Thirtyfootscrew’s Blog

I know it’s cheesy but I thought I’d do a little roundup of 2006 and then later on a series of predictions for 2007. The lists are all Top Fives and are based on techie stuff unless otherwise stated.

1. Podcasting
I had a look in 2005 and there really wasn’t any great content out there, I came back in 2006 and it was like the whole ‘industry’ had exploded with some well established shows as well as some new favourites, this was really the year the podcasting became established.

2. Video Gaming
With the Xbox 360 released in December 2005 (but generally available March 2006) and the December launch of the Wii and the PS3 (US only) this really has been the year for gaming. More than that Nintendo have performed an amazing feat by pulling games out of Geekdom and into popular culture, not only with the Wii but with this year’s release of the DS Lite and the wonderful Brain Training.

3. Beta Releases
I’m not sure what’s happened but in 2006 nobody wants to release a product without having a public Beta, this has been true for games (Phantasy Star Universe + Final Fantasy XI on the Xbox 360), PC software (Office 2007, Windows Vista) and everything regarded as Web 2.0.

4. Video & Broadcasting
This year has seen a fundamental change in the way people watch and interact with video, of course nobody missed the popularity of YouTube and its acquisition by Google for $1.65bn but the I find the complementary changes in the broadcast industry to be even more interesting. Many major players have been trying to get into the User Generated Content (UGC) market ranging from pointless attempts by people who just don’t get it (MTV Flux) to well-done but still distinctly old-media (BBC’s Your News).

5. High Definition
In 2006 we saw the launch of both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, heralding a new era of home cinema – let’s just hope that one of the two competing formats wins sooner rather than later so consumers can buy with confidence. 2006 also saw the introduction of Sky’s High Definition Satellite service, sadly it was over-priced, delivered late and has limited quantities of genuine HD content. This year also seems to be the year that people started to buy HD TVs in great quantities, at the end of 2005 I didn’t know anybody with an HD TV, now over half of my friends either own or are seriously considering an HD TV and the prices still keep on tumbling.

Well, I’m convinced I’ve missed something but that’ll have to do, I think I’ll go to bed now and hopefully dream of 2007, if I do then you’ll have my predictions tomorrow!

written by thirtyfootscrew \\ tags: beta, ds lite, nintendo, Podcasting, ps3, Video Games, wii, xbox

Like all good stories mine starts off happy, turns sad, gets happier and points towards a brighter future. Like all good stories turned into Hollywood movies my story is also overly-dramatic and probably not worth watching, but watch anyway – you always do.

I pre-ordered my Wii back months ago, from the moment the new controller was unveiled I knew I had to have one. When it got closer to launch day I booked the day off of work and confirmed with Gamestation that my order would be fulfilled, it would – all things set for happiness. Unfortunately something came up at work so I had to work on Friday but I still collected it at midnight and played Wii Sports for about an hour. Then, that weekend and the following week I was working / sleeping / Christmas shopping / socialising and didn’t really get the chance to play it (see this is the sad bit). This weekend just gone though, I got to play a little Red Steel, a little Zelda and a bit of Wii Sports and some Virtual Console games and I’m very pleased with the outcome. In brief…

Wii Sports
Very fun, quite tiring but pretty hilarious in two-player. My flatmate (a girl) an I played it for a while and the split screen mode is great fun, we got a few volleys going in Tennis and once you get the hang of it you can really control what’s going on.

Red Steel
It’s OK, because it’s not cartooney the low-res graphics on the Wii really show themselves up and I did for a few seconds think “what have I done?”, but I persevered and, well – it’s OK. I’ve not got to the sword-fighting bit yet but I do like the novelties, such as that to reload you just shake the Nun-Chuk downwards and to open a door you shake it upwards. Overall though it didn’t feel that responsive and the general sentiment of 6/10 – 7/10 is pretty justified.

Zelda Twilight Princess
My name is thirtyfootscrew, and I have never played a Zelda game before. Phew, that was hard to admit but now I’ve done it I feel like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders. It’s also a lie because now I have played Twilight Princess (though it really is the first Zelda I’ve ever played) and it seems quite good. I won’t judge the game on half-an-hour’s play as it’s not fair for such a big game but first impressions are good, I shall report back sometime in the future.

Virtual Console
I like it, though I have no real concept of what these Wii points are worth so I can’t comment on the value for money – I just went on a mini-spending spree. I loved playing Golden Axe and Columns, Mario Bros is rubbish (remember – this isn’t Super Mario Bros) and I’ve not really played Mario 64 enough to comment. The system all in all is easy to use though no better ordered than Xbox Live Arcade so will be a nightmare when it has lots of content, even though I don’t have kids I was pleased that it has ratings info for each game as it’ll help parents (something I think is good for the industry even though I’m generally anti-censorship).

General ‘ness’
I love it, I think it’s fantastic – tonight I was more excited than I have been in years about a console – I came home and it was glowing blue. I opened up the Wii Menu (basically the Wii’s OS) and found that I’d received a message from Nintendo telling me that the Forecast Channel was available. I downloaded the update and launched the channel, a brief setup tells it where you live (or nearest large town) and got stuck in, at a basic level it gives you current, 6-hour, next day and 5-day weather forecasts which seems like all you’d need. Of course, Nintendo didn’t stop there – you can zoom in and out, check other towns in the country by ‘grabbing’ the earth (zoom out enough and it is a globe), or towns in other countries.

I spent about half an hour checking weather in places like Cape Town, Baghdad, Sidney, Sri-Lanka, New York – it was great. I know this sounds trivial but the user-experience of just ‘grabbing’ the world and shifting it around really made me see what could be possible with the Wii – I believe that this is the first mass-market step in a new model of human-computer interaction and it really works. I have friends who would never consider playing on the Xbox 360 that say “that sounds fun, I’ll have to come round and try it”, my female (non-gaming) flat-mate bought herself a controller and spent an hour playing Wii Sports with one of her female non-gaming friends. Stuff like that just doesn’t happen, at least it didn’t used to – things are changing.

The one last thing I like is that whatever you’re doing it always plays soothing music to you and makes nice comforting noises when you click on things, it reminds me of the Heart of Gold from the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy – except less irritating, I think that might might make both Xbox360 and PS3 the Paranoid Androids.

MicroSony 0 – 1 Nintendo
An away win is always so much sweeter.

written by thirtyfootscrew \\ tags: don't panic, games, gaming, nintendo, red steel, Video Games, virtual console, wii

Hey, I know this is pretty damned far from my self-imposed techie remit but I just read a story about the Auschwitz camp and plans to preserve or rebuild it (see TImes Online).

I’ve never been into history having always found it to be stuffy and boring, I tire easily of reading pointless times in history like when King Charles and King David united their mighty armies with Queen Joanna to fight the evil Prince Jamie Oliver using only Cheeky Cockney songs. The aforemention made-up history just proves the point that I just don’t care. But there are exceptions…

Some history can be useful, events in the past that directly affect today’s culture and society (such as the reformation which I was explaining to some colleagues of mine the other day) are important, but I think too much time at school is spent learning rubbish history like arable crop farming methods – stuff that’s so boring it wouldn’t even win you a pub quiz.

My general disdain for history probably comes from being taught a bad syllabus by apathetic teachers, anyone with an even mild interest in the past ought to check out The Mark Steel Lectures, even from my cynical viewpoint I found it fascinating and a million times more engaging than stuffy classrooms or textbooks.

Back to the main (off) topic, I visited Auschwitz earlier this year and was blown away, I always knew roughly what happened there and none of the facts or figures suprised me in the slightest but by visiting the place I got to FEEL what the place was like. Being able to see and feel the place really gave me a sense of the place and the scale of what happened, something so horrible we should never forget – that’s what they should be teaching in schools and it’s something we should never lose.

written by thirtyfootscrew \\ tags: auschwitz, history, holocaust, mark steel, preservation