Games

While the success of Apple’s iDevices has prompted a swathe of games perfectly suited to a touchscreen interface, many types of games suffer when making the transition from a controller-based interface. As a result we’ve seen a number of peripherals designed to add a physical controller to iOS devices, such as the GameBone Pro, iControlPad and low-tech JOYSTICK-IT. Those looking for a slightly more traditional input device for their mobile gaming needs now have another product to consider in the form of the 60beat GamePad. Read More

Four days on from Saturday's PlayStation Vita launch, a murky picture is emerging in the press of an embattled Sony eager to make amends for technical difficulties with their next generation handheld games console, including inoperative touch-screens and system crashes. However, Sony today denies widespread technical issues. Read More

Let's face it, the audio tours in museums could use a technology upgrade. While listening to the facts and stories behind each exhibit read by a D-list celebrity is still a mainstay of any noteworthy museum or art gallery, the average cell phone today has more features than most of the audio devices visitors are given to carry around. It makes sense then that the Louvre in France, the world's most visited museum, is replacing its usual audio guides with a decidedly 21st-century gadget: the Nintendo 3DS. Read More

Anyone who has a attended a LAN party - where people connect their computers on one network in one location to play multiplayer games together - can tell you that they can be both very fun but also kind of a hassle. Playing games with your friends all in the same room: fun. Having to organize all your friends to each haul their usually-oversized gaming rigs to one person's house, ensuring they all have the same software, and inevitably dealing with one or more people having trouble connecting: not fun. With that in mind, it makes sense that one Google employee decided to bypass all that inconvenience and just build a house specifically for LAN parties, complete with multiple networked computers and TVs connected to game consoles. Read More

Tablets and smartphones may now be cemented as a solid platform for games, but there's still a big difference between the mostly casual games available in the Apple and Android markets and the titles aimed squarely at the hardcore gaming crowd. A large part of the issue is the hardware, since even the iPad 2 can barely hold a candle to the processing power of the Xbox 360 or PS3; and that's without even bringing up the capabilities of a modern gaming rig. The video game service, OnLive, however has found a way to bridge the two with its new app that delivers console and PC titles to portable devices and, more importantly, makes them playable. Read More

A new service called Nextpeer has just become available for any iOS developer wishing to add multiplayer features to their single player game. Typically, when a mobile game developer wants social or multiplayer elements in its games - leaderboards, achievements, tournaments, etc. - it has to build them itself. Nextpeer eliminates this hassle by offering a free SDK that can bring these features and more into any game that uses it. Read More

With Bethesda's latest game - The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - still garnering a lot of buzz and racking up "Game of the Year" nominations less than a month after release, one might expect the video game developer to happily rest on its laurels for a moment. Luckily for the modding community, Bethesda is instead releasing its brand new Creation Engine for free to have the public do with as they wish. While it's not uncommon for a video game developer to give out its development tools, it is a little less common for those tools to be packed with a platform for distributing, rating, and even installing mods with a smartphone. Read More

What could be better than having your own arcade-style racing game? How about having your own arcade-style racing game with its own beer tap? The Octane 120 Pro Beer Arcade includes a wireless arcade control panel and 200 different games to satisfy all your gaming desires, along with a built-in keg to keep you hydrated. The arcade has a fully-adjustable steering wheel and seat, dual-motor force feedback, a 2-player control panel with built-in trackball, and a high-output HD projector. Read More

The Xbox Kinect has certainly become a useful tool for innovation, with modders finding applications in medical imaging, robotics, and even aids for the visually impaired, to name just a few. Now it looks like you can add "topography" to that list with the development of the SandyStation. Created by two students in the Czech Republic, the SandyStation projects a realistic ecosystem over an ordinary sandbox, which can be altered in real-time. Read More