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Posts with tag VideoGame

Hello Kitty's New Online Virtual World

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Feb 14th 2008 at 5:25PM

Hello Kitty Gets Online World
Are you a fan of 'World of Warcraft' but wish it was a little bit cuter? Then check out 'Hello Kitty Online.' That's right, the ambassador of all things cute and Japanese is getting her own Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game or MMORPG.

Currently the online world is in a "closed beta testing phase", meaning it's not yet open to the public, but it should be officially opened very shortly. Like every other MMORPG, in 'Hello Kitty Online' you create a character or avatar to represent you in the virtual world and interact with other players. You'll be able to wander around the Flower Kingdom, London, Paris, Moscow and other places playing mini-games, talking to players, and building the virtual world as you go along.

"...there are many activities for players to choose from. Aside from the monster-filled adventure areas, players can dig for ore in a mine, or range the forests to pick fruit from trees. Farming allows you to plant, grow and harvest your own crops..." say the people from Kelly Kitty Online.

And that's just a small taste. The game promises countless activities and boundless cuteness. We can only say one thing about this game -- Awwww.

From Shiny Shiny

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Skills Learned in Video Game Help Man Treat Car Accident Victims

by Will Safer, posted Jan 18th 2008 at 3:22PM

America's ArmyWhile we suggest getting real first aid and CPR training, a story out of Nebraska caught our eye.

An avid player whose favorite game, 'America's Army,' has a whole first aid and triage-learning sequence, actually put his in-game skills to use at the scene of a real-life car accident late last year.

Coming upon a flipped over SUV, one Paxton Galvanek correctly assessed the injured driver, began treatment of a bad hand wound and went on to evaluate other injuries while his wife dialed 911.

America's Army has specific sequences that deal with what to do when treating uncontrolled bleeding, dressing a wound, elevating a wounded limb above the heart, and prioritizing treatment based on the severity of injuries. Galvanek followed these guidelines and apparently did a bang-up job.

According to the game's Web site, the Army created "the America's Army game to provide civilians with insights on Soldiering from the barracks to the battlefields."

We recommend a weekend furlough in Omaha for Galvanek as reward for his good deed.

Interestingly, an actual U.S. Army soldier, with actual medic training, arrived on the scene shortly after Galvanek began treatment, and took over treatment until paramedics arrived. With that, Galvanek was on his way.

From Kotaku.com.

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'Guitar Wizard' -- Like 'Guitar Hero' With a Real Guitar

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Jan 9th 2008 at 9:39AM

'Guitar Wizard' -- Like 'Guitar Hero' with a Real Guitar

'Guitar Hero' may be fun and cool, but one thing it certainly can't do is teach you how to actually play guitar. In fact, the connection between playing 'Guitar Hero' and actually playing guitar is tenuous at best. Just ask Slash.

That's where Music Wizard is hoping to one up the gaming phenomena by taking the basic concepts of 'Guitar Hero' and applying them to an actual guitar. 'Guitar Wizard' should drop in August with a suggested retail price of $149.95 when packaged with the Sound Tech Interface that gets mounted on a guitar or $299.95 with student quality electric guitar.

Different colors and shapes are used to represent the different frets on the strings. Slowly the game evolves, from what is essentially an extremely complex 'Guitar Hero, until you're no longer playing a game, but instead reading music. Sadly, Music Wizard's creators dont have the deep pockets that Activision has, so don't expect to jam along to original performances of 'Godzilla' or 'Welcome to the Jungle.' Instead you'll have to make do with MIDI versions of the tracks. Upside, less red tape involved so you can download thousands of tracks from WizardTunes.com. Down side, it's like jamming along to a Super Nintendo.

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Boy Saves Sister from Moose Attack with Skills Learned in Warcraft Video Game

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Dec 10th 2007 at 9:06AM

Boy Survives Moose Attack With Skills Learned from 'WoW'This 12 year-old Norwegian boy saved his sister and himself from a moose attack using skills he picked up in the online role playing game 'World of Warcraft.'

Hans Jørgen Olsen and his sister got into a spot of trouble when they encroached on the territory of one of these antlered cold weather staples (otherwise known as a moose). When the beast went on the offensive, Hans knew the first thing he had to do was taunt it so that it would leave his sister alone and she could run to safety. "Taunting" is a move one uses in World of Warcraft to get monsters off of the less-well-armored team members.

Once he was a target, Hans remember another skill he'd picked up at level 30 in 'World of Warcraft' -- he feigned death. The moose lost interest in the inanimate Hans and wandered off into the woods. When he was safely alone Hans ran back home to share his tale of video game-inspired survival.

Make fun of video games all you want, but if one can teach you a skill that saves your (and your sister's) life, then we'd say that was a video game worth playing.

From Internode Gaming Network

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Man Dies After Days of Non-Stop Gaming

by Tom Conlon, posted Sep 17th 2007 at 10:19AM

Man Dies After Three Days of Non-Stop Gaming

If you don't think Internet addiction is serious, consider the man in China who just died after a three-day, non-stop gaming session at a Beijing Internet café. The unnamed 30-year-old man was rushed to the hospital -- most likely after passing out -- and was pronounced dead shortly thereafter. Suicide has been ruled out as a cause of death.

The man's death reflects a disturbing trend amongst gamers in Asia who are playing online until it literally kills them. In 2005, a 28-year-old South Korean man died of exhaustion after a 50-hour marathon gaming session in an Internet café. In 2002, a 24-year-old South Korean man died after 86 straight hours of online gaming, while that same year, a 27-year-old Taiwanese man died after 32 hours of non-stop Internet gaming.

Internet addiction has become such an epidemic in China that the government no longer allows the opening of new cyber cafés and has started a state-sponsored Internet addiction camp to help treat the 13 percent of Chinese Internet users under the age of 18 who are believed to be addicted.

China has gone so far as to force game developers to institute mandatory limits in online games. For example, games will reward the player with fewer points or treasures after three hours of play and even inundate the player with messages that his character will soon be killed if he doesn't get offline immediately.

Though there's never been a case of a U.S. citizen dying from over-gaming, there have been reports of children suffering from seizures or developing blood clots after sitting in front of the game console for too long. Hopefully, we can rely on parents to do the policing instead of having time limitations actually programmed into the games themselves.

From Reuters

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Rumored PlayStation 3 Price Cut ... Worth It?

by Tom Conlon, posted Sep 11th 2007 at 4:25PM

Rumored PlayStation 3 Price Cut -- Is it Worth it?If there's ever going to be a good time to buy a PlayStation 3, Ars Technica's Opposable Thumbs blog says it's the upcoming holiday season. Citing a dependable "mole" whose prophecies have a knack for coming true, Opposable Thumbs is churning the rumor mill with speculation that a the 80-gigabyte PlayStation 3 will be slashed $100 down to $499 and that a new 40-gigabyte version will debut for $399. The 60-gigabyte model will be phased out, making the two original PS3 configurations (20- and 60-gigabyte) extinct just a year after the system's debut.

Opposable Thumbs goes on to speculate that a 'Spider-Man 3' Blu-ray will be packaged with at least one of the PS3 models, and the still-selling PS2 will be knocked down to just $99.

But as much as Sony continues to whittle down the price of the PS3, the unit's price was so bloated to begin with at launch that it can't keep up with the price cuts of the competition. Right now, an Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii go for as little as $279 and $249 respectively, and we won't be at all surprised if both go in for a little price nip/tuck just before the holidays.

From Opposable Thumbs

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Video Games to Keep Away from Your Kids

by Tom Samiljan, posted Aug 10th 2007 at 12:00PM



We think the argument linking video game violence and real world violence is a steaming pile of uninformed crap. That said, not every game out there is right for Junior. The violence and gore on display in some very popular games probably won't turn your pride and joy into a psycho spree killer, but it could definitely lead to nightmares ... and that just cuts into your good night's sleep. Here are a few upcoming titles to be wary of.

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Urinal Game Tests How Drunk You Are

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Aug 9th 2007 at 3:01PM

Urinal Game Tests How Drunk You Are

We're not sure how much some one wants to play a video game while urinating, but a German company seems to think it may be the trick to reducing the number of drunk drivers on the road. The name for this well-intentioned, if slightly odd, concept? The Piss-Screen.

Here's the premise: A video game -- a driving game, specifically -- is displayed above the urinal. You control the car with your um ... stream. Urinating to the right moves the car right, peeing to the left moves the car to the left. If you're too drunk to control the car, you crash and the game suggests you call a cab.

Peeing hasn't been this fun since the last time you went swimming in the ocean!

From Shiny Shiny

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Nintendo DS Gets Camera and "Facening"

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Jul 5th 2007 at 3:16PM

DS Gets Camera and FaceningSure, training your brain, that makes sense. But your skin? Not so much. And your face? Even less. But apparently that's the next step for the Nintendo DS. A game that translates roughly into 'Face Training' is being prepped for release (in Japan) that helps you improve your looks though face exercises, or as Nintendo calls it (we kid you not), "facening."

The game comes with a stand for hands-free use and a camera to assure you're performing the face exercise correctly. We're not sure if the software matches up points on your face, or if you have to just look and see if you're performing the exercise properly.

The camera is also the first official one available for the DS, though so far there has been no mention of other uses for the camera. It's hard to imagine Nintendo is wasting it on just this game.

From Engadget

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D.I.Y. Xbox Live Game Contest

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Jun 22nd 2007 at 3:29PM


Bad news for AMD and Intel: Microsoft has teamed up with another chip maker for its next endeavor, and that chip maker is Doritos. The two companies are running a contest in which users submit Doritos-themed video-game ideas. Submissions will be accepted through July 29th, after which Doritos and Xbox 360 developers will choose five finalists. The finalists will work with the developers to produce beta versions of their games, which will then be put up on Xbox Live for users to vote on. The winning game gets turned into a full-fledged Xbox Live game that will be available for six months.

Don't feel too bad for the losing finalists, though. For their troubles, each finalist (including the winner) gets a prize package that includes a 42-inch plasma TV, an Xbox 360 Elite, a home theater system and a host of games.

This sounds like a great idea, and a really interesting new area to expand user-generated content to. There's just one thing we can't figure out -- why in the hell Doritos needs a video game in the first place?

Submit your ideas here.

From BetaNews

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Attack of the Clones

by Tom Conlon, posted May 20th 2007 at 5:56PM

Attack of the Clones
FUN
A PlayStation-based cell phone has been rumored to be on the way almost since the day Sony released the PSP. But instead of waiting for Sony to come around to actually producing it, one unscrupulous Chinese gadget maker just went ahead and built one -- kind of. The FUN (pronounced F-U-N, we're guessing, to sound similar to P-S-P) is like a 50 percent photocopy of the PSP that makes calls, does music and video and plays 8-bit games. Sadly, this GSM wonder is available only in Hong Kong.

Spotted at PhoneDaily.com
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Attack of the Clones

by Tom Conlon, posted May 20th 2007 at 5:44PM

Attack of the ClonesNeo Double Games
So Junior wants a Nintendo DS for his birthday, but you spent all of his gift money on the ponies? Not a problem! Your bookie should have no trouble finding you a deal on this Chinese imposter. Just be aware of a few minor differences.

The included hand strap and ear buds are garbage, as is the hinge that joins the two screens. And what about those screens? That's where things get weird. The Neo comes packaged with two randomly selected, low-budget games -- the model in this photo came with 'Soccer' and 'Street Fighter' (yes, 'Street Fighter' is also a fake). The games are actually built right into the two removable screens. You power on the Neo and the top screen plays 'Street Fighter' while the bottom screen plays dead. To play 'Soccer,' you have to turn the unit off and swap the screens. As you'd expect, there's no touchscreen. There isn't even a Luigi.

Spotted at Tech Blog
(Careful, the video clip on this page includes some not-so family-friendly language)
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PlayStation's Daddy Gets the Boot

by Tom Conlon, posted Apr 27th 2007 at 9:26AM

Sony Chairman Steps Down
This June, embattled Sony Computer Entertainment chairman Ken Kutaragi is finally being put out to pasture.

Kutaragi is something of a legend in video game lore. He invented the original PlayStation in the early '90s and almost single-handedly put Sony on top of an industry that was previously locked up by Nintendo and Sega.

But, Kutaragi's shine has worn off in recent years. With the PSP not selling as well as Nintendo's innovative DS on the handheld side, and the PS3's late entry and high price allowing its competitors to get a running start in the race for living room dominance, Kutaragi's role at Sony has been in question. That said, this announcement of his retirement comes as no surprise.

Kutaragi steps down on June 19 but will stay on as the Honorary Chairman of Sony Computer Entertainment.

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From GameGaily and CrunchGear
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Are Your Gadgets Making You Sick? (7)

by Tom Conlon, posted Apr 12th 2007 at 12:08AM

Seizures, Blood Clots and Death


Are Your Gadgets Making You Sick? Seizures, Blood Clots and Death
The condition(s): Here's a medical mystery worth at least one 'House' episode: A 14-year-old British boy is rushed to the hospital for emergency treatment on a blood clot that had developed in his leg. A teenage girl in Iowa is hospitalized after lapsing into a violent seizure. On the other side of the planet, a 28-year-old South Korean man collapses and dies of exhaustion. What vicious and mysterious strain of bird-borne illness is responsible for striking these young people down? Actually, it's video games.

Dominic Patrick, the British boy, spent a rainy day inside playing games. Tucking his legs underneath himself for 10 straight hours caused Deep-Vein Thrombosis, a serious condition that often affects long-haul air travelers who sit in one place for too long.

After five hours behind the controls of a game called 'True Crime: New York City,' Amy Kopaska of Iowa was found by her mom thrashing around, eyes dilated and foaming at the mouth. According to her doctor, long-term exposure to light patterns in the game had triggered Amy's seizure.

The South Korean man, identified only as Lee, spent 50 straight hours playing the game 'Starcraft' in an Internet café, pausing only for toilet breaks and brief naps. Lee had eaten next to nothing in that time, and his death following a collapse was attributed to heart failure caused by extreme exhaustion.

How to prevent or cure it: So, how can video gamers avoid ambulance trips? In all three cases the answer is simply to limit the amount of time you spend gaming, and take plenty of breaks. As we recently reported, the Chinese government is actually writing this bit of advice into law.

Get more info on gaming addiction at Joystiq.

Related Links:
Engadget: Engadget Gets A BlackBerry Massage
Engadget: When Cell Phones Attack...
AOL News: Video Game Addicts Now Have Detox Clinic


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