Giving Gamers Another Window on Their World
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The newest piece of hardware in the video game wars, the Nintendo DS hand-held console, is out to prove that two is better than one.
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Video gamers are getting younger and younger. And parents and the video game industry agree that the implications are likely to be huge.
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Tycho:  Having already purchased two fifths of The Orange Box over the last few years, the level of value I have derived from it is "fantastic" but not "supernatural."  For Gabriel, who never finished the second Half-Life and never purchased the first episode, the aforementioned Box represents an intimidating and possibly even brutal level of content for one's holiday dollar.  It's hard enough trying to keep up with all the games that are coming out, but when you start putting more than one game on the disc the difficulty is compounded.   We're lucky, then, than the best thing on there can be completed in only a couple hours.     I've tried to make my rounds through the disc, but I kept coming back to Portal until I'd completed it.  I expect every part of this strange collection to be full of virtue, in the way that Valve's anomalous position in the games industry allows: self-funded development in their sky-high Bellevue commune until each product sings.  But Portal is strange, even for them.  Risky on every axis, we may now say that the "first person puzzle comedy" has now been proven out as a genre.  The gameplay is strong, but Portal's unique combination of hilarity and menace elevates it, resulting in a few perfect, indelible hours of gameplay.          My TeamFortress 2 experience so far on the console has been fairly uneven.  Coming from the PC beta, where I sometimes battled with stability concerns but the games played smooth, I'm now grappling with the reverse.  I love the play experience, as I've already expressed, and I'm rarely of the opinion that having more players automatically improves a game - so the differential between the PC and 360 platforms isn't as important to me as it might be to others.  No, the problem with TF2 on the 360 (and likely the PS3, as well) is that peer to peer hosting just ain't cutting it.  There are games that seem to manage it better, but with Vista PCs authenticating into the service now peer to peer games should be an option.  This needs fixed overnight.     I'll try to complete the second Episode over the weekend, interleaved with finishing the writing on my own game, which has become more difficult since completing Portal.  I'm starting to think that Precipice needs a greater concentration of synthesized ladies.      I would be abdicating my duty if I neglected to mention the EA thing, which is really the EA/BioWare/Pandemic thing.  I was under the impression that BioWare and Pandemic had merged precisely to give themselves leverage over monolithic publishers like Electronic Arts, but who knows.  The biggest fallout in the short term is that, beyond the first Mass Effect, a multiplatform release is almost certain.  Of course, I wholly endorse that kind of thing, but I imagine that Microsoft might hold a different opinion.  After spending years promoting the series, enduring delays, and now having spent months beating the shit out of it in test, it's fair to say that MS was investing in a larger trilogy - one that gamers would associate exclusively with their brand.
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I spent large chunks of last year playing the same AAA video games everyone else played: "BioShock," "Rock Band," "Super Mario Galaxy" and so on. But if I actually kept track of my gaming hours, I wouldn't be surprised to find that I spent just as much time enjoying the simpler delights of Microsoft's Xbox Live Arcade.
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SAN FRANCISCO, Oct 18  - Video game developers,  eager to please all consumers, are increasingly including  features that let gamers play with or against their friends.
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Missing a key piece to your favorite board game? The Web's abundance of board game sites might help.
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Games with a political and social agenda have provided a novel take on world events.
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God games in which  players must control virtual people could be educational, says research.
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Innovative new features are designed to attract casual players looking for a few minutes of fun.
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The next game controller could be your gray matter. Also: Online bells and whistles for the PS3.
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An online role-playing game is to be built by a community of ordinary gamers.
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God games, in which  players must control virtual people, could be educational, says research.
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Readers chime in on the future of video games and the dehumanizing pace of modern life.
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Video gamers, finally  emerging from the pixilated haze brought on by last year's  bumper crop of best-selling titles, are now turning their  attention to upcoming releases.
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Video game developer is moving in the right direction, despite an "unprofitable" image it needs to shake.
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While it's not one of the more attractive players in the gaming industry, it might appeal to some investors.
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New 3D menu system will take advantage of forthcoming game service.