Games

The rumor mill has been spinning about the next-generation XBox for some time, but Tuesday and Wednesday of this week saw first IGN, and then Kotaku, reveal what appears to be the first non-gaseous (if not concrete-solid) information from inside sources as to the machine's spec. It seems that the console (not officially called the 720, but the placeholder is convenient) will, IGN reports, be approximately six times as powerful as the current generation of consoles. Kotaku says the device will play Blu-Ray discs, and herald the arrival of Kinect 2. Worryingly, it also reports that there's a possibility that the machine will prevent owners from playing pre-owned games. Read More

Ion Audio is to add a new handheld controller for iPhone and iPod Touch to its iCade mini arcade line, along with two scaled-down versions of its original controller cabinet for the iPad, which started life as an April Fool prank. Currently on show at the company's booth at CES 2012, the iCade Mobile, iCade Core and iCade Jr. offer mobile gamers the chance to play it old school using physical buttons and a four-way controller or joystick instead of the touchscreen. Read More

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

Who says you need to now how to write code in order to create and sell your own iOS game? iStencyl is a program designed to allow you to create your web and iOS games without having any coding experience. The system lets you develop entire games using its block builder rather than code, however, it does support Objective-C for those who are code-savvy. 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

While the iPad is basically a device intended for use by one person at a time, the tablet has also proved suitable for multiplayer apps. In some cases, however, its 9.7-inch display is certainly too small to replace a larger, traditional game board and besides, many users prefer playing with physical pieces on a physical board. Dutch-based company Identity Games is seeking the middle ground with GameChanger - an interactive electronic board that merges the old and the new to bring family gaming to the iPad. Read More

When you were a kid, perhaps you and your friends played with flashlights, chasing each other’s light spots across the wall – if you were born within the past 20 years, just substitute the term “laser pointers” for “flashlights.” In either case ... wouldn’t it have been neat if those spots of light came to life when they met, and fought with each other? That’s the type of thing that’s now possible with the prototype SidebySide system, developed by Disney Research, Pittsburgh, and Carnegie Mellon University. It enables animated images from two separate handheld projectors to interact with each other on the any surface. Read More

Releasing scents during the projection of a film reportedly predates the introduction of sound. One early attempt at "Smell-O-Vision" involved a wad of cotton soaked in rose oil being placed in front of an electric fan during a newsreel in 1906, but despite such experiments, this is one technology that just hasn't taken off ... although the quest to add an extra olfactory experience to movies and, more recently, video games continues. This latest effort comes from French company Olf-Action which has created SMELLIT - a device designed to bring an aromatic dimension to your video game and movie experiences. Read More

At the Adobe MAX 2011 conference in Los Angeles this week, Epic Games' CEO Tim Sweeney demonstrated the Unreal Engine 3 running in fully inside Flash as part of his keynote address. The live technical demonstration saw a version of Unreal Tournament 3 running in Adobe Flash Player 11, which was also released this week. Adobe says the development could lead to console-quality 3D graphics in games running directly in the browser, such as Facebook social games. Read More