Items tagged with "gaming" on the iVirtua Community

I have looked all over the Internet for a solution, but can't find anything. Well, I recently purchased a Logitech G15 gaming keyboard from buy.com through http://www.dealrocker.com discount deal. My computer freezes when I use media keys. I checked out USB connectors, change it to different one and reinstall the software, but had no success. Can anyone help me to fix this issue?

Thanks..

The new iPhone 4 has a three-axis gyroscope with pitch, roll, yaw, rotation around gravity. Tied to accelerometer and compass for 6-axis motion.

�We�ve got another cool piece of hardware �We�ve tied the gyro, accelerometer, and GPS for 6-axis motion sensing. It�s perfect for gaming � and one of the reasons it�s perfect is because it�s built into every iPhone 4, so you know it�s ther: we�re adding a three-axis gyroscope.� A few people in the audience just completely lost it.
�The gyro joins the four other sensors� these phones are getting more and more intelligent about the world around them. So that�s four. Number five. This is a great one. A whole new camera system built into iPhone 4.�

Demo using Jenga game

Farmville is coming to iPhone. �Today we�re introducing farming for the iPhone. Farmville is our most popular game, and we�re excited to be bringing it to the most popular mobile gaming platform in the world.��
�Say goodbye to withering crops, we now have push notifications!� Pincus: �I�d just like to say, if you don�t regularly farm� well, you should.�

Guitar Hero on iPhone
As you can see we have the obvious tapping mechanics. With the introduction of a new strumming mechanic, our team has made gameplay perfect."

It's nearing on two years since I wrote my editorial complaining about the state of the gaming review system. I still believe it's just as broken as it was two years ago, but I'd like to tack this addendum to the piece how you, the average gamer, are helping continue this system of back-slapping and journalistic mind-melding.

Lately, Internet forums have gone into DEFCON 5 over several magazines and high-profile reviewers that have bucked the norm and given popular franchises less than stellar write-ups. When one writer takes the time to play a game and post their thoughts to their respective websites and tell you, the reader, what they really thought of the game, many readers seem to ignore this and scroll directly to the bottom of the page. When they see that their favorite franchise has been saddled with the tragic score of 5/10, they immediately begin to hyperventilate and Outlook.exe files across the land begin to fire up in preparation for an assault on that reviewer after what obviously was a lapse of judgement on his part or full-blown mental retardation, depending on whom you ask.

In most reviews, writers point out their likes and dislikes in each game and while I steadfastly believe that they do a rather poor job of maintaining a reasonable level of expectation for what a game can and should be to a player, breaking down a game's contents is of the things they do pretty well, all considering. Yet few pay attention to this in favor of fawning over Metacritic and GameRankings. Both are useful tools in their own right because they put multiple reviews at the tip of your fingers in just minutes, but the aggregate score itself is only second fiddle to content. What does it tell you? It boils down hundreds of thousands of words of text into a number that means little on its own. One reviewer may love the story of Final Fantasy, another may hate it. One may hate the gameplay while the other loves it. Both may score it 7/10. What did you learn from that aggregate score? Here's a hint: absolutely nothing.

Let us admit a simple fact: reviewers are human beings. They have an opinion on something, just like you or I. They will hate games that you enjoy and list as one of your all-time favorites. They will score games 4/10 that you would give a perfect score. I hear people scream about how reviewers should conform to some kind of mysterious standard. What does that even mean? Being disingenuous with their own opinion while reviewing a game is the last thing we should wish for as a gaming populous. That leads to the very problem we're facing now, which is that game reviewers have largely gone the way of groupthink and rarely have the courage to stand up and say that they didn't like a game because most of their peers have already shot it into the 85+ spectrum of Metacritic.

Courtesy of our very own VGC poster Kasz, here is a great quote from Roger Ebert regarding movie critics:

"I have quoted countless times a sentence by the critic Robert Warshow (1917-1955), who wrote: "A man goes to the movies. The critic must be honest enough to admit that he is that man." If my admiration for a movie is inspired by populism, politics, personal experience, generic conventions or even lust, I must say so. I cannot walk out of a movie that engaged me and deny that it did. I must certainly never lower it from three to 2.5 so I can look better on the Metacritic scale.
I cringe when people say, "How could you give that movie four stars?" I reply, "What in my review did you disagree with?" Invariably, they're stuck for an answer. One thing I try to do is provide an accurate account of what you will see, and how I feel about it. I cannot speak for you. Any worthwhile review is subjective. If we completely disagree, my words might nevertheless be useful or provocative. If you disagree with what I write, be my guest. If you disagree with how many stars I gave it, you can mail your opinion to where the sun don't shine."

Instead of taking that reasonable approach to reviewers and their opinions, gamers swear off Edge Magazine because they recently gave a big-budget game a 5/10 which is, under their scale, an �average� game. Instead of embracing the review sites that have the courage to say what they believe instead of deferring to a Metacritic aggregate in an attempt to fit in, gamers revolt and throw childish tantrums across gaming forums throughout the world. These gamers are so short-sighted that they fail to realize that these people are the ones we should look up to, not crucify, boycott, and complain about for months on end. Do we have to agree with their scores and reviews? Hell no, but at least they're putting themselves out there instead of white-washing a game's faults because their parent company depends on thousands of dollars of ad revenue from the publisher of said game.

To put it in Old West terms, many of you are actively cheering for the man in the black hat, you just never stopped complaining long enough to realize it.

In a final point, let's take a look at the movie industry and their review system. It's not unusual for one reviewer to award a movie with a 95 score while three others punish it with a 60 or below. In fact, it's the norm within the industry. Let's take a look at a few examples:

Inglourious Basterds was nominated for Best Picture by the Academy and will surely enter cult film status within a decade. What did it score on Metacritic? A whopping 68 out of 100. How did it rate so low? It's simple; eight reviewers rated the movie at 50 or below. They pointed out their likes and dislikes and surely informed many people about why they didn't care for the movie. That's the way it's supposed to work. It should also be noted that five other reviewers gave the movie a perfect score.

But wait, didn't they expand the Best Picture list this year? Maybe Inglourious Basterds isn't that great of a movie. So let's browse through a few of the recent movies that have won the Best Picture award:

� Slumdog Millionaire: 86 Metacritic, one score at 50 or below.
� No Country For Old Men : 91 Metacritic, two scores at 50 or below, including one 38.
� The Departed: 86 Metacritic, two scores at 50 or below, including one 40.
� Crash: 69 Metacritic, 13 (!) scores at 50 or below.
� Million Dollar Baby: 86 Metacritic, 3 scores at 50 or below, including two 20s!

Not only are reviewers more scattershot across the movie board, which leaves me to believe that they're not so bloody afraid to give their real opinion of a movie, but look at those scores! Those are the �Best Pictures� of their respective years as voted on by the most powerful film organization in the world and one of them can't even pull a 70 in an aggregate system.

Do you know how many video games Metacriticed over 90 in 2009? According to Metacritic, across the six major platforms, 12 games were better than the average Best Picture of the past five years. That's one year of gaming and that is only including multi-platform titles once. There's something wrong with this system but not all the blame can be put on the reviewers. We, the gaming population, have to rise above these childish antics and stop score-whoring every game that releases. In fact, I'm of the opinion that no Metacritic score should be used for anything ever again, period. We should stop blasting reviewers for having an opinion and breaking a game down piece-by-piece in their writing merely because they didn't give the score �we� wanted for that game. If you can't spend enough time to read a review to see if the reviewer marked off points for a game element that you consider to be a plus, you should really just shut the hell up and not talk about the review. Or maybe you should read the piece and argue the validity of its points. That would be a novel concept.

For those of you who can't be bothered to read this editorial, let me summarize the above paragraphs so you can go back to bitching about a reviewer having the courage to state his or her opinion:

RTFA.
Edit: Thank you for all the comments on this editorial, both affirmation and criticism, but I have one thing that seems to be misunderstood and unfortunately, VGC has come under some fire for a few things that were said. Some of you have construed this piece as an attack on meta scoring systems. This is not the case. Meta systems are simply a purveyor of information and do not, nor should not, control any of the information that comes to you, the reader. They relay information, nothing more, and therefore the fault lies in the review system. Proof of this lies in the fact that Metacritic has scaled their gaming review green-yellow-red system differently than other forms of media. That's not an indictment of Metacritic, that's an indictment of the gaming press.

Personally, I do not agree with the way much of the gaming public views aggregation sites and their numbers. On the other hand, I think aggregation sites do a pretty damned good job of putting many sources of review at our fingertips, which was a point I made early in my editorial.

Anyone who knows me understands that I would never write this unless I fully believed it. I do. My original piece did not differentiate my criticisms well enough. That fault lays in my hands, the writer, and no one else. I'm not apologizing for my opinion, only that I did not state it clearly enough.

Maybe videogames are hazardous to our health � just not in the waypeople usually think. Since the success of the Wii and its motioncontrollers, companies looking to cash in on the videogame fitnesscraze have concocted loads of accessories and controllers designed toget players jumping and flailing around the room.
It�s all fun and games until somebody gets a Wiimote in the eye.Here are the game accessories we think have the greatest potential fordamage.

10. Wi-Bowl
(CTA Digital)
As if enough televisions haven�t already been destroyed byoverzealous Wii bowlers, here comes Wi-Bowl. According to themanufacturer, the accessory lets you �mimic all the critical motions a�striking� performance requires� and is modeled after a real bowlingball. Though the company advises that you securely fasten the wriststrap, we have a nagging feeling the real feel of the bowling ball willcause some players to forget they�re not at AMF Lanes and let go.(Watch out for Grandma�s two-handed toss, too.)

9. Wii Boxing Gloves
(Everlast)
These officially licensed gloves are meant to intensify your Punch-Out!! experience.But we worry that the padding on these gloves, which attach to the Wiiremote and Nunchuk, will give people the idea that it�s OK to punchtheir real-life opponents. The gloves come in black or red, the perfectcolors to match your kid brother�s shiny black eye.

8. Tony Hawk: Ride Skateboard Controller
(Activision, October 2009)
The new game in the popular skateboarding series will be the firstto include an actual skateboard peripheral. This sounds like a greatidea, but then again, isn�t the whole point of skateboard games to avoidthe injuries that real skateboarders endure? If you flip out on theboard controller, you can get skinned knees and take crotch shots inthe comfort of your own home. We�re waiting for the YouTube videos ofgamers grinding coffee tables and board-sliding down the basementstaircase. (Not to mention some of our suggested games for the Ride board.)

7. Dual Glow Sabers for Wii
(Dreamgear)
Yeah, like you�re not going to be smashing these together while making wreeeoooow noises with your mouth.

6. The Wii Balance Board
(Nintendo)
The Balance Board looks innocuous enough, but it asks players to perform physical feats they may not be used to. Games such as Wii Fit certainly test your balance with risky exercises like the one-legged yoga tree pose. EA Sports Activehas you doing karate kicks while standing on the thing. Some personaltrainers warn that the Balance Board can be dangerous if you don�t knowwhat you�re doing and, like Wii Tennis elbow, some gamers have beguncomplaining about �Wii knee� from using the board too much.

5. Music Orchestra for Wii Music
(Dreamgear)
This just makes our heads hurt, actually.

4. Bass Pro Shops Fishing Pole Peripheral
(Griffin International, fall 2009)
In order to bring a realistic fishing experience to consoles,Griffin International decided that we needed controllers shaped likefishing poles. And just like in real-life, if you cast too vigorouslywith people nearby, there�s a chance that your big catch of the daymight be someone�s nostril. Also, there�s no strap on this one to keepyour pole in place � casters, take caution.

3. Wii 8-in-1 Weapons Bundle
(Dragon)
OK, seriously? This bundle of Wii peripherals includescontroller attachments in the shapes of swords, knives, axes, guns and,thankfully, a shield. Anyone who doesn�t cringe just a little bit whenthey look at this should switch to playing Tetris for a while.

2. Project Natal
(Microsoft, release TBD)
Project Natal isn�t close to being released, but we can alreadyenvision all the injurious possibilities the advanced motion controllerwill present. Microsoft made fun of Wii�s �pre-canned waggle gestures�at E3, but at least you don�t run all around the room using theWiimote. Natal seems like it will let players exert themselves in allsorts of ways, asking them to flail their limbs in different directionsfor certain games. Nintendo decided to sell a protective plastic condomthat fits over the Wiimote; what will Microsoft make us wear whenplaying Natal?

1. The Wii Car-Lighter Adapter
(Dragon)
Gaming in vehicles shouldn�t be restricted to handheld devices. Whynot bring your whole Wii? With the Wii car-lighter adapter, you can setup your console in the car, allowing passengers to play games on theroad. Because we�re sure swinging Wii remotes won�t be a distraction towhoever�s driving. Hell, why not live even more dangerously and bringalong the Wii bowling ball?

Chalk up the Lycosa as anotherattractive and cutting-edge peripheral made by Razer, but that's not tosay that this rose doesn't have its thorns. It seems as though there'sa flipside to almost every feature with the Lycosa.

Backlit keys aregreat at night, but these keys provided very little contrast during thedaytime for readability. The Lycosa is compact compared with otherkeyboards, but this comes at the cost of having no additional macrokeys. And the flashy appeal of its glossy finish only takes a daybefore fingerprints tarnish its surface.
On the other hand, the Lycosa slips in some features that merit itsprice tag. Razer continues to evolve its software for peripherals, thistime allowing users to program any key on the keyboard. We don't recallany other keyboard that can do that. Also, the laptop-like keyssurprised us with some solid tactile, and clicky, feedback, despitetheir appearance. We're also happy to see that users can store multipleprofiles and disable that annoying Windows key that can prove to be abuzzkill when pressed mid-frag.

Software and Macro Keys
Without the aid of Razer's software, the Lycosa would be nothing other than a fancy keyboard that lights up. Users can program any key they want and toggle between up to ten profiles, thus providing a virtually endless amount of macro capabilities. This does come at the expense of surrendering existing keys you may want for other things. Remapping keys on the number pad doesn't affect the numbered keys in the main typing area, or vice versa. We found the F-keys as great guinea pigs for our macros.

Razer has a reputation of having a sleek, cool-looking software interface, though we'd prefer something a little less edgy and a little more usable. You'll have to scoot towards the screen to view all of the included options. They're so small.

Software and Macro Keys
Without the aid of Razer's software, the Lycosa would be nothing other than a fancy keyboard that lights up. Users can program any key they want and toggle between up to ten profiles, thus providing a virtually endless amount of macro capabilities. This does come at the expense of surrendering existing keys you may want for other things. Remapping keys on the number pad doesn't affect the numbered keys in the main typing area, or vice versa. We found the F-keys as great guinea pigs for our macros.

Razer has a reputation of having a sleek, cool-looking software interface, though we'd prefer something a little less edgy and a little more usable. You'll have to scoot towards the screen to view all of the included options. They're so small.

There's no denying that the Lycosa is one sexy beast. Promotional pictures highlight how well the Lycosa shines at night, but that's not the whole picture. When this thing is plopped on your desk, in daylight, its true colors come out.

Physically the Razer Lycosa is neither the largestkeyboard I have seen nor the smallest. The Lycosa measures in at 469mmx 168mm x 15mm without the removable wrist rest and 669mm x 221mm x15mm with the wrist rest attached. The wrist rest itself is matte blackin color with the same look as the keys, but lacking the non-sliprubber coating.

One of the casualties of having a fully backlit keyboard is that, during the day, key labels aren't as conspicuous—even with backlighting set. Each key label must be clear enough to allow light from underneath to shine through, but we felt that there wasn't enough contrast between the key labels and the keys themselves. Heck, the keys reminded us of the DAS keyboard II—the keyboard with blank, black keys. Logitech's G-series and Saitek's Eclipse II keyboards both provide fully backlit keys, and a key (pun intended) to their success is that labels are bright and easily read. Obviously anybody who buys a backlit keyboard will use it at night, but that's not to say that they'll toss it aside during the day for another keyboard.

Razer Tarantula:

Razer Lycosa:

Now, let's look at that pristine glossy finish surrounding the keys. Anybody that owns a keyboard with a similar surface (like the diNovo Edge or Tarantula) knows that it deserves a little housekeeping once in a while. This area is a magnet for fingerprints and blotches when the light hits it just right. Some keyboards and mice with this type of surface even come with a cleaning cloth, but there wasn't one included with the Lycosa.

While the multimedia TouchPanel has its artistic appeal, it doesn't help with usability. For starters, you have to have backlighting on just to view the controls. Secondly, anything touch-sensitive spawns no tactile feedback, and given that there are numerous options to choose from, all sitting close to each other, pressing the wrong control can be a common occurrence.

These are some of the issues we encountered regarding the Lycosa's look and feel. As for some positives, we were impressed with the keys. Despite their short vertical height, keypresses yield positive tactile feedback, with a slight clicky sound. They don't feel quite as mushy as the Tarantula, and are in no ways as clicky as the old IBM keyboards from yesteryear.

Shorter keys mean less pressing and faster typing, especially given the Lycosa's 1ms response time. We didn't notice any improvement in our typing speed, but this is something hardcore gamers may find appealing.

The Lycosa also has a sturdy exterior, despite its smallish size compared to other gaming keyboards. It planted itself rather firmly on our desk without sliding around—thanks in part to its six rubber feet.

It's cheapest at Ebuyer:
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/143289

Fully-programmable keys with macro capability
Be one step ahead of the competition with fully-programmable keys with macro capability that enable instantaneous command executions.

    *  Keytop with non-slip rubber finish
    * Backlight illumination with WASD cluster lighting option
    * Fully-programmable keys with macro capability
    * Gaming cluster with anti-ghosting capability
    * Slim keycap structure with Hyperesponse™ technology
    * TouchPanel™ easy access media keys
    * Gaming mode option for deactivation of the Windows key
    * 10 customizable software profiles with on-the-fly switching
    * 1000Hz Ultrapolling™ / 1ms response time
    * Earphone-out and microphone-in jacks
    * Detachable wrist rest
    * One integrated USB extension port
    * Razer Lycosa Approximate size:
      469mm (length) x 168mm (width) x 15mm (height) – without wrist rest
      469mm (length) x 221mm (width) x 15mm (height) – with wrist rest
System Requirements for Razer Lycosa
Windows� XP / x64 / Vista / Vista64
PC with built-in USB ports
CD-ROM drive (for drivers)
At least 35MB of hard disk space (for drivers)

I wouldn't say you're wrong. When you said you preferred 95 over 98, I'm assuming at that time, you weren't using 98SE and you preferred 95b. The updated versions of both OSes are significantly better than their first release. I completely agree with you on the Vista thing, everything you said about that is completely true. Although Vista isn't good for gaming at all, you need far too powerful of a computer for it. I use XP and Linux, I wouldn't keep an install of Vista if someone gave it to me. But like I said, I don't think Windows 95 is bad or people using it is bad but every reason that guy came up with was so wrong, and I felt I proved my point fairly well.

Schmidt I disagree. I find the points raised quite vaild. I personally went from 95 to 98 then got a new machine & went back to 95 ( about the time ME crashed & burned ) I found it to be stable IMHO more so than 98 at the time. Having recently shifted from XP to Visa I can feel his pain. The constant need M$soft have to reinvent the wheel with every release makes me want to go postal. Rather than make it a logical progression from one OS to the next it's a random reassigning of elements for the sake of looking new. The start menu & control bar are the two culprits I'm looking at. Using vista only for gaming & coming from OSX the sheer disorder & inelegance makes my blood boil. Honestly how much of the new system do you really use ? Compare the functionality of older versions with current & think about all the bloat that is a major problem for M$oft programs. I can see & agree why a user would want to stay with what is safe & works. If it ain't broke ( or more likely the case if it breaks it more ) don't mess with it.

Schmidt I disagree. I find the points raised quite vaild. I personally went from 95 to 98 then got a new machine & went back to 95 ( about the time ME crashed & burned ) I found it to be stable IMHO more so than 98 at the time. Having recently shifted from XP to Visa I can feel his pain. The constant need M$soft have to reinvent the wheel with every release makes me want to go postal. Rather than make it a logical progression from one OS to the next it's a random reassigning of elements for the sake of looking new. The start menu & control bar are the two culprits I'm looking at. Using vista only for gaming & coming from OSX the sheer disorder & inelegance makes my blood boil. Honestly how much of the new system do you really use ? Compare the functionality of older versions with current & think about all the bloat that is a major problem for M$oft programs. I can see & agree why a user would want to stay with what is safe & works. If it ain't broke ( or more likely the case if it breaks it more ) don't mess with it.

According to gamesindustry.biz
The videogames industry has set a new record in the US for sales ofsoftware and hardware, with 2008's level topping USD 21 billion acrossthe year, with almost a quarter of that coming in the supposedlyeconomy-stricken month of December.According to NPD data software sales grew by almost 23 per centto USD 11.7 billion, with December alone accounting for USD 5.3 billion- more than the total figure generated throughout the entire calendaryear in 1997.
Console game sales totalled USD 8.9 billion, based on 189million units sold, while PC games accounted for USD 701 million from29.1 million units, while portable titles sold 79.5 million units,hitting USD 2.1 billion.

The total number of games sold was just under 298 millionunits, with more than half of those rated at Everyone 10+. Teen titlesaccounted for 26.7 per cent of the market, while Mature games were just15.9 per cent.

I think it's amazing that something great is staying strong in our economy. It seems like the gaming industry sometime's get a lot of blame for things but it cannot be blamed for getting weak in our economy. Buy games and keep it strong!!

Even I became a member of the Bejeweled family and I'm not big on computer games. It's good to see that the gaming industry isn't losing money in the crisis....

Well, I agree with the fact that women are just as competitive as men. But I can't necessarily say that about what games they "can" play. I mean I'm a hardcore gamer, not just a "tetris girl". I've played GTA IV online, too, and am very competitive.
And I can handle more than one button. I can handle the whole controller, in fact.
So yes to the competitiveness, no to the limited gaming.

Games and related industries professionals (games developers,publishers and industry experts/ISPs/content agglomerators/set top boxmanufacturers...): if you canspare a few minutes, your opinion on an EU-funded digital gamingplatform project would be very much appreciated. Our research team inthe Department of Psychology at Goldsmiths, University of London, iscurrently working on an EU-funded digital gaming platform projectcalled Games@Large. As part of an industry consultation process we haveset up a short online survey. Any help in completing the survey and/or getting it out to other industry professionals would be great.
The survey (and links to project brochure) is at:

http://homepages.gold.ac.uk/ps-tec/galic

THANKS!
Dr Richard Carmichael
Goldsmiths, University of London

*obligatory I'm new here line

I didn't get an email or anything but I was looking for some gaming forums and this seemed like a good one, so I decided to join.

Anyway, I'm Lexie, I like bananas and pancakes,
playing online games and reading (although not at the same time!)

Well, that's about it

Hi everyone!

UK videogame industry leaders have demanded greater ties betweenbusiness and academia to ensure that Britain's games developers remainglobally competitive. But will any of them step forward to foster therelationship?
At games industry conference the Westminster Media Forum, held inLondon this week, Mary Matthews, Strategy and Business DevelopmentDirector at game developer Blitz, said that ineffective training isholding the industry back.
�We can�t do what we want to do because we can�t find the right people,� she said.
Yet, acording to Kate O�Connor, Executive Director of Policy andDevelopment at Skillset, an industry body for skills and training, UKuniversities already offer 80 videogame-related degree courses. Nonehave any industry recognition, however.
Paul Harris, Professor of Screen Media at the University of Abertay,Dundee, agreed that accreditation by game design firms is crucial. Hesaid it is the best way for universities to ensure that students�skills match firms� requirements.
Matthews also called for a similar frequent refreshment of the curriculum.
Matthews has other ideas too, such as recruiting potential gamedesigners from the age of 14. In her view, this would help kidsestablish much earlier a link between enjoying games and developingthem, thus steering more designers into the industry.

However, no one appears willing to take responsibility for theproposals. Instead, both industry and academia are hoping thegovernment will do the job for them.
Margaret Hodge, Minister for Culture, Creative Industries andTourism, said at the conference: �The games industry must do more toencourage students to choose the right qualifications [for videogamedesign], such as maths and physics.�
The government, she said, also has plans in the pipeline to createof centres of excellence for videogame development where gaming brainscould unite to develop the next smash hit.