Wednesday, January 23, 2008

No Country For Old Gamers - Gaming Generation Gap


There is an interesting article from Level Up that talks about what would happen as gamers of different generations interact. From the original post: "We've often complained about the generation gap that divides those who understand videogames as a medium and those who, in ways large and small, dismiss them... What would happen to those of us in our mid-thirties and above if our parents, grandparents, bosses, religious leaders, politicians, all wanted to play as regularly as we do?"

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Gamer Saves Real Life Using Skills from America's Army

Paying attention to annoying tutorials evidently pays off. Last November, Paxton Galvanek saved the lives of two people in an overturned SUV on a North Carolina Interstate by using the skills he learned playing a medic in the popular "America's Army" video game. Paxton remained calm, prioritized the victims' wounds, and administered first aid.

read more | digg story

Thursday, January 17, 2008

COD 4 OCD - Freakin' FNG


My wife picked up the Limited Edition of Call of Duty 4 for me over the holidays and I finally got around to firing it up.

I didn't get very far in the campaign because I spent all my free time in tutorial.

At the start of the game you're given a overview of your weapons, aiming, firing, reloading and swapping as well as melee attacks (BTW, the NPC response to my melee attack was pretty funny, I thought). You're directed to meet up with the rest of the squad afterwards and this is where I spent my free time.

There is an obstacle course where you have to take out targets with your weapon and flash bang grenades. Based on your finish time, the game sets an appropriate difficulty level.

I must have run through the course a couple dozen times trying to get close to the best time at Infinity Ward. Even when I went back to the game later, I still kept trying to better my time.

My best is 25.87 seconds. The Infinity Ward best was listed at 15. Someone has managed (hacked?) a finish of the level in under 10 seconds.

I know the rest of the game is awesome but for some reason I keep going back to this time trial!

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Evolving Disney: Graham Hopper Speaks

As part of an in-depth new Gamasutra interview, Disney Interactive GM Graham Hopper has been discussing the company's wide-ranging portfolio, suggesting that it's "regrettable" that some parts of the video game press "don't recognize when a game is trying to be different" in targeting a family market.

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Thursday, January 10, 2008

Ubisoft, Midway and Sony bans EGM from publishing content

In an interesting journalistic move, console gaming magazine Electronic Gaming Monthly has been banned from further writing about any content specifically regarding game companies Ubisoft, Midway and Sony's sports game division. Apparently this was done in the response to a column from Editor-in-chief Dan "Shoe" Hsu

read more | digg story