Wednesday, December 31, 2003  

Happy New Year, all. It's weird, but with work keeping me on a funny sort of schedule that rather isolates me from the outside world (a good and bad thing, really) I actually forgot that it's already December 31st, leading to some odd looks from people when I nonchalantly ask why they're going out in the middle of the week. It's also because I don't like New Year's Eve celebrations at all. You're always paying too much for the priviledge of crowding into a bar with a ton of ultra-drunk people all getting overly sentimental. It's never a good night (unless you're 16 or Kavi), so I figure why not save your money for another night? It also helps that my family usually stays home on New Year's... but not this year. Everyone barring my sister is out. This might sound a bit depressing, but I reckon this is a good thing -- a nice quiet night at home with nobody around to bother me and someone to play a few games with -- especially since I have work as usual the next day.

I bought a new game today as a late Christmas present from my uncle. The funny part of this is that I've been picking from a curiously old-school selection recently. Last week I bought a Donkey Kong game (Donkey Konga, a music game with bongo drums), I've been trying to snag a Mario game forever (Mario Party 5), and I ended up with a Pac-Man game (Pac-Man VS, a multiplayer take on the classic). Three characters from the dawn of gaming enjoying a little renaissance. Refreshing, really.

Since it's the end of the year and I'm talking games, I have to speak one last time about my favourite game of the year... and it stars none of those classic characters. In fact, it doesn't star any recognisable characters at all, despite being part of a classic series. It's Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic on Xbox (horror!). I actually managed to finish it the other day, so it's still fresh in my mind... which is also a neat choice of words, because that game is just fresh in general. Although admittedly a lot of the game's strengths are from the PC gaming roots of developer Bioware, it's the first time a lot of them have appeared on consoles. To be blunt, I hate console RPGs, as symbolised by the Final Fantasy games. Their system of turn-based combat is boring, which makes their battle-heavy structure agonising. And the storylines around the games -- though impressively presented -- are overwrought, long-winded and just plain boring (see the Final Fantasy Moviefor more on that).

Knights of the Old Republic blows all that away. The combat system is a curious mix of real-time battles and turn-based strategising that will baffle you at first, but eventually clicks perfectly into place. Of course, you don't even have to fight a lot of the time. Knights places equal emphasis on events outside combat, including hacking into computers (to bypass security) or even using your charm and persuasive ability to talk your way out of (or even in to) fights. Talk is key in the game, but not in the same sense as Metal Gear Solid 2 or Final Fantasy where you're a passive element, sitting back and watching a good five minutes of conversation roll by. Rather, YOU are choosing the questions to ask and receiving the appropriate answers. Through your choice, you can influence not just the events you experience in the game, but the entire story too -- including the ending. It's also an interesting way to present the story, because you're in control of it and can see as little or as much of it as you want. If you want to delve deep into the considerable (and seemingly irrelevant) backstory to the game, go ahead. If you don't care, no biggie. By leaving careful nuggets of information in there, it's also a rather insidious way of laying the tracks for some, um, rather dramatic story events.

The other reason why conversation choice is good is that as a Star Wars game, Knights is based on The Force. As anyone knows, you can either be a Jedi and serve the Light side of the Force (like Luke Skywalker) or be an evil Sith and follow the Dark Side (like Darth Vader). Every conversation has an outcome that is either Light, Dark, or neutral. You can intimidate people into doing what you want, or help them out by doing what they want. The cool thing is that the Dark Side is awfully tempting -- being the People's Champion and helping everyone out with everything gets to be a real drag sometimes, especially when you refuse a reward for "just doing the right thing" -- but stick with the Light Side and you'll end up stronger. It mirrors the philosophy running through the films: The Dark Side is tempting and powerful (the easy way out!), while the Light ultimately prevails.

It's an incredible game and I urge anyone who has the means (the means being an Xbox or a PC) to pick it up immediately. Like, right now. Hurry.

Posted at 9:12 PM

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Thursday, December 25, 2003  

Merry Christmas, everyone. And sorry about yesterday. I completely forgot to update, though if it makes things better I felt REALLY BAD about it. Honest.

The hot rumour doing the rounds now (ranging from super-reliable rumour site Think Secret to Reuters) is that Apple will unveil "mini" iPods at Macworld on January 6th. The new line of mini-iPods will only hold 2GB to 4GB of music (about 500 to 1000 songs), but will be half the size of the originals and come in a variety of colours. And they'll retail for as little as US$99.

This will be HUGE.

Now, this isn't just a shameless plug here, but if anyone scoped out the Geek Music Gadgets segment I did for CNN ("Unwrapping the gizmos"), you'll notice that I have a 1.5GB MP3 player that's half the size of an iPod from Creative, the Nomad MuVo2. And I thought -- and said right there -- that it had potential to fill a niche. iPods are good, iPods are great, yes, but there are some people who don't want them. Some people think they're too big, and prefer tiny flash-based MP3 players. Some people just don't want to carry thousands of songs with them, or don't have that many songs anyway and thus don't want to pay the iPod's premium price for a privledge they don't need. This is generally true around the world, but especially so in Asia (where those generic flash-based MP3 players are everywhere). But there's a space between the low-end players and the current iPods, where people can carry a few hundred songs in a small and affordable player. The fact that so many people have reacted positively to this rumour when I mentioned it (and by positively, I mean "So when can I buy one?" rather than "That's nice") adds strength to my conviction that this will be huge. Possibly bigger than the original iPod. The iPod was a revolution in design, but it wasn't the first hard disk MP3 player by a long shot and always suffered from the premium price tag. These new iPods have only the Creative MP3 player as competition, as well as over two years' worth of incredible buzz from the success of the original iPod.

Either way, I can't wait for Macworld on January 6th. It's also the 20th Birthday of the Macintosh in 2004, so I'm hoping Steve Jobs pulls something new and amazing out of the hat. I doubt it, since this iPod news will overshadow anything and everything, but Apple do have a history of surprising people.

Posted at 11:05 PM

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Tuesday, December 23, 2003  

My second CNN segment went up today. Same link (click here), but a different story: Ultimate Mobile Holiday Gifts. Must see TV! The first story was, of course, Unwrapping the Gizmos.

I'd say more, but I'm exhausted. More tomorrow. I swear.

Posted at 11:26 PM

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Monday, December 22, 2003  

Yeah, I know, I haven't blogged in forever. But I had a good reason, and I'm finally prepared to reveal it. I didn't want to jinx it or anything, but it's happened, it's aired, and now everyone can see it. I made my official proper TV debut on CNN today as the Gadget Guy on Techwatch, showing off a bunch of great musical gifts for the holidays. You can find the clip online here as "Unwrapping the gizmos" (it's free to view). Yeah, I look like a dork and my hands are OUT OF CONTROL, but I'm rather happy with the result since it isn't quite the disaster it could have been! This is the first of two segments I'm doing, and the second one will air tomorrow morning. I'll get back with the link as soon as it happens!

I saw Return of the King at the weekend, and my non-spoileriffic impressions are as follows: Wow. It's awesome. Yes, it has pacing problems. Yes, the different story strands aren't woven as elegantly as in The Two Towers. But it doesn't matter. It's an incredible end to an incredible trilogy. It's goosebump-inducing. It's just amazing. And I have to say, it'll probably only get better if you watch all three in sequence. There are a lot of scenes in Fellowship of the Ring that take on greater significance when viewed together with the final movie. Of course, as a trilogy that goes without saying, but it has been two years since the first part.

And it also means we have no Lord of the Rings film to look forward to in 2004 (unless you count the sure-to-be-badass Special Edition DVD set... I'm hoping against hope that they throw in a Minas Tirith miniature, but I wouldn't bet on it). On the other hand, I did spot three interesting films to check out in 2004. Top of my list, naturally, is Pixar's The Incredibles, which I don't need to say more about (you can check the trailer out by clicking the link). Secondly, another unsurprising pick and another film I've said too much about already, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Lastly is a movie I hadn't heard of until I saw the trailer, which is some feat considering I read a fair bit of movie news and this one stars Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie: Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. I highly recommend you check it out. It's being hyped for using real actors with fully-CG backdrops (er, a bit like Star Wars?), but I'm interested in it for the weird "retro-futurism" of it. Know what I mean? It's not using modern-era "expectations" of what the future holds -- it's using what people thought the future to be (BIG HULKING IRON ROBOTS) in the 1940s. It looks stylish as hell and has that old-fashioned sense of adventure about it (kinda like Indiana Jones). Needless to say, I'm really looking forward to it now.

More tomorrow... honest.

Posted at 11:49 PM

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