"Mass Effect" space epic aims to evoke emotion
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Saving the galaxy from  annihilation has to be emotional, according to a Canadian video  game developer who wants players of action role playing title  "Mass Effect" to weigh their choices carefully as they fight  for the future.
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Continuing in the thirty-first century, MechAssault 2 allows gamers to encounter entirely new experiences in the epic BattleTech world.
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Some marriages grind slowly to a halt. Others, like the author's, explode midflight, a space shuttle torn asunder in the clear blue sky as the stunned crowd watches in disbelief.
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"Ender's Game," the classic  science fiction novel about a boy military genius who is  trained through war games to fight aliens, is finally becoming  a game itself.
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Tycho: You might have heard that NASA was trying to gin up an MMO. We just received a mail from a human being involved in the project, someone who wants to make sure they collect the best ideas from the best people. Naturally, she thought of the readership here. Her mail follows:I know how incredibly unpleasant this could end up being if we don'thave the right minds behind it, and would just like the chance to get itin front of as many potentially talented people as possible. Would youguys consider posting a sentence on this in the news section soon?"The purpose of this RFI is to solicit information from organizationswith proven immersive synthetic environments expertise who areinterested in potentially forming a MMO platform development partnershipwith NASA. We are currently targeting releasing a Request for Proposalin March 2008."Here's a couple of run-downs in English from people outside NASA:http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/01/nasa-seeks-inpu.htmlhttp://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/01/would-you-play.html#previouspostAnd the NASA sites:http://procurement.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/eps/synopsis.cgi?acqid=128415http://ipp.gsfc.nasa.gov/mmo/submit.htmlNASA gets surprisingly tiny amounts of money (about $17B/yr) to go tofreakin' space and do a whole lot of discovering of varioushumanity-impacting things. And a lot of people just don't know theamount of awesomeness we do for that. We're working on many things totry and communicate to people better about what we do (that's part ofour forming mandates, actually), and this is one initiative.And I think it would be cool if it wasn't a big mess, or even just an"eh" thing. I'd like to see it be *good*.For the space program, guys?Oh, but darling: you had us at immersive synthetic environments.(CW)TB
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Blog: In Los Angeles, fans of the sci-fi classic get down to some serious watching.
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Tycho:  With a couple days placed between this post and the release of the Bioshock demo, I feel far more comfortable discussing it.  You know what I do, now:  for example, you know that the Playable Intro as a storytelling mechanism has been refined to a ridiculous degree.  You've felt the jolt of voyeurism, peering into human lives via found audio.  And, perhaps most importantly, you know the dangers that plasmids pose to the young.
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Tycho:  The last time we saw Force Unleashed, and this would have been quite awhile ago, it was essentially a tech demo for the new development methodology at Lucasarts - one that would rely heavily on procedural systems.  Using Havok for physics, Euphoria to give their A.I. an awareness of those physics, and Digital Molecular Matter to simulate world materials, I think the idea was that they could create spaces where players could do whatever they felt like doing, and the world would oblige them in a way that was consistent and convincing.
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Gird your aching loins for one of the biggest game launches of all time.
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When Peter Molyneux designs a game, players take notice. Referred to by many in the video game industry as a man with a Midas touch, this soft-spoken British game maker
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It's been six years since Valve Corp. perfected the first-person shooter with "Half-Life." Video games have come a long way since, with better graphics and more options than ever. Still, relatively few games have mustered this one's memorable characters and original science fiction story.
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TORONTO, Oct 25  - Saving the galaxy from  annihilation has to be emotional, according to a Canadian video  game developer who wants players of action role playing title  "Mass Effect" to weigh their choices carefully as they fight  for the future.
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The creator of The Sims tells us about his grandest project yet -- a life simulator that goes all the way from bacteria to space exploration.
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The nostalgic, bittersweet tone of "In the Shadow of the Moon," an acclaimed documentary about the Apollo space program, aims to remind viewers that even at its most destructive, humankind is capable of feats of breathtaking splendor.
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When you first pick up Star Wars: Battlefront, if you&#39;re a seasoned gamer, it will be hard to get a three-word description out of your head.
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âTerminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles,â a new Fox series that begins on Sunday, is one of the more humanizing adventures in science fiction to arrive in quite a while.
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Tycho:  Rhythm games aren't my forte, but I have a lot of inbuilt experience with meter which helps me fake it until I can build genuine skill.  And, as rhythm elements have crept into the entire medium, Tycho stock has been in a boom phase.  It's understandable, then, that while I soar and illuminate - and Gabriel sputters, bound to earth - tensions related to my prowess have begun to burn red-hot.  That is, until they cool again.  These things have a way of working themselves out in the fullness of time.          There's an incredible article over at Wired this month (and possibly also in the magazine?) about the Bungie's psychological approach to game design.  What a tremendous challenge it must be to retain authorial control in such a case!  As someone whose output is rarely screened by any agency, the whole thing gave me chills.  The right to fail nobly in a creative endeavor (as we sometimes do) is such a powerful luxury.  No such luxury may be extended to them, upon whose toil an entire platform rests.  God keep me from such a fate.          I keep hearing that Metroid Prime 3: Corruption isn't being promoted very well, but the person saying this always seems to know about it, and then when people share this complaint in the thread those people also seem to be "in the know."  It ships on the twenty-seventh of August, if you weren't aware - but since you almost certainly are, we needn't dwell on it.  What we should be dwelling on are the series of teaser vids that Retro has been trickling out.  Metroid's largely mysterious heroine has always been a huge draw for me, and going into deep detail about the character would actually damage the mystique.  But the universe she operates in need not be vague, which is why these clips are such a rich meal:  there's the Aurora Unit trailer that modernizes ancient Metroid canon in a classy way, and there's a treat at the end of the Valhalla trailer that ties it all together.  They both cover a setting that has gotten darker and more sophisticated, tones we don't typically associate with Nintendo.       We like to get kicks in on the post-Harmonix Guitar Hero, partly based on their "wacky" multiplayer concept - which ordinary gamers will probably love - but also out of a sort of tribal loyalty.  This having been established, they've built an authentically heroic tracklist that really has a lot of beef.  Going from the most recent Rock Band announcement out of Leipzig, both versions appear to have Radiohead's "Creep" and the Beastie Boys' "Sabotage," which is something of a comfort.  After seeing different songs on each game from Metallica and The Rolling Stones, I wasn't sure if they were already traveling down the catalogues securing exclusive weaponry.  I hope that the labels in this case see the old wisdom of arming both sides.