Humble Bundle for Android 4 now available, pay what you want for 6 great indie games

The folks at Humble Bundle have just launched their fourth collection for Android devices. This time around the pay-what-you-want package features six great games from developers such as Omni Systems, Kloonigames, and more. If you aren’t familiar with the Humble Bundle model, buyers are asked to pay as much or as little as they want with the ability to decide how much of that payment goes towards the developers, Humble, and a selection of charities.

Always curating some of the best Android has to offer, the latest bundle will be available for two weeks only and includes Crayon Physics Deluxe, Eufloria, Splice, Superbrothers Sword & Sorcery EP, and Waking Mars. Those choosing to pay higher than the average amount will also be treated to Amanita Design’s Machinarium. It’s a great opportunity to get your hands on some of the best indie games available for Android at a great price (and a few that are only available for the first time as part of Humble’s offer). And you can guarantee you are supporting the developers who take time to craft such experiences.

In just the few hours since the latest Bundle has launched, the games have already pulled in over $20,000 (though the number is skyrocketing quickly). The average purchase is just a little over $5, which is small bucks to pay for what will amount to hours of entertainment. So go over and grab this awesome collection before time runs out!

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McDonald’s removes networking features in some online games

McDonald’s said it has removed social networking features in some of its online games after a privacy advocacy group complained to federal regulators that the restaurant chain was violating child online privacy laws.

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Proportional VR experiment shrinks man down to rat size, lets us play games with rodents

By Sean Buckley posted Nov 4th 2012 2:36PM

Sure, you can always play catch with the dog, but what kind of game can you play with a caged rodent? Well, "find the poster," apparently. A team of researchers from Universities in Spain, Germany, Austria, England and the US have put together a virtual reality system designed to let humans interact with rats at the rodent's scale, challenging human participants to find and lead the rodent to a unmarked goal. According to a paper published in PLoS One participants were "beamed" into the rat's environment by linking a head-mounted display and joystick to a rat-sized telepresence robot. Human players were then treated to a proportionally accurate representation of the game arena. The rat was there too, tracked with an overhead camera and represented by a human avatar.

Participants were tasked with coaxing their opponent in front one of three posters in attempt to sleuth out which one represents the "winning" position. When both players are in front of the correct mystery poster, a bell sounds and the game ends. The game was primarily created to test a scaled immersive virtual reality teleoperator system, but researchers are optimistic the technology could be used to observe animal behavior from a new perspective. Check out the setup in action after the break, or read on through to the source link below for a detailed description of how mankind and some of nature's smaller creatures can get along in a virtual space.

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