Posted by Tim Sheehy on Oct 12, 2011 in Videogames
According to CVG, the upcoming Xbox 360 dashboard update is due to hit consoles on November 25th — a date which just happens to coincide with the busiest day in North American retail, Black Friday. The update, originally announced at E3 earlier this year, will incorporate a modified version of Microsoft’s flash-alternative, Silverlight as the new back-end for their Xbox apps. The update also introduces partner services like YouTube, Bing — shocker, there — Lovefilm and more. I’m excited to see what else the update has in store for us and, while I’m not too keen on Silverlight — I’d take Adobe Flash over it any day of the week — I’m sure Microsoft wouldn’t have decided on using it if they weren’t satisfied with the results. With all the new video and television content they have planned for us in coming months, we have a lot to look forward to. Now, if only they’d partner with BBC here in America — they’re doing it over in England, so why not?
Earlier today, Microsoft held their Xbox 360 press conference. Many of you were probably expecting a slew of new and exciting titles, and while Microsoft had a number of multi-platform, and console exclusives that may have impressed some, many of you may have left underwhelmed. I have to admit that I joined many of you in yawning through-out and while I applaud Microsoft for once again abandoning the sales statistics in favor of announcing new products, most of them failed to appeal to my tastes. Aside from the handful of you who live for Gears of War and Halo, I have a feeling you may have felt the same.
Since Microsoft’s Kinect hit the market last November, the homebrew community has been hard at work modifying the technology for all sorts of interesting applications. Using open source drivers, developers have created everything from adult-oriented mini-games to musical instruments like a virtual midi drum kit. One such modification makes use of the motion tracking sensors to deliver a 3d shadow puppet show. I’m sure it wasn’t too complicated to devise, but it just goes to show how easily the technology can be adapted for uses outside the gaming environment Microsoft had in mind when creating it.
We tend to forget just how quickly things can change in the tech world. For example once upon a time Palm was a dominant player in the space, and by all rights they should still be there. What happened? Well you can blame it on any number of things (poor engineering, marketing, cash flow, etc.) but the reality is that it comes down to good old fashioned hubris. Read more…
I believe very strongly that Google has an unhealthy monopoly on the internet, so for the past week or so I’ve switched all of my browsers to use Bing as the default search engine. For the most part Microsoft has done an amazing job of going from nothing to something to create a great search engine in a short amount of time, however there are still a few things that they need to beat Google. Having been born with dyslexia one of the things I love about Google is that their spell checker is amazing — in fact often when using Microsoft Word I’ll pop out of the program when I can’t get the spelling of a more obscure word. And this is the very sort of feature that not only does Bing need badly, but something that should also be incorporated into the online version of Microsoft Office. Read more…
Posted by Tim Sheehy on Aug 12, 2010 in Videogames
Or more specifically, I should say Peter Molyneux won’t. Known for his penchant for over-promising and under-delivering, Molyneux has gone on record to state that the next title in the popular Fable franchise will focus more on story, and balance, than introducing new features, and gameplay mechanics – a move clearly designed with casual gamers in mind. While I hardly consider myself a casual gamer, I actually welcome this news, as I’ve quickly grown tired of Molyneux’s incessant need to clutter his games with features that distract me from the point of the game itself.
Lionhead studios, in conjunction with Microsoft Game Studios, have released the opening cinematic for their upcoming installment of Fable. The third title to date, Fable 3 tells the tail of a kingdom on brink of revolution, its subjects the victim of a tyrannical ruler. This opening cinematic tells that tale in an interesting way — through the eyes of a chicken, doomed to be a served at a royal dinner. While it might show little in the way of potential gameplay, the cinematic certainly doesn’t lack the dark humor found through out the series. Instead, it provides us with an explanation of the plot via a rather clever set of metaphors — in addition to painting a clear picture of the setting itself. The game is currently set to ship for Xbox 360 on October 26th. Read more…
My belief at this point in time is that Google is what Microsoft use to — an out of control monopoly that must be stopped. So despite the fact that I’m an Apple fanboy at heart I’ve been rooting for Microsoft to get serious about the cloud for a few years now. And frankly I’m also still using Microsoft Outlook as my main email client — so when I heard that Microsoft was rolling out Office 2010 I had to check it out right away. And if you look at the above screen, what I came across was a total failure. Read more…
In the wake of the Flash is doomed movement I’ve noticed quite a few Microsoft developers who are rooting for Silverlight. Silverlight has two amazing advantages going for it: Firstly Microsoft loves their developers more so than any other company that I’ve ever seen — and then add to that it will become a key tool for making apps for Windows mobile devices. But there’s one major catch to this which is that smart mobile is now dominated by Apple and Google, and that there’s a good chance that they won’t let Silverlight onto their platform. Read more…
While I haven’t played with it yet the screenshots I’m seeing of the Windows Phone 7 look great. I’m an Apple fanboy at heart but it’s a wonderful surprise to see that Microsoft didn’t just do an iPhone clone. This isn’t enough to make me switch from my iPhone, however it is enough to make me have second thoughts about switching to Android and it also convinces me now more than ever that Palm won’t live to see the end of the year. From what I’ve read the Windows team has been working on this for 18 months and they decided to focus on the app side of the phone which is their core strength: Read more…
