- Uncategorized
Gee, Kevin Butler’s Been Awful Quiet Lately
Kevin Butler, the voluble, if fake, PlayStation executive, has nearly 84,000 Twitter followers. His approval rating, if it was measured, would assuredly be sky-high among hardcore gamers. And he has been dead silent since the beginning of the PlayStation Network Outage, now in its third week with no signs of ending. Check his feed: April…
By Owen Good -
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China Unveils the iSec, Its First Game Console
China is closed off to Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo’s consoles, meaning the first console available for sale in that country – aside from the knockoffs, of course – will be home grown. Today the iSec, renamed from the “eBox” announced last year, was unveiled. Made by a Beijing company that’s funded by Lenovo – China’s…
By Owen Good -
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The Family That Plays (Online) Together, Stays Together
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. That sounds like a call any counselor could make, but it’s an important finding in the changing nature of family relationships…
By Owen Good - Uncategorized
PAX 2011 Sold Out of Three-Day Passes
Getting into Penny Arcade Expo’s flagship show in Seattle, on Labor Day weekend, is notoriously difficult if you trek up there without a pass. The three-day variety for PAX 2011 is now officially sold out, according to the expo’s official Twitter feed. They’ve been processing some refunds, freeing up stock incrementally, so there’s an off…
By Owen Good -
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UncategorizedCan You Spot This Guy’s Tell Playing Online Poker with Kinect?
If you can’t spot the sucker in the first 30 seconds of this video, then you are the sucker. In seriousness, Poker Listings’ “Positively Nerd Street” has cooked up online poker controls for Rock Band peripherals, so it was a matter of time before they did something like this. This is not proof of concept.…
By Owen Good - Uncategorized
How Large is L.A. Noire‘s Map?
One of Mafia II‘s drawbacks was the extremely long driving times often required by a map that spread mission points very far apart. L.A. Noire will be twice the size – eight square miles to Empire Bay’s four – and will require 30 minutes to traverse by car. So let’s hope they place the mission…
By Owen Good -
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Concussions will be Rare in Madden NFL 12, and No One Gets Suspended
Madden NFL 12 will present concussions realistically – as realistically as removing a player from the game, forbidding his return, and delivering commentary that highlights the seriousness of the injury. The game will not include suspensions for players who dole them out; nor is there any way to intentionally cause one. Madden executive producer Phil…
By Owen Good -
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- Culture
This Week In The Business: “Difficult to Excuse.”
What’s happened in the business of video games this past week… QUOTE | “Peaked in some respects.” – M2 Research’s Billy Pidgeon on the status of Xbox 360 in the market and the chances that Microsoft announces new hardware at E3 2012 QUOTE | “The market opportunity is there.” – THQ boss Brian Farrell talks…
By Drew Cohen - Uncategorized
The Week in Gaming Apps
Another week in gaming apps has passed, giving us a chance to chomp with Pac-Man, grind some Gears, take our pig for a stroll, and do whatever it is you do with a Destructopus And what do we have there at the end? Is that a Windows Phone 7 game in our list? Why yes,…
By Mike Fahey -
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Video Games are Artistic Enough for Federal Grant Money
For years the National Endowment for the Arts’ has been doling out millions of dollars to innovative television and radio projects about the arts or that could be considered works of art. Starting next year, video games are eligible for some of that sweet, sweet federal grant money. The National Endowment for the Arts has…
By Mike Fahey -
