Every Single Article Written by N - All 1343
Quick Look! Bastion
SuperGiant Games’ long-awaited Bastion, an action-adventure Xbox Live Arcade game, landed this morning as the first in Microsoft’s “Summer of Arcade” series. I got some time with the game and I want to show you some of the treasures you’ll encounter on your merry way via our miraculous Quick Look Video System!(TM)
“This Is My Next” Becomes “The Verge” This Fall; Clever Slogans Within!
Do you like your tech websites to look like indie rock labels? Bring back any pleasant memories? Well, the Engadget Eight’s (well, more than that now) headmaster Joshua Topolsky unveiled the new identity for the group’s full-scale effort, due out in “early Fall”. I’m a huge fan of the Penrose Triangle, but that’s just icing on the cake: we’ve been following the group since their grand exodus. Well, more power to The Verge, get ready to Rock Out, or, as I’ve prepared after the break, a variety of horrible advertising slogans!
Book Review: The Bullied Series (Bullied, Revenge, Witch)
These books are awful. Don’t read them.
Music Review: Incubus’ “If Not Now, When?”
Incubus has had an incredible arc over their career. The funky, turntable-heavy S.C.I.E.N.C.E. turned heads in an era of mu metal bands like KoRn and Limp Bizkit while Make Yourself did that one or two better. I certainly have my favorite albums from the California-based rock quintet, but each one is its own individual adventure as the band tackles different styles and dynamics. It’s been almost five years since Light Grenades landed, ending up as my favorite album that year, and the well of new music has been nearly bone dry since then. So, how does a refreshed, mellower Incubus come off after half a decade on hiatus?
Microsoft Secretly Unveiled My Next Phone Today
Unlike the rest of their Windows Phone announcements this year, Microsoft’s unveiling of four new phone models – equipped with their new major Mango update due out this fall – almost went completely under the radar. All of the current Windows Phone models were unveiled last October, so the lack of new hardware has certainly been a yank on Microsoft’s mobile chain. So sure, Acer’s finally getting a Windows Phone out, ZTE’s doing something, whatever. The big news is the new Galaxy S 2-derived Windows Phone and if Sprint plays their cards correctly, I’m going to finally own one.
Movie Review: Horrible Bosses
You may hate your job, but you probably don’t have bosses like these. Dave Harken (Kevin Spacey), gives the coveted Senior Vice President position to himself, but only after months of teasing Nick (Jason Bateman), who kisses his ass and arrives in empty parking lots every morning long before his colleagues. Dale (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia‘s Charlie Day) just wants to be a loving husband, but his boss is a sexual harassment nightmare (Jennifer Aniston has never looked hotter). Kurt (Andy Sudeikis) loves his job, but when his boss dies, his coke-fiend son (Colin Farrell) takes over. It’s not long before ‘switcharoo murder’ references are dropped and the trio are up for murdering each other’s awful superiors.
Eternal Darkness Is The Best GameCube Game Ever Made, Period
As an Xbox fanboy, I bought my GameCube on a whim. It was the summer of 2002 and they were offering Super Mario Sunshine for free. Could you blame me? Right off the bat, I even favored the flagship Mario title over Eternal Darkness, which I had set aside to collect dust after a few levels. I remember the dishing the game received on the forums for having a visible sanity bar, which seemed antithetical to the on-screen craziness (like the game stating it had deleted your save) when you already knew it was coming. I thought it was an interesting diversion, being an M-rated Nintendo game for crying out loud, but it lost a lot of time against Sunshine and Animal Crossing. It wasn’t until college that my opinion changed…
Dear LEGO, Stop Fulfilling My Dreams With Expensive Toys!
The Super-class Star Destroyer, unveiled in The Empire Strikes Back, is my favorite ship design, fictional or non-, of all time. A sleek arrowhead shape capped with a rugged administrative/control section on top and propelled by powerful engines along its flanks, I had wanted LEGO to build an official version for years. While it took fifteen years, they did finally deliver the goods in the form of this grandiose, 3,000+-piece monstrosity. It’s not available yet and it’ll retail for $400 (!), much like its siblings in the Imperial Star Destroyer and Millennium Falcon, but boy if I had some crazy LEGO money right now, this would be my new prize.
Google Unveils New Site Designs, Leaves Us Going “Huh.”
Google is many things: the ubiquitous search engine for the entire world, an insanely popular e-mail client, the most popular mobile platform of the future, on and on. One thing Google is not, however, is very artistic. Little Google logo doodles aside, their products are plotted, drafted, and executed by waves of engineers and their utilitarian – or worse, inconsistent – interfaces are hardly anything to fawn over. But 2011 is a new year and the internet is being shown the new face of Google, but are they finally getting it down?
Galaga Legions DX Quick Look!
Nick got to take the new Galaga title out for a spin! Recently released on XBLA, Galaga Legions DX is a crazy, bullet hell-ish shooter released exclusively as a downloadable title for the franchise’s 30th anniversary. Check out the Quick Look after the break!
