Ball & Kids

Saw a close save today on Hosur road. I saw a foot ball that came bouncing on to the road from a house and a kid followed chasing it. Till now saw it only in movies but this was real. The kid was around 13-15 years The Indica would have hit him straight unless the driver veered off braking. The kid ran away with his ball. If you expect this from a kid old enough to know that he has to check the traffic and then cross what would you expect from children younger to him?

Parents should ensure they have an eye on the kids when they play, especially the ones near the road. It is practically impossible for the drivers to keep looking for stray kids. But if there is a ball bouncing to the street its only natural to expect a kid to follow. With summer blooming you need to take extra care of kids.

Ghajini, the game!

It's not everyday that one comes across a game based on a Hindi movie, which in turn is based on a Tamil movie that was inspired from an English film. Ghajini the game is based on the Blockbuster Hindi film, Ghajini, starring Aamir Khan and is a worthy effort from FX Labs, the developers of the game. 

Throughout the game you have Aamir Khan's dull voice over directing you towards your next objective and giving you hints. The game developers in their quest to ape Max Payne's style and feel have made it very similar to Max Payne in terms of design and presentation, which isn't a bad decision, however, the execution lacks polish. 

Read the review here.

Mind games

The Wii makes great strides when it comes to game control, but how about being able to control video games with your mind? Don't think it's so far fetched as the technology will be available as early as next year. US and Australia based tech firm Emotiv has been working on man-machine interaction with the development of Project Epoc, a headset created by Australian neuroscientist Allan Snyder and Randy Breen, former head of development for LucasArts games.

With 16 sensors that attach to various points on the user’s head Project Epoc works like an electroencephalogram (EEG) by detecting electrical signals or thoughts, which it then translates into actions. Resembling Professor Xavier of X-men, the user can use the helmet for technological telekinesis, lifting in-game objects merely by thinking about it, or making their on-screen character smile or frown by doing the deed themselves. Although this headset has many possible applications in neuroscience, rehabilitation and for people with conditions such as paralysis, the reason Emotiv has chosen gaming as a way to develop this technology is because of the ubiquity of the gaming console and the flexibility and adaptability of young gamers.

Ads in games!

Having led the way through an unprecedented online social networking strategy, the Obama campaign can now claim another first: the first major Presidential campaign to advertise in games.Obama advertising has been appearing in the Xbox 360 racing game Burnout Paradise. The ads appear on billboards within the game, as shown in the picture right. 

Next you would find Advani doing it in Indian games, may be.

Move on Mario, Wii is here

Super Mario Bros was a lovable game for the first video games: 2D, 3D and when computers took over. It was interesting to take him across different worlds with your hands swinging in the air, holding you breath to see him finish his jump and your score go up. Maneuver him under water, in air and what not. Children loved it. Parents loved it because they could get different things like drinking milk, home work to small household chores would get done if they allowed the child to play Mario for an hour. Students discussed it in classes, compared scores and traded tricks on how to score more in exchange for toffees. There were school-level, city-level, locality-level tournaments too. With over 40.24 million units, Super Mario Bros is the most popular video game ever till 10th January 2009. 

As of now Super Mario Bros has finally been dethroned. Mario has been replaced by the best selling video game of all time: Wii. The response of children who got a Wii for Christmas can be seen here. Industry sources expect Wii to rule the video gaming area till something else replaces it, which they say is not so near. When children shift from one game to the other it is a hard task for the firm to achieve as it needs to build the same acceptance level among kids which would make them adopt the new option over the other. That's a tough task and Nintendo did it, again.