Will the Madden cover jinx hit again? Last year, Peyton Hillis was the surprise winner of the fan voting for the Madden NFL cover, and he suffered through injuries and a miserable season.
This year Megatron, Calvin Johnson, gets the nod, and Detroit Lions fans are holding their breath.
Here’s an interesting tidbit you might want to keep in mind the next time your parents or girlfriend gives you grief about playing video games. A new study finds that playing video games can be helpful with treating depression.
“Video games are more often regarded as causes of mental illness than as cures, but in a new study, a specially designed fantasy game helped teens conquer depression just as well as — if not better than — usual counseling.
Depression can be devastating among youths, yet fewer than 1 in 5 depressed teens are treated, in part because they are reluctant to seek a therapist’s help. So researchers in New Zealand created the SPARX videogame as a way to deliver cognitive behavioral therapy, packaged in a fun and appealing way. The acronym stands for “smart, positive, active, realistic and x-factor thoughts,” strategies designed to fight depression.”
This is great news for teens, but it’s also great ammunition for die-hard gamers. Now, it won’t help you justify playing games online for 18 hours per day. Don’t get greedy, and if you do that you won’t have a girlfriend anyways. But if you enjoy a healthy dose of video games, or you like to search around to see sites that have the best online casino games, or you just love fantasy football, this new study can help you deal with all those people who love to criticize your game obsession. It’s healthy!
Also, for parents, you should read about this study to help you craft a responsible approach towards your kids and games. If done in moderation, gaming can be the best option sometimes, assuming of course you also get them outside to run around a bit!
It seems like every year there’s at least one standout XBLA title released that is simply too good to ignore (“Braid” and “Limbo” come to mind), and this year, that game is “Fez.” But while the long-in-development indie platformer has been showered in just as much critical praise as those other titles, there’s something about “Fez” that makes it a lot more memorable, more addictive and more deserving of the recognition. Perhaps it’s because the game never stops surprising you, continuously growing both in scope and in the mind-bending difficulty of its puzzles, which in turn will make you equally frustrated and intrigued – a dangerous recipe for any gamer who refuses to call it quits.
You play as Gomez, a little white creature that lives in a 2D world; or so he thinks. After receiving a letter from a fellow villager asking to meet him one morning, Gomez comes into contact with a powerful artifact that grants him the ability to navigate the universe in three dimensions using the titular fez hat. But when a rift in space threatens to destroy Gomez’s world, the pint-sized hero must embark on a mission to collect all 32 of the golden cubes that make up the powerful hexahedron (most of which have been shattered into eight smaller cube bits) before time runs out.
The catch, however, is that although Gomez’s world is in 3D (comprised of four flat sides that can be rotated on an axis), he can still only move two-dimensionally. That means that players must constantly switch perspective using the left and right trigger buttons in order to maneuver around each level and solve puzzles. And because there are no enemies to fight or penalties for dying (if Gomez falls from a ledge, he’s promptly brought back to life), the emphasis is instead placed on exploration and discovery, of which there is enough to keep you busy for several days.
“Fez” is both incredibly simplistic and maddeningly complex, but how much time you choose to invest in the game is completely up to you, as there are many secrets to unlock, some of which can’t even be solved on your first playthrough. The game’s success doesn’t just hinge on the clever design and gameplay mechanics, though, but also on a more basic level as a giant love letter to 8-bit gaming, with visual and musical references to “Tetris” and “The Legend of Zelda,” and a fantastically nostalgic soundtrack by Disasterpiece that’s simply the icing on the cake. Though the game is plagued by a surprising number of bugs for a title that’s been in development as long as it has, “Fez” is so damn unique and charming in just about every way that they’re pretty easy to ignore.
Angry Birds are heading to space. iPad sales are going through the roof and more people are buying smartphones, particularly kids who are addicted to games. Have you seen how many kids under the age of ten now have these phones, or maybe an iPod Touch, where they can download tons of free games or games that cost just a couple of dollars? The entire gaming industry is being affected by the mobile explosion as addictive games are now at our fingertips 24/7.
Of course, console games and multiplayer interactive games will still command big numbers of fans. People still spend a ton of time on these systems, purchase games and also go on the web for all sorts of games in order to play chess or play free bingo online. There’s also stuff like fantasy football that people play on a daily basis. But something as simple as birds on a slingshot can captivate millions of people! The entire gaming pie is getting bigger and that’s having a ripple effect across other businesses and around the world.
For example, this exponential growth is now moving to China. The creator of Angry Birds, Rovio Entertainment, has recorded more than 100 million downloads for the game in China, helped by demand from users of Android phones, iPhones and iPads. Now Rovio says it’s in talks with Chinese companies including Baidu Inc. and Sohu.com Inc. to drive even more downloads in the world’s biggest Web market.
The possibilities are endless, as the company turned down an acquisition offer recently in the $2 billion range. Who can blame them if they’re just scratching the surface in the largest country on the planet. Merchandising is a big part of the overall strategy as well, with plans for stores in China to move millions of stuffed toys and other themed products. Games have the potential to be one of the great unifying cultural trends across the world. It will be fascinating to see how this plays out.
It’s difficult to imagine a game like “The Splatters” existing without the runaway success of “Angry Birds.” Although it shares some DNA with a few other games as well (namely, the “Worms” series), SpikySnail’s physics-driven puzzler owes a lot to the Rovio action-strategy game. Both titles are pretty similar in style, only instead of flinging birds at green pigs, you’re launching candy-colored blobs across the screen in an attempt to disarm bombs. The liquid that bursts out of the Splatters when they explode must match the same color of the bombs in order to be successful, with an assortment of unlockable moves at your disposal to maneuver around obstacles, reach strategically placed bombs and increase your score through combos.
Though “The Splatters” would probably be more suitable on a mobile device, there’s more than enough content (including three game modes and a feature called Splatter TV that lets you share clips with your friends) to warrant its inclusion on Xbox Live Arcade. But while “The Splatters” is a lot of fun to play at first, it eventually becomes a little monotonous as the challenges and uninspired maps start to bleed into one another. You probably wouldn’t notice it as much if you were just playing a few levels on your phone, but in its current form, that lack of variety is the crucial difference between a good game and a great one.
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