Tag: Gaming

His name is Nicolas “Olive Branch” Ha. No, he’s not a member of some underground fight club. But if you’re a gamer, you can thank Nicholas because he has saved you from having to do a bit of research.

A couple of years ago we saw a Portal-themed bedroom that a father made for his son. Accountant/interior design nut/test subject Lauren recently shared her take on a Portal-themed bedroom on Reddit. It’s neat, creepy and very geeky.

A dumpster-looking personal fortress of solitude where you can play games in total privacy? Count me in. “The Box” is a custom-built personal gaming chamber for those who have no friends and want none.

Video games are gleefully free from the shackles of realism, but in order to establish a rapport with us they sometimes borrow from our world. Take food for instance. Games use them as restorative items, as power ups, as lies.

If you’re one of the vast number of people who backed the Ouya game console when it was on Kickstarter, another bit of bad news has turned up. The company has announced that it has again delayed the launch of the Android-powered game console.

Last year we saw Critical Hit Collectibles’ glow-in-the-dark Life Bar necklace. The Etsy shop is now selling a necklace containing the other half of the RPG staple. When you wear this, I hope you have a fun time explaining to non-gamers that your name isn’t “Mana.”

A few units of the much hyped Oculus Rift 3D headset are now in the hands of developers and testers. But Stefan Welker wants you to know that if you have a modern Android smartphone, you already have half of a 3D head-mounted display.

You may recall back in March when we first talked about the Stinky Gaming Footboard. This device is a video game controller that is specifically made to allow you to use your feet for control input.

Earlier this year Microsoft introduced IllumiRoom, a prototype technology that augments TVs and other displays by projecting room-filling visuals that complement what is being shown on the screen. Microsoft Research recently released a video that explains the basics of IllumiRoom.

Nintendo has announced a major update to its Wii U game console. The new update is available to download right now and adds a bunch of refinements and enhancements to the console’s operating software.

You know you’re getting old when you start thinking how something was better back in the day. Programmer Hugues Johnson was in placed that mood recently when he wrote about the history of the Legend of Zelda series.

Cooler Master has announced a new gaming keyboard that has those clicky mechanical keys that gamers know and love. Clicky keys are also favored by touch typists thanks to nice tactile feedback and the fact that the clicky clacking can drive your cubicle mates insane.

I don’t really care much for tactile feedback in videogames, but if you’re into that sort of immersion, Tactical Haptics is working on a device that’s right up your alley. At the 2013 Game Developers Conference, the company showed off a prototype motion controller with a unique haptic feedback system.

If the folks behind Sandboxr have their way, someday you won’t have to wait or hunt for figurines of your favorite game character. You’ll just log in to a website or even a mobile app, pick the character and order a 3D printed statue of it.

Foot-based controllers are nothing new; perhaps the most famous example would be the dance pads for Dance Dance Revolution games. Some of you may also remember Nintendo’s Power Pad, which was introduced back in the late 80s.

There’ve been some very cool PC games of launched over the last several months. One of the games that is the most demanding of computer hardware is the recently released Crysis 3. If you want to play that game with all the visual bells and whistles turned on, you need a seriously powerful computer.