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Nintendo 3DS pre-launch event- 06/02/11

Today I went down to London, with my mum and brother, to get my grubby hands all over Nintendo’s latest portable. I have to say I was surprised by what happened when we were let in. Luckily they let Jack come in with me, although he had no invite, and even offered to let my mum in, although she decided not to come. Once given the wristband, we were asked to wait in a room with some tech-y floor gizmo thing that “symbolised the street pass feature” or some such guff. Once that was over, we went into a room done up like some Japanese village of some kind. To guys dressed up as randoms from street fighter IV did a fighty dance thing. Then we went on to a room were two actors, with varying skill at American accents, announced the T-virus had broken out, and some zombies were wandering in the next corridor. They then escorted us through as some shadowy figures jumped out of a shed and from behind a bush. I don’t know why either of those things were there, we were inside. I guess they were trying to show how 3D could impact the experience, here we were in some real life games, and now we were going to play some real 3D ones.

I want it. I want it now.

The next room was the one I had been waiting for, the games room. 3DS’s were lined up against the wall and for 15ish minutes we were allowed to fill our boots. I played 2 tracks worth of ridge racers, and a quick go at pilot wings resort. Both of these games were good for the demo, as they showed off the sense of depth the 3D screen can give. Whilst it’s not immediately a “WOW 3D” moment, when you turn the 3d off, via the slider, you can really see the point of it. The sense of depth given to the environments really impressed me, and there were some pretty cool gimmicky bits, like confetti floating around the race track, it’s subtle, but I think it really adds to it. I’m sold on the 3D. (Although my brother said it hurt his eyes, I didn’t have this problem.

When we were moved out of this room they took us into another, with more 3DS’s about, and less moody lighting. The highlights of this room were the demo for nintendogs and cats and the augmented reality games that are (as far as I’m aware) to be included on the systems software from day one. To be brief about nintendogs, I was very impressed by how much better the graphics were looking this time around. This time the dogs really look like they have fur, and the cats, well they are fucking cute. I’m definitely getting that. Just to play with the pussy. (Chortle) but the augmented reality games, they really wowed me.

Using the cameras on the back, the immediate surrounding becomes the background for a game called face invades. You physically move your DS to aim and shoot, as baddies with photos of you as their face attack. You can even shoot holes in reality, it’s a great affect. The other game shown involved a card, which the camera recognises and uses it as a guide. From “within” this card some little characters appeared, leaving targets to shoot in the same way as before. This time though you had to walk around the table in order to see the front of the target, no points for getting it from behind. Then it got really impressive, creating some amazing affects. Suddenly a pit had appeared in the table, but not in real life, just on the screen. The table inflated and deflated on the screen and for one moment I even had to check I was still looking at the same table. Whether this will work very well on any table that isn’t bright white in colour I don’t know, but it’s a very clever little game.

That was the final room, we then left the building. I left feeling very impressed, and I really can’t wait to get my own one.

"Multiculturalism has failed"

(this blog is my reaction to this news story)

To be honest with you, my first thought when i heard this was, "what? that doesn't even make sense!"

How can Multiculturalism "fail"? It's not like it was some kind of initiative. Who said "i have invented multiculturalism, it shall create world peace!"? That's not how it happened, it was just a process, like getting old something that just happened, and there was no aim for it to fail to achieve. Lots of cultures came together. That’s all...does David Cameron really think we would be happier if it didn’t happen? Multiculturalism didn’t cause all our problems. The real reason we are unhappy is the financial sate of our government, and of the world. Without the crisis there wouldn’t be cuts, and without the cuts we wouldn't be unhappy. Is he looking for something to turn our attention on, make us forget about what he is doing to public spending? It’s a dangerous road to go down if he is.

If his real worry is as he says that we have no "national identity" i have to argue that this isn’t the case. Sure there are some who feel like they aren’t "part of the nation" but you aren’t ever going to convince everyone are you? I find it hard to believe that we have come to some kind of crisis point. It’s not like people are wandering about the streets, randomly mumbling to themselves about how they have lost all sense of national identity and how without that they feel lost and alone. Besides, is a sense of national identity such a good thing? I mean couldn’t we all get along without it? Looking at the 2 big groups who want to protect our national identity, the BNP and the English Defence League I’m quite put off the whole idea. I’m not saying all nationalists are racists, but i am saying that our ones are.

I’m afraid, Cameron, i don’t buy this idea that we need to feel part of our nation or at least any more part of it than i already do. And the extremists whom are supposedly threatening our “great nation” don't want to feel more like a part of our Britain. The ones who are a danger to us aren’t people you can convince to be more British, any more than you could convince Nick Griffin to be less racist.

To me it sounds like he is pandering to the readers of the daily mail, and the members of the English Defense League. Anything to stop talking about those cuts.