|
|
Browse by Tags
All Tags » Reviews (RSS)
-
At GDC this year Nintendo detailed an upcoming game finally coming to American DS systems: Rhythm Heaven. The game was a hit in Japan, and Satoru Iwata seemed confident that it will be a hit in North America as well: he treated everyone who came to see his keynote with a free copy of the game. Unfortunately, the title seems to miss much of what makes rhythm games fun, while also mucking around with what made the WarioWare series so intriguing.
Click here to read the rest of this article
|
-
Guitar Hero has become something of a juggernaut of a franchise—and this is probably going to inspire some hate in the comments—but the more Guitar Hero games Activision Blizzard sells, the more the quality seems to take a nose-dive. We reviewed Guitar Hero: Aerosmith and Guitar Hero On Tour in one feature: they both fit under the umbrella of terrible ideas that were sure to make a ton of money. Guitar Hero: World Tour was certainly worth the money, but it can't beat the feature set of Rock Band 2. Guitar Hero: Metallica seems like just another way to cash-in on the hype cheaply, with everyone involved making out like bandits—or so the conventional wisdom would say.
Preconceived notions can go to hell. The game starts with Metallica walking slowly towards the stage, and then you tear into "For Whom the Bell Tolls." The audacity of this move is surprising... there isn't a gentle build as the first song takes you to ten. Crank the sound system, turn the lights down, and invite some friends over: this is the most aggressive, metal, and well-designed love letter to a band you may ever see in gaming.
Click here to read the rest of this article
|
-
"Is there a word for someone who blocks themselves from accessing everything work-related, leaving them only with Twitter?" That's the question I asked shortly after blocking myself from everything Ars in an attempt to test out SelfControl, a simplistic (if not strict) distraction-blocking app for the Mac. Created by developer Steve Lambert for free under the GPL, SelfControl blocks a list of domains for a specified period of time in order to help you focus—presumably on work. The app works with websites, e-mail servers, and, as I discovered, even IRC servers and the like.
Unlike apps like WriteRoom—a word processor that visually blocks you from seeing anything in the background—and Freedom—an app that blocks all Internet access for 8 hours at a time—SelfControl lets you specify exactly what you want blocked through a blacklist while allowing everything else. So, while you'll be able to see your IRC buddies chatting away in the background (if you didn't block it), you can still access the things you need to get things done.
Click here to read the rest of this article
|
-
Ubuntu 9.04, codenamed Jaunty Jackalope, has reached the beta testing stage. The beta release, which was made available for download last week, provides users with an opportunity to get an early look at the features that will be included in the new version of the popular Linux distribution.
Ubuntu 9.04 includes GNOME 2.26, the latest version of the open source GNOME desktop environment. We did some hands-on testing with the new GNOME release when it arrived earlier this month. GNOME typically represents a large chunk of the user-visible improvements in new Ubuntu releases, but there isn't really anything particularly exciting for Ubuntu users in GNOME 2.26.
Click here to read the rest of this article
|
-
Telltale has stumbled upon a pretty great formula, turning popular franchises like Sam & Max and Homestar Runner into episodic games with classic point-and-click adventure gameplay. Now the company has set its sites on the claymation duo of Wallace & Gromit. But how well does the series translate into the game world? Ars ventures into the first episode of Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures, Fright of the Bumblebees, to find out.
If you're played any of Telltale's previous games—or most other point-and-click adventure games for that matter—you'll feel right at home with Fright. The gameplay is identical, and consists mainly of speaking to other characters and using a variety of different items to interact with the environment in order to solve puzzles. You will switch back and forth between the titular duo, but there is no difference between the two.
Click here to read the rest of this article
|
-
Interim Federal Communications Commission chair Michael Copps donned his Grim Realist hat and told Congress on Thursday that even with the deadline extended to June 12, the DTV switch won't be smooth.
"Some may say that we won't be ready on June 12 either, and that there will still be consumers left behind. And that is true—this transition will not be seamless," a decidedly grinchy Copps warned the House Committee on Energy and Commerce's tech subcommittee, chaired by Rick Boucher (D-VA). "The hard truth is that we won't be able to make up for the inadequate policies of the past few years in just a few short months."
Click here to read the rest of this article
|
-
iPhone forensics expert Jonathan Zdziarski, who recently released the AMBER Alert for iPhone app, has a new app designed to help keep deleted data from being recovered from your iPhone. Called iErase, the app "zeros" all the free space on your iPhone and makes sure trashed files stay, well, trashed.
The iPhone, like most computing devices, doesn't actually remove files from you iPhone when you delete them. The bits are all there; the file system merely marks the space that the file was using as available. "The iPhone retains data better than most laptops because its solid state disk is designed to minimize writes," Zdziarski told Ars. "As a result, deleted photos, e-mail, keyboard caches, and other personal data are likely to stay on the device for a very long period of time. All of this information is available to someone who steals or 'borrows' our device."
Click here to read the rest of this article
|
-
At GDC, Sony's upcoming action game Infamous was on display for us all to see. I sat down with some of the game's levels at the Sony Bloggers' Lounge and spent a great deal of time putting this "ground-based superhero" title through its paces. The impression I came away with? Infamous could be the next big action franchise for Sony.
The core story of Infamous revolves around Cole MacGrath, who is caught in the wake of a blast that decimates one of the game's three islands and knocks out power across the board. Cole is knocked unconscious, but wakes up with the ability to use electricity in a number of ways. As a result, he sets out to eradicate the gangs that have risen out of the chaos to terrorize the islands; whether he does it altruistically and seeks to restore law and order or just wants to remove the competition so he can take what he wants is up to the player. The story is told with a combination of cutscenes and beautiful comic-book animatics, the latter being especially cool to watch as they feature a really unique art style.
Click here to read the rest of this article
|
-
If flying a paper airplane to catch floating paperclips sounds like an appealing way to waste some time, then Paper Pilot for the iPhone is the game for you. In this first-person flier, you maneuver your aircraft through a variety of rooms, trying to catch each waiting paperclip. Catch it and it explodes for your pleasure. This reduces the outstanding clip count, and moves you closer to completing the current level.
Controlling the plane is both easier and harder than you might think. All you have to do is tilt your iPhone. Despite this, I found it difficult to plan my flight path so the plane would go exactly where I wanted it to. You must adjust for the angle of approach, your speed, and so forth. Hitting objects that are floating in 3D space is a lot more difficult than, say, running your car into a nearby light post. Paper Pilot lets you control your speed as well as your angles. Stroke the screen upwards to increase your velocity or downwards to reduce it. Slower airplanes are easier to handle with more time to react to upcoming objects.
Click here to read the rest of this article
|
-
Despite popular perception, even those at the top of music business have a sense of humor, something captured repeatedly in Steve Knopper's new book, Appetite for Self-Destruction: The Spectacular Crash of the Record Industry in the Digital Age. In Knopper's telling, the decline of the major labels isn't just about technology or peer-to-peer programs—it's about personalities, and his book is stuffed with stories of music execs in action.
Click here to read the rest of this article
|
-
There's nothing worse than getting home from the grocery store and suddenly realizing you forgot something you needed. For those of us who aren't accustomed to making lists, it happens frequently. Paper and pen are so passé, though. Groceries, an iPhone/iPod touch app from Sophiestication Software, aims to remedy the problem by easily allowing users to make grocery lists using a huge database of name brand and generic products. We have been waiting since the App Store launched for this one, and it has finally been released. Was it worth the wait?
With Groceries, you can create and save multiple lists, which is useful if you do your shopping at more than one grocery store. Adding groceries to an existing list is a pleasure. The database of American items is gigantic with 11,259 items, while the German database is even larger with over 15,000 items. When all is said and done, the SQL database for the items is 2.6 MB—not huge, but when you consider it's all text, that's pretty big. Still, there are no real performance issues in the application, and scrolling is very smooth.
Click here to read the rest of this article
|
-
Imagine a game where you're the sadistic god of a very small island. You can create animated people at will and then torture them to your heart's content. Feed them to sharks, strike them with lightning bolts, throw them into a nearby volcano (it's actually an acquired skill) and, if you feel especially generous, feed them by cracking coconuts on their heads. Pocket God lets you explore your wrathful side in tormenting innocent virtual people.
If that were all there was to Pocket God, we would sum up the application by saying: "cute for five minutes, possibly worth the one-dollar price, no good long-term gameplay." However, there's far more to the whole Pocket God experience, and that's due to the designers behind the product.
Click here to read the rest of this article
|
-
Once upon a time, there were six girls who had to visit their sick grandmother. No, wait, there were actually seven. In order to get to their grandmother's house, the Red Girls had to travel through a nearby forest to get there; it was a quick and safe journey, as long as they stayed on the path leading through the woods. But if they stayed on the path and made it to the house safe and sound, then their stories ended in failure. Confused yet? Don't worry, that's a common feeling when playing Tale of Tales' newest horror/adventure game, The Path.
Click here to read the rest of this article
|
-
The third-generation iPod shuffle is here, and not a soul saw it coming. (These days, that's a rarity.) Apple's new buttonless wonder has been making waves and ruffling feathers in the days since its introduction, so we took some time with it to really see whether the hype—and the hate—was warranted.
Unlike the 2G shuffle, which came in a variety of colors, the third-gen iPod shuffle now comes in only two "colors" (if you can even call them that)—black and silver. This is sure to disappoint color enthusiasts and parents who love giving shuffles as stocking stuffers, but we wouldn't be surprised to see colors return to the shuffle line in time. More importantly, however, the new shuffle now comes with 4GB of storage space for the same price ($79) as the 2G shuffle's 1GB. That's half of an iPhone 3G, or a low-end 4G iPod nano.
Click here to read the rest of this article
|
-
A year and 5 months after releasing iWork '08, Apple finally updated its productivity suite to version '09. Keynote 5.0, Pages 4.0, and Numbers 2.0 all sport some refinements, but this time around iWork isn't joined by a new family member. Apple touts an enhanced template chooser and more ways to share for all three applications. Apart from that, Pages gains a full screen view, dynamic outlines, mail merge with Numbers, and MathType and Endnote for including mathematical equations and bibliographies. For Numbers, it's easy formulas, formula list view, table categories, and advanced charts. Keynote gains magic move, more transitions, chart animations, and Keynote remote. Finally, there is iwork.com.
In this review, I'll be looking primarily at what's new in this latest version vs. iWork '08. So if you're unfamiliar with iWork, please read our Work '08 review first for background information that isn't replicated here. And although Microsoft Office is popular among Mac users, this review compares iWork mainly against its former self. Hopefully by the end of the review you'll know whether you should upgrade to iWork '09.
Click here to read the rest of this article
|
|
|
|