By now, we’ve heard the tired and rather baseless complaints that gaming makes children antisocial and violent. While stepping away from the console (especially for those more formative years) is important, psychologist Peter Gray writes an extended piece for Psychology Today explaining why kids SHO
There’s been some speculation recently how a prohibitively expensive and complex media platform like a PC could continue to survive financially. Then, as if in response to these fears, Alienware unleashed this new curiosity: a slimmed-down personal computer that looks so much like an Xbox 360 that m
Remedy’s thriller Alan Wake has always been built around atmosphere, initially aping the cool, detached creepiness of the American Northwest. For the latest episode of the tale, Alan Wake’s American Nightmare, the eponymous author finds himself in the American Southwest battling his alter-ego Mr. Sc
Ever seen those funny but vaguely disturbing youtube videos of toddlers becoming frustrated and confused when their magazines don’t automatically resize or reorient themselves at the brush of a finger? Apparently, Apple realized that it was on to something—the company recently announced a partnershi
Joseph Reilly says “Help!” could save our lives. Or give us clout in a legal battle. The app, designed for Android and iPhone, supposedly begins recording as soon as you tap the icon, sends it to a secure server, and transmits the data to people of your choosing. This could have a number of applicat
Nominees for the 2012 academy awards were announced this week. And once again much to Andy Serkis’s irritation, he’s not getting the credit he deserves: “The acting community has worries about performance capture because they believe it’s some form of replacement for performance when in fact, it’s t
Welcome back to the Rap Map, where we speak with rappers about videogames. Today we’re talking with Starlito, whose Stepbrothers, a collaborative mixtape with the rapper Mr. Don Trip, won heavy acclaim throughout the rap world. I was talking to Mr. Don Trip earlier, and he said that you guys met thr
NPR has a fascinated feature on the popularity of the Glock pistol. Invented by curtain-rod manufacturer Gaston Glock, the gun was lauded for its light weight and accuracy, but it wasn’t until the Glock entered the parlance of Hollywood that its popularity skyrocketed. Paul Barrett, author of Glock:
Dear Esther, the absolutely gorgeous remake of a Half-Life 2 mod, developed by Mirror’s Edge artist Robert Briscoe, is a treat to look at. Be sure to check out the scenery in a larger resolution at DeadEndThrills, who captured these shots of the game “with top-of-the-line antialiasing and quality se
In a move that’s 50% crowdsourcing and 100% American, Dungeons & Dragons is turning to the players to fix its ailing orc-slaying system. With the new edition and the call for feedback, in a “hearts and minds” campaign, Wizards of the Coast is attempting to rally players to the cause. The strategy ce
Thoreau said, “Simplify, simplify, simplify,” and Matt Rix’s new Scorekeeper XL is the perfect companion for the gamers and/or the vindictive. It’s free to check it out. We’ve started using it at the office to track who leaves the toilet paper in the bathroom. [via Zach Klein]
The home of internet file-sharing Pirate Bay announced yesterday a new category called “Physibles:” We believe that the next step in copying will be made from digital form into physical form. It will be physical objects. Or as we decided to call them: Physibles. Data objects that are able (and feasi
Feric Feng is a Yale-trained, Taiwanese illustrator who worked on The Animatrix and Final Fantasy film. His new project explores the world of Roda, a hapless robot with a league of similarly whimsical robotic friends. He’s trying to make a game and so far, the art looks fantastic. -Jamin Warren
Tom says it looks like the Splicers from BioShock. (It’s the hats.) Ryan says its somewhere between The Triplets of Belleville and Team Fortress 2. I just don’t even know what to say about short-pant scion Thom Browne’s new line. [via] [h/t .tiff]
It’s that time again boys and girls, time to catch up on the happenings in mainstream gaming. – Microsoft’s abandoning its online currency system (Microsoft Points) in favor of real world money. – Dead Space’s developer, Visceral Games, is working on a new online shooter. – EA is adding 11 publisher
Anyone who plays mobile games spends a lot of time thinking about their hands. So does Bret Victor who penned an incredible rant outlining what hands can, should, and will do. He closes his lovely rant on interaction design with a provocative quote: With an entire body at your command, do you serio
I’ve always been fascinated by the use of “I” when we talk about our driving habits. “I hit that tree.” “I made a right turn.” “I was speeding.” That conflation of identity and machine is one of the rare instances that an object becomes us. (Playing games, of course, is the other exception.) A new t
Ever wonder exactly why the creatures in Silent Hill are so revolting or the squishing in Dead Space is so repulsive? A crop of new studies on the science of disgust are bubbling up, according to the Times. Valerie Curtis, a self-described “disgustologist” from the London School of Hygiene and Tropi
As games shuttle their way towards complete digital distribution, we should remember that there was once (and could be more of) a physical component to the experience. Adam Kirsch’s review of Unpacking My Library: Writers and Their Books outlines the value that the material object has to its creator
The New York Public Library has recently digitized the outer space drawings of 19th Century French astronomer and entomologist Etienne Leopold Trouvelot. The collection includes drawings of a variety of celestial bodies, from the planet Jupiter to the Aurora Borealis. While the charm and accuracy of
A nifty tidbit from the NYT’s long profile of George Lucas and his passion project on the Tuskegee Airmen, “Red Tails.” In it, Brian Curtis outlines the long path that led Lucas to self-fund the action flick where no one else would and his subsequent reflections on life as big-name Hollywood directo
Who says gamers have no sense of style? -Jason Johnson [Touch Arcade]
Let’s catch up on this weekend’s mainstream gaming shall we? – Resident Evil 6 has 6 player online co-op. Marketing genius. – Super-hyped MMORPG Guild Wars 2 looks like it got a launch window and a beta arriving soon. – Bioshock Infinite will make a man out of you yet; the new, extra-difficult mode
