Guitar Hero IV drum kit gets pictured, “cymbals” and all

Engadget:

“Game Informer is at it once more: after securing the first snapshots
of Rock Band’s prototype drum set and microphone last summer, the
gaming mag has now produced the first image of Guitar Hero IV’s kit.
Apparently designers wanted this one to resemble an actual electric kit
a bit more than the one bundled with RB, most evidenced by the pair of
“cymbals” perched atop the trio of circular pads. Upon banging on a
“first-run prototype” in the Neversoft offices, Game Informer
was fairly impressed with the layout, but we’re still left to wonder if
these will be compatible with Rock Band (or vice-versa). Another faux
drum kit in the den and we’ll be struggling to maintain sanity (and a
functional relationship).”

[Via Joystiq]

Gears of War 2 Gameplay Video Debut

Holy frak…

(Can’t get embed to work so here’s the link)

LINK TO HI-RES VIDEO

Giant working (!) NES controller/coffee table

Boing Boing:

“Kyle Downes of the aptly named “Ultra Awesome” blog built this genius coffee table that’s an enormous, working NES controller! It opens to reveal storage space for tons of game-carts.”

LINK

GTAIV Breaks Halo 3’s Record! $500 million in 1st week, 6mn

Digg: “The title sold about 3.6 million units on April 29, its opening day,
bringing in roughly $310 million (€200.91 million). This is $10 million
(€6.48 million) more than what Microsoft Corp.’s “Halo 3,” another
blockbuster game, took in during its first week last fall.”

Nintendo Channel for Wii goes live

Engadget:

“It didn’t exactly launch with much fanfare but, as anyone’s who’s already flipped on their Wii today will know, the Nintendo Channel
is now live. There you’ll find easy access to a range of videos,
recommendations for new games based on the games you’ve played (if you
give consent for such nosiness) and, of course, game demos you can
download to your DS (there’s eight of those right now). If you somehow
haven’t already left for your Wii, you can find a guided tour of the
new service courtesy of the fine folks at Joystiq by hitting up the
link below.”

[Thanks, Dean]

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Living Room Legend Guitar Hero T-Shirt

Tcritic:

“For other guitar hero t-shirts also check out Cowbell Hero T-Shirt and the Heroism T-shirt from Penny Arcade BTW you can follow Gabe from Penny Arcade on Twitter as CWGabriel (his comics are much funnier than his tweets though).”

Rock Band kick pedal modded for double bass action

Engadget:

“It’s one thing to use a real live stompbox to activate Overdrive; it’s another to hack up your Rock Band
kick pedal to enable that sweet, sweet double bass action that Lars
Ulrich, Joey Jordison and the rest of the crew (read: you) just have to
have. As you’d expect, there’s a bit more to it than just adding in a
splitter, but if you’re not frightened by circuitry diagrams and having
to ask the hobby store guy for a 5-volt power supply, you’ll be more
than fine. Check out the video demonstration after the jump, and tap
the read link for the full list of instructions.”

[Via MAKE]

Xbox 360 wireless Rock Band guitar starting to show up in stores

Engadget:

“We’ve been waiting for Harmonix to deliver the promised
Xbox 360 wireless Rock Band guitar controller for a while now, and it
looks the company is stealthily getting them out there. Pre-orders have
been trickling out for about a week, and alert reader Greg just sent us
these shots of the controller in the wild at his local Best Buy. Oddly,
he says the in-store price is $79.99 while the BestBuy.com price is
$59.99, so if you’re looking to cut the cord, you might want to save
some cash and order online. Oh, and remember — this bad boy doesn’t
work with Guitar Hero, so don’t say we didn’t warn you. One more shot
after the break.”

Continue reading Xbox 360 wireless Rock Band guitar starting to show up in stores

Xbox Live up and running, but still having “difficulties”

Engadget:

“As you may have noticed, Xbox Live has been a little
wonky as of late and, according to Microsoft’s latest status update, it
looks like it could stay that way for at least a little while longer.
While the service itself is apparently “up and running,” it seems that
anyone matchmaking or using client voice communication may “experience
difficulties,” which is just a little bit more than a minor issue. No
word on a full return to form just yet, but it seems that the folks in
Redmond are on the case.”

The PS3 Laptop

Engadget:

“Rewind back to late 2006. The PS3 was launching alongside the Wii and
geeky editors like ourselves were having a field day. We’d already
managed to convince our good pal Ben Heck to build another Xbox 360 laptop and the Wii Laptop,
so it was only a matter of time before we started brainstorming on how
the hell we could possibly fit a PS3 into a “portable” enclosure.
That’s the part where Ben stepped up his game and worked his magic –
on and off for almost a year and a half — to build… the PS3 Laptop!

The essential specs:

• Original backwards compatible 60GB model
• 17-inch LCD HDTV screen: 720p
• HDMI-DVI connection (same as last Xbox 360 laptop)
• Built-in keyboard, USB ports, stereo speakers, headphone jack
• Size: 17 x 13.75 x 3-inches
• Weight: 16 pounds!

You want this one of a kind piece of kit for your very own, PlayStation
fanboys? You got it. We’re auctioning this thing for charity real soon,
so watch out for details (we’ll also have some video of the PS3 Laptop
in action on the site tomorrow). And, naturally, big ups to our pal Ben Heck for the long hours and love he put into this thing. The man is truly a hero of ours, so be sure to hit up his site to check out his other projects, as well as the other instructional stuff he’s done here on Engadget.”