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A new console generation is almost upon us, not to mention a new era in PC gaming fidelity. We know better graphics are coming, but just what do those better graphics actually look like? More »
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When I was a kid, on long road trips I had to look out the window and like it. When I worked in childcare, kids would go home with a Game Boy in their hands. My kids, of course, might ride with something even cooler: games on their car windows. More »
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Is gaming addiction a real psychological affliction that should be recognized by the American Psychiatric Association? According to some studies as many as ten percent of all gamers could be considered gaming addicts. A new study from Texas A&M's Christopher J. Ferguson explains how those studies are doing it wrong. More »
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You gotta know when to hold them, know when to fold then and know when to press X. According to new research, teenage players who game a considerable amount have an enlarged area of the brain's "reward hub", the area with a high concentration of dopamine. More »
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In Metal Gear Solid IV, Snake has a little robot companion called the Metal Gear Mk. II. And one day, you might have one of your own. More »
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The National Science Foundation is funding a project at N.C. State University [pictured above] to develop a video game that helps improve computer science knowledge retention in middle school kids. More »
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I was under the impression that it took a creative person to fully appreciate everything video games have to offer. According to recent research conducted at Michigan State University, I may have had that backwards. Does playing video games make you more creative? More »
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Video games might be the key to fighting off some of the debilitating symptoms of Parkinson's Disease, according to research results released this week. More »
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Research carried out by Nottingham Trent University, and which is soon to be published in the International Journal of Cyber Behaviour, Psychology and Learning, says that hardcore video gamers are having trouble distinguishing the real world from the virtual one. More »
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Because of the way its camera depicts what it sees, Kinect is being used by researchers to monitor elderly patients for their risk of a fall while still respecting their privacy. The device is helping the University of Missouri's independent living community predict health risks 10 to 14 days before their most serious symptoms manifest. More »
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Do violent video games cause aggressive behavior? According to a recent report published in the journal Psychology of Violence, the competitive aspect of gaming is more likely to generate aggro than mere violence. All this from a bunch of university students, some video games, and some hot sauce. Science is an amazing thing. More »
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Like most countries, download speeds in the US vary from city to city. Unlike most other countries, though, the United States is huge, meaning those differences can be, well, just as huge. More »
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The notion of the "Uncanny Valley", where artificial people are more disturbing the closer they come to "reality", has been around for ages. But now, thanks to a research team in San Diego, it's bonafide science. More »
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A team of researchers at Stanford University are living the dream: they've used Kinect and a robot arm not to cure disease or solve the energy crisis, but to build something for lightsaber practice. More »
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Starting from nothing, a computer taught itself to read the instruction manual for Civilization and saw its rate of victory jump from 46 percent to 79 percent. More »
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World of Warcraft players be wary. Big Brother may be watching. Game developers may start paying closer attention to your gameplay in order to predict your next move. More »
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While they've got nothing to show and aren't even sure it's going to happen, Gearbox Software and SEGA want everyone to know that there's a chance Aliens: Colonial Marines might appear on the Wii U, possibly. More »
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Most people just aren't interested in watching video games. They'd rather be playing them. So why is strategy juggernaut StarCraft such an exception to the rule? More »
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If you've ever closed your eyes and seen tetrominoes falling into place, or Angry Birds slamming into stone walls, you're experiencing "game transfer phenomena," and it involves more than mentally playing a game long after it's finished. More »
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Research suggests that family communication improves if the group are playing online video games together, but if a single member is gaming, it suffers greatly as the gaming becomes a substitute for healthy communication. More »
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In the dark times, before the internet and video games, British children played outside. Now? They don't! More »
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Poring over the data, sifting through more than 1,700 specimens, a team of MIT researchers is, as we speak, cataloging the species known as the sports gamer. The data is, so far, unsurprising. More »
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For about a year, Crytek has offered universities a free license to its CryEngine 3, the guts of this month's big release, Crysis 2. Since it made the offer more than 250 universities have asked for the code, the studio reports. More »
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When its not crunching data brought back by spy plane missions, the US Air Force's PlayStation 3 super-computer (nicknamed "Condor") is now being loaned out to universities so they can crunch slightly less dangerous data. More »
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So says a Canadian-led study, reports the National Post. According to the study, video games actually compel individuals to consume more food - even if they are not hungry. More »
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Evaluated against two other dedicated pedometers, the Pokéwalker - an add-on device for the HeartGold and SoulSilver Pokémon titles - is the most accurate device for counting steps, according to researchers at Iowa State University. More »
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In today's episode of Speak-Up on Kotaku, commenter Phantomlink ponders the research that goes into buying a new game, and proffers a mathematical formula for determining if a game was worth your time and money. More »
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A researcher at Oxford University queried adults who were 16 years old in 1986 and found a correlation between an interest in video gaming and a lower likelihood of going on to college. More »
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Researchers at a government-funded laboratory have built a giant touchscreen video game that simulates the capture of illegal aliens. In a statement made to Kotaku by an official spokesman, the entire project and underlying systems cost "in the ballpark of $10 million [worth] of internal investments," with the Department of Homeland Security's Customs and Border Protection contributing the final $1 million to create their border simulator. More »
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Microsoft's research team in Cambridge has published a paper outlining several ways the speed and accuracy of Kinect can be improved. Lucky Kinect is also made by Microsoft! More »
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Hey, Farmville fans. When you log on and plant seeds, you're not actually enjoying a game. You're stuck in what's called the "Sunk Cost Fallacy". More »
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Researchers at a German university have built an apparatus that, while clunky in its proof-of-concept stage, could assist the blind as they cross streets, walk down hallways and open doors. It uses the Kinect as a sensor. More »
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The University of Minnesota has saved more than $100,000 in research funds by using the Xbox 360 Kinect to aid in research on the diagnoses of mental disorders in children, according to a Minnesota Daily and AP report. More »
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The games development research lab GAMBIT, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has launched a study of sports video gamers, one a researcher believes will be the first comprehensive, independent examination of a very large video game segment, but one often seen as an outlier to the wider culture. More »
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Research that last year suggested gamers had the ability to control their dreams - or fight back in nightmares - has been applied to soldiers who have seen combat duty, and finds that those who game have fewer and less intense nightmares about war. More »
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An earthquake fixed attention and sympathy this week on New Zealand, where more than 100 died and more than 200 still are missing. Authorities probing the rubble surrounding Christchurch find some buildings too unsafe to enter. A Kinect-enabled robot, developed by British researchers, could help in such situations. More »
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If you've ever felt like comparing how much money a "traditional" video game makes as opposed to how much a Facebook game makes, check out this chart. It makes for interesting/depressing reading. More »
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As with all electronic devices, the Nintendo 3DS went through a prototyping stage. Thing is, the unused prototype unit you see here looks way better than the final, retail design. More »
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The United States has been growing increasingly more obese over the past few decades, and video games are often cited as one of the key factors behind this meteoric rise in pounds-per-person. Now researchers say that isn't necessarily true. More »
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In a survey that's sure to be taken the wrong way by somebody, researchers at the Yale School of Medicine have discovered links between "problematic gaming" and negative health behaviors like smoking, doing drugs, and fighting. But first, good news! More »
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