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The guys over at HardOCP continue their coverage of the various faceplate replacement providers for the Xbox 360 by looking at Nyko’s GameFace 360. Nyko’s offering purports to allow users to create their own custom faceplate by offering a clear faceplate packaged with some printable templates and software. The software provided works for both the PC and the Mac, which is nice. HardOCP drills into the details of the faceplate. Overall, the build quality of the faceplate seems to be good, but the templates appear to be lacking. Gamers may be better off by getting a custom paint job on their faceplates if they need customization until Nyko can fix their templates.
Read More 
| HardOCP
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Bungie To Offer Official Halo Faceplate
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Mods/Hacks, Xbox 360,
Bungie today announced that they will be making an official Halo faceplate available for the Xbox 360. According to a post on Bungie.net, the faceplate will be available in October, and features the Master Chief against a blue backdrop. Perhaps this will be the first in a series. EBGames has the faceplate listed for $19.99 with a ship date of October 24th. Gamers can visit Bungie’s website to get the full 900x300 image.
Read More | Bungie
Annoy your Siblings! Put A DS To Sleep With Magnets
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Internet, Mods/Hacks, Nintendo, Nintendo DS,
The enterprising “Gamersunited” on YouTube must have been trying to stick his DS to the fridge, or maybe he thought the DS had a hard drive you could erase, or something. Anyway, somehow he discovered that if you place a magnet in just the right place on the back of your DS you can put it in sleep mode, even with the screens being open.
This obviously doesn’t have a ton of utility - anyone too lazy to close their DS before putting it to sleep isn’t going to be bothered with carrying a magnet around all the time. Still, a neat trick and maybe a good way to annoy your little brother that just won’t stop playing with his Nintendog.
Disclaimer: Obviously, holding magnets next to sensitive electronics is, in general, a bad idea. Try this at your own risk.
Read More | YouTube.com
Latest Gear Live Videos
Team Fortress 2 Teaser Trailer Out: Wow Again
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: First Person Shooters, Mods/Hacks, PC, Trailers,
First Valve goes and blows our mind with the Portal teaser, and now they’ve got a new way to keep us salivating. Scant days after releasing a teaser image for Team Fortress 2, Valve now has a full trailer for the game, available through YouTube.
Comparisons could definitely be made between the art style in Team Fortress and the characters in The Incredibles, and that’s definitely not a bad thing. The characters are stylized but not overly cartoony (i.e. no Windwaker shocks here, thank goodness). The complete trailer for the game is purported to be running off the in-game engine, with only minor special effects added during certain sequences.
Read More | YouTube via Joystiq
An Epsilon BIOS beta user on the MaxConsole forums reported today that the 1.0 version of the code is nearing release. Included with the post are two videos that show the brick recovery mode and the ability of the BIOS to boot from GZIP compressed images. This firmware, combined with the Undiluted Platinum modchip should allow PSP gamers the ability to run game backups from their memory stick, as well as grant access to the various homebrew applications in development. This release would be the last part necessary for a gamer to unlock the full potential of their PSP.
Read More | MaxConsole
Valve Turns Down the Pressure in Parts of Half-Life 2: Episode 1
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: First Person Shooters, Internet, Mods/Hacks, PC,
If you’re the kind of person that worries about companies invading your privacy, prepare to don your tin-foil hat! In response to massive gameplay statistics collected by Valve through the Steam service, the developer has decided to lower the difficulty on the slightly-intense elevator section of Half-Life 2: Episode 1. The update is delivered in the form of a patch and makes this particular section of the game easier, and as of right now it looks like Valve isn’t giving you the option of choosing which version you’d like to play.
Beyond being a bit peeved that Valve’s gone and insulted my gaming prowess like this, I don’t think this is really reaching into “Big Brother” territory. More likely, this is Valve’s way of showing off to prospective content producers how flexible their Steam system is. And under the right circumstances, changing a game to make the play experience better for the majority of users might not be a bad thing. Still, I’m of the church of Gamer Choice, so if Valve doesn’t start including the ability to turn off future mods, I might get a bit antsy. Do you think this is a good idea? Or is it time to start disconnecting the ol’ ethernet cable every time you play a single-player game?
Read More | SteamPowered.com via Kotaku.com
Tech E Blog has put together a fun list of the Top 10 strangest NES mods. If you have any old NES hardware sitting around you can easily come away from this list with a good weekend project. My personal favorite is the NES alarm clock, which won an honorable mention.
Read More | Tech E Blog
DS In A Half-Shell, Turtle Power!
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Culture, Mods/Hacks, Nintendo, Nintendo DS, Portable/Mobile,
Now that you’ve been convinced to buy a DS twice (you HAD to have the original DS when it came out, and now you’ve GOT to get the DS Lite), what are you going to do with that DS Phat? Give it to your girlfriend? Sell it for a third of what you paid on eBay? Or how about putting your creative juices to work and coming up with the coolest DS mod ever!
4ColorRebellion is reporting on a DS owner who painted up their original DS to look like a Koopa Troopa shell, and the results are absolutely stunning and gorgeous. Just keep in mind 4Color’s words of wisdom:
Please do not confuse this mod with an actual Koopa Troopa shell. Jumping on it repeatedly while on a stairway will not help you rack up infinite lives. It will just piss off your parents.
Good advice, guys!
Read More | 4ColorRebellion.com
New Super Mario Codes for the Masochistic
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Adventure, Mods/Hacks, Nintendo, Nintendo DS, Retro,
So you’ve made your way through New Super Mario Bros. for the DS. You’ve defeated Lord Bowser, you’ve gone back and opened all the worlds…you’ve even collected all 120 coins and opened every background. What’s a Mario obsessed gamer to do?
Well, 4ColorRebellion is here to help. Now you can access Challenge Mode, a new mode of the game that incorporates forced scrolling, so you can’t go back to collect anything you miss without re-playing a level. To enter this mode, simply press Start on the map screen, then enter the following button sequence:
L R L R X X Y Y
Now we just have to wait a little for the first hardcore gamer to post the video of beating Challenge Mode on YouTube. At the rate folks are tearing through this game, it shouldn’t be long.
Read More | 4ColorRebellion.com
Team Extender Introduces Chrome Xbox 360 Case
Posted by Josh Smith Categories: Accessories, Mods/Hacks, Xbox 360,
Team Extender has announced their latest Xbox 360 case. The case’s chrome surface is great for gamers who can’t bear to miss their own look of satisfaction that accompanies each frag-fest. The chrome case is available for pre-order at DecalGirl for only $59.99 including the chrome faceplate.
Read More | Team Xtender
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