Games Cheats and Reviews

Xbox Evolved:

"CES 2010 brought a lot of 3D hype to both the movie and video game industries, as Sony and other TV manufacturers announced plans to release 3D TV’s into our living rooms this summer. Sony also announced 2 firmware updates, one for 3D movies, one for 3D games, which will allow PS3 to be forward-compatible with all of this new 3D technology.

This left the nearly 38 million Xbox 360 owners wondering when or if they’d get such an update as well, because after all, real 3D in games is something we’ve all salivated over for ages (as well as those ugly VR helmets that would cost a fortune and are now pretty much obsolete). So, can the Xbox 360 do 3D? Let’s take a look at the technical details."

TheSixthAxis: I’m a big fan of the PlayStation Network. Since the PS3’s launch, via a delicate but powerful combination of gradual firmware updates and some hard work from SCEE with regards to the actual Store, the PSN has become a force to be reckoned with, especially as it’s (currently) free. However, since moving home midway through December and the inability of some companies to maintain a decent broadband connection, I’ve been off the grid.

The area I’m now in doesn’t have a 3G mobile network, and barely manages 2G according to my Hero, so although I can share the ‘phone’s connection with the PS3 it’s not going to let me connect to the Network in any reasonable capacity. At first, I thought this would be terrible – I’d not be able to download whatever’s on the Store and I wouldn’t be able to see what my friends are playing at any given time. Actually, as it happens, it’s been a revelation.

Ben Dutka of PsxExtreme writes: "If you’re considering upgrading your old PlayStation 3 to one of the new Slim models, there are multiple reasons in support of that idea. But there may be another one you haven’t considered…"

PSLS Writes: The PlayStation 3 is not the only one to have recently turned three, the PlayStation Network also shares the same birthday, marking it’s third year of service PlayStation users. Starting on the PS3 the network expanded onto the PSP, and, in some respects, onto the PC. With numerous firmware updates, and revamps of the PlayStation Store, the network has greatly improved over the course of it’s life, with even more updates coming later today. The free service was previously known to have over 24 million users, now, to mark the service’s coming of age, SCEA has announced how many users the service currently has.

PlayStation LifeStyle writes:

Over the years many firmware updates have come and gone. Some significant, some not so much. Have you ever wondered how Sony plans the release of any new features included with each firmware update? Eric Lempel explains how…

Owners of bricked systems file suit on behalf of everyone who downloaded system update 3.0 or 3.01; demand unspecified damages.

The ability of console makers to update their systems’ firmware has a number of benefits, as evidenced by the continually expanding capabilities of the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii. However, the updating of firmware on all three platforms is sometimes associated with reports of systems being broken by the updates, or "bricked."

In some cases, the owners of ruined consoles do more than make angry message board posts about their misfortune. In late 2006, an Xbox 360 owner sued Microsoft over a system update rendering his console inoperable. That suit was dismissed in mid-2007 when Microsoft and the plaintiff reached an agreement out of court.

Now it’s Sony’s day in court, as last week a pair of PlayStation 3 owners who had their systems bricked by the September 3.0 and 3.01 firmware updates filed suit agianst the company. The two gamers–one from Texas, the other from Iowa–allege that the updates caused PS3s to malfunction, with problems including loss of controller use, malfunction of the Blu-ray drive, and bricking of consoles. When they contacted Sony’s customer service representatives, the pair were told that the system failures were coincidental and unrelated to the system update. Furthermore, Sony would charge them a repair fee of $150 in order to fix the systems.

SixthAxis writes:Firmware updates are a strange thing, with the recent 2.80 update being entirely optional until this weekend’s VidZone update. Whilst I can’t personally confirm right now whether Sony have actually pushed the button marked "obligatory" on the PlayStation 3’s Firmware Update 2.80 C&VG are claiming that to…

For those of you Wii owners who might not have noticed, there’s an option to update the firmware for the console to version 4.1 as of Thursday morning.

The details of the update are rather nebulous, if you read the message that Nintendo sent accompanying the update reminder:

This update provides behind-the-scenes fixes that will not affect features but will improve the overall system performance.

The Japanese 4.1 update was to address a bug in Wii Sports Resort that had to do with playing the game after having played a Virtual Console or WiiWare game loaded from an SD card. Apparently, the bug forced users to watch a Wii MotionPlus tutorial video every time the game was booted up, rather than just the first time– before a save was created for the game in the Wii’s internal memory. There are worse bugs, to be sure, but it’s understandable how this bug might be at least moderately annoying. It’s widely expected that this 4.1 update for the United States addresses the same bug, but Nintendo has not commented on the update, as of press time.

Wii Sports Resort will be available in retail stores on Sunday, July 26th, at a suggested retail price of $50 and comes with one Wii MotionPlus accessory. As for the firmware update, if you have not yet received a message from Nintendo with an option to download the update, you can always manually check for new firmware updates by selecting the Wii System Update option, which is located on page 3 of the Wii System Settings screen.

After you’ve downloaded the update, keep it locked right here at Games Are Evil for much more Wii coverage– including our upcoming full Wii Sports Resort review, as we put this long-awaited follow-up through its paces.

Do you own a standalone network media player? It has been revealed that HP and Linksys are discontinuing some of their media player products due to a decline in interest. Cnet has writtten an article about this and has suggest that both the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 offer great network media capabilities.

In the article which discusses the future of the standalone network media player, focus switches to the PS3 and 360 and the types of similar services they offer in comparison to rival products on the market.

They talk about the Xbox 360 being a full-on Windows Media Center Extender and network media player. They say the same thing about the PS3, adding that the recent DivX update makes the system ‘a more robust media streamer than the 360′.

Read the article in full above and let us know what your opinions are.