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

2006-03-19T12:27:00.000Z

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

2006-03-18T19:12:00.000Z

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

2006-03-15T12:14:00.000Z

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?

2006-03-09T18:26:00.000Z

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

2006-03-08T12:04:00.000Z

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

2006-03-04T14:18:00.000Z

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

2006-03-01T12:29:00.000Z

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

2006-02-26T17:21:00.000Z

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

2006-02-24T13:12:00.000Z

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

2006-02-24T10:43:00.000Z

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

2006-02-21T20:35:00.000Z

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

2006-02-20T13:15:00.000Z

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

2006-02-18T11:49:00.000Z

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

2006-02-17T11:32:00.000Z

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

2006-02-16T13:32:00.000Z

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.

PS3 Live

2006-02-15T18:27:00.000Z

The rumors regarding a PS3 live type service are gaining speed, it even has a name now, PlayStation HUB. I think the xbox live service is amazing, a game live Forza is far more enjoyable due to the fact that you can compare your time in every single-player event with tens of thousands of other gamers and download videos of the top players not to mention the great, easy to use multiplayer modes. The upgraded service on the 360 with the very popular and widely praised arcade system, gamer points in every game and downloadable demos seems to be one of the main selling points of the console at the moment.
Given this the idea that Sony wouldn’t offer any similar system seems a little short sighted but they have been making some questionable decisions of late. It will be interesting to see if Sony can get this service up and running, not to mention finishing off the rest of the console, in time for a launch this year and I will wait for more details before making any more comments but for the time being I am pleased to hear this service will be available as I feel it brings a lot of the console experience as a whole.

UMD Movie

2006-02-15T13:01:00.000Z

I have been using my PSP for watching movies/TV shows far more than gaming recently. I actually find it rather good for this, sure the memory is a little limiting (I get about 2 and a half hours of video on my 512 stick, just enough for 3 "hour long" TV shows) but the screen really is amazing and I love the fact it saves my position in the video when it gets switched off. This feature in particular I think it vital in a portable movie player as I like to get off the tube/bus at the right station rather than when my show ends 10 minutes later.
For Valentines day I received my first UMD movie, Robots, and I am surprised to find the format growing on me. I have always been skeptical of the UMD movie idea for all the normal reasons, namely cost, interoperability and lack of features. Now I had a change to actually watch one I am changing my position. The video and audio quality were both flawless, at least as good as what is offered on my (admittedly not particularly special) TV. Sure there are no extras but looking at my DVD collection I can safely safe I haven’t watched the extra features on the vast majority of them as for the most part they tend to be similar, bland, behind the scenes/making of features, and time consuming audio commentaries. This is great on your favorite movie or when done by a favorite director/writer/actor but for most movies I own I’m simply not that interested. Something like Robots is the perfect example of this, enjoyable enough movie and probably worth a re-watch somewhere down the line but not something I care enough about to warrant listening to an hour and a half of commentary on or watching yet another "this is how we create a 3D animated scene" feature. So with the extra issue out of the way the only other issue with UMD is the cost, why pay more for the limited UMD format when I can just get the DVD and convert the video to play on my PSP if I want too. Sony seem to have woken up to this and pricing seems to be becoming more reasonable, with a number of titles available at under £8 (about US$13) in high street stores and even better details available if you are willing to hunt around. This is roughly the same price as catalogue DVDs. New release UMDs still seem to be unreasonably expensive but if I want a movie at release its probably something I am interested in seeing special features/commentaries for too so that’s not really as issue for me.
The one big trade off that still exists is that only one person can watch a UMD movie so its not something I would consider for movies my girlfriend would like to watch but
for things she won’t watch/enjoy (primarily horror/thriller flicks and some science fiction) it actually makes a lot of sense for me to look at the UMD option. There is something I never through I would say.

Digital TV

2006-02-14T21:38:00.000Z

I entered the digital world today. After picking up a new TV over the weekend I finally hooked up my Digital STB and within seconds had about 30 free perfect quality channels open to me. Not too bad for a indoor aerial (which came free with the TV) and a £20 STB, no monthly fees here.
I have to say the range offered on freeview is well worth the one off cost of the set top box. Already I can see men and motors will get a lot of play time. Along with the two live Olympic channels, and the music video ones apparently.

Anyway for those in the UK I would suggest checking it out, now I just need to find a good online guide so I can keep track of what is on each night, any suggestions?

I'm Back

2006-02-14T20:21:00.000Z

Well its been a while but I have decided to resurrect the blog and try and get in the habit of posting again. Hopefully the posts will start rolling tomorrow.

FEAR multiplayer

2005-09-30T21:23:00.000+01:00

After playing through the single player demo of FEAR I was massively impressed, it delivered brilliantly on a few ideas I felt recent big name games fell short on (namely horror, amazing physics and remarkably AI). Now the multiplayer demo is out and it really does look like this will be the must have PC game this Christmas.

The action here is very much in the quake/unreal space, expect lightning quick battles with extremely powerful weapons, a few bullets from any gun is deadly. DM, TDM and CFT modes are all offered in the demo but the basic game play is fairly similar in all of them. You are able to select from about 6 guns to spawn with and as soon as you enter the map expect to be looking for cover, standing in the open will render you dead in seconds. As per usual you will find armor, guns and power-ups scattered thought the map, and health packs are dropped by when a player is killed. That's about all there is to it really, spawn, shot, hopefully kill a few people, die, then repeat.

While it doesn't bring anything new to the table it is the first straight up DM game released on the PC for a while so that's forgivable in my books. Now I have to go play some CTF. Those who are interested can grab the demo here.

X-box live

2005-09-29T21:16:00.000+01:00

There has been a distinct lack of posts recently, primarily due to me finally getting xbox live at the start of the week. I have played online games on the PC since the duke 3D/quake days but this is the first time I have taken a console online and I have to say it was a great experience. In what seems to be becoming a trend in the market the console people (MS in this case) really did take a good idea from the PC and refine it. The whole service really blows away anything I have seen on the PC by allowing you to jump straight into an evenly matched game and build up a buddy list so you can always play with players you get along with.

Possibly the best addition is the headset included in very live starter kit. This makes actual team play (rather than a team of people playing for themselves) a possibility like no PC game I have seen. Sure you get the occasional annoying prick but muting one person is a simple task.

I'd write more but I'd rather be playing some halo.

eDonkey goes down

2005-09-29T20:49:00.000+01:00

eDonkey has become the third popular P2P network to close its doors recently following Kazaa and winMX. I still think the RIAA is going about this the wrong way but at the moment they unfortunately look to be making inroads. Sure the big two, in limewire and bittorrent remain untouched, but 3 major networks gone in the space of a few weeks speaks for itself really.

AdTech London 2005

2005-09-29T20:06:00.000+01:00

The company I work for has been down at AdTech London the past few days, which made for a nice change from the office and computer screen. Given it was the first AdTech outside the US it went smoothly and it was interesting to see where everybody was going with online advertising. As expected the majority of large exhibitors were in the paid search or affiliate markets but there were a number a newer companies looking to do things a little differently.

The one who really caught my attention was free-hotspot.com. As the name suggests the company is offering free wireless access through their hotspots and then showing localized ads to the users accessing their network. Basically this is exactly what most people expect google is currently working on but they have been beaten to the punch. A quick look at their site shows most hotspots are within cafes, restaurants and hotels but they already have reasonable coverage in both the US and Europe.

I really feel this is the way forward for advertising and internet use in general, as it works perfectly for both the user (who gets free access in a number of locations) and the advertisers (who can target their ads right down to a specific hotspot, removing much of the irrelevant advertising currently seen online).

Forbes on Microsoft

2005-09-27T22:44:00.000+01:00

It seems for the first time in memory Microsoft have a serious challenger to their IT world leader status. In fact it actually looks like the company is falling apart from within with product launches slipping and employees leaving at an alarming rate. All the talk recently have been about Google at the future with MS in the past. To coincide with this Forbes has a somewhat critical look back at where MS came from, where the find themselves at the moment and what they are planning to do in the future. A great read.

Cnet plan google takeover

2005-09-26T20:51:00.000+01:00

A Cnet poster has laid out a step by step plan showing how Google could take over the computing world. Covering Google OS, Google broadband and Google systems. The scariest part is that as you read through it it all makes a lot of sense and it actually very possible.

Pegasus

2005-09-24T20:06:00.000+01:00

Wow, I just finished watching the final episode of Battlestar Galactica, which is now on a break until early next year. This intense episode is one of the best I have ever seen on TV and left me feeling both defenseless and sick. The core plot line here borrows heavily from the invasion in Iraq and shows what can happen when one dehumanises and hates another race. This is definitely not for the faint of heart but is the perfect example of why this is one of the best shows on TV at the moment.

Invasion

2005-09-24T19:25:00.000+01:00

So we are up to number 3 on the alien invasion list, good to see everybody got original with their new series this year. Thus far (in my opinion) we have one very cool series in Threshold and one DOA in Surface. This one manages to fall right in the middle.

With almost painful similarity to Threshold (and Battlestar Galactica for that matter) the aliens in this case seem to taking over human subjects, intending to blend in with normal human society. Clearly not the most original storyline but it definitely allows for good number of twists and turns, as everybody is suspicious of everybody else. Sadly it has been made very clear so thus far which characters have been “replaced”.

Much like Lost last year this pilot left me somewhat overwhelmed, a lot of ground was covered and there is a relativity large cast to introduce. This makes it hard to comment of how it may turn out, it all seemed a little too straight forward and obvious to me but that could be just setting the ground work for a nice twist. At very least I will be watching to find out.

Surface

2005-09-22T22:35:00.000+01:00

Well the new sci-fi shows just roll on, this time we are treated to an alien invasion, sea monster style. Unfortunately it isn't really entertaining, this is the first new show that has not managed to interest me at all. The storyline is rather weak and for a pilot episode the pacing was terribly slow, by the end of the episode nothing has really happened which isn't good for the major audience grabbing effort. The characters all seemed fairly generic and not at all interesting and the entire show was completely devoid of any humor.

Don't think I will be picking this up again.

Digital File Check

2005-09-22T20:01:00.000+01:00

The IFPI (essentially the international RIAA) have released a new program that will delete P2P applications as well as copyrighted music and video files. I really must question who the target audience is here, why would anybody ever install and run this? The only way this could ever work is if they basically released it as a virus, but that would be blatantly illegal and subsequently the cost the involved companies far too much. While they are safe picking people off in individual cases a mass class action against them would quickly drain their bank accounts.

The only place I can ever see this being used is by parents on their children's systems, which would suck for the people involved but realistically is not going to effect the volume of P2P trading at all.

Apart from gaining some more bad press and resentment from their customers I really don't see what is archived by this.

Google sued for copyright infringement

2005-09-21T20:36:00.000+01:00

It seems Goggles questionable policies to copyright and trade marks has finally landed them in hot water as a group representing 8,000 authors is suing them for reproducing their materials without their consent. Google response to these allegations is slightly worrying, they say they were just trying to make the information available to the public and would run links to buy the the books, no doubt taking a commission on each sale. They also pointed out the feature allowing for the removal of any books if requested by the author.

Unfortunately in the real world that not how copyright works, you actually need their consent BEFORE reproducing the material and trying to make money off it. This mirrors Goggles backwards ad words policy where company's often pass themselves off as competitors to take their traffic. Google will stop this, as long as you take the time register your trademark with them.

As much good as google has does for the internet this is one area where they really are in the wrong and clearly just trying to make as much money as possible. I hope this case brings that to light and paves the way for more actions or a policy change from Google.

I do find it a little worrying that this article was running on Yahoo but that another issue for another day.

Google Secure Access

2005-09-20T16:28:00.000+01:00

Google have begin rolling out their much rumored wi-fi service, the main page at wifi.google.com seems to be up and down at the moment but the FAQs page seems to be staying up. As expected there has been much hype on the web but the FAQ suggests this is not at all a big mainstream product, and defiantly not a free wi-fi connection. Rather this is a way to secure your existing connection, using Googles own secure VPN. That said the potential to expand this service is very obvious and they do even make mention of Google WiFi, making it sound like some wi-fi service will be available at some point.

Not surprisingly GSA is currently in beta and “only available at certain locations in the San Francisco Bay Area.” No mentions yet on when we can expect a full rollout what areas will eventually be covered.

Opera goes free

2005-09-20T14:36:00.000+01:00

Long time niche browser Opera has finally decided to go with the rest of the market and offer its product for free, without any advertising. Opera lead the way with many accepted technologies like tabbed browsing long before they became trendy in Firefox or Safari but has always struggled for market share as they targeted the business sector rather than private users. I’m all for increased competition, if nothing else at least other browsers (particularly FF) now have a serious player pushing them to keep their products up to date. You can’t beat free, having not used the browser for years I know I will be giving it a try tonight.

Supernatural

2005-09-19T22:02:00.000+01:00

Can you say X-Files The Next Generation, apparently the WB can but decided to go with the far catcher name of Supernatural. This new series follows brothers Sam and Dean (WB regulars Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles) who have been trained since childhood to fight against Supernatural forces following their mothers, rather spectacular, unnatural death.

To start with what they got right the show is defiantly creepy, sure it was overly dramatic at times but it did leave me feeling like I wanted to keep the lights on for a few minutes after watching it. Unfortunately that about all they really got right in my books, taking a lead from the x-files the series set to focus on one mystery a week and start fresh the next week rather than taking the increasingly popular ongoing story approach. While this is fine (and massively popular with the general public, see CSI, Law and Order etc.) is doesn't really inspire me to mark it down as a must watch, if I miss an episode here or there no big loss, and I'm certainly not hanging out to find out what happens next. That really sums up the show fairly well, it came across as very cookie cutter, same old one dimensional characters, same old storyline, while it wasn't bad there just wasn't that hook to keep we watching.

Also I wonder about longevity here, where is the show going to go in 2-3 years? There is no love interests, there is no powerful underlining storyline of alien invasion or government cover up and even with all the things a great show like the x-files died well before it actually left out screens. Where does that leave Supernatural?

I know I have mentioned the X-files every second sentence here but that really is what this show boiled down to, an enjoyable clone without much new to add. The general premise will keep me interested for a while but unless this takes a dramatically new direction I can't see myself watching this thought to the end of the season.

Mac fans are "Blind Lemmings"

2005-09-19T17:01:00.000+01:00

Well at least according to USA today. This is actually fairly true of most fans, and every company has them, but you do have to wonder about the people who rushed to be the first to buy a $50, poorly designed, unergonomic, corded mouse.

Threshold

2005-09-18T22:36:00.000+01:00

Follow on from the massive success of Lost last year it seems every network as there own present day, non-episodic, science fiction show. Given the lack of quality sci-fi shows recently I think this is great, but you have to wounder about the quality of these manufactured shows. Suprosingly there have been relativity good reposts about all the shows that have aired so far, particularly Threshold and Supernatural. First up for me was CBS's offering in Threshold and all quality concerns where quickly put to rest.

Threshold follows a team in field leading scientists (called Red Team) as they try to save the human race from what is assumed to be alien invasion. This is far from the most original premise going around but the execution makes it rather interesting. Rather than the aliens simply sending a huge army they have infected a select few, altering their DNA and the theory is that they plan to simply transform all humanity into their their own race without ever actually having to invade. Given the technology to do so it actually seems like a reasonable way to fight a war, as it ensures the safety of your own people while still achieving the desired effect, and at very least gives the show a somewhat original feel.

Headlining the show is Clara Gugino (Karen Sisco, Spin City) as Molly a contingency analyst who is placed in charge of the Red Team when her alien invasion contingency plan, called Threshold, is put into action. The team is made up of microbiologist Nigel, (Brent Spiner, Star Trek: TNG), wiz kid, astronautical engineer Lucas (Robert Patrick Benedict) and the very sarcastic, linguist and mathematician Authur (Peter Dinklage) . Also staring is Charles S. Dutton as J.T. the national security adviser to whom Red Team reports and Brian Van Holt as Cavennaugh a "ghost" in charge of the military team involved in the operation.

Many people have complained about the shows very sarcastic sense of humor. This element very Buffy feel, where characters often joke at totally inappropriate times, with the jokes clearly there for audience entertainment, rather than being natural in the, generally serious or life threatening, situation. Personally I have no issue with this, I'm there to be entertained, I want to laugh, even if it may not appropriate in the situation. This is scripted entertainment after all, not a documentary, you have been warned.

Behind the camera there is a wealth of talent here, Executive Producers include long time Star Trek front man Brannon Braga and David S. Goyer the man behind many issues of JLA and writer of Batman Begins, and the Blade movies.

This is going to be a big year for sci-fi TV and I will definitely be tuning into this over the next few weeks. I can't wait to see where they take this rather novel idea.

Yahoo mail revamp

2005-09-18T13:13:00.000+01:00

Well just after Microsoft started showing off their new web mail solution Yahoo is getting in on the act too. While it's still in actual private beta testing (rather than google style beta) but you can check out a review here. Looks like a huge improvement on Gmail, and actually looks a lot like Microsofts offering, really bringing a fully functional e-mail client to web based mail. The only question now is will people abandon their current services like they did to Gmail when it was initially released. Personally I will at least check it out.

Perfect power

2005-09-17T18:46:00.000+01:00

As power cables are going to be around for a long time yet, that is how every power board should look. No really, why has it taken up till now for somebody to make this?
Find more details at Think Geek

The Bit torrent search

2005-09-17T17:01:00.000+01:00

Last year I was looking to move to a fully functional bit torrent client as I was beginning to use the network more, at the time all the hype was about Azureus, so I quickly picked it up without really looking at the options and was fairly content. As my usage of this program has grown in the last few weeks so has my frustration at just how resource hungry it becomes after running for extended periods. I have begun leaving the client on whenever my system is on, even if it was only to upload, and am finding that it isn't suited to this at all. After some time it basically brings my system to its knees through its horrible memory and CPU use. So it was either restart my computer every few days (which I find annoying) or start looking for a new client. As you may have guessed I took option 2.

Upon beginning this search it didn't take too long to locate BitComet, a relativity new kid on the block which has quickly become a popular choice. When first launching it I could quickly see why, Azureus had a functional layout but this really blows it out of the water, everything you could want is right there. The biggest addition was an inbuilt web browser with links to 30 or so major torrent sites, sure its not hard to find these sites but its still very handy to have them right there whenever you open the client. Comet is also laid out much more like a full, professional application rather than the streamlined, amateur, download manager feel of Azureus, weather this is a plus or not will be a matter of personal taste but I found it handy as it made most tasks simpler. Those who like looking at in depth statistics will appreciate the bottom half of the window being dedicated to countless stats, a nice improvement on the already good Azureus tabbed system.

So it was all looking good until I started a download, which at the end of the day is what this thing is for. So far my download speed has been around the 10k/sec, well below my typical torrent speed and well even below my current upload speed. This of course may just be the files in question, but its not a promising start. My other issue is that no information is shown when I mouse over the comet icon in the task bar, sure its a minor issue but it sucks to keep having to open the program just to check my speeds and progress.

I have still yet to download a torrent containing a number of files, which was handled reasonably in Azureus but not brilliantly, I am looking to test this soon.

Overall i am fairly impressed with BitComet and so long as I can get the download speed addressed it could well become my new client. I do still have some issues though and as such my search will continue, expect updates every few days until I settle on something.

Bones

2005-09-16T23:28:00.000+01:00

My testing of new TV shows continues this week with Bones. While I'm not really a fan of crime shows I'm more than happy to watch the occasional episode of Law and Order or CSI (well, as long as it's not Miami at least). I decided to try this show out based on David Boreanaz (Angel) staring in it and I must say I was surprisingly entertained.

I went in expecting a fairly weak CSI rip off but was pleased to see a potentially different show that actually looks like it might develop some interesting characters (there's a novel concept). The story revolves around FIB agent Seeley Booth and forensic anthropologist Temperance “Bones” Brennan, think bone collector and you will good idea of what Bones does. These two characters quickly fall into a very Mulder, Scully relationship with Bones being lead by her interpretation of the “evidence” while Booth is more interested in ensuring protocol is followed.

The pilot also introduces the members of Bones' team at Jeffersonian Institution (which is a painfully bad name) suggesting that this is where much of the action will take place. Unfortunately there characters had fairly limited screen time so it's hard to really comment on them yet.

While I was surprised by the quality of this episode Bones could still fall into the classic CSI/L&O mode of just solving a crime each week and never really doing anything with the characters or a larger story. While I find this style watchable, it doesn't interest me enough to be a must watch so I hope they follows though on the promise in this pilot and produce an entertaining, deep series.

Catch up

2005-09-16T19:51:00.000+01:00

I had a big work event yesterday and as such missed a couple of stories so here is a quick recap:

- Microsoft finalized the xbox 360 launch dates, which are November 22 in North America, December 2 in Europe and December 10 in Japan. It's a very nice change to see the launch only weeks apart in all territories.
- The Tokyo Game Show has kicked off. This is basically japans version of E3 so expect piles of gaming news over the weekend. Keep up to day with coverage at Gamespot or IGN.

Mail Beta

2005-09-16T17:54:00.000+01:00

Well its good-bye to hotmail as MSN is nearing the release of its new online mail platform currently called Mail Beta. It looks very much like outlook in a web browser, which I personally think is great, but know that many will not agree with that. This should make a nice alternative to Gmail particularly if they have decent filtering and folder options which I find vital in a usable mail client but sadly lacking in Gmail. The one thing holding my back would be the famous hotmail spam, some major changes would be needed here and I do hope that change the name, even MSN Mail would be an improvement.

Nintendo Revolution

2005-09-16T10:22:00.000+01:00

After months of speculation Nintendo has finally taken the covers off its new revolution console in particular showing off the wildly different control device. As promised the controller is completely original, looking somewhat like a basic remote control with heavily iPod influenced styling.

As was excepted the unit will operate using motion sensors, giving game developers much more freedom when creating new games. Use of the device has been compared to using a mouse in 3D space, adding a whole new dimension to current control systems. This gives developers the freedom to try totally new ideas, or refine established ones. An Example springing to my mind would be driving games where the control is essentially the steering wheel, the player leaning it to each side to control the vehicle, this would allow much more precise, realistic cornering.

Now that this has been handed over to the developers we will have to wait and see what they do with it to find out if this will really be a revolution in gaming. Will we be stuck with abstract games that take weeks to learn? Will games just do the same things as before? Or will they actually take this and make some truly different and original titles? The sad fact is that Nintendo has a habit of pushing the envelope with systems and then receiving no support from developers (outside themselves, with their countless Mario games) so it will be interesting to see if they can sell developers on this.

Google earth taking hits

2005-09-14T15:52:00.000+01:00

It seems to be a day for Google news, this time its not so good for the big G. In the wake of the explosion of popularity in Google Earth a number of governments are getting a little uptight about detailed satellite maps being easy available to the public.

While most will laugh this off at first, these governments do actually have some valid points. While most militaries probably have access to this, and better, images do you really want everybody having access to detailed images of nuclear power plants and the surrounding area? It doesn’t take much thought to realise that might not be the best idea. Indeed the US government has already had a number of key locations (such as the Whitehouse) blurred out in the interest of national security, it seems reasonable to extend this courtesy to other nations.

Blog Search

2005-09-14T11:34:00.000+01:00

Keeping with the trend of rolling out a new services on a weekly basic Google has launched a new search section called Blog Search. As you may well have guessed this is a filtered/refined version of Google’s main search which only gives results from blog sites. Given the explosion of blogs in the past few years its some what surprising how few decent search tools are available for this content, so this is a very welcome addition. Those who prefer to get their news and opinions from blogs rather than more main stream sites, should find a lot here to interest them.

Sadly for me it seems Google is not a big fan of my blog, with most of my traffic coming from MSN, Yahoo and technorati. Maybe this new section will turn this around.

Wipeout Pure: Stealth Edition

2005-09-13T11:43:00.000+01:00

Sony has announced the UMD version of the summer flop Stealth will contain a cut-down version of Wipeout Pure. The game will contain 2 levels and 2 vehicles from the best selling PSP title as well as a new Stealth based track and the Stealth plane, all of this will be playable in both single player and multi player mode with up to 4 friends. While I don’t think it will work in this case thanks to the poor quality of the movie this is a great idea from Sony really adding some value to UMD movies.

Given their pricing is comparable to DVDs, but they can only be played on a PSP and don’t have any extra features current UMD movies are a hard sell and are struggling to find a large market. Add in some reasonable game content, particularly if its actually tailored to the individual movie and suddenly there is a good reason to look at the UMD over the DVD version. I hope this is not just a one off to try and sell a bad movie but rather becomes somewhat standard on all UMD movies.

Unfortunately Sony has placed the RRP of this title at about US$10 higher than a standard UMD movie, so it looks like, initially at least, users will be paying for the extra content.

Hot Coffee Fallout

2005-09-13T00:30:00.000+01:00

We all knew it was going to happen and now the ESRB has put out a call to all publishers to resubmit games containing hidden content, released in the the past year. Publishers have until early next year to conform and anybody who fails to do so may face fines. This of course comes after the GTA: SA Hot Coffee incident when the game was reveled to have a sex based hidden game. This action was fairly expected and really this content should have been reviewed in the first place It was put in the game for people to find, simple at that, as such it should be judged along with the rest of the content. If you don't want people to play it you simply don't put that content on the game disc.

Far more ominous is the following:
“ESRB remains concerned about third party modifications that undermine the accuracy of the original rating, and we are exploring ways to maintain the credibility of the rating system with consumers in light of modifications of this nature.”

It would seem that while mods are safe for the time being it won't be long before some sort of regulation is introduced. Exactly what form this will take is difficult to say but any moderation would break down the very free-form, independent nature of the modding scene as it stands. Given how influential the modding scene become, creating game modes like capture the flag, team fortress, counter strike and day of defeat, this would be a step backwards for innovation in games.

Apple time

2005-09-12T18:31:00.000+01:00

Time has a great article on the development of the Apple Nano. While it focuses on the Nano product it actually covers the entire philosophy at Apple, highlighting some of the reasons they have their cult following. This makes for an interesting read for those who like taking a look at the business and people behind your favorite gadgets and systems.

More web buyups

2005-09-12T17:33:00.000+01:00

Well over the last week News Corp picked the IGN network up for $650m and eBay grabbed Skype for a rather tasty $2.6bn. You really do have to wonder about these prices, I do understand that both companies have established business models but realistically I’m going to be surprised if either company makes money out these deals. It reminds me of the sort of prices that were going around in the late 90’s.

eBay might come out ok if skype manages to become a viable replacement to standard telephony and nobody else offers the service at a more competitive price. One has to worry about how an auction site (who’s only other major business is paypal) actually intents to make good on a phone company, especially given that have to go up against the three web giants in Yahoo, Google and Microsoft.

IGN on the other hand really is verging on the insane, this works out at something like $9 per unique visitor to the network. Most people running news/informational websites would be happy making $0.20 a visitor, and that’s before taking into account any overheads such as bandwidth or employing writers. Not to mention the massive conflict of interest in the company that owns FOX now also owning rotten tomato, gamespy and IGN itself, all of which review and comment on FOX products. The integrity and unbiased quality of these sites really is one of their main selling points, one has to wonder for happy fox will be when it’s next summer blockbuster, worth $100m+ to the company, is sitting in the rotten section on rotten tomato.

Windows Vista versions

2005-09-11T04:25:00.000+01:00

WindowsITPro has a in depth article explaining what is expected be included in each of the 7 different version of Windows Vista and what market they are aimed at. It looks like Microsoft got their versioning right this time and there are clear pros, cons, and target users to each version, as opposed to XP where 95% of users are on either standard home or standard pro.

The biggest changes are the pro packages looking like they will stay in the workplace this time, offering little that would be of interest to most home users. As well as the addition of the Ultimate pack with looks to replace pro as the top of the line home system. Bonus features here include, free movie and music downloads via a special ultimate-only online club and game performance tweaker on top of everything in the standard home and pro editions. Unfortunately given there will be two other mainstream packages expect the Vista Ultimate to set you back big money and only be included with the most expensive pre-built systems.

X360 video walk through

2005-09-11T03:46:00.000+01:00

Game Trailers sit down with a few members of the xbox live team and get a good look at how the console and controller will work. This is one well designed unit, addressing a number of accepted console flaws. The simplest and most refreshing is the ability to remotely power up the unit, this really is twenty year old tech and makes you wounder why you need to press a button on any other console to turn it on or off. The other classic example is built in support for both wireless networking and controllers, this, again, is really the accepted standard these days and its great to see it being included.

The actual design of the unit and controller look remarkably striking, and should look great in almost any house. This unit really does have a chance of going all the way with the PS3 come 2006.

The video runs about 5 minutes and you can have a watch it here

More Sin

2005-09-11T02:54:00.000+01:00

Following up the recent (very bare bones) DVD release of the Sin City movie comes word of a packed expanded release. How does this sound? 2 DVDs, The original movie, the extended edition, with 25 minutes of extra footage, 3 commentary tracks, a missive number of behind the scene segments and to top it off the full graphic novel the movie was based on (which is a great read). Now that is a must have DVD, which sucks for those who already picked up the standard release. More proof that you should never buy original release DVDs, there is always something else around the corner.
Full details as will as images over at DVDAnswers

Game Trailers

2005-09-10T16:54:00.000+01:00

The trailer for GTA: Liberty Stories (PSP) has been release and it looks like you can expect more of the same GTA action, story and characters in this latest installment. Unfortunatly very little gameplay is on display here.

There is also a leaked trailer of the new Sonic game on the 360 doing the rounds. This is supposedly rendered in real time thought the video looks like a cut scene rather than somebody playing so it's hard to determine how it will actually play.

Random weekend reading

2005-09-10T02:07:00.000+01:00

Looking for something different to do on your PSP? (not really work safe).
Microsoft patient double click thats just plain stupid.
Million dollar homepage one of the best marketing ideas I have seen in some time.
Pro gamers go on tour and the "mainstream press" actually picks up the story.
Dolby to unveils lated home theater sound tech, TrueHD

Stop raining!

2005-09-10T01:55:00.000+01:00

I had a nice sporting weekend lined up with both the final ashes test and the F1 Gran Prix in Belgium, but it seems the weather is conspiring against me, with both events being disrupted by rain today and the forecasts not looking good for tomorrow. Both my teams in Australia and Williams have been struggling in recent times so I was hoping for a nice turn around it form, but that seems unlikely given the current weather. Than again a wet race in Belgium (so long as it goes ahead, can you say indy?) on Sunday should at be somewhat unpredictable.

Lumines

2005-09-10T00:46:00.000+01:00

So I have had my PSP a week now and I have to say everybody with one should be picking up Lumines. I have about 4 games on my xbox I am waiting to play through and yet every night for the past week both my girlfriends and I have spend literally hours taking turns at this game. Totally addictive, really sums it up.

Each different actually requires different styles of play greatly adding to the entertainment. As the prefect example she flogs me every time in the 3, 5 and 10 minute games while I win in the longer challenge and single skin modes, as well as (very oddly) the 1 minute dash. Even after this much play we find we are still clearly improving each day, which high score consistently being broken, which really is the sign of a deep, skillful puzzler. Many have called this the new tetris and I am inclined to agree, pure handheld entertainment.

Age Of Empires 3

2005-09-08T23:18:00.000+01:00

The demo for the latest installment in the epic RTS series have been released and fan will find a lot of like here. The first change most will notice is the graphics, which have had a major overhaul and look superb, particularly the water and fire effects. You will quickly also note the addition of experience points and a home city, basically as you achieve goals in the game (collect resources, build structures, kill enemies) you gain experience, upon gaining enough experience you level up allowing the selection a bonus from the home city. Bonus' available vary depending on the current age but generally they take the form of free units, structures or resources.

The other main addition is trade routes, which can be captured to gain additional resources and experience. Indian towns work in much the same way and, one captured, allow for the creation new units. Apart from these addition the gameplay is much the same as previous games in the series. You collect resources in the same ways, move through the ages and wage, generally very protracted, wars. Those (like myself) who find the length of each mission frustrating will find little joy here, you can still expect a good mulitplayer/skirmish game to consume the best part of 5 hours.

Those interested can grab the 366MB demo here.

Marketing 101

2005-09-08T20:42:00.000+01:00

Want to ruin the relaunch of the Walkman line up? Announce it the same day as a new iPod line is announced. Well done Sony marketing. Sony are indeed bring back the Walkman in mp3 player form, and it looks damn amazing. The most striking feature is the screen which actually blends in with the rest of the unit, try and pick where the screen ends and the unit begins, very impressive. Unfortunately a terrible pricing scheme (the 6GB model is only $40 cheaper than the 20GB and far more expensive than the new iPods), will leave this hard pressed to find a market.

Apple clearly controls the mp3 player market and the moment ans its going to take an amazing device, at the perfect price to knock it off. Unfortunately for Sony this doesn't look to be the one, but that is still an amazing screen.

iTunes 5

2005-09-08T20:23:00.000+01:00

So iTunes 5, well the new interface looks nice although it not a major update. The search feature is very handy especially for those people with 1000's of sounds and .... ummm... yeah the search is good.

iTunes 5

2005-09-08T08:39:00.000+01:00

Announcement number three from Apple yesterday was the release of iTunes 5. I would like to make some comments on the product but the apple website was down for some time (or the downloads were down at least). This issue has been resolved now and I will update with my thoughts later today.

Motorola ROKR

2005-09-08T01:13:00.000+01:00

Announcement number two from apple today is the long awaited iTunes phone. Developed by Motorola the phone will be called ROKR (or motoROKR). This basically looks like the current E1000 with iTunes built in rather than Motos own media player. The phone will store up to 100 songs and sync with a PC or Mac via USB2 much the same was as the iPod line up.

Apart from the iTunes software this really does look like a stock standard moto phone and unfortunately there is a good reason they aren't the market leader. I can't see the iTunes functionality being that huge a feature, virtually every phone now ships with usable mp3 playback and with a 100 song limit this can't compete with even the smallest dedicated player. The phone should be available in the US and UK by the end of the most and virtually every market in the world by the end of the year.

Ipod Nano

2005-09-08T00:49:00.000+01:00

So today was the day for Apples must hyped announcement right? The one that was meant to compare with the original iPod, so what did the masters of design have up their sleeve? Well there were actually 3 different announcements but lets kick off with the new iPod Nano. Coming with 2 and 4 GB of flash memory, and a color screen this pencil thin device looks like a a damn stylish piece of kit.

The nano will replace the most popular iPod line, the mini, so clearly this is the sweet spot in the market price and size wise and as an upgrade to the aging mini this looks great. As with the mini the 4GB limit will put many off, while I don't use my full 20GB, I do use more than 4 and the simplicity of not having to worry about grabbing the right songs each time I sync will keep me using the bigger players. This should be hitting stores by the end of the week at the 2GB model will be priced at $199/£139.

3 drops the walls

2005-09-07T16:02:00.000+01:00

Its looks like 3 UK will finally give users real access to the internet via their mobile phones. At the moment 3 limits users to there own portal, which is less than perfect for those wanting more than just short videos and ring tones. Over the next few weeks they look set to allow users to access a number of independent, mobile phone optimized, sites, hopefully allowing for more in the way of news and views.

I have been on 3 for about 6 months now and this would defiantly see me using my phone more. Given their focus on the high speed, high data rate 3G phones this really seems like a very logical much, which has been a long time coming. While their current portal is reasonable for those looking for downloadable content it has virtually nothing in the way of the up-to-date news I tend to use the net for. Now I am just waiting for the £20 a meg charge… I love 3.

Thats a big laptop!

2005-09-06T22:28:00.000+01:00

Now this is just plain cool. Samsung is set to release a laptop with a huge 19 inch detachable monitor. While in us it looks like a normal desktop set up but at the end of the day you fold it up and carry it home, thought at 19-inch thats going to be one huge carry case.

The product will be officially unveiled this week, hopefully with pricing details and a release date. Unfortunately for those living state site Samsung don't sell their products there due to an agreement with Dell.

Inside a Google Mini

2005-09-06T19:44:00.000+01:00

Anandtech take a look at a google mini, a search server available from google. Up until about halfway through I though this was a joke, the packaging system look rather amateurish but this is indeed a real product. Makes for an interesting read for those working in the web development area, or for those who just like keeping tabs on every move google makes.

Google Mini uncovered

2005-09-06T19:33:00.000+01:00

PSP Vs DS

2005-09-06T11:18:00.000+01:00

This page has a week by week comparison of PSP and DS sales in Japan since the launch of each platform. Overall the DS is about 1.3 million units up, thanks mostly to a far bigger launch, moving a million more units than the PSP in December last year. This year the race is some what closer with the DS just 300,000 sales ahead. One of the more interesting weeks is April 24, when Nintendogs was released and quadrupled DS sales, since then the PSP has not won a single week. It just goes to show that in Japan at least people are more interested in the gaming experience than flashy graphics and media capabilities.

I would be most interested to see stats for the bigger US and EU markets as I feel these would paint a very different picture with most abandoning the more “childish” Nintendo system.

Red Vs Blue new episodes

2005-09-06T00:26:00.000+01:00

To follow up from last week, the first 2 episodes of the new season of Red Vs Blue are now available and this is some of the funniest stuff yet. Not much in the way of gaming commentary, just pure comedy, taking full advantage of the now well established characters.

Those who have never watched the show before will have no idea at all what is going on. If thats you I would suggest heading over to the archives which rotate through episodes from the previous seasons allowing you to get up to speed on this great series.

Some Vista requirements

2005-09-05T22:43:00.000+01:00

Some rough system requirements for Windows Vista were split my a Microsoft employee today. Here we go:
- 128MB video card, 256MB for best performance.
- 512MB ram for 32-bit operating, 1GB for 64-bit. Double this and make it DDR3 for best performance.
- SATA-2 hard drive for best performance.
- Dual-core processor for best performance.

These specs are amazingly high even in terms of current gaming systems, I really can't see windows shipping next year with requirements like this.

That said, there will be 3 different levels of graphical quality, the lowest of which apparently looks a lot like XP, while these specs would refer to the highest level. One must think though if your going to make Vista look like XP why would you bother upgrading, aside from the graphics there seem to be very few major additions.

Source : Daniweb

Superman Returns Teaser

2005-09-05T22:40:00.000+01:00

Title say it all really, only a short trailer so its imposable to make a serious judgment but still check it out.

Rome

2005-09-05T22:21:00.000+01:00

A new TV season is kicking off in the US which for me means watching a bunch of new shows to see if anything is worth adding to the 5 or so shows I catch each week. First off was Rome, which I watched this evening. This show is set around 50 BC and chronicles the rise of Jules Cesar to power in the Roman empire.

The overall premise was good here, I can't think of any other shows set in the same time period so it gets a few points for at least doing something different in a TV world filled by clones. The political wrangling, which make up the main storyline, also turned out to be rather interesting.

As with anything there are a few negatives, primarily, this is clearly a cable show and takes full advantage of it, the violence is far over the top, do I really need to actually see people being nailed to crosses? The sex/nudity was just as over the top, it seemed every female character had a full frontal nude scene and there were some fairly graphic sex too. This in particular made my girlfriends mind up on the show and I can only guess many other women are put off by this. Sure it's nothing you haven't seen before but unless it really adds to the story is it needed? My other issue is the massive cast of characters, I spent half the episode trying to work out who was who. That said this does set a good foundation for many different stories and directions later in the series, so is not really a huge downside.

On the basis of the strong storyline I will be sticking with it for at least a few weeks, so long as that is maintained this should at least prove interesting.

Court Rules against Kazaa

2005-09-05T14:00:00.000+01:00

An Australian court has ruled in favor of the record companies in their case against Kazaa, forcing changes to be made to their program preventing the trading of copy write material. Kazza has 3 months to comply. Realistically This leaves Kazaa with three options, close the network, move the company outside of Australia or rework the network to focus on legal files and remarket themselves.

For file sharing at large this will have little impact. Kazaa is only a small player now and most have moved on to networks/services like eDonkey and BitTorrent. Those still using Kazaa will simply move to one of these newer services.

This really is the problem the record companies face, as much as they spend time and money suing users and networks there will always be a new network to move to and 100,000's of people not wanting to pay for certain content, but being more than happy to use when it is available for free.

I still feel that until a good subscription based service is made available, with DRM free files, people will continue to obtain their digital media from the only viable option, free illegal P2P networks.

Real working Mech

2005-09-05T01:24:00.000+01:00

Just like something out of the movies a Japanese company has made a real mech (ie huge robot with a human pilot). You really have to check out these images and video

Finally wireless

2005-09-04T00:43:00.000+01:00

Along with the PSP yesterday I finally got a wireless router. I have been meaning to get one for ages but the wireless functionality of the PSP finally pushed me over the edge. Surprisingly, given I have an AOL connection (yeah I know), everything was relatively painless to set up and my little PSP was on the web in no time. I also discovered I could have been picking up free internet for some time now... wish I had checked before.

OK, I have no will power

2005-09-03T23:07:00.000+01:00

Well after saying I wasn't going to get one a few days back I picked up a PSP today (well actually my girlfriend got it for me for our anniversary). I'm hugely glad she did. This is one amazing little device, the screen really does have to be seen to be believed, it's just breathtaking. The inbuilt wireless really should be way of the future, I just wish sony had an xbox live type service to take full advantage of it. I just applied the 2.0 patch and while surfing the net isn't perfect is relatively painless and definitely useful for checking out the latest news and such.

The games are light years ahead of what I would typically expect from a handheld, I know my GBA is going to struggle to get used over the coming months. I picked up Lumines and already feel its the perfect example of a handheld game, massively addictive but very easy to enjoy in short doses. I'd like to write more but I have a high score to defend.

Blu Ray fights "hackers"

2005-09-03T14:07:00.000+01:00

It seems blu ray players will be internet connected and will report hacks (such as removing region coding limitations) to a central station which is tern can shut the player down. This seems a rather extreme measure and really fairs to counter the issue as anybody with any knowledge would simple disable the internet connection when preforming/using any hacks.

RIAA make another $6000

2005-09-02T23:53:00.000+01:00

A bit of an interesting read about the RIAA and their tactics regarding suing illegal downloaders can be found here. I'm actually surprised Yahoo published such a blatantly one sided story but it does raise some interesting points about people being forced to settle because a legal case with rich record labels is simply financial impossible for most individuals.

Freeze Dry

2005-09-02T23:34:00.000+01:00

Microsoft has announced a new feature in Windows Vista, Freeze Dry. The idea here is to maintain applications and unsaved documents when a system is patched or rebooted.

While this isn't huge news for home systems, where a reboot is only a minor inconvenience, it will be hugely useful in office settings where systems are often left on overnight with unsaved work. This should give system admins the power to consistently update and patch systems without frustrating users.

I know for me this will be great as I have a tendency of simply leaving IM conversations and browser windows open expecting to pick up work with them the next morning, meaning my computer could be on for weeks without a reboot. As a result my work system is probably not as up to date as it should be, but I would be somewhat annoyed to come into work and find it rebooted each morning.

As much as some may say its too little it late I feel it's very positive to see Microsoft finally taking security and patching so seriously, with many ongoing efforts to curb illegal activity and make maintaining a clean, patched, secure system easier.

New Gametracker

2005-09-01T19:55:00.000+01:00

Gametracker is a very cool UK site which collects prices from about 30 online stores and tracks the cheapest prices available. This is a fairly common service in the US but this is the only UK site doing this (as far as I know). As part of the pricetracker network they not only track game pricing but also books, DVDs, music and gadgets (MP3 players).

My actual point here is that they have released a great new site to coincide with the PSP release making finding the best price around even easier.

That whole thing sounded far more like an ad than I intended it too, anyway its a good service, well worth checking out.

20Mb plus broadband this month

2005-09-01T15:51:00.000+01:00

Three UK ISPs (Bulldog, Be and UK Online) have each announced they will have ADSL2 offerings available to the public (in London at least) by the end of the month. Speeds on each service range from 20 to 24 meg and pricing is an extraordinary £20-£30 per month, which makes their offering 10 to 20 times faster than most ADSL at roughly the same price.
One interesting thing to watch will be download limits, as connections this fast allow for huge amounts of bandwidth usage in applications such as streaming video. Anything less than 10 GB a month will probably not suffice for people looking to take advantage of this amazing speed and anything up to 50 GB a month is easily viable without really pushing the connection. Sadly I am stuck on 1Mb for another 6 months due to a 12 month contract but its nice to see these speeds available to the mainstream.

$1000 gaming rig

2005-09-01T12:30:00.000+01:00

FiringSquad have posted an article covering building a budget gaming system with just $1000 to spend. They actually manage to build a surprisingly high powered A64 3500+, 1 GB Ram, 300GB HD system topped off by a 7800 GT graphics card and an SLI motherboard just waiting for a second graphics card in a later upgrade. While they only build the actual system (so there is no monitor, keyboard or mouse) its is an impressive set-up by anybody’s standards and will fly though any game currently available. Well worth reading for those looking for a new system or considering an upgrade.

PSP Launch

2005-09-01T11:35:00.000+01:00

Finally the PSP is now avaliable in the UK (as well the rest of Europe, the middle east and Australia/NZ). I didn't go for the mad midnight rush myself as the software line-up looked fairly weak and there is still no must have games on the platform. Hopefully over the christmas rush this will change and I will pick one up, but for now I am happy with my GBA for any portable gaming needs.

CEX

2005-08-31T16:20:00.000+01:00

Sticking with the topic of game pricing, yesterday I picked up a few interesting titles which I missed on initial release. Firstly I just wanted to say anybody in England who likes buying second hand/cheap games should really head to their local CEX store, this is the first time I had visited them and they had some awesome deals.

On the games front I have already lost about 5 hours to Forza Motersport. While I enjoy driving games I'm not a huge fan of the genre as I find most too arcade like and too similar to each other (NFS:U, midnight club, juiced etc). Forza on the other hand takes a huge portion of the GT series on the Playstation and really is the perfect game for people who want a more realistic experience without going totally over the top on tiny technical details. As must as I love the GT series this really is the best game in this area.

My other purchase was X-men: Legends for £10, for that price I couldn't pass it up but thanks to the Forza addiction (and work) I have yet to try it out.

$70+ for a PS3 game?

2005-08-31T11:16:00.000+01:00

The publisher of leading Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu has stated PS3 games will be priced between US$70 and US$80, a good 50% increase from current pricing. To be honest I think if this is even close to the final pricing structure Sony will be in for a very bleak few years.

I already find game prices fairly high and tend to wait for platinum releases or hunt out second hand copies for most titles outside my favorite series or developers. Reaction thus far seems to indicate that most other gamers feel the same way, and with x360 titles being significantly cheaper Sony could quickly lose much of its market share.

Revolution details in 2 weeks

2005-08-30T13:23:00.000+01:00

Nintendo will finally take the covers off their new revolution console on September 16 at the Tokyo Game Show. After hyping their system for seemingly years, talking up the "revolutionary" new direction they will take gaming it will be interesting to see what they actually deliver.

Nintendo have really struggled in the console market over the last two generations with first Sony and then Microsoft stealing huge portions of the market, particularly outside Japan. While their handhelds seem to go from strength to strength taking on any challenge I feel this console is a last ditch effort from the big N, if this one fails it could be the end of home consoles from them, which would be rather sad given how long they have been in the market.

Red Vs. Blue Season 4

2005-08-29T11:50:00.000+01:00

The very cool Red Vs. Blue starts its 4th season tomorrow. For those gamers who have never seen it before you really should check out the first 3 seasons, this really is some of the best gaming based parody I have ever seen.

Star Trek: The Beginning

2005-08-28T13:58:00.000+01:00

It actually sounds like the next Star Trek movie might move away from the formula which has been established over 5 series and 10 movies, and not a moment too soon. The once great franchise is clearly close to death and this distinctly different story could be exactly what it needs to get moving again. Hopefully Paramount, who always seem hesitant in moving ST in new directions, fully embrace this new approach and give it the required support and talent.

$1.49 a song

2005-08-28T12:39:00.000+01:00

It seems record companies aren't happy to just have people paying for music online, they want to get every last cent they can. Pressure is being placed on Apple to raise the, already fairly expensive, 99 cent per song pricing. At least some of the record companies are pushing for Apple to raise the price on new release songs to $1.49, thats a 50% increase and translates to $14.90 for a ten track CD.
Personally I felt the the 99c pricing was already asking a lot, given the low sound quality of the songs and the DRM limits placed on them. At $1.49 you could probably get your music cheaper from brick and mortar store, which really defeats the whole purpose of cheap, media free, online distribution.

£2.99 to my door

2005-08-28T02:18:00.000+01:00

I just picked up a brand new x-box version of Mace Griffin Bounty Hunter for the lovely price of £2.99 delivered to my door. While this 2 year old game didn't set the world on fire an average rating of 68% is not terrible and for the price of a cheap lunch how can you go wrong?
I half expect to receive an e-mail tomorrow saying this was a pricing error, fingers crossed it does ship, but I can't see how they will make any money postage and handling alone must be near £3.

GB Micro preview

2005-08-28T00:44:00.000+01:00

Previews of the soon to be released Gameboy Micro have begun to surface with surprisingly positive conclusions. I was initially skeptical of this product as it is essentially the third release of the Gameboy Advance without adding any new features or functionality, but the screen looks amazing and size-wise it seems the perfect take anyway portable. Factoring the very reasonable price, around half that of the PSP and a good 20% less than the DS, this would be great for somebody who doesn't own a GBA or DS. Unfortunately for those who do own a GBA/DS, like myself, there seems no incentive to upgrade.

Sony run their mouth

2005-08-27T10:38:00.000+01:00

As Sony Computer Entertainment's VP in Europe attacks the DS saying its a gimmick and doesn't have any lasting power, sales figures come out of Japan showing the DS has a 50.6% share of the hardware market. The PSP? Around 15%.

Good to see Sony is doing their homework before mouthing off.