The Escapist
[Now Eating| Pastrami Sandwich]
I found out about another cool gaming ‘zine today called The Escapist. The third issue is available now and defintely worth the read (online or pdf form). I especially dug the article ‘Left Behind.’ Check it out:
source: Evil Avatar
Nick - July 26th, 2005 - 
SavageS on July 26, 2005 at 10:21 pm
Pastrami Sandwich…mmmmm
The Escapist Site is graphically intense and slightly off skew. Need to have IE window maximized to view.
AztecL0B0 on July 26, 2005 at 11:55 pm
Yeah, I’ve been to their site and they have a very cool journalistic take on video game news. This is what I was expecting from Next Generation or Edge’s online site.
Anzanar on July 27, 2005 at 1:24 am
The writers of “The Escapist” have absolutely no idea what they are talking about. Who did they predict to win the handheld wars? The DS? The PSP?
They chose the n-gage. That stands for itself.
All of their articles are well written, but entirely based in whatever little world the writers/editors live in (as opposed to the one we live in). They predict Nintendo will go the way of Sega, even though the two companies are entirely different fiscally.
Basically, they’re idiots and no one should read their (poorly formatted for casual reading) website.
zigg on July 27, 2005 at 9:34 am
I disagree. I found their N-Gage analysis intriguing.
The notion of piggybacking the N-Gage platform’s installed base on mobile phones is genius. Whatever failure the actual N-Gage hardware was, the hardware obstacle is simply removed by doing this. Owners of Nokia phones can simply buy and play N-Gage games.
Nick on July 27, 2005 at 9:39 am
I agree with Zigg. I truly believe that the best option for a portable gaming device is to be coupled with a cell phone. I carry my cell phone eveywhere and its a neccesity. If the Game Boy Micro had a cell phone service plan youd better believe I would ditch my current phone.
Just because Nokia couldnt figure it out, doesnt mean it wont happen in the future. I welcome it.
SavageS on July 27, 2005 at 9:23 pm
I agree too. If the Gameboy micro was part of my cell, it would have from a lot of banging around in my pockets. I’m getting bruises with all the junk in my pockets. Of course I could just get masking tape and tape the 2 together…
Anzanar on July 28, 2005 at 3:22 pm
The problem with the idea of using a cellphone for handheld gaming is that the best features of a cellphone aren’t necessarily the best features to have in a handheld. For instance, today’s most popular cellphone models are too small to make effective handhelds, and the N-Gage is too large to be a worthwhile phone. Unless it has the same level of functionality as a Sidekick, nobody’s going to want to use something that clunky as a telephone.
It’s true that cellphones are tending more towards visuals and including more games, but I doubt the kind of games that cellphone users want to play are the same as the ones that handheld console owners want. Cellphone games are mostly a way to kill time, whereas most handheld gamers are looking for a little extra.
In short: people who want to play handheld games will just buy a handheld console, and people who want to play cellphone games are content with the existing, non-N-Gage options.