Games and Gear
Nintendo on TV: Britain's Best Brain on Five
Nintendo is bringing the might of its marketing machine to bear on prime-time TV, as it teams up with Five to search for contestants for a new eight-part show, Britain's Best Brain.
The show will see contestants tackling five tasks in an episode, each of which will focus on different parts of the brain -- memory, co-ordination, numeracy, recognition and risk. Success in these tasks will add to a contestant's 'brain score', with the highest scorers competing against one another in a grand final. Continue reading...
Screenshots: Doom Resurrection on iPhone tested 
You might be expecting Doom on the iPhone to be the latest in an increasingly tedious string of ports of the original game. But it ain't no such thing. Doom Resurrection on the iPhone is a completely new game developed exclusively for iPhone and iPod touch by iD software. It's £5.99 and we've been smearing brain against wall all afternoon.
Remember the House of the Dead games? Y'know, the first-person shooters where your dude walks a pre-set path? Yeah, it's like that. Only to aim, you tilt the iPhone, and all other controls are displayed as virtual buttons on the screen. Oh, and instead of a house, it's Mars, and you're the last surviving Marine in a sea of Hellbeasts. Continue reading...
Sony reportedly planning PSP phone
The newest version of Sony's PlayStation Portable console -- the PSP Go (pictured) -- isn't even on sale yet, but the company is already looking ahead to what's next, according to Reuters.
The electronics giant is looking into making a combination gadget that would meld its PSP gaming system with the mobile phones made by Sony Ericsson, its joint venture with Swedish electronics maker Ericsson, according to Reuters, which cited the Nikkei business daily.
Sony reportedly plans to put together a team as early as July to begin development of the new device. Continue reading...
Michael Jackson's gaming legacy
While he was probably best-known for his music, personal eccentricities, pet monkeys and legal problems, Michael Jackson, who died Thursday at age 50, has a small but important footnote in video game history as well.
Back when Jackson was merely a semi-eccentric star, Sega created a video game property for him, named Michael Jackson's Moonwalker (actually separate games for the arcade and Sega Genesis/Master System consoles). Moonwalker was notable for being an early example of real-life celebrities appearing in video games, and for using digitized versions of some of Jacko's songs.
Jackson is tasked with rescuing helpless children from a crime boss named Mr. Big.
The arcade version was a basic isometric beat-'em-up, with two players able to play as dual Jackos, one in a white suit, one in red (similar to his "Smooth Criminal" music video). Jackson's special attack was a dance move, and when activated, a spotlight from the heavens illuminated him as he pulled off some signature spins and kicks, destroying many of the onscreen enemies. Continue reading...
Why was a C64 emulator for iPhone rejected by the App Store?
In 20 years time, those of us still in tech will look back on Apple's App Store and reminisce fondly -- probably in a Top Ten list. Seriously though, we will. We'll remember it for reinvigorating the mobile world, and for having one of the most schizophrenic, bipolar submission-approval processes in history.
The latest victim is Manomio, Kiloo and Commodore Gaming's Commodore 64 emulator for iPhone -- the kind of ROM-reading app that makes us born-in-the-80s gamers fill up with ample nostalgic goo. The C64 emulator has been rejected from entering the App Store by Apple because it emulates the C64. More specifically on the grounds that it "violates the iPhone SDK Agreement [because an App may not] itself install or launch other executable code."
Continue reading...
Activision boss calls for PS3 price cut, threatens to pull support
Sony's beleaguered PlayStation 3 received its strongest attack yet on Friday when the boss of one of the biggest developers in the world threatened to pull support for the games console unless its price was cut. In an interview with the Times, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick has some strong advice for Sony.
"They have to cut the price, because if they don't, the attach rates [the number of games each console owner buys] are likely to slow," said Kotick, whose company makes the enormously successful Guitar Hero franchise. "If we are being realistic, we might have to stop supporting Sony." As for the timing on that, he adds: "When we look at 2010 and 2011, we might want to consider if we support the console -- and the PSP too."
"I'm getting concerned about Sony," Kotick continued, "the PlayStation 3 is losing a bit of momentum and they don't make it easy for me to support the platform. It's expensive to develop for the console, and the Wii and the Xbox are just selling better. Games generate a better return on invested capital on the Xbox than on the PlayStation," he says. Continue reading...
Digital Britain: PEGI to rate UK videogames
One of the main outcomes of the Byron Report last year was something of an unseemly spat between the British Board of Film Classification and the UK videogame trade body, ELSPA, which had been lobbying strongly for the current publisher-led pan-European standard, PEGI.
In the House of Commons today, recently appointed Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw announced as part of the Digital Britain report that PEGI would form the basis of a new rating system in the UK. He also confirmed that under the new system, PEGI ratings would be strengthened with new statutory requirements for those who sell games. The move will make it illegal for games to be sold to those under the stated age rating, as is currently the case with all films and the small number of games rated by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC). Continue reading...
Game developer: iPhone 3G S graphics will be 'better than PSP'
Since the iPhone launched in 2007, we've yet to see a 3D game come close to matching the graphics of the best the Sony PSP has to offer, but according to at least one developer, this may be about to change with the new, more powerful iPhone 3G S.
In an interview with Pocket Gamer, Michael Schade, CEO of Fishlabs, an iPhone and mobile games developer, said the iPhone 3G S's support for the OpenGL ES 2.0 API will push the machine's 3D graphics capabilities beyond that of the PSP. Continue reading...
Photos: Nintendo Wii MotionPlus tested
Announced at E3 so recently the booth babes' fake tan hasn't yet worn off, today we got our uncoordinated hands on Nintendo's Wii MotionPlus. It's a small adaptor that clips on to the bottom end of the Wii's Wiimote, and increases the controller's sense of spatial awareness. Theoretically at least, it should allow players to feel more immersed in the game they're playing by allowing your character to mirror your arm's position more accurately.
Some people, by which we mean CNET UK's chief sub-editor Nick Hide, believe the extra accuracy the clip-on adaptor provides should've been built-in from the start. But it wasn't, so now you'll need about 20 British pounds to buy the adaptor on its own, or else buy one of the new games that include it for free.
Continue reading...
E3 2009: Our top ten games
E3 has concluded, and was, without question, better than the last. In fact, short of someone dying on stage, it couldn't have been more 'meh' than last year's. So without further ado or further introduction, here is CNET UK's countdown of the top ten games shown off at E3 2009, in reverse chronological order. Continue reading...
