http://www.osnews.com/ Exploring the Future of Computing en-us Copyright 2001-2009, David Adams OSNews version 4 donotreply@osnews.com (Adam Scheinberg) donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Thu, 09 Jul 2009 20:21:50 GMT http://www.osnews.com/images/osnews.gif http://www.osnews.com/ 120 http://www.osnews.com/story/21773/Thoughts_of_a_Linux_Game_Porter/ http://www.osnews.com/story/21773/Thoughts_of_a_Linux_Game_Porter/ The folks over at Phoronix had an interesting interview with Linux game porter, Frank Earl. Despite the apparent decline in PC gaming, Earl has worked for Linux Game Publishing for several years and was seeking input from the community at large for game suggestions at Phoronix. He's also done work independently on porting various software over from Windows. The interview covers work that Earl has done, difficulties that arise in porting commercial games to Linux, successes they've had, his views on Linux in general, and his thoughts on the future of gaming in Linux. Fri, 03 Jul 2009 20:56:30 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Jordan Spencer Cunningham) Games 12 http://www.osnews.com/topics/42 News Michael http://www.osnews.com/story/21607/E3_Roundup_Natal_Left_4_Dead_2_The_Last_Guardian/ http://www.osnews.com/story/21607/E3_Roundup_Natal_Left_4_Dead_2_The_Last_Guardian/ The E3 is underway, and with OSNews having a renewed casual interest in gaming, I figured I'd summarise the news around the big three console players, Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony. Microsoft probably had the most interesting news to give us, Nintendo suffers from a severe case of milking the cow (and who would blame them), and Sony repackaged the PSP, announced a few games, and gave the promise it would come with motion sensing technology at some point in the future too. Wed, 03 Jun 2009 08:31:26 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Games 19 http://www.osnews.com/topics/42 News http://www.osnews.com/story/21526/Game_Review_Mirror_s_Edge_XBox_360/ http://www.osnews.com/story/21526/Game_Review_Mirror_s_Edge_XBox_360/ Thanks to documentaries like Jump London, free running was all the rage a couple of years ago on TV. Since the gaming industry is more or less completely void of creative thinking these days, it was only a matter of time before someone would take free running, and shoehorn it into a game. Behold, Mirror's Edge. Wed, 20 May 2009 21:00:19 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Games 25 http://www.osnews.com/topics/42 Feature http://www.osnews.com/story/21498/GP2x_Wiz_Finally_Hits_the_Shelves/ http://www.osnews.com/story/21498/GP2x_Wiz_Finally_Hits_the_Shelves/ Korean company GamePark Holdings have finally released the GP2x Wiz portable games console, the successor to the popular, but abruptly end-of-life'd, GP2x. What makes these portable devices special is that they run Linux, and are more or less aimed at the enthusiast and homebrew markets. Thu, 14 May 2009 23:20:08 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Games 19 http://www.osnews.com/topics/42 News http://www.osnews.com/story/21423/Your_Favorite_Gaming_Consoles_in_Stunning_X-Ray_Color/ http://www.osnews.com/story/21423/Your_Favorite_Gaming_Consoles_in_Stunning_X-Ray_Color/ Reintji from Flickr was good enough to upload some photos of some of the popular gaming consoles throughout the years to his Flickr account. The catch? Not only is he an avid gamer, but he's also an x-ray technician. Combining his two fortes, he's provided these pictures in lovely black and white x-ray colors for us all to enjoy. Sat, 02 May 2009 19:40:07 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Jordan Spencer Cunningham) Games 3 http://www.osnews.com/topics/42 News http://www.osnews.com/story/21266/Fallout_Fan_Creates_Pip-Boy_3000_Using_iPod_Touch/ http://www.osnews.com/story/21266/Fallout_Fan_Creates_Pip-Boy_3000_Using_iPod_Touch/ "The Pip-Boy 3000 is by far one of the coolest gadgets I can imagine owning, and it's no surprise to me that some crafty guy with a little spare time on his hands might try to create the real thing. YouTube user larpcast uploaded a video of a fully functional Pip-Boy, created using the one that came with the Amazon.com exclusive version of the game and an iTouch [by Sony?!?]. Mix throughly and tah-dah, your very own Pip-Boy!" Mon, 06 Apr 2009 20:59:42 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Games 3 http://www.osnews.com/topics/42 News http://www.osnews.com/story/21229/8-Bit_Game_Creator_Now_Available_for_Order/ http://www.osnews.com/story/21229/8-Bit_Game_Creator_Now_Available_for_Order/ Not only can this nifty old-school 8-bit computer play all of your old NES games (with a converter, of course), but you can also program your own mind-challenging games, stimulating chiptune music, and "circuit-bending art" with this affordable keyboard, mouse, and controller combination. The package includes the keybaord, mouse, two game controllers, an OS cartridge (containing a GUI in Madarin Chinese as well as an English DOS prompt, BASIC programming language and sprite manipulator, and an 8-bit music composer), RCA cables, and a nine-volt power supply. What's more is that it ships in 3-5 business days, so you can relive the golden days of Saturday mornings with the NES before the week is out. Tue, 31 Mar 2009 02:59:14 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Jordan Spencer Cunningham) Games 21 http://www.osnews.com/topics/42 News http://www.osnews.com/story/21217/Game_Review_Grand_Theft_Auto_4_XBox_360/ http://www.osnews.com/story/21217/Game_Review_Grand_Theft_Auto_4_XBox_360/ I had prepared myself to experience the world's best game. Judging by other people's reviews, Grand Theft Auto 4 was crafted in a special gaming studio in heaven, authored by Jesus Christ himself, and it descended upon us from the heavens on a golden chariot made out of chocolate covered in fairy dust. Imagine my surprise when I experienced the world's biggest turd in gaming since Davilex' A2 Racer (Dutch people will understand). Sat, 28 Mar 2009 03:13:03 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Games 57 http://www.osnews.com/topics/42 Feature http://www.osnews.com/story/21144/Game_Review_Left_4_Dead_XBox_360/ http://www.osnews.com/story/21144/Game_Review_Left_4_Dead_XBox_360/ Recently, I learned that there are two types of zombies. You have the undead ones, that have arisen from the grave, probably a little disappointed in the afterlife, and who come back to eat your brain (which indicates that the afterlife really must suck if it compares unfavourably to eating brains). Then there's the virus type of zombie, you know, from Resident Evil and 28 Days Later. Left 4 Dead sports the latter variety, but really, does anyone even care? Zombie mayhem! Tue, 17 Mar 2009 09:33:44 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Games 28 http://www.osnews.com/topics/42 Feature http://www.osnews.com/story/20935/Blood_Frontier_The_Latest_Open-Source_FPS/ http://www.osnews.com/story/20935/Blood_Frontier_The_Latest_Open-Source_FPS/ Blood Frontier is a hot new free and open source first person shooter with original artwork and based on the Cube 2 engine. Phoronix takes a look "Blood Frontier is based upon the Sauerbraten engine and takes advantage of the features like a 6-direction height field world model, real-time map editing, light-maps, shader-based lighting effects, integrated physics support, and a particle engine. Like Cube and Cube 2, Blood Frontier uses OpenGL and SDL, which makes it multi-platform friendly with binaries for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X." Read more Sun, 08 Feb 2009 04:42:15 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (OSNews Staff) Games 6 http://www.osnews.com/topics/42 News Rahul http://www.osnews.com/story/20928/Game_Review_Saints_Row_2_XBox_360/ http://www.osnews.com/story/20928/Game_Review_Saints_Row_2_XBox_360/ Do you remember the good old days? When game manufacturers fully realised that gamers don't really need a motivation and a back story to make them want to kill everything on screen? The good old days, when Grand Theft Auto 1 was released, and Carmageddon 1 and 2 were made. Those were the days. Somewhere along the way, however, game designers started shoe-horning backstories and motivations into games where the goal is "kill everything", and as a consequence, these games became pretentious. Thank god, however, for Saints Row 2: a game that brings back the good old days of mindless violence - just for the fun of it. Fri, 06 Feb 2009 14:34:28 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Games 36 http://www.osnews.com/topics/42 Feature http://www.osnews.com/story/20853/Will_Your_Games_Run_on_Windows_7_/ http://www.osnews.com/story/20853/Will_Your_Games_Run_on_Windows_7_/ ExtremeTech installs and launches 22 popular game titles - both old and new - to see which ones run on Windows 7, and which ones don't. And then there are games which do run but not without issues. Either way, the article provides gamers a glimpse into how Windows 7 affects gaming performance and if your favorite gaming title will run or not. They conclude: "We encountered relatively few problems, even with some of the older games. And given how sleek Windows 7 feels compared to Vista, we're looking forward to moving to the new OS as soon as it's released." Mon, 26 Jan 2009 19:22:01 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Games 6 http://www.osnews.com/topics/42 News Jeremy13 http://www.osnews.com/story/20814/Game_Review_Lost_Odyssey_XBox_360/ http://www.osnews.com/story/20814/Game_Review_Lost_Odyssey_XBox_360/ After our article on modern gaming a while ago, we decided to dive futher into gaming. That's why I met up with one of my friends, and asked him if he could loan me the best game he had for his XBox 360. Maybe I should have been a bit more specific, I thought, because when he came over, before I knew it, he shoved a Japanese RPG in my console. This would be my first foray into the strange, magical, and disturbed world of the Japanese RPG. Read on for a review of Lost Odyssey. Wed, 21 Jan 2009 22:22:51 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Games 38 http://www.osnews.com/topics/42 Feature http://www.osnews.com/story/20760/XBox_To_Become_a_Little_Bit_Magical_with_Upcoming_Kodu/ http://www.osnews.com/story/20760/XBox_To_Become_a_Little_Bit_Magical_with_Upcoming_Kodu/ Microsoft Research has been working on a new gimmick for XBox Live subscribers, something called "Kodu" that allows kids (and parents, perhaps?) to design their own games without prior knowledge of programming, and all done on the XBox console. Wed, 14 Jan 2009 18:49:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (OSNews Staff) Games 13 http://www.osnews.com/topics/42 News weildish http://www.osnews.com/story/20710/Why_You_Should_Support_Mac_OS_X_and_Linux/ http://www.osnews.com/story/20710/Why_You_Should_Support_Mac_OS_X_and_Linux/ Indie game developer Wolfire Games gives 5 solid reasons why games developers should support Mac OS X and Linux. [via TUAW] "Obviously supporting Mac OS X and Linux means you tap into another platform and expand your potential market base. That much is clear. But surely adding an extra 5% is negligible, right? Wrong. Not all five percents are created equal." For their game Lugaru, they go on to claim "supporting Mac OS X and Linux directly increased sales by around 122%." Tue, 30 Dec 2008 23:21:08 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Kroc Camen) Games 15 http://www.osnews.com/topics/42 News