The Lamer Gamer

All this thinking about how to hack my old ass Xbox 360 reminds me that I’m still wondering when the Valhalla revision of the motherboards is going to debut.  Valhalla is rumored to contain the CPU and GPU on a single die, both at 65nm.  This will likely further reduce the wattage from the current ~150W PS.  More important to me is that they’d reduce the noise.  My system is likely a Zephyr and while it’s whisper quiet when playing DVDs, the fans really rev up when playing games, and it’s particularly annoying when using Netflix streaming.

Random sites seem to indicate it might be coming in the new 250GB bundles, but that’s not for a few months.  I’d figure the recent price drop also aims to clear out stock of older Jasper before the holidays.

I’ve been listening to new Xbox controller rumors for years, and while the bop-it-stick style controller that was supposed to be the answer to the WiiMote never materialized, it hasn’t stopped me from wishing they’d put something out that’s more innovative.  It isn’t that I find anything yo be wrong with the current 360 controller, quite the contrary, I find it to be the best traditional model on any system.  But without some kind of motion sensing input, it’s leaving the 360 hanging as the only system completely lacking in that dept.

So now MS apparently decided to up the ante, and not only add motion sensing, but expression sensing.  So I guess sticking your tongue out, smiling, frowning, leaving your mough agape will all be valid inputs.  Here’s hoping I don’t get penalized for “keeping up foreign relations” when I feel wronged by a game.

CNet has a whole mess of info on the rumored PSP Go.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10252808-1.html

Can Sony not hear me?  A new PSP without 2 analog sticks is not a great improvement!  Not to mention that this supposed new model will have a smaller screen (3.8″ vs the current 4.3″).  Placement of the analog stick looks way bad too.  I’ve never liked the placement of the analog sticks on the PS2 or PS3, an it looks like their making what I’d consider the same mistake on this new model.  The analog is essentially moved too far to the center of the unit such that I have to position my thumb almost laterally to get at it while holding the unit.

One other enhancement I’d love to see is have the power button moved away from the side of the unit.  I often find that I bump it and put the unit to sleep during intense in-game situations.

All that said, I like the new slide design, compact is better.  While I always appreciate backwards compatibility, I can’t say that I’m going to miss the UMD discs, and you sort of had to see that coming once UMD Video discs tanked in the last year or so.

It sure looks fake, doesn’t it.  Even avoiding the design issues, the specs are a little out there.

• 4-inch display at 640×363 resolution
• Custom Intel LV Atom DualCore 733MHz processor
• Custom Nvidia BLowFish chipset
• 128MB RAM
• 40 hour music, 14 hours of video, 9 hours of gaming and 6 hours of gaming with the wireless on
• 4 analog buttons, 2 shoulder buttons, an analog stick attachment
• 32GB flash storage
• Support for Bluetooth headphones
• SIM Card tray (it’s a phone! Maybe!)
• Xbox Live Arcade Games
• ZuneX Originals
• OnLive Ready game streaming (now we’re just getting a little ridiculous)
• WMV, H.264, MPEG-4 and DivX support

Okay, but back to design.  Mobile gaming without two analogs, is I believe, going the way of the Dodo.  I’ll conceed that touch interfaces are an alternative.  But just having a D-pad and a 4 button face doesn’t strike me as being very innovative.

Umm, yeah.

http://www.holyfragger.com/multiplatform/rhythm_games/lego_rock_band/news/?a=817

Been hearing a lot of odd things about BioShock 2, namely that you’ll be picking up where you left off as a Big Daddy, while your new enemy is the Big Sister.  Looks like the same old splicers and such will be around too.  No idea if your actions from the original have any effect on the new one.      Probably not.

Considering that some promo pics have the date 1967 on them, it looks like the game is set about 7 years after you completed BioShock.   I would have thought they go with a new protagonist, more easily explaining why you have no abilities and armor as the game begins.  But who knows, maybe you can import or something.  You do get the Big Daddy and Rosie weapons like the drill and rivet gun.   Plus with the diving suit you can exit the city so there’s more than just what you’ve seen before.

From the screenshots available, it definately looks prettier than the original, course they might all be pre-renders.

Be nice if something else would show up on their promo site http://www.somethinginthesea.com/