The new PSP Go, leaked just before E3 thanks to the June issue of Sony’s own Qore, is tiny little thing. Bigger than an iPhone—but not by much—and slimmer than the original PSP.

When placed side-by-side against some of the current portable gaming competition, the PSP Go illustrates just how different it is from its peers and predecessor. The screen ratio looks similar to older PSP models, but is considerably smaller in size—3.8 inches versus the PSP-3000′s diagonal size of 4.3 inches or 11% smaller.

On par with than Sony’s other slide-out device, the Mylo 2, from which the PSP Go looks to have borrowed some of its design choices.

The PSP Go is also pretty efficient on overall hardware footprint. The LCD screen is 0.3 inches larger than the iPhone, but thanks to the slide-out controls, doesn’t have nearly the same amount of extra plastic flanking each side.

The removal of some of the PSP’s original buttons (display, sound, volume) go a long way to keeping the look more efficient than earlier models.

Versus the Nintendo DSi and DS Lite, however, we see just how much smaller the device is in its open position compared to its dual-screen competition. Screen-wise, the DSi and PSP Go are closer than ever, as the former got a quarter-inch boost over the DS Lite’s screen, with the Go shaving off a half-inch.

Weight-wise, the PSP Go sounds pretty light—approximately 3.8 ounces, if the 43% lighter than the PSP-3000 figure (and our math) is accurate. That makes it lighter than the iPhone (4.7 ounces) and Nintendo DSi (7.5 ounces).

Keep in mind that these PSP Go figures aren’t official, so things may be slightly off. But if you need to budget pocket space for the Fall, it might be handy.

Rookie QB Pat White, seems like either he was forced to take off his gloves or decided to take them off himself. This is very encouraging yet something to keep an eye on. In his rookie camp, Pat White came out throwing with the glove, and his throws were less than stellar being picked twice by the Clemson rookie Chris Clemons.

(On why he was wearing gloves and if it’s strange to be a quarterback wearing gloves) ” Kurt Warner did, it gives a little better grip. My hands aren’t the biggest, and coming from West Virginia and the cold weather (the gloves) helped out a little bit. I liked it when I tried it and until (the gloves) prove me wrong I am going to keep doing it.” I guess someone proved him wrong… =P

I bet you the coaches had a talking to Pat and now he is trying to get his throws to come out cleaner.

We will keep an eye on this, but I guarantee we wont soon see Pat White put those gloves back on again unless he is no longer playing QB.

The Tuna is watching Pat.

Notice Pat White is not wearing gloves in recent OTA's

Notice Pat White wearing his trademark gloves during Rookie Camp

The Official Microsoft Xbox360 Memory Cards come in 64mb, 256mb & 512mb with no current information on plans to increase this because they have the Xbox360 Hard Drives to expand your gaming portfolio. It was however only going to be a matter of time before someone was going to break the mould, and Datel have created the first ever unofficial Xbox360 memory card which can actually be used for storing gamesaves, downloadable content and everything else you can do with the official memory cards and more

The memory cards come in 2GB & 4GB but are expandable to 16GB using Micro SD cards and are 100% compatible with use on the Xbox360. Pricing details are up to $49.99 for the 4GB Mem Card without extra Micro SD cards, but does include free software for PC backups and for a limited time a Micro SD card reader.

This could come as great news to anyone out there without an Xbox360 HDD wanting to expand their storage beyond 512mb, or perhaps you fancy taking your gamerprofile and some DLC to a mates house without lugging your HDD with you! Well now you can.

Last week a number of photos revealing what looked to be a new slim model of the PlayStation 3 leaked online. The pictures, which showed a thin new design boasting 120 GB of memory, led some people to get their hopes up for a new PS3 and others to shake their heads in skepticism.

I’m in the latter category. Having grown up in the bootleg-infested wiles of Chinatown and having spent a not insignificant amount of time in college studying contemporary China, I think I know a cheap knockoff when I see one. The lack of Spider-Man font on the box sealed the day for me: this is not a Sony product.

There might just be a chance that the “slim PS3″ is for real, though. Yesterday Engadget revealed that they’d been issued a cease-and-desist letter from a Chinese company requesting they take down the images and “keep our request confidential.”

The blog did neither, but instead speculated that whenever companies send cease-and-desist letters about leaked images of supposedly non-existent devices, it basically means that the device actually exists. Why else would you feel the need to cover it up, right?

However. The letter did not come from Sony directly, but from the company that apparently manufactures these “machines.” That suggests two things, to my mind. It could mean that Sony doesn’t want to shut the leak because they’re actually smart enough to know if they do it’ll imply there’s something worth covering up. Or, it could mean that this Chinese company is afraid that if the pictures get any more publicity, Sony’s lawyers might just notice that they’re making PS3 bootlegs and will release the hounds on them.

Call me a skeptic, but once again, I’m inclined toward the latter.

Early footage of the next game from Team ICO, exclusive to the PlayStation 3. This video may not represent the final product. I really hope it doesn’t cause this game looks just as gay as the other two Team Ico games…

Now I admit that ICO was cool at first, it was a novelty for the first 2 hours you played it, then it just got boring… 

WTF??

Donald Thomas, can’t go 1 practice without ripping his pectoral muscle?? Shut it down, this guy’s a noob!

The surprising early return of left guard Justin Smiley to the field after undergoing three surgeries over the past five months was dampened by the loss of promising right guard Donald Thomas.

Thomas, a sixth-round pick out of Connecticut who earned the starting job with the Miami Dolphins last summer but only lasted one game because of a fractured foot, didn’t participate in any of Tuesday’s organized training activity because of a torn pectoral muscle he suffered a couple of weeks ago.

The nature of the injury, which can be season-ending, makes Thomas’ status for the 2009 season uncertain.

Miami Dolphins coach Tony Sparano said he has not been given a definite timetable on Thomas’ recovery, but hopes the team’s projected starting lineman is cleared to practice at some point during training camp, which opens in late July.

Thomas, who was given the green light this offseason to return from his foot fracture he suffered in the season opener last season, was replaced on the first-team front line by Brandon Frye during Tuesday’s practice session. Sparano said Frye, Ikechuku Ndukwe, last year’s starting right guard, and Andy Alleman are competing to replace Thomas.

“It’s pretty tough,” Sparano said. “This guy worked real hard and he did everything in his power to overcome the foot injury and this happens. You hate to see that with anybody, particularly a guy like that who has worked real hard to come back from a foot injury.

“Donald will be back. He’s a pretty diligent guy who works real hard,” Sparano said. “We’ve just need to make sure we get it right.”

The 6-foot-4, 310-pound Thomas refused to answer questions about his injury as he walked off the field.

Alleman was also held out of Tuesday’s OTA session. Sparano said the team’s backup center/guard is nursing a back injury.

David Martin did not participate in OTAs because of a sports hernia he recently had repaired. Sparano said he expect the team’s backup tight end to be cleared to practice in time for training camp. Joey Haynos filled in for Martin as the second tight end.

Receiver Ernest Wilford also worked with the tight ends during Tuesday’s session.

Receiver Greg Camarillo participated in Tuesday’s practice on a limited basis. Sparano said the goal is to mix him in for a couple of repetitions each session to see how the knee is responding.

Rookie receiver Brian Hartline was not allowed to practice because he hasn’t graduated from Ohio State.

  ]]> http://www.ronrevog.com/?feed=rss2&p=120 2 http://www.ronrevog.com/?p=118 http://www.ronrevog.com/?p=118#comments Tue, 19 May 2009 16:49:32 +0000 admin http://www.ronrevog.com/?p=118

Patch 3.1.2 was released to the live realms today early in the morning. Remember you can now purchase faction mounts from the Argent Tournament Quartermasters for 5 Champion Seals and 500 gold. The Argent Hyppogryph was reduced to only 150 Champion Seals. Have fun with your rewards. (YAWNNNNNNN)

For a video tutorial on how to enable and use the Equipment Manager go here. Below you can read the latest patch notes:

The latest patch notes can always be found at

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/

General

Equipment Manager
When enabled from the Interface Options menu, this feature will allow players to store sets of equipment, easily swap between saved sets using hotkeys, and pull items directly from backpacks or bank slots (must be at the bank to equip inventory from the bank).
New art textures have been added for Argent Tournament mounts. Any mounts already purchased from the Argent Tournament vendors will be updated automatically. Argent Tournament mounts with the old textures will still be available for purchase from the Argent Tournament vendors for a small Champion’s Seal and gold cost (standard faction requirements apply).
Copied Test Realm characters will no longer be copied with their achievement history in order to better facilitate the character copy process.
PVP
Vehicle health and damage output in Strand of the Ancients and Lake Wintergrasp now scale with the item level of the operator’s gear. Power scaling is now 1% damage and 1% health per average item level.
All Lake Wintergrasp daily quests have been changed to a weekly format. The honor and Stone Keeper’s Shards rewarded for completing these quests have been increased to compensate.
More after the break …

Death Knights
Improved Death Strike: This talent now also increases the healing from Death Strike by 25/50% and the tooltip has been adjusted to reflect the actual functionality after the hotfix in 3.1.0.
Ghoul Frenzy: Now has a 10-second cooldown.
Druids
Innervate: This ability has been redesigned to grant 450% of the casting Druid’s base mana pool to the target over 20 seconds.
Improved Moonkin Form: Now grants 10/20/30% of spirit as spell power.
Mages
Mirror Images: The images summoned by this spell will now target the creature that most hates the Mage, and should no longer cast Fire Blast or Frostbolt on targets that are affected by crowd control debuffs that break immediately on damage unless they are already casting these spells when crowd control is applied.
Paladins
Blessing of Wisdom and Greater Blessing of Wisdom: Now grant 92 mana per 5 seconds to prevent being overwritten by Mana Spring Totem.
Exorcism: Can no longer be used on player-controlled creatures.
Priests
Divine Hymn: Healing and healing scaling reduced by 30%. Buff on affected players changed from 15% to 10%.
Renewed Hope: Effect can no longer be dispelled.
Soul Warding: Mana cost reduction is now 15% down from 30%.
Warlocks
Conflagrate updated: Consumes an Immolate or Shadowflame effect on the enemy target to instantly deal damage equal to 12 seconds of your Immolate, or 8 seconds of your Shadowflame.
Fire and Brimstone: Now increases the damage done by your Incinerate and Chaos Bolt by 3/6/9/12/15% on targets afflicted by Immolate, and increases the critical strike chance of your Conflagrate by 5/10/15/20/25%.
Nether Protection reduced to 30% damage reduction, down from 60%.
Sacrifice (Voidwalker) redesigned: Sacrifices a portion of the Voidwalker’s health, giving its master a shield that will absorb X damage for 30 seconds. While the shield holds, spell casting will not be interrupted by damage. 1-minute cooldown.
Shadow and Flame: Now also includes Shadowburn.
Warriors
Juggernaut: Critical strike chance bonus reduced to 25%, down from 100%.
Items
Darkruned Battlegear 2-Piece Set Bonus: The bonus critical strike chance for Frost Strike and Death Coil has been increased from 5% to 8%.
Furious Gladiator’s Staff and Furious Gladiator’s Greatstaff: The agility values on these two items were too high. They have been reduced by 50%.
Glyphs
Glyph of Conflagrate redesigned: When you use Conflagrate, the damage done by your next 3 Destruction spells is increased by 10% for 15 seconds if the Immolate on the target has 5 or fewer seconds remaining.
Glyph of Innervate: Has been adjusted to grant the Druid 90% of his or her base mana pool over 20 seconds.
Glyph of Mass Dispel: Now only decreases Mass Dispel cost by 35%.
Glyph of Rapid Charge: Reduced to 7%, down from 20% cooldown reduction to Charge.
Guise of the Midgard Serpent: The base attack power on this item has been lowered to balance it against items of a similar quality.
Increased the health and mana restored from Northrend food and drinks.
Most scopes now have a level requirement and will bind the item to which they are applied.
Nightsong Garb 4-Piece Set Bonus: Chance for Insect Swarm to trigger an instant Starfire changed to 15%.
Scourgeborne Battlegear 4-Piece Set Bonus: The runic power gain has been reduced to 5 runic power from 10 runic power.
Professions
Fishing
Jewel of the Sewers: You can now fish in all parts of the Dalaran sewers for this quest.
Phantom Ghostfish: Can now be caught from Nettlefish schools in Sholazar Basin.
Bug Fixes

Death Knights
Anti-magic Shell: Tooltip error corrected.
Blood Boil: If no target is available for Blood Boil to hit, the spell will now cast and consume a blood rune but generate no runic power.
Druids
Maim: Rank 2 of this ability is properly considered a stun and can be escaped by Blink.
Hunters
Go For The Throat: Explosive Shot critical strikes now trigger this talent.
Lock and Load: The tooltip has been corrected to display its actual chance to occur.
Rabid: This Hunter pet talent no longer lists a percentage chance to be triggered, as that chance varies by the attack speed of the pet.
Paladins
Divine Sacrifice: Damage done to the Paladin while this is active will no longer cause the effect to break early, and if it is dispelled or cancelled early, the damage counter will reset correctly the next time the spell is cast.
Rogues
Shadow Dance: Issues with action bars and ability use arising from using Stealth while Shadow Dance is active have been fixed.
Tricks of the Trade: To prevent exploits, this ability can no longer be cast on non-player targets.
Warlocks
Demonic Sacrifice: This spell will no longer appear in any Warlock’s spellbook.
Professions
Tailoring
Swordguard Embroidery: Now correctly increases ranged attack power.
Dungeons and Raids
Players can no longer become saved to an instance when they aren’t in the instance during a boss kill.
Ulduar
Hodir should now reset in a timely manner if a group fails to kill him.
10-player bosses that drop Runed Orbs will also sometimes drop the recipes that use those orbs.
The Spark of Imagination: Characters that release in part of the boss room will no longer be ported to Westfall or The Barrens.

There is a job listing on Gamasutra for Microsoft Games Studios’ Halo team looking for an Animation Director. It’s is not just one job listing. Microsoft Games Studio is looking to build a whole team.

This is not for Halo 3 ODST made by Bungie and it is not for Halo Wars by Ensemble Studios/Robot Entertainment and it is not for the totally dead Peter Jackson Halo Project.

It is not going to be officially announced until long after Halo 3: ODST ships and Bungie quits working on Halo but they are hiring the people right now to make the new Halo Xbox 360 game. This new game is under the supervision of Frankie’s Halo Franchise Development Group.

Looks like they are not going to outsource the development of Halo IV to an external developer but rather build a dedicated team in Redmond to handle future Halo games. Things have been trending this way for a long time now.

Microsoft Game Studios’ Halo team is looking for exceptional art talent to contribute to a new experience in the Halo universe.

This new job it is for a new Halo game being made by Microsoft Game Studios. According to the Job listing it is going to be developed in Redmond and it is going to be for the Xbox 360. There you go folks I am calling it. This is as official confirmation as you are going to get for a long time. If they are hiring major people now I would not expect the game before holiday 2011. I think it is going to be Halo 3 ODST fall 2009, Gears of War 3 fall 2010 Halo IV fall 2011.

It is technically hypothetically possible that it might not be Halo IV but “Yet Another Halo Project That Is Not Halo IV” or YAHPTINH IV but I think that it is not very likely. Or it could be for a Cortana office assistant to replace Clippy in the next version of MS Office. But I think I had it right with going that this job is going to be for Halo IV. That is the most logical conclusion. If it is not Halo IV I’ll post a video of just how bad I suck at Halo 3 multiplayer while singing Heavy Metal ABBA.

Halo IV to be made by Microsoft Games Studio in Redmond for the Xbox 360.

It looks badass, half Back to the Future Hoverboard, Half Star Trek Parisi Squares…

But will this be enough to bring the franchise back? With the bleh sales of Skate 2 is skate boarding as a genre just not there anymore? I mean what happened to SSX, they just flat out stopped making that…

From What I’ve heard this skateboard controller sounds hard to use.

“Josh Tsui, president of Robomodo (the developers behind the game), told Crecente in his latest “Well Played” column that “Playing on the board is unlike any other game, and I’m excited for everyone to have the chance to feel what it’s really like to experience the true feeling of skateboarding.”

He’s not kidding around. The game will be controlled entirely through the board. No controllers necessary. Which means that everything you do in the game – from turning to jumps to tricks – is handled through the game’s full-scale skateboard replica peripheral.

This controller has not one, but two accelerometers. It has four motions sensors, one on the front, one on the back and one on each side. And it has a slightly curved underside, which tapers off slightly at the sides to make it easier to rock from side-to-side and turn on (though the very bottom is still flat, so you won’t lose you balance).

All these sensors mean that for the game’s more basic manoeuvres, you will control your character in exactly the same way you’d control a real skateboard. Turn left and you’ll turn left. Rock to the right and you’ll lean to the right. Whip around 180 degrees and, yes, it’ll respond, and your avatar will turn around.

For the more complex stuff, like flip tricks and grabs, you’ll have to move or hold your hands/feet over the sensors. Which will mean a lot of work, particularly if you’ve never mastered the coordination to handle a real skateboard.

Which is going to be one of the real dangers in replicating a skateboard so closely: people who can skate will, you know, skate, while people who can’t skate may find the game difficult. In an attempt to cater to those of a less coordinated disposition, then, the game will feature three difficulty settings.

The hardest of these will faithfully recreate the act of skateboarding, and will require a ton of motion control from the user. The other two? They’ll be much kinder to the lazy and novices alike.

For more Tony Hawk: RIDE talk, and how these plastic controllers are taking over, check out the latest edition of Well Played. And if you’d like to see the controller in action, hit the vid below and skip to the section “Up Close With The Board!”