Wednesday, April 26, 2006

 

Cooking with your DS

05.03.06 - Update - This game will come to the US market under the name of "Cooking Mama" and will be published my Majesco. It will be available for preview at e3.


The serious games continue to roll out of the market in Japan and it seems like the Nintendo DS is the platform of choice. Why? Well, where else can you use a touch screen and microphone on a portable platform - especially when it comes to cooking simulators.

Check out the latest japanese release from Taito. This looks tasty. Ha. I said it.

For more on people who take serious gaming, seriously, check out the serious games initiative.

(Thanks Rie)

Saturday, April 22, 2006

 

Game Advertising Facing Possible Review in the UK

While using pre-rendered cgi graphics is nothing new in game related advertising, it looks like the UK's "Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre" is interested in reviewing how the use of pre-rendered video is misleading customers.

Apparently, the MCV: TV ad 'lies' face ban">Advertising Standards Authority received a few complaints about Activision's "Call of Duty 2" title as customer's were misled about the in-game graphics and were eventually let down once they bought the game.

Game publishers in the UK have recently begun to include disclaimers in their ads to inform customers that some of the graphics shown are not representative of the in-game experience.

Friday, April 21, 2006

 

Sony Blu-ray Player Available for Pre-Order

When it rains, it pours, or at least thats what its seems like today with all of the breaking news about hd-dvd availability and panasonic basically saying no way, again, to an alliance to end the format feud.

Today, Sony announced, through its Sony Style web site, that its first Blu-ray player is available for pre-order.

Weighing in at $999.95, the unit will ship in August 2006.

 

What's up next for J.J.? Star Trek!

It looks like Paramount is going to go for the jugular and bring in J.J. Abrams to resurrect the Star Trek film franchise. According to TrekToday.com, Abrams will co-write and direct a feature film that will focus on the early Starfleet Academy days of Kirk, Spock, and others.

The article mentions that there is no official word from Paramount on the fate of Rick Berman who has headed Star Trek television and film production for the last 15 or so years.

 

Brain Age released - Metareviews are building up


This week marked the first release in the highly anticipated "Brain Age" Nintendo DS franchise and the reviews are building and its current Metascore is currently at 76 with players giving it an 8 out of 10.

For those not aware of this hit within the exploding vertical segment of adult oriented games, Brain Age has been a huge hit in Japan and has been credited with increasing the popularity of the Nintendo DS system among adults and non-gamers.

The U.S. launch will follow with a strong Nintendo push to try and re-create the phenomenon experienced in Japan and use Brain Age to push further Nintendo DS sales on the eve of the re-designed DS Lite model upcoming slated for a late spring/early summer US release.

The franchise has a nice back story as the Nintendo DS was used in scientific experiments to study adult education techniques. The experiments turned out to be enjoyable and entertaining, and a new game franchise was born.

 

Report: HD-DVD to outsell Blu-Ray 2.5:1

The Register reports on a study performed by ABI research which forecasts a 2.1 - 1 ratio between HD-DVD units versus Blu-Ray units.

The reason for the lead? The lower price of HD-DVD players and the 2-4 month lead time that Toshiba will hold over the Sony and Samsung Blu-Ray units as Toshiba's initial line of HD-DVD players are already in the marketplace and available to consumers.

The article does mention that the upcoming PlayStation3 could reverse the trend - however, its important to note that there is no official November street release date and price announced (this will likely come at the E3 trade show next month).

Friday, April 14, 2006

 

Firefox turns to its fans...

If you can't outspend them, outsmart them. Mozilla has asked their fans to express themselves and support the opensource movement by posting their handmade short films to a Firefox Flicks" web site.

Viewers are treated to short films about the benefits of Firefox told in unique ways from a fanboy's perspective. Messages about Firefox's security benefits and ease of use features are communicated in unique ways. Some films have over 4,000 views.

Thursday, April 13, 2006

 

Apple to bring back colorful enclosures?

Rumors are flying that the new line of iBooks, which will be called, Mac Books (sans the "Pro" suffix) will come in different colors when they are announced next monday.

read more | digg story

 

How YouTube Became Hot Property In Online Video

An article on the birth of youtube.com. If i only had a garage..

read more | digg story

Thursday, April 06, 2006

 

Leaked pics of Sony PSP Electronic Distribution?


PSP Updates has some leaked pictures of the supposed PSP electornic distribution system (which was announced during last month's Game Developers Conference). These photos shows classic PS1 games available for download and emulation on the PSP. The site also suggests that these games will go for $15 apiece and will be stored on the PSP's removable memory stick.

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

 

Hey! Its crazy frog..


100_2321
Originally uploaded by Rafat Ali.
And he's rollin' at CTIA in Las Vegas. No word as to how he got there and if he flew commercial all the way over to Nevada from the UK.

 

The Nokia Platform


CTIA Wireless IT & Entertainment Conference 2005
Originally uploaded by GISuser.com.
Ok, here it is, its quite simple:

Series 40 - For you mass market types. take pictures, send text messages, talk also!

Series 60 - Smartphone features. Jave and C++ applications and mass stoarge capability

Series 80 - Java, C++, enterprise apps and a Symbian OS

Got it. Good. Now come the flood of phones that are practically the same, but have confusing model numbers and inconsistent features.

 

its ctia week


blounge (16)
Originally uploaded by BritBeat.
tons of wireless news should be flowing this week as the world's finest mobile handset manufacturers and network operators convene in lovely, yet dreadful, las vegas to hype their wares, applications, services, and handsets.

hey look, its the pebl in beautiful colors. nice phone, too bad its a nightmare to operate.

 

apple introduces boot camp


Apple has spent considerable time and effort to lure "switchers" over to the ease and efficiency of the Mac OS, but now it seems they may be encouraging a new type of switch.

Today apple has announced "Boot Camp" as a public beta for their new line of Intel macs. The installation of Boot Camp will allow Intel Macintosh owners to easily boot into Windows and eliminate the hassles of the homebrew Windows installer marketplace.

In one example of how this benefits Windows users looking for perfomance, take into consideration that the current 2.0 ghz MacBook Pro was recently declared the fastest windows machine available!

 

ps3 pricing - $612 to $734 - updated!

Updated! 4/6/06

Sony has stepped in to settle the confusion by not saying anything! next generation reports on the announcement and "clarification" by sony europe.

Here is a quote from the article:

"At no point did he ever refer to a specific price for [the PS3]. He was referring to a 500 dollar price that the interviewer had questioned to him, explaining the relative value of the PS3 console in relation to Blu-ray disc players on the high-end and consoles on the low-end," Sharples said.

The article confirms that pricing will be announced at next months E3 expo in Los Angeles.

--

Reports are flooding the gaming blogs about a radio interview with the SCE Europe president by radio station Europe 1.

During the interview, George Fornay speculated on the ps3 price range to be available for "around 499-599 (euros)"

That's quite a chunk of change as that converts to about $612 to $734 for Sony's next generation console.

Gamasutra has more.

 

Great Street Wars video



here is a great video covering how the real world game, street wars, is played.

it looks like a lot of fun, but its no pac-manhattan.

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