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Take one part rave, one part motion capture, and one part controller. Let incubate in a Sony lab for untold months. Then at E3 2009 reveal two controller ‘sticks’ with glowing purple orbs atop them. Cue up some live-action demo footage and prepare for some ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs.’
Yes, I gave into the allure of Xbox’s E3 Press Conference. With rumours of previously exclusive titles coming to the Xbox (360 owners were offered instead of a port, a brand new Metal Gear game) as well as anticipated sequels (Forza 3 and Crackdown 2 made appearances) it was hard to resist. But Microsoft already had me, hook, line and sinker when they refused to quell rumours of a motion tracking device similar to that of the Wii. Hours into the press conference yielded only trailers and live-gameplay, leaving me curious if all the peripheral-hype was for naught. But then Xbox finally revealed the cards they’d held close to the chest. Now, keep in mind that I waited a good while after watching the live footage to write this article, just to let the hype run its course. So when I say the following I do so moderately sober from the euphoric effects of the Xbox marketing rhetoric; what Microsoft has here has the potential to revolutionize home entertainment.
Prior to GDC ’09, OnLive was virtually unknown. The concept was developed by Steve Perlman, founder of Rearden Studios and a former employee of Atari, Apple, and WebTV. Along with Mike McGarvey, formerly of Eidos, the two have crafted one of the most ambitious business models perhaps in the history of gaming. But ambition is nothing without the means to accomplish.
At its core, OnLive is a simple concept. Rather than having consumers shell out potentially thousands of dollars every four or five years to keep up with the latest graphics OnLive provides high-end hardware that can stream games at a ping of less than one millisecond. On the receiving end a user would have a relatively low-end PC (think base line Dell unit) that will simply act as a video decoding control hub, as well as requisite audio and video outputs. If you don’t already own such a PC, OnLive is offering their own low-cost, base model.
You’re not going to find a written description of Zen Bound that does the gameplay justice. Even on the creator’s rhetoric ridden website it’s difficult to grasp what exactly the ‘game’ has you doing. An oversimplified description relates that you have a rotatable wooden object to which a string is tied that stretches out somewhere off screen. The objective is to wrap a predetermined length of string around the piece of wood by rotating it with your finger. As the string touches the object it paints the surrounding area. Paint the entire object to get 100% and move on to the next, more complex item. Sounds rather bland, right? Wrong.
LEDs are very well known for their recent use in Christmas lighting, but OLEDs are a little different. OLED stands for organic light-emitting diode and is praised mainly for its properties concerning energy usage. Because the diodes can emit light without a backlight they can be used in much thinner devices and can run for longer on the same charge as a traditional LCD screen. OLED screens also be produced at a fraction of the cost of LCD screens because the diode printing process can be performed on a variety of surfaces even with household inkjet printers. In addition if the diodes are printed onto a flexible surface this creates the possibility of flexible screens of light, a method that is key to the future of roll-up and fabric displays.
Intelligent furniture, that is furniture with built-in electronics capabilities, is becoming more and more popular as home electronics become sleeker, smaller, and easier to integrate. One of these is the MECO, or MediaCore, a home entertainment mecca of sorts, consolidating your PC, DVD player, TiVo, digital television and any other home entertainment equipment you use. Encased in MECO’s sturdy wooden frame is hidden a PC running Windows Vista Ultimate, a quad-core Intel processor, 8GB of DDR3 RAM, a 4TB hard drive, WiFi connectivity, 8-channel HD audio, and room for more.
The MECO also featured a state-of-the-art cooling system to keep all your gear running, as well as allowing accessibility from the front and back of the unit for use and maintenance. So what makes the MECO different from other home entertainment systems? The truth is at first glance, not much, but it’s the look of the piece that is its real selling point.
Slowly but surely the iPhone has been building a repertoire of apps that though based on real world concepts they actually enhance the experience. This is particularly true of boardgame apps, since their real world equivalents tend to take time and patience not only to setup but adjust to the rules and keep score (if you’ve ever played 13 Dead End Drive then you no exactly what I’m talking about…I want those hours of my life back Milton Bradley!). And while titles like Scrabble and Risk have been available on PCs for years, there’s something about the hands-on, portable approach the iPhone offers that really makes old games seem new and captivating all over again. And then there’s Wurdle; a title that is in many ways a carbon-copy of the popular word-finding game Boggle. And yet it’s much more. Wurdle initially presents a 5x5 grid of tiles, providing 25 letters with which the user forms as many words as possible. Words are formed by dragging your finger from one tile to the next until you've connected the requisite letters to form a word. The challenge is to score as high as you can in two minutes with more points being handed out for longer words. Sounds simple enough and if Wurdle-creators' Semi Secret Software had stopped there droves of puzzle-gaming addicts would still be shelling out the $2 cover charge. But Wurdle is one of those rare games where the developers simply did everything right and it’s all in the features.
The PlayStation 2 generation saw a weakened Nintendo and a new-comer enter into Sony’s looming shadow. So it would be quite the reversal of fortunes to see not only Nintendo dominating the market with the most consoles sold, but to see the up and coming Xbox brand surpass Sony as the console of choice for the ‘hardcore’ gamer. But that’s exactly what’s happened, and what’s more, things are looking up for the PlayStation nation. CNNMoney’s Silicon Alley Insider column recently referred to the PS3 as a “sinking ship.” So how fast is it headed below sea-level? Sales are down 19% over last year and for a console that purportedly has a 10-year life span, it’s a little early to be petering out.
This past year was supposed to see the rise of Blu-ray as consumers heralded in the high-definition era. So it’s not surprising that lower PS3 sales are concurrent with poor Blu-ray sales and thus the Silicon Alley Insider attributes Blu-ray apathy as one of three aspects of the PS3’s failures. After all, with each branded player Sony sells, a chunk of cash is allocated for the upcoming high-def format, a fee Xbox avoided by circumventing a next-gen player as a standard (Microsoft, in fact, backed the wrong horse but their loss was subsidized by the fact that they only offered an HD-DVD add on sold separately).
Rock Band/Guitar Hero are quickly become as
ubiquitous as the iPhone and other tip of the tongue tech toys that populate
the headlines in the gadgetry sections of newspapers and websites. And like
anything even remotely approaching popularity these things are subject to
imitation. You know, the highest form of flattery? Otherwise known as the
quickest way to make a buck. Now, it’s hard to place an emphasis on
originality. One could argue that Rock Band has taken the ball from Guitar Hero
and run with it and with great success; they broke the redundant cycle
established by the originators and brought something new to the field. But for
every evolutionary step forward, there are countless other stubborn
Neanderthals. I think the ethos of Guitar Rock Tour, the latest
rhythm/instrument clone to appear on the iPhone, is summed up quite succinctly
in their own marketing one-liner on iTunes: “Perform, without musical
knowledge, the most popular worldwide hits on your iPhone.”
