The glory of Quest For Glory
Posted by Rowan Kaiser | Filed under gAmINg
Filed under: Features, PC, Retro, Adventure, RPGs
This is a weekly column from freelancer Rowan Kaiser, which focuses on "Western" role-playing games: their stories, their histories, their mechanics, their insanity, and their inanity.
Quest For Glory is a five-title series of adventure/role-playing hybrids, with the first release in 1989, and the last in 1998. They were published by Sierra - a company whose fate was recently detailed to Joystiq by Leisure Suit Larry creator Al Lowe - and used similar interfaces and graphics as other adventures, such as King's Quest or Gabriel Knight, combined with combat systems that varied from game to game.
Being a genre hybrid is one of the surest ways to become a beloved game. Panzer General, Deus Ex, and Mass Effect are all crossover hits, thanks in part to combining role-playing with other genres. Quality hybrids manage to feel both fresh conceptually and comfortable to actually play, a winning combination.
Continue reading The glory of Quest For Glory
The glory of Quest For Glory originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 17 May 2012 17:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Tags: Adventure, Features, PC, Retro, RPGs
Freedom Force: Superhero role-playing done right
Posted by Rowan Kaiser | Filed under gAmINg
Filed under: Features, PC, Retro, RPGs
This is a weekly column from freelancer Rowan Kaiser, which focuses on "Western" role-playing games: their stories, their histories, their mechanics, their insanity, and their inanity.
Roleplaying games especially seemed to be a natural fit for superhero games. Both usually have origin stories, over-the-top villainy, straightforward morality and, most importantly, characters overcoming adversity by gaining more strength and greater power, with single characters or small party dynamics. There were a few attempts of varying success, like the simple RPG/adventure hybrid Superhero League Of Hoboken, but it still took until 2002 for a great superhero RPG to be released: Freedom Force.
Continue reading Freedom Force: Superhero role-playing done right
Freedom Force: Superhero role-playing done right originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 11 May 2012 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Tags: Features, PC, Retro, RPGs
Visualized: HP’s all-in-one PCs over the years, one from 1983
Posted by Richard Lai | Filed under Techie Stuff
HP's TouchSmart sub-brand and its other AIOs should be no stranger to many PC advocates, but in case you've never come across one before, the company's laid all of them out on one side of its Global Influencer Summit in Shanghai. Models range from the TouchSmart IQ770 launched back in 2007, all the way to the recently shipped Z1 workstation and even the just-announced t410 Smart Zero Client; but the real gem of the booth is that little beige HP 150 right in the middle -- it's one of the first-ever touchscreen PCs, dating back to 1983, powered by an 8MHz Intel 8088 chip, ran MS-DOS and cost a mere $3,995.
Whilst on the topic, HP's Vice President of Industrial Design Stacy Wolff shared some interesting stats: his team found that much like laptops, there are very different screen size preferences across different regions, with the US showing strong interest in 20-inch and 23-inch HP AIOs, whereas China much prefers 20-inch over 21.5-inch and 23-inch. With the big jump in AIO market penetration in each region between 2008 to 2012 (almost doubled in Japan and the US; and an even bigger leap for other markets), HP predicts that these machines will continue to steadily increase market penetration across more price points -- this was illustrated with what it conveniently calls the "AIO wedge" on a chart. Feel free to take a gander at our gallery for more tidbits.
Visualized: HP's all-in-one PCs over the years, one from 1983 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 11 May 2012 16:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | | Email this | CommentsHP on laptop design similarities with Apple’s: it’s a struggle as we drive to simplicity
Posted by Richard Lai | Filed under Techie Stuff
HP's spent the afternoon here in Shanghai to share some details about its latest products and strategy, and to our delight, there was one session dedicated to "Style Meets Function," during which Vice President of Industrial Design Stacy Wolff talked about his design philosophy and design goals for the current market. Most notably, we learned that some of HP's latest laptop designs were based on the work of its research centers from 11 different cities, and the company isn't afraid of admitting that it used consultants for an outside perspective as well.
Despite Stacy's upbeat presentation and interesting stats (apparently these days men have a boring color preference, from first to fourth favorite: black, gray, blue and white), the inevitable question popped up: One lady expressed her concern that the brand-spanking-new Envy Spectre XT reminded her of the MacBook Air a lot, so she wondered if HP's ever worried that Apple might sue.
Stacy kept his initial reply pretty brief:
"I would go back to the TC1000 [Tablet PC] from about 10 years, and that's a tablet. I think if you look at the new Spectre XT, there are similarities in a way, not due to Apple but due to the way technologies developed. Apple may like to think that they own silver, but they don't. In no way did HP try to mimic Apple. In life there are a lot of similarities."
As always, we wanted more from the horse's mouth, so we grabbed hold of Stacy right after the session and had a little chat over this topic -- you can see the full and surprisingly candid interview after the break.
HP on laptop design similarities with Apple's: it's a struggle as we drive to simplicity originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 May 2012 09:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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How Mass Effect 3′s role-playing roots empower the multiplayer
Posted by Rowan Kaiser | Filed under gAmINg
Filed under: Features, PC, Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360, Action, Online, RPGs
This is a weekly column from freelancer Rowan Kaiser, which focuses on "Western" role-playing games: their stories, their histories, their mechanics, their insanity, and their inanity.
Arguments about whether Mass Effect 3 is a role-playing game or not have existed since the first game's release. Regardless of which side you take in those, Mass Effect does include many components of role-playing games, two of which are essential to the multiplayer's success: world-building and character development mechanics. Of course, there are simple gameplay reasons to enjoy the co-operative gameplay of Mass Effect 3 online. The levels are well designed for dynamic changes within matches, and waves of enemies seem ideal for both difficulty and time. But those things aren't what make it special.
Continue reading How Mass Effect 3's role-playing roots empower the multiplayer
How Mass Effect 3's role-playing roots empower the multiplayer originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 04 May 2012 20:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Tags: Action, Features, Microsoft Xbox 360, Online, PC, RPGs, Sony PlayStation 3
Microsoft breaks down Windows 8′s Media Center upgrade path, Dolby codec support
Posted by Ben Drawbaugh | Filed under Techie Stuff
Many in the Windows Media Center community were afraid that Windows 8 would mark the end of Media Center, while others thought it would be like Notepad -- present, but unchanged. In the end both were wrong as Microsoft announced Media Center would be available as an add-on to Windows 8. Until now though, we didn't know exactly how that process would work. Steven Sinofsky outlined on the Building Windows 8 blog how users will be able to use Add Features to Windows 8 in Control Panel and purchase the same great Media Center experience that was included in Windows 7 Premium and Pro. The price is still unannounced but is expect to be "in line with marginal costs" -- whatever that means. The price paid will cover the royalties for the required codecs to support broadcast TV and DVD playback (DVDs still won't play in Media Player). One codec that will be supported in all version of Windows 8, but will require the computer maker to license the codec directly, is Dolby Digital Plus. So yeah, something else that was included in Windows 7 for free. We're glad it's there, but wish we'd get something new for the new premium price. Like most, we'll probably hold on to our Windows 7 HTPC a little bit longer.
Continue reading Microsoft breaks down Windows 8's Media Center upgrade path, Dolby codec support
Microsoft breaks down Windows 8's Media Center upgrade path, Dolby codec support originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 May 2012 20:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Tags: Features
Under the microscope: Samsung Galaxy S III’s HD Super AMOLED display
Posted by Richard Lai | Filed under Techie Stuff
By now you should already know that the brand-spanking-new Samsung Galaxy S III sports a 4.8-inch HD Super AMOLED display. That's right: no "plus" here, which means this 720p panel is featuring the same old PenTile RBGB pixel arrangement -- just like the 4.65-inch version on the Galaxy Nexus and the Galaxy S II HD LTE. Needless to say, this is again pure ammunition for the folks over at LG; but as we've mentioned before, HD Super AMOLED's superb contrast and higher-than-before pixel density outweigh its shortcomings in most cases.
For now though, let's examine these sub-pixels with a 230x zoom USB microscope and compare them with other phones that we have in hand. Starting off with the HTC One X's 720p SLCD 2 above, you can see how its denser sub-pixels produce a finer picture, but ultimately it's still behind HD Super AMOLED when it comes to contrast, especially with black. Read on for more comparisons.
Continue reading Under the microscope: Samsung Galaxy S III's HD Super AMOLED display
Under the microscope: Samsung Galaxy S III's HD Super AMOLED display originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 May 2012 14:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The Distro Interview: MSI Senior Vice President and co-founder, Jeans Huang
Posted by Richard Lai | Filed under Techie Stuff
The MSI brand should be no stranger to connoisseurs of desktop motherboards, graphics cards and gaming laptops, but did you know that this Taiwanese company started off as a computer terminal maker 26 years ago? To find out more, we sat down with the very likable Senior Vice President (R&D Division) Jeans Huang. Read on to hear the co-founder's interesting story on how MSI was formed by five ex-Sony engineers, his frank reason behind MSI's reluctance to enter the smartphone market, and his thoughts on 3D display on the PC.
Continue reading The Distro Interview: MSI Senior Vice President and co-founder, Jeans Huang
The Distro Interview: MSI Senior Vice President and co-founder, Jeans Huang originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 May 2012 13:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Why skills are in, attributes are out in modern role-playing games
Posted by Rowan Kaiser | Filed under gAmINg
Filed under: Features, PC, Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360, RPGs
This is a weekly column from freelancer Rowan Kaiser, which focuses on "Western" role-playing games: their stories, their histories, their mechanics, their insanity, and their inanity.
Skyrim and Mass Effect 3 don't include attributes at all, in fact, something that would have been unthinkable for a computer role-playing game at the dawn of the genre. But the lessened importance of attributes isn't necessarily a sign of the simplification of the genre (although that's often part of it). Instead, it's part of a trend in which skills, not attributes, serve as the most important statistical measure of an RPG character.
Continue reading Why skills are in, attributes are out in modern role-playing games
Why skills are in, attributes are out in modern role-playing games originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 27 Apr 2012 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Tags: Features, Microsoft Xbox 360, PC, RPGs, Sony PlayStation 3
