Reality
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Hell's Kitchen gets game treatment
Scottish chef celeb Gordon Ramsey, best known in reality television circles for his discerning palate and foul mouth, will soon be fronting a game based on his TV show Hell's Kitchen, which sees groups of up and coming cooks vying for Ramsey's love and affection while being reminded of all the reasons why they suck. The TV tie-in is currently in development for "all major platforms" at Ludia, whose only other claim to fame appears to be a still-in-development PC adaption of The Price is Right game show. Credentials, it's what's for dinner.According to Ludia founder and CEO Alex Thabet, the Hell's Kitchen game will feature "the fun of the kitchen boot camp experience," meaning we expect that players will have to endure Ramsey screaming bleeped-out profanities while describing their culinary efforts as "baby vomit." The game, which will also include a number of Ramsey's favorite recipes, is expected to ship in 2008 in order to coincide with the debut of the fourth season of Hell's Kitchen.
Considering a real simulated reality
Those of you who are regular readers might have figured out by now that I'm very interested in the relationship between the real and the virtual world, but the latest post at Terra Nova goes far beyond any simple reasoning I've ever done. Basically, they sum up some speculation being performed by academics that says that just like we Earthlings have created our own virtual worlds (in Azeroth and elsewhere), it's somewhat, maybe possible that we ourselves actually live in someone else's virtual world.Wow. To me, that's so far off the beaten path that who knows where to begin with it-- you've got religion in there somewhere, as well as the old question of our existence itself. But supposing that were true (and it's almost too big a jump for even me to make, except for the fact that even if it is true, we'll likely never know it), what would you do if you were living in a virtual world? Would you act differently? Would you be a griefer? Or would you play the game, play by the rules, and help yourself and others not only "win," but have fun too? It seems a little loony (because who wants to admit that their world is someone else's toy?), but it's a fascinating thought experiment that should help you examine both how you're living your life and how you want to live it-- what would you do if you were an NPC in a virtual world?Of course, things get even stranger, because we don't just create virtual worlds-- we play in them. Azeroth isn't just full of NPCs-- it's full of us, walking around, killing things, and generally taking (and taking over) whatever we want. If our world really is someone else's, does that mean they're here too?
The DS Life: Crossing into reality
The DS Life is a weekly feature in which we scour the known world for narrative images of Nintendo's handheld and handheld gamers. If you have a photo and a story to match it with, send both to thedslife at gmail dot com.Sean Foreman mixes his advanced technical abilities as a photographer with post-processing effects to create images that almost seem magical in their composition. Check past the post break for a sample of his creative work and this week's edition of The DS Life.
A platform game with real platforms
Experimental gaming these days is all about playing with reality. From virtual reality and alternate reality to augmented reality, more and more people are trying to merge video games and real life in interesting ways. Sebastien Schmieg's art project/game Roy Block adds another term to this growing list: mixed reality. Roy Block uses real life, handheld wooden building blocks as the platforms for an on-screen avatar. A hidden camera detects the blocks as they're pressed against the tracing paper projection screen, translating their position and alignment to in-game data.The "gameplay" in the project is pretty basic -- just guide the periodically jumping Roy from one end of the screen to the other while avoiding floating enemies -- but Schmieg sees the potential for more complex play by assigning different functions to each side of the blocks. Schmieg also has an idea for a version "as big as a wall ... with blocks so big that you need both hands to hold one." Would that be mixed reality exergaming? More buzzwords, stat!Continue reading for video of the project in action.
Owner of seven failed Xbox 360s speaks out
Our thoughts that anecdotal evidence would pile up publicly about the failure rate of the Xbox 360 took less time than we imagined. Dean Takahashi of the Mercury News wrote a piece this morning about a loyal Xbox 360 fanboy who has given up on the system after seven units "croaked" on him. Rob Cassima, 42, who attended the Zero Hour Xbox 360 launch event in the Mojave Desert said, "All of the four that we got at Zero Hour croaked on us.''Takahashi met Cassima and his wife at the event a year and a half ago. After Cassima contacted Takahashi about his plight, the journalist got him in contact directly with Peter Moore ... that must be nice. An Xbox 360 representative has since contacted Cassima to offer him a brand new unit. Cassima says, "A new 360 was all I really wanted in the first place, but after two failed attempts dealing with Microsoft's overseas call centers, I am very annoyed that it took an e-mail directly to P. Moore to get results ... I am just so gun-shy about the reliability issue ... I still feel like a chump."Tina Conley, a spokeswoman for Microsoft, told Takahashi the failure rates are "within the consumer electronics industry average." Microsoft refused to give exact failure rates. Yeah, that's not going to cut it much longer if these stories of failure continue with less than two degrees of separation between people. Purchasing extended warranties should not be the answer to defective production.See also: Ring of Death: An Xbox 360 story -- Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 BBC show tackles 'clapped-out old banger' Xbox 360
Call of Duty reality TV competition tonight
Imagine sixteen gamers getting tossed into a real-life deathmatch. It could happen -- but not tonight.Spike TV's Gamer Head series is airing its Call of Duty 3 promotional competition at 12:30 am ET/PT. It's unclear what the producers have cooked up to simulate the game's experience, but we're guessing the budget didn't include beach landings, mortar shells, and death, lots of death. Still, tossing these virtual wannabes into boot camp training should yield some puke and a pair of soiled drawers. And when has that failed to entertain?[Via The Last Boss]
Dancing with the Stars going HDTV this season
One of the top rated shows from last year is finally making the switch to HD (although that hasn't worked well for a couple other reality TV shows), Dancing with the Stars will be broadcast in 720p by ABC. Slated to start dancing September 12 are Tucker Carlson, Monique Coleman, Sara Evans, Willa Ford, Vivica Fox, Harry Hamlin, Joe Lawrence, Mario Lopez, Shanna Moakler, Emmitt Smith and Jerry Springer. Hopefully they'll actually remember to list this one as an HD broadcast, but we're pretty sure people will continue to watch either way.[Via the futon critic]
