Tom, Author at Tom Sean

Cancelled Wii Star Wars Game Rogue Leaders Coming To Nintendo Switch?

In a recent NVC podcast from IGN, president of Factor 5, Julian Eggebrecht, discussed the possibility of releasing cancelled Star Wars trilogy Rogue Leaders on Nintendo Switch.

For those unfamiliar, Rogue Leaders was a remix of the original trilogy; Rogue Squadron (N64), Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leaders (GC), and Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike (GC). It was initially planned for release on the Microsoft Xbox, but management issues at LucasArts meant the game was cancelled midway through development in 2003.

Factor 5 went on to dabble with titles for Xbox 360 and PS3 before coming back to Nintendo to complete the game for Wii. It featured updated graphics, a brand new lighting system, added motion controls, and MotionPlus based lightsaber duelling. Eggebrecht goes on to claim this was the best game Factor 5 ever made.

Unfortunately Rogue Leaders never saw the light of day after the financial crash in 2008 saw publisher LucasArts cancel the project, sending Factor 5 into liquidation. Today, Factor 5 still exist in a disbanded form, but Eggebrecht’s demeanour on the show suggests he was holding back some exciting news.

The TL;DW quote from Eggebrecht:

“Shall we just say it’s definitely something that in some way shape or form should come out of the archives. All the things that I think prevented that back in 2009 when we finished the game should be out of the way nowadays, so I think it’s just about the willingness of us spending some time on it, Disney/Lucasfilm playing along with it, and then EA must be a little in the mix. But we’ll see about that.”

[Chat about Rogue Leaders starts at 38 minutes]

Making Your Odroid-XU4 a Silent Beast with the Zalman ZM-NB47J

As some of you may know the current top-of-the-line Odroid-XU4 is probably the most powerful SBC on the market. With its 2.0GHz Exynos Octacore CPU, 2GB LPDDR3 and USB3.0 support, it’s hard not to resist its potent charms. But with great power comes, errr, great noise. These things will keep you up at night.

The biggest issue facing the XU4 is heat – this thing gets seriously warm. The default SKU, along with the starter pack, ship with a whiny, annoying, and downright offensive fan. This thing could torture even the most taciturn of folk.

The makers behind the line, HardKernel, do offer a passive cooling solution. It uses a larger, fanless heatsink at 40 x 40 x (H)25mm. While this seems an obvious solution, it does comes with a few caveats. For one the heatsink is only capable of cooling the CPU up to levels around the 1.2GHz mark. Once the system is at full load, thermal throttling will occur. A lesser issue, but still a minor inconvenience, is the fact it no longer fits in the official case.

When I first bought the XU4 I had no idea the fan would be that bad. According to the official site ‘it barely kicks in’. Well I can tell you that is false. The eMMC in my starter pack came preloaded with UbuntuMATE, which is a fairly lightweight OS. Even general navigation would cause the fan to flare up and wind down every 30 seconds or so.

My eventual aim for the device was to configure it as a NAS, and maybe even get a Plex server up and running. I thought being mostly in an idle state would mean things shouldn’t be too bad. I was wrong. This thing was setup in the corner of my bedroom and would regularly wind up at 4am like a jet fighter. That fan had to go.

I looked around online for solutions, and thought maybe the official passive heatsink might be the best option. After all, it had the mounting holes, and was obviously made to fit the device. I wanted more, though. More cooling, less throttling. I started researching based on the 40 x 40mm footprint. There were quite a few options, mainly northbridge heatsinks, but most relied on thermal putty for application.

I finally stumbled upon the Zalman ZM-NB47J, a northbridge heatsink measuring in at 37 x 37 x (H)47mm. It offered a similar footprint to the HardKernel solution, but at nearly twice the height, would offer far better thermal dynamics. The dealbreaker was the fact it had adjustable mounts, meaning it just about fits the XU4. A bit of Arctic Silver 5 later and it was done.

So how does it perform? Well, the fact it doesn’t make a noise means infinitely better in my eyes. Granted the system will still throttle under full load, such as transcoding a 1080p video file. But after a few benchmarks I measured the CPU would run as high as 1.6GHz under load before throttling kicked in. A full 33% increase in performance over the Hardkernel passive heatsink. Not too shabby.

The main problem is finding one of these things. Zalman don’t make them anymore, so your best bet is eBay. Mine cost me about £5 including postage. A small price to pay for a peaceful night’s sleep, I’m sure you’d agree.

Why The Last of Us Part II #PGW2017 Trailer Was More Than Just Gratuitous

In the lead-up to Paris Games Week Sony were promising big things, something not many expected due to their own event, the PlayStation Experience, being just around the corner. While we were treated to even more footage of games we already know and love, few of us expected The Last of Us: Part II to make an appearance. And what a polarising appearance it was.

I’m sure many, myself included, initially thought we were seeing ‘Days Gone’ – another of Sony’s 1st party titles. But as the trailer settled in, it was obvious the fidelity was way beyond anything we’d seen from Bend Studios’ open-world adventure. It wasn’t, however, until the familiar screech of the infected bursting into shot, followed by the end titles, that we could be sure this was a Naughty Dog production.

The five minute trailer caused a stir on social media due to its adult themes of extreme violence, with many claiming it was a step too far for a public event. While I agree this was a very brutal showing, the nature of which reinforces Neil Druckmann’s vision of a sequel centering on hate, there’s a deeper meaning to the lack of context.

Make no mistake, this trailer was out to shock from the outset. Hooded figures dragging a seemingly helpless woman by torchlight created a distressing scene inline with a full-blown horror film. An attempted hanging, gutting, and two savage deaths later and we were all left wondering who the hell any of these new character were. It was real halloween stuff.

As a standalone trailer this may have seemed all too gratuitous and misleading, but then Naughty Dog know their meta-game. The level of analysis thrown at the first trailer, together with hints from other source material, meant another trailer featuring Joel and Ellie would not only be playing it safe, it would risk overdeveloping their characters early on. If the first trailer showed us The Last of Us in it’s downtime, this very much reached the other end of the spectrum. This was as gritty as it gets.

Whether you loved it or loathed it, the conversation was there. It was a fresh sample, ready to go under the microscope. Theories spreading like wildfire. Was the woman Ellie’s mum? Do the roadsigns confirm Seattle as the setting? Is the entire game a prequel? This ongoing debate is the real core of what Naughty Dog was trying to promote.

We’ve seen a million deaths in videogames, it’s been part of the narrative since the very beginning. Naughty Dog are using it in the right way. They’re using it for emotional reaction, to set the scene, and I think this is when videogames are at their very best.

Jack Ryan, in his debut as PlayStation Executive, said it best: “a game made by adults to be played by adults.”

Magic 8-Ball MicroPython Code for BBC Micro:bit

I’ve been messing around with the online editors on the micro:bit website for a while now, and while they are great for beginners, I was looking for a dedicated offline client for Windows. Turns out there’s this great little programme called Mu, which let’s you code in MicroPython, a subset of the Python 3 programming language.

Continue reading “Magic 8-Ball MicroPython Code for BBC Micro:bit”

Why Xbox One X vs PS4 Pro is a Tough Sell

Microsoft finally unveiled Project Scorpio at this years E3, and hey, whaddya know, it wasn’t called Project Scorpio.

Many of us went into the showcase so accustomed to the Scorpio codename, we felt it inevitable Microsoft would stick with the branding. Not only was it familiar, but it spoke of an almost reticent potency, and was, well, just a bit cool really.

Continue reading “Why Xbox One X vs PS4 Pro is a Tough Sell”

A Way Out Was My Favourite Take from the EA Conference (E3 2017)

With history preceding them, I’m always a bit sceptical going into an EA conference. They churn out the sports franchises annually, their shooters rotated every other. It can all get a bit predictable. We kind of knew what to expect this year too, and it’s exactly what we got. New FIFA, new Madden, new NBA, and new shooters.

Continue reading “A Way Out Was My Favourite Take from the EA Conference (E3 2017)”

What Nintendo Got Right With Switch

Think back a few weeks, leading up to the Switch launch, a cloud of apprehension in the air – stemming mainly from Nintendo’s secrecy on features – but also the limited launch line-up, the mass reports of joycon signal issues, the claims on battery life, little bugs picked up by the select few running pre-launch firmware.

Continue reading “What Nintendo Got Right With Switch”

How-to: Stop Switch Dock Scratching Your Screen

The Switch has barely had time to settle in and we’re hearing reports of the dock causing scratches to the tablet’s screen. Nintendo’s Reggie Fils-Aimé was quick to put the kibosh on any suggestions of a design flaw, stating they hadn’t experienced any issues when showing the system off at various events in the build-up to launch.

Needless to say, there’s still a lot of worried people out there who don’t fancy ruining their new toy, so I’ve come up with a solution to combat the plastic-on-glass problem that seems to be causing the issue.

Continue reading “How-to: Stop Switch Dock Scratching Your Screen”

Tested: Nintendo Switch and Apple USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adaptor

After my post discussing the hardware inside the Switch Dock, I thought I’d follow it up with a little experiment I tried last night. Testing the Apple USB-C AV Adaptor connected directly to the Switch via its USB-C port, I plugged in the included HDMI lead, and Nintendo AC adaptor.

Continue reading “Tested: Nintendo Switch and Apple USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adaptor”

Nintendo Switch Handheld Mode – Will Games Run Smoother While Charging?

It’s a well known fact the Nintendo Switch throttles its GPU speeds when running in handheld mode. The official specification outlines this performance as such:

Docked:
CPU: 1020MHz
Memory Bandwidth: 1600MHz
GPU: 768MHz

Continue reading “Nintendo Switch Handheld Mode – Will Games Run Smoother While Charging?”