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.

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!

Cool! Cool! Cool! Spotted in Ohio, this Chevy is the ultimate expression of Angry Birds love.

Here’s another look

Via Jalopnik

Sony has recently announced that it has joined the tablet bandwagon with the official reveal of 2 Sony PlayStation Tablets.

There are two versions.

One is a clam-shell version dual-screen design (similar to DS) called the “S2″ can “operate like a touch-screen DS, with controls on the bottom screen while the “top” screen is free to display nothing but action.”

Both the S2′s screens are 5.5 inches, with a 1024×480 display.

The other one, a single screen tablet dubbed the “s1″ which can “play both PS1 games and other Sony-approved titles specifically for mobile platforms”. All this on a 9 inch screen.

As far as news is concerned, we’re able to gather the following specs;

• Android 3.0,
• wi-fi
• 3G and 4G connectivity
• Connectivity to Sony’ music and e-book store
• Can be used to control other Sony devices (Bravia, etc) in your home like a remote control

No pricing or release date announced thus far.

Can’t wait. Don’t forget to share!

via [ Kotaku ]

This gameboy is supposedly owned by Michael Jackson himself.

This site says that he used it to woo Mcaulay Culkin. Duh? I’ll let your imagination go wild after that. Anyways, it sells for $75. A steal perhaps?

Share and let your friends answer that question too!

Zombies are always welcome in casual and SNS games. But Resident Evil? You guys serious?!?

Well, apparently so. According to a PR released by Capcom today, Resident Evil will be released for the Japanese social network, GREE.

In “Resident Evil: Outbreak Survive”, the first title for GREE, players take on the role of civilians trapped on the zombie-infested streets of Raccoon City. Players will struggle for their own survival while working together with friends, sharing healing items and assembling teams of rescued allies to overcome numerous and difficult missions in this new social survival horror game. In addition to the communication element of social games, this title also enables newcomers to enjoy the tense atmosphere and rich setting of the Resident Evil universe.

Check out this link for more details

Get some creativity, game designers (or writers). You always (almost) use the same chessy words over and over and over again.

Whether for titles, places, things, or NPCs…

Here are the 20 Overused Words for Game Names

1. Age
2. Blade
3. Command
4. Darkness
5. Dawn
6. Dead
7. Eternal
8. Hero
9. Legend
10. Mario
11. Origin
12. Party
13. Red
14. Shadow
15. Space
16. Star
17. Super
18. Unleashed
19. War
20. World

Via Gamedaily

Sony has hinted at the release of the UMD-less PSP. Tentatively called PSP Go.

Overheard via 1UP, here’s the gist of the story:

• Many thought the new name would be PSP 2 or PSP 4000
• It is most likely NOT to have a UMD
• Available in either 8GB or 16GB built-in memory
• Rumored release in Japan will be in September
• North America release in October or November.
• 100 classic and new PSP titles available for download at launch
• d-pad, analog nub, and face buttons as part of a sliding unit sticking out below the screen
• will not have a second analog stick

full story here

Peace!

(Photo above NOT actual photo. Just a mock)

It has both touchscreens, camera and SD card memory. Coming to Japan this November. The rest of us soon. Hold off buying a DS and wait for this one.

According to the official UK press release, this new Nintendo DS unit was done after extensive research by Nintendo. “we have listened to our customers and made some enhancements to existing DS functions.”

Moreso, the “DSi is 2.6mm or about 12% thinner than DS Lite. As a consequence of this effort, we have decided to remove the slot for GameBoy Advance software.

Next, we have tried to comply with the requests for bigger screens. Because of the fact that the weight of LCD increases in proportion to its dimensions, we were challenged to adopt larger LCDs but maintain the light weight of Nintendo DS Lite. As the result, we have made an 8% increase over the current 3-inch LCD to make it 3.25-inches. This is approximately a 17% increase in visual area per screen. We have also improved both the speaker volume and sound quality.

As for the new features, we have incorporated a camera and an audio player function. You might share the impression that since many of today’s mobile phones already incorporate similar camera and audio player functions, this news many not seem to play any significant role in further expanding DS.”

Joystiq summarizes the changes as

• 12 percent thinner
• will get rid of the GBA slot entirely
• The DSi will also include two built-in cameras (one reportedly VGA resolution)
• music playback.
• It will add an SD card slot and internal storage to enhance its multimedia capabilities.
• The screens are now slightly larger at 3.25 inches
• photos can be synced to the Wii Photo Channel
• includes a free browser application.

Initial reports say that the new unit will cost around $190 to $200 and will be available in 2009 soon.

Check out the official Japanese DSi page if you don’t mind the Japanese text to just see more details. Meanwhile, there’s a good spec comparison of this one vs. the PSP vs. the iPod.

More updates soon.

IGN has recently revealed that a new Indiana Jones game for the PSP is in the works

The new game, tentatively called Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings, is being developed by Activision-Blizzard. The announcement came from the Australian PEGI website.

According to the PEGI, the game “will be released on PSP and DS, with no mention of a full-scale release for Indy on PS3, Wii, 360 or PC at this stage”

No further developments or details can be gathered at this point. Once we get it, so shall you.

Stay tuned!

Via IGN