Polynomial Space of the music ... take a trip with a game of mesmerising beauty and ask your self who needs Child of Eden?

Polynomial  Space of the music is a game  crying out to be controlled by Kinect on the PC In fact what you have for your £1.75 is a game way more beautiful than the upcoming Child of Eden .... sorry  Mizuguchi san

Polynomial is simply stunning , hypnotic , entrancing , it is as the poor old now long gone hippy generation would say one cool trip full of positive waves . In  very poor Star Trek lore it would be the Shakari of games  . Since it booted up on my pc yesterday, my room has been full of neon stars,suns supernovae,Spielbergesque spacecraft , and music , music ,there was music everywhere   , for the first time I have a game that truly shows the potential of my twin screen 5120 1600  overpowered gpu setup , in short I am lost to the world when I play it , not that I play it , I just get lost in its beauty , so if your life needs a little light at the moment , head on to Steam and get Polynomial for 75% off . 


So here are some 5120 1600 screen caps of gaming as art , and by the way it flies at that res!click on the pictures to enlarge to their real size and prepare to get lost in the beauty of it all..oh the humanity ...Dave....

it's full of stars .... Dave ....

you have to see this moving every pixel is alive and coming attcha to the beat of your tunes

flying through this is like all your flying through Saturns planetary rings dreams come true!

each of those planetary towers oscillates to the beat of your music , whilst an E.T. adds to the ambience

there's too many of them , you get to shoot, fly , space combat too!  I just wander .....

And I am on a quest , a quest to get Kinect working with this game , for when that happens , dudes and dudesses , we can actually tune in turn on and drop out without any harmful side effects, that I know of ... , if only the hippies had waited , true revolution takes time you know ! Rushing them is not recommended , ask the Francais , or the old Soviets!

Seriously , I am in love with this game , buy it and it will be the most beautiful game trip you can take, you know a true zone game , one that someone needs to project on an entire building hook up to a Kinect and take the world along with them . 

And of course it is simply awesome that a 2 man team produced this , and thanks to Steam it got published . Me I am just bowled over by the fact that after investing 1000s on my pcs over decades , buying all the AAA nonsense ,  it took a small  two man game for £1.75 to remind me how truly magical video gaming can be ... more on indi games that outdo their overbloated and hyped brethren soon...

check out a review , and if you have a multiscreen setup this game will floor you !

still here ? come on it is 75% off on Steam for today only get it now  remember not to long before you spend  40 times the money  on:

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Is 2011 the year we Kinect to Microsoft? With Child of Eden`s arm wrecking gaming perfection and the Kinect SDK beta for Windows 7

10 million Kinect units are out there , as of last week only thousands were actually in use on consoles , if that ... mine own has sat gathering dust since launch week , and I have two ,  two to link to my PC and go all Count Zero one day... and that day is getting nearer ...


Post a very disappointing E3 2011 ( even the booth babes could not distract from the lack of actual innovation this year) , we have major developments for Minority report fans , the release of Child of Eden and the Kinect SDK beta for Windows 7 ... 


thegameveda has been playing Child of Eden non stop now for 48 hours give or take a few minutes , and boy do your arms feel like falling off . I never knew being a conductor was this tiring or required this level of fitness .


Mizuguchi San`s team has created the perfect emotional electric light symphony that you conduct with your hands and without realising it your body ,mind and soul...


The first thing that will happen when  you when you boot up this game is that you will fall head over heels in lurve with Lumi , and YOU WILL rescue her.You will not stop until your arms fall off , and the game will often warn you to take a rest!  Fascinating on a day when half the gaming world is rescuing Zelda , the other half will be rescuing Lumi . Gotta dig those Japanese game memes as the hip blogs like to say... Zelda can wait ... my heart belongs to Lumi ...and seriously aren`t virtual dames so high maintenance ... always making with the "rescue me " ....

Perfect? exactly my thoughts.....hold on Lumi ... I will save you.....as long as my arms don`t fall off 

I get so emotional baby!  : Taking a totally stereotypical gander at the evolution of the games industry  ... our Japanese cousins developed games famous for eliciting emotion , whilst Western  developed games are famous for  frags, loot gathering , subscription fees ... and Peter Molyneux.......


Child of Eden continues  that noble tradition , with a caveat of hats off to Ubisoft for having the guts to publish it ! ( where are you now Sega?) . And the single most important fact that Mizaguchi san, delivers what he promised .. something Mr Molyneux* should contemplate...


*we love you really Mr Molyneux ..now how about some more Syndicate and less Fable/Milo????

With Child Of Eden we have a game that elicits emotions you never knew you had , this is a perfect game . It`s evolved to a point where it is beyond your every day game or movie experience . With Kinect you simply get lost in this world , but more on that later . 


Aint it shocking what luv can do : Rez fans will remember a weird strap on vibrating add on that came with the game on the Dreamcast , the PS2 and Xbox Live version had the feedback in the controller , and with Child of Eden you can feel the beat and shocks by setting your xbox 360 controller to vibrate ... now if you bother to strap this on to yourself or put it in your pocket (!) you get maximum Synesthesia .. with your brain drowning in the visuals , your ears in the sound , and your body feeling the beat through the xbox 360 controller ....which is seriously heavy after 48 hours by the way....and will likely shatter your ribs , spine or whatever part of your anatomy you place it in the vicinity of...


Or you could just play with the pad in your hands ... but that would be like driving a Ferrari with a remote control , no , Kinect is THE way .. until we get the Move version on the PS3 later this year..


Child of Eden is the perfection  of decades of Japanese arcade games , from Taito shooters with Zuntata soundtracks to the beautiful Sega and Namco racers to games that later became labled as synesthesia games like Rez , but actually core gamers call zone games . 


The zone for casuals is the point where you are so skilled you are surfing the game , you are playing without realising you are playing , at this level of skill you can be thinking of something completely different , going through something else in your head and then the level ends , but with a perfect score . You play with skill , and instinct , very few games manage this , Rez of course does , Frequency and Amplitude to a lesser degree , and also the great Wipeout series , and the finest arcade racers all have this special ability to draw out core gamer skills . 


If you have ever had this feeling when playing a game , then you are in great company , the late great Ayrton Senna used to talk about something like the zone when explaining how he won so many races.. You could also equate it to learning to play an instrument , and getting to the point where you can play without thinking ....


They say you can play through Child of Eden  in 90 minutes , or you can PLAY the game in 90 minutes , with all your decades of core game skills , conducting and directing the game so it leaves you with a feeling like few others. Brevity is true for many great arcade experiences , whether it is 3 laps round a Ridge Racer circuit , 2 rounds of Tekken or Streetfighter. What seperates these games from other genres is the skill and perfection you strive for whilst playing those few minutes ... its not how long you play arcade games .. it`s how you play them...


As I said at the beginning I have been playing ..nay experiencing Child Of Eden now for 48 hours , and like it`s ancestors Rez and all the way back to Taito`s Space Invaders ( check out Infinity Gene for a real trip) thegameveda and generations core gamers will be playing these milestones for decades to come . 


Coming on strong......


Observers may have noticed the lack of Japanese games at E3 2011 , many even Japanese coders often lament about the death of Nihon coded games , but look closer and you see very few nations totally understand what makes a gamer tick like they do , the coders that are failing are those who foolishly Westernised their games or sold out to compete with iD ,and Cliffy B and Co. Many of our greatest games developer`s inspirational heroes are from Japan , and as you can see from  Space Invaders to Child of Eden via evolving game genres from sh`mups, platform , adventure , RPG to synethesia , the evolution of gaming is littered with milestones that would not be there without a Japanese influence . 


I cannot wait to see what Mizaguchi san does with the Move and Playstation 3  version, check out his blog here  , and if ... if there is a gaming Nirvana ... then imagine what could be done with a PC version of Rez, and Child of Eden now that we have the Kinect SDK beta released by Microsoft... 

Get Child of Eden now in the USA


In the UK get Child of Eden now from Game or Zavvi 


On the PC we may not have a Mizuguchi san game just yet but we do have The Polynomial , which sooner rather than later will be controlled through Kinect ... I would have done it myself but  hey I am too busy rescuing all these virtual dames , two in one week counting Lumi and Zelda... a heroes work is never done......

this ,PC, Rez and Child of Eden fans is Synesthesia done right on the PC running at 5120 by 1600 ..just needs a Kinect patch!

P.S. when attaching your Kinect to your PC , remember to use the USB adaptor and power cable dongle , that orange tipped lead coming out of your Kinect ,  may look like a USB lead , but it isn't as several USB 2 and a USB 3 ports on my laptop can attest......!

lastly for Synesthesia fans , thegamevedas favourite rare PSONE game , far rarer than Rez , and a decade older than Child of Eden ..... is Internal Section which will bounce along to the beat of any CD you put it in (assuming you still have a CD) 

 

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Child Of Eden Playstation 3 version for £14.99

Child of Eden on the PS3 is going to be more evolved than the kinect happy 360 version , and at this price it is pretty much cheaper than a lot of useless DLC drivel you could waste your time and treasure on  .. so get going I doubt it will stay at this price for ever , also remember the Playstation 3 version with 3D move and added sfx should hit this September ..

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Child of Eden for £17.85... today ..is a good day to Kinect...!

 

 

Wow is what you say alot when you play Tetsuya Mizuguchi`s Child of Eden , almost makes the Kinect worth it .... get it at this amazing price now from Zavvi

 

 

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Siliconmicrodisplay ST1080 review part 6: REZ HD and Child of Eden using Kinect head and body tracking and Move on PS3 in 3D

The games of Mizuguchi San  hit that cyberpunk virtual reality vibe rather nicely .Rez and Child of Eden are some of my most revered games .  Now with ST1080 we can have a 180g 100 inch screen to get our synthesia on , first up on the Xbox 360 I tested Child of Eden .


This is a non 3D game on the Xbox , but because of the nature of the game it is also the most impressive experience I have had today on the ST1080 , 100 inches of virtual synesthesia , abstract shapes concepts organic wireframe life forms flying all around me , it really is like the guy on the cover ...only better .. because I am playing with Kinect .


The Kinect detects and reacts to my head movements , so when I move my head I am actually looking around the game world of Child of Eden , step forward left right and back and it tracks those too .


The point of this genre of synesthesia games is immersion , becoming one with the visuals and beats , and I can tell you there is no better  and less painful way at present to do this than wearing the ST1080 .

You could do the same with the Sony HMZT1 , but the weight would get you , and it would not be true 1080p resolution . Once again the higher native resolution of the ST1080 makes every line , the HUD , and reading text sharper than on the HMZT1 . Oh of course blacks and colours are richer on the Sony , but the HMZT1 is nigh on impossible to use long term in a like for like situation with


Next up Rez HD : Why ? Well apart from it being one of the finest games ever , we can use it to test that 1080p res of the ST1080 , and when you play every line , every beautiful vector and the HUD are perfectly clear , there is no distortion at the edges of the screen or along straight lines ,or the HUD text  as you see with the optics of the HMZT1 , and it is simply stunning on a 100 inch screen .


On the PlayStation 3 Child of Eden is 3D enabled , and controlled with more precision than the 360 version using PlayStation Move . The colours and definition are astounding ,playing in 3D though I am getting a 60 inch surrounded by black borders instead of the 100 inch screen it should , there has to be a way of making this work if smd know then please let me know . If you are sitting on a chair that can rotate moving the motion controller moves your view point in the game also , even with the borders the 3D and resolution is 2nd to none , every single line is crystal clear on every neon polygon , when you look down at the game world you feel depth , there are all sorts of Avatar style floaters dashing across the screen , the move gives you incredibly precise control and I actually played the game till it threw me off , as I got lost in the synesthesia of it all , you feel the vibe  through the Move' feedback , you hear the vibes through the headphones , you create it , and your eyes get drowned in the 3D beauty of it all on your 180g ST1080..

Once the scaling issue is sorted out , whether it is through firmware or smd releasing an idiots guide as to how to make your PS3 and Xbox 360 play nice with the ST1080 this is one formidable piece of gaming display kit.

Although you set it to side by side the ST1080  locks this option out of its menus , so far only Gears of War 3 and Avatar 3D have played full screen without any tweaking . I cannot believe smd did not connect their ST1080s to a console at some point in testing , so the mistake must be mine … still time marches on ...



Next up Ico and Shadow of the Colossus HD

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FRACT OSC mind blowing 3D Rez inspired PC gaming in Tridef 3D on the ST1080 hmd and soon on Oculus Rift too

Thegameveda has a brand new favourite game and that is FRACT OSC , which you should seriously consider voting for the developers to receive an Oculus Rift dev kit . You know that virtual reality kit that you are kickstartering errh kickstarting?

However this being thegameveda, we do not wait for cool devs like Phosfiend Systems to be awarded their dues... no we can demonstrate what FRACT OSC plays like on a 3D hmd right now , namely the smd ST1080, what's more we can play the game in 3D using Tridef 3D ... so here is a youtube video of me messing with the beginning of the game . No I am not going to solve all the puzzles for you .. that you will have to do after downloading the Beta.  

So if you have a 3D hmd like the ST1080 or even a HMZT1 head crab pop it on set the 3D to side by side and enjoy , this also goes for any people still using those ancient 3D glasses and 120 hz large screen displays to view non ghost free 3D video... 

And even if you don't download the beta and enjoy .. 

Imagine this with a 4k res SMD hmd next year playing in 3D with head tracking , ahh it will come till then I will have to make do with 1080p 3D hmd gaming on the ST1080 ..quelle dommage as they say in Poshphiend Systems home town of Montreal ... 

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Carl Zeiss Cinemizer OLED Headtracker Review Part 3: Natural Intuitive Unconscious Cyberpunk control

Several weeks into using the Carl Zeiss Cinemizer OLED headtracker it  has become an invaluable controller interface for me. I find myself one more step closer to Count Zero , I really do have a Deck infront of me , Lenovo not Ono Sendai perse but that's close enough , with a portable wearable display that weighs less than some 80s shades and headtracking to control it all. Cyberspace exists as the the interweb we know and hate all that is missing is a hostile AI chasing me, a girl with razor sharp nails, and Rastafari in space..  but those things will come ..  Soon very soon I will be able to add leap motion to the VR mix and actually see my hands on screen whilst moving the fov with my head ...but that is for another day .. Let's take a look at my latest adventures with the headtracker.

The greatest competition that VR leaning controllers like headtrackers face is from your humble control and input devices that you use every day . So if you game more effectively with a mouse or joypad , than a complex whiz bang super low latency weak force detecting black matter powered VR full body motion controller ... or you can't be bothered to setup the Kinect SDK for each app then you have no need for such a device... Epic Fail...

The Zeiss Headtracker is different.

Adding the Zeiss Headtracker to your daily routine requires 0 effort  unlike other VR control solutions that suffer from complex setup, usage and require additional software layers and drivers. You are not going to be paying some hack to make a hack for your favourite app or game to work because it works out of the box with all your apps and games through mouse emulation and with the 3 degrees of freedom expected of such devices.

There are reasons why no one has developed either a VR app ,game or control interface that works or more importantly is of use .. nothing to do with latencies and degrees of freedom or even cpu power. The main reason is that as of yet there is 0 need for such a device or application outside serious scientific or technical circles.  

The Zeiss headtracker will also arrive with media fanfares of VR blurb, but that is not its true strength. the Zeiss headtracker is something you need,something you can use right now , whether to follow this line of text or to control today's and tomorrows applications. 

Using it is totally natural, intuitive, unconscious even, you do not need to learn special movements or swipes or holds as you do with other motion controllers.

Natural Intuitive Unconscious  Cyberpunk control.

For 3 decades or so ,whatever progress there has been in cpu or gpu power to create ever more believable worlds in which we game, the input method has barely changed, the most effective mouse, keyboard, joystick paradigms are still in play to day.

However these are unnatural control methods, involving abstract or completely unrelated  physical actions that are then translated into in game or application actions. Dragging a mouse to move your point of view ..or pecking at a keyboard..

The Zeiss headtracker is a completely natural control and input mechanism as you are actually using a real movement that is being translated into the same movement in game. 

Furthermore it is totally intuitive and an almost unconscious act, what I find after 3 decades of gaming is I tend to turn my head towards where my joypad or mouse is being moved anyway.. so with the headtracker I am already acting in game without ever thinking about key presses , thumb stick movement or waiting for my ageing neurons to fire the signals from my brain down to my hand to move a mouse in an abstract and unnatural way that my brain tells me translates to an in game action. 

All that process is eliminated with headtracking, I see a bad guy in game , my fov has already moved to centre on him, tracking an object in flight like the fast moving bats or air craft in Borderlands 2 is no longer a mouse arc , you just look at them follow their path with your head , which you will be doing naturally anyway . This is instinctive control. Once you use it ,you will not want to go back to other forms of control.

So on with the show : 

First up we have FRACT OSC which is ideally suited for playing with head tracking. This is also quite possibly the only example of a non violent FPS game in development.

Skyrim played with the Zeiss Headtracker 

Borderlands 2 played with the Zeiss Headtracker 



Third person games also rock with the Zeiss Headtracker


Sniper Elite V2 played with the Zeiss Headtracker 

Call of Duty Black Ops 2 in 3D played with the Carl Zeiss Cinemizer OLED headtracker 

more to follow, hopefully I will have a Leap Motion unit soon to combine with the Zeiss Headtracker.. 

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Greenlight and buy Kromaia ... if you know your Internal Section from your Rez ..if not let me show you how to get into the zone playing with the Cinemizer OLED HMD and head tracker

Kromaia is the perfect "zone" game, a 6 degrees of freedom shooter with a shades  of your favourite Tetsuya Mizuguchi classic .. 

Rez, Child Of Eden, Internal Section..as well as all being proponents of synaesthesia ( the game genre not the medical condition) share a distinct graphical style .. Internal Section is probably the greatest PlayStation game most of you have never played.. 

At first glance static screens of Kromaia seem to indicate an Internal section homage,  enough to get me to buy it, but when you get to play it though you find it is something more .. 

Where the above classics guide the gamer down tunnels and around bosses, a lot of the time on rails ..Kromaia gives you what you always wanted .. 6 degrees of freedom ..but with all the synesthetic audio visual feedback of those classic games.  in Kromaia whilst the game may look like Internal Section .. Rez or Child of Eden .. the freedom it gives you in the two modes available at present Story and Score Attack ... set it apart

For Kromaia is ultimately a "zone" game .. if you have to ask .. you will never know .. getting you into the zone is where this game really shines.. 

And this is just the Alpha! 

That's the theory ..but how does it play ?  Check out my ghost below playing the game with the Cinemizer OLED Head Mounted Display and Zeiss Head Tracker..

I am playing with the same fly to look set up that works so well with Strike Suit Zero, the z and roll axes are still legacy controlled. Everything else relating to FOV is achieved using the Zeiss head tracker.

Coming across games like this is what makes gaming so great, it also shows the PC platform in the face of diminishing year on year sales and some argue relevance, still has  the most vibrant and thriving development community ..

If you want to support that community get on over to Desura and pick up the Alpha for Kromaia 25% off right now, leave a message for the devs and check out the Kromaia / Kraken Empire homepage and vote to Greenlight Kromaia on Steam .. 

As for me ..any excuse to mention  Mizuguchi san, Rez , Child of Eden ..and you may have guessed my favourite synesthesia game Internal Section ( by Square, launched in Japan only  ) is reward enough .. 

Actually no it's not .. playing Rez, Child Of Eden, Internal Section and now Kromaia is ...

There is nothing like a Game... 

More on Kromaia when I work out how to spell it and play the game in 3D with all current  HMDs .. This is just the Alpha and it is so refreshing to find a game you can learn to play not only with twitch or click skill or sit around streaming on Twitch for clicks , but enjoy PLAYING with style too..  which is what it really shares with those old PS classics ..going right back to Internal Section ... via Child of Eden and Rez..  

Cannot wait to see how this one turns out ..  Long live the indie gaming revolution.. ! 

Update : using TriDef 3D it is simple to play Kromaia in 3D and here are the results on the Oculus Rift , Cinemizer OLED and ST1080 HMDs.. 

Kromaia Oculus Rift  :TriDef 3D Rift Beta 

On dev kit 1 (of?) we get to play in scaled to semi 720p, which I up scaled to (semi) 1080p  when making the video for all you Crystal Cove and Valve Prototype owners .. 

Note to JC .. at some point the Rift tracker stopped working so I switched to the Zeiss tracker .. combining both for roll and XY movement .. And the experience of the Zeiss head tracker ? You immediately notice the difference .. with the Rift your head tracker stops and starts after your movements at points .. There is far more to head tracker design than simply throwing in faster sensors .. as I keep trying to tell him!

The weight, momentum and bulk of the HMD the head tracker is attached to (ergonomics) also play a part in the "experience" of the efficacy of a head tracker .. and the HMD .. it really does not matter that your Rift head tracker is faster on paper, when it shuts down or throws a wobbly at a random point. is dependent on mouse emulation in software and attached to a bulky HMD that you have to exert additional force to stop moving... speaking from 9 months of TVRKing the thing..

And the experience?

There is the usual screen door, vis pixel issue, blur is not so bad but it is the nausea post game that gets you ( I am pretty tolerant of the in game nausea)  .. Key to making the Rift commercially viable is eliminating Rift nausea...not just decreasing it ..

As for the game it is stunning and JC should be TVRKING this ASAP!Try the following video with your Rift , Crystal Cove or Valve prototype and see if you agree... 

Next up 

Kromaia Cinemizer OLED HMD 1080p Above/Below 3D ZEISS HEAD TRACKING

This is an above below scaled 1080p 3D experience all in a HMD that weighs around 180g .. one you can take anywhere with you right now ..and experience nausea, blur and lag or latency free.. as tested by me at 38000ft !

Kromaia ST1080 True 1080p 3D side by side TriDef ZEISS HEAD TRACKING

The ST1080 gives you a transparent or opaque 100 inch display  again around 180g portable HMD with each of those segments of that 3D image able to run at true 1080p resolution.. which gives you a stunning Kromaia experience ..  again one I have tested at 38000 ft .. nausea , blur and screen door free.. paired with the Zeiss head tracker you also get instant head tracking.. 

Whatever your flavour of HMD playing in 3D really elevates the Kromaia experience, to a point where you won't consider playing in 2D is playing the game at all .. now that's what I call immersion... 

Support the devs of Kromaia , Kraken Empire now ! 

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