Monthly Archives: October 2011

Analysts: Modern Warfare 3 to outsell Battlefield 3

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For the past few months, the war of words between Activision and Electronic Arts over their respective modern military shooters has been intense, to say the least. EA has been eager to unseat Call of Duty from its king-of-the-hill spot and hasn’t shied away from trash talking to do so.

On Tuesday, the company’s best bet to accomplish this — Battlefield 3 — will hit store shelves. And while EA’s marketing machine is about to go into overdrive, analysts say the fight may be over before it starts.

Read more at Yahoo! Games

Apple TV rumors go into overdrive

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The long standing whisper in the consumer electronics space has been that Apple is working to find a way to innovate in the television industry as radically as it had impacted the music, telecommunications and tablet fields.

Now, with the launch of Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs, those whispers are becoming a roar.

Read more at Variety’s Technotainment blog

Is Microsoft’s Kinect Kids Program Coming Too Late?

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Gamasutra editor-at-large Chris Morris considers if Microsoft “might be making its move a little too late to corral the kiddie audience” with its recent unveiling of kid-friendly Kinect partnerships.

The introduction of the Kinect For Kids initiative certainly sounds wise, given the company’s push in that direction. After all, who can argue with creating family-friendly titles with some of the biggest names in family entertainment?

The problem is: When you look at Microsoft’s longer-term goals, things become a bit squishier.

Read more at Gamasutra

It’s all in your head: Researchers demonstrate thought-controlled gaming

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Forget Kinect. Scientists have now found a way to literally make you the controller in video games.

A study on human-computer interfaces at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Emerging Technology Conference this week included visual evidence of test subjects controlling games via electrodes attached to the surface of their brains — completely redefining the term “head shot.”

Read more at Yahoo! Games

Nintendo ramps up video streaming

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Nintendo, which shied away from offering multimedia devices until long after its competitors, is getting more serious about video streaming.

The company has announced that its 3DS handheld system and the Wii will add Hulu Plus to their options before the end of the year. (No exact date was announced.)

Read more at Variety’s Technotainment blog

5 cool features of the next wave of smart phones

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Five years ago, the features of today’s smart phones seemed the stuff of science fiction. Functions like voice-activated controls, high-definition cameras and video calls were largely considered geek daydreams, but the breathtaking evolution of the devices has turned them into reality seemingly overnight.

That’s what makes the future so exciting for smart phones. No dream is too big. The better question, now, is when some kooky new feature will become reality. And in a lot of cases, it might not be too long.

Read more at Yahoo! Games

MC Hammer vs. Google

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Taking on the undisputed leader in online search might seem like a fool’s mission for any company, regardless of size, but MC Hammer says when it comes to searches that go beyond keywords, Google can’t touch what he has planned.

The 80s rapper, real name Stanley Burrell, has spent the past two years working on WireDoo, a search engine he recently introduced at the Web 2.0 summit in San Francisco – and hopes will become the new standard for web inquries.

Read more at Variety’s Technotainment blog

App Review: Scribblenauts Remix

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The Scribblenauts series is one of the most unique to come along in years, so it’s delightful to see it make its debut on iDevices. Scribblenauts Remix is a best-of game, combining the highlights of the first two Nintendo DS titles (along with 10 new puzzles) and the offering a wonderful mix as a result. Veteran players know the drill, but newcomers to the game will be astonished at the wide variety of ways they can solve puzzles. (It is, in fact, just as fun to play with the game’s dictionary to come up with ideas as it is to solve the puzzle.)

Some of the puzzles are tough, but an integrated clue system will help people along. The real joy in the game, though, comes from seeing how creative you can be in your answers. Climbing a ladder up a tree to get a star is easy and obvious, but it’s so much more fun to ride a friendly dragon to the top to retrieve it. If you’re not playing this, you’re doing yourself a disservice.

Read more at Common Sense Media

For sale: Ultima creator’s Texas castle

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Richard Garriott has always lived in a slightly different world than the rest of us. He’s the creator of the revolutionary Ultima role-playing series. He’s an astronaut. And he lives in one of the coolest houses in Texas.

Or used to live there, at least.

Garriott’s epic digs can now be yours — if you’ve got a spare $4 million lying around.

Read more at Yahoo! Games

App Review: Stupidness 3 Pro

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Occasional trick questions in a game that puts itself forward as an IQ test are to be expected. But loading the game with them obliterates any fun factor — and Stupidness 3 Pro is virtually nothing but tricks. It’s meant as a light-hearted nudge at trivia games, but it quickly becomes an exercise in frustration and temper control. Sure you can buy answers (at the cost of “IQ points”), but when you see the answer has nothing to do with the actual question, you’ll only get more frustrated. While you have to acknowledge the creativity that went into designing the puzzles, this is a game that appeals to an incredibly narrow audience. The free version will be more than enough for most.

Read more at Common Sense Media