Articles tagged with "Video Games"
Guitar Hero 2 Review (Xbox 360)
April 30, 2007 As you might imagine, we're surrounded with technology at the Gizmag office...and we thought we'd learned to do a pretty good job of soldiering on despite all the distractions the wired lifestyle brings. Alas, those times are over now, and we refer to the period as BG (Before Guitar Hero). For the uninitiated, Guitar Hero is rock and roll condensed into a video game, complete with plastic guitar controller and a drummer who always turns up to practice on time (and doesn't hit on your girlfriend). The original Playstation 2 game sold over one million units in its first year, and the sequel sold over 1.3 million units in 2006 - 800,000 in December alone - and it's hooked everyone from the neighbors seven-year-old to members of the prog-rock super-group Tool. Now it's here on the Xbox 360 in crisp 720p resolution with 10 additional tracks - if you've listened to guitar music at all in the last thirty years, read on for the full review, video and track list. (read more...)
Advanced video games for US Navy pilot training
April 30, 2007 It's the ultimate flight sim video game. 360 degree cockpit views, multiplayer, totally realistic instruments and the option to have a separate gunner in the back seat of your F/A-18 Hornet as you dogfight the others or engage in air-to-ground missions. Sadly, you'll need to sign your life away to play it. (read more...)
Blazing Angels: Squadrons of World War II Review (Playstation 3)
April 10, 2007 When this landed on my desk to review, I had my doubts - of the forty million or so World War II games released during my years of gaming, I can count the ones I've enjoyed on one hand. Thankfully, Blazing Angels stands out from the noise just by not being a first-person shooter, and rekindles the almost forgotten air-combat genre. If piloting one of 50 authentic World War II era aircraft through several key battles over historic sites like Dunkirk, Pearl Harbor, Midway and Berlin sounds like your thing, read the full review. (read more...)
Playstation 3 continues to top Folding@Home statistics
April 10, 2007 Folding@Home is a distributed computing project where people donate spare clock-cycles from the CPU or GPU in their Internet-connected PC's, the result of which is one of the largest supercomputers in the world. The Folding@Home client for the Playstation 3, released as part of a recent system update for the console, quickly raced to the top of the statistics. Shortly after, just as the network of over 20,000 consoles was about to hit the team's goal of one petaflop, the Folding@Home team reevaluated the performance of the console - dropping it to half the original figure. In spite of this, the Playstation 3 remains the greatest contributor to Folding@Home, and currently provides over half of the processing power available to the project. (read more...)
The Xbox 360 is back in black
March 29, 2007 After more rumours (and denials) than you can shake a stick at, Microsoft have officially announced the new Xbox 360 Elite, and somehow managed to leave us with more questions than answers. What we can safely tell you is that it's got an HDMI port, comes with a 120GB HDD...and it's black. (read more...)
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 Review (Xbox 360)
March 28, 2007 If you have ever doubted just how much advantage the Dominator system equates to on the battlefield, here's your opportunity to sample it first hand. Was the development of the real Dominator and the interface to Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 linked? We don't know but when our games editor saw the real system demonstrated, he visibly paled. Ubisoft has already given gamers in Australia 10,000 good reasons (AUD$10,000) to play this game in an upcoming Xbox Live tournament. This no doubt left the majority of our readers, who can't play online games competitively and don't live in Australia, entirely unconvinced. Here's our games editor with a full review. (read more...)
New research substantiates Video Games as key advertising vehicle
March 23, 2007 New media research and measurement firm Interpret’s Gameasure report is likely to make a few marketing managers think about the most effective way to spend their precious budget. The report reinforces the significance of video games as a medium for marketers seeking to reach and influence key demographic groups, particularly young males. The report measures actual reach, frequency and demographic makeup of over 80 video game titles and shows that games reach well beyond reported retail sales figures. (read more...)
Video Game Penetration grows and grows
March 19, 2007 Once regarded as frivolous and inconsequential, the game console is fast gaining mainstream media clout and the third generation of consoles has further expanded its penetration into homes with 150 million US citizens now having access to at least one console - more than half (52.4%) of the total U.S. television population. As a medium it is particularly strong among key demographic groups with more than two-thirds (67.7%) of all men 18-34 and 80 percent of men 12-17 years of age. The number of video game consoles in U.S. television households has expanded by 18.5% in just two years, according to a new report. Specific console penetration details have not yet been released. (read more...)
Australian Xbox Live tournament offers $10,000 first prize
March 5, 2007 - Ubisoft-published game Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter (GRAW) was released last March, and went on to sell 1.4 million copies in its first seven weeks. Sales figures of this caliber generally guarantee sequels, and sure enough, this Thursday (March 8th, 2007) sees the release of GRAW 2. You've probably already played the multiplayer demo released on the Xbox Live Marketplace in February, but there's no question those who haven't will have a newfound interest in the game now there's a chance to win AU$10,000 playing it online. (read more...)
Piano Wizard integrates the video game and piano lesson
March 3, 2007 - Parents rejoice! Finally a video game that you can give to your kids with no immediate hesitation or eventual regrets. The results of long hours spent in front of the game aren't just honed reflexes and hand-to-eye coordination, but the gift of fluency in the most beautiful and timeless language of all...music. (read more...)
Nyko Wii Charging Station simultaneously recharges two Wii remotes
March 3, 2007 - In this day and age, disposable batteries are environmentally irresponsible, yet remain a desirable retail item due to convenience and price point - and those of our readers with Wii's or Xbox 360's will know how many AA's regular use of these consoles can chew through. This makes us a little surprised that Nintendo left this one up to the third-parties, but equally glad Nyko have stepped up to the plate with their Wii Charging Station. (read more...)
Is Sony adding rumble to the SIXAXIS?
March 2, 2007 - Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) and Immersion have agreed to conclude litigation at the U.S Court of Appeals, and have entered into a new agreement to explore the inclusion of Immersion's technology (read: rumble) in PlayStation products. This is in stark contrast to Phil Harrison's recent comments regarding rumble as a "last-generation feature", which were widely criticised as a desperate attempt to hide the fact that the lack of rumble in the SIXAXIS was a design decision based more on legal proceedings with Immersion, than last/current-generation feature sets. (read more...)
Australia's Best Games of 2006 - Interactive Entertainment Awards
February 26, 2007 Last Friday, more than 350 industry types hit Doltone House in Sydney, Australia for the Interactive Entertainment Awards. Twenty awards were handed out - twelve industry voted, and eight based on GfK sales data from January 1 to December 31, 2006. Read on for the unsurprising results of the industry voted awards, and the surprising winners (and some truly bizarre categorisations) of the best sellers. (read more...)
Crackdown (Xbox 360) Review
February 23, 2007 - If you haven't heard about this game yet, you must be living under a virtual rock. We covered the release of the demo last month, but to sum things up, you're a cop with constantly evolving superhuman abilities, cleaning up crime in a city overrun by it. Today sees the game released on shelves worldwide, and our Games Editor has had a few days head-start to determine whether the cool premise was backed up by an equally cool game. Here's the scoop. (read more...)
New Wii channel - Everybody Votes
February 14, 2007 - Nintendo launches a new channel for the Wii Menu today, the Everybody Votes Channel, which allows up to six players per console to vote in regional and worldwide polls...a tired premise with an interesting touch - the ability to predict the results of the polls, and track your accurate predictions in a "How Tuned In Are You?" section. (read more...)
Register for Playstation Network in Europe, get Casino Royale on Blu-ray
February 13, 2007 - Even with the delayed launches of the Playstation 3 in PAL territories, Sony is still light on solid launch titles, with Resistance: Fall of Man and Motorstorm being the only exclusives receiving substantial acclaim from reviewers. To shift the focus back to their current strengths, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe have announced that the first 500,000 PS3 owners to register with Sony's free online service "PLAYSTATION Network" will receive a copy of the latest James Bond blockbuster "Casino Royale" on Blu-ray. (read more...)
Ubisoft plans expansion - 1,000 new jobs by 2013
February 12, 2007 Ubisoft is currently one of the world's largest video game publishers, home to 1,600 employees at its headquarters in Quebec, and a number of hit franchises including Rayman, Prince of Persia and Tom Clancy. Today the company announced a major expansion of its operations in Quebec - expanding its current video game studios, and creating a CGI studio, with 1,000 hires planned by 2013. The CGI studio will create short films based on Ubisoft games, with the first planned film based on the massively hyped Assassin's Creed. (read more...)
Perfect score in Wii Sports: Bowling
February 12, 2007 No doubt many of our readers lucky enough to own a Nintendo Wii have witnessed a few killer streaks on Wii Sports: Bowling, however none will have topped this. If you want to blow away the competition next time your friends are over, watch this video of a gamer known only as el moco take down a perfect 890 pins on the Power Throws training game, and then read his incredibly detailed post on the method he used to get there. (read more...)
Lost Planet: Extreme Condition - multiplayer update, new cheat codes
February 6, 2007 Capcom have announced the release of a patch for Lost Planet: Extreme Condition, currently scheduled for March 9th. The patch addresses numerous bugs in the multiplayer game, and throws in some essential new functionality that will alleviate the problems gamers are having finding servers for Ranked matches that aren't across the other side of the world. To ease the pain of the fairly lengthy wait, Capcom have released three new cheat codes which will breathe new life into the title for people who are still stuck early in the game, and haven't seen the more impressive (and fun) later missions as a result. Read on for the full details, and cheats. (read more...)
Turn your Nintendo DS into an acoustic guitar
February 6, 2007 While music games have typically been geared towards vicarious rock-stars, and not garnering much interest from those who can already play an instrument as a result, Plato's Hiite Utaeru DS Guitar M-06 for the Nintendo DS turns the genre on it's head. Essentially an acoustic guitar simulator, you're obviously not going to be able to belt out the riff for Ironman in its full glory - but if you're looking to further your knowledge of music theory (or show off your real skills on the weirdest acoustic guitar on the planet) this is a great deal more likely to tickle your fancy than games like Guitar Hero. (read more...)
Nintendo Australia adds four games to Wii Virtual Console line-up
Nintendo Australia today added four more titles to the Wii Virtual Console service, comprising of Sega Mega Drive games Comix Zone, Bonanza Bros. and Gain Ground, and the NES game Gradius. This brings the total number of games available to 36 - read on for the entire list, complete with recommendations from our Games Editor. (read more...)
Crackdown demo about to hit Xbox Live Marketplace
January 23, 2007 [UPDATE: Read our full length review of the retail version] Crackdown is the latest brainchild of Dave Jones, whose prior masterpieces include smash hits such as Lemmings and Grand Theft Auto. Realtime Worlds have developed the title exclusively for Microsoft Game Studios and the Xbox 360, and a demo offering both single and multiplayer modes is set to hit the Xbox Live Marketplace later today. (read more...)
Lost Planet: Extreme Condition (Xbox 360) Review
January 24, 2007 After you've heard about Lost Planet selling one million copies since its initial release less than a month ago (only a week if you're outside Japan), you're probably wondering if this figure is more to do with the lack of any Christmas blockbusters for the Xbox 360, or because it's a great game in its own right. Our Games Editor has the lowdown after spending a bit too much quality time with the game. (read more...)
Call of Duty 3 (Nintendo Wii) Review
December 14, 2006 The shooting scenes in Rayman: Raving Rabbids proved that on-the-rails shooters work very well on the Wii, which as well as whetting our appetites for a port of Virtua Cop or Time Crisis, led us to have fairly high expectations of how a first-person shooter (FPS) would fare using the Wii Remote. Call of Duty 3 is the first Wii FPS we've had our hands on - and it's a bittersweet experience. (read more...)
Game of the Year - Gears of War (Xbox 360)
December 14, 2006 An epic story line, polished controls, amazing graphics and a furious (and incredibly addictive) multiplayer game make Gears of War the game of the year. Our games editor hasn't been very productive for the last week - here's his fairly detailed excuse. (read more...)
