Well, I’ve got a nice, happy list for you that would make any dad proud and all you have to do is shell out a bit of cash to make your pop’s day.

Systems:

#1 Sony PS3 160 GB Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune Pack

This system is my all-time favorite and comes with a kick-ass game. With 160 GB worth of space, Dad won’t run into space issues when he’s downloading games online and saving every five second. Though it’s pricey [$469.79 new/$371.55 used] it is a major workhorse of a system and will be useful for years to come.

#2 Xbox 360 Elite

If you’re going to get your dad a 360, get him this one. Not only will he get a very solid system, he’ll also get Halo 3 and Fable II-two games that are awesome unto themselves.

The console will set you back just shy of $400 [$399.99] and comes with free shipping.

#3 PSP Go

This is THE handheld gaming device to get Dear Ole Dad.

Granted, it doesn’t come out until October of this year but you can pre-order it and then give Dad a card with a note letting him know to check the mail in a few months.

The PSP Go boast both WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity as well as 16 GB of on-board flash memory. As if that wasn’t enough, Metal Gear Solids’s next installment: Peace Walker will be offered exclusively on the PSP Go.

The price point of $249.99 might scare some off but take heart! This little guy has so much to offer that Dad will be having SO much fun that your aching wallet will be a distant memory.

Accessories:

#1 PlayStation 3 Wireless Keypad

If Dad spends a lot of time playing Call of Duty:4 or tooling around PSN Home, then he needs this keypad.

Who really wants to to deal with taking all that time searching out letters and numbers when now you can just type like you would from your phone?

This handy little guy will set you back $43.99.

#2 Xbox 360 MC2 Racing Wheel

Most dads seem to like racing games and if he’s a hardcore racing fan then you have to get him this wheel.

• Features vibration feedback technology
• Double injected steering wheel with rubber coating is specially designed to provide optimal vibration feedback
• 10 High-performance action buttons provide superior control
• Retractable leg supports put you in the driver’s seat and keep you there
• Vertical vector design means when you throttle up, the pedals won’t take off

Games:

1. Prototype [$59.99]
2. Red Faction: Guerrilla [$56.99]
3. Fuel [$56.99]
4. Infamous [$49.99]
5. Call of Duty: 4 [$46.99]
6. Fallout 3 [$56.99]
7. Burnout: Paradise [$19.99]
8. NHL 09 [$56.99]
   
9. Grand Theft Auto IV [$49.99]
10. Madden NFL 10 [$58.99 pre-order for Aug '09 release]

When all else fails, get Dad a giftcard. ;)

All images|Amazon.com

Post from: EveryJoe

Gifts for Your Gaming Dad

Image: folklord36

Post from: EveryJoe

PSP Laptop, QWERTY Assembled

The Shrine Auditorium was the site for Sony’s E3 2009 Media Briefing Tuesday morning, where the big news was the PSP Go, God of War III, and the upcoming PlayStation motion controller.

Sony kicked things off with this slick video that introduced us to the hardware and software of PlayStation:

Next, they showed us tons of game demos for the latest and greatest PS3 games, including Uncharted 2, where the crowd went wild over a firefight that ended inside a falling building:

There was the first public unveiling of live game play from MAG, with 256 live players all on the screen at one time:

We watched a new trailer for Final Fantasy XIII, after which the audience was stunned by the announcement of the PS3-exclusive Final Fantasy XIV Online. There was a trailer for this one, too. And it’s coming in 2010, just like XIII.

Agent, a new game from Rockstar, was talked about but not seen.

But worth admission alone was the live demo for Assassin’s Creed II. I videoed this bad boy, check it out below:

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get much more video than that at the Sony press conference, as my video camera’s battery died.

In the vein of Little Big Planet, a kind of game where you “create, play, and share,” is next-big-thing Mod Nation Racers. It’s a racing game where you can customize out the wazoo with simple but powerful level editing and creation, and it’s coming in 2010.

The Last Guardian, the next game from the creator of Shadow of the Colossus, got a huge reaction from the crowd.

Gran Turismo 5 displayed uber-realistic graphics, while the long-awaited God of War III, the final game in the bestselling PS exclusive trilogy. It looks ultra violent and ultra gruesome, just the way fans like it, and will hit in March of 2010.

Longtime PlayStation evangelist Kaz Hirai took the stage to tout the next big thing in PlayStation Portable: the PSP Go, a new, more compact PSP with a slide-out control pad that’s intended for users who prefer to download their games digitally instead of buying UMD discs. PSP Go launches October 1st and will be priced at $249.

Hirai also announced four new titles for the PSP:

• Gran Turismo PSP, a fully featured GT game with 800+ cars
• Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, a true sequel that fills in a missing chapter from the saga of Solid Snake. Being scripted by Hideo Kojima himself.
• Resident Evil Portable comes to PSP in 2010
• Final Fantasy VII comes to PSP as a downloadable game starting today

Sony had to answer the challenge thrown down by Nintendo and then Microsoft on the motion-controller front, and its answer is an as-yet-unnamed peripheral device that’s basically a wand with a lighted orb on the end that the PS Eye camera can track with “submillimeter accuracy.” (Think of a motion-capture suit — like the one used to create Gollum in the Lord of the Rings movies — with a single ball on a stick.) A few tech demos were shown to demonstrate an early engineering build of this wand controller, showing how the wand can simulate guns, swords, painting tools, hands that grasp and throw, and much more. You can even hold one wand in each hand, for more complex movements. The rate at which it mapped to the real time movements of the user was impressive, but like the Wii Remote and Nunchuck, it maps only arm movements, whereas Microsoft’s Project Natal is promising full body tracking. PlayStation’s motion controller is launching Spring 2010.

Not a bad press conference. A little dry in a few spots, but overall very engaging.

All photos and video by Robin Parrish.

Post from: EveryJoe

E3 ‘09: Sony’s PSP Go & motion controller