Brain Hood

It has been a while since we introduced you to the concept of cloud gaming and how it has evolved from the emerging technologies for cloud computing, to become a market unto itself, with its own demand dynamics and target segment; even in this infant stage, gamers have begun to clamor for it. We also gave you an idea of just why video game news publications are raving about it. Let us now take a deeper look at cloud gaming, its origins, and what it requires to enjoy cloud gaming.

Cloud Gaming: Where  it All Began and Current Operators

The idea of cloud gaming was first broached by a Finland firm named G-cluster, and hyped by several video gaming news journals and blogs. Since then, several firms have banked upon this technology and have been working towards it. Some firms like OnLive, Gaikai and PlayCast have been among the few to come out with a sound revenue model that they have implemented straightaway and are already operational. These operators are now working hard to bring their hardware (and thus services) to a level where they can meet the high expectations and effectively challenge the consoles. As the client base expands, they expect to be able to bring costs down and thus reach out to avid game lovers even more than before.

Games such as Assassin’s Creed and Prince of Persia are one of the most popular games played on the internet these days. Even the requirements for these aren’t much and you just need a PC, Mac that could access the internet.

With cloud gaming, code processing and video rendering done at the server-side you can play any game on any system including DOS/Apple/Commodore/Atari games, arcade games, console games, Windows games, Apple OS games, and phone app games. Any game can be put on server and it is the capability of the server that allows multi users to enjoy those games at the same time.

Limitations of Cloud Gaming

The main limitation of Cloud gaming is the network quality. Due to the difference in the network quality at the end of different users depending upon their distance to a game server of the cloud users may experience several problems while playing games. Some people might get disconnected while playing games due to these issues. It may irritate a player if he/she gets disconnected every now and then.

Another limiting factor may be ability of local computer or system to properly render a video stream. Video compression codecs and technologies may be used by a gaming cloud to reduce amount of data required to transfer over bandwidth, and it takes sufficient amount of processing power to decompress and/or decode such a video stream.

Cloud gaming is to retro gaming what Email is to Letters. When emails started it was feared that the letters would not exist after some time but they survived in their own category. It may be the future, it may not but one thing is for certain we are not there yet.

It will be exciting to see the choices gamers make when the next generation of consoles and gaming multimedia come up against fully operational cloud gaming services.

For now, that’s all we have on cloud gaming; keep following us for more video game news updates and game reviews.

MWEB discusses an effort to boost online games offered by your Internet service.

MWEB has been stirring things in the local Internet market in the last year. They were the first to bring affordable broadband service cuts back in March 2010, and recently (November 2010), they made a stand at the high costs of local transit in South Africa rather be free and open peering agreements.

Despite protests that have sprung up around this feature has now got MWEB offers open and peering between most major carriers, including Internet Solutions, MTN and Vodacom Business. Only Telkom Saix network has yet to yield to pressure peering MWEB.

The peering war of November 2010 was a time of uncertainty for gamers, with MWEB customers wondering how their latencies would be affected.

Now that peering agreements have been struck between three of the four major network providers, the MWEB ISP gaming division looks to be turning their sights to bolstering their service appeal for the gaming community; likely an attempt to convert this important segment of the market to their Internet service.

MWEB has recently advertised a position for an ‘Online Gaming Manager’ giving us a hint as to their plans. Some key elements of the job speak of a new ‘MWEB gaming strategy and the implementation thereof,’ ‘content implementation for MWEB gaming sites (web and mobile),’ and mention of ‘gaming products and services.’

Derek Hershaw, CEO of MWEB ISP, discussed how MWEB will be expanding into the online gaming space.

“We’ve definitely identified online gaming as a key part of our strategy going forward, with a focus on MMOG [(massive multiplayer online gaming)] rather than casual gaming.  And now that we have a much bigger portion of the end-to-end access layer under our own control, we’re in a better position to manage and support the customer experience,” said Hershaw.

The end-to-end access layer speaks of the equipment used to transmit data traffic. With this section of a network under their control, MWEB can reduce third party costs and interferences.

Hershaw discussed some of the steps that MWEB has taken to bolster their online gaming service offering.

“The launch of affordable Uncapped ADSL has and will continue to play a significant role,” said Hershaw. This is indeed true, as an uncapped connection opens up a world of fixed cost opportunities for both PC and console gamers.

“The fact that [MWEB now has] a 2-node IPC network [(Cape Town and Johannesburg)] has also helped tremendously in terms of reducing latency (the closer the aggregation points are to the customer the better),” explained Hershaw. Previously, Cape Town based MWEB users would have to make a data round-trip to Johannesburg and back. The implementation of an IPC node in Cape Town has improved the latency for Cape Town users.

“We are hosting (exclusively) COD Black Ops in our CT and JHB data centres, and we plan to add even more titles in the very near future. We have just deployed our own Steam servers in CT and JHB,” said Hershaw.

The addition of Steam content mirrors to the MWEB network is great news for those using MWEB ISP, as this means that Steam data content will be served from a local source, reducing download and response times. It will also reduce the costs incurred by MWEB for traffic utilised on international undersea cables, hopefully reducing service costs to the end-user in the long run.

When asked about the possibility for gamer specific products which may feature services such as prioritised gaming traffic, Hershaw said: “I think that if we can continue to bring popular titles onto our own network – hosted locally – then we won’t need to look at traffic prioritisation and gamer specific products. Our standard uncapped ADSL products will give our customers a great experience – that’s what we want to achieve.”

Speaking of plans to overhaul the current MWEB Gamezone portal Hershaw said: “We have plans in place to overhaul the site. Not only in terms of gaming specific content but also the levels of engagement we have with our customers and that they have amongst themselves.”

“Gambling is a social experience and the site can’t escape that. It is not necessarily a big bang approach, but gradually in the coming months we will begin the introduction of new functions & services” Hershaw said.

Game companies have been trying to make a good retro gangster game for consoles for quite some time.
The idea makes sense. Gangster movies have been popular since nearly the beginning of film, and the lifestyle has been romanticized.
The “Grand Theft Auto” series shows that solid gangster games are possible.
But when the game is set in the first half of the 20th century, the games just aren’t very memorable.
2K Games has now taken another crack at the genre with the release of “Mafia II,” a sequel to the 2002 PC game that was later ported to the Xbox and PlayStation 2. The PC version of the game was very good, delivering an epic mobster game with depth. The console versions of the game were terrible. Perhaps it was asking too much to port the computer version to those two systems, which were limited by technology at the time.
However, technology no longer limits developers in this current console era. We’ve seen that with “Grand Theft Auto IV” and “Red Dead Redemption.”
Despite fewer technological restrictions this time around, “Mafia II” still falls short of the promise exhibited by its PC predecessor.
“Mafia II” is the story of Vito Scaletta, who emigrated from Sicily with his family as a child, and his life in the crime world of the fictional Empire Bay.
“Mafia II” is clearly influenced by mobster movies, but that isn’t a bad thing. There are some pretty darn good gangster flicks out there. Scaletta joins the army as an escape from a crime a la Michael Corleone in “The Godfather.”
The cut scenes and cinematics are the highlight of the game, although they do fall into the cliché mob movie category. If you’ve seen it in a gangster flick, then it probably has found its way into this game.
But while the cut scenes are well done, the rest of the game falls short.
Gameplay is a mess. The game relies on a cover system for battles, but that cover doesn’t always provide protection. and the controls aren’t the easiest to use.
The worst part of the game, however, are its limitations. Don’t buy this game if you’re expecting an open-world game. You can travel throughout Empire Bay, and you can visit various businesses to shop for clothes and weapons. But there are no side missions. There is only one mission at a time, and it works to advance the story.
The developers should have decided to make a sandbox game or not, rather than going halfway. You can’t offer some elements of a sandbox game and then restrict the options heavily.
It makes for an uneven game, and “Mafia II” is certainly uneven.