Videogames
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Videogame Nation - Preoccupations
Way back in May, when I was at Futuresonic , and Kraftwerk were due a few weeks later at the Manchester International Festival, I caught the first day of Videogame Nation at Urbis . It was a really enjoyable exhibition, a celebration of the British gaming industry with a particularly keen eye for Mancunian and regional contributions. The Guardian posted something about it , and there are a couple of reviews I came across that are informed by a knowledge of games and gaming heritage that I lack (almost completely): National Videogames Archive and Negative Gamer . There were timelines displayed on the way out.
The hidden story of the 3D engine - by the people who write them
If you peer out over the painstakingly rendered Venetian skyline in Assassin's Creed II, or watch a car being convincingly torn to pieces during a high speed crash in Forza Motorsport 3 one thing is abundantly clear. Videogames are beautiful now. It's not the figurative beauty of yore – the iconic charm of Pac-Man, the elegiac simplicity of the vector-mapped space craft in Elite. Modern games are edging toward photo-realism; indeed, through technologies like mimetic interfaces and augmented reality, they are encroaching on reality itself. And at times they are breathtakingly close. But here is the minor tragedy at the heart of modern games: no matter how astonishing they look, players will never see one of the most beautiful components: the 3D engine.
It was a very great pleasure to welcome James Paul Gee to talk at school, shortly before we broke for half-term. James spent an hour in conversation with our students, examining what games and learning have to do with each other. He was in the UK to speak at Handheld Learning 2009 and this is his talk from there: At the heart of both talks, besides his zest for life, learning and a passionate engagement with his subject, is the critically important idea of situated meanings and their role in learning: ‘Comprehension is grounded in perceptual simulations [of experience] that prepare agents for situated action’ — Barsalou (1999).
We run videogames in our heads - Preoccupations
Modern Warfare 2 eclipsed any DVD or music release, both in terms of units shifted and, arguably, in cultural impact. Photograph: PR It's the end of the year again, a period that seems to come around with a depressingly increasing frequency. Along with shopping, office parties, and Jesus, our thoughts are turning to lists.
Games of the year – where are they in lists of the year? | Jack
Serious games case study: the RPG that could save lives | Te
Code of Everand: learn about road safety without realising it's happening... Getting children to cross the road safely has never been easy. In the seventies, we had David Prowse dressed up as the Green Cross Code man, desperately cashing in on the popularity of the Superman films (and Prowse's role in Star Wars, of course) to grab the attention of parka-wearing youngsters. More recently, there was the phone video ad, which showed realistic footage of a teenager's road accident seemingly recorded on a friend's mobile. These measures have been reasonably effective. According to the Department for Transport, which has an ongoing THINK!
Why has the Nintendo DS become the biggest selling console in UK
The UK's biggest selling console - who would have thought that in 2005... The news that the Nintendo DS has sold over 10 million units and so beating the PS2 to become the highest selling console in the UK ever – yes, it has even sold more than the Dreamcast – was not entirely unexpected. After all, this is the console that has really broken down those gamer/non gamer barriers.
Seasoned gamers would say that every decade feels like a tumultuous one. This is, after all, the entertainment medium in which the major content delivery platforms – ie, the home consoles – are reinvented every five years. And if you're a PC owner trying to stay at the cutting edge – well, that'll be a graphics card and processor update at least every 18 months, thank you.
Video games: the decade when playtime took over | Technology