Archive for September, 2008
Real Networks sued by MPAA. It snows on Mars. Charles Simonyi going back into space. Microsoft thinks that it a killer app or two away from beating Google. Har. Lotus Notes to run on the iPhone. Microsoft attacking "Scareware." Good for them, hear all about it here. Lenovo wants to buy another company. I think Sun Microsystems would be ideal. IPO’s hit 30-year low. You cannot do an IPO in the USA thanks to Sarbanes-Oxley.
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Xohm rolls out in Baltimore. Prices revealed. New devices arrive. A private company has launched a satellite. TiVo my PC. Nero rolls out a desktop DVR for PC’s. New Nintendo DS has camera. Motorola jumping on Android hoping to save the company. Nokia may also jump on the bandwagon. Web radio folks get reprieve. Google has weird new patent for oddball phone service. Ballmer thinks mobile will be won by Microsoft because they are "separatists."
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T-Mobile lifting the 1GB limit on Android phones. China phonies up rocket launch. Ridiculous. Oldest rocks on earth found in Canada. Slingbox Pro-HD released. Dell finally going to LED backlights in laptops. Is this taking forever or what? Dell also says things are looking up. HP laying off 9300 people overseas. Craig Mundie says the cloud is the future but won’t say why. Visa plans applications for Google and Nokia phones. Adobe Photoshop for cell phones? Cripes. EFF suing USA.
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Android phone news never-ending II. Look for new term: "Radical Openess." New phone will unlock your car (and everyone else’s?) No indictment on the Sarah Palin hack. Sun’s solar winds hit 50-year low. SanDisk story about its new music distribution scheme keeps coming. NBC will rig set-top box for GE TV. Hmm. Microsoft has its own bus lines. IBM on the no short list. What a crock. Hubert Chang says he was a founder of Google. Cloud computing term is going to be replaced, you watch, with "Smart Grid."
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Android phone news never-ending. I’m sick of it. Hadron Collider shut down until the Spring because it is too cold in Switzerland. Email hacker continues. Creative Suite 4 rolled out by Adobe. GE getting back into the TV business with Internet-ready TV with Blu-ray. Xohm to roll out in Baltimore. I’m baffled about sharing books online. Lots more blog according to experts. Passport snoop might be thrown in jail. Windows 7 getting a head start on ruination. Cell phones to be recycled. Start-up helps your find what you are not looking for. What? I already get that.
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Google Android to cost $199. Already too much PR for this thing. Palin hacker found by FBI. So why can’t they track down serious online scammers? Track them down! Large Hadron Collider shut down for two months. Geez. Dubious World Federation of Advertising protesting the Google-Yahoo deal? Microsoft pushing big iron? Meanwhile the company is doing a $40 billion buyback? Wow. HP doing an $8 billion buyback. Apple sold 5 million iPhone 3G in 3rd quarter. Pentax camera trying to make a comeback.
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Microsoft in the news over various reports about what they are going to do with their odd advertising campaign. John Hodgman clone coming. IBM going extra fast towards 22nm. Nobody has even done 32 nm yet! Rainn Wilson headed to Microsoft meeting. Oracle profit skyrockets, look for Tech rally. Hadron Collider not working. Google in love with Yahoo. eWaste a scandal. nVidia does big layoff. Amazon into a new content business. EFF sues Bush over wiretaps.
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Google Android secretly shown in London. Pics of phone all over the net. Company buys Valve software to develop games for the phone and online. Brad Pitt now the top malware lure. Sarah Palin more popular than porn. Meanwhile her email was hacked. NY to add RFID to drivers license. Luckily it is optional. Canon doing DSLR with 1080p movie capability. Nice. Xbox360 tops in Japan. Congrats. Kodak rolling out an OLED wireless photo frame.
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On September 16, “The Force Unleashed” was unleashed upon us and wow, this game is amazing. The storyline is epic, and the game play is awesome. After the jump, we will discuss in more detail.
First let’s deal with the story. For me, this story is better then any of the prequels, and far superior to the Clone Wars movie from this summer. You are code named “StarKiller” but your given name is Galen Marek, a young sith who is trained secretly by Darth Vader, who discovered you during the Jedi purge that occurs immediately following Revenge of the Sith. After killing your father, Vader takes you and the story jumps about 13 or 14 years into the future where Vader is now using you to be his secret assassin with the goal of enhancing your force skills to the point where you can help him kill the Emperor and take over the galaxy. I won’t go into any more then that at this point, since I don’t want to spoil anything.
The voice acting is considerably better then the Clone Wars movie provided and it really feels cinematic in quality. The cut scenes are fantastic and are engaging enough that watching them over and over doesn’t get annoying.
The game play is ultimately what makes this game made of pure win. First off, you begin the game playing the prologue of the story as Darth Vader on the planet Kashyyyk, the Wookie home world, and you are hunting a Jedi that is hiding out there. You battle Wookies, and have a collection of Storm Troopers with you that you can feel completely comfortable killing as well. In fact, you get a pretty cool, and funny, achievement for doing so. I am going to say that this level alone, makes the game worthwhile. Playing as Darth Vader is just every geeks dream come true.
The Force Unleashed completely re-imagines the scope and scale of the Force by taking advantage of new technologies, Digital Molecular Matter (DMM), by Pixelux Entertainment, and euphoria by NaturalMotion Ltd. Paired with the powerful Havok Physics™ system, these new technologies create an amazingly realistic feel to the game play. DMM incorporates the physical properties of anything in the environment so that everything reacts exactly like it should - wood breaks like wood, glass shatters like glass, and people who get picked up react like people would thanks to a revolutionary behavioral-simulation engine, euphoria enables interactive characters to move, act and even think like actual human beings, adapting their behavior on the fly and resulting in a different reaction every time.
It really does bring a whole new dimension to this type of game. The end sequences when fighting “Boss” type enemies (at-at’s, and other Jedi) are pretty cool, and have a cut-scene feel to them while allowing you to interact at the same time.
Finally, the concept as whole is epic. The scope of what this game attempts is impressive, and even though it is being billed as the most expensive video game ever, it is completely worth it. It is a bit violent so I would not recommend it for the under 13 age group.
What I like most about this game is that it did what none of the prequels could do. It made me excited to be back in the Star Wars universe, and reminded me of everything good about the Star Wars franchise.
Are you excited for this game? Have you started playing, if so, what do you think? Let me know in comments.
Google-Yahoo deal to be eyeballed by US Justice Dept. Android phone launch coming soon. The latest Pew research indicates that games are good for you and good for teens. Apple doing its own processors. The beginning of the end? As of today social networking trumps porn on web searches. New Blackberry hype beginning. Microsoft and Cray to do a Windows Supercomputer. I want a Cray desktop. HP doing huge layoff no thanks to EDS. Mozilla EULA to change. Tech stocks in the dumper.
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