Last week, the Montreal International Game Summit came and went in an incredible flurry of keynotes, roundtables, exhibitions, and (of course) bar nights in downtown Montreal. Being a game development student in a city only two hours away from Montreal, myself and a bunch of my classmates had the opportunity to check it out, and for many of us for the second or third time. Over the next couple of weeks I will be discussing the incredible keynotes and conferences, as well as posting some photos of the event. Right now though, I’d like to go over some of the more interesting booths in the exhibition hall.
Compared to bigger gatherings like the Penny Arcade Expo or GenCon, MIGS had a relatively small collection of “booths.” However, since this is an industry summit and not a convention, the booths had a lot more to offer by way of development and business opportunity. One of the booths that really caught my eye was set up by Mgestyk, a Kanata, Ontario based company that focuses on engineering hardware and software for their gesture-based “Mgestyk” digital input system.
Think of the Sony Playstation’s EyeToy. Anyone familiar with this piece of hardware knows how much fun optical input can be, but also knows about it’s relative lack of precision, especially in sub-prime lighting conditions. On the other hand, the Mgestyk system seemed pretty accurate in the variable lighting conditions of the MIGS exhibition hall (the lighting changed depending on what else was happening in the main hall.)
I got to try out the camera system at two seperate times, and with two seperate games. The first was a driving simulator, with the player perspective seated inside of the car. To operate the vehicle, I had to hold my hand out to the camera, gripping an invisible steering wheel. The software then recognized the specific configuration of my posture and hands, and took that as a signal to accelerate. As long as I held my hands in this position, I was able to steer the car by mimicking the hand movements that one would use on a steering wheel. To stop or reverse, I simply had to raise my thumbs while keeping my hands in the same location. The software noticed the difference, and the game reacted accordingly.
The other game was a light-saber battle with little ball and socket marionette characters on-screen. Taking the first-person perspective, I was able to duke it out Jedi-style with my friend, who was playing on the station next to me. The saber was represented by a WiiMote in my hand, but in concert with the Mgestyk setup I found that I had a far greater degree of control over my motions on all axis, including range, pitch, and yaw. It also ignored all other movement behind me, which is critical in a crowded exhibition hall.
Set to retail at about the price of a high-end webcam, the Mgestyk could be a neat addition to a hardcore gamer’s arsenal. Check out the following YouTube videos. When I spoke to the guys representing the company at MIGS, they were really enthusiastic about the popularity of the videos online, and given how much fun I had with their setup I can see why. Oh, apparently it will also work in total darkness (though one would hope you would at least be playing with your TV on.)
I also got to check out the booth that Microsoft had set up, with a pretty interesting gaming rig. Featuring the acclaimed Far Cry 2, the setup added a pretty impressive tactile feedback system using gear they already have on the market.
First of all, they used a neat triple monitor setup that gave the sudden advantage of peripheral vision. While very helpful in multiplayer, there were some drawbacks. I had a lot of initial trouble getting used to the huge amount of new visual real-estate, and the game itself seemed to have issues figuring out where to draw 2D HUD elements like player names and menu options.
The other elements added were a set of desk fans that (were supposed to) give the player the impression of wind while running or moving quickly, and ambient lights that reacted to on-screen events. My favourite, however, was the 3rdSpace Gaming Vest, an impact generating piece of apparel by TN Games.
Using “Pneumatic Impact Cells”, the vest reacts to in-game events such as bullet impact and explosions, though only within it’s fairly limited scope of supported software. Trying out the vest was interesting. The feeling of bullet impact on my chest made me a little more aware of the gaming environment, as well as a little less risky when assaulting enemy fortifications. I’m not sure if this piece of hardware is necessarily worth the price just yet, but the addition of a soft of primal fear instilled by physical stimuli is hard to get elsewhere within gaming, and at the very least worth a try.
Real-time strategy games have historically had a difficult run trying to break into the console market. Over the last couple of decades of popular home console use, there have been multiple RTS releases and ports, though they are almost always poorly recieved when compared to their PC counterparts.
Although there are multiple reasons for this struggle, the most prominent setback was and continues to be the control interface. While most games use controls for view and character movement, strategy games use the control interface to quickly select and deploy potentially dozens of units in rapid order. While the mouse is perfectly suited for this, console controllers lack in both the speed and precision department.
This brings me to the console-exclusive Tom Clancy’s EndWar. The up-and-coming release is a tactical strategy game that offers the player a deep voice-recognition system used to control multiple units. With the headset on, the player can bark orders such as “Unit 2 attack hostile 1″, or “Unit 4 secure Foxtrot”, and have your on-screen soldiers acknowledge your orders via the headset’s earpiece.
Although the voice commands are pre-made and compartmentialized by the Ubisoft developers, they are complex and specific enough to be able to do anything from having one unit defend another, to ordering your camera to follow a mobile helicopter unit. The fact that the voice commands were designed to recognize proper sentence structure makes the voice-command system feel even more natural.
Unlike other voice-activated software, EndWar requires very little voice training. In fact, during the demo’s setup phase it felt as if the program was training me, as opposed to me training it. The complexity and range of the recognition software is demonstrated by this video demo, where the game recognizes commands uttered by a pair of trained parrots.
——–
On the topic of unique control mechanisms, hardware manufacturer OCZ has a device on the market that has been dubbed the “Neural Impulse Actuator”, or NIA. What the NIA consists of is essentially a rubber headband with diamond-shaped sensors on it. This headband connects to box that is used to translate the headband’s readings into keyboard bindings, that are then fed to your compute via USB input. Using a combination of electro-encephalogram, electro-myogram, and electro-oculogram technologies, the NIA can be used to pass up to eight different input binds to your computer without having to actually touch another input device. It’s sensors measure facial muscle tension, ocular movement, alpha brain waves, and beta brain waves to literally read your mind and your physiological impulses, which are then used as control mechanisms.
With a fair amount of training, the NIA can be taught to translate various types of thought (aggressive, pain management, etc) into usable input. This means that you can have it translate a tensing of your jaw muscles as a jump command, or a sideways glance as a look command. Using the alpha wave sensors, you can have the NIA translate an aggressive thought such as swearing into an input, as well. The lowest price I have found this for is about $120, and the highest is about $300. In it’s current iteration, however, the software will only recognize keyboard input. This means that you will still have to use the mouse if you want to get much PC gaming done with it.
In June of this year I ordered the National Geographic Genographic kit. This is the consumer-end product of about six years of research and field world that National Geographic has done in an effort to collect and track as many human genetic markers as possible. The end goal is to trace the origin of our species, as well as migration and other data from “Adam” to modern man. As a method of collecting both current genetic data and funding, anyone can order a kit for $100 and get their own DNA tested. I picked up two - one for myself, and one for my sister. This way we were able to track both sides of our family tree, both mitochondrial and Y-chromosome. As the project team uncovers more data, according results are added to your online profile.
After sending my cheek swaps, the results took a couple of months to get back to me as warned in the information package. Not disappointed, the $100 was worthwhile to entertain my curiosity and learn about my distant origins. Any history or biology nerd should fall in love with this project.
After reading through my results, I decided to share them with everyone here. It’s a little wordy, but a good taste of what you could find out about yourself.
Your Y-chromosome results identify you as a member of haplogroup J2.The genetic markers that define your ancestral history reach back roughly 60,000 years to the first common marker of all non-African men, M168, and follow your lineage to present day, ending with M172, the defining marker of haplogroup J2. Some in this lineage also carry the markers M47 (J2a), M12 (J2e), M67 (J2f), and M92 (J2f1).
If you look at the map highlighting your ancestors’ route, you will see that members of haplogroup J2 carry the following Y-chromosome markers:
M168 > M89 > M304 > M172
Today, descendants of this line appear in the highest frequencies in the Middle East, North Africa, and Ethiopia, and at a much lower frequency in Europe, where it is observed exclusively in the Mediterranean area. Approximately 20 percent of the males in southern Italy carry the marker, along with ten percent of men in southern Spain.
What’s a haplogroup, and why do geneticists concentrate on the Y-chromosome in their search for markers? For that matter, what’s a marker?
Each of us carries DNA that is a combination of genes passed from both our mother and father, giving us traits that range from eye color and height to athleticism and disease susceptibility. One exception is the Y-chromosome, which is passed directly from father to son, unchanged, from generation to generation.
Unchanged, that is unless a mutation—a random, naturally occurring, usually harmless change—occurs. The mutation, known as a marker, acts as a beacon; it can be mapped through generations because it will be passed down from the man in whom it occurred to his sons, their sons, and every male in his family for thousands of years.
In some instances there may be more than one mutational event that defines a particular branch on the tree. What this means is that any of these markers can be used to determine your particular haplogroup, since every individual who has one of these markers also has the others.
When geneticists identify such a marker, they try to figure out when it first occurred, and in which geographic region of the world. Each marker is essentially the beginning of a new lineage on the family tree of the human race. Tracking the lineages provides a picture of how small tribes of modern humans in Africa tens of thousands of years ago diversified and spread to populate the world.
A haplogroup is defined by a series of markers that are shared by other men who carry the same random mutations. The markers trace the path your ancestors took as they moved out of Africa. It’s difficult to know how many men worldwide belong to any particular haplogroup, or even how many haplogroups there are, because scientists simply don’t have enough data yet.
One of the goals of the five-year Genographic Project is to build a large enough database of anthropological genetic data to answer some of these questions. To achieve this, project team members are traveling to all corners of the world to collect more than 100,000 DNA samples from indigenous populations. In addition, we encourage you to contribute your anonymous results to the project database, helping our geneticists reveal more of the answers to our ancient past.
Keep checking these pages; as more information is received, more may be learned about your own genetic history.
Your Ancestral Journey: What We Know Now
M168: Your Earliest Ancestor
Fast Facts
Time of Emergence: Roughly 50,000 years ago
Place of Origin: Africa
Climate: Temporary retreat of Ice Age; Africa moves from drought to warmer temperatures and moister conditions
Estimated Number of Homo sapiens: Approximately 10,000
Tools and Skills: Stone tools; earliest evidence of art and advanced conceptual skills
Skeletal and archaeological evidence suggest that anatomically modern humans evolved in Africa around 200,000 years ago, and began moving out of Africa to colonize the rest of the world around 60,000 years ago.
The man who gave rise to the first genetic marker in your lineage probably lived in northeast Africa in the region of the Rift Valley, perhaps in present-day Ethiopia, Kenya, or Tanzania, some 31,000 to 79,000 years ago. Scientists put the most likely date for when he lived at around 50,000 years ago. His descendants became the only lineage to survive outside of Africa, making him the common ancestor of every non-African man living today.
But why would man have first ventured out of the familiar African hunting grounds and into unexplored lands? It is likely that a fluctuation in climate may have provided the impetus for your ancestors’ exodus out of Africa.
The African ice age was characterized by drought rather than by cold. It was around 50,000 years ago that the ice sheets of northern Europe began to melt, introducing a period of warmer temperatures and moister climate in Africa. Parts of the inhospitable Sahara briefly became habitable. As the drought-ridden desert changed to a savanna, the animals hunted by your ancestors expanded their range and began moving through the newly emerging green corridor of grasslands. Your nomadic ancestors followed the good weather and the animals they hunted, although the exact route they followed remains to be determined.
In addition to a favorable change in climate, around this same time there was a great leap forward in modern humans’ intellectual capacity. Many scientists believe that the emergence of language gave us a huge advantage over other early human species. Improved tools and weapons, the ability to plan ahead and cooperate with one another, and an increased capacity to exploit resources in ways we hadn’t been able to earlier, all allowed modern humans to rapidly migrate to new territories, exploit new resources, and replace other hominids.
M89: Moving Through the Middle East
Fast Facts
Time of Emergence: 45,000 years ago
Place: Northern Africa or the Middle East
Climate: Middle East: Semi-arid grass plains
Estimated Number of Homo sapiens: Tens of thousands
Tools and Skills: Stone, ivory, wood tools
The next male ancestor in your ancestral lineage is the man who gave rise to M89, a marker found in 90 to 95 percent of all non-Africans. This man was born around 45,000 years ago in northern Africa or the Middle East.
The first people to leave Africa likely followed a coastal route that eventually ended in Australia. Your ancestors followed the expanding grasslands and plentiful game to the Middle East and beyond, and were part of the second great wave of migration out of Africa.
Beginning about 40,000 years ago, the climate shifted once again and became colder and more arid. Drought hit Africa and the grasslands reverted to desert, and for the next 20,000 years, the Saharan Gateway was effectively closed. With the desert impassable, your ancestors had two options: remain in the Middle East, or move on. Retreat back to the home continent was not an option.
While many of the descendants of M89 remained in the Middle East, others continued to follow the great herds of buffalo, antelope, woolly mammoths, and other game through what is now modern-day Iran to the vast steppes of Central Asia.
These semi-arid grass-covered plains formed an ancient “superhighway” stretching from eastern France to Korea. Your ancestors, having migrated north out of Africa into the Middle East, then traveled both east and west along this Central Asian superhighway. A smaller group continued moving north from the Middle East to Anatolia and the Balkans, trading familiar grasslands for forests and high country.
M304: The Spread of Agriculture
Fast Facts
Time of Emergence:15,000 to 10,000 years ago
Place of origin: Fertile Crescent
Climate: Ice Age ending
Estimated Number of Homo sapiens: Millions
Language: Unknown—earliest evidence of modern language families
Tools and Skills: Neolithic Revolution
The patriarch of haplogroup J2 was a descendant of the M89 Middle Eastern Clan. He was born between 15,000 to 10,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent, a region that extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf where the Euphrates and Tigris rivers form an extremely rich floodplain. Today the region includes all or part of Israel, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq.
The descendants of this man played a crucial role in modern human development. They pioneered the first Neolithic Revolution, the point at which humans changed from nomadic hunter-gatherers to settled agriculturists. The end of the last ice age around 10,000 years ago, and the subsequent shift in climate to one more conducive to plant production, probably helped spur the discovery of how to grow food.
Control over their food supply marks a major turning point for the human species: the beginning of civilization. Occupying a single territory required more complex social organization, moving from the kinship ties of a small tribe to the more elaborate relations of a larger community. It spurred trade, writing, and calendars, and pioneered the rise of modern sedentary communities and cities.
The M304 marker appears at its highest frequencies in the Middle East, North Africa, and Ethiopia. In Europe, it is seen only in the Mediterranean region.
An important subgroup of haplogroup J includes the descendants of another man from the M89 Middle Eastern Clan born in the Fertile Crescent at about the same time, carrying the marker M172. This related haplogroup is called J2.
The early farming successes of these lineages spawned population booms and encouraged migration throughout much of the Mediterranean world.
M172: Toward the Mediterranean
Fast Facts
Time of Emergence: 10,000 years ago
Place of Origin: Fertile Crescent
Climate: Ice Age ending
Estimated Number of Homo sapiens: A few million
Language: Unknown
Tools and Skills: Neolithic
Your ancestors left a physical footprint that matches their genetic journey. Artifacts from ancient towns such as Jericho, also known as Tell el-Sultan, a site close to present day Jerusalem, provide evidence of permanent human settlements to around 8500 B.C. The sites also suggest the transition from hunter-gatherer to settled life occurred relatively suddenly.
The M172 marker defines a major subset of haplogroup J, which arose from the M89 lineage. It is found today in North Africa, the Middle East, and southern Europe. In southern Italy it occurs at frequencies of 20 percent, and in southern Spain, 10 percent of the population carries this marker. Both haplogroup J and its subgroup J2 are found at a combined frequency of around 30 percent amongst Jewish individuals.
This is where your genetic trail, as we know it today ends. However, be sure to revisit these pages. As additional data are collected and analyzed, more will be learned about your place in the history of the men and women who first populated the Earth. We will be updating these stories throughout the life of the project.
I found it interesting that Jews were specifically mentioned as having a high frequency of my haplogroups, as I am Jewish and my family history in Canada started with emigration from Eastern Europe. It’s also worth noting Sephardic Jews are referred to, and my family is (traditionally) Ashkenazi, though we already knew that we may have origins in a Sephardic town. It’s amazing what kind of information can be revealed through projects like this.
——————-
All in all, I found this to be a rewarding experience. Though the accuracy may be a little questionable, it’s inspired some research into my modern family history and stirred up a fair amount of interest in personal origins.
If you’re interested in your own history, or even looking for a cool gift for someone, this is certainly an opportunity to take part in something fun and unique.
For my few loyal readers, there will be no updates for a few weeks. I’m off to Israel tomorrow, and will have very limited internet access (and won’t be doing any gaming.)
Jonathan Blow’s keynote speech at Montreal International Game Summit in 2007 included something new and exciting. After talking about his thoughts on BioShock and other bits of deceptive game design, he brought up some screens and videos of his (then) up-and-coming title, Braid. After some impressive footage and interesting description, I became intrigued and excited for Braid’s release. After a few months without new information, the game began to slip from my radar.
Every now and then I heard a little bit about Braid here and there, which always rekindled my interest for a little while. I never really followed the development, but those short moments of excitement were enough to keep my excitement fueled. When my roommate reminded me that Braid hit Xbox Live Arcade, I had to download it as soon as I got home.
Hellman shows off his unique art style in Braid.
While I had seen videos of the game in action, nothing had prepared me for the actual game play experience. The music was soothing and put me in a good state of mind for a puzzle game, and David Hellman’s unique and beautiful art style really lends itself to the playfulness of the overall game. The simple aesthetic treat of wandering the various levels is enough to make me want to keep playing, much less the incredibly satisfying mental challenges.
Braid’s puzzles can be tricky in their relative simplicity. All of the answers are laid in front of you, but often obfuscated in such a way that requires a fair amount of simplification and lateral thought. Over thinking puzzles seemed to be my downfall, and I was usually able to solve them quickly enough if I forced myself to forget conventional puzzle wisdom and seek out the simplest answer. The entire experience really makes me feel like I’m playing with the game - like a new toy or brain teaser - rather than just playing through game.
Although I’m going to omit specific examples for fear of revealing any solutions, I find it amazing at how Braid makes me feel as if my brain is sabotaging it’s own efforts while solving certain puzzles. Often I’ll feel close to a solution, only to spend a few minutes stalled on my answer. When I finally find the right answer, I’ll have realized that I was originally somewhat off, and had zealously created my own red herrings.
All I can really say at this point is to try it out. The demo is free and available via Live Arcade, at a mere 144mb download. Play it with the sound up, alone in the room, and in a comfortable seat. Braid’s puzzles will leave you in a wake of self-congratulatory serenity.
Previous to playing the demo, Too Human hadn’t really struck me as a “need to play title.” Nothing I saw online really interested me, and the idea of another “Diablo-like” really didn’t sit well after I lost interest in Titan Quest so quickly. Nonetheless, I downloaded the demo and played with the starter class presented to me. An hour later the demo complete, I really found myself wanting more. The potential for more loot and interesting enemies to slaughter seemed great, and my techno blood lust was tangible. Alas, the demo was over and I wasn’t really interested in playing through the same level again so soon - with the same class, anyways*.
Too Human allows the user to play as the Norse warrior “Baldur”.
Something that immediately frustrated me was the control scheme, and I’m sure that more people had the same issue. I was so set in my ways, that using the right analog stick to do anything but control the camera seemed like an instinctual raping. This may seem like a poetic exaggeration, but as seasoned video game veteran it was downright embarrassing to be fumbling over my game pad like a club-fisted idiot. However, I persevered. The Robot Goblin battles needed a hero, and the game’s theme had captured my interest enough for me to press on. After a while I found that I wasn’t noticing the irritating controls scheme as much, and then not at all. By the time I had finished the demo I was comfortable enough with the control scheme to realize how elegant the setup actually is. By mapping all melee attacks to the right analog stick, the player has an incredible amount of directional control over his attack - a feature ever important to a third-person hack n’ slash adventure.
Suddenly, hitting a button for every attack seems like child’s play. Being able to choose the precise location of your attack as you would plot out a point using a protractor is the new hotness. It really demonstrates how you can create a game in a familiar style, yet emerge with a better control scheme (at the expense of some slight gamer frustration). Combined with immediately interchangeable melee and ranged attacks, and suddenly the gamer is given an immense amount of control over his avatar, able to weave intricate and stylish attack combinations at will. I experience great glee every time I use an over sized hammer to knock a goblin into the air, and then shoot him out of the sky with a burst of plasma fire.
The game uses a somewhat familiar inventory system. There are several melee and ranged weapon “types”, and the player can equip one melee and one ranged weapon at a time. The weapons and armour come in varying levels of colour-coded rarity, with power scaling up based on how unique the item is. It’s all essentially a loot-whore game wrapped in a unique and exciting theme. Really though, who wouldn’t find cyber vikings exciting? Cyborg Valkyries!
Too Human also uses a nifty puzzle mechanic involving environment manipulation. The techno-Norse version of the internet is a lush mountain region known as “cyberspace”, accessible only by a sort of super advanced well. When the well is used, the player is transported in body to cyberspace, where new items can be collected and where environmental puzzles can be solved to gain access to new areas in “real life.” This whole sub-game adds a sense of mystery to the already interesting theme. It also provides a break from the action and allows the player to cool down and mentally refocus on the tasks ahead. The soft transition from action to puzzles is pleasant and doesn’t feel forced.
All in all, I found the Too Human demo to be an exciting and interesting gameplay experience. It’s not short enough to be disappointing, but not long enough to be too revealing. This will most likely end up being an end of summer purchase.
———
*I replayed the demo 4 times - once with each of the “locked” classes. Two of the classes may be accessed by setting your system date to 2009, and the other two are accessed by rapidly pressing “A” while moving the selection *off* of them with the left stick.
June 13th marked a tremendous day in Canadian portable music history - at least in my personal calendar. This was the day that the Microsoft Zune was officially released to the Canadian public. Unlike some of my Canuckian counterparts who ordered theirs early from online retailers, I was a good little consumer and waited for my local Future Shop to get them in. Once the release was confirmed, I used my lunch break on that fateful day and bought myself a spiffy black 80gb piece of glory. I spent the rest of my shift playing with the menus and agonizing over the lousy bloatware music and video that Microsoft lovingly shipped for me.
It’s been nearly a month, and I’m still in love with this thing (and I’m reasonably impressed with the PC-side software that runs it.) It’s usually with me in the car, and I’ve loaded up my music collection as well as such visual classics as Rambo IV and Tank Girl onto it. However, what intrigued me since I first starting reading about it was the software potential.
From what I gather, the Zune basically runs on a hacked version of Windows CE. Both a friend of mine and I have been exploring the possibilities of developing games and applications for it using our beloved C#/XNA, and have found communities for such a thing popping up already. There are a ton of resources for this, but here is one of my favourite dev communities. It’s off of ZuneBoards. Clicky!
From some screenshots I’ve seen of projects in development, it seems the Zune hardware is even capable of limited 3D support, which is exciting and overdue news for mobile platform developers. I’m pretty excited to dive in and get my hands dirty with this, and in short order.
Unfortunately, as things are right now there is no way to create a “release” of a game for the Zune since XNA3.0 is still in it’s community testing phase, or something like that. Instead, any games or other applications designed for the Zune have to be installed the Alpha way. That is, you have to use the Visual Studio Express 2008 compiler to deploy the game to a recognized device. Not hard, but a little more time consuming than using a stardard Setup executable.
Anyways, this is all I have on this for now. As time progresses and the Zune development community grows out of it’s infant stages, I will post more and reveal my own projects as they arrive. If anybody here has some Zune apps or software they would like me to reveal, just send an email or leave a comment and I’ll be happy to take a look.
After spending approximately a week tantalizing fans with misleading splash screens laden with ice and purple walruses (walri?), Blizzard has officially announced that Diablo 3, A.K.A. “Project Hydra” is in development. Although the rumour mill had me fairly convinced that this was going to be the major announcement scheduled for today, it was still a shock of satisfaction and overwhelming glee to hear the news from an official source.
There have been two character classes announced thus far: The Barbarian, with (judging from the game play video) his familiar - but slightly modified - power set and multi-wielding capabilities. Fighting alongside him is the Witch Doctor, which appears to be a modified Necromancer with more elemental capabilities.
The game interface / HUD seems familiar, and will probably be immediately comfortable to old Diablo fans, as it keeps the traditional health and mana orbs with moves and option buttons in between them.
Exciting is the state of development that the game appears to be in. Obviously this has been in the works for a long while, meaning fans won’t have to wait through an entire development period. Hopefully we will be seeing this game hit shelves within the next 12-18 months, though given Blizzard’s track record of perfectionism, anything can happen. Frankly, I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Be sure to stay tuned in, as I will certainly be reporting more on the upcoming sequel to one of my favourite series’ of all time.
Relax all of the muscles in your body. Start at your head, and slowly relax down to your feet.
Open your eyes and look at your screen. Observe at the serene underwater view in front of you, and listen to the monotonous tone of the respirator as you breath. You begin to feel a great calm as you watch the aquatic creatures before you as they swim around, oblivious to all of the troubles of the world.
Wii Remote resting comfortably in hand, you gently guide yourself around a tropical lagoon, petting dolphins and observing sea slugs about their daily business.
BANG!
Suddenly, an explosion! You hear a rocket roar past your head and into the wall beside you! Gunshots ring out to your left, and a police siren screams in alarm. People are shouting. Cars are screeching into eachother and the sound of metal tearing into metal takes over the room. Once calm and quiet, your blood is pumping as you react to the chaos.
This seems to be an increasingly common scenario in my house, and admittedly I’m usually the one responsible for the chaotic din that takes over our living room (most likely to my roommates’ dismay, though they haven’t expressed this yet.) Thus is the cost of having two TVs set up in the same room, I suppose, but the audio battle between GTA4 and Endless Ocean got me thinking. Not only did I consider how forgiving my roommates are, but I revisited the idea of the “Relaxation Game”; something I hadn’t really considered since I was at the Montreal International Game Summit (MIGS) back in November.
The concept of a relaxing game is a relative novelty, but an interesting one. Consider the fact that video games are generally regarded as leisurely activities, indulged in to relax after a long day at work. I understand that this is by no means the primary reason that people play video games, but it is a significant one and the focus of this type of game. Most games focus around action, adventure, or some other adrenaline-fueled activity. Potentially getting the user wound up and excitable may be fun, but is not always necessary or desired. If I have been concentrating on my work all day, I don’t always want to play a game that will force my undivided concentration or require considerable focus. Sometimes I just want to chill out, as the case may be. Enter the Relaxation Game.
A good name to throw out at this point would be That Game Company. Authoring games such as “fl0w” and “Cloud”, this developer is deeply familiar with the premise of an alternative gameplay experience. Currently in development is a game called “Flower”, which is reportedly designed to instill a feeling of bliss and comfort within it’s users. From what i saw at the MIGS keynote presented by lead developer Kellee Santiago, “Flower” is certainly well on it’s way to achieving that goal. What I found really exciting about the demo footage was how carefully the emotional gaming experience seemed to be crafted, and how organic the audience response was. Even from unplayable footage, a sense of purpose and direction was abundantly clear.
So, what makes a game relaxing? Much of this is relative, but there are a few key factors to consider. First: theme. Obviously shooting and car chases are out, leading to way to something like organic flight, or SCUBA diving as seen in Endless Ocean. Make sure the theme plays out as peacefully as possible, and you’re well on your way to a relaxing experience. Add this this proper ambiance. Soft, cool colours such as light blue and purple seem to be popular for this genre. Keep colour transition smooth to avoid visually shocking the user. Add in soothing and/or relaxing music, and you have the major elements that I’ve observed in a game designed to calm the mind and body.
Sound good? Hell, I’m relaxed just writing about this.
So, my gamer friends, I urge you to try out this subgenre of games. Pick up Endless Ocean for your Wii, or download fl0w from That Game Company. Even something as common as Cabella’s Hunting And Hilariously Indiscriminate Animal Slaughter can be relaxing, provided you focus less on the hunting and more on enjoying being in the virtual forest. I promise that you won’t be disappointed, and you may even be more willing to embrace experimental games as they progress.
Keep gaming.
~The Chiz
P.S. No, I’m not a filthy hippy. I enjoy wantonly shooting an elephant in the face at least as much as the next guy. Probably more.
Game trailers have come a long way from the dancing fat guys singing about plumbing in the 80’s Super Mario Bros commercials. Over the years trailers have become a sort of entertainment device on their own, complete with nifty gimmicks, web-based jokes, and jabs against competeing titles.
Here you will find a set of three rather unique game trailers, chosen for both their entertainment value and their unique approach to a sales pitch.
“Meet The Scout” is the latest in Valve’s “Meet The” series for the ever-popular Team Fortress 2. A large part of the appeal of TF2 lies in the unique characteristics of each class. Valve took this a step further by creating mini-biographies for many of the game’s character classes, highlighting the more hilarious aspects of the TF2 cartoon army. Other classes that have been featured thus far are the Soldier, Heavy, Demoman, and Engineer.
The “Activities Trailer” for Saint’s Row 2 takes a direct shot at the latest in the Grand Theft Auto series. Highly acclaimed for it’s “real life” feel, GTA4 contains many social activities like bowling, drinking, and internet dating. While fun for many (including myself), some have complained that watching a fake TV shown in your TV seems futile and is not a great appeal. The guys in Volition’s marketing department seem to have picked up on this, and have released the above trailer in response. Admittely, it makes SR2 out to be a pretty exciting game.
An appeal to casual gamers everywhere, Battlefield: Heroes developers are touting the game as an anguish-free experience. This couldn’t be presented in a more transparent fashion than it is in this trailer. The gameplay footage and narrator descriptions make the game seem like a wildly entertaining war game, conveyed in the same light-hearted comedic attitude as the upcoming film “Tropic Thunder.” Starting the trailer in a sombre fashion before switching to the whacky, ‘toon-filled imagery of the game itself is a clever trick that immediately provides a one-up over other war games that overexploit the same type of serious, self-congratulatory themes. After viewing this trailer, I can’t wait to click on the oversized “Play Now” button myself.
As read on Console Patrol, the Florida Bar is recommending that Jack Thompson be disbarred, and banned from reapplying to the bar for ten years. This comes as welcome news to many gamers, who have such animosity towards this infamous Florida lawyer that shirts featuring slogans such as “Kill Jack Thompson” have been created and sold online.
While I do NOT for any reason condone the kind of violent response that has made gamers so distrusted amongst those “not in the know”, I do understand the reaction to the threat of having your access, your hobby, and in some cases your livelihood snatched away from you.
So, what happens when the man primarily responsible for this threat goes off the deep end? The answer is that the world ends up with something like Thompson’s 14 page objection (read: rambling diatribe) about why his crusade is just and honorable.
Ignoring the obvious “separation of church and state” business that Thompson is apparently forgetting, I have taken it upon myself to deliver to you some of my favourite excerpts from Thompson’s objection - or as I like to call it - his “Crazy Speech”
“There is a reason my e-mail address is amendmentone@comcast.net. It is because of the fascists who run The Florida Bar identified as such by a U.S. Supreme Court Justice.”
Fun fact: Thompson’s email address is now, once more, widely published online. He is also managing to overlook the fact that his behavior in recent years has been more consistent with the facists of old than the Florida Bar has been in trying to settle him down and stop wasting state and federal dollars.
“…Oren Wunderman, Executive Director of the Family Resource Center of South Florida, who spent hours examining me, administering tests, and he found me a) wonderfully sane, and b) a person whose Christian faith has enhanced his activities as a lawyer.”
Well, EVERYONE knows that faith enhances reason. Right? ….guys?
“…the efforts of the anti-Christian Florida Bar…”
I wonder if it has occurred to Jack that “anti-Christian” and “distinctly non-Christian” are two separate notions.
“The consequence of all of this post facto oath taking is that all that the Florida Supreme Court has done in this case is invalid and will be voided, and if you think I will not accomplish that end then a) you do not understand the lawsuit already filed, and b) you don’t know Jack.“
Hah hah! He made a funny! Everyone laugh at the funny!
Okay, enough of the quotes. What we’re seeing here is the last reach for the surface by a drowning man. He is obviously furious at the public shaming he has received by having these charges leveled against him, and can not seem to grasp why this is happening. As seen by his numerous bible quotes and comparisons to God, Jack perceives himself as fighting for a just and holy cause, and for that reason thinks he should be allowed to continue.
Anybody who has read his objection can clearly see he is grasping at straws. Trying to shatter the court’s credibility by making accusations about invalid oaths and bizarre anti-Christian agendas is really desperate behavior, even for Jack. Then again, what else can we expect from a man who slips gay porn into court documents?
P.S. I promised myself that I wouldn’t post about the sensational Jack Thompson, but in this case I couldn’t help it. I’m not writing about how awesome video games are, and how much of a douchebag Thompson is. What I needed to do here is outline the sheer desperation for attention exhibited by this man, and how he refuses to let go of public attention. Keep fighting your fight, Jack. Nobody can stop you from doing that. Just please stop abusing your position of power to do so.
Save to Browser Favorites
Ask
backflip
blinklist
BlogBookmark
Bloglines
BlogMarks
Blogsvine
BUMPzee!
CiteULike
co.mments
Connotea
del.icio.us
DotNetKicks
Digg
diigo
dropjack.com
dzone
Facebook
Fark
Faves
Feed Me Links
Friendsite
folkd.com
Furl
Google
Hugg
Jeqq
Kaboodle
linkaGoGo
LinksMarker
Ma.gnolia
Mister Wong
Mixx
MySpace
MyWeb
Netvouz
Newsvine
PlugIM
popcurrent
Propeller
Reddit
Rojo
Segnalo
Shoutwire
Simpy
sk*rt
Slashdot
Sphere
Sphinn
Spurl.net
Squidoo
StumbleUpon
Technorati
ThisNext
Webride
Windows Live
Yahoo!
Email This to a Friend
If you like this then please subscribe to the 
