Welcome back to the GearGames weekly video game release feature here at Gear Diary! Anyone who is a fan of role-playing games (RPG) is very excited for this week as perhaps the biggest RPG release of the year (we can debate whether Risen is bigger in the comments) – Dragon Age: Origins. The folks who have brought us the Baldur’s Gate series, Neverwinter Nights games, Knights of the Old Republic, Mass Effect, Jade Empire and more are back – with the ’spiritual successor’ to Baldur’s Gate. I am rushing to finish everything else on my plate so I can be ready for this one on Tuesday. Recently it was announced that the PS3 version was un-delayed, which is nice since it means everyone gets it this week!

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The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has announced to voluntary recalls.

The first involves two Halloween themed flashlights which were sold at Target stores between August 2009 – September 2009.

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Welcome back to the GearGames weekly video game release feature here at Gear Diary! OK, you might be wondering why this is the only place NOT highlighting DJ Hero for this week. Well, while that game looks amazingly fun and will sell millions, I chose the expansion to one of the absolute best games of 2008 that got relatively little attention because it is a turn-based strategy game – King’s Bounty: Armored Princess. Of course, since we are in the midst of the Fall Gaming Avalanche, those are but the tip of the iceberg!

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There are few franchises that have cast a larger shadow over the history of console gaming than Final Fantasy, and the core series of role-playing games has been constantly tweaked and upgraded through the years to stay current. There have certainly been games that have strayed from the usual jRPG format – the classic strategy game series Final Fantasy Tactics, and more recently the RTS-like Final Fantasy XII Revenant Wings for the Nintendo DS. But one of the most anticipated entries in the series is the fighting game called Dissidia Final Fantasy. Square Enix released a demo on the PSN Store, and more recently released the full game in UMD version only. I took a look at the game based on a copy provided by the publisher, so does it live up to the years of hype? Read on to find out!

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Welcome back to the GearGames weekly video game release feature here at Gear Diary! Last week was strong … but this week is just crazy! Some highlights include Borderlands, a hybrid FPS / RPG / Co-op / open world / post-apocalyptic shooter that hits PS3 & XBOX360 this week and PC next week. Also huge this week – albeit with a younger audience – is Bakugan Battle Brawlers, the first game based on the very popular ‘catch em all’ style game featuring magnetic balls that transform into monsters.

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As I’ve tossed out before while talking about the Wolfenstein iPhone releases, my history with Wolfenstein is nearly 30 years old. I’m not sure how I initially found out about it – it could have been an impulse buy at the local computer center – but from the moment I started playing Castle Wolfenstein on my Apple ][+ I was hooked. Locks that told you they would take 75 seconds to pick – and that was *real time*! During which you were vulnerable to the ever-roaming guard patrols.

By the time Wolfenstein 3D came out in 1992 the gaming press was better so I knew it was coming and got it quickly after release (day of release rush wasn’t the sport it is today). I played the heck out of that for quite a while, and still love that game, having gotten it for the iPhone recently. My wife bought me Return to Castle Wolfenstein when that arrived, and I have recently replayed that on my netbook, and it is still a wonderful experience. So I was a natural ‘easy sell’ for Wolfenstein. Except for the fact that I found nothing particularly intriguing in the pre-release press.

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Since the PSP Go arrived I have lamented at the cost of the MINIs, those bite-sized games that have so far mainly been retreads of games from the iTunes App Store. For example, Fieldrunners costs $2.99 on the App Store and $6.99 for the PSP; And Hero of Sparta costs $1.99 on the App Store and $4.99 for the PSP. At first I assumed it was part of the whole ‘we charge more because we can’ Premium Pricing model for the PSP Go. But according to Andrew Yoon of Joystiq, it might be in part due to the steep cost of getting ESRB rating approval for games in North America.

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Welcome back to the GearGames weekly video game release feature here at Gear Diary! This week has a ton of games, but is actually rather thin on the top level blockbusters. First and foremost is Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, which we featured in a beta code contest here, and has already been receiving sterling reviews. The other obvious one is Brutal Legend, the delayed-by-legal-wrangling game which is from Tim Shaeffer (famous for LucasArts adventure games and recently Psychonauts), and is a tie-in to the movie of the same name. Also, there is a game that looks like a load of fun called A Boy and His Blob, which I have featured in the headline picture.

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Welcome to another “State of the eBook”. We’ve got some quick news to review, and then a discussion of something that keeps publishers up at night; piracy in ebook-land. Is it an epidemic of music proportions or is it the straw-man argument that publishers use to justify high prices, digital rights management, and slow ebook adoption?

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The Gran Turismo series of racing games first arrived on the Sony Playstation in 1997, and have sold over 50 million copies over the last 12 years. The games focus on stunning graphics, tons of licensed vehicles, richness of driving simulation and ability to tune the vehicles. For PSP owners it feels like this new version has been in development for nearly that long! In reality the game has been in development since before the launch of the original PSP, leaving gamers to wonder – was it worth the wait? Read on and find out!

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The PSP Go! has officially launched in North America, and so to celebrate I’ve put together a quick unboxing video. I also include a PSP ‘Family Album’ of all four of my PSPs! Not much else to say for now … just take a look! And be sure to check back for more detailed impressions as I get the chance to play around more.

My PSP Go! isn’t even out of the box yet, and the firmware is already out of date! According to several sources including Yahoo! Tech News, PSP Firmware 6.10 has gone live and can be updated through the usual ‘network update’ option on the PSP XMB. New functionality is supposed to include bluetooth internet tethering and a music detection functionality called ‘SensMe Channels’.

According to the reports, the firmware update “which adds SensMe, a new application that automatically categorizes music that has been transferred from the PC to the PSP by way of its Media Go application. Sony’s SenseMe uses what it calls “Twelve Tone” analysis, that examines how the music plays, and not just its metadata. It then assigns it to a particular “mood,” such as “Lounge”.”

The update also has a feature that allows your PSP Go! to tether to your mobile phone via bluetooth and connect to the internet that way.

Just wondering how the Twelve Tone analysis will do with the twelve-tone music in my library …

Source: Engadget

Tomorrow is the day … I just got notice that my PSP Go! will be arriving in the morning, and since tomorrow sits right in between my wife’s and my older son’s birthday, it means I can play for a little a bit without being the worst husband/father in the world!

Yet I can’t say I’m overly excited – I have posted several times about the ways Sony have disincentivized buyers repeatedly: high price, no pack-ins, no UMD transfer, and so on. Worse yet, I’ve been playing the PSN download version Gran Turismo PSP, a game that was in development when the original PSP was launched (!), and comparing notes to someone playing the UMD version and there seems to be little boost moving away from the disc-based media in terms of load-speed. And, sadly, while I wasn’t enamored with the game, because I have the PSN version I’m stuck with it forever – a major downside of digital downloads is that they are yours forever!

So what about everyone else?

- Do you plan to buy a PSP Go! ?
- Do you currently own a PSP?
- Were you waiting for the PSP Go! and now decided to get a PSP-3000?

We’d love to hear your thoughts and opinions!

And naturally I’ll be back with opinions on the PSP Go! and the new games and features at the PSN Store!

Welcome to another installment of “State of the eBook”. A few quick news-y items, and then onto the major heart of today’s discussion, where we’ll be tackling the greatest debate in the book world today. Interested? Read on…

First, in the “cut up your nose to spite your face” department, we have the news that both Sarah Palin’s book “Rogue” and Ted Kennedy’s book “True Compass” will not be released as eBooks until some time has passed after the hardcover release. Let’s consider that for a moment. At a time when people are looking for better deals, trying to find ways to save money, and publishers are trying to find ways to keep readers, they’re actively forcing people to wait longer to get a book in their preferred medium. (via MobileRead)

Losing track of the insane number of devices that do eBooks, eBooks plus web browsing, eBooks plus web browsing plus dog walking, etc? Businessweek is reporting that there are more devices on the horizon; suddenly being able to read an eBook on it has become almost as important a feature as GPS!

There are two (general) sides to the ebook debate: those who see the technology as an amazing leap forwards, who see words as words no matter the medium. Then there are those who believe the tactile sensation of holding a paper book, the turning of the pages, the smell of the glue and the paper and the binding, cannot be replicated with screens and that reading is for paper.

So let’s do a quick rundown of where both sides have their advantages…

eBooks:

• Can carry multiple (hundreds of multiple!) ebooks in one device without using a truck.
• Multi-device support means you can read a book anywhere; on your couch, in line at the grocery store, at work during a meeting…
• Fonts are adjustable! No more doing the “large print walk of shame” at your local bookstore!
• Downward price pressure (if you buy from Amazon or Sony)
• No waiting by the mailbox them to arrive, or driving to the bookstore and encountering underpaid employees.

Paper books:

• A unique tactile experience
• Cover art
• Shopping experience can be more spontaneous and social.
• Powells, The Strand, insert your favorite local bookstore.
• No digital rights management
• Less publisher-imposed geographic limitations, books work in any country.
• Very few books (outside of textbooks) cost as much as a dedicated ebook reader.
• Worst outcome when you spill coffee on a regular book is a stained book (as opposed to the sound of your wallet screaming in horror).

I see both sides of this debate; I love my Kindle, I love ebooks. But I also spent three years managing bookstores, and there are some experiences that cannot be replicated by point and click. Personally, I have a handful of books that I will always want to have in paper form, and it will take more than the convenience of a Kindle to keep me from spending way too much money in every bookstore I see.

Where do you fall in this debate? Do you straddle both sides, clinging to the paper and the digital? Or have you sworn off all things paper and only buying books you can measure in megabytes instead of pages? And finally, even if you are all digital, are there some books you simply can’t bear to have in anything other than dusty old paper?

If you go back in history to just after Thanksgiving of 2004, the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP were just starting to creep into commercial availability, and the growing feeling among gaming media was that while you should never count Nintendo out … Sony had a device that could very well give them handheld gaming superiority. Even a year later, crossing into 2006 after the 2005 holidays, the PSP had the sales lead over the DS worldwide, and a tremendous advantage in the US. Yet within a year, many of those same pundits who proclaimed the PSP as Nintendo-beater were declaring the PSP dead. What happened, and what does it have to do with the upcoming release of the PSP Go or the title of this article? Read on and see!

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