The Japanese love their abacuses. Japanese children are taught from a very young age how to be abacus pros. Soroban DS (soroban=abacus in Jap lingo), is the first ever full length game focused around the love of the abacus.

Soroban DS will allow gamers to practice their mad abacus skillz while chilling around with their DS. The only catch? Users will be using a touch pen instead of their fingers. But maybe it’s kind of like the difference between a QWERTY keyboard and texting numerically? — Andrew Dobrow

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Just a little friendly reminder for all you Xbox gamers. The newest update for the gaming console is now live and very, very awesome. The addition of the new messaging capability might be enough to pump the Xbox sails up a notch or two.

Also added is a Marketplace tab on to the main interface to save those precious downloading moments. Tell us your opinion of the update. Smooth transition or no? Hot or not? Chocolate or Vanilla? Come on people, help us out here! (more…)

Sony has launched their beta of the social virtual world, PS3 Home. Home seems to be a lot more serious and developed then I ever thought it would be. Some things you can do while cruising around home is interact with your PSP, play mini-games, interact with other gamers, and of course, check out the view of a whole new world.

Is this an attempt by Sony to beat Nintendo at their own Mii game? You bet it is. The leaked screenshots from the Home beta are looking really good. Nintendo, we love you, but Sony may have you beat with this one. (more…)

For gamers with a passion for the adorable, here’s a cool little battery charging doodad for PSP players. In one of those “Why didn’t I think of this?” moments, we saw this PSP shaped PSP battery charger which is a paradox all in its own. But a cool lookin’ paradox.

For $30, this charger is more expensive than your average PSP charger. But then again, most chargers aren’t this extremely cool looking. — Andrew Dobrow

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Gamers have been waiting for this announcement for who the hell knows how long. It seems that the possibility of a portable Xbox 360 is all but officially confirmed. Peripheral company, Hori, prematurely announced their release of a no-hassle Compact TFT Monitor EX, an LCD that easily connects to the Xbox 360 with very minimal effort.

The 12.1 inch monitor is no small fry with an output of 720p. It will involve you to have some kind of bag that can hold both the screen and the Xbox. But the point is, you don’t have to lug around a TV or full-sized monitor. The display will cost you 36,750 yen ($309.34), in addition to the hundreds you’ve already shelled out for the Xbox 360. Expected to be available in July for Japan. — Andrew Dobrow

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Intel announced today their plans for a third Extreme processor, geared towards the enthusiast-user. The Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6800 is Intel’s fastest enthusiast featured processor yet, running with a clock speed of 2.93 GHz. According to the press release by Intel, the QX6800 is focused specifically for gamers, digital designers, and those who strive for maximum computing power.

Critics are quick to criticize that the 6800 doesn’t differ much from the 6700, which has reached native clock speeds of 3.2 GHz, though we say, lets not comment until we see this baby in some overclocking action. The QX6800 will cost an equally extreme $1200 and is available now through Intel. — Andrew Dobrow

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Being the renaissance men that we are, we hardly need to play a guitar-based game, seeing as we can play real classical guitar, while pleasing three women at the same time. For those who aren’t as multi-talented, Harmonix and EA announced in a conference call that the guitar controller for Xbox 360 from Guitar Hero will also work with the recently announced Rock Band game.

Gamers using a PS3 will have to buy a new controller unless an adapter is released. But come on, there’s adapters for everything these days. — Andrew Dobrow

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Having little room for a gaming space in your home can lead to a lot of trouble. If you have your Wii located on a small, unstable table and you’re worried about the console sliding around, check out these Taore na Sheet W adhesive rubber feet for both the Wii and its sensor bar. At first thought, these might seem useless considering there are no controller wires to trip over. But remember, there are still power cables. And there is also the gaming nerd’s affinity for clumsiness. And oh yeah, gamers do love pussy cats. Cats who happen to jump up on tables and cause mischief.

The Taore na Sheet W adhesive feet are set for release on March 30th for the price of 800 yen ($6.82) or 3,000 units of Khazikstani pubis. — Andrew Dobrow

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Brunswick Pro Bowling, a new game for the Nintendo Wii, is set to take on the ever popular Wii Bowling. In terms of realistic bowling gaming, Brunswick’s graphics seem to win the competition hands down, but does more realistic bowler mania translate to more fun? Brunswick aims to give gamers a realistic bowling center experience, along with realistic looking characters and more customizable features, with a wider array of sights and sounds than Wii Bowling has to offer.

While optimism seems to be high for the game, don’t throw on your bowling shoes just yet. Not much is known about the game other than the realistic graphics. Will the Wiimote slinging still be as fun when there’s a stronger level of accuracy needed? Brunswick Pro Bowling is also to be released on PlayStation 2 and PSP consoles in June. – Andrew Dobrow

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Elder gamer website IStillPlayGames.com has a cool gallery of photos of people standing next to their Wii Mii characters. There’s also a few children thrown in as well. Byproducts of the elder gamers, we guess. — Andrew Dobrow

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