House M.D. is a television medical drama on Fox about a doctor named Gregory House. A genius in figuring out the oddest of medical mysteries but with the social skills of a angsty teenager that usually pisses everyone off. Every episode, House takes on a different patient with an unexplainable illness; varied diagnosis are given, unorthodox treatments occur, higher-ups get angry, bits of humor and satire are sprinkled through-out, case is solved- rinse and repeat. You get the general idea.
Well Monday night on House, a video game designer comes in with hands that flare up like a hot stove and then eventually hallucinates madly about living in his gaming creations. What are his creations you ask? Basically a crazy video game world with lizard-men and monkeys wielding automatic weapons; who battle against aliens, vampire bats, and dinosaurs in an post-apocalyptic science lab. Try to beat that Valve!
I don't know what is crazier though, the video game featured in the episode (which funny enough is titled "Epic Fail") or the goofy way players interact with this bizarre gaming atmosphere. Though fittingly enough, this futuristic gaming set-up has players putting on a set of Virtual Reality helmets and holding on to what seem to be Super Scopes.
In a study conducted by researchers show that gamer aggression can "mimic that of warfare". The study involved teams of three playing capture the flag mode in Unreal Tournament. The results showed that levels of testosterone spiked after one group defeated the other, especially those with higher scores.
"In a serious out-group competition you can kill all your rivals and you're better for it," said David Geary, an evolutionary psychologist at the University of Missouri. But when competing against others in order establish a social hierarchy, annihilation doesn't make sense. "You can't alienate your in-group partners, because you need them," he said.
Although there were cash prizes involved, I would think that having something to prove to others sometimes does fuel your gamer aggression more than anything else. That's from experience. I play Call of Duty: 4 Modern Warfare online a few nights out of the week, and I realized a lot of the times I get a good score because of my drive to prove that I can f*ck you up. Sometimes when I play with a group of friends just makes it much more exciting and challenging too, because I feel the need to step up the game, and the need to play better than everyone else. All of those things (even though they may sound self-glorifying) really affect your gameplay. At least for me anyway.
We're all familiar with some of the top videogame icons in the history of gaming. Assuming you're a wiz, I now want to play a game (jigsaw laugh). I have put together a set of videogame character shoes/sneakers/feet, whatever you want to call them. Basically your task is to identify which shoes belong to which gaming character. It gets easier, then harder, and If you know videogames then you should definitely recognize some of these. Let's give it a shot shall we?
When you got to go, let Sonic the Hedgehog and his lady friend show you the way.
From Club Sega (an awesome little amusement arcade) in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan; as pictured by the fine folks over at Kotaku, during their visit to Tokyo Game Show 2009 this past weekend. Silly yes. But hey, it gets the point across.
Crysis fans longing to experience a bit of the FPS's lush world and lavish technology needn't look any further. An area in Nottingham, UK will be transformed into a “real-life tropical jungle, complete with exotic flora and fauna.” But that's not all. Participants of the event will be wearing Nanosuits from the game and even be able to use invisibility cloaks and fight off enemies. Is it just me, or does this sound like it could go horribly wrong?
While we aren't to sure how this will be pulled off, it does have us intrigued. For all of you with deep pockets and looking to see just how the Crysis event will go down, it will take place at the end of next month on October 29-30.
Ho, traveler. Know ye the Brutal Legend of Tim Schafer? Author of of the Secret of Monkey Island? Designer of the Grim Fandango? Bringer of the Day of the Tentacle? If not, then wail and lament thine ignorance, and be cast into realms of madness where only the Psychonauts might save ye.
But if so, then behold a treasure. Verily, posted on Tim's blog, you may behold the man's actual job application for an "Assistant Designer/Programmer" position, back when the world was young, and Lucasarts was Lucasfilm Games Division.
Here's a little piece of a true Epic in career applications. Click on it to visit the site and view the rest.
Rumors in the past year were that there was a Metal Gear Solid Movie in the works. And this one? well, this isn't quite the Metal Gear Movie that everyone was talking about, and no, this one doesn't have Christian Bale in it. What we have here is a fan made movie; Metal Gear Solid: Philanthropy, inspired by Mr. Kojima's Videogame franchise Metal Gear Solid. I highly recommend you view this thing. it's about an hour long, but worth every minute of your time. So sit back, grab some popcorn and enjoy!
