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One of the biggest reasons many PC gamers don’t enjoy FPS game son consoles is due to both the familiarity and the superiority of the mouse and keyboard combo. It’s just far easier to aim and shoot. Sure, you can get used to the controller in FPS games, but as many controller-only gamers will grudgingly agree, you can never be as quick or accurate.

Well, apparently due to overwhelming emails from people on the official Unreal Tournament forums, they decided to include functionality, native in the game, on the PS3.

Mark Rein
Administrator

Folks,

I checked with Steve Polge and he said that YES we are supporting keyboard and mouse in Unreal Tournament 3 on PS3. He is confident we are doing it in a way that will be balanced without feeling “gimped” for either side. We’ll also allow people to choose whether or not they want to allow mixed controller vs. keyboard/mouse games or not.

I think you guys are going to love UT3!

More details to come later.

I’m not sure how the “anti-gimping” will go, as controllers are not gimped, but inferior by nature. But we shall see. This won’t make me buy the console outright, but if more PS3 games follow suit, it will make a strong case.

As usual, with all the hooplah around E3, many games are eclipsed by the torrent of big names and fall through the cracks.

Echochrome is a game where you change perspective to play. Constantly and solely. There is a character, but you don’t control it, you control your perspective in relation to it and it’s environment. The game is a great MC Escher-like world and a fantastic idea. Sure to mess with your mind like Portal (and the original, Narbacular Drop) will.

Echochrome is slated for Sony consoles: the PSP and the PS3.

In a move everyone could predict, Sony swallowed their pride and finally dropped the price of the PS3 to $500. Just a bit higher than the most expensive Xbox360 package. This move should increase their sales somewhat, but as usual, they are making broad, boastful claims about it:

“Our initial expectation is that sales should double at a minimum,” Jack Tretton, chief executive of Sony Computer Entertainment America, said in an interview.

Well, whatever. But I guess they figured it was safe to lose some money per console, as Microsoft dropped the big bombshell of extending everyone’s warranty on the XBOX360, costing them over a billion dollars, last week. Plus, Sony doesn’t exactly like being ignored at E3, which starts in a few days.

And the Wii, well you still can’t even find it in stores. Keep on truckin’.

Bloomberg catches a blurb from a Microsoft executive.

“We are well aware that the sweet spot of the market is really 199 bucks,” said David Hufford, a director of Xbox product management.

This would definitely make me buy one. I want a Wii as well, but man, there are some very good games for the XBOX360 platform. Everyone knows that they make all of their money off of the game sales anyways. While a price drop would make it take longer to accomplish breaking even per user, it would make the overall users explode in number.

Unfortunately Sony will never learn this lesson. They are far too proud and pompous of their visionary PS3. It is time for Microsoft to be smart and take the hit for the future of their console, as the Wii is leaving everyone in the dust.

Or, maybe just CliffyB is getting it. The Gamespy preview for Unreal Tournament 3 (for the Playstation 3) says that it will have keyboard and mouse functionality, along with the regular PS3 controller.

For those of you hardcore PC purists, mouse and keyboard controls will be available in the PS3 version through the USB ports on the front of the machine.

We’ve long waited for this to happen, us original players of the FPS, on the PC. Here’s hoping that this isn’t a one-time thing, or a one-developer thing. Playing first person shooters with thumb-based console controllers is like running through a battlefield with dislocated arms. The aftermarket options for playing Halo with mouse and keyboard didn’t quite cut it. Heck, they could even make a weird mouse and keypad contraption proprietary to the PS3, and I’d give it a go.

I wasn’t really considering getting a Playstation 3, mainly because of its exorbitant price. But if the shooters released for that console all follow suit, I’ll start saving my pennies.

I’m annoyed by the Mac vs. PC ads.

Well, the current ones, not the previous ones that had a pleasant quirkiness. Not because I mainly use a PC (guess what Mac users? your Mac is actually a PC with a BSD operating system!), but because of the misinformation and blatant marketing to the stupids.

Anyways, here’s a funny spoof: