New PlayStation 3 Motion Controller Prototype

At TGS today Sony has shown off the new Motion Controller. The controller was originally revealed during E3 2009 and has been criticized for its “ugliness” and for looking like another certain object. It uses the ball on the top of the controller and the PlayStation Eye to track the movements of the controller. Hirai said  that “very accurate” movement can be realized and the reality can be “enhanced” via slight vibration feedback.

Before:

After:

As you can see in the before and after pictures, the top part before the ball, has now curved out and so has the bottom. The Motion Controller is still on schedule to launch in Spring 2010.

*Image credits to Joystiq

Can we Expect a XBOX 360 Slim at all?

With the announcement of the PS3 Slim by Sony at GamesCom last week, there have now been rumors of a XBOX 360 Slim in the works from Microsoft to counter the PS3 Slim. The PS3 Slim is going to be released before September 1st at a new price of $299 and with the announcement of the XBOX 360 Pro being dropped and the XBOX 360 Elite replacing the Pro at the same $299 price point, Microsoft and Sony will finally be going head to head at the same price point. Could this mean that Microsoft might follow Sony’s footsteps and release a slim console of their own?

Microsoft may tell people that they are confident with the way sales are going and they are confident that the PS3 will not overtake the XBOX 360 in sales this holiday season, but there is reason for disbelief. This holiday season can mean announcing a new XBOX 360 Slim soon to counter the PS3 Slim, if sales dip and if the PS3 has higher sales. If they don’t that may be another story, but it can still happen.

If Microsoft were to release an XBOX 360 Slim, they can market it as a new reliable console that is more reliable than the previous versions of the console. A console redesign could be a good marketing move to get rid of the stigma of 360′s continuous breaking down. They can use the knowledge that they have now on heat design and with that they can redesign the XBOX 360 so that it has less faliure rates than before. That would mean less to no RRoD’s, E74 Errors, or other issues.

There is something stopping Microsoft from redesigning a slimmer console. A problem that they face would be that they can’t redesign a slimmer console until they get to the point where they can get the CPU and GPU in the same package. Sony shrinking the cell processor down to 45nm and other components allowed them to build a slimmer version of the console, but Microsoft still has a Falcon 65 nm chipset in their consoles.

This holiday season will be a turning point for better or for worse for Microsoft. Do you think that there will be a slimmer XBOX 360 in the works?

Sony in the Process of Rebranding Itself

With the announcement of the PS3 Slim (not officially called the PS3 Slim) we have been seeing new things coming from Sony on the PS3. As in a  previous article, Sony planning new PS3 Box art with PS3 Slim Announcement?, Sony is now in the process of rebranding it’s flagship PS3 in the market. With the  announcement of the PS3 Slim, it was more than just a new version of the PS3. It was a whole rebranding process with a new logo to go with it.

The new logo is now a third for the PS3 in it’s lifespan. With the original PLAYSTATION 3 Logo with the Spider-Man font as the original marketing figure for the PS3 it was very effective. It was effective in the way that the public quickly made the comparison with the Spider-Man font and were not very happy with it. Lately instead of seeing the PLAYSTATION 3 logo on commercials they were seeing something new in a sense. Instead of it being called PLAYSTATION 3 it was now just PS3, still in the Spider-Man font. This marked the first transition into being known as the PS3 instead of PlayStation 3.

The PS3 Slim has come with a change and Sony’s John Koller has told Ars Technica that, “We’re in the process of replacing the Spider-Man font to the PS3 logo. [The new design] will be the logo moving forward, that will be in place on the hardware and peripherals and software, starting with Uncharted 2.” With that information it confirmed that the PS3 was not only changing its logo, it was changing it’s whole image. Starting with the logo on the PS3, then the logo on the box art, and finally the logo for marketing.

Now to follow up on our previous post about the new box art, Sony planning new PS3 Box art with PS3 Slim Announcement?, the final design has been released and is shown in the new image from the Gundam bundle box. On the left you could see the new PS3 logo on the box, without PLAYSTATION 3 in Spider-Man font on the side, and with a MUCH cleaner look.

With this change, things are starting to be more consistent and it gives Sony a cleaner look on their products. Sony has gone back to their old marketing way’s and if they can market the PS3 like they did with the PS2, they can not only re-gain the lead this console generation, they can win it.

[Review]Gameloft’s NFL 2010 for the iPhone

At DotDosh.com we started doing reviews for applications on the iPhone, like Atari football.  As our second review we will be looking at the Gameloft’s NFL 2010 for the iPhone/iPod Touch (App Store Link here).

Description:

Enjoy a 100% authentic NFL game experience with real teams, real players and real action. Whether you’re are a fan of the Steelers, Cardinals or Cowboys, you can lead your favorite team through an entire season and battle for the ultimate prize: The Super Bowl.

We start out with how the game looks and feels.

You are greeted with a loading screen and when loaded it asks you to “touch screen to continue.” From there you are given a basic menu with options for: Quick Play, Game Modes, and Settings. You can play a “Quick Play” game, which chooses two random NFL teams for you to play with or go into “Game Modes” and play an Exhibition game (like Quick Play, but you choose the team to play with and against), Season (Franchise Mode), or Playoff games.

In “Season Mode”, you get to chose the team to play a whole season with. After you choose your team, I chose my favorite team the Green Bay Packers, you are greeted with a screen that shows your schedule, stats, team roster, standings, settings, save & quit, and play your next game.

When you start your next game, you are greeted with a screen that tells you what team you are playing and at who’s stadium it is at. After that it loads the game and you are greeted with two helmets of both teams clashing against each other with the announcer talking about the game. The stadium’s fan’s can be heard cheering, but they do not move at all.

After the introduction you are greeted with the coin toss. If you win you get to choose whether to receive or kick the ball. If you lose, the other team chooses what they want to do.

We will start with offense in our review. When you start your offense you are greeted to choose from basic plays or advanced plays in the play book. In the basic play’s you can choose to run the ball or throw/pass the ball.

In the basic play’s option, you can choose to run the ball or throw/pass the ball.There is an option for special teams, but you use that for 4 down situations.

In running you have three offensive play options. You can run straight forward, run wide to the outside, and make a fake run and throw the ball.

In the image above it shows offensive plays for running to the outside.

In throwing/passing you also have three offensive play options. You can pass the ball for a shot gain, medium gain, and a longer gain.

In the image above it shows offensive plays for passing the ball a medium range to the receiver.

When you have chosen a play to run with, whether it is to run the ball or throw the ball, you are in the formation to hike the ball.

You can also choose to do an advanced play, in which you can choose what formation you want to run the ball. You can see that in the above picture.

When you have hiked the ball and you are going to throw it you are given symbols over the receivers names. They can be stars, squares, circles, or diamonds for the receivers. A symbol with the color red means that its going to be very hard for the receiver to catch it, yellow means that its going to be a 50-50 shot, and green means that its going to be a very good chance that it will be caught.

When a defender is in front of you, you are given three options to try to avoid a defender. The game pauses for you to choose what you want to do. You can spin, fake them, or truck them. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t, so it’s all chance to avoid a defender.

Kickoff’s and field goals are done the same way. On the left there is a cursor that moves around and you have to try to get it as near or on the center for it to go straight into the goal or for it not to go out of bounds during kickoff. The right is the power meter. The higher the power, the farther the ball will go to the receiving team or the farther you can be to hit a field goal.

In the end, you can either win the game or lose the game.

After you have won or lost the game, you are greeted with the stats of the game. It shows you the final score, total yards gained, passing yards gained, rushing yards gained, how many first downs you got, how many sacks/interceptions you made,  and your possession time with the ball.

When you have won the game you are sent back to the main screen where you can see your stats, standings, and what your next game is.

Story: There is no story. You are a football team that is trying to beat other football teams.

Presentation: The visuals for the game is good for a mobile game on the iPhone/iPod Touch. The games menus are easy to navigate, simple, and to the point. The game does not integrate weather effects into the game, which would have been a nice option. The crowd just makes noise and does not move at all, which is unrealistic, but it is a mobile game, which means less resources available to use.

This is the first game on the iPhone/iPod Touch that uses official NFL team names and player names. That gives the player a better feel for the game that they are playing.

Overall it has a good NFL football vibe, which Gameloft was going for.

Gameplay: Controls are decent for a football game. You use the joystick to move the player that you are controlling and there are buttons that allow you to change who you are controlling. When there is a defender in front of you, the game pauses and allows you to chose a move to dodge. This disturbs the free flow of sports games, as other football games don’t just pause in the middle of the play for you to dodge the defender. This might appeal to some, but for others it might not.
Defending the other team’s offense is very simple. If they are throwing it is VERY easy to intercept the ball or throw the ball down before the receiver can grab it. If they are running it is also simple to tackle the runner before they can get away from you.

We are sad that there is no multi-player for the game, but Gameloft has said that in the next version there will be Online, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi multi-player.

Overall game play is well done, but the pauses might not bode well with some fans.

Sound: The sound in the game is basic. There is one announcer and after a couple of games it is just the same thing being repeated over and over again. There is no commentary like in Madden if that is what you were expecting. There is the basic noise of football going on and with the crowd’s cheers in the background.

In Conclusion: All in all the game is not perfect, but good. It can be fun and very easy if you get the hang of it. It is no Madden NFL for consoles, but it is a very well sports game done for the iPhone by Gameloft. WE also love that it is a licensed NFL game.

This game is very fun and worth it for the $7.99 that is being charged. If you can wait until Madden ‘10 on the iPhone/iPod Touch I would suggest that you do. That way you can compare which is better and can let you have more fun. If you are planning on buying both football games though, then this is a great football game for a mobile device.

In the next version of the game Gameloft will be adding: Online, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi multi-player, NFL RSS feed of your favorite team, upload re-play’s to youtube, a Special match: Zombies vs. Skeletons, and Gameloft Live compatibility.

Final Score:

App Store link: Gameloft NFL 2010, $7.99

NFL 2010 – Gameloft
Price: $7.99 [App Store Link]
Played On: iPod Touch 2G

Tell us what you think about the game or review in the comments! Stay tuned more reviews are coming your way! We will be reviewing Madden NFL ’10 for the iPhone/iPod Touch as soon as it releases!