Hands-on: SOCOM 4 (with PlayStation Move!)
There are two questions I'll try to answer with this quick hands-on preview. Firstly, is SOCOM 4 the true sequel to the SOCOM franchise we've been waiting for? Secondly, does the PlayStation Move controller work as intended?
It's hard to answer the first question, especially within the constraints of a ten-minute demo. What I can say is that even in this early state, SOCOM 4 looks very good, sporting incredibly detailed environments. While the early code has a noticeably choppy framerate, there was already a large ...
Japanese hardware sales, Feb. 22 – Feb. 28: Oscar primer edition

[Image via The Stub]
If you've been avidly following the Hollywood scuttlebutt this past week, you've probably heard of an event which is unfolding at this very moment: The 82nd Annual Academy Awards. We know how badly you guys want to be able to talk about the Oscars whilst chatting over your place of business' water cooler, coffee pot or rodeo clown make-up station, so we're here to help you understand the Awards ceremony in terms you'll find easily understandable: The ...
The apocalyPS3 ends in global resurrection, ARM chip at fault

The early belief that the PSN was spreading a brickitis infection to PS3s around the world has turned out to be not quite accurate. Yes, PSN was inaccessible over that extremely stressful day (for PS3 owners, the rest of us have been quite fine, thank you), but we're hearing from Eurogamer that the villain in this story was an ARM chip inside the console -- the very same one, in fact, that led to a ...
Japanese hardware sales, Feb. 15 – Feb. 21: Stationary Year edition

[Image via mlive]
We think we can all agree that Leap Years are like, the best thing ever. It's an extra day! An extra 24 hours you can spend doing whatever you want, unless it falls on a work day, in which case, you'll probably spend it working. It augments the month of February, changing it from a truncated, dissatisfying calendar partition into a slightly less truncated, dissatisfying calendar partition.
We had planned out a ton of ...
Awesome ‘Alien’ sculpted from 1,200lb of motorcycle steel

Three resourceful artists from the Irish company RoboSteel gathered 4,000 pieces of steel and welded together "Alien Queen," an 8-foot sculpture that's even scarier than that horrifying monster in the 1979 Ridley Scott film, Alien. It's okay, though, because this is a green monster — 90% of her 1,200 pounds of parts are recycled from Yamaha motorcycles.
Want one for yourself? Scrape up $6,000 and she's all yours, standing guard over your abode as if her life ...
Nippon Ichi president resigning at the end of March

In a letter recently distributed (.pdf link) to the company's investors, Nippon Ichi president Tomohiro Sato announced that he would be stepping down from his managerial post on March 31. Sato cites "personal reasons" as the force leading him to resign, though this news comes only two weeks on the heels of Nippon Ichi's announcement of its 98 percent year-over-year revenue decline, and resulting JASDAQ freefall.
Though we may not undoubtedly ...
PS3’s Torne DVR launching in Japan March 18

If you want to pick up the Torne PS3 DVR unit, March 18 is the day to do that. If you're buying a PS3 for the first time and hoping to get the bundle, you should know that the package (which includes a PS3 with a 250GB hard drive and the Torne unit for
Japanese hardware sales, Feb. 1 – Feb. 7: Valentiney edition

Most of the younger interns here at the Japanese Hardware Sales Chart institute have had their wills systematically broken down, turning them into unfeeling, number-crunching machines. Still, we think it's important to give them one day a year -- Valentine's Day -- where they're allowed to experience that saccharine emotion known as love.
Of course, we don't allow them to experience it first-hand -- that could lead to all kinds of scandalous behavior. No, we simply show them cutscenes from our favorite love ...
Japanese hardware sales, Feb. 1 – Feb. 7: Valentiney edition

Most of the younger interns here at the Japanese Hardware Sales Chart institute have had their wills systematically broken down, turning them into unfeeling, number-crunching machines. Still, we think it's important to give them one day a year -- Valentine's Day -- where they're allowed to experience that saccharine emotion known as love.
Of course, we don't allow them to experience it first-hand -- that could lead to all kinds of scandalous behavior. No, we simply show them cutscenes from our favorite love ...
Uncharted 2 getting multiplayer trophies, more DLC Feb. 25

We sure hope you've gone through the rigors of grabbing the Platinum trophy in Uncharted 2 already, because it's about to get a tad harder to unlock. On February 25, a patch for the multiplayer component of the 2009 Game of the Year™ will be released, adding 12 new trophies and 12 in-game medals. You can find a list of both of these unlockables after the jump.
In addition, a batch ...