General Gaming Article |
- LightSquared Claims to Have Fix for GPS Woes
- RED Scarlet to be Officially Announced November 3rd
- AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II Available October 2 for $199
- The Game Boy: Why Bastion Succeeds Where Most Games Fail Miserably
- Oracle To Phase Out x86-Based Servers
- Windows Phone 7 App of the Week: easyTube
- PETA Plans to Raise Awareness Through Porn Website
- Pandora, Facebook Show Off Major New UI Changes
- Sandy Bridge Driver Update Boosts Game Performance in Windows
- Report: HP Considering Dumping CEO Leo Apotheker
| LightSquared Claims to Have Fix for GPS Woes Posted: 21 Sep 2011 02:56 PM PDT
LightSquared is licensed to use 59MHz around the 1500MHz band, but the lower 10MHz is right up against some of the spectrum used by sensitive GPS equipment. According to the company, they are working with Javad GNSS to develop a method for retrofitting existing and new GPS equipment. With a series of inexpensive GPS filters and linear amplifiers, LiightSquared has been reporting success with preventing interference. LightSquared will not have to make any changes to its network under this plan, and they say the necessary changes to GPS will be very inexpensive. LightSquared is licensed to use the bands, so the GPS industry may have no choice but to implement the changes. |
| RED Scarlet to be Officially Announced November 3rd Posted: 21 Sep 2011 02:41 PM PDT
The Scarlet has been in development for the last few years, but RED has managed to keep potential buyers interested with the occasional video tease. The Scarlet is expected to be capable of capturing 3072x1620 at 120FPS video. This camera is a more consumer-oriented version of the RED Epic professional camera. Still, the Scarlet is not for the average consumer. This video camera is expected to sell for around $5000, but we won't know the final price until November. |
| AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II Available October 2 for $199 Posted: 21 Sep 2011 02:23 PM PDT
The AT&T version of the Galaxy S II will be rocking a dual-core Samsung Exynos chip ar 1.2GHz per core, a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Plus screen at 800x480, 16GB of internal storage, an 8MP rear camera, and 3MP front camera. If you ask AT&T, they'll tell you that the S II supports 4G, but what they mean is HSPA+; this isn't a LTE handset. The AT&T version of the phone also has NFC wireless technology, unlike the Sprint phone. The AT&T Galaxy S II is running Android 2.3 Gingerbread with TouchWiz 4.0 on top. The next version of Android is expected to be announced in the coming weeks, so this phone may seen be running outdated software. Anyone planning on picking this one up? |
| The Game Boy: Why Bastion Succeeds Where Most Games Fail Miserably Posted: 21 Sep 2011 12:02 PM PDT
Note: This week's entry contains major Bastion spoilers. If you haven't played Bastion, I recommend that you skip to the third page. Also, while we're at it, warning: This week's entry is three pages long. I may have gotten a bit carried away. If you hate words, I recommend that you skip to the part where you buy Bastion. Bastion is about moving forward. With every step you take, tiles of all shapes and sizes rise up to meet your footfalls. What lies ahead may be uncertain, but one way or another, you'll make it. Occasionally, you'll encounter former citizens of Caelondia – now frozen in ash, dead to the world in all but appearance. THOCK. The Kid's hammer reduces them to powder in an instant. The Kid presses on – without remorse, as though his old friends and neighbors were no more important than a random crate, shrub, or similarly minor impediment. Meanwhile, Rucks – the narrator – doesn't bat an eyelash, instead opting to list off a factoid or two about the deceased-turned-dust-clouds before dispassionately sweeping the whole incident under the rug. It's all in the past now, and the past only gets in the way. Bastion also offers flashbacks, but not in the traditional sense. The narrator attempts to spin a tear-jerker of a yarn while you stave off increasingly difficult waves of enemies. Before long, though, it becomes nearly impossible to do both. So, pick your poison: Will you listen to wistful tales of days gone by or fight to make sure you live to see another day? At first, this seems like a perplexing and fairly frustrating design choice, but – intentional or not – it drives home a point: Past or present, there's always a battle to be fought. And if you don't fight? Well then, you die – simple as that. The creatures you're killing all throughout your journey could very well be the last of their kind. But it's either them or you. You have to press forward. And then there's Zulf. When he discovers the true method behind the Calamity's seeming madness, he's driven to bury the Bastion, a device capable of re-weaving the very fabrics of time itself. He wants to move on. So Zulf decides it's necessary to strike down anyone standing in his way – you included. It's better, he thinks, than the alternative. But he fails utterly – just like the Calamity before him. Even so, more people die because of Zulf's choice. Many more. Out of all that, though, comes one incredible moment. Zulf is ultimately stabbed in the back by his Ura clansmen, and you can either charge in, stare them straight in the eyes, and send each and every one fearfully fleeing into early graves, or you can drop your weapon, pick up Zulf's barely breathing form, and carry him to safety. It's your call. Zulf, though, is heavier than a small, pale twig of a man has any right to be, and the Kid struggles to heft his apparently dense girth. So you stumble into a room full of Zulf's countrymen, muscles snapping, crackling, and generally doing their best impression of a bowl of Rice Krispies under the strain of Zulf's weight. The Ura immediately open fire. It's too late to turn back, though. You can only move forward. So you get shot. A lot. Swigging health potions like cool, refreshing water in a desert made of wasabi is the only way to stay alive – and even then, death's door is only centimeters away from slamming into your face. Still, you press forward. Nothing will stop you. Nothing can stop you. And that's when the Ura realize what's going on. Slowly but surely, they lower their weapons and watch as you limp past. One tries to fire again. His superior kills him in cold blood. You escape as the Ura look on in unison. You return to the Bastion. Finally, you can restore it. You can start over. You can kill the Calamaity before it harms a hair on anyone's head. Or can you? Rucks isn't so sure. Maybe you'll just drop the ball again. Maybe you're already stuck in one big, misery packed infinite loop. Suddenly, Zulf's motivations make sense. As the flashback segments revealed, Caelondia was wealthy, sure, but not the greatest place. Its people and social structures -- while not necessarily evil -- wronged the Kid, Zulf, and Zia, and oppressed the Ura. Why bring back that? But the Bastion can burn out its battery with another feature. It can fly away. It can take your dysfunctional little post-apocalyptic family wherever you want to go. The answer, then, is obvious: You keep going. Away from all the violence. Toward a better future. Or maybe a worse one. It doesn't matter. You move forward. A lot of people screwed up. Now it's up to you to set things right.
Bastion is about looking back. For Rucks' sake, the game's named after a device created to take the entire world back in time. Tiles of all shapes and sizes rise up to meet your footfalls. They're chunks of the old world – pieces of the past deciding the destination of every step you take. Occasionally, you'll encounter former citizens of Caelondia – now frozen in ash, dead to the world in all but appearance. They're a sobering reminder of the thrumming society that you used to be part of. You smash them, because The Kid doesn't want to remember. But he can't help it. And all the while, the narrator fills in the blanks, ensuring that every little detail lingers in the front of your mind. About half-way through the game, the Kid falls into an extremely surreal flashback. Rucks' voice still comes through – albeit quiet and distorted – but it's finally the Kid's thoughts that are doing the talking. "He has the nerve to flash the shield he stole," says the garbled narration. "Would you look at what he did to poor old Rondi the bartender?" And finally, the kicker: "The Kid succeeds were the Calamity failed." The Kid doesn't want to be here. While obligation propels him forward, guilt and sorrow hold him back. Hell, for all he knows, creatures he's killing all throughout his journey could very well be the last of their kind. But he presses on in hopes that – ultimately – all of his damage will be undone. And then there's Zulf. When he discovers the true method behind the Calamity's seeming madness, he's driven to seek out revenge against those responsbile – you included, if necessary. But he fails utterly – just like the Calamity before him. Even so, more people die because Zulf can't let go of the past. Many more. Out of all that, though, comes one incredible moment. Zulf is ultimately stabbed in the back by his Ura clansmen, and you can either charge in, stare them straight in the eyes, and send each and every one fearfully fleeing into well-deserved graves, or you can drop your weapon, pick up Zulf's barely breathing form, and carry him to safety. It's your call. Zulf nearly ruined your chances to fix everything once, and he'll probably do it again. Besides, what's one more despicable deed? The Kid's already got gallons of blood on his hands. It's all for the greater good, he tells himself. So he strides into a room full of Zulf's countrymen, muscles snapping, crackling, and generally doing their best impression of a bowl of Rice Krispies under the strain of a weapon thrice his size. At this point, it's a matter of same song, different verse. You or them. The Bastion or them. Even though the Ura have overwhelming numbers on their side, the Kid's gigantic new toy makes dealing with them seem like child's play. You kill them all in cold blood. You escape as glassy, frozen eyes look on in unison. You return to the Bastion. Finally, you can restore it. You can start over. You can kill the Calamaity before it harms a hair on anyone's head. Or can you? Rucks isn't so sure. Maybe you'll just drop the ball again. Maybe you're already stuck in one big, misery packed infinite loop. But you've come so far, hurt so many, destroyed so much. There's nothing left. Caelondia may have wronged and oppressed the Kid, Zulf, and Zia, but it's still better than this. The Bastion can burn out its battery with another feature. It can fly away. But where will you go? And why? The answer, then, is obvious: You press the giant "REDO" button. You've been chasing the past this whole time, but you could never quite catch it. Well, here you go. A lot of people screwed up. Now it's up to you to set things right.
So, which of those interpretations is right? Simple: both. I originally wanted to write a big analysis of Bastion, but instead, I wrote two. They're both equally valid for me, though, and that's key. For many reasons (narration, innovative usage of music, etc), Bastion is the type of story only a videogame can tell. However, the biggest of them – in my eyes – is that it can so effectively put me in two entirely different, largely opposite states of mind. Bastion can shift the ideals and motivations behind every action I perform, and – more importantly – it can make me believe in them. Plenty of other games provide multiple paths, moral choices, and all that – and some of them even let you be a freaking Jedi. So what makes Bastion better? Well, foremost, those other games do a remarkably bad job of making me feel like both sides of the coin are viable. BioShock's "saintly savor versus Hitler mixed with Satan mixed with Hitler again" approach to saving Little Sisters is the most infamous example, but other big names are equally guilty of choice-based laziness in their own ways. I mean, don't get me wrong: I love Mass Effect. But sometimes, it's a bit too easy to see BioWare in the background, tugging on the strings to make conversations and plot threads go in a certain direction regardless of your choices. What reallly makes Bastion work, I think, is its consistency. The game's by no means perfect, but I reached the end of both playthroughs, and everything added up. There was no "Now waitaminute...!" moment. Generally with these things, the devil's in the details. Something stands out as nonsensical or completely glossed over. Here, though, there was no devil – just tons and tons of attention to detail. In such a young medium, there's a lot to be said for that. Too many games hastily scrawl "consistency" at the bottom of their priority lists before breaking out the fancy calligraphy set for things like "bigger explosions" and "more totally rad slow-mo during the first level." So we end up with games that are frontloaded with mind-blowing moments – mostly to draw players in – only to lose steam en route to typically miserable non-endings. (Think BioShock, Bulletstorm, Knights of the Old Republic II – the list goes on.) Bastion, on the other hand, feels as though it's been carefully crafted. It's deliberate and smart in almost everything it does. Narration's perfectly placed and almost never repeats, the game ends exactly when it needs to, and it leaves just enough open to interpretation. On top of all that, Supergiant avoided the temptation of throwing in a bunch of tiny, superfluous choices just for choice's sake in favor of two incredibly meaningful – and therefore, powerful – moments. So I guess what I'm trying to say is... Bastion is about restraint. Modern game design is frequently about throwing in everything, the kitchen sink, and a moral dilemma that ponders whether or not the greatest kitchen sink of all... is man. More guns. More powers. More characters. More choices. More sequels. More, more, more. Bastion, though, does exactly what it needs to. Then it ends. Really, though, for all the time I spent on this article, I don't even think it comes close to doing Bastion justice. Go play it. Experience it for yourself. Love it or hate it, I guarantee that you won't find anything else quite like it. |
| Oracle To Phase Out x86-Based Servers Posted: 21 Sep 2011 11:27 AM PDT
"I do not care if our commodity x86 business goes to zero. We do not make any money selling those things," Xbit Labs reports Ellision as saying in a conference call with several financial analysts. "We have no interest in selling other people's intellectual property; commodity x86 includes Intel (intellectual property) and Microsoft IP. We do not make money selling that stuff, and we are phasing out that business. We have interest in selling systems that include our IP." Ellison told analysts that not only does Oracle fail to make any money on x86-based servers, the company's salespeople don't make any money on them either. That's because the salespeople earn commission based on profit margins and x86 servers frankly don't have much of a profit margin for Oracle. Ellison says that sales of servers based on the company's proprietary designs are expected to skyrocket and make Oracle's margins much more palatable for investors, and hopefully eventually even return to the lofty margins the company was raking in prior to acquiring Sun. |
| Windows Phone 7 App of the Week: easyTube Posted: 21 Sep 2011 11:22 AM PDT YouTube may have been popularized by viral videos and other content that we probably could have lived without, but it IS one stop shopping for all sorts of content that extends way beyond the latest Bieber videos. As a web service, YouTube is also a popular target for smartphone based client apps, which provide increased usability and additional features that wouldn't otherwise be available to the platform.
Windows Phone users will find easyTube to be one of the best options available for getting a YouTube fix while on the go. Offering more features and settings than you can shake a stick at, easyTube makes it cake to find and watch clips from YouTube. Sharing content is one of the main reasons to use a social service like YouTube, and the easyTube app makes it simple to share to Twitter or Facebook. You can also log in with your YouTube account to add the video to your favorites or a playlist. Additionally easyTube allows you to download videos to watch later, though they will only be available within the easyTube application. easyTube will even allow you to remotely control YouTube playback on your PC by linking your Google Account.
easyTube is available through the Marketplace for Windows Phone as a free download. |
| PETA Plans to Raise Awareness Through Porn Website Posted: 21 Sep 2011 10:59 AM PDT
The non-profit organization told the U.K.'s Telegraph that it's "hoping to reach a whole new audience of people, some of whom will be shocked by graphic images that maybe they didn't anticipate seeing when they went to the PETA triple-X site." It's an obviously risky (and risque) move that some believe will backfire. Jennifer Pozner, executive director of Women In Media & News, says PETA has continually pushed the sexism angle, and that it "has gotten more extreme and more degrading." After this, the bar can't get any lower, she says. PETA says its website will be enticing at first, and as visitors go deeper, "that's when they'll be confronted with images that we hope will make them stop and think and get them talking and hopefully encourage them to make a lifestyle change to a plant-based diet." The site will include pictures and videos, both of nude models and that of the mistreatment of animals. |
| Pandora, Facebook Show Off Major New UI Changes Posted: 21 Sep 2011 10:59 AM PDT When you're getting ready for the big dance, you slip into something nice, clean and pretty to try and put your best foot forward for the crowd. Two major sites did that today. Facebook doffed the equivalent of a new pair of shoes in anticipation of tomorrow's F8 conference, drastically changing users' News Feeds while keeping the rest of the layout the same. Pandora took the opposite route; they overhauled their ensemble from the ground up in a quest to impress. Unfortunately, one of them dashed its prom queen hopes after getting a big FAIL from unhappy users. Facebook's redesign breaks the old two-tabbed News Feed into a single, mammoth News Feed that combines both Top Stories and Most Recent posts in a single interface. Facebook picks its Top Stories from a number of factors, including how many Likes posts get as well as your relationship to the poster, and displays them in the News Feed with a blue tab in the corner to differentiate them from other recent posts. You'll only get Top Stories that have been posted since you were last online. So far, the user response has been overwhelmingly negative, like it always is when Facebook makes a change. Check out #NewFacebook on Twitter to bask in the rage.
The new Pandora Interface Meanwhile, Pandora's redesign achieves a few major things; it takes the already-polished interface and gives it a spit-shine (whether or not it's for the better is up to user taste), ditches Flash in favor of HTML5 and JavaScript – perhaps to get ready for the Flash-less Windows 8 Metro? – and perhaps most importantly, gets rid of the previous 40 hours per month limit for free tunes. According to the Pandora blog, the site also plans on rolling out a social network-inspired "New music feed" to make it easier to share songs and playlists with other folks. So whaddaya think? Do either of the UI tweaks do it for you, or do you miss your old Pandora and Facebook? |
| Sandy Bridge Driver Update Boosts Game Performance in Windows Posted: 21 Sep 2011 10:35 AM PDT
The Santa Clara chip maker is billing the download as a "major garphics driver update for 2nd generation Intel Core processors with Intel HD graphics." ULV platforms, such as the ones most often found in ultraportable and slim notebooks, stand to gain the most from the updated driver, though Intel spokesman Dave Salvator tells CNet the update applies to any system with a Sandy Bridge chip running Intel HD graphics. Intel is touting the following double-digit performance gains with the new driver installed:
The updated driver also resolves a bunch of issues in Windows 7 and Vista, things like intermittent crashing when using an HDMI monitor and minor rendering artifacts in some games. Intel GMA Driver Windows 7/Vista 32-bit |
| Report: HP Considering Dumping CEO Leo Apotheker Posted: 21 Sep 2011 10:16 AM PDT
HP's Board of Directors plans on holding a pow-wow to determine whether or not to kick Apotheker to the curb, Bloomberg reports, citing an anonymous pair of sources "familiar with the situation." The publication says that former eBay CEO Meg Whitman could be named his replacement, at least on a temporary basis. Just to highlight how low investor confidence is in Apotheker, HP's stock, which has been in a free fall recently, jumped 6.1 percent when Bloomberg broke the story. Even if the Board gives Apotheker the boot, his tenure at HP proved more successful than his time at SAP, the last CEO position he held. Apotheker resigned from SAP after just 10 months on the job when consumers and unions flipped him the collective bird after Apotheker tried to raise software prices in the midst of a recession, leading to the company's first revenue hit in over seven years. |
LightSquared has been in the news a lot in the past few months, but not for the reasons they probably would have liked. The company hopes to build a national 4G LTE network that they can charge cellular carriers to use. The only problem is that the bands used by LightSquared have been shown to interfere with GPS signals. After much hand-wringing, LightSquared now 
Do you have thousands and thousands of dollars to spend, and also a love of super-high quality video? Then mark your calendar for November 3 when RED will be 
After weeks of waiting, AT&T has finally updated customers on the 
When Oracle acquired Sun last year, it did so for things like the Java platform and the Solaris operating system, not servers running on Intel's x86 architecture. In fact, even though Sun thought it could become a major seller of x86 servers prior to the buyout, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison now says that the company makes next to no money on them and plans to start phasing x86-based servers out entirely in 2012 favor of more profitable Solaris/SPARC-based hardware.
Everyone knows that sex sells. PETA -- People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals -- seems to think the power of sex will also sell the general public on its views for animal rights and giving up meat. The organization is so convinced of its idea that it went and applied for the domain PETA.xxx.
Intel has made available an updated graphics driver for Sandy Bridge processors capable of delivering up to 37 percent better performance on Ultra Low Voltage (ULV) platforms, providing you're rocking Intel's integrated HD graphics instead of a dedicated videocard.
When HP named Leo Apotheker as the company's new CEO a scant 11 months ago, hopes were high that the software-focused former SAP honcho would be able to overhaul the company and help rake in tons of dough. Well, they got it half right; since his appointment, Apotheker has sure shaken things up, but not in a good way; the company's recent sweeping changes didn't sit well with the public, and partially as a result, HP's stock has dropped 47 percent on Leo's watch. Now, his job may be on the line.| You are subscribed to email updates from Maximum PC - All Articles To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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