Aehso’s Output

A great clip for all the hardcore gamers out there (from Look Around You series two)

When you are done, you can even play Diarrhea Dan yourself.

Superb.

aehso games

Horray, I ended up spending a significant chunk of a day off work playing my new Wii.  It really is that much fun, though I clearly have my work cut out – my Mii’s fitness age in Wii Sports is 80.  I’d work on improving that but the game only lets you train once a day.  All in all Wii Sports is just a great game, even popping up sensible suggestions to take occasional breaks, (the suggestion dialog even has a nice wind-blowing-in-an-open-window image).  Curiously, Wii Sports edged out Gears of War as Time magazines 2006 game of the year – not bad for what was probably intended to be a capabilitiy demo suite of mini-games.

That’s four of us 30+ kids who have bought Wiis and I think there are a
few more looking for one.  Apologies to all the mums and dads out there
who are still on the waiting lists, still trying to get little Johnny’s
christmas present.  My sister and her husband called around today and although they are not gamers they are apparently going to buy one when they get back to the U.S. (and probably a new LCD tv).  The little console that couldn’t is going to be a huge success for Nintendo.

That said, I am still playing Guitar Hero II , finally unlocking the Stonehenge venue.  That game is just bloody brilliant, I hope the bring out something like that for the Wii (drums anyone?)

aehso games, hardware

Can the PS3 Save Sony contains an interesting quote from Phil Wiser, former CTO of Sony’s US operations:

But it’s very hard to quantify the advantage of good software. If you’re in a hardware company and you analyze it from a financial perspective, you just want to do it as cheaply as you can. Software and services are an afterthought.

Interesting quote. In fact, many (unsuccessful) software companies make exactly the same mistake so we can’t be too hard on a hardware company for making it but the mere fact that Sony still think of themselves as hardware company doesn’t bode well for the PS3. Me, I think I will Wii…

aehso games

I spent an hour today installing Second Life and even managed to wander around Dublin:

Wow, pretty impressive, me flying over O’Connell Street Bridge at night, I have always wanted to do that! I also checked out the virtual view from the top of the virual spire (or “Berties Pole” as it is called in-game)
Dublin is even near Las Vegas on the SL world map – if only!

aehso games

A sad collection of letters from partners of MMORPG addicts. Some of the behavior described is disturbing to say the least:

I am sitting here with tears running down my face. I have just printed the basic papers required to file for divorce.

Divorce, my 2nd. First from an abusive raging alcoholic. 2nd? From a once incredibly sweet, kind loving devoted husband who now spends every waking minute playing EQ. I try to think back on when it all went wrong… 2 years ago? 3 years ago? Probably even before that when he was playing other games where they had weekends away for their Quake tournaments.

That’s sad in that she wasted three years of her life hoping the guy would grown out of it. Hindsight is wonderful sometimes. On the other hand, the following excerpt is, well, a different type of sad:

My boyfriend has tried to suck me into his everquest hole before; sometimes it’s funny but other times it really hurts. He would bring this big everquest manual with him everywhere, even on our dates, I guess he thought he could get me to read it.

Yikes!

aehso games

Wow of the day (and proof that the Japanese are really on a different plane to us Irish). Apparently, NTT (Japan’s main telephone company) has created a remote prototype that can control people. An interesting quote from a “user”:

I felt a mysterious, irresistible urge to start walking to the right whenever the researcher turned the switch to the right. I was convinced — mistakenly — that this was the only way to maintain my balance. The phenomenon is painless but dramatic. Your feet start to move before you know it. I could even remote-control myself by taking the switch into my own hands.

What-the?”Remote-control myself” How weird is that?

aehso games, tech

A fellow gamer sent me a hands on report of the new Nintendo Revolution controller. Here’s Nintendo’s promotional videoI think Nintendo are onto a winner with this – it almost makes you wonder why Sony and Micrsoft didn’t introduce motion detectors in the new PS3 & XBox 360 controllers. Now that the cat is out of the bag, expect the other two to counter with “oh we will have one of those Real Soon Now(tm)” statements.

If you think it’s gimmicky bear the following in mind: Apple recently added a Sudden Motion Sensor to the inside of their powerbook laptops earlier this year. It’s a simple enough device that was designed to detect sudden changes in axis and velocity and was put in there just to protect the hard drive (the heads can damage the platters easily if the drive is in use when an impact occurs). The thing is, once developers found out about the sensor, they got curious. And the kernel guys went out and wrote drivers to use the motion sensor as a standard input device – think picking up the PowerBook and moving it about to control applications and you get the idea). It won’t take long for Apple to build and integrate a new external peripheral (SpaceMouse, anyone?) using the same sensor technology (and bluetooth). It might only be used by a small number of spatial-type applications but it is such and Apple thing to do.

Kudos to Nintendo for innovating. It’s almost a pity they still will not match the PS3 and XBox 360 sales figures but those hype machines have other features (and more marketing $$$) that will ensure their success. But Nintendo beat Apple to the punch on this one – wow!

Update: Logitech already have a SpaceMouse – damn, I liked that name.

aehso games

Reuters are reporting that a man in China killed another man because he sold a virtual sword.

Hopefully it’s safe for me to continue playing Halo 2 – I’m so bad at the game anyone can just kill me in the game again and again and again…

aehso games