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2nd
MAR
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Movie Trailer #2
Posted by Mavrik | Filed under Gaming, Movies & TV
Walt Disney Pictures has released a new movie trailer for Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time on IGN. The new trailer incorporates some of the new special effects footage from the Superbowl spot and new “Creating of an Epic” featurette, as well as a lot of never before seen sequences.
Tags: Prince of Persia, Trailer
20th
JAN
Brain Size Can Predict Game Performance
Posted by Mavrik | Filed under Gaming, Medicine
If you wonder why you suck so badly at Modern Warfare 2, it could be biological. According to a study published in the journal Cerebral Cortex, the size of your brain can predict how well you perform in video games,
(Presumably mad) scientists at the University of Illinois say specific parts of the striatum, a collection of tissues deep inside the cerebral cortex, influence a person’s ability to “refine his or her motor skills, learn new procedures, develop useful strategies and adapt to a quickly changing environments.” In short: All the skills you need to do well in a game.
“This is the first time that we’ve been able to take a real world task like a video game and show that the size of specific brain regions is predictive of performance and learning rates on this video game,” said Kirk Erickson, a professor of psychology at the University of Pittsburgh and first author on the study.
Sadly, it doesn’t work in reverse, so you can’t play a bunch of video games and grow those structures in your brain — you’re stuck with the equipment you were born with.
Study shows that better gamers have bigger brains, are better learners too [Engadget]
Tags: Research, Science, University of Illinois, Video Games
14th
JAN
Modern Warfare 2 Worldwide Sales Pass $1 Billion
Posted by Mavrik | Filed under Gaming
According to Activision’s internal estimates, worldwide sales for Infinity Ward’s wildly popular shooter Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 have now passed $1 billion.
“Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has exceeded our expectations and shattered theatrical box office and video game records,” said Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick in a statement released to the press. “There are only a handful of entertainment properties that have ever reached the $1 billion mark, which illustrates the power of the Call of Duty franchise and mass appeal of this game.”
The announcement isn’t all that surprising considering the game has been smashing sales records since it took in an estimated $550 million worldwide just five days after its release back in November, but it’s still mighty impressive.
Tags: Activision, Call of Duty, Infinity Ward, Modern Warfare 2, Video Games
12th
JAN
70 To 80 Percent Of Publishers Making Natal Games [Really??]
Posted by Mavrik | Filed under Gaming
Whether you think motion-controlled gaming is the wave of the future or a gimmicky trend that will soon phase out, it’s going to be around for the foreseeable future, so you’d better get used to it.
Case in point, Canada’s CBC News reports that between 70 and 80 percent of publishers are currently developing games for Microsoft’s Project Natal.
“Our first party studios are [also] very focused on this,” said Microsoft’s entertainment and devices divisions’ president Robbie Bach. “We want to have a few titles from Microsoft that show the way and then we want the breadth and power of the ecosystem from our partners to bring lots of new ideas, new innovations, new concepts to the marketplace. Xbox games don’t go away; you have to think of all this as additive. I think it adds to the beauty of what’s going on.”
Microsoft has been talking a lot lately about sticking with the 360 for the time being, rather than fully looking ahead to the next generation of consoles. The company has said that extending the console’s life through hardware and software improvements is the current strategy, and with the kind of support Natal is receiving from publishers, it appears that the strategy has the potential to be a very worthwhile one. That is, assuming the Natal-powered games can deliver the kinds of groundbreaking experiences Microsoft is promising. Which I know I’m fairly hesitant about…