shoot

Hunt and gather: News consumption in the 21st century

After the tragic Boston Marathon Bombing, earlier this week, and with the current pursuit of the MIT shooter, law enforcement, news agencies, and the netizens of America rallied together and demonstrated just how interactive the news has become.

Late into the night, I was glued to my computer, with one window showing a live newscast, a Twitter feed of Watertown running in another, and, of course, Reddit. I watched and read with concentrated obsession: there was an emotional whirlwind in my head of concern for my friends in Boston and at MIT, a blend of urgency and excitement as the … Read more

Make the basket fast with Shoot a Loop

Shoot a Loop is a simple game. It uses a mechanism that can be found in small plastic toys that children used to get out of vending machines in grocery stores 20 years ago. That isn't necessarily a bad thing. Plenty of games use simple, nostalgic designs in modern packaging to bring their players back to the days of yesteryear on their phones. However, with some odd physics, hard-to-control mechanics, and a limit on game modes, Shoot a Loop is not such a game.

The concept is very simple. You have a basketball in a loop with four baskets, … Read more

Words power Gears of War: Judgment

Gears of War: Judgment has turned at least one aspect of game creation on its head, according to a behind-the-scenes video about the upcoming game for Xbox 360.

The 7-minute video sheds light on how the shooting game's co-developers, Epic Games and People Can Fly, integrated the two lead writers early in the game's creation -- instead of adding dialog and conversation later in the process.

Rob Auten and Tom Bissell, the lead writers for the fourth iteration of the game, spent a year creating 20,000 spoken lines for Judgment, which they estimate clocking in somewhere near 100,000 words. There are only about 17 minutes of cinematic cut scenes, so a lot of the dialog occurs during gameplay. Players can also increase the difficulty of levels in Judgment, and these experiences contain different script material for enhanced replay value. … Read more

Test your aim and have plenty of fun

William Tell shouldn't get to have all of the archery fun! In Fruit Shoot, you'll fire arrows at all sorts of produce on the heads of bears, dragons and even other warriors. The sheer number of levels and different gameplay modes make this app a very enticing download for fans of physics games. Some may find the app's presentation a little too bizarre, though.

When you first load the app, it advertises other apps in big splash ads. It's hard to find the X to close these ads. The app chooses to include goofy characters to … Read more

Crazy like a fox? McAfee admits to playing the 'crazy card'

The recent actions of security software icon John McAfee may have seemed off kilter, but he now says that at least some of that was a ruse.

McAfee, speaking with ABC News after arriving in the U.S., said he faked illness to avoid being sent back to Belize from Guatemala. He also thanked the media for closely covering his story.

"It was a deception, but who did it hurt? I look pretty healthy, don't I?," he said during an interview with ABC at a Miami Beach hotel. He added:

What's a better story, millionaire mad … Read more

Hot new games for iOS

The stars lined up just right this week (read: gift-giving season is here!) to have a number of awesome game sequels and new releases launch all at once. Frankly, there are so many new games that there is no better time than the present to check out what the App Store has to offer.

Rick Broida already wrote about Grand Theft Auto: Vice City earlier today, but there are plenty more that would make nice additions to your iOS gaming collection.

This week's collection of apps is a group of excellent games released over the course of this week. … Read more

Shoot the Zombirds to protect the Pumpkids!

It's perfectly acceptable to shoot zombies since they'll eat your brains if you don't. Slow, awkward, and noisy (all that moaning), zombies don't provide much of a challenge, though, and you'll probably get bored long before your ammo runs out. Birds are much harder to hit. The answer is obvious: zombie birds! Zombirds for short, as in Infinite Dreams' Shoot the Zombirds, a sequel to Shoot the Birds. Once again you're Pumpkin Boy, guardian of a spooky pumpkin patch. Your mission is to protect the Pumpkids from being carried off by hungry Zombirds. We … Read more

Microsoft Surface edges out Samsung in display tests

Microsoft's Surface RT tablet topped Samsung's Galaxy tablet in a "shoot-out" done by display testing firm DisplayMate Technologies.

The Surface RT's display outperformed all of the standard resolution full size 10-inch tablets that DisplayMate has tested to date in its Shoot-Out series, Raymond Soneira, president of DisplayMate Technologies, said in a research note today.

"On-screen text is significantly sharper, it has a better factory display calibration, and also significantly lower screen reflectance than the iPad 2 and all full size 1,280x800 Android tablets," Soneira said in a statement.

For example, it bested … Read more

Retake Earth from nasty aliens

Ares is a graphical strategy and action game that takes place in the far reaches of the galaxy. Your mission is to reclaim the planet Earth from alien invaders, but to do that you have to handle manufacturing and resources, as well as be handy with your trigger finger to blow the enemy to little pieces. You can try Ares for free, but the full game will set you back $25.

The Ares interface is laid out with controls and status reports in a pane to the left, and the graphics in a much larger pane to the right. A … Read more