Relive your wasted youth with Trikanoid, a remake of classic brick-breaking game Arkanoid
Arkanoid was an 80′s arcade classic, a great test of hand-eye coordination as you tried to clear a breakout-style pattern of blocks from the screen.
But if you missed the game the first time, that’s not a problem, because Trikanoid has bought it back to life for both PCs and Macs.
You better budget for a new game console in 2013
This year could be big for game consoles. Ouya expects to begin shipments in March or April and Steam has announced its very own console is in the works. Not to mention that Larry Hryb, aka Major Nelson, has placed a mysterious countdown clock on his blog, leading to lots of speculation, including, of course, the next Xbox -- the "720".
Where does all of this lead? The good analysts at IDC are convinced you will purchase a new console this year: "2011 and 2012 were tough for many console game disc developers and publishers", says Lewis Ward, research manager. "With the advent of eighth-generation consoles, starting with the Wii U, historical norms strongly imply that game disc revenue will stop bleeding in 2013 and rise substantively in 2014".
Microsoft counts down to what?
Perhaps you're thinking about Consumer Electronics Show 2013 and all the goody gadgets set there to debut. Microsoft isn't, having pulled out of the event (and that includes the big kick-off keynote). The company instead looks ahead to E3 in, ah, June, with Major Nelson (aka Larry Hryb) posting a countdown clock. Easy speculation is to the next Xbox, but don't choke up with excitement just yet.
CES keynote is exactly where Microsoft chief exec Steve Ballmer would unveil Xbox 720 (one of the rumored names), only to make everyone wait until November to get it. E3 debut simply means later announcement and likely holiday shipping, which is consistent timetable for Microsoft consumer products. When could you get Windows Phone, Xbox Kinect or Zune? Early November, baby. So consider that countdown clock just a wicked teaser -- like Lucy yanking the football out from Charlie Brown or Wile E. Coyote chasing the Road Runner off a cliff. Xbox 720, or whatever Microsoft calls it, won't be there in 158 days.
Tech companies will conquer Hollywood in 2013
I wrote here nearly a year ago that there would be no more annual lists of predictions and I’m sticking to that, but I want to take the time for a series of columns on what I think will be an important trend in 2013 -- the battle for Hollywood and home entertainment.
The players here, with some of them coming and some of them going, are Amazon and Apple and Cisco and Google and Intel and Microsoft and maybe a few more. The battleground comes down to platforms and content and will, by 2015 at the latest, determine where home entertainment is headed in America and the world for the rest of the century. The winners and losers are not at all clear to me yet, though I have a strong sense of what the battle will be like.
Best Windows 8 apps this week (Doomsday Edition)
Eighth in a series. Since the world is going down today anyway there is not really much need for today's article and while I thought for a moment about taking the day off, I'd like the idea of leaving the world with work done. So, here it is, the eighth part of the best Windows 8 apps of the week series on Doomsday.
Pssst: If the world doesn't end, and you have Windows 8, now you have something to look forward to.
Steam for Linux beta goes public for Ubuntu users
Valve Corporation's popular multiplayer gaming ecosystem Steam has officially hit public beta on Linux, specifically for all users of Ubuntu 12.04.
In November, Valve's Linux team launched Steam for Linux in private beta for about a thousand users, and it included support for approximately 25 games. That number now has grown to almost 40, but with the exception of Team Fortress 2, most titles come from indie developers. Steam's most popular titles like Half-Life 2, BioShock, Portal 2, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, all of which are now several years old, are still missing on Linux, and will likely remain so.
Zombie Shooter: blast the undead into a bloody mess with this free arcade-style game
The Walking Dead is now on its mid-season break, but if you’re missing the show already then you could turn to Zombie Shooter, a free game which provides all the opportunities for walker-slaughtering you’re ever likely to need.
Okay, it’s true, you won’t get quite the character development here that you do in the show (or, indeed, any at all). The game’s plot, such as it is, it rather more basic: essentially you’re just running around a secret research lab, slaughtering zombies, picking up weapons, ammo and health packs, and trying to figure out what’s going on.
Microtransactions are not the American way, says new data
A new report from app monetization company W3i says users 47 percent of the revenue earned from in-app purchases falls in the range of $9.99 to $19.99, somewhat disrupting the theory that a constant stream of tiny "microtransactions" is a viable profit model for mobile video games.
The "freemium" profit model has been immensely popular among mobile video game companies. It has been shown that mobile games earn more money when they are given away for free, but contain add-ons available only through in-game purchases.
Minecraft is coming to the Raspberry Pi
A port of the incredibly popular indie sandbox survival game Minecraft will soon be available for the Raspberry Pi, and if that news isn’t enough to get you excited, the price might -- it will be entirely free.
Minecraft: Pi Edition (a port of Minecraft: Pocket Edition) was officially unveiled at Minecon in Paris, and offers a revised feature set and support for several programming languages, so users can code directly into the game. According to Minecraft publisher Mojang, users will be able to "start by building structures in the traditional Minecraft way, but once you’ve got to grips with the in-game features, there’s opportunity to break open the code and use programming language to manipulate things in the game world. You’ll be learning new skills through Minecraft".
Nintendo should be thankful: video services flock to Wii U
For many of us Nintendo represents our youth, but the company has stubbornly stuck around from those heady days of the 80s and even has managed to keep relevant while others like Atari and Sega have faded from sight. In fact, the Nintendo Wii still continues to be a popular console worldwide and now the company has outed the new Wii U and, with this console, Nintendo wants to compete with Xbox for control of your living room.
Over the past few days we have seen announcements from Netflix. Amazon Video and Hulu that each makes services available for the Wii U. Now, on Thanksgiving Day here in the United States, YouTube has decided to jump on the bandwagon as well.
Razer Synapse 2.0 is a good idea gone wrong
Some computer games require you to be connected to the Internet at all times to play them. While that sounds reasonable for online multiplayer games such as World of Warcraft or Team Fortress 2, it doesn't make sense for single-player games that you play on your own. Always-On DRM limits access to the purchased game due to that requirement.
Not only is it necessary to have an Internet connection to play the game, which means no playing in situations where you do not or where unreliable, it also means that you rely on the game company server to be online as well.
Xbox tablet would be biggest blunder since Microsoft Bob
It's not exactly a secret that Microsoft wants everyone to have an Xbox or that the company just recently released it's very first tablet in the form of the Surface RT, with a Windows 8 Pro model coming soon. But, would Microsoft actually consider combining these two seemingly different platforms?
Some people seem to think that may happen, but I want to talk the company down from the ledge and say "Please abandon this silly idea" before it becomes the biggest blunder since Bob. In fact, I would love to scream at the company NO! It would be a terrible and costly stumble by the Redmond, Wash. folks.
Want to develop your own 3D RTS Game? Try Spring
If you’re the creative type then the idea of designing your own games can seem appealing. For a moment or two, anyway, until you began to think about exactly how many technical challenges you’d need to overcome in order to make this dream a reality.
You don’t have to handle everything on your own, though. Spring is a capable, versatile and open-source 3D RTS engine that can take care of many of the low-level gaming tasks, leaving you to get on with the more important design decisions.
Steam for Linux goes live as a limited beta
Valve has announced the launch of its Steam for Linux client as a limited access beta. Testers of the invite-only service were chosen from a large pool of applicants (over 60,000 people applied within the first week), with priority given to experienced Linux users.
Initially only available for Ubuntu 12.04+, with more distros to be added in the future, the beta client gives testers access to the free-to-play Team Fortress 2, as well as two dozen additional Steam titles, including Serious Sam 3: BFE, Trine 2, World of Goo, and Darwinia. The beta also includes the Big Picture mode, which allows Steam to be viewed on a TV and interacted with using a game controller.
Microsoft releases Xbox SmartGlass 2.0 for iPhone and iPad -- get it NOW!
Two weeks ago Microsoft announced Xbox SmartGlass with app availability on major platforms. Following the initial release, the company introduced an updated version of Xbox SmartGlass for the iPhone and iPad.
Just like with other platforms, Xbox SmartGlass 2.0 for iOS allows Apple-branded smartphones and tablets to connect and interact with an Xbox 360 console. The app can remotely control the game console, using the touchscreen interface, allowing one to resume, rewind or advance content like videos and music.
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