Manhunt 2 banned - again

Censors have rejected a revised version of computer game Manhunt 2 which was blamed by a schoolboy's parents for his murder - a claim dismissed by police.
The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) first banned the game in June, saying it "constantly encourages visceral killing".

Manufacturers Rockstar Games made changes but censors still had concerns.

More from the BBC

Championship Manager 2008 signs for Mobile

The Award-winning mobile phone game is back with all the tactical play, scouting, transfers and gameplay you could possible imagine

Eidos Interactive, one of the world’s leading publishers and developers of entertainment software, has announced it is to bring No.1 selling Championship Manager series to mobile phones again, with Championship Manager 2008 set for release in November.

The mobile phone version of Championship Manager 2008 will be released through Eidos New Media and is a fully featured conversion of the pioneer of football management titles. Developed by Dundee-based Dynamo Games, the mobile game features all the tactical acumen and logistics of the PC title, in a simple to navigate menu system specifically designed for mobile handsets.

Players select a team and are charged with turning them into trophy-winning heroes; Every aspect of a manager’s job is covered, from using your talent scouts to spot the next young stars, transfer negotiations and mid-week training that covers everything from fitness, to positional awareness and set plays. As with the real thing, results are everything and the club’s board will want to see a return on any transfer investment.

Dynamo has ensured that Championship Manager 2008 is extremely easy to navigate. A series of bespoke menu and shortcut systems akin to those used when sending SMS messages allow the player rapid access to team rosters, transfer dealings or balance sheets. Vital information such as fixture lists and team information are also available at the touch of a button. The result is a brand new iteration of the award winning Championship Manager with a new 2D match overlay.

Boasting a worldwide list of players and teams, a full transfer system and a rolling news system, Championship Manager 2008 is the most immersive mobile phone game to date and is certain to elevate the series to an even wider fan base.

Championship Manager 2008 will be released for mobile phones in November and will be available across all UK operators. Please visit Eidos for more information.

Educational video game simulates drunk driving

A University of Calgary fine arts professor has created a video game designed to tackle the problem of drinking and driving.

Dr. James Parker developed the game "Booze Cruise," which was developed with the help of students, challenges players to get their cars home within a certain period of time without hitting anyone.

"This game is not like any other racing game you've played," student Nathan Sorenson told CTV News, "It's extremely difficult to achieve your objectives. You'll notice that you're hitting everything (and) you're losing a lot of points."

In the game, the player's key functions are delayed, much like a drunk driver's reaction time. Objects appear from nowhere, allowing the player to experience a type of tunnel vision.

"Somewhere in your mind, you're getting a tangible experience of how difficult it is to drive, even with a few drinks," said Sorenson.

Even those normally opposed to racing games are embracing the realism of "Booze Cruise." The Calgary Police Service provided input at the game's research stage.

"I think they've captured quite a bit of... what stage you'd be at if you drove at three times the legal (alcohol) limit," said Constable Rob Haffner.

With original art, music and design, "Booze Cruise" has been entered in the Future Play Game Contest in Toronto.

Lori Shyba, a digital media artist at the university, was one of those who developed the project. Her hope is that, when players discover how bad they are at the game, they won't try it in real life.

"I hope that one life gets saved for our efforts," she said.

Women Balance the Spatial Skills Scale with Videogames

A recent study indicates that playing video games can increase the spatial skills in both men and women, and may also allow women to catch up to men.

Recent research at the University of Toronto discovered that an inherent difference in spatial skills between the sexes is reduced by playing video games. According to the study, women score lower than men when it comes to spatial tasks, an ability necessary for such tasks as reading a map and advanced mathematics.

"On average, women are not quite as good at rapidly switching attention among different objects and this may be one reason why women do not do as well on spatial tasks.”

However, continued research indicated that while both sexes can improve their spatial skills through playing video games, the ability in women improved to a level that allowed them to “catch up to the men.” In addition, performance in both sexes was maintained when their abilities were assessed again after five months.

Perhaps, as Professor Ian Spence suggests, “bringing the spatial skills of young women up to the level of their male counterparts could help to change the gender balance” in fields like mathematical science and engineering.” That’s certainly a more mature—and helpful—response than derivative wisecracks about the driving ability of women which are heating up the comment boards.

The study is published in the October edition of Psychological Science.

The Hard Science of Making Video Games

1. Processing Power- Link

Like re-creating the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel with a couple magic markers

2. Water- Link

Like painting the sea—while it’s moving

3. Human Faces- Link

Like trying to impersonate a living person using a finger puppet

4. Artificial Intelligence- Link

Like teaching 1,000 kids to think for themselves overnight

5. Light and Shadows- Link

Like trying to reenact the first few verses of Genesis

6. Fire- Link

Like holding air in your hands

7. Material Physics- Link

Like predicting how sand will spill from a broken hourglass

8. Realistic Movement- Link

Like teaching a rag doll to play dodgeball

9. True-to-Life Simulation- Link

Like cramming the sum of all automotive engineering knowledge into a joystick

10. Motion Capture- Link

Like training a computer to see the world as humans do

Nintendo's Wii Outsells PlayStation in Japan

Xbox 360 still struggling

Nintendo's Wii game player outsold Sony's PlayStation 3 machine by almost three-to-one last month in Japan.

Nintendo, the world's biggest maker of handheld game players, sold 168,220 Wii machines, compared with 66,444 PlayStation 3 consoles, in September, researcher Enterbrain said in a faxed statement today.

Sales of the Wii have outnumbered the PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360 since the game machine was introduced in Japan in December, thanks to the Mario game series and Wii Sports. The gains helped Kyoto-based Nintendo's stock more than double since the Wii began selling in Japan, compared with a 25 percent increase for Sony shares.

Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft sold 13,242 Xbox 360s in Japan last month.

Cumulative sales of the Wii totaled 3.57 million units, while 1.21 million PlayStation 3s have been sold since it was introduced Dec. 2 in Japan. Sales of the Xbox 360 reached 455,532 million units since its debut in December 2005.

Video game players battle for cyber supremacy

The roar of virtual racing engines and rat-a-tat of screen killers echo in a Seattle arena, as 700 trigger-happy video game players from 74 countries flex their thumbs for bragging rights at the World Cyber Games (WCG). This is only the second time the WCG Grand Final has been held in the United States.

As gamers walk into the Qwest Field Exhibition Center in this northwestern US city, they are greeted by a sensory overload of music blaring, giant digital displays and LED screens pulsing with video games played all around the room.

A giant world globe made from a balloon hangs from the ceiling in the entryway. It's big enough to hold a Mini Cooper sports car. 

But don't be fooled into thinking this young crowd and wall-to-wall gaming is just about fun and play. There is big money at stake. 

Gamers of this e-Sport tournament are competing for gold medals, national glory and a share of 500,000 dollars in cash and prizes -- and the title of the "world's best" in 12 different gaming titles. 

Nicholas Timmerman, 19, is representing Germany and will be playing the racing game "Need for Speed" with his team. 

It's his fourth year in the tournament. He's not too worried about the competition. 

"They suck," he says. 

It took Ken Hartson and his team from the Netherlands 18 hours to make the trek to Seattle, in the Pacific coast state of Washington. His gaming tag name is "Experience." 

"Gaming isn't as big in my country," Experience says. "At home, in my country, they think we are stupid or something" for playing video games. 

That's not the case in other countries. 

In South Korea, players are treated like rock stars, stadiums are named after videogames and many professional South Korean players make six-figure salaries. 

Geoff Robinson is the only member of the US team from Washington state. The Oregon State University student says he has been playing the space battle game "StarCraft" for more than 10 years and looks forward to his family coming to the WCG to "see what I've been doing in their basement for the past 10 years." 

In an Olympics-inspired opening ceremony, players from each of the 74 countries took to the stage waving the flag of their homeland. 

While there is no Olympic Village at this event, there is a Players Lounge filled with bean-bag chairs for players to rest on between matches and a Players Restaurant. 

Gamers proudly wear their country colors and in some cases even drape their country flag over their shoulders. 

While playing in the game pit, teams scream, bang on their keyboards and yell into their headsets -- all in attempt to advance to the next round of games like "Command & Conquer-3," "Need for Speed," "Gears of War" and "Dead or Alive-4." 

On the main stage players go head-to-head in a spaceship-like capsule to play their game without distraction. 

The video game is projected on the stadium-sized screen, and close-up shots of the players can also be seen as an announcer gives a play-by-play of the action. 
There are more than 50 game development companies in the Puget Sound area where Seattle is located. 
This city is also home to major IT companies such as Microsoft and RealNetworks. 

The tournament opened Thursday evening and runs through Sunday. The next WCG championship will be held in Cologne, Germany.

Dutch women are mad about computer games

Dutch women like to play computer games just as often as men do. Almost one-fifth of the 10 million Dutch internet users spend about 15 minutes per day playing a computer game. The polling agency TNS NIPO Technology released the results of a study among 8,000 people. Among female gamers, 42 per cent play computer games on a daily basis, compared with 44 per cent among men.

When it comes to the most fervent gamers, people who play computer games more than two hours per day, men are still in the majority.

A total of 12 per cent of male gamers play computer games more than two hours daily; among women, this is only 6 per cent.
On average, male gamers are younger than women, with a third of all male gamers under 25 years of age. A quarter of female gamers is younger than 25 years.

Most people - 93 per cent - play games on their personal computers, followed by Playstation 2 (16 per cent) and Nintendo Wii (4 per cent).

A fifth of Dutch gamers use mobile devices to play computer games; 10 per cent uses their mobile phone.

According to TNS, NIPO, the number of people using their mobile phone to play games, is expected to grow substantially in the next few years.

The study also indicated only a small minority of the gamers enjoy extremely violent games. Two-thirds of all gamers would like to see such games prohibited altogether.

Play Halo 3 at school...

Educational methods at UNC might evolve to mirror the passions of "World of Warcraft" and "Halo 3" junkies.

On Wednesday, UNC's Information Technology Services hosted a discussion called "Games4Learning: A Symposium," which addressed the impact that computer games can have on learning, and the funding available for integrating those games into higher education.

"If we don't think about what this means for us here on campus, then we're missing the boat," said Elizabeth Evans, academic outreach consultant.

The symposium - which included lectures from professors and a member of the National Science Foundation - was a spawn of Games4Learning, an interest group composed of UNC students, faculty and staff.

The group connects individuals who want to see serious games - those that have a list of rules, a theme or context, a set of goals and no real-life consequences - integrated into University curriculum in the future.

"Games have the wrong reputation of being a waste of time," said John Weis, a Games4Learning student member. "The ultimate pie-in-the-sky goal is giving students and professors a way to supplement their curricula, not replace them."

Demonstrating the educational value of computer games and getting rid of the stigma attached to them is one main obstacle in the developmental process, Weis said.

In the future, serious games could be used as a source of education that entertains students and allows them to apply what they have learned in the classroom in real-world settings, said Evans, who helped organize the symposium.

"Inter-disciplinary activities are the possibility that excites me the most," Evans said. "It would open up the doors for people with different knowledge and skills to work together."

Universities and other research groups can apply for grants through the Research and Evaluation on Education in Science and Engineering program, said John Cherniavsky of the National Science Foundation.

The REESE program aims to advance research at the frontiers of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Researchers are working to incorporate the same aspects found in popular video games into educational curricula.

Nine million people play "World of Warcraft," and "Halo 3" raked in $173 million the weekend it was released, said N.C. State University professor Len Annetta.

Recognizing the popularity of online computer games in younger generations, Annetta is the lead principal investigator in a research program called Highly Interactive Fun Internet Virtual Environments in Science, which explores the potential of instructional technologies such as computer games.

"This isn't for everyone," Annetta said. "But certainly the population is growing."

London Game Career Fair filling up fast

Pre-registration up 200 per cent

The London Game Career Fair, to be held as part of the London Game Festival during the week of October 22, is nearing capacity.

Pre-registration is up 200 per cent from last year, with over half of those pre-registered attendees having already uploaded their CVs, and several colleges and universities are planning to bring students to the event.

Both American and British exhibitors will be present at the fair, with Blitz, THQ, LucasArts, NCsoft, EA, City University London, Team 17, Ubisoft, Rare, and Sega already confirmed.

The London Game Career Fair provides the opportunity for game industry professionals, recent graduates and individuals from related industries, such as computer graphics, animation and film, to speak with leading companies in the game industry about career opportunities.

Only a few booths are remaining for this year's fair, which is expected to break last year's attendance records that saw 700 people on the first day alone.

The career fair, jointly presented by GamesIndustry.biz and Gamasutra will be held on October 23 and October 24.

Register FREE here

Source: Games Industry

Juice games are hiring...

As part of the THQ Group, Juice Games can offer employees a number of benefits including pension, life assurance, health cover and 25 days holiday. Salaries are competitive and depend upon experience.



In 2007, Juice Games will be partnering with Datascope Recruitment Ltd. to fill an exciting range of permanent vacancies at the Studio.

• Current vacancies include
  
• Nintendo DS artist
  
• Next-gen technology programmer
  
• Network game programmer
  
• Experienced environment artist
  
• Graduate modeller
  

Full details of our vacancies can be found on www.datascope.co.uk/juice