…not nearly as scary as the first one…but it still worries me. Banshee looked really cool in the trailer. Aside from that I saw a lot of over-acting. Yes, I understand that mutant persecution is supposed to be a serious issue, but these guys make it seem like an episode of Days of Our Lives.
Anyway, check out the clip and let me know what you think (please). Is it better than the first one? Does it give you hope for the movie?
My Netflix pick for this week is an old wrestling documentary that’s fun to look at in a new light. Hitman Hart: Wrestling with Shadows recounts the tale of the “Montreal Screw Job” where Bret Hart lost the WWF Championship on a day he thought he was going to win. Various wrestlers and agents conspired to take the strap off of Bret out of fear that he would appear in WCW with a WWF belt. The documentary wasn’t produced by WWE, so it has a different feel — a bit on the raw side and a different bias than most WWE DVDs.
I loved this documentary when it first came out. I was amused that Hart was such a mark for himself — he really bought into his “hero” thing. Shawn Michaels and Triple H flat-out lied to Bret and his family regarding their involvement in the plot. They come off as disingenuous pricks. Over the years, Bret mellowed out and forgave the people that “screwed” him. Shawn became a born-again Christian and sorry for his role in the event. Wrestling with Shadows was fun to watch when they all hated each other and it’s even more interesting now that everyone has chilled out.
If you happen to stream my pick, I’d love to hear your thoughts on it. Now its your turn to suggest one movie we should all watch. Please make sure it’s available on Netflix streaming.
I started playing the iPad version of Final Fantasy III last night. It’s barely different from the iPhone version. That said, it’s still a great version of a really deep game. I love the Final Fantasy job system. While the graphics are relatively new (based off of the Nintendo DS remake), it’s crazy that gameplay that’s more than 20 years old is still so engaging. Aside from that, I’ll be breaking up the RPG excitement with Civilization Revolution. That game is just awesome.
How about you? What’s on your weekend playlist?
Musical parody genius “Weird” Al Yankovic has gotten approval to poke fun at Lady Gaga after seemingly being spurned by the pop star. It turns out that Gaga’s manager was giving Yankovic the runaround. The manager told Yankovic that Lady Gaga did not approve of the parody “Perform This Way”, which is based on the hit “Born This Way” (which is clearly a Madonna rip-off). According to E!, the manager has confessed to never playing the song for Lada Gaga. After the parody went viral on YouTube, Gaga heard the song and loved it. “Weird” Al now has her approval and “Perform This Way” will be the lead single on his upcoming album.
The lessons here are the managers are scum and that “Weird” Al rules!!!
Kotaku’s Stephen Totilo posted a ton of (rumored) details on the controller for the Wii 2. I really don’t know what to make of it. The controller sounds strange and unusual, but in a very different way than the Wiimote. When Nintendo announced plans for the Wii, I had an idea of what the controller could do and the type of fun it could lead to. The Wii 2 controller sounds a bit…insane:
Its main controller, as rumored, will include a touchscreen, two analog sticks and a camera, we’ve confirmed with our own games industry sources who are familiar with Nintendo’s plans for the machine.
That new controller’s screen will measure 6.2 inches and the controller will also include eight buttons.
I enjoy the simplicity and direct connection of touch controls. I also enjoy the complexity of having multiple buttons. That said, I’m having a hard time blending these two (very) different input methods. Of course it wouldn’t surprise me if Shigeru Miyamoto made a game that made the controller seem brilliant. It also wouldn’t surprise me if the controller was only used in an interesting way in first-party games developed by Nintendo.
What do you make of the Wii 2’s controller?
Here are some benchmarks for the T-Mobile G2X, which features a powerful 1GHz Tegra 2 dual-core processor. To get an idea of the phone’s performance, I used Greene Computing’s Linpack and Aurora Softworks’ Quadrant benchmark tests. The HTC Evo 4G, Samsung Epic 4G, T-Mobile G2, and HTC Thunderbolt (all running Android 2.2) were used for comparison. Each test was run five times and the scores were averaged. Here are the results.
| Linpack | Quadrant | |
| HTC Evo 4G | 33.4 | 1311 |
| Samsung Epic 4G | 14.209 | 1076 |
| T-Mobile G2 | 33.267 | 1668 |
| HTC Thunderbolt | 36.529 | 1962 |
| T-Mobile G2X | 36.64 | 2535 |
First off, those scores on the Epic 4G were very strange. I expected it to do much better. I actually ran those tests more than 20 times because the numbers didn’t make sense to me, but I kept getting similar results.
The G2X’s scores were very impressive, but keep in mind that these are synthetic benchmarks. Real-world performance will vary depending on the task performed. While the Tegra 2 makes for snappy everyday use and blazing performance in games, the Android OS isn’t fully optimized to take advantage of its power. It is rumored that the next version of Android — Ice Cream Sandwich — will truly exploit the power of multi-core processors.
For now, enjoy the benchmarks for what they are — synthetic measurements that will be used in pissing contests.
It’s a sure thing that Amazon will deliver some sort of Android device in the near future. Nobody is sure whether it will be a tablet or a phone. Nobody is sure which hardware manufacturer will be making the device. Nobody except GDGT’s Peter Rojas, that is. He recently wrote:
It’s something of an open secret that Amazon is working on an Android tablet and I am 99% certain they are having Samsung build one for them.
All the pieces are there for Amazon. The company has its own Android store, video-on-demand service, and streaming music service. It’s already the leader in digital book sales. The company has an opportunity to shake up the mobile market by offering a comparatively cheap tablet, selling it at cost or at a loss and then making up for it with sales of digital apps, movies, TV shows, music, and books.
If Amazon releases an Android tablet by Samsung this summer, would you be interested in buying one?
Gaming is at a crossroads. Big changes in the business are already underway and even bigger changes are on the horizon. What do you think of all the change that’s happening in gaming? Will you change with it?
Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, Steven Tyler dropping F-bombs on American Idol, Dr. Dre defeating Death Row, or your favorite Zamfir performance, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.
Gaming is at a crossroads. Big changes in the business are already underway and even bigger changes are on the horizon. Epic Games’ Dr. Mike “Busta” Capps recently chatted with Industry Gamers about the changes happening in the gaming business. While they’re exciting from a gamer’s point of view, they’re scary to developers and publishers:
We have not been this uncertain about what’s coming next in the games industry since Epic’s been around for 20 years. We’re at such an inflection point. Will there be physical distribution in 10 years or even five? Will anyone care about the next console generation? What’s going on in PC? Can you make money on PC if it’s not a connected game? What’s going on in mobile?
Tons of really scary things… It used to be, ‘Well, of course PlayStation 3 will be successful because PS2 was amazingly successful.’ But can you say for sure that you know everyone’s going to jump to the next generation? I sure hope so — I’m going to try to make some great tech that will make everyone want to. But it’s scary.
If there’s anything that’s killing us [in the traditional games business] it’s dollar apps. How do you sell someone a $60 game that’s really worth it … They’re used to 99 cents. As I said, it’s an uncertain time in the industry. But it’s an exciting time for whoever picks the right path and wins.
Digital distribution, mobile gaming, and social gaming are challenging traditional game makers and publishers. These relatively new forces are also challenging traditional gamers. I’m reminded of friends in the ’90s that loved PC gaming, but couldn’t adapt to a console world. I’m reminded of friends that loved 2D fighting games more than anything, but couldn’t deal with the shift to 3D. These friends are no longer the gamers that they once were.
What do you think of all the change that’s happening in gaming? Will you change with the times? Or are you perfectly comfortable with the disc-and-console model? Will you resist change and hang on as long as you can? If you don’t like what the future holds for gaming, will you look for another hobby? As for me, no matter what happens in gaming, I’ll be like Jefe from The Three Amigos: “I’m still here El Guapo!”
It is with a heavy heart and a pained pancreas that I must tell you that The Last Guardian has been delayed. Originally set to hit us this holiday season, Team Ico’s upcoming game about a boy and his dragon-dog thing looks like it won’t arrive until next year. Here’s an official statement from director Fumito Ueda:
I announced at last year’s Tokyo Game Show that the release timing of The Last Guardian which is currently being developed would be holiday 2011.
However, to provide more challenging and better quality of content to users and to fulfill First Party Studio’s obligations, I decided to postpone its release timing.
All the members of my production team are working together at a fast pace to develop and release the game in First Party Studio quality.
I sincerely apologize to all the customers who have been waiting for “The Last Guardian” for so long, but I beg for your patience. I will also announce the new release timing at a later time.
With Dragon Age II and Pokemon Black/White already out, The Last Guardian was near the top of my list of 2011 releases I really wanted. I’m bummed that the game has been delayed, but I rather have a finished version than a rush job.
Any of you bummed by this news?
One of my coworkers at GameSpy was huge on frame rate. His eyes were not happy with games running at anything less than 60 frames per second. Some people at the office were amazed by…
Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, T-Mobile releasing three interesting products this week, royal weddings, or Pia Toscana on Dancing With the Stars, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.
One of my coworkers at GameSpy was huge on frame rate. His eyes were not happy with games running at anything less than 60 frames per second. Some people at the office were amazed by his ability to quickly detect frame rate, others thought he was obsessed over a technical feature that doesn’t contribute to the fun factor in games.
What are your feelings on frame rate? Is running at 60 frames per second important to you? Do you not care about the actual rate so long as it’s consistent? Does a smooth frame rate contribute to a game’s fun factor? Or is it something you don’t really notice or care about? Share your feelings in this filmic edition of Cofee Talk (running at 24p).
