Giant Bomb

17 December 2006

WiiDS Live: Get The Groove On

Hey guys. Just a quick post to show you the WiiDS Live Titles:



And the first video to use them, Wii Sports Tennis:


26 October 2006

FireFox 2.0

Forget IE7, FF2 more than makes up for it. This new version is prettier and has new features coming out of its nose. IE had the upper-hand in certain areas for a little while, but FF 2.0 is the best browser ever.

For example, you will see less spelling errors in this blog from now on, because FF 2.0 has a built-in spell-checker. Result.

Incidentally, I have found out why IE blurs the internet and how to stop it doing it. It's a new rendering something or other which they have enabled by default and you just have to switch it off.

Feel good,
Jens

17 October 2006

Sometimes the world's okay, I guess

Friday was my birthday. I recieved some wonderful edibles, a dartboard, some money, assorted knickknacks like a watch and a booklight and also that gadget I've been raving about most recently.


Yes, iPod Nano Aluminum (AKA iPod Nano 2G, iPod Nano Aluminium)
. Silver, 2GB, prettiest damn MP3 player currently made by anyone anywhere. It's great, I love it. Shame the otherwise brilliant iTunes 7 is having some iPod syncing bugs (It does sync both my iPods, but won't add or remove tracks to the Shuffle and intermittently refuses to allow me to change settings of my iPod Nano or remove songs.

And meanwhile, my dad's Creative Zen 20GB which at the time he was calling the second coming, is so disastrously screwed it's not even funny.

Funny how thing work out, huh?

09 October 2006

Dieing industry

Here is a fact that many of you out there will dispute: Acting is a dieing profession.

I can't blame you for not believing it, it doesn't make sense. Why would the number of people choosing such a cushy, easy, well-paid job be going down? Well, that would be because it is none of those things.

It could be argued that it never was any of those things, however a strong case could be made for cushy and well-paid. But now at least, many actors are finding themselves laying down a lot of money and getting little in return. Far from being well paid, these people are losing money because they act.

And cushy it ain't. Early in one's career, there's no glamour at all. It's a world of late nights in winter, sleeping through the day in the cheapest hotels fit for human habitation and getting seen by very few people.

But why? It's simple. The reason the rest of the world is fucked up stems from lawyers. So the acting world's problems stem from the agencies. Oh sure, there's the odd good one, but the majority of agencies are rackets.

Permit me to explain. In order to get an audition for a role, one must either gain it by open audition (Rare and extremely unlikely) or else be on the books of an agency. Unfortunately, most agencies require training and/or a part to one's name before they let you on their books. Now, if you don't have the money for training and can never make it to an open audition, this makes that impossible. So in an attempt to corner the untapped talent market, some agencies have dropped such requirements.

Unfortunately, these agnecies almost always charge more in terms of fees than agencies for "professional" actors. They also turn up less significant roles and tend mainly to offer roles in adverts for peanuts. But if you can't afford the training necessary for a professional agency, how on earth are you meant to afford a larger representation fee for lesser results?

Acting? Yeah, it's killing itself. And Equity (UK Actors Union) refuse to lift a finger to help their non-memebrs (They have the same requirements as professional agencies).

05 October 2006

MSIE7 Sucks continued
















Oh for the love of Pete. You'll never believe this folks. It's just dumb.


Further to my previous post, I feel it it my duty to reveal that MSIE7 is not only craply designed, but in fact blurs the internet. Graphics, text, everything appears softer in MSIE than in other browsers, including MSIE6. Don't believe me? Try it. Seriously. If you don't want to try it, take a look at this screenshot (e-Mail me for a better version).

Jens out

04 October 2006

Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7

Internet Explorer is a horrific, but nevesary, part of my computing life. I need it as a backup for when sites do not support the ultimate standard, FireFox. However, it does suck a crapload. In an attempt to have a nicer time of it, I downloaded IE7.

Whoops. This sucks in whole new ways. The menu bar does not display by default, and when it is enabled it defaults to below the Navigation Bar. Icons on the Command Bar are too small. The tabs system isn't too hot either, with a tab displayed even with only one open. There is a new Tab button in the Tab bar, but I don't really think that adds too much.

Further, Back/Forward remain on the left of the address bar but Stop and Refresh are now on the right. This is officially stupid. It might not sound like much, but it becomes damn annoying. Also, the buttons all look different, almost like they are from different GUIs. Stop, Refresh and Search are all square with small icons, whilst Back and Forward are just circular widgets with arrows in them. The Command Bar buttons look fairly similar to IE6 equivalents from what I can tell.

What I can't understand is why Microsoft doesn't follow its own human interface guidelines. Office uses a different colour for the menu are and has fully moveable bars. Admittedly, moveable bars have a place in office applications, but Microsoft's inconsistency and shoddy IE7 UI has me wondering, just who the hell designs Microsoft software?

Feel good,
Jens

21 September 2006

Richard Hammond

Richard hammond, probably one of the best presenters of our time has been critically injured whilst driving a jet powered car for Top Gear.

Hammond is known for presenting Top Gear, Brainiac: Science Abuse, Should I worry about..? and Richard Hammond's Five O'Clock show.

I really hope he pulls through. He's probably my favourite TV presenter ever, and my thoughts go out to him, his friends and family and I wish him a speedy recovery.

Reports are saying his condition has improved overnight, so hope is still there.

Jens

16 September 2006

Know what?

You know, iPod Mini was probably the best digital jukebox ever built. And it shows. Apple adopted the Mini's version of the clickwheel into the dady iPod, and later the Nano. The Mini's design clearly influenced the Mac Mini. And it was a massive seller. I loved it and wanted one desperately.


Then, it got discontinued and Nano came out. iPod shrunk down. Great, terrific. Not Mini. So I got a Shuffle instead (Whilst on holiday in another country, made possible as it only charges via USB and those are the same eveywhere). I love my little Shuffle, it does exactly what I want it to. But I need more space, and I always wanted a player that was green like my shoes.


Well Mini is back, and it's called Nano 2G. Nano 2G fixes all the faults with Nano 1G in one fell swoop, by simply becoming a shrunk-down Mini. The Nano 2G retains the same Nano size, but grabs the Mini's looks, material (It's got that same anodized aluminium body) and most importantly, style. That is to say, COLOURS!


So I can get my green player. You can also get a pink one, a blue one, a silver one or a black one. And best of all, they've doubled the memory at each price point.

At the same time, Apple introduced iTunes 7, and I love it. All its small new features, and all its big. For example, Cover Flow is so deceptively great. I Now always use it to navigate my library. I finally have artwork for all my songs. I never bothered before, since Shuffle has no screen.

iTunes is simply awesome. And I finally know how to prove it's better than WIndows Media Player. WMP, you open to watch a movie or play some music. iTunes, you leave open and come back to. It's a media program that is as central to my computer experience as FireFox.

iTunes and iPod, you are both wonderful.

(Especially iPod Mini, iPod Nano 2G and iTunes 7)

04 September 2006

The bare faced, uncomfortable truth

What I am about to say is going to be majourly controversial, and many of you will probably call it unfair and call me names. But I think many of you secretly know there's an element of truth in it, but you'd never ever tell.

Homebrew, and by that I mean software developed for systems where there are measures to prevent it, is, on the whole, a messy, annoying pile of crap. Now, I don't mean all homebrew, but when there's a sudden rush of it, fear the worst.

The main problem is, most so-called hombrew, is in fact a port. And the homebrewers who churn out port after port generally put very little effort into each one, as soon as it's on screen and controllable, they release it.

Other times, people who know nothing about making games, decide it's a good idea to leap in at the deep end and produce a 3D action-fantasy RPG with guns and zombies set in a massive free form world.

You've all seen all this crap. But noone ever says any homebrew sucks ever, jsut because it's free.

Grow up. If it sucks, it sucks. So say it.

23 August 2006

Something's got to be done

Something has got to be done about the enemy of european Nintendo fans. An evil more insidious than a £425 PlayStation. More devious, subversive and misleading than a Redmond based Apple wannabe. I call this enemy: Nintendo of Europe.

It is a widely accepted fact that gamers in PAL territories typically get the royal screw job. However, hopes were high that a Nintendo looking to expand the games market and make it more approachable were finally going to do soemthing worthwile with NoE.

This set the scene for Nintendo's press conference at Leipzig Games Convention 2006. Excitingly, it was titled "Wii prove our promise". An hour after it started, European Nintendo fans were reeling from a mighty blow to the gut.

Wii prove our promise was a DS bonanza with two new Wii games (Neither of which wer eparticularly exciting) and a pink DSLite for Europe. No promises were proved, kept or taken back. But they ended it with "Wii prove our promise".

The exaggerated title led many hopeful gamers, European and otherwise, to believe launch details of some kind would be revealed. This did not happen. What did happen would have been lacklustre even with a more approriate title.

This rings of a greater problem facing european Nintendo fans. NoE is simply not very good at what it does. It's not the same Nintendo as they love. It's bad at marketting, it makes very few games, they are small and not ver exciting and they always screw their territory over.

Hardware and games are almost universally last in Europe. NoE is worse than simply late, they always seem out of touch with NoA and NoJ. Often, gamers will know things long before NoE seems to.

It's not on. Europe, hard as Hitler tried to change that fact, exists. We can't be fobbed off by a warehouse and reusing video from E3. One day soon Nintendo are going to ahve to pull the finger out in Europe. Microsoft have their X05/6 etc. events in Europe, Sony make some of their best games in Europe. Both companies give Europe a smoother ride than Nintendo do (Allbeit still lacklustre compared to Japan and the US).

Mr. Iwata is going to have to come over here and sort this mess out. NoE needs fixing and European gamers need cheering up. Morale is low after the Leipzig disaster. Details on Wii are now expected at an NoA event on September 14th.

And if Europe is getting Wii after a gap bigger than the one between Japan and the US (Assuming there is one. If not, they'll probably allow a week of delay until Europe), the European Nintendo fans might go berserk.

It is time, Nintendo, to look at your globe. Europe wants to be loved too.

22 August 2006

Gamers

Earlier today, I became involved with a discussion over Wii controls. And to my surptise, there was some twit claiming Wii would be too easy and new game players had no right to beat him at a game just because they could "point and shoot" better in an FPS. That's the dumbest thing ever.

It's not like pointing and shooting is any harder for him, is it? And why should someone who is better at doing what your supposed to in the game not beat someone who is worse? That's how it is now.

The problem is, the majority of gamers are jumped up elitist nerds who think they're the best at every game ever. These people spend half their time living up to gaming stereotypes, whilst complaining that games ought to be mass market.

But when an attempt is made to make games mass market, they riot. No, games can't be made to appeal to a broader audience, everyone should just magically change and worship the nerds that came before them.

No new game player should be good, even though all game players started somewhere, oh no.

Where do these people get off? I'm ashamed to count myself among them. And to make matters worse, it's ages till I get my Wii to cheer myself up.

DS it is then.

Live safe folks,

Jens

21 August 2006

Hackers

Dude, straight up. Hackers suck.

I have friends who hack. I let them get away with it cos they don't make stuff suck for innocent people. But damn, when hackers do that, it hacks me right off.

So anyway, you're probably wondering what, if anything, is the point in this blog. I'd like to say I'll tell you later, but I'm bored now, so I'll tell you anyway.

Lucky twerps.

This blog is to document the many friggin irritations of life and more specifically games and the internet. And lets not beat about the bush, the internet is a bitch. Noone likes it except Mac users, and they're just the luckiest bunch of crazies I've ever wanted to be amongst.

And people always wan it faster. DS browser's not as fast as my home connection. So flaming what? It's Opera on my DS, jeez, you people are sad.

Anyway, more later. I've got a bunch of writing to do cos that's all I seem to do is write. And I've got another website opening soon. Goddamnit.

Catch ya,

Jens