mad

Following up what we thought was 2010's best game of the year is no small task, but if there's one developer/publisher powerhouse that can handle the pressure, it's certainly Rockstar Games. From a pairing with Sydney-based developer Team Bondi, L.A. Noire was born, with preproduction dates ranging as far back as 2004.

It's certainly been a long road for the massive title, involving more than 400 actors, more than 20 hours of voice acting, and the invention of a whole new technology to capture realistic facial expressions. Our eyes having been glued to the TV for every waking hour of the past few days, we're ready to share our final thoughts.

First, a little background: L.A. Noire is a crime drama-thriller set in 1940s Los Angeles. Players assume the role of Cole Phelps, a war-hero-turned-cop who is in the process of making his way up in the ranks of the L.A.P.D. In a notoriously violent time in L.A.'s past, Phelps finds himself confronted with an unsettling number of possibly connected murder cases.

Of course, the game borrows its name from the film noir genre, dating back to crime dramas of the '40s and '50s that used stylized cinematography and the high contrast of gritty black and white for dramatic effect. While L.A. Noire is presented in color, players have the option of choosing black and white in the display settings.

Every effort was made to recapture the Los Angeles of 1947, from the painstaking details of a residential kitchen to the historic landmarks on the outskirts of town. Aerial photographs, blueprints, public records--just about every resource available--was consulted in the game's reconstruction of the city and the result is absolutely astonishing.… Read more

Please don't try this at home. And please don't try this at work, especially if you happen to be the driver of a means of public transportation.

Because this video, posted by the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, projects something that is so stunning and yet so entirely everyday.

Here is a bus driver, talking on one cell phone while making adjustments to his smartphone. The only slight drawback is that he's driving the bus, with his elbows.

Who here assembled has never driven a vehicle with one finger or perhaps two knees?

And yet there is something … Read more

The Netflix juggernaut showed no signs of slowing down during the first quarter of 2011.

On the contrary, for the quarter ended March 31 (PDF), Netflix reported worldwide net profits of $60 million, or $1.11 per share, on revenue of $719 million. The earnings for the Web's top video-rental service were nearly twice the $32 million the company saw for the same period a year ago.

A survey of 25 analysts by FactSet Research showed that Netflix was expected to earn $1.07 a share. As for the company's closely watched number of subscribers, Netflix reported that … Read more

Links from Thursday's episode of Loaded:

YouTube may start offering original content on new channels

Toyota will use Microsoft's Azure technology in its electric vehicles to establish a cloud platform by 2015

LinkedIn lets you access and sign into other sites with your LinkedIn account, much like Facebook Connect

A new version of Final Cut Pro may launch next week

GameStop may create a gaming tablet

Netflix acquires the rights to stream the "Mad Men" TV series

The next NBA Jam game will be called NBA Jam: On Fire Edition

Netflix has signed a licensing deal to stream reruns of the critically praised TV series "Mad Men"

According to The Los Angeles Times, after episodes appear on cable network AMC, the next place to experience the show's smart dialogue, clouds of cigarette smoke, and clinking martini glasses will be on Netflix's streaming service. Netflix paid as much as $900,000 per episode, the paper reported Tuesday.

As some executives continue to predict that the TV broadcasters and film studios would soon reduce Netflix's streaming-content supply, the Web's top video rental service continues to defy … Read more

We just wrapped one of the biggest events on the annual television calendar: March Madness. Each year, the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship tournament brings with it a host of great traditions. Hoops lovers nationwide gather around the shared love of the sport and competition.

This year, it was a different kind of event. 2011 marked year one of the 14-year partnership between the NCAA, CBS, and Turner Broadcasting, which introduced radical changes to the way people watch. For 30 years on CBS, programmers decided what areas of the country would get to see what games. Coverage was essentially regionalized. … Read more

Tune in to this week's episode of preGame for a First Look at the high-end PlayStation Move accessory gun, the SharpShooter! But first, we're debuting four brand-new trailers for a variety of games hitting consoles soon. Be sure to check out the latest videos for Battlefield 3, Alice: Madness Returns, Rochard, and Shadows of the Damned.

Speculation that Microsoft is working on a successor to the Xbox 360 gained momentum today as a job listing on the company's site may point to future hardware. Is the Xbox 720 (or whatever it'll be called) imminent?

Next we'… Read more

Just after the big news of the iPhone coming to Verizon, Apple released a beta to developers for iOS 4.3 and it looks like it will add some big changes from previous versions--especially on the iPad.

New multitouch gestures will make it possible to close apps or just switch to another open app without having to press the Home button. You'll also now have the option to make the iPad switch on the side of the device either a mute or lock rotation switch--apparently, many iPad users complained of the previous version change to turn it into a mute button like the iPhone.

If you want to see some of the new enhancements in action, check out our First Look at iOS 4.3 video with Brian Tong.

This week's apps include a newsreader that lets you view actual newspapers and a motocross game that's both fun and extremely challenging.… Read more

Angry Birds Lite is an addictive physics-based puzzler with a lot of personality. It's so easy to pick up and play, it's hard not to recommend this game to every new iOS device owner.

You're helping a bunch of birds as they wreak vengeance upon a crew of smug little egg-stealing pigs. Basically a one-player, turn-based artillery game, Angry Birds has a dead-simple interface: you just pull back on a slingshot to launch birds one at a time, with your finger position determining the speed and trajectory of each bird. The only other interaction comes when new … Read more