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This is a special edition of Local Flavor. Instead of visiting a game studio, I went out to Washington, DC with my co-worker Shahed Chowdhuri, to visit Children’s National Health System and the Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation.

So how is this relevant to games? In an amazing way. The Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation is using video game technology to drive innovation in pain detection and management in children. Or to put it even more simply: games for healing.

Shahed and I spoke with Christy Baxter and Dr. Julie Finkel at the organization to learn more about their use of gaming technology to help children. In the process, we learned a lot about how pain works, and a lot about what Children’s National is doing to fight it.

Is it fair to be doing first impressions of a game I’ve already finished? Should I not be reviewing it instead? Maybe. And shouldn’t I be pretty hard, even in first impressions, on a game I bought for $49.99 on Friday night and finished Saturday afternoon? Finished in probably… three hours, if I’m counting generously?

You’d think so. Under normal circumstances, almost certainly. But Child of Eden is not normal. It’s scarcely a game, and in it, “finish” does not necessarily equal “end.” While it will hold far from universal appeal, Child of Eden envelops the senses in ways few games can: not merely luminous but numinous, a dance of magical light and sound so precious and so sensually immortal it defies description.

Chalk this one up to another prediction Steerpike got wrong. Microsoft’s motion sensing Kinect hardware has moved a stunning eight million units in 60 days… far, far more than the company’s prediction (one that I at the time thought bombastic, absurd, and unbelievably out of touch) that it would move three million units by the end of 2010.

I think it’s fair to say that the mainstream gaming community isn’t exactly sold on Microsoft’s Kinect just yet. Button-free gaming certainly has it’s sceptics and the specialist press have been quick to criticise Microsoft for the lack of focus on core gameplay experiences with the system. Retailing at £130, the price point also continues to be a sticking point for many consumers, who still harbour concerns over what is essentially still untried and untested …

Microsoft have gone announcement mad, ladies and gentlemen. Having officially unveiled and named Kinect as a live and working (well, sort of) consumer product at this years E3 conference in June, the company have finally made their intentions clear with regards to pricing. I’m sure Microsoft’s PR department would like you to be surprised by the official $149 price tag, although in typical fashion, every retailer in America has already leaked this figure at some point …

E3 is officially upon us. No, I’m not there, but the beauty of the internet means that for another year, Los Angeles can come to me. Which is handy, as I’ve been to Los Angeles before and frankly don’t care much for going back. First out of the blocks is Microsoft, who this evening laid their cards on the table with one or two major hardware announcements. Having stolen the attention at many an E3 …