Microsoft Canada held a conference called EnergizeIT in Toronto yesterday that I had the pleasure of attending. The conference was to showcase some of Microsoft’s new technologies to an enthusiast crowd. There were multiple streams that each attendee could participate in — from security, to networking, and finally, to game development, the one that I decided to go to.
The game development stream showcased, mostly, Microsoft’s new XNA framework, which is freely available and allows individuals to write fairly complex DirectX-based games in C# with little effort. These games can then play on your Windows-based PC or on an Xbox 360. This framework is exciting news, and the fact that Microsoft is taking a more proactive approach to game development is a good sign.
However, out of a room of about 60 people, approximately 5 were female, which isn’t a good sign that the game development world is including a whole lot of women. The XNA community, as well, doesn’t appear to have a lot of women developers, either — too bad.
EnergizeIT 2007
XNA Creator’s Club
Sony’s PSP is not a bad device. I’m happy to say that the PSP has the upper hand versus the DS in a number of categories. Let’s review:
Graphics: Lush, fluid colours, animation, and detail on the PSP and its powerful graphics processor beat the DS’ underpowered GPU in just about every situation.
Sound: The PSP’s sound processor is much faster than the DS’ and therefore, sound is a lot clearer.
Storage Media: The PSP uses a UMD, which is an optical disc that can store up to 1.9 GB of data — the DS is stuck with the cartridge format, and can’t go much higher than 128 MB.
There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that the PSP is the more powerful unit. However, it does have its flaws…
Continue reading “Why Sony can’t beat the DS”
EA sure pushes the boundaries of what is acceptable in product placement these days. While there is a Best Buy in Need for Speed: Underground 2 and ads all over their EA Sports titles, The Sims 2: H&M Fashion Stuff is their latest attempt. The difference is that it adds no gameplay to The Sims 2, just a bunch of H&M clothing and decorations for your sims’ homes and stores. In other words, you’re paying EA for an in-game advertisement that they’ve already been paid for.
The Sims 2: H&M Fashion Stuff homepage
