Twins sprout twice, though as opposites

With the Gemini sign on the Zodiac commencing on May 21, it seemed fitting to grace this week’s game section with two new interesting releases that represent the dual personalities of those born under the “twin sign.” Will you be an iron-plated warrior slashing away at horned demons or will you vie for less bloodshed bouncing atop colorful mushrooms, collecting blinking coins?
If you choose the latter, then you want to look into “New Super Mario Bros.” which was released in Korea and Japan last Thursday for the Nintendo DS platform. The tubby Italian mustachioed plumber with a lust for gold coins is off to save Princess Peach from her evil captors, Bowser and Bowser Jr.
The game is notable because it is the first two-dimensional Mario game in the classic Mario-adventure style since “Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins” was released for Nintendo’s Game Boy. Believe it or not, that was in 1992. Of course, there have been a sprinkle of Mario remakes since then, some of which were two-dimensional, but there was nothing that spoke to the game’s quest-ful nature.
The new game contains eight worlds, each with several levels, as in the original “Super Mario Bros.” Although there are many new game elements, players can still feel like they’ve been sent back to 1992, eating plump mushrooms, head-busting bricks and cracking secrets to find special stages and items. Players can also engage in a multiplayer mode as Mario and Luigi, playing on separate consoles that are linked wirelessly.
On an entirely different platform and with an entirely different look is “Soul of the Ultimate Nation,” or SUN, which was finally released (after several delays) last Wednesday. Downloading the client to one’s computer requires some patience, as well as a minimum 1 gigabyte of hard drive space, but then you get to play what Webzen calls “an online game with console-style playing features.” The online massively multiplayer role playing game (MMORPG) may be “just another release” in Korea, but to Webzen, the maker of the popular online game “Mu,” it will be the first of three MMORPG titles that it will launch in North America and Europe.
No cute 2D characters or tonky music here. Compared to previous online titles, SUN has impressive graphics and a nice soundtrack composed by Howard Shore, who worked on the Lord of the Rings series. It has single-player quests and multi-player battles, catering to both the lone and the community player. The quests were more for Western players, like World of Warcraft; Koreans, on the other hand, usually prefer the massive battles, so we’ll have to wait and see how this dual approach goes over with players here.

by Wohn Dong-hee

Lots of ways to watch World Cup

Thanks to the new media industry, such as the Internet, cable television and digital multimedia broadcasting service providers, people in Korea will have a wider choice of how and where to watch the World Cup this year.
Four years ago, soccer fans in Korea did not have much of a choice when it came to how they could watch the World Cup: it was through broadcasts offered by one of the public broadcasters KBS, MBC or SBS.
This year, however, soccer will be available through more diverse platforms.
On a nationwide basis, 18 local digital cable television broadcasters will offer data broadcasting services between June 27 and July 9. The extra data includes schedules of the matches and World Cup-related news.
Broadcasters such as Gangnam Cable TV, HCN, Dream City and TCN Daegu Broadcasting plan to hold various side-events, such as having viewers guess who will win and conducting World Cup photo contests. Several service providers will offer “special services” during the World Cup in which viewers will be able to watch programs “linked” from other sports or action sports channels that are not available on a regular basis.
In particular, digital satellite broadcaster Sky Life will televise all 64 World Cup matches in high definition through its high-definition channel Sky HD. These games will have different commentators than the games televised on public television.
The commentators are Choi Kyung-sik, technical committee member of the Korea Football Association; Song Young-ju, editor of the soccer magazine Soccer Line and professional soccer commentators Kim Gang-nam and Jeong Hyo-woong.
“We will provide scientific and in-depth explanations for hard-core soccer fans, not just glib [remarks]. The professional information we have will differentiate our commentaries,” Mr. Choi said.
TU Media, Korea’s sole satellite digital multimedia broadcaster, is offering special discounts for those who subscribe now. TU Media offers programs that can be viewed on mobile devices such as cell phones; the images do not break even when the user is moving at high speeds on the ground or when traveling in the subway.
Soccer games will also be available through terrestrial DMB. Makers of portable devices have recently released new devices that support terrestrial DMB ― Reigncom has a “pocket TV” with an 2.2-inch LCD screen; LG Electronics released yesterday an MP3 player with DMB reception functions. Terrestrial DMB can also be viewed through phones that support the service.
Meanwhile, on the Internet, Daum has acquired exclusive Internet broadcasting rights. The company signed a contract with Infront Sports & Media AG, the official agency of the FIFA World Cup broadcasting rights, and became the licensed broadcaster for official Web and mobile videos. Daum will set up a studio within the International Broadcasting Center in Germany and send video programs to studios in Seoul.
The near-live edited movie clips will be broadcast over the Web on its “FIFA World Cup Exclusive Channel” and will be available through streaming or downloads on mobile phones. Daum spent about $3 billion won ($3.2 million) in marketing costs to offer these services.
Because this disables other Internet portals from broadcasting World Cup games on their sites, they are busy trying to find other ways.
Yahoo Korea said that it will offer clips of game highlights and real-time text-messaging services.
NHN, which operates the portal Naver, is conducting various online events focused on the cheering involved in the games.

by Wohn Dong-hee

Microsoft joins hands with Korea at ‘forefront’

It was a busy day for Microsoft in Korea, with chief executive officer Steve Ballmer announcing several investment partnerships with Korean companies and the government, and an additional $30 million investment in local research facilities. The company signed memoranda of understanding with the Education Ministry for ubiquitous learning, with Samsung Corp. for ubiquitous apartments and with LG Nortel for VoIP collaboration. “Korea is at the forefront of embracing the IT revolution compared to other countries and Microsoft is investing in a fundamental belief in the power of innovation in research and development,” Mr. Ballmer said. Microsoft’s Mobile Innovation Lab, which was founded in March last year with a $30 million budget through 2008, will be expanded into an innovation center with an additional $30 million investment announced yesterday. In a morning meeting with Korea’s Information Minister Roh Jun-hyong, Mr. Ballmer discussed the company’s plans for expanding investment in Korea. Microsoft also signed a strategic alliance with Samsung Corp. to build digital homes. The two firms will jointly develop a business model for a home networking brand tentatively called “Housing Framework” exclusively for apartment units. They will also cooperate on technology and marketing to provide the system to housing units as early as next year. Microsoft also signed a memorandum of understanding with LG-Nortel, Korea’s largest telecommunications equipment firm, for joint marketing and development of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) video telephones based on the Windows CE 6.0 platform. Timed to coincide with Mr. Ballmer’s visit, Microsoft’s local office signed an MOU with the Education Ministry to develop software for the government’s ubiquitous “u-learning” project.by Wohn Dong-hee for JoongAng Daily

Ministries join forces to improve defense system

The Defense and Information Ministries signed a plan yesterday to collaborate on creating an upgraded defense system. Comprised of 24 sub-projects, the comprehensive plan includes selecting one military camp as a test site and implementing an unmanned surveillance system, radio frequency identification-based distribution asset management system, and telematics-based remote medical system. If the tests go well, those systems will be applied to all of the military.
Another project involves establishing cyber rooms so that soldiers can continue their development through online education. The Information Ministry said these computer rooms will prevent recruits from being isolated from society. Internet addiction treatment programs will be available for soldiers who had such problems before they entered the military.
Other plans include upgrading the Defense Ministry’s information telecommunications network system and training a professional workforce in information security fields.
In the plan, the Information Ministry will be in charge of applying new technology and providing technical support; the Defense Ministry will select the test troops and oversee the management and implementation of the new systems. The ministries will form a task force in June to draw up a detailed plan by the end of this year. The government hopes to supply the technology to the test group by 2010 and expand it to other troops from 2011.

by Wohn Dong-hee