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.

The Live Show itself was probably the highlight of the day… But as it wasn’t really about gadgets that is not what I am going to write about, because as fun as it was what I really went to see was all the exhibits. Now I don’t know if it is the economic climate, but the did not seem to be a huge amount of innovation since last year. The main thing that had changed was that netbooks had been replaced with tablets following the unfathomable success of Apple’s iPad. The selection of 3D TV’s and their quality had not changed at all over the year, so I will hereby link you to last years article (also AJ wants to write a piece on them later so I can’t steal his thunder there).

So Android tablets, iPad killers? Of course they are, but which one should you get?
At the top end are the NVidia Tegra 2 powered tablets, the Motorola Xoom, LG G-Slate, Acer Aconia A500 and ASUS EEE Pad Transformer (Tegra 2 also powers what they are calling “super phones” from both Motorola and LG).These are all the direct competitors with the iPad and are priced as such, the Acer is the cheapest of the four I mentioned here, but after using their products before I would not touch it. They are all pretty much the same in terms of spec and all run Android 3.0, the one that stands out is the ASUS as in addition to the touch screen also has a physical keyboard which sadly I didn’t get to look at. Anyway, NVidia have a very good site here that has a bunch of information on each of them. Personally, at these prices, I could not justify buying what is essentially a toy, and before you tell me you do work on your iPad, you know full well that you would be far more productive if you used your laptop instead. Don’t get me wrong, these are really nice devices and if I was given one I would in no way turn it down (well maybe the Acer), but I am really unsure why tablets have taken off in such a big way.

In the midrange you get the tablets from Elonex, which like the Netbooks they had last year, I wouldn’t want to recommend. They were cheap, I’ll give you that, but it showed as half of the ones on display did not seem to be functioning correctly. I know, I know, you get what you pay for, but a tablet is not a vital gadget by any means so if you can’t afford (or justify) the cost of one of the better ones the you really are better off going without as you will regret the sacrifice of quality and power if you get one of the cheap ones.

I also noticed that the gap between ebook readers and tablets is getting smaller, Prestigio were even trying to market their top ebook reader as an Android tablet, but with a resistive touch screen, a 600MHz CPU and Android 2.1 it is quite a compromise to get the cost down that low. The lack of E Ink on the more tablet like ebook readers would also really put me off using them for reading books, TFT is not as nice to read on and next to useless outside. I will be waiting until Amazon release a colour (E Ink) Kindle before I will consider replacing my Kindle 3.

On to other things now, and next up is the the Parrot AR.Drone. A remote helicopter that is controlled by your iOS device and beams video back to it. I know what you are thinking, “But Jon, you hate Apple and iOS devices in particular”. This is true but as a result of my hate I have some additional information not found on the website as I asked the question. An Android version is in the works and is apparently working so should be near release. though I would not buy the thing on this information (as you never know if a project like this will be put on hold) if you are feeling particularly adventurous they have released the API so you could in theory write a controller for anything with WiFi capability.

A couple duffers now, the first was on a stand with the huge tag-line “Amaze your eyes!”. On the stand was a device from vuzix, I’ll admit I was amazed, I was amazed that a company would be trying to sell tech that needed to be posted back to 1995 to be relevant. The resolution on their consumer eye wear was so low as to make the supposed 3D effects unnoticeable, I genuinely believe the glasses I tried out in PCWorld playing Heretic in the mid 90s were (while more bulky and expensive) of about the same quality, and even if it wasn’t there was not 15 years of improvement there.

Second on my list of “why did they make that” products is the IDAPT charger. Don’t get me wrong, I like the idea of only needing one charger, but this is not the way to do it. The way to do it is to have every manufacture of portable electronics (OK, so this won’t work with laptops and the like, they need much more power than the likes of phones) to agree on a voltage and connector type (5V and micro USB would be ideal, as fortunately several phone manufactures have gone with this now) and for them to stick with it. Unfortunately Apple like their own stupid connector and the current agreement only applies to mobile phones (though the Kindle 3 uses micro USB) but with any luck the IDAPT will be obsolete in a couple years.

Nintendo had their exhibit in the Game Zone and I was fortunate to get to it early as the queue got very, very long. They were of course showing off their latest portable, the 3DS. As I bought one my self a week prior to the show I won’t say too much about it as I intend to write a full review soon, but it was still well worth my time going in there as they had a large number of the launch titles available to try (Super Street Fighter IV 3D was notable for its absence) and I have even bought another game for it since I got back as a result.

And finally the rest. The Dragon NaturallySpeaking demo was marred when the chap demonstrating it used the word “shift”, he was very quick to say “scratch that” though… Despite this slip up the software has clearly improved since I last saw it though and is far better than the built in speech recognition in Windows 7. I bought a product called Touchscreen Kleen, I think it is the cloth more than the fluid, but all I can say is my glasses have never been so clean, even the stuff I got from Specsavers does not get them as clean so well.

And I leave you with a video of Ortis performing Europe’s Final Countdown in the live show (not recorded by me, I was too busy laughing).

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. It still has a capacitive touch screen which has been complemented with a slide out qwerty keyboard. After using the phone with the keyboard both in and out I am quite glad I got the Mini Pro over the regular Mini which only has the touch screen. For normal use the touch screen is fine, and I would not open the slider but there is no way I could write this article on the Mini. Sadly it is not quite as nice as the Qwerty on my old Nokia E63, but that was all that phone had so that had to have a good keypad.

With a 600MHz CPU it is hardly the fastest phone on the market and as it only runs Android 2.1 (at the time of writing) you will be missing out on some of the latest features. It also only has 128MB of internal memory, so without Android 2.2 (where you can install to the SD card) the is only space for a limited number of applications [1].

The screen, while small is more than adequate for most uses (the slide keypad helps there as you don’t have to waste the screen with keyboard) though the strangely popular game Angry Birds is difficult to play on such a small screen (and crashes a lot I found).

As well as the keyboard, the other feature that makes this phone “pro” is the email. By default Android can connect to POP3 and IMAP email accounts, but Sony have supplied this phone with a licence for a program called RoadSync (worth £6.25 in the marketplace) which will sync your contacts, calender and mail with an exchange server, providing you with push email.

You might think that this is a Blackberry replacement and that Sony will have left out the media and entertainment features, but the haven’t. The 5 megapixel camera is very good, I was very impressed with the way it balances the flash and exposure time to get good night shots, where my last phone produced a white out mess if you were too close and it used the flash this one reduces the exposure time if it needs to use the flash for a close up. The default music software leaves something to be desired, I downloaded a program called Zimly which is free in the marketplace, but whatever you use to play your music it sounds brilliant through the 3.5mm jack. With all the software available in the marketplace you can also go on any of the social networking sites you use, and if they don’t have an Android application the web browser is not too shabby anyway.

In all I think this phone is a brilliant all rounder, it doesn’t do business features as well as a Blackberry (or Nokia E Series) and it possibly isn’t as good at media and entertainment as the larger Android phones or the iPhone. It does however do it all sufficiently well and all in a tiny package that doesn’t need huge pockets to put it in.

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[1] No, I’m not calling them “apps”, it sounds stupid.

Go Read!

Infinity is a massively multiplayer online game set in a persistent futuristic universe, currently in development.

I’ll be honest, the idea of this being an MMO does not interest me hugely, I would much prefer a Freespace type game. The tech that is being used however…

Infinity features an advanced procedural engine allowing for a seemingly infinite galaxy of unique star systems and planets to discover and explore, including seamless planetary landing.

Procedural generation! Seamless planetary landing! Isn’t this what man has dreamt of since he first watched Star Trek*? Just look at the video, it really is astounding.

Yes, I know the video is old, but I just found it OK.

The website is a bit quiet, and there are of course no dates yet, but this really looks like one to watch as even if this small indie developer can’t manage to complete the project a larger studio could buy the tech from them.

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*Or is that dream to make it with a hot alien babe?

However, when you throw out the cartoon pornography, there are some very talented artists out there who have done wonderful pieces of art based on games they clearly love.

Here follows a selection of the best I have found, prepare to be blown away*;

Click on the pictures to view the original

Where would any list of game fan art be without a picture of JC Denton killing using the Dragon’s Tooth Sword?
2009_KillingToKillDrawersBlock by ~teknikal-vision

American McGee’s Alice had some of the best art direction in any game I can think of, so it is not surprising that it has spawned fan art. The artwork in this game was creepy, and this piece is more so…

Alice + Clock by ~0mri

This really makes me long for a new Sonic game that remembers what the original was about. Precision jumping and never stopping. The artist has also done a huge number of other similar pictures for other classic games so be sure to view the entire gallery.

Green Hill Zone by *Orioto

Minecraft, A brilliant game, but the art style does leave a lot to your imagination (a good thing in my opinion). Well TurnThePhage certainly used a lot of that in this beautiful rendition of Minecraft: Ghast which really brings it to life.

I was looking for some Blood Bowl artwork. This is for Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning but all I know is I still want Dwarf Slayer by ~daarken to play for the Dwarrowdelf Beers.

The most terrifying enemy from one of the first games I owned, QUAKE SHAMBLER by ~Autaux

And finally, two more just to prove that video game art doesn’t have to be a drawing.Team Fortress 2 dolls by ~JNorad.

And, despite the fact that I normally consider cosplay to be a bit weird (my problem, not yours) this is so good I can’t not post it.
Itai Ao by *akuriko

Well that is is for now. Any really good ones I have missed? Let me know. If any of the artists are not happy with their art being featured here please let me know and I will remove it ASAP.

*Yes, I know it is a terrible “fan” gag and I need shooting.

Shattered horizon is a brilliantly original competitive shooter but sadly lacking in players. it is DirectX 10 only and when it was first released Vista was the only option for playing it. I just hope that this free weekend and the increased number of people with DX10 capable machines will save it, because it would be a shame if all shooters were clones of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. You can read my thoughts on the game here.

As well as being an excellent shooter set in space with jet packs there are no unlocks to worry about, so new and old players are on the same footing apart from practice, which is how it should be and makes it easier to get into for a free weekend.

The pre-load should go live on Wednesday night and the game should be free to play from Thursday night until Monday, though as Valve and time differences are involved this may vary.

It will also be reduced over the period so keep an eye on the store page and be sure to download and have a go when it goes live.

It’s free right?

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[1] if you are not you should be, a better blend of humour (not humor) and game journalism can not be easily found elsewhere.

Yo Kerrigan, I’m really happy for you imaletyoufinish, but Bob Page was the greatest Video Game Villain of all time!
OF ALL TIME!

Gamestop have announced the results of their competition to find the greatest video game villain of all time.

I’m not going to complain about the result, I have not played Starcraft but from her biography it sounds like the title is desurved. No, I am going to complain about the short-list.

Firstly, what on Tatooine is Vader doing on there? He is not a video game villain, he is a movie villain (one of the greatest before George Lucas ruined the character in Episode III), sure he was in a game or two, but he is remembered for the films. Sadly his inclusion in the list knocked out one of my favourite game villains.

Please note that we have added a consequence for failure. Any contact with the chamber floor will result in an unsatisfactory mark on your official testing record. Followed by death. Good luck!

Sinister. The psychopathic computer AI GLaDOS that guides, pushes and then chases you through Portal is one of the best villains in recent years but she was knocked out by a emo kid who got his legs chopped off before falling into a volcano.

But that is not as large as the other crime on this list.

WaltonSimons – This plague — the rioting is intensifying to the point where we may not be able to contain it.
BobPage – Why contain it? Let it spill over into the schools and churches, let the bodies pile up in the streets. In the end, they’ll beg us to save them.

How is that not villainous enough to be worthy of the short-list? Yet Bob Page of Deus Ex was nowhere to be seen…

What are your favourite video game villains and who do you think should have made it to the top spot?

Some time later…

I have not played Battleforge in some time, and as I don’t intend to go back to it I think it is time for me to finish off this feature with my reasons why and my final thoughts on the game. I mostly played PvP, these games are more fun than the PvE campaigns in my opinion but I did find that the standard free deck is not suitable (unless you organise a game with someone else who has the free cards as well) as you will get quickly trounced.

In the end I gave in a purchased some more cards, like with all trading card games you don’t know exactly what you are going to get in a booster pack. Going back into PvP I found I faired little better. But in the end I as still getting trounced buy people who had handed over more cash.

This is where the free to play model falls down, games funded by adverts are fine, games where you pay for purely cosmetic enhancements are fine but when the game is competitive and paying gives you an advantage it is simply not fun any more.

Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed the game, it is an original take on the RTS, the lore could do with a bit of work, but the mechanics of the game were very interesting and I really wanted to like it.

Battleforge may be free to play, but you have to pay to win…

What are games teaching children?

I came across www.antispore.com, the blog belonging to a religious nut-case who is concerned about what spore is teaching children. Clearly concern about teaching evolution over creationism is stupid, there is so much evidence in favour of evolution, it has even been observed in a lab[1], that is is not considered a theory any more. But it did get me thinking, what are games teaching children?

Religious nutters aside I do think there is a problem with games including evolution, it is not that they are teaching evolution, but rather that they are not teaching evolution. The two obvious games to look at are Spore and Pokémon.

The evolution featured in Pokémon is misleadingly called, as it happens within the life cycle of a single Pokémon the correct term is in fact metamorphosis. This kind of misleading nonsense is not good for anyone, though not in quite the same way some of the religious extremists in America would have you believe. No, it is a bad thing because it makes it harder for people to fully grasp what is actually quite a difficult subject later on. Evolution is quite complicated, and though I understand the theory[2] myself I would not want to try and explain it myself (see my reading list at the bottom of the page for some people who can explain it well). Even if it doesn’t make it harder to teach evolution, any misinformation on the subject makes it easier for creationists to spread their “message”.

Spore is probably a worse culprit in this than Pokémon, as it is actually marketed as evolution but when it comes to the gameplay it is no more evolution than an RPG like Dragon Age. It is not about survival of the fittest (regardless of what the marketing says) but rather choosing upgrades for your creatures “next generation”. You might as well be levelling up a single character.

If you want to play an evolution “game” on your computer download the breveCreatures screensaver. No, it is not really a game, you just watch it, which makes it far closer to evolution and far better for helping you grasp the subject than Spore could ever be.

If anyone is saying “Ban this sick filth” when it comes to Pokémon or Spore, it should not be because they teach evolution, but because they don’t.

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My recommended reading on the subject in increasing reading difficulty:

Darwin’s Watch: Science of Discworld III – Terry Pratchett, J. Cohen, and I. Stewart
ISBN-10: 0091898242 ISBN-13: 978-0091898243

The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution – Richard Dawkins
ISBN-10: 055277524X, ISBN-13: 978-0552775243

The Origin of Species – Charles Darwin
ISBN-10: 1853267805, ISBN-13: 978-1853267802

And they have more uses than you might think*.

Taken useing IZ3D driver and DirectX Quake

GRID with IZ3D

Of course rendering like this does take up more processing power. With GRID I managed to get a very playable 40fps, but I get over 60 and use Vsync with the 3D off. Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter was unplayable at high “HD” settings though, needless to say I have not tried Crysis…

Rufus is quite scary in 3D

Adjusting the settings can give you a widely different 3D effect, the following shot has Just cause working very well in my opinion. One issue I did have with Just cause however is when it gets dark. There is too much blue in the picture and as a result you feel like you have gone blind in one eye, this is one area where polarised or active shuttered glasses win over anaglyph but with them come the cost.

Of course it only works on DirectX games (though OpenGL is supposed to be supported) other games just run in 2D as you would expect them to with it off. Some games will simply crash when you try and load them in 3D, Half-Life and Deus Ex, despite having DirectX modes would not work. Some games are slightly glitchy, the shadows in Blood Bowl seemed to be depressions in the pitch. These are problems that I would expect to see even if you were using a more expensive hardware method to view your 3D, the way the two images are rendered will be the same after all.

I would hold off before buying a £600 monitor, but if you have some red/cyan glasses you might as well give them a go.

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*Yes I checked and there is anaglyph porn.