GeekLimit

Conclusion
Overall, the re-hash of the old “DS Phat” as it’s now called is excellent. Nintendo have obviously watched the take off of the iPod in design terms and copied them to their benefit.

The games run smoothly on the brighter screens and the smaller and lighter design is also a real benefit.

I own a Belkin MIMO wireless router and found that I was’nt able to use it to go online, so check the router compatibility list first before you get upset after buying one and finding you can’t go online to play. Luckily for me, my neighbour owns an unrestricted standard Belkin Wireless router and the connection through that works a treat.

I would recommend getting a set of screen protectors too, especially if you have children that will play the DS Lite. I don’t think the lower screen will scratch easily, but who wants to risk it! A cleaning cloth and a protective case are also worth getting.

The only other problem I now have is..

What game to get next!

Games
I’ll admit something here and now. I’m not a gaming freak. I like playing games but don’t want to spend hours slaving away on getting through a level or getting the next powerup or best track time. I like to pick up a console, get in 10 to 15 minutes of good gaming done and then put it away again.

The games I have had on my Gameboy Advance in the past, have been games I could pick up and play quickly. Apart from Advance Wars, on which I never even completed the training missions, I have enjoyed the games I have owned. No Pokemon or Zelda for me. Just give me a few games of FIFA or a time challenge on Tekken Advance any day.

When I purchased by Nintendo DS Lite, I had this in mind. I decided to go for the new Super Mario Bros game and Metroid Prime Hunters. I thought that Mario would be a game with lots of longevity and a different style of play on each level and that Metroid would be good as I could play the single player levels but also dive online for a quick deathmatch too.

New Super Marios Bros
This game is possibly the best platformer I have played. Its fast, colorful, cute and damn frustrating too! The psuedo 3d graphics are good and the stero sound is also excellent. I was brought up on games like Manic Miner and Chucky Egg, so there will always be a plaformer fan in me – and Super Mario Bros fits that hole perfectly.

The game also has a selection of mini games that are just as good as the main title. You can bounce Mario’s off trampolines you have drawn with the stylus to kill enemies or play card games against Luigi. The addition of these games has meant that my children love playing the DS Lite and even my wife plays the mingame where you have to find the faces of Mario and his friends hidden in a multi layer scrolling image.

My rating out of 10 would be 8 i think. I’m not sure what they could do to improve on it though.

Metroid Prime Hunters
This was one of the original launch titles of the DS and I can remember playing it on a demo console but not thinking much of it at the time. The game still receives excellent reviews and I can now see why.

This is probably as close as you will get to playing a FPS on a handheld console. To control your “hunter” you must hold the console in your left hand which allows you to move using the directional pad and fire using the shoulder button. You right hand is used with the stylus on the lower screen to look around as you move. The control system is pretty much the same as using a keyboard and mouse to play Quake for example. The stylus is also used to select weapons and morph the hunter into his secondary form, such as a ball, which enables you to fit into smaller spaces and travel faster through levels.

This control method is excellent and feels very natural after a few minutes of play. I can achieve similar moves when playing Metroid that I can when playing Quake on a PC such as running away from an enemy, jumping and turning in mid air to shoot them and then continue running backwards. Try doing that on a PSP. You can’t. The controls are just too slow to allow it. You can even use the stylus to make headshots against opponents which on other similar handheld titles was impossible – or just a fluke.

The internet multiplayer mode is good too although there seems to be a limited number of opponents and it can take several minutes of searching for a game to get one going with more than two other people. I have experienced no lag at all either, which is excellent. Nintendo also produce a headset which you can plug into the DS Lite to verbally assault your opponents as you play – although as the DS has a built in microphone, is this necessary? I will try shouting at my next opponent to see what happens.

Out of 10, I give this game 9. It’s really, really, really good.

Hardware
Lets be honest. The design of the original Nintendo DS is bad. The shape, size and buttons on the unit are just poor. That was what put me off buying one in the first place.

But when I saw the DS Lite for the first time…. wow!

The DS has been redesigned to be smaller, lighter and much sexier. Gone are the cheap looking silver colorings and in are the sexy stylings of an iPod. The DS no longer looks like a cheap toy. It looks sexy! I feel quite happy to pull it out in public(!) too – which I normally find a little embarrasing with some of my gadgets.

The dual screens are brighter than the original DS and the controls seem better too and more responsive. I found the buttons on the original DS to be too fiddly and they did not feel right. If I pressed A i wanted to know that Mario was going to jump – not get killed by an enemy as the button failed to work.

The DS Lite is smaller than the original but still feels the perfect size and can be held in the hand with no problems. Even my seven and four year old children are able to use the DS Lite too with no problems. Even when playing a game such as Metroid Prime Hunters which requires one hand on the DS Lite and one hand on the stylus to control it. I did’nt suffer cramps the same way as I did when playing on my friends PSP either.

The bottom screen acts as a touch screen interface and is responsive and can be used with either the supplied stylus or your finger. Some games do not really work with your finger as they require a more delicate touch, but selecting powerups in Super Mario with your finger is perfect and just seems to make sense.

Before I purchased the console I was a little sceptical of using the touchscreen interface but I am pleased that it feels natural already. The OS that boots when you first power on the console also makes use of the stylus to start games and select options. It’s almost like using a mouse.

In conclusion, the redesign of the hardware is a real bonus for Nintendo fans. It does bring the console from being a toy to being a real gadget worthy of lavishing your money on. With the upcoming version of Opera for the device, Web Browsing will also be a reality soon – but what that is really like will be seen in time. I found browsing the web on a PSP a painful task. Lets hope that Nintendo do better.

I have owned a Nintendo DS for about one month now and have decided to do a mini-late-review of the portable console.

History
I have had Nintendo Gameboys for years and owned a black and white gameboy, a Nintendo Gameboy Advance and a Advance SP. The normal Advance version of the console I found on a train a few days after it launched complete with a copy of Super Mario Bros too. I handed it in to the lost property but no-one claimed it and I was sent it back in the post a few weeks later.

I have copies of Super Mario Advance, Tekken Advance, Advance Wars and Tony Hawk Skateboarding 2. I have also purchased an EZ-Flash 256mb cart from eBay to play homebrew and backups – which works brilliantly by the way!

After the DS was launched I was keen to see what the device was like but was put off by the design. Wireless gameplay was fun, but with that beast sticking out of your pocket, you could not be cool!

After the DS Lite was launched earlier this year I was again on the road for picking up a new portable console. My Xbox and Xbox360 are hardly played, mainly due to the TV being constantly used by my wife. It’s much easier to sit and play a Gameboy for five minutes, rather than fire up the Xbox360. I am the same with my PC too and tend to use my laptop more as it is more versatile and can be used (almost) anywhere.

On my birthday I purchased a Nintendo DS Lite with the new Super Mario Bros game and a copy of Metroid Prime Hunters. I was also talked into buying a box of extras including a sock to keep the DS clean when not in use, a spare stylus for when the kids loose the original one up their noses and a set of screen covers to protect the bottom screen of the unit.

My best friend owns a Sony PSP and was keen for me to purchase one so we could play wirelessly together. There were not many games for the PSP that took my fancy and the size and format of the PSP puts me off too. It has a brilliant screen – but it’s just too big!

I was playing Texas Hold Em poker on XBox Live last night and out of the 10 or so people that were playing, only 2 others (apart from myself) were chatting via the headset and mic.

It transpired that the two people, who I shall just call “Mr A” and “Mr B” worked for a computers games company and were quite relaxed about what they were saying. Games testing, new titles, new hardware and internal Gamertag based score leaderboards were all discussed – but the stuff that caught my ear the most was about the Playstation 3.

Mr A: “I have a tech-demo of working I can show you tomorrow if you want. It’s just basic geometary stuff at the moment with bad clipping and error handling, but the effect is there.”

Mr B: “Is that on 360 or PS3?”

Mr A: “Both. The PS3 dev kit is also online too – it took me about 40 minutes just to get a login [to online] to test the online bits for our games. is testing on our PS3 dev kits at the moment and is due to go to Alpha in September.”

Mr B: “So, you got the PS3 Test kits then?”

Mr A: “No way! Still only Dev kits! Sony have’nt even released the proper test kits yet and is due to go alpha in September! The Dev kit is real jumbled anyway – no user interface – hardly anything. We will struggle to alpha by September.”

They also chatted about various other games in development and test phases which was quite interesting. But not as major as them admitting (without them knowing i was listening) that the PS3 is still in a real mess. They did mention which company they work for but I shall not mention which one – but they are a major player. For them not to have anything near a PS3 to test their upcoming games on was a bit of a shock!

A PS3 launch this year? I think not!

Halflife was a revolution in PC gaming.

Halflife 2 raised the bar once again.

Will Halflife 2 Episode 1 live up to its name?

Read the rest of this entry »

With the announcement of the PS3 price, there is serious doubt on whether or not a console can continue to provide enough functionality to justify its cost.  Compared to a PC, it's a hard sell to buy a $600 console these days, no matter how many additional features it has.  Let's see if we can get into the online-multiplayer-FPS scene for under a grand.  Chances are that you have at least $600 in computer stuff for eBay, and can scratch up $400, so this should be do-able for most of you.

For this article, the goal is to get a very capable gaming machine for as little as possible.  While the machine will most likely be more expensive than a new PS3, the additional features available to a PC make an additional $400 worth the expense.  Therefore, I've set a $1000 budget for this project.  I'm a little nervous here, because the last time I built a gaming rig, it was based off of system requirements for Half-Life 2 and Counter-Strike: Source, and cost me $2200 by the time I was done.  In addition to those two games, I hope to dominate in Day of Defeat with the new project.

 I'll be going back and forth here, as this is a guide in how to price a machine on a budget, as much as it is a build of a gaming rig.

Here is what I came up with about 2 weeks ago, sourcing parts from my favorite place, newegg.  It's important to note that these may not be the hottest parts around, but they were the best I could fit into this budget:

• $297 – AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Manchester 2000MHz HT 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket 939 Dual Core Processor
• $150 – G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Kit System Memory – Retail
• $090 – Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive – OEM
• $299 – BFG Tech BFGR78256GTOC Geforce 7800GT 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 VIVO PCI Express x16 Video Card – Retail
• $090 – ASUS A8N-E Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard – Retail
• $068 – Sunbeam IC-SS-US-SVBK Silver/Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 450W Power Supply – Retail
• $004 – Rosewill RFA120-K 120mm Sleeve Case Cooling Fan – Retail
• $002 – GENERIC NET12 Fan Guard/Grill, chromed, for 120mm fans – OEM

Total price?  $997.95. (prices above are rounded up)  I wasn't able to get a CD or DVD player in this budget, I opted for the extra fan instead.  Lucky for me my target game, Day of Defeat, is available via Steam.

I like the case, it's got 3 120mm fans that come with it, plus the one in the power supply.  I added the fourth fan to go in the front of the case, which puts 3 120mm fans inline with the box, since there is a center-mounted 120mm that I'm planning on moving down to blow on the graphics card. 

The fan guard is for when I cut out the small holes in the window and make one giant hole.  Those small holes have a habit of sounding like a jet engine when air gets blown through them.  I'm not a big fan of power supplies that come with the case, they can be a bit unpredictable.  However, with $2.05 let in my budget, I didn't have room for a nice 500W high-efficiency model.

The rest of the specs (processor, graphics card, etc) were chosen to try and get the most performance for as little cash as possible.  They're not top-of-the-line, but they're the best I could figure out for under $1K total. 

I thought I was set, and told myself 'OK, I'll post this to GeekLimit tomorow.'  Then Intel came and blew my plans clear out of the water with their heavily overclock-able (4.2Ghz!) $130 2.66Ghz Pentium D 805 .  So back to the drawing board, since my entire system is now way too expensive…

So it’s E3 again, every gamer looks forward to all the announcements, new games and technologies.

This is the first year that I'm not impressed by what I have seen at E3, the next gen consoles are a joke in my opinion.

Both the Xbox360 and PS3 are hugely disappointing, the graphics are only slightly improved over the older versions. And the cost of gaming with these new consoles is going to be just as, if not more expensive than PC gaming. 

Dan has been planning to make his gaming PC for about $1000 without a screen… You can get a good gaming pc, not cutting edge, but something that provides just as good graphics as the Xbox360.

The cost of an Xbox360 is about $500, plus you need a HDTV, otherwise you might as well stick with the old Xbox, HDTV are around $1000, so its looking at about the same price as a gaming pc, then add $50 for Xbox live along with your broadband connection makes online gaming more expensive than pc gaming…

Oh and then you have to buy the games, check out steam on the PC, most games are about $20, most Xbox360 games are $50-60 you can buy the whole valve catalogue for $70 which is at least 10 high quality games.

Quite frankly console gaming is getting crazy, there isn’t enough creativity in the industry to make the cost viable, nearly every game on the new consoles is a sequel or a 2007 version of an older game from the previous generation.

Just do the maths, either get yourself an overpriced flash Xbox or PS2 with slightly improved graphics and an expensive TV with 2-3 years life expectancy or a gaming PC that will not only do games but everything else a PC does as well as the internet, IM and VOIP calls, all without paying service charges like Xbox live.

And don’t worry about the old saying that your PC will be out of date in a month, my pc is 3 years old and still plays pretty much every game you can throw at it, I think F.E.A.R is the first game it has struggled with. 

Nintendo are the odd-one-out here, The Wii looks to be something a little more revolutionary (see what I did there ), with an interesting and different controller, little improvement on graphics over the Gamecube and a focus on great gaming rather than MS and Sony’s efforts to make a home entertainment centre that not only plays games but does films too (is there anything else they do?), at only $250 as well!

I cant wait to see what Nintendo have planned, Sony already like what they are doing as they have copied the Wii controllers tilt and motion sensing in their new dual shock 3 (minus force feedback due to the law suit).

Froogle.com used for pricing 

A long time ago when i was into console gaming, i was a huge metal gear solid fan. I remember reading and interview with Hideo Kojima, the creater of MGS and an amazing game designer, he was talking about a style of game that he would like to create and its stuck with me for a long time.

That concept is Once Chance Gaming.

Read the rest of this entry »