Randomly Geek

Quake 4 Review

2006-04-30T12:35:00.000+01:00

I finished off Quake 4 single player last night and overall it wasn't too bad a game. I basically feel this is the game doom 3 should have been. It managed to pull off the dark suspense and outright jump out of your seat moments just as well as doom but married this with more varied gameplay, a decent storyline, a good challenge and useful NPCs. For me the NPCs where the stand out, with just about every FPS released in the last few years including some squad elements the one thing they had in common was that your team mates sucked, they got in the way, died too easily and rarely did any damage while their were alive. Quake bucks that trend, you actually felt safer having your buddies around. I never felt they were in my way, they take way more damage that you can and they laid down some serious firepower.

The other highlight was the difficulty, playing through on the middle difficulty (as I always do) this was the first FPS game in a long time where I found myself often dying throughout rather than just at the odd challenging boss. By the end of the game virtually any enemy can knock you dead in a few second and you tend to take on more than one at a time, any mistakes and your quickly reloading. That said I didn't find it frustrating, and once you knew what to expect redoing the fight generally wasn't too hard.

Apart from this the game is fairly standard fair, the mech/tank/tramline levels do well to break the gameplay up, particularly in the early stages of the game, but the vehicle based combat is relativity easy thanks to halo style recharging armor and health and doesn't offer anything you haven't seen before. Likewise while the story contains some interesting characters and is generally an improvement on Doom that's not really saying much. Unfortunately like most other ID products Quake 4 is very linear, you're given one strict path to follow and very little chance to deviate. Finally despite the game only lasting about 7-8 hours things get very repetitive towards the end with wave after wave of similar enemies appearing in each room.

On the multilayer side Q4 plays almost exactly the same as Q3, with nicer graphics and a few weapon tweaks. Opinion seems very divided on whether this ruins the game or saves it. Personally I think Q3 was one of the best online FPS games ever so I'm enjoying it but your mileage may vary. Do be warned the online community is rather small and made up of very talented players, if you never played Q3 online or are a casual FPS player expect the get hammered for quite a while.

After completing it and dedicating some time to multilayer I still find myself divided on this game. It's a definite move forward from Doom 3 but I can't help but feel that ID and their associated developers (in this case longtime collaborators Raven) are still making games the way they did 10 years ago and that just doesn't stack up to the likes of Half-life, Battlefield, FEAR and Call of Duty. That said, those who enjoy pure, fast, shooter action or wanting a bit of a change from team-based online games should have fun.

Tags: Quake, Games, Raven, ID

Loco Roco Demo Review

2006-04-29T22:15:00.000+01:00

Making use of some free weekend time I updated my PSP to the new 2.70 firmware and downloaded the Loco Roco demo. At the moment only a Japanese version of the demo is available but it runs fine on EU and US systems and controls are rather simple to pick up so the language barier is not really an issue. The game itself is very unique, I would sum it up as a cute, 2D platformer, Katamari and Mercury mash-up, with heavy puzzle elements. You “control” a yellow blob, by tilting the game world using the L and R buttons, pressing both at once causes the blob to jump. The amount you can tilt the screen is limited and the game physics actually control movement, meaning you can't climb a steep hill without a large amount of built up momentum. As you progress you collect flowers which grow your character allowing it to be hit more and giving it greater momentum at high speed but making it hard to move at low speed and too large to access some areas. To counter this you have the ability to break down your larger blob into a number of smaller blobs all of which you control at the same time, so pressing jump causes all small blobs to jump regardless of their location, split them up to much and one by one they die off.

The child-like cuteness of both the graphics and the music is sure to put a few people off but initial indications are the the game play will be rather deep. Unfortunately the demo only seems to include one fairly short level (you will probably finish it in about 5 minutes once you get the hang of the controls) but it does look very promising and I am definitely looking forward to seeing more.

Putting aside the game itself, between this, the new xbox live and the DS download service it's great to see console systems finally get the free, downloadable demos PC gamers have been experiencing for years. Hopefully this is a trend which will continue.

Tags: Loco Roco, PSP, Demo, Review

Nintendo Wii??????

2006-04-27T22:47:00.000+01:00

I really expected Nintendo to carry the Revolution code name right through to the final product as it summed up exactly what they were trying to achieve but it seems their latest console will ship as the Nintendo Wii. Wii (pronounced we apparently) sounds chilidish to me and comes without any real-world meaning.

This has already sparked a lot of discussion, almost all negative and I, like everybody else, hope they changes it back.
Tags: Revolution, Wii, Nintendo

Picking a new player

2006-04-27T22:34:00.000+01:00

After a few months of my nearly 3 year old 3G iPod suffering all sorts of battery issues (full charges lasting between 1 and 5 hours seemingly totally at random and the battery completely draining from full in just a few days, even with no use) I decided to pick up a new player. Initially I considered the top end large hard drive audio/video players but at the end of the day their main selling point, video support, appeared inferior to both my PSP and HTC phone in terms of screen size, supported formats and resolution. Taking video out of the equation and being realistic with myself I know I don’t have any need for a 30GB+ player as my music collection is about 3GB plus however many podcasts I happen to have and I very rarely used by iPod as a USB drive.

Thus I started to look into smaller 4-8GB players and it quickly became evident there were three challengers here, the 4GB Nano, the Zen Micro series and the Sony MP3 Walkman, specifically the NW-A1000. After a quick look around the Sony was the first to be cut as I simply didn’t like the interface. The device looks great but it seems to have sacrificed usability and I found the small 6GB version near impossible to use due to the tiny control wheel. Not to mention the included software for syncing has got virtually universal negative reviews.

The Zen Micro line presented two options, both the standard grey scale 6GB version or the £20 (~US$35) more costly, 8GB, colour, Zen Micro Photo version. After a quick play I found both to be very easy to use, with a great powerful, customisable interface including the ability to delete songs directly from the player which is one of my pet hates on the iPod. Overall I preferred the Photo due to the extra disk space and colour screen for very little extra cost, so that remained on the list.

Finally the nano is of course a great product, I’m already used to the interface, love iTunes and think the design is brilliant. The only downside was the slightly limiting 4GB of space.

At the end of the day it came down to price, the Micro Photo retails for around £140 (~US$250) while the Nano runs about £180 (~US$320), any yes I know we get hammered on prices here but do note these include 17.5% tax. Given that is has double the capacity, an FM tuner and is £40 cheaper the Micro Photo was an easy choice and thus far I have not regretted this in the slightest. Expect a full review soon.

Tags: MP3, Creative, Micro, Zen, Nano, Ipod, Walkman

Little bit of catch-up

2006-04-25T23:07:00.000+01:00

I have quickly gone through and updated my now playing/watching/listening lists, which basically translates into my life outside work. As you can see there have been a few changes. Firstly I am heavily into both Dragon Quest 8 and Oblivion. It's interesting to compare the two as Oblivion really pushes the boundaries of a single player RPG by taking a lot of elements more commonly found in MMO games, for the most part putting them together well into an enjoyable game, showcaseing why single player is still relevant despite the massive uptake on MMORPG's on the PC. DQ on the other hand really refines the Japanese RPG, cute characters, turn based combat, liner storyline style down to near perfection without introducing anything we haven't seen before. It's almost like seeing the future evolving (Oblivion) while also seeing the perfect example of the past (DQ).

For a bit of a break from the RPGs I have also been working my way through Quake 4. Like most others out while I enjoy the game I can't help but feel it's missing that special something which would take it from being good to being great. Still it's a lot of mindless fun.

On the TV side, Battlestar leaves as we wait 6 or so months for new episodes. I have also cut lost from the list as it has sunk into a huge hole recently in my book. Every episode just seems to bring more questions without answering the myriad we already have and personally I have lost interest. Getting promoted are the soon to be departing Scrubs which I only discovered about a year ago but can't stop watching, undoubtedly the most watch DVDs in my house at the moment. House also makes the list because despite being the same thing every single week I can't help but watch it.

Finally on the podcasting site Diggnation got the drop as they just didn't seem to have any stories of interest to me (which is actually fairly true of the Digg site in general). Buzz out load takes it place as they manage to put together an interesting podcast every day of the week. This has become my number one source of news over the past few months and one of the few podcasts I really look forward to hearing.

Tags: TV, Games, Podcast, Digg, RPG, Oblivion, Lost, Quake

Holiday Season

2006-04-25T19:27:00.000+01:00

It seems the next month is holiday season for me, having just returned from a great trip to Tunisia (which was an amazing place to visit and unlike anywhere I have been before), I have a trip home to Australia next week and finally a quick stay in France toward the end of may. Best of all, all of these are holidays rather than work related. I always knew there was at least a few good reasons to live in London and cheap, diverse travel options has got to be near the top of the list.

Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion thoughts

2006-04-11T18:02:00.000+01:00

After spending a few weeks with Oblivion I still find myself a little torn. This is defiantly one of the best PC RPGs for the past 5 years but it also has a few issues that I feel can detract greatly from the gameplay. On the positive side the game manages to accomplish what so many MMORPGs currently fail to do in giving you a world you are free to explore and quest through and importantly will actually enjoy yourself doing so. When playing the Auto Assault open beta I was often struck by just how repetitive and mindless the game play is. I was simple killing the same people over and over again, it wasn’t so much having fun as simply passing time. Oblivion counters that with a deep and varied world and vitally interesting quests and tasks. Quests are rarely simple, often don’t require any combat and are generally complex, requiring a series takes to be completed often in different locations or only available at specific times. This gives virtually limitless possibilities and helps keep things constantly fresh and engaging.

The game world and particularly those who inhabit it keep up this vibe. As has been heavily covered the AI is very free willed with people going about normal daily lives rather than just standing in one place night and day week after week. This helps bring the world to life but can also cause some frustration when that character you have to find heads off to see a friend in city on the other side of the game world. Enemy AI is based on a similar system and enemies will continue to chase you through different areas if they have the upper hand and often try to run when being defeated.

On the downside the levelling system is terribly unbalanced and unintuitive. The root of the problem is that enemies and items gained by beating them and finishing quests level up along with the player. This is fine in theory but as with any RPG your power is very reliant on how you level up (in this case what skills you focus on) and what items you use. If you fall don’t happen to level well for a few levels or don’t buy the more powerful equipment and spells you can quickly fall behind the power curve expected by the game and at point things fall apart. To get the money or equipment required to become more powerful you need to kill things or finish quests which in turn levels you up and leaves you even weaker in comparison to the monsters.

In general playing the game focusing on only one of the 3 main classes (thief, fighter or mage) will result in a frustratingly difficult experience. Oblivion seems to rely on the player creating a character that uses skills from all three classes and then putting the time into levelling all of these in a balanced manner.

The levelling system will be very noticeable to those who power level their character and then expect to romp through the rest of the game, which is how I tend to play games. In the end my in game time suggests this wasn’t enough to put me off this superb game.

Welcome to the TV revolution, finally

2006-04-10T14:20:00.000+01:00

I am a little behind the ball here but just a few months after hooking up digital TV (with the 30ish freeview channels available here in London) I was so frustrated by constantly missing quality shows and never having anything decent to watch when I was home that I decided to pick up a PVR. I selected the DigiFusion FVRT95 as it was fairly cheap, did what I needed and in general DigiFusion seemed to be the most popular brand on the market (although that somewhat like saying Microsoft make a popular OS in that there are a lot of people who vigorously disagree). In general the unit does as it should, it looks very stylish in the living room, 45 hours of recording is reasonable more than enough for my use, controls are simple and straight forward. I have had a few issues/hangs but nothing major and resetting it has always solved the problem.

On the PVR idea itself I am as addicted as everybody else, it really does change the way you watch TV. Each night we now get to sit down and watch our favourite shows rather than whatever happens to be on and as an added bonus no ads (if we remember to fast forward, which I found takes some getting used too). It really is so simple yet so useful that you have to wonder why it took this long to start becoming the norm.

My only problem now it getting good recommendations on what new shows to pick up. Unfortunately unlike a Tivo this doesn’t have any recommendation system nor a season pass feature so every few days we need to go through and select shows to record. Overall though it was well worthwhile and I would hate to have to go back to just watching whatever was actually showing at the time. It’s a lot like picking up a MP3 player for the first time and realising you don’t need a radio anymore.

XDA Mini S/HTC Wizard review

2006-04-08T10:16:00.000+01:00

About 3 weeks ago I received my new mobile phone a XDA Mini-S (aka the i-mate K-Jam, HTC Wizard, QTEK 9100, MDA Vario). This is one loaded little phone/PDA. It has everything you would expect from a modern phone in voice calls, SMS, MMS, a 1.3 MP camera, bluetooth and games then adds useful PDA functions like a real operating system (allowing for 3rd party applications), Wifi networking, a full qwerty keyboard, touchscreen and stylus operation, a mobile office suite and automatic synchronization with outlook (for contacts, calenders, tasks and e-mail) and media player (for audio and video). Amazingly all of this manages to fit into a 160g device which isn't any larger than many of the early 3G phones from last year. Sure it's No RAZR but is fits in my pocket without a problem.

Overall it makes an decent phone, particularly for those who text more than talk, which sums me up perfectly. I say decent because I find the touch screen interface a little annoying for making calls, there's something nice about the tactile feedback of normal buttons. Also trying to call somebody on your contact list or send an SMS really requires use of either the stylus or keyboard which will be annoying for people accustom to operating their phone with one hand. Once you get used to the two handed operation though I find texting far quicker and love the outlook style filing system.

The real strength of this device isn't as a phone, it's all the other functions its capable of. I wrote a article about convergence a few weeks ago basically saying that I thought mobile devices should stick to doing one or two functions well rather than trying to do everything. Simply put, this device changed my mind on this. Despite their simplicity I have played far more games on it than either my DS or PSP simple because it is always in my pocket for a quick 10 minute game on the train home, or a half hour when the (very common) sudden delay strikes. The 2.8 inch screen isn't huge but it's reasonable for most viewing video, it replaced my PSP here, again because it always with me anyway and saves carrying another device every day. Not to mention it's whole interface and controls for video playback are far superior, it supports many more formats and I never miss a call this way.

My only real complaint with this phone is that is doesn't come with a built in hard drive. Bundle this with 10GB or more of storage and I think it would instantly replace my MP3 player, making it pretty much the perfect all in one portable device for me.

I'm still here

2006-04-07T22:57:00.000+01:00

Well its been a busy few weeks but I haven't vanished. I do have a heap of stuff to cover though starting with my first HTC windows mobile phone, which has totally changed how I think about phones and portable media, it really is that good. Then there is my entry into the PVR world which has also been excellent, well worth the entry price. Lastly there is Elder Scrolls Oblivion which has managed to suck up all my free time over the past two weeks. Sure it has a few issues but is defiantly one of the best single player RPG experiences in a very long time. Expect full updates on all very soon.

Battlestar Galactica season 2

2006-03-19T12:27:00.000+00:00

I finally watched the season finale of BG today and for me is was a disappointing conclusion to a weak string of episodes. This second half of the second season has deflated what was one of the greatest science fiction shows on TV in my book. In recent months we have had a few just plain bad episodes in Black Market and Scar surrounded by a bunch of mediocre outings containing some truly terrible character development, poor stroylines, huge plot holes and disappointing resolutions to long running arcs.

I felt let down by the resolution of the plots involving Roslin's cancer and Sharon baby, both had been running for over a season and to each be whisked away in a matter of minutes seemed blunt for the normally well written show. Then there were the character problems with serious relationships popping up all over the place where they had been not a hint in the past, the morally lead Roslin, abandoning all her beliefs and rigging a democratic election, both Tyrol and Starbuck having serious breakdowns out of the blue, and receiving little support. Finally there are the plot holes, like a known cylon living among the colony, raising support but somehow going unnoticed, all the people involved in fixing the election maintaining relativity high profile jobs and apparently facing no disciplinary action, and a clearly advanced civilization with the equipment and knowledge to maintain (and even build) spaceships taking over a year to build a village that looks like something out of lost and apparently has no defensive capability.

I understand the need to keep a series fresh and that simply running away for 5 seasons would make for a boring show but with such talented and mature writing for the first 30 episodes I am stunned this was the best they could come up with. I'll probably tune in again next season, as a strong foundation has been laid but it won't be with the anticipation and expectation I held in the past.

Auto Assault open beta thoughts

2006-03-18T19:12:00.000+00:00

As I begin to tire of Guild Wars a bit I have been thinging about picking up a new MMORPG for a little varity having played WoW before Guild Wars I am looking to move away from the fantasy, swords and magic gameplay. Auto Assault seemed like a great option and previews thus far had been positive so I decided to check out the open beta running this weekend. For a quick bit of background the game is sent in a post apociliptic future with 3 different factions (pure humans, mutants and biomeks), the big draw here is the you spend almost the while game in a vehical rather than on foot resulting in some fresh gameplay opertunities.

Having sunk about 10 hours into it so far i have to say my feelngs are rather mixed. The vechial based combat is excellent, everything happens at a very fast pace and requires far more interactive than the normal click and wait MMORPG combat. Coustomisation is also supurb with both the characther and the car to play around with there is an upgraded part to test or a different skill to play with. Not to mention having a car means that the often frustrating travel times from other MMORPGs are virtually gone as you speed across the maps. The inventory system is also handy as when you select a part ist will compare it to the part of that type you already have installed making it very simple to quickly pick the best ine, install it and get on with the game.

Unfortunatly thats about where the positive expirence ends. Missions are particually bad with virtually all being generic "collect x of these", "kill x of them" or "take this to him/her". I was really hoping for more here given the freedom and versitility of being in a car, but I have now completed over 100 missions and thus far only 1 has been a race and none have involved anything like tricks/jumps/stunts or even "drive through this area of powerful enemies without being killed". This repetition in continued in the enemies, maps seem to break down to different people asking you to kill the exact same enemies over and over again until you finally progress to the next town, sucking much of the fun out of combat. This constent back and forth is made all more mind numbing by the relitivly poor graphics and peformance. I'm not normally one to be bothered by graphics but there are some extreamly bad pop-up issues here with objects suddenly appearing just meters ahead of you, not much fun when traveling at high speed, or trying to fell an enemy. Considering the limited draw distance and genrally uninspired graphical look of the game, peformance wasn't particually strong either with fairly common slow down and pauses. The final issue I had was you feel very thrown in the deep end and its often not clear at all what is actually expected of you, many missions don't have waypoints or clear instructions and the interface and vehical systems (such as engine overheating) are never clearly explained.

While this is a beta, and thus some bugs are expected, the game is due out in roughly a month but unfortunatly there are still a number of show stopping issues. The most frustrating are the sound issues with the prime offender being initial gun for amlost all characters. This continues to play its mechine gun style firing sound after you stop shotting, constantly. The only way to fix this is to disable then re-enable it every time you enter a new map, which deactivates all noise from the gun and combat in general, making it imposable to tell when you are shooting, a fatal flaw so earily in the game, which has already put many players off the game. These kind of sound issues continue through out with random drop-outs making combat a challange. The physics engine sufferes simmiler issues with a number if items (and vehicals) hanging in mid air and others being destroyed seemingly at random, particually frustrating when the destroyed object is a quest point. On top of this are the normal beta issues of fairly common error messages, issues with some missions/NPC as well both combat and economic imbalance. One can only hope thses are identified and corrected.

I was really hoping this game could breath some life into a genre which desperaty needs some originality and the combat system definattly achived that. Unfortunatly it is let down by extreamly poor misions, dated graphics and some frustrating bugs. At the end of the day if I am going to pay £10 a month on top the the normal entry fee I want something that really sets itself apart and unfortunatly AA doesn't quite deliver of that front.

Finally some PS3 details

2006-03-15T12:14:00.000+00:00

After clinging to their spring 2006 release date and keeping tight lipped about anything else Sony has finally released some details on the PS3. The main announcement of their press conference was a worldwide (Asia, North America and Europe) release of the PS3 set for November with 6 million units predicted to hit the market this year. A few other details were also released:
- A free "basic" online service will be available at launch allowing voice chat and lobby matching.
- The system will require (and ship with) a upgradeable 60GB hard drive allowing the system to run linux.
- 100% PS1 and PS2 backward compatibility allowing these games to be played in HD.
- all PS3 will be on blu-ray disks.
Unfortunately no pricing or launch line-up was announced.

The worldwide release planed for just a month before Christmas (where have we seen that before) doesn’t seem like a smart move, as somebody living in the UK delayed releases are frustrating but so is being unable to buy a console for 3 months after its release. I for one wouldn’t mind waiting till say Feb 2007 if it meant fewer shortages in all territories. The online service sounds a lot like xbox live but interestingly there was no mention of actually playing games online or whether this system is required in games, as with xbox 360 or an optional extra like the massively underused infrastructure mode on the PSP. All games being available on the blu-ray have raised questions about software pricing as the physical discs are more expensive than DVDs, at least initially, and 360 games are already commanding a sizable premium over last gen games, could we really see $70/£55 games? The hard drive and backwards compatibility seems to be the true bright point, MS dropped the ball on both points with the 360 and Sony made no such error, these are becoming must have features in modern consoles.

In general the news released seems somewhat reassuring but deliberately vague and lacking anything to really make the system stand out. The vital points of both hardware and software pricing where avoided and the online plans provided more questions than answers. Not to mention nothing at all in terms of games on display or announced as launch titles leaves me feeling that actual software could be a little thin at launch but there is always E3 for more details on this front. Overall this was a much needed event to put a stop to some of the rampant speculation going on and sure up some of the concern regarding the release. Well played Sony.

More Details at IGN.

Convergence, is it really a good idea?

2006-03-09T18:26:00.000+00:00

Following on from the UMPC/Origami/touch screen video IPod/Apple tablet news, rumors and speculation I have been thinking about the convergence. For those who don’t know convergence (in this sense at least) refers to combining multiple functions into one device, the end goal being that rather than having a PDA, mobile phone, music player, video player, gaming system, portable internet station, ultra portable laptop and Sat Nav system you would have one device that could perform all these functions. Despite being talked about at virtually every technology keynote for the past three years, there are very few devices which have managed to even integrate two or three of the above functions with any amount of success, let alone all 8.

One of the issues standing in the way of convergence at the moment is simple the cost, combining 8 devices which separately cost at least $100 each suddenly leaves you with one very expensive device, as can be seen with the UMPC. For $1000 your get a device which should be able to do almost everything listed above (with the exception of mobile phone functionality) but has very limited battery life, is far too big to use as an mp3 player in most real world situations (such as working out at the gym), doesn’t have the publisher/developer support or interface to replace a DS or PSP, can’t be carried in a pocket limiting its usefulness as a PDA and has no keyboard making it a weak replacement to a laptop. Not to mention you still need a dedicated mobile phone. Basically for $1000 you get a device that really doesn’t do anything particularly well apart from possibly video playback and wireless internet connectivity.

This brings us to the big issue stopping convergence at the moment, some of these devices simply don’t compliment each other. My mobile phone or PDA needs to be fairly small, small enough to fit it in a pocket at very least, on the other hand when looking at an ultra portable laptop, internet station or video player I would want a least a 4 inch screen, and really something more like 6 inch+, particularly for the laptop. Similarly with a mp3 player I want it to be as small and light as possible, if I want to go for a walk/jog I should be able to easily slip it in a pocket or strap it to me arm and not even notice it. This is a fundamental difference in the interface/presentation of each device, with current display technology there is never going to be a device that works well as both an mp3 player and a portable laptop, they simply have a totally different and incompatible list of requirements and expectations.

The few convergence devices which have been successful have succeeded for very reason that they were complimentary. For example try finding a PDA now that doesn’t offer mobile phone functionality or for that matter a phone without some basic PDA functionality. Have much luck?

Both these devices have the same requirements, both are should be small enough to fit in your pocket, both are meant carried with you at all times, both have battery life measured in days rather than hours, the screen size required is not huge with the overall device size being more important, often the two devices store the same information such as contact details, both devices are used primarily for short text and number input meaning their interfaces are similar. These are two devices which should be together, you could argue that should always have been integrated. That is how convergence should work.

Sat Nav also now being added to these phone/PDA which again seems to be a perfect combination, so long as the screen is a decent size which is becoming more common on phones. Music playback is another option many are looking at on phones but this is not such a neat fit, as many are finding, a music device needs a simple quick interface, not a complex mini keyboard, phones need to last a least a few days without requiring a charge under normal use, most mp3 player can’t provide this if left on all day, phone memory is counted in MBs not the GBs needed for music. These issues are starting to be countered by large capacity flash drives, cleaner interface design and improvement it battery technology but I am still a long way from trading in my 20GB IPod for a phone.

That was quite a rant really but something I just wanted to put out there.

Intel UMPC details

2006-03-08T12:04:00.000+00:00

Well the first real details of the UMPC product from Intel (which seems very closely related to, if not exactly the same as, Microsoft’s Origami) have been released and I have to say I’m rather disappointed. The device itself seems reasonable, though not amazing, with a 7 inch screen touch screen, standard x86 processor, windows XP tablet and wi-fi capabilities. The down fall is the fact that the first version of the device will ship with just a 3 hour battery, which puts a big question mark next to their portability particularly given that the quoted 3 hours is probably under relatively light use like listening to music, as opposed to something battery draining like playing a video over the wi-fi connection. Additionally the UMPC will retail for “under” $1,000, unless under $1000 actually means $500 this is well above the price most will pay for what is essentially a portable media device. For around $1,000 you can easily get a decent mid-range laptop which will probably be more powerful and have longer battery life not to mention having a real keyboard, sure it lacks a little in portability but with a 7 inch screen the UMPC isn’t exactly something that will fit in your pocket either.

It seems Intel (and Microsoft assuming the Origami is much the same device) are missing the mark here and releasing a product with some major flaws at a price point well outside what mainstream users will spend. That said they have mentioned subsequent models, released over the next few years, could have a battery life up to a day and retail for around $500. Now that’s a device I would be excited about.

The 100 greatest games of all time.. in Japan

2006-03-04T14:18:00.000+00:00

Massive Japanese gaming mag Famitsu has published a top 100 games of all time list based on the results of a reader survey. The list makes for very interesting reading if only to note how truly different Japaneses gaming tastes are from those in the west. Two things are clear, the Japanese love RPG, be they tactical, turn based affairs or fast paced action titles, particularly the ones from Enix and Square and they love their franchises, although the same could be said about western gamers. Combine the two points and note the dominance of Dragon Quest (with 6 titles in the top 20) and Final Fantasy (with 8 titles in the top 25).
The most interesting point in my mind is that Japanese gamers simply don't seem interested at all in games produced internationally. Just one truly non-Japanese game features on the list, GTA: Vice City at 76. Some may contest that Japanese gamers simply have different tastes but this list seems to indicate they, or at least publishers there, actively avoid western products. While Role Playing Games absolutely dominate the list titles like Knights of the Old Republic series and Jade Empire don't get a look in despite being very story/character driven “Japaneses style” RPGs, and in the case of KOTOR having a leading franchise behind it. Similarly while third person action games like Dynasty Warriors, Metal Gear Solid and Resident Evil feature heavily, particularly in the lower half of the list, acclaimed titles like Gods Of War, Tomb Raider (the original one), the rest of the GTA series miss out.
Another noteworthy point is that the top 25 features only one title released since 2002, seeming to reinforce the fact that traditionally console gaming is in decline in Japan bucking the trend of growth in the rest of the world.

Latest Apple Hype

2006-03-01T12:29:00.000+00:00

I wasn’t going to comment on this but I think the completely let down feeling resonating through the tech/blog community is worth mentioning. As everybody knows Apple had one of their much hyped press events yesterday resulting in the release of a more expensive but Intel based Mac mini, an expensive leather IPod case and a hugely expensive speaker/dock for the IPod. Since this announcement the web has been ablaze with comments criticizing all three products both for their excessive cost and the fact that there really isn’t anything special here, certainty nothing requiring a press conference.

Apple is put in something of a hard spot here, while they have always had a group of devoted followers the overwhelming success of the IPod, ITunes, Music Store combination has put them clearly at the front of “new media revolution” and made them the focus of massive media and community attention, and given amzing goodwill (and thus high expectations) from “tech savvy” consumers rivaling that of Google’s. In just the last year these events have be used to release some remarkable, market changing products such as the nano and video IPods, ITunes with podcast and video support, Intel Macs and Front Row so understandably the tech world seems to stop for the week preceding these events, totally dominated by rumors, predictions and speculation.

In this case the rumors, such as a true video IPod, a PVR Mac Mini, and even movies on ITunes all seemed realistic and proved far more interesting than the actual products released. I think Apple must have realized this and was trying to stoke their own fire a little here and keep their name in the headlines, attached to products that probably will be released something in the future, and get some publicity for a products they must have realized where never going to grab much consumer attention. Unfortunately for them consumers were expecting something remarkable and they have end up being slated by everybody and seen their stock price take a slight slide. This announcement clearly didn’t need an event, the new Mini, while necessary, offers nothing new, a simple press release would have been sufficient and many would argue the case and speaker should never have been released at all as there are numerous third party products doing a better job at far better price points. The problem with basing a company heavily on goodwill and premium products is that most consumers are very fickle and I know many will approach the next Apple event with lower expectations.

Interestingly in a total role reversal it seems Microsoft’s Origami has managed to steal a lot of the Apple hype. Given that Apple seem reluctant to move seriously into video, if the Origami delivers on expectation and is coupled with a reasonable online store for content Microsoft could quickly move into a powerful position in the portable media market.

Trackmania Nations Review

2006-02-26T17:21:00.000+00:00

Trackmania Nations: Electronic Sports Wold Cup Edition (to give it's full name) has been getting a fair bit of hype recently and with good reason. The third game in the relatively unknown Trackmania series is all about online competitive play and representing your country. The majority of the game is played online (you can play tracks offline too) with each player being ranked on their times and adding to their countries total in the world wide competition. Nations makes use of a nice graphic engine, with great looking, single seat, cars and fairly simply but functional environments, it runs brilliantly on the relatively simply tracks that come with the game, but some more elaborate user name tracks can cause some frame rate issues though.

Gameplay is a simple matter of reaching the end of the track as quickly as possible, all racing is done against the clock rather than against the other players in the server. Everybody has 6 minutes on each track to put in the fastest lap before being sent to the next track. This leads to some hectic racing as the tracks tend to offer a few tricky jumps or corners which take a few attempts to learn, so the top times are normally set in the last 2 minutes when everybody has picked up the ins and outs of the track. While you can see all your opponents on the track with you, this is all about beating the clock and as such there are no collisions, carts just pass right through each other.

The physics/driving engine is the star of the game, the cars themselves are very simple with no gears and a very light, easy to drive, cart-like feel, but the physics bring the complexity. The tracks have small barriers around their edges but once you fall off there isn’t a way to get back on, you have to restart your lap, as a result keeping you car under control and on the track is vital, particularly over some of the huge jumps. Rolling your car has a similar effect to falling of the track meaning that landing jumps, and avoiding high speed wall collisions is also important. These physics and some skillfully designed tracks combine to make a very challenging and original game.

Considering its free there is no reason not to give this a try.

Acer MP-500 portable video player

2006-02-24T13:12:00.000+00:00

I have been using my PSP more and more recently to play video content, be it vid casts or TV shows. I find the small form factor, compared to typical portable DVD players or laptops, to be excellent for watching while on normally fairly full tubes or buses on the way to and from work, or even as a replacement to reading just before going to sleep. Of course the limited memory is a huge issue as it limits the amount of media I can load up and means I have to transfer new content across almost every day. With my 3G IPod nearing the end of its life I have been looking to pick up something to replace both the IPod and PSP as my portable audio and video player. It seems the perfect device will be available very soon.

3.5 inch touch screen, 20-40GB Hard Drive, support for MP3, WMA, MPEG, MPEG-4 (DivX and XviD), Video out and battery life of 4-8 hours. Remarkably the price starts at only $350 and could be released on my side of the Atlantic (ie Europe) within a month. The battery life seems a little sort, assuming 8 hours is for audio playback, and the lack of a widescreen display keep if from being perfect, but with those exceptions this is the device I have been looking for.

There seem to be some mixed reactions to this going around much of which is based on Acer rather than the product itself, personally I have a Acer laptop and have found it to be excellent. I’ve never had a problem with it and it was remarkable value for money, sure the build quality isn’t perfect but I would still place it as better than the PSP in that regard and for a budget laptop you kind of expect that. This has defiantly go straight to the top of birthday wish list.

London wide Wi-fi network

2006-02-24T10:43:00.000+00:00

I’m a little late on this one but it seems there are some serious plans to have a large wi-fi network set up covering the entire City of London, do note the City of London area is only a small segment of what most consider London city and doesn’t cover the consumer focused areas such as Oxford Street, Piccadilly or Covent Gardens. The project is expected to be completed within the six months with the first parts up and running within the next few weeks. Aimed at the 350,000 workers in the business/financial district, this would become the largest wi-fi network in Europe.

Given the number of handheld wi-fi enabled devices available now, including PDAs, mobile phones and game systems I think this is a move we can expect to see in many more cities, although it will be interesting to see how the plan is financed (there is no mention of cost in the initial releases). Personally I normally carry at least one wi-fi enabled device with me at any given time and a network like this would be great for getting a little extra use out of these devices, even if it just downloading a new video to my PSP while at work for example.

TimeShift Demo

2006-02-21T20:35:00.000+00:00

One of the things I love about PC gaming is the ability to play a demo of virtually any game before buying and in many cases even before their release. I find it a great way to experience different games, eliminate games that I simply don't enjoy as well as uncovering those that I do. As a result I tend to play a lot of demos even of games I don't really have an interest in buying, many times a good demo has resulted me in turning around and buying a game I never expected to enjoy such as the movies a few weeks.

This evening I played through the TimeShift demo. I had heard nothing of this game before but xfire had downloaded the demo so I decided to give it a shot. The game itself feels a lot like a more action packed version of FEAR. The enemy AI again stands out with guards acting like real guards (patrolling areas, chatting amongst themselves) until they see you and quickly scatter and head for cover. As the title suggests you have the ability to manipulate time either slowing everything down or totally pausing everything for a short period of time. Like FEAR this made combat very simple and some what wasted the decent AI. This is fairly standard and I think we will see a lot more games with a similar feel to FEAR over the next few years thanks to its great success, the reason I am writing this though is the length of the demo. It takes about 10 minutes, max, to play though from beginning to end on your first run. It contains 3 short cut scenes, 3 quick firefights and a few simple “puzzles” (I use that word very loosely as there is no challenge at all) to introduce the timeshift ability.

Why make people download a 200MB file then offer just 10 minutes of fairly generic gameplay. There was no back story given, no characters introduced, nothing gameplay wise we hadn't seen before, basically no reason to give the game a second thought at all. I really can't see how anybody is meant to make their mind up about a game in such a short space of time and as such don't see the point to the demo. I just need to get that off my chest.

Windows Vista Versions

2006-02-20T13:15:00.000+00:00

This has been doing the rounds for a while but it seems that Microsoft have officially settled on the various versions of Windows Vista as follows:

Windows Starter 2007 - Vista without Aero, probably meant for developing nations.

Windows Vista Home Basic - Basic Windows Vista for your “mainstream” PC user, gets the job done. Analogous to XP Home.

Windows Vista Home Basic N - European version of the same, but without Media Player (because of antitrust rulings against MS in the EU).

Windows Vista Home Premium – This one probably appeals to me the most. All the functions of Basic with the addition of Media Center functionality and Cable Card support.

Windows Vista Business - XP Pro, but Vista.

Windows Vista Business N – EU, no media player version.

Windows Vista Enterprise - Business version of Vista with numerous enterprise features, like Virtual PC, volume encryption, etc.

Windows Vista Ultimate – Does all of the above, plus a few more tricks all of its own

(Straight from Engadget)

This has been copping a lot of flack as people have commented that there are too many versions but to be fair one (starter 2007) will probably not be available to consumers in developed nations and the two N variants don’t really count as actual different versions. Realistically consumers have three different options, Basic, Premium and Ultimate each clearly having a defined market with Basic likely to be the cheapest and sufficient for the typical browse the web, chat/e-mail with friends, play with photos, write the odd document user. While Premium is aimed at those who are looking to use the media center functions, essentially serving the came propose as media center edition at the moment, this is defiantly a growing audience but it’s still something that doesn’t need to be in the basic package. Finally ultimate will be those who just need to have the best version and home businesses who would want both home and business functionality. As I’m not an IT buyer/manager I’m not going to comment on the business line-up but to me is seems sense.

In general while names have changed but the versions seem to be fairly in line with XP offerings with the addition of the everything for everyone Ultimate edition.

Latest PS3 talk

2006-02-18T11:49:00.000+00:00

As Sony continues to say nothing at all about the PS3 speculation from virtually everybody else continues. Gaming news and discussion this week was dominated by rumors of a xbox live style multiplayer system for the console. Now we have claims from analyst firm Merrill Lynch that each system will contain around $800 worth of parts. This compared to earlier releases placing the component cost of the xbox 360 at around $540. While not a solid indication of price it does seem unlikely that the PS3 will be about to compete directly with the 360 price wise if these costs are accurate. That said a number of the prices look a little suspicious, primarily $350 for a BluRay drive for example, if they really do cost this much, just for the drive with no mark-up, BluRay will struggle.

I think this points to a bigger issue with the PS3 though, that is for a system supposedly due out within the next 6/8 months we still know nothing at all about it, sure we have a spec list the main components are custom parts with no consumer product to compare them to. More importantly we have yet to see an actual running game, the final controller design, a list of launch titles, pricing or anything like a reasonable release date. I understand Sony wants to protect (read milk) the PS2 for as long as possible and showing of amazing next gen titles is a sure fire way to stop people buying current gen product, but at some point they have to accept that the the next generation is here and it's time for them to join in.

Thus far that have been lucky that the 360 has been near impossible to find and doesn't have any truly must have titles but that won't last forever. The Revolution also looks to be coming along well and should be in stores for Christmas, while the PS3 slowly slips towards a 2007 release. All eyes now move to the GDC at the end of march where it's now rumored that Sony will finally give some real details on the console, all the while each time a see a 360 it's looking more tempting.

Maxthon Browser

2006-02-17T11:32:00.000+00:00

After seeing a recent recommendation on DT.TV a decided to take a look at the Maxthon browser (formally called MyIE2). Previously at work I had used IE as our internal tools don’t fully function on Firefox, not to mention that on a relatively low spec, overworked business computer the resource hungry Firefox is not the best option. Of course IE has its own share of issues and isn’t exactly resource friendly either once you open a few windows. Having just stated using Maxthon I am blown away.
Being based on the Trident rendering engine, pages in Maxthon look and function virtually exactly the same as IE, this isn’t a huge issue for most anymore (Gecko and Firefox have come a long way in this regard) but is still very handy and vital in my case. In fact the whole browser has a very IE feel to it with a similar user interface, making it very simple to pick up and use, it even makes use of things like my IE cookies (so all my automatic log-ins still work) and favorites, making the transition totally painless. Maxthon then extends and on basic IE browsing experience by adding features such as tabbed browsing, integrated RSS reading, mouse gestures, skins and extensions while somehow managing to reduce the memory footprint to virtually nothing and generally feeling far more responsive than its main competitors. The difference in performance is actually rather staggering, using either Firefox or IE with 5 windows/tabs opens quickly has them consuming well over 100MB of RAM on this system while Maxthon currently has 5 tabs open and is using just 10MB at max and dropping to 5MB or less regularly, a better than tenfold improvement.
To me this seems like the perfect alternate browser to IE, offering all the usability and compatibility that current IE users are accustom to, while adding the sorts of features that are attracting users to browsers like Firefox and Opera, all with performance that frankly puts the big players to shame. The fact that its only been in stable release for about 6 months explains much of its lack of coverage/popularity but expect to be hearing a lot more about this amazing browser very soon.

DigiGuide, Online TV Guide

2006-02-16T13:32:00.000+00:00

Who would have thought trying to find a decent listing of programme times for TV shows would have been so hard. Most sites claiming to have this service offered poor listings (unsearchable, little or no description of shows, limited number of channels) and pages so covered in ads it was hard to find what limited information they did provide. Don’t even think about anything advanced like selecting/limiting which stations I want to view or tracking a favorite show.
Eventually I came across DigiGuide who seem to have capitalized on this lack of a free service by creating a rather impressive paid service. They essentially has everything I need with a 14-day guide, detailed descriptions, show tracking and the ability to only view channels I actually receive provided in both online and offline versions. My only issue is that it costs £9 a year (which in fairness isn’t much at all) for either the online or offline version. For some reason the two versions seem to be totally separate and not compatible which it a bit of a downside as being able set everything up in a quick offline environment then check the listings daily and make the odd adjustment online would have been great. Also the online demo is fairly cutback making it hard to evaluate how useful the service actually is. A trial of the offline version is also available which I will be checking out tonight before deciding if it’s worth a purchase or not.