planet

preGame is starting 2011 off with a bang, bringing LittleBigPlanet 2 to the show an entire week before it's released. Join us as we demo a few early levels of the game and discuss some of the newest features to hit the franchise.

But first, Mark and Jeff recap CES 2011 with talk about the highly anticipated portable console from Nintendo, the 3DS. Jeff had some hands-on with the 3D glasses-less device in Las Vegas, so tune in to hear his impressions and thoughts.

Want to be a part of our live taping? Make sure you head to http://cnet.com/live/pregame … Read more

How do you expect to achieve immortality?

Well, should sporting prowess have passed you by, or should you have suffered an unfortunate career-ending injury on a night out with some foreign language students, perhaps you might might use your computer to discover a planet or two.

Or, in the case of British utility worker Peter Jalowiczor, four.

The Daily Mail reports that Jalowiczor is something of an astronomical enthusiast, despite not actually owning a telescope. If you want to discover a previously unknown planet, you don't apparently need the technology enjoyed by Admiral Lord Nelson.

Jalowiczor told the Mail … Read more

GE subsidiary GE Energy Financial Services and North Bridge Venture Partners will invest $8 million in a company developing a biofuel production process coupled with the production of biochar.

Cool Planet Biofuels converts cellulosic byproducts like plant waste and woodchips into biofuel that can be used in vehicles.

The company's byproduct from the process is biochar, or manmade coal as some call it, which just like conventional charcoal can be burned for fuel. It's something the company says qualifies its biofuel process as being carbon neutral.

The biochar can also be buried in the ground serving as both … Read more

It's only been around about 50 years, but information technology has already affected almost the entire landscape of human activity. How science is pursued, how products are designed, how commerce and supply chains work, how businesses are run, how human beings communicate with one another--there's almost no arena in which IT isn't a critical enabler.

Given this, it may sound peevish to say IT has, at the same time, been hide-bound and conventional. But IT has been conventional. Oh, sure. We've had our moments--modernizing supply chains starting in the 1970s, the PC and distributed computing blooms … Read more

As you can see from the pictures, German manufacturer Duevel takes a rather unusual approach to speaker design. I love the looks of these speakers, which are all omnidirectional designs. So instead of the usual forward-firing tweeter and woofer that project sound toward the listener, Duevel loudspeakers project sound in a 360 degree, room-filling pattern. The company offers a vast range of painted and wood-finish options for its speakers.

Duevel speakers have received rave reviews and a number of best in show awards at high-end audio festivals, and rave reviews in European audiophile magazines, but they haven't been covered … Read more

Earlier this month, Ubisoft announced that the Xbox 360 and PlayStation versions of its game based on the career of Michael Jackson would be delayed until early next year. As it turns out, 2011 will finish with another game based on the so-called "King of Pop"--a massively multiplayer game with entire realms dedicated to each of his albums.

This morning, Los Angeles-based SEE Virtual Worlds announced that it will publish a Michael Jackson-themed MMOG, Planet Michael (PDF), based on the works of the late singer. The company is behind the Entropia engine, which powers the free-to-play MMORPG … Read more

Summer vacations for a class of California seventh graders might pale in comparison to the class trip they recently took to Mars.

At least that's what astronomers might say after the class' discovery of an opening into a cave on the Red Planet.

The science class from Evergreen Middle School in Cottonwood, Calif., found the opening while working on a research project with the Mars Space Flight Facility run out of Arizona State University in Tempe.

"The students developed a research project focused on finding the most common locations of lava tubes on Mars," said their teacher, … Read more

A lot of the time was spent at Sony's E3 2010 press conference talking about 3D gaming and PlayStation Move, but the company also made room for a few surprises. We learned about a few titles we expected to see at the big show, but we were also a bit disappointed that Sony didn't use the opportunity to showcase titles teased last year, most notably The Last Guardian.

Among the games on display was a mix of multiplatform and exclusive titles, though mostly everything had some sort of PS3-only element to boast. Here's a rundown of what we saw:

Killzone 3: Sony led with a 3D demo of Killzone 3, showing off impressive graphics and scenes of intense action and carnage. Plenty of gameplay scenarios and environments were on display, and we really enjoyed the addition of a jet pack. Killzone 3 will ship in February 2011.

Gran Turismo 5: No gameplay was shown for Gran Tursimo 5, but Sony announced the title will be available in 3D when it ships on November 2.

Portal 2: A surprise here,… Read more

This week on preGAME, we gear up for gaming's biggest show of the year, E3. On today's episode we'll run down every last prediction and anticipated game we're looking forward to at E3 2010, from each of the three major press conferences to the individual titles themselves.

First up for debate is Microsoft. It sounds like we'll finally get an official name for Project Natal, as well as some game announcements made for the motion-capturing hardware. We also think we'll see an Xbox 360 Slim announced at the company's press conference; maybe there'… Read more