Blogcritics Category: Gaming: Gear

Product Review: Universal PS2 to PS3 Guitar Controller Adaptor

Nathaniel Edwards — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 01:07:07 EST

Don't wanna buy a guitar controller again? You've come to the right product.
It is definitely time for Christmas shopping. We even had a couple of actual deaths on Black Friday. Last year, there was no game genre more prevalent under the Christmas trees than the guitar controller-based rhythm game, be it Guitar Hero III or Rock Band. One major issue with the new editions, Guitar Hero: World Tour and Rock Band 2, is that...

Why Are The Somali Pirates So Successful?

Dan Miller — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 23:08:35 EST

Piracy off the coast of Somalia is getting worse and serious steps should be taken to counter it.
Piracy off the coast of Somalia is getting serious. Even the supply of video games for the Christmas season may be in danger. Should this happen, more attention may well be paid to the problem. On 15 November 2008, Somali pirates captured their biggest prize thus far, a very large Saudi owned oil tanker.The attack on the Sirius Star, three times...

Product Review: Bluelounge Cable Box

Scott Deitche — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 21:53:35 EST

A simple, elegant solution to the electrician's nightmare.
My Dad use to call the space behind my Commodore 64 computer, TV, and VCR the "electrician's nightmare." Cables and wires were twisted and coiled with no apparent regard for form or function. What did I care? I was 14. Now however, with house and family, appearances and order mean a little more. But so do functionality and price....

Nvidia Needs to Learn How to Count

Mark Buckingham — Mon, 4 Aug 2008 00:04:12 EDT

Two is greater than one, and three is greater than two; if Nvidia could learn and follow this simple concept, they'd stop confusing their customers.
Shopping for a video card has never been simple. At any given time, the companies that make these gaming necessities tend to inundate the market with far more makes and models than anyone could reasonably need. This makes it tedious and confusing for consumers to sift through and find the particular one they actually need, but at least things used...

When Power Supplies Attack!

Mark Buckingham — Sat, 2 Aug 2008 09:43:03 EDT

It just doesn't pay to skimp where electricity's concerned.
I have a computer I refer to as "The Dinosaur." It has an AMD Duron 750MHz processor, a 20GB primary hard drive (partitioned into two to cover for the 4.3GB original that gave up the good fight after about 10 years), 256MB RAM, and a 3dfx Voodoo3 2000 16MB PCI video card. Let's not forget the burly 24x CD-ROM (no R, no RW) and the...

Gear Review: Pelican PS2-to-PS3 Controller Adapter

Mark Buckingham — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 23:29:13 EDT

Save some green by reusing your old controllers.
You'll see these things marketed a variety of ways, from a dance pad adapter to a guitar controller converter, but they all do the same thing: make PS2 controllers work with your PS3. This has a few distinct advantages, from saving battery life in the cordless PS3 controllers to reusing controllers yo've already invested in. It also has a...

Gear Review: Xbox 360 Messenger Kit

Ryan Thompson — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 13:29:43 EDT

Microsoft's solution for text messaging over Xbox Live - and it works surprisingly well.
When Xbox Live came out with the feature of being integrated with MSN Messenger users had a need for a keyboard to communicate with their contacts. This involved needing a USB keyboard, possibly an extension cable and lap space for the said keyboard. Well, Microsoft has answered the call of something smaller that integrates with the controller...

Gear Impressions: Novint Falcon 3-D Force-Feedback Controller, Part 1

Brian Szabelski — Wed, 5 Sep 2007 00:24:15 EDT

Seriously, this is the best thing since the Wii remote. Easily.
For so long, the control of choice on the PC has been the old keyboard and mouse. Few other controllers have successfully appeared, especially those that have been experimental like gyro mice. That was, until now. Debuting on September 18th for $240, and already available on the company Web site for only $199, the Novint Falcon Force-Feedback...

Gear Impressions: Novint Falcon 3-D Force-Feedback Controller, Part 2

Brian Szabelski — Tue, 4 Sep 2007 23:39:07 EDT

So you know how it works... but how does it play?
The GamesTexture Tech Demo - Absolutely mind-blowing. It's the first part of the Novint Falcon tutorial, and if you aren't sold on the power of force-feedback yet, then this will single-handedly change your mind. Each of the many textures felt how they appeared: you could feel the grooves on the bumpy texture, the tension of the ball as you...

Announcement: Short-content feeds

Phillip Winn — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EDT

Sunday, August 26, 2007, marks the switch of all Blogcritics.org article feeds from full-content to short-content. This is the result of several converging factors, and is unfortunately a permanent decision (as permanent as any decision can be on the web, that is). We are aware of all of the reasons that this is a Bad Idea, and we are aware that some of you will be quite upset about having to click on something to read the free content, and we're sorry. Unfortunately, despite great effort, full-content feeds are not currently economically viable. Two other factors are involved: full-content feeds have resulted in an unprecedented level of content theft, with BC content appearing on many websites, usually spam sites, without attribution or permission. This duplicate content causes a cascading set of problems, not the least of which is that search engines generally aren't favorable to duplicate content, and don't always guess correctly. Finally, our RSS advertising partner is strongly in favor of short-content feeds. We hope that you'll continue to subscribe to BC via RSS, and when an article grabs your eye, it's only a click away, still free on the BC website. Thank you for your understanding.

Console Review: Mattel's HyperScan

Matt Paprocki — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 00:35:06 EDT

If the HyperScan is anything, it’s one of the largest mass market rip-offs the video game industry has ever seen. This is a piece of hardware that should have been recalled based on the quality of the product alone, not due to any manufacturing issues. The HyperScan now sits in rare company with Game.com and the obscure Channel F as one of the most miserable game consoles ever released to the market. Surely this was a concept created by a marketing team and not one the section of the company with the logic portion of their brain firing neurons. The idea, at best, is a solid one. With hot properties such as Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh making millions off their card games and the 5- to 12-year-old crowd, the HyperScan would surely work on the same principle, only the cards could be used in conjunction with a video game console. Kids would land the system with a free X-Men game (on CD-ROM) and six cards. The basics of the game are on the disc. To gain access to the complete game (including a full roster of characters, stages, powers, etc.), they need to buy packs of cards. The rest of the game’s items are held on a small chip cramped inside each individual card. The cards are scanned over a portion of the system, grabbing the data out of thin air via RFID technology. At least, that’s how it’s supposed to work. The games retail for about $30, which is fair based on what you’re getting, not on the quality of the games. The extra cards come in packs of six, and retail for around $15. If there were 20 cards for each game, this might be acceptable. When you need up to 170 to complete the set for each individual game and unlock everything there is to see, Mattel priced themselves right out of the kids market (or the “anyone with common sense” market too). Beyond the need to have cards for each character, they do have a secondary purpose. As you play the games, you’ll save your progress to the actual card, allowing you take to it to someone else who was suckered into buying this thing and fight them using your leveled up character. Again, this is purely a marketing gimmick, as the kid who played the most has an obvious advantage that can hardly be considered fair or fun.The console itself features a bizarre, clunky flip open design. The top loading CD tray is on one end, the overly large red and brightly lit “scan” area sits on the other. Due to the off set weight and uneven outer shell, it doesn’t even sit flat. That can’t be good for the disc drive. There’s no purpose in keeping it closed other than taking it somewhere to protect it, yet this isn’t meant for portability. Without specs listed anywhere either on the web or the manual, the best guess is that the CD drive is a dual speed drive, something PC users will remember being a huge deal about 17 years ago. To load and enter the first fight in the included X-Men game, total wait time is around seven minutes on a good day. No kid is going to wait that long, especially after they learn how atrocious the game is. The hardwired video cable is composite only, and it’s a strange choice given the chance of ripping it out and not being able to replace it. A USB port sits on the back unused, and the shoddy, cheap plastic controllers are beyond clunky. They resemble a PlayStation controller design (even copying the four shoulder buttons) gone horribly wrong. The d-pad is more like an analog stick, even though it’s purely digital input. Only one is included in the box, and there are two ports total. Power wise, the hardware sits somewhere between the Super Nintendo and PlayStation era. It can cleanly handle 2-D sprites with significant depth of color. Backgrounds are almost universally static, and animation barely noticeable on the characters. If the console has 3-D capabilities (and it’s doubtful) none of the four available games have used it. Audio runs off the CD, so music is cheap but clean. Other strange effects with this hardware continue to reduce the redeeming value a consumer would be desperately searching for after dropping $70 for this junk. When the scanning process begins and the system waits for a card, this actually interferes horribly with the TV. It causes wavy lines and distortion, something the FCC apparently missed during the approval process. A secondary issue is scanning the cards themselves. It’s entirely random if the system notices the card being swiped over the target area. While a few swipes are a mild annoyance when trying to continue a game or load a new character, in the midst of a game when you need a special power, it’s a disaster. Also, who had the brilliant idea to include a T-rated game inside a game console that is clearly marked for kids under 12?If there was any success for the HyperScan, it’s not hard to see powered-up cards being sold on eBay for ridiculous amounts of money (assuming anyone cared enough to play the thing). That collector’s mentality was the basis for the product, yet corporate greed squashed this hardware’s chance to survive. If you’re tired of micro transactions on places like Xbox Live, imagine paying $15 for an expansion, with no guarantee that you’ll be getting new content (doubles are indeed possible inside the packs), or even what you’re interested in. That’s the most absurd concept in history of the industry.

Matt Paprocki is the former reviews editor for Digital Press. The deep game collection, which spans nearly 30 systems and 2,000 games, lines his walls for research purposes. Matt strives to bring credibility to video game journalism, and to aid the industry in becoming respected with all forms of entertainment media. He currently freelances for GameArgus.com and MultiPlayerGames.com.