Technology by Teens

Ok just an announcement, I'm going to be headed in a new direction with this blog, the tech was cool and all up till E3 but I want to do somethign new, I don't know what yet, but you can expect a change in Title, link and overall content. I'm still pondering what to do and trying to get ideas, but untill then don't expect too many posts.

The past few years have brought a fast incline in popularity to the world of MMORPG’s, or massive multiplayer online role-playing games, and along with it a steady rise in what has been dubbed MMORPG addiction. Although the idea of being “addicted” to a video game is nothing new, horror stories of torn families and lost friendships because of online gaming have become scattered across the Internet. This obsession with online gaming has been attributed to a number of causes; many think it is due to the virtual power trip gained from having superiority over others, along with the fact that an MMORPG offers a completely alternate universe, perhaps far away from the problems one may have in their life. Multiplayer gaming offers the chance to become someone wholly different from a person’s real self, thus providing the opportunity for approval and esteem based solely on the amount of time and effort put into the game. Online games like World of Warcraft and Everquest have been the target of blame for causing friends and family to forget everything but the game, and lose all care for family, friends, work or school.

w00t, E3 is here and I am completly overwhelmed, where are additional authors when you need them...Sorry not gonna post yet still have alot of reading to do, I really wish I got G4 right about now.
http://www.e3expo.com/

The Nintendo Revolution has been revealed!!! Nintendo only brought a prototype to E3 and they didn't reveal too much of the functionality. One of the more interesting features is the emulation for past Nintendo systems, NES, SNES, N64 etc. or what they call All Access Gaming and so forth, with downloadable games via built in Wi-Fi. The stats say that there will be a 512mb flash drive that contains the downloaded content. I hope they have a hard drive but from the size of the system, it doesn't look like there will be room. They have yet to release any details and haven't even shown the controller yet, which I think is going to be the revolutionary aspect of it. Nintendo had announced earlier that the controller won't have a D-pad, or an A or B button, I'm curious as to what they do. I don't think the All Access Gaming is the Revolutionary part of the console if it is then Nintendo is doomed.

Looks like the Nintendo Revolution will be released in 2006. Coming straight from Nintendo check out the link. Damn. I know that many people are going to but the Xbox 360 just because it will be released this holiday season and they are dying to get a next gen console as soon as possible. Apparently the PS3 will be released along with the Nintendo Revolution. I think that they are releasing so much later than the Xbox 360 since the Xbox 360 is obsolete compared to their systems. Some of the things the article reveled include the size of the next Nintendo system, it will be the size of three DVD cases stacked up, much smaller than the Xbox 360. They also stated that it will be backward compatible and that there will be an online element to it which we already knew. I think that it will have some sort of synergy with the DS, the touch screen possibly?. Hopefully Nintendo will take the extra time to create a superior console.

Wow, the PS3 has been unveiled at a Sony conference, and posters are up in LA. Here's some video footage from IGN of some of the posters. You can find all the specs here. The PS3 looks great, it's hard to tell the exact size in the image but it seems around the same size as the PS2. It has support for 7 wireless controllers via Bluetooth. Out of the box WI-Fi, surround sound Dolby 5.1, 256 mb ram, 3.2 processor greater than the Xbox 360, 1080p HD also beats out Xbox, and will play DVD's and Blue Ray discs. This systems surpasses the Xbox in most if not all aspects.

Wow I can't believe it, we are #1 on yahoo, when you search Technolgy and Teens. That's crazy, wow that's absurd, since this is only a few weeks old I definentaly don't deserve to be there, and I'm not #1 under google not even close , I think this is why google has the edge and will continue to over yahoo.

One of the first Xbox 360 Gameplay Videos showed up on IGN, It's a clip of a Gears Of War, The game appears to be a shooter. I will admit the graphics are stunning in this clip. So check it out.

The specs that were quickly posted and removed at Teamxbox are actually completely valid, the specs are on the official Xbox 360 website now. I watched a few of the videos now and now that the specs are verified, I think there are a few key things that are appeasing, the fact that every game will be in complete High Definition, and will have Xbox Live capabilities is great. Also I kinda like the idea of being able to see your opponent. But, I think the size of the system is simply too big. The hardware is impressive, but I still doubt that Microsoft will be able to stand up against Nintendo and Sony. The Xbox 360 may seem big now, but in 5 days it will be nothing, when the PS3 and the Revolution are revealed.

It's ten at night right after the unveiling of Xbox 360 and Xbox360.com is LIVE. I have the Xbox 360 and OurColony(Xbox 360 introduction) teaser from Engadget I especially like the OurColony Video, the first one seems l. Some of the games shown off include:

Kameo: Elements of Power (Microsoft)
Gears of War (Microsoft)
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon 3 (Ubisoft)
Project Gotham Racing 3 (Microsoft)
NBA 2K6 (2K Sports)
Quake 4 (id Software)
Call of Duty 2 (Activision)
The Darkness (Majesco Entertainment)
Saint’s Row (THQ)

That's all for now, I will definentaly update this with some pictures later tomorrow.

The PSP's UMD format has been cracked by Paradox and they are ripping the files off the discs. Iso's of PSP games have been surfacing over the past few days. Also homebrew code has been successfully executed on the PSP, the first Gameboy Emulator for the PSP has been created today. It's amazing how fast homebrew apps are being created. Wonder what will be next...

iTunes was recently updated to v4.8 and in the music store videos became available as an extra if you bought certain albums. I think that Apple is taking steps to add video content to their store, I don't think this process will be sudden and this addition to iTunes is just the beginning. In the future I can see apple selling movies and TV episodes in their online store. This is Apple, so naturally they would release a new iPod with video capabilities. Just as Apple began selling the iPod photo after their release of iPhoto, they are going to release this new iPod "movie" after there is a easy, legal way to sell video content that they own.

According to Engagdet, The Nintendo Revolution will be shipping sometime in mid 2006, I hope they are incorrect. If in fact the Nintendo Revolution is released in 2006 they will be months behind the PS3 and Xbox 360, which will release at the end of 2005(holiday time). Nintendo has already stated that they want to compete with the PS3 this time around and will not let Sony get a head start again. For Nintendo's sake I hope the information is false.

Windows Mobile 5.0 codename Magneto (sounds like that X-men character to me) was revealed today. Some of the new features include

* Improved support for Bluetooth and Wi-Fi support
* New versions of Word and Excel Mobile
* Support for push to talk and video calling
* Support for persistent memory, so you won't lose your data if you run out of power

This next version of Windows Mobile seems to be a bit behind the times. I don't know if the term "Blackberry Killer" will quite apply to this OS.

Nintendo has been known not to try to move the hype train by itself. Instead, it relies on its loyal fanbase to spread its news, and this is fairly effective - late in a game's lifetime. It's time to start the hype train for The Legend of Zelda.

The newest installment in the franchise is produced by Miyamoto (legendary creator of Mario and Zelda) and Eiji Aunoma (director of Wind Waker).

Not much is known about this game; another part of the Nintendo mindset is secrecy. Good sources for the released information include zhq2.com and zeldalegends.net. To sum it up, this game has realistic graphics (as opposed to Wind Waker's beautiful cel shading), an expanded version of the horseback combat (a la Ocarina of Time) and a wide open world. What we know about this game is miniscule compared to what is still unsaid - the title, theme, and storyline of the game are still hidden. And to add to the mystery, who is the cloaked figure in this picture?



Besides these main pieces, the fanbase has found many tidbits scattered throughout EGM, Hobby Consolas, and the German edition of GamePro. Among those that are the most exciting:

* The difficulty of the game is up. Miyamoto has asked Aunoma to see the addition of new puzzles and difficult situations. EGM, on playing a demo of the game, noted that the battles were challenging enough to satisfy.
* There will be a waterway (a river) on the field. Link will use a canoe to navigate this river and traverse the field quickly. On the canoe, players *may* be able to use a fishing rod, a minigame similar to the pond in Ocarina. (There is definitely a fishing game incorporated.)
* Besides the boss fights in dungeons, Link will square off with boss creatures on the field and in the overworld. Shown to the reporters at EGM was an armored creature, defeated by knocking off his armor and then shelling him with arrows. Throughout the fight, players must jump over fences and defeat weaker creatures on boars.
* The world of Zelda is populated with many animals, including dogs, cats, cuccos, and bulls. Eiji Aunoma, producer, has let slip this: "We're thinking about incorporating some ideas where Link can communicate with animals, one way or another." Just as Ocarina revolved around time, and Wind Waker the wind, the animals may be the new theme of Zelda.

There's so many reasons to be excited about the new game. If the above information is not enough, take a look at the many Zelda fansites. Speculate on the many enigmas of the plot. And wait for E3, which is just around the corner.

May 17, 2005. The Hero will rise again.

Some specs for the Xbox 360 were posted and quickly removed from Teamxbox. These are not confirmed so they might be completely bogus. A lot of Xbox live features were shown, some of which include free Xbox live weekends. Here are the hardware specs.

1. Support for DVD-video, DVD-Rom, DVD-R/RW, CD-DA, CD-Rom, CD-R, CD-RW, WMA CD, MP3 cd, JPEG photo CD
3. Customizable face plates to change appearance
4. 3 USB 2.0 ports
5. Support for 4 wireless controllers
6. Detachable 20GB drive
7. Wi-Fi ready

Custom IBM PowerPC-based CPU
- 3 symmetrical cores at 3.2 GHz each
- 2 hardware threads per core
- 1 VMX-128 vector unit per core
- 1 MB L2 cache

CPU Game Math Performance
- 9 billion dots per second

Custom ATI Graphics Processor
- 500 MNz
- 10 MB embedded DRAM
- 48-way parallel floating-point shader pipelines
- unified shader architecture

Memory
-512 MB GDDR3 RAM
- 700 MNz DDR

Memory Bandwidth
- 22.4 GB/s memory interface bus bandwidth
- 256 GB/s memory bandwidth to EDRAM
- 21.6 GB/s frontside bus

Audio
- Mulitchannel surround sond output
- Supports 48khz 16-bit audio
- 320 independent decompression channels
- 32 bit processing
- 256+ audio channels

Not sure a lot of these sound quite fake to me, 3 processor cores each at 3.2 GHz?? I don't think so at least not at an affordable price. The 20gb detachable harddrive is wrong, it is already known that the Xbox 360 will have a 40 gb harddrive. Other than that it seems fairly valid.

The source of these pictures are sneaky camera phones at the Xbox 360's Launch Party
Well this image is a live shot of the xbox 360, you can see the new controller, headset and Eye Toy like camera. God it's ugly, a failed attempt to imitate apple.

Here's a close up of the shiny white controller. Hmm wonder what that will look like after a year's use.....

A picture of what looks like a Media Center PC remote for the Xbox, during the Engadget interview with Bill Gates, Gates alluded to the Xbox's media center capabilities, it probably won't be a full fledged Media Center PC.

It has been proven that snails are faster than ADSl and some pigeons....LOL, I feel bad for those of you out there who have ADSL, you might as well be riding a snail to an information desk....

Just downloaded Google Web Accelerator for broadband and so far i've saved 9.2 minutes. Check it out. http://webaccelerator.google.com/

This is the Xbox 360. Engadget has verified that this picture is real. The picture confirms that it will have wireless controllers. Many sources have said that the next gen systems will debut next year;however, recently Bill Gates has stated that the Xbox 360 will debut this year, most likely in time for the holiday season. The other systems will probably debut around the same time. Personally I don't think this console screams "NEXT GEN". In my opinion the Xbox doesn't have a chance in the next console fight. I'm personally leaning towards the next Nintendo system, they have taken some interesting patents. Some sources are saying that the Nintendo will also have wireless controllers and will have Wi-Fi out of the box with free online play. I think that the Nintendo DS was a foreshadowing of the Nintendo systems controllers, they might have touch screens. One of the most interesting patents they took involves perspective in a game and being able to see everything in the game world at once, sounds like there will be some sort of special 3D rendering. Not much is known about the PS3 currently, Sony has kept things pretty hush-hush. Well the Xbox 360 will be unveiled on May 12 on MTV at 9:30 for all those in the US, and the Nintendo Revolution and PS3 will be unveiled at E3 a week later.

Turns out that the graphics card not being supported isn't a problem for gameplay, so I went ahead and bought Guild Wars yesterday. So far I really like it. I created an Elementist hero and began playing, The first thing I noticed were the stunning graphics, far better than what i've seen in World of Warcraft. I also noticed that there were some zones where other online players did not exist; when I was on a quest, I soon found out that only members of your party will go into quests with you, which prevents item and kill stealing. The gameplay was also very fast, getting places was fast since after you have gone to a location once you can teleport there from then on. This is really great for people like me that don't have the two hours needed to complete a quest in a normal MMORPG. Also the streaming content made the install a breeze and since I have cable downloading it isn't a problem. There is no monthly fee and, which really rocks since i'm 15 and have little to no money. Instead of a monthly fee NCsoft is supposed to release an expansion every 6-9 months, for the same($50) or lower price and you don't have to buy the expansion to continue playing. I think that this model, that Ncsoft is using will get alot of people especially teenagers into MMORPG's. It got me!!