Wow, it's been a week already? Now that's fast!
Well, more of the same really. A sound issue was found towards the end of the week. Back onto another project - Readying for submission; Localization - Boot checks, general func checks in differing langs. Overall, so far so good, it's ready to go. :)
Gaming bits
- LAIR has been delayed till Sept 4th for US ppls - Scoreboard probs apparently
- GTA IV (4) has been put back to till next year April'08 on all formats, yahoo sux I say but then again it hasn't been the first time delays have happened.
Update: GTA4; Apparently it's down to PS3 - Rockstar are having probs with PS3's architecture/system. You see, even the greatest coding comps encounter difficulties with the most powerful toys around! lol
Saturday, 4 August 2007
Friday, 27 July 2007
The 27th day of the 7th month of the year 2007 - That's a whole lotta 7's!...
Proceeded yesterdays tasks. Some testing in German. Moved onto another PC project, this time round it was rather a refreshing twist. It was a cool spacey-cum-combat type affair (Ala Elite series back in the days). Just general compatibility tests were required. One realises how ones workstation is inferior to anothers, but this is a general environment for PC titles. Titles must work as specified in the "Minimum requirements" blurb. This means, as long as the game installs and runs (no matter how laggy or slow the system is) then it has met the requirements.
My gripes of this is that really there is no standard on the performance of PC titles. Basically, if you want to play the latest games on a PC of how it is intended to be, make sure it is at least in the "Recommended" specs. Otherwise you will be disappointed and prolly spend more money on PC gear. Either do the latter or wait for a console version :)
News (From tgdaily.com): Bill Gates sees processor clock speeds to top out at 10ghz.
According to Gates, there are currently six trends, which will be determining Microsoft and its product strategy for the years to come. In a rather unusual way, he mentioned the dramatic changes in the way the hardware engines that will be fueling new applications are engineered.
The fact that performance advances have shifted from a pure increase of clock speed to increased parallelism was described by Gates as a "challenge". He believes that "parallel execution will be the primary way silicon power will be delivered" down the road and not so much the fact that there is more clock speed available. According to Gates, microprocessors will get to 10 GHz, "but not much further" (...) "even 5 to 6 years out."
Interesting, the man does have a point I dare say. Will be interesting to see what kinder games will evolve from those technologies by then, maybe PC titles will be the thing of the past, maybe console will be a thing of the past, who knows?...
Ah, the weekend hasn't come soon enough, time to rest'n and unwind!
My gripes of this is that really there is no standard on the performance of PC titles. Basically, if you want to play the latest games on a PC of how it is intended to be, make sure it is at least in the "Recommended" specs. Otherwise you will be disappointed and prolly spend more money on PC gear. Either do the latter or wait for a console version :)
News (From tgdaily.com): Bill Gates sees processor clock speeds to top out at 10ghz.
According to Gates, there are currently six trends, which will be determining Microsoft and its product strategy for the years to come. In a rather unusual way, he mentioned the dramatic changes in the way the hardware engines that will be fueling new applications are engineered.
The fact that performance advances have shifted from a pure increase of clock speed to increased parallelism was described by Gates as a "challenge". He believes that "parallel execution will be the primary way silicon power will be delivered" down the road and not so much the fact that there is more clock speed available. According to Gates, microprocessors will get to 10 GHz, "but not much further" (...) "even 5 to 6 years out."
Interesting, the man does have a point I dare say. Will be interesting to see what kinder games will evolve from those technologies by then, maybe PC titles will be the thing of the past, maybe console will be a thing of the past, who knows?...
Ah, the weekend hasn't come soon enough, time to rest'n and unwind!
Thursday, 26 July 2007
Two days into one...
Ah such busyness these days, so let's get blogging!
Wedsday:
Carried on tasks more online testing to be had. Towards the end of the day, a major problem was detected, more tests were carried out. Finally nailed down the problem and reported prompto. It's not unormal when you see something out of the ordinary and suspect its surroundings, 8 out of 10 times it will turn into a problem.
Thursday:
Back onto PC title for half a day regression and then returning to a previous PC title for func tests. Pretty usual stuff then.
News: Heavenly sword demo was announced for release today, but it turned up half a day later. Well better late than never eh?
Update: I played the demo of HS now:
Pros: Very nice, very pretty
Cons: Took hours to dl but the demo only lasted 5mins or so.... Grrrr!!!!
Resident Evil 5 (Ala RE5) gameplay trailer demo was released on LIVE, checked it out over lunch and was mightily impressed, the visuals are astounding, gameplay remains the same - hey that's no bad thing!
Wedsday:
Carried on tasks more online testing to be had. Towards the end of the day, a major problem was detected, more tests were carried out. Finally nailed down the problem and reported prompto. It's not unormal when you see something out of the ordinary and suspect its surroundings, 8 out of 10 times it will turn into a problem.
Thursday:
Back onto PC title for half a day regression and then returning to a previous PC title for func tests. Pretty usual stuff then.
News: Heavenly sword demo was announced for release today, but it turned up half a day later. Well better late than never eh?
Update: I played the demo of HS now:
Pros: Very nice, very pretty
Cons: Took hours to dl but the demo only lasted 5mins or so.... Grrrr!!!!
Resident Evil 5 (Ala RE5) gameplay trailer demo was released on LIVE, checked it out over lunch and was mightily impressed, the visuals are astounding, gameplay remains the same - hey that's no bad thing!
Tuesday, 24 July 2007
A fine sunny day to start the day!...
Ok, it turns out i didn't really need to uninstall the PC programs as i was to moved onto another project. This time around, back to the beloved 360 :)
An XBLA title, a remake of a classic - it comes in two cosmetic flavors, original and enhanced forms. Tasks of the day included online TCR checks and regression - in relation: Low bandwith tests (voice-comms), local netplay and the like. Overall then, pretty straightforward stuff really.
Wonder what i'll be doing tomorrow? :)
Did you know?: Xbox Live is now termed as Xbox LIVE (According to the latest TCR docs)
Gaming bits
- PS3 firmware 1.90 available for Europe - no probs running from a UK account on a US machine!
- MGS4 in-game demoed on stage in Japan, lasting a full 15mins, it is absolutely breathtaking...
- Heavenly sword demo will be available on Thursday! :)
Ok, it turns out i didn't really need to uninstall the PC programs as i was to moved onto another project. This time around, back to the beloved 360 :)
An XBLA title, a remake of a classic - it comes in two cosmetic flavors, original and enhanced forms. Tasks of the day included online TCR checks and regression - in relation: Low bandwith tests (voice-comms), local netplay and the like. Overall then, pretty straightforward stuff really.
Wonder what i'll be doing tomorrow? :)
Did you know?: Xbox Live is now termed as Xbox LIVE (According to the latest TCR docs)
Gaming bits
- PS3 firmware 1.90 available for Europe - no probs running from a UK account on a US machine!
- MGS4 in-game demoed on stage in Japan, lasting a full 15mins, it is absolutely breathtaking...
- Heavenly sword demo will be available on Thursday! :)
Monday, 23 July 2007
Another day at the office...
Project status: Relaxed
Summary:
Back onto another two PC titles, pretty straightforward today, localization in Russian, checking for unlocalised text, high and low textures. There has been an influx of installed titles on a few of the PC's, hence a load of installation problems occured for a few of the other guys. Apparently for PC titles previous to Vista, there aren't any TRC's for them which is pretty convenient :)
Finished the day bug reporting and general functionality tests - started to uninstall related titles for tomorrow, another new day of testing begins!
Summary:
Back onto another two PC titles, pretty straightforward today, localization in Russian, checking for unlocalised text, high and low textures. There has been an influx of installed titles on a few of the PC's, hence a load of installation problems occured for a few of the other guys. Apparently for PC titles previous to Vista, there aren't any TRC's for them which is pretty convenient :)
Finished the day bug reporting and general functionality tests - started to uninstall related titles for tomorrow, another new day of testing begins!
Saturday, 21 July 2007
About me
Hi, I'm GTN, your resident blogger. I have been playing videogames since I was 10yrs old and ever since then I have been fascinated by them. I've had gaming systems from Commodore 64 to current generation. I've had many different careers spanding from catering, retail, MIS etc. But the one job that I wanted most was to be working in the gaming industry as my past time was gaming, so why not get paid for it?
I have been in the industry over 6yrs now and have worked in other areas relating to this field from technical support to journalism. I am now in testing and have been doing this for about 2yrs, I have learnt a great deal from beginning to current.
In a nutshell, I love videogames, I don't know what I would do if I wasn't in this industry (well yes I do, but if I wasn't then you wouldn't be reading this!) :P
This blog will be updated whenever possible, feel free to leave comments and I'd try my best to answer them.
GTN
Related info
Genres of games tested:
Sports, Action, Combat, Adventure, RPG, Racing, Puzzles, Simulations
Platforms tested: PC, PS2, Gamecube, XBox, 360, PSP
Systems owned:
C64, C16, Sega master system, Megadrive/Genesis, SNES, PC Engine, Neo Geo, Amiga 1200, CD32, Atari 2600, Jaguar, Gameboy, GBC, Sega Saturn, PS1, Dreamcast, PS2, GameCube, DS, Xbox, PSP, 360, Wii, PS3
I have been in the industry over 6yrs now and have worked in other areas relating to this field from technical support to journalism. I am now in testing and have been doing this for about 2yrs, I have learnt a great deal from beginning to current.
In a nutshell, I love videogames, I don't know what I would do if I wasn't in this industry (well yes I do, but if I wasn't then you wouldn't be reading this!) :P
This blog will be updated whenever possible, feel free to leave comments and I'd try my best to answer them.
GTN
Related info
Genres of games tested:
Sports, Action, Combat, Adventure, RPG, Racing, Puzzles, Simulations
Platforms tested: PC, PS2, Gamecube, XBox, 360, PSP
Systems owned:
C64, C16, Sega master system, Megadrive/Genesis, SNES, PC Engine, Neo Geo, Amiga 1200, CD32, Atari 2600, Jaguar, Gameboy, GBC, Sega Saturn, PS1, Dreamcast, PS2, GameCube, DS, Xbox, PSP, 360, Wii, PS3
Intro - Life of a games tester
Ever wondered what it's like to play video-games for a living? Well then, you've come to the right place.
This blog is about the in and outs of games testing. Everything you wanted to know and beyond.
So, sit back relax and enjoy the show!
GTN (GamesTestingNinja) :)
Keywords: Games tester, gametester, game, video-games, videogames, qa technician, testing, sony, playstation, ps1, psx, ps2, ps3, psp, portable, psn, microsoft, xbox, xmb, 360, live, arcade, nintendo, wii, ds, gameboy, sega, capcom, konami, namco, pc, computer, vista, xp, direct x, dx
This blog is about the in and outs of games testing. Everything you wanted to know and beyond.
So, sit back relax and enjoy the show!
GTN (GamesTestingNinja) :)
Keywords: Games tester, gametester, game, video-games, videogames, qa technician, testing, sony, playstation, ps1, psx, ps2, ps3, psp, portable, psn, microsoft, xbox, xmb, 360, live, arcade, nintendo, wii, ds, gameboy, sega, capcom, konami, namco, pc, computer, vista, xp, direct x, dx
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