The Flash

Harness the amazing speed and power of the legendary comic book hero with The Flash Child's Costume! Transform your child from brash, young Wally West to his seat in the Justice League with this vibrant red and yellow costume. Outfitted with lightning accents on the body and sleeves, this jumpsuit carries the classic Flash emblem front and center. The matching headpiece makes for speedy costume creation, with vision holes included and fabric lightning bolts attached.
Price: $34.99

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Three dimensional warfare: eyes on COD: Black Ops

It should come as no surprise that, in addition to a series of new multiplayer modes, the upcoming Call of Duty: Black Ops will also support 3D. An Activision representative explained that the feature would be available for both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of the game when it launches on November 9. And though the 3D version doesn't actually add any new content to the experience, during our hands-off demo with the game it was clear that it at least looks incredible.

The first part of the demo took place in the snowy mountains of Russia, and switched back and forth between two different perspectives. Players started out guiding a set of troops from a bird's-eye perspective in a plane, helping them to avoid detection from enemy soldiers. When the troops did engage in combat, the perspective would shift to the regular FPS mode until all of the enemies were killed. This was followed by an intense scripted sequence in which players rappelled down an icy mountain, before smashing through a window to surprise a group of enemies. After that, we were shown a segment set in the streets of Hong Kong, in which players had to engage in more straightforward combat, albeit in a treacherous urban environment.

Considering that 3D was implemented relatively late in development, the extent that it's featured in the game is pretty incredible, going so far as to include 3D effects in the actual menus. But where things really get impressive is when you look through a scope on your gun, which gives the scene a stunning sense of depth. The environmental effects looked great in 3D, with wind, rain, and snow blowing around you in a lifelike manner.

In addition to the 3D, we also got a brief look at the new combat training mode, which is essentially COD multiplayer, but with bots instead of human players. And again, it was hands-off. The mode has four different levels of difficulty, and you can still earn XP and COD Points, though they are separate from the multiplayer portion of the game. We also caught a quick glimpse of one of the new kill streaks, an explosive remote controlled car that could be obtained after killing three bots. It's small and fast, but can also be shot by enemies before you get a chance to detonate.

Since there's no exclusive 3D content, Black Ops isn't exactly the game that will force you to go out and by an expensive new TV. But if you already have the means to play the game in 3D, it's definitely the way to go. It adds a depth to the cinematic presentation that's very impressive, and really enhances the overall experience.

Oh, and it will have zombies.

Update: the preview originally stated that experience could be transferred from combat training to multiplayer, but the developers have since explained to us that this isn't the case. The article has been updated accordingly.

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Top 50 Drama Games Unpacked

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Welcome to the Jungle... It's going to flop real hard

Panasonic Cloud Entertainment has caused the tech world to murmur quietly over its first product: the Jungle portable gaming system. The hardware was announced—if you can call it that—last night, although details are still few and far between.

We know it's portable, we think it may have an attractive screen, and someone on MTV wrote a song about it. As far as product launches go, this one has been baffling.

Gizmodo ran the first picture of the device, alongside rumors that it had a nice screen, ran Linux, and was designed for online gaming. "The screen resolution is bananas. Everyone was freaking out about it," an unnamed source who is said to have seen the device in action at PAX told the site. If that isn't a ringingly anonymous endorsement of one aspect of a video game system, I don't know what is.

The device has a keyboard along with a touchpad and a directional pad. Panasonic has yet to make any official announcement about the hardware running this hot mess, or about any features that don't have to do with gaming. The content that we're going to run on this thing? A brand-new Battlestar Galactica MMO, a show by Machinima.com, and the promise that they "are online gaming." Well, in that case.

If you want to know what really has everyone excited, the device made an appearance on the MTV show Rob Dyrdek's Fantasy Factory, where Mr. Dyrdek himself had to write a jingle about the system! Wikipedia tells me Rob Dyrdek is "a professional skateboarder, actor, entrepreneur, producer, philanthropist, and reality TV star." If he's a Battlestar Galactica fan, this thing is in the bag... synergy doesn't get much better than that.

So far there has been little but speculation. It could be running Linux, it could do TV-out, and it could play existing games. If that's the case and the guts are moderately powerful and it's delivered at a solid price, it might... OK, can we be honest? So far this thing doesn't fit into any kind of market. The DS owns portable gaming. The iPhone already plays great games, many of which are online. When I think online gaming, I think World of WarCraft and first-person shooters, not a BSG title. I like specs and game announcements when new hardware is revealed, not reality TV shows and videos that obscure the hardware while trying to appear edgy.

The real question is simple: is this the Kin 2, the N-Gage 3, or possibly the new Gizmondo?

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Video Game Hotlist

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The Gravity Game - Flash Game Review

The Gravity Game is an addictive game, similar to many others. You have a character, a plot, and must adapt to your surroundings in order to avoid dangerous objects. After a strange, unique introduction to the character and his goal, you begin the campaign. To save marshmallows?

The controls are simple, you have a choice whether you want to use the WASD or arrow keys, and space is the only other key that's used. You are gradually eased through the missions and the obstacles that you will encounter more frequently during the later levels. You start off by simply jumping over a wall, which progresses into avoiding spikes and utilizing the gravity changers in order to reach the end of the course. Each course is only small, but requires initiative and perseverance.

There aren't many different types of objects that will pose a threat, however, each level will be structured so you have to do several things in order to advance past it. For example, you have to build up momentum when trapped between gravity facing upwards and gravity facing downwards, creating a trampoline effect. Again, this will be taught during the 'tutorial' levels, but during the difficult missions you will have to remember this.

Trial and error is an aspect you will only be too well familiar with once you have completed this game. Often you simply have to use the gravity changers on each area of the course to see where it leads you, and take this into consideration, then you put two and two together and eventually you will figure out what is needed. This can be frustrating but generally you never quit the game until you have completed whatever is challenging you. Besides, if it becomes too much of a burden then you can always press the walkthrough.

Even though the controls are simple, the game play is far from it. When you have changed the gravity and you are walking along the ceiling or walls, the left and right arrow will corresponding to whatever direction the gravity is in, for example if you are on the ceiling the right arrow is left and vice versa. It can be quite confusing to grasp, especially when trying to jump over an obstacle covered in spikes.

Although the objective is similar to many other games of the same genre, its uniqueness comes with the changing gravity and it can be challenging and mentally draining, yet it's rewarding once you've completed a difficult level, and is thoroughly enjoyable.

Another free flash game involving addictive fun is the balloon game where you pop balloons with darts.

Live In Ukraine (2 CD/1 DVD Set)

When it comes to taking logic-defying challenges, Queen have never fought shy: think Hyde Park, Latin America, Live Aid. All these years later, Queen are still living adventurously. Here's the case in point: just weeks ahead of the start of the band's 2008 Queen + Paul Rodgers' The Cosmos Rocks tour the band were approached to help Ukraine's Elena Franchuk ANTIAIDS Foundation reach out to the youth of the country with the message "Don't Let Aids Ruin Your Life". In a country facing the highest rising rate of infection throughout Europe, it is a message which cannot wait. For Queen and Paul Rodgers - already well prepared for a tour opening at Moscow's SCO Arena, it would mean some drastic rethinking. Despite the seeming impossibility of it, Queen + Paul Rodgers made it to Freedom Square for the night of September 12, 2008. Over 350,000 Ukrainians came to see them play and more than 10 million homes watched the show live on television. In all, more than 20 million took part in what the band recall as 'an unforgettable experience: one of those rare things in life you know you will never forget. A meeting in Music, but also a coming together to fight a common enemy'.
DVD & Double CD

1. One Vision

2. Tie Your Mother Down

3. The Show Must Go On

4. Fat Bottomed Girls

5. Another One Bites The Dust

6. Hammer To Fall

7. I Want It All

8. I Want To Break Free

9. Seagull

10. Love Of My Life

11. '39

12. Drum Solo

13. I'm In Love With My Car

14. Say It's Not True

15. Shooting Star

16. Bad Company

17. Guitar Solo

18. Bijou

19. Last Horizon

20. Crazy Little Thing Called Love

21. C-lebrity

22. Feel Like Makin' Love

23. Bohemian Rhapsody

24. Cosmos Rockin'

25. All Right Now

26. We Will Rock You

27. We Are The Champions

28. God Save The Queen
Price:

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Unity 3 brings very expensive dev tools at a very low price

Indie game development tool Unity got a big update today with version 3. Unity is well known for its use in mobile Web and 3D mobile game development, but this new release brings some desktop and console graphics features usually only seen in more expensive high-end development packages like UDK.

Unity 3 brings deferred rendering (allowing for many real-time lights with little added rendering overhead), a built-in tree editor, native font rendering, automatic UV mapping, audio filters, occlusion culling for desktop OSes and, most notably, integration of Illuminate Labs' Beast Lightmap tool. Beast has been used extensively in games like Mirror's Edge and Killzone 2 to create efficient, high-quality 32-bit floating point shadow maps.

The included Bootcamp demo game in Unity showing off its screen-space ambient occlusion, Beast-generated lightmaps, depth of field lens effects and deferred rendering. Click for full-size image.

Unity 3 also adds Android support, although it's still undergoing polishing. Unity remains free for commercial use for Web and desktop game development and Unity Pro remains $1,500 per seat.

It has been a good month for the people at Unity. Apple recently loosened restrictions on the use of cross-compilers for iOS development, which was aimed at Flash, but also caught a lot of fish like mono-based Unity in the net. Then Unity won The Wall Street Journal 2010 Technology Innovation Award for software. The year looks good for Unity users as well—the company plans a free upgrade to version 3 that integrates Allegorithmic's Substance, a powerful procedural texture generation tool. If you're an existing Unity user, it's hard to find a reason not to upgrade.

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The Ultimate Games Guide

The Ultimate Games Guide teaches you how to play dozens of the best party games around, such as group games, beer games and card games !


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Hex Empire Review - Flash Gaming Review

The game I am reviewing today is called Hex Empire, sponsored by Minijuegos. The game is a basic strategy game, easy to get the hang of, but does have a sense of difficulty to it.

The game starts up with a randomized map supposedly created by complicated arithmetic equations. There are 4 different countries/states you can choose from to start your conquest of world domination. When you find the map to your liking and the country to your liking you start the game. You start with a few units at your home base and move through the map by clicking on your units then clicking in the given area to move them. The unit display is as followed, Number of people in the unit you have selected over the moral number/bonus. These bonuses can be achieved by moving to certain spots on the map. For example, if you move onto a city (Regular dot) you get a people bonus which increases the number of people you have on the unit you moved to the city, another bonus is a moral bonus which can be achieved by either capturing a port (port-like icon) or by using the "Give a speech" bonus which boosts the moral of all units around the map by a great amount, but can only be used once. As you move through the map you face the computer players which can be put on different difficulties depending on your skill level. When you move your unit onto another players units then they will "fight" and the computer will decide who wins, depending on number of units and moral and whoever wins will come out alive. The option of the game is to conquer the rest of the world.

Another strategy to this is being able to have a peace pact with another computer, which usually only happens towards the beginning of the game as long as you have not came in conflict with that player. To defeat another country/state you must move your units to their main state and defeat the units standing on the main state to achieve victory and take control of all the ports and cities of the country/state you have conquered. The only downside to the game is the occasional small glitch and worst of all, there is no multi player. A game like this is just begging for online multi player. Although the game does not have multi player it is most definitely addicting, strategic and fun.

You can find more of these reviews daily at http://www.flashreviewing.blogspot.com .

Flash Focus: Vision Training in Minutes a Day

Flash Focus: Vision Training in Minutes a Day DS
Price: $19.99

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Week in gaming: Civ V review, Bungie as top indie dev

Another week has come and gone, with Civilization V taking up the majority of our time. If you haven't read the review... you're in the minority, according to our numbers. Bobby Kotick claimed Bungie is the only high-quality indie developer working today, and we took a look at the upcoming Supreme Court case that will finally determine whether the government needs oversight in the sales of video games.

Oh, and we played the new Castle Ravenloft board game based on 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons rules. Needs a little work, but an adventure under an hour, with 40 miniatures? Well worth the price.

Statecraft as entertainment: Ars reviews Civilization V: Ars reviews the fifth installment of the Civilization series, and all the violence, diplomacy, construction, and victory that implies.

10-minute Bioshock Infinite trailer hallucinatory, beautiful: This video shows 10 minutes of the upcoming Bioshock Infinite, and it's worth your time to take a look. The game's 2012 release is now painfully far away.

Masterpiece: Shadow of the Colossus: A game where love turns a hero into a destroyer of beauty and innocence, this showed the world how much could be conveyed through sound, design, and action. Shadow of the Colossus is a masterpiece.

PlayStation Move teardown: not repairable, but impressive tech: The PlayStation Move has impressive internals, but iFixit is not happy with its soldered-down nature. The problem? It's hard to repair.

At stake in Terminator vs. video games? "The future of media" : The ESA's Mike Gallagher explains why the upcoming Supreme Court Case Schwarzenegger v. Entertainment Merchants Association & Entertainment Software could impact the entirety of the media in the 21st century. The scary thing? He has a point, and everyone from the movie industry to book sellers knows it.

Activision CEO says Bungie only high-quality indie developer: The always controversial Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick has gone on record as saying that Halo developer Bungie is "the last remaining high-quality independent developer."

The Ben Heck Show turns game console modding into entertainment: Ars speaks with Internet-famous console modder Ben Heck, host of the newly launched The Ben Heck Show, about turning electronics modding into a show that's both entertaining and educational.

Castle Ravenloft: the 4th Edition D&D horror board game of DOOM!: Once again we return to our favorite gaming platform: the table. Castle Ravenloft takes the 4th Edition rules of Dungeons and Dragons and simplifies them for miniature combat, while including a good variety of adventures. The problem? The rule book isn't quite as fleshed out as it needs to be. Our full review inside.

Microsoft exec hints at frequent (annual?) Halo releases: You can drink the milk for years, but you can only have steak once: a Microsoft executive talks up frequent Halo releases, but seems to understand quality concerns.

Neuroshima Hex on iPhone: great board game port, confusing rules: Neuroshima Hex on the iPhone is a great way to try the board game for only $3, and this is a no-brainer for fans of tactical games. More examples of high-level play and in-game tutorials would have made this release much more exciting, however.

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