mad

Mad Catz X65F Flight Stick looks military-grade

LAS VEGAS--At last year's show, Mad Catz treated us to a series of new controllers, but at CES 2010 we're getting a taste of the first force-sensing flight stick we've seen.

Due out in February, the Saitek Pro Flight X65F Control System is designed specifically to emulate aircraft controls found in modern military fighter jets. While most conventional flight sticks tilt with your movement, the X65F responds solely to pressure while remaining still.

Bundled in with the X65F is a CD loaded with preset control maps for some of the most popular flight simulation games out there. … Read more

Mad Catz to offer cheaper muliplatform Wireless-N adapter for gaming

On the heels of last week's official Xbox Wireless-N adapter release, today Mad Catz announced a similar, cheaper alternative that will provide your Xbox 360 with the same wireless capability. Priced at $80 it appears to be a no-brainer over the $100 Microsoft-branded adapter, and did we mention it works with the PlayStation 3, as well?

Instead of a USB interface, the Mad Catz adapter will have an Ethernet port, enabling you to use it with either console. Also in the box will be a 3.3-foot Ethernet cable, which should net you enough slack for optimal reception.

The … Read more

Apple relents on Mad artist's caricature app

Apple's App Store has given a nod to an application that features bobble-headed caricatures of congressional politicians and provides contact information.

"Apple came to its senses yesterday and approved the app," Mad Magazine artist Tom Richmond wrote in his blog Saturday. "You have to wonder how much of the decision was based on the press [coverage] and image hit Apple had taken, and how much of it was simply that some overworked approval person rubber stamped it as a reject."

The Bobble Rep-111th Congress Edition app caught the public's attention this week after Richmond … Read more

Mad Men finale: So you like being in advertising after all?

What a season finale it was. ‘Shut the Door. Have a Seat’ was a “tight balance of emotionally pungent drama and company coup d’etat,” the LA Times wrote. And indeed, Mad Men came through in the end. And all the mad men and women came through: Sterling, Cooper, Pryce, Pete, Peggy, Joan,  and, more than anyone else of course, Don Draper.

He took Conrad Hiltons’s advice to heart and instead of “crying and relying on other people’s moves” he became the master of his fortune and finally did something meaningful. You could see the glow in … Read more

College basketball tournament bracket

When March Madness rolls around for college basketball fans, you can be the first person with a pool bracket ready to use thanks to this nicely designed app.

Turbo Tourney launches a colorful but functional window with a complete tournament ready to fill in. Adding schools to the pairings is a snap, although the method isn't initially intuitive--instead of entering names directly into the main display, you must first click an icon on the toolbar to pop up a box with all the pairings. The box includes drop-down lists with all the regions and school names, so entering is … Read more

Entertaining word game

As children, many of us had fun with Mad Libs. You remember these; the game asks for a set of nouns, verbs, adjectives, and other parts of speech, which are then inserted into a story with hilarious results. StoryMaker operates on the same basic premise, and is just as much fun.

The program's interface is rather unattractive, but it is simple and can be easily navigated by kids. There are large buttons for the program's four main functions. The first button let users play the game. The program asks for words in various parts of speech, and at … Read more

What's the No. 1 gadget in the land?

In case you didn't know it, CNET's been running a special package the last couple of week's called "Tech Madness" that not only highlights CNET's March Madness toolkit but a little game called "What's the No. 1 gadget in the land?"

While we don't have 64 gadgets in our tournament, we do have 32. Once you register/log in as a "player" (Voxpop.tv is running the game), you make your picks just like you would with any typical bracket, selecting an overall champion at the end.

After … Read more

Tilt and roll to the goal

Manic Marble Free is a free preview of the first two levels in Manic Marble, a tilting rolling, 3D arcade game in which you guide a fast-moving marble through a narrow, winding path full of ramps and obstacles. The intuitive, motion-based interface will be familiar to fans of similar games, as you tilt your iPhone or iPod Touch forward or back to accelerate or brake, and then left and right to steer (which also shifts your camera angle correspondingly). You can pause games in progress and recalibrate the accelerometer settings, and beating the "par" time on a level … Read more

Game interview: Patrick Riley, producer on MadWorld

Senior Localization Producer Patrick Riley called into The 404 this week to talk with us about MadWorld, the new M-rated Wii game from Sega that has raised the eyebrows of media watchdog agencies such as the NIMF. Together we discuss the responsibilities that parents must endure when it comes to M-rated gaming, and how education about the ESRB's rating system needs to have a more public presence.

Download the interview

MadWorld, developed by Platinum Games, is a surreal, ultra-violent, over-the-top beat-'em-up game that borrows its art style from that of a graphic novel. Black, white, and red are … Read more