The day of fighting return

Sorry that I have not been posting, the days have been filled with the usual day to day and King of Fighters 13. So I have been somewhat indisposed. 

This has been interesting to watch, this fighting game resurgence. We’ll see how long this lasts for, but the biggest joke so far has been something that people keep telling me… too many fighters coming out, given the quiet that has gone on for more than 5 years in the genre, this is a good thing (at least for now).

iPhone 4S… The Bomb and it’s fall out.

I think that the best thing that I can say for the iPhone 4S is that, for an update, it’s not that bad. The problem here is not that is the sudden bomb that Apple, the company that no one thought could do no wrong, that could always excite and surprise people simple failed to deliver on the lofty expectations of the Rumor mill. They didn’t give people new, and reality was not distorted… it was as plan as day.

So far, reaction as been rather bad. But I would not be so quick to write Apple epitaph just yet. Given the restlessness in the Android OEM space, I would expect that the next few phones will pounce on this miss-step. Same goes with Microsoft and it’s Windows Phone 7.5… Outside of that, RIM might be the biggest winner in all of this, the move to QNX was going to take time, Apple just bought them some by keeping the bar rather low. After this… what really matters, does Apple had another defect the size and scope of “Antennagate” and, baring that, does the iPhone 5 impress as wildly as expected (assuming that Android, WP7 don’t have a good year and that iPhone 5 would matter by the time it releases).

This is not the end, this is just the beginning… Apple and it’s life after Steve Jobs, their number one sales man.

Con-Bravo… Well bravo…

Well, I am going to have to give my pal Mike some credit. ConBravo is not a bad convention by any strech of the imagination. It was a great way to kill five hours of free time.

I am not going to say that this is the most orginaized convention that I have seen (or heard) but the smaller crowd does give off this community feel. I rather like it, gives the convention something of a personality. Make you feel closer to the ongoings and that those ongoings matter to some degree.
A pity I didn’t have more money on me, since I honestly feel as if in a mellow setting such as this I would have parted with some hard earned money.

That said, I guess that I am having a realization.
I am getting rather old. Life doesn’t really stop, nor does my love for things. This is a Geek’s con, no real getting a round that… but that said, there are things that are not quite for me at these events. Unless it’s a panel of interest (or boredom), I am not really into them. My love of gaming is, pushed to it’s limit during this generation. I am not as ‘in love’ with the things that I enjoy. I just enjoy them, and enjoy the company of those that share that understanding (for the most part). I might have to make a few changes to make sure that I leave a lasting impact on these events.

I think that it’s about time that I do so.

Hmmmm

Thinking of my future

The problems of an election about nothing…

Slowly yet surely, I have begun to believe that a majority of canadians assume that they live in the United States of America on a politial level. That is not hard to assume since there is a great ammount knowlauge about the american system and the simple fact that most people find canadian history rather boring.

This is the backdrop to a majority of problems that I have seen in this election. In true Seinfeld-ian fashion, there seems to be not alot a stake and nothing to rather discuss… since few people really understand how it works. I am not about the spell it out, but if this election is going the way that I think it is, then all the government has managed to do it reshuffle the players. 

If that is the case then the Conservitives have alot to think about, since this would point against them… give that the system itself seem to be at odds with the leader. That said, I wonder what happened to the Bloc under a reshuffling like this. Given that they would be the only ones to realy play this loose with the system in the state that it’s in… if they as in manners that would prop this government, can you really call them septratists any more?

That said, under something like this…. lobbiest are a major issue with politics, and under something like this, there influence would grow on all sides. I want that stopped to be honest, but given the issue of governance, a coalition might not stop that…

Given that, it would be different…. And to be honest, different might be the best solution at the moment.

Some things to think on

Another day

Game into the looking glass

So among other things, the news about the NGP (Sony’s Next Generation Portable) have been doing the rounds news wise. I myself have been thinking on what effect that this might have on the hobby of gaming.

Speculation seems to be a hobby of mine, particularly on my private hobbies. Something that I do, just to see where things are.

First off, there are a few things that Sony need to lay out before  the launch of the product currently named the NGP (I am guessing a name change to something more related to the Playstation brand, PSP2 or something else along those lines). And the elephant in that room is PRICE… If anything, Nintendo surprised North America with a rather high-priced system. My guess to that is convergence of a different sort, the traditional gamer and the monstrous causal market, and to be remotely noticeable on the traditional front Nintendo has was forced to something more technically sound. Hence the push with 3D on a DS system.

That said, if the NGP doesn’t see itself under the $299 mark (while not selling at a loss) for the consumer, I can easy foresee issues with the gaming market as a whole with this rather impressive device. And given the tech in the NGP, most of it on the cutting edge(4 core Cortex A9, 4 core GPU, OLED, Multi-touch screen and pad, etc) … I don’t see that happening. The other issue is the games themselves, lately in the portable market… gaming has been floating a $40 average for a game for pricing, if both systems want to keep something like Android or iOS at an arms length, that has to end. Sadly, I don’t see that happening either… the 3DS will vary between $30 to $50 for a game, and while the NGP has yet to say anything on that subject, if you look at the list of developers, you’ll notice that they are all know for high-budget experiences(Something that Sony itself is gunning for). It would not be much to see a game offer at $80 outside of a PSN downloadable game, and this is before the DLC-diming kicks in.

Price is going to be a BIG factor with both devices, and then there is online. On that subject, I will be blunt… you are talking a company that never really got the internet (Nintendo) and one that has issue with the internet (Sony). To sony’s credit, not much has been said about the NGP’s online strategy, and that is maybe due to the fact that they can simply say “Look at the PS3, that is what we are doing”. I am not sure that is right or wrong since the mood about online with gamers is changing. If Sony overlooks this, that could be a problem. But at least they are not in Nintendo’s boat.

On that matter…. Well, there will be a new store the 3DS, it will deal in dollars and cent instead of points, they are promising better back bone. BUT, this is not coming at launch. Which seems like a miss step if it’s backed up for months. At least friend codes are single (to the system) and discoverable…to what degree, I don’t know. Maybe they are serious about the internet, but with this back and forth, I don’t know… and like it or not, despite the mood changing, online play IS a factor.

As it stands, hype more or less dictates what might happen in the near term. Sony, at least, tosses something interesting for developers to play with in the back touch pad. That alone might be Sony’s key to success this time, something truly different that gives players a different experience. Outside of that, it more or less a much better PSP… tech wise, support wise. But if you look at gaming history, that doesn’t win you the generation…. install base and ease to program will. And with that, Nintendo does has an advantage…. 

On top of this, Sony seems to be rather interested in the PS3 experience on a portable. Which they tried before on the PSP (the PS2 experience on portables) , it didn’t do all that well then… now? I still am not convinced that is the right way of going about portable games. And what makes that worse is that dual-analog sticks will invite complex controls schemes. You want to win the causal market dollars, that is not the way to go about it… but hey, it’s sony’s money.

At least portables are interesting again…. 

A reset of life is in order.

There is hoping that I am not without hope.

The Mac-Java burn

You know, all that talk about Apple wanting to soon dump java does have something that it being over looked. Given what Red Hat did for OpenJDK with IcedTea, people seem to have forgotten about SoyLatte, the BSD-Port of OpenJDK that was started on a Mac (I am being rather serious, the first few builds were for the Mac OS X). It continues to this day with very little notice… but hey, it’s better than being left to the cold.

Update: Well it’s offical, Apple Inc. is done with Java… sort of. They are now participants in OpenJDK, a rather unexpected announcement given their wariness of the GPL. We’ll see what good comes from this.

Timeless moments…

Quite a few things on the horizon for me, things that need to check out, new place to flesh out.

I am back at my studies for one thing, but I really need to focus on that at this point. 

The new place is helping and I happen to have some strategies in place for continued study that might help. I think, with a little luck, I will feel ready to take on full-time courses again in a short amount of time.

Still looking for work, market is not out of the ressession yet so things look bleaker than they are.

I finally finished Kara No Kyoukai, quite the twisted ride… very entertaining. Makes me more eager for Fate/Stay Night’s movie since it would make sense to use the same animators of Kara No Kyoukai for that.  

That said, back to life.