Archive for April, 2005

Devil May Cry 3 first impressions…

Saturday, April 30th, 2005

Dante with guns.

Jesus H. Christ, this game is hard.

I made it to the second boss before I decided to switch to easy mode.

I made it to the third boss when I realized the damn game is still hard as hell and I might as well take my lickings in normal mode.

Gah.

Edit: I got my bosses confused… I got to the 4th boss before I switched back to normal difficulty. Current status: still on 4th boss….

I was so confused…

Thursday, April 28th, 2005

Thank you, Apple, for clearing up this matter

jeopardy…

Tuesday, April 19th, 2005

Going through some old stuff I realized I still had my Jeopardy-like game. I made it for a short job I had at UNC. I’m actually a little surprised by how much I knew back then (2001); pre-Flash MX even.

Have a look and learn a valuable lesson about Fetal Alcohol Syndrome…

no windows…

Monday, April 18th, 2005

Here’s something odd for you fellow mac-heads. If you’ve updated OSX to 10.3.9, turn on your debug menu in Safari. Open up a blank tab or window. Click on debug and select “Use Transparent Window” in the list. Surprisingly enough, you get just what you’d expect. A transparent browser window. It works on any page that doesn’t have a color or background image declared for the body tag.

Strange little feature, no?

via TUAW

keeping tabs…

Sunday, April 17th, 2005

Not sure why you’d care, but I updated my game collection over at IGN. I’d like to do something similar on this site, though I’m not quite sure how to do it. My coding skills are not quite l33+ enough. So, for now, I’ll have to keep track of my stuff with the devils that are IGN. If you know a better place, let me know in the comments.

And hey, while you’re checking out my collection, buy a poor man a game or two.

Edit: I should note that the collection doesn’t include all Dreamcast, PS1 or Gameboy games… just seemed easier that way.

imagineering…

Saturday, April 9th, 2005

Yesterday, the friendly guys at Engadget asked what we would do if we could change the Gameboy DS. I already said my piece but I thought I would elaborate.

Basically, I said that I’d take the idea the DS started with and just go all the way with it. That is, they obviously want to do something different with the touch screen, an alternative interface to the common joystick, triggers and buttons. So why not go whole hog? Perhaps just ditch the traditional controls and make the touch screen bigger. Don’t worry about backwards compatibility and push for new, original games that take full advantage of the touch screen. Save all the traditional stuff (regular controls, more horsepower, familiar titles, etc.) for the next generation gameboy and take the DS on a completely different path.

I could think of some other things I would take advantage of if I was a developer too. Like wifi. Imagine a game that requires the player to get up, get out and meet people. You could find yourself in a coffee shop sometime studying and decide to take a break to play a game. You fire up the game I was talking about and lo and behold a cute girl/guy on the other end of the shop is playing too. You advance in the game and you met a potential new friend/significant other (with an instant icebreaker and something in common to boot). I just think there’s a lot of potential in social gaming.

Granted, no shareholder would ever let me do any of this with their money but changes like this (which could be done now really) could at least open some eyes and get people to look at gaming in new ways instead of just adding more horsepower and few new features.

Now, What would you do?

the sky is carolina blue…

Tuesday, April 5th, 2005

Roy Williams does a jig in three parts.

I just can’t even stand it….

I was fine this morning. The sun was shining, the air was cool, and life was okay. As I left the garage, I felt fine. A little bummed since I didn’t get into Ga. Tech. (more on that later), but I was ready to move on. I was even going to be a little early to work today…

I wasn’t even thinking about it when my friend Kyle called me to let me know he was on his way to Chapel Hill to bar hop — 9 hours before the game. I was a little disturbed because he was going to end up in the same bar I was at the end of the night and who knows what would happen then…

I talk to my boss to tell him that I’ll be working here until at least January now. He cuts in to ask me whether Carolina was going to win tonight. I’m honest, I have no idea. If there are any equals to the Tar Heels its the boys in orange. He tells me we favored by 2… by two points. And we agree that had we lost on Saturday both of us would be okay today. But that’s not the case anymore…

Hours pass and Dawne tells me how they are expecting Halloween type crowds tonight on Franklin Street. Bulletins were sent out warning people not to start bonfires. I think bonfires should be the least of their worries. If we win, Chapel Hill itself may go ablaze…

Read news story after news story. By the numbers, the odds, the strategy. I decide the team that plays the best defense will probably win the game. That does not bode well for us… but not too well for them either. This is going to be intense…

My stomach is churning, I want to run. The game needs to start now. I don’t think I can take much more of this…

I’m sweating. By the time I get to the Hill, Linda’s will be closed for an hour before we go in. They are preparing. Everyone is setting themself up for this. From NC to ILL, we are all getting ready. For most of the year our teams have been 1 and 2. We’re the best two teams in the nation and we’ve proved it by getting to the final game. There will be no shame in losing to the other team… but there are no such things as moral victories. We want it all. And all that stands in our way is the other best team in the nation. The talking ends tonight. 4 hours…

Franklin Street is covered in blue and white. A huge line has formed in front of Top of the Hill. Frat boys with mop tops and powder blue dress shirts. Girls in strapless dresses. I finally find a parking spot, oddly enough, on campus. Just a spot other have missed. I nearly skip over to Linda’s. A smokey bar filled with smart-ass bartenders and Tar Heel bartenders. We have to wait to get in as they get the place ready. A Carolina blue mustang drives by… pedestrians and passengers are in awe of all the lines outside of bars on the Hill. We’re ready. We’re nervous…

They let us in thirty minutes. It’s 6:30pm. Dawne and I get our seats at the bar… I wish I brought cards like that table… now all I have to entertain me is terrible television commentary on the game. Dickie V. is the only “expert” that picks us… Great…

9:20pm. Game time. I feel better. I always feel better when the game starts…. I will not be writing during the game… this needs my full attention…

Halftime. They’ve got one shot. The three-pointer. No answer for Sean May and McCants could have a field day with their best defender if he wants. That said, this is Illinois, they’ll be back….

… we won …

WE FUCKING WON!

The bar erupted. There was never so much love between a bunch of strangers in a bar and on the street. I shook hands of police officers, I gave high fives to anybody who’d give it to me. I need to get back to Clayton to take care of the dog but I have to savor this. Who knows when it’ll happen again? I wander around Franklin Street. Bonfires have already started. Dawne buys me a t-shirt. I have to look at it a few times to make sure it’s true….

We won… we proved it…. no more talking… no more speculation…. we can once again say we are the best.

Until next year.

I’m a Tar Heel born. I’m a Tar Heel bred…

gah…

Saturday, April 2nd, 2005

I know, I know…

The site still looks terrible in Win IE and Opera. Luckily, I have test machine for a week to get things right. I’ll fix it tomorrow along with (perhaps) updating WordPress. Tonight, my Tar Heels will be playing in the Final Four and I have plans to travel to the bars on Franklin Street.

PSP no sell out…

Saturday, April 2nd, 2005

I was going to go on a long diatribe about why the PSP didn’t sell as well as Sony expected to do, but you know it’s all pretty simple to me.

Lower demand due to lousy advertising (in my area anyway, the first time I saw a PSP commercial was yesterday), releasing it in March, and a high enough price tag to make potential early adopters think twice. Like I was saying in my previous post not everyone is in a situation where they are spending long periods of time doing nothing. So some people may have thought, “do I really want to spend at least $250 for something I’m just going to use at home? I could be buying 5 games for that price and do the same thing.”

A thought occurred to me last night though. I was pondering why the iPod and other digital music players were so popular. Why are they such a hit while portable video is still something of niche? Put simply it’s because they play music. You can listen to music anywhere, anytime. When you’re doing nothing else, you can listen closely. When you’re working or traveling it can become background noise or, in my case, theme music. You can have it on all the time and your brain can easily switch your attention back and forth as need be.

Obviously this isn’t the case with games and video. You can’t idly play games while you’re working. The can’t strut down the street while watching an episode of The Sopranos. So I’m wondering now (and I’m sure this was pondered in a Sony meeting somewhere as well) if they should have come out and said, “Hey folks, here’s a great music player, a great game player, and great video player all rolled into one!” And then firmly root into the minds of the consumer that he or she will be listening to music while working and playing games or watching a movie on long commutes or trips. Portable entertainment for whenever your brain needs some stimulus. Granted the consumer would be disappointed when they notice the short battery life and low memory (really, the point of any portable device these days should that you don’t have to carry lots of discs, sticks, cartridges, papers, notebooks, etc., etc. for it to be useful). And we all know what happens when you try to put too many things in one device (mediocre everything). But still, it would make the product more desirable to more people.

Instead we’re thinking the PSP is a game machine that also happens to play music and play video. This fine if you’re a gamer. Other folks, I think, will look at it and say, “Every time I use this thing valuable hours will be wasted.” Music doesn’t do that to you. Video does. So Sony along with the rest of the world: The next thing we need is portable entertainment system. Not a portable game system, video system, and certainly no more music systems. Something that can simply fulfill our entertainment needs no matter what situation we’re in. Think you can do that?