Koloomn Review: If you only buy one puzzle game this year…
Can you top Lumines? Can you compete with Lumines? Would you even try? Japanese developer Cyber Front clearly believed there was room for a new puzzle game on the PSP and deserves credit for at least for developing a new puzzle IP on Sony’s handheld, at a time when so many new PSP titles were simply ports or sequels. Cyber Front’s PR machine say the game takes its inspiration from Tetris, but literally turns the concept on its head. Such a description doesn’t really do Koloomn justice, nor does it adequately explain what this puzzler is all about. A mere Tetris clone it is not. Read more
No commentsGive Peace a Chance
The greatest leaders and diplomats of the 20th Century couldn’t bring a lasting peace to the Israel-Palestine conflict, but now there’s a chance that a young video gamer with nothing else but a bag of chips, a bad case of acne and a computer mouse can now do what no man before him has achieved, and broker peace in the Middle East.
It makes sense really. I mean if you can train a virtual dog to reliably follow almost one in every ten voice commands screamed into the microphone of your DS, then this is the next obvious step.
No commentsTiVo Remonstrations: TiVo In-Store Demos Just Won’t Work.
The Australian TiVo website is up and running and in less than two days TiVo makes an in-store appearance at your friendly neighbourhood Harvey Norman. The Incomplete Gamer hopes they’ve built a golden shrine to TiVo in each and every store: a raised rotating dais, complete with sexy smiling Sale of the Century models, gifting plush TiVo dolls, TiVo Beach towels and TiVo Slippers to everyone who passes; all the while extolling the virtues of TiVo - the god of Digital Video Recording.
The reality we fear, will be something far less compelling. The way we see it, TiVo in-store demonstrations just don’t work.
No commentsBox Art Blues: Vision impaired, Arthritic and Cranky
Quite a while back, gaming blog, Kotaku, posted a short item about Australia. It’s always good to see our little corner of the world getting a bit of videogaming exposure. This little gem was titled ‘How Australia destroys box art’. Expecting something dramatic (think - book burning for the new millennium) I clicked through, to read the post and accompanying comments, hoping to see exclusive footage of bonfires, molten game cases and smug angry zealots brandishing placards.
Turned out videogame box art wasn’t being destroyed by an angry mob, but by the Office of Film and Literature Classification. Apparently, the author of the post, as well as some of those who added their comments to the article, felt that the OFLC was guilty of a something no less disturbing than book burning - they were defacing their precious video gaming box art with the OFLC colour-coded classification markings.
No commentsWe Salute You: Video Games as army simulations
The US Army is at it again, utilising video game simulations to help boost its ranks. According to reports, the Army will soon open a new concept recruitment centre. One part NASA, one part Apple Store and one part Intencity, future soldiers will have the chance to to play on sophisticated virtual simulators.
And the video games don’t stop after you enlist. The army is now using a video game program to help the soldiers better understand the strangely unfamiliar body language and gestures of the Middle East.
This presumably cuts down on the number of civilians being shot dead while making obscure gestures like raising their hands in the air. It also stops the US committing embarrassing cultural taboos such as blowing up guests attending weddings?
No commentsThe 12 Step Program: Video Game Addiction
News just in from the University of the Bleeding Obvious and the Research School of Stuff We Already Know. Apparently gaming is addictive.. So much so that according to Jerald J. Block, from the American Psychiatric Association, it merits inclusion in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
This probably comes as no surprise to you as you sit reading today’s Incomplete Gamer post in your underwear, bleary eyed, smelly and unwashed, knocking back another Red Bull, and scraping the remainder of last night’s spaghetti dinner that you ate cold and straight from the tin during a forty-eight hour Oblivion marathon.
No commentsThe Incomplete TiVo: Australia’s HD TiVo Launch Round-Up
Two days post launch and the dust has begun to settle. At the risk of having to rename the site The Incomplete TiVo (TM Pending) , we’re posting another TiVo item for your reading pleasure.
Now the TiVo critics would argue that TiVo and Seven barely raised any dust when they launched the TiVo on Monday. Certainly tech blog Gizmodo didn’t bother hiding its lack of excitement when it posted it’s coverage: TiVo Gets Announced… Does Anybody Care? Apparently not if the Gizmodo readership (or more accurately the ones willing to post) are any indication, however as one dissenting pro-TiVo poster, Ben Anderson noted “TiVo was never intended for the tech-minded on a gadget website”.
2 commentsCrossing Over with CSI and Two and a Half Men
Fans of sitcoms and procedural crime drama were treated this week to a cross over double act with a difference featuring CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (8:30pm, Sunday 29th June, Channel Nine) and Two and a Half Men (Tuesday, 8:30pm, 1 July, Channel Nine).
So was this stunt TV or was it an an original cross over concept that breathed fresh life into two tired television genres? Today The Incomplete Gamer stopped writing about Tivo long enough to pick up the peanut remote and find out for ourselves.
No commentsWhat Women Want
A few days ago the LA Times ran an article titled ‘Video Games for Chicks’ which examined the efforts of a number of companies to reach the still largely untapped female gaming market; reaching the conclusion that it was puzzle games that most appealed.
Over in the great Hoosier state of Indiana, The University of Evansville, posted a story about the impact women are having on the video gaming landscape, both as consumers and in the industry itself. The article is clear about what women don’t want when it comes to gaming. Not surprisingly, and rightly so, women are not keen on games depicting violence against women. Nor, if the article is to be believed, do they want so called ‘pink’ games marketed exclusively for girls.
Now all this has got The Incomplete Gamer thinking about what women really want from video games.
1 commentInside the Xbox360 Power Brick (Incomplete Gamer Exclusive)
OK, so the Xbox 360 power brick is an easy target and The Incomplete Gamer has taken its fair share of cheap shots. Who cares that it’s big? So your Granny had to move out of the third bedroom and find a place of her own. She’s 80 for crying out loud, she should have moved out of home a long time ago!
Rather than continue to heckle the Xbox 360 power brick from afar, we thought we’d get up close and personal with the big black behemoth and provide our readers with an exclusive, inside-look at the power brick.
(A) Hamster in a wheel. There’s a few different versions of the Hamster in the Wheel (Microsoft Patent pending), depending on your power brick’s country of origin. Believed to provide additional low levels of power, to ensure regular, constant, precise power supply is maintained at all times. This particular component is likely to become as much of an issue on the Xbox 360 mod scene as the last generation Xbox DVD drives were. Now the question won’t be - do you have a Thompson, a Phillips or a Samsung drive? - but whether you have a Mexican hamster or a Chinese one. Word on the street is the Mexican hamsters, not surprisingly, have a habit of sleeping during the afternoon hours. If your 360 is prone to lock-ups after lunch, check power brick for ‘country of origin’ information.
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