com have uncovered some choice concept art from Rare at the Nordic Game conference in Sweden last week and it looks like the developer has some “dark” genes in them. The gallery (found here) shows that Rare could be well-suited for the muted colors they’re current offerings avoid using.

You won’t see any googly-eyed bears or colorful piñatas, just interesting concept art for games that never saw the light of day.

Via 1up.com

written by Carlos Macias \\ tags: Art, choice, com, Concept, Conference, dark, day, developer, gallery, game, light, Nordic, Portfolio, Sweden, Week

We have been using games as teaching tools for many years, but I believe that we are just starting to realize the educational value of mainstream games such as Second Life. Montclair State University recently held their Learning 2.0 Conference and an interesting presentation that came out of the event was one titled ‘Second Life as a Pedagogical Tool’. Montclair State is New Jersey’s second largest university. If you are interested in learning more about Half Life and the teaching value it presents, the following slide show is something worth looking at:

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written by Will Snizek \\ tags: Conference, event, half, Learning, life, mainstream, Montclair, New Jersey, Pedagogical, presentation, Second, State, teaching, Tool, university, value, Video Games