Spending a few hours with Kinect and finding your inner child

I got my Kinect set up and I'm just coming out of my first play session, having danced myself into a mild sweat on the virtual dance floor that is Dance Central (the original, because I'm cheap like that).

I will say a few things about Kinect that I have noted:

You can't really compare playing Dance Central on the Kinect
to any other console experience

1) It really is very cool and very different to be playing a game and controlling a console without any physical controls

It's a very peculiar experience for a lifelong gamer to suddenly have no object between me and the game.

Even if the technical performance is not perfect it's just a really interesting thing to try.
I'm glad I bought it, at least for just getting to have this experience and play games in a completely different kind of way.

If you are interested in the "evolution" of games as a thing in itself, then I think you should get a Kinect, simply to try it out for yourself and see it in action.

Will "The Old Republic" make Lightsabers seem mundane?

As most Star Wars fans, I have always been really fascinated with the lightsaber.

I think I first really fell in love with them when Luke and Vader fought in the Sky City on Bespin.

There is something indefinable cool about a lightsaber that is hard to describe.

The glowing blade that gives it a distinct visual presence and the eerie low level buzz that promises ozone scented mutilation and/or dismemberment.

This picture can still give me goosebumps

And of course, the awesome sight and sound of two lightsabers striking each other, sending sparks flying every which way, with a sound that leaves no doubt about the deadly potential of these weapons.

Finally, lightsabers are very rare weapons in Star Wars.
The are carried by elite samurai-like warriors that use them with expert skills that make them much more deadly than a solider with a common blaster.

All this has made lightsabers become possibly the single most recognizable science fiction weapon in movie history.
Endlessly parodied and copied in other movies, games and various other media.

Batman: Arkham City Review Round Up

The review embargo just ended for Batman: Arkham City, which is one of my 5 must get games for Q4 2011.

And it certainly looks like the caped avenger is not going to let me down.

Batman is looking to be serving us all another round of awesome

Reviews are looking, to say the least, pretty fantastic.
It seems like the game is an improvement over the, already pretty awesome, original in almost every single way.

Buy a piece of old "World of Warcraft" history

If you are in the market for some old video game memorabilia and want to support a charitable cause at the same time (and who isn’t?!), then you might be interested in Blizzards new auction for World of Warcraft “Server blades”(No, I don't know what a server blade is either, but it's probably not nearly as cool as it sounds).

Basically Blizzard has kept some of its old hardware infrastructure that was used to run World of Warcraft in the early years of the game, but has since been retired.

Be a geek *and* help sick kids at the same time! It's win win, people!

Blizzard is now auctioning this hardware off on E-bay and the proceeds will go to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital (where they research children, presumably).

The server blades being sold comes with a commemorative plaque, which you can display it prominently above the fireplace and impress your visitors with you altruistic/geeky nature.

Sadly, there will be no actual WoW data on the hardware, so no chance of starting up a bootleg World of Warcraft server by frankensteining these obsolete silicon relics back into life.

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I just bought a Kinect - Or: How I learned nothing from owning a Wii

I just did something that I feel I am going to regret.

I just ordered a Kinect.

Oh Kinect. Please don't suck!

Let me elaborate.

When the Nintendo Wii came out, I was not immediately impressed and didn't rush out and buy one right from the get go.
But as word eventually got around of the motion based shenanigans of Wii Sports, I found my gadget bone (it's the one right next to the funny bone) starting to tingle.

Sure enough I ended up with a Wii console and found much fun golfing and playing bowling with my friends.

For about three months.

Relic talks about Space Marine - Could have been better

An article on Eurogamer presents an interview with Relic that talks about Warhammer 40k: Space Marine and it's reception by reviewers and gamers.

The interview touches on Relics thoughts of developing the game, their ambitions and how they felt it all panned out in the end.

"Can you kill Orks? I guess that's good enough. Let's ship it, guys!"

Basically the whole interview has a slightly depressing tone to it, as Relic pretty much states that they made a mediocre game and the were fully aware of it.

How "Game Dev Story" ate 20+ hours of my life

Mobile phone games.

That label alone is enough to make most veteran gamers roll their eyes and think of Angry Bird copycat games.

Indeed, I must admit that until recently, I did not think there was really much in the way of games for phones that could capture my attention for any serious amount of time, excluding the ubiquitous Scrabble clones.

Enter "Game Dev Story" by Kairosoft.

Yeah, doesn't look like much, does it?

This game had me spending more than one evening on the couch, trying to run a successful game development company and leaving my consoles and PC sitting untouched and unloved.

Blizzard let's you pay real cash for WoW gold (kinda)

Blizzard will soon introduce a new pet in World of Warcraft (WoW); the Guardian Cub.

Like many other pets, this is going to be something that you are going to need to lay down some real life dosh to get your hands on.

However, unlike these previous pets, you will be able to trade the Guardian Cub, as it will be a so called "Bind on use" item (meaning it will not be locked onto a character until you use it for the first time).

Therefore you will be able to throw this puppy (or cubby, more precisely) up on the auction house, where there will no doubt be a lot of buyers prepared to part with a significant amount of gold for the privilege of owning this purple bundle of cuteness.

This is about to be the most controversial pet in WoW history

So if you're light on Azerothian currency but your pockets are bulging with greens, then you will be able to change 10$ into gold with this dragon baby as your middle man.

Calm impressions of Rage

Having gotten the 360 version of Rage in the mail yesterday I have now had a chance to spend some time with it.

The game does look really really good (if you can disregard the rather pronounced texture pop-in that happens every time you do a quick 180 turn) and while the setting does make you instantly think of Fallout and Borderlands, it actually manages to have a distinct enough vibe to make it stand apart from these two post-apocalyptic romps.

You can't say Rage doesn't look great

I really did not care much for the driving bits.
The driving physics do not feel very good and this is definitely not something I'd play to enjoy some 4 wheeled wasteland madness.
As it turns, out the driving sections are pretty much only there to carry you from one linear shooting level to the next anyway, so if you don't like it then at least the game doesn't force you into it too much.

Orcs Must Die! Developer "Robot Entertainment" answers a few questions

We're very happy to bring you a short Q and A with Community Manager Justin Korthof from "Robot Entertainment", makers of the just released and very well received game "Orcs Must Die!".

We previously did a small video look of the demo, which pits your skills against the enemy greenskin hordes of the first three levels of the game.

This pretty much sets the tone for "Orcs Must Die!"

We contacted Robot Entertainment to learn a bit more about the game, which seems to have gotten off to a good start:

New Hitman: Absolution teaser and 15 min gameplay video up

I am a moderate fan of the Hitman series.

I think the games have always appealed to me more in theory than practice, because I have never actually played a Hitman game all the way through.

Nevertheless I am prepared to be suckered in again with Hitman: Absolution, and this new teaser trailer is doing a good job of pulling me in:

Somehow people in the Hitman world never seem to learn to look out for the bar code tattooed on the back of Agent 47's head, which is prominently displayed even when he is wearing a disguise.

Also just released is this video demo of the game, featuring 15 mins of actual gameplay, which was shown behind closed doors to the press at E3 this year:

Rad!

The current state of PC gaming and the "Sysifos problem"

Full disclosure before you start reading this article; I am a PC gamer at heart. But I am also a gamer that enjoys great games on whatever platform they are available.

I currently own an Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii (hey, don’t laugh, it seemed like a good idea at the time) and a Nintendo DS.

So I bear no ill will towards consoles, even though the majority of my everyday gaming takes place on PC.

It seems that as of late the PC is having somewhat of a resurgence as a major platform for “Triple A” games.

Battlefield 3 is a good example of a major release that flexes its muscles on the PC platform in comparison to the console version.

Battlefield 3 looks the most impressive on a beefy gaming PC

The current generation of consoles are getting pretty long in the tooth by now.

With 5-6 years under their belt, it is no wonder that game developers are trying to squeeze out the last drops of gaming juice from these partially mummified fruits of gaming hardware.

Of course, this also means that the current console generation has a huge audience by now, so there is plenty of incentive to still keep pumping out your games on Playstation 3 and Xbox 360.

The Xbox 360 - an amazing piece of hardware. In 2005.

But it does look like new games are now first shown on the PC, where developers can give a truly stunning presentation, before a more toned down version that can run on consoles is demonstrated.

You really should watch Futurama

"Futurama" is something as rare as an animated science fiction sitcom.

Created by none other than Matt Groening, of "The Simpsons" fame, it is one of my favorite shows.

First aired back in 1999 Futurama never really reached the success that The Simpsons did (but then again, what has?), and the initial series was killed off in 2003.

The series follows the the adventures of the interplanetary delivery company "Planet Express" in the year 3000.

The drawing style is recognizably "Simpons like" 

The series has some fantastic characters such as Leela, the cyclopian pilot of the Planet Express spacehip, Bender, the bending series robot (for all your bending needs) that has a hankering for alcohol and a desire to kill all humans.

Oh, and of course the lobster-like medical expert of the team, Dr. Zoidberg, who is probably my favorite character of the series.

Choose your side - Jedi Knight or Bounty Hunter

Speaking of the Bounty Hunter, which was in the very run up of my class consideration for ToR, I saw that a new trailer has gone up from Bioware, showing off the Bounty Hunter and the Jedi Knight Class.

The trailer is set up as a face off between the two classes, and the community can decide who will win this confrontation by adding a tag on their tweets (get that viral PR going Bioware).

As a big Bounty Hunter fan and a not so big Jedi Knight fan, I will of course be rooting for the jet pack touting, flamethrower blazing and all round awesome Bounty Hunter.

Here's the trailer: