Weekly round up
It's been a busy week! David and Nick headed off to Las Vegas to rub shoulders with the stars and visit CES 2006, whilst Hexus Gaming ploughed on, post christmas parties a mere memory away.
Let's take a look back at some of the news this week (the text links to the articles):
On Tuesday gaming legend Ian Livingstone started his New Year of with a bang and received an OBE in the New Year's honours list, EA released more screenshots of the highly anticipated Godfather, and the not so highly anticipated Fifa Street 2.Nintendo announced the first ever RPG for the DS. Hackers were at it again and managed to crack into the Xbox Kiosk demo discs whilst the old argument about gaming destroying the family life surfaced once more.
Wednesday saw the opening of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas where Bill Gates made his keynote speech and revealed that HD-DVD will be on its way this year as an add-on for Xbox 360. Sony announced 20 PS3 Blu-Ray movie titles whilst Nintendo revealed a an interest patent called Nintendo Floor Vision''. New expansions were announced for PC hit Everquest and we showed you how to get started in 'pimping' your PC.
Thursday continued with the CES 2006 theme with a transcript of Bill Gate's speech and some cool Fight Night Round 3 screenshots, whilst Sony announced Location Free TV for the PSP. Following on from our exclusive pictures of the Xbox 360 cooling system Steve told us about a new phase-change cooler by Cryo-Z. Nintendo made a big announcement about an in-car Game Boy Advance (big deal) and RF Online was finally announced for the PC in Europe. Championship Manager 2006 was opened for beta testing whilst Direc TV announced that a new gaming league is to be televised.
Friday saw Take-Two issue a surprise announcement that Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City will be making its way onto the PS2.We told you how to hack into your 360 to be able to access game demos from across the World whilst Sony CEO Howard Stringer told us almost nothing about the PS3. We gave you our opinion on the new Fight Night Round 3 whilst Commodore announced that they are back with a bang with their new handheld device.EA announced a unique collector's edition of Lord Of the Rings Battle For Middle Earth II.
This week also: The Nintendo DS continues to sell around the world. Officially, the DS has sold about 390,000 units, making it sold out.
A mod chip team entitled "I.C.E." is currently ironing out a mod chip for the Xbox 360. While the site is in its infancy (http://www.icemodchip.com/), the chip will apparently cost about $70 and allow the user to play copied Xbox 360 games and other media a un-chipped system would be unable to play.
Online child molesters have apparently broadened their horizon to Xbox Live. Game Politics.com reports that Ronnie Brendan Watts of Placerville, California came in contact with a young boy over Xbox Live. The man then set up a meeting between the two where the alleged molestation took place. The boy filed a complaint to the police department, and Watts'es laptop and Xbox were taken as evidence.
A seven year-old and his uncle won the largest Halo tournament in history, Slashdot reports "The pair beat over 550 opponents to take the grand prize. The boy will be featured on 60 minutes, which will detail how he started gaming at the age of 2.
In the forums a new RPG for the Sega Megadrive was revealed, some WOW graffitti was spotted in a toilet, £40,000 worth of PS2 games were stolen, whilst eagle-eyed forum member, Yohji, spotted the new IRiver game console whilst surfing the net.
It's been a busy week, no sign of a nice easy start to the New Year, but who cares, it's just the way we like it!
