• 16Jul 08

  Netbooks

  They're not out in full force yet, but last year's Eee PC certainly got things rolling - I think there are three models of that out (not including the various colours), and competitors from Acer and MSI. Later this year Dell has one to throw out, and I'm sure there are others I'm forgetting offhand.

  I personally find the tradeoff between price and power quite compelling, since I've always found the price premium for tiny laptops to be ridiculous, as you already have to sacrifice power to make them small. Now, finally, we can have little 9" laptops that only cost $300 and aren't any bigger than a regular hardcover book.

  I wish I was still in school, because these things would be perfect. But I can still buy one even if I'm not in school.

  

  I ordered the Acer One the other day because it's the first of them that doesn't really look like a toy, and it remembers that one of the main selling points of a mini laptop is price. All the new Eee PCs are pushing $500, which is entering budget laptop territory. Yes, they have more cute appeal, but you're still sacrificing stuff to shrink it down. Mine only comes with half a gig of memory, for example, and has a dinky 8GB drive (16GB if you include the SD card I slapped in for $25). But really, it's meant for surfing the net when you're out, and it'll work for presentations in a pinch or even jotting notes.

  I just have to learn Linux, as I have no idea how to install programs. I did manage to hack the desktop to enable the more advanced menu, but that just raises more questions than I had before. Next up, I try and puzzle my way through WINE and see if I can get some games working on this thing.

  Anyone else pick up one of these? I figure someone must have, as several million Eee PCs have been sold since last fall.

  • Posted Jul 16, 2008 6:47 pm GMT
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• 16Jul 08

  GRID is the worst great game I've ever played

  And it's frustrating. The previous games in the series - the TOCA Race Car Driver games - were very sim-style, focused on giving you a reasonably accurate driving experience across a whole host of event types and giving it a bit of a personal edge with a hokey (but interesting) storyline.

  Say what you will about the track variety and the graphics, the driving in the TOCA games was pretty solid. Presenation was secondary. Like with Forza 2, they concentrated on the car handling and then built the game around it.

  GRID is the exact opposite - it's an overpolished shell with a busted driving model. Not that I'm surprised, I guess - back when they announced that the newest iteration of the TOCA series was going to be using the same engine as the DIRT game, I knew that it was going to feature the same light feeling cars and bizarre 90s-arcade-era center pivot handling. Remember in the N64 days when developers started touting 4-point-handling as a feature for driving games, where turning the car felt like it was turning at the front wheels and the rear wheels followed? That's archaic stuff now, apparently, as Codemasters have taken a 20-year step backwards and given us cars that turn in the center of the body. Realistic? Not at all. But worse, it doesn't even feel good. PGR4 is still the best example to date of how to take realistic handling and give it a solid arcade edge. Good car handling doesn't necessarily have to be realistic, but it has to feel good and be predictable.

  GRID has some bizarre problems linked to its turning, namely the way that opposing cars will yank you sideways if you grind against them in a turn, or how spinning out just feels weird. Even the drift events have this intangible problem, since while the cars send their rear ends out, it still feels as if there's a giant tire embedded between the front seats of the car and it's steering you like a shopping cart.

  And all of that is tragic, because so much effort was put into every other aspect of the game. The graphics are stunning (for the most part). The menus are fantastic. The whole sponsorship system works well and the career mode has a nice blend of race types (if nowhere near the variety as past games). The way they'll call you by name and the way music surges into the last race before each license are beautiful little touches. It just doesn't matter, because the driving itself sucks.

  • Posted Jul 16, 2008 11:27 am GMT
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• 8Jul 08

  Tomb Raider: Anniversary Bugfest

  Let me state first off that I liked Tomb Raider: Legend. It was the first game in the series (in a good long while) that wasn't a total embarassment, and outside of some sketchy gunplay it controlled well and was fun to play.

  I picked up Anniversary the other week, which I meant to play back when it launched. Still, the wait sure dropped the price of the game, which (combined with Mass Effect and Burnout Revenge) set me back about $40.

  First impressions were not favourable. The game looks like a PS2 game - 480p upscaled and everything, and I have a feeling it might even be interlaced, as I'm getting a bit of ghosting with it on my TV and it only does that with some old Gamecube and PS2 games that don't support progressive scan. The framerate is also chunky, which is just sad given how low resolution everything is. Lazy PS2 port? Check.

  The controls are also less responsive than Legend, and Lara has a disturbing tendency to grab onto the wrong ledge or no ledge at all. Wall jumping becomes extremely awkward as the direction you need to pull before hitting jump seems to change depending on the camera angle as well as...something. Even if the camera stays the same often you'll pull left to jump off a wall you're running on, and sometimes you have to pull down. It's not consistent, which can lead to some frustrating moments.

  Lara will also grab the wrong side of a ledge on more than one occasion, which is the first of several annoying bugs. Usually this results in her clipping right through the scenery and completely unable to pull herself up on a ledge or do anything but drop down and try again. There's one spot in the mansion level where (unless you disable automatic grabs and jump at an angle) you'll never be able to make the jump the developers intended as Lara will fall through the platform every time you leap off the rope.

  The mansion is also bugged in that the relic counter doesn't display properly. Actually, the entire level statistics screen was locked to Peru's second level when I played through it and the corresponding achievement (and unlocks) didn't register once I'd completed the mansion. It's still stuck that way, which is just plain weird, and it also means I can't run the mansion time trial as the game is convinced I haven't finished the level yet.

  Other than that, though, the gunplay is improved over the previous games, the gimmicky slow-motion attack you get it fun to use (if too easy to pull off) and most of the levels are well designed, if overly complicated and annoying in spots. Apparently no one learned from Ocarina of Time that levels where you have to repeatedly raise and lower water in order to progress a puzzle are not fun. At all.

  As for the other games, Mass Effect is more fun than I remembered it and definitely benefits from taking it slowly, and Burnout Revenge is a better game than Burnout Paradise, even if its achievements are utterly ridiculous and the online servers are about as packed as an A&W outlet.

  • Posted Jul 8, 2008 1:45 pm GMT
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