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Updated as often as I can manage

Friday, December 31, 2004
I know I should wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I know I should update you all on the progress of my PSP, or tell you what I got for Christmas. But something else happened, something far more important: My super-secret project was finally revealed. The one I've been hinting about for months, working on for a year, and thinking about for three years. I am both proud and ashamed to present to you:

The Goals of Winning Eleven, Volume 1.

Yes, I did it. I made a 45 minute long DVD filled with Winning Eleven goals from WE5 to WE7I, patterned upon your classic football highlights videos. But before I get into the what, I have to go into the how and why first -- and if this all seems ridiculously overhyped and pompous, please indulge me: I've been toiling away at this for ages and this needs its moment in the sun.

The whole idea came about because of three entirely seperate factors. Firstly, I bought a brand spanking new Power Mac G4 in 2001, featuring a (then!) state of the art DVD burner. Except I didn't have any home movies to burn. Secondly, at this point I was rapidly running out of PS2 memory card space because they were chock full of WE goals -- and I'm not the throw-away type, so I kept them and kept buying new memory cards. That's when I happened upon the idea of archiving goals to DVD. It was going to be strictly bare-bones, just recording each goal seperately so that I could delete them from the memory cards while still having the flexibility to watch them at any time.

Of course, to do that I needed some vital pieces of hardware (the main one being some sort of video capture device) and I needed to know how to use iMovie and/or Final Cut Express. Given that neither was likely to happen any time soon, the idea was just an idea, and I readily announced my intentions to anyone and everyone (which led to Kavi loading up one of my memory cards one day with really bad goals just so he could have some of his goals preserved for eternity on the DVD). But then Haneal had a great idea of his own: We've spent half our youth watching countless football highlights and goals tapes. Why not turn this into a Winning Eleven highlights video? Dress up the goals with some fancy presentation, add in featurettes commonly found on those videos like player profiles and you're done. I loved it, he loved it, and we swore ourselves to secrecy while I worked away on it.

Sadly, without the necessary pieces of hardware all I could do was lay the groundwork out. And so I didn't actually get started on it until last November, when my grandfather bought me an analog-to-DV converter ostensibly so I could convert his VHS tapes to DVD (I have done exactly half a tape so far, heh heh). At this point there was another purpose to the project: Training. Given that I work for CNN, knowing how to edit video is useful, and I figured taking on this project would give me a reason to play around with iMovie and Final Cut, and give me more insight into how they actually work (I've found that the best way to learn an application is to find a project you're interested in and do it). And it gave me something to DO after frustrating and quiet days at work. This is why it looks so damned shoddy in places -- my skill-level when beginning the project were on a totally different plane to where I was when I ended it, and I took advantage of this training to test out everything in the Mac's arsenal (which is probably why I've used every single transition known to mankind).

Since November, I've missed many a deadline, underestimated the size of the project several times, stopped and started several times, and switched from iMovie to Final Cut back to iMovie (basically, the project and my skills outgrew iMovie -- but too much was invested into iMovie to make it convenient to move away, so I did segments in Final Cut and imported them whole into iMovie). I've even abandoned it in fits of "this is really lame and everyone will hate it" depression twice. Hell, it isn't even finished now -- it's still lacking audio in places, bits had to be sacrificed when I lost a memory card full of bloopers, the amazing DVD package with special features and awesome menus isn't done and far from my original plans I'm definitely not re-rendering the entire project with even more extras in Final Cut Pro for a Two-Disc Special Edition -- but the video track was done, and the time was right to show it.

So what's in it? After an intro themed (loosely) on Match of the Day and The Premiership in the UK, it goes right in to goals from WE5, 5FE, 6, 6FE, 7, and 7 International. In between are various segments, like a quick Michael Owen and Ruud Van Nistelrooy testimonial, a Dream Team game featuring our virtual doppelgangers playing a real All-Star side (this was the highlight of the evening) and the Top 3 Goals. Sandwiched in between those were various Nike commercials, which were also a highlight because I picked some of the classics and I think people were quite happy to see great ads we remember. It might not sound like much, the whole thing clocks in at 114 goals and 45 minutes, so I think I did good. And though I endured a lot of "Oh my god, you have FAR too much time on your hands" jibes, their reaction during the Dream Team game made it all worthwhile.

I'm a bit torn however on whether I should share this with everyone. On the one hand, I think WE fans would like it; even if they don't WATCH it, they'd appreciate the effort. On the other, the best bit of the DVD (the Dream Team game) is totally lost on anyone not in on all our in-jokes (which is everyone, really), it's a hefty download at 45 minutes, and while the editing wowed my friends I realise it's totally amateurish and will make me look really bad. So I'm not entirely sure what to do with it. But I tell you what: I'm absolutely freaking delighted that it's basically done. I really never thought I'd get it done and show it off, but now that it has, I'm just really, really happy. Nothing else can sum it up, really.

Merry Christmas to all, and have a Happy New Year!

Posted at 5:54 AM

Monday, December 13, 2004
I finally have a game for my PSP: Ridge Racers! I know I had one reserved with the guys who had my PSP, but I told them I'd take my chances and snag one in local stores (since the games aren't being marked up -- just the consoles). I called one of the stores earlier and they said that they did indeed get PSP games. I rushed out there and... they had no games. Not only did they have no games, they had never seen a PSP either, so I whipped mine out to general squeals of amusement. They told me to come back at 9, so I did... and I got my Ridge Racers.

Now that I've finally seen a game running on it: The screen really truly rocks. John Davison talked about how the screen is just so damned big that it totally sucks you into the action, and it's absolutely true. The widescreen format also works really well for racers.

One last hardware note before I talk about the game... the analog nub is both awesome and awful. It is indeed an awesome control device (it feels GREAT sliding it around to wrestle control of your car), but it's just so poorly placed. I'm holding the PSP with my pointer fingers resting right on the triggers, and it really aches the left pointer to keep it on the L trigger while the thumb uses the analog nub. Thankfully you don't really need the L trigger in Ridge Racers (it's the Change View button), but I imagine other games will need both fingers on triggers...

Right, now the game. It's basically old-school Ridge Racer... which is fine by me, really. On the one hand, it's not exactly Burnout 3 -- there's no insane sense of speed here (not initially, anyway) and no twist like Takedowns -- but on the other hand, the legendary Ridge Racer drifting is back in full force and it lacks Burnout's rubberband AI. That's about it really: It's Ridge Racer, but it is the ultimate version of Ridge Racer.

I have to quickly touch upon the graphics here. Ridge Racer has some odd ghosting/blurring effect going on here (it's intentional, not a screen defect) on the cars and textures that do a good job of disguising that it is indeed sub-PS2 in quality. I don't consider this a knock against the PSP -- that it's pushing anywhere near that level is in my opinion amazing to begin with -- but don't believe the "better than PS2!" PR you see every now and then. It looks damned good to be sure, but if you look carefully at some of the textures or geometry it's fairly clear that it's not up to PS2 par... though again, that we're comparing a handheld to the current generation of consoles tells you just how damned powerful the PSP is.

The two twists in this version are the tracks and nitro. The 24 tracks in this game have been culled from all the Ridge Racers that have come before (I've seen tracks from Ridge Racer, Ridge Racer Revolution, Rave Racer, Rage Racer, R4 and Ridge Racer V), which makes for a nice dose of nostalgia sliding through the streets of Rage Racer's Union Hill. And as you slide, you charge up one of three nitro bars. Hit R and you go faster (and yeah, the CPUs use Nitro too). It doesn't add any huge dose of strategy to the game yet, but it's a welcome addition and does feel like a natural one.

Other than that... again, it's Ridge Racer. This is no bad thing, because Ridge Racer is fun and the game is really damned fun. My only gripes are that I reckon Ridge Racer has been surpassed, and some depth or some twist (again I point at Burnout 3) would be nice, as well as a more cohesive World Tour mode than just a bunch of "finish 1st!" races, but it's a fairly minor quibble -- right now I'm just having fun picking it up and speeding through the tracks.

Also, odd note about powering off the PSP: Hitting the Power button in a game seems to put it to sleep or just stop the game where you are. I haven't tried it actually in a race, but if you power it off at a certain menu the PSP will restart right from that menu right in the middle of the game -- convenient!

Posted at 5:10 AM

Sunday, December 12, 2004
Yep, thanks to the sterling folks at Lik-Sang I am now in possession of one (1) PlayStation Portable. Sadly, thanks to a snafu I'd rather not explain I don't have any games yet. Still, the PSP's the all-singing-all-dancing-music-playing-movie-watching uberportable, right? So I should be OK until tomorrow just fiddling around with it.

I have to say though: This is one sexy piece of kit. I'm going to start from the beginning here, so forgive me if I repeat what you've heard already (and this is my first time with a real PSP, so I can't tell you whether it's the same/better/worse than the earlier demos at TGS and E3). The front is made of one solid piece of plastic -- there isn't a seperate bit covering the LCD, it's all one shiny piece. It attracts fingerprints much like the back of an iPod does, though I don't find myself constantly wiping it like I would with the iPod, possibly because being plastic it doesn't attract scratches or dirt like the iPod's metal backing ("YOU SCRATCHED MY iPOD! YOU WILL DIE!" etc). The back plate is a simple piece of black plastic that doesn't feel as smooth as a new Dual Shock but gives good grip. The two halves are held together by a ring of painted silver plastic (think GBA SP/DS here).

There are a couple of REALLY nice design touches here. One is on the UMD drive plate: There's a metal ring with the PSP logo inside it (real metal, oooh, aaah). The other is that all the buttons are actually transparent, which is most apparent on the triggers. More than one person has picked it up, clicked the triggers almost accidentally and gone "WOW, those are buttons too?"

Size-wise... well, the pictures tell the story here. It's somewhat awkward since it's pretty damned long (don't even think about sticking this in your pocket), but it's also smaller than I thought it'd be and certainly more slick than the cumbersome DS. There's little in the way of wasted space on the PSP; the screen dominates the front and leaves just enough space for the buttons to comfortably fit, while the battery and UMD drive take up over two-thirds of the back side. It's worth talking about the battery, actually: It's massive. It isn't heavy, thankfully, but if you take it out of the unit you'll notice that the battery bay leaves no room for errant circuits on that side of the PSP. (I imagine the legendary Sony water-bucket test was applied several times to the PSP)

It feels great in your hands, though. Of course, some hardcore game playing might change my opinion, but the d-pad, shoulders and main buttons are positioned really nicely, and since the two ends (either side of the UMD drive cover) bulge slightly you get a really good grip on the unit. But here I have some gripes: Some of the buttons don't really feel very good. The triggers have a nice click to them, but they feel both loose and somehow too tight, like they're snagging something on the way in. And while the X, O and Triangle buttons feel fine (a little more clicky than the Dual Shocks but not overly so -- nice!), my Square button feels slightly off-centre; you have to push it more to the right as you're hitting it, because it seems to be leaning to the left (and pushing it in like that makes it less clicky and more mushy). I'm hoping it's just temporarily stuck and will unstick with a bit of work (like the stuck B buttons on GameCube controllers), because in terms of size they're great -- certainly better than the undersized buttons on the DS. Actually, I think they're as big as the original Game Boy's buttons, though I can't find mine to compare.

The jury is still out on the little analog stick, though. Actually, it's less stick than "disc" -- instead of a mini-joystick, this sort of slides around the surface of the PSP. It's pretty cool really, though it feels like it needs more "give" to it, since there isn't much room to move it around. The biggest problem with it though is that it's too far down the PSP: Unlike the Dual Shock, it's not down and to the side (allowing your thumb to rotate towards it, still keeping the same length extended), just directly down, so you have to totally adjust your grip.

Of course those aren't the only buttons on the PSP -- this thing is absolutely overflowing with them. The start/select/home/volume/etc buttons are basic and don't really have a nice click to them, but I don't particularly care since I doubt I'll be trying to smack them in gameplay or anything (I hope not, anyway). Then there's the UMD drive release (feels like a MiniDisc, satisfying click included), the Wi-Fi switch (is this really necessary?), and the Power/Hold switch. The latter is typical Sony: Slide up to switch it on and it'll power the unit and spring back to "neutral". You can then either slide it up again to switch it off or slide it down to put the PSP on "Hold" (think MP3 players). You know, I have this same control with my Clie and I STILL think it's horribly unintuitive. I keep pushing it down to switch it off!

This leaves just one thing to talk about: The screen. Dear lord, it's gorgeous. I've been running my pictures through it, and it looks great. It's absolutely friggin' huge for a start (as you can see, the screen alone is roughly the size of an iPod!), very bright, and very colourful. Of course, without actual games there isn't much to say about it. The little PSP interface is neat, though. Lots of options, easy to navigate (you can select English!), and the picture/music options are pretty simple. I can't get movies to work, sadly, since Sony hasn't yet posted that Image Converter 2 software they were supposed to. Oh, and it appears that it's online out of the box via Wi-Fi -- I've already set up a profile for it to access my home network (which again was quick and painless). Though without a game, all this allowed me to do was check for a system update (predictably, my PSP is up to date)...

Bottom line is you have to wait for the games to really tell how good PSP is or is not. But on pure gadget terms, the PSP really scores on the cool factor. Hell, I FEEL cooler owning it (even though I feel like a bit of a douche owning it without any games -- damnit, where's my Ridge Racers). And though it's really impractical as an MP3 player, being able to watch a few movies would be neat too, especially seeing as this screen blows away even those Microsoft Portable Media Centres.

Now... where are my damn games?

Posted at 7:03 AM

Wednesday, December 01, 2004
Going back to that PSP post about how I'm weak... I picked up a DS over the weekend with Mario, and today I got the game that I bought the system for: SaWaRu! Made in Wario. It's supposedly being retitled Wario Ware Touched! in the US, so I'll use that name instead. Impressions, beginning with the killer app:

Wario Ware Touched!

Bliss on a card. Let me get my first nitpick out of the way first: The story sequences for the characters are too damned long. Look, I appreciate that those wacky interludes are what ties the game together and that they can be funny, but Wario Ware is a quick-hit game and they take TOO DAMNED LONG. I swear the Mona one clocks in at around five minutes, which is ridiculous.

Otherwise, complaints are thin on the ground. To be blunt, it rocks. Everything about this game is awesome. I love the little touches, like the title screen being a smorgasbord of interactive elements to play with, or the "level select" being a bunch of characters freely walking around on the touchscreen (naturally you can prod them and pick them up and move them around to your little heart's desire). Hell, the game even occasionally uses both screens to good effect -- either showing a bit more of the minigame, introducing a new element, or in one story sequence, used for a little flashback sequence.

All the old favourites are back as characters in this one. I've only played through four, but alongside Wario I've seen Mona, Jimmy, Dr. Crygor, Kat & Ana, 9-Volt & 18-Volt, and even WARIO-MAN from Wario Ware Twisted (the tilt-sensor-packin' GBA sequel, yet to see the light of day in the US). There appear to be more games per character than Twisted or the original, but I'm not too sure there.

I don't really want to spoil particular games (since that is most of the fun), but there's been a fairly decent variety and I will talk about a few. Thus far I've only ever had to use the stylus, so there's no word on whether the A button will be ever called into action, but since the stylus is more capable than Twisted's tilt sensor (which was basically a clumsy D-pad) there seems to be plenty to do. Some games call for:

Precision: Tap the tips of tiny fireworks to make them explode; Scrubbing: Rub wide areas of the screen to erase a picture from a blackboard; Speed: Rub the stylus repeatedly on a roll of toilet paper quickly to pull the whole roll out; Drawing: Mark out a safe path for a skiier; Something else entirely: Use the stylus to make a hand wave good-bye.

There have also been a few cool re-workings of older games. Two of my favourites so far are the dripping-snot game (different woman, this time you need to cut the snot instead of sniff it back in) or the pets (pet the cat to put it to sleep). Either way, the games are tons of fun.

I should note that it's pretty hard. Not amazingly so for Wario Ware vets (I had been playing the original virtually non-stop until Twisted came out), but it's certainly harder than Twisted. One thing for sure: The time limits are shorter. By the fourth character I was hitting time limits shorter than anything you'd experience outside the very highest speed setting on the other to games.

Oh, one more thing: This game is nuts. I say this because after every character you beat, you unlock a bonus. And the bonuses are just damned weird. The first one was a calculator -- an actual working calculator on the touchscreen that only allows you to add or subtract; no multiplication or division for you! There's also a countdown clock, a metronome and a plate of pudding. Yeah, a plate of pudding.

Super Mario 64 DS

I'm not too thrilled by this. Well, that's a bit harsh, but there's a lot of give-and-take here. For instance, it is in fact not only Super Mario 64 (a game that ranks very highly on my personal best-of list), but an ENHANCED Super Mario 64. But then there are a whole bunch of problems that drag the whole thing down. Maybe I'm being cranky -- I don't know, judge for yourself.

So right, it's Mario 64. And in many ways, it looks better than Mario 64 -- the textures are certainly better, the character models are more detailed, and it appears to be pushing more polys because even the coins are polygonal now. On the other hand, those textures are really pixelated (something the N64 was known for avoiding), a lot of Mario 64's gee-whiz special effects like the liquid metal either look rubbish or don't exist, and despite a general rise in polys some of the level geometry has been simplified (Tall Tall Mountain is a good one for that). Still, overall I've got to say that I didn't expect it to look that good anyway, so colour me impressed.

The other impressive thing are the additions they've weaved into the game. I mean, the majority of it is vanilla Mario 64, yet they've somehow managed to cram in three extra characters with very distinct playstyles (Yoshi even throws eggs, for crying out) without seriously disrupting the flow of the game. The game is a little screwy with them, sure, since the pacing is a bit off and you're never quite sure if you've got the right character or whether you've missed something new or what, but it's still really cool that they've managed to add stuff like Mario's new balloon ability without breaking the core game. And though there is some grumbling to be had about various changes to various Stars, given that I pretty much have all 120 mapped out in my head already some change is certainly welcome.

But there really is one major, major, earth-shaking flaw: The control. Super Mario 64 was made for the N64's analog stick. This is an undeniable fact. Without it, the game just does not work. It's playable, but it's missing so damned much. Control was the reason Super Mario 64 was Super Mario 64. It's the reason why people spent hours running and jumping around the castle before starting the game, because it was so easy and free that the control in itself was fun. That feeling is gone. Mario 64 DS is playable either with the D-pad or the bizarre thumbstrap/touchscreen combo, but neither is ideal, neither feels comfortable, and neither has the joy of the original's solution to 3D movement.

I'm using the D-pad right now, but it's not terribly ideal. On the one hand, it's comfy, and they've managed to somehow give you more than the D-pad's 8 angles of movement. On the other, when Mario's moving at anything other than those 8 angles it's damned-near impossible to do things like the backflip jump or the wall-kick. And you have to hold a button down to run. Yes, I realise all the 2D Mario games forced you to hold a button to run, but those games are an entirely different beast to Mario 64. In Mario 64, even novice users run first and walk second; I contend that the same is not true of the 2D games.

The other option is the thumbstrap and touchscreen. The thumbstrap is a novel idea, but is not comfortable (neither for that matter is sliding your thumb away from its natural resting place on the D-pad and holding it over the screen) and is prone to slipping off. Touching the touchscreen brings up a little circle that emulates the analog stick. This circle moves with you, though, so every so often I've found myself slowing down because the circle is trying to catch up with my sliding thumb -- which itself is another matter, because without a stick restricting your movement your thumb is going to slide all over that screen. And it lacks the "weight" or feel of an analog stick, which really helps moves like the backflip jump. It's a novel idea but an annoying one -- and one that really makes me wish for an analog stick.

I had been playing Super Mario 64 DS fairly solidly until Wario Ware came out, and now that that's in my possession I really don't see myself playing Mario anymore. It's a pity because I am fairly impressed with the extra content they've added in (oh, and the minigames absolutely ROCK and are almost worth the price of admission on their own...), but the control just annoys me.

Nintendo DS

Lastly, I thought I'd talk about the unit itself. I have to say it's bigger, heavier and uglier than I expected. Actually, it reeks of a lack of polish. It's really odd ergonomically -- there's this really weird ridge running around the bottom half that cuts into your hand. The top cover doesn't close entirely over the bottom (you can still see the D-pad and buttons peeking out), which is probably safe but looks ugly. The top screen feels cheap and hollow when you open it, and painted plastic on the top half sucks. On the other hand, I haven't had a problem with the REALLY small buttons yet; actually, the D-pad is pretty damned good, and better than the GBA one. The only button that annoys me is Power. What the hell is it doing over there? I have my finger over it half the time when I'm using the stylus (the other finger is awkwardly trying to get a grip on the edge of the GBA cart slot). And while there have been complaints about the tiny stylus, I'm actually fine with it. It's weird, I've taken to it totally naturally. Might have something to do with my Clie's stylus also being a little toothpick...

The flipside is that the software is pretty slick. I didn't think I'd "enjoy" the set-up or the menus, but the touchscreen really helps navigation and the little bloops and beeps are actually fairly slick. Having built-in wireless communication and PictoChat also rocks (pity there's nobody to chat with here!). And I'm fairly impressed by its power -- the PSP will blow it away, sure, but Mario 64 DS is comparable to the N64 game and I was really impressed by the attempt to bring Metroid Prime to the DS (in a graphical sense only) with the First Hunt demo.

So yeah, I'm happy with it overall. I still think the damn thing is riddled with flaws and worries me for the future, but it's got Wario Ware, so all is good. Comparison pics and the like due whenever I get my mitts on a PSP!

Posted at 4:52 AM