Filed under: Reviews

Operation Creature Feature is a game made specifically for the Eye. If you don’t have the camera peripheral, read no further — this game won’t work for you. However, those that do have Eye will find that this experiment in video gaming an interesting diversion. Those that have $5 in spare change lying around won’t do too poorly with this purchase. However, once the initial novelty disappears, the appeal of Operation Creature Feature quickly diminishes.

The goal of Operation Creature Feature is to carry innocent Blurbs, trapped inside a trap-riddled mine, to safety. In order to do so, you’ll move your hands (and the rest of your body) to carry these critters to a goal in each level. There’s a time limit, and death traps aplenty … so players best be careful!

You won’t be just using your hands. Because the game detects motion, players will find the Blurbs being dragged around by their shoulders, their necks, their feet. Instinctively, one will try to use their hands, but the camera will detect other parts of your body moving and move any Blurbs that get in the way. This can be frustrating at times, as players must learn how to keep their body still in order to attempt proper movement of the Blurbs.

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It can be frustrating at times, especially in the later levels, to carefully move the Blurbs through such confined maps. Players will frequently find that the Blurbs just don’t move in the players’ intended path. Later levels require precision and timing — something the controls inherently can’t provide.

Regardless of the intrinsic flaws of the game, it’s still amusing nonetheless to move your body in ridiculous ways in your attempt to save the Blurbs. For a nice twist on the game, bring a friend in front of the Eye. Heck, bring two or three friends. Each player can try to cover a portion of the screen and assist each other in the quest to get as many creatures to the goal. Here’s a hint, however: make sure you stay still to “disappear.” After passing a Blurb to another player, stay still and you won’t be able to interfere with their actions.

Playing in a group will undoubtedly bring a lot of joy and laughter, but it will be short lived. There are only a handful of themed levels in each of the five worlds. The game can easily be completed in less than an hour. Once it’s said and done, there’s very little incentive to go back … unless you find other hapless victims to play the game with. All in all, Operation Creature Feature may not have great controls, nor depth. Regardless, its novelty certainly makes it a game that every Eye owner should try at least once, and fans of alcohol may find it to be quite a pleasant drinking game.

PS3 Fanboy score: 5.0

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Filed under: Audio/Video, Computers, Celebrities, MySpace, Google

The upcoming Michel Gondry-directed Jack Black vehicle ‘Be Kind Rewind’ is set to hit theaters on January 25th, which means it’s promotion time. In the film, Mos Def and Jack Black are forced to re-film or ‘swede‘ a pile of films after a magnetized Jack Black accidentally erases every video in the rental shop.

So in keeping with the film’s premise, the web site for the motion picture erases the Internet. Then, in a rather cutesy fashion, the site presents you with several ’sweded’ versions of popular web pages to use, including Google, Wikipedia, a social networking site called MyFace, and Flickr, among others.

Check out the site for some interesting web fun. Even if it all just amounts to an interactive advertisement, at least the movie looks cool.

From Valleywag

Related links:

• John Mayer Googles Himself, Doesn’t Like What He Sees
• William Shatner and Mr. T Team Up for World of Warcraft
• William Shatner to Appear In Next ‘Star Trek’ Movie

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If you haven’t taken advantage of the fact that Patrick Lenz’s introductory Ruby On Rails book is available as a FREE PDF, then you better act quickly as there are only three days left!

There’s plenty happening in the world of Rails development, and even before this giveaway I was of the firm belief that this book is the best and easiest way to get up to speed on the Ruby On Rails framework. Plenty of other books assume that you are an experienced web developer who is already writing unit tests and adhering to best practice MVC principles in some other programming language.

Not in this book. Patrick holds your hand through the basics and sets you up with an example application that, once complete, will give you a solid foundation from which you can further your Ruby and Rails skills.

Did I mention there are only three days to go? Seriously, go get it now. Even if you file it away for later.

This article provided by sitepoint.com.

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Filed under: Action, Comedy, Drama, Foreign Language, Thrillers, Box Office, Cinematical Indie

Riding a wave of near-unanimous praise, Andrew Wagner’s Starting Out in the Evening began its box office sojourn at the top, earning an estimated $11,610 per screen at seven theaters, according to Leonard Klady at Movie City News. Wagner previously made the fascinating dysfunctional family comedy drama The Talent Given Us, which starred his own family, but this time performances by non-family members Frank Langella and Lauren Ambrose have been roundly acclaimed. (Check out reviews by Cinematical’s James Rocchi and Ryan Stewart.)

Todd Haynes’ I’m Not There has received some ecstatic critical response, which translated into “encouraging but less than superlative response,” in the words of Mr. Klady. By the numbers, the film made an estimated $5,310 per screen at 130 engagements, which actually sounds pretty good for an unconventional film that even the critics have had difficulty getting a handle on. (Read more: Cinematical reviews by James Rocchi and Jeffrey M. Anderson.)

The third new specialty release, Izuru Narushima’s Midnight Eagle, barely opened, earning an estimated $1,630 per screen at two theaters. The action thriller also opened the Tokyo Film Festival but is probably most notable because it’s the first time in memory that a Japanese film has opened day and date in Japan and the United States. Sadly, it was slaughtered by the few US critics who saw it, as recorded at Rotten Tomatoes.

Margot at the Wedding expanded from two to 35 theaters and continued to perform well, raking in $11,200 per screen, while No Country for Old Men jumped out into 860 theaters and made an estimated $9,000 per engagement. Mr. Klady pointed to three holdovers: Sean Penn’s Into the Wild ($1,920 per screen), Alejandro Monteverde’s Bella ($1,970 per screen) and Sidney Lumet’s Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead ($3,190).

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Filed under: Cellphones

Finally, your greatest and weirdest dream can be realized. Besides being able to check your Facebook account, email your girlfriend, call your Mom on the holidays, or play a Java version of Golden Axe, you can take a college class via your mobile phone. The questionably named Cyber University in Japan has begun offering a mobile class on the “mysteries of the pyramids,” but instead of a typical PC’s display of text, images, sound, and video, the mobile version offers a streaming Power Point presentation on the topic. The university — 71-percent of which is owned by Softbank, a mobile service provider — has 1,850 students, and offers almost 100 courses, though only one is available for phones. Sakuji Yoshimura, head of Cyber University, says that the technology will allow those with jobs or who have disabilities greater access to education. “Our duty as educators is to respond to the needs of people who want to learn,” he said — then went on to add, “Even if the course is interrupted by an SMS.”

Update: Did we say Golden Axe? Because we meant Wonder Boy. Whoops.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

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Filed under: Breakfast, Holidays

I had to get this post up early in the morning, since French Toast is something you’ll probably want to eat for breakfast. Though I guess it could be a brunch meal too. Oh, who am I kidding. We’ve all eaten cold pizza for breakfast before and cereal for dinner, so meals are all screwed up nowadays.

Here’s a basic French Toast recipe, and here’s one for Cinnamon French Toast. How about some Bourbon Ball French Toast (at least I think it’s French Toast - hard to see it under all the whipped cream and strawberries)? When I worked at a breakfast place years ago we made it with Anadama Bread.

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Hibino Corp. has introduced its LumixxLine rope-type LED display which can be attached to curved surfaces such as a cylinder, and it will be up for sale from tomorrow onwards. Multiple LumixxLines will be able to form a screen, where you align 3-in-1 LEDs that contain red (R), green (G) and blue (B) LED chips in one package at intervals of 35 or 70mm side-by-side like floor boards. A single line comprises of 96 LEDs (pixels) and one control unit can manage 16 lines. Since a maximum of 9 control units can be used in combination through cascade connection, theoretically a screen can render images using a maximum 144 lines, which is a resolution of 96 x 144. This unique LED display makes it possible to show video at traditionally difficult locations for existing flat LED displays, so this probably means we will soon be flooded with even more advertisements in the most unexpected of places should the LumixxLine LED display take off. Corporations ought to be warned of the price though - a 20m square screen with the 35mm-pitch model will set corporate coffers back by a whopping $300,000.

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Filed under: News

Whether you want to act like you’re in the armed services or are looking for a new use for those pairs of infrared, night-vision, or thermal goggles lying around the house, why not take images of the PS3 using them? Polygamia did, claiming the thermal images are proof positive that keeping your PS3 in the horizontal position keeps the console cooler.

From the images, it seems accurate that the horizontal position is really the way to go. Anyone else got some dirty jokes in their minds? Keep them to yourselves — this is totally professional talk here. Having these images is a bit better than conjecture and debate, so if you’ve got the space and want to prolong your system’s life, do the right thing and lay that fine creature down instead of forcing it to stand. Oops, we did it anyway.

[Via PlayStation Forums]

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It seems that reality trumps classic science fiction as new research takes the bionic arms of the Six Million Dollar Man from fantasy to feasibility. Scientists from the United States have developed an artificial hand and a groundbreaking surgical technique that work in tandem and promise to restore the sense of touch to amputees.

According to the Daily Mail, two patients have successfully undergone a surgical procedure that links the advanced prosthetic to the absent limb’s nerves and reroutes the nerves to the upper torso, where they grow toward the skin surface. While the redirected nerves make the patients feel sensations from their “hands” on their chest, researchers suggest that the technique may be manipulated to offer amputees the hope of replacing lost appendages with artificial arms that simulate feelings of pressure and pain.

The patients, Claudia Mitchell, an ex-US Marine, and Jesse Sullivan, now wear the most advanced prostheses in the world after the surgery conducted by the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago’s Dr. Todd Kuiken. The surgical technique, dubbed targeted reinnervation (TR), promises to revolutionize the treatment options for amputees. Researchers hope that within a few years such prosthetic limbs may be available on a wide scale.

Equally important to the prospect of returning sensation to patients is that the treatment returns limb mobility as well. Indeed, scientists envision bionic arms available to all amputees that not only transmit sensory impressions to their wearers, but whose movement is controlled by their owner’s thoughts. Ms. Mitchell is the first beneficiary of such a vision, boasting that she not only feels pain and pressure from her new arm (on her chest), but that she can peel a banana and cut steak too. The movement is made possible by the redirected nerves near the skin surface that send electrical signals to sensors on her chest and are picked up by the artificial appendage.

Curious? Read more about the prosthetic hand’s amazing mobility in the medical journal The Lancet, or find more info about the surgery’s potential to restore sensation in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. What’s noteworthy about this latest news is that while there are a number of bionic hands now available or in development, none of them operate using real nerves that produce the most authentic sensations. Clearly, scientists aren’t waiting on Arnold Schwarzenegger to leave his severed robotic arm from the future laying around for them to develop cyborg technology like they did in the ‘Terminator.’ It’s already here.

From the Daily Mail

Related Links:

• One Step Closer to the Bionic Man
• “Robo-Moth” Gives Hope to Amputees
• “Third Ear” Implanted into Artist’s Arm

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