The UpStream

If you have a PS3, chances are you cannot play PS2 games on it. Some of you can, but most of you can't. If you have an early model, it still has a PS2 Emotion Engine chip in it. If you have a middle-aged model, you might have an emulator. Otherwise, you're screwed. You still have to keep your PS2 plugged in to play all your old games. Those days, my friends, might just be a thing of the past.

A patent recently filed by Sony reveals they have developed a way to have the Cell processor on the PS3 replicate functions of the Emotion chip, meaning you can dump your old PS2 and just have the big black behemoth in your living room!

Now, those of you who don't currently have a PS3, or those that have one that can't play old games are probably thinking "Why the hell haven't we had this all along?" The answer is simple. We don't know, ask Sony.

Do you ever visit The Pirate Bay? Of course you do. And so does almost everyone else on the planet. It is on the top 100 visited sites list consistently. That is all about to come to an end, as TPB has been bought.

Real-world business Global Gaming Factory X has purchased TPB for $7.7 million. That is a lot of money for a legit company to purchase an illegal file-sharing website. The bad news is that they know it, and have a plan to make that money back.

CEO of Global Gaming Hans Pandeya, said:

Now that I have your attention, we have it on good authority that China has passed a new law preventing people from trading virtual goods or services for real-world goods or services. I guess that means I can no longer respond to "special" CraigsList ads with offers of WoW gold. I mean, I guess I can no longer buy WoW gold from the Chinese gold farmers.

Just for reference, since we love numbers here at PLuGHiTz Live!, G4TV reports "gold farming generates somewhere between $200 million and $1 billion a year, and around 85 percent of gold farmers can be found in China." Obviously this practice isn't going anywhere any time soon, but it sure looks like we might have a new late-night infomercial "at home business" idea!

It would appear that PlayStation 3 consoles can no longer watch any videos on Hulu.com via the internal web browser. Engadget believes that this is just a software glitch with the latest PS3 firmware, but we are receiving reports that the issue also affects users who do not have the latest firmware installed.

This certainly lends credence to the theory that Hulu is blocking the service on the PS3. It wouldn't be the first time they have taken actions like this. We know Hulu pulled its content from TV.com, and recently from Boxee, which is a way to watch web videos on your TV. It would not be a stretch, then, to jump to the conclusion that this is a purposeful attack on the PS3.

The Internets are ablaze with reports of an overheating issue on the new iPhone 3GS. Some websites are even suggesting that Apple might need to recall the product because of the defect. However, the loudest of the suggestions comes from PCWorld, who obviously have a slant the other direction.

As much as we here may not support the iPhone (as we all have Windows Mobile devices), we do trust that Apple did stress-test the device enough to have discovered a heat issue. One thing we find interesting is the inclusion of a temperature sensor inside the device to detect the issue. To me, it either indicates a knowledge of the problem ahead of time, or an obsessive need to know everything about everything from Steve Jobs.

What do you think? Is it a hardware issue or caused by software? Will the iPhone 3GS be recalled?

Bungie's president Harold Ryan and creative director Joseph Staten had an interesting and exciting announcement for us about the next game in the Halo franchise - Halo: Reach. Apparently, they believe that Reach is a perfect match for Project Natal.

Since the announcement and demonstration of Natal at E3 this year, everyone has been wondering where and how it might be used in a real-world game. The fact that Bungie sees a way to make it useful in a real game is very encouraging.

Being as Halo has been the series everyone thinks of when they think of Xbox or Xbox 360, this suggests that Microsoft may have a winner of a peripheral on their hands. What do you think of the idea of Project Natal in the Halo series?