gaming

Back in mid-August, Intel's Nick Knupffer made a promise to casual 3D gamers by suggesting that a new driver update would give systems that use the Intel G965 integrated graphics chipset a much-needed performance boost. I was highly skeptical of this claim, but wanted to put Intel's claims to the test.

To test Intel's claims, I chose an Acer TravelMate 4720-6727 laptop, which uses a 2GHz Core 2 Duo T7300 CPU, 1GB of RAM, an integrated 965GM Express graphic chipset with 384MB memory allocated, and running Windows XP Professional SP2. While this hardware combination is not the … Read more

I'm a smidgen skeptical of this rumor, if only because it seems so darn obvious: TechCrunch reported on Tuesday morning that Time Warner's AOL may have found a use for its Wow.com domain, which it acquired in 1998 as part of the offal of what had once been CompuServe.

The source's big scoop? Wow.com has been transferred to the AOL Games division and will become a World of Warcraft social network. If this turns out to be true, expect plenty of level-28 half-elf mages to be typing "Wow.com" into their browsers soon.… Read more

There's no end to scams on the Internet, and it can be hard for anyone to tell the difference between a legitimate and fake Web address. (Can you pick the bogus URL between "www.express.ebay.com" and "www.ebaysale.nl"?)

That's why computer scientists at Carnegie Mellon University developed a cutesy online game to teach people how to spot a so-called phishing scam before giving up personal information like bank account passwords to a rogue operator. The 15-minute game, called Anti-Phishing Phil, features a little fish named Phil that must discern between good … Read more

NEW YORK--Novint Technologies' 3D virtual feeling game controller will be available at CompUSA stores this October, the company announced Thursday.

The Novint Falcon, which originally debuted at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, creates a more realistic and natural experience of movement when playing video games. It allows players to virtually feel things like texture, weight, dimension, 3D motion and force.

The Novint Falcon will be available in October 2007 at CompUSA as a limited edition bundle package for $239. The package will include 24 games and a sports pack that includes bowling, table tennis, basketball and baseball. Like the … Read more

Richard Garriott, a game developer known for creating the multiplayer online game Ultima, will be the sixth private citizen to take a ride on a Russian Soyuz rocket to the International Space Station in October 2008. And in a way, he will follow in his father's footsteps, but without the NASA credentials. Garriott's dad is former NASA astronaut Owen Garriott, who flew to the first U.S. space station Skylab in the '70s.

Garriott will fly with Vienna, Va.-based Space Adventures, a space tourism company that offers flights to ISS for between $25 million and $30 million. … Read more

NEW YORK--It seems people like any excuse to play any video game.

While Halo III and Guitar Hero may be drawing a crowd at DigitalLife 2007, so were classics like Ms. Pac-man.

Namco had a large space at DigitalLife to remind gamers that video games of the '80s are now available for their phone.

Namco offers games like Ms. Pac-Man, Pac-Man, Dig Dug, Mr. Do, Popeye, Snoopy and the Flying Ace, Galaga and even board games like Scene It?.

The games are available, regardless of your carrier, for the Palm OS, Windows Mobile phones, the iPod and the Sidekick, as … Read more

With Microsoft's Halo 3 pulling in $170 million in its first day on sale, maybe we're all in the wrong business. Open-source video games. Heck, Electronic Arts is veering in that direction anyway. Red Hat Enterprise Games. RHEG. Has a nice ring to it. :-)

When we reviewed the original G15 gaming keyboard early last year, we were quite impressed with the vast array of programmable buttons and the innovative LCD GamePanel. However, we had doubts on the usefulness of the latter as it required gaming titles to write code to use the GamePanel.

The new G15 gaming keyboard did away with the flip panel and embeds the display above the keys instead. Otherwise, gaming support has increased and now World of WarCraft, Battlefield 2142 and Quake Wars are able to utilize the panel for vital stats. Frankly, at S$169 (US$111.01), it'… Read more

Microsoft showed off its Massive advertising platform in Times Square in New York on Tuesday.

The tech giant wanted to show the advertising world, which is gathered in New York for the annual Advertising Week conference, exactly how the dynamic in-game advertisements work.

Flashing high above 43rd Street were clips from a series of games that showed avatars stopping to view a movie trailer for the Hollywood blockbuster 300. A Toyota advertisement also lined the outfield wall in a baseball game that's played on Microsoft's Xbox game console.

"The idea is to have advertisements appear and fit … Read more