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Should we start calling it the eye pad? Eye therapy games developed for iPad
Now, people with visual impairments can look to video games as a new form of therapy! Dr. Jeffrey Becker, a developmental optometrist, and Dr. Robert Bohlander, a neuropsychologist, created a variety of games for iPad dubbed the Oculomotor Therapy Program to treat visual system dysfunction and strengthen visual skills.
The iPad program was created with the help of a special education teacher, and combines the fun of playing a game with carefully monitored therapeutic benefits to improve a patient’s quality of life. Every time a patient uses the program, doctors can track progress in real time and adjust the prescribed game activities to meet patient goals.
“There are currently 16 different game activities, with new games in development. Each has multiple levels of difficulty designed to address vision problems of different levels of severity.”
Right now, the Oculomotor Therapy Program is only available through an approved doctor. For more information, or a list of approved doctors, check out the NeuroSensory Center of Eastern Pennsylvania!
The Simpsons: Tapped Out rebuilds Springfield on iOS this year
Just don’t call it SpringfieldVille!
Electronic Arts plans to bring another city-building freemium game to the iOS this year with The Simpsons: Tapped Out. Like Zynga’s CityVille, the game encourages iOS users to erect their own virtual Springfield by purchasing buildings with in-game currency (in this case, donuts). As with CityVille, doughnuts can be purchased with real money to speed up the process of rebuilding Springfield.
That’s right, I said “rebuilding.” Homer has caused (another) meltdown at the Nuclear Power Plant, leveling the town. Thankfully, we don’t have a “Day of the Mutants” situation. In fact, no one has been hurt at all. Best of all, they even offer to help Homer fix things. The entire Simpsons family, Duffman, Hans Moleman, and many more of Springfield’s citizens will lend a hand to place a building or complete a quest.
To further capture that authentic Simpsons feel, EA has recruited the show’s writers and voice actors.
The Simpsons: Tapped Out will be released as a free download for the iPad and iPod Touch/iPhone “in the coming weeks.” An Android version is also in development and will be released a few months after that.
[Source: CNet]
WWE WrestleFest added to iOS; coming soon to Android, PSN, XBLA
THQ has added WWE WrestleFest to the iTunes App Store today in Lite (free), iPod Touch/iPhone ($2.99), and iPad ($3.99) versions. If you’re still iOS-less, the game will also be available for Android devices, the PlayStation Network, and Xbox Live Arcade later this year.
If WWE WrestleFest sounds familiar, that’s because it’s based on the classic arcade game WWF WrestleFest. However, instead of a straight conversion, THQ has updated WrestleFest to include current WWE wrestlers such as The Undertaker, John Cena, and Randy Orton. They’ll fight it out with the legends from the original game including “The Macho Man” Randy Savage, Jake “The Snake” Roberts.
If you’d prefer a different set of WWE wrestlers to create the ultimate tag team, THQ plans to add 30 wrestlers to WWE WrestleFest thanks to the magic of downloadable content. CM Punk, Triple H, Sheamus, Shawn Michaels, The Big Boss Man, and many more will be available to download soon.
Ohhhhhhhh yeeeeeeaaaaahhhhhh!
Posted in Mobile, News, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged WWE WrestleFest
Batman: Arkham City, L.A. Noire lead 2012 BAFTAs with 8 noms each
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts have announced the nominees for the 2012 BAFTA Video Game Awards. In all, 48 games were nominated in 18 categories including four new awards for this year: “Debut Game,” “Online – Browser,” “Online – Multiplayer,” and “Performer.”
Batman: Arkham City and L.A. Noire garnered the most nominations from the BAFTA board with eight apiece. Several other games have a chance to win big when the awards are handed out on March 16 including Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception (six nominations), LittleBigPlanet 2 (also six), Portal 2 (five), The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (five), and Deus Ex: Human Revolution (four).
Arkham City, Skyrim, L.A. Noire, and Portal 2 will be competing for the prestigious “Best Game” award along with FIFA Soccer 12 amd The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.
Finally, voting for the BAFTA’s yearly audience participation award, The GAME Award, is now online at BAFTAGAMEAward.com.
Hit the jump for a complete list of all the nominees. (more…)
Skyrim practically sweeps the 2012 IAAs with five awards
The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences handed out the Interactive Achievement Awards for the 15th consecutive year on February 9 and, not surprisingly, Bethesda’s The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim came away the big winner.
The RPG practically swept all of the major awards including Game of the Year, Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction, and Outstanding Achievement in Gameplay Engineering. It also took home RPG of the Year and Outstanding Achievement in Story.
Among the other winners, Portal 2 lead the way with three awards including Outstanding Achievement in Connectivity, Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition, and an Outstanding Character Performance for Wheatley. Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception also took home three awards, all for Naughty Dog’s continued mastery of game graphics.
You can find the full list of winners after the break, while all the nominated games are listed here. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, Mobile, News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Bastion, Batman: Arkham City, Battlefield 3, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, FIFA Soccer 12, Forza Motorsport 4, Fruit Ninja Kinect, LittleBigPlanet 2, Mortal Kombat, Orcs Must Die!, Portal 2, Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Super Mario 3D Land, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, The Sims Social, Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception
Skylanders Giants goes big this Fall
Activision has announced Skylanders Giants, sequel to 2011’s Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure.
The sequel will “feature close integration” with the online world Skylanders: Spyro’s Universe, and will also have “a variety of new characters, new challenges, a thrilling new story-driven adventure, and advanced integration across console, handheld, mobile and online.” It will have eight new collectible figures, characters that interact with the figures, new Skylanders, more arenas, and more gameplay options. The sequel also has compatibility with the original game.
Skylanders Giants is once again being developed by Toys For Bob and is scheduled to be out this fall for a “to be announced” set of platforms. The game will make its debut February 12th to the 15th at the North American International Toy Fair in booths 3151 and 3251 at the Javits Center in New York City.
European publisher Rising Star Games opens a US office
Rising Star Games will be expanding beyond Europe in the coming days as they’ve announced the opening of a North American office. The publisher specializes in localizing quirky Japanese games, and mostly has that market to themselves in Europe. By jumping in to the American game market, they’ll now be competing against several established players in that space such as XSEED, Atlus, NIS America, and Aksys Games.
But as they say, more competition is always a good thing.
Rising Star plans to make a splash with their first North American release this Spring when the company will bring Cave’s Akai Katana to the Xbox 360 in both Europe and North America.
The publisher also plans to delve into downloadable games for the first time with the launch of their Rising Star Games Digital label. The digital group will work on bringing “the most engaging video games” to the Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, Steam, the Android Marketplace and the iTunes App Store.
Uncharted 3 leads the 2012 AIAS Interactive Achievement Awards with 12 nominations
The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences has announced the nominees for the 15th annual Interactive Achievement Awards and, to save everybody some time, they just recycled the nominee list from 2010.
OK, not really. But a surprising number of games on this year’s ballot are part of franchises that took home some IAA hardware in 2010. Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception leads all nominees with 12 nominations, just like Uncharted 2, which nearly swept the 2010 IAAs. Batman: Arkham Asylum won every award that Uncharted 2 didn’t in 2010, and so it goes in 2012 as Batman: Arkham City racked up six nominations this year.
Other games with more than five nominations include Portal 2 (ten), L.A. Noire (nine), Battlefield 3, and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (six each).
Many of those multiple nominees (Arkham City, Skyrim, Portal 2, and Uncharted 3) will be involved in the five-way battle royale for the IAA Game of the Year award. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword rounds out the the category.
Hit the break for a complete list of every nominated game in all categories. And remember, the 2012 AIAS IAAs will be handed out during this year’s DICE Summit on February 9. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, Mobile, News, PC, PS3, Wii, Xbox 360
Tagged Batman: Arkham City, Battlefield 3, L.A. Noire, Portal 2, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception