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The card I’m re-reading for the 194743rd time is an invitation to Microsoft’s “Gifts That Click” event, at the Pan Pacific hotel, Canada Place, Vancouver (September 30, 2003). I’m going as a reporter and my friend, Tyler, as everything from my caddy to my body-guard. We’re meant to be there at one, and it’s already ten to. I guess I shouldn’t have stopped for that muffin. To my right, Tyler is fidgeting like a school-girl in a V2. I can tell he doesn’t want to miss our anticipated tour of the latest in Microsoft’s media centers, software, games, and other potential "clickable gifts".
“I hate Vancouver,” says Tyler. Outside the window, the sun beats lovingly down on the mosaic of hobos, discarded trash, and things in shopping carts that makes up the city’s memorable downtown.
“So why did you come?” I ask, looking at my watch. We’re almost late.
“You invited me,” replies Tyler, matter-of-factly, “That changes everything.” I consider the veiled wisdom behind this statement, and decide that it isn’t there.
There’s little to no time left as we exit the bus. I saddle up Tyler and spur him into a gallop. We burst through the hotel doors at five to one. The elevator takes us to the 23rd floor and we strut garishly down the hall. We’re there.
Inside a luxurious top-floor hotel suite, we are greeted by Mr. Dana Sissons, the goateed, personable man helming this little gathering, who leads up past tables of precisely organized glasses and cutlery, snow-white napkins, and silver trays of various finger foods. Egg salad and brownies peer at me judgmentally.
We enter the main hotel room, windows framing a sun-simmered Vancouver dwarfed by our location on the Pacific’s top floor. Inside, everything is pristine and smells of new couches. Every room is sparsely decorated with blue and white Christmas trees, voodoo dolls of Santas. This is all in-keeping with the Gifts theme of the event, but it takes me a while to catch on.
As we head toward the first leg of our tour, I note that we’re not the only press currently in the place. Although this has been going on since the morning, and will be until five, our appointment time is shared by several people, one of whom I can see studying the displayed hardware.
“This is Barry,” says Dana, “He’ll be showing you the Media Center PC.”
The Media Center
Barry is one of those people who tries to be a little too pleasant, because he’s a little too worried about not being pleasant enough, and this shows. His beardy, bespectacled demeanor veiled in a fragile smile seems slightly relieved when we get the personal stuff out of the way, I rope in an extra chair for Tyler, and Barry is able to do his monologue.
And quite a monologue it is.
Let me bring you up to speed on the Media Center PC. What it is, is the beastly child of a personal computer (with wireless keyboard and mouse), television, radio, juke box, and any other feasible form of media, fused together on one screen, under one remote control. It is the future. It is expensive.
Last year, the first model of the Media Center was developed by HP, and sold for around $2, 600. Presently, however a Sept 2003 press release did the rounds, stating that the model was expanding to many other companies, such as Sony, Gateway and Dell. Thus, the competition and exposure will create price drops of over 1000 dollars, depending on the Media Center you choose to buy. Staples, Futureshop, Radioshack and the Brick are among the newly-signed retailers committed to carrying the product.
So what does the media center actually do? Well, let’s start in terms of TV. The machine automatically downloads your TV listings, playing any standard cable you may have hooked up. However, now you’re the one in charge, and not the TV guide, because the Media Center can do various complicated things, such as search for keywords in show listings, record a series (new episodes, or reruns as well, based on what you choose) in mpeg format, and block certain shows from being viewed at all (thus defending your children from the Sopranos).
“Let’s say you want to watch a show with a certain actor,” explains Barry.
“Tom Selleck,” I exclaim, because apparently the one thing my life has lacked up to this point is Magnum P.I.
“Okay, Tom Selleck. We can just type in his name…”
Barry starts using the remote to do this one letter at a time. I take over on keyboard, but it turns out that nobody knows how to spell Tom Selleck, anyway so we settle for Sean Connery instead.
About twelve shows currently playing are displayed, all of which feature Sean Connery in one obscure form or another. Handy. Unfortunately, there’s no time to watch them, but if we chose to record, there’d be space for all of them on the MC’s 160 gig hard-drive. The lowest quality mpegs take up one gig/hr, and the highest swallow three. Not bad for a hard-drive full of Mr. Bond.
Okay, now let’s talk about the Music.
While the media-center doesn’t exactly break crazy new ground in this area, everything is up to date, and looks very snazzy, especially when you operate it with the remote control. Essentially, the system allows you to image in any CDs you want, and then categorize the songs in various complicated ways. It also automatically sojourns onto the internet and downloads the cover-art for all your imaged CDs, apparently no matter how obscure it is. I doubt this system is flawless, but it has a good track-record (not a pun).
Barry plays us a selection of what he considers to be his Tightest Beats©. The familiar Window Media Player “fountain” spills its rhythmic blue/red waters onto the screen.
The next thing Barry shows is the picture-management tools. Apparently, the Media Center can run slide-shows right off your digital camera, automatically fix red-eye, and offers up a whole trough-full of organizational tools. Not bad for the artsy types amongst us.
“I wonder if it could fix Johnny Depp’s red-eye in Once Upon A Time In Mexico, eh Tyler?” I jest, inappropriately.
Barry laughs along with us, but I sense he hasn’t seen it and has no idea why this is supposed to be funny.
Then there’s the Radio, operating just like your car stereo, with a plug-in antenna. What wrenches it an octave above your standard stereo, however, is that you can actually record, and even pause it, before reverting back to the standard broadcast. No more, “Mom! Run, quick, Enrique’s on!” She can finally take her time in the bathroom.
With this prolific observation, we leave Barry to his remote control, and Dana whisks us gently across the suite, and into the hands of a lively, animated woman named Lisa, who’s going to notch us up on the latest game releases from Microsoft Game Studios, and its various brothers-in-arms.
The Games
“I know what your first question is going to be,” scolds Lisa, as soon as we exchange firm, grandiose hand-shakes. This comes as a bit of a shock, because I, personally do not. My mind races thinking about what it could be she thinks I want to ask, and hoping she doesn’t prompt me to ask it.
“Hey, look, Halo,” says Tyler, spotting a stack of disks in a cupboard to the left.
“That’s right!” snaps Lisa, scaring me into a sense of sudden relief. Thank God for Tyler’s vocal nosiness.
“Well, I’ll tell you what,” she continues, “I’m just going to give it to you.”
And she hands me a copy of Halo Marketing Gold. I pocket it, and make like I’m leaving, causing everyone to laugh politely but probably think less of me.
Lisa gets to the games.
First on her list is Flight Simulator: A Century of Flight. Now, granted, I’m not a big fan of Flight Simulator, but she does manage to raise my eyebrow once or twice with some tantalizing design facts:
-The number of planes in this sucker has been bumped up to 24 from the usual 10, nine of which are historic.
-Further history is available through articles written by Blaine Wallace.
-Several historic flights have been fully re-created, and actually require you to, say, fly for 48 hours (this is for the crazy ones among us, I guess)
-24 000 airports have been mapped into the game, even down to some obscure one in Uganda (I’m not kidding here).
-Realism has been added to the airport and city flights through dynamic weather and time of day.
-The cockpit has been made 3D.
-Flying lessons available with Rod Machado.
The reason for all this emphasis on history, and the game’s title is that this year marks the 100th anniversary of the Wright Brothers’ Big Idea, and the 20th anniversary of the Flight Sim series. And this, of course, means high times for plane people.
The next thing Lisa goes over with us is Rise of Nations, which actually came out in May, but apparently isn’t doing very well, or something, which has prompted its presence at this “awareness raiser”.
I guess I’d better raise your awareness, then, eh?
Brian Reynolds, of Big Huge Games created Rise of Nations to fuse what we know as real-time strategy to the classic formula of his Civilization series. The title, from what I’ve had the joy to play, is quite complicated, but hits all the right spots, if you’re in that niche. That and it came out in May. So it’s not exactly new.
We move on. Lisa wants to skip Zoo Tycoon: The Complete Collection but I decide to be savagely difficult and make her launch it. The child inside me demands satisfaction, and gets it.
This fresh packaging of Zoo Tycoon takes all the heretofore released expansions about Dinosaurs and Aquatics, and throws them into the mix along with the new addition of Endangered Species to give this one a unique spice. Here’s the lowdown on the game in general:
-The goal is to build a zoo that the world loves.
-Different terrain types, and fauna affect the animals (Lisa puts some birch trees in the lion pen and really ticks them off, because we all know how much attention lions pay to trees)
-Educational files allow your inquisitive children to learn more about the animals and their native terrain (or what it was before they were wrenched into captivity)
-Animals escape if imperfectly contained, and breed if you get them a shelter for it (concealing the sensitive act from your innocent 15-year old, who no doubt has no idea what goes on in there, right?)
Zoo Tycoon is a silly little software set, and that’s all the alliteration I’m willing to use to describe it. Buy it for your grand-kids. I think it’ll be cheap.
Next, comes Dungeon Siege: Legends of Aranna. Lisa is genuinely shocked and somewhat miffed by the revelation that I haven’t played the game to which this expansion pack plays pen-pal. I try to justify this by explaining that I am mostly confined to reviewing console stuff of late, because my PC is riddled with so many viruses it sneezes when I turn it on.
We come to some sort of ill-drafted truce, and Lisa shows us the ropes of DS. Created by Chris Taylor, who is originally from the Vancouver area, the real-time action/RPG game’s expansion boasts new characters, lands to explore, and more game-play options. Previously, only two spells per character could be equipped, for example, but now there can be a continuous rotation of every available spell.
Other things whispering in this expansions favor include the fact that the entire world is loaded after one load-screen (even on Dana’s average-spec-ed PC, he claims), the pack mules have been optimized as “Troggs” which look like something out of Star Wars and have melee abilities, and finally the whole thing will ship WITH the final game included and at an expansion price.
This is because, due for release in November, Aranna is actually post-dating its home-game by 1.5 years, and there’s a chance people have moved on. Something is needed to entice the gamer, and the inclusion of the original in the expansion may do just that.
The final game to be demonstrated to us was Age of Mythology: The Titans. Also released in Sept, like Halo, this expansion introduces a new race, The Atlanteans, into the fray between the Egyptians, Norse, and Greeks. With these, come an army of controllable Titans, which romp around the map, kicking humans around like hackie-sacks. The expansion also features added God powers, and mythic (Cyclops, unicorn, pegari etc) units, set to diversify the game-play beyond police recognition.
With this, our game coverage is over. We exchange heart-felt adieus with Lisa, and drift past the hardware table. We won’t have time to look at this, but I can tell you now that everything on display emphasizes Microsoft’s turn toward wireless. Mice, keyboards, LAN hubs. Nothing has wires anymore, and it all looks very sleek. Even wires are wireless these days.
Dana leads us to the finger-food table, and goes to check when Sue, the software lady, will be free. In the three seconds he’s gone, I manage to let a brownie slide off my plate and into the milk jug. Nobody notices my subsequent acrobatics in getting it out.
We’re in to see Sue. She’s a pleasant, knowledgeable woman who named her dog Tuxedo, which appeals to me for some reason. She wastes no time in introducing us to Microsoft’s latest software for the new year, which is a courtesy I will now extend to you.
All The Other Stuff
First, the latest edition of the Encarta 2004. This latest release boasts an optimized interface to manage the wealth of information within the encyclopedia, and (through a partnership with the Discovery channel), thirty-two multi-media videos to expand your knowledge on a number of tantalizing topics.
Next, came Digital Image Suite 9, which comes with a small mountain of photo(any image, really, if you want to get picky) editing and organizational tools. We see the program fix red-eye, straighten photos, erase objects from images seamlessly, and organize hundreds of images in easy, straight-forward ways.
There is also an in-built gallery of 5000 images and 3000 project templates, as well as a plethora of effects you can apply to your images, including black and white, chrome, borders and…well, it’s quite overwhelming to say the least.
The last thing presented to us is Plus! Digital Media Edition. I’m spacey, and thinking way too much about that brownie, so information only registers itself in my skull via point-form:
-Plus! Costs 30 bucks.
-Photo-story mode lets you create a musical slide-show in four steps.
-Brownie.
-Up to 150 images in one slide-show movie.
-Brownie.
-Party Mode turns your PC into a JukeBox. Guests can’t access any other features, but can leave messages on your scrolling marquee.
-Brownie.
-The JukeBox can act as an alarm clock, and you can image vinyl into your PC with the right equipment. It even reduces the brownie…er…static.
-Okay, we have to get out of here.
I bid Sue a joyous life, and maneuver Tyler toward the exit. Dana intercepts us, to deliver gift-bags into our consecutive grasps. I take his contact information, pleasantly, all the while eyeing the dirty milk-jug.
The coast seems clear. We bolt.
“Do you think there are bombs in there?” asks Tyler, about the gift-bags.
“No, man,” I say, “This is Microsoft. They’d only have given us one.”
In the elevator, we pensively wait for our gift-bags to explode and kill us both. It doesn’t happen.
related links:
Microsoft Media Center PC
Microsoft Games Studio
Microsoft Corporation
Big Huge Games |
