Intelligent Artifice

Real-world search on GPS cellphones June 29, 2006

This BoingBoing post describes something I’ve been waiting for for years now: pointing your cellphone at a building and getting information about it. I somehow always imagined this to work by overlaying CG over the video of a cell phone’s camera, but not doing it that way (as this project in Japan seems to do) should make it much more feasible while still being supremely useful.

I think connecting the real world with the Internet on a mobile device is going to be another little quantum leap into the future. The technology is all there (to the best of my knowledge): it’s all about integration and economically feasible deployment now. The biggest pitfall I see is the mobile operators walling this stuff off, as they tend to, because they want a bigger piece of the pie, and thereby inhibiting innovation.

(Well, when I say the technology is all there - the one big chunk that is not there in hardware is GPS. Didn’t I read a couple of years back that Nokia was going to include GPS in a significant chunk of their cell phones? Whatever happened to that? Luckily some people seem to be coming up with other ways of determining location - by triangulating signal strength from nearby cell phone towers for instance.)

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Jon Stewart mocks US hearings on video games June 25, 2006

Jon Stewart mocks the recent congressional hearings in the US on video games here.

(Via Kim Pallister.)

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Huge losses leave Atari’s future in question June 16, 2006

So apparently Atari is not doing so well. I found this comment by CEO and chief creative officer Bruno Bonnell amusing:

“The Atari brand has stood for innovation and pioneering spirit for more than 30 years. As Atari executes on its strategic objectives, we must recapture what made Atari an iconic brand. During fiscal 2007, we will focus our efforts on established franchises, new major motion picture licensed IP with significant marketing campaigns, online products and titles for portable devices.”

Innovation and pioneering spirit. Established franchises and licensed IP. Hello?

(Via Kotaku.)

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Fans Take Video Game Into Real World

Madden NFL 06 Fans Take Video Game Into Real World. What will they think of next! Boo hiss to the big corporation trying to turn this into some kind of commercial enterprise.

(Via kottke.org.)

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Short animated movies made by Gobelins for Annecy 2006

Here are the short animated movies made by Gobelins for Annecy 2006. These are student projects.

One of the nice things about France is that the people coming from these schools will move freely between animation, comics and games. This is why the graphics in French games are often so nice. It’s too bad that there is a sentiment that the ‘French touch’ does not sell well abroad, and should be downplayed. And of course a significant percentage of French development is part of internationally-oriented companies such as Ubisoft, Atari and Vivendi.

(Via James and the Blue Cat.)

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Xbox 360 “Jump In” ad June 14, 2006

This Xbox 360 ad, which apparently just won an award, is indeed very cool. The activities depicted within also seem as far away from playing on an Xbox 360 as you can get. But meh, who cares.

(Via Kotaku.)

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France launches cyber-budget game

France launches cyber-budget game.

The French government has launched an online game that challenges taxpayers to balance the national budget of nearly 300bn euros ($373bn).

It’s like SETI at home, isn’t it? And I thought dry management games only worked in Germany. Then again, this probably isn’t very dry if it’s realistic. So, you’re spending less on education or farming this year, are you? BZZT! Strikes cripple the country, you lose 10 million Euros per day.

This game would never work in the US of course. At least, not until Bush leaves office, ahahaha.

I think this is one of the most interesting serious games I’ve ever heard of. I hope people play it.

(Via Alice.)

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Early Super Smash Bros Brawl - Beta Footage June 11, 2006

I know embarrassingly little about the Super Smash Bros franchise, but according to 4 Color Rebellion, Nintendo originally wanted to make a game that looks like this. It is hilarious… almost like a really good fan-made movie making fun of a ton of Nintendo’s characters. It beats most Mario-ridiculing movies hands down.

Now they hired back the original director, and the next Super Smash Bros game will bear a closer resemblance to the earlier titles. Which, for all I know, looked even more ridiculous.

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Project Exile, Indie RPG for Nintendo DS

I just read this post about Project Exile, a Chrono Trigger-like RPG for the Nintendo DS, developed by indie developer Studio Archcraft. The video looks very good!

Here is an interview 4 Color Rebellion did with the developers.

(Via 4 Color Rebellion.)

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Half-Life 2 review June 10, 2006

Over the last couple of days, I played and finished Half-Life 2.

Yes, I know it came out in November 2004. The thing is, I don’t have a PC, and I don’t play at work, so I’ve been playing the Xbox version (as I am one of the select few who even know of its existence). The Xbox version came out in late 2005, but my TV had broken down, and it took me 6 months to find a new one I liked, and then I was playing WoW. I’ve been playing it on an Xbox 360, although I have no clue whether it was in any way better than the Xbox 1 version. At least the controller was wireless.

It took me about 13 hours or so to finish. It’s rare for me to finish games; my frustration threshold is quite low, and my pile of unfinished games is high. But I enjoyed pretty much every minute of the game, just as I enjoyed every minute of Half-Life 1 (up until Xen).

Here are some of my impressions from the game.
(more…)

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