SE51 > /dev/null > 2008 > May

Well the obvious answer to this one would probably be ‘even more high-def’. Okay, admittedly, at some point an image can reach such a depth that it is no longer distinguishable from reality. Some experts in Japan are working on the successor of HDTV, named UHDTV (Ultra High Definition TV). But don’t expect that to be near any household soon.

But that’s not my point. Next thing up is making it even more realistic, making you even more a part of the game or movie as you already are. And just how do you do that?

The Wii is getting closer by tracking movements in three dimensions of the controller, and by doing so rendering the image according to the movement you made. Pretty cool. But… we’re still looking at a simulated 3D image.

Okay. In the end, a screen is a screen, and everything is bound to its surface. But there are tricks or you can fool your brain into thinking that what you see is an actual window, with full three dimensions. Meaning that when you move your head, everything else moves with you, like it would in the real world.

Johnny Chung Lee, from the Carnegie Mellon University, became aware that this effect needs to be achieved for truly stunning 3D experiences. Make your screen a window into another world. A real window.

And so he did.

Watch this.

Now we wait for the next console generation.

I didn’t know about it until yesterday night, and since then I have spent some time collecting information about this game. So what do we know about it? We know that it’ll be released for XBox 360, PlayStation 3, and Windows. We also know it’s going to be in the shelves on November 11. At least that is the targeted date. It is built upon the fairly recent Unreal Engine 3, which enables real stunning effects.

The main character is a beautiful (and hot) girl named Faith. She is a runner and has to rescue her sister from the corrupt government. She cannot use normal means of communication such as mobile or landline phones, Internet or email, or maybe even letters. Everything appears to be monitored for the government, and she can’t risk being exposed.

Faith is pretty hot and sweet all right, but also has a dangerous task on her hands

The focus of the game is to maintain physical contact with the environment, while trying to figure out the next optimal move. In the game, the so-called Runner Vision enables Faith to see what would be the next move - Runner Vision highlights elements of the environment in red.

Runner Vision highlights elements Faith can use in red

Over the course of the game the Runner Vision will remain, but the highlighted elements will decrease, leaving the choice of where to go next to the player. This enables for more choice, more openness, more puzzle solving fun.

While this game is First-Person, it is not a shooter as such. It could be more categorized as a Parkour solving game, similar to maybe Prince Of Persia - only set in a free roaming environment, similar to Liberty City in GTA. Weapons appear to be only a secondary element to Faith.

Police will apparently try everything to stop Faith from getting to her sister

The screens you see here are all live renders from the console, meaning it is in-game footage. And let’s be honest here: it looks absolutely awesome!

The trailer for the game gives a pretty good taste of what’s to come in November - the game itself and a pretty awesome soundtrack. In the trailer, you can see a lot of detail, and it shows that the makers have put in messages, that tell you even more about the game, and the work behind.

From the trailer analysis of GameTrailers.com. Can she jump as well?

All in all, I can’t really wait for this game now. I’m seriously looking forward to it in November. And I hope you do too, after having seen the trailers.

Mirror’s Edge Trailer

Mirror’s Edge Trailer - Analysis

You know, by now you should have heard or know that Liberty City, the fictional place and center stage of Grand Theft Auto IV, is based on New York. This time it really shows, many landmarks, streets, parks, and buildings have their Liberty City counterparts. If you don’t have the game, or not seen all of the landmarks, here’s one example. Left: Real life, right: Liberty City.

Wanna see ‘em all? Or most of them? I bet you do. Check out the below link.

Flickr: Sightseeing in Liberty City

You know I think the Wii is great. Stunning even. But there’s still one problem: Due to its lacking graphical horse power, many games won’t be on that console. But I want to play GTA IV! I want to go to Liberty City! Stop whining is probably what you say. So I did. This is why I got myself a brand new XBox 360 (Pro version with HDMI port) on the weekend, including Rockstar’s latest flick which, if possible, would earn 11 points out of a possible 10. Or make that 12. San Andreas already had 11.

Okay so I set up the machine over component because I had no HDMI cable left. Damn! But luckily that component cable came with the console and it was set up in seconds. The console was told to do 720p first, but then went higher to 1080i. I know I know… Interlaced isn’t as good as progressive - but to be honest, there was no noticable difference in the display, except that the resolution is bigger. Which is as it should be. Okay. So console running at almost full graphical horsepower, I dared to put in Rockstar’s latest flick, the one the world is talking about.

And man… the intro video alone was worth the money I spent earlier on that morning, and not only that: I would be able to play all the other games people have been talking about, like Bioshock or Halo 3. Honestly, I should have gotten the console a lot earlier.

What can I say… the detail of the city, of everything, is so incredible - it’s difficult to describe in a few words because it’s on a level that you have to see to fully understand. People on the street are most of the time random, it is unlikely you will see the same guy again in a while. There are people arranging meetings on mobile phones. Drug dealers. Gangs.

So here’s a little rundown of the things I have discovered so far:

- 3 subway lines, and you can use them free
- You can watch TV in your apartment
- Like 10 or so radio stations
- Fake Internet including a social network named MyRoom
- There are Pool Halls
- Bowling places, too
- Regrettably the amusement park is not usable (or not usable yet?)
- Have been eating burgers
- Some select cars have a GPS, a smaller number of select cars have a talking GPS
- The levels that could be built up in San Andreas, like Stamina, are missing
- City is absolutely amazing in detail, skyline looks like, well, New York
- Arcade machines have a some sort of Tetris in 3D
- Mobile Nicco has with him is customizable in terms of settings and ringtones

Guys. If you have a 360, or PS3: Get this game - NOW! Don’t walk to the next store, RUN - before they run out of stock. And I haven’t seen much of the city, or even the multiplayer yet.

It’s gonna take forever to explore everything in the city… and that’s what I really think is awesome beyond words. You know when you get the box, unfold the map and turn it around so that you get familiar with Liberty City’s Subway network.

A producer named Dennis Liu has made this absolutely awesome music video, which takes place entirely on a Mac. You know, this had to take some time to prepare… Time Machine goes back a good bit.

The Bird And The Bee
Again and Again
Grey’s Anatomy OST

AWESOME!!

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If you think you need this, go here.

o_O

So there’s this news show in Australia, on Channel 9 to be precise. This channel happens to have a contract with MSN, which in turn belongs to Microsoft. In order to score points, they thought they’d be nifty and show an iPhone which appears to be running Parallels on the device, and in Parallels there’s a Windows XP desktop, showing Internet Explorer.

An iPhone - running Parallels?

Let’s check this out quickly. In the front, the Parallels iPhone, but then in the back, the iPhone’s original interface. Weird.

The iPhone runs a trimmed down version of Mac OS X on it, previously named just OS X, but now it is named iPhone OS. And since code is the same as on Mac OS X, yes, in theory, an iPhone version of Parallels *could* run on the device.

That’s what a blogger must have thought and expressed this, and posting an image he created how it could look like to have Parallels on the iPhone. Note the Parallels icon in the Dock…

Maybe a future iPhone generation can do this?

And behold - this image is EXACTLY the same as the one used in the news show. Bizarre…

iPhone graphic on Channel 9 totally wrong

kottke.org - iPhone running Parallels. Source of the above image.

You know I tried to avoid writing about Rockstar’s uber-game Grand Theft Auto IV, which has been released on Tuesday. It’s everywhere, even here in the TV as advertisement. The game surely is massively incredible, like San Andreas has already been. I have absolutely no trouble believing that.

The game is so popular and big, that someone had the somewhat cool idea to create the Google Map of Liberty City. Well, and here it is. The Google Map of Liberty City.

So in case you wanna go for a sightseeing there, make sure you visit it.

Google Maps: Liberty City

Next year, Manny and his friends are back to witness the world being taken over by dinosaurs. Meanwhile, Scrat’s eternal quest for his acorn is still on!