Sony Playstation 3 (Steve)

I stumped up a small fortune for a new PS3, along with Motorstorm and Resistance:FOM last weekend. I've had a few days with the beast now and feel compelled to air my thoughts so far*

First impressions are very good. It's a very slick looking machine, and feels sturdy and expensive (which it is). It comes with a whole host of cables to get you up and running, but NO HDMI cable, which I find unforgivable given Sony's continual blathering about HD. Alas the quality feel of the product does not extend to the controller, or the SIXAXIS as they insist on calling it. It feels cheap, light, and it still has crappy analogue sticks. The new analogue triggers also feel very flimsy and are poorly positioned. I've only had limited time with the 360 controller, but the general consensus is that it is a far superior pad.

The games are a joy though. Motorstorm is absolutely stunning to look at, huge fun to play and has a cracking 12-player online mode that never gets dull. Resistance is also a great hit. It's no Halo beater, but the single player game is absorbing and the online modes are expansive, with a good number of levels, FORTY-player online matches and a great set of weapons.

The online stuff is not bad so far. It doesn't match up to what I've heard about Live on the 360 - it's probably closer to Live on the original Xbox at the moment, but with the ability to download smaller games, game demos and movie trailers, all in HD glory. And on that point, the video output of the PS3 through HDMI on my Panasonic plasma is STUNNING. Truly gorgeous. Both games and Blu-Ray movies look the business.

Chuck in a load of extra connnectivity (USB, multiple memory card/stick ports, ethernet, wifi, all sorts of video/audio outputs) and this does seem to be the ultimate living room hub. It's certainly a neater solution than the 360, and much quieter (and less unreliable so far, but time will tell). The cost is going to be the killer if anything - £425 gets you a lot, but are the extra features worthwhile for everyone?

It's a good machine, and there's a lot more to come. PS Home, Little Big Planet, and a lot of exclusive games. It gets a big spanx thumbs up.

*Sucker Kenshi in to buying one

Blu-Ray wishlist (Steve)

Aliens
Bullit
The Last Waltz - The Band
Star Wars - Original Trilogy
Superman 2
Terminator 1 & 2
Lord of the Rings Trilogy
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Blade Runner
2001: A Space Odyssey

Next month please

List of HD DVD's that I want (Wickedkitten)

Children of Men
Nine Inch Nails: Beside you in Time
The Mummy
The Mummy Returns
The Scorpion King
The Departed
The Prestige
The Deer Hunter
Superman: The Movie
V For Vendetta
Batman Begins
Unforgiven
The Last Samurai
Dawn of the Dead
Seven

Planet Earth
The Road Warrior
Blade
Conan the Barbarian

What happened to Peter Moore @ GDC? (k3nshi)

So yeah Eurogamer et al reported how Reggie was at the Sony announcement, and how Phil Harrison was there for the Miyamoto keynote.

Which kind of makes me wonder, where was the MS 360 figurehead person?

I'm sure MS sent their spies.

New Nintendo Console... (k3nshi)

...a higher spec Wii, with 100% backwards compatibility and gfx horsepower simillar to the 360 and PS3.

Within 3 years.

Carmack speaks (k3nshi)

Carmack:

Like Prey, there's a lesson to be learned, something a lot of companies don't really ever learn. You hear it from the fan base a lot. "Do it right. We'll still be here. We'll wait," and it's tempting to just let things slip. But that's really not OK. If you're doing something cutting edge, you're making fundamental decisions about your architecture, and if you let it slide for a year or two, then it's just not the right decision anymore. Even if you pile on all these extras, it's not optimal. It's not targeted at what you're doing. So I have some concerns about Prey coming out this late.

Source

God of War coming to PSP (k3nshi)

Damn

Why I don't want a PS3 quite yet. (Steve)

She'd kill me. The wife that is.

£425. For a games console. It's insanity isn't it?

Sony. Call me when it's £299. I might have a chance.

Excitetruck. Wins (Steve)

Excitetruck is one of those games that had completely fallen off my radar. "OMG THE GFX ARE CRAP". "OMG IT'S SO SHORT". "OMG OMG OMG" or some thing else like that. That's what it was like after the US launch. Oh well, I thought, shame. Next.

Still, it came out here a couple of weeks back. I'd had a bad day and wanted to buy something. This seemed to fit the bill.

Annnyyway... it's bloody brilliant. Surprisingly brilliant given the hatred. The graphics are actually very good - a bit plain, but very solid and with an enormous draw distance. The steering controls with the remote are initially jarring, but kick in after a couple of races. Then you realise it's not really a racing game but in fact an exercise in making huge jumps, taking risky shortcuts and doing tricks to score points, where you incidentally get some extra points at the end if you finish first. It's a proper arcade game and enormously good fun. Still, it's definitely a game that needs a sequel. Online racing would be great, some more depth to the tricks system, a bit of a tart up on the graphics wouldn't hurt, and the music. Oh the music has to go.

I love it. It's the best Wii game I've played aside from Wii Sports

8/10

Wii. The bad stuff (Steve)

OK. Everyone know the Wii is AN AMAZING SUCCESS, and rightly so. It gets a lot right. Small, quiet, great controller, some nice games and some interesting features.

BUT. All is not well in the world of Wii. Nagging doubts hinder my initial joy.

1. The Wii Remote is superb. But it doesn't work properly all the time. The sensor in the remote that detects its position in relation to the "sensor bar" cannot cope with a third source of infra-red... the F**KING SUN! Alas my living room back wall is a huge great sheet of glass. Afternoon gaming on a sunny day (if you require the pointing features of the remote) is out.

2. The Virtual Console is flawed. The shop itself is slow and clunky - it needs to be a proper client application rather than web-based. And it is overpriced. Heinously.

3. The games aren't fulfilling the potential of the controller, yet. Wii Sports is genius, and possibly the most important launch game since Halo, but that aside we're not really seeing much that feels really new. This is probably a short term problem, but disappointing nontheless

4. The online stuff is crap. Friend codes, no online games (again, yet), poor support for online gaming. It feels tacked on. An afterthought. I still don't think Nintendo care.

5. Zelda needs a refresh. Seriously, I've had enough now.


However, to countenance the misery, these are reasons why I think the Wii rocks. It's beautifully designed, Wii Sports is amazing, the Remote is a joy to use, Zelda is still a great great game despite it's... reluctance to move on. I'm glad Nintendo did their own thing (not that they really had a choice). I certainly can't see me buying the broken one or the gimped one just yet.

Backwards Thinking: You've been GIMPED. (k3nshi)

Ho hum. I cancelled my PS3 preorder, due to the Backwards Comaptibility farce being played out by Sony with the European models of the PS3.

Do I really care that much about backwards compatibility? No.

Do I care about paying a lot more money for less capable hardware? Yes.

And many other gamers, feel the same way judging by the reaction to on the "semi-official blog" of the PS3: Three Speech. Making things so, so much worse is the insane PR policy Sony is adopting to deal with the fans. Because lets face it, if you are considering paying £425 to get a PS3 at launch, you are a BELIEVER in what the PS3 is meant to represent (state of the art gaming hardware).

This whole thing could have been handled so, so much better.

This Is Living (k3nshi)

OMG MEGATON

PS3 Pre-order placed with Amazon.

...

Crackdown Demo on XBOX LIVE (k3nshi)

So I downloaded the 1.something GIGABYTE Crackdown demo and gave it a whirl on single player mode. It's pretty much GTA meets Demolition Man, with nice 360 visuals of the environment. So that's progress at least. Meanwhile I found the gameplay pretty unsubstantial. The AI is rubbish - I mean you play the part of some kind of supercop, and yet gangbangers decide to get out of their vehicles and fight it out with you? Please.

As far as I'm concerned the best rendition of a city environment in a game is still Syndicate Wars.

So everyone's talking about the Pope and how apparently he said games are perverted.
But at the same time, everyone is quoting this:

"Any trend to produce programs and products -- including animated films and video games -- which in the name of entertainment exalt violence and portray anti-social behavior or the trivialization of human sexuality is a perversion,"

which is in fact, completely reasonable and very true. It's stuff like this that makes me thinks games journalists are either malicious rabble-rousers, or just complete thickos.

MS Points are rubbish... (k3nshi)

Prices should be in pounds.

Sony's PR Saviour... (k3nshi)

...and perhaps the most refreshingly honest commentator in gaming today. David Jaffe interview over at 1UP. Show.

Blast From the Past (k3nshi)

I was clearing out some files in Kenshi HQ, when I came across some old print outs of articles from various websites. Amongst a load of programming related articles, I found a gaming one from a great games website from back in the day. A games website which I had almost completely forgotten about. The site is still up with archives of all its former issues.

So without further ado, please point your browsers at www.loonygames.com and take a little trip back in time.

Golf War was beginning... (Sir Clean of Hands)

Inspired by another of Meh's bizarre utterances, and driven forward by a caffeine rush and team spirit, I decided I wanted to make a game starting only with the title being set in stone - GOLF WAR.

Meh, Kenshi, Corps, and I basically sat in #edge talking rubbish about what the game could be, and together managed to thrash out some kind of general plan (though reading up it looks more like rambled nonsense).

First off, I wanted to make a game and not care if it's any good. As long as it ends up finished, then I'll be happy - shite or not. No idea who has time to work on it besides me but am not caring at the moment - as long as all of #edge can give an opinion and tell me when stuff is pointless or stupid or rubbish then that's totally enough.

Kenshi suggested it be done in either Java or Flash... no reason not to use either really, though Kenshi probably just wants to be able to play it on his Mac which is alright by me (no reason for anything to be XP-only in this day and age). Blitz is pretty easy to use to make stuff like this as well, and that's pretty universal so far as I know.

At first my idea was for it to be either top-down like Cannon Fodder, or side-on like Metal Slug, and Corps voted in favour of top-down, contributing some ideas on how combat could work. I voiced my desire to make it a tag-team style affair (i.e. Golfer & Caddy characters working seperately and together with different abilities) and possibly an isometric Head-Over-Heels like design. At this point Corps started being spacky and talking bollocks and it got a bit hard to follow, but we clarified our mission to keep it simple and not to worry about it looking less than professional.

Corps said he could do some music. He's quite busy so probably won't, but hopefully he can give advice on how music is actually 'done'.

Meh chipped in with the idea of it being like a shooter with the golfer hitting projectiles back at the enemies, which we all liked the sound of. I suggested that the golfer have a block so you don't immediately die when trapped by a bullet wall, but everyone laughed at me and called me gay. Corps then had a genius moment - using the Caddy to catch the bullets as a combined shield/ammo charger, like the white/black of Ikaruga in two halves. As far as I can tell this is the game everyone wants for now, and it sounds well within my meagre abilities as an artist and coder.

I don't really WANT to be making it by myself mind, so if any of you fannies don't mind doing tiny bits here and there when you're bored then that would be awesome. We don't have a deadline, and the bare minimum is good enough.

Let's make something!

Scratch (k3nshi)

MIT releases Scratch:

Scratch is a new programming language that lets you create your own interactive stories, games, music, and art.

Scratch is now available as a free download!

Coming in February: an all-new Scratch website where you can share projects.

More info here. Could be useful for games development?

fl0w: February, honest guv... (k3nshi)

IGN get told by Sony that fl0w is coming out in February.

Next Up... (k3nshi)

Shadow of the Collosus is on order. Sold out at most places, Amazon claim they'll be able to get it in 2-4 weeks. We'll see...

Gears of War... (k3nshi)

...dusted. I got bored of the last boss battle in Hardcore mode, so I switched it to Casual to complete it properly. I did actually kill the boss on Hardcore - grenade tagged him, but I blew up as well. So I got the achievement of killing him, but NOT the end of game ending. Anyway its over. Cant say I thought it was a particularly good game, but it was ok.

Kudos to Epic for letting you switch difficulty levels midway through the campaign though. And on-line co-op should be mandatory on simillar titles.

And more importantly its the first game I've completed in 2007. Next up: Tomb Raider: Legend.

LOLCANO (k3nshi)

More over at Manifesto Games' site.

Carmack says... (k3nshi)

Carmack:

The scope of what we have to do in a modern game is too much now for one person to do everything. But any time you break past the point where one person can manage all aspects of it, there's this incredible cliff you fall off in terms of average effectiveness and productivity. As soon as you need to divide a project, everybody is less efficient than the one person originally doing it. Plus you have the parasitic management overhead on top of all of it."
Carmack refuses to take on the role of manager -- he'd rather program. "The sad part is, I could probably do, effectively, at least half or two-thirds" of the programming for a modern game single-handedly, he says.

Read the rest over at Wired.

Manifesto Games - Costikyan follows through (k3nshi)

"We're here to create for games what indie music and film provide: an audience and market for creativity and individual vision, defying the big publishers' mediocrity and hype. Join the indie games revolution today!"


Manifesto Games - Greg Costikyan's implementation of his Scrathware Manifesto. Nice to see someone with the balls to put their money where their mouth is. Some nice things I've noticed whilst looking at the site for 2 mins:

• They have the Zork games playable in the browser, with links to downloadable versions


• They have listings for games on Mac and Linux too

This has great potential.

Quake 2 Love (k3nshi)

GoW can't touch this.

EA Innovation (k3nshi)

Over at GamaSutra, EA drone Alain Tascan said:

"I mean, we just did Superman Returns and all the sports, but we feel that we are now ready to take big bets on new IP, and not bet the farm on the established titles. And we think this is something that people are going to react well to, because EA is not known for this.

"I mean, if you look at the comments of people on some of the things I've said and they say, 'how can you dare talk about innovation?' And that's what we want to prove that as a company we can do it."

I am of course just messing. EA used to have a real reputation for innovation in the early days. And whilst most of their output these days is somewhat lacking, they still do some really nice stuff. As for Tascan, anyone who is prepared to go out against the hype and point out that Gear of War lacks innovation, is fine by me.

EA FTW.

Why isnt there... (k3nshi)

...an open Xbox LIVE profile thing available for indie/shareware/freeware games?

Or is there?

Cause for concern? (k3nshi)

The Bungie Weekly Update sayeth:

We realize this latest announcement will spur a lot of questions, most of which we simply don’t have the answers to. While Bungie is obviously involved in the development of the beta and game itself, we don’t make the decisions regarding when, where and how the game content ultimately ends up in your hands. It’s really cool that our fans have the opportunity to share in our game early and in some ways actually help us polish the final product but ultimately we’re just developers – the business and consumer side of things are left up to our partners at MGS. As we get additional info and answers to your questions we will pass them along in future updates.

Lets hope Microsoft strategizing isnt going to fuck up Halo 3, the Halo 3 multiplayer experience and especially not the single player experience.

Take us to Defcon 3.

Doom, Quake and Apple (k3nshi)

John Romero:

Why do I care so much about NeXT computers? Because we at id Software developed the groundbreaking titles DOOM and Quake on the NeXTSTEP 3.3 OS running on a variety of hardware for about 4 years. I still remember the wonderful time I had coding DoomEd and QuakeEd in Objective-C; there was nothing like it before and there still is no environment quite like it even today.

When id Software was stationed in Madison, Wisconsin during the winter of 1991, most of us were gone for the Christmas holiday - except John Carmack. John's present, which he bought with $11,000 of his own money, procured by walking through the snow and ice to remove from the bank, arrived during the holiday and he spent the whole time learning as much as he could about the computer and started working on vector quantization algorithms for compressing graphics. His test graphic was a 256-color screen from King's Quest 5. After his research was done it was agreed that the entire company needed to develop our next game on NeXTSTEP.

Romero, writing on how NeXT technology (the basis of Mac OSX) was pivotal to the development of Doom and Quake.

Certainly helps with the the motivation to learn Objective-C.

Don't look back in anger... (k3nshi)

Over at Salon, a Looking Glass article (it's not new):

"We ended up ... spending the company's sanity and morale by throwing together this thing so [Eidos] could have a product in that quarter, when Ion Storm hadn't shipped a product in all that time. While Daikatana was busy not shipping, and while they were writing blank checks to John Romero to do Daikatana ... they told us basically to ship [Thief II] by their fiscal quarter or die."

Meanwhile another article on Salon, reviews the book "Masters of Doom" and slams the author of the book, id Software and Doom:

No: while gamers were scraping the floor with "Wayne's World" bleats of "We're not worthy!" whenever Romero swaggered by them at game conventions, the industry's real Nirvana, Blue Sky Studios (which later became Looking Glass) was holed up in a New England studio, quietly putting out its genuinely innovative games in relative obscurity. Blue Sky could have overthrown the status quo. But for many reasons, most of which have little to do with talent, id would always overshadow its betters. Instead of advancing the medium, id's Texas smack talking rude boys obscured and impeded gaming's potential by spawning needless controversy and inspiring an oncoming slew of mediocre imitators.

And now, with "Masters of Doom", it looks like they'll get to help rewrite history, too.

Let's hope BioShock keeps the faith, otherwise I suspect someone at Salon is going to be pissed.

2006: Success (?), Failure, 30, Apathy. (k3nshi)

After a slow start and severely depleted funds, 2006 picked up towards the middle. It then rapidly plummeted down a pit.

Paid work with some "interesting" dynamics had a dramatic effect on my Quality of Life towards the latter part of the year. A massive increase in unnecessary stress saw my health suffer, and I piled on the pounds I worked so hard last year to lose. Meditation went out the window. Plans to run the Nike Run London 10K dissolved into nothing. Despite this, I made some new friends, relearned a few old skills and gained more confidence having survived a pretty harsh project.

I hit 30 in August. I went emo about it for a week. I'm probably still emo about it now. Thirty. A brighter part of that was I bought a mac mini as a media center and its working out just great. 2006 is the year I came to detest Windows. It really isn't good enough, and if Windows is the disease, I doubt Vista is the cure.

Family life in 2006: Better. Worse. Complicated.

Gaming was something that was largely not a part of my life in 2006, but that changed this week when I finally bought a 360 after much pressure (Hi Shimmy). Its looking increasingly likely I'll buy a PS3 at some point too. So much for only buying one console this generation.

I only tried a few new things this year, and failed to take on any of the big challenges I had considered at the end of 2005. At the end of this year, I can safely say I am very tired and somewhat apathetic. A trip to Dubai provided some necessary respite, but even that started badly as visa issues meant I was stuck in the airport for an entire day. Not fun.

I still feel tired and apathetic as 2006 trickles away. Here's hoping 2007 brings a lot of energy, focus and success.

Year End Awards 2006 (k3nshi)

The Kenshi Institute's Year End Awards 2006

• Man of the Year: James Bond


• Woman of the Year: Lara Croft


• Film of the Year: Mission Impossible 3


• Game of the Year: Tomb Raider: Legend (Xbox 360)


• Food of the Year: Biscuits


• Book of the Year: Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman


• Poison of the Year: Polonium


• Website of the Year: youtube.com


• Technology of the Year: Nintendo Wii


• Anti-Technology of the Year: Java


• Blog of the Year: Kotaku


• TV Channel of the Year: E! TV


• TV Show of the Year: Entourage


• Application of the Year: Entourage (Mac OS)


• Shape of the Year: Trapezium


• Place of the Year: The Lounge - Ritz Carlton Dubai


• Colour of the Year: Grey


• Year of the Year: 2005

Amateur Mugger FTL (k3nshi)

[16:37] amateur mugger FTL
[16:38] yeah I'm fine thanks
[16:38] so here we go
[16:38] I was walking to Harrow
[16:38] going the normal route I take
[16:38] which is up the main road and then into some side streets, which are normally empty
[16:38] as I go up the sidestreet I notice someone also going the same way as me
[16:39] which struck me as a bit unusual
[16:39] a bit further up the sidestreet the guy goes to me "Hey, whats the time?"
[16:39] which pretty much said to me there is a good chance this guy is going to try to mug me
[16:40] and sure enough the next thing he says is: "I Hope you have some money for me"
[16:40] to which I just say no
[16:40] and then its all "What? Show me your wallet!"
[16:40] and I just keep saying no
[16:40] then he puts his hand in his pocket as if he has something
[16:40] so I just walk the other direction back to the main road
[16:41] * Wickedkit (~Wickedkit@82-68-248-78.dsl.in-addr.zen.co.uk) has joined #edge

[16:41] * Playdoh gives channel operator status to Wickedkit
[16:41] this guy shouts out to me "Keep going about your business - you were going this way!"
[16:41] * Wickedkit gives channel operator status to RSimmy
[16:41] he followed me for a bit
[16:41] but I went into the nearest shop
[16:41] and called the cops
[16:41] THEN
[16:41] the cops arrived and I got to go on the prowl in an undercover cop car to look for the perp
[16:42] but we couldnt find him
[16:42] but that was quite fun

Ray Hound: Something for the Japanese Shooter Fans (k3nshi)

Ray-hound for Windows, another game by the Warning Forever guy. Screenshots certainly look pretty. No idea if this is OLD NEWS or not.

Killer Apps, Proxy Wars & Intergoons (k3nshi)

I think the most positive aspect that the next-gen is bringing/really focussing on is social gaming. The Wii adverts were a real breathe of fresh air, focussing on the players of the games and really showing a social experience. The last time I saw game adverts like that was for things like the old Atari systems waaaay back in the day. And by all accounts Nintendo really is managing to court non-gamers with their system.

Sony are making plenty of noises about user created content and creating an online experience. Phil 'Mr Popular' Harrison cant help mentioning things like Second Life and MySpace when talking about the online PS3 experience, so it appears as if Sony are going to take online seriously. Singstar online could be a killer app all by itself. Still, there is nothing to see there yet, which leaves us with...

Xbox LIVE. Which I think really is the 360s killer feature, especially if you dont like Halo. For me Halo 3 is enough - but Halo 3 isnt out yet, and so I wouldnt be thinking about getting a 360. Except of course a large group of hashedgers are all playing Gears of War online and working like some kind of unholy army in J Allard's Proxy War for Gaming. "Buy a 360!", "Have you got it yet?", "JOIN USSSS!". Just another day on #edge at the moment.

So despite the fact that currently I think the 360 is a massively underwhelming and overpriced purchase; the console most likely to be the spiritual successor of the Dreamcast, I have seriously been thinking about buying one. I've been in GAME numerous time teetering on the point of purchase for a console whose library of games is incredibly uninspiring. Why? Because as killer apps go, 'Gaming with your mates' is pretty much the psychopath app. First everyone is playing Gears of War, then everyone moves on to Test Drive Unlimited, then its the next thing and the killing spree continues.

So the 360. I might buy one... tomorrow.

It hasn't even started yet... (k3nshi)

Let's be clear: the next gen hasnt begun AT ALL. If I want to buy a next-gen console today, I have no choice: I can only readily buy a 360.

So for all the internet game forum know it alls who are proclaiming the PS3 dead in the water, all I can say is: the battle hasnt even started yet. Really it all kicks off in mid-2008, possibly late 2008, when all the consoles seriously start trying to court the casual gamer and every console has a few decent games.

Next gen hasn't even really started on the 360 yet either. Bar a few notable (recent) titles, so much of the library seems like old gen gameplay with tarted up visuals. Roll on the likes of Bioshock, Assasin's Creed and Halo 3. Note that (with the exception of inhouse title Halo 3), these titles have been mooted for the PS3 at one point in time or other. Face it: next gen games development is expensive. And publishers are going to want to ammortise those costs by hitting as many platforms as possible or by releasing on the most dominant platform. And that cant happen until all 3 consoles are out in the market in sufficient numbers and the massmarket has chosen its winners and losers.

I am Two (k3nshi)

Another year over (expect the tradional year end posts soon enough). But today... hashedge is two years old. Have a cake. Play a game. And think happy thoughts.

Its been a pretty quiet year for the blog. A lot of my time has been taken up with Other Things, which has meant I havent been following gaming very much at all this year. But it looks like I might be getting back into gaming a bit more, what with an exciting NEW GENERATION about to begin. So... expect more hashedge blog action REAL SOON...

Games of the Year 2006 (k3nshi)

Gamer	Game of the Year	Platform
corps	Oblivion	Xbox 360
Crhis	Gears of Wars	Xbox 360
debaser	New Super Mario	Nintendo DS
elbo	Shadow of the Colossus	PS2
franki	Lego Star Wars 2	Xbox 360
Kenshi	Tomb Raider: Legend	Xbox 360
Kit	Gears of War	Xbox 360
kon-el	Zelda: Twilight Princess	Nintendo Wii
Meh	Okami OMG ROLF	PS2
qazimod	Viewtiful Joe: Double Trouble	Nintendo DS
Rayn	Zelda: Twilight Princess	Nintendo Wii
rhp	Wii Sports	Nintendo Wii
Shimmyhill	Gears of War	Xbox 360
Steev	Final Fantasy XII	PS2
Taev	Oblivion	PC
The-G	Gears of War	Xbox 360
vamecum	Oendan	Nintendo DS
Van	Pheonix Wright 2	Nintendo DS

Platform	Number of GOTY votes
Xbox 360	7
Nintendo DS	4
Nintendo Wii	3
PS2	3
PC	1

Any more, for any more? Let me know...

Dubai Living (k3nshi)

...brief post from Dubai, cos my laptop battery is going to die REAL SOON now.

- Days spent in airport due to visa issues: 1
- OMG its been raining. Only 1 sunny day so far. :-(
- Lamborgini's spotted: 2
- BMWs/Mercs/Audis/Lexus: innumerable

To be continued...

Cool Mario Desktops... (k3nshi)

[14:30]  http://www.flickr.com/photos/andy_leitch/140504998/
[14:30]  nice desktop
[14:32]  and another: http://www.flickr.com/photos/andy_leitch/140388573/

Hurry up... (k3nshi)

clicky clicky

DEMOGRAPHIC (k3nshi)

Spotted on the tube today: A woman. Playing a (black) Nintendo DS. Didn't find out what game she was playing though. 

PS3: Flow (k3nshi)

Screenshot

Flow is the only game I am interested in on PS3 at the moment. It's like the X360 launch all over again (where I was only interested in Geometry Wars). A nice write up on flow is at the WSG.

Killer App Score card (k3nshi)

360
Halo 3
Gears of War (contendah)

Wii
Zelda (contendah)

PS3
?

Some Spore Dev's interviewed... (k3nshi)

...on Joystiq.

Interesting to see that Chris Hecker of Indy Game Jam fame got snapped up by Will Wright. So EA snagged a real thought leader (urgh) from the indy game scene.... is a resurgent EA Golden Age forthcoming? 

Capitalism Bad, Marketting Good (k3nshi)

This is some good coverage of the PS3 launch. I like the fact they have some video footage, and are exposing the kind of shambles the launch event was. However I think its pretty fucking sad that the writer laments how "real gamers" werent part of that stupid launch day event, and how that in some way ruined the launch.

Get a grip kids. Its the first day of selling a mass manufactured toy that will be obsolete within 5 years. Wishing that corporates get to have their special marketting PR fests is just sad and pathetic.

exCellent (k3nshi)

So the PS3 launched in Japan. 

Does anyone care?

I dont.

Back to Gaming (k3nshi)

So previously I rated God of War. Well I liked it so much I bought it again, and am playing through it right now. It's still damned good, but really... imagine if it had more of a DMC kind of control system.

Roll on God of War 2.

Appalling (k3nshi)

"Marvel Comics is continuing in its bid to steal the word "super-hero" from the public domain and put it in a lock-box to which it will control the key. Marvel and DC comics jointly filed a trademark on the word 'super-hero.' They use this mark to legally harass indie comic companies that make competing comic books"

Read more

iPod Shuffle - Not Washable (k3nshi)

...

R.I.P

Heads Up (k3nshi)

Warren Spector has been doing a 4 part series in The Escapist recently. I havent read any of it yet, so have no idea if its any good, but I thought you might like to know that.

Carry on.

Wired on the only interesting DS game (k3nshi)

"Indeed, for something that doesn't even seem like normal "game," it's weirdly addictive. The math questions had me so frazzled that I emotionally regressed to about age ten. Brain Age also includes a Stroop test, which flashes the names of colors on screen in mismatched ink -- for example, the word "blue" printed in red -- and challenges you to name the color of the ink. As any psychologist will tell you, you can keep a lid on things for the first dozen words, but then your brain turns to jelly."

Read the rest here.

Dofus Arena (k3nshi)

Dofus Arena - a pretty, online tactical game thing. It even has a client for OSX. AMAZING.

Thanks to hub2 for pointing this one out.

'Second Life' scores $11 million in funding (k3nshi)

Linden Lab, the publisher of the popular virtual world "Second Life," announced Tuesday an $11 million round of funding led by Globespan Capital Partners.

Read the rest here.

LucasArts (k3nshi)

"The tech convergence has George Lucas’s gaming and movie divisions working hand-in-glove. R&D honcho Steve Sullivan and project lead Chris Williams explain how it’s working"

Read the rest here.

Geometry Wars on OSX and PC (k3nshi)

Well not quite, but the next best thing is Grid Wars.

Some points to note:

• Its written in Blitz Max so there are builds for Windows and OSX
• My gamecube-usb adaptor works perfectly on my iMac
• My best reason for wanting an Xbox 360 just went bye-bye!
• Grid Wars is free

MS and the producers of Geometry Wars just lost HARD IN THE FACE.

Thanks to Pow for the heads up on this.

You got pwned (k3nshi)

Amazing... simply AMAZING

I dont see the code anymore... (k3nshi)

class AuthorAttribute : System.Attribute 
{
  public AuthorAttribute(string name)
  {
     this.name = name;
  }

  private string name;
  public string Name {
     get { return name; }
  }
}


Interview with the dude who did Ico.. (k3nshi)

Fumito Ueda talks to Wired.

Will Wright talks Spore (Video) (k3nshi)

Click click click...

There is no doughnut... (k3nshi)

Great. I just went to get a cup of tea and what is in the kitchen? A bag of French jam doughnuts.

I will resist.... 

ZOMG Gladwell has a blog!!111 (k3nshi)

Malcolm Gladwell, author of the Tipping Point and Blink has a blog.

XOMG

A useful widget... (k3nshi)

...for OSX Dashboard from Google.

The Blogger widget that lets you blog really easily. AMAZING.

Get it here.

Game Theory: Creativity Under Threat (k3nshi)

There is something very wrong in an industry where a designer who has produced exactly one game is seen as some sort of revolutionary hero figure. I am talking about Keita Takahashi who produced Katamari Damacy. His disproportionate share of acclaim is covered far better elsewhere. I don't want to talk about that, I want to talk about how to save creativity in gaming.

From the continual bitching of games developers (I've been reading the same shit for about 3 years now), the problem is they don't get the luxury of taking creative risks and this is due to the huge budgets required to make a game, and the subsequent high volume of sales a game must make just to recoup costs.

Nintendo is not the solution

Nintendo are doing some very smart and disruptive things at the moment (although arguably no more so than Sony's EyeToy, Singstar and Buzz products). But platform politics and general business practice mean that Nintendo, or any other platform vendor should not be seen as a long-term solution for the problem of the death of creativity in gaming. Once a business becomes dominant (as Nintendo have been in the past), they have no interest in disrupting the status quo. I'm sure Nintendo's board of Directors would love to take us back to the 1980 where they ruled the gaming world with an Iron Fist and every title published had to be vetted by them and manufactured by them and licensed by them. This is not a Win scenario for gamers or game designers, no matter how much of love you have for the company and/or some of its great products.

So what are some potential long term solutions, to ensure that creativity in games design does not whither and die at the whims and corporate strategies of platform companies. I'll talk about some ideas in the next article.

Game Theory: Platform Politics (k3nshi)

I'm going to just set out explicitly the fact that each console vendor has a strong interest in tilting the overall direction of gameplay (and what games are seen to be) to further their own cause (sales of their platform). A quick explanation of these biases could be:

Microsoft wants gaming to be about multiplayer, online stuff because they have LIVE and this is clearly the strongest differentiatior in their gaming portfolio. They also have the kind of resources and expertise to do this kind of thing really, really well.

Nintendo want gaming to be about different control mechanisms so they dont have to engage in a hardware battle and can churn out games more quickly and cheaply.

Sony just need to maintain the power and ubiquity of their Playstation brand. More of the same but butter, along with growing the market with things like SingStar, EyeToy and Buzz. They are the least interested party in disrupting the status quo because of course, they rule over the current state of play.

Game Theory: Intro (k3nshi)

I'm going to be doing a few posts about the games industry for the hell of it, which I am going to prefix with the title "Game Theory". There will be an element of building on previous material, so I'm adding the prefix to make it easy to identify the posts.

Meditation Redux (k3nshi)

So after a long drought I finally made time tonight to do some meditation. Not a particularly "good" session, probably because I had ingested some caffeine (in the form of a cup of chai) not too long before deciding to meditate. Still, the 30 minutes pretty much flew by and I am a bit more chilled.

I'll try and pursue the recommended daily meditations this week (2 sessions of 30 minutes per day). Looks like I will have to give up my nightly chai fix though...

Random Blog Entry (k3nshi)

Well I said I'd blog today, but I cant really think of what to blog about. Sure I could do what I was going to do and tell you about how I cant be bothered with games at the moment and how I cant even be bothered to buy the latest stuff, but I suppose I'd sound like Edge in the Truly Miserable Era. Instead I was going to post about how watching BSG makes me want to play Homeworld 2, but on my Mac, which is annoying as I have the PC version but not the stupidly expensive Mac version. And no I dont want to buy the same game twice. But thats pretty boring also (although I would have snuck in a mention of how much better looking the HOT BLONDE cylon is compared to Grace Park just to annoy Meh). I almost posted a gratuitous picture of the HOT BLONDE cylon in this blog post but then I realised I couldn't be bothered.

I had mini-pizzas (or 'baby pizzas' as I am told they are really called) for dinner. They're nice but really I wanted 1 more than I had. No my diet is not going well in 2006. Nor is my exercise regime. On the positive side my cough seems to have gone. I'll nuke it some more just to be sure though - it does a mean Lazarus impression.

After a period of neglect my Bonsai tree is looking better than it has for a while. Mr Miyagi would be proud. Actually I probably need to trim it and stuff. Afterwards I will catch flies with chopsticks, paint a fence and singlehandedly take out the hardest (and cheatingest) bastard in the All Valley Karate Championships. "Go Johnny! Finish him!!!". Yeah right - he'll walk straight into a cunning Crane Kick. This all reminds me that I want to watch Karate Kid again. And Ghostbusters also.

Other than that I am fine, thanks. How are you?

Trapped in Falken's Maze (k3nshi)

I finally got round to re-watching Wargames on DVD last night. Talk about a blast from the past. This film was a huge influence on me. I remember when I first saw it how amazed I was by some of the concepts depicted in the film: the internet, multiplayer online games, speech synthesis, artificial intelligence - and all of this available to a 17 year old kid (Matthew Broderick). Almost unthinkable stuff at the time!

Wargames wasn't the only influence of course, I grew up watching things like: Knight Rider, Automan, Airwolf and Tron. All of them impressed upon me the amazing possibilities that computer technology could enable.

Some of my favourite scenes in Wargames revolve around how the main character, David (Broderick) manages to hack into the military computer system he wants to play games on. The actual scene where you see David's many attempts to find a way into the system is the best depiction of hacking I've ever seen in a film, and a real credit to the director. Trying to depict a very cerebral, tedious and yet compulsive process in the cinematic form certainly isn't easy. Similar scenes in Swordfish and other films are a complete joke.

But before David can even begin to hack the military system, he needs to turn to some of his older, more experienced friends for help. David doesn't know where to start in the process of hacking the military system, but one of the nerds certainly does:

"The first game on the list - go right through's Falken's Maze!"

This leads David onto an obsessive path of discovery as tries to learn how to bend the system to his will. I guess I know how he feels.

It's coming.... (k3nshi)

"Then, at the flick of a switch, Minor turns the simulation over from his new Cell processor to a dual-processor Apple Power Mac G5, and the scenery freezes. The G5 almost audibly groans under the burden, though it's no slouch. In fact, it's currently the top of the line for PCs. But Cell is something different entirely. It's a bet on what consumers will do with data and how best to suit microprocessors to the task—and it's really, really fast."

An article for techies only. But the possibilities of sheer raw computation power > possibilities of a gimmicky control system.

Virtua Fighter 4EVAH (k3nshi)

Akira from VF5
Originally uploaded by Kenshi.

The VF series has the unfortunate and unwarranted reputation of being "hardcore" and impenetrable. The truth is: VF is an amazing game, not a lifestyle choice.

Its all pretty simple. You have your moves and throws, a basic blocking system (high block, low block), and various counters.

The reason VF differs from other fighters is the way all of this has been implemented. The simplest techniques often work best in VF. Forward + Punch is often all you need to take out some flashy bastard who wants to do some convoluted throw sequence on you.

This results in a game with far more strategic depth than any other beat em up. It's not about how many flash moves you know, it's about how you fight your fight. Can you pick the right strategy and tactics to take out your opponent? Can you adapt your style to beat opponents with varying techniques and styles of their own?

So if you are curious about a legendary game series but have been put off by the nerdcore, I suggest you look beyond that tragi-comedy scene.

VF is made up of simple constituent parts: 1 stick + 3 buttons. Lots of moves, none of which is the special move that lets you beat any opponent. The complexity arises from the depth of options that this system of control gives you.

Roll on VF5. Hopefully there will be some new, saner players along with the usual nerdcore fanatics.

2005 Review (Anonymous)

A tad late as we are now in 2006, but hey, it's been a strange couple of days...

2005 for me was a year of change. Started the year in France (good) stuck in a dead-end job (bad) that was dulling my brain and depressing me. April was the turning point. Found out my project was canned and that I would be returning to the UK. Even better I had the option of taking an excellent redundancy package.

So I did. And now I've started a company and things look good. Insane amount of work, no pay and less than perfect work conditions, but exciting. Exciting, scary, interesting and unknown.

Other stuff? Well May brought news of a new addition to the family. Only 2 months to go now. The last few days have been a bit worrying with Janet getting premature contractions, but everything seems to be settling down and Samuel should be with us in early March.

April also introduced the DS to the spanx gaming stable and it's the only thing I've really bought any games for since. Music wise? Nada Surf, M83, The New Pornographers, The Band, Yeah Yeah Yeah's and Ben Folds have featured heavily (yes, I know they're not all 2005 releases, but they've been my soundtrack). Films? I honestly can't think of one that's blown me away this year. Games? Mario Kart, Kirby, Animal Crossing and Wario Ware on the DS. Most others were disappointing (RE4) or just plain crap (Pro Evo 5)

So 2005, I salute you. The year I finally made a change. 2006 is going to be fucking ACE!

2005: The year Nintendo took over my brain (Wickedkitten)

This year has been pretty good overall. I've become even more of a food whore with loads of new recipes added to my repertoire. Actually, I think we have become a right couple of food snobs to be certain.

Ross has ended up getting addicted to WoW which isn't so bad now. I, on the other hand, instead of joining in the nonsense ended up buying a trojan horse in the shape of a gamecube. It made sense really considering that I could get one secondhand for the same price as Wow, the only thing is that once we got that it was "Oh if I'm playing Harvest Moon - Another Wonderful Life, it makes sense since I have the GBA version to get a link cable, as I can also use it for Four Swords and The Wind Waker", then it was "Oh our GBA really is quite dark so it makes sense to get a SP as it has a backlight".

Worse of all was to come however on boxing day when I ended up becoming the proud owner of a Mario Kart Ds Pack complete with King Kong thrown in free which ended up being traded away for Nintendogs - Lab and Friends.

Oh well, roll on 2006 which will be the year of the PS3.

Year End Awards 2005 (k3nshi)

The Kenshi Institute's Year End Awards 2005

Celebrating the sublime and the ridiculous:

• Man of the Year: Alan Kay


• Woman of the Year: Angelina Jolie


• Film of the Year: Batman Begins


• Game of the Year: God of War


• Book of the Year: "Freakonomics" by Levitt & Dubner


• Website of the Year: flickr


• Undead Website of the Year: smilingkenshi.net


• Technology of the Year: Paper


• Promised Legal Action of the Year: MPA vs Song Lyrics sites


• Anti-Technology of the Year: CSS + Web browsers (all of them)


• Phone of the Year: imate JAM


• Blog of the Year: What would Tyler Durden Do


• Application of the Year: Preview (Mac)


• Shape of the Year: Arch


• Place of the Year: Regents Park, London, UK


• Colour of the Year: Ruby red (##990000)


• Year of the Year: 2005

2005: Got Stuff Done, Got annoyed. (k3nshi)

After an arduous 2004, 2005 started with a bang: all positive energy and the will for action. And fortunately it didn't fizzle out either. I can look back on 2005 with a certain level of satisfaction, as I finally sorted out a fair few things. Let's break it down:

Physical

I lost some weight, gained some strength. Gym going combined with a disciplined diet paid off at the start of 2005. Things stalled towards the middle of the year, and I face 2006 with the need to find that old focus.

Something new

Running. I've never liked running. Never understood people who claimed to like running. This year I ran the Nike Run London 10K. When I started training, I didn't know if I would be able to do it. By the time the official run was over, not only did I know I could run 10K in a reasonably respectable time but I even got to a point where I can enjoy a good run. Who'd 'ave thunk it?

Something long overdue

I passed my driving test. And then I did my pass plus. At last. Fully licensed to drive. Now I just need to drive more.

Mental

I didn't do as much meditation as I should have. In fact it's something I really need to bring back into my life as I can probably attribute a lot of my positive attitude in 2005 to the meditation I started at the end of 2004.

I did a lot more writing this year than in the past. More blogs, more websites, more stuff (less forum posts though). I think its true when people say "writing helps strengthen your thoughts", if only in that it provides a useful tool for reflection.

Professional

Most of 2005 I spent embroiled in yet more political battles at a former employer, desperately trying to salvage my career. By the time more positive influences came into power at that firm (late in the year), it was too late: I had decided to move onto bigger and far better things. 2005 was the year I finally decided to pursue the dream I've held for a very, very long time: to start a company. It's scary, challenging, lots of work and at the moment I have no income.

Nothing great is easy.

"Maybe their dream isn't big enough,"

2005 ends with some sourness and annoyance. This is a very, very good thing.

At the end of 2005 I have to tolerate small thoughts from the small minds of much, much smaller men who think I should simply follow the status quo and Be Like Them. "Why all the effort? Just Be Like Us. It's Easy."

Roll on 2006. I've got scores to settle.

2005: Mostly rubbish (the_debaser)

Thought I'd try and do a review of 2005 and ended up just thinking about my own personal year. Worryingly, not much of note has happened at all. This year's just passed by - I mean, what the FUCK have I been doing? Go to work Monday-Friday, knackered in the evenings. Then go out at the weekend to get wasted and get lucky with some bird every so often. There must be more to existing than this monotonous shite, surely? But then I expect that pretty much sums up everyones life when they're 25.

However, nothing really bad has happened to me this year so I should be thankful for that. I just want to make sure I get back on track in 2006. Try and sort a flat, maybe a new job, and plan a few holidays because holidays are the best thing ever.

Anyway, highlights of the year:

No-one close to me has died this year. That's good.
Going on holiday to America. Wicked country, wicked people. Thought I'd hate the place but I fell in love with it.
Finally finishing all my exams - such a relief.
Er... thats about it.

Roll on 2006! \o/

I am One! (k3nshi)

One year of the hash edge blog. Today.

Some people said it wouldn't last a week, never mind a full year (In YOUR FACE corps).

So today is a CAKE day. You should eat a CAKE to celebrate. I was going to get one and post a picture of it and then eat it, but really I've been eating way too much junk food over the last week or so.

Viewtiful Hope (k3nshi)

[13:07]  corpsicle  =(
[13:08]  corpsicle  anyway, i think im getting the same first impression 
                             about VJ DS that everyone else got
[13:08]  corpsicle  its just _not quite_ the console version
[13:08]  corpsicle  but from what ive read theres a lot more puzzles and 
                              stuff making it a bit different but just as good
[13:08]  corpsicle  lets hope i'll think so too
[13:14]  FunkyDad   we can always hope :p
[13:14] *Kenshi crosses his fingers

Development Thoughts (k3nshi)

So the current gaming scene hold very, very little interest for me at the moment. The only thing of real interest is Geometry Wars 2. A lot of the appeal is that it looks kind of like a game concept I have had kicking around in my head for a couple of years (in fact I was meant to write it after BlastMonkeys). But looking at the videos for it, make me realise that I'd much rather play the game concept than Geometry Wars 2.

So these thoughts have got me thinking on how cool it would be to write another game. Obviously writing a little game would mean having a target platform, and 3 spring to mind: OSX (cos my main machine is a Mac these days), Xbox 360 Live Arcade or the Nintendo DS. The latter two just seem begging for a small dev team to make some amazing games for them. None of the DS stuff that is out really appeals to me, but I'm pretty sure I could have some fun coming up with something quite cool for it (I almost got round to writing some games for my imate JAM smartphone - it has a touchscreen - at one point).

Of course seeing as I have no time at the moment to do any of these things, its all idle speculation and rambling.

Food Porn Interlude (k3nshi)

[21:48]  Van123 "deep filled mince pies"
[21:48]  Van123 "deep filled"
[21:48]  Kenshi stop with the food porn
[21:48]  Kenshi STOP
[21:48]  Van123 they're SO GOOD

A Very Happy Gaming Christmas (Anonymous)

The final two of my holy trinity of DS gaming goodness have finally turned up (Phoenix Wright and Animal Crossing). Which to play first?

Mini Voglie (k3nshi)

Italian Biscuit Closeup
Originally uploaded by Kenshi.

Oh and these are the mini Italian biscuit things that are destroying my weight loss agenda at the moment.

They rock.

Food Terrorism (k3nshi)

Food Terrorism
Originally uploaded by Kenshi.

Just to give you an idea of what I am facing. I innocently opened the cupboard to see the two bars of Toblerone and the strategically positioned Green & Black's chocolate bisuits.

Nice. Real Nice.

...

360 blog (k3nshi)

360 blog
Originally uploaded by Kenshi.

Not So Stealth Gaming (k3nshi)

Image008
Originally uploaded by Kenshi.

The SP is way too big for a truly lightweight "gaming situation".

Shame the GB Micro is such a rip off though, eh?

(Also note the Nintendo games: who knew eh?)

Stealth Gaming Hardware (k3nshi)

So yesterday I went out for drinks with some ex-work colleagues. And unusually for me, I decided not to take a bag (usually full of a mix of gym stuff, notebooks, books, gaming hardware) with me. Hell, I would travel light for a change. So naturally I picked up my iPod Shuffle for audio stimulation, and then I figured I'd take the GBA SPastic as well. And The Spastic is all nice and everything but its still a bit too big and bulky. A GBA Micro on the other hand would have easily slipped into my coat pocket and not added any real bulk. Perfect to sneak some gaming action into situations where it would previously not be possible. So, I can see the point of a GBA Micro over a SPastic box. Doesnt mean I am going to pay the extortionate price for one though.

Oh Mobile phone games probably suck before anyone suggests I just play them.

Happy Birthday Mr Miyamoto (k3nshi)

Yes thats right, the "Nintendo hater" is saying Happy Birthday to Mr. Nintendo himself. Look he even has a shrine (click the link fools).

Clearly the man has a touch of games designing genius. Whilst I never have been fond of the Mario aesthetic, there is no denying that fact that the series has encompassed some of the greatest games made. Mario 64 is still untouchable as a 3D platformer, Mario Sunshine failing to get anywhere near its quality. And as for Mario World and the others in the 2D series, in a word: AMAZING.

In fact I am currently playing (on and off), one of my favourite games of this generation: Mario vs Donkey Kong on the spastic box. Whilst I dont think Mr Miyamoto had a hand in this one (actually I have no idea), his influence on this excellent little game is clear. In some ways a bit more limited than its GB forerunner (Donkey Kong), the newer game still features incredibly tightly designed levels and is fantastically playable. In fact it harks back to all the great things of Mario games, and the playability overcomes the retarded and incredibly annoying art direction. Sorry Mr Miyamoto, but the best character you designed was Donkey Kong.

Any way, the guy has created some amazing works and brought pleasure and frustration and delight to countless gimps around the world. And that's quite an achievement. So happy birthday, and I expect a guest editorial post by the end of the week. Do you hear me now?!!!

Beyond Hype and Syncophantary* (k3nshi)

(* may not be an actual word)

Yes I completed a game the other week. Ubisoft's critically acclaimied commercial flop: Beyond Good and Evil. You could read q's ridiculously sycophantic opinion of the game here or you could just read a review of it from Edge or something. The two are usually interchangeable (more or less).

The game itself is a pretty nice adventure game, the bulk of which consists of some sneaking around action. I actually liked this bit the best and so really enjoyed a lot of the game. The controls put MGS to shame, I might add. The difficulty curve for the most part is pitched on the easy side, and its a nice no-fuss kind of game to play. Its not all sneaking action though, there are some genuine surprises with some sections, which are done to a good standard. Yes thats vague, but any more and were deep into spoiler territory. AM I NOT MERCIFUL?!

Of course it all goes pear shaped on the end of game baddie level. I almost gave up at this point. From a primarily stealth based game, to a lame, stupidly boring boss level. Still the urge to complete the game (I want closure dammit!!!) meant I tried again later and managed to do it. Cue a cutscene or two for a lame ending to the story, and the hint of a sequel that will never be released. Nice.

Oh and I cant leave this blog post without talking about the atmosphere of the game. Qazimod might harp on about the emotional attachment he had to the characters, but you have to remember that he is emotionally stunted to begin with. I mean, he forms emotional bonds to his consoles, so what do you expect? God knows what would happen if he ever saw a Disney film - there would almost certainly be tears. The only game that I would say has had any kind of emotional resonance or impact on me was Ico. And BG&E is no Ico. Not even close.

The art style of BG&E is far too twee for my tastes, as are some of the characters. Its a kid's cartoon basically. There are some nice touches though, and it distinctly has a European flavour to it, which is a Good Thing. Maybe Ubisoft will do some kind of follow up but make Jade darker and give her some attitude (ie turn her into bikinni clad game slut with boobs at least three times bigger). They might sell more than 3 copies that way. Hey it worked for the Prince of Persia...

Icecream update (k3nshi)

Yes, I had icecream yesterday. I can now give you the definitive ice-cream rankings:

Waitrose Organic Icecream > Hagen Daas > Ben & Jerry's.

ICECREAMFACTS in YOUR FACE.

Halo 2: Heroic (k3nshi)

I completed Halo 2 on Heroic last night. So much better than playing in normal mode. In fact, I'd go as far as to say that Halo 2 in Heroic is a much closer gameplay experience to Halo (on Normal). Halo 2 in Normal mode is just totally boring.

Of course, now I want to play another Halo game. I want Halo 3 >now<.

Sleep Science (k3nshi)

More research into sleep:

"This process would allow cortical circuits to eliminate noisy synapses and renormalize in order to be ready for the next day," Massimini told LiveScience. The reduced activity might also help explain why performance in various tasks improves after sleep, he said.

Read more

Old Skool Terrorists? (k3nshi)

Amazing

Tin foil to block da transmissions man! (k3nshi)

So I received my Oyster card today. A quick google of the term revealed this amazing blog entry. Don't leave home without your tin foil - they could be listening...

Back to the Rumble Pit (k3nshi)

I booted up Halo 2 for the first time in ages the other day. It had been so long since I had last played it I still had two map packs and a game update to download. A side-effect of me not playing in such a long time was the fact my Halo 2 LIVE score had been reset to level 1. Rather than being a bad thing, this simply means I get to play a load of games with people who I can actually manage to, on occasion, shoot in the face and kill. This is infinitely more fun than working really hard and still being pwned by some motley collection of acne ridden game hermits.

Missionaries (the_debaser)

I went around town at lunchtime on my own today. I've been feeling pretty down recently, just pissed off with certain things and not happy with the way other things are going at the moment.

I was thinking the other day about how much time, money and energy I've wasted on things which in the great scheme of things do not matter one jot and things which do nothing to improve me as a person. Drink, drugs, sluts, clothes, dvds, games and so on. If I see some poor cunt into the street I'd rather spit in his face than give him a few quid to get some food.

Anyway, during my walk around town I went into Boots to get some hairgel and some Mach 3's. On the way out I was stopped by two people, a lad and a girl. I don't know why but I didn't carry on walking like I normally would. They explained to me that they were missionaries and offered to give me a little magazine to read. I said sure, and I was suprised when they didn't ask for any cash. They wished me on my merry way and I went off, back to work.

So with nothing better to do I've read this magazine. Its one of those religious things that try to help you live your life a 'better' way. Lots of the stuff in the magazine struck a chord with what I was thinking about a few days ago. How certain things can please one or more of your five senses, but which won't do anything to ease your mind, nor your soul.

Now I'm a seriously lapsed Catholic, and I'm not about to start up and Bible bash or none of that nonsense, but I reckon if I try and improve spiritually by being less selfish and thinking more of others, maybe (in a selfish way oddly enough) I'll be happier.

I'm going to give it a go anyway.

Revolution (k3nshi)

So they revelaed the controller at last. It sounds like a good idea - no, it sounds like a great idea. The concept video looks amazing. But anyone can knock up an amazing concept video. The proof will be in the games and the actual play experience. Until then, speculation about the merits of the controller are as pointless as the endless speculation of the power of the PS3 and the Xbox 360.

All hands: stay at DefCon 5.

In Training... (k3nshi)

I did my first official training run for the Run London event. Rather than keep posting about this stuff here, I have set up the RunLondon blog to keep all the painful details. Check it out motherbitches!

Ten Thousand Hits To Come (k3nshi)

So I signed up for the Nike Run London 10k run today.

People keep telling me I should find it easy, but I am not so sure. I guess I am really doing it because I see it as a challenge and I hope it will help me refocus on my dieting and excercie regime (hasnt worked so far: tonight I went to see a film - The Island - and then had pizza for dinner... It's been a bad week on the health regime front).

When will it end? (Van123)

You've all been kept up to date with my inane ramblings over the past few months, nay years, about a certain girl. You know the score - she loves me. She's a crazy one, though - I've lost count of how many times I've had to point this out to her.

So I got my GCSE results last week, and because I'm so cool, I got invited to two parties. Being the hip, swinging youth I am, I went to both. I called the second party to let them know I was on my way, but Weird Girl tried to stop me. She tried to persuade them not to let me come, because she'd feel awkward. That's right, 20 odd people who want me to go, and one who doesn't. The only thing for me to do, would be to head home for the night, to respect her feelings. But that's boring.

About two months ago, she confessed her undying love for me. Yay. But a month ago it got really interesting. She deleted me from her MSN list. Oh noes. Could this be the end of our relationship? This happened because I was a bit of a cock. She sent me email after email telling me how much she loves me. Eventually, I grew tired of reading the same old drivel, and decided to spice up our somewhat dead relationship - Because that's the type of lover I am. I replied to one of her many emails, with a mini Flash 'game' I made. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to open it (ooer), and replied explaining how she isn't scared of being shot down now. It was then I changed my approach. I told her how much I loved her, about how I was a cock because I was covering up my feelings yadda yadda yadda. Then came her reply, along the lines of "that's what I've always wanted to hear. You made me cry." I also slipped in that if she wasn't going out with someone, then I'd be there for her.

We're getting to why she delete me now. She deleted me, because I sent another email, in the same format. "I was a cock, because I was hiding my feelings" becomes "I was a cock, because I don't like you." Five or six well structured paragraphs putting her down. Then I got a reply. A single word reply, in an email. "Thanks." It was then I opened up MSN and said "You're welcome." So, then she deleted me.

Now, a week ago I went to the parties. I didn't speak to her at the second. Not because I had nothing to say, but because I could tell how upset she was. Couple that with her being drunk and in love. My mate gets a text after Weird Girl leaves. I don't get the text, because she doesn't have my number. Get in. It read something like "tell chris stpns its all about the chase." If there's one way to win me over, it's to shorten my name to something rediculous like that. But that got me thinking. The Chase? The chase is better than the catch, apparently, so the next day, I spoke to her on MSN (I didn't delete her). Now, remember, this is after a month of her not speaking to me.

She explained that because I made it impossible for her to 'get' me, she wants me even more. I suppose that's fair enough - Love's a complecated thing. But here's where it starts getting more interesting. I had a haircut, init, so I set it to my display picture on MSN. When I come back, I've got a message from Weird Girl. "WT! did u get ur haircut?" Oh here it is. She deleted me? Probably. But, she started a conversation with me, *and* could see my display picture. You can only do that, and see someone elses picture if they're on you MSN. SO I said that. Turns out she re-added me. For shame. She made such a big deal about not speaking to me, only to re-add me on the only thing I use to communicate with her.

We're coming to the end now, but before I leave, we have another interesting point. She brought up a party I went to a while ago. I say a while, I mean almost a year. I don't know why she chose that party, but she did. She said she was really upset when she found out I met a girl there and had a rather good time with her. I'll leave you with something from my MSN Log.

"ye, i wish it was me, but i cnt change wt happens or wt u feel, or feel like doing

so, u can do wteva u wnt, but i would always be there for u, more or less"