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Red Dead Redemption, Minecraft clean up at GDC Awards
The Game Developers Conference continues to roll on in San Francisco, and the game industry honored their own last night with the 11th annual Game Developers Choice Awards.
Red Dead Redemption was the most honored game of the night, winning the Game of the Year award as well as Best Game Design, Best Technology and Best Audio. The developers at Rockstar San Diego had to share the spotlight with Mojang’s Minecraft, which won three awards: Best Debut Game, Innovation Award and Best Downloadable Game.
Three other games were winners at last night’s GDC Awards: BioWare’s Mass Effect 2 for Best Writing, ZeptoLab’s Cut the Rope for Best Handheld Game, and Playdead’s Limbo for Best Visual Arts.
Three special awards were also handed out. The man behind the Fable franchise , Peter Molyneux, won the Lifetime Achievement Award. Another big name among RPG producers, Yu Suzuki, won the Pioneer Award. Maybe this’ll give him the clout he needs to create the long-rumored Shenmue III.
Finally, the Ambassador Award was given to Tim Brengle and Ian MacKenzie, two early organizers of the Game Developers Conference.
Posted in Mobile, News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Mass Effect 2, Minecraft, Red Dead Redemption
iPad 2 coming March 11, priced at $499
As expected, the second generation iPad was announced today at a press conference in San Franciso spearheaded by CEO Steve Jobs. Priced at $499 and available March 11, the tablet, which is officially named the iPad 2, improves on the original iPad thanks to its “thinner, lighter, faster” design.
The “faster” claim is bolstered by the iPad 2’s new dual-core A5 chip architecture (which makes it perfect for gaming). According to Apple, this makes the device nine times faster than the previous iPad and, along with its dual camera setup, makes FaceTime video calling possible. The cameras will also be able to record HD video. Even with these advanced specs, the iPad 2 is 33% thinner and and nearly 15% lighter.
In addition to beefing up the iPad’s inards, the new Smart Cover makes the device more mobile than ever. Snapping into place with magnets, the Smart Cover protects and can be folded to use as a stand.
You can also head on over to Apple.com to see a video of the iPad 2 in action.
Digital Chocolate bringing three launch titles to Xperia Play
Social gaming studio Digital Chocolate announced today that three of their most popular products are being brought to Sony’s Xperia Play as launch titles. The games include: addictive sidescroller Rollercoaster Revolution 99 Tracks, puzzle/strategy game Tower Bloxx: My City, and a special Xperia Play version of Millionaire City, one of the top ten biggest games on Facebook. While Rollercoaster Revolution, Tower Bloxx, and Millionaire City aren’t exactly Final Fantasy, Metal Gear, and Grand Theft Auto, it’s good to see support from the sectors that are going to play a large role in the device’s mass market appeal.
The Xperia Play will release this month in the U.S. and will be coming first to Verizon.
Unity Android set to ease game ports, Androids selling faster than iPhones
Unity Technologies announced today at GDC that their game porting technology for Android devices, Unity Android and Unity Android Pro are now available for puchase at their site. Unity Android boasts a one-click solution to porting games running on the Unity development platform, including iOS games, to Android. Hopefully this will go a long way towards reducing the differences between the two competitors as gaming services. Unity partially attributed the importance of this announcement to recent analyst reports indicating that Androids are now outselling iPhones worldwide, which probably isn’t news to some. This development comes alongside a study of just how fast mobile phone gaming is growing.
Unity has also spread to the PlayStation 3 last year, with yesterday’s announcement of Rochard being the first game to appear on the platform. It’ll be interesting to see if the game makes the jump to Sony’s Xperia Play, an Android-based phone. With over 400,000 developers and almost every major platform within its scope, Unity proclaimed themselves today as “the industry’s leading game development platform and middleware company.”
Damn.
1 in 3 US/UK adults are ‘mobile phone gamers’
Information Solutions Group, on behalf of PopCap Games, announced today the findings of a survey exploring the tremendous shift towards mobile phones in the video game industry. According to the study, 33.6% of all adults in the United States and United Kingdom constitute ‘mobile phone gamers,’ having played a game on their phone at least once in the last month. Probably the most staggering finding is that this demographic considers their mobile phone as their primary gaming device, “leapfrogging video game consoles and personal computers in less than two years.” Of course, a lot of people who play games on their mobile phones probably weren’t your typical gamer to begin with, so the traditional manufacturers probably don’t have too much to worry about. Also of note is that 52% of respondents have played a game on their mobile phone at least once.
The study concludes that not only is mobile phone gaming prolific, it’s growing at an astonishing rate – the numbers have gone up dramatically since the last study they did in 2009. Still, I’m sure most of us continue to prefer their DS or PSP, despite the Xperia Play coming out next month blurring the lines between a mobile phone and traditional gaming handheld. You can view the full findings of the survey here.
The Next Level: The Games of March 2011
Ah, March. You’re coming in like a lion, all right… but you’re going out like one, too. Not only are there a ton of awesome games coming out, but there’s also the highly anticipated arrival of Nintendo’s new handheld hardware, the 3DS. More than a few franchises are getting new chapters this month, too. The Warp Zoned staff got together to share what games and tech they’re most looking forward to in March. (more…)
Final Fantasy III flying via The Invincible to iPhone
Amidst a sudden burst of uncharacteristic coherence, Square Enix recently announced that Final Fantasy III is joining Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions as being currently in development for the iPhone. No further details were given, and many are curious if this will be in the style of the FFI & II iPhone games or if it’ll be a port of the Nintendo DS version. The latter would be considerably delightful, as the entire game was designed to be playable using the touchscreen. Expect FF3 to join the App Store later this year.
Oh, The Invincible is the name of the airship from FF3, in case you didn’t realize.
Posted in Mobile, News
Tagged Final Fantasy III
Science says casual games reduce depression and anxiety
A year-long study by East Carolina University suggests casual video games have a strong potency in reducing symptoms of depression and anxiety. The Psychophysiology Lab and Biofeedback Clinic had 60 subjects play three PopCap games: Bejeweled, Peggle, and Bookworm Adventures. The study found a 57% reduction of depression symptoms in the experiment group, a significant reduction in anxiety, and improvements in all aspects of mood. Dr. Carmen Russoniello, professor in charge of the study, claimed “in my opinion the findings support the possibility of using prescribed casual video games for treating depression and anxiety as an adjunct to, or perhaps even a replacement for, standard therapies including medication.” He also noted that playing the games had both noticeable short-term effects (in as little as 30 minutes) as well as long-term effects (after one month). This reminded me of the “Mapathy” campaign for Modern Warfare 2 DLC. Apparently the chick above was misdiagnosed; all she needed was a little FarmVille.
Take it how you want it, but personally, I’ll be dealing with my anxiety by plunging into Killzone 3 multiplayer next week, while the rest of you bow before your gilded altar of Reason.