Xbox Live, NAT, and You

To contact us Click HERE
I've always been a network geek.  I've always heard of people with issues with NAT and Xbox Live and thought "They just must not know what they're doing" and dismissed it as an 1D10T error.

Until now.

Now that I'm in a job that requires me to understand Live and NAT, it seriously makes me wonder about the forethought put into the creation of the Live service.  They admittedly do some really cool stuff to get around some of the NAT problems, but I can't help but think that it's actually over-engineered.

What follows will be a HIGHLY technical article.  While I'm going to make every effort to make this as accessible as possible to Joe Everyman, it is without a doubt still very technical.  If you're not curious about the technical nature of Live, have no understanding of networking and don't care, or otherwise don't feel the need to know what's under the hood of your 360, you can click off now, as this article isn't for you.  It will, without a doubt, put you to sleep.

I'll give the uninterested people a few minutes to disperse.

Still with me?

Good.

Here comes more than you'll probably ever want to know about Xbox Live and NATs.

Let's begin with basics for the uninitiated few that did stick around.  All devices connected to the internet get an IP (Internet Protocol) address.  That address cannot be used by any other device.  Years ago, when precious few IP addresses were available (we're actually out of IPv4 addresses now!) smart people long ago established NAT (Network Address Translation) as a way to share a single address to multiple devices.  A NAT router is the piece of magic that allows all of your devices at home to harmoniously use the single IP address that nearly every ISP (Internet Service Provider) gives you.  Most people will refer to this as a Linksys or Cisco router, but many manufacturers (D-Link, Belkin, Netgear, to name a few) make these devices.  Some are better than others, but they all serve the same basic purpose.  To everyone but gamers, these devices for the most part magically work and no thought should ever really be given to them.  But in our case, we care greatly about their capabilities.


How Xbox Live works

There are five ports that Xbox Live uses:

TCP 80, 443, 3074
UDP 88, 3074

The critical port of the bunch though, is that UDP 3074 guy.  You see, not only do the servers operated by Microsoft care about him, but every other Xbox on the planet does as well.  Yes friends, Xbox Live is a peer-to-peer service as well as a client-server service.  This fact is until recently where I was blissfully ignorant.  I thought, "That's simple, just allow the ports through your firewall and you're done."  Not so fast slick.  Not only does the 360 phone home to Live and expect to carry on a conversation, but other 360s will want to talk to you as well.  This is the part where NAT becomes a pain in the neck for many people.

How NAT works

First off, there are three types of NAT:  Open (Full Cone), Moderate (Restricted Cone), and Strict (Symmetric).  For your Xbox to work at its best, you want to have an Open NAT.  Let's look at a little detail of what each of these types means in the real world.

To start with, all NAT types contain a state table.  This is the computer's way of knowing what traffic coming in from the outside world is supposed to go to what address in the private, translated world.  The table however, will be different depending on the NAT type.  The second thing that should be kept in mind is that by default in all NAT types, a client on the inside must initiate traffic before an entry is created in the state table.  Until that happens, no traffic from the outside can be forwarded to the inside.  In all the examples that follow, assume the following:

Your own internal IP address is 192.168.1.10
The IP you've received from your ISP is 10.1.1.10
The IP of the Xbox Live service is 172.16.1.36
The IP "Remote Live Player A" received from their ISP is 10.2.2.20
The internal IP address of "Remote Live Player A" is 192.168.2.20
The IP "Remote Live Player B" received from their ISP is 10.3.3.30
The internal IP address of "Remote Live Player B" is 192.168.3.30

Open NAT:


Open NAT is the simplest form of NAT.  It only cares about the internal client's information, and could care less about where the traffic from the outside world is coming from.  An Open NAT's state table might look something like this:

192.168.1.10:3074 <-> 10.1.1.10:5000

This is the device saying "Hey, anything that comes in from the outside world to port 5000, it should go to 192.168.1.10 on port 3074."

Moderate NAT:

Moderate NAT goes a step further in that it not only cares about the translation of your internal address to a public one, but it will only allow that translation to work specifically with a given remote port.  A Moderate NAT's state table might look something like this:

192.168.1.10:3074 <-> 10.1.1.10:5000 <-> [Any IP]:10000

This is the device saying "Hey, anything that comes in from the outside world going to port 5000 AND is from source port 10000, it should go to 192.168.1.10 on port 3074."

This introduces our first wrinkle in how Xbox Live works in cooperation with a NAT.  As you see in our examples, most NAT routers will take the port you're talking on, and use a completely random different port to talk to the outside world on.  Because of this, we can't know what port a conversation will come in from when another 360 tries to talk to us.  So when the following happens, we have a problem:

192.168.1.10:3074 <-> 10.1.1.10:5000 <-> 10.2.2.20:10000 <-> 192.168.2.20:3074 = YAY!
192.168.1.10:3074 X-X 10.1.1.10:5000 <-> 10.3.3.30:12000 <-> 192.168.3.30:3074 = FAIL!

Remote Live Player A is able to talk with no issue because the connection is established and the 360 is aware of Player A.  However, Remote Live Player B is a sad panda, because the NAT router is expecting all traffic to come in from port 10000 instead of 12000.

Strict NAT:


Strict NAT goes even further, and specifically restricts source port AND IP.  A Strict NAT state table might look something like this:

192.168.1.10:3074 <-> 10.1.1.10:5000 <-> 10.2.2.20:10000
192.168.1.10:3074 <-> 10.1.1.10:6000 <-> 10.3.3.30:12000

This is the device saying "Hey, anything that comes in from the outside world going to port 5000 AND is from address 10.2.2.20 AND is coming from port 10000, it should go to 192.168.1.10 on port 3074.  Also, anything that comes in from the outside world to port 6000 AND is from address 10.3.3.30 and is coming from port 12000, that also should go to 192.168.1.30 on port 3074"

Here is where it really gets fun.  Here the NAT router, despite the fact that the communication is being made from the same port by the local client, creates another public facing port for the communication.  This is vastly more secure on the part of the NAT router, and for everyday life, preferable.  However, it's the Xbox Live service breaking equivalent of dumping Thermite into a steel furnace.  It's broken and NOBODY gets to use it!

NAT Hole Punching:


However, Microsoft employs some pretty smart people, and they foresaw this.  Even with an Open NAT type, the remote 360 needs a way to know which port to communicate with your 360.  So when you sign into Live it records the port you're talking to it on.  In the case of an Open NAT, this is pretty much the end of the story, because when you are matched with another player, their 360 is told what port to talk to you on, and everything works:

You: Hey Live, I'm signing in!
192.168.1.10:3074 <-> 10.1.1.10:5000 <-> 172.16.1.36:3074
Live: Thanks User, I see you're on port 5000... I'll remember that for later.

Player A: Hey Live, I'm signing in!
192.168.2.20:3074 <-> 10.2.2.20:10000 <-> 172.16.1.36:3074
Live: Thanks Player A, I see you're on port 10000... I'll remember that for later.

You and Player A then get matched in a game...
Live: Hey User, you're going to be matched with Player A.  Talk to him on port 10000.

192.168.1.10:3074 <-> 10.1.1.10:5000 <-> 10.2.2.20:10000 <-> 192.168.2.20:3074

Gaming bliss is achieved.


In a Moderate NAT situation, we've got a problem.  Since our NAT routers have determined a source port at random ahead of time, AND our router cares about the port traffic arriving to it is coming from, AND we can't change the port of other devices talking to us, we've got to employ some trickery to make things work.  Let's look at the same conversation above and why it fails when the user's 360 attempts to talk to Remote Live Player A.  We've got the same conversation, but I'm going to show you the NAT state table that is created in addition to the network conversation:

You: Hey Live, I'm signing in!


User's network conversation:
192.168.1.10:3074 <-> 10.1.1.10:5000 <-> 172.16.1.36:3074
User's NAT state table:
192.168.1.10:3074 <-> 10.1.1.10:5000 <-> [Any IP]:3074

Live: Thanks User, I see you're on port 5000... I'll remember that for later.

Player A: Hey Live, I'm signing in!

Player A's network conversation:
192.168.2.20:3074 <-> 10.2.2.20:10000 <-> 172.16.1.36:3074
Player A's NAT state table:
192.168.2.20:3074 <-> 10.2.2.20:10000 <-> [Any IP]:3074

Live: Thanks Player A, I see you're on port 10000... I'll remember that for later.

You and Player A then get matched in a game...
Live: Hey User, you're going to be matched with Player A.  Talk to him on port 10000.

Failed network conversation between User and Player A:
192.168.1.10:3074 <-> 10.1.1.10:5000 <-> 10.2.2.20:10000 X-X 192.168.2.20:3074

Player A's NAT Router: Uh, some guy out there is trying to talk to me on port 10000 from port 5000... I don't have an entry for that.  GO AWAY!

Again though, we have some smart people at Microsoft, so for Moderate NAT users, we have this instead:

You and Player A then get matched in a game...
Live: Hey User, you're going to be matched with Player A.  Talk to him on port 10000.  By the way, he's not an Open NAT type so before we can start playing, you need to speak to him first before the game begins.
Live: Hey Player A, you're going to be matched with User.  Talk to him on port 5000.  By the way, he's not an Open NAT type so before we can start playing, you need to speak to him first before the game begins.

User sends a packet to Player A:
192.168.1.10:3074 -> 10.1.1.10:5000 -> 10.2.2.20:10000

User's new NAT state table:
192.168.1.10:3074 <-> 10.1.1.10:5000 <-> [Any IP]:3074
192.168.1.10:3074 <-> 10.1.1.10:5000 <-> [Any IP]:10000

Player A sends a packet to User:
192.168.2.20:3074 -> 10.2.2.20:10000 -> 10.1.1.10:5000

Player A's new NAT state table:
192.168.2.20:3074 <-> 10.2.2.20:10000 <-> [Any IP]:3074
192.168.2.20:3074 <-> 10.2.2.20:10000 <-> [Any IP]:5000

Network conversation between User and Player A:
192.168.1.10:3074 <-> 10.1.1.10:5000 <-> 10.2.2.20:10000 <-> 192.168.2.20:3074

Again, we have gaming bliss.

So far, we have ways around different NAT types.  The problem comes when we get to the Strict type.  Since every connection out from a Strict NAT results in a new public facing port being used, Xbox Live can't use the same tactic of hole punching since we have no way of knowing what port will be used as the public facing port.  The whole process breaks down then when trying to hole punch:

You: Hey Live, I'm signing in!

User's network conversation:
192.168.1.10:3074 <-> 10.1.1.10:5000 <-> 172.16.1.36:3074
User's NAT state table:
192.168.1.10:3074 <-> 10.1.1.10:5000 <-> 172.16.1.36:3074

Live: Thanks User, I see you're on port 5000... I'll remember that for later.

Player A: Hey Live, I'm signing in!

Player A's network conversation:
192.168.2.20:3074 <-> 10.2.2.20:10000 <-> 172.16.1.36:3074
Player A's NAT state table:
192.168.2.20:3074 <-> 10.2.2.20:10000 <-> 172.16.1.36:3074

Live: Thanks Player A, I see you're on port 10000... I'll remember that for later.

You and Player A then get matched in a game...
Live: Hey User, you're going to be matched with Player A.  Talk to him on port 10000.  By the way, he's not an Open NAT type so before we can start playing, you need to speak to him first before the game begins.
Live: Hey Player A, you're going to be matched with User.  Talk to him on port 5000.  By the way, he's not an Open NAT type so before we can start playing, you need to speak to him first before the game begins.

User sends a packet to Player A:
192.168.1.10:3074 -> 10.1.1.10:6000 -> 10.2.2.20:10000

User's new NAT state table:
192.168.1.10:3074 <-> 10.1.1.10:5000 <-> 172.16.1.36:3074
192.168.1.10:3074 <-> 10.1.1.10:6000 <-> 10.2.2.20:10000

Player A sends a packet to User:
192.168.2.20:3074 -> 10.2.2.20:12000 -> 10.1.1.10:5000

Player A's new NAT state table:
192.168.2.20:3074 <-> 10.2.2.20:10000 <-> 172.16.1.36:3074
192.168.2.20:3074 <-> 10.2.2.20:12000 <-> 10.1.1.10:5000

Failed Network conversation between User and Player A:
192.168.1.10:3074 -> 10.1.1.10:6000 -X 10.2.2.20:10000
10.1.1.10:5000 X- 10.2.2.20:12000 <-> 192.168.2.20:3074

Player A's NAT Router:  Uh, some guy out there is trying to talk to me on port 10000 from 10.1.1.10 port 6000... I don't have an entry for that.  GO AWAY!

User's NAT Router: Uh, some guy out there is trying to talk to me on port 5000 from 10.2.2.20 port 12000... I don't have an entry for that.  GO AWAY! 

In Ghostbusters speak, we have a crossing of the streams.  We made our connections out, but because our source port changed, we aren't listening on the ports that the conversation is occurring on.  As a result, those with Strict NAT types are pretty well up the creek when being matched.  They have to rely on being matched with ONLY Open NAT types.  Only an Open NAT will work with a Strict, because they don't care where the conversation is coming from, just as long as it's on the right port.  Since Live can inform the Strict user of this, the Strict user initiates the connection to the Open user, and there is no problem.  But since the local port randomization occurs, even a Moderate user cannot talk with a Strict user since they will be unable to know what port to talk to the Strict user on.

Oh no, that's terrible, how do you fix it?

Well, there's a couple ways to fix this for a home user.  Newer NAT routers, the ones above that I mentioned are "better than others" contain a technology called Universal Plug and Play, or UPnP for short.  UPnP, without giving you the highly technical explanation above, realizes what's happened here, and ensures that the traffic reaches the proper destination without any user intervention.  This is by far the easiest method to fix this.  It will also enable you to have more than one 360 using Live at a time in your household.  However, it can be fixed on some other NAT routers as well.  They key is that UDP 3074 guy once again.  Since this is the ONLY port that some random 360 will talk to you on, you can use this information to your advantage.  One way of fixing this on a non-UPnP enabled router is to add the 360 to the DMZ, if the router has one.  This will cause most NAT routers to forward any traffic not destined for a valid NAT state table entry to the DMZ.  However, this isn't always the case.  If your router behaves somewhat differently than some, and uses the local source port as the public facing source port, your easy solution here is to redirect UDP 3074 to the 360.  This has the unfortunate side effect that only one 360 will be working AT ALL in your household, should you happen to have more than one.

That seems reasonable, what's your problem then?


Well, my problem, as a network admin is that beyond being an administrative nightmare to assign a reserved DHCP address and set up port redirecting from an external address to that reserved internal address for every 360 on my network, I simply don't have that many public IP addresses available.  If I did, I wouldn't be using NAT, and I wouldn't be making this post.  Now granted, my need to support Xbox Live as a service on my network is one that isn't terribly pervasive, but it is certainly one that Microsoft should care about.  I'm sure that colleges, some small ISPs, even some home users with several 360s likely run into this problem quite frequently.  With my specific network setup, I can make a single 360 absolutely sing without much effort.  The problem is getting *all* of them in harmony.  I can't fathom why when knowing that the NAT problem exists, and knowing that they require all users to fork over their $60 (only suckers pay full price for Live, by the way) each year, that all traffic isn't handled by either the Live servers, or a required dedicated server owned by the developer of the game.  Granted that IPv6 should fix this problem, but we are some time off before it is widely implemented, and currently I'm unaware of any gaming device at all that even supports it.

So for now, we're stuck with NAT.  But now you know what's going on if your 360 is complaining about a Strict or Moderate NAT type, and what you potentially can do about it!

Games Journalism Isn't Objective

To contact us Click HERE
So I've come out from hiding (and basically insanely busy work and personal life schedules) to comment on this:


Any of you that follow games journalism should recognize Justin McElroy in the video above embracing his beloved copy of Skyrim.  This video is certainly meant to be funny, and a bit serious as well since nobody honestly will be seeing Justin for probably 100+ hours now that he has the game.

But it has fueled the ire of those over at NeoGaf claiming "TEH BIAS!!!!11!1!".  Here's the deal everyone, a game review is simply an opinion of the person playing it.  And that person, no matter how much they want to admit it, will have a bias if they're already a fan of the game, its series, or its publisher even.

Now *normally* I wouldn't have a problem with a video of this type.  The problem in this instance though is Joystiq's mantra that they are unbiased in their work.  They have put themselves in this ivory tower over and over and over again.  So when an editor is such an unabashed fan of something, and your site makes it a HUGE deal that its reviews and reviewers are unbiased, editorial has an easy fix for this.  Don't let that person review that game.  This of course is a problem if the person with the problem is the site's managing editor that refuses to give up the review.

On his personal blog Justin goes on to defend his video and the fact that he will still be reviewing the game for Joystiq.  He says near the end:

"The trick, to crib a line from Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning musical Rent, is finding a critic with baggage that goes with yours."

This would be EXACTLY RIGHT except for the site's stated policy that everything is unbiased, and the lengths they go to in order to "provide unbiased coverage and criticism of the video game industry."

I know, it's easy for me to talk with a po-dunk personal blog that receives exactly squat for free.  But here's the thing, if anyone anywhere ever wants to send me anything for free, I'm taking it, disclosing it to the public, and then publishing my thoughts on what I got.  That's *my* stated policy.  We'll see whether or not Joystiq's Editor-in-Chief Chris Grant sacks up and tells Justin he needs to stand down in order to preserve the site's ethics.  Either way it goes, it's made for high comedy.

Early Play - What's the Big Deal?

To contact us Click HERE
It appears that a few retailers have jumped the gun and began selling Modern Warfare 3 just a *tad* early.  Those that have been able to take advantage of this, of course, started playing.  Yesterday, Xbox Live Director of Policy and Enforcement Stephen Toulouse tweeted the following:

Stepto: clarification: dblchk'd with Activision. Mw3 pre-release play not authorized. So pls be patient. Playing early may impact your account! (link to tweet)

Two things are at question here.  First, it has been Microsoft's policy in the past that if you've legitimately obtained a game prior to its official release, go nuts.  This even came from Toulouse himself earlier in the day tweeting:

Stepto: For those asking about MW3 pre-release play: If your copy is legit and obtained legitly, have fun. It's a great game. (link to tweet)

So why the reversal?  Is Activision now dictating to Microsoft what its policy should be?  Moreover, if they're really that concerned about people playing it before release, here's a novel thought.  Turn off the multiplayer servers until release.  That'll teach those bastards to pay you money before they're supposed to!

And that brings me to point number two.  Why does it really matter?  These people are not pirates.  They're paying customers.  I could totally understand if these were leaked copies of the game being spread far and wide across the Internet.  This is not the case.  Here, you're punishing your most rabid fans for legitimately obtaining the game early.  You want to take it out on someone?  Find the retailer that sold it early and tell them they don't get the game next time.  Or if it was really that severe in your eyes, blacklist them from getting other games published from your company.  Don't punish the consumer, they're innocent in this scenario.  Who of us *wouldn't* take that opportunity?

The conspiracy theorist in me isn't entirely sure this hasn't been orchestrated since Battlefield 3 is enjoying some pretty ridiculous sales numbers with no opposition and Activision can't have it.  This could be the *wink wink, nudge nudge* "Now you're not supposed to be doing this yet guys!" in order to get some free publicity and to undercut the competition.

It's moderate level d-baggery at its worst, and crappy publicity stunt at its best.  Either way, the consumer that did no wrong ends up standing to lose the most.

Update - Toulouse later went on to say that nobody would see retribution for early play but to "wait til Tuesday to play with everybody", whatever that meant.

Review: Uncharted 3

To contact us Click HERE
The Uncharted series is probably most known for being absolutely gorgeous, as well as modernizing the Indiana Jones style exploration genre.  Uncharted 3 is no exception.  Come on in and let me tell you a tale of a game that could have been an absolute masterpiece.

The story:

The story gives us a peek at Drake's history with Sully, showing us their relationship at its genesis in Columbia.  This is integral to the game's overall story, as it also introduces you to the game's main villain in the process.  The filling in of the back story with Nate and Sully is awesome.  As a fan of the series, it was really neat to see how they met and the tie between them.

Equally riveting is the story between Nate and Elena.  You open the game in a mission with Sully, Chloe, and a new character, Cutter.  Elena is nowhere to be found at the beginning of the game, and you're given a somewhat vague story of why throughout the game.

The main story this time around revolves around the cause of Sir Francis Drake spending way more time than he should have in one spot for one of his expeditions.  You open trying to sell Nate's ring that he's had since the first game, sending us on this whole adventure to start with.  The buyer tries to use use counterfeit money to get the ring, and in typical Drake and Sully fashion, it ends up in a brawl.

The game:


Nothing much has changed since the first two games here.  Hand to hand combat is still mostly mashing square with a dash of triangle thrown in.  Stealth kills haven't changed either, just get near the enemy undetected and tap square and finish them.  The only thing really new is that we now have the ability to chuck grenades back at the enemy by timing a press of the triangle button just right.  This isn't anything to knock the game for, as the system is certainly fun.  What's frustrating to no end that also hasn't changed since the first game, is the clunky controls for controlling Nate during the platforming and climbing sections of the game.  Many a time I jumped to my death while seemingly pointed exactly where I wanted to go.  Also needing to go away are the all too frequent instant fail sections.  Several times you're asked to pursue someone or run away from something and if you're not quick enough or go the wrong way, it's time to restart.  This is compounded worse by the fact that on more than one occasion you're running toward the camera and cannot see ahead of you.  Note to all developers:  This is just cheap.  It's annoying and completely luck based, and there's no need for it in the 21st century of gaming.  Pile that on top of the sections of the game where you're not really gaming, and it just gets a bit old.  I do realize they're using this for effect in the story, but in practice, it's just a cut scene that requires you to hold in a direction to advance it.  They'd have been better off simply making it a true cut scene and being done with it, as there's no reason for the player to have control in these instances.

The verdict:

All that said, it's still a great game.  It's beautiful, and tells an awesome story.  Unfortunately, Uncharted 3 is a frustrating mix of this great story, beautiful scenery, and botched game mechanics.  In the end, a game is just that, a game.  If the game part is weak, you can't ignore this.  It's very much worth playing, but in deciding the final score of this game, the weaknesses in the actual game prevent it from being a must own.

Pros:

• Probably the most beautiful game you'll see on a console
• Smart story, constantly keeps you guessing

Cons:

• Way too many instant fail sequences
• Controls just aren't that strong

Score: 4 out of 5 stars - Worth Owning
Review System - PS3Time Played - 16 hours, all single playerCompletion: Finished the single player game.  Obtained 31 of 55 trophies

Veteran Gamer's Top 5 Games of the Year

To contact us Click HERE

Back again!  Sorry for the delay on this article, but hey, I'm only one man.  And just as with last, year, the following disclaimer returns:

There's no way I can play all of the great games that were released this year.  So this is purely my "Top 5 Games I played this year" list, with the system I played it on in parenthesis.  The biggest caveat to this list that should be noted off the top.  I only own the 360 and PS3.  The Wii hasn't held my interest since launch, and I don't have a PC that is beefy enough to run anything worth playing.

Continuing last year's start, I present to you the game I just didn't get last year:

WTF Was This Game So Popular Game of the Year:  Nobody!


Three cheers for the gaming industry and press!  As I looked back at last year, there were NO critically acclaimed games released that I sat wondering why I was playing.  Everything I played was worth playing, and I think that speaks to just how AWESOME a year 2011 was for gaming.

Most Disappointing Game of the Year: Battlefield 3

As awesome as Battlefield Bad Company 2 was last year, Battlefield 3 completely disappointed.  Glitches galore ruin this iteration of 2010's best shooter.  My crew and I still have issues with mics working properly and actually staying in our squads after joining games.  EA shot high with its marketing and unfortunately DICE fell flat in delivery.

#5:  Mortal Kombat (Xbox 360)


Surprise, surprise, surprise.  For the first time in forever, a Mortal Kombat game was worth playing for me.  Chucking the 3D gameplay that strayed so far from what made the series great at it's inception, NetherRealm went all nostalgia on us and FREAKING NAILED IT.  But it's not just nostalgia running the show here.  The game includes a real story mode that is the most entertaining in any one on one fighting game I've ever played.  I've sunk 11 hours in this game and still haven't finished the story.  If you've ever been a fan of the series, you'll find the newest iteration well worth your money.

#4:  Uncharted 3 (PS3)


Uncharted 3 was equal parts frustrating, equal parts mesmerizing in my experience.  Game controls were frustrating in many parts, from inadvertently jumping to my death many times, to everyone's favorite thing, instant fail sequences.  But the parts where it fell short were minimal compared to the fantastic visuals and engaging story, which is why despite my frustration, Uncharted 3 reaches my top 5.

#3:  The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Xbox 360)


It just couldn't live completely up to the hype for me.  Add in a month period where the game was unplayable due to an elemental bug introduced after a patch, and Skyrim fell out of the GOTY perch for me.  However, this is still an outstanding game.  I've barely scratched the surface in my 16 hours of play, and love this fact.  This is of course a detriment to several high quality games sitting on my shelf, some of which I've not even touched, but they'll get their due.  Eventually.

#2:  Gears of War 3 (Xbox 360)


The Gears trilogy finishes strong.  Another great single player experience, and a lot more splattering grubs and glowies.  Though I don't get the competitive multiplayer at all in this series, Horde 2.0 and the new Beast modes shine.  The tower defense style in Horde 2.0 improves on an already addicting formula.  And of course, the ability to play as the Locust in Beast mode is a neat new addition.  In another year, this could have been the GOTY... but it's most certainly the shooter of the year!

Before I get to #1, here are some honorable mentions...

Honorable Mention:  Forza Motorsport 4 (Xbox 360)


Everyone's favorite version of car porn probably would have made my list had I just had some more time to play it.  Sadly, with only 3 hours played, I couldn't in good conscience put it into my top 5.  That said, I've had a blast with what I've played of what is easily the most beautiful racing game on a console.

Honorable Mention:  Shadows of the Damned (Xbox 360)


God of War like in it's gameplay, but a 3rd person shooter in reality.  Throw in copious amounts of gore and bullet time sequences and you've got... well... what this game is.  This is a really hard game to describe, and yet in the short time I played it (less than an hour) I was having a lot of fun.  If you like shooters and want something different, you won't be disappointed.

Honorable Mention:  Once Upon a Monster (Xbox 360)


Holy crap, a Kinect game made this list!  But it's because it's an unbelievable experience if you also happen to have young children.  I've played eight hours of this game with my son, and he's just loved it to death.  I can't thank Double Fine enough for giving me my first gaming experience with my son and making it great.

And now, Veteran Gamer's Game of the Year is...

Game of the Year:  Portal 2 (PS3)


I could wax poetic about this game.  I devoured the single player in this game, leapt into the multiplayer via couch co-op with a friend, and was disappointed to finally reach the end.  The puzzles were brilliant, the humor was some of the best ever in a video game, and the gameplay was near perfection.  I'm not sure how Valve will deliver us a Portal 3 after the ending, but here's hoping they find a way, because a world without GladOS is a world I don't want to live in.

Thus closes my year in gaming for 2011.  Can 2012 possibly top 2011 and even 2010 before it?  Like last year, the games I didn't get to which certainly could have been contenders for my top five were numerous.  A few that would certainly have been in the running were Batman Arkham City, Saint's Row the Third, Dark Souls, LA Noire, and certainly more.  As with last year, thanks to everyone who's sticking with my tiny little blog.  I hope to improve more for this year!

New Year Re-Launch

To contact us Click HERE

New year Re-launchYou mighthave noticed that Leats Tech Corner has not been posting many articles. This isdue to a number of reasons. I have had a very busy social life as I have beengoing out with friends more and spending time with my girlfriend. Also I havetaken up a new sport; I am part of my school’s rugby academy and with trainingand games not finishing till the evening.
But come NewYear I will be re-launching the site, new articles, new features and morereviews. I will also be posting a weekly roundup of the week’s technology news.If you have any suggestions for the site or you would like to become a guestwriter or reviewer contact us on twitter, facebook or drop us an email leatstechcorner@gmail.com
Robert LeatEditor inChief

SOPA- My View

To contact us Click HERE

As youmight be aware the American government is trying to pass an act called SOPA,which stands for Stop Online Piracy Act. SOPA is intended to clamp down on “rouge websites” such as piratebaywhich host illegal content.  

source:http://bit.ly/xD2Dyu

But many people are saying this act could be thedeath of youtube because under this act you would not be able to post footageof games without the developer’s permission, and the same goes for song covers,it is for this reason I am against SOPA. I think that no country should not beallowed to”censor “the web, this act would mean the end of my youtube career asI have built a channel based on “lets plays “of games. Many big companies’ssuch as Google and Wikipedia are against SOPA, Wikipedia are temporarilyshutting down the site in protest against SOPA, Google will be displaying ananti SOPA message on their website in protest of SOPA as SOPA would censor Googlesearch engine results.  Facebook andyahoo have also expressed their opposition to SOPA by sending letters to keymembers of the American senate.   Let me know what you think of SOPA by leavinga comment or by tweeting @leatstechcorner , use the hash tag #leatstechcorner



By Robert Leat
Editor in chief

Skyrim PC gets High Res Texture pack

To contact us Click HERE

Bethesdathe developer behind titles such as Skyrim and the fall out saga today announcedthat a Skyrim High Resolution texture pack is available for free on steam,alongside the creation kit. To run it, you'll needWindows Vista or Windows 7, a minimum of 4GB of system RAM and a DirectX 9.0ccompatible NVIDIA or AMD ATI video card with at least 1 GB of RAM and thelatest drivers.
By Robert LeatEditior in Chief

Temple Run Review

To contact us Click HERE

Temple runis the highly addictive iOS game that everyone is playing. It was created bythe Washington D.C. based developer Imangi Studios. It can be acquired for freefrom the apple app store. It is soon to be released on the Android platform.

Source:http://bit.ly/y4l9LS

The basicpremise of the game is that you are running from a temple whilst being chasedby demon monkeys, you have to maneuver around corners by swiping your fingerleft or right, you also might have to jump over gaps or obstacles by swipingyour finger upwards.   There are also viciousflames and deep tree roots that you have to duck under by swiping downwardswith your finger. The further you get the higher your score.  The game features a store which allows you topurchase upgrades which help you to improve your score; to purchase theseupgrades you must collect coins in the game by tilting your device towards the coins.  This game is highly addictive and you willspend a lot of time trying to beat not only your score but your mate’s score.   Thegame also features achievements that you get by completing tasks such asgetting a new high score, or by collecting a certain number of coins.  The game also integrates apple’s game centresystem which allows you to view your friend’s high scores and also the topscores in the world.

The maindownside I have found to this game is that sometimes after pausing the game it doesn’tgive you enough time to recover and continue playing so pausing usually resultsin me dying straight away. Another downside I have found is that the game doesn’talways respond when you swipe across the screen and this has resulted in somevery frustrating games for me.
Overall Iwould thoroughly recommend this game for hours of fun gameplay and competitionwith your friends as you try to beat their high scores.  This game will keep you entertained on long journeysand will help to combat boredom.  I wouldgive this game a rating of 8.5 out of 10.

By Robert Leat
Editor in Chief

RIM report losses of $125million

To contact us Click HERE

source:http://bit.ly/H35HXw

The makerof Blackberry smart phones RIM has reported losses of $125million for the first quarter of 2012, compared to last year whenthe company made a profit of $934million. RIM suggested that they will refocustheir market to businesses instead of the consumer market. This comes due tostiff competition from Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android phones which outsellBlackberries. As a Blackberry user I hope this does not mean the end ofservices like BBM which I use every day and find a very useful tool forcontacting my friends. What do you think about this move by RIM let us know byleaving us a comment below or sending @leatstechcorner a tweet.











By Robert LeatEditor in Chieffeel free to leave a donation your donations help to keep the site running. 

How To Make Poutine

To contact us Click HERE
                               
      Poutine is a delicious dish made of french fries, cheese curds, and gravy. Sometime other ingredients are added as well, e.g, beef, pulled pork, and/or lamb. This dish originated in Quebec, Canada, in the late 1950's. Many have claimed to be the inventor of this yummy treat, but it is still unclear as to who actually created it. My best friend is the one who actually introduced me to this dish and I love it. If you haven't had it yet then here's how to make it.

      First you'll need medium thick french fries so that it'll be soft on the inside but crunchy on the outside. Then you'll need fresh cheese curds. White cheddar cheese curds are the ones commonly used when making poutine. Make sure they aren't more than a day old though. Next you'll need brown gravy or sauce. I recommend turkey gravy, but light chicken can also be used as well as other flavors.
     Once your french fries are ready, prior to serving the dish place the cheese curds on top of the fries then almost immediately pour the hot gravy over the fries and cheese curds. This way the cheese curds wont melt completely. 
     In Canada, if you were to go to Mcdonalds, Burger King, etc, you'd be able to buy poutine there along with your meal. I wish that the fast food restaurants here would have it too. Unfortunately, not many people in New York even know what poutine is. All I can tell you is that this is a dish that you MUST try.

Supernatural: The Leviathans

To contact us Click HERE

      As all Supernatural fans now know, the Leviathans are the new enemy in the show. They are the first beast that God had created, they're even older than souls. Since they were constantly consuming everything, God decided to create Purgatory and seal the Leviathans inside. This way God would be able to create more creatures without having to worry that the Leviathans would eat them. Due to Castiel's decision to absorb all of Purgatory's souls for power he ended up taking in the Leviathans as well. Now they are free and plotting something big which has yet to be revealed.

      These things eat human organs, but will most likely eat anything. They have the ability to not just posses people but shape shift into anyone they please by simply having a piece of their DNA. From one strand of hair alone they can literally learn everything you know and can change into you as they please. They also have the ability to regenerate. Even if their heads are cut off it can reattach itself, they don't even need to use their hands to pick it up it seems to just somehow crawl it's way back up onto it's neck.

      The Leviathans are nearly indestructible. All the methods to even hurt the things that the Winchesters usually hunt have no effect on them what so ever. They can't even be slowed down. It was by accident that they even discovered something that can actually hurt them. As it turns out, the chemical Borax can burn them. Borax is found in household cleaning supplies and seems to be the only thing that can hurt them at the moment. Even with this new found weakness they can't be easily killed for they'll simply regenerate from the burns. The only way to permanently incapacitate these things is to decapitate them and keep their heads away from their bodies as to prevent them from regenerating and getting back up.

      This is the first time on the show that the main enemy isn't a spirit of some sort. The Leviathans have interesting abilities and can withstand almost anything, even having a car dropped on them. I can't wait for the show to return to see what they have cooking up. Hopefully the Winchesters will find more of their weaknesses in time. What do you think about the new villains of the show?

Send A Personalized Video From Santa!

To contact us Click HERE

     Google has just launched a new feature just in time for Christmas. Now you can send anyone a personalized cartoon video featuring Santa Clause. You just fill in the forms and then send it to either the recipients email address, google+, or to his/her phone. I would recommend you choose the video option instead, I can only imagine the "WTF" look on a person's face when they suddenly receive a call from an automated Santa that knows your name. Not to mention that the cartoon is simply something you'd rather not have anyone miss. Did I forget to mention it's free? Who doesn't love free crap? So hurry up and start sending your own personalized videos from Santa Clause! :D

      Send a Santa video

GoDaddy Supports SOPA... WTF!?

To contact us Click HERE

      So as most of you should all know by now that congress has decided to try to pass a new law known as the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). Basically it means says goodbye to your first amendment rights and the whole internet as we all know it. Congress has decided to become extremely retarded even mentioning this bill. All your favorite websites including Facebook, Twitter, Google, and even Ranters Review will basically cease to exist due to their idiotic IP banning. You might as well move to another country. Only idiots would support this bill. Godaddy apparently is one of those morons.

      I'm not sure exactly why GoDaddy would support this bill seeing as it affects them greatly. After reading this article online, I simply laughed at their stupidity. They claimed to be "unimpressed" by the boycott that will soon be coming on December 29, 2011. HA! They fail to realize the seriousness of the boycott for it means that they will soon lose all of their business. They fail to see that there are other hosting services that are not only cheaper but better. So help with the boycott. Spread the word of GoDaddy's idiocy, if you're a GoDaddy customer then transfer your domain name and website to another hosting service, destroy GoDaddy. Soon they will lose all their customers and their business will be crippled.

Doctor Who: The Doctor, The Widow, And The Wardrobe

To contact us Click HERE

    This years Christmas special wasn't the best I've seen. In fact, compared to the previous specials I found this years pretty lacking. Usually Doctor Who Christmas specials are exciting which is what makes them so great. This year however seemed to be more focused on family and loved ones. It was one of those rare episodes in the series where no one dies. It had a completely happy ending. I wont go into details as to what had happened in the special for it defeats the purpose of watching it. So if you can find it online then I'd recommend you do. It may not have been the best, but it's still worth watching at least once. I just hope next Christmas will be more exciting than this year's special.

Nintendo Wii: U went the wrong way

To contact us Click HERE
E3 Expo has ended and from several sources on the internet, investors are not that excited about Nintendo's Wii U system that has not been unveiled yet. The only thigh that was unveiled at E3 Nintendo conference was the controller which is to be used with the new Wii U system to be brought to light in 2012.

Even after the conference ended, G4 TV's Adam Sessler was confused along with the other hosts watching the press conference live.

I can't say that I blame them. In a way now I know why Steve Jobs did not announce the new iPhone 5 or any details regarding the new phone. It would be weird if he would just show us a phone case and said, " look at how incredible this iPhone 5 cover looks , you guys can only imagine the possibilities that the new iPhone will have."

That is kind of dumb which is what Nintendo did during their press conference. We can't just go by what a controller looks like. Not even details or specs where given on the new Nintendo U coming next year. Making us just speculate on what it will be like. The bad news is that soon after the conference, several online articles where noted saying that the graphic demos used for Nintendo, where actual game demos of games being developed for PS3 and XBOX 360. Not only did Nintendo not show an actual Nintendo U system, but lied of what its games in production look like.

I myself, believe it was a mistake to show what their system was going to be capable of doing. Some quick demos that they showed during the conference still showed the same round miis used in the Wii, just at higher resolution.

This year their where no new major update of the current consoles shown or specs given. Only Sony brought forward the new PSVita which will definitely get some gamers attention with beautiful graphics, front and back touch abilities. In all Sony came up on top with their overall conference, Microsoft , then Nintendo last.

Detecting crime has become reality

To contact us Click HERE
Hello World, I've been absent for a while, my apologies. So what's new in the world today.

EA recently released a new Battlefield 3 trailer that shows us in great detail the cars, planes and helicopters that will be used in the new game. They have a great trailer. Just head over to YouTube and you will be able to see under EAVision channel.

In the news where reality meets fiction. You guys ever watched the movie Minority Report, staring Tom Cruse. If, you haven't, the movie is about being able to predict crimes before they actually are committed. Just like you can weather is predicted these days. In the movie, the detectives would actually be able to see the crime happen in the future and then make an arrest before it actually happened.

In real life something similar is happening. Santa Cruz, California police department have been recently equipped with high tech computers that can predict crime before it happens. Now don't get so excited, it is no Minority Report movie. This is just the beginning, through a very complicated algorithm, it detects potential areas that will be targeted. The interesting thing is that it actually gives the offices the location, time window of crime and what kind of crime.

So far since they started using it, they have arrested several people in the act. Things are moving forward with technology these days. The days of talking to each other over a handheld device is already here, which once was just a science fiction dream from sci-fi movies and T.V. shows.

What are your thoughts on that?



Navastech

Arctic cooling saved my video card

To contact us Click HERE

Check out video post of installation of Artic twin cooling fan heat sink. My video card was acting up, temp was not that good when it ran with load.

Made a huge difference once I installed the new heat-sink.

Evga 250GTS cooling mod installation

Just a quick video of how it came together, instructions where ok to follow

Wait to the end of the video to see specs after installation. Had a 12 degree drop, and no more loud sound from video card under load.

Made a huge difference and now ready for battlefield 3, which beta starts September 29, 2011

NavasTech

iPad 3: should I upgrade?

To contact us Click HERE
     iPad 3 formally rumored to be be called the iPad HD was unveiled today at Apple’s event. iPad 3 did not wow the audience since it’s new improvements are not that great from iPad 2’s specs.

So are you wondering if you should upgrade or jump into the tablet revolution. Well, perhaps I can help by asking yourself three questions.

1. Do I need a higher resolution camera to take pictures?

2. Do I need a faster processor (iPad)?

3. Do I need 4G LTE speeds for work/internet browsing?

Those are the questions that you should be asking yourself if you plan to upgrade. Now, if you are just starting to jump into the the tablet revolution with an iPad, then you should certainly go for it and purchase the new iPad 3. I pretty sure it will not disappoint with it’s new 5 meg. pixel camera that shoots 1080p video at 30fps., new large retina display that some many of iPhone 4 users love, plus new A5X dual core processor that has quad core graphics.

Will I upgrade my iPad 2, I don’t think so. If I had an iPad 1, then I might consider it just so I could run my programs faster and be more efficient. iPad 2 has a dual core processor which works really well. Do I like the retina display on the iPhone 4? Yes, but iPad 1,2 display is not that bad at all.
Back to the questions above, I believe if you answered yes to 2 out of the 3 questions above, then it is certainly time to upgrade. If you only answered yes to 1 question above, then re-consider it. You might be ok to hold on for another year. After all, Apple has keep it rolling with with a new upgraded product every year.

I’m actually awaiting the new iPhone 5 to be released later this year. If rumors are true, it will have a larger screen. Which might make me re-think carrying an iPad around. It might be just what I need to get my gaming on and at the same time update my blog or read something on a much smaller scale.
I sure hope this small post helped you undecided apple shoppers. For more information please visit Apple Website here

Any questions or comments, feel free to write below. Have a great day!
Navastech
Technorati Tags: iPad 3,new iPad,news,upgrade,iPad,iPad 2,iPhone 4,iPhone 5

Galaxy Nexus: Houston we have a problem

To contact us Click HERE

Recently my brother’s Galaxy Nexus welded itself together while he was charging it. According to Verizon personal at the local store, they told him it was a bad batch. Ouch!

Searched the internet for this problem but nothing came out from searching Galaxy Nexus fusing/welding to charging cable. Nothing besides screen burned or phone getting to hot comes up. I really don’t think this is a first, but if it is then the batteries from that batch must be really not be off good quality. Ok, I did find my USB port fried, wonder if it was just replaced.

For everyone out there in forums and discussing problems with it getting to hot, that should be a concern. At least look into that problem, perhaps exchanging it for a new phone from a different batch. Just in case make sure you keep a smoke detector/fire extinguisher next to your phone as it charges. Ok, that might be taking it to the extremes but what would have happened if my brother was sound asleep and it caught fire and nothing to warn him besides the smell of smoked flesh. I’m just saying.

He was not able to retrieve any of his photos since it is the same port that is used to transfer. Luckily for him, they simply gave him a new phone with accessories needed.

Just informing the tech personal out there on the net, incase you are looking into this phone or already own one. Take caution, I rather not  say, “I told you so.”

Now if you are not experiencing any problems with the phone then congratulations and enjoy the beautiful technology.

Technorati Tags: galaxy nexus,welding,fuising,samsung,overheating,burned screen,news,update,port,charging,fried,usb port

The need for an army in the modern age

To contact us Click HERE
During my thoughts regarding the Territorial Army, and when I took my head out of my hands, I started on another train of thought - the first part was "Why do we need a standing army?". This can be easily answered by the need for full-time trainers - someone has to train the TA; except the second thought creeps in "Why do we need an army at all?".

From first principles what is the need for an army?  We need an army to defend ourselves from attack; we need an army to attack another ourselves. Given our supposed 'civility' we're unlikely to chose to attack, but instead defend. Against what or whom though?

Terrorists seem to be the only ones attacking so we send in the army to attack them. More specifically we send them into the country that is supporting them, remove that country's leaders, and have the populace elect a new set. Which is great provided they also don't support the terrorists; the large flaw in democracy.

In theory having an army descend on you and tear your country apart to kick out a bunch of terrorist-lovin' leaders is unlikely to make a populace elect an exact same set lest they just get more of the same.

So an army is necessary in that sense; more so than a police force.

Circling back to the issue of a standing army though leads me to the current US Presidential race in particular the Republicans and their despising of the welfare state and their insistence on adhering to the will of the "Founding Fathers".

One of the points of the second amendment regarding the right to bear arms was the dislike for the need for a standing army; it also accounted for $683.7 billion in 2010.

So given their stated policies why haven't we heard the Republicans decrying these 'moochers'? I'm sure it's got nothing to do with the military's tendency to vote for them.

Car etiquette in the wet

To contact us Click HERE
Flooded roads this morning; drizzle to rain; dark, and cold. Yet the number of vehicles driving along with no form of side-lights (at the least) was shocking. I mean I'm in a bright red car, but try to spot a grey/silver or black car through the side-window when turning or worse yet through a side-window at the side-mirror when changing lane with both are spattered with rain-droplets.

All you can hope for is to catch movement as any sign that a vehicle is there and, as one is supposed to, slow down and take things a little easier.

In the same vein - the number of cars that think that just because their side of the road is washed out they have right-of-way in yours and, from the other perspective, the number of cars that hug the middle line despite the lack of puddles on their side when you're trying to skirt a puddle while staying on your own side of the road.

Mandatory re-testing every ten years? I'd say yes.

Student loans are NOT DEBTS!

To contact us Click HERE
A little late given the start of the university year in September, but the worry of the large loans having to be taken out to attend university is still cropping up in some circles. None of this is helped by the constant refrain that this is a loan and therefore a debt you will be burdened with.

This is not true.

The best way to think about this is as a "Best Friend's loan" or a "Family loan" the money is not expected back, but if you suddenly find yourself plush it would be nice to repay it. That's how the student loans work. If you don't earn more than £21,000/year - you'll won't be paying anything back. If you do it will automatically be deducted from your wages. No affect on credit rating, no nasty calls demanding money.

Ah but how much do they start to take out once you do start earning money? Take your annual wage subtract £21,000 from it and take 9% of that. Earn £25k a year and that's a repayment of £360 a year. That only changes if your salary changes

Should you pay it back early - no. Remember although the loan increases with an interest variable to your earnings the amount you pay back per month is fixed at that 9% so even if you find yourself earning a lot and eager to pay it all off; firstly don't assume your financial situation will remain as is; secondly the 'debt' is wiped after 25 years anyway.

[Okay - perhaps not so out of date as this morning (26/9) BBC Breakfast were discussing Student Loans and if such students starting university were ready to deal with their own finances]

100 Rooms Android Game review

To contact us Click HERE
I'll start with a warning - this is not a walkthrough, but believe me I can understand why you'd need one.

100 rooms is a free ad-supported game that is available on the Android Marketplace; the basic premise is simple - you are trapped in a room and need to use the items around you to open the door and leave.

You use the arrows at the edges of the screen to move around a room (or even two at times) and then jab to put something in the 16 slot inventory that sits at the bottom of the screen. Jab an inventory item to select it so it can be used with another on-screen item; or jab twice to get a larger view of the item which you can then combine with other items in your inventory.

As a small brain-straining/teasing game this would be quite fun; sadly after a few rooms it devolves into Monkey Island style item collection, and trial and error. You simply end up poking at everything on screen and trying to combine everything with everything else due to the contrived logic that applies. Oft-times I was left stranded because I was missing one component tucked somewhere I hadn't specifically targeted.

The interface isn't brilliant either. The initial hub room has an arcade machine that gives you points to spend on hints. There's a map next to that that allows you to replay any room. But nothing tells you this, you have to discover them for yourself. Oh and cleverly the FaceBook icon on the hub page is in exactly the same place as the "Return to Hub button" in each room so clicking to leave will trigger a "do you want to visit Facebook dialogue" box every time.

In all fairness this may be a better game on a tablet with a larger screen so you can spot the minor clues that indicate an actionable item. On a 4" HD screen - it's trying. Needs more polish.

100 missions Android game review

To contact us Click HERE
Having come to the current end of 100 rooms (room 42) the game advertised its own 100 Missions. Difficult to believe but the interface is even worse particularly on a mobile screen. Now when you jab at something that doesn't do anything it pops up with a message box stating nothing can be done here; in theory a good thing, but due to the smaller movement arrows it kept popping up as I tried to move overlaying the arrow so I had to deliberately jab elsewhere to clear it.

That said they've altered some of the game mechanics for the better. Combining items means dragging them onto each other and this new drag mechanic allows picture puzzles to be integrated into the game.

Sadly the logic still seems Monkey Island click everywhere, combine everything and despite the 'can't do anything here' messages it can still be difficult to determine if something is accessible. In this case consistency is a problem, jabbing the down movement arrow takes you out of a zoomed in view... except on occasion when it will take you a zoomed in view of the lower part of the object.

I'm also guessing English isn't the first language of the programmer; the description of objects are a little stilted and need some polish so for example describing a locked dresser as "ornate" and then finding a "fancy key" would tie the two together better than simply describing it as a dresser and a key obviously not for a door.  Oh and the intro screen speech bubbles are arranged top to bottom.

Despite being essentially the same game at times I want to say it's better than 100 rooms; other times it's worse. As with the previous it might simply be better on a tablet.

I think kudos does need to be made that it catered for the deaf/hard-of hearing by having a Morse code message blink as well as bleep; however that's countered by a red/green colour puzzle which will stimmy the colour-blind.

Keep the new dragging mechanic, make the direction keys a little larger; and ditch the pop-up 'nothing to do here', but keep the 'I can't do anything with that' pop-ups so at least there's an indication that something could be done there.

Harmonix Buys Harmonix!

To contact us Click HERE
Harmonix and Viacom announced that Viacom will be selling Harmonix to "Harmonix-SBE Holdings LLC, an affiliate of Columbus Nova, LLC."

So what it boils down to is, Harmonix is buying itself! The sale price is still unknown, but how much would you pay for yourself, if you were successful (probably a lot).

Oh, and if you don't already know, Harmonix is the developer of Rock Band 3 and Series.

Here's the official announcement!

PlayStation Phone Specs

To contact us Click HERE
While no official specs from Sony were announced about the Xperia Play, Chinese blog IT168 did give us an extensive overview of leaked information. After some translations, here is the overview;

• 1GHz Snapdragon processor
• Qualcomm Adreno 205 graphics processor
• 4-inch 854 x 480-pixel display
• 8-megapixel rear camera with LED flash
• 1,500 mAh battery
• microSDHC support
• 512 MB each of RAM and ROM

The PSP2 (or NGP) + Specs

To contact us Click HERE
At PlayStation Meeting 2011 in Japan a yesterday, Kazuo Hirai, President and Group CEO, SCEI, introduced the world to the newest addition to the PlayStation product family and the future of portable gaming: currently codenamed NGP (Next Generation Portable).

PSP (original) changed the way we has consumers thought of portable devices, and raised our expectation from DS graphics to PlayStation(R)Portable graphics. Since 2005 over 64 million people have bought the PSP.  Sony set out to yet again redifine these inustry standards, making the portable electronics market even more competitive.

The NGP will offer Wi-Fi and 3G network connectivity (carriers?). The 5-inch OLED front multi-touch display will bring images to life, and the multi-touch pad on the rear enables player to use those other fingers for even more enhanced gaming. PlayStation(R)Network services will be made specifically for the NGP.
Think we were done? Well were not, the new just gets better. Your favorite game developers from both PlayStation(R)3 and PSP will be making games for the NGP! This means we'll be seeing games such as; Uncharted, and Call of Duty. To top it off the NGP will also work with the PlayStation(R)Suite which was also recently announced.

Key NGP features: 

• Multi-touch 5-inch organic light emitting display (OLED) on front 
• Multi-touch pad on the rear of device 
• Dual analog sticks 
• Two cameras (front and rear) 
• Software titles on small, dedicated flash memory-based cards 
• Three motion sensors (gyroscope, accelerometer and electronic compass) 
• Wi-Fi and 3G network connectivity 
• PlayStation Network access, including "LiveArea", "Near" and "Activity" log features trophy support 
• NGP will be able to play PSP titles, minis, PS one classics, video and comics from the PlayStation Store. 

Now for you Techies out there:

CPU	ARM® Cortex™-A9 core (4 core)
GPU	SGX543MP4+
External Dimensions	Approx. 182.0 x 18.6 x 83.5mm (width x height x depth) (tentative, excludes largest projection)
Screen (Touch screen)	5 inches (16:9), 960 x 544, Approx. 16 million colors, OLED Multi touch screen (capacitive type)
Rear touch pad	Multi touch pad (capacitive type)
Cameras	Front camera, Rear camera
Sound	Built-in stereo speakers Built-in microphone
Sensors	Six-axis motion sensing system (three-axis gyroscope, three-axis accelerometer), Three-axis electronic compass
Location	Built-in GPS Wi-Fi location service support
Keys / Switches	PS button Power button Directional buttons (Up/Down/Right/Left) Action buttons (Triangle, Circle, Cross, Square) Shoulder buttons (Right/Left) Right stick, Left stick START button, SELECT button Volume buttons (+/-)
Wireless communications	Mobile network connectivity (3G) IEEE 802.11b/g/n (n = 1×1) (Wi-Fi) (Infrastructure mode/Ad-hoc mode) Bluetooth® 2.1+EDR （A2DP/AVRCP/HSP）

Now here are just some of the games we can expect to see:

• Killzone
• Uncharted
• WipEout
• LittlerBigPlanet
• Call of Duty
• Resistance
• Little Deviants
• Hot Shots Golf
• Reality Fighters
• Gravity Daze
• Smart As
• Broken
• Hustle Kings

Now of course we don't know everything yet, but details such as release date, price, and more will be announced when available. Stay tuned for more updates!