Cell Phone Games
One of the newest platforms for the video game is the cell phone As mobiles use more advanced technology they pack more computer processing power In addition the new phones have larger displays in order to allow users to use the address book global positioning photography PDA text messaging and web browsing capabilities that are becoming standard on mobile devices All of these things have given people more to do with their phones than just download new ring tones
Game developers are taking advantage of the enhancements on handsets and are making new and advanced cell phone video games Sure early generations of cellular phones had games but they were like the earliest console video games little more than dots and dashes Todays games however are as advanced as the ones on popular portable consolesmModern mobiles have full color displays fast game play and even multiplayer capabilities Even people who were not traditional gamers are discovering gaming on their phones Part of the reason is that they already have it since a cell phone game is often either free or only a few dollars people are willing to make the minimal investment to try the games In addition since you always have your phone the games are there whenever you have a free moment Riding on the bus Waiting in a long line at the bank Stood up by your date Whip out your phone and kill some time with a game on your phone You can even download new games from wherever you are so if you are bored it can be the ideal solution to keep you occupied
Often manufacturers or service providers also known as carriers offer free games with your phone purchase Other games can be downloaded for free or purchased for play Much like other online games some mobile phone video games require a one time purchase and others are subscription based
Most cellular phones that can play video games are enabled with either BREW or J2ME technology If your phone has Internet access you should be able to download and play games on it To find games for your phone search for your phone model and the word games Of course the best way to find out if a game will play on your phone is to access games through your service provider
Choosing the right video games for kids can be quite a challenge especially if youre a concerned parent who wants to provide your child with a game that theyll enjoy while at the same time ensuring that the content is appropriate for a young person of that particular age group For example more violent games like Mortal Kombat are perfectly suitable for a young adult but it might not be such a good idea to provide 7yearold Billy with that particular blood bath Video games for kids can get controversial but if you look carefully there are countless gems out there that are both appropriate and fun Contrary to popular belief your childs brain will not rot if they partake in a video game or two In fact video games for kids are designed to be educational making the process of learning the alphabet mathematics logic reasoning puzzle solving and strategizing fun Children typically have short attention spans so it is important to help keep their interest and there are tons of video games out there that teach concentration look at the image above At the same time you have to be careful which video games you provide your child Some may not be appropriate while others are perfectly suitable Thats where the ESRB comes into play It is unrealistic to rely on the video game industry to solely release titles that are appropriate for all age groups especially considering that the average video game player is between 25 and 35 years old This target demographic yearns for more complex offerings and oftentimes these types of games come with sexual or violent themes In this way it is up to the parents to do the parenting and not the video game industry at large The single best way to determine whether a particular title is appropriate for your child is to check the ESRB rating printed on the front cover of the game This rating much like movie ratings will indicate whether there is questionable content within There are currently six levels
EC for Early Childhood Suitable for ages 3 and older No inappropriate material whatsoever but also probably not very fun or enjoyable for older children
E for Everyone Suitable for ages 6 and older The vast majority of games fall into this category They may contain minimal violence or mild language
E10 for Everyone 10 Suitable for ages 10 and older More violence more language and the possibility of infrequent blood or suggestive themes
T for Teen Suitable for ages 13 and older Similar to a movie with a PG13 rating these games may have more violence simulated gambling sexual content and or language Most professional wrestling games for example fall under this category
M for Mature Suitable for 17 and older Parental discretion is highly advised as there may be some rather intense blood and gore Prototypical examples would include Doom Quake and Rainbow Six Many retailers will not sell Mrated games to minors
Nintendo DS
VideoGamesThe Nintendo DS commonly abbreviated as NDS or simply DS is a handheld gaming device created and released by Nintendo in late 2004 The system departs from the traditional formula of gaming devices and has two screens the lower of which is touch sensitive The DS stands for Dual Screen or Developers System and is intended to urge developers to create more innovative games with the systems creative features The Nintendo DS system has sold over 6 million units as of September 2005
Nintendo has long dominated the handheld video game market with its line of Game Boy systems most recently the Game Boy Advance and Game Boy Advance SP The announcement of a new system came in early 2004 as a shock to the gaming community More shocking was Nintendos promise that the system was not a replacement or successor to the Game Boy series Rather it would be a thirdtier system independent of other handhelds
To set the system apart from the rest of the market Nintendo included a number of unique features on the DS that game developers utilize in many ways
Two Screens The clamshell design of the Nintendo DS features a lid that pivots upward to reveal a second screen vertically parallel to the lower The screens have separate processors and can display different independent scenes or work together to create the illusion of one large playing field
Touch Screen The lower screen on the DS is touchsensitive much like modern PDA systems Using a stylus the included thumb nub other accessories or even fingers gamers have a whole new way to control the games they play The touch screen breaks the traditional button input of gaming machines and allows direct manipulation of onscreen objects
Button Layout The Game Boy Advance features a 4way Dpad Start and Select buttons two shoulder buttons L and R and two face buttons A and B The Nintendo DS copies this layout but adds X and Y buttons that mirror the cross layout of the Dpad
Microphone On the bottom of the system is a small opening that is a microphone Players can interact with their games with their voice A few examples utilized thusfar are recording small clips of speech sounds etc shouting commands or blowing bubbles by breathing into the microphone
Wireless Features In order to play Multiplayer games with several systems Game Boy users had to connect with physical cords to their system The Nintendo DS features wireless Multiplayer with a range of 100 feet Players sitting within this radius can play the same game often with only one copy of the cart
Sony PlayStation 3
VideoGamesSony now the 400pound gorilla of the video game console world is poised to bring out the third version of its recordbreaking PlayStation The PlayStation 2 has brought the worlds premiere video games to over 100 million homes 100 million and the PlayStation 3 is expected to outsell its parent
Like all the newest consoles of its generation it promises groundbreaking new graphical detail and puts unprecedented processing and memory resources at the feet of eager game developers Everything is bigger brighter and more detailed so detailed in fact that it outstrips the visual output of the Xbox 360 delivering a rare 1080p or flickerfree 1920 x 1080 resolution to the Xbox 360s halfasdetailed 1080i and may induce some gamers to buy new HDTVs to replace the relatively new ones they thought would satisfy them for years
The PS3 is scheduled for a Spring 2006 release which some have postulated means a worldwide March 2006 launch
According to published specifications the PlayStation 3 clocks in at 218 GFLOPs This is a measure of the sheer number of floatingpoint nonwholenumber mathematical operations it can pull off in a set space of time If this is true it will be almost twice as powerful as the Xbox 360 and 35 times mas macho than the PlayStation 2
As with the CPU the GPU comparison is murky terribly murky Microsofts using an ATI chip with a brandnew Unified Shader Architecture that is difficult to compare with traditional video technology The PS3 uses the Nvidia RSX which Sony says is more powerful than two GeForce 6800 strapped together Our conclusion the consoles will be comparable in graphical power Speaking of moving pictures the PS3 is also participating in the next Beta vs VHS battle this time being waged over the successor to DVD The two contenders are HDDVD and Bluray and Sony has come down firmly in the latter camp The PS3 will be able to play movies in the new highcapacity format and games as well
The PS3 controller is a revelation and in this writers eyes an ugly one The triedandtrue PS2 controller has been unceremoniously ousted and the usurper is a nasty looking silver batarang with a narrow curving face The button layout is largely similar to the old controller but the entire setup stinks of form over function Will nextgeneration gaming mean nextgeneration orthopedic surgery
Theres a lot of speculation about what Sony will do to compete with Microsofts fullyfeatured Xbox Live internet multiplayermatching system Sony claims theyll have a unified solution At the same time in early 2005 they announced theyll leave a lot of it up to the market keeping it open platform so that publishers can create opportunities directly with gamers rather than forcing everything to go through one single channel a la Xbox Live
Both the 360 and the PS3 will support USB devices wireless communication home networking and wireless controllers
The PS3 wont come with a hard drive but itll have a slot for a notebooksized 2 5 hard drive It will also support the Memory Stick SD and CompactFlash storage formats At the Game Developers ConferenceEurope the head of Sony Europe announced that the PS3 SDK will boast sophisticated middleware software that makes developing the full games easier such as the popular Havok physics engine Ageias Novodex and Epics wellknown Unreal Engine 3 as well as numerous readytouse code libraries The platform will also be fully downwardcompatible playing both PlayStation 1 and PlayStation 2 games This is good news for gamers who have sunk and for many are still sinking hundreds of dollars into their game libraries.
Xbox Video Game System
Microsoft first entered the video game console market in the fall of 2001 Early rumors that the software giant was creating a console system first surfaced early in 2000 and in March of 2000 Bill Gates unveiled the first Xbox demo unit In January of 2001 Microsoft showed the first preproduction units Since Playstation 2 was released in 2000 the competition was formidable and game publishers and consumers all wondered which console system would reign in the market So what is inside the Xboxs cool black box As might be expected in a console from Microsoft the Xbox is based on PC technology The Xbox contains an Intel Pentium III processor that runs at a raging 733 megahertz faster than either the Playstation 2 or the Nintendo Gamecube The Xbox also has a very fast custom 3D processor for handling video display an audio system that supports 256 channels and Dolby AC3 encoding and a builtin 8 gig hard drive The Xbox can support up to four players with four separate hand controllers Some other features on the Xbox include a 5x DVD drive that allows movie playback support for broadband connectivity an 8 megabyte removable memory card and HDTV support Between the Xboxs midNovember 2001 launch and January 1 2002 consumers bought one and a half million units of the game system in the United States Microsoft followed the U S release with rollouts in Japan Europe and Australia Initial consumers each purchased an average of three games with their Xbox systems making it one of the most successful video game system launches in history Much of this success may be attributed to the great games that were available at the Xboxs release Microsoft secured exclusives with the following Xbox games for the systems introduction Halo Dead of Alive 3 Fuzion Frenzy Oddworld Munchs Oddysee NFL Fever 2002 and Project Gotham Racing Additional titles that were not exclusive but were available at the systems release included Madden NFL 2002 NASCAR Thunder 2002 Shrek Dark Summit Cel Damage NHL Hitz 2002 NASCAR Heat 2002 TransWorld Surf Test Drive Off Road Wide Open Mad Dash Racing 4x4 Evo 2 and Tony Hawks Pro Skater 2x. By the end of 2004 the Xbox had an installed base of approximately 20 million units While that number is small compared to Playstation 2s installed base of around 80 million units for the same date Xboxs numbers are quite respectable especially considering it was Microsofts first entry into the video game console market Sales of Xbox hardware accessories and games continue strong into 2005
