Afghanistan through an iphone

There was a time when correspondents in particular combat photographers and invstigative journalists had to navigate the daily perils of working in a combat zone while trying to keep their cameras out of harms way as much as themselves. lugging around bulky cameras and fumbling around trying to change a roll of film in the middle of a firefight doesn't go without its problems as no doubt professionals like Tim Paige experienced during Vietnam.
Nowdays of course the emergegence of digital technology  has provided photojournalists and correspondents with the tools to even capture images and record current events with an application on a phone.
With so many camera apps available for the i-Phone only one has really stood out as a gem, the Hipstamatic app that  allows the user to shoot square photographs, to which it applies a number of software filters in order to make the images look as though they were taken with an antique film camera. One such photographer, Balazs Gardi covered the war Afghanistan when he was embedded with US Marines from 1/8 Battalion in Helmand in Sept 2010 using his i-phone and Hipstamatic app to stunning effect in Foreign Policy's web article which you can see here.

EA invokes first amendment for Battlefield 3

Electronic Arts has filed a preemptive lawsuit against aircraft manufacturer Textron, hoping to invoke First Amendment laws and justify the use of real-life helicopters in Battlefield 3.
Three helicopters appear in the game -- the AH-1Z Viper, UH-1Y, and V-22 Osprey -- none of which were licensed by Textron's subsidiary Bell. EA was previously involved in talks with Textron to reach a resolution over the use of the US helicopters, but those talks broke down. EA feels it shouldn't have to seek a license to use the likenesses of the vehicles, citing fair use.
Electronic Arts hopes to exploit last year's official ruling that videogames were protected by free speech laws. It has succeeded in the past, getting away with using college football players likenesses without permission. EA asserts that the appearance of the vehicles do not constitute an endorsement by the maker, and that the helicopters are given no greater prominence than any other in-game vehicle, appearing simply for realism's sake.

I'd hate to see the loss of the Viper, especially since I've just unlocked the guided missile perk which took me an absolute age to get but I think other than some subtle design changes in a patch I don't think there's much panic that the choppers will be yanked from the game. I remember when JVC had started to develop the first of their PS2 catalogue with a follow up to Wingover, a military flight sim. The game featured aircraft such as the Boeing 747 and from countless other manufacturers including Lockheed Martin, two years of development down the line the Japanese publisher stopped all development because it hadn't acquired the licenses to use the aircraft and feared a lawsuit. That was back in 1999.

What's interesting is that not all game developers and publishers acquire licenses for things likes weapons and vehicles and in most cases try to find a workaround by changing the design enough that legally a patent lawsuit couldn't touch.Other industries have been affected such as the Airsoft and paintball industry which has felt the lawcourts breathing down their necks especially in the US where patents and trademarks are agressively protected. As late as June 2009 H&K (Heckler & Koch, German weapon manufacturer famous for the SAS Favourite the MP5 took B&T Paintball Designs and Tippmann Sports two of several Airsoft and Paintball distributors to court for copyright infringment on weapon designs.Magpul, another manufacturer also filed a lawsuit against an Airsoft company using its Masada assault rifle design.

In the videogame industry larger more established dev teams benefit from licensing and legal departments to iron out any possible infringment but it remains one of those problematic areas which could probably do with a lot more guidance and accessible information to help entertainment companies and creative professionals stay within the guidelines. How closely EA works with the military isn't known but these are issues that Activision has managed to avoid primarily because its covered all the neccessary issues with regards to depicting real world designs in its Call of Duty franchise.
Until someone can actively represent developers and entertainment companies and guide them through the licensing and legal processes of using military designs this won't be the last time we hear this sort of news.

Theme Park Greed doesn't add up

Many many moons ago, probably more than I'd like to admit Electronic Arts released Theme Park on PC. A fantastic blue box that screamed fun just from the packaging alone. Sure enough it was a good game too allowing you to build and manage your very own theme park, it was micromanagement personified right down to the smallest of details, for example; adding more salt to the fast food made visitors more thirsty so you could push the price up on soft drinks to fleece the suckers waiting in line and increase revenue.
Graphically the game was cartoon cute, bright colours, some great detail and visually the title really popped once you'd got a pretty good park set up. At the time I think it retailed for around £24.99, I shifted an incredible amount at £19.99. Fast forward a good few years, again, probably more than I'd like to admit and EA have revived the title for iOS as a freemium title.

But unfortunately according to a couple of other blogs I've read that's where the fun stops. You see apparently EA has provided the title free to play with in-game monetization and many of the game's attractions are locked based on your level, leveling up is a fairly slow process achieved by tapping on existing attractions to earn a few experience points.You can also complete missions to earn extra experience points, this helps you to level up faster, but is nothing more than a long drawn out chore which ultimately gives you a set of rides which unless you build duplicates to just to fill things out your park is going to look very dull, unless of course you're willing to shell out Tickets to upgrade. As you progress you unlock other large areas in your theme park and each area can be themed according to your choice with a selection including Knights vs. Cowboys and Pirates. However, the process of filling each area in your park is ultimately a painfully slow one, primarily due to the frustrating level-locked items and the fact that the rest of the must have items cost Tickets, or premium currency, to purchase. For instance, a Skull-Train roller coaster costs the equivalent of more than $60 to purchase.

$60!!!???, hang on a minute, so let me get this straight, EA have decided in its wisdom to charge $60 for one 'cool' ride as an in-game purchase when I may as well click on over to Amazon and buy the full original PC version for less than $5 packed with all the rides and cool stuff for a much more rewarding experience. Its these kind of decisions by the suits that tarnish brands.
Everyone knows that games cost money to develop but have EA seriously sat down at the board room table and worked it out that to generate a break even they have to set the in-game pricing  for one item at 12 times the price of the original game? Games should be fun to play, they are after all a form of entertainment, they should also reward the player for the skill and time they invest. Monetization of products with in-app purchases should be transparent so that the end user knows what they are getting in to. Everyone loves free to play but players know when they are being taken for a ride, even a Theme Park one.

You're going to need a bigger boat

If you're going to catch the big fish you're going to need to be on equal terms, if you can't get a bigger boat stay the fuck out of the water.
If only Electronic Arts had heeded that advice when they launched the damp squib that was Need for Speed The Run. A game that failed to chart in the top ten despite the bucket loads of marketing push with TV and online media buy and as for that TV trailer - in all honesty did a Michael Bay directed  trailer really add value to consumers perceptions that the product would be good? The reviews haven't been kind either,critics have slated the title as too heavy on the story with not enough for gamers to get their teeth into.Official Xbox Magazine who scored it a big fat 5 out of 10 summed it up with the following summary -  "As it stands, we've rarely been so bored when travelling at 150 miles per hour, less inspired by a police chase or less interested in the plot of a videogame." Full review here.
I absolutely loved Hot Pursuit when it launched last year and the trailers, viral and social aspects of the marketing really propelled the title despite the fact it halved in retail price only 6 weeks after launch to devalue all that hard work somewhat.

But herein lies the problem at this time of year, EA glossed up and shoved NFSTR out to capitalize on the seasonal trade, problem is diluting a brand and trying to move what is essentiually car lovers porn into a totally new story driven direction (and one that only really had a lukewarm reception at E3 earlier in the year) was a warning sign for EA to hold the title back until Feb when retail would have been far more receptive to it. Instead it went up against the man eaters that was Skyrim, MW3, Battlefield 3 and FIFA, two of those products were from its own stable but yet all vying for market share from the same consumer. The investors would have pushed for the Christmas launch as essential, the producer probably would have liked more time for some much needed polish and no doubt the PR guys were scratching their heads trying to gain pagination in a market dominated by truly deserving games with tons more quality at even half the price.
EA need to realise that trying to combine a Mirrors Edge inspired chase story /design /bunch of bollocks to a pure driving experience that has been the mainstay of Need For Speed is only going to tarnish the brand not innovate it.

Art of Assassination

For me its not just the end product that excites me about most forms of visual entertainment, be that film or videogame but rather the processes and artistic talents that go into creating those experiences we enjoy. As much as I have enjoyed the amazing artistic talents of Jim Lee's series of comics I've collected since I was a spotty teenager I got a bigger kick out of seeing how he put the likes of Batman,Superman and Deathblow onto paper in his awesome coffee table book Icons.
At Midway I was extremely fortunate to have worked with some amazing digital artists who literally brought games to life with some truly astounding design work for titles Like Stranglehold, Mortal Kombat, Wheelman as well as other projects that never saw the light of day such as Criminal, Paladin,Hero and This is Vegas which was being developed by Surreal studios over in Seattle led by Alan Patmore.
If you love the design aspect that goes into games design and the art creation and you've checked out Parka blogs regular artbook reviews then you'll be a fool to miss the work of Gilles Beloeil  who worked on Assassins Creed, check out his personal website found here. 

Activision triples profit with digital

Providing more evidence that boxed product days are numbered and that a healthy online digital business model is the way to go Call of Duty and World of Warcraft publisher Activision has reported a near tripling of profits for the quarter ending September 30^th.
Total profit came in at $148m – that’s up on the $51m reported in the same period in 2010.

Read the full story here at MCV.http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/activision-profits-triple-as-digital-surpasses-boxed/087228

Is Buying a CityVille Guide for Facebooks biggest game worth It?

71 Million AMU (Average Monthly Users) is pretty hard to ignore, I never did quite get the Mafia Wars bug despite the endless requests flowing in to my Facebook page as more and more updates from friends "needing help on a job", probably just as well really since 40 million players abandoned it in little over a year.I am however fully engrossed with Cityville because it was closest to one of my absolute favourite games Sim City and at 41 years of age I realised I hadn't actually dabbled in the whole social gaming thing (which for someone who works in videogames is pretty tragic). Needless to say Cityville does borrow some gameplay structure from Sim City or is at least inspired by it, however, its economy system is a lot tougher to navigate than I expected.When CityVille guides began popping up I was pretty sceptical about the whole thing. I had never actually played the game myself but I was a huge fan of Populous on the Mega Drive all those centuries ago and my days that turned into weeks that turned into months on Sim City gave me some god like experience,I figured that there couldn't be all that much to it anyway. How much strategy could really go into building a virtual city anyway,especially on Facebook? When I saw all the hype about CityVille and the fact that there were these guides I figured there must be something to CityVille after all, and like I say 71 million players can't all be wrong...can they?
CityVille turned out to be much more complex and enjoyable than I had figured it would be, visually its colourful and eye catching which for me is important if I'm going to invest large quantities of time looking at pretty much the same things for hours on end. There are so many options, buildings, crops, businesses and additions that you have so many decisions to make, and like Sim City every decision has a knock on effect somewhere in the chain. The more I got into playing CityVille the more I realized that the strategies involved were much more complex than I had expected. I did not want to spend all my time using trial and error to get the best possible city. I wanted someone to do all that for me so I went out and bought a guide.
The guide I ended up buying is called CityVille Secrets. I'd heard some pretty good things about it after doing some digging about and it seemed like the most logical choice. CityVille Secrets is relatively new and they update it constantly so it contains the latest additions to the game and will add new updates as CityVille adds new features. I wasn't expecting too much from this guide as I have bought game guides in the past which have been pretty average. CityVille Secrets however, completely blew me away! primarily because it contains so much detailed information, secrets and strategies when CityVille as a Social network game is still fairly new.
I used the guide to see if what it preached would actually work, either that or I'd thrown the best part of the price of a Friday night takeaway down the drain, I dabbled at first but then started implementing the CityVille secrets, tips, and strategies and was pretty impressed with the results because I went from a level 13 to a level 35 in only a week of relatively little gameplay (2 hour stints). There is a lot more going on in CityVille than meets the eye and if you don't do things properly you could be missing out on countless coins and experience while playing more than you need too. If you are interested in getting the most out of your CityVille experience then I highly recommend picking up a copy of CityVille Secrets today.