Gingerbread devices may soon have a whole slew of new games available to them, as Sony is lining up a new channel for distributing Playstation games onto Android devices. Dubbed Playstation Suite, this channel will be distributing certified Playstation titles to compatible Android phones, tablets, and the next-gen Playstation Portable device. If you Android doesn’t have a slide-out keyboard (for shame!), the Playstation game app will simulate a keyboard on-screen for you. Sony has announced that PSOne titles will be emulated in the Playstation Suite, but they have not yet announced any prices or what the specific requirements will be — but obviously the Xperia Play is likely at the top of the list. We expect more details to be announced at Mobile World Congress in a few weeks.

Sony Announces Playstation Suite, Android Gaming Store

View full post on Android News, Rumours, and Updates

Dungeon Defenders, the ever popular mobile game, brought to you by Trendy Entertainment, has released a new version of their game bringing it up to v2.0.  The new update allows for cross platform gaming between multiple OS’s like Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android platform.  Check out the new additions included in this update with the PDF version of the press release here and let us know what you think in the comments below.  And don’t forget, if you grab the game for the remainder of the day, it’s only 99¢. After Jan 19th the price goes back up to $4.99.  So, head on over to our Talk Android apps database or check it out on the Android market.

Dungeon Defenders Releases Version 2.0, Brings Cross Platform Gaming To iOS and Android, 99¢ Today Only

View full post on Android News, Rumours, and Updates

Sennheiser showed some classic headphones at CES, but the most impressive was the new gaming headphone series, particularly PC 333D.

View full post on Macworld

As expected, Nvidia made a powerful presence on stage today at CES and after discussing a number of their products, they finally got around to their powerful and highly anticipated Tegra 2 processor.  They demonstrated some of the gaming graphics and quality utilizing the LG Optimus 2X, LG’s first dual core smartphone to run the chip set.  Nvidia began their demonstration running the popular online game Dungeon Defenders with the 2X, while multiple players  in the same game, in real time,  played off of the same server using a PS3 and a desktop PC.  It was certainly an impressive demonstration.  We look forward to seeing how this plays out when the network is up and running in more cities and with a majority of users actually sharing the bandwidth.

Verizon then hopped up on stage, taking full advantage of the segway, and began explaining how well gamers would benefit from the technology and LTE’s low latency network performance.  Verizon has yet to announce what type of devices gamers might expect to see the game running on, but we’re hoping it makes its way to both the tablet and the smartphone without issue or delay.  Hit the break for more info and to check out the press release.  Do you think gaming on an Android device is going to take a turn for the better this year, proving to be a worthy opponent of the iPhone and iPad?  Let us know what you think in the comments below. Read More…

Tegra 2 Allows Higher Caliber Gaming On Mobile, Verizon Lends LTE Devices To Demonstrate

View full post on Android News, Rumours, and Updates

These are throwbacks to the games of the ’80s and ’90s… but with the modern trimmings only a touchscreen can provide.

View full post on Macworld

I have often scoffed at the idea of your phone being considered a gaming console. I’m not sure why, seeing as how I do everything else on it, but “serious” gaming has never really occurred to me. Angry Birds is awesome, but I play it for a minute or two and put it away. It’s something I do when waiting in line or something, it doesn’t bear the same significance as a proper release title on a console or a computer. The guys at Trendy Entertainment are among many who seek to change that, but these guys are doing it with the Unreal 3 gaming engine!

The Unreal 3 engine is a pretty big deal. With it, game developers will be able to deliver rich 3D environments for their games to thrive in. Over 100 games for nearly every major console have been made using Unreal 3, including huge titles like Gears of War, Borderlands, and Mirror’s Edge. This engine becoming available to the mobile space could bring not only significantly improved graphics, but in the long term we could even see cross platform gaming, where you are able to flip seamlessly between your phone and console.

Dungeon Defenders: First Wave will be dropping on Android handsets on December 23, a week after it’s iOS debut (go ahead, take a moment to boo. I’ll wait.). The game will only work on newer Android devices with hardware capable of powering the Unreal 3 engine. Before anyone cries fragmentation, I would like to point out that the iOS release has the same restrictions. Now that I am done fruit bashing, let’s take a look at the trailer!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Android Gaming gets Unreal with Dungeon Defenders: First Wave originally appeared on AndroidGuys.

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Over at TDG, they got an exclusive sneak peek at the coming-soon DJ Hero for Android. The game has been a smash hit on consoles, and is now coming to the Android screen. According to the review:

The controls of the game are easy… however you’ll notice that when your hand is pressing on the keys it’ll make it so you can see if you are pressing it or not as there is no feedback built in when you press it. Besides the fact of not knowing when you press the key its fairly easy to catch on quick to the game and start with the fun. This being the first time I’ve ever played the game.. Phone or home game console I did find it both fun and entertaining and something I’d continue to play over and over again. Like the home system one you have to play and “beat” levels to proceed to the next one. With having only a beta one there was only 5 levels in which I could play from.

Sounds like the game has been relatively well ported, but still needs some help in functionality. Be sure to keep it here for a release date, price and requirements, and be sure to hit the break for a full gallery. Source link will have the complete rundown. Thanks Korey!

Read More…

Android Gaming: DJ Hero coming to Android

View full post on Android News, Rumours, and Updates

By now everyone can agree that Angry Birds is a raging success, and I’m sure some of you aspiring mobile developers out there would love to experience that same level of success. To put some figures to it, Angry Birds has been downloaded over 60 million times, and over 12 million of those have been paid downloads.

Rovio’s Peter Vesterback recently spoke with Google’s Mobile Ads team for their YouTube channel, discussing the success of Angry Birds and offering advice to mobile developers. It’s a great watch, so hit up the video after the break for some words of inspiration.

Read More…

Rovio’s Peter Vesterback offers advice for mobile gaming success

View full post on Android News, Rumours, and Updates

Tron: Legacy, Disney’s upcoming movie sequel to the 1982 original, will arrive in cinemas next month, and to celebrate, computer peripheral maker Razer has…

View full post on Macworld

We received a tip from FrugalGames earlier this evening about their first Android game, Flee.  After checking out their YouTube video and blog, I was intrigued and decided to download it and try it out. Two minutes into playing it, I was immediately transported back to the late 80s’ where I was usually found face down in a Tiger handheld. Flee looks, and feels like a classic LCD game from start to finish.

I was really impressed with the attention to detail in Flee.  Pressing on the screen looks as if you were really pushing on an LCD display while extended game play yields in dirty buttons and a worn appearance.  The simple graphics and game play are a welcome alternative to the increasingly flashy stuff we’re getting in Android.  The same can be said for the music and sounds which have that 8-bit appeal that today’s youth may never get to know.

FrugalGames created the premise of Flee from the ground up but you wouldn’t know it by looking at it.  Both modes of play feel like an exact port of yesterday’s classics but they assure us these are entirely original. I don’t want to tell them how to runtheir business model, but this seems like a well worth visiting a time or two.  I’d love to see sports games and other original ideas done by them.

You can download a free version of Flee, but I would suggest grabbing the paid version.  For only $1.38 you’ll ditch the ads and pick up additional songs and levels.  You couldn’t buy a used Tiger handheld for half of that price.

Flee Hearkens Back to Early 90′s Handheld Gaming originally appeared on AndroidGuys.

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In the latest slew of Android gaming devices coming into the public eye, there’s one that really perks my ears up: the Sharp Galapagos. According to Kotaku:

Powered by Android, it boasts a 3.8 inch glasses-free 3D screen, 512MB of on-board memory and so far, the phone is slated for seven games: horror game Resident Evil: Degeneration (the game, not the movie), sports game Mobile Powerful Pro Baseball 3D, platformer Mega-Man, rhythm game Taiko no Tatsujin, shooting game SILPHEED Alternative, platformer Ghost ‘n Goblins: Gold Knights and horror game Reikai Denwa.

The device is also getting some 3D movies, such as Battle Royale 3D and Shrek Forever After. The name of the device is also actually a dig at the claim that Japanese phones suffer from “Galapagos syndrome”, meaning they are too complex to be used anywhere else in the world.

This device has potential to be absolutely huge anywhere worldwide, and could (hopefully) be a serious contender against the iPhone 4 in the gaming market, and possibly even the Nintendo 3DS.

Be sure to let us know what you think in the comments!

Glasses-free 3D Android gaming device on the way from Sharp

View full post on Android News, Rumours, and Updates

The truth be told, I used to dread playing motion controlled games. Sure, I would occasionally sit down with my kids and play a little Wii Ski or Super Mario Galaxy, but – to me – it didn’t really feel like gaming. I’ve always thought the Wii’s controls feel like a novelty. It seems that pointing a Wiimote at the screen has all the accuracy of a campaign ad the week before election day. But after just a few days with the Playstation Move, I am a bonafide convert. Despite all my previous ideas and conceptions about motion controls, I now know – motion gaming can be a heck of a lot of fun.

I have to admit, I went into this experience without much enthusiasm. Initially, I thought I’d spend an hour with the Move system, then turn it over to my kids and get their feedback. But by the end of the week, I was hogging the game and they were begging me for a turn. Simply put, I haven’t had this much fun with games in a very long time.

The Playstation Move can be purchased as a complete system or added on to any Playstation 3. The initial setup of the system is very easy. The Move consists of three elements: the handheld controller, which is a cylinder about the size of a Wiimote, plus a color-changing sphere on its business end, a Playstation Eye camera that tracks the controller’s movement, and a game. (There will be about 30 Move-compatible games out by this holiday season.) Including unpacking the boxes and installing the software, we were up and running in about 15 minutes.

I ran the Move through its paces with four games that were specifically designed for use with motion controls:

*  The Playstation Move Bundle ships with a game called Sports Champions, which has six activities: bocce, table tennis, archery, volleyball, gladiator duel and disc golf. I decided disc golf would be my inaugural game because I used to play a lot in college. Surprisingly, the Move controller’s positional and rotational tracking made for a very realistic experience. I could lower or raise the disc for a better shot at the basket and twisting my wrist allowed me to hook a shot around a tree in the middle of the fairway. The archery game, while not as much fun, showcases the Move’s flexibility. With two controllers, one hand holds the bow, while the other draws an arrow from the quiver and draws back the bowstring. The game can also be played with just one controller.

* The Shoot is the Move’s take on the first person shooter. Your job is to shoot at various bad guys cut-outs and targets on the set of various movies, while avoiding “live” starlets. A somewhat annoying director shouts out encouragement and suggestions the whole time. It’s like Nintendo’s Hogan’s Alley, all grown up. Still, the Move controller allowed for lots of quick, pinpoint shots.

* Start The Party is a collection of mini-games and party fun for up to four players. The game utilizes the Playstation Eye camera to include images of you in your living room. Beautifully animated cartoon borders are added and the glowing ball on the end of the controller is replaced with various animated attachments for the different games (like an oversized mallet for the whack-a-mole game). Games are fast-paced, fun and make for a very giggle-worthy family gaming experience.

* Also available on the PSP, Eyepet allows players to care for a virtual pet. Eyepet also uses the Playstation Eye camera and is smart enough to detect input from both the Move controller and the movement of on-screen hands and fingers. I don’t understand the virtual pet games – I never have – but my girls absolutely loved this game, they were literally hopping with excitement as their pet hatched and they got to play with it. But my greatest thrill was watching them play because I got to watch their ear-to-ear grins, broadcast up on the screen.

If these games are indicative of what to expect from motion control gaming, I’m in. While I still feel like traditional analog-sticks-and-buttons controllers will be the first choice when playing most games, Sony’s Move has made huge strides toward tightening controls and enhancing the motion experience. Because the Move’s controls are more precise than motion controls of the past, it makes them less of a novelty and more of a legitimate interaction.

Reflecting on the past week with the Playstation Move, I’m more than a little surprised, given my earlier resistance to motion control games. Yet, when I think about playing games this past week, I know that I’ve spent more time with the Move games than I have playing anything else. (And Rock Band 3 came out this past week!)

Now, as a borderline XBox fanboy, I’m eager to find out how the Kinect measures up.

Disclosure: Sony sent GeekDad the Move setup and games for review purposes.

View full post on GeekDad

Chillingo’s newest release, Cut the Rope, is a casual puzzle game that bears the mark of the developer with cute animation, innovative style and of course, great gameplay. A combination of physics, logic, and in some cases, quick reflexes, Cut the Rope has entertainment and a high replay value with 75 levels to master.

The premise is a little reminiscent of Gremlins, as a mysterious cardboard box arrives on your doorstep with instructions to feed the little critter inside. Om Nom, the little critter, prefers candy and to feed him, you simply have to get the candy to him. Suspended from ropes, the pieces of candy aren’t always easy to maneuver but you have tools to help you out. Swipe to cut the ropes, pop bubbles, use blowers, and watch out for obstacles like spiders and electric currents. Om Nom is patient, but he’s hungry and will be a little disheartened if you fail.(…)
Read the rest of Cut the Rope is a Casual Gaming Treat

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Cut the Rope is a Casual Gaming Treat | Best iPad Apps | Best Free Apps

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Product: GX660

Manufacturer: MSI

Wired Rating: 5

The only explanation I can guess at for why the MSI GX660 looks the way it does is that someone made a bet with an MSI engineer, challenging him to design the most horrendously ugly computer possible.

This engineer has succeeded admirably. Not since the original Dell Inspiron XPS has a computer this fugly been unleashed upon America.

It is a throwback to an era that has never actually existed except in the minds of ’70s sci-fi enthusiasts, with harsh angles, weird textures, and a combination of automotive inspirations and goofy octagonal designs attempting to live together.

It’s like someone saw a Battlestar Galactica highlight reel and just didn’t get it. Even the Windows desktop wallpaper is hideous.

And MSI, known for its dirt-cheap yet capable machines, wants to convince you to fork over $1,750 for this monstrosity.

Pushing past the design aesthetic, here’s what MSI is giving you for your investment: a high-res, 1920 x 1080-pixel, 15.6-inch LCD; a 1.73-GHz Core i7 Q740 CPU; two 320-GB hard drives in a RAID 0 configuration; 6 GB of RAM; and an ATI Radeon HD 5870 graphics card. Hey, looks pretty good.

Designed as a gaming laptop (complete with arrows on the WASD keys), the GX660 is powerful, but hardly a record-setter. Benchmarks were on target for a high-end machine, but we’ve gotten better numbers on both general apps and games out of a ThinkPad.

Props to MSI for at least putting a real battery in the system. With 1 hour, 51 minutes of battery life, the MSI is genuinely portable in ways that few gaming rigs are. Its mere 7.6-pound weight is positively gossamer for this category, too.

We also liked the MSI’s touch-sensitive control panel along the top of the base. These seem to be all the rage, but most barely work. The MSI’s icons are actually easy to comprehend, and they perform as expected.

We were less thrilled with the much-touted Dynaudio speaker setup, which puts very visible, oversized speakers on both corners of the base. They’re nothing to write home about. In fact, it would have been nice if they’d been even louder, so as to drown out the jet-engine–class fan that’s installed to cool the dang thing.

WIRED Quite affordable for a gaming notebook — it’s just too bad the performance isn’t top-notch, too. Dual USB 3.0 ports. Light and long-lived, considering the category.

TIRED So ugly you’ll keep it in a paper bag. Weak keyboard, with boneheaded numeric keypad layout.

View full post on Wired Product Reviews

Of all the routers that are built around Ubicom’s excellent StreamEngine processor for prioritising network traffic, Sitecom’s WL-308 Gaming Router was arguably the best for home use.

How could Sitecom improve on its design? By adding a second transmitter for dual-band operation of course. Install the WL-309 Gaming Router 2 and you’ll find two wireless networks cover your house, one in the normal 2.4GHz range, and one in the higher frequency 5GHz spectrum.

StreamEngine toting competitors includes Engenius’ Gaming Router and Linksys’ WRT-330, while the technology powers D-Link’s Xtreme N range too. Of them all, though, Sitecom’s original Gaming Router was the one that seemed best geared towards gamers, and offered the most consistently low pings no matter what else was going on on the network. And it even managed to look good, too.

Prices for both the WL-308 and the WL-309 are highly variable at the moment, but the newer model with its second channel carries a price premium of around ￡20. A bargain, if it’s a big improvement.

In order to simulate ‘real world’ scores, the benchmarking PC was positioned roughly 15m from the router, through one brick and one plasterboard wall. The second //Warcraft// test is designed to stress the packet prioritisation abilities of the router. For reference, the //WoW// ping in test 1 was 24ms with an ethernet cable.

World of Warcraft ping
Sitecom Gaming Router 2 (2.4GHz): 114ms
Sitecom Gaming Router 2 (5GHz): 213ms
Engenius Gaming Router: 149ms
Ethernet cable: 24ms

World of Warcraft ping (while downloading RUSE demo and uploading to Dropbox)
Sitecom Gaming Router 2 (2.4GHz): 134ms
Sitecom Gaming Router 2 (5GHz): 223ms
Engenius Gaming Router: 245ms

Pingtest.net ping test (three run average)
Sitecom Gaming Router 2 (2.4GHz): 27ms
Sitecom Gaming Router 2 (5GHz): 27ms
Engenius Gaming Router: 30ms

Pingtest.net jitter test
Sitecom Gaming Router 2 (2.4GHz): 10ms
Sitecom Gaming Router 2 (5GHz): 11ms
Engenius Gaming Router: 15ms

File transfer across wireless LAN (1.7GB file)
Sitecom Gaming Router 2 (2.4GHz): 13.59 mins
Sitecom Gaming Router 2 (5GHz): 9.19 mins
Engenius Gaming Router: 17.05 mins

File transfer across wireless LAN (200MB small files)
Sitecom Gaming Router 2 (2.4GHz): 3.03 mins
Sitecom Gaming Router 2 (5GHz): 4.27 mins
Engenius Gaming Router: 2.13 mins

Designwise, the Gaming Router 2 is a step backward from its simple, sheer predecessor. The faux-leather casing is passable, but it’s much bigger and the two antennas are huge and poorly supported. If you try to angle them for best coverage there’s a high chance they’ll flop like the ears of a dead rabbit.

Our biggest concern, though, is whether or not a 5GHz network is worth it. The argument in favour is that the 2.4GHz spectrum is crowded: your neighbour’s router, wireless DECT phones, Bluetooth devices and microwave ovens are all fighting for the same radio space as your precious Counter-Strike ping.

There’s less clutter in the 5GHz range, so you should get a clearer signal with fewer dropped packets.
There’s a couple of problems though. For a start, existing 2.4GHz network cards won’t be able to see a 5GHz network, so if you want to get them working on the higher frequency, you’ll need to invest in a dual band USB key too. That’s another ￡50 right there.

The next issue is that the ‘simultaneous dual-band’ moniker can misleading. The WL-309 can create multiple networks on each frequency, but your PC can only log on to one network at a time. So you can’t download a P2P file over 2.4GHz and game over 5GHz at the same time. Every vendor selling dual band gear is guilty of wanting you to believe otherwise, or so it seems from the packaging.

The deathblow, though, is that 5GHz signals don’t penetrate through solid objects as well as 2.4GHz wavelengths. As our benchmarks show, it doesn’t take much in the way of wallage to leave you better off with cluttered old 2.4GHz kit. The only area in which the 5GHz network shone at this range was transferring large sequential pieces of data.

This is a good router. The WoW scores show how adroitly it filters network traffic to keep pings low. But no gamer who cares enough about their ping to spend £200 on networking gear should use that money for dual band. Get a high quality, StreamEngine toting router like Sitecom’s older model and spend the change on getting your house cabled for Ethernet instead.

We liked

Just like its predecessor, the WL-309 Gaming Router 2 is an excellent example of how to build a StreamEngine-powered router. Wireless will never compete with cabling for low latency gaming, but its good enough that in most cases you won’t notice the difference too much.

We disliked

The antennae aren’t just ugly, they’re too flimsy by far. More critically, there’s not a lot to be gained by using a dual-band router unless you’re PC is in the same room. In which case, why not just use an Ethernet cable for gaming?

Related Links

• Read more networking reviews
• TechRadar’s Reviews Guarantee

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A popular Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 game has come to the PC and now the Mac, thanks to OnLive’s Internet-based gaming service.

View full post on Macworld

New iPad application iSwifter aims to bring to Flash based gaming to Apple’s tablet based computer.

View full post on Macworld

While there is a lot of excitement for Xbox owners regarding the upcoming Windows 7 phone and it’s tight integration with Xbox Live – the rest of the gaming consoles are a left in the dust……  or are they?  Sony’s PlayStation division appears to be on the lookout for engineers that have experience in Android development and knowledge in online gaming.  Looks like the PlayStation network isn’t ready to stand on the sidelines of portable social gameplay and let Xbox Live steal the spotlight.  Just what does Sony have up its sleeve?  So long PlayStation Portable (PSP)…   Hello PlayStation Phone (PSS)!

via [engadget]

Chris Holt speculates what the rumored Apple TV might mean for gaming.

View full post on Macworld

Let me preface this entire post with one statement: If Sony Ericsson can pull off what they are promising, we can safely forgive them for their Xperia line of so-so Android 1.6 handsets. That being said, SE is late into the development of an Android handset reminiscent of the PSP Go. That’s right, and not only will the handset look like a Samsung Captivate made love to the Go, but it will also feature an Android 3.0-based ecosystem built up for a superior gaming experience.

The hardware we are dealing with? A large screen between 3.7 and 4.1-inches with WVGA or better resolution, a 5MP camera, and a 1GHz Snapdragon CPU. The real kicker though is the inclusion of not a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, but rather a slide-out game pad featuring a D-pad, touch pad for analog control, and your standard four Playstation/PSP buttons. The device is said to carry the Xperia branding, but should also be receiving Playstation branding as well. The picture included is Engadget’s mock-up of the device.

But all that hardware means nothing without games to back it up, and SE apparently has teamed up with Google not only to get Android 3.0 on the handset with a custom skin, but also to bring a new section of games tailored for the device to the Android Market. Initially these games will only be available for the SE/PS device, and will be graphically equivalent to what we see in PSP or PSX titles. Games being tossed around include God of War, Modern Warfare, and Little Big Planet. Provided other handsets meet the hardware requirements, they may become available for the wider Android world at a later date. Right now word is the phone could launch as soon as October, further stoking the flames that the new version of Android could be launching sooner rather than later.

If this all pans out, it will score a major win for both Sony Ericsson and Google. SCEA will bring along a large catalog of published games that can be ported to Android while also pushing for new gaming development. Sony gets to have the makings of a hit handset and possibly the first real break-out mobile Playstation device. Android gets one step closer to being the ultimate mobile platform. OK, we know it might conjure up thoughts of the flop that was the Nokia N-Gage, but that was a time before smartphones had really taken off as an avenue for mobile gaming, and with this SE device being only an off-shoot of Android it enters into an already richly supported ecosystem. So who is excited?

[via Engadget]

View full post on Android Phone Fans

That’s a serious question folks, now let me explain why I ask.
In the past couple of years, the gaming industry has seen a resurgence of classic gameplay. This trend can be witnessed across the board from Sony’s blockbuster hit Little Big Planet to the independently developed Braid. Classic gameplay is finding its way back into our consoles for one simple reason. It’s fun. And it’s not just 2D platforming that’s made a comeback. Titles like 3D Dot Game Heroes and the upcoming Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World game draw heavy inspiration from adventure games like Zelda and brawlers like Streets of Rage respectively.
So what does this have to do with Google TV? A game like Little Big Planet will obviously not be showing up in the App Marketplace but why couldn’t a game like Braid? People will certainly keep playing Pac-Man and Bonsai Blast. And Google’s reported $100 million investment in Farmville developer Zynga games has me thinking they’ll be playing that too. I’m sure independent developers would love the ease of getting their games to market. As long as PS3 and Xbox controllers can sync to our Logitech Revues or someone else makes a controller that does, Google TV has serious gaming potential.

For more information on Android and the current Android mobile phones, check out our Android Guides

Will Google TV become a gaming system?

View full post on Google Android News Android Forums

I’m really not sure what to call this contraption. It makes me feel a bit uneasy, really. In an effort that would make Dr. Frankenstein proud one industrious Android owner has taken a Wiimote and Nexus One, human-centipeded them together with a bicycle handlebar mount, and using the Wiimote Controller app made it possible to have a roving mutant gameboy for playing all of your favorite old school SNES/NES/etc. ROMs.

Call it awesome, call it a little bizarre, chalk it up to the endless possibilities Android provides those with too much free time and clever ideas…really just check out the video below. In the meantime I’m going to check in with McGyver to see what he has been doing with his Android phone lately.

[via Android Central]

View full post on Android Phone Fans

Image: GamingPaper.com

I’m always on the lookout for something cool to bring to the gaming table. The one thing I’m never satisfied with? My battle map.

A few months back, I put the Battle Graph Dry Erase Boards to the test and they passed with flying colors. They remain a regular feature in my Game Master toolbox. But every session is different, and every craftsman knows that there’s a tool for every job.

Dry erase markers don’t hold up to the tests of time, so it’s hard–especially with a four year old in the house–to draw up an encounter in advance. By the time game day rolls around, the map is nigh unrecognizable. If I need to plan a session ahead of time, I don’t go for the Chessex mat or the Battle Graphs. I need something more permanent. And if I need to be in complete control of what’s on that map, I need a blank slate.

One option is to head to your local office supplies store and buy one of those huge gridded easel pads. They’ll run you about $15 a pad. Each pad has 50 27″x34″ pages, so you’re talking 30¢ per page. Each pad will net you about 320 square feet of surface area, in 6.375 square foot chunks. You can draw all over these with colored pencils, crayons, markers, paints, whatever you want. Then fold it up and hide it ’til it’s time to play. You’re good to go, for 4.7¢ per square foot.

But there is a better option.

Instead of coming in a pad, Gaming Paper, sold specifically as a gaming aid, comes in a 12′ roll of 30″ wide paper. That’s 30 square feet total, and they’re $4 a roll. That’s 13¢ per square foot. So Gaming Paper is three times more expensive than the easel pad, but it has its added benefits. There’s a coating of clay on one side that prevents bleed-through and somehow allows the roll to lie flat against the table surface.

Sharpies and wet-erase markers dry on the surface within ten seconds. It looks a lot better than white paper, too, almost like a browned and aged scroll. Even better, they have a version with hexes and even Gaming Paper Singles are in the works. Check out the Gaming Paper YouTube channel for a series of rather entertaining product demos.

What are the drawbacks of using paper-products at the table? If there are any potion/Mountain Dew spills, it will decimate the playing field. Then again, an iron apparently works quite well on drying out and de-wrinkling Gaming Paper, so you might be back up and running in no time. Also, keep that orange-fingered Cheeto away from either type of paper unless you want to employ a grease stain terrain hazard against your PCs. Gaming Paper is particularly prone to turning hideously translucent with the stuff.

Easel Pads

Wired: Cheap. Totally blank, so your imagination is the limit. Can come gridded with one inch squares, which works with most RPG combat systems.

Tired: No hexes. Limited to height and width of pages. Occasional bleed-through, which wastes paper and can mess up your furniture.

Gaming Paper

Wired: Blank, so you get full license to create the dungeon of your dreams/nightmares. One inch grids or hexes. Awesome clay coating means it lies flat and never bleeds through to the table. Super cheap at $4 a roll. Can have a larger continuous surface area than easel pad.

Tired: Three times as expensive as gridded easel pad. Greasy fingers will leave marks. And gamers tend to have greasy fingers.

Related Posts:

RPG Battle Maps Square Off: Battle Graph Dry Erase Boards
Store-Bought Supplements for your D&D Game
Fan Creations Enhance D&D 4th Edition

(Full Disclosure: I received two free rolls of Gaming Paper for review purposes.)

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Listen up, gamers: the interactive entertainment lovers over at DroidGamers.com are striking up a cool competition for anyone that takes their Android gaming seriously. The Android Gaming Challenge is the first mobile gaming challenge and tournament of its kind.

Users play games that take pure skill and will submit scores. After 5 days, the top 40 gamers will be thrown onto a bracket pitting all of them against each other until everyone’s eliminated and a champion is crowned. That champion will win an Android phone of their choice and a slew of other items.

Full rules and details can be had over at their site. It sounds like a fun ordeal that’ll get your competitive juices flowing and might even land you a new Android phone (those Samsung Galaxy S phones are great gaming devices, I hear). Have at it!

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