I came upon this article on Twitter, and after reading it, I couldn't help wanting to add my $.02, so here ya go.
Postal 3 - um, not too much, I mean, I didn't even meet the first two renditions, so yeah.
APB - haven't heard of it, but the description says it's some sort of an online GTA...which means a "no, thanks" from me.
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 - please, not another soldier-shooter...sheesh. -_-"
Heavy Rain - looks interesting, looks pretty...but I've no PS3.
Halo Reach - oi, fuckit micro$uxx, bring those damn halos to PC too. T_T
Red Steel 2 - Wii...seriously...stop kiddin' around.
Crysis 2 - oooooooo, yesssss, THE GOD, humbly awaiting your 2nd coming, my Lord. *worships on knees*
BioShock 2 - DEFINITELY, I've finished this about 5 times, each time ending with a "next. part. NOW.", so yup.
Alan Wake - does anyone still remember when this one started off? Has been becoming the next Duke Nukem Forever, since...which is quite a pity.
STALKER: Call Of Pripyat - idk why but STALKER couldn't ever touch me at all...besides. a) It already has a 2nd part ("stand-alone expansion"); b) it's been on torrent sites for weeks if not months, so what's with the Feb '10 thing? =3
Crackdown 2 - er...idk?
Deus Ex 3 - if it's gonna be like the first one, then BRING IT ON ALREADY; if it's gonna be like the 2nd one, then rather no, thanks.
Max Payne 3 - oh, so there already was a 2nd one to this too? Idk, personally, I think the first one wasn't anything more than a 12-makes-a-dozen shooter either.
God Of War 3 - yeah, God of War games would be worth getting a PS for...so I heard anyways.
Gran Turismo 5 - cars don't really turn me on, but the GT series does have a very unique feeling to them, I gotta admit that...curious about this one maybe.
Supreme Commander 2 - lol, the first part was complex enough...throw in a new script and some facelift for the graphics, not much else needs changing there.
Mass Effect 2 - yesyesyes!!! No further comment required for this one. (Although, personally, I'd be glad if Bioware got their asses to making a new Baldur's Gate too.)
Army Of Two: The 40th Day - aaand yet another soldier shooter, this time trying to make up for a botched up first rendition...is it worth it? Do we need even more of this particular kind of game? I think no. -_-"
MAG - the title says it all: Massive Action Game...blah, is it just me or these new "ideas" really do seem sort of...cheap...and burnt-out?
Rage - now that's an interesting bastard: I know Mr Carmack IS a living a legend, I know he HAS talent, but since he dissed DX10, he sank a few floors down in my eyes...but, I've been quite curious as to how this DX9 project of his will end up...on a market that'll be loud from DX11 by the time it's released (it already is rumbling with the 5-series Radeons, and note that Rage is planned for Q4 next year).
And the mentions category...
Fable 3 - the first one was nice and good, tho it didn't really get enough marketing mainly on PC; the 2nd, I still haven't heard of it being dropped on PCs; so I'm a bit nonplussed about this one...
Far Cry 3 - if it's gonna be like the 2nd one, with no link whatsoever to the previous link AND with a totally homogeneous (ie very-easy-to-get-bored-with) world PLUS about 75-80% of the objects being totally static too...I do not want. x_x
Ghost Recon 4 - maaaaybe, I mean, Tom Clancy games have always been good with that drop of difference that sorta lifted them outta the masses, but frankly, they've become quite mainstream lately...we'll see.
Guild Wars 2 - lol, wasn't this one promised for this year? Anyway, never got to the 1st one either, sooo...meh?
Command & Conquer 4 - wtf is this doing in the mentions-only part?!?!?!?! Of course we fuckin' want Kane, geez!
Thief 4 - another double-edged sword: if they remain true to the world we've been placed in in the previous games, I'm really lookin' forward to this (aka wtf is this doing in the mentions-only part?!?!?!? #2); if they dare put it in a modern world as there were rumors about such too, then rather scrap the whole game plz.
And what's missing...
Final Fantasy XIII - WTF DO YOU MEAN THAT IT'S NOT EVEN MENTIONED?!?!?!?!?! It's the game that's gonna prompt me to get a PS3...at least it's looks very probable right now, anyways. T_T
Diablo III - I think this one was promised for this year too, errr, a bit hesitant about this, I mean, classes seem rather just ~remixed~ than new, and the world seemed sorta Baldur's Gate too instead of a dark-goth Diablo, but...we'll see, alright?
Well, not that much early anymore, and these things have been on my mind for a while now, but still...I got to them just now.
Why do I love my N97?
That's right, when I put the stupidity of the creation of and the issues that taint this device aside, I can't help but love it. "Connecting people" has been the motto of Nokia for quite a while now, but frankly, I couldn't really feel that so far. The N-Gage back in the good ol' days, connected gamers, that much was true. The N90 was a solid device but for me, there wasn't anything special about it apart from the form factor. The N95 was revolutionary, compact yet feature-packed like nothing before, but that was about it. The N97 however...it has the connecting power, the form factor, and the feature-packedness (...well, sort of), so it's a nice cocktail of my previous handsets. Wherever I go and whatever mood I'm in, I can always listen to music I want to, thanks to the huge built-in storage - that's really important for me, I practically need music to breathe. Also, no matter where I am, I can access my emails, I can talk to friends on WLM, I can tweet about whatever crazy or strange or tragi-/comic thing I see. Via the emails, I also see comments or messages or replies I get on a number of different social networking sites - most of those manage to make me smile at any time during the day. Via WLM, I can get people to entertain me while my teacher is being late (or the class is being boring). =) As for Twitter, in the short time that passed since I discovered it, I really grew to depend on that too, and that's mainly because of news, be it technology related or music related or movie related or JAPAN related (yeah, I'm an otaku...sue me). And whatever it is, I can just tap on those links and read the full article if I deem it worthy for immediate investigation - and can also spread it further immediately. On the downside, people following me probably frown at some of the tweets I send...um, well, forgive me...just being my silly self, I guess. And all that is a treat with the full QWERTY: I'm really a text-type person, so the quality/experience of input is not the least indifferent. So, I really do feel like carrying the world in my pocket - so much so that I'm almost surprised when I just receive a call or a good old fashioned text message, I mean like, "Hey, it's a phone too, btw!". Of course, there still are games and e-books when I feel like it, or I can just grab a movie (well, more like a few episodes of the animes I'm watching, usually) and watch that, because the display itself is simply spectacular. On a sidenote, I also mention the calendar and the notes - I know, nothing new there, but take it out of any handset and I'd be pretty much lost, what with deadlines and release dates and all. To sum it up, it's like I'm really connected - and not only to close / real-life friends, but to the whole wide world, in basically any sense imaginable, with the experience being nice too. I don't think that's a bad feature at all.
Why do I feel uneasy?
'cos I feel that way as well. Naturally, the numerous errors that Nokia made while creating the N97 - don't wanna list them all, go and read it in earlier posts (or elsewhere on the net, they're all over the place) -, do make people, mainly owners of the device, frustrated. On one hand, it's been a flagship model, on the other, it's way too inferior to be called that, hardware-wise as much as software-wise. Then there's that mutation thingy dubbed the N97 Mini - if someone can explain the point of that to me, please do so. I mean, granted, it's a bit smaller in more ways than one, but apart from that, it's the same as its big brother: the issues won't be solved, the missing features are still missing. And still, Nokia goes and calls it their "new flagship device" (as in one of their videos on youtube, go search for it if you want to). Huh? ... Oh, and what's with this other monster, the N900? A monster, hardware-wise, but featuring a totally different OS which actually does require that strong hardware (or so I've been told), so it's actually just a must, not something to pat Nokia's shoulders for. It looks great, it looks smooth - it looks different. Where do I stand now, with my N97 in my hands? Take a look around on the market: innovations and new features everywhere, new looks, new feels...even Nokia goes down that road with the N900, while the N97 barely had anything new to start with, and now even that v20 firmware is being delayed which is to bring features that should have been included at the start already. Online communities have been in an uproar about the N900 - they seem to be right, and I myself am curious too, despite my dislike of anything Linux. Online communities have been overly enthusiastic about v20 of N97 - can't say it's justified, I mean, hullo, the whole overhaul is more like a giant bugfix than anything really new.
In the meantime, the E71/E72 is still being considered as the best workhorse of the mainstream Nokia handsets. In the meantime, Nokia split up its portfolio to Xseries and whatnots (there's gonna be more too, what I can remember right now is a Cseries) - what's gonna happen to Nseries? No one knows. In the meantime, SE is pushing out models like the Satio - was I for Nokia, I'd be ashamed seeing another company can create a much better nest to a software platform I own and populate that nest with much nicer looking birdies too. And remember how SE models have been shunned for their totally inferior video recording capabilities (even the top-end Cybershot models)? Those are catching up, now it's Nokia that's been lacking major camera features - and I don't necessarily mean a higher megapixel count. In the meantime, everyone's designing newer and better UIs - I just realized a few days ago that even that tiny feature of animated icons (was introduced in one of the N95 FW updates if I'm right) is missing from the N97, and v20 won't bring along any visual changes either. And the list could go on and on, sadly~...
I would get mad, if I wasn't like a giant question mark, with the two versions of the N97 and the N900 looking down at me from up above. Not to mention other manufacturers' devices. It would be nice to see/know what Nokia has planned for my handset's future, because right now it's an epitome of ambivalence. And having to be torn between two states of mind every day, well, that's just no good. Someone please tell me where I'm standing at?
Article is here. I'm sorry, but I can't be bothered to register on techradar just for one comment, so here are my $.02 on the highlights.
"In doing that Apple has been able to carve out a small, but growing niche for itself as a premium computer and consumer electronics maker. And it's very happy to keep on doing so." - "If you don't like it, don't buy a Mac. There are plenty of other PC makers out there."
Which is exactly the attitude of Apple that disgusts non-fanboys/-girls. What if someone simply loves it but can't afford it? See that word "premium" in the first sentence...?
"Since then Apple has made several concessions to developer and consumer demand - first by opening up the iPhone to third-party web apps, and then by enabling developers that could be developed for the iPhone under a strict approvals process that tries to ensure standards, while delivering a good user experience." - "Apple didn't have to do this. The overwhelming success of the iPhone – and the enthusiasm of developers and customers for it has inevitably caused some problems, but Apple is learning fast."
Apple didn't do anything: it simply collapsed under that thriving hacking community's pressure. And the fact of its reluctance (ie. the original plans to keep the iPhone a closed platform) still shows in its uncanny censorship policy, paired with the greediness of wanting 30% of everything the devs make.
"remember the dodgy laptop batteries of a couple of years back? It affected a wide range of PC makers, not just Apple"
Ooooh, I just LOVE this one. Just a few lines above, Apple is the hardware maker. Obviously, only when it's something to boast about like they have invented it (they didn't), but they're not hardware makers as soon as it comes to problems. No comment.
"Snow Leopard also sets the stage for future OS innovations."
...which is shipping OSs with outdated components AND security holes / virtually non-existent protection? Good to know.
"Apple didn't invent the portable MP3 player; its innovation was doing it better than everyone else."
The past tense is justified: I've heard too many ppl describing the iPods as the crappiest music players lately.
"It didn't invent the smartphone, but the iPhone solves a lot of the problems rival smartphones created."
And creates a ton of others that had already been non-existent for years before it appeared on stage.
And yeah, the iPhone is far from innovation, it's simply a product of a bunch of people going for comfort. While it's great that Apple had several innovations in its lifetime, it's just doing that: living off those without having come up anything in the past few years.
