Recently in Video Games & Gaming Category

Anybody remember the big noise about 3D virtual worlds and how they are going to change our lives forever?

Well, that may still be true today, but how about the big time scam -- and big time bucks lost -- with "Second Life"?

The Wall Street Journal covers this very nicely and then takes us into the future for where we might be headed.

BTW, what avatar were you?

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and Blu-ray have teamed up with Brickfish to launch the "Why Blu?" campaign at http://www.brickfish.com/Entertainment/whyblu?tab=entries&=blu_pr.

The campaign asks entrants to create a poster, ad or video highlighting the "supreme quality" of Blu-ray Discs.

The grand prize winner, selected by Sony from the top 50 highest-scoring entries, will win a Sony PlayStation 3 with a built in Blu-ray Disc player, and a collection of 8 Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Blu-ray movies. Prizes will also be awarded for the entry that gets the most attention across the Internet and to weekly sweepstakes winners.

Be quick though - only 14 days 14 hrs 15 mins to go!

While much has been made about how little excitement Sony and Nintendo have generated at the E3 game show (click here), there's actually some pretty cool stuff coming out.

Take this for example: Nintendo had Shaun White, the gold medalist at the Olympics, demonstrating his upcoming snowboarding game, Shaun White Snowboarding, where you can stand on the sensitive balance board that Nintendo has shipped with its Wii Fit fitness system.

Got to give you a pretty good feeling of what it's really like (of course without the wind, snow, etc.) -- and the feeling of big air!

Game will be available for Xbox 360 and PS3, but what about the board?

Now you too can shred like the greatest!

(Thanks to EXPN.com for the photo.)

According to BetaNews, in Nintendo's E3 keynote this morning came not only the official announcement of Animal Crossing: City Folk for the Wii, but also something unexpected - VoIP functionality (voice chat) and native SMS/e-mail interactivity.

Animal Crossing: City Folk is the third in the Nintendo Animal Crossing series - a life simulator game. Sounds like Second Life to me. This follows-up the lauch of Animal Crossing in 2001 and Animal Crossing: Wild World in 2005. You assume a anthropomorphic character (resembling both human and animal) and in the open-ended life simulation game you live in a village but there is little preset plot or mandatory tasks.

Called WiiSpeak BetaNews explains that it's "an ambient microphone peripheral meant to encourage live group chatting in Wi-Fi gameplay."

Lastly, BetaNews states:

Also, though only mentioned briefly, the feature in previous versions of Animal Crossing that allowed users to send each other letters in-game, has been expanded to include sending letters outside the game. Communications can be sent to the Wii Message Board, e-mail accounts, and even cell phones via SMS.

I wonder if this is using the new Logitech wireless keyboard for the Wii (also launched today) to text/email messages outside the game? That's pretty cool - connecting your virtual simulated life communications with your real life communications. Before you know it that line will be so blurred you won't know the difference.

Logitech has announced a wireless keyboard for the Nintendo Wii console that enables users to chat online when playing games like "Animal Crossing." The keyboard was unveiled during the E3 Expo in Los Angeles. Combine the Logitech Wireless Keyboard for Nintendo Wii with the new Wii MotionPlus more accurate motion sensor -- or even the current Wii controller's accelerometer technology --  and who needs to type an emoticon such as  ":(" when you can just shake the damn keyboard to indicate you're mad. Ok, maybe not.

Not to be outdone by the earlier American incarnation of the Stones, now Guns N' Roses is getting their game on with a new song on Rock Band 2.

Now isn't it a bit ironic that Slash's "old band" is taking on Guitar Hero, which features the top hatted guitar slasher on its cool video game?

But it also shows us how much the music business has changed when a video game will debut a song -- can ya believe it?

Would GNR been a better choice than Aerosmith for Guitar Hero: Aerosmith?

I have my own opinion, but let's hear yours.

BTW, you can get all of the details of the exciting Rock Band development here.

Yes, and it's coming soon -- as of July 13!

This according to this account of new Xbox 360 store material that reveal a just less than $300 price tag that will make its weekend debut.

So, if you can wait, you can save some cash ... 

And let's see if every retailer across our fair land is going to match that price -- or it they will have the same in-store merchandising material to tout this new lower price.

(Don't you just love how you and I find out this stuff!) 

Yes, you are reading correctly!

You can get the free Guitar Hero III trial from Bplay.com for you BlackBerry -- it's a great way to get acquainted with GH III and the various products available at Bplay.com.

To get it, simply provide permission for Bplay/Magmic Games to include you when sending information regarding new BlackBerry games, themes and other entertainment products from the company. (Of course there's a bit of a hook to this ...)

AOL has introduced its newest online gaming site, BigDownload.com, moving to expand its niche audience and boost targeted ad revenue. The addition to AOL's smaller GameDaily.com is a joint venture with Weblogs, an information-based Internet company.

WIth 700 downloadable files, the site includes 100 full games and 600 teasers, along with game-related news. An additional 50 to 100 new files will be added to the site each month, according to sources

Unlike its main competitor, Yahoo! Games, BigDownload will not require customers go through a registration process before they start downloading gaming content. (Yeah! )

Instead, the site remains fully ad-driven, with advertising customized to individual games and online events. (Boo! ) But somebody has to pay for all of this sometime or other.

And how about that top download!

Read more about it at Crain's New York.

The technology used in the PlayStation 3 is being used to help explore and find oil much faster than before. Woohoo!

Using IBM technology, specifically the IBM PowerXCell 8i, which was originally developed for the Sony Playstation, a Spanish Oil company reports that specialized "Cell" microprocessors are speeding the search for oil and natural gas reserves located 30,000 feet below the Gulf of Mexico up to 6 times faster than current technology. Repsol and the Barcelona Supercomputing Center are using a process known as Reverse Time Migration (RTM), a sophisticated subsurface imaging tool accepted by the oil industry.

It has proven essential for imaging areas of complex subsurface geological structure, such as the rich hydrocarbon provinces of the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, offshore Brazil and West Africa. These basins are the new frontiers in oil exploration, where significant oil reserves are present below thick masses
of salt that have made seismic imaging difficult. But the new technology
will accelerate and streamline oil and gas exploration in these promising regions by several orders of magnitude compared to current industry
methods.

Great! Now we just need to network up the millions of PS3s around the world to assist in oil exploration and we'll have this high oil price problem licked in no time!

Of course, just because we find it doesn't mean we can 'drill' for it. Darned extreme environmentalists! Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf of Mexico and last I checked not a drop of oil was spilled by any of the oil platforms in the Gulf. And don't get me started on ANWR and offshore oil drilling.

Anyway, the project is sponsored by oil and gas company Repsol and the Barcelona Supercomputing Center. The U.S. Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service estimates that these ultra deep Gulf waters holds approximately 56 billion barrels of oil equivalent (oil and natural gas), which, at $130/barrel, would be worth over $7 trillion and would meet the entire U.S. demand for oil and gas for about five years.

Sounds too good to be true, especially with the Democratic party blocking any attempts to drill for oil in U.S. territories. Then again, it's a Spanish company doing the oil drilling and not the U.S., which apparently is beholden to extreme enviro-wacko views even though the vast majority of Americans want us to drill. Heck, even the Chinese will be drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. ABTUSACD (Anybody But The USA Can Drill) apparently. Well, if you believe oil is bad and causing global warming, I have news for you --- China and other countries are doing to drill off the coast of the U.S. anyway.

Check out the funny The No Zone chart displayed on the U.S. Senator floor to show Congressional stonewalling.