"Brandon Erickson has an interesting post about an experiment on players' emotional reactions to killing and being killed in a first-person shooters (FPS) with a group of students who played James Bond 007: Nightfire while their facial expressions and physiological activity were tracked and recorded moment-to-moment via electrodes and various other monitoring equipment. The study found that "death of the player's own character...appear[s] to increase some aspects of positive emotion." The authors believe this may result from the temporary "relief from engagement" brought about by character death. "Part of this has to do with the intriguing aesthetic question of precisely how the first-person-shooter represents the player after the moment of death," says Clive Thompson. "This sudden switch in camera angle — from first person to third person — is, in essence, a classic out-of-body experience, of exactly the sort people describe in near-death experiences. And much like real-life near-death experiences, it tends to suffuse me with a curiously zen-like feeling." An abstract of the original article, "The psychophysiology of James Bond: Phasic emotional responses to violent video game events" is available on the web."

source: www.slashdot.org

The full list of the 2007 Game Critics Awards: Game of the Year winners is now posted on the Game Critics Awards website. You can see the full list of winners at http://www.gamecriticsawards.com/goty.html or below.

Top 10 Games of 2007:
1.) BioShock
2.) The Orange Box
3.) Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
4.) Rock Band
5.) Super Mario Galaxy
6.) Halo 3
7.) Mass Effect
8.) God of War II
9.) Assassin's Creed
10.) Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

Game of the Year breakdown by platform:
Xbox 360: 7
PlayStation 3: 5
PC: 3
Wii:  1
PlayStation 2: 1

Game of the Year breakdown by publisher:
Microsoft Game Studios: 2
Sony Computer Entertainment: 2
EAP (Valve, MTV Games/Harmonix): 2
2K Games: 1
Activision: 1
Nintendo: 1
Ubisoft: 1

Source: www.majornelson.com

Tom's Games presents:  Second Take: The PC Gaming Slump

I know I still haven't bumped up my machine at all since bf2.   Also, is it just me or is COD4 just not as long lasting as BF2...no vehicles you can control...only so much run and gun fun before it gets a bit old without having a lot of friends to play with.

Source: www.tomsgames.com

What should we think of this Radeon HD 3870? First of all, AMD has reached its goal, taking back the crown for the most powerful graphics card. After all, it had been more than a year (since the launch of the 8800 GTX) since it was lost.  But, is it really that cutting edge to hold on to the crown?

Source: www.tomshardware.com

So once again we have a new year before us.  Some of us will get new jobs, have new additions to the house(baby variety :), new cars, new debt, and of course being a gaming clan/community, NEW GAMES!  But what will there be to buy? �Luckily GamePro.com has released a guide that may help with your decisions and what you should save the change in the couch for, The 48 Best Games of 2008.  I for one am looking forward to Starcraft 2(#6),  and I'm curious to see how Spore(#6) turns out.  Check out Tom Clancy's Endwar(#32) which lets you build and customize an elite fighting unit and then drop it into one of 40 battlefields across the globe in an epic, real-time massively multiplayer strategy game.   So a modern warfare MMO?  weird.     Also, i know we are all looking forward to #40, hehe, of course I need to get a wii first.  Burn those calories!!!

Justy

Discuss this in our forums!

One often-overlooked feature of the PlayStation 3 is its ability to install another OS onto the system, but if you’ve ever dreamed of playing PC games on your PS3 console, you’ll find the aforementioned feature quite handy as third-party software company, StreamMyGame, has launched a free application that “enables you to play any PC game via a PlayStation 3 running Linux.”

Source: www.techspot.com

In the movie Gladiator, General Maximus Decimus Meridius seeks to stir his cavalry to fight well in the imminent battle against Germania.  Addressing his troops, he challenges them to give their very best.  He makes this profound statement:�"What we do in life echoes in eternity."  These words from a fictional military leader convey a powerful concept that is of particular significance to believers in Christ.  We are not just taking up time and space on a rock that's floating in the universe.  We are here with the opportunity to make an eternal difference with our lives.  Jesus Himself said, "Lay up for yourself treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal."  Our lives really do matter each day.

Read Colossians 3:1-7

Microsoft has announced that eight new titles have been added to its Games for Windows range – Capcom’s Bionic Commando, Eidos’ Conflict: Denied Ops and Tomb Raider: Underworld, Sega’s Space Siege and Empire: Total War, Stardock’s Sins of a Solar Empire, LucasArts’ LEGO Indiana Jones and Microsoft’s own Train Simulator 2.

And in a leaked memo to Microsoft staff, games chief Don Mattrick added: “I am especially excited to continue the progress we have made with Games for Windows.....In our first year, we’ve delivered to consumers a recognizable brand that communicates quality, fun, consistency and safety, growing from two titles in 2006 to over 60 at CES 2008. In November alone, Games for Windows titles accounted for over 20% of all PC game sales at retail in the US. 

Justy

So I have been paying close attention to all the new stuff being shown @ CES this week and the stuff I see related to gaming I'll be sure to put up here.

First one is this new 2880 x 900 curved screen from Alienware.   Looks like this screen is made up of four sub-panels and official specs state the response time is less than 0.02-milliseconds.   Pretty darn fast.  Definitely looks very cool.

Justy

Our new server is up!  Wanting feedback on our new server! 

Justy

A 15 year old Canadian lad was caught smoking Pot in the families backyard by his father. To teach his son a lesson the father decided to sale his “hard-to-find” Christmas gift, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, on eBay. The game retails for somewhere around $90… to the amazement of pretty much everyone… the game sold for $9,100 on eBay.

Even though he was trying to get a message across to his son… he can’t argue with making $9,000 profit. But, everyone don’t worry - the kids Christmas won’t be ruined by his “experimenting” ways… the father has stated the following.

I am still considering getting him a game for his Nintendo. Maybe something like Barbie as the Island Princess or Dancing With the Stars. These games are in stock everywhere I go, and I know he will just love them.

This whole situation is quite comical… but if you want to read the whole ordeal head over to eBay .

Yes, I finally have the game and boy do I love it, but probably first for reasons you might not have thought of.  

I was a bit worried about my current rig being able to handle Call of Duty 4 at any decent level that made the game still fun.   I have a Athlon64 4000, 1GB ram, and a 6800GT and serialATA drives out the wazoo.  I was amazed at how well the game played at 1024x768 on medium and better yet MAP LOAD TIMES online, WOW!!!    Is it me or is this the first game that you don't sigh when the maps are changing cause you know the change will be quick.   This is something this bf2 guy has never experienced before since I put that Pro wrestling cartridge into my old Nintendo and up came the game.   Maybe it is my graphics are so low that nothing needs to be loaded but I do love the performance on this older but still true gaming rig.   

Here is GameSpot's Call of Duty 4 Hardware Performance Guide to gaze at numbers and charts.

Justy

Activision Blizzard has confirmed that Call of Duty 5 and Guitar Hero 4 are both in development just hours after news of the company's merger hit the wire. And while the news is unlikely to come as a shock, if Activision Blizzard's recent boasts are anything to go by we could see both of the series reaching bigger and better heights.

source: pc.ign.com

I have been following this one for sometime.  Basically XNA Game Studio is Microsoft's game development platform for the community to design and create their own games.  Community meaning anyone, yes even you!    2.0 brings in connectivity with Xbox Live! and other cool stuff.   So you like youtube and seeing user submitted videos?   Well what if there was a site just like that but hosted user created games for xbox and pc alike?!!!  It is coming!!!  

Here is a list of new features for XNA Game Studio 2.0:

•  XNA Game Studio 2.0 improves the Xbox 360 connectivity experience. To manage connections to Xbox 360 consoles, use the XNA Game Studio Device Center: click Start, then click Programs, click XNA Game Studio 2.0 and finally XNA Game Studio Device Center.�
• XNA Game Studio 2.0 provides a simple way to convert projects between Windows and Xbox 360 formats.�
• XNA Game Studio 2.0 adds networking support to the XNA Framework. Networking enables developers to create multiplayer games in which players on separate machines can compete with each other or play cooperatively. Networking in the XNA Framework supports both the Windows and Xbox 360 platforms. Multiplayer games can even work across the two platforms. The new functionality is in the Microsoft.Xna.Framework.GamerServices and Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Net namespaces.

The Best Gaming Graphics cards for the Money: December 2007
Detailed graphics card specifications and reviews are great - that is, if you have the time to do the research. But at the end of the day, what a gamer needs is the best graphics card within a certain budget.

Source: www.tomshardware.com