Monthly Archives: December 2010

Real life love story becomes video game

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Video game designers generally don’t look to their grandparents for inspiration when they’re putting together a game, but for Cara Ely, there really wasn’t a better choice.

As creative director at I-Play games and the overseer of the “Dream Day Wedding” series, Ely had long loved the story of how her grandparents met, had a whirlwind courtship and married – though she wasn’t sure if the larger gaming world would. But when she told the story to her development team, they loved it. The result was “Dream Day: True Love”.

Read more at Yahoo! Videogames

The Year In Review: Game Biz Analysts On The Worst Happenings Of 2010

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Having picked the brains of Wall Street analysts on the best things to happen in the video game industry in 2010, there was no way we were going to let them go without talking about the worst as well.

This year, after all, might end in positive territory when all is said and done, but it’s going to be tough to look at it as a winner from several perspectives. Retail sales continue to spiral and developer-publisher relations took another blow to the chin. Meanwhile, stock prices of publicly traded game companies continued to lag.

Here’s what the analysts thought went wrong in 2010.

Read more at Gamasutra

Last minute tech gifts 2010: SoundFreaq SFQ-01

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Note: As the holidays reach fever pitch, Technotainment will be offering some last minute gadget gift suggestions this week. If you haven’t already, be sure to check out our more complete gift guide that ran in the paper right around Thanksgiving for several other ideas for the tech hound on your list. Happy holidays to all.

SoundFreaq SFQ-01 – iPod speaker docks are pretty commonplace these days, so unless a device really stands above the crowd, it’s hard to recommend it. The SoundFreaq SFQ manages to do so.

Know going in that this hefty speaker system isn’t the best on the market – and, at $200, isn’t the cheapest – but it does have a number of features that make it stand out. The integrated FM radio and ability to stream music via Bluetooth or aux-in is nice. And the sound quality is infinitely better than the iPhone or iPad’s internal speaker.

Read more at Variety’s Technotainment blog

Last minute tech gifts 2010: Astro A*Star Ear Buds

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Note: As the holidays reach fever pitch, Technotainment will be offering some last minute gadget gift suggestions this week. If you haven’t already, be sure to check out our more complete gift guide that ran in the paper right around Thanksgiving for several other ideas for the tech hound on your list. Happy holidays to all.

Astro A*Star Ear Buds – Astro has already made one great product for audiophiles this year – the A30 headset. But as portability becomes the watchword in so many forms of entertainment, the company has pivoted and added Ear Buds to its product line.

At $80, the A*Star buds aren’t cheap – but they’re less than several competing brands. And, like the A30s, they provide a high quality sound experience with a heavy bass and nuanced range. No matter how loud I cranked up the volume there was no distortion.

Read more at Variety’s Technotainment blog

Time For a Second Look at Take-Two?

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Take-Two didn’t just surpass analyst’s expectations for its fiscal fourth quarter yesterday; it crushed them. And in the process, it did something observers and investors have been hoping it could pull off for a decade: It turned an annual profit in a year with no new “Grand Theft Auto” in its catalog.

t’s a monumental achievement for a company that has been accused for years of being a one-trick pony. And it has investors wondering if the time has come to reconsider investing in Take-Two.

Read more at CNBC.com

CES 2011: Panasonic will let you record TV to SD cards

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The trickle of pre-CES news has been fairly dull stuff so far, but Panasonic has taken things up a level with an announcement out of Japan this morning.

The company plans to introduce a new line of Viera TV sets that will allow users to record HD television programming directly onto an SD, SDHD or SDXC memory card (the same kinds found in most digital cameras).

Read more at Variety’s Technotainment blog

The Year In Review: Game Biz Analysts On The Best Happenings Of 2010

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[Gamasutra asked a half-dozen of the most notable game industry analysts about the best and worst things to happen to the game industry this year — with some intriguing and unexpected responses.]

Wall Street analysts spend most of their time looking forward – trying to predict future trends and events in the video game industry. Rather than having them pull out crystal balls as we inch towards 2011, we thought it would be interesting to ask them to look in their rear view mirrors and give their thoughts on the year that was.

We start on a positive note – looking at the best changes of the year. (The group’s thoughts on what went wrong will run next week.)

Read more at Gamasutra

Watching music videos on your iPad just got easier

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Watching music videos on your iPad so far has been a hit and miss affair. The best course of action has been shuffling through YouTube and crossing your fingers.

Now, Vevo – which is one of the clearinghouse sites for music videos – has launched a dedicated iPad app, letting those folks who miss their MTV to get their fill with more than 25,000 to choose from.

Read more at Variety’s Technotainment blog

App review: Jenga

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Jenga doesn’t seem a natural fit for an app, but NaturalMotion does a terrific job of building an electronic version of this classic — thanks in large part to its terrific physics engine, which causes the blocks to react as they would in the real world. Is it more fun than the game you play with friends around a table? No. But it’s as close as you can come. The pass and play mode is the best mode — since playing Jenga alone isn’t a fulfilling experience. And the new arcade mode, with colors and a timer, is a great spin on the single player game that makes it fun to play when you’re alone. Game Center functionality or some other way to play with friends who aren’t in the immedate room would have been welcome, but at its core, this is a terrific game.

Read more at Common Sense Media


App review: Homerun Battle 3D

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Homerun Battle 3D doesn’t have a license from Major League Baseball and doesn’t need one. The focus on hitting balls deep into the stands and the number of perks you can get with special balls — such as gold ones, which let you alter your appearance when you’ve hit enough homeruns with them — make this a great combination of arcade and role playing. The multiplayer mode is safe and a showcase of how matchmaking should be. The only downside is there’s no way to transfer your player’s progress between the iPad HD version and the separate iPhone and iPod Touch version — meaning you not only have to pay twice, all the work you put into the game on one platform won’t help you on another.

Read more at Common Sense Media