Project Natal Looms Ahead

 

Project Natal, Microsoft's bid to combat the huge popularity of the Wii was recently showcased at E3 2009. This advancement for the Xbox 360 platform, based on Israeli military technology, boasts a "controller-free gaming and entertainment experience". The device, which looks like a thin black external hardrive, is capable of full motion body capture, facial recognition, and voice recognition. To accomplish this, Natal is equipped with an rgb camera, multi-array microphone, depth sensor and custom propriety software. The device is meant to be placed on the top of your tv and completely discards the need for a control. This control-less factor is sure to be Microsoft's selling point for the console.

 

The emergence of the Wii and its meteoric success has shown everyone the future of the gaming industry. A more interactive, less restrictive future that meshes the player deeper into the gameplay itself. The gaming industry is continually breaking new ground and the need for a controller seems to be growing more obsolete as we speak. Who else is seeing virtual reality gaming a real possibility in maybe the next decade? 

 

Dragonica is a 3D side scrolling arcade game. For most players, think of it like a 3D Maplestory with the same 4 classes(Warrior,Thief,Archer,and Mage). Dragonica focuses on doing missions which is difficult later on the game if you dont form a party with other people. The thing that caught my interest in the game was the skill tree in each classes. Everytime you level, you dont just get 1 skill point, but 20. Each skill requirements to level it up can be 10,15, or even 20. Because it has 20 skil points, you can make a nice, strong, complex build depending on your class. Another thing i notice is that the only decent way to kill monsters fast is to skill spam.

Now on to the pros and cons of the classes.....

 The first class of course is the warrior. The availble job advancements are Gladiator and Knight.

Pros:

 Highest amount of life of all classesDoes highest damage of all classes early in the gameOnly class that can "actually" tankGreat defense

Cons:

Has no AoE skills until a bit later onHas no strong far range skillsToo many players has chosen warriorNo Buffs until next jobLow MP

This class from the looks is the Thief. The two job advancements are Jester and A

Battle of Destiny is an MMO that was just released by Cubizone. It is another attempt at a 2D side scrolling MMO but completely different from those brought to you by MapleStory and Nexon. It plays more like a classical side scroller such as Turtles in Time or Streets of Rage from 2 console generations ago. For some reason, I feel that this MMO is poorly put together.

Story:

You are some new adventurer who just arrived on a boat. Prepare for your epic journey of some kind.

Graphics:

The graphics are in 2D for the most part but it looks very nice. There is a lack of character customization and equipment doesn't really show other than your weapon. Some heavier armor shows, but a lot of items don't seem to change the look of your character. If you want some items to show you have to do it through an NPC which can be annoying at times. Skill effects look great and there is a nice diversity for monsters, but for players, not so much. If you want to look different, you need to obtain Fashion items which will most likely be from the item mall.

Gameplay:

Character creation is basic. You start with a name and a basic weapon and then choose a hair style, hair color, and clothing color. Your basi

 

A research study at the University of Arkansas has indicated that excessive gaming interferes with sleep. Thank goodness that mystery has finally been solved.

Research studies sound like a great deal of fun. You get to arbitrarily assign values and definitions and then cull data based on those arbitrary assignments in order to get obvious answers! Take this University of Arkansas study, which was presented at the 23rd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies on Monday, surveyed 137 students - 87 females and 50 non-females, you know, to preserve balance...somehow. They then separated the results for excessive gamers from the casual or non-gamers, defining excessive as those who spend more than 7 hours a week playing computer games or using the internet.

My mother spends over seven hours a week using the internet. By this study's standards, my mom is hardcore.

Principal investigator Amanda Woolems indicated that previous research has determined that excessive gamers spend less time in bed. True, though I'd say that depends on the frequency of save points in whatever game I might be playing at the time and whether or not I've fallen asleep in m

Back in 1993, when the revolutionary first person shooter, Doom, was released, a game could be made by eleven people with a budget that was probably around $200,000. Today, the production of a video game can cost upwards of tens of millions of dollars and sometimes takes over 5 years to develop. Releasing an A-list title is a massive business undertaking, employing hundreds or thousands of people. An incredible amount of risk is involved in releasing a title. Big name publishers lean towards releasing sequels and safer titles that appeal to a broader audience.

Sometimes an ambitious game developer will completely overrun its budget and development time. Sometimes this results in an epic title that breaks all the rules set before it. More often than not, it results in poor reviews, poor sales and a disappointing game.

 

Arguably one of the latter, the most expensive video game, until recently, was a Sega Dreamcast game called Shenmue. Released in 1999,the project cost over $70 million and took over 7 years to complete.It was produced and directed by Yu Suzuki for the Sega-AM2 (Sega Amusement Machine Research and Development Department 2). Shenmue boasted unparalleled freedom and

 

It is every man's fantasy to hold a gun and use it. Those that actually try to make that fantasy a reality usually find themselves in the Army or in jail, or worse, whilst others rely on other methods to fulfil that dream.

 

Enter Alliance of Valiant Arms, which is one of the latest online FPS. I will be talking about the Japanese version, which is the only version I can access and understand, to a certain degree. Hey, what is there to understand about a shooter? You aim and shoot, no?

Alliance of Valiant Arms, or A.V.A for short, is a Korean made online FPS that uses the Unreal Engine 3, which is probably the first for it's genre and region. It has been in "public-playable" status in Korea for quite awhile, but has only been recently available to Japan. The visuals and eye-candy does look spectacular as a result, just don't expect your grandmother's computer, nor your father's work computer to run it.

The game plays like most standard online FPS from Korea, but with a few major differences. Starting off, there are 3 classes available to you to use at anytime, save during actual combat itself. That would be the Pointman, the Rifleman and the&nbs

De-Andre Finley, a 11-year-old Mississippi boy has accidentally killed his nine-year-old brother with a shotgun after a fight over video game. According to Kenny Dickerson, the Marshall County Sheriff, "The younger brother allegedly got mad because he got beat at some video games and got the gun." at the same time, their father was outside mowing the lawn.

The older brother, De-Andre Finley, admitted the weapon automatically went off when the two tussled over it. The story coincides with police investigations which have stated the weapon was too long and too heavy for the young boy to fire. "That version we can live with because it's consistent with the evidence," the police added.

Police said it is unlikely the older brother will be charged because he is under 13, and "it appeared to be an accident anyway".

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Well, I have to say..it's weird, why the shotgun was put so close to the two boys, and gosh, loaded? His father should be responsible for his child's death. And another thing, accident? It may be, but since the older brother held the gun in his hands, I don't think&n

There were stories floating around several years back about young kids playing with fake guns causing a big commotion when the police thought they were the real deal. Well, this story from Komo News is sort of like the geek version of that whole fuss. Here’s how it went down:
A guy named Jay was taking part in a “Zombie Crawl”, an event which leads up to an upcoming horror convention in the Seattle area. The idea was to come dressed and made up as a zombie… harmless fun, right? Well Jay made an interesting choice and decided to cosplay as an Umbrella soldier from the zombie-infested Resident Evil series. The getup included everything you might expect to find on a commando: fake grenades, a fake combat knife, an assault rifle, as well as the whole paramilitary getup. Considering he was one of the first people to arrive at the event, and he wasn’t a zombie per se, it’s not too surprising what happened next.

A store owner was worried the man was an armed gunman coming to rob the place or do something even worse. Cops were called and they came… with force. A veritable army of police deployed from around a dozen cars and quickly took Jay i

Again, the latest updates of Japan's sex gaming industry, seems some real action will be taken to deal with porn games now. However that's what I'm not willing to see.

Emboldened by their success in turning over the craven eroge industry, Japan’s own spineless politicians are once again obediently heeding international demands for a complete ban on artistic depictions of minors engaged in sexual activity.

The latest assault on the artistic freedoms guaranteed by the Japanese Constitution comes from the Komeito (”Clean Government Party”), which exclusively represents the interests of a Buddhist cult, the Sokka Gakkai, and consequently is a great fan of censorship and attempting to legislate public morality. UNICEF Japan honcho Agnes Chan herself is a member of the cult.

Responding to the usual outrageous international claims that Japan is causing child abuse and encouraging lolicon in other countries with its liberal laws on pornography, the Komeito obediently proclaimed that Japan should obey these demands:

“Being called ‘a child porn power’ is shameful and we must act to rectify this by an immediate revision of the law. The Diet must immediately

The 1/1 scale statue of the Gundam RX-78-2 being built in Odaiba as part of Gundam’s 30th anniversary celebrations now appears to be completed in all but name, as this extensive photoshoot of the famed mecha shows in glorious detail:

Via punynari, an otaku-sailor who posted these photos on his site, Moe Passion.

The Gundam is planned to be unveiled on July 11, and be shown until August 31st.

I read it from here: http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2009/06/10/life-size-gundam-rx-78-2-completed/