BlueNosedDog

If you ask anyone who has even looked in the general direction of console gaming how they would position the Wii they would probably tell you that it’s a casual console for people who just like to play for 20 minutes at a time without getting too involved in a game. With its low power and addictive games, not to mention its innovative control system, it is certainly aimed at that market and not at so called “hardcore” gamers.

I disagree with this quite a lot, almost to the degree that I personally cannot see who the Wii is for.

To me, the definition of a casual game is one where within seconds of turning it on you are having fun - and you don’t have to give it 5 minutes notice that you’re going to stop playing. This to me would make Peggle a casual game, GTA IV non-casual. A casual game to my mind does not necessarily mean depth, character or time restrictions as many casual games have all three. Portal to me is a casual game, but it has plenty of depth, a lot of character and you could play it 20 hours solid and not feel like you’ve wasted your life, by the same token though you can be playing within 30 seconds of loading it up and the levels are so well designed that should you quit halfway through one it will take you no time at all to get back to that exact same stage.

Although some of the games for the Wii are casual, the control system certainly isn’t. Sure the point and click aspect is great, but the waggle/twist/throw/shake/add accessory debacle is a complete waste of time and enough to turn a real casual gamer right off. The controls in it’s flagship game will illustrate this perfectly.

Tennis involves a flick, baseball a swing, bowling a swoop with button releases and boxing involves having a seizure with an accessory. The problem isn’t what you’re being asked to do, but the fact that the controller is so poor that it can’t tell the difference between much of what you’re being asked to do with it. Read more…

Uncategorized console, Nintendo, wii

Japan has it, America’s got it, Europe is even getting some - but the UK is being left out of the new PS 2 shack, leaving us only shiny next generation consoles (and Wiis) to play with.

The new Playstation 2 9000 is slimmer, smaller and doesn’t have an AC adapter - but it’s not all bad news, it’s still only a Playstation 2 which can be picked up for less than £40 on eBay, so maybe paying a premium for something just a little bit smaller is not all that great.

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Far from being a standard case mod, this new XBox 360 case from Lian Li devours the internals of your whole console and promises to give you a near silent experience when not using the DVD drive (for games, it helps with movies), unfortunately there is still nothing to be done about that lovely noise.

Bit-Tech has already got hold of one and put it through its paces, noting that at top speed the case definitely isn’t silent, but as the XBox scales the fan speed based on ambient temperature - and since the Lian Li case is pretty good at dissipating heat - the fans will probably not be at full speed for long.

The case achieves its cooling abilities, and therefore its sound reducing magic, in 2 main ways. Out goes the 70mm standard fan, and in comes a much quieter and more efficient 120mm. Out goes the terrible plastic and in comes “meshed” aluminium to aid the usually pitiful airflow.

The case isn’t without problems though, the aluminium case is prone to scratches and finger printing, and the hinges on the USB hatches are non-sprung and feel cheap.

All in all though, it looks a good case, and it solves some of the major problems the XBox has faced since launch - but note that stock is limited so get one whilst you can.

Hopefully we’ll have our own hands-on in the middle of September, and if it’s any good it may end up being our first site giveaway!

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Over 1 million American Express, Royal Bank of Scotland, and NatWest customers’ details have been sold on eBay.

The details were stored on a server, bought for just over 35 British pounds ($64) by Andrew Chapman, an IT manager from Oxford, England, last week. Chapman told ZDNet UK on Tuesday that the server, a network attached storage (NAS) box, contained unencrypted backups of CDs.

“A professional organization holding this kind of data should have tested the disks to make sure (the information) was destroyed,” said Chapman.

The computer had been used by data-archiving firm Graphic Data to store the details on behalf of RBS, of which NatWest is a subsidiary. Details included names, addresses, bank account numbers, telephone numbers and customer signatures.

RBS said on Tuesday that it was in the process of investigating the incident.

Read more…

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Xbox controller
Originally uploaded by Jonathan Crookes

According to the BBC report LIVE users will be able to take part in polls asking who they intend to vote for, with changing opinions over the coming months assisting Democrats and Republicans alike in learning how to attract younger voters. 360 owners will also be able to register to vote through the Rock the Vote service, all without leaving the comfort of their mancave.

As well as allowing 360 users to get involved with the political process through their console, Microsoft also plans to show up at the various Republican and Democrat conventions taking place in the run up to November to educate politicians in the ways of reaching out to younger voters, Xbox LIVE being one of them. Heather Smith, executive director of Rock the Vote:

“To realise our goal of registering two million young Americans by this fall, we need to go where young Americans are. There’s no doubt in our minds that many are on Xbox 360 and Xbox Live.”

I’ve got to hand it to Microsoft, it’s a pretty good idea and might, just might, get younger people more interested in the political side of things. Of course, half of us will just ignore the addition to LIVE and keep on playing Bad Company, but it’s worth a shot anyway.

The Rock the Vote Xbox LIVE service launches on August 25.

Source: Sarcastic Gamer

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Well, this is the big question isn’t it, and one which many many other blogs have tried to answer. How do you make money from your blog?

The answer, that depends on what sort of blog you’re running and what sort of money you’re looking at making.

I’m not going to make a post on “how to quit your job and make thousands with a blog”, for 2 reasons, the first is that very very few people will be able to do this, the second (and actual) reason is because I don’t know - I never set out to do that, my goal was always to use the blog as a hobby and have it pay for itself. Now if that’s your goal, read on, if not, sorry.

Step 1:
Choose a subject. No matter how vague, you need a theme. Don’t be scared if you’re entering an arena with hundreds, or even thousands, of others - all that means is that your subject is popular enough to get some traffic. Lets be clear, 0.01% of a big pie is more than 25% of no pie.
One thing to note though is that a very niche subject is probably a bad idea. If your passion is attracting outer peruvian fruitbat fleas with varying mixtures of the worlds fabric softener mixed with orange juice then you wont get any traffic, and no traffic is bad.

Step 2:
Monitor your post stats. Post a load on a wide range covering most of your chosen subject. Take this site as an example, the subject I chose was “technology”, which is a pretty broad subject. I post about anything with a plug here, from Windows patch notes through to some gaming news, I’ve even been known to post quite passionately about rights management and DRM. The reason to monitor your post stats, and not just comments received, is to see whether you niche could be narrowed down further. You’ve already chosen a subject that you’re passionate about so talking more about one aspect of that should be no issue. If you find though, that all topics within your subject receive equal response - don’t worry - in fact you’d be in the same company as me.

Step 3:
Choose your advertising. There are several companies out there offering advertising, and many many people will push Google’s adsense. Adsense is a very good product, but let me be clear on this, it doesn’t work out for everyone. Adsense is fantastic for sites which have found their niche. If you find that one topic (from step 2) and you post about it a lot, adsense will probably be the only ad scheme you need, it will easily make up 80% of your income!
But if, like us, you have chosen quite a vague topic Adsense isn’t quite as useful. In this case I would recommend getting AdsDaq, who pay per 1,000 ad views and don’t try and catagorise you into a too smaller box.

Step 4:
Don’t choose the wrong Ad formats. This may sound like common sense, but how many sites have you gone to which have annoyed you because of the way they interrupt your experience. Do you enjoy those ads which take over your page, animate over your content or make stupid noises? Then why assume your visitors will be different? Just because it gives you a higher CPM (payout per 1,000 views) it does not mean it will make you the most money - just think how many people will not visit again because you annoyed them. At the same time though, don’t be too coy about placing ads where people will see them. The rule of thumb should be this, if you’re comfortable with your sites ads then everything’s fine. But if you don’t think you’d go to your site if you didn’t own it then think again.

Step 5:
Content is still king. Now that phrase is a real pain. But, and this is important, as long as it is unique it’s fine. But you still have to abide by a few rules. Spelling must be good, grammar must be B grade or above and you must, must, be consistent. If you can’t spell, can’t construct a sentence and find it hard to make sense then I’m afraid blogging probably isn’t for you.
Don’t fall into the trap of believing small posts are best, they may get the most reads - bit they wont bring the most traffic. At the same time, try and keep larger posts (such as this one) on a less regular schedule as by the time your visitors reach the bottom of the page they will run out of the good ads!

Overall though, and the most important advice I can give, just be yourself. If you start writing about something you aren’t passionate about then your blog will suffer. You have to be engaged with what you’re doing, and much like childcare just running on gut instinct will get you a lot further than you think.
Don’t give up your day job and just have fun. Within 3 months you should find your site funds itself, if not it doesn’t matter, if it starts finding your holidays then maybe you should be writing the how-to’s.

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Kevin Rose, the founder if digg no less, claims that the attached photo is of the new iPod nano. It certainly looks plausible, touting the much rumoured larger screen and smaller overall form.

BUT, and this is a slightly large but, our friend (I wish, but if you are reading I’ll buy you a beer for sure to be able to call you that!) Kevin Rose also claimed that there would be 3 models of iPhone at launch.

Either way the snap looks pretty good, but is it for real? What do you think?

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