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

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

It’s been only 2 weeks but a big UK retailer has let slip that a 250GB version of the PS3 Slim is scheduled to come out in October. An anonymous source has claimed Sony will unleash full details of new bundles at the end of September. A release date will be revealed in October.

The rumours are the details will come from the Tokyo Games Show, and will be along the lines of a bundle of console and a game from Assassin’s Creed II, Gran Turismo 5 or Uncharted and will retail at £299.

Finally the Logitech Harmony One can finally become the only remote you will need.

Logitech this weekend confirmed that it's developing an adapter to let its Harmony remotes work with Sony's PlayStation 3. The peripheral will convert the Harmony's IR signal to Bluetooth and will let users with mixed home theatres treat it like any other hardware in the setup, including power functions, playing movies and synchronizing with other devices in activity macros. It won't require a USB port for its own power, Logitech said.

Other technical details as well as a launch date and a price are currently unavailable.

Mike Hickey from Janco Partners, a set of Analysts, is claiming that Sony needs to hack $100 off the price of the PS3 [bringing it down to $299] to make it more popular with cash-strapped consumers and that the cut is imminent.

In a note to investors, Hickey wrote:

"Recent channel checks indicate increased speculation for a PS3 price cut announcement from Sony in the next couple of days. We think the company needs to reduce the current price by USD 100 to effectively restart unit velocity at retail. We believe the market is expecting a PS3 price cut in April or by June at the latest."

Without the cut, he argues that the PS3 will clog up shelves and developers will abandon it.

"If Sony does not cut the price of their console, we expect the continuation of languishing PS3 hardware sales and the potential for publishers to accelerate their reallocation of resources away from the PS3 console."

Hickey also points to additional rumours that Sony is planning to introduce a PS3 without the Blu-ray drive in order to compete at the low-end with the likes of the Xbox 360. We really don't see that happening though.

Sony has since come back and said it "definitely has no plans" to issue a price reduction anytime soon and that it's still on target to hit 10m units sold for its fiscal year.

Via: gamesindustry.biz

I have gained a lot of love for my PS3 over the past few months. Largely due to the fact I unhooked it from my main TV and plugged it into a 24" BenQ monitor so I actually get chance to play my games when my girlfriend is watching bloddy corrie!

So anyway it is always good to see new firmware rolled out. From the Playstation Blog:

The PS3 firmware update (v2.60) is designed primarily to enhance the system’s media capabilities. The key feature is a new Photo Gallery application, which delivers a suite of tools for sorting through and displaying your digital photo collection. Digital pictures can be organized in groups according to various criteria, including the camera used to take the photos, the event date and time, colors in the photos, as well as the number, ages, or facial expressions of the people pictured. You can also create slideshows set to music and build photo playlists with an easy-to-use interface. The Photo Gallery application will need to be installed separately from the XMB after you update your PS3’s firmware. To install the Photo Gallery application, go to the Photo section on the XMB, select Photo Gallery and press the X button.

The 2.60 update also includes:

• Guest access to PlayStation Store – This enables non-PlayStation Network members to browse through the storefront to check out the latest games, demos, videos, etc.
• DivX 3.11 support – Videos in this format can now be played on PS3.

Here’s a video walk-through of firmware 2.60 that shows off some of what the Photo Gallery can do.

Well I finally got my copies of GTA 4. Yes I said copies. 1 is for the 360 in the office and the other is for my PS3. While I have enjoyed a few hours playing the game on the 360 at work I could not play online as it is not wired up for some reason.

On arrival at home I immediately installed my PS3 copy and went straight to multiplayer. Unfortunately with little success. It appears that the network maybe having some issues. I should not be surprised really everyone I know has bought the game, and I assume everyone is also trying to get online.

I seem to be either having problems connecting to the network, being disconnected when I do connect, having issues with the game actually starting and when I do start everyone immediately disconnects.

I have only managed to play about 3 minutes against anyone so far. Oh sad for me.

I even thought it maybe my wireless playing up so I ran a cable to the PS3 and connected it via that. Still no joy.

Oh well looks like I am stuck playing the single player missions for a while.

Edit: There are several threads in in the Playstation forums confirming these problems.

Online Unavailable Can't Connect to Multiplayer