Category: Gaming

Any gaming post.

Why Microsoft backs HD-DVD

(via Kotaku)

I know I often link to other stories and mention that the article is interesting or well written, or something like that.  The article mentioned below is interesting, well written, and certainly thought-provoking.  At least, it is to me.  I’m no fan of Microsoft, but folks at Microsoft do understand things better than people give them credit, quite often.  This article at Gamerscore blog has some information from an interview with Microsoft’s HD DVD drive developers.

From the Gamerscore blog article:

I found out a few interesting things on why we’re so confident of HD DVD:

Price. One company out there has a $1,800 Beta-ray player (no release date) – one that doesn’t even play CDs! For 1,800, you could get a $500 Toshiba player, and about 40 HD movies.

Industry support: Looks like the pendulum is swinging back in HD-DVD’s favor.  As an analyst quoted in the article says:  “It’s only a matter of time before people start backing out of the Blu-ray camp.”  If that’s the case, it might be because of. . .

Beta-ray’s own difficulties:  Microsoft had serious doubts around the technical feasibility and pricing of Beta-ray for some time and our fears now seem well founded. Sony is hinting PS3 will be delayed because of Beta-ray, and that’s with Sony driving the Beta-ray standards. If even Sony can’t get it to work right, it raises lots of questions.  A little reported fact (and one that the New York Times was confused about) is that the first Beta-ray discs will actually hold less: only 25GB compared to HD DVD’s 30GB.  That means less room for high definition extras and interactive features, which HD DVD says they fully intend to support.

So there you have it. A few more reasons why HD DVD is poised to win.

We’ll see what Sony has to say about this.  Actually, I expect Sony to say nothing.  But we’ll find out very soon if there is any truth to this, as Sony is just about out of time on meeting a spring launch.  We’ll have to hear some details soon if the PS3 really is going to launch in the spring.

[tags]HD DVD, PS3, Microsoft, Blu-Ray[/tags]

Futurama pinball machine

(via TechEBlog)

I really need to give up gaming so I have more time to do stuff like this:

 

future_pinball1.jpgIt all started when I bought a weathered Superman Pinball Machine for the parts. When I gained access to the head I found the boards to be in good shape. I pulled the PCBs to see which ones worked and after a little fiddling and small repairs, they all fired up and the displays worked fine.

So, I had a fully functioning board set with a ravagedfuture_pinball5.jpg cabinet and playfield. I decided to use the boards to make a design station to experiment with possible playfield toys and devices. The playfield is made of 3/4″ Birch Plywood. This meant the height critical components had to be counter-sunk, but I thought the additional rigidity would be a bonus. At this point I had a full length blank playfield with working flippers and slings to play with. I started sorting through the wire harness and decided, in an effort to avoid trouble, an 8-letter title would be in order. By chance one of my favorite shows “Futurama” had just that. I started buying posters, calendars, toys and anything else I thought might integrate well into a pinball machine.

Of course, I realize the irony in the fact that to have time to build cool gaming stuff like this, I’d really have to give up gaming. But I think I’m starting to have more fun maintaining a couple of web sites and writing about gaming that I have actually gaming most days. So I may finally be nearing the point in my life where I’ll do something like stop gaming to start building things.  More and better pics at the builders site.

[tags]Futurama, pinball, mods[/tags]

What are the lessons of MMORPGs today?

Lessons learned from MMORPGs.

  • You never, ever, ever change jobs. If you want to, you probably need to die.
  • You can be the best in the world at your job.
  • But so can everyone else.
  • And you will all do it exactly the same way.
  • Many, if not all, wild creatures are highly aggressive and will attack on sight.
  • Evil is not redeemable; good is not a choice. Your morals are innate.
  • Killing is the only real way to gain people’s admiration.
  • Well, you can make stuff too, but you won’t earn the same kind of admiration.

There are tons more. Read the whole list. (via BoingBoing)

[tags]MMORPG, lessons learned[/tags]

Spore video

Here’s a half hour video in which Will Wright talks about his current gaming project – Spore.  This looks to be one of the most fascinating games ever, as much as that sounds like hyperbole.  After just watching a few minutes, I find myself extremely curious about this game.  I haven’t kept up with anything about the game prior to watching this, but I’ll have to go back and find what else is known about it, now.  About 8 minutes in, you get to see the subject of the demo facing a bigger, and presumably tougher, opponent.  Wisely, Will Wright moves away rather than challenge this new opponent.  (via Dubious Quality)

[tags]Will Wright, Spore, gaming[/tags]

Dead or Alive – the movie

Oh please, please, please say it ain’t so!  I don’t think movies based on games are inherently bad – I just assume the directors, writers, actors, producers, distributors, and/or others are incapable of making them good.  I suspect a large part of it is that the people responsible for spewing forth this bile think gamers are too stupid to know when they are getting something bad.  Sadly, they seem to be fairly accurate in their beliefs to date.

Dead or Alive movie still

[tags]Dead or Alive, game movie[/tags]

New game patch site

I’ll be splitting my time between this site and launching another site of interest to me – Gamepatches.info.  Posts here may slow for a while as I get in to the swing of keeping the patch information site up to date.  I’m already finding that site to be more work intensive than I envisioned, so I’ll be working to balance the number of patches and patch details I provide versus the number of available patches each day.  Feel free to leave feedback on either site as to how you think either site is doing and what I can do to improve what I provide.  Please visit Gamepatches and provide let me know how I’m doing.

[tags]Game Patches, New site[/tags]

Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) development platform

I honestly have no idea if this is any good, but it certainly sound interesting.  A MMOG development platform with no upfront costs.

THE COMPLETE MMOG PLATFORM

Our platform is in beta! Early developers sign up here!

Independent game developers, the revolution is here! For the first time, you will be able to:

  • Make a complete Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) or virtual world for less money and in less time than you could have dreamed possible.
  • Participate in the game industry’s most exciting frontier.
  • Build the features that make your game unique, leveraging the expertise of the networking and infrastructure experts who helped build the web.
  • Deliver your vision to a built-in market of players–without having to ask a publisher’s permission or give up your intellectual property.
  • Get filthy rich! *

*Or just comfortably well-off. Your mileage may vary.

There are no upfront costs. We only make money when you make money, and if you never charge a cent, you never have to pay us anything. What are you waiting for? Start building your MMOG now!

I probably lack the skill to do anything with this, but I am at least going to learn more about it and see if I can learn enough to do something with it.

[tags]MMOG, gaming, game development, multi-player games[/tags]

XFire sure seems popular

While trying to catch up with all kinds of geek/techie/gaming news today, I found this article at TwitchGuru about the XFire instant messenger/gamer tracker.  After reading the article, I’m actually a little surprised to see how popular XFire is.  I used the program about 3 years ago, maybe even 4.  Perhaps I just didn’t have enough gaming friends to appreciate it, but I didn’t find it particularly useful or in any way more outstanding than ICQ/MSN/AIM/whatever.  That said, I can see the usefulness – maybe I got in too early to benefit from the unique twist XFire offers.

If you haven’t tried XFire, and you have a lot of gaming buddies, try downloading it and using it.  Once installed, you can see what game someone on your buddy list is playing.  You can get stats on your buddies.  You can use the program to send snapshots if you see something in-game that makes you think you just have to grab a picture.  I may even install it and try it again.

How fast has Xfire grown? On average, nearly 300,000 new users register and download the software each month, which means Xfire adds approximately 10,000 new customers every day. Xfire has become so hot so quickly that Fortune Magazine’s David Kirkpatrick recently wrote that Xfire “could be the next MySpace.” It’s an accurate comparison. The best way to think of Xfire is as a combination of a social networking site and an instant messaging platform. In addition to allowing users the ability to text message or voice chat with other Xfire members, the software allows users to create an entire online community. “We wanted to find a better way for people to interact through video games and be able to communicate with one another,” Fong says.

[tags]XFire, Instant Messaging, Social networks, gaming[/tags]

Amazing high quality game renders

If you ignore the obvious “I’m a geek and can’t get a real chick so I’ll totally scope out fake chicks” sadness in the lives of so many of us, you’ll probably be impressed with these King of Fighters renders of Mai Shurinai and others (and excuse me, but is that pronounced like “My Sharona” by The Knack?  No?  Well, it sure looks like it would be close).  I’m assuming these are press-release quality, and not in-game renders, but I could be wrong.

I’d provide an in-story image, but the page owner has right-click disabled with a copyright notice.  I know how to get around that – it isn’t really hard.  But I’ll not snag someone else’s pictures if they want me to leave them be.

[tags]King of Fighters, Game renders[/tags]

Dubious Pimpage

If you aren’t reading Dubious Quality, you should be.  Here are a couple of articles from Bill that show some of the reasons why I am a fan:

The Definitive Load Screen From Hell

Kotaku had a very funny link yesterday to a video of “Smackdown vs. Raw 2006” on the PSP. It’s not the game, actually–it’s the loading screen(s). All six minutes of them. That’s right. To go from inserting the PSP dingle-thingy to actually wrestling in career mode, it takes over SIX MINUTES. And some guy made a little film of what’s happening during that time, complete with Benny Hill theme

The rest of Bill’s commentary on this is spot-on.  And next:

The Women’s Cross-Country Sk–Commercial–ii–Commercial–ng–Commercial Finals

Even though the Olympics have become far more spectacle than sport, cross-country skiing is still the real deal. Anybody who can ski eighteen miles in a race on a torturously hilly course is a warrior. They’re bad asses. And seeing it in high-definition for the first time was a real treat.

So I decide to watch this race, because it’s incredibly intense. And here’s what I get to see:
4.5 minutes of skiing
2.5 minutes of commercials
2.5 minutes of skiing
3.5 minutes of commercials
3.5 minutes of skiing
3.0 minutes of commercials
7.0 minuts of skiing
2.5 minutes of commercials
1.5 minutes of interviews
2 minutes of commercials

Read the whole article for more insight.

Well done, Bill.

[tags]Load screen hell, Olympic hell, Dubious Quality[/tags]

Bark at the moon – Guitar Hero savant

If you are a gamer, you’ve probably heard of Guitar Hero.  And if you’ve read much about it, you’ve probably heard people talking about how hard the hard level is.  If you have any doubts, check out this video by some insanely great Guitar Hero savant.  The image quality isn’t great, but it’s enough to get an idea of how hard this is.  Every time one of the circles at the bottom of the screen lights up, this guy has to hit a key on the guitar controller.  That’s fast, and tough. (via Dubious Quality)

[tags]Guitar Hero, Bark at the Moon, gaming[/tags]