Mihir Shah, product head at www.Games2Win.com, who began as a game tester, now brings home a ‘fat’ paycheck and loves his job immensely. “Game testing is great fun but don’t overlook the hard work and concentration it demands,” he insists. Just like gaming is a serious business, so is game testing. According to Shah, game testers are unsung heroes. Though they spend countless hours testing games and making them bug-free, they don’t get so much recognition, he adds.

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There are other aspects to the gaming industry. You can enter the industry as a game tester where you will spend your time testing new games and give your opinions and suggest improvements to make it more exciting. But the main job of a game tester is to analyse the game and find out the software defects commonly called as bugs.  You can even look at the biz-dev side on sales and marketing. You can look at overseeing or at the production side of the things if you have good product management skills. Audio visuals and sound are another aspects apart from graphic designing and programming. There are many institutes in India who provide you a number of gaming courses including a two and a half year advance diploma in animation and gaming. You can join this industry as a sound engineer. you may also try to get into the industry as a trainee on the basis of your knowledge of electronics, computers, recording technology and passion for music. Sound engineering can also lead you to get a placement into the music industry. Currently there are around 4800 listed game testing jobs on naukri.com and youngsters are now looking at the gaming industry as their first career option after completing graduation

People who want to make it into the gaming industry should figure out what in this industry interests them the most and then just go ahead and follow their passion. Passion is the key to get into this industry. Tools can be taught but skills are something you should have along with the passion.

Its a 48 hours LAN gaming event, with a BYOC LAN party going on one side and a tournament going on in a separate zone. This time they are planning to host the tournaments of Counter strike 1.6 (5 vs 5), DotA, Crysis Warhead Instant Action (5 vs 5), Call Of Duty 4 and Unreal Tournament 3 (1 vs 1). The prize money is quite big this time. The prizes are sponsored by steelseries, msi, SKOAR!

BYOC is India’s largest gaming festival(LAN gaming event) organized by Xtreme gaming. They are hosting a LAN party where gamers across the country can play multiplayer computer games on LAN. The attendee are required to carry their own PC’s/laptops. You can register for the tournaments at the venue itself or you can mail your details. Cost of registration is Rs. 200/- per person which has to be paid at the venue. The venue has a fully loaded food court which includes dominos, mac’s and a few speciality restaurants. If you are a dedicated gamer you definitely dont wanna miss this bash!

If you know nothing about the story found in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, this game is not the place to start. In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Dumbledore prepares Harry for the final battle that he knows is fast approaching as Voldemort is tightening his grip on both the Muggle and wizarding worlds. Together they work to find the key to unlock Voldemort’s defenses and, to this end, Dumbledore recruits his old friend and colleague, the well-connected and unsuspecting bon vivant Professor Horace Slughorn, whom he believes holds crucial information.

Most of the game is played in third person perspective. Half-Blood Princefeatures the exploration of Hogwarts and casting spells on objects around the school, similar to its predecessor Order of the Phoenix. The game gives you a chance to engage in wizard duels, mix magical ingredients in potions class and to lead the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Unlike the previous game, The Marauder’s Map is not included on the game. Instead, Harry calls on Nearly Headless Nick to show him around the school. In the game you can make potions in the first person mode. Quidditch is another plus point of the game. In the half blood prince Harry is the captain of the quidditch team. Unlike the other Harry Potter games the flight is more controllable in this version. When you are chasing the snitch and the camera is always heading in whatever direction the gold ball is. This means you are not really controlling where you are going, but you are controlling where on the screen you are. you may even get sidetracked by Ron’s romantic entanglement. The game has a dramatic climax as you discover the true identity of the half blood prince.

According to Kristine Steimer The biggest differentiator between Order of the Phoenix and Half-Blood Prince is the quality of the mini-games. Potion making is challenging enough to hold interest; dueling is a blast (especially once you learn the Levicorpus spell); and even Quidditch flying, which is probably the least exciting of the three, doesn’t seem tedious.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the script of the movie is being written by Kyle Ward, who also wrote the Hitman flick and the in-the-works Kane and Lynch film.The Uncharted movie is being produced by Avi Arad, Charles Roven, Ari Arad and Alex Gartner. Avi Arad, former head of Marvel’s film productions, is also working on a film version of the video game Mass Effect.

Gameplay in Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune is a combination of 3D platforming and third-person shooter gameplay elements. The game gives a Tomb Raider like experience. The game is about the journey of protagonist Nathan Drake, supposed descendant of the explorer Sir Francis Drake, as he seeks the lost treasure of El Dorado, coping with rival hunters and evil mutants.  He is accompanied by a friend “sully” Sullivan and journalist Elena Fisher in the quest. The game proved to be a ’summer blockbuster’ action game.

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune is a film-worthy franchise and I’m not at all surprised to see that its getting the film treatment. Lets hope that the film turns out to be great instead of the typical video game-to-movie adaptations.

Jackson, in addition to being a bestselling pop artist with The Jackson 5 and as a solo act, was also featured in a number of video games, including one based on his short film Moonwalker. Developed by Sega for the arcade and Sega Genesis, the excellent Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker was the begining of a relationship that would see the musician later appear in Space Channel 5 and Space Channel 5: Part 2. Moonwalker was a revolutionary step and got a lot of attention as it had a real-life celebrity appearing in a video game. It also had digitized versions of some of MJ’s famous tracks.

The plot of Moonwalker was quite interesting. Jackson had to rescue the helpless children from the crime boss names Mr.Big. Jackson’s special attack was a dance move, and when activated, a spotlight from the heavens illuminated him as he pulled off some signature spins and kicks, destroying many of the onscreen enemies. He also featured in Space Channel 5 which is a music video game series published by sega. The gameplay features a system where the player is supposed to copy the sequence of the dance steps performed by the computer. Michael Jackson, appears as a cameo in the first game, but becomes a fully involved character in Part 2. After being rescued by Ulala from the Rhythm Rogues, Michael uses his singing skills against a singing robot.

This year, the King of Pop was planned to have auctioned off a large number of items from his Neverland Ranch estate, including a wide variety of arcade games and consoles. At the time of his death, rumors had surfaced that Jackson was involved with a new video game project for the Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 2, and PlayStation 3, but the game was never officially confirmed.

Ray tracing is a technique for generating an image by tracing the path of light through pixels in an image plane. The technique is capable of producing a very high degree of photorealism; usually higher than that of typical scanline rendering methods, but at a greater computational cost. Ray tracing is capable of simulating a wide variety of optical effects, such as reflection and refraction, scattering, and chromatic aberration.

Intel Day 2009 highlighted more than 40 research projects demonstrating the latest in technology innovation from researchers at Intel Corporation. Intel Labs gave media a peak at the future in the areas of eco-technology, 3-D Internet, enterprise IT and wireless mobility.

Nick Williams, head of the OTX GamePlan service, said the chart tracks three key measures: aided awareness of a game, the intent to purchase it, and the intent to pre-order the game from retailers.Average score for all three metrics is 100. Halo:ODST has an intent rating of 8 times higher than the average game at 878, to give you an idea. The data was collected from a sample of about 1,000 U.S. gamers between the ages 13-59 years. OTX Gameplan conducted this survey via web offers. The survey was conducted just after the E3 conference (between 7th june-20th june). E3 is platform where all of the upcoming games are displayed for the first time.

One thing we noticed about the list is that there are a lot of sequels in it which indicates that there are fewer high-profile original games coming out this year. The other important thing to notice is that the exclusive games are high because they have listed separate SKUs as different games. For example,if you add Assassin’s Creed 2’s PS3 and 360 SKUs then you get 722 on the purchase intent index which is a lot more than Mario and God of War. Same with Final Fantasy XIII and Modern Warfare 2 etc.

The plot of the game is quite interesting. Splinter cell: Convictiuon sees Sam Fisher walks out on Third Echelon, despite threats from his superiors. He is now investigating the death of his daughter, Sarah Fisher, who was killed in a drunk driving accident during the events of Splinter Cell: Double Agent. Sam soon discovers that his daughter’s death was no accident, and must now uncover why his daughter was murdered and what connections it has to Third Echelon, which has become bogged down with red tape to the point of ineffectiveness and corruption.

Splinter Cell: Conviction is host to a number of new gameplay features for the series. One of these is the “Mark & Execute” feature. Mark and Execute allows Sam to peer under doors, gauging the locations of his enemies and targeting them for near-automatic headshots when you burst through the door or into the line of fire. The feature prioritizes the targets; for instance, if Sam enters a room with two enemies and a light fixture and the light and one enemy are targeted, he will target the light first to prevent the other enemy from detecting him and then take out the first enemy. The game has many revolutionary features for instance when Sam is hidden in shadows, stealthing along like the ex-spy he is, the environment’s colour actually drains away. The game has an intuitive system that keeps you immersed in the environment, reminding you that it’s critical to study and interpret the world around you before making any rash decisions.There is also the “last known location” feature, which occurs when Sam has been spotted but breaks the line of sight with the enemy. This produces a silhouette outlining Sam’s last known location that the enemy saw him, allowing him to alter his actions accordingly. Other features include the ability to shoot while hanging, and interrogating enemies using the environment, such as smashing someone’s head into a mirror.

Splinter Cell: Conviction feels like a more natural step for the franchise. Rather than turn Sam into a rebel in hiding, Ubisoft has made this Fisher an action hero in search of revenge, stalking from the shadows. There is no doubt, Splinter Cell: Conviction was one of the most impressive games at E3 conference.

NVIDIA is now planning to launch another generation of high-end graphics chips this year. The chips are expected to be delivered for the personal computer market this year but no one knows exactly when. Jen-Hsun Huang, chief executive of Nvidia, said at the company’s analyst meeting in Santa Clara, Calif., that he would not comment on his next generation of graphics chips until they are available in computers. Upcoming games are also expected to exploit cool features of graphics chips, including much better physics simulations, which means that physical effects will accompany realistic graphics in games. You will see, for instance, that explosions will take out walls, which might throw up a cloud of smoke as they collapse on top of enemies.

Last year NVIDIA let Advanced Micro Devices get ahead of them in the graphics chips race. Nvidia’s partners also ran into reliability problems attaching its graphics chips to laptop system boards. The NVIDIA comeback plan also includes a push into new markets. David White, the company’s chief financial officer, said the company hopes to regain its historical gross margins above 40 percent (which is currently 32-34 percent) by selling a richer mix of high-end chips. Those include Tegra mobile chips, Tesla and Quadro heavy-duty computing products, and the new Ion chipset for netboo.

Microsoft will put windows 7 on stores and computer makers on October 22nd. The new chips ideally have to be ready by that time. Windows 7 is expected to see better demand out of the gate than Windows Vista, which was slow compared to Windows XP. Windows 7 will also have features such as touch-screen control and a new graphics standard, DirectX 11. The new graphics chips are important because they will delivers new graphics features that leading-edge consumers are likely to want. One feature is GPU Compute, which uses a graphics chip to perform non-graphics applications such as converting video from one format to another.

PhysX technology has proved instrumental in making the game feel alive and real. The NVIDIA PhysX development platform consists of a robust physics engine, API, and middleware designed to give developers and animators unprecedented creative control over the look of their final in-game interactivity by allowing them to author and preview physics in real time. NVIDIA PhysX technology works across all major gaming platforms, including PC, Xbox360, PLAYSTATION3, Nintendo Wii, and the iPhone, and can be accelerated by both the CPU and any CUDA-enabled NVIDIA GPU. NVIDIA PhysX technology delivers real-time, hyper-realistic physical and environmental gaming effects in the games. PhysX-powered games gives user a lifelike experience with blazing explosions, reactive debris, realistic water, lifelike character motion etc. NVIDIA is the world leader in visual computing technologies and the inventor of the GPU, a high-performance processor which generates breathtaking, interactive graphics on workstations, personal computers, game consoles, and mobile devices.

Zapak Gameplexes are the only gaming chains in India that offers gamers a world-class gaming experience supported by world-class infrastructure, high-speed broadband and over 200+ games. Thousands of gaming enthusiasts walk into Gameplexes every week making it the fastest growing gaming destination for youth. Zapak Gameplex offers the best games and a world class gaming experience. They have been the first to adopt this new technology. Working with Zapak will definitely give NVIDIA an opportunity to bring PhisX technology to a wide audiance.