Gearfuse

If you’re one of the lucky people who own a first-gen PS3 model (back when WiFi wasn’t standard and shit), your system has what’s called an Emotion Engine chip. Think of it as an extra heart for your PS3 that allows you to have a full Playstation 2 inside. Sony removed it a few years back to cut costs and now only a very limited number of titles are supported. To boot, Sony is also selling a lot of PSX games on the Playstation Network, so the incentive to add the EE back into the system is low.

But there is hope. According to a patent filing from last year (December, specifically), Sony is working on a way to compile and decompile the Emotion Engine. This will allow PS2 backwards-compatibility through software emulation, thus keeping us fanboys happier than ever.

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Take this one with a grain of salt considering how away September is, but according to SlashGear, RIM is working on a new version of the Storm for Verizon. The touchscreen device will finally get WiFi in addition to fixes that will fix issues that plagued the original Storm. Obviously, Blackberry App World will be included but that’s about the extent of the details right now. I’m going to assume that RIM will take the opinions of first-time Storm consumers and put them to good use when designing the next-gen Storm.

Or at least we’ll pray that’s what’s going to happen.

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I realize that Steve Jobs is really psyched about turning the iPhone and iPod Touch into fully-fledged gaming platforms. That’s great. There are tons of fantastic games for these devices, produced by powerhouse studios and publishers like Electronic Arts. Unfortunately, the classic NES title Mega Man II is not fantastic. Look at this retarded control scheme Capcom set up. It looks like somebody whipped those graphics up in five minutes using Macromedia Flash 4.

Of course, you’re going to play it for a few minutes and become incredibly frustrated. According to reviews ’round the ‘net, the game is nearly impossible to play, especially with so many tough jumps and enemies. Thought the original was easy? Now is the chance to really hone your skills. It’s now available on the App Store for a mere $4.99.

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Wow. I saw the image on Doobybrain and was just immediately blown away. I haven’t played the classic learning game Number Munchers since 2nd or 3rd grade. That’s a long time ago. Lucky for me and other nostalgic nerds, someone was kind enough to port the Apple II version to the web for all of us to enjoy. Need to brush up on your multiplication? Let Number Munchers guide the way.

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I was asked by the developers of SmartRSS 2 to play around with it before its release on the iTunes App Store. The software, released by Visuamobile, is one of the best RSS readers I’ve used period, let alone for an iPhone. It’s very quick and although it lags up at times, this is expected when you’re grabbing hundreds of RSS feeds at once.

Adding a new feed is easy. Just use the menu (seen above) and search for your favorite website or blog. If it’s not listed, you can manually enter the feed URL. You can also import an OPML file via your Google Reader account, which sets up in seconds. All of the other standard features you’d expect in an RSS reader are here and the formatting is perfect for the iPhone 3G.
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Headcrabs, crowbars and G Men, oh my! This is a pretty nifty diorama made entirely out of LEGOs. It features the cast of Valve’s ultra-popular Half-Life 2. I’m really enjoying the blood on the wall and I’m really curious as to who designed that headcrab sucking on some face towards the bottom.

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If you’re old enough, you’ll remember the days of LED football. Cut the shit, pops. You know exactly what game I’m talking about. Move the lights, run the ball, score the TDs. The problem is, those old units are either long gone, broken or being sold on eBay in mint condition. Why bother with that hassle? You clearly need LED Football 2 for the iPhone. It’ll cost you just one buck to download it from the App Store and it even has the old school look and feel of games past.

I mean come on. Can you really resist that big orange “PASS” button? I didn’t think so.

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Glenn Marshall is the master of Processing and mixing an old Boards of Canada song (Corsair) into motion graphics. The above video, dubbed “Metamorphosis 2″, is one of his finest works. Try watching it at 2:00am before going to bed and I think you’ll find it oddly relaxing.

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Penny Arcade pretty much sums up what will happen if Gears of War 2 comes with parental controls. Remember kids: Mom is a classy lady.

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