-18 years old (or older), with valid ID
-interested in action, puzzle, and strategy games.
-in the SF Bay Area and free July 10th, from 1-5pm.
-able to travel to the aforementioned fabulous Capcom HQ on your own.

A secret puzzle action strategy game plus prizes and maybe cookies? I could not think of a better way to spend an afternoon. Hit the link for how you can get a chance to do these secret things they wish you to do.

Bay-Area Gamers: Capcom Wants You! [Capcom Blog]

If high school didn't represent some of the most stressful and awkward years of my life, I'd go back in a flash to play this SAT game on my DS! Think of it as Brain Age with a real tangible result. Would you be more likely to prep for the SATs on your DS than through a book or browser?

SAT Prep Game Coming to DS [GamelLife]

If the numbers appear tough to swallow, that's only because they are. Not to insult GamePro's testing methods, but our readers should know that one attempt at a control skewed these results in a major way.

In order to offer each console a fighting chance, testers installed nickel cadmium Duracell batteries...minus the SIXAXIS, which has Lithium Ion built right in. But the numbers are still pretty interesting if you siphon away the contest aspect.

UPDATE: Ahh, got my info backwards. Thanks for pointing it out.

Feature: Which controller has the best battery life? [GamePro]

• Kotaku: Junior High
• Destructoid: Junior High
• PlayStation.blog: Junior High
• GayGamer: Junior High
• MTV Multiplayer: Junior High
• Game|Life: High School
• Slashdot: High School
• Joystiq: College
• Level Up: Genius
• Ars Technica: Genius

Suck ups.

Gaming Blogs Ranked By Readability [gamelife]
Test Here

We have Wii development but it's very small, it's more like testing ideas. We don't have a project at this stage... Nintendo Wii is certainly on the radar, we will do something for Nintendo Wii — the question is when. I think some time maybe in three or four years, but nobody knows when.

Using the Xbox 360 platform it will be possible to target gamers based on behavioral data and distribute alpha and beta game builds to select consoles. Gamers will be able to test these early stage game builds privately in their homes and builds will be rapidly deployed across the network.

It is an interesting concept, surely, and one that could be implemented across all existing platforms. Imagine using data gathered from the Everybody Vote Channel on the Wii to develop a focus group, or tracking PS3 store purchases for a similar purpose? It would be much easier for developers, and of course platform producers would have an entirely new revenue stream to tap into by hosting such services. Sounds like a win all around to me.

The entire article is a fascinating look into the past, present, and one possible future for game concept testing. Hit up the link below, but beware if you are afraid of long words - Owen Davis knows all of them.

Using Xbox Live for Concept Testing [Next Generation]
Image via bits, bytes, pixels and spriteshttp://www.thebbps.com/blog/

If you've ever wanted a seedy look inside the world of video game focus testing, here's your chance. God of War director David Jaffe yesterday live blogged the focus test for the upcoming PS3 title Calling All Cars, formerly Criminal Crackdown. It's a candid look into what goes on in the mind of a developer as people get their hands on his game for the first time.

1:49- Moving to split screen...man tester #5 is a fucking dolt!!! What the hell?!?! He is just driving in circles...not even playing the game...is that fucking spit drooling out of his stupid fucking mouth!?!?! Ahem,well...anyway.... :)

LIVE BLOGGING THE FOCUS TEST [Jaffe's Game Design]

Following the Dead Rising tinytext kerfuffle, Epic Games has announced on their forums that they are specifically testing Gears of War on both SD and HDTVs.

We have been testing GOW quite a lot on small, non-HD TVs to make sure you can read the writing. blockquote>

Heck yeah. Although, as one of the 1up commentors responded, "gotta love when standard test parameters become news." Eliza Gauger

More here [1up]

The following press release landed bleeding and flapping in our tips@ box yesterday:

Huntsville, Alabama. June 26th, 2006. To draw attention to National HIV Testing Day on June 27, 2006, Werd Interactive, Inc. is giving away two different mobile games free.

People need to go to an HIV Test site to get tested. At the test site there will be a printed sheet of instructions to obtain the free game.

Werd Interactive's Managing Director, Randy Shepherd, says, "We want to give people a thank you gift for taking the time to get tested. HIV/AIDS is on the rise and it will take a continuous effort to let people know how to protect themselves from the virus, to encourage testing, and to let them know that if they are infected, there are many places they can go for help."

AIDS Service Organizations and Test centers should contact Randy Shepherd directly for the PDF file so they can print the information to allow free downloads.

E-mail: randy.shepherd@werdinteractive.com

It's a good sign that they sent it to us, it means the stereotype of gamers never getting laid is finally dying out. Or possibly that the stereotype of gamers being a bunch of smack junkies is gaining footing. Either way, hooray for us.

You heard the man, go get stabbed and get your voucher, then download some freeware. I have it on good authority that plenty of clinics offer free AIDS testing in the first place, so basically you get games for nothing.

Hey, maybe they have Furcadia! Eliza Gauger

Just what does it take to be a professional QA bug hunter?

"I suggest having problem solving skills, basic PC software skills, some schooling in an electronic field is a bonus too," says Jai Kristjan, who worked in testing for four years before graduating to junior producer, and is now a designer at Vancouver start-up Slant Six Games. "And the ability to do a mind-numbing, spirit-crushing repetitive task for long periods of time."

Another QA tester comments: "Games testing, as a job, is quite possibly the best way to earn yourself 6 an hour. It definitely beats stacking shelves." But what do you have to do for that 6? "Walking into every single wall in a level to find map holes is just one example of a tester's day in pixel hell."

To summarize: according to this article over at Edge Online, the life of a professional QA tester is directly equivalent to being a character in Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, only you can't expect to get drunk on beer mid-shift, pass out, then be granted release from your toils when a bunch of rats eat off your face. Florian Eckhardt

A Bug's Life [Edge Online] (Thanks, Jane!)

Ran across this profile of Peter Chan, a quality assurance tester at Insomniac Games. The article details how Chan spent eight months playing nothing but Ratchet: Deadlocked. I hope he gets paid a lot. But it beats copyediting Crecente's copy.

Testers: Long hours, single game [Los Angeles Times via the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette]