Sometimes making something to solve your problems is just more fun than buying something. At least, I assume so: I can’t make anything. Duncan Murdock can though, and did, when he turned an average, otherwise pretty worthless knock-off Wii nunchuck into a remote shutter release for his new DSLR, a Christmas gift. All it took was replacing the nunchuck’s original cable with an old telephone wire — telephones used to have wires — soldered the wire to the nunchuck’s board and slapped a 2.5mm plug on the other end. Bam.

There is really nothing to argue about here. Even if you are the most devoted of Nintendo fans, someone that purchases every major release they come out with, you have to admit that 2011 has been a rather dry spell for an already mixed history of software releases on the Nintendo Wii. The impending release of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword might be hailed by some as a reason to pardon Nintendo’s lack of titles but, it doesn’t change facts.

Want to hear rumors about the existence of the Wii 2 for months and months before anything concrete surfaces, Verizon iPhone style? Well, too bad: In a document posted to Nintendo’s investor relations site, the gaming company has confirmed that its flagship console will be getting a successor sometime in 2012. In June of this year, E3 attendees will be able to play the Wii 2, and Nintendo will announce more information about the system, including hardware specifications.

That doesn’t leave much time for rumormongering then. Here, by way of IGN, is the word that’s been floating around about the system: Reportedly codenamed “Project Cafe,” the Wii 2 may boast “a revamped version of AMD’s R700 GPU architecture … which will, as previously reported, out perform the PlayStation 3′s NVIDIA 7800GTX-based processor.” And, like the XBox 360, have “a custom-built triple-core IBM PowerPC chipset” for a CPU, but with even faster clocking speeds. Also: 3D potential. And a French site says [Google translatedly] that “Streaming plays a central role in the attraction of this “Project Café. The console will be able to stream wirelessly streaming multiple types of streams (different media, games) to the knobs. This will make it possible to play without turning on the TV, or start a frenzied games on the big screen, and continue uninterrupted into the toilet. A real revolution!”

Everyone freak out! This NeoGAF thread has more.

(Nintendo via Kotaku)

Trinity College student Keyosaurus (which is his YouTube moniker) mashed up Kinect body controls, a Wiimote and a bit of head tracking to control an augmented reality version of portal-less puzzling classic Tetris. The Kinect motions control most of the game, from zooming the camera to moving the tetraminoes, while the Wiimote rotates the pieces. For some reason, the video showing the hack in action doesn’t play any of the instantly-recognizable Tetris themes, but blasts our ears with elevator music instead.

(PC World via Engadget)

For all of the Wii’s faults, the console is actually quite aesthetically pleasing. Case modder Martin Nielsen took that sleek, white rectangle and turned it into something of which a mad scientist would be proud. Almost as if ironically, Nielsen water-cooled the unit with tubes that look similar to the bombs from Die Hard: With a Vengeance, even though the underpowered-by-current-generation-standards console is one of the most least likely pieces of hardware to even come close to overheating. Dubbed the UNLimited Edition, the case is made of CNC-milled aluminum, the unit is cooled by two 22 cm coolant reservoirs filled with cerulean-tinted liquid, and the front of the case is transparent so one can see their copy of Super Smash Bros. Brawl spin while they’re browsing forums for Friend Codes. Discs load in through the top, and the unit is wall-mounted, so one can make room on their shelf for a system that actually has games releasing in the month of May.

(via Wired)

Angry Birds, somewhat of a phenomenon of mobile gaming where you fling birds at structures that house hiding pigs, is headed out of the mobile market and toward the console market. Developer Rovio is planning on releasing Angry Birds for the PlayStation Network, Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii.

Nintendo Will Go Next-Gen After They Sell 45 million Wiis to the US (GameInformer)

Batgirl Wants Equal Pay (Comics Alliance)

DC Comics Office Clearly Hasn’t Been Remodeled Since The 90′s (Bleeding Cool)

GoDaddy Now Defaults Users to .co URLs (/.)

4chan vs. Tumblr (Urlesque)

This 5-foot Scale Gundam Costs $3.8k (io9)

10 Green Sci-Fi Movies (TDW)

(pic via Reddit.)

While Microsoft’s Kinect motion controller was met with somewhat mixed reviews when it made its debut yesterday, even its detractors acknowledged that it’s an innovative piece of hardware. Now, the open source community wants to harness that potential for uses beyond XBox 360 games — and Microsoft is none too happy about that.

New-York based DIY electronics company Adafruit Industries has placed a $2,000 bounty on an open-source driver for the Kinect. Initially, they had placed it at $1,000, but after finding out that Microsoft disapproved of the contest — A Microsoft spokesperson told CNET that “Microsoft does not condone the modification of its products … With Kinect, Microsoft built in numerous hardware and software safeguards designed to reduce the chances of product tampering. Microsoft will continue to make advances in these types of safeguards and work closely with law enforcement and product safety groups to keep Kinect tamper-resistant” — Adafruit bumped the bounty up by $1,000.

The general consensus from gaming media after the release of the Wii MotionPlus accessory has been favorable. The only problem, most would agree, is that the little addon’s superior motion tracking abilities weren’t packaged with the standard Wiimote from launch. Why put out a control system based on motion tracking when the motion tracking isn’t really good enough to chart one-to-one movements?

Well, there’s good news and bad news. The good news is, Nintendo is making a Wii Remote Plus, a wiimote (seriously, why is this word not the official jargon yet?) with the MotionPlus capabilities built in.

The bad news is that you’re going to have to buy it all over again.

With the release of Sony’s PlayStation Move and Microsoft’s Kinect looming on the horizon, it’s worth looking at the history of competition within the industry to see the potential impact the two devices may have.

Most gaming generations have hot topics, memorable controversies and stiff competition: However, from this gamer’s point of view, most generations haven’t been as interesting as this current one due to the increasingly high stakes.