Nintendo in patent suit over Wii motion controls

post from Destructoid on 10 September 2011 11:05:40 PM. © Destructoid

Nintendo in patent suit over Wii motion controls screenshot

Nintendo's lawyers are going to be earning their keep once more as Nintendo are being sued over the Wii yet again, Law360 reports (reg. required). This time the lawsuit comes from ThinkOptics, creators of the Wavit remote. According to ThinkOptics, Nintendo knowingly infringed their patent, "Electronic Equipment for Handheld Vision Based Absolute Pointing System" (U.S. Patent Number 7,796,116), issued on Sept. 14 2010. They claim that Nintendo already knew, or should have known, that it was infringing.

The rejection of... applications -- assigned to Nintendo Co. LLC. -- based on the '116 patent is proof that the Nintendo defendants knew or should have known the objective risk that one or more of their products infringed at least one claim of the '116 patent.

They are really laying on the patents and have included two others in the case, "Handheld Device for Handheld Vision Based Pointing System" and "Handheld Vision Based Pointing System." This apparantly means that the whole Wii infringes these patents, according to ThinkOptics.

Nintendo's Wii gaming system uses, without ThinkOptics's permission, ThinkOptics's infrared, sensor-based motion tracking technology to enable the motion gaming features that have made the system very popular with consumers since its introduction

Nintendo is not the only company that ThinkOptics claims committed infringement. Various retailers, such as Wal-Mart are allegedly liable for stocking and selling the products, while manufacturers and developers like Gearbox may be likewise liable for making games which use the technology. This isn't just restricted to the Wii, ThinkOptics believes that the Wii U infringes these patents as well.

While their claims may seem like a stretch to some, they have taken the case to the Eastern Texas federal court, which has a reputation for favoring the patent holders.

Nintendo Gets Sued Over The Wii [TechCrunch]

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The DTOID Show: Our Friday live show happened!

post from Destructoid on 10 September 2011 09:05:53 PM. © Destructoid

The DTOID Show: Our Friday live show happened! screenshot

Hiya, fellas! Sorry I'm late on posting yesterday's episode of The Destructoid Show, but Max and I stayed up all last night playing Dead Island with some of the guys from Bitmob. The things we do for work!

Anyway, yesterday's live episode was chock full of giveaways and video game news. First up, it looks like Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Saints Row 3 are both getting some interesting DLC, Gearbox is doing a fan survey for Borderlands 2, Steam might be coming to the Xbox, and Nintendo is unveiling its new metallic rose color for the DSi XL. (P.S. It was my idea!)

Max also gives us the skinny on some of this week's reviews, including Warhammer 40K: Space Marine, BloodRayne: Betrayal, and The Ico & Shadow of the Colossus Collection. The absolute best part of this episode, however, has to be Jonathan Holmes' video review of Starfox 64 3D, now starring Jonathan Holmes' kitten.

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Monster Hunter Tri G site open, is mysteriously
nubless

post from Destructoid on 10 September 2011 09:05:53 PM. © Destructoid

Monster Hunter Tri G site open, is mysteriously nubless screenshot

Much hubbub was made earlier this week over the newly revealed Monster Hunter game for the 3DS, and the analog nub cradle that's coming along with it. The peripheral, which gives the 3DS the ability to play games with double nub controls (something people have been asking for from the PSP for years), caused many gamers to completely lose their sh*t. The hysteria ranged from "Nintendo is going to force us to use this for every game now!" to "Nintendo is going to force us to buy this and then there wont be any games on it!", to the every popular "They ripped us off by not including this in the first place even though I don't want it anyway!" This is all without announcement of the nub cradle's price, compatibility with software, release date, official name, or anything else for that matter.

All that noise effectively obscured what is arguably the bigger news here; that the 3DS is getting a Monster Hunter title, and it looks awesome. The game is based on Monster Hunter Tri for the Wii, but there will be plenty of additional content here. Unsurprisingly, the game's new monsters look awesome, not to mention massive. More unexpected is how great the game looks. I'd wager that it's even prettier than the Wii version; one of the few games to prove that when developers put in the time and effort, that the Wii can put out some beautiful graphics.

Also surprising is the total lack of double nub to be found on the game's official website. It makes me wonder if the new peripheral will even be required to play the game. Could Nubageddon be over already, just a few days after it devastated the world forever?

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Monster Hunter Tri 3G site open, is mysteriously
nubless

post from Destructoid on 10 September 2011 08:05:25 PM. © Destructoid

Monster Hunter Tri 3G site open, is mysteriously nubless screenshot

All that noise effectively obscured what is arguably the bigger news here; that the 3DS is getting a Monster Hunter title, and it looks awesome. The game is based on Monster Hunter Tri for the Wii, but there will be plenty of additional content here. Unsurprisingly, the game's new monsters look awesome, not to mention massive. More unexpected is how great the game looks. I'd wager that it's even prettier than the Wii version;one of the few games to prove that when developers put in the time and effort, that the Wii can put out some beautiful graphics.

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BAFTA supporting young game designers

post from Destructoid on 10 September 2011 08:05:25 PM. © Destructoid

BAFTA supporting young game designers screenshot

BAFTA will be setting up two game designer workshops for young people at the Eurogamer Expo in London this year, presumably in an effort to keep them from drinking in parks and breaking into shops (that is what young people do these days, right?). On September 23rd, kids from the south of England will be invited to the workshop, where game development staff from Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft will teach them more about the industry. There will be another workshop on the 24th for everyone else.

Continuing their support of the industry, BAFTA have also been running a competition for young would-be developers. The BAFTA Young Game Designers Competition gets children to work in groups to create a plan for a video game, the designs are then judged by a panel of experts at BAFTA, NESTA and The University of Abertay. The kids with the best design will have a chance to see their ideas become a prototype created by a professional studio. They will also get a week of work experience at EA, because it's never too early to start working for the man.

The competition is nationwide and has already proven to be a success, according to BAFTA producer Niyi Akeju.

The competition has been going really. There's been lots of interest from schools and young people around the country. We've recently held workshops at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival, and Dare ProtoPlay in Dundee, which was a really buzzing event. Speakers have included Ian Livingstone from Eidos as well as games professionals from Nintendo, Channel 4, Dynamo Games and Digital Goldfish.

It's great to see large organizations like BAFTA supporting young people trying to get into the industry. When I was in school, I would have been laughed out of my career advisor's office if I had told him I wanted to develop video games. So if any of you UK Dtoiders are still suffering through our delightful education system, this competition might be worth your while. The deadline for entries is October 24th.

You can find out more about the competition and buy a ticket for the workshop here.

Bafta brings Young Game Designers workshop to London [The Guardian]

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While AMD goes for brains, NVIDIA goes for brawn

post from Destructoid on 10 September 2011 07:06:03 PM. © Destructoid

While AMD goes for brains, NVIDIA goes for brawn screenshot

If you have looked into building your own computer, you'll know that shopping for a video card can be a daunting experience to say the least. With tons of specs to look at, things tend to get a little confusing when comparing different cards, not to mention comparing AMD to NVIDIA.

If you take a look at the differences in specs of AMD and NVIDIA cards, you'll see a few differences, and it's not just the price. Today we'll be talking a little about why these two brands of cards are so different and how AMD can afford the lower prices.

Brains over brawn? Think again. NVIDIA's overwhelming power wins over AMD's ingenuity.

One of the biggest differences between AMD and NVIDIA cards is they way they organize their stream processors. To begin with the basics, a stream processor is just one of hundreds of processing units that work in parallel, and are a major part of modern graphics processors. These stream processors work to continuously render millions of pixels and polygons that create the graphics which appear on your screen.

The big difference between the way NVIDIA and AMD create their GPU architecture is how they implement the stream processors. As you might have seen while looking through GPU specs, NVIDIA cards have significantly fewer amounts of stream processors (SP), where each is identical to the ones near it. Going into more detail, there are eight identical SP and one special unit that more or less oversees the other eight.

For example, if you take a look at the NVIDIA GTX 460, it actually only uses about 88% of the stream processors (every one in nine SP are used as overseers). However, despite this blatant lack of efficiency, it is easier for software developers to create programs for this type of architecture due to its simplicity. Because of this simplicity though, it gives NVIDIA cards the ability to use sheer brute force to power through difficult graphic situations.

AMD takes a slightly more clever way of doing things in that not every SP is the same as the ones around it. AMD organizes the stream processors into blocks of six; four identical processors, one that carries different FP/INT arithmetic functions, and an overseer. While it isn't as simple as this, you can more or less look at five AMD stream processors as one NVIDIA stream processor. With this more complicated structure comes a potential for increased power over its NVIDIA counterpart due to the extra flexibility this architecture allows.

However, it is easier for developers to create applications for NVIDIA cards due to the simplistic setup, which more or less puts AMD's ingenuity to waste unless a developer decides to write the application to take full advantage of all the SPs AMD has. The downside to this is that most developers decide not to bother with taking advantage of the extra power AMD (potentially) has, which gives NVIDIA cards a leg up on optimization of their cards.

AMD's die are significantly smaller than Nvidia's, which allows for cheaper cards.

When we compare the Radeon HD 6850 to the GTX 460 in terms of die size, you'll see a 111mm difference between surface areas (the Radeon HD 6850 having a 255mm^2 surface area and the GTX 460 boasting a 366mm^2 die size), which simply means that NVIDIA isn't able to make as many cards as AMD can for the same amount of money.

With Silicon prices hovering around one to two dollars a pound, that (pretty sizable) difference in die sizes adds up pretty quickly.

The second reason AMD is able to charge less than NVIDIA is because AMD is a part of AMD. This helps because AMD not only receives profits from AMD products, but it also gets the same deals and technological advances AMD gets. It's just a matter of having some variety in the mix.

There is, of course, the more obvious reason NVIDIA cards are more expensive than AMD's cards: brand name. It's the basic idea that NVIDIA prices their cards so high because they can get away with it. Although AMD sells at a lower price to be competitive with rival NVIDIA cards, AMD likely still turns a pretty hefty profit off their cards; just think how much NVIDIA is making off it all.

Bottom Line

While NVIDIA graphics cards may have a little more power to them, AMD graphics cards will (most likely) always be a half step behind them for a fraction of the price. Also keep in mind that because AMD are serious competition for NVIDIA, they have been a major factor in driving NVIDIA prices down. So overall, NVIDIA will carry the title in performance for a higher price tag over AMD.

Going into slightly more detail, both brands have their pros and cons, and the one that is best for you is generally going to vary depending on what you intend to use the computer for and what your budget looks like. Typically, if you are going for a performance or gaming rig with a budget of around $700 or more, I would suggest getting an NVIDIA card.

Anything below that and I would look into the cheaper alternative, AMD. However, all cases vary from card to card so take the time to look at both brands in that price range and decide if you'd like a slightly lower price or slightly higher performance.

EDIT: Swapped ATI for AMD. I apologize, it was a careless mistake on my part.

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Rachel stars in the Resident Evil Revelations TGS
trailer

post from Destructoid on 10 September 2011 07:06:03 PM. © Destructoid

Rachel stars in the Resident Evil Revelations TGS trailer screenshot

video details and more

There's already a fair amount of controversy brewing around Rachel, the new character revealed in this trailer for Resident Evil Revelations. Her character design seems to be the target of some built up resentment among some gamers; resentment over the blatant oversexualization of female game characters that's been endemic of the medium since Samus first took off all her clothes for no reason at the end of Metroid.

I understand why some gamers have finally had enough, but in this case, I don't really see it. From a design perspective, I think Rachel is pretty evocative. Sure, she's sexually charged to the point of kitsch, but that doesn't necessarily make her a sex object, or an ineffective design. For me, the hair covering her face implies a sense of mystery, unpredictability, vulnerability, and a touch of ridiculousness, but in no way did it cause me to see the character as an object. As for her exposed cleavage (which is mostly obscured by the camera), it goes right along with the sticky white substance excreted by the disgusting monsters that are constantly stalking her. It's the old universal fear of sex = fear of death thing that's been common theme in the the sci-fi/horror genre since the crew of the Nostromo first got impregnated by Giger's Alien.

All in all, Rachel was extremely easy for me to relate to. I found myself unconsiously crossing my legs during the bit where the creature grabs her by the ankles, wanting to keep that slimy, spiky, maggot mouthed beast as far away from my orifices as possible. Esentially, I felt like I was Rachel, despite (or perhaps because) of her voluptuous figure and partially obscured face.

Just because a character has big boobs doesn't mean she (or he) can't be an effective vessel for your psyche.

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Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken Alternative
Space Rock Tracks Drive Eccentric In-Game Story Through Exclusive Music Videos and Retro Cut-Scenes

Ratloop Asia, an independent publisher and developer of high quality, innovative games for the...

Read the full post at www.gamezplay.org use the search option if there is no link above...

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irds-hardboiled-chicken.html

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Treasure Hunt - Colorful Garden

Treasure Hunt-Colorful Garden is another point and click hidden object game from Games2gather. It's the time to use your observing skills to discover treasures in the Colorful Garden pictures. Find the hidden treasures in short duration to get high score. Avoid clicking wrongly as otherwise you will lose 20 seconds in given time duration. Good luck and have fun!Play Treasure Hunt-Colorful Garden

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l-garden.html

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Steal Crown and Escape: Sapphire Crown

Steal Crown and Escape: Sapphire Crown is a point and click adventure/escape game mix created by Ainars. Your secret mission continues, this time your objective is to find and steal sapphire crown. Infiltrate in to the castle, search all around, find crown and escape. Good Luck!Play This Game

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