I simply could not leave CES without getting some hands-on with the new Sony PlayStation Vita. Having abandoned Sony’s PSP after the original device, I was hoping to get a feel of what the Vita had to offer. Gaming on a mobile device is coming along quite well, but I still feel the need to have a dedicated portable gaming device rather than a smartphone with gaming capabilities. We found a representative to give us a short demo of the device which highlights some of the features of the Vita and the new OS Sony put together.

Sony Rep Demo

This holiday season Nintendo DS games bring big fun to the compact, yet powerful console with several new games incorporating camera functions as well as other unique capabilities on the new Nintendo 3DS and existing XL, DSi, DS Lite and regular DS handheld consoles. Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Last September Apple unveiled the iPod Touch 4th Gen, with super-slim design, dual cameras, and great performance. The Retina screen and top-notch graphics clearly marked the iPod Touch as the ‘gaming system to beat’ – and games like Infinity Blade still defy the competition a year later! With Apple about to unveil their latest ‘next big thing’, I wanted to step back and take a look at the iPod Touch, the oversized MP3 player that has changed the gaming industry at a fundamental level.

The Nintendo 3DS came out earlier this year, and Michael Siebenaler did a great review here. Even before it was released I had decided I wasn’t… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

A few months ago I reviewed the Rude GameWare Fierce Gaming Mouse 2, declaring “It is perfectly weighted and balanced without feeling so game-specific to be useless in a business setting.” Now Rude GameWare is back with a wireless version called the Fierce 3500 Wireless Gaming Mouse. I will give a quick highlight of features, a summary of whether or not I liked it, but mostly focus on a video review.

The Hype:

Free yourself from the chains of wired gaming mice forever! The Fierce 3500 Wireless Gaming Mouse gives you the performance and features you demand without being tied down. Adjustable DPI, 2.4 GHz wireless nano technology and so much more… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Today’s Gear Deal is a powerhouse 14″ Dell Alienware m14X Laptop. It features NVIDIA Optimus graphics, weighs less than 7 lbs., has up to 6 hours battery life, offers an optional 1600 x 900 display, 256GB SSD and more. It also includes two USB 3.0 ports, a miniDisplayPort, an HDMI 1.4 port, a 9-in-1 card reader and much more.

The laptop is now available starting at $1,099 less a $50 coupon code. That brings the price down to $1,049. If you really want to go hardcore our Gear Sponsor has highlighted the 14″ Alienware M14x with a Core i7-2630QM 2GHz Quad-core, 8GB of RAM, a 1600×900 LCD, a 500GB HDD and 3GB GeForce GT555M for… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

No two ways about it, the 11.6″ Dell Alienware m11x Gaming Laptop looks cool! It sports a Core i3-330UM ULV with 1GB GeForce GT 335M and 8GB RAM. It also has a 1.3-Megapixel Webcam, 802.11n WiFi, a 320GB Hard Drive, and ships with Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit OS. Normally $1,019, this Gear Deal is available for $270 off PLUS an additional $50 coupon code. That brings the price all the way down to just $699. It even ships for free!

Our Gear Sponsor also found a deal on the Alienware m11x with Intel Pentium U5400 Overclockable CPU. It features an Nvidia GeForce GT 335M with 1GB graphics, 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi, a 320GB Hard Drive and 4GB… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Today, in lieu of it’s standard discounts and promotions, online retail giant Amazon.com is offering up a full day’s worth of video-game centric sales and steals. Denominated as “Gold Box” discounts and “lightning” deals, the website started exhibiting a total of eight unique markdowns on consoles, games, and accessories at 6 AM PDT. Deals are powering through until 8PM, being released every two hours, with specific time limits for purchases. For those interested, here’s the link.

The icing on the cake, however, is Amazon’s store-wide Deal of the Day, a bonus $100 gift card with the purchase of an Xbox 360 Kinect Bundle.

Gamers are a funny group when it comes to controllers, and none are more particular than PC gamers with their mice. I remember years ago buying a BOX of Microsoft Intellimouse 3.0 mice … that is 5 mice! That way I had one for any situation or possible computer I would access. The reason? The two side buttons were perfect for games like Jedi Knight II where I could assign them to Force Push and Pull. The question now: is the Fierce Laser Gaming Mouse something to inspire that sort of idiotic devotion? Read on and see!

The Hype:
We’ve taken everything that made the original Fierce Laser Gaming Mouse great… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Let’s be honest – my opinion of Sony as a corporate entity based on what I have written is pretty low. But my opinion of Sony’s PSP products based on my hardware and software purchases over the last six years? Pretty high! While my DS languishes, my PSP sees weekly usage. And my PSP of choice? The PSP Go, which I reviewed (but couldn’t recommend for most people) here.

Since more or less throwing the PSP Go under the bus to make it look more like an experiment and less like an abysmal failure, Sony seems to have focused on sustaining whatever market share they could with the PSP-3000 while getting ready

A week after the arrival of Atari’s Greatest Hits, I am still feeling enough of a nostalgia wave that I would surely buy this on the spot! The folks at Hyperkin are working on a handheld SNES, fully compatible with games and cartridges from the Nintendo SNES system!

Called the SupaBoy, the system looks like an oversized SNES controller with a screen – and that is pretty much what it is! It has a 3.5-inch LCD screen, D-Pad action buttons and shoulder buttons from the SNES controller, and supports the original SNES cartridges. The system (still in prototype form) weighs in at 11.2 ounces and has a five hour rechargeable battery, as… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Image courtesy of Arctic

For the third and final installment of my Arctic Products review we will be looking at the M571 Gaming mouse. The past 2 reviews we looked at some gaming headsets, but this time it’s all about control. The K381 is a white and silver full size mouse that offers some great gaming features without breaking the bank while doing so. This mouse is an enhanced version of the earlier M551 and is targeted at the gaming community. The mouse I tested this against is my trusty Logitech G9 gaming mouse. I have been using the G9 for quite a while and absolutely love it. When… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

CES saw the release of the new Sony Ericsson Experia Arc, but tonight we got to see three new Experias: the neo, the pro and the long-awaited PLAY — the Playstation phone. Oh my.

I had a chance to attend the press conference where these were introduced, and a moment to fondle all three.

The Experia neo: The phone I am most excited about personally is the neo; it has a beautiful screen and an amazing camera that works well in even the worst lighting situations. This phone is very media focused, and it comes equipped with HDMI support, an 8 megapixel auto-focus camera with LED flash, and a 2 megapixel front-facing camera. The camera… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

I’m pretty particular when picking out my PC gaming gear. I have been through a pretty good amount of hardware over the years and keep up my life cycle of gaming gear. Arctic sent us out some gear to check out and review a few weeks ago. I had a chance to check it all out and see how it fared on a few solid hours of Call of Duty Black Ops for the PC. I had a chance to check out some gaming oriented hardware including 2 headsets, a mouse, and a standard slim profile keyboard. Arctic offers some pretty great cooling products, but also has a nice line of headsets, headphones as well as some… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

As expected, during a 1AM EST press event, Sony unveiled the next generation of its portable gaming systems, called the NGP, or PSP 2 for short. I have attached full press release, but let’s walk through some of the details:

• 5″ OLED 960 x 554 Screen – also multitouch capable
• Multi-touch rear panel
• Quad-core A9 Cortex processor
• Dual analog sticks
• Accelerometer, gyroscope, compass
• Normal array of speakers, microphone, WiFi, Bluetooth, etc
• Yet another new proprietary storage format

Of course, having the love/hate relationship I do with Sony … I have some opinions.

• Largely this seems like the PSP 2 they HAD to make: it

Image courtesy of Turtle Beach

Turtle Beach is one of the oldest names in computer audio that I can remember. Back when i needed premium audio for Oregon Trail I knew who I could turn to. Now in 2011 if you want to get serious with console gaming audio, then look no further. Turtle Beach announced three new headsets for PS3, Xbox, and PC that are sure to fit your gaming needs. If you’re an avid First Person Shooter fan then you know as well as anyone that hearing the footsteps of the enemy like he’s right next to you is what it takes to survive. They give you some options that should do nicely with… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...