News, reviews and opinions on all things video game and the technology behind behind it all.
There's also "High Technology," my amusing and poorly drawn comic.
Ahhh Bulletstorm, from unknown, to potential sleeper hit to regular guest star on Cliffy B's Twitter feed, the game's momentum just seems to keep growing. My enthusiasm, on the other hand, maxes out at "curious" at best. While the game does seem to have the potential for some serious fun, I have some issues with the "kill with skill" combat system at the core of most of the hype that ranges from serious potential for fun-killing repetitiveness to the fact that it's not as original as the parties involved would like you to think.
The good folks over at Joystiq have posted a trailer for the forthcoming LIVE and PSN HD re-release of (sorely underappreciated) cult hit Beyond Good & Evil. Since I played the original on PC, the addition of HD resolutions means little to me, but I can get excited about anything that encourages new gamers to discover this little gem and possibly renew interest in a sequel. Now if only someone could post a release date...
According to a recent post on Joystiq, Massachussets Institute of Technology grad student Robert Wang and professor Jovan Popović have devised a system that makes Move, Natal and the Wii look look both imprecise and overpriced.
With a total equipment cost of around $30 (~$25 for a basic webcam and $1-$5 for the Lycra gloves) the setup could bring you that much closer to reenacting everyone's favorite scene from Minority Report. In fact, the original article even mentions that in the subtitle of the article. Apparently the nerds are taking over (author's note: w007!).
The core of this system is the software design...and lots of RAM. Rather than do real time translation of the hand position into a rendered image, the software simply checks the position against a database of hand positions and renders the corresponding image. While this simplifies things on the processor side considerably, the necessary database requires several hundred MB of space in RAM.
Although the RAM requirement isn't an issue for most desktops, it could be a problem for more portable devices. I raise this issue because I immediately thought of something after watching the following demonstration video:
Are you pondering what I'm pondering?
Heavy Rain. More specifically, the Added Reality Interface (ARI) used by FBI agent Norman Jayden.
See what I mean. Also, did anyone else notice a possible Massachusetts accent in Mr. Jayden's voice? Interesting indeed. On a related note, I call dibs on any patents that combine a webcam and LCD glasses into a single device. Especially if it's for the iPod/Phone. Dibs works on the internet, right?
Once again I say that it must be nice to be a professional video game site, as both Joystiq and IGN got some hands-on time with forthcoming Wii title Metroid: Other M. Also nice: being a super-hot intergalactic bounty hunter with an insanely versatile suit of power armor.
While the ridiculous debate over whether the unreleased God of War 3 will surpass the current king of console graphics, Uncharted 2, rages on there is one thing that both games will have in common: a lack of mandatory hard drive install.
Looks like the Playstation 3 is giving developers a gift: more RAM. For those of you inexperienced in the world of modern console gaming, they actually have a lot more in common with PC's than you might think, as in: they have their own Operating Systems. Sony's PS3 had an OS guilty of more memory-hogging than any other OS around, eating up around 120MB of RAM for operation. Since the OS is always running in the background...
Well if the good people of Joystiq are to be believed, and they usually are, February's issue of Game Informer is going to have a 10 page cover story on Halo:Reach. The magazine's website will also leave a bread crumb trail of details for the rest of January throughout it's Halo:Reach section leading up to the issuess publication. These smaller articles will include details on the new game (obviously) as well as a look at the history of the franchise and profiles on employees of both Bungie and 343 Industries, the heir to the Halo mantle. You can check out images of the February Issue of Game Informer's cover right here and pore over them for every detail you can squeeze out.
