Blog Posts by Ben Silverman

Franchises You Won't See in 2011

No doubt about it -- 2011 is shaping up to an absolute barnburner
of a year for gamers. But not all great franchises are getting in on the act.
While anticipated sequels to the likes of Uncharted, Gears of War and Mass Effect
are headed to consoles, some of the industry's biggest names will be taking the
year off.

The Grateful Dead Gamers are about to embark on a long, strange trip.

Provided, that is, they decide to truck along with a virtual world based on iconic jam rockers The Grateful Dead. Due to launch in August,
the online game is being handled by Curious Sense, who recently created 'Find Your Own Way Home,' an online venture based on the substantially less influential REO Speedwagon.

Sound crazy? Not to Curious Sense CEO Adam Blumenthal, who told Rolling Stone that the Dead is "one of two or three perfect bands for this kind of multi-channel game
experience."

Multi-channel is right. The new game world will be accessible from a variety of services,
including Facebook, the band's official site, and mobile

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Brain power! Gamers spend hours honing their skills by twiddling their thumbs. But according to new research, their expertise might be entirely in
their heads.

Researchers from the University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign say they can predict a subject's skill at video games simply by studying their brain using standard image scanning technology, reports Wired. The
study, which will be published in online journal PLoS One, set out to determine whether subtle differences in brain structure could be found in people more naturally gifted than others in performing complex tasks -- including games.

Fool your brain with optical illusions

Using MRI scans, researchers mapped out the brains of 34

Hey Capcom, go make your own games.

That's the sentiment coming from independent game
developer Twisted Pixel, who were stunned when they caught wind of a iOS platformer
from Capcom Mobile called MaXplosion. The problem? It bears more than a passing resemblance to Twisted Pixel's own 2009 Xbox Live hit, 'Splosion
Man.

Don't take their (or our) word for it. Check out the videos!

MaXsplosion

and 'Splosion Man

Yikes. Two side-scrolling platform games set in a laboratory
featuring a devilish lead character who jumps by exploding? Coincidence?

Twisted Pixel were dismayed at the resemblance, and particularly
by the identity of the apparent wrongdoers.

"The fact that 'Splosion Man was cloned

3DS - Nintendo Bummed that there are no new home consoles coming in 2011?
Buck up, gamer: Nintendo's got your back.

Announced last June at the E3 2010 convention, the company's
portable 3DS system is hitting shelves on February 26 in Japan and sometime around the end of March in North America, bringing with it the promise of true 3D
visuals in the palm of your hand. It's a daring move, but one that many believe
is exactly what Nintendo needs to do to maintain their relevance in a market
increasingly encroached upon by the likes of Apple and Android.

Though some of the most essential 3DS facts -- price point,
launch date and launch lineup -- are still up the air, plenty of details have
already been

Doodle Jump With thousands of games competing for room on the App Store, developers are hard-pressed to make a name for themselves. Lima Sky, makers of perennial chart-topper 'Doodle Jump', managed to do just that, and they'd now like other developers to kindly back off their prized pig.

With the support of Apple, Lima Sky is reportedly attempting to enforce its trademark by issuing warnings to the developers of other apps with the word 'doodle' in the title. But competing developers aren't backing down.

"If we all stand together on this, the little guy won't be so little," said
Brian Duke of Acceleroto, developer of 'Doodle Hockey', in a forum thread on TouchArcade. "I'm fighting this. You should

Superhero Games of 2011

The planet is in peril! Luckily, the cape-and-spandex crowd
is once again headed to consoles, teaming up with gamers to save the world from
the machinations of various evildoers. Behold the good guys of 2011.

MLB 2K11 - 2K Sports It isn't easy to pitch a perfect game, but when $1 million is on the line, it's not hard to try.

2K Sports has announced the return of last year's epic Perfect Game Challenge, which will award $1 million to the first player able to
throw a verified perfect game in the upcoming MLB 2K11 for the Xbox 360 and PS3.

Unlike last year, younger gamers can now vie for a shot at
the prize, as the age restriction has been lowered from 18 to 13 and up. Give
partial credit to cover athlete (and perfect game tosser) Roy Halladay for
that.

[List: Most anticipated games of 2011]

"When we signed him for the cover this year, he said,
"Oh man, my kid was going after the million dollars last year, but he