Following up with our regular version of Trine 2's Prettiest Locations, we now offer you our 3D Vision variation! Note that you need to have Nvidia's 3D Vision kit (which we reviewed here) in order to view these screenshots properly.

As we've stated before: this is the most impressive game we've seen in 3D Vision to-date, and the original Trine was a major showcase element for 3D Vision's initial launch, so it's no surprise.

Images embedded from Nvidia's 3D Vision Live site, enjoy!

The following is what will be an ongoing journal from my character's perspective from my journeys in Skyrim; I have elected to play the game in what I've dubbed 'hardcore mode,' with the following restrictions:

• No fast traveling allowed.
• If I die, I make a new character (this forces me to play VERY carefully).
• No leveling up unless within a town.
• I will not use my map.
• I will stay in first-person (unless to admire myself).

In this week's journal, our hero is attacked by a nomadic group of bandits crossing the plains, and nearing death's end, he has an unexpected savior (and a very, very large one at that). This log will be updated every Saturday.

Go for the eyes, Boo!

Video Game Tester. The job title alone conjures up images in most people of the perfect job where people sit in a room (that looks just like their living room), eating junk food, and bad-mouthing people over Xbox LIVE all day (alternatively, the facebook ads would lead you to believe that all game testers are twenty-something females). In reality that's the life of someone who actually does play video games all day which, despite what people may say to me when I tell them what I do for a living, is not the life of an actual video game tester. What it really entails is hours and hours of loading, playing (often for a very short amount of time, depending how far along the development cycle the game you're testing is) and crashing, loading the game up again and trying to reproduce the bug so that a series of concise steps and a general bug report can be written.

A coursemate recently pointed me in the direction of an article on GamesIndustry.biz which reported that smartphone and tablet gaming now secured 8% of the US Games market. The abstract read: "The traditional home console business is quickly losing revenue share to the smartphone market."

At this, my face screwed up. For revenue share to be lost, the two must be comparison goods: the purchase of one directly reduces consumption of the other. Is this true? Are people NOT buying console/PC games because they’ve got Angry Birds? I’m not convinced. One could argue smartphone games are a gateway drug drawing in new gamers to console games, particularly casual-focused consoles like Wii and (3)DS. This would in fact make them complimentary goods, where the growth of one would positively, not negatively, impact the growth of the other. Mobile games might represent a widening of the gaming market, rather than a new rival muscling out console and PC gaming. Read more...

"SHOOT THE GENERATOR TO DISABLE THE MANTIS!" Gee, thanks for telling me, Red Faction. You know -- in the old days, like the Contra days, you had to replay a level multiple times to figure out exactly what to do. It wasn't easy, and often resulted in limitless fits of rage, but inevitably ended with the most glorious victory ever felt by gamer-kind.

All of the modern hand-holding restricts a player's natural ability to connect the dots between -- oh, gee, I dunno -- a massive generator with glowy lights hanging from the ceiling and the big enemy under it without the whole "Hey, shoot that thing!" indicator flashing across the screen. You know, this one: