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Over The Hedge (DS Game)
''Over the Hedge'' is a platform video game with stealth elements developed by Vicarious Visions and published by Activision for the Nintendo DS handheld video game console. It was first released in North America, and was later released in Europe. The game is set immediately after the events of the DreamWorks movie '' Over the Hedge'', just like its adaptations on consoles. Gameplay involves guiding three playable woodland creatures through suburban houses to collect items and return them to their forest. House inhabitants and traps must be avoided or neutralized to succeed. The game's plot concerns Gladys Sharp's attempt to turn what is left of the animals' forest into a swimming pool; the animals try to prevent this by luring endangered species to the forest, making the forest a protected habitat. ''Over the Hedge'' received positive and average reviews from the gaming press, as well as gaming website IGN's 'Best Game No One Played' award for 2006. The game was praised ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vicarious Visions
Blizzard Albany (formerly Vicarious Visions, Inc.) is an American video game developer based in Albany, New York. The studio was acquired by Activision in January 2005. After releasing its last game as part of that company, ''Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2'', Vicarious Visions became part of Activision's sister company Blizzard Entertainment in January 2021 and was merged into it in April 2022, thereby being renamed Blizzard Albany. History The studio was founded by brothers Karthik and Guha Bala in 1991 while they were in high school. In the late 1990s, Vicarious Visions appointed Michael Marvin, an Albany-based investor and entrepreneur, and founder and former CEO of MapInfo Corporation; and Charles S. Jones, investor, who sat on the boards of various software and industrial companies including Geac and PSDI, to its board of directors. Under their leadership, a sale of the company was negotiated to Activision, earning the original investors over 20x their initial investment. I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2006 Video Games
2006 saw the release of many sequels and prequels in video games, prominently including ''New Super Mario Bros.'', ''Sonic the Hedgehog'', and '' The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess'', alongside many prominent new releases including '' Bully'', ''Company of Heroes'', ''Dead Rising'', '' Gears of War'', '' Just Cause'', '' Lost Planet: Extreme Condition'', ''Ōkami'', ''Prey'', '' Resistance: Fall of Man'', ''Saints Row'', and ''Thrillville''. Two new home consoles were released during the year: Nintendo's Wii and Sony's PlayStation 3. The year's best-selling game console was the Nintendo DS, while the year's best-selling video game was ''New Super Mario Bros.'' for the DS. The year's most critically acclaimed title was ''The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess'' for Nintendo's GameCube and Wii consoles. Events Business Critically acclaimed titles Metacritic (MC) and GameRankings (GR) are aggregators of video game journalism reviews. Financial performance Best-se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
GameSpot
''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition to the information produced by ''GameSpot'' staff, the site also allows users to write their own reviews, blogs, and post on the site's forums. It has been owned by Fandom, Inc. since October 2022. In 2004, ''GameSpot'' won "Best Gaming Website" as chosen by the viewers in Spike TV's second ''Video Game Award Show'', and has won Webby Awards several times. The domain ''gamespot.com'' attracted at least 60 million visitors annually by October 2008 according to a Compete.com study. History In January 1996, Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein quit their positions at IDG and founded SpotMedia Communications. SpotMedia then launched ''GameSpot'' on May 1, 1996. Originally, ''GameSpot'' focused solely on personal computer games, so a sis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc Doyle, and Julie Doyle Roberts in 1999. The site provides an excerpt from each review and hyperlinks to its source. A color of green, yellow or red summarizes the critics' recommendations. It is regarded as the foremost online review aggregation site for the video game industry. Metacritic's scoring converts each review into a percentage, either mathematically from the mark given, or what the site decides subjectively from a qualitative review. Before being averaged, the scores are weighted according to a critic's popularity, stature, and volume of reviews. The website won two Webby Awards for excellence as an aggregation website. Criticism of the site has focused on the assessment system, the ass ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
GameRankings
GameRankings was a video gaming review aggregator that was founded in 1999 and owned by CBS Interactive. It indexed over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 video games. GameRankings was discontinued in December 2019, with its staff being merged with the similar aggregator Metacritic. Rankings GameRankings collected and linked to (but did not host) reviews from other websites and magazines and averages specific ones. While hundreds of reviews may get listed, only the ones that GameRankings deemed notable were used for the average. Scores were culled from numerous American and European sources. The site used a percentage grade for all reviews in order to be able to calculate an average. However, because not all sites use the same scoring system (some rate out of 5 or 10, while others use a letter grade), GameRankings changed all other types of scores into percentages using a relatively straightforward conversion process. When a game accumulated six total reviews, it w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Game Developers Conference
The Game Developers Conference (GDC) is an annual conference for video game developers. The event includes an expo, networking events, and awards shows like the Game Developers Choice Awards and Independent Games Festival, and a variety of tutorials, lectures, and round Table, roundtables by industry professionals on game-related topics covering Video game programmer, programming, game design, design, audio, production, business and management, and visual arts. History Originally called the Computer Game Developers Conference, the first conference was organized in April 1988 by Chris Crawford (game designer), Chris Crawford in his San Jose, California-area living room. About twenty-seven designers attended, including Don Daglow, Brenda Laurel, Brian Moriarty, Gordon Walton, Tim Brengle, Cliff Johnson (game designer), Cliff Johnson, Dave Menconi, and Carol and Ivan Manley. The second conference, held that same year at a Holiday Inn at Milpitas, California, Milpitas, attracted abou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gamasutra
''Game Developer'', known as ''Gamasutra'' until 2021, is a website founded in 1997 that focuses on aspects of video game development. It is owned and operated by Informa and acts as the online sister publication to the print magazine '' Game Developer''. Sections ''Game Developer'' has five main sections: #News: where daily news is posted #Features: where developers post-game postmortems and critical essays #Blogs: where users can post their thoughts and views on various topics #Jobs/Resume: where users can apply for open positions at various development studios #Contractors: where users can apply for contracted work. The articles can be filtered by either topic (All, Console/ PC, Social/Online, Smartphone/ Tablet, Independent, Serious) or category (Programming, Art, Audio, Design, Production, Biz(Business)/Marketing). There are three additional sections: a store where books on game design may be purchased, an RSS section where users may subscribe to RSS feeds of each s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Read-only Memory
Read-only memory (ROM) is a type of non-volatile memory used in computers and other electronic devices. Data stored in ROM cannot be electronically modified after the manufacture of the memory device. Read-only memory is useful for storing software that is rarely changed during the life of the system, also known as firmware. Software applications (like video games) for programmable devices can be distributed as plug-in cartridges containing ROM. Strictly speaking, ''read-only memory'' refers to memory that is hard-wired, such as diode matrix or a mask ROM integrated circuit (IC), which cannot be electronically changed after manufacture. Although discrete circuits can be altered in principle, through the addition of bodge wires and/or the removal or replacement of components, ICs cannot. Correction of errors, or updates to the software, require new devices to be manufactured and to replace the installed device. Floating-gate ROM semiconductor memory in the form of erasab ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Game Engine
A game engine is a software framework primarily designed for the development of video games and generally includes relevant libraries and support programs. The "engine" terminology is similar to the term "software engine" used in the software industry. The game engine can also refer to the development software utilizing this framework, typically offering a suite of tools and features for developing games. Developers can use game engines to construct games for video game consoles and other types of computers. The core functionality typically provided by a game engine may include a rendering engine ("renderer") for 2D or 3D graphics, a physics engine or collision detection (and collision response), sound, scripting, animation, artificial intelligence, networking, streaming, memory management, threading, localization support, scene graph, and video support for cinematics. Game engine implementers often economize on the process of game development by reusing/adapting, in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Full Motion Video
Full-motion video (FMV) is a video game narration technique that relies upon pre-recorded video files (rather than sprites, vectors, or 3D models) to display action in the game. While many games feature FMVs as a way to present information during cutscenes, games that are primarily presented through FMVs are referred to as full-motion video games or interactive movies. The early 1980s saw almost exclusive use of the LaserDisc for FMV games. Many arcade games used the technology but it was ultimately considered to be a fad and fell out of use. In the early 1990s FMV games had a resurgence of interest, the proliferation of optical discs gave rise to a slew of original FMV-based computer games such as ''Night Trap'' (1992), ''The 7th Guest'' (1993), ''Voyeur'' (1993), ''Phantasmagoria '' (1995), and '' Daryl F. Gates' Police Quest: SWAT'' (1995). The introduction of CD-based consoles like 3DO, CD-i, and Sega CD brought the concept of interactive FMV gameplay. Comp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cutscene
A cutscene or event scene (sometimes in-game cinematic or in-game movie) is a sequence in a video game that is not interactive, interrupting the gameplay. Such scenes are used to show conversations between characters, set the mood, reward the player, introduce newer models and gameplay elements, show the effects of a player's actions, create emotional connections, improve pacing or foreshadow future events. Cutscenes often feature "on the fly" rendering, using the gameplay graphics to create scripted events. Cutscenes can also be pre-rendered computer graphics streamed from a video file. Pre-made videos used in video games (either during cutscenes or during the gameplay itself) are referred to as " full motion videos" or "FMVs". Cutscenes can also appear in other forms, such as a series of images or as plain text and audio. History ''The Sumerian Game'' (1966), an early mainframe game designed by Mabel Addis, introduced its Sumerian setting with a slideshow synchronized to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
