by Ludwig Kietzmann 
on Sep 18th 2010 9:33AM
As you would expect, Microsoft’s Kudo Tsunoda has expressed an optimistic viewpoint on Kinect’s rarely utilized ability to scan real-world objects and incorporate them into games. At a recent Tokyo Game Show demonstration of Kinect Joy Ride, he revealed a small example of how Microsoft-owned developer BigPark utilizes the motion-sensing camera’s capture capabilities. It’s not quite a scanned skateboard, but it’s enough to spur some color commentary. Kinect Joy Ride features some minor pre-race vehicle customization options, starting with your car’s color. If you’re dissatisfied with the selection of bold colors in the game, Kinect can take a peek at any item positioned in front of the camera (within a small, on-screen reticle) and transfer its color onto your car. You could apply a dark shade of red (apple), an uplifting purple (GameCube) or a disgusting, sickly white (game journalist arm).
It’s worth noting that this technology is hardly new — you might have used it to capture textures in LittleBigPlanet with a PlayStation Eye — and the implementation is far removed from Kinect’s promotional promises. It’s not even a particularly interesting addition in the case of Joy Ride, but right now it’s in Microsoft’s best interests to shift its conversation with consumers, away from, “What can’t it do?” and onto “What can it do?”
on Sep 18th 2010 9:00PM
The balancing overhauls and new features outlined last month for Starcraft 2 will be implemented this coming Tuesday, September 21, when Blizzard updates the successful strategy title to version 1.1. These new features include support for NVIDIA 3D Vision displays, left-handed hotkey options and new map editor functionality. The full list of features and balance changes can be read over on Battle.net. 
on Sep 18th 2010 7:30PM
If we had our druthers, every trailer for every game would be structured like the promo for Atlus’ Catherine, posted below. There’s character introductions, romantic intrigue, and then a metaphorical examination of the nature of OH NO IT’S A DEMON BABY WITH CHAINSAW HANDS.
on Sep 18th 2010 4:30PM
The “Games Software Sales Forecast” included in Capcom’s latest financial report includes launch windows for a handful of the company’s upcoming titles — the most intriguing of which is Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds. According to the report, the game is set to launch sometime during the fourth quarter of the current fiscal year, meaning Capcom’s planning to release it some time between January 1 and March 31, 2011. 
posted Sep 17th 2010 9:06AM 
We’ve been waiting for 3D Blu-ray support to hit the PS3 for a good long while now, and Sony’s been promising it would happen for, well, exactly that same amount of time. Yesterday the company confirmed that the 3D-enabling 3.50 firmware update is less than a week away, dropping on September 21, and here’s proof that it works: a demonstration unit up and running at TGS. Fully animated evidence after the break. 
posted Sep 16th 2010 4:36PM 
Uh, oh, looks like Verizon has indeed distanced itself from Microsoft after the Kin debacle: the carrier confirmed to Bloomberg Businessweek today that it won’t offer any Windows Phone 7 devices at launch this year, instead waiting until 2011 to support the new OS. That certainly ties right in with AT&T’s claims that it’ll be the “premier carrier” for Windows Phone 7 and the flood of Blue-tinted device leaks we’ve seen, but it also leaves Microsoft in a seemingly tough spot to start — we haven’t heard more than the slightest whisper about WP7 devices on Sprint or T-Mobile yet, and until we do it’s going to be the iPhone and WP7 head-to-head on Ma Bell while Android continues to dig in everywhere else. We’ll see — this launch can’t come quickly enough. 
posted Sep 17th 2010 7:31AM 
While miscreants are harvesting organs from unsuspecting tourists, researchers are busy harvesting energy from the human body. One promising tech that could power future generations of implanted medical devices is the Glucose BioFuel Cell (GBFC). In fact, a team of researchers have created the first known GBFC to function inside a living body — 11 days inside “Ricky” the lab rat’s peritoneum, to be exact. The small device produced 2 microwatts of power over several hours, achieving a peak energy density of 24.4 microwatts per milliliter. The study concludes that a larger GBFC could be used to power a standard pacemaker (requiring ten microwatts of sustained power) yet still be smaller than the batteries in use today. Co-author Serge Cosnier of the Université Joseph Fourier says that an improved GBFC could even power biosensors like the ones proposed for insulin pumps. Until that day arrives, click through for the before- and, um, organic after-implant pics. The fact that the rat’s body had coated the GBFC device with tissue and newly grown blood vessels is proof that the body had accepted it for glucose and oxygen processing. 
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