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The Engadget Show - 004: The decade in gadgets, with special guest Peter Rojas!
What a crazy 10 years, right guys? It's really flown past; the highs, the lows, the stuff in the middle that didn't seem very impressive one way or another. For our final Engadget Show of the decade, we asked site founder Peter Rojas to join us for a look back at our picks for the most important and / or interesting gadget developments since 2000. A hardcore crowd came out just after a gigantic snowstorm to witness the proceedings, and now you get your chance to see how it all went down. This is a long one folks, so grab some popcorn and settle in for the show! Update: The HD download is now live! Hosts: Joshua Topolsky, Paul Miller, Nilay Patel Special guest: Peter Rojas Produced and Directed by: Chad Mumm Executive Producer: Josh Fruhlinger Edited by: Tony Chen Music by: Bubblyfish Visuals by: CJ Opening titles by: Julien Nantiec Download the Show: The Engadget Show - 004 (HD) / The Engadget Show - 004 (iPod / iPhone / Zune formatted) Subscribe to the Show: [iTunes] Subscribe to the Show directly in iTunes (M4V). [Zune] Subscribe to the Show directly in the Zune Marketplace (M4V). [RSS M4V] Add the Engadget Show feed (M4V) to your RSS aggregator and have it delivered automatically.
GDC 2010 schedule and speakers partially revealed
Though it lacks the glitz, glamor and booth babes of consumer-based expos, the Game Developer's Conference has plenty to capture the attention of the cerebral game enthusiast. The event's official site recently posted a smattering of the lectures, roundtables, and panels which will take place from March 9 - 13, showcasing the efforts of the creators of Brütal Legend, Uncharted 2 and Braid, to name a few. These events are broken into tracks representing the various types of work that go into making a game. For instance, Naughty Dog's Richard Lemarchand will be leading a post-mortem of Uncharted 2 as part of the Production Track. Double Fine's Peter Demoreuille and Drew Skillman will be talking about crafting the visuals of Brutal Legend for the Art Track. And Jonathan Blow is leading a discussion on implementing time travel in games as part of the sparsely populated Quantum Physics Phenomena Track. [Via Gamasutra]
Shut up. We're beta testing
In the most recent episode of Shut Up We're Talking, the hosts Darren and Karen talk with a few guests on the very same topic that every single other gaming website and podcast are discussing for the past few weeks: Age of Conan. The distinction here though, is that the members of this roundtable podcast are discussing their impressions of the game so far from the perspectives of open beta users vs. closed beta users. This is something that is very important to those players who may have had a bad experience with either of the betas, or the pre-order early access fiasco.John, from The Ancient Gaming Noob, also brings up some great points from the perspective of someone who has worked in a related field, regarding the fact that AoC's beta seemed like one big marketing tool. He cites the example of this being done in Tabula Rasa's beta as well, where the information collected from the beta was seemingly ignored for the official launch of the game.The AoC discussion is in the first half of episode 26, and is certainly worth a listen, especially if you're someone who was completely turned off to the game after your experiences with the beta.
The World Ends with manga and ringtones
Not long ago, Square Enix launched an official website for The World Ends With You, which had nothing on it besides a pointless countdown. While the website actually has stuff to look at now, it's still relatively "meh" as far as official sites go.The Square Enix Members page is a different story, though. There, you can check out a creator's roundtable, as well the first chapter of the translated manga by Shiro Amano (with more chapters to come). Another neat feature is that by clicking on the few colored bits of the manga, you can unlock TWEWY ringtones. They can be downloaded for free once you're finished reading the chapter (this blogger's favorite of the ones offered is "It's So Wonderful.")The website also reports that the official soundtrack for the game will be heading to iTunes soon, which is good news if you don't mind having DRM "protected" music.[Via GamerTell]
Joystiq Podcast Roundtable - Blizzavision ... Actiblizzard?
The Joystiq Podcast Roundtable returns to dissect the latest megatons in the video game industry. This installment we're talking about the new corporate entity of Activision Blizzard ... err, Blizzavision ... err, Actiblizzard? Whatever you call it, it's complicated. To make sense of the deal, and its ramifications, we've assembled an all star panel. Seated at the roundtable are James Brightman, Lead Business Editor for Game Daily BIZ; Simon Carless, Editorial Director of the CMP Game Group (think Game Developer Magazine and Gamasutra.com); and lastly the alphabetically prejudiced Michael Zenke, Editor at Slashdot Games, blogger at Joystiq's own Massively.com, as well as blogger at his own MMOGNation.com. Topics discussed include Blizzard's independence, Activision's gains, Sierra's status, the possibility of console games from Blizz, the possibility of MMOs from Activision, and whether or not EA needs some new drawers, so give it a listen. Get the podcast: [iTunes] Subscribe to the Joystiq Podcast directly in iTunes (MP3) [RSS] Add the Joystiq Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator [Digg] Like the show? Digg it. [MP3] Download the MP3 directly
Age of Remakes: Roundtable discussion, part 2
Earlier this week, we presented you with Part 1 of our roundtable discussion about the proliferation of remade classics on the DS. We questioned some of our esteemed colleagues in the gaming community about the motivations behind remaking old games, the benefits and potential pitfalls of such a practice, and, of course, their personal feelings on the issue, including games that they'd like to see.For the second installment of our roundtable, we tapped two Nintendo bloggers with whom you're all very likely to be familiar: Kevin Cassidy, chief marathon blogger at GoNintendo, and our very own DS Fanboy site lead, Alisha Karabinus. We'd like to thank everyone for participating in our discussion, including the readers, who participated by reading.
Age of Remakes: Roundtable discussion, part 1
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/gaming_news/Games_bloggers_on_the_DS_remake_craze'; Remade versions of classic games are popping up on the DS at an alarming rate-- just today, we've seen DS versions of the original Fire Emblem and what is increasingly likely to be a remake of Kirby Super Star (rather than a sequel). We've been exploring the phenomenon recently, polling you as to your dream remakes (dreamakes? ... No.) To delve a bit deeper into the world of remakery, we decided to hold a roundtable in the style of Siliconera's "From Around the Interweb" series (in which we happily participated). We've gathered the best and brightest (and, of course, most willing to chat) from the gaming community to discuss what's driving the trend of remakes, how this effects us and the game industry, and what they'd like to see a DS-ified version of. We actually received so much excellent material that we're splitting the panel into two parts. Today's participants are Game|Life's Susan Arendt, Siliconera's Spencer Yip, and Gamasutra and Insert Credit's Brandon Sheffield.
Joystiq Podcast Roundtable: Bungie jumps
Some of our favorite podcasts (like the old Fat Pixels podcasts and XPlatform) are roundtable format and, really, why not? Gather some thoughtful panelists and have them talk it out; you're practically guaranteed to find interesting discussion. So, with that in mind, we introduce the inaugural installment of the Joystiq Podcast Roundtable! This past Friday, we asked several of our favorite games journalists to lend us thirty minutes of their time to help digest Friday's Bungie megatons. "Seated" at the roundtable are Dean Takahashi, author of The Xbox 360 Uncloaked and Opening the Xbox and a writer for the San Jose Mercury News; N'Gai Croal, a general editor at Newsweek and author of the stellar Level Up blog; and Stephen Totilo, MTV News' games reporter and contributor to their similarly stellar Multiplayer blog. Topics discussed include the rumor, the relationship, the IP, the followup, the platform, and (of course!) the reason, so give it a listen.Get the podcast:[iTunes] Subscribe to the Joystiq Podcast directly in iTunes (MP3) [RSS] Add the Joystiq Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator [Digg] Like the show? Digg it. [MP3] Download the MP3 directly
Microsoft Office Roundtable reviewed
The good people over at TMCnet want to keep you covered with their lengthy review of Redmond's five-camera foray into the teleconferencing game, which, as part of Microsoft's Unified Communications Platform, will probably be seeing a lot of action this year. And what are their feelings? Well, they get stoked on its resemblance to the ships in the 1953 version of War of the Worlds, dig the "head-size spatial equalization" (which makes everyone's head the same size, seriously), and think that maybe $3000 is a fair price. The only thing they weren't quite as excited about was the inability to use the panoramic features with non-Ballmerware, but even that appears to be a minor complaint. Still not sure you need one for your startup? Maybe you'd better read the whole thing.
DS Fanboy travels Around the Interweb to whine about hard games
Siliconera has started doing these great roundtables called "From Around the Interweb" in which various game writers opine on a topic. The last one was about the DS Style series-- check it out for some interesting discussion on non-games!This week, Spencer was kind enough to invite me along for a discussion of hard games. This week's panel included Spencer, RawMeatCowboy from GoNintendo, CheapyD from CheapAssGamer, PSP Fanboy's Andrew Yoon (who has made mysterious appearances here!), and, for some reason, me! We were all able to reach a consensus on the divisive issue of whether or not hard games were, in fact, hard. I had a great time and I was honored to be in such illustrious company!
Mario Bros. in ur Shopping Channel, stealing ur coinz
We've been privy to undocumented Wii features like the 192-Piece Picture Puzzle and the elusive Help Cat for a while now, but did you know that there's a secret Shopping Channel animation of Mario and Luigi swimming together while you're at the download screen?During a recent roundtable, the developers behind the Wii Shopping Channel talked about how they overcame obstacles with the project, which elements they're proud of, and what they hope to see implemented in the future. One little touch that the developers were pleased to include was this Minus World-esque scene of the Super Mario Bros. paddling through and collecting coins while you download games. It doesn't show up very often, so don't be too upset if you've never come across anything besides the Fire Mario animation before. We didn't even believe it at first, but Nintendo included a video with the interview transcript to prove its existence. It's a good thing they did too, or we would've gone through our life savings downloading Virtual Console titles, trying to get this alternate animation!
Microsoft delving into VoIP phone market, RoundTable gets a price
Alright, so the average consumer probably has little need for yet another competitor in the VoIP handset market, but it looks like Microsoft is delving into a slightly different arena as it hopes to create new marketshare to snag. Presumably branching from the firm's unified communications platform, Gates & Co. are looking to try their luck in the "global business telecoms market" by developing and manufacturing several telephony devices. For cube-dwellers, the firm is concocting its own software / hardware kit which connects users via a "discreet wireless earpiece," a USB stick, and call management software that should hit "public trials" soon. Additionally, the $3,000 RoundTable video conferencing machine touts four webcams for a 360-degree view of the room, as well as VoIP connectivity to save on long distance costs. Interestingly, Microsoft is being "forced" to manufacturer said products on its own, as it couldn't seem to find a willing supplier to construct such a "disruptive" product. No word on when these units will hit the corporate pipeline, but if all goes as planned, you could be chatting on a Microsoft-branded handset before too long.
Today's hottest game video: Wii roundtable
Today's most-watched GameTrailers video is part three of the site's Bonus Round look at the Wii. These roundtable sequences -- albeit without the table -- feature musician Tommy Tallarico, analyst Michael Pachter, and game producer Peter Wanat sharing their opinions on the Wii.The industry personalities are worth a listen, although we're most anticipating to the fourth -- and final -- episode; it's billed as their thoughts on the long-term prospects of the Wii.See the video after the break.
The next Game Boy should be... a PSP
You won't see too much Nintendo reporting on PSP Fanboy. However, this roundtable editorial on Nintendojo was just too good to pass up. Nintendo has stated that the Nintendo DS was a third pillar, to supplement the Gamecube Wii and the Game Boy Advance. So, what if Nintendo actually made a single-screen follow-up to the Game Boy, to debut at next year's E3? Here's what the some of the editors at Nintendojo wanted from the hypothetical next Game Boy: "The next handheld would be as powerful as the GameCube." "Add some basic multimedia features in the mix." "Optical discs (moreover discs the size of GameCube discs)" "Downloadable retro games." "A single, vivid widescreen display." "A 1 GB memory stick that acts as a 'hard drive'" "An analog 'disc' or 'nub' control." Does any of this sound familiar? There's lots of other suggestions brought up by the Nintendojo crew, but I think it's pretty obvious that many of them would love the PSP.
Microsoft demos panoramic cam for RoundTable
If you actually made it all the way through that rather dense post from the other day on what Microsoft is now calling its Unified Communications Platform, then you probably remember us mentioning a new software package called RoundTable that gives users a panoramic view of all the other participants at the remote end of a web-conference. Well now we've spied the first pics of that 360 degree camera which enables this immersive experience -- developed out of a Microsoft project called RingCam -- thanks to a recent demonstration featuring company employees and sitcom stars engaged in a scripted debate over what to order for lunch. As we saw at the mock meeting, users are able to toggle between viewing the entire remote group or just the active speaker, with RoundTable also allowing the speaker to broadcast documents or PowerPoint slides directly to participants' monitors. Like most of the other hardware and software elements that are part of the new platform, both RoundTable and the complementary cam will be available to business-types sometime during the second quarter of next year.
Microsoft unveils unified communications platform
Microsoft has just announced a series of new products and upgrades to existing software which together will form a platform that promises to deliver unprecedented convergence among disparate communications technologies. Part of the "Office system 2007 wave of products," this combination of hardware and software will allow users to perform such tasks as checking their voicemail directly from Outlook or calling up an Exchange Server to have it email other participants of an impending meeting that they're going to be late. The move also sees Redmond making an even bigger push into Internet telephony in the form of the Office Communications Server 2007 package, which is a SIP-based platform that will allow seamless VoIP calling, videoconferencing, and instant messaging across a broad range of existing applications, services and devices, including the all-in-one Office Communicator 2007 -- available in desktop, web-based, and mobile flavors -- which just so happens to support voice, video, and chat as well. Finally, we'll see remote conferencing get a boost in the form of enhanced A/V capabilities and Office integration for Live Meeting, along with a new tool called RoundTable that employs a 360-degree camera for letting group web-conference participants view the entire remote team simultaneously. On the hardware side of things, Microsoft has partnered with HP and Motorola to provide support for the new platform, with HP delivering systems integration services and unspecified "enhanced products" and Moto throwing down compatible mobile devices and network equipment. While new versions of Exchange Server and Speech Server are on their way by the end of the year, the majority of the platform -- including IP desktop phones from Polycom, LG-Nortel, and Thomson to support the Office Communicator phone experience -- is not scheduled to roll out until sometime during Q2 of next year.[Via The New York Times]
