It’s hardly an industry secret that Nintendo is the most reluctant console manufacturer of “the big three” when it comes to pushing online play on its latest home console. Xbox Live has really set the benchmark when it comes to providing what players now readily expect from a gaming experience that takes them into the wider virtual world outside of their own machine, Sony also seems to want to reach that same wavelength, but Nintendo still appears somewhat cautious about the whole idea - a decision that could potentially harm the chances of the Nintendo Wii in the years to come.
Nintendo has been reserved about the process of online gaming for years now. While Microsoft had the ambition, foresight (and monetary funds) to pursue the idea as far back as the launch of Xbox Live with the firm’s first console, Nintendo seemed somewhat reluctant. While allowing third parties to dabble in Internet gaming on the GameCube (most notably SEGA, who provided the GameCube’s only online title, Phantasy Star Online), George Harrison, vice president of marketing for Nintendo of America stated at the time in May 2002 that it saw online projects as “a very interesting market” and one that would be “very small” for the foreseeable future.
That may have been the case, but Microsoft’s openness to developers keen on the idea helped build Xbox Live into what it is today, a fully fledged service that neither Sony nor Nintendo can claim to rival at present. With the Xbox 360 launching a full year before the Nintendo Wii (and with Xbox Live attracting near 5 million paying subscribers as 2007 and the arrival of the Wii approached), you might think that Nintendo’s head honchos would have nodded at each other agreeably across the boardroom table and started working hard towards something similar for their newest machine. Heck, it probably should have happened at least a few years before.
But no, with gargantuan Wii sales throughout the world in 2007, building a credible online service for the machine was probably the least of Nintendo’s worries. Third parties, meanwhile, were getting a little concerned. SNK’s president, Ben Herman, stated in March last year that “Nintendo is still not letting Wii third-party publishers include online capabilities in their games and it doesn’t look like they will during 2007.” And while the situation did slightly improve (both on the third and first party front) as 2007 unfolded, all told the situation was rather pitiful, with only a handful or releases sporting limited online options.
It’s a problem that continues to affect games on the Nintendo Wii into 2008, particularly multi-format titles in which an online offering is a stable part on rival machines. SEGA Superstars Tennis, Rock Band and Madden NFL 09 (which it appears will lack key online components) are just three notable examples. Nintendo seems to be slowly moving in the right direction with the likes of Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Mario Kart Wii, but the severe server problems many gamers have has in relation to the former’s release proves, somewhat, that Nintendo just weren’t aren’t prepared as they should have been. And without a unified structure such as Xbox Live’s, third parties are also all over the place.
Downloadable content is another issue Nintendo is severely lagging behind with, something that looks to be on the mend with the introduction of Wii Pay and Play in the future. And then there’s the debacle, confusion and restrictiveness of Friend Codes and lack of voice chat, both of which are regularly hotly debated. The huge popularity of Xbox Live, Sony’s ambitious plans with Home and LittleBigPlanet, as well as Nintendo’s success with online gaming on the Nintendo DS, prove that the demand is there from players who want to play online, which makes Nintendo’s current paranoia over the home console situation all the more baffling. Baffling and disappointing in equal measures.
Online gaming is integral part of the industry nowadays. It might not seem a priority to Nintendo with the Wii selling so well right now, but come the time where the PS3 begins to catch up with Xbox Live (all the while improving its online service) and in a market more and more developers cater to an audience attracted to such content, the Wii really can’t afford to be left behind, especially in relation to big mult-format games, just because its online component is lacking.
Nintendo’s relatively poor relation towards third parties over a number of issues has been a major contributing factor to its success (or lack thereof) in previous generations, and we reckon, it is imperative that it doesn’t go isolating itself as far as online gaming is concerned during the life cycle of the Wii. The welcoming and relaxed strategy it has adopted to allowing developers clamber over WiiWare should be its inspiration, letting others lead the way a little instead of being so uptight - just lay the foundations properly and let others take advantage of it. C’mon Nintendo, pull your socks up!
http://www.nintendic.com/
Friday, March 28, 2008
House Of The Dead 2 and 3 Return - Nintendo Wii review
The arcade and Sega Dreamcast classic House of the Dead is back, this time on the Nintendo Wii, but should you pick up your weapon once more or has your life changed too much over the past decade to not warrant the effort? We get pistol-whipping to find out.
If you ever managed to play House of the Dead 2 at the arcade or with the gun pointing at the television with the Sega Dreamcast version you'll be right at home. Identical in graphics and gameplay as the original, there isn't anything new here apart from the fact you're now controlling this with your Wii Remote rather than something that's likely to get you stopped by the police on the way to your mates house.
For those who've never heard of the Sega Dreamcast, let alone owned one (oh the horror) then the House of the Dead series sees you play one of two characters as you move your way through a landscape beset with zombies, killer frogs and monsters that look worse that a bad pull the morning after - think George A Romeo and you're on the right track.
Without worrying about walking around, the game takes you on a pre-defined route with your task to kill virtually everything in your path before it kills you. We say virtually because if you manage to save anyone then your thrown the odd life pack or taken on a different route with less zombies and flesh eating vultures.
Just as with the Dreamcast version and in keeping with the arcade feel and approach, you've got a set amount of credits to use up and depending on whether or not you play with a second shooter will depend on how long those credits last for.
As you might have guessed there isn't a save option either so it's either arcade adrenalin stuff or frustration from the get go and you'll know which one you are.
Likewise the baddie placement never changes. This means that you'll either be one of those people that enjoy knowing that on the third corner on level six that there will be two zombies with axes or someone who is driven mad by it, if it's the later then you'll find this House of the Dead compendium more frustrating than tea with the mother-in-law as you try over and over again to complete the game from the start every time you die.
VERDICT
There isn't much between House of the Dead 2 and House of the Dead 3 to write them up separately. Personally we prefer 2 we always found it tougher and it was the game out of the two that we spent the most time playing the arcades at University.
The fact that Sega has bundled the two together on the one disk for a cheaper game price than usual shows that this isn't cutting edge gaming, but a chance for fans of the games to play once again without having to result to buying a Dreamcast and a CRT television on eBay.
If you are fan should you get it? Of course, it's good fun and at £25 will give you more than a night in of entertainment compared to going down the pub and buying a round.
Memories will come flooding back, just don't expect the ability to drink Vodka shots at 50p a go until 4 in the morning to come back with it.
If you're not a fan, we would recommend checking it out first before you buy, either by finding an original arcade somewhere (probably a grotty student union) or by hiring it and seeing how you get on.
They don't make them like the use to and depending on who you talk to, that's not necessarily a bad thing.
Perficient launches stock buyback; AMD rolls out seven new chips
Perficient announces $10 million stock buyback
Perficient Inc., an Austin-based technology consulting firm, announced a $10 million stock buyback program.
The repurchase program runs through 2009.
"We believe our stock is undervalued at these levels and that a buyback is a smart investment for the company," chief executive and Chairman Jack McDonald said in a statement.
Perficient shares closed Thursday at $7.98, up 8 percent.
In the past year, the stock has traded between $6.43 and $25.19 a share.
SEMICONDUCTORS
AMD launches seven new desktop processors
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. began selling seven new desktop processors, stepping up competition with industry leader Intel Corp.
The products include faster versions of AMD's Phenom chips as well as a new low-power processor and the first product with three processors, or cores, built into one piece of silicon, said Patrick Moorhead, AMD's vice president of marketing.
Delays in releasing products have forced AMD to sell its chips at a discount, contributing to five consecutive quarterly losses. The latest processors show that the company is back to delivering on schedule, Moorhead said.
The most advanced Phenom processor has four cores running at 2.5 gigahertz, or billion cycles per second. That replaces a 2.3-gigahertz chip. Intel has similar quad-core chips for desktop computers that run as fast as 3.2 megahertz.
AMD is concentrating on supplying chips priced at $200 or less, which are suited to PCs sought by the majority of computer buyers, Moorhead said.
The company's new triple-core processors offer an option between quad-core chips and products with one or two cores, which run the majority of PCs.
Nokia Siemens speeds up 2.5G cell networks
Wireless equipment maker Nokia Siemens Networks said Thursday that it has new software that will more than double the download speed on networks using 2.5G EDGE (Enhanced Data for GSM Environment) wireless technology.
This is good news for first generation iPhone users whose phones connect to the mobile Net via AT&T's EDGE network. On average iPhone users report that they can get download speeds of 210 kbps. Nokia Siemens says that with a simple software upgrade to the EDGE network equipment, operators, like AT&T, can offer their customers download speeds of 592 kilobits per second.
EDGE is typically considered a 2.5G network technology that is based on the worldwide GSM (Global System Mobile Communications) cell phone standard. Many cell phone operators, such as AT&T, first built their wireless data networks using this technology. But now AT&T and other GSM carriers around the world are deploying faster 3G networks using a technology called HSDPA (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access). Networks using HSDPA offer download speeds between 600 kbps and 1.4 megabits per second.
Most of the 3G rollouts are nearing completion and many carriers are already talking about 4G networks. This means there are few, if any, carriers around the globe still deploying new EDGE networks. So why is Nokia Siemens enhancing the technology?
The reason is simple. Nokia Siemens believes that speedier EDGE networks will extend the life of the already deployed 2.5G networks. Carriers have already paid for these networks, so the software upgrade simply breathes new life into an existing asset. The network upgrade also allows mobile operators to provide a smoother transition between the 2.5G EDGE network and the newer 3G HSDPA network, since most carriers have a wider network footprint using EDGE than they do using HSDPA.
For example, I have a 3G Samsung Blackjack that operates on AT&T's network. In New York City where I live, I access AT&T's 3G network when I download my work e-mail or when I check my favorite mobile Web sites. But when I visit my father at the beach in Delaware, my phone often roams to AT&T's EDGE network, because the 3G service is limited there. When I try to access mobile Web pages or sync my e-mail from the EDGE network, the service is painfully slow. If AT&T used Nokia Siemens' software to speed up its EDGE network, I probably wouldn't even notice when I was roaming on EDGE instead of using the 3G network.
"By 2015, we expect to live in a broadband-IP world with 5 billion people 'always on' and therefore Nokia Siemens Networks is committed to protecting customer investments and continue to implement leading EDGE technology," Ari Lehtoranta, Head of Radio Access Business Unit for Nokia Siemens, said in a statement. "Dual Carrier software upgrade is an easy and extremely cost efficient step to bring broadband user experience to GSM/EDGE networks."
A faster EDGE network would also be great for all those first generation iPhone users whose biggest complaint is that downloading Web pages on an iPhone over AT&T's network is like watching paint dry.
Of course, AT&T would have to deploy the Nokia Siemens technology in order to get these benefits. The software will be available in the third quarter of 2008, the company said.
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