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Date: Fri, 11. December 2009 15:05:32

MojoKid writes "From October to December, the advertising departments of a thousand companies exhort children to beg, cajole, and guilt-trip their parents for all manner of inappropriate digital entertainment. As supposedly informed gatekeepers, we sadly earthbound Santas are reduced to scouring the back pages of gaming review sites and magazines, trying to evaluate whether the tot at home is ready for Big Bird's Egg Hunt or Bayonetta. Luckily, The New York Times is here to help. In a recent article provokingly titled 'Ten Games to Cross off Your Child's Gift List,' the NYT names its list of big bads mdash; the video games so foul, so gruesome, so perverse that we'd recommend you buy them immediately mdash; for yourself. Alternatively, if you need gift ideas for the surly, pale teenager in your home whose body contains more plastic then your average d20, this is the newspaper clipping to stuff in your pocket. In other words, if you need a list like this to understand what games to not stuff little Johnny's stocking with this holiday season, you've got larger issues you should concern yourself with. We'd suggest picking up an auto-shotty and taking a few rounds against the horde mdash; it's a wonderful stress relief and you're probably going to need it."pa href="http://games.slashdot.org/story/09/12/11/095201/NYTs-Games-To-Avoid-an-Ironic-Perfect-Gamer-Wish-List?from=rss"img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rssamp;op=imageamp;style=h0amp;sid=09/12/11/095201"/a/ppa href="http://games.slashdot.org/story/09/12/11/095201/NYTs-Games-To-Avoid-an-Ironic-Perfect-Gamer-Wish-List?from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./p pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/yUP-utsLjePfBnD8YFrOSkJ8mq4/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/yUP-utsLjePfBnD8YFrOSkJ8mq4/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/yUP-utsLjePfBnD8YFrOSkJ8mq4/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/yUP-utsLjePfBnD8YFrOSkJ8mq4/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/fkqAlIhlD9Y" height="1" width="1"/

Date: Fri, 24. April 2009 15:04:57

angry tapir writes "Chris Jager from GoodGearGuide argues that the rise of casual gaming means near-certain death for hardcore gaming. The sales of casual 'party-friendly' games are massively outstripping the sales of classic hardcore games, and the makers of other consoles are taking note of Nintendo's success in attracting non-traditional gamers to the Wii and DS. There is evidence that Sony and Microsoft are both trying to tap into the casual market, and it's only a matter of time before hardcore gaming goes the way of the Nintendo PowerGlove." Of course, the trend toward casual doesn't just involve Nintendo mdash; World of Warcraft's success (and the huge effect it's had on the MMO genre) is often credited to its focus on casual gamers. While it's not unreasonable for game studios to want all players to see all of the game's content, perhaps there's a better way of catering to the more hardcore players than tacking on difficulty modes and "do it the hard way" achievements.pa href="http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/04/24/0524216amp;from=rss"img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rssamp;op=imageamp;style=h0amp;sid=09/04/24/0524216"/a/ppa href="http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/04/24/0524216amp;from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/v9xhpM8RAnWwR9kaFYEc_DX2zxE/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/v9xhpM8RAnWwR9kaFYEc_DX2zxE/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/yPHQVk9giQ8" height="1" width="1"/

Date: Fri, 5. September 2008 09:06:21

The dog days of summer tend to dry the flow of game launches to a trickle. But this summer has been ... different. The recent weeks and months have offered up a surprising number of gaming gems. You just have to know where to look.

Date: Thu, 13. November 2008 03:05:29

unc0nn3ct3d writes "In a shocking update on the seemingly endless troubles plaguing NCSoft, Richard Garriott mdash; the king of online games, creator of The Ultima Series (and consequentially Ultima Online), as well as the recently troubled Tabula Rasa mdash; has announced that he would be stepping down from his position at NCSoft. Apparently motivated by his recent trip into space, perhaps he has found a higher purpose while orbiting so high above the earth."pa href="http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/12/1256216amp;from=rss"img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rssamp;op=imageamp;style=h0amp;sid=08/11/12/1256216"/a/ppa href="http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/12/1256216amp;from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/ZZ2jkM5yZs6-WFIAfHs8WJG1oY0/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/ZZ2jkM5yZs6-WFIAfHs8WJG1oY0/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/hoqyrIeFb5A" height="1" width="1"/

Date: Wed, 14. October 2009 03:05:55

jtogel writes "Many games use 'rubberbanding' to adapt to your skill level, making the game harder if you're a better player and easier if you're not. Just think of Mario Kart and the obvious ways it punishes you for driving too well by giving the people who are hopelessly behind you super-weapons to smack you with. It's also very common to just increase the skill of the NPCs as you get better mdash; see Oblivion. In my research group, we are working on slightly more sophisticated ways to adapt the game to you, including generating new level elements (PDF) based on your playing style (PDF). Now, the question becomes: is this a good thing at all? Some people would claim that adapting the game to you just rewards mediocrity (i.e. you don't get rewarded for playing well). Others would say that it restricts the freedom of expression for the game designer. But still, game players have very different skill levels and skill sets when they come to a game, and we would like to cater to them all. And if you don't see playing skill as one-dimensional, maybe it's possible to do meaningful adaptation. What sort of game adaptation would you like to see?"pa href="http://games.slashdot.org/story/09/10/13/078247/Should-Computer-Games-Adapt-To-the-Way-You-Play?from=rss"img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rssamp;op=imageamp;style=h0amp;sid=09/10/13/078247"/a/ppa href="http://games.slashdot.org/story/09/10/13/078247/Should-Computer-Games-Adapt-To-the-Way-You-Play?from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./p pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/bLKgmQMh8onp60R_RgbBOYXCdSo/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/bLKgmQMh8onp60R_RgbBOYXCdSo/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/bLKgmQMh8onp60R_RgbBOYXCdSo/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/bLKgmQMh8onp60R_RgbBOYXCdSo/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/QuMuxyo6ow4" height="1" width="1"/

Date: Tue, 3. August 2010 15:05:30

Every so often, video games are accused of causing all sorts of negative behavior in children, teens, and adults. These accusations are typically predicated on statistics that sound much more damning than they actually are. In that vein, gaming website Rock, Paper, Shotgun did their own tongue-in-cheek statistical analysis, complete with pretty charts and graphs. Quoting: "As part of my research I thought to compare the sales of each GTA game with what the divorce rate must have been when each came out. As you can see each new GTA game has been directly correlated with an increase in divorces. ... An often ignored statistic (and you have to ask why itrsquo;s being ignored by the games media, donrsquo;t you?) is the sheer volume of PC games being released. Wersquo;ve all noticed the British population is abandoning the church, turning instead toward shopping, DVDs and knife crime. But few have thought to check for a connection between PC sales and the numbers of people attending their local Church Of England church on a Sunday. When you look at the data therersquo;s little doubt left that as the publishers continue to release more and more PC games each year, our nationrsquo;s faith is being increasingly eroded. And at what cost? If only a graph could tell us that."pa href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fgames.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F10%2F08%2F03%2F0645218%2FTracking-the-Harm-Games-Do" target="_blank" title="Share on Facebook"img src="http://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png"/a a href="http://twitter.com/home?status=Tracking+the+Harm+Games+Do%3A+http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2Fd8G9K8" target="_blank" title="Share on Twitter"img src="http://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png"/a/ppa href="http://games.slashdot.org/story/10/08/03/0645218/Tracking-the-Harm-Games-Do?from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./piframe src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?op=discussamp;id=1741324amp;smallembed=1" style="height: 300px; width: 100%; border: none;"/iframe pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/cXRhSnzE7DE-LEA3dK2ukZKGPno/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/cXRhSnzE7DE-LEA3dK2ukZKGPno/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/cXRhSnzE7DE-LEA3dK2ukZKGPno/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/cXRhSnzE7DE-LEA3dK2ukZKGPno/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/ZtAzMdgzweA" height="1" width="1"/

Date: Mon, 7. July 2008 01:12:57

Reuters - With a month remaining until the opening ceremony of one of the most scrutinized Olympic Games in history, the time has come for Beijing to deliver on seven years of promises and billions of dollars spent.

Date: Mon, 7. July 2008 01:12:30

Reuters - With a month remaining until the opening ceremony of one of the most scrutinized Olympic Games in history, the time has come for Beijing to deliver on seven years of promises and billions of dollars spent.

Date: Thu, 19. August 2010 09:53:08

An anonymous reader writes "Ever since it launched the Xbox, Microsoft has had a fickle relationship with Windows as a gaming platform. On one hand PC gaming is a major driver of hardware and operating system sales, but on the other hand the PC is inherently less secure than the Xbox console, with piracy much more likely to impact sales of a PC title than a console one. Games for Windows Live has been an attempt to bring some of the success of Xbox Live to the PC, and while many games have shipped with support for Games for Windows Live, it hasn't exactly been a favorite of PC gamers. After all these half-hearted efforts, the last thing anyone expected was for Microsoft to announce new PC-only reboots of two classic game franchises, Flight Simulator and Age of Empires. But yesterday it did just that, announcing a massively multiplayer version of Age of Empires and a new Flight Simulator called Flight. The big question is whether Microsoft can make Games For Windows Live relevant in a market where Steam has taken hold, or if it's too late."pa href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fgames.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F10%2F08%2F19%2F0525243%2FMicrosoft-Reboots-Two-Classic-PC-Games" target="_blank" title="Share on Facebook"img src="http://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png"/a a href="http://twitter.com/home?status=Microsoft+Reboots+Two+Classic+PC+Games%3A+http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2FbvVExB" target="_blank" title="Share on Twitter"img src="http://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png"/a/ppa href="http://games.slashdot.org/story/10/08/19/0525243/Microsoft-Reboots-Two-Classic-PC-Games?from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./piframe src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?op=discussamp;id=1758980amp;smallembed=1" style="height: 300px; width: 100%; border: none;"/iframeimg width='1' height='1' src='http://slashdot.feedsportal.com/c/32909/f/530758/s/ceda718/mf.gif' border='0'/ pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/m7Eqi19ATv-CO5rGHALFeic8KGA/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/m7Eqi19ATv-CO5rGHALFeic8KGA/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/m7Eqi19ATv-CO5rGHALFeic8KGA/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/m7Eqi19ATv-CO5rGHALFeic8KGA/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/gp4gw6uKYms" height="1" width="1"/

Date: Sun, 20. July 2008 03:05:21

Ariastis writes "UbiSoft has long been against No-CD patches. Referring to them on their forums would get you warned or banned. But now, they have just officially released a patch for Rainbow 6: Vegas 2, which, when opened in a hex editor, can easily be identified as coming from the RELOADED scene group, not from UbiSoft programmers. A picture of hex analysis is shown in the story. See? Piracy isn't that bad! It saves you from having to code fixes for your own games! (Watch the drama on the Ubi Forums before it gets scrubbed clean.)"Read more of this story at Slashdot.