It’s been a long time since I’ve updated. It’s for good reason. I joined a handful of sites: iSmashPhone, Byte.com and VentureBeat.

I now blog for a living, and Geek.Magnifico is no longer updated. It was a fun run, but it’s time to keep up with the jobs that pay the rent.

Thanks for reading. You can catch my videogame stuff here.

I know they don’t read this, but thanks, guys!

Here’s their List

Here’s the story they linked to Floating Head

Still, it’s hard to read it and not feel that this is Nintendo pleading with consumers to buy the 3DS. Even with the positive PR spin, you can see how desperately they need sales. They put all their eggs in the 3DS basket for the remainder of 2011, and their lack of commitment to the Wii may bite them in the ass if they can’t start pushing systems. E3 2011 was all about the 3DS and Wii U, but the Wii U won’t be available until 2012 at the earliest. Now they’re left with a system that’s sold 4.32 million units worldwide and its strongest title is a remake of a game that was released 12 years ago.

The good news is that Nintendo was smart enough to drop the price relatively fast, unlike Sony, which you’d swear did everything in their power to ensure that the PSPgo was a failure.

Let’s just hope Nintendo can lift sales. I’d like to think my $250 bucks (actually, my girlfriend bought it for me for my birthday) went into something worth owning.

Nintendo 3DS Price Drops to $169.99, as Great Value and New 3D Games Come Together Star Fox 64 3D, Super Mario 3D Land, Mario Kart 7 and Kid Icarus: Uprising Prep Nintendo 3DS for a Strong Holiday Season NOTE: Multimedia available here REDMOND, Wash.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Nintendo of America today announced plans to drop the suggested retail price of its portable Nintendo 3DS™ system to $169.99 in the United States, as new games based on some of the world’s most beloved video game franchises head to the system. The new price, down from the suggested launch price of $249.99 and effective Aug. 12, makes an outstanding value even better and sets up a strong holiday season for the system. “For anyone who was on the fence about buying a Nintendo 3DS, this is a huge motivation to buy now,” said Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime. “We are giving shoppers every incentive to pick up a Nintendo 3DS, from an amazing new price to a rapid-fire succession of great games.” Nintendo 3DS has the strongest software lineup of any video game system this holiday season and the new price now opens up the glasses-free 3D experience to many more consumers. Building on the popularity of The Legend of Zelda™: Ocarina of Time™ 3D, which launched June 19, the upcoming game calendar is a Who’s Who of iconic video game franchises. Star Fox 64™ 3D arrives on Sept. 9, followed by Super Mario™ 3D Land in November, Mario Kart™ 7 in December and Kid Icarus™: Uprising during the holiday season. In addition to great games, Nintendo 3DS has a host of attractive features* that make it the must-have video game system this season: The new Nintendo Video™ service automatically delivers short 3D videos from the worlds of music, comedy, animation and Hollywood. A free application allows Netflix members with unlimited streaming plans to instantly watch TV episodes and movies streaming from Netflix. The Nintendo eShop is a digital store for Nintendo 3DS owners that provides access to a wide variety of downloadable content, such as original 3D software, classic games that have been re-mastered in 3D called 3D Classics, Game Boy™ and Game Boy Color “Virtual Console” games in their original 2D glory, and more than 350 Nintendo DSiWare™ games. Visitors can also view video game trailers, screen shots and product information for games, including those available at retail locations. Since Nintendo 3DS launched in the United States on March 27, more than 830,000 people in the U.S. alone have purchased one to enjoy 3D visuals without the need for special glasses. These Nintendo 3DS owners represent some of Nintendo’s most loyal customers, and Nintendo is rewarding them for getting in on the action early with 20 free downloadable games from the Nintendo eShop. These free games are available to anyone who owns a Nintendo 3DS system and uses a wireless broadband Internet signal to connect to the Nintendo eShop at least once before 11:59 p.m. Eastern time on Aug. 11. These users will automatically be registered in the Nintendo 3DS Ambassador program. The program contains two elements: Starting Sept. 1, Nintendo 3DS Ambassadors will be able to download 10 NES™ Virtual Console™ games at no charge and before they are available in the Nintendo eShop to the general public. These games, including Super Mario Bros.™, Donkey Kong Jr.™, Balloon Fight™, Ice Climber™ and The Legend of Zelda™, are slated to become paid downloadable games, but Ambassadors get them early for free. Once the paid versions of the games are posted to the Nintendo eShop later in the year, the updated versions will be available to Ambassadors for download at no cost. By the end of 2011, Nintendo will provide Ambassadors with 10 Game Boy Advance Virtual Console games. These include games like Yoshi’s Island™: Super Mario™ Advance 3, Mario Kart™: Super Circuit, Metroid™ Fusion,WarioWare™, Inc.: Mega Microgame$ and Mario vs. Donkey Kong™. These games will be available exclusively to Ambassadors, and Nintendo currently has no plans to make these 10 games available to the general public on the Nintendo 3DS in the future. More details about this program will be announced in the future. Remember that Nintendo 3DS features parental controls that let adults manage the content their children can access. For more information about this and other features, visit http://www.nintendo.com/3ds. *Some features require a broadband Internet connection.

In a much-needed move to push the 3DS off store shelves, Nintendo is going to lower the price of the handheld to $169.99, an $80 drop from the launch price. The new price tag is effective August 12. This will also mark one of the few times that I know of, that Nintendo will be (reportedly) selling a system at a loss. One of the last times was when they dropped the GameCube to $99.

A price cut four months after launch isn’t typical for any console maker, and comes across as an admission that the handheld was overpriced from the start. Let’s be honest with ourselves here, even some of Nintendo’s most loyal followers felt that $249.99 was way too much for the new handheld.

It showed. According to Nintendo, the system has sold over 830,000 since launch, not particularly impressive for a Nintendo handheld. Even Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said during an investor meeting in late April that the 3DS wasn’t doing as well as they’d expected in Japan and Europe.

Nintendo is typically one to move forward with their plans, but this time the pressure came from all sides. The recent rise in mobile gaming on platforms such as the iPad and the iPhone has had a direct affect on handhelds. Users almost always have their iPhone in tote, and game makers like the idea of being able to release games on small budgets with short development cycles. Then there’s Sony’s PlayStation Vita, a system scheduled to launch this year (perhaps as early as this fall) at a base price of $250 (a 3G version will retail for $299.).

The price drop was necessary for Nintendo to keep themselves on top of the handheld market. Those who feel burned by today’s announcement do have a bit of reason to feel upset, but Nintendo is trying to make it up to those consumers by offering 20 free downloadable games from the Nintendo eShop. Something that stood out to me in Nintendo’s press release was that just under the section on that offer, the press release reads, “More details about this program will be announced in the future.” It’s as if the decision to cut the price was made in a desperate attempt to get the 3DS back on track. The 20 free downloadable games are just to garner some good will from the early adopters, and that sentence makes it seem as if Nintendo threw in the offer and decided to figure out the specifics later.

Still, it’s important to look at the bigger picture. Developers won’t be on board for a system they know isn’t selling. Sure, it may suck if you bought the 3DS a few months ago and Nintendo was quick to reduce the price by $80, but it would be far worse to have spent your $250 and have almost no games available. Remember the PSPgo? Yeah that didn’t end very well. Nintendo is trying to prevent their own PSPgo, or having a Virtual Boy 2.0 in their hands.

This move is a smart one, I just wish they’d thought of this before March 27th. Looks like the 3DS may be prepared to take on the PlayStation Vita after all.

This week Microsoft released Avatar Kinect for Xbox 360 via Kinect Fun Labs. It’s a bit later than the expected spring launch, but I have a feeling that most gamers had already forgotten about it anyway. Still, I downloaded it as soon as I had a chance. What a letdown.

First, the technology behind Kinect is very cool. It does great things, and games like Dance Central actually got me off my butt. Kinect Disneyland Adventures was one of my favorite games of E3 2011. One of the best things about it is its ability to get girls to dance in my living room–always a plus. Yet somehow, Avatar Kinect left me a bit disappointed.

Many people don’t have a space ideal for Kinect play. I’m fortunate enough to have a large living room that allows for me to enjoy Kinect. But it seems that my lighting may not be adequate. Avatar Kinect kept misreading my facial movement and often made my Avatar look angry as I stood there with no real facial expression.

The tech is designed to read your eyebrow and mouth movements. It’s kind of cool when it works, but it rarely seems to. Maybe I have a horribly deformed face that it’s incapable of recognizing, but it my avatar just stood there with a horrible grimace. It often thought I was showing my teeth, and my eyebrows were either way too low or would shoot up near the top of my forehead. This would cause me to laugh, and the Avatar would open his mouth, too. This is when it seemed to work. If my mouth was closed, it would usually just think I was pissed off.

Avatar Kinect isn’t so bad itself. It’s fun and it’s free. Kinect is a great piece of technology, but it’s often when you start using more precise movement detection that its shortcomings become apparent. Perhaps Microsoft will improve future versions of Kinect, or find better ways to use the technology that’s already built into it. It’s been a huge success so far, and they’ve invested heavily in it. There is no reason that they wouldn’t improve the tech in future consoles.  For now, I will stick to shakin’ my ass to more pop music.

More info at Microsoft

The status report was sent by Echols’ attorneys to the Craighead County Circuit Court, and alleges that three places on Christopher Byers’ shoe where DNA was found excludes all three suspects as the source of these new DNA samples.

Via Today’s THV

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