Category: Reviews

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Reviews Video Games

Batman in the (nut)house

Given all the hoohaa going round the Internet at the moment over Batman: Arkham Asylum, I figured I should at least try the demo.

Was I blown away. First of all, Rocksteady’s approach to making a demo really hit the nail on the head. Whereas The Force Unleashed‘s demo made the game out to be too fiddly to bother with, and Resident Evil 5‘s demo dropped me in the middle of a firefight with no explanation of the controls, Arkham Asylum starts at the beginning of the game with a light tutorial that teaches you the basics of combat, stealth, and the totally awesome “Detective Mode”.

I’m not a huge comic reader, but the game really captures the “Dark Knight” mode of Batman that I like. It’s about being a high-tech, enigmatic, tenebrous badass. He’s Sam Fisher without the handholding of the US government.

The combat is fluid and dynamic, the “Detective mode” adds an interesting dimension to the game, and the stealth system beats the pants off anything I’ve played before. This is definitely high on my must-play list.

Categories
Reviews Video Games

The Force Subdued

I finally got round to picking up Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. When I originally played the demo, I didn’t engage with it. The Force powers available were very fiddly to use, and it didn’t really showcase what was possible given the physics engine and artificial intelligence that had been touted during the leadup to the game’s launch.

Since the game is now in bargain bins everywhere, I figured I should pick it up and give the game another chance (and catch up on Expanded Universe canon).

Read on, but beware of spoilers…

Continue reading “The Force Subdued”
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Books Reviews

Review: Ender’s Shadow

Few things in literature are as ambitious as recounting the same events told in a previous book from the point of view of another character. The narratorial and character voices can easily slip into the ones used in the preceding work, the author may find he does not actually have that much more to say on the same subject, or the new book could simply read like a money grab.

I have to admit that I was skeptical about Ender’s Shadow. I have a lot of time for Orson Scott Card, and the original, Ender’s Game, was a fantastic piece of work; and yet to retell the same story from the point of view of one of Ender’s lieutenants sounded like a recipe for disaster, especially since I had already read the “sequels” regarding Ender’s travels.

I was more than pleasantly surprised to find that Bean is a completely separate and engaging character in his own right. Far more than a simply sullen boy with “short man” syndrome, he is Ender’s intellectual superior, but lacks Ender’s empathy and charisma. Hyper-observant and capable (the reasons for which are uncovered in the book), he comes to the attention of the recruiters for Battle School by manipulating the street gangs of Rotterdam. He doesn’t rise through the ranks simply because he recognises the manipulations of the teachers at Battle School for what they are: just a game, and is given alternate privileges as a result.

Most of the time, his story does not directly intersect with Enders. Indeed, Card goes out of his way to ensure that the two do not meet or interact unless it’s absolutely necessary. This helps to enforce the importance of Bean’s interactions with Ender. It was genuinely fascinating to see the same words uttered, but to see them interpreted differently.

If you haven’t read Ender’s Game yet, start there: it’s the better book, being shorter and containing more punch. Ender’s Shadow is great, but I feel that it spends more time filling in details left out in the author’s first treatment of the story.

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Reviews Tech

iPhone 3GS

Last week, I finally joined the 21st century and got an iPhone. My mobile contract was up, and it seemed like a natural progression from the iPod Touch. I’d already considered some alternative smartphones like the XXX and the YYY, but niggling concerns about Mac compatibility and screen resolution singled out the one choice I could make.

Phone

I don’t actually talk on the phone much. It’s just a function of the way I operate socially that I’m a minimum-spend telephony user. As such, I haven’t really noticed anything outstanding about this function of the device. That being said, I do like the “conversation” view of text messages, and the easy integration of the Address Book.

Internet

I’ve read a number of complaints about connectivity and the iPhone. Overall, I can’t say I’ve run into them. Occasionally I’m forced to reboot the thing when it can’t get on to the net via 3G, but I’ve found that’s mostly a problem with the “dialling” in, and that giving it a moment can clear it up. I suspect it’s more a function of my carrier than the iPhone.

Mobile Safari makes web browsing almost as good as a real PC. It renders things well, and is pretty speedy.

Apps

I’ll go into what apps I’m using in a later post, but for now I want to mention an interesting phenomenon: my Twitter use has increased due to actually having a good interface while on the move. My venerable Nokia 6110 just couldn’t make Twitter a good experience, but the large screen and easy keyboard make Twitter much more accessible. Likewise for Facebook.

Finding an app in the App store, however, is a royal pain in the butt. It might be cheap, and it might be useful, but if I can’t find it, there’s no point. Apple really needs to address that.

Earphones

When I got my first iPod (a venerable 1st-gen Shuffle), I swore by the earphones. They didn’t distort, they produced a decent quality sound. Naturally, they eventually broke down, but by then I was using my Nano, and quietly moved on to in-ear buds. I hadn’t realised until trying the earphones that came with the iPhone how much a difference in-ear makes to sound quality. I find that with the classic whites, I am constantly pushing them further into my ear to capture more bass.

It’s a shame, because I want access to the remote control and microphone on the iPhone buds. Instead, I’m going back to my in-ears.

Camera

The built in camera is pretty good. The touch-to-meter function is a godsend in variably lit conditions, and helps deliver relatively clear photos. The only drawback is the lack of flash. Of course, one photo with a flash would probably deplete the battery, so I guess we can’t have everything.

Battery

This is probably the iPhone’s weakest suit. I seem to be unusual amongst mobile phone users in that charging my phone is a habit. I just plug in when I go to bed and don’t have to think about it. Nevertheless, all previous phones that I have owned have not actually needed that discipline. The iPhone on the other hand is at least 50% down at the end of every day. I don’t even consider myself a heavy user, given that I have internet access at work (and am actually working most of the time), so I can see this being a major problem for most people out there.

Conclusion

Overall, the iPhone is a solid consumer-grade smartphone. It integrates well with the Mac’s iCal and Address Book applications, though the lack of task management feature does get on my nerves. Nonetheless, most of my experience with the iPhone has been great. The only real downfall is the lacklustre battery life. I now carry a charge cable with me wherever I go.

Categories
Reviews Video Games

Minor videogame update

I’ve been a bit slack in the video game department lately. Well, slack may not be the right word, but I certainly haven’t stopped playing.

I’ve played a lot of Rock Band 2 since my return from Phenomenon. I’m very happy with the gameplay changes – playing solo in “Tour” mode, challenges and so forth make for a much richer experience. I’ve also dumped a ton of cash on DLC for the game, so I’m not anywhere near to being bored with it.

I also like the extended experience you get by linking to rockband.com. I think it’s very clever marketing, and am seriously considering getting miniatures made of my band members when I’m happy with the way I’ve styled the models. Stroke my vanity visit my profile, and feel free to link me if you have an RB account.

In other news, I downloaded a couple of demos recently (thanks to the purchase of a 120GB hard drive).

Resident Evil 5 is a really poor demo. You’re dropped in the middle of a firefight with zero instruction and expected to survive. I’m assured that the gameplay is not as impenetrable as the demo shows, so I’m willing to give it a second chance.

Red Faction sounds really good in review, but neither of my regular approaches to FPS (super stealth, or gung ho) seemed to work. Again, not sure if I’ll bother with the game.

Crackdown, on the other hand doesn’t seem quite so bad. I know the game’s pretty much been and gone, but I can’t afford to ride the wave the whole time. While I’m not generally a fan of sandbox games, this one seems to encourage my “can’t be fucked” approach to things. It worked in Fallout 3, and I think it may work enough to justify a purchase for Crackdown.

Finally, I’m beginning to feel the urge to play Jade Empire again. Well, since I already own it, I won’t have to spend any money…

What are you guys into these days?