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iPad 2 Launches Globally…While Americans Still Wait

Apple’s iPad 2 launches globally today. It will be available in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. Meanwhile in America, thousands of customers that placed online orders on the U.S. launch day (March 11) are still waiting for product.

I got my order in late on launch day and have an estimated (and probably exaggerated) ship date of April 1. Browsing through Apple’s forums, customers that placed their orders around the same time I did will be getting product next week. Hopefully mine ships soon as well. The good news is that Dragon Age II has kept me thoroughly entertained. Otherwise I’d be annoyed by one of the most poorly handled launches in recent Apple history. I’d be especially annoyed that some guy in Belgium will be enjoying his iPad 2 today while eating fries (which are Belgian, not French) and drinking Hoegaarden while I’m still waiting for my damn product to ship.

This launch would have been so much better if Apple did online pre-orders and waited a month to build up a healthy supply of units. Screw the Portuguese people. I want my frickin’ iPad 2 already.

Coffee Talk #324: What’s the Funniest Game of All Time?

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, Hulk Hogan punching out Ryan Seacrest on American Idol, Scarlett Johansson dating Sean Penn, or getting people to call Facebook “The Facebook”, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

Last night a friend totally stumped me when he asked, “What do you think the funniest game ever is?” Hours later, I’m still not sure of my answer. I immediately thought of several Tim Schafer games, as well as Conker’s Bad Fur Day. Erik Wolpaw’s work on Portal was some of the funniest writing ever in a videogame. Right now I’m leaning towards Portal…but I’m still not sure.

That’s where you come in! What are some of the funniest games you’ve played?

What Are You Playing This Weekend?

My third run of Dragon Age II is almost done and I plan on playing the game one more time (at least). I’m really digging the background banter between my companion characters. Mixing and matching allies leads to different conversations. I’m amazed by the sheer amount of dialogue and impressed that there’s always something new that cracks me up.

I’m missing DC Universe Online a bit. Hopefully my superhero powers aren’t too rusty when I jump back into the game. Perhaps I’ll give it a quick whirl this weekend before taking up the cowl in earnest next weekend.

Oh, I almost forgot that I have a quick work trip this weekend. I’ll definitely be playing Tactics Ogre in the friendly skies.

How about you? What’s on your weekend playlist?

Official Captain America Movie Trailer is Awesome

I totally marked out over this Captain America trailer. It was cool seeing Howard Stark (Iron Man’s dad) being part of the Super Soldier Program. Seeing the skinny version of Steve Rogers was neat. The quick glimpse of the Red Skull was well done. I loved seeing Cap in costume and my heart soared watching his shield fly through the air. I had my doubts about Chris Evans, but as a comic-book nerd I’m sold on the movie.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the trailer. Check it out when you have a moment.

Insomniac Games Ted Price Speaks…and You Should Listen

Here’s my interview with Insomniac Games president & CEO Ted Price. My favorite part was when he explained why he wanted the original Ratchet & Clank referred to as a “character action game” instead of a platformer. Other topics include the company’s work on the Xbox 360, the socialization of gaming, and Insomniac’s 2011 lineup.

Confession: I really sucked in this interview. Thankfully Ted saved it with his great answers. As you can see, I wasn’t nearly as comfortable as I was during my Mike “Busta” Capps interview. I’ve known Ted for a long time and he’s a fantastic guy, but for some reason I kept thinking, “Gee, Ted Price sure is smart, successful, and handsome,” during the interview. As nice as he is, he can also be unnervingly awesome. Ha!

Motorola Working on its Own Mobile OS?

I was shocked to learn that Motorola Mobility is most likely working on its own mobile operating system. I want to call someone at Motorola to say, “Uh, didn’t you guys fail at this already?” and, “Haven’t you been watching Nokia’s downfall?” While it seems prudent to diversify offerings, I also think it’s a monumental waste of money for Motorola to develop a new mobile operating system at this time. Here’s the scoop from InformationWeek:

Motorola Mobility has hired a number of experienced mobile and Web engineers from Apple and Adobe and is developing a Web-based mobile operating system as a possible alternative to Google’s Android software, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Over the past nine months, Motorola has been hiring engineering talent that would well-suited to create a new mobile operating system. Its team appears to include a significant number of ex-Apple and Adobe personnel, including Gilles Drieu, VP of software engineering at Motorola Mobility, Benoit Marchant, director of engineering at Motorola Mobility, and Sean Kranzberg, also a director of engineering at Motorola Mobility.

The consumer smartphone market is currently dominated by Apple iOS and Google Android. RIM’s BlackBerry OS is still immensely popular on the corporate side, but its market share will probably continue to decline. Microsoft is aggressively trying to establish Windows Phone 7. It’s a fresh and interesting OS that’s backed by a ton of MS money, but it seems unlikely to nab a significant piece of the market. The same goes for the innovative webOS, which is now owned by HP — great product that will probably never achieve notable market share. As you can see, the mobile market is full of quality operating systems. (It also has Samsung Bada. *zing*)

Assuming InformationWeek’s sources are correct, I can’t believe that Motorola wants to get in this race. Do you think it’s wise for Motorola to build its own OS? Or is the company out of its frickin’ mind?

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Coffee Talk #323: Will Gamers Always Be Scorally Fixated?

Are most gamers too lazy or indifferent to learn the reasoning behind the score? Will they always be fixated on the number instead of the reasoning behind 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, the Barry Bonds trial, Chris Brown vs. windows, or Christina Aguilera getting a Twitter account, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

My video review of Dragon Age II finally posted. As expected, there were tons of negative comments from people that can’t see past their own perspective. Additionally, there were a lot of people that complained about the score being posted in the title of the review (not my decision, btw). For some reason, this was a big spoiler. Really?!?

Several of you know that I have all sorts of problems with the review process and score is a biggie. Considering how random and undefined most scoring systems are, it’s disappointing that so many gamers are fixated on an arbitrary number. If you’re interested in a game then don’t you owe it to yourself to find out why a game received the score that it did? Isn’t the reasoning behind the score more important than the score itself?

Am I expecting too much from the average gamer? (You guys and gals are all way above average, for the record.) Are most gamers too lazy or indifferent to learn the reasoning behind the score? Or do they just want to see a number and argue about it (without knowing whether a 5/10 or a 7/10 is average based on the outlet’s criteria)? Will gamers be able to get past scores? Or will they always be fixated on the number? Kindly share your thoughts in the comments section.

(And if you have extra time, please give my review a “thumbs up” on YouTube and leave a comment.)

PS3 Hacker GeoHot Hiding Out in South America

I haven’t been writing much about the legal battle between Sony Computer Entertainment American and renowned hacker George Hotz (GeoHot), but this latest tidbit is too good to ignore. Instead of complying with several requests made by federal magistrate judge Joseph Spero, Hotz has high tailed it to South America. According to a statement filed by SCEA:

Most seriously, after Magistrate Judge Spero ordered an inspection of Hotz’s devices and ordered Hotz to appear at a deposition in California, SCEA learned that Hotz had deliberately removed integral components of his impounded hard drives prior to delivering them to a third party neutral and that Hotz is now in South America, an excuse for why he will not immediately provide the components of his hard drives as requested by the neutral.

Hotz’s attempts to dodge this Court’s authority raise very serious questions.

Also, he allegedly lied about having a PSN account. That’s a crime punishable by 50 lashes with a PS3 power cable.

Sony vs. GeoHot went from being a boring legal battle to movie-of-the-week material! In my head, Hotz is in Brazil, hanging out with Blanka. Where do you think he is? What do you think he’s doing? What do you make of him leaving the country when he has serious legal issues to deal with?

Source via VGHQ

Read My Dragon Age II Review (Please)!

I was waiting for the accompanying video to post, but I’m kind of tired of waiting. I’ll add that in a separate post. Anyway, kindly check out my Dragon Age II review at Machinima.com. I’m completely digging the game — even more than the original (I’m nearly done with my third play-through). Here’s a snippet from the review (I love quoting myself):

Some players will hate that Dragon Age II is smaller in scope, has less customization, and features easier combat. None of that bothered me too much and I think the hate is overblown. My biggest complaint was seeing the same environments over and over again. As for the gameplay, I enjoyed a lot of the streamlining and think people complaining about companion armor customization are a bit wacky (buy a doll). On paper, the combat is deep, but making the game more accessible left me without a reason to take advantage of my character’s abilities. Ultimately, I was left with two of the three things I expect from a BioWare game — fantastic story and brilliant characters. And that’s more than enough to leave me confident that Dragon Age II will end up being one of my favorite games of 2011.

If you have time, please leave a comment over at Machinima. If you want to talk more about the game here, I’m totally up for that as well. Please be warned that discussing Dragon Age II in this post will probably lead to spoilers.

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Square Enix Launches Hippos Lab Mobile Studio

Compared to its competitors, Square Enix has been aggressive with mobile game publishing, releasing a number of quality titles for iOS devices. The company seeks to bolster its mobile efforts with a new subsidiary called Hippos Lab.

The wholly-owned subsidiary, launched on March 7, is looking to provide “high quality original content focusing on smart phones”.

The company notes that the popularity of the smartphone “has exploded in recent years,” and it believes that “the smartphone will run away with the show.” Hippos Lab aims to have its first release “ready soon.”

Square Enix is one of my favorite videogame publishers and I’m excited to see what Hippos Lab does on mobile platforms. While I’m sure a lot of its focus will be on iOS, I’m hoping that the company can help the languishing Android games market thrive. Also, where the hell is my Final Fantasy Tactics for iOS?!? *joke*

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