Too much Freaks and Geeks on the mind this AM. A new program helps kids interact via avatars: The simulation, designed for children ages 8 to 12, allows clinicians to play the roles of the avatars while the children sit at a computer in a different room and respond to situations they encounter routi
Video Metal Gear Online – which sought to bring stealth action into the HD online arena – has officially gone offline. Konami shut down the servers for the game June 12th. The game stood in staunch comparison to the majority of twitchy, fast-paced online shooters that were its contemporaries. Rather
The Puxxle is the vinyl sticker solution to all your analog, 8-bit idolatry needs–a puzzle made from pixels. Whether its Sigmund Freud, Albert Einstein, Alfred Hitchcock, Frida Kahlo, Salvado Dali, or a chipmunk, these Spanish designers will box it up and send it directly to your door. Order them al
Pippin Barr’s flash games have dark punchlines. The writer, scholar, and maker designs games like a Steven Wright or Mitch Hedberg writes a joke, sardonically exposing the terror of the banal (waiting in line for The Artist is Present) or the banality of the terrible (Let’s Play: Greek Punishment, S
video In a classic case of medium-is-the-message, a commercial-like manifesto or manifesto-like commercial called “The Evolution of 8-bit” appeared last week on Off Book, which is PBS’s alt-culture Tumblr. It’s a fun-sized, snacktime documentary of 8-bit history and ideology sans specific agenda. Pr
Touch comes before sight, before speech. It is the first language and the last, and it always tells the truth. —Margaret Atwood from The Blind Assassin. Since 2007, we’ve praised touch-screen technology as the key to our technological intuition. Well, Atwood’s line from the science-fiction roman á c
video Much as a great novel unveils the world in streams of language, Giant Sparrow’s trailer for their upcoming title, The Unfinished Swan, promises the unfolding of a striking and mysterious world rendered in black and white. The game’s core mechanism is the use of black paint blobs that can be th
The videogame violence debate is old but not over, because it’s not just worried parents and politicians anymore. Recently, Warren Spector–revered designer of System Shock, Deus Ex, Epic Mickey, among others—told G.I.biz: We have to stop loving it. I just don’t believe in the effects argument at all