The Old Republic: All I Want is the Cutscenes

The Old Republic: All I Want is the Cutscenes

Posted on 13th Jun 2011 at 07:29 by Clive Webster with 24 comments

The latest trailer for Star Wars: The Old Republic has been released and it?s freaking awesome. This follows previous cut-scene and video releases that have been similarly impressive, engaging and enjoyable. However, with the game looking a bit duff, I?m wondering if Electronic Arts, Bioware and LucasArts could be persuaded into releasing a cut-scene-only version? I?d happily pay to watch a short film made from them.



If you?re not sure what I?m on about, have a look at the Star Wars: The Old Republic intro cinematic (watch it in fullscreen mode) above, then the other trailers (not the gameplay videos) and come back.

See what I mean? They?re much more reminiscent of the original trilogy than the rubbish prequel films. There?s a focus on people that you readily recognise and empathise with overcoming obstacles; the classic setup for injecting drama and interest into a scene or story. Furthermore, there?s absolutely no mention of trade disputes, midi-sodding-chlorians or annoying lizard-rabbits.

In fact, some of the intros' cinematic characters are really close to those of Episodes IV to VI. There?s a dependable droid that happily receives rushed instructions, and it?s on a ship with dingy, circular corridors and laser-cannon pods. Then there?s the pilot of this ship ? he?s instantly introduced as a likeable yet roguish smuggler, and his attire hardly suggests otherwise. He even seems to steal Han?s dialogue: his is the fastest ship in the fleet, even though it might not look like much. All we need is a co-pilot with a shaving phobia and we?re done.

But who cares if Bioware is borrowing heavily from the source material to produce something this fun? Arguably, the mistake that George Lucas made with his prequels was refusing to follow his own conventions. We wanted a bit more of the same please, not some confused reinterpretation of the Universe we?d spent the last however many years discussing in detail.

So when the ?trader? ship blasts through the Imperial turbo laser, rushes through its guts, and then hits its hyperdrive, we?re cheering on the crew. When the Jedi master Force-pulls the second lightsaber to him, we?re given a moment to consider the great duel that?s about to ensue.

Even the cutting and pacing between the personal fight between Jedi and Sith and the action on the not-Millenium Falcon is so reminiscent of The Empire Strikes Back that it can?t fail to make Star Wars fans happy. The trailer even conveys emotion brilliantly ? Malcus exudes rage as he stalks towards the Jedi master and bats away his defence, while you can read the thoughts of his Padawan perfectly well after his death.

So please, can we just have the cinematics to watch, and leave the MMO to WoW deserters? Please?

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Gaming 28 - Revisiting the Village

The Old Republic: All I Want is the Cutscenes

The Old Republic: All I Want is the Cutscenes

Posted on 13th Jun 2011 at 07:29 by Clive Webster with 24 comments

The latest trailer for Star Wars: The Old Republic has been released and it?s freaking awesome. This follows previous cut-scene and video releases that have been similarly impressive, engaging and enjoyable. However, with the game looking a bit duff, I?m wondering if Electronic Arts, Bioware and LucasArts could be persuaded into releasing a cut-scene-only version? I?d happily pay to watch a short film made from them.



If you?re not sure what I?m on about, have a look at the Star Wars: The Old Republic intro cinematic (watch it in fullscreen mode) above, then the other trailers (not the gameplay videos) and come back.

See what I mean? They?re much more reminiscent of the original trilogy than the rubbish prequel films. There?s a focus on people that you readily recognise and empathise with overcoming obstacles; the classic setup for injecting drama and interest into a scene or story. Furthermore, there?s absolutely no mention of trade disputes, midi-sodding-chlorians or annoying lizard-rabbits.

In fact, some of the intros' cinematic characters are really close to those of Episodes IV to VI. There?s a dependable droid that happily receives rushed instructions, and it?s on a ship with dingy, circular corridors and laser-cannon pods. Then there?s the pilot of this ship ? he?s instantly introduced as a likeable yet roguish smuggler, and his attire hardly suggests otherwise. He even seems to steal Han?s dialogue: his is the fastest ship in the fleet, even though it might not look like much. All we need is a co-pilot with a shaving phobia and we?re done.

But who cares if Bioware is borrowing heavily from the source material to produce something this fun? Arguably, the mistake that George Lucas made with his prequels was refusing to follow his own conventions. We wanted a bit more of the same please, not some confused reinterpretation of the Universe we?d spent the last however many years discussing in detail.

So when the ?trader? ship blasts through the Imperial turbo laser, rushes through its guts, and then hits its hyperdrive, we?re cheering on the crew. When the Jedi master Force-pulls the second lightsaber to him, we?re given a moment to consider the great duel that?s about to ensue.

Even the cutting and pacing between the personal fight between Jedi and Sith and the action on the not-Millenium Falcon is so reminiscent of The Empire Strikes Back that it can?t fail to make Star Wars fans happy. The trailer even conveys emotion brilliantly ? Malcus exudes rage as he stalks towards the Jedi master and bats away his defence, while you can read the thoughts of his Padawan perfectly well after his death.

So please, can we just have the cinematics to watch, and leave the MMO to WoW deserters? Please?

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bit-tech/blog/~3/tabANSSjO8g/

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Weekend Open Forum: What's your ideal laptop size?

When shopping for a new laptop one of the main factors to consider is size. Whether you want a gaming powerhouse that will only move from your desk occasionally, something that hits the sweet spot between performance and portability, or simply the thinnest and lightest you can find regardless of the compromise in power and disk space.

Your preference will likely vary depending if it's going to be your primary machine or not. For example, a 11-inch netbook might be all you need for occasionally going online and taking on short trips, knowing that a powerful desktop and large monitor await at your desk when it's time for more serious computing tasks. For me 13-inch has turned out to be the sweet spot, as it gives me enough screen real estate to get some work done but it's still easy to carry around.

What about you: What's the ideal laptop size? You can cast your vote on the poll below but we'd also like to read your thoughts in the comments. Is portability more important than power for you when it comes to laptops? By the way, that monster up there is the Maingear Titan 17 we're currently testing next to the ThinkPad X1 we reviewed last month.

What's the ideal laptop size?online survey

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Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/44418-weekend-open-forum-whats-your-ideal-laptop-size.html

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PCI-SIG proposes external PCIe cable standard

The PCI Special Interest Group has revealed plans to develop an external version of PCI Express to rival the likes of eSATA, USB 3.0, and Intel?s new Thunderbolt interconnect. The standard would be based on PCIe 3.0 technology, which will offer potential transfer speeds of up to 32Gbps, a significant boost from the PCIe 2.1 spec that's widely used today in PCs (internally) for connecting graphics cards, sound cards, and even solid-state drives.

Thunderbolt currently offers 10Gbps transfers, but Intel says it can scale up to 100Gbps in the future. With those speeds, USB 3.0 is already looking outdated, but then again it's the only standard gaining some traction.

Previously known as Light Peak, Thunderbolt was launched back in February using copper cabling instead of fiber optics as initially planned, and so far only Apple has adopted it for its latest MacBook Pro and iMac refreshes. Meanwhile, eSATA has seen a mild adoption in notebooks but its use is more limited compared both Thunderbolt and USB.

The initial proposal for external PCI Express 3.0 suggests using copper wires, with a maximum transfer distance of 3 meters, and the ability to support up to 20W of power delivery. That's double the 10W of power provided by Thunderbolt, and would be enough for external hard drives and other devices to run without the need for a separate power source -- though external graphics cards would certainly need one.

PCIe cables will be faster, cheaper, and thinner than Thunderbolt, but less functional, since the latter can be daisy-chained and carry DisplayPort data while external PCI Express cannot. The proposed standard is still in its early stages and won't be commercialized until at least mid-2013, so there's plenty of time for USB and Thunderbolt to battle it out.

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Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/44408-pci-sig-proposes-external-pcie-cable-standard.html

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Weekend Open Forum: What's your ideal laptop size?

When shopping for a new laptop one of the main factors to consider is size. Whether you want a gaming powerhouse that will only move from your desk occasionally, something that hits the sweet spot between performance and portability, or simply the thinnest and lightest you can find regardless of the compromise in power and disk space.

Your preference will likely vary depending if it's going to be your primary machine or not. For example, a 11-inch netbook might be all you need for occasionally going online and taking on short trips, knowing that a powerful desktop and large monitor await at your desk when it's time for more serious computing tasks. For me 13-inch has turned out to be the sweet spot, as it gives me enough screen real estate to get some work done but it's still easy to carry around.

What about you: What's the ideal laptop size? You can cast your vote on the poll below but we'd also like to read your thoughts in the comments. Is portability more important than power for you when it comes to laptops? By the way, that monster up there is the Maingear Titan 17 we're currently testing next to the ThinkPad X1 we reviewed last month.

What's the ideal laptop size?online survey

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Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/44418-weekend-open-forum-whats-your-ideal-laptop-size.html

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Google Health has six months to live, so now who?s going to disrupt healthcare?

Sad news reached us today that Google is to close its Health service. While the company says that it simply failed to gain enough traction to be sustainable in the longterm, to me it doesn?t bode well for the future of healthcare.

Google Health was designed to let individuals manage all their own healthcare information, set health targets, create custom trackers for things like amounts of sleep or caffeine intake, share health information with people who need it and potentially connect their profile information to devices and services via an API. In short, it was an open platform for health information and care, and it had the potential to revolutionise an entire industry.

Sadly though, it just hasn?t taken off. As Google notes in today?s announcement, ?We?ve observed that Google Health is not having the broad impact that we hoped it would. There has been adoption among certain groups of users like tech-savvy patients and their caregivers, and more recently fitness and wellness enthusiasts. But we haven?t found a way to translate that limited usage into widespread adoption in the daily health routines of millions of people.?

For over ten years, Google has attempted to ?Googlify? a range of industries away from its core search and advertising business, from telephony to TV to the forthcoming mobile payments service Google Wallet. In fact, as Jeff Jarvis? excellent book ?What Would Google Do?? argues, Google?s approach of experimentation and openness could revolutionise any industry. On health, Jarvis wrote ?Google has opened up most human knowledge today  - any that is digital and searchable ? so I?m confident it could do the same with medical knowledge.?

Sadly, that?s not to be. On the first day of 2012, Google Health will be closed ? but why? Maybe Google under Larry Page is streamlining, stripping out some of the products that it believes will simply never take off. Frederic Lardinois suggests today, ?Maybe Google just lost patience ? or it simply didn?t see any commercial future for the service, which never attracted many users and partners. Google says its inability to scale the products up to a level that made them worthwhile for the company is the reason for shutting them down.?

That may make business sense, but it?s sad to see. Healthcare is sprawling industry in which, all too often, the patients play second fiddle to bureaucracy and profit-hungry drug and health insurance companies. It?s ripe for the kind of disruption a brave, big-thinking technology company can provide.

While Microsoft?s competing Health Vault lives on, that?s not exactly taken off either, and in the immediate future there?s no-one waiting in the wings to drag healthcare towards a patient-led, technology-powered revolution that?s long overdue. Sure, there are tech startups operating on the fringes, but no-one with the clout and size of Google.

Maybe Google Health was ahead of its time, but I sure hope someone comes along to give the concept another shot.

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/google/2011/06/24/google-health-has-six-months-to-live-so-whos-going-to-disrupt-healthcare/

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Weekend game deals: 50% off Mafia II, 40% off Civ V

You've undoubtedly heard about Team Fortress 2 going free-to-play, but in case you missed the news, here it is again: Team Fortress 2 is now free! Valve has accompanied that bombshell with a proper weekend sale, cutting 50% off Homefront (though, based on its mediocre reviews, this might be the catalyst to a permanent price drop). Folks looking for some old school action should check out GamersGate's deals on Deus Ex and Thief, while Direct2Drive has steep discounts on more recent hits including Civilization V, Mafia II and Borderlands.

Steam
Homefront $24.99 (50% off)
Star Ruler $5.00 (75% off)
Europa Universalis III Complete $3.75 (75% off)
Europa Universalis III Chronicles $7.50 (75% off)
Team Fortress 2 (now free -- permanently)
More...

Impulse
Shift 2: Unleashed $24.99 (50% off)
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter $9.99 (50% off)
Cities in Motion $13.99 (30% off)
50% off Aveyond titles
50% off King's Bounty titles
More...

GamersGate
Deus Ex Collection $9.98 (50% off)
Thief: The Dark Project and Deadly Shadows $12.45 (50% off)
Magicka $5 (50% off)
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light $3.74 (75% off)
25 to Life $5 (50% off)
Conflict: Denied Ops $7.48 (50% off)
More...

Direct2Drive
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 $7.95 (60% off)
Up to 75% off 2K titles (includes Civ V, Mafia II, Borderlands, and BioShock 2)
More...

Games for Windows
BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger $17.49 (50% off)

Good Old Games
50% off Interplay titles

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Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/44416-weekend-game-deals-50-off-mafia-ii-40-off-civ-v.html

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HP to release 7-inch webOS tablet in August?

Inventec, a major contract manufacturer of personal computers in Taiwan, has received big-ticket orders for tablet PCs from Hewlett Packard. HP has reportedly ordered 400,000 to 450,000 TouchPad tablets per month, and will sometime in August launch a 7-inch tablet. Inventec will supply HP these two tablet PC models, according to a subcontractor cited by the Taiwan Economic Times.

HP is Inventec's largest buyer of notebook PCs, but has yet to confirm that Inventec is its largest contract manufacturer of tablet PCs. Inventec is aiming to supply smartphones, tablet PCs, electronic books, portable navigation devices, this year in order to enjoy a larger growth due to the shipments of new products.

HP, the world's largest PC maker, is only now entering the tablet PC arena with the HP TouchPad. Of course, we've expected that HP would release more than just one tablet, but August just seems too soon. If it really is coming just one month after the HP TouchPad is officially released, we would have expected HP to announce the product by now, and details would have leaked even before then. We'll have to watch this rumor closely: a 7-inch tablet is definitely in the works, but the timing just seems off.

The HP TouchPad is a 9.7-inch slate (1024 x 768 resolution), powered by a dual-core 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon APQ8060 processor, 16GB or 32GB of built-in storage, 1GB of RAM, HP's Beats audio, a micro-USB 2.0 port, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, a front-mounted 1.3MP camera, as well as a light sensor, gyroscope, accelerometer, compass, and GPS (3G model only). It measures 242 x 190 x 13.7mm and weighs around 740g. The device is running a WebOS 3.0 with true multitasking, Flash 10.1, a paneled e-mail application, a pop-up notification system like Growl, Skype support, wireless printing, calendar and e-mail integration via HP Synergy, as well as compatibility with Amazon's Kindle ebook store, Google Docs, QuickOffice, and more.

Optional accessories (sold separately) for the HP TouchPad include the HP Touchstone Charging Dock, the HP TouchPad Wireless Keyboard, and the HP TouchPad Case. These are expected to be priced at $80, $70, and $50, respectively.

Preorders for the Wi-Fi version of the HP TouchPad in North America and Europe have already begun, and that the US release date is slated for July 1, 2011. The device will be available from US retailers, commercial resellers, and direct from HP with the option of either 16GB ($500.00) or 32GB ($600.00) of internal storage. HP's first webOS tablet will be available in the UK, Ireland, France, and Germany a few days later and in Canada in mid-July, with availability scheduled to follow later this year in Italy and Spain, as well as in Australia, Hong Kong, New Zealand, and Singapore.

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Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/44412-hp-to-release-7-inch-webos-tablet-in-august.html

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This week at Microsoft: Mango, iOS, and a cake

We missed our roundup last week due to travel complications, so we are bringing you this edition all the earlier to make up for lost time.

It was an interesting week in the world of Microsoft, with things happening in nearly every corner of the Redmond empire. As always, there is quite seriously no way to cover it all here, so be sure and dig through the archives to get caught up.

Right, follow TNWmicrosoft on Twitter and Facebook, and let?s get into the news.

Hands on with Mango

We had a week to test Windows Phone 7?s Mango update, and we fell in love with it. If you like WP7 now, Mango is going to be exactly what you hoped for. On the other hand, if you don?t approve of WP7?s product direction, Mango is going to do little to nothing for you.

From our hands on review:

Mango is a fine upgrade to the WP7 platform, and one that will bring it neck and neck with the current offerings from Apple and Google. If that will still be the case when Mango actually lands late this year remains to be seen, and if Mango can sustain WP7 for a full year is not a settled question. I think, after having most of it for a week, that Mango will hold up well. Especially if Microsoft manages a smooth roll out for the upgrade to current WP7 owners.

WP7 is a different approach to the smartphone than the one taken by iOS and Android, and Mango is the first full iteration of the WP7 aesthetic. If it does well, Microsoft will have struck a nerve. If not, it?s mobile future is over.

Sadly, some of the Mango features were turned off on our demo unit, so we could not test its every in and out. In time, we might get a more extensive Mango build, and when we do, we will bring you a review of what remains.

Who has the fastest mobile browser?

When Microsoft first demoed Mango, it ran a browser test with a Mangoed WP7 device against iOS and Android handsets. The WP7 phone dominated.

But when iOS 5 became available for testing, some began to note that its performance in said browser test had improved so much that it had surpassed Microsoft in its own test. We ran the test again on our Mangoed focus, and found out that oddly, while iOS 5 now beats the old WP7 benchmark, the Focus can now beat both the old WP7 score and the iOS 5 numbers.

The following image is proof:

The cake is not a lie

In case you didn?t know, Microsoft sends Mozilla cakes every time they ship a new version of Firefox. The following image is what Microsoft sent is rival for shipping Firefox 5:

Xbox glitches and news

A promotion in the United Kingdom had a glitch that allowed LIVE users to snag piles of cheap service. Microsoft is being slightly coy about the situation, but we suspect that you have missed the boat. It was good while it lasted.

To close out the day, Microsoft just shut down rumors about any sort of imminent demise of the Xbox 360. Apparently, the Kinect is doing so well that the company sees no reason to phase out the 360. To everyone hoping for a quick Xbox 720 release, we apologize.

That is all for this week, we will bring you the news as it comes. You are following us on Twitter, right?

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2011/06/24/this-week-at-microsoft-mango-ios-and-a-cake/

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