Posted by: Jane Douglas

A new E3 cinematic trailer, via GameTrailers, for BioWare's incoming grown-up fantasy action RPG, Dragon Age: Origins.

Looks glorious but what's with the ongoing Marylin Manson soundtracking?

That's If I Was Your Vampire (as heard in the Max Payne movie trailer, for its sins), followed by This Is The New Sh*t, which also set the tone for this earlier trailer for Dragon Age.

BioWare, presumably, wants us to have no doubts: theirs is a badass fantasy game which has no time for more traditional wistful fantasy scores (think Howard Shore or Enya for Lord of the Rings).

Posted by: Jane Douglas

It seems we won’t get a reveal of Project Trico, the codenamed upcoming title from Team ICO (Shadow of the Colossus, Ico) at E3 this year, so I couldn’t properly include it in this feature on our most anticipated games of the show, even though it’s now one of my most anticipated games ever. Did any series need a chance to show off on current-gen (PS3) technology like this one?

Oh well, maybe we’ll see more of Project Trico at the Tokyo Game Show in September. At any rate, I’m including below the leaked early footage brought to us a few days back by PlayStationLifeStyle, for anyone who hasn’t watched it yet.

Posted by: Jane Douglas

A few days back, IGN ran a pre-E3 reveal on The Grinder: a sublimely titled Wii exclusive shooter from the developer that brought us The Conduit.

The Grinder is apparently a heady combo of four-player online co-op (think Left 4 Dead) and old exploitation horror flicks (think House of the Dead: Overkill), with crowds of vampires, werewolves and zombies awaiting massacre by Wii remote.

It’s fast become my most wanted Wii title at E3 this year, until (or unless) Nintendo whips out a Zelda game hidden up its sleeve. Check it out here: The Grinder Revealed

Posted by: Jane Douglas

At E3 next week, I’ve been offered a look at a new multiplatform Bethesda title, being developed by multiplayer FPS specialist Splash Damage and set for a 2010 release.

The teaser trailer has just arrived. There’s not a lot to be gleaned gameplay-wise from the teaser, and just a few hints at the sci-fi-flavoured fiction: an idyllic future city (or giant building) called the Ark, a “dying world” with, from the sound of it, a war going on.

So far, so generic. Great shooters have been made of thinner stuff, though, and Bethesda is promising something that will really shake up the genre. Fingers crossed.

Brink teaser trailer

Posted by: Jane Douglas

EA Games has unveiled the winning entry to its Dante’s Inferno trailer competition, picked by an “expert panel” at the SCI-FI London film festival.

You can watch the grisly (that is to say, not suitable for kids) trailer below. Part of the prize will be the transformation of this fan-made video into an official trailer, though somehow I suspect this, ahem, unpolished version will be the the nastier.

 YouTube - Dante's Inferno EA Games Winning Trailer
  

Posted by: Jane Douglas

Here’s something I’ve been thinking about ahead of E3: booth babes. (I know, haven’t we all?)

In the stories about how the show, a lower key thing of late, will this year be returned to its former flashy glory, “more booth babes” is usually the proof of E3’s rebirth.

It makes sense: reassert the glitz, glamour and spending power of the games industry by hiring pretty ladies for the show floor. And the usual benefits of having a babe to lure journos towards your wares are clear.

But I wonder if an industry that is, now more than ever, courting a bigger audience of all ages and both genders is best served by a display geared just towards gaming’s traditional youngish male audience.

E3 is the highest profile games expo in the world. If the mainstream media is going to cover games (other than the latest misinformed outrage over digital violence and/or sex), it’s here. In the rare opportunity to address the world, is “we’ve got more booth babes than ever” what gaming wants to say?

Posted by: Jane Douglas

Today a press release from Microsoft hailed the 30 million global sales milestone for the Xbox 360.

Setting aside for a moment the console wars and relative quantities of consoles shifted by the big boys, another figure in the release deserves attention: the Xbox Live community, it says, has grown to “20 million active members.”

Not a small population by any means, but it amounts to only two thirds of Xbox owners, more or less. Are one in three owners not interested in the console’s online offerings? Do they play with their machine off the grid entirely? Or is there rather a significant minority that have their consoles hooked up to the net but eschew multiplayer for single-player action?

It depends how ‘active members’ is defined, of course. Let’s see if we can get some clarification on that…

Posted by: Jane Douglas

Details are scarce (that is to say, non-existent) but add another game to your E3 watch list: a new massively multiplayer online game for the PlayStation 3 and PC, courtesy of the Japanese role-playing game gurus at Square Enix.

So far there’s no more than a codename, Rapture, and a last-minute conference invite. The obvious guess is the game will be an MMO of the RPG variety with a fantasy flavour, given Square Enix’s specialities. Or maybe not – could Square Enix surprise us all? 

We’ve got until Wednesday June 3 to speculate.

Posted by: Nik Taylor

It’s Bank Holiday weekend, which traditionally means half the country decamps to the seaside. If that includes you, and you happen to be heading Brighton-way, you’ll find there’s something more to do than just eat doughnuts and play pinball under the pier (though that’s all good too).

Tomorrow sees the Pixel Hail exhibition open at Brighton’s Fishing Museum, where you can see a selection of artworks by award-winning videogame artists.

The exhibition also contains the artwork of Sam Gill, who won a place for his work (right) through Habbo’s ‘HabPrentice: Designer Edition’ competition. 

There’s some good stuff on show, click on the picture album below to check out a selection of exhibits by Jim Unwin, Orioto, Nelson Evergreen and Sam Gill.

View Full Album

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New Batman villain revealed for Arkham Asylum

The most stylish gadgets in the world

 
Clymo Brief: personal CCTV systems

Posted by: Nik Taylor

When I was a kid and Bullseye was in its pomp I always believed one day I’d get on the show. I wouldn’t be the ‘proper’ darts player, I’d be the mate who’s just come along for a great day out and a smashing time. But then, as it comes down to three darts to take home the speedboat, I’d come through with some spectacular arrows and demolish the 101 target with a stunning 180. Jim Bowen would be gobsmacked.

Sadly, that dream seems destined to stay as nothing more, and not only because Bully has been cruelly removed from the TV schedules. You see, it turns out I’m not much cop at darts, not even the virtual kind. Ample evidence of this can be seen in this video of my recent attempt to take on Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor (no relation, clearly) and James ‘The Machine’ Wade at the Wii’s new PDC World Darts 2009 game. I took a predictable hammering in both games, and can still see the look of pity in James Wade’s eyes as another dart flopped uselessly past the board. It seems darts just ain’t my thing. Still, I bet The Power sucks at CoD4.

Moving swiftly on, it’s been a busy week on T&G. Here are a few things you may have missed…

The best games in the world right now

The 20 best sports games

Iconic retro mobile phones

Microsoft: space is the new frontier

Posted by: Jane Douglas

Measuring just four inches tall, two inches wide and 0.6 inches thick, the Flip Mino HD claims to be the smallest high-definition camcorder in the world. But besides being admirably tiny, is it any good?

The Mino HD, from the maker of last year’s chunkier, cheaper Flip Ultra, is a sleek, simple device with light-up, touch-sensitive buttons and a satisfyingly cool flip-out USB connector.

The 1.5-inch LCD is bright but frustratingly small, though no doubt this helps maintain the impressive battery life.

As for the 1280x720 video itself, the quality in natural light is fab, with good sound pickup. The picture does gets a touch grainy in low light, however. There’s also a 2x digital zoom - a feature more useful in practice than it seems on paper.

If there’s a single pitfall for the Mino HD, it’s the concept itself: the original, highly successful Flip’s selling point was cheap, easy video for uploading to YouTube.

But priced at £170 and putting out 720p video, the Mino HD is a different proposition. You don’t typically need widescreen HD footage for YouTube (though it is supported) and the bigger video files produced will be tougher for a low-to-medium spec computer to edit.

The Mino HD’s user base, then, will be different: people who want to, say, capture quality HD video of a sports day or a wedding for posterity. For them, the Mino HD will be more than up to the task.

While we’re here, how about the best of the week’s T&G?

 
Top new game releases in May

50 gadgets for £50

Safer social networking

Gaming Goss: Driving towards realism

Posted by: Nik Taylor

Unless you’ve been hiding away in some far-flung corner of the galaxy, you’ll have surely noticed there’s a new Star Trek movie coming out this Friday.

We’re quite excited about this, and not only because the mighty Simon Pegg is playing Scotty. In fact, we recently ran a feature looking at the tech behind Star Trek, and wondering whether it could ever become science fact.

Sadly, it seems phasers, transporters and holodecks are still a work in progress for the tech companies of today, but that hasn’t stopped some of them jumping on the coat-tails of one of the summer’s biggest blockbusters.

Take Toshiba, for one, which is using the Star Trek hook to hawk a few more laptops and accessories, but also to run a competition that could take you about as close to space as you’re going to get this side of the 24th century.

Scoop the first prize and you’ll get flown to Las Vegas, where you’ll be strapped into the G-Force One aircraft and flown on a trip where you’ll experience zero-gravity for real. Not quite warp factor nine, but pretty cool nonetheless.

Should you miss out, there’s also a bunch of digital freebies on the site, including some smart wallpapers.

Posted by: Nik Taylor

One of the gadgets I’ve been testing recently are the Etymotic hf2 custom-fit. Now, I’ve listened to the hf2s before (and reviewed them in a recent group test), but the difference with this set is, of course, the custom element.

Each set comes with a pair of ear buds that are moulded to fit the exact shape of your inner ear. The idea behind this is that no other sound can penetrate, so you can listen to your music at a lower volume and with better clarity. It’s sound isolation taken to the extreme.

I’ve been using them for about a week and, as I said in my review, the sound quality is excellent. As for the custom fit tips, these are really comfortable. They feel a bit odd when you first put them in, and anyone with an ‘ear thing’ will definitely not like them, but you quickly forget they are even there.

As you would expect, they do a great job of sound isolation. Put them in without your music switched on and sound is blocked almost as efficiently as if you’re wearing ear plugs. Turn on your tunes and everything else is blocked out, even with music played at fairly low volumes. The ticket inspector on my morning train is starting to get very annoyed at being ignored.

An additional benefit of the custom moulds is that your earphones stay firmly wedged in your ears, even if you’re running. Having said that, movement causes the issue familiar to all in-ear ‘phones of ‘thunder cable’, where the rustling of the cord creates a rumbling noise in the ear. Sporty types are still better off with dedicated sports headphones, for my money.

The hf2s are pitched mainly at iPhone owners, with an inline remote that enables the listener to answer calls and skip and play tracks. If you’re thinking of using them with anything else, be sure to check first that they will work. The connection is incompatible with several brands of mobile phone and MP3 player including, as I’ve found out, the Creative Vision: M and the Nokia N82. But if you’re after some high-end earphones for your iPhone, they’re well worth a look.

The Etymotic hf2 cost £99, with the custom option an extra £90.

Elsewhere on Tech & Gadgets this month

Gadgets from the house of the future

 
Great cycling gadgets

 
Simple surround sound

Top wireless gadgets