It's game time

Not done a video game post for a while now. While the Wii and now the XBox360 attempt to do away with traditional controllers, here's two novel games I'm quite looking forward to playing.

Firstly, Ghostwire. Augmented reality is something that's been floating around universities for a while now, and what with smartphones with built-in cameras and accelerometers becoming the norm there's been some rather cool apps that use the technology. I've yet to see anything truly useful, but there's loads of really cool stuff. Ghostwire uses AR as a game mechanism - it runs on the Nintendo DSi, which has a back-mounted camera. You play by wandering around the room or wherever you happen to be, and the screen shows your actual view. Sometimes you'll encounter ghosts, some friendly, some nasty. Not sure if the game has any kind of plot or online play, or if it's just a tech demo disguised as a game, but it's definately cool not just because it's using an emerging technology but because it's actually a really novel way of engaging the player within the game.

On a completely different note, Sega have surpassed themselves with their novelty items. As if a video game based entirely around shaking maracas wasn't mad enough, they've now developed Toylets, a game probably not coming soon to a urinal near you (unless you live in Tokyo). Basically, the game consists of a small screen above a urinal and a bunch of sensors, and you play various mini-games by pissing. Which is nice. You can use your urine stream to clean a wall of graffiti, try to fill a bottle, or if you have a particularly powerful stream you can attempt to lift a young lady's dress, Marylin Monroe style. Amazingly, each device has a USB port so you can save your highest scores and take them home.