To put my impressions in proper context a little backstory is in order, so stick with me for a moment.
Rhythm games have been around for a while, and for the most part, I have not been a fan of them. Up until Guitar Hero in 2005, the games in the US seemed to consist of button mashers which didn't really fit the gamepad for the console it was being played on. With the notable exception of Dance Dance Revolution playing rhythm games was pretty dull for me and left me wondering what all the fuss was about.
When I had first heard about Guitar Hero the idea was intriguing. A game that gave me a controller that was meant to bring me into the game. Something that I knew how to use, and could relate to. It sounded great, then I got my hands on it. The controllers were way too small and felt cheap. the fret buttons were 'unnatural' to use, and totally ruined the suspension of disbelief that the game needed to make it engaging.
A few years later Rock Band comes out, and not only did they make the same promise of engaging me with familiar controllers which were designed to be used in a way that made sense for the game, but they also offered me a chance to do more than tap a strum bar. If I wanted to rock with sticks or send the cat running in terror with my voice, Rock Band was welcoming me with open arms.
I was very skeptical. Guitar Hero was three iterations in when the first Rock Band was released, and no notable improvements had been made in the awful controllers that came with the game. They still felt cheap, still were clumsy to use, and still ruined the fret experience. Rock Band had done better. Much better, though I didn't realize it at the time because I totally ignored the game.
Don't misunderstand, the Guitar Hero software was never bad, but with the sort of title it was the software was way less than half the experience for me. The Rock Band software was also decent, but so were the controllers. Sure the guitars still felt a little cheap, and the drum kits had a nasty habit of not being able to withstand the abuse of an overzealous bandmate. It was still a step in the right direction.
Rock Band 2 comes along, and the controllers last as well as they play. O'kay the kick pedal is still a little touchy if you've got a heavy foot, but then you're not supposed to stomp on the kick pedal anyway. Guitar Hero's controllers have gotten better; I don't think they're up to par with the Rock Band 2 controllers, but that might just be my own bias as I own that game.
This all brings me to DJ Hero. I heard about this game and my heart lept a little. Now I'm no house DJ, but I'm no stranger to crossfaders and tonearms. The idea that I could 'play along' with some of my favorite DJs was appealing. I was a little worried as it was in the Hero series, but I figured the other titles in the series had seen controller improvements enough to assume that the turntable controller would be at least decent.
Tonight I found myself in my local Best Buy (probably the worst Best Buy I have ever been in, ever, BTW) and they had the game running on a PS3. I was watching a kid play it, and having a rough time of it. Was obvious he really didn't get the concept. I don't blame him, DJ'ing isn't really showcased like it was when I was a kid. Rap videos were a camera on the voice talent, a camera on the DJ, and one on the crowd. You really got to see what they were doing, and it made sense. In today's videos, you usually don't even see a record... assuming the song has real scratching in it at all.
Reading the information on the display it shows that two player local and networked-based modes are available. Local two player requires either another deck or a guitar controller, though I'm not sure how that's supposed to work exactly with a guitar. I would like to see a two DJ battle game played, though. As that does have the potential to be cool. Though that just might be the DJ in me talking, and no one else but fans of the scene may care.
So the boy I was watching finished up, and no one else was in line to try, so I thought I'd give it a spin so to speak. The graphics were what I'd come to expect from modern rhythm games, with lots of flash and style. The on-screen interface also was fairly familiar. It took no time at all to figure out what I was supposed to be doing, and when. The demo has a three-track round with songs that are popular, and good choices for mixing. On the other hand, the controller sucked ass. I'm sorry, but there is really no other way to put it.
Look, I'm willing to forgive the single turntable interface. This is a game that is supposed to be accessible, and managing two records and a mixer is a skill that takes a long time to even get good at, let alone master. I'm willing to forgive the buttons on the platter, as you need something to make it a rhythm game, and it would make the controller overly complicated for casual gamers to add an effects board. I can not, and will not, forgive the piss poor build quality of the controller. The platter feels cheap and unbalanced. The buttons are too small and packed too close together. The platter itself is too small and makes scratching awkward. Then there's the overall size of the deck and it's attached 'mixer' console which places the platter and the crossfader so close together that you have to be 10 years old to use it comfortably.
DJ Hero is an awesome concept, and the game itself looks to be well designed, and fun. It's a shame the errors of the past were not learned from. Per the DJ Hero website there is apparently a premium addition of the game available which includes a different and supposedly 'better' controller. Why should I have to pay more just to get a usable controller, and until I get my hands on one I am left to assume it's the same POS deck with metal crossfader and effect knobs. Until a 3rd party controller comes out that gets it right, I'm afraid what could otherwise be an awesome addition to the list of 'party games' will be nothing more than an overpriced wannabe.
Showing posts with label XBox. Show all posts
Showing posts with label XBox. Show all posts
The internet the way it should be
The following was posted on my blog at Sony's Gamer Advisory Panel website on August 26th of last year. I was told by someone that I should post it elsewhere. So here it is in its original form.
I just finished changing some settings on my router in an effort to make more effective use of my bandwidth when my son and I are both playing our respective games of choice. So, as I do after every change to my home network I fired up the PS3 connection test and made sure that it was still working properly. As I did I started to think about what I was looking at, and what it really meant.
In particular, I was looking at the result of the UPnP and NAT Type tests. They came up as 'Available' and 'Type 2' respectively. Both what I expected to see, and so everything is just fine. Except it isn't. Why is the PS3 even running these tests? Why does it care? Why, over 10 years after IPv6 was defined, are we still living under the limitations of IPv4?
For those of you that don't know, the current version of the numbering and routing system that the internet as we know it runs on is but a few short years from being totally out of addresses to hand out. We would have already run out if not for things such as NAT (Network Address Translation) which allows a single IP address to service a much larger number of systems, with some limitations. Not the least of which is that there is no trivial way to allow systems 'on the outside' to contact one of your systems. That brings me back to UPnP.
UPnP (Univeral Plug and Play) allows another device to configure a NAT router to allow outside connections into a specific address and port for a specific reason (as well as many other nifty and happy things). Until UPnP came along if you wanted to host a game that your friend in another part of the world (or down the street) could play in you had to login to your router, and with sometimes almost intimate knowledge of how the game communicated, configure the router to forward communications to your PC/Game console. Often times this required a lot more knowledge about the router than most people had, and many times the router didn't support it properly anyway. The only other option was to directly connect to the internet, which meant that anyone else trying to use the connection in your home was now quite out of luck.
UPnP to the rescue, yes? Sort of. Sure, new devices and new software are released with support out of the box, but it's an imperfect solution and most certainly not a fix just a tool to prolong the inevitable. Also, it has no way to authenticate the program making the request, so it is possible to use it to remove the pseudo-security that a NAT router provides. IP version 6 to the rescue? It could. With an address space so large that you could easily give an address to every person on the planet so many times over that you would lose count, everything could have it's own publicly routable, worldwide addressable, place on the net. No more worries about how to talk to another device, you just do it. Like things used to be, when the net was new, and tumbleweed was all around... or was that Gunsmoke?
Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, IPv6. Where is it? Why isn't it here? When will it be? I don't know. By now we should be well on our way to changing over to IPv6 only communications, with 4to6 gateways scattered around the net to allow the older devices and services to be accessed until they are replaced with the latest and greatest thing since sliced bread. The operating systems that most of us use on our computers are more than capable of making use of IPv6 right out of the box, or with only minor settings changes. Windows XP just requires turning it on, and it's on and ready to go in Vista as soon as you turn it on. Even Windows 2000 can make use of it with a download from Microsoft's website (as of this post the link for it is dead). Mac OS has had it for a while now, and it is on by default since OS X 10.3. Our Linux and BSD using brothers and sisters have also had it for a while (some longer than others). So why aren't we using it? Because there is no connection available. No one wants to start the ball rolling, or more I should say those that are doing so are in a very small, very exclusive group, and they can only do but so much.
I'm sitting on my bed, using an old Gateway laptop running FreeBSD and connected to my Mac via SSH over an IPv6 connection to prepare this. I listen to live streaming radio from the UK over an IPv6 connection within iTunes. I watch video from around the world, listen to trance and trip-hop from Germany, communicate via IRC with people all over the world all over an IPv6 connection. No thanks to my ISP, but thanks to a small group of people out of Switzerland, and others like them who offer cheap, or free IPv6 tunnels over people's existing IPv4 connections so they can start taking advantage of the still limited resources that are out there.
Limited resources, that's the problem. There is no killer app, no holy grail that will bring the masses in line and make the IPv6 gods shine their love down upon us; but that killer app is there, just waiting. It's sitting next to your TV, beside your VCR, on your kid's dresser. Your game console. Your PS3/360/Wii/etc. There it is, just waiting for unrestricted anywhere to anywhere communications. It wants to let you host a game to people all over the planet. It wants to tune into an internet radio station hosted by one lone guy in his basement along with hundreds, or even thousands of other people while lone basement guy only sends out one stream because you all just subscribe to that one stream. It wants to make a multi-person video conference call with your sister in California, your aunt in Mexico, and your best friend forever that just moved to Australia without any of you having to know anything at all about how it works or worrying about if your NAT device will allow the connection through.
If your console had those features, if you knew it, and knew how much easier it would be to host a server, or make that video call... if everyone had it and knew they had it. Knew what it could do, what it could mean. Then the connection providers (not just your ISP, but your ISP's ISP, and so forth) would have to give it to you, or someone else would. If you could take your laptop out on the road and still had full access to all of your resources at home, not because you knew how to set up a VPN, but because the underlying network just knew how to do it (and mobile IPv6 does) you're ISP would have to give it to you, or someone else would.
Why does your console not have that ability? Why doesn't it get an IPv6 address if one is available? Why doesn't it use Teredo (a zero-configuration tunneling protocol that can, under the right conditions, give a single machine behind a NAT an IPv6 address without the user having to know, or do anything) when a routable IPv6 address isn't available? That question I pose to Sony, to Microsoft, to Nintendo. Sony, remote play is great, being able to access my PS3 from my PSP... but think about how much easier it would be, and how much more useful it could be, if you didn't have to punch a hole through a router, if the router will even let you? Microsoft, your pride and joy (and the bane of technical support reps everywhere) Vista is all ready and revved up to go, why isn't your game console? Oh, and Apple, why doesn't that shiny new iPhone I just bought understand IPv6 when your desktop OS has for years? Cox, Time Warner, Charter, why aren't you already using it? Comcast, why are you only deploying it for internal CMTS to cable modem use? Why does your own IPv6 deployment strategy explicitly say "Deploy IPv6 only where it is absolutely necessary, and nowhere else!" Verizon, Quest, Earthlink, and other DSL providers, why aren't you using this as a selling point over cable, which has you beat in speed in most areas so badly that it's not even funny anymore?
Why?
Why is no one willing to take the first step? Why are we waiting until it's too late; until there becomes an IP black market of sorts? Why are we going to wait until end users don't have public IPs anymore, and their games don't work because their console is behind two, or more NAT devices? Did we not learn anything from the Y2K issue? We waited and waited, and it was almost too late when we did anything. It cost billions to fix, and we knew it was a problem when it was created. IPv4 was never intended to be a production network protocol, it was just a case study that got let loose into the wild, but we've had the solution for a very long time yet we do nothing. Sure, Japan and China are going a long way, but it's still mostly just academic networks that use it. Sure the US government made it mandatory for their networks to be IPv6 capable by June of this year, and they did, but never said anyone had to actually use it.
So here we are, looking at 2010-2011 (some even think 2009) as the end of the available IPv4 address pool, but we sit on our collective butts and wait for the other guy to go first. Two things drive technology. Two things always have. Entertainment and sex. So to The Great IPv6 Experiment I say godspeed to you, and to the gaming and mobile device makers I say, what are you waiting for? If not you, who, if not now, when? Soon your customers will not be able to use your products; why wait until it's too late, do something now.
I just finished changing some settings on my router in an effort to make more effective use of my bandwidth when my son and I are both playing our respective games of choice. So, as I do after every change to my home network I fired up the PS3 connection test and made sure that it was still working properly. As I did I started to think about what I was looking at, and what it really meant.
In particular, I was looking at the result of the UPnP and NAT Type tests. They came up as 'Available' and 'Type 2' respectively. Both what I expected to see, and so everything is just fine. Except it isn't. Why is the PS3 even running these tests? Why does it care? Why, over 10 years after IPv6 was defined, are we still living under the limitations of IPv4?
For those of you that don't know, the current version of the numbering and routing system that the internet as we know it runs on is but a few short years from being totally out of addresses to hand out. We would have already run out if not for things such as NAT (Network Address Translation) which allows a single IP address to service a much larger number of systems, with some limitations. Not the least of which is that there is no trivial way to allow systems 'on the outside' to contact one of your systems. That brings me back to UPnP.
UPnP (Univeral Plug and Play) allows another device to configure a NAT router to allow outside connections into a specific address and port for a specific reason (as well as many other nifty and happy things). Until UPnP came along if you wanted to host a game that your friend in another part of the world (or down the street) could play in you had to login to your router, and with sometimes almost intimate knowledge of how the game communicated, configure the router to forward communications to your PC/Game console. Often times this required a lot more knowledge about the router than most people had, and many times the router didn't support it properly anyway. The only other option was to directly connect to the internet, which meant that anyone else trying to use the connection in your home was now quite out of luck.
UPnP to the rescue, yes? Sort of. Sure, new devices and new software are released with support out of the box, but it's an imperfect solution and most certainly not a fix just a tool to prolong the inevitable. Also, it has no way to authenticate the program making the request, so it is possible to use it to remove the pseudo-security that a NAT router provides. IP version 6 to the rescue? It could. With an address space so large that you could easily give an address to every person on the planet so many times over that you would lose count, everything could have it's own publicly routable, worldwide addressable, place on the net. No more worries about how to talk to another device, you just do it. Like things used to be, when the net was new, and tumbleweed was all around... or was that Gunsmoke?
Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, IPv6. Where is it? Why isn't it here? When will it be? I don't know. By now we should be well on our way to changing over to IPv6 only communications, with 4to6 gateways scattered around the net to allow the older devices and services to be accessed until they are replaced with the latest and greatest thing since sliced bread. The operating systems that most of us use on our computers are more than capable of making use of IPv6 right out of the box, or with only minor settings changes. Windows XP just requires turning it on, and it's on and ready to go in Vista as soon as you turn it on. Even Windows 2000 can make use of it with a download from Microsoft's website (as of this post the link for it is dead). Mac OS has had it for a while now, and it is on by default since OS X 10.3. Our Linux and BSD using brothers and sisters have also had it for a while (some longer than others). So why aren't we using it? Because there is no connection available. No one wants to start the ball rolling, or more I should say those that are doing so are in a very small, very exclusive group, and they can only do but so much.
I'm sitting on my bed, using an old Gateway laptop running FreeBSD and connected to my Mac via SSH over an IPv6 connection to prepare this. I listen to live streaming radio from the UK over an IPv6 connection within iTunes. I watch video from around the world, listen to trance and trip-hop from Germany, communicate via IRC with people all over the world all over an IPv6 connection. No thanks to my ISP, but thanks to a small group of people out of Switzerland, and others like them who offer cheap, or free IPv6 tunnels over people's existing IPv4 connections so they can start taking advantage of the still limited resources that are out there.
Limited resources, that's the problem. There is no killer app, no holy grail that will bring the masses in line and make the IPv6 gods shine their love down upon us; but that killer app is there, just waiting. It's sitting next to your TV, beside your VCR, on your kid's dresser. Your game console. Your PS3/360/Wii/etc. There it is, just waiting for unrestricted anywhere to anywhere communications. It wants to let you host a game to people all over the planet. It wants to tune into an internet radio station hosted by one lone guy in his basement along with hundreds, or even thousands of other people while lone basement guy only sends out one stream because you all just subscribe to that one stream. It wants to make a multi-person video conference call with your sister in California, your aunt in Mexico, and your best friend forever that just moved to Australia without any of you having to know anything at all about how it works or worrying about if your NAT device will allow the connection through.
If your console had those features, if you knew it, and knew how much easier it would be to host a server, or make that video call... if everyone had it and knew they had it. Knew what it could do, what it could mean. Then the connection providers (not just your ISP, but your ISP's ISP, and so forth) would have to give it to you, or someone else would. If you could take your laptop out on the road and still had full access to all of your resources at home, not because you knew how to set up a VPN, but because the underlying network just knew how to do it (and mobile IPv6 does) you're ISP would have to give it to you, or someone else would.
Why does your console not have that ability? Why doesn't it get an IPv6 address if one is available? Why doesn't it use Teredo (a zero-configuration tunneling protocol that can, under the right conditions, give a single machine behind a NAT an IPv6 address without the user having to know, or do anything) when a routable IPv6 address isn't available? That question I pose to Sony, to Microsoft, to Nintendo. Sony, remote play is great, being able to access my PS3 from my PSP... but think about how much easier it would be, and how much more useful it could be, if you didn't have to punch a hole through a router, if the router will even let you? Microsoft, your pride and joy (and the bane of technical support reps everywhere) Vista is all ready and revved up to go, why isn't your game console? Oh, and Apple, why doesn't that shiny new iPhone I just bought understand IPv6 when your desktop OS has for years? Cox, Time Warner, Charter, why aren't you already using it? Comcast, why are you only deploying it for internal CMTS to cable modem use? Why does your own IPv6 deployment strategy explicitly say "Deploy IPv6 only where it is absolutely necessary, and nowhere else!" Verizon, Quest, Earthlink, and other DSL providers, why aren't you using this as a selling point over cable, which has you beat in speed in most areas so badly that it's not even funny anymore?
Why?
Why is no one willing to take the first step? Why are we waiting until it's too late; until there becomes an IP black market of sorts? Why are we going to wait until end users don't have public IPs anymore, and their games don't work because their console is behind two, or more NAT devices? Did we not learn anything from the Y2K issue? We waited and waited, and it was almost too late when we did anything. It cost billions to fix, and we knew it was a problem when it was created. IPv4 was never intended to be a production network protocol, it was just a case study that got let loose into the wild, but we've had the solution for a very long time yet we do nothing. Sure, Japan and China are going a long way, but it's still mostly just academic networks that use it. Sure the US government made it mandatory for their networks to be IPv6 capable by June of this year, and they did, but never said anyone had to actually use it.
So here we are, looking at 2010-2011 (some even think 2009) as the end of the available IPv4 address pool, but we sit on our collective butts and wait for the other guy to go first. Two things drive technology. Two things always have. Entertainment and sex. So to The Great IPv6 Experiment I say godspeed to you, and to the gaming and mobile device makers I say, what are you waiting for? If not you, who, if not now, when? Soon your customers will not be able to use your products; why wait until it's too late, do something now.
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