Before you start reading, watch the video. It’s cool, trust me. Way better than an a bunch of words.

Okay now that you’ve watched the video you can change your pants (I assume you soiled you pants with excitement) and read the article. What you just saw was the Leap, a revolutionary new computer peripheral. It’s around the size of an Altoids tin and it plugs into your computer’s USB port. What it basically does is allow you to control your computer in 3D space, as apposed to using your mouse in 2D. Think of it this way: if the Kinect was a mouse trap, the Leap is a rat seeking robot. The Leap is so sensitive that by grabbing a pencil you can draw fine lines within a single square centimeter. Did you see when they showed gameplay? This seems like the first legitimate way to play FPS without a controller. Sure we had Blackwater but that was kind of… stupid.

I watched this video and I really felt like I was watching a scifi movie. This is the kind of stuff that we think of when we have fantasies about the future. As soon as the video started Minority Report popped into my head. Which is what makes me kind of weary of it. We all know things are never as good as the demo. Plus the fact that it only costs $70 is a little suspicious. I’d expect it to cost at least a couple hundred. I’m really excited about this but I’m prepared for a big let down. Engadget did do a video on it, but I’m going to keep my money in my wallet until it’s on shelves and there’s a consensus on how well it works. If it doesn’t work out I’ll just save my money for when the hoverboards come out in 2015. But if it does…

The Leap will be available in February 2013. You can pre-order it now for $70+shipping.

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In case you didn’t know, I’m a huge fan of zombies. That would be my preferred acopalypse and I have spent hours reading and watching anything zombie related. Unless it’s voodoo; voodoo is boring. I read yesterday that Hammerpoint Interactive is announcing they’re making The War Z, the first zombie MMO. Well, second if you remember that zombies love playing WoW.  The game takes places years after the initial outbreak. The game will cost $30 and there will be no subscription fee (like an MMO should be marketed). The game looks decent and I expect I’ll be one of the people buying it. But I’m not here to talk about The War Z. Let’s take a look at what a zombie MMO should be.

Zombies have had FPSes, open worlds and even casual games that still somehow give grandpa war flashbacks. But an MMO is a first. But these have all shown pretty narrow pictures about life after Z-Day. For the most part in these games, you don’t have to worry about food, clothes, weapons repair, sickness, or anything. It doesn’t really capture the part that supposed to make it a survival horror. I can’t tell you how many times Chuck Greene has had a chunk of his shoulder chomped off yet he is miraculously uninfected. It must be all the all-liquor diet I feed him. But if we were actually in a zombie apocalypse we would realize how hard it is to survive even without Zack stalking you. You get sick, your weapons need maintenance, you need to establish a source of clean water. A zombie MMO would need to integrate all of this and more. Instead of only picking up ammo and vodka you will need to see the value in every scrap of trash you find. A deck of cards can keep someone in your group from going insane due to boredom. You’ll have to use your imagination! It’s weird to say, but I want my zombie apocalypse to be more realistic.

If Shaun of the Dead were realistic then the British wouldn’t need to act to blend in with the zombies.

There was a really good article I read around a year back that gave a pretty good idea of what I’m talking about. The author was saying that Dead Rising 3 should be an open world zombie game with RTS elements. I wish I could find that article. Oh well.

What do you want in a zombie MMO? Leave a comment below.

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I was raised by TV. I watched it so much that I was slightly uncomfortable eating, reading and even sleeping without one on. To me, Toonami was Saturday night.  Years later I’m no longer memorizing broadcasting schedules and getting up at 5:00AM to watch anime. I can’t remember the last time I actually turned on the TV and watched scheduled programming. But this doesn’t mean that I’ve given up on TV.

It’s no secret that the internet has changed how we consume media. When Hulu came out, it was amazing to me. Finally a way to stream television shows that didn’t suck (I’m looking at you Nick.com). It soon got to the point that I will surf the web on my computer while a new episode of Subrgatory or The Simpsons is on and then watch it on Hulu a week later. If I want to see a show on cable like The Walking Dead or Young Justice… well there are places I can get them. The only time I go to my television is to get on my PS3.

Let’s not forget how much of a game changer Netflix has been. The small company snuck up on us and became the biggest threat to well, just about everyone competing for your couch time. I’m not only talking about TV and movies. Even my little brother would rather watch reruns of network TV shows for the 8th time than play a game most of the time. Not me though. Infamous 2 > How I Met Your Mother.

Even though it’s awesome that I can easily access every episode of Rocko’s Modern Life, I kind of miss the old days. For me, there was little more devastating as a child than missing the newest episode of one of my favorite shows, but then again I’m a sucker for nostalgia. Who else is genuinely sad that Blockbuster has one foot in the grave?

I’ll remember you every time I watch The Wizard of Oz.

I miss VHS, cassette tape Walkmans, big clunky TVs that would break your foot. Progress is good, but it’s sad too. Man, after writing this I really want to watch Be Kind Rewind.

What are your thoughts on this? Leave them in the comments.

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I wrote this guest post for TechSnafu.

I’ve always been weird when it comes to horror. Like all other humans I have the odd quirk of enjoying creepy things. I’ve watched movies (but they make me laugh), been to a haunted house (it really kills the mood when the actors keep screaming “HOW MANY IN YOUR GROUP”) and read creepypasta (not at all scary… until I want to sleep). But surprisingly, I’ve never really played a horror game until recently. A couple of my friends had been talking about them a lot lately and I figured that if a couple of girls could do it, then so can I… and hopefully not freak out like they did. So here are some of the finest free horror games the internet has to offer. Read the whole article.

I’m sure that one way or another you’ve heard of Anonymous, especially in the last couple of years. Anyone can be a part of Anonymous and anyone can claim it, although the majority of Anonymous is, as Urban Dictionary puts it:

A lot of people praise Anonymous for their DDOS attacks and leaking the information of police and corporation employees. But are they really doing any good? When MegaUpload went down, Anonymous thought that it seemed right that so should the sites of the CIA, MPAA, RIAA, and others. But what did that do, really? I’m sure that there were some people mildly annoyed, but that really doesn’t help Kim Dotcom. It’s like egging an old person’s house while they’re on vacation and then the rain washes it off in a few hours.

As for the information leaking, sometimes they do just get who deserves it, but sometimes they just indiscriminately release the data of anyone they can get their hands on. They have invaded the privacy of way more average citizens than murderers and sleazy executives. This may be useless to ask, but how would you like it if your phone number, address, social security number and more were released to the public all in the name of some faceless organization/individual’s vague concept of justice? How many decent people with families have been harassed or even had their identities stolen by some self-righteous internet troll?

Don’t get me wrong, I think that Anonymous does good things from time to time, but the bad and the useless outweigh it. Until they can use their resources for something with a little bit more substance, I think it’s an overall waste of time.

What’s your opinion on this? Leave a comment.

I wrote a guest post for TechSnafu about what improvements can be made to the Dragon Ball games.

I was thinking about how I should start this article, but then I remembered that I’m taking about Dragonball, the franchise that needs no introduction. I’m sure that you’ve owned at least one of the dozens of games that they’ve released over the years. My favorites were the ones in the Budokai Tenkaichi (Strongest Under the Heavens) series. They aren’t the best fighters around, but admittedly it’s really just for fans. It seems to me that the games make marginal progress for every new release, but I still want more. By pulling from the roots of the franchise and by taking care of the small details they can take the series to a new level. Read the whole article at TechSnafu.

Remember the Microsoft Kinect? No? See that fuzzy rectangle on top of your TV? Wipe off the dust; that’s the Kinect. I remember walking in target on Black Friday in 2010 and huge stacks of them everywhere. I still felt burned by the Wii, but I thought that the Kinect had some potential. Sure motion control is a gimmick, but it could be used to make some really good games. It was pretty naïve of me to think that this would actually happen. Instead of great triple-A games we got mostly shovelware. The hacker community was the only one making the best use out of it. Below are two examples of what I believe that the Kinect could and should have been.

Fight Night Kinect

I’m sure that for a lot of people, fighting games were the first thing to pop into mind when they thought of what games Kinect would had. When you think of fighting games like Street Fighter and Tekken, there’s a lot of kicking and jumping and flipping… which all fall into the category of “Actions That Will End Up Breaking Something Expensive”. But Fight Night is different. As it’s a boxing game, you occupy a small amount of space and most of the actions are ducking and punching. Combine this with the already existing fanbase and you have an excellent title to prove your peripheral’s worth.

Avatar Kinect

No, I’m not talking about James Cameron’s movie about the space cats. You know what I mean. This game would feature a new storyline in the Avatar universe, taking place neither in the time of The Last Airbender or the Legend of Korra. Maybe it will take place a few decades before Aang was born. You create your own character from any of the nations and learn to bend using the Kinect. This game would be an RPG, with all the features that makes an RPG a good one. With an original story and well-constructed combat mechanics it could be the game that Avatar fans deserve.

Fans of the show (or people who watched the video above) know that the bending styles mirror real life martial arts. This premise is still there even in Legend of Korra. If you pay attention you can see that Bolin’s probending style mimics boxing. The game will teach you distinct moves for each style. The less precise they are, the less effective they will be. If your form is sloppy your fireball could fizzle out before it reaches your opponent or maybe you’ll be pushed back when you try to move a boulder heavier than you.

Yeah I know this is only two games, but I’m just one guy. One guy who isn’t paid to do this mind you. But if your studio has a team of talented people with millions of dollars in funding, the least you can do is stop spewing out minigame collections.

4 programmers committed suicide in the making of this game. I hope you’re happy.

What games would you like to see use the Kinect?