Today, we have live performances celebrating the timely death of Guitar Hero with Lady Gaga (Stephani), Miss Katy Perry, Oasis and a small appearance by JLS (we also have the last news on JerLes looking for hawt dates for you ladies out there).
Other than that, we have the usual podcast filled with amazing alliteration, cynicism and other usual stuff.
Remember to digg the episode, go to the website which is www.gmcrf.co.uk, and email us at letters@gmcrf.co.uk.
So then, last night was the annual Spike VGA’s. If you listen to the show then you will be well aware that we disapprove of the majority of gaming award ceremonies and the only “game of the year” we believe to be valid is that which we will announce on Christmas day this year. However, the industry doesn’t seem to want to recognise the sheer awesomeness of GMCRF fm and they hold irritatingly crap shows instead, such as the aforementioned VGA’s.
There is one good thing that comes out of the VGA’s in particular though. There is always a healthy stream of announcements and reveals for the coming year. And believe me when I say, next year is going to be truly great.
Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Yes, this is not a misprint. Fans of the series can finally get officially excited again. We have been hearing scattered reports over the past few weeks about the games inevitable existence and only last week we pretty much had it confirmed with the details that it was going to be a direct sequel to Oblivion. Now we have a title and a release date. Skyrim is going to hit stores on 11.11.11 and we have the first trailer here. 1 word – Dragons…
Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception – I want to make it clear that the Uncharted series is fantastic and that if I was to buy a PS3, this would be the reason why. With exceptionally cinematic game play, brilliant voice acting and wonderful storytelling, the continuing adventures of Nathan – “Indiana Jones” – Drake have gone from strength to strength, becoming one of the PS3’s flagship titles. Now the third entry in the series is on the horizon and the following trailer shows that it looks set to continue Naughty Dog’s winning streak.
Forza 4 – Not much can really be said about this other than it isn’t going to take 6 years and will likely not be a disappointment. We also know that kinect will be used in the game for both driving and to allow players to examine the cars from every angle. Other than that, you know what to expect. Anyways, here’s the trailer, which, despite being all most entirely live action, features some pretty awesome driving.
Gears of Resistance 3 – Say what you like about the first two (we say that they are unashamedly unoriginal), but the plot of the third is that the enemy has basically won, you and a few others are all that is left of a once great army and you’re left alone to put up a last stand against impossible odds. Now this sounds disgracefully similar to Cliffy B’s final Delta squad game where the locust are all but victorious, the COG has disbanded, all that is left of the human population of Sera is small colonies living out on the seas, Delta squad are left to fight for survival with a few others against the might of the entire locust. Coincidence? We most definitely think not, but still, trailer, here:
Bore-tal 2 – Valve can do no wrong. Whatever footage they release for any game, their army of mindless followers immediately declare it to be the greatest thing OF ALL TIME!!! Quite frankly, this is getting rather annoying, especially when it comes to Portal 2. Just because the original was, well, very original, it still had its flaws, such as a short campaign and a large number of glitches. Still people have overlooked this and seem to universally accept that Portal 2, despite being a long way out, is already the best game ever made. To be honest, it won’t be. I know it, you know it, but it’s just too cool to say that Valve is the best games company ever. So, without further ado, here is the best trailer, for the best co-op mode of the best game ever produced, in the future…
Mass Effect 3 – Now, it’s no secret that I am rather a large fan of Bioware’s operatic sci-fi space saga. They are the best written games I have ever had the joy of playing and though each work well as standalone games, nothing beats playing them together with the same character. It is a game that is tailored to you and with Bioware saying that the last of the trilogy will be completely unrestricted by the need for further plot past the end of the game, I can’t wait to see just how drastically different an ending I can get with each new play through. The following trailer perfectly captures the no hope sense that the end to the second so perfectly set up and the shot of London in flames, well… I am Will Jones, and this is my favourite trailer of the year:
So, there we have it. Already, 2011 is shaping up to be a really fantastic year for the industry. There are some huge blockbuster games for both Sony and Microsoft fans to get real excited about on this list and there are even more that didn’t appear at the VGA’s at all, such as Gears of War 3 and Dual Stick Shooter. Heck there may even be some surprises in store for next year, as who knows what E3 will bring. Either way it’s going to be great.
I do really like the Microsoft Kinect – not really as a games device at the moment though; rather as a tool for the many, many ‘hackers’ out there that want to see what things can actually do and take them to the extreme. And, as discussed both on this blog and also on the podcast, they’re quite good and have huge potential.
However, I am here today to talk about something which isn’t spoken about much – but the video conferencing application of this technology. And, more specifically how this may be able to increase the use of the technology in regions with rather poor Internet speeds.
For what you get, it is relatively inexpensive; with other, ‘professional’ unites costing in the region of £6000 (though, these are a lot better). So the £130 seems rather pathetic – though we have discussed on the podcast how they really cost in the region of £30 to £50 to manufacture the parts. So, this is the first hurdle out of the way for providing communities around poor regions of the world with this technology.
The whole idea of the infra-red camera and projector is that they work together to map the room out – using the ping times of reflection can show the dimensions of the room and then map it out into a three-dimensional plain. Thus, allowing you to work out what is the background and what is in the foreground.
You may be wondering where I am going with this – but if you can work out what is in the background you can work out what is not relevant to image needed within the video-conference (this is working on the assumption that background information is less relevant). So if you get this information, and lace it together with the image you can then start to process the image’s quality based on priority.
With this processing you could then help to reduce the bandwidth needed to send the image over the network. For example, the background isn’t really that important in most circumstances – so why bother sending this to the end-client in a high quality. You could just display this in a very low resolution (just enough to ensure that the end-client can have a very basic idea of what’s happening). Then, for the person who will be closest to the camera you could then send that information in an appropriate resolution.
With the reduction in the un-important parts of the image resolution – it would reduce the bandwidth needed tremendously. Thus, allowing video conferencing in situations where it wouldn’t be possible usually.
Another use of looking at the depth of field is also a layer of privacy. Why do the people who are receiving the video (the end-client), need to see the background – specifically if the sender of the video doesn’t want the end-client to see anything in the background.
As with these applications, it will look rather terrible to begin with. Both the RGB camera within the Kinect unit and the resolution of the IR-Blaster/Receiver so the images will be kind of broken at the edges (where it needs to implement the change in render patterns), and the processing required, though not much, is still another issue. For example, if this was to be implemented in third-world countries you would need to reduce the processing needed in order for it to maintain the cheapness-factor.
I believe that Kinect isn’t really going to be a gaming platform for very long. It is kind of awkward to play games made for it, and there is then inevitable lack of space problem (and the over furnished rooms we all have). But rather I can see it been sold for other purposes for the PC platform. Situations such as the one described above and many, many more make the device seem all of a sudden more practical to me.
This is yet another example of the brilliant ‘hacks’ that people are doing with the Kinect. In this, it is two Kinects strung together to create the 3D image. Seemingly, it does this by capturing the image from the RGB camera and then using the infer-red information about the 3D plane (depth / Z-axis). Then, using what code this guy has written, maps the RGB image onto this 3D information.
Rather clever, the next step is to see 3 of these strung together for true 3D.
New MacBook Air
Back to the Mac; that was the name of the Apple event for today from their Infinite Loop campus at Cupertino. And yes, they have finally done a Mac conference for the first time in a while. Yet, I can’t help but think that both the setting and how it was presented indicate how little they, or Jobs seems to care about the Mac. It was in their campus’ small conference hall, rather than in a bigger centre they did their iPod, iPad and iPhone events in – yet, they tried hard to make it think that they do.
iLife was the first product after the usual numbers (which wasn’t presented by Steve). iLife 11 is just the same apps as the previous iLife (iLife ’09). With enhancements, yet they only showed three. Phil the Schill-er presented the iPhoto section. iPhoto has more social capabilities, new book designs (to get more money) which apparently selects the most appropriate images for the page for you to then go and edit. They are also lots of full screen features in iPhoto. The important thing is that Steve Jobs thinks “that’s awesome” – which is odd for Steve and a new Apple product isn’t it!
iMovie was next. The UI hasn’t changes at all since that drastic change we saw with iLife ’08. They have enhanced the audio editing. Which is something iMove needed because it was absolutely awful for sound in the previous version. Also they had sound effects… which aren’t something that’s amazing. Another new feature they had was “Movie trailers” which needed no real imagination at all. It was a template where you would then edit the text on screen (you can have between two to six cast members) and then drop clips into the set slots (or let the “people finder” – facial recognition – do some of it). This is quite an interesting feature… but for many people I can’t see this been anything other than an interesting feature. Also, I have to point out, it does make the film trailers look awfully cheap (and they is even one Indiana jones clone which is the sole reason why I will buy this), but what do you expect from software.
The Steve Jobs quote that came after – “Its AH-MAZING” – Shock.
The third and final one Apple decided to show off is Garage Band – and bullied some kids in showing off their “Groove matching features”. This is just a form of auto-tune and beat matching for music. This, on stage, worked very well – surprise? For further corrections Apple created “flex-time” which is just dragging out the sound waves out for tiny-time fixing errors. In my opinion, not much new in Garage Band.
Over all the new iLife is just an addition of new features and nothing brilliant. And it’s a shame they didn’t create anything brilliant with iWeb or IDVD (which they didn’t show on stage). iLife is £50-ish (US$49) and free on all new Macs, and is out today.
Mac OS X came next, Mac OS X Lion to be precise. The whole thing is about “OS X meets the iPad”. “Vertical surfaces don’t work” – He is correct here, and can’t see why he needed consumer research; he said they needed to be flat. And this is why the multi-touch mouse and magic-mouse were released. Lion will also bring the “Mac App Store”. Other than it been on the mac, it’s all the same details as the iTunes store. So, that’s interesting… something which has been rumoured about has come true. Only thing is, these rumours were about Windows 8.
Speaking of the Mac App store, it will be launching surprisingly quickly. Within 90-days.
Launch pad is something which is more usable than the App-Store. It brings up an IOS-esque window management screen. It operates in exactly the same way (with the folders, and the slide navigation) as IOS does.
Full screen apps is something they also showed off, again taking this from IOS. This should look bloody brilliant on the Mac Screens – which are all ways brilliant. Now the green plus button makes the application in full screen. Launch for OS X Lion is expected to be in Summer 2011.
One more thing though… and according to Jobs it comes back to the theme of “Back to the Mac”. “What would happen if a MacBook met the iPad” – “What would happen if they hooked up” – but don’t worry… it’s the “most amazing thing we’ve [Apple] ever created”. It’s the new MacBook air. It has complete uni-body construction and all the features you find on other MacBooks.
The details of the device are
Now, I can only think that they have gone
to the SSD to get the 30 day standby time for the battery (on both models). Now, he wanted to make sure that they were using a conservative measurement of battery life though. Yet, this SSD appears not to be replaceable – it looks soldered onto the board.
The important thing though is the price. Yet, they are still very expensive. They start at $999 with a 1.44 GHz processor and 64GB SSD (and 11.6” screen). So, they are very underpowered units – even for laptops. And yes… they are starting to be sold today. I really do think that it is still too expensive for what you get in the device. Way too expensive – but, they will probably sell.
For once all the rumours were correct, we had the MacBook air, new iLife and new OS X. For more in-depth analysis listen to the next GMCRF fm where we will be talking about this in detail.
