Archive for June 3rd, 2009
Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009 0 views
Despite being set in ye olde fantasy lands of impossibly large swords and questionable female attire, there’s something anachronistic about Dragon Ag e: Origins . An uncomfortable, zealously juvenile spirit seems to permeate the dragon-slaying proceedings, a feeling that seems to linger even after the game’s obnoxious marketing has left the room. Paring BioWare’s scenes of war and blood and guts with a Marilyn Manson tune is such a strained ploy, it’s almost embarrassing. The thing is, not all of Dragon Age ’s awkwardness comes from the suits on the upper floor — sometimes they come from the clothes discarded in front of a romantic campfire. BioWare is really playing up your character’s playboy tendencies, chatting up members of his party and weighing up his futures with the adorable redhead or the hard-edged sorceress. It’s wrapped up in BioWare’s traditional dialogue menus (a strange regression from Mass Effect ), but approached — at least in EA’s E3 walkthrough — with the verve of Grey’s Anatomy. And you thought leathery-skinned fire breathers were the only things those two had in common. Gallery: Dragon Age: Origins It all feels a bit crass, as does the game’s Conan-ical depiction of combat (see: giant swords swung by even bigger biceps).
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Hands-on: Dragon Age: Origins
Posted in Board Games, Computer Games | No Comments »
Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009 0 views
Okay, ModNation Racers has just been announced and it looks pretty neat — more on that later — but have you thought of the bigger picture? The ModNation brand? We’re thinking ModNation Shooter or ModNation Adventure … ModNation Golf ? We asked United Fronts’ William Ho about the possibility of these things, who said there were “big plans” for ModNation in the future. Not confirmation at all, but the urban vinyl toy style of the game definitely lends itself to more than just a racing game. For starters, how much better would Home be with avatars like these? What we saw of Racers apparently only scratched the surface of the title, but fun games with cool, easy character customization and level editing features have been a hit in the past . As long as they steer away from a four-player side-scrolling platforming ModNation , we’ll be cool.
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United Front has ‘big plans’ for ModNation
Posted in Gadgets And Gizmos, Online Promotion, Video Games | No Comments »
Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009 0 views
Google Squared , the new search tool from Google Labs, puts search results into a convenient spreadsheet format designed to help you get the basic facts about whatever you’re searching for without clicking through to too many different websites. Search for “horror films,” for example, and you’ll get a list of movies with info like Author, Director, Cast, and Running Time. It’s a great layout that’s easy to read at a glance, but the results still need a lot of work. I tried a search that I thought was right up Google Squared’s alley: “current New York Times bestsellers,” and the results were a jumble of categories, but no books. “Current box office” returned some recent movies, and some old ones that did really well when they came out. These are the kinds of searches Google Squared could hit a home run with, but it doesn’t. The example searches prove how well Google Squared could really work. Check out some terms like “roller coasters” and “U.S
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Google Squared launches, puts search results in a grid
Posted in Computer Games, Computers, Gadgets And Gizmos, Information Technology, Movies, Software, Video Games | No Comments »
Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009 4 views
RealPlayer is hoping its deal with Xandros, Canonical, Phoenix, and DeviceVM will give it an in to the Linux netbook market. Proof, if proof were needed, that Linux is making real headway in the consumer market – thanks largely to the success of Linux-based netbooks – has arrived in the form of a licensing agreement that will see RealPlayer made available for the open-source platform. As reported over on AppScout , RealNetworks has joined forces with Linux luminaries Canonical, Xandros, Phoenix, and DeviceVM to bring the company’s RealPlayer software to the Linux operating system. The list of participants is an interesting one: Canonical is an obvious choice, having partnered with Dell to provide its Ubuntu operating system for Dell’s range of recently-deceased Mini 9 and up-and-coming Mini 10 netbooks; Xandros likewise, having been selected by Asus to create a custom version of its distribution for the original Eee PC; Phoenix is better known for its range of PC BIOS packages, but is making waves in the Linux world with its instant-on HyperSpace Linux technology; and DeviceVM is another name in the instant-on Linux world, having developed Splashtop. Clearly, RealNetworks isn’t just aiming at the operating system level here: by bundling RealPlayer with BIOS-level instant-on operating systems, RealNetworks is hoping to become the de facto media player on such devices. However, without support for Adobe’s Flash and standard optical media such as DVD out-of-the-box it’s hard to see RealPlayer being the only playback package provided. Despite this – and ignoring claims by Microsoft that Windows is a clear win on netbook platforms – RealNetworks clearly sees something in Linux on netbook platforms that its competitors have missed.
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RealNetworks signs Linux deal
Posted in Cell Phones, Computers, Hardware, Software, Technology | No Comments »
