Are you some kind of manager or team leader who’s having problems with finding ways to improve team work and brainstorming? Guess what? Somebody has been thinking about you and come up with an interesting interactive table that is supposed to stimulate constructive thinking among your team members. This somebody is known as Jason Chang, an industrial designer that presents his latest concept – the S.P.I.C.E interactive table.

<-125x125 Button - left->S.P.I.C.E is actually an acronym for ‘stimulating play inspires creative expression’. OK, that might seem a bit superfluous but Jason wants us to understand that this interactive table is actually an ideation game that is intended to spark creativity in strategic project development by integrating brainstorming processes and the concept of play. This is just a concept, but if Jason manages to commercialize this as a product, it will practically add spice to the gatherings and will engage people in game activities that aim to optimize creativity by conditioning one’s perspective to identify patterns or relationships in random contexts. Apparently, this is an interesting gaming concept, but without a demo clip or some relevant information on the actual mechanics of play, I can’t quite figure out if it’s of any help for managers.

How much is that F1 car you got there? Say what? Never mind that, I’m getting some wheel and paddles for simulations. Sure, you can’t compare the feelings you get while actually driving an F1 car with a mere simulator, but I honestly don’t know who’d spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on the real thing when you can get the coolest F1 simulator around for a small fraction of that cost.

<-120x240 Vertical Banner - left->Motion Pro II by CXC Simulations looks to be the latest most impressive F1 simulator. It’s got no less than three 46” 1080p LCD displays aligned horizontally plus a Logitech Z-5500-like 505-watt 5.1 surround sound system capable of 1,010 watts peak power, and those are only the visual and the audio aspects. You also get four vibration transducers in sync with the surround sound system, and full motion simulation using electro-mechanical actuators to move the seat.

CXC Simulations claims that the combination of the actuators and the sound system vibration transducers provides an almost-real feeling of being inside a cockpit (of course, we’re not counting the G-forces and neck injuries). Additionally, you can go ahead and pimp up the simulator with like a six-speed gated shifter and progressive clutch, or a sequential shifter, handbrake, a full carbon fiber external, with high-gloss finish custom paint. One of the coolest features is the network play support. The simulator allows you to play with 16 other Motion Pro II owners around the world and comes with optional radio kits to taunt the opponents.

More info on the official site.

Congratulations to Epic Games and People Can Fly developing companies, designer Cliff Bleszinski and the publisher Microsoft Game Studios, for the awards won for the Ultimate Game of the Year, All-Nighter Award, Editor's Choice Award and is the Xbox Game of the Year, all these for Gears of War video game built on Unreal Engine 3.0.




Other important awards were for Innovation of the Year, won by Nintendo Wii, Online Game of the Year won by World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade, Nintendo Game of the Year won by The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, and PlayStation Game of the Year won by God of War II.

Next we have:

• Girls' Choice Game of the Year 2007: Guitar Hero II
• Family Game of the Year 2007: Wii Sports
• Handheld Game of the Year 2007: Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories
• Mobile Game of the Year 2007: Final Fantasy
• Soundtrack of the Year 2007: Guitar Hero II
• Developer of the Year 2007: Codemasters
• The Total Film One to Watch 2007: Assassin's Creed
• Retailer of the Year 2007: Game
• Publisher of the Year 2007: Nintendo
• PC Game of the Year 2007: The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar

The Golden Joystick Awards ceremony was webcast live on the Internet for the first time at this year’s 25th edition.

According to a recent post on the famous PlayerzBlog website, a group of scientists lead by Joshua Smith psychology professor at Syracuse University, agreed on the fact that online games are time consuming.



This idea is strengthen by one of the Judge Judy cases presented in the reality show, about a young woman complaining about the fact that her lover does nothing else all day long but playing online games.
This is not the real problem, the real one being the consequences at where this lead to: the guy lost his job and the number of unpaid bills grew and grew, until she took him to the court.

The most hilarious thing that happened in the courtroom during the show was when the guy was asked what the name of the game he has been playing for such a long time is.

The answer was: World of Warcraft, moment when the Judge Judy replied asking the bailiff: “You’ve ever heard of that?”
Above is a screenshot taken exactly when she said that.

The guy looked kinda absorbed by something and was founding his words with big difficulty.
Maybe he has a shy personality, but from playing a game to losing your job…..
Some might say that he is one of those obsessed by online gaming, and at this point I have to agree with one fragment from the post about scientists’ opinion about online gaming, and that is:
“The way I see it arcade games have a greater appeal casual gamers, due to the low amount of time involved in playing the game from start to end. Things turn hardcore more often in the role playing computer world.”
Maybe this is the best advice for the guy that had lost $700 in favor of the girlfriend, to stop playing time-consuming games and start with arcades or something that can be stopped once in a while.

Play the movie to see with your own eyes:

In its violent PSP game called Resistance: Fall of Man, Sony placed a gunfight scene in the Manchester Cathedral, without asking for permission.

As you probably have heard, this game was nominated for an award at the British Academy Video Games Awards, but unfortunately they have failed.
Sony apologized for using the images with the Cathedral but it does not have the intention to withdraw the game from the market.

The Very Reverend Rogers Govender, the Dean of Manchester Cathedral declared:

"I think some important lessons have been learnt.
So we do forgive Sony for what they have done, even though they still believe they have done nothing wrong. In an industry that is breaking new frontiers, it is important that long held traditions of film and television are maintained.
These traditions include having courtesy, respecting the dignity of your subject, and admitting when mistakes have been made.
In so many ways Sony has failed to live up to these standards by disrespecting people of faith and the victims of gun crime here in Manchester."

The funny part of the story is that since this dispute, the Manchester Cathedral received many visitors of all ages.