Added: 12.06.2015 22:11 | 4 views | 0 comments


This week on Reality Check, Lucy investigates how developers use physics engines to create collision, destruction and death in games.

Added: 11.06.2015 11:16 | 8 views | 0 comments


RPG: From the outset, Lord of Magna: Maiden Heaven carries an interesting premise that is filled with interesting ideas. It is a tactical RPG that bears some dating sim elements with choices that matter to an extent. Players are encouraged to play through the game multiple times if they want to see everything the game has to offer. Even though the game has several refreshing components, Lord of Magna presents an intriguing case in which design philosophy clashes with execution.

Added: 09.06.2015 22:51 | 21 views | 0 comments

Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin

Also known as Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters, this attraction at Disney World and Disneyland takes place on the tiny scale of the Toy Story hero. You pilot an Omnimover space vehicle equipped with laser pistols in an arcade-style shooting gallery showdown. Dripping in neon and nostalgia, it's a love letter to Pixar fans.

Space Mountain

Chief among Tomorrowland's highlights is the venerable Space Mountain, an institution of a roller coaster. The lines are often gargantuan, but you're treated to space-age decor that only Disney can deliver. It's a ride so fun you almost don't mind the wait. Most people exit its sleek steel tubes reborn with a brighter smile and hope for the future.

Star Tours (and more!)

Disney and Star Wars have long had an amiable relationship, but now that Disney owns the franchise outright, you can expect a much larger Star Wars presence at their parks coinciding with the sequels. Until then, there's always the delightfully quaint motion simulator ride Star Tours.

Indiana Jones Adventure

You've always wanted to blast through dangerous caves on an expedition with Indy, and this ride at Disneyland finally lets you fulfill that dream. You're even treated to an iconic boulder chase. If you want to hang onto your memories, Indiana Jones artist Drew Struzan sells prints of the original ride poster featured above.

The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror

Disneyland's sister park California Adventure offers up a Rod Serling-inspired surprise for guests willing to explore this haunted hotel. If you've got the stomach for a 13-story drop, you don't want to miss this weird and wonderful homage.

Spaceship Earth

If you're the kind of person who gets a kick out of browsing through vintage issues of Popular Mechanics, then Spaceship Earth will be your retro-future kitsch metropolis. Housed inside Epcot's trademark sphere, Spaceship Earth is a waltz down a memory lane of human technological dreams and accomplishments.

Mission: SPACE

Despite its utopian space-age vibe, Disney's Mission: Space (located in Epcot Park) puts you through a very real physical gauntlet in this astronaut training simulation. Finally you can experience the g-force of liftoff in the pit of your own stomach.

The Incredible Hulk Roller Coaster

The fabled Marvel Superheroes Theme Park has yet to open in Dubai, but Islands of Adventure in Florida has a healthy array of comic book coasters, including this one featuring The Incredible Hulk. After hurtling through its launched lift hill, your face might turn a shade of green too.

Transformers: The Ride

Frequently cited as one of the best theme park attractions in the world, Transformers: The Ride is a thrilling combo of a 3D cinematic experience and a traditional vehicle-mounted expedition. You can find it at Universal Studios Hollywood and Florida, but unfortunately, Tyrese Gibson is not included.

Jurassic Park: The Ride

The upcoming release of Jurassic World already has reignited Jurassic Park fever, and the only prescription is more dinosaurs. Get yourself over to Universal Studios Hollywood for a boat ride through a vicious velociraptor picnic.

Clarence's Coaster from True Romance

Quentin Tarantino's first screenplay remains his most charming and sincere film. If you've got a soft spot for Clarence, a fellow comic book shop geek, you'll want to catch The Viper at Six Flags Magic Mountain to recreate his infamous drug deal with Bronson Pinchot.

Batman: The Ride

Batman may hide out in a cave, but that hasn't stopped him from showing up at more than a half-dozen theme parks across the country, like this breackneck coaster ride at Six Flags Over Texas. You can even ride the whole thing backwards this year at Six Flags Over Georgia and Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey!

Battlestar Galactica: Human vs Cyborg

If you're willing to travel, you can find decent geek-culture-inspired rides overseas, like this Battlestar Galactica set of dueling roller coasters at Universal Studios Singapore. Because of intentional near-misses that are mere inches apart, the ride has been under an extended safety review. But if you're brave enough to hack it, it's scheduled to reopen this year.

Back to the Future: The Ride

It used to be a staple at Universal Studios in Hollywood and Florida, but now that those attractions have shut down, Universal Studios Japan is the only place to find this Delorean simulator that hurtles you back through time to the prehistoric age. Great Scott!

Ace Attorney Investigations

Diligent travelers can find a special treat hiding on the third floor of Sega's Tokyo amusement park, Joypolis. A life-size Miles Edgeworth from Phoenix Wright fame invites guests to investigate clues strewn about a crime scene. Expect cameos by fan favorites across the classic adventure series.

Added: 09.06.2015 10:16 | 12 views | 0 comments


Did we learn anything from Google Glass? It looked really cool when it debuted, but quickly we realized that constantly wearing a camera on your head can be a bad idea. Even from the start, many of us knew that only the most devoted cyber-connected consumers would actually use the device. Yet the tech industry continues to buzz about new sets of head-mounted virtual reality (VR). Games might sustain investments in these new peripherals, just like we saw for Wii and Kinect, but we havent seen any other examples where wearing a headset is clearly worth the bother. Facebooks acquisition of Oculus is ostensibly to become a social platform in VR despite that such goggles may be perceived as somewhat anti-social in the real world. Googles investment in Magic Leap generated a fantastic video of an alien invasion of a modern office which saved the user from tedious interactions with a floating email app. Most recently, Microsoft showed a demo of Hololens, being billed as a next-genera...

Added: 08.06.2015 23:11 | 3 views | 0 comments

Decades of what we'll call... light incest finally blew up in my face. I'd crushed the Cadence at every turn for 150 years. They could not stand up to the unified might of the houses that protected the realm, the houses that had fought the demonic incursion for generations. Their ancestors had lived and died--some on the battlefield, more at home in their beds; they had married and borne children and ruled the lands. But they were mortal, and I was not, and I didn't merely witness the rise and fall of dynasties: I guided them. I forged marriages and alliances and ensured a stream of children for the war effort. But... best laid plans and whatnot... I learned that I was not cut out to meddle in eugenics.

I'd spent so long focusing on maximizing the fertility of the land that I'd lost sight of a more important concern: can any of these love-crazed rabbits actually fight? And while my soldiers were many, they were weak; my hunters (read: archers) had the vision of Mr. Magoo and the mobility of Chris Redfield in the 1996 . For instance, I didn’t realize that one of my "reveler" heroes was hungover until he suddenly couldn’t move as many spaces. Characters that are "strong-willed" (which means they're unlikely to get the traits of their parents) don't project any force of personality on the field. When the game puts so much effort into creating a genetically diverse breeding pool of clashing and conflicting personalities, it's disheartening that little of it can be seen in battle.

The heroes of Massive Chalice felt more real to me as mythic heroes of bloodlines--their indelible effect on generations of warriors not fully understood--than they did as the figures they cut in battle. In the grand strategy portions, they were part of families with house sigils and house words and adopted children. On the field, they were hit point boxes killing other hit point boxes and I couldn't care less about them as individuals beyond being tools for securing ultimate victory. The game's lifeless artwork did little to alleviate this problem. Although watching the members of your Vanguards or Regencies age and wither away until death was fascinating, the look of the heroes was devoid of detail, and left me with an endless trail of blonde/brunette/ginger men and women with caberjack/crossbow/alchemist claws.

That's ultimately Massive Chalice's most unfortunate shortcoming. It’s a game with enough ambition and execution to spark the imagination, and enough organic entropy to let you suspend your disbelief about the families you help sire. But Massive Chalice extends you the invitation and then offers you a half-empty world in return. Massive Chalice's entropy speaks to me. The random chaos that one marriage can wreak over the decades is a mysterious well of excitement. But the flatness of its world and the tedium of several core elements of the Massive Chalice experience is a high price to pay.

Added: 08.06.2015 23:11 | 6 views | 0 comments

Decades of what we'll call... light incest finally blew up in my face. I'd crushed the Cadence at every turn for 150 years. They could not stand up to the unified might of the houses that protected the realm, the houses that had fought the demonic incursion for generations. Their ancestors had lived and died--some on the battlefield, more at home in their beds; they had married and borne children and ruled the lands. But they were mortal, and I was not, and I didn't merely witness the rise and fall of dynasties: I guided them. I forged marriages and alliances and ensured a stream of children for the war effort. But... best laid plans and whatnot... I learned that I was not cut out to meddle in eugenics.

I'd spent so long focusing on maximizing the fertility of the land that I'd lost sight of a more important concern: can any of these love-crazed rabbits actually fight? And while my soldiers were many, they were weak; my hunters (read: archers) had the vision of Mr. Magoo and the mobility of Chris Redfield in the 1996 . For instance, I didn’t realize that one of my "reveler" heroes was hungover until he suddenly couldn’t move as many spaces. Characters that are "strong-willed" (which means they're unlikely to get the traits of their parents) don't project any force of personality on the field. When the game puts so much effort into creating a genetically diverse breeding pool of clashing and conflicting personalities, it's disheartening that little of it can be seen in battle.

The heroes of Massive Chalice felt more real to me as mythic heroes of bloodlines--their indelible effect on generations of warriors not fully understood--than they did as the figures they cut in battle. In the grand strategy portions, they were part of families with house sigils and house words and adopted children. On the field, they were hit point boxes killing other hit point boxes and I couldn't care less about them as individuals beyond being tools for securing ultimate victory. The game's lifeless artwork did little to alleviate this problem. Although watching the members of your Vanguards or Regencies age and wither away until death was fascinating, the look of the heroes was devoid of detail, and left me with an endless trail of blonde/brunette/ginger men and women with caberjack/crossbow/alchemist claws.

That's ultimately Massive Chalice's most unfortunate shortcoming. It’s a game with enough ambition and execution to spark the imagination, and enough organic entropy to let you suspend your disbelief about the families you help sire. But Massive Chalice extends you the invitation and then offers you a half-empty world in return. Massive Chalice's entropy speaks to me. The random chaos that one marriage can wreak over the decades is a mysterious well of excitement. But the flatness of its world and the tedium of several core elements of the Massive Chalice experience is a high price to pay.