Category Archives: Games

Interesting things from 2007

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In the spirit of all the other 2007 lists out there, and to try to make up for my recent lack of posts, this is going to set of eclectic lists of things I should have mentioned during 2007.

Gadgets I liked:

  • Nokia N95 – still love it, especially with the v20 firmware, and recent apps such as Google Mobile Maps with GPS support, and the emTube video player. By far the best phone/PDA I’ve ever owned
  • Xbox 360 Elite – So many good games this year on the Xbox 360, and since I got a good deal on a new Elite, it was well worth upgrading from my old Premium to get the larger disk and HDMI video output
  • Topfield TF5800 PVR with the MyStuff interface – I’ve had this over a year, but it keeps getting better and better. Massively customisable, and it allows the download of recordings, ready for backup onto DVD with no loss of quality
  • Nintendo Wii – Just over a year old, overhyped and short of games, but worth it for parties, and the quality games are starting to come. Can someone please do a better Golf game than Tiger Woods 08?
  • Fuji F31fd camera – Got this at a bargain price to replace my old Fuji F10. Wonderful picture quality for the size. No compact I’ve seen comes close in less than perfect light. Fuji should stop wasting their time on higher megapixel cameras, and just offer an upgraded F31fd, with added RAW support, SD card slot, image stabilisation, histogram, and exposure bracketing. They could name their price
  • Sennheiser HD595 headphones – Not cheap, but so comfortable, and they sound great. By far best headphones I’ve ever owned
  • Sennheiser CX300 headphones – Cheap, and sound fantastic for the money. Great for train journeys
  • Mac mini (with Core 2) – This has been my main system for almost 6 months, as I’m waiting for a new Mac Pro to be released. I struggle with the 2Gb of RAM, but otherwise, it’s a fantastic desktop system; fast and super quiet. If Apple discontinue the Mac mini in the foreseeable future (as the rumours keep suggesting), without introducing a suitable replacement, they’re completely crazy
  • ASUS EEE PC – Don’t own one of these, but a friend does, and I’ve used it quite extensively. Love the price and the build quality. Firefox runs so much better than I thought it would. Release an updated version with a 9 inch screen, integrated bluetooth, and running the Xubuntu version of Hardy Heron, and ASUS will have my order in a heartbeat. A similar device with the lovely form factor of the Palm Foleo would be great too (just don’t copy the Foleo’s crippled software or internal hardware)
  • Joytech Tri-link HDMI switch – Affordable, nicely priced, and intelligently designed (with a nice IR extension cable). A painless way to add a couple of extra HDMI ports to my TV
  • Lenovo 3000 N200 – Purchased for my Aunt who was looking for a budget laptop. Available with XP (instead of Vista), came with 1Gb DIMM (instead of the usual 2x 512Mb), friendly system restore software (including backup to bootable DVD), and a Pentium Dual Core processor based on Intel’s modern Merom core (basically a slightly cut down Core2Duo). The build quality is better than most Dell’s I’ve experienced, and at £399, it was serious bargain. Added an extra 1Gb DIMM, and you can’t go wrong if you’re looking for a budget laptop.

Games I liked:

  • Portal – So clever, so funny, so short
  • Super Mario Galaxy – Nearly as inventive as Portal, but much bigger
  • Excite Truck – Best Wii game in the first half of 2007. A little too random at times, but plays like Sega Rally crossed with Stunt Car Racer
  • Forza Motorsport 2 – A little sterile, but so smooth and realistic. It’s an automotive sandbox, and I’ll be playing it for years. And yes, I do have a chipped Shadow Blue Golf GTI in the game 🙂
  • Endless Ocean – The most relaxing game ever invented. Animal Crossing under the sea, without the commitment to keep visiting every day
  • BioShock – Love the art and the architecture. The rest of the game is pretty good too
  • Sega Rally – Totally unrealistic, but so much fun. A pity that it didn’t seem to get the attention it deserved. Had the great track design that was always a feature of classic Sega coinops
  • Project Gotham Racing 4 – Just the right mix of fun and realism. So superficially similar to Forza, yet so different too. Which I prefer depends which day you ask me. Would love them to bring back the Edinburgh track from PGR2 as downloadable content
  • Call of Duty 4 – Best multiplayer game of the year. It’s like a tighter, more focussed version of Battlefield 2
  • Colin McRae: Dirt – This feels like Project Gotham of rallying to me. A lovely balance between fun and realism. It deserved more praise than it got. Extra bonus points for including the Pikes Peak Hillclimb too
  • SEGA Presents: Touch Darts – Bought this in preparation for a stag night I was going on, and it managed to help me appreciate a sport I previously knew almost nothing about. You don’t need to be a darts fan to appreciate this little gem

Software I liked:

  • Mac OS X Leopard – Nothing revolutionary, but since Tiger was pretty good, big changes weren’t needed. I love Spaces, Safari 3, Quick Look, and Time Machine
  • Safari 3 – Deserves an entry of its own. It’s now my favourite Mac browser (narrowly beating Camino). It seems to leak a little memory, but it’s fast and stable
  • Ubuntu – I seriously considered switching from Mac to Ubuntu this year. In the end, Leopard’s polish, and some of Ubuntu’s rough edges put me off, but given a choice between Windows and Ubuntu, Ubuntu wins hands down
  • Google Earth – A bigger time sink than Wikipedia, and that’s saying something. Love the new flight sim mode
  • TextMate – This has been my main text editor for over two years. I probably don’t even use 10% of its features, but even so, I’ve more than had my money’s worth
  • VideoReDo – Although it’s a Windows only program, this powerful MPEG2 editor is fantastic for chopping the ads out of recordings made on my Topfield PVR. The new TVSuite version even authors and burns the DVD for you
  • Google Maps on N95 – GPS support, the new My Location feature, and high speed data over HSDPA make this a tremendously useful tool
  • emTube – Brilliant YouTube app for S60 phones
  • VMware Fusion – Windows, Mac and Linux together on one machine; wonderful. Instead of multiple machines in my office, I can just buy one powerful Mac, and host anything else I need inside VMware Fusion. Brilliant for testing new OS installs too.

Disappointments/irritations:

  • Internet Explorer 7 – Fixes lots of IE6 bugs, but introduces lots of new issues, along with a new and particularly horrid user interface. If it had replaced IE6 more quickly, it would have been better, but for now it’s just another broken browser to support
  • Firefox 2 on the Mac – I want to love it, but despite many clean installs, it’s just not as stable as Firefox 1.5 was. I don’t care about new features right now, just please improve the stability
  • DRM – Some positive movements this year, but not enough. There’s no future in providing a worse service to paying customers than freeloaders
  • Apple’s treatment of its customers – Bricking iPhones, expensive ringtones, no Mac Pro upgrade, no mid range desktop Mac, expensive hardware upgrade pricing (insulting RAM prices etc), censoring legitimate discussions on your support forums. Sort it out, or I may have to reconsider defecting to Ubuntu
  • The Sony PS3 – The lack of games, inept handling of the press, loss of backwards compatibility, confusing hardware variations, etc…
  • Windows Vista – What were Microsoft doing for 5 years? XP with some extra eye candy shouldn’t have taken so long, and should have worked better. I’m recommending everyone I know to stick with XP, or move to Linux or the Mac. This XP review sums it up very well
  • Palm Foleo – The physical form factor was so right, but the crippled internal hardware and software were so wrong. Add in the high price, and Palm were right to can it. Combine the best bits of the Foleo and the EEE PC, and you’d be onto a winner
  • Windows Product Activation – I’m happy to pay for a legitimate Windows licence, but I don’t want to be treated like a potential criminal just because I reconfigure my machines more often than is usual. Virtualisation makes this even annoying. I had real trouble getting a single Boot Camp install of Windows XP to validate in both Boot Camp and VMware. One OS install, one physical machine, but I had to fiddle around with mac addresses, and call Microsoft several times to get this working. Not a good experience for a paying customer, who just wants to test websites on Windows (for the benefit of Microsoft’s other customers). And as IE7 isn’t available for Windows 2000, that’s not an option either. Any more problems and I’m moving to Wine

PocketLoop

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Intrigued by Eurogamer’s 10/10 review for Slitherlink on the Nintendo DS, I did some digging and discovered PocketLoop, which is a freeware clone for Windows Mobile.

I’m not sure the game justifies 10/10, but it’s good fun, and is worth downloading if you enjoy puzzle games.

One issue to be aware of is that the game need Microsoft’s .NET Compact Framework installed on your device. There are several different versions available, but 2.0.2, which seems to be the most recent, worked fine for me. Unfortunately the framework takes quite a lot of memory, so it’s probably not appropriate if space is tight.

One more reason not to buy a PS3

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Just when it seemed that Sony had run out of ways to mess up the European PS3 launch, they’ve managed to create a backwards compatibility crisis that was entirely avoidable, by switching from hardware to software emulation of the PS2.

I posted a couple of days ago about buying old PS2 games from eBay, and when I made the purchases, I checked on the US PS3 site to make sure they would be compatible with the PS3. This new cost cutting change means that a fair number of my PS2 games will probably not run well or at all. Thanks very much Sony.

I wasn’t planning to buy a PS3 imminently anyway due to the lack of good games, and the high price. This has just added another reason to not buy a PS3. At least before I could justify the PS3 as offering upscaled PS2 games running nicely over HDMI.

I’ll happily keep my PS2 for the next few years, and use my Xbox 360 and Wii for next gen gaming. Sony – spend the next two years improving the backwards compatibility of the PS3, release Gran Turismo 5 and God of War 3, drop the PS3 price to £150, and then it’s just possible that I’ll give in and buy a PS3.

I’m becoming addicted to eBay

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Not in a serious way, but I’m finding it very easy to buy some of the best PS2, Xbox and Gamecube games that I missed out on when they were released. It’s difficult to resist when really highly rated games can be picked up for £6-8 inc delivery. I must stop though, as I doubt I’ll ever find the time to play through the games properly.

Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution (PS2), Outrun 2006 (PS2), and Crimson Skies (Xbox) are my most recent purchases. Now I just need to find a cheap copy of Burnout 2 on the Gamecube.

Emulation on a Core Solo Mac mini

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Despite the relative lack of processing power, and the slow integrated graphics, I’ve been very impressed by how well my 1Gb Mac mini copes with running various emulators. In particular:

SixtyForce, which does a great job of emulating the N64. I’ve had great fun playing Wave Race and Diddy Kong Racing again.

Mame OS X – Arcade perfect Pacman and Galaga on a 46 inch TV 🙂

Tiger Woods 07 on the Nintendo Wii

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I’ve just read a couple of previews of this at GameSpot and IGN. From the previews, and my experience of the nine holes of Golf in Wii Sports, this should be brilliant. Wii Sports just needed more holes, and with 18 courses included in Tiger Woods, a total of 324 holes should be more than enough.

I think I’m going to have some very pleasant evenings playing a round of St Andrews with friends, while drinking a nice bottle (or several) of red wine 🙂

Nintendo Wii Internet Channel

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I managed to get a Nintendo Wii when it was launched in the UK a couple of weeks ago. I’ll probably post about it when I’ve had more chance to play with it, but I wanted to do a quick post on the Wii Internet Channel (basically a version of the Opera web browser) that was released today.

On first impressions, I’m very impressed. It renders Carsurvey.org very well, has reasonably useful zooming, and works beautifully with the Wii Remote (the vibration as you move your cursor over a link is great).

However, I’m beating round the bush here. All that matters is that YouTube works, including full screen playback. For some people, a small wireless device like the Wii, which shows photos and plays YouTube videos on their TV, will be well worth buying, regardless of the fact that it also plays games.

Three new games that have been keeping me occupied

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I rarely get much time to play games (Sunday afternoons usually), but three recent releases have impressed me:

  • 42 All-Time Classics for the Nintendo DS. Almost every card game and board game you can think of, with instructions for each game built into the cartridge, and almost every game multiplayer enabled over Wifi. Microsoft would charge 400 points (£3.40) for almost any of these games over Xbox Live, yet I bought this cartridge with 42 games for £16.99 including delivery. I hope Sony are taking notes, as products like this and the DS Lite, make far more sense for portable gaming than the PSP and most of its games
  • Test Drive Unlimited on the Xbox 360. The graphics are good, but not amazing, and handling is OK, but nothing more. However, the scale and atmosphere of this game is stunning. A massive island with almost every road, populated with lots of challenges and other players online, who are available to race against. Birds and airliners fly overhead, and if it wasn’t for the lack of pedestrians, you could almost be there. In one way, it’s like the driving parts of Grand Theft Auto done properly, but it’s also the nearest thing I’ve ever come across to The Cannonball Run in a game. One challenge involves driving a 124.3 mile circuit of the island in 60 minutes. Doing that in a Ferrari Enzo, on single carriage roads populated with other traffic, is what I call entertainment
  • Defcon. It took 23 years, but at last, someone has produced a game that does justice to the film WarGames. Simple learn, beautiful to look at, and only £10. An absolute bargain. Do you want to play Chess (see 42 All-Time Classics), or would you rather play Global Thermonuclear War?

Xbox 360 HD DVD addon for £130

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Cheaper than I expected, and it includes a remote and a copy of King Kong. I had no plans to buy an HD DVD player, but this is pretty tempting. Pity there’s no HDMI connection though.

Microsoft aren’t pulling any punches with Sony, who really better their act together. So many Xbox 360 games are turning out to really rather good. For example: Test Drive Unlimited is pretty much my favourite racing game since the original PS1 Gran Turismo and the original Need for Speed.

Compare this to Sony’s recent announcement of Gran Turismo HD, where Sony seem to want to charge hundreds of pounds if you want all the cars and tracks. If they go that route, I’ll stick with the Test Drive, Project Gotham, and Forza series on the Xbox 360 thank you very much.