I'm not a fan of Hot Wheels, but I might buy Mattel's latest tin can car, the Video Racer. The vehicle has a VGA video camera mounted at the front to record the thrills and spills of spinning round the track. There's even a small LCD on the undercarriage that lets you play back the clips. … Read more
Rounding the corner leading to Honda's booth at the 2010 SEMA Show in Las Vegas, I was a bit taken aback as I suddenly found myself confronted with the largest gathering of modified CR-Zs I'd ever seen, 12 in total. Heck, considering that the CR-Z has only been available for a handful of months, this was the largest gathering of any CR-Zs I'd ever seen. Most of these examples were built by third parties, but at the center of Honda's presentation was a trio of special compact hybrids built by Honda itself: a 2011 CR-Z equipped … Read more
This week on preGAME we build our very own racetrack and then give it a spin live on the show! Today we're giving you a double dose of racing action with ModNation Racers and Split/Second. Joining us on the phone to talk about ModNation Racers will be Dan Sochan, producer on the project.
Before we hit our live demos, we'll discuss some of this week's top gaming headlines. First up, Halo: Reach has been officially dated. September 14 is when you'll be able to play the prequel to the Halo trilogy that follows a team … Read more
NEW YORK--Some cars become stars in their own right, appearing in movies or television and gaining as much a place in the public imagination as any human celebrity. A display by Miami's Dezer Collection at the 2010 New York auto show catapulted us right back to childhood as we lovingly gazed at Speed Racer's Mach 5 and the Monkee Mobile.
More-recent celebrities in this mix included K.I.T.T. from "Knight Rider," and the Batmobile from Tim Burton's "Batman" and "Batman Returns."
Most of these cars are the originals, built … Read more
Chinese manufacturer ZTE is prepping for the release of no less than four Android smartphones later this year. Teased last month at Mobile World Congress, the details are now starting to spill out. The handsets will be called the Blade, the Racer, the Mercury, and the Smooth. Each appears to speak to a different demographic with various form factors and specs.
First up is the Blade, which comes with a 3.5-inch touch display with an 800x480 resolution, an FM radio, Wi-Fi, GPS, and Android 1.6. The Smooth bears more than a passing resemblance to the Palm Pre and … Read more
While Sony didn't necessarily dazzle us with unannounced exclusive titles, the company definitely cemented the console's beefy lineup with a handful of live demos. Kicking it right off was gameplay footage of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, expected this holiday season. What some call the "male Tomb Raider," Uncharted 2 was quite possibly the best-looking game of the conference.
Next up was MAG, a game teased at last year's E3 promising 256 online players at once. We were treated to a live demo that accomplished the feat featuring players from all over the world. MAG is expect this fall.
Sony Computer Entertainment of America President and CEO Jack Tretton then briefly mentioned Rockstar Games' Agent, claiming the title could only be possible on a PlayStation 3. Unfortunately no footage or release date was given. Two developers from Ubisoft then showed off Assassin's Creed 2, though the game will not be a PS3 exclusive. It will be available this holiday season.
While we all knew Final Fantasy XIII was coming to both Xbox 360 and PS3 consoles in 2010, we had no idea that Final Fantasy XIV was in development, let alone an exclusive PS3 title. A trailer for the game noted the next chapter in the story would take players online as well.
Sticking with the theme of "play, create, share," Modnation Racers will allow users to customize racetracks, cars, and racers very much in the vein of LittleBigPlanet. Gamers can also design their very own tracks to share and play with other PS3 owners--a demo that made us immediately think of Sim City.… Read more
My favorite game so far for the iPhone just got even better and it's definitely worthy of its own Download blog post. To be clear, this is not my iPhone apps of the week post which will appear on Friday as usual. It's just an update I think all players of this game should know about.
SlotZ Racer ($2.99) just received a free major update and it is definitely a must have for fans of this slot-racing simulator. The game was already a steal at the $2.99 price tag, featuring excellent graphics, different racing modes to … Read more
Have you ever seen the movie Viva Las Vegas? In it, Elvis Presley plays a racecar driver in a city-to-city race, in between songs. The music isn't to my tastes, but the cars, a collection of mid- to late-1950s sports-racers, many with considerable history, are. And the plot, such as it is, was familiar. Point-to-point race over the open road, good guys versus bad guys. I hadn't seen Viva Las Vegas before viewing it on TV about 20 years ago, as Elvis never made my musical radar screen, but I had seen Speed Racer cartoons. Instant flash of recognition!
Viva and the Speed Racer cartoons share the same basic action-filled "plot." There is even some similarity in cars. And Speed Racer looks more than a little like an anime version of Elvis in his prime, even though he doesn't sing. Which might be for the best.
A gearhead classic that was underground for many years is now readily available over the counter. That's C'etait un Rendezvous by Claud Lelouch, better known just as Rendezvous. It's expensive, intense, and worth every penny. There is no real plot, merely action of the "kids, don't try this at home" variety.
Eric Litman and Rana Sobhany stop by The 404 to wish Randall the best. We'll talk about HBO on iTunes, Google Street View face blurring, and how Speed Racer lied about how well it did at the box office!
Don't forget to leave your farewell messages for Randall! E-mail them to the404 [at] cnet [dot] com.
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