I'm off to London today for a 4 day course, for the PACES exam.
Sucks. Big time.
Exam coming soon (any time between 15/06-02/07, date not confirmed yet).
I'll be online from London obviously, but I don't think I'll do anything on Good-Delicious, unless something VERY important happens (like Nintendo announcing the Wii release date :p)
SoB out
PS: play Condmened Criminal Origins. You have to. Scariest game ever. Seriously.
As hard as I've tried, I just can't get mac and windows to video conference. Even though AOL IM is supposed to be compatible with iChat, it rarely works, and if it does it lags heavily.
Anyway, since my MacBook Pro is Intel based, Apple have created a clever piece of software called Boot Camp (Still Beta). What this does is partition your hdd, burn a CD full of Windows drivers, and then lets you install windows natively. That's right, no virtual machine nonsense, Windows XP just installs and dual boots with OSX!
You might say that this beats the purpose of having a mac, and it does. But I only installed it for one reason, to be able to MSN video conference from the laptop. Problem is, after ages of disk burning and installing, I found out that the built-in iSight camera is NOT supported under Windows! Talk about bummer!!
Rumour has it that Apple will never release iSight drivers for Windows, as the camera is of exceptional quality and they don't want it to run under Windows. Other rumours say that the next OS X (Leopard) will have the full version of Boot Camp that will support the iSight.
Performance of windows is quite good, I tried a few things here and there and it performs like any average current laptop. I ran Iconoclast too and that worked fine. Don't ask me how Oblivion or FEAR run on it, this is not a gaming laptop, it's just a mac :)
So, now i have 2 os's on the macbook. I haven't removed windows just in case I might need it (there are rare occasions), and I'm sure when the full Boot Camp is out the camera will be working. I hope :)
Condemned : Criminal Origins, that's what!
Man oh man is this game scary! if you don't know already, Condemned is a SEGA-published, Monolith-created (those of F.E.A.R. fame) game that has you playing an FBI agent trying to solve the mysterious case of killers on the loose, made people, and dying birds.
What distinguishes this one from the rest is that it's a FPS that depends more on improvised weapons, like pipes, doors, drawers, and the occasional fire arm. It's also very bloody and gory. But, all that's been seen before. What it does manage to do very well is scare you. Monolith are good at this scaring game, but with Condemned they've outdone even themselves!
The game manages to turn ordinary day locations into freaky places, my favourite being the abandoned department store, where every mannequine you see makes you jump just cos you're paranoid they'll jump out at you. And that's where the beauty lies, instead of depending on fantasy/sci-fi settings etc, it turns everyday locations into scare-fests. Classic stuff.
The game is out on Xbox360 and PC, so if you want to cream your pants and have fun at the same time, go grab it. The 360 version is better IMHO.
now this is very interesting...
Rumour has it (albeit a post on the official Nintendo forums) that the games on display at this year's E3 were NOT running on Wii hardware, but on Gamecube dev kits!!!
It's a well known fact that all the developers were given devkits that were basically GameCube's with a Wii controller interface. But this rumour claims that the Wii consoles on display were nothing more than empty boxes with a blue light, and the real hardware was behind the scenes!
The post also has some "proof" pictures.
Of course, the internet is not the best place for reliable news. But the reason this one gets a mention here is cos Nintendo has officially claimed that the Wii has more tricks up it's sleeve, and that hardcore gamers should pay attention to future announcements. Also, the official Wii page doesn't give any details about the GPU nor CPU, just that they are developed by ATI and IBM respectively. Perhaps that is the final Wii secret, better graphics...
Take it all with a pinch of salt people, until we find out the true word from the Lion's mouth.
you might've seen this by now :)
In a historical moment, BBC News 24 interviewed LIVE ON AIR the wrong person, thinking thath e was an IT consultant! The poor victim was a guy from Congo (Guy Goma) who was very well mannered, and had come to the Beeb for a job interview (accountancy!)
Check out the look on his face when the camera is on him and the presenter is announcing his name and position!! Classic.
I have a feeling Guy is gonna turn into an urban legend, with the emo t-shirts and all... we'll see...
Yesterday, both Nintendo and Microsoft showed off their next-gen plans in special press conferences pre-E3.
I couldn't watch neither of them live (cos I have teaching every day after work until the darn exam!), but I gave Kelly my GameSpot user/pass and she watched Nintendo live.
Microsoft focused on the 360, and mainly on the games (with a bit about the new eye-toy-esque camera). The games looked really cool, with the long awaited official trailer of Halo 3 shown! Some other good games worth noting are Gears of War, Too Human, Virtua Tennis 3, Lost Planet, and many more (I can't remember!).
Personally, the best thing they announced is a slew of new games (18?) for XboxLive Arcade (for those of you without a 360, that's a great retro service from MS, where you download remade games for a small fee, most feature multiplay/hdtv etc), these include remakes of Mortal Kombat, Contra, and even the EXCELLENT Lumines for PSP (featuring music videos that are updated from time to time!). Playing Lumines in HDTV is going to be surreal.
Finally, MS have kept up to their promise that current 360 users will have a good deal, as everyone with a 360 get free xboxlive access over the e3 period, with downloads for ALL the trailers in HDTV, and even some playable demos (can't wait to play lost planet!). Great service if you ask me.
Then ofcourse there was Ninty. Their press conference started off with Shigeru Miyamoto (he should be knighted!) conducting a virtual orchestra using the Wiimote as it's now known. Reggie (kicks asses, takes names, remember?) came out then and introduced some really cool stuff: metroid prime 3, zelda wii, wario ware wii, excitetruck, wii spots, and more!. They then showed live action of how to use the controller and nunchuck attachment, and man does it look AWESOME! it looks like it's gonna feel really intuative and natural. The nunchuck has a motion sensor in it too, and the wiimote itself has a speaker!
They also promised some other secrets for the controller!
Ubisoft also showed off Red Steel, a Wii exclusive that gets you playing an underground life with guns and katanas!! the controller again shines here, making all very natural and realistic.
Loads more was announced, like new DS games (YOSHI ISLAND 2!!! WEEHEE! I love yoshi island and this one has dual screen support, and baby peach AND donkeykong!) and a new mario for Wii (mario galaxies) and GC (super paper mario).
And to end it all in style, they ended the show with 4 people (including shigeru and the big nintendo boss) playing 4 player tennis against each other, using the controller as a bat!
There's loads more that I'm sure I've missed out on! make sure you check gamespot where you can download the whole event, or just videos of the games I mentioned! The Wii official site has also been updated to reflect these announcements.
So, I got a 360, now what? Well if you haven't guessed yet, then I am definitely owning the Wii, but not the PS3. As much as the PS3 is great, it only focuses on resolution this, polygon that, sound this, reflection that. I already have a 360 for that. I want something new and fresh. And if Nintendo could get Kelly jumping up and down with excitement about "it looks really cool when they played wario ware and the tennis and it looks like it's really fun!", then am definitely getting a Wii, if only just so I can see her happily jumping up and down trying to beat a crazy wario minigame :)
And that, I think, is what Nintendo are trying to do, and are doing it well... very very well... getting other people to play, but also making sure us hardcore (or noncasual) gamers don't get too alienised, nor left out in the cold.
Let's see what the world's media think of the games today, now that they have a chance to actually play them...
Wow the power of communication these days!
What with broadband and all, loads of people watched a live broadcast of Sony's press conference yesterday live! Something that's never happened (at least to my knowledge) before.
Anyhow, the conference started nearly one hour late (1 am our time) so I was too tired to finish it all, and it started off quite boring (figures and numbers and resolution and polygons bla bla). Today I checked out the highlights and there was nothing there for me, but loads for fans of Sony games, especially MGS4 :)
One thing worth noting though is that they also revealed the final controller specs. They've ditched the infamous "boomerang" that was shown last year, and gone back to the good old Dual Shock configuration. But this time there are a few new additions: no more Shock, analogue trigger sticks, wireless, a central button with the ps3 logo on it (guide or home button most likely), and a 6 motion sensor gyroscope!
Now I don't know about you, but the minute I read about it I was thinking about all the other controllers and how this is just a copy of all the rivals' best bits. I think no one summed it up better than GameSpot:
So if you wanted to be a cynic, you could say that this is a wireless PS2 controller with analog triggers like the Xbox, a central guide button like the Xbox 360, and internal motion sensors like the Wii.
Nintendo's press conference is in just under 8 hours time.... get it right please.....
yes seriously!
Last night I was using it off battery power and boom, it shutdown suddenly. From them on, all I could do was use it while it was hooked to it's power supply.
Luckily, I was in London when this happened so I quickly went to the Apple Store's website and booked myself an appointment to meet the "geniuses" at the "genius bar".
Today, I went there at 14:30 and they diagnosed it with a dead battery. Luckily, they had one in stock and changed it for me. It's working great now!
I found out later that a few of the first batch batteries were faulty, and died like this... At least they sorted it out real quick, otherwise I would've been one angry SoB.
Peace-out
Just a quick note to remind everyone that the Electronics Entertaiment Expo (E3) kicks off in LA this Monday (May 8th to May 12th).
This one's gonna be a belter! cos the 3 big ones are releasing their next-gen plans, but more importantly the big N is showing us the Wii properly! So we can finally see the games in action, and that damn controller...
Ofcourse, Sony is showing off it's PS3 too. Microsoft I think are just gonna focus on the software and xbox live. Unless ofcourse they announce that rumoured xbox handheld :p
So, next week the web is gonna burn with new gaming goodies. My favourite place to follow the action is at GameSpot's E3 section, over here.
Have fun gamers.....
www.360voice.com have come up with a very clever idea. Utilising the Xbox Live's GamerTag, 360voice generates a blog on behalf of your Xbox! In other words, it creates a blog with the main editor being the 360, and it's entries are based on what you've been up to!
The language used is common English, and it also has a bit of wit to it, so it does a good job at convincing you that your 360 really is doing the blogging! I registered by GamerTag there a few days ago, and the resulting blog can be found here.
Thing is, today after lots of research, I found a way to incorporate the blog as an RSS feed into Good-Delicious' sidebar! (using the excellent feed2JS service)
So if you take a look there now, you'll see the 360's own little blog, as it tells you about my gaming adventures on it!
So there you have it. You now have two blogs to read while you're here ;)
Oh and could some of you please get a 360 already?! they're fucking awesome!!
SoB out
PS: I got the LAST exam of MRCP soon (well mid next month). It's called PACES and it involves alot of clinical skills (no more text questions!), so I gotta practice loads to get things right. Problem is, practicing is usually after work, as such I get back home tired, not to mention pissed-off!
So I'll be scarce on G-D from now till the big day. Cross your fingers everyone!!
a student project, and a very very cool one at that :)
watch them perform super mario live infront of an audience here (google video)
