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Posted by Jonathan Hunt - Wednesday, November 28, 2007 2:19 PM
It's holiday season and parents everywhere will buying the hottest new videogames for their loving children. In this week's Sessler's Soapbox, Adam talks about the recent study that only 43% of parents actually play videogames with their kids. What do you think? Do you think parents should take a more active interest in accolades of Pikachu and Master Chief? Check out the video and leave your thoughts below or let us know how you feel on our forums.
Posted by Brian Leahy - Wednesday, November 28, 2007 2:05 PM
While Black Friday does wonders for retailers that have physical stores, the Monday after Thanksgiving is when the online shopping season jumps off. So much so that it's called "Cyber Monday".
This year's Cyber Monday saw an increase in sales of 21% up to $733 million.
It also shows a jump of 84% from daily online spending over the past four weeks.
Pretty crazy numbers, but we think they need a new name. We can't not add "pew pew" after "Cyber Monday". It just sounds so geeky.
Posted by Frank Meyer - Wednesday, November 28, 2007 1:43 PM
A few weeks ago Saturday Night Live alumi Chevy Chase appeared on the news to delivery a little editorial, serving as a tip of the hat to when he hosted the SNL news in the ‘70s.
Turns out Chevy was hired to be a semi-regular on the SNL news, but two things may have derailed that deal:
1. The writer’s strike, which started up the following week, halting SNL and many other shows for an undeterminded amount of time.
2. The poor writing on his debut segment the other week made the sketch go…um…not great.
Posted by Frank Meyer - Wednesday, November 28, 2007 1:04 PM
In case you were wondering, after a week’s worth of crappy, half-hearted semi-performances, Amy Winehouse has scrapped her UK tour, which was to run through the rest of the year.
"I can't give it my all onstage without my [husband] Blake," Winehouse said in a statement. "I'm so sorry, but I don't want to do the shows half-heartedly; I love singing. My husband is everything to me and without him it's just not the same."
Of course, she is referring to her hubby Blake Fielder-Civil, who was arrested in the UK earlier this month and charged with one count of "attempting to pervert the court of justice" (i.e. - obstruction of justice). The 25-year-old Fielder-Civil was popped over an alleged $400,000 plot to fix a trial after police raided his and Winehouse's London home.
Oh, and that’s Amy allegedly snorting coke stashed in her beehive during a performance last week. Aaaah, memories….
Posted by Brian Leahy - Wednesday, November 28, 2007 11:45 AM
Harmonix filled our inboxes with a double-shot of PR love this morning regarding some concerns people have had over Rock Band.
On the broken strum bars:
As sometimes happens when new products first go into manufacturing, we discovered an imperfection with the strum bar in an early production run of guitars that were shipped at launch. We want to inform you that we have since identified and fixed the issue in all subsequent production runs of the guitars.
If you are experiencing a problem with your guitar or any of your other Rock Band instruments, simply visit the customer support website and we will send a replacement immediately. Harmonix is dedicated to creating 100% customer satisfaction and to those of you who've encountered any hardware issues, we are sorry for the hassle.
We're glad to hear that the problem has been fixed and this will hopefully be behind us soon.
Posted by Brian Leahy - Wednesday, November 28, 2007 11:35 AM
TiVo's best feature is undoubtedly the noises it makes. We could spend hours just listening to it go "blick-up, blick-up". Often we say to ourselves, "Wouldn't it be great to listen to those noises on our computers?"
Turns out, TiVo thinks it would too.
They are partnering up with Nero (as in, "I will burn your discs for you and be a completely bloated program that runs slow and takes up too many resources") to bring a software DVR solution to PCs.
Posted by Brian Leahy - Wednesday, November 28, 2007 11:29 AM
Square Enix has reiterated that they have no idea what their new MMO is going to be at a Final Fantasy XI fan event.
Vice President of Square Enix, Hiromichi Tanaka, said:
As you might already know, members from the current FFXI team are working on a next generation MMO, but it still hasn't been decided whether that's going to be a game in the FF series, a continuation, or a totally new game. We are working on it, but it hasn't been decided that far yet.
Game development usually doesn't work like this. Games are usually made knowing what the story will be and what franchise or universe it will take place in.
Regardless, Square Enix is officially "Wingin' it".
Posted by Brian Leahy - Wednesday, November 28, 2007 11:18 AM
Many cell phones lack GPS, but can access Google Maps or similar services. To help out, Google will introduce a new feature that will attempt to locate a user by cell tower triangulation.
This would allow users to get a semi-accurate address for their current location. This would help greatly because sometimes you just don't know where you are.
The feature is currently in a test mode and users can type a "0" into the search box to try and locate themselves.
Posted by Frank Meyer - Wednesday, November 28, 2007 11:15 AM
Kanye West and legendary stuntman Evel Knievel have peacefully resolved the motorcycle madman’s multimillion dollar lawsuit over West’s video "Touch The Sky."
Knievel sued the rapper in December of 2006 over the Late Registration clip, which featured West as a fictional stuntman named "Evel Kanyevel" reenacted Knievel’s legendary failed jump over Wyoming's Snake River Canyon in 1974.
Knievel claimed West tarnished his image by using "vulgar, sexual and racially questionable content" by reenacting the video, which also starred Pamela Anderson.
Posted by Frank Meyer - Wednesday, November 28, 2007 10:59 AM
After much speculation and legal buffoonery with former label Interscope, Trent Reznor was finally allowed to re-launch his Nine Inch Nails remix site, where fans can download wave files of elements to his songs and construct their own remixes.
It seems Uni-Scope didn’t want the site to continue since 1. he has since left the label, and 2. Interscope’s parent company Universal is involved in a suit with Google (YouTube) and News Corp (MySpace) over digital-rights issues.
But however it happened, the parties appeared to have worked it out and the site is live. Now go steal the music and make your own, kiddies!
Posted by Frank Meyer - Wednesday, November 28, 2007 10:48 AM
Rolling Stone is reporting that heavy metal legends Metallica may debut their new single via Rock Band.
“There are a couple of things we’ve committed to, one of them with Metallica for example,” MTV Senior Vice President of home entertainment Paul DeGooyer, who worked on Rock Band with Harmonix, recently said. “They’ve reserved the right to give us their first single from their new album for the game.”
So the first time you hear the new Metallica single from its upcoming album could be through crappy television speakers while your dorky friend trys to play along with it.
Boy, Metallica have come a long way since they delared themselves the “Metal Militia” and threatened to stick “Metal Up Your Ass!”
Posted by Brian Leahy - Wednesday, November 28, 2007 10:46 AM
Google is at it again and this time they're fixin' to run a contest for students. High school and secondary school students will be able to enter into the "Google Highly Open Participation Contest".
Terrible name, we know, but the contest actually sounds really cool. In a super-nerd kinda way.
Big G has partnered with the Apache Software Foundation, Drupal, GNOME, Joomla!, MoinMoin, Mono, Moodle, Plone, Python Software Foundation, and SilverStripe CMS.
Each of these open source developers will provide a list of tasks that need to be completed in their development. Students can claim a task and work on completing them. The tasks could be new features, bug fixes, or similar.
Their entries will be judged and they could win a trip to Google headquarters and more.
Posted by Brian Leahy - Wednesday, November 28, 2007 10:43 AM
Further pointing toward the fact that DX10 is a marketing scheme to push Vista sales, smarty-pants gamers have figured out how to get the game looking pretty damn DX10 in DX9.
Direct your personal computer here for instructions on how to bring your system to a crawl trying to play Crysis at super-high detail.
Posted by Frank Meyer - Wednesday, November 28, 2007 10:26 AM
Peripherals manufacturer Nyko Technologies announced today the Perfect Shot and Net Connect-two new products for the Wii.
Weeeeeeee!
Nyko's Perfect Shot complemens Wii /shooter games, allowing players to experience more tactile control and accuracy during intense gaming sessions. The Perfect Shot holds the Wii remote with a secure locking system and allows players to hit the remote's B button using a tactile trigger mechanism. The lightweight and ergonomic design allows for extended use with less strain in the arm and hand. The Perfect Shot can also be used in conjunction with other peripherals by utilizing a pass-through port. This allows players to attach a Nunchuck or Classic Controller to the unit, providing more compatibility with other titles.
Posted by Brian Leahy - Wednesday, November 28, 2007 10:21 AM
This format war is going to the old country. In 2007 through November 4th, Blu-Ray discs account for 73% of high-def movie and TV disc sales in Europe.
That's a huge discrepancy between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD.
Sony points to the release of the PS3 in Europe last March as the turning point.
"This is an important milestone for Blu-ray Disc in Europe and proves once again that whenever consumers have the choice they decide overwhelmingly in favour of BD," said Frank Simonis, Chairman of the Blu-ray Disc European Promotions Committee.
Posted by Frank Meyer - Wednesday, November 28, 2007 10:18 AM
Hey kids, ever heard of Quidditch?
Sure you have, it’s the made-up game from the Harry Potter books that requires flying around on a broom and a lil’ flying magic ball.
Well, it turns out that students at exclusive Northeast private schools like Vassar and Middlebury College are playing their own version of the game….sans actually flying.
watch the video above and tell me if you think ANYONE seen in it is getting laid this semester. Or ever.
Posted by Brian Leahy - Wednesday, November 28, 2007 10:07 AM
Cali State Senator Leland Yee is warning parents to avoid buying violent games for their impressionable kids this Holiday season.
In addition to missing the point, he warns that "it is vitally important that parents and grandparents consider the content in video games before making holiday purchases."
"Vitally".
That's a strong word. He goes on to comment that in "many top selling games" players are "rewarded" for "killing police officers, maiming elderly persons, running over pedestrians, and torturing women and racial minorities."
We don't remember any of that in BioShock or Halo 3. Grand Theft Auto IV isn't even coming out this year.
Mr. Yee, as residents of California, we humbly request that you spend a little less time worrying about what games kids are playing and more about which cities are on fire.
Posted by Brian Leahy - Wednesday, November 28, 2007 9:47 AM
Google has more money than most. We'd bet they even have more money than you.
It's a good thing they want to help out because otherwise they could just buy doomsday devices and rule the world with an iron first instead of the elegant touch of knowing all of the world's information.
They are investing tens of millions of dollars into research and development to try and create efficient, clean, renewable energy.
Let's hope they figure this whole mess out so Al Gore can sleep at night.
A few weeks ago Saturday Night Live alumi Chevy Chase appeared on the news to delivery a little editorial, serving as a tip of the hat to when he hosted the SNL news in the ‘70s.
TiVo's best feature is undoubtedly the noises it makes. We could spend hours just listening to it go "blick-up, blick-up". Often we say to ourselves, "Wouldn't it be great to listen to those noises on our computers?"
Square Enix has reiterated that they have no idea what their new MMO is going to be at a Final Fantasy XI fan event.
Many cell phones lack GPS, but can access Google Maps or similar services. To help out, Google will introduce a new feature that will attempt to locate a user by cell tower triangulation.
Kanye West and legendary stuntman Evel Knievel have peacefully resolved the motorcycle madman’s multimillion dollar lawsuit over West’s video "Touch The Sky."
After much speculation and legal buffoonery with former label Interscope, Trent Reznor was finally allowed to re-launch his 
Rolling Stone is reporting that heavy metal legends Metallica may debut their new single via Rock Band.
Google is at it again and this time they're fixin' to run a contest for students. High school and secondary school students will be able to enter into the "Google Highly Open Participation Contest".
Peripherals manufacturer 
This format war is going to the old country. In 2007 through November 4th, Blu-Ray discs account for 73% of high-def movie and TV disc sales in Europe.
Cali State Senator Leland Yee is warning parents to avoid buying violent games for their impressionable kids this Holiday season.
Google has more money than most. We'd bet they even have more money than you.