Sep 20, 2010

Just Thinking About Violent Video Games Stimulates Aggression

Kotaku

Just Thinking About Violent Video Games Stimulates Aggression A new study by researchers from Ohio State and Central Michigan Universities finds that simply thinking about playing violent video games can stimulate violent behavior long after your game console has gone cold, unless you're a girl.

Anyone who has ever played a multiplayer shooter on Xbox Live can attest to the fact that participating in such games makes the player more aggressive and more apt to call other players' mothers names. We could try to refute this fact, but all researchers would need to do is join a Halo: Reach matchmaking session to prove us wrong. It's a point we're going to have to give them.

Brad Bushman of The Ohio State University and Bryan Gibson of Central Michigan University had a selection of volunteers play one of six video games for a period of 20 minutes. The games ranged from violent titles like Mortal Kombat to more casual games, such as Guitar Hero.

Once the short game sessions were over, half of the players of violent games were asked to spend the next 24 hours thinking about how they could play the game more effectively. The other half were left to their own devices.

The next day Bushman and Gibson tested the aggressiveness of study participants. The casual game players tested fine. The folks who played violent games but didn't think about them tested fine. The men who pondered violent games after playing them showed a higher tendency towards aggressive behavior than all of the other groups.

Note that I said men. Women who pondered the violent games they played did not show increased aggression, outing men as the inherently violent animals we are. Note that is my language there, and not that of the researchers.

What does it all mean? The study shows that if you think about better ways to shoot or maim people all day, you're going to have some aggression issues, unless you're a woman.

Should we be worried? I'd say men should definitely be worried, as this means women can spend all day thinking about killing you without you being any the wiser. Think about that the next time you come up with a witty answer to the age old question, "Do these pants make me look fat?"

Violent video games increase aggression long after the game is turned off [Physorg.com]

Sep 20, 2010

The Nintendo Download: Countdown To Excitement

Kotaku

If you had the Nintendo Countdown Calendar app for the DSi last week, you would have been acutely aware of the Nintendo Countdown Calendar's release this week, along with Aero the Acrobat 2 and one very hungry caterpillar.

Of course then we'd be delving into the realm of temporal paradox, and I believe Nintendo has a strict no temporal paradox policy, so if you're surprised by the release of the Countdown Calendar, there's no reason to be ashamed.

Yes, it's that exciting this week folks. So exciting I'm harping on this countdown dealie rather than poking fun at The Code Monkeys' Triple Throwing Sports, which set up an excellent 'Throwing: The Game' pun I failed to take advantage of.

Oh well.

Triple Throwing Sports

Publisher: The Code Monkeys Ltd.
Players: 1-2
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)
Price: 500 Wii Points
Description: Triple Throwing Sports is the most advanced recreational throwing game available for the WiiWare service, immersing players in the world of competitive projectile throwing. Most Olympic events consist of activities that are traditionally derived from hunting and combat skills. Over time these practices have evolved into a variety of competitive sports that include Javelin, Discus, Shot Put and Hammer. As with real-life throwing events, you will have full control over the aim of the projectile. You must also take into account the angle, release point and power - all of these factors can influence the success of your throw.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar's ABCs

Publisher: CYBIRD Co., Ltd.
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: EC (Early Childhood)
Price: 800 Wii Points
Description: The Very Hungry Caterpillar's ABCs is an educational game based on the children's book The Very Hungry Caterpillar. It allows parents to help children learn basic English while enjoying a game together. The game consists of four parts, including alphabet flash cards featuring colored letters and pictures by Eric Carle, plus a vocabulary quiz for preschool-aged children that includes numbers, colors, shapes, animal names and simple verbs and adjectives. Young players can also engage in fun activities such as erasing parts of a colored screen to reveal a hidden illustration, or placing a variety of animal stamps on the screen. Finally, parents can use the "To The Parents" option to check their children's progress in remembering vocabulary words. Your whole family is sure to appreciate the colorful illustrations by Eric Carle, internationally renowned as a creator of beautifully illustrated and innovatively designed picture books for children.

AERO THE ACROBAT 2

Original platform: Super NES
Publisher: Sunsoft
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) - Mild Cartoon Violence
Price: 800 Wii Points
Description: The aerialist extreme, Aero the Acro-Bat, bounds back into the spotlight once again to stop the wicked industrialist, Edgar Ektor! Aero has entered a new realm of enchantment and must now use all of his acrobatic prowess to foil a criminal plot known only as "Plan B." Join Aero as he discovers new friends - and enemies - in a world custom-built for his high-flying adventures. There are 45 levels of acrobatic fun, including Bonus Rounds, Chance Stages and Hidden Chambers. Discover new villains and original digitized character voices. A password feature allows you to return to any level. The Chillin' Snow Boarding Stage adds a new twist to Aero's style, and you'll find new moves and fighting techniques for Aero's attacks.

The Nintendo Download: Countdown To Excitement
Nintendo Countdown Calendar

Publisher: Nintendo
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: Not Rated
Price: 200 Nintendo DSi Points
Description: With Nintendo Countdown Calendar, you can add and track all of your important events in a fun and exciting countdown format. Simply set up your personal profile and then start entering events. Adding events is easy: Choose a date for the event, decide whether it will be an open event (which you name yourself) or a set event (chosen from the School, Work or General Events categories), and select an icon from the wide variety of available options. If necessary, you can set the recurrence of the event or even move the event to the Hidden Events List. From there, the calendar does the rest - just watch the days count down! On subsequent visits to the application, you may see special greetings or suggested seasonal events you can choose to add to your calendar. All events added to the calendar are displayed chronologically, so you can quickly view all of your upcoming events in one place.

The Nintendo Download: Countdown To Excitement
GO Series 10 Second Run

Publisher: Gamebridge
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)
Price: 200 Nintendo DSi Points
Description: Run like the wind in this unique twist on the classic platform game. Take control of a stick man and run for your life across an obstacle course to reach the goal within 10 seconds. Dash across platforms and avoid various hazards, desperately trying to reach the exit in time. Ten seconds is all you've got. Go flat out over 50 stages and three game modes. Do you have what it takes to reach the finish line?

The Nintendo Download: Countdown To Excitement
Everyday Soccer

Publisher: Aksys Games
Players: 1-2
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)
Price: 500 Nintendo DSi Points
Description: Play soccer against teams from all over the world. Customize your characters to be normally sized, small, tall or muscular. You can also customize their shirts, shorts and shoes. Take advantage of your players' specific traits as dictated by their body types. Assembling a well-balanced team is the key to becoming world champions. There are many teams to play against, so keep your mind sharp and your kicking foot sharper. Play against friends via DS Download Play and find out who's the true soccer champion!

Sep 20, 2010

iTunes Chart Toppers: Angry Sims

Kotaku

iTunes Chart Toppers: Angry Sims The Sims finally push those Angry Birds from their perch.

Here's the full list of games for both platforms:

Position	Title	Price	Weeks	Last Week
iPhone
1	The Sims 3 Ambitions (EA)	$4.99	1	—
2	Tetris (EA)	$2.99	1	—
3	Angry Birds (Clickgamer.com)	$0.99	19	1
4	Street Fighter IV (Capcom)	$9.99	1	—
5	Madden NFL 11 (EA)	$7.99	5	7
6	Plants Vs. Zombies (PopCap)	$2.99	21	9
7	Stick Stunt Biker (Robert Szeleney)	$.99	1	—
8	Bejeweled 2 (PopCap Games)	$2.99	17	6
9	City Story (Namco)	Free (With In-App Purchases)	1	—
10	Fruit Ninja (Halfbrick)	$.99	3	8

Position	Title	Price	Weeks	Last Week
iPad
1	Angry Birds HD (Chillingo Ltd.)	$4.99	17	1
2	Real Golf 2011 HD (Gameloft)	$6.99	1	—
3	Madden NFL 11 (EA)	$12.99	5	2
4	Tetris for iPad (EA)	$7.99	1	—
5	Scrabble for iPad (EA)	$9.99	20	3
6	Plants Vs. Zombies HD (PopCap Games)	$9.99	21	6
7	City Story (TeamLava)	Free [Paid DLC]	5	9
8	Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars HD (Rockstar Games)	$9.99	1	—
9	Tap Zoo (Street View Labs)	Free [Paid DLC]	1	—
10	Fruit Ninja (Halfbrick Studios)	$4.99	4	5

Which do you think should be the top game?

Check out all of our iPhone game reviews.

Sep 20, 2010

The Proper Response To A Tetris Defeat

Kotaku

Unlike most things that come out of my mouth, THIS IS A TRUE STORY.

I live out my days as the only female in a group of gamers. Despite the sheer number of hours we devote to gaming, we are by no means impressive, yet we each have our "thing" – our one game that makes us the best.

My game was Tetris.

Perhaps I flaunted my high score too frequently. Perhaps I was a sore winner. Maybe Russia just has it out for me. I don't know, but exactly one month ago, I was violently dethroned as Tetris Master by my friend and now nemesis, Kenny.

Kenny is the worst Tetris player I've ever seen. Watching him play is like watching a nearsighted, inebriated chimp assemble Lincoln Logs. I've decided the only way witnessing his erratic block-stacking behavior could be more painful is if Tetriminoes literally jumped off the screen and started kicking me in the shins.

And that's the kid who beat my high score.

Everyone has experienced that white-hot feeling of rage after being bested at something – especially when it comes to video games. It's not enough just to beat Left4Dead with a friend; it's about having the most kills after every level. Who cares how proficiently you beat COD4 if your friend has the Mile High Club achievement and you don't? And remember: You're only as good as your last Mario Kart race.

With these feelings in full effect, I was determined to win back my title as Lisa, Destroyer of Lines and Manipulator of Falling Blocks. I started "training" for a few hours every day… and soon, my determination turned into full-blown obsession.

After about a month of this clearly unproductive lifestyle, I not only experienced sore forearms and cramped thumbs, but began severely suffering from Tetris Effect.

Tetris Effect: A form of ‘repetitive stress syndrome' which occurs when people devote so much time and attention to Tetris that it begins to overshadow their thoughts, mental images, and dreams.

SIGNS YOU MAY BE SUFFERING FROM TETRIS EFFECT:

1. You lose sleep due to your brain involuntarily producing Tetris combinations and falling shapes.

2. You discover an irrepressible love for stacking square items, such as cereal boxes and 9-volt batteries.

3. Bathroom tiles? Skyscrapers? The 2010 Nissan Cube? Yeah, spot those and you'll be fitting them together in your head for a while.

4. Most of all, you switch off your Tetris game and retain a strong feeling that you still have some pending business. The game needs you.

The Proper Response To A Tetris Defeat

Play enough daily games of Tetris, and you TOO can be a freak!

The Tetris Effect is the result of Muscle Memory, caused by our brains processing the consistent manual repetition of fitting blocks together as a candidate for optimization. In other words, your brain wants you to do Tetris gooder. As a result, you experience post-game imagery. If played enough, this syndrome can happen with other "repetitive action" games, too, such as Guitar Hero and Rock Band.

To put this idea into scientific example, a 2000 study by a Harvard Medical School psychiatrist tested the procedural memory sparked by Tetris on people with anterograde amnesia (unable to form new memories). The study found that the test subjects dreamed of falling shapes after playing Tetris, yet had no memory of actually playing the game.

The bizarre wonders of Tetris don't stop there.

It's no secret that exercising your brain with games like Tetris can lead to more efficient cerebral (and truck-packing) activity, but a study by Oxford University in 2009 found that volunteers playing Tetris soon after viewing traumatic material in the lab reduced the number of flashbacks to those scenes in the following week. Just think – Tetris could potentially reduce flashbacks for those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Crazy!

But back to my embarrassing addiction.

Four-block imagery and a desire to create order out of chaos haunted me during my Tetris fetish – even more so than when I worked long hours as a graphic designer and fantasized to undo, or "Control + Z" everything that went wrong in my life. (Or "Command + Z" for Mac users, but they never actually make mistakes, right? Am I right, folks?)

On a Sunday night, it happened: I took a Hammer of Dawn to Kenny's high score in a T.K.O. Thankfully, he was there to witness the event, complete with me tying a towel around my neck and running around my condo to the Rocky theme.

I've remained an addict to a degree since my victory. Even while writing this article I've taken exactly five Tetris breaks. However, I don't think any kind of intervention will be necessary until I start hiding in darkened rooms rearranging Kleenex boxes. That was a Howard Hughes reference. But now I've ruined the joke by explaining it. (Editor's note: We don't require our columnists to make Howard Hughes references, but we are on a roll.)

Excuse me, I need to go fit blocks together.

Lisa Foiles is best known as the former star of Nickelodeon's award-winning comedy show, All That. She currently works as a graphic designer and writes for her game site, Save Point. For more info, visit Lisa's official website.

Sep 20, 2010

NBA Jam Crushes the Nuance [Update]

Kotaku

I'm not a sports gamer, not even a little bit.

That doesn't mean I don't enjoy the occasional sports video game, it just means that if I do that game was exceptionally well made.

Over the year's I've played, and enjoyed, my share of Madden, Tiger Woods and a variety of board games. But no sports game has taken up more of my time than the arcade version of NBA Jam.

Playing it alone, teamed up, or one-on-one, I always had a blast with the game. I think that's because it did such a good job of capturing the essence of what makes basketball fun to watch and cutting out all of the boring stuff. Every play seems to be a power play in NBA Jam, every dunk insane.

I've been anticipating checking out Electronic Arts' take on NBA Jam since it was first announced.

During my recent tour of Nintendo's gaming van I finally got a chance to play a bit of one-on-one and solo play. While it was quite a bit of fun to play on the Wii, I was a bit disappointed at how much of the original game's nuance has been stripped.

The first thing I noticed was that the game, when I was playing against one other person, didn't seem to allow me to control the second on-court player in my team. I was so flustered by this that I actually paused the game to quiz the Nintendo rep about it. When he confessed he wasn't sure how to do this, we went to the in-game control screens. Still nothing.

I ended up finishing my time with the game, but still not convinced that EA Sport would strip such an essential part of one-on-one play from the game, I emailed the developer. Surely I had missed something, I thought.

Not so, confirmed EA Sports' Duke Indrasigamany.

"When you're playing NBA JAM with two people, the other two players will be AI controlled," Indrasigamany told me in an email. "Part of the that has to do with the some of the move combinations in the game. For instance, if a single player controlled both characters it would be impossible to the alley-oop where you would be passing to a character that was already in the air, and going for a dunk."

After this story ran, Indrasigamany said he was mistaken about that. You can control the passing and shooting of your AI opponents using the motions you would use if you had the ball. You just can't control the AI's movement. That leaves me to wonder just how I was controlling the shooting and passing of these players without realizing it.

Perhaps the remote-shaking controls were to blame? I certainly didn't feel as if I had any control over the other players, and the rep I played with told me I didn't.

While I can understand that EA wants to make the game more accessible to its audience, I don't get why their game can't handle things the way the arcade version did. In the arcade, tapping the pass and shoot buttons when the AI-controlled player has the ball, gets him to pass or shoot. Pretty straight forward.

An alley-oop was that much more satisfying when you pressed the pass button for your computer-controlled buddy, and then pressed the shoot button for your character. It wasn't brain science, but it added a bit of much needed skill to the over-the-top game.

These waggling controls ~~AI hand-holding~~, don't kill the game, not by any stretch of the imagination. NBA Jam played on the Wii is still a blast, and I'm sure I'll still be playing the hell out of it when it hits the Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360 in October.

There is, for instance, the return of bombastic announcer Tim Kitzrow, and the ability to sink so many shots that your player catches on fire. And let's not forget all of those wonderful Easter eggs.

NBA Jam is a game that needed to be brought to this generation's consoles and it appears that in almost every way, EA Sports nails it.

Sorry this video blew out the gameplay, but you do get a look at how the Wii's motion controls work.

Update: EA was mistaken when they first answered my question, the game does allow you to control the passing and shooting of the AI player. The story has been amended to say that.