March, 2011 | Gaming, Technology, and Whatever

iPhone Cloud Music Options that Work Today

Mar 312011

So with this week’s slightly unexpected launch of Amazon’s cloud storage and cloud music player, you’ve started to think about the possibilities and conveniences of a cloud stored music library. It definitely has some worthwhile advantages:

Online/offsite backup of your music library
Easy access to your music anywhere
Save space on your phone by not storing a copy on device

It was probably less surprising that Amazon’s Cloud Player doesn’t really work with iOS devices. There’s a workaround, described here, but it’s clunky at best.

Apple’s iTunes Locker / MobileMe revamp has been rumored to be coming for quite some time, but it’s yet to materialize. Signs seem to point to it being caught in limbo as negotiations with the big music labels are holding it back, a step it seems Amazon chose to skip, much to the labels chagrin. So while we wait for an Apple solution that may or may not come, what can an iPhone user turn to in the mean time?

It may surprise you that Apple already has rudimentary support for this type of cloud music storage. Of course, this option requires a MobileMe subscription, which currently goes for $99 a year — there’s a 60 day free trial if you want to give it a test drive. You get 20GB of storage, along with other features like email, calendar, contacts and a photo gallery. The “iDisk” cloud storage works like many others and has the advantage of a universal iOS app. An undocumented feature of the iDisk app is that it will stream music files from your iDisk, and even continues streaming music when in the background. While it doesn’t load any meta data or album artwork and doesn’t seem to support playlists, it does actually work in a very basic way, today. You can even share files using iDisk…but don’t tell the music labels that.

Dropbox works in a similar fashion to iDisk in the way it handles music, and offers 2GB for free, with a universal iOS app.

Of course, those are services that aren’t really optimized for streaming music. That’s where long-time players mSpot and MP3Tunes come into play. mSpot, in direct response to Amazon, recently announced they would be increasing their free account storage limit to 5GB. This was a smart move by mSpot, since it has the advantage of being iOS compatible (through a universal app) right away. With new found interest in cloud music storage being spurred on by Amazon, potential customers may look for more compatible options since being locked out by Amazon. Also available is MP3tunes, which offers 2GB of storage for free and also has an iPhone app. Each of these services has an application that you load on your PC or Mac, which monitors your music library and automatically uploads new tracks to your music locker, keeping your local and cloud libraries in sync.

All the services mentioned here have some sort of free or trial subscription so that you can test drive them to figure what best suits your needs. Who knows, they may even end up being better than an official Apple solution, whenever it arrives.

First Glance: Crysis 2

PC Gaming 2 Responses »

Mar 292011

I started playing a bit of Crysis 2 last night. Of course, there’s lots of “crappy console port” rage flying around this game, but in thinking about it, what PC games don’t have that element these days? Even huge PC sellers like CoD and Bad Company 2 have been assaulted by the rage of PC gamers, so does “crappy console port” have much meaning these days?

As we previously covered, much has been made about the glaring lack of options available through the game’s menus. Thankfully, there are many configurable options under the hood, and Wasdie’s GUI utility makes them simple. Why weren’t these options available in game, or made accessible via a Crytek config utility, like other notable PC games have used? My guess would be to meet the game’s release window, corners were cut. Rumors are already swirling (some started by Crytek devs) that we’ll see DirectX 11 and advanced configuration options in-game in a soon to be released patch. It’s great to hear Crytek will be providing some meaningful post-release support for the game, but at the same time, it’s continually disappointing that developers use post-release patches to actually finish their games. I’m looking at you Bad Company 2!

The single player story early on seems serviceable enough, continuing on some random bit of time after the end of Crysis 1. Playing through the streets of NYC is sufficiently interesting and provides a refreshing setting for a shooter. You still have some freedom in completing objectives in that you can try to go the stealth route, relying heavily on your cloak, go for a full frontal assault with lots of shootery goodness, or some mix in between. The game also continues the trend of providing plenty of collectibles and upgrades along the way to keep dangling the carrot on the string.

I was dismayed, however, to find the lack of quick saving in game. Saves are all automatic checkpointing, and there’s really no way to save your game yourself. Consolification? Possibly. Checkpointing saves can actually be acceptable if done right. The Assassin’s Creed series is a great example of this. Crysis 2 doesn’t seem to get it quite right, as I had to quit out of the game and was disappointed that I had to replay a few minutes of a level I had already done where there should have been a checkpoint. Obviously, a full on save system is almost always preferable. Devs, please be considerate of gamers. Having to keep playing until I hit the next checkpoint to quit, rather than being able to save and quit at any point, is annoying and frustrating. Ugh.

Giving the multiplayer a test, not much has changed since the beta aside from more game modes and maps. The server browser works a bit better, although I think it’s still not reporting accurate pings. I couldn’t find a server that pinged under 100, even though they were nearby, which leads me to believe that you’re better off just ignoring the ping. I was mildly surprised to see that it kept my friends list from the mp beta, after how fickle it was with us at the time. I’ve yet to play through all the maps and modes, but the few maps I did play on “Team Instant Action” (don’t call it TDM!) were varied and seemed more interesting than many of the maps in CoD Black Ops. The gameplay is very much CoD inspired, from the level up system, to the kill cam, to the end of round kill replay and match rewards. Entertaining enough to play a few rounds here and there.

So all in all, Crysis 2 seems relatively solid so far in both aspects. It’s hard to say it’s outstanding in either sp or mp, and there are plenty of well-documented frustrations to complain about, but if you enjoyed Crysis 1 and/or like CoD-style multiplayer, I’d suspect you’ll be reasonably content with Crysis 2.

We’ve started an entry for Crysis 2 in our wiki here.

A Closer Look at Amazon Game Downloads

Gaming Deals, PC Gaming 3 Responses »

Mar 282011

With PC gaming moving more and more towards digital distribution, the days of going into a store, browsing the PC game shelves for a title worth purchasing and walking out with a box in hand are dwindling fast. Of course, unless you’ve lived under the world’s biggest rock, you know all about Steam, and probably have invested a fair amount of money at their store. You may have even dabbled with Direct2Drive or tried Stardock’s Impulse. However, you may not have tried the relative new comer to the digital download space in Amazon.

Amazon is all about competing with pretty much any company that sells anything. Music, books, movies and now apps, Amazon targets large competitors like Apple and Netflix. They regularly price match Sunday ad deals posted by big box retailers in Target, Walmart and Best Buy. Now, to get their digital download service off the ground, they’ve even resorted to price matching Steam’s weekend and mid-week sales when possible. Since Amazon is really good at selling stuff, there’s no reason to think that Amazon won’t become a significant player in the digital games space, after pretty much winning the crown for the best place to buy retail copies of console games with their generous deals and pre-order credits.

Today, we’re going to take a closer look at Amazon’s PC game download service to see if it’s a worthy competitor to the big players already entrenched in the market. The key things that I usually look for in a digital store are pricing, availability, ease of downloads and how flexible the service is in case I ever need to re-download the software and/or retrieve any serial keys.

The pricing aspect we already know won’t be much a problem for Amazon. They have a history of some of the best pricing around. To help with their launch of “core” downloads, they’re offering $15 and $10 credits on many new high-profile titles like Crysis 2, Dragon Age 2, Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, Homefront at prices that range from a few dollars to up to $10 off of retail price. There’s also no reason to doubt that Amazon will keep fresh deals coming on various titles throughout the year. They are still working on building their library of games available, so while it’s a modest list, it contains many new releases.

To test my experience with the service, I recently purchased Crysis 2, as it was the cheapest on Amazon’s store than anywhere else at the time, with other distribution channels still selling it at full retail price less than a week after release. The first thing Amazon asks after you complete your purchase is to install the “Amazon Games and Software Downloader” which is a small 3MB download. It downloaded and installed in under a minute. I’m not normally a fan of external “downloader” programs, but found the Amazon downloader minimally invasive. It didn’t try to side-load any crapware and has a minimal footprint. I found it similar to Direct2Drive’s downloader, but less ugly. Of course, it’s nothing like Steam’s behemoth client, the Amazon downloader is just a downloader, which you could argue is an actual benefit — we don’t need anymore bloated clients. With that installed, my purchase automatically started downloading. It downloads one archive file and once the download is complete, it automatically extracts itself and gives you a folder structure of what you’d expect to be an image of the contents of the retail DVD. You then install the game as you would off a disc, and you’ll be asked to enter any type of serial key expected by the game. This can be retrieved from your Amazon digital library under your account on Amazon.com.

It’s worth noting that no additional DRM is added by Amazon. So in that particular sense, it has a leg up on Steam, which in non-Steamworks games (like Crysis 2) has the publisher’s DRM on top of the omni-present Steam DRM. This is not the case with Amazon. The DRM comes solely from the publisher. Amazon lets you download your game as many times as you need, although any limitations on “activations” on the install is controlled by the publisher and will vary from game to game. One comforting thing listed in Amazon’s help section for game downloads is this bit:

Each game manufacturer has a different policy on how many installations are allowed with each product key. If you run out of installations for the product key you originally purchased from Amazon, please contact Customer Service and we will happily provide you with another key at no additional charge. You can install an unlimited number of times for personal use, however additional copies of the game for friends or family must be purchased separately.

So it seems that Amazon is being very sensible dealing with DRM and as usual with my experience them, does a good job at taking care of their customers, not just throwing them to the wolves with some of the crazy DRM schemes publishers dream up.

After the install and key retrieval, Amazon’s job is done. Their downloader won’t keep your game auto-updated or anything like that. You’ll essentially have a retail copy of the game, so any updates will come directly from the publisher either through a built-in auto-updater in game or manual patches on the publisher’s website. If you’re a Steam junkie and enjoy the in-game chat overlay, you can always manually add a shortcut to the game in your Steam library to give you an unified launching spot of your games and to enable the Steam overlay in non-Steam games, as outlined in our new PC gaming wiki, here.

Overall, I found the Amazon download service to be a simple process with no unusual hoops to jump through. The Amazon downloader is a required prerequisite to downloaded your games from your library, but I found the program to be harmless and lightweight. With unlimited re-downloads and their flexible policy on serial keys, I see no reason not to give their service a shot and take advantage of their usual great pricing.

You can find their “core” downloads at their store front for it here. Also, any games that have a digital download version will show up on the product page as a separate option listed as “PC Download.”

Crysis 2 – straight from the console to your PC

Gaming, PC Gaming 2 Responses »

Mar 262011

One useful rule of thumb for cross-platform titles might be “If it was made for consoles, it probably needs a console”…by which “console” could mean the Sony or Microsoft toys, or could instead refer to the debugging console that PC gaming grognards have used for years in order to optimize game settings. Get it? See, it’s a pun. The word “console” means two different…bah, never mind.

You heathens.

Right, then. Moving on. Crysis 2 is getting strong initial press, including a pretty adulatory note from Jim Rossignol over at RockPaperShotgun. But there’s a fly in this butter-smooth ointment of gaming-goodness: despite a history of pushing the PC platform’s graphics capabilities (in Far Cry and the original Crysis), developer Crytek ditched any pretense at letting PC users crank this one up to 11. The PC version of Crysis 2 offers very limited configurability of its graphics options.

This leads us to the other meaning of “console”: the game’s debugging console is the best way to actually open up the throttle on this newest version of the Cry Engine that powers Crysis 2. Arcane knowledge is apparently a prerequisite for PC gamers wanting to take advantage of their machines’ power.

Or I should say, the game’s console was the best way to optimize the game’s graphics. Enter PC user “Wasdie”, who posted a tiny little program to help you generate an autoexec file to be placed in your Crysis 2 directory – basically giving you easy access to all of the game’s graphical options which are otherwise accessible only through debugging console fiddlery. Those who read our Bulletstorm wiki might recall similar user ingenuity behind the tools needed to configure that game. Borderlands is yet another obvious example, a title whose PC user community created separate applications for optimizing the game’s “hidden” settings.

Funk, Zeus, and I have spent a lot of time in the past 10 years mucking around with debugging consoles and config files, for multiplayer PC games like Unreal Tournament 2004 and Call of Duty 4. This isn’t a new pastime. This used to be a technique for fine-tuning a game’s framerate or optimizing its network performance, however. What’s different now is that consoles and config files are often required for the PC versions of AAA games just to look as good as they were designed to look.

Think about that for a second. It’s idiotic. I understand some of the factors that led to this situation – for example, the economics of creating the PC-specific interface that would be required to expose the more advanced options supported by PC hardware – but it’s still inane.

Thanks for your service to PC gamers, Wasdie. Crytek should be cutting you a check…but I wouldn’t hold my breath if I were you.

Duke Nukem Forever Delayed

Gaming 1 Response »

Mar 242011

Of course this could be just a clever marketing stunt to get people talking about this game more, but then again, DNF being delayed is not really something that’s hard to believe. In a video from Randy Pitchford (Gearbox CEO), they let us know that the game will now ship in June, instead of May. I enjoyed Duke Nukem 3D a lot, some 15 or so years ago. But I was also a simple-minded teenager then. Today, I find the train wreck story behind the game more interesting than the actual game itself. Early April Fools or real deal? Do you even care?

Here’s the video:

Gaming from the Archives

Gaming 1 Response »

Mar 232011

We’re almost through the first quarter of 2011 (!!) and with the exception of a couple of notable titles, there’s hasn’t been many new releases this year that I’ve been excited about. There was the better than expected Bulletstorm (be sure to check out our Bulletstorm PC wiki), and the as good as expected Dead Space 2.

In my latest archive gaming expedition, I’ve spent a bunch of time with Singularity and Assassin’s Creed 2. No point in full-out reviewing year old games, as you probably already know what’s going on with them. I’ll try to keep my impressions short and sweet.

Let’s start off with Singularity. Singularity is a pretty straight forward FPS released in the Summer of 2010 and was met with somewhat positive reviews. I played through the single player portion from beginning to end, although there were times when I seriously considered just quitting the game entirely. To say Singularity is a linear corridor shooter is an understatement. We’re talking the kind of linear corridor shooting that will give F.E.A.R. 2 a run for its money on who can be more linear and who has more corridors. To be fair, the game does add something a little bit interesting and different in the TMD (time manipulation device), but it’s extremely limited as to what objects you can use it on. Generally, the game will only provide things that you can age or de-age (for lack of a better term) as barriers impeding your path. A staircase you need to continue your journey has been destroyed? De-age it to keep moving forward — that’s about the extent of it. Don’t expect to come up with creative ways to kill enemies or solve puzzles, there’s usually only one way, and it’s usually very obvious. You, of course, can use it as a weapon and zap enemies with it, and later on turn them into zombie-like things that go attack other enemies. That’s mildly entertaining.

Singularity’s story is serviceable enough. Russian technology gone wrong causes changes in the history time-line, and ends up with Russia as the main superpower instead of the US. You, the mute hero, occasionally phase back and forth between the past and present to fix things. You get to shoot a lot of zombie-like creatures and random Russian soldiers in your journey. The voice acting is decent, and early in the game you’ll be paired with a partner who is voiced by the same voice actor who does Nathan Drake in the Uncharted series (also Desmond in the Assassin’s Creed series). He’s almost type cast as Drake for me at this point, and was totally disappointed to hear him shout lines at me like “We’re OSCAR MIKE!” and “STAY FROSTY!” Ugh. The ending of the game offers you three choices, the good ending, the bad ending and the in-between ending. This was the only part in the whole game where you had a distinct choice in anything. Each of the endings made enough sense to the story, and surprisingly didn’t really leave it obviously open to a sequel. I actually did all three endings, since re-loading from your last checkpoint puts you right before the point where you have to make your choice. The story mode I’d roughly gauge at somewhere to 6-8 hours, standard fare these days. I’d only recommend the game if you are looking for an average FPS experience. Wait for a severely discounted price (or rental on consoles), as the re-playability is nil, and the multiplayer game modes are most likely to be void of players at this point.

Part two of my Gaming Archive journey takes a look at Assassin’s Creed 2. A little background on my Assassin’s Creed experiences. I played a bit of Assassin’s Creed 1 when it was first released, but found it to be a slow starter, very repetitive and in general didn’t really capture me. The ideas were great, and provided unique gameplay, but just felt like too much uninteresting grinding. I started Assassin’s Creed 2 over the 2009 holiday season, but again found it to be a slow starter and never picked it back up. Then after tons of glowing reviews and recommendations, I dove into Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood over the 2010 holidays and fell in love. I loved it so much, it made me want to go back and check out 2 all over again. So I did, and am glad I did.

Playing the games in somewhat backward order hasn’t proved to be too much of a problem. I was already familiar with the Assassin’s Creed fiction, so I knew what was going on enough to fill in the blanks. While Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood starts fast and drops you right in the action as a bad-ass assassin, Ass Creed 2 is a much slower starter. It takes quite a while for the story to progress in the early stages, and it takes even longer to acquire all your assassin techniques and weapons. But once you do, the payoff is great, and there’s still plenty of gameplay to go around.

Both 2 and Brotherhood are set in during the Renaissance period in Italy, and you’ll get to see many re-world places in Florance, Venice, and in Brotherhood, Rome. This makes for a very rich environment, and lots of Italian language which makes for an immersive experience. Mission structure is varied, so you’re not doing the exact same thing over and over again, and there’s tons of side missions which are optional and provide different gameplay elements. The combat is very solid, allowing for some level of combos, but you can see how it was even improved more in Brotherhood. If you do a lot of the extra stuff in addition to the main story thread, it would be easy to sink 12-15 hours of gameplay in to the singleplayer, which goes against the trend of shortening those experiences.

If you weren’t overly impressed with Assassin’s Creed 1, but like the general idea behind it, definitely give Assassin’s Creed 2 a closer look. Stick through the slow start if you really want to give it a shot. I’m pretty sure you’ll be happy that you did, and will be eager to move right along to Brotherhood.

Battlefield Play4Free Open to BF Players March 31

PC Gaming No Responses »

Mar 222011

In case you haven’t been paying attention to the new offshoot of the Battlefield series, like me, Battlefield Play4Free is essentially a “free” version of BF2, updated for the current times. Why is “free” in quotation marks? Well, the game is free to play, but relies on micro-transactions for things like getting improved weapons and upgrades. If this sounds familiar, it uses the same model as Battlefield Heroes, and a bunch of other games under EA’s Play4Free program, which I just noticed has more games than just BF Heroes. No word how crippled the game is if you truly try to Play4Free.

In an interview with RPS, EA confirms that players who own any previous version of a Battlefield game will be able to get into the semi-closed beta starting March 31st. I’m actually tempted to check this one out, mainly due to my nostalgia for BF2. I haven’t read much about it from current beta testers, and don’t know how much of the game you can enjoy while avoiding micro-transactions altogether, but I figure it’s worth a shot — for science!

Current or previous BF players, will you check out Battlefield Play4Free?

Bonus Official Trailer:

Firefox 4 is Officially Here

Technology News No Responses »

Mar 222011

Firefox 4, after what seems like an eternity has finally been released. It has a cleaner look, tabs on top, and is packed with performance enhancements. I’ve been using the last few betas and the RC releases, and have been satisfied with the updates. It definitely feels more responsive than previous versions, although I’d say that Chrome and maybe even IE 9, covered here, are a bit faster in terms of load times. If you’re a FF diehard, there’s no reason not to go upgrade right now, it’s a definite improvement. If you’re entrenched as a Chrome or IE user, I don’t know if there is much to win you over.

Gaming Deals Worth Talking About

Gaming Deals 1 Response »

Mar 222011

Gaming deals come and go everyday, so it’s hard to keep track of them as the phase in and out of existence. Today a few notables from Amazon come our way. Amazon’s Game Deal of the Day (all day) is Dragon Age II for $39.99 on PC (both digital and disc versions), PS3 and Xbox 360. Also be sure to keep checking out Amazon’s Lightning Deals today, as they are all game-related.

Also up on Amazon is pre-order Portal 2 for PS3 and 360 for $54.99 and get a $20 credit for a future game purchase. No love for the PC version, although the pre-order price for that is $44.99. However, PC users don’t despair! You may actually want to consider getting the PS3 version, as that will also include access to the PC version on your Steam account. This will be the first game to include Steam on the PS3, and through their “Steam Play” service, you will automatically be able to play the game on both PC and Mac as well. So even though the game is $10 more, the extra $20 credit on the back end results in a $10 win, assuming you ever plan to purchase games from Amazon again. Consider it.

Lastly from Amazon, today they launch their Android AppStore, complete with a free-for-today-only version of Angry Birds. If you haven’t been keeping track, Apple has sued Amazon of the use of their “App Store” trademark. You can read up more on that in this article at the WSJ.

That’s No Moon: AT&T to Acquire T-Moblie

Technology News 2 Responses »

Mar 202011

I was slightly shocked to see the news that AT&T is looking to acquire T-Mobile for $39 billion, but it does make sense. T-Mobile lags behind all others in the US and has been looking for a buyer for years now. AT&T has cash and wants to keep the pressure on Verizon. Both AT&T and T-Mobile use GSM, so it make sense from a tech standpoint too. Of course it will need to be approved by various government regulators before anything can happen, but I don’t see that being a problem. If AT&T acquires T-Mobile, where does that leave Sprint? I think that’s the biggest question. Does Verizon look to snatch them up?

At least we can look forward to months and months of jokes about how two bad cell companies don’t make a good one.

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