Wow, can’t say I saw this Foam Finger weapon coming as a reward for finishing Dead Space 2 on the hardest difficulty. It’s both the coolest and most annoying weapon I’ve seen in a game yet.
PEW PEW PEW BANG BANG BANG PEW BANG PEW BANG
Originally published on Lalawag
Last night during their Playstation Meeting 2011 event in Tokyo, Sony announced their next portable gaming device, the PSP2 “Next Generation Portable” (NGP).
This baby’s got almost every gaming and technological innovation from the past 5 years, including dual touchpads, dual analog sticks, dual cameras, six-axis motion sensing, a high resolution OLED display, 3G and WiFi connectivity, and heck why not throw in that built in GPS. There’s a laundry list of features so we’re going to windmill slam that spec sheet right in front of you here:
Hideo envisions using the exact same game on the PS3 and the NGP. You play the game on your PS3 at home, and out and about you play the same game and same save on your NGP. A beautiful dream, indeed. “This dream is going to come true in the near future, and right now I’m working on this project. I’m sorry right now I can’t disclose further information, but I’d like to present what we’re doing at E3.”
I think I just soiled myself with delight. That would be so goddamn cool.
This piece was originally posted on Lalawag here
Yesterday, Nintendo announced that their latest handheld console, the 3DS, will be available on March 27th for $249.99. We’ve got the quick and dirty rundown of what you need to know about the system and also our take on whether you need to buy one.
Well shit. This is a pretty cool bonus for people who own multiple platforms. Why shouldn’t I be able to play a game on my PC, Macbook, or PS3 after I’ve purchased it once? It’s kind of like an early version of UltraViolet for games.
If I’m reading this right, you’ll be able to start a game on one device and be able to pick up wherever you go because the game saves are stored in the cloud. How awesome is that?
Obviously, the Playstation 3 version becomes the one to buy for everyone. Kudos to Valve for making it easy and convenient for the consumer. I hope more publishers utilize this option for their multiplatform games. It’ll certainly give me a reason to choose the PS3 version of a game for once.
On top of that, anyone who buys Portal 2 for the PlayStation 3 will be able to unlock a Steam Play copy of Portal 2 for the PC and Mac for free by linking their PSN and Steam accounts. Portal 2 project lead Josh Weier explains that Valve has designed the cross-platform experience to be hassle-free: “PS3 gamers will be able to simply drop the Blu-ray disc in the PS3, link to their Steam account from inside the game, and all their Steam friends (on PC and Mac) will be visible and accessible for chat and game invites.”
Read: Buy Portal 2 PS3, get PC/Mac version free & Steam support- Destructoid.
Very interesting article from Jamie Madigan on why shooter games are so popular.
I’ve found that I generally don’t give a rats ass about the gore content in a shooting game. Sure, it can be entertaining sometimes, but I’m more interested in outmaneuvering and outaiming my opponents. That, and the cathartic release of just blowing things up.
It’s why I’d rather play something like Quake or Monday Night Combat, which have little to no gore, to satisfy my shooting game craving than, say, Grand Theft Auto. Ironically, GTA to me has become more about storytelling and character development than the “violence.”
But how important is the “violent” part of “violent shooters?” To help answer this question, Przybylski, Rigby, and Richard Ryan (professor of psychology at the University of Rochester), concocted a series of experiments designed to disentangle the violence of a game from its ability to satisfy our desires for competence and autonomy. In one study, they modded Half-Life 2 so that some participants played a violent and bloody game replete with firearms and death. Other people played a non-violent version of the game with the same mechanics and map, but framed as a game of tag where opponents were gently teleported to a penalty box when highlighted with an in-game tool.
The results were both versions equally satisfied those basic psychological needs, which predicted how satisfied people were with the game and how much they wanted to play more of it. The researchers concluded that it’s not the violence per se, but the degree to which the games met players’ desires for competence and autonomy.
Read: The Psychology of Shooters, Feature Story from GamePro.
Gamestop SVP/GM of Digital, Shawn Freeman to Ars Technica:
“By providing an opportunity for our sales associate to sell the games themselves to consumers, we can drive more of those sales,” he said. He then gave what he calls the “classic example,” where a customer comes in for the newest Call of Duty game and GameStop can sell the map pack or add-on content as a part of the same purchase. The person selling the game can talk up the digital content, and Freeman says this removes some of the “friction” of buying the content. You don’t have to go home, buy points, and then buy the content; you just add a digital download it to your existing purchase.
How about the “friction” of having to get in your car and driving to a GameStop location as opposed to 2 minutes of typing and clicking on your computer?
How about the “friction” of having to deal with a snotty GameStop employee who tries to bludgeon you into preordering games a year in advance when all you want to do is buy something and leave the store?
Snarkiness aside, getting customers to set up a link between their console profile and GameStop’s retail system isn’t going to be any easier than simply educating them how to purchase DLC from their own console. If they’re smart enough to connect their console to the internet, they’re smart enough to figure out how to use the online marketplace.
The biggest problem with downloadable content sales is educating the masses of ignorant people on the availability of downloadable content and how to purchase it. These are the people that are going to GameStop and buying point cards. Adding another middleman connection between them and the content isn’t helping anyone except GameStop’s profit margins
Read: Link Xbox Live to… GameStop? Buy in store, it’s waiting at home.
I get all tingly whenever Microsoft does these Xbox Live Arcade release events because it means that there’s a slew of good games coming out soon.
Personally, I’m the most excited for Hard Corps: Uprising because it’s a brand new prequel to Contra: Hard Corps, and I love me some online Contra co-op play.
If you haven’t played Beyond Good & Evil or Torchlight yet, you will need to rectify that immediately when they come out. BG&E is a great action-adventure game that put the team behind Assassin’s Creed on the map while Torchlight is one of the best dungeon hackers released since Diablo.
I could do without the casual games, but will reserve judgment until seeing what other people think first. Full House Poker could be fairly interesting as a spiritual successor to 1 vs 100. It’s a massively multiplayer poker game utilizing our Xbox Avatars that works cross platform with Windows Phone 7.
Not that I have a Windows Phone 7, though. But if I did. Ohhh boy.
Beginning Feb. 16 with “Hard Corps: Uprising,” a new game will launch every week bringing ongoing fun to you and your friends. New titles will also include “Full House Poker,” the gem-matching action of “Bejeweled Blitz Live,” fan favorite “Beyond Good & Evil” and action role-playing game “Torchlight.”
via Torchlight coming to Xbox Live Arcade with new content for House Party series | Joystiq.
I always knew this was part of conventional wisdom, but I’m glad Digital Foundry did an empirical analysis on whether “higher quality” HDMI cables made a difference.
Unless your dog needs more adventures (read the customer reviews), you don’t need to spring for a pricier cable.
On the face of it, the conclusion is that you can run any HDMI cable – no matter how cheap – and get identical results. However, very poor quality cabling can present image problems in certain circumstances, and the accepted wisdom that with digital you either get an image or you don’t isn’t exactly true. A low quality, very long HDMI cable could work fine at 720p for example, but could introduce digital artifacts at 1080p.
Read: Digital Foundry vs. HDMI video – Page 1 | DigitalFoundry | Eurogamer.net.
Fascinating article by Microsoft Engineers on how the Kinect actually tracks your body and how they came up with the interface that they did. It’s a must read if you’re interested in the technology behind the magic.
At the heart of the skeletal tracking pipeline is a CMOS infrared sensor which allows Kinect to perceive the world, regardless of ambient lighting conditions. Think of this as seeing the environment in a monochrome spectrum of black and white: black being infinitely far away and white being infinitely close. The shades of gray in between these two extremes correspond to a physical distance from the sensor. The sensor gathers each point in its field of view and forms it into a depth image that represents the world. A stream of these depth images is produced at a rate of 30 frames per second, creating a real-time 3-D representation of the environment. Another way to think of this is like those pinpoint impression toys that used to be all the rage. By pushing up with your hands (or your face if you were really adventurous), you could create a simple 3-D model of a piece of your body.