Bolero of Fire

Wow. As someone who has never really liked any of the Playstations and as someone tired of the constant marketing smoke and puff propogated by Sony, it's quite odd to see the current outcry against them.

I've accepted that there are many fans of the Playstation out there and I can appreciate that there have been some good games on the two iterations of consoles so far. So when E3 came and went it was like a huge shock to me. It seems to me that whilst I thought people were continually lapping up whatever Sony spouted, it seems there were quite a lot of people who took note of the hyping and failings of Sony.

I'm sure there are quite a lot of Sony fanboys still out there vehemently believing that Sony have done nothing wrong so far and that believe the PS3 is a cheap machine. However, there is a large voice amongst those frequenting various forums and blogs (be they about games or otherwise). It is great to see that people are questioning Sony's decisions right now and aren't just going nuts about the machine.

I still think the PS3 will still sell a lot of consoles (no doubt all of Japan will buy it regardless) but it is nice to see that Sony may not run away with it. Why it is even nice that people are questioning the PSP instead of continually glossing over all the problems with the system just because it looks nice.

Where are we headed with this whole thing? There are some people already sick and tired of the bashing Sony has received. It seems a lot of people have jumped aboard the bandwagon and it makes it odd now that my dissenting voice is now being mixed with people who are here just because bashing Sony seems the current thing to do. It happens a lot when things become popular, there is the inevitable backlash but is this necessarily the thoughts of a lot of the general gamers?

Unfortunately not. As I mentioned before, Japan will buy the thing regardless, whether or not it is the lamest console ever made. The FF fanboys will also buy it, in hopes there is a FF7 remake (and FF13). It is the people who are there keeping FIFA, Madden and GTA at the top of the charts who need to be gauged to get a real idea of the whole picture. It seems to me that they couldn't care less. Whilst there is loads said about the lack of ports as Sony had promised, or the removal of key features from the cheaper model, it won't factor, unfortunately.

So what am I basically saying here? The PS3 is a big mess and it is more Sony hype that won't ever be fulfilled. Despite that, people will go ahead and plough blindly into purchasing one. We can rejoice right now, those who have long had an agenda against Sony but it is a shortlived affair. So make the most of it, go bash as much and as freely as you can now, before all the bandwagon jumpers leave us and run once more back to Sony.

Tei! Tei! Tei!

With my last piece being lost, here is a rewritten article about timing and its relation in fansubbing.

The role of a timer in the grand scheme of things is one I feel is quite overrated. I've gone about doing it and it's a tedious job to do but it is by no means the toughest or most difficult job, which I feel a lot of people out there in fansubbing land portray it to be. I'll say it again, I believe the role of translating is by far the toughest job when it comes to fansubbing and timing doesn't come close. I'm not sure any roles do.

When it comes to timing, I think it is worth noting that there are some distinctions to be made within the role. Broadly speaking you have timing relating to karaoke and then timing relating to the actual show itself. Out of these two, the job of the karaoke timer is far more boring.

The one timing the show has it easy, mark the point at where a sentence begins and then again where it ends. If two people are talking over each other then you'll have to make allowances for that but it's not too tough or difficult to do. When it comes to the person timing the karaoke, it can be a real nightmare. You have to do the above, which is straightforward but then you need to go into timing each and every syllable. So you'll be playing the same bit of sound back and forth ensuring you get it spot on within fractions of a second.

Now this is not really tough but, as I have said, very boring and tedious. I suppose you can say it is tough as you need to keep your discipline throughout. That said on both occasions you are clear when something is right or wrong. There is nothing left to interpretation, it's quite cut and dried. That means you don't need to invest yourself into it a great deal. A translator, on the other hand, will have to deal with possible variations or meanings of words and sentences. It's all a judgement call and requires an understanding of the show and characters to get it just right. I've seen it with Yume translating something, he may come to me and ask for help and we'll throw about suggestions and ideas for an age ensuring we make sense in English but keep as true to the Japanese as possible. Trying to strike the best balance.

Coming back to timing, Yume and I have used Sabbu to get timings and to ensure they are as precise as possible (this is a great deal more important for karaoke as the effects are dependent on you doing a good job here). I have read some timers saying they sit there with the show running on VLC or Winamp and just jot down the times and that's about it. I mean it really is as simple as that, so why do people feel the need to say that timing is so hard or tough? With karaoke timing, I will agree the job is harder and tougher than timing the show but again it's not too much more involving or requiring a great deal of understanding of characters and their intent.

So what am I saying? Basically I just want translators to get a bit more due than they seem to be given in fansubbing circles. I've seen some translators unfairly given very bad treatment and placed under great stress (this is something I will touch on in my next fansub related piece). I've seen timers, encoders and all sorts get so much praise and told how tough their jobs are but in reality it's very simple. It could very well be due to the other jobs being filled out by group owners with translators being hired hands, so they need to feel in control and in charge of things by saying the have a tough role to do.

These types of roles need to be done and it is important, no doubt about it, but come on be realistic about things. What would be nice is if people really didn't need to go on about what job is toughest and feel the need to boost their worth over what it is. It'd sure save me from rambling and ranting.

Lookin' Lookin' Gaa

Microsoft's press conference was quite a surprise. Having seen Sony make a huge blunder and NCL give a solid show, I was wondering where Microsoft would end up. They seem to have acquitted themselves very well. It was probably the best of the three shows.

Microsoft had the luxury of having released the console and were able to relax. All they had to do was show off what they had coming for us. They showed Gears of War which looks like being quite a spiffy title and we also saw a trailer for "the best kept secret", Halo 3. What we were being shown with Halo 3 was rendered with the in-game engine and with Gears it was good to see it being played in front of us rather than have a movie showing.

Alll well and good but the thing that intrigued me the most is that they clearly know where they are strongest. Just like NCL in that respect, they made sure there was good focus there. The Live Anywhere announcement was slightly dry but it shows a great idea. Take one of the most attractive parts of your strategy and spread it. So we are told to expect cross-platform compatibility between games on the 360 and those on a PC (those that support it) and the ability to check out achievements, gamertags and whatnot from all sorts of devices.

It's a very shrewd tactic, a way of consolidating and strengthening just due to the ubiquity of your wares. It makes it tough for others to follow in any space. I'm still in no way convinced with Vista and I doubt I will be making a switch to the OS when released (if current imformation holds) but this is a nice way of trying to get people to accept things and make the switch over.

All in all, it was a balanced show from Microsoft, showing that they also have clear ideas and directions on where to go. It's gone a long way to get people interested in the long term of the 360, the only real niggle that remains is the seeming lack of announcements for the short term. Again, like NCL, I guess we'll need to hear the noise coming from the show floor to see how it holds.

Making Sense

Right having had my say on Sony's press conference, I tuned in for the live stream of the NCL conference.

Nintendo's conference was kinda hit and miss. There were many montages of people playing on the Wii in amongst some footage of games. Some of the footage was brief but generally it looked good.

Nothing majorly new was given, the was the speaker announcement on the Wii-mote itself and the 24Connect which means your Wii will be connected online at all times, which could prove to be very interesting depending on how it is taken forward and how it is made up.

The most frustrating thing about this conference was that there wasn't much said on what was coming. We're told there are still more announcements regarding the Wii-mote and certainly, after Sony's conference I can see why NCL want to hold their cards close, in case we see them trying to rip-off another idea. Still I would have liked to see a release date and price announced.

Generally, it was quite a lot of the same things peddled again with stats and the idea and motives behind the Wii and DS.

When the games were shown, it's kinda odd seeing them. Zelda Twilight Princess as well as Red Steel. Both look promising but there were a few issues regarding the controls which seemed worrying. There seemed to be a lot of flailing and missing with bows, guns and swords without a lot of craft there. I'm hoping it's down to having to demonstrate the games on a stage that caused the problems rather than it being loose controls to blame.

Saying that, the highlight was possibly the final segment and another game demonstration. The WiiSports game of Tennis. We had Miyamoto, Iwata and Reggie playing a game of Tennis with a competition winner. I think this is what we imagined when we first saw the Wii-mote and what it would be like. We had 4 players on stage, moving and flexing to hit a ball back and forth. It looked like great fun and definitely something that anyone could just pick-up and play.

With this in mind, it could be the two games prior to the Tennis weren't as astounding as they required the controls to do various bits maybe not so instantly recognisable or fun looking. We all know how tennis is played and we all know what to expect so we could somehow translate that into something tangible to measure it against.

I guess we'll need to wait until people are able to get their hands on the games on the floor and see what the controls are like. Not a bad conference but it answered no real questions and probably asked more than I thought. Seems they are really going to keep us hanging on.

Disorder

I've slowly been digesting what was Sony's conference and I'm wondering who they've had a bet with and how drunk they were when they made it. It's as if they set out to one-up Nintendo's "Wii" announcement. All the negative press that got was astounding. It was run everywhere and I guess Sony felt they needed to muscle in.

This conference seems to be unlike Sony press conferences of the past. I see a Sony press conference as a load of hyped up nonsense. We've seen it with the Emotion Engine nonsense and last year we had loads said about how the PS3 will do everything you expect and more besides, such as making you breakfast in bed.

This year, well everyone seems to be very disappointed. They have come away feeling that Sony have completely lost the plot with an underwhelming conference. I've not been a Sony fan and I've long looked at them as being able to hype things up to the extent that people report like mad at how great things will be, despite never ever delivering what they state. This year it seems everyone is seeing things properly for the first time. There is no hype there for people to go nuts with speculation at how great things will be as we've just seen what looks like a company clutching at straws.

So I guess the first thing we'll get to is how Sony have created a "brand new joypad" for their new console. What we have actually is the same sub-standard controller they've used for 10 or so years but with a big button in the middle, akin to the 360's dashboard button. So they took a pinch of Microsoft and then added a dash of Nintendo by bundling motion sensing capabilities. So the Sony that said "we don't do gimmicks" has just gone and added a great big gimmick of Wii-mote capabilities. If you see the thing in motion, it looks a million miles away from NCL's offering with the Wii-mote. It looks clunky and very uncomfortable.

On top of this, they announce two SKUs for the console. Not so bad, Microsoft did this with the 360. Sony have again decided to one-up the negative press that Microsoft got with the so-called "Tard pack". Instead of offering a bare-bones system, Sony shall be offering you a cheaper, less feature packed console. You will miss out on the HDMI port, wifi support (goodbye PSP wireless interactions) and then a 20GB HDD (opposed to the 60GB in the full priced model). If Microsoft got lumbered with having one package called the "Tard pack" I'd hate to see what the Sony pack will be called, considering it's far more botched than Microsoft's offering.


Basically, the main points I've taken from this conference is that Sony, for once, have decided to be straight with us. Just given us the news as it is rather than coating them in hype and marketing puff. However, this year they've really run out of ideas. Whereas they may have had a few interesting things to go with the hype, this year they've not got anything to create a buzz and I'm not sure that this will do anything to help them out like it seems to have done to an extent with the Wii.

Sony seem to have stolen ideas left, right and centre and not added anything to them. They've really gone and taken what have been the best bits of NCL's and Microsoft's machines (the Wii-mote and Live respectively) and diluted them to be left with hardly anything substantial to draw people in. I'm not sure how the other companies will fare but they really must be relishing their chances at creating a big buzz around their consoles now.

Saying this, I am now slightly worried. Sony have the top spot right now and it was thought they'd hold it with the PS3. It did seem they were trying to push some things on earlier but it doesn't seem to be the case now.

If you look at NCL, with the Wii they are trying to do what they did with the DS but in the home console market, expand the market by attracting those who wouldn't play video games. Microsoft has gone in the direction of appealing to harcore gamers and pushing Live. With Live they've really created something very special. So two companies, two ideas which seemingly is trying to attract a larger audience.

Sony right now seem to be stuck in limbo, why it seems as though the PS3 is not only designed to be a games machine but to get Blu-Ray accepted as the format of choice for HD DVDs and for them to push their HDTVs. We've got two companies trying to push games, whereas the other seems to be content to push anything else. The reason why I am scared, is that I hope the two companies that are pushing for some innovations don't get lost and swept up by Sony's half-arsed attempts to muscle in on their visions. That Sony don't somehow again manage to be the biggest company this iteration of consoles without earning that by actually pushing and innovating itself. It'd sure be a sad day, if on the basis of this showing, Sony keeps on top by badly copying other good ideas and excuting them badly.