RPS plays Real Lives and writes a fascinating diary to document their experiences

If you’ve not yet played Real Lives, then the Rock Paper Shotgun team’s diary of their time with it will be all the encouragement you need to give it a go. Real Lives is essentially a life simulator, but rather than looking after a cutesy digital pet that you have full control over, you’re trying ... source Game The...

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Floppy Candidate is The Washington Post’s new political game that’s got us in a flap

We always love seeing organisations that aren’t typically associated with games trying their hand at the medium, none more so than with Floppy Candidate from The Washington Post. You choose a political candidate, then begin flapping your way through the 2016 electoral calendar. With unlockable characters, tons of trivia, and a decidedly tongue-in-cheek humour, this ... source Game The...

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#Hacked – Syria’s Electronic Armies is Al Jazeera’s disquieting look at the hard realities of cyberwarfare – GameTheNews Exclusive Interview

1. Can you give us a brief description of #Hacked? #Hacked – Syria’s Electronic Armies is a real-life investigation into Syria’s cyberwar presented in the form of a mobile web app. It’s a war where viruses and malware is proving just as dangerous as guns and bullets and the user is asked to gather the ... source Game The...

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Ever wanted to build your own drug cartel? Narcos: Cartel Wars has you covered

We’ve talked about our own NarcoGuerra on these pages before, as well as a GameTheNews Twitch special in which we played and discussed this and other GTN games, but if you’re keen to explore the other side of the war on drugs, then Narcos: Cartel Wars might well be worth a look. The game is ... source Game The...

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Latest Dark Future: Blood Red States video explains how the game has been shaped by science

Over on the official Dark Future: Blood Red States blog there’s a smashing post about how real-world science has helped shape its fictional world of roving gangs and car combat. We’ve nabbed the accompanying video and embedded it below. For the full post visit the game’s website and then add Dark Future: Blood Red States ... source Game The...

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NarcoGuerra and Endgame:Syria on Auroch Digital’s Twitch channel – GameTheNews Special

Every Friday at 16:30 (UK time), Auroch Digital hosts an hour long stream, playing a variety of games from its archives.     A recent episode was a GameTheNews special, with Community Manager Jake Connor being joined by Tomas Rawlings to talk NarcoGuerra and Endgame:Syria, while touching on the genesis of GTN and chatting about all things “news game”....

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Have you Gamed the News?

At GameTheNews, we are always on the lookout for projects that parallel, educate or comment on real-world events such politics, conflict, medicine, etc., and the effects of these topics on the people involved. We see newsgames as an important medium in news reporting, as a concept to raise awareness about difficult subjects, as well as in gaming, with the hope...

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Donald Trump in ‘Supreme Ruler’ DLC

Supreme Ruler, developed by BattleGoat studios, has recently been updated with new DLC, called Trump Rising… and it’s as scary as it sounds. In this version, you play as President Donald Trump after winning the American Election. The goal is to “Make America Great Again” by building walls, deporting immigrants and bombing ISIS. There is also the possibility to...

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Using VR and brain training to help paraplegics walk

At Duke University there has been a study using VR and non-invasive brain-machine interfaces (BMIs). They have been using this technology to revolutionise the lives of people with chronic physical injuries such as paraplegia.   Credit: AASDAP/ Lente Viva Filmes They studied 8 people, 7 of whom were quadriplegics, by attaching them to a brain-controlled exoskeleton while they were placed...

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Playing at Science – Tomas Rawlings

Earlier this month, we looked at the winning game for the Longitude Prize’s search for a game to raise awareness of antibiotic resistance. As a lead up to this, at the beginning of the year, our very own Dr Tomas Rawlings wrote an article for them on the subject of how video games and science can work together. As...

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Educational Apps and E-learning – When is it too Much?

There is lots of talk about the benefits of using gaming as a very effective platform for encouraging audiences, particularly young audiences, to engage with serious topics. As this has become more and more popular, the use of games and apps for education is at an all time high. However, we still don’t really know how much is too much for...

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Superbugs – Can You Defend Humanity Against the Resistance?

The resistance to antibiotics is a big problem, a problem that the Longitude Prize feels is so big that in 2014 they launched a challenge, calling all innovators from around the world, to help them tackle it before 2019. The multi-million pound challenge brings the focus to creating a diagnostic test which reduce the prescription of antibiotics when they...

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The Perfect Game if EU Want Control Over the Referendum

The build up to today has been relentless with both the leave and remain campaigns picking up speed and all the polls showing it will be close, very close. Earlier in the week I tweeted that we’d missed a trick in creating a referendum game, turns out Buzzfeed got there first with their game, Brexit Ballot Bonanza! Either you’re bored...

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Trump’s Had a Heart Attack!

Unfortunately not in real life but in the latest update to Surgeon Simulator he has and you’re the surgeon operating on him! He needs a heart transplant and you decide whether he has a heart of gold or a heart of stone, or you could just do neither and slap him round the face with a steak while he...

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Apple and the Political Debate

With our personal experience of Apple’s policy on games and politics, Endgame:Syria, it’s nice to see that with enough push from the online community they will relax their stance. Although it does beg to wonder why this is still on a game by game basis and why Apple have taken this stance in the first place. Especially when it...

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Government Propaganda and Gaming

Propaganda is commonplace in any war but it would be nice to think that we wouldn’t fall for believing the enemy is dropping poisoned sweets by fly over to poison our children any more. The fact is, we wouldn’t, as with everything propaganda has to move with the times to stay effective. Recently, Reuters posted an interesting podcast where...

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Can You Bring Democracy to Africa?

With Elections of the US America Election: The Card Game just about to go to print, we’ve been taking an interest in other games based on politics. Democracy 3: Africa is a turn-based political strategy game which puts the player in charge of some of the major countries on the African continent. As in real life it is no...

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Addictive Statistics

Guess the Correlation is the brainchild of PHd student Omar Wagih and is using players scores to support his research into bioinformatics. It is another perfect example of how it is possible to take a difficult subject matter and make it interesting, educational, fun or in this case all of the above and incredibly addictive to top it off....

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Big Pharma – Marketing & Malpractise

Big Pharma was released back in August 2015 and in a very ‘Theme Hospital’ style manner, puts the player in the shoes of a medical drugs tycoon. It starts of simply, you are a drugs manufacturer with a great new drug, now you need to get it out to public. Things very quickly take a turn, all of a...

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Elections of US America Election: The Card Game

Who doesn’t like a bit of political satire on a Sunday afternoon with the family? Exactly. That’s why we couldn’t resist the perfect opportunity to create a game where the jokes pretty much write themselves. We’ve teamed up with US political satire site, Wonkette, to give you; Elections of US America Elections: The Card Game! Elections of US America...

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