HP Firefly with Voodoo DNA laptop hands-on

The geeks over at Laptop Magazine got hands-on with a concept gaming notebook from HP called the Firefly with Voodoo DNA. The notebook has some interesting features that would be cool to be able to buy in a notebook. The two most notable features are the secondary LCD and the repositioned track pad. When you hear second display in conjunction with a laptop, your mind may immediately go to the massive Lenovo W700ds with its side mounted 10-inch LCD.

HP takes a different route for its secondary display, and I question the usefulness of the display at all. It's a tiny 4.3-inch job with a resolution of 800 x 480, which is a lot of resolution for such a small screen. The most appealing of the features is the track pad that is repositioned from below the keyboard to the right side. Since most of us are right handed that means your mouse is to the side of your notebook in a more comfortable position. If you are a lefty, I am betting the track pad is a big bag of suck. Considering the keyboard appears to be full size, the Firefly (not to be confused with the Firebird) will be a massive beast of a notebook. The primary 17-inch display isn't the largest LCD available on a notebook, but the firefly is a behemoth. If you travel a lot and the notebook actually makes it to market, your back will hate you for getting one.
Further Reading: < Laptop Magazine

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Microsoft refutes reports claiming it's using Home

Sony made headlines just a few days ago when word came up that a number of high-profile companies were testing out PlayStation Home as a potential candidate for corporate virtual meetings.

One of the companies that was reportedly testing out Sony's free social community software was Microsoft, but the company has now publicly refuted the reports.

CVG got word from the company directly. "Microsoft will not be using Home as a tool for virtual meetings," a spokesperson said. "With fantastic Microsoft-developed products and applications like Live Meeting and even Xbox Live Party, we have everything we need to host a virtual meeting in-house."

Clearly the company wouldn't want to play up whatever internal testing with Sony's software it is doing, but there is undoubtedly a team watching carefully as Sony experiments with social communities through its console to see if there is anything worth following up on. After all, the Avatars certainly were not drawn from the inspiration of Nintendo's Miis. Certainly not.

Still, it's safe to say that while Microsoft would never need to use Home, the company has surely tested the product to see what it does well. Would anyone admit to it? Of course not, but it's silly to think that Microsoft hasn't fully explored Home, deep in the cold of its Borg cube.

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The ultimate Street Fighter IV fight: 360 vs. PS3 at CES

Tomorrow Frank and I are packing up early in the morning to catch our flights to Las Vegas for CES, where Sony and Microsoft have teamed up with Capcom for the ultimate challenge: the best PS3 SF IV player will match up against the best 360 SF IV player for a battle to the (virtual) death.

"Here's how it works: We'll hold a tournament on the PLAYSTATION 3 version of Street Fighter IV to determine the best PlayStation player," the PlayStation Blog reports. "This fantastic and charismatic individual will be awarded a Collector's Edition Street Fighter IV, before taking on the Microsoft winner. This person will then be victorious, because they're just that special. Capiche?" If you're interested in defending the honor of the PS3 in Vegas, send an e-mail to iwannaplaystreetfighteriv@gmail.com with your name, PSN ID, and why you think you should have a chance to compete.

"Oh, and Sony has Microsoft dazed early with a Better D-Pad Shoryuken!"

Microsoft's Major Nelson brings you the other side of the coin. "Street Fighter IV won't be out for another month, but if you are in Las Vegas later this week I've got some great news for you. Capcom is giving you, well twenty of you, a chance to get your hands on it early. As in way early…as in this week. In addition, we'll take the best SF IV player and put you up against the best SF IV player," he writes. "It's a cross-platform Battle Royale. Interested in defending our honor? If you are 18 years of age or older, and you are in the greater Las Vegas area send me an email (Major at Xbox dot com) with your Gamer tag, your real name and why you deserve to be in on the action. Only 20 players can represent Xbox 360 since it will be a tight fit in the Capcom suite. Head over to the Capcom blog for more details and I'll see some of you on Thursday."

Capcom is promising that both Sony and Microsoft will be "sweetening the pot" for this event, so we'll have to wait and see what that means. This is a pretty fantastic promotion to get two heated groups of gamers together for some pretty extreme bragging rights.

Anyone have any bets on which side will be the victor?

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More Xbox 360 JRPG love: Magna Carta sequel inbound

For a system unable to capture a significant marketshare in Japan and known mostly for its shooters, the Xbox 360 is the console to get for Western-localized Japanese RPGs. Microsoft's box has played host to just about every noteworthy JRPG this generation thus far, and it looks like yet another JRPG of old will find a new home on the system: Softmax has announced that a new Magna Carta game is coming to the Xbox 360.

Avid JRPG fans will remember the Atlus-published Magna Carta: Tears of Blood as a decent, visually-striking PS2 JRPG with a mostly-female cast and a strong strategic bent. The new Xbox 360 title, called Magna Carta: Crimson Stigma, is its sequel currently in development. Aside from that, though, little else is known: pricing information, potential release date, and any game play details have not yet been disclosed.

Atlus has always specialized in bringing off-the-wall, unique RPGs to America, so this game will likely be one to watch. In the mean time, let's wonder why the Xbox 360 has become the bastion for JRPG games this generation. With Final Fantasy, Star Ocean, and the Tales Of franchises in tow, alongside countless other JRPGs, there are few current-generation entries into the genre that don't hit the Xbox 360. Weird, isn't it? The 360 is basically a Suikoden, Persona, Wild Arms, and Breath of Fire away from being a PS2—in spite of cancellations that would say otherwise.

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Killzone 2 demo incoming for Europe and North America

It has been a long time coming, but next month will finally see the release of the PlayStation 3 exclusive Killzone 2. For those who want to try the game out before taking the plunge, Sony has confirmed that a demo will be available on the PlayStation Network... at some point.

For North American gamers, early access to the demo is dependent upon pre-ordering the game. Those who pre-order Killzone 2 from GameStop, beginning on February 3, will get a download code for the demo. However, once the game is released on February 27, the demo will be made available to all PS3 owners. Meanwhile, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe has confirmed a demo for that region as well, but it won't be tied to any sort of pre-order bonus.

This seems like an odd move. Shouldn't the demo try to convince those on the fence to buy the game? Why give it to people whose money you already have? With a game like Killzone 2, which has a lot to prove to many gamers, a good demo can be a great selling tool. If the demo impresses, it can create a great deal of word-of-mouth buzz, similar to what happened to Bioshock in 2007. Making people pay for the privilege of trying the game early is an odd twist on the very idea of a demo.

North Americans with plans to pre-order now have a tough choice ahead of them: go for the demo, or a Helghast costume for Home?

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Indie dev suggests peers should support OS X, Linux gaming

2008 was a big year for indie gaming. With the likes of Braid, Castle Crashers, World of Goo, and a host of other titles raking up big sales numbers, the indie gaming industry is growing right alongside its bigger brother. And, like the indie film industry before it, the smaller, more humble sector of the industry garners a lot of adoration and respect from its faithful followers. But now that the indie sector is growing, how does one stand out from the pack? According to one indie developer, the answer is simple: make games for Mac OS X and Linux.

Jeff Rosen of Wolfire Games recently made the case for indie devs to embrace cross-platform gaming on his company's official blog. Using the success of his own title, Lugaru, as a starting point, Jeff asserts that creating cross-platform games can have a huge affect on the way the market receives the title. Even though OS X and Linux may have a smaller market share, Jeff argues, the residual word-of-mouth sales generated by that smaller piece of the pie can potentially facilitate a marked increase in total sales.

"Obviously supporting Mac OS X and Linux means you tap into another platform and expand your potential market base," wrote Jeff. "That much is clear. But surely adding an extra five percent is negligible, right? Wrong. Not all five percents are created equal."

According to the sales statistics from Lugaru, which is currently available for PC, Mac, and Linux, Jeff witnessed a 122 percent increase in sales as a result of his decision to release the title on the OS X and Linux platforms in addition to Windows. To date, 50 percent of the software's overall sales have come from the Mac OS X version and another five percent of the Linux version.

Jeff's argument essentially boils down to "it's good to be a big fish in a small pond." By creating a title with a decent scale and scope for the Mac OS X and Linux platforms, developers gain attention from the media and the fan communities involved with those platforms, which can be a vocal minority. "Having a Linux build meant coverage on Slashdot," Jeff explained. "A lot of people heard about and supported Lugaru simply because we had a Linux build."

Those vocal minorities, if treated well, tend to evolve into evangelists, who in turn sell the game to others in a more passionate and contagious way. "A small minority of your users will go crazy with your game and spread it all over the place," said Jeff. "On the Internet, all it takes is one thread on a popular forum, and you've literally got hundreds or thousands of new visitors. Basically, a small amount of your users can make a huge difference for you."

"To conclude, if you're not supporting Linux and Mac OS X from a philosophical standpoint or for the fans, at least do it for the money," Jeff closed, bluntly. "If you don't support non-Windows platforms, you're leaving a lot of cash on the table. I don't know about you, but I'm not in a position to just say f— it to a large community of people who want to support us."
Ignorance, arrogance, and bad code

So why haven't developers gotten on board with what seems like a solid game plan? "In an ideal world, every game would be available for the Mac, simply because the economics make sense," Jeff told Ars. "You don't need to sell very many copies before the minimal cost of cross-platform development pays for itself." To Jeff, the answer lies in three key hang-ups that developers face: ignorance, arrogance, and bad code.
In Jeff's mind, ignorance is the first hump which stops the ball from rolling. "I think a lot of companies think it is harder than it is to support Mac OS X and Linux and that the pay off is a lot smaller than it is," Jeff continued. "The combination of these two fallacies means that it doesn't get off the drawing board."

As for arrogance, Jeff brings up a familiar story that Mac gamers might recall. "There is the famous case of Half-Life 2. Valve wanted a $1 million dollar advance on the Mac OS X version. No Mac developer has this kind of cash to front, and Apple decided not to foot the bill either, perhaps on principle of the unusual request. There is no technical reason that Mac users can't have Half-Life 2—it's simply messed up business development."

Lastly, bad code creates an obvious technical boundary that prevents cross-platform gaming from being a normal occurrence. "Even if you have used some proprietary technology that is only available on Windows, like DirectX, a Linux superstar can still salvage it if your code is nice and has reasonable abstraction," explained Jeff. "However, if your code is terrible, the porting process will not be easy. But porting your game to other platforms is not easy if you are not familiar with them. Just the act of getting a Linux machine up and running, and getting familiar with new developer tools is too much of a barrier for most people."
Even with cross-platform support, distribution is king

As the indie gaming community grows, indie developers will face the same challenges that big developers face on a micro level. Advertising, or at least getting the word out there, will be a challenge, and decisions such as making a title cross-platform can have a huge, sweeping effect on the overall sales of a piece of software. Jeff's own title is a good example of this, as is other software such as Aquaria. "Supporting other platforms will definitely give you a leg up on the competition," Jeff reiterated.

But at the end of the day, distribution is king when it comes to indie success. Exploring alternate release opportunities will be a key factor in the success or failure of indie devs moving forward. Steam, in particular, has proven to be an excellent avenue for indie game distribution. Having recently signed on to have his company's titles hit Valve's digital distribution platform, Jeff offered insight into the viability of these platforms for his company and his peers.

"While we did sign a deal with Steam and a few much smaller distributors, we are still waiting for replies from a number of other companies like Greenhouse," he explained. "Many distributors, even the ones that claim to be indie friendly, have not even replied to our multiple emails for over a month. Kudos to Valve for being on the ball, even if they don't support Mac OS X and Linux."

Independent developers will continue to walk a hard road, but the future does look bright. Distribution avenues for games are becoming more abundant and easier to access, and publishers are beginning to take more risks, as the costs of publishing games through digital distribution is minuscule compared to traditional retail modes. This allows indie developers to spend their time developing solid games and trying to break out from the pack in the quest to claim a piece of gamers' hearts. And that's good news for gamers—of all platforms.

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