• gta

    Inside the Rockstar/GTA Launch Parties

    N'Gai Croal of Newsweek's Level Up takes us on a tour of the hipper-than-thou launch parties Rockstar threw to kick off GTA IV over the past two weeks. Billed as "a rare series of intimate events representing the eclectic musical soundtrack," they were really a big meet-n-greet pairing gaming writers with artists and other Rockstar types.

    N'Gai delved into the multiplayer aspect, too. He's looking to DLC and other online buildout to really deepen the game. "Once the Scotsmen absorb all the feedback from the millions of gamers who take the plunge into its online experience, we have no doubt that something special is in the offing," he writes.

    Naturally Rockstar pumped N'Gai for the possibility of being covered in Newsweek, hard copy. (His reply: "Stay tuned.")

    Partying Like A Rock Star, and Reflecting on Grand Theft Auto IV Multiplayer With Rockstar [Level Up]

    3:00 PM on Sun Apr 27 2008
    By ogood
    4,633 views, 20 comments

    Latest by freespeech: @EliteKoala: whoops, no you were not the first comment, ALMOST!!!!!!!!!!!!! more »

  • deep thoughts

    Slate's First Annual Gaming Club

    What do you get when you take some of the most well-spoken writers in the gaming press and throw them into a round table discussion on the year in video games? You get Slate Magazine's first annual Gaming Club, which assembles Slate's Chris Suellentrop, Newsweek's N'Gai Croal, Seth Schiesel of the New York Times, and MTV's Stephen Totilo to discuss the video games that made 2007 the "best year ever for video games." They talk about the finer points of BioShock - the Citizen Kane of video games - versus Tetris, the joys of Desktop Tower Defense, the massive growth in the handheld gaming segment, and the future of gaming as we know it. Through twelve pages of back and forth and one podcast the gaming intelligentsia manage to cover the entire year and then some, and it is a fascinating read if you've got the time and vocabulary and cognitive power to keep up. More »

    8:40 AM on Fri Dec 14 2007
    By Mike Fahey
    1,436 views, 12 comments

    Latest by dreamshade: Oh, come on. First we hate game journalists for not doing real journalism, then we hate game journalists for more »

  • clips

    Pronouncing N'Gai

    Man, I was pretty far off base with the pronunciation of Newsweek's N'Gai Croal's name. Honestly I cannot tell you exactly how I was pronouncing it. I used to just vaguely mumble something while making the international sign for dreadlocks and hoped for the best. While Croal loses points for both using the royal 'we' and not namedropping me, he makes it up in the end for referencing the cartoon that taught me everything I ever needed to know. Go Joe!

    How To Say 'N'Gai' Like A Pro, According To The 'End-Guy' [MTV Multiplayer]

    7:00 PM on Tue Oct 30 2007
    By Mike Fahey
    1,660 views, 52 comments

    Latest by v00deux: I kinda thought his voice would be deeper too. but i think that a lot when i see people before more »

  • addicts

    Microsoft Bets N'Gai (Again) PS3 Will Be $399 This Year

    I think that Microsoft employees want to wear the dreads—betting Newsweek's N'Gai Croal as an excuse to try out the look with a solid out if Johnny Depp dapper isn't the result. Because Xbox Director of Technical Strategy Andre Vrignaud just made another bet, wagering N'Gai that Sony would create a new $399 SKU by November. His prediction: More »

    12:00 PM on Wed Jul 25 2007
    By Mark Wilson
    8,813 views, 93 comments

    Latest by WhoreofSpamylon: As far as the discontinuation of the 20 GB model is concerned... Sony should take note that, while early adapters are more »

  • e307

    The Killzone Party

    I wrote up my impressions for Killzone 2, but never really got a chance to talk about the party that surrounded the trailer's Tuesday night unveiling.

    It was held at the popular Sushi Roku restaurant, a fact lost on me until two days later when a famished Team Kotaku spent three hours waiting to actually eat food at the place on our own. (I actually left to go pass outsleep before it arrived.) Set on Ocean Boulevard overlooking the pacific, the restaurant was packed to the gills Tuesday night with Sony execs, pr folks, developers, journalists and just-dead fish.
    More »

    7:31 PM on Mon Jul 16 2007
    By Brian Crecente
    2,755 views, 11 comments

  • call of duty 4: modern warfare

    Croal Bemoans Uncreative Game Titles

    Hot on the heels of Activision announcing that the next Call of Duty game would make its public debut this weekend, came Newsweek tech editor N'Gai Croal's bilious reaction to the game. That is, the game's title. More »

    6:40 PM on Wed Apr 25 2007
    By Michael McWhertor
    1,010 views, 20 comments

  • n'gai croal

    Gods of Game: Totilo V. N'Gai

    21800-9859D882-57FA-42E2-A516-4A53CFA779C2_medium.jpgIt is, I would think, no big secret that MTV's Stephen Totilo and Newsweek's N'Gai Croal are two of my favorite gaming writers. (Clive Thompson would be the third, in my trinity of game writers)So N'Gai's latest feature over on his Newsweek blog is for me, quite a thing to behold. In Vs. Mode Totilo and N'Gai take one another to task over their feelings on God of War 2.I'll summarize, poorly, their takes on the game here, but you really, really owe it to yourself to go over there and read the whole thing because it's the sort of game critiquing that you will almost never find.Totilo comes down on the side of liking God of War 2 but not really being blown away with it. It is a marvel of game creation, he argues, but it's also very much more of the same. And not just because it's a sequel that uses some of the same sorts of setting and themes, but because the game, like its predecessor, uses "level design to define a character's personality", the personalilty of Kratos. And the sequel relies heavily on this same sort of trick.
    More »

    11:00 AM on Tue Mar 27 2007
    By Brian Crecente
    4,450 views, 36 comments

  • level up

    Allard, We're Calling You Out

    279 days ago, give or take a few hours, J Allard should have appeared on stage at Microsoft's 2006 E3 press conference wearing a dreadlock wig. He should have done this after losing a particularly bad bet to Newsweek's N'Gai Croal. More »

    2:00 PM on Thu Feb 15 2007
    By Brian Crecente
    493 views, 23 comments

  • sony

    20 Questions With Phil Harrison At DICE

    Joseph Olin is about to open up the discussion between Sony's Phil Harrison and Newsweek's N'Gai Croal, whom he refers to as "blogger extraordinaire". I'll be doing my best to keep up with the liveblogging. More »

    11:30 AM on Thu Feb 8 2007
    By Michael McWhertor
    654 views, 41 comments

  • super bowl

    EA's Palatial Super Bowl Digs: A Tour

    Newsweek's N'Gai Croal spent the weekend hanging out in Miami checking out the Electronic Arts affair leading up to this year's Super Bowl. More »

    2:20 PM on Tue Feb 6 2007
    By Brian Crecente
    115 views, Comment