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Ever since the Windows Vista OS came out; gamers have been complaining about it and going to great lengths to get it to behave in the way they expected it too. The latest guide up on ExtremeTech shows PC gamers how to bypass Vista 64-bit limitations.

The author gives gamers who haven’t already used this solution instructions on how to run 32-bit Vista on 64-bit Vista in a virtual machine. This solves a few known problems with 64-bit Vista including the author’s difficulties with Nikon RAW codec or getting VPN to work with older Cisco concentrators. The article is fairly technical, but also very usful for those gamers running into problems with Vista 64-bit. Get the complete run down on ExtremeTech.

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The fourth annual Games for Health Conference will be showcasing the expanding role of video games in the Health profession. Video game technology is being applied in the field for rehabilitation, training and to encourage exercise.

Some highlights of the conference will be familiar to most gamers. A new version of Activision’s Guitar Hero is being introduced, which will be used in the rehabilitation of arm amputees. The results of studies based on the “Corrupted Blood Syndrome” form Blizzard’s World of Warcraft are also being presented.

Attendees will have the chance to play training games like 3DiTeams and the K.I.C.K. (Kid’s Interactive Creation Kiosk). 3DiTeams offers emergency health care training to medical professionals in virtual worlds. The full press release follows the break.

Read the full article

The war is officially over. After all the nonsense about HD downloads being the way to go, Pegatron an Original Equipment Manufacturer for Asustek Computer has been awarded a contract to build Microsoft Xbox 360 consoles equipped with a Blu-ray Disc (BD)-ROM drive. According to DigiTimes, Chinese-language Economic Daily News (EDN) newspaper pegs the release to market date for third quarter 2008.

We’ve haven’t heard “officially” heard from Microsoft that this is the case so I wouldn’t say this is a sure thing yet. However, I’d hope that a company as business savvy as Microsoft would be able to see this as inevitable.

Any of you gamers out there near Berkley, will have the opportunity to attend a panel discussion with the author of “Grand Theft Childhood?” sponsored by Greater Good Magazine, Greater Good Science Center. This is a free event planned for Tuesday, May 6th, 6-7:30 pm at the North Gate Library, UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. Harvard Medical School psychologist Lawrence Kutner, author of “Grand Theft Childhood?” will be presenting the results of his breakthrough study on the effects of video games on teenagers.

The popularity of video games–and the bloody, pyrotechnic action of some games–have fueled a wide range of fears. Are those fears justified?

To celebrate the release of its new issue on play, Greater Good magazine is hosting a panel discussion that will reveal the newest facts about video game play, and what guidelines they suggest for parents, teachers,
kids, and the people who create video games.

Remember folks to put your best foot forward. This study’s findings are very positive unlike many others. You can find the full press release including the link to detailed directions to North gate Library following the break.

Read the full article

NaturalMotion has just unveiled this tech video for their Euphoria software, which is set to debut in GTA IV. As you can see, Euphoria adds a more lifelike structure to characters, so that even just their bodies react in a more realistic manner. Most impressive though is the AI which has characters reacting to different stimulus such as being pushed or shot (fairly common activities in Liberty City). This technology is also set to be used in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, hence those trailers showing enemies holding onto each other as they go spinning into the abyss.

Many people have attempted automatic guitar hero mods in the past, but none of them have been quite as functional as this one. When one father had reached the peak of his skills at Guitar Hero II, he decided to work on a mod to overtake his 16-year old son’s score. With the help of a friend, he devised the “AGH1000″ to detect the notes on-screen and play the game by itself. As you can see, the device works nearly perfectly, only fumbling over held notes and when there’s not much happening on the screen, it seems. This is just one step closer to the robot apocalypse, people. If you’re really interested in making your own, schematics and such are on the website below.

Via AutoGuitarHero.com

On the GIRL part of Station there’s an article on video games and parental responsibility; “For Mature Audiences Only.” The author rails against studies and preventative measures taken and paid for by the government ie. from our taxes to prevent children from getting into trouble. Children often indulge in mature video games and destructive behaviors that they should have been taught aren’t acceptable, costing us a bundle.

It’s refreshing to see that this particular article points out that it’s the parents’ responsibility to correct these kids, not the government’s.

Parents should pay attention to all the new stuff in the world that they themselves have never experienced, too. They should become familiar with things like ESRB ratings on games; they know what those movie ratings are, right?… They should teach their children, learn with them when they haven’t a clue and let children mature into responsible adults.

via Gamers In Real Life

Last night’s X-Play brought a welcome surprise when Lawrence Kutner and Cheryl Olsen, authors of Grand Theft Childhood: The Surprising Truth About Violent Video Games and What Parents Can Do, appeared on the show to talk about the whole issue of violent video games. Basically, the “surprising truth” they offer is that violent video games are actually a social tool that bring to people together and kind of put them on the same level with others. The pair also discuss scientific reports often cited by politicians showing a correlation between aggresive behavior and violent video games and notes that the actual experiments performed may not have any application outside of the laboratory. It’s a pretty enlightening discussion overall; hell, I might actually have to pick up their book sometime.

The information on the upcoming Windows XP service pack 3 was broken by Tech ARP. Now they have announced the confirmed features and Released To Manufacturing dates for XP SP3.

Unfortunately, it’s been confirmed that Windows XP Media Center Edition and Windows XP Tablet Edition will not be available in an integrated release. PC gamers running either of these versions of the OS will only be able to update via Windows Update. No CD for you.

Here are the release notes:

• Windows XP Service Pack 3 will contain hotfixes and updates released since Windows XP SP2. It will also include an expanded set of product keys for Windows XP Professional that were originally introduced in Windows XP SP2c.
• Microsoft clarified that there will not be any integrated SP3 release for Windows XP Media Center Edition or Windows XP Tablet Edition. That means you won’t be able to buy or obtain a complete Windows XP Media Center Edition / Tablet Edition SP3 CD. In addition, users of Windows XP Media Center Edition or Windows XP Tablet Edition will only be able to update to Service Pack 3 through Windows Update.
• All languages will now be released in two waves. Earlier, Microsoft said that languages support for Windows XP Service Pack 3 will be released in three waves. What was previously identified as wave 2 and 3 have now been combined into a single wave 2.
• Microsoft has also delayed RTM for Windows XP Service Pack 3 to provide sufficient time to incorporate feedback from the beta testers. (In other words, they can’t make their original deadline!)
• Windows XP SP3 will be an optional supplement for OEMs.
• Existing end item part numbers will continue to be used for Windows XP SP3. New end item part numbers are not being created for Windows XP SP3.

For the RTM dates for your global region, visit Tech ARP.

For all those players out their stubbornly clinging to Windows XP, and there sure are a lot of us, Tech ARP has a tutorial on how to automatically log in. The funny part is that automatic login is a feature on virgin XP before other user logins are added.

While automatically logging in to your system is great for hermits or others who don’t worry about strangers firing up their PC; I can’t recommend it for people in an office, or those who have their computer in a common area of their home. For people who are unconcerned about the security of their systems or have no friends or relatives; you can get detailed directions on automatically logging in to XP on start up from TechARP.

It’s been almost a year since I last heard about this, but it seems the guy who created an “Avatar Machine” machine is back. Marc Owens created this bizarre suit with a camera strapped behind it to conduct a psychological experiment on how people change their behavior when they feel detached from their own bodies. The goggles over his eyes display the camera’s view to mimic the perspective of a third-person video game. Recently, Owens decided to travel to Japan with the suit to walk the streets and, well, pretty much just hassle anyone who wandered by. The video takes a turn for the hilarious though when he’s accosted by some tough Japanese greaser-looking dudes. I’m not really sure though if this experiment proves that people feeling detached from their bodies behave differently or if Owens was just an annoying idiot to begin with.

(Fun Fact: This video is ten times more hilarious with “Greased Lighting” playing in the background.)

Via BoingBoing

Codemasters has entered in to a partnership with RealTime Technology to share software tools. RTT, an automobile and aviation visualisation specialist, brings DeltaGen and RealTrace tools to the table while Codemasters will be sharing its DIRT and Race Driver engine EGO.

“Both companies share common goals, including a passion for technology excellence and attention to detail and quality,” commented Bryan Marshall, chief technical officer at Codemasters.

“These goals are demonstrated equally in such executions as the beauty of realtime ray-traced light clusters in RTT’s DeltaGen software and the mesmerising race action and environmental detail in our own Race Driver: GRID. Any collaboration with RTT that delivers advantageous results for our development pipeline will be immensely valuable.”

RTT’s automobile clients are some of the most prestigious names in the industry including Audi, BMW, DaimlerChrysler, Dodge and Porsche.

“We are really happy to enter this partnership with Codemasters”, said Ludwig A. Fuchs, co-founder and member of the RTT AG Management Board.

“The cooperation is of mutual interest and benefit. Together we can utilise synergies and push forward the boundaries of the 3D realtime visualisation market,” he added.

The competition for the top racing game definitely just got a lot more interesting.

via GamesIndustry.biz

You may have heard of the Novint Falcon controller already. It’s the bizarre-looking gaming controller that users reported could mimic the actual feel of unique textures and objects. The strange device made quite an impression on almost anyone that tried it, but it still seemed like a gimmicky piece of technology that wouldn’t appeal to the gaming community at large. Well, Novint still isn’t giving up on the Falcon, as they’ve reported that they will be licensing several EA titles to make them work with the touch support controller. According to the agreement, Novint will license the games and then develop patches so they work with the controller. Those games will include Madden NFL 08, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08, Need For Speed ProStreet, Battlefield 2, Battlefield 2142, and possibly the next Need For Speed game. To recoup the cost of developing the patches, Novint will also be charging $9.99 for each of them.

To me, this doesn’t change much. The Novint Falcon still seems like a device that is really, really cool, but not something I’d actually buy; $10 fee for patches or not. It’s something I’d want to play around with for a short while, but I couldn’t actually see myself throwing down a lot of money for it. If arcade’s were still thriving, I’d say Novint should probably focus more on getting an arcade game out there with the Falcon built in; but since they’re not, I have no idea what they should do with their incredibly awesome-but-useless technology.

Via Level Up

Some gamers are content to grab a game off the shelf or download it from their console menu and play it. Then there are those few who are PC gamers because they’re never content to leave things as they are. They express their creativity through building fan sites or modding their favorite titles to add extra features or cheats to make their game experience more enjoyable.

Here’s an FYI for all the creative gamers out there on the latest software for your “toolbox”:

• Earthrise Fan Site Kit Earthrise_Fansitekit.zip - Masthead Studios has released the fan site kit for Earthrise, a post-apocalyptic science fiction MMO game.
• TGLEdit .NET (1.0) tgledit.exe - Simple CLI/GUI program for modders, designed primarily for use with windows setups, to update the BC TGL files, during install.
• Bridge Commander Ship Menu Creator (5.5) bcsmc_v5.5.rar - This program is the intended replacement of the BCMP’s ship plugin tool and it now has several modes.
• Mattman’s America’s Army Script Generator (1.0.3.6) script_generator_1036.exe - This is a Admin Forceclass script generator for America’s Army. It will generate scripts of 2000 of any weapon, or combo of weapons.
• Rumblepad 2 Config (V1) rumblepad_2_config.zip - This is a Utility for anyone using a Rumblepad 2 Controller with Quake 4.
• Easy Saber Editing Script (2.0) eses_2.0.zip - This script is very very limited in its capacity on its own, but is actually probably more useful than you would think it is, if you knew how it worked.
• Standard Input Server (RCon chat etc) (0.1) standardinputserver.zip - Ever wondered why one can communicate with a server via RCON, but the clients playing on the server can’t communicate back? Now they can! ….well, in a manner of speaking.
• Jedi Saber Style jedi_saber_style.zip - This is a simple Script MODification born to add on Single Saber Mode the combat animations of the Dual and the Staff Mode.
• Crazy Virs Trainer (last) crazytrainer.rar - Here is a trainer that will allow you to change what is in your garage at any time, as well as give you the ability to teleport, although there are better versions out there there which included other features as well.
• FreeTastic (2.5) freetastic.zip Here is a modfication that will change all of the prices within GTA San Andreas to make them all free. This will also set all of the ammunition so that it will have enough ammo to last for hours without reloading.
• GAMI Installer (German and English) (1.8.2) 4303_gami_installer1_8_2.rar GAMI is a mod installer for GTA San Andreas created by GTA Action.com. There are two languages included German and English. This installer is able to choose every part of mods before you install them.
• IPL Adjuster (3.0) ipl_adjuster_v.3.0.rar This tool will be very useful when a map needs to be moved.
• Trickster Online Fansite Kit Fansite_Kit.zip - Inside you will find official game and production images for Backgrounds, Pets, Characters, Monsters and official trickster Logos!

Have fun and play nice. Check out Gaming Today’s associated File sites for more mods and tools geared towards specific games. Just go to FileFront and click on Network Game Sites on the side bar under our logo to find your favorite game.

When most people get a sore muscle, they tend to relax, try not to strain themselves, and maybe take some ibuprofen. If you’re Dr. Julio Bonis though, you write a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine detailing a new affliction known as “wiiitis.” Ever since Dr. Bonis traced some soreness in his shoulder to a long stretch of Wii Tennis playing, the term seems to have spread through the mainstream media as a “hazard” of too much time spent with Nintendo’s console. And now it seems the affliction is undergoing close analysis for the purposes of an article in another medical journal, this time the May issue of Skeletal Radiology. The article covers the case of a healthy 22-year old with “wiiitis” who undergoes treatment, which includes an MRI scan. After all this, what they determine was the cause of “wiiitis?”

“[L]ittle resistance is offered by the light 200 g handheld controller to the aggressive maneuvers made by the participant, which may lead to awkward deceleration forces being applied to the upper extremity…. It is likely that, during the deceleration phase of swinging the Wii controller, there is significant eccentric loading on the participant’s muscle groups, causing the ultrastructural damage, as demonstrated in this case.”

I’m not very good with “science speak,” but I think they’re basically saying that you get sore because your putting the same force into swinging the Wii-mote that you might for something a bit heavier, like a tennis racket or a golf club. Of course that doesn’t change the fact that I didn’t really care at all about this to begin with.

Via GameCritics

Gamer Doc, a new video game retailer on the block, is ready to reveal new store prototypes at this year’s International Franchise Expo. These stores are supposedly tailored to gamers, offering customers a new interactive experience.

“Our store design is a new innovation in retail,” said Jim Belanger, president of Gamer Doc. “Customers can come into the store and have the kind of personal shopping experience they want. They can come in and make a purchase, browse the latest and upcoming titles, try out, trade-in, rent or pre-order games, or have repairs made with as much or as little assistance as they like. Each customer is in charge of their own shopping experience.”

Gamer Doc franchisees will be able to choose one of three themes for their store; a burned-out building, a futuristic, or a character theme. Although themes will very, all the layouts will be familiar to gamers from store to store. Two “Pro Gamer” pods are stationed at the front with “Gamer Centers” with consoles and video games as well as flat-panel monitors for trying games. There will also be a used game section in each store.

“Our franchisees have the best understanding of how customer preferences vary by local markets. We want the franchisees to choose the theme for their store interior design that best fits their location,” Belanger said. “We believe that this concept will create a lot of excitement and generate a ton of interest in Gamer Doc at the show.”

Gamer Doc has sold franchises in Orange County, California; Tampa/St. Petersburg and Orlando/Daytona Beach, Florida.

via Area Developer

According to the findings of Jane Barnett and her colleagues at Middlesex University, people who play violent games online actually feel more relaxed and less angry after they have played.The psychologists recruited 292 male and female online gamers, playing World of Warcraft. The players, aged between 12 and 83 years, were asked to complete a questionnaire on anger, aggression and personality and then played the game for two hours. After this time they were they were asked to complete the test again.

The psychologists found overall that the gamers were more likely to feel calm or tired after playing– but there were differences depending on sex, age and personality.

According to Barnett:

“There were actually higher levels of relaxation before and after playing the game as opposed to experiencing anger but this did very much depend on personality type. This will help us to develop a emotion and gaming questionnaire to help distinguish the type of gamer who is likely to transfer their online aggression into everyday life.”

The results were presented at the British Psychological Society’s Annual Conference in Dublin today.

Its about time someone set the record straight. It is nice to know that hacking, slashing, seeing blood splatters, watching an orc get his head chopped off and griefing fellow players in a violent PvP match is the equivalent of chicken noodle soup for the soul.

Be sure to check back with us because I am sure there will be more on this in the not so distant future.

Via: Press Release

Clara Byrd Baker Elementary School’s Lego Club in James City County, Virginia used one of Johnny Chung Lee’s video tutorials to create a multi-touch whiteboard tool for their school. Not only did they learn a lot about practical science, they saved their school over $800.

“Not only did these students get an outstanding lesson in technology creativity, they have actually helped lead the way, inspired by Mr. Chung, in demonstrating how to create an extremely useful classroom tool from ordinary household items at a fraction of the cost of a commercially made product,” Mathews said. “This was a significant achievement both instructionally and technologically.”

Using video game technology to get kids interested in science is a fantastic technique. It’s a testament to Chung that his how-to video is done well enough that his projects can be replicated in an elementary classroom. Gaming Today has previously featured Chung’s instructions on using the Wii-mote to create a virtual desktop.

via dailypress.com

Whether retrocomputing appeals to your sense of nostalgia or is a challenge to your skills, PC World has a series that aims to teach the curious and tech savvy how to code their own video game/computer emulators. Part One starts out talking about the appeal of going back to simpler times when 64K was a huge amount of memory.

This article hits all the basics on how rudimentary computers work and describes what an interpretive emulator must accomplish. Part two will go into how to program emulators for specific systems and peripherals.

This a fun series for those of us who grew up with these systems as well as for those who are interested in the history of the PC.

via PC World 

DARPA, the Pentagon’s blue sky science and technology division, see a future in which soldiers will see an information augmented world through contact lenses that provide readouts similar to those in first-person shooters. The agency’s Information Processing Techniques Office has sent out word that it requires plans for “the creation of micro- and nano-scale display technologies for the purpose of creating displays that could be worn as transparent contact lenses.”

DARPA seeks to leap beyond incremental, evolutionary enhancement of head-mounted display technologies to a see-through contact lens on which images can be displayed. This information might be command-and-control information, not unlike information provided to players of first-person, shooter-type videogames or synthetic entities and effects in a live training environment.

What’s most fascinating about this concept is the future that DARPA refers to is only 3-5 years away. University of Washington researchers are already working on a similar project; a “contact lens assembled with functional circuitry and LED.” They already have a prototype lens-embedded antenna that uses radio frequencies to power the gadget.

This is really fascinating stuff here. You can get the full details on Wired.