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Is the Sony PSP Go Worth the Hype?


HYPE CHECK

Sony PSPGo

What it is:
Sony's third crack at creating the ultimate handheld gaming system. PSP Go takes what Sony has accomplished with the PlayStation Portable (PSP) and squeezes it into a significantly smaller form factor, and embraces a whole new approach to getting games onto the device. Sporting graphics output roughly equivalent to that of the PlayStation 2 (if not better in some respects), the PSP has been the brawny, straightforward alternative to the Nintendo DS -- no touchscreen, no dual screens, but significantly better graphics output and tech specs. Now shrunken to nearly iPhone-sized proportions (if somewhat thicker), PSPgo isn't, however, a more powerful system than its predecessor -- in fact, it uses the same processor and holds the same amount of RAM as the last PSP.

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Security Guards Bring Sony PSPs Into Nuclear Weapons Facility

Many may scoff at so-called video game addiction, but three men in Tennessee recently provided some damaging evidence that gaming dependency may be an actual affliction. The guys apparently could not resist playing their portable gaming devices, even though doing so could have initiated the apocalypse -- yes, these three dudes stupidly brought their signal-transmitting Sony PSPs into a nuclear weapons facility.

According to NBC affiliate WBIR, the allegations of potentially disastrous gaming involved three security guards who apparently brought their gadgets into a "protected area" of the Y-12 high-security nuclear weapons facility in Oak Ridge, TN. At least one of the devices, a PlayStation Portable (PSP), had transmission capabilities.

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Video Games

Peaceful Video Games May Mean Happier Kids, Study Shows



Called mind-melting, violence-inducing time-killers, video games have gotten a pretty bad rap. Often overlooked are the potential advantages to having an immersive (and fun) entertainment experience. Yet, the Economist is now reporting that several different findings to be released this summer all that suggest "pro-social" games, or those that aren't based on blowing up or gunning down, actually encourage helpful and cooperative behavior.

The first study, conducted by Iowa State University, had 161 American children play helpful, violent, and neutral games, and then make decisions for their classmates. Kids who played the proactive selections made helpful decisions, while the destructive gamers picked the opposite for their peers. Similarly, a study from the University of Sussex showed that children who had played 'Lemmings' were more likely to imagine positive scenarios for problem sets than were kids who played 'Tetris.'

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Video Games

New Sony PSP Coming Out This Year?

New PSP Coming in June?
If you're tired of all the iPhone and Android rumors, but aren't ready to give up on speculating in general, take a gander at what Sony will supposedly be unveiling at the E3 Expo in June -- a brand-new Sony PSP.

The new portable gaming system will supposedly come in a new form and be free of the dead-end UMD drive. Instead, the PSP _____ ('Slide'? 'Flip'? 'Go'? Pick one.) will have eight or 16 GB of flash memory and rely on downloaded games. According to 1UP, the new PSP will have a rather sizable catalog of over 100 games available at launch. It should be noted, though, that many of those will be previously released PSP games.

Sources claim that the new model will retain the classic PSP's controls: D-pad, analog nub, and the same buttons. There is speculation, however, that the PSP (Let's say, 'Slip.') will borrow the high-resolution touchscreen from the ill-conceived Mylo 2.

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Video Games

Florida Child Gets New PSP... Complete With Porn



As is the case with so many parents, one woman in the Tampa Bay area recently thought it would be a great idea to give her son a new Sony PSP as a late Christmas gift. She had no way of knowing how wrong she would wind up being.

Six-year-old Eliso Tovar had just turned on his new, prized possession when a picture of a naked woman appeared on the screen, My Fox Tampa Bay reported Sunday. Eliso, who was afraid that he would be in trouble, ran to his mother crying. Tamatha Tovar was shocked when she found hundreds of pornographic pictures on a memory card inside the PSP. Stunned and upset, Tovar called the Wal-Mart where she had purchased the game system. She later told the TV reporter, "I explained the situation and [the manager's] response was, well bring the machine down and we'll let your son pick out a new game. And I was like, no I don't think you heard what I said."

The most likely scenario is that someone returned the PSP to the Wal-Mart store having left their own illicit-image-filled data card in the system. Either way, you can bet that this is a late Christmas gift that little Eliso, and his entire family, will never forget. Hey, at least it wasn't Ecstasy! [From: My Fox Tampa Bay]


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Video Games

Sony Shows Off PlayStation Updates at German Gaming Convention



The Leipzig Games Convention (a.k.a. the GC) is going fast and furious through the end of the week in Germany, and Sony has started things off with a slew of updates and revelations about their PlayStation line of gaming devices. First, the company finally made the PSP-3000 official, another tweak to their aged but ultimately respectable PSP. It'll be more or less the same as the PSP-2000 (last year's slimmer model), but will feature an included microphone for Skype calling and a screen that is said to be better for outdoor gaming.

The rest of the news surrounds the PlayStation 3, which is getting a clip-on keypad for its controllers, very similar to the Xbox 360 keypad Microsoft released last year. No word on pricing or availability yet, but we have both of those stats for yet another PS3 bundle. This one features a console with a 160-gigabyte hard drive, a copy of 'Uncharted: Drake's Fortune,' and a slew of downloads from Sony's PSN store. That'll be $499 this November, but if you can't wait that long or don't need the extra disk space, the new $399 80-gigabyte model system is now hitting stores near you right this very moment -- unless you live in Europe, in which case you'll have to wait until tomorrow.

While it's not expected that Nintendo will be dropping any bombshells at the show, everyone's sure that a price drop for the Xbox 360 is in the cards in the very near future. Will Microsoft take this opportunity to let loose with the news? We shall see.

Video Games

Sony Offers More Memory, Movies, and Games for Less Money

Sony Tauts Blu-ray Victory for PS3 at E3

Sony has now officially kicked off its assault on this year's minimalist E3 conference in typical non-minimalist style -- with a press conference on Tuesday featuring a bevvy of flat-screen TVs and a dazzling array of video game content (some real-time, some faked computer graphics), all of which will make even a jaded gamer more optimistic about the future of gaming. There was a bit of gloating about the victory of Blu-ray over HD-DVD, and some cool announcements, but no major shockers here. The highlights:

80-gigabyte (GB) PlayStation 3 model slashed to $399.99 - Microsoft chose to up the disk space on its Premium Xbox 360 bundle, going from 20-gigabytes to 60-gigabytes and maintaining the same price point of $349. Sony's following suit by upping the storage on the basic, 40-gigabyte model to 80-gigabytes, but keeping the price at $399. It remains to be seen whether the formerly 40-gigabyte model will get any feature updates, like card readers or the like, but as of now, it's just looking like a little more stage for your fabulous new movie downloads.

Download movies and TV shows to your PlayStation 3 - Sony's system, despite being billed as a bit of an all-inclusive home entertainment system, has been lacking on the content-variety front when compared to Microsoft's Xbox 360. That's changing with the video download store, which actually launched last night. Featuring television and film content from Sony (natch) as well as MGM, Turner, Lionsgate, and Fox, the Sony download store offers plenty to choose from in both standard and high definitions. The ability to transfer movies or TV shows onto a PSP is a nice touch, too -- assuming you have the requisite memory card space there.

'Greatest Hits' games for $29.99 - What do you do when sales of your greatest games are starting to slip? Slap a "Greatest Hits" label on them, lower the price, and watch the sales boost. That's what Sony is doing for 10 hot titles like 'Oblivion' and 'Motorstorm,' dropping their price to a rather reasonable $30.

Episodic, pick-up-and-play version of 'Ratchet and Clank' for just $14.99 - The 'Ratchet & Clank' series has definitely been one of Sony's most profitable over the years, and now it's taking a cue from other episodic games (ones that release content a chapter at a time) and giving the Ratchet franchise the same treatment, resulting in 'Ratchet and Clank: Quest for Booty,' which is set for release later this summer for the bargain price of $14.99. Sure, it'll only take a few hours to play through, but it should be worth the price of admission.

So, there you have it. As we said, Sony offered no shocking news announcements, no updates on 'Home,' no PSP revisions, and no huge price drop. But the company unveiled a lot of impressive looking games and, as always, a lot of potential.

For a play-by-play account of the Sony press conference, check out the Engadget/Joystiq live blog here.

Video Games, Top Lists, Summer Fun

Top 10 Portable Games for Long Trips

Summer is a time to escape -- to the beach, to the countryside, to the other side of the world. And for those of us who just love our down time, there's plenty of it (mostly spent on flying on planes, riding in cars, and laying on beach chairs). So we've compiled a list of the best portable games for Sony PSP and Nintendo DS to pack in your bag this summer; whether you're looking to hit the baseball diamond or the bustling streets of Tokyo, we've got just the digital escape. Oh, and here's a little tip: if your PSP is your handheld of choice, you might want to invest in the PSP Extended Life Battery -- especially, for owners of the new model PSP, for whom it will nearly double your battery life (old PSP owners only get a 20% jump).



Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee 2 (PSP)

For years -- since the original PlayStation days, in fact -- Sony's cartoonish 'Hot Shots' series has been one of the best golf games around. Open Tee 2 continues the tradition, with 24 playable characters, 12 courses, and more than 300 different options for clothing, hairstyles, clubs, and more. There's a 16-player online mode, clothing/item boosts, and, most importantly of all, an impressively realistic golf experience. The number of unlockable items is bananas, and the load times are much better than those in the original Open Tee. There's something slightly obsessive about playing a virtual golf game on your way to play golf, but we won't tell anyone if you won't.

Audio/Video

Sony's PSP Skype Headset Finally Arrives Stateside


If you've got a PSP-2000 and a hankering for some VoIP on the run, Sony has finally brought its Skype-friendly PSP headset to US retail. Unfortunately, it won't work with those original fatty PSPs, and at $30 you've gotta ask yourself how much you'll really be using it for -- the original price was set at $20. That said, it's undoubtedly the easiest way to get up and running with Skype and in-game voice chat on the PSP, since it used to require two separate accessories to pull it off. Oh, and if you're Skype curious, be sure to check out the how-to guide over at PSP Fanboy. [Source: PSP Fanboy]

Video Games

Michigan Boy Burnt By Pocketed PlayStation Portable (PSP)



Are Sony PSPs going the same way as burning cell phones and batteries? According to WebPro News, a Farmington Hills, Mich., middle school boy felt something warm happening in his pants during band class -- and, just as you suspected (dirty monkeys!) -- it turned out that his Sony PSP was heating up to the point of causing second-degree burns.

In an almost cliche-like instance of coincidence, the disc he had in the portable gaming and media device was for a popular driving game called 'Burnout.'

There's no official word on the cause of the flare-up, but the Sony PSP Web site says to use only PSP batteries and charging packs "that meet our quality standards to avoid hazards such as firing or explosion. Using batteries with such protective devices may cause a failure or an accident." No word on if the boy was using a third-party battery or had damaged the device. He did return to school the same day after receiving treatment in the hospital for his injury.

From Engadget

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Cell Phones, Video Games

Sony PlayStation Portable Now Makes Phone Calls


Sony's latest PSP, the slim and light PSP-2000 series, can do everything its predecessor could. That means spinning games off of UMDs (Sony's PSP disc format), playing music and video from memory sticks, and streaming media over the Internet from your PS3 at home. Now, thanks to the recently released 3.9 firmware update, it can do something the older, fatter PSP can't do: Skype Voice-Over-IP phone calls.

When paired with a headset, PSP owners with access to a Wi-Fi Internet connection can now pull up their Skype friends list and make some calls between gaming sessions. The firmware update is available for free by selecting "Network Update" from your PSP, but the headset you'll need will set you back $20. A small price for free, wireless calling.

From Engadget

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Audio/Video, Cell Phones, Video Games, CES 2008

New Sony Playstation Portable Comes With Skype


The new generation of the Sony Playstation Portable (PSP-2000) is now being bundled with Skype. For those of you not included in the 246 million users of Skype it is a Voice-Over-Internet-Protocol (VoiP) service that allows users to call one another free of charge or call to land lines worldwide for a nominal fee using your computer (or in this case PSP) and its internet or Wi-Fi connection. This means that not only can users of the PSP play games, watch movies, listen to music, surf the Internet, and view photos, but also receive and place calls free of charge to other Skype users and stay connected to other friends as well via the SkypeOut option.

And for those of you whom have grown fond of your original PSP the Skype service will be able via a firmware update in late January. (Thanks, Sony, for taking care of these folks.)


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Video Games

Sony Playstation Portable (PSP) Update Coming Next Week

PSP Firmware 3.8 Coming Next Week
Yet another PSP firmware update is coming down the pipe. On December 18, Sony should be making Version 3.8 of the PSP firmware available to Japanese gamers, and soon to us on this side of the Pacific. Expect a number of great new features:
  • Streaming Internet Radio player
  • Video scene search
  • RSS now supports OPML (allows easy import and export of multiple feeds) and pictures
  • PSP-2000 owners with 1Seg tuners can use an electronic program guide to schedule Japanese mobile television recordings (Japan only, we're guessing)
  • PlayStation Spot now available at BB Mobile Point (Japan only)
Not a bad gift for the holidays from Sony.

From Engadget

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Audio/Video, Video Games

AIBO Robo-Dog Coming Back in 2008! Maybe.




From the ashes of the fallen AIBO comes...another AIBO?

The print edition of Stuff magazine is reporting a rumor item that a resuscitated version of Sony's robotic dog companion, to go by the name of Sony AIBO PS, will be released by Sony's PlayStation division in an attempt to "bolster the PS3's arsenal." The next incarnation of Sony's robotic pet will be compatible with the PlayStation 3 and the PSP -- you'll have full control over the dog with your PSP, via Wi-Fi. The dog's head is supposedly equipped with a camera, with which to send a real-time video feed to the PSP's screen.

AIBO PS will allow for either voice control or remote control, and will be able to e-mail you at work when there's something fishy going on. He'll even appear with its own avatar within PlayStation Home, and react in the real world as he does in the PS3's upcoming service.

Still a rumor, but a good one, right?

From Stuff (via Gamespot UK and Engadget).

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Audio/Video, Video Games

PlayStation 3 To Get a TV Tuner and DVR?

PlayStation 3 TV Tuner Set To Be AnnouncedWe reported earlier this month that Sony's PS3 was due to be upgraded in the not-too-distant future to act as a digital TV tuner, and now the rumor mill is spinning full-tilt with speculation that Sony will make the official announcement this week at the Leipzig Games Convention, a four-day gaming conference held in Germany that's expected to draw some 200,000 video-game fans.

While details are slim at this point, it's expected that the PS3 will be able to act as a Tivo-like digital video recorder. And, with Sony's handheld PSP able to play content streamed to it from the PS3, the hope is that recorded content will be streamable over the Internet from your home PS3 to your PSP anywhere in the world. Imagine bringing your PSP with you on the road and, when you grow bored of the tackles in 'Madden', being able to watch episodes of 'The Office' that you'd recorded at home. Of course, when the new version of the PSP is released, you'll be able to play that recorded content on a big screen.

This functionality combined with the PS3's built-in Blu-ray player definitely further establish the PS3 as a multimedia powerhouse. But, with some of the most hotly anticipated games for the system, 'Lair' and 'Warhawk', both receiving mediocre reviews recently, it still remains to be seen whether Sony has the chops to compete with Microsoft and Nintendo in the most important category for a gaming console: gaming.

From BBC NEWS

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