Games News for Games Heroes
Video games in the Classroom?
A new report finds surprising parallels between learning techniques and killing aliens. If the Federation of American Scientists made a list of educational videogames, you might expect to find Oregon Trail, the story of Conestoga wagons trekking into the American West, or the geography favorite
Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? And don’t forget Half-Life 2. That’s the one where you burn alien zombies to death with exploding barrels of fuel.
OK, that’s exaggerating—but only a little. Where parents see hours wasted in front of a screen, these scientists see potential. An FAS study released this week, titled “Harnessing the power of video games for learning,” reports that best-selling games are built in surprisingly pedagogical ways. Players improve at their own pace. Beating a level requires experimentation, failure and learning from mistakes. Most new games can be played online, requiring collaboration and leadership. Game play is precisely calibrated to balance challenge and progress. It’s a stark contrast to a typical classroom in which one teacher tries to engage 30 students with printed information. “It’s like hiring an individual tutor for every student,” says FAS president Henry Kelly of using videogames to teach. “There’s a big argument going on now about whether kids are being tested too much or too little. In a game, you’re continuously being tested and you don’t mind it.”
Some commercial games are already being used in the classroom. The Civilization series lets users build empires in ancient Persia and other historical periods, and RollerCoaster Tycoon, where players construct a theme park, combines physics and business management. And the U.S. military makes extensive use of video simulations: the Army reports 7.6 million users have registered for America’s Army, a training and recruiting game.
The report calls for a new generation of educational games that are as immersive and graphics-intensive as megabudget titles like Madden NFL 07 and Battlefield 2142. “When you show a child a traditional educational game, they’ll roll their eyes,” says Kay Howell, a coauthor of the study. “But I don’t think they roll their eyes because it’s learning; I think it’s because there’s such a huge and obvious gap in quality compared to what they play at home.” The federal government, she says, should close that gap by underwriting new game-publishing houses.
But some educational observers find the videogame recommendations too unorthodox. “This is really silly,” says Chester E. Finn, president of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, a K-12 education research group in Washington. “Are they next going to propose government-funded studies of the educational value of comic books, reality TV shows and instant messaging?” Other critics contend the report’s recommendations shouldn’t be seen as a cure-all. “We think it’s a good idea that this stuff is being explored,” says Chad Colby, a spokesman for the Department of Education. “People do tend to look at these things as silver bullets, or a fix in themselves, when it’s really one tool out of many.” The larger problem with the federation’s ideas, Colby says, is a lack of familiarity with how education funding works: only 8.3 percent of the country’s total education budget comes from the federal government, and most of that is targeted toward students in poverty.
The study’s recommendations might be hard to implement: not all school districts have computers and networks capable of running high-end games. The FAS report calls for the production of games that can be Web-based and downloadable to PCs, but it might be less expensive to design games for the established consoles that many families already have at home. “These are technologies that kids and young adults are living with every day of their lives,” says Howell. “Why do we expect them to leave that behind when they go into a learning environment?”
Nick Summers
Newsweek
OK, that’s exaggerating—but only a little. Where parents see hours wasted in front of a screen, these scientists see potential. An FAS study released this week, titled “Harnessing the power of video games for learning,” reports that best-selling games are built in surprisingly pedagogical ways. Players improve at their own pace. Beating a level requires experimentation, failure and learning from mistakes. Most new games can be played online, requiring collaboration and leadership. Game play is precisely calibrated to balance challenge and progress. It’s a stark contrast to a typical classroom in which one teacher tries to engage 30 students with printed information. “It’s like hiring an individual tutor for every student,” says FAS president Henry Kelly of using videogames to teach. “There’s a big argument going on now about whether kids are being tested too much or too little. In a game, you’re continuously being tested and you don’t mind it.”
Some commercial games are already being used in the classroom. The Civilization series lets users build empires in ancient Persia and other historical periods, and RollerCoaster Tycoon, where players construct a theme park, combines physics and business management. And the U.S. military makes extensive use of video simulations: the Army reports 7.6 million users have registered for America’s Army, a training and recruiting game.
The report calls for a new generation of educational games that are as immersive and graphics-intensive as megabudget titles like Madden NFL 07 and Battlefield 2142. “When you show a child a traditional educational game, they’ll roll their eyes,” says Kay Howell, a coauthor of the study. “But I don’t think they roll their eyes because it’s learning; I think it’s because there’s such a huge and obvious gap in quality compared to what they play at home.” The federal government, she says, should close that gap by underwriting new game-publishing houses.
But some educational observers find the videogame recommendations too unorthodox. “This is really silly,” says Chester E. Finn, president of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, a K-12 education research group in Washington. “Are they next going to propose government-funded studies of the educational value of comic books, reality TV shows and instant messaging?” Other critics contend the report’s recommendations shouldn’t be seen as a cure-all. “We think it’s a good idea that this stuff is being explored,” says Chad Colby, a spokesman for the Department of Education. “People do tend to look at these things as silver bullets, or a fix in themselves, when it’s really one tool out of many.” The larger problem with the federation’s ideas, Colby says, is a lack of familiarity with how education funding works: only 8.3 percent of the country’s total education budget comes from the federal government, and most of that is targeted toward students in poverty.
The study’s recommendations might be hard to implement: not all school districts have computers and networks capable of running high-end games. The FAS report calls for the production of games that can be Web-based and downloadable to PCs, but it might be less expensive to design games for the established consoles that many families already have at home. “These are technologies that kids and young adults are living with every day of their lives,” says Howell. “Why do we expect them to leave that behind when they go into a learning environment?”
Nick Summers
Newsweek
Labels: article
It's violent video games art?
After a gaming festival drops Super Columbine Massacre RPG! (yes, it’s what you think) from consideration, other videogame makers drop out in protest. Is it art, or just offensive?
For independent videogame makers like Jonathan Blow, getting noticed in a market dominated by giants like Sony and Nintendo isn’t easy. So when he was chosen as a finalist in Utah’s Slamdance Guerrilla Gamemaker Competition for his game, Braid—which took nearly two years to develop—he was thrilled. It was a chance for his work to be seen and to enjoy the company of other indie gamemakers, and he promptly laid out about $1,400 in hotel and plane reservations for the festival, set to begin Jan. 18.
Last week, however, he withdrew his game from consideration after a fellow finalist’s game was axed for its subject matter. Since then, five other finalists have followed suit, one sponsor has dropped out and now, with half of the 14 finalists out of consideration, the festival appears imperiled.
At its heart, this is a dispute over the limits of artistic expression and the boundaries of good taste. The protests are a reaction to a decision last week by festival president Peter Baxter, who pulled the game Super Columbine Massacre RPG! from the list of finalists. The game is just what it sounds like: players traverse a 2-D world taking on the roles of Columbine killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold as they shoot up their high school. After committing suicide, the characters then journey to hell, where they battles demons. The free PC game has been downloaded more than 250,000 times since its release in April 2005, according to game creator Danny Ledonne, and has sparked outrage from victims’ families and media watchdog groups, as well as mixed reviews from gamemakers. It has also been accused of inspiring a September 2006 college shooting in Montreal, after which it was discovered that the perpetrator mentioned playing SCMRPG! on his blog.
But that’s not the point, Slamdance finalists say. "If this was a film instead of a game, it wouldn't even really be a question," Blow says, noting that movies relating to Columbine—such as Gus Van Sant's "Elephant"—have been featured at indie festivals. "As long as we persist in believing that games are just for kids ... we're not going to get where we need to go." Baxter disputes that. "There's only a certain point you go into role-playing with [films],” he says. “Obviously when you sit down in a game, you're actively involved."
Tuesday, seven finalist teams sent a letter to Slamdance officials calling for the game’s reinstatement. In response to the dropouts and complaints, officials have added a forum on the expulsion of SCMRPG!, and Baxter says he expects a successful festival. “We’ve got some great games,” he says. For now, at least.
Jonathan Mummolo
Newsweek
Last week, however, he withdrew his game from consideration after a fellow finalist’s game was axed for its subject matter. Since then, five other finalists have followed suit, one sponsor has dropped out and now, with half of the 14 finalists out of consideration, the festival appears imperiled.
At its heart, this is a dispute over the limits of artistic expression and the boundaries of good taste. The protests are a reaction to a decision last week by festival president Peter Baxter, who pulled the game Super Columbine Massacre RPG! from the list of finalists. The game is just what it sounds like: players traverse a 2-D world taking on the roles of Columbine killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold as they shoot up their high school. After committing suicide, the characters then journey to hell, where they battles demons. The free PC game has been downloaded more than 250,000 times since its release in April 2005, according to game creator Danny Ledonne, and has sparked outrage from victims’ families and media watchdog groups, as well as mixed reviews from gamemakers. It has also been accused of inspiring a September 2006 college shooting in Montreal, after which it was discovered that the perpetrator mentioned playing SCMRPG! on his blog.
But that’s not the point, Slamdance finalists say. "If this was a film instead of a game, it wouldn't even really be a question," Blow says, noting that movies relating to Columbine—such as Gus Van Sant's "Elephant"—have been featured at indie festivals. "As long as we persist in believing that games are just for kids ... we're not going to get where we need to go." Baxter disputes that. "There's only a certain point you go into role-playing with [films],” he says. “Obviously when you sit down in a game, you're actively involved."
Tuesday, seven finalist teams sent a letter to Slamdance officials calling for the game’s reinstatement. In response to the dropouts and complaints, officials have added a forum on the expulsion of SCMRPG!, and Baxter says he expects a successful festival. “We’ve got some great games,” he says. For now, at least.
Jonathan Mummolo
Newsweek
Labels: article
Role-playing game has an economic bent
NEW YORK - "Entropia Universe," an online role-playing game with a distinctly economic bent, will soon let players start up banks with the authority to lend money that's convertible to real-world dollars.
Entropia's parent company, Sweden-based MindArk PE AB, said it would auction five banking licenses, each valid for two years. The holders will be able to set up bank buildings on the science-fiction-themed planet of Calypso, charge interest on loans and advertise on in-game billboards.
Previous auctions by MindArk for virtual "real estate" have yielded bids of up to $100,000.
The Project Entropia Dollar is convertible to U.S. dollars at a fixed rate: 10 to 1. This makes it unique among virtual currencies, since most game companies shun links to the real-world economy.
MindArk, going the other way, last year made ATM cards available to players so they could withdraw game funds. However, its payment-processing company has run into difficulties, and it's no longer possible to transfer money to the card accounts from the game.
There was no word from MindArk on the legal implications of a game company giving out licenses for banking, which is highly regulated in most countries. A representative did not return an e-mail message Wednesday.
In another sign of the increasing economic sophistication of online games, players in "EVE Online," a science-fiction game published by an Icelandic company, in 2005 financed a virtual space station through an "initial public offering" of stock.
In November 2006, Ailin Graef claimed to own virtual property worth more than $1 million in "Second Life," a world whose currency is convertible to the dollar at a fluctuating rate.
Peter Svensson
www.ap.org
Previous auctions by MindArk for virtual "real estate" have yielded bids of up to $100,000.
The Project Entropia Dollar is convertible to U.S. dollars at a fixed rate: 10 to 1. This makes it unique among virtual currencies, since most game companies shun links to the real-world economy.
MindArk, going the other way, last year made ATM cards available to players so they could withdraw game funds. However, its payment-processing company has run into difficulties, and it's no longer possible to transfer money to the card accounts from the game.
There was no word from MindArk on the legal implications of a game company giving out licenses for banking, which is highly regulated in most countries. A representative did not return an e-mail message Wednesday.
In another sign of the increasing economic sophistication of online games, players in "EVE Online," a science-fiction game published by an Icelandic company, in 2005 financed a virtual space station through an "initial public offering" of stock.
In November 2006, Ailin Graef claimed to own virtual property worth more than $1 million in "Second Life," a world whose currency is convertible to the dollar at a fluctuating rate.
Peter Svensson
www.ap.org
Labels: News
Give a child a video game -- and maybe a job
LOS ANGELES, Jan 11 (Reuters Life!) - Mathematics, science and video games? A U.S. university professor is urging schools to consider using video games as tools to better prepare children for the work force.
For although many educators scoff at the idea of video games in schools, the U.S. military has titles that train soldiers, teenagers with cancer use a game to battle their illness virtually and physically and some surgeons use video games to keep their hands nimble.
David Williamson Shaffer, an education science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says schools should use games to prepare children to compete in the work force, where juggling technology is a daily requirement.
"People think that the way we teach kids in schools is the natural way we should learn," said Shaffer, author of the book "How Computer Games Help Children Learn."
"But young people in the United States today are being prepared for standardized jobs in a world that will, very soon, punish those who can't innovate. We simply can't 'skill and drill' our way to innovation."
Shaffer argues that youngsters heading into the work force will, from day one, have to compete with skilled workers from around the world with years of technological experience.
For this reason, children should be given the chance to use their innate skills of simultaneously listening to music while playing games, watching videos, surfing the Web and messaging friends from computers or cell phones, while learning about things like biology, history or physics.
He said the current educational system was designed in the late 1800s to prepare people for life in industrial America not today's technologically-steeped world.
Shaffer said this new approach might also help the United States compete against fast-developing countries like India and China which are turning out engineers and scientists at a faster rate.
Governments in Britain and Singapore have already backed efforts that use video games and other technology to develop new teaching methods.
Proponents of such efforts say video games engage kids in a way that is relevant to their lives, allowing them to learn by doing as they experiment with new social and cultural worlds.
Like the U.S. military, some large U.S. corporations have already adapted and use video games to train workers.
Shaffer and his team have developed a range of games that help students learn to think like engineers, urban planners, journalists, architects and other professionals. A list of their games is at http://www.epistemicgames.com/eg/?cat=5.
In March, Shaffer and his team will start working with a school in Madison, Wisconsin, and later this year with a Chicago school.
"There are bad games out there, just as there are bad books. So adults who care about what children learn have to educate themselves about games -- and, more important, start to think about learning in new ways for the digital age of global competition," he said.
Lisa Baertlein
www.reuters.com
David Williamson Shaffer, an education science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says schools should use games to prepare children to compete in the work force, where juggling technology is a daily requirement.
"People think that the way we teach kids in schools is the natural way we should learn," said Shaffer, author of the book "How Computer Games Help Children Learn."
"But young people in the United States today are being prepared for standardized jobs in a world that will, very soon, punish those who can't innovate. We simply can't 'skill and drill' our way to innovation."
Shaffer argues that youngsters heading into the work force will, from day one, have to compete with skilled workers from around the world with years of technological experience.
For this reason, children should be given the chance to use their innate skills of simultaneously listening to music while playing games, watching videos, surfing the Web and messaging friends from computers or cell phones, while learning about things like biology, history or physics.
He said the current educational system was designed in the late 1800s to prepare people for life in industrial America not today's technologically-steeped world.
Shaffer said this new approach might also help the United States compete against fast-developing countries like India and China which are turning out engineers and scientists at a faster rate.
Governments in Britain and Singapore have already backed efforts that use video games and other technology to develop new teaching methods.
Proponents of such efforts say video games engage kids in a way that is relevant to their lives, allowing them to learn by doing as they experiment with new social and cultural worlds.
Like the U.S. military, some large U.S. corporations have already adapted and use video games to train workers.
Shaffer and his team have developed a range of games that help students learn to think like engineers, urban planners, journalists, architects and other professionals. A list of their games is at http://www.epistemicgames.com/eg/?cat=5.
In March, Shaffer and his team will start working with a school in Madison, Wisconsin, and later this year with a Chicago school.
"There are bad games out there, just as there are bad books. So adults who care about what children learn have to educate themselves about games -- and, more important, start to think about learning in new ways for the digital age of global competition," he said.
Lisa Baertlein
www.reuters.com
Labels: article
New 'Metal Gear' thrives on PSP
'Portable Ops' bucks weak game trend on Sony's handheld machine. With a few exceptions, Sony Corp.'s PlayStation Portable hasn't had many good games since it was released a few years ago.
The new "Metal Gear Solid: Portal Ops," (Rated M, $39.99) is one of those rare titles to buck that trend. This latest in a long series of spy-action thrillers from Hideo Kojima is about as good as gaming gets on the PSP.
I've always been enamored with the "Metal Gear" series and its blend of Cold War intrigue, calculated action and oddball humor. This successful mix continues with "Portable Ops."
Despite a few glitches that mar an otherwise perfect game, this new edition adds many enhancements that make it worth considering.
Technologically, "Portable Ops" is a huge leap over previous PSP versions in the series such as "Metal Gear Acid 2."
Previous games were turn-based, but this time the world of espionage and infiltration plays out in real-time 3D graphics that look superb on the PSP's dazzling screen.
It's one of the few games that seems to have harnessed the true potential of the PSP.
The single-player story finds the gruff, eye-patch wearing Naked Snake in a South American prison in 1970. Inexorably, he is sucked into the vortex of a military conspiracy involving the CIA, the Soviet Union and a host of mysterious military operatives and organizations that fans of the series will find familiar.
There are some excellent additions to the usual tasks, such as sneaking around guards to snag secret documents and crawling through underground tunnels.
What's most engaging are the role-playing elements: you can take out enemy soldiers, drag their sleeping bodies back to a waiting troop transport vehicle and then recruit them to your cause.
Eventually, you'll be controlling squads of converted troops with special abilities such as medical skills, sniper accuracy and stealthiness. These abilities are more than just a stat sheet: you'll need to deploy the right mix of abilities to successfully perform missions.
There's an incredible array of online modes beyond the single-player story, which neatly ties together other games in the series.
You can even recruit characters from other "Portable Ops" gamers who are within reach of the PSP's ad-hoc and infrastructure wireless capabilities.
Once you've organized these characters into squads, you can put them to work in various online multiplayer modes, such as death match and recovery missions.
Though "Portable Ops" offers plenty to do, the doing part sometimes gets bogged down by weird controls that had me switching between first-person and third-person perspectives.
Switching between the two can be frustrating, especially if you get caught in a sudden firefight. And as good as the graphics are overall, some of the textures when I was crawling in a ventilation shaft were bland and ugly when viewed up close.
These are relatively minor complaints, however, in a game that really combines the best elements of the "Metal Gear" series into one portable game.
Matt Slagle
www.ap.org
I've always been enamored with the "Metal Gear" series and its blend of Cold War intrigue, calculated action and oddball humor. This successful mix continues with "Portable Ops."
Despite a few glitches that mar an otherwise perfect game, this new edition adds many enhancements that make it worth considering.
Technologically, "Portable Ops" is a huge leap over previous PSP versions in the series such as "Metal Gear Acid 2."
Previous games were turn-based, but this time the world of espionage and infiltration plays out in real-time 3D graphics that look superb on the PSP's dazzling screen.
It's one of the few games that seems to have harnessed the true potential of the PSP.
The single-player story finds the gruff, eye-patch wearing Naked Snake in a South American prison in 1970. Inexorably, he is sucked into the vortex of a military conspiracy involving the CIA, the Soviet Union and a host of mysterious military operatives and organizations that fans of the series will find familiar.
There are some excellent additions to the usual tasks, such as sneaking around guards to snag secret documents and crawling through underground tunnels.
What's most engaging are the role-playing elements: you can take out enemy soldiers, drag their sleeping bodies back to a waiting troop transport vehicle and then recruit them to your cause.
Eventually, you'll be controlling squads of converted troops with special abilities such as medical skills, sniper accuracy and stealthiness. These abilities are more than just a stat sheet: you'll need to deploy the right mix of abilities to successfully perform missions.
There's an incredible array of online modes beyond the single-player story, which neatly ties together other games in the series.
You can even recruit characters from other "Portable Ops" gamers who are within reach of the PSP's ad-hoc and infrastructure wireless capabilities.
Once you've organized these characters into squads, you can put them to work in various online multiplayer modes, such as death match and recovery missions.
Though "Portable Ops" offers plenty to do, the doing part sometimes gets bogged down by weird controls that had me switching between first-person and third-person perspectives.
Switching between the two can be frustrating, especially if you get caught in a sudden firefight. And as good as the graphics are overall, some of the textures when I was crawling in a ventilation shaft were bland and ugly when viewed up close.
These are relatively minor complaints, however, in a game that really combines the best elements of the "Metal Gear" series into one portable game.
Matt Slagle
www.ap.org
Labels: reviews
Second Life opens its source code
The virtual world of Second Life is going open source. Linden Lab, the company behind the game, said it is making the software blueprint of its PC program available to developers to modify for their personal use and to share with others. It's the same model that's used to build the Linux operating system and the Firefox Web browser.
Philip Rosedale, Linden Lab's co-founder and chief executive officer, said he hopes the developer community will help his relatively small staff — 50 programmers or so — fix bugs in the code and optimize the software for use on older computers. He also expects some cool tools to emerge.
"There are lots of handicapped people using Second Life. It's one of the really inspiring things about it," Rosedale said. "There are a lot of ways of connecting people to their computers, not just mice and keyboards but gaze detection and neuromuscular stuff" that Linden Lab doesn't have the manpower to address, but he hopes outside programmers will.
Someone also could "hook up an exercise bike and fly around Second Life while exercising," he said, or write a program for accessing the world from a smart phone.
"All that becomes extremely easy to do," said Rosedale, who will speak tomorrow at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Second Life users create avatars of themselves and move about the virtual world, chatting with others, buying land, building homes and businesses. It has its own currency that's tied to the U.S. dollar. Numerous real-world businesses, including Circuit City Stores Inc. and American Apparel Inc., are setting up shop in the virtual space.
The code will be available under the GNU Public License, a widely used agreement among open-source developers that allows them to legally modify and share software. Linden Lab will review and test some add-ons, modifications and bug fixes, and incorporate them into the official version of the viewer, which can be downloaded for free.
Monday's announcement doesn't cover all the software behind Second Life. The program that controls the underlying infrastructure will remain proprietary, though Rosedale said open-source "is absolutely our direction."
The shift toward open source isn't expected to hurt the company's business model, which relies on charging residents for their use of land — also known as server space on one of Linden Lab's computers.
Jessica Mintz
msnbc.msn.com
"There are lots of handicapped people using Second Life. It's one of the really inspiring things about it," Rosedale said. "There are a lot of ways of connecting people to their computers, not just mice and keyboards but gaze detection and neuromuscular stuff" that Linden Lab doesn't have the manpower to address, but he hopes outside programmers will.
Someone also could "hook up an exercise bike and fly around Second Life while exercising," he said, or write a program for accessing the world from a smart phone.
"All that becomes extremely easy to do," said Rosedale, who will speak tomorrow at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Second Life users create avatars of themselves and move about the virtual world, chatting with others, buying land, building homes and businesses. It has its own currency that's tied to the U.S. dollar. Numerous real-world businesses, including Circuit City Stores Inc. and American Apparel Inc., are setting up shop in the virtual space.
The code will be available under the GNU Public License, a widely used agreement among open-source developers that allows them to legally modify and share software. Linden Lab will review and test some add-ons, modifications and bug fixes, and incorporate them into the official version of the viewer, which can be downloaded for free.
Monday's announcement doesn't cover all the software behind Second Life. The program that controls the underlying infrastructure will remain proprietary, though Rosedale said open-source "is absolutely our direction."
The shift toward open source isn't expected to hurt the company's business model, which relies on charging residents for their use of land — also known as server space on one of Linden Lab's computers.
Jessica Mintz
msnbc.msn.com
Labels: internet games, News
'Elebits' allows the Wii to really shine
As everyone knows by now, it's the motion-sensing controllers that make Nintendo's new Wii the standout gaming machine that it is. What this little white box lacks in the way of visual oomph and processing kapow it vows to make up for by providing innovative game play through the use of the Wii Remote and Nunchuk.
But the question remains: Will game developers be able to create titles that fully capitalize on the machine's unique controllers and, more importantly, use them in truly ground-breaking and gratifying ways? One thing's for sure, if they don't, the Wii will go down in history as something of a novelty toy rather than a serious console contender.
Thankfully, Konami's first offering for the Wii — "Elebits" — is a sure sign that developers and publishers are, in fact, rising to the challenge. This whimsical, original and surprisingly addictive game has players on a mad hunt for tiny, colorful creatures known as Elebits, and has them utilizing both the Remote and the Nunchuk functionality in some truly creative and entertaining ways.
In this game, Elebits give the game world (one that's a lot like our own) the clean energy it needs to run pretty much everything that, in our world, we use electricity, gas and nuclear energy to run.
The story goes that Elebits have lived in harmony with humans for a long time until, one day, lightning strikes, the lights go out and the little devils start acting rather peculiar. (Speaking of the story, you'll have to wade through an opening fairy tale sequence that's cheesily executed and unnecessarily long, but after that the game immediately kicks into gear.)
Once the action gets under way, you play a 10-year-old boy named Kai who's decided to collect as many Elebits as he can using a Capture Gun that not only zaps Elebits but also picks up and manipulates objects around him.
Using the Wii's controls, it feels as though you can physically reach into and manipulate the world itself as you try to find Elebits hiding in drawers, under beds, in closets and outside on city streets, too. They're tricky things, and so you must use the Remote (which controls the boy's gravity-defying gun) to push, pull, lift, turn, twist and shake various objects on the screen and thus uncover the Elebits' secret hiding places and zap them back to where they belong.
Need to open a door? Just turn the Remote in your hand as you would a door knob. Want to pull books off a shelf? Grab hold of them with a click of a button and then yank the Remote backwards as if yanking the books with your hand.
Capture certain Elebits and your gun levels up, becoming more powerful and enabling you to lift ever larger items (a table, a bookshelf, a car) and toss them aside with ease. You quickly find that there's something terribly satisfying about the way in which you can totally ransack a room with a few flicks of the Remote.
And that's the great thing about this game — the controllers feel remarkably good in the hands as you move about and interact with this world, all of it seeming immediately intuitive. For those who do struggle to find their footing with the unusual controls, "Elebits" offers a tutorial, and a rather in-depth one at that. You won't have any trouble playing the game after you've walked through this extensive how-to.
Meanwhile, "Elebits" offers both a single-player story mode, a multiplayer mode (up to four people can compete against each other at one time) and, in a nice bit of added depth, an edit mode that allows you to create and customize your own game levels to play.
Here you can fill a room with objects to search and hidden Elebits to find and then share your creation with other players via Nintendo's online WiiConnect24 service.
No, the game's graphics are not exactly stunning. But again, that's not what the Wii is all about. Instead, thanks to the way "Elebits" incorporates the functionality of the controllers, the game is hugely fun to play, a truly unique offering and one of those titles that manages to keep you wrapped up in it for hours longer than you ever intended.
In short, it's exactly the kind of game that allows the Wii to shine.
Winda Benedetti
msnbc.msn.com
Thankfully, Konami's first offering for the Wii — "Elebits" — is a sure sign that developers and publishers are, in fact, rising to the challenge. This whimsical, original and surprisingly addictive game has players on a mad hunt for tiny, colorful creatures known as Elebits, and has them utilizing both the Remote and the Nunchuk functionality in some truly creative and entertaining ways.
In this game, Elebits give the game world (one that's a lot like our own) the clean energy it needs to run pretty much everything that, in our world, we use electricity, gas and nuclear energy to run.
The story goes that Elebits have lived in harmony with humans for a long time until, one day, lightning strikes, the lights go out and the little devils start acting rather peculiar. (Speaking of the story, you'll have to wade through an opening fairy tale sequence that's cheesily executed and unnecessarily long, but after that the game immediately kicks into gear.)
Once the action gets under way, you play a 10-year-old boy named Kai who's decided to collect as many Elebits as he can using a Capture Gun that not only zaps Elebits but also picks up and manipulates objects around him.
Using the Wii's controls, it feels as though you can physically reach into and manipulate the world itself as you try to find Elebits hiding in drawers, under beds, in closets and outside on city streets, too. They're tricky things, and so you must use the Remote (which controls the boy's gravity-defying gun) to push, pull, lift, turn, twist and shake various objects on the screen and thus uncover the Elebits' secret hiding places and zap them back to where they belong.
Need to open a door? Just turn the Remote in your hand as you would a door knob. Want to pull books off a shelf? Grab hold of them with a click of a button and then yank the Remote backwards as if yanking the books with your hand.
Capture certain Elebits and your gun levels up, becoming more powerful and enabling you to lift ever larger items (a table, a bookshelf, a car) and toss them aside with ease. You quickly find that there's something terribly satisfying about the way in which you can totally ransack a room with a few flicks of the Remote.
And that's the great thing about this game — the controllers feel remarkably good in the hands as you move about and interact with this world, all of it seeming immediately intuitive. For those who do struggle to find their footing with the unusual controls, "Elebits" offers a tutorial, and a rather in-depth one at that. You won't have any trouble playing the game after you've walked through this extensive how-to.
Meanwhile, "Elebits" offers both a single-player story mode, a multiplayer mode (up to four people can compete against each other at one time) and, in a nice bit of added depth, an edit mode that allows you to create and customize your own game levels to play.
Here you can fill a room with objects to search and hidden Elebits to find and then share your creation with other players via Nintendo's online WiiConnect24 service.
No, the game's graphics are not exactly stunning. But again, that's not what the Wii is all about. Instead, thanks to the way "Elebits" incorporates the functionality of the controllers, the game is hugely fun to play, a truly unique offering and one of those titles that manages to keep you wrapped up in it for hours longer than you ever intended.
In short, it's exactly the kind of game that allows the Wii to shine.
Winda Benedetti
msnbc.msn.com
Labels: nintendo wii
Sony ships 1 million PS3s in North America
In an important early look at the pivotal holiday sales season, Sony Corp. said it met its goal of shipping 1 million PlayStation 3 consoles to North America in 2006 despite ongoing production problems with the still hard-to-find video game system.
The figure is about half of Sony's stated goal of 2 million PS3s globally by the end of 2006. The company did not disclose a global tally in the announcement, made at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Sony has dominated previous rounds of the console wars with the PlayStation 1 and 2, but it is still undecided who will grab the lead this time around — the PS3, or its two chief rivals: Nintendo Co.'s Wii and the Xbox 360 from Microsoft Corp.
The PS3's launch had been delayed in the United States from the spring to November, yet supply problems were still evident when it went for sale on Nov. 17.
The company ended up selling 197,000 PS3s on launch day, less than half of the 400,000 it had initially forecast. The market research company NPD Group estimated that U.S. consumers bought 476,000 Wiis in the two weeks following its Nov. 19 launch.
Sony officials have attributed the limited supply to manufacturing glitches with blue laser diodes, the technological heart of the system's high-capacity, high-definition Blu-ray disk drive.
Sony spokesman Dave Karraker said the company has been airlifting additional PS3s each week and will continue to do so through spring, if necessary.
Though updated figures were not available, a Nintendo spokeswoman said the company's earlier prediction to ship 4 million units by the end of the year was still on target.
Microsoft said Sunday it had sold 10.4 million Xbox 360s through the end of 2006. That narrowly beat the company's earlier stated goal of 10 million. The company expects to sell 13-15 million Xbox 360s by the end of its fiscal year in June, Microsoft spokesman David Hufford said.
Both Sony and Nintendo are projecting selling 6 million consoles by the end of March. Sony expects to start shipping the PS3 to Europe sometime that month as well.
Selling machines in large numbers is crucial in the gaming business because it encourages software companies to make more games, which in turn boosts console sales.
Sony controlled the previous generation with 70 percent of the global market, including 35 million PlayStation 2 consoles in the United States. The original Xbox was second with nearly 15 million sold, followed by 11 million Nintendo GameCubes.
At this early stage with the next-generation consoles, Sony isn't concerned if rivals Microsoft or Nintendo end up selling more units because the overall industry is benefiting from very strong demand, Karraker said.
"Are we worried about strong sales of the Wii or Xbox 360? Not really," he said. "It was a great year for the industry overall. With the tide all ships rise."
Matt Slagle
msnbc.msn.com
Sony has dominated previous rounds of the console wars with the PlayStation 1 and 2, but it is still undecided who will grab the lead this time around — the PS3, or its two chief rivals: Nintendo Co.'s Wii and the Xbox 360 from Microsoft Corp.
The PS3's launch had been delayed in the United States from the spring to November, yet supply problems were still evident when it went for sale on Nov. 17.
The company ended up selling 197,000 PS3s on launch day, less than half of the 400,000 it had initially forecast. The market research company NPD Group estimated that U.S. consumers bought 476,000 Wiis in the two weeks following its Nov. 19 launch.
Sony officials have attributed the limited supply to manufacturing glitches with blue laser diodes, the technological heart of the system's high-capacity, high-definition Blu-ray disk drive.
Sony spokesman Dave Karraker said the company has been airlifting additional PS3s each week and will continue to do so through spring, if necessary.
Though updated figures were not available, a Nintendo spokeswoman said the company's earlier prediction to ship 4 million units by the end of the year was still on target.
Microsoft said Sunday it had sold 10.4 million Xbox 360s through the end of 2006. That narrowly beat the company's earlier stated goal of 10 million. The company expects to sell 13-15 million Xbox 360s by the end of its fiscal year in June, Microsoft spokesman David Hufford said.
Both Sony and Nintendo are projecting selling 6 million consoles by the end of March. Sony expects to start shipping the PS3 to Europe sometime that month as well.
Selling machines in large numbers is crucial in the gaming business because it encourages software companies to make more games, which in turn boosts console sales.
Sony controlled the previous generation with 70 percent of the global market, including 35 million PlayStation 2 consoles in the United States. The original Xbox was second with nearly 15 million sold, followed by 11 million Nintendo GameCubes.
At this early stage with the next-generation consoles, Sony isn't concerned if rivals Microsoft or Nintendo end up selling more units because the overall industry is benefiting from very strong demand, Karraker said.
"Are we worried about strong sales of the Wii or Xbox 360? Not really," he said. "It was a great year for the industry overall. With the tide all ships rise."
Matt Slagle
msnbc.msn.com
Labels: PS2 Games
Fool your eyes with two new casual games
Internet games challenge players to kick up observational skills. Perception is a funny thing. No matter how hard we look, sometimes we just can't see what's right in front of us.
Big Fish Games, a top casual game developer, knows this better than anyone. It has a reputation for creating high-quality downloadable computer games that force players to kick up their visual and observational skills. And the company's two latest releases definitely uphold these high standards.
Last month, Big Fish released "Mystery Case Files: Ravenhearst," the third installment in its much-lauded "Mystery Case Files" franchise, a series of visual puzzlers that have gone on to become best sellers. Big Fish also released "Travelogue 360: Paris," a game that puts a new twist on the company's renowned perception puzzles.
And while the flashy new gaming consoles (Wii and PS3) and their flashy new titles have been stealing the spotlight for the last month or so, both of Big Fish Games' new titles can be played by anyone with a computer, an Internet connection and a bit of spare time.
The thrust of the "Mystery Case Files" game play sounds simple: Players must look at an image on their computer screen and try to find a list of objects within that image before the time runs out. But as with all casual games, the seemingly simplest of tasks is significantly more difficult than it appears on the surface.
In "Ravenhearst," players assume the role of a master detective charged with unlocking the hundred-year-old mystery that surrounds Ravenhearst Manor. To do that, you'll have to search 32 rooms, scouring each one for a list of cleverly hidden items. In the kitchen, for example, you'll look for a door knocker, a woman's sandal and a candle snuffer, among other objects. In the garden you'll hunt for a skull, a spade and a cane.
It's a bit like playing an advanced game of "Where's Waldo." The items are all right there in the beautifully rendered illustration on your screen…right in front of your very eyes…but these visual teasers are designed so smartly, the objects you seek seem to be camouflaged to the point of invisibility.
You might sit there hunting for an hourglass or a pistol or a camera for minutes on end only to discover later that you've been looking right at these items from the very beginning without realizing it. The folks at Big Fish designed their game images so that the objects on your list blend in with the hundreds of other curios and knick-knacks that also clutter the picture.
Meanwhile, your list may call for you to find the soldier hidden in the picture, but it's up to you to realize that it's actually a nutcracker dressed like a soldier that you're looking for. The visual trickery is so simple, but you'll find yourself pleasantly stumped time and time again.
At various points throughout the game, you'll have to piece together missing diary pages that slowly reveal the house's history and help you unlock a mystery surrounding a young woman's visit there in 1894. And in a brand new tweak to the "Mystery Case Files" series, you'll also have to figure your way through several shrewdly designed chain-reaction-style puzzles in order to get into the manor's locked rooms.
You're still after hidden items in Big Fish's other release, "Travelogue 360: Paris." But this time, the pictures you must search through are 360-degree panoramic photographs of famous places around Paris.
Given a list of souvenirs to find, you'll have to spin all the way around, look all the way up at the sky and down at your feet to find the objects you need before your time runs out. The game is designed to make you feel as though you're standing right in the middle of the city's most famous locations — the Arc de Triomphe, the Champs-Elysees, Saint Sulpice Church. At the Eiffel Tower, you'll hunt for a ballerina, an easel and a bulldozer. At the Bois de Vincennes, you'll search for a rubber duck, a chandelier and a hobby horse.
Though both games offer high production values with excellent sound design and music to set the mood, "Ravenhearst" is the more appealing (not to mention addicting) of the two. The new multi-part puzzles are an engrossing addition to the playing style and "Ravenhearst" offers at least the threads of a story to keep players interested. The immersive nature of "Travelogue 360's" panoramic photos is a great idea and a fun way to take a quick trip over seas, but the game feels like it lacks the depth and variety of its sibling.
Of course, the nice thing about both games is, you can test them out before you decide whether you want to buy them. Download free trial versions at www.bigfishgames.com. The full version of each costs $19.95.
Winda Benedetti
msnbc.msn.com
Last month, Big Fish released "Mystery Case Files: Ravenhearst," the third installment in its much-lauded "Mystery Case Files" franchise, a series of visual puzzlers that have gone on to become best sellers. Big Fish also released "Travelogue 360: Paris," a game that puts a new twist on the company's renowned perception puzzles.
And while the flashy new gaming consoles (Wii and PS3) and their flashy new titles have been stealing the spotlight for the last month or so, both of Big Fish Games' new titles can be played by anyone with a computer, an Internet connection and a bit of spare time.
The thrust of the "Mystery Case Files" game play sounds simple: Players must look at an image on their computer screen and try to find a list of objects within that image before the time runs out. But as with all casual games, the seemingly simplest of tasks is significantly more difficult than it appears on the surface.
In "Ravenhearst," players assume the role of a master detective charged with unlocking the hundred-year-old mystery that surrounds Ravenhearst Manor. To do that, you'll have to search 32 rooms, scouring each one for a list of cleverly hidden items. In the kitchen, for example, you'll look for a door knocker, a woman's sandal and a candle snuffer, among other objects. In the garden you'll hunt for a skull, a spade and a cane.
It's a bit like playing an advanced game of "Where's Waldo." The items are all right there in the beautifully rendered illustration on your screen…right in front of your very eyes…but these visual teasers are designed so smartly, the objects you seek seem to be camouflaged to the point of invisibility.
You might sit there hunting for an hourglass or a pistol or a camera for minutes on end only to discover later that you've been looking right at these items from the very beginning without realizing it. The folks at Big Fish designed their game images so that the objects on your list blend in with the hundreds of other curios and knick-knacks that also clutter the picture.
Meanwhile, your list may call for you to find the soldier hidden in the picture, but it's up to you to realize that it's actually a nutcracker dressed like a soldier that you're looking for. The visual trickery is so simple, but you'll find yourself pleasantly stumped time and time again.
At various points throughout the game, you'll have to piece together missing diary pages that slowly reveal the house's history and help you unlock a mystery surrounding a young woman's visit there in 1894. And in a brand new tweak to the "Mystery Case Files" series, you'll also have to figure your way through several shrewdly designed chain-reaction-style puzzles in order to get into the manor's locked rooms.
You're still after hidden items in Big Fish's other release, "Travelogue 360: Paris." But this time, the pictures you must search through are 360-degree panoramic photographs of famous places around Paris.
Given a list of souvenirs to find, you'll have to spin all the way around, look all the way up at the sky and down at your feet to find the objects you need before your time runs out. The game is designed to make you feel as though you're standing right in the middle of the city's most famous locations — the Arc de Triomphe, the Champs-Elysees, Saint Sulpice Church. At the Eiffel Tower, you'll hunt for a ballerina, an easel and a bulldozer. At the Bois de Vincennes, you'll search for a rubber duck, a chandelier and a hobby horse.
Though both games offer high production values with excellent sound design and music to set the mood, "Ravenhearst" is the more appealing (not to mention addicting) of the two. The new multi-part puzzles are an engrossing addition to the playing style and "Ravenhearst" offers at least the threads of a story to keep players interested. The immersive nature of "Travelogue 360's" panoramic photos is a great idea and a fun way to take a quick trip over seas, but the game feels like it lacks the depth and variety of its sibling.
Of course, the nice thing about both games is, you can test them out before you decide whether you want to buy them. Download free trial versions at www.bigfishgames.com. The full version of each costs $19.95.
Winda Benedetti
msnbc.msn.com
Labels: internet games
New mouse reacts to onscreen game action
LAS VEGAS - A new mouse expands on technology found in some video game controllers: It reacts to game action on the screen. The $189 Novint Falcon looks like a floating doorknob attached to a three-way axis that resembles a miniature alien space pod.
A demo at the International Consumer Electronics Show allows users to "feel" around a bumpy sphere or pick up a set of balls with a rubber band. Swinging around the balls creates a strange sensation of weight, before the rubber band snaps.
A first-person shooting game makes one feel the impact when the character whacks a crowbar against a wall, or the recoil from a shotgun when firing at an enemy. It's so real, it's hard not to feel a pang of guilt when splattering foes.
The presale version of the mouse, which costs $189 online, comes with a simple game pack. Shipments start June 18.
Novint Technologies Inc. aims to have standard PC games work with the controller in the future.
"The goal is to work with developers so you can make enablers for games that are on the market," said Novint spokeswoman Sabrina Cook.
Ryan Nakashima msnbc.msn.com
A first-person shooting game makes one feel the impact when the character whacks a crowbar against a wall, or the recoil from a shotgun when firing at an enemy. It's so real, it's hard not to feel a pang of guilt when splattering foes.
The presale version of the mouse, which costs $189 online, comes with a simple game pack. Shipments start June 18.
Novint Technologies Inc. aims to have standard PC games work with the controller in the future.
"The goal is to work with developers so you can make enablers for games that are on the market," said Novint spokeswoman Sabrina Cook.
Ryan Nakashima msnbc.msn.com
Labels: News
© Games-Sin / proudly design by Santent > Cerah.NET
