Artless Gamer

A few updates ago Microsoft added the Games on Demand option to the Xbox360 Dashboard. On top of that, if you have an Xbox Live account, you can also add games to your download queue straight from the Xbox.com Marketplace. Good going, Microsoft. We love the feature and it makes downloading new titles, add-ons or other things much easier when we can’t be in front of our consoles.

However, not all titles are available in all regions. Some titles are region blocked and won’t allow you to download the selected content. If you try to download such a title you may get a message looking something like this “The game’s region does not match this console” or some variation of it. Besides Major Nelson’s blog, which gives a small hint as to which region can download a certain piece of content, there is very little indication as to the availability of a title.

The other day, Streifenhecht decides to download Assassin’s Creed from Games on Demand on his Xbox 360. No luck. Didn’t work. The same thing happened to me when I first tried to download Mass Effect. A few days later I decided to try again – I have no clue why I tried it again but this time around the download started and I was able to download Mass Effect without any issues. The same counted for Fable II. When I told Streifenhecht about this at work, he went to Xbox.com because he knew he could download games from the web based marketplace, as well. Read the rest of this entry »

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A typical DMZ

Often enough it will happen that you can’t join a server, or can’t be joined in co-op mode of some game because of firwall issues. Some port is blocking proper communication over the network.

If you’re playing on a PC, the game manual will most commonly tell you which ports you have to open for the connection to work as intended. And if you’re playing on a console, there are usually a set number of ports that you have to forward to the console in order for games to establish a proper connection to the servers.

For new gamers, setting up port forwarding is already a daunting task. Router manufacturers haven’t really done much to make it easier on people who don’t happen to know the difference between a service and a rule, between port mapping, port forwarding and port triggering, or simply what a DMZ ist and how there aren’t really any DMZ’s on routers but instead DMZ Hosts.

You’re ready to play ODST, you fire up co-op play, you send a game and party invite to your buddy and all of a sudden you get the message that the party couldn’t be established because of some network problems. You get a chance to diagnose the issue but the offered solutions are often inane since they always lead to the same two suggestions “Contact support” or “Change the NAT type of your router”. Let’s ignore the fact that you can’t really change the NAT “type” on a common consumer router.

So, if you are a PC gamer you’re screwed. You have to port forward your way along until everything works. And when you think that all ports were configured, you probably still forgot something … like Punk Buster or some such cumbersome anti-cheating software that still isn’t properly integrated into games.

However, if you are a console gamer, then you are in luck. If you want to get rid of all your firewall problems in one quick step, then just place your console into a DMZ host. Most routers have this option and what it does it to pretty much open up all ports for your console, only.

Go here to receive instructions on how to forward ports and make other settings on your router.

I don’t recommend setting your PC into the DMZ, though. It leaves you open to all kinds of foul play. Only do this with consoles as they can’t be accessed by way of the internets.

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Big Daddy or VR

Looks like gaming is taking a step further towards proper virtual reality. The BBC featured this article about an all new form of real time gaming. I am not sure that this can be called virtual reality, though. It’d be more like transposed reality.

To summarize the article, laser sensors and cameras will be used to map out the entire area of a racing track which will be made available for download to gamers. After download of the track, gamers can use the recorded copy of the track to race along with the real racers – at the same time.

What catches my interest is the future use of this technology. In the article they are talking about using this on different sports such as skiing and sailing. I suppose on the internet we can be a little more frank with our anticipations. I want Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 to be making use of this technology. Demolition Derby would be Streifenhecht’s first choice. Personally, I’d rather run the “real” streets of New Mombasa and hunt down some “real” Brutes.

Just imagine Leroy Jenkins in one of these.

They claim this tech will be ready in 2010. I am not so sure that our processing power will be ready for it, though. Or is it our wallets that won’t be ready? I am not so sure. If it’s going to be out there next year, though, I hope consoles will be the first ones to test drive this. I don’t want to buy yet another new graphics card.

Another concern would be the distinct lack of video game feeling. We play video games with high expectations in graphic design and performance. But nobody really expects 1:1 likeness to real life. I wonder if this technology could take away some of the “wonder” of video gaming.

We’ll see, I guess.

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We’re live and soon you’ll find all the little useful things you won’t find on the manufacturer’s pages.

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