Tag: Hardware

UPDATED: Valve Announces Dedicated Gaming Hardware! Steam Machines BETA!

by Shane O'Hare

This is the week of Steam! With the announcement of Valves dedicated OS on Monday, gamers and journalists alike started speculating right away what the next two would be. Well speculate no further! Valve has officially announced dedicated hardware, lets take a look at Steam Machines!

Valve is finally getting into the home “console” market. They are going to be partnering with hardware manufacturers (who those are have yet to be released) to create dedicated Steam Machines that will run Steam OS. There will be multiple devices available come 2014, but they have created a Beta device as a proof of concept. No pictures of the Beta, but they have listed instructions so that you could be one out of 300 people lucky enough to test the hardware. Instructions are as followed:

THE HARDWARE BETA ELIGIBILITY QUEST:
Before October 25, log in to Steam and then visit your quest page to track your current status towards beta test eligibility
3. Make 10 Steam friends (if you haven’t already)
4. Create a public Steam Community profile (if you haven’t already)
5. Play a game using a gamepad in Big Picture mode

No pictures of the Steam Machine has been released yet, but Valve is saying that it will be open and upgradeable (want to tear it apart and put a different OS on it? Sure go ahead!), and that there will be several options to choose from. They also state that this will NOT interfere with their PC market and you will not be forced to purchase additional hardware to continue using Steam.

This is a HUGE step in the direction for Valve. They’ve been a huge thorn in the side of home consoles for almost a decade now, and with Gabe Newells public disdain for companies like Microsoft, it’s obvious he wants to create a truly open platform.

Thoughts? Well, I am of course excited being a Steam/Valve fanboy, but at the same time I have to step back and look at this objectively. The concept of open gaming, much like Communism, sounds great on paper but in practice is hasn’t done so well. The Ouya is a perfect example of the “Open Gaming” platform and that hasn’t done to well. I believe Valve has the foresight to not fall into the same hole that Ouya did. A Steam Machine will of course lock you into Valves ecosystem, so those giant AAA titles like Battlefield and Need For Speed will still require you to saunter into the computer room and fire up Origin.

As more information is released we will be sure to keep you updated. Be sure to come back FRIDAY for the final bit of news from the company. What do you think it will be? Lets hope Half-Life 3, but with our luck it will be Ricochet 2.

Steam Hardware Announcement

UPDATE:

After some exploration I found THIS patent from valve. It depicts a controller/gamepad with user swappable components.  It looks a LOT like the third picture, don’t you agree?

Valve Controller Patent

Still we can only speculate as to what will be presented Friday, but this looks like a pretty serious contender.

Geekscape Games Reviews Elgato’s ‘Game Capture HD’

by MoreLikeAndy

I am all about recording my gameplay. Since I review games, this helps to get screenshots as well as looking at a section of the game to help me describe something that sticks out while playing. For awhile now, I’ve been using a non-HD device and although it works for the price, the quality is not as sharp as it should be to use for my reviews. There aren’t many devices that do HD recording for consoles, especially using HDMI. Elgato kicks in the door with a $200 answer, the Game Capture HD.

With the vast array of consoles hooked up at my desk, one can imagine the snakes nest of wires going everywhere. Being the size of a portable hard drive and having only 4 ports, the Game Capture HD is easy for people with very little room for more devices in their gaming area. One of the things that I don’t like about other HD capture devices is all the wires coming out of them. It may seem trivial but when you actually have one of these devices with component cables coming out of both ends, it ends up being a mess of wires everywhere.

Simplicity seems to be the goal when Elgato came up with the design of the Game Capture HD. HDMI in, HDMI out and usb cable to the computer and you are done. There are extra cables included for the Game Capture HD since the PS3 cannot do anything over HDMI without HDCP (insert). What you might think is an s-video in port  is actually where you plug the special cable made for the PS3. There is also a component cable for that port to use for any other devices that don’t have HDMI, you know, just in case you want to record some of that awesome Wii gaming goodness.

Excited to test the Game Capture HD, I hooked up the Xbox 360 first.

 

 

Using the default settings of the software, that video of Ghost Recon: Future Soldier looks pretty good at 720p. I tried out 1080p for another video but I didn’t notice the quality being all the much better so sticking with the default settings should suit the majority of people. If you want to change the settings, the ease of use will make things quick for you to do so. Changing the quality of the recording is as simple as moving the slider. The only thing I notice with the quality slider is what bitrate the video is recorded in. Nothing changes the audio though. That stays at 224 kbps ACC. Video is also static to one format, h.264.

Since I am not familiar with editing video, I asked Geekscape’s Head Geek Jonathan London about h.264 (mp4, m4v) and editing that file type since he does this for a living. In his words:

On a Mac, you want to be editing an MOV file. Neither of those files you listed are ideal and would need to be converted to be cut in FCP or Avid and Premiere.

This is for the Mac users, of course. Yes, Game Capture HD actually works natively on Windows and OSX. Elgato lists that the software works only in Windows 7 and OSX 10.7 though I never got the chance to test to see if older OS’s would work so people with older OS’s should be wary. On the Windows side of things, the raw format saves in .TS where as on the OSX side it saves in either .mp4 or .m4v. Simplicity of design also carries over to the software for the Game Capture HD. Those looking to do some basic editing and effects will feel a little left out. The only things possible when editing is cutting clips out of your recorded video. I don’t really see this as an issue since iMovie and Windows Movie Maker are ok in a pinch, and free for that matter.

The Game Capture HD software makes it simple to upload and share your videos with the handy assortment of buttons in the bottom corner. Using either Facebook or Youtube to host your video, you can share with all your friends on Twitter, Facebook, email or just save the original file to your videos folder. Other options are OS specific. With OSX, you get the options of ProRes and iMovie. Windows 7 users get Movie Maker.

What I think is a big deal and separates the Game Capture HD from the competition is the ‘timeshift’ feature. In a nutshell, the Game Capture HD is a mini Tivo. From the moment you turn on the software and hook up the device, the counter starts. At first I thought the buffer for how long it will let you rewind was in the device itself. Turns out, it uses the hard drive the device is hooked into as the buffer. Essentially, the buffer can be as long as you want it to be, so long as you have the hard drive space.

Once you pick a spot to start your recording, the temporary buffer file on the hard drive stops and anything before the point of recording is gone. I went 2 hours before hitting record and the buffer file size got to 4.4GB’s in size. Very helpful to know that you can play until you want to record. Saves you time and hard drive space.

Not satisfied with just testing out the Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3, I tried using the Game Capture HD on my PC. My XFX 5770 video card has a full HDMI-out port on it so I figured it would work. I was right. For people that like to record their gameplay on PC but don’t want to use software like Fraps will enjoy using the Game Capture HD. Well, that is if you have another PC or laptop to record on. I did notice some frame rate issues on the PC that wasn’t recording but I imagine that was due to the resolution I had set on my 32 inch LCD TV that doubles for one of my PC monitors.

I am new to streaming video live from a console so I am not sure how most people do it these days. The Game Capture HD is not recognized by the streaming software I tried as a video device so I ended up using Xsplit (free version) to capture the live preview screen of the Game Capture HD software. Not the best way to do so but from the test I ran doing this, it was clear and stutter-free.

With how little of a footprint the Game Capture HD has with its size and usage of few cables, I can say that anyone willing to spend money on an HD capture device for pretty much anything that can use non-HDCP HDMI as an output will feel great about the purchase. I see some having issues with the barebones software that only lets you cut and clip your videos. Could be Elgato wants people to use their own video editor of choice. Still would be nice to do everything in one software suite instead of moving around 2 or 3 different ones. With the Game Capture HD, Elgato just threw down the mic to all competition. Time to step your game up, fellas.

My Week With the Playstation Vita – Geekscape’s Technical Impressions

by MoreLikeAndy

Since the Playstation Vita has been on the market for a week now (two weeks if you count the first edition bundle some people bought the week before) I have had a chance to put the Vita through its paces. I poked, prodded, stroked, rubbed and pushed the Vita until it cried for mercy, as well as a recharge of the battery. I am pleasantly surprised and satisfied that I purchased a PS Vita.

Having owned all the iterations of the PSP, including the PSPgo, portable gaming on a Sony device just didn’t quite capture my need for great gaming on the go. My PSP was sadly left behind many of times in favor of the Nintendo DS. The games as well as the system made the DS more attractive for me as a gamer to play on the go. Maybe it was the nostalgia endorphins kicking in my old body but I was always thoroughly entertained with the DS at my side when I needed my portable gaming fix. All that has changed with the release of the PS Vita.

Although it’s still early, I love using the PS Vita for gaming, of course, and for other things as well. Most of that is due to the extremely gorgeous 5 inch OLED screen the PS Vita possesses. With the games on the PS Vita popping vibrantly with bright colors and crisp visuals, one could stare with mouth gaped open forever, which ends up being 3 to 4 hours of continuous use before the battery dies. Playing any kind of video whether it comes from a file you have on your computer or from the Netflix app on the PS Vita looks amazing. I do recommend carrying around some sort of cloth to clean the screen since it seems to attract more smudges than my iPhone 4 does.

I went with the decision to go all digital with my PS Vita experience and begrudgingly paid the highly unreasonable Sony tax of $100 for a 32GB proprietary memory card. These little buggers are small so either never take the memory card out of the PS Vita or only take it out when you are at home where it will be easy to find.

Something people should know before deciding on going all digital is that your game saves are tied to the game downloaded and installed on your PS Vita. In other words, deleting the game deletes your save file as well. You can back up your save/game to either your PS3 or PC using the content manager software for the PS Vita. Thankfully, the software is built-in to the system so no need to download it. Lack of drag and drop is a little disappointing. I would love to easily move the files I want to and from the PS Vita. I’m sure piracy concerns are reasons behind this.

Besides the touch screens, the biggest, most welcomed addition for gamers is the dual analog sticks the PS Vita possesses. Still wishing that Sony would go concave with its analog sticks since I feel you get a better sense of control with the tops of the analog sticks with it curving inward verses outward like Sony has always done with their controllers. I tested how well the dual sticks worked by downloading the Unit 13 demo from PSN. After I finished the demo, shooters will finally be playable on a Sony portable device. I did find issues with how small the face buttons on the PS Vita are. Felt too much like I was pushing down on a #2 pencil, even with my small thumbs.

Must haves as far as accessories go would have to be a hard case to at least carry your PS Vita around. Don’t even think about putting it in your pocket. Even if you can fit the 7.2 inch device in your pocket somehow, I have seen too many devices that have expensive screens come into my workplace smashed while in that persons pocket without some sort of protective case. Consider getting the cradle if you enjoy partaking in media consumption on the PS Vita. The cradle has a port on the back for the charger and a audio out if you want to hook it up to a set of speakers or headphones. I tested my 5.1 surround sound PC speakers and it was pleasing to my ears. Not sure if the neighbors enjoyed the blaring of Crush on You by Lil Kim though. If you already have a cellphone wired headset or a Bluetooth earpiece, then you are all set for doing party chat so no need to buy the PS Vita branded wired headset.

Speaking of the party chat, about damn time Sony! I can either start a room up or just join a friends room and chat away. Want to play a game but still talk to your friend? You are in luck because YOU CAN! People can put some of that thanks to the multitasking the PS Vita can do quite easily. Seriously, I still can’t believe how fast the PS Vita is. Starting up a game, pausing it to go to the PSN Store to peak at the new releases, closing the PSN Store and going back into the game is so smooth and fast it makes me wonder how they do that voodoo that they do so well? The built-in mic is good in a pinch but it picks up way too much background noise to be useful much.

It has only been a week with my PS Vita and I am sure there are a lot more I could learn with this system. I have yet to even play with the screenshot feature. I will report back in a month to see if my lust for the PS Vita is still strong or if I ended up putting it in the closet with the Nintendo Wii.