Every week, we pick the newest apps on mobiles and tablets for you to download
The name is Dash… Agent Dash. Your mission, if you choose to accept it,
is to destroy as many villainous camps as you can. Sprint through
different environments and use your skills to evade every hazard the
evil megalomaniacs can throw at you, from laser beams to fiery lava. Use
spy gadgets to help you on your way and when the going gets too tough,
call in a back-up agent. The game can be downloaded for free on Google
Play.
This is one of those games that are sure to act as a good pastime, when you’re stuck in a boring train ride or in peak traffic. In this game, titled Bridge the Wall, there are sets of brick walls, which are separated by large gaps. The player needs to join these gaps using a bridge and not allow the car to fall off. The walls are of different lengths and heights, and the car’s speed can be controlled by the player. Available on Google Play.
This is one of those games that are sure to act as a good pastime, when you’re stuck in a boring train ride or in peak traffic. In this game, titled Bridge the Wall, there are sets of brick walls, which are separated by large gaps. The player needs to join these gaps using a bridge and not allow the car to fall off. The walls are of different lengths and heights, and the car’s speed can be controlled by the player. Available on Google Play.
Perfecting a Croft
How much of a gaming freak were you?
As a child I used to play lots of board games like Monopoly. I enjoyed the social interaction more than anything else. As I got older, I looked for other kinds — and more challenging — games, and found they didn’t exist. So Steve Jackson [Livingstone’s longtime partner-in-gaming] and I started tinkering with mechanics and designing games for ourselves, since they weren’t good enough ones around. In our early 20s, we wrote a newsletter on our favourite games to communicate with other gamers and create a network, since there was no internet then. It was through this newsletter that we discovered Dungeons and Dragons, when [founder] Gary Gygax sent us a copy. We were instantly obsessed, and set up a games workshop to distribute games by mail order. We were manic game players who decided to design and publish games as well.
Are you a manic player even today?
I don’t have as much time for games as I’d like, but I do carry a Nintendo DS, which is a great device for people on the move and has challenging games like Brain Age, Animal Crossing, Diner Dash. I play a lot of PC games online, like Luxor or Bejeweled. If I played as much Warcraft as I’d like to, it would be the end of me. At times I go whole weekends playing. I also run a “games night” club with five or six friends for about 20 years now, playing games at my house. I have a collection of over 1,000 board games. We keep track of points and give out a “Pagoda cup” to the winner at the end of the year. Steve Jackson, Peter Molyneux, who designed Black & White and Fable, are also members.
Is the gaming world changing? Is the gap growing between gamers and their parents?
There’s a lot of ignorance among parents about gaming. They talk about violence, but don’t realise violent games are only 5-10 per cent of all games made, and are played by older consumers. The average age of a PlayStation user is not eight, it’s 28. Those who don’t play themselves, think all games are bad. They don’t see the advantages in problem solving, management, better communications and social networking. The older generation that grew up gaming certainly gets it. They play with their kids, like I do with my 10-year-old. In 20 years, the prime minister of every country will probably be a gamer.
With kids in China and Korea checking into rehab, are we feeling the first aftershocks of gaming?
They’ve probably got addictive personalities. An addiction is something you can’t walk away from. But you can always walk away from games if you’re hungry or bored. If you’re having fun, why stop? You don’t criticise someone who sails around the world for 90 days; that’s an addiction too. There should be parental responsibility. Most games come with an age rating and guidelines.There’s no data in the world to link gaming with violent activity outside. If you judge the games industry on the back of Grand Theft Auto, it’s like judging the film industry on the back of Texas Chainsaw Massacre. There is something for everybody: whether it’s Tetris for puzzle lovers or Bingo Online for grannies.
How does a game creator/marketer read the market and know what will work?
I rely on instinct, but it has to be backed up with empirical data through focus testing. We put gamers together and get feedback about their experiences, the high and low points of a game, whether or not they like the characters etc. There’s even an eye-tracking device that records if they’re wandering off, or what bits of the game they’re focusing on.
How real will games become in the near future?
Games are the only entertainment medium where the experience gets better over time. From Pong, which was one pixel moving across the screen 20 years ago, we now have artificial intelligence. Technology will drive it to a point where you’ll be able to export your image into the games and have a virtual ‘mini me’ meeting friends online and going on real-world adventures.
Will we have a gaming upheaval with another blockbuster?
The real blockbusters, with ground-breaking new features, only come along every few years or so. Lara Croft: Tomb Raider was the first game with a 3D character and a female lead. Tetris was a totally original puzzle-solver. Grand Theft Auto — like it or not — was the first open world game where people could decide where they want to go.
Livingstone is creative director at leading British game company Eidos.
Microsoft Xbox 720: What we know so far
Microsoft managed to get a year’s headstart on Sony when it launched the Xbox 360 in late 2005 and it seems the company has similar plans for its successor as well. Dubbed the Xbox 720, Microsoft’s next-gen gaming console is already in the works and there have been enough rumours and leaks to support the fact that developers have already begun coding games for the new hardware. Here’s a little round-up of what we know about the Xbox 720 so far.AMD CPU, GPU under the hood
If the new console has to last its 10-year life cycle, then it had better pack some serious firepower under the hood. The Xbox 720 is said to feature AMD’s latest 7000 series graphics card, which is based on their new GCN architecture. There is also a possibility that the console will pack two of these cards running in parallel. This will allow it to handle more complex rendering without putting too much strain on the CPU. The new cards also bring full DX11 and Tessellation features to consoles for the very first time, something that’s increasingly being used in games. As far as CPU goes, the console is rumoured to have a 16-core CPU or two AMD 8-core CPUs running in parallel. This should give the 720 enough of processing power for years to come.
Blu-ray support?
With games getting increasingly complex every day, stuffing everything into a dual-layer DVD just won’t cut it anymore. Even today, Xbox games run into multiple DVDs, which just doesn’t spell ‘next-gen’ for the 720. With no other storage format in sight, Microsoft will have to bundle a Blu-ray drive in their next console. A dual-layer Blu-ray can hold 50GB of data, which is enough for games of the future. Whether or not Microsoft will actually make this move is yet to be seen; but for now, we don’t think they have much of a choice.
Xbox 720 games in the works
Development of next-gen titles from all major studios has begun. Recently, Eurogamer.cz reported that Mafia 3 is currently in development for next-gen consoles. We can expect the new games to take full advantage of the DX11 features present in the AMD GPUs. Expect to see a lot more realistic ragdoll physics, heavy use of Tessellation, volumetric lighting, real-time shadows and lots more
Kinect 2.0 and a new controller
Along with the new console, Microsoft is working on the next version of Kinect, which is supposed to fix the motion lag and be a lot more accurate in detecting more intricate gestures. The Xbox 720 is said to have an even tighter integration with Kinect, but how this works out is yet to be seen. The current Xbox controller is wildly popular not only in the console space but for PC gaming as well. We doubt Microsoft will change the design too much, but we hope they use a built-in rechargeable battery this time, as default.
The Xbox 720 is said to be slated for a Christmas 2013 launch, but we should expect an announcement a lot sooner. The new console is expected to be smaller, lighter and hopefully more reliable than the current one.
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