Undead Astronauts

I just creamed my pants.

Ok, now I gotta get this game.

What a year for Evo and SSF4 2012. No Japanese player winning the entire tournament or even in the grand finals! No US players either. The two countries represented were Korea (Infiltration) and Taiwan (Gamerbee), and Infiltration’s Akuma was just too much for Gamerbee’s Adon. Infiltration was really too much for everyone at the tournament as he blew through his competition pretty much without breaking a sweat.

Here’s the top 16:

1. Infiltration, Akuma (Korea)
2. Gamerbee, Adon (Taiwan)
3. PR Balrog, Balrog (Puerto Rico)
4. Xiao Hai, Cammy (China)
5. Daigo, Ryu (Japan)
5. Human Bomb, Sakura (Hong Kong)
7. Dieminion, Guile (US)
7. Poongko, Seth (Korea)
9. Kindevu, Cammy (Japan)
9. Haitani, Makoto (Japan)
9. Fuudo, Fei Long (Japan)
9. Dogura, M. Bison (China)
13. iPeru, El Fuerte (Peru/US)
13. Kyabetsu, C. Viper (Japan)
13. Mike Ross, E. Honda (US)
13. Justin Wong, Rufus (US)

(more…)

Buy it on Amazon. This weekend only.

The military has picked up on the idea of using games to train top soldiers in keeping track of multiple moving objects. The system was already being used by top athletes to help them keep track of things moving on the playing field, and the military has picked up on it too. The game as it currently exists shows players 8 balls moving in 3D space and asks them to keep track of 4 of them while ignoring the others. There’s an evaluation session and further training is based on how well you tested in that session. The better players perform, the faster the balls move. There’s also a pvp mode and they plan to integrate physical conditioning into it too.

In addition to training, the military is going to use the game as a tool to see which soldiers need to work harder at brain training. I wonder if there’s a future where soldiers who have consistently poor performances will get cut from the program, just as if they had repeatedly failed physical tests. It would be interesting to see how progamers performed at the game. My guess is that SC2 players’ scores would be off the charts, but it’s also possible that top QB’s like Manning or Brady would naturally score well.

Imagine what could happen if this game became a widely available cognitive evaluation tool. Kids could get tested at a young age and adjust their sports/gaming expectations accordingly. As an athlete, if you’re terrible but physically fast, run track. If you’re decent and fast, play runningback. If you’re amazing and fast, you’re Cam Newton. If you’re a gamer and terrible, stick to Farmville or the Sims.

The EU Commission put this commercial out featuring “street fighters” from China, India and Brazil that threaten and surround a white woman in Kill Bill garb (once upon a time known as Bruce Lee garb but no more). She then pulls out her Shadow Clone Jutsu and surrounds them instead. Then the group decides to sit down and have tea or crumpets or whatever it is you do in the EU. Try as I might, it’s difficult to escape the racial imagery and implications here but I suppose that’s what the creators were going for. I would say they succeeded in their effort. I mean, what European youth wouldn’t get all nationalistic seeing a single white girl take down 3 of the BRIC nations that threaten their way of life? Oh, but they left out the “R” in BRIC. I suppose the EU didn’t particularly want the Russians thinking they were anti-Russian. They just didn’t feel the same about the rest apparently.

(First seen here)