03 March 2008

Ngage First Access
Review, part 1. The ngage Client.

My Profile

The next tab is the My Profile Tab. Here we can see and do many things within the ngage client. At first look we are able to check our Ngage points, reputation and how many friends we have. A little further down the page, we are able to sign into the ngage arena, a click on where it says Offline will bring up a window (as seen in the bottom 2 screenshots below) from where we can set our online status. Available to play will mean you are online and friends can see you our online, Not available to play and offline modes, friends will see you as being offline. Simple selected your mode you would like by clicking on it will connect you to the ngage arena, or disconnect you if selecting to be Offline.

My Profile Page On Ngage Client

You are also able to type in your own custom message you would like, like in my screen shots above, i have 'Bring it on' for available to play, and 'Leave me alone' for being offline and not able to play. On not able to play mode, you are still connected to the ngage arena and still able to upload your scores as you progress through a certain game.

Further down the My Profile page will also display the games installed on your device, and also able to run the games from here to, just like we can from the My Games page.

My Profile Page On Ngage Client

The options menu from My Profile brings up the options as seen on the screen shot on the left, View Details and edit profile are the 2 options specific to the My Profile page. The right screenshot is your details which accessed from selecting the View Details option from the option menu, here displays your points and point pickups from the games you have played and have installed on your device.

My Friends

My friends tab is pretty much exactly what it says on the tin, it is a list of all your friends which shows your friends you have added, or friends that have added you and you have accepted there invite to be a friend. Unfortunalty, i have been having problems with adding friends.

My Friends Page on Ngage Client

The left screen is the friends list, but even though i have added many friends they dont seem to display here the next time i log in, im sure this is one of the bugs which i will talk about bugs later in the article. If you do have friends listed here, you can see if they are online or offline and can even rate them as a player all from the options (left soft key) menu as seen on right screen shot.

You can also view there profile and send them a message, even if they are offline you are able to send message and they will recieve a pop up the next time they log into ngage arena.

My Friends Page on Ngage Client

These are some screenshots taken from my nokia n95 (ironically , i dont have any problems on n95 lol) and this is how a message from a friend looks like on the home page, and when you send a message to a friend.

My Friends Page on Ngage Client

If friends are added, you can also see there online or offline status from the home page. If a friend is online, he/she will show here and you will be able to invite the friend to have a game with you, as you can from the friends list also.

There is a lot of options your able to do from the options menu, sort your friends by availability, name or ngage points, view recommendation, rate players, remove players and much more. Nokia did a good job on making the new ngage platform as a community gaming platform.

Showroom

The ngage showroom is the part of the ngage client you check on regual basis for any new games and news about new games. Also you can see list of all available games and download them directly from the showroom on your ngage client to your device.

The Ngage Showtoom

You can view all games which are available for ngage right here in the showroom, you can view the details of a game and view what others have rated the game and what others thought about it. You can also download the trial directly to your device over GPRS or a WLAN connection and install the game.

Update now you should click regular to check for any new games. The game of the week is listed right at the top, im not sure how they get the game of the week stats, weather it is from how many time its downloaded, or from what people rate the game as, becuase i found this weeks game of the week to be.... hmmm how can i put it, i just say its not the best game on the ngage portfolio and the trial only lasting 30 seconds defiently steer me away from purchasing this game. But more on games in next article.

The Ngage Showtoom

From viewing the details of a game gives a very brief description of the game, and the reviews from the ngage community. The download free trial link can be found everywhere, if not on the screen, it is the first option in the options menu (left soft key).

The Ngage Showtoom

Right at the bottom of the Showroom page, you have the 'Browse all Game Extras' button, which on clicking takes me to the page as seen on the screenshot to the right, so maybe this is something to come later on.

Ngage Settings

The settings for the ngage client can be accesed from any page/tab your on within the client, simply press the options (left soft key) and select the 'N-Gage Settings'. This will take you to the settings from which you can change connection, personall and account settings.

The Ngage Settings

As you can see, you have personal settings, connection settings and account details under the private tab of the settings. There are 3 tabs in the connection settings, Points, Public and Private.

The Ngage Settings

In the Public tab, you can change your profile picture to any image which is on your device, and you can write a motto and type your fav game, this is shown to the whole ngage communtiy when they browse your ngage profile. The points tab just shows how many ngage points you have earned while gaming.

The Ngage Settings

Personal settings is where you enter all your personal settings, name date of birth, gender, email address, city etc etc. And Connection settings is probally the most important, as not set up correctly will result in you not able to connect. You can set if you want to connect to ngage arena as soon as launching the client, or only as needed, and you can set your preferred and alternative access points. You can also set an alert for a limited amount of date, if your on a good unlimited data plan with your phone network service provider, then you can turn this setting to no alert as it doesnt matter.

Continue reading on page 3