A young girl was told that she was overweight by a Nintendo WII console. This is one place where gaming technology has gone somewhat awry or is not quite polished yet.

The 10 yr old girl was understandably upset and it took her parents quite a while to convince her she is not fat. Wii spokesperson said that while the WII is capable of accessing body weights via BMI, it may not be accurate for children aged 2-20 because of the different stages of development. This girl was nearly 5ft fall and did not even weigh 100 pounds, certainly not what I would call Obese. I agree that WII should put a sticker with the warning on the game to avoid emotional damage to young kids.

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Recently, in the world of online web games, there has been a new genre that for some reason I can’t figure out, seems to be fairly popular. I’m talking about the “pimp my car” type of games where you can paint a car such as this:

with different colors and add different tires and other such customizations. In case your wondering, this particular game is Here . Now my question is, why is this game fun? What makes it attractive to guys. I sort of understand why dress-up games are fun for young girls but I don’t quite get while tricking a image of a fake car is so fun for guys. Most of the parts aren’t even realistic and many of the times the car doesn’t even look real. I mean where’s the fun? Whats the point? Its a game with no objectives, no goals, and no way to win or lose. If any of you can explain this, please let me know.

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Game plays of the day(now for some real games):

Canyon shooter

Journeys of Reemus

Last week, ID software announced that it was starting the production of Doom 4. In this game, you will again battle again the forces of hell and evil(yeah, its getting old now isn’t it). Whats more, ID is looking for new and talented designers and programmers to join their already accomplished team. If you are interested, you should take a look at their ID software Career’s page and send a resume for any openings that you may be interested in. Its a good oppurtunity to team up and work with some of the best in the field.

Now as for comments on the game itself, seeing this logo:

brings back memory of the Elder days when my friends and I would sit back for hours and slaughter the zombies of Hell in the original Doom and Doom: On the shores of Hell. Doom 3 was a bit of a letdown for me because while it had the latest in lighting technology and tried its best to get real-world shadows and graphical effects, the game was a bit dark, to say the least. In fact, in most of the rooms there was one light. Now, I know our current graphic cards can’t handle real-time light and shadow if there are more than just a few light sources, but having the entire game be completely dark is not the solution. I remember one young critic of the game asking why it took the developers so long to come up with a game that graphically was “A dark room where you can’t see much of anything”. He, of course, got rebuked by the dozens of Doom fanboys. But, I actually agree with him on Doom 3. Because, despite all the new technology that went into the real-time lighting in Doom 3, it doesn’t mean crap if I can’t see anything. So please, if you do make the design team — advise them to actually make the environment lighting to where players can actually see something besides a few boxes because its too dark.

According to MSNBC, the world of gaming is moving farther away from hardcore gamers and more and more into the hands of casual gamers. Instead of the AAA titles like quake, half-life, WoW, and others, we may be seeing more titles being played like Xgenstudio’s defend your castle game.

While this may leave some gamers puzzled as to why these games are becoming more and more popular despite their lack of Uber graphics and effects and their seemingly simple gameplay, the answer is simple: Time.

Most people simply do not have tons of hours a day to pour into games like WoW, Lineage, Supreme Commander, and Half-life. They want a simple game that can be finished in a few hours and is easy to play, thus the rise in these “simply games”. Speaking as such a person, I find many of these games very enjoyable. The gameplay is unique and many times creative. The absense of intense graphics does not hurt the quality of the game at all. When judging a game, gameplay is still the most important element(unless your talking about games like Tomb Raider or Dead or Alive).

Nintendo Wii is planning on integrating these such games into its system and instead of having people buy titles, they will directly be able to download them. The games will cost around $10 a pop, which should make them very enticing to casual gamers who don’t want to spend $40-$60 for a game. These kind of games have been on the rise for a while and places such as Arcadetown have been selling such titles for years. Another testimony is the free versions of these games made in flash have been very popular online spurning a whole category of “arcade sites”. I expect the popularity of casual gaming to rise even further in the future.

Game plays of the day:
The last Stand 2: The Last Stand 2(Zombie shooting)
Xeno Tactic 2: Xeno Tactic 2(Tower defense)

Recently gametap had an interview with the creator, Ed Boon, of the much anticipated title, DC Universe vs. Mortal Kombat game. The cover art looks really cool and I’m waiting for it to hit stores. Check out the boxart:

One of the most interesting questions was concerning the blood & gore level and the fatalities in the game. Since it had DC comics characters, it was assumed much of that would be taken away. But, those things are the trademark things that made Mortal Kombat so popular so if that is done it risks alienating loyal fans. When asked about it, Ed Boon said not to assume that the blood/gore and fatalities will be removed. On the subject of the fatalities especially he mentioned that some might be “toned down” a bit(like they can’t do a head rip with the spine still attached), but expect the violence to still be there. I’m very curious as to what this means. Either way, I think it will be a great game and one of the best fighting games to date when it comes out. Mortal Kombat’s more realistic characters have always been my preference over street fighter’s more cartoonish ones. To check out the rest of the interview, look here .

After that, there is only one thing for me to say:

I saw this quite a while ago and most gamers have probably seen it also. Its a trailer for an upcoming dead or alive vs. Final Fantasy game. The trailer features the ladies from DOA fighting the Final Fantasy girls. Its honestly one of the best action sequences I’ve ever seen. It also convinces me that games don’t really need to have any kind of story line or playable-ness to sell well, they just need really hot models.