Comment Re:Indie Games (Score 1) 49
It's how games started, and some of the most famous games and programmers in the past started - little more than technical demos.
Verizon iPhone Could Double US Mobile Games Biz 115
donniebaseball23 writes "Earlier today, Verizon and Apple finally confirmed what everyone knew was coming: iPhone will soon launch on the Verizon network. The hugely popular iPhone has been a hit with gamers and game developers on the App Store, and by bringing the phone to the largest carrier in the US, the installed base suddenly could get much larger. The folks at social gaming network OpenFeint believe the Verizon iPhone impact could be immediately felt this year. 'The iPhone coming to Verizon is a highly anticipated event by the mobile gaming community,' said Peter Relan, chairman of OpenFeint. 'Adding 13 million more potential gamers on the iPhone is going to be a watershed moment for mobile gaming. I wouldn't be surprised if the US mobile gaming industry doubles in revenue this year because of this deal.'"
Microsoft CEO Says Kinect To Support PCs Eventually 47
Ken writes "Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has said that the company will support Kinect for PCs sometime in the future. The motion controller is currently only officially supported for the Xbox 360, although it has been hacked and tweaked to work on pretty much any platform that can be plugged into via a USB port. 'We're trying to move beyond gaming to include the world of socialization, movies, TV, music, and we're trying to make the whole experience accessible to everybody in the family not just the traditional gamer.' When Ballmer was asked, 'Will you plug-in the Kinect to the PC, will you go for that in the near future?' he replied, 'We'll support that in a formal way in the right time and when we've got an announcement to make we'll make it.' Note that this is completely separate from the Kinect-like controller from PrimeSense and Asus."
Other readers have tipped related articles about Kinect being used to enable 3D teleconferencing and help drive a small helicopter drone.
Submission + - Online Behavior Could Influence Insurance Rates (wsj.com)
storagedude writes: There seems to be no end to the ways your personal data and online behavior can be used against you. According to the Wall Street Journal, insurance companies are considering using online behavioral and social networking data to try to weed out insurance risks. What you read, what you buy, how much TV you watch, your credit, your fan pages ... it could all be used to predict your longevity and insurance risk. The practice, which appears to be in the early stages, could raise concerns with the FTC and insurance regulators, but insurance and data mining companies say they just plan to use it to speed up the applications of people who appear to be good risks; others would have to go through more rigorous traditional screening.
Submission + - Have I lost my gaming mojo?
danabnormal writes: Increasingly I'm being frustrated in my attempts to find a game I want to play. In an effort to catchup, I've been using my bog standard Dell laptop to dig out treasures I have missed, such as American McGee's Alice, Grim Fandango and Syberia.
I don't often get the time to play games so I like to have the opportunity to dip in and out of a title without feeling like I'm loosing something by not playing it for periods. But when I find a title I like... that time gets made. Heavy Rain is the last game that gripped me, that truly engaged me and made me want to complete in a sitting. I'm tired of the GTA formulas, bored of CODs and don't have the reaction to think on my feet for AOEIII.
Is it about time I tossed in the controller and resigned myself to the fact that the games I want only come out once in a blue moon? Or have I just not found 'that' one great title that will open me up to a brand new genre? Lords of Ultima is going OK at the moment, is there anything of that ilk I've missed?
What are your thoughts? Do you stick to a genre or have you found that you're finding it harder as you get, um, more mature, to find something you want to play?
I don't often get the time to play games so I like to have the opportunity to dip in and out of a title without feeling like I'm loosing something by not playing it for periods. But when I find a title I like... that time gets made. Heavy Rain is the last game that gripped me, that truly engaged me and made me want to complete in a sitting. I'm tired of the GTA formulas, bored of CODs and don't have the reaction to think on my feet for AOEIII.
Is it about time I tossed in the controller and resigned myself to the fact that the games I want only come out once in a blue moon? Or have I just not found 'that' one great title that will open me up to a brand new genre? Lords of Ultima is going OK at the moment, is there anything of that ilk I've missed?
What are your thoughts? Do you stick to a genre or have you found that you're finding it harder as you get, um, more mature, to find something you want to play?
Comment Help for the CSI's (Score 1) 211
Think of the possibilities for criminology!
An errant fart while committing a crime leaves microscopic poo particles floating about the crime scene.
One micro-bacterial analysis later, compare to your database of samples, and you have your man!
(And it would be a man. We all know ladies don't ever break wind, even when committing the most heinous of crimes.)
Submission + - The REX Robotic Exoskeleton (gizmag.com)
ElectricSteve writes: When Robert Irving was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis it was the catalyst for him and his childhood friend, Richard Little, to put turn their engineering skills to the task of developing an exoskeleton that was a practical standing and walking alternative to wheelchairs. The result is REX, an exoskeleton made of strong, lightweight materials that is designed to support and hold a person comfortably as they move. Users strap themselves in to the robotic legs with a number of Velcro and buckled straps that fit around the legs along with a belt that fits around the user’s waist. While most robotic exoskeletons we’ve looked at, such as the HAL, augment human motion, this is generally not an option for wheelchair-bound users so REX is controlled using a joystick that sits at the wearer’s waist level.
DRM vs. Unfinished Games 462
Rod Cousens is the CEO of Codemasters, and he recently spoke with CVG about how he thinks DRM is the wrong way to fight piracy. Instead, he suggests that the games industry increase its reliance on downloadable content and microtransactions. Quoting:
"The video games industry has to learn to operate in a different way. My answer is for us as publishers to actually sell unfinished games — and to offer the consumer multiple micro-payments to buy elements of the full experience. That would create an offering that is affordable at retail — but over a period of time may also generate more revenue for the publishers to reinvest in our games. If these games are pirated, those who get their hands on them won't be able to complete the experience. There will be technology, coding aspects, that will come to bear that will unlock some aspects. Some people will want them and some won't. When it comes to piracy, I think you have to make the experience the answer to the issue — rather than respond the other way round and risk damaging that experience for the user."
Droid X Self-Destructs If You Try To Mod 757
An anonymous reader writes with some discouraging news for hack-oriented purchasers of the new Droid X phone: "If the eFuse fails to verify [the firmware information (what we call ROMS), the kernel information, and the bootloader version], then the eFuse receives a command to 'blow the fuse' or 'trip the fuse.' This results in the booting process becoming corrupted, followed by a permanent bricking of the phone. This FailSafe is activated anytime the bootloader is tampered with or any of the above three parts of the phone has been tampered with."
OnLive Latency Tested 204
The Digital Foundry blog has done an analysis of recently launched cloud gaming service OnLive, measuring latency across several different games. Quoting:
"In a best-case scenario, we counted 10 frames delay between button and response on-screen, giving a 150ms latency once the display's contribution to the measurement was removed. Unreal Tournament III worked pretty well in sustaining that response during gameplay. However, other tests were not so consistent, with DiRT 2 weighing in at 167ms-200ms while Assassin's Creed II operated at a wide range of between 150ms-216ms. ... OnLive says that the system works within 1000 miles of its datacenters on any broadband connection and recommends 5mbps or better. We gave OnLive the best possible ISP service we could find: Verizon FiOS, offering a direct fiber optic connection to the home. Latency was also reduced still further simply due to the masses of bandwidth FiOS offers compared to bog standard ADSL: in our case, 25mbps."
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