InterfaceLIFT - Bit of Randomness

Hey People

Nothing to do with the blog, but just wanted to share this as it is a great little website. Its a wallpaper website that is full of user content, but there are some good wallpapers on pictures on here which are free to use.

The website is http://interfacelift.com/

See what you think and enjoy some good backgrounds for your computer

Violence in Video Games

My topic I will be writing my essay on will be Violence in video games. There are a lot of controversies surrounding this topic in recent times and I find it very interesting to do some more research about this topic and what other people think. This has been everywhere in the news, magazines and even in the newspapers so this is no news to anyone. I will be using various researches sources such as magazines, article and internet sources to do my research. The reason why I chose to do my essay on this topic was, as a gamer I like violence in video games and I find it a little boring to play games with little violence it them. So choosing this topic will help me express myself freely in a way I would like and argue for and against violence in Video games. This research at the end will give me a broad idea about the effects violence can have in a video games and children.

Mountain Dew Gets Warcrafted

Hey People

I have just found this on Kotaku and thought it would be useful for Alex's work at the moment. Mountain Dew have released a special Warcraft edition of their drink called Game Fuel. They have done this a few times before with some other games such as Halo 3 and Metal Gear Solid 3 (if I am thinking right)

You can find the link at

http://kotaku.com/5173387/world-of-warcraft-the-soft-drink

Cheers

Luke

Student Presentations - Peer Review

As those that presented for the H&A3 module will know I run a system of peer review with presentations, some of the marking criteria have changed so i thought i would release a copy of this terms peer marking sheet for you to see before you present

Charlie Brooker on Gaming. What's not to like?

Charlie Brooker in the Guardian discussing gaming.

Harsh, vitriolic, and amusing all at the same time. Just a short comment on the popularity of videogames and their sometimes deceptively un-intuitive interfaces. Not very deep but Brooker is always, in the very least, perceptive if you can shift through the swear words.

If he could team up with a design team and publisher, do you think a videogame from his imagination would rival his reality TV parody Dead Set (2008)? I'd buy it.

Resident Evil 5 - I Take It All Back

Hello People

Not In Thursday's Lecture, I said that I was not going to buy Resident Evil 5 and said how bad the demo was. But I won some money and ended up buying it after saw a video of Chris and Wesker fighting each other, so was hooked there and then.

I do take it all back though, the demo was bad but the game is so much better and the team based game mechanics work very well, even if they are a bit wooden and glitchy.

So I think I have learned a lesson in all this which is don't judge a game on the demo that is released (before or after the game has been released)

See you all soon

Are Games Good For Learning - Academic Paper

Hey people

I have been doing research for my presentation/essay and came across a usefull paper for ste matthews presentation. It poses the question are "Video Games Good For Learning?" and I have read the first few pages and looks good.

It is a bit old now as one of its focuses is Thief: Deadly Shadows and Dues Ex, but can be applied to modern games easily me thinks.

You can find the paper at the following URL

http://www.academiccolab.org/resources/documents/MacArthur.pdf

Cheers People