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Play Gerard Butler in Gamer
In the horrifying world of the film Gamer, sweatpants-wearing nobodies are given the ability to control actual prisoners in the world's most visceral first-person shooter. That's right, someone's finally taken the leap and mixed The Most Dangerous Game with The Wizard and InnerSpace. Oh, and they put Gerard Butler in it!We especially enjoy the film's official description which says its "set in a near future when gaming and entertainment have evolved into a terrifying new hybrid." Wait, gaming and entertainment? Together? What hath God wrought?
New movie shows a grisly future for MMOs
Kotaku are reporting that the trailer for a new game related movie have been released. Simply called Gamer, which is a change from it's original name of Game. It stars Gerard Butler, whose film credits range from a high of starring in 300, through the cult favorite Reign of Fire, and down to the less impressive films such as the title role in Dracula 2000. It is set in a future where a millionaire Ken Castle (Michael C. Hall of Dexter fame) has created a massively popular multi-player online game called Slayers in which hundreds of people battle. The twist is that the players are actually controlling death row inmates, and not just characters in the game as they think. Butler stars as the hero who is caught between Castle and the resistance who are trying to take down the game all while being controlled by his wealthy player. This film looks like it could be considered a remake of Running Man for computer game generation.Gamer is currently scheduled for release on September 4th this year in the US and UK with a staged release across Europe throughout that month. According to some pre-release screenings the film may not be destined to become one of the stand out hits of the year.Check after the break for the English language trailer.
Fatal1ty talks WoW at CES
Say what you want about Fatal1ty and his endless selling out (we know you will), but the guy is a recognizable face, something that's a little hard to find in the world of professional gaming. Allakazham caught up with him at CES last week, and in between talking about how awesome he and his products were (sigh), they did get some good Warcraft talk out of him.He's been taking advantage of Recruit a Friend, so he's got a Warrior, Rogue, and a Death Knight all to level 60 (unfortunately, I didn't hear him say which faction he plays). His Death Knight's "get over here" "grappling hook" have captured his imagination -- hopefully he'll stick with playing with his brother and get up to level 80 so he can see some of the endgame PvP. Unfortunately, he says he's not into PvE at all, which explains why he's going slow, but if he can push the last 20 levels, there's some fun stuff to be found..And then it's back to the selling -- he says he's looking forward to sponsoring some players under his brand later this year (though he has no plans to play WoW professionally), and he pimps some equipment, too. It's not exactly a hard-hitting interview, but it is interesting to hear one of professional gaming's biggest names talk about his time in Azeroth.
Blizzard C&Ds Datecraft, they redesign
I can't quite see the purpose of World of Warcraft (or gaming in general) flavored dating sites -- if you were looking for a potential partner, why limit yourself to only people that play this game? But nevertheless, there are quite a few of them around, so someone must be using them. Datecraft is a site that was specifically targeted World of Warcraft bachelors and bachelorettes -- at least until this past week, when Blizzard hit them up with a C&D.Well, not actually -- they only got threatened with one. We heard from the site's founders, and they tell us that they got a call from Rod Rigole, a VP of Legal Affairs over at Blizzard, who told them to cut out using Blizzard's artwork and terminology on their website was a no-no, and that they would be recieving legal papers soon. Rather than pick a fight, they instead redesigned to the standard gamer dating site you see today.But here's the kicker: they used an official fansite kit to actually make the site. Even with the stuff they give out, Blizzard seems extremely protective of their artistic IP -- they used this same technique to attack the WotLK wiki and the Glider folks as well. They'll let fans slide, it seems, but if you're making money off of their materials, beware.
19-year-old mayor of Oklahoma town is a gaming enthusiast
University of Oklahoma freshman John Tyler Hammons harbors the stereotypical interests of a 19-year-old college student -- an Associated Press report, apparently written by a 1950's schoolteacher, credits Hammons as enjoying "fast cars and rock n' roll". Anachronistic lingo aside, the teenager also apparently spends his time beating the pants off of seventy-year-old incumbents in local mayoral races, and according to the same AP story, could probably beat the rest of Muskogee's local leaders in a round of Call of Duty 4.Yes, the "baby-faced" gaming enthusiast will be sworn in next week as the mayor of Muskogee -- an Oklahoma city of about 38,000. Though his achievement completely overshadows our teenage feat of becoming the youngest Taco Bell assistant manager in the tri-county area, we can't wait to see how a fellow gamer (one who is many years the minor of most of Joystiq's staff) decides to run a town -- almost as much as we can't wait to hear the mayoral pick-up lines he busts out at the next Sooner soiree.
Ask Engadget: What's the best 40- to 50-inch HDTV with PC inputs?
While we've already seen one particular Engadget HD reader reach out for assistance with finding a niche HDTV, this particular question just screams mainstream. Today's gamer is likely looking for a set that's multifaceted, and Sir Matthew here is no different: "I'm considering purchasing a 1080p HDTV in the 40- to 50-inch range for use with console gaming and possibly as a PC monitor. I've got about $2,500 to spend, but would prefer to keep it well under that if possible. I'm partial to LCD HDTVs, and whatever set I get must have a couple of HDMI ports and VGA / PC audio inputs."Picking a TV that plays nice with PC resolutions (or PowerStrip) is crucial, so we'll go ahead and assume this fellow thinks overscan is simply unacceptable. If this here question reminded you of your own quandary, send over an email to ask at engadget dawt com with your inquiry enclosed -- if the robotic overlords manning our email systems deem it worthy, it'll show up in this space in due time.
WoW Mom! An interview with the newest newbie on the block
I got a call from my mom on Friday night that she was having an emergency and needed me to call. It turns out the emergency was that she bought World of Warcraft and needed some instruction on how to play. Since I was at work, I told her to get started by reading up a bit on the WoW Rookie until I could spend a little more time with her. I was excited and somewhat terrified. I really hope she likes it and doesn't get too frustrated the first week. My mom isn't what you would call a gamer. I'm not going to tell you how old she is, but she could tell you where she was when Kennedy was assassinated. She's a master Euchre player and a wiz at Scrabble. Her video gaming experience is limited to Bejeweled and online versions of card games. She used to love me watch play Tetris, but would respond like the controller was made of lava when I tried to hand it to her. I invited her to join Dungeons and Dragons sessions, but she always declined. I moved 2,000 miles from my native Michigan for graduate school about five years ago. Since then my interactions with my mom have been limited to phone conversations and the occasional short visit. I'm really glad to get to share this time with her.
Breakfast topic: Getting started in WoW
Before I started playing World of Warcraft, I hadn't played any other MMORPGS. As a matter of fact, I didn't even play video games regularly at all. I was always fascinated by hearing horror stories about the crazy things people did while playing Everquest. But I was also amazed by achievements and the vastness of the settings. I've been playing WoW for about two years now. My boyfriend suggested I try it. I was hesitant to begin my adventures in Azeroth. I was afraid that buying the game would be a waste of money. I dragged my feet as I walked into the game store and grimaced a bit as the clerk swiped my debit card. I was dreadful at navigating in video games and was overwhelmed by the amount game knowledge it took to be successful. It took me about ten months to get my first level 60 character. I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I first started playing. I really wish I had discovered WoW Rookie sooner. In the end, I discovered that WoW is awesome. I love being part of the community.
Vigor's Force Recon SP and Force Recon BT will dismember your brain
Vigor, a PC-maker not known for its subtlety or underpowered systems, has just launched two new desktop powerhouses destined to shake you to your very core. The Force Recon SP and Force Recon BT will undoubtedly leave you in existence-questioning bafflement as you experience the sheer neck-breaking speed of their CPUs and accompanying graphics chipsets. The former tears enemies asunder with AMD's Phenom quad-core processors coupled with dual ATI Radeon HD3870 graphics -- capable of driving XHD displays at 2560 x 1600. The latter sports Intel's quad-core mind-destroyer, the QX9650 Core 2 Extreme (which trots along at 3.0GHz), utilizes the new SSE4 instructions, and supports a slew of options which blend into what Vigor refers to as the "juiced" configuration. Both models are available now, with the SP starting at $2,319, and the BT clocking in at $2,869 -- though both of those numbers can escalate quickly.[Via Yahoo!]
Poll: Is your console connected to an HDTV?
We know what Nielsen found, but now we're interested in doing a little super-scientific research of our own. For all the gamers out there, what kind of television is your console(s) connected to? Still rockin' the RCA tube set circa 1991? Just upgraded to a snazzy new flat-panel? Check out the options below and toss in your vote, or if you don't see anything you like, sound off in comments, capiche? %Poll-7458%
Quiz time: Can you spot the "real" gamers?
If there's one thing you can count on this holiday season (besides annoying relatives), it's holiday ads full of glossy, high-res pictures of people pretending to play games. But are they really just pretending? And would you be able to tell if they weren't?MTV's prolific Stephen Totilo has set up a cute little quiz to find out. Inspired by a six-story Target billboard (right) featuring a mischievously grinning "gamer," Totilo has laid out ten pictures, some of people actually enjoying our favorite pastime and others of people who are just posers. The answers will be posted tomorrow, so head on over and see how well you can pick out the vacant stare of a true gamer.
Reggie says: Everyone's a gamer
For those of us who live and breathe video games, it's easy to take an elitist standpoint and scoff at the casual gamer. In case you couldn't tell by now, though, Nintendo doesn't adhere to that philosophy. In a recent conference, NoA's president Reggie Fils-Aime said, "[Our message is] that everyone's a gamer. Whether it's bringing joy and happiness to mothers and fathers as they experience Wii for the first time playing Wii Bowling or Wii Tennis, or whether it's bringing a game like Nintendogs to a fifteen or sixteen year old girl who has a puppy that responds only to her voice. That passion is what's driving us, and that passion to be part of shaping the future is really why we're here." Whether you agree with Nintendo's school of thought or not, the company's way of thinking has certainly helped put it on top this year.
DS Daily: With and without
At this point, after months of insane sales, it seems like everyone must have a DS by now -- but that isn't the case. This morning, what we want to discuss is who you know with a DS and who you don't. Now, we're not looking for you to profile every single person you know, but rather, just give us some generalities. Do many of the gamers you know carry around a DS? What about typically non-gaming folks? The DS has attracted a lot of nontraditional owners, after all. What's the breakdown among people you know?
Voodoo launches the ENVY M:152 Core 2 Extreme laptop
Love to be beaten to a bloody pulp by your overpowered laptop? Looking for performance that would make even the strongest bodybuilder collapse in fear? Have you been feeling let down by game speeds which don't actually rip open a hole in the space-time continuum? Well, luckily for you, Voodoo exists... and its made a new laptop. Check into the ENVY M:152, the company's latest entry into the gamer-centric laptop world, which showcases a Core 2 Extreme X7800 CPU, Intel's murderous Santa Rosa chipset, a 15.4-inch, WSXGA+, 1680 x 1050 display, the NVIDIA GeForce 8600GT video card, up to 4GB of RAM, a wide array of hard drive options, plus Bluetooth, a built-in webcam, and style to spare (or so we hear). No word on pricing or street date, but you can expect the systems soon.
Study: Gamers read, study less but still socialize
The latest scientific study of gamers is kind of a wash for the image of our favorite hobby. On the plus side, adolescents who play games were shown to spend just as much time socializing with family and friends as non-gamers. On the downside, adolescent gamers were found to spend less time reading and doing homework than non-gamers.The University of Michigan study asked nearly 1,500 10- to 19-year-olds across the country to report how they spent their time during the 2002-03 school year. The roughly 36 percent of the sample that played games spent 30 percent less time reading and 34 percent less time doing homework than their non-gaming peers. Interestingly, the reading deficit came mostly from male gamers while the homework deficit was caused mostly by female gamers, according to a Reuters story on the study. It's not all bad news though; the study also concluded that "gamers and nongamers did not differ in the amount of time they spent interacting with family and friends."Before you go off believing that gamers are more likely to be lazy ignoramuses, understand that reading and homework time are not direct measures of intelligence. The study author herself admitted to Reuters that "there have been some studies that show that high academic achievers spend less time doing homework." In other words, perhaps gamers have just been trained to work smarter, not harder.
DS Daily: Out in the open
Sure, a lot of people who commute take handhelds along with them, because there's really no better way to keep your mind occupied while on the train or the bus. But aside from that, do you play your DS much while you're out in public? It can be a nice diversion while waiting at the doctor's office, or if you arrive early at the movies, for instance, and we've known folks who took their DS or DS Lite along to work for a little lunch-hour gaming. But how about you? We've established that it's totally okay to game out in the open ... but do you?
The tyranny of cross-platform choice
You kids today think you've got it so good. But ya don't! Back in my day, there was only one dominant system, and we bought all the crappy games that came out for it, and that's the way we liked it, dagnabbit!Now you got all sorts of different systems clogging up your fancy-schmancy entertainment center, and what's worse, publishers are coming out with the same game for all of 'em. The last Madden game came out on 11 different systems, for Pete's sake!You might think it's better to have a choice, but it's not! Now ya gotta choose between the fancy graphics on the PS3, the online features on the Xbox 360 and the swishy control scheme of the Wii. Things ain't looking so good now that you got that decision staring you in the face, eh sonny boy?Even the portable versions are getting a second look these days. Back in my day, portable versions knew their place as the neglected, pixelated, black-and-white cousins to their console superiors. Now these upstarts are rivaling or even bettering their rightful console masters. What's the world coming to!Hey, don't walk away while I'm ranting at'chya. I need someone to drive me to the pharmacy to get my pills. Come back here and listen to me tell you how bad things are, consarnit!
Obese gamer collapses, dies after "marathon" gaming session
Well here we go again. Reuters is reporting that a Chinese gamer has died after a "marathon," weeklong gaming session. The 26-year-old apparently collapsed on Saturday after he spent the entire week before (he'd been on break because of the Lunar New Year's celebration) playing an unidentified online game. A local teacher says the reason he played games for a full week was that because of the holiday, "there are only two options. TV or computer. What else can I do in the holiday as all markets, KTV and cafeterias are shut down?"Be prepared, I guess, to hear about this in all future media examinations of whether or not WoW is addictive. I won't argue that this isn't a sad thing to hear-- no matter what the real cause of this poor guy's death, there were serious problems there that should have been fixed a long time ago.But I will note that the article mentions the 26-year-old weighed 330 lbs. Why doesn't the headline say "Food addict dies"? Also of note, the last line of the article says that China considers 13% of its Internet users under 18 addicted. WoW, according to "experts," is supposed to be 40% addicts, but neither figure, as far as I can see, actually says what they define as "addicts"-- are they setting the bar for "addiction" low or high?
Cosmo isn't down with the Wii
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/gaming_news/Cosmopolitan_magazine_doesn_t_like_the_Wii'; We mentioned this yesterday, and now look! There's a helpful scan to illustrate our point. While some female-oriented publications are all about Nintendo's new console, it looks like the good folks at Cosmopolitan aren't quite convinced.Cosmo's take on the Wii craze? Guys assume girls might want one, because the guy really loves the Wii. That's some deep psychologizin' they've got going on there. And in referring to the Wii as the "wrong gift," Cosmo is insinuating that the modern woman just isn't interested. Are they wrong? With all the stories and videos of nongamers embracing the hands-on experience that Wii provides, we're not sure that Cosmo's on the right side of the fence with this one. Can't the modern woman want to decode weird male behavior, agonize over not-so-harmless habits,* and then play a game of tennis after work?The Wii is perfectly poised to help gamers break down some of these walls that we've created to keep the interests of men and women separate. The DS broke some of that ground, but the Wii brings the fun and ease of gaming into the open, making it a social experience that anyone can get into, even if you have to kick off your stylish shoes first.*Actual stories in the same issue.
Teen Vogue encourages girls to get their Wii on
While these aren't the best quality we've ever seen for scanned pages, it's still exciting to see the Wii getting mainstream press coverage, particularly in a nontraditional market. Magazines targeted at women and teen girls are often down on video games. Even the Wii gets this treatment, alas, in the March issue of Cosmopolitan, wherein it is referred to as an example of a poorly-chosen gift. Of course, we tend to think that anyone who can find a Wii must be a gift-giving superhero, but we are admittedly biased. No matter. We just find it refreshing that Teen Vogue is taking a pro-Wii stance and indicating that it's the bee's knees for girls.And we definitely wanted to point out the shirt the girl on the left is wearing. It reads "Oui Wii" and we here at the 'Fanboy feel a burning need to get our hands on one of those right now. We're probably not going to read Teen Vogue to get one, though. We'll do a lot of things for Wii gear, but that's a line we're so not crossing.Go Nintendo has larger (blurry) scans if you'd like to see the rest.
