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The popularity of video games has led to the expansion of the industry and technology advances. Today, there are many different game types and the genre is still expanding rapidly. One video game differs from another by its gameplay, category and interaction.

It is not uncommon to see a game with great similarities from another video game. What makes a video game different from another is the way it is played and how you interact or play with it.

A video game is classified in different genre. Learn the many different types of games available on the market today. With technology fast evolving, new, improved and updated games are launched on the market regularly.

Action:

One of the most popular genres, action games are the basic type of gaming. An action video game requires you as a gamer to use your reflex capability and timing during play. Video gaming based on popular action movies is common nowadays.

The most recent example of movie tie-in is the Tron: Evolution video game. The graphics are striking, with dazzling neon colors and dark depiction of the science fiction universe. The game has successfully recreated the grid of the motion picture to provide visual satisfaction to all gamers.

Another example of an action video game that has been in the market for some time now and been updated and improved to make it more challenging and interesting to gamers is the Tomb Raider: Legend. Some improvements have been made on the game’s controls and the environments were made even more breathtaking in all stages.

Adventure:

Adventure games consist of a gameplay that uses some characteristics found in an action video game. Famous of this genre is The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition Review. A creation by the brilliant minds behind LucasArts, this game involves wit and whimsical adventure. This game has become a classic because of its clever puzzles, sabre-sharp writing and memorable characters.

Another adventure video game example is the Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence. This game is an expanded version of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater and includes some features from the Metal Gear: Solid Snake and the original Metal Gear.

Racing:

The game mechanics involve the player driving a supercar with the end goal of winning the race. The racing genre is considered as a pioneer in the video gaming industry. Many early video were part of the racing genre. A popular example is the Burnout: Revenge which is part of the Burnout series of games.

The success of the series is of epic proportion. The game deals with revenge and destruction and of course, winning the race. The Tourist Trophy: Real Riding Simulator sports improved graphics and authentic-looking vehicles. In this game, you are given a chance to play in 35 different game modes.

Role Playing Games or RPGs:

RPGs have created a niche in the gaming industry. One successful example is Fable III which is set in the industrial age and features a new hero who is destined to create a revolution, take over the throne after overthrowing the king and destroying an evil creature who threatens the land and people.

The Final Fantasy XI Online: Treasures of Aht Urhgan is the latest in the Final Fantasy series that has been a favorite among generations of gamers. This game is the third in the series of massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG).

Strategy:

This gaming genre is designed to bring out the thinking and planning abilities of gamers. This genre includes the strategy game and real-time strategy (RTS) game. The StarCraft II is a good example of this genre. It depicts a 26th century battle for supremacy of epic proportion. The Act of War: Direct Action is an RTS game that utilizes live action cut-scenes.

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Arising as a prominent branch of game development in the 1970s after the huge success of arcade video games, game designers as we know them today were tasked with designing the bulk of content for the game, including the rules, storyline, characters and overall appeal. Today, game designing is a multi-million dollar industry that’s only expected to grow larger as technology advances. Take a look at the timeline below to see how the industry has evolved and expanded over the years.

1952 – Willy Higinbotham creates what is commonly referred to as “the first video game.” Similar to table tennis, this 2 person game was played on an oscilloscope.

1961 – A MIT student, Steve Russell, creates the first interactive game, Spacewars, played on mainframe computers.

1971 – Computer Space, developed by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney (founders of Atari), becomes the first video arcade game released. Although it was instantly popular, many people found the game too difficult.

1972 – Realizing the potential of video games, Magnavox released Odyssey, the first home video gaming system. Most notably though, Atari is founded and quickly recognized as the leader in the video game industry. Their first released game, Pong, was wildly successful and soon became available as a home version.

1974 – Steve Jobs, one of Atari’s technicians and later a circuit board creator, presented an idea to the Atari founders for a personal computer system. Because funds were tied up in other projects, Bushnell referred a venture capitalist to Jobs for funding support. That personal computer, of course, was the beginning of Apple.

1975 – The first computer game hits the markets. Gunfight used a microprocessor instead of hardwired circuits.

1977 – Retailing at $249.95, a large chunk of money at the time, the Atari 2600 game console is released.

1978 – Adding another level of competition and appeal to video games, Space Invaders hits arcades as the first game to track and display high scores. Soon after, the game Asteroids took it a step further and allowed three letter initials to be stored with top scores.

1980 – The first 3D game, Battlezone, is created. The game caught the eye of the US Government, who later modified it for training exercises. Due to the advancing complexity of games, companies begin to form teams to specifically address design. Game designers and programmers soon became separate, distinct careers.

1981 – The gaming industry proves its prominence with the first dedicated periodical, Electronic Games.

1985 – Developed by a Russian programmer, Tetris is released for arcades, video game consoles, as well as home computers.

1989 – Game Boys, handheld gaming devices made by Nintendo, hit the market to much avail. Later in the year, Sega releases the Genesis game console.

1994 – The Entertainment Software Rating Board is created due to concerns about violence in games and the marketing tactics used. Games now receive a rating displayed on the packaging.

1995 – Sony releases the PlayStation in the U.S. By 1997, 20 million units had been sold.

1996 – Arcades switch their focus from traditional video games to the more popular physical riding games, such as skiing, and car/bike racing.

1998 – The Sega Dreamcast is released, one of Sega’s last pulls to stay in the market.

2000 – Sony’s PlayStation 2 is released. The 500,000 initial units sell out instantly at $300 apiece. The same year, The Sims surpasses Myst as the best selling PC game. Game designers now work in teams of dozens to quickly create the complex games being sold.

2001 – “Next Generation” gaming systems are introduced. The Microsoft Xbox and Nintendo GameCube are not only more interactive for the user, but also easier to develop games for. Shortly after the release of these products, Sega announces it will no longer produce hardware.

2004 – The Nintendo DS is released as a purposefully portable system. Sony follows a year later with their portable version, the Sony PSP.

2006 – The Nintendo Wii revolutionizes the market with its controller system, designed to mimic actual physical movements such as swinging a tennis racket or throwing a bowling ball. During the same year, the PlayStation 3 is released as the most sophisticated (and expensive) console.

2007 – Apple releases the iPhone, creating an entirely new device in which to play games.

2008 – The App Store is introduced. With a diverse array of functionalities, games quickly become the most popular and lucrative “apps.” Game designing and developing for Smartphone applications becomes a large niche. In a successful effort to get people of all ages involved and excited about the Wii, Nintendo releases the Wii Fit game. By the next year, Wii Sports surpasses Super Mario Bros as the bestselling video game with over 40 million units sold.

2011 – Projected to grow an additional 30% by 2016, the gaming industry produces sales of over 18 billion per year. Colleges and degrees specifically for game design and production are becoming increasingly advanced and popular.

It’s Christmas time and you are in a hurry. You want to finish shopping and buy gifts for yours little ones or for a nephew or a niece and have no idea where to start. No problem, no matter which part of the world you belong to, there is one variety of games that are always lifesavers when it comes to buying gifts for children and that is one of the games in the long long list of board games. Children love games played on a board with dice and tokens and they have always come in handy for keeping them busy and occupied.

List of Board Games Continued

Being one of the oldest games for children around in the form of chess and checkers at the initial stages and having been developed into many more varieties in the recent years, the list of games played on a board out there can really astound you! Now, before citing some of the names and varieties, it is imperative to be aware of the age group you intend gifting this game to.

If it is for young ones or little kids, then may be Lucky Ducks or a Hungry Hippos could be an ideal one where the child’s hand and eye coordination are greatly improved along with a widening of their knowledge. On the other hand, if you are looking to gift an older child, it can get quite complicated and you may want to make a choice between card games or quiz games, strategic playing games or racing games or even roll and move games, war games or even educational ones.

Well, let’s take a detailed look at each one of these. If it is card games you want from the list games, try Go Fish or the Crazy Eight or may be War and Gin rummy; if strategy games is your choice, then Chess, Checkers would be best, but ensure that the kids are of the right age to play these games as it involves lot of thinking and maneuvering the moves and which even adults find difficult to play.

For a quiz game, Trivial Pursuit could suffice which are especially designed for kids. Backgammon is an ideal race game and most popular board game and can keep the kids enthralled to no end. If wanting to buy a roll and move type of game, some popular games include Candy Land and Snakes and Ladders, Monopoly etc and the advantage in these games is that it can be played by the entire family for hours together!

When it comes to War games, the Strategy board game takes the cake and is meant as a strategy to capture the flag with 40 pieces or so representing different soldiers and officers and the purpose is to defeat the enemy. Risk and Battleship also fall into this category of board games.

If educational games are on your list of board games your purpose, try Scrabble which can improve spellings and vocabulary and if you want a puzzle game, Dominoes or Connect Four could be opted for.

Now, the above list of board games can be quite confusing, so it is always better to read the box for age groups and the number of players it requires and if you have more than 2 kids at home, opting for more than one game can be really helpful and keep them occupied during the long winter seasons.

Just go to the nearest toy store and buy one of the above and it is sure to be a hit with your little ones, no matter what their age group is!

By Heidi R

Check out the List of Board Games – they offer so much as gifts

Author Heidi R remembers how she loved playing board games as a child. See her ideas on [http://www.perfectchristmasstoys.com]. Board games have such good reports because the memories you make with your child are just not able to be made on the same scale in another way. The battle to “win” – the strategy development. Go to [http://www.perfectchristmasstoys.com]

Raging on the internet about how games are being “dumbed” down and simplified is all the… erm.. rage these days.

Hordes of “hardcore” gamers flock to gaming forums and mourn the death of games that don’t hold the players hand and cannot be completed in 7-10 hours of playing.

They say that the “console kids” of today, with their aversion for anything challenging has ruined game design and turned most modern games into;
“click this button to win. No, not that button, over here. Look, this button he… Never mind, I’ll do it for you *click*”.

I am going to confess something to you. I *like* that games have become more casual friendly and that they do a better job of introducing the player to game mechanics and how everything works in the game.

I am almost 30 years old and have been playing games since I was 5 (that was on a C64, talk about a non-user friendly machine).

I have a full time job and a girl friend and I have lots of real life obligations that means I cannot spend anywhere close to the amount of time playing video games that I could (and did) when I was a kid or teenager.

Conversely, I have a lot more money to spend than I did as a kid, so buying/renting new games is much less of an issue for me, than it was 15-20 years ago.

If I am lucky I will have maybe an hour or two in the evening on weekdays and maybe two or three hours in the weekend that I can use for playing games.

That gives me somewhere around maybe 10-12 hours of gaming a week on average.

Having been a video game aficionado since before I could read, I really love video games and I generally want to try out many different games, even if they are not exactly in my normal wheelhouse genre.

During a week I can easily play at least 3-4 different games, especially during a “high” season of releases like Q4 that we have just entered now.

Back in the early 90’s your game would be considered short if it could be completed in less than maybe 20-25 hours.

I remember the outcry from the gaming community when “Max Payne” launched as one of the first “Triple A” games with a sub 10 hour long campaign.
Gamers simply did not feel that they were getting enough bang for their buck.

I also remember playing X-Com: UFO defense (Which *is* a great game, no argument) and spending at least 10-15 hours messing around before I got enough of a grasp of the game mechanics to not get my butt kicked immediately by the first alien invaders that dropped by.

With my time (and, I am sure, this is the situation for many “older” gamers that have grown up and find their calendars booked with grocery shopping, business meetings and dinner with the in-laws) now being such a scarce resource, I can simply no longer persuade myself to devote time into a game that keeps knowledge of how to play it properly, a well kept secret.

I don’t want to play “National Treasure” with the game controls and look for obscure clues that make me go “oh, maybe I need to do this then?” *splat* “No, guess not”.

This goes doubly if the game is also one that promises (threatens?) to use up 20+ hours of my time to complete.

If I’m playing a game with a story (and those are usually the games I prefer) then I really want to see that story through to the end, and knowing it’s going to take me several months of gaming to do that is actually a daunting proposition to me.

So I am perfectly happy with a campaign that I can complete in 6-8 hours.

I like a game that checkpoints my progress every 10 minutes, so I don’t have to replay a one hour section of the game because I screwed up (potentially multiple times, depending on how tough the save system is on you).

Most of all, I like that I can *relax* when I’m playing a game and not stress out in frustration or thinking that I just want to get it done so I can move on to the next game.

And my feeling of self loathing, but that’s another article

To the people that feels that this is the largest gaming disaster since the Nintendo Wii, I can only say; Don’t worry guys, there will always be a segment of the market that enjoys hugely complex and long games.

Certain people will make time in their lives for a game that *demands* the full and utter attention of the gamer for the duration of its 50+ hours of gameplay.

And some will be satisfied with simply picking up a single game every 6-8 months and just play that religiously, never so much as glancing at what else is out there for them to play.

The success of games like Dark Souls is a testament to this.

As for me, I am looking forward to playing (and completing) several great games in the next few months, such as Gears of War 3, Battlefield 3 and Driver: San Francisco.

And you know what?

I may even set the difficulty to easy for some of them!

Passionate gamer and science fiction lover.

With more than 25 years spent playing video games and reading and watching Sci-fi, these are subjects that are very close to my heart.

I write reviews, opinion pieces and stuff that is just meant to put a smile on your face.

If you like this article, then you will probably like my site:

[http://www.lightspeed-gaming.com]

From the perspective of a teenager or youngster playing a computer game is one of the most loved entertainment and they simply desire to indulge into the gaming world and deliver their best effort to win it. With the evolution of the gaming industry, computer and video games are becoming more and more complex and gaming engineers are now able to develop them with superior graphics and sound effects which are closer to reality due to the superior 3D programming and special effects. This technological advancement resulted in a newer generation of gaming where speed and accuracy are crucial for winning the video game. That is why professional gamers prefer to use only the gaming grade hardware to interact with their video or computer game.

A computer mouse, keyboard, headphones and computer screen are the hardware devices that are used to interact with your computer game. Mouse, keyboard and microphone are direct input devices that sends the data to your computer or video game, while on the other hand a computer screen (LCD, LED, CRT) and speakers are the output devices that delivers the data from the computer to the player. Out of these devices the most important ones are the mouse and keyboard because these input devices are responsible to control the computer game. An ordinary computer mouse and keyboard lacks the ability to provide the desired speed and accuracy which is needed for good performance during the game-play.

Computer Mouse Comparison

An ordinary laser based computer mouse uses a 800dpi (dots per inch), this number directly relates to the movement of your mouse on the computer screen, a higher dpi number means better control on your mouse movement. When you use a gaming grade mouse it will have at least 5 times higher dpi number than ordinary PC mouse. Gaming mice utilizes the high precision laser sensor technology to achieve higher dpi number. Latest gaming mice in the market offers a dpi number of 4000 or higher, which explains why a gamer mouse hardware is powerful in comparison to ordinary computer mouse. Additional features of a gaming mouse includes:

1) hyper-response buttons for fast communication with the video game,
2) Programmable keys also called macros which are used to interact with the game directly from the mouse buttons,
3) Customizable LED lights,
4) Adjustable mouse weight,
5) Ergonomic design for long hours of game-play.

Computer Keyboard Comparison

The comparison of an ordinary computer keyboard with a gaming level keyboard is very important because a computer keyboard is the most important input device to submit data to your computer. A gaming grade keyboard has the following features that make it superior gaming hardware for best performance during the game-play:

1) hyper-response keys for ultimate speed in interacting with your game,
2) Several programmable keys or macros to provide better control on your game directly from your keyboard,
3) Soft keys and wrist rests for comfortable long sessions of game-play,
4) Custom illuminated LED lights to adjust colours of selected keys to enable faster communication with your game even in dark environment. A standard computer keyboard does not include such features and hence cannot be used by professionals for best performance in their computer game.

I have compiled the list of the most desirable gaming mice and keybaords of 2011:

• The Best Gaming Mouse of 2011
• The Best Gaming Keyboards of 2011