The hand-held space is a pretty interesting avenue of gaming right now. While hand-held gaming has never been more popular, the competition has never been greater.

Nintendo, credited with creating the first hand held console with Game Boy in 1989, is certainly still one of the major players. But Nintendo’s 3DS (which actually helped yield the company’s first ever quarterly loss) is struggling right after launch. It seems that even without a stereoscopic component, smart phones are gobbling up all the oxygen in the room, though a recent price drop has allowed 3DS sales to enjoy a relative surge. Most gamers agree, the biggest problem with the 3DS is not the price but the sheer lack of games.

Over at Sony, there’s preparation for the Vita, the successor to the PSP, and it’ll be launching at $249. The latest Vita controversy is that some games will require external memory cards and others won’t. Uncharted: Golden Abyss, for example, won’t even play unless you have a rather expensive, proprietary Sony memory card already installed in the system. Many in the industry still expect the Vita to outsell the 3DS.

But that’s not to say Sony is out of the woods. Even their PSP continues to suffer losses at the hands of smartphones. Right now, the hand held gaming market is ruled by iOS and Android. Their games are cheaper, more casual, and tend to be inexplicably addictive—Angry Birds (with it’s 200 million downloads) comes to mind. And it certainly doesn’t help Nintendo’s bottom line that 3D in smartphones may soon become mainstream.

Smartphone dominance is a trend in more than just hand-held gaming. Smartphones are used more and more for everything, gaining the edge on portable media players, GPS systems, Internet use, and even satellite radio. People are even using smartphones more for photography, opting for the high mega-pixel counts and the ease of use offered by devices like the HTC Android camera phone.

But the gaming world has traditionally been dominated by gaming companies, which is what makes it so peculiar that in the last decade companies like Apple and Nokia have been able to seize such a lion’s share of portable gaming sales. Is it the quality of the games? Surely, that is a factor, but it may just be more of an issue of people wanting their media sources and tools consolidated into a single device. When you’re on an airplane you don’t want to have to carry around gaming, phone, and Internet devices separately, like the countless remote controls in your living room.

Regardless, it will be interesting to see how the next months and years play out, as Sony launches more games on PSP and Nintendo attempts to get its groove back.

Recently, Blizzard has announced its plans for the “upcoming Beta” of the highly anticipated game, Diablo 3. Though no exact date was announced, industry analysts predict that it would happen in Q3 of this year in time for maybe a Holiday season release.

After 10 years of anticipation following Blizzard Entertainment’s Diablo II (2000) and its expansion, Diablo II: Lord of Destruction (2001), the iconic action-RPG gameplay of the Diablo series is back with a vengeance in Diablo III. In the upcoming Diablo III beta test, selected participants will be among the first in the world to rejoin the battle against the minions of the Burning Hells as they explore part of the game’s foreboding first act.

Check out more details about the official Beta Announcement HERE

Meanwhile, another announcement shocked the gaming world. Diablo 3 players can now sell their items via a sanctioned auction house. “Sure, slaying monsters, demons, and cultists is a surefire way to obtain a ton of random new loot in Diablo III, but with the new auction house feature, it’ll be easier than ever to gear up your character with the exact items you’re looking for. You can also post the items you don’t need for players who are desperately searching for what you’ve got!”

“The real-money auction house provides players with an easy-to-use, Blizzard-sanctioned way to collect money for items they obtain while playing Diablo III. It also helps protect players from the scams and theft often associated with questionable third-party sites by providing a secure, completely in-game method for purchasing and obtaining the items they want for their characters.” reads their official page on the feature

Can’t wait!

Don’t forget to share! Thanks!

Nintendo just unveiled their new console, the “Wii U” at E3 2011. Tagged at a “2012 launch”, the new console promises a synergy of tablet, TV, and of course, the motion-packed fun factor of the Wii. It’s like having an iPad, a PSP and a console combined.

Check out the next page for the full specs of the Wii U, the E3 trailer video and rumored price point…

Nintendo Wii U

Meanwhile, here are the specs:

• Launches: 2012
• Size: Approximately 1.8 inches tall, 6.8 inches wide and 10.5 inches long.
• New Controller: The new controller incorporates a 6.2-inch, 16:9 touch screen and traditional button controls, including two analog Circle Pads. This combination removes the traditional barriers between games, players and the TV by creating a second window into the video game world. The rechargeable controller includes a Power button, Home button, +Control Pad, A/B/X/Y buttons, L/R buttons and ZL/ZR buttons. It includes a built-in accelerometer and gyroscope, rumble feature, camera, a microphone, stereo speakers, a sensor strip and a stylus.
• Other Controls: Up to four Wii Remote™ (or Wii Remote Plus) controllers can be connected at once. The new console supports all Wii™ controllers and input devices, including the Nunchuk™ controller, Classic Controller™, Classic Controller Pro™ and Wii Balance Board™.
• Media: A single self-loading media bay will play 12-centimeter proprietary high-density optical discs for the new console, as well as 12-centimeter Wii optical discs.
• Video Output: Supports 1080p, 1080i, 720p, 480p and 480i. Compatible cables include HDMI, component, S-video and composite.
• Audio Output: Uses AV Multi Out connector. Six-channel PCM linear output through HDMI.
• Storage: The console will have internal flash memory, as well as the option to expand its memory using either an SD memory card or an external USB hard disk drive.
• CPU: IBM Power®-based multi-core microprocessor.
• GPU: AMD Radeon™-based High Definition GPU.
• Other: Four USB 2.0 connector slots are included. The new console is backward compatible with Wii games and Wii accessories.

There are rumors that a site in Australia pegged the SRP at around USD $628.00. (around P28,000 here in the PH). It’s obvious that the tablet is to blame for the high cost.

But with a lot of new features promised, it may be worth it. Until then, let’s wait for the official announcement

Via Nintendo Official Wii U page and Just Push Start

Here’s a new trailer revealed at E3 for the Star Wars The Old Republic.

I just wish the game would be as good as the CGI short film. Sigh.

For more details, check out the game’s official site

Doom opened the floodgates for the FPS genre.

I had a blast playing it yearrsssss ago. Oh well. Now you can play it just using your web browser.

It plays better on Firefox/Mozilla than Chrome, btw.

To play HIT THIS

It’s been almost 40 years (1974 to be exact) when Dungeons and Dragons came out. Thanks to Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, we geeks had had great and memorable memories with D&D. It also spawned countless video games, games, and even more games.

That generation of D&D players are now Dads (or moms). And it’s time to pass on the torch to our children. See how a dad tries to ask help from the community on how to teach kids the proper way to play D&D…

One dad has began to teach his kids to play D&D using the quick-and-dirty Castle Ravenloft boxed game. It’s sort of a cross between pen-and-paper and a board game. That and similar games in the genre can be perfect for introducing new players (not just kids) to this great hobby.

Dive into the discussion here.

P.S. I call myself a lucky geek for having the honor to have met THE Gary Gygax. ‘Nuff said.

Via BoingBoing

What do we geeks do with all our old SNES cartridges? They’re just taking up valuable storage space at home!

Hmmm… these folks had a splendid idea; Let’s PISS ON ‘EM!

Watch the video below

Don’t forget to share!

via Boing Boing

Rovio has managed to enthrall us by sending Angry Birds whoozing through the air and (hopefully) land accurately on its target.

But how realistic is the physics behind the game? One geek has done the (almost) impossible..

Rhet Allain, in his article at Wired wrote

But what about the physics? Do the birds have a constant vertical acceleration? Do they have constant horizontal velocity? Let’s find out, shall we? Oh, why would I do this? Why can’t I just play the dumb game and move on. That is not how I roll. I will analyze this, and you can’t stop me.

He must be dead serious. With the likes of formulas such as…

Well done, fellow geek!

You make us proud!

For Rhet’s complete “white-paper”, click here

Wohooo! Leaked trailer of the next expansion for StarCraft 2, Heart of the Swarm.

Zerg. ‘Nuff said.

via YouTube

A couple of months ago, Dead Island released what is, one of the best Zombie-game trailers for us to see.

Now, look at 11 minutes of pure game play awesomenezz…

Dead Island Gameplay video

Dead Island is developed by Techland and will is tentatively released for September 2011 for the PC, PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360.

Can’t wait!

via Boing Boing