http://www.clidus.com Stuff goes here en CloudANDTids <webmaster@clidus.com> CloudANDTids <webmaster@clidus.com> 11/10/08 06:30 PM http://backend.userland.com/rss092 http://www.clidus.com/images/logo.png http://www.clidus.com Stuff goes here http://www.clidus.com/archives/00000015.shtml For a little over a month now I've been the proud owner of an (ironically now out dated!) Apple MacBook. It's been ten years since my family got one of those newfangled computers; an auspicious darling that cost upwards of a thousands pounds and ran Windows 98 as well as the government does border control. Funny thing is despite the hardware failures, the daily blue screens of death and the small house fires it caused, I always went back to being perfectly happy with the incredible speeds of 52k dial-up the moment it worked again. This mentality of self harm is created from the presumption that all computers are like this. Time may have passed but as a previous Windows XP and Vista user myself, I know that a decade has done little to solve the problems that slow and unstable operating systems have and the sheer noise pollution from the twenty-nine hundred fans that keep the OS ticking over for just five more minutes. A catastrophic problem with my Dell laptops screen hinge is what... http://www.clidus.com/archives/00000014.shtml Today marks the start of a little collaborative project I've been preparing with my partners in crime Reeve and namatamiku for the last month or so. The plan; to play Capcom's cult hit Okami simultaneously and to blog our experiences. Okami has been on my backlog since it first came out and like the rest of you, have heard many good things about it. I've even owned the PlayStation 2 version of the game for nearly two years now, but have never felt I could do the game justice unless I gave it the adequate time it deserves. Well that time has arrived. Despite the amazing lineup of games coming out this holiday I plan to play a title released in Feburay 2007. Heck, with the economic crisis going on right now, you should all be doing this. Check out the blog, join us in the comments and if you like, play along with us. Good times to be had by all a guarantee. okamiblog.blueshinra.com http://www.clidus.com/archives/00000013.shtml It's come to my attention that I've been severely neglecting this blog for some months and all for the wrong reasons. While I don't particularly want to go into those reasons and why they were quite wrong indeed, I wish to assure you that I'm truly back now, with my personal cocktail of opinions in tow, both right and wrong depending on how much you agree with me or how much I've paid you. Over the last couple months I've seen an interesting movement among my friends and cohorts, who seem to be speedily migrating in the direction of Microsoft's Xbox 360, a "little" white box that many wouldn't have considered buying just twelve months ago. While its fair to say a lot of this has to do with the outrageous price of its competitor, it should be noted that nearly all my friends own Wii's and have since had to "move on" just a couple years into ownership. It used to be possible to go through an entire console generation on a single machine (indeed, I was a PlayStation guy through and... http://www.clidus.com/archives/00000012.shtml Clidus Cam returns to bring you the details on what could be the most impressive third party game on Wii. From the mind of Steven Spielberg, is Boom Blox a block party delight or simply a toppling disaster waiting to happen? Find out today, only on Clidus Cam. http://www.clidus.com/archives/00000011.shtml One of the easiest ways to spot a terrible web designer is by checking out a websites source code to see whether or not they used tables for the fundamental design of the site. One of the interesting issues with tabular design vs. CSS is that visually for the user there could be no differences whatsoever. From a technical standpoint however, tables are “bad” for multiple reasons. The simplest argument, and one commonly ignored by designers is the idea that semantically tables were never created for the purpose of site layout. The W3C’s original intention was for tables to be used as a simple way of displaying data (a good example of this would be a work timetable), however at the time of inception there wasn’t a better way to create intuitive site layouts (frames have never been a good idea…), so tables were taken out of their original context. http://www.clidus.com/archives/00000010.shtml This isn't really an official episode of Clidus Cam, however I was playing with a camera one rainy day and thought I'd show you one of human kinds biggest sins. The creation of home trampolines. Also includes a sparkle of cat for good will. http://www.clidus.com/archives/00000009.shtml It's incredibly sad to see our industry turn something that was originally about the fun and the music, into being a war over exclusive tracks and proprietary hardware, fuelled by the greed of multinational corporations. Harmonix Music Systems made many music games before they hit the big time (most notably FreQuency and Amplitude for the PlayStation 2), however it wasn't until RedOctane helped them publish Guitar Hero in 2005 that it became a cultural phenomenon. Taking into account news that has recently broken; it's quite ironic to think that Guitar Hero was inspired by Konami's Guitar Freaks, a game they refused to publish outside Japan despite repeated requests from critics and gamers alike. http://www.clidus.com/archives/00000008.shtml Yesterday I joined E, tetsuotrunks and S.Roth on the Fantasy World Podcast. It was filled with fun, frolic and an educational discussion on milk production, but there may have possibly been some talk about games too. I'll let the description to the talking. The Fantasy World Podcast crew are joined this week by Brian "S.Roth" Williams to discuss Lost Winds, VIP Black Jack and Dr Mario for WiiWare, the new Nintendo Channel, Mario Kart Wii, Penny Arcade Adventures and Metal Gear Online! Plus, we rejoice in the madness that was the Tournament of Champions and reveal the final leader board! It's the calcium injection of a lifetime! You can download it over here somewhere. http://www.clidus.com/archives/00000007.shtml Clidus Cam returns to bring you the details on what could be the most impressive third party game on Wii. From the mind of Steven Spielberg, is Boom Blox a block party delight or simply a toppling disaster waiting to happen? Find out today, only on Clidus Cam. http://www.clidus.com/archives/00000006.shtml The PlayStation 3 was released just over a year and a half ago, amid a flurry of PR disasters and less than amazing review scores. The system was generally regarded as being late, extortionately expensive for the average gamer and rather incomparable to the feature set and game library offered by the competition. Since then we've passed through no less than five different hardware configurations, victory with Blu-Ray, multiple price drops and the megaton release of Grand Theft Auto IV. Combined with the imminent launch of Metal Gear Solid 4, Sony's black behemoth should now be fully primed to sell to the die hard PlayStation 2 users who finally feel the need to make the upgrade to high definition. Sony certainly seems to be taking full advantage of the release of long awaited games with hard hitting bundles at realistic prices, such as the GTAIV one being offered by UK retailers, and early signs from a retail level certainly seem to point to a movement in favour of the PlayStation...