FV:Review

That’s time of the year has come – a new Assassins Creed is on the horizon and an intriguing reveal snippet is doing the rounds.

  Now in my opinion AC:Unity went back to basics with control scheme all the way to level design and a majority of players rejoiced. Co-op is still plagued by “i cannot attack” glitches which are incredibly frustrating but when it works it works well.

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Been on hiatus for 2 weeks but to bring us back in to the swing of things we have the black ops 3 teaser/reveal. Before I throw my 2 pence into the mix check out the trailers below!

‘Ember’ Teaser

Full Reveal Trailer 4 Player Co-op has been thrown into this iteration of the worlds most popular video game franchise (by sales figures) meaning that Treyarch have had to steer away from their linear…

First thing I’m presented with is a 4 hour journey upon a bus which as we all know deep vein thrombosis is a serial killer so remember your exercises. Small jaunt on the Birmingham Airport sky bus (mono rail to normal folk) and what seemed like the longest collection of skywalks known to man inside the mini city that is the NEC.

Travelling aside the venue is great and like I said it’s a city in itself With plenty of restaurants, bars and shops to accommodate tens of thousands of people you never far away from every commodity you’ll need.

Gadget Show Live is a fantastic spectacle to behold for fans of the long running tv show with a live episode of the Gadget Show acted out in their super theatre for the public to enjoy. The Trade & Press day is very different this is an opportunity for new start ups and industry veterans to peddle their wares to each other and numerous online and retail outlets. Everything is at it’s “best price” and people approach you much like the markets in Turkey and Egypt, once they notice your press they tend to switch their ‘sales guy’ for the token ‘PR guy’ who then reels of facts and figures about the item in hand. The problem with this facts and figure approach is they need to realise I might never need, want or use this item in the way they think. Sticking the blinkers on and running at me with information I don’t need if you will.

The perfect example is HP (Hewlett-packard) on show was their new HP Sprout.

As you can see its a very alluring device, basically a desktop computer but with a DLP projector / downward facing 3D/2D camera and 20 point touch mat all for the reasonable price of £1899. Now the lady I spoke to originally came at me with these are the specs it will do this allow me to put the world in your hands etc as soon as I asked “What’s the sensitivity of the pen and will this entire workstation work with Creative Cloud?” another gentleman was called over. I asked again would this workstation allow an artist used to using a standard pen tablet the creative freedom to draw directly to the pad and thus offer an almost affordable graphic artist tablet….

His answer was…”maybe”

This made no sense as they had told me of the greatness of this product and how amazing it is….at doing what THEY want to do with it but it’s not them that are buying it. The HP Sprout could have done wonders but including a touch sensitive mat means you cannot rest your hand on it to draw anything as that is considered an input. Maybe allow for the mat to be interchangeable with a true drawing tablet? A pow wow ensued and I was assured they’d look into it (steal the idea).

What’s the sensitivity of the pen and will this entire workstation work with Creative Cloud?

Don’t let that example put you off the Gadget Show Live that’s merely me ranting at ridiculous companies that are drafted in to represent these people at great cost, when all they need are the people that designed and built their product to be there field the questions.

Main Exhibition Hall

One word – Impressive. The main hall had everything from cooking to drones (cooking drones….maybe next year) you can walk around this place for hours and not truly see every little thing that is on show. First stop was the toy section as something had caught my eye and I’m huge fan of scaletrix but this was different.

Real FX

Real FX is the next generation of racing for the home where not one screen is in sight. The track is made of a reflective material that allows the infra red sensors of the cars to detect and stay on track. The real beauty of this racing game is the fact there isn’t a set of grooves that your stuck to. You have the freedom to overtake and smash your opponents out of the way all while trying to get that illustrious fast lap.

In championship mode you even have pit stops to virtually change tires as the cars will become sluggish and difficult to steer after x amount of laps. My favourite feature is if a player is out lapping you consistently you have the option of using a weapon of sorts (think Mario kart) you can simulate a tyre blowout / engine trouble that will send them spinning off the track allowing you to gain valuable seconds and making the race even more interesting. Out June/July 2015 and priced around £99.99 this could be a table top racing game changer.

  As you carry on your tour of the giant immense space that the Gadget Show presides over you’ll notice more and more innovative little ideas that you suddenly wish you’d thought of – step in Packed Pixels®

Every true geek has a desktop PC system that has at least 2 monitors (I am in the process of designing mine…) and the creative professionals among us use them everyday. The ability to have reference material placed on a second screen to glance at is ideal and even more so for studio engineers who can run a whole array of effect racks and pre amps on one screen with their timeline on another. The issue is to carry a spare monitor around with you to connect to your laptop…this is where Packed Pixels saw a gap in the market.

Introducing a small add on screen for your laptop that is mobile enough to carry with you where ever you go

The possibilities for this product going forward are huge and with no latency on the extra screens their application is lagless. Different configurations offer the user portrait or landscape and will connect to 11″/13″/15″/17″ laptops. Corporate branding can be added to the rear to offer companies the chance to show they’re branding as they work on the move.

More importantly they are ideal as added gaming monitors!

Price is reasonable and you can check out their online shop @ http://dovetail-technology.myshopify.com

For the hard-core Gadget Show fans there is an exhibition of all the show’s inventions from the Jason Bradbury robot to the motivational drone and of course the super theatre. I’d recommend anyone to get tickets for Gadget Show Live, I just wish they’d done some sort of show @ the super theatre for us press nuts! 

Radial G – EGX Rezzed 2015

Walking through the crowds @ EGX Rezzed you can get lost and miss certain gems hidden in the rough, when you come across a queue you tend to want to know what’s going on. I turned a corner and this phenomenon was staring at me in the face and this time round I could see directly why.

2 Screens – 2 Oculus Rift & a lot of excited players. Radial G was there and making a big splash, now I can’t…

We were lucky enough to be invited to this year’s EGX Rezzed @ the Tobacco Dock, London. For those of you who don’t know EGX Rezzed is a games expo for indie develoers to show off their wares and entice us all into their world. There are minimal offerings from the AAA developers which allows you to get up close and personal with true indie professionals and play some really fantastic games.

The…

Gang Beasts – EGX Rezzed

The first game I got my hands on was Gang Beasts a fantastic little physics based fighting game. Coming to steam early access Gang Beasts allows 2-8 players to ‘do battle’ with silly little block colour characters that are attempting to throw and punch each other out of the arena your in. It makes far more sense when you see what I mean below!

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With headsets arriving quick and fast from many of the major manufacturers I got hands on with the ThrustMaster Y-300p PS3/PS4 headset. Now I thought the Gioteck HC-4 was a big headset – I stand corrected, the Y300-p is HUGE. I mean this thing is gargantuan in comparison to most headsets but it’s also solid offering instant confidence that if this thing drops the floor is likely to be worse off…

The glove’s are off! NHL 15 Review

I sit on the bench after coming off my opening shift on my first away game. ‘Don’t turn the puck over’ the coach’s feedback says. I keep an eye on the puck, only 1.42 minutes into the first period when ‘it’ happens. Their enforcer runs my goalie then throws a punishing hit on my top defenseman. As a power forward/enforcer I can not let this go unanswered. I push circle and over the boards I go…

Apps are released alongside games now as often as the sun rises, some offering a standalone platform to add to the experience with others offering a little something extra working as a PDA as you play. Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 was one of the first games I truly used the app to its full potential and customised my soldier using my smartphone over the in game menus, this was a turning point in my gaming experience as i was now finding myself attaching grips and RDS to MP5’s in my lunch hour while my colleagues looked on bewildered. My smartphone had become an armoury and I was very happy with this fact! The impact this is having on games is increasing with Assassins Creed Unity releasing with its own companion app. Now apps like this need Smart Devices that have a certain kick in the technical specifications and the ‘G Series’ from LG are no slouches in this department.

The 3 devices on test are;

LG G Watch R LG G3 Smartphone LG G Pad 7.0

The games I tested on these devices ranged from heavy graphic usage from the likes of Asphalt 8 to strategy based games like clash of clans. Companion apps are now becoming more prevalent in the games industry and I tested 4 of the main contenders using this hardware; [Battlefield Commander / Assassins Creed Unity / Advanced Warfare / Destiny]

LG G Watch R

This is the top of the range Smart watch offered by LG, designed with a sport watch surround and black leather strap it is quite understated. It’s sport surround will appeal to fitness enthusiasts and sportsmen alike but may not sit quite right on the wrist of an executive as I found when wearing with a suit it did not compliment it at all. Now your probably screaming change the watch face but the issue here is that whatever watch face you place on this Smartwatch the sports like design of the numbers surrounding the bezel take away from the formal design of some of the faces available. I was slightly disappointed with this, if the bezel had been blank it would have appealed to a wider audience and made the watch far more versatile. Connecting this watch to any smartphone other than the LG G3 I found to be a loborius process of resetting the watch and then deleting all bluetooth profiles available on my HTC One Max to even get the 2 to find each other, 4 times before they actually connected.

Once connected though the G Watch R came into it’s own with smooth operation and the ability to see the screen even in direct sunlight was impressive. The slight buzz of a notification on the wrist is enough to notice yet not too much to annoy and the ability to read messages on the display is a time saver. A majority of apps have not yet updated their ability to display on Android Wear and this is a shame [But with the lollipop rollout this will change], when a notification appears and you slide to the left to read it and the only option you have is “open on phone” makes the watch seem pointless but this is not LG’s fault.

The slight buzz of a notification on the wrist is enough to notice yet not too much to annoy

This year we are to see more from Android Wear and as I type this apps are updating to integrate Android Wear to allow these devices to come into their own. Game notifications is where I realised I cannot live without one of these watches on my wrist, receiving e-mail notifications from clan mates, Clash of Clans notifications vibrating through to let me know that upgrades have been completed it increased my gaming productivity 10 fold. The smug ‘James Bond’ feeling of pausing a song on the train while getting your ticket for the ticketmaster as he says “That’s an awesome little gadget”. This is where the line is – currently smart watches are awesome little gadgets for the most but for the Gamers it’s a very interesting time, why not have your in game radar map displayed on your wrist….the possibilities are endless. Android wear and video games don’t really go hand in hand at the moment but we’re hoping this is to change in the near future.

DISPLAY 1.3-inch Full Circle P-OLED

AP Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 400, 1.2GHz

OS Android Wear

NETWORK BT 4.0

MEMORY 4GB eMMC / 512MB RAM

BATTERY 410mAh

SIZE 46.4 x 53.6 x 9.7 mm (Bezel Ring included 11.1mm)

WEIGHT 62g

SENSOR 9-Axis (Gyro, Accelerometer, Compass),

PPG (Hear rate monitor), Barometer

RESISTANCE Dust & Water Resistant (IP67)

BAND TYPE Changeable

CAMERA None

LG G Pad 7.0

I am a huge fan of tablets and a huge fan of huge tablets [HUGE!] so the step down to a 7″ tab was a bit underwhelming but I was wrong. The G pad is a fantastic little piece of kit with a beautiful screen & incredibly easy to use. Using the WiFi Hotspot on the LG G3 I was in my element on the train to work with clash of clans or astro surf happily chugging along, the only issue I found and i don’t do this often is if your running many background applications you’ll notice lag in games such as Ashpalt 8 but only for a split second. That split second generally is enough to place you firmly in a wall but this is why you should always clear the RAM of your device before gaming. Easy on the eye and easy in the hand the LG G Pad is a delight to use and it’s battery life is very impressive with daily use of social apps and internet. When gaming the 215 ppi screen is clear with nice colour saturation but as with all intensive games the tablet gets warm but not uncomfortably. Playing Ashphalt 8 the touch responsiveness is good and sound quality is bareable through the tablet speaker but as always I recommend headphones [especially when on public transport].

I updated every social media outlet daily using the tablet and found it’s functionality great, easy to see in direct sunlight with only a little glare. LG’s keyboard design is well thought out and you don’t get the annoying double letters or hitting the wrong keys and the option for resizing it has carried over from the G3 which is a helpful feature. Allowing the user to side by side apps is another feature that benefits while gaming checking my e-mail while running clash of clans, updating the site while upgrading buildings in SimCity is easy and also surprisingly productive!

Playing Ashphalt 8 the touch responsiveness is good and sound quality is bareable through the tablet speaker

DISPLAY Resolution 1280 x 800 ( 215 ppi ) Touchscreen Multi-Touch Features Corning Gorilla glass

PROCESSOR

Processor Clock Speed 1.2 GHz Number of Cores Quad-Core

MEMORY

Storage 8 GB Supported Flash Memory Cards microSD Max Supported Capacity 32 GB

COMMUNICATIONS

Wireless Connectivity 802.11a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 Security Protocols & Features DLNA

CAMERA

Rear-facing Camera 3 Megapixel Digital Zoom 4 Video Resolutions 1280 x 720 HD Video Recording 720p

Features Burst mode, Cheese Shutter function, Geo-tagging, delay timer Front-facing Camera 1.3 Megapixel

MULTIMEDIA

Graphics Qualcomm ADRENO 305 Supported Digital Video Formats 3GP, AVI, MPEG-4, WMV

Audio Microphone , stereo speakers

SOFTWARE

Preloaded Software Agenda, Alarm Clock, Backup, Clip Tray, Contacts, E-mail, File Manager, Gmail, Google Plus Hangouts, Google Plus Messenger, Guest Mode, Icon customizer, Internet Browser, Knock Code, KnockON, LG Smart World, Multi Window, Multi-User Function, Polaris Office 5, Predictive Dictionary, QPair 2.0, QSlide 2.5, Quick-Memo, QuickRemote 1.0, SMS, Screen zooming, Smart Screen, Update Center, Voice Recognition, Voice Recorder, Weather, instant messaging

EXPANSION AND CONNECTIVITY

Expansion Slots 1 x microSD

Interfaces 1 x headset 1 x Micro-USB

BATTERY

Capacity 4000 mAh Standby Time up to 100 h

MISCELLANEOUS

Color black

Sensors gesture, motion sensor

Features built-in speakerphone, capacitive touch screen, charging via USB

DIMENSIONS & WEIGHT Width – 4.5 in Depth – 0.4 in Height – 7.5 in Weight – 10.3 oz

GENERAL Manufacturer – LG

LG G3 SmartPhone

The G2 ran up and smacked a lot of critics in the face and shouted “I’m here!”. The smartphone wowed all who touched it in 2013 with a slew of features that put it ahead of most of the competition but LG realised they need to improve with new flagships coming from HTC / Samsung / Motorola / Sony. The G3 has improved where the G2 left off with an improved camera, slicker UI and metallic chassis things are on the up and up!

Upon it’s release in 2014 critics were fast to applaud LG and their new flagship as it topped a majority of scales in a lot of reviewers hands and to say we agree would be an understatement. The UI is far more mature and smooth than a lot of  skins like Touchwiz and HTC’s Sense interface. This allows you to setup your phone a lot quicker without a lot of annoying options to turn off. The removable battery allows the power hungry to keep a spare and a microSD slot allows you to carry your entire data farm with you.

Asphalt 8, Clash of Clans and SimCity run effortlessly and it’s not surprising considering whats under the hood of this SmartPhone and the QHD screen is something to behold. Considering the human eye can only really distinguish so much you can see the difference in the QHD compared to older smartphones (i.e my HTC One MAX) it show colour beautifully but if you do tilt the phone images to darken significantly this being down to how many pixels are crammed on the phone! 568ppi that’s a lot and puts it in the top 5 smartphone screens out there. The sound out of this device is fantastic with a 1 Watt speaker offering clear and crisp sound with great volume.

The G3 has improved where the G2 left off with an improved camera, slicker UI and metallic chassis things are on the up and up!

With the ability to increase the storage a fantastic addition for mobile gamers to be able to carry as many apps and games as their card can carry. The laser auto focus allows you quick image capture while on the move and a QHD screen made us all want to go out and purchase one of these for ourselves.

OS:

Android (5.0, 4.4.2)

Dimensions:

5.76 x 2.94 x 0.35 inches (146.3 x 74.6 x 8.9 mm)

Weight:

5.26 oz (149 g) the average is 4.8 oz (138 g)

DISPLAY

Physical size: 5.5 inches

Resolution: 1440 x 2560 pixels

Pixel density: 538 ppi

Technology: IPS LCD

Screen-to-body ratio: 75.22 %

Touchscreen: Multi-touch

Features: Light sensor, Proximity sensor, Oleophobic coating

CAMERA

Camera: 13 megapixels

Flash: Dual LED

Aperture size: F2.4

Camera sensor size: 1/3.06″

Features: Back-illuminated sensor (BSI), Autofocus, Touch to focus, Optical image stabilization, Face detection, Smile detection, ISO control, Burst mode, Geo tagging, High Dynamic Range mode (HDR), Panorama, Voice activation

Camcorder: 3840×2160 (4K) (30 fps), 1920×1080 (1080p HD) (30 fps)

Features: Optical image stabilization

Front-facing camera: 2.1 megapixels

HARDWARE System chip: Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 8974-AC

Processor: Quad core, 2500 MHz, Krait 400

Graphics processor: Adreno 330

System memory: 3072 MB RAM

Built-in storage: 32 GB

Storage expansion: microSD, microSDHC, microSDXC up to 128 GB

BATTERY

Talk time: 19.00 hours the average is 12 h (700 min)

Stand-by time: 22.8 days (548 hours) the average is 20 days (485 h)

Talk time (3G): 21.00 hours the average is 16 h (936 min)

Stand-by time (3G): 23.0 days (553 hours) the average is 23 days (554 h)

Stand-by time (4G): 25.0 days (600 hours) the average is 85 days (2031 h)

Capacity: 3000 mAh

Wireless charging: Built-in

MULTIMEDIA Music player: Filter by: Album, Artist, Playlists

Features: Album art cover, Background playback

Radio: FM

Speakers: Earpiece, Loudspeaker

YouTube player: Yes

INTERNET BROWSING

Built-in online services support: YouTube (upload), Picasa/Google+

TECHNOLOGY

GSM: 850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz

UMTS: 850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz

FDD LTE: 800 (band 20), 1800 (band 3), 2600 (band 7) MHz

Data: LTE, HSDPA+ (4G) 42.2 Mbit/s, HSUPA 5.76 Mbit/s, UMTS, EDGE, GPRS

Micro SIM: Yes

Positioning: GPS, A-GPS, Glonass

Navigation: Yes

Step into the Shadow

  I died a lot and i mean a lot in the first couple of hours on Middle Earth, Shadow of Mordor.

At the start it feels very overwhelming just you against an army of orcs. You control Talion a ranger who is based on the black gate until his family is murdered by Saurons elite captains. You end up half dead, and half wraith.

The first half of the game is based around the gate killing nameless orcs…

PS Plus March 2015

Starting things off on PS4 is Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee — New ‘n’ Tasty! This side-scrolling adventure reboots the PlayStation classic with new visuals, new sound, enhanced controls, and even more dark humor than before. Also coming to the PS4 lineup is Valiant Hearts: The Great War. This colorful puzzle game carries with it a heavy subject matter, as it follows four intersecting lives (and a loyal…

Ps Plus February 2015

Transistor (PS4)

Free for PS Plus members From the creators of Bastion, Transistor is a sci-fi themed action RPG that invites you to wield an extraordinary weapon of unknown origin as you fight through a stunning futuristic city.

Apotheon (PS4)

Free for PS Plus members The Gods of Olympus have abandoned humanity, leaving you…

Little Big Planet 3

Media Molecule were the fathers of Little Big Planet and now the reins have been handed to Sumo Digital. I was somewhat apprehensive to pick up Little Big Planet 3 (LBP 3) as a few of my trusted friends and fellow gamers had warned me that I would be disappointed but ever the free thinker I needed to see what all the animosity was about. Now to be completely clear Media Molecule couldn’t…

Call Of Duty: AW Havoc DLC

Here comes the DLC train with COD:AW’s first offering Havoc. Offering 4 New maps, New weapon and new variant as well as what a lot of gamers have been waiting for….EXO Zombies! Watch the teaser below;

“We’re looking forward to playing the new DLC content with fans. The response to Advanced Warfare has been amazing and the creativity…