03 March 2008

Ngage First Access
Review part 1. The ngage Client
page 3 (The Bugs).

The Bugs I Found

The bug which is effecting me the most, is one which will not allow me to login to the ngage arena using packet data access point, and very rarely using my home WLAN as access point, it really is quite the nightmare to get loged into arena. I have tried with three major UK service providers and everyone will connect just fine, and even download games from the showroom, but will eventually time out after a few minutes of attempting to login to my arena account (available to play) and report to me either an error with my network access point settings, or i dont have a stong enough signal.

Connected And Attempting To log Into Ngage Arena	The Error Which Occurs After About 3minutes Of Attempting To Login

I know it isnt a problem with my signal strength as it is full, and its not an issue with my network access point either, as i have no problem to access any other application which requires network access. I am not sure, but it might be some error on the ngage server, as sometimes when i try to connect, it will send an untrusted certificate. I also tried with 2 other different network service providers to my own, (which is t-mobile UK) o2 UK and vodafone UK and same screen's as you see above was happening on the other networks also, where all network access points where able to view web pages in the defualt s60 browser, and https:// secure pages too, and even download the trial games from the ngage client showroom.

The most ironic thing is, the hacked version (which allows installing the ngage first access application to other devices than n81) which i installed onto my nokia n95, actually connects and logs in without any problem at all using the very same access point..

Other bugs i found was that quite annoyingly, the client would just freeze for no apparent reason, never while in game, but when i was on the client trying to connect to the ngage arena or add friend or message friend, the cliend would just crash major big time. When this happens, the phone is still usable, your able to 'red end call button' out of the ngage client, and everything would be fine, but the client would still be running in the background without any way of closing it. And upon turning the device off, the device would fail to turn completly off, getting stuck on the white nokia screen (WSOD White Screen Of Death) and removal of battery would be the only solution. Extremly annoying issue.

I also enconter many problem with the friends adding, and accepting friend requests from other people. I would accept a friend, and the friend would show, and we can talk and game together, but next time login to ngage arena, i would always recieve a pop up message saying 'Name of friend have removed you from there list' when i know for a fact they have not, becuase of those friends was myself on my n95 to see if other friends really was removing me, and they was not. So i was always without friends :(

I also experiance many many times, the ngage client just simply closing back to my active standby screen. It can happen in many different circumstance, for example, i press to start a game and all i get is the home screen of my device (active standby) or the device menu. Or i could simply try to connect to the ngage arena by changing my online status within my profile page from offline, to Available to play, and the split second i press available to play, i am greeted with either my active standby, or my menu. Pretty much will happen when ever i try to do anything, there is no set thing to determine this bug, as it may happen when you press any selection within the whole client.

Apparently, this is caused by having 5mb or less device memory according to the known issue list on the ngage support forums. My main problem i have, is with connection issues, sometimes it just completly refuse to allow me to log into the ngage arena, even using WLAN, and there is completly no chance what so ever of me ever being able to connect to the arena using any UK service provider, this is a huge bug that really needs to be fixed.

Also it is impossible to connect to the ngage arena with a WLAN access point without a sim in the device, IE: Offline mode. It just will not connect what so ever, gameplay during offline mode (without sim card) is fine in single player mode, but to submit your scores to the ngage arena servers, you will have to have a sim card inside the device to make a connection, even using a WLAN access point. I hope this gets fixed, i understand the reasons for having to have a sim card in the device for purchasing game codes, but i cant understand why you cant connect to the arena what so ever using a WLAN access point when a sim card is not inside the device.

I also found a bug with the WLAN, if you are connecting using a WLAN access point, and you have your phone scanning for access points from the active standby, you will not be able to connect succesfully untill you stop the scanning from active standby, and restart the ngage client, or possible even reboot the phone.

And you will also find lot of problems connecting to the ngage arena if you have any other application running in the background of the device, i strongly belive this is what is the root of all my connection problems with the n81, as the music player is allways running in the background, and there is no application that will succesfully kill the process. I belive this due to the fact that i can log in and connect to arena succesfully without any problem what so ever using the hacked version client with my nokia n95 device, and the same problems will occur on the n95 if i have another application running in the background, IE: a screenshot application or the music player. So i had to make connection and log into ngage arena first, and then open the screenshot application after it, and if, it would connect, as problems still occur i belive due to the constant running of the music player. Im not sure if anyone else has experianced this very same thing, if you have, please feel free to mention it on our forum section.

I went out and purchased a wireless router just to see if i could connect to the arena atall, and sometimes, i am able to connect without problems, but the majority of times i cant connect atall, and it just leaves me hanging on the attempting to login page as seen in the screenshots above.

My Thoughts

I personally think this next generation of mobile gaming could be something very good in the future, but at the moment i find it to be extremly very stressfull with the bugs, especially the connection bug as i just mentioned above, can really drive you insane lol. But this is an early beta release, so such bugs and issues are more than expected, so hopefully the next beta version will have these issues fixed, i will be sure to keep you all informed about how it goes in the near future.

The games are just fantastic, and i have so much to say about them, i have decided to play them some more and write a whole new article just dedicated to the ngage games, as i have left this article all about the client, and think i have gone into it pretty good detail, but as allways, i am open for suggestions on improvment and of course i am allways open and availalbe to answer any question anyone might have about the ngage platform, or the games over in our forum section.

So check back in a week or so for my 2nd edition ngage article which i will discuss and talk about all the games which are currently released for this nokia's next generation mobile gaming platform.

Here you can find the full list of known issues regarding this beta version of the ngage client.