5th November 2011, 9:22 AM
The fact is, gaming journalists are a joke among journalists. Just compare a game review to a professional movie review. Sure I may disagree with Ebert on just about everything, but the man's honest and isn't afraid to give his unvarnished opinion. They're an advertising branch now, not to be taken seriously. About the only thing most of them offer at this point is videos of the games they're talking about. That's the only reason to bother checking them out ,they still seem to be the only way to actually get the pre-approved company product packets the game developers want you to see.
That said, Apple isn't some evil boogey man. The reason they're so popular is because their products really are very well designed. Nintendo has even copied the Apple aesthetic a lot recently (from UI to system form). However, it goes too far to say they're incredible innovators. It's a joke that Jobs was so angry about Google's Android "stealing" their ideas when their interface is just a refined version of previous work. The integration of a touch screen coincidentally came shortly after the DS came along. Their big improvement was multi-touch, which Nintendo mistakenly didn't implement in their 3DS. That said, Apple's refusal to include a stylus is a mistake of their own (and don't say the tech wouldn't work, it's easy to find a coating for a stylus that would work on a capacitance touch screen). While I can easily use my finger on my 3DS (Yes I have one now), I prefer to use the stylus for a number of activities simply because it prevents me from smudging up the screen. Humans are disgusting oily bags. Further, there's no better way to write than with a stylus, which again is something Nintendo does which Apple does not. Handwriting software is a lot better than it was when the Newton came out (Eat up Martha indeed).
All in all, Apple makes good quality products, but isn't nearly as innovative as people give them credit for. And, as far as gaming goes, Steve Jobs NEVER cared about gaming anyway. There's numerous quotes indicating he never saw it as that important. Gaming took off on iTems in spite of Jobs, not because of him, and it's still awkward to play anything that requires direct character control because there are only two buttons on the thing.
That said, Apple isn't some evil boogey man. The reason they're so popular is because their products really are very well designed. Nintendo has even copied the Apple aesthetic a lot recently (from UI to system form). However, it goes too far to say they're incredible innovators. It's a joke that Jobs was so angry about Google's Android "stealing" their ideas when their interface is just a refined version of previous work. The integration of a touch screen coincidentally came shortly after the DS came along. Their big improvement was multi-touch, which Nintendo mistakenly didn't implement in their 3DS. That said, Apple's refusal to include a stylus is a mistake of their own (and don't say the tech wouldn't work, it's easy to find a coating for a stylus that would work on a capacitance touch screen). While I can easily use my finger on my 3DS (Yes I have one now), I prefer to use the stylus for a number of activities simply because it prevents me from smudging up the screen. Humans are disgusting oily bags. Further, there's no better way to write than with a stylus, which again is something Nintendo does which Apple does not. Handwriting software is a lot better than it was when the Newton came out (Eat up Martha indeed).
All in all, Apple makes good quality products, but isn't nearly as innovative as people give them credit for. And, as far as gaming goes, Steve Jobs NEVER cared about gaming anyway. There's numerous quotes indicating he never saw it as that important. Gaming took off on iTems in spite of Jobs, not because of him, and it's still awkward to play anything that requires direct character control because there are only two buttons on the thing.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)