Army looking for Helm of Telepathy… +2.

Some of you may be in the know in regards to the announced launch of a “mind reading” headset by a company called NeuroSky.  The headset, cleverly called the Mindset, will allow players to use only their thoughts, some of us call them brainwaves, to control the action on screen.  What many of you might not know is that the new technology has peaked the interest of good ol’ Uncle Sam.

That’s right, the United States Army has a keen interest in the way the headset functions and wants something similar built into troop helmets.  Only they want theirs to be able to let their troops communicate with one another quickly without the use of speech instead of controlling an on screen avatar.  The idea is for troops to be able to think a message to a teammate in the form of a text message, voice mail, or, if at all possible, straight into their head.

An Army grant, of an as yet undisclosed amount, has been awarded to three institutions; the University of Maryland, the Carnegie Mellon University, and the University of California, Irvine.  The first step in the research is to come up with a way to compose a message using on thought processes while the second phase will actually focus on sending that message to a person or object, for instance, another soldier or a radio or text device.

The technology, known as synthetic telepathy is nothing new and has certainly been something scientists have worked on over the years.  But with the success of recent companies in the field, namely NeuroSky and Japan’s Keio University, we may be closer to “mental cellphones” than we think.

Mike D’Zmura from the University of California, Irvine and the lead scientist on the research project certainly seems to be leaning towards the less militant applications of the technology should the project be successful, stating, “It will take a lot of research, and a lot of time, but there are also a lot of commercial applications, not just military applications”.

Certainly the military uses would be limited but the commercial applications could be limitless.  Mental emails, nonverbal communication with your co-workers…  Mental Spam from advertisers.  Hey, I’m just thinking out loud here.  And you might be as well if this project pans out.

On the other hand, maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad thing if it gave us a heads up on what our women folk were thinking…  Now *that’s* a practical application!

 

Gritskrieg – End of Line

A Force Unleashed Movie?

Rumors are spreading of an upcoming film set in the Star Wars world based on the latest LucasArts game The Force Unleashed. This flick would be covering events that took place between Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and Episode IV: A New Hope. In a quick gist it’s  the story of the secret apprentice of Darth Vader, dispatched by the Sith Lord to wipe out the few remaining Jedi, which survived the post-Clone Wars purge.

Considering that a new movie would probably be more of CG rendition, I’m not sure. Yeah the art was fantastic but we all know the series was lacking some of things we were used to seeing. Come on George, vindicate your fans. Give us a live action film and a new cast. We want it.

Gmail should get a prize for this.

Have you ever “drunk dialed”, “texted”, or “emailed” someone you shouldn’t have?

Yeah it can be kind of a hassle when you wake the next morning after sending a message to some girl you probably shouldn’t have sent because you were highly inebriated… and you know how YOU can get when you’ve had a couple…. and have to do damage control the next day. Hey we’ve all been there (if it’s one thing we at busygamer do, its drink waaaay too much and say things we shouldnt.)

So now Gmail has this nifty feature called “Google Goggles” This lets repeat offenders *Ahem* (we started a support group in the office) set up their preferences for the hours you may need them most (the hours you are more likely to be drunk and not in your right mind), Google Goggles will make you figure out a series of math problems to make sure you are in your right state of mind.

I would like to see this done for Ebay (I have a habit of bidding on ridiculous star wars merch at 2 in the morning

I would LOVE to see this feature added to a phone for SMS text messages. Geez that would save about 90% of us out there.

Think your last breakup was bad?

This couple got divorced.

They sawed their house in HALF

Next time, just let her take those Prince records, you don’t need them anyway

 Timothy Danger

www.busygamer.com

Microsoft wants a piece of Japan, Godzilla says room for only one giant on the island

So Microsoft was at the Tokyo Game Show (surprise, surprise) and has announced that it will be releasing games developed by top Japanese developers for the Xbox 360.  I’m confused by the announcement, however.  I mean, could they have gone over there and done differently?  Maybe they could have gone all the way to Japan and announced that they were going to completely forego Japanese developers and go with, I dunno…  top Swedish game developers.

 

Yes, there’s just a tiny bit of sarcasm here and for good reason.  You see, the next release of Final Fantasy will be coming out on the Xbox 360.  Just not in Japan.

 

Take a moment to let this sink in.

 

Microsoft, the company trying desperately to compete in the Japanese console market against Nintendo and Sony, finally lands one of the most coveted console titles of all times and then turns around and doesn’t launch it in the place that birthed the title.  I’m having a hard time imagining what the business reasons behind this thinking must be.

 

Maybe they’re waiting to see what Sony will bring to the table so they can top it with extra features but seeing as how it will still be under the control of Square Enix, I can’t see that happening.  It seems to me that it’s a major flaw in their battle plan though.  They haven’t quite reached a million consoles sold in the Land of the Rising Sun and they’re bypassing what could potentially be a big reason for some holdouts to finally pick up their system.

 

Maybe they’re holding out to see if GTA IV is going to drive sales of their console or if Square Enix’s Dragon Quest will help out.  Again, those don’t seem like good reasons to hold off on the launch of one of the top selling franchises of all time in its own backyard.  Call me kooky…

 

When questioned about the lack of the title’s launch in Japan, John Schappert, the vice president of interactive entertainment declined to comment.  It wasn’t that he didn’t have something to say about it, he flat out declined to comment.  Wow.  Keep in mind that Mr. Schappert is the gentleman making the big announcement that the “Xbox 360 is the platform best equipped to help Japanese publishers succeed on a global basis”.

 

Globally, perhaps.  Back home, not so much.

 

Gritskrieg – End of Line

New Nintendo DSi on the way

Unless you just don’t care about handheld gaming or you’ve been in an internet-less hole for a while, the big news last week was Nintendo’s announcement of the upcoming Nintendo DSi.  Among the list of improvements listed were bigger screens, which I like, a music player, which I think is kind of cool, and a… camera.  Not caring so much about the camera over here.  I have a camera that’s just a camera, I have a camera on my cell phone, I even have a webcam.  I really don’t think I need another camera.

 

Another addition to the DSi is the SD card slot which I assume will be where you’ll store pictures, music, and downloadable content.  But I notice the distinct lack of a GameBoy Advance slot for older games.  Maybe I’m the only hold out but I have a decent library of GBA games that still see considerable play time on long trips or doctor visits so the loss of the slot doesn’t thrill me.

 

I understand that Nintendo wants to increase their dominance over the PSP.  I understand that they want to play in the field being dominated by Apple’s iPod market.  I even understand that they’re trying to give DS owners new toys with the music and photo editor that is supposedly built in to the DSi.  My problem here is that I would like to see them build in some functionality with the Wii.

 

There, I said it.  I’d like to see a version of the DS that builds on the ingenuity of the Wii.  I want to see card games on the Wii that let me and my friends gather around the TV with our DS systems and see our hands on them, and never on the TV, without having to buy a separate game on the DS.  I want to see games for the Wii that use the DS as the controller allowing me to manage inventory or look at maps on my DS without ever pulling anything up on the main screen.

 

I want to use my DS to send secret messages to a friend in the same room when we’re playing a competitive game against other players in that same room.  I want to be able to walk away from the Wii and play mini-games on my DS that help build up my character in an RPG.  It doesn’t seem like that much of a stretch to me.

 

So why aren’t they trying to build a connection between the two systems?  It isn’t like you would have to use your DS as a controller.  It isn’t as if they didn’t take a big enough gamble on the Wii-mote controllers as the main controller for their games.  Take that extra step, go that extra mile, give us the DS-Wii compatibility.  Call it a DWiib.

 

I respect what they’re trying to do and I want them to continue to build on the DS platform but I think it’s time to take a serious look at integrating the DS with their home console and give us the functionality in that department.

 

Of course, I might be the only one.

 

Gritskrieg – End of Line

Hey Ma… I brought home a stripper and an Ig Nobel Prize

Why worry about the ecomomy, various uncurable diseases, and the problems of the world? We heard Cola was a contraceptive and just had to learn if it was true.

A list of Ig Nobel Prize winners was posted on the net.  Here are the winners:

Nutrition: Massimiliano Zampini and Charles Spence for demonstrating that food tastes better when it sounds better

Peace: The Swiss Federal Ethics Committee on Non-Human Biotechnology and the citizens of Switzerland for adopting the legal principle that plants have dignity.

Archaeology: Astolfo Gomes de Mello Araujo and Jose Carlos Marcelino for showing armadillos can scramble the contents of an archaeological dig

Biology: Marie-Christine Cadiergues, Christel Joubert and Michel Franc for discovering that fleas that live on a dog can jump higher than fleas that live on a cat.

Medicine: Dan Ariely for demonstrating that expensive fake medicine is more effective than cheap fake medicine

Cognitive science: Toshiyuki Nakagaki, Hiroyasu Yamada, Ryo Kobayashi, Atsushi Tero, Akio Ishiguro and Agota Toth for discovering that slime molds can solve puzzles

Economics: Geoffrey Miller, Joshua Tyber and Brent Jordan for discovering that exotic dancers earn more when at peak fertility.

Physics: Dorian Raymer and Douglas Smith for proving that heaps of string or hair will inevitably tangle.

Chemistry: Sheree Umpierre, Joseph Hill and Deborah Anderson for discovering that Coca-Cola is an effective spermicide, and C.Y. Hong, C.C. Shieh, P. Wu and B.N. Chiang for proving it is not

Literature: David Sims for his study “You Bastard: A Narrative Exploration of the Experience of Indignation within Organizations”

Take Two vs. Electronic Arts

I tend to root for the underdog.  Not in all things but I do have this uncanny knack for backing the guy who doesn’t look to have a chance of winning.  So it shouldn’t be a surprise when I tell you I was hoping Take Two would tell Electronic Arts to take a hike.  Take Two might be a multi million dollar underdog with a hot property on its hands but they’re still the underdog.

The whole thing started off wrong…  Electronic Arts hostile bid for Take Two stock was an indication of how the whole “negotiation” was going to unfold.  When EA decides they want something, they generally try to take it.  And then when the hostile bid failed, they came and offered pretty much the same thing they were offering when they were trying to make the hostile bid.  That part didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me.

EA has a bad reputation when it comes to getting what it wants.  EA decided they should be the only company making NFL games, so they negotiated an exclusive deal with the NFL to be the only company with the right to use the likenesses and names of the players in the league.  And somehow this was a good idea for the NFL.  So now Madden is the only NFL licensed game on the market.  This doesn’t lend itself to a competitive market. 

In my opinion, Take Two’s publishing rights for the Grand Theft Auto franchise are worth more than the $2 billion offered.  GTA IV did $500 million in sales in the first week.  It’s sold over 6 million copies to date with a PC version launching in November and the game’s launch in Japan taking place some time in the first fiscal quarter of 2009.  And that’s just for one game in the series.

Analysts may disagree with Take Two’s decision to turn down EA’s offer.  They may say it will hurt them in the long run.  In the end, I think it’s going to come down to whether or not Take Two can continue to produce quality titles for the GTA franchise.  If they can, it was the right choice.  If they can’t, well, there’s a ton of fans out here who aren’t going to be too forgiving, EA deal or not.

I’ve been rooting for you so far, Take Two.  I’m one of those fans.  Don’t let me down.

The slow death of “Setec Astronomy”

Kudos to you if you know the origins of “Setec Astronomy”.

For those of you not in the know, it’s an anagram for “Too many secrets” and bears explanation as to why I chose to include it in the title of the post…

In the days before high speed data connections, search engines, and the free and unfettered exchange of ideas on the Internet, the process of discovery within games was a much more painful, yet rewarding, ordeal. Foes were defeated by trial and error, paths were discovered by intense explorations, and beating a game felt like a true adventure.

But now? Well, with each new game there’s a guide that can be purchased almost before the launch that will hold your hand and wipe your nose for you. Games are out a mere 24 hours before online walkthroughs are available to be viewed by any who wish to do so. Why figure out how to beat that boss on level four when a young man from Boise has already done it and posted it to the Internet?

One of my fondest gaming memories is of a old title. You “yungins” wouldn’t even know about Ultima IV. Cruthcboy and I figured that game out from scratch, making our way through the world, feverishly writing our discoveries in spirals so we could compare notes the next day in school. While we were technically sharing information, it was nothing like the scale on which it is being shared in today’s gaming world. We shared in one another’s triumphs and learned from one another’s mistakes and when we beat that game, it was one of the geekiest moments of my life. A geekgasm if you will.

To this day, I revel in the discovery and exploration of games. It’s part of the reason I came up with the Busy Gamer concept. But as the guides, walkthroughs, and cheats become more prevalent, the game companies focus more on the “twitch” levels to keep us entertained rather than the discovery portion. People post spoilers in forums, brag about beating games like Mass Effect in 10 hours, or simply don’t purchase games that require more than a few moments thought.

Not getting the gist of what I’m saying? Type “Too many secrets” or “Setec Astronomy” in your favorite search engine and see how long it takes you to figure out where I get that particular anagram from… Ah, how glorious the information age. Now give me back my Ultima IV geekgasm.

Put down your controller for a few…

In lieu of the possible imminent devastation of Ikey Fo Fikey, we took today off. Oh yeah most of our staff and some of the models live about 40 miles from the Gulf of Mexico, so keep them and their families in your thoughts.

-Scotty aka Crutchboy & the BusyGamer.com Crew
www.busygamer.com