First Timers Search Results

News: Grand Theft Auto 4 Looks Like Gran Turismo 5 with iCEnchancer

Grand Theft Auto 4 was a landmark game. It gave yet another reboot to the already rebooted Grand Theft Auto series, arguably the most prestigious video game in the West. It has a 98 on Metacritic, making it by that measure the best game of modern times. Whatever your stance on the gameplay may be—which has received its fair share of flak in the three years since its release—the graphical steps that the team at Rockstar North took to create their fantasy replica of New York were a major step f...

How To: How Much Advertising Can a Free Game Site Have and Still Be Considered Indie?

Mediocre free Flash game websites are all too common. Many of them thrive off peddling the same few popular games to fans who have slim cause to pick one over the other. They thrive off the indifference of casual gamers and an environment that does not have to stand out to survive, only appeal to the lowest common gaming denominator with tower defense clones and brightly colored Peggle knockoffs. In that context, what Nitrome is doing seems downright commendable.

News: A Few Helpful Google Search Tips

One of the things I consistently notice amongst fellow internet users is that many people don't know how to properly search for stuff. Google may have served you well in the past, but I'm going to share a few little tricks with you to help make your search results even spiffier.

News: Seize the Lightning! Carpe Fulgur Imports Japanese Indie Games to the U.S.

Carpe Fulgur translates to something along the lines of "Seize the Lightning" in Latin. Sometimes that is enacted with golf clubs by idiots. But the three intrepid indie video game localizers who work under that name are trying to do it the right way: metaphorically. They are translating and publishing Japanese games for the Americans market—games that have seldom been seen before because every other company thinks it's mad to release them here.

News: Hate Final Cut Pro X? Try Adobe Premiere Pro or Avid Media Composer

It's no secret. Professional video editors everywhere are irate at the newest edition to Apple's popular non-linear video editing software, Final Cut Pro X. As of right now, Final Cut Pro X has 503 five-star ratings in the Mac App Store. Not bad. But it also has 671 one-star ratings and 414 users who aren't sure what they think. It's such a bad update that it even earned itself a skit on Conan.

Google+ Pro Tips Round-Up: Week 1

With the Google+ team members being generous and free-flowing with advice on some of the more advanced features of Google+, we'll be publishing a weekly summary of the latest pro tips. Chances are, if you've been following the Google+ team members, you've seen some of these already but you don't have them all in one handy place.

News: Welcome to the Google+ Insider's Guide!

Google+ is the most exciting new social network to come around this decade, and the only product with a chance of challenging the monopolies we know as Facebook and Twitter. As an Internet addict, I've joined every major social network there is - from Friendster (who?) to MySpace (so ugly) to LinkedIn (yawn) to Twitter (irritating) and Facebook (annoying to manage). Competition is delicious, especially between well-financed monopolies. Google+ really seems to have identified an Achille's heel...

News: Networking Virtual Machines Using VDE

I've struggled for a long time trying to set up a virtual network between my KVM virtual machines. I tried several forums and tutorials on the web, but still on my system it just wouldn't work. I eventually got it owrking, so I've decided to make some notes of my own. Hopefully it will be helpful to you as a reader as well.

News: "Frankie Goes to Hollywood" Says: Welcome to the Pleasuredome!

The debate over whether video games can be considered art or not has intensified in recent years as games like Braid and Flow have taken the digital aesthetic experience to new heights. These new games are great examples, but there are much older ones that present compelling arguments as well. The best is a 1986 ZX Spectrum/Commodore 64/Amstrad CPC game called Frankie Goes To Hollywood.

News: Ball Pythons

Ball Pythons have become big business in the pet trade industry over the years, due to them being one of the most docile snakes in the constrictor family usually preferring to roll into a tight ball hiding it's head than to striking out with the intent to bite. These snakes come in a vast assortment of colors and patterns many of which are highly sought after and can get to be rather pricey. If you are considering adding a ball python to your home please put serious consideration into the nee...

News: Dear Johnny, Looney Toons style stunt!

I know the contest is over, but I have an idea anyway! Take one of the crew, oh say, Ehren for example, and give him a parachute and place him about 40-50 ft in the air. Tell him that his mission is to jump, delpoy his chute and navigate over a pond to the other side. Except fill his chute with silverware wrapped in a blanket like in Looney Toons!! I couldn't draw a picture because I only have paint and it sucks. I'm sure you could tweek it and make it better, but I know if you guys did it yo...

News: The Soft Fur Rat

The African Soft Fur Rat though new to the pet trade is a unique little rodent with unusual qualities. Not only is this little rat a great step up for people who feed reptiles it is virtually odorless and that is definately a plus for those who would like to have a pet rat or mouse they can keep inside the house and not spend a fortune in bedding or spend a lot of time cleaning to keep the rodent odor down.

Realm of the Mad God: A Free Indie Browser Alternative to World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft has been on top of the world for seven years. No other MMO has come close to challenging its dominance of the genre, and it has generated billions of dollars for Blizzard. They have spent a lot of money adding more and more content, to the extent where the full game with all the expansion packs takes up 65 GB of hard drive space. It is a beautiful game; well balanced, and a milestone in the history of the medium.

News: Completing a World... Step by Step?

Well this one is a short but sweet one. I am hoping I can enlist your input. I am probably going to do a video about how to complete a world here on WHT. I am just getting to the point where I'm pretty familiar with the layout and interface, so I should be able to write up a script that takes us through it quickly and still covers everything. What would you like to make sure you see in this video?

News: Friday Indie Game Review Roundup: An Amnesiac Retrospective

Three years ago, Double Fine productions held an in-house event called the Amnesia Fortnight. The company was split into four teams, each of which set out to spend two weeks developing an idea for a small game and present it to the other groups at the end of the duration. All of the ideas turned out to be winners, and founder/owner Tim Schafer secured publishing deals for all four games to be released on a combination of XBLA and PSN. In honor of the excellent Trenched becoming the third game...

How To: Transfer Your Facebook Friends to Google+ (And Vice Versa)

On the same day that Google launched their new social network, Google +, a team of Google engineers calling themselves the Data Liberation Front announced their first service on Tuesday—Google Takeout, a product that allows users to easily move their data in and out of Google products, including Buzz, Contacts and Circles, Picasa Web Albums, Profile and Stream (the equivalent of Facebook’s newsfeed).

News: Indie Game Mashup! DTIPBIJAYS + LSQOM = Scorpion Psychiatrists of Saturn

Most of the oddest games in the world are free web games. They may not always be well made, but low budgets (and consequently low risk) allow them to be as weird as they fancy. That's a big part of why they are so interesting. Prime examples such as Don't Take It Personally, Babe, It Just Ain't Your Story and Lesbian Spider Queens of Mars have graced these pages previously, and both are great games. But the quality of the games hasn't stopped mysterious Glorious Trainwrecks user snapman (else...

The Google+ Project: Google's Social Network Takes On Facebook

Google recently unveiled the start of their new social network Google+, which is set to compete with Facebook and fix the awkward, broken aspects on online sharing they claim exist. It's currently only open to a limited number of Googlers during its "field trial," and if you weren't one of the lucky ones given an invitation, you can still sign up to be notified when Google+ is available in your area. You can also stay up to date on its Twitter page, GooglePlus.

Splitscreen: A Love Story Shot Entirely on the Nokia N8 Mobile Phone

Splitscreen: A Love Story is an elegant short shot entirely on the Nokia N8 mobile phone, created by director JW Griffiths and director of photography Christopher Moon. The cleverly constructed splitscreen film was selected as the official winner of Vimeo's Nokia Shorts 2011 contest, raking in a grand prize of $10K. So how did they do it? Splitscreen: A Love Story was shot using the Steadicam Smoothee, a hand-held dolly designed for the iPhone 3GS, which the team adapted for use with the Noki...

World Siege: Orc Defender for iOS Turns Your Real Life Home Into a Video Game

Tower defense games have covered a lot of creative ground over the last five years. They've gone from simple desktop amusements to a staple of the indie game scene, having been integreated into nearly every other type of game and released on every platform. They have taken place in ancient times, the far future, and on alien planets. But one place they (and most other types of video games) have never taken place is the real world. Not a virtual recreation of the world, but on the very terra f...

News: ShouldIChangeMyPassword.com

Unless you avoid the news entirely, you've almost certainly heard about the hacking sprees that have been taking place over the past several weeks. Tens of thousands of usernames, passwords and email addresses have been released online for anyone to download. Thankfully, it seems that one kind soul has put all that compromised info to good use.