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Which is better: Short or long video games?
Advent Vega Tegra 2 tablet back in stock
Notion Ink tease “big day for Android” on December 6: Pre-orders or Gingerbread?
Playstation Phone in Two Clear Hands On Closeup Videos
The Daily Slash: December 3 2010

Which is better: Short or long video games?

Posted: 04 Dec 2010 10:13 AM PST

When it comes to video games, every player is different. Some gamers enjoy sitting down on the couch for hours and playing through an adventure game that might take weeks to complete. And each and every time, they complete it.

[Image credit: The Hamster Factor]

However, there are also some gamers in the market that don't have the time (or the desire) to play games in that way. Instead, they enjoy shorter titles that they can play for a half-hour at a time and eventually complete it when they get around to it. They might also like more casual games that they can quickly pick up for a few minutes on their smartphones.

But whenever console video games are reviewed by players nowadays, their main storyline's length is always a major issue. If they're short, like Medal of Honor's campaign, which took a handful of hours to complete, they're typically panned. But if they take 20 or 30 or 40 hours to complete, they're called an "epic" title that delivers value on the gamer's hard-earned money.

Now, I can appreciate that people want to get as much as possible out of a $60 game. And I'll be the first one to admit that if a game has a good story line, I will invest the 40 hours it takes to complete it. But I also see value in short games. I like the idea of knowing that I won't be locked into a title for a work week. And I especially like knowing that the game will move at a rapid rate with the ultimate goal of getting me to finish it in short order.

Simply put, I guess I'm up for just about any type of game. And I can appreciate both types.

But I'm a little concerned that some gamers aren't. Some folks feel that developers pulled one over on them by not delivering a long game. And they feel cheated out of their hard-earned cash. They think that the length of the main story matters more than the experience of living through that story.

That's a sad belief. Some of the best games I've played this year didn't necessarily take so long to complete, but delivered a lasting appeal that I still look back on fondly. And such an extreme opinion about a short title forgets about another key aspect of video games today: multiplayer.

That's precisely why I can't fault Medal of Honor or Call of Duty: Black Ops for being so short. Their developers focused much of their efforts on the multiplayer experience. And especially in the case of Black Ops, that strategy worked beautifully. So, while we might not spend dozens of hours beating Black Ops, we will spend dozens of hours online playing the game after the main campaign is complete.

I just don't think the length of a given title's main storyline should matter. Sure, it shouldn't last for an hour or two, but as long as it hits the five-hour mark and features solid online play, I'm content. And I won't fault developers who are spending boatloads of cash just to get a game onto store shelves for delivering a shorter game.

But that's just me. What do you think? Do games with longer main stories hold more value than shorter titles?

Advent Vega Tegra 2 tablet back in stock

Posted: 04 Dec 2010 03:12 AM PST

Advent’s Vega Android tablet is back in stock this morning, with retailer PC World showing the £249 slate up for home delivery. As we’ve seen over the past couple of weeks, however, stock of the 10-inch Tegra 2 tablet doesn’t hang around for long, so we’d advise buying sooner rather than later if you’re hoping to get one from this batch.

Advent has also confirmed that all pre-orders from the Vega’s last sales availability earlier in the week have been processed, so if you were lucky enough to punch in your credit card details in time you should have a present winging its way through the post soon. More details on the slate in our hands-on unboxing; we’ll have a review of the Vega very soon.

Notion Ink tease “big day for Android” on December 6: Pre-orders or Gingerbread?

Posted: 04 Dec 2010 01:53 AM PST

Notion Ink has put out another of its weekend updates, and it seems Adam is already going through FCC testing. The company also has a few teasers, including the suggestion that “6th December is another big day for Android and you will find out how fast Notion Ink can work. (Eden is extremely compatible with 2.3)”; that could be a hint that pre-orders will open on the 6th, that Android 2.3 Gingerbread is set to launch on that day and Notion Ink will be quickly updating their slate to support the new version, or even that Adam will launch with 2.3 pre-loaded.

Meanwhile there are fresh details about the browser and mail apps, and what sounds like a note-taking app that can collate snipped screenshots and text from the browser. Interestingly, the company has also added in a password-protected email feature, which supposedly allows you to lock down a message to only the person you’ve sent it too; seems Notion Ink grew a little wary of email after seeing some of their developer early-application emails misused.

All six versions of the Adam slate have passed EMI testing – you can find details and pricing on the different SKUs here – and Notion Ink’s sales and marketing team are now apparently in Europe, likely talking to carriers and distributors there. CEO Rohan has also confirmed that pre-orders will initially be limited to those who have commented on the company’s blog, before opening up shortly after to the general public.

[Thanks everyone who sent this in!]

Playstation Phone in Two Clear Hands On Closeup Videos

Posted: 03 Dec 2010 08:55 PM PST

So there’s this guy, and he’s on the internet. He has a Playstation phone, and he runs it in front of a camera, but he’s got no games for it! You know what that means? It either means he really doesn’t like games or they just don’t really have any ready to even show this guy who seems to be the only person in the world to have this early version of the “Zeus Z1.” What you CAN see is that it’s running a version of Android which very much appears to be version 2.3 Gingerbread (it even says Gingerbread on the app version, wowie), and there IS definitely a Playstation icon.

You can also see that this Sony Ericsson device has a large S in a square in the center of the slide-out control pad and that the classic triangle – circle – x – square combination is on the right side buttons. It’s so pretty. The slider seems to slide ever-so-smoothly. The entire device does seem to be thicker than most similar devices, most of the size coming from the back, the top of which has two more large controller buttons (L and R) and what appears to be a volume toggle, and that big fat camera is sitting on the back as well. Watch both videos and get all pumped up – and note that there is no audio, we double checked.

[Via SlashPhone]

The Daily Slash: December 3 2010

Posted: 03 Dec 2010 07:26 PM PST

Wow what a freaking wild day – phones exploding, ‘Splosions being announced, and we get announced to a [Google Chrome event] for next week! This really gets me pumped up. Events are the best. There’s breakfast there. Also today we get our hands on a [ONA Union Street Camera and Messanger bag], review a [simplehuman sensor can] (for electronic garbage tossing!), and scream like little girls over the Android release of Pocket God. There’s a new smart gun announced for use by US troops in Afghanistan and KISS re-releases their epic coffin line (coincidence?) Philip Berne writes an epic take on [Hannukah and the Hobby Lobby], and NOOKcolor has an SDK released for developers.

All this and MORE on The Daily Slash!

SlashLEAKAGE
As this Wikileaks popularity surge unfolds, I for one would like to see at least everyone aware of how awesome certain elements of this story are. Of course, ideally it would be neat if everyone read all billion and a half pages of the leaked documents WikiLeaks has released so far, but you know good and well most of that stuff will end up being saved on people’s computers and never peeked at again. On the other hand, these meme-worthy details of the situations that are unfolding as WikiLeaks falls under scrutiny WILL be read. What’s neat today? The fact that now two of WikiLeaks servers are hosted by a group called Bahnhof. This Swedish internet carrier runs no less than a data center housed in an undeground, granite surrounded World War 2 era bunker in the downtown area of Stockholm. Bahnhof’s chief executive Jon Karlung aims to keep these servers open and up, no matter the international pressure to shut them down: "Swedish laws apply in Sweden. Only the proper authorities can shut this down. There have been no such claims, … We're confident that we can continue to operate the servers."