Every Single Article Written by N - All 1343
‘Grand Theft Auto V’ Could Learn A Lot More From ‘Chinatown Wars’ Than ‘IV’
A Huang In Trouble.
With just over four months to go before its blockbuster, records-breaking release, I obviously don’t have any sway over Grand Theft Auto V‘s design. Only showed to a small batch of reporters, the word coming out of Rockstar’s gameplay unveiling a few weeks back is promising, but I need more. The Grand Theft Auto games for home consoles have become increasingly impressive on a technical basis, but they’ve always left a lot of the fun out of the equation in favor of more grating realism. Somehow I dream that GTAV adheres more to the lightweight design of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, the oft-forgotten and most enjoyable game of the series, rather than the intense drama of its immediate predecessor that also ruined Max Payne 3.
Windows Phone Finally Defeats BlackBerry To Take Bronze In Smartphone Race
I can’t even think of why I created this image, but I did at some point.
Windows Phone had a sad little debut nearly three years ago; a party that Microsoft paid billions of dollars for and no one showed up. Their strategy of taking their time to release a follow-up to their competition’s big splash -namely, the iPhone and Android – didn’t work this time. Releasing a 1.0 product against the competitions 2.0 and 3.0 products, despite having created the smartphone market with their Windows Mobile OS, seemed more backwards than ever. This time, it didn’t give them any of the success they wanted. Well, it’s been a long fight and Microsoft is still far behind, but with their competition faltering, Ballmer’s company can now claim third place in the smartphone wars.
Nintendo’s Secret War Against YouTubers Will Cost Gamers Considerably
With Nintendo submitting Content ID requests, it’s only a matter of time before no one does Nintendo videos.
Sometimes, there’s nothing more enjoyable than a Let’s Play video. They’re not always called Let’s Play, they’re Quick Looks, they’re our very own FEZ PLAYs, they’re whatever you like. If broadcast sports or Mystery Science Theater 3000 have taught us anything, it’s that almost any form of entertainment is enhanced by color commentary. A few years ago, a bill was introduced into US Senate that would impose penalties on those who streamed copywritten material, which was construed as a government attempt to ban Let’s Play videos. While the bill’s creators have said that wasn’t the aim, it appears that Nintendo would have no issue with a variant of it as they’ve now sent out Content ID notices to Let’s Play producers like Zack Scott who rely on YouTube ad revenue to, well, live.
FEZ PLAY: Grand Theft Auto 4 (Xbox 360) – Just As (Not) Fun As I Remember
Making the game a simulation is its biggest victory and greatest crime.
Everyone welcome Rob to his first FEZ PLAY! With the rash of Grand Theft Auto V coverage lately, we’re going back to Liberty City in a game I never came close to finishing, but it stole my heart for nearly 40 hours, anyway. Watch as N misses turns, deals with inertia and momentum (physics!) and can’t seem to get Little Jacob to climb stairs.
Electronic Arts Kills Project Ten Dollar, A Sign Of Better Times
“OMGZ, TEH USED GAEMS.” – Former CEO John Riccitello
Battling the sale of used games is a conflict the publishers would rather be over. In 2010, EA introduced the “Online Pass”, which was required to access multiplayer functions. Once activated, the code is obviously useless, so if the game were ever traded in, the next person would have to instead purchase an online option to get the functionality back.
Well, EA killed it. It’s dead now.
‘Gran Turismo 6’ Will Be The PS3’s Last Hurrah, Debuts In November
It’s a game about cars.
A mere six month heads up about the release of a new Gran Turismo game seems like a kind of short-change compared to the series’ norm. Usually, that kind of notice is sent out when developer Polyphony Digital is about to release their Gran Turismo Prologue, which is usually an extended demo. Nah, not this time.
Man Gives Away Abercrombie & Fitch Clothing To Homeless People
I’d be hesitant, too.
Last week, I read Salon’s classic piece about Abercrombie & Fitch’s corporate culture, helmed by an eccentric 61-year old who spends his every working day trying to fit in with the twenty-something crowd. After its CEO told off fat girls by saying their band was exclusionary and designed to only fit on ‘the cool kids’, the internet revolted. One guy decided their brand needed to be humbled a bit by finding Abercrombie clothing and handing it out to homeless people.
Google I/O 13: Google Play All Access Hands-On, Can It Compete With Spotify?
Google’s moved this service a lot since it debuted two years ago.
It didn’t take much arm twisting to get me over to Google’s Music service to give their new All Access subscription service a try. I’ve spent the past two years messing with the service without committing, but it may be time to finally give my monthly music allowance to Google. How does it compare to Spotify? Let’s take a look.
FEZ PLAY: Forza Horizon (Xbox 360) – It’s 2012’s Best Racing Game For A Reason
Woke up in a new Bugatti!
N and Kels sit down and tour the Colorado back country and play with glow sticks and race, race, race! Be warned: N is going to try and (poorly) paint some boobs on a Golf GTI just after racing a Bugatti Veyron up the game’s interstate at rocketing speeds!
Google I/O 2013: Goodbye Siri, Google Now Is About To Eat Your Lunch
Google is improving their Now tool to be the personal assistant that Siri could be.
If you’re still using Siri, chances are you’ve gotten over its initial personability and gotten used to just how limited it is. Whether it’s understanding what you say or providing the correct information, it can feel very limiting despite the charming voice droning out of your phone. Google’s response was to produce Now, a service that predicted what you wanted to see before you searched for it. Today, they’ve announced some pretty incredible upgrades.
