Wednesday, April 9th, 2008

Some really interesting news in Flickr-land was announced today. Flickr has, after many weeks of rumors flying around, announced that they will be allowing users to share videos on their site. This is really great news, as I subscribe to some folks on YouTube, but most of the videos they post are crap (funny videos, clips from TV shows, etc). And there is nothing wrong with that sort of stuff, but I think there needs to be a filter mechanism to separate all of the recycled stuff from personally crafted content.

On top of that, they have imposed a 90 second limit for the videos. I’m sure some people will say that they want to share longer videos than that cut off, and I can certainly see that side of the argument. But, as the Flickr Blog states:

“90 seconds? While this might seem like an arbitrary limit, we thought long and hard about how video would complement the flickrverse. If you’ve memorized the Community Guidelines, you know that Flickr is all about sharing photos that you yourself have taken. Video will be no different and so what quickly bubbled up was the idea of ‘long photos,’ of capturing slices of life to share.”

I think folks will learn to share their quicker ‘clips’ at Flickr and find another place to share their longer videos, either at YouTube or a nicer competitor like Vimeo.

I’m really excited about this, as I really think that the best way to share video online is through short video clips rather than long, epic movies. It’s kind of the Twitter-esque philosophy, but instead of 140 characters, it’s 90 seconds of video. I think this will encourage people to focus on quality and not just upload every stupid video clip they produce. And since Flickr guidelines state that the only video you can share is video that you yourself have taken, it kind of makes sense in that regard as well.

This also may inspire me to purchase a Flip Video, which it would appear about half of the internet is talking about. It’s a tiny little camera that only costs $179, and shoots one hour of video at 640×480 in AVI format. From the examples I’ve seen out there, the quality is excellent for such a low-priced camera. The problem most people have with video is the fact that their gear is cumbersome and expensive. Both make it pretty tough to want to take to social functions or just ‘out’ for the day at the park or whatever. This will make it a lot easier to capture quality video, plug it into your computer, and within minutes have your video online.

Anyway, if you’re a pro Flickr user, I recommend you get over there and check out some of the videos and share your own.

And if you’re feeling really saucy, check out an old favorite. At least an old favorite of mine.

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Posted on April 9th, 2008 | 4 Comments »

Saturday, April 5th, 2008

My latest Nintendo Wii Purchase has been MLB Power Pros, a baseball game that has incredible depth but you wouldn’t know if at first glance. I was a bit skeptical when I read reviews of this game, as the graphics are obviously quite simple. It looks like one of those games like “backyard football” where it’s totally geared towards children - sometimes featuring childhood versions of professional athletes.

MLB Power Pros is different, however. This game may look simple, but it is anything but. There is a wealth of information about each player already contained within the game, and the season mode immerses you in a sea of ridiculously thorough numerical data about every possible stat known to man. On top of that, the gameplay is quite easy to pick up, but leaves you a lot of room for improvement as you go on, and tons of control over pitching, batting, running and fielding. I really can’t state this enough - MLB Power Pros is one of those rare games that almost anyone could pick up and start playing instantly, but to fully ‘get’ the game they would have to play for hours or days.

The gameplay really is amazing. There are a variety of ways to play the game - you can use the Wii remote turned sideways, much like when you are playing virtual console games. You can also use the classic controller (this is what I do). Either way, you use the directional pad/joystick to aim where you want to place the ball after you have selected your pitch. A small baseball cursor appears where you are trying to pitch to, but the actual accuracy of the pitch depends on how talented your pitcher is, and how fatigued he is. Batting works similarly. You have an overlay of your batter’s ’sweet spot’, which varies from player to player. When you see the ball coming, you move your bat to the area you want to swing, and press B. If you managed to place the sweet spot in the correct location, you probably will make contact and get a hit. Based on your timing, you can hit the ball to any field you want, and based on the angle you swing, you can hit a fly ball or a grounder, etc.

It’s really very easy to get in there and start playing. There are more advanced controls you can get into (power swings, baserunning controls, etc) but the basic premise is really easy to learn and that makes the game a winner. As I mentioned before, the stats are incredibly deep. Pitch counts, pitch type counts, ball locations, batting stats and so much more are tallied by the game. You can bore yourself to death with this stuff, but I actually did use it to my advantage on a number of occasions when I realized a) I swung at every pitch the computer threw and never took a pitch and b) my pitching was quite predictable. I corrected both of these things and now I’m doing much better in my season as the Braves.

While the season mode is played with traditional controls, there are modes that you can utilize the Wii remote as well. There is a home run derby and an exhibition game that you can play in either one or two player mode, which allows you to swing the remote to pitch, run, hit, and field. You can also select Mii characters to play on your team and to play against you. Pitching and batting work just like Wii Sports Baseball. To run the bases or to run to the ball faster, you simply shake your remote. Kind of basic, but it doesn’t get too annoying.

Despite my gushing about the game, there are some things that are less than perfect. The announcer is usually dead on, sometimes gets too excited about ‘it’s a hit’ when it’s a hit … but it’s also an out. He also struggles with basic grammatical rules. This game is a port of a highly successful Japanese game by the same name, so that can explain some of the oddities in this area, but they are easily overlooked. Also, the rosters and schedule a year old. So if you’re the type who is super anal about these types of things, prepare to either play with last year’s team, or do a lot of editing of rosters.

Overall, this is probably the most entertaining sports game I’ve played in some time. This is definitely the best sports game I have played on the Wii, and I think that will probably hold true until I play NCAA Football this year, or whenever they come out with Mario Tennis.

Anyway, it’s only 30 bucks on Amazon so if you’re a baseball fan, a Wii owner, or a statistics nut, you will most likely love this game.

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reviews, wii, video games, baseball, mlb, power pros, nintendo

Posted on April 5th, 2008 | 3 Comments »