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Showing posts with label Video games. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Video games. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
Thursday, October 3, 2013
No, this is not from The Onion - The International Red Cross wants punishment for War Crimes in Video Games
Aren't these idiots paid to be providing relief in war zones, or collecting blood donations, or doing something useful...?
The International Committee of the Red Cross have called for video games to punish crimes committed in battle by adhering to real-life international war conventions.
“The ICRC believes there is a place for international humanitarian law (the law of armed conflict) in video games,” the organization that works worldwide to provide humanitarian help for people caught in war zones said in a statement on their website.
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| No actual humans had their eyes gouged in the playing of this game of Killzone 3 |
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Clearly I`m in the wrong business: Grand Theft Auto V makes $800 Million on its first day of sales
(Reuters) - Take-Two Interactive Software Inc racked up $800 million in first-day retail sales of Grand Theft Auto V, the fifth installment of the lucrative franchise that went on sale around the world on Tuesday.
The sales figure marked a first-day record for the Grand Theft Auto series in which players freely roam, mainly via automobiles, in a make-believe gameworld based on real-life locations such as Los Angeles.
Sales of $800 million would translate to 13 million to 14 million units of the game sold, according to analysts.
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
Assassin's Creed designer fired by Ubisoft while working on game similar to next AC installment
The designer behind the first two installments of the wildly successful Assassin's Creed series of video games was fired by Ubisoft a mere seven weeks after having rejoined the company.
Patrice Desilets left Ubisoft in 2010 and was working for THQ Montreal when the firm was recently acquired by Ubisoft,
Deliets was reportedly a work on a game called 1666, which was intended to be a sea battle extravaganza. Whether his dismissal has anything to do with sea battles being a major part of the upcoming Ubisoft Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag slated for an October 2013 release has not yet been revealed.
Patrice Desilets left Ubisoft in 2010 and was working for THQ Montreal when the firm was recently acquired by Ubisoft,
Deliets was reportedly a work on a game called 1666, which was intended to be a sea battle extravaganza. Whether his dismissal has anything to do with sea battles being a major part of the upcoming Ubisoft Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag slated for an October 2013 release has not yet been revealed.
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Monday, March 4, 2013
Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag - the new trailer is out
Going back in time from the last game, This time, it's adventure on the high seas, with pirates.
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Despite what you're hearing, leftists are losing the culture wars
When I was in university, oh so many years ago now, I noticed a consistent characteristic among my contemporaries who were immersed in political activism - they were all assholes.
There weren't that many of them. When we`re in our late teens and early twenties, most of us are wrapped up in trying get laid, have fun, get our assignments in on time, recover from hangovers, pass our courses and dream lofty, ambitious dreams of our future. There may have been an issue or two to get each of us temporarily riled up, but it took a special class of person to be continually devoted to aggressively ramming political and social issues down other people`s throats. Invariably, back then, everyone I knew who who fit that description was a leftist. There may have been young conservative activists, but if there were, they operated with exceptional stealth, because I never met any.
Most of the young activists I remember were socially maladroit, had bad relationships with their parents, and seemed to be acting out some inner turmoil. The worst part about such people is that, while far from shining examples of humanity, they want to dictate how other people should think and behave.
Therein lies the problem with most of our "social justice" zealots; the stylized social justice they promote is frequently self-serving, hypocritical and fatuous.
It is troublesome that the agenda pushed by the radical left has been overwhelmingly advocated by a sympathetic television, film and print media, hoping to impart values they want society as a whole to assimilate. But despite their self congratulation, indications are that common sense is winning out and the left isn't nearly as influential as they think they are.
For years now, the video game industry has been making more money than the film industry and commanding far more attention from makes under the age of 30. This is an age group that couldn't care less what Jon Stewart, George Strombolopolis, Bill Maher, Michael Moore and Chris Matthews have to say about anything, let alone politics. To be fair, Rush Limbaugh and Mark Steyn hold just as little if not less interest for teenage and young adult males. But the latter may take some comfort in the entertainment they do flock to.
Daniel Tosh, who recently became the bane of humorless feminists because of a rape joke, has the highest rated television show for young male on any US cable network, followed closely by the libertarian, anti-hippie South Park. It's also worth noting that the hero of the most popular movie of the year is a rich, capitalist vigilante.
The Call of Duty series is the most popular video game series ever. In the last installment of its Black Ops game, the villains were Communists. In the newest installment, Call of Duty Black Ops 2, which looks set to be one of the most popular releases ever, in a move that has already infuriated leftists, the villain is a presumptive leader of the vapid Occupy Movement. The game's bad guy, Raul Menendez, is described at the "messiah for the 99%."
So while irrelevant aged radicals try to self promote and capitalize on the anti-capitalist Occupy Movement and delusionally claim the few scraggly malcontents it managed to conjure were representative of youth as a whole, reality is something very different. Ironically, it's virtual reality where the real attitudes of the up-and-coming generation are reflected, and they aren't interested in being part of the radical left, they play games where they pretend to kill them.
Given the 100 million deaths in the real world that Communism has caused since its inception, a prevailing violent rejection and hostility to it in the world of gaming is a comforting cause for optimism about the future.
There weren't that many of them. When we`re in our late teens and early twenties, most of us are wrapped up in trying get laid, have fun, get our assignments in on time, recover from hangovers, pass our courses and dream lofty, ambitious dreams of our future. There may have been an issue or two to get each of us temporarily riled up, but it took a special class of person to be continually devoted to aggressively ramming political and social issues down other people`s throats. Invariably, back then, everyone I knew who who fit that description was a leftist. There may have been young conservative activists, but if there were, they operated with exceptional stealth, because I never met any.
Most of the young activists I remember were socially maladroit, had bad relationships with their parents, and seemed to be acting out some inner turmoil. The worst part about such people is that, while far from shining examples of humanity, they want to dictate how other people should think and behave.
Therein lies the problem with most of our "social justice" zealots; the stylized social justice they promote is frequently self-serving, hypocritical and fatuous.
It is troublesome that the agenda pushed by the radical left has been overwhelmingly advocated by a sympathetic television, film and print media, hoping to impart values they want society as a whole to assimilate. But despite their self congratulation, indications are that common sense is winning out and the left isn't nearly as influential as they think they are.
For years now, the video game industry has been making more money than the film industry and commanding far more attention from makes under the age of 30. This is an age group that couldn't care less what Jon Stewart, George Strombolopolis, Bill Maher, Michael Moore and Chris Matthews have to say about anything, let alone politics. To be fair, Rush Limbaugh and Mark Steyn hold just as little if not less interest for teenage and young adult males. But the latter may take some comfort in the entertainment they do flock to.
Daniel Tosh, who recently became the bane of humorless feminists because of a rape joke, has the highest rated television show for young male on any US cable network, followed closely by the libertarian, anti-hippie South Park. It's also worth noting that the hero of the most popular movie of the year is a rich, capitalist vigilante.
The Call of Duty series is the most popular video game series ever. In the last installment of its Black Ops game, the villains were Communists. In the newest installment, Call of Duty Black Ops 2, which looks set to be one of the most popular releases ever, in a move that has already infuriated leftists, the villain is a presumptive leader of the vapid Occupy Movement. The game's bad guy, Raul Menendez, is described at the "messiah for the 99%."
So while irrelevant aged radicals try to self promote and capitalize on the anti-capitalist Occupy Movement and delusionally claim the few scraggly malcontents it managed to conjure were representative of youth as a whole, reality is something very different. Ironically, it's virtual reality where the real attitudes of the up-and-coming generation are reflected, and they aren't interested in being part of the radical left, they play games where they pretend to kill them.
Given the 100 million deaths in the real world that Communism has caused since its inception, a prevailing violent rejection and hostility to it in the world of gaming is a comforting cause for optimism about the future.
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Video games may save us from the generation of idiots that music videos produced
A few days ago, one of CBC Radio 2's hosts spoke about his childhood and how he used to rush home to watch music videos. That seemingly innocuous facet of adolescence in the 1980's and 90's and the culture surrounding it may have produced some of the more insidious problems that we're facing today.
The way people spend their free time has an affect on their intellectual development. Pastimes can play an important role in forming cognitive abilities and skills and if we do something often for pleasure, we're more likely to get good at it. Similarly, not using skills leads to atrophy. Looking at how people spent their relaxation time over the last century, it's easy to trace a link between some forms of entertainment and the decline in mental exercise corresponding to a celebration of mindlessness and lack of imagination.
100 years ago, children read. Before television and radio, when not outside playing with friends, they consumed adventure novels and stories for entertainment. That forced children to be more literate, to use their imagination and led them to explore the varied ideas that books contain.
Radio came along and while more passive, was not so compelling and encompassing an experience that it could command young listeners' primary focus for hours on end. So books didn't become obsolete. Perhaps radio even had a role in the rise of a new form of children's literature; the comic book. To young minds' benefit, the audio-exclusive nature of radio also required children to use their imaginations when hearing comedy or drama on it, which in its early days was a big part of that medium.
Then came the idiot box, as its cynical detractors call TV, and it was a mixed blessing. It had kids often vacantly watching inane nonsense, but it could also be an invaluable source of information and education, as well as presenting intellectually stimulating entertainment.
Even the less intellectual forms of children's TV entertainment in the 1960 and 70's produced some cognitive stimulation. Bugs Bunny cartoons and Three Stooges shorts, which were staples of children's programming, taught moral vales and even patriotism. They had dramatic structure, protagonists and antagonists, catharses and in essence, adhered to the timeless rules of Aristotle's Poetics.
But along came music videos. While the early ones had some vague story structure, even the best of them did so tenuously. The inescapable reality of music videos was that they were just commercials for songs and music acts that a generation of kids started watching as entertainment. Soon, most abandoned the attempt to even pretend to be anything other than a series of pretty, vacuous images accompanying the songs they were intended to sell.
It may not be a coincidence that the kids who were in grade school at the height of music videos' popularity and fed on its empty-headedness grew into the self-entitled generation of the Occupy Movement and the Quebec student protests.
While that lost generation of spoiled fools may inspire pessimism, there is reason to be optimistic about the future. Music videos are passé now and kids, at least boys, rush home not to watch mindless TV but to interact with it in the form of video games.
Anyone who's cynical about the merits of video games hasn't played one on a sophisticated platform recently. The medium has come a long way from the days of Donkey Kong and Ms Pac Man.
Contemporary video games have intricate story lines, some of which were written by Hollywood's top screenwriters, and are not mere passive entertainment or a series of adrenaline rushes invoked by virtual near-death experiences. They force players to solve complex problems and in online mode, to coordinate and cooperate with their peers in real time.
Like the best entertainment, video games contain engaging heroes and nefarious villains. Better still, unlike our public education system, popular games teach essential life lessons such as reminding youth that communism is evil.
Top games are produced like big-budget movies and for a few years now, the video game industry has out-grossed the movie business's earnings. All this adds up to reasons for encouragement. We may send our children to schools controlled by politically correct wanna-be social engineers. But when the boys get home, they usually rush to flip on the PS3 or Xbox and are exposed to traditional western values - and they do it because they want to.
clever
vs vapid
The way people spend their free time has an affect on their intellectual development. Pastimes can play an important role in forming cognitive abilities and skills and if we do something often for pleasure, we're more likely to get good at it. Similarly, not using skills leads to atrophy. Looking at how people spent their relaxation time over the last century, it's easy to trace a link between some forms of entertainment and the decline in mental exercise corresponding to a celebration of mindlessness and lack of imagination.
100 years ago, children read. Before television and radio, when not outside playing with friends, they consumed adventure novels and stories for entertainment. That forced children to be more literate, to use their imagination and led them to explore the varied ideas that books contain.
Radio came along and while more passive, was not so compelling and encompassing an experience that it could command young listeners' primary focus for hours on end. So books didn't become obsolete. Perhaps radio even had a role in the rise of a new form of children's literature; the comic book. To young minds' benefit, the audio-exclusive nature of radio also required children to use their imaginations when hearing comedy or drama on it, which in its early days was a big part of that medium.
Then came the idiot box, as its cynical detractors call TV, and it was a mixed blessing. It had kids often vacantly watching inane nonsense, but it could also be an invaluable source of information and education, as well as presenting intellectually stimulating entertainment.
Even the less intellectual forms of children's TV entertainment in the 1960 and 70's produced some cognitive stimulation. Bugs Bunny cartoons and Three Stooges shorts, which were staples of children's programming, taught moral vales and even patriotism. They had dramatic structure, protagonists and antagonists, catharses and in essence, adhered to the timeless rules of Aristotle's Poetics.
But along came music videos. While the early ones had some vague story structure, even the best of them did so tenuously. The inescapable reality of music videos was that they were just commercials for songs and music acts that a generation of kids started watching as entertainment. Soon, most abandoned the attempt to even pretend to be anything other than a series of pretty, vacuous images accompanying the songs they were intended to sell.
It may not be a coincidence that the kids who were in grade school at the height of music videos' popularity and fed on its empty-headedness grew into the self-entitled generation of the Occupy Movement and the Quebec student protests.
While that lost generation of spoiled fools may inspire pessimism, there is reason to be optimistic about the future. Music videos are passé now and kids, at least boys, rush home not to watch mindless TV but to interact with it in the form of video games.
Anyone who's cynical about the merits of video games hasn't played one on a sophisticated platform recently. The medium has come a long way from the days of Donkey Kong and Ms Pac Man.
Contemporary video games have intricate story lines, some of which were written by Hollywood's top screenwriters, and are not mere passive entertainment or a series of adrenaline rushes invoked by virtual near-death experiences. They force players to solve complex problems and in online mode, to coordinate and cooperate with their peers in real time.
Like the best entertainment, video games contain engaging heroes and nefarious villains. Better still, unlike our public education system, popular games teach essential life lessons such as reminding youth that communism is evil.
Top games are produced like big-budget movies and for a few years now, the video game industry has out-grossed the movie business's earnings. All this adds up to reasons for encouragement. We may send our children to schools controlled by politically correct wanna-be social engineers. But when the boys get home, they usually rush to flip on the PS3 or Xbox and are exposed to traditional western values - and they do it because they want to.
clever
vs vapid
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Some great CGI
Ghost of a Flea put up an incredible animated short called Rosa.
ROSA from Jesús Orellana on Vimeo.
It's a stand alone feature but is reminiscent of some of the outstanding animation that is being done for video games.
My all-time favorite game opening (so far) is from Onimusha 3. The opening sequence was directed by Hong Kong action-movie director and fight choreographer Donnie Yen.
ROSA from Jesús Orellana on Vimeo.
It's a stand alone feature but is reminiscent of some of the outstanding animation that is being done for video games.
My all-time favorite game opening (so far) is from Onimusha 3. The opening sequence was directed by Hong Kong action-movie director and fight choreographer Donnie Yen.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Assassin's Creed Brotherhood hits the shevles today
The two predecessor games were fantastic in detail, graphics and play. The new one promises to be even better
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Kill! Kill! Kill! Think! Think! Think!
See the full article in The National Post.
Violent video games like “Call of Duty” can help trigger-happy players make decisions faster in real life, according to a new study.
Researchers from New York’s University of Rochester found that first-person shooter games produced a heightened sensitivity and led to more efficient use of sensory evidence.
“These benefits of video games stem only from action games, which almost always means shooter games, where you go through a maze and you don’t know when a villain will appear,” researcher Daphne Bavelier said in a statement.
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