Blogcritics Author: The Mole

Announcement: Short-content feeds

Phillip Winn — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EDT

Sunday, August 26, 2007, marks the switch of all Blogcritics.org article feeds from full-content to short-content. This is the result of several converging factors, and is unfortunately a permanent decision (as permanent as any decision can be on the web, that is). We are aware of all of the reasons that this is a Bad Idea, and we are aware that some of you will be quite upset about having to click on something to read the free content, and we're sorry. Unfortunately, despite great effort, full-content feeds are not currently economically viable. Two other factors are involved: full-content feeds have resulted in an unprecedented level of content theft, with BC content appearing on many websites, usually spam sites, without attribution or permission. This duplicate content causes a cascading set of problems, not the least of which is that search engines generally aren't favorable to duplicate content, and don't always guess correctly. Finally, our RSS advertising partner is strongly in favor of short-content feeds. We hope that you'll continue to subscribe to BC via RSS, and when an article grabs your eye, it's only a click away, still free on the BC website. Thank you for your understanding.

Nintendo DS Review: Brain Age - Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day

The Mole — Sat, 17 Jun 2006 00:52:04 EDT

Like many gamers, I was extremely skeptical about the Nintendo DS when it originally launched. I thought that the system was ugly and the games were gimmicky. Then, this spring Nintendo showed off the DS Lite and I started to hear a lot about Brain Age, a game in which you do brain exercises and you get smarter. Admittedly, I was intrigued. I finally picked up a DS and Brain Age and I'm absolutely sold on both. However, not only am I really enjoying Brain Age, my wife loves it even more than I do. In fact, she has been known to steal the DS and play sudoku for hours. She has never been much of a gamer, so this phenomenon is a bit of a shock to me. So, what exactly is Brain Age? Brain Age is a game in which you solve puzzles and do math problems to develop your brain skills. There are over 10 different types of puzzles (including Sudoku) that help you exercise your frontal lobe. Some of them are fun and some bring flashbacks of elementary school. Yet, each activity is addictive in its own right. The real standout of Brain Age for me was sudoku. Somehow the craze hit America and I never got exposed to it before this game. Now, I'm hooked. Sudoku is a lot of fun. What makes it even more fun is Brain Age's great Sudoku interface. On one screen you can see the whole board and on the touchscreen you can use the stylus to write in the number. It's really easy and intuitive. Also, you can write in small numbers so that you know what numbers could go in each spot. That really helps. At $20, Brain Age is an absolute steal of a deal. If you own a Nintendo DS, I highly recommend this game. It's fun, addictive, and even is good for your brain. If you don't own a Nintendo DS, I highly recommend picking up the new DS Lite and this game. You won't regret it.Brain Age: Train You Brain in Minutes a Day is rated E (Everyone) by the ESRB.

The Mole is a sneaky, underhanded, and dastardly blogger. Well maybe that's not quite true, but nobody loves (starting)technology rumors as much as The Mole. Period.

Halo Online -- The Billion Dollar Game?

The Mole — Wed, 12 Apr 2006 02:22:35 EDT

A lot of sites dismissed the rumor that the next Bungie project is going to be a Halo game that isn't Halo 3, but does exist in the Halo universe as more of a prequel. I know what you are thinking: sequels suck, but prequels are worse, and I agree. This project is being called Forerunner, a reference to the race of beings that created the Halo rings in the first place. Most sites are calling this pure rumor or speculation. Now, being that I am The Mole and I love to banter about such rumors I have to put my two cents in on what is likely to happen. Okay, here goes:The next game will be online. MMOFPS if you want to call it that. Let's just call it Halo Online. Okay, so Halo Online will be all about being a huge multiplayer battleground. The battle will probably be for Earth and the player can pick a side and battle in huge battles -- 100+ people trying to take over a base and 100+ people trying to hold the base. Instead of getting tons of XP to level a character as you would in a MMORPG, players will need to carry out missions to get better equipment, tanks, and just more bases. The game will probably launch this fall, let's say around November or at the very least will be announced at E3. Halo Online will be as big as World of Warcraft and will be Microsoft's first "billion dollar game." Don't be surprised if this game gets 10 million subscribers paying $10-15 a month within the first three years. That would be over a billion dollars a year in revenue.I know this all sounds a bit crazy, but here is the reasoning. Bungie originally promised huge multiplayer battles and epic battles for earth in Halo 2. That didn't happen, but I'm sure Bungie tried to make it happen. At the same time, World of Warcraft has been making huge waves in the gaming world with its 6 million subscribers worldwide paying $15 a month just to play. A couple years ago those kinds of numbers would have been seen as pure insanity, but Blizzard's near-perfect execution of the MMORPG genre in World of Warcraft made 6 million subscribers a reality. Bungie is one of the few studios who could make the same thing happen to the MMOFPS on a console. After all, Sony and Nintendo pretty much wrote off online console gaming before Halo 2 came out and launched online console gaming into a viable business. Now even Sony is raving about how the PS3 games are going to be "Live" and online (just like Xbox games have been for the last couple years).In short, Halo Online is just too big of an opportunity for Microsoft to pass up. It's a billion dollar idea that if they don't do they would be completely foolish. The Halo fan base would go crazy for it and it would be the biggest game of the next generation. If Bungie and Microsoft make Halo Online happen, the Xbox 360 would end the next-generation console war. Period. Not only that, but a version of Halo Online playable on Windows Vista would ensure that gamers who don't have an Xbox 360 would still upgrade to Vista. It's a win for Microsoft either way.

The Mole is a sneaky, underhanded, and dastardly blogger. Well maybe that's not quite true, but nobody loves (starting)technology rumors as much as The Mole. Period.