Blockbuster announces new initiative, looks to game hardware sales
[Via Joystiq, image courtesy of Portfolio]
Posts with tag videogames
Proving that children and the elderly are not the only groups seeing benefits from Nintendo's Wii, a study on a small group of surgeons who had practiced gaming with a modified controller showed them to achieve significantly more improvement on a standard simulator procedure than did a corresponding group of control subjects. Study author Kanav Kahol worked with Dr. Marshall Smith of the Banner Health hospital chain to build a special Wiimote attachment (read: broken golf club add on + laparoscopic probe) that eight surgical residents used to play Marble Mania and the full suite of Wii Play games. The gamers were then pitted against eight of their less-fortunate colleagues in a computer-simulated laparoscopic procedure, and managed to attain 48% higher scores, on average, than the non-gamers. Unfortunately, games involving broader motions such as tennis or boxing are said to be less suitable for this sort of training, make a total liar out of your doctor the next time you catch him "honing up on the latest techniques" by playing Wii Golf.
This isn't the first time we've seen video games and VR in particular applied to medicine, but this is certainly the boldest claim we've heard yet. According some research done on chronic pain sufferers up at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada, test subjects who were playing VR games were more comfortable than participants who were on pain meds alone. That might sound like a no brainer, but the researchers are saying that video games apparently have the potential of providing a safe, partial alternative to addictive medicine, boring counseling and lame-sauce physical therapy. Sounds like a miracle cure, but who are we to argue with Canada's finest?
It looks like Intel has some fairly big ideas of its own about the future of video games, at least if some comments Intel Chief Technology Officer Justin Rattner recently made to BusinessWeek are any indication. As the magazine reports, he said that Intel imagines that "some future generation of [Nintendo's] Wii won't have hand controllers," adding that, in their place, you'd "just set up the cameras around the room and wave your hand like you're playing tennis." Naturally, that mythical system would also be based on Intel processors (specifically, ones that can perform more than 1 trillion calculations per second), which Intel has apparently already talked to some unspecified video game console makers about using. No word if they've had any takers, of course, though we suspect at least some of them may be a little hesitant about the prospect of folks flailing their entire body around the room instead of just a controller.
In what's probably the appropriate legal move given the situation -- but what will probably not earn the company any warm fuzzies -- Microsoft is asking the U.S. Central Court for Central Illinois to dismiss that wrongful death lawsuit filed by the parents of young Wade Kline, arguing that "misuse or abuse" of the family Xbox was the cause of the deadly blaze. Specifically, Redmond claims that the suit, which also names Wal-mart and and an anonymous power-supply maker, lacks merit because the Klines "knowingly, willingly, intentionally, and voluntarily exposed themselves to said danger and assumed the risk of incident, injuries, losses, and damages" -- though it's not really clear what "danger" they're referring to. Besides looking to clear its good name, Microsoft also wants the now house-less family to cover its likely-steep legal costs, which probably won't do much to win back the Klines as return customers. We'll keep you posted as the case progresses.
A brand new US study in the vein of "wasn't that already completely obvious?" has revealed that boys and girls who play video games on school days do less homework and reading than those straight edge kids who swear off the stuff altogether. Boys average 30 percent less time spent studying, while girls drop off 34 percent. The good news is that video games didn't negatively impact quality family time or get in the way of sports and other such activities. Is that so? Apparently WoW players were not represented in this poll, most likely because they couldn't be bothered to put that raid on hold to answer a few questions. Speaking of... we'll be right back... after we do something very important and serious.
If you've been thinking lately that your video game habit is getting a bit excessive, don't worry. According to reports this week, doctors backed away from a proposal that would have designated certain types of video gaming as a mental disorder (similar to alcoholism or gambling addiction) -- so you can rest easy knowing that whatever it is that you're doing to yourself probably isn't that big of a deal. We attempted to speak to two avid gamers concerning the decision, but one was busy fighting Razorgore the Untamed in WoW, and the other claimed that he didn't have a problem and could quit whenever he wanted.It looks like the long wait is over for Guitar Hero fans impatient to get their thrash on with the currently Hero-less PlayStation 3, as a new USB adapter from Pelican promises to succeed where others have floundered and enable controllers from both PlayStation 2 versions to work on the newest console. As you may recall, the compatibility problem arises from the guitars' lack of the PS button required to start PSone and PS2 games on the PS3; Pelican's adapter addresses this issue by sporting a PS button of its own, along with three LEDs to indicate whether the unit is in regular, Guitar Hero left, or Guitar Hero right mode. Sounds pretty snazzy, and if it works as promised, may allow you to finally retire the old PS2 once and for all.
[Via Joystiq]
It looks like Microsoft has decided to return some of its record-breaking profits back to the consumer in the form of a free Xbox 360 Hard Drive Transfer Kit for Elite owners -- although some will look at this gesture as less of a gift (being that it could have just been included in the box with all Elites) and more of a hassle to get a one-time-use product that already comes bundled with the standalone 120GB drive. Interested parties can grab the necessary form by following the Read link, but you'll need the serial numbers of both 360s to qualify, so if you were just looking for a free cable to tie up your pets or friends, you're out of luck. [Warning: PDF link]








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