Video Games

Dance Central 3 keeps the hits coming

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I love the Dance Central franchise. The dance video game genre has given console gaming an extra boost and built upon the casual gaming trend that the Wii started, but the cream of the crop is Dance Central 3. It’s still the best showcase for the technology in the Kinect, and now it’s also the latest platform for Usher to showcase his dance moves.

That’s right, Usher wasn’t satisfied with merely having his songs in the previous versions of Dance Central, he had to take it to the next level and actually be IN the game. As executive producer, he lent his voice to the games tutorial feature, added real choreography directly from his videos, and even jumped into the motion capture suit and imported his signature moves into the game. The result, along with all the lessons the development team learned from the previous two games, is a polished package that gets the sweat dripping and is without a doubt THE party game of this holiday season.

Also, it has the best video game commercial of the year:

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The Unfinished Swan Demo

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Imagine a game where the whole world is a white, amorphous vacuum. The only way you know where you’re going is to fill in the white void with black ink, revealing your surroundings in stark black-and-white contrast.

It’s E3 time in LA. That means more of the glitz and glam we’ve come to associate with new game demos. The big titles get most of the attention, as usual. Oftentimes I end up yawning at the wash, rinse, repeat cycle of popular games that revolve around a grizzled man with a big gun. I’m much more intrigued by the creative and innovative titles that are showcased at E3, and today I stumbled upon a gem: The Unfinished Swan.

The developer of the game is a tiny studio known as Giant Sparrow that grew out of some prototype projects at the University of Southern California. They’re based right here in Santa Monica, and I like the cut of their jib. These kids got moxie, I tell ya! This is a beautiful concept with a stunning story. Kind of reminds me of the Myst days. Watch the full E3 video interview/demo below.

From their website:

The Unfinished Swan is a game about exploring the unknown.

The player is a young boy chasing after a swan who has wandered off into a surreal, unfinished kingdom. The game begins in a completely white space where players can throw paint to splatter their surroundings and reveal the world around them.