Impressions: SONG SUMMONER: The Unsung Heroes (iPod)

Finally there's an iPod game that was interesting enough for me to try out gaming on my 5th-gen iPod. Song Summoner: The Unsung Heroes from Square-Enix is a role-playing/strategy game similar to Final Fantasy Tactics series, but much more simple in many ways. Its story, characters and dialogue are absolutely ridiculous which may make playing the game somewhat uneasy for certain people, but if you can look past that it's not too bad a game especially at its 5€ price point.

Still, I did have some major problems with it. They're not as much about the actual game as they are about playing games on an iPod. The game suffers constantly from low framerates which make the otherwise surprisingly convenient click-wheel controls feel very irresponsive and slow. Another annoying thing are the loading times. It's not that they're very long but you'll be seeing a loading screen between almost every menu screen and action. In addition to this the game is loading and using the hard drive constantly in the background which surely puts a huge strain on the battery which will drain out quickly especially on older iPods. The 5th-gen iPod also heated up considerably while playing. I really hope these problems only occur with the older iPods as without them I could easily recommend the game to anyone who likes japanese style RPGs.

ATI/AMD Back in the game?

AMD has not been doing all too great lately with both their CPUs and GPUs having serious problems catching up with the competition, not to mention getting ahead of them. But now it's slowly starting to look like things might be going for the better for them. With the new Radeon HD 4800 series, for the first time since ATI's Radeon X1950, they have finally made something that can actually try to go against NVIDIA's GPU line-up without getting burned. Based on the first reviews the more affordable 4850 model seems to be giving more expensive GF 9800 GTX a run for its money and the 4870 gives almost the same performance as GF GTX 260 for a much lower price. The increased competition will surely put pressure on NVIDIA and for the customers that can only mean better chips and/or lower prices and it's hard to say no to that.

Demo time: Civilization Revolution (Xbox 360)

The new Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution should be out in shops today, but a demo for it was released already last week. As a longtime fan of the Civilization series it's definitely a game I've really been looking forward to and was excited to get my hands on the demo. As they've been saying all along, it's not just Civ4 ported to the Xbox but a whole new spin-off game designed for consoles from the ground up. While it still feels very much like a Civ-game, it's clearly not of the traditional variety.

Maybe the first thing that pops up are the simple, colourful and childish (some would say ugly) graphics that make the game look like something made for the XBLA. Unfortunately after a while into the game you begin to notice that the graphics aren't the only aspect where they have chosen this path. The moment you run into the different characters and advisors in the game you begin to question whether the game was meant to be played by adults at all. Also the general gameplay is much more simple and faster and the maps are smaller which take away most of the epic feeling we've got used to in the previous games. It's not really all that bad though. The gameplay works pretty well and it's still a fun game to play. Just if you're a fan of the series, don't expect to sink into the world of Civilization for many hours at a time like you used to, and really try out the demo to find out whether this one's for you.

The iPhone effect

I think no one was really surprised when Apple introduced the new iPhone 3G at WWDC yesterday, but it's good to finally have facts instead of rumours. Most of the features were as expected and all in all it's a huge improvement on the original iPhone. One thing I'm still curious about though is the pricing model. Sure, they announced the US price of $199–299 but the full price of owning one is still unknown, and there's no word on the pricing elsewhere either. The fact that they're also locked and sold for only one specific operator in each country will surely be a problem in many cases. For example here in Finland I would never get one just because of the operator it's on.

One thing that's really great about the iPhone is the effect it has on the whole industry. As its user interface, applications and services set the bar much higher than before, it's forcing all the other manufacturers to really raise their game in many aspects. While this is great for the consumer it's going to be a problem especially for companies that haven't been doing so great to begin with. (such as Motorola) Also, with phones based on Google's Android coming to shake things up later this year, the mobile phone industry won't be showing signs of cooling down anytime soon.

Acer Aspire One the one to beat?

I know I've focused a lot on the subnote market right now but with Computex going on, it's what I'm currently really excited about.

Acer has just officially announced their Aspire One sub-note PC. For the most part the specs are the same as in other Atom-based sub-notebooks, but in my opinion they're the only one since Asus to fully grasp what I think make them so interesting: portability and affordability. With up to 10-inch displays, traditional hard drives, weight of almost 1.3kg and prices up to 500€, many of the other upcoming entries to the market have got closer and closer to their full-featured 12-inch brothers in these aspects.

Arguably the best feature of Aspire One is the price. Starting at only £199 (€253 or $390) it's giving even the original Eee a run for its money and with a weight of under 1kg it's much lighter than possibly its biggest competitor, MSI Wind PC. And when it's supposedly coming out here in Europe as early as this month, it's hard not to get excited. I also like the fresh design, different colours and the fact that they didn't make it a "cheap laptop for the kids". I only hope the build quality will be better than what has typically been associated with Acer...

Today's netbook news

There's more info on Gigabyte's upcoming entry to the netbook market, the M912 tablet pc, on their website. The specs look really good with the usual Intel Atom, Bluetooth and a 1.3Mp Camera but it also packs a 8.9-inch WXGA touch screen and storage up to 250GB. Especially with the touch screen it's surely not meant for everyone so I'm guessing it's also going for the more expensive end of the market. link

In other news, there's a rumour out that Sony might be working on a netbook of its own based on the VIA OpenBook reference. Unfortunately the CPU is of the old and slow C7-M variety and not the upcoming Nano. Nevertheless it's always nice to have some more competition as it can only mean better products and lower prices! link

Asus Eee PC 900 reviewed on HotHardware

If you're like me and getting crazy about all the sub-notebook action going on right now you might be in need of a fix while waiting for all the Computex goodies coming up in just a few days. Luckily HotHardware just released a review of the Asus Eee PC 900. Sure, they didn't quite say anything that hadn't been said about it already, but if you're not yet too familiar on how the 900 improved on the 7-inch models it's worth a read. Personally I'm waiting for the 901 with Intel's Atom and the improved battery life it brings, but I'm sure most of its other features will be similar to the 900. link

New RE5 Trailer

There's a new trailer out for Resident Evil 5 on Gametrailers.com and I gotta say it's starting to look better and better. There are tons of new things shown including a new sidekick, and did I mention how awesome it looks? You better check it out yourself. link

First!

Hey guys! I've been having so many things to rant/be excited about lately so I thought I'd try setting up my own blog for doing that. I'll be discussing about all things that interest me, which in this case is mostly games and technology but sometimes it could also be just about anything! Please note and understand that English is not my first language so there can occasionally be something funny going on with spelling and grammar :P ...anyway, have fun!

UPDATE: I got my brother Lauri to join me on this blog so you might hear something from him, too.