Gear Patrol | Spirit of Adventure, Passion for Gear

Ready for Round Two?

While Christopher Nolan certainly deserves the lion’s share of credit for molding the caped crusader into his 21st century, cash-raining form, the impact of game developer Rocksteady on Batman’s recent popularity can’t be downplayed. Batman: Arkham Asylum was slathered with praise in the video game community, leaving the follow up title, Arkham City, with some [...]

Formula Two?

Though most diehard driving gamers will find the action of the new Microsoft Xbox 360 Wireless Speed Wheel ($60) a bit lacking due to the rather conspicuous absence of a steering column, brake/gas pedals and a shift knob, it certainly caters to those who prefer their seating arrangements in the extreme couch potato position. Lightweight, [...]

Wii for U, and U for Wii

Nintendo has just announced the successor to its wildly popular and family friendly Wii system today at E3 — called the Wii U. If the name didn’t clue you in, essentially Nintendo hopes they’ve built a console gaming experience that’s highly entertaining for the entire family and individual gamers. To pull this off, the new [...]

Third Time to Harm

Hold onto your quarter rolls. After a decade of waiting, Marvel vs.Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds will be release on February 15th, making its way to living rooms on either Xbox 360 or PS3. Old standby’s like Ryu and Wolverine have returned to throw down with over 30 new characters from both the Marvel [...]

Slice through competition

Motion gamers: Shake, rattle and roll to your hearts content–but most still rely on the analog controller as their weapon of choice. Microsoft recently released an updated version of the 360 controller–now with a less blister inducing D-pad, but it’s Razer that has upped the stakes in the quest for the perfect console controller. Available [...]

D for "About Damn Time"

Sure, the new Xbox Wireless Controller with Twist D-pad ($65) features a smooth matte silver finish along with spiffy monochrome buttons, but it’s the new transforming D-pad that gives our hadouken launching fingers pause. With a simple twist, the D-pad’s directional bars rise a 1/4″ to give traditional gamers (especially fighting games) new found life [...]

Fight Tiger with Chicken

The only downside to golfing on the Wii (well, besides not actually golfing) is the lack of realistic simulation. No, not in the game, but rather the controller. The Nintendo Wii Motion Plus provides control aplenty, but when it comes to recreating the feeling and motion of swinging an actual club, it falls short. Bad [...]

One Retro Gaming Device to Rule Them All

Video game technology has come a long way from the classic 8 and 16 bit systems many of us at Gear Patrol grew up playing. Despite all of the fancy motion controls, insane cinematic graphics, and online fragging wars these new systems have enabled though, sometimes it’s just nice to step back in time to [...]

Just One More Thing to Anticipate

It’s still going to be several months (Nov. 2) before you can experience the latest edition of Sony’s premier racing title at home, but true fans with an obsession for memorabilia should look alive and pre-order this limited edition set now. Besides the game, this exclusive set features a 1:43 scale diecast 2009 Nissan GT-R [...]

Leaner, Meaner, and Back in Black

The new Xbox 360 Slim ($300) has landed. A decidedly Alienware-ish looking console, the Xbox 360 Slim has called 1-800-Evil-Jenny and dropped the weight with a slimmer, glossy-black case design that features touch-sensitive buttons (sounds a bit like Xbox and PS3 have swapped designers), “whisper” quiet fan that generates less noise than its wind-tunnel predecessor, [...]

Back in Black

Who doesn’t have a soft-spot for the Wii, or Nintendo for that matter? The fact that there are few impromptu party formulas better than Booze+Women+Wii (in that order) is likely to blame. Then again, we know you’ve always secretly wanted a Wii in black, especially one to better match your classic controller or better integrate [...]

This Ain't No Power Pad

We’re not sure how we feel about the glowing ball atop the new Sony PlayStation Move (can we use it as a flashlight in a pinch?), but we do know that Sony’s long awaited foray into motion control should prove interesting. Using a similar dual-controller setup as the Nintendo Wii, the PlayStation Move will be [...]

Not The Wavebird But We'll Take It

Mario Kart Wii is without peer. Four competitive friends + beer = hilarity. But Nintendo classics just aren’t the same with the rectangular Wii control stick (original Nintendo controller notwithstanding). File this one under last months news, but Nintendo recently answered the call with the Wii Classic Controller Pro ($20), and we finally got our [...]

The Apple. iPad. Seriously.

The Apple iPad is here, and it’s both as much/little people had hoped, expected, worried, drooled over, and even prayed for. The Apple Newton 2010 iPad ($499-$829) will arrive well equipped: 9.7″ (1024×768) IPS enabled Multi-Touch LED backlit display, 1GHz A4 processor, built-in speakers, Bluetooth, microphone, ambient light sensor, 720p video playback, fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coated [...]

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: your laptop’s puny speakers simply won’t cut it. They’re not even good enough to aptly project the beeps and boops of your NES emulator, much less to accompany your iTunes library. That said, the venerable accessory players at Logitech offer several options to suit your auditory [...]