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Nintendo Wii Fit Balance Board

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From the cheesy ads and the mocking YouTube parodies, you could be forgiven for thinking that Nintendo’s Wii Fit and Balance Board would be overly-worthy, not very entertaining, or just plain silly.

But, of course, it’s made by Nintendo, a company which is fast becoming a master of turning mundane of tasks into fun activities (accompanied by vast amounts of profit).

The Wii Fit pack contains the software, the balance board and four AA batteries. Set-up is dead simple: load the Wii Fit disc, sync the board with your Wii (as you do with Wiimotes, switch the board on and you’re good to go).

Body Mass Index

When you first use Wii Fit, it works out your body mass index (BMI) and then suggests what your ideal BMI should be based on your weight and height. This becomes your new target BMI, giving you something to aim for over the course of your Wii Fitting, with various graphs enabling you to follow your progress.

This portion can also be stored as a Wii channel so you can perform daily measurements without constantly having to load the Wii Fit disc.

Wii Fit’s activities are split between Aerobic Exercise, Muscle Conditioning, Yoga Poses and Balance Games. The Balance Board is neatly integrated in that it monitors your stance during yoga, for example, and measures reps during exercises. You could perform most of the training without it, but it wouldn’t be quite as engaging.

But naturally it’s with the games that Wii Fit really shines. Mastering a ski slalom with your feet is way harder than it sounds, and provides a challenge the whole family can enjoy. It also levels the playing field: teen joypad junkies are just as likely to be rubbish as Mum or Dad who’ve never touched a videogame before. (And if the old man’s a keen footballer, he’ll probably have better balance and control than his rotund rug rats.)

Ski jump

The Balance Board is used ingeniously, too. Alongside the obvious balance-related games – steer the ball across the wobbly platform, walk a tightrope – there’s a ski jump game. You have to crouch as the skier starts his descent, then stand up sharply at take-off. By maintaining your balance, you remain airborne for a greater distance. It’s bizarre, you look an idiot doing it, but it’s totally effective and maddeningly addictive.

Ultimately, how much you get out of Wii Fit depends on how much you’re willing to put in. Some people get utterly addicted to Brain Training, for example, while others tire of the repetition after a week or so. And this is supposed to be exercise, remember.

Certainly a family playing Wii Fit together will have more fun competing for a lower BMI rating and higher game scores than the solus player simply going through each workout.

But the short answer is: it works, it’s fun and after building up a real sweat jogging round a virtual park, there’s no reason why it shouldn’t help to make you fitter and slimmer – assuming you don’t celebrate every session with a bar of Cadbury’s finest.

Footnote:

In all honesty, the score is of little real relevance because you either already want Wii Fit – in which case you’ve pre-ordered – or you’ve no real interest. Which is fine, because on launch day there won’t be any stock anyway.

Despite going up against GTA IV, Wii Fit is pretty much already sold out. At the time of writing, of 17 major retailers only four were still taking pre-orders; the rest were out of stock. And analysts expect stock to be in short supply through till 2009. The Nintendo Wii: license to print money.

Matrox TripleHead2Go

tech.co.uk staff — 1204880679

This is, as far as we can discern, an enchanted black box that takes a single VGA cable from your graphics card or laptop, performs witchcraft upon it, and allows you to increase and divide the output to a frankly ridiculous 3,840x1,024 across three 1,280x1,024 monitors.

With the TripleHead2Go you can either utilise more desktop space than you've ever seen, or play a game in what can only be described as 'surround-ovision'. After using it, you should promptly bury it by the light of the moon before it turns into a cat.

The results are pretty impressive, and, heretical ravings aside, it's actually an extremely simple system. The TripleHead2Go does the job of a monitor's video controller, fooling Windows into thinking it is dealing with a single enormo-screen.

Even on a laptop with an average mobile GeForce 6800, the performance was surprisingly stable. Clearly shifting 3D across nearly four million pixels is not as strenuous as we'd been led to believe.

We tested the setup with a variety of titles, from our preview copy of hardcore driving sim GTR2 to office stalwart Quake IV, and most were entirely playable. The game that suffered most was Oblivion, but playing Bethesda's epic is a bit of a compromise on most systems anyway, and with a decent SLI rig everything barrels along nicely.

Peripheral vision

Also, some games are more suited to an increased field of view than others - GTR2 was hugely enhanced by the added peripheral awareness, whereas Quake IV left us feeling nauseous.

If you've completely lost your grip on reality, you can even use a laptop's existing panel as a fourth screen using XP's multiple monitor support, so you can play your super-widescreen game and have your MSN contacts and icons visible as well.

The only drawbacks are a lack of DVI and the financial one - few of us can afford two extra monitors, plus the cost of the unit itself.

With the included Surround Game Utility (which edits the config files of popular games so that they support the greater resolution) it's clearly aimed primarily at leisure rather than business use, but only the most ambitious flight sim fanatics will be able to justify the total outlay. Mike Channell

Microsoft Xbox 360 Elite

tech.co.uk staff — 1204731314

The Xbox 360 holds a significant place in the hearts and minds of UK cinephiles.

Pre-dating the launch of SkyHD, it was the first mass market hi-def entertainment system to hit the streets.

Back when HD Ready TVs commanded a premium, it was an essential purchase if you wanted to get the most from your flatscreen.

Two years on, Microsoft's iconic system has had a makeover, offering a significantly bigger hard drive (120GB up from the original paltry 20GB) and an HDMI output, as opposed to component video. It's also matt black and, priced at a relatively keen £300, with an additional charge of £120 for the white HD DVD drive.

Of course, there's more than just playground bragging associated with the bigger drive. The growing success of Xbox Live immediately demands a more capacious HDD. The number of high-quality game downloads alone justifies the space, and with the European market poised to receive more HD video content, 20GB just isn't enough.

One element often seemingly forgotten is that the 360 is an excellent media extender. What's more, it doesn't need a media centre PC to do so. You can share files from any PC that's running Windows XP, however you must have sharing software installed. Typical examples include Media Player 11 and Media Connect.

Adding HDMI to the Xbox's system connectivity also brings benefits. It's much easier (and neater) for casual users to hook their console up to an HD Ready display. HDMI also brings with it 1080p clarity.

On the original 360s, the only way to squeeze out full HD was via a VGA adaptor and, for many, not a viable option. It's worth noting that HDMI is no longer exclusive to the Elite. Microsoft is now shipping HDMI-enabled Premiums as standard.

Needless to say, picture quality via HDMI is superb. Colour fidelity and pixel punch is impressive. Games such as Bioshock and Gears of War really pop. It's worth noting that the HDMI connector is v1.2, not 1.3 as on the PS3. But in the context of a games system, the difference is largely insignificant.

Using HDMI also allows the 360 to upscale standard DVDs to 1080p, which is an unsung bonus. As a DVD player, the basic 360 isn't exactly cinephile quality, and the unrelenting noise of the fan and drive make it a less than perfect choice for largescreen movie watching, but it is another box ticked in most users 'wants' lists.

Hooked up via an optical output, it does a grand job of delivering multichannel surround sound from games. As a DVD player, Dolby Digital 5.1 playback is functional. Unfortunately, as a CD player it leaves a lot to be desired - but you can rip tunes to its hard drive.

As an upgrade for existing 360 owners the Elite is seductive, but for the new buyer, however, the attractions are far more obvious.

Sony PlayStation 3

tech.co.uk staff — 1204645415

Priced at £425, the PlayStation 3 has the dubious honour of being the most expensive games machine around. However, calling this glossy black box a games console is doing it a disservice.

With the PS3, Sony has actually designed a versatile home entertainment hub, also capable of playing Blu-ray discs, outputting lossless surround sound, storing downloaded music and video, and displaying digital photos. To look at it another way, it's the cheapest Blu-ray player you can buy.

Solid ground

The PS3 is a well-designed, solidly built device that's slightly larger than an Xbox 360 but not particularly bulky or heavy. It runs very quietly, comes with a wireless controller and uses touch-sensitive controls, all of which add to the quality feel.

The main AV connection is the HDMI, which can carry 1080p video to a compatible screen or projector and lossless 7.1-channel surround sound to a receiver. Also available are an optical digital out and a multipurpose AV output that can be fitted with component video and Scart adapters.

An Ethernet port and built-in Wi-Fi make connecting to a network very easy, and there are memory card and USB ports for transferring media files onto the 60GB hard drive or connecting up mice and other peripherals.

Switching on the console brings up a crisp, clear 'crossways' menu for accessing media, games and settings. For our money, it feels slightly more natural to use that the Xbox 360's 'blades' menu. Slip in a Blu-ray disc and it appears at the top of the 'video' menu. Select that and you'll be at the movie menu in moments - there's none of the sluggish chugging we've seen on other Blu-ray machines.

Unfortunately, you don't get a proper remote control with the PS3. Controlling playback with the gamepad is relatively simple, and Sony's official remote will only set you back an extra £18 or so.

We're pleased to report that the PS3's 1080p Blu-ray image is quite fantastic. It's on a par with the £1,100 Panasonic DMP-BD10 and far crisper and more detailed than the Samsung BD-P1000's disappointing offerings. There's an incredible amount of richness (and virtually no noise) on show in good quality Blu-ray discs like Kingdom of Heaven, which suggests that PS3 owners have a bright future ahead of them when it comes to watching HD movies.

Class act

There may well be some top class games in the future too, but at launch the PS3 lacks anything like an exclusive 'killer app' to sell the system to hardened gamers. Motorstorm and Resistance: Fall of Man are solid titles, but nothing new, and the rest are either standard fare or ports of existing games. But concentrating on the PS3 as purely a home cinema product, it's an unmistakeably excellent buy.

Matrox's TripleHead2Go

tech.co.uk staff — 1204468035

The continuing price plummet of 19-inch LCD screens means that many models are now available for little more than £100 - around a third of the price that they were a year or so ago. To compensate for this price crash, it's a good idea to buy three screens instead of one, and the TripleHead2Go is the reason why.

Just as we were starting to think that the legendary Canadian graphics company, Matrox, had disappeared off the mainstream map, it's back with a genuinely innovative and exciting device, which takes the video output of almost any graphics card and splits it three ways to feed three separate monitors. But rather than just giving you the same display three times over, it actually spreads your Windows desktop across all three screens, to envelop you in wraparound, surround-vision.

Smaller than a man's hand, the remarkably compact main unit contains a DC input for the separate power supply, a D-Sub video input, and three D-Sub outputs for feeding your three screens. Sadly, the TripleHead2Go isn't digital DVI compatible but we suspect the reason for this lies in the '2Go' part of its moniker.

This is because, with its small form factor and light weight, the Matrox is perfect for feeding from a laptop (most of which don't have a DVI output anyway) and, in our tests, we got great results running three screens as well as being able to view the laptop's own screen simultaneously. Besides, the 3,840x1,024 resolution enabled by the Matrox TripleHead2Go would require non-standard Dual-Link DVI, which is only featured on the most expensive graphics cards.

The device makes use of the DDC (Display Data Channel) to tell Windows graphics cards that a 3,840x1,024 display resolution is available. This stretches analog video to the limit, but the Matrox delivered very high quality results in our tests, with practically imperceptible video noise levels even when displaying very high frequency test charts.

The Matrox is hot property in the gaming world, but it offers equally big advantages on the business front. While we wouldn't recommend splitting a single window across three screens, no matter how thin your LCD bezels are, it's great being able to run different applications on each screen without having to switch between windowed applications. The TripleHead2Go really does give you the bigger picture. Matthew Richards

Microsoft Xbox 360 Elite

Jeremy Laird — 1204387617

After nearly two years on sale in the UK, Microsoft today launched the first major update of the Xbox 360. The Elite is slicker, it's snazzier, and it's a little more expensive at £299. But is it any better?

Of course, we could forgive Microsoft for not bothering to update the Xbox 360, full stop. After all, it still tops the high tech console table despite the arrival of Sony's troubled PlayStation 3.

On the other hand, the 360 hardly has an immaculate track record. Most obviously there's the dreaded "red ring of death" overheating problem that has caused widespread hardware failures.

The 360 also falls short when it comes to all round multimedia prowess. Any console that aspires to be a one-stop-shop for digital home entertainment in the 21st century surely needs to sport a digital video interface along with the ability to play back HD discs.

It's in that context that the Elite arrives to recharge the Xbox 360 range.

In architectural terms, the Elite is not a major departure from the existing design. But it does sport one or two upgrades that enhance the 360's digital media cred. And there are also rumours that it addresses some of those niggling hardware issues.

Physically, the Elite is a dead ringer for the standard 360. Well, barring the all-black colour scheme which extends to the matching wireless controller and headset, that is. Consequently, it's much the same Xbox 360 we know and kinda love.

Still, the new look is purposeful and certainly jives better with the hi-fi and AV kit with which Xboxes inevitably share shelf space.

HD hardware

The big news, therefore, is in the detail hardware specs. First up is the bigger 120GB hard drive. That's a serious boost over the existing 20GB drive option and betrays Microsoft's long term ambitions for the Xbox platform.

The extra storage, you see, is just another step in the Xbox's transition from traditional games console to content delivery platform. Specifically, it's preparing the ground for when the Microsoft flicks the switch on the European version of the Xbox Live MarketPlace.

When that happens, probably later this year, premium video content such as TV shows and HD movies will begin to flow. It'll be fascinating to see how successful the Live MarketPlace is in the long run.

Similarly, the increased disk space might help smooth the implementation of the IPTV services that are also pencilled in for the near future.

The other major revision is the addition of an HDMI digital video and audio port. HDMI is of course the digital interface of choice on almost every HD TV on the market.

In truth, the appearance of HDMI on the 360 is long, long overdue, and makes setting up the Elite an absolute cinch. Thanks to the pure digital signal, you get a pin-sharp, pixel perfect image every time.

1080p at last

The difference in absolute in-game image quality compared with a 360 running in HD mode courtesy of a VGA of component connection isn't huge. However, it's a different story with HD video content. Thanks to that HDMI port, the Elite is capable of pumping out a full 1080p signal, as opposed to the 1080i or 720p limitation of the analogue interfaces on the boggo Xbox 360.

That means image quality comparable to a standalone HD DVD or Blu-ray player. Oh, and in case you were wondering, Microsoft has indeed been good enough to bundle an HDMI cable, gratis.

Just remember that 1080p playback is also dependent on your TV. Only in recent months have full 1080p TV sets begun to appear at mainstream prices. Still, the improved storage, HDMI port and premium video content (not forgetting all those awesome games) is a nice combination.

You can begin to see how the Elite might make for a killer single-box digital entertainment solution for the HD age. Or at least you would if Microsoft had seen fit to give the Elite an HD DVD drive as standard.

Like other 360s, the Elite is compatible with Microsoft's add-on HD DVD player. But given the Elite's range-topping status, it's something you might expect as standard. And it's just not as neat a solution as including integrated HD DVD support. The same can be said for the Elite's lack of standard wireless networking. Again, it's easily remedied with a plug-in wireless adapter. But in the year 2007, standard Wi-Fi is hardly a big ask.

The 65 nanometer question

Finally, there's the question of whether the Elite addresses the reliability problems that have plagued the 360. Earlier in the year, it was rumoured that the Elite would be the first 360 to boast the new cooler-running 65nm versions of the 360's Xenos graphics chip and Xenon CPU.

Frankly, we weren't in a position to tear down our single review sample. However, several reports from the US where the Elite has been on sale several months indicate that it is still built using 90nm hardware.

Certainly, in terms of heat and noise, the Elite is indistinguishable from existing Xboxes. Likewise, the Elite's power supply is precisely the same ludicrously large 200-odd Watt item, just like all other 360s.

Moreover, this all ties in with Microsoft's official position on the gubbins inside the Elite and the question of 65nm chips, which goes that any internal modifications and upgraded components will be rolled out across the Xbox range as a whole and will not be exclusive to the Elite.

Which just leaves the question of value and overall desirability. Clearly, the Elite is not a must-have for existing 360 owners. Of the two key new features, the 120GB drive will be available as an upgrade for all 360 owners.

It's also worth noting that reports from the US indicate that "Premium" Xbox 360s have begun to appear with HDMI ports. If that's true, the Elite obviously doesn't have all that much going for it as an upgrade option.

However, if you're just about to take the Xbox plunge for the first time the extra outlay Microsoft is asking for the Elite looks like reasonable value. The guaranteed HDMI port alone makes it very hard to resist.

Sony PlayStation 3

tech.co.uk staff — 1204366333

The PlayStation 3 has been around in the US and Japan for a few months now. But midnight heralded its long-awaited arrival on UK stores - and by all accounts you won't have any trouble finding one either .

Geared for high-definition playback of games, movies and photos, the system is better described as an entertainment hub than a mere games console. It's a system designed to sit at the heart of your digital world, with internet connectivity and Blu-ray playback making up a significant proportion of the services it offers.

Physically, the PS3 is only slightly bigger than an Xbox 360, but as the power transformer is built into the main chassis, it's smaller than Microsoft's console overall. However, at 5kg, you'll struggle to hold the PS3 in one hand, and its sleek black finish seems intentionally designed to collect fingerprints. The stark difference between the two designs stretches to the menus, with Sony opting for moody blacks instead of a brightly coloured interface.

This is the 'premium' configuration of the console, which is set to cost £425. This version includes a 60GB Serial ATA 2.5in hard drive, Wi-Fi connectivity and multiple flash memory card readers (a pared-down 20GB model will also sell). Unlike the Xbox 360's expensive and undersized 20GB hard drive, this unit is a standard notebook HDD, meaning you can easily replace it and double that storage space to 120GB for around £60.

The PlayStation 3 is packed to the brim with advanced technology. The custom-built 'Cell' processor can deliver up to 1080p resolution images, while the Blu-ray format provides ample storage space for high definition games and movies.

While the console may seem expensive when compared with its competitors, it offers much more out of the box. Judged on features alone, a premium Xbox 360 with wireless adaptor and HD-DVD drive is more expensive than a PS3, and even then Microsoft's console still lacks multimedia card support and a large hard drive.

Games and movies can be displayed at 1080p via HDMI, and over component video 1080p for games and 1080i for movies. Sony hasn't included an HDMI cable with the console in the US or Japan, so it's unlikely to do so when it arrives in the UK. These sell for £10 each from accessory companies. Currently all PlayStation 3 games and Blu-ray movies support 1080p resolution, but our US-spec test system failed to upscale standard DVD movies, opting for 480p instead.

Born to be hi-def

With all this advanced technology sitting under the hood, the PlayStation 3 is naturally best paired with a high-definition display. Happily, the PlayStation 3 makes an excellent Blu-ray movie player, and can easily stand up to current mainstream standalone players.

The PlayStation 3 offers video playback that surpasses that of a first-generation player such as Samsung's BD-P1000. Compared with that player, the PS3 offers sharper and crisper picture quality from Blu-ray discs, with more depth and detail. However, there are a couple of noteworthy issues for videophiles.

Firstly, the PlayStation 3 has no dedicated Blu-ray video chipset, instead relying on the Cell processor to do the decoding legwork. Secondly, the PS3's 1080p video output is set at 60 frames per second - great for games, but less so for movies.

As movie content is shot at 24 frames per second, it has the potential to display motion artefacts in slow-panning scenes at 60fps. So while games that have been built specifically for the console, such as Resistance: Fall of Man, compete admirably with second-generation Xbox 360 titles, others don't.

Cross-platform titles such as Call of Duty 3, Tony Hawk's Project 8 and Fight Night Round 3 compare unfavourably with their Xbox 360 counterparts. Where an Xbox 360 version of a PS3 launch title was available, we found that the version for Microsoft's console had better graphics in side-by-side comparisons.

In general, the 360 has better high dynamic range lighting, not to mention better frame rates in Tony Hawk and faster load times in Fight Night. Arguably though, this is more to do with publishers not upgrading existing titles, rather than any limitations of the hardware itself. Sony's console is an undeniably powerful machine, but it will be another 12 months before we see developers taking proper advantage of its controversial new system architecture.

Away from games and movies, internet connectivity is a large part of the PlayStation 3 experience. You can use the internet using its browser, but although it supports video sites such as YouTube, pages take between 10 seconds and two minutes to load. Once you've set up an account, you can also download high-definition videos and game demos from the PlayStation Store, but download times bear little relation to the file size. You can also set up friends lists and, if you have an EyeToy camera, engage in video conferences for free.

Overall, PlayStation's third incarnation has a great deal of top-end functionality and its price is very competitive with its arch gaming hi-def rival Xbox. When the dust settles, choosing between the two is likely to be less about which is the better product and more about subjective preference and whether Blu-ray or HD DVD wins the format war.

Sony PlayStation 3

tech.co.uk staff — 1204217673

The jury may still be out on the quality of the first wave of PS3 games, but there's little doubt that Sony's super-console remains the great hope of the Blu-ray format. Its design is certainly, striking if not exactly practical. The PS3's black finish is a delight, and the unit can stand either horizontal or vertically.

The PS3 is well served by both its powerful cell processor, and its connections. Along with the front mounted card (DD/MS/CF) and USB slots, at the back you'll find both HDMI and optical audio outputs, as well as an Ethernet port.

The HDMI output is v1.3, which means you can achieve lossless PCM, DTS HD and Dolby TrueHD, sound if you happen to have an HDMI v1.3 amplifier to play them through. As yet there aren't any but we're expecting some big AV names to introduce models before the year is out. Which is just as well, as the PS3 has no analogue audio outputs.

It does, however, have a 60GB drive for you to store downloaded content, alongside game saves.

But don't think that because there's an Ethernet jack that the PS3 is compatible with the, as yet unrealised, BD Live aspect of the Blu-ray system. It's primarily here to enable online games play, and shopping at the new PlayStation store, but it does hold the tantalising promise that BD Live is only a firmware update away.

System setup is relatively straightforward. The console uses Sony's Cross Media Bar (XMB) interface. It's a tad dull to look at but supremely functional. Pop in a Blu-ray disc and the player will immediately begin playing. Significantly, the console is much more responsive than a standalone BD deck, and disc playback from a standing start is nearly as fast as a regular DVD player.

The unit is also compatible with DVD, AVCHD, CD and Super Audio CD media, but doesn't (yet) upscale DVD. A curious omission that we can only assume will be dealt with via a firmware update.

Having to drive the disc with a wired PlayStation joypad only serves to remind you that the PS3 is moonlighting as AV hardware. Sony sells a dedicated Bluetooth (rather than IR) remote zapper, but this wasn't available for review.

HD image quality is great. There's no overt compromise in terms of picture performance when viewing a Blu-ray disc on the PS3, as opposed to, say, Samsung's dedicated BD-P1000. Image clarity is certainly good enough to reveal some of the coding foibles of the first generation MPEG2 BD discs.

The player looked at its best with AVC encodes such as Open Season and Monster House. Hook the console up to a 1080p display and image quality is genuinely thrilling.

However, while games and BD software played back fine via HDMI, on our Philips display, DVDs suffered with a weird colour problem that gave bright blue skin tones. This was eventually fixed by going into the HDMI video output menu, deselecting 'Automatic' and opting for the Y PN/CB PR/CR mode.

A third option, RGB, is also supplied. A number of such problems involving different PS3 screen combinations have revealed several DMI connection anomalies. But investigating this menu should fix most HDMI hook-up hassles.

Currently, with only a few exceptions, most studios are not implementing Blu-ray region lockouts, meaning that you can play back a US BD in a UK console. However, the unit does firmly adhere to DVD region codes, so you won't be able to play any Region 1 DVDs on a UK PS3, which effectively rules the console out as a replacement standard DVD player.

The player's HD audio performance will have to remain a mystery until matching electronics appear, but the potential for the system is high. At the moment its most obvious sonic failing of the PS3 is fan noise, which is substantially higher than a dedicated player design.

When viewed as a Blu-ray player, the PS3's price tag is difficult to criticise. The era of ultra-high price dedicated Blu-ray players is (already) coming to an end. Samsung's BD-P1000 is now available for just £350 and newer machines are unlikely to cost more. Regardless of cost though, there's one simple reason for rating the console as perhaps the only BD player worth buying: upgradability.

The governing Blu-ray Disc Association has mandated that all BD players on sale after 31 October must conform to BD profile 1.1 to offer the full BD Java interactivity. Current standalone players are Profile 1. This effectively means that first generation players will be obsolete by the end of the year.

According to BD specification, players need a minimum of 256MB of persistent memory storage to run BD Java PIP, not to mention a secondary video decoder. Only the PS3 has enough onboard processing grunt to conceivably be upgraded to Profile 1.1. And for that reason alone, we would currently advocate the PS3 over a standard player.

Philips amBX Premium kit

tech.co.uk staff — 1195689600

What, exactly, is immersion? And do we really want it? If you're playing Theme Park, for example, would the smell of cheap frankfurters and the feel of water splashed in your face create a more compelling experience, or does it misunderstand completely what gaming is about?

Philips hasn't quite gone as far as that, but with amBX it could. Essentially, this is a simple XML- like scripting language that can be used to add environmental effects into games. Compatible peripherals - so far only available from Philips, but it's a licensable platform - will then generate those effects around in the player's room.

In the premium kit you get everything currently available, barring a set of rear satellite lamps. So that's a 'wall washer' for painting light behind your monitor, a powerful 2.1 speaker system with LED arrays built into the top of the two small variable speed fans and a wrist rumbler strip for your keyboard.

The idea stems from Philips' involvement with LED lighting. This is the future - it's environmentally friendly and can produce 14 million colours from an RGB array. As a result, the lights are definitely the strongest aspect of this kit. They change colour to reflect on-screen action even in games which aren't programmed to support amBX, and the effect is far from unpleasant - although if you're staring too hard at the screen you may not even notice it.

Where they really come into their own is when they're used counter-intuitively to the principles of naturalistic immersion: when the lightings strobes to signal an alert in Defcon or when they count down from red to green in TOCA 3. It's moments like these that show off what fun devs can have with it.

They can also be programmed to flash when you have a new IM, for example, and if you're using Media Player switch to a discotheque mode. These things are all good uses of amBX which we can see a future for - although not at the current price.

It's impossible though to be enthusiastic about the more inventive peripherals. The tiny fans are so loud as to be distracting even before the blast of air hits your face, and the wrist rumbler doesn't really work since one hand is away with the mouse most of the time.

So don't rush out to buy this first wave of amBX kits, but don't write off the levels of creativity it's possible to achieve with it. Games don't really need anything to reinforce the fourth wall and fake 'real' experiences, but amBX peripherals that do something new and interesting - if used in the right way - could be quite cool. One day.

Sony PSP

tech.co.uk staff — 1195084800

Movie playback is often considered a secondary function to gaming for Sony's handheld console, but its oft-revered screen was specifically chosen for its video ability.

Add to this the fact that it's the most widely owned portable video player after the iPod and that there's a huge catalogue of movies available on its proprietary UMD disc format, and you've got an important portable video device.

First thing to consider is which model of PSP. The second edition, aka Slim, that started doing the rounds very recently is, well, slimmer, has an improved battery life and can be hooked up to a TV (if you splash out more on a special cable), but it's also almost 50 per cent more expensive - not far behind the 80Gb iPod.

You can, however, net a first-generation PSP like this for as little as £90 now, making it great value.

However, you have to factor in the additional cost of either UMD movies - after a disastrously overpriced first couple of years, most of the back catalogue can now be found for well under a tenner each - or a Memory Stick Pro Duo or six.

Similarly, Memory Stick prices continue to fall off a cliff, with 2Gb now as cheap as £16 online, so this isn't a vast expense, unless you do intend on matching the 30Gb of some of the other players around.

UMDs offer the best possible image quality for the PSP. Despite the 480 x 272 resolution being lower than that of the best-specced players, the super-high bitrate a full 1.8Gb UMD produces images that are largely free of artifacts and colour banding.

Coupled with the excellent-quality screen, you'll find a UMD movie on PSP will look much better than a 720 x 480 movie file on other players. Poor sales of UMDs - largely because of their laughable original pricing - means that they're living on borrowed time in terms of sustained new releases, but there's enough of them in the wild to keep you occupied for a while.

Encode-it-yourself

The other option is running movies off a memory stick, which requires either acquiring them encoded in the right format already, or using third-party (such as the free PSP Video 9) applications to convert existing videos.

It's a bit of a pain, but the results are good. Initially, Sony had limited the resolution of videos run from memory stick, but a recent firmware update now enables access to the full 480 x 272. As with the iPod, the sheer number of folk who own a PSP means that, should you choose to throw morality and legality to the wind, you won't have to search far to find a ton of pre-formatted video online.

If you can stomach the proprietary formats and faffing about with removeable media, the PSP's a pleasing device as a video player. It looks and feels good, and sports an elegant menu system. The screen's spectacular given the relatively low resolution, although its glossy cover makes it unusable in direct sunlight.

It also handles music and photos, and includes a web browser. Given its infamously unimpressive games library, it's turned out to be far better media device than it is a handheld console.