Word is out that Microsoft is developing a camera  to bring motion sensitive controls to the Xbox 360. The camera uses 3D technology for more accurate control than previous cameras. Unlike the Wii, the camera would allow hands free control using gestures of the hands, legs, and head.

Supposedly the official announcement may come as early as E3. Of course Microsoft has declined to confirm or deny these rumors. You can read the full article in the Wall Street Journal.

Developing motion sensitive controls  is a natural step towards cashing in on the growing market of casual gamers. I don’t think that anyone can deny that graphics on the 360 are superior by far to the Wii. It’s been my experience that many flashy Wii titles eventually sit on the shelf collecting dust as casual gamers learn to appreciate more complex games; kind of like trading in twinkies for steak. Hopefully in the end Microsoft can do its part to convert the casual gamers of the world.

If your looking for a good reason to play the Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen videogame, listen up. Composers Steve Jablonsky and Bobby Tahouri are collaborating with electronica artists Julien-K on the soundtrack. These musical masters have put the excitement in several familiar movie and videogame soundtracks.

You’ve probably heard Jablonski’s work on both the latest Transformers live action movies. If you haven’t seen them, you may have listened to his hard driving score while beating down the Locust Hordes in Gears of War 2. Tahouri worked on the Iron Man film soundtrack and Julien-K was featured on the 2007 Transformers movie with their track “Technical Difficulties.”

More details on these artists and the Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen videogame follow the break.

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Next to zombies, there is nothing as cool as giant robots. This is an opinion no one should deny and in the case of old time Mechwarrior players like myself the thought of another game set in FASA’s galaxy of conflict, ploitical intrigue and 100 Ton walking death machines is a dream come true. While FASA and its video game legacy is little more than a tale of legend and myth for most gamers these days it appears some of our prayers for a resurrection of the setting are being answered thanks to a group of dedicated modders.

Mechwarrior: Living Legends is a total conversion modification of the original Crysis that is poised to take the goregous but shallow first person shooter and inject it with some death from above, PPC wielding, Battletech action. While the mod is still in the development stage at this point, the April/May update shows just how much progress the team has made recently. Among the newsbits are revelations and art for the upcoming game including a look at the Clan Mad Cat Mk II, and the Inner Sphere Bushwacker. The update also features some updated screens from the dev team’s weekly playtest and shows off not just the mecha love but also some of the armored vehicles included in the game.

While its not the first game to feature both mech and vehicles in playable form (Infocom’s Cresent Hawk’s Revenge had both), it is definitely the first time one of the Mechwarrior -type games has allowed infanty, vehicle and mecha combat all on the same battlefield. You can read the full update here, and stick around to check out all the Battletech goodness on the mod’s home website.

WarCraft III: The Frozen Throne is debuting as the official game for World Cyber Games 2009. Gamers will battle one-on-one for the world of Azeroth in this real time strategy. WCG has announced the official tournament rules and regulations including changes for Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, Starcraft: Brood War, TrackMania Nations Forever, and FIFA ‘09. This year’s Grand Final is scheduled for November 11-15, in Chengdu, China.
This year’s full lineup is listed in official press release following the break.

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Just a minute, I’ve got to adjust my soapbox before I talk about comparing playing violent videogames with accepting torture.

As the battle over torture rages through the media, Huffington Post columnist Kari Henley has taken the opportunity to  blame the acceptance of torture by some US citizens on violent videogames and other media. She insinuates that you can’t have both videogames and morals in her post “America Doesn’t Torture… We just play Grand Theft Auto “.

“I believe if we are going to truly come to terms with abiding by moral codes against extreme acts of violence, we first have to start in our own living rooms to explore the increased levels of violence we witness on a daily basis that serves as news or entertainment. We say we “don’t f**#$ torture,” yet Grand Theft Auto is our favorite video game.”

After raging on about the depravity of popular adult television series and movies, Henley once again lashes out at mature rated videogames labeling them trainers designed to turn children into killers.

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“Come on, dood. You know FF7 is teh greatest RPG evar!!!! Noob!”

If you’ve have been gaming for a while (long enough to self-appoint yourself the title of “gamer”), then you’ve undoubtedly involved yourself, involuntary or not, in heated debates over what you consider the “top-ten” or “greatest” video games of all time. Whether you want to admit it or not, you’ve also probably spent a great deal of energy standing your ground on the subject.

If these debates prove anything, it’s that gamers are passionate when it comes to defending their ideology of what transcends greatness.

Following up on a recent taping of X-play, Adam Sessler and Mythic Entertainment’s Paul Barnett (Warhammer Online) vent out against being repeatedly asked “What is your favorite game of all time”? While both parties make excellent points regarding how these so-called “bestest game evar!” arguments consistently devolve into mere mudslinging, I get the impression that Paul is irritated the most by this.

So it begs the question, are top-ten lists of all time truly backed by passion? Or is it just blind nostalgia?

Perhaps one may find enlightenment from “The Sess” by watching the video after the break.

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There is one role that every player and game master takes on while playing a traditional RPG or wargame whether they know it or not – the role of teacher. No one enters the gaming hobby initially fully burst from the head of Zeus with the complete knowledge and understanding of any RPG system ever created… we have to learn them as we go. We learn to read the vast tomes of knowledge, listen to our companions and by playing and observing the choices and decisions of our gaming partners and our fearless storyteller. Our opinions on a system is just as easily colored by the actions of our fellow gamers as it is by any flaw in a rule system.

Too many times over the years I’ve ended up on the topic of role playing games and immediately the other member of the conversation will mention that “I played that once in high school/college/the military” and when I follow up with the next logical question: “Why did you stop?” half the time or more I get the “The guy/gal running things left.” While not every player is a future dungeon master, it says something to me that in many cases the person running the game becomes the glue with which these social gaming units are held fast and the cohesion of that unit is often not supported by the people who are enjoying it so much.

Role Playing games (or just about any hobby game including miniatures) require an atmosphere where players are introduced to a game or system or story and then helped along in creation of their character avatars. The process of making that connection can be very unique and is often the very point where a player will decide if gaming is for them or not. One bad experience, one unreasonable limitation or response from a dungeon master or fellow player will color the new folk on how long they will often spend in this hobby. A string of these things will eliminate all but the most determined. Often players rely on the storyteller to mitigate the rough edges of a gaming session without truly taking on the role of mentor or advocate for the newer players.
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The Lord of the Rings Online (LotRO) differs from many of its MMORPG peers in that the game itself is built upon the concept of friends partying together to face the rising tide of evil. While we’ve seen this same reasoning in other Fantasy MMO games there are not any that have as well developed a system of party teamwork.

Sure, various class/race builds make more optimal parties in WoW for grinding or questing or even instances, but one area that The Lord of the Rings Online shines is in encouraging players to band together and then rewarding them with a key party cooperation system during combat.

This system, called Fellowship Maneuvers or Conjunctions, allows players to initiate group only combination attacks against powerful mobs and foes. The official LotRO website has a lengthy article up explaining how the system works and highlighting why certain powers or classes work to trigger these event altering acts and aid groups of players in overcoming normally overwhelming odds. Players can learn how the colored buttons in the Maneuver interface merge in combination to result in special results, how Fellowship Maneuver formulas are created and optimized and get some basic guidelines on when certain moves are best executed.

As a long term LotRO player I know in the heat of battle we’re often calling out the colors based on what result we need, everyone yelling Red or Green seems to be the most common but with properly applied formulas I’m confident we’ll be taking down the Witch King’s henchmen in no time without earning ourselves that dreadful repair bill after falling in battle.

Ok, technically managing a young nude model is not the same as pimping, but am I the only person who thinks there is a similarity here? Probably not.

Jolt games sent us a comely little press release filled with informative points about their upcoming Massively Casual Online Game (MCOG) collaboration with the Playboy skin empire err.. media company. Playboy Manager puts players in the role of a “talent agent” managing the career of some of Playboy’s up-and-coming models.  The whole world it seems will be able to realize their dreams of promoting a girl to that pinnacle of feminine achievement – a permanent room at the Playboy Mansion under the watchful eye of a geriatric Hugh Hefner and among those “Girls next door”.

We’ve wanted to do a Playboy game forever,” exclaimed Dylan Collins, CEO of Jolt. “As enormous fans of the articles, we jumped at the opportunity to bring the game online for a huge audience. Who hasn’t wanted to manage a Playboy model?”

Not to rain on Jolt’s parade.. but I’ve never even considered managing a young model.. Date them? Sure! Be their manager? Not so much.

The interesting tidbits in the release concern the gameplay of this game. Supposedly it will combine the best elements of trading card and turn-based gaming, can be run in a browser window, and will be mobile ready for all the pervy web enabled phone users out there.

The game is free to play but will include subscription only options and all the scantily clad airbrushed artificially enhanced young ladies you can shake a.. (err I probably shouldn’t go any further with that cliche) expect from a product that is fully supported by the legacy of tasteful Playboy photography and provocative and informative editorial content.

You can, if you so choose, read the lascivious details and an additional image of a Playboy-related nature after the jump.

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I talk weekly about the convergence of pen-and-paper gaming with the digital game space of video games but today I get to announce a convergence going in the opposite direction.. Green Ronin, publishers of the popular Mutants & Masterminds, True 20 and the current publisher of The Song of Ice and Fire RPG just announced that they will be taking the world of BioWare’s forthcoming Dragon Age: Origins and converting it into a traditional RPG.

Dragon Age, often referred to in hype releases as “the spiritual successor to Baldur’s Gate” (BioWare’s original Fantasy RPG based upon the Dungeons & Dragons Forgotten Realms settings), will be getting a “box set” release in the summer meant to introduce both the world of Thedas (Dragon Age’s setting) and the concepts of traditional role playing to video game fans.

“We’re delighted to be working with Green Ronin to explore more of the Dragon Age universe through a pen and paper role-playing game. We’re excited to deliver Dragon Age’s unique dark, heroic fantasy to our audience in a brand new way—a perfect complement to the landmark game we’re launching on PC, Xbox 360, and PLAYSTATION 3 this fall,” said Dr. Ray Muzyka, General Manager and CEO, BioWare and General Manager and Vice President, EA. “Our development teams craft rich, deep worlds, and this is an excellent way to expand the franchise.”

This is not the first RPG setting to make the transition from video game to paper – previously Everquest, Diablo, Starcraft and World of Warcraft have gotten a conversion to traditional RPG products at Wizards of the Coast and with White-Wolf’s Sword and Sorcery imprint. While none of those settings are still in active development this is the first time I can recall that an in-development video game property is getting a tabletop treatment before its even been released.

Who knows, maybe if Dragon Age grabs its audience Green Ronin and BioWare can negotiate to bring Mass Effect to pen-and-paper RPGs as well. I’d be first in line for a game based on that setting. Dragon Age feel like more of the same Tolkien derivative fantasy at this point unfortunately. You can read the full details of the press release after the jump.

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