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Posts Tagged “Newsweek”

the empire strikes back

EA Fires Back At Activision's "Soul-Stealing" Comments

Maybe you've noticed, maybe you haven't, but it seems Activision CEO Bobby Kotick has been taking quite a few little digs at its fellow giant Electronic Arts these days — perhaps coincidentally, the same digs many of you have been taking at EA in the comments of my recent stories on the company's bid to purchase Take-Two.

On his Level Up blog, Newsweek's N'Gai Croal decided to go right to EA's Jeff Brown and see what the company had to say in its own defense. The logo you see here is Level Up's own design for the EA Empire — think they should adopt it officially?

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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]


resident evil 5

"Clearly No One Black Worked On This Game"

In line with the earlier post on race in video games, Newsweek journalist N'Gai Croal offers these insights about the Resident Evil 5 trailer:


I looked at the Resident Evil 5 trailer and I was like, "Wow, clearly no one black worked on this game." Because I wonder, and I haven't sort of really dug into it that much, but I wonder what sort of advice Capcom gave them. The point isn't that you can't have black zombies. There was a lot of imagery in that trailer that dovetailed with classic racist imagery. What was not funny, but sort of interesting, was that there were so many gamers who could not at all see it. Like literally couldn't see it. So how could you have a conversation with people who don't understand what you're talking about and think that you're sort of seeing race where nothing exists?

There's more. If you're interested, hit the jump.
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pokemon

Pokemones Are Not Oral Sexy Obsessed, Just Kissing Crazy

Yesterday, we brought word of "Pokemones", the androgynous, public-orgy-havin', Poké-watchin' Chilean youths. Well, according to Newsweek. And what does Newsweek know! It's only Newsweek. Chilean reader Juan writes:

STOP STOP STOP STOP!!!!
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newsweek

Game Publishers Hold Enthusiast Press in Contempt

Still having trouble making sense of this whole Eidos-CNet-Gamespot clusterfuck? Newsweek's N'Gai Croal does a nice job of summing up what it all means. N'Gai writes:


The reality is this: publishers generally hold the enthusiast press in utter contempt, and they have for a long time. This disdain began as scorn for the enthusiast media's roots in videogame fandom, rather than traditional journalism from "respectable" publications, but it has since metastasized into a veiled but nonetheless seething anger over the advent of the Internet and with it the rise of fan sites, forums and blogs over which publishers can exert little pressure, let alone control. The contempt emanating from the publishing community, by the way, is not limited to the enthusiast press. In our view, it extends to publicists, whom certain executives believe can and should be able to dictate the nature of their coverage and secure review scores of a certain magnitude. It even extends to their own developers, for whom Metacritic and Game Rankings scores can dangle as precipitously as the sword of Damocles, as if these executives were incapable of determining for themselves the quality of their games and taking action accordingly.

Pretty heavy. The solution to this? That, after the jump.

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essays

Scoring and Saved Games: How They Change The Ways We Play

Two of my good friends and colleagues have put up thoughtful pieces on their respective blogs about how we play videogames. On Level Up, N'Gai posted a column about how our saved game files are actually worth more than a $60 game. N'Gai calculates that his Mass Effect saved game is worth $122.10. His point: We should back up our saved games more often. And at MTV's Multiplayer Blog, Stephen Totilo posted a fascinating essay on how Rockstar's removal of the scoring system in Manhunt 2 changed the way he played through the final version. Was Stephen a tamer killer with scoring or without? Go find out!

Level Up Expansion Pack
Multiplayer Blog on Manhunt 2 Scoring System


newsweek

Reggie Clarifies Game Drought, Missed Metroid 3 Release

The second part of N'Gai Croal's chat with Nintendo of America prez Reggie Fils-Aime is up for your reading pleasure and, in it, the former marketing VP touches on his "read my lips" promise to ensure no Gamecube-like drought for the Wii. Turns out he wasn't talking about a more consistent stream of first party releases, but third party titles as well. With rumored releases Resident Evil 4 Wii and Beautiful Katamari, alongside confirmed stuff like Manhunt 2 and Nights, the line up is already looking stronger. More »

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.
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ubisoft

GDC07: Ubi Bringing DS Guitar Game Stateside

Ubisoft has revealed to Level Up, N'Gai Croal's Newsweek blog focused on the game-o-sphere, that they'll publish the Japanese guitar software for the Nintendo DS we previously covered back in November. Titled Hiite Utaeru DS Guitar M-06 over there, over here it will simple be called Jam Sessions. More »

sony

Harrison: Super Rub-A-Dub Not Our Bowling For Columbine

Newsweek's N'Gai Croal posted part two of his DICE-era interview with Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios boss Phil Harrison, asking if any future Sony-developed games will "change people's view of the kind of subject matter, themes, content, approach that can be taken with games" like, for analogy's sake, Michael Moore documentary "Bowling For Columbine." More »

journalism

Phil Harrison Vs. Gamasutra

Oh, the internet drama. Phil Harrison's said many stupid things, but he claims he's been misquoted by a game site. Just listen to what he tells Newsweek's N'Gai Croal: More »

celine dion

Celine Dion Says Wii Is Hot

Tucked far in the back of the Newsweek that I purchased for my flight to Quebec this week was a brief Q&A with Celine Dion. More »

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 »

newsweek

Miss May Schools Newsweek in Madden

Newsweek's N'Gai Croal is having quite the weekend, it sounds. More »


kotaku magu

Kotaku Magu: Perrin Says Nintendo Is "Profit Oriented"

Don't let Mario's overalls fool you, Nintendo likes money just as the next console maker. No surprises there — Memories do come flooding back to when Nintendo announced Wii pricing and many flipped out at parting with US $250 as opposed to the rumored $199. Newsweek's got a piece up on the Wii about demand for the machine, the radio contest fiasco and a few blurbs from Nintendo's Perrin Kaplan. Regarding the contest, Kaplan offered her condolences and stressed that Nintendo had nothing to do with it. Regarding the shortages, she said: More »

iphone

Legal Woes Aside, iPhone To Rumble With PSP and DS

Newsweek's N'Gai Croal pinged us with his take on how the iPhone will shake things up. He blogs: More »

sony

Phil Harrison Speaks On Rare's "Irrelevance"

Following 1UP's revelation yesterday that Rare founders Chris and Tim Stamper had recently moved on from the company comes some insight into the "decline" of the developer, courtesy of, oddly enough, Phil Harrison. The Sony exec was questioned by Newsweek supereditor N'Gai Croal on what Phil thought about Rare's inability to "regain its former glory." More »