Flash, Silverlight the future of video games?
According to the BBC, gaming giant Electronic Arts is fed up with having to code the same game three, four or five times over. That’s the downside of the console wars – several incompatible systems....
View ArticleWhich games console this Christmas?
Which games console is the smart choice this holiday season? With four or maybe five serious contenders there is plenty of choice, and that’s good for buyers because (with one exception) it’s keeping...
View ArticleXBox 360: nearly great
Unhappily, I have joined the ranks of those who have suffered more than once from the XBox 360 red lights of death. It’s a known design fault, so hardly surprising, but annoying none the less. Mine was...
View ArticlePopfly Game Creator – programming online with Silverlight
This looks great: Popfly Game Creator. Interesting on several counts. First, casual gaming will help get Silverlight runtimes deployed. Second, it’s Microsoft doing one of the things it does well:...
View ArticleUK Rock Band prices strike an ugly chord
I was surprised to see that the highly-regarded Rock Band game has been rated only a two-star game by customer reviewers at Amazon.co.uk. The reason: not the game, but the price. The Band in a Box...
View ArticleEnd of an era: Ninja Gaiden designer Tomonobu Itagaki departs Tecmo
He’s not happy either; he’s suing his former company: I have filed this lawsuit with a strong intent to question the social responsibility of Tecmo Co., Ltd. and its President Yoshimi Yasuda, as well...
View ArticleNinja Gaiden 2: great but not quite finished
Today I completed my run-through with Ninja Gaiden 2. This is the successor to what is in my opinion the finest game on the Xbox, Ninja Gaiden Black. I used the Warrior difficult, on the grounds that...
View ArticleMicrosoft fixes Xbox 360 license transfer
Microsoft has finally fixed a long-standing irritation with the Xbox 360: the inability to transfer licenses for purchased games from one console to another. The new license transfer tool lets you...
View ArticleFarewell to Ensemble Studios and thanks for Age of Empires
Saw this sad note on the Ensemble Studios site today: Ensemble Studios created the Age of Empires series of games; I’ve played these since the first release and had a huge amount of fun. Some of the...
View ArticleReview: Wii Sports Resort and MotionPlus
Nintendo’s Wii Sports Resort with bundled MotionPlus accessory is just out, and I tried them out today. Sports Resort is the same concept as the original Wii Sports that is bundled with the console,...
View ArticleFlash to get 3D acceleration with “Molehill”
One of the demos here at Adobe Max was a 3D racing game, running in Flash with 3D acceleration. It was enabled by a new set of GPU-accelerated APIs codenamed Molehill. Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch remarked...
View ArticleGoogle Native Client: browser apps unleashed, or misconceived and likely to...
Last week Google integrated Native Client into the beta of Chrome 14. Native client lets you compile C/C++ code to run in the browser. It depends on a new plug-in API called Pepper. These are open...
View ArticleNVIDIA’s GPU in the cloud: will you still want an Xbox or PlayStation?
NVIDIA’s GPU Technology conference is an unusual event, in part a get-together for academic researchers using HPC, in part a marketing pitch for the company. The focus of the event is on GPU computing,...
View ArticleThe pros and cons of NVIDIA’s cloud GPU
Yesterday NVIDIA announced the Geforce GRID, a cloud GPU service, here at the GPU Technology Conference in San Jose. The Geforce GRID is server-side software that takes advantage of new features in the...
View ArticleAdobe launches Game Developer Tools including Scout profiler
Adobe is reminding developers that Flash is still around as a game development platform, with the release of a Game Developer Tools package including a Gaming SDK, the Flash C++ Compiler which...
View ArticleCES 2014 report: robots, smart home, wearables, bendy TV, tablets, health...
CES in Las Vegas is an amazing event, partly through sheer scale. It is the largest trade show in Vegas, America’s trade show city. Apparently it was also the largest CES ever: two million square feet...
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Windows in Xbox One: a boost for Windows 8 apps?
What if the just-announced Xbox One runs Windows 8 apps? Could this be the boost that Microsoft’s store and app platform needs? Microsoft has yet to describe the app story for the One in detail, but it...
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Virtual Reality with Oculus Rift
I tried these on during Microsoft’s Build conference, at the Xamarin party. No, it is not me in the picture. No, it’s not Microsoft’s answer to Google Glass. Rather, it is the Oculus Rift, a Virtual...
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Review: Hauppauge HD PVR 2 Gaming Edition Plus capture and streaming device
Hauppauge’s HD PVR 2 is a video capture device. The idea is that you connect it between a video source, such as an Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3, and the TV or home theatre system you normally use. Instant...
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Microsoft’s Xbox One almost invisible at Gadget Show Live
I looked in on London’s Gadget Show Live this morning. It was the usual frustrating experience: the things that were interesting were surrounded by hordes of visitors so you could barely get a look....
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