January 2009 Archives
One of the writers over at Australian Gamer had an outstanding idea for a kids room - A Super Mario Bros.- themed mural, complete with the rolling green hills and cute clouds. I would have loved to have woken up to this every day growing up, but the game wasn't in my parents' consciousness at the time. Plus, it would have been awkward spending any time in that room if I needed to move back after college -- I'm not sure ladies (unless they were gamers) would be down with the Mushroom Kingdom motif.
But I digress ... mad props to you, sir. Here's the epic tale of the painting process. The above photo comes from AJ of Australian Gamer.
The game based on the anime action series starring Samuel L. Jackson should be in stores in the early part of next week. I'm usually frightened of games based on shows, movies or books (years of crap can do that), but I'm actually curious. At the very least, I'll get to hear some beats from the RZA, so maybe the game can function as a Wu-Tang album of sorts. The game is coming out for the 360 and PS3.
Have a trailer for your trouble. Note the art style and M rating, parents. This is probably one of the bloodier games you're going to witness all year.
A co-worker forwarded this along from Gizmodo. It qualifies as one of the greatest things I have ever seen. I not only need to get this figure, but place it next to my extremely posable Optimus Prime to create the ultimate tag team of anti-evil. Yes, I have an Optimus Prime at home. Transformed him the other night. What of it?
Anyway, here's the Gizmodo entry, complete with more action poses for the figure. Leave it to the Japanese to make an anime-style action version of our 44th president. I'm surprised he doesn't have a presidential mech that launches out of the White House.
Monumental Games, from what I see from the press release, is a gamemaker based in the UK. The terms of the agreement include an unannounced multi-platform title which is supposed to come out later this year and will be published by Capcom.
Um ... that's all I can really tell you, unless you'd like to know that Monumental games also has operations in India and employs 100 people. That's it. We are officially out of information.
Here's the Monumental Games Web site.
I know what Mirror's Edge is trying to do. It's different. It's special. One could even dare to utter one of the most overused words in the industry: innovative.
However, that doesn't always mean it's great.
Like the free-running it tries so hard to emulate, this latest work from Electronic Arts can be exhilirating -- if you're willing to put up with a lot of pain.
By Norman Major III
Contributor
I got a chance to sit down with the new Ion Drum Rocker at CES. Boasting the fact that it doubles as a percussion kit, Ion had a few setups available, but without Rock Band. It has a small module which controls the function of the kit that can be swapped out. One of the modules allowed me to play Rock Band 2 on the PS3.
Feel the power, fanboys. If you haven't seen this yet, be prepared for a some anime-action guitar, plenty of glory shots and a cascade of cheeseball dialogue playing throughout the whole trailer. I love it. It almost helps me get over the fact that I'm awful at this game. On a side note, good to see Rose ... I made good use of what I call her "Jordan" move when I was in my Alpha-playing prime. Some of you might know what I'm talking about.
I was pointed to this site, and I have no idea what to expect. All I know is, I find myself strangely intrigued by what is to come. Or not.
Also, check out the links at the bottom of the ensuing page for a very different kind of gaming podcast and news site.
Mirror's Edge came out for the consoles back in November, but the PC version came out this week, including a CD of the breezy, trippy music featured in the game, plus some remixes. I haven't heard the CD yet, but I imagine some of the music will make me think of trips to Sephora with the wife.
The game earned points with critics and players because of the premise -- a first-person game about free-running. People loved it, hated it, got sick because of it, and examined it. I've got a review of my own coming pretty soon.
As for Skate 2, it's something I've got on my playlist, though I'm probably going to set suckage records when I try to pull off my first few tricks.
To catch some of you up, I've posted trailers for both games below. Eat 'em up.
Here's Mirror's Edge:
And, Skate 2:
CUPERTINO, Calif. (AP) -- Apple Inc.'s CEO Steve Jobs says he is taking a medical leave of absence until the end of June.
Jobs told employees in an e-mail that his health issues are more complex than he thought.
Last week, Jobs announced he had a hormone deficiency that had caused him to dramatically lose weight.
Apple's chief operating officer, Tim Cook, will take over Jobs' responsibilities while he is on leave.
This came out a while ago, but we don't mind long reviews here. Enjoy.
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By Reggie Carolipio
Contributor
Endwar might not be based on a Tom Clancy novel, but it retains the techno-political edge of the fiction that bears his name, as World War III explodes across the globe in what may have been an off day for Third Echelon.
This time, instead of relying on Sam Fisher or the tactical stopping power of Rainbow Six, entire armies will be used to tilt the balance of world power without having to worry about annoying little things such as hostages or subtlety.
Al and I didn't have enough time (or the juice to check out the exclusive suite) to check out the Palm Pre phone, but Dean Takahashi and the folks at VentureBeat had no such issues, much to our delight. They put out a four-part series regarding the show's uber-gadget.
You can feast your eyes on the demos here. Enjoy. I certainly did.
Sony booth and the new lightweight VIAO dubbed the Lifestyle PC, a full-fledged PC that essentially fits in your pocket. It starts at $899 and comes with Windows Vista (like it or not, it's there, so deal with it) 2 gigs of ram, GPA and about 2-4 hours of battery life.
Greenpeace released the Greenpeace Green Products Report during CES. Casey Harrell gives a Tech-Out reporter Redmond Carolipio, tips on what the public can do to get manufacturers produce green products.
In no particular order, other things that left an impression:
- The Pocket Cinema from Aiptek. It's a small video projector that you really can put into your pocket. We saw it at the Innovations Showcase at the Sands.
- Canon's EOS-5D Mark II. I'm not a photographer, but even I heard the considerable about of happy feelings surrounding this camera. It shoots full HD video and rocks the 21 megapixel CMOS system. But to quote Jessica Simpson -- I totally don't know what that is, but I want it.
- Fata1ity. Also known as Johnathan Wendel, he's probably the most recognizable professional gamer in the world. Every year at CES, he takes on all challengers while also promoting his line of gaming gear. This time, he whipped out the "Quake Hero" handicap, where he essentially played a customized keyboard like a guitar while taking on two players at the same time. Still took 'em down. Sick. Al shot a picture of that in an earlier post.
- 3D television. I saw Sharp, Sony and a few other companies showing off 3D television technology. This is getting serious. Some outside observers scoffed at the notion of 3DTV a few years ago, but there were a lot of major players in the 3D mix here at the show. Let's keep an eye on that.
It's been my pleasure to share whatever I could from what's truly a must-see show. Al's working on getting some video and even more pictures up, and we hope you like what you see.
Until then, take care. They are starting to kick people out of the media room.
And welcome to Tech-Out.
When we went by Sony's booth, I was immediately attracted to the setups for the PS3. We were short on time, so I checked out just a little bit of Killzone 2. It's looked like a must-have back at E3, and it looks like one now. Hopefully, it's ending won't be as weird as the one for Resistance 2.
What really caught our eyes was the Sony VAIO Lifestyle PC, a full-fledged PC that essentially fits in your pocket. It starts at $899 and comes with Windows Vista (like it or not, it's there, so deal with it) 2 gigs of ram, GPA and about 2-4 hours of battery life. Don't mean to be Mr. Cloudy Day, but that seems a little short for me. Then again, I haven't spent a day with it, either. Either way, it was a pretty cool piece of work to check out. Hope you enjoy any photos and video we have of it.
We swung by Toshiba and were immediately caught off guard with the demo of Spatial Motion Interface technology, which basically lets you control stuff with your hands. There was a black square on top of sizable flat-screen for the demo, where the Toshiba rep was spinning around a "ball" comrprised of small pictures with a few pulls and waves with her hands. She was able to play video, zoom in, stop the video, rewind and pick more stuff -- like television's version of tai chi.
Then came the Regza LCD television that was essentially built to lean against the wall. Depending on how you look at it, it's either a clever nod to modern design or another sign that people are getting too lazy. I can imagine someone gruffly spouting "What, we can't mount TVs anymore?" We'll let you decide. Personally, I think the TV's tight.
I'm referring to Sharp's practically anorexic (about 1 inch) Limited Edition LCD TV. We shot some video and pics of this thing, which puts out a beautiful picture and some pretty good sound, thanks to a partnership with Pioneer. I managed to get some face time with a Sharp exec about it.
Only thing that truly stings? The price. The model we checked out can be yours for about $11,000.
My first (and last) full day of CES is done. Instead of boring you with an giant roundup, I'll be giving you bite-size chunks of some of the stuff Al and I saw. Al's got pics and videos, I've got words.
You saw the Greenpeace stuff, so after that, it was off to Capcom. They were one of the few companies showing off games in a suite E3-style, so I played Bionic Commando, Resident Evil 5 and a cute, odd game called Flock. Quick impressions about the games after the jump.
As the headline says, we're shutting it down here as far as the blogging. I'm going to see if Harrell or any of his co-workers are available for some face time. This was educational.
If anyone wants to see for themselves, you can check out Greenpeace.
I'm looking at the list of companies that refused to participate in the report. Among them are Nintendo, Microsoft, and Apple. Someone just asked about Apple not participating and wondering about how the Macbooks would have scored. Problem is, there wasn't enough info to go on to make a score -- nor was there time. That's kind of sad. I'd be really curious about how green a lot of these popular products would be, like the Xbox 360s or Wiis that a lot of people have at home.
That's the main message Harrell stressed in moving forward. He also mentioned industry standards, reconsidering business models to work in green outlooks.
There's also more talk of toxic chemicals -- a precautionary approach and being more active in phasing out chemicals.
We got a hard copy of the report, so I apologize for not being more specific. We'll pore through it with more time, because there's some good stuff in it.
Ah, Harrell is taking questions right now. It's a little hard to hear in here, but I'll see if anything else jumps out.
"Progress is being made. These companies understand what green is. We are moving in the right direction," Harrell said.
A few years ago, when Greenpeace first surveyed companies, a lot of the products they looked at scored poorly. Now, Harrell points to the Lenovo L2440x LCD monitor, which scored a 6.9 out of 10, the highest-scoring product in the report.
More observations:
"We need to see the green products being marketed better," Harrell said. He also was looking for international standards to make better comparisons among products.
We're looking at the highest scoring products in phone, desktop and mobile phone categories. The top phone comes from Samsung -- but as Harrell says, the scores aren't very high. I'm seeing 5s.
Casey Harrell of Greenpeace is hoping for electronic manufacturers to make more of an effort of be watchful of the environment. I'm looking at pictures of massive e-waste sites in places like Africa, as well as shots of toxic chemicals used in electronics -- all on a slideshow.
He's talking about the Greenpeace's Green Products Report 2.0. It took a little over three months of work with a lot of companies submitting everything from laptops to game consoles to mobile phones. It was voluntary participation from each company.
Harrell is talking about the evaluation criteria for the reports such as lifecycle, energy efficiency, chemicals, marketing.
The next edition of Inland Living Magazine is about going green, so Al and I are here at the Greepeace press conference at CES. We're just waiting for things to get started. The conference is going to focus on the Greenpeace Electronics Survey, so let's see what happens.
Flipping through the press packet, I see a lot of stuff about current electronics and how green (or not green) they are.
OK, time to get started.
Finally, a full day of sensory overload. Among other previously mentioned gadgetry, Al and I have a meeting with Greenpeace at 10, and we're also going to be looking at other various forms of green technology as well as its applications today. It's one of the show's big themes.
On the gaming side of things, it'll be off to Planet Hollywood and Capcom, where I'm probably going to get a face full of spewing zombie action playing Resident Evil 5, some Street Fighter 4 and anything else that's there. I want to see what happens with RE5 -- playing the demo at E3 felt clunky. Maybe it was me, maybe it was the controls. I'll find out today.
We'll be out and about, trying to gather as much as possible. Hope you enjoy it. Be back later.
Kodak showed it's OLED Digital Picture Frame with Wi-Fi capabilities. Currently it is available at Kodak.com and on Amazon.
I got here in the middle of the day, while Al scoured the show floors and took shots of everything even remotely cool. I took a short lap around the South Hall. There's way too much stuff for two mortals to digest, but here's some of what we've seen. Check it out after the jump.
Welcome to Tech-Out! Redmond Carolipio and myself are roaming the expo floor at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas to give you a rundown on the latest in technology and electronics. We'll check out the WristFone by Neutrano and a HD Video Scuba Mask by Liquid Image along with top manufacturers like Sony, Panasonic and LG. Many things to see and hear, we'll keep you posted.
