SynrG writes “Platinum Arts Sandbox puts into childrens’ hands the ability to role play in a 3D world and edit that world using simplified controls. The expressions on the faces of our kids as they played were priceless; both the ups and the downs. I wanted to capture this on video and share it. After having established a rapport with upstream, we took a 20 minute clip of one of our play sessions and gave a copy to them to use to help further their work. Here is the edited result. They were very pleased to have that kind of feedback and found the video valuable for determining where the software still needed improvement and to notice which aspects particularly pleased the children.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
SynrG writes “Platinum Arts Sandbox puts into childrens’ hands the ability to role play in a 3D world and edit that world using simplified controls. The expressions on the faces of our kids as they played were priceless; both the ups and the downs. I wanted to capture this on video and share it. After having established a rapport with upstream, we took a 20 minute clip of one of our play sessions and gave a copy to them to use to help further their work. Here is the edited result. They were very pleased to have that kind of feedback and found the video valuable for determining where the software still needed improvement and to notice which aspects particularly pleased the children.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Aside from Burnout Paradise on PC, February’s off to a bit of a slow start, but don’t worry. The coming weeks are filled with promising games, including F.E.A.R. 2, Killzone 2, Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad and Onechanbara: Bikini Zombie Slayers.
As for this week’s releases, hit up the full list, or, if you’re looking for a particular system, skip right to the PC, Wii and Nintendo DS sections. Should you want to check out …
There are few greater things on a lazy Saturday afternoon than chips and good salsa. In celebration, let’s get you folks out of that crowded old cheese-smelling chatty of doom.
Another great thing? Sleeping in so late that it’s automatically a lazy afternoon. No idea as to what the rest of weekend will bring, but here’s hoping all you cats have a good one.
The Opposable Thumbs blog got some hands-on time with Halo Wars, the upcoming RTS from Ensemble Studios. The early look is promising; concerns about the controls and the game’s adherence to Halo’s style have effectively been laid to rest. Now that work on the game is complete, Ensemble is shutting down, its employees splitting amongst at least two new game studios. “Thanks in large part to the game’s control and Ensemble’s clear consideration for the limitations of a controller when playing an RTS, Halo Wars manages to achieve a level of playability and accessibility that truly is fitting of the Halo dynasty. As Halo brought console FPS games to the masses in a way that Goldeneye couldn’t, so too will Halo Wars introduce RTS games to a whole new league of gamers. … Ensemble has done a great job at emulating what made Bungie’s titles so great; from the orchestral themes to the massive battles and the ongoing drama of the Covenant war, Halo Wars is a Halo title through and through.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
The Opposable Thumbs blog got some hands-on time with Halo Wars, the upcoming RTS from Ensemble Studios. The early look is promising; concerns about the controls and the game’s adherence to Halo’s style have effectively been laid to rest. Now that work on the game is complete, Ensemble is shutting down, its employees splitting amongst at least two new game studios. “Thanks in large part to the game’s control and Ensemble’s clear consideration for the limitations of a controller when playing an RTS, Halo Wars manages to achieve a level of playability and accessibility that truly is fitting of the Halo dynasty. As Halo brought console FPS games to the masses in a way that Goldeneye couldn’t, so too will Halo Wars introduce RTS games to a whole new league of gamers. … Ensemble has done a great job at emulating what made Bungie’s titles so great; from the orchestral themes to the massive battles and the ongoing drama of the Covenant war, Halo Wars is a Halo title through and through.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick spilled the news that the DJ Hero game currently being developed by FreeStyleGames will be released sometime this year. He described it as a “turntable that you actually can play competitively and spin discs and mix songs.” In an interview at the World Economic Forum, Kotick also explained why the games industry is in a good position to survive the recent economic troubles, saying that the amount of time people are playing games is on the rise, in part due to their low cost-to-time ratio.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick spilled the news that the DJ Hero game currently being developed by FreeStyleGames will be released sometime this year. He described it as a “turntable that you actually can play competitively and spin discs and mix songs.” In an interview at the World Economic Forum, Kotick also explained why the games industry is in a good position to survive the recent economic troubles, saying that the amount of time people are playing games is on the rise, in part due to their low cost-to-time ratio.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Gamasutra has an interview with Ubisoft’s Patrick Redding about the development of Far Cry 2. He explains his team’s reasoning behind some of the decisions they made while trying to innovate in the very well-established first-person shooter genre. Ubisoft is also trying to crowdsource a guide for the game. “We don’t want to be necessarily spoon-feed everything to people, because that gets insulting. It’s also tiresome if you’re constantly interrupting them to remind them things about that system. I like to learn things through trial and error, and I know a lot of players are like that. But accessibility isn’t just about it being easy to pick up the controls. It’s also making sure that you’re supporting a certain kind of readability, giving the player a certain kind of feedback. Maybe the way to put it is that it might be less a function of the kind of low-level mechanics of the game at the control level, and more about how you’re using the output of the game as good feedback for the player, so they at least are clear on the causal link between what they’re doing and what’s happening.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Gamasutra has an interview with Ubisoft’s Patrick Redding about the development of Far Cry 2. He explains his team’s reasoning behind some of the decisions they made while trying to innovate in the very well-established first-person shooter genre. Ubisoft is also trying to crowdsource a guide for the game. “We don’t want to be necessarily spoon-feed everything to people, because that gets insulting. It’s also tiresome if you’re constantly interrupting them to remind them things about that system. I like to learn things through trial and error, and I know a lot of players are like that. But accessibility isn’t just about it being easy to pick up the controls. It’s also making sure that you’re supporting a certain kind of readability, giving the player a certain kind of feedback. Maybe the way to put it is that it might be less a function of the kind of low-level mechanics of the game at the control level, and more about how you’re using the output of the game as good feedback for the player, so they at least are clear on the causal link between what they’re doing and what’s happening.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
