08.06.12 |
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Google Chrome’s start screen that shows your most trafficked sites is nice, yet lacks customization. Enter Speed Dial 2, a Chrome extension that’s been out for a while, but has gotten enough frequent updates to stay very relevant in the browser market. Speed Dial at its heart is similar to the Chrome default with a series of thumbnails for quick access to frequently accessed websites. Yet the customization here is awesome. Pick thumbnail size, number of columns rows, background color schemes, refresh rates and more.
One complaint is its memory usage. It burns up 70 or so MB on my Macbook Air. It’s still worth a try for Chrome start screen fans.
08.03.12 |
Gaming |
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Lately I’ve been playing the popular sci-fi action/RPG Mass Effect 3 on my PS3. Overall it’s a blast, yet the game feels rushed, even a bit played out. It makes me wary of AAA console gaming for the next console generation. But is it the game? Or a reflection of a gamer in his 30s who’s been console gaming too long?
The best parts of ME3 hit me early. The core gameplay formula – a balance of straightforward combat and dialogue heavy cut scenes – remains intact. The graphics got a nice bump compared to the previous Mass Effect, especially in the facial animations. The extra fidelity adds a lot of depth to chats your character encounters on his journey. And the Mass Effect setting gives a better sense of space and presence than virtually any gaming series.
However, cracks in the ME3 facade emerge around the ten hour mark. The game has the budget of your average summer blockbuster and sadly, about as much care went into the writing. You get your obligatory sequel fan service of poorly written, coincidental bump ins with old teammates (“Grunt? What you doing here?”), halfhearted attempts at real emotion (Shepard has interactive, slo-mo flashbacks of a child lost in an early attack on Earth) and well worn, cliched lines between fighters (“It doesn’t get any better, does it?”).
Then there’s that sense that I’ve been down this road far too many times. Combat is sped up and adds grenades (thanks, Call of Duty sales!) but in the process, it becomes harder to distinguish from other third person shooters. Walks through larger non combat areas can stretch on for too long. Your combat partners still act fairly stupid; they often march straight into gunfire.
In short, there’s a general lack of evolution here, something I’ve also noticed in most AAA games I’ve played this year. In many ways, big budget console gaming parallels the Hollywood studio machine during the summer: repetitive genre works with proven plot lines aimed at a progressively younger audience.
Luckily, summer flicks have exceptions to the rule: strong counter programming (e.g. Magic Mike, Killer Joe) and blockbusters that exceed critical expectations (The Avengers). This happens in console gaming as well, but I’d argue we’re seeing those gaming exceptions further and further apart as current-gen consoles trudge on.
Nevertheless, when I contrast this with recent experiences on other platforms, I’ve got a lot of hope for gaming overall. I played the indie puzzle games Braid and Limbo on my Mac back-to-back, and it was, without exaggeration, a total joy. My iPhone also has been a nice match for casual gaming on the subway. Admittedly most iOS games are pretty poor, but a few times a year there is a game comes along that hooks me.
So where does that leave consoles? Digital distribution, combined with a thriving indie game scene, is key. I want a console that’s the home equivalent of the film scene in New York or LA: a blend of both big budget heavyweights and little indies, both readily available.
08.03.12 |
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I rarely find work that’s as tedious as determining proper CSS from sprite sheets. Sprite Cow makes the process far more easy: Upload a sample sheet and click directly on individual sprites to get their proper CSS coordinates.
08.02.12 |
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Usually I’m not the biggest fan of list style posts, but The A.V. Club‘s work here is really useful. I’d recommend you do what I did: make a quick scan and add what looks interesting to your Netflix queue. There were a few big ones that were completely off my radar, like Once Upon a Time In Anatolia.
08.01.12 |
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Thoroughly enjoyable, useful interview over at The Verge with the head of design studio Information Architects, probably best known currently in the tech world for their work on iA Writer. I especially liked Reichenstein’s take on good typography:
The only thing that makes me think that Microsoft might have a chance on mobile devices is that they seem to invest a lot in typography, while Apple doesn’t seem to. For example, Microsoft’s latest future video uses Gotham as a system font. And while I don’t think that Gotham would be a good system font, it has the warmth and friendliness that Neue Helvetica on iOS lacks. I read that as “we care about typography”. With good typography you can score on a level that is subconscious to most users. Hardly anyone can discern good from bad typography, but everybody can feel it.
08.01.12 |
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Given all the press over The Dark Night Rises, articles and analysis on director Chris Nolan have reached the point of absurdity. Yet the British Film Institute’s work here is standout and well worth your time. I loved author Joseph Bevan’s analysis of trends throughout Nolan’s work. For instance, Bevan suggests video games influences Nolan’s work:
While it’s hard to imagine him adding to the regrettable lineage of video-game film adaptations, he has paid direct homage to newer games in his last two films. The elevated shots of Bruce Wayne’s speeding Lamborghini in The Dark Knight mimic the player’s view in Grand Theft Auto, while Inception’s infiltration of a snow-bound compound echoes the Splinter Cell games, as well as the Japanese game Metal Gear Solid.
These resonances also occur at script level. Inception’s dream levels are structured like the levels of a game, while Memento – with its emphasis on a lone hero picking up clues while working his way around strange environments – is reminiscent of myriad point-and-click adventures.
07.31.12 |
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I’ve used a lot of Flash blocking extensions, but this elegant solution suggested over at The Verge forums by user David Pierce is the best I’ve found. Simple, native and smart.
07.31.12 |
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From a $60 game, $9 – fifteen percent – goes to the developer. That’s less than both the publisher and console maker.
07.30.12 |
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Excellent, thorough roundtable discussion over at popular film site Mubi.com. Clearly the three critics discussing TDNR are not big fans, with one going so far to call Chris Nolan’s range “from borderline hack to mildly competent”, something I completely disagree with.
This piece is standout in its discussion of TDNR’s politics. I agree completely with a lot of their takes: Nolan’s politics on display are often self-contradictory, very murky, and ignored when it’s inconvenient for the action on display. As Slashfilm’s David Chen argued, The Dark Night Rises is clearly making some rough political grabs, but by the end it’s an incomprehensible stance.
07.30.12 |
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There’s been a lot of talk online about how Americans can hack proxies and pull in the full BBC live feed. Yet that’s only part of the story here; pay special attention the opening, filled with screenshots, as dev Colin Nederkoorn breaks down how restricted NBC’s “live stream” coverage really is.
Sad to see cable’s stranglehold on the content and ad dollars in the U.S. market.