jamie oliver
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Another iPhone ad debuts, "Family Man"
Following on the heels of the "Backpackers" and "Dog Lovers" ads earlier this week, Apple has released another iPhone ad titled "Family Man." The ad details how a man has, apparently, lost control of his iPhone to his family. As usual, the ad features three third-party apps. The wife uses the man's iPhone for Jamie Oliver's 20 Minute Meals ($7.99), his son uses it for Elmo's Monster Maker ($3.99), and when he actually get his own phone back he uses it for ... opening his car trunk with Viper SmartStart (free). The ad ends with the family man saying, "Yep, I think we'd all be lost without my iPhone."
DS Fanboy Review: What's Cooking? with Jamie Oliver
For Atari's slightly weird cooking trainer/cookbook What's Cooking? With Jamie Oliver (technically the box says What's Cooking? Jamie Oliver, but I don't think I want to call it that), I decided a traditional review probably wasn't the best idea. So I decided to take cues from my colleagues, the Cooking Guide experts, and make a gallery of my experience cooking a recipe from the game -- in this case blueberry, banana, and mascarpone pancakes. As the perfect garnish for this food metaphor, a somewhat abbreviated review appears below, followed by a link into my pancakes gallery!%Gallery-27845%
DS releases for the week of October 20th
There are a lot of games out this week. In fact, it makes other heavy weeks look absolutely empty, and yet, this blogger only has eyes for one game. In the shadow of Castlevania, there is so little room for anything else. Luckily, even with such a big list, there aren't a lot of contenders even trying for the spotlight. Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?: Make the Grade Back at the Barnyard: Slop Bucket Games Backyard Football 2009 Barbie Horse Adventures: Riding Camp Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia Dancing With the Stars: We Dance! Disney Fairies: Tinker Bell Ener-G: Dance Squad Ener-G: Gym Rockets Ener-G: Horse Rider High School Musical 3: Senior Year The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon Lovely Lisa Master of the Monster Lair Mechanic Master My Baby Girl The Naked Brothers Band: The Video Game Pass the Pigs Smart Girls: Party Game Spider-Man: Web of Shadows SpongeBob Squarepants: Nicktoons Globs of Doom Tornado TouchMaster 2 Transformers: Animated What's Cooking with Jamie Oliver
What's Cooking with Jamie Oliver's Trailer
One of the biggest -- and weirdest -- surprises of E3 was What's Cooking? With Jamie Oliver. Far from a Cooking Guide ripoff, What's Cooking is some kind of hands-on cooking trainer combined with an interactive recipe book. It seems like, even if people don't want it or don't like it (or it turns out not to be good), significant enough thought (and budget) has gone into this game to prevent its classification as shovelware.This NSFG (Not Safe for Greenhough) trailer doesn't feature any of the 3D kitchen stuff or the simulated cooking, focusing instead on the actual recipes. But man, that sweet potato soup sounds good.%Gallery-27845%
Atari's CEO wants you to know how it will stay back in black
We've already witnessed the news that made us go, "Wha?" -- Atari actually turned a profit this past financial quarter, even though it was just a measly $3.5 million smackers. GameDaily went a little more in-depth in their interview with brand-spanking new Atari CEO Jim Wilson to find out what the company's plan is for staying profitable and earning bigger margins, and we'll sum it up for you here: "We really, really, really hope Alone In The Dark continues to do well," and "Location, location, location!" Yup, it's trying like mad to establish a strong footing in the North American market.The trouble with that scenario is that the most exciting Atari title we were shown at E3 was What's Cooking? With Jamie Oliver for the DS. Atari is relying heavily on N+ and Backyard Sports to make a splash... but will it be enough to keep its head out of the water? The publisher needs a huge smash that can potentially turn into a franchise to keep things rolling, or else release dozens of marginally successful titles for the DS and the Wii to make things stick. Either way, the interview is an interesting read. While we don't want to see Atari fade into obscurity and bankruptcy again, the company has a hard row to hoe. Photo credit: Evil Angela's Flickr feed
Joystiq E3 hands-on: What's Cooking? With Jamie Oliver
We aren't ashamed to say that one of the only things that even remotely caught our eye in Atari's booth was What's Cooking? With Jamie Oliver for the DS. The gameplay takes The Naked Chef's recipes and places the player in a more realistic Cooking Mama simulation. Actually, it's everything we ever wanted from Cooking Mama: Going through the process of making recipes on the DS and then actually making the same items in real life. Yes, the recipes in the game translate to the real world.Atari was completely unprepared for our interest in the game, as we couldn't get specific details on how many recipes are in the title, but we were told that there were over 100. Furthermore, the way Atari presented the game was as if someone had never played Cooking Mama before, which was obviously the case with some worthless Nintendo of Europe execs we scared off, who were too busy appearing posh and asking inane questions. Once they were gone, we got some time to actually test out the game and some of its features.%Gallery-28217%
E308: The Jamie Oliver game is ... really cool?
Yeah, I'm kind of surprised. I passed by a demo of What's Cooking? Jamie Oliver at Atari's booth and I was overcome by curiosity. How abhorrent would a licensed celebrity-chef training game be? The answer, it would seem, is "not very abhorrent." I couldn't really figure out what to do that well, but not because the interface was bad -- What's Cooking is a hardcore cooking training game. Also pictures of Jamie Oliver show up from time to time, just to remind you that it's his game. Imagine (in a non-dirty way) if Cooking Mama and Cooking Guide had a baby. What's Cooking teaches real-life recipes, and then has players simulate their preparation with touch-controlled actions. Without holding your hand, at all. I actually couldn't get past the initial steps of my first recipe, because the thing is so deep. To make a sugar paste (the first step), you have to first get a bowl out of your inventory of kitchen implements, then pour some sugar into the bowl, then mix it with a wooden spoon. To heat something up, you have to move it (via a 'stove' icon) to the stove area of the kitchen, then turn on the heat, and stir it around. The game doesn't really tell you when you're done, or even when you've failed. You just cook, like in real life. You could really learn how to cook by playing this. %Gallery-27845%
E308: Atari and irritating celebrity chef combine for cooking game
It was, we suppose, inevitable. Nintendo's Cooking Guide released in Japan two years ago (as Cooking Navi), where it shifted a decent number of units. It recently emerged in Europe, and did pretty well there, too (it'll be coming to the U.S. this November). And what happens each time Nintendo releases a successful non-game? Answer: as sure as night follows day, (usually inferior) third-party alternatives appear.That's what has happened here, with Atari following Nintendo into the cooking-with-your-DS arena. What's Cooking? with Jamie Oliver will feature 100 recipes (Cooking Guide has 245), space for 100 of your own, a shopping list mode, and competitive cooking games. It's very similar to Nintendo's game then (though apparently you can share recipes via WiFi), except you get to look at Jamie Oliver and his smug, squishy, Mockney face a whole lot more.If, like this blogger, you regard Oliver as an affront to all that is decent about humankind, it might not be your thing. But it might be okay as a game.%Gallery-27845%[Via press release]
