For over a year, there have been three games in development that have really got me excited. These three games all have a few things in common. Firstly, each of them is unique in some way; they dare to be different in certain aspects of their gameplay and their features. Secondly, they’re all epic in nature. Media sources have hyped them up, fans have been going a little crazy with anticipation, and developer seminars and interviews have definitely contributed to this. Lastly, none of them are first person shooters.

That last part probably made a few people stop reading.

So, what are these games then, I hear you asking. In no particular order…

Assassin’s Creed

Ever since Ubisoft announced the concept of ’social stealth’ - the ability to blend in with a crowd - I was hooked. This concept also implied that crowds and NPCs would play a large role in the game; something that was always limited with previous generation consoles and computers due to lack of processing power and rendering capabilities. For those who don’t know, Assassin’s Creed takes place during the Third Crusade and the player takes on the role of an assassin named Altair whose main goal is to kill a bunch of historical figures to unveil their secrets. The game is played in a third person perspective with stunning visuals. Almost every part of the environment is interactive, which means you can climb up walls and jump of buildings, etc, giving the player more freedom than is often seen in most games of this nature.

Another interesting thing about Assassin’s Creed is the possible underlying science fiction elements threaded into the story with the flashes of a molecular diagram on the screen when Altair dies, and references to genetic memory. There’s also rumours that the game will eventually expand into a trilogy. No-one’s really spilling the beans just yet, but we’re all sitting on the edges of our seats, dying to find out.

While it’s true that the game’s concept isn’t a completely new one, the level of detail, depth, freedom, mystery, and apparent historical accuracy make this game extremely intriguing for me. It appears to be a game with a focus on escapism and being able to do things you couldn’t possibly do in real life. To me, that’s what turns a good game into a great game, and I honestly cannot wait to play Assassin’s Creed.

Unfortunately, the PC version has been delayed until some time in 2008, so I guess I’ll have to wait a little bit longer yet, but the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions should be released in November.

Fable 2

The first thing I have to admit is that I’ve never played the first Fable game. RPG fans were raving about it for years, I have friends who told me I have to play it - as in I have to or the world will come to an end. Despite their persistence, I still have not tried the game. But I will, don’t worry.

I am a fan of RPGs, let it be known, but what often bugs me about the genre is the meaningless jobs you have to complete for NPCs and the monotonous dungeon crawls that don’t really interest me but I’ll do them anyway because… well… that’s pretty much all there is to the game. What drives an RPG, in my opinion, should be its story. If the player doesn’t like the story, or doesn’t care for the characters, it’s not going to be a great gaming experience for them. Simple as that.

I believe the folks at Lionhead Studios have tapped into the substance of what makes a game a totally immersive experience, where you feel connected to the characters as though they were real, and feel as though your character’s actions really do make a difference.

The most interesting feature in Fable 2 for me is probably the ability to flirt with anyone in the game and then get it on - possibly ending up with a kid later on. It’s like The Sims on steroids. Also, the dog that ends up following you around the place during the whole game. Both the kid and the dog will also change depending on your character’s actions in the game.

Lionhead Studios have also released a few video diaries that are worth checking out. The game is set for a release next year.

Spore

Okay, okay, everyone’s been talking about Spore for years, and still it has not been released. But Will Wright from Maxis confirmed a release for the Wii just recently, so things are looking up.

If you don’t know what Spore, it’s likely you’ve been living on a deserted island for the past couple of years. If you’re one of these people, do yourself a favour and check it out. For a brief description, I’ll simply say that the game is all about you being able to control the evolution of an entire species from its cellular phase right up to an intelligent being, able to explore the universe for itself. You’re able to create how your creatures look, where they live, and what the technology they use looks like within the game’s editors.

In a word this game is epic. It’s also very creatively made, visible within the game’s features such as procedural generation and it’s ’sandbox’ style endgame content once you’ve reached the space phase.

Like all the other thousands of eager fans, I’m awaiting this game as patiently as possible. It seems like forever since Spore was first announced, and there is still no release date in sight. C’mon Mr Wright, stop teasing us.

The general consensus is that Mac users are extremely proud of their nice clean Mac setups, with all of their hardware and peripherals laid out nice and neat and organised at their workstations….. Well I’m out to prove that’s not the case! There are messy Mac users among us, and my job is to expose them!

This week’s Messy Mac Setup belongs to decryption.

Do you have a Messy Mac Setup? Do you know someone with a Messy Mac Setup? Email me a photo of your setup in all it’s messy, dirty, cluttered glory, to be featured on this blog.

Yes, another one joins the ranks; I finally bit the bullet and ‘hacked’ my iPod Touch, thanks to this video and Steve Embleton’s recent post. It was a piece of cake, and the simplicity persuaded me to have a crack at it, rather than wait for the SDK next year. I admit, I was chicken - not wanting to turn my nice new expensive shiny gadget into a brick, or messing around with warranties and all of that stuff. But when it becomes so easy to do, you find yourself thinking, “Why the hell not?”.

I have to say, the iPod Touch feels like a complete device now. Without the option to have the iPhone and third party apps, I’m not 100% sure I could have justified its cost vs function, and it probably would have impacted on my decision to purchase it in the first place. But there are a bunch of very clever individuals out there, doing all the hard work for us, and I thank them very much.

Favourite and most useful apps so far are Mail (hoorah!), Notes, Weather, and Summerboard for changing themes. Shown in the photo is the Tubs theme, but I might play around with some other themes to find one that I really like. Here are some screenshots of different Summerboard themes, that saves us having to download them all to see what they look like.

There are still so many third party apps I want to try out, but for now I’m extremely satisfied that my iPod Touch has been ‘enhanced’, and it brings a geeky smile to my face knowing it only gets better from here.

So, I got a nice new shiny iPod Touch, right? Naturally, I ‘need’ some accessories for it. I was going to buy a universal dock. Then I saw the price tag… What?! 80 bucks?! Are you #$&!$?@ kidding me?!

Well, thanks, Apple. I love the iPod Touch but it was expensive enough.

Luckily, Apple provides you with the two main items you need to construct your own homemade dock for your iPod Touch; the dock adapter and the USB cable. Just get yourself a small cardboard box (if you don’t want to wreck your iPod box), some double-sided tape, scissors, and LOTS of electrical or duct tape, then follow these instructions. Piece of cake!

Mine looks a little rough around the edges, mainly because I painted the cardboard box with chalkboard paint (well, hey, it was all I could find). However, the entire dock was made for $0, so I’m not complaining at all. Just make sure that if you use a different box or container, it’s strong and sturdy enough, and not too light. It also needs to be tall enough so that the cable doesn’t effectively lift it up off the table surface, or bend too far at a right angle which could damage the cable. The cool thing about the dock being hollow underneath is that you can shove all the excess cable in there and tape it up if it’s too long.

The finished product. Yes, I know, the paint job sucks, but it works juuuust fine!

The under side. I used a LOT of electrical tape to stick the cable to the dock adapter, which was a bit tricky to get it at the correct angle (I wanted it to slope backwards slightly, like the docks that you can buy). Good strong duct tape would have worked a bit better than the electrical tape. Still, it doesn’t show any signs of coming apart any time soon.

For the cable hole, I just cut a small vertical slit on the bottom edge, and then punched out a small hole at the top of the slit with a leather punch (it’s just as easy to use something else, though; a pencil would do). Pull each side apart, slither the cable in, and done!

Tada! Complete with iPod Touch. It actually sits in there better than I thought it would, and is just as easy to take out again, just like the dock you can buy from the Apple Store.

I even found a good use for the little plastic stand that comes with the iPod Touch. :)

I often find myself thinking about where we’re headed in terms of interacting with our computers and mobile phones and other devices. Touch screen technology has been around a fair while now, but it’s strangely still not widely implemented. Sure, there’s those interactive kiosks for customer self-service that are becoming popular for all sorts of things, though in Australia they’re most common for photo processing and printing at photo stores and ticket machines at train stations. There’s touch screen technology for people with disabilities who can’t easily use a mouse and keyboard. Touch screen technology is implemented in quite a few different industries such as retail, food (restaurants) and automation. And then, of course, there’s the Nintendo DS, a number of different PDAs, the iPhone and the iPod Touch, and several others general user gadgets with touch screen tech on the horizon. And I’m sure there’s many, many more uses that I’ve missed.

Dr. Samuel C. Hurst, founder of Elo TouchSystems, invented the first touch screen in 1971. But it’s only in the last five or so years that touch screen technology has become popular in consumer devices. Why is this? The clunky mouse and keyboard are still being used for most computers. Shouldn’t we have progressed to something better by now?

These are the main reasons why I think device interaction hasn’t progressed quite as much as it possibly should have.

1. Ergonomics: Everyone needs to use their gadgets comfortably. Simply put, if a system to interact with a device can’t be used comfortably, people won’t use it. For some devices, touch screens work really well. Handheld gadgets obviously benefit a lot. Using a small keyboard with tiny keys (ie: those found on many smartphones) proves problematic for many people. However, there’s always the factor of placing unwanted stress on the arms, hands and fingers. This is often due to the actual physical shape of the device just as much as the touch screen itself. For example, playing my Nintendo DS for more than an hour at a time makes my hands hurt. It’s actually quite difficult to hold due to the weight distribution and only holding it in one hand when playing games that require the stylus. It also wouldn’t be practical to implement touch screens on a desktop computer, at least not for the majority of its uses. Having to reach over and touch the screen repetitively could result in many cases of repetitive strain injury.
2. Lack of precision: How many words per minute can you type? How long does it take you to click on an icon on the desktop? The beauty of the mouse and keyboard are their precision and speed. Many graphic designers and artists also use a graphics tablet for their work, allowing them even greater accuracy by using it just like they’d use a pencil. These systems are tried and true, and are the reason they’re so widely adopted. The iPhone and iPod Touch on the other hand are, well, a lot less accurate and much, much slower when it comes to user input. They do what they’re made to do easily enough, but if it came to advanced functions like an extensive amount of text input or the need for extreme accuracy, they become almost unusable. PDAs that use stylii are slightly better when it comes to accuracy due to less surface area of the stylus tip compared to a finger, but the problem is that the user’s hand or the stylus blocks their vision of what they’re trying to point at or click on. A solution to this that I discovered at the Wired Gadget Lab is the LucidTouch: a see-through multi-touch screen, still in the early stages of development, but it looks very promising. In essence, it “allows the user to control it from behind and ’see’ their fingers”, eliminating the problem of your fingers blocking the screen. At the moment, I’m really seeing its potential, but I think it would have to be extremely comfortable to hold and use for it to work well.
3. Screen marks and fingerprints: There’s something extremely satisfying of using a device where its input system is the same as its output system. However, having used my iPod Touch for less than a full day, I noticed the trail of smudgy fingerprints that it leaves behind. Whilst this isn’t too bothersome most of the time, one can easily see it as a major problem on, say, a laptop or desktop computer with a touch screen. Having to clean the screen each time you use it or when you want to watch a movie on it or do a presentation sure wouldn’t be the most productivity-enhanced device ever made. It just doesn’t seem quite feasible at this point in time, at least not until someone invents a fingerprint resistant or self-cleaning screen or a separate touch screen used in conjunction with the main screen. Relying on a stylus also isn’t a ’solution’ in itself. I find stylii to be quite annoying and too easy to drop or lose, so I’d rather just put up with the fingerprints.

So, what does the future hold for the way in which we interact with our computers and digital devices?

Well, I can’t see the trusty old mouse and keyboard going away any time soon. As ‘yesterday’ as they are, it seems nothing else compares to them in terms of speed, accuracy and dependability.

However, with the iPhone and iPod Touch taking over at the moment - as well as all the blatant rip-offs of these devices - I can see a number of devices going the touch screen route very, very soon (many already have!). It’s ‘cool’ at the moment, there’s no doubt about it, and for simple devices with specific functions, the technology works well.

In the not too distant future I envision voice recognition to become a lot more advanced and therefore much more widely adopted for a number of different uses. A lot of work is being done on technological advancements for people with disabilities, such as brain-computer interface systems. It’s true, scientists have actually made it possible for people to interact with a computer using nothing but brainwaves, the technology being developed for people who are quadriplegic. I saw this technology in use on a TV program a few years ago, the users were able to move a cursor around on a screen by simply willing it to. However, it took a lot of training for the users to get to that stage, and the technology still has a long way to go. But it just goes to show what we, as human beings, are able to achieve, and it’s pretty damn exciting to say the least.

I suppose the sky is the limit when it comes to interacting with technology, and I think we’ve only just scratched the surface of the possibilities out there. I just hope I get to see all this cool new tech during my lifetime.

What kinds of technologies for device interaction would everyone else like to see in the future?

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