Alright, got it and set it up, although it’s not the full experience as I still need a cable to connect it to my non-HD DirecTV receiver. ( )
Anyways, some thoughts:
The keyboard is hella thin. Like, cardboard thin. I like that it has a mouse pad, too.
The Revue itself is pretty light, and also pretty… discrete. It’s basically a black box with a shiny top, it doesn’t have anything to define it as its own.
You can Ctrl+Tab to switch between open applications (including the home screen), which works pretty awesomely. However, whenever I did open an app, the other one I was using closed. This may be an artificial limitation or Android’s memory management system, but it’s one of the only annoyances I have at this time.
The “What’s Playing” page is pretty awesome, listing all the shows currently playing, sorted into a bunch of top-level categories, and how much time is left on them. Presumably, if I had it hooked up to my DTV receiver, clicking on them would switch to that show/movie.
The setup was somewhat painless. Most of the 12 steps were easy and well-explained (move this box until it fills your screen, enter your provider, enter your TV model number, etc.), however I was stopped in one step because I couldn’t access the tilde (~) character. They keyboard combines this and the grave accent (`) with the backet keys ([ ] { }), and they can’t be accessed with the function key. So as of this moment I have no idea how to access them.
The Android Gallery app is really awesome on the big screen. I especially love it since all my photos are on Picasa Web Albums, and now gathering the family around to look at them won’t be such a pain. A nice bonus is that I think you can add and switch between different Google/Picasa accounts, which is always a nice option.
All that said, Google TV is still a complex experience, and the keyboard with everything and the kitchen sink doesn’t help with that image. I personally like the keyboard, as it does have everything on it and it’s so lightweight and thin, but I’m already dreading having to teach anyone else how to use it. I could probably draw up a more intuitive layout if given the chance; in particular, Search is the crucial foundation of GTV and pervasive in the whole system, so the search key should get a better placement I feel.
Unlike on a notebook, tapping on the mouse pad does not “click.” Instead, you have to press one of two buttons to left click (there’s a Mac-like single click button below the pad, and a dedicated left click button in the upper left of the keyboard above the Esc key. That is also a bit confusing.)
All in all, it’s a good first step. I feel the comparisons to the G1 are a bit unwarranted – Google TV, as an OS, feels much much much more polished than Android did at version 1. Smooth transitions and a thoughtful eye for UX are standard on Google TV, it just seems like they could have taken it a little farther. In this sense, I believe it’s more apt to compare it to Android 2.0 – a big upgrade over what was available before, that still shows signs for improvement. Android 2.1, 2.2, and 2.3 have vastly increased Android’s usability from 2.0, but each of them isn’t exactly a massive upgrade from eachother.
Giga OM has an article on “five ways to save Google TV,” and while I think the technorati are getting worked into a froth over Google TV’s “assured death” (after two months, no less) is a little misplaced, I do agree with the points and most of the explanations. However, I think Android Market and Chrome Web Store access will immediately impart onto any consumer why Google TV is so useful. Beyond that, simplifying the experience is important as well, as there still is a bit of complexity with the whole experience, but I blame that more on how complex TV in general has gotten, and in that light, Google has done a bang-up job in its first version hiding most of that away and unifying the web and TV.
It’s not for everyone, but I can say without a doubt that my living room experience is already better by having it. Owners of competing hardware/platforms/services may be a tougher sell, but it’s a step up from not having anything.
Besides that, I have faith in Google to make good on the platform. And unlike the splintered Android smartphone space, Google has promised (and showcased) that all Google TV updates will go out to all Google TV devices almost at once. That, plus the future Android Market, makes me a very happy and eager early adopter. (Even though I didn’t buy it.)
I’ll have more and better thoughts when I get that cable. I’m particularly excited to see how Dual View works.
I saw the midnight showing in 3D. If you don’t want to hype yourself, as I myself avoided doing, before seeing the film, do not read this.
It was freaking fantastic. At the end, I can only say that I think this is Star Wars (IV) for a new generation.
I can safely say I have never seen a movie like this that:
Is so respectful to the source material
…but doesn’t slavishly try to recreate it (aka the Fan Fiction Syndrome)
…and manages to do its own thing, and succeed.
The visuals were beautiful and went above and beyond what my preconceptions were for a world based on Tron, even after watching the trailers. The music was, for over 90% of the film, apparent and catchy. Needless to say, either I will buy the soundtrack or my friend will and I’ll rip it for myself.
Despite the reviews, the story wasn’t dumb, and it certainly wasn’t offensive like some movies. Nothing felt too predictable; before you could really expect something to happen, it has happened and the film moves onto the next thing.
Also, from the reviews I was expecting Sam to be a whiny emo loser. Not so. He definitely channels some of his father, but he also does have that sort of detached personality one gets from losing both their parents. Even so, it’s not particularly noticeable and it never interfered with the story. He was, at times, even funny.
Quorra was awesome. Olivia Wilde deserves an award.
My friend who saw it with me however was disappointed it didn’t really expand the Tron mythos outside of one particular thing. (Spoiler: Isos.) So if you’re looking to this movie to drastically expand the Tron universe like the 2003 videogame Tron 2.0, then you may be disappointed. This movie uses the Tron world (albeit hugely upgraded) to tell its story, and never makes the world a particular point of interest. There’s still lots of neat new stuff it does, but again, it’s not like Tron 2.0. Here’s the thing though: he’s been watching the first movie practically his whole life, while I only watched it a few days ago. That’s probably worth pointing out.
This would be my favorite movie this year if Inception hadn’t come out. I’m confident if it had come out in 2011 it would be my favorite movie for that year (nothing upcoming excites me.) This came way outta nowhere for me. It was amazing, and very deserving of a sequel; even though it somewhat ends with some things unresolved, it pretty much wraps up at the end (like it should.)
If I wanted to, I could probably nitpick to death. But this is one of those rare films I don’t want to do that for. The film left such a good impression on me, I can’t pick at it. Very few movies do that to me, usually (even for movies I really like such as The Dark Knight) I enjoy picking them apart. And I could probably find more wrong with Legacy than The Dark Knight if I tried.
But I really love it, so I won’t. Two thumbs way, way up.
On the topic of Chrome OS vs. Android, I see Google eventually becoming somewhat dissociated with it and the hardware partners taking on most of development, while Google pushes Chrome OS as best it can. Chrome is Google’s baby, while Android was always meant to be more of a community-oriented OS; it launched with the Open Handset Alliance, remember that? In fact I’d say Google only took a more active role in Android after it became clear the hardware makers and telecoms were taking a wait-and-see approach. Google was only able to get Android to launch with one under-spec’d handset on the fourth-largest telecom in America.
Eventually I think Chrome will be ported in full to Android (the process has already started with Google TV) and Google will work on getting people off of native mobile apps eventually. However, in the meantime they realized they didn’t want the landscape to be dominated by Apple and Microsoft, which could easily block Chrome, so they launched Android, originally meant to be a community-based operating system. When they realized the only way to drum up hype for Android was to take on a larger role, they did so, and that’s why the current open source nature of Android is somewhat of a joke compared to real open source projects (like Chrome OS, in fact.) New versions of Android are worked on in secret by Google, and then dumped into the open source project. This isn’t even mentioning the apps Google keeps proprietary and sends C&D’s to people who dare to include them in home-cooked ROMs.
I don’t think this post has a point other than this: Android is generic and stand-alone enough to exist without Google, and that is what will eventually happen. The Google branding is strong in Chrome and Chrome OS though, and those will take more of a focus for Google as time progresses. Google has always, always been web-based and probably will be forever. If they have to develop some Android apps to push adoption to the point they don’t need to worry about a closed mobile sphere, so be it. But Chrome is where it’s at.
That’s not to say Google had this all planned out years ago. But I think this is what they’ve been thinking about for several years now, at least since the T-Mobile G1 came out and the idea an operating system based on Chrome sprang up within Google. However, I think it’s absurd how some people think Chrome OS and Android will eventually merge. Chrome may eventually be made for Android, as it’s been done on Google TV, but otherwise, they will remain separate. Chrome OS’s specific strengths will never be made apart of Android because it’s impossible — they are deeply rooted in Chrome OS’s fundamental core and structure, and will never be part of a “legacy” (as Google puts it) operating system as it’s designed for the web.
It’s the Wii’s fourth birthday today! And I celebrated it by… selling six of my Wii games! In all honesty, it was an even balance between beaten and unbeaten games, so I don’t feel too guilty as it doesn’t wildly effect my unbeaten percentage too much. I do have plans to sell one or two more games, but that should be it.
When selling the games at GameStop, I was reminded how awesome this year has been for Wii, especially this quarter of the year. Super Mario Galaxy 2, Kirby’s Epic Yarn, Donkey Kong Country Returns, GoldenEye 007, Sonic Colors, and Disney Epic Mickey… truly amazing stuff, and in terms of sheer, MetaCritic-yielding quality, probably the Wii’s best yet. I hope 2011 provides as many great experiences as this year has, although with the 3DS and its awesome library looming, it may be difficult for Wii to compete.
Oh hey! It’s my first time doing these things. Such a nice option. Gotta thank Segata for turning me on to this.
Anyways, I just beat Donkey Kong Country 3. What a frustrating experience that was, every other level had some dumb gimmick that made completing it a matter of patience and memorization, not skill. It’s like someone looked at DKC2 and decided to take out the best parts (Diddy, Wise’s music, a good theme) and replace them with crappy alternatives. Not to mention the ending “cutscenes” where you have to press the skip text button around 20 times. It’s a good thing the franchise ended with this game (if Jungle Beat doesn’t count then neither does DK64.) Thankfully though, Retro’s crack at Kong Country looks to surpass all three of the original trilogy put together.
For the rest of November I’ll be tackling the original Super Mario Bros. 2, officially called The Lost Levels. So far, I think it’s an decent improvement over the first, but yeah, it’s also hard. I also have issues with it that prevent me from saying it’s the best Mario game, as NeoGAFer Sixfortyfive has.
Anyways, next month is when I’ll finally tackle Okami for Wii, a game that’s haunted my backlog for three and a half long years. No longer!
I’ll also be selling off some of my games so I can buy Christmas gifts, and will probably get a game or two in exchange as well. Currently, I’m placing my bets on Donkey Kong Country Returns and GoldenEye 007 for Wii.
Anyways, I’d keep an eye on this spot at least once a month, if not more. That is, if you care what I’m playing. Which you probably don’t, but hey, if I’m going to assume something I’ll assume positively!
-Andrex
So after conquering the first Donkey Kong Country last year, and re-conquering Diddy’s Kong Quest a short time after, I finally caved and bought the third and final game in the SNES trilogy, Dixie Kong’s Double Trouble, a few weeks ago. I just recently beat it.
To put it bluntly, I don’t think it’s a good game.
I didn’t like the first too much either. It could have been because I didn’t have nostalgia fueling me or it could have been for legitimate reasons, but I just thought it was a bland and frustrating (not in the good way) game. However, I gave it a pass because it was the first in the series.
To be fair, Diddy’s Kong Quest also has some of the control issues, but they seemed to be less prevalent, and the pirate theme actually worked really well for the game. The bosses were imaginative and fun (jumping hooks to escape a flaming sword ranks among my favorite boss battles ever), a huge improvement over the first. The level gimmicks (and I use that term affectionately) were well designed, like hopping the hot air balloons in a lava level. And of course the music was the best the series has ever had.
So for the third, even if I knew the music wasn’t going to be as good, I at least hoped the gameplay would continue the upward trend. Instead, it’s now clear to me Rare’s Kong games peaked with 2, with 3 a downgrade leading into Donkey Kong 64.
So what are my specific issues with it?
Well, let me just say, I love platformers and on the level of “hey, another 2D platformer to play” it was OK. The world map was pretty neat, if completely unnecessary and only adding to the “collect-a-thon” stigma Rare became known for.
However some parts of the overworld are just poorly thought out. In Razor Ridge, for instance, traversing the ski lift splitting the world into two halves is just a complete chore to use, moreso because Wrinkly’s Save Cave in that world is in the first half. If you didn’t know the autosave cheat and are a stickler for saving, you’d be spending about a quarter of your time not playing the levels in the world – just going back and forth to the save cave.
A big contributor to that is the Brother Bears and their dialogue. And in fact, dialogue in general is much more proficient in this game than in almost any 2D platformer I’ve ever played. It takes around 20 “skip text” button presses during and after the final boss battle. It’s just bad mojo.
And I’ve seen it debated back and forth whether Rare’s DKC games have poor collision detection… Let me make this clear, if you want a shining example of this, play the boss level “Squirt’s Showdown.” You’re transformed into the elephant, and you have to navigate on top of six rounded floating platforms as water tries to push you off. For the record, I died more because I landed on the rounded part of the platforms than Squirt actually pushing me off. It’s that bad. And this is the third game! This kind of crap should have been sorted out by this time. No excuses.
Speaking of the elephant, what a dumb idea for an animal friend. There’s a level where you can optionally transform into it a little after the halfway mark, and it’s actually much easier to beat the level by not transforming. Not only that, when you get to Squirt’s Showdown, you’re expected to know how to suck water up from the waterfall to squirt into its eyes. When does the game tell you how to do this? Never. You’re actually supposed to hold A and the shoulder button I think, or something ridiculous like that.
On the topic of bosses, they are probably this game’s second most egregious sin in light of DKC2 (first being the music.) They are dumb, trash, frustrating to play, poorly explained, and plain not fun. You have Squirt (a pair of eyes behind a waterfall, or something), a giant barrel with arms, the abominable snowman (not even kidding), a mutant clam, and some overly-designed generic robot called KAOS (which at the end I found out was supposed to be the big bad, I guess.) They are just bad.
The specific level gimmicks are almost as bad, varying from “not fun” to “rage-inducing” all throughout the course of the game. And example? One level, you’re climbing up a rope as the end burns. Sounds fun right? Well how about instead of you having to navigate around the objects that you’re climbing past, we have these enemies that float down to you, without any indication where or when they’ll be coming. They might have just called the level “Trial and Error with a Rope.”
The level gimmicks aren’t designed to test your skill, they’re designed to keep you playing the level over and over again for as long a possible. In one level, a gas reverses the direction on the d-pad. Since it’s only used in one level, whatever skill you build up learning this entirely new control scheme is quickly abandoned.
Don’t get me started on Kiddy Kong. Seriously, don’t.
And finally, the music. You know what? It’s already been said. It’s OK, which makes it about 10 billion times worse than DKC2′s by default. Wise is sorely missed. It’s like if you loved SMG’s soundtrack, then found out there wasn’t any music in SMG2 at all. That’s how much of a step down it is.
All right, I think that’s everything. Oh actually, one more thing: the controls in the snowman boss are worse than a taser to the crotch. You have to alternate between throwing far and throwing close, but you also have to move side to side to dodge snowballs, and 80% of the time you’re not on the setting you need because of it. There are exactly four main face buttons on the SNES controller, and Rare decided that instead of putting the throwing controls on two of the three remaining unused buttons, it would put them on the d-pad, where they’re easily confused. Argh! Once again, I died more because of control stupidity than because the boss was actually hard.
In short: it’s a shame Rare couldn’t build on the good parts of DKC2, which I now see as probably a fluke of theirs. Thankfully, Retro is here to clean up the mess they made with this dog doo-doo.
I have decided to re-post/cross-post some of my longer-form content from around the web here. Primarily, this content will be rants on gamingforums or Google Buzz. The original source will be linked at the top of each post. I haven’t decided if I should add comments here; I would probably prefer to keep discussion at the original source if possible.
Even after promising that I wouldn’t update any of my personal sites this year (in order to more focus on more important projects, such as…), I caved into my desires and remade the Temple of Andrex once again.
This time, the focus was on unifying all the separate profiles I have across the net, and making the experience as stripped down and minimalistic as possible. In fact, the codename for this design is “Minimacon,” an obvious portmanteau of “minimal” and “icon.” Because of this, I decided to take the blog/news updates off the front page, and instead have the index act as a business card of sorts. For several years now, this website has been the only one I’ve entered into all the profiles I have, so I figured that should take priority. For a newcomer to this site, learning all the latest updates is not a concern.
The homepage takes a cue from the old Links page of Version 3: displaying the various avatars I’m currently using around the net. I think this makes it immediately apparent to a visitor that this is indeed my website.
Of course, this means I’ll have to update the History page with the details behind this new version, as well as an updated look at the future too. That should be fun.
On the miscellaneous side of the design, there is of course a new favicon, and this time, it’s an actual multilayered .ico file, scaling nicely from 8 pixels all the way up to 64. Also, earlier this year I once again ditched the “www” from the URL (something I had done with Version 4, but reinstated for 4.5), and the next logical step was to ditch the trailing slash at the end of the URLs as well. I think this looks so much nicer, especially in Chrome.
Speaking of which, this design is once again HTML5, using most of the same sectioning elements and the same doctype as Version 5. However I was originally not going to do that in the name of pragmatism, and even though I’ve gone through with HTML5, I have some kind of a band-aid for older browsers (display: block on the new sectioning elements.)
It really is the little things that make me especially proud of this design. Thanks to already being on WordPress and all my posts and pages being in a universal format, I was able to focus on smoothing out the experience. For instance, I’m really happy with how my 404 page turned out, as well as the search box, etc. Heck, even the Version 1 retro-design worked like a charm with no modification. Speaking of which, it likewise shouldn’t be hard to do the same for Version 5′s design, as that’s already in the WordPress format and 100% valid to start.
This design does not use Javascript or jQuery, even though I originally planned on using them. I may still add it later on if it doesn’t prove too hard, I have an idea of pages sliding back and forth like on an iPhone or Android app. I really wanted to try and see how much I could optimize and speed up a website, and while I still have a good bulk of work to do on that, I think I’m off to a good start.
Anyways, I’m probably ranting now. I know no one will ever enjoy this site’s design as much as I do, but I do always think of the end-user. Hope you enjoy.
-Andrex
I have finally separated my Gaming Info into its own page, moving it from its previous page in Links. It was something on my line when I launched the new version, but it’s been pretty content on the Links page. But as the number of online games I own grows, it needs its own page.
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