Category Archives: gaming

E3 2013

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Get ready for the latest gaming announcements and trends – E3 2013 begins today! This week we will get to see the latest technologies in the gaming world and see what they have to offer. I am most excited to see what the PS4 and Xbox One have in store: http://www.e3expo.com/

Microsoft Press Conference – 1 p.m. ET

EA Press Conference – 4 p.m. ET

Ubisoft Press Conference – 6 p.m. ET

Sony Press Conference – 9 p.m. ET

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Nintendo Direct – 10 a.m. ET

source: http://fansided.com/2013/06/10/e3-2013-live-stream-schedule-announcements-games-list-and-more/

 

Xbox 1

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So MS announced their new xbox today dubbed xbox 1. Thus far it seems pretty cool. Nothing I didnt expect though so no surprises. Seems like a great upgrade to the xbox 360. Actually this round of consoles all feel like upgrades rather than whole new systems.

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/xboxone/meet-xbox-one

World of Classcraft

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This is a really awesome website. The website guides you through gamifying your classroom. It shows you how to turn your classroom into a game, similar to dungeons and dragons, world of warcraft, etc. I think this is a very unique idea and I would love to see more classrooms implementing similar type strategies. While I do not expect a class to implement everything from this site, I believe there are a lot of good ideas and that taking one or two could really help students and make the classroom a fun place to learn.

http://worldofclasscraft.com/en/

Here is a video about it:

Xbox 720 rumors

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Many know that I am a fan of video games so I keep up with these latest rumors. Here is the latest from the xbox 720 and my thoughts on them:

Xbox 720 will:

*Support TV feeds similar to Google TV – I would definitely say this is true. Xbox already supports netflix, amazon prime, etc.

*Cost $500 (or $300 for subscription version) – This price point is off. $399 max for the best console should be what they go for. Most people are not going to shell out $500 for a gaming console. I know I will not be.

*Release in November – This makes sense. A release for the holiday season seems about right.

*Need to be online 24/7 – Not sure why this would need to be. Why would it need to be on when I am not using it? I shut mine down and unplug it when I am not on it now.

*Not be backwards compatible – While I could really care less about this, there are many people that like this sort of thing so supporting it is always a good idea but I understand not doing it if it can reduce the price of the machine for the end user.

Sources:

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/04/10/next-xbox-will-reportedly-integrate-broadcast-tv-feeds

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/04/08/veteran-tech-blogger-spills-xbox-720-reveal-date-pricing-and-more

Bringing gaming engines to the web: Mozilla and Unreal

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This is pretty cool and definitely where we are going in terms of gaming. Bringing game engines to the web means you can play high end games in your browser, which means cross compatibility across devices. Now what they need to do is bring games like WOW to the browser. For those that do not know Unreal is a gaming engine and Mozilla is the company that brings us Firefox. This will definitely be something that is explored in my gaming class next year!

Link to unreal

Article 1, Article 2

To build or buy your own gaming PC

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This is a question I am asked a lot and this is a pretty good article by IGN that goes into it:

“Becoming a PC gamer has always been an investment. You’re not just throwing down a few hundred on a console that’s potentially destined to sit under the television accumulating dust as soon as the cycle turns, and something new can always come along and replace it. There aren’t generations of PCs, where each one is a clear iteration and improvement on the last, giving you all the information you could ever need on when to upgrade, and how. Instead, you have to educate yourself, weigh up the pros and cons of this component over that component, and figure out whether you want to risk overclocking your CPU and squeezing every drop of power out of it or just leave things as they are, knowing that you’re not unlocking the full potential of what you’ve purchased.“…..rest of article here

How to implement World of Warcraft in Schools

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Here are some great resources for implement wow in schools. There is actually a full curriculum for students, with directions on where to begin, when wanting to implement something of this nature into your classroom. These were put together by a graduate of my Master’s program at UNCW and are very well done. If you or your school are interested in doing something like this yourself please contact me and I can help you and get you in touch with the developer of these materials:

Here is the guide to implementing wow

Here is a main site that contains tons of materials:

  • Setting up Accounts
  • Budget
  • Parental Involvement
  • Curriculum with lesson plans and standard information
  • Sample Student Projects
  • Assessment information

As you can see the site is very in-depth and contains all of the materials you need to get started.

Nintendo’s Wii U now available: Next gen console

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For those of you who follow the gaming world, the next generation Nintendo has been released: Wii U. While I do not like the name I do like the device.

For those wanting to buy this or have questions please see the links below. Some of the most popular answers to questions people want to know:

1. Yes buy the $350 version. You need the storage space and it comes with a game.
2. Yes is works with old wii games and wii controllers
3. Yes it supports 1080 HD TVs
4. If you are going to get it, get it. Its not going to go down in price for the next year.

Here are the tech specs

Link to official Wii U page