Starcraft II: NO LAN!?!

Late last night, my friend Popo PM’ed me, saying “There will be no LAN multiplayer for Starcraft II.” I wouldn’t believe it myself. I mean, back in the days of the original Starcraft, the LAN play was the reason that it pulled me to play it. But after seeing this article and this article, I am still in disbelief.

What’s with Rob Pardo, VP of game design, saying “we don’t have any plans to support LAN,” and “we will not support it.” Isn’t the LAN play the core element of real time strategy game? I don’t see what’s the point in shipping it without LAN play. It’s like a hamburger without burger patties. For me, I always prefer on LAN because of it’s latency. Not all countries are like US or Japan or South Korea that has near perfects ISP’s, that can solely rely on Internet. I play Team Fortress II and the best that my line can handle for a US server is a latency of 200ms. Assuming that the Battle.Net server is in Irvine, California. My friend and I are playing Starcraft at the same room, are they saying that the data from my PC will need to travel approximate 11800km to their server and another 11800km back to my friends PC that can be easily connected by a 5 foot cable.

They say its an Anti-piracy measure,but there are many other methods. For me, I am better off with DRM than having no LAN. They could also use online authentication every startup, it’s way better that always online downloading/uploading game data. Pirates will be pirates, and no matter how much protection you put into a game, they will always eventually win and crack your game. Don’t mess up a game just because of them. This only adds up to the reason why someone won’t buy your game.

Right now I’m really pissed off with Blizzard, but I think it is really Activision’s doing. First, they split it three releases and now this whole no LAN play. But the good part is, Starcraft II isn’t out yet, there are still time to rethink this idea before the Koreans run amok on them. Maybe the South Koreans ally themselves with the North Koreans to just to nuke Activision. Just kidding.

To Activision, don’t mess up Blizzard, please. You may have published a thousand of titles but most of them are crap, only a handful can be considered good.

As for me, I’m still wishing that LAN will be included on the release version of Starcraft II and this no LAN thing only applies to the beta version. If not, just wake me up from this dreadful nightmare.

The Truth in My Brute Part Two and Finale

I’m so over with MyBrute, as a parting gift I’ll be giving out this nice secret, if you would still be able to call this a secret.

This is more of a educative guess, and may seem a shock to everyone that the the moment you hit the Validate button on the Brute creation page, the path of your brute is already determined. Your skills and items that you will be getting were already recorded and only waits for you to accumulate the experience points needed to level up before it appears on your cell(status page). How did I know? Through this nifty webpage I can see through the future of my brute, or more appropriately, the record of my brute as seen through the eyes of the database.

It’s very easy to use, just enter your existing brutes name on the first text box, then at what level you would like to see and from the drop down menu, what mybrute server it exists. Just a reminder, it won’t be able to lookup a non existent brute, because its future is still non-existent (duhh!!). I’m freaking serious with this because it was tried and tested.

Now this will be the sure fire way to get a bear. Create a brute, then check if it will gain a bear throught this, if no, then create again. Repeat if necessary. Just be patient and soon you will have bear or a wolf.

But if you still like to continue, even after you discovered that you’re brute’s future seems hopeless, might as well go to this great MyBrute site.

The Next Portable Game Console, ZuneHD, anyone?

Ever since the announcement of Microsoft’s portable media player, the Zune HD, there’s a certain question that lingers in my mind, will be able to directly compete with Apple’s media player, iPod(for the rest of this post, I’ll be referring to the iPod Touch when I say iPod) and iPhone? Will it ever live up to the name the iPhone Killer?

And now I can perfectly answer it as YES.

Zune HD(© 2009 Microsoft Corporation)

I think that the technology behind the sleek looking Zune HD is quite mouth watering. First is the OLED display. It gives a significant power savings compared to standard LCD’s that came up with iPod/iPhone. More time to view movies, and it also provides a more crisp display. Multi-touch screen capability is not that innovative but is very welcome. What is truly amazing that it will be powered by Nvidia’s Tegra processors. This gives you the ability to render videos of up to 720p. And having the capability to hook it up with XBOX live, gives it a decent amount of videos to play. Another nice ability of this Tegra processors is its minimal power consumption. (Read more here “Why The Tegra Chip is so Powerful” )

And that brings me to what more the Zune HD is capable of, a gaming platform. At the early days of iPod/iPhone, I was skeptical of the possibilities of it as gaming platform. But as time passed by, more and more games were able to push the iPod to its limits. Though, hard core gaming is still questionable, it later grew as an casual game platform. But Apple is not Microsoft. Unlike Apple, Microsoft is more experienced in gaming industry that somehow successful with Xbox and Xbox360. But what if Microsoft was able to take advantage of its position as game company? The Zune HD might become a full blown gaming console. But what if everyone will be able to develop applications for the ZuneHD like what Microsoft did with XNA and somehow mimic what Apple did with the AppStore?

You know what did iPhone/iPod achieved that PSP and NDS didn’t? It’s the great community of developers. The playing field is quite different with the two consoles, only big shot game companies were able to make in those two. There were only a few that stood out and the rest was just plain crap. Unlike with the games with iPod/iPhone(though many were considered shovelware) many independent game developers were able to achieve success because they were given a chance to perform and somehow deliver what people want. No offense to Sony and Nintendo, because what people like also changes. More often than not, people like innovation. Innovation is less likely to happen in 100 than in a 10000 people.

Currently Sony and Nintendo are changing tactics, moving content distribution to online means, but the only thing that changed is how they deliver the content, not the content itself. Unlike the AppStore, that features an online content delivery but have more developers making the content. Sometime, those big companies forgot that it’s not the platform that brings in the cash but the mere game itself.

Knowing how sly Microsoft is, it will be no surprise that a SDK(maybe we’ll see something like XNA for ZuneHD) for the ZuneHD will be available to all. I for one, will the first to buy this device if it happens. And certainly be developing on it.

Starcraft 2 Update: Battle Report 3

We’ve seen Terrans versus Protoss and Terrans versus Zergs. Now we’ll see Protoss duking it out with the Zergs. Here’s another full match video of Starcraft 2. It’s not yet officially released by Blizzard.

Nice to see some cool units from Protoss in action.

I’m not really expecting to be picked for the Beta Test of SC2, I’ll just be hoping that the Beta will be a success and release it by the end of this year. GO BLIZZARD!!!!!!

More on PSP®go

As I was digging some dirt on Sony latest incarnation of the Playstation Portable, I came across these interesting articles from SCEE’s press center

1st: PSP® go PSP® (PLAYSTATION®PORTABLE) EVOLVES TO MATCH THE DIGITAL LIFESTYLE
The link contains more details regarding PSPgo. Here’s some of the good parts,

users will also be able to access and download a variety of entertainment content via their PCs using Media Go, a new software application. Media Go will enable users to access and download entertainment content on PlayStation Store via their PCs as well to easily manage PSP content on PCs, including games, videos, photos, and music.

Finally, a decent management tool for your PSP contents.

a new music application specific to PSP that uses the “SensMe™ channels” music recommendation feature, developed by Sony, also becomes available for download on PSP. With this music application, users will be able to enjoy their favorite music stored on their PSP through a rich user interface, designed exclusively for PSP. “SensMe channels” is a mood based music recommendation system that categorizes music content into channels such as “Relax,” “Dance” and “Upbeat,” and recommends music playlists for users.

I’ll be free from the stupid music player of the PSP. I just wish it could sense my “Anger” over Sony.

when closed, original applications for PSPgo, such as a clock and calendar is displayed on the screen. Users can also enjoy video and music when the panel is closed.

Cool, I have a $250 clock and calendar, but I still have to conserve battery life, so I might as well put it on sleep.

PSPgo has unique features such as game sleep function which enables users to operate XMB™ (XrossMediaBar) while pausing gameplay temporarily.

Took sometime before they realized this one.

Bluetooth function will also allow users to connect Bluetooth standard peripherals such as head-phones and head-set as well as PS3 wireless controller (DUALSHOCK®3 and SIXAXIS®) to be used when watching video content on TVs via PSP at home

Seriously, this feature is the coolest of them all. The ability to use a real controller is much sensible than actually using the controllers on the PSPgo or even the PSP. You could also connect a wireless headphone. Now your free from cables, but say goodbye to battery life, then again, you could plug your PSP to an AC adapter.

One of the products within PSPgo’s peripheral line-up is a new Cradle (PSP-N340) that will become available in stores worldwide concurrently with the release of PSPgo. This new Cradle enables users to charge the PSPgo battery and also enjoy watching video and listening to music. Also included in the peripheral line-up are video-out port cables that enable users to enjoy games and videos on their TVs at home.

Yet again more reasons for Sony to cash in from the consumers.

If you could readon the link that I posted above, it also contains most of the details on the specifications of PSPgo. Here’s some worth noting.
- It slimmer and lighter (duhhh).
- No upgrade on clockspeed and RAM (probably to able still use the current development kits for PSP1000, 2000, 3000.
- Memory Stick Micro™(M2™) slot so say goodbye to your Memory Stick PRO’s

But wait there’s more. Now comes the other press release of Sony. SONY COMPUTER ENTERTAINMENT FURTHER BOOSTS ITS SUPPORT FOR SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT
In an attempt to lure more developers to develop games for their new hardware but old platform, they made price drops on their development kits. So if you’ve got some spare cash amounting to $1,500, why not start making games. (you still need to have a licensing agreement with SCE to purchase those dev kits).

Oh well the sarcasm never ends.