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Taking gaming into the real world
Playing video games and enjoying the outdoors don't have to be mutually exclusive. Various creative minds have come up with ways to take gaming into real-world environments. Why chill at the crib when you could be out driving a real-life Mario Kart or letting hadoukens fly at Burning Man? We've highlighted just a few of these pioneering projects this week, so head to the gallery for a look at the gaming experiences you've missed by staying home.
Behind the Mask: The pursuit of magic
When it comes to roleplaying, I'm a huge fan of wizards and spell casters, and it has nothing to do with gameplay roles. Magic is generally unlimited in its potential; it has the power to do anything the imagination can perceive, and the freedom to choose different roles for my characters is very attractive. In the Champions universe, arcane practice is very different than its typical portrayals elsewhere. In most universes with a fantasy element, magic involves some chanting and spending some magic points or some other consumable resource (or possibly forgetting the spell in question) before the magic effect wills itself into existence. For roleplayers, this magical difference is very important. Magical spells and creatures don't follow the same rules as those present in other fiction. Champions mystics follow real-life mythology and lore -- and strangely, this makes them unique among mages in other roleplaying settings.
Kinect Hacks: Projection mapping combined with depth sensing (or: Hadouken!)
In layman's terms, this Kinect hack lets you throw a Hadouken with the assistance of a projector. Do you really need to know any more than that?
Kinect + projector = augmented reality fireballs (video)
We've seen fancy augmented reality projection before, but we've rarely been able to take it home -- now, it seems Microsoft's hack-friendly Kinect can bring the same trick to the consumer realm. Elliot Woods took the idea that Kinect can map a three-dimensional space and twisted it to his own devious ends -- that is, throwing traditional Street Fighter fireball blasts, complete with the sound effect. What's impressive here, though, isn't the size of his hadouken, but rather the light it's made of -- each is a virtual dynamic light source casting light on the room's real objects to create virtual shadows on the surfaces that stick out. Sounds lovely, but if you can't wrap your head around all that, you'll find all the hot fireball action you need in the video after the break at roughly the five minute mark.
