Daily Archives: June 4, 2010

Thought for the day

Big, glowing target or destination indicators floating around the screen in games have often been immersion-breaking necessities, but low on health in Grand Theft Auto IV I was searching the streets for a food vendor the old fashioned way by driving around and keeping my eyes peeled, as they don’t show up on the map to allow you to set an easy waypoint. With location-aware “augmented reality” iPhone and Android applications like Layar that use the GPS and camera to overlay a mini-map and points of interest where you’re looking, you could probably pull up the location of the nearest hot dog stand in New York, and get user reviews of it; maybe it’s real life that’s getting a bit unrealistic now. Until a bag of peanuts can cure gunshot wounds, though, GTAIV probably still has the edge.