GF! Weekly Wrap-Up #18

Introduction

Hello gamers, and welcome to another episode of the GamesFirst! Weekly Wrap-Up, where we round up the latest news, reviews and previews from the past week’s worth of GamesFirst! Postings. This time we’re wrapping up the week ending January 3, 2006. I’m V al Townsend, the Atomic Goddess, and this week we’ll take an early look at the Final Fantasy 11 Beta for Xbox 360, check out the lighter side of strategy gaming with Legion Arena, out now for PC from Strategy First, and then we’ll check out some game-relat ed items. Altec Lansing sent us some headphones, and we’ve got reviews of two books about hacking the PSP: One is good, and the other, well, not so much. So, without further delay, let’s get into the news.

News

After strongly denying that they were planning to launch a revamped version of the Nintendo DS for several weeks, Nintendo has now announced a revamped version of the Nintendo DS. The Nintendo DS Lite is a slimmed down and slightly reconfigured version of the original DS. The most noticeable difference is that it is definitely smaller, weighing 20% less than the original and accordingly thinner. The buttons have been slightly reconfigured to move critical system buttons out of the way of gaming thumbs. The microphone has also been repositioned and is now centered just above the lower screen.

Aside from the overall shrinkage and few configuration changes, the DS Lite is exactly the same as its predecessor. The screens are the same size, and the unit retains its ability to play Game Boy Advance cartridges in addition to DS-specific carts.

Another gaming heavyweight hit us with big news this week: Electronic Arts has confirmed a street date for the PC, Xbox and PS2 versions of their upcoming mob epic, The Godfather. The Godfather game is based on Francis Ford Coppola’s 1972 film classic, an d features the voice talent of several actors from the movie. Among EA’s strong assets are some of Marlon Brando’s last recordings as well as extensive access to film resources. The Godfather seeks to put gamers into the role of their own gangster jockeyin g for power in the world of the 1940s-1950s mafia.

The Godfather has been plagued with controversy almost since it began development. The free-form “open world” gameplay is very reminiscent of the Grand Theft Auto series, which has many gamers crying foul. To add fuel to the fire, Coppola himself has disa vowed the game. With such hot properties comes hot debate and fervent fans. The game’s release on March 21 should lend some much-needed substance to the discussion.

A constant sore spot for online gamers is the never ending battle for bandwidth. Since the early days of gaming, the faster connection always has the edge, but sometimes it’s hard to gauge just where you sit on the connection speed spectrum. Ubicom, a com pany dedicated to bandwidth management solutions for gaming, has now released a free application to rank your bandwidth speed. Running the OP Score software evaluates your “online playability” score on a scale of one to five. This test is more robust than most online bandwidth testers, and it emulates traffic more like a real game rather than web-browsing. Anyone who is not sure about the quality of their online connection can check out Ubicom’s OP Score program for free online. Get the link at GamesFirst.c om.

Reviews

That’s all of the News for this week, although our first reviews are quite timely. Just as we were finishing the reviews for two books about hacking Sony’s PlayStation Portable, news came out that hackers had found a way to run homebrew games and applicat ions on the latest versions of Sony’s official firmware. These kinds of breakthroughs aren’t uncommon, and the PSP hacking communities remain very active online. So it’s understandable that a book about hacking the PSP would have the odds stacked against i t: By the time it gets to print, the book is outdated.

But as we’ll see, you can still do a lot with your book. Or not. Let’s begin with the “not.”

Dave Prochnow’s PSP Hacks, Mods and Expansions is the bad book about PSP hacking. On our review copy, the book advertises boldly that it includes coupons for cool PSP expansions and mods, and that seems to be the main purpose of Prochnow’s book: To sell u s on some specific products and not so much to educate the user about the PSP. The how-to articles in PSP Hacks are pathetic, featuring very few written instructions and images that are not very helpful. Several of the how-to articles are simply instructio ns about how to use products that already come with instructions. Why would I buy a book to learn how to apply my Gamer Graffix game skins'

In the worst examples, Prochnow begins to show us how to do something and switches halfway through the step-by-step instructions to tell us to use a manufactured product. For example, he begins to tell us how to build a dual-purpose USB charging and sync hronization cable. That would be a cool cable to have, and many people have extra cables hanging out to experiment on. Prochnow tells you to cut the ends off your cables, then to be careful when shrink-wrapping wire connections. Then Prochnow tells you to buy a product from Boxwave that does the same job. No explanation is given about how to connect the cables to create the new hybrid cable, and the final images show the Boxwave product in use.

Prochnow doesn’t really even approach the PSP hacking or modding scene and neglects to mention a large number of useful (and free) tools, alternatives, or methods which are readily available on several websites. Instead he offers “reviews” and buying sugg estions about games that have still not come out or which have been released and received overwhelmingly bad reviews. (Prochnow tells you to buy Rengoku, which might make him guilty of psychologically damaging any gamer following his advice.) In the end, P SP Hacks, Mods and Expansions is a bad book and we give it a Sony DRM enabled two out of five stars.

On the other end of the PSP how-to books spectrum is Hacking the PSP by Auri Rahimzadeh [pronunciation: Ar-ee Ra-heem-zah-day]. Hacking the PSP is a much better example of what can be done, even in the face of a constantly changing PSP hacking landscape. Rather than focusing on products manufactured to go with the PSP, Hacking the PSP focuses on the software and utilities that help users get the most out of their PSPs. There are instructions about how to install game system emulators, how to create customi zed programs on the PSP, setting up programming environments, and using more common tricks such as accessing the web browser built into the game Wipeout.

Hacking the PSP points users to plenty of websites where they can download free programs that are well-known to PSP enthusiasts. These programs include utilities like Paperless Printer and JPEG Book, which allow users to convert comics and text to PSP fri endly images. Also discussed are programs like PSP Video 9 and PSP Shuffle, which help users get more from the PSP’s multimedia capabilities.

Hacking the PSP is a much better book than its only real competition, but it still pales in the face of the PSP hacking and modification websites. If you know anything about PSP hacking already, then you probably don’t need this one, but if you’re looking into PSP hacking for the first time, then Hacking the PSP is the book to grab. We give Hacking the PSP a three out of five stars.

Continuing our reviews theme of things that go with your games, Tristan recently checked out the Altec Lansing AHS302i headphone / mic combo. These around-the-back headphones are equipped with a handy mic on a flexi boom and intended for use with PC games that support voice chat or other voice chat or telephone applications on the computer. The sound quality on the mic and headphones is decent, and far better than we’d expect from a headset that we found online for as little as twelve dollars. The only rea l beef we had with the headphones is that the earcups are a weird size– not quite big enough for most ears, but too bulky to rest comfortably on the ears. As with any headset, the ergonomics will vary from person to person.

The Altec Lansing AHS302i headphones are not great, but at such a reasonable price, we can hardly complain. If you can afford a more expensive headset, then you probably should, but if you’re looking for something solid to do the job, you could do a lot w orse. We give the AHS302i headphones three out of five stars.

Finally, now that you’re all geared up for some online multiplayer, we can get into an actual game review. Blaine came through with a review of Legion Arena, a new strategy war title from Strategy First.

Legion Arena is a very light strategy game, which could be just the thing for some gamers. Created by Slitherin Software, Legion Arena puts you in control of Roman armies fighting for the empire. Rather than competing with the epic scale of a title like R ome: Total War, Legion Arena focuses on small battles and overall a smaller scale than the heavy hitters in the industry, and the graphics engine isn’t up to the level of triple-A titles either. But sometimes smaller can be better, and the ease of playing Legion Arena is a credit to the gameplay and design.

Before each battle you’ll go through the usual troop selection and micromanagement. You can train troops to bolster performance and make other decisions. Once you get into battle, all hell breaks loose, and one thing Legion Arena does very well is simulat ing the chaos of battle. The gameplay is easy, quick and, overall, fairly enjoyable. It’s only fault is that it is a bit shallow in the end, and the rest is good enough to leave us wanting more. If you’re up for something a little different but mostly real comfortable, check it out. We give Legion Arena a three out of five stars.

Preview

Moving from the reviews to the previews, Matt James got to participate in the Xbox 360 beta of Final Fantasy 11, due to release this Summer for Microsoft’s latest baby.

Final Fantasy 11 is a massively multiplayer role-playing game set in the world of Final Fantasy. The game has been available for a few years now on PC and PlayStation 2, where it was bundled with the ill-fated PS2 hard drive. The Xbox 360 version will all ow players to play on their 360s with gamers all over the world and on all three platforms. Final Fantasy 11 still enjoys a lively community online, so although it’s not the prettiest game on the 360, it still packs some great gameplay.

After a long process of installing the game to the Xbox 360 hard drive and registering on the website, then confirming in-game, we finally got Final Fantasy 11 up and running. Right now the beta runs on Xbox-only servers, so only Beta participants are aro und. Even so, it’s a blast to get into the world of Final Fantasy and get going on developing a character. The game is exactly like the other versions, so users should know what to expect: This is not exactly like any other console-based Final Fantasy game , but the changes are suited to the online play.

Final Fantasy 11 has not been upgraded visually for the 360, which is disappointing. It definitely doesn’t look as good as other next-gen titles. And the fact that this is an older title could be difficult for some to accept. The game runs on Square Enix' s private servers, but still integrates to Xbox Live, so access to the regular Xbox Guide features are still there.

Final Fantasy 11 should get a lot more fun once everyone in the world is playing together, so Xbox 360 owners will definitely want to keep an eye out for its release in April.

Conclusion

And that finishes another episode of the GamesFirst! Weekly Wrap-Up. Remember, gamers, you can get more on these stories plus fresh new content every day at GamesFirst.com. I’m Val Townsend, the Atomic Goddess, and I’m off to the Chocobo Races. I’ll catch you next week.