Mighty Gadget Blog: The latest technology news & reviews in the UK

The console tug of war continues. Sony not that long ago released the slimmed down version of it’s PS3 and beefed up it’s hard drive capacity. Microsoft followed afterwards with it’s newer slimmer, quieter  bigger capacity hard drive console and soon to be arcade console. Sony not happy have now announced a new PS3 console to fight the new Xbox. But does anyone really care is the real question, what are consumers really gaining?

Japan already has the option of a white console, but here in Europe we’ve had to just make do with the plain black console to match our everyday cloud cover. Also on top of that Japan can also get a 160GB console and a 320GB console. Yes a whole 40GB and 70GB respectively more HDD space than what we can get. Well according to UK retail sources, the bigger HDD sizes are coming our way to replace the 120GB and 250GB currently doing the rounds. Whether we get a white console in this country though is anyone’s guess

No dates or prices yet but I imagine you’ll be looking just before Christmas for these to appear, probably at the prices the current 120GB(£249) and 250GB(£299) for the 160GB and 320GB respectively. Also expect any older stock to drop in price to sell through, much like the old Xbox Arcade and Elites have.

Lucky for us we won’t all have to change our consoles hopefully for another few years at least, but we’re going to have to change the way we play them and actually do some work…… Thanks Nintendo Wii. With Playstation’s Move controller due soon and rumours of the Microsoft answer turned into reality the Kinect all we were waiting on was the date and price.

We had the new 250GB revamped Xbox and then the announcement of a 4GB console. With that announcement Microsoft told us the Kinect will cost £129.99 on its own or bundled with the new console for £249.99 (4GB console will cost £149.99 on its own) so when bundled you’re making a saving.

Then we were waiting for the date. Well it didn’t come from Microsoft straight away, but HMV and Play.com leaked that it was due for release on the 19th November, just in time for Christmas. A lot of talk between fan-boys though was the sheer price of the Kinect, which yes when compared to the Move controller, it’s more expensive. BUT I’ll defend it here in saying that if you want to play more than one player on the PS3 multiple Move controllers would have to be bought bumping the price up. Plus with the Kinect out before Christmas, you can probably guess if there’s still plenty in stock after Chrimbo, the price will no doubt drop.

At E3 earlier this year Microsoft did say after they announced the new Xbox 250GB Slim that an Arcade version would be in the pipeline, now the new look Xbox 360 250GB has been out less than a week and it appears Bill Gates’ boys are again going to give us the scaled down version for those a little less in the pocket or that don’t require a whole 250GB of memory just to save games. The leak has come courtesy of Amazon(Germany) where a listing appeared for the scaled down Xbox.

There’s no pictures unfortunately but rumours suggest it won’t be any different from the new 250GB model in looks, keeping that black gloss finish (ie no white console) just it’ll be packing a 4GB internal memory, more than adequate for game saves, SD videos and photos.

The release date is scheduled for 20th August, just in time for Germany’s annual “Gamescom” convention. Early indications suggest it will cost around £125.

So the rumours were true and to be fair it’s about time. The Xbox 360 slim console has been made official and will be available soon (July 16th). Playstation 3 hasn’t been out nearly as long as the Microsoft console yet they’ve followed the trend of their previous consoles and released smaller, more compact versions of their consoles. So what have Microsoft finally decided to do it?

In my opinion it’s mainly down to the fact they need to drum up some extra interest in its new Kinect(formerly Natal) motion controller that also became official this week. It’s obviously smaller than the current 360 but has a slight design tweak to it too. It is also supposedly a lot quieter, which in all honesty isn’t that hard. The image also makes it look “glossy” in comparison to the older “matte” consoles. What else is good and finally Microsoft have added it in is N-standard WiFi. You no longer have to buy the £60 wireless bridge.

Again the release date is the 16th July and will retail at £199

MSI have announced that its laptop ranges will be modernised with the latest Intel Core i5 and i7 chips and Windows 7 improving them by a minimum of 30%.

The Classic ranges will come in 3 models of CR420, CR620 and CR720 and will have LED screens starting from 14” to a massive 17.3”. These will be the general all round laptop you need for everyday work and web use and will pack the i5 chips within. No details on release for these or prices yet.

The Gaming range will come in 2 models. The GX640 and GX740 will contain the more powerful i7 chipsets and will also come bundled with ATi Mobility Radeon HD graphics chips supporting DirectX 11 gaming and will really make good use of the HD screens.  Release is looking at March 2010 and prices will start at £999

The gaming lappies will also benefit from what is called “Turbo Boost Technology” which will efficiently distribute system power and resources with Intel Hyper-Threading Technology. They’re also packing Smart Cache and Graphics Media Accelerator HD to improve multimedia operation. The top end GX740 will also have 5 speakers for surround sound gaming but also a 7.1 optical out.

With the Android explosion on phones and tablets, its no surprise that the next thing the versatile OS would be doing branching out even further. In South Korea, this new hand-held has been flying round the developers but Odroid has now got the green light on a worldwide developer release for £210 with free shipping.

Obviously powered by Android the console packs a 3.5” 320×480 capacitive touchscreen, Wi-Fi connectivity alongside Bluetooth connnectivity. It also has a microSD slot for memory expansion but the best thing its packing is a HDMI out slot allowing you to output the video at 720p to your TV.

Click Here for a YouTube video showing it in action with its “tilting” control system. It just shows though that Android could in future be a real competitor for the mobile games market not only on phones but now in the handheld world. Maybe we can see a similar tech being used in future games console controllers.

The King of Fighters XII (KOF XII) is the latest instalment of The King of Fighters series and is currently available on the PS3 and Xbox 360.

King of Fighters XII is very Street Fighter esque though it uses a 3 on 3 team system with each fight consisting of up to five rounds. Though it is possible to play in a versus mode where you can either have 3 on 3 or 1 on 1 against another player or against a CPU opponent.

One of the main things I noticed about the game were issues with the graphics. All the backgrounds in each fight are colourful and well drawn but the actual characters are blocky and have very poor detail, it was certainly not something I would expect on the PS3 unless it was a PSN game.

KOF XII has a slimmed down roster than previous versions of KOF and this has come under quite a bit of criticism from fans.

In terms of the game play it does play well and the animations of the characters are fluid and if you are not used to fighting games you can chose a simple mode which allows you to pull of character moves without pressing a ridiculous combination of buttons, or if you are more used to fighting games you can play it normally.

The game also has some issues with lag that comes with online multiplayer though I suspect this will eventually be fixed with a patch.

This game without a doubt is focussed on the more seasoned fighting game player and I am sure they will play it, however for other gamers I am unsure how appealing it is. One of the main problems I have with it is the £39.99 asking price. For a game with questionable graphics and problematic online multiplayer this is extortionate.

If the game was £10-£15 and available to download on the PSN I would say go for it, it could provide quite a lot of fun while playing against your friends on a LAN, but as a £40 game I just don't think it is worth it.

For those of us that didn’t know, Toshiba helped develop the Cell processor with Sony which powers the PS3. Now Toshiba re taking the tech into its new TV, the “Regza 55X1” LCD TV. The processor improves the quality of the image with better colours, brightness balance and improved picture quality around the edge of the screen.

The Cell chip is actually housed in an external box which also houses a 3TB HDD to save up to a whopping 26 hours from up to 8 simultaneous channels. Yes that’s right 8 simultaneous channels. Just to show off you can show 8 separate channels at one time on the screen. These can then be flicked through without any delay like a standard HDTV.

Throw in 55 inches of LED backlit screen, a 240Hz display and a contrast ratio of 5,000,000:1. A 7 speaker sound bar attached under the screen, network functionality with DLNA support and an Opera based web browser you can see this TV packs just about everything. Now what will it cost?? The TV was on show at CEATEC in Japan where it will be released this December at a cool 1 million Yen. That’s around £7000 to you and me…… Ouch