VIDEO GAMES

Future Human

Is Digital Nature as Soothing as the Real Deal?

Not even close, says a new psych study on plasma screen “windows”

Discovery Channel addicts, get outside! HDTV may offer a vivid window on the natural world, but it won’t substitute for the real thing. That’s the implication from a new psychological study from the University of Washington’s Human Interaction with Nature and Technological Systems (HINTS) Lab, which found, in fact, that nature on a plasma screen is no more soothing than a blank wall.

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The Best Game-Console Mods

Hackers have radically transformed the latest videogame consoles

Ben Heckendorn’s game-console creations, from a portable Atari 2600 to a pocket-sized Nintendo 64, are famous in the modder world. But he may have topped himself with his Xbox 360 Elite laptop.

To shoehorn a full 360 into the 2.25-by-16-by-12-inch case and keep it playable, Heckendorn had to install fans and speakers and redo the internal layout of the machine several times. He then rewired the console to output the video to the 17-inch LCD display, on which he mounted an Xbox Live Vision camera for online multiplayer games.

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Free Flash on Phones

Adobe lifts the licensing fees and opens its powerful program to all developers

Adobe has announced that it will be lifting licensing fees for Flash to developers working on mobile applications as part of its new Open Screen Project. The goal is to bring more rich content to phones across a standardized platform. Flash is already ubiquitous in Web browsers, so the available content on the net is mature and widespread. Currently, phones use a disparate variety of software to power video and games; rarely has the feedback been overwhelmingly positive about a mobile experience with either kind of media.

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Out of Control Gaming

A gesture-reading camera lets you play videogames without a controller

Soon youll be able to ditch your game pad and Wiimote. A new camera system for computers and consoles will track your movements in three dimensions—essentially turning your body into the game controller. For example, play Rock Band by waving your hands at imaginary drums, or dodge punches in a fighting game.

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The Most Expensive Game Ever Developed?

Putting together Grand Theft Auto IV might have cost more than $100 million

Rockstar Games producer Leslie Benzies says that Grand Theft Auto IV may have cost more than $100 million to develop, which would reportedly make it the most expensive game ever produced.

Apparently more than a thousand people worked on the job. There's a 1,000-plus page script. Photographers snapped 100,000 photos for background scenes. And yes, the developers worked long hours getting things ready.

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Playing Around

Pinball Wizardry

In a new silver ball sim for the Wii, real-world classic tables are paired with advanced table-tilting physics

Just because game developers have the technological cojones to create a perfectly accurate simulation of the real world doesn't mean it's a good idea. The more a simulated racing-game car handles like the real thing, the more likely I am to destroy it on the first turn. If The Sims were an accurate simulation, you'd uninstall the program after the first insufferable meeting at work or interminable family argument over original recipe versus extra-crispy.

Sometimes, though, the accuracy of the simulation is precisely where the fun lies.

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Playing Around

Balls and Bullets For Bucks

While online poker remains in cloudy legal waters, betting on games of skill can still net you some quick cash—if you're good enough to beat the competition

We're happy to bring you the first installment of our newest regular blog column, "Playing Around" with Steve Morgenstern. Since his days as founding editor of Atari Age, one of the first videogame magazines (covering the hallowed Atari 2600), Steve has served as reviewer, industry pundit and even a game developer. In his new column he'll focus on the latest developments in the art and science of electronic amusement, ranging from game design innovations to intriguing new technologies to lifestyle and culture in the interactive age. Without further ado, here's Steve. [Eds.]

It's illegal to wager on online games, right? Don't bet on it! Our nation's lawmakers, ever vigilant against sins they're not personally committing, passed the Safe Port Act in 2006. The bill combines maritime-security enhancements, the creation of the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office and, in a spectacular nonsequitur, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, effectively banning games of chance by making it illegal to transfer money to an Internet casino. Games of skill, though, weren't affected.

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The Super Mario Multiverse

Quantum mechanics got you down? Let Mario guide you through one of physics' most tantalizing theories: parallel universes.

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You're unique. Aren't you? One of the more creative hypotheses surrounding quantum mechanics posits the exact opposite. Though we can readily see only one world, quantum mechanics says that when were not observing the particles that make up that world, those particles exist in multiple places at once. There are many theories that attempt to grasp what this means, but one of the most tantalizing is Hugh Everett's multiverse concept.

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Human Tetris

A Swiss artist recreates the game with humans in place of the animated blocks

Tetris is one of the all-time classic video games, but its best suited to people with a lot of free time on their hands. Apparently, though, maneuvering those little polygons around a video screen still wasnt enough of a time suck for Swiss artist Guillaume Reymond. So, he set to work on a real-life version of the game with people in place of pixels.

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Sandisk Ultra II SD Plus

Transfer files sans cables

With this SD (Secure Digital) flash-memory card, you can move photos, songs or any other files from your device to your computer without cables or a separate card reader. Just stick the built-in USB plug directly into your computer. $80 (512MB) or $135 (1GB)

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