Confirmed. Sony is launching a new ad campaign surrounding the PS3.

The Choice is easy?

Today Microsoft announced they are cutting the price of the Xbox 360 Elite to $299, signaling the beginning of a mini price war. The announcement comes on the heals of Sony’s PS3 price cut a week ago in Cologne, Germany.  Effective Friday August 28, the $100 price cut puts the PS3 slim and Xbox 360 in a position to vie for gamers this holiday season and marks the first time this console cycle that gamers will be able to choose between equally priced consoles. As part of the price cut, however, Microsoft will no longer offer an HDMI cable. Online play remains free on the PS3 and $50/year on Xbox Live.  360 slim rumors were denied.

Eugene, OR- I’m packing my bags, yes I am. For the Summer Games are on!*

As competitive sports video gaming continues to grow, video games are spilling back over into sport, creating interesting mutations. Combining e-sports, brain games, and athletic events under the moniker of “Team Sports,” law students from the University of Oregon are having one last summer bash before classes begin. Friday marks the beginning of the Summer Olympics 2K9, a curious two-day social event that fuses gaming and physical competition.

Introducing LudoGrind Arcade, entertaining escape from pixelated boredom.

A few months ago, I got to thinking it would be nice to have an arcade on the site featuring Filler, one of my favorite flash games. In an attempt to make that happen, installed a few plugins, ran it by SimianLogic and voila, ludogrind is flash compatible! 

Filler 2 by SimianLogic: The object of the game is to fill 2/3 of the screen with filler balls. Click to expand a ball. If a ball collides while you are expanding the ball, it will burst and you will have one less ball. Easy at first, addictive always!

Play It Now!

Do gamers risk poor health?

G4 reports that the Center for Disease Control (CDC) has taken a look at the health hazards associated with playing video games and found that addicts are fat and sad. Emerging Health Threats suggest that the hazards of playing video games are not limited to children. The CDC has found a correlation between gaming and health risks in a sample of 500 adults living in the Seattle-Tacoma area. However, correlation does not mean causation as Dr. Primack points out in the study, “people’s lifestyles are getting more sedentary, but maybe games are an effect rather than a cause.”  But why then have people become so much more inactive?  If TV and video game entertainment is not to blame, what role do video games play as coping mechanism? How do we explain the positive and negative affects of video games and their exploding popularity?

Cologne, Germany- 30-30-30. As anticipated, Sony has slashed the price of the PS3 gaming console $100 from $399 to $299, effective immediately. Sony has also introduced a new slimmer, lighter, cheaper, more power efficient PS3, retiring the 80-GB model once sold out. The new model comes with a 120GB hard drive, launches September 1st and will be 36% lighter, 33% slimmer, and 26% cheaper. In an interview with Gamasutra, Eric Lempel, Sony PlayStation Network operations director, explains that a number of changes were made to make the system more affordable.