Datel Wi-Fi Max: PSP and DS go online
Games and GearIf you've got a Sony PSP and haven't taken it online yet, then you're not using the world's best handheld to its full potential. All credit to Sony, it's filled the Your PSP Web site with loads of cool video, music and new game content. However, as you can only connect online via a wireless network, you usually have to mess around with routers, WEP keys and all sorts of other computer-based nonsense. Datel's new Wi-Fi Max dongle may still require a PC and a smattering of know-how, but it's miles simpler than creating a full-on network as it simply shares your standard Internet connection. You can then go online and download a whole raft of new Wipeout Pure tracks.
Playing around with Datel's 29.99 package, we found it to be seriously good value for anyone who's yet to explore the multimedia potential of the console. It's the first device we've seen that will share all your computer's media over the Internet, so you can swap your music without ever having to go near the PC. It's quicker to use USB 2.0, but if someone is on the computer you can still load the PSP with videos before you go out. Continue reading...
Xbox 360 Wireless Adaptor: Life without the grey cables
Games and GearIf there's anything 'next-gen' about Microsoft's Xbox 360, it has to be the fully integrated online experience. Perhaps even more revolutionary than the hi-def graphics (which PC gamers have had for years), it's the Xbox Live service that's miles ahead of anything else at the moment, integrating online gaming, downloadable demos and the Xbox Live Arcade into one great-looking, great-value service.
Which is why it's such a shame that Microsoft didn't make the console wireless out of the box. If they can include it on PSP and DS, then we can't see why it wasn't implemented on the most powerful games console in the world. The most painful blow was that they saw fit to make the USB adaptor 60, when similar PC technology is around a quarter of that. Nevertheless, we asked Microsoft to send one in for us to try, and to see if the convenience of wireless online gaming justifies the high price. Continue reading...
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X-Arcade Trackball: Retro cool
Games and GearMany of us will remember wasting our youth in a sweaty arcade, pumping 20p's into Tempest until some hollow victory was attained in the form of a high score. So an arcade machine packed with classics such as Asteroids, Battle Command and Gravitar would be high on an 80s child's wishlist, up there with a home-cinema room and that life-sized Stormtrooper outfit.
The X-Arcade Trackball is like one of those massive panels you see in an arcade cabinet, only without a stick. There were a few cabinets that used the trackball idea for analogue control, and the X-Arcade replicates this pioneering work of 80s arcade design perfectly. It comes with a CD that contains two volumes of Atari classics, all of which work with the device. Of all the games, Asteroids feels the most suited to the trackball, although the hefty-looking device plays a good game of Tempest. Continue reading...
Dead or Alive 4: Shiny slappy people
Games and GearPlaying games that feature scantily clad women on a 37-inch plasma doesn't exactly endear Crave to the rest of CNET.co.uk, but playing Dead or Alive 4 is something we've wanted to do ever since the Xbox 360 launched.
Developer Tecmo is well known for creating the most sumptuous-looking games ever to grace the first Xbox. So when the guys at Tecmo sit down to make a game for the three-core IBM-powered Xbox 360, you know it's going to look wonderful. And it does -- while Xbox 360 games always seem to have a shiny look to them, as though everything on screen had been covered in Vaseline, the detail and speed of DOA 4's imagery is amazing. It's less about photorealism and more about artistic direction -- small background details that you often don't notice unless you watch someone else playing. Continue reading...
iSkin Duo & Neo: podcessory & PSPcessory
MP3 PlayersLet's face it, the iPod may be a modern icon, but it's just not built to withstand the rigours of modern life. The iPod and iPod nano are scratch magnets. After a week of normal use they end up looking like they've been through a tumble dryer with a set of razor blades. If you're going to buy a case to stop all this, iSkin offers Crave's favourite combination of style and function, and its silicone-based range of protectors now extends to the iPod nano.
Unlike the skins that have gone before it, the iSkin Duo cases have two separate jackets in addition to a cover for the Clickwheel. These completely wrap around the 'pod, covering all the ports and keeping them dust-free, but making them easy to access when you're throwing it around on the streets with gay abandon. Our 'Carbon Blast' model (pictured) also glows in the dark, and if you don't want the brown outer jacket, you don't need to use it. The iSkin's complete coverage means you could use it for years and still have a shop-condition iPod underneath, but it does undermine the cool allure of Apple's symbolic micro-sized player. You pays your 20, you takes your choice. Continue reading...
Ridge Racer 6: fast and furious
Games and GearA console launch without a Ridge Racer game is like Christmas without a turkey. This much-loved, slip-slidy racer has debuted on all of Sony's hardware -- PlayStation, PS2 and PSP, but now it's betrayed its Japanese partner and made the move to Microsoft's Xbox 360.
Essentially, Ridge Racer 6 is the PSP version with a high-definition lick of paint and a seemingly endless single-player mode. The gameplay is exactly the same as the previous five iterations, with the nitrous boost from the PSP bringing some much-needed strategy to the arcade racing.
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Turning back the clock with Star Wars: Empire at War
Games and GearNostalgia ain't what it used to be, certainly not since George Lucas redefined the word 'disappointment' with his godawful Star Wars prequel trilogy. But what's that, R2? The new LucasArts real-time strategy game is set in the original trilogy universe? With Han Solo and Grand Moff Tarkin, and nary a Binks in sight? Well, dust off the old Stormtrooper outfit and take us up to NerdCon 1!
Star Wars: Empire at War is old-school in more ways than one, and we're not talking about the brilliant packaging. It's been developed by Petroglyph, many of whose employees developed the original Command & Conquer. We've played a limited demo of the game, and it definitely has more than a soupn of C&C about it. A calm female voice tells you, "Unit... building," and a little clockwise progress graph shows you how long your Rebel Corellian corvette is taking.
There are three separate sections to the game. On the galactic screen, you see all the nearby planets and can build units and structures on each one you control, from Stormtroopers and AT-ATs to Star Destroyers and space stations. You simply drag and drop fleets of units from one planet to another. If you drop a fleet on a planet with an enemy fleet occupying it, a space battle begins. Continue reading...
The winner takes all
TelevisionsCongratulations to Gary Taylor of Staffordshire, winner of our Win a Digital Christmas competition. Gary found all seven hidden Christmas icons to enter the grand draw for seven great prizes, and his was the first name pulled out of our Santa hat. Well done!
Gary walked away with a Sagem Axium HD-D45S rear-pro television, a Fujifilm FinePix S9500 Zoom digital camera, a Toshiba Qosmio F20 Media Center laptop, a Sony Ericsson W800i Walkman phone, a Liteon LVW-5045 hard-drive DVD recorder, an Apple iPod nano and a Sony PSP. "Oh wow," he said. "I am stunned. What a Christmas present!"
Incoming: iRiver's G10 mystery gaming marvel
Games and GearThe Sony PSP may play second fiddle to the Nintendo DS, but it's managed to fend off rival multimedia handhelds like the Gizmondo, N-Gage and Tapwave Zodiac.
Another product lining up to take on Sony's portable is the iRiver G10, a combined handheld media player and gaming device, which was rumoured to be unveiled at CES but is still not quite here yet.
HD DVD player for the Xbox 360
Games and GearCES has only just kicked off officially, but there's already one story that's dominating the show -- next-gen DVD. We've known about Blu-ray and HD DVD's technical strengths for a while, but the message is clear from CES -- they're both finally coming, and they'll be here within six months.
Even for hardened pundits like Crave, deciding on a potential winner between the two formats is a difficult call. The three biggest AV manufacturers on the planet, Sony, Panasonic and Philips, are all behind Blu-ray. But HD DVD players will launch first, and look like they'll be significantly cheaper. Continue reading...
Perfect Dark Zero & Online Updates: Xbox 360 Roundup
Games and GearFor Crave the week between Christmas and New Year has to be spent in front of the TV, selfishly getting into our favourite videogames and ignoring the outside world. In between the gluttonous Christmas period and the inevitable letdown of New Year, it's the only thing that feels right.
And lucky old Crave: we managed to score an Xbox 360 Premium Package with Perfect Dark Zero on Christmas Eve, meaning we're one of the lucky few to actually be playing the game in all its high definition glory.
Nick's Christmas Shopping: Alienware supercomputer
DesktopsHere's my problem: I'm a complete klutz, but I love computer games. This means consoles are a no-no, for most kinds of games, because the handheld controllers are too clunky. PCs, on the other hand, offer the greatest, most klutz-friendly interface ever devised -- the mouse. But a decent PC that'll run 3D-heavy modern games is very complicated, which is where we get to my other problem: I know nothing about computers.
Thank heavens, then, for Alienware, with its off-the-shelf approach to high-performance gaming and wacky boy-racer designs. No colour is too bombastic for these chaps, no movie tie-in too shameful. And boy, do they move polygons. As we've noted before, playing Battlefield 2 on an Alienware is the closest our fire-and-forget generation will (hopefully) come to real war. It's seat-of-the-pants stuff, jet-plane fast and wounded-tiger furious -- utterly unpredictable and seamlessly drawn. Continue reading...
Nintendo GBA Micro: Party in your pocket
Games and GearIt's going to have a tough time against the other gaming handhelds this Christmas, but we've been trying out the new Game Boy Micro. It's so small and light that its arrival was impressively discrete, landing stealthily on our doormat without the ugly thud that usually greets us when new gear arrives. It's so small that extended play may result in mild arthritis, rendering you useless to your employer and driving you to a Special Brew-fuelled life on the streets. Sounds like fun, doesn't it?
Fact is though, the GBA has a catalogue of games that the PSP may ever reach. There are some 500 games including Mario Kart, Advance Wars and Metroid Fusion, all available for a machine that's smaller than an iPod Mini. Playing Mario Kart on the system will melt the coldest of hearts and, while the screen is small, it's by far the best of any Game Boy yet.
Guy's Christmas Shopping: Arcade cabinet
Games and GearFor us, this Christmas is going to be all about excesses -- drinking port all day and playing Xbox 360 online in the nude are just two of the things that we're looking forward to. But the real event will have nothing on our pre-Christmas spending spree -- we've been thrown a 5,000 (virtual) budget by the suits in charge to recommend the perfect Christmas presents for you, our dear Crave reader.
We were just going to head out and buy an elephant, but 'the man' said it had to be loosely related to technology. This unfortunately led my colleagues into recommending the most boring things on earth -- a Mac and a PC? I'd rather have socks and a sack of satsumas than those boring hunks of crap. I reckon if you're going to have a good Christmas, you need some retro cool. That's why I've opted for an old-school arcade cabinet, hollowed out and filled to the brim with classic 20p-guzzlers.
There are two ways of getting this arcade perfection in your home. You could go to some enterprising young cabinet maker, who'll put their MDF skills to good use by emptying out the innards of a classic arcade machine and filling it with a high-spec PC. It's likely to feature the MAME emulator and a selection of all the best arcade games ever made, meaning you can select all your favourite games and feel the nostalgic memories flooding back bit by bit. We're talking Street Fighter 2, Final Fight and Operation Wolf here, all available in one machine. Continue reading...
Rory's Christmas Shopping: Poor man's Xbox 360
Games and GearWhen our editor first said we'd each be given 5,000 Virtual Crave Pounds to spend on whatever Christmas gifts took our fancy, I immediately logged on to the Autotrader Web site in search of a second-hand but still terrifyingly fast TVR Chimera. Apparently, blowing (virtual) company money on non-tech items isn't really in the Crave spirit, so after a (virtual) telling off I've now reconsidered.
The first items on my new, more tech-oriented shopping list are a set of components that I'll use to create a PC with better gaming performance than the newly launched Xbox 360. It'll be cheaper too. And capable of downloading 'interesting' Web content.
Representing the console kids is the brand new Xbox 360, which retails for 280. You'll need a game, obviously, so I've chosen Call of Duty 2 (39.99 from Amazon on 360) -- the only title available for both formats. To get the best out of it, Microsoft recommends a hi-def TV, so I've chosen to pair it with Nick's first Christmas pick, the Samsung LE32R41BD, which will set me back a further 840. Continue reading...
Xbox 360: Going Live
Games and GearThere will be two sorts of people with Xbox 360s this morning. One set will be bruised and battered after fighting it out for one of the few units that weren't pre-ordered. The other set will be heading down to HMV, smug in the knowledge that there's a console with their name on it. Either way, these people will have got their hands on the gadget of the year, so if you know anyone that's seriously into videogames, don't expect to see much of them this weekend.
We've been playing with the 360 for a few days now, tickling the console into giving up its secrets. The free Xbox Live Silver subscription is a good way to get a taste for the online world -- in Project Gotham Racing 3 it lets you watch live races from around the world as they're happening. You can see how good some people are at the game (despite it only being available in the US for just over a week). The dynamic views really show off the graphics, with the camera shaking gently as a TVR Tuscan screeches by. The Gold membership, which you can try out free of charge for a month, will cost you £50 a year and enables you to actually play against other people on most of the Xbox 360's games.
Xbox 360: The Final Countdown
Games and GearThe Xbox 360 launches at midnight tonight -- the only problem is that you'll be jammier than a jam sandwich if you manage to get hold of one. Microsoft wants 'sell-out' headlines tomorrow, so the ridiculously limited first batch of consoles has already been pre-ordered by eager gamers and canny eBay dealers. Our tip: head to a large 24-hour supermarket -- you might get lucky at your local Tesco or Asda.
Those of you who are dedicated enough to have set aside the cash, upgraded to a hi-def TV and taken tomorrow off work (by fair means or foul) are in for a treat, though. Okay, so about ten per cent of you will actually be living the high-definition dream that Microsoft has explicitly designed its games for, but Project Gotham Racing 3 looks particularly good. Scratch that, it's the best-looking videogame yet. Continue reading...
Cold, crash and flame: the Xbox 360 launches
Games and GearMicrosoft's Xbox 360 launched in the US this week to the deafening sound of hype -- Gates & Co. hired a vast aircraft hangar in the Mojave Desert and invited 2,000 of their 'l33t'-est gamer buddies to celebrate. Crave has to wonder at the mindset of people who travel thousands of miles to spend all night playing games in a draughty, oversized garage. Particularly if, like this guy, you forgo playing and spend eight hours in the queue to get the first unit.
Predictably this was echoed across America, where thousands of young men (and not a few women) slept rough in order to be first in line when the doors of retailers like Best Buy opened on Tuesday. Even more predictably, many of the pre-ordered consoles went straight on eBay and sold for twice the RRP.
GTA Liberty City Stories: Freedom Fighter
Games and GearCruising down the street on your Harley Davidson, Flashback FM on the radio and pistol in your hand. Not usually how we'd describe the journey to work, but an example of how Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories on PSP is taking over our lives. They say that the devil makes work for idle hands, and it will come as no surprise to Daily Mail readers that the devil's name must therefore be Rockstar. But come on, it's one of the greatest games ever made, in your pocket, and with the exception of long loading times and the odd bit of slowdown, it's just as good as the PS2 version.
Yep, from a technical standpoint, this is the best thing we've seen on the PSP so far. Anyone who played GTAÂ III (so, everyone then) will feel like they're revisiting an old friend -- it's the same city from the first game, but incorporating the bikes from Vice City and the combat from San Andreas. It's like a GTA Greatest Hits album. And there have been no compromises in squeezing this living, breathing city onto a UMD disc --Â you can run over the same pimps, hookers and drug dealers on your way to all the familiar locations. Continue reading...
Nintendogs: Welcome to the doghouse
Games and GearReal dogs are cute and adorable, but they are to the gadgeteer what the Gizmondo is to the videogamer. Rubbish, basically. If you're not raising some sort of cyber-dog these days, your tech credentials take a serious hit. We've already played (and then betrayed) Sony's Aibo dog -- if you took him out in the real world he was about as fun to play with as a tennis ball covered in razor blades. Screw Sony's 1,500 effort -- now we're raising a Labrador called Maxwell courtesy of Nintendo, the only company that could make a game as sublime as Nintendogs for the DS.
While we were shouting commands at the virtual pet in the office, passers-by cynically called Nintendogs a glorified Tamogotchi. They even questioned the point of playing with a pixellated puppy. But what these people forget is that real dogs have a tendency to poo on the floor, drool on the carpet and occasionally even hump your leg. And far from being a mere glorified virtual pet, Nintendogs is the most impressive use of the DS' touchscreen yet. It's the sort of game that casual gamers like Amber will lap up. Continue reading...
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