UNI TECH BLOG I

With Windows Phone 7 Series, Microsoft takes a fundamentally different approach to phone software.

‘call of duty; Modern Warfare2’ blasted past $300 million in sales on its opening day, the videogame’s publisher said, blowing away even Hollywood films to become the highest-grossing entertainment launch ever.

‘MW2’ sold 4.7 million copies and raked up $310 million in sales in US and Britain along when the eagerly anticipated title from infinity ward studio made its worldwide debut Tuesday, according to Activision. The videogame bested Batman superhero film the dark knight, which holds the record for the top opening weekend ever by taking in 158.4 million dollars in july 2008.

‘The call of duty’ franchise has become a cultural phenomenon showing the power of videogames as an entertainment medium,” said Activision chief executive Mike Griffith.

“The shattering of these entertainment records is a testament to the compelling, cinematic and uniquely engaging experience that the ‘call of duty’ brand delivers.”

‘MW2’ is the sixth title in a franchise that has won a devoted following since the first version was released in 2003.

Activision believes ‘MW2’ will be such a hit that the California-based company will see record operating margins. Preorders for the $60-videogame were the highest in the firm’s history. “If you only buy a single game this Hanukkah or Christmas, this is the title to beat,” said Scott Steinberg of videogame and gadget website Digital Trends. “It’s designed to be as much of a breathlessly cinematic experience as simple run-n-gun outing.”

Modern Warfare 2 Launch Trailer

Fingers hurt from gaming? It’s probably time for your brain to take over then.

And we have a game that lets you do just that. The adventure of NeuroBoy is a game that monitors your brain activity via a Blutooth headset (called a ‘Mindset’) and uses that data to interact with virtual objects in the game. The technology is still limited to measuring ‘concentration’ and ‘meditation’ so you might still have to use the keyboard and mouse commands to manoeuvre bits of NeuroBoy on screen.

The makers had a short demo at the recently conducted Tokyo Game show. Basically, the MindSet fits over your head like a set of stereo headphones, with a small arm and sensor that presses against your forehead. In order to handle any object, it must first be selected with a mouse click. Player has a choice of four abilities: pushing, pulling, levitating and burning. Everything other than floating requires you to concentrate as best as you can. The game is still on its way, but it’s already generated massive interest about being able to use brain to interest about being able to use brain to control 3-D objects. So, if you can’t wait a few months to get your hands, oops, brain on the game, then check out http://www.neurosky.com/mindset/neuroboy.html

Players Can Tackle Asteroid Or Killer Robots By Solving Sums

BUGBEAR BEATEN

A web games company has launched a series of games – recognizable computer games with asteroids being blasted out of the sky and attacks by killer robots-which, it claims, will teach you maths as you play. Apparently you’ll barely notice that you’re learning.

Manga High was developed by Toby Rowland, co-creator of the gaming site king.com. He was inspired by watching people play games on king.com. “These people were developing incredible skills”, he says. “It dawned on me that the games had a lot in common with maths, and that we might be able to make some casual games that could teach maths almost better than straight classroom contact.”

There are five free games on the site, mangahigh.com, all linked to the GCSE curriculum. In one, player save the Earth from an asteroid strike by choosing the correct equation to plot the course of a missile. Another features robots who can be killed only when you have solved the sum on their shields by using “bidmas”, the order in which maths expressions must be solve (brackets, indices, division, multiplication, addition, subtraction).

“the most encouraging thing was that the games appealed to the spiky- haired brigade,” says Rowland, “teenagers who would not normally be engaging in maths.”

Even board games can help. A 2008 study in US asked primary school kids to play snakes and ladders regularly. After two weeks, the kids showed increased ability at number skills.