Battlefield 1943

When video games first release you have to expect that there will be bugs. By bugs I mean things like:

• Lag
• Random deaths
• Not being able to connect to the game
• Graphic glitches and/or missing textures
• Game mechanics not working properly

These are just a few things to expect when you go to play a game that has just been released. Most developers try to keep these to a minimum and very rarely does a game have multitudes of problems. Unfortunately for EA and Dice, Battlefield 1943 was one of those very unlucky games that had just about every problem possible.

With such a large company like EA backing Dice, the bugs were quickly fixed and game play resumed after only a short while. Frankly, these release hiccups are the only thing that was negative about this game. Now that we’ve got the bad out of the way let’s jump right into the good parts of BF1943, which is just about everything.

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lisa Online Gaming, Playstation 3, Video games review, Vigster, gaming, video games, xbox360 1943, 360, battlefield, ea, FPS, Online Gaming, PS3, shooter

Photo courtesy of www.dailygamenews.com

Do you ever wonder what would happen if you took a hand-held gaming console and cell phone and merged the two together? Sony has and they want to turn their PSP into a cell phone gaming console. The concept isn’t all that new since many cell phones offer games of some sort, even if they’re simple in design and play style.

Many devices are being merged together with every passing year. You can watch movies on hand-held devices, listen to music, talk on the phone and even surf the web. Taking a gaming system and merging it with a cell phone was bound to happen at some point. Since Sony is often at the cutting edge of consumer technology, it’s no surprise it would be them to introduce it.

Sony has a prototype for their new device but is keeping details at a minimum. This comes as no surprise since Apple dominates with the iPod and the iPhone. Apple has big companies like Electronic Arts and Square Enix offering games for certain products they manufacture. Sony is attempting to get a working product so they’re not shut out by the Apple giant again.

Sony knows all too well what will happen if they fall behind with this new device. Back when Walkmans came out, Sony did very well for themselves. Even when CD players were brought into the mix, Walkmans were still a huge hit. Most people didn’t have access to a computer to make their own CD’s but could put together a mix on a tape. This all changed when Apple came out with their iPod and dominated the industry.

Sony plans to get a team together next month to start work on their new product. The details they have released say that the device will be a hybrid between the PSP and the Sony Ericsson phone. The product won’t look much different than the current PSP or some cell phones that have keyboard access. No details have been released about what types of features will be offered. We can only guess that it won’t be much different than what you can get from your cell phone or PSP.

However, don’t get your hopes up on getting one of these anytime soon. Sony Ericsson holds a patent for the device but refuses to comment on it. PSPhones were confirmed and denied back in 2007 but no one has released anything solid. Even when these products hit the market, companies will have to see how popular they are before we see an influx in them. Hopefully we won’t have to wait too long to get our hands on one of these amazing gadgets.

lisa Featured, Industry News, gaming, psp cell phone, device, mobile, psp, psp phone, sony

World of Warcraft

Are you fed up with your faction on World of Warcraft? Do you have friends that play the opposite faction and you want to play with them but don’t want to lose your level 80 that you’ve worked so hard on? If you’ve ever wanted to change sides just to see how they operate, then you won’t have to wait much longer. Blizzard has just announced that players that want to change factions will be able to do so sometime in the future with an upcoming patch.

While they’re not giving many details on exactly how they’re going to implement the change we can only speculate that it will be much like their other change systems. Right now World of Warcraft players have the chance to change their name, their realm and even completely re-customize their appearance. All of these changes can be made from your account settings and cost just a little bit of money.

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lisa Industry News, MMOG, Online Gaming, gaming, video games clan, faction, gaming, gold, online, online games, World of Warcraft, WOW

Playstation 2 and Playstation 3

Do you have hundreds of PS2 titles that you can’t play on your PS3? So do the rest of us! A new Sony patent might change all of that. This new patent shows how Sony can take the PS3 chipset and give it the ability to read like it was a PS2 chipset allowing it to play games from the older console version. Even though the PS2 can play PS games the PS3 wasn’t meant to play PS2 games.

One of the biggest downsides to consoles is that every few years there comes an upgrade and you can’t play your older games on the newer system. This is almost as annoying as PC gamers who have to upgrade their systems every six to twelve months just to play the newest games on the best settings. If Sony steps up and offers the PS3 with the ability to play older games, then PS2 owners will be able to play their favorite titles on a newer and better system.

So you’re probably wondering how all of this works. PS3’s without backwards technology are missing a chip known as the Emotion Engine. PS3 chipsets should be able to emulate (make a fake copy of) this and thus give the ability to play PS2 games. Sony has recognized this possibility by filing a patent that states they have the code and technology available to do just that.

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lisa Consoles, Playstation 3, gaming, video games compatibility, PS2, PS3, sony, video games