They say that if you want to learn something about a person take a look at how they treat people they DON’T have to be nice to – you know, anyone from kids to animals to waiters and store clerks. If a person treats them poorly without reason they are, quite simply, a lousy person. And you can only expect to receive the same down the line. On the other hand, if they treat you AND others well, you have a partner you can count on.

I can hear you saying ‘what is it NOW, Anderson? What are you griping about this time?’ Well, I’m talking about Sony. Anyone who has a PSP Go remembers how, right up until the release of the Go, Sony was teasing the possibility of some form of ‘UMD transfer program’ that would allow users to get some value out of existing UMD games by trading them in or somehow ‘swapping’ them for a digital version. And, in fact, EU and Japanese gamers who had existing PSN accounts with registered PSPs got a set of three digital games. US gamers got … nuthin’.… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Welcome back to the GearGames weekly video game release feature here at Gear Diary! After a few weeks off as the holidays more or less killed releases, we are starting to see a few new games.

The three big games this week are The Darkness II , Jagged Alliance – Back in Action and Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning . The original Darkness game was a bit of a sleeper, getting solid reviews but not immediately gaining the commercial success it deserved. Since then it has become a definite fave for many gamers, making the arrival of the sequel even more exciting.

Jagged Alliance is one of the great franchises, and although it is also getting a re-make as a shooter, strategy fans are more excited for this great looking strategy game reboot.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is the highly anticipated first title from 38 Studios, headed by former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling. The demo met with decidedly mixed reviews, with fairly negative feedback particularly from PC gamers. Schilling has been on the forums touting the changes and advances from the demo to the release (and spouting off on just about everything, apparently), so hopefully the troubles with the demo will be rectified.

There are a few others worth checking this week – read on to find out!… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Welcome back to the GearGames weekly video game release feature here at Gear Diary! After a few weeks off as the holidays more or less killed releases, we are starting to see a few new games.

The two big games this week are Final Fantasy XIII-2 and Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning . The original Final Fantasy XIII was initially met with high review scores, but there was plenty of criticism from a mediocre story to extreme linearity to too many protracted cutscenes and more. Overall it is thought of as one of the weaker franchise games. The sequel is getting early looks that say it definitely addresses the criticism.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is the highly anticipated first title from 38 Studios, headed by former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling. The demo met with decidedly mixed reviews, with fairly negative feedback particularly from PC gamers. Schilling has been on the forums touting the changes and advances from the demo to the release (and spouting off on just about everything, apparently), so hopefully the troubles with the demo will be rectified.

There are a few others worth checking this week – read on to find out!… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

We start the week with a deal that will bring some fun into your life. This deal brings us the Sony PlayStation 24″ 1080p 3D Widescreen LCD Monitor Bundle. It includes a 3D Display featuring a 1920×1080 resolution, edge-lit LED backlight, a 240Hz refresh rate, two HDMI inputs, and more, PlayStation 3D glasses, Motorstorm Apocalypse game and an HDMI cable. In other words, using the PlayStation you already own and this bundle you’ll have everything you need for 3D gameplay. Normally this bundle sells for $399.99 but with this deal you can save $100. That brings the price down to just $299.99 and it will ship for free.

Gear Deal: Sony PlayStation 24″ 1080p 3D

If you are a ‘technology chaser’ like me, and have the chance to get something a week earlier than the rest of the world … you take notice. In this case we have the ‘First Edition’ for the Playstation Vita, buyers can get the system a week early … with some caveats, of course. I have been keeping an eye on the Playstation Vita due to my own indecision about purchasing it … and an email I got this morning asking about some details in the package caused me to go back and look again.

The ‘First Edition’ is sold at Amazon.com amongst other places for $349.99. For that price you… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Welcome back to the GearGames weekly video game release feature here at Gear Diary! After a few weeks off as the holidays more or less killed releases, we are starting to see a few new games.

The only big game this week is King Arthur II: The Role-playing Wargame. The original game had loads of content and did a great job combining role-playing and strategy, and the expansions added even more great stuff, making this game highly anticipated by RPG and strategy fans alike!

There are a few others worth checking this week – read on to find out!… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Image taken with the Bloggie Live

Judie received a Bloggie Live video recorder last week at CES and we brought it along with us to take some images and video while at Hoover Dam. As the video demonstrates, this diminutive Bloggie Live takes some amazing video and is incredibly easy to use.… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

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

(Doug says, “Oooh; shiny!”)

Sony is a big company.  I mean, it’s a whopping big company–tends of thousands of people; tens of billions (with a “B”!) in revenue every year.  Big.  Japanese.  Electronics.  You can bet that at a Heap Big Show (or “shew”, ad Ed Sullivan would say) like CES, they’re going to want to make a big splash.  I’m in Austin, not Vegas, so I can’t tell you how big a booth they have, but I’m guessing it’s, ah, not small.  Here’s some verbiage from their PR folks:

Sony is introducing consumers to a new world of connected products, from TVs, Blu-ray players, and home A/V receivers to tablets, smartphones

Sony’s Playstation Vita launched in Japan two weeks ago to what was described as success, selling ~325,000 units and over 300,000 games (yes, that is fewer games than game systems … I’ll let you figure THAT one out). By comparison, the Nintendo 3DS launch last March sold ~375,000 at the initial $249 pricing. So in theory that was a pretty decent start … perhaps it meant that earlier predictions of it being ‘DOA’ were unfounded?

Turns out … no.

First off think about timing – a March release compared to a mid-December release. One is at a low point in the sales calendar, the other at the high point -… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

The PlayStation Vita came out last week and has sold more than 300,000 units in the first week, which is actually pretty good. It also sold just under 300,000 units of software, which is actually pretty bad. And it has already had a number of initial issues – which is one reason it is better that we wait a few months for the US launch. Today Sony announced the official software launch lineup for its retail release in the U.S. and Canada coming up on February 22, 2012.

Sony is claiming that this is “the biggest and best lineup we’ve ever launched across the history of PlayStation platforms.” There are 25 games… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Sadly, I would estimate that the number of games on sale right now on the iTunes App Store FAR outnumbers the total of all reduced price games EVER on the PSN store in the years since it launched. So when there IS a sale … I immediately take notice! So when Joystiq combined the words ‘Capcom’, ‘PSN’ and ‘Sale’ in a headline, I couldn’t get my PSP Go hooked up to my Vaio fast enough! The sale is solid – plenty of games at 50% off regular price!

Here are the games:

1942: Joint Strike – Regular Price: $9.99 | Sale Price: $4.99
Age of Booty – Regular Price: $4.99 | Sale

We’re always happy to tell you folks about deals, and right now we have some information about deals for the Sony Tablet.  Here’s what Sony has to tell us:

Sony temporarily dropped the price of the Sony Tablet S by $50. From now until Dec. 31, consumers can get the 16GB Tablet for $449 and the 32GB Tablet for $549 with a free Sony Entertainment Starter pack (valued at $200), which includes a cradle, LCD screen protector, AC adapter, 180 days of Music Unlimited service, a store credit and five movies on Video Unlimited, a free e-book download from the Reader Store, and five free game downloads from the PlayStation Store.

So hey, if you’re in the… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

You might not think so from my posts, but I am really cheering for Sony with the Playstation Vita. I canceled my pre-order of the system, but that was more about the fact that there were no bonus offers … and Amazon tends to be great with those so I figured I would just wait until the new year to see. The system looks great hardware wise, seems to offer tons of gameplay possibilities, and ultimately I think that more gaming options means better competition means better games for all of us!

But this weekend I have discovered yet another thing that makes me sigh and realize that Sony seems destined… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

From the Editorial Staff of Gear Diary: Is there someone in your life who loves gaming? If so, here are five gifts with which you can’t go wrong.

XBOX360 (or Playstation 3)- not an inexpensive gift, but more and more families are using consoles as a way of gaming, streaming video, and more!

The Xbox 360 250GB Holiday bundle is just $299.99 in our Amazon Affiliate Store.

The PlayStation 3 160GB System is just $249.96 in our Amazon Affiliate Store

iPod Touch – As Mike wrote here, the DS and PSP are fading… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...