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Those audio diaries were a pretty valuable asset for anyone playing BioShock. Kind of like those pesky tape players from the Saw movies, they contained valuable information that could save your life — if you listened carefully.  If not, you could wind up getting killed.

As part of their promotional campaign for Bioshock 2 back in 2010, 2K also had a few real-life BioShock audio diaries made — and now one of them is being hawked on ebay. Continue reading “Authentic BIOSHOCK Audio Diary Can Be Yours — for Around $2600” »

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The UK-based Captive Media may have just created what is the holy grail of all urinals. Interactive ‘Urinal Gaming System’ will debut at Coca-Cola Park for the upcoming 2013 season, when popular Minor League Baseball Team, The Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs, begin playing in April.

Meanwhile, General Manager Kurt Landes seems almost prouder of the urinals than he does his players’ prospects. Continue reading “Pee-Controlled Video Game, IRON PIGS, Finds Unique Home In Minor League Ballpark” »

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Remember how utterly inseparable ‘ol Zynga and Facebook seemed a couple years back? It was like you couldn’t even glance at your FB login page without viewing half a dozen Farmville-related ads or notifications.

Now, it appears, the two companies couldn’t be further apart. Part of this is due to Facebook is no longer in any sort of long-term contract with Zynga; another is that so many other third-party games that are doing so well for Zuckerberg and co: According to the San Francisco Gate, new releases like King.com‘s Candy Crush Saga has more players than the much-anticipated Farmville 2. Continue reading “Facebook Launches New Games Center—But Where’s Zynga?” »

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NASA and Rovio have teamed up to put an Angry Birds exhibit in the Kennedy Space Center in Orlando Florida, centered around the Angry Birds in Space theme and complete with B-movie esque moniker Angry Birds Space Encounter.

The exhibit was first announced about a year ago by astronaut Donald Pettit when he was living aboard the International Space Station — and while we were first apt to attribute such an idea to space sickness, Rovio and NASA officially opened the exhibit at Cape Canaveral last Friday. Both companies are launching the exhibit with the hope that it inspires more kids to get excited about space and want to explore it.  Continue reading “Rovio and NASA Hope to Jump-Start Space Race With New “Angry Birds” Exhibit” »

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Yoichi Wada has announced his resignation as President and CEO of Square Enix, citing severe profit losses to the company over the last fiscal year. Representative Director Yousuke Matsuda will officially take over all of Wada’s former duties, while Wada himself is re-assigned to an as-yet unspecified new role.

According to The Next Web, Square Enix’s decision is partly a result of huge shortcomings in projected gains for the company over the last fiscal year — Continue reading “Longtime Square Enix President Steps Down; Company Points to “Extraordinary Losses”” »

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After lending his sports expertise to games like Motorstorm: Arctic Edge, Sega Rally Racing, and the beloved Colin McRae Rally 3, all-around racing game writer/creator/savant Jamie Lowes is turning his attention to helicopters for his first indie game.

It was early last year when Lowes decided to leave the big studios, primarily Sony’s BigBig studio, to start his own venture, VAMflax. 

We caught Jamie for a few minutes to talk about what the experience and development process behind CHOPPER MIKE, the company’s debut, was like.

JHS: What inspired you to go the indie route, especially after working on so many larger console games?

Jamie Lowes: I think it was also a way to work on the kind of games I’d never get the chance to work on in the industry. As anyone who’s worked in larger organisations can probably relate to, getting games from ideas, through concept, and then actually into production can be tricky to say the least.

JHS: You’ve been pretty good about monitoring the game’s development.

Jamie: Yeah, you can see the progress of the project. I posted a video on the first night, and then throughout development, all on my youtube channel.

JHS: What kind of engine did you use?

Jamie: I used Unity as it seemed to do everything I needed. It’s a fantastic environment to prototype ideas in, and the cross platform nature of it is amazing. The fact that one man can make a game for five platforms in his spare time, over nine months, is ridiculous.

As for the actual ‘process’, I made everything for the game myself. All the code, modelling, UI graphics, shaders, music, trailers, website, everything! I’ve always been interested in all areas of game development, and it was a good test to see if it was even possible to do it all myself. Once it was in proper production, the cycle consisted of ‘design meetings’ with my son Toby on the way to school, followed by evenings of me implementing the ideas. Again, the productivity levels that Unity brings meant each feature was pretty much ready the next day for VAMflax Jnr to try out.

Jamie: I had a group of about 50 people testing and providing feedback, which was invaluable. Deciding which comments were important enough to act on was very difficult though. You don’t want to stray too far from the ‘vision’, but you do want some people to want to play it too! It’s a much better game for having all that feedback, even though some of it was hard to take at the time.

Chopper Mike is priced at $1.99, with PC and Mac versions in the works, and release dates tentatively aimed at sometime this year. You can download the game via iTunes.

For more on what Jamie’s up to in the game development world, you can follow him here on his Twitter account. 

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In a recent interview with George R.R. Martin, right before Friday’s most recent Game of Thrones screening, the author took some time to dish out his thoughts on gaming, particularly the GOT versions he’s had a hand in helping develop.

While he didn’t seem too keen on releasing any details, he was much less reluctant to share his feelings on games and gaming in general — particularly their effect on his writing, or lack thereof. Continue reading “George R.R. Martin Has Gaming Addiction; Talks About Upcoming GOT Games” »

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Following a months-long research program, scientists at the University of Toronto have stumbled upon new evidence finding that many lifelong gamers end up developing a set of ninja-like skills that come as, yes, a result of being lifelong gamers.

By ‘set’, we mean not only the physical reflexes that come with years of sitting in front of your console/hand held of choice, but also the visual acuity skills that improve simply by spending hours in front of them. Continue reading “New University Study Finds First Person Shooters Enhance Visual Skills (Tell Us Something We Don’t Know)” »

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Minecraft‘s one of those games people really seem to either love or hate, for some very specific reasons. Some haters loathe the (to them) user-unfriendly interface that makes it impossible to play without the Minecraft wiki; lovers make use of the game’s array of creative features and immersing themselves in the world of it all.

YouTuber nuropsych1 definitely seems like one of the latter, and has this awesome Beetlejuice roller coaster to show for it. Continue reading “Guy Creates Epic BEETLEJUICE Minecraft Roller Coaster” »

Continue reading “Producers Create Epic Live Action Gordon Freeman In New HALF LIFE Online Series (But They Still Need Your Help)” »

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There’s a reason it’s called March Madness, besides the fact that generally psychotic behavior overcomes basketball fans around the country every year around this time. Yep, the shockwaves Springtime sends outside the NCAA world can be felt even by those who wish to avoid it at all costs, or even don’t own a TV set.

For the reluctant learner, now there’s a translator that promises to make it a lot easier: Star Wars.
Continue reading “The Video Guide To Understanding College Basketball’s March Madness (Brought To You By STAR WARS)” »

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If there’s something that the nerd music world needs more of, it’s probably Mega Ran, one of those rarities who somehow manages to churn out stuff that’s awesome on a fairly regular basis. As part of his new Time and Space Project, the  Philadelphia-based nerd rapper will be dropping a new EP on the second Tuesday of every month — all throughout 2013.

Like a lot of Random’s stuff, this means more songs chunk full of the nostalgia for 80s/90s games we’ve come to know and love.

Continue reading “Nerd Rapper Will Release a New EP Each Month This Year, Remind Us Nerd Music Is Still Relevant” »

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Boston’s Powerglove is an exception to the rule that “instrumental bands can’t be successful”– with albums like Total Pwnage, Metal Kombat, and Saturday Morning Apocalypse, the boys have managed to take instrumentals and make them relevant again. How? By  making tracks like “Dr. Wily’s Theme” from Mega Man 2 into full-fledged sonic assaults, or turning music from Sonic the Hedgehog 2 into a swell little metal ditty  called “So Sexy Robotnik.”

For Powerglove, sexy and video game music go hand in hand. We sat down with bass guitarist Nick Avila to talk about video game music and the band’s plans for the future.

Nick Avila (Powerglove): The four of us had been been in a melodic death metal band together in 2002 and in 2004 Powerglove was started as a side project. We just ended up having more fun with Powerglove than we were having with our old band. Continue reading “How Classic Video Games Helped One of the World’s Biggest Metal Bands, POWERGLOVE, Make It To The Top” »

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Hobbyist animator/blogger Kenna W. was so inspired by the dad who reprogrammed Donkey Kong for his daughter (so she could play as the Princess), she decided to do the same for the original 1985 Legend of Zelda game — so she could play as Zelda.

On her blog, Kenna Draws Stuff, Kenna relates the entire process of pursuing her goal — from inspiration all the way to conception. Part of what makes her story so cool is not only her determination to make the game Zelda-centric, but also show how easy it is to try doing the same. Continue reading “Amateur Hacker Reprograms THE LEGEND OF ZELDA, Plays as Princess” »

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With its purposefully shoddy green screen shots and hammy acting, “Walking Dead Homeland” could just be another shitty parody of two of pop culture’s biggest television successes.

BarelyPolitical‘s latest endeavor goes beyond that, however, even breaking down the fourth wall and calling attention to the real-world obsession both shows have provoked. Continue reading “‘Walking Dead Homeland’ Shows How Annoying Zombies Can Really Be” »

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In the world of video game composing, fewer are more revered and beloved than Jason Graves, he of both Blazing Angels 2 and Star Trek: Legacy soundtrack fame. The guy paid his dues studying under such legends as Elmer Bernstein and Jerry Goldsmith before hitting the big time with his score for the Dead Space franchise.

Most recently, it’s Graves’ Tomb Raider score that’s earning him accolades both amongst professionals fans alike, particularly for his complete re-imagining of the theme (as well as his diverse musical talents in composing it). Continue reading “Exclusive: Tomb Raider, Dead Space Composer Jason Graves Explains The Secrets To a Great Gaming Soundtrack” »

In a battle between Aquaman and Green Lantern, who would win? The mighty gilled one who rides sea horses? Or with Superman vs. Green Arrow: How the hell is it even a contest? And yet somehow it is (we promise we wouldn’t waste your time): in the quarter finals of the Injustice Battle Arena – a no-holds-barred superhero debate between Jace and Stan Lee — two of Earth’s mightiest warriors have once again pulled out all the stops in a showdown over which superpower should dominate. Continue reading “Jace and Stan Lee Debate in Injustice Battle Arena Quarter Finals: Green Lantern or Aquaman? Green Arrow or Superman?” »

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Pope Francis’ election is definitely turning heads. Whether it’s enthusiastic supporters who believe that his St Francis of Assisi namesake means for a more humble, less material man of god, or detractors who think he lacks courage to confront certain societal ills, he’s gonna be in the spotlight for a while.

Fortunately, there’s a game to prep him for battling the paparazzi and the demons of the material life, and it’s called Pope Quest.

Continue reading “New Pope Francis Gets a ‘First Person Healer’ Game, Former Pope Benedict Likely Jealous” »

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Stan Lee doesn’t just make comic books, he builds entire empires from the superheroes he’s created. He doesn’t just appear in a movie, he makes some truly epic cameos parodying Hugh Hefner, Larry King, and a ton of others.

And he doesn’t just take a limo to his next gig, he parkours (ninja flips) his way through downtown Los Angeles, as opposed to traveling by car. Continue reading “Stan Lee Is a Ninja, Parkour Master and Here’s the Video to Prove It” »

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Apparently there’s two choices when you join Al Qaeda. Either sign on for that inevitable kamikaze mission, or enroll in the organization’s brand new game design course.

Apparently some budding jihadists have managed to cobble together some software skills and programming languages and make angry video games: in this case, it’s those damn French, who managed to snipe a bunch of AQ’s militants in Mali last month. Continue reading “Al Qaeda May Have Just Made The Worst Video Game In the History of Space and Time” »