“When the body is hurt, it tries to stop movement because all it wants to do is heal,” Romero said. “With the Wii, patients overcome their fears and the body’s reaction to movement. It is a positive distraction, and is extremely effective in improving dexterity and eliciting an increased range of motion.”

Full article here

PSP’s are an effective tool for marketing beer, at least in Australia. According to I believe in ADV, Fosters was looking for a way to market their lesser known Stella Artois. What they got was a custom designed PSP sporting a Stella Artois theme right down to the software.

Foster’s was expecting a brochure, or a folder with loose-leaf pages. They gave them 50 customised Sony PlayStation PSPs instead. The PSPs were delivered in hand-stitched black velvet drawstring bags. The machines were rebranded with a Stella Artois logo on the reverse of the case, and they also modified the operating systems and icon sets to reflect the brand. Then they installed the Stella Artois films and artwork, plus short presentations on the history of the brand. And because PSPs are wi-fi capable, Foster’s can load up new material quicker than new pages can be printed for a loose-leaf folder.

Fosters has found that every rep that got one of these PSPs has consistently met their sales targets. The PSP works so well as a sales platform, Fosters is ready to commission more.

Personally I find it hilarious that a country that kicked up such a fuss about Fallout 3 having drug use in it has no problem with PSPs advertising beer. The only question I have is where can I get one.

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Related Articles at Gaming Today:

• Buy Beer through your DS at the Ballgame
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Coming exclusively to PLAYSTATION Network this fall, Savage Moon is a frantic, action-packed tower defense game in a gritty sci-fi setting. You are tasked with protecting mining facilities from ravenous space bugs using some truly fearsome weaponry. And you’ll need as much strategy as firepower as you fend off wave after wave.

Each level in Savage Moon is set on an “Imoon”, or a living asteroid, and it is up to you to keep the mining facilities safe. These Imoons are rich in mineral deposits that humanity needs to survive, but such riches come with great risk as the native creatures living there will stop at nothing to end the mining. These giant deadly creatures are called “Insectocytes.” They come in all shapes and sizes and you will need to have a balanced strategy to fend them all off and keep the mining facilities safe.

To defend the mines, you start off with machine gun towers and can expand your arsenal to include wide range of weaponry and heavy artillery. This is where your strategizing skills come into play. It’s up to you when to upgrade, add new towers, or save your money, and your strategies will make the difference between escaping unscathed and watching the mines go up in flames. You have to place the tower defenses in areas where they will be most effective in killing the different kinds of Insectocytes before they make it to the mining facilities. And as you kill the Insectocytes, you earn valuable points that you can use to upgrade the size and firepower of your defenses, and to develop new weapons and technologies.

Savage Moon is addictive and the action is relentless, making it fun no matter what your skill level is. The action is intense, but you also have to think and have a solid strategy to survive. The best players can even post their scores to the online leader boards to see how they stack up.

There is much more to come on Savage Moon soon, so keep a lookout for news right here on PlayStation.Blog.

Too bad my Xbox 360 review console won’t read this “Dead Space” disc very well. It shut the game off last night, claiming a dirty disc error, only about an hour into my time with the game.

“Dead Space” is EA’s horror game for the fall and a standard-bearer for the revitalized new-idea-loving version of the giant games publisher. I first covered “Dead Space” as the topic of some unusual baked goods. I’ve interviewed the game’s lead creator. And I’ve played the game at a couple of press events.

I would have been able to share so much more about the game now, if not for that disc error (one not suffered by my early build of “Rock Band 2,” meaning it’s likely the disc’s problem and not the system). Oh, and I also probably can’t share more because the disc is marked for “Internal Use.”

I do think I can say, however, what kind of gamers should keep an eye on “Dead Space”:

“Resident Evil 4” fans - Every time I’ve played “Dead Space,” the combination of widescreen third-person action and effective scares have reminded me of the beloved Capcom game. If they’ve indeed dialed back the music a bit, “Dead Space” could be as creepy as “RE4.”

“BioShock” fans - Every time I’ve played “Dead Space,” I’ve appreciated how the game’s spaceship, the “planet-cracker” mining vessel the Ishimura, feels like a distinct and lived-in location, not unlike the feel I had of the very distinct location of Rapture in last year’s “BioShock.” I’m not sure, though, if Ishimura is the sole setting for “Dead Space,” as Rapture was for 95% of 2K’s game.

“Metroid Prime” fans - Every time I’ve played “Dead Space,” I’ve been struck by the creativity and detail of the game’s science fiction environment. The art direction reminds me of “Prime,” in that it feels less like a differently wall-papered version of games I’ve played before and more like the depiction of a place some future society might someday build. Plus, the EA game’s depiction of maps and menu screens as holograms the hover in front of the game’s lead character (even while he’s walking) may be the most futuristic enhancement to user interface since “Prime” introduced the visor display to first person games.

I’ll try to clean my disc and see what else I can learn — for internal use.

Also, to readers of yesterday’s diary, I did not get a chance to play “Blastworks” as I had hoped. I’m afraid to turn on my Wii and discover when I last played it.

Next: The great portable gaming drought of August continues, possibly to be abated today with a couple of preview builds I was sent for games I never thought I’d even try. Going to try them now!

Keep Defense

I’ve seen a lot of talk going on about the level of tactical gameplay and strategy that can be used in Warhammer Online compared to other mmorpgs. The truth to such claims is really staggering. I have been trying to discover and apply as much strategy as possible over the past couple weeks and want to share a few:

• Collision Detection can be used to Block the enemy from running away. If you can snare the enemy get your big tanks to stand in front of them. They won’t be able to retreat. Use your collision detection to block terrain, bridges, doors, etc. It’s funny and effective.
• Use the terrain to your advantage! The RvR areas are designed with valleys perfect for ambushes (I’ve fallen victim to SEVERAL.) Use trees, rocks, hills, walls, and anything you see to block line of sight.
• Position people at the postern door to catch the enemy as they come to defend their keep.
• Ping a keep to get the enemy thinking that you’re going to assault it. Scout them with stealthers to ensure the enemy is going there en masse to respond. When the majority of their troops are in transit take the opportunity to have your army attack a different keep. This will cause confusion as to which keep is under attack while giving you several minutes head start on a ‘hopefully’ undefended keep.
• Knock people off ledges, cliffs, bridges, etc with your knockbacks! Several classes have big knockbacks and these can be used to launch people. Remember, falls are deadly in this game.

That’s just a few of the strategies that can be deployed every time you log in.

Teamwork is possibly even more important than strategy and definitely a must in Warhammer Online. If you played closed beta or the preview weekend you likely encountered some classes that feel like they just don’t die or some classes that single handedly turn the tide of a battle. Teamwork and communication is a must to succeed. Ignoring a bright wizard or letting a Zealot heal unchecked are mistakes of omission that can easily be picked up on. However, the biggest teamwork in WAR lies directly in utilizing every class and member of your group/warband to their fullest potential. This type of teamwork comes with time but has such a drastic impact on the game it’s truly unbelievable.

You’ll notice the teams that work together well because they overcome the odds, blow through imbalances, and get to see results normally seen from a zerg. To break this down to the most basic level, I was playing with a group that worked very well together (Shout out to the HFG!) and we were 6/12 people in the scenario. We worked so well together compared to our enemies that we were able to overcome the enemies simple organization (they were moving as a herd and our team wasn’t) and pull out a win. Healing certain classes over others, attacking certain classes first, sacrificing yourself to draw fire, using a knockdown even though it means you won’t top the damage charts… etc. It’s the teams that use the type of strategies I listed above that will win.

WAR is not balanced for the individual. That’s a big hurdle for some people to climb over. Every class is not balanced for 1v1. Every class is not balanced in every situation. Warrior Priests are going to beat the snot out of almost anyone 1v1. Witch Elves won’t feel as powerful in big keep standoffs. (Examples, not facts) Classes are meant to work together like a well oiled machine. No matter how many times people reiterate this fact I guarantee you there will still be complaints.

The writing is on the wall. Keeps allow guilds to claim them. Keeps require groups of people. The nature of the “RvR areas” (on core servers) encourages zerg-like behavior. Some classes are designed to work in tandem with others (IB and RP anyone?) and the game just naturally flows better when working with others.

Note: I know some people are chomping at the bit to chime in saying “omg WAR is not solo/casual friendly! zomg it’s a WoW clone! Here we go again!” … save yourself the time! There are mechanics in the game, like open groups, that solve a lot of this. But if people working together seeing better results than unorganized zergs means WAR is a WoW clone then whatever.

This type of strategy and teamwork exists in some games - duh. But I have seen the difference it makes in a game like DAOC and the huge differences it already makes in WAR. Play with a group that works well together and you’ll not only see success but you’ll have more fun.

I’m saying it was a little surprising because fighters have been on the wane for a long time. The genre has become the domain of hardcore gamers only. I don’t see that many people playing Virtua Fighter 5 or Dead Or Alive 4 and there doesn’t seem to be a lot of interest in Tekken 6. Myself, I’ve played quite a bit of Tekken: Dark Resurrection on the PSP, and deservedly so, as it’s an excellent game. I was a huge fun of Dead Or Alive 3 on the Xbox, even with its broken fighting mechanics, but DOA4 failed to excite me at all. Now Soul Calibur is a gamer darling and most eyes are looking forward to Street Fighter IV - maybe there’s a fighting game renaissance in the cards. If Street Fighter is as accessible to newcomers as Soul Calibur is, things are really looking up.

Soul Calibur IV is the most beautiful game currently on the market. From the stills I wasn’t that impressed, but in motion - the models, the lighting, the animation, the backgrounds, the colors… It’s videogame perfection. Namco really tackles the arcade aesthetic like no one else. Maybe they could have gone in a new direction, sure, but as far as arcade roots go, I can’t see it getting much better than this.

The most fun I’ve had with is the random character battles. You can have the game randomize your VS characters entirely, mixing and matching characters and movesets and special abilities and clothes and colors to create entirely new fighters for every single bout. It’s addictive fun, let down only by the necessity of returning to the character select screen between fights.

Soul Calibur has always been very good in remaining deep, yet accessible. You can play perfectly fine with straight buttonmashing, but it doesn’t take long for you to discover more effective ways to use the characters. Since its release I’ve been playing very little else.

Note that the “RB2″ demos don’t disturb me because the game is unsettling, but because the powers that be at MTV stage these events on a floor in the VH1 offices where I used to work. Oh, the joy of returning to an old office. Why not set the next demo in my old middle school, MTV people? I’m sensitive about revisiting my past. OK. My fault, not theirs.

Anyway, here are some key things I learned about the game:

The kick-pedal doesn’t fall off – Not only are the new “Rock Band 2″ drums wireless, but when you lift them off the floor, the kick-pedal doesn’t fall off. As “RB2″ public relations man John Drake noted, this is an advance that will be appreciated by people who don’t have a permanent spot for their video game drums in their place of residence and need to move them a lot.

The new drum trainer mode includes garbage can sounds — “RB2″ includes a mode that teaches drum-playing by looping a beat, scrolling required notes and calculating a percentage of player effectiveness for a set beat pattern. Players can set the beats-per-minute and choose for one of 76 beat progressions, emulating riffs of everything from swing music to metal. Or you can use a fill trainer, which teaches 45 effective ways to wail on the drums during a fill. Several drum-set sounds are available for the trainer, including… an overturned trash can.

Daily ‘Battle of the Bands’ challenges might incorporate DLC - Drake said that the developers of “RB2″ studio Harmonix hope to provide a new Battle of the Bands challenge every day (including Sundays, he hopes, after we reporters grilled him on that). These challenges can only be created by developers and will present such trials as The Stalker Challenge (best band performance in Blondie’s “One Way Or Another” and two other stalker-sounding songs) or a Steely Dan battle that requires entrants play solo, on expert, but with the no-failure option that will let them play to the end. Each Battle runs for a set number of hours or days. Each of a player’s performances is ranked in an online leaderboard and in a Battle history. The Battles will sometimes include downloadable songs. If they do, the player will be told this once they try to enter the Battle.

I left the demo with a preview copy of the game and will have more impressions once I dig into it.

The “Rock Band 2″ game and instruments will be available on the Xbox 360 on September 14 (but not in a bundle until a later, unannounced date). Wii, PS2, and PS3 versions are expected later this year.

Related Posts:
Harmonix: How ‘Rock Band 2′ Lets You Access First Game’s Songs
See The Who Live In Concert From The Front Row (’Rock Band’ Party Photos)
The Comprehensive ‘Rock Band 2′ Track List — All 257 Songs So Far
Our E3 Flickr Update: We Found ‘Rock Band’ In The Garbage

Squig Herder Pets from The Greenskin on Vimeo.

• Squig (normal) - This is the basic squig you get at level 1, though you can summon it throughout your career. It does melee focused damage, it is the toughest of all your pets, and can taunt your enemies most effectively. It becomes less effective once you choose your mastery path(s) because the other squigs give you a special bonus and they are buffed up by specific mastery paths. I find this pet is a great one to summon to be eaten for health or blown up in your enemies’ faces.
• Horned Squig - You get this squig at rank 8. It does better melee damage than the normal squig, is tough against melee attacks, weak against magical attacks, has a one second knockdown attack, and it gives you a bonus of 100% bonus to your armour while alive. This pet your best choice when specializing in the Path of Stabbing.
• Gas Squig - You get this squig at rank 9. It has ranged attacks (farther than the Spiked Squig), is weak against all forms of attacks, has two AoE abilities (random stat debuff and direct damage), and it gives you a 10% bonus to maximum range while alive. This pet is your best choice when specializing in Path of Big Shootin’.
• Spiked Squig - You get this squig at level 10. It has medium ranged attacks, increased damage, decreased toughness, can attack from medium range, has a damage shield, and gives you a 5% bonus to your critical strike chance. This pet is your best choice when specializing in Path of Quick Shootin’.

There is also a bonus squig called the Battle Squig. It isn’t necessarily a pet… it’s more like a suit of armour you are eaten by and control via melee abilities. Based on my limited testing experience, it didn’t seem overly useful in RvR because you just become one giant target, but you get a number of cool attacks, including a very powerful knockdown, which can spell disaster for your target if used at the right time. You can only remain in your squig armour for a maximum of 2 minutes. You can jump out of it at any time as well.

Hope you like!

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