The jury is in on Grand Theft Auto IV…

…and the critics love it. 1Up.com, Game Informer, IGN, Gamespy, Electronic Gaming Magazine, Official Playstation Magazine, and Metacritic all gave it perfect scores. Xbox World 360 gave it a 98%, the highest it has ever rated a game. GTA IV has been called a “masterpiece”, “damn-near perfect”, and a “stand out for the era”. THe lowest rating I found on this game was a 9.5/10, by Computer and Video Games magazine.

The storyline follows an Eastern European immigrant who arrives in Liberty City, which is heavily based on real life New York City. When he gets there, he is forced to work in his cousin’s taxi business, protecting his cousin from people who are trying to collect debts from him. The gameplay features the usual Grand Theft Auto-type stuff, which involves stealing cars, killing people, and running from police. However, in this installement, the player is given much more freedom to roam around, and isn’t bound by missions as much as in previous games. GTA IV is something games dreamed about twenty years ago, and only now has come to realization on the Playstation 3 and XBox 360.

In short, Grand Theft Auto IV may be the best game that has been released in the past 10, or even 15 years. It all depends on what your tastes are, and this game is not without controversy. I’ll try and rent a copy this weekend to give a more complete analysis on the game, but I seriously doubt that there will be any copies of GTA IV that haven’t already been rented or bought. I encourage you to go out and test the game for yourself…see how you like it.

-Kolametal

Second Generation iPhone

It always happens-Apple releases a product, and then they release a new upgraded version of it about 6 months to a year after the original product’s release. Look at how frequently the iPod has been upgraded. Its only been a few short years since the original iPod was released: when it came out, it could hold 1000 songs, no video, and had one giant scroll wheel. Today, the iPod touch uses revolutionary touchscreen technology, can hold thousands of songs and many movies and TV shows, and can connect to the Internet. With the iPhone, Apple was trying something new that no one had ever really tried before, and it was a hit. Now, they seek to upgrade their success.

Here’s what I found on Endgadget.com pertaining to the second generation iPhone:

• The first thing people will notice: the 2nd gen iPhone will be about the same size and shape as the first gen.
• It will, of course, have 3G. And proper GPS!
• The most noticeable physical difference is back of the phone is no longer metal — the whole thing is glossy black, from top to bottom. The volume buttons are now chrome.
• Because it’s got a little less metal to deal with, it doesn’t have quite as many angular edges. The battery is (still) not removable.
• The phone itself will be slightly thicker than the first gen device.
• The headphone jack will no longer be recessed, and will finally be flush with the body.
• The device itself uses roughly the same size and resolution screen as the first generation product.

• No solid word on battery life or storage capacity.

Not much is known about the second generation iPhone at the present, but Engadget said it could be introduced as early as July. This could be big for Apple: its riding on the success of its previous models, and this one can be very important.

-Kolametal

Disposable DVDs?

Here’s an interesting idea: an DVD that can be viewed for 48 hours, and is sold at the low price of $6.44. After 48 hours, the DVD will be completely unusable, giving a “no disc” error message to the TV or computer  screen. According to the article I read about this(http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/04/17/disposable_dvd_germany/), disposable DVDs have already been successfuly been introduced in France, Italy, and Scandanavia. It seems like a decent idea to me, the only problem being that I can rent a movie for the same price, and renting a movie is probably a lot less wasteful then buying a disposable one and then throwing it out(that problem was discussed briefly in the article).  But at least the disposable ones wouldn’t have scratches-definetely a pro. I’m not sure if these will take off or not…but definetely something to watch

-Kolametal

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