About a year ago I was contacted by Paul Harrison, a freelance writer for GamesTM, a UK based gaming news site/magazine that's distributed mainly in the UK and Germany, to do a story about religion in games and a bit about XrucifiX. I'm unsure if the article was ever posted, I tried contacting Paul several times after we did the interview, but I haven't heard from him since. If you're reading this Paul; cheers on the great questions, I rather enjoyed the interview.
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Eternal War had an interest theme of suicide prevention. Can you talk about how that theme fitted into both gaming and religion?
The theme was based on my own personal experiences and personal experiences of friends, acquittances and research done. We wanted a strong action centered title (we love action titles like Doom, Half Life, Call of Duty, etc.) that presented a message of giving people an alternative to killing themselves. I'm not sure why such a heavy theme was settled on, but I felt lead to it. We'll be touching on it again with our next story and then probably down the road as well. Through our limited development knowledge, resources and tools we pulled something off unique within games based on a religious principal and judging from the mail we?ve received it?s had a positive impact on people. To me, that?s all what matters.
The agenda of Assassin's Creed 2 is an interesting one. I'm sure everyone has noted the disclaimer at the beginning, which says, ""Inspired by historical events and characters. This work of fiction was designed, developed, and produced by a multicultural team of various religious faiths and beliefs." Maybe it?s true that people of various faiths developed this game, but I doubt any of them were writers for the game.
Speaking of disclaimers, this entire blog post will contain spoilers...
Now you may think I'm here to rant and rave about the unlockable video called The Truth, which is unlocked by finding symbols carved onto famous Italian architecture and solving the puzzles (some of which required you to know Sumerian numerology!).
We all know there are bacteria, pathogens and other microscopic organisms in our bodies right now that can kill you. As long as each of those simple life forms stays in the region of the body they?re supposed to, they're not a threat.
However, if they spread or move out of their ?designated area? ? that?s where the trouble begins. For instance if the e-coli bacteria in your lower intestines was somehow introduced farther up your digestive track there is a strong likelihood that you would get very sick and even die ? that is a fact of this life we live. That potential for death abides in all of us right now, that?s how we were created.
As we all know and heard from E3 this year, EA has released a multiplayer beta for the PC, PS3, and the Xbox 360. I was lucky enough to get my hands on the beta for the PS3, and honestly I was quite impressed on what I?ve played. After 4 hours or so of play time, I am ready to give my impressions of EA?s Medal of Honor, which could be its last chance to redeem itself.
As soon as I started my first match, I said to myself this reminds me a lot like Battlefield Bad Company. Well that should come as no surprise considering DICE is doing the multiplayer aspect of the game, while EA LA works on the singleplayer. It was obvious EA wanted to get potentially the best of the best when they went after DICE for the online, as I?m sure they know as well that they have to keep up with the big boys this holiday season.
I know for sure that by now, anyone who follows video games, either it be the games itself, the companies around them, or the peripherals, know about the new handheld upgrade coming from Nintendo. Why it was the one item that shined and took E3 2010 earlier this year and by what is being shown now, it seems the big hitter for this year will be the Nintendo 3DS when it releases in the late first or early second quarter of next year.
To start this spotlight, I believe it is best to describe what went down during the Nintendo Press Conference at E3 2010 when the 3DS was shown off with a lot of bells and whistles that actually were lustrous eye candy that had functionality.
I like my video games like I like my martini, shaken and not stirred on the rocks with no miniature umbrellas! (Insert smiley face here!) Anyways, there are multiple links on multiple gaming sites including major gaming review sites have started to post up a blog per se about the correlative between video game and booze. The Drunken Moogle is a website ? mostly a blog ? that has the Drunken Moogle (who I will call them for now) talking about the relevance on the forementioned topic.
Topics include tumblers and shot glasses decorated with video game art like a grog mug inspired by the World of Warcraft Series or shot glasses inspired by the Metal Gear Solid Series. There are just loads and loads of video game inspired drinking products like shot glasses, mugs, shakers, and such in usually the Drunken Moogle will scour the internet for sites that makes this awesomeness and even video game inspired drinking games like the one based off of Mario where the person who falls into a hole has to take a shot.
During E3 2010, Activision ? though in hot water as of late ? showcased many games but the one game that seemed to turn the most heads even more so than the upcoming installment in the Call of Duty Series was DJ Hero 2. Fortunately for many people who attended, they not only got to see how the game would look but also got to see how it played and there are two major improvements from the original that were very visible with this game.
The first improvement has got to be options within gameplay as well as gameplay. In the first game, it was pretty much play through and have fun but there was no real story behind the game but to unlock stuff per se songs, turntables, outfits, et cetera. In the latest sequel, there will now be a campaign mode known as ?Empire Mode? where you play as a DJ rising within the empire world of the DJ. This adds a more unique experience when playing this game as well as a new perspective as well.
Rich Franklin cornered the man who challenged him and launched a looping kick that caught him on his jaw. The man's face flushed red, and his knees wobbled. Franklin moved in, pounding his opponent with haymakers until he collapsed, grimacing.
Franklin, an Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight, had just scored another victory. The chiseled fighter took the ringside microphone and faced the roaring crowd.
"I want to say thanks to God, all praise to him," he said. Then he bowed and folded his hands in prayer as his groggy opponent was led outside the ring.
Was it Franklin's right hand or was it the hand of God that helped him smite his opponent? Ringside viewers may disagree, but God seems to be standing in the corner of a lot of victorious athletes these days.
Many an Indie game developer dreams of making their own MMO to topple World of Warcraft. The new deal for Hero Engine makes this dream closer to reality...but not by much.
You need: +) $5000 for 25 person team licenses (no singles available) +) $1000 per year for maintenance fees (they cover server hosting) +) Willing to give 15% of your revenue to them as royalties
This is the same engine that Bioware is using for Star Wars: The Old Republic and that Zenimax Online is using for their title.
The 9th Annual Christian Game Developers Conference is scheduled for July 15 through 17, 2010, at Concordia University in Portland, Oregon. The venue is located close to the Portland Airport (PDX) and shuttle rides will be provided on certain days and times. Check http://cgdc.org for updates and to register.
CGDC is the only gathering of Christian game developers that are focused on creating games, encouraging one another to do good works, teaching, and networking. Attendees can display their game projects and help each other get from concept to market. Sponsors will also have booths representing their companies.
Microsoft has now come up with a different direction promoting Project Natal and one of the big things they have done is renaming it to Kinect. At E3 2010, Microsoft spared no expense showing off not just the newest lineup of upcoming games and even a brand new sleeker version of the Xbox 360, but the real showstopper was easily Kinect.
Just like they said they would, Microsoft featured the rebranded peripheral with Cirque du Soleil and showed a lot more than just the fancy motion capture camera. First off, the new peripheral is very stylish but stylish to the extent of the release of the new slim version of the Xbox 360 which also was also showcased at the Microsoft Press Release. Next, were the specifics.
We?ve been waiting a very long time for Alan Wake. Heralded as a corner stone of Microsoft?s original IP, Alan Wake has appeared and reappeared on the radar of gamers so many times that most didn?t believe when a firm release date was set.
Well rest your weary heads because Alan Wake has been released to the public and we can all finally experience was Remedy studios have been crafting all these years. It?s not hard to understand that the makers of Max Payne had a lot of freedom and time to create this game, but did they deliver? Is Alan Wake?s glory written in the stars, or is it scribbled among the failures of history?
The biggest RTS in the making, Starcraft II : Wings Of Liberty, will touch down on PC?s this July 27th, and we were lucky enough to get some playtime in the beta.
Have you jumped in yet? Can you still Zerg rush? How is Battle.Net 2.o? Are there any new features, or is this just a prettier same old ball of Zerg wax? We?ll try to answer all your questions in our hands-on review of the Starcraft II Beta.
Summer is almost here. Tanning on the beach, soft sand, foamy ocean waves?.well, unless you are on the Gulf Coast. Pool parties, Bar-B-Q?s, catching fireflies and roasting marshmallows. Excited? Me neither, all that stuff makes me shudder?jellyfish stings, sunburn, sand in crevices, vacuuming the pool, chlorine stinging your eyes, who needs it?
Thank goodness we can fire up our PC?s, crank up the AC and frag away with this summer?s gaming goodness!
On Friday, ICANN, the not-for-profit corporation that coordinates the internet's naming system, voted to allow the application of the controversial ".xxx" top-level domain name for sites that display adult content.
Released along-side its console, the original Red Steel was promoted as the sword-sim you've always dreamed of. The game seemingly failed to create this "sword-sim."
The outdated visuals, clunky controls, sub-par combat, and the disappointing sword play all contributed to this. Over three years after the Wii's release comes Red Steel 2, with the newly released Wii MotionPlus. Many hoped it accomplished what the first did not, the question is, did it?
When it comes to video games, there has been such a movement, such an influence, and such a huge relation when it comes to the media that it is compared to the other forms of media. One of the biggest relatives that has come the way of video games is its relationship to symphonic and classical music.
This is such a huge jump from the old Atari days when all the sounds and music on video games were monotone bleeps and beeps. Now there are musical scores on video games that are so well-known, so remembered and cherished, that the music is ushering a new generation of people into a musical genre that is probably where a lot of musical history has originated from. And the one person who is making the biggest influence when it comes to bringing symphonic music to a younger generation is Jack Wall and Tommy Tallerico.
I had never really played a Western video game prior to Red Dead Redemption, partially because of their infrequency and partially because I lacked the interest in a genre that seemed like it wouldn?t hold up as well as the familiar sci-fi and post apocalyptia that dominated the landscape.
Compared with the creativity of weapons and enemies afforded by genres spawned exclusively by the artists imagination, more recent American history is far more challenging to make as exotic or compelling with as little effort. That isn?t to say it doesn?t have enormous potential, the Old West is after all the great American mythology, it?s just harder to coax this greatness from the dry fabric of realism and antiquity. However, I?m glad I paid attention to this one because Red Dead Redemption is not only the answer to these challenges, it is the definitive Western experience and one of the most purely enjoyable games I?ve played in a while.
There is a debate raging in the gaming community right now. Everywhere you look, gamers and those who do not play are arguing over whether or not there is such a thing as gaming addiction.
The studies are inconclusive; every time you hear about a study backing the existence of video game addiction, you find numerous stories debunking it. Even gamers seem to be split on the issue; while many want to argue it does not exist, others say they have experienced symptoms similar to that of other addictions.
So in the middle of all of the turmoil, the question remains: can someone get addicted to video games?
We?ve all been there. You are having an honest conversation with someone about the strengths of the various consoles. Maybe a friend has come to you for advice on which would be best for them, or you and your coworkers are talking about what you like and do not like about that. Suddenly someone steps up and says something that just makes you cringe.
?Yeah, but you don?t want to own a 360. Every single one of them is designed to break. You?ve heard of the Red Rings, right??
Do not invite me to your ridiculous Zombie Walk events!
First off, they are stupid! What an incredible waste of your life to dress up like a Zombie or Zombie survivor and pretend there is a Zombie invasion. I mean, once I can see (not that I would do it). It was an interesting idea that was probably fun. I can imagine not a few people being a little freaked out and wondering what is going on and maybe even a few poor souls actually being scared.
Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computers, says his company will not be a party to the pornography industry and hopes that the iPad and iPhone revolution will help lead to a porn-free world.
Jobs reiterated his position in a heated e-mail exchange with Ryan Tate, a writer for Gawker.com, which follows news and gossip in Silicon Valley and elsewhere. Tate, who admitted that he was home alone and slightly inebriated at the time, took issue with a television ad calling the iPad a "revolution" and fired off an e-mail to Jobs.
Considering I've been blogging about green technology and energy for years I thought I'd write a post about a company I just formed this past week with two partners: OrganoGreen, Inc.
Our goal is to produce cost effective aquaponics systems that are managed at people's homes. With that financial foundation as the basis for regular income we're going to sell wind turbines and solar panels. We intend on shooting for low profit margins so we can sell in volume.
The reason most people don't buy green techology is because the markup is way too high and thus the technology is made not cost effective. Besides the emotional desire to be green there's usually no financial incentive since it's cheaper to buy energy via coal-based power plants.
While I'm sure you know about Windtronics turbines and other solar panel solutions I'm sure you're asking...what the heck is aquaponics?
There aren't many video games that will let you hijack an airliner and send it hurtling into a skyscraper while you leap out at the last second and grab on to a passing helicopter for a slick getaway. Just Cause 2, Square Enix's action/adventure sequel, does. And while it's not the jihad terrorist simulation I may have made it sound like, digital chaos is definitely on the loose.
Gamers play as Rico Rodriguez, a nearly indestructible operative from a CIA-ish agency called, appropriately enough, The Agency. Tough guy Rico is sent to the fictional South Asian country of Panau?a large island paradise that's recently been taken over by a Kim Jong Il-like dictator. But Rico's not there for the flower-strewn fields, the majestic mountainsides or the propaganda-laced broadcasts, he's on the trail of his former mentor Tom Sheldon, who skipped off with a bunch of Agency secrets and a big bag of cash. Rico's mission, if he chooses to accept it (and if he didn't there'd be no game), is to find Tom and end the spy's roguish ways.
By now, most fans of Final Fantasy understand that the franchise isn't accurately named. Because after 13 primary iterations (plus handfuls of spin-offs) stretching back to 1987, there's very little finality to be found anywhere in this Japanese role-playing franchise that's already sold 75 million copies.
Neither does it have any sort of rock-solid consistency. You can think of Final Fantasy like an experimental rock 'n' roll band that has an identifiable backbeat but plays around with a different vibe on every album. Final Fantasy XII, which came out in 2006, has a vaguely Dungeons & Dragons feel to it. Final Fantasy XIII camps out on the science fiction end of the fantasy spectrum. A bit of magic gets mingled into the proceedings, but mostly it's about six characters caught up in a dramatic, futuristic civil war, with their fate hanging in the balance between two alien worlds.
During my first couple hours playing, I couldn't shake two radically divergent impressions: This is the most beautiful game I've ever played ? and maybe the most boring.
Sam Fisher is finally back in the saddle. He has cut his emo hair and thrown his night vision goggles aside. You?re hunting people that need to be hunted and taking out anyone who stands in your way, no messing around. It?s out with the old and in with the new, gameplay that is. It?s Splinter Cell on steroids. It?s shoot first and neck snap later.
You might still crawl on the pipes and shoot out some lights, but you really don?t need to waste your time with that sneaking stuff. Nothing says Splinter Cell like a sprinting chop to the neck followed by the instant execution of 4 mercenaries, right? Apparently!
The articles are flooding spanning from the source of the Times Online, there is now official note that Nintendo is ?declaring war? not against their competitors Sony or Microsoft, but towards Apple. Nintendo is preparing to unleash the full force of its development and marketing artillery against Apple after profits tumbled at the Japanese giant for the first time in six years.
This is huge for Nintendo because Apple in general is not really associated with the video gaming or entertainment industry so the shift of power is not per se inevitable but there is a possibility of a shift in power nevertheless.
In the early 90's Nintendo was famous for removing religious iconography and references from video games for North American release. Have times changed, or is religion still a taboo subject in the video game industry?
Any discussion of religious censorship in games inevitably leads to Nintendo of America in the early 90's. Religious themes, images, ideas, references and or depictions were banned from games for the NES, Super Nintendo, or Game Boy, at least as far as obtaining the Official Nintendo Seal of Quality was concerned, which led to many Japanese games being modified for release in North America.
Soulwake - Sword of the Spirit is being developed by an indie game developer over on ChristianDevs.com. It's going to be in the retro ABS (action battle system) style. Basically you run around and fight the monsters in real-time.
The current battle system he's using in the screenshots is a turn-based battle system, where the sprites are (mostly) static on the screen you take your time and fight the monsters using commands. Most old school NES/SNES RPGs are like this. Zelda 1 for the NES used the action battle system (ABS) style.
The Navy has to pay HP billions to buy the out-of-date equipment and examine blueprints for the network. It's another example of the military's utter reliance on outside contractors.
A British codebreaker found dead under mysterious circumstances worked with the NSA on intercepted e-mails that helped convict would-be terrorist bombers.
New Tron: Legacy Billboard Spotlights Olivia Wilde
To promote Tron: Legacy's December release, Disney is juicing up the film's girl power factor with massive billboards featuring a shot of disc-carrying Quorra, played by Olivia Wilde.
Twitter is killing support for basic user authentication in third-party apps on Tuesday morning. Instead, Twitter will now require all third-party app developers to use OAuth for user authentication.
Heaps of Fossils From Evolutionary 'Big Bang' Discovered
One of paleontology?s most revered fossil sites now has a baby brother. Scientists have discovered a group of astonishing fossils high in the Canadian Rockies, just 40 kilometers from the famous Burgess Shale location, at Stanley Glacier. About half of the animal groups found there, such as trilobites, are found at other Burgess sites in different abundances. But the creatures unearthed also include eight taxa previously unknown to science.
Electric vehicles would get an A+, your SUV would get a C+ and everyone's spared an F under the biggest proposed change to new car window stickers in 30 years.
Phones, Calculator Give Glimpse of Mobile Tech in Afghanistan
Afghanistan?s vibrant cellphone ecosystem is one of the country?s economic bright spots. There are about 12.5 million cellular subscriptions in the country of 27 million people. Some photos give us a glimpse of the mobile tech in the country.
Second Newspaper Chain Joins Copyright Trolling Operation
A Las Vegas company established to sue bloggers who clip news content is expanding its operations to a second newspaper chain. Righthaven has struck a deal with Arkansas-based WEHCO Media to expand its copyright litigation campaign, in which bloggers and aggregators across the country are being sued on allegations of infringement.
Apple will hold a press conference Wednesday, where Steve Jobs is expected to announce the birth of new stars in his product galaxy, including (probably) new iPods and (possibly) a successor to Apple TV.
Fans attending the US Open at the National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York, now have myriad ways of following Rafael Nadal, Melanie Oudin, Venus Williams and the rest of professional tennis? elite, whether they?re sitting in Arthur Ashe Stadium or checking in from their work computer.
A stocky, two-clawed relative of Velociraptor and feathered dinosaurs has been discovered in Romania. Balaur bondoc, which means stocky dragon, is the first meat-eating dinosaur to be described that lived in Europe during the final 60 million years of the Age of Dinosaurs.
It's been a bad month for alleged credit card thief Vladislav Horohorin. First he was arrested in France on charges of selling stolen magstripe data through his online storefronts. Now he's been added to the U.S. indictment in the RBS Worldpay caper — a hack attack that drained $9 million through ATMs around the globe in just one day.
Need to scan both front and back of magazine page? Turn to Canon's Scan-tini and you'll have it in six seconds (just be gentle with the document feeder).
The Oxford English Dictionary Definitions of 'Print' and 'Digital'
The venerable Oxford English Dictionary isn't even one-third finished with what will be only its third revision in 80 years. But already there is talk that the multivolume work, which has informed scholars and fussy linguists, may eschew print entirely when the new edition is completed in about decade.
Watch a video of a goalie in the Russian Premier League committing a horrendous gaffe this weekend that blew a victory for the league's defending champions.
Had the ground-breaking time travel series picked up another Best Drama trophy Sunday night during the 62nd annual awards telecast, it would have marked a fond farewell for the decade's most talked about TV show. That didn?t happen. Lost lost.
Google and Arcade Fire Team for HTML5 'Experience'
We don?t know exactly what to call the online collaboration between Arcade Fire and Google that launched Monday morning, but it sure is neat. If music videos were invented for the web they might have looked something like this: The project uses the web browser itself as an artistic medium, showing off the HTML5?s potential for interaction and multi-paned viewing rather than just using the browser as a frame for a plain, television-style video.
Man Creates Huge Online Museum for Vintage Calculators
Emil Dudek, a technology enthusiast, has spent the last eight years acquiring 583 calculators of 128 brands made in the 1970s, analyzing the technology and posting it all to his website.
It's that time of year again when kids load their backpacks with rented textbooks, school-sanctioned laptops and iPhones crammed with podcasts of English Lit lectures. When your kid heads back to school, chances are they?ll need a way to get there.
Chrome 7 Shows Off Hardware Acceleration, 'Tabpose'
Google's web browser will soon gain hardware-accelerated graphics ? the latest trend for browsers that has already shown up in early builds of Internet Explorer 9 and Firefox 4. It also gets a new animated tab organizer.
There may not be quite as many bombs falling from the sky. But everything else about the air war over Afghanistan is way up — from spy flights to resupply missions. But so far, none of it has altered the course of the war.
Google is reportedly in talks with the major movie studios to launch mainstream, pay-per-view video rentals on YouTube by year's end. YouTube's movie rental program currently focuses on independent filmmakers and music artists and the addition would represent a significant development.
A new study proposes a way to construct the smallest refrigerator yet, based on just a few particles and capable of cooling to near absolute zero. The study, which will appear in an upcoming issue of Physical Review Letters, pushes the limits of how small a cooling device can get and still remain functional. "When thermodynamics was first invented, it was applied to big, steam-engine sorts of things," says physicist Tony Short of the University of Cambridge in England, who was not involved in the study. "The fact that you can bring the ideas all the way down to individual quantum systems of tiny dimensions and the same basic ideas still work is quite nice."
The social news site Reddit staged a mini-rebellion Friday, deciding to run ads for a pro-marijuana legalization campaign for free, after Condé Nast executives ruled against taking payment for the ads.
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