waring

When BioWare announced Tuesday at the Gamescom conference in Germany that its Mass Effect 2--arguably the best game to hit store shelves so far in 2010--was coming to the PlayStation 3 in January, many wondered how Microsoft would respond.

Prior to the announcement, the Mass Effect franchise was available exclusively to Xbox 360 and PC gamers.

Microsoft won't say whether it's disappointed to lose Mass Effect 2's exclusivity, but the company was quick to point out in an interview with IGN, that it believes its console is still the best place to play the venerable title.

"… Read more

Indoor grills have a way of showing up in the most unexpected of places. They are convenient and versatile in their own right, but when they are integrated with another countertop appliance, they can suddenly become must-have gadgets. However, sometimes a grill comes combines with another appliance that is surprising and unexpected, and doesn't appear to be necessary--until it is needed, that is.

Even as far as specialty appliances go, the E-ware 8K103 buffet style two-in-one grill is still somewhat out of the blue. After all, a combined buffet server/indoor grill probably isn't on the top of … Read more

One of the first applications built to find and remove malware and spyware, Ad-Aware's reputation is well-justified. The latest version continues the publisher's tradition of adroitly addressing user concerns, but flaws remain.

Building on the improvements made in version 8, former Ad-Aware users should be glad to hear that the program installs faster than before. This version of Ad-Aware offers two new features to users of the free version that had previously been restricted to the paid upgrades: antivirus protection, and a long-awaited scheduler. The AV protection comes courtesy Sunbelt, makers of Vipre. Ad-Aware 8.3 loads faster … Read more

BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk had some rather interesting things to say this week about the future of the gaming business.

Zeschuk, whose company has created major console hits like Mass Effect 2, said that going forward, the video game industry won't rely so heavily on the console market. In fact, he believes consoles could be a relic of the past as more players turn to portable devices to get their game on.

"The future isn't necessarily on console," Zeschuk said at the Develop Conference, an event for European game developers. "That's the past. It'… Read more

Two interesting things happened to Nintendo over the last few days. First, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata, never afraid of bold statements, reportedly told his executives to consider the battle with Sony and Microsoft already won and has targeted Apple as the "enemy of the future."

The second? Nintendo released its Black Wii.

I find the first interesting because Nintendo and Apple, the reigning forces in family-targeted entertainment, seem to finally be eyeing each other. The second is interesting because I fielded a question to Nintendo about what Wii users should do with already downloaded games should they choose … Read more

The year: 1983. I was headed to sleepaway camp at Camp Na-Sho-Pa in upstate New York. "Return of the Jedi" and "Krull" were the big movies that summer. As I got my books and toys packed for weeks in the humid isolation of cabins in the middle of the woods near Bloomingburg, I made sure to take the one portable game system I had at my disposal. Or, rather, two. I packed my Game & Watch collection delicately--they used to cost a whole $20 each--and made sure the watch batteries they took were fresh.

Before the PSP, the Nintendo DS, the TurboExpress, Game Gear, Atari Lynx, or even the Game Boy, there was Game & Watch, Nintendo's first handheld game franchise. The portable LCD games were compact, took watch batteries, told the time--hence "Game & Watch"--and only played one game per unit. This was an age when an LCD game was made by cutting out a series of silhouettes across an LCD screen, which would ping on and off to create animation of a crude sort. Nintendo wasn't the only company to make these types of handheld games, but it was the one that made the very best.

It's fascinating how closely the Nintendo DS design matches the look of those old Game & Watch dual-screen models. It's no accident: the classic Nintendo crosspad was born on these units, and the DS is really the latest step in the Game & Watch evolution.

Pinball was a cherished classic of mine. Dual screens created a long pinball table, and though the ball leaped from spot to spot with bleeps and blips, the overall feel was convincing and better than anything else that existed. Other arcade games, like Donkey Kong Jr., actually created levels out of little moving LCD-block platforms that Donkey Kong could hop over. Some parts of the screen, such as vines to climb on, were actually painted on parts of the background, adding bits of color to what was otherwise a black-and-silver affair.

I remember sinking untold hours into these simple games, which couldn't even be saved or paused. Each game also came with an "A" or "B" mode, which ratcheted up difficulty and tended to throw an additional challenge in the mix.

Nintendo revisited Game & Watch with several collections on the Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance, as well as two collectors' edition DS games available to members of Club Nintendo. In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, one of the hardest characters to unlock is "Mr. Game & Watch," an LCD stick-man who jerkily moves through an arena that's a montage of the old LCD games. On the iPhone, a few well-made Game & Watch rip-offs were released and promptly removed.… Read more

One of our all-time favorite games is WarioWare, especially the first installment for the Game Boy Advance. The clever idea of remixing Nintendo's old properties into an irreverent hyperspeed assortment of challenges was revolutionary at the time, and had great replay value.

The series has evolved and with it, we're now introduced to arguably the most ambitious effort yet: the ability to create WarioWare minigames. However, in WarioWare D.I.Y. it almost feels like the franchise is regressing rather than progressing. The beauty of the randomness of WarioWare was in guessing which buttons or inputs needed to be used and in what manner in order to pass the challenge. In D.I.Y., inputs are limited to screen tapping, which is itself a reduction compared with the touching/writing motions in WarioWare Touched (the last DS game in the series). As far as a collection of games, WarioWare D.I.Y. is the weakest assortment yet.

The new addition this time, however, is a robust editor for creating new minigames from scratch. Art, animation, AI routines, and even music composition create a toolkit that's amazingly deep for a handheld game. We were instantly transported back to the days of Mario Paint using its onboard game and music composers, which served as some positive familiarity with the creation process. … Read more

Shopping for a new waffle maker raises a few questions that one must be prepared to address. Familiarity with one's preferences must be determined before diving in, because once decided, there is no going back. (Unless, of course, dealing with returns and restocking fees aren't a concern.) Any decision has to factor in a wealth of variables, from how deep the pockets are to how powerful the waffle maker is (and hence, how crisp the exterior of the resulting waffles are). No matter what your preference, perhaps the biggest choice to make is how many waffles you want.… Read more

It should come as no surprise to Nintendo that third-party developers are beginning to complain about the company's online presence (or lack thereof). In fact, they're calling the company out. In a time when a game's online component is nearly as important as its single-player campaign, the online offering for the Wii is simply not up to par.

From the confusing 16-digit friend codes that must be shared for matchmaking to the lack of localized promotion, Nintendo has not made it clear that the company takes online gaming seriously. Sure, the Virtual Console is solid and there … Read more