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What is the tech game?
Thetechgame is a friendly gaming and technology community used by its members to participate in technology and gaming related discussions, mixed with a huge amount of content and free resources, expect the highest quality community experience you will find on the world wide web!
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Latest Community Activity
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Xbox Live Service Maintenance |
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 On Tuesday, June 16th from 7:01AM UTC (12:01 AM PST) for up to 24 hours, Xbox Live will be offline for maintenance. As a result, Xbox LIVE and the ‘My Xbox’ section of Xbox.com will be unavailable, and the Xbox forums will be in read only mode (you won’t be able to post.)
The remainder of Xbox.com will be available with limited interruptions.
This service maintenance is to prepare for some of the recently announced features that will be available later this year.
Let me reiterate: When the service returns, you will not have any new functions or features. This is for scheduled maintenance only.
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Left 4 Dead gamers angry at Valve for sequel (Read More) |
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 When Microsoft announced during their presentation that a sequel would be coming to the ever popular online shooter Left 4 Dead many, including yours truly, were quite surprised. Not because we didn't expect to see to a sequel coming, especially when the title has sold over 2.5 million retail copies alone, but because the game is barely seven months old.
Valve has and thrives on an amazing reputation of supporting their games for months after its release, in some cases even years (they still update and patch Counter Strike 1.6), and they are also known for taking their sweet time developing games as well, so why the release so early?
Valve's Chet Valiszek, his explaination, thought weirdly worded, was simple, they were not happy with the quality of the title (little confusing considering it carry's a Metacritic rating of 89): " "Left 4 Dead 1, like I said, had some of those fundamental things that we wanted to change about it, like the changes to the director, which took really long periods of time and a really long period of testing," he said. "And so, those changes fell in line with the long period of time it takes to create characters and everything else. That's why we're doing Left 4 Dead 2, right?"
He then went on to promise that this game was to be supported for a long time (like all Valve games are right?) with patches and downloadable content, but this is exactly where the frustration of so many stem from, they said the exact same thing for the title before it. Currently, in the "Left 4 Dead 2 Boycott" steam community group, lies just under 4000 members and growing by the minute. Their reasons for their anger?
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EA VP claims they have 'maxed out' the XBOX 360 |
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| In an interview with the Official Xbox Magazine during E3 last week, Patrick Soderlund, senior vice-president of EA games Europe, states that they have "maxed out" the XBOX 360 console, leaving very little or no headroom for future titles. He also added that they "haven't maxed out the PS3" and are "getting more power" out of Sony's console right now.
Soderlund was impressed with Microsoft's lineup at E3, especially Project Natal. He says he likes the Natal and calls it "cool" and "interesting". Project Natal, Microsoft's idea of "controller-free gaming and entertainment experience" may help spur newer ways of gaming, thus creating that little extra head room for game development on the 360. Soderlund feels that Microsoft's strong presence at E3 will keep competitors on their toes. Their showcase was strong enough to make the 360 Soderlund's "personal favourite console".
"I think Microsoft is on a roll right now. They're doing really well. If I was Sony, I would have a headache, to be honest."
But he hasn't completely written off Sony: "Sony has a lot of good games this year. If you go to their booth, there's a very consistent, high quality product line-up and that will help them."
Microsoft should take this matter seriously considering that they have pledged a ten year lifecycle for the XBOX 360, which is similar to Sony's plan for all of its consoles. Shane Kim, corporate vice-president for strategy and business development at Microsoft's game division, "firmly" believes that the 360 can last well into 2015.
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Study: Hardcore gamers get less sleep |
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| A study released by the University of Arkansas shows that excessive gamers, defined as those who spend seven hours or more per week playing games, sleep 1.6 hours less, on average, than casual gamers.
Amanda Woolems, the principal researcher stated that prior research shows not only do gamers spend less time in bed, they have longer latency and shorter REM periods.
Woolems stated that those who took the EPworth Sleepiness Scale, and admitted addiction scored higher (meaning they are more sleepy).
In her study 137 students were examined with a mean age of 22. They took a questionnaire and the results showed that 10.81 percent agreed that gaming impacted their sleeping routines, while 12.6 percent admitted to having a 'gaming addiction'.
If not a deterrent in itself for hardcore gamers, perhaps the suggestion that those who are well rested perform better in virtual envrionments will be enough for many to tuck in early.
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Project Natal will be used in triple A titles |
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| Alex Kipman, project director of Microsoft's new innovation, Project Natal has revealed to Eurogamer one of the long term goals is to release triple A titles on the Xbox 360 which use the technology.
Kipman also revealed some more details about the project's beginnings and ways it's already being used in games out on the market today.
"I've been working at Microsoft for about eight years, so I've been there for some time [...]. Don Mattrick challenged us to think ahead - to think beyond, to be innovative. We thought about a wide range of things and made a team effort within Xbox to figure out where we want interactive entertainment to go. After quite a collaborative effort we landed on this, and a lot of research and a lot of sweat blended into something I think we're all very proud of."
He continued to explain the methods behind using Natal and Criterion's Burnout Paradise. The camera takes a 3D scan of the player's body, which is then broken down into 48 joints which are tracked in real time. In the case of Burnout, the camera cleverly tracks the wrist of the gamer using a single frame. The camera then uses predictive behaviour, monitoring the direction, acceleration and confidence of that joint.
During the interview he then confirmed Microsoft are looking at ways to include in their own games.
"We'll have games that are specifically designed to work only with Natal - not just arcadey games, but real, hardcore, triple-A titles.Then you'll have some games that are essentially a hybrid - games that work both with the controller and with Natal. Why is that interesting? Think about a first-person shooter where I'm using the controller but I'm doing facial tracking by just moving around and looking round corners."
Kipman also proposed the idea of a co-op game where one player used the controller while the camera is tracking the face and body of another.
"Or you could have a hardcore gamer like me playing a game with a controller, while a non-hardcore person sitting next to me enjoys the experience by playing with Natal. I could be having my Halo experience with the controller and the friend next to me, who's not a hardcore gamer, could be throwing grenades or driving the Warthog or doing any number of things with Natal."
Project Natal has impressed and been well received so far by the gaming press. There isn't a solid release date for the camera yet, but expect to hear lots more about the device and the software making use of it in the coming months.
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