Two months ago I pre-ordered Gears of War 2 from Play.com knowing full well that I wanted that game on release day and knew how many other people would too. The pre-order came a day late so there was really very little point because I could have just gone down to the shops and picked one up for the same price and had it on release day. So I am very unhappy with Play.com
Firstly I bought the limited edition because it gives you some extras not included in the standard game pack such as a code for a golden lancer (the standard machine gun) and the ‘flashback map pack’ which is 6 multiplayer maps from the original Gears of War.
Enough ranting, lets talk Locust killing!
Single player campaign is great and still has the ability to completed co-operatively. Graphics are improved as you would expect and the game plays very much the same as the original with much more visceral scenery and enemies. The battle sequences are larger by several orders of magnitude and the frame-rate is unaffected. I have yet to encounter an element of the game that the console struggles to handle.
Unfortunately the multiplayer aspect that made Gears one so entertaining has been ‘improved’ and while some of the features seem like a good idea on paper, in reality they are horrible. The most annoying of all is the TrueSkill matchmaking which analyses your skills based on certain criteria such as XP points, games played, achievements obtained etc. etc. but it takes such a long time to find anyone that starting a game is no longer a quick and easy affair.
To put this into perspective, while waiting for it to find players (just to be in my own team I might add) I had time to search the internet to try and find out why it was taking so long, join a forum, write a post, comment on another post, take pictures of the screen for this blog entry, write the magority of this blog entry and cook my self two bacon sandwiches for lunch. I think that takes too long. Even now I am waiting to join another game and using the time to write the rest of this post. I imagine there will be more than a few people who agree. It is very much like waiting for a game in Halo 3’s mutiplayer only worse.
The game is good. It is a fine successor to the original but I can’t help feeling “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” with regard to the multiplayer.
If you would like to play me my gamertag is ‘Dark Individual’.
esterday I received my new phone – the Sony Ericsson C905 Cybershot. Here are my thoughts after a day of use.
I love it. I really do. People were saying that the phone would be ungainly because it has an 8.1 megapixel camera on board but in fact it is only a few millimeters thicker than the phone I was upgrading from – the Sony Ericsson K810i.
It’s my first slider phone so I have no experience with consistent slider usage but the motion seems solid. The only problem with the slider is that is doesn’t slide the keypad out far enough so there is very little space between the main phone and the first row of keys leading to pressing the ‘1′ and ‘4′ keys at the same time but I have no doubt I will get use to it.
The features list is quite extensive even though it isn’t a smartphone.
- 8.1 MP Camera
- Xenon Flash
- AF Assist Light (Which doubles as a torch when recording video in low light)
- Face Detection
- WI-FI
- GPS (Real not pseudo)
- HSDPA
- 3G
- GPRS
- WAP
- Accellerometer
- M2 Memory Card Slot (2GB Supplied)
The most important change in this phone for me is the inclusion of a ‘D-pad’ instead of the dreaded joystick that Sony Ericsson seem so fond of. They seem to randomly include either so I am glad this phone has been chosen for the ‘D-pad’.
All in all I am very impressed with the amount of technology that has been packed into this phone considering that 18 months ago my previous phone was the pinnacle of mobile camera technology. Imagine what will be available in another 18 months. Samsung have already hinted at a 12MP camera phone in 2009 that occupies less space than their existing 8MP sensor.
Here are some pictures taken from my window. The first with my old Sony Ericsson K810i and the second with my new Sony Ericsson C905. Click to see the full size images.
Simply put, it is the best animated film I have seen in a long time.
To say this film was a long time coming is an understatement. I was dubious about the storyline when I first saw the trailer over a year ago but as usual I was side-tracked by the beautiful animation and comedy that Pixar put into their films.
Last night I watched Wall-E and was amazed that a film lasting 90 mins could have held my attention with virtually no speech throughout. All the emotion that you feel when watching the film is a result of gesures and ‘facial’ expressions. With The story being about robots it was astounding how Pixar managed to translate human expressions, inflections and movements onto various robot counterparts.
An overview of the story (without spoiling it) is that humanity left earth as it was too contaminated by waste and while they are gone they leave Wall-E robots to clear up the mess. The story picks up 700 years on and follows the only functioning Wall-E’s journey. Being left alone for so long he has developed a personality and curiosity which often gets him in trouble.
I was surprised at how serious the themes were in the film, tackling such issues as climate change, recycling, social boundaries, technological complacency and corporate monopolies as well as friendship, love and self-discovery.
There are many funny moments in the film and the storyline is entertaining. The best part about the film for me was the myriad of different robots and how they all seem to have their own personalities and character traits, good and bad, and how they react to Wall-E.
I will be buying this when it comes out. Well done Pixar, you’ve done it again.
5/5
