As part of my job i got the chance to visit a show called BETT in London early this month. (The show is about technology and education and is largest in the world of it's type) My company are quite a big part of the show but it's the first time that i have ever been so i was really interested in what they had on offer.
Any of you involved in education will know that whiteboards and interactive applications are always big topics as are Virtual Learning Environments, so they're was plenty of these on display. There was also a lot of cool new hardware like the assus one pc and loads of netbooks. Microsoft were demonstrating their new "surface" system which was interesting but gives all the impression of a piece of technology looking for a use. It probably has more potential as a games platform and display tool than as a learning technology but you couldn't fault it for engaging people as they went past. As i watched a demo of it I kept thinking about how an RTS would work with this interface. (No more mouse or controller just point here with your finger and go there with the other finger.)
Sony were also at the show and had a PS3 on display running buzz, but not really talking about it at all. They were really trying to stress the possibilities of using the PSP as a launch point for accessing schools portals.
There was an interesting roleplay game for history or modern studies students to explore Gazza in a similar style to Fallout. Not quite fallout but still interesting.
The most impressive thing on display form my perspective had to be the "professional" version of guitar hero/rock band. One company was showing off how GH could be used in the classroom as a music creator but it also had on it's stand a modified GH controller with about 64 small buttons on it that was used for actual guitar lessons. Nice but you've got to think, at this level of complexity, surely it would be easier to learn to play on a real guitar.
Thursday, 29 January 2009
Thursday, 22 January 2009
The decline and fall of hard copy game mags
So my copy of OXM arrived this morning apparently, I haven't opened it yet but i assume that is what it is by the package.
With all the coverage of the 1up and the longest running American gaming magazine closing recently i can't help but wonder who'll be the first UK mag to call it quits.
I'm long enough in the tooth to remember the heady days of 80s with CVG, Commodore User, ZZap and Sinclair User. The first mag i bought was Commodore User when i was 10. I remember reading it religiously, and i still have it along with a large collection of others in my parents basement. Like many other kids I used to scrimp and save my money to buy these mags and they were good reads well worth the £1. Even moving through the late 80s and early 90s with mags like CU, Amiga Format, ACE they were packed with news, reviews, previews and feature articles each month.
My "mis-spent" youth can probably be encapsulated by the fact that I can't really remember birthdays or Christmas from my childhood beyond vague memories of cake, chocolate, Star Wars toys and James Bond movies, but I know exactly where I was and in which magazine I first read about the mythical Konix mulitsystem or April fool story run by Commodore User that said you could upgrade your C64 to an Amiga. I was gutted when ACE was closed by EMAP, I had just paid for my first ever subscription and they closed the mag.
The slow death of the 16bit home computer era in the UK I think started the slow decline of print media here. When gaming went from computers to consoles the higher end of the mag market slowly disappeared while publishers pushed more and more glossy, garish mags like Games Master with little content, loads of pics and a useless demo CD.
So here we are 15 years later. The standard charge for a mag seems to be from £5-£7 which would appear to be paying for an almost redundant free CD or book. Edge magazine tries to cater for the high brow gamer, but i think that it is missing the mark, the features can be too specific and it would be called an industry mag now. Each platform has it's official mag, and at least 2 others (from the same publisher sometimes). You've got to ask yourself, why would you by a games magazine these days, with Ign, euro-gamer, Games-industry.biz, kotaku, etc and the plethora of quality podcasts you have all the news and rumours uptodate any time you want and free of charge. If you want a demo, download it from xbl or PSN. There is something to be said for having something to flick through when your offline but even for readability I generally find I'll have read OXM in a couple hours and then unlike my magazines of yesteryear it goes straight in the recycling and if i want to read on the move now I'll just break out my mobile.
So the long farewell to the majority of print media is well and truly underway, no doubt to be accelerated by the current economic conditions.
With all the coverage of the 1up and the longest running American gaming magazine closing recently i can't help but wonder who'll be the first UK mag to call it quits.
I'm long enough in the tooth to remember the heady days of 80s with CVG, Commodore User, ZZap and Sinclair User. The first mag i bought was Commodore User when i was 10. I remember reading it religiously, and i still have it along with a large collection of others in my parents basement. Like many other kids I used to scrimp and save my money to buy these mags and they were good reads well worth the £1. Even moving through the late 80s and early 90s with mags like CU, Amiga Format, ACE they were packed with news, reviews, previews and feature articles each month.
My "mis-spent" youth can probably be encapsulated by the fact that I can't really remember birthdays or Christmas from my childhood beyond vague memories of cake, chocolate, Star Wars toys and James Bond movies, but I know exactly where I was and in which magazine I first read about the mythical Konix mulitsystem or April fool story run by Commodore User that said you could upgrade your C64 to an Amiga. I was gutted when ACE was closed by EMAP, I had just paid for my first ever subscription and they closed the mag.
The slow death of the 16bit home computer era in the UK I think started the slow decline of print media here. When gaming went from computers to consoles the higher end of the mag market slowly disappeared while publishers pushed more and more glossy, garish mags like Games Master with little content, loads of pics and a useless demo CD.
So here we are 15 years later. The standard charge for a mag seems to be from £5-£7 which would appear to be paying for an almost redundant free CD or book. Edge magazine tries to cater for the high brow gamer, but i think that it is missing the mark, the features can be too specific and it would be called an industry mag now. Each platform has it's official mag, and at least 2 others (from the same publisher sometimes). You've got to ask yourself, why would you by a games magazine these days, with Ign, euro-gamer, Games-industry.biz, kotaku, etc and the plethora of quality podcasts you have all the news and rumours uptodate any time you want and free of charge. If you want a demo, download it from xbl or PSN. There is something to be said for having something to flick through when your offline but even for readability I generally find I'll have read OXM in a couple hours and then unlike my magazines of yesteryear it goes straight in the recycling and if i want to read on the move now I'll just break out my mobile.
So the long farewell to the majority of print media is well and truly underway, no doubt to be accelerated by the current economic conditions.
Tuesday, 20 January 2009
Lips
I finally managed to pull myself away from Fallout last night for the first time in several weeks (Other than playing Lego Batman with the kids) to complete my first challenge on Lips.
Despite many lukewarm reviews of the game I really enjoy it. I have most of the Singstar titles for the PS2 and myself and the family used to play them quite a bit but, and this will sound strange, it was already an almost dead cert who would win every game. Singstar is great at rewarding good singers but at the expense of actually making it an enjoyable competition as, and wait for it, not everyone can actually sing despite what they may think. Lips wins for me in this area as the vibreto bonuses and star power actions it asks you to do with the mics make generally more fun and it isn't always the best "traditional" singer who wins. If you're putting you're heart into it, it rewards you for trying hard and some of the co-op games and challenges add an interesting twist on the old karaoke routine of Singstar.
One of the community members at Crankygamers was good enough to agree to a challenge on "you've lost that lovin feelin'". Which was intresting trying to complete to get a good score and keep the noise down so not disturb the rest of the house. In the end I won my first challenge so and emboldened in my victory, i may retire undefeated or then again maybe "just one more go."
I did end up back on Fallout 3 for an hour after though.
Despite many lukewarm reviews of the game I really enjoy it. I have most of the Singstar titles for the PS2 and myself and the family used to play them quite a bit but, and this will sound strange, it was already an almost dead cert who would win every game. Singstar is great at rewarding good singers but at the expense of actually making it an enjoyable competition as, and wait for it, not everyone can actually sing despite what they may think. Lips wins for me in this area as the vibreto bonuses and star power actions it asks you to do with the mics make generally more fun and it isn't always the best "traditional" singer who wins. If you're putting you're heart into it, it rewards you for trying hard and some of the co-op games and challenges add an interesting twist on the old karaoke routine of Singstar.
One of the community members at Crankygamers was good enough to agree to a challenge on "you've lost that lovin feelin'". Which was intresting trying to complete to get a good score and keep the noise down so not disturb the rest of the house. In the end I won my first challenge so and emboldened in my victory, i may retire undefeated or then again maybe "just one more go."
I did end up back on Fallout 3 for an hour after though.
Friday, 9 January 2009
RPGs - the shame
I feel that i need to confess.
On buying my 360 i'd never enjoyed an RPG before but I picked up Mass Effect for a tenner in the summer, i tried it and didn't get it, levelling up, XP points, picking stuff up?? Eventually forced myself to go back to it in the end of summer and after an hour I was hooked. I played through telling myself that i didn't like it, i was only finishing it to finish it, but realised by the end that i was really enjoying it, the story, the levelling up it just clicked.
Then came Fable 2, which is my game of the year of last year, loved every minute of it and can't wait for the DLC.
But for Christmas Santa brought me the daddy, Fallout 3. I'm 10 hours in and it is incredible. If anyone had told me a year i'd be sitting up at 2am watching Megaton go the way of the atom playing an RPG i'd never have believed them.
It feels so wrong but so right i have to confess my sins. I love RPGs!!
On buying my 360 i'd never enjoyed an RPG before but I picked up Mass Effect for a tenner in the summer, i tried it and didn't get it, levelling up, XP points, picking stuff up?? Eventually forced myself to go back to it in the end of summer and after an hour I was hooked. I played through telling myself that i didn't like it, i was only finishing it to finish it, but realised by the end that i was really enjoying it, the story, the levelling up it just clicked.
Then came Fable 2, which is my game of the year of last year, loved every minute of it and can't wait for the DLC.
But for Christmas Santa brought me the daddy, Fallout 3. I'm 10 hours in and it is incredible. If anyone had told me a year i'd be sitting up at 2am watching Megaton go the way of the atom playing an RPG i'd never have believed them.
It feels so wrong but so right i have to confess my sins. I love RPGs!!
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