Microsoft announced at E3 this year that the Xbox Dashboard would be getting revamped, more than that, it would be getting replaced by a newer supposedly better user interface. There are two parts of this that I am interested in, one being what the new interface will be, what new features it will have and how I will feel about the console I have come to know and love changing. The other is the fact that Microsoft is updating millions of Xboxes all over the world with nothing more than a download via the internet – something that I find staggering as the Xbox Live system will only be down for 24 hours.
Judging from the keynote speach at E3, the change will be a big one but not necessarily a good one. The new interface is drab – grey and black, not the colourful one that greets me currently. Lovely oranges, reds purples, greens and blues will be banished in favour of a more PS3 meets Wii style menu.
Next is the introduction of avatars. The most annoying creation of recent years in my opinion. You can spend half an hour creating a virtual character that is ridiculous and looks nothing like you. Designed so you can share more of your personality with the online community. No thanks. With the new interface when I sign in to Xbox Live and go to my ‘buddy list’ , god help me the American influence, I will now see stupid characters standing around on the screen instead of a list of friends. Is that better user experience? I think not.
This new interface is designed to make the Xbox more family friendly and in doing so will alienate many of its fans. I much prefer the existing Dashboard and even that of the PS3 which is clean, slick and easily navigated. In changing this, the most basic of functionality, Microsoft is trying to take some market share away from the family friendly Wii but will inevitabley dilute it’s niche market and will gamers struggle to identify with the console.
Best Feature: The ability to rip your games to your hard drive for faster loading times and reduced lag.
Worst Feature: Avatars. Trying to compete with second life, PS3’s HOME and the Wii means once again Microsoft have shown they have no imagination or creativity of their own and are simply copying the other guy.
In other words i think Microsoft have shot themselves in the foot with this one, but the technical skills involved with doing so are so mindboggling that I can;t wait to try it out.
A protective covering for the PS3 has been released and instead of having the usual crazy designs on the front, it actually has a mould of a scary skull as if trying to break free from the console. This represent a new concept for case mods not only for consoles but for PCs as well. Perhaps a Gears Of War one for the 360 would be appreciated with the upcoming launch of the sequel? Just a thought.
Nintendo has revealed a new accessory for it’s Wii console called ‘MotionPlus’ which adds a new level of tracking for the Wii remotes. This accessory “…lets the Wii register the exact position, angle, and movement of the controller and translate it to a game”.
Sound familiar? For those of you who are aware of Johnny Chung Lee from the Human-Computer Interaction Institute, you may remember a year ago he posted a video on YouTube with spacial head-tracking for better 3D immersion into a virtual reality environment. Watch the video below and let Mr Chung Lee explain it for you.
So is this the kind of thing that Nintendo will be introducing? I imagine it will be some variation of it considering that the sensor is an attachment for the Wii remote itself and not directly in line with the user’s line of sight with the TV.
Just one more thing to set the Wii apart from the competitors who seem so intent on copying the motion detection technologies just for the sake of it and not with any real purpose.
Normally when you hear about tracking you just assume that it’s a very expensive piece of kit or a highly sophisticated algorithm. Well Cam-Trax is sophisticated but with its simplicity.
The system allows you to control anything you like by tracking an object’s colours. You will understand when you watch the video below. It seems very apt considering we are all experimenting with tracking in some form or another at the moment.
Here’s a fairly long video of the new Gears of War 2 game. Looks like some nice features have been included.
Click here for the HD version
So I have been using Del.icio.us for a couple of days now since it was mentioned in a PPD session and I am beginning to see the advantages. It uses a tag system similar to blogging so you can see related bookmarks. Why I haven’t used it before I don’t know.
I just found a brilliant piece of interaction called Eye Gaze being used with World of Warcraft. The guy is controlling his movements with his eyes… look ma, no hands!!
Its kinda odd but kinda good. I like the way that they use the ‘lid’ as a metaphor for life at the end.
See… Gaming can be profound!
As part of a series of workshops we will be doing, we were taught the basics of a programme called ‘Processing’. After a few hours of messing around with rectangles and circles and colours (that’s the correct spelling for all you yanks out there who force us to code using color!) we were tasked with creating a simple game of pong. Sounded easy… oh how wrong we were.
When the workshop was finished we were asked to complete the game as ‘homework’. I knew what needed to be done to make the game work, it was just a question of finding the right code to do it and the right way to set out that code.
It’s now 2.35am and I have finally finished it. It took me 2 hours to figure out how to get text to appear in it and then another hour to figure out where to position that within the code so that when the background was redrawn, the numbers stayed there! FRUSTRATION!
Anywho it is all done and dusted now. So click here to see my pong.
Control is with the mouse for the left hand bat, and the Up and Down arrow keys for the right.
