Gaming – Page 21 – Digital-Lifestyles

The Matrix Online

Admittedly, we’d be a lot more excited about this had the last two films been any good, but Monolith Production’s new massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) based on the Matrix series of films is set to go public in November. The new game will be published by Warner Bros. Interactive and Sega, Monolith have already produced two respectable titles based on licenses: No-one Lives Forever and TRON2.0.

Set directly after the Martrix: Revolutions, Matrix Online (MxO) boasts a story line written by the Wachowski brothers. Mind you, so did Enter the Matrix and look how good that was. The MMORPG is meant to be seen as a fourth instalment, rather like Enter the Matrix being another part of the second film.

MxO is set in a city environment and incorporates the films’ distinctive martial arts fighting theme, but players will also be able to command their own hovercraft and form factions for and against other groups. Bullet time will be incorporated in the game play as apparently there are some people out there who don’t think it’s been completely overused.

Characters’ appearances can be completely customised, so you don’t have to worry about turning up at an event wearing the same sunglasses and trench coat as everyone else.

“Ability codes” seem intriguing, where players download sources of information to create Matrix items and learn special abilities. If you don’t fancy PvP (player versus player combat), then you can create Matrix code and distribute it in the game.

We’ll give it a try when it appears and let you know how we get on.

The Matrix wants you

E3: America’s Army Recruiting Gamers for Special Forces

“America’s Army” is a battlefield simulation aimed (ouch) at promoting the US Amred forces to potential recruits – and now it’s one of the five most popular games hosted online, with 3.3 million registered users.

The US Army find that prospective soldiers who contact recruiters after playing the game have a much better follow-through rate than any other form or advertising or promotion, and is a much more efficient method of providing information to young people.

That’s right: this is a game actively encourages children to use guns and learn to kill people, and society is actually pleased for a change.

All of the scenarios in the game give a realistic view of Army life and require employing real-life tactics – if you go in blasting as if you were playing HalfLife, then you won’t last very long.

If you shoot one of your own, then you end up in prison – though this feature seems to have been omitted in “real life”.

E3 was the first showing of a new follow up to America’s Army: Operations, called America’s Army: Special Forces. Players attempt to earn Green Beret status by completing individual and collective training missions drawn from the Special Forces Assignment and Selection (SFAS) process.

Players who complete the SFAS process have the opportunity to take on elite Special Forces roles and are qualified to play in multiplayer missions with units ranging from the elite 82d Airborne Division to the 75th Ranger Regiment.

The British Army’s two attempts at recruitment games “Britain’s Army: Deepcut” and “Britain’s Army: Blown Up in Our Troop Carrier by an American A10 Warthog” were dismal failures.

My hope is that The Last Starfighter might actually be true and I will be contacted by aliens to save them because of my skills at Ikaruga. Knowing my luck though, it’ll be Super Monkey Ball.

Rumours that a certain group of footballers use Grand Theft Auto: Vice City to brush up their prostitute beating skills are unfounded.

Get your copy of America’s Army here

E3: PSP Revealed

Sony has announced the specifications of its new PlayStation Portable console to attendees at this year’s E3 in Los Angeles – we can confirm that the new console is indeed region-locked, so won’t play games from other markets.

Some prototype peripherals were also on display with the console: a keyboard, camera and even a GPS unit (presumably so that kids can answer that perennial question for themselves: are we there yet?).

With a launch in Japan by the end of 2004, followed by European and US launches Spring 2005, it won’t be long before consumers get their hands on these to see what they’re like for themselves.

PSP™ Product Specifications Product Name:  PlayStation®Portable (PSP)   Color: 		Black   Dimensions: 	Approx. 170 mm (L) x 74 mm (W) x 23 mm (D)   Weight:  		Approx. 260 g (including battery)   CPU: 		PSP CPU (System clock frequency 1~333MHz)   Main Memory: 	32MB   Embedded DRAM:	4MBDisplay: 		4.3 inch, 16:9 widescreen TFT LCD 		480 x 272 pixel (16.77 million colors) 		Max. 200 cd/m2 (with brightness control)  Speakers:  	Built-in stereo speakers  Main Input/Output: IEEE 802.11b (Wi-Fi) 		USB 2.0 (Target) 		Memory Stick™ PRO Duo 		IrDA  		IR Remote (SIRCS)    Disc Drive: 	UMD Drive (Playback only)  Profile: 		PSP Game 		UMD Audio 		UMD Video  Main Connectors: 	DC OUT 5V  		Terminals for charging built-in battery  		Headphone/Microphone/Control connector Keys/Switches: 	Directional buttons (Up/Down/Right/Left)Analog pad 		Enter keys (Triangle, Circle, Cross, Square) 		Left, Right keys 		START, SELECT, HOME 		POWER On/Hold/Off switch 		Brightness control, Sound Mode, Volume +/- 		Wireless LAN On/Off switch 		UMD Eject  Power: 		Built-in lithium-ion battery, AC adaptor  Access Control:  	Region Code, Parental Control  Accessories: 	Stand 		Headphone with remote commander 		Headphone with remote commander and microphone 		External battery pack 		Case 		StrapUMD Specifications Dimensions: 	Approx. 65 mm (W) x 64 mm (D) x 4.2 mm (H)   Weight: 		Approx. 10g   Disc Diameter:  	60 mm   Maximum Capacity:	1.8GB (Single-sided, dual layer)  Laser wavelength: 	660nm (Red laser)   Encryption: 	AES 128bit

In-Game Advertising with Massive

I must confess, the first time I fired up WipeOut in 1995 and sailed under that Red Bull banner (scraping my way along the barrier), I was impressed by this new collision of real products and virtual worlds. Even though it’d been done before, this was, to me at least, the most impressive example at the time. Mind you, I’ve only just ceased being amused by the Dole logos in Super Monkey Ball.

Fast forward a few years and product placement and advertising is everywhere in games – sometimes it works, sometimes it’s intrusive. A football game without any ads on the pitch would look strange, yet fantasy RPGs with soft drink product placement would break the sense of immersion.

Massive Incorporated, a New York based company have come up with a solution for games development houses keen to acquire revenue through placing adverts in their games, and for advertisers desperate to reach all those gamers that don’t watch TV any more.

Massive Ad Server is a service for streaming advertising into games live through an internet connection – allowing more adverts in games, and hopefully keeping them focused. Advertising is traditionally hard coded into games, and so the ad is never updated – this gets fresh advertising in to games, and allows the sponsor and products to be changed and updated.

Massive back the service up with a sales team that have advertisers keen to reach gamers in-game, using information gathered about the game and its demographics. No point in streaming Barbie ads to young adults playing Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, is there?

I’m not entirely sure how I feel about this one really. Given that 20% fewer men between 18 – 24 are watching TV these days, advertisers need new ways to reach audiences. Gaming is a good way to do it – but the second I see Link wearing Nike, I’m taking up croquet.

Massive Incorporated

Nintendo DS Specs

Nintendo have been leader of the hand-held video game platform for the past fifteen years – no-one has ever been able to come close. Many have tried – Sega with the Game Gear, Atari with their Lynx console. Sony even had a mild go with the PocketStation. What do you mean you’ve never heard of it?

Nintendo’s monopoly of the market is even more surprising considering how dated their GameBoy platform is looking. They got away with the standard GameBoy for nearly ten years before finally adding colour to it. Even the GBA SP isn’t an enormous leap beyond previous GameBoys.

With Nokia’s N-GAGE QD on the horizon and the PlayStation Portable getting closer every day, Nintendo know that they’ve got to release something pretty special to stay ahead – hence the DS.

Rumours flew around the internet for months over what the machine would be like – and it seems that some of the more outlandish claims are actually true.

Here are the facts:

It has really does have two screens
It’s true, one of the screens has touch input
The two processors allow true 3D polygon graphics on both screens
Voice recognition is built in
It has built in wireless communications
It has a chat client
The battery is rechargeable like the GBA SP
The game media is smaller than a GBA game cartridge – and can store over a gigabit

The new console is certainly innovative – and might well prevent Sony or Nokia taking over their party, but we’ve yet to see any confirmation on how much it’s going to cost. Since the console is certainly not a phone, its price won’t be subsidised with a service contract – but we think it’ll probably come in a bit cheaper than Sony’s PSP, which is being targeted at an older (and slightly richer audience). This puts it at about $150 (€127)– but what will this mean for the suddenly, massively, outdated GBA SP at $100 (€84.50)?
Nintendo on the DS

Boys Shunning Toys to Play Video Games

The NPD Group has published a report that confirms and adds detail to a view that many have held for some time: non-video game toys are losing the battle for our children’s time and attention.

This is particularly evident with older boys from ages 9 to 12 – they show a marked tendency to move away from traditional toys to playing video games. Girls seem to spend about the same time on toys and video games – but as they get older, they tend to find interests away from video games.

According to the report, the average time children among the ages of 5 to 12 spend playing video games is 4.2 hours per week, with one-third (32 percent) of boys and only 10 percent of girls playing more than six hours per week. Nearly half of the children in the study began playing video games between the ages of 4 and 5, with 20 percent beginning at age 3 or younger.

“Video games demand the attention of toy manufacturers who want to understand their implications to play time with traditional toys,” said Michael Redmond, senior industry analyst, The NPD Group. “For toy manufacturers, determining how to leverage the ‘power’ of video games in order to take advantage of their popularity through different marketing tactics is essential. By researching which types of video games are most popular among children, toy manufacturers can discover new licensing opportunities.”

Categories that are suffering are ones that previously had a very strong grip on the boys’ market – action figures, building toys, puzzles and vehicles. This has been demonstrated by poor sales by companies specialising in toys these areas, with the Lego Company being a high profile victim.

Indeed, my own Lego collection has been sadly neglected since I picked up Eve, though I might dust some off later. To make a Minmatar Tempest, obviously.

Infinium Labs Sets Launch for Phantom Console

We have covered the on/off, is it real, is it vapour history of the Phantom Console a number of times.

We now learn that Infinium Labs are at E3 showing the Phantom Console on an 8,000 sqft stand and signing up game developer for the platform. They have also released their pricing plans.

The Phantom is essentially a sealed box containing a high spec PC that has been designed for gaming, so comes complete with a high end graphics card. What makes it different is that the games are loaded on to it via broadband, so not only are there no physical distribution cost for it, but the payment models for the games can vary from single play rental to ownership.

Following its planned 18 November launch, it will sell for $199 or for free, if two years of membership to the $29.95 per month broadband gaming service, Phantom Gaming Service, are signed up for. At the start of the service a large number of free games will be available.

The sleek-looking device will be manufactured by Biostar in Taiwan, and will feature a 40GB hard drive, AMD Athlon XP 2500+ central processing unit (CPU), the NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700 Ultra graphics processing unit (GPU) and the NVIDIA nForce2 Ultra 400 platform processor. It will also ship with gamepad, mouse and keyboard that they are labelling the Phantom Lapboard, which they claim gives easy control over the keyboard and mouse even when sitting on a couch.

There is plenty of innovative ideas in the Phantom such as the way the capacity of the hard disk is managed. The unit will notice when the drive is becoming full and will invisibly remove the least played games, automatically uploading them from the central server if the gamer request a play.

Kevin Bachus, president of Infinium Labs previously worked in a senior position at Microsoft in the Xbox division.

It is a brave company that takes of the likes of Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft, and all gaming consoles live or die on the support of the games developers – if there is no strong flow of quality titles, people will not buy. Mr Bachus is not alone in thinking it is a good idea; Infinium has just $46m in first round funding.

Infinium Labs

Nintendo DS and Sony PSP news hits mainstream

E3, the LA games show, is on the nearly upon us and it’s a reflection on the level of competition within the games industry these days that lots of news is coming out prior to the show. Yesterday we covered the pre-show news of EyeToy:Chat and today Reuters is covering the upcoming battle between Sony and Nintendo with their new handhelds.

To those who have been following the gaming market, the arrival of the Sony PSP and Nintendo DS are not news. What will be news is the exact specification and capabilities of them, as most discussion on the subject has been conjecture.

What is known is that the PSP will be more than a games machine, it will also play music and films. The DS will have two screens – DS stands for Dual Screen.

Nintendo has tempted furious discussion in how the DS will be operated, with some who may know more added to this. “This will not be a machine where you push the ‘A’ button or ‘B’ button and move the direction pad, but a completely different way to interact with the device,” said Hirokazu Hamamura, president of “Famitsu” game magazine publisher EnterBrain.

Nintendo has been very strong in the past in getting their gaming platforms working together. The portable GameBoy Advance (GBA) can connect to the GameCube games console, and in fact games such as Animal Crossing let the game characters pass between the two to ‘live’ between them. As we’ve previously covered, Sony is planning to mirror this with the PSP, PS2 and PSX connecting.

Before either the PSP or DS are released, Nokia will be releasing its new version of N-Gage, the QD. We will be testing and reviewing it at the end of May.

Reuters – Sony, Nintendo Aim to Wow Gamers with New Handhelds

Sony EyeToy gets Sociable

Slowly and steadily, Sony is building on the usage and application of the ground-breaking EyeToy webcam add-on for their Playstation 2. The latest announcement is EyeToy:Chat, which expands the tool into a far more social area.

As you probably already know, EyeToy is a low cost Webcam that plugs into Sony’s Playstation 2 and is placed on top of the television, pointing into the room. The player controls the game by moving their arms, body and head around, which in turn interacts with the games. There is no need to use a joypad. It was originally released as EyeToy:Play and came with twelve mini-games; Kung Fu – chopping opponents, the inevitable dance games – Saturday Night Fever-style arm waving, even Keep-up – using the head to keep a ball in the air and knocking it into objects.

EyeToy: Chat brings voice, chat, video mail, video chat and a selection of video-enabled simple games such as chess and checkers. Utilising the broadband adaptor the text chat rooms allow 256 people to talk together, with 16 people able to converse at one time in the voice chat rooms, as well as real-time video. When people are in one-on-one video chats, the options to play the simple games are presented. The video mail feature will allow users to send 30-second video messages to anyone on their buddy list.

Clearly safety will be a big concern for parents and Sony’s London Studios, the original inventors of EyeToy, who developed Chat and have spent considerable efforts in trying to make the product as safe as possible. User will need to register with Playstation Net to use it and will only be bale to take part once they enter the PIN that is send to their home address. With Chat rooms being moderated and a clear processes for grievances Sony feels “‘EyeToy: Chat’ is one of the safest communication packages available on any system on the market.”

The whole of the Digital-Lifestyles office is looking forward to its European Summer release.

Nintendo: Cartoons for the GBA

For US$20 (€) you’ll soon be able to buy a GBA cartridge containing up to 45 minutes of high-quality (well, for a 240 x160 pixel screen anyway) video and animation. Nintendo are addressing an issue that they’ve long had with their games consoles: kids keep switching them off and watching television. Admittedly, they tend to watch Nintendo cartoons, but then that might expose them to adverts for other companies’ products.

So, Nintendo have brought the cartoons to their GameBoy Advance in the form of cartridges containing between two and four episodes of popular cartoons. First up will be a selection of episodes from the Pokémon franchise, followed by other titles from other series: SpongeBob SquarePants, The Fairly Oddparents, Dora the Explorer and Codename: Kids Next Door, and Sonic X.

“Even by the remarkable standards of product evolution that have characterized the Game Boy franchise, this is a landmark event,” says George Harrison, Nintendo of America’s senior vice president of marketing and corporate communications, said in a statement. “Pokémon is part of the first step in revolutionizing the nature of portable video entertainment, with eventual reach targeting all demographics.”

This is a remarkably similar idea to the ZVue player we talked about a few months ago – though since Nintendo has sold more than 20 million GBA players in the USA alone, the Zvue’s prospects look somewhat diminished.

Nintendo