At 10 am PST this morning, Microsoft unveiled the next generation of the XBox gaming console to the unwashed masses. The results were… interesting, to say the least. We can look forward to more news in a few weeks at E3, but for now, here are eight things we learned from the announcement. #1. Microsoft is REALLY into Television Now A good half of the press conference, at least, was dedicated not to video games but to television watching: quite […]
Posts tagged "video games"
bLISTerd Presents: Our 15 Favorite Arcade Machines
Many moons ago (by which we mean until the mid-90s), there existed mystical Shangri-La’s in shopping malls all across Americas, where quarters flowed, laughter resounded, and countless beefs were settled by joysticks and four buttons. Where the latest games were at your beck and call, and where no one asked for your ID before playing Mortal Kombat. We speak, of course, about the long forgottenarcade. Okay, maybe they weren’t quite as great as we remembered, but if there are three things […]
Pixel Perfect: New Technology Allows for Capturing Performances in Video Games
Unlike literature or film, video games did not set off to tell a story during it’s humble beginnings. Attempting to virtually create recreational activities like pinball, video games were simplistic algorithms designed to “blip” and “bloop” a square object back and forth between paddles. Eventually, these pixels evolved into more complex shapes, from descending invaders from space to Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde. Jump to the present, and we’re being treated to games telling complex stories through big budget cut […]
Virtual Insanity: Does the Playstation Vita Stand a Chance?
It’s been almost seven years since Sony launched the Playstation Portable in North America, hoping to steal away the handheld dominance that Nintendo has enjoyed for decades since debuting the Game Boy. It seemed poised for success, offering better graphics and sleeker design than Nintendo’s bulky (and at the time really confusing) touch screen clam shell monstrosity, the Nintendo DS. But predicting the future is never quite so straightforward, and while the PSP wasn’t an abject failure (72 million units […]
Virtual Insanity: Will Kickstarter Change the Game of Making Games?
For those who haven’t followed the Double Fine Adventure story this week, let me summarize it thusly: the acclaimed Tim Schafer studio, tired of relying on restrictive publishers, decided to use the crowdsourced funding website to bank roll a new point and click adventure. They needed somewhere around $400,000 to hit their goal; they drew in over a million dollars within 24 hours, and currently sit at $1.5 million. And there are still 31 days to go. This isn’t the first time a […]
Shell Shock: The 5 Stages of Playing an Online Competitive First Person Shooter
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First person shooters (FPS) video games are extremely popular. The Call of Duty games have had record breaking world-wide releases, surpassing any blockbuster film opening before it. With Modern Warfare 3 making over 1 billion dollars in sales in just under 16 days , it’s safe to say that people like shooting other people in the face via an internet connection. Competitive shooters are varied (from the fast paced arcade shooting of Call of Duty games, to the slower paced and more tactical shooting of the Battlefield series, to the ultra cartoon violence of Team Fortress 2 ), there’s something […]
Virtual Insanity: A (Not All That) Comprehensive Guide to the Games of the Year
Garet, Long Time Gamer and Comic Book Aficionado Without a doubt my favorite game of 2011 was Arkham City. It may not be the best game ever made (as we all know that spot was reserved for a 10 year old release that was remastered for a new generation this year), but it was certainly the one I enjoyed playing the most in the last 12 months. Speaking personally, Batman was always my favorite super hero growing up, and the […]
Virtual Insanity: Exploring Star Wars the Old Republic
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It’s a momentous weekend, dear gamers! Not only were we able to snag some hot titles (bet at least one person misread that phrase) at Black Friday sales, but this weekend begins the final large scale beta test for the hotly anticipated and much heralded WoW killer (are we sick of that term yet? At this point only Blizzard can kill the game) Star Wars the Old Republic. Mixing the much adored world of Star Wars with the game design […]
Virtual Insanity: Skyrim Won’t Let Me Sleep
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Some of you may have noticed my Virtual Insanity column was MIA last week (or at least I hope you did for the sake of my own ego). A few may have also noticed that Friday was the official release day for Bethesda’s latest massive open world installment into the Elder Scrolls series: Skyrim. I can assure you there was no coincidence regarding the two. I missed my column because I could not pull myself away from Bethesda’s masterpiece. Don’t […]
Virtual Insanity: Whose Game is it Anyways?
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Ideas are a rather nebulous things, especially when it comes to the free market. When I charge you a set price for a piece of fruit, or for a new sweater, or even for something like a car, the transaction is pretty clear. You pay me an agreed upon price for some physical good, which represents a cost in both raw materials and human effort to construct it. However, the entertainment industry has never been about the physical goods, even […]
Virtual Insanity: Press X to “Halloween”
Last week I made a big show of how I cancelled my Battlefield 3 pre-order, which was true at the time, lest you begin to question my journalistic integrity. But for some reason (possibly just the excitement of going to a midnight launch), I re-pre-ordered the game on Monday and picked it up. I fully intended to make my column about my impressions of the game, but outside the singleplayer it’s been hard to form too many impressions thanks to […]
Virtual Insanity: Active Aggression
Virtual Insanity is a weekly column by Stephen, mixing editorial reflections on games in general with the latest news about the digital world. Have a game you’d like to see covered in the column? Let us know in the comment section. For those who have never heard of John Gabriel’s Internet Dickwad Theory (from the brilliant online comic Penny Arcade), allow me to enlighten you: A more philosophical way to look at it is through the story of the Ring […]
