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News: Freemium Games Start Their US Invasion on the iOS Front

For more than a decade, free-to-play games with microtransactions (also called In-App Purchase or IAP) by which players can pay real money for in-game content have been the industry standard for online success in Asia. Mainstream American gamers have long resisted these "freemium" games, with World of Warcraft and other subscription based online games reigning supreme, and being seen as more AAA than their free-ish counterparts. Casual games developers have encountered no such problems, and m...

CryEngine 3: Now Everyone Can Make a Game As Good As Crysis 2… For Free

Crysis 2 is the current standard for high-quality graphics in video games. No other game looks so smooth, so colorful, so... ultra-real. German developer Crytek has built their reputation on PC game technology to the limit, and the CryENGINE 3 graphics engine they used to make Crysis 2 might be the most powerful tool for creating 3D video game graphics on Earth. As of yesterday, it's also free for anyone, yourself included, to download from Crytek's website here.

News: Should Google+ Require You to Use Your Real Name?

Google started culling Google+ accounts. There are two main targets: businesses and those who are using pseudonyms. For businesses, Google is promising to provide their own version of Facebook Pages, which will be released later this year. For those who use pseudonyms, they aren't so lucky. According to Google+'s community standards, users must "use the name your friends, family, or co-workers usually call you". The purpose of this rule is ostensibly to discourage spammers and people from set...

News: Supreme Court Deems Violent Video Games Protected Under Freedom of Speech

Video games are the newest major expressive media. As such, their role in society is still being defined continuously. A monumentally important example of this took place yesterday at the US Supreme Court. After a long deliberation, the highest court in the land handed down a decision invalidating a California law banning the sale of violent video games to minors on the grounds that video games are protected speech under the First Amendment, like movies and books.

News: Google Kills Gaming on Android

One of the biggest advantages iOS has over Android as a mobile platform is how readily and fully it has embraced mobile gaming. There are over 200,000 games available in the Apple store, compared to approximately 100,000 in the Android Marketplace. As an Android-using gamer, this has always bothered me.

How To: Clone a Banana with Jello

Mold making is pretty thrilling—the ability to replicate objects right down to every little crack and crevice seems like something only a machine would be able to do. But in many cases creating a replica from a mold is surprisingly simple. Found on Tasteologie, La Receta de la Felicidad presents a fun alternative to the classic Jello jiggler. For a Dada-esque dessert, try using a banana peel as your mold. As you can see below, it works quite well at capturing the natural texture of the banana.

News: Is the Metascore Algorithm for Rating Video Games B.S.?

Guiding internet users to useful content is one of the most lucrative businesses in the world. This process is called aggregation. Google and other search engines form the top of the food chain, aggregating all of the content on the web in response to queries. There are all sorts of other important aggregators though, and you probably use at least one every day: Fark and Reddit for web content, Rotten Tomatoes for movie reviews, and Metacritic for a variety of media, but most importantly, vid...

News: Balloon Twisting Hints and Tips

Here are just a few little random tips that may help you while making balloon animals for fun and profit. This list is only a collection of random balloon tips and tricks that I've come up with on the fly tonight. If you have any other suggestions or questions, please feel free to post them in the comments section and I'll do what I can to help as well.

Echoisms: How to Measure Your Own Attractiveness

Have you ever heard symmetrical is sexier? Yep, according to scientists, symmetry is inherently more attractive to the Homo Sapien eye. Back in the days of Helen of Troy, Phidias, Plato and other great philosophers all observed the golden ratio, "a sum where the quantities to the larger quantity is equal to the ratio of the larger quantity to the smaller one". Confusing? Let's apply it to the human face only: the features of the human head were measured in calculated, precise proportions to d...

How To: Stop Advertising Companies from Tracking Your Online Activity for Targeted Web Ads

Back in the eighties, I used to hate television commercials, but I eventually got used to them. Had to, in order to enjoy my favorite shows. Then, the increasing number of billboard ads annoyed me in the nineties. They followed me everywhere I went—no escape—persuading me to buy the newest whatever. It seemed like Big Brotherism—like They Live. But, I got used to it. When I finally entered the digital age and became a web addict, I was peeved at the constant sight of online ads everywhere I v...

News: Opening game in 3D. First impressions.

I've been curious to watch one of these famed '3D' games for a while now. Last April at NAB, I attended several 3D panels and folks from ESPN suggested that one of the strongest experiences that would bring 3D into the home would be live sports. I've missed opportunities to watch the PGA Masters broacasts, and NCAA games, but being a hardcore Soccer (Futbol) fan, I've been most excited about this possibility. It did not disappoint, but not without some concessions. I will be as detailed as po...

News: GTA 4 First Person View Mod

GTA4 1st Person View Mod This mod has been out for a while, but with some people gettings Grand Theft Auto 4 for the PC last week because of the Steam sale, there has been talk about what are the best mods to get. There is a thread on Neogaf that talks about playing the game in first person mode instead of the default 3rd person point of view.

News: "How I’d Hack Your Weak Passwords"- The Art of Cracking

Lifehacker posts an article on the art of cracking weak passwords, courtesy of Internet standards expert, CEO of web company iFusion Labs, and blogger John Pozadzides. Pozadzides certainly knows a thing or two about password logic. (Note: this information is not intended to hack into accounts, but rather to protect you from using weak passwords).

News: Building-Sized Überorgan Emits Heavenly Music and Farts

Tim Hawkinson is an artist who truly inspires. The Los Angeles based artist creates complex, whimsical sculptures with simple mechanics and basic materials. One of his most notable pieces is the art-world-renowned "Uberorgan", a giant football field sized, fully-automated bagpipe, cleverly constructed with plastic sheeting and pieces of electrical hardware.

How To: Fold Origami Christmas Decorations - Ornate Winter Snowflakes

Christmas decorations aren't cheap. From outdoor lighting to fir trees, decorating for the holidays can break the bank. That's where ingenuity comes into play, like hacking battery-operated Christmas lights, modifying lighting patterns and building Christmas tree ornaments from LEGOs. But there's even a simpler solution to cheaper Christmas decorations— origami.

How To: Make homemade strawberry and basil flavored ice cream

Ice cream doesn't have to stop at vanilla. There's a whole world of ice cream flavors out there, but one you wouldn't expect to try out is basil ice cream, but not just plain basil, basil with ice cream. Lynne Viera, ice cream enthusiast, creates a dessert inspired by the Strawberry-Basil Cocktail from Cuchi Cuchi in Cambridge, MA. Fresh, local strawberries are macerated with sugar, lime zest and basil leaves. Lynne blends half of the fruit with cream, leaving half of the berries chunky for a...