New Voice Recorder in the shape of a DS:



Banpresto's NDS shaped voice recorder comes in three colors - Silver, Aquamarine, and Pink. The flip top opens up and the A, B, X and Y buttons control functions allowing you to record and playback several minutes of audio.

More info --> http://www.yesasia.com/?/info.php?pro...3&lsaid=219793 ...

Microsoft's announced a raft of Japanese-developed games for Xbox 360, along with more support for Xbox Live Arcade in the region - where it claims the downloads-per-unit-sold ratio is at its highest with 520,000 pieces of content retrieved.

Speaking at a press conference in Japan, Microsoft announced that a new, unnamed Final Fantasy game would be released on Xbox 360 in 2007, while Tri-Ace (Radiata Stories, Star Ocean) is at work on an unnamed action RPG.

Hironobu Sakaguchi was on hand, too, to reveal that one of the two RPGs he's overseeing, Blue Dragon, will be released before the end of 2006 in Japan, while a demo of the other one, Lost Odyssey, should turn up this autumn.

There was also news of a new shooter from Square Enix and Game Arts called Project Sylph - prompting commentators to ask whether it's a continuation of the Silpheed series, which appeared on Mega CD and PS2 during its time.

Microsoft also showed off a trailer for a Gundam shooter, and spoke a bit about the system's involvement with anime - Zegapain will appear in some form with downloadable content - and hinted that Namco's Culdcept Saga could be playable over Live.

More interesting from an international perspective, perhaps, was talk of Japanese publisher support for Xbox Live Arcade from Konami, Hudson (rumoured to be considering a Bomberman port), SNK, Namco, DS Publisher and Bandai.

Pac-Man and Galaga are shoe-ins for Live Arcade, according to reports from the press conference, and given the amount of retro compilations some of that lot have produced over the years, it's easy to let the mind wander into exciting territory.

We'll bring you more on all of that as and when we hear it. ...

Yesterday, the internet was alive with reports that Sony Europe vice president George Fornay had revealed its next-gen console, the PlayStation 3, was set to retail in the territory for around 500 euros, or 350 GBP, on a French radio show. Now though, the company has spoken out, claiming that "at no time did he suggest or indicate a specific price point or price range for PS3, and any reports that he did so are incorrect".
Speaking to website GamesIndustry.biz, SCEE corporate communications director Nick Sharples explained that the notion the PS3 was set to hit shelves as a price point between 499 and 599 euros was based on "a mistranslation or misunderstanding of the [radio] discussion, which was actually focused on the relative value of PS3 as a Bluray Disc player."

Apparently, Fornay's comments merely illustrated that, at a hypothetical price point of 500 euros, "PS3 would be expensive when one looked at the current price of a video games machine, at far below 500 Euros, but extremely good value when looking at the BD and HD technology inside".
So, we're still no closer to discovering that magic PS3 price point it seems. Ah well, there's always E3 to sort that little lot out, we suppose. ...

It's been a little while since we last took Rare's monster-masher for a spin, but we'll be dusting off our Kameo discs imminently to check out the brand new downloadable content, which has just landed on Xbox Live.
First up is the much-anticipated - and free-of-charge - patch, enabling co-op over Xbox Live. The feature was originally planned for inclusion when the game was originally released, but a rush to meet the 360 launch meant it was relegated to realms of future possibility.

Secondly, new Kameo costume packs are available on Xbox Live Marketplace and - for 200 Microsoft points - you can tart-up your elemental warriors with some fancy new skins. The Fright Warrior Pack decks out Kameo's characters in new scary attire, while the Masquerade Pack apparently provides recognisable outfits from previous Rare games - no word yet if the Great Mighty Poo gets a look-in. ...

Microsoft has announced that its Microsoft Game Studios division has acquired Lionhead Studios, confirming recent rumour wafting around the internet that the purchase was in the pipeline.
According to Microsoft's announcement, Lionhead will "immediately begin creating content exclusively for the Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows platforms". No specific projects have been mentioned, but Fable 2 from Lionhead is a definite. We'd bet our pet monkey's floppy hat that Lionhead's very elusive Project Dimitri will materialise on both platforms too - and any new Black & White game.

All we know about Project Dimitri is the brief description Lionhead boss Peter Molyneux gave us last year: "It's a game about... you. It allows anyone who plays the game to relive their life, their entire individual life. That's a pretty ambitious concept."
Speaking about the acquisition today, Molyneux said that Lionhead "could not be more excited about being part of MGS."

"They have long supported our creative vision, and this teamwork resulted in the hugely successful Fable franchise," he added, concluding: "This acquisition gives Lionhead the stability and opportunity to focus on creating world-class next-generation titles. We are joining some of the most incredible game creators in the industry, the combined talent of which will truly take next-generation gaming to a new level." ...

Source CVG

All things considered, Sony's PlayStation Portable library isn't doing badly for decent puzzle games - so far we've had the superb Lumines, the blobule antics of Archer MacLean's Mercury and the slightly surreal antics of Ubisoft's Exit, to name but a few. Now, Take-Two is throwing its cards on the pile with the Tecmo-developed Tokobot, set for release over here this on April 7.
In a nutshell, Tokobot sees you controlling the tiny droids of the title in a bid to traverse the hazardous terrain of Moritari and stop the planet's inhabitants from abusing Tokobot technology for their own nefarious ends. The twist is that Tokobots can be combined to perform 'joint actions' - such as transforming into a useful ladder, swing or glider - and can unleash Karakuri Combinations, forming a single giant entity, including a train, crane and samurai.

In anticipation of the game's release tomorrow, Take-Two has wafted a Q&A with Tokobot's director Masahiro Shidara across the web. In an avalanche of ceaseless generosity, we've slapped up the whole thing for your reading pleasure below.

Read the interview at the link above: ...

You'll have probably already read our piece on Microsoft trying to boost its Xbox 360 momentum in Japan with the announcement of a raft of new titles, but it seems Japanese gamers are to going to get further incentives in the form of some all-time classic arcade games being made available for download on Microsoft's Arcade service.
Bandai Namco, SNK Playmore, Hudson and Konami will all be adding their weight to Live Arcade in Japan with a mix of new and retro classics like Pac-Man and Galaga from Bandai, potentially boosting the service's appeal with the best and brightest from the arcades.

To add further incentive, Japanese 360 gamers will be encouraged and lured in with the prospect of some big hitting arcade tournaments and championships, with Bandai Namco Vice President Takeo Takasu saying he'd like to kick things off with a Pac-Man world championship.
It's an intriguing strategy to try and lure gamers onto 360 in the Land of the Rising Sun, but whether it's a truly killer feature which will drive 360 sales remains to be seen. Japanese gamers crave traditionally strong Japanese titles like massive RPGs, though a massive Pac-Man tournament might prove very tempting.

Western gamers too could potentially benefit from an expanded Live Arcade line-up and we certainly wouldn't mind having a crack at some of those games we used to chuck thousands of ten pences at. We've put in a call to MS to see if and when we'll get those arcade classics over here, and we'll update you as soon as the company update us. ...

There's nothing quite like a Cell processor news story to start off your day, and this morning we've got a cracker. Delivering a lecture in Austin Texas, the father of Cell himself, Peter Hofstee told a group of eager onlookers how the PS3 is going to be more powerful than a Vindaloo from a Newcastle curry house.
Speaking about IBM's work on the Cell project, Hofstee was quick to note that Sony - and particularly the PlayStation father - had a lot of influence on the PS3 processor. "It really was Sony and Ken Kutaragi that was the driver for this project," he said. "He spent quite a bit of money on it. $400 million for a processor...this is about as serious as it gets." "Remarkably," he added, "this chip is almost exactly the same size, in square millimetres, as the first chip that went into the PlayStation2."

The Cell designer then touched on the trials of designing a chip for a game console: "With game processors," Hofstee noted, "because of the economics of how game systems seems to have worked in the past - you always have to wait and see if it works that way going forward - is that game developers get a stable platform for five or six years." "And because that is sort of how it works," he added, "there is a big focus on chip size and power and cost reduction over that period."
When asked by our friends over at Next-Gen.biz how he felt, as a scientist, working inside the wonderful world of videogames, Hofstee said: "I think games are an interesting application area, but quite clearly, Cell is not just for games. There are many other areas it can be used. Games are the thing that inspired us to do it."

"I think the biggest problem is to find ways to make [Cell] effective for the programmers," said Hofstee. "My dream is that everyone who has a PlayStation can start programming with Cell."

With the PlayStation 3 apparently set to arrive at around 350 GBP, lets hope that Sony's much-touted processor is worth every penny. ...

It was time to spruce the forums up and so today we have a nice spanking new look for the forums.

I hope its not too much of a culture shock but it is much nicer and more professional

Thanks for your time

Thanks also to NBS Designz for the great Vbulletin Style.

UPDATE

Seems that some or a lot of you cant see the new forums, so click this to see them http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/index.php?styleid=7 ...