Filed under: Desktops, Gaming

When you pack Intel’s blazing new Core 2 Extreme processor and a pair of top-of-the-line nVIDIA GeForce 7900 GTX graphics cards into a single gaming desktop, you can pretty much expect it to post impressive benchmark numbers. It’s no surprise, then, that Alienware’s newly-speced Area-51 7500 showed the videogame addicts over at IGN some of the best performance they’ve ever seen, and ran surprisingly quietly while doing so — thanks in no small part to the liquid-cooling system. Also noteworthy was the new P2 chassis Alienware employed for this model, which improves on older cases both aesthetically — it sports a glossier paint job and more configurable lights to play with — as well as functionally, with the shorter-but-deeper design intended to support extra-long graphics cards. Besides the relative lack of configurability — there’s only one open PCI slot, so you can add a physics processor or dedicated sound card, but not both — the only real knock against this machine is it’s price; at just under $5,000, you’re paying a lot for the snazzy case and Alienware support network. Still, busy gamers don’t always have time to build their own rigs (sometimes they don’t even have time to go to the bathroom), so this version of the Area-51 sounds like a good way to get “best-of-the-best” performance without spending hours hunched over your work bench; instead, you’ll be spending those hours working overtime at your day job to afford it.

[Thanks, David]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

AP - The video game industry’s largest annual trade show, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, will be scaled down dramatically next year amid industry desires for a more intimate setting, organizers said Monday.

Filed under: Gaming

We know that Datel has already released such a product, but it finally looks like Nintendo is going to get into the game with a snazzy DS Lite-esque headset of their own. It only does the mono thing, so it’ll be fine for taunting n00bs in Metroid Prime Hunters and communicating some forthcoming Pokémon games, but not so hot for stereo gaming. With that said, the unit should be out in Japan September 14th for around $10. We just want to know: whatever happened to DSpeak?

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Reuters - The Entertainment Software
Association said on Monday it will pare down and refocus its
Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3Expo) trade show at the urging
of game publishers who are moving to new video game consoles.

Filed under: Gaming

Well, word’s in from ESA and and E3 is set to be all but castrated — though not killed entirely. Apparently it will become a kinder, gentler, “more intimate” trade show after E3 sought counseling and found itself to suffer from severe cases of ADD, Tourette’s, and harbor deep-rooted antisocial tendencies. But instead of putting the loud and raucous show on meds and calling it a day, they’re rebranding it as E3Expo (which would, effectively, stand for Electronic Entertainment Expo Expo, making it E4) for 2007, and calling it a smaller, more focused event because, “It is no longer necessary or efficient to have a single industry ‘mega-show.’” Whereas we may or may not agree with that statement, one thing is definitely sure: the days of E3 as we know it are officially over. So to our pals in the media and our readers who loved keeping tabs on the madness come early May each year, well, we’ll always have Pari, erm, Vegas.

[Via Next Generation]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: Gaming, Networking

If you think video conferencing is reserved for stale meetings that serve little purpose aside from burning up your time, Airhockey Over a Distance aims to ice that perspective. The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) created the table (or should we say, “tables”) to showcase the “power of advanced networking” and joins a host of other wild ways to get your game on. The table plays like your average air hockey match, except the opponent’s half is in another location, and replacing your ferocious counterpart is a screen with a live video feed of him / her and a fancy puck-ejecting system. Sensors at the midway point of the table detect the angle, speed, and trajectory of the not-exactly-oncoming puck, and instructs the mechanism how and where to fire the disc — you slap it back, and the same sequence happens on your compadre’s end. Because this was crafted solely to show the wonders of “computer-mediated human-to-human interaction,” there’s currently no plans to take this prototype into sports bars or internet cafés, but one question still remains: what happens if the puck gets hung at center ice?

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: Desktops, Gaming

With Alienware having just added Core 2 Duo options to its Area-51 7500 desktop, you didn’t really think that rival Voodoo would be far behind, did you? The boutique gaming rig manufacturer has just announced its OMEN i:121 Extreme tower, which crams a 2.93GHz Core 2 Extreme X6800 processor into either a liquid- or air-cooled case designed to “operate at peak efficiency without draining excess power.” Since video processing is even more important than CPU horsepower in a system like this, Voodoo is offering the new Omen with a number of graphics configurations, ranging from a single ATI Radeon X1900 or nVidia GeForce 7900GT setup all the way up to SLI or Crossfire dual-card powerhouses. You’re also getting 2GB of RAM in the base configuration, along with a 7,200RPM 80GB hard drive and 16x dual-layer Pioneer DVD burner. As usual, pricing on these machines borders on the ridiculous, with SLI and Crossfire rigs starting at $4,400 and $6,000, respectively — hey, no one said that being on the cutting edge of performance would come cheap.

[Via TrustedReviews]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: Gaming

As the PlayStation 3 launch approaches, rumors of an Xbox 360 price cut are once again making the rounds — but as usual, Team Microsoft is telling us not to get our hopes up. DigiTimes recently reported that a source at an unnamed Taiwanese OEM manufacturer is claiming Redmond has successfully negotiated lower production cost of between 15% and 20% on the 360, thanks to a combination of ramped-up production volume, falling component costs, and decreasing defect rates. While it’s likely that Microsoft is aggressively seeking a lower per-unit cost on the consoles — after all, it’s supposedly losing over $100 on each box — it’s completely unclear as the whether these savings will be passed along to the consumer or kept in-house in an attempt to shore up losses on the hardware side of the equation. Since the PS3 will already be pricier than the 360 at launch, it seems that Microsoft certainly doesn’t need to implement price cuts to stay competitive — making the denials all that more plausible — but then again, announcing price changes too early might hurt short-term sales, making the denials somewhat suspect. In the end, it seems like this could go either way, so if you’re looking to save a few bucks, there’s still only one surefire way to do so.

[Via GamesIndustry.biz]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

The World Series of Poker main event it underway. Friday July 28th was the first of several “first days” as the field had to be broken down to accommodate all…

Filed under: Gaming

Yet more unconfirmed gaming news today, this time on the Wii front; Maxconsole is claiming a Wii developer hooked them up with a slew of deets on the Wii’s hardware, some of which does and does not jibe with things we’ve been hearing over the past year. They’re claiming will be comprised of a 729MHz CPU (”Broadway), a 243MHz GPU (”Hollywood,” which is supposed no different than the GameCube GPU, just faster), 64MB of GDDR3 RAM, 4.7 or 8.51GB single/double-sided disc drive, and optional Ethernet adapter. Apparently the Wii’s I/O options will also be as follows: SD card slot, two USB 2.0, WiFi, four GameCube controller ports, two GameCube memory card slots, and an analog-only AV multi output jack. That’s all well and good, but we’re kind of beyond the point of obsessing over the specs on this thing, you know? We know it’s not doing high def, and Nintendo’s not exactly making a big stink about what a performer the Wii’s going to be. So for right now you could say we’re a little more bent on getting a release date and official price more than anything else.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Reuters - When men appear as buxom, scantily
clad females in video games like “World of Warcraft,” it is
more about winning than finding an outlet for a real-world
affinity for gender bending.

Some players erroneously equate their self worth with the level of comps they are receiving from the casino. Nothing could be further from the truth and you should never look…

I have been receiving hundreds of questions about the proposed ban on internet gambling since the House of Representatives passed the bill to make online gambling illegal. All of the…

Seven professional poker players planned to file an antitrust suit against WPT Enterprises Inc., operator of the World Poker Tour, over the use of their likeness and their access to…

LAS VEGAS - A 21-year-old film student from Los Angeles who dipped into a college fund and his parents’ wallets for his entry stakes has become the youngest player to win a World Series of Poker event.Jeff Madsen, at 21 years, one month and nine days old, outlasted 1,578 players over a three-day, $2,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em event, to earn $660,948 and his first World Series of Poker bracelet late Sunday night.”I convinced them that I was going to play well,” Madsen said of his parents, who pu