Metal Gear Solid 4: Hideo Kojima Interview

So unbelievably pumped.

Metal Gear Solid 4 Product Placement

That, folks, is a damn fine piece of product placement. In possibly the greatest game ever taking place in the future, Hideo Kojima presents a seemingly relic of the past (in relation to MGS4's timeline): Apple's 5th-Gen iPod. Of course, not to be outdone, Sony Ericsson also provided some of their own products.



Hell j'yeah baby. That's called speaking to the audience!

Debate of the Year: Sterling vs. Thompson

[Image stolen courtesy of BuckF1tches of Destructoid]

My apologies. I couldn't find another picture, since Jim's own Podcastle picture was taken down. In any case, here's the spark of the day.

Destructoid's Podcastle Episode 11 hosted by none other than the most egoistical gaming maniac ever to walk the face of this hell frozen planet, side steps the sanity train and crushes skull with the infamous and widely hated, Jack Thompson.

Four words: E P I C. Yes, they are words. That's exactly how epic this is.

Metareview: GTA IV

To be upfront and honest, I was NEVER considering buying this game. Until now.



Check out the image below.



99/100 based on SEVENTEEN REVIEWS! This hasn't been achieved since Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (i.e. TEN years ago), when the gaming community was much smaller, when expectations and hype were much lower, and when multiplatform experiences weren't much of an issue.

Chris Roper from the PlayStation team on IGN, one of my favourite editors, had this to say about it: "I could go on and on about why Grand Theft Auto IV is one of the best games we've ever seen and why even folks who are easily offended should play it, but that would be pointless. The only thing you need to know is that you have to play this game. Period."

I'm on the fence. On one hand this is possibly the best experience any one game may be able to provide - ever. On the other hand, I'm heading back to school (i.e. priorities and no time!). And with another month, MGS4 will be released - which has been MY awaited game release for like friggin' three years.

Update: Here's the list that IGN provided:

Dell's 22-inch LCD Monitor

Dell recently unveiled probably one of the most visually stunning displays I've ever seen. Surrounded with an eye-catching pane of plexiglass with tweeters embedded into it, the Dell Crystal takes the functionality of a Dell SP2008WFP and provides a gorgeous exterior to it. Its laden with design-infused details including touch buttons, sleek embedded wiring, and even a beautiful stand.

Unfortunately, it seems that somewhere in between the plexiglass and the actual monitor, Dell has lost some of its bright shining attributes in both technical specs and user functionality. MaximumPC dinged it for its low greyscale range and its beautiful, yet frustrating touch-buttons. Furthermore... well, I'll just be straight forward with the price and let you decide on your emotions: $1200.

[via Engadget]

METAL GEAR ONLINE

Metal Gear Solid is my all-time favourite game series.

That being said, let me scream out in joy as: I'M ON THE METAL GEAR SOLID BETA!



The preorder package for MGS4 comes with a Metal Gear Saga Vol. 2 DVD. With about 15 minutes of nostalgic videos, sequences from the upcoming MGS4, and a bloody good narrator, this DVD makes the wait even more painful.

Metal Gear Online starts April 21st. Keep your eyes out for some awesome hands-on impressions and pictures.



Metal Gear Solid 4 arrives in stores globally June 12th.

Video: The Humans Are Dead

In a world where robot's have taken over the world and have since, destroyed all remnants of humankind, once spotlight of humanity continues to roar over the subwoofers and tweeters scattered throughout the land we call Earth. Take special note of the chorus =)




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Engadget gets Deutsched.

Recently, Engadget, one of the most esteemed web blogs on everything to do with technology, was asked in a very professional manner from Deutsche Telekom (owners of T-Mobile in the US) to discontinue the use of the colour magenta for their mobile sister-site Engadget Mobile. Yup.

This April Fool's joke late birthday present, sparked a revolution of all that is contained within t3h Intarwebz. DT provided the following reason:

"As you are likely aware, Deutsche Telekom and its whole group, including the T-Mobile companies worldwide have been using the color magenta as a company identifier and core branding element for many years. The company therefore holds trademark protection for the use of this color in connection with its products and services in many territories around the world."

While this is completely ridiculous and out-of-the-blue, there is SOME (but not too much) justification for DT's act. In addition to the use of magenta, EngadgeT-Mobile, also deploys vertical dots that somewhat resemble the horizontal dots on the T-Mobile logo. The letter states that this is a required act so as to "avoid any possible confusion with the consumer regarding the origin or sponsorship of [the] blog". While it is DT's responsibility to protect their trademarks, given the circumstances, this is pure ludicrous (and laughably good entertainment). There IS no possible confusion for a web blog and a 3G GSM-based US Wireless Carrier.

In response to the ridiculous act from DT, Engadget literally plastered their main site and sister-site with the colour magenta. This tomfoolery lead to the support from other mobile blogs including Phone Scoop, Phone Arena, Fitch, and Gearbits (although they've been brought down due to an understanding server bandwidth influx). Ryan Block, editor-in-chief of Engadget, created his own image in support of Engadget, which was quickly picked up by the rest of the gadget community.

Priceless.

God of War: Chains of Olympus Review

Game: God of War: Chains of Olympus
Developer: Ready At Dawn Studios
Platform: Sony PlayStation Portable
Play Mode: Hard

Disclaimers: This review contain SPOILERS for ALL THREE GAMES in the series. I have written this review as a synopsis and a look into the various aspects of this game as a whole. With the exception of the image above [image courtesy of PlayFrance.com], all screenshots were personally created by me (Dahk). If used, please contact me. I probably couldn't care less anyway =).

Take a moment and breath at that thrilling panoramic view of Kratos in a field. That is exactly what this half-prequel of the God of War series reflects - an unrivaled thrilling experience.

Ready At Dawn's development God of War: Chains of Olympus is heralded as one of the greatest achievements (if the the greatest) to be made on Sony's little portable machine. Responsible for blockbusters like Daxter, the upcoming Wii port of Okami, this development studio has made great strides in graphical technology. By just looking at some of these screenshots, this is FACT. The graphical magnificence of this game is jaw-ripping gorgeous, and unmatched in the PSP realm.

Getting into the game, God of War: Chains of Olympus, while not really being a true prequel, dives into a side story of Kratos, fleshing out some details of his past. Kratos, also known as the Ghost of Sparta, had previously been deceived into killing his wife and daughter by Ares, the God of War. With immense guilt, sadness, and anger, and with the last pieces of humanity stripped away, he became the perfect warrior. He gave himself to the service of the Gods seeking redemption from his sins and wanting the pain of his ceaseless nightmares to go away.

At the beginning, we notice Linda Hunt's perfect voice casting of the narrator Gaia and Terrencce T.C. Carson as Kratos's unmistakable voice. With the start of the game, Kratos runs head on against the Persians who have sent their entire army to destroy Attica, kind of like the invading scenes in 300, only... virtualized beautifully in a small portable device. Furthermore, as you start to knock down soldiers and traverse through the level, you notice Ready At Dawn's near perfect translation of controls with the dodging being controlled with L and R held down, L for block, and R for magic uses. The dodging takes a bit of time to get used to, but after a while, this seems more preferred since you don't have take your thumb away from the attack controls.

Getting into the action the game doesn't disappoint, with soldiers climbing and wavering their petty little swords trying to hit something other than your gorgeous shield and the floor. The action stays tight and feverish with shaking environments and camera angles from the incoming fireballs. Kratos even indulges himself with some ballista action. Soon after, if you've never played a God of War game, you discover just how absolutely frickin' awesome their signature boss battles are. You tank a rampaging cyclops only to have him eaten by this gigantic mother of a monster. With a couple teeth swipes and fireballs to dodge, these battles keep you hell on the ball. Once finished, the 'minigame' or the 'finding frickin' sick and creative ways to kill big bosses' game starts with quick time events to get you integrated with the game.


GoW:CoO really does a good action of making boss battles challenging and seriously, no-joke, heart freakin pounding. Honestly, time your heart beat after playing this and I'll give you an Aston Martin (... paper model) if it's below 100. My big gripe about this game is that I wish that there were more gigantic bosses to fight. Persian Generals, Cyclopses, and wierd shield + sword floating things don't cut it when you've (spoilers - but I've already warned you) fought Ares in God of War I, and Zeus in God of War II. Honestly, there weren't very many memorable boss battles. Everyone's so tiny in this game! Charon, the ferryman of Hades, is cool looking (with a floating mask!), but small! Persephone, the Goddess of the Underworld... is ALSO SMALL! After God of War II, I want to run up a giant attacking soldier's arm stab him in the eye, swing/stab him in the other eye, slice down from his nose, etc etc. There weren't any of those OHMAGAWDLookWhatHeDidOHMAGAWD moments unfortunately.

One of the things I think Ready At Dawn did a great job doing was balancing the challenges of the game. On hard mode, the bosses were ACTUALLY HARD. For the final boss battle, I probably retried close to 50 tries. Even the punches from the regular minions in the game hurt. For a lot of the battles, you literally have to memorize orders of attack and the timing of all your attacks. Then you keep pounding until the next 'stage' of the boss. This leads to my second big gripe about the game. They put the checkpoints AT THE WRONG LOCATIONS. The final boss battle has like a 60 second cutscene where your forced to watch in anticipation of the fight, or (in my case) stare at the guy in front of you on the Go-train ride home from work. This happens continually throughout the game. You run into an insanely difficult area with compound phases of enemies and little health, you die, and you have to wait TWO MINUTES of story explaining and clips of Kratos running around or shining horses before you get to retry.

The God of War series traditionally doesn't have the deepest of stories. It mostly relates to Kratos's anger and dealing with betrayal through, well, slicing and mashing with his wonderful Blades of Chaos. One awesome thing this brings though, is a variety in levels and environments. From lush green meadows (though rare) to blood-watered Hades, electric-swirling storms, and the blue waters of the Aegean Sea, I must stress again -because it's that important- that the environmental visuals in this game are absolutely gorgeous. The level designs are brilliant, cameras work perfectly, and there's NO loading time! Let me say this again: No loading time. This game has the ability (though I couldn't) to immerse you for 9 hours straight (twice as long on Hard difficulty) without even dropping a frame between cutscenes. Leading to my other point, when I say "without dropping a frame" this also pertains to the framerate. No lag whatsoever with bullets, explosives, and blades flying left, right, and centre. I experienced this in the demo and was rightfully scared. But the retail version on UMD was flawless.

A minor issue with the level design however, is that there were a couple puzzles in the game. Traditionally, the puzzles make you think for a while (generally validly extending the length of the game). These were WAY too easy, and its kind of unfortunately really. Then again, I didn't feel the need to punch a wall, because answers were staring at me right in the face - like it did in GoW2. Also, (let me get this in quickly), if you're playing on commutes, try not to sit beside someone who would likely get annoyed. The bright lights, flashing, and -worst of all- mad button mashing isn't the most neighbourly companion... I couldn't care less with this game in my hands though.

Running parallel in amazing stupendousness to the visuals, the audio doesn't disappoint with regards to musical scores, voice castings, and sound effects. The orchestral/choir scores are chilling when it needs to be, and beat blasting intense when those scenes are called for. Unfortunately, the game sticks to its previous roots, with various arrangements of the same music. They're amazing scores nonetheless, it's just not defined and unique - which I'm not sure it should have been anyway. Closed headphones (like all PSP games) should be used as the trembling bass doesn't really pull through those tinsy speakers.

This game sticks VERY closely to its roots from the first and second game, in almost every aspect. So much so that in the end, I wish there was something more defining - and this is my last gripe. The second game brought in wall climbing, roof swinging, rotating platforms that rotate other rotating platforms, and different, unique mechanics altogether. Unfortunately in GoW:CoO, nothing is really added. In fact, there's barely even any swimming or wall climbing. Most of the time is spent entrenched in blood-pressure-overwhelming battles in one arena. However, I must provide a little assurance of non-monotonous gameplay - the new magic abilities are pretty sick. The Gauntlet of Zeus provides a whole different action set, and nearer to the end of the game, basically replaces the famed Blades of Chaos. It's INSANELY powerful and will damage just about everything - something which your Blades of Chaos does not. I also fell in love with Efreet and it's ground pounding action. I actually USED the magic bar a lot this game.

God of War games have impressed boundlessly every time - this time is no exception. GoW:CoO makes a worthy addition to an already god-impressing series. If you were to play, I suggest hard mode not be played if frustrating challenges are not wanted, due to difficult boss battles with wrong checkpoint choices. However, I MUST recommend this to EVERY PSP owner (18+ due to some booby action). The 5-6 hours of non-stop, heart-pounding, gag-inducing, eye-piercing, sweat-inducing gameplay is ABSOLUTELY worth every penny.

Game Design: 9/10
Graphics & Visuals: 10/10
Sound & Audio: 9/10
Gameplay: 9/10
Overall (not an average): 9.4/10

Since this is a personal review, these numbers only have a meaning to me. They aren't objective, and I don't really want them to be since this is a personal tech blog. You can take it to mean whatever you want =).

Welcome to tehk.dahk

Obviously, since this blog hasn't been advertised or thought through, this first post probably won't even be read by anyone. In any case, it's a start and I'll start by thinking through my motivation and purposes of this blog.

¬ dahk

Alias and callsign that arrived through a random combination of letters. Pronounced similarly to 'doc', it means whatever you want it to mean.

As an introduction for this blog, this blog will not be a personal blog in the normal sense of the word. Rather it'll be a blog focussed on the technology and gadgets of today and of the future. This blog is heavily opinionated in some sense (because the blogger tends to be heavily biased), however, I'll also try and make it as factual as possible. Furthermore, this blog is really more for myself to get my thoughts and opinions on paper (read: virtual). However, if anyone is reading this, please feel free to leave me any comments, questions, or verbal spasms.

As a small background to myself, I'm an engineering student who's had a variety of coops and internships in corporations within telecommunications, IT, and automotive industries. I have many strong passions including, (obviously) anything technology related (read: gadgets), telecommunications, gaming, automobiles, and music.

As a disclaimer, the differential problem with this blog is that with my lack of obvious funding, support and sponsorship, I haven't actually had hands-on previews/reviews of many of the things I will be talking about. As such, my opinions and views may be drastically wrong =).

¬ tehk

I. love. gadgets. When I'm not dreaming up of some designs for newfound contraptions or wildly impractical but whickedly sick gadgets, I'm reading about them day and night. For me, gadgets are a passion, they're an art, and they're a lifestyle. Gadgets are a beginning and a segway into a future that's lined and plastered with seamless gadgets.

My first rule about upcoming tech-related products: form OVER function. Yeahp, I admit that that's EXACTLY what I look for in a device. I'll explain my reasons later, but already, tech-fluent readers of this blog are labelling me as a freak over design-affluent products like the iPhone, LG Prada/Vu/Viewty, Samsung Armani/F490/Soul, HTC Touch/Dual/Touch2, Asus U series, Macbook Air, Sony/Samsung OLED TVs, Optimus Maximus, Sony PlayStation 3 and PSP in Piano Black hawtness, Lamborghini Reventon, and my prime example, the Aston Martin line. In fact, by that list alone, my passions can be somewhat categorized into three main 'departments', which will be the focus of this blog: telecommunications, portable electronics, and gaming. Of course, I will digress and write about other gadgets regularly, but my expertise lies in these categories.

Now hear me out (if anyone is listening). I am in no way saying that function is not important. If that were the case, I'd be hating products like the iPhone who performs spectacular displays of media functions, and the Sony PlayStation 3 which is regarded as one of the most unfocussed gaming consoles in the industry - and consequently the lack of sales early on - because it does nearly everything. Furthermore, the Aston Martin Vantage would not have to be tilted on rumoured explosives to get the car to flip because it's so well balanced.

In fact, I left out some of my favourite gadgets out of the previous list, because it simply did not embody and SCREAM design. I believe that function should accompany and complement design. However, I believe that in this day and age, we are at the point where function can be molded towards the intended design and not the other way around. Perhaps my view is too ideal and way too impractical. If that's the case, then I honestly don't think products like the Apple iPhone would have been

With that said, I believe some of the BEST designed products internally and externally, have the best functions in mind. What's more is that these products have a synergetic feel between its internal components and its external design. Some examples off the top of my head are: the BlackBerry Curve and Pearl, Nokia N82/N96, Sony Ericsson k850i, Macbook Pro, iMac, Asus F8S, Dell XPS's (New Gens), HP Blackbird 002, Samsung 2x6BW LCD Monitors, Panasonic Vierras/Sharp Aquos/Sony Bravia XBR5s (pricey as they are), Canon 40D/Nikon D300s, Audi R8 and RS4... and heck, every other Quattro Audi, BMW 335i/xi, and the list goes on.

One last thing about this blog is that I tend to way overwrite what I really intended to write in the first place. Like... this post. I like to be concise, but sometimes, you know... you just can't harness that passion!