The Virtual Army Experience Games

Five years ago, the U.S. Army launched America's Army, a free first-person-shooter (FPS) computer game based on the Army itself. It received solid reviews, and has been through multiple permutations, including retail versions for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox. A new Xbox 360 America's Army game, True Soldiers, ships later this fall.

The Army is now bringing its video game series out of the PC and console and to virtual reality with the Virtual Army Experience. America's Army: VAE is a traveling exhibit presented by the U.S. Army that lets people get a dose of VR combat through the America's Army: Special Forces (Overmatch) video game. At Digital Life, I got a chance to try the Virtual Army Experience for myself.

The virtual reality game consists of a handful of mock-up military vehicles and a set of several large projection screens. After a short mission briefing (go into enemy territory, get a captured terrorist with valuable information, and leave), the game's participants and I got into the vehicles and manned mock-up M-240 machine gun mounts. I sat in the roof turret of a Humvee, with a gun mounted on a huge, circular rail that let it slide and swivel back and forth. When everyone got settled in, the mission began.

Like a giant light-gun arcade game, the experience consisted mostly on training my fake gun on terrorists and enemy vehicles and blowing them up to the best of my ability. The fake M-240 produced satisfying kickback, rattling and shaking in my hand thanks to pressurized air. The Humvee itself also shook as it absorbed virtual rockets and IEDs. I had fun, sliding and spinning back and forth, training my gun on enemy targets and trying to gun them down before they could fire on us. We drove through the simulated landscape, picking off terrorists and protecting fellow soldiers' rides until we reached the end of the game. The screens flashed large "Mission Accomplished" logos and we all shuffled out into another trailer for "debriefing".

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Video games banned on Japanese planes

No more DS or PSP playing for Japanese gamers in the air

Playing wireless hand-held video games on Japanese airplanes no longer will be allowed after a revised law enforcing an earlier ban went into effect Monday.


Previously, passengers were asked by airlines to refrain from using gaming systems with built-in wireless functions, like Nintendo's popular DS.


But Japan's transport ministry has concluded that the electromagnetic waves emitted by the consoles have the ability to interfere with aircraft navigation systems and other devices.


Passengers still will be permitted to use game systems that lack integral wireless communication functions.


The law also has been relaxed to permit the use of electric razors, calculators and cassette players.


Wireless computer mouses have also been banned aboard flights, along with headphones that are not provided by the airlines. Battery chargers and toys that give off electronic sounds can't be used during take-offs and landings, the ministry said.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

Dragon Quest - make history on Slime Knights!

King Slime here asking you to join the journey to create an army and make history on Slime Knights!

Enter a world full of fans of the Dragon Quest series and some of the best monster hunters in the country! Slime Knights, the official Square Enix community for Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker, allows you to join the monster hunt and work your way up the community rankings to become the ultimate hunter!

Exercise your creativity, meet new friends with an interest in Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker, and have fun with me, King Slime, as I guide you through the world of Slime Knights.

Members of Slime Knights get inside access to the latest news and media about Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker:

By participating in the community, you'll get a chance to win amazing items like game posters, strategy guides, Dragon Quest plushies, Nintendo DS Lites, and exclusively signed copies of Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker!

Get first access to Square Enix content including official art, graphics, videos, and more!

Once you are a part of this insider community, you will be able to create your own profile and partake in special "Hunts" to further your fandom of Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker.

Gain enough experience and you will have a chance to level up, earn community reputation, and win some great items.

Take a look at the official community for Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker and start living the life of a true monster hunter! Join us now at Slime Knights!

Rooney scores Fifa game ad role

Watch the Ad here

The Fifa 08 football computer game - which features a digitised version of Wayne Rooney - has drafted in the real life footballer as part of a pan-European advertising campaign.

Rooney stars in a TV advert that shows the England footballer taking over a golf driving range to prove to a pair of gamers that his footballing skills are as good as his computerised alter ego.

The campaign - the largest that games manufacturer EA Sports will run in Europe this year - includes a series of three TV commercials, press, outdoor and online ads.

Eric Quennoy, the creative director of Wieden & Kennedy Amsterdam, the agency behind the campaign, said: "A lot of sporting titles leverage the fact that famous athletes inform the creation of their game.

"The breakthrough for us was when we decided to flip that on its head. Instead we wanted the game to inform how the athletes played".

Read the story here

Source: Guardian

Kids Creating Computer Games

Free Educational Software that teaches student computer programming in a 3D environment

Computers used to keep businesses on track, assist doctors with complicated surgeries and even develop life-saving combinations of drugs. The demand for computer programmers has never been greater, yet there has been a 50-percent drop in the number of computer science majors over the past seven years -- especially among women. A new program uses the lure of animated movies to entice young students.

The sky should be the limit for someone imagining a future in computers. But how do you light a fire under an aspiring student? Find a way to make it fun. Computer scientists at Carnegie Mellon University have developed a revolutionary new way to teach the basics of computer programming called "Alice."

Instead of using Java -- the computer language with lots of numbers and punctuation -- "Alice" relies on three-dimensional figures placed in a storyline.

"We like to refer to it as Pixar in your garage. It's 3-D characters, but it's obviously low-budget," says Randy Pausch, director of the Alice Project at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Penn.

Users manipulate their computer mouse to select from a gallery of 700 characters and backgrounds. Next, they choose their character's movements using a pull-down menu. Researchers say "Alice" is the perfect way to engage pre-teens, especially girls.

"To really have a substantial impact on the number of female students that end up in computer science, you really have to reach them no later than middle school." Caitlin Kelleher, Ph.D. at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Penn.

For 12-year-old Lucy Gabriel, "Alice" made her computer class the highlight of the school day.

"I like designing the characters. Making them look funny, or making them look the way I want them to look," Gabriel says.

"It's almost sinister in the fact that they're programming, but they don't know it," says Laurie Heinricher, Dean of Students at Winchester Thurston Middle School in Pittsburgh, Penn.

Alice's developers give the software away as a free download. They're hoping someday, Alice sparks enough interest in computer programming to sharply increase their ranks.

Alice's developers say they don't know exactly how many schools are using the program to teach computer programming, but they say there have been more than a half a million downloads. Download your own copy at: Alice

$169 Rock Band on November 23

Harmonix rep confirms Amazon.com price and date for upcoming PS3 and Xbox 360 rhythm game bundles; PS2 edition to follow December 10 for $159.99.

Shortly after Rock Band was first announced for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, retailers posted product pages for the game's various instruments and an all-in-one bundle. However, Harmonix and MTV Games remained stubbornly mum on the subject of pricing and package options for the music game.

That changed today when a Harmonix rep confirmed for GameSpot that Amazon.com's latest changes to the game's price and release date are accurate. The online retailer is currently listing the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 bundles of the game for $169.99, with a November 23 release date.

In addition to that news, the representative also confirmed the PlayStation 2 version's price and release date. Last-generation gamers will have to wait a little longer to shred, but the price of admission won't be quite so steep, because the PS2 bundle will sell for $159.99 when it arrives December 10. The game and instruments will also be available separately.

Both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 bundles will include the game, a wired drum kit, and a microphone. The 360 bundle will also come with a wired Fender Stratocaster guitar controller and USB hub, whereas the PS3 bundle will come with a wireless version of the Stratocaster controller and no USB hub. The PS3 edition's instruments can also be used with the PS2 edition of the game.

In May, results that were leaked from a focus group revealed that MTV Games was asking potential customers about three price points: $150, $175, and $200. Shortly thereafter, GameStop began listing the entire bundle for $199, which indicated that Harmonix, MTV Games, and distributor Electronic Arts had opted for the highest price point possible.

Source: Game Spot

SEGA Rally

SEGA Rally

Title: SEGA Rally
Developer: SEGA Racing Studio
Format: PS3, XB360, PC, PSP
Genre: Racing
Release date: September 28th 2007

GAME OVERVIEW

The introduction of SEGA Rally™ to the arcades in 1995 had the single biggest impact on the racing genre. Subsequent console rally games concentrated on a realistic simulation of the sport but their popularity, reflecting in sales, steadily dropped over the last decade. Now, SEGA Rally is back and set to reinvigorate the genre with the vital ingredients that many of the modern racers lack – fun, character and beauty, with few rally games able to match its unique and rewarding experience. Rally’s dead, long live SEGA Rally.

Arctic Environment
Set in one of those days which are brilliantly bright, yet utterly freezing, the Arctic Environment in SEGA Rally is where players can warm themselves up by haring across snowy tracks at break-neck speeds. Featuring a range of surfaces to challenge drivers, tracks take players past icy industrial buildings, across frozen lakes and along snow covered roads which beautifully show off the unique SEGA Rally deformation engine. These tracks certainly aren’t for the faint hearted, yet offer room for empowering power slides around heroic corners. Players will have to remain focused, and be careful not to be distracted by the likes of sea planes sweeping over head or ski-do riders showing off next to the track, if they are to become the ultimate SEGA Rally champion.

SEGA Rally will be released across Europe on September 28th 2007. For more information on SEGA Rally please visit www.segarally.com. For assets please visit www.sega-europe.com.

Sleeper Hit Cooking Mama Coming To Mobile Phones

Test your cooking skills wherever you are when Cooking Mama, the popular fast-action cooking simulator is served up for your mobile phone! Taito Corporation is mixing up a simplified version of the Nintendo DS game that was named by IGN as the "Best DS Most Innovative Design of E3 2006.

" The game is expected to release in early 2008.

"Given the success of Cooking Mama on other platforms, Cooking Mama is sure to be a hit on wireless phones as well," said Keiji Fujita, co- producer of Cooking Mama. "The style of gameplay is accessible and fun for casual and serious gamers of all ages."

Cooking Mama challenges players to use the game controls as master kitchen tools to cook real-world dishes. Under Mama's watchful eye, players must first prepare ingredients, then combine, cook and present the final meal. Let's get cooking, Mama!

Cooking Mama is expected to be available on most major mobile carriers in the United States in early 2008. Pricing has yet to be determined by each of the individual carriers.

FREE Alten8 Skateboard DVD Free with every copy of EA Skate bought in store at Blockbuster UK

Alten8 is pleased to announce that it is working with Blockbuster to provide a FREE copy of the Alten8 produced ‘Skateboard Tips And Tricks’ instructional DVD with every copy of EA games SKATE purchased in a Blockbuster store within the UK.

Filmed at Bay Sixty6 the UK’s largest skate park and sponsored by XBOX360 , it features all the tricks and tips needed by skateboard beginners. It also features a world exclusive interview with USA pro-skater Ronnie Creagor.

The DVD should also be featuring on XBOX Live downloads in the near future.

Paul Andrews, CEO of Alten8 commented “This is the first of many Alten8 video productions , and also shows the wider remit of Alten8 in terms of games development , publishing , and other media creation. We are very pleased and proud to be associated with such a great game as SKATE and to have our work partnered with such high calibre product.”. “It also demonstrates how Entain8 can allow both publishers and retailers to add extra value and market share by working with us”

Parents can now check games ratings online

Parents will find making decisions about which films and video games are suitable for their children much easier from today, as the BBFC launches a new website specifically for parents and guardians. Parents BBFC – www.pbbfc.co.uk – provides detailed information about the content of ‘U’, ‘PG’ and ‘12A’ films and all video games classified by the BBFC, and why they got the classification they did.

David Cooke, Director of the BBFC said:
“By providing parents with more information about the content of films and video games they will be in a better position to make informed choices about what their children watch and play. This is particularly relevant in the area of video games, where not all parents are as technology literate as their children. We have included all games, including ‘18’ rated games, on the site because we know that parents come under a lot of pressure to buy the latest big selling title. So now when they are told by their offspring that ‘it’s only a game’, particularly if it’s rated ‘18’, they can look at the new website and see what the game contains and why it got the rating it did.

“The well known and understood Consumer Advice – the short sentence about a film’s contents seen on posters, advertising and packaging – has proved both popular and helpful, but by its very nature cannot provide the sort of detailed information which parents would find useful. For each film the site will provide information about why the film got the classification it did, a synopsis of the plot, significant plot lines and how they might affect young children. This is particularly important when deciding whether to take a child younger than 12 to a ‘12A’ film, or whether the elements which moved a film from ‘U’ to ‘PG’ might be too much for a very young child. This website will take the guess work out of the family outing to the cinema and open up the world of video games for those who don’t know their PSP from their Wii.”