Find Our Latest Video Reviews on YouTube!
If you want to stay on top of all of our video reviews of the latest tech, be sure to check out and subscribe to the Gear Live YouTube channel, hosted by Andru Edwards! It’s free!
Latest Gear Live Videos
Nintendo Wishes President Bush A Happy Birthday
Posted by Josh Smith Categories: Culture, Nintendo, Nintendo DS,
With power comes great things. Today Nintendo sent George Bush an awesome birthday package including a DS Lite and a copy of Brain Age to keep his mind young. Check out the well wishing birthday letter after the jump.
Click to continue reading Nintendo Wishes President Bush A Happy Birthday
Read More 
| Kotaku
Gallery: Nintendo Wishes President Bush A Happy Birthday
Advertisement
Jury Selection Begins In Deltona Xbox Murder Case
Posted by Thea Davis Categories: Culture, Politics, Xbox,
Three men are charged with the brutal clubbing and stabbing of six people in Deltona, FL. in an attack supposedly perpetrated in order to recover an Xbox video game console belonging to the group’s alleged ringleader, Troy Victorino. A fourth man, Robert Cannon, has already plead guilty to the charges, and will receive a life sentence in exchange for his testimony against the remaining defendants (Victorino, Michael Salas, and Jerone Hunter) in the case. Central Florida media coverage surrounding the crime itself and the subsequent arrests of the four suspects has been so intense that the location of the trial was moved to St. Augustine. Today, the process began to select a jury for the trial. Thirteen prospective jurors have qualified to return on Monday for the continuing selection process.
Read More | The Herald Today
Gallery: Jury Selection Begins In Deltona Xbox Murder Case
The Edinburgh Interactive Entertainment Festival (EIEF) conference is scheduled to take place August 21-22, and Tommy Tallarico will be there talking about game music. Tallarico, who is a co-creator of “Video Games Live” and a respected game music composer (Advent Rising, Earthworm Jim), will explore the future of music, as a key component in the interactive entertainment experience, in his speech entitled “Edinburgh Faces the Music.” During his talk, Tallarico will touch on several topics, including an examination of game music in relation to its Hollywood counterpart, film music, and a look at some ways the video game industry can capitalize on its use of music in games. The conference is overseen by a committee which includes The Independent Games Developers Association (TIGA), and the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA).
Read More | Music4Games.net
Gallery: Tallarico To Talk At EIEF
A free video game called Remission is helping young patients fight cancer. Created by a non-profit organization located in Palo Alto, CA. called Hopelab, the game is rated for teens and young adults. Remission is a third-person shooter following the exploits of Roxxi, a nanobot video babe who does battle with cancer and its side affects using the same weapons (treatments and medicines) that actual cancer patients use. The twenty-level game has proved challenging even for patients who are avid gamers. Remission also has a supporting website, offering a place for patients to chat with each other and search resources for information about cancer.
In addition to providing a diversion for young cancer patients, another interesting benefit came from playing the game. A recent study noted that cancer patients who played Remission became better equipped at beating the disease; game playing patients were more proactive regarding their treatments and had an improved quality of life as a result. The game is available for download at www.re-mission.net.
Read More | CBS 5 (San Francisco)
Gallery: Game Helps Fight Cancer
New Super Mario Bros. Loses Top Spot in Japan
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Culture, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2, PSP,
New Super Mario Bros. has finally been pushed from the top of the best seller’s list in Japan. Gamers who bet that a Square-Enix published title would accomplish this feat scored a win, as Valkyrie Profile: Silmeria took the top spot. The tri-Ace developed game sold 281,510 copies between the 19th and 25th of June. Mario is still no slouch, clocking in at 170,168 units. The Magic Box’s translation of the latest Media Create numbers show five other DS titles in the top ten, including Animal Crossing, Digimon Story, and three DS training titles. SNK Playmore’s latest entry in the King of Fighters series debuted at sixth on the list, with 28,015 copies sold.
Despite Mario’s loss in the rankings, the DS Lite was still the number one seller, with gamers picking up another 157,022 consoles, and no other console even came close. The Playstation 2 still has legs in Japan, with 25,467 units sold. Apparently, there are still some diehard Xbox fans living the dream; 10 people picked up that console last week.
Read More | The Magic Box
Gallery: New Super Mario Bros. Loses Top Spot in Japan
More Controversial PSP Advertisements Coming
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Culture, Portable/Mobile, PSP, Trailers,
Sony seems to be hiring a lot of edgy marketers over in the UK, and their advertisements for the PSP have been taking a lot of heat recently. Sony had 45 complaints filed against it for its original PSP ads, which said things like “Strong language and scenes of a sexual nature here”, “Your girlfriends white bits here”, and my vote for the worst “Take a Running Jump Here”, which was placed next to some subway tracks.
Evidently Sony wasn’t fazed by this negative press, as they’ve gone ahead and started posting the ad above (currently spotted in the Netherlands), which features a white woman aggressively handling a black woman and looming over her as an advertisement for the white PSP. I think most folks would agree that the ad is a little bit distasteful. But hey, at least they didn’t go so far as to have anyone dressed in KKK garb (yet).
Perhaps Sony is taking to heart the mantra that any press is good press, but I wonder how long it might be until they start alienating some of their potential customers.
Read More | Hexus.net
Gallery: More Controversial PSP Advertisements Coming
Liberty City Still Tops in UK
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Culture, Nintendo DS, PC, PlayStation 2,
New Super Mario Bros. had the second best launch of a DS title since Super Mario 64 DS, but this was not enough to unseat Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories from the top sales spot in the UK. According to a report by Gamasutra, New Super Mario Bros. debuted at second place on the Chart Track sales ranking this week. Three other DS titles appear on this week’s chart, including Over the Hedge, Animal Crossing, Brain Training, and Nintendogs: Dalmatian & Friends. Electronic Arts’ FIFA World Cup and Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer take two other spots, due largely to the ongoing World Cup tournament. Rounding out the top ten are Tomb Raider: Legend and Hitman: Blood Money. Nintendo had a fairly soft launch of the DS Lite in the UK, but New Super Mario Bros. may help lift console sales.
Read More | Gamasutra
Gallery: Liberty City Still Tops in UK
Some artistic gamers in Melbourne, Australia have put together an installment of Tetris along an unknown freeway. This is the best use of milk crates since my freshmen year in college!
Read More | Wooster Collective
Gallery: Austrailian Freeway Tetris
Superstitious people believe that there is a curse that affects people involved in the various Superman movies and television shows. However, another curse seems to plague the Superman license, and that curse stipulates that there can not be a good Superman game. Siliconera takes a look at the worst offenders. These include Superman adaptations on the Atari 2600, NES, Genesis, and possibly the worst Superman game of all time, Superman 64 on the Nintendo 64. Other attempts have been made; while not superlative efforts, they are also not as egregiously bad as those on the list. Two upcoming games will try and buck the trend. Justice League Heroes, an action RPG in the mold of X-Men Legends, and of course, the movie tie-in, Superman Returns. Superman Returns was initially scheduled to be released in time for the movie’s release, but suffered an embarrassing three month delay. Perhaps the game curse has already struck.
Read More | Siliconera
Gallery: The Other Superman Curse
Dean Takahashi has released some Microsoft internal e-mails that summarize the outcome of the fateful meeting where the Xbox team and the WebTV team submitted their competing proposals to Bill Gates. This meeting would help decide who would go forward and do the research to get Microsoft’s game console built. Gamers can thank their lucky stars that the Xbox team was chosen; how the decision went down is summarized in the leaked e-mails.
Basically, there were two approaches suggested. The first option was that Microsoft build up the WebTV platform, based around WinCE. The other scenario would have Microsoft scaling back the PC to get something that was focused specifically on gaming. Bill Gates clearly favored the PC-based solution. His belief at the time was that eventually, PC and console prices would converge; both would reach $199. For a time, heavily subsidized PCs did reach $199, but that is hardly commonplace today. Most “low end” PCs hover around the $350 price point, but cannot match the graphics capabilities of the Xbox 360.
It is interesting to note what ideas suggested in the 1999 meeting made it into the original Xbox, and what would have to wait. Even as far back as this early planning stage, Microsoft was imagining game console configurations with and without a hard drive. Also, the “tax” on peripherals that Bill Gates was looking for in the original Xbox would really not develop until the Xbox 360.
Other interesting tidbits: Intel was the first original hardware vendor to talk to. While Microsoft dallied with AMD for a while, eventually, the Xbox did get the Intel CPU. Of course, both chip vendors lost out on the sequel, with IBM getting the nod. Microsoft also plans to string Sega along until they can announce the Xbox, pimping the Dreamcast while secretly seeking alliances with other partners for their own attack. Ultimately, Microsoft appeared to be afraid of the inroads that Sony was making. According to Microsoft, their “goal needs to be to contain Sony and to focus on a duopoly.”
Read More | Mercury News
Gallery: The Xbox Vs WebTV Meeting
Advertisement
© Gear Live Inc. {year} – User-posted content, unless source is quoted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Public Domain License. Gear Live graphics, logos, designs, page headers, button icons, videos, articles, blogs, forums, scripts and other service names are the trademarks of Gear Live Inc.