iPhone Game : Infinity Blade Will Update Content

Infinity Blade for the iPhone and iPad will update today on Tuesday with new content such as 5 new Swords, 5 new Shields, 1 new set of Armor, and more. Also new villians for you to kill like the Marrow Fiend.

Below are further details on what to expect:

- Maximum Character Level raised from 40 to 45!
- New Enemy Revealed -- The MARROW FIEND! This creature is rumored to devour its victims, taking their bones for its blade and shield.
- Purchase Gold! Due to popular demand, we have added the ability to buy extra Gold via in-app purchase!

- Gamers can now listen to their own music while playing INFINITY BLADE!
- Optimizations and minor Bug fixes.

Infinity Blade is the best looking iOS game for the iPad and iPhone. The game uses the Unreal Engine 3 technology and it will cost $6 in the iTunes Store.

Story: For untold ages, the God King has ruled with an iron fist -- his power is incalculable; his followers, legion. Now you must journey to the Dark Citadel to battle his Titans, one by one, until you face the tyrant himself. As it has been for all in your bloodline, this is your birthright -- to free your people from an endless legacy of darkness. The immortal can be vanquished -- but only if heart, mind, and steel are one. via: newtech

Adult Gaming: Kinect sex is here

The Kinect, from Microsoft, has been out for less than two months, and already, an adult game company has produced a demo using the motion controller in a 3D sex game.

(Credit: Josh Lowensohn/CNET)

Kinect sex has arrived, and it took the adult gaming community less than two months to get there.

Just more than two weeks ago, one of the world's leading experts on sex and video games said that while there were not yet working adult games using Microsoft's Kinect motion controller, the potential was there. That barrier has been broken, as one game company illustrates in a demo for a new game.

The demo (a NSFW YouTube video) comes from ThriXXX software, a maker of 3D role-playing sex simulation games, which said in a statement today that "the open-sourcing of device drivers for Kinect have enabled the...device to be used directly from connected PCs operating on Windows 7...The Kinect interface provides another exciting interface option for users of the sex simulation software to control the experience in extraordinary new ways. Controller-free is the next generation of game user interfaces, allowing users to use gestures, spoken commands, or objects to control in-game action that creates a completely new sex game activity and magical experience."

This image (not video) offers a peek of what ThriXXX has posted on YouTube.

(Credit: ThriXXX)

The demo shows that the Kinect is suitable for fairly well controlled hand gestures and that those gestures can be incorporated into a sex game. Without being too graphic, it's clear that the game makers imagine that players will be using the Kinect to interact directly with women (for now) in the game.

And Kyle Machulis, who is considered one of the world's experts on sex and digital toys and games, said he's impressed with how quickly the Kinect community has taken the new device and advanced it for adult purposes.

"The Kinect is obviously a natural technology for this kind of usage, since the 'hands-free' approach means that the user's hands are available for other actions, be it manipulating the game, or themselves--or, in this case, possibly both at the same time," Machulis told CNET. "I'm impressed with the quick development turnaround for getting new controls into their engine like this, especially using resources from the open-source community."

However, Machulis said he wasn't sure about whether ThriXXX's Kinect implementation would be kosher under the Kinect's license agreement. "There's been some question about whether you can use the Kinect in commercial projects," he said. "I don't quite understand it myself, since I'm not sure you can [control, through end-user license agreements,] hardware like that, but it's something that needs a nice lawyer response."

Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Machulis also pointed out that OpenNI, "an industry-led, not-for-profit organization formed to certify and promote the compatibility and interoperability of natural interaction (NI) devices, applications and middleware," has begun offering its own motion controller (see video below) with open-source drivers. The $199 camera comes, in part, from PrimeSense, which Machulis explained is behind the depth-sensing technology in the Kinect camera.

"The advent of the PrimeSense reference kit could completely assuage fears about using the Kinect for further adult development," Machulis said.

ThriXXX admitted that it doesn't have a green light from Microsoft to move ahead with its Kinect implementation.

"We do not have permission from anyone on any of this stuff, and have been using stuff from the hacker community to do a working prototype, following what [is] going on in that world," Brad Abram, ThriXXX's vice president of business development, said in an e-mail to CNET. And with the OpenNI drivers, we "don't know how [Microsoft] can contain the current activity worldwide. We have no idea how [Microsoft] will react...but we think the genie is out of the bottle, so to speak.

"In regards to commercial games, we do not sell at retail, do not have a need for [game ratings], and everything is done offshore in Europe, where [Microsoft] is being lambasted by the courts for [anticompetitive] behavior. If we have to, maybe we would give it away for free as part of the open-source community efforts, but we don't know yet where any of this will lead."

For his part, Machulis is pleased that the ThiXXX met one of his general goals for the Kinect and sex.

"Note that this [happened] 10 full days before Christmas," Machulis wrote on his blog, "which was my deadline for when we'd see our first public usage of the Kinect in porn."

source: cnet by Daniel Terdiman

Final Fantasy XIV Review

Format PC Developer Square Enix Publisher Square Enix Genre MMO


Cheeky-faced warbler Lee Ryan once crooned, alongside Elton John, that sorry 'seemed' to be the hardest word. Given that he was laying down a track in an expensive studio, you think he might have been a little more sure about it, but that's selfish celebrities for you.

Regardless, if he had six words to play with, there'd be no 'seeming' about it: the hardest words to say are *obviously* 'Final Fantasy XIV is a bit rubbish'.

It doesn't always seem that way. First impressions are, in typical Square Enix style, polished. Luxurious cutscenes welcome your arrival into Eorzea, and early story quests - including escorting an NPC to a camp and breaking up a fight using the various emotes available - are different enough from the MMO norm to signal promising things.

Also promising is the vast open-endedness of the game's character development system. One of its core differentials is that it doesn't impose a single class upon you: simply equip a weapon or tool related to a particular role and, voila, you're a whole new man/woman/cat-thing. 

It's a liberating and intoxicating system - initially, at least. Jobs rank up separately to your 'physical' level, and performing actions related to the job type - fighting for fighters, healing for healers, crafting for crafters - gives both job-specific skill points and physical experience. 

The initial flurry of trying out the different roles leads to almost effortless levelling; and the ability to choose exactly which attributes will be increased when doing so further pushes the possibilities beyond anything that's been seen before.

Visually, too, the game is a treat. Powered by Square Enix's Crystal Tools - the same engine that put the muscle into Final Fantasy XIII - the game is a startling visual treat on high-end PCs. In particular, it's satisfying to see an MMO that can provide vistas as dramatic and sweeping as its concept artists' most fevered of scribblings. 

The castle-like town of Limsa Lominsa stretches upward against a sheer craggy coast, connected to the mainland with a vast and intricate bridge that evokes Tolkienesque imagery. One area features as its landmark a colossal dragon that lies entangled around a fallen aerial battlecruiser, so vast as to always have a presence on the horizon and so intriguing as to inspire adventure in even the most battle weary of adventurer.

Naturally, such imagery comes at a price: some pretty demanding system specs. That's not much of a surprise, really, given an MMO's expected 6+ year lifespan. Except that even if you've got a high-end system, so much of the visual detail is server-dictated that you'll spend an awful lot of time watching other players pop into view alarmingly close up, or standing at closed doors waiting for the server to get its arse in gear and open them. 

Visual fidelity means nothing when the spell is so frequently broken by sluggish communication. In fact, the game's complete reliance on the server is one of its major undoings. You'll no doubt have heard about the game's interface, and in particular its laboriousness and sluggishness. Yes, it's not going to win any awards, and it's so pad-focused that it almost might as well not bother with mouse support at all, but it's passable. 

What can't be forgiven is its insistence on validating every single click with the server, which often means that it's laggy beyond use. Just flogging all the trinkets and lint combed from fighting enemies to an NPC vendor can take five minutes as you wait for each and every item to be checked. To describe it as torturous is no exaggeration.

Part of Final Fantasy XIV's problem is that, really, it doesn't quite know where it wants to be. We live in an age where World of Warcraft defined the possibility of a mass-market MMO and catapulted its publisher into grotesque levels of profit. 

Final Fantasy XIV doesn't quite know exactly where it wants to be, seemingly reticent to stray far from its grind-heavy predecessor so as to not disenfranchise any old players, but semi-aware of how expectations have changed across the world. What we're left with is a mish-mash; a game unafraid of making its players grind but with the concessionary inclusion of 'guildleves'; short, repeatable quests that never stray from 'kill 5 of these monsters' but give far greater skill point rewards than just grinding. 

Annoyingly, they're done under a time limit - 30 minutes - which makes them unsuitable for short sessions (especially by the time you've obtained the leve in a major town and travelled to its starting destination). Even more annoyingly, you're limited to doing 8 guildleves every 36 hours - basically an admission of their imbalanced (but necessary) effect of levelling up.

Aside from these, there's the 'main story quests' - a whopping eight spread across the 50 levels, no less - and some faction and job specific stuff, but that's it. It's all very, very bare. If you're expecting a game that delights in always providing you with a bulging quest log, look away now. This is the exact opposite.

And that's a massive, massive shame. Square Enix has concentrated on telling a great story with lavish cutscenes but, by choosing to view quests as a mere side-dish rather than the main course, it's given up the prime storytelling and world-developing opportunity. Eorzea is a beautiful world, but it's not a very interesting one. I could write down almost everything I'd learnt about it in my thirty hours on a single side of A4. In really big letters. With a crayon. In my left hand.

Even if you're happy to grind - and you'll have to be once the slog sets in post rank 10 - there's an alarming lack of monsters roaming Eorzea's various fields. Whole vast areas will serve as home to only one or two different types of monster, and even then either all at the same level or 30 levels apart. If you're expecting a gradation of challenge as you move through the area, as you might experience in World of Warcraft or even this very game's predecessor, forget it. Here, you'll walk for miles facing the same easy foes only to be suddenly killed in one hit by some stupidly advanced foe.

Even after all this, it feels wrong to say that FFXIV is bad. What's there, at the core, is a functional MMO with a character progression system so open-ended that it should, by all counts, rewrite the rule book. How could I have spent 30 hours playing something 'bad'? Plus, a large proportion of the problems I've highlighted here have been specifically isolated by Square Enix as areas that will be improved in the next few months. It just needs tweaking, right? An awful lot of tweaking.

But, try as I might, I can't come to any other conclusion. Final Fantasy XIV just isn't very good. The simple fact is that, right now, the game isn't worth your money. There's just not enough to do, and too much missing content, to recommend it to anyone other than the most determined of front-line pioneers. 

By the time the PS3 version is released, it'll no doubt be a very different game. But right now, it's barely a game at all.


Adopted from: http://www.computerandvideogames.com

Assassin's Creed Brotherhood Review

Format Xbox 360 Developer Ubisoft Publisher Ubisoft Genre Action, Adventure, Action


Brotherhood isn't Assassin's Creed 3. For that, we'd be looking for a brand new cast of characters, a radically different time period and game systems rebuilt from the ground up.

Instead, we get last year's brilliant formula improved with 12 months of knowledge, depth and masterful sandbox action. Ubisoft's used its experience (and success) with AC II and come up with something more creative, more daring and believe it or not, even bigger than any instalment before. But is it a better game? That one's up for debate...

BIG BROTHER
Brotherhood kicks off exactly where the last game started - sci-fi headscrews and all. Our Renaissance-era protagonist Ezio Auditore strolls out of the Roman Vatican scratching his head and wondering what on Earth went on before AC2's credits.

For a while all seems conclusive for Ezio; he's dealt with the Templars, obtained a mythical Piece of Eden and managed to become the biggest hard-nut in circa-1500 Italy. That is until part way through the first sequence, when his Villa is besieged and destroyed by the army of Cesare Borgia - son of the Pope - and the assassin is back to doing what he knows best: seeking revenge.

Ezio's anger leads him to Rome, where, wounded and humiliated, he takes aim at the Borgia family currently ruling the city with an iron grip. 

The town's not in a good shape. Buildings are crumbling, peasants are begging in the streets and a no-exception lockdown has been enforced on any business not approved by Cesare himself.

Much of Brotherhood's main story will see you building up your forces in preparation to finally kill Pope Alexander VI, Cesare and the rest of the Borgia corrupting Rome. 

With a cast of established characters (Machiavelli, Da Vinci etc. see a return - plus there are extensive modern day sections) the writing is, overall, improved from ACII. 

However, the very personal story lacks the epic feel of the numbered sequels, and those expecting an ACII-equivalent scale of narrative will be in for a disappointment (ending excluded).

The plot may feel a bit 'side story' then, but the gameplay certainly doesn't. As a sandbox, Brotherhood is a much better game than Assassin's Creed 2. The enjoyable Villa economy from the last game has been absorbed into all of Rome, and it's no effort at all to lose yourself reclaiming turf, rebuilding shops or recruiting new assassins into your Brotherhood.

Ezio can now liberate areas of the city and upgrade buildings, whilst horses can be used to navigate and blend through the streets. Occasionally, bandits will rob Ezio at nightfall, and there are a number of hidden glyphs, flags and a small number of feathers waiting to be discovered.

In addition, the missions - as previously mentioned - are more creatively designed and take risks, for good and bad.

A fantastic example of this experimentation is Leonardo Da Vinci's new War Machine missions, which have Ezio taking charge of some rather OTT inventions the real man "actually" drew plans for (we're taking Ubisoft's word for it on the "actually" bit - we suspect they've been a little flexible with the truth).

Throughout the campaign you'll be taking charge of chariot-mounted machine guns, naval cannons and yes, an armoured tank.Of course, you'll destroy each of them after use - keeping them out of the hands of the Borgia and, conveniently, the history books. (We don't think 15th century France could've done much about a tank, after all...)

HELP FROM MY FRIENDS
Brotherhood's biggest bullet point, however, is the erm, Brotherhood. Recruiting and training up your own Assassin army and dispatching them on missions around Europe to enhance their skills is a genuinely immersive and enjoyable gameplay addition.

As you rebuild Rome you'll have the option to rescue and recruit street outlaws into your brotherhood, eventually customising them with specific outfits, armour and weapons to boost your cause.

As you recruit novice assassins, Ezio will be able to train them up by sending them out on assignments around Europe, via a unique animus interface. This is a real gem for fans of the conspiracy narrative hidden throughout the last game's glyphs, and offers plenty of nods at real historical occurrences.

One mission, for example, has you helping Henry VII deal with a Templar conspirator, Margaret of York. Due to her ties to the Pope the English King can't have her killed - but your assassins will promise to make her "disappear".

Assassins will gain experience with each mission completed, and the animus displays a helpful percentage meter - which shows your chance of completion based on the ability of the members you've tasked to the mission. Basically, it's like a miniature strategy game within Brotherhood.

When you're not micro-managing your foot soldiers and looking at stats, your trained Assassins can be called on at any time with the press of the right shoulder button - an ability you can only call on when one of several 'tokens' are cooled down and ready for use.

This changes the way you approach missions in a big way. In one sequence, you're tasked with quietly tailing and assassinating a templar banker, Juan Borgia, as he strolls through a Pagan party. As Ezio scrambles over walls and hides in the shadows, you can use your Assassins to stealthily remove enemies from your path, or even start a fight so you can sneak past undetected. 

The assassins inject a whole new layer of strategy into missions. They feel like a powerful and valuable weapon, especially considering that when they die, they're dead for good - not a small loss when you've given your all to train them into deadly warriors.

ROMAN EPIC
The Brotherhood system is just one example of the quality and scope you can expect from Rome, which is massive, varied and simply a joy to explore.

The sandbox is what AC: Brotherhood does best. Ubisoft claims you could spend even more time exploring 2010's game than last year's big sequel - no small claim when you're talking 20-plus hours of solid gameplay - and it's telling no lies.

Rome - a predictably beautiful and epic metropolis three times the size of AC2's Florence - is split into districts, each occupied by an intimidating Borgia Tower. These represent of the Borgia's stranglehold over the city, and before you can start rebuilding shops and recruiting assassins you'll have to destroy them as a statement to the people.

You do this by first taking out each tower's Borgia leader. Sometimes they're strolling carefree along a patrol route, other times they'll be sat snug indoors flanked by a group of axe-wielding protectors - it depends what mood they're in at the time.

Either way, once they're put to the business end of your blade you're off for a quick climb - and spot of arson - at the top of the tower, following which the surrounding area is tactically transformed in your favour and you can start rebuilding Rome. 

It's a bit like GTA: San Andreas' turf wars - and just as satisfying. Reclaiming Roman districts and rebuilding their shops (which in turn earns you a regular stream of income) is compelling in the same way that PS3's InFamous successfully layered strategic turf wars over the usual side quests and hidden collectibles.

And it's not as if Broterhood is lacking in the latter either, with guild missions (of mercenary, courtesan and thief varieties), shop quests, Templar targets, flags and the aforementioned Brotherhood management filling the streets. 

We'll stick our neck out and say that it's even more fun to explore and uncover Rome's secrets than it is to play through the main single-player story. The Romulus platforming missions - new Assassin's Tombs - are absolutely fantastic, while flashback quests detailing Ezio's relationship with Cristina in Florence (she's the one you do at the beginning of the last game) add awesome fan service.

LIVE BY THE SWORD
Yet while Brotherhood's creative risks bear new and exciting gameplay mechanics, they also bring frustrations. 

Ubisoft's adopted a new model that issues Ezio secondary objectives, often encouraging stealth and speed rather than offering out every guard in sight. Complete the given secondary objective ('only use your hidden blade', 'don't swim' etc.) and you'll be rewarded with a 100 per cent synched mission, eventually unlocking hidden memories in the form of the previously mentioned flashback scenes.

This isn't a problem, as those who don't give a monkey's about story can simply ignore the secondary objectives and stab away. The system also results in some genuinely brilliant sequences when obeyed - including one which has you scaling the huge Castello Sant'Angelo stealthily avoiding and assassinating guards, Splinter Cell-style.

It's when these demands to tackle objectives in a certain way seep into the primary missions that things take a turn for the worse. Towards the end of the story, it often feels like Ubisoft Montreal is barking out your orders.

The number of ultra-strict stealth missions has grown substantially in Brotherhood, which means repeatedly failing a mission thanks to an unseen eagle-eyed guard or simply killing an enemy you apparently weren't supposed to, can become a problem. There were more than a few occasions when we used our most creative swear words in annoyance.

We say this not as a large, gaping criticism however - more an occasional bugbear. 

There are so many brilliant steps taken and ideas introduced in Brotherhood that we feel we absolutely must see them again in Assassin's Creed 3. The Brotherhood system works brilliantly, the sandbox is more enjoyable than ever and a sped-up combat system is a very welcome addition.

That's without even mentioning the slick VR missions and promising multiplayer mode - which naturally we haven't had a fully extensive session with yet (we're waiting for you lot to come online first), but certainly shows great potential.

Overall, Brotherhood is an awesome package with enough new content to kill the competition this Christmas.

Story limitations and a few failed mission experiments cement our statement that it's not Assassin's Creed 3 - but with a lick of paint it would've come dangerously close. 

There's enough quality and scope here to put Brotherhood in the running not just as a top festive purchase, but one of the best action games of the year.










Review adopted from http://www.computerandvideogames.com

Angry Birds, Flocking to Cellphones Everywhere

It sounds like a tough sell: a game that involves catapulting birds at elaborate fortresses constructed by evil pigs.

But Angry Birds, a hit game by Rovio, a small Finnish company, is one of the unlikeliest pop-culture crazes of the year — and perhaps the first to make the leap from cellphone screens to the mainstream.

Angry Birds, in which the birds seek revenge on the egg-stealing pigs, is meant to be easily played in the checkout line and during other short windows of downtime — but some players have trouble stopping. Rovio says people around the world rack up 200 million minutes of game play each day. (Put another way, that is 16 human-years of bird-throwing every hour.)

The game has inspired parodies, homages and fervent testimonials. Homemade Angry Birds costumes were big hits on Halloween. Conan O’Brien demonstrated the game in a YouTube video promoting his new show, and a sketchfrom an Israeli TV show about a birds-and-pigs peace treaty was popular online. Justin Bieber and other celebrities have professed their love of Angry Birds on social networks.

Games like Angry Birds are reaching a wide audience of players who might never consider buying an Xbox or PlayStation, but are now carrying sophisticated game machines in their pockets — smartphones. Software developers, eager to become the next Rovio, are creating so-called casual games for this crowd, games that are easy to learn and hard to stop playing.

The trajectory of Angry Birds also suggests a larger shift in entertainment and in the kinds of brands that can win wide popularity. And unlike many of the best-known console video games — like the classic Super Mario Bros. from Nintendo or the latest in the Call of Duty series, from Activision — cellphone games like Angry Birds are often made by small companies and catch on by word of mouth.

“There’s no more formula,” said James L. McQuivey, an analyst at Forrester Researchwho studies digital entertainment. “It doesn’t matter where it starts: a ringtone, a video game, book. It has a shot at the big time.”

On cellphones, he added, “anyone with coding skills, an idea and good characters can catch on without having to spend $100 million on a movie and marketing.”

Anya Richardson, a technical writer and editor in Mulhall, Okla., got swept up in the Angry Birds craze when her 8-year-old son, Roenick, asked for a birthday cake based on the game. Ms. Richardson spent nearly 80 hours crafting a two-tiered concoction that included hand-shaped replicas of the game’s cranky fowl.

“His birthday was in October, but I couldn’t finish the cake until November,” she said.

Her son loved the cake so much that “he never let us cut it,” Ms. Richardson said. “I finally talked him into letting us get rid of it, but he kept most of the bird figures.”

A photo of the cake ricocheted around the Web. “Requests from people who want one have been pouring in on Twitter and via e-mail,” she said.

Jordan Finley, 30, who works at a legal consulting firm in Los Angeles, said he and his boyfriend were such big fans of the game that they decided to create full-body bird costumes for Halloween.

“It was crazy,” Mr. Finley said. “The people who didn’t recognize it didn’t understand, but people who knew the game loved it. Everyone wanted to take pictures. It felt like being chased by the paparazzi or something.”

Fans of the game took to the streets on Saturday for Angry Birds Day, celebrating its first anniversary. Rovio worked with the Web service Meetup.com to help organize the gatherings in New York, London, Jakarta, Budapest and dozens of other cities, but fans stepped up to lead the gatherings. Rovio says it will create Angry Birds levels for the top 10 cities that celebrate Angry Birds Day.

Although Rovio has released two dozen other mobile games, none have come close to the success of Angry Birds, which cost about $100,000 to make and has been downloaded 50 million times in the last year. The paid version for the iPhone, which costs 99 cents in the United States, has brought in more than $8 million in revenue; Apple said last week that it was the best-selling iPhone app of 2010. The free version for phones running Google’s Android software should produce $1 million a month in advertising revenue by the end of the year, Rovio says.

Peter Vesterbacka, Rovio’s head of business development in North America, said the game was born when a Rovio designer sketched a rough outline of a bright red bird with a furious expression. “We didn’t know what the game concept would be, but we loved the birds,” he said. “The entire game and storyline was built around the birds.”

Mr. Vesterbacka said the company took notice of the intricate storylines in Pixar films and the popularity of Mario and Luigi, from Super Mario Bros. The stars of Angry Birds do not express themselves much apart from squawks and grunts, but players seem to be connecting with them all the same.

“When thousands of people start dressing up as your characters, you know you’re onto something,” Mr. Vesterbacka said.

Rovio is trying to capitalize on its hit and is working on versions of Angry Birds for gaming consoles and PCs, along with a line of stuffed birds and pigs. It also hopes to spin the franchise into a movie or children’s TV show.

Rovio made a smart choice in making the birds angry, said Jesse Schell, a professor atCarnegie Mellon who studies game design and entertainment technology. “You can smash them into things and it’s O.K.,” he said. “Imagine if they were cute little birds. It might be kind of funny on some level, but most people would probably be a little repulsed.”

Adopted from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/12/technology/12birds.html?_r=1&ref=technology

By JENNA WORTHAM