This Week

Iran is still stuck with its unfair election, Michael Jackson unfortunately died and well its just another week for us on earth really. I do find it rather depressing at times, I ended up not reading the paper this weekend at all as its really the same old story at the moment. A horrible government system when, come to think of it we didn’t even elect out current leader and some of the possible replacement party’s could end up to be much worse.  

Anyway I did get back into Halo 3 this week after playing very little on the 360 for a wile so that’s been very fun and its as good as ever. Mass Effect Galaxies on the I-Pod Touch has also naturally drawn me in as a massive fan of the series. I think the combat parts could have been done with out and it should have focused  on the  interactive motion comic parts. I am also told it runs like shit on older versions of the hardware but a patch is due some time next week to fix the problem. That’s really it for games, I have nearly finished Hotel Dusk but that’s been more of a late night game that I play in bed. 

So with out much else to say at the moment I will wish everyone a good summer and have new posts up on the blog early next week.

OS 3.0

So I gave in and did end up buying OS 3.0 for my I-pod touch. I am actually quite happy about it, I want to check out the voice memo recording feature when I get my self a new Microphone and I think its been worth it for the general updates and improvements to how the I-Pod works.

But there is still the question in my mind at least about the price. Did Apple really need to charge £5.99 or $10 for this? It was completely free for I-Phone users which ironically is the only device that can use all of the features in 3.0. I have heard the excuses that because of how apples account’s work they had to charge for it but if that’s true why not make it £2. That would have been a far more reasonable price.

I guess its pretty hypocritical of me to complain about the price when I am sitting here with it installed on my I-pod and I do think its a really nice update. Honestly there are no ground breaking new features in this update. The most pleasing thing is the addition of spotlight for search and fixing the little things like improving how the motion sensor reactions to rotation, which did annoy me a lot in the past. Its definitely a massive performance and tweak up of the OS and to be honest I think that is one of the best things you can do when updating a system. Its already the best portable device out there so make do what it does better. 

The reason I have been a bit negative about the pricing is because the Touch and I-Phone are the best portable devices on the market. So if like me you have been holding back a bit from paying for this it is worth going ahead with and gets a thumbs up from me.

Back To Work But Not

So as my week of doing nothing but relax as college just ended comes to an end I am faced with close to three months with really nothing to do. Sure I am mapping and modeling away in my continuing effort to get into the games industry, but I have no college till September which is really a lot of spare time. I may or may not be helping out with an educational thing for people in less well off country’s which is games development related, but I have set my self the task of finding something to do for the summer that’s going to be a good use of time. I am sure I will come up with something but at the moment it’s looking like a massive void until I will start back to college again in September (which is not Uni for people in the USA, although I am on something like a degree). 

Well I think that’s enough complaining for one post lets talk about Mac’s. I am happy to say that after a long week of waiting I finally have a Mac Mini and am loving it. Its not the massive “O Windows is so crap now” feeling that Apple would like to make you think it is but its a great system and its going to be a very nice Secondary/Primary system in some cases. There really is something to be said for the un-boxing process of a new peace of hardware and this was no different. One of the greatest things about apple is the way they present there products and that includes the package its self.

Anyway the little Mac is great and programs like Garage Band will be very useful for the massive archive of sound clips alone. At the very least I hope the good weather keeps up. You need a mix of hot days and a bit of rain in between and thats what we are getting at the moment. So fingers crossed it will stay that way. Really hope they get a release date sorted for Battlefield 1943 soon as I need something to play on my 360. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Big Break

After finishing Farm (latest map, which is ok) I decided not to jump into the next one right away. I have some very basic stuff done on it but for most of this week I have done no work what so ever. I just got off for summer after all and its good to just do nothing and play a few games. Speaking of games the Xbox 360 isn’t really drawing my attention at the moment I am only really playing Sins of a Solar Empire on the PC and Hotel Dusk at night in Bed. I have put over 10 hours into that game so far, its great. I am really looking forward to Battlefield 1943 this summer on 360 but apart from that I am not spending anymore cash on games until September when the big rush starts of with ODST.

I have started to use my camera again now as I have loads of time and am really starting to use all the settings on it. Really love the shots you can get with water when you play with the shutter speed. Getting my Mac tomorrow at last and am really looking forward to spending the day playing with it. Then on Monday its back to mapping and other projects for the summer. Going to be updating the blog a lot more too.

To Mac But….

So I did end up buying a Mac Mini on Saturday but the only problem is as I am 80+ miles away from the store and as it was going to take them a day or so to fit the extra RAM I wanted, so I had to come home with out it. Its now ready to go as of Sunday and at the moment someone is going to pick it up for me and I wont get it till next Sunday. So that’s really killing me at the moment as I have to wait another week before I can get it. There is nothing I hate more than unexpected Wait’s like that and its probably the only bad thing I could say about the Apple store experience I had. Its hands down the best store you could go to. The layout is great and there are loads of staff walking around ready to help you.

Next time I am up I will take another trip to it, to check out the software selection as there is a load of stuff I did not get to look at. But this week has started off good, I finished my current map the farm and will upload that today. So I am taking a break from developing for today anyway. I did get two books in the post this morning which started things off well in the form of The Walking Dead Book 2 and Gamesprite Quarterly Issue 1. Really looking forward to reading both. Checked out the first few pages of The Walking Dead Issue 13 and its just soooo good.

I am actually listening to the Last 1UP Yours episode again before it became Listen 1UP. Good times. So that’s it for now. Have not been to college in a few days as there is no need. Just need to go in on Wednesday and that’s it for the summer. Not sure what to do with my self after that until September.

To Mac Or Not

I have been thinking about getting one of these Mac Mini’s for college next year. Put simply it would be great to have one to carry to college. The thing I love about apple is the great student discounts you can get. For a long time I was very anti mac and didn’t really like them at all. But after using one for the better part of a year, a mac Mini with a copy of Final Cut Express 4 is looking like a very sound investment indeed.

Honestly the Mini is the only one i can afford and if it was not for the student discount I would not be able to at all. But also taking into account the fact i wont need to buy a screen, keyboard or mouse that’s going to cut the cost a lot. I will have a lot of editing to do next year and it would be just great to be able to work between home and college any day and lets be honest they are just fucking cool.

College is ending for the year and this Wednesday should be my last day. That means a lot more time for level design and 3d again at last, as I had to cut down a bit over the last month. My current map “The Farm” is doing fine and I am going to finish it off soon ish. So wasn’t E3 something very cool indeed. Loads of great stuff shown this year and after seeing some games in a lot more detail I have pre-ordered 90% of the games I will be getting this year: Halo ODST, Modern Warfare 2, Splinter Cell and Uncharted 2. Still not sure if Bad Company 2 is out this year and there are one or two more I am still not sure about yet.

E3 2009: Sony And Nintendo Press Conference

Sony
Sony had a really great showing which surprised me a lot. I was not expecting much and they really blew me away. Uncharted 2 looks great, I am really looking forward to M.A.G and in general they cut the crap and showed a lot of good stuff. The PSP GO! looks like a very cool device. I will not be getting one but at last a lot of cool PSP games are coming including Metal Gear and GT finally. Final Fantasy 7 is also out today for the PSP so that should be very cool and can’t wait to check it out if Sony put it up in Europe.

On the downside the motion controller stuff they showed was a joke and I do not see it going far. FF 14 was a surprise which dropped a bit after we found out its an MMO but still very cool for fans of FF11 online. I think Sony have learnt a lot from the past and are ready to push us a lot of really cool games. Never before have I been so happy to own a 360 and PS3 at last the PS3 is starting to feel like an equal. I would give them a B+ not just as good as the Microsoft one but very close.

Great job Sony feeling very happy with my PS3 and PSP at the moment.

 

Nintendo
Not great did not show a single game that’s going to be really great for the “hardcore”. No thanks to Mario Galaxy 2 and the new metroid looks OK but dated it just has CG cut scenes now. Held of selling my Wii but looks like it will go on ebay soon. D- for Nintendo from me. Some good stuff for DS coming. Still love them for doing a remake of Pokemon gold.

E3 2009: Microsofts Press Conference

Two Halo games, XBLA game from Epic, Alan Wake gameplay, FF13, Crackdown 2, Splinter Cell, Modern Warfare 2 on stage and a stunning new version of Forza 3 yea it was one hell of a show from Microsoft. I did not expect them to open with the Beatles rock band but I think it worked well for them because they have established it as a game for Xbox 360 and wile its coming to PS3, Wii etc showing it on 360 first is going to give them a huge advantage.

There was so much stuff shown I really don’t want to post about them all but I am looking forward to most of them. The biggest two for me of course was Halo ODST and Halo Reach. Halo reach looks to be the game I have always wanted because it appears to be set around the Halo book, Halo the fall of reach. Not much to say about reach at the moment other than its the game I am looking forward to most as of today. ODST on the other hand got a very big showing with the first ever gameplay. I was happy to see the scene from Halo 2 that was cut because of time. Basically when you first drop onto the Halo ring in Halo 2 it was suppose to be interactive where you could look around instead of a cut seen. Its great to see Halo 3 ODST is going to start off this way.

The idea of flashbacks is really interesting and I am looking forward to see what Bungie will do with it. But its a really interesting way of telling story. Alan Wake was the other massive show stopper for most people and for the first time since it was announced in 2006 we got to see what the heck it was all about. From what I can gather its an exploration detective type game by day and survivor horror by night. I also noted that the story has changed a bit as in Alan’s wife is not dead but went missing in the town they went to. If I talk much more its going to get old fast so

I will wrap it up but the new motion tec they showed at the end could have a massive effect on the industry and I was happy to see they are going to take there time with it and didn’t even announce a final name or release date. Also twitter on Xbox is going to be great! Microsoft gets an A- from be because of the lack of Mass Effect but a great showing. Hope Sony and Nintendo can do just as well.