Brain Hood

Need for Speed: The Run has a prologue level of sorts that establishes protagonist Jack’s situation – a guy in trouble with the wrong people, looking for a way out. He finds it in a cross-country race with a purse of 25 million dollars. But where The Run really begins is in a warehouse garage off the Embarcadero in San Francisco. You pick a car and roar out onto the street, greeted by the light of an early morning in the city. It’s not exact, by any means, but developer Black Box nails the feel of San Francisco’s streets well. And then crazy shit starts happening all around you, in the best way possible, as more police cars than I think San Francisco actually has are chasing you and dozens of other cars toward the Golden Gate bridge, and…

The Need for Speed: The Run Impact

It makes an impression. Need for Speed: The Run starts out so well that I coasted on that high for about 45 more minutes before I realized the game I was playing just wasn’t very good.

It takes that long to realize it because the fundamentals work pretty well. Cars in Need for Speed: The Run are fun to drive. They handle well, they sound good (some awful audio compression aside), and they feel fast. That last part is good, because The Run wants you to drive fast. Really, really fast. Faster than you probably should.

The Negatives in Need for Speed: The Run

That speed is where the trouble starts. I know that The Run wants fast. I can tell because the competition is always ahead of you, going about 150 miles an hour. If you want to catch up, you’ll need to drive like, well… an asshole. You will need to drive like an asshole. I had to cut corners sharply, pull bootlegger turns, and ricochet off of other cars most races to stand a chance. All of this seems at odds with The Run’s level design.

Unfortunately, the sound underpinnings of Need For Speed: The Run are undermined by an onslaught of strange design decisions that effectively murder most of its fun. The Driver Level aspect is first up. You don’t start with the ability to boost, you need to unlock it. I can almost wrap my head around that, since nitrous oxide is an aftermarket thing. But at Driver Level 7 in Need for Speed: The Run, you unlock the greatest perk any driver could ever ask for: the laws of physics. You are incapable of drafting other cars until level 7. Meanwhile, you’ll be sling-shoting competition around you from the second race forward.

That competition doesn’t even feel like drivers, they feel like slot cars, running what seem to be the exact same path every time you attempt a race. I say attempt here because you will wreck in The Run. Often. And that will introduce you to what is probably the most under-cooked “rewind” feature in a racing game since the feature became the norm.

Rewind in The Run isn’t what you think it is – it’s not a rewind at all. Instead, you’re greeted with a black screen with a big “Rewind” image on it, and after anywhere from five to twenty seconds(!), you’ll be set back anywhere from one to two miles in the race. It’s checkpointing, and bad checkpointing at that.

There’s also a strange, demonstrated paranoia surrounding leaving the road. If you get more than six feet or so away from the track, the screen will go dark and The Run will invoke a rewind. Sometimes it’s even more stringent. The Run demands risky driving to finish races, but is all too ready to punish a player for it. Instead of introducing a new way to succeed and compete, rewinds just get in the way of playing the game.

The races themselves don’t help. The level design in The Run is usually boring, and frequently nonsensical. One scene toward the end of the game has you fleeing a subway train at 140 miles an hour or more, and there is literally no way to outrun it. Police cars are again able to violate the laws of physics at will, pulling in front of you and screeching from 160MPH to a dead stop in just about no seconds flat. Still, the instant-kill setpiece or environmental hazard will become a bigger enemy than any car on the road. And whenThe Run isn’t trying to kill you directly, it’s tugging your pants around your ankles by killing the framerate with an explosion, which trips up the controls.

As for that story, there’s just not much there. I didn’t mind the quicktime events. They function, and they were a good palette cleanser from the frustration of the rest of The Run. But the characters are never developed, and the story exists solely as a way to contrive some truly idiotic racing situations.

Need for Speed: The Run has more to it than The Run itself, with some fairly standard multiplayer and a Challenge mode. Multiplayer is more bumper-cars. It ditches the rewind feature of The Run for Hot Pursuit style respawns. It makes for a faster and less frustrating experience, but the same underwhelming course design doesn’t make things particularly interesting. The challenge races share almost all of the same issues as The Run proper.

And issues are what The Run has more of than anything. Need for Speed: The Run‘s biggest problem is how much it has in common with a real drive from one end of the US to the other. There are a few bright spots here and there, but it’s mostly full of unexpected stops, lots of flat tires, and too many assholes on the road. This isn’t the worst Need for Speed, but it can’t place against other, better racers from the last year.

Gaming Multimedia Wars: Who’s the Best?

Sony’s PlayStation 3 is widely touted as the best gaming machine money can buy, though the small but hardcore group of Xbox 360 loyalists would contest that. They’d do so by citing the ‘superior GPU’, mindboggling hardware related figures or the online gaming portal that doubles as a Facebook of sorts, never mind the fact that these arguments just don’t hold water in the face of the sheer variety of titles that can be enjoyed on the PS3. Then there’s the infinitely better support on offer too. But let’s  not indulge in unnecessary baiting here; we must talk of the PS3.

Gaming Multimedia: What Makes PS3 Rock

• It is always on, so you can access your PlayStation3 from a remote location as long as you have a working internet connection.
• The PS3 CPU is several times faster than Xbox360, its nearest competitor, in terms of GFlops.
• The PS3 has a worthy companion on the PlayStation Portable; we can connect the PSP to our Playstation 3 and transfer media files such as music, videos, gaming multimedia etc.
• The multimedia game portfolio of published titles for PS3 is phenomenal; developers and publishers of over 230 games had already announced titles even before the console came out.
• PS3 has excellent backward compatibility with PlayStation 2 console, games and accessories.

Gaming Multimedia: What Makes PS3 Lag behind the 360

• Comes with only 256 MB video RAM, less than the 512 MB the Xbox 360 comes with. It may, however, be argued that while all of the 360’s RAM is shared from the system, the PS3 GPU’s RAM is onboard. A further 240 MB may be shared from the system, bringing PS3 closer to the Xbox360.
• The PS3 GPU lacks eDRAM, which enables the Xbox360 to edge it out in terms of sheer GPU bandwidth.

Microsoft is closing the gap with Xbox 360 and probably will eventually catch up with Sony in gaming multimedia consoles.  For some gaming multimedia users, it may come down to something as simple as which one is more compatible with the games they already have in their gaming multimedia collection.

Gaming Multimedia Wars

It has long been a bone of contention among gaming multimedia fanatics: whether Xbox 360 is actually  better  and is second in sales compared to PlayStation 3 only because of the latter’s larger propaganda machinery and because PlayStation as a brand has been around longer. As a gaming multimedia platform, Xbox360 is very good indeed, but does Microsoft have what it takes to beat Sony’s PlayStation3? Xbox360 did have a head-start in the gaming multimedia console race when Microsoft released their third-generation gaming multimedia console (and predecessor to PS2’s rival Xbox) before PS3 could get off the blocks. However, since its launch, PS3 hasn’t had all that trouble catching up in terms of sales.

Gaming Multimedia: What Microsoft Brings to the Table

Here’s all that the Three-Sixty offers:

• Free limited period subscription to their online gaming portal – This allows players to try out online gaming through XboxLive at no extra charge.
• Live-aware – Essentially a social networking tool for the Xbox360 players. You can connect to friends, make new ones, see who is online and what they are playing from your console. Essentially, this expands the limits of gaming multimedia into the realms of social networking. Convergence is more than a buzz-word, it would seem.
• It offers great media features including listening to music while you play games, the ability to create custom playlists and your own custom soundtracks, the ability to rip songs from original CDs to your Xbox360 and stream music from your MP3 player to your Xbox360.  You can also create slideshows of photos to share with friends and family.
• The gaming multimedia console has an unprecedented amount of RAM; when it comes to sheer number crunching, Xbox360 rules the roost.

Gaming Multimedia: The Hiccups

But, Xbox 360 ,multimedia gaming console still has some problems that need to be worked out:

• They offer third party support in Japan, which is irksome to say the least. While some Japanese developers offer software for the Xbox, it is small in number when compared to what the same developers offer for Playstation. Considering the large gamer base in that country, and the fact that its home to PlayStation owners Sony Corporation, this could be costly.
• The wireless controller consumes batteries rather rapidly. Standard alkaline cells only give thirty hours of playing time, so you want to spring for rechargeable batteries and a charger if you’re planning to go for the Xbox 360.

These gaming multimedia consoles are also prone to what’s now known as the “360 screen of death,” an error screen.  There have also been reports of overheating from some test users. These reports are largely unsubstantiated, so it was either fixed by Microsoft, or it was a device defect experienced by some users. Some users have reported the Xbox 360 system as being very noisy when playing an Xbox 360 disc. The gaming  console market is unlikely to see a lot of new entrants, but the competition is likely to heat up among these two biggies of gaming multimedia.

Each gamer who has always selecting controller has heard about the exceedingly popular Halo series.  Here are entire discussion group who are still going over whether or not the video game series wen this the right direction

One game that set Halo on its path but is still a little less well know is the game that laid the groundwork.  Shooter games have always been pretty popular.  Shooter games on the console have become so popular that Xbox users are even getting carried away with the controllers such as replacing some of the control buttons with actual bullets.  Of course at some point people need to get a little classier than that and bringing a great shooter game to the iPad is one way to do that.

With the upcoming arrival of the Amazon tablet, the iPad needs to find new ways to make sure they keep the entirety of their popularity and one of the ways to do that is to bring some games that were pretty darn popular even when they were getting played on the old school format such as the personal computer.  The game “Marathon” is getting set to launch on the iPad and is apparently going to bring everything that avid gamers using Macs and PC have fallen in love with.

Marathon is actually well known among those who are avid Halo players because it takes place in the same universe and for that matter is a direct prequel to what happens in that particular story line.  This means that those that feel as though the Halo storyline went off the rails a little bit, or who are looking for another, interesting chapter to the series can find it with Marathon.  Of course the characters won’t be the same, but is that ever really needed when you sink your teeth into a great game?

Of course the really good news is that apparently the game will actually be a free app, something a little surprising when you think about the money making possibilities of another angle to the Halo universe.

If your reaction is similar to the game that his mother had said when he was a teenager – that games are a distraction, lost productivity, and have no place in the business – then you are increasingly out of step with modern thinking on the role of play in improving productivity and business value. In fact, there is a surprising amount of evidence that can successfully integrate elements of play in the workplace for greater employee productivity.

If you’re new to the concept of “gamifying” work, then your first stop should be Tom Chatfield’s recent TED Talk, in which he discusses how you can think about creating a rewards-based environment in the office that mimics the most successful elements of popular games.

But that’s not all. As PC World’s Bruce Gain recently discussed, many modern games can increase your multitasking skills, help you make decisions faster, and even collaborate more effectively in team environments. In fact, researchers in Current Biology recently concluded that action games improve something called probabilistic inference, which helps people draw conclusions and make decisions based on incomplete information.

IBM has done a study as well. Their report, Leaders in a Distributed World, suggests that online games such as MMORPGs teach gamers how to collaborate better in a work environment of connected users spread out around the world.

So how can start to apply them to your own business? Check Gamify, a company that is exploring ways to help build the game as reward systems and other gameplay in their own applications and Web services. You can take advantage of tools like this to their customers and increase employee productivity. What do you think of this type of strategy? Sound off in comments.

Sony sued for U.S. players upset by the news that a hacker had broken the defenses of PlayStation Network and the stolen data could be used for identity theft or fraud.

Several of the cases presented to different district courts in California have accused Sony of negligence and violation of their contracts with users of the PlayStation Network.

Both suits seek damages and class-action status.

Sony did not comment on the lawsuits overnight but said it was working with investigators and would restore services only when it was confident the network was secure.

The PlayStation Network and Qriocity streaming music service were turned off on April 20 following an “external intrusion”, according to Sony spokesman Patrick Seybold.

“We are currently working with law enforcement on this matter as well as a recognised technology security firm to conduct a complete investigation,” Seybold said in a blog posted overnight on the PlayStation website.

“This malicious attack against our system and against our customers is a criminal act and we are proceeding aggressively to find those responsible.”

Launched in November 2006, the PlayStation Network allows PlayStation console users to play games online, challenge others on the internet, stream movies or get other services.

The Japanese electronics giant said it was possible hackers had taken users’ credit-card data.

“While all credit-card information stored in our systems is encrypted and there is no evidence at this time that credit-card data was taken, we cannot rule out the possibility,” Seybold said, warning that “we are advising you that your credit-card number and expiration date may have been obtained”.

Sony said it had emailed all 77 million PlayStation Network users worldwide to warn them that their data may have been stolen.

The lawsuit filed in southern California on behalf of a Michigan PlayStation Network user contended that the security breach resulted from Sony’s “failure to use reasonable care and maintain appropriate security procedures”.

The lawsuits also faulted Sony for not alerting PlayStation Network users until April 26 about the hacking, which the company reportedly discovered between April 17 and 19.

The stolen information can be found in people’s passwords, dates of birth and other personal data that can be used to hack into online accounts, or to mimic them on the Internet.

A new report by Market Research Group shows that Apple Distimo is now three months Mac App Store is off to a slower start than their counterparts IOS in terms of some volume, however, is more an indicator of playability and more on the Mac OS platform.

The report follows data from the App Store on IOS and Mac OS, Google also evaluates the Market, Microsoft Windows 7 Phone App World Marketplace BlackBerry, Nokia, Ovi, catalog and Palm App for the month of February.

According to Distimo, the Mac App Store reached 2,225 applications in two months, which was about a quarter of what the iPad had in app volume during the same time period. Even given the smaller pool of apps, the report found that developers who have their application in the Mac App Store’s top 300 rankings generate “half the revenue of a top 300 iPad app on average.”

Part of the reason for those centers on pricing. Just 12 percent of applications on the Mac App Store were free at the time of the report, leaving the rest in the paid category. That’s compared to a split of 35 percent free and 65 percent paid of iPhone and iPod Touch apps, and a 29 percent free and 71 percent paid split for the iPad.

One very important tidbit about pricing is that the average price of the top 300 Mac App Store paid apps is much higher than their iPhone and iPad counterparts.

“The average selling price of the top 300 applications is seven times higher in the Mac App Store ($11.21) than on the iPhone ($1.57) and almost three times higher than on the iPad ($4.19),” Distimo said.

While the report doesn’t spell out why this may be the case, one of the reasons the App Store on the iOS side was so disruptive in the first place was that developers tended to price their mobile applications lower that had been the norm on other platforms–especially compared to desktop software. While there have been numerous cases of developers proving that wrong with lower pricing for App Store apps (including Apple, which charges $80 for Aperture on the App Store, vs. $199 for the boxed version), many still charged the same, with some even going higher to make up for part of the proceeds going to Apple.

Along with the numbers of pricing and application volume, Distimo makes note that the Mac App Store library is venturing in the same direction as it is on iOS, with games seeing a rise in popularity.

“In the Mac App Store, gaming is still less popular than on the iPhone and iPad, with iPad having over 50 percent more games listed among the most popular applications than the Mac App Store,” the report says. “However, the popularity of games in the Mac App Store combined with the fact that there are already 646 games in the store, signals the Mac App Store could boost Mac gaming.”

By comparison, Valve’s Steam platform, which lets users download digital copies of games, has a library of 176 titles available for download. Unlike games purchased on the Mac App Store, these can be played on both the PC and Mac, and pack on social features through the Steam game client. Valve launched Steam for the Mac in May of last year.

Mac App Store library is now at about 2,867 applications AppShopper tracker third parties. In addition, Apple’s own applications dominate the list of top 15 paid 99 cents face-time path followed by Xcode, iPhoto, Pages, iMovie, Keynote, Aperture, GarageBand, and the number of different third-party applications in between.

Play station online game save storage launched March 10. A couple of huge announcements were released in the gaming world today as Sony expands its functions KINECTS More PlayStation and Microsoft Xbox 360, get the Guinness World Record for the biggest selling consumer electronics peripherals.

Sony will launch an online storage space for the PS3 game saves in the morning, which will be part of the annual fee of $ 50. This new feature allows users with a space of 150 MB in the cloud at the disposal of 1,000 store files and copy files can be saved prohibited as long as users can recover files deleted from their system once per day.

In addition, games to be released in the future will be able to save directly to the PlayStation Network. This will be released tomorrow in PS3 firmware v3.60, allowing users to completely bypass their local HDD.

While PlayStation gamers celebrate the new features unveiling tomorrow, Microsoft has some celebrating of its own to do.

Microsoft announced today that KINECTS for Xbox 360 was named the fastest selling consumer electronics device of Guinness World Records. To date, 10 million sensors sold worldwide KINECTS, with another 10 million self KINECTS games sold to date.

PS3 online service is completely free. So, how to make money? It does not. But now, thanks to some new decisions by Sony, could actually begin to turn a profit.

Microsoft could easily have made the network profitable, because it will charge those who want to play online to pay a heavy $ 60 per year. PS3 gamers will receive the same property for free.

But Sony needs to pay for those servers somehow. That’s why it charges only for premium content, like game downloads, movie rentals, and add-on content. It also recently launched a “PlayStation Plus” subscription service, giving players a constant stream of deals and free content in exchange for a monthly or annual cost.

It took a while for these kinds of sales to cover the cost of running hundreds of online games for free, but it looks like it’s finally working.

Customer payments through the PlayStation Network reached $434.3 million in the 2009 fiscal year, but Sony Computer Entertainment president Kaz Hirai said in a Reuters interview that by FY2012, that will be $3.6 billion. And, “We’re aiming to enter the black during the 2011 fiscal year.”

This would mean that Sony can continue offering its online service free to the millions of PS3 owners. It will continue to be a competitive advantage for the system, which is poised to have its best year yet in 2011.

Xbox Live does not appear to reduce the cost of $ 60 per year, but if people are concerned about the prices finally start thinking about the next generation of consoles soon, you will easily realize that the PS3 is actually better decision long run.

Marvel brought Cap, Thor and the rest of the Avengers with them to Comic-Con. Standing ovations and geekgasms ensued.

As Marvel closed out a very successful day in Hall H, they revealed the official Avengers line-up: Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, ScarJo as Black Widow, Chris Evans as Captain America, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, The Downey Jr. as Iron Man, Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye and Mark Ruffalo as Hulk.

Also joining the team will be Clark Gregg’s Agent Coulson (from the Iron Man films).

All of the actors were on hand – Every. Single. One. – and once they, ahem, assembled, writer-director Joss Whedon joined them onstage.

The Avengers panel followed the Thor presentation, and started with a teaser trailer of sorts that gradually revealed the Avengers logo as Jackson’s Nick Fury said the following passage, one that is familiar to anyone who reads The Avengers comic: “And there came a day, a day unlike any other, when Earth’s Mightiest Heroes found themselves united against a common threat. On that day…the Avengers were born.”

Jackson came out on stage and first introduced Gregg and Scarlett Johansson, then he brought out Evans and Hemsworth. And as if the crowd didn’t have enough cause to stand on their feet with applause, Jackson then brought out Tony Stark himself.

RDJ worked the room per usual, asking the crowd if they had seen Inception. When they applauded “yes”, RDJ said that the Chris Nolan movie was one of the most “ambitious” movie he has seen in quite some time.

And then the actor paused, and said that Marvel assembling all of these heroes in one movie, for the first time ever, is the most ambitious thing.

“And if we’re gonna make a movie this ambitious,” Downey continued, “[then] the most important thing is to get the guy to helm it to meet [the fans'] approval”. That man is, of course, Joss Whedon, and the audience clapped in support of that choice until their hands bled.