News
The week the indies won: Minecraft reigns supreme on XBL
Minecraft was the most popular game on Xbox Live for the week of October 15. More popular than Call of Duty and FIFA. Yep.
Joseph Bernstein
News
Can biofeedback games teach you to keep your calm?
RAGE Control takes away a player’s ability to shoot enemies if his/her heart rate gets too high: Dr Simone Fox, a clinical and forensic psychologist, and a senior lecturer at Royal Holloway, University of London, said it was important to use this type of technology to demonstrate to children why the
News
UNACCEPTABLE: Robert Florence forced to abandon Eurogamer column for telling the truth
Long story short: Robert Florence’s piece lambasting swag-hungry game journos called out one in particular, who publically defended her right to enter a raffle for a free PS3 at the Games Media Awards. Lauren Wainwright’s (who, it turns out, does undisclosed work for major game studios in addition t
News
What is game writing’s obligation to its readers?
Leigh Alexander’s column today in Gamasutra bites off a lot — games literacy, game awards, and the evolution of game writing. It’s hard to disagree, though, with the argument that holds the piece together: gaming culture doesn’t properly distinguish between vastly different quantities (casual gaming
News
Cyberdyne Systems announces new robot suit, teenage John Connor inexplicably shudders
That’s not a joke. Japanese company Cyberdyne announced a new human-worn robot suit that can assist movment: – – – “Robot Suit HAL” is a cyborg-type robot that can supplement, expand or improve physical capability. When a person attempts to move, nerve signals are sent from the brain to the muscles
News
The game about shoving people gets even funnier
Yesterday, Unfinished Swan mastermind Ian Dallas told our Yannick LeJacq that deliberate humor in games is hard. He didn’t say anything, however, about pre-release mockumentary trailers. Rad Dragon, the indie behind Shove Pro, a new chase-scene and shove game, released this week a short about their
News
ESRB announces new self-report digital ratings, trolls cackle with delight
The Electronic Software Ratings Board announced a new, streamlined way to rate the flood of digital-download games washing into the market: The ESRB’s new “Digital Rating Service” gives developers and publishers access to a “brief but detailed online questionnaire” to define a product’s content, age
News
See, we aren’t the only people who didn’t like Dishonored
The INTERNET reacted with great anger and furious vengeance when we published Ben Richardson’s mixed-to-negative review of Dishonored. You know what? We felt a little bullied. But then! Penny Arcade said the exact same thing, in succinct, comic form. And then! Internet treasure Yahtzee agreed. So
News
Do game writers have the right vocabulary to do their job?
Michael Abbott has an essential post at Brainy Gamer today about the state of game writing as it relates to the experience of playing indie games. Game writing, he argues, has ossified into shorthand that does not capture what it is to play truly new-feeling games: What emerges is a stark and narrow
News
Are board games primed for a renaissance?
Edge reports that digital versions of popular board games, created to serve the booming tablet audience, have greatly boosted sales: While the popularity of the boardgame has never been in question, the growing number of touchscreen enabled devices – and the broad market reach of those products – ha
News
Google study: very few people play tablet games while mid-backflip
A Google study of tablet use comes to some predictable conclusions: When U.S. tablet owners are playing games on their devices, they’re most likely sitting or lying down on a couch, according to a new Google study examining how consumers use tablets. The research paper, which seeks to provide an und
Review
The Kill Screen Review: Hotline: Miami, the first postmodern videogame?
Lost in the funhouse with Jonatan Söderström’s very clever, very cool new twitch shooter.