Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY Smartphone Review

The Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY is the first PlayStation certified mobile device to hit the market. This means that it has access to special ports of games from Sony's legacy of PlayStation titles, in addition to the growing number of games available to the Android platform. In order to make good use of its PlayStation certification, the PLAY features a unique slide-out gaming pad with controls that mimic a PlayStation controller, including two touch-sensitive pads in place of the usual analog sticks.

As far as its phone capabilities go, the PLAY is no slouch. Its fast and responsive, and the version for Verizon Wireless in the U.S. has a basic version of Android 2.3 Gingerbread user interface, instead of the modified one that Sony Ericsson installs on the versions of the PLAY for the rest of the world.

Is the Xperia PLAY the mobile gaming fanatic's dream phone? Maybe to an extent thanks to the gaming pad, but for the rest of us its just an average Android phone which is both good and bad. Read on for more details and watch MobileBurns videos for some hands-on action with the Xperia PLAY.


Hardware

The first thing you notice when you pick up the Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY is its size and heft. At 119mm x 62mm x 16mm (4.68in x 2.44in x .63in) and 175g (6.17oz), the PLAY is no small phone in your hands. The real problem for me was the thickness of the device. While I understand that it facilitates the game pad, the Motorola DROID or DROID 2, both of which have slide-out physical keyboards, feel anorexic in comparison.

The tapered edges of the back cover do help the PLAY fit comfortably in the hand, but when I was using it as I would any other smartphone (read: not gaming), it just felt like it was bigger than it had to be for the task.

The front of the PLAY sports a 4-inch, FWVGA (480 x 854 pixel) touchscreen above four physical keys for the standard Android functions of back, home, menu, and search. The screen itself is not bad, though it definitely does not have the punch or wow factor of a Super AMOLED Plus or even a Super LCD display. It could stand to be a bit more responsive to my touch as well, as sometimes it would take multiple presses or swipes before the screen would register my input.

The display is also positioned off-center towards the bottom of the phone, which provided an awkward handling position when used in portrait orientation.

The buttons themselves are small and a bit fiddly, though they did work when I needed them too. The cheap chrome finish on them has got to go, though; it looks bad now, and I imagine it will not wear well over time. The rest of the phone is made of glossy plastic, which not only gives a cheap feel to the PLAY, but is also a serious fingerprint magnet.

The rear cover constantly looked filthy with smears and fingerprints, so I was constantly wiping it off with my t-shirt. A textured or soft-touch back would have lent a lot to the feel one would expect to get from a $200 smartphone. The power button, which is tucked in the upper right corner of the phone, is very tiny and hard to access. It features an integrated notification light, which is cool, though I found it a bit tough to notice since the button is tucked behind the display.

As far as the gaming pad goes, certain functions worked well, while others missed the mark. The four-way directional pad and the square, triangle, circle, and X buttons worked nicely and were responsive during game play. The touchpads that are designed to mimic analog sticks were a different story though. I found it hard to use them to control objects in games, and found them to do different things from what I was expecting quite often. With the thickness of the Xperia PLAY, I think Sony Ericsson could have used the analog stick found on the PSP gaming handheld without much trouble.

The shoulder keys that are accessible with your index fingers when gaming were not very responsive either. There were multiple times when I would press the keys and not get any response in games. Thankfully, the actual slider mechanism of the gamepad feels solid and sturdy, and should withstand a good amount of use.

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Source: http://www.techspot.com/review/407-sony-ericsson-xperia-play/

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Steeper Pullout Is Raised as Option for Afghanistan

These new considerations, along with a desire to find new ways to press the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, to get more of his forces to take the lead, are combining to create a counterweight to an approach favored by the departing secretary of defense, Robert M. Gates, and top military commanders in the field. They want gradual cuts that would keep American forces at a much higher combat strength well into next year, senior administration officials said.

The cost of the war and Mr. Karzai?s uneven progress in getting his forces prepared have been latent issues since Mr. Obama took office. But in recent weeks they have gained greater political potency as Mr. Obama?s newly refashioned national security team takes up the crucial decision of the size and the pace of American troop cuts, administration and military officials said. Mr. Obama is expected to address these decisions in a speech to the nation this month, they said.

A sharp drawdown of troops is one of many options Mr. Obama is considering. The National Security Council is convening its monthly meeting on Afghanistan and Pakistan on Monday, and although the debate over troop levels is operating on a separate track, the assessments from that meeting are likely to inform the decisions about the size of the force.

In a range of interviews in the past few days, several senior Pentagon, military and administration officials said that many of these pivotal questions were still in flux and would be debated intensely over the next two weeks. They would not be quoted by name about an issue that Mr. Obama had yet to decide on.

Before the new thinking, American officials were anticipating an initial drawdown of 3,000 to 5,000 troops. Those advocating steeper troop reductions did not propose a withdrawal schedule.

Mr. Gates, on his 12th and final visit to Afghanistan as defense secretary, argued repeatedly on Sunday that pulling out too fast would threaten the gains the American-led coalition had made in the 18 months since Mr. Obama agreed to a ?surge? of 30,000 troops.

?I would try to maximize my combat capability as long as this process goes on ? I think that?s a no-brainer,? Mr. Gates told troops at Forward Operating Base Dwyer. ?I?d opt to keep the shooters and take the support out first.?

But the latest strategy review is about far more than how many troops to take out in July, Mr. Gates and other senior officials said over the weekend. It is also about setting a final date by which all of the 30,000 surge troops will be withdrawn from Afghanistan.

A separate timetable would dictate the departure of all foreign troops by 2014, including about 70,000 troops who were there before the surge, as agreed to by NATO and the Afghan government.

Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top American commander in Afghanistan, sounded a cautious note about the state of the war in a telephone interview on Sunday. Although General Petraeus said there was ?no question? that the Americans and the Afghans had made military progress in the crucial provinces of Helmand and Kandahar in the south, he said the Taliban were moving to reconstitute after the beating they took this past fall and winter.

?We?ve always said they would be compelled to try to come back,? General Petraeus said, adding that the Taliban would be trying to ?regain the momentum they had a year ago.?

General Petraeus declined to discuss the withdrawal of American forces in July or the number he might recommend to the president. Late last week Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that General Petraeus had not yet submitted his recommended withdrawal number.

The decisions on force levels in Afghanistan could mirror how Mr. Obama handled the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq. Senior Pentagon officials noted that after Mr. Obama set a firm deadline for dropping to 50,000 troops in Iraq, he then let his commanders in Baghdad manage the specifics of which units to order home and when. The argument over where to set those ?bookends? promises to be one of the most consequential and contentious of Mr. Obama?s presidency. It also has major implications for his re-election bid.

David E. Sanger and Eric Schmitt reported from Washington, and Thom Shanker from Forward Operating Base Dwyer, Afghanistan. Elisabeth Bumiller contributed reporting from Washington.

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Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=e7ac1d94cf8527ac8227096d11d46f60

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Weekend tech reading: Facebook, Twitter banned from French media

"Facebook" and "Twitter" banned from French airwaves The French are notorious for their obsession with maddening, micro-meddling rules and regulations. Anglo-Saxons who live in France, as I do, constantly struggle with the puzzling paradox in a society universally admired for its splendid "joie de vivre" -- yet infamous for its oppressive bureaucratic culture of legalistic codes and decrees. This Much I Know

Netflix sharing will be a crime in TN State lawmakers in country music?s capital have passed a groundbreaking measure that would make it a crime to use a friend?s login -- even with permission -- to listen to songs or watch movies from services such as Netflix and Rhapsody. The bill, which has been signed by Gov. Bill Haslam and takes effect July 1... The Tennessean

LulzSec claims FBI affiliate hacked LulzSec announced moments ago that it hacked the Atlanta chapter of Infragard, an FBI affiliate, and uploaded the company's user database to the Internet. The cracking group also claims that documents yielded by the intrusion expose an associated company's use of botnets (networks of malware-infected personal computers) and an attempt by someone involved with it to pay LulzSec not to expose the breach. Boing Boing

Windows is tougher to hack than you think Over the past few weeks, I've been putting together test hacking scenarios for a customer. They wanted to see copies of the RSA attack, the Google attack, advanced persistent threat (APT) simulations, social engineered Trojans, worms, remote buffer overflows, and more. The objective: to test what they could do to prevent all of those assaults on their predominately Microsoft Windows environment. PCWorld

What's your cell phone's maximum radiation level? Interactive database With recent news of a possible link between cell phone radiation and risk of brain cancer, you may have a new-found interest in knowing how much radiation your mobile handset is giving off -- or, more importantly, how much your body might be absorbing. Computerworld

The Zune that never was, developed by members of the former Microsoft Courier team A group of Softies filed a patent application in 2009 for a media player that Microsoft never ended up launching. The device was going to be similar in form to Apple?s iPod Nano, according to the images Kakkar found. ZDNet

SSFIV: AE PC ? DRM: We had it wrong Last week, when I put up a blog about all of the great new features and thoughtful PC-specific design considerations that were added to Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition PC, many folks ignored the goodness therein and zeroed in on the implementation of the offline mode and its limitations. Capcom

Batteries that can multitask There?s more than meets the eye in the battery-powered model car sitting in Emile Greenhalgh?s laboratory at Imperial College London.The model has been modified by the researcher?s team to increase the amount of electrical energy it can store ? but not by installing a bigger battery. NY Times

Vandals plaster Windows Logo on upcoming Apple Store in Hamburg, Germany On Friday morning, folks walking past the upcoming Apple Store in Hamburg, Germany were greeted with some Banksy inspired nerd vandalism on the side of one of the building?s construction barricades. Edible Apple

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Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/44104-weekend-tech-reading-facebook-twitter-banned-from-french-media.html

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Steeper Pullout Is Raised as Option for Afghanistan

WASHINGTON ? President Obama?s national security team is contemplating troop reductions in Afghanistan that would be steeper than those discussed even a few weeks ago, with some officials arguing that such a change is justified by the rising cost of the war and the death of Osama bin Laden, which they called new ?strategic considerations.?

These new considerations, along with a desire to find new ways to press the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, to get more of his forces to take the lead, are combining to create a counterweight to an approach favored by the departing secretary of defense, Robert M. Gates, and top military commanders in the field. They want gradual cuts that would keep American forces at a much higher combat strength well into next year, senior administration officials said.

The cost of the war and Mr. Karzai?s uneven progress in getting his forces prepared have been latent issues since Mr. Obama took office. But in recent weeks they have gained greater political potency as Mr. Obama?s newly refashioned national security team takes up the crucial decision of the size and the pace of American troop cuts, administration and military officials said. Mr. Obama is expected to address these decisions in a speech to the nation this month, they said.

A sharp drawdown of troops is one of many options Mr. Obama is considering. The National Security Council is convening its monthly meeting on Afghanistan and Pakistan on Monday, and although the debate over troop levels is operating on a separate track, the assessments from that meeting are likely to inform the decisions about the size of the force.

In a range of interviews in the past few days, several senior Pentagon, military and administration officials said that many of these pivotal questions were still in flux and would be debated intensely over the next two weeks. They would not be quoted by name about an issue that Mr. Obama had yet to decide on.

Before the new thinking, American officials were anticipating an initial drawdown of 3,000 to 5,000 troops. Those advocating steeper troop reductions did not propose a withdrawal schedule.

Mr. Gates, on his 12th and final visit to Afghanistan as defense secretary, argued repeatedly on Sunday that pulling out too fast would threaten the gains the American-led coalition had made in the 18 months since Mr. Obama agreed to a ?surge? of 30,000 troops.

?I would try to maximize my combat capability as long as this process goes on ? I think that?s a no-brainer,? Mr. Gates told troops at Forward Operating Base Dwyer. ?I?d opt to keep the shooters and take the support out first.?

But the latest strategy review is about far more than how many troops to take out in July, Mr. Gates and other senior officials said over the weekend. It is also about setting a final date by which all of the 30,000 surge troops will be withdrawn from Afghanistan.

A separate timetable would dictate the departure of all foreign troops by 2014, including about 70,000 troops who were there before the surge, as agreed to by NATO and the Afghan government.

Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top American commander in Afghanistan, sounded a cautious note about the state of the war in a telephone interview on Sunday. Although General Petraeus said there was ?no question? that the Americans and the Afghans had made military progress in the crucial provinces of Helmand and Kandahar in the south, he said the Taliban were moving to reconstitute after the beating they took this past fall and winter.

?We?ve always said they would be compelled to try to come back,? General Petraeus said, adding that the Taliban would be trying to ?regain the momentum they had a year ago.?

General Petraeus declined to discuss the withdrawal of American forces in July or the number he might recommend to the president. Late last week Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that General Petraeus had not yet submitted his recommended withdrawal number.

The decisions on force levels in Afghanistan could mirror how Mr. Obama handled the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq. Senior Pentagon officials noted that after Mr. Obama set a firm deadline for dropping to 50,000 troops in Iraq, he then let his commanders in Baghdad manage the specifics of which units to order home and when. The argument over where to set those ?bookends? promises to be one of the most consequential and contentious of Mr. Obama?s presidency. It also has major implications for his re-election bid.

David E. Sanger and Eric Schmitt reported from Washington, and Thom Shanker from Forward Operating Base Dwyer, Afghanistan. Elisabeth Bumiller contributed reporting from Washington.

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Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=e7ac1d94cf8527ac8227096d11d46f60

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China sends Google a warning for its hacking accusations

Reuters reports that an official Chinese newspaper labeled Google as a ?political tool vilifying the Chinese government,? and sent a warning that the serious allegations against China could hurt the U.S. Internet company?s business.

The warning appeared in the overseas edition of the People?s Daily, the leading newspaper of China?s ruling Communist Party, which claims that Google is ?deliberately pandering to negative Western perceptions of China, strongly hinting that the hacking attacks were the work of the Chinese government.?

Without specifying how Google?s business could be hurt, the commentary adds:

?For when the international winds shift direction, it may become sacrificed to politics and will be spurned by the marketplace.?

Last week, Google managed to disrupt the Gmail hacking campaign that appeared to originate from Jinan, the capital of China?s eastern Shandong province, which happens to be home to an intelligence unit of the People?s Liberation Army.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry quickly rejected Google?s claim, branding it ?unacceptable.?

?Google?s accusations aimed at China are spurious, have ulterior motives, and bear malign intentions.?

The Pentagon warned that the U.S. is prepared to use traditional military force against cyber-attacks it considered ?acts of war.?

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/asia/2011/06/06/china-sends-google-a-warning-for-its-hacking-accusations/

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Thoughts on Clutter and Junk

Thoughts on Clutter and Junk

Posted on 5th Jun 2011 at 11:50 by Joe Martin with 16 comments

I?ve been playing Star Wars: Jedi Academy lately. I didn?t play it when it first came out, but good word of mouth and a budget Steam price proved hard to resist. Overall, it?s a pretty good game too, although I?ll never be as effusive about it as my pals. One thing I can?t get over, though, is how incredibly dated the game looks.

It?s been hard for me to pin down exactly why Jedi Academy feels so dated, as the graphics actually hold up very well for a seven year old game using the twelve year old id Tech 3 engine. Lately, I?ve come to think that it?s the sparseness of the levels that makes it feel archaic. There are too many empty desks in the cantinas, too many barren walls; there?s not enough clutter in the world.



The effect that level clutter has on the feel of a game can be significant. One of the other games I?ve been dipping in and out of lately has been the original SiN, which manages to feel a lot more contemporary than even Jedi Outcast, despite having been released years earlier and using the previous id Tech engine. Why? Because the world seems more populated and involving; there are mugs on tables, books on shelves and posters on walls. It doesn?t change the action at all, but it fundamentally alters your impression of the world.

The importance of clutter isn?t new. I still remember when my young friends and I got our hands on the original Quake shareware. We loved it and played it to death once we overcame our fear of its murky, gothic castles. The only game that bested it was Duke Nukem 3D which, despite being uglier on a pure technical level, was set in a place far more engaging to lazy young minds.

Carmack and Co. may be able to make gorgeous 3D castles, but only 3D Realms would think to stand suits of armour and hang tapestries in the hallways. That was how I used to think of it, as a kid.


Nowadays, nearly all games seed their levels with an appropriate level of junk. It?s one of the forgotten benefits of the more powerful technology in modern computers. We?re used to smashing bits of furniture with stray bullets in Modern Warfare or scouring through medicine cabinets for painkillers in Left 4 Dead. Even relatively modern games can get this wrong, however.

The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion is one of the worst games I can recall in this regard. It was a good game and I have many fond memories of it, but when I look back I don?t immediately recall high points such as the Brush With Death quest. Instead, the first memory that comes to mind is that I must have spent hours of my life just picking up and selling ladles, clay plates and cloth-covered pots. None of these items were good for anything at all and Oblivion wouldn?t have lost anything by not featuring them, yet Bethesda seemed ready to drown players in this junk.

A lack of clutter may make a game feel outdated, but too much of it can get in the way so much that it ends up defining your game. Surely there?s got to be a happy medium?

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bit-tech/blog/~3/6lOHz6X-bvs/

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Thoughts on Clutter and Junk

Thoughts on Clutter and Junk

Posted on 5th Jun 2011 at 11:50 by Joe Martin with 16 comments

I?ve been playing Star Wars: Jedi Academy lately. I didn?t play it when it first came out, but good word of mouth and a budget Steam price proved hard to resist. Overall, it?s a pretty good game too, although I?ll never be as effusive about it as my pals. One thing I can?t get over, though, is how incredibly dated the game looks.

It?s been hard for me to pin down exactly why Jedi Academy feels so dated, as the graphics actually hold up very well for a seven year old game using the twelve year old id Tech 3 engine. Lately, I?ve come to think that it?s the sparseness of the levels that makes it feel archaic. There are too many empty desks in the cantinas, too many barren walls; there?s not enough clutter in the world.



The effect that level clutter has on the feel of a game can be significant. One of the other games I?ve been dipping in and out of lately has been the original SiN, which manages to feel a lot more contemporary than even Jedi Outcast, despite having been released years earlier and using the previous id Tech engine. Why? Because the world seems more populated and involving; there are mugs on tables, books on shelves and posters on walls. It doesn?t change the action at all, but it fundamentally alters your impression of the world.

The importance of clutter isn?t new. I still remember when my young friends and I got our hands on the original Quake shareware. We loved it and played it to death once we overcame our fear of its murky, gothic castles. The only game that bested it was Duke Nukem 3D which, despite being uglier on a pure technical level, was set in a place far more engaging to lazy young minds.

Carmack and Co. may be able to make gorgeous 3D castles, but only 3D Realms would think to stand suits of armour and hang tapestries in the hallways. That was how I used to think of it, as a kid.


Nowadays, nearly all games seed their levels with an appropriate level of junk. It?s one of the forgotten benefits of the more powerful technology in modern computers. We?re used to smashing bits of furniture with stray bullets in Modern Warfare or scouring through medicine cabinets for painkillers in Left 4 Dead. Even relatively modern games can get this wrong, however.

The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion is one of the worst games I can recall in this regard. It was a good game and I have many fond memories of it, but when I look back I don?t immediately recall high points such as the Brush With Death quest. Instead, the first memory that comes to mind is that I must have spent hours of my life just picking up and selling ladles, clay plates and cloth-covered pots. None of these items were good for anything at all and Oblivion wouldn?t have lost anything by not featuring them, yet Bethesda seemed ready to drown players in this junk.

A lack of clutter may make a game feel outdated, but too much of it can get in the way so much that it ends up defining your game. Surely there?s got to be a happy medium?

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bit-tech/blog/~3/6lOHz6X-bvs/

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Japanese researchers invent automatic animated sign language system

The NHK Science & Technology Research Laboratories is coming up with technology that automatically generates animated sign language in order to expand sign language in news broadcasts.

The automatic sign language translation system converts strings of words using Japanese as well as sign language sample texts. While subtitles works for people who understand Japanese, sign language is still preferred by most deaf, especially those who are deaf from birth.

The technology still suffers from inaccuracy but as a fall back, an interface is added wherein a human can jump in and translate if needed.

According to the report, the goal of the research is to apply this technology to the news when a disaster occurs. It can be difficult to obtain a human sign language interpreter when there are breaking stories and news flashes, so this kind of system would be invaluable.

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/asia/2011/06/06/japanese-researchers-invent-automatic-animated-sign-language-system/

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Weekend tech reading: Facebook, Twitter banned from French media

"Facebook" and "Twitter" banned from French airwaves The French are notorious for their obsession with maddening, micro-meddling rules and regulations. Anglo-Saxons who live in France, as I do, constantly struggle with the puzzling paradox in a society universally admired for its splendid "joie de vivre" -- yet infamous for its oppressive bureaucratic culture of legalistic codes and decrees. This Much I Know

Netflix sharing will be a crime in TN State lawmakers in country music?s capital have passed a groundbreaking measure that would make it a crime to use a friend?s login -- even with permission -- to listen to songs or watch movies from services such as Netflix and Rhapsody. The bill, which has been signed by Gov. Bill Haslam and takes effect July 1... The Tennessean

LulzSec claims FBI affiliate hacked LulzSec announced moments ago that it hacked the Atlanta chapter of Infragard, an FBI affiliate, and uploaded the company's user database to the Internet. The cracking group also claims that documents yielded by the intrusion expose an associated company's use of botnets (networks of malware-infected personal computers) and an attempt by someone involved with it to pay LulzSec not to expose the breach. Boing Boing

Windows is tougher to hack than you think Over the past few weeks, I've been putting together test hacking scenarios for a customer. They wanted to see copies of the RSA attack, the Google attack, advanced persistent threat (APT) simulations, social engineered Trojans, worms, remote buffer overflows, and more. The objective: to test what they could do to prevent all of those assaults on their predominately Microsoft Windows environment. PCWorld

What's your cell phone's maximum radiation level? Interactive database With recent news of a possible link between cell phone radiation and risk of brain cancer, you may have a new-found interest in knowing how much radiation your mobile handset is giving off -- or, more importantly, how much your body might be absorbing. Computerworld

The Zune that never was, developed by members of the former Microsoft Courier team A group of Softies filed a patent application in 2009 for a media player that Microsoft never ended up launching. The device was going to be similar in form to Apple?s iPod Nano, according to the images Kakkar found. ZDNet

SSFIV: AE PC ? DRM: We had it wrong Last week, when I put up a blog about all of the great new features and thoughtful PC-specific design considerations that were added to Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition PC, many folks ignored the goodness therein and zeroed in on the implementation of the offline mode and its limitations. Capcom

Batteries that can multitask There?s more than meets the eye in the battery-powered model car sitting in Emile Greenhalgh?s laboratory at Imperial College London.The model has been modified by the researcher?s team to increase the amount of electrical energy it can store ? but not by installing a bigger battery. NY Times

Vandals plaster Windows Logo on upcoming Apple Store in Hamburg, Germany On Friday morning, folks walking past the upcoming Apple Store in Hamburg, Germany were greeted with some Banksy inspired nerd vandalism on the side of one of the building?s construction barricades. Edible Apple

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Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/44104-weekend-tech-reading-facebook-twitter-banned-from-french-media.html

the game bet lights out nyc school closings scelestious stephanie seymour and son david nelson the chipmunks seattle public schools worldstarhiphop the game season 4 episode 1

Thoughts on Clutter and Junk

Thoughts on Clutter and Junk

Posted on 5th Jun 2011 at 11:50 by Joe Martin with 15 comments

I?ve been playing Star Wars: Jedi Academy lately. I didn?t play it when it first came out, but good word of mouth and a budget Steam price proved hard to resist. Overall, it?s a pretty good game too, although I?ll never be as effusive about it as my pals. One thing I can?t get over, though, is how incredibly dated the game looks.

It?s been hard for me to pin down exactly why Jedi Academy feels so dated, as the graphics actually hold up very well for a seven year old game using the twelve year old id Tech 3 engine. Lately, I?ve come to think that it?s the sparseness of the levels that makes it feel archaic. There are too many empty desks in the cantinas, too many barren walls; there?s not enough clutter in the world.



The effect that level clutter has on the feel of a game can be significant. One of the other games I?ve been dipping in and out of lately has been the original SiN, which manages to feel a lot more contemporary than even Jedi Outcast, despite having been released years earlier and using the previous id Tech engine. Why? Because the world seems more populated and involving; there are mugs on tables, books on shelves and posters on walls. It doesn?t change the action at all, but it fundamentally alters your impression of the world.

The importance of clutter isn?t new. I still remember when my young friends and I got our hands on the original Quake shareware. We loved it and played it to death once we overcame our fear of its murky, gothic castles. The only game that bested it was Duke Nukem 3D which, despite being uglier on a pure technical level, was set in a place far more engaging to lazy young minds.

Carmack and Co. may be able to make gorgeous 3D castles, but only 3D Realms would think to stand suits of armour and hang tapestries in the hallways. That was how I used to think of it, as a kid.


Nowadays, nearly all games seed their levels with an appropriate level of junk. It?s one of the forgotten benefits of the more powerful technology in modern computers. We?re used to smashing bits of furniture with stray bullets in Modern Warfare or scouring through medicine cabinets for painkillers in Left 4 Dead. Even relatively modern games can get this wrong, however.

The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion is one of the worst games I can recall in this regard. It was a good game and I have many fond memories of it, but when I look back I don?t immediately recall high points such as the Brush With Death quest. Instead, the first memory that comes to mind is that I must have spent hours of my life just picking up and selling ladles, clay plates and cloth-covered pots. None of these items were good for anything at all and Oblivion wouldn?t have lost anything by not featuring them, yet Bethesda seemed ready to drown players in this junk.

A lack of clutter may make a game feel outdated, but too much of it can get in the way so much that it ends up defining your game. Surely there?s got to be a happy medium?

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