The Hitman Study: Violent Video Game Exposure Effects on Aggressive Behavior, Hostile Feeling and Depression (press release) was authored by Ferguson and his fellow TAMIU colleague Stephanie Rueda. The study included 103 students from a “Hispanic-serving public university” in the Southern U.S. 62 were male and 41 were female, with 98 Hispanics, three Caucasian and two who declined to answer.

The new Xbox has a 250 GB hard-drive, and was called “whisper quiet.” It will sell for $299.

Channeling Oprah a bit, Microsoft also announced that the entire audience at their E3 press event would be sent one of the new 360s. Amazing, right? Thanks for the generosity, Microsoft!

Interestingly, Microsoft did not mention a price for the Kinect device at the conference

Update: Looks as if Sony has updated Move’s official online portal with a slew of working titles. Have a peek while we get ready for the full reveal at E3, won’t you?

From Rory Cellan-Jones’ article:

I was not quite convinced that Microsoft’s technology would deliver for hard-core gamers. It seemed to work well on fun Wii-like games where you didn’t need too much precision – I’m not so sure how whether it would deliver on a first-person shooter.

I’ve also had a go on Sony’s Move motion control system, which is unveiled on Tuesday. Sony’s solution is much less radical. It has retained the controller, now adorned with glowing spheres which interact with a sensor unit on the television.

This makes the whole experience less physical than with Kinect, but it also delivers a lot more precision. Sony showed us a table tennis game which seemed to mimic the real thing much more closely than I have seen elsewhere.

I have a feeling these kinds of comparison stories and opinions are going to be coming at us fast and furiously during E3, as more people get to try out each technology, so keep your browser pointed here!

Source: BBC

You knew it was coming, right? Hot on the heels of getting leaked a wee bit early Microsoft has made official the rebadging of a device desperately seeking a new name: “Project Natal” is no more, replaced by Microsoft Kinect. At a circus- and celebrity-filled affair, MS wrapped everyone in high-tech panchos (pictured after the break courtesy of Joystiq) and then took the wraps off of the new title. Quite a few game demos were shown, ranging from Star Wars to tiger petting, the Kinect interface to the Dashboard was shown (said by some to be Minority Report-like), and a video chat app called, wait for it, Video Chat. Through here you can naturally talk to friends (up to four total people at once was “shown”), and also share photos.

Sadly, no hands-on time was given nor did MS reveal the two crucial bits of information we’re waiting for: price and date. Naturally a holiday release is expected, to give the Xbox 360 a nice sales boost, but we’re hearing price rumors as high as $150. These choice bits of intel will surely be unveiled at Microsoft’s event tomorrow — if someone doesn’t beat ‘em to it. The hardware is still looking exactly like the early picture above, shattering hopes of a slimmer design to match new Slim Xbox 360.

Update: We’ve got official photos now, though solid textual info is still scarce. Stand by!

Update 2: So we’re out of the wild, cult-like experience that was Microsoft’s Kinect unveiling. Microsoft still has a lot of details to reveal, but there are a few things we gleaned from watching the demos:

• Almost everything was one person at a time, particularly in the Kinect Sports games. Even a game like beach volleyball or soccer was boiled down to individual “moments” of interaction that get strung together into some sort of competition. Even the running in place games were one at a time, though the river rafting and mining cart games (both with a similar mechanic of jumping and ducking through an obstacle course while picking up tokens) could be played with two people at a time. You can at least play games like volleyball simultaneously with someone else over Xbox Live.
• An interesting mechanic we saw was a second player “jumping in” to a game. In the mining cart scenario, when the second player jumped in it immediately went split screen, while in soccer different players took turns by just jumping into position. Sure, some of this stuff was edited for our benefit, but it seems Microsoft is working to make the introduction of a second player or the switching between players something less button-heavy.
• The Star Wars game was pretty badass-looking — you play a Jedi, rushing down stormtroopers and deflecting laser bolts left and right, wielding a few Force powers, and confronting a certain deep-voiced Sith Lord for a one-on-one duel. Based on the gestures and action we saw, though, it was a pretty heavily scripted experience. Still, there’s no scripting a two-handed light saber grip, and that particular action looked like everything we’ve ever wanted in a Star Wars game.
• The yoga game is actually a pretty smart use of the infrared and joint detection software we espied previously. Positions were “checked” by points on the joint — making it certainly harder to fake the moves on Wii Fit — and it seemed to have a tai chi element to it. Your avatar glowed a more intense red based on your three-dimensional approximation — bright red for hands stretched forward, for example.
• Next up: Kinectimals, a baby tiger pet simulator. You can scratch its ears, snuggle, and teach the little guy to jump and play dead. Adorable? Dangerously so. No one can tell us the developer, but based on the lighting effects, art style, and similarities to the previously-shown Milo, we’d wager a guess that it was Lionhead Studios.
• The Kinect menu interface is about as simple as could be. You wave your hand to control a glowing cursor of sorts, and you push forward to “click” on the element you want. Of course, there’s also a very simplified version of the Dashboard to go along with this control mechanism, so it’s unclear if you’ll be able to do everything via subtle hand waves, but the Twitter, Facebook, Zune and Netflix icons were clearly present.
• The MTV Games-developed Dance Central has some on staff divided — only Ross will actually admit to being interested in playing it. A series of dance moves are presented, including elbow jabs, swinging leg, guitar, “rocking out” (with your hand in the air). The art style is akin to Rock Band / Guitar Hero, and to be fair, this is probably one of those games that can’t be done as well on any other console.

The next iteration of the venerable Mortal Kombat series was announced by Warner Brothers this morning and promises a return to brutal form for the game series. To be released on the PlayStation 3 and 360 in 2011, Mortal Kombat is being developed by the newly re-named NetherRealm Studios, led by Mortal Kombat creator and creative director Ed Boon.

For more details on the game , hit the jump to learn about fatalities and new game modes.

The Fatality is back and will be “presented in more gory detail than ever before.” In addition, Mortal Kombatintroduces a number of new game-play features including tag team and deep story mode. Players can choose from a lineup of the game’s iconic characters, and the usual 1 vs. 1 matches are back as well as several new game modes, including four-player  “tag-team” fights, and two-player team ups in the new “Co-op Arcade Mode.” You’ll be able to compete against another team online too.

“We can’t wait for players to get their hands on Mortal Kombat,” said Ed Boon, Creative Director, NetherRealm Studios. “This game really is a response to what players have been demanding: mature presentation, reinvented 2D fighting mechanic and the best, most gruesome fatalities ever!”

While it looks very impressive, a fighting game lives and dies on the precision of its controls and the delicate balance between characters, so we’ll all have to wait a bit to see if the game lives up to the famous name of the series. I, for one, am very excited.

PlayStation 3 fan George “GeoHot” Hotz says he’s found a way around the ban on other PS3 operating systems and has posted a YouTube video to prove it. Check it out:

  Popout

According to Hotz, the fix can “be installed without having to open up your PS3, just by restoring a custom generated PUP file, but only from 3.15 or previous. It’s possible this CFW will also work on the [PlayStation] Slim to actually *enable* OtherOS.” Check out his site for more info.

Sony says they removed the feature for security reasons, but, as Hotz points out, to Sony: “you are potentially turning 100000+ legit users into ‘hackers.’”

Players wear special glasses that use infrared light and a webcam to track the motion of one eye. A laptop linked to the webcam processes eye movement and maps it to one of two player-controlled paddles in Pong.

The student developers note that the technology could be adapted for use in more advanced games and other applications, including eye-controlled wheelchair movement and computer cursors.

“Remarkably, our undergraduates have created this piece of neurotechnology using bits of kit that you can buy in a shop, such as webcams,” said the students’ team supervisor Aldo Faisal. “The game that they’ve developed is quite simple, but we think it has enormous potential, particularly because it doesn’t need lots of expensive equipment.”

Faisal continues: “We hope to eventually make the technology available online so anyone can have a go at creating new applications and games with it and we’re optimistic about where this might lead.”

“We hope it could ultimately provide entertainment options for people who have very little movement. In the future, people might be able to blink to turn pages in an electronic book, or switch on their favourite song, with the roll of an eye.”

source

The legislation is comprised of two proposals, one of which seemingly called for legally restricting minors from purchasing games rated PEGI 16+ or PEGI 18+, and the second of which apparently would have entirely banned such games from sale in the country.

The guidelines have yet to enter law. While their proposals passed with significant majority votes, the specific legal terms of their restrictions must still be constructed.

Now Evi Allemann, a member of the Social Democratic party and the sponsor of the latter resolution, has said the newly-ratified law banning violent games entirely will actually only affect specific games deemed to portray particularly cruel acts of violence.

In an interview with 20 Minuten Online (German-language link), Allemann said the end result will be a system similar to Germany’s under which roughly a dozen games are banned for extreme violence. As an example, she pointed out that Germany bans Manhunt and Mortal Kombat, but not Counter-Strike.

Alleman admitted that there is no conclusive correlation between violent games and violent behavior, but said consumption of violent media may be a contributor to aggression.

The PEGI system, which is used to classify game content in Switzerland and numerous other European countries, is insufficient because it is a self-regulatory game industry body, Alleman contends. She believes an industry-independent federal agency is necessary to determine what games will be subject to the impending restrictions.

source

Well, think again…maybe.

During a recent appearance at MAGfest (Music and Gaming Festival), the voice actor who portrays Duke Nukem, John St. John, jokingly avoided answering an attendee’s question regarding the long, long, long, long, long awaited shooter, Pixel Enemy reports.

“I’m not allowed to speak on that subject, sir,” said St. John. In response to the subsequent booing his response elicited, St. John jumped back in to say, “No, no. Don’t be disappointed. Read between the lines. Why am I not allowed to talk about it?”

So there you have it. Duke Nukem Forever will be hitting store shelves in fall 2019! Thanks for bringing this 70 year on again/off again Nukem melodrama to an end Mr. St. John.

Actually, given that 3D Realms’ CEO Scott Miller recently revealed that the developer is planning to release tons of Duke content over the next year, Forever could very well find itself off of life-support sometime in the near future.

Source: Pixel Enemy