Showing posts with label online games. Show all posts
Showing posts with label online games. Show all posts

Thursday 8 February 2018

Nintendo's Next Big Mobile Game Will Be 'Mario Kart Tour'

Popular Kart Racer – Mario Kart Tour

Mario Kart Tour
An outbreak of Nintendo news had been announced recently among which was a Mario movie with the Despicable Me studio, the launch of online service of Nintendo and to summarize Miyamoto, the revelation that Nintendo’s is a `fun’ company and not a `games’ company.

However, the biggest news of all was the announcement of Nintendo which was their next huge mobile project - Mario Kart Tour. The game is presently under development and according to the company; the popular kart racer would be released in Android as well as iOS devices before March 2019.

This would be a first for the Mario Kart franchise on modern smartphones. Though Nintendo has not been sharing much besides a logo, there seems to be a lot from the disclosure and the time in the mobile spaces for Nintendo has been a hit or miss. Recently Miitomo their first experimental mobile had been shut down and Super Mario run excellently failed to convert interested player into playing players with its `one and one’ at a cost of $10.

However Fire Emblem Heroes in contrast had made $100M in its first year with its extremely profitable gacha model together with the Nintendo’s piece of huge $1 billion and Pokémon GO pie.

Nintendo Partnering with Illumination

The big question is where will Mario Kart Tour fall and how does Nintendo tend to monetize it? The company had announced that 14.86 million Switch consoles had been sold together with around half as many copies of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, a straight port of game which sold a further 8 million copies also on the Wii U.

Nintendo is said to have more mobile tiles in the pipeline. Initially the company had intended to release five smartphone games by 2017 though only Super Mario Run, Fire Emblem Heroes, Animal Crossing, Pocket Cam together with the ill-fated Miitomo social app had made it till now. The Wall Street Journal had reported last year that Nintendo had been operational on a Legend of Zelda mobile title.

Moreover, Nintendo had also made an announcement that it would be partnering with Illumination for a movie known as Mario. Illumination is well known for animated hit films like Despicable Me and Minions. Besides the title together with a release window, details pertaining to Mario Kart Tour mobile game have not been disclosed by Nintendo.

Additional Mobile Titles in Progress

Tweet of Nintendo reads thus `The chequered flag has been raised and the finish line is near. A new mobile application is now in development: Mario Kart Tour! #MarioKartTourReleasing in the fiscal year ending March 2019.’Now it is left to be seen and only time will tell what Mario Kart Tour achieves in maintaining its relative success of its smartphone siblings.

While the Nintendo Switch had sold around 15 million units from the time of its launch in March 2017, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe had sold around 7.33 million units. Nintendo could have additional mobile titles in progress. The company had observed that the smartphone linked revenue had been around JPY 29.1 billion, in its nine-month earnings report.

Thursday 3 March 2016

First Look at Virtual Reality Minecraft at Xbox Showcase

Minecraft

Minecraft – Loved by Millions Game Lovers Worldwide


Minecraft is much loved by millions game lovers across the world and now Microsoft has revealed what the immersive world tend to look like in virtual reality. Microsoft purchased the block building phenomenon in 2014 for $2.5bn which is a massive deal that has made the fans apprehensive about its future.

The US firm has assured not to ruin its widespread formula and has instead stated that it would invest in bringing Minecraft to the next level. At the event in trendy Mission District in San Francisco, the Xbox division showed for the first time, the virtual reality version of Minecraft. Palmer Luckey, creator of the Oculus Rift VR headset commented that it makes one feel like they are in the world of Minecraft.

Similar to several VR experiences, it seems to be completely absorbing and for those passionate with addictive building process of Minecraft, it seems to be a big leap from watching it on a normal screen. As for a game focused mainly for children, there is one figure which could bother the parents which is $1,500. It is the recommend price which needs to be spent if intending to purchase an Oculus Rift headset and a PC adequate enough to power it.

PC Gaming – Fastest Growing Segment of Gaming


Minecraft on Oculus seems to be one of the many games on display at the Spring Showcase of Xbox an opportunity for journalists together with a few influential YouTube gamers to get their hands on with the forthcoming blockbusters. Several of the titles on show had been pushed as great to play on PC through Microsoft’s Windows 10 operating system.

Head of Xbox, Phil Spencer had commented that if one tends to look at the numbers, PC gaming seems to be the fastest growing segment of gaming and it is natural that one focus on gaming on Windows. Microsoft had chosen not to make its own headset with regard to virtual reality; though it is developing the augmented reality focused Hololens and is rather working in making it compatible with the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.

With regards to price debate, Mr Spencer stated that he was of the belief that virtual reality would follow the path of high definition TVs, which is a luxury product to begin with though hard to resist once experienced.

Company Not a Victim of Hack


He added that the early adopter will be there to help spur the VR industry. New games seem to mean nothing unless gamers tend to get online to play them and recently it has been more of a challenge. The service Xbox gamers would play against each other over the internet which has stressed out thousands.

Displeased fans comprise of rapper Snoop Dogg had requested Bill Gates to fix the issue or he’d blemish to PlayStation and Mr Spencer had apologised for the issues. He stated that it’s obviously always regretful and the last outage was a concern and they learned from it.

They understood precisely what the issue was and it took a little more time that they would have liked.He disagreed that the company had been the victim of a hack stating that when its network was under continuous attack it was not as it was claimed, demolished by coordinated attempt to cut the gamers off. Besides this on the risk of losing Snoop Dogg, he commented that Snoop had been a long time gamer and long-time supporter of Xbox.

Thursday 24 December 2015

3D Video Games Can Improve Your Memory

3D_Video_Games

3D Video Games – Improves Memory Retention


A new research published in the Journal of Neuroscience shows that 3D video games could improve memory retention in individuals.It has been observed by the researchers at the University of California Irvine – UCI that playing three dimensional video games could help people to perform better at memory tests.

The researchers trace the improvements in spatial and visual memory back to activity in the hippocampus, the area of the brain which is responsible for the spatial navigation and memory formation. When engrossed in a 3D game, the hippocampus tends to get stimulated and makes the subject more skilled at memorising spaces as well as creating mental maps of their surround.

 This discovery could be utilised in formulating new methods of preventing and treating dementia and memory loss. Researchers have encouraged that same part of the brain in virtual reality in experiments enabling mice with digital maze to run through, 3D environments, manufactured one could sharpen their memories in remembering spaces. It seems that the same stimulation tends to happen to humans while entering an immersive 3D game.

3D Performers Better than 2D Players


In order to test it, the researchers carried out a series of experiments with 3D as well as 2D games to observe if the 3D element or other type of immersion could be responsible in boosting the memories of the brain. For instance, in one experiment, the subject were engaged in playing Super Mario 3D World and Angry Birds for around 30 minutes daily in the course of two weeks.

Another group was monitored playing League of Legends – 3D and Super Smash Brothers Brawl, 2D comparatively. On playing these games, they were then given an image based memory test – MST-LDI, wherein they were asked to remember a set of images and relate whether an image in a set were included in the first. The individuals were also asked to navigate through a virtual version of a Morris water mazethat test for spatial learning as well as memory.

It was observed by the researchers that those who played 3D games seemed to perform much better on those memory tests than those who had only played 2D games. The results could be observed on how Super Mario players beat Angry Birds players on visual memory test over a period of two weeks.

Immersive Video Games – Beneficial/Enriching Experiences


The paper states that there is a possibility that by avoiding a narrow focus on single or small set of cognitive domains and by closely paralleling natural experience, immersive video games could be beneficial in providing enriching experiences which can translate into functional gains. Though the indications mention that 3D games tends to benefit memory in a way which 2D games do not, the study also cautions against bearing traditional video games in with games which are specially designed for training of the brain.

The study tends to highlight that it is still not known if the hippocampus is stimulated by the overall complication or only by the spatial exploration. They have stated that these observations could help in the development of new ways of keeping the hippocampus strong and active as the person tends to age.

The researchers have also stated that environmental enrichment such as 3D video games or real life mazes to navigate could be a system of reversing age related cognitive deficits. Professor Stark comments that `it is often suggested that an active, engaged lifestyle could be a real factor in stemming cognitive ageing’.

Saturday 8 August 2015

Raging Birds 2 Has Landed! Now Downloadable for iOs, Android Free


Raging_Birds_2
Rovio has finally launched the much-awaited iteration of the Angry Birds mobile game named as Angry Bird 2. New version offers a highly revamped slingshot game play mechanisms, which is a commendable upgrade over the earlier version. Finnish developer Rovio Entertainment has launched the first iteration of the Angry Birds six years earlier in December 2009. This game is highly popular among both Android and Apple device users, which enables it, feature it top ten games all the time. Angry Birds is also known as Raging or Mad Birds across the different parts of the world.

What features are introduced in Angry Birds 2?

Rovio has done some tremendous job in up scaling the fun and excitement in the game through the better slingshot gameplay mechanisms, better graphics, boss stages and pandemonium. This new game also possesses a ‘destructo metre’, which helps the players in gaining more birds, which makes the level quite easier.

Angry Birds has a fast forward feature, which enables the player to cruise through the carnage and final encounter with style and pomp. This game will allow the users to use their money in performing various in game purchases for completing the levels easily and quickly. Angry Birds also brings in game daily tasks and a feature of watching more and more ads for gaining cards which can be utilized to make the game highly challenging, engaging and strategic in every perspective.

Amazing design and new character finds its way in Angry Birds 2

Rovio had made some subtle change in design, graphics and added more character in Angry Birds 2. Newer version showcases exotic plants, funny animations and quirky details along with wide number of dangers. A character has been introduced named Silver which is a juvenile bird with piggy attributes. Silver has superb flying skills and player can easily summon it during the game where never they feel like.

Angry Birds 2 Rise Above Spin Off Games

Angry Birds 2 has been almost after six years in which many spin off games had made their way in the play stores. Some of the spin-off games are Birds Star Wars and Birds Rio, which were based on the original Angry Birds game. Even these became popular within a short time rising on the wave of the popularity of original Angry Birds. But Angry Birds 2 is all set to take away the popularity back to itself with abundance gameplay options, features and user experience.

Use In-Game Purchases & Be Vary Of Angry Birds 2 Bug

Angry Bird 2 does have the in game purchases wherein a player can full chest of valuable gems and shells just at $9.99. These gems can help in accelerating the game and give an opportunity to the players to play more. Gems aid in overcoming the levels faster and make the gameplay much easier than before. Within 12 hours of its launch Angry Birds 2 registered more than 1 million of game downloads across the world. Some of the players are picked out a bug in Angry Birds 2, which seems to exhaust the phone’s battery quite faster than the earlier version.

Wednesday 3 June 2015

Sony to Roll out 'Ultra Street Fighter IV' PS4 Patch


Ultra_Street_Fighter_IV
Sony has announced to release patch for its recently launched Ultra Street Fighter IV by next week for the PlayStation 4 (PS4) users. The gamers have already complained about the lag in the game in form of unwanted glitches, lag in inputs and some silly but important shortcomings like the button which starts the screen is non-existent along with other issues. In short this game doesn’t provide optimum level of gameplay experience which Sony games are known to deliver.

The Much Awaited Patch For PS4 Users

A tweet has revealed about the much awaited patch by none other than the Sony Director of Third Party Production, Gio Corsi. Tweet had shared the information that patch had been successfully completed by the game developers and it will be tested to analyse its performance. Once this patch successfully passes in the test it will be rolled out for the all the legitimate game users.

The Problems Faced By The Game Players

Ultra Street Fighter IV was launched in March by Sony with a huge fanfare and great expectations of providing a demanding and adventurous game for the gamers. But it turned out to be plagued by a huge number of bugs along with menu slow down. Play Station platforms are designed in such a way that it offers an exclusive and dominant version which can be easily used for the tournaments and other purposes. Furthermore Play Station 4 offers better graphics and gameplay functionalities over the predecessor PS3.

Ultra Street Fighter IV Fails To Feature In Game Tournaments

Due to the number of reports relating to the glitches and problems along with input lags in Ultra Street Fighter IV, Capcom decided not to include this exciting fighting game for tournament play. Capcom certainly won’t be allowing this game in the tournament for aggressive gameplay until the issue is rectified or resolved from the Sony. Even other tournament organisers are dwelling on their decision whether to use this game on the PS4 platform or not. Sony has maintained that this game is very much playable on the Xbox 360 platform without suffering any glitches or problems. Sony and Capcom are required to address this problem and rectify it as soon as possible; otherwise it will certainly destroy its reputation on the PS4 platform.

Patch Expected To Resolve All Issues

Ultra Street Fighter IV had suffered problems both on the online and offline gameplay which seriously diminished the quality of game in all essential sections of graphics, audio and video retention. Menus happened to load terribly slowly along with jagged textures and numerous technical glitches which were subsequently reported by the game players. Sony has confirmed that it will be releasing patched to fix the bugs present in the game through a synchronized roll out plan. The Ultra Street Fighter IV fans are delighted by this development and they are hoping that Capcom will reconsider its decision of excluding the game from EWO 2015.

Thursday 9 April 2015

Hacking Game 'Touchtone' Turned Me into an NSA Spy


Touchtone
Thinking about becoming a NSA spy itself sends out a chill down by spine but after playing TouchTone, I have been eagerly awaiting a chance to get my hands on being a responsible spy. This iOS puzzle game got me hooked up like never before.

I was experiencing thrills of searching of enemies across the state by just scouring across emails and text messages. This is completely different and I experience it in my daily life. As per the statement of co-creator Mike Boxleiter, people might start feeling this entire game very creepy as well as voyeuristic. All they need is to stop for a while and rethink about the game again.

What the game is all about? 

The game starts with a simple training exercise wherein the player has to identify if the chain of email between the potential customer and a bookstore employee should be monitored. At the bottom the game will highlight a transcript indicating if the email has any content indicating potential threats. The player has to identify any kind of threat to national security.

A simple example is the interaction dealing about The Anarchist Cookbook, clearly indicates that there is not much to worry about however any interaction dealing with crafting homemade bombs certainly requires the attention of the player.

Soon after completing the level, I got scolded by my one of the handler who is none other than a Patriot, and he point-out that some students have been emailing about going out to smoke weeds. I had indicated that this mail is not at all threatening.

He stated that from his perspective, and all this was about drug trafficking which required monitoring. According to Boxleiter, most of the people on the Wall Street are more or less criminals. He was not satisfied with my effort and work as I was thinking about all these as a rational human, which is not all like a spy. He stated that our system is so messed up as they are not concerned about people who carry our fraud of millions but focused on people with beards.

This game is about exposing the loopholes in the system which is in use. In simple words we can say that in the world of TouchTone, racial profiling does not exist, which ensures that the spies are searching out for the maximum information possible for anyone known suspects.

The more he added that NSA is about creating connection between different people. In simple words we can say that this game is all about tailing the suspects till he can be put behind the jail. After this the game starts over with another connected suspect.

At the end, TouchTone is a hacking mini-game similar to that off BioShock and Deus Ex. The game is simple consists of 6 x 7 grid with different which are of different colours laser beams meant for directing it to the same-colored targets by means of reflector panels.

Even though the game might look deceptive but can turn out to be slightly exhausting. People might not find this game funny but reflects the normal life of the people. The game requires people to look the concept from a humorous point of view. It is meant for inspiring conversations.

Monday 9 February 2015

Exploding Kittens Game Blows Up Kickstarter


Exploding_Kittens
There are times when simple idea gets huge backing and astonishing support and money. Exploding Kittens has made a sensation by blowing away its humble $10,000 funding goal with attracting a whooping funding of $4 million in pledges on the popular crowd-funding forum Kickstarter. Exploding Kittens is simply a card game which offers a unique perspective and engaging game-play to the players which had inspired a huge amount of crowd sourcing fervour.

Exploding Kitten Fares Extremely Well On Kickstarter

The funding campaign for the Exploding starter saw an amazing response from the backers and it got fully funded within first twenty minutes. Another forty minutes later it reached 1000 percent of its funding goal.
This card game has been created by an online famous celebrity who is popularly known for his The Oatmeal and himself being called Matthew Inman. He had brought up his own distinct enthusiastic art style in the card design. The co-designer Elan Lee has been left stunned more than surprised with an overwhelming response they had received for their Exploding Kittens project on Kicstarter. Regarding this usual interest and funding pattern shown by this card game Kicstarter’s Luke Crane has said that the backers had been enthralled by project’s sense of humour, art style and presentation.

Exploding Kittens Is An Innovative Card Game

This game works in the manner of the Russian Roulette wherein players draws cards and tries to avoid being evicted from the from by unknowingly or accidently triggering an exploding kitten. It has all the interesting features to enhance the game-play by bringing a tragedy, drama, strategy and weaponized back hair. This card game is available in a regular deck and suitable for the players of 7 years of age and above.

Exploding Kitten is all about the strategic betrayal wherein the players would be pitied against each other. Players would be left to decide which one is to betray and how they wish to perform it. This game shouldn’t be taken literary as it has nothing to do with hurting cats or kittens. The object of this game is to defuse the explosions which might occur if the kittens happen to get into trouble.

Exploding Kitten Breaks Reading Rainbow Record On Kickstarter

Exploding Kittens has created a sensation of the crowd-funding website named Kickstarter. Currently its holds the record of eight most funded Kickstarter projectin its history. Exploding Kittens still have a 23 left days which gives it a great chance of becoming the most funded project in is history.

Exploding Kittens is attracting funding at a break-neck pace and it is all set to break the record of Reading Rainbow. Reading Rainbow had set record of most funded project in 2014 with a whooping backers count of 105,857 but Exploding Kittens has already achieved those number of backers and many are still pledging to support its endeavours.

As Exploding Kittens has already achieved the most number of backers, now comes the time to deliver what it projects. Inman is heavily busy creating the art work for the cards and aims to send it to their backers by the end of summer.

Monday 2 February 2015

Teaching Mario to Play with Himself

Mario


When it comes we talk about artificial intelligence, so one of the most challenging sides it to teach computer to how to measure, understand, and react according to situation in the world around us. Actions, which are in the nature of human, can be taught to a robot, but teaching the decision making ability is difficult.

A team of researchers at the University of Tubingen, Germany has experimented and created a project which will change the concept of a real-world robot as AI is on the way to take the different challenges by reaching the Mario to play his own game on computer. Team of researchers has created the video, which will explain that how this system will work in step-by-step manner, but at the high levels the actions and response of Mario’s can be quantified as values.

In the whole process AI seems to start with basic information that how to navigate the world and how he is relating the various objects. The team has also created the tracking pattern for Mario’s curiosity about the rest of the world and how he is focusing on the collection of coins.

AI notes all the events when it encounters enemies and when it queried with a question that what are you thinking about Goomba? So Mario responds that, I don’t know anything. And after few experiments of interactions, Mario learns that how to jump or land on the Goomba and how to know that Goomba is dead. When it is translated back into human words, “If I will perfectly jump on Goomba, so he will die”.

Mario also learns that how to navigate any environment or how to activate question blocks which can grab power ups or how to jump to higher objects to reach any particular locations. AI has absolutely different rule if Mario is small or big because his behavior can vary according to his size or if he will get the mushroom or few fire flowers.

It is clear that AI learns about any particular environment and now Mario has an idea about real world and according to any particular situation he is free to behave or express his expression like; when first time he will jump on Goomba, so he will shout that may be Goomba is dead an later he test this hypothesis on the Goomba of future by comparing the expected result with expected outcome.

In the experiment Mario never use scripted responses, he only responds to syntax with his understanding and vast array of words. Now it’s clear that he can told the things like; “If you will perfectly jump on Goomba than Goomba will die, or he can learn by his own. In whole process he was able to complete syntax.

As a human we have applied same principles of communication and learning millions of times in life, but we have learn them when we were child and teaching something to Mario to jump on Goomba to kill it, it’s really fascinating example of AI.


Tuesday 27 January 2015

Call of Duty Makes First Trip to China with Launch of Public Beta


Call-of-Duty
When it comes to the world of gaming, every sales record has been shattered by Call of Duty, the first person shooter franchise. Even though the game has been enjoying all the possible success anyone can image, they have been really absent or non-existent in a country which is known to be the most populous country, but for not long. The wait is over and the free-to-play version of the first-person shooter, Call of Duty Online, has been officially launched in China on an open public beta. This announcement was made by the publisher Activision on Monday. The game, which has been specifically designed for the Chinese market has been released in partnership with the Internet conglomerate Tencent Holdings. Internet conglomerate Tencent Holdings has been based in China.

Chinese Market

The game’s launch marks the entry of wildly popular franchise for the first time and that too it will be widely available for the consumers in China. Even though the gaming population in the country has crossed more than a million marks, some of the people still play either the games, which have been developed by domestic Chinese companies, or other companies, which have been carrying out their business outside in the United States of America. Call of duty (an American game) was not available in the country until now.

In China for many years, traditional games consoles like PlayStation and Xbox were banned. Last year, 2014, the country announced that they are going to life the ban and would start allowing the console makers to launch their devices within the country’s border with one catch point- the products have to be distributed by a Chinese company. A while back companies like Microsoft and Sony announced that they are planning to launch their consoles in China. Even though Xbox One at present is available in the country, but Sony was forced to postpone the launch of PlayStation 4 last week. According to the sources from Sony, the company is still not sure about the launch date of PlayStation 4 in China.

As soon as the information pertaining to the lifting of ban was spread, the American companies have started working on the idea of releasing or launching their titles in the country. According to the survey conducted in 2014, there are nearly 300 million people, who are part of the Chinese gaming population and out of this, one third of the people are interested in the first-person shooter games. This data was more than enough for Activision. As many companies have made their games free for consumers, it is no surprise that the company has chosen the online medium.

The title of game, which is full Call of Duty game has taken many aspects from popular franchise like Black Ops and Modern Warfare. The game comes with single-player campaign, full online multiplayer, and Survival Mode for co-op playing. The company is trying to get some money by encouraging the user to either purchase the game or rent the game items.



Sunday 25 January 2015

3D-printed 'Star Wars' Buddhas: Zen and the art of the Force


3D-Buddha
We all know about an epic space opera, Star Wars and its hero Zen master. If you are the fan of Star Wars, so you can easily find Star Wars movies, books, television series, and videos games, but now you can also get Star Wars Buddhas with the help of 3d printing technology. Yoda was always known to have some kind of Zen master inside him. Chris Milnes, proprietor of the muckychris storefront and Etsy seller has really put in lot of effort and brought g the Zen side of this little green person with the help of his 3D-printed Zen Yoda figurines. These 3D statues have the combination of Buddha's pleasingly plump body apart from the Yoda’s head.

So what all is in for offering? 

As far as Milnes in concerned, Zen Yoda is just one of his many creations in offering. He has also design many greek related items which includes Boba Fett (Buddha Fett?), Iron Man, Darth Vader, "Battlestar Galactica”, Stormtrooper Buddha and Judge Dredd figurines. These statues are built using the Hotei body (laugh Buddha), figure, which was originally created by Sammy Davis, Thingiverse user. After this Milnes takes the most popular 3D models of superhero and sci-fi heads and melds these two onto a base. Thus, create flawless little nerd-gods. These designs have been possible due to the modeling work of Milnes apart from Creative Commons licensing from the original 3D modelers.

According to Milnes, his art comprises of mash up of existing item and creating new items with meaning. In case of the Zen Zode, it is aiming to create and balance Creative Commons licensing from the original 3D modeler with the force and the 'Star Wars' lore. Milnes is a digital sculptor and carries out all his modeling and 3D print work himself. Apart from being busy with his Etsy Store, he has been quiyte busy with the invention of the SquareHelper, which is a 3D-printed widget capable of keeping Square card readers from spinning around in case of being attached to an iPad or iPhone. He is a Makerbot user with Replicator 2x and Replicator 2 machines in use. According to what he offers, it takes nearly an hour to print a 2-inch figure, about three to four to print a 4-inch figure and around six hours to print a a 6-inch figure. This at present is the largest size offered by Milnes. The prices of these statues ranges from $7.99 (about £5, AU$10) for the small ones and about $27.99 (about £19, AU$34) for the big statues. What catches the eye most is the chrome and shiny gold offerings.

According to Milnes, his Etsy store has a few popular geek brands in offerings but even he agrees that Darth Vader, Stormtrooper and Yoda statues are the most popular ones. Considering the fact that Jediism has a very minor religious following around the world, it is quite obvious for the Yoda-Buddha to become immensely popular and such a hot commodity.

Tuesday 20 January 2015

Researchers Turn Computer Into Poker Shark


Cepheus
According to the researchers at the University of Alberta, a computer program dubbed as “Cepheus” has been able to solve the game of Poker. Cepheus, has been created by computer poker research group, asserts that it can not only play heads-up limit Texas hold'em poker, but also beat human opponents.

When it comes to artificial intelligence, games like poker and chess have always been used as the test beds by researchers who are looking towards developing new concepts. There have been many success scenarios in the past like IBM's Deep Blue, which had defeated world champion Garry Kasparov in chess, and IBM's Watson, which defeated top-ranking Jeopardy! Champions. When it comes to a game of poker, it gives special challenges to artificial intelligence researchers because the computers or the players do not have the complete knowledge of past events and also they cannot see the cards held by their opponents.

Test of Cepheus: 

According to CPRG, any game can be solved if it is played over a period of time and if it is played with 95% confidence. The computer was trained to test Cepheus with poker over a period of two months. During this time it utilized more than 4,000 CPUs, and each of this CPU can handle 6 billion hands of poker. This was more poker which had been played by my entire human race.

Each of this hand, Cepheus constantly kept on managing its play and the choices kept on refining their choices and to find the best possible solution to each move. The main effort of University of Alberta's effort is to use a computer to play and win an imperfect information game when compared to perfect information games like checkers, chess and tic-tac-toe. The players will have access to all the information pertaining to the game.

While developing Cepheus, the CPRG's goal was to make sure the technology is able to make the computer think in some of the imperfect situations. This technology can be applied to any situations where there is a possibility of imperfect situations. According to Neil Burch, a Ph.D. student at the University of Alberta and a coauthor of the study, it will be interesting to see this research being used in different problems. As far as Cepheus is concerned, it has proved its power with the cards but no one can say about its ability as it will be dependent on the limitation of the computational capabilities.

Computers will learn more as the time passes by as CPU/GPU, storage and RAM will continue to evolve which will allow more complex supercomputing, software programming and problem solving. When it comes to computer, if it goes wrong it will learn to go right and take the correct step in the situation again.

It is important for the computer to learn every possible step based on the database and determine the best possible move. Even though the artificial intelligence has lot awaiting in the future, Cepheus has a lot of contribution towards it.

Saturday 17 January 2015

Halo 5: Guardians Multiplayer Beta Preview - a New Hope?


Halo 5
Since the announcement of the game, the Xbox One gamers have been eagerly waiting for the announcement of the game. At present, the gamers were expecting the game to be launched in early 2015 but now looks like the developers have nearly pushed the release of the game to the end of the year. Still the developers have managed to go ahead with the beta test of their multiplayer section.

The Halo Series: 

The halo series has always been synonymous with the Xbox Brand and more than that, it is the very first successful first-person-shooter (FPS) game on a console. There are players who have now gone bored of all sort of running games and especially games like Call of Duty (CoD). Halo: Combat Evolved is a sci-fi FPS that will put the players in the role of Master Chief, who is a human super soldier who squared off against an alien force known as the Covenant.

Even though single-player campaign still had a strong but the multiplayer games have really caught everyone's attention. Multiplayer revolutionized the genre and made the first-person-shooters on consoles playable, instinctive, and most importantly, fun. This is a genre, which was running for the longest time on domain of PCs and meant for PC only. There are players who still find the keyboard and mouse combination on desktop computers best to play these kinds of games but 2001's Halo: Combat Evolved and its sequel Halo 2 have proven that slick controls and multiplayer goodness are better for consoles.

The latest game in this series is the Halo 5 but there are difficulties that have been faced by the developers. Developer Bungie has created five Halo games (the three main series entries, and side-stories ODST and Reach), will be ending his partnership with Microsoft and will be moving the Halo series to 343 Industries. Halo 4 series was one of the games which received mixed responses, some of the players complained that the game lacked innovation while others that the game keeps on changing all the time.

Now, 343 Industries is getting all prepared for the release of Halo 5. Even-though there still time for the final release but an early multiplayer beta has been started on the Xbox One for those people who have already picked up Halo: The Master Chief Collection - a compilation of the first four games that makes the players as Master Chief in the series. The beta version started on December 29, 2014 and is expected to continue till the date January 18, 2015.

Whether the new game work or not, but still the previous version Halo 4 has only managed to get meager 20,000 peak population day a year after release, Halo 3's on the other hand got 1.1 million and Halo Reach's got 900,000. It will be quite interesting to see how 343 Industries will be able to manage to maintain what seems to be a very inquisitive mix of old and new.

Wednesday 7 January 2015

The Best Games for Your New Android Phone


Rymdkapsel

There are lots of arguments pertaining to the lack of games on Android based phones and tablets when compared to the ones with iOS. Even though Android is working hard to get these gaps filled, still there are lots of games which are worth playing and having on the phone. The games for android range from monster-punch madness to a Zen like strategy games. The list is endless. Some of the favorites among market experts and players are:

1 Rymdkapsel: - This game is a space-age strategy game, which has been set in a strange, pixel-perfect world. In this game, the player has to control many white rectangles as they keep on gathering resources, food stores, fire lasers at intruders and research unexplained monoliths.

2 Smash Hit: - This game is known to elevate itself into a total art form and is well known method of stress relief. The players have to go through a path wherein they have to face Glass walls, pyramids, windows, and even DNA-like helixes in their path. The players have to destroy these obstacles before they can do any damage to them. This game is very simple and addictive and can be a player’s delight.

3 Badland: - This game explains more or less about the evolution of human genome through time. In this, the untitled protagonist species keeps on shrinking or multiplying many times in a single level. The immersive 2D aesthetic and the puzzles make this game a pleasure to play.

4 Plants vs. Zombies: - The game is about strategically positioning the plants on the game board to avoid the legion of zombies, which are ready to overtake the game board. New challenges and increased number of zombies make this game more than one can handle.

5 Hearthstone: - At present this game is accessible on phones and tablets with more than 6 inches screen. This can be full of thrill of one on one fight and quickly made the player addicted.

6 Jetpack Joyride: - The game is all about getting the highest score through some of the basic cartoon animations of the game.

7 Super Hexagon: - In this game the player is in the form on a triangle and moving across on a pulsating hexagon, which keeps on throwing obstacles at the player. It is difficult for the players to be alive for more than 60 seconds but, this is what makes the game so addictive.

8 The Room 2: - This is a sequel to The Room and the developers have already taken the game to a new level and made it even more exciting. The puzzles are much more complex this time and it will not be easy for a player to get out of the room so easily.

9 Kingdom Rush Origins: - This is one of the best tower defense game that anyone can get on their phone or tablet. Origins are the latest additions to the Kingdom Rush series and it has everything to excite the fans of the previous game.

10 Minecraft:- Pocket edition: - This game carries out the essence of the main mine-craft game very well and sure to keep a beginner happy.

Thursday 18 December 2014

A Thrilling Publication “Grand Theft Auto V” of Rockstar Games


Grand_theft_Auto_V
Grand Animation Imaginary World

“Grand Theft Auto V” a publication of Rockstar Games and created by Rockstar North. It is a kind of story packed with extremely exciting imaginary world and can be explicitly presented in audio-visual method, i.e. in the form of a video games. All the characters viewed in this video are adventurous. In this present scientific age, people do not have enough time to look through the printed publication stories and, therefore, the better choice is to go in for stories through the pleasant and attractive electronic media, i.e. video players when at a time more than one people can look through.

A Story of Improved Version of Grand Theft Auto V

Immediately after the publication of Grand Theft Auto IV, there is tremendous development through extensive research work and widely recognized for different game play, tremendous technical improvements in Grand Theft Auto V. Grand Theft Auto V has very well received public approval and praise. The criminals are the main characters that they are freely moving around the cities with modern weapons.

The officers of law enforcement force are after the criminals to contain the harmful grievous activities, violence for peace and law and order. Grand Theft Auto V is so speedy entertainment and much approved and praised by the public has been proved for its all time record sales from the day of publication.

Improvement on Leading Characters Role and Open World Space

The characters of the protagonists are adventurous, exciting and each character has thrilled events in which one follows another one directly. Moreover, areas of the open world are much wider than the earlier series of previous entries. The open world is thoroughly searched and discovered from the starting of the game without limit and as the story proceeds more and more games open up with the active imagination, producing interesting ideas. In totality, the Grand Theft Auto V is the improved version of Gameplay Video of earlier Grand Theft Auto IV.

Roles and Skills of Players

Players use weapons, explosives, guns, etc. to attack crowded places of the cities and can swim, jump, run to directly discover the open world with no restriction. In the fighting, players take the help of auto-aims and cover system against enemies. Players may go to the hospital when their health reduces.

 The officers of the law enforcement give signals through “wanted” meter to the players doing crimes while playing . Each player with the set of eight expertise shows the efficiency in shooting, driving. The last skill, i.e. eighth skill is a special skill which denotes the ability of the player.

Impeccable Advancement of Technique

The improvement on technical quality, the detailing of light, sounds, pictures, especially the weather and advancement of lighting technique to the eyes of reviewers are laudable. The critics also praised the design of the open world where space of the Los Angeles meticulously used by the designer. Many also passed remarks that the game play represents the American culture. Many critics are also charmed with the perfection of soundtracks and music selection during the game play.

Admixture Views of Critics 

Regarding characters of the story to the eyes of the critics, it is felt that this is repetition of the earlier version Grand Them Auto IV. Some acting of characters is not matching with emotions as the players’ action does not support their emotion perfectly. The acting of players does not represent true, real and depth. But, in totality Grand Theft Auto V version is a high improvement of different fields which will be amazing to the viewers.Some negative feedback also received.

Saturday 22 November 2014

GTA 5 Patch Coming to Xbox One Soon!


GTA 5
Grand Theft Auto V – GTV 5, an open world action adventure video game which has been developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games was released in September 2013 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 and on 18 November 2014 for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. For Microsoft Windows it is scheduled to be released on 27 January 2015.It is the first main entry in the Grand Theft Auto series since the Grand Theft Auto IV in 2008.

It is set within fictional states of San Andreas which is based on Southern California wherein the single player follows three criminals with their efforts in committing heist, are under great pressure from a government agency.

It enables the players to freely roam San Andreas including open countryside as well as the fictional city of Los Santos, based on Los Angeles and the game is played from a first person or a third person view while the world is navigated by a vehicle or on foot.

Players have the capabilities of controlling the three lead protagonists throughout the mode of a single player, switching them during and outside of the mission with the focus on the heist sequence. The mission revolves between shooting and driving gameplay and players who tend to commit crimes may receive a response from law enforcement agencies which is measured by a `wanted’, system which governs the response of their aggression and a patch update is going to be released soon.

Latest Games Envisaged Issues of Download

Since the craze following the release of GTA 5 for the next generation console has begun, several players have envisaged issues in the latest game which had won positive reviews from major gaming sites and many players have postedon the official Rockstar Forum their inability to download the first update thereby being unable to play the online version of the game.

Rockstar has been working to resolve the issue faced by several players stating on 18 November 2014 that `at this time PlayStation 4 users should no longer have issues downloading the patch. All character migrations are now working on PlayStation 4 and affected PlayStation 3 users can play GTA online as normal.

This issue will be addressed for Xbox One and Xbox 360 users tomorrow’. The GTA V draws inspiration from several other past Rockstar titles which include Max Payne 3, Midnight Club, Manhunt and Red Dead Redemption.

Several Unique Features 

There are several unique features in the game wherein when the players are playing as one of the three protagonist, the other two tend to live out their daily lives and one will be surprised in finding what the characters are doing when one switches back into them. The other feature is the character swapping feature which is executed in a Google Earth manner which was displayed at a Game Informer demo, showing a smooth run without any lag.The Xbox One, PC, and PS4 version would be presenting an exclusive feature that is a first person mode and the entire game can be played through the concept of the protagonist. The mode of the gameplay will bring about a new way of playing the game and cars will have detailed interior which would be different from one another while the shooting will be like a FPS game.

Friday 21 November 2014

Assassin’s Creed Unity- Stuffed with Bugs and Poor on Computers and Consoles


Assassin’s Creed Unity
Assassin’s Creed Unity, which was released with such hype, got a complete blow when 12 hours post the game’s release, it was declared a completely messed up game. The consumers are stating that the games from its looks, looks like was not yet ready and the Company Ubisoft wanted to just get it released as soon as possible.

Some of the drawbacks f the game includes its limitation to 900p on the consoles, the poor draw distance, dramatic decrease in the frame rates, and due to some unexpl
ainable reasons the characters and the faces keeps on disappearing.

Drawbacks: 

There are a completely new thread which has been dedicates to the performance of the Assassin’s Creed Unity on the PC, which is even more than NeoGAF. The creator of this thread had tried to run on the game on Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 but still unable to get the desired results. This thread consists of many posters having the same issue of cut scenes dipping below the 30 fps.

There are some of the screenshots, which display the bug, which have drawn lot of criticism. Ubisoft send the Xbox version of the game to many outlets for overview and the response was dire and indicated that the problems with the Assassin’s Creed Unity is no longer limited to computers only.

As per the Joystiq, both Xbox A single and PS4 versions are having problems with the game-breaking bugs and the dipping in the frame rate. Unbelievably it is true that the frame rate of the Xbox A is more noticeable and the consoles are locked at the maximum of 900p.

According to the reports from PC World, the game Assassin's Creed Unity although available can be rough. They have stated that the game itself is having riddles of self-performance. On similar lines, users have been posting nasty feedback about the game on the NeoGAF.

The company had placed a devious review restriction during the first half of the day of the launch, which actually caused many people to take the plunge and buy the game even without seeing the full review.

Why the game has so many flaws? 

The Ubisoft company is known to have the best of the software engineers, they have the required talent pool and enough finance to make unbelievable games, but going by the looks of Assassin’s Creed Unity, the short turnaround time given to the development team has affected the final product. The game would have had all the advantages if the company would have held back on the release data and given more time for the internal resources to show its effect on the product.

Ubisoft already knew that the game will not be making the people around the world happy and it has certainly brought lot of embarrassment to the company. Although there are times when a game is launched, people give time to the company to run initial updates and patches but the feedbacks and reviews of the game have been extremely ferocious.

Thursday 13 November 2014

Now Fight Zombies without a Season Pass - Call Of Duty: Advanced Warfare

Call of Duty
Taking three years in development with the franchise, Sledgehammer Games have brought about a newer level of experience to the multiple players platform in "Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Day Zero Edition" as Activision Blizzard mentioned of a new release of entry in the popular Call of Duty series.

In spite of the fact that this is a newer level of experience for the multiple players, this does not go without controversy as the gamers were more concerned not about what the game offered in the general but more about what the game lacks in like the zombie mode which they enjoy and benefit from. Most of the gamers were more so annoyed as the players had access to game content which was worth US$50 before the decision to package the Zombies mode with a Season Pass was taken which eventually effected the gamers. However this mistaken email sent from GameStop was a spark that rose anger or fear which apparently caused a confusion as per Activision spokesperson Kyle Walker.

As confirmed to the source that all players jut like yesteryears will still be able access the Zombie content via DLC he says that the season pass is not the only way to get to zombies but its just another pass to get all DLC at discounted rates. As mentioned by Walker " Sledgehammer team created a surprise for their fans with the zombies in the AW being an Easter egg, just shows their own new take and new style of creation on zombies to be presented to their fans"

As quoted by CEO Eric Hirshberg to Activision Publishing that three years ago the decisions they have taken to actually invest into a three year development cycle and as well as to make bout.Sledgehammer Games the first new lead studio for Call of Duty in a decade was not a bad decisions as it paid off which resulted in a fantastic game which involves a good story, performance, graphics and mechanics that makes it better than an adrenaline rush than Call of Duty which exists and that is what results are all about.

In the new Call of Duty the gamers start with the World War II-Era involving American and the Soviet Soldiers where the players now can gear up in exoskeletons and go through a world where terrorists are defeated by technology.

An epic performance of Kevin Spacey makes him a James Bond style super villain wo dons a power suit of another tools who is bent to dominate the world with the corporate type of new weapons The notable fact of Spacey's role is the advanced versions of the storytelling elements used in the 1960's but with full motion videos.

As said by Billy Pidgeon (independent video game industry analyst) to the source that animation is getting so goo that and more famous that its hard to differentiate between animated sequences from the actual filmed video. They added to say that with the computer animation technology growing so advanced it is getting really hard to differentiate where computer is generated.

Saturday 25 October 2014

Microsoft Advances Research In Their Roomalive- New Concept Towards Futuristic Gaming

RoomAlive

RoomAlive game is a combination of 2 technologies that is Microsoft’s Kinect motion-tracking system and LCD projector. The latest demonstration of the video was released about the UIST (User Interface Software and Technology) for the ACM Symposium at Honolulu. This video was released in current week.

RoomAlive, Microsoft’s XBOX game can literally make your entire room come alive. The gamer’s entire room will be changed into an interactive gaming world and the environment. This new game of Microsoft came into life nearly two years ago and still was able to gain much hype and attention from the marketing companies.

At last the marketing people focused on changing the name of the game from Beamatron to IllumiRoom, until they finally froze on a name which is atleast 50 percent decent when compared to the previous versions.

Kinect motion-tracking system by Microsoft

This new motion tracking system actually utilizes Fusion room-modelling technology and the 3D map of the environment is constructed for the game. This infrastructure construction also includes the floor, walls, furniture and everything present in the room at the time of playing the game.

This system further amalgamates the room model with the help of the plugin given with the Unity game engine and then to a projector which displays all the images required for creating a complete gaming and interactive experience with the people present in the room.

Room Alive is Microsoft’s IllumiRoom’s 2.0 version. Last year at CES, the Company had demonstrated the first version of the IllumiRoom research project, which was able to generate an overwhelming response and attention among the people. The demonstration highlighted how the game can be extended from our TV to our walls. The demo was more than a short display of the concept, but according to the company this was still just a starting phase of the research.

The video projectors and the kinetic combination of the RoomAlive’s might be bit costliest now and probably might be very large for the living rooms of many people. Despite the current roadblocks, the Company is looking forward to a future which will show that this technology is very small and low priced.

Although a similar virtual reality experiment was created by Sony, Microsoft’s RoomAlive system has the capability to automatically detect the walls and floors for their users to get the entire gaming experience to reach anywhere.

Currently the High definition projector of the RoomAlive can cost a person around $600 and this doesn’t include the price of $49 for V1 Kinect, the motor control and the RoomAlive’s software package. At the moment the entire set can cost around $1000. In comparison to this system, a person will able to own Xbox by paying around $499.

According to the Spokesperson of Microsoft, the company still has lots of exploring in RoomAlive. The company is working towards a gaming future which will enable the game to utilize all the articles available as part of their system and game.

Monday 13 October 2014

Google's 'Ingress' Offers New Creative Outlets for the Players


Ingress
The new mission feature which is now available to Android users and expected to be available on iOS soon, is a feature announced by Google's Niantic Labs. Through this feature the users will be able to feed user-generated content in the Ingress augmented reality game. The new mission will challenge the players to visit different locations and complete a whole range of tasks like capturing or hacking or even use clues for solving puzzles to move ahead in the game.

In the latest feature of Ingress, the Niantic's Field Trip app data has been included which will enable the user to incorporate location pertaining to art, history, dining, shopping and many more, which has been given by more than 200 publishing partners. Niantic has not only been able to create new missions, but also allows the user to create new missions and also share it with other players of Ingress. Currently Niantic is working on increasing the reach of this feature to the level 5 of the game. However, at the moment this capability has been limited to only experiences agents.

Millions of Players: 

Although the game was made available to public in 2012, this complex science fiction back-story has a continuous narrative and with the vast online multiplayer, the game still relies on the GPS. In the game the players have the option to choose between resistances or enlightened. Ultimately they fight is about the controlling the exotic matter. The matter which is placed in a variety of portal all around the world are a source of energy and score for the players and their teams. According to reports more than 7 million people have actually installed Ingress on their Android operating systems and iOS.

New level of Player Involvement:

The new missions and features will raise the level of excitement in the players. Players will show increased loyalty part of the usage. They will be more invested in the outcomes of these missions. With a game like Ingress which basically mixed reality with fantasy, the players have their own ideas to how they would like to see the outcome. Gamers will be able to test their creativity in creating new missions for other players. Loyal players will enjoy this new opportunity. Keeping gamers involved is the key for keeping long existence in mobile market.

Possibilities of Growth in Market: 

Ingress will be able to offer users the opportunity to show their creativity, which is one the same line as that of Minecraft which also allows the users to customize and create their virtual world. Google has always been about empowering people and they are able to express the same through this game. Players will be able to share as well as communicate through Ingress.

According to Lewis Ward, research director for gaming with IDC, this new feature will mean lot of business in the market. One should be ready for visiting some of known locations due to the fact that there will be various companies interested to invest in the game to get their location added to the list.

Tuesday 30 September 2014

Innovations In Video Game Console Design

Game Console Design
The technology sector is dominated by major corporations that have billions of dollars to cover costs such as advertising, research and development. However, there are some success stories in the high-tech world involving small companies and even individual entrepreneurs. The video game industry can be used as an example to demonstrate this point. There are only a few major companies that produce the world's most popular game consoles. However, some ambitious inventors have come up with innovative ways to challenge corporate giants that produce high-quality game hardware.

Introducing new high-tech features into modern video game consoles is an effective way to beat the competition of this industry. Traditionally, companies focus on improving microprocessors, graphics cards and audio components of video game systems. Some creative entrepreneurs have realized that modern gaming devices lack basic features found in other consumer electronics. Connecting video game consoles to other devices has become a revolutionary idea. The introduction of Bluetooth and WiFi technology has now become standard in video game design. Such simple features open up an entire new world of virtual gaming that's connected to a network of global users.

Internal memory storage has also been a major problem in some of the most successful video game consoles worldwide. Some investors have figured that boosting a game system's memory capacity would be popular with users. The introduction of memory card compatibility with portable and stationary video game systems has been successful. Other hardware features such as USB and HDMI ports have also enhanced video game console design. Entrepreneurs who come up with innovative ways to improve gaming systems can sell ideas to major manufacturing companies that already have strong holds in the market. It would be very costly for small companies to try and manufacture their own game systems with unique hardware features. However, some businesses are confident that their modified video game consoles could eventually compete with major manufacturers that are reluctant to change traditional designs.

Introducing GPS technology into a portable video game unit might seem like an extreme idea. However, this concept is actually quite popular in a high-tech age dominated by mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. Location based services can truly enhance game play of portable game systems with built in GPS. For example, a user's actual surroundings could be used to influence some of the settings and characters in a video game. GPS technology provides an immersive and fun experience that is unprecedented in traditional video game consoles. An inventor such as Carl Freer and other entrepreneurs are examples of business people who develop innovative video game systems
.
Companies that develop high-tech handheld game systems often target mobile device users. It is important to highlight the advantages of using an actual gaming gadget for playing video games rather than using smartphones or tablets. For instance, it's much more convenient to press actual buttons and keys than using touchscreens to play video games on the go. Handheld gaming systems also provide a superior playing experience because of CPUs and other hardware components that are optimized for displaying high-quality graphics and generating artificial intelligence during game play. At the same time, it is important to launch handheld video game devices that could be synced with smartphones via data cables and wireless technology.