Sometimes I do a post to simply bookmark something for future reference. And this is certainly one of those occasions.
Sony has put together This Site for some self E3 coverage. Maybe they don't think that the journalists attending E3 will be covering Sony's announcements correctly or something because this site feels unnecessary, but the thing I really don't understand is why the streaming video show on the site has be targeted at twelve year olds!?
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
DDR Corrupting Our Youth
Video games might be degredating the very foundations of society, but they do give kids some 1337 skillz.
Sunday, April 23, 2006
UNO On XBox Live! Arcade
It's not there yet, but Here are some images and video of UNO being played on Arcade. No word on when it will be out, but looking at this content, not long.
A Theory Of Fun Revisited
Recently I have been thinking about What I Said in regard to A Theory Of Fun and now I think I can articulate better what Raph is trying to say in his book and why I disagree with him (hence the revisit).
From his point of view all games teach the gamer something. Wither it be dropping blocks in Tetris, galactic domination or shooting people in the head. Every game is a learning experience for the player. He thinks games become boring when the player understands the game's pattern (how the game's rule system works). For this he looks to Tic-Tack-Toe because this is a game that most people become tired of after they gain a certain level of expertise. He mistakingly sees this learning aspect of games and this rule complexity aspect as the catalyst for fun.
He is right in that when a player fully understands the play strategies to a rule-system in a game then there is an opportunity for that player to become board, but a rule-system present in any game that the player has not yet mastered or has not learned everything there is to learn about, is NOT the reason why the game is or is not 'fun'. This is where I feel the book's argument completely collapses because he never defines what fun is, it's associated effects (anticipation, gratification, disappointment etc) or why some games are considered fun and others aren't regardless of the learning experience or rule system represented in the game. Instead he spends a lot of the book talking about the cultural significance of games and their relationship to art which is completely subjective.
From his point of view all games teach the gamer something. Wither it be dropping blocks in Tetris, galactic domination or shooting people in the head. Every game is a learning experience for the player. He thinks games become boring when the player understands the game's pattern (how the game's rule system works). For this he looks to Tic-Tack-Toe because this is a game that most people become tired of after they gain a certain level of expertise. He mistakingly sees this learning aspect of games and this rule complexity aspect as the catalyst for fun.
He is right in that when a player fully understands the play strategies to a rule-system in a game then there is an opportunity for that player to become board, but a rule-system present in any game that the player has not yet mastered or has not learned everything there is to learn about, is NOT the reason why the game is or is not 'fun'. This is where I feel the book's argument completely collapses because he never defines what fun is, it's associated effects (anticipation, gratification, disappointment etc) or why some games are considered fun and others aren't regardless of the learning experience or rule system represented in the game. Instead he spends a lot of the book talking about the cultural significance of games and their relationship to art which is completely subjective.
Saturday, April 22, 2006
My 360 has it's own RSS feed
My Xbox360's RSS feed is Here and he is blogging thanks to 360voice.com.
Friday, April 21, 2006
Free Game: In The Pit
This is a game that requires a XBox360 controller to be connected to your PC, but In The Pit is an excellent audio only game that showcases these kinds of games biggest asset, their fiction and simple play rules. You are a monster living in a pit and have to eat whoever falls into the pit. You can Download it Here. It is a short game, but I had a lot of fun with it.
Thursday, April 20, 2006
Free Game: Rocket Commander
Rocket Commander is a free game programmed in C#. You are a rocket and need to get through an asteroid field to your target.
There is a Mods Page on the site that will allow you to download Flower Commander which turns the asteroids into none lethal Sunflowers. Plus there is a preview of a space ship mod called Coop Commander which is a mod that adds deeper missions and ships that you an pilot.
The thing about this game is that it is running on the .Net Framework, which C++ programmers would have you believe makes all applications run with appallingly awful performance issues. They consider the facts that it doesn't crash when it launches a miracle and that there is nothing better than an application written in C++. They are wrong of-course and this is the future.
There is a Mods Page on the site that will allow you to download Flower Commander which turns the asteroids into none lethal Sunflowers. Plus there is a preview of a space ship mod called Coop Commander which is a mod that adds deeper missions and ships that you an pilot.
The thing about this game is that it is running on the .Net Framework, which C++ programmers would have you believe makes all applications run with appallingly awful performance issues. They consider the facts that it doesn't crash when it launches a miracle and that there is nothing better than an application written in C++. They are wrong of-course and this is the future.
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
State of the Blog: Just Thinking
A while ago I Posted about blogs working against the bloggers that write them and the reason why I titled this block 'Self Deprecating' is an aknolagement that I would indeed make a tit of myself with some of my posts.
Now as a hardcore gammer these comments are going to come out of me wither they are on this blog or not. No I didn't like Halo, Halo 2, Half Life 2 and I think Lucasarts is making crap. And it occures to me that this might hinder me getting a job in the future. Specifically in the games industry because any employer becomes partly responsibe for their employees and wouldn't want to be assosiated with such deprecating comments. No-matter how true they might be.
So I am just wondering wither when it comes to getting a job if I should clean out anything witch directly targates a franchise or remove this blog all-together. I believe it would be premature to do anything right now, but just thinking anyway.
Now as a hardcore gammer these comments are going to come out of me wither they are on this blog or not. No I didn't like Halo, Halo 2, Half Life 2 and I think Lucasarts is making crap. And it occures to me that this might hinder me getting a job in the future. Specifically in the games industry because any employer becomes partly responsibe for their employees and wouldn't want to be assosiated with such deprecating comments. No-matter how true they might be.
So I am just wondering wither when it comes to getting a job if I should clean out anything witch directly targates a franchise or remove this blog all-together. I believe it would be premature to do anything right now, but just thinking anyway.
Monday, April 17, 2006
Oblivion Paid Expansions
The Orrey is now avalible for Oblivion, costs 150 points from Marketplace whitch works out at £1.28. And I have been reading the Backlash on the Bethusday Forums.
After thinking about this I have come to a few conclusions. The horse armor wouldn't even be worth a download if it was free. The Orray supposadly adds ten minuets of gameplay and some powers whitch nobody will proably use. The mighty powers include gamplay ogmenting additions like fortify inteligence by ten for a minuet and such. Whitch is frankly useless as there are scrolls all through the game that do the exsact same thing.
The reason why I think there has been a backlash from this content is because they don't change or add anything new to the gameplay. They won't make you replay the game from the start after adding them, but from the description of them on Markstplace they offer the promis of something more than they deliver. Hence the backlash.
I don't know why they are charging so many points for this content either. If they could charge one point and still turn a profit, then why not!
What people want is a mod that will deliver what is described. So say another race you can play as, some easter themed skins or themed quest, more weapons & armor or maybe even some more animals that players can ride. Add a ridable dragon that breaths fire, does lots of damage and players would love it.
Something that I think they could add that would also be well recieved would be a Warewolf quest series, like there was in Morrowind. Put a few long quests in there and it would well be worth the points. Plus players would be left with something to play with that would drematically change gameplay. The Vampire thing in Oblivion is irratating so shove something in so the player can controle transformation and it would be brilliant.
Additional: Thinking about it a giant wolf that players can ride that does a lot of damage in combat would be perfect because it would be able to use the same horse animations. Bethesda they would only have to add the model and some sounds. I say it should do a lot of damage in combat because otherwise it is just a model and some sounds without adding anything to the gameplay.
After thinking about this I have come to a few conclusions. The horse armor wouldn't even be worth a download if it was free. The Orray supposadly adds ten minuets of gameplay and some powers whitch nobody will proably use. The mighty powers include gamplay ogmenting additions like fortify inteligence by ten for a minuet and such. Whitch is frankly useless as there are scrolls all through the game that do the exsact same thing.
The reason why I think there has been a backlash from this content is because they don't change or add anything new to the gameplay. They won't make you replay the game from the start after adding them, but from the description of them on Markstplace they offer the promis of something more than they deliver. Hence the backlash.
I don't know why they are charging so many points for this content either. If they could charge one point and still turn a profit, then why not!
What people want is a mod that will deliver what is described. So say another race you can play as, some easter themed skins or themed quest, more weapons & armor or maybe even some more animals that players can ride. Add a ridable dragon that breaths fire, does lots of damage and players would love it.
Something that I think they could add that would also be well recieved would be a Warewolf quest series, like there was in Morrowind. Put a few long quests in there and it would well be worth the points. Plus players would be left with something to play with that would drematically change gameplay. The Vampire thing in Oblivion is irratating so shove something in so the player can controle transformation and it would be brilliant.
Additional: Thinking about it a giant wolf that players can ride that does a lot of damage in combat would be perfect because it would be able to use the same horse animations. Bethesda they would only have to add the model and some sounds. I say it should do a lot of damage in combat because otherwise it is just a model and some sounds without adding anything to the gameplay.
Halo 2 (Completed)
I didn't get on with the original Halo because the fiction was lame and the level design consisted of the level designer using Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V a too much. Halo 2 does nothing much to change that and in some respects the level design is even worse than the previous game. At several points in the game you are put into a massive hall and (I at least) spend the next fifteen minuets trying to find the door out long after everything has been killed.
The level design brief for every stage in game goes something like this:
The fiction in the game is like walking into an action film half way through. There is a slight mention this time about the construction of Halo and we finally findout how it acts as a weapon although still no mention on why it has all those islands or plants on it's inner edge. I assume the whole thing was constructed to destroy the flood, but that is just my own assumption as the game doesn't even attempt to offer an explanation.
The Covenant are very affluent so how the hell they ended up going to war with the Americans I don't know. And yes I am also am assuming they are at war with the Americans as the game also offers no explanation in this respect either. Maybe it was the Covenant's refusal to buy Hollywood films and end the domestic dominance of the market.
Some of the weapons in the game are a little bit awkward to use and having to keep picking stuff up from the ground only adds to their awkwardness, but it slows down gameplay so maybe this is by design. And to prevent the player from simply running through all the levels.
I could go into micro detail and talk about how the second level earth city doesn't feel alive because there are no civilians or evidence of life except a few abandoned trucks, but all the levels in the game suffer from not being anything else than deathmatch arenas for the Chief to fight in.
Multiplayer is good.
1/5
The level design brief for every stage in game goes something like this:
He walks into a big room. And stuff comes out. And shoots at him. And then more stuff comes out. And shoots at him. And then he goes through door to get to next room.There is a suspended space station that is kind of interesting. I thought the big cable was an antenna at first, but it is a cable going up into the sky. No word on what the station is for or what the cable is attached to, but judging by the design of the level I think the station is a deathmatch arena with lots of stuff to kill.
The fiction in the game is like walking into an action film half way through. There is a slight mention this time about the construction of Halo and we finally findout how it acts as a weapon although still no mention on why it has all those islands or plants on it's inner edge. I assume the whole thing was constructed to destroy the flood, but that is just my own assumption as the game doesn't even attempt to offer an explanation.
The Covenant are very affluent so how the hell they ended up going to war with the Americans I don't know. And yes I am also am assuming they are at war with the Americans as the game also offers no explanation in this respect either. Maybe it was the Covenant's refusal to buy Hollywood films and end the domestic dominance of the market.
Some of the weapons in the game are a little bit awkward to use and having to keep picking stuff up from the ground only adds to their awkwardness, but it slows down gameplay so maybe this is by design. And to prevent the player from simply running through all the levels.
I could go into micro detail and talk about how the second level earth city doesn't feel alive because there are no civilians or evidence of life except a few abandoned trucks, but all the levels in the game suffer from not being anything else than deathmatch arenas for the Chief to fight in.
Multiplayer is good.
1/5
E3 2006 Floor Plans
Yep this year's E3 Floor Plans are up. Nintendo and Sony are both in the west hall while Microsoft is in the South Hall where all the big publishers are. And that makes since when you consider this year Microsoft will be announcing a storm of games.
From what I know, Sony will be showing off some games behind closed doors running on PS3 Dev Kits. And Nintendo will show off what they hope to release in Japan later this year.
The one to watch will be Microsoft has even now 75% of what income most developers make from multiplatform titles comes from the PS2 (it's probably because of the amount of PS2 owners). Microsoft has to change this otherwise getting support from publishers in the long-run will be very hard.
From what I know, Sony will be showing off some games behind closed doors running on PS3 Dev Kits. And Nintendo will show off what they hope to release in Japan later this year.
The one to watch will be Microsoft has even now 75% of what income most developers make from multiplatform titles comes from the PS2 (it's probably because of the amount of PS2 owners). Microsoft has to change this otherwise getting support from publishers in the long-run will be very hard.
Sunday, April 16, 2006
Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion (Completed)
It took 76 hours, 52 minuets and 58 seconds, played over 23 days for me to complete the main quest and all the achievement giving Guild side quests. That averages out at about three and a quarter hours a day. I manually saved 633 times and here are my other stats:
For starters although the graphics looks great the castle architectures would have benefited greatly if the level designers had of visited an actual castle. Some of the great architectural qualities of castles, chapels, green rooms, ball rooms, dungeons etc, and some of their most impressive defences, murder holes, "portcullis", arrow slits etc, are completely absent from the game. I don't know why because the architecture present is so generic that there is no question that the game would have benefited greatly from these additions.
O' yes and that big tower in the Imperial City. I CAN'T go to the top! Who said THAT wasn't an important feature!!! As a player you put something like that in front of me and of course I want to get to the top. Otherwise don't put it there.
Another big criticism is the language of the towns folk. All the voice actors have all recorded the same generic lines as each other. So you speak to a guard and get the 'Hero of Kvatch' speech, then talk to a woman and get the exact same 'Hero of Kvatch' speech, but with a different voice, yet she will repeat what the guard said word for word. Writing a little bit of variation for each voice actor's script shourly wouldn't have been so difficult.
Also with the language, all the towns folk have the same primp and proper way of speaking. The entire of Cyrodiil has the exact same vocabulary. It is as if the writer wrote all the spoken text with just one character in mind. There are a few exceptions, the Gray Fox for example starts every sentence with "Capital!", the Emperor has some great lines, Martin, Jauffre and there is a demon you can speak to later in the game who has a slightly different way of speaking, but the use of language is all so BLAND! Give me people with pirating accents, people that say one word too many times, people who use abbreviations, people who speak too fast, people who always shout, lisps, I don't care just not this same primp and proper way of speaking all the time.
Then there is the emotion of the characters in the game witch detracts from the believability of characters. First they are like "GET OUT OF MY HOME!" then they are "hello friend" and then "I AM CALLING THE GUARDS!" even when they asked you over or where expecting you. This could have been fixed with just a little bit more coding on the quests, but it wasn't done.
Almost every quest involves lots of killing and I have no idea how many times I have done a "somebody went to that cave, could you go and see what happened?" quest. Which almost always results in finding more dead bodies.
It might sound like I am being a bit harsh and I am because these issues should have been spotted at design-time. I am not even going to talk about the limited dialogue options which seem to have only been placed into the game to create the illusion of a conversation or the fact that the speech-game to get people to like you is a wasted feature. These faults are acceptable as one is a time & money thing and the other is a failed attempt which is ok because at least they tried. The lockpicking game could have been a negative, but is great and it wouldn't hurt to see other developers copy that or try something similar.
A good solid simplified RPG then, but the plot misses something and all the side quest stories miss something. Sometimes I think there might be a good story attached to the quest then it ends in a lot of killing, so maybe the quests are either too predictable or they need better closure. The main quest is not great, it is far too automotive to feel player driven or that player's action is even needed. Then there are the whole "how are oblivion gates opened" and "why would someone open one" questions. You can assume power, but the best villains in any game always have good motives for what they do and the evil guy in oblivion is only on screen for a couple of minuets at best so there is no chance of him commenting on the human condition.
Maybe Oblivion is a great game and I just have a problem with how the fiction is communicated to the player.
3/5
Days Passed: 262Oblivion is a good game, the most exciting moment in the game is the anticipation you feel just before you enter your first Oblivion Gate. However the worst and most tedious part of the game is having to close those very same Oblivion Gates. This isn't however the game's biggest failure. The biggest failure is by the designers not thinking the game through at design-time.
Active Quests: 7
Quests Completed: 135
Skill Increases: 444
Training Sessions: 53
Novice Skills: 7
Apprentice Skills: 7
Journeyman Skills: 4
Expert Skills: 3
Master Skills: 0
Bounty: 0
Fame: 115
Infamy: 78
Days Jailed: 53
Items Stolen: 1762
Items Pickpocketed: 4
Trespasses: 0
Assaults: 62
Murders: 37
Horses Stolen: 3
Largest Bounty: 8505
Creatures Killed: 911
People Killed: 506
Places Found: 136
Locks Picked: 239
Lockpicks Broken: 106
Souls Trapped: 22
Ingredients Eaten: 12
Potions Made: 625
Oblivion Gates Shut: 6
Horses Owned: 1
Houses Owned: 0
Stores Invested In: 0 (no I don't know how to invest in a shop)
Books Read: 16
Artifacts Fund: 4
Hours Slept: 1878
Hours Waited: 1791
Days as a Vampire: 21
Necks Bitten 7
Jokes Told: 275
Diseases Contracted: 15
Niroots Found: 40
For starters although the graphics looks great the castle architectures would have benefited greatly if the level designers had of visited an actual castle. Some of the great architectural qualities of castles, chapels, green rooms, ball rooms, dungeons etc, and some of their most impressive defences, murder holes, "portcullis", arrow slits etc, are completely absent from the game. I don't know why because the architecture present is so generic that there is no question that the game would have benefited greatly from these additions.
O' yes and that big tower in the Imperial City. I CAN'T go to the top! Who said THAT wasn't an important feature!!! As a player you put something like that in front of me and of course I want to get to the top. Otherwise don't put it there.
Another big criticism is the language of the towns folk. All the voice actors have all recorded the same generic lines as each other. So you speak to a guard and get the 'Hero of Kvatch' speech, then talk to a woman and get the exact same 'Hero of Kvatch' speech, but with a different voice, yet she will repeat what the guard said word for word. Writing a little bit of variation for each voice actor's script shourly wouldn't have been so difficult.
Also with the language, all the towns folk have the same primp and proper way of speaking. The entire of Cyrodiil has the exact same vocabulary. It is as if the writer wrote all the spoken text with just one character in mind. There are a few exceptions, the Gray Fox for example starts every sentence with "Capital!", the Emperor has some great lines, Martin, Jauffre and there is a demon you can speak to later in the game who has a slightly different way of speaking, but the use of language is all so BLAND! Give me people with pirating accents, people that say one word too many times, people who use abbreviations, people who speak too fast, people who always shout, lisps, I don't care just not this same primp and proper way of speaking all the time.
Then there is the emotion of the characters in the game witch detracts from the believability of characters. First they are like "GET OUT OF MY HOME!" then they are "hello friend" and then "I AM CALLING THE GUARDS!" even when they asked you over or where expecting you. This could have been fixed with just a little bit more coding on the quests, but it wasn't done.
Almost every quest involves lots of killing and I have no idea how many times I have done a "somebody went to that cave, could you go and see what happened?" quest. Which almost always results in finding more dead bodies.
It might sound like I am being a bit harsh and I am because these issues should have been spotted at design-time. I am not even going to talk about the limited dialogue options which seem to have only been placed into the game to create the illusion of a conversation or the fact that the speech-game to get people to like you is a wasted feature. These faults are acceptable as one is a time & money thing and the other is a failed attempt which is ok because at least they tried. The lockpicking game could have been a negative, but is great and it wouldn't hurt to see other developers copy that or try something similar.
A good solid simplified RPG then, but the plot misses something and all the side quest stories miss something. Sometimes I think there might be a good story attached to the quest then it ends in a lot of killing, so maybe the quests are either too predictable or they need better closure. The main quest is not great, it is far too automotive to feel player driven or that player's action is even needed. Then there are the whole "how are oblivion gates opened" and "why would someone open one" questions. You can assume power, but the best villains in any game always have good motives for what they do and the evil guy in oblivion is only on screen for a couple of minuets at best so there is no chance of him commenting on the human condition.
Maybe Oblivion is a great game and I just have a problem with how the fiction is communicated to the player.
3/5
Friday, April 14, 2006
Best Selling Coincidence
The best selling game on XBox Live! Arcade is GeometryWars and the best retail selling game on the XBox360 is Oblivion, but the similarity comes when you look at their game logos.
Coincidence!? I think not.
Coincidence!? I think not.
Thursday, April 13, 2006
Random Fact
Video games sold in Japan that are made by foreign developers are labelled as foreign games in stores.
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
Union Jack 400 Years Old Today
Yep the Union Jack, the flag of the United Kingdom is 400 years old today.
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
Coming Attraction On Arcade: Mad Tracks
Mad Tracks is a Micro Machines styled, Revolt gameplay type racing game by a French developer that is coming to XBox Live Arcade about June time and there is an interview with the Business Dev over at K1lla’s XBox Domain.
Bankshot Billiards 2
I have been itching to get a new arcade title for a couple pf weeks now and Bankshot Billiards 2 just got updated with a 3D version. This is an update so anybody who bought (1200 points or £10.20) the old 2D version will get this when they are prompted to update the game.
It's a good virtual billiards game and probably the best I have ever played. Plus with it being an arcade title it is very convenient to start and has multiplayer, but I think I should have waited until I got a bigger TV because it is very difficult to see anything on my 14" screen. Not as bad as the multiplayer score table on BF2:MC. but it's not far off.
EDIT: It is Bankshot not Buckshot.
It's a good virtual billiards game and probably the best I have ever played. Plus with it being an arcade title it is very convenient to start and has multiplayer, but I think I should have waited until I got a bigger TV because it is very difficult to see anything on my 14" screen. Not as bad as the multiplayer score table on BF2:MC. but it's not far off.
EDIT: It is Bankshot not Buckshot.
Monday, April 10, 2006
Killer App Being Killed by Halo
I have been noticing a slight change in language recently. Instead of people saying 'killer app' more and more poeple in the games industry are saying 'Halo'.
This is our killer app.
This is out halo.
They need a killer app.
They need a halo.
Not hared anybody from Nintendo or Sony saying it, but all the western journalists and Microsoft folks seems to have gotten used to the term. Not sure if it will stick.
This is our killer app.
This is out halo.
They need a killer app.
They need a halo.
Not hared anybody from Nintendo or Sony saying it, but all the western journalists and Microsoft folks seems to have gotten used to the term. Not sure if it will stick.
Boot and Nuke
If you ever want to make sure you remove information from a hard drive Darik's Boot and Nuke is what you should be looking at.
Thursday, April 06, 2006
More Oblivion Lockpicking
Roger Wong had made a video showing the different tumbler speeds and sounds. And this technique works very well, but there is an even better way. By doing the Nocturnal Quest which gives you an unbreakable Skeleton Key.
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
2Ghz PowerPC Vs 2Ghz Intel
Gear Live has a Video Up with two Macs. One is a Mac desktop G5 PowerMac with two PowerPC CPUs running at 2Ghz each with 4.5GB of ram. And the other is a MacBook Pro with one Intel Dual Core CPU with 1GB of ram.
Now just a couple of years ago apple was singing how much faster the PowerPC was, but by this test where they compiled a load of Java files (a CPU and hard drive intensive task) the laptop was 36% quicker. Even though it had less ram, a slower hard drive, access time to the hard drive was limited because it is encrypted and laptop is just running one CPU. I think this calls into question what Apple has been preaching for the past few years.
Now just a couple of years ago apple was singing how much faster the PowerPC was, but by this test where they compiled a load of Java files (a CPU and hard drive intensive task) the laptop was 36% quicker. Even though it had less ram, a slower hard drive, access time to the hard drive was limited because it is encrypted and laptop is just running one CPU. I think this calls into question what Apple has been preaching for the past few years.
Geometry Wars Retro Evolved (Completed)
I finally managed to get the converted one million point score on Geometry Wars Retro Evolved (my actual high score is 1,264,325) so I guess that means that I have completed it.
This is going to be very short because this game is just very good in all areas. It's addictive nature comes from what I am now going to call Nondeterministic Death Phenomena or NDP for short. What this means is that at no point in the game do you know when you are going to die. This means that when you do die there is an immediate knee-jerk reaction that death could have been avoided. GWRE achieves this by having very simple and easy to kill enemies.
NDP is also present in Tetris where the shapes will fall ever faster, but GWRE does a much better job at implementing NDP as there is no indication at any stage of the game wither it is going to be a high scoring or low scoring game. With Tetris you can see a game going bad long before the player actually dies, but with GWRE this is not the case at all. Thus GWRE uses NDP to better effect than Tetris, so in theory GWRE should be a more addictive game.
Live support only makes the game ten times better with the leader boards (global ranking can be viewed by cycling through the filters). This is most certainly a modern day classic that everybody will be talking about for years to come.
5/5
Additional: Just been thinking and the game could be made much more addictive by having a better reward sound for killing the enemies.
This is going to be very short because this game is just very good in all areas. It's addictive nature comes from what I am now going to call Nondeterministic Death Phenomena or NDP for short. What this means is that at no point in the game do you know when you are going to die. This means that when you do die there is an immediate knee-jerk reaction that death could have been avoided. GWRE achieves this by having very simple and easy to kill enemies.
"I almost had it that time!"Compared to the Retro game mode Evolved is alot easier with slower opponents and a bigger game surface. No single enemy would ever possibly kill the player in a straight fight. The player is completely overpowered considering the enemies, but because GWRE keeps filling the screen with more and more enemies with each passing second there is an ever increasing chance that the player might die by being placed in an awkward or unfamiliar situation. Difficulty of the game thus increases by the control and increasing number of these death circumstances as the game progresses by filling the screen with loads of easy opponents.
- GWRE Player
NDP is also present in Tetris where the shapes will fall ever faster, but GWRE does a much better job at implementing NDP as there is no indication at any stage of the game wither it is going to be a high scoring or low scoring game. With Tetris you can see a game going bad long before the player actually dies, but with GWRE this is not the case at all. Thus GWRE uses NDP to better effect than Tetris, so in theory GWRE should be a more addictive game.
Live support only makes the game ten times better with the leader boards (global ranking can be viewed by cycling through the filters). This is most certainly a modern day classic that everybody will be talking about for years to come.
5/5
Additional: Just been thinking and the game could be made much more addictive by having a better reward sound for killing the enemies.
Monday, April 03, 2006
Oblivion Horse Armor
Complete wast of £1.70. Will not protect horse from damage and only gives you two types, steel and elven.
Oblivion Gold Cheat
This is very easy to do.
Essentially what this cheat is based around is that if you have a weapon equipped and are riding a horse then you can't unequip the weapon. If you try selling the equipped weapon then you won't give the weapon to the sales person because you are on a horse, but you will still get the gold for the weapon from the NPC you are bartering with.
1) Equip your most expensive weapon.
2) Get on a horse.
3) Ride to Kvatch (the little camp of refugees south of the Oblivion gate)
4) Talk to 'Batul gra-Sharob' the female Orc and start Bartering.
5) Now you can sell that weapon as many times as you like, it won't be removed from your inventory, but you will get the gold for it.
Essentially what this cheat is based around is that if you have a weapon equipped and are riding a horse then you can't unequip the weapon. If you try selling the equipped weapon then you won't give the weapon to the sales person because you are on a horse, but you will still get the gold for the weapon from the NPC you are bartering with.
1) Equip your most expensive weapon.
2) Get on a horse.
3) Ride to Kvatch (the little camp of refugees south of the Oblivion gate)
4) Talk to 'Batul gra-Sharob' the female Orc and start Bartering.
5) Now you can sell that weapon as many times as you like, it won't be removed from your inventory, but you will get the gold for it.
Saturday, April 01, 2006
Copy Protection On Demos
So I downloaded the new Tomb Raider Legend Demo and all I can say is that "the security module could not be activated" because that is as much play experience as I got from it.
I don't know why anybody would put copy protection on a downloadable demo, but in this case and in a few others it has stopped me demoing the game. If that happens I go from "might not buy game, but see what the demo is like first" to "fuck you publishers, see if I ever buy anything from you again".
I don't know why anybody would put copy protection on a downloadable demo, but in this case and in a few others it has stopped me demoing the game. If that happens I go from "might not buy game, but see what the demo is like first" to "fuck you publishers, see if I ever buy anything from you again".
Friday, March 31, 2006
Oblivion 28 Hours In
This is what I know:
- Most of the quests involve people bitching about someone else or require lots of killing. So far in twenty eight hours I have only had two quests that do not involve slaughter. The first is someone who is pissed off about somebody in another town that looks like them (who turns out to be their twin brother, but that quest later requires some killing) and the other is the thieves guild initiation quest where you have to steal a diary (specifically without killing anyone).
- Took me ages to figure out how lockpicking truely works.
- The speechcraft thing where you can persuade people to like you is add and experience breaking. Fallout did an excellent job with it's talking heads by having multiple toned speech options and depending on how you communicated with the NPC influenced their opinion of you. With Oblivion you just select a keyword and that NPC will tall you what they know. There is no actual conversation, they just talk at you. And then if they don't like you, there is a little puzzle game you can play to get them to like you. I just think this feels odd.
- Controls and menus are excellent.
- A walkthrough for almost any quest is unnecessary because the quest description tells you what to do step-by-step. It says stuff like "you should talk with" or "you should follow" or even "go to wherever and kill whoever" which is a common one.
- the game is filled with bugs, as is traditional for RPGs. The game has locked-up once and I have had three CD read errors that required me to restart the game so far.
- Most of the quests do involve a lot of killing. I walked into a tavern once and the first thing the bar maid said to me was "THAT [insert name] MUST BE KILLED NOW!" and that turned out to be a Necromancer who I went and killed.
- The music is the same everywhere so all the towns have the same feel to them.
Random Thought: Great Dance Club Music
The difference between dance music and club dance music is that the club stuff will enhance any drug trip you are on while listening to the music.
Thursday, March 30, 2006
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Random Idea
I think this one is good enough to make it to my black book, but it's not technically a game idea.
Have cameras fitted in every room of your house. Then wear a headset with LCD screens so that all you can see is the output from those cameras. Then you have an instant fixed camera third person view of your life. I really think it would be cool because you would actually be abandoning the standard first person viewpoint of human living for something else. Imagine trying to make breakfast or go the toilet like that! And could you extend that to other areas like driving!?
Have cameras fitted in every room of your house. Then wear a headset with LCD screens so that all you can see is the output from those cameras. Then you have an instant fixed camera third person view of your life. I really think it would be cool because you would actually be abandoning the standard first person viewpoint of human living for something else. Imagine trying to make breakfast or go the toilet like that! And could you extend that to other areas like driving!?
Michael Jackson Composed Sonic 3's Music
This is one of thoes crazy theries that actually Stands Up Very Well.
Monday, March 27, 2006
GameSpy Daily: Fargo's Impression of GDC2006
Was just checking my email and Fargo who writes the very small daily column in the email had this to say about this year's GDC:
In the coming days I'll likely write up a full editorial about this, but this year's Game Developers Conference (see our GDC coverage) had a very different spirit than years past. There was a lot of hope in the air. In previous years a pall of gloom had almost seemed to descend over the place. Everybody was talking about the bad news: spiraling development costs, lack of innovation, difficult work environment, lack of opportunity... But this year, the outlook was positive.And I would have to agree with him. I am once again a console gamer. There are actual gammes once in development that I want to play. So there is something changing and I think it is the abandonment of the cash cow squeesing that had been going on for so many years.
Several factors were at work. Both Nintendo and Microsoft were fostering warm fuzzy feelings of innovation and outreach -- Nintendo with their unusual experimental wide-appeal games, and Microsoft with Xbox Live Arcade. (The latter looks to prove that small developers now have a platform to release simpler titles on and still turn a profit, and the company is really hungry for experimental games.) Meanwhile, Will Wright's talk last year spawned off a flurry of talks about prototyping at this year's show, along with other new ways of developing large games while still remaining flexible and innovative. In the past, attendees would complain that new and different game ideas were unseen by the masses and could never achieve success. This year, students showing off crazy game concepts could boast about millions of downloads and the Independent Game Festival was absolutely outstanding.
There were no big announcements at this year's show, no groundbreaking headline-grabbers. Despite that, I found this year's show to be inspiring for game creators from all over the spectrum.
Extremely Large Game Collection
An Interview with the videogamecollector who possibly has the worlds largest game collection ever (well with the exception of the New Mexico Desert of course).
Sunday, March 26, 2006
Cheaper Microsoft Points
I have been looking for a way of getting cheaper Microsoft Points and here is the best I have come up with.
From Live each MP is worth £0.0085 nomatter which package is bought from Marketplace.
If however I got to Game and buy their 2100 points for £17.50 pack then it works out at £0.0083 per MP.
Not much cheaper but that means for every 60 points I buy from Game, I save £0.01. Whitch also means that by buying from Game instead of Live with that pack I get 35 FREE points!!!
Not a lot I know, but it's the best I could come up with.
From Live each MP is worth £0.0085 nomatter which package is bought from Marketplace.
If however I got to Game and buy their 2100 points for £17.50 pack then it works out at £0.0083 per MP.
Not much cheaper but that means for every 60 points I buy from Game, I save £0.01. Whitch also means that by buying from Game instead of Live with that pack I get 35 FREE points!!!
Not a lot I know, but it's the best I could come up with.
Battlefield 2 Modern Combat on the 360
Xboxyde has a Video of BF2 for the 360 and it looks great. Rather than doing a standard port the team had replaced all the graphics in the game and it shows. In fact I think it looks better than Oblivion.
Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion: Master Lockpicking Guide
I have been playing around with Oblivion's lockpicking and discovered a few things that I haven't seen mentioned elsewhere. So I present this mini-guide that will help you defeat all locks in the game, overcome the need to carry hundreds of lockpicks and shy away from difficult locks.
The tutorial for lockpicking in Oblivion only tells you to toss the rails up into the upper part of the lock. The FAQs so far on the web talk about timing, but I have found a slightly better way of describing how successful lockpicking works.
A higher security level will make lock picking easier. Lockpicking works by tossing a rail up into the upper half of the lock and pressing the 'A' button on the 360 pad (or by left clicking with the mouse on the PC version). Once all rails are locked in the upper half of the lock, the lock becomes unlocked. If you don't press the 'A' button at the right time the rail will come crashing down, break your lockpick and you will have to start again with a new lockpick.
What nobody will tell you however is that there are different speeds to the rails. If you push a rail upwards the game will take your security skill, lockpick skill and luck to calculate a rail speed. If you are better than the lock, the rail will rise slowly and then fall slowly making it easier to pick. If however the lock is better than you, then you are going to have to keep tossing the pick up until the rail rises at the lower speed. The trick is to listen to the rails noise because the lower speed makes a slightly different noise to the faster tosses. I have managed to pick locks on noise alone. Simply toss each rail a few times until you are confident you can lock it, once it raises at the slower speed, lock it, don't bother with the faster tosses. With this technique I have managed to pick Hard locks without loosing a single pick and I am only level four and I am not even playing a thief character either (in fact I haven't yet managed to successfully pick pocket someone yet). And the auto-lockpick breaks all my picks too, so taking your time really does payoff.
One last thing, if you want to break into a house without being seen or chased by guards, go into sneak mode next to the door you want to open, wait until the eye in the centre of the screen goes dark and then activate the lockpicking mode. Time is stopped at this point so you can take as much time as you like. Once the lock is open you will be inside, but because you where in sneakmode when you picked the lock and nobody was watching, no guards will be looking for you. The only thing you have to be concerned about is the homeowner.
The tutorial for lockpicking in Oblivion only tells you to toss the rails up into the upper part of the lock. The FAQs so far on the web talk about timing, but I have found a slightly better way of describing how successful lockpicking works.
A higher security level will make lock picking easier. Lockpicking works by tossing a rail up into the upper half of the lock and pressing the 'A' button on the 360 pad (or by left clicking with the mouse on the PC version). Once all rails are locked in the upper half of the lock, the lock becomes unlocked. If you don't press the 'A' button at the right time the rail will come crashing down, break your lockpick and you will have to start again with a new lockpick.
What nobody will tell you however is that there are different speeds to the rails. If you push a rail upwards the game will take your security skill, lockpick skill and luck to calculate a rail speed. If you are better than the lock, the rail will rise slowly and then fall slowly making it easier to pick. If however the lock is better than you, then you are going to have to keep tossing the pick up until the rail rises at the lower speed. The trick is to listen to the rails noise because the lower speed makes a slightly different noise to the faster tosses. I have managed to pick locks on noise alone. Simply toss each rail a few times until you are confident you can lock it, once it raises at the slower speed, lock it, don't bother with the faster tosses. With this technique I have managed to pick Hard locks without loosing a single pick and I am only level four and I am not even playing a thief character either (in fact I haven't yet managed to successfully pick pocket someone yet). And the auto-lockpick breaks all my picks too, so taking your time really does payoff.
One last thing, if you want to break into a house without being seen or chased by guards, go into sneak mode next to the door you want to open, wait until the eye in the centre of the screen goes dark and then activate the lockpicking mode. Time is stopped at this point so you can take as much time as you like. Once the lock is open you will be inside, but because you where in sneakmode when you picked the lock and nobody was watching, no guards will be looking for you. The only thing you have to be concerned about is the homeowner.
Planetside Reserves
Sony Online Entertainment has just launched Planetside Reserves witch is a free version of Planetside with some scaled back features.
It is obvious that they are hopping to repopulate Planetside, but because you can't win or loose in the game, that makes it a very limited MMOFPS Video Toy.
It is obvious that they are hopping to repopulate Planetside, but because you can't win or loose in the game, that makes it a very limited MMOFPS Video Toy.
Saturday, March 25, 2006
Got Oblivion
So I got Oblivion today. I put the game disk in and then I played a little (nine hours) and I like it. Not sure if I would call it the greatest game ever of all time, but it's up there.
Friday, March 24, 2006
Gaming Hub > Metroid Prime Hunters Highscore
Looks like I EAT POO is at the number one spot in Metroid Prime Hunters Leaderboard.
Nintendo GO Features Sega Games
Nintendo GO (that's the Revaluation's new name) will feature over 1,000 old classic titles from Saga's old systems and TurboGrafx. This is great, but old titles are old titles and if you don't care about the law you can already find sites that allow you to download and play these games already in emulators. So what the long term appeal factor is in this and wither the GO will sell better than the Cube is yet to be seen.
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
hmm
Was thinking about doing a mini review on all the Live Arcade titles, but one of the fun things about arcade is the ability to try all the games. So mini reviews would be a bit pointless.
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Oblivion Post Development
One of the Oblivion developers has Posted about how developing the game has affected him. Certainly worth a read.
Starforce Just Went Too Far
Starforce one of the many copy protection systems that publisher put on game disks to prevent piracy, has decided to start forcing immediate reboots on users computers if anything suspicious is detect by their embedded software. No word on what a suspicious action might be, but because I don't like my system rebooting without my consent or notification (making me think there is something wrong with my system) Here is A List of games that I am now boycotting (I am going to impose a new level of boycotting for these and refuse to acknowledge their existence).
To see if Starforce has installed it's driver level DRM copy protection on your system (like it was on mine):
To see if Starforce has installed it's driver level DRM copy protection on your system (like it was on mine):
- Right click on My Computer from the desktop and select Properties.
- Select the Hardware tab at the top and click the Device Manager button
- On device manager click View -> Show Hidden Devices
- Then scroll down to see if you have anything with Starforce inthe name.
Battlefield 2142
When EA said that the next Battlefield game would be set in the future the general reaction wasn't positive, but that's before anybody seen The Trailer. Now it looking to be one of this year's hottest titles.
Final Year Project Progress
The bastard program works! Finally I can get on with it. The bug has kept me at bay for six weeks and I have just fallen further and further behind with the whole project, now it is fixed and I can play a game from start to finish with all the game logic working just as it should.
It wasn't even one bug either, but at the time I was writing the code to finish it I was doing so many hours on it that I didn't know what I was writing. All the logic was there just that I had gotten confused about what I was doing. And then when I made repeated attempts to fix it I didn't understand what I was doing because of the sheer number of methods that where being called.
The odd thing about fixing this is that I think by completing my Compilers assignment last week, that might have actually contributed to giving me the skill necessary to find and fix the faults with my project because that dealt with loads of loops, passes and obscure seemingly random errors.
It wasn't even one bug either, but at the time I was writing the code to finish it I was doing so many hours on it that I didn't know what I was writing. All the logic was there just that I had gotten confused about what I was doing. And then when I made repeated attempts to fix it I didn't understand what I was doing because of the sheer number of methods that where being called.
The odd thing about fixing this is that I think by completing my Compilers assignment last week, that might have actually contributed to giving me the skill necessary to find and fix the faults with my project because that dealt with loads of loops, passes and obscure seemingly random errors.
Monday, March 20, 2006
XNA Asset Tracking
Just finished watching the XNA Overview and the most interesting part of that is they took Mech Commander 2 (purely because they where allowed to release the source code for it) and had a look at it's asset usage in XNA Studio. They found that 40% of all the textures that the game loads where never used.
Play and Charge
Handed in my Compilers work today (woke up at 11, think it needed to be in for 12 got there at 11:45) and on the way back got a scart adaptor from Curries, had a play on their 360 display unit and if I had a memory card unit I could have downloaded an exclusive Burnout Revenge car that is only available from the demo kiosk. Just a shame I don't have either Burnout or a Memory unit, maybe if they had something going on a kiosk that I really wanted I might get one. Then went over to PC World to see what their demo unit was like, same disk, but the unit kept freezing so I had a look at their new flat panel screen display and they where all running some grainy Driver game trailer (it was a very poor quality encode).
Then on the way out I had a look to see if they had any play and charge kits in stock and they did, and they where £14.99. So I bought one because that matches the best price that I have seen online (not often I see that from PC World). I was going to try using the same rechargeable batteries that I use for my digital camera, but that would still interrupt gameplay if my batteries ranout.
Then on the way out I had a look to see if they had any play and charge kits in stock and they did, and they where £14.99. So I bought one because that matches the best price that I have seen online (not often I see that from PC World). I was going to try using the same rechargeable batteries that I use for my digital camera, but that would still interrupt gameplay if my batteries ranout.
A Few Days of 360 Action
I know everybody said the 360 was good, but actually owning one is SO much better. To my mind whatever Sony or Nintendo does will be inferior. Not because their products won't be good, but because they won't have the heritage that is prevalent in the 360. The 360 builds directly on to where the original XBox left off. It is progressive in the true sense of the word. Plus new innovative features into the mix like the integrated Gamer Cards don't just put the bar up a notch, but a whole generation ahead.
Before I received my 360 someone on the Evil Avatar forums said the 360 was XBox 1.5 and I couldn't argue because I say the same thing about the PlayStation2 as it came out a year earlier than the Cube and Xbox. And you could see it in it's graphics capabilities that it wasn't truly last gen. Well the 360 is next gen, so next gen that makes me weak at the knees to think of what delights we will be subjected to over the next five years.
Well done Microsoft you deserve every bit of future success that is coming to you.
P.S
I still don't have actual game disk to put in this thing, BUT I DON'T CARE! WHOO!
Before I received my 360 someone on the Evil Avatar forums said the 360 was XBox 1.5 and I couldn't argue because I say the same thing about the PlayStation2 as it came out a year earlier than the Cube and Xbox. And you could see it in it's graphics capabilities that it wasn't truly last gen. Well the 360 is next gen, so next gen that makes me weak at the knees to think of what delights we will be subjected to over the next five years.
Well done Microsoft you deserve every bit of future success that is coming to you.
P.S
I still don't have actual game disk to put in this thing, BUT I DON'T CARE! WHOO!
Saturday, March 18, 2006
XBox360 Hacked
It took the guys four months to hack it, but The Specialist has been credited with the hack. As far as I know it is something to do with the drives firmware and the hack allows the 360 to run backed-up games.
Also this supposedly works on both DVD drives types. The guys aren't going to release the hack because this would allow modified games to run on Live (as far as I can tell anyway). If you read the thread lookout for comments by TheSpecialist and robinsod.
Also this supposedly works on both DVD drives types. The guys aren't going to release the hack because this would allow modified games to run on Live (as far as I can tell anyway). If you read the thread lookout for comments by TheSpecialist and robinsod.
Friday, March 17, 2006
IGOTMY360!
It came thismorning and it's birthday on the serial strip is two weeks ago. Been playing Outpost Kaloki X which is a game I almost bought for the PC, but it was just a little too much for what it was worth, but with arcade I think it was only £6.
Out of box experience for the 360 is excellent, not like opening a Microsoft product at all and my hard drive came with twelve music tracks, an Adidas and Warren Miller Films ads. Plus Hexic HD which isn't my kind of game, but it was a nice surprise. There are a couple of things which aren't perfect with the 360 like how the console is effectively useless while it is downloading content. And the console and powersupply does seem to run very warm, but I truest Microsoft have looked into this closely.
I had a play around with the Media Connect and that is excellent, but for all this cool stuff I still don't have an actual game disk to put in the thing. Not that it matters because I have been playing demos and Outpost Kaloki for the past few hours. If Sony can match the quality of the 360 then I will get a PS3 too because the level of craftsmanship here is amazing. Plus with Live there is always something to do and I don't think I will ever be board of the games I have with this as there is so much here.
Anyway my GamerTag is Decompiled feel free to send me a Friends Invite if you haven't already. Now I am going to download some more demos and finish my Compilers assignment. Wanted to do that thismorening, but woke up late and got distracted.
Out of box experience for the 360 is excellent, not like opening a Microsoft product at all and my hard drive came with twelve music tracks, an Adidas and Warren Miller Films ads. Plus Hexic HD which isn't my kind of game, but it was a nice surprise. There are a couple of things which aren't perfect with the 360 like how the console is effectively useless while it is downloading content. And the console and powersupply does seem to run very warm, but I truest Microsoft have looked into this closely.
I had a play around with the Media Connect and that is excellent, but for all this cool stuff I still don't have an actual game disk to put in the thing. Not that it matters because I have been playing demos and Outpost Kaloki for the past few hours. If Sony can match the quality of the 360 then I will get a PS3 too because the level of craftsmanship here is amazing. Plus with Live there is always something to do and I don't think I will ever be board of the games I have with this as there is so much here.
Anyway my GamerTag is Decompiled feel free to send me a Friends Invite if you haven't already. Now I am going to download some more demos and finish my Compilers assignment. Wanted to do that thismorening, but woke up late and got distracted.
It's Coming!
We are pleased to inform you that your order for has been dispatched by our team in Basingstoke.MSoft did say that the shortage would be sorted by the end of the month and it looks like they where right.
Thank you very much for ordering from us here at gameplay, you should receive your package in 1 working day.
This dispatch contains the following:
Xbox 360 Console - Premium Pack
As far as this impacting work goes it shouldn't because I have gotten the habit of working from 7pm to whenever I go bed. Compilers should be in tomorrow, then I just got to start my Service Strategy report and catchup with my Final Year project which will either be something very quick or take all of next week.
Thursday, March 16, 2006
Everything Could Change Next Week
Monday is the start of the GDC and Microsoft will be showing off XNA and a demonstration of how cool Managed XBox360 programming is (been lots of movement inside MS for that). Hopefully this will get developers off their needless addiction to C++. The senior programmers need to just faceup to the fact that Managed Code is just better in almost every way and the ways in which it isn't better aren't worth worrying about. Plus I won't go into the industry as a programmer unless they move to Managed code. That alone should be enough of a reason for them all to switch. 
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Microsoft's iPod Boxart
Turns out that the parody video of Microsoft making the iPod Boxart was Made By Microsoft.
Good Times For Nintendo & Microsoft
So Sony announced that they will be delaying the the PS3 until a November release date because of standard issues with the copy protection for the blue-ray drive (and people criticised Microsoft going with DVD). November is possibly just the Japan release so expect 2007 for the US and Easter 2007 for the UK and Europe.
The thing about this is that in most generations of consoles most users only buy two of the home theatre consoles. Portable is a little different, but if Nintendo can release before the PS3 then they stand a very good chance at being everybody's seconds choice.
For Microsoft this means that they will have free time to do whatever they want for much longer and have more time to create a presence in Japan. This announcement will probably mean that it will be longer until Microsoft drops the price of the 360, but expect a global price drop just before Christmas. By November there will likely be about 72 titles for the 360 as Microsoft has been releasing six new titles a month.
Sony will probably still be able to show something playable at E3 because this is just and issue with the copy protection (supposedly anyway). There is now way that this can be positive for Sony as many people that where weighting for the PS3 will now buy 360s while they wait.
UPDATE: Turns out that the launch will be in all territories this November.
The thing about this is that in most generations of consoles most users only buy two of the home theatre consoles. Portable is a little different, but if Nintendo can release before the PS3 then they stand a very good chance at being everybody's seconds choice.
For Microsoft this means that they will have free time to do whatever they want for much longer and have more time to create a presence in Japan. This announcement will probably mean that it will be longer until Microsoft drops the price of the 360, but expect a global price drop just before Christmas. By November there will likely be about 72 titles for the 360 as Microsoft has been releasing six new titles a month.
Sony will probably still be able to show something playable at E3 because this is just and issue with the copy protection (supposedly anyway). There is now way that this can be positive for Sony as many people that where weighting for the PS3 will now buy 360s while they wait.
UPDATE: Turns out that the launch will be in all territories this November.
Large Shipment Of Xbox360s
Microsoft did say that they where shipping consoles on a weekly basis to retail partners, but EBgames.com has a notice that says:
In the UK it is possible to get a Core system, but not a hard drive. Where in America it is possible to get a hard drive, but not even a core system. So not sure if this is a global push or regional.
Just been listening to IGN's first Insider Podcast about their predictions for next months E3 and the consensus seems to be that Microsoft will be showing off some sweet games and unless Nintendo and Sony actually show some gaming then they could be letting Microsoft get away with murder.
Limit 1 per customer. Due to high demand orders may not ship until March 24, 2006.So that suggests a big shipment at the end of this month.
In the UK it is possible to get a Core system, but not a hard drive. Where in America it is possible to get a hard drive, but not even a core system. So not sure if this is a global push or regional.
Just been listening to IGN's first Insider Podcast about their predictions for next months E3 and the consensus seems to be that Microsoft will be showing off some sweet games and unless Nintendo and Sony actually show some gaming then they could be letting Microsoft get away with murder.
Lost Planet
There is also a HD trailer for Dead Rising on This Page, but please take a look at Lost Planet because that looks great too.
Monday, March 13, 2006
First Signs of A Xbox360 Redesign
Apparently Microsoft has replaced the DVD drive from release with a quieter model. Pics are included on the page to see whitch you have.
Looks Bad for Sony in the News
Sometimes things all come at once and after watching the presenters on Channel 5's The Gadget Show say Sony's TV in their HD comparison was horrible I checked the news to find these:
Appeal Denied
Sony Has Lost it's appeal against Immersion's intellectual property suit forcing Sony to stop selling "Dualshock controllers and a few dozen games, including Vice City, Final Fantasy X, and Metal Gear Solid 2".
Better Design
A Design Blog compare Sony's PS3 design to one some designer did in his spare time. The writer does highlight a few issues with the PS3 like Sony's abandonment of it's iconic PS2 logo for some Spiderman text.
Following The Pack
It is known in product development that whenever your products start imitating your competitor's designs then it is time to spend some money in R&D because you will racing to keep up (see Red Queen Effect). Well there are Rumors that Sony will be following Microsoft and possibly Nintendo in the digital distribution race.
Good News
And finally some good news IGN has Reviewed Syphon Filter Dark Mirror for the PSP and given it a 9.3 rating and looking at the videos it does look great. However this title is probably too late to boost interest in the PSP.
Still at least the PS3 is going to be released this spring and pawn the competition, right!?
Appeal Denied
Sony Has Lost it's appeal against Immersion's intellectual property suit forcing Sony to stop selling "Dualshock controllers and a few dozen games, including Vice City, Final Fantasy X, and Metal Gear Solid 2".
Better Design
A Design Blog compare Sony's PS3 design to one some designer did in his spare time. The writer does highlight a few issues with the PS3 like Sony's abandonment of it's iconic PS2 logo for some Spiderman text.
Following The Pack
It is known in product development that whenever your products start imitating your competitor's designs then it is time to spend some money in R&D because you will racing to keep up (see Red Queen Effect). Well there are Rumors that Sony will be following Microsoft and possibly Nintendo in the digital distribution race.
Unnamed sources claim that Sony has been discussing the technical requirements needed to provide this service, and in turn, investigating the possibility of remastering select PS2 games so that latter parts of a game can be streamed over a network while earlier segments are being played.That is what Valve tried with STEAM Beta 1, but it resulted in very long load times and an unstable service so they switched to full game downloads (load times now significantly better).
Good News
And finally some good news IGN has Reviewed Syphon Filter Dark Mirror for the PSP and given it a 9.3 rating and looking at the videos it does look great. However this title is probably too late to boost interest in the PSP.
Still at least the PS3 is going to be released this spring and pawn the competition, right!?
It's DONE!
Just finished my compilers assignment. Yes it's too early to be up and no it isn't in tomorrow, but that's how committed I am to making sure my studies don't get in the way of Oblivion.
Just got to write the report saying how wonderful it is now. No set length either.
Just got to write the report saying how wonderful it is now. No set length either.
Sunday, March 12, 2006
Oblivion Soundtrack and Final Year Project
I got the Oblivion soundtrack from DirectSong to tide me over until the game is released. And listening to this, I realise what my final year project could sound like if I had enough time. I haven't said on here what my final year project is because it is an idea I am developing. Needless to say my project involves a lot of audio, but the quality of that audio is at the moment is horrible (because of time and complexity). If I had more time to get it to the level of the Oblivion soundtrack then I really think it could change peoples perception of gamming and storytelling. A place we have been, but abandoned over flashy graphics.
Maybe I will develop my system further once I have graduated to try and get it to a higher standard, but with that and a job it would be a very slow process.
Still working on my compilers assignment (finishing touches). Turns out the three algorithms that I implemented that I thought where a was of time, weren't because after I implemented Table Compression I created another algorithm that used one line of code from one of my first three techniques to reduce the final datasize by about 20%. Not sure what my lecturer will make of it because the enhancement is so obvious, but it isn't in any example of Table Compression that I can find so this might be something new.
Maybe I will develop my system further once I have graduated to try and get it to a higher standard, but with that and a job it would be a very slow process.
Still working on my compilers assignment (finishing touches). Turns out the three algorithms that I implemented that I thought where a was of time, weren't because after I implemented Table Compression I created another algorithm that used one line of code from one of my first three techniques to reduce the final datasize by about 20%. Not sure what my lecturer will make of it because the enhancement is so obvious, but it isn't in any example of Table Compression that I can find so this might be something new.
Friday, March 10, 2006
Potential Xbox 360 Production Issue
Some German modding guys bought a 360 and modded it out with some lights and stuff, but then two to three weeks later the box stopped working, so they opened it up to see what they could find.
What they found on the bottom of the GPU heatsink is a protective foil (no word on wither it is plastic backed or not) covering the thermal pad. The whole story can be found in English with a link to the german video Here.
Certainly it is a film covering the GPU, but it could just be conductive foil.
UPDATE:Apparently it is supposed to be there.
What they found on the bottom of the GPU heatsink is a protective foil (no word on wither it is plastic backed or not) covering the thermal pad. The whole story can be found in English with a link to the german video Here.
Certainly it is a film covering the GPU, but it could just be conductive foil.
UPDATE:Apparently it is supposed to be there.
Thursday, March 09, 2006
Oblivion Screens
Yesterday Bethesda posted This beauty, but that left me questioning wither Oblivion could do proper woodland. Well today they posted This which looks even better and answers my question.
Am very looking forward to getting my 360.
Am very looking forward to getting my 360.
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
Feeling Down
Spent five days working very hard on my Compilers assignment, haven't done anything today, but my hands still hurt because of all the typing I have been doing. I was feeling very positive about the whole assignment and things where going great, then I realised that everything I had done was wrong and I had completely wasted my time.
It's not like I don't know now what to do to rectify the problem, it's not like I don't have ample time to do it in as I started early, or that I can't use what I have done to show something that doesn't work and say why, but that good feeling I had is gone and it's left me on a bit of a down. A few weeks ago I tried to verify my work before I started implementing to try and avoid this very situation, but I couldn't find any supporting material so I went off from what I thought was correct and now I can see clearly that I was wrong. Will take half a days worth of typing to sort it out, but my hands still hurt and I have so very much work to do.
It's not like I don't know now what to do to rectify the problem, it's not like I don't have ample time to do it in as I started early, or that I can't use what I have done to show something that doesn't work and say why, but that good feeling I had is gone and it's left me on a bit of a down. A few weeks ago I tried to verify my work before I started implementing to try and avoid this very situation, but I couldn't find any supporting material so I went off from what I thought was correct and now I can see clearly that I was wrong. Will take half a days worth of typing to sort it out, but my hands still hurt and I have so very much work to do.
Monday, March 06, 2006
Xbox360 on Order
So I ordered a Premium Xbox360 with the loverly guys over at Gameplay. I would like the console to arrive before Oblivion then I could have a play around with some of the arcade titles.
I have Heared a Rumour that Microsoft has fixed whatever production problems they where having in the second version of the 360. Which would make sense, I just hope that it's true.
Most consoles go through several versions without consumers being aware and the only time I have ever heard anybody being aware of the different versions was with some generation one XBox owners who couldn't run Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic. And if you want to get your console modded then you will have to be aware of the different versions because each new iteration brings better copy protection, but most people never notice as the motivation for doing a new iteration is to reduce production costs. If there was any advantage in having a newer version then it is marketed as such like Nintendo does with each new generation of GameBoy.
I have Heared a Rumour that Microsoft has fixed whatever production problems they where having in the second version of the 360. Which would make sense, I just hope that it's true.
Most consoles go through several versions without consumers being aware and the only time I have ever heard anybody being aware of the different versions was with some generation one XBox owners who couldn't run Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic. And if you want to get your console modded then you will have to be aware of the different versions because each new iteration brings better copy protection, but most people never notice as the motivation for doing a new iteration is to reduce production costs. If there was any advantage in having a newer version then it is marketed as such like Nintendo does with each new generation of GameBoy.
Sunday, March 05, 2006
Dull Little Boxes
Apple has redone their Intel advert. The Origenal Advert uses the phrase "dull little boxes", but there is a rumour that this upset Dell who is one of Intel's biggest customers. And Apple just released a New Advert simply referring to the Intel chip "spending years inside PCs".
This got me thinking because before the PC Vs Mac (for which the Mac is a PC) when they where doing Dull Little Box Vs Mac, as a gamer a Mac is the Dull Little Box. As a gamer I can't justify a Mac because it is overpriced and has VERY few games for it. Looking at the Apple Store they only have 81 games and that might sound a lot, but this includes a lot of classic legacy titles. So from a gamers perspective the Mac is a dull white box as even it's new titles are still last year's PC titles.
It's funny that Halo was going to change all that, but Bungie got bought by Microsoft because they needed a killer-app for the XBox. And Apple's best selling title Age of Empires II (lol, ye two not three) is published by Microsoft. The two the newest title for the Mac are Myst V: End of Ages and Doom 3.
This got me thinking because before the PC Vs Mac (for which the Mac is a PC) when they where doing Dull Little Box Vs Mac, as a gamer a Mac is the Dull Little Box. As a gamer I can't justify a Mac because it is overpriced and has VERY few games for it. Looking at the Apple Store they only have 81 games and that might sound a lot, but this includes a lot of classic legacy titles. So from a gamers perspective the Mac is a dull white box as even it's new titles are still last year's PC titles.
It's funny that Halo was going to change all that, but Bungie got bought by Microsoft because they needed a killer-app for the XBox. And Apple's best selling title Age of Empires II (lol, ye two not three) is published by Microsoft. The two the newest title for the Mac are Myst V: End of Ages and Doom 3.
Saturday, March 04, 2006
Gosh Darn It
Been looking at the online shops for 360's and everybody has core systems and no premium. Simply Games (never used them before) says on their page that they have a two month waiting list.
I think this now requires a little investigation into wither the retail stores that are selling bundles actually have any premiums in stock or wither it just appears that they do.
If I was to buy a Core system, a Hard Drive and a wireless controller for which I want a Premium for, then I will be wasting £32.98, but nobody seems to have any Hard Drives in stock either so logical course of action would be to simply place a reorder for a premium and wait, but the normal place I do that Amazon isn't actually taking any orders themselves. So that means I would have to preorder from somebody where I can't track the order status online and to findout what is happening would require the use of the phone and maybe some social hacking.
Still in other news assignments are going well to very well and if I don't get a good mark on all of them then I will be annoyed. Everything I have produced so far this year has been way above my normal standard. Bob my current and third final year project supervisor thinks I can get a 2-1 Degree, but I don't care about that, I just want Oblivion, the assignment work helps keep my mind off it.
I think this now requires a little investigation into wither the retail stores that are selling bundles actually have any premiums in stock or wither it just appears that they do.
If I was to buy a Core system, a Hard Drive and a wireless controller for which I want a Premium for, then I will be wasting £32.98, but nobody seems to have any Hard Drives in stock either so logical course of action would be to simply place a reorder for a premium and wait, but the normal place I do that Amazon isn't actually taking any orders themselves. So that means I would have to preorder from somebody where I can't track the order status online and to findout what is happening would require the use of the phone and maybe some social hacking.
Still in other news assignments are going well to very well and if I don't get a good mark on all of them then I will be annoyed. Everything I have produced so far this year has been way above my normal standard. Bob my current and third final year project supervisor thinks I can get a 2-1 Degree, but I don't care about that, I just want Oblivion, the assignment work helps keep my mind off it.
Random Fact
The word 'Naff' used in the 1970's BBC comedy Porridge as a replacement for the word Fuck. 'Naff off' the guards in the prison would be told, but naff is a Polari word. Polari being a language used by gay subculture in Britain mainly between the 1950's and 1960's. And before 1967 when homosexuality was decriminalised in Britain, naff meant in polari, Not Avalible For Fucking, used to indicate a straight or heterosexual individual.
The antonym of naff is tbh (pronounced t b h) which means To Be Had.
Another interesting fact about word usage in the 1960's is that when homosexuality was decriminalised 'Fag' and 'Dyke' was largely replaced with 'Gay', originally meaning 'promoting a feeling of cheer'. This is interesting because up until the decriminalisation, homosexuals where seen to be very sad and lonely individuals.
The antonym of naff is tbh (pronounced t b h) which means To Be Had.
Another interesting fact about word usage in the 1960's is that when homosexuality was decriminalised 'Fag' and 'Dyke' was largely replaced with 'Gay', originally meaning 'promoting a feeling of cheer'. This is interesting because up until the decriminalisation, homosexuals where seen to be very sad and lonely individuals.
Friday, March 03, 2006
Pre-Ordered
So I just preordered Oblivion and I think I can definitely balance that and my final year project because by the time Oblivion is released my final year project is all I will have left to work on.
The 360 Core is easy enough to find, but procuring a Premium looks it is going to be a challenge. All the online retailers are out of stock or charging ridiculous prices (£350+). And all the retail shops require me to purchase a bundle.
Going to wait and see if the situation changes in a few days, but that isn't by choice. If the situation doesn't get better (which Peter Moore said it would) than I will endup with a game I can't play.
The 360 Core is easy enough to find, but procuring a Premium looks it is going to be a challenge. All the online retailers are out of stock or charging ridiculous prices (£350+). And all the retail shops require me to purchase a bundle.
Going to wait and see if the situation changes in a few days, but that isn't by choice. If the situation doesn't get better (which Peter Moore said it would) than I will endup with a game I can't play.
Thursday, March 02, 2006
SHIT
Oblivion is out the end of this month (20th in the US, so expect an EU date very close to that). So my final year project is going to suffer bad. I have already doubled my effort on everything and set clear goals for when something is defined as finished. I am making great progress and should have two more assignments done by Monday (one week early for one, two weeks early for the other), but with this news it isn't going to be enough.
I even skipped a lecture and a tutorial today to spend more time on my Compilers easement, but it simply isn't going to be enough.
I even skipped a lecture and a tutorial today to spend more time on my Compilers easement, but it simply isn't going to be enough.
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
The Oblivion Problem
This is going to be one of those posts that I regret in the morning.
I am very much looking forwards to Elder Scrolls 4 Oblivion. And when it is released I am going to buy it and a XBox360 to play it on. Reason one, the game will turn my PC into a toaster if I don't buy it for the 360, and two it has been years since I last played a game of this nature (non-linear singleplayer RPG, is my favourite game type) or had a current gen console so I can easily justify the expense in my head (and maybe even a £600 HD TV, but that's a different story). The problem however is that if it is out before the end of April, then it is going to have a big detrimental impact on my final year project.
I am going to buy it, I am going to play it and I am already a month behind in my final year project. So the signs are not good. My only hope is to be ultra efficient about my work and hope that Oblivion isn't released until the end of April (final year project is due the 1st of May)
I keep trying to picture myself waiting until after I have handed in my project before buying it, but I can't see it. The distraction from having it setup and not playing it is unbearable. For the past few years I have staved off this craving for gameage by grinding through games in a matter of hours and quickly dismissing other games as crap, but I don't think either of those things are going to happen with Oblivion.
Things aren't any easier with GameSpy printing Previews putting the game's only negatives as
Sorry if this sounds selfish, but I am just feeling a little bit vulnerable right now.
I am very much looking forwards to Elder Scrolls 4 Oblivion. And when it is released I am going to buy it and a XBox360 to play it on. Reason one, the game will turn my PC into a toaster if I don't buy it for the 360, and two it has been years since I last played a game of this nature (non-linear singleplayer RPG, is my favourite game type) or had a current gen console so I can easily justify the expense in my head (and maybe even a £600 HD TV, but that's a different story). The problem however is that if it is out before the end of April, then it is going to have a big detrimental impact on my final year project.
I am going to buy it, I am going to play it and I am already a month behind in my final year project. So the signs are not good. My only hope is to be ultra efficient about my work and hope that Oblivion isn't released until the end of April (final year project is due the 1st of May)
I keep trying to picture myself waiting until after I have handed in my project before buying it, but I can't see it. The distraction from having it setup and not playing it is unbearable. For the past few years I have staved off this craving for gameage by grinding through games in a matter of hours and quickly dismissing other games as crap, but I don't think either of those things are going to happen with Oblivion.
Things aren't any easier with GameSpy printing Previews putting the game's only negatives as
"After it's released, will there be any time left to spend with our loved ones?"I need help!! I need Oblivion to be delayed until the end of April!!!
Sorry if this sounds selfish, but I am just feeling a little bit vulnerable right now.
Monday, February 27, 2006
Reasonable Doubt
Just finished watching Loose Change 2nd Edition (not sure what the 2nd ED means) which is a documentary about how the terrorist bombings on the world trade centre in New York and the Pentagon where staged. And it presents a well constructed argument, but wither this is because the attacks where executed by the US government or Terrorists we will never know and that is because the proper procedures for accident investigation and disclosure haven't been followed.
The thing for me about this whole thing is that it seems odd to blame Osama bin Laden because there is as much evidance for that as Weapons of Mass Destruction being in Iraq. And the fact that Osama denies anything to do with the attacks says to me he didn't do it. Terrorists always admit to their attacks. The very nature of being a terrorist is that you persuade people through terrible acts to acknowledge your cause. By not admitting to your attack you undermine the whole foundation as to what a terrorist is. And nobody has ever implicated Osama other than Bush. So the whole thing smells funny, plus we already know that Bush lied about the Weapons of Mass Destruction.
The thing for me about this whole thing is that it seems odd to blame Osama bin Laden because there is as much evidance for that as Weapons of Mass Destruction being in Iraq. And the fact that Osama denies anything to do with the attacks says to me he didn't do it. Terrorists always admit to their attacks. The very nature of being a terrorist is that you persuade people through terrible acts to acknowledge your cause. By not admitting to your attack you undermine the whole foundation as to what a terrorist is. And nobody has ever implicated Osama other than Bush. So the whole thing smells funny, plus we already know that Bush lied about the Weapons of Mass Destruction.
Microsoft's IPod Package Parody
Somebody has put together A Great Parody of Microsoft designing the iPod packaging.
Saturday, February 25, 2006
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Hands-on @ VE
"You can do anything you want except walk through the burning ring of fire."And that is what all the journalists have been told when playtesting Oblivion because the developers wanted to leave something undocumented for players to find.
Anyway Voodoo Extreme has a great Preview of Oblivion with some desktop sized (1280x720) pictures on page three.
There are a few things in the preview which I liked, quest objective locations being marked on your map now and:
"Your grab hand indicates red if the item you're about to take will get you in trouble with its owner."Something finally that tells you wither what you are about to take will piss an NPC off or not. RPGs have needed this for years, but never had.
I am very much looking forwards to Oblivion. A supposed twenty hours of gameplay just to complete the main quest is my idea of a game, instead of these afternoon jaunts which I have been playing for the past few years. Still haven't properly played a game in years because I have always been doing assignments and so been grinding games instead of playing them (needed to get them done so they don't impact on my work). Still I have been in a kind of gaming rut for years and it has been a combination of titles bing too short, having crap stories and unrefined gameplay (star wars Empire At War being the most recent offender). So it is my hope that Oblivion is the game that makes it worth me buying a 360 after I finish my final year project (last console I bought was an N64 and that was just for F-Zero).
Massiverly Multiplayer Pong
It requires flash 8 to play and is a little odd because when you join you are assigned a side (it tells you at the bottom which side you are on) and then averages out all the requests for where the bat should be against all the other players, but ye This is a lot of fun, in a strange geeky kind of way.
Smackdown vs. Raw 2006 on the Sony PSP (Load Times)
The PSP's launch titles suffered from some bad load times because developers assumed that the UMDs would have roughly the same transfer rate as DVD. So there is no excuse for This.
And yes it is possible to count in game videos as part of the load times because a lot of games stream content in a separate thread into memory during these sequences so the player don't have to look at the load screen for so long.
And yes it is possible to count in game videos as part of the load times because a lot of games stream content in a separate thread into memory during these sequences so the player don't have to look at the load screen for so long.
Microsoft's Project Origami
Microsoft has just launched a new marketing campaign site for Project Origami which is a Small Tablet Computer. Kind of a mix between a PDA and Tablet PC.
At the mo the rumour is out this year, Vista enabled and about $500, but if you wanted to spin the story it could be suggested that this is the rumoured XboxPortable and will have some special 360 connectivity.
At the mo the rumour is out this year, Vista enabled and about $500, but if you wanted to spin the story it could be suggested that this is the rumoured XboxPortable and will have some special 360 connectivity.
Friday, February 24, 2006
15
Today I watched the Singapore film Fifteen directed by Royston Tan. It is Royston's first feature film as he spends most of his time doing music videos, shorts for film festivals and advertisements for mobile phones. The only other film that I know of that has a director with a Music video background is Casshern which has an unbelievable level of visual styling. Until I seen that I through The Matrix was visually ahead of it's time, but now I realise that cinema has progressed much further since then and that The Matrix was long overdue when it arrived. Anyway with a music video director as the director, 15 is certainly a good looking film, but more than that Royston allowed Singapore and the gang / drug culture he was delving into to influence the film.
On first viewing I thought it was a visually nice film about some young kids who where on the wrong side of the tracks and that the film explored the more sensitive sides of their nature to show that they where still hoping for a better future, but there is a scene that caught my attention with one of the guys cutting himself with a knife. It looked very real and with that and a few other scenes I wondered how Royston got such realistic performances out of his young actors. So I watched it again with the commentary on and normally commentary is like "This is how we did the camera for this scene, isn't it so nice how the light shines off that curtain", but the commentary here is honest and that is when the film blew my mind. Turns out that the knife wasn't a fake knife and the guy wasn't acting.
See Royston did a short called 15 in 2002 and it is that which he turned into a feature length version by the same name in 2005. The short featured a script preformed by real gang members and that went well, but Royston had a problem with them playing upto the camera and getting them to follow direction. So for the feature length version he chose new actors and allowed them to be themselves by filming them for a few months before making the film and then filming the actual shooing in a more documentary style of filming while still following a script. To make sure none of them ran off he let them all live at his flat during filming and incase any of them actually ranoff he had several scrips written so he didn't loose any vital characters. At onepoint in the film a character called Armanie is sitting crying on a couch on his birthday and the narrator says "and that was the last time I seen Armanie". On first viewing I though this was the voice of his friend reminiscing, but turns out it's Royston, because Armanie was actually crying about something, then got arrested for stabbing a guy outside McDonald's and that was the lastime he ever seen Armanie.
The film is classed as a Drama, but really it is a Biographical piece about these kid's lives. The script is written based on all the actors personal experiences and a lot of observations by Royston. The through of these kids so young having to deal with so much shit is humbling for me.
I have read a few comments about the film and it has very fast dialogue subtitles because the audio dialogue is in Mandarin, possibly the worlds fastest language. And the film doesn't have a nice big western plot twist or love story or tragedy or anything else you would expect from a western film. So a lot of the comments that have been made about 15 haven't been kind or even accurate because it is perceived as a drama. My perception of film making changed a little today and that is all down to 15.
5/5
On first viewing I thought it was a visually nice film about some young kids who where on the wrong side of the tracks and that the film explored the more sensitive sides of their nature to show that they where still hoping for a better future, but there is a scene that caught my attention with one of the guys cutting himself with a knife. It looked very real and with that and a few other scenes I wondered how Royston got such realistic performances out of his young actors. So I watched it again with the commentary on and normally commentary is like "This is how we did the camera for this scene, isn't it so nice how the light shines off that curtain", but the commentary here is honest and that is when the film blew my mind. Turns out that the knife wasn't a fake knife and the guy wasn't acting.
See Royston did a short called 15 in 2002 and it is that which he turned into a feature length version by the same name in 2005. The short featured a script preformed by real gang members and that went well, but Royston had a problem with them playing upto the camera and getting them to follow direction. So for the feature length version he chose new actors and allowed them to be themselves by filming them for a few months before making the film and then filming the actual shooing in a more documentary style of filming while still following a script. To make sure none of them ran off he let them all live at his flat during filming and incase any of them actually ranoff he had several scrips written so he didn't loose any vital characters. At onepoint in the film a character called Armanie is sitting crying on a couch on his birthday and the narrator says "and that was the last time I seen Armanie". On first viewing I though this was the voice of his friend reminiscing, but turns out it's Royston, because Armanie was actually crying about something, then got arrested for stabbing a guy outside McDonald's and that was the lastime he ever seen Armanie.
The film is classed as a Drama, but really it is a Biographical piece about these kid's lives. The script is written based on all the actors personal experiences and a lot of observations by Royston. The through of these kids so young having to deal with so much shit is humbling for me.
I have read a few comments about the film and it has very fast dialogue subtitles because the audio dialogue is in Mandarin, possibly the worlds fastest language. And the film doesn't have a nice big western plot twist or love story or tragedy or anything else you would expect from a western film. So a lot of the comments that have been made about 15 haven't been kind or even accurate because it is perceived as a drama. My perception of film making changed a little today and that is all down to 15.
5/5
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Information Security Management Assignment
Just finished my report on promoting security awareness in an organisation. Took longer than I though (what doesn't), but I am very pleased with it and it will be handed in a whole day \(*o*)/ before the deadline!
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
PC Based Geometry Wars 2 Clones
For looks Grid Wars is the most Geometry Wars like, but it has control issues. Where as HGEWars doesn't look as good, but with the 360 Controller ini File that enables full Common Controller input. The game just feels right and is a lot of fun.
Sunday, February 19, 2006
Snowboarding Tricks Guide
The Half-Pipe event in this years Olympics might be over, but the BBC website is still hosting a great Snowboarding Tricks Guide narrated by the GB Coach.
Saturday, February 18, 2006
Competitive Gaming Tips
There are times as a gamer where you will find yourself in a multiplayer match against the person who owns the game that you don't and in those cases you are not expected to win as you don't own the game yourself, but here are a few tips that just might give you an edge.
General
If you are playing split screen looking at your opponents view can sometimes give you an advantage by letting you know where they are, what weapons or powerups they have and possibly what their intentions are (i.e a cover battle in Perfect Dark Zero).
FPS
Use sound to your advantage. If you hear footsteps from your right speaker then it is likely there is somebody off to your right. Being able to locate people in a level by sound alone is an excellent radar substitute.
When running around corners make sure you are looking towards the apex of the corner. This will allow you to see anybody who is waiting for you just inside.
If you have a weapon that is slow reloading make sure you have auto-reload turned off in the options. That way when it is empty instead of dodging fire while it reloads, switch weapon. This also had the added advantage by putting intermediate opponents offguard as they will think you are reloading and unable to fire.
Mouse sensitivity should be set on a game per game basis depending on they types of weapons used. A high sensitivity will help with twitch action and following fast moving targets where as low sensitivity will give much better accuracy when firing and both moving and stationary targets, so is essential when sniping.
Strategy
Most strategy games have a fundamental flaw in that the amount of technology, buildings and units is dictated by how much resources the player has. Has soon as the match starts make sure you secure most of the resources on the level. If you are playing against newbs get the resources in the middle of the level first and then the ones closes to your base. Otherwise you will have a small firefight to get the resources in the middle of the level with more experienced players.
Don't spend all your time on defence and technologies. These are generally a wast of time. Your objective should be to win as fast as possible because most players will sitback and build until they are ready to attack.
2D beat-em-ups
Button mash, nothing can help you here.
3D beat-em-ups
Choose a fast character, these are generally balanced so that their weaker attacks aren't much weaker than their powerful attacks, which you aren't going to use because you don't know them. Plus having a faster character will make it easier to dodge attacks.
Learn your opponents moves to know when to block and when to sidestep. Your objective should be to reduce the amount of health you loose, over the priority of dealing damage to them.
Racing
Go slow into corners and fast out. This will take advantage of the simulated weight distribution of the car by having the weight on your front tires when you are breaking and the car's weight on your back tires when accelerating. And yes most racing games simulate this. The only game which probably doesn't is Mario Kart.
Front wheel drive cars are always easier to steer and wipeout less.
Mechbattles
Concentrate fire on a specific part of your opponent and make good use of splashdamage. The unfortunate thing here is that experience is really everything.
Games with powerups
In some of these games grabbing the powerups is good, in others it is not worth the effort. Know witch of these types of games you are playing.
General
If you are playing split screen looking at your opponents view can sometimes give you an advantage by letting you know where they are, what weapons or powerups they have and possibly what their intentions are (i.e a cover battle in Perfect Dark Zero).
FPS
Use sound to your advantage. If you hear footsteps from your right speaker then it is likely there is somebody off to your right. Being able to locate people in a level by sound alone is an excellent radar substitute.
When running around corners make sure you are looking towards the apex of the corner. This will allow you to see anybody who is waiting for you just inside.
If you have a weapon that is slow reloading make sure you have auto-reload turned off in the options. That way when it is empty instead of dodging fire while it reloads, switch weapon. This also had the added advantage by putting intermediate opponents offguard as they will think you are reloading and unable to fire.
Mouse sensitivity should be set on a game per game basis depending on they types of weapons used. A high sensitivity will help with twitch action and following fast moving targets where as low sensitivity will give much better accuracy when firing and both moving and stationary targets, so is essential when sniping.
Strategy
Most strategy games have a fundamental flaw in that the amount of technology, buildings and units is dictated by how much resources the player has. Has soon as the match starts make sure you secure most of the resources on the level. If you are playing against newbs get the resources in the middle of the level first and then the ones closes to your base. Otherwise you will have a small firefight to get the resources in the middle of the level with more experienced players.
Don't spend all your time on defence and technologies. These are generally a wast of time. Your objective should be to win as fast as possible because most players will sitback and build until they are ready to attack.
2D beat-em-ups
Button mash, nothing can help you here.
3D beat-em-ups
Choose a fast character, these are generally balanced so that their weaker attacks aren't much weaker than their powerful attacks, which you aren't going to use because you don't know them. Plus having a faster character will make it easier to dodge attacks.
Learn your opponents moves to know when to block and when to sidestep. Your objective should be to reduce the amount of health you loose, over the priority of dealing damage to them.
Racing
Go slow into corners and fast out. This will take advantage of the simulated weight distribution of the car by having the weight on your front tires when you are breaking and the car's weight on your back tires when accelerating. And yes most racing games simulate this. The only game which probably doesn't is Mario Kart.
Front wheel drive cars are always easier to steer and wipeout less.
Mechbattles
Concentrate fire on a specific part of your opponent and make good use of splashdamage. The unfortunate thing here is that experience is really everything.
Games with powerups
In some of these games grabbing the powerups is good, in others it is not worth the effort. Know witch of these types of games you are playing.
Friday, February 17, 2006
Governing a Company
The United States of America is not a Democracy. It is a Federal Republic which is a type of government that shares power with many smaller governments called States.
A Republic in effect a Monarchy, but instead of having a King or Queen as a central figure, it is an elected official called a President.
The United Kingdom is also not a Democracy. It is a Unitary State (also known as a Non-federal Government). In this system a central government that distributes power to lower regional local Councils, Mayors and Assemblies, but the central government always maintains central control.
In the UK's case it is also a Constitutional Monarchy where power is shared on a constitutional level between the Monarchy and the Government.
A Democracy is a type of government where the majority opinion of 'the people' choose how they all should live.
I have been looking at this because I realised today that most companies have either Monarchy or Communist styles of management. Companies are far smaller than Countries so this is why bad forms of management doesn't have such a noticeable effect on the company as it would a country. Plus people are happy to work for bad management while they are being paid and while they can't find anything better.
Knowing this I question how companies are run and wonder if there is a new management model that could be created from looking at how countries are run.
A Republic in effect a Monarchy, but instead of having a King or Queen as a central figure, it is an elected official called a President.
The United Kingdom is also not a Democracy. It is a Unitary State (also known as a Non-federal Government). In this system a central government that distributes power to lower regional local Councils, Mayors and Assemblies, but the central government always maintains central control.
In the UK's case it is also a Constitutional Monarchy where power is shared on a constitutional level between the Monarchy and the Government.
A Democracy is a type of government where the majority opinion of 'the people' choose how they all should live.
I have been looking at this because I realised today that most companies have either Monarchy or Communist styles of management. Companies are far smaller than Countries so this is why bad forms of management doesn't have such a noticeable effect on the company as it would a country. Plus people are happy to work for bad management while they are being paid and while they can't find anything better.
Knowing this I question how companies are run and wonder if there is a new management model that could be created from looking at how countries are run.
Thursday, February 16, 2006
Legal Lunacy
Google is trying to index every book they can get their hands on and offer it up for search. Lawrence Lessig has put together an excellent presentation on the legal problems that Google is facing and how IP legislation is stifling innovation.
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Classified Online Courses
Just been doing some research for my Information Security Management report and I found an online course that is Classified SECRET, but yet has it's Cource Overview online!
Funny Animal Crossing Blog
It's nice that people are starting blogging so young now. Neo_Kitty has had her Animal Crossing Blog for a few months now and she is only 12.
This thing is pure comedy gold.
This thing is pure comedy gold.
Monday, February 13, 2006
Doesn't Work
So I finally got around to testing my prototype and there is something wrong when it trys to setup the voice options. I don't know what is wrong. There is something wrong because it doesn't work (maybe something to do with the event handler). Fixed an interface bug with the save button, but I need to work on other stuff right now.
I need to make a game with my prototype that shows off it's capabilities and at the mo the best I can comeup with is a derelict ship that needs to be fixed by completing puzzles etc. It's been done before, but I need something a little more scalable and rich than the standard Interactive Fiction cave exploration games.
"You are standing in a cave at the foot of an infinite staircase, there is a lamp at your feet."
I need to make a game with my prototype that shows off it's capabilities and at the mo the best I can comeup with is a derelict ship that needs to be fixed by completing puzzles etc. It's been done before, but I need something a little more scalable and rich than the standard Interactive Fiction cave exploration games.
"You are standing in a cave at the foot of an infinite staircase, there is a lamp at your feet."
Saturday, February 11, 2006
More On The PS3
Kikizo has A Hands On Writeup on the PS3, written from what they have seen and learned from inside a few development houses. It's an OK read, but most of the developers sound like they are still trying to get their games up and running. Still after reading that article yesterday that excessed concerns over the PS3's loading times I was surprised to read this:
we're programming the game as if it will be written for a 10-speed DVD drive. Anything less would affect load time.I though Sony would have learned a valuable lesson after the PSP where developers thought the UMD disks would have the same access times as DVD and didn't.
News Catchup
Thought that I had better catchup on some news and there has been some interesting stuff come-up recently.
- There are some Achievements Microsoft doesn't want people to have
- Portable Planet has released some Screens for a PSP Nintendogs Clone, but without the touchscreen and microphone it is more like a Dogz clone.
- There is an article Here that suggests the PS3 will do very badly and the article's key point is:
Until now, it's been widely assumed that the Blu-ray drive that will make it's way into the PS3 will be single-speed. If true, this choice could be disastrous. Blue-ray single speed transfers data at a constant rate of 36Mbps (Megabits per second) or 4.5 MBps (Megabytes per second). Sound impressive? Think again. DVD single speed is rated at a little over 1.32MBps max. A 12X DVD, such as the one in the Xbox 360, transfers data at rates between 8.2 and 16.5 MBps for an average of around 13MBps. This article from Gamespot provides all the details on transfer speeds, but simple math should show that there are some serious concerns looming with a single speed Blu-Ray drive. So, all things being equal, a 20 second load-time on the Xbox 360 would equate to just under 60 seconds on the PS3!
So if the PS3 has a x1 speed Blue-Ray drive the load times will be very bad indeed. And that might explain why all the current PS3 game screens have had terrible textures (no I am not counting MGS4).
Work Frustrations
I just had one of those moments where I knew that staying up working any longer would be a mistake when I tried to create a stick guy that looks like he is climbing up stairs:
The downstairs guy looks fine, but this one is a pain. As much as I have learned to like POVRay I still get frustrated with only being able to work with X,Y and Z cordinates.
The downstairs guy looks fine, but this one is a pain. As much as I have learned to like POVRay I still get frustrated with only being able to work with X,Y and Z cordinates.
Friday, February 10, 2006
Update
Still not tried my Prototype, got in today for my weekly meeting and my supervisor is off ill (a few of the lecturers have been doing the vomiting thing recently). So having spent the rest of my time trying to get a package delivery company simulation running I just want to go bed now. The package company needs fixing as they are loosing 60% of their business to their rivals through taking too long to confirm packages.
Lots of work to do, no sorry GODLIKE amount of work to do. I could work solid for weeks and still not get everything done. If I am not doing assignments, I am making revision notes or reading case studies and catching up on lectures.
I'am a little bit concerned with my final year project as it is weeks behind, but looking great. I think that means I should reassess my expectations, but I have so much other work on I am finding it difficult to get concerned about because after everything else is in I will still have time to work on that.
Lots of work to do, no sorry GODLIKE amount of work to do. I could work solid for weeks and still not get everything done. If I am not doing assignments, I am making revision notes or reading case studies and catching up on lectures.
I'am a little bit concerned with my final year project as it is weeks behind, but looking great. I think that means I should reassess my expectations, but I have so much other work on I am finding it difficult to get concerned about because after everything else is in I will still have time to work on that.
Thursday, February 09, 2006
It's Done! (I think)
I think I have finished the prototype for my final year project, I don't know because I don't want to wake my Dad up testing it. And since I have an early start the first time this will probably work will be infront of my supervisor. I have checked the code and i don't see any problems, but it could crash or behave wrongly of-course.
The problem now is that after next week I have an assignment deadline each week for three weeks. So time on my project is going to be limited. I have started on all those assignments, but they are all about half way done and need attention before they are ready to be handed in. Not that I am looking for high marks or anything, but they need finishing.
The problem now is that after next week I have an assignment deadline each week for three weeks. So time on my project is going to be limited. I have started on all those assignments, but they are all about half way done and need attention before they are ready to be handed in. Not that I am looking for high marks or anything, but they need finishing.
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
The CD Key Search
Places I have found the CDKey
Back of the CD case
Front of the CD case
Inside cover
Inside the inside cover
Back of the manual
Front of the manual
Just inside the manual
On a special CDKey card
Underneath the CD on a sticker
Places I have not found the CDKey
On the CD itself
On the spine of the CD case
On the registry card
On any promotional material
On the outside of the box
I have only had one occasion where I had to phone tech support and ask. Turned out that I probably wasn't given one so the guy gave me one over the phone.
Back of the CD case
Front of the CD case
Inside cover
Inside the inside cover
Back of the manual
Front of the manual
Just inside the manual
On a special CDKey card
Underneath the CD on a sticker
Places I have not found the CDKey
On the CD itself
On the spine of the CD case
On the registry card
On any promotional material
On the outside of the box
I have only had one occasion where I had to phone tech support and ask. Turned out that I probably wasn't given one so the guy gave me one over the phone.
Sunday, February 05, 2006
Danish Embassy in Beirut Torched
The Danish Embassy in Beirut has been burned. Nobody was hurt in the building because the embassy staff moved out a few days ago and all the other companies in the same building did so too yesterday, but this is a senseless attack.
So some paper prints a satirical cartoon of Muhammad with a bomb shaped hat. It was a stab at the view that all Muslims are extremists and turn to violence to solve their problems.
When the cartoon was published what should have happened was that the Muslim community boycott the paper in protest and send in angry letters asking for an apology. This would ave gotten results and if they didn't feel this was enough they could have gone further and organised a march or petitioned the government. As it is however there are thousands of angry Muslims torching buildings in Beirut that haven't seen the cartoon for themselves and are simply enforcing the satirical view taken by the cartoon. These people are demonizing themselves in the eyes of the world and don't even seem to realise.
So some paper prints a satirical cartoon of Muhammad with a bomb shaped hat. It was a stab at the view that all Muslims are extremists and turn to violence to solve their problems.
When the cartoon was published what should have happened was that the Muslim community boycott the paper in protest and send in angry letters asking for an apology. This would ave gotten results and if they didn't feel this was enough they could have gone further and organised a march or petitioned the government. As it is however there are thousands of angry Muslims torching buildings in Beirut that haven't seen the cartoon for themselves and are simply enforcing the satirical view taken by the cartoon. These people are demonizing themselves in the eyes of the world and don't even seem to realise.
Friday, February 03, 2006
Game Sells XBox360 Games For 99p
Apparently Game will sell you a brand new XBox360 game for 99p if you trade in two XBox360s games in good condition.
Thursday, February 02, 2006
A Very Cold Day
It was a very cold day today, but on the way to uni as I turned down a road leading there I seen a guy lying by the side of the pavement and parked up next to him on the road was a yellow council truck (one of those ones that goes around trimming hedges, collecting litter from parks etc). On this particular road I have seen strange things before like an old guy wearing a hospital gown, slippers and jacket walking in a dazed state in the direction coming from the hospital. He even had a hospital wristband on, but I didn't know wither to ask him if he was ok or not because he might have just been going for a walk, but today I didn't expect to see anybody lying on the pavement with it being such a cold day.
I wondered why he was lying there and if he was alright. A few people walked past him, not even taking any interest just keeping to themselves. As I walked to wards him I wondered if I should see if he was alright. When I got closer I could see he was a homeless guy, no socks, lying on his left side in a slightly huddled position facing away from the road, but lying very still. I asked the driver of the council truck parked next to him if the guy was alright and he just looked at me and nodded slowly. Looking back at the guy I realised that the he was lying very still. Some scratches on him so he might have been in a fight, but it was a very cold day indeed today.
I wondered why he was lying there and if he was alright. A few people walked past him, not even taking any interest just keeping to themselves. As I walked to wards him I wondered if I should see if he was alright. When I got closer I could see he was a homeless guy, no socks, lying on his left side in a slightly huddled position facing away from the road, but lying very still. I asked the driver of the council truck parked next to him if the guy was alright and he just looked at me and nodded slowly. Looking back at the guy I realised that the he was lying very still. Some scratches on him so he might have been in a fight, but it was a very cold day indeed today.
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