The Guardian UK got a hold of Jeff Bridges a few weeks ago and made him to spill a bit about the upcoming "Tron" sequel. Today, WIRED's Underwire blog has posted some bootleg footage from movie. The rebooting of the classic flick about getting sucked into a virtual computer world, which spawned the classic arcade game, is called "Tr2n."

In the interview with the Guardian, Jeff Bridges explains why he signed up for the new Tron installment:

[It's] another unique, wild experience that was too good to turn down. Engaging in that world again feels just like it did all that time ago. Basically, I'm still a child, I love being childlike, and here was another chance to play with these crazy toys. And the cutting-edge technology makes it exciting. Doing the teaser trailer for Comic-Con, I had my first experience of motion capture. And that's turning the industry on its head. It's amazing being part of that.

Bridges also spoke about the challenge of bringing the classic virtual reality story up to date and why the project made sense:

Well, when we made Tron there was no internet, no cellphones. But now we have motion capture, so I think we'll get a far more successful version of the story, which is someone literally getting sucked into a video game. When we did King Kong in the 70s, one minute you'd have a shot of Rick Baker in this big suit and then you'd cut to this 80ft stiff model, and they looked nothing alike. Compare to that Peter Jackson's King Kong the technology is there and they did a wonderful job. I thought they created a beautiful Kong. So I hope that'll be the same for Tron.

The Russian video is dodgy, but if you don't get shivers watching it, you need to re-evaluate your status as a gamer.

What is it about foreign postal service workers and creative genius? First, Einstein develops his theory of relativity and now this — a French mail carrier has built a virtual steampunk calculator using the LittleBigPlanet beta kit.

Composed of 610 magnetic switches, 500 wires, 430 pistons and 70 emitters, the 'digital' device is capable of 8-bit addition and subtraction and doubles as a game level.

'Upsilandre,' as the French creator is known, may have just built one of the Seven Wonders of the LittleBigPlanet world.

[via NeoGAF]

A group of cyberneticists from Tsukuba University in Japan have channeled a new robot straight out of Silent Hill. Sinking deeper into the 'uncanny valley' than "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within" orbiting a black hole, the researchers have crammed 50 sensors and a bunch of motors into a terrifying silicon skin designed to approximate a five-year-old girl. 'Approximate' is the operative word, and it's used loosely, just like the skin itself, which looks realistic enough (aside from the harrowing eyelids) but hangs lifelessly on its mechanical frame.

Dubbed the Hybrid Assistive Limb, or HAL (surprise, surprise), the skinsuit that wraps creepy little "Repliee" the robot was developed as part of research to "help pensioners and disabled people move much better."

Apparently the strategy is to scare the bejeezus out of old folks and use their last remaining adrenalin to flee in terror. If you don't believe us, check out video of the 'living' doll here.

Cyberdyne, Inc. (nee 'Umbrella Corp.'?) is making the technology available to mass markets Friday.

The cyber-zombie apocalypse is scheduled for the following Monday.

[via The Sun UK]

There are some who think the iPhone could 'kill' the Nintendo DS. It's got a high-res screen, motion-sensitive accelerometers, a powerful CPU and geo-location on its side. But despite all of the bells and whistles, the biggest thing going for it is a wildly creative developer base. Take Soul Trapper, for example. It doesn't even have graphics.

Soul Trapper is simultaneously a completely new genre of videogame crossed an extraordinarily retro medium — old-time radio plays. The game is the first in a series of what developer Realtime Associates calls 'audio text adventures.' David Warhol, president of Realtime Associates, explains:

Realtime has taken a distinct approach to App Store game development. Instead of gameplay being strictly visual, the player must listen to follow along with the story to discover information and unlock clues that drive the story. It's an audio adventure game rather than a standard video game.

From the game's website:

Soul Trapper follows the turbulent life of Kane Pryce, a 27 year-old drifter who possesses a mysterious device known as the Soul Trap. This is a supernaturally charged object that allows him to hunt down, capture, and send ghosts from the earthly realm to the afterlife. It's your job to listen carefully to the chilling adventure story and help Kane unlock the mysteries surrounding a haunted church, while navigating a maze of gangsters, dames, ghosts, and demons.

Soul Trapper is built from more than three hours of audio. A sample from the game is available here. The first of a series of interactive radio plays planned by Realtime Associates, Soul Trapper's nostalgic noir adventure will be availalble in the AppStore later this month.

[via Pocket Gamer]

Not every teenager is a gamer. Only about 99% do. Among that 1% is Brie Cook, a freshman at Aquinas High School in Augusta, Georgia. In an editorial for the Augusta Chronicle, Cook makes an argument about games that is usually the purview of adult critics in the Jack Thompson vein — namely, that game violence begets the real thing.

Citing the recent case of a 10-year-old boy who suffocated when his friends buried him in a sandbox in imitation of Naruto's "Sand Master," Cook writes:

Video games such as Naruto: Ultimate Ninja are based off of the show. Children will watch the shows, play the video game and start to believe they are that character. When an active-minded child sees a cool stunt or a huge explosion in his favorite cartoon, sooner or later he is bound to attempt them. And when they do, the cartoons aren't to blame; the parents are for allowing their children to watch these violent shows.

Instead of sitting in front of a television playing these games and watching these shows, children and teens should be outside or doing other recreational activities. Parents should encourage their children to do so.

We could go on about the paucity of research supporting the claim or point out that the anecdote she cites is just that, a single point in a tiny sample size. We could also mention that it was precisely playing outdoors that the sad episode she refers to took place. But we won't. The unfortunate truth is that children sometimes imitate the things they see in the media with tragic results. Instead we'll agree with Cook that the answer lies in parenting, whether in the living room or on the playground. We'll also praise her for engaging in a rational debate about the issues that concern her.

[via Augusta Chronicle]

By John Gaudiosi

SAN FRANCISCO, CA—Nintendo has always marched to its own beat, whether it was during its heyday of NES and SNES or during its darkest hours of GameCube. The company never stopped doing what it wanted to do – focusing on making original games. While Sony and Microsoft opted for high-definition graphics and entertainment boxes for the center of the living room, Nintendo created the Wii and hasn’t been able to keep up with the demand.

I attended Nintendo’s 2008 Media Summit at the J.W. Marriott this past week in San Francisco and spoke with Nintendo President Reggie Fils-Aime about the unprecedented success of the new console, as well as the new Nintendo DSi. When I asked him why Nintendo hasn’t been able to supply enough Wiis to the market space two years after launch, he countered that it’s a demand issue, not a supply issue. He said Nintendo has upped production several times and now makes 2.4 million Wiis a month, and he’s still not sure he can satiate the demand for the console.

Never before in the history of gaming has a system been so elusive to find nor so popular. I grew up with the Atari 2600 (and Sears Pong before that) and I remember standing in line for new games like Asteroids or going to multiple stores to find a new cartridge. But you didn’t have hardware shortages two years in. Nintendo has definitely struck a new chord and found a new audience with Wii.

After shipping games like Wii Fit, which has been a huge hit despite the $80 price tag, Nintendo’s Miyamoto is now aiming at the music genre. Although this genre didn’t even exist five years ago, it’s now the biggest thing in games thanks to Guitar Hero and Rock Band. Wii Music takes a much different approach to music, throwing out all the expensive peripherals (something Disney’s upcoming Ultimate Band does, to a smaller capacity) and offering over 60 instruments to play using the Wii’s unique motion-sensor controllers.

I have to admit that when I saw this game at Nintendo’s E3 press conference, I wasn’t blown away. It didn’t seem as revolutionary as Wii Sports or Wii Fit. But having spent some quality time with the game this past week, it’s truly an amazing piece of software. And Miyamoto has once again offered something that should appeal to both the casual and hardcore gamers. Once a hardcore gamer gets into this game, there’s no turning back. And there’s no easier sell to casual gamers and Christmas gift-buyers than “interactive music generator.” That’s essentially what Wii Music is, but it comes chock full of options and interactivity that’s sure to keep this the focus of Thanksgiving and Christmas get-togethers for years to come.

The media in attendance really got into Wii Music after mostly overlooking it at E3. Nintendo had a separate room rigged with lighting and seats for people to play and listen to the 50-plus songs in the game. Getting into the game was extremely easy, but there is a lot of depth in the title. The fact that so many instruments play differently – there’s even a human beat box – makes this game something that will be challenging for a long time. Hearing Wham’s ‘80s hit “Wake Me Up Before You Go Go” with classical instruments was a real kick. Fils-Aime told me he expects Wii Music to be a big hit, but one with very long legs, rather than a skyrocketing week one smash.

• Read On

The New York Times reported Saturday on an interesting web game based on the experience of immigrant detainee Boubacar Bah, a Guinean tailor held in a New Jersey jail for overstaying his visa. After sustaining an injury at the Elizabeth Detention Center for the federal government, Bah was left in an isolation cell and denied treatment for more than 13 hours. Bah remained in a coma until he died four months later.

The game is called Homeland Guantanamos. From The Times:

The video game casts the player as a reporter seeking clues in the death of Mr. Bah, 52, who suffered a skull fracture and brain hemorrhages in the Elizabeth Detention Center in New Jersey. A cartoon guide leads the way to actual video testimonials of former detainees and information that unlocks the mystery of Mr. Bah’s fate.

The fictional framework plays fast and loose with traditional rules of journalism — the reporter takes an undercover job as a detention guard and writes a first-person appeal for change rather than an article — but the content encountered along the way is backed by links to real newspaper articles, court documents and other factual material.

Homeland Guantanamos was created by Breakthrough, the international human rights organization that published ICED earlier this year. ICED (I Can End Deportation) puts players in the role of immigrants who must try to avoid being deported before they are able to obtain citizenship. Malika Dutt, executive director of Breakthrough, told The Times that "The Department of Homeland Security's enforcement measures have become increasingly draconian and are leading to severe consequences, including death for many."

Immigration and Customs Enforcement have already denounced Breakthrough's new game. On Thursday, spokeswoman Kelly A. Nantel said that Homeland Guantanamos is "a work of fiction that dehumanizes the individuals depicted and grossly distorts conditions in detention facilities," adding she believed that "most informed people know that they leave reality at the door when they enter the world of videogames."

While the blurring of fact and fiction in Homeland Guantanamos may recommend a measured reaction to players of the game (just as with all journalism), Ms. Nantel's suggestion that Homeland Guantanamos' status as a videogame merits a more dismissive attitude from players than other media is bankrupt.

[via The New York Times]

A Flash game called Kindergarten Killer has been pulled from Finnish site lastenpelit.fi in the wake of a recent school shooting.

On September 25, we reported that the Finnish government was revisiting web monitoring laws after Matti Saari killed 10 people at a culinary academy. Prior to the shootings, Saari had posted several chilling videos online. Although Kindergarten Killer has not been linked with Saari's rampage, sensitivity in Finland over the tragedy remains high.

According to GameDaily.biz, a statement posted by lastenpelit.fi explains that "We have removed pages from our site that are not necessarily appropriate for younger family members."

Kindergarten Killer is a Duck Hunt-style, point-and-click shooter. Its cell-shaded rendering contains extremely bloody kill animations, including cartoon beheadings via shotgun. The game plays exactly as its title suggests — armed youngsters pop up in hallways and classrooms, and the player must mow them down. The object is to "kill the kindergarten," meaning the entire school.

According to its copyright notice, Kindergarten Killer was written by Gary Short. The game also cites a URL, zsoa.com, which is currently parked. Google cache snapshots of the site are dated September 28, 2008, six days after the shootings in Finland. It's unclear whether Short took down his site voluntarily or had it pulled by his hosting company.

The cached version of zsoa.com indicates that Kindergarten Killer probably came out as early as 2005, so the game's link to the recent school shootings is more the result of Finnish media and hosting sites' reviewing their content rather than its author's attempt to grab headlines.

Finland's President, Tarja Halonen, put his country's Web media and ISPs on notice recently, telling a Finnish broadcaster that "the Internet and YouTube forums...are not another planet. This is part of our world and we adults have the responsibility to check what is happening, and create borders and safety there."

Game-inspired simulators have been helping medical students become more proficient surgeons, but as developers refine the teaching tools, they're also becoming recruitment tools.

The Virtual Temporal Bone Project, developed at Ohio State University and the Ohio Supercomputer Center, is a highly polished 3D surgical simulator that uses haptic feedback to give students the 'feel' of actually drilling into the temporal bone, which sits on the side of the skull and is involved in hearing and balance.

Don Stredney, one of the project's leads, told Columbus Business First that the simulator is much more efficient than traditional tools. "A student may only have 15 or 20 minutes of free time to practice. It's not nearly enough time to prepare a lab experiment, but a student can simulate all or part of a procedure." Currently, training a surgeon in the procedure to alleviate otologic disease requires five to seven years and costs more than $76,000. Otologic disease accounts for more than $8 billion in health-care costs annually.

Laura Matrka, a third year resident at OSU's Department of Otolayrngology, pointed to the value of using game technology to teach complex tasks like temporal bone surgery. "We're all comfortable with playing videogames, and this is a much easier sell for residents just getting comfortable with the temporal bone."

The virtual bone-drilling 'game' also has the advantage of allowing 'do-overs,' something not possible with precious cadaver material.

The hardware costs about $6500 and the software is open source. The simulator's realism has already won awards in the medical community. But developers are still not satisfied. Stredney says he and his team are already working on simulating the effect of bone dust created by the drilling.

Beyond medical residents and veterinary applications, the project's developers are keen on using a less graphically realistic version of the game to recruit interest in anatomy among high-school students and younger kids, all the way down to kindergartners.

Says Stredney, "What is education if it's not a seed?"

A Quicktime movie demonstrating the simulator is available here.

One sign of a healthy medium is its willingness to poke fun at itself. This summer film fans got a shot of that fun with "Tropic Thunder." Early next year, gamers will get their turn with Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard, a third-person shooter that cuts up game genres, game culture and the industry itself.

The loving satire of games began when D3, Hazard's publisher, put up a mock fansite chronicling the history of a fictional franchise based around a gun-toting, carnage-loving Duke Nukem-style character.

The site, located at www.doyouremember matthazard.com is a not-so-carefully crafted play on early '90s craptastic web design, complete with hideous animated .gifs, fake broken images, and metal-plate wallpaper. There's even the requisite 'dead link,' which promises a preview of the script of an ill-fated Hazard movie adaptation but that sends visitors to a generic URL squatting site instead.

Hazard's gameography goes back to 1983, when he debuted in The Adventures of Matt in Hazard Land, which the site says Concerned Parents Magazine decried as "one of the [sic] unnecessarily bloody games ever made." Later installments include A Fistful of Hazard, wherein fictional developer Marathon software "added vehicles to boost sales"; Matt Hazard 3D, which became the National PTA's "digital public enemy #1"; You Only live 1317 Times, a parody of Rare's classic GoldenEye 007; Matt and Dexter, a riff on Naughty Dog's Jakk and Daxter; and Haz-Matt Carts.

Eat Lead, the only actual game of the bunch, will put Hazard back in action as he returns to prove himself the king of shooters. In addition to sharp satire, the shooter will feature "strategic cover" and upgradeable weapons. It will also include a "hack effects" system that transforms the environment during gameplay as Hazard's antagonist swaps game code on the fly.

Sam Guilloud, the mind behind Matt Hazard's marketing, including the faux fansite, told Gamespot that

The content of the game has definitely given us a lot of creative inspiration for our campaign. It's doubtful we'd be doing something like this were we promoting an emotionally compelling, fantasy-stylized RPG. We knew going into both the design for the game and the marketing that gamers have a great sense of humor and are hungry for content with well-executed comedy. Games with any level of humor injected in them have been few-and-far-between lately, and practically none that are self-referential to the industry. We don't want to give too much away yet, but if you've been a fan of what you've seen so far, then you won't be disappointed. And if not, there are still more surprises to come when we pull back the curtain all the way.

The curtain will fall in the first quarter of 2009.

[via Gamasutra]