In another blow for it’s competition, and common sense, Apple have successfully filed a patent claim against HTC. The ruling states that HTC have until April 19, 2012 next year to modify their software or their phones will no longer be able to be sold within the United States.
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Another one of my “one to watch” posts, this time a small indie freeware title, but one that looks to be having more effort put into it per team member than any of this year’s AAA titles…and Modern Warfare 3.
You see, this is why I love PC Gaming, there is no way this could ever be done on a console, the whole idea of being an open platform means that just about anything can, and indeed will, be made by bedroom coders and small studios. There are people who make things because they want to, not because it pays their wages or the shareholders dividends, but I digress, the drawbacks of capitalism in what is an artistic[1] industry are not what I am here to discuss. I am in fact here to tell you about Mane6’s upcoming game, My Little Pony: Fighting is Magic.
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I’m away from home at the moment Dog/House sitting so anything I was writing about is more or less on hold. John Walker’s article for Rock, Paper, Shotgun on Blizzard’s insistence* on turning single player games into MMO’s needed reposting however, if only to get as many people aware of this nonsense as possible.
You can’t pause. In fact, in most ways, the game acts like an MMO. For instance, quit it, and you’re given the optional cooldown to have your player clear the server properly. But it’s not an MMO. It’s not even close to an MMO. So when I’m playing the single-player game, and I’m in the middle of a frenzied mob, and there’s a knock at the front door, there’s nothing I can do. As happened to me yesterday. Twice. On another occasion I was surprised by a phone call that led to my having to do some other things. I’d safely left my character in a cleared area, but long between checkpoints. When I came back to the PC, I’d been idle for too long and the game had logged me out. – John Walker
Anyway, here is the link to the full article, if you are considering buying Diablo III you really should read it before placing that order…
How Diablo III’s DRM Will Affect You.
Diablo III has been delayed until the early part of next year, so there is a while for Blizzard to go back on this ridiculous decision, and a while for you to decide if it is enough to stop you buying the game.
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* In my opinion because it gives them more control and money rather for any of the reasons they claim about making the game better.
Carrier Command: Gaea Mission is a game scheduled for release in Q1 next year. There seems to be something of a trend in reviving old Strategy game IPs for modern games, first with X-COM and then Syndicate. Carrier Command is slightly different though as with those first two I mentioned they are keeping the name and theme only, deciding that first person action will sell better presumably. Carrier Command has me interested because it seems they dare to release something that hasn’t been on the market for quite some time, it looks to be keeping the strategy of the original and only updating the graphics and interface (though the trailer does not seem to suggest this, but then trailers always have extra explosions).
Have a watch of the teaser trailer and keep an eye out for more news. I certainly will be and will keep you updated when I hear more.
Read more about the game here.
Do you know what they really are? You could be forgiven for thinking that they are a way to reward their loyal fans. They are not. There are two types, first is the general pre-order bonus and the second is the retailer specific bonus, both have their motives and both are malevolent practices that are hurting the games you love.
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I can’t condone piracy, but each step like this to curb it is one step closer to a government/corporate controlled internet. Carry on like this and you will only be able to see the news that they want you to see, personal websites and smaller concerns will disappear as only corporations will be able to afford the inevitable fees that will have to be imposed so the ISPs can enforce these things. The internet will end up like your cable TV package, with only the channels you paid for.
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As you might know from my article on the subject I have a physical keyboard on my Android phone, this was something I insisted on when I bought it as typeing on a touchscreen, as we all know, is a pain.
Well 3qubits have tried to change that by designing a new input method aimed at mobile devices. The 8pen.
The best way to understand the 8pen is to have a look at the video on their site, it takes the basc concept from Swype that you don’t lift your finger during a word but takes it further with a system that is based on gestures rather than the absolute position of the keys.
It takes a lot of getting used to, I am still slower on this than I am on the default keyboard after a week of use and much slower than on the physical keyboard, but I am getting faster so who knows? With a bit of practice I might not be insisting on a slide out QWERTY for my next phone.
You might have got the impression I hate consoles. This is not true, I just hate it when they try and do the same things as a PC but do it badly and charge you more for the privilege (Sony, Microsoft, I’m looking at you!)… Nintendo on the other hand have a different aim in mind, games that can be enjoyed by everyone. They don’t fill their games with blood and shootymen but that does not necessarily make them childish, the Zelda games are harder and longer than anything Infinity Ward have released, the Pokémon series is far more complex than it looks at first glance and despite the cartoon critters can be enjoyed by all ages (apart from 14-18 year old males as the lack of an adult only rating will put them off).
So as a result I have had a DS Lite for a while, I didn’t upgrade to the DSi as I felt very little had changed (it also lost the GBA backwards compatibility) and I didn’t get any of the other slightly different models that Nintendo released. Until now.
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I apologise for the lateness of this article, the weather looked like it was going to be nice over the Easter weekend (and it was wasn’t it!) so I took a trip down to Devon. Anyway, AJ, Akardo and I all went to The Gadget Show Live at the NEC this year.
This is my take.
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As part of my test I am writing this on my X10 Mini Pro using the WordPress application which is free in the Android Marketplace, Due to the lack of spell checker in this software I apologise for what will likely be a larger than usual number of mistakes.
So finally after 18 months Three have let me upgrade to a new phone, the Sony Ericsson X10 Mini Pro. But is it any good?
The Mini Pro is an Android smartphone, but unlike a lot of others it isn’t defined by it’s screen size. Where other manufactures have been competing by making phones with larger and larger touchscreens Sony Ericsson have made a compact Android phone instead. Continue Reading
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