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Studies Linking Game Violence with Real-World Aggression May All Be Wrong
Studies in the past have found that winning competitions can make you mean, and we’ve all seen the stereotype of the angry gamer yelling at his console. But the latest research on the psychological effects of video games finds that, contrary to popular opinion, what really makes gamers tick is their ability to cooperate and…
By Kate Cox -
Playing Tetris Clones Might Be Good For Your Eyes
Parents worldwide may keep chiding their children for sitting too close to the TV while playing video games, claiming it’ll ruin their vision. But researchers in the UK have figured out a way that bringing the screen closer to the kids can actually treat a common eye condition. Lazy eye (amblyopia) is fairly common in…
By Kate Cox -
Homophobes Slam EA With Thousands of Letters Over Same-Sex Romance
The past year has seen a great deal of discussion about the existence of same-sex romance options in EA and BioWare’s Mass Effect franchise and their MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic One recent, particularly irrational anti-gay “family values” campaign has kicked off a wave of thousands of letters to EA disapproving of the addition…
By Kate Cox -
Kingdoms of Amalur‘s “Teeth of Naros” DLC Will Add Bite to the Game
EA and 38 Studios just keep making the already-sizeable Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning bigger. On the heels of last month’s massive pirate-themed DLC, EA has announced the next bout of content for the game, a forbidding area called the “Teeth of Naros.” The “Teeth of Naros” is named for a troll god, we are told,…
By Kate Cox -
Six Years Ago, I Decided to Hate World of Warcraft. Can Mists of Pandaria Change My Mind?
World of Warcraft and I never did really get along. Since its launch in 2004, I’ve lost track of the number of friends of mine who loved it. They’d tell me breathlessly about their druids, priests, and hunters while extolling the benefits of the Alliance or the Horde. After ages of politely declining to join…
By Kate Cox -
Disney’s Newest Cruise Ship is Practically a Floating Arcade
A cruise can be a great way for a family to unplug from daily demands and distractions, and to bask in the salt air and sunshine. Or, if it’s a Disney cruise on their two newest ships, it can be a chance to play a high def, room-sized, 32-player video game while floating on the…
By Kate Cox -
Ghost Recon: Commander Plans to Make Facebook Your Next Field of Battle
Ubisoft is releasing a number of Ghost Recon games this year. There’s console title Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, free-to-play PC shooter Ghost Recon Online, and now Ghost Recon Commander, a Facebook-based social experience designed to bridge the other games and tie them together. Loot Drop co-founder Brenda Brathwaite revealed the game’s Facebook page via Twitter…
By Kate Cox -
The Next Generation of Core Games is Destined to be Free to Play, Ben Cousins Says
Ben Cousins, formerly of Lionhead, Sony, and EA/DICE, among others, is currently head of a mobile game development team for ngmoco, based out of Sweden. Several weeks ago, at the 2012 Game Developers Conference, he made a provocative and persuasive presentation to the effect that dedicated game consoles were on their way out. More recently,…
By Kate Cox -
Capcom is Proud to Charge You Extra For Game Content That’s on the Disc You Already Paid For
Earlier this month, Capcom drew controversy when Street Fighter X Tekken, released in the US on March 6 and in other regions later that week, proved to have locked, future “DLC” content on the retail launch disc Capcom claimed there were benefits to the disc-based DLC, saying the content on the disc would ensure “compatibility,”…
By Kate Cox -
Kids Spend Less Than 20% of Their Media Time Playing Video Games, Study Finds
It’s become a well-worn truism over the past few years now that video games, far from being “just for kids,” appeal to a wide and diverse audience. The average gamer is in his or her late 30s and has been at it for many, many years. But what of the kids? The current 8-18 set…
By Kate Cox -
US Government Turns To Gamers For New Military and Scientific Solutions
When I think of “DARPA,” and “video games,” my mind leaps to Metal Gear Solid. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), run by the U.S. Department of Defense, has shown up for many years in our games as a shadowy source of implausible technology and machinations. In recent years, however, DARPA has been turning…
By Kate Cox -
A Trampoline: The Newest, Bounciest Game Controller of All
We’ve been combining video games and physical activity for years now. We’ve had the Wii and its Balance Board, Microsoft’s Kinect, and the PlayStation Move. There are mobile apps to make your morning jog into playtime, and systems like Fitocracy to make your workout a friendly competition. But none of these is as fun as…
By Kate Cox -
Long Lost Emulation Easter Egg Discovered in GoldenEye
GoldenEye, for the Nintendo 64, is one of the all-time classics of gaming. Recently, a fan uncovered an Easter egg Rare had buried in GoldenEye‘s code: a fully functional emlulator for the ZX Spectrum system, complete with ten games. Rare, the developer behind GoldenEye, developed a number of games in the early 1980s for the…
By Kate Cox -
Use the Power of Physics to Bounce Through the House in Fibble
Developer Crytek, best known for the system-punishing Crysis PC games, surprised many when they announced their mobile project, Fibble Fibble, which became available for iOS devices yesterday, is a bouncy, cartoonish, colorful casual game. My immediate impression, on playing through the first few levels, was that this is what happens when Angry Birds meets mini…
By Kate Cox -
The Hunger Games Facebook Game Finally Steps Into the Arena
The Hunger Games came out in theaters one week ago, setting new box-office records and drawing millions of eager fans. The film had two tie-in games announced, one on iOS and one on Facebook. The Facebook game didn’t materialize on March 23 as expected, instead launching as a closed beta. With no public word from…
By Kate Cox -
Draw Something Gets Better When It’s Draw Batman
Some players of Draw Something are exceptionally good at it, creating little digital masterpieces for their play partners’ benefit. Then there are players like me, who have the audacity to consider their orange-ish, vaguely four-pronged blobs a reasonable representation of a tiger. And then there’s what happens when a cartoonist by trade, Mathew Digges, starts…
By Kate Cox -
Playing Video Games for a Living is Just as Terrible as It Sounds
Game testing and QA positions can be really rough jobs, as previous lawsuits and even a webcomic attest. Though the testing process is vital to good game development, not all developers or publishers necessarily consider their testers to be vital employees, it seems. IGN spoke with several, recently, seeking to discover where, on the spectrum…
By Kate Cox -
Was the Ending of Mass Effect 3 Telegraphed Five Years Ago?
There are nearly as many different specific complaints about the conclusion of Mass Effect 3 as there are players who’ve completed the game. One of the major recurring points of contention, however, is the way in which the very final sequence of the game seems disconnected from the rest of play and from the series.…
By Kate Cox -
BioShock‘s Ken Levine and FarmVille‘s Mark Pincus are Both Nominees for Time‘s Top 100
Every year, Time magazine rounds up what they call “The TIME 100,” a list of the most influential personalities of the year. In many ways the round-up is simply a rogue’s gallery of “here’s who you probably heard of recently,” but the list is an interesting way to track what seems to be taking precedence…
By Kate Cox
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