Homefront: Thanks for playing our demo

Spoiler warning: Plot spoilers for Homefront. All four hours of it. Though I would love to expect a higher level of emotional engagement with my video games, when it comes to military-style first-person shooters, I don’t ask for much—probably because they almost always fail to deliver. You run through a bunch of corridors, shoot a bunch of dudes, pick up some new guns with one of seventeen different scopes, hit a slow-motion sequence, feel like a bad-ass. I’ve just distilled the essence of every modern Call of Duty game into…

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Child of Eden preview

Our time spent with Child Of Eden was similarly engrossing, and even surpasses its predecessor in many ways. While the ‘inside the network’ storyline continues, visually the game is more lush, replacing many of the vector outlines with vibrant colours. The blending of audio and video carries over from Rez, and playing it on Kinect brings even more to the game.

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Windows Phone 7 Day to Day

Just a week or two before the launch of Windows Phone 7, my old phone did a nosedive onto a tiled floor. Not just a drop mind you, but a slow motion flung through the air and land screen first about 10 feet away from me drop. Though I had to cover the screen with cellophane to avoid dislodging glass shards, it wasn’t a permanent solution. That’s when I decided to give Windows Phone 7 a try…

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Telus bringing Motorola XOOM to Canada

Motorola announced today that the XOOM tablet, running Android 3.0 Honeycomb, will be coming to Telus in April. There’s no official date at this time, but Futureshop’s website suggests that it should arrive mid-April. Although there are both 3G and WiFi only variants of the 10.1″ tablet, Telus will initially only be offering the WiFi model, which they’re recommending be paired with one of their mobile hotspot ‘Flex Plans’ to give users on the go connectivity. It will be available at Telus stores and other electronic retailers with no contract starting at $599.99.

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Saturday Morning Science 007

When the god Kashima is distracted, the cowardly Namazu sees a opportunity for mischief. This giant catfish, a monster, a yo-kai, was imprisoned underground and his subterranean thrashing about is the source of earthquakes. How this is interpreted is a matter of history. At first Namasu was a replacement for the more traditional, Chinese inspired dragons. He was a resentful godling, peeved at the low regard that humans held for him (catfish is an unpopular food choice with the Japanese ) and only too willing exert himself to remind humanity…

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Acer Liquid mt (Metal) on Rogers review

Over the past couple of years, Android has managed to not only grow, but thrive. Google’s phone OS is now the best selling smartphone OS in the US, and shows no signs of slowing down. With this growth, it’s not surprising that manufacturers of all stripes are trying to establish a name in the smartphone market, as the category shows nothing but growth for the foreseeable future. This is where Acer comes in.

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Computing Science 

Saturday Morning Science 006

Life is What You Make It-2.0 Usually this column gets constructed out of items which are “trending” and usually they cluster around a given discipline or problem that makes for interesting connections. This week  we’re looking at current items about biology. There is no overarching “big theme” or theory. Biology is much like its subject matter; diffusive and continually coming up with novelty and variety. 3D Organ Printing– The “Gee Wiz”  knob on this one is hard cranked to eleven. Is it any surprise that I’m going to link you…

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Hi-Rez Studios announce Tribes: Ascend for PC and 360

Anyone who’s been playing multiplayer FPS games for over a decade will probably remember with some fondness both Starseige: Tribes and its sequel Tribes 2, the latter of which was released a decade ago. The series introduced players to a number of new elements in competitive multiplayer, from vertical combat using jet packs, and large sprawling maps that could accommodate teams of up to 16 players. Hi-Rez Studios, which purchased the Tribes franchise last fall, announced at PAX East that they’ll be bringing Tribes: Ascend to the PC and Xbox 360,…

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Killzone 3 review: Another Take

The instant I triggered Killzone 3’s ending cinematic I literally said “Thank ****ing GAWD” out loud. Killzone 3 is like an abusive loved one with deep-seeded issues. There are those moments where you’re having fun with them, moments where you feel sorry for them, and then moments where they make you so angry that you just want to hit them over the head with a baseball bat.

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The Great Canadian Appathon runs this weekend

This weekend marks the Great Canadian Appathon, a competition to code a mobile game from scratch to completion in 48 hours.  XMG Studio and The National Post are sponsoring the mobile game coding marathon, which starts at 5pm on Friday March 11th.  The competition is open to university and college students, working either solo or in teams of up to four people, with the goal to make the best Windows Phone 7 game possible from scratch. Teams will meet up at one of six different locations across the country to start the marathon coding…

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