Techpedition

Homeplay tackles the PSP’s video out feature with Rock Band Unplugged. Released in June of last year Unplugged is the first portable Rock Band release. Check out the vid for my first impressions of the software as well as the PSP video out feature’s effects on the gameplay.

USB flash drives, also called thumb drives, have been around since the early 2000’s. Prior to that, we found ourselves hauling around floppies. (Anyone remember ZIP drives?) Over the years, floppies have all but gone the way of the dinosaur, and for most college students and information technology professionals, thumb drives seem to be the media of choice. Well, those days are numbered.

Embrace The Cloud

If you didn’t know already, we are in the midst of a connected society. Yes, it’s true people, the cloud is here to stay. And while some fear the notion of storing all their information online or only being able to access their applications via the web, most of the preconceptions and horror of net-based computing have all but faded. Long story short, the cloud is here, embrace it.

Lose The Thumb Drive, Enter Google Docs

Okay, let’s be clear. Google Docs has been an online office document edit/storage service for quite some time now. Google Docs has always allowed you to upload office documents, but up until now these documents were converted to their Google Docs format, allowing you to edit, save, and download the documents online. So nothing new there. But what is new is that Google Docs is now allowing the upload of non-office document types, and giving you the option to not convert uploaded office documents.

What this means? Fairly Simple. Google Docs, along with other online storage services, are making the use of thumb drives obsolete. Even more so, now everyone with a Gmail account now has access to online storage. And upload couldn’t be easier. Click the upload button from the Docs homepage, choose your file, hit start upload, and your on your way.

Not Without Drawbacks

As with most online storage applications/sites, unfortunately their are limitations. No exception here with Google Docs. There is a 1GB limit for non Google Doc files.

Also, embracing the cloud means just that. You have to be online. For most, this will never be a problem. Honestly, when are you ever at a computer and not online? Hardly never.

Conclusion

In closing, this is where everything is going and I don’t see this train stopping no time soon. My advice? Get connected, embrace the cloud, and leave the extra hardware at home.

Become James Cameron with cheap 3D camera. Trade-In your digital games. Reboot city. Apple on the eve of debuting the next big thing. Sega continues to whore their ultimate collection. Will OnLive live? Tetris 100 million phone downloads. Project Needlemouse, and new NBA JAM on the horizon? We’ve been playing a lot of games this week. Notably Halo 3: NoDST and Carl BOUGHT A GAM3 WITH ZOMB1ES!!!1. Oh, I MAED A GAM3 WITH ZOMB1ES!!!1 wins the Techpedition video game music of the week award!

So, Avatar has made a gajillion dollars and everybody seems to have something to say about it.  Whether its talking about the stunning visuals or truly inspired character design, most of the comments are super positive.  Hell, it holds a Metacritic score of 85, which for a movie, is a pretty big deal.  Avatar more than proves that James Cameron is still on the top of his game.  I don’t want to parrot what Kary had to say in his post, but I do have a few things to criticize about the biggest movie of the decade.

Continue Reading…

Wal-Mart could become your next internet service provider (remember Wal-Mart Connect anyone?). Google Docs is becoming a place to store and share your files. Reggie is right about Mario Bros. vs. Modern Warfare. More app stores than you can shake a stick at. Netflix is finally on Wii. Spider-Man 4 is no more. The cast is showing animated movie love. We take a second look at District 9. Finally, is Assassin Creed multiplayer a good idea?

Sorry for the crappy pics and video but I could not find my HD camera so I used my cell phone camera.  Me and the misses were laying in bed just flicking channels until we came across this awesome rip off at QVC.  People please research your products before you buy them.  You really pay a premium to shop with your remote.

With the announcement of a new Assassin’s Creed episode today, it was good to know that it will be out in 2010 and it will be a stand alone product.  It however, was extremely shocking to hear that it will have multiplayer.  I am calling it right now.  Stop It!  Stop adding multiplayer to games that don’t need it.  First Uncharted, then Bioshock and now Assassin’s Creed?  It looks like we are 3 for 3 on adding useless extra modes to spectacular single player experiences.

What’s next, a multiplayer God of War or maybe a team death match in Half Life?  I don’t think the game mechanics of Braid have been exploited in a multiplayer fashion yet, maybe that would work.  Hurry Sony, it’s not too late to put multiplayer in The Last Guardian!

I don’t care what Ubisoft does with the multiplayer; I don’t want to play a multiplayer Assassin’s Creed!  Are they scared that they aren’t going to sell enough copies?  Wrong, they just announced that the second game has sold 6 million copies worldwide with another 3 million projected this quarter.  I don’t mean to sound like a whiny gamer but I honestly think that it has gone too far.

Multiplayer, at least in most cases, can only be enjoyed by people that sink 100s of hours in to a game and learn all of its quirks.  There are only so many gamers who like that kind of gameplay and by adding more and more games to choose from only two things can happen.  1. Players will abandon the multiplayer modes in most games and flock to the popular one (this renders all of the hard work done by the developers useless)  2. The multiplayer scene in all games will be stretched so thin that each game will only have a handful of decent players.

I say if you are going to make a multiplayer game go all out like MAG.  The days of tacked on deathmatch modes is over, both single player fans and multiplayer deserve better.

In other news, I highly recommend Assassin’s Creed 2.  It’s one of the most fulfilling gaming experiences in years and the ending is magnificent.

Google’s master plan unfolds. See Techpedition Comic 001. Halo on PS3 via Blu-Ray Legends release. Skype in televisions, what about a 360 software update? Xbox 360 Game Room a Playstation Home knock-off. Netflix delays Warner Brother releases. T-Mobile finally has good phones. Re-create your favorite movie scenes with Yoostar. Left 4 Dead in 8 bit goodness. Avatar triumphs all and Sherlock Holmes is better than expected. New Super Mario Bros channels the old school roots. Audiosurf proves to be fun and relaxing. And M.A.G. makes you climb the corporate ladder.

Got the day off and did a fresh install of Win 7 (actually formatted this time instead of leaving file system intact) so I decided lets watch some pretty videos.  Went to game trailers and oh my there and some great Super Street Fighter 4 Videos from CES.  Probably should have went.  Oh well there is always next year.  For all the videos click here.  I have embedded my favorites below.

Yay for AIR ULTRAS

Return of the Ryu Shin-Sho-Ryu-Ken with Pretty Hippos

I think it is worth $40.  Please $30 on Steam.  Day ONE purchase.