I think I am really into Casual Gaming now. I don’t really feel the urge of getting one of those FPS (First Person Shooter) anymore. I think that died after Half Life 2 (Which I thoroughly recommend). My attention span for games are much shorter nowadays. 30 minutes max. Or there abouts. Gone are the days of 3 hours-of continuous eye-gluing to the monitor. Heh…

But, talk about Game Development, now, that’s an entirely different monster!

Just a list of some that has caught my eye recently:

• Zune 2.0 using XNA Studio 3.0

I tried using XNA to code and do some 3D stuff, and to tell the truth… it was really easy! And it has good documentations to guide you through. Okay, you need to understand coding, but if you know just some basic (as in really some, some… like myself) it would not take too much effort to get you into it. Best part is now, that platform for building games is open to the Zune (something like the Ipod, but by Microsoft). Makes me so tempted to get one for myself. It’s cheaper than the Ipod and has more functionality… Go figure!!!

• Little Big Planet

This might be the only game that will make people scramble for the PS3. I have nothing much to say since this article here does it so well. But based on what I have seen… look out for this one. It has everything good that a platform game ever needed. It emphasises on using your brains to solve puzzles. It uses physics and teamwork… two good points which every game excels in.

Making games is an art, and is a passion for most people. Rarely is it an enjoyable work that one would ever consider just for the money. Maybe that’ll change tomorrow, but for the moment, games should always be made by the gamers first.

• Popfly

This is an intriguing site, initiated by *gasp* Microsoft! It’s hard to believe, but Microsoft is actually giving a platform (very very easy one) to create any simple game without knowing ANY coding. The complexities of the game increases as one goes higher…

http://www.popfly.com/Home.aspx

This really has potential. I encourage everyone to try it.

Go play some games now!