N-Gage Coverage From Autumn 2004 Update

Gamemethod writes "Earlier this week the crew from Gamemethod went up to Canada to check out what's going on with the Nokia N-Gage. They also have a review of Bomberman, One and Rifts: Promise of Power".

Comments

Sidetalkin

[alatesystems]

Changes in the system's general design go a long way to making the N-Gage QD a more attractive offering.

I like that. It's a lot better than saying "Sidetalkin makes you look like a complete idiot".

Chris

Re:Sidetalkin

[gl4ss]

'sidetalking' isn't really as bad as how you would think from all the talking on "teh intarnath", but it's a nice 'catch' on a story talking about the n-gage(besides, you can hold it like a normal phone and still hear what's said on the phone). the gist being: normal people don't really care if you speak to it or not any more than they would care if you spoke to a hidden handsfree or into a xelibri brand phone.

most n-gage 'reviews' forget though the real important aspect... that it is a series60 smartphone and as such has a lot of software and 3rd party 'unofficial' games available, like the excellent shooter "sky force" to name one. ..and you can actually read slashdot on the go with it.. ..and a *shh* thing: a big honking mmc will hold enough music and games to keep you occupied a long time..

anyways about qd lacks the mp3 chip(and before anyone replies that "just use a software player": the software based players can output only 16khz or so in mono from qd).

Re:Sidetalkin

[Beyond_GoodandEvil]

As an ngage owner, I offer one caveat be sure to look around at the various ngage sites for a list of compatible mmc's before you buy a large mmc(>128MB).

Didnt Nokia promise...

[TechniMyoko]

To kill off the N-gage if it didnt reach some impossible high number (for the ngage anyway) by some arbitrary date (which I beleive is this November)?

Im sure it hasnt reached that number yet

I have 12 tickets now, is that enough?
Im sorry Ngage, you need 15 tickets to live
*Pulls lever, Ngage falls through hole in floor*

I'm actually interested

[kc78]

This design actually has me interested, only problem is it doesn't work with my cell carrier and I'm not going to switch carriers to use the N-Gage. If it could work with every carrier I'd use it.

Re:I'm actually interested

[Ayaress]

I was, at first, but nothing I've heard has convinced me they've fixed what I thought was wrong with the original.

The framerates are still horrible, and possibly even worse now than before on everything, including the lowest-end 2D tetris-like games, the menu system is laid out like something I piled into a QBASIC program I cobbled up in middle school, and not a single game takes advantage of the vertical screen, and indeed they all seem to emphasize why the vertical screen is a hinderance because most of the action is along the horizontal axis. Frankly, it's still too expensive. If its flaws were as trivial as the GBA SP (i.e. no headphone jack), I would gladly pay $200, but they're not.

My first sitting at Sonic the Hedgehog on the Genesis, I made it through to the last boss. I've managed to get very far in every 2D Sonic game out-of-the-box, but when I played it on the N-Gage, I died eight times on the first level because the screen just isn't wide enough to react, and the frame rate isn't reliable enough to go all out if it was. The keys didn't respond as fast as I needed them too, either. The gummy, unresponsive keys aren't too bad on a cell phone, but once you put games in the equation, you better add fast responding controls.

The control pad is the only problem I haven't heard much about. Only one of the sources I've read mentioned it, and it said it was a very slight improvement from a very bad starting point.

All this is one thing, then we have the advertisements, which range from stupid or patronizing to outright insulting to the people they're supposedly targeting, and the company which either isn't taking this thing seriously, or expects the world to change its concept of gameing to fit their concept of a system.

Still waiting for the PSP. If anything will get my GBA moved from my pocket to my desk, that'll be it, but I'm not clearing a spot on my desk yet.

doh

[Hassman]

Why does the rifts game have to be for the NGage... I've been waiting for a game based on Rifts for years!!

Re:doh

[Joe Tie.]

I had the same reaction. The only consolation is that I have doubts anything but a real rpg could really live up to the name. I'm just hoping it does well enough to spawn something like that for a console more able to handle it. Or does well enough for a company to snatch up the torg license as genre-bending competition.

Obvious

[Anonymous Coward]

There already is a game based on Rifts. It's called "Rifts." You play it with people called "friends."

if I were Nokia

[focitrixilous P]

I'd change the name of this new superphone. N-gage is near universally connected mentally with sidetalkin, and the numerous design flaws. Anything with the name N-Gage right now will most likely sell poorly. People will go to their geek friends, ask about the N-Gage, geeks get sidetalkin flashback and laugh, consumer buys a game boy.