Major Nelson on Sirius

Looks like Major Nelson is going to be a regular guest on Maxim's new video game-themed show, "Level Up". This caught my interest as my brother just got me a Starmate 4 for my birthday, so I'm still new to the whole Sirius experience. Of course, my luck being as it is, I noticed this the day after the show. Oh well. From what I'm hearing, Nelson was about the only worthwhile part of the broadcast. The show is apparently not aimed at people who actually play games.

He apparently did an audio review of Splinter Cell: Double Agent, which I caved in and bought sometime last week. I've only been playing the single-player campaign to this point, and I must say that I'm really enjoying it. I haven't really played a Splinter Cell game since the original, and now I'm kind of wishing that I did. I'm going to be way, way behind when it comes to multiplayer. Then again, I have a feeling that world + dog will be playing something else next week.

Prayers Answered: Tempest for XBLA!

This is seriously, like, the best game announcement of the year. Jeff Minter is creating a version of Tempest for Xbox Live Arcade! For a quick example of Jeff's work, you need only look as far as the music visualizer built into the Xbox 360. Even better is the game will only run 400 points. This will be one to look forward to!

Jeff's post (screenshots included)

[Update] It's come to my attention that this game is actually going to be called "Space Giraffe" (which is a fantastic name, I might add), due to licensing issues with Atari over the name "Tempest."

Logitech MX Revolution Impressions

I confess: I'm a bit of a mouse freak. I took a look around the office and my desk at home and realized that I have a lot of fancy schmancy mice. Sitting at my desk at the office are a Microsoft Wireless Laser Mouse 6000 (my current favorite), an MS Wireless Notebook Mouse 4000, a Logitech MX1000, and a Logitech MX700. At home, I've got a Logitech G7 Laser. So, of course, when I saw Logitech's new MX Revolution, I simply had to have one.

The big deal with the Revolution is its funky new wheel. In order to appreciate what's going on here, you really need to check out the details. The main scroll wheel is a mechanical job. It's actually a free-spinning aluminum-alloy flywheel. By "free spinning", I mean that you can flick the wheel in either direction and it will keep spinning until it slows to a halt. Naturally, the faster you spin it, the faster it scrolls. As an experiment, I gave the wheel a good flick in Excel and it scrolled 27,000 rows before it finally stopped (about seven seconds).

The wheel also has a "clicky" ratcheting mode, providing the familiar, tactile line-by-line scrolling that Logitech's other mouse wheels offer. The mouse can switch between these on the fly by clicking the wheel. Further, the SetPoint software is smart enough to temporarily switch out of clicky mode if you start scrolling fast enough. If you switch modes, it is intelligent enough to remember which mode you are in for each application window that is currently open. All of this stuff is highly configurable, even on a per-application basis.

Other new features include the "document flip" wheel (the second wheel you see on the side), which provides a task switcher, and a dedicated search button on the top. The search button is not limited to your web browser: it can search text that is highlighted in any application.

So how does all of this work in practice? Personally, I think the wheel is phenomenal. Throwing the wheel up or down to scroll huge distances in an instant feels very natural. The software reacts very well to changes in the wheel's mode, either due to task switching or scrolling speed changes.

The other gimmicks I could honestly do without. I don't use the document flipper very often, and there are no useful options for configuring it. The search button is not really necessary, either, but at least you can assign any function to it and make it more useful.

As for your usual mousey stuff, the body itself is quite comfortable, with a huge thumb groove/rest that makes a big difference. The mouse isn't as large or as heavy as it appears in pictures, either. Battery life seems extremely respectable, and the mouse comes with a charging base for easy charging. The base seems to be much better designed than those for the MX700/MX1000.

So after one night of use, I'm really digging it overall. It's a little bit on the pricey side ($99 USD), but I've never really felt bad about spending money on the computer components I interact with the most.

Windows Live Writer Beta

I caught wind of the Windows Live Writer beta from Major Nelson's blog. He wasn't kidding when he said that BlogJet users should check it out — it feels almost like a BlogJet clone. There are still some things that BlogJet does better, though. For example, I like how BlogJet automatically substitutes certain HTML entites, such as — and curly quotes, as you type, as well as its text substitution features (similar to Community Server's Text Parts, but built into the editor).

CS support in Live Writer is decent enough. It goes through the MetaWeblog API, much like every other WYSIWYG editor on the market. The application did make an attempt to download my style sheets from the web site, which would have been really cool if it had actually worked. Perhaps they could add a feature to allow you to add these manually. Live Writer also makes any pings after posting via the editor itself. BlogJet appears to go through its posting API, which CS does not support, so I have to ping manually.

Windows Live Writer appears to be shaping up really nicely. If they can catch up with BlogJet's feature set and add a few more perks, I might just make the switch.

This post was made (and updated) with Live Writer, of course.

[Update] After seeing Dave Burke's post on Live Writer and that his blog is apparently much less uppity than mine and downloaded his styles without a problem, I decided to give it another go. Worked wonderfully the second time, but unfortunately it appears to have some issues pulling images out of the CSS file. See for yourself:

I'm impressed with how well the preview works in terms of showing you how your layout will work in its final form. However, the lack of CSS image support (which may stem from the fact that my styles use relative paths) makes it too annoying to work in this mode all the time. Still very cool stuff. I look forward to seeing what else they have in store for us.

Happy Zombie Day!

Dead Rising finally arrived yesterday, and it is quite entertaining. I managed to get a few hours of alone time with the game, and the level of creativity that has been poured into this title is simply astounding. The game is a lot more difficult than I expected, too, but every bit as fun as I had hoped. I’m even enjoying the escort missions (of which the game has more than its share), and I generally despise those. It’s certainly not for everyone (but then, what game is?) but it’s definitely worth checking out.

My only real complaint is, much like many of the reviewers, the save system. It's not the way that it's implemented that bothers me (you get one save slot per profile; if you die, you can either load from a save or start over while retaining your stats and skills from the previous game). The problem I have is that it's not very convenient. It's nearly impossible to save on demand, so if you need to step away from the game (e.g. you made the very wise decision to start playing ten minutes before you’re supposed to leave for work), you may need to choose between losing some progress or leaving the machine on for an extended period of time.

Tekken: Dark Resurrection

Let’s get this out of the way, first: I have owned a PSP since the day it was released, and I am not a big fan of it. Verily, you could say that I think it “sucks”. Regardless of what the insane executives at Sony have to say about its immaculate design, the machine is ill-conceived and feature-incomplete, which is par for the course for Sony. I don’t get much use out of mine.

That said, Tekken: Dark Resurrection (released this past Wednesday) is absolutely fantastic. It’s so good, in fact, that I simply cannot comprehend why the hell Namco chose to release it on a portable instead of a proper console. Your level of dissatisfaction with the PSP’s craptastic directional pad will vary based on how devoted a player of fighting games you are (for the record, I buy my game consoles with two arcade sticks, minimum, because I can’t stand playing fighting games on game pads). For me, it is an affront to the human thumb. This problem is mitigated greatly by the free d-pad cover that EB threw in with the game, and has made the experience much more tolerable. There is still the problem of the tiny, cramped buttons (a fault of game pads in general, and not the PSP), but that one is easier to overcome.

Despite the inadequacies of the PSP platform, the port of Dark Resurrection is brilliantly executed. The gameplay is spot on, and no concessions have been made as in past portable Tekkens. It is extremely enjoyable, and I dare say the best PSP game I’ve experienced to date.  If you have a PSP already (I’m not about to recommend buying one) and are any kind of fighting game fan, then you are doing yourself a disservice by not buying this game.