“The whole idea of not acting is completely counterintuitive to videogames,” Ian Bogost says. Indeed, he’s got a point: what percentage of gamers would actively seek out games whose purpose is not to excite, or titilate, but to relax? Games which are slow and, some would say, boring?

Ian Bogost, Tracy Fullerton, and a representative from Wild Divine presented three very different games, all centered around the idea of relaxation: Healing Rhythms, Guru Meditation, and The Night Journey. Each game approached the subject of relaxation or meditation from a totally different angle; Meditation Guru was an experiment, Healing Rhythms exists as a practical meditation teaching tool, and Night Journey functions as an esoteric metaphor for spiritual enlightenment.

Hit the jump for the lowdown on these three very unusual, very interesting games. 

Bitingly funny parody of overblown, overhyped game development videos, or an overblown, overhyped game development video? You decide.

From engadget.com:
[QUOTE]
Despite Red’s inability to make any real public statement, Japanese publication Nikkei has it that Toshiba president Atsutoshi Nishida will be announcing the final discontinuation of HD DVD tomorrow, as well as halted sales of hardware and media by March (as in days from now). Apparently Toshiba will pull its units from retail shelves, but has no intention to give burned early adopters any refunds (no kidding?).
[/QUOTE]

From techradar.com:
[QUOTE]
Frank Simonis (Blu-ray Disc Association’s spokesperson) said: “Of course we have always said that Toshiba and Microsoft, and any other company, is more than welcome to join the Blu-ray Disc Association. We are an open organisation, with an open disc standard. If Toshiba decides to drop HD DVD we would extend the hand of friendship to them, they are always welcome to join,”.

Simonis dismissed the notion that Sony might be uncomfortable with Microsoft joining the Blu-ray camp. Some say that it’s unlikely that Sony would want Microsoft to put a Blu-ray drive in the Xbox - because then it would be an even bigger threat to the PS3.
But Simonis said that Sony would not be able to stop such a move.
[/QUOTE]

Full Story: engadget.com | techradar.com

What do you get when you put the creators behind flOw, Everyday Shooter, and various Scandanavian reality games in the same room with no strict discussion format? What happens when, equipped with their own individual topics of interest, they bounce ideas and theories off each other?

As I found out this morning, you get some pretty goddamned interesting discussion.

At “Scattershots of Play: the Potential of Indie Games,” Pekko Koskinen, Jon Mak, and Kellee Santiago came together to — as the title suggests — share a few random, scattershot, but incredibly interesting thoughts on game design with not only the GDC attendees, but one another. 

What’s the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic game rewards? What’s input-output theory? Can games play users, rather than the other way around?

Hit the jump to get the gist of the whole thing. 

Luc Bernard’s hand-drawn fairy tale Eternity’s Child has been through a lot of changes since it was first slated for Xbox Live. It’s since moved first to the Wii and then finally to WiiWare, where things seem to have stabilized a bit for our wingless friend Angel, at least platform-wise. Bernard recently dropped us a line to show us the new look for Angel, who now looks a bit sleeker, sporting buckles on his boots and gloves as well as a pelvis, which is always a good thing to have on hand. Luc has also pointed us towards Sean Beeson’s official soundtrack for the game, which coupled with the visuals we’ve already seen could make Eternity’s Child one of the most beautiful titles WiiWare has to offer.

From gamerscoreblog.com (Microsoft’s official Xbox PR Blog):
[QUOTE]
We do not believe the recent reports about HD DVD will have any material impact on the Xbox 360 platform or our position in the marketplace. As we’ve long stated, we believe it is games that sell consoles and Xbox 360 continues to have the largest next-gen games library with the most exclusives and best selling games in the industry. We will wait until we hear from Toshiba before announcing any specific plans around the Xbox 360 HD DVD player. HD DVD is one of the several ways we offer a high definition experience to consumers and we will continue to give consumers the choice to enjoy digital distribution of high definition movies and TV shows directly to their living room along with playback of the DVD movies they already own.
[/QUOTE]

The best PC RPG of 2007 is about to get better. CD Projekt Red has announced The Witcher Enhanced Edition, an update of the game due out this May that seeks to completely quash any qualms players may have had with the original title - in essence, they listened to our bitching and fixed stuff. Small tweaks like shortening load times and increasing combat accuracy are just the beginning. The English language version of the game has been completely reworked to include text left out of the initial release, while the German version is getting redone voice overs. CD Projekt is adding over 50 new supporting character models to further immersion, with 100 new animated gestures added to make conversation flow more naturally. They’ve even redone the lip-sync system to make conversing more animated and lifelike. Along with all of the changes, the enhanced version will ship complete with the D’jinni mod editor, allowing you to create and share your own modules in the game, as well as two all new adventures from the dev team. Of course all of the new content will be available for purchasers of the original game in free downloadable form, but if you’ve not yet experienced The Witcher, May looks like an excellent time to give it a go.

The Witcher Enhanced Edition Announced

New, Improved and Enhanced Version of 2007 PC RPG of the Year Coming in Late Spring

Warsaw - February 18, 2008. CD Projekt RED is pleased to announce that in May of this year, a new and improved version of The Witcher will appear in stores, a game already considered by many players and media to be the best PC RPG of 2007!

Michał Kiciński, CEO of CD Projekt described the idea behind The Witcher Enhanced Edition: “The leading idea during the development of The Witcher Enhanced Edition is to create a game that is devoid of all of the major criticisms levied at the original release. The Witcher was received very warmly by both players and the media, but we are well aware that it is not a product without its faults. There was just not enough time to perfect certain elements, while we learned that some things needed to be changed from the players themselves. Now we have the opportunity to introduce changes that will allow The Witcher to provide even more enjoyment. I hope that, as a result, the game will come even closer to the ideal RPG.”

Maciej Szcześnik, Project Manager at CD Projekt RED, spoke about the content provided in the new edition: “The Witcher Enhanced Edition will be a completely polished product, something rarely found on the PC market. Of course, it would have been best if the original edition could look that way. There were a few ways the original game didn’t quite live up to our high expectations, but now we’re trying to make up for it. Work is being done on two levels: one concerns the removal of technical obstacles that hinder the player from properly using the game and thus gaining enjoyment from it. Some of those elements include the loading times, which will be reduced by 80%, the stability of the game on different PC configurations, as well as an array of smaller fixes that will increase interactivity and precision in combat. The other level consists of very important changes that are not usually found in patches. First and foremost, the English-language version will, for the most part, be completely re-done. The amount of text in that version was reduced compared to other language versions and that was said to cause a significant decrease in immersion and atmosphere. Now the English version will be as polished and atmospheric as the other language versions. Speaking of other language versions, most of them will be improved in some way. Significant changes will also be made in the German version, where we are planning to re-record the voices for many of the characters. The most important improvements concern those elements of the game that players criticized the most. For example, over 50 new supporting character models will be added, so that the player won’t run into the same person too often. The inventory panel will be re-designed and improved, and some elements of the main game screen will be polished. However, one of the biggest changes that will greatly increase the player’s immersion in the game world will be improvements concerning dialogue scenes. Both Geralt and non-player characters will get over 100 new animated gestures which will make their body language during conversations much more natural. Additionally, the facial animation and lip-sync system will be re-created, making the faces of the speakers now even more natural, as well. Of course, I’ve mentioned only the most important changes, and that’s still a lot. There will be many smaller changes that will make the game more fun. I’m convinced that, thanks to those changes, The Witcher will almost be the ideal game for fans of PC role-playing.”

Adam Kiciński, head of CD Projekt RED spoke about publishing and the availability of The Witcher Enhanced Edition in different parts of the world: “Our goal is to make the Enhanced Edition available to all players all over the world. We are currently negotiating with our publishing partners to confirm availability dates. Our release date in Eastern Europe is May 16, and thanks to the great support from fans, we’re confident that we will be able to bring the game to stores around the world on that date, as well. The retail release will be quite important for us, as we’re not just improving the game itself, but want to improve how the title is packaged. For example, aside from the game DVD, we are planning to include a DVD with the D’jinii Mod Editor, as well as two additional adventures, a video DVD with extended material detailing the making of the game, a music CD with 29 tracks from the game, a music CD with 15 tracks of music inspired by the game, an 80-page instruction booklet, a 112-page official guide written by the game’s developers, and a 50-page short story written by Andrzej Sapkowski. There will also be a map of the game world. As you can see it is quite an elaborate release and it is important to us that fans all over the world be able to buy this version of the game. Especially considering it will not be more expensive than the standard edition of the game! Fans that have already bought the game need not worry, however, because the new content and improvements will be available to them in the form of a downloadable update.”

The Witcher Enhanced Edition not only means changes in the game’s mechanics or better graphics, however. There’s also an included mod editor called D’jinni that allows players to create or modify their own adventures in the world of The Witcher, as well as two completely new adventures created by CD Projekt RED. The first adventure, entitled “The Price of Neutrality,” tells the story of Geralt coming back to Kaer Morhen and finding a mysterious camp near the stronghold (3 new quests), while the second one focuses on Geralt’s close friend, Dandelion, and his troubles in Vizima City (5 quests).

The Witcher is an RPG about the adventures of Geralt, a professional monster slayer, and was developed by Warsaw, Poland-based CD Projekt RED. The game is based on a new version of the BioWare Aurora Engine, titled Aurora 2007. The story is set in a world created in the books of Andrzej Sapkowski and sold all over the world. The game has already managed to garner worldwide success, having sold over 600,000 copies. It has received more than 45 awards and distinctions, including the prestigious “Best PC RPG of 2007″ from IGN.com, Gamespy.com and PC Gamer (see the entire list of awards: http://www.thewitcher.com/community/pl/awards/). The game has also received very high ratings from players from all over the world, which is reflected in the average player-review scores at such sites as Metacritic (9.4/10), GameTrailers (9.1/10) and Gamespot (8.8/10).

Since Electroplankton on the Nintendo DS we constantly think about implementing those sounds, and since the iPhone we like to play with PocketGuitar (played in the clip by Roland Dell’mour.) Now that iAno came out (played by Marina Dell’mour) we just had to try this out! As you said in your article: there has to be an iPhone band! It’s the next step. And as we’re devoted Giz readers we thought we’d give it a shot and sat down to improvise a little and pressed record on that digital camera.

Unfortunately we only have two iPhones, so we dug out that dusty Nintendo DS. But we want to take it further. There are some guys with iPod touches in our neighbourhood, so we’ll gather them and add a drumset with the BeatPhone app and a guitar and lose the DS. So you can expect another song in the next weeks.

Don’t get your hopes up quite yet, but there is a rumor floating around the April 25th is the release date of Mario Kart Wii in the UK… according to CVG.

The CVG article goes on to say…

Nintendo was unavailable for comment, but shopping websites have been known to receive advance information on shipping dates in the past. They’ve also been known to get it very wrong.

Like I said before, don’t get your hopes up quite yet as this goes against earlier Nintendo statements saying the game wouldn’t be released until the second quarter of the year. As Q2 runs from April - June… it’s more believable if the game was released towards the end of the quarter, but that’s just my speculation.

(Via CVG)

Don’t get your hopes up quite yet, but there is a rumor floating around the April 25th is the release date of Mario Kart Wii in the UK… according to CVG.

The CVG article goes on to say…

Nintendo was unavailable for comment, but shopping websites have been known to receive advance information on shipping dates in the past. They’ve also been known to get it very wrong.

Like I said before, don’t get your hopes up quite yet as this goes against earlier Nintendo statements saying the game wouldn’t be released until the second quarter of the year. As Q2 runs from April - June… it’s more believable if the game was released towards the end of the quarter, but that’s just my speculation.

(Via CVG)