botnugget.com/2014/04/24/gaming-news-5/ For a while I was thinking, "Why not just use a controller?" Then I realised, that you can take the same controller and get it to control a number of other products as well. A wireless bluetooth keyboard and mouse for example, could be used to control a tablet or games console. I'll just put my old school controller to one side for now, and see how the future of controllers evolves over time. Until then, I'm just going to sit back and watch the best controller in the world become less and less important over time. Sunday, April 14, 2013 My good friend, David, who is in the navy, is currently on board the USS Shiloh aircraft carrier. The USS Shiloh is stationed in the Indian Ocean near the island of Oman, as part of the US 6th Fleet. Yesterday, the Shiloh launched its latest jet aircraft, the A-10 Thunderbolt II attack aircraft. As you might expect, such a mission is not without risk. According to David, the Shiloh launched the A-10s to help evacuate American civilians and other US citizens from the besieged city of Homs in Syria. Homs is at the centre of a fierce battle between Syrian rebel forces and President Bashar Al Assad's army. There are currently thought to be around 100,000 Syrian refugees fleeing the violence in Homs and coming to Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan. If they get their way, Homs will be the second city to be liberated from the regime of President Al Assad, following the capture of Deir ez-Zor by the Free Syrian Army earlier this week. The Free Syrian Army have been fighting for over two years against the brutal regime of President Al Assad and his soldiers. The Syrian Civil War has cost thousands of lives, with most civilian casualties occurring due to brutal government attacks on rebel positions and civilians. With the help of the Syrian refugees fleeing the fighting, the Shiloh's jets were able to help rescue a number of people trapped by the regime's shelling. According to David, they spent a total of 30 minutes firing on Assad's army. The success of the A-10s comes just weeks after the F-15E fighter jets belonging to the US Navy's fleet in Japan (which is stationed off the coast of Honshu in the North Pacific Ocean) helped rescue over a thousand stranded people from the Philippines when Super Typhoon Haiyan smashed through the Philippines. According to the National Geographic website, American planes flying missions from Japan also assisted relief efforts in Haiti and Nepal after major natural disasters struck those countries earlier this year. The USS Shiloh is the sixth US aircraft carrier in service, and is one of the most experienced ships in the US fleet. The Shiloh has seen active service in the Persian Gulf, off the coast of Iraq during the Iraq War, in the Pacific and in the Mediterranean. According to David, the men and women who man the Shiloh's weapons are veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. They know how to win wars. They know how to make the right decision when one gets put before them. Yesterday they flew into harm's way, to save a new generation of Americans. Monday, March 26, 2012 In the world of gaming, "free-to-play" games are huge right now. Titles such as League of Legends, Call of Duty Online, Team Fortress 2, Guild Wars, and Battlefield Play4Free are all going gangbusters online. All of them have one thing in common - free-to-play. That's right. These games don't cost you anything to play, other than time. What exactly are "free-to-play" games? Well, traditionally if a game costs money to download and purchase, it's called a paid game. For example, League of Legends and Call of Duty Online are called "Free-to-play" because you can play for free, by just downloading a client and logging in. If you want to buy an item in League of Legends, such as a new "skin", or any of the hundreds of other items available, that's where the microtransaction part of the game kicks in. That's where you have to pay for those items. What happens when you make games free? You sell more stuff. That's right. Making games free means that you're getting more players, and can sell more stuff to them. Why? Well, you can have people play your game for free. Most people will give it a try, and some will stick with the game after. That's where you've got them. If you take them for a ride, they might come back for more in the future. By putting ads in your game, you can show them ads while they're playing, and they will look at those, hopefully making you money. It's a bit of a give-and-take situation. If people don't like your game, then they probably won't buy anything. Even if they love your game, they'll buy less if they find themselves looking at a lot of adverts. Free-to-play is huge right now, but I think that it's only the start of a huge change in the way that games are sold and played. It's a huge change in the way that game companies, such as Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: EA), Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ: ATVI), Zynga (NASDAQ: ZNGA), Take-Two (NASDAQ: TTWO) make their money. I'm not saying that EA are evil, or that Activision Blizzard are evil. They aren't. I'm saying that if you want a big return on your money, then you should look into free-to-play games. It's the wave of the future, and you need to be ready for the change that's coming your way. Wednesday, March 21, 2012 So, to celebrate the launch of the new Playstation 3 (PS3) we took our gaming community out for a few beers. As you can see from the picture above, there was a huge party going on, with tons of people coming together for drinks, laughter, and games. What I didn't show you in the picture was the hundreds of game boxes laid out on the floor in front of us. These games included Call of Duty: Black Ops II, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. These are the games that made PS3 the most popular console of the last generation. Now there's a new generation of games coming to PS3. These are the games that will keep the PS3 on top of the gaming industry. Let's take a look at these games. Call of Duty: Black Ops II is the sequel to the World's First First Person Shooter (FPS). It's a full price, first person shooter (FPS) game, and it's not your typical FPS. It's got a great story. A good story is a must when you're discussing a game that will be played by millions. When it comes to being good, or bad, in a game that's out to sell millions of copies, a good story is the way to go. In a game that is meant to sell millions of copies, you can't afford to let one player get the drop on another player, can you? Well, no you can't. Instead, you kill him right off the bat, before he even gets his legs under him, and leaves him to die. It's the same with Call of Duty: Black Ops II. It's got a great story, and a story that will bring in all sorts of players. This year will see the release of Call of Duty: Black Ops II. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is not about the history of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, this is about a new war that is happening in a warzone in the Middle East. This year there will be a new Call of Duty game that will come out, but it's not about to change the focus of Call of Duty. It's the same formula as before. It's just a matter of whether the game will sell out in a few weeks, or last until Christmas and the new year. Battlefield 3 was a very popular game from 2011, although there have been complaints of it being a little boring. As a result, this game, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, was based on the same ideas that Battlefield 3 had, but they made it more exciting. However, this year the game will need to be exciting as ever, as Battlefield: Bad Company 2 had a good story, and sold millions of copies. It was the kind of game that kept you coming back for more, even though it was hard to get enough of the game to last through to the end of it. The good news is that it's not as difficult to find, or to download, as Call of Duty. Battlefield: Bad Company 2, this year's big game for the Xbox 360, will come with its own game title as well. Last, but not least, are the lastest Call of Duty games that will hit Xbox 360 and PS3 later in the year. These are games that will make your friends go mad! As you've probably heard