Gaming posts

Fans of the extremely popular Call of Duty video game series have experienced many emotional premises that dominate the game play and drive the story lines. Pride. Revenge. Hope. With the upcoming release from Infinity Ward, there is an overwhelming sense of a different kind of emotion, one that CoD fans haven’t seen in previous titles. Call of Duty: Ghosts is already being depicted as bringing despair to gamers, at least those who are used to America being a superpower. In this game, America will be broken. The government will have failed. The economy will have collapsed. Cities will be overrun…

Developing smartphone apps is a tough business to break into. Seventy-five percent of apps earn the developer less than 500 dollars per month. Because app markets are saturated, very few apps are able to accumulate many downloads. In fact, only one in six smartphone apps exceed 500 total downloads. Every once in a while, an app is able to break out and find success, gaining high numbers of downloads in a matter of days. For the most successful apps, user numbers lie in the millions and gameplay takes billions of hours from users. What is it that makes these apps, such as Blood Brothers, Minecraft,…

If you’re interested in gaming or anything technology-related, you most likely have your eyes set on E3 this June. The Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) is the must-attend event of the year, especially if you’re a company looking to target gamers and investors. However, attendance at these trade shows is diminishing. Social media is taking hold of the industry. Companies are relying on Internet marketing companies to promote games rather than spending the money on attending trade shows. If you’ve been following the news, you probably know that Nintendo, which is arguably the most…

Some are already chiseling RIP on a tombstone for consoles, but in reality mobile devices aren’t yet ready to seriously compete with consoles. Here’s why.   There’s no physical controller for mobile games Sure, touchscreens are fine for catapulting mad birds into incredibly mean pigs, but when you try a first person shooter game on a mobile device, the experience is markedly lackluster in comparison to consoles.   Small screens are limiting Obviously, playing games on your smartphone can never replace the experience of conquering Middle Earth or annihilating zombies on a 52-inch…

The vast majority of Microsoft Xbox users have known that May 21st was likely the date that the next generation of their console would be revealed. Now, it’s finally official. Invitations were sent out today to the media, most of whom had already been publishing the speculations of the special event on the 21st. This will be the final unveiling of a major console with Nintendo unwrapping the Wii U last November and Sony unveiling the Playstation 4 in February. This is by design – Xbox has been dominant in sales the past two years and wanted to be the last to the party. Nintendo needed a boost but are still…

The email that Sony sent to its Playstation subscribers marketing the Transformers: Fall of Cybertron had a neat little Easter egg available when opened with image loading turned off. As Redditor sarranoob discovered, behind the cover art was the Autobot emblem. One might go so far as to say that the email was properly optimized. Apologies for the pun. Here’s the screen capture of the email:  …

It’s the grandfather of all video games. Pong has been played on many grand stages, but according to Dr. Frank Lee, gaming professor at Drexel University, the game played on April 19th and the followup games on April 24th are the biggest games of Pong in history. Dozens of people got to play, being selected as part of a “Golden Ticket” lottery on April 17th. The games are being held on the Cira Centre Building in downtown Philadelphia as part of Philadelpha Tech Week. “The project came to me as I driving down 76,” said Lee. “As the sun was going down I saw the sparkly lights at the Cira Centre. In my mind I…

Since the early days of Pong to the rise of Angry Birds, video games have been an active part of many children’s lives. Today, the fun of picking up a controller and taking over the actions of a virtual character has moved well beyond the reach of kids as people of all ages pass time through gaming. It is big business and there are those who spend a huge amount of time gaming. They can be educational like The Oregon Trail. Some have been blamed for the dangerous behavior of people that has resulted in deaths. Whatever your personal opinion of video games is, it’s hard to find someone who hasn’t been affected…

A company called Tactical Haptics demonstrated their new device at GDC 2013 last month. The company was founded by Professor William Provancher earlier this year for the purpose of commercializing haptic feedback technologies. The device, called Reactive Grip, uses four moving sliders on the handle to simulate certain feelings and movements while the user is holding it. For example, when shooting a gun in-game, the sliders move in such a way that the user feels kickback from the gun. When swinging a morning star around their head, the sliders move in such a way that the user can feel the grip twisting…

Things are looking good for Badland, a new game from Finnish developer, Frogmind. With a release that’s been met with critical acclaim and plenty of sales, Badland has the potential to be the next big indie game on the iOS market. Mixing the eerie atmosphere of LIMBO with the unique mechanics of Angry Birds, the game delivers an awesome, engaging experience. Players are tasked with helping a bunch of black, owlish creatures to escape from the evil robotic overlords and make their way to paradise. It sounds cute and childish but don’t let that fool you. The robot overlords are sadistic, bunny…