There are a lot of rumors flying around the 3D Gaming community about the likely release of an Acer 3D gaming laptop.

Acer hasn’t confirmed anything quite yet but sources tell us that there will be a release towards the end of October (this year).

If this is the case Acer will likely start something of a war between themselves and other Laptop manufacturers.

For some time now Acer has produced quality, lower cost laptop and desktop computers.
Others have released feature rich machines with 3D aspects and kept them costly. If Acer brings out a machine in keeping with their competitive pricing I think that other makers will be forced to drop prices and develop new technologies to stay ahead.

Hopefully Acer will be and consider themselves to be a catalyst for the 3D gaming hardware market.

Vancouver, BC - June 5 2009 - Next week Apple will announce the release of the much anticipated iPhone 3.0 software update and local game developers Richard Hart and Michael Bell are ready and waiting.

The dynamic duo forms Ethical Entertainment, a local game studio that specializes in creating non-violent 2D and 3D games for kids for the Apple iPhone, Mac, PC, and the Web. Formed in 2004, the company has spent the last five years developing online games and interactive entertainment for children and sees innovative devices like the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch as a fantastic new opportunity to bring their games to the masses. "With over 1 billion applications downloaded, more than 30 million devices currently sold, estimates
topping 50 million by the end of 2009, and speculation that the next generation iPhones will start
shipping in mid July, we see tremendous potential and opportunities building our games for the
iPhone/iPod Touch," says founder Richard Hart. Read the rest of this entry »

For many children it’s a dream come true – playing games online because your school tells you to. In fact, it’s a part of the curriculum.

Florida’s FLVS (Florida Virtual School) is about to launch what it’s calling “the first complete online game based course for high school students”.

It’s all an effort to assist those students who have trouble learning in a classroom.

‘Conspiracy Code’ is the first game in a series of games, created by a company called 360Ed Inc, that score High School credits while attaining National Educational standards.
The game is built on a series of challenges and missions that help students to learn as they progress through the game.

Yes, this is a good idea in some respects but is it promotion of a non-classroom based educational system?
Are we encouraging students to lack social learning skills and pushing them to play games?

What do you think?

It’s official – the Zune HD will launch this fall (hopefully).

According to a press release from Microsoft the Zune HD will include a built in HD Radio reciever, HD Video capabilities, OLED Touch screen, Wi-Fi and Web Browser.

“The Zune music player is an integral part of the overall Zune experience, and we’re proud to be growing and extending our offering beyond the device,” said Enrique Rodriguez, corporate vice president of the Microsoft TV, Video and Music Business Group. “Delivering on Microsoft’s connected entertainment vision, this news marks a turning point for Zune as it brings cross-platform experiences and premium video content to living rooms around the world.”

A day late and a dollar short Microsoft? I hope that the Zune has enough bells and whistles and enough of a following to make an impact on the mobile market.

There were rumbles in the rumor mill that Microsoft would develop a device that did everything Zune as well as being a phone. It would seem that isn’t their strategy.

Will users want to make phone calls on one device and take care of their entertainment needs on another? have we become so spoiled that we have become used to having everything in one box? all in one place?

Honestly, I don’t think I’d want a separate entertainment device. At the moment I want something that will do hat I need and then some.

What do you think?

The WonderLandBlog posted about a very, very interesting idea. Could Google Earth be a viable 3D game engine?

Using SHIPS as a proof of concept they ask whether powerful applications such as Google Earth can be used as background and map data for gaming.

Looking at some of the comments in the post this isn’t a new idea. There appears to be companies working on the technology in enterprise settings, why not use it in gaming and entertainment too?

Imagine, being in the street of a game and the scenery being dynamically generated from content supplied by Google Earth, Google Streetview and the like.

The possibilities are quite astounding. Can the weather change in a game to reflect how it is in a city at that time? day and night scenarios? How about racing games reflecting real road closures? (can you tell I live in Pittsburgh).

Believe it or not, it happens on Television every morning. Certain technologies push their data through to TV studios where software converts it into pretty 3D maps of weather and traffic.

The Technology is there, why not step it up a little?

LOS ANGELES, May 26, 2009 | SHOOT Publicity Wire | — Trigger LLC, a leading marketing agency headquartered in Los Angeles with additional offices in Shanghai, China, specializing in both the advertising and promotion of major motion picture studio releases as well as prominent brands, has evolved to become a major Hollywood studio resource in the development and implementation of online game marketing promotions. The company is currently involved in the promotion of numerous film and TV projects. The announcement was made today by Jason Yim, Founder and Executive Creative Director, Trigger LLC. 

Mr. Yim said, "Online and mobile games provide a unique opportunity to immerse the visitor in the story, characters and location of a film. And as an undeniable component of consumer media, games typically lag behind only the film’s official trailer in terms of content most visited on a site. It makes strategic sense then for Trigger to take our games very seriously. We have a 3D team that can recreate hero characters and locations from the film, and then meeting our client’s impeccable standards. Our dedicated game programmers constantly add to and improve our library of game engines." 

Utilizing the creative talents and technical skills of its dedicated team of developers and 3D artists who specialize in the creation, development and implementation of online gaming applications, Trigger is currently working to promote numerous projects. These include: 

ABOUT ONLINE GAME FOR "STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS"
To bridge the gap between the airing of the first and second TV seasons of "Star Wars: The Clone Wars," Trigger has created the third in a series of online promotional games, this one entitled "Gunship." (Note: Trigger previously created the online game "Sharpshooter" to promote the "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" movie which was released in 2008, as well as the game "Live Fire," promoting the launch during Fall 2008 of the first season of the TV series on Cartoon Network.)  Read the rest of this entry »

Too cold outside to go hunting? Stuck at the office? Wife nagging you? well, there is hope - Glu has released a Deer Hunter game for the iPhone.

Deer Hunter is available in the app store at a price of $5.99 and in my opinion it’s well worth every penny.

Of course, much like any game the first thing that strikes you is the graphics. In Deer Hunter the graphics are very very well done. Incredibly detailed.

The game has two different play modes; lightning round and hunting trip.
There are three unlockable levels, 4 different difficulties and numerous weapons to unlock and work through (hunting with a semi is ineffective but fun).

Use the map to judge your sight range, find your prey and get your hunt on.

Using the standard iPhone type controls you can drag and tap to aim and shoot within a number of beautifully detailed hunting environments.

A couple of nice features that you don’t see in many hunting games are the ability to ‘tag’ animals and track them to find them later, also if you injure an animal and it gets away it shows up in red on your map so that you can track it and finish it off.

Deer Hunter certainly isn’t a simple iPhone game. There is so very much to it. It’s not a short lived game either and will keep you playing for some time as you learn the levels, environments, and improve your skills.

Deer Hunter is a game to check out.

Electronic Arts’ The Sims has always been one of the most 3D of 3D games.

Being released in only a few daysThe Sims 3 for the iPhone really looks pretty sweet and it set to be one of the top selling games on the mobile platform.

According to our sources gamers can create their own Sim character and guide it through the virtual world and interact with other Sim characters.

Houses can be decorated, personalities can be created and changed.

Much like the other games in the Sims franchise the simple objective is to keep your character alive and achieve certain goals.

The iPhone handles the graphics wonderfully. The game environment revolves around the character and the menus that pop up are easy to get the hang of.

The game makes good use of the device accelerometer, tilting and moving as you do.

Some of the most exciting features of the game are how it will work with the iPhone 3.0 software. You’ll be able to listen to your iPod music through a radio in the Sims World and make the most of the new micro ecommerce features; you will be able to buy items in the virtual world like items for your Sim home etc.  through the app store.

Excuse me while I have a bout of Nintendo nostalgia <sigh>.

Capcom has announced the specs for the much anticipated PC version of theith Street Fighter IV game.

The good news is that you don’t need a brand new computer just to play the game.

Minimum
OS: Windows XP
CPU: Intel Pentium4 2.0GHz or higher
RAM: 1GB or higher
HDD: 10GB of free space or more
Video Card: DirectX 9.0c/Shader3.0 or higher compatible, NVIDIA GeForce6600 series, ATI Radeon(TM) X1600 or higher or higher, VRAM ：256MB or higher
Sound: DirectSound compatible, DirectX 9.0c (or higher) compatible
Input Devices: Mouse, Keyboard

Maximum
OS: Windows Vista
CPU: Intel Core2Duo 2.0GHz or higher
RAM: 2GB or higher
HDD: 10GB of free space or more
Video Card: DirectX 9.0c/Shader3.0 or higher compatible, NVIDIA GeForce8600 series or higher, ATI Radeon(TM) X 1900 or higher, VRAM ：512MB or higher
Sound: DirectSound compatible, DirectX 9.0c (or higher) compatible
Input Devices: Gamepad ：Xbox360 Controller for Windows

It’s not too often that a game developer lists a ‘maximum’ spec for a game. Normally there’s a minimum and a recommended.

Anyway, Street Fighter IV is slated for release in July 2009

In the past high powered gaming (such as 3D gaming) has been limited to desktop computers. Desktop based computers have had the power, picture quality and affordability to take care of pretty much any game on the market.

Now though, gaming is becoming increasingly mobile, Laptop prices are coming down and mobile computing power is increasing, making the ‘gaming machine’ line a lot more vague.

High powered gaming is moving from the Desktop to the Laptop and Intel is helping (well, pretty much pushing it).
Intel’s Core i7 processors run the X58 chipset and are about to change everything.

Instead of using an outside controller the i7 Processor uses an internal memory controller, making a more efficient, faster communication between the processor and the system memory.

Graphics are no longer being handled by the main CPU either like they once were. Graphics cards are becoming more powerful and are handing all the graphics processing themselves.

NVidia is helping the mobile move too – they’re offering multi Graphics Processing Unit video cards so that gamers can do more and more in a nearly pristine gaming environment.

No longer do gamers have to be pasty, antisocial types. Get a laptop and take your gaming with you!

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