The National Film Board of Canada have put their back catalogue online for streamed viewing, which is kinda cool. They leave their watermark on everything, but that's a small price to pay.
So, er, if you've got a free 7 minutes or so, go and watch The Cat Came Back, just because it's a funny little cartoon. I hadn't seen it in a good few years...
Wednesday 28 January 2009
Tuesday 27 January 2009
Fable 2 - review and thoughts
I played Fable 2 to completion last week. It's the latest game from UK-based Lionhead Studios, and I bought it before Christmas (it was fairly cheap) but waited for a patch to be released before playing because I had heard that it was really buggy. I guess that must have been a major factor driving down its popularity and the price, because even second hand copies of the game now sell for 1/3 more than I paid for a brand new copy before the patch came out. Even now it's been patched, I noticed it is still somewhat buggy...
"You mean like Dungeon Keeper 2?" my brother replied, when I mentioned that to him. "Funny you should mention that..." - you know, I don't even think he was aware of the fact that one of the founders of Bullfrog Productions - Peter Molyneux - created Dungeon Keeper, and later went on to found Lionhead Studios... ah, that man still hasn't learned the importance of quality assurance... yes, it's still a bit buggy, even though it's all patched up. The golden trail that guides you around the maps kept vanishing, and I got stuck in the scenery and had to reload a few times....
I didn't play the first Fable game for Xbox, though I have a copy somewhere... all I had heard is that it's an RPG with strong emphasis on good and evil; you choose what to do in various situations in the game and the game changes accordingly.
I heard that Fable 2 was more of an update than a sequel, that you now had a dog with you and could get married. I also discovered that people who do not listen to the hype about these games said by Peter Molyneux - the head of Lionhead Studios - tend to be a lot happier with his games than people who hang on what he says, because the games never turn out to have the freedom and features he talks about.
So, I avoided the hype and this is all I knew:
Buggy game, RPG, moral decisions, short, gets overall good reviews.
So I started it on Sunday, and finished it on Friday, having maxed out my character's stats completely, become max level in two jobs (blacksmith and bartending), bought every property I could, done almost every optional quest that was available, and having more money than I could possibly spend. (I had enough money for the mansion costing a million, with plenty of change left over. And in real life, I work full time Monday to Friday - I was only playing on evenings. So yeah, when they say short, they mean really very short indeed, for an RPG.
The first day I started the game, I went through the first bit of story, and then when I got to the first city (Bowerstone), I went and got a job and played the minigame to max it out and make a load of money, bought myself some new clothes, used some "expressions" on the locals, and some fell in love with me. I then married a nice lady ("Holly The Traveller"), bought a house for ourselves, had sex with my new wife, then got up and went to buy some nice furniture... ... ... ... ...then realised, hey! This wasn't supposed to be The Sims or Animal Crossing, this was supposed to be an RPG! >_< So I started to get on with the story.
The game felt like a Sims game with an RPG tacked on for a long time after that.
It's definitely a quirky game. I like quirky games. It's funny - there's a lot of hilarious dialogue in there, it does have this strong current of morality in it too... one that is... quirky and hiliarous.
Eating meat pies or drinking alcoholic drinks are considered immoral acts and will also make you fat, which decreases your attractiveness. Eating tofu will make you holy. Eating celery will make you thin, and there is no such thing as "too thin". Running hundreds of miles won't help make you thin at all!
Also, if you ever get "killed" in battle, you don't really die but you get a scar on your body, which permanently counts against your attractiveness. People in town also find "good" people attractive and will fall in love with them simply because of their heroicness. As attractiveness and morality seem so tightly linked, and the message seems to be "play well, be good, eat well, or the penalty is you'll get ugly!", are we then to think that vanity is a very "good" trait? It really seems like it, and the game forces you to make a decision about that later on. >:)
If you have a lover and if you're married, people will think you're more moral if you sleep together. No matter what gender you or your partner is. I noticed that putting a moustache or beard onto my female character would give her a +crossdressing stat, though wearing men's clothing didn't (?!), and neither that, nor having sex with someone of the same gender, affect morality. This is all "about right", I'd say, though I know my mother for one would disagree (to put it lightly)...
The relationships in the game worked strangely, though. It was as though there was a grand idea, but no-one really knew how to make it work right. As I became more famous and wealthier and "good", people would keep falling in love with me even though I hadn't met them, or in some cases, even gone to the city where they live. Now, I know that's kind of how things work with celebrities, except that there is no-one in the world who will dislike you if you're famous enough and that's just really un-individualistic and makes them seem more like some kind of hive mind. The generic "attractiveness" stat doesn't help either; everyone thinks you're attractive when you're an 8 foot tall muscle-bound woman with glowing blue skin and wearing upper-class clothes and purple / green eye makeup (really really not my idea of attractiveness) - there's no sense of individual preference in finding a partner beyond mere gender.
Also, all the townsfolk were all a little bit over-familiar (NB: this is understatement!), routinely following me everywhere around town, including following me to my bedroom when I've just beckoned my wife and she's said "I can't wait to rip your clothes off!". I mean, can't they take a hint? There's a huge crowd of people following me up the stairs! At the same time, they generally don't like it if you give their spouse or child anything (e.g. if they asked for an autograph). Except my wife who was always happy to see me flirting with anyone. What a warped sense of jealousy and voyeurism they have!
My wife... it became difficult to regard her as anything other than a generic clone by the end, when everyone was throwing themselves at me. When I was gone for 10 years and came back, the shopkeepers were all "Glad to have you back", and "oh am I glad to see you!" and it was nice to be back, and know I'd been missed. My wife... just wanted sex same as usual, as if my being away for a decade had had no impact on her, apart from making her a little hornier.
It was far too easy to level up and max out my character's stats. First of all, you can buy potions which act as experience points and if you buy a lot of property that's like having infinite money. Then with "The Crucible" (no, they don't play snooker there) where you can fight and get up to 5x experience bonuses. Combine the 5x bonus and the potions, and... By my 2nd time through I had maxxed out my strength stat, and by my 3rd I had maxxed out my will stat and most of my spells. Not that I really used most of them anyway.
By the end of the game, even though it was a short game I was glad to see the back of it because there seemed so little left to do that it had become boring. The characters in the storyline were all amusing, but the other characters in the game had completely lost their diversity and had become shallow. There was no feeling of challenge left, just repetitive tasks (though the treasure hunt quest broke it up for a bit).
The choices at the end of the game are supposed to leave you with a heavy heart, I think. For me, the choice was simple.
I might be in the minority but I remember seeing the film Titanic in the cinema when it came out and after it bored me for a few hours, it sickened and angered me as I watched the ship going down and all I could do was feel grief about the hundreds of innocent people dying; they had put so much hope into this journey, felt so much joy in getting to travel on this ship, and now were dying horribly in freezing seawater... whole families, parents and children, if not all the family, then you had children seeing their father give up his place for them to live on. And yet, the sickening thing was that I - the audience - was being asked, no, ordered, by the director, to care about this poxy couple and their piddling little holiday romance. Like that's anything compared to the great tragedy which has unfolded!
So bearing that in mind, if you have played to the end of Fable 2, you will know which of the options I chose. Yes I understand that it is to give the ending of the game a memorable bittersweetness, but due to one character being strongly tied in with a game mechanic, it's closed off some of the things I could have done in the post-game, and that is really annoying. I can't choose the ending I feel is right for my character and the world, and continue properly.
I don't think I like this game enough to buy the downloadable content. I was thinking the game was really short so the add-on probably isn't that substantial or value for money. I was getting a bit bored by the end anyway.
"You mean like Dungeon Keeper 2?" my brother replied, when I mentioned that to him. "Funny you should mention that..." - you know, I don't even think he was aware of the fact that one of the founders of Bullfrog Productions - Peter Molyneux - created Dungeon Keeper, and later went on to found Lionhead Studios... ah, that man still hasn't learned the importance of quality assurance... yes, it's still a bit buggy, even though it's all patched up. The golden trail that guides you around the maps kept vanishing, and I got stuck in the scenery and had to reload a few times....
I didn't play the first Fable game for Xbox, though I have a copy somewhere... all I had heard is that it's an RPG with strong emphasis on good and evil; you choose what to do in various situations in the game and the game changes accordingly.
I heard that Fable 2 was more of an update than a sequel, that you now had a dog with you and could get married. I also discovered that people who do not listen to the hype about these games said by Peter Molyneux - the head of Lionhead Studios - tend to be a lot happier with his games than people who hang on what he says, because the games never turn out to have the freedom and features he talks about.
So, I avoided the hype and this is all I knew:
Buggy game, RPG, moral decisions, short, gets overall good reviews.
So I started it on Sunday, and finished it on Friday, having maxed out my character's stats completely, become max level in two jobs (blacksmith and bartending), bought every property I could, done almost every optional quest that was available, and having more money than I could possibly spend. (I had enough money for the mansion costing a million, with plenty of change left over. And in real life, I work full time Monday to Friday - I was only playing on evenings. So yeah, when they say short, they mean really very short indeed, for an RPG.
The first day I started the game, I went through the first bit of story, and then when I got to the first city (Bowerstone), I went and got a job and played the minigame to max it out and make a load of money, bought myself some new clothes, used some "expressions" on the locals, and some fell in love with me. I then married a nice lady ("Holly The Traveller"), bought a house for ourselves, had sex with my new wife, then got up and went to buy some nice furniture... ... ... ... ...then realised, hey! This wasn't supposed to be The Sims or Animal Crossing, this was supposed to be an RPG! >_< So I started to get on with the story.
The game felt like a Sims game with an RPG tacked on for a long time after that.
It's definitely a quirky game. I like quirky games. It's funny - there's a lot of hilarious dialogue in there, it does have this strong current of morality in it too... one that is... quirky and hiliarous.
Eating meat pies or drinking alcoholic drinks are considered immoral acts and will also make you fat, which decreases your attractiveness. Eating tofu will make you holy. Eating celery will make you thin, and there is no such thing as "too thin". Running hundreds of miles won't help make you thin at all!
Also, if you ever get "killed" in battle, you don't really die but you get a scar on your body, which permanently counts against your attractiveness. People in town also find "good" people attractive and will fall in love with them simply because of their heroicness. As attractiveness and morality seem so tightly linked, and the message seems to be "play well, be good, eat well, or the penalty is you'll get ugly!", are we then to think that vanity is a very "good" trait? It really seems like it, and the game forces you to make a decision about that later on. >:)
If you have a lover and if you're married, people will think you're more moral if you sleep together. No matter what gender you or your partner is. I noticed that putting a moustache or beard onto my female character would give her a +crossdressing stat, though wearing men's clothing didn't (?!), and neither that, nor having sex with someone of the same gender, affect morality. This is all "about right", I'd say, though I know my mother for one would disagree (to put it lightly)...
The relationships in the game worked strangely, though. It was as though there was a grand idea, but no-one really knew how to make it work right. As I became more famous and wealthier and "good", people would keep falling in love with me even though I hadn't met them, or in some cases, even gone to the city where they live. Now, I know that's kind of how things work with celebrities, except that there is no-one in the world who will dislike you if you're famous enough and that's just really un-individualistic and makes them seem more like some kind of hive mind. The generic "attractiveness" stat doesn't help either; everyone thinks you're attractive when you're an 8 foot tall muscle-bound woman with glowing blue skin and wearing upper-class clothes and purple / green eye makeup (really really not my idea of attractiveness) - there's no sense of individual preference in finding a partner beyond mere gender.
Also, all the townsfolk were all a little bit over-familiar (NB: this is understatement!), routinely following me everywhere around town, including following me to my bedroom when I've just beckoned my wife and she's said "I can't wait to rip your clothes off!". I mean, can't they take a hint? There's a huge crowd of people following me up the stairs! At the same time, they generally don't like it if you give their spouse or child anything (e.g. if they asked for an autograph). Except my wife who was always happy to see me flirting with anyone. What a warped sense of jealousy and voyeurism they have!
My wife... it became difficult to regard her as anything other than a generic clone by the end, when everyone was throwing themselves at me. When I was gone for 10 years and came back, the shopkeepers were all "Glad to have you back", and "oh am I glad to see you!" and it was nice to be back, and know I'd been missed. My wife... just wanted sex same as usual, as if my being away for a decade had had no impact on her, apart from making her a little hornier.
It was far too easy to level up and max out my character's stats. First of all, you can buy potions which act as experience points and if you buy a lot of property that's like having infinite money. Then with "The Crucible" (no, they don't play snooker there) where you can fight and get up to 5x experience bonuses. Combine the 5x bonus and the potions, and... By my 2nd time through I had maxxed out my strength stat, and by my 3rd I had maxxed out my will stat and most of my spells. Not that I really used most of them anyway.
By the end of the game, even though it was a short game I was glad to see the back of it because there seemed so little left to do that it had become boring. The characters in the storyline were all amusing, but the other characters in the game had completely lost their diversity and had become shallow. There was no feeling of challenge left, just repetitive tasks (though the treasure hunt quest broke it up for a bit).
The choices at the end of the game are supposed to leave you with a heavy heart, I think. For me, the choice was simple.
I might be in the minority but I remember seeing the film Titanic in the cinema when it came out and after it bored me for a few hours, it sickened and angered me as I watched the ship going down and all I could do was feel grief about the hundreds of innocent people dying; they had put so much hope into this journey, felt so much joy in getting to travel on this ship, and now were dying horribly in freezing seawater... whole families, parents and children, if not all the family, then you had children seeing their father give up his place for them to live on. And yet, the sickening thing was that I - the audience - was being asked, no, ordered, by the director, to care about this poxy couple and their piddling little holiday romance. Like that's anything compared to the great tragedy which has unfolded!
So bearing that in mind, if you have played to the end of Fable 2, you will know which of the options I chose. Yes I understand that it is to give the ending of the game a memorable bittersweetness, but due to one character being strongly tied in with a game mechanic, it's closed off some of the things I could have done in the post-game, and that is really annoying. I can't choose the ending I feel is right for my character and the world, and continue properly.
I don't think I like this game enough to buy the downloadable content. I was thinking the game was really short so the add-on probably isn't that substantial or value for money. I was getting a bit bored by the end anyway.
Fukio Mitsuji (MTJ) - the creator of Bubble Bobble - has died
Last week, I read a few English and Japanese forum posts and blog entries that said that Fukio Mitsuji (MTJ) died in December 2008. I think it must be true because there are a lot of these writings. I only just found out. He was one of the creative staff at Taito during the 1980s, and was the creator and designer of Bubble Bobble, Rainbow Islands, Volfied, Halley's Comet, Syvalion, and more.
Bubble Bobble is definitely one of my all-time favourite arcade games. I played it in the arcades and relentlessly on the C64 when a port was made (my brother and I eventually completed it, even with its 10 credit limit!), and emulated in the compilations for PS2. We've finished that game so many times, so many versions! Still to this day, if I see a Bubble Bobble arcade machine, I'm compelled to play it, though I own these home versions. We played through some of the sequels (Bubble Symphony and Bubble Memories) to "best" ending just a few months ago.
Bubble Bobble is simple, it's cute, it's easy enough to get a good play out of one credit (I usually get as far as level 35 "Jump" on one credit), yet it's quite hard to get to the end. (oh, I used so many credits...) It has secrets to uncover, codes to enter, and strongly encourages you to play with a friend on player 2.
I remember learning so much from watching other people play; some of the obscure secrets. It really felt like a collaborative arcade game, sometimes even when you weren't playing.
Some of the later levels require you to exploit game glitches to win (the stages that are almost completely covered with "background" and you fall through the stage, etc), which curiously validates that aspect of the game - it puts the message across that yes they know the game does that thing that seems weird, it's supposed to, and you should know about this as a player as an advanced way to play the game.
I guess these things are down to the rest of the Taito staff who worked on the game as well, I'm just gushing about how much I like Bubble Bobble.
We played the C64 port of Rainbow Islands to death too, though I think I cheated in order to finish that game (and I think the port was missing a lot of the secrets from the arcade machine).
Bubble Bobble is definitely one of my all-time favourite arcade games. I played it in the arcades and relentlessly on the C64 when a port was made (my brother and I eventually completed it, even with its 10 credit limit!), and emulated in the compilations for PS2. We've finished that game so many times, so many versions! Still to this day, if I see a Bubble Bobble arcade machine, I'm compelled to play it, though I own these home versions. We played through some of the sequels (Bubble Symphony and Bubble Memories) to "best" ending just a few months ago.
Bubble Bobble is simple, it's cute, it's easy enough to get a good play out of one credit (I usually get as far as level 35 "Jump" on one credit), yet it's quite hard to get to the end. (oh, I used so many credits...) It has secrets to uncover, codes to enter, and strongly encourages you to play with a friend on player 2.
I remember learning so much from watching other people play; some of the obscure secrets. It really felt like a collaborative arcade game, sometimes even when you weren't playing.
Some of the later levels require you to exploit game glitches to win (the stages that are almost completely covered with "background" and you fall through the stage, etc), which curiously validates that aspect of the game - it puts the message across that yes they know the game does that thing that seems weird, it's supposed to, and you should know about this as a player as an advanced way to play the game.
I guess these things are down to the rest of the Taito staff who worked on the game as well, I'm just gushing about how much I like Bubble Bobble.
We played the C64 port of Rainbow Islands to death too, though I think I cheated in order to finish that game (and I think the port was missing a lot of the secrets from the arcade machine).
Happy Chinese New Year!
Welcome to the year of the ox. }:=8
I hope you have good health and a prosperous year!
I hope you have good health and a prosperous year!
Thursday 22 January 2009
World Of Goo soundtrack - free
The composer of the music for the game World Of Goo has released its soundtrack for free download, if you want a listen. :D
World Of Goo Soundtrack Download Area
World Of Goo Soundtrack Download Area
Friday 16 January 2009
Fahrenheit (video game; Xbox version)
I played a game to completion between Sunday and Tuesday this week. It was Fahrenheit, and I played the PAL Xbox version (though it has come out for PS2 and PC as well).
It is a few years old now but the game is set in January 2009 so now is a good time to play it!
The game is by a French company called Quantic Dream, and it plays as an "interactive film" and starts off really well. In fact, that's underselling it. It starts out really really amazingly well. For all the dozens of games I've played that call themselves interactive films, this one got the balance most right. Sometimes I'm left thinking "I don't really feel like I'm playing", or "this is just an ordinary game", but this one started with the balance exactly right.
It starts off as a detective story with you acting in one scene as the murderer, panicking and clearing up the bloody mess, then in the next scene as the police, finding all the clues. You spend time evading yourself, then hunting yourself down, and it's really entertaining and well done. I got to thinking "if only the Shenmue games had been crafted this well". There was always an atmosphere of pursuit, never letting up, and that's good - a lot of games let you wander off, do sidequests, collect gatchapon figures or whatever, and that might be fun but it makes the story lose its momentum. And it feels unreal, back to cliché game mechanics. In this, the pressure was on and you cannot escape. Well, it does in some scenes, but then you find yourself thinking how easy the police have it while the guy they are chasing is having a terrible time, so that's good.
The action sequences are all done with what I call "Quick Time Events" ever since Shenmue, even though the mechanic existed long before and was the staple of things like Dragon's Lair and Space Ace, as well as dozens of Mega CD games. An action sequence starts and you have to push the joypad analogue sticks in the directions shown on screen. In a lot of games, this mechanism is often flawed - in Dragon's Lair it required too much trial and error. In a lot of games that show arrows, you are paying so much attention to the arrows on screen that you never get to really watch the scene to find out what happened. In this game, you see two translucent four-sided shapes in the centre of the screen and the side you need to move sticks to lights up. This is fairly unobtrusive, so you get to watch the scene. There is another mechanism too - sometimes you are asked to press the trigger buttons alternately to build up an on-screen bar. Another issue with the "QTE" game mechanic is often that these sequences are often one-chance scenes - that is, if you mess up one arrow you fail the scene and get game over and have to repeat the scene. In many cases at the start, Fahrenheit was forgiving; sometimes you would not get as good an outcome to a scene if you had not completely succeeded, but it would be catered for in the story and it felt natural. Stopping and beginning a scene from last save point is often jarring.
The acting seemed good, and the character movements are also very natural and human; they used an awful lot of motion capture on this game, and the result is that even if the characters have jaggedy edges to their bodies, they move like real people. The facial expressions are realistic too, really good.
Unfortunately, though, the game did not continue as brilliantly as it had done all the way through to the end. It was excellent as a detective game with occult / supernatural overtones to it, but after that part of the story was complete, it became a completely over-the-top superhero film. I do enjoy superhero films a lot, but it did not suit this game as the atmosphere and emotional impact of the story was lost, the multitude of elements they added seemed too cliché, and all of the action scenes are played out with QTEs which seemed to drag on too long by the end. The thing where you get a sudden "Game Over" and restart from last save started appearing, and did so fairly often! Mostly it's the sudden change in tone that made the end seem poor.
Still, I'm glad I played this game! It took me just under 6 hours total (according to the in-game timer). The company who made this also made a game called "The Nomad Soul" which I bought the PC version of many years ago but never got round to playing. I think I will look for it and see if I can get it running! They are also working on a new game called "Heavy Rain" which is going to be for PS3 and is much anticipated, so I hope that turns out well; I will follow reviews when it comes out.
BTW - one last point. I read on wikipedia that Fahrenheit came out in North America under the name of "The Indigo Prophecy" and was edited so that the sex scenes were removed. That seems a bit strange; that they would leave in the brutal violent and bloody ritual murder right at the start of the game, but cut out the short scene with two consenting adults having sex. Granted the first one was a bit embarrassing, having to move the joystick to make the guy thrust, but strange that it should be censored. It's not that explicit, and the game got an overall age rating of 15 here, completely uncensored. Odd.
(Actually, it was the implied sex at the end of the game that I found distasteful... but that would have been left in as nothing was seen...)
It is a few years old now but the game is set in January 2009 so now is a good time to play it!
The game is by a French company called Quantic Dream, and it plays as an "interactive film" and starts off really well. In fact, that's underselling it. It starts out really really amazingly well. For all the dozens of games I've played that call themselves interactive films, this one got the balance most right. Sometimes I'm left thinking "I don't really feel like I'm playing", or "this is just an ordinary game", but this one started with the balance exactly right.
It starts off as a detective story with you acting in one scene as the murderer, panicking and clearing up the bloody mess, then in the next scene as the police, finding all the clues. You spend time evading yourself, then hunting yourself down, and it's really entertaining and well done. I got to thinking "if only the Shenmue games had been crafted this well". There was always an atmosphere of pursuit, never letting up, and that's good - a lot of games let you wander off, do sidequests, collect gatchapon figures or whatever, and that might be fun but it makes the story lose its momentum. And it feels unreal, back to cliché game mechanics. In this, the pressure was on and you cannot escape. Well, it does in some scenes, but then you find yourself thinking how easy the police have it while the guy they are chasing is having a terrible time, so that's good.
The action sequences are all done with what I call "Quick Time Events" ever since Shenmue, even though the mechanic existed long before and was the staple of things like Dragon's Lair and Space Ace, as well as dozens of Mega CD games. An action sequence starts and you have to push the joypad analogue sticks in the directions shown on screen. In a lot of games, this mechanism is often flawed - in Dragon's Lair it required too much trial and error. In a lot of games that show arrows, you are paying so much attention to the arrows on screen that you never get to really watch the scene to find out what happened. In this game, you see two translucent four-sided shapes in the centre of the screen and the side you need to move sticks to lights up. This is fairly unobtrusive, so you get to watch the scene. There is another mechanism too - sometimes you are asked to press the trigger buttons alternately to build up an on-screen bar. Another issue with the "QTE" game mechanic is often that these sequences are often one-chance scenes - that is, if you mess up one arrow you fail the scene and get game over and have to repeat the scene. In many cases at the start, Fahrenheit was forgiving; sometimes you would not get as good an outcome to a scene if you had not completely succeeded, but it would be catered for in the story and it felt natural. Stopping and beginning a scene from last save point is often jarring.
The acting seemed good, and the character movements are also very natural and human; they used an awful lot of motion capture on this game, and the result is that even if the characters have jaggedy edges to their bodies, they move like real people. The facial expressions are realistic too, really good.
Unfortunately, though, the game did not continue as brilliantly as it had done all the way through to the end. It was excellent as a detective game with occult / supernatural overtones to it, but after that part of the story was complete, it became a completely over-the-top superhero film. I do enjoy superhero films a lot, but it did not suit this game as the atmosphere and emotional impact of the story was lost, the multitude of elements they added seemed too cliché, and all of the action scenes are played out with QTEs which seemed to drag on too long by the end. The thing where you get a sudden "Game Over" and restart from last save started appearing, and did so fairly often! Mostly it's the sudden change in tone that made the end seem poor.
Still, I'm glad I played this game! It took me just under 6 hours total (according to the in-game timer). The company who made this also made a game called "The Nomad Soul" which I bought the PC version of many years ago but never got round to playing. I think I will look for it and see if I can get it running! They are also working on a new game called "Heavy Rain" which is going to be for PS3 and is much anticipated, so I hope that turns out well; I will follow reviews when it comes out.
BTW - one last point. I read on wikipedia that Fahrenheit came out in North America under the name of "The Indigo Prophecy" and was edited so that the sex scenes were removed. That seems a bit strange; that they would leave in the brutal violent and bloody ritual murder right at the start of the game, but cut out the short scene with two consenting adults having sex. Granted the first one was a bit embarrassing, having to move the joystick to make the guy thrust, but strange that it should be censored. It's not that explicit, and the game got an overall age rating of 15 here, completely uncensored. Odd.
(Actually, it was the implied sex at the end of the game that I found distasteful... but that would have been left in as nothing was seen...)
Free Geometry Wars remixed music
I downloaded some free music this week - a 13 minute track of electronic trance music - and listened to it for a few days solidly while working. That's unusual for me.
It's some remixed music from the Geometry Wars games (old-school Robotron-style shoot-em-ups), from UK games company Bizarre Creations. It's good music to work to; instrumental, a little retro.
See this article on where to get it, if you're interested:
C&VG article
It's some remixed music from the Geometry Wars games (old-school Robotron-style shoot-em-ups), from UK games company Bizarre Creations. It's good music to work to; instrumental, a little retro.
See this article on where to get it, if you're interested:
C&VG article
Captain Harlock & Galaxy Express 999 licensed for US on Crunchyroll
Source: http://www.animationmagazine.net/article/9424
I would be going "YAY" and "WOO!!" at hearing that both the TV series of Matsumoto Leiji's works "Captain Harlock" and "Galaxy Express 999" being licensed for distribution in the US, except that it means that there's even less chance of me getting to watch these series legally in English, now. :(
They've been licensed for distribution via Crunchyroll - streaming, downloads, $1.99 per episode with deals for bundled episodes. (NB: GE999 has over a hundred episodes!)
That might not sound too bad, but it's a strict US license. That means they need the viewer must be in the US in order to buy the episode. The same rules apply to DVDs, but it's easier to buy them on import - in most cases the vendor isn't pressurised to restrict sales to North America only.
Anyway, it means that when I go to:
http://www.crunchyroll.com/media-511702/Captain-Harlock-Episode-1.html
I see "Sorry, this video is not available in your region... :(" and I can't get round it by changing to a North American proxy or whatever, either...
I would be going "YAY" and "WOO!!" at hearing that both the TV series of Matsumoto Leiji's works "Captain Harlock" and "Galaxy Express 999" being licensed for distribution in the US, except that it means that there's even less chance of me getting to watch these series legally in English, now. :(
They've been licensed for distribution via Crunchyroll - streaming, downloads, $1.99 per episode with deals for bundled episodes. (NB: GE999 has over a hundred episodes!)
That might not sound too bad, but it's a strict US license. That means they need the viewer must be in the US in order to buy the episode. The same rules apply to DVDs, but it's easier to buy them on import - in most cases the vendor isn't pressurised to restrict sales to North America only.
Anyway, it means that when I go to:
http://www.crunchyroll.com/media-511702/Captain-Harlock-Episode-1.html
I see "Sorry, this video is not available in your region... :(" and I can't get round it by changing to a North American proxy or whatever, either...
Clannad got licenced for release on US DVD
Earlier this week, ADV announced that they've licensed Clannad for release on DVD. They'll release it in box sets of 1/2 a season at a time, subtitled only (no dub), and the retail price is $39.99.
Source
I notice that the pre-orders are $29.99 on rightstuf.com though, set to come out as early as the 3rd of March 2009! ^_^
ADV haven't been doing very well as a company as of late (directly due to the "credit crunch"), and can't afford the expense of producing a decent dub. I can't help but feel that it's turned out well, despite their troubles. It means that they are releasing a series like this with a fast turnaround, no delay waiting for individual DVD volumes, and it works out much cheaper too. ^_^
Source
I notice that the pre-orders are $29.99 on rightstuf.com though, set to come out as early as the 3rd of March 2009! ^_^
ADV haven't been doing very well as a company as of late (directly due to the "credit crunch"), and can't afford the expense of producing a decent dub. I can't help but feel that it's turned out well, despite their troubles. It means that they are releasing a series like this with a fast turnaround, no delay waiting for individual DVD volumes, and it works out much cheaper too. ^_^
Tuesday 13 January 2009
Saitek Cyborg Rumble Pad for Xbox 360 and PC
I bought myself a new joypad for using on Xbox 360; it's a brand new Saitek Cyborg Rumble Pad.
The official 360 joypad seems to be quite popular with people, but I don't really like it that much. I love the Playstation Dualshock and have considered it my favourite joypad for a long time. My issues with the 360 pad:
* The two analogue sticks are not positioned on the same level; makes some games a bit awkward (Beautiful Katamari, Beat'n Groovy, etc)
* The "B" button tapers off the size of the joypad. It's not flat on the joypad like the other buttons. I don't know why anyone thinks this would be good...
* The d-pad is a bit squishy and inaccurate; I find it poor on diagonals.
So I came across pre-orders on Amazon for this Saitek Cyborg Rumble Pad around November. It seemed to be the perfect solution: it lets you switch round the position of the d-pad and analogue stick so if you want it to be Xbox 360 style or Dualshock style, that's up to you.
There are more details on the official Saitek Site.
So I ordered one. :)
Here are some photos, showing it in its packaging (I think it looks tacky), then what it looks like without the removable module, with it in one position then the other. And finally, the base of the controller - the headset won't plug in.
The controller feels really nice. The material they used feels lovely; I think it's silicon? I don't know. It feels almost like suede or velvet without the fur, if that makes sense. The build feels sturdy and the look is also very professional. The sticks seem good and I've tried the controller on my "problem games" and the frustration is gone and it feels natural. The buttons are all good and responsive.... well, all except the "guide button" which needs a little more effort to press than seems normal, but then, it's set deeper into the pad than in the official pad. I haven't really tried using the d-pad much yet but it didn't seem to do too well when I was testing it in windows - it kept hitting other directions for an instant before settling in diagonals. One other note - it's bigger than the 360 pad. I quite like the little 360 pad (I only have little hands), but this Saitek pad is still comfortable for me. Oh and it's connected by USB, rather than being wireless. I don't mind, since my console is near where I sit to play.
Overall, I like this more than the official pad, right now. :)
The official 360 joypad seems to be quite popular with people, but I don't really like it that much. I love the Playstation Dualshock and have considered it my favourite joypad for a long time. My issues with the 360 pad:
* The two analogue sticks are not positioned on the same level; makes some games a bit awkward (Beautiful Katamari, Beat'n Groovy, etc)
* The "B" button tapers off the size of the joypad. It's not flat on the joypad like the other buttons. I don't know why anyone thinks this would be good...
* The d-pad is a bit squishy and inaccurate; I find it poor on diagonals.
So I came across pre-orders on Amazon for this Saitek Cyborg Rumble Pad around November. It seemed to be the perfect solution: it lets you switch round the position of the d-pad and analogue stick so if you want it to be Xbox 360 style or Dualshock style, that's up to you.
There are more details on the official Saitek Site.
So I ordered one. :)
Here are some photos, showing it in its packaging (I think it looks tacky), then what it looks like without the removable module, with it in one position then the other. And finally, the base of the controller - the headset won't plug in.
The controller feels really nice. The material they used feels lovely; I think it's silicon? I don't know. It feels almost like suede or velvet without the fur, if that makes sense. The build feels sturdy and the look is also very professional. The sticks seem good and I've tried the controller on my "problem games" and the frustration is gone and it feels natural. The buttons are all good and responsive.... well, all except the "guide button" which needs a little more effort to press than seems normal, but then, it's set deeper into the pad than in the official pad. I haven't really tried using the d-pad much yet but it didn't seem to do too well when I was testing it in windows - it kept hitting other directions for an instant before settling in diagonals. One other note - it's bigger than the 360 pad. I quite like the little 360 pad (I only have little hands), but this Saitek pad is still comfortable for me. Oh and it's connected by USB, rather than being wireless. I don't mind, since my console is near where I sit to play.
Overall, I like this more than the official pad, right now. :)
Sunday 11 January 2009
Samsung NC10 netbook
Here's a photo of my new netbook. I'm typing this post on it right now. :)
The netbook is a Samsung NC10, with 1.6Ghz processor, 1GB RAM, 160GB of disk space and Windows XP installed. I decided on Windows because it seemed a much more flexible option to me than some custom form of linux; in case I decide to do any upgrades - drivers and such (if that's even possible, hehe), plus I'm used to Windows and would want to install and use my existing software. I decided on Samsung because they seem to make the best monitor screens at the present, and I read a good review on this product. This cost me over £300 on dabs.com, but I got a rebate of £200 from a deal at work.
I really like it!
The screen is nice and sharp. The colours seem a bit distorted if you view at an angle, but it's good for such a cheap machine. I usually use a Samsung XL20 (which is amazing) as my main monitor, and it's not a patch on that, but that monitor cost twice this whole machine, hehe. I'm not used to widescreen, I still consider it poor for computer monitors. Perhaps good for watching movies, but poor for working with; documents, web pages and code listings usually benefit from a longer screen rather than a wider screen, in my opinion. The only option for netbooks these days is widescreen, though - I think it's the current fashion, more than practicality. But that's an aside.
The keyboard is nearly 100% normal key size; just a little smaller, and there's a good bounce to the keys so it feels fairly natural to type on. One thing - the right shift key is a bit short and is next to the pipe \ backslash key, so I kept typing backslash / letter when I meant to type a capital, before I got used to it. Maybe it's just my quirk that I use the right shift so much. It's the first laptop I've owned so I'm still getting used to using a touchpad instead of a mouse too.
There are USB ports on both left and right of the machine, which is really handy; if you specifically want something connected on either the left or right (e.g. a mouse), then you're not restricted and don't need to trail cables round the machine. I think that's a pretty good practical feature.
Battery life is pretty good too. Normally when the machine is unplugged the screen will default to a dim screen display, and the estimated battery life at that level is over 7 hours or something; pretty good. I don't find the dim setting too bad if watching films in the dark (for example). If you turn the brightness up so you can see better, the battery life goes down to about 4 hours or something, but that's still not bad. I used it unplugged quite a lot as I had taken it to my parents' house over Christmas and the electrics were out in the living room, then returning home on the long train journey (delays / cancellations / replacement coaches). (Boo for the delays but yay for National Express free wifi access on trains! My netbook was eager to detect and use that!) Pretty handy, and ok in cramped conditions!
There's a camera and microphone built in to the machine too, but I haven't tried those. Nothing much I need a webcam or microphone for.
I don't think the speakers are particularly good, but I just plugged in headphones and everything is just great and crystal clear. :)
I like that it comes in black, white and blue; I opted for the blue one because I thought it's a nice colour and more interesting than either black or white. I still haven't taken off the film covering the screen yet; I'm not sure whether I'm paranoid enough to buy a screen protector or not, you see. My current desktop wallpaper is a picture of Professor Tomoe from Sailor Moon S. (Thanks to my brother). XD
Overall it's a good little machine. I thought it was really good value and I like it more than the other netbooks I've seen which my friends and colleagues own. :)
The netbook is a Samsung NC10, with 1.6Ghz processor, 1GB RAM, 160GB of disk space and Windows XP installed. I decided on Windows because it seemed a much more flexible option to me than some custom form of linux; in case I decide to do any upgrades - drivers and such (if that's even possible, hehe), plus I'm used to Windows and would want to install and use my existing software. I decided on Samsung because they seem to make the best monitor screens at the present, and I read a good review on this product. This cost me over £300 on dabs.com, but I got a rebate of £200 from a deal at work.
I really like it!
The screen is nice and sharp. The colours seem a bit distorted if you view at an angle, but it's good for such a cheap machine. I usually use a Samsung XL20 (which is amazing) as my main monitor, and it's not a patch on that, but that monitor cost twice this whole machine, hehe. I'm not used to widescreen, I still consider it poor for computer monitors. Perhaps good for watching movies, but poor for working with; documents, web pages and code listings usually benefit from a longer screen rather than a wider screen, in my opinion. The only option for netbooks these days is widescreen, though - I think it's the current fashion, more than practicality. But that's an aside.
The keyboard is nearly 100% normal key size; just a little smaller, and there's a good bounce to the keys so it feels fairly natural to type on. One thing - the right shift key is a bit short and is next to the pipe \ backslash key, so I kept typing backslash / letter when I meant to type a capital, before I got used to it. Maybe it's just my quirk that I use the right shift so much. It's the first laptop I've owned so I'm still getting used to using a touchpad instead of a mouse too.
There are USB ports on both left and right of the machine, which is really handy; if you specifically want something connected on either the left or right (e.g. a mouse), then you're not restricted and don't need to trail cables round the machine. I think that's a pretty good practical feature.
Battery life is pretty good too. Normally when the machine is unplugged the screen will default to a dim screen display, and the estimated battery life at that level is over 7 hours or something; pretty good. I don't find the dim setting too bad if watching films in the dark (for example). If you turn the brightness up so you can see better, the battery life goes down to about 4 hours or something, but that's still not bad. I used it unplugged quite a lot as I had taken it to my parents' house over Christmas and the electrics were out in the living room, then returning home on the long train journey (delays / cancellations / replacement coaches). (Boo for the delays but yay for National Express free wifi access on trains! My netbook was eager to detect and use that!) Pretty handy, and ok in cramped conditions!
There's a camera and microphone built in to the machine too, but I haven't tried those. Nothing much I need a webcam or microphone for.
I don't think the speakers are particularly good, but I just plugged in headphones and everything is just great and crystal clear. :)
I like that it comes in black, white and blue; I opted for the blue one because I thought it's a nice colour and more interesting than either black or white. I still haven't taken off the film covering the screen yet; I'm not sure whether I'm paranoid enough to buy a screen protector or not, you see. My current desktop wallpaper is a picture of Professor Tomoe from Sailor Moon S. (Thanks to my brother). XD
Overall it's a good little machine. I thought it was really good value and I like it more than the other netbooks I've seen which my friends and colleagues own. :)
Thursday 8 January 2009
Zavvi closing down sale tomorrow?
The UK entertainment retail chain Zavvi (which took over from Virgin Megastore just a few months ago) are in administration at the moment. They will be closing loads of branches from tomorrow, and for the ones that are left, they'll cut the prices of everything to 50% from tomorrow. I'd say it's worth a look! See what bargains are up for grabs.
Source: Metro
Quote: "Zavvi's remaining outlets are now set to slash the price of their products by a further 20% to 50% from tomorrow."
Further to this, the BBC have a list of branches which will be closing:
ZAVVI STORE CLOSURES
Ashford (Designer Outlet) (8 staff)
Ayr (5)
Bideford (Atlantic Village) (7)
Braintree (7)
Braintree (Freeport Village) (7)
Bridgend (Welsh Designer Outlet Village) (8)
Castleford Outlet (8)
Chatham (13)
Edinburgh (Cameron Toll) (4)
Hempstead Valley (9)
High Wycombe (Octagon) (8)
Huddersfield (7)
Liverpool (Clayton Square) (28)
Livingston (McArthur Glen Outlet) (5)
Manchester (Salford Quays) (5)
Mansfield (McArthur Glen Outlet) (6)
Newcastle (Royal Quays) (6)
Sterling Mills (10)
Street (Clarks Village) (7)
Swindon (Great Western Designer Outlet) (8)
Torquay (5)
York (McArthur Glen Outlet) (7)
Number of employees in brackets
Source: BBC news
So if there's a branch near you that isn't closed or closing, you may wish to pay them a visit.
EDIT 2009-01-11:
I went in on Friday and Saturday to look for bargains, and there was a sign saying "UP TO 50% OFF" outside the shop, but inside, things were mostly 20% or 30% off. 50% off vinyl records, yeah... but the thing is, none of the prices looked particularly good. Most of the prices were far more than you would normally see in shops - especially online shops - and even when you considered the discounts, the prices were still way above the average prices in amazon / play.com etc. This chain does not understand how to sell things! It cannot save itself! Shoppers were merely milling about in the shop, looking at things, probably trying to work out the discounts in their heads and thinking "this is still too much!". There were barely any people queuing to buy things.
Source: Metro
Quote: "Zavvi's remaining outlets are now set to slash the price of their products by a further 20% to 50% from tomorrow."
Further to this, the BBC have a list of branches which will be closing:
ZAVVI STORE CLOSURES
Ashford (Designer Outlet) (8 staff)
Ayr (5)
Bideford (Atlantic Village) (7)
Braintree (7)
Braintree (Freeport Village) (7)
Bridgend (Welsh Designer Outlet Village) (8)
Castleford Outlet (8)
Chatham (13)
Edinburgh (Cameron Toll) (4)
Hempstead Valley (9)
High Wycombe (Octagon) (8)
Huddersfield (7)
Liverpool (Clayton Square) (28)
Livingston (McArthur Glen Outlet) (5)
Manchester (Salford Quays) (5)
Mansfield (McArthur Glen Outlet) (6)
Newcastle (Royal Quays) (6)
Sterling Mills (10)
Street (Clarks Village) (7)
Swindon (Great Western Designer Outlet) (8)
Torquay (5)
York (McArthur Glen Outlet) (7)
Number of employees in brackets
Source: BBC news
So if there's a branch near you that isn't closed or closing, you may wish to pay them a visit.
EDIT 2009-01-11:
I went in on Friday and Saturday to look for bargains, and there was a sign saying "UP TO 50% OFF" outside the shop, but inside, things were mostly 20% or 30% off. 50% off vinyl records, yeah... but the thing is, none of the prices looked particularly good. Most of the prices were far more than you would normally see in shops - especially online shops - and even when you considered the discounts, the prices were still way above the average prices in amazon / play.com etc. This chain does not understand how to sell things! It cannot save itself! Shoppers were merely milling about in the shop, looking at things, probably trying to work out the discounts in their heads and thinking "this is still too much!". There were barely any people queuing to buy things.
Wednesday 7 January 2009
My experiments with Mario Paint Composer
Tonight I decided to download and play with Mario Paint Composer to see what it's like.
It's a little app you just unzip and run:
http://www.unfungames.com/mariopaint/
It's pretty cool, but really limited in that you can only place notes on one staff and you can only record a song of 128 bars maximum. (NB: that's at 3/4 time. It's 96 bars at 4/4 time)
You can see for yourself what I made, if you like - I decided to make a Mario Paint version of Oyoge! Taiyaki-kun ^__^ but couldn't put in some of the notes I needed to, and it stops after a minute (I ran out of bars!). I made a video of it anyway. :)
Video file
It's 24MB and a bit laggy (which makes for uneven timing). Hmm, maybe I should have uploaded the 3kb file that plays the tune, instead...
Now I realise that for the long songs on youtube, there must be a lot of work put in - not just to sequencing the tunes on Mario Paint, but editing the video clips together. I have renewed respect for the makers of these videos!
It's a little app you just unzip and run:
http://www.unfungames.com/mariopaint/
It's pretty cool, but really limited in that you can only place notes on one staff and you can only record a song of 128 bars maximum. (NB: that's at 3/4 time. It's 96 bars at 4/4 time)
You can see for yourself what I made, if you like - I decided to make a Mario Paint version of Oyoge! Taiyaki-kun ^__^ but couldn't put in some of the notes I needed to, and it stops after a minute (I ran out of bars!). I made a video of it anyway. :)
Video file
It's 24MB and a bit laggy (which makes for uneven timing). Hmm, maybe I should have uploaded the 3kb file that plays the tune, instead...
Now I realise that for the long songs on youtube, there must be a lot of work put in - not just to sequencing the tunes on Mario Paint, but editing the video clips together. I have renewed respect for the makers of these videos!
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year!
The value of the UK pound has dropped like a rock, children are dying in war on the news every day, Woolworths is dead and buried, and everything costs even more in the January Sales than it did before Christmas!
The value of the UK pound has dropped like a rock, children are dying in war on the news every day, Woolworths is dead and buried, and everything costs even more in the January Sales than it did before Christmas!
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