E for All 2008 – I’ll be there

The E for All expo has come back this year and I will be attending it! I’ve got 5 interviews lined up across the event. On top of that I’m going to cover the event and the games there. Expect many new videos in the coming week.

You too can attend the event at the Los Angeles Convention Center. It’s open to the public, which in my opinion is awesome!

It’s Official: Brain Age Improves Your Maths Skills

Thought that Nintendo’s Brain Age game was nothing but money-making crap? You’re in the disappointment line, because Scottish scientists have proved that it does indeed improve your mental skills and to be specific, they found that math skills were improved in the study.

The game was given to like half the student body and was incorporated in their daily school routine. Tests were taken at the beginning and end of the study. The results are surprising: the ones who had the game had their scores improved by 50% more than the other group (how this math works we have no idea, we don’t play Brain Age, apparently).

The game doesn’t show any apparent difference in the results between girls and boys, and most notably; between playing the game at school or home. So get your parent-approved DSs while you can, kids! The results also showed an improvement in school attendance. Not surprising: I’d show up on time everyday for school if we had some video game playing time.

So Brain Age is really that educational and brain-improving awesome? It will improve our math scores? What do you think?

Source: BBC

Eva Longoria in The Avengers?!

And you’d think it’s still too early to talk about a movie coming out in 2011. But it’s never too early for Marvel comic book adaptations, especially after their masterstroke, Iron Man. So we do have a good idea now about what movies we can expect from Marvel, but isn’t cast speculation a little too early?

And if it’s too early for cast speculation, shouldn’t it be a little unthinkable that they’ve already started casting? Hell, Favreau only gave us fuzzy details of Iron Man 2, it would be shocking if they’ve already started putting stars as The Avengers.

Rumour is, Eva Longoria may be cast in it. Yes, that Eva Longoria from Desperate Housewives (like you were thinking of another, pfft). How does this rumour crop up? Look at the image above. Yes, Longoria was seen at the Marvel Studios offices and went out carrying a bunch of those Avengers issues. Coincidence? Sudden fandom?

Seemingly, she wasn’t too careful on hiding those, so it could either mean that it’s supposed to be a misleading hype-event or a direct declaration. Hmm.

Spore’s Miniature Billboard’s So Small, You Need a Telescope!

Spore Billboard
Spore Billboard

EA’s definitely gone for some innovative marketing when it comes to Spore! This billboard, located in San Francisco’s Union Square is so small, you need a telescope to see it! They probably resisted the urge to make it microscopic, if you ask me.

The billboard is of a miniature size 14″ by 6″, and as you can probably guess, not very visible to the naked eye. EA has, therefore, cut your cost of buying a new telescope by adding one of their own:

Snazzy Telescope
Snazzy Telescope

I particularly like that telescope more than anything else. Cool sea blue, smooth and sexy (almost phallic, we might say) and totally awesome-looking. There’s no reason why EA shouldn’t be selling that; people will buy that!

Since a trip to San Francisco might a bit too much for viewing EA’s advertising expertise, check out what the billboard actually looks like below. And don’t be such a snob: donate some, goddamit! There are microorganisms dying for your DNA!

Spare some!
Spare some!

Source: Kotaku

Papercraft D0g from Half-Life 2 looks Awesome

D0g paper preview

There’s papercraft, and then there’s awesome papercraft. 4chan user (yes, 4CHAN USER) chamoo232 made a truly remarkable papercraft version of the fun mechanical contraption from Half-Life 2 that kicks ass: D0g.

Just look at the goddamn attention to detail. D0g looks exactly as he did in the Source engine. chamoo232 took 50 hours out of two weeks to finish this project. I know that I sure as hell can’t do that in 50 hours. This guy’s got talent.

It’s also a great break form the norm to create a papercraft version of a character as visually complex as D0g. I mean, everyone else is doing the goddamn Weighted Companion Cube from Portal. The guy is a full 12″ tall, and is currently occupied by a paper rollermine. It looks pretty awesome as well, but nowhere near as awesome as that D0g!

Check out more photos over here at the 4chan board. Don’t worry, this isn’t /b/, so it’s perfectly safe. For now. Meanwhile, here’s the image in the preview above:

Paper D0g Full