Assassin's Creed Revalations

The Assassin's Creed series has become a must have series to own for your Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3, and is on the fast track of production. Over the last three years they have released three new installments to the series, and this year is no different.

Announced over Facebook on their fan page that they were making a new game on April 29,2011, and GameInformer lost no time in devoting the cover of their May issue to Assassin's Creed Revelations.

They have already learned a lot about the new game.
1. they now know that the game will not center around one past life of Desmond (descendant of the previous characters) but both previous characters, Ezio and Altair.
2. there are new gadgets in this game. Ezio, now 50, will have a hook on his hidden blade that will allow him to zip-line along wires in between buildings, giving the player new movement options.
3. He will also be able to make bombs which were being invented in the last game.

Not much is known about what role Altair, the first character in the Assassin's Creed series, will play in the game, but it is known that he has something that Ezio wants.

Assassin's Creed Revelations is expected to hit stores Fall 2011

For more information visit:
http://assassinscreed.wikia.com/wiki/Assassin%27s_Creed_Wiki
http://ps3.ign.com/articles/116/1167021p1.html

Infamous 2

Empire Cities electricity flinging "terrorist" returns in the sequel to the hit game Infamous. Infamous 2, will have a new city, new powers, and many other changes Cole Macgrath will become an even more amazing character to play.


New Marais, based after New Orleans, is the location of the next installment of the Infamous series. Filled with gaudy neon lights, jazz music and a swampy exterior the game has a large space to fill with its intriguing story line. Another aesthetic change is that SuckerPunch productions completely redesigned Cole to make him look more like he did in the original game.

At the end of Infamous Cole found out that a Beast was going to destroy the world and he is the only one who can stop it. He will have to make tough decisions: kill the beast or save the world.

New forms of combat are available in this game along with his standard lightning abilities such as shooting lightning bolts, shock grenades, electromagnetic shield, hovering, and electric fists, Cole gets a giant tuning fork for a weapon (shown right).

He also gets another sidekick, besides his best friend Zeke, depending on if you decide to become good or evil. If you choose good you get a partner who can use ice powers, and evil gives you fire powers. Throughout the game Cole will have to make decisions that effect his moral standings an example from the last game was that he could help these people and then hope for a reward (good), or he could steal the reward (evil).

Infamous 2 will be released June 7, 2011



For more info check out their website: http://www.infamousthegame.com/en_US/infamous2/the-game.html

Portal 2

Recently released Portal 2 is the sequel to the popular game Portal where your character uses a portal gun to complete a wide array of puzzles and platforms, by manipulating how things move through the portals. Basically the main idea of the game is to shoot holes in the walls and floors to create portals that you can walk through or push things through. Coinciding with its interesting concept the trailers look interesting and it has the potential to be a very fun game, that challenges the mind and your skill with your system of choice.

A big problem with the last game was that if you fell to far, anything above a few feet, you died and had to restart, but  in this game your character gets new boots which allow your character to fall great distances just in case you miss your target or portal and fall. Another big change to the game is the introduction of the platform which is where the floor moves to help you get to higher place and form pathways that were not possible in the previous game.

This game released on April 19th at exactly 7 A.M. Pacific Standard Time to Stream, a website where you can purchase games for PC, Mac for $50.00. it is also available for PS3 and Xbox 360.

For more information visit their site: http://www.thinkwithportals.com/

or visit http://store.steampowered.com/ to purchase the game for your computer.

Robotic Arms, Prosthetics of the Future

Artificial Muscle-operated Arm (AMO) is the future of prosthetic limbs. Instead of the current prosthetic arms which just hang at your side, this machine reads your brain waves then translates those signals into signals that the arm can read allowing you to move your prosthetic arm. As of now it can only move the arm not the fingers, but considering that it was built by college students at the Ryerson University in California.

"Independent finger movements require many more sensors," one of the creators, Thiago Caires said. "For example, while not impossible, it's still quite difficult to grab a key and unlock a door"

The mechanics behind this arm will revolution how disabled people cope with the loss of a limb by allowing the machine to act like the normal limb. The technology behind the arm has a lot of potential. This also has the potential to allow you to place your mind into a machine, and also opens up the avenue of an iron man type machine, which could create super-soldiers.

For more information visit: http://www.robaid.com/bionics/brain-controlled-artificial-muscle-operated-amo-arm.htm

or

http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/05/amo-arm-pneumatic-prosthetic-does-mind-control-on-the-cheap/

Are Keycard protected doors really safe?

The doors at hotels, businesses, and some dorm rooms at college all use wireless RFID keycards (that you don't have to slide) to keep unauthorized people out, but with the rise of computer hacking, and the use of apps hackers can now unlock certain doors with a simple Android app.

With Caribou, an Android app that was shown on PopSci.com, the user unlocked both doors to a private pool within 30 seconds simply by using an app.

By inserting the ip address of the system that is being hacked the hacker in the video was able to unlock the door for 30 seconds in a minuscule amount of time. This app rapidly tries every possible combination until it lands on the one that unlocks the door.

This app has a big problem though, the hacker must be able to get the ip address of the door that is trying to be unlocked. It is not clear as to how easy it is to obtain the ip address, so some work may be required.

Fortunately the app was never actually released, no matter how flawed, to the Android Market, but it was only designed for an Android. The people who designed it were trying to warn the people in charge of security of a potential problem, and it warns companies that they are vulnerable to theft and break-ins by an average hacker.


For more information visit: http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-03/video-android-app-hacks-cardkey-protected-doors-one-click

Motion Control Remote

The 21st century has had many interesting, new electronics ranging from the iPad to flash drives but with the invention of the wii motion control has gained much popularity. Motion control has influenced ipods, game controllers, and more recently the remote.
The Philips Triton QWERTY Remote with uWand is the first remote to channel surf by waving the remote. Similar to the wii it utilizes an accelerometer to sense all the small movements of the user. The uWand foregoes the standard going through menus for pointing and clicking. Also unique to the uWand is that will utilize 3D controlling so you can pull objects on your screen closer or farther away (shrink or expand the picture). Instead of having to toggle through the inputs of the of the tv you could just point the uWand at the blu-ray player to begin watching the movie.
The uWand also has a qwerty keyboard on the back so you can access apps such as Netflix, and other tv apps, and will work on blu-ray players, tvs, and you will be able to control your entire home theater. According to popular science this has incredible potential in that it could eventually create other automatons such as blinds that close, turn on and off lights, and change the thermostat, and it could make you look and feel like you are conducting an orchestra. This device basically turns your tv into a large screened computer that you control much like a wii.
The Philips uWand is a sleek and small 6.7 x 2.1 x .7 inches and no price has been set for this new remote, and it is rumored to be released sometime in 2012.

For more info check out: http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/09/philips-uwand-hands-on/

Apple iPad 2

      The Apple iPad 2 was announced Wednesday March 2, 2011 to much anticipation.

     There was much speculation before the iPad 2 was announced, including rumors of it being thinner, faster, having a higher screen resolution, a camera, and an SD card slot.

       The new iPad, according to Apple at their media event, is going to have a front and rear camera, so the owners can now utilize Skype and be able to video chat. It is also going to be 33% thinner, and a new processor, Apple's new A5 dual-core processor that will make it run much faster while not using more battery power than the original iPad. It will also be lighter due to the new hardware, and will have a gyroscope while the original did not. Another new change is that the iPad now comes in two colors, black and white, and it is expected to be able to run with either AT&T or Verizon and then would run Wi-Fi and 3G.

      Unfortunately it will not have an SD card slot so you still cannot add a memory card to the iPad, and it still only has the three sizes, 16GB, 36GB, and 64GB. 

       It has been said by Tabletpcreview.com that if you already have an iPad you should not bother buying this newer model, instead they say you should wait until next year for the iPad 3 where they speculate that their will be many new changes.

       The Apple iPad 2 is scheduled for release Friday March 11, 2011.

Skyrim: The Next Installment of the Elder Scrolls Series

Elder Scrolls V, Skyrim, is the next installment of a very successful video game franchise, that give the player a wide range of choices that decide how the game is played.


The Elder Scrolls series has been a popular video game series since the mid 1990s. Starting with Arena in 1994 which was followed by Daggerfall in 1996, which was one of the first 3D worlds in gaming. Next Elder Scrolls III Morrowind, released in 2002, which gained a cult following but had a few minor glitches which were then addressed in Elder Scrolls IV, Oblivion, which also gained cult status.

People have high expectations for Skyrim, especially after the article that was written by GameInformer which showed how the game play would be changed from simple one-hand and a shield combat to giving you the option choose shield and spell, or two weapons. This game also has a new skill section which makes it easier to level up in a skill, they also raised the level cap to about 50, while Skyrim is supposed to have a loose level cap of 50 which means you can go above that but it does not good to do so.

The creators of Skyrim put a lot of effort into this game because they created their own language with a 34 character alphabet for the language of the Dragons


The main character of this game is chosen by the player who can choose a number of races to be, but they all end up with the same beginning story.


*spoiler*

You start out in prison and end up finding out that you are meant to become a dragon slayer and as you slay dragons you gain the ability of dragon shouts which are a new type of magic in this game

The game is scheduled for release on November 11, 2011 (11/11/11)

For more information go to: http://www.gameinformer.com:80/games/the_elder_scrolls_v_skyrim/b/xbox360/archive/2011/01/28/skyrim-menu-system-overhaul.aspx

Sony's New PSP

Sony's PSP franchise has not been as successful as the Nintendo DS, but with their new PSP, codenamed NGP (Next Generation Gaming), Sony hopes to climb to the top of the portable gaming world.

NGP was with five key concepts in mind: Revolutionary User Interface, Social Connectivity, Location-based Entertainment, Converging Real and Virtual Reality. Along with a slightly new design including front and back touch screens, two analogue sticks, and front and rear facing cameras Sony's NGP boasts a quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor, a 5-inch touch screen OLED, 4 times the pixels as the original PSP, 3G, WiFi, GPS, accelerometer, gyroscopes, and an electronic compass.

With its two touch screens and two new analogue sticks the PSP has gotten a complete makeover which will modify the way portable games because the old PSPs had no touch screen and only one analogue stick. The old PSP also used used tiny discs to play.

Sony, with NGP, is breaking away from their traditional UMD's (Universal Media Disks) and moving towards digital gaming much like the app store for ipods. Sony is also trying to implement mobile gaming which is were they use your current location during gameplay similar to online gaming for the Playstation.

At Sony's live event they announced the NGP and they showed games such as Little Big Planet, Metal Gear Solid 4, Killzone, Uncharted, and Resistance. It is speculated all previous games on the Playstation the Playstation2, the Playstation3, and the PSP, but this has not been confirmed

Sony is planning on releasing the NGP this holiday season but it all depends on how fast they can work out all the minor details of design, and the logistics.

Playstation Phone

Imagine a phone, now add a popular gaming device and you get the basic idea of the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play. Pictures of this phone, code-named, Zeus have finally been released, after much anticipation once rumors began to spread about its existance. 

The Xperia Play AKA the PlayStation phone will have the Android operating system Gingerbread, and have a music player, gallery browser, media shortcuts, and in general work very similar to the Android x10, in both hardware and software. It has a front touch screen, the four buttons at the bottom, is programmed with Gingerbread, and has all of the things that come standard in an Android phone. The major difference for which it is named is that when it is flipped open instead of a standard keyboard it has a PlayStation controller, minus the analogue sticks which a multi-touch touch screen replaced. As far as gaming goes their were no games up on the prototype but it is assumed that the PlayStation phone will have an app store-esq feel to it. As of now, nobody can speculate as to whether you will need gift cards to buy games or if the cost is just added to your phone bill.

This new and revolutionary device is still in its prototyping phase but it is rumored to be released in March of 2011. No price or an official release date have been set but more details are forthcoming and I know that I am looking forward to learning more about it at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) on February 14-17.


For more information check out: www.engadget.com/2011/01/26/sony-ericsson-xperia-play-playstation-phone-preview/