I started playing Ico a couple years ago because I’d heard nothing but good things about it. I hated it. Since the release of Shadow of the Colossus, Ico’s pseudo-sequel, critics, journalists and other enthusiasts have been trumpeting the wonder and beauty of Team Ico’s maiden voyage. Everyone I know, whether they’re smart forum-goers or friends in the press, keeps talking about how incredible it is. So I thought I’d take another stab at the renowned PS2 classic.

These people forgot to mention one thing: charm can be everlasting, it can also be overshadowed. I’m writing this having finished two hours and 35 minutes of Ico. And as I write, I’m wondering if I will ever go back to it. The adventure game has me at odds with myself, but I think that one side is outweighing the other.

On one hand, I have an immense adoration at the sheer magic of it – it’s absolutely gorgeous despite its aged graphics, masterfully designed and brilliantly presented. There is no heads-up display of any kind; the hero has no health and can’t die unless he falls; and the main theme of the game, protecting a frighteningly pale and supposedly wrongfully imprisoned girl called Yorda, is quite touching. That aspect of it makes the simplistic combat scenarios terribly tense. As shadowy, inky demon thugs pop out of portals, the tense music drops in as a haunting indicator that now, most of all, is the time to keep Yorda safe from these presumably evil kidnappers.

On the other hand, the little things about Ico are really getting on my nerves, and are severely impeding on my ability to tolerate and play the game. The camera is terrible, and what little control you have over it makes things worse, often disorienting; not having a HUD means that you’re on your own to figure things out – I had to hit up a walkthrough to find out that I even had the option to swing from chains, as there was never any indication; and the puzzles are incredibly complex. Because of the awful camera, objectives are often obscured either by poor positioning or objects in the area. Frequently, I’d be at a loss because what I needed to see was obstructed. Even when I learned I had to explore to find certain things, something would be missing.

Beautiful in every sense of the word... and I don't care.

I wonder how much of this is archaic design and how much of it is me not being able to read any subtle hints that may or may not even be there. Either way, I’m not enjoying myself playing Ico. I’m almost immediately frustrated by every new area because I have to stand in weird spots just to get a view on things. I’ve walked past my fair share of ladders and chains due to a poorly placed POVs.

I don’t have the patience for this kind of stuff anymore. Maybe Ico aged poorly. Maybe I’m not good enough to play it. Maybe people only think it’s good because Shadow of the Colossus is so incredible. I don’t know. And I don’t know if I ever want to return to this enchanting universe, despite knowing that there are some phenomenal story twists ahead.  All of these small nuisances pile up and make every second I play an agonizing experience.

Everyone tells me that it’s one of the best games of all time.

I think I’m playing the wrong game, because that doesn’t seem possible. And it depresses me to say that.

Mark Harraway, Country Manager at Controlware explains why CCTV consultants are caught between the devil and the deep blue sea….

Consultants are also placed in a difficult position of having to talk to manufacturers to understand what is being developed and what can be offered to their clients as “the best solution” or deliver solutions that are “fit for purpose”, but they also must remain neutral in their selections in order to meet due diligence requirements.  There is also the need for them to learn a different set of regulations, system specifications and terminology in order to specify either Cat-5 or Cat-6 cable, HD or megapixel, RAID5 or RAID6. And it also doesn’t help that the IT industry regards CCTV as a big margin opportunity because of high bandwidth, storage requirements and associated hardware – but yet they don’t understand the Information Commissioner’s Office guidelines, Home Office evidence submission guidelines, transmission without pixilation, reliability of storage and footage retention, camera / lens selection or positioning. This results in conflicting or plain misleading information being given and passed on by the IT industry.

The following statements have been taken from real tenders provided by consultants, where I have been asked to help design solutions:

All new IP static domes are to be IEEE Power over Internet powered. – Power over Internet – or should that be Power over Ethernet.

All new IP static domes are to be 802.3af PoE compliant and powered from a local fused spur – Why would you want to do this? – Either you want PoE or not?

Storage Profile:  48 Cameras / D1 resolution / 25fps / zero compression / MPEG4 / 31 days retention = 3 Tb storage – So zero compression? – How are you going to fit that on 3TB without sacrificing one of the other elements?

All new IP camera points are to be cabled to CAT-5 standards using STP cable and 75ohm termination. – Does the installation require Cat-5 or Coax?

These errors highlight the issues facing our industry. The future of CCTV requires a knowledge-base which spans both in-depth knowledge of operational security requirements and also in-depth IT and IP knowledge, so that the best and most efficient security systems can be deployed.

The article “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing” can be read in full here

Sweet holy pig god the holiday break actually yielded something productive.

¿Qué tal chairas?, ¿cómo los ha tratado la vida?, en lo personal bastante pesado jaja, pero por fin tras pasar un par de semanas en entregas de trabajos y exámenes finales (ustedes saben el hacer la chaira nos hace millonarios cada dia, pero creo que la escuela es un buen hobby XD), por fin gloriosa libertad. Bueno aquí les dejo un video informativo del buen uso del psp go, disfrutenlo:

Los videos a continuación son las versiones gaiden de los juegos presentados, no hay duda de como ha avanzado la tecnología, parecen casi reales.

¿Problemas para moverte entre la gente?  Conviertete en un asesino silencioso con los consejos de Assassins Creed:

Lecciones de Marketing en Resident Evil 4:

¡Ahh los buenos tiempos!

Cómo se disfruta Super Mario en grupo:

Lo que varios esperamos del futuro y una muy valiosa lección:

Y tras ese incidente que no mencionaré aquí, esta es la principal causa del por que dejamos de jugar Magic:

¿Quién dice que los videojuegos no son románticos?

Cómo ser un buen Paparazzi en Dead Rising:

Lo que sigue lo tratamos de hacer el buen Heggi, Dr Burn y un servidor, lo malo es que acabamos en la carcel con 50 demandas diferentes y el buen Dipu tuvo que sacarnos de ahí…. hasta que lo hicimos de nuevo, no se pierdan la version Serki, Dipu y Naz.

Mega 64 es el grupo encargado de hacer estos increibles videos, pueden checar más de estos  en su página. Una muestra de que el ingenio existe, solo hay que exteriorizarlo, cuidense mucho y paz.

Y recuerden: Esta bien ser abstemio, pero con moderación.

Sin duda una de las grandes y gratas sorpresas para los consoleros de Sony fue el anuncio de un nuevo juego desarrollado por Team ICO, aquellos del mítico Shadow of the Colossus [para muchos el mejor juego de PS2] e ICO.

Fumito Ueda creador de estas dos grandes joyas de los videojuegos traerá para todos los poseedores de una consola PlayStation 3 The last Guardian, del cual presentamos un video del development diary [muy común ahora por las compañías] y un trailer completamente nuevo.

Una vez más reafirmo que el año venidero 2010 será de grandes lanzamientos para las consolas de nueva generación, lo cual es de agradecerse por parte de nosotros los gamers.

The last Guardian, un juego que promete mucho y es que el nombre de Fumito Ueda pesa y pesa bastante.

Fuente | ºvidaextra.comº

Video games always try to tackle certain feelings, certain themes. There are well-explored themes like fear, fun or team-play. But there´s an array of totally untouched themes. One would be love. We´re seeing a rise of sex within popular games right now, but that´s only partly related to “love”. Games that actually attempted to show that feeling´s full scale are rare, one strong example being Final Fantasy 8 or, maybe even moreso, Final Fantasy 10. Unlike love, another big theme is even less explored. That is: Friendship.

Surely, video games are “just” games, but there can be no doubt that messing around with the player´s emotions is big part of modern gaming. And while love can, at least on the surface, be displayed by making use of sex, friendship doesn´t have such obvious features. You cannot have a NPC say “I´m your friend” and the player´s going to think “wow, what a great friend he is.” It´s not going to work. That is why I think that friendship is something that should be explored more in-depth in video games.

First of all, a definition of what friendship actually is should be worked out. To keep it simple, let´s just say: Friendship is something between people that like and honestly care about each other. There are definitely better definitions, but that one´ll work just fine.

It has to be made clear that this concept of friendship has to relate both to ingame-characters as well as to the player himself. There are many games that feature a duo that goes on an adventure together and gives funny comments all the time, but that´s hardly “exploring the theme of friendship”. It´s simple saturday-morning cartoon level of entertainment. To become friend with virtual characters, situations have to occur that make you feel for them. Going through hardships strengthens the bond between friends, so that´s a way. That´s not enough, though, when it comes to video games. Remember Starfox Adventures, a GameCube-action adventure that tried to mimic the Legend of Zelda-games and didn´t really succeed at that. What it did uniquly was the permanent second character, prince Tricky, the little Triceratops that followed you around. While attempting something like friendship, the chosen style of gameplay forbid to make players care for the two of them, Fox McCloud and Tricky. That was because Tricky was nothing but a mere tool to solve puzzles. He had no free will, he didn´t act like an independent character…because he wasn´t. He was there so that the player could proceed through the game. A friend may be many things, but not a tool.

A game did exceptionally well in creating feelings for another characters was ICO for Playstation 2. From the very beginning, you as a player wanted to help weak Yorda on their way out of the castle. It can be criticized, though, that Yorda wasn´t really a friend-character in the game, but rather someone you just had to rescue. So while the game made you care for the characters, it wasn´t the friendship between to equal characters, but rather the compassion for a very weak looking character.

The next example only works for parts, as the actual friendship isn´t really a focus of the game. I´m talking about Half Life 2 and its episodes. And no, I´m not going to talk about Gordon Freeman and Alyx, but rather, Freeman and Dog, the robot. Unlike Yorda in ICO, Dog wasn´t weak by any means. Throughout the game, Dog kept helping you in tough scenes. Not only did he help you, you/Alyx told him to stay back when things got to dangerous. His loyalty sometimes brought me to tears while playing, and even though he doesn´t have that many appearances throughout the game, Dog might be the best developed “friend” in any video games. He cares about you, you start caring about him. And that´s really what friendship should be about.

Friendship is such a strong emotion if done right. It often even surpasses love, which might be diluted by an unfitting sex drive. To give you the feeling of being able to depend on someone, to care about him and break loose should ever something happen to him…that is the potential of friendship in games. While tv-shows and movies have an easy time to portray such feelings, video games are far from that ability. Too often, so-called friends turn into tools or are only to be seen in cutscenes between gameplay-parts. To put a NPC into the game in way that makes him feel like he´s got his own mind, does things his way and doesn´t go the way of the tool, that is the challenge to video game developers. The few shining examples of games that show a glimpse of that are proof of the powerful impression a well-worked out friendship can leave to the player. But that´s also up to gamers themselves, if they want games like that. Or are you content with cinematic games on the one, and multiplayer-focused games on the other hand? I am not, and I could still cry whenever I think about Horror Kid´s story from Legend of Zelda: Majora´s Mask. It´s these emotions that decide between temporary blockbuster game, and timeless masterpiece.

Question to you ladies out there, do you sometimes feel less of a woman if you dress in a male type of clothing? Obviously in SL you can get away with wearing almost anything and not be “judged” and that is why I love it so much, but in my RL I do unfortunately feel less attractive and almost “looked down upon” as I trundle the streets with my hooded top, jeans and trainers on lol. Maybe this is indicative about me and my mental state of mind .. lol…. rather than society as whole; but either way I have decided to take a stand – and make myself feel better in the process :b – by going all “manly” in todays blog.

“Plaid is Back” and “Trepid” by MYTH

MYTH has been around in SL for approximately a year and has become known amongst some circles as the place to go for high quality, reasonably priced casual clothing with a kind of 50’s-esque feel about them. Of course I have been a fan since day one as you all know I have a penchant for watching designers grow and develop throughout their time in SL (no… I am not a stalker btw :b). Actually, it is a little ironic as I have just remembered that one of my very first pieces purchased from Ms Pinazzo was a male shirt and waistcoat combo lol – lawd things have not changed as much as I thought.

Anyway, what you see me wearing above (whilst doing hard manual farm work :b) is the “PLAID IS BACK” shirt in pink. Available in male and female versions, and I have it on good authority that the only difference is the size of the prim cuffs and collar, this shirt is is a lovely mix of  traditional autumn/winter work wear with a huge blast of color. It is ideal for cheering yourself up on cold winter days, but team it up with the TREPID jeans (again, available in male and female version) and you have on your hands a little winner. I am all for bargain shopping but this entire outfit costs only L$300 and will see you through till next summer as the jeans are that perfect colour which can be worn in any season. This coupled with the fact that the detailing is simple and sufficient means that there should be no avatar out there complaining they have no clothes to chill out and relax in over the coming months.

Grab you fella/gal and head down to MYTH – I want to see matching couples every where

Price:  L$150 for shirt     L$150 for jeans

Colours:  shirt only – pink, green, blue, black, yello, teal, red purple

STORE  http://slurl.com/secondlife/Prestigio%20Creations/53/54/23

Casual Happiness – Emerald x

It is hard to start writing about this topic; that is because of several reasons, though one dominates the others: The current video game industry has faded away from imaginative games that much that it is hard no to lose any direction about how to go on. So let me start by simply introducing what said imagination is.

To me, 3D is where everyone´s imagination ran wild. Be it developers, that created these games, or consumers, that gladly bought them. Imagination in terms of video games is not about using a lot of colors or quirky gameplay-features. It is true that my biggest complain about modern, popular video games is that they´re all dark, “cool” shooters or otherwise violent games, with a lot of nice-to-watch cutscenes. These games are missing any kind of imagination, but adding colors isn´t a solution.

Imaginative game design is about creating games that succeed to feature gameplay, level-design, characters and stories that can hold up by themselves. Games that don´t need, or rather, don´t care about popular existing concepts. Other media, like movies or anime, are much better at being imaginative. I´d recommend for you to look into Dennou Coil, Haibane Renmei or Fantastic Children. These anime-shows are that rich of unique, fresh imagination that it´s painful once it´s over. One really great example of such a game was and is the Pokemon-series. Surely, it´s become beyond popular, but when it was released in 1998 (European release), it didn´t care about any other media. There were no movies, books, or games that featured the same spirit as the Pokemon-games. Catch uniquely designed monsters that you have to train to become the best trainer in that peaceful world. Another example would be ICO, that didn´t give a damn about popular design choices. Explore a forsaken castle, help a mysterious girl and fight creepy shadow-monsters. Without a HUD or inventory or mission goals. And then we have my personal pinnacle of imagination that is the Zelda-series. No other popular series continues to shrug off popular design choices like the Zelda-games. These games don´t try to be cool or angsty, they´re not about hardcore-challenge and they´re featuring the weirdest atmosphere in any video games. Exception is Twilight Princess, which unfortunately took design choices of the Lord of the Rings, which may be one reason for why many felt that entry lacked…something.

There are many, many other imaginative games, be it Spyro, Gex: Enter the Gecko or Banjo-Kazooie, but the bottom line is: There was a time in gaming when games dared to be imaginative. Be different. Be themselves. Now, you can hardly find such games, and most of them are smallish download-games that don´t feature the high quality of a big budget game. There are a lot of reasons about why the gaming industry is the way it is today, but at the end it is us, the gamers, that lost something precious. And I have a hard time thinking of something games-related that´s more important than imagination. This industry is headed towards a Hollywood 2.0, and it is both the fault of developers that want to be directors, and gamers that only buy into these huge, massively hyped cinematic games, that things are the way they are. When this years Game of the Year-awards are over, you´ll see them filled with Modern Warfare 2, Uncharted 2 and other titles along these lines. It is the masses that want such a world, but I can but shed an invisible tear about what has become of the world of video games.

A feature article of mine can be found over at Games Abyss. It details my thoughts on the direction video game narratives are headed and how they can become more effective of their immersion of the player.

The loss of sensitive, personal data through theft and burglary is rising. It’s a very worrying situation, and one that the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is painfully aware of. With so many companies having their data protection weaknesses and security flaws exposed through lack of putting the correct security measures in place, the simple question is: How do the IOC ensure that organisations address security matters seriously and effectively…

When a major breach of data security occurs, it often hits the news headlines – think back to November 2007 when 25 million child benefit records were lost in transit. But the fact is that for every story that gets brought to the public’s attention there are an untold amount of data security breaches that are only reported through the appropriate authorities and go unnoticed by most of us.

The IOC labels the amount of personal data being lost in the UK as “unacceptable”.  Figures published by the privacy watchdog highlight that a total of 711 public and private bodies have reported data breaches in the last two years. And, crucially, the amount of those due to theft is 231. The ICO also reported it has taken action against 54 organisations for the most reckless breaches.

As a result, a high number of organisations have agreed and signed formal procedures to improve security.

But is that enough?

Deputy Information Officer David Smith pointed out that although several companies and public bodies are handling their data security correctly, there is still a significant amount failing to take the matter importantly enough. He said:
“The majority of organisations get data protection right, but regrettably a significant minority of management teams are failing to take data protection seriously enough. Far too much personal data is still being unnecessarily downloaded from secure servers on to unencrypted laptops, USB sticks, and other portable media.”

The problem is that currently the IOC only has limited powers. It can serve organisations with what are called ‘Enforcement Notices’, and get Chief Executives to sign formal undertakings to pledge they will improve security in the future. But to breach an Enforcement Notice – although a criminal offence – only carries a maximum fine of £5,000.

However, brand new powers are scheduled to come into force in 2010. The Ministry of Justice recently published a consultation that proposes the ICO will be able to inflict monetary penalties of up to £500,00 on organisations where there is evidence of a reckless or deliberate data protection breach.

Justice Minister, Michael Wills, said: “We want to ensure that the ICO has the powers it needs and is able to impose robust penalties on those who commit serious breaches of data protection principles.”

With such a fiscal penalty at stake, we think it will certainly make a difference.

Read more at out-law.com and computerweekly.com.

To find out about the most effective ways to ensure data security during the recycling process, please visit:

Remploy eCycle

Aún en la distancia me acuerdo de ti, mas si no te llamo no es por tiempo es por falta de espacio.  No es excusa yo elegí este destino, no es excusa simplemente me fui corriendo sin pensar en lo que dejaba atrás. No me culpes, no me odies pero seguramente no te llamaré. Olvidarme de ti no es posible pues formas parte de mí y yo de ti, pero debo romper estas cadenas que tanto me aprietan, que tanto se estrechan cerca de mí yugular.

Aire, es lo que necesito. No para respirar, sino para tener entre medio de cualquier ser humano y mis propios pensamientos. La sociedad me aburre, no la encuentro nada interesante y no quiero sentirme responsable. No quiero volver a ser aquel pájaro enjaulado en el que me convertí antaño.

Libre o al menos tener la sensación de serlo, fuerte para vencer a aquellos seres que atormentaron mi pasado, huyo pues aparecen entre las sombras, y a mi lado sólo tú, siempre tú. Y sin embargo te odio, pues tu yugo me aprieta y no me deja volar. Sin embargo te amo por estar donde tienes que estar.

Quiero desaparecer que nadie me mire al pasar, ser un ente que fluctúa entre aquellos que se creen con vida entre aquellos que se dicen inteligentes, pero para mí son pura escoria. Gente que se queja de sus vidas sin hacer nada al respecto, gente que no valora lo que tiene, pues no les han quitado nada. Yo, sin alma, vivo sin ganas de vivir pero con un objetivo, desaparecer.

Y mientras el resto de seres vivís en la mísera realidad, yo moriré feliz por estar oculto entre las sombrar para engullir vuestros sueños para ser uno menos de una suma sin resultado. Asco, me repugnáis y me dais asco. Pero no es culpa vuestra, si hubierais crecido bajo la constante necesidad de triunfalismo, de la presión continua y sobretodo la máxima responsabilidad ante cualquier hecho significativo.

¿Qué como estoy? Llamadme, y si no contesto sabréis que dejé de estar bien hace tiempo, ¿qué quién soy? A caso os importa, a caso me lo preguntasteis antes de llegar…no…Sólo me juzgasteis y ahora vivo preso en mí mismo, Preso pero acompañado de mi soledad.

Y mientras vosotros seres inferiores mientras dormís soñando en fantasías llenas de color, yo me pudro en esta celda esperando el momento para escapar y asestaros mi más que esperada venganza.

Nota: En serio, te odio sociedad.

Un saludo, Laocoont.

Hello Friends here we come up with the Latest Major Agri-Commodities updates from various parts of the globe.

India May Import 3 Million Tonnes Sugar In 2010/11

India, the world’s biggest consumer of sugar, may import 2.5-3 million tonnes of the sweetener in 2010/11 as domestic output is seen falling short of demand for a third straight year.

Raw sugar futures had rocketed to 28-½ year top on huge imports from the South Asian country, while whites hit a record earlier this year.

In 2009/10 season lower area and drought will keep India’s output at 15.3 million tonnes, a little more than last year’s output of 15 million tonnes, falling severely short of domestic consumption for a second straight year.

There is a margin of 200 rupees per quintal (100 kg) in imports.

So, provided the domestic prices remain firm, millers in Maharashtra would be interested in buying more raw sugar.

In Other major Commodities Updates we can see that World coffee output may fall in 2009-10

World coffee output may fall in 2009-10: Trade body

Global coffee production during the 2009-10 crop year may dip below last year’s level of 128.1 million bags due to bad weather in top three growing countries — Brazil, Vietnam and Colombia, according to the International Coffee Organisation (ICO).

If production falls are confirmed, the global coffee exports are also expected to decline this year.

Production in Brazil, the world’s biggest coffee producer, is estimated to be 39 million tonnes in the 2009-10 season, against 45.99 million bags in a year ago.

ICO said, however, production is expected to rise in Asia, Africa and Central America.

Note : For More Latest Industry, Stock Market and Economy News and Updates, please Click Here

Most games´ focus in terms of visuals lies on the pure impression of the picture you get at a certain point while playing the game. Focus is the ability to present the game as well as possible to the media masses. One aspect that cannot be shown on a picture or not even in videos are games´ animations.

There is no doubt that video games animation have come a long way, and while we´re not yet on Pixar-level, video games are capable of outputting gorgeous animations. Games look fluid, smooth and natural. Still, if you actually play those games you come to realize that it´s not as great as you thought it looked to be. Obvious examples of video games that don´t give a thing about believable, natural feeling animations are first person shooters. It´s simply not something to sweat about when you´ll never see your character anyway. And who cares about perfect animation in a game like Unreal Tournament 3, where all that matters is to shoot the enemy.

The majority of today´s games DOES have good animations, though. At least well-looking animations. That´s where the next split between good and bad (oh well, “not so good”) happens. Dead Rising looks great, but its animations are completely capped. As are Monster Hunter 3´s. You have these stunning moving monsters, but if you keep watching them you realize that it´s one set of animations over and over again. And no matter how you hit them with your weapon, they always react the same.

There is a small minority of games, though, that is doing it perfectly right. For one, there is ICO for Playstation 2. Key-difference to most other games is that animations aren´t just pretty, they also feel great. Or to be more precise, they are combined with gameplay-related physics. When you run on a path and it has small obstacles, you can feel those obstacles and you can see your ingame-character moving accordingly. Another even older example would be Super Mario 64. That is in stark contrast to Super Mario Galaxy, where animations became actually less responsive to the gameplay. In the Nintendo 64-Mario, you have to gain momentum, you have to plan your next move or it´s game over. In Galaxy, you can heavily change the course of your jump even when already in midair. The 64-Mario moves, jumps and stops and you can feel and see it. That´s what made this 3D-introducing title the popular game it is even today.

I believe that there is an important connection between responsive animations and a “good feeling”, which in turns leads to higher levels of immersion. The following may be one hundred percent subjective, but I can still play The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time today, and enjoy it, even enjoy its visuals. In contrast, I don´t have that much fun with re-playing Twilight Princess, where animations have become less responsive, where Link jumps in such a weird, stiff way. A detailed blockbuster-game may be nice to look at, but I strongly think that animations are a key-element in the world of video games, that is the connection between visuals and gameplay.

La Comisión Delegada del Gobierno para Asuntos Económicos acordó el pasado día 22 de octubrela creación de la figura del ‘facilitador financiero’, un instrumento con el que se dota al Instituto de Crédito Oficial (ICO) para ayudar a autónomos y pequeñas y medianas empresas a acceder a la financiación de las entidades de crédito, según anunció la vicepresidenta segunda del Gobierno y ministra de Economía y Hacienda, Elena Salgado.

 El Ejecutivo pretende con esta medida, que tendrá un coste inicial de 10 millones de euros, atender las dificultades de acceso a la financiación que están teniendo proyectos empresariales “viables, rentables y solventes”, al verse afectados por las especiales circunstancias del mercado financiero.

Este nuevo instrumento, que comenzará a funcionar antes de final de año y que se prolongará hasta 2011 -aunque Salgado adelantó que si funciona se podría prolongar aún más-, se encargará de canalizar las solicitudes de crédito de las pymes y autónomos por importe máximo de 2 millones de euros que realicen a las entidades financieras y que hayan sido rechazadas en primera instancia. Según Salgado, se estima que inicialmente se gestionarán unas 200.000 peticiones a través de esta nueva figura.

Las funciones principales del nuevo instrumento serán, por un lado, mejorar la comunicación entre la empresa y el sector financiero y, por otro, asesorar a la empresa en el proceso de tramitación del crédito, así como revisar los expedientes de crédito denegados.

Salgado explicó que los interesados en acceder a los servicios del facilitador financiero podrán hacerlo electrónicamente o por teléfono, entrando en su página web o llamando al call-center. Para ello, tendrán que cumplimentar los datos de un formulario que permitirá valorar si la solicitud se ajusta a los requisitos establecidos y si el proyecto presentado es viable, en cuyo caso será admitida a trámite y deberá aportar los documentos que acrediten su situación.

El facilitador financiero sólo trabajará con aquellas entidades que hayan suscrito un convenio de colaboración con el ICO. En caso de que la entidad que rechazó financiar la operación no tenga firmado dicho convenio, se requerirá al cliente la elección de otra entidad que sí lo tenga. De esta forma, el facilitador mediará con la entidad financiera estudiando la posibilidad de encajar la solicitud en alguna de las líneas abiertas por el ICO para facilitar liquidez a las empresas y trasladará al cliente la respuesta final de la misma.

Para hacer frente a estas nuevas tareas, el ICO dispondrá de una mayor infraestructura mediante la creación de una aplicación informática y un call-center que canalizarán las solicitudes, así como de una central de análisis de riesgo donde se estudiará cada caso.

Red territorial

Además, el ICO pondrá a disposición de pymes y autónomos una red territorial de asesores financieros que analizarán la solicitud de crédito, asesorarán a los demandantes sobre su expediente e intermediarán entre éstos y las entidades financieras para que revisen o recanalicen el caso. Estos asesores se ubicarán físicamente en las instalaciones colaboradoras en todo el país, como la ventanilla única de las Cámaras de Comercio.

Salgado indicó que el nuevo instrumento no supondrá, en ningún caso, una manera de dar dinero público a la banca, sino que se trata de ofrecer un servicio gratuito de asesoramiento para pymes y autónomos.

Aunque admitió que este servicio de asesoramiento no garantizará la concesión del crédito, sí se mostró partidaria de incrementar las garantías que actualmente asume el ICO en las distintas líneas de crédito siempre que las entidades financieras hagan uso de este nuevo instrumento. Según Salgado, bancos y cajas ya conocen esta iniciativa y consideran que se trata de una buena medida.

Happy Friday game fans! – This is the first in a series of opinion blogs that I want YOU, the readers and industry fans to contribute to. If you want to write an opinion column on ANYTHING game related, please leave me a comment along with your email or Twitter username and I will book you in

As the games industry proves an increasingly volatile marketplace following the advent of digital distribution methods and the overwhelming appeal of mobile applications, applause must be given to the Playstation 2, which enters its ninth year this week. For any developer to sustain development of a console for this long is a rare thing and is currently surpassed only by monochrome juggernaut the Gameboy. While the console pales technically to its current generation peers, its survival may lend some weight to claims that Sony is playing a calculated, long-term strategy with its successor. Can the recent brand re-launch, a forthcoming wave of exclusive IP and new price point guarantee repeat success for PS3 Slim?

Although the PS3’s initial launch and hastily revised new models, together with ill-advised moves to launch sans Dual Shock and the removal of backwards compatibility may smack of a scattershot approach, 2010 does look as if it will be the year that the console hits its first confident stride. As reported by Edge in September, PS3 Slim sales hit one million units worldwide a mere three weeks after launch, suggesting that price point proved a key stumbling block for both Sony and the consumer.

The tide may now be starting to move with the developer rather than against it, but the challenge of restoring consumer confidence is far from complete if Sony is to repeat the long-term success of Playstation 2. While the console boasts a greater wealth of connectivity and multimedia features following the mandatory firmware 3.0 update, such as BBC iPlayer, Playstation Store functionality and Trophy integration, placing the console as a central media hub can only paper over the dry-run of exclusive IP for so long.

Moving confidently into Q4 and beyond is crucial for the console’s success and while the recent critical and commercial success of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, which shifted over a million units worldwide within its initial launch week, suggests a sea change among consumers, this singular success will bear finite fruit. The loss of Final Fantasy XIII and the Metal Gear Solid series as Playstation 3 exclusives is stark proof that the developer is having real problems retaining key IP that outgrows the console. It is perhaps valid to suggest that, as a result of the runaway commercial success of Naughty Dog’s action epic, the developer will seek to cast its net wider with the inevitable sequel and launch the title on multiple formats.

Another sticking point for Sony from an IP perspective is the recent piracy woes currently plaguing the PSPgo. As reported again by Edge this month, developer Q-Games has suggested that it will discontinue porting the popular PixelJunk series of titles across to the handheld due to what studio president Dylan Cuthbert cites on Twitter as: “A lot of piracy”. Cuthbert also underlined the futility of coding anti-piracy measures into its titles by suggesting that: “The pirates could just hack those kinds of things out.” What should have served as Sony’s rebuttal to Apple’s iPhone has resulted in a storm of media controversy, with consumers crying foul over its heightened price point, uncomfortable design and lack of UMD playback.

It is unfortunate to see Sony twist in the wind over such issues after how influential and prolific it has been across the last two generations, but if such mis-placed decisions and shortcomings are to continue, then its position at the forefront of the industry will never come to pass. 2010 will see Sony unleash a strong line-up of titles, but can IP such as Team Ico’s The Last Guardian and Capcom’s Monster Hunter 3 realistically garner the same runaway sales in the West that they are almost certain to achieve in Japan? To pin the success of the PS3 Slim on these titles alone would be foolish and suggests that Quantic Dream’s much-touted Heavy Rain, along with recently confirmed sequels to God of War, Killzone and Resistance are the next Western aces in Sony’s pack.

Identity crises are not uncommon for major players in the industry, but for a company as seasoned as Sony to lack the bite and confidence that it once had, drawing in more exclusive developers will prove problematic. If it is indeed playing a long-term game with Playstation 3 then it needs to fill this time with more positives rather than unfortunate and frankly embarrassing negatives. There is a definite shift in consumer attitudes following the launch of PS3 Slim, but the following twelve months will show if there really is proof in the ever-unpredictable pudding.