The Inquisitr » Gaming

Casino denies man $166m jackpot after slot malfunction

Kim LaCapria — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:25:37 +0000

The Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Tampa has settled with a guest for an undisclosed sum after an erroneous slot machine result lead the man to believe he’d won $166 million on Sunday.

Bill Seebeck was playing $4 slots at the Seminole Hard Rock and after spending about $80 on a Bally Ultimate Party Spin, Seebeck won what he thought was a massive jackpot. But after an hour of casino brouhaha and planning how he’d spend his massive win, casino officials told him that the win was faulty and he wouldn’t receive any money. They even tried to get him to agree in writing that he’d not be receiving anything for the false win.

While Seebeck originally indicated that he was seeking a lawyer to represent him regarding the incident, the Seminole Hard Rock Casino released a statement indicating that they’d offered Seebeck a “good faith” settlement and that he’d accepted:

The Seminole Hard Rock Casino Tampa has made an offer to William Seebeck, and he has accepted, recognizing that the slot machine he was playing on Sunday malfunctioned, in what can be best described to the layman as a “computer glitch.” The maximum payout on the Ultimate Party Spin machine played by Seebeck is $99,000, although his bet of $1.50 at the time of the malfunction could have generated a maximum payout of only $2,500, with the right combination. Determination of a malfunction was made by representatives of the machine’s manufacturer and software provider, according to established gaming industry standards, with confirmation from an independent third-party laboratory analysis. The casino has opted to settle this matter for an undisclosed amount as a good faith gesture, and we look forward to welcoming Mr. Seebeck on future visits.

[Miami New Times]

Weekend gaming special: F.E.A.R. 2 Project Origin plus the Reborn DLC

Steven Hodson — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 03:46:10 +0000

When the game F.E.A.R. by Monolith was first released it created quite the stir in the gaming community and still maintains a high approval rating at Metacritic. I remember when it came out I lost more than a few hours getting myself killed in the game.

At this point I haven’t played any of the follow-ups to the game but that may change given this weekend special at Valve’s Steam game store. They are having a 50% off sale of both F.E.A.R.2: Project Origin and F.E.A.R.2: Reborn DLC.

F.E.A.R.2: Project Origin – $24.99

F.E.A.R.2: Reborn – $4.99

Undercover officers storm home, play Wii

Kim LaCapria — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 21:45:36 +0000

A couple of undercover drug investigators are in trouble after spending “downtime” during a drug raid Wii Bowling.

The officers stormed the home of convicted drug dealer Michael Difalco near Lakeland, FL in March. While some busied themselves collecting and tagging evidence, a few officers unaware of surveillance set up via Difalco’s computer appeared to pass the time playing a few frames of Wii Bowling. The officers are seen playing animatedly while their fellow investigators get down to business, one cop even pausing her work to pick up a Wii-mote and play.

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said although the incident is “embarrassing,” it won’t harm the prosecution’s case:

“That absolutely is not true; that doesn’t invalidate the search at all,” Judd said. “Now the defendant would like for it to invalidate the search, but unfortunately for him, it won’t.”

Judd, who watched the video during an interview last week, called the situation an embarrassment.

“I’m not pleased that they played that Wii bowling game,” Judd said. The sheriff’s office oversees the drug task force. Judd said he initiated an internal administrative investigation of the incident.

“That is not appropriate conduct at a search warrant,” he said. “But I am less pleased with the supervision that didn’t walk in and say, turn that off. That’s what supervision should have done.”

Watch video of the raid, below.

[Source: Tampa Bay Online]

Who really needs to fear Apple? Hint: It’s not Microsoft

Steven Hodson — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 00:08:01 +0000

So today was all Apple. It didn’t matter where you turned in the tech blogosphere, all you read was Apple news. Stevie boy is back from the near dead and the acolytes breathe a sigh of relieve as they bow to the alter of Apple. For all of the talk about iPods, Nanos, video and storage space to stuff even more music that you’ve bought through the new shiny iTunes there was one thing that caught my eye and it had nothing to do with rock ‘n’ roll.

A couple of other tech bloggers mentioned it as well but more in passing than anything else but it is something that I think should be having the boardrooms of the gaming console makers shaking.

Dean Takahashi at VentureBeat writes

Schiller says the iPod Touch is also a great gaming machine. He notes the multitouch user interface is great, the games are cheap, the App Store allows for great choice of games, and the buying experience is easy.

Harry McCracken at Technologizer says

I think it’s the evolution of the iPod brand. It used to be about music. Then music and video playback. Now Apple is pitching the Touch as a computer that plays games,

By targeting the casual gamer looking just to past some time while commuting to and from work not to mention the number of parents who use it to keep antsy kids pacified Apple is setting itself up as the go to store where you can easily buy and download good games. At this point none of the other handheld console makers have anything that comes close and don’t seem to be in any rush to jump into the market that Apple is very quickly sewing up.

Sure everyone might think that Apple’s big competitor is Microsoft but Jobs knows that as much as Microsoft might want the Zune HD to challenge Apple that isn’t going to happen anytime soon. So rather than worry about Microsoft Apple is going after the one market that will keep coming back with open wallets – the casual gamer. By making the iPod a premier gaming console and the Apps Store the only place to buy good games Apple plans on being the same 800 pound gorilla in the gaming market as it is in the music market place.

Right now if I was in charge of a company making and marketing of handheld consoles I’d be worrying – a lot.

Sweetest Game Deal? Playstation 3 With Plenty Of Icing

James Allen Johnson — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 00:30:38 +0000

Okay so it technically isn’t really a gaming console, but the Playstation 3 cake is the perfect snack in between those 24 hour gaming binges.

The actual console is your typical cake shaped to look like the PS3, with black icing and hand sketched logos and wording.

The controllers are then made of rice crispy squares which have been carefully crafted to exactly resemble PS3 controllers, while they’re also colored to match the controllers black look with colored buttons.

For the health conscience perhaps the creator would be willing to make a PS3 Slim. [via TechEBlog]

Video, Batman: Arkham Asylum

Kim LaCapria — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 03:12:17 +0000

Batman: Arkham Asylum hit stores today after a rather pervasive TV marketing campaign.

Wikipedia has a breakdown of the game plot:

The game begins with Batman capturing the Joker after his latest plot and escorting him to Arkham Asylum for imprisonment. Due to the Joker’s recent attack on Gotham City’s Blackgate Prison, a large number of sane convicts have been transferred. Shortly after arriving, however, the Joker, with the help of Harley Quinn, frees all the inmates and locks down the Asylum with Batman, Commissioner Gordon, and much of the staff still inside.

After fighting some enemies on the first level, Batman makes his way to locate the Joker. Soon Batman learns that there is trouble in the pacification room. Batman learns that Zsasz has escaped and has captured one of the guards. Batman manages sneak up on Zsasz and take him down with a glide kick. Batman then gets a transmission from Harley Quinn that she has captured the wardenfor the Joker. Batman learns from Oracle that Joker has placed bombs all over Gotham threatening to detonate them if anyone enters Arkham. Batman contacts Oracle telling her that Joker has taken control of the cell block transfer corridor. Batman takes out the inmates there. At the intensive treatment lobby, Batman encounters Joker who unleashes an experimental human on him.

The game currently has a 91% positive rating on both Metacritic, and most other reviewers have it rated consistently at 9 out of 10 overall. If you’re not ready to plunk down between $50-70 on the game for XBox 360, PS3 or your PC, you can watch someone else playing it below:

Gamer father leaves tribute to fallen soldier son

Steven Hodson — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 20:13:24 +0000

Pvt. Richard Hunt was the 200th U.K. soldier to die in the Afghanistan conflict after his patrol from A Company the 2nd Battalion the Royal Welsh was hit by an explosive device. At a memorial service held in Abergavenny, Wales his family, friends and comrade’s in arms came together to remember the young man who would have been celebrating his birthday.

Among all the tribute left the most touching had to be from his father Phillip, who apparently enjoyed a good game of Call of Duty with his fallen son. There among all the flowers an cards was a copy of the game with the following note attached:

Happy Birthday ‘Hunty’. Play you again one day. Dad.

Arkeg Arcade Cabinet Offers Ultimate Frat House Gadget

James Allen Johnson — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 12:51:30 +0000

College students love to turn every game into a drinking game, now the company behind Arkeg has actually managed to make getting those drinks even easier for lazy gamers. It’s called the Arkeg and it’s pure bliss for drunks, gamers and anyone who just wants to say “how cool is this” to their friends.

The Arkeg provides a fully operational kegerator that’s hooked up underneath a fully operational video arcade system that includes 69 various games. Those games include Street Fighter, Asteroids, Battlezone, Major Havoc, Marble Madness, Mortal Kombat 1-3, Centiped and Defender among other popular games from the 70’s, 80′, and 90’s.

The systems display comes in at an impressive 24 inches while offering 2.1 sound, a trackball for games that require it and two joysticks, plus various buttons. The actual keg is then operated by a chrome lever found around the side of the system. They even chromed out the lever, which should be expected considering the Arkeg will cost you $3999. [via Switched]

Sony PS3 Slim About To Get Confirmed. Original Console To See Price Drop

James Allen Johnson — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 15:48:13 +0000

Sony PS3 Slim rumors have been floating around for some time now and the unofficial word is that Kazuo “Kaz” Hirai head of the Sony Console division will make the unit official sometime next week.

The PS3 Slim should officially be announced today at GamesCom in Cologne, Germany and is expected to by released in time for the UK and US Christmas shopping season.

The move shouldn’t surprise Sony console gamers considering the companies history of releasing slim versions of their systems including the PSPOne Slim and PS2 Slim models. Although the slim version of the PS3 with built-in blu-ray definitely makes this release the best to date.

No word yet on pricing, although Sony has been pretty good about releasing street prices for their Slim units once there announced, so I’ll keep my fingers crossed for official pricing at some point today.

In other Sony Playstation 3 news, the company is expected to make a price drop announcement at GamesCom today, a good sign that the PS3 Slim is on it’s way. [via Pocket-Lint]

Logitech G27 Racing Wheel Gets Shown Off

James Allen Johnson — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 14:27:38 +0000

The Logitech G25 Racing Wheel is still one of my favorite racing game controllers. Now Logitech has announced the G25’s replacement, the G27, an 11 inch racing wheel which offers stronger game controls, more programmable buttons and an overall better feel.

According to Logitech the G27 comes with RPM/shift indicator LEDs, a D-Pad for added control and 16 programmable buttons that are extremely simple to use. It also offers dual force feedback motors and the ability to use helical gear shifting.

The G27 also comes with rotation up to 900 degrees with realistic 2.5 turns to lock just like you’d find in a real racing car. The pedals also offer flip down teeth so they won’t slide around on carpeting.

They’ve also thrown in a gated shifter with six speeds and the ability to use push down reverse. A steel brake, clutch, and brake pedal are also all utilized.

The G27 works with PC, PS2, and PS3 sytems. However it won’t come cheap, with pre-orders offered for $299.99. [via Logitech]

RedBox Debuts $2 Per Night Video Game Rentals

James Allen Johnson — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 23:53:53 +0000

The movie “vending machine” rental company RedBox has just begun their march towards video game rental dominance, debuting their new $2 per night video game rental program.

The new video game addition to the RedBox lineup includes Xbox 360, PS2 and PS3 games, alongside Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii discs.

While $2 per night may seem like a steal, even Blockbusters $9 rental price for 5 day rentals beats the video rental discounters pricing. Then again I tend to beat games in 1 to 3 days and so do many other gamers. Perhaps paying $4 – $6 for a game you’ve beaten is still better than $9 considering the game will probably collect dust for the last 2 – 3 days.

The actual selection of games is still pretty slim, but more titles are expected to be added in the near future. [via ZatzNotFunny]

GP2X Wiz MAME/Amiga Console Emulator. The Commodore 64 Is Cool Again. But Not Really

James Allen Johnson — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 16:07:04 +0000

Yeah you heard me right, the Commodore 64 is receiving some retro love via the GP2X Wiz, a gaming console that can play a virtual plethora of video game types directly from a single handheld device. Forget those huge graphic intensive games on the PSP and try for something with a whopping 64kb!

According to ThinkGeek the GP2X Wiz features support for:

Atari ST games, Commodore 64, NES, SNES, Gameboy, Gameboy Advance, NeoGeo, Flash Games and more too numerous to mention.

The system offers several included flash games, however it doesn’t come equipped with ROMs, although I’ve heard there’s this search engine thing called Google where you can find them for free and for pretty much any gaming system that exists.

The system also supports other purposes including video playback for MPEG4, Xvid and DIVX files. While offering a built-in eBook (what doesn’t these days), calendar and a voice recorder.

The handheld emulator also comes with 1GB internal memory with SDHC card support for way more storage possibilities. The unit also features a high-res screen and a d-pad on the left of the device with another d-pad and buttons on the right side.

It’s also faster than many mobile phones currently available clocking in on an ARM9 533MHz Processor which can be overclocked for speeds up to 800Mhz.

The console is available from ThinkGeek for a rather pricey $179.99, we could buy like 1000 Commodore 64’s for that price. Yet the portable nature of the device may be worth it for retro loving gamers.

Wink Glasses Save Your Eye Sight During Gaming Binges

James Allen Johnson — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 14:20:21 +0000

Sitting in front of your gaming consoles for hours or even days at a time can wreak havoc on your eye sight, especially if you’re one of those gamers who barely blinks when the gaming hits it’s most intense levels. Wink Glasses from Masunaga can solve your “blinking problem” with an innovative, yet annoying technology.

The Wink Glasses work by monitoring the users eyes, while keeping track of how often a user blinks via special sensors. After 5 seconds if no blinking had occurred an ultra-thin liquid crystal sheet “fogs up” in front of the lens, forcing the user to blink before the lens goes back to normal.

I bet you can already see an issue occurring when the game your playing hits the most crucial game play moments and your refusal to blink leads to a quick fog induced game over.

The Wink Glasses are $150 and will go on sale in Japan starting on August 10th. [thanks GadgetCrave]

Nintendo Wii Debuts With New Black Finish, U.S. Market Gets Left Out

James Allen Johnson — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 04:54:36 +0000

The Nintendo Wii is getting a facelift, but this time its not a new WiiMote or a new “must have” accessory. Instead Nintendo is releasing their ultra popular, motion sensitive gaming system in a new color; black.

The Black version of the Wii will unfortunately not be available in the United States, although grey market versions of the device have been surfacing at the premium price of $333. Why that price? We have no idea, it seems a little in terms of a price point.

Other than the black glossy finish, the device offers the exact same specs as found on the white edition of the gaming console. Although the new color may better suit many users electronics which typically are offered in darker colors. [tipped via SlipperyBrick]

The Beatles: Rock Band trailer is all sorts of awesome

Duncan Riley — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 07:23:04 +0000

The trailer for the upcoming game The Beatles: Rock Band has been released.

I’m not usually one to gush over trailers like this, but this one is the exception, because it’s all sorts of awesome. Covering the full history of the Beatles in music and visuals, the trailer embraces the style of each period as well, from the screaming fans in the north of England, to the pythonesque imagery of their later albums.

According to the official spiel for the game, players “follow The Beatles from their earliest days to their triumphant Ed Sullivan Show appearance and beyond. Join them in the studio at Abbey Road and experience dreamscapes that put you inside the psychedelic era.”

Here’s the trailer:

PC gaming to be the largest gaming platform in the world

Steven Hodson — Thu, 07 May 2009 04:35:52 +0000

I’m not what you would call a serious gamers. I like playing my Civilization and every once in awhile firing up a good FPS and go on a blood and guts rampage. I will say that my gaming has increased (shhh don’t tell Duncan) since finding out that Valve’s Steam game story takes PayPal but I still wouldn’t qualify for hardcore gamer status.

However if what Electronic Arts (EA) CEO, Eric Brown, had to say the other day I’m not the only one spending more money and hours on PC games. According to Brown digital game distribution has nearly doubled in revenues year-over-year to $80 million. As well he said that the EA online business is growing by as much as 60 percent year over year.

“In terms of distribution, the way we look at a lot what’s happening in the future is, we’ve got probably a billion PCs out there in the world,” he continued. “Very rapidly the PC is becoming the largest gaming platform in the world, just not in a packaged-good product.”

Source: VG247.com

Take that consoles.

Is nVidia getting set to totally upset the graphics card market?

Steven Hodson — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 00:33:18 +0000

It looks like nVidia; the graphics card manufacturer, is going to be changing the graphics card landscape in the next couple of months. This shake-up will come at the hands of their new GT300 the successor to their GT200 series of graphic cards and will be coming with a totally new architecture.

According to the folks at Bright Side Of News is one of the reasons that nVidia’s Chief Architect Bill Dally turned down Intel’s offer to come and work for them on their Larrabee project. In their post they go into the real technical details; up to what they have been able to piece together anyway, but it boils down to this.

The GT300 will utilize a core set that uses MIMD-similar functions (Multiple-Instruction Multiple Date) rather than the current SIMD (Single-Instruction Multiple Data) structure. These cards; in MPMD mode, will be able to execute simple and complex shader and computing operations on-the-go. The GT300 itself will pack 16 groups with 32 cores (512 cores for the high-end part) and as a result raises the computing power of the GT300 by more than 2x when compared to the GT200 core.

As an example if nVidia gets a 2 GHz clock for the 512 MIMD cores, we are looking at no less than 3TFLOPS with Single Precision. The goodness doesn’t stop there

This is not the only change – cluster organization is no longer static. The Scratch Cache is much more granular and allows for larger interactivity between the cores inside the cluster. GPGPU e.g. GPU Computing applications should really benefit from this architectural choice. When it comes to gaming, the question is obviously – how good can GT300 be? Please do bear in mind that this 32-core cluster will be used in next-generation Tegra, Tesla, GeForce and Quadro cards.

This architectural change should result in dramatic increase in Dual-Precision performance, and if GT300 packs enough registers – performance of both Single-Precision and Dual-Precision data might surprise all the players in the industry. Given the timeline when nVidia begun work on GT300, it looks to us like GT200 architecture was a test for real things coming in 2009.

Source: Bright Side of News

Chances are that these beauties are going to hurt the wallet when they first come out but hopefully by the time I’m ready to upgrade my video card again they will have come down in price.

[nVidia GTX275 graphic courtesy of SlipperyBrick as well as a big hat tip]

Guy’s last refuge of geek superiority gone

Steven Hodson — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 22:46:45 +0000

In the minds of most people and the media in general when you mention geeky gadgets the first image is of some lonely guy living in the basement of his parents with piles of discarded gadgets littering the floor. It has been the last bastion of male geek superiority but alas folks it is no more.

At least to a recent survey done by Forrester Research this is the case. They found after questioning more than 1,000 single males and more than 1,000 single females that the women were just as into gadgets as were the men.

Some of the findings are:

single women prefer laptops over desktops in contrast to men who preferred the desktops
44% of all single women owned a game console of one type or another
27% of surveyed women own a hand-held gaming device while only 29% of men do
78% of women own a digital camera compared to 76% of men

The only area where men far surpassed the women was the reading of tech news. For men the number came out to around 40% while with women it was only 20%.

[hat tip to Planetary Gear / pic courtesy of Planetary Gear]

No related posts.

Buying violent video games could net parents jail time

Steven Hodson — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 22:19:01 +0000

The fact that governments the world round love to trot out violent video games as the cause of kids gone bad is one thing; but in New Zealand you could get jail time for buying you kid that violent video games. Bill Hastings the country’s Chief Censor believes that parents caught buying games like Grand Theft Auto for their kids should be punished with three months jail time or a fine of up to $10,000.

They might think the offence is silly, but it ain’t… That’s what the law says, but… you’re not going to have police officers in every bedroom… There would certainly be some shock value to prosecuting a parent who gives their under-18 child access to a restricted game. It would send out a message that the enforcement agency means business.
I think the word ‘game’ can mislead people for sure. It’s not checkers. For the first time in history, kids are more savvy with technology than parents… parents need to get up to speed on the digital divide. They need to look at what their kids are playing and doing…

It should be the pleasure in being able to sleep at night knowing that you have done the right thing by your kids. That should be the motivating factor.

Source: Stuff.co.nz

Ya .. that’s gonna work really well.

Gamers get their own reality show

Steven Hodson — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 20:02:47 +0000

I’ll be right up front here – I despise so-called reality television shows because they are the farthest thing from reality that you can think of. That said it seems that some-one thought it would be a great idea to take a bunch of gamers, give them some of the best gaming rigs around and stick them all in the same house. The show which is coming to the Sci-Fi channel starting March 10th at 10PM is a partnership between the network, Samsung and World Cyber Games.

The idea is to find the Best All-Round Gamer from a diverse group of contestants who will fight for the grand prize of $100,000.00, a Samsung Ultimate Entertainment Package, complete with the company’s most advanced product line-up. In addition the winner will become the face of the World Cyber Games and represent WCG at events around the world.

Co-hosted by Hannah Simone and Joel Gourdin, the series showcases twelve contestants who live together in a single loft in downtown Los Angeles. They will compete against each other in challenges that include traditional video game play as well as real-life video game simulations, which place the contestants in situations inspired by best-selling and world famous games. Throughout the competition, the ultimate gamer will need to excel both individually and with his or her teammates, have top-notch gamer skills and be able to handle the pressure of head-to-head elimination rounds played in an arena filled with hundreds of spectators. The ultimate gamer will also have to showcase their ability to navigate and manipulate a houseful of other die-hard gamers, all vying to be crowned number one.

Source: Sci-Fi Channel

Ya .. okay .. and the sad part of this is that it just might work and further perpetuate the stereotypes people have about gamers.