Follow us on Twitter: @ggtl
Join our friendly community!
Latest news
24.5.12
Last year, I didn't want a 3DS. Nintendo's latest handheld had just limped out of the gate like a three-legged burro with gout, and unimpressed me with its exorbitant price point, impotent battery life and meagre catalogue of compelling games.
The bad news is that the battery life hasn't changed, still clocking in at three to five hours depending on brightness and 3D-intensity. I'm happy to say, though, that my other inhibitions have subsided since last April, when I first wrote about them, and I find myself craving a 3DS more and more every day.
What a difference a year makes. When the 3DS dropped in March 2011, it did so alongside very few 'must-have' games, with Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition taking the trophy for the best of the system's launch titles. It took months for the system's most-anticipated games to hit shelves, and even then they were largely ports of games released more than ten years ago: Star Fox 64 3D, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, and so forth.
Even if I did feel like trying out Steel Diver or Pilotwings Resort, the cost of entry was far too great. The 3DS launched at a huge $249.99 in the US, one of the most expensive handheld gaming platforms this side of the iPad. The price point was baffling; the system hardly had any noteworthy tech notwithstanding glasses-free 3D - something that portable gamers weren't exactly clamouring for - and Nintendo had either the arrogance or the cluelessness to mark it $30 above the cost of an iPod Touch, a device in direct competition with the 3DS and possessing significantly more versatile functionality: games, videos, music, and a swanky swipe motion to unlock it.
I was torn at the time. Here I was, former portable gaming junkie, deliberately sitting out the launch of a new Nintendo handheld. I tried coaxing myself into making the purchase, building cases for why I should put down my hard-earned coin for Nintendo's new console.
I couldn't do it.
I vowed instead to wait until the big N got their act together and made me want their system.
How fortunate that Nintendo seemed to come round as the year went on. Perhaps sensing the antipathy towards their new baby, Nintendo issued a massive price-cut made effective on 11th August, 2011, which reduced the cost to $169.99, chopping nearly a third off of the fledgling system's MSRP. The move looked drastic, and some in the media took it as a sign of Nintendo flailing to prevent their new ship from sinking. The move worked, though, with Japanese sales surging during the week of the price-cut and American figures following suit.
It wasn't enough for the price to drop, though. The 3DS's sudden increase in affordability did nothing to soften my resolve, because there weren't any games I actually wanted to play on the thing. It was about this time, though, that a new wave of games started hitting the 3DS. Good, high-quality games that actually interested me, rather than the "Dead Space: Extraction is actually fun if you like lightgun games" malarkey of before. Everyone on Twitter went nuts about Super Mario 3D Land, and I started having vivid fantasies of how much fun Mario Kart 7 would be whilst on the road (may this be the only time that I use the words "vivid fantasy" and "Mario Kart" in the same sentence). Several other non-Nintendo gems caught my attention as well: a port of acclaimed side-scroller Cave Story here, a remixed entry in the Shin Megami Tensei series there, and a brand new, worthwhile Resident Evil game, all had me looking on in envy at the fun I was missing.
Then came the breaking point. I'll always remember when my attitude towards the 3DS shifted from "wait and see" to "I must have this system now." I was having a pleasant, relaxed Sunday, lounging about at home, when I heard five special words that changed my life:
"New Super Mario Bros. 2"
Boom. That was all it took. New Super Mario Bros. was one of my favourite games for the original DS, and the prospect of playing through another 2D Mario game was simply too enticing to pass up. I kept biding my time and looking for a reason to open my heart to the 3DS, and the announcement of New Super Mario Bros. 2 triggered something like a time-lapse shot of a sunflower blooming in my chest.
After a year, I can finally accept the 3DS as a thing I want, and it feels damn good. True, the battery life still sucks, but I can get used to charging my gaming systems once a day; I did the same with my mobile phone. Nintendo's portable efforts are finally relevant to me again, and it's like welcoming back a prodigal son. I'll hold off buying a 3DS until after E3, just in case Nintendo decides to announce a hardware redesign, but the fact that I'm planning to buy it at all speaks volumes about how Nintendo can turn around an unfavourable situation.
Labels: 3D gaming, Andrew Testerman, Nintendo, Nintendo 3DS
- Andrew Testerman
When a fighting game comes along that makes me stop and take notice, it's usually a sign that it's a damn good fighter. Street Fighter IV was possibly the first fighting game I'd enjoyed playing since Tekken 3 on the original PlayStation, but after hearing of the hardcore-centric arcade past enjoyed by the Mortal Kombat series, I have to say I felt a rather large degree of trepidation going into this game. I'd had a good time with the demo for sure, but delving into the larger overall single player and multiplayer experiences offered in the full game would surely be an entirely different story.
Don't get me wrong, this rebooted Mortal Kombat is just about as classic and hardcore as you're likely to get in this generation of console fighters, but even for a relatively inexperienced fighting game player like myself, this is still a damn enjoyable, blood-drenched good time.
Mortal Kombat's reboot undoubtedly stems from the 'easy to learn, difficult to master' template of approachability, and in the eyes of most people this is probably the ideal way to design the gameplay system of a fighting game. Mortal Kombat is set on a traditional 2D plane, a departure from the 3D plane of Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe; as a result, the action is far more immediate and intense. The style of fighting encourages an offensive strategy, with techniques such as projectile attacks and air combos far more dangerous and effective than they were in the more recent entries to the series. Indeed, this new Mortal Kombat has its feet firmly planted in the arcades. Learning defensive moves like blocking, jumping and teleporting are obviously important if you're to have any success on the harder difficulties, or when taking the fight online, but the way in which you are encouraged to play with an open and offensive style certainly caters itself to newcomers looking for a bloody good time.
Fighting is ultimately thrilling, as it should be, and the formula is given even more flash by the special moves. As you take damage or land hits, a combo bar fills up at the bottom of the screen. As it fills, you're able to perform special moves simply by landing a combo on an enemy whilst holding down the right trigger button. Alternatively, you can wait until the entire combo bar is filled up and subsequently unleash a devastating 'X-Ray' move, by simply holding down both triggers. These bone-crunching moves not only do ridiculous damage that can change the direction of a fight immediately, but they also look completely insane. Fighters are subjected to acts of complete brutality and, as the name suggests, players are given an X-Ray view of their opponent, as their spines are snapped, skulls are stamped on and crotches are kicked. Whilst obviously looking insanely brutal - and also rather cool, in a sick kind of way - these special moves ensure that the game isn't just a nineties arcade title with modern day graphics. Whilst the basic fighting is still fantastic despite the age of its core mechanics, the special and X-Ray moves keep the gameplay feeling fresh and unpredictable, even for veterans of the series.
Fatalities also make a return. These finishing moves are more for visual punch than anything gameplay-related, but it's undeniably more fun to finish a fight by ripping your opponent in half - or, eating their face playing as a scantily-clad, busty, deranged woman - than it is to simply kick them over. They look ridiculously violent, and you haven't lived before you've seen Johnny Cage rip someone's torso off in 3D.
The classic one-on-one fighting is what most people will get their kicks out of, but Mortal Kombat has also introduced a new tag-team approach to fighting. The game lets up to four humans play at once, if you're interested in tag-teaming with a real person; but you can also play alongside an AI partner against two other AI-controlled fighters, or can control both of the fighters on your team and swap between them as the fight plays out. The tag battles add some extra moves to the game as well, such as allowing you to call in your partner to perform quick special moves, or tagging out in the middle of a combo for additional brutality. Personally, I prefer the classic one-on-one style, but tagging in and out makes for a fun variant which may be even more enjoyable for some.
What surprised me the most about Mortal Kombat was the sheer amount of content on the disc, ensuring that there are plenty of ways for you to kick arse across a multitude of modes. The multiplayer modes are obviously worth considering, but what really impressed me was the breadth of single-player options available. In fact, the game probably has the widest and best selection of single-player modes that I've ever seen in a fighting game. The flagship mode is the story mode, which simply connects the traditional fighting with a decent story told through very well-produced cutscenes. To be honest, the story flew right over my head, but it will probably appeal to long-time fans of the series tenfold more. In fairness, a clear amount of effort and resources have gone into the story mode, and that fact alone impressed me, even though I really didn't have a great idea of what was going on half the time. From what I've gathered from friends who are somewhat more familiar with the Mortal Kombat lore than myself, the story mode here retells the events of the first three games of the series as if they had taken place in an alternate timeline. As a result, some characters end up in totally different states than they had done in the prior games, and so loyal followers of the lore will find some interest in seeing what happens to their favourite characters. For me personally (and for other newcomers as well, I'm sure) the story mode is just a well-presented excuse to rip people's heads off.
The eight-hour story mode isn't the only single-player mode here, though. The traditional arcade mode is present and accounted for, and plays out in a ladder-based tournament style. Playing through this mode with different characters will give you slightly different endings depending on who you choose.
The final single-player mode, the Challenge Tower, is a collection of 300 tasks, from traditional fights to some seriously crazy twists and variants to keep you guessing. Some of these variants are simple enough, such as requiring you to use a certain move or to perform a fatality, but some of them are much crazier - launching one of your limbs at your enemy, for example. Your limbs grow back over time, giving you a steady stream of heads, arms and legs to launch instead of traditional punches and kicks. Other twists include having the stage tilt from side-to-side as hits land, or even fighting upside-down. Some of the tasks come with silly bits of dialogue, such as one that has Mileena trying to give a teddy bear as a gift, or another that has Shang Tsung and Shao Kahn fighting over a baby that sits in the background as you battle. A crying baby sitting there as two guys tear each other limb-from-limb? It's at times like that when you wonder about the state of Ed Boon's mental health.
These single-player modes are worth playing before you dive into the online competition, mainly because you'll want to master at least a few of the twenty-seven characters on offer. Old favourites like Scorpion are available, and all the fighters have at least two fatalities and two costumes. These extras are unlocked in the Krypt by spending your MK Points, which are earned simply by fighting, completing challenges and advancing in the story. As well as costumes and fatalities, you can also unlock music, concept art and other goodies that can be viewed later in the Nekropolis. PlayStation 3 owners can also enjoy playing as God of War frontman, Kratos, which might be worth considering if you have the choice between the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions.
The aforementioned online experience is a key cornerstone of this new Mortal Kombat. Ranked and unranked options are both available in order to quickly dive into a fight, but lobbies make a welcome return and are a fun way of experiencing the online component of the game. As well as fighting, other members of the lobby can watch ongoing fights and perform gestures, as their Xbox Live avatar watches the fight on a cinema screen. PlayStation 3 gamers instead use cartoon doll versions of Mortal Kombat fighters (don't expect to see your much-loved PlayStation Home avatar jumping around anytime soon). In terms of online modes, regular fights as well as tag-team battles are available, and there are also some unique modes to the online experience such as King of the Hill. The concept is simple: the winner stays on, the loser goes to the back of the queue and is forced to watch the next few fights from the lobby as the next contender gets a chance to fight. None of the interesting mini-games from the Challenge Tower are available to play online, but with DLC promised further down the road, that may eventually become a reality for players to enjoy.
Clearly, there is a hell of a lot to Mortal Kombat, and it's all brought together in a very impressive visual package. Characters and backgrounds are exceptionally detailed, with a disturbingly impressive range of animations for the X-Ray moves and Fatalities. Fighters get battered and bruised throughout the course of a fight and their costumes become ripped and bloodied, which is another really nice touch. Of course, a further bonus for PlayStation 3 owners is the ability to play in 3D and - whilst I only have my experience with the PlayStation 3 demo's 3D capabilities to go on - it's a very impressive visual element which adds a nice layer of depth to the proceedings. In terms of mere graphical detail and performance, however, there are no noticeable differences between the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game.
There isn't much that's in any way negative about Mortal Kombat. It's a fantastic fighting game with a ridiculous number of modes for both single-player games and online competition, a terrifically approachable but fiendishly difficult to master fighting system, and it's incredibly good-looking as well. Whether you're a hardcore fighting game fan or someone who just wants to kick some arse and rip some heads off in a ridiculously violent game, Mortal Kombat is absolutely worth playing. Absolutely.
9/10 [?]
Labels: 2011, 360, 3D gaming, Fighting, Mortal Kombat, NetherRealm Studios, PlayStation 3, PS3, Review, Tom Acres, Warner Bros., Xbox 360
- Unknown
Two Sundays ago the gaming industry was graced with a brand new bundle of joy: the latest handheld from Nintendo, the 3DS. The 3DS has been the talk of the industry for some time now, and the focus of technical folk everywhere for its promise of glasses-free 3D gaming. Impressions of the console have been mixed, ranging from rather positive to somewhat negative, though apparently it has sold fairly well since its initial launch. As a lover of portable gaming, I’ve been thinking about its launch carefully, and I’ve decided I’m going to do the same thing I did when the original DS launched in back 2004: wait.
Make no mistake, I’m pretty stoked about what the 3DS brings to the table. I am a mild appreciator of a well-done 3D effect (I have embarrassingly caught myself musing how awesome Final Fantasy XIII would look in 3D), and the prospect of not having to wear glasses only sweetens the deal. There’s also the fact that the 3DS is undeniably more powerful than the current DS, and much more able to handle intense 3D graphics (we’re talking polygons) that modern gamers seem to enjoy. Not to mention the gyroscope, twin cameras, analog stick that actually works, and any other manner of technological enhancements brought on by the new hardware.
There are a number of known caveats with this new handheld, however. The battery life is said to last anywhere from three-to-five hours, which, by my calculations, lands it firmly in the realm of the Game Gear, and just barely lasts longer than the PSP. There is also an apparent cavalcade of warnings on the side of the box, all the better than to keep the system out of the hands of the child it was presumably bought for. Lastly, and perhaps most significantly, the 3DS is a whopping $249.99; though not quite as shocking as when the PSP debuted for that back in 2004, it’s still a good chunk of change to invest in order to play PilotWings Resort.
These are the superficial complaints, the flaws that can be levied against the system by anyone who has read about it. The real issues holding me back from purchasing a 3DS, though, are a bit more personal, and I’d like to explain why this lifelong fan of portable gaming is taking a powder* from Nintendo’s biggest hardware launch this year.
The most obvious reason, perhaps, is its anemic lineup of launch games. A few months ago, many in the industry were speculating on how the 3DS could have the strongest collection of Day One software ever, with a 3D remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, a reboot of the Kid Icarus franchise, and several other titles worth their weight in drool. What did we actually get? Super Street Fighter IV 3DS, and Nintendogs + Cats. Or, as I like to think of them, games I’ve already played. True, it would be nice to be able to throw down Shoryukens on the road, or to look after a digital kitty during the daily commute (I’m much more of a cat person), but these are merely extensions of experiences I’ve already had, rather than a new killer-app that the 3DS can truly call its own. Though they may be fun, system-sellers these titles are not.
Secondly, I don’t think I can properly convey how inconvenient that three-to-five hour battery life is. I’m rather old-fashioned from a tech standpoint, and perhaps my largest gadgetary peeve is charging my smart phone more than once a day if I’ve been using it heavily. With three-to-five hours of potential usage, it’s as if Nintendo doesn’t want me to play with the thing, forcing me to concentrate on how long I’ve been using the machine, rather than getting lost in the gaming experience. Plus, I live in Montana, which has roughly the landmass of Japan, and I need a handheld to have a good, strong battery life for weekend road trips to visit family around the state.
Another reason I’m content to wait is much more me-centric: I just bought a DSi XL last year, a decision that ranks up with buying an iPod three weeks before Apple announces new models (which I have also done). I absolutely love my XL and its enormous screens, and I want to justify my buying decision as best I can by hanging onto it; I pussyfooted around for nearly a year before upgrading to the XL, and I will not so readily surrender my purchase and throw away my money to upgrade to a platform with whom my interest is merely academic. Melodramatic? Perhaps. But even in the short time I’ve owned my XL, it’s travelled around with me quite a bit, leading me to grow quite fond of it, and I’d rather keep my sentimentally-attached handheld than swap it our for a new one, thank you very much.
Lastly, and perhaps most cynically, I’m waiting for the almost inevitable upgrade that Nintendo seems to do with all of its handhelds. The Game Boy Advance saw the GBA SP release slightly more than two years after its backlight-less older brother, and the DS Lite (which is where I hopped on the bandwagon) dropped about a year and a half after its chunkier predecessor. While the 3DS is nowhere near needing an out-of-the-gate hardware upgrade as the other two systems I mentioned (seriously, did they even look at the DS Phat before they shipped it to the public?), I’m confident that Nintendo will continue to iterate on its device, just like it has in the past. Besides, by the time the 3DS Lite ships, its library should be so full of good games, I’ll have no choice but to buy it.
There’s always the chance that, by choosing to sit this one out, I will completely miss out on a new epoch in gaming; maybe by the time I’ve decided I want a 3DS, the novelty of 3D gaming will have passed, and we’ll be on to bigger and better things (I’m calling it now: portable Kinect). Still, even if I am missing the 3D boat, I’m okay with that for now. I’m still playing catch-up on all of the great DS games that I haven’t played yet, not to mention cutting my teeth into Pokémon White. There’ll definitely be a day when I’ll waltz into Target and plunk down my hard-earned coin for some glasses-free three-dimensional goodness, but for now, I’m too busy having fun with my DSi XL to notice all of the fun I could be having with the 3DS.
Labels: 2011, 3D gaming, 3DS, Andrew Testerman, DS, DS2, DSiWare, Handheld, Nintendo
- Andrew Testerman
After a few decent but pretty unspectacular entries in the long running Mortal Kombat series, series creator Ed Boon is taking it back to its roots this April, with a new game simply entitled Mortal Kombat. As the first entry in the core series to appear on the current generation of consoles, hopes and expectations are high, particularly amongst hardcore fans. I have no real affinity towards the series (or fighting games in general), but in a bid to see what the fuss is all about, I downloaded the demo on my PlayStation 3, and was quickly having my arse handed to me on a plate.
I was somewhat disappointed that the demo was single-player only, but you do get to compete against the AI on five difficulty levels as you move up the first four stages of a ladder; fighting Scorpion, Johnny Cage, Mileena, and Sub-Zero along the way. The demo ends at the fifth stage, but being able to check out four characters across a few different environments is relatively impressive for a demo that only weighed in at just over 500MB. The difficulty began as tame on the lower few settings, with opponents barely trying to register any sort of attack on me as I jumped around and crouched like an idiot, desperately trying to get a grip on the controls. Once I had, I was able to string a few combos together by accident, and after checking the moves list I was having a decent time beating the crap out of an AI opponent who wasn't really doing anything in response.
Moving up a few difficulty levels, the intricacies of the fighting system became clear, and soon I was failing epically. It's fairly fast-paced, but not anywhere near the speed of something like Street Fighter IV or Marvel vs Capcom 3. Combos and moves can sometimes take a while to perform, thanks to some pretty excessive animations from a few of the characters, but overall the fights have a nice flow to them. Playing with a D-pad is obviously preferable to using an analogue stick, and for that reason alone anyone with the choice of PS3 or 360 at launch should surely choose the former - the PlayStation 3's easy-to-use D-pad lends itself better than its rival to the gameplay of Mortal Kombat. It's also worth noting that PlayStation owners will enjoy Kratos as an exclusive playable character, although he wasn't available in the demo, and there's no word on whether or not 360 fans will have anything similar to look forward to.
The main menu also reveals the other modes you can expect to be playing; though many single player modes are all present and correct, some interesting challenge rooms make an appearance, and (of course) online multiplayer will also be a feature. After spending some time with Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe online, I think we can expect this new game to provide an excellent online multiplayer experience.
What's abundantly clear from the demo is that this is one damn good looking game. Running on the Unreal Engine, character models and animations are absolutely fantastic, with a great level of detail. The fatal blows you can perform at the end of a fight look incredible and are also absolutely brutal, from freezing a dude's legs and then ripping off his torso, to tearing a guy's head off and swinging it lasso-style by the spinal cord; these moves are not for the faint-hearted. If you're rich enough, you can also enjoy all these brutal delights in glorious 3D. The game looks even more brilliant in 3D, which surprised me, since the fighting happens on a 2D plain. The 3D adds some really excellent depth to the landscapes, and the already-excellent looking environments look even better. It definitely falls into the category of '3D just-for-looks' (rather than '3D for gameplay enhancements'), but it looks terrific and is actually a lot more focussed and much less headache-inducing thanks to its 2D plain.
Sound effects are also top notch; the sounds of bones breaking and limbs ripping sound incredibly shocking and satisfying on a surround sound system.
Bearing in mind that I'm not a massive fan of fighting games, I came away feeling very impressed with Mortal Kombat. I think that fans of the series will instantly feel at home with the fighting system, whilst those who have never touched Mortal Kombat will be able to marvel at its stunning presentation and ridiculous violence. Whether you're a hardcore fan of the series, or a fighting game novice looking for a baptism by aesthetically-wonderful fire, Mortal Kombat could well be worth checking out.
Mortal Kombat releases for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on April 21st in Europe and April 19th in North America.
Labels: 2011, 360, 3D gaming, Demo Impressions, Mortal Kombat, Preview, PS3, Tom Acres
- Unknown
During my holiday to Florida a while back, I was handed the unexpected opportunity to try out the new technology that everyone's talking about: 3D.
Now, I've experienced it before in the cinema. I was impressed with its use in Avatar; depressed by its use in Clash of the Titans; and unimpressed with its use in Toy Story 3. I had little expectation when I noticed the TV in a Sony Store and thought about trying it out. I thought that a forty-six-inch screen was too small to give the effect. I thought the glasses would be a nuisance and dim the colours of the screen as they do at the cinema. I thought the 3D effect might be too much or too little.
Yet, against all my expectations, the first word that I came out with when I donned the glasses and switched them on was: "Wow."
The first use of 3D I got to experience was live sport, something which may not interest gamers much but something that certainly interested me. I was curious to see how live, fast moving images would be shown. I got a glimpse of football and American football, both of which were surprisingly incredible, and then golf (which, as much as I hate the sport, completely blew me away). The level of depth is simply astonishing; the layering effect as you see the golfer lining up a putt, with the wind blowing the flag in the background, is amazing.
I then got a look at a couple of film trailers for How To Train Your Dragon and Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs. They looked better than I remembered when I had seen them at the cinema, and I think that had a lot to do with the quality of the glasses. The Sony 3D glasses used for these TVs are of superb quality; they look and feel expensive but are perfectly comfortable and I forgot I was wearing them after a while. What impressed me most was that the brightness and clarity of the screen wasn't lost at all. Having seen Toy Story 3 in 3D and on a normal screen, the difference in clarity, brightness and colour definition was noticeable, as 3D usually badly affects those things. With 3DTV, though, these problems don't exist; the screen is beautiful 1080p HD and the glasses don't dim the screen at all.
Then the moment came. The moment I had been hoping for - a chance to try out some 3D gaming.
Having seen me say "wow" about forty times in the space of a few minutes, the store attendant asked me if I'd like to check out the PlayStation 3 in 3D. He took me through into their 'theatre room' at the back of the store, and booted up a game of Motorstorm: Pacific Rift in 3D.
The effect was simply incredible.
The mud coming off the track from the wheels of the vehicle flew out at me, and the depth of the effect made the feeling of overtaking an opponent even more thrilling. The crashes and wreckages were even more incredible, with the close-up and slow-motion angles really aiding the 3D effect.
The effect 3D is having on films has already been felt, and with the approach of 3DTV becoming available all across Europe and the US, I think it's going to be big - bigger than HD was when that first came out, anyhow. The technophiles that I know always said, and some still do say, "I can't see any difference". With 3D, that reaction just cannot be possible, as it's impossible not to see the difference.
How much were the best HDTVs when they first came out? I'm talking Sony BRAVIA models - the very best. Maybe £2,000? Expensive, yes, but the cheapest BRAVIA 3DTV due to be available at the end of September is £200 more. Add to that the 3D emitter for £50 and a few pairs of £70 glasses and you're probably looking at £2,500.
The thing is, as much as we accept HD as the norm now, the fact is that it still hasn't been widely adopted outside the gaming and techie markets. The biggest videogame console on the market, the Wii, doesn't even support HD. Yet their next handheld, which will no doubt be huge, is 3D. The PlayStation 3 already supports 3D, whilst the Xbox 360 will support the technology very soon with the release of Crysis 2.
The potential is just huge. Imagine the incredible depth of the tropical environments in Uncharted, or the stunning alien battles of Resistance. It sounds pretty good, eh? The immersion that could be provided by 3D in conjunction with PlayStation Move is very exciting indeed.
Apparently, at the moment, only 2% of Brits are interested in 3DTV. If everyone in Britain gets their arses down to their local Sony shop and checks them out, then I think that number could increase rather a lot. I'm making this prediction with confidence: 3D will have a quicker adoption rate than HD.
3D gaming is going to be huge.
Labels: 3D gaming, Feature, PlayStation3, PS3, Tom Acres
- Unknown
It’s about 1pm when the A-team of technology – The Gadget Show presenters – enter the Super Theatre at the Gadget Show Live. It’s a huge performance space, but it reflects the rest of Birmingham’s NEC arena – the whole place is a gargantuan maze of warehouses, huge show floors and miles of airport-esque corridors. However, it’s not the Super Theatre which we’ve come to see – it’s an interview with legendary gamer and Gadget Show original, Jason Bradbury, which we’re excited about.
The first thing which hits you is that Bradbury is considerably less excitable in real life than he is on-screen. Entering with a cup of tea, he’s cooler, quieter and much more professional than regular viewers of Five’s Gadget Show would expect. That’s not to say he’s placid or dull, however – he’s cracking jokes as the presenters take a photo call, making the press collected at the Super Theatre with their array of cameras laugh.
Bradbury has been a member of the Gadget Show team since the show first broadcast in 2006. It’s a show which has pulled in millions of viewers and critical acclaim across the industry in its six years of broadcast; a feat which Bradbury puts down to mass accessibility. “I understand the need to make the content as easily accessible as possible, and that’s the Gadget Show’s genuine success story: it makes complex stuff easy to absorb, early in the schedule.”
However, Bradbury has become stereotyped for his eccentricity in the show – a notorious characteristic which he seems to want to rebel against more. “I understand the need to make the content as easily accessible as possible. What I wish, though, is that I personally didn’t play the role of ‘crazy dude’ quite so much – actually, I’m serious about my tech and I get less of an opportunity now than in the first few years of the series to do hardcore reviews. That’s the only thing I regret about the way the show has gone.”
“Editorially, I’m a geek, and I’d like to delve under the bonnet a bit more. But I understand that there isn’t time at eight o’clock on a mainstream channel to do that.”
However, it seems that – as much as Bradbury may not prefer it to hardcore reviews – the easy-access nature of The Gadget Show’s content is what has made it such a success. And it’s that success on which Bradbury’s job, and indeed his enviable access to advanced technology, is based upon. “I really like doing the show: the access it gives all of us to technology is very special. I feel very privileged to be able to go around the world and see the things I see and do the things I do.”
“I love it. It’s amazing, and to be sitting in front of four thousand seats [in the Super Theatre] is humbling.”
We were interested to find out, should he have control over The Gadget Show’s features, what he’d like to see on the show. The Gadget Show has, over its time, had a wide and assorted range of technology in various fields showcased, from personal transport to gaming; gardening equipment to home security – we found it difficult to imagine into what fields Bradbury would like to branch, given the experience he’s had in a wide number of fields through The Gadget Show.
“Medical. And eco. There was a show called Tomorrow’s World which used to be on, and one of the things they did on Tomorrow’s World was medical tech. Some of the most amazing technology I’ve ever seen is medically related. Robotic surgeons, and things like that. Amazing stuff. And the fight to cure cancer – the way gaming is being used to enable children to visualise the cancer cells and kill them. If I had the choice, I’d include that – we’d have a medical special.”
All the same, it’s difficult to imagine Bradbury being as excited over new medical technology as he might be over a release of a much-hyped new game as, at heart, Bradbury is famously a hardcore gamer. Tweeting on a regular basis about his hobby, and working gaming into as many Gadget Show challenges as he can, Bradbury’s love for the field is well-known.
“I was there from the beginning. 1969, when I was born, I saw the first ever videogames happening. My dad used to work with the Clive Sinclair, so I was there with the Sinclair ZX80, one of the first personal computers in the world ever. Or, the first videogames that were so small, they were printed on a magazine and you’d copy the code by hand into the computer. If it was advanced, you’d be using a cassette player to play digital sounds into your computer. It’s incredible.”
“With the advent of iPad, and iPhone and the apps, the pocket nature of gaming now is really exciting. It means that on the one level you’ve got 3D gaming, $30 million budget games; and then you’ve also got bedroom coders doing their own thing through app stores on the various platforms. It’s an incredibly vibrant time for gaming.”
The idea of mobile gaming is an interesting one, and one which has been gaining ground rapidly in recent years with the release of platforms such as the Apple ‘i’ products, Google’s Android and an increasing number of Symbian platforms. With developers warming up to the idea of on-the-move gaming, it’s an aspect of video games which could see formidable growth in the future. However, the industry is still unsure as to the strength of mobile gaming as a platform.
“It’s definitely not for hardcore gaming, that’s for sure. The iPod, iPhone, iPad platforms; they’re for casual gaming, a bit of quirky fun. Most first-person shooters don’t really work on the iPhone. I think Eliminate Pro does, actually, and the networking of that game – the way you can alert your friends that you’re in an arena and the way it uses iTunes to upgrade your weapons and stuff – is brilliantly well done. It’s definitely not about the hardcore, but that’s what’s good about it in a way – the consoles are still there, and the PC is still there, they’ve not gone away; it’s just an additional environment for coders to make money and for the industry to support itself.”
Bradbury, however, is an advocate of mobile platforms – he’s proudly announced that he’s ordering an iPad in from America – but when it comes to other growing innovations in the industry, such as 3D, he doesn’t seem so sure.
“I think it’s a complete lost leader; a load of old rubbish. I could rue the day I say this, but I do not feel that 3D will to amount to anything in the home. I just can’t see it; I’m not going to sit there with my mum and my kids with goggles on.”
“However, gaming is another thing all together. Gaming is about peripherals; gaming is about quirky, cutting-edge tech. And that’s where 3D could take off - when the consoles get on-board with 3D, oh my lord. I would pay three hundred quid for a pair of goggles to upgrade my PS3 or my Xbox, just because the experience would be so amazing.”
A member of the industry which can be seen to be killing off children’s reading, Bradbury might be the very last person you’d expect to make a foray into children’s writing. However, his children’s writing series – Dot Robot, a trilogy surrounding the characters Jackson Farley, Brooke English, the Kojima Twins and Devlin Lear and their adventures whilst using technology – has had both appraisal by prolific children’s novelists and has been taken on a tour to schools around the United Kingdom in association with Puffin Books, Bradbury’s publisher.
“You wouldn’t believe the future plans. I want to take over the world. I’ve written the first two Dot Robots: Dot Robot and Dot Robot: Atomic Swarm. They’re going really well: I’ve gone round over thirty schools, literary festivals, they’re selling really well, and I’m getting excellent reviews. Most recently, to publicise Atomic Swarm, I had one of the robots from the book made – his name’s Punk – and then I used Punk in a video on YouTube called ‘Robot Kitchen Rampage’. Please go and look at it, it’s on YouTube and you can also find it through my blog.”
“And I’ve got big plans, man: I want Hollywood. I’m really serious, I want to keep writing the books, I really, really enjoy it. I think it’s such a noble thing to do, because I think you can’t read too much. Kids nowadays need to read. It’s all about gaming, it’s all about social networking, it’s about the very things that take people away from books. I think that’s quite quirky.”
Our sincere thanks to Jason Bradbury for taking the time out of his busy schedule to speak to us – we really appreciate it. Also, due thanks need to go to Christian Payne of Documentally.com, for the very generous lend of technical equipment; and to the Open University.
Linford
Labels: 3D gaming, Book, Event, Gadget Show Live, GSL10, Interview, Jason Bradbury, Linford Butler, Technology, The Gadget Show
- Linford Butler
*Cough*.
Alright, so that’s probably not what happened, but nevertheless, in a recent press release Nintendo did confirm that the successor to the DS - codenamed 3DS - is in production. Better yet, they have given us a planned launch date: within the next fiscal year, which would put it anytime up till the end of March 2011. So let’s get my event and launch predictions out now.
I wager that we will not have any playable demos available at E3, but instead must suffer with a few video clips showcasing “some” of the features. This year’s Tokyo Game Show will have working models for the lucky attendees to test out, and more of the system’s features revealed. Depending on the growing success of game apps on the iPhone and other smartphones, we could possibly see a worldwide launch for the holidays (despite my arguments on these points in the previous article). If not available by the end of the year, we will definitely see a launch early spring, 2011.
So I mentioned that 'some' of the features will probably be showcased at E3. The press release stated that the 3DS will allow users to play 3D games without the need for special glasses. Japanese reports have confirmed that the technology is Sharp’s parallax barrier technique (a material placed in front of the LCD which contains a series of slits, allowing different sets of pixels to be seen, creating depth. This technology, while interesting, does require the user to view the screen from a specific angle. Considering that another (not confirmed) feature will include a “tilt” function, I am curious to see how Nintendo will overcome the obstacle of moving the 3DS while still projecting a 3D image. Since the “tilt” feature is already out there in Rumourville, we can probably expect an official announcement about that at E3, if not before.
Thankfully the 3DS will be backwards compatible, allowing you to play the countless DS games you have accumulated and grown to love over the years. Hopefully Nintendo will have figured out a way to transfer any downloaded DSiWare games over to the new platform. And I’m still pushing for a Virtual Console, giving us access to all the portable classics from the Game Boy and Game Boy Advance.
So, 'yay' that the system has been confirmed, and 'yay' that we have a release window. Hopefully new bits of rumours or official information make its way to us, which I will hastily bring forth to you, loyal GGTL readers.
Sean
Labels: 3D gaming, 3DS, DS2, DSiWare, Nintendo, Sean, Sean Engemann
- Sean Engemann
Subscribe to our content
and never miss a single thing
subscribe to our monthly newsletter:
Our most recent writing
Our most recent reviews
Recent comments
All comments are subject to our commenting policy
Latest videos
Subscribe on YouTube
GGTL Classics
Some of the very best articles dug out from deep in the GGTL archives, written by some of our past and present wordsmiths alike.
Your continued use of this website and/or any others owned by Gamer's Guide to Life.com represents your acceptance and indicates your full understanding of all of our legal policies and terms. Our legal policies and terms are legally binding. If you in any way disagree with or refuse to be bound by any part of said legal policies and terms, you are advised to leave this website immediately.