With Christmas all girded up to strike, gaming admirers are just offered an alluring treat to make their festive season even more desirable. For consumers agog about playing games, Sony recently announced the exciting arrival of its all-new PSPgo with ten free games rammed in.

Blushing with praises for its sleek and stylish enclosure, the gaming equipment further tacks on with a neat sliding screen and a trimmed-down, pocket-sized chassis. Users who have loads to bank may deem its 16 gigabyte hard disk drive laudable. The new device puts users in control, with the space to download and store their choice of entertainment, from games to videos to photos.

Users can also carry along their favorite gamingtitles, pet tunes, pictures and videos by utilizing the spacious built-in memory. To pyramid the journey, the solution’s built-in microphone enables users to chat with friends using Skype.

Weighing as light as 160gms, the stylish PSPgo comes brimmed with ten time-gripping gaming titles, including Little Big Planet, Fifa World Cup, Gran Turismo, Assassin’s Creed, Motorstorm Arctic Edge, Need For Speed: Shift, Avatar, WipEout Pure, Piyotama, and Eye of Judgment.

The new Sony PSPgo can now be snapped up for Rs. 12,990.

Do you know the difference between a 9800 GTX and GTX+? How about an 8800 GTS 1st and 2nd generation? Well if you’re confused don’t worry, your not alone. Now finally after many years of dazzling and confusing customers, Nvidia is looking to make some permanent changes to help deal with the dizzying array of identifiers. The company is hoping that by years end it will have better control over card’s surnames in an attempt to give users a clear idea of the performance they can expect. Using this approach the GTX term would be reserved for the highest-end gaming cards with GS and GT being reserved for mainstream boards. Last but not least, gamers on a budget will be able to choose from a clearly labeled G series.This is clearly a follow up to the Radeon’s addition of the HD line and with any luck will help users figure out what kind of performance they can expect from a given card without scouring the web for comparisons. Rumor has it the 9400 GT will also be rebranded as the G100, and the 9500 GT through 9800 GT will become the GT120 to GT150 series.

I think you’ll agree these changes are long overdue.

AMD has launchedits Fusion for Games beta application, a gaming utility as part of their "The Future is Fusion" campaign. Through the campaign, AMD aims to re-brand their hardware technologies -- microprocessors and graphics both. To the consumers, AMD will detail the solutions derived from AMD products to optimize the performance of the computing systems: essentially a collaborative campaign run by AMD and their technology and product partners.

Fusion also reflects AMD's upcoming Fusion microarchitecture that combines AMD's x86 CPU capabilities with Radeon GPUs to offer a hybrid solution. The AMD Fusion for Games software released, is in beta stage and currently works for Windows Vista (32-bit only), future versions will offer greater platform support, including Windows XP. It offers three gaming profiles -- Advanced, Basic and Expert. One can choose and edit one of the three profiles or create an entirely new profile.Fusion basically shuts down 70 or more background processes which hog the CPU and memory on typical computing system. This can be enabled by simple on-off feature that talks with the CPU and GPU on the system. The application also packs new feature such as AMD Boost and AMD overdrive. However this application works only on a system that has both carrying the processor and graphic card AMD branded; there is no cross-platform compatibility. As it stands, the utility is little more than a simple tweak; nothing special.

According to the industry insiders close to the Inquirer, Intel is rumored to be pursuing Microsoft quite aggresively, with the intent of putting its upcoming Larrabee chip inside Microsoft's next XBOX console. Yes, you read it rigt -- Microsoft's next-generation XBOX console -- already.

In a related development, AnandTech predicts that Microsoft is already planning for the next Xbox console -- let's call it the Xbox 720.

For a historical perspective on this timeframe, recall a Peter Moore interview -- March 2007, with the Electronics Gaming Monthly magazine. Back then Peter Moore was the head of Interactive Entertainment Business division for Microsoft (he is now gainfully employed by EA), he had indicated that the production team was already working on next-gen Xbox. Fast forward to June 2008 when Robbie Bach, president of the entertainment and devices division at Microsoft also indirectly confirms that people were already working on new technologies.As per the rumour yarn currently spinning, Microsoft will officially announce their next console come end of 2009. During the first quarter of 2010, Microsoft will finalize the components to be included in the console. Incidentally, the year 2010 happens to be a 'Tock' phase as per Intel's 'Tick Tock' model wherein Larrabee's refreshed version built on a 32nm process can be expected.

The first Larrabee version will be able to directly tap Microsoft's DirectX and Apple's Open CL API, without needing any special go-between software. This would imply that Larrabee will be compatible with all current games. However, new instruction sets such as the Advanced Vector Extensions for Intel's 32nm process chips 'Sandy Bridge'. Larrabee is also expected to have computing power in the teraflop range.

Furthermore, the next Xbox will feature HDMI output as well as WiFi but might not use the Blu-ray disc format for its game media; instead opting for a high-capacity proprietary optical disc format. This next-gen console will also be compatible with the Xbox 360 game line up and will come with 60GB, 120GB, and 200GB hard disk variants.

Even Xbox Live will get structural changes -- like an extensive music download service along with movies and TV shows. The next XBOX consoles in 60GB, 120GB and 200GB versions would be available for $299, $399, and $499. It will be released in 2011 where it might compete with the Sony PlayStation 4.

While all of this looks like so much speculation, it would be interesting to see if Intel does pursue Microsoft for adopting Larrabee. It would be a wise move on Intel's part as such a deal would instantly make the Larrabee a must-support processor for game developers and would put Larrabee on both the PC and the console maps.

Microsoft has revived its Sidewinder gaming line with the introduction of the SideWinder X6 keyboard and SideWinder X5 mouse. This debut took place at Games Convention in Leipzig, Germany.
The X6 Keyboard has the first-ever switchable key pad that can be attached to the left or right side of the keyboard for flexibility. The switchable key pad makes the SideWinder X6 Keyboard ideal for gaming as well as productivity, as the key pad functions as a standard num pad in normal keyboard mode, but becomes a programmable macro pad in game mode. The X6 keyboard’s features are specifically designed for gaming, including the capacity to store up to 90 macros per game and backlighting that helps users get immersed in the game."We know that consumers don't want to pull out and set up a second keyboard for a gaming session, so we created a device that was perfect for both gaming and regular computer use," said Kevin Flick, user researcher for Microsoft Hardware. "With the switchable key pad, gamers will have a fantastic, customizable experience whether they're playing their favorite game or creating Microsoft Office PowerPoint presentations."

The SideWinder X5 Mouse is a powerful gaming mouse designed to give mainstream gamers a competitive edge. The nine-button gaming mouse is designed for handling with vertical side buttons, adjustable sensitivity switching up to 2,000 DPI, five customizable buttons, and a Quick-Launch button that instantly launches the Windows Vista Games Explorer.

The SideWinder X6 Keyboard and SideWinder X5 Mouse will be widely available in September 2008 for an estimated retail price of $79.95 (U.S.) and $59.95.

QuakeCon keynote liveblog is starting now! We're watching a video, and Todd Hollenshead is getting everyone all cranked up about the Corvette that Ventrilo is giving away.The real news starts momentarily. Click through the jump, and make sure you're logged in to get live as we post updates.
Todd Hollenshead's left now, and Marty Stratton is talking about QuakeLive.

6:24: Everyone here is getting QuakeLive beta access, which is pretty sweet. We're looking at a QuakeLive video from SpikeTV now. Everything I love about Quake3 is in Quake Live it looks like, we just saw DM17, one of my all-time favorites.6:30: QuakeLive beta has been going with 100 people 3 months ago, and invites have grown it to about 6000 players. Feedback is what they're using to make the game. QuakeLive is facelifted Quake 3 Arena, with some geometry changes, new maps, etc, and it's something you can play online for free. Load it up in your browser, and play. They're going to keep dumping new content, but you can play on any PC. Also, it's free, which is pretty sweet too.

6:35: Marty's talking about the tournaments here, with $50k in tournament prizes.

Todd's back up. He's letting everyone know how much he loves his IR remote and his Mac. (they played the Rage video early, by accident)

Next is Katharine Anna Kang talking about id's mobile games. It looks like a Wolfenstein game, oh... Wolf RPG for phones. It's a java-=based game, and people in the audience are laughing a little at the video, but it reminds me of the early first-person RPGs that were maze crawlers.

There's a special guest from Doom in WolfRPG. It's on the floor, so I'll play it later and report back. Next game is... .Doom RPG for cell phones!

6:33: Now Hollenshead is talking about Wolfenstein, seems like he's getting everyone pretty riled up. Just took a shot at poor Kevin Cloud. Now they're going to play some exclusive QuakeCon content. Do you still play BJ? Do you fight Nazis? Are the Nazi's into the occult? There's multiplayer it seems. There's squad-based combat. This is the first time they've ever showed this footage, much more than the E3 teaser.

This video may be inappropriate for children. The sub pen is really huge. There's a lot of physics, and there are shaders that run across the whole screen. Jetpacks! Lots of destructable rooms and stuff. Wow, bad guys are disintigrating pretty good too. This looks quite nice. Release is"when it's done"

6:36: Some dude just yelled out "Tell us about Duke Nukem Forever!" Everyone laughed, and Hollenshead is mocking the Macbook again. Marty Stratton is laying on the floor mashing buttons.

Next up seems like it's Rage... What else could they be showing? DOOM4!!!

No real details, but basically it's going to be Doom, and maybe it seems like it's going to be on earth.

Carmack's coming up next to talk about Rage!

6:40: Carmack promises this is going to be intelligible. Rage is being worked on, but it had a reboot earlier. Did we know that?

Rage characters are shown. The environments are huge, and don't look like they're height-mapped to hell. Looks very- Max Max. There are lots of people in bars, monsters,tons of everything. Loks like melee combat, plus weapons, and there are some badass looking mutant dudes.Kind of like the kid from Gooonies. There will be racing, in additoin to open world stuff. In the races you have guns. Big guns. Looks like all the best stuff from Car Wars in a videogame that looks pretty sweet.

Rage runs at 60Hz, like John told us in E3. Doom 4 is the same engine, but runs at 30Hz instead of 60. Should be 3x richer than Rage, it will look like it's built with a next-gen engine.

Now, instead of doing just one project at a time, and working with partners to expand their catalog of games, they're doing lots of games. They're growing slow up until this point, doing one really good project at a time. Fifteen years later, with 4 year dev cycles, they can't continue doing that, so they're spooling up.

They've got big guns - AAA titles like Doom 4 and Rage. They have mobile - short game cycles and room for lots of innovation. "It seemed like a good idea and it seemed like it might work out" they've sold 2M units on phones. Each game is better than the next.

6:50: Most of the games they've sold on phones are under 300KB. They're thinking about features based on the amount of code they involve. It's limiting they fear, but they're increasing their low-end spec. 600K minimum size now, 2.5MB on low-end. He's disappointed that the market hasn't moved any faster than it has, and the low-end phones are still very low-end.

He's not talking about the iPhone yet. Oh wait. Here it is.

6:55: He says that the iPhone dev kit is much better than Java or Brew phones. Pure graphics are roughly equivalent to Dreamcast he says. It's about what you can do on a PS2 or Xbox, and you have a boatload of RAM, more so than on the earlier phones. Not as much in graphics, but more memory. You could make a $10M game for the iPhone today, but he doesn't know if they can make it back. Orcs and Elves was on the iPhone, but they didn't want to devote 3 man-months to make it happen.

6:56: id has plans for two games on iPhone. One RPG style game, one graphical tour de force. He says it's more powerful than the PSP or DS. No idea when this is going to happen, but they think there's a good market. Only about 15% of people in this audience have an iPhone though.

The touch interface could be both an excellent phone and an excellent gameplay device. The all-in-one awesome device. Apple's done a lot of stuff that John really likes. They make nice to him when they want him to do a keynote, and then they "put him on the shitlist when he says something else in interviews". The SDK is great, and marketing support is good. Apple still doesn't get games, but they've got people who are trying. He's excited to see the sales numbers for the games on the iPhone. 8 of top 10 apps on app store are games. He hopes that the iPhone will scare the providers into making good hardware.

7:00: iPhone isn't going to take over the world. There won't be a billion iPhones going out into the world. Carmack's really excited about mobile. He doesn't like the carriers or the phone builders. He's hopeful that Google will bring something out that's awesome. He wants to do native apps on Android, but it's possible that it will be a non-native Java version. there are performance problems. Next up is Symbian, since Nokia owns everything outside the US. EA takes the two versions (high and low) that id provides, and then EA converts it to boatloads of different versions of a lot of different phones.

Doom RPG 2 is "fun". Doom RPG had moments. They're really cranking up the quality of the products on Doom RPG 2. Will there be a double-barreled shotgun? They're going to have a iPhone version of Doom RPG 2.

Next up, Quake Live.

7:05: Web development is hard. He says that the game was done about six months ago, and they're working on the web side for the last six months. They've got stats, friends lists, leaderboards, etc. They're ramping up slowly, adding 1000 people per day. Matchmaking stuff isn't working here, but it will be when the game goes live. I'm really excited about this.

They collect a crazy number of statistics, and they're going to do cool stuff with achievements, tournaments, etc because they're collecting a boatload of stats.

This is pretty experimental. Not sure it's a good business decision, not sure if it's a good idea or not a good idea. What if we take a nine year old game and we put it out, and no one shows up. With just 50k users, they have spent a lot of money on nothing.

There's a good community there, and they think they can enhance it to bring in lots more people, but they have no idea how many people will actually show up. He says "we're groping in the dark with two orders of magnitude". 100,000 people signed up with no promotion at all. "This is a gratifying turn of events." Quake Live is special to him, because he loves the purity of the game. You can't do a $50 boxed game that's that pure. When you buy a game, they expect a $20M development cost game, which they're doing with Rage and Doom 4.

Quake Arena was tournament deathmatch oriented game. He thinks they can really make a run of it this time, and it's a helluva lot of fun, especially if it's free.

They did an in-company tournament, and he was rusty as hell. He used to win the in-house tournament, now he gets spanked. He made it past the first round. It's still a fun game. It looks a little better, a little more polished, and just a little bit better. "It was hardware accelerated and really realy fast, which was cocmpletely fine back in the day" They went in and did another polish pass on the game, which has made it a lot better. They've integrated the in-game advertising, without it looking bad. In-game ads make sense for certain types of games. He seems very sensitive to putting the ads in the games in the right way. You don't want to see an Intel ad when you're shooting Nazis.

7:13: The have 8 people internally working on the project now. Worst case, they've trained a whole team of people through an entire dev cycle, which is pretty unusual now. He's excited about being able to do that with a high-end PC project, and put them on another project and it won't be money wasted. He's really stoked about the game, and that it's approachable. If you join the game, it won't put you on servers that you'll get spanked on. Matchmaking is going to put you with people that you'll have fun playing with.

Hardcore gaming community is different than most people. Hardcore gamers are an insular community. Frag or be fragged isn't fun for normal people who play GTA single player. There probably won't be another Quake Arena project right now. They're working on Doom4 instead, but if Quake Live is a huge success, they'll probably change their mind and do it anyway.

7:20: There aren't any mods in Quake Live. They've integrated lots of stuff that mods implmented, but they're taking advice from the people who've been played the game for 9 years. They're pulling the best rulesets and gameplay types, but there is no ability to take a SDK and build a mod that we support. It won't be hard for someone to go from QuakeLive universe to step over to the classic scene, where the code is open source, and you just have to buy the game off of Steam. Quake Live is the gateway drug to Q3A + online multiplayer.

They want to integrate some of the better stuff into the game after they get started. There will probably be officially approved user-generated maps that run on official servers. It's a web service, so there's a lot of flexibility to try out a lot of cool stuff. They're on new ground, expect some mistakes, but the core is that the game is good, it's fun, and there's good infrastructure. What they're putting around it is state of the art. Community forums, matchmaking, friends, all that is state of the art, and will be supported in future games. It's not just a portal for other games to play online. It's not a new "casual gaming destination.

It's playing to the PC's conventional strengths. the hardware's better, but there's the same compatiblity problems. There won't be more big budget AAA titles on PC again. They're still going to support it, and you can crank it way the hell up, but it's not going to make worlds of difference. Rage runs at 60Hz.