Cooler Master is introducing its latest mid tower chassis, the HAF 922. This tower is aimed directly at gamers with a case that’s cool both inside and out. This beast supports up to seven fans more maximum air flow. It’s also compatible with liquid cooling systems, with enough room for an internal radiator.

According to the specs, the HAF 922 provides 2 USB 2.0 ports as well as eSATA. It also supports HD / AC97 audio. Check out the full list of HAF 922 specifications and accessories at the Cooler Master website.

While browsing a particular gaming forum that I’m a regular of, a fellow forum goer posted a link to a pocket emulator device that caught my eye. While I’ve dabbled with classic emulation within Windows Mobile powered cell phones in the past, my experience with those setups always left me wanting. Too small, too annoying, and half the time, too slow. Basically, cell phones and classic emulators are a match made in hell. Cool to show off to your friends, but a nightmare in comfort. So what are the present alternatives?

Anyone who has done their homework will attest that a Nintendo DS Lite ($130 USD) with an M3 Perfect ($30-40 USD) is a decent choice for the money. The R4DS adapter for the DS, while a little harder to find, would shave off a few more dollars while equaling the M3 in capability. With that particular setup you get NES, SNES, GBA, and, of course, DS capabilities. Best of all, no hacking required for this setup.

The old school PSP ($150 USD), technically the more powerful alternative, can net you NES, SNES, GBA, all the old Sega consoles, and of course arcade via MAME. And it remains to be seen if the upcoming and more pricey PSP Go! will even let you run anything homebrewed on it. Thus, it seems classic emulation fans will be scrambling to buy up the old PSP stock until they stop showing up on shelves (of course there’s always E-bay). Then there’s the whole PSP hacking procedure required to even get your foot in the door for such emulation potential – by far the biggest hurdle going the PSP route, period.

So how about a no frills handheld device that plays your favorite classics without requiring organs or offspring in trade?

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Word is out that Microsoft is developing a camera  to bring motion sensitive controls to the Xbox 360. The camera uses 3D technology for more accurate control than previous cameras. Unlike the Wii, the camera would allow hands free control using gestures of the hands, legs, and head.

Supposedly the official announcement may come as early as E3. Of course Microsoft has declined to confirm or deny these rumors. You can read the full article in the Wall Street Journal.

Developing motion sensitive controls  is a natural step towards cashing in on the growing market of casual gamers. I don’t think that anyone can deny that graphics on the 360 are superior by far to the Wii. It’s been my experience that many flashy Wii titles eventually sit on the shelf collecting dust as casual gamers learn to appreciate more complex games; kind of like trading in twinkies for steak. Hopefully in the end Microsoft can do its part to convert the casual gamers of the world.

NVIDIA is spreading the word that its making drivers for its graphics chips used in Notebooks available on its website. It will soon be possible to bypass the middleman, your notebook vendor, and go straight to the source.

Your first download will add NVIDIA’s CUDA functionality notebooks equipped with GeForce 8 and 9-series GPUs or Quadro NVS-equipped notebooks. Gamers sporting any of the GeForce 7, 8, and 9 series and Quadro NVS series notebook GPUs will be covered with WHQL-certified versions early 2009. Read the full article on ExtremeTech for more details.

I’m all for this considering my vendor notebook update is very inconsistent. Chip sets are abandoned frequently so going straight to the manufacturer is ideal.

A class action suit against Microsoft in regards to the Xbox 360 scratching discs if the consoles is tilted had some the documents presented in court unsealed and the contents revealed that Microsoft knew of the problem but pushed the console out the door anyway.

The document contains a quote from Microsoft Programmer Hiroo Umeno, that states:

“This is … information that we as a team, optical disc drive team, knew about. When we first discovered the problem in September or October (2005), when we got a first report of disc movement, we knew this is what’s causing the problem.”

Because of this, Microsoft sent some engineers out in the field to “investigate complaints that the Xbox 360 was routinely scratching discs during demonstrations” at retail stores. This is when Microsoft admitted that if tilted, discs inside became “unchucked” and subsequently would collide with the drive’s optical pickup unit. This would lead to deep circular gouges on the discs. In light of this news, Microsoft considered three different possibilities of fixed the problem, but decided against all three because all three would cost the company too much money.

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If you’re looking for a little something to brighten up your holiday party, Microsoft is offering up Christmas and Hanukkah DLC for the LIPS karaoke game. All of these holiday favorites, with just two exceptions, are by the original classic artists that most people associate them with.

The original version of “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer” performed by Gene Autry, “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree” as performed by Brenda Lee, Burl Ives’ “A Holly Jolly Christmas,” “Hanukkah Blessings” as performed by Barenaked Ladies and “Santa Baby,” the Kylie Minogue version are downloadable for 160 MS points. “The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas To You)” as performed by Nat King Cole and “White Christmas” as performed by Bing Crosby ring in at 180 MS points each. These holiday favorites are now available on Xbox LIVE for all regions except India, Japan and Korea.

A little bit about my own experience with LIPS follows the break.
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Looks like Nintendo executives are rolling around in more money than ever if the NPD numbers for the month of November are any indication. Apparently the Wii sold over two million units in the U.S. which is twice as many as the same month for last year and if you add in the 1.57 million units sales of the Nintendo DS for November, you have some very happy people over at Nintendo.

Hardware and accessories brought in $2.91 billion for the month with console and handhelds claiming $1.21 billion of that figure.

Here are the top selling consoles and handhelds for the month of November:

1. Wii – 2.04 million
2. DS – 1.57 million
3. Xbox 360 – 836,000
4. PSP – 421,000
5. PlayStation 3 – 378,000
6. PlayStation 2 – 206,000

The holidays are coming and PC gamers are looking lustfully at hardware upgrades… all the better to run their games on. Just in time NVIDIA has revealed two new professional graphics cards for the Quadro line: the Quadro FX 5800 and the Quadro FX 4800. These two cards are advertised for use in medical imaging and high-end CAD programs so they must be great for gaming… right?
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In the spirit of getting the most for your money while buying Holiday gifts this season, ChannelFlip has a video review of the latest party games with peripherals for the Xbox 360. Considering you can’t use most of the peripherals that come with these titles on other games nor can you return them, its good to get an idea of what you, your friends and family might really appreciate. Video host Katharine Fletcher will tell you which of these games are good bets and which would just sit around gathering dust after a couple play throughs.

This time of year you always get lots of gift packs being aimed at the Christmas market. But with gaming gear coming packaged in notoriously nasty non-resealable packaging, picking these up on a whim could land you with a rather expensive and non-returnable white elephant on your hands. So today I’m reviewing Lips, You’re in the Movies, and Scene It.

Some notes…

Lips: Sadly you can’t hear my singing, but rest assured I sounded awesome!
UPDATE: (Oops! I’ve just realized that in the final edit of this we haven’t included a star rating for Lips! I ended up going for 2 stars for this one. As well as the points raised in the review there were also other issues I didn’t have time to mention such as the ‘Import your music’ feature which didn’t work very well, and the fact that you can’t record your singing or use the mics with other 360 music games.)

You’re In the Movies: Please note that the demonstration of using the camera and software to put you in the movie was filmed in our studio in front of walls painted with solid, bright background colour. The quality of the image I got was therefore much better than when I was using this at home with cream coloured walls with pictures and furniture. A lot more of me was accidentally keyed out when I did it at home, as you can see from the film short the game put together with that footage.

Scene It: I have actually played this with a friend since reviewing it and while I noticed repeat questions, we still had really good fun playing it.

Incidentally ChannelFlip has announced that Katharine has been listed as one of Apple U.K.’s top video podcasts of 2008.

Sales figures for the PS3 in Japan have more than doubled from last week’s numbers. Media Create’s figures of 34,978 units sold puts Sony’s PS3 way ahead of Microsoft’s Xbox 360 with more than twice the number of units sold. Nintendo’s Wii is still the Juggernaut leading with just under 50,000 units flying off the shelves in the last week.

As far as portable consoles go, the new DSi is by far out stripping the PSP. As you might expect the more affordable portables are out selling all the consoles. Sadly the DS Lite is still outselling the Xbox 360 which is doing twice as well as the PS2 which sold 5628 units. Not bad for an eight year old console.