NAG October 2011 issue

It’s yellow! So very yellow, but not like that kind of snow that you shouldn’t eat, this is awesome yellow. Mustard, if you will, and, as anyone who’s ever eaten good mustard can tell you, mustard yellow is the best yellow. The bold, not-at-all-banana-inspired cover this month is, of course, in honour of our seven-page Borderlands 2 feature that dominates the hallowed insides of NAG. We also have a feature of our impressions of the Call of Duty XP Event held in a desert somewhere in the US, and tech enthusiasts can look forward to our two hardware features: 4-way SSD shootout and Alienware M17x R3 vs. MSI GT780.

Other previews include our hands-on impressions of StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, Gotham City Imposters, Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes and many more. Of course, we spent some time playing review games this month, including Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Resistance 3, F.E.A.R. 3, Driver: San Francisco and more!

Some of our other hardware coverage includes a look at BlackBerry’s PlayBook, the HTC EVO 3D, EVGA Z68FTW, Sapphire Pure Platinum A75 and many more fascinating pieces of technology.

You can expect to find the October issue of NAG on shelf this Thursday, the 29th of September.

Click here for the contents PDF [268KB]

Posted by Geoff Burrows Sep 27, 2011

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Tech corner: WebOS is not dead!

Yes yes, the evidence points to the contrary. I know, having the CEO of a multi-billion-dollar company currently sitting at the top of the consumer computing industry declare that a very valuable asset they just bought out for $1.2 billion the other day is now going to be trashed is pretty much the nail in the coffin for most people. I, on the other hand, haven’t been able to snag an HP Touchpad for $100 and firmly believe that WeboS will stay alive and HP is just pulling your socks.

Let’s rewind to the beginning in April last year, when HP had just bought the defunct Palm OS and announced that they would be re-entering the mobile and tablet market with a new product line that would knock the socks off iOS and the then-unfinished Windows Phone. HP bought out Treo and Handspring for pocket change, and everyone everywhere began to expect good things. Fast-forward to MWC 2011 in February, the ill-fated month for Nokia’s Symbian OS, and WebOS shone like a brightly polished gem. The UI was well-thought out, worked smoothly, showed promise and above all enabled users to switch comfortably between the Touchpad and HP’s companion devices, the HP Veer and Pre 3, both stunning handsets in their own right and the Veer in particular a definate inspiration for the HTC Cha Cha.

Posted by Wesley Sep 26, 2011

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Bitch-slapped: I HAET UR FAVRITE GAEM LOL!!!1

“Video gaming.” It’s a phrase that’s tripped over the murky precipice of obscurity and into the neon-lit chasm of mainstream culture, but quite in spite of its new-found distinction – or perhaps by way of its downward vector – it’s not quite managed to discard some of its more contemptible hangers-on.

More simply (or more obviously, perhaps, because it’s what I was really getting at), if that precipice were a sphincter, and the chasm a toilet bowl, video gaming would be the clotted skidmark all the way down, before slithering – behemoth-like, and smelling of murder – into the waters below*.

It’s the console wars. It’s the PC Gaming Defence Force. It’s the cheating. It’s the racism, the misogyny, and the homophobia. It’s piracy, and the vapid proselytising and self-entitlement that comes with it. It’s the entire MOBA community. It’s the apocalyptic pronouncements about the advent of so-called “casual” gaming, like the whole industry didn’t actually start with games about dots blasting dots with dots or something.

"Do you smell something?"

Posted by Tarryn Van Der Byl Sep 06, 2011

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NAG September 2011 issue

After a decade of waiting, it’s finally time for us to have a Diablo III cover. To go along with that, we have thousands of words of info on the game, as well as a look at what you can expect at rAge 2011. If you need more reasons to buy this issue of NAG, we review Shadows of the Damned, Call of Juarez: The Cartel, From Dust, Child of Eden, and more; and we preview Bodycount, Lollipop Chainsaw, Ninja Gaiden III and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3.

Our hardware coverage is dominated by two shootouts: AMD Llano vs. Intel Sandy Bridge, and ASUS Crosshair V Formula vs. GIGABYTE 990FXA-UD7. We also take a look at the ASUS MATRIX GTX580 Platinum, the ASUS G74SX, the NOCTUA NH-D14 CPU cooler and more.

The September issue of NAG is on shelf from today, the 25^th of August.

Click here for the contents PDF [414KB]

Posted by Geoff Burrows Aug 25, 2011

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Gamescom 2011: Blizzard press event recap

As mentioned earlier in the Diablo III console version news post, I attended a behind closed doors press event held by Blizzard. The event was attended by about eighty journalists from all over the world and after a discussion on the new features in each of Blizzard’s main franchises, the floor was opened up for questions. The team of Blizzard developers and directors provided us with new features in Diablo III, Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm and World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. What follows is a recap of what they shared with us for each of these three games. There were some really neat new reveals, especially with regard to Diablo III and Heart of the Swarm.

Posted by Miklós Szecsei Aug 18, 2011

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Opinionated: Why games need to talk trash

What you throw away can say a lot about you. By way of illustration: Just this morning I threw away a sealed box of tampons, three cats (or obsolete kittens, as I prefer to call them) and an empty grog barrel.

By this you could infer that I am a sensitive, kitten-loving swashbuckler of a guy, which is a remarkable approximation of the truth.

I think useless shit is a sorely neglected aspect of gaming, and I can no longer remain silent. I’m taking a stand! Of sorts!

For one thing, junk is the cornerstone of any self-respecting dystopian society. Those clever scamps over at Valve understand this with bells on. Let’s take Half-Life 2 – remember all the litter lying around the train station at the beginning of the game? Remember how the wind caught it and wafted it about?

Posted by Rogan Louwrens Aug 11, 2011

1 Comment

NAG August 2011 issue

RAGE!!! No, not that really awesome gaming event (:O) that we run, but the game currently in development by the masters of first-person shooters – id Software. It graces our cover this issue and because of that, you can expect to find words about the game inside our fine magazine. But wait, there’s more! We’re packed full of gaming goodness this month, with previews on Brothers in Arms: Furious 4, Hitman: Absolution, BioShock Infinite, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine, and more! Our reviews for this month include the electrifying inFAMOUS 2, the mighty Red Faction: Armageddon, the nippy DiRT 3, the hack-‘n’-slashy Dungeon Siege III, and more.

Console and PC gamers alike will enjoy our gigantic gaming headset roundup, and our hardware reviews include the Gainward GTX 560 Ti Phantom, the GIGABYTE Z68XP-UD3-iSSD (that’s right – we said SSD), and we welcome a new video card to our Dream Machine – the MSI GTX580 Lightning, as well as a dominating new SSD – the OCZ Vertex 3 240GB.

You can expect to find the August issue of NAG on shelf this Thursday, the 28^th of July.

Click here for the contents PDF [215KB]

Posted by Geoff Burrows Jul 23, 2011

3 Comments

Win! Red Faction Armageddon

Do you like destroying buildings with futuristic weaponry? Do you like saving Mars from the onslaught of a terrifying alien race? Do you like Science? If you answered yes to any of those questions, not only are you awesome, but you have anywhere from one to three reasons to enter this competition.

This week we have two copies of Red Faction Armageddon and two Walker statuettes to give away, courtesy of Ster Kinekor.

Details after the break.

Posted by Geoff Burrows Jul 04, 2011

27 Comments

NAG July 2011 issue

It’s that time of the year again – E3. Well, you Internet people are probably done with this by now, but we’re just getting started. This issue includes tons of news from the Electronic Entertainment Expo, loads of reviews and a couple of big, fancy features. What features, you ask? Well, we’ve got five pages dedicated to Battlefield 3. We also put on our artistic shoes and take a look at Into the Pixel 2011′s award winners, and take an in-depth look at the PlayStation Vita. Our reviews include everything you’ve been waiting for: L.A. Noire, The Witcher 2, Brink, Duke Nukem Forever, Darkspore, Operation Flashpoint: Red River, and more. Hardware enthusiasts can get tucked into our reviews of the ASUS P8Z68-V PRO, Intel’s new 5120 120GB SSD, the ASUS SABERTOOTH 990FX and GIGABYTE’s insane X58A-OC.

You can expect to find the July issue of NAG on shelf this Thursday, the 30th of June.

Click here for the contents PDF [226KB]

Posted by Geoff Burrows Jun 28, 2011

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Feature review: inFAMOUS 2

Superheroes have always been the ideal subject matter for videogames, but despite this, decent superhero games are actually quite rare. In general, these games lack some integral part of the overall superhero experience – and until I played inFAMOUS and its recently-released sequel, inFAMOUS 2, I didn’t know what it was.

Making the player feel different, like they’re simultaneously a hero and an outcast – that’s what a lot of superhero games are missing, but it’s something inFAMOUS manages to pull off very well. You have an entire populace who will react to your choices, running in terror when you start unleashing your powers, and cheering you on if you decide to help them out. You also have allies fighting alongside you, but their efforts pale in comparison to your powers.