OK I am a little late but it’s the thought that counts, right??

I am ashamed to admit that I have been neglecting the blog lately. I guess I haven’t really had very much to say of late. Nothing has changed there I hear you say! Even so,  I thought I’d give a quick round-up of the year to date…

Development

The new year has been a busy period. We have just finished the development phase of our next major release, my first since joining last year. Its been a step learning curve but we have managed OK. The next release will be a lot more involved so I am looking forward to getting going with that. It should see us through the rest of the year.

I have also lined up a few interesting side projects to keep myself off the streets at night. They are mix of web and iPhone apps using Ruby on Rails, the iPhone SDK and OpenGL ES. I am also hoping to take a look at Android development at some stage. It’s a very interesting time for independent developers. Every day seems to bring a new platform or app store announcement lately (Nokia’s Ovi Store, Palm’s App Catalog and as well as others by MS, O2 and Orange!). I guess with the amazing success of the iPhone’s App Store, it was inevitable that the other smart-phone makers would follow suit. It will be interesting to see how things shape up once the dust settles. I’m also hoping to climb out of my cave and go meet some other developers.

Gaming

It was a quiet Christmas in terms of gaming. I have been playing Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune on the PS3 when I find time. Its a 3rd person action-adventure game, similar to the Lara Croft series with a Gears of War style cover system. Its fun to play and the graphics are excellent, considering its over a year old. Overall, its fantastic value for money on the budget Platinum series.  I will definitely be picking up a copy of Uncharted 2 when it is released later this year. Also, the much anticipated Killzone 2 is due for release on the PS3 very soon. Unfortunately the Wii didn’t even get switched on over Christmas due to the dearth of quality titles. I am toying with the idea of trading it in for a DS or more PS3 games.

Football

Since I last posted, Stevie G was arrested, Rafa Benitez cracked, Arsenal have disappeared and Chelsea sacked their manager of 6 months. Meanwhile, Man Utd have went on a record breaking run of 14 clean sheets (and counting) and have stormed their way to a 5 point lead at the top of the English Premier League. They are currently English, European and World Champions, own the world’s best footballer (at least for now) and have an unprecedented quintuple in their sights. It’s a pretty good time to be a Red! I could be smug about it but I really don’t expect them to do a clean sweep. Barcelona are looking really strong at the moment and must be favourites alongside Utd for the Champions League. Also, it only takes one bit of bad luck (As Utd saw against Portsmouth in the FA Cup last year) and you can be knocked out. Everyone thinks the Carling Cup is a foregone conclusion, but I expect Spurs to be really up for it against some of the younger members of Utd’s squad. It should make for an exciting run in.

It is coming up to a year since I bought my Wii to fill the Christmas gaming void left by my RRoD XBox 360. Having always steered clear of Nintendo hardware, I had finally given in the the cutesy world of Mario and his friends. One of the biggest problems I had with Nintendo was that they constantly churned out the same old characters such as Mario, Donkey Kong and Zelda.

Now however, Nintendo seemed to be trying something completely different. The Wii promised a new era of gaming with its Motion sensors and accelerometers giving life to innovative gameplay instead of ever increasingly realistic shooters and racing sims. In the beginning it did deliver. Wii Sports was great fun, for 30 minutes. WarioWare was a riot, for about an hour. Luckily I had Super Mario Galaxy to keep me happy and content until my 360 was repaired in the new year.  Since then the only Wii game of any real interest for me was Mario Kart.  I had never been a big fan of the hugely popular racing game but thought I would give it a shot, especially with the steering wheel controls. It was ok. Not great. Not very exciting. Just ok. Exactly like every other MK I have played over the last decade, except the steering was a bit different (though not actually better IMHO).

After that, I stopped playing my Wii. Days turned into weeks, weeks into months. Every now and again I’d take a walk into the Game store to see what new and nothing seems to change. Super Mario Galaxy, Mario Kart, Zelda and the like are still in the top 10, still selling at full price. You get the odd new game of interest but most of them are cross platform titles that probably run a lot nicer on my PS3 or dodgy old 360.  OK, Wii Fit was a big release for Nintendo and I tried hard to get one when it was released. Try as I might, all stores were sold out for weeks, until I eventually lost interest. After the hype had died down, £70 seemed an awful lot of money for a set of scales.

We are constantly bombarded with tales of how the Wii is outselling every other console by 10s of thousands of units every month. I’d be interested to see what the figures are in terms of game sales. It just seems like the trickle of new Wii games are either cross platform titles with a few Wii-mote gimic controls or strange Japanese titles aimed at teaching kids and non gamers how to cook or fish. The Wii was supposed to be a revolution in gaming but all I see is a cheap lump of white plastic gathering dust next to my PS3.

Come on Nintendo. Pull your finger out!

I got my first taste of Mario Kart for the Wii today. I was never the greatest of Nintendo/Mario fans growing up but I am embracing them with my beloved Wii. I didn’t get a great deal of time with it but enough to test out the Wiimote steering wheel. I wasn’t sure if I’d like having to use gestures to control the steering, mainly as I would have to hold the wheel rather than use the traditional fixed steering wheel. But I have to say it worked perfectly. Really good and accurate steering and it was a lot of fun in two player. I would have to recommend the official “Wii Wheel” over Game’s 3rd party wheel as it has a bit more weight and a button cover over the B button making it easier to access. Other than that though it does look like every other Mario Kart in existence. Let’s hope Nintendo have added a bit more than a snazzy new control mechanism…