New blog comparison site
Hi all,
I know this is a bit of an aside, but a friend of mine has just launched his own price comparison site for car breakdown insurance and I thought it would be nice to give him props. The site covers most of the UK’s major breakdown providers and offers at-a-glance comparison of product prices for The AA, RAC, Green Flag, Swinton, GEM, More Than and Green Insurance( for the tree huggers amongst us).
So, if you want to compare car breakdown cover before you buy, then check out his new site – www.payless4breakdowncover.co.uk
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon – Future Soldier
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The success of Modern Warfare has all but wiped from our memories the fact that Ubisoft and the Tom Clancy brand have spent over a decade speculating on the shape of tomorrow’s battlefields. In this latest reboot, the threat comes from a Russian Ultra Nationalist group hell bent on destabilising Northern Europe by overthrowing the Russian government and invading the Nordics in search of their oil reserves. It’s your job to derail the coup before it gathers pace and spreads.
Ubisoft have gone to great pains to understand the dynamics of Elite fighting units and the mindset of the soldiers that fight in them. “Spec ops train for years to be able to move, react and deal with intense situations as a single and often isolated unit” says Creative Director Olivier Dauba. The development team have spent hours, days and weeks trying to re-create the sense of being in a tight-knit unit.
Squad commands have been dropped because the team were told that in reality, soldiers don’t use them. They rely on an intimate understanding of what the man next to them is going to do in any given situation. Ubisoft have used this knowledge to treat the team as one highly-skilled soldier, giving you the opportunity to draw on the specialist skills of you unit to overcome the game’s challenges. Hats off to Ubisoft, it’s this level of observation and detailing that makes for a great game.
What is perhaps more amazing, is that Ubisoft have had to factor in the technological advancements in weaponry expected for 2025! Lets take a look at what your work-a-day Recon Marine will be wearing 15 years from now
I found this video of Lockhead Martin’s new Exoskeleton project called HULC on YouTube. Modern combat soldiers face carrying extremely heavy loads, sometimes at high altitude. With the HULC exoskeleton, these loads are supported by powered titanium legs which transfer the weight to the ground.
Joking aside, it is innovations like these that Ubisoft have extrapolated and projected into the future to give Ghost Recon – Future Soldier a tangible but futuristic edge. The thermal imaging eye patch is also cool. designed to facilitate target siting in the dark or through clouds of smoke.
New Medal of Honor
There is nothing quite like a bit of competition to liven up the world of gaming! Enter Electronic Art’s New Medal of Honor.
There’s no real attempt here to disguise who EA are targeting with this release, but can they really shine a dim light on Infinity Ward’s outrageously successful Modern Warfare? The one thing we know for certain is that Modern Warfare not only found a gaping chasm in the market, but it also set a precedent for all realistic military shooters to follow.
Electronic Arts are keen to capitalise on the demand for this genre of game with the New Medal of Honor, but we have to wonder whether it will feel too similar to it Modern Warfare. Nobody wants to pay for the same game twice.
According to 360 Gamer, EA has been keen to use the game’s detailing to demonstrate that this reboot has an identity of its own and the X-Factor required to make it a success.
The setting is a prime example of this. EA consulted real Tier One agents, (the US answer to our SAS I guess) in the development of the game so that the missions you embark on are pretty similar to actual anti-insurgent operations being carried out in the mountains atop the borders of Afghanistan and Pakistan. The combat clothing is another example of EA’s attention to detail. Tier One operatives look just like the locals from 100 yards away with their traditional beards, Pakul hats and shemagh scarves until they pull out an M16 and start shooting insurgents. This is an insider’s view of the conflict without the actual strategic details and a real insight into what these guys get up to over there.
It’s not all stealth and sneaking around though. At one point you will join a unit of US Army Rangers as you gear up for more direct contact with the enemy. You’ll get the chance to tear around on quad bikes, raid compounds and shoot all over creation whilst donning some serious night vision equipment.
Expect the New Medal of Honor to be more grounded in reality than Modern Warefare and hopefully not as linear, but all that remains to be seen! We can’t wait.
Alan Wake
Think, ‘Misery and author hiding away in the hills’, think David Lynch, think ‘Alone in the Dark’. Alan Wake will soon be ready for review and we can’t wait. We are a little concerned that the game could end up on the wrong side of spoofy if Remedy get it wrong, but the wait is nearly over, so until then we’ll sit tight and enjoy the build up. One thing’s for sure, with Remedy on the buttons, Alan Wake himself is likely to cut a smooth and realistic dash across our screens. It was the Finns that invented Max Payne and the technology that made him move so well which will be an important success factor for Microsoft Games Studio’s Alan Wake because there is nowhere for the developers to hide against this barren backdrop.
In fact, Alan Wake will live or die by the depth of characterisation that Remedy manage to inject into the game. We love the setting and Alan Wake looks like the kind of game we hope will force us to load up the fridge with junk, turn the mobile off and send the other half packing for a couple of days while figure out what he’s about.
The pressure is on for Remedy though, who need to ensure that Alan Wake, doesn’t go the way of Alone in the Dark with its clumsy combat game play. There have been a lot of concerns raised about how the combat will play out. We’ll just have to wait and see!
Let the battle of the motion sensors commence!
I picked up a copy of 360 Gamer from Smith’s yesterday and in it, Jon Foster gives a brilliant overview of the race to design the ultimate motion sensor system. What’s clear is that we are set for a dust up of epic proportions this autumn. Microsoft and Sony are hot on the heals of Nintendo with motion sensor systems that they hope will capture part of the lucrative casual gaming market. But is the future or a fad? Do core gamers really want to leap around their living rooms shooting insurgents and riding quad bikes? The answer is no, obviously, I think, been wrong before, possibly, what do I know, what do you think? Anyway, I’ll give you an overview of the article.
Wii launched their revolutionary console system onto an unsuspecting market in late 2006 and awoke the casual gaming market from it’s slumber. All eyes were on Microsoft and whether it could steal some of Sony’s sweets, when along comes the £179 Wii with it’s Wiimote controller supported by TV ads showing people swiping at tennis balls in the comfort of their living rooms. The result? Tens of millions of sales for Nintendo whilst Sony and Microsoft left scratching their heads.
Sales of the Wii are only now beginning to slow. Up until now Nintendo haven’t needed to look at the price of the Wii, but that’s about to change. Natall and Move are on the way and they mean business. Lets take a look at Natal first and that infamous Jonathon Ross tweet.
Was he paid by Microsoft or is Wossy genuinely interested in Natal and XBOX consoles? It’s hard to call really, either way, he’s right. When XBOX do nail Natal, (or whatever they decide to call it when it’s launched) it has limitless possibilities. What separates Natal from Nintendo or Sony’s system is the absence of a controller. Microsoft refer to Natal as a ‘motion capture system’, not a ‘motion controller’.
The system hardware consists of a 23cm wide horizontal bar that sits in front of the TV and detects your movements. It can also recognise facial movements and it has voice recognition capability. In addition, Natal is multiplayer friendly and can support up to four players at a time. So what’s the catch? A three figure price tag! Natal is almost certain to cost over £100 at launch. There are also reports of system lag and according to 360 Gamer the response times although noticeable are not enough to do damage to the on screen game.
Move over Wii, it’s Sony a matter of time before some one improves on your product! Sony’s challenge to the Wiimote is called ‘Move’. It’s being described as a more advanced version of the Wiimote. The sytem has three components, The motion controller, a sub controller and the Playstation Eye camera. The latter is physically connected to the console and picks up your movements, while a three-axis gyroscope, accelerometer and magnetic field sensor in the ‘wand’ thingy mean that movements can be tracked with real accuracy.
It has one obvious drawback. Multiple players will need multiple controllers. So although the Move system will undoubtedly be cheaper than Natal, family fun may come at a price for PS3 gamers.
What are Nintendo planning to do about this? Well they launched the Wiimote Motion Plus plug-in attachment last year with it’s advanced sensory capablities. The result was a controller that could deliver information about it’s rotation, thanks to the application of a three-axis gyroscope. Nintendo are focusing their efforts on the Wii 2 which is expected to launch next year. Good timing when you consider that Microsoft and Sony have shelved plans for their next generation consoles as they sprint for the motion controller finish line.
