Posts Tagged ‘Computer Games’
EA Announces Dead Space 2 Prequel
Hours before engineer Isaac Clarke begins his adventure on “The Sprawl” in Dead Space 2 a Necromorph outbreak occurs – but how did the events unfold? Players will witness the horror first-hand when Visceral Games, an Electronic Arts Inc. studio, releases Dead Space Ignition, a downloadable game that takes place on the Sprawl and challenges players to survive the initial Necromorph outbreak. Dead Space Ignition will be available in Fall 2010 on Xbox LIVE Marketplace and the PlayStation Network.
Dead Space Ignition combines an interactive comic-style story with three hacking mini games; Hardware Crack, Trace Route and System Override. Each game offers an arcade experience that will challenge players with puzzles and twitch gameplay. Dead Space Ignition features a “Choose Your Own Adventure” type narrative, allowing players to survive the horrific Necromorph outbreak in multiple ways. The game offers four endings and upon completion of each one, players will be rewarded with unlocks including an exclusive suit, all of which can be used by Isaac Clarke in Dead Space 2 when the game releases on Jan 25, 2011.
Dead Space Ignition is written by Antony Johnston, the award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of comics, graphic novels, video games and books including Wasteland, and Daredevil. Antony makes his return to the Dead Space universe after creating the six-book Dead Space comic series in 2008.
Sega Says Big Money in PC Gaming
Sega is enjoying the benefits of digital downloads.
Despite Sega’s roots, the former console maker is currently defending PC gaming, claiming that there’s big money to be made in that particular arena.
Although the physical retail sales of PC games continue to slide in 2010, Sega’s UK MD John Clark told MCVUK that those particular sales numbers aren’t indicative of the actual PC gaming market. Indeed, the company is enjoying its fair share of revenue on the digital front.
“The PC market is third in terms of its year-on-year performance with a decline of 26 per cent, but this doesn’t really reflect the full picture,” Clark said in an interview. “The PC digital download business is now a viable sector but somewhat invisible as it’s not yet covered by (UK’s) Chart-Track. The PC market overall is actually performing much better than is currently reported, and remains a vital and strong sector to be involved in.”
Surprisingly, Sega is becoming a dominant factor in the PC gaming market, taking its 12.8-percent share in corporate 2009 thanks to the three-pronged attack of Aliens vs. Predator, Napoleon: Total War, and the continued sales of Football Manager 2010. As Clark pointed out, all three games have different styles of gameplay yanked from three different genres: FPS, strategy, and sim.
“They can all drive a strong, community fan base with the ability to consistently deliver endless hours of gameplay,” he said. “For 2009, Sega was ranked the second biggest PC publisher in the market. In 2010 year-to-date, we are once again ranked second. Long may it continue.”
A Game Mass Effect 2 Contest Goes Live
Mass Effect 2 is an action role-playing game developed by BioWare Edmonton, with assistance from BioWare Montreal, and published by Electronic Arts. The game is the sequel to Mass Effect, and was released on PC and Xbox 360 in North America and India on January 26, 2010, Australia on January 28, and Europe and New Zealand on January 29.
Plot
Mass Effect 2 begins in 2183, shortly after Mass Effect. On patrol to locate and destroy any remaining geth, the Normandy and its commanding officer, Commander Shepard, are attacked. The crew is forced to evacuate. Joker, the helmsman, continues piloting the ship and is rescued by Shepard. Before Shepard can board the escape pod, Shepard is sent flying and debris slices through his/her suit as the Normandy is attacked again. Shepard dies from asphyxiation and his/her body enters a nearby planet’s atmosphere.
Shepard’s body is retrieved by Cerberus, an extremist pro-human organization. Over the course of two years, attempts are made to bring Shepard back to life via the Lazarus Project. Shepard awakens in 2185 aboard a Cerberus space station that is under attack. After Shepard aids Cerberus agents Jacob Taylor and Miranda Lawson, Shepard is granted an audience with the Illusive Man, who explains that Shepard was revived and ‘upgraded’ in return for his/her aid combating a new threat. Human colonies have been attacked, their colonists missing. The Illusive Man believes this is the work of Shepard’s old enemies, the Reapers, the race of mechanical dreadnoughts that periodically harvest the galaxy once galactic civilization reaches a certain point.
Shepard and his/her team investigate a recently attacked colony and encounters Tali, one of Shepard’s former squad members, and discovers the mysterious insect-like Collectors were behind the attack and are responsible for abductions at other human colonies. The Illusive Man places Shepard in command of the Normandy SR-2, modeled after the original. With the Illusive Man’s guidance, Shepard recruits a team for what is assumed to be a suicide mission.
The Illusive Man provides Shepard with dossiers regarding potential recruits: a salarian scientist, a vigilante named Archangel, a krogan warlord, and a powerful but psychotic biotic. The salarian, Mordin Solus, is found on Omega, working to stop a plague engineered by vorcha who are working for the Collectors. Archangel is also on Omega, and is actually Garrus Vakarian, one of Shepard’s previous squad members. The krogan warlord, Okeer, is found attempting to create the perfect krogan through unethical genetic research; when Okeer is killed he leaves his creation, Grunt, in Shepard’s care. The biotic, Jack, revealed to be a woman, is also known as “Subject Zero.” Cerberus arranges for her to be purchased from the prison holding her; Shepard travels to the prison ship, but is betrayed by the warden, who attempts to capture Shepard for a bounty. Shepard escapes and rescues Jack, who joins the team.
The Illusive Man reveals that a human colony is under Collector attack, and dispatches the team to save the colony. He notes that one of Shepard’s surviving crew members, either Kaidan Alenko or Ashley Williams depending on who the player sacrificed on Virmire in the first game, is stationed at the colony. Shepard arrives with his/her team and battles the Collectors; a third of the colonists have already been taken away. Shepard reunites with his/her former ally, who leaves feeling betrayed by Shepard working for Cerberus.
Shepard is provided with dossiers on more potential recruits: an asari Justicar, a drell assassin, and Tali. The Justicar, Samara, joins the team after Shepard investigates the Eclipse mercenary group and its involvement in a murder. The drell assassin, Thane Krios is in the midst of an assassination mission. Learning of Thane’s next target, Shepard finds Thane, who dispatches his target and joins the team. After she is rescued from an immense geth force, Tali joins Shepard.
The Illusive Man reveals that the Omega-4 relay – beyond which lies the Collector base – requires Reaper technology for the Normandy to navigate through it. Cerberus located a derelict Reaper, destroyed millions of years beforehand, and sent a science team to recover the device – an IFF transponder. Shepard discovers that the Cerberus science team members have been killed. Battling his/her way through Husks, Shepard recovers the IFF and salvages a friendly geth before destroying the ship’s core. Shepard may turn the geth over to Cerberus or activate it. If activated, the geth designates itself as Legion and joins the team.
Shepard departs with the recruited members on a shuttle towards their next mission as the Normandy prepares the IFF for testing. After the IFF is activated, the Collectors board the Normandy. Joker is forced to give control of the ship to its onboard A.I., named EDI – a potentially dangerous move. Gaining control of the ship, EDI pilots the Normandy away from the Collectors and rids the ship of all enemies, but the entire crew barring Joker is taken. Shepard’s hand is forced – Shepard can either complete secondary missions and sacrifice his/her crew, or go through the Omega-4 relay to rescue the Normandy crew.
After traveling through the relay, the game may proceed in different ways. Depending on whether Shepard enters the Omega-4 relay quickly, has upgraded parts of the Normandy, and has earned the loyalty of team members, any combination of crew and team may survive the final mission, including Shepard himself/herself. Shepard fights his/her way to the core of the Collector space station and discovers the Collectors have been constructing a new Reaper, made from the genetic material of the abducted humans and fused with the advanced technology of the Reapers. EDI suggests this is how all Reapers reproduce. Shepard targets the weak points of the machine, which is in the early stages of construction, and it collapses.
The Illusive Man suggests the team keep the station intact to allow research on its technology; any garnered information would be valuable in the coming war against the Reapers. Shepard may destroy the station or use a radiation pulse to kill the Collectors and allow Cerberus to take control of the station. After Shepard and his/her team destroy the Reaper, the surviving squad members escape to the Normandy. The Normandy undergoes repairs following the mission; somehow, Joker acquired schematics of a Reaper. Just before the destruction of the station Harbinger releases control of the Collector General. Harbinger and the rest of the Reapers awaken from hibernation, and begin emerging from dark space and start their long journey towards the Milky Way, setting the stage for Mass Effect 3.
Violent Video Games Produce More Aggressive Kids
Exposure to violent video games makes children more aggressive and less caring, regardless of their age, sex or culture, says a new study.
“We can now say with utmost confidence that regardless of research method — that is experimental, correlational, or longitudinal — and regardless of the cultures tested in this study (East and West), you get the same effects,” said Craig Anderson.
Anderson, who is director of Iowa State University (ISU) Centre for the Study of Violence, led the study, based on an analysis of 130 research reports on more than 130,000 subjects worldwide.
“And the effects are that exposure to violent video games increases the likelihood of aggressive behaviour in both short-term and long-term contexts,” said Anderson.
“Such exposure also increases aggressive thinking and aggressive affect, and decreases pro-social behaviour.”
The study was conducted by a team of eight researchers, including ISU psychology graduate students Edward Swing and Muniba Saleem; and Brad Bushman, a former ISU psychology professor who now is on the faculty at the University of Michigan.
Also on the team were the top video game researchers from Japan – Akiko Shibuya from Keio University and Nobuko Ihori from Ochanomizu University – and Hannah Rothstein, a noted scholar on meta-analytic review from the City University of New York.
The team used meta-analytic procedures – the statistical methods used to analyse and combine results from previous, related literature – to test the effects of violent video game play on the behaviours, thoughts and feelings of the individuals, ranging from elementary school-aged children to college undergraduates.
The research also included new longitudinal data which provided further confirmation that playing violent video games is a causal risk factor for long-term harmful outcomes.
The analysis found that violent video game effects are significant in both Eastern and Western cultures, in males and females, and in all age groups, said an ISU release.
The study was published in the March issue of the Psychological Bulletin, an American Psychological Association journal.
Games You Can Play At Work
It’s one of those days again. Wake up early, get ready for work, face the never-ending traffic, reach office like a war casualty…. It doesn’t end there though. At work, straining your precious eyes on spreadsheets and other stuff, in between checking out that new girl in the office who doesn’t know you exist… And, adding fire to the fuel, your ultimate nemesis, your Boss!
You really wish you could do a vanishing act, but unfortunately, we all don’t get what we really wish, do we? So, how do you “work” your way out? The only simple solution is to take out all that anger, frustration and lethargy on some games that you can play on your workstation (by doing this, you also get your revenge on your system which never responded while printing that important document!)
This write-up will help you with a few games that you can play when at work, thus saving the world from your Hulk-like reactions. It should be noted that, this can be your only hope if you’re not punished by being forced to work on MS-DOS, because if that’s the case, your only option is calling Child Services! What’s even more interesting is that these twenty games are absolutely free and the download links are provided along with. Talk about getting perks!
1. Tremulous
The game features two opposing teams: humans and aliens. Main objective is decimating your opposing team to bits! You got it right; it has a strong resemblance to Unreal Tournament. You definitely know who to imagine as your opponent!
Download Game
File Size: 125 Mb.
2. Police Supercars Racing
Sun City is the city of future, but the rise of crime rate makes this place dangerous for living. Do what every man has dreamt of doing, fighting crime!
Download Game
File Size: 64 Mb.
3. Air Assault II
Irritated at seeing your boss constantly hovering over your cubicle, firing orders and hurling abuses? Avenge the scene by firing bullets and hurling bombs at enemy encampments from a helicopter.
Download Game
File Size: 22.8 Mb.
4. Bos Wars
You definitely must have learned and mastered conspiracy skills around your water cooler! Why waste it? Put it to effective use by playing Bos Wars. Who knows? Honing your skills at this game might help you put an end to your colleague!
Download Game
File Size: 62.3 Mb.
5. Motoracing
If riding around in a superbike is restricted strictly because of your paycheck, you can resort to Motoracing which is your access to fast bikes, high jumps, and sly opponents!
Download Game
File Size: 23 Mb.