Is the iPad aimed at people who rarely use a desktop or laptop, but really get a lot of use out of their iPhone/iPod Touch?
If you’ve gotten really used to doing your interwebs on that little slip-slidey screen, then at first glance, a larger area would seem an obvious plus.
Maybe the iPad is not so much a new device category, and more about creating a new market for those that only (want to) understand the iPhone OS.
Training a whole new group of Apple cult members. Brace yourselves, because as soon as the alarm sounds, they're going to pour over the horizon. They will not care what you think, because they understand the iPad.
"QUICK SHOW THEM YOUR NETBOOK!!!"
"THEY DON'T CARE THEY KEEP ON ABOUT APPS AND GAMI....AAAA AAAHH NOOOOO"
"FRANCIS GET OUT OF THERE!!!"
"IT'S TOO LATE I WANT TO SIGN UP FOR AN AT&T PLAN! OOOO LOOK A NEW FART APP!"
I really liked Halo 1, 2, and 3. I like single player games. I like explosions. So that seems a sure bet for Halo ODST.
Wrong
Halo was groovy, and I spent a lot of time running, and leaping about, getting pummeled by many people on the PC as well as Xbox versions. It's great fun, frantic stuffs. However, in the last Halo game (Halo 3, not Halo Wars) I quickly reached a point where I was saying to myself,
"Why am I advancing into this alien outpost?"
and "Why am I doing this, and which of the overly epically named space ships, on my side?"
It didn't really matter because the new settings and different layouts were enough to keep me plugging away. Often my plastic neon edged armor would give up and I would tumble to the floor, scattering my assortment of recently grabbed guns and grenades. But you get back up and try again. This time keeping an eye on that side where ten more little alien dudes will come spilling out chatting away in comic relief fashion.
Hang on, the fact none of this battle makes sense, and the story is terrible, is bothering me now. I need to do research. The research being the Halo novels.
Ok research done, I get it, good, back to work.
Ok done, thanks Halo 3, back in the box. And to myself, "Can't wait for another one."
Halo ODST shuffles off the end of my mysterious GameFly Queue, flops through my mail slot, and dribbles into my Xbox 360.
Big screen, surround sound, expensively budgeted tried and tested video game franchise, in the middle of the lazy gamer generation, what could possibly go wrong?
Well not much to start with. Wandered around the VERY dark city, looking at stuff, with the usual drill of finding the things that are supposed to be just like the rest but you can usually see the graphical difference so you know something opens, or activates there. Got into a building, and now its REALLY dark. My display is sort of showing the outline of things, but very little detail. More wandering around inside the building, and I notice a helmet sticking out of a madly flashing screen. A little text at the bottom of the screen tells me to press a button, button pressed and I'm in one of the stories of apparently a little earlier in that same location.
So I'm in the story now hearing the same noises as previous games, of cheeky little aliens and gruff larger ones. Wreckage all over the place, and little pockets of resistance. Usual thing. I reach a large open area and apparently have to get across to rescue someone who's speaking to me on the radio. The other squad members are well trained in keeping out the way and not wasting ANY ammo, so it's up to me, the hero of the moment to get across that area and into the building beyond. AHA! One of those, "oh no we are just another door", doors that's obviously not like all the others. It's open and I'm in, trying to get behind enemy lines. Crap, it's dark in here, where's my new thingie button to show the outlines of things, ok got it, onward. Up the stairs, along the corridor, up some more, oo new gun, along... wait, it's a shot gun, hmmm that means close encounters are going to happen if I keep heading this way. I know, back down the stairs and I'll take an earlier exit.
I'm at the door, open, too bright for edge enhancement, so it's back to normal. I hear the familiar call of big and little aliens, and the strange alien bullet noises, it's back to the action. Lots of strafing left and right between concrete columns to try and figure out how many of my particular bullets it takes to kill these particular aliens (it usually takes a while to get the hang of that in any shooter). Still not got a good idea of where all the bad guys are, and still my computer controlled squad buddies are hanging back, waiting for me to clear a path to the next section. I leap around, still not quite familiar with the controls, as it has been quite a while since I bothered with Halo 3, and I keep pressing the 'button that shalt do nothing' instead of the grenade one, for now at least. So far it's all going as I thought it would except....
I give up trying to figure out where all the fire is coming from, take a couple of long shots and clear myself a nice little vacation spot on a bridge, in the middle of the fight, but with plenty of good cover. Sort of looked like a futuristic bus stop. Run like heck (well I think I'm running, as I can't remember if there is a run button for Halo ODST, or you just go this speed all the time), and make it to the bus shelter. Then a group of bigger aliens come out of where their scripted closet was keeping them until I crossed that particular line. They advance, I then go into a pre-death spasm, of jump-fire-move-fire-way-too-much-at-nothing, and then die.
It was a strange feeling but as soon as I saw that familiar out of body camera angle, and stuff strewn on the battle field (my 3 grenades exploding moments later, as in my final moments of controller typing convulsions I managed to hit THAT button a few times), my dead ragdoll self laying out there, the thought of doing the SAME thing over and over again, just like the previous games seemed pretty crappy. It wasn't until THAT VERY MOMENT that I wasn't enjoying it.
Went from "Yeah!" to "STOP!" in about a millisecond.
Watching my plastic clad dude, drop all his plastic guns on the ground, just brought it all back, and the reunion was not sweet. I'm glad I didn't buy the game, and I was genuinely looking forward to another Halo shooter, as that's usually my thing. This was just that little bit too much EXACTLY the same as before. Thinking I'd been a little harsh on it, I tried again a couple of times, but after it seemed to put me WAY back in the game, and I kept getting to that same point each time, I knew it was time to take it out into the yard and end its misery. So it went back to that GameFly warehouse in the sky, where it will hopefully be reborn as something on the PS3.
I decided this year that one of my resolutions would be to stop bothering with retro games so much. It's only 10 days in and I've already amassed a PS2 and an Xbox 1, both with a smattering of games. Is this a sign, or just focusing on it WAY too much?
For the record, I did't purchase them, they were just in the way of replacing other household thingies.
Anyone up for a game of something REALLY old and crappy?
I'm pretty sure this will finally be the year I do NOT purchase Lemmings again. And I'm going to pretend I don't know about the upcoming Xbox Live Game Room, that's full of arcade cabinets from days of old.
Woah, I listened to a LOT of podcasts over 2009, and according to my scrobblings, it was CNET that got the top spot. I suppose all those daily episodes of Buzz Out Loud did that.
Podcasts. They're like radio but interesting. As always I will be promising myself I will start a podcast in the new year, and will more than likely carry on the tradition of not actually doing it.
I got Burnout Paradise again (already played it to death on the PS3) because I was challenged to some matches by a 360 owner. I was surprised to not hear ONE SINGLE person talking online with Burnout Paradise. The only difference between the two versions is that in just a few days, the Xbox 360 version has crashed a few times, where as that hasn't happened to me in a LONG time on the PSN. I purchased all the DLC for the PS3 version, so if I do get anything extra for the 360 version, it would probably just be Cops and Robbers, as that's the only payed download that really added something fun to the game.
Arkanoid was good, even though it had some strange Steps vibe. The music was odd.
This weeks on-hold items are; GTA IV on PS3 - Abandoned the save a while back to get trophies, and really enjoying it this go around.
Fable 2 - Sorry but I TRIED to like it, but it really isn't my thing. The game is set in what looks like where I used to live in England. Perhaps homesickness is what puts me off?
Overall I seem to be remembering that I just prefer the PS3 to the Xbox 360. Nothing specific, but I think it's got something to do with why I didn't bother with an original Xbox until very late in the game. Now the question of which system to buy a game for is not going to be such an issue as I just prefer the PS3 and the way it works. The creepy Xbox 360 avatar doesn't help.
I remember looking at the Intellivision over and over in the Littlewoods catalogue. In fact, the word 'Littlewoods' in Greek, means 'small payments, long time, big total'. The Intellivision had two fairly large controllers which were 8-way directional discs with buttons on the front. You got two plastic overlays with each game that you slid into the controllers for your basic selections. There were also two buttons on each side of the controller for more action packed goodness.
One I think I played a lot of was Auto Racing. Top down racer, with the tracks that were much larger than just one screen. Five different cars, from slow and turnable, to fast and drifting. In two player mode, it was simple, as you both played on the same screen, the first player to reach the leading edge of the screen won the point. So it was a good balance of, I'm in front but have less time to see the corners. The part about this I got into later was going off the track into the wilderness. Which was really just what ever the programmers had put in areas you were just never meant to look at. I get the feeling that you COULD go into these areas because they simply never even considered such a thing might happen. It was an exciting adventure that could last many minutes, navigating the bushes/trees/random squares of concrete. If you did this, you too would have discovered the drag strip. Once you knew the track layout, and put in a little time, it seemed that your car was always oriented for one turn ahead, and you could even perform 360's on the turns. But remember ONLY try this if you're a professional. Looking at it now, it does seem strange that the tracks were all set in what looked like residential areas, and not just raceways.
Also played a LOT of Soccer, because I think it's the one you got with the system. This was the first I remember of how you always could score a goal if you shot from the corner of the penalty box. A life skill which carried me through many soccer games for years to come.
Astro Smash was just a vertical asteroids of sorts. Left, right, shoot, avoid incoming death. Even had endless random teleporting. This resulted in anyone playing it the first time thought they were first to figure it being a way of being invincible, and got killed about 10 seconds into the teleport-button-spamming technique.
Space Hawk, now that was something. Adventuring through space coming across all sorts of weird aliens, and hopefully one day being able to tell my grand children, that I was one of the few that met, in person, the Space Hawk.
If you feel the need, you can get this as an Xbox Original, directly to your Xbox360. Gosh darn it, after all this, even though I have it on the PS2, I may just have to splurge the Microsoft Points myself!
