Xbox Live Avatars Get College Clothes

California Golden Bears

Disruptive Media has unveiled a slew of collegiate clothing for your Xbox Live dollies avatars. Available now, these threads will let you show other Xbox Live gamers how proud you are of your alma mater (if you happened to attend one of the 30 schools available). The company’s press release stated:

Disruptive Media Publishers (DP), a leading provider of Xbox 360 personalization content, announced the release of a new collection of avatar apparel items featuring 30 top U.S. universities. The release marks the first time users can personalize their Xbox Live Avatars with officially licensed university branded apparel licensed through The Collegiate Licensing Company (CLC), a division of IMG Worldwide. From varsity jackets to fitted caps, hooded sweatshirts, polo shirts and shoes, hundreds of unique university branded items are now available on Xbox Live Avatar Marketplace.

This is just smart. I know a lot of you aren’t big on Xbox dolly clothes, but this line of avatar apparel is sure to sell like crazy. Hit the jump for the full list and let me know if your school was included. Having attended a division III university with a crappy sports program, I’m out of luck.

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Epic Games Cliff Bleszinski Thinks OnLive is the “Real Deal”

OnLive

OnLive’s streaming games service has been getting a lot of buzz since it debuted at Game Developers Conference 2009. While millions of gamers love the idea of games-on-demand, many are skeptical about cloud-based gaming. This is new, uncharted territory for gaming. With that in mind, I decided to ask the most dashing game designer east of the Mississippi a prominent game developer what he thought of OnLive. Here’s what Epic Games’ Cliff Bleszinski (Unreal, Gears of War) had to say:

I was skeptical about OnLive until I had a chance to be hands on with it at GDC, and it does appear to be the “real deal.” I think the PC space will benefit the most initially from this technology, however, I doubt Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo are ready to yield to an on-demand cloud console quite yet.

What do you make of his comments? Does getting praise from a respected game designer like Cliffy B change your opinion of OnLive? I want to know what you’re thinking (pure energy)!

Nintendo of Japan Announces DSi LL With 4.2-inch Screens

Remember that rumored revamp of the Nintendo DSi I mentioned on Tuesday? The one with the larger screens, aimed towards old people? In the immortal words of Kurt Angle, “It’s true. It’s damn true.” Nintendo of Japan has announced the DSi LL, an update of its hugely popular DSi, coming on November 21. The big features this time around are dual 4.2-inch screens and a large, pen-like stylus.

The DSi LL will be available in natural white, wine red, and poo dark brown colors. I’m guessing the more “mature” colors combined with the easier-on-the-eyes screens and a stylus that’s so large that you can’t drop it make this a winning combination for old people. I kid, I kid. I love old people!

DSi LL

Seriously though, I was on the fence about the DSi because I wanted more of an upgrade from the DS Lite. The DSi LL is totally it. Hopefully it will be coming to America some time in early 2010.

What do you think od the DSi LL? Are you going to pick one up? What do you think LL stands for?

Coffee Talk #14: Professional Gaming and You

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, the Yankees totally sucking last night, Hulk Hogan signing with TNA Wrestling, or the joys of Burmese food, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

Yesterday, a bunch of friends were telling me how they think professional gaming is set for a huge spike in North America. I was surprised by their position. While pro gaming has a following, I think it’s niche and I don’t see how it can achieve rapid growth in this economic climate.

Like any self-absorbed person, I started thinking about my issues with pro gaming. I just don’t find it very interesting. Watching a few people play a first-person shooter on a big screen bores me. In most cases, I rather be playing games than watching people play them.

Street Fighter IV

That said, there are a few exceptions. I love watching two highly skilled Street Fighter IV players go at it. I love watching Korean fans watch professional StarCraft players. At Korean StarCraft tournaments, the crowd is totally tuned into the game, gasps at sudden turnarounds, and goes nuts when their man wins. There are DVD box sets of tournaments and professional players have their own baseball cards. It’s a cool and unique thing.

Anyway, I want to know what you think about professional gaming. Does it interest you? Do you think it has a bright future in America? What kind of games do you like to watch in tournaments? Leave a comment and let me know (please)!

Coffee Talk #13: Should Price Be a Factor in Review Scores?

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, your pick for the World Series, D&D nerds using Google Wave, or electric scooters, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

So many of my friends in the gaming business are raving about DJ Hero. During several casual chats this week, I heard superlative after superlative thrown at the game. Most of the time, I just nodded and grinned (or in some cases did the IM equivalent of nodding and grinning). To the friends I was comfortable with — the ones close enough to engage in a healthy debate with, that is — I responded with one simple question, “Yeah, but is it worth $120?”

DJ Hero Renegade Edition

Price is a factor when you’re buying a game, but for some reviewers it’s a non-issue. Some outlets take the stance of “we judge each game on its own merits”. I don’t really buy that. I have different expectations from a full-budget $60 game than a $20 value title or a $10 download. Although some reviewers are taking DJ Hero’s price into consideration, I don’t think they’re weighing it into the equation as heavily as they ought to.

Part of the problem is that some longtime reviewers get too used to being able to play every game that’s released for free. They forget about being a kid that desperately wanted three games, but had to deliberate for days because they could only afford one. To me, a game like DJ Hero or Rock Band or Guitar Hero should be looked at differently than a $60 game because they’re frickin’ expensive.

Of course, that’s just my opinion. I want to know what you think America. Should a game’s price be considered in its review score?

PhD Candidate Uses Biometrics for Guitarless Guitar Hero

T. Scott Saponas has devised a system that uses biometric sensors that pick up your arm’s electrical signals to…(get this) play Guitar Hero. I love the use of awesome technology for trivial pursuits. So does Procrastineering, which reported:

One of my favorite projects this year was a muscle sensing system that (among other things) allows you to play Guitar Hero without a guitar. It directly senses the electrical signals in your arms and maps those to the appropriate button presses. This was done by Scott Saponas, a Phd student at the University of Washington exploring a variety of biometric sensing techniques for input.

Be sure to check out the video of Saponas’s system and let me know what you think (please)!

Source via Engadget

Xbox 360 Games Not Even Good Enough to Steal (in Japan)

Xbox 360 theft

A recent robbery of a videogame store in Moriyama, Japan revealed that Japanese thieves don’t care about the Xbox 360. Out of the 460 games stolen, only 20 were for the Microsoft console. Andriasang listed the complete breakdown:

  • PSP: 200 games
  • PS3: 140 games
  • Wii: 100 games
  • Xbox 360: 20 games

That’s just frickin’ hilarious. I know the Xbox 360 isn’t popular in Japan, but you know things are bad when thieves can’t be bothered to steal games for the system. Somewhere in Japan, a Microsoft executive is thinking, “Crap. We can’t even give these things away.”

Source

Hulk Hogan Signs with TNA Wrestling

Total Nonstop Action (TNA) Wrestling has announced that it has signed Hulk Hogan (brother), marking the return of Hulkamania. Hogan will perform on its TNA Impact shows and pay-per-view events (brother). In today’s press release (brother), Hogan said:

I’m thrilled to be jumping back into the world of professional wrestling. My fans have been asking me to return to the business for many years on a full time basis, but the timing or the opportunity has never been right until now. TNA Wrestling is a great company with an already excellent fan base, business and broadcast partner. I firmly believe now is the time for some change at TNA as they are positioned to jump to the next level in their development and I’m here to work with Dixie to help make that a reality.

Hulk Hogan TNA signing

This is a huge move for TNA (brother). Even though Hogan isn’t 10 percent of what he used to be (and let’s face it, he was never that good in the ring), there’s no denying that fans still go nuts for The Hulkster (brother). Despite his extremely limited abilities due to various hip ailments (dude can’t even do his famous leg drop), Hogan will sell tickets and PPVs (brother).

It will be interesting to see how Hogan impacts the ratings of…er…Impact (brother). It will also be interesting to see how well he works with Vince Russo. The two had some pretty huge conflicts in WCW and Hogan has been known to hold grudges (brother).

Hit the break for a TNA teaser video and let me know what you think of Hogan working for the company (brother).

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Google Wave Being Used for Pen-and-Paper RPGs

Google Wave role playing

Google Wave is being positioned as a revolutionary collaborative messaging tool with the potential to change how people communicate for business. It still has a long ways to get there, but for now it’s a fantastic geek toy. In addition to being a fine tool to make hilarious YouTube videos, Google Wave is being used for pen-and-paper role-playing games. Ars Tehnica’s Jon Stokes reported:

I wasn’t the least bit surprised to quickly discover a handful of Wave-based roleplaying games already in progress, and many more in various stages of planning. In the past few days, I’ve watched games from the sideline and talked to some Game Masters and gamers—there seems to be an emerging consensus that Google Wave has as much RPG potential as any platform since the venerable and proverbial tabletop.

This is just awesome, awesome stuff. I’m pretty sure that Google didn’t have epic Dungeons & Dragons sessions in mind when it came up with the idea for Google Wave. While I still think it has great potential as a business tool, I’m loving that it’s being used for things like D&D and recreating Pulp Fiction. Whenever you get your Google Wave invite, be sure to bust out your D20!

Source