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Darren Waters

Bungie: Life after Halo 3

  • Darren Waters
  • 18 Feb 08, 21:28 GMT

Bungie remain one of the games industry's great enigmas: starting life as a Mac developer, they embraced the PC, got bought by the world's most powerful software company (Microsoft), produced one of the world's biggest entertainment franchises (Halo) and then decided they wanted to be an independent studio once more and left the warm embrace of Gates et al.

Chris Butcher, the firm's engineering lead, is at the Game Developers' Conference to give a post-mortem on Halo 3 - what lessons did they learn?

I sat down with Chris to talk about life after Master Chief and it turns out that Bungie and the green giant are still very much an item.

Bungie plans on supporting Halo 3 for some time to come, with downloadable content and updates to the game's play system. The firm has always had its community in mind and has no intention of abandoning Halo.

It's a lesson other developers should learn - far too often companies release titles then wash their hands of the product, or stay strangely silent on "issues" in the game found by players.

Bungie remains tight lipped on what is come from the studio. Chris did say that the company was committed to remaining small - so don't expect the company to be working on a number of new projects all at once.

Darren Waters

Tilt to play - on a phone

  • Darren Waters
  • 18 Feb 08, 19:18 GMT

The best thing about the Game Developers Conference is that you can bump into the unexpected at any time.

Wandering back from a keynote speech I saw a man playing a 3D racing game on his Nokia N95 and he was controlling the action just by tilting the phone left or right, up or down.

I'd never seen this before - certainly not on a mobile. Mitri Wiberg, from Swedish firm Polarbit, told me that Nokia had included an accelerometer in the N95 but had not given developers access to the feature until very recently.

The accelerometer means that the phone can be used just liked Sony's Playstation 3 controller, and potentially like the Wiimote for the Nintendo, if used in conjunction with Bluetooth.

Mitri's simple demonstration shows that mobile phones can find a way to bypass the problems inherent with playing games on a handset, nameley the small buttons and form factor.

It's also indicative of a wider trend - finding more natural human machine interfaces that make gaming more accessible.

Darren Waters

Is gaming's future mobile?

  • Darren Waters
  • 18 Feb 08, 19:08 GMT

I'm talking to a lot of people at the Game Developers' Conference this week about mobile gaming.

Games on your phone have been the "next big thing" for many, many years but the industry has yet to go truly mainstream.

I've just been talking to Michel Guillemot, the head of Gameloft, the world's largest distributor of mobile games, and I'll be writing up his thoughts in a piece on the أغر؟´«أ½ News website but I thought I'd detail some of the points he made. (Apologies for the audio on the video above - he was very softly spoken)

Every second two Gameloft titles are downloaded somewhere in the world. Last year the firm grew by 40% and its revenues topped $140m.

But Gameloft's rude health is not reflected in the industry at large: Mr Guillemot told me that 90% of mobile game publishers are losing money.

Yet he's predicting healthy things for the industry, propelled by new hardware, expanding services and a fresh attitude from carriers.

More immersive 3D games, real time multiplayer and touch controlled games are on the horizon.

By 2012 mobile phones will be able to play the kinds of games seen on consoles just two or three years ago, he said.

"The evolution of phones is moving five times quicker than consoles," he said.

So what do you think? Are you a mobile gamer? Can you imagine yourself playing games on your phone?

Rory Cellan-Jones

HD-DVD - They think it's all over

  • Rory Cellan-Jones
  • 18 Feb 08, 15:18 GMT

The message from Japan this morning is that the - Toshiba says "We are currently assessing our business strategies, but nothing has been decided at this moment." But you'll struggle to find anyone in the business who believes that HD-DVD players will still be coming off the production lines six months from now.

HD-DVD logoFirst, the movie studios moved decisively into the camp, then giant American retailers like Wal-Mart followed suit. You can still get HD-DVD players in some stores and online. But the prices tell their own story. On Amazon today you can buy what looks like quite a with two movies chucked in. Bearing in mind that you could have paid four times as much a year ago, it looks like the fire-sale is starting.

For all those who've invested billions in getting both HD formats off the ground the end will come as a relief. Even Toshiba will able to refocus its business and stop pouring money down the drain - and its shares have risen today in anticipation of the lifting of the HD-DVD burden.

Sony will be celebrating and preparing a marketing blitz for Blu-Ray. But it may not reap the same rewards as its opponents in the of the early 1980s. For nearly two decades VHS was the only medium for recording and watching television. But Blu-Ray will have fierce competition from the online alternatives. Right now, few people have the bandwidth or storage to make downloading an HD movie an attractive option, but that will change.

The real losers though are those who have bought an HD-DVD player. Sure, they will be able to continue playing the discs they've already acquired and old DVDs. But they may choose instead to put the machine in the loft and wait for it to become a valuable antique.

Rory Cellan-Jones

MacBook Air - Light and Heavy

  • Rory Cellan-Jones
  • 18 Feb 08, 11:53 GMT



It started so badly. My first few hours with the were full of frustration as I struggled - and failed - to import data and settings from my old computer. To make this ultra-slim laptop fit into its aluminium casing Apple has had to chuck a lot overboard - including a firewire port - so that means you are completely dependent on wireless technology to import your data or install new software. And for me - and plenty of others as far as I can see from online discussions - Apple's new migration assistant did not work.

But from then on life with the Air just got better and better. I took the laptop with me to Barcelona and used it as my prime tool for all my reporting from Mobile World Congress. Its sheer portability was a joy - when you're racing around a crowded congress site, a 1.4 kg load feels an awful lot better on your back than the 2.4 kg machine I normally carry.

Rory Cellan-Jones with a MacBook AirThe 13" screen is very bright and clear, there is a fully featured keyboard, and the Air coped with just about everything I threw at it - from checking the web, to editing audio and video, to uploading video via FTP. I had thought that I might miss a few more ports, a DVD-drive, and a removable battery. In fact, only the lack of a spare battery was a worry but every three or four hours I found somewhere to plug in.

The MacBook Air comes with Apple's latest operating system, Leopard, which features some decent - if not dramatic - new features. I also downloaded and installed three applications - iMovie 6 (Apple appears to recognise that iMovie 8 is a backwards step, so makes the later version available as a free download), a free audio editing programme Audacity, and Open Office, the open source productivity programme.

Which brings me to one complaint, common to all Apple computers. Where is the word processor or the spreadsheet? Many years ago Apple's Claris Works software came free with a new computer - now you have to choose to pay آ£55 for iWork or between آ£100 and آ£350 for Microsoft Office.

The MacBook Air certainly wins the battle with the Asus rival when it comes to looks. I was besieged in Barcelona whenever I got the notebook out and started working. As a design object it is a worthy successor to the iMac and iPod which have made Jonathan Ive, Apple's chief designer, such a huge influence on the look and feel of the modern gadget.

It's also a pleasure to use - but at a price. I was trying the version with a Solid State Drive, which costs a ludicrous آ£829 extra, but even the standard machine with an 80gb hard drive costs آ£1200. For that money you can get an awful lot of laptop - albeit something rather heavier than the Air - or you can buy half a dozen Asus eee's.

But if money is no object, then the Air lives up to the hype. Just as the iPod was not the first MP3 player and the iPhone was not the first touchscreen phone, the MacBook Air is not the first ultra-slim laptop. But yet again, Apple has succeeded in setting a standard which others will have to try very hard to surpass.

Darren Waters

Going ultra light with Asus

  • Darren Waters
  • 18 Feb 08, 11:41 GMT

I've never really had cause to complain about the bulk of my laptop - at least, not until I started using the .

After a few days use going back to my Macbook was like swapping a pebble in my pocket for a boulder.

The Asus U1E is undoubtedly a wonderfully mobile computer. It comes packed with all the features you should expect from a laptop - and that includes plenty of USB and Firewire posrts (Apple - take note).

And Asus throws in an external CD/DVD drive for the price. But that price is آ£1,300 - which is a lot of money.

The screen is crisp and the keyboard, while small, is perfectly usable for the road warrior with average size fingers.

Inside the machine there's a 100GB drive, 2GB of RAM and an Intel Core 2 Duo processor.

But here's the rub: the CPU clocks at just 1Ghz and so it positively creaks running Vista Business.

I have no idea why Asus has chosen to run the Business edition, or even Vista for that matter. This machine just doesn't have the CPU cycles to pull it off. XP would have been a much better option.

As such it's hard to really judge the machine. As a piece of hardware it is well-engineered, sleek and a joy to have in your laptop bag as it's lighter than many paperback books.

But trying to do any sort of task results in hangs, crashes and problems. Reopening the lid and awakening the machine from sleep can take up to a minute - that's just unacceptable in a modern laptop.

So until Asus improves the processor, or ditches Vista, I'll be lugging round my Macbook and trying to ignore just how heavy my bag feels.

Darren Waters

Game Developers Conference kicks off

  • Darren Waters
  • 18 Feb 08, 09:58 GMT

The annual gathering of the world's elite developers starts tomorrow in San Francisco and the big question to be answered is this: how on earth will the games industry surpass last year's commercial and critical high?

With record sales and blockbuster titles like Halo 3 and Bioshock 2007 will go down as one of the most successful ever years for the industry.

The has a unique place in the gaming calendar. It's not a content show like or , but games are hyped and given soft-launches at the event.

The show is primarily a chance for the past year's most successful developers to tell the rest of the industry how they managed to build their work of genius and a forum for discussing the big issues and development challenges of the year ahead.

There is a lot to reflect on.

This time last year Sony was beginning its slow path to recovery amidst sniping and predictions of doom.
Microsoft was anticipating the launch of Halo 3 but had not reckoned on the red ring of death controversy.
Nintendo was in the midst of its seemingly unstoppable rise.

So what can we expect this year?

I've spoken to Jamil Moledina, the conference director, and you can read his predictions .

To summarise, mobile and new ways to control video games are at the top of the agenda.

I'll be focusing my efforts on mobile gaming and speaking to some of the biggest names at the show.

If there's a question you want put to Bioshock creator Ken Levine, Peter Molyneux, Bungie's Chris Butcher or EA's Lou Castle, let me know.

Darren Waters

End of the road for CompUSA

  • Darren Waters
  • 18 Feb 08, 01:21 GMT

CompUSA, the American chain of technology shops, closes its doors for good in a few weeks after admitting defeat at the hands of online shopping and retailers such as Best Buy and Circuit City.

I popped into the shop on Market Street in San Francisco yesterday as I wanted to check out the last minute bargains and for reasons of nostalgia - I bought my first ever PDA, an iPaq 1910, from the shop about five years ago.

The shop resembles a jumble sale, with laptops, cables, and software piled high in bins and on shelves with prices slashed: they are selling big name laptops at up to a third off and recent software like OS X Leopard at much reduced prices.

The problem for CompUSA was that the place always resembled something of a jumble sale. It was never easy to find anything and the level of knowledge of sales assistants was pretty poor.

I remember being on the verge of giving up on plans of buying the iPaq until a fellow customer kindly answered some of my queries.

CompUSA failed to adapt to the mainstream-lining of technology; people wanted to join the computer revolution but didn't want to have to think to hard about how, what or which.

So farewell then CompUSA and if you're in need of a cheap coffee pot, then I'd recommend the store on 4th Street (see video above).


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