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Category: Gaming (page 3 of 5)

Why I Killed Angry Birds for Chrome [App of the Week]

Angry Birds for Google Chrome | 40Tech

I hated this app. Not because it wasn’t fun, and not because there was something wrong with it — no, no, none of that. It was because it called to me in the middle of the night, squawking at me softly, compellingly; demanding that I play it over and over again until the wee hours before the dawn. Even now, as I write this, the little red bird that promotes the game’s evil is peeking at me with his sinister cartoony eyes, poking his head around the left-most edge of my Evernote window.

I couldn’t allow it. Angry Birds for Chrome messed with my productivity mojo — and this is why the Birds had to die.

I had been avoiding the game for months. I’ve got an iPhone — and an iPad too. I follow these things. I pay attention. I know exactly how addictive Angry Birds has been for people, so I avoided it like the productivity plague that it was (and is!). But all of that ended on one fateful day when I was trolling the Chrome Web Store for new and exciting apps.

It was late, you see, and I was tired. I had been working my butt off on some freelance projects — a website redesign plan, a proposal for social media marketing, some blog posts for a new productivity blog I’m working on (ironic, I know) — and I needed to blow off some steam. That’s how they get you, see? There’s that moment of weakness, and you see their ad — and suddenly you’re installing, clicking, and watching those poor little birds get their eggs stolen by those bastard green (but cute!) pig heads. Don’t question the logic of it — it’s freaking mesmerizing!

So I tried the first level. It was easy. Too easy, like all gateway drugs are. Just a little taste, you know? A taste for free.

Free? Ha! I spent the next few hours of my life firing bird after crazy, utterly enraged bird into green-pig-head strongholds. Dozens and dozens died for the cause — it was a bleeding massacre! But I took those little piggies down, man. I got ’em one after the other, after the other. I giggled maniacally as I toppled their houses around their green little piggy ears. I shook my fist and roared after them as they ran away again and again with the eggs of my allies — and I followed them determinedly into battle after glorious battle. Who cared that I had to get up in an hour? I was rocking this game! Physics was my bitch! I — damn, was that my wife’s alarm clock? WTF time was it anyway??

So you see… It wasn’t my fault! I had to do it. I had to go back to my Google Chrome start page. I had to open the Apps section — and I had to kill that app with a single brutal blow to the head. No mercy. Damned thing was f*#^ing up my schedule.

Have you killed any angry birds lately? Tell us your story in the comments.


Gamers: Pick Who You Play With on PlayerMatching.com [Get Beta Codes Here]

playermatching

For most of us, our time is valuable. For the gamers among us, it can be frustrating to get online and end up in a game with griefers, idiots, or worse. Wouldn’t it be great if you could join or even set up games with like-minded players? PlayerMatching, an online video game matchmaking site, allows you to do just that. We’ve got some beta codes, below, to put you at the top of the invite list for the PlayerMatching beta.

Read more


Cure Your Angry Birds Addiction — with Mike Tyson

Cure Your Angry Birds Addiction -- with Mike Tyson | 40Tech

Ok, I know this has been my only post this week, and that it’s light and fluffy — but bear with me, the flu sucks and the chuckles are making me feel better. Besides, who doesn’t want to see Mike Tyson slap something? And I don’t care how angry those crazy red birds are, even a mild slap from Tyson is a good bet to get them to hang up their sling shots…

The video is actually a roundabout plug for SportsNation, an attempt at viral marketing. Make sure you watch the second one, as well — it’s a bonus outtakes reel, and I actually found it to be funnier.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jC5lFMu2Qak

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5igeAB43Dk

 

Enjoy your weekend — and guard your tech from helpful heavyweights!


Sony NGP (PSP2) Will Blast You Right Out of Your Socks

Sony NGP (PSP2) Will Blast You Right Out of Your Socks | 40Tech

If you haven’t already heard about Sony’s PSP 2, codenamed Next Generation Portable (NGP), then you are in for a treat! The NGP features power enough to rival the Playstation 3 — and that’s not just fluffy marketing-speak. The specs of this little beast are off the charts.

Read on for a rundown of what’s included, and a NGP gameplay video of Uncharted.


The Sony PSP2 (NGP) includes the following:

  • Quad-core ARM Cortex A9 processor
  • Power VR SGX534MP4+ GPU (also apparently quad-core)
  • Multi-touch capacitive OLED screen (5in, 960×544 pixel)
  • Multi-touch capacitive rear touchpad
  • Dual analogue sticks
  • 6-Axis motion sensing system (gyroscope/accelerometer — and a compass too)
  • Front and rear cameras
  • WiFi, Bluetooth, 3G and GPS
  • New, vertically paging interface
  • Fancy new media storage system for games (which are downloadable, only)

And all of the other stuff you expect from a PSP.

Sony obviously plans to swing hard for the mobile gaming system title. Some people have already pointed out that they skipped the 3D craze here, but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t planning another model with 3D capability. In fact, it is highly possible that there will be multiple versions of the NGP available at different price points when it launches later this year (that’s what I said… later this year). A wifi-only version has been mentioned, for example, and it is likely that there will be other features that might be considered premium and affect the overall price point.

On that, Sony is still being rather hush-hush about how much this little beauty will cost, saying only that “It’s not going to be $599,” and that they “will shoot for an affordable price that’s appropriate for the handheld gaming space.” (Engadget)

PSOne games will be available for download on the PSP2, and downloaded PSP titles will be playable as well — seems you’re out of luck if you have a lot of UMD games, though. Either way, my white, Darth Vader emblazoned PSP 2000 is probably going up for sale, and soon!

Uncharted Gameplay Video – PSP2 (NGP)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIx9h02Armo


Yummy, yes?


Kinect Hacks Could Bring Sci-fi to Your House

Kinect Hacks Could Bring Sci-fi to Your House | 40Tech

Microsoft’s Kinect, has already started a mini-revolution in the geeky world of modding. Since hacker Hector Marcan released the open source drivers that he created for Kinect, innovations using the technology have been appearing with speed that can only be described as plaid (my apologies to anyone who didn’t get that reference — and a cookie to the first commenter to identify it).

Some of the more interesting hacks I’ve come across are:

DepthJS (Fluid Interfaces Group) is a Chrome Extension that allows you to do some sci-fi-like web browsing with hand gestures. Make’s Adam Flaherty compared it to Spielberg’s Minority Report.


Interactive Shadow Puppets (Theo Watson) could have a future theatre and children’s entertainment — the kind they watch or do on their own time. The guy also does the entire video with what looks like a beer in hand — which I just found amusing and awesome.


Multitouch with a hacked Kinect is the first thing I was wondering about, especially after watching the DepthJS video. A fellow named floemuc put together a nice proof of concept using photos.


Real-time People Detection and Tracking with multiple Kinects is a neat (and scary) little demo put together by some students and a professor from EPFL (a French Swiss tech school).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x–xlKWBTAE


There are also Kinect 3D art hacks, some original Mario Kart and Quake Live hacks, 3D object manipulation, cloud viewers and several others. Some of them are floating randomly about the web, but several are listed at the wiki/gallery of openkinect.org.

If you want a review of how well the straight-ahead consumer version of the Kinect works, check out Evan’s review.

What are your thoughts on Microsoft’s Kinect? What other potential innovations could you see coming out of this?