the mobile phone and gaming magazine
Issue 2
OUR VIEWS: SAMSUNG JET HTC HERO HALO 3: ODST BATMAN: ARKHAM ASYLUM FORGOTTEN GEMS: BLADE RUNNER
BECOME THE ULTIMATE DJ SCRATCH: THE ULTIMATE DJ
WHAT’S INSIDE VOLUME 1 ISSUE 2 2009
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NEWS Orange to sell iPhone in the UK Nokia’s Booklet 3G HTC Ta oo China Town for iPhone Streamlined and re-sprayed consoles from Sony and Nintendo MMO Round up Tokyo Game Show 2009
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FEATURES Samsung Jet Who needs a phone when you can have a Jet? Find out…..
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Phone Smarts: Blackberry 8520 Is Blackberry’s latest addi on a bargain buy?
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The Phone Box: Exploring Game on Mobile Phone; Chronicles of Ino a: Legend of Feanor In this feature we explore a new pas me alterna ve when stuck for hours on the central line.
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Bats.... they’re great survivors The winged crusaders of the night always seem to be a marvel…join us as we explore their history over the years.
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Microtransac ons in Gaming Mobile phones aren’t the only ones wising up to untap £ in social networking…let’s see what it’s gonna cost us in the gaming world.
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What is Play? The advancement of gaming technology has given many games the luster they so sadly lacked. But are we losing the essence of what is play?
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Forgo en Gems: Blade Runner A true gem….gone but not forge en
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PREVIEWS 30 32
Boaderlands Scratch: The Ul mate DJ
VIEWS 12 14 16 17 24 42 45 46 48 50 52 54 56 58
HTC Hero Nokia E63 Nokia 6210 Nokia E75 Droplitz Batman: Arkham Asylum Tee Shot Live Halo 3: ODST Beatles Rockband Need for Speed Shi Demon’s Souls Colin McRae: Dirt 2 Guitar Hero 5 Champ Manager 2010
THE GUIDE 60 62
Games: Phonica’s 20 Recommended RPG’s Mobile Phones
COMPETITION 44
Win a copy of Batman: Arkham Asylum
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EDITOR IN CHIEF Kevin Leonce
GAMING EDITOR Sco Tierney
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Peter Gray
CONTRIBUTORS Rob Hobson Ian Duncan Paul Park
CREATIVE SERVICES & DESIGN Sco Tierney www.sco - erney.com
EDITORIAL editorial@phonicamagazine.co.uk
ENQUIRIES info@phonicamagazine.co.uk
ADVERTISING adver sing@phonicamagazine.co.uk
WWW.PHONICAMAGAZINE.CO.UK Become a Fan of Phonica Magazine UK on Facebook & Twi er Phonica Magazine Š All material in this publica on is covered by copyright. All rights reserved. No part of this publica on may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system or transmi ed in any form electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, in whole or part without wri en permission of the publisher or the copyright owner. Please note that whilst every care has been taken to ensure that all the data in this publica on is accurate at the me of going to print, the publisher cannot accept responsibility for any errors or omissions, whether caused by negligence or otherwise, or for any loss, however caused, occasioned to any person by reliance on it; and hereby disclaims any liability for it. Opera ons and some features are network dependent; please refer to your network provider for full details.
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EDITOR’S LETTER THE LEAGUE We’ve had a bustling month for the magazine…ge ng our new team together while bringing you the buzz! I’d like to take this opportunity to thank our readers and introduce the league extrodinaires. Sco Tierney – Gaming Editor When Sco ’s not burning his fingers playing The Beatles Rockband he looks a er the gaming department and the design of the magazine. Thanks to him Phonica is easy on the eye. Peter Gray – Contribu ng Editor Pete’s our all rounder. He’s a hardcore fan of consoles, technology and racing. This is our headhunter, covering interviews, conferences and events. Rob Hobson – Writer Rob covers game reviews ensuring we don’t buy the crappy overhyped game that’s just been released. Oh…you bought it already. Sigh, next me check Rob. Ian Duncan – Writer An experienced journalist who’s a die hard fan of the PC console Ian keeps us well engulfed in his reviews while sourcing breaking news for the magazine. Paul Park – Writer Paul brings his passion for Korean games to Phonica. He spots the trends and lets you know. This of course while reviewing games. This issue, and many more, is brought to you by the League. Do enjoy and spread the news.
Your Editor in Chief Kevin Leonce kevin@phonicamagazine.co.uk
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FEATURE
SAMSUNG JET
THEY SAY IMPATIENCE IS A VIRTUE.... LET’S JET TO FIND OUT.
These days, there’s a fine line between what a mobile phone is, and what is a portable media centre. With the current crop of phones cramming as much extra so ware and features into themselves as possible, one gets the impression that the actual phone is now classed as an op onal extra. So, what is the new Samsung Jet? Is it a phone, or a portable media centre that can also be used as a phone?
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As a piece of technological design, the Samsung Jet is top class. The design of the phone itself is clean and classy, and the strange glowing back of the Jet is fantas c. I also like the li le cube on the front that is used to navigate around the Samsung Jet’s interface. Seeing this is a Samsung product, the screen is about the best currently available. The 3.1inch display is pris nely sharp, and you’ll be hard pushed to find a brighter screen on today’s market.
FEATURE
“TO SOME DEGREE, THE NEW SAMSUNG JET ISN’T REALLY A PHONE.” Features wise, the Samsung Jet is packed to the seams with goodies. Most of the features are aimed directly at people who like to take photos or video, edit them, and then upload them to the web. The 5MP camera is one of Samsung’s best, as it combines brilliant sharpness with well balanced colours management. The video is also supremely smooth, and the edi ng and uploading so ware is very easy to use. Also worthy of a men on is the interface, that although maybe isn’t on the same level as some other phones, is very good for a Samsung product. Everything is easy to use; the touch screen suitably is responsive (although maybe a li le numb) and the menus are easily accessible.
Samsung have made a lot or noise regarding the Samsung Jet being ‘the smartest smart phone’. To be honest, although the Samsung Jet (at 800 MHz) has 200 more MHz than its rivals, you’d be hard pressed to spot the extra processing power. But at the end of the day, you’ll be thankful it’s there. To some degree, the new Samsung Jet isn’t really a phone. With all the music and video features, web browsing and novelty games, Samsung could quite easily remove the mobile phone aspect from the Samsung Jet, and no one would even no ce. There are so many funky li le features on the Samsung Jet that the fact it’s a phone is, to some degree, irrelevant. Samsung should have marketed it as ‘The first Media Player to feature Mobile Phone Technology’; then it would have sold by the truck load. The Samsung Jet is a great piece of kit, and a huge amount of fun if it’s the type of phone you are looking for. If you can call it a phone…….. Sco Tierney
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NEWS
ORANGE TO SELL iPHONE IN UK Orange UK and Apple have reached an agreement to bring iPhone 3G and 3GS to Orange UK customers later this year. Orange globally now offers iPhone in 28 countries and territories.
NOKIA BOOKLET MOBILITY TO THE Nokia has made its move in the net book arena with the release of the Booklet 3G. The company is playing on their reputa on as a handset maker by branding this system as some kind of mobile produc vity pla orm. Perhaps most en cing is the built in 3G connec on. Powered by the efficient Intel Atom processor, Nokia claim the Booklet 3G delivers up to 12 hours of ba ery life, in theory enough to work for a day without the charger. If it can live up to the claim it could be an interes ng selling point but it won’t be so useful if you’re away from the office for a few days. At least the new mini-laptop weighs only 1.25 kilograms, measures slightly more than two cen meters thin, meaning it won’t be a weight on the shoulders. In addi on to 3G, Wi-Fi will give users high speed access to the Internet, including Nokia’s broad suite of Ovi services, and allows them to make the most of every moment and every opportunity.
Orange, which has the largest 3G network covering more people in the UK than any other operator, will sell iPhone in all Orange direct channels including Orange shops, the Orange webshop and Orange telesales channels, as well as selected high street partners. Customers wan ng to pre-register their interest can do so at: h p://www.orange.co.uk/iphone. More informa on on pricing, tariffs and availability dates will be released in due course.
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“A growing number of people want the compu ng power of a PC with the full benefits of mobility,” said Kai Oistamo, Nokia’s Execu ve Vice President for Devices. “We are in the business of connec ng people and the Nokia Booklet 3G is a natural evolu on for us. Nokia has a long and rich heritage in mobility and with the outstanding ba ery life, premium design and all day, always on connec vity, we will create something quite compelling. In doing so we will make the personal computer more social, more helpful and more personal.” The mini-laptop also comes with an HDMI port for HD video out, a front facing camera for video calling, integrated Bluetooth and an easily accessible SD card reader. Other premium features include the 10-inch glass HD ready display and integrated A-GPS which, working with the Ovi Maps gadget, can pinpoint your posi on in seconds and open up access for a truly personal maps experience. The Nokia Booklet 3G also brings a number of other rich Ovi experiences to life, whether its access and playback of millions of tracks through the Nokia Music Store, or using Ovi Suite to sync seamlessly from your Nokia smartphone, to your mini-laptop, to the cloud.
NEWS
3G BRINGS ALL DAY PC WORLD
“THE NEW MINI-LAPTOP WEIGHS ONLY 1.25 KILOGRAMS, MEASURES SLIGHTLY MORE THAN TWO CENTIMETERS THIN, MEANING IT WON’T BE A WEIGHT ON THE SHOULDERS.”
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NEWS
HTC TATTOO
BRINGS ANDROID TO ALL HTC Corpora on recently introduced the HTC Ta oo, an Android-based phone that brings broad personaliza on to the masses. With its dis nct design and ability to personalize all aspects of the phone, from its hardware to its applica ons and content, people are able to express themselves and create their own individual mobile experience.
With HTC Ta oo, you stay close to the important people in your life by integra ng your communica ons and applica ons including voice calls, emails, texts, photos and status updates into one consolidated view, providing innova ve and fun phone experiences. The stylish HTC Ta oo is small and compact, fi ng snugly into your hand or pocket. People are able to design and purchase their own unique covers or search and select from popular cover designs, altering the look of the phone to reflect their mood or individual tastes.
“Everyone wants their own phone to feel like it was specifically made for them. The Ta oo, with HTC Sense represents an easy way to shape your own dis nct mobile experience and really make it your own,” said Peter Chou, Chief Execu ve Officer, HTC Corpora on. “The HTC Ta oo ensures that you can create the most engaging and appropriate mobile experience through simple yet powerful personaliza on.”
HTC Ta oo integrates Google’s innova ve mobile services including: Google Maps, Google Search, Google Mail, and Android Market where users can download thousands of popular applica ons and games. It also comes complete with a broad variety of hardware features including a 3.2 megapixel camera, 3.5mm stereo headset jack and expandable microSD memory.
“THE TATTOO, WITH HTC SENSE REPRESENTS AN EASY WAY TO SHAPE YOUR OWN DISTINCT MOBILE EXPERIENCE.” HTC Ta oo is the second phone to embody HTC Sense, a mobile experience focused on pu ng people at the centre by making your phone work in a more simple and natural way. Designed by listening and observing how people live and communicate, HTC Sense revolves around three fundamental principles Make it Mine, Stay Close and Discover the Unexpected.
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This latest Android powered handset will be available in Europe first in October, and will roll out in markets around the world in the following months.
www.htc.com
NEWS
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REVIEWS
HTC HERO As Bonnie Tyler once screeched “I need a hero, I’m holding out for a hero ‘ ll the end of the night. He’s go a be strong, and he’s go a be fast, and he’s go a be fresh from the fight.” Well, it looks like the new HTC Hero could be the phone - not only to sa sfy the shrieking Welsh diva, but also the phone most likely to compete on the same level as the iPhone. Let’s have a look, and see what the HTC Hero can do, dooo DOOOOO! The first thing that strikes you about the HTC Hero is the design. With a sleek and smooth body that looks a bit like a tricorder from Star Trek, it looks very cool; and the li le lip at the bo om is not only funky, it’s also very func onal for handling and during use. The screen is very clear as expected, and thanks to a special film layer, the HTC Hero doesn’t pick up as many smudges as its rivals. All in all, the HTC Hero looks great, and with superb build quality, it feels like a quality product. As Bonnie Tyler said, ‘it’s go a be strong’, and the HTC Hero truly is.
“THE HTC HERO IS PROBABLY A BETTER PHONE THAN THE iPHONE.” Features wise, you’re spoilt for choice. The HTC Hero offers a 5MP camera (with video calling), web browsing, 3G, video and music playback, Bluetooth, and countless other applica ons. When compared to the iPhone’s user interface, the HTC Hero’s is superior, as you can totally customise the control panels to suit your needs. Thanks to this, using the HTC Hero is a painless and smooth process, although at mes the Android pla orm can drag. But thankfully, a Wi-Fi update is to be released shortly, fixing any issues you may have. So it’s fast; that’ll please Bonnie.
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REVIEWS “THE SLEEK AND SMOOTH BODY THAT LOOKS A BIT LIKE A TRICORDER FROM STAR TREK.”
So can the HTC Hero really take the fight to the iPhone, and succeed where Nokia and LG have failed? Well, as has been men oned before, the iPhone will always have that cool vote, and no ma er how hard any other manufacture tries, they’re never going to be able to compete with that. But the HTC Hero might have come as close as any phone is going to get, as it’s sleek yet funky design is a real eye catcher, and it’s interface is superb. Also, the HTC Hero is probably a be er phone than the iPhone...it’s far easier to use, fully customizable, and most importantly, features internet Flash. So, a er a fight with Apple, the HTC Hero is s ll fresh. Another plus for Bonnie.
To merrily sum up; the HTC Hero is a brilliant phone. It’s everything you’d ever want in a phone, it has all the cool features that make mobile phones fun, and it has finally given the iPhone a bit of compe on. Fingers crossed it sells well, as it’s a mobile that deserves every accolade it gets. And if Bonnie Tyler likes it, that’s good enough for me! Dooo DOOOOO! Sco Tierney
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REVIEWS
NOKIA E63 SMARTPHONE NOKIA’S BLACKBERRY BEATER? With the success that BlackBerry has had with its business-orientated smartphones, it’s not surprising that big manufacturers like Nokia have responded with phones like the E63. To many in the industry it’s seen as the company’s first BlackBerry-beater and an indica on that BlackBerry’s niche in the market is ge ng smaller by the day as other manufacturers exploit the poten al of handsets for power and business users. The E63 most importantly supports push email and you can edit a achments on the handset and browse the web on the 2.36-inch QVGA display (boas ng 16 million colours) with rela ve ease. The interface is as fast as any smartphone currently available and the ba ery life impressive. With a talk me of around 4.6 hours over 3G, and 11 hours over 2G, an impressive standby of 430 hours, the E63 is a great all round proposi on if you’re like me you need to stay in touch, while always on the move. So what won’t it do? Well firstly the E63 doesn’t boast GPS, so it’s use as a hand held or in-car naviga on tool isn’t possible without a compa ble GPS receiver. Also omi ed from the spec is High-Speed Down-link Packet Access (HSDPA) or 3G+ as it’s some mes called. HSDPA data is only really required if you ever need to use your phone as a broadband modem. In normal use web browsing quick enough and pages render at an acceptable speed, with only data heavy websites suffering lag. In prac ce it doesn’t really affect the handset’s usability, as push-email and Internet browsing is also available through the network of Wi-Fi hotspots worldwide or your home or office network with the E63’s built in WLAN to supplement the 3G network.
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The E63 runs the Symbian 9.2 smartphone OS and the Series 60 3.1 user interface. This means that there’s a vast array of applica ons available and most importantly, the opera ng system seems to be very stable and bug-free. The built in camera is only 2 megapixels with a fixed focus, its adequate for the job and we must remember the prime func on for this handset is mobile communica ons for business and power leisure users. Another nice feature is VOIP and Skype compa bility allowing free or cheap rate worldwide calls to and from other VOIP users and landlines using Wi-Fi networks or 3G mobile Internet. For all those Facebook fans out there, your Social networking needs are also catered for with the app pre-installed.
“THE E63 MEETS THE NEEDS OF THE BUSINESS USER AND ALLOWS QUICK AND EASY TEXT ENTRY FOR TEXT AND E-MAILS.”
REVIEWS The QWERTY keyboard is ergonomically shaped and actually felt easier to use than my 8300 BlackBerry Curve, it meets the needs of the business user and allows quick and easy text entry for text and e-mails, though I wouldn’t like to try and write a document that’s too lengthy. This ar cle was actually first wri en on the E63 to test that theory out, and although much slower than using my laptop, it proves it’s possible! Another great feature is Nokia’s Navi Key, which works be er and feels more precise than the BlackBerry trackball, allowing quick and easy naviga on from the home screen to sub-menus and while browsing the web. By the me you read this there will probably be yet more smartphones entering the market that offer QWERTY keyboards, mobile internet and a wealth of other features, with some needed in everyday life other not. But having used the E63 in place of my Curve for a month now, one fact remains that the Nokia E63 is an impressive phone, easy to use and seamlessly allows you to keep in touch with family and colleagues via quad band compa bility wherever you are in the world. It gives the end user a more cost-effec ve op on for those not wan ng built in GPS or a high resolu on camera. In fact, if these are not on your list of priori es, I would recommend the E63 just for its keyboard, e-mail, VOIP compa bility and ba ery life alone. At the me of wri ng this ar cle the handset is available on contract from a li le as £17 a month on 3 Mix & Match 300 or £20 a month on Orange 200, but shop around....there’s always a be er deal. Peter Gray
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REVIEWS
NOKIA 6210 I’m forever ge ng lost. If for example, I’ve got a mee ng in a strange place I’ve never been to before, I usually get there 3 hours early, just so I can get within a mile of the place. But no more, as the new Nokia 6210 has all the direc onal skills I’ll ever need. Take that, shoddy paper map! We’ll get on to the rest of the phone later (and its many problems) but for now, let’s concentrate on its main selling point; it’s naviga on so ware. With one push of a bu on, the Nokia 6210 brings up its navigator applica on. From here you can plot a route, calculate the distance and me it would take, locate you current posi on and plot your journey, either by car or foot. Brilliantly, as you twist the phone, the map rotates to counter for this, so you’ll always be heading in the right direc on. Also, you can view the map from above in standard map form (showing street names, signs etc), at a 3D angle, or with the satellite mode. It’s like having Google maps in your pocket! Sadly though, apart form the fantas c map feature, the Nokia 6210 is lacking in nearly every other area. For starters, get to where you’re going as quickly as possible, as the ba ery life isn’t all that great. Also, the bu ons are far too ny, so don’t get lost and have to call for help. There are other problems elsewhere, like the lack of Wi-Fi for instance, or the fact that the camera is pre y poor for a Nokia phone. The whole phone just feels a bit dated. Design wise, the Nokia is very nice, with the standard sleek look working well against the gloss black. Also, the slider is a nice touch, although there have been a few cases of it becoming unreliable. As men oned the bu ons are far too small, which is irrita ng when you consider how much room a slider can add to a phone. Overall, the main selling point of the Nokia 6210, the naviga on, is probably the only reason to buy this phone. It’s a real shame that such a brilliant piece of naviga onal design can be ruined by the sloppy handset, as with a few small changes, the Nokia 6210 could have been a real cracker. Shame... now, where was I going? Ah yes; to the shop to get a refund. Sco Tierney
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NEWS
NOKIA E75 If you’re like me, and you don’t trust the new touch screen phones, then I may have the phone for you. When a touch screen phone (or any touch screen product) breaks, or randomly decides to totally ignore any func on or request you ask of it, you’ll drop to you knees and beg for a phone with bu ons; good, solid, unbreakable bu ons. Well, the new Nokia E75 has many ‘a bu on, and is built like a tank’. Perfect! The new Nokia E75 is primarily a business phone, but unlike the Blackberry - which is a business phone and nothing more - the Nokia E75 s ll manages to have a few pleasant surprises up its sleeve. At first glance, it looks like any other ‘candy bar’ phone, with a crisp 2.4inch screen at the top, and some bu ons at the bo om. But if you slide the back of the phone towards you, an extra pale e of bu ons greets you. Now, thanks to the QWERTY layout and quality of these bu ons, you can type out quick emails and texts with gentle haste. That said though, the number bu ons on the front of the Nokia E75 are very small, and unless you’re the spider that climbed up the Pope, you’ll have trouble using them. The 3G and HTML browser is very solid on the Nokia E75 and very reliable also. Browsing the web is pleasantly easy for a phone as small as the Nokia E75, and surprisingly smooth. There are a few faults though, mainly regarding the camera and speaker. The 3.2MP camera is quite poor, and although the image quality is reasonably good, the images tend to have a blue nge that real spoils any photos you take. The speaker quality is quite poor also, not so bad as to be useless, but s ll enough to irritate, especially in noisy areas. All in all, the Nokia E75 is an excellent on the go tool, and a more appealing alterna ve to the Blackberry. Although phones such as the Nokia E75 are probably soon to become a thing of the past, as touch screen phones plough the way forward, there’s s ll a place for the humble bu on phones. If this is the last hurrah for the bu oned phone, it’s a fine last appearance, and one we can thoroughly recommend. Sco Tierney
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FEATURE
PHONESMARTS
BLACKBERRY 8520 If you’re a bustling business man, running around the streets of London shou ng ‘CANCEL MY 1 O’CLOCK’ and ‘FIVE GRAND? TELL ‘EM TO STUFF IT!’ the humble Blackberry is your best loved tool. With the ability to send emails, view detailed spreadsheets, surf the web and all manner of important business stuff, the Blackberry is second to none. But when it comes to the new Blackberry 8520, it’s hard to work out whom it’s for, let alone what it’s for.
Looking at the features more closely, and the dy row of media bu ons along the top of the Blackberry 8520, you may think that this is a more ‘fun’ version of the Blackberry. So, is the 8520 aimed at a media player market? Well, if you were going to buy a phone that was funky, and came with video and MP3 playback, along with a host of other fun features, chances are a Blackberry would be right at the bo om of your shopping list. Why have a Blackberry, that is essen ally a business tool, when you could have an iPhone, or one of the more quirky Nokia’s? Not that the Blackberry 8520 isn’t packed with these features, as it has everything you’d possibly need, but it’s just not cool.
Is the 8520 a cheap, inexpensive Blackberry for people on a budget? Well, it’s s ll well over £200, so it’s not quite a bargain pricewise. Also, if this was a budget phone, why are all of the main goodies s ll available? The Blackberry 8520 comes with 256MB of Flash memory, Wi-Fi enabled, has a very solid video camera and from the outside the 8520 looks no different from any other Blackberry. The only missing elements appear to be a flash for the camera, and a lack of 3G; apart from that, the Blackberry 8520 is top spec. Bargain basement this is not.
So, what is the Blackberry 8520, and who is it for? Well, it’s very hard to tell. If you’re someone that needs an on-the-go tool for your every working need, then the 8520 doesn’t really cut it, as there are be er Blackberry’s available (the Bold or the Storm) and the lack of 3G is a killer. But it’s not really for anyone who wants a cool, fashionable phone either, as that’s just not what a Blackberry is. So, from what we can fathom, the 8520 is a budget Berry, that although does exactly what you’d expect, isn’t going to blow you away.
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Sco Tierney
FEATURE
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FEATURE PHONEBOX EXPLORING GAMES ON MOBILE PHONES:
CHRONICLES OF INOTIA: LEGEND OF FEANOR DEVELOPER: COM2US CORP When I first downloaded Chronicles of Ino a I really thought I was in for a Zelda type RPG experience, and a nostalgic trip down memory lane to my SNES days, where gameplay and storyline narra ve would make me look past the basic looking and almost 16 bit graphical interface. The game starts with a cinema c sequence that shows our hero wielding a sword and shield figh ng and defea ng an evil dragon. Once finished the game then takes you to a character crea on offering the choice of difficulty between normal and hard, and then you hit a roll bu on to determine your sta s cs. You play Feanor and the only control you have over the character customisa on is se ng the four sta s cs of strength, dexterity, cons tu on, and agility. The weird thing is that if you are unhappy with the stats selected, you have the op on keep rolling un l a more sa sfactory balance is achieved. You then spawn as if from nowhere, and enter the first town without an indica on of where to go or what to do. If like me you enter the ‘help’ sec on to try and make sense of the objec ves, you will be le just as confused. Even the sta s cs you roll for are only briefly covered with STR meaning power, CON meaning health, DEX meaning intelligence and AGI speed. Again I wish the developers had given more background to the storyline and game objec ves within the Help menu.
“LEGEND OF FEANOR WILL GIVE YOU A BITE OF WHAT YOU CRAVE, BUT BE PREPARED FOR THE BITTER AFTER-TASTE.”
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Ino a is played in third-person perspec ve giving you a good view of each themed field of play as you enter them. Portals, one to enter and another to exit connect these fields and enemies spawn endlessly within them, so you can actually never clear a sec on. To a ack an enemy, you just tap the enemy and watch the ba le without any other interac on. Feanor just whacks away with whatever weapon is selected un l you or the enemy dies. Once their levels have been raised through combat, the four skills Feanor can collect become enabled to administer special a acks. Other than this the game consists of tapping the screen to move him around between fields, and figh ng the endless spawning enemies. There are also on-screen icons indica ng your skill levels, currently selected po on, remaining health and experience. You can also access your status, item, skill, quest, and system menus by also tapping this part of the screen. The item sub-menu screen allows you to only keep 9 items ini ally, but this can be upgraded at a later date in the game. The skill menu shows a total of the four skills you can have, only two of which are available ini ally, and you can check back on improvements made during the game. The quest screen shows the current quests but never updates them as you progress, so this just acts as a reminder of what you started rather then a checklist of quests completed. System gives you one save point that automa cally re-starts at the beginning of that quest upon your demise, but strangely gives you no load op on. This means that for every game session you start you must hit the con nue op on on the main menu and start from the single saved quest.
FEATURE
The role-playing aspect of the game consists of talking to locals, being set quests and entering the merchants in tents spread across the world. Interac on is limited to dropping and picking up items from their carpets as trades. Allegedly merchants arrive at different mes throughout the game. But there’s no real- me clock or any way to tell merchants apart from each other, which translates to randomly generated stock and prices. The last feature is the pet system, where you can grow a pet that lives in your stat menu. In a symbio c rela onship the pet then gains experience from items you pick up and then adds to your stats in return. The only thing I thought this missed was your pet actually joining in the ba les with you, shoulder to shoulder. Other than to hike stat levels there’s no point to the pet system at all!
Chronicles of Ino a shows that an RPG is 100% possible, transla ng well on the iPhone and touch screen technology pla orms. If embraced by developers then games such as Final Fantasy and even Diablo could appear if ported correctly and I would pay a premium price for tles such as these. Un l then and while the price is at 59p (when I last looked on the UK app store) Legend of Feanor will give you a bite of what you crave, but if you pay full price for this app be prepared for the bi er a er-taste. Peter Gray
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4th annual
20-22 October 2009, The Cumberland, London Exclusive Special Focus Day 20th October 2009
Over 50 Industry Thought Leaders Including... Ron Czerny, Chief Executive Officer, Playphone
Mark Kortekaas, Controller for BBC Audio & Music Interactive and BBC Mobile, BBC
Joe Bilman, Senior Vice President, Global Products, Fox Mobile Distribution
Timo Soininen, Chief Executive Officer, Sulake (Habbo)
Olaf Kroll, Vice President, Europe, MySpace
Sunil Gunderia, Vice President, Mobile, Walt Disney Internet Group
Sean Kane, General Manager, Tuenti
Frederick Ghahramani, Founder, airG
Lee Williams, Executive Director, Symbian Foundation
Graham Thomas, Head of Multimedia, T-Mobile International
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Andrew Fisher, Chief Executive Officer, Shazam
Bringing Together Those That Are Defining and Changing Our Industry. Hear from:
New for 2009! app
Alberto Ciarniello, Vice President, Service Innovation, Trial and Product Innovation, TIM and Vice Chairman MEF EMEA
NEW: Show me something cool! - Be the first to see brand new apps, add-ons, widgets and social networking features demo-ed from those defining the apps industry NEW: UnPanel - Make yourself heard and known in front of the ecosystem NEW: OpenFloor: Simple, during the day you tell us what you want to talk about, then at the end of the day we all talk about it! NEW: More Discussion, Less Powerpoint - more interactive panels mean more debate and more value NEW: Mobile Web and Apps Drinks 2.0 - Enjoy complimentary drinks in our beautiful Central London location NEW: Structured Speed Networking: Running on all three days, make new contacts and partnerships in a structured speed networking environment
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REVIEWS DROPLITZ DEVELOPER: BLITZ ARCADE PUBLISHER: ATLUS Remember the hacking mini-game in the 2007 game of the year Bioshock? Well that’s what immediately sprang to mind when I first started playing Droplitz. Available as a download on XBLA for the 360, PlaySta on Network, Windows PC, and iPhone. Developer Atlus and the distributor Blitz Arcade see Droplitz as both a cerebral challenge, and a relaxing, almost medita ve experience. In a nutshell the game consists of a series of boards, onto which dials are situated. The dials have a variety of path forma ons that if correctly orientated will allow liquid to pass through them. Spouts at the top of the screen randomly leak drops of ominous looking liquid, and its up to the player to use the dials to link up a route for these ‘Droplitz’ to reach collectors at the bo om. Once linked that completed pathway is highlighted in a neon glow and once all the Droplitz from that leak are collected the dials then disappear and a new forma on takes their place. If you fail to link a route for a drop, it’s lost forever and once all your reserve is depleted, the game ends. If however you do create a clear route your supply is topped up and extra Droplitz can be gained by performing combos linking more than one route together. At the start you get the op on of choosing a colour theme that suits your eye, and soon the Tron-esc neon graphics and chilled ambient electronic music works it’s magic to get you hooked. Once bi en Droplitz is the kind of game that consumes me without you realising it and many a train journey in the last month has flown by without me realising it. One touch I personally loved was the intensity and complexity of how the music increases as the game progresses, adding to the urgency that you must complete that board.
On the iPhone the game has 3 modes – Normal, Hardcore and Infinite. My favourite of this ini ally was infinite, where the Droplitz never runs out. But once the basics are mastered the Normal and a faster Hardcore mode adds to the pressure. On the iPhone, simply touching them rotates the dials, and it’s this interac on and tac le game play that makes Droplitz so much fun to play.
“DROPLITZ IS A SIMPLE AND ADDICTIVE GAME THAT IS ABOVE SIMILAR OFFERINGS.” The Xbox Live Arcade version has Classic, Zendurance, Power Up and Infec on modes and the dials are moved by using the Xbox controller. In Classic mode consis ng of nine boards, they increase in size and difficulty as you progress and the player has control in the order that the boards are completed. Each requires a score be met on the adjacent board before it’s available. The three other game varia ons are unlocked by reaching high scores. In these modes you are confronted with slow moving and infected dials, you get to use bombs to clear sec ons of the board, or just aim for the highest score possible within a limited amount of me. There are online leaderboard’s and 12 trophies/achievements to unlock and be awarded. The score-based game play makes every game a compe on to get to the top of the leaderboards. In conclusion Droplitz is a simple and addic ve game that has touches that li it above and beyond similar offerings. It works well on all pla orms and using a game controller, but my advice is if you are an iPod touch or iPhone user this is a must have game app, as the interface is best suited to this pla orm and the two just work seamlessly hand in hand together. Peter Gray
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REVIEWS
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NEWS GTA CHINATOWN WARS COMING TO iPHONE THIS AUTUMN GTA Chinatown Wars will be released for the iPhone this autumn, Rockstar said in a surprise announcement in September. The game will be one of the first major portable release to be converted for iPhone. “Chinatown Wars is a perfect match for the iPhone and iPod touch,” said Sam Houser, Founder of Rockstar Games, in an official press release. “We are very excited to bring this incredibly ambi ous version of Liberty City, with this level of detail and immersive gameplay on Apple’s new gaming pla orms.” As a part of an exis ng Nintendo DS game, the announcement will help boost the iPhone’s reputa on as a serious gaming pla orm. Previous releases such as Spore: origins have borne li le resemblance to the mainstream tle in their franchise and have been more akin to sideshows or teasers than proper games.
Chinatown Wars on the iPhone will receive a graphics update that Rockstar have been working on for the PSP version of the game, which was also recently announced. While this is poten ally embarrassing for Nintendo, it’s great news for Apple. What the game will cost has not been confirmed but rumours suggest iPhone owners should expect to pay £5.99 for the game – considerably cheaper than either the DS or PSP versions. Gameplay is expected to be li le changed from the original and will make full use of the touchscreen elements featured on the DS. Clearly the PSP port won’t benefit from that luxury, giving the iPhone another advantage over its rivals.
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NEWS STREAMLINED AND RE-SPRAYED CONSOLES FROM SONY AND NINTENDO It looks like the build-up to the busy Christmas period has already started, with Sony packing the shelves with the New Sony Playsta on, and Nintendo announcing the Wii Black and Red DS. Sony’s updated version of the PS3 is as the tle suggests – slim. With a size reduc on of 32%, it measures up at 11.4 inches wide, 11.4 inches across and a mere 2.6 inches high (about the size of a 10” pizza box). Also with a reduced weight of 7.1lbs, the new PS3 Slim really does live up to its name. As a result of all this weight loss, the power output has been reduced by 34%; a handy feature in these money and energy saving mes.
“SONY’S UPDATED VERSION OF THE PS3 IS AS THE TITLE SUGGESTS – SLIM.” But behind all this excess skin shedding, the PS3 Slim s ll packs a mighty punch. It s ll has the same processing power as it’s fa er brother, but it also has a mighty 120GB hard drive to boast about. Sadly there’s no compa bility for PS2 games (a ridiculous omission) but apart from that, the Slim is to the PS3 what the PS One and PS2 Slimline were to their contemporise; a last hurrah before the new console arrives. The 120GB model is currently avalible, with the 250GB version due to go on sale on the 2nd October. As for the Black Wii and Red DS, there’s not a lot to say; the only changes that have been made are the colours! At present they are only available in Japan, but they are rumoured to be landing in the US and Europe before the end of the year.
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NEWS
MMO ROUNDUP THE AUTUMN SEES A NEW WAVE OF MMOS DESPERATE TO KNOCK WORLD OF WARCRAFT OFF ITS THRONE. BUT WHILE THERE ARE MANY PRETENDERS BLIZZARD, THE REIGNING KING OF THE MMO UNIVERSE, IS ALSO MAKING THE FIRST NOISE ABOUT ITS SECOND GAME IN THE GENRE. Champions Online, where players’ characters are all superheroes (or superchampions?) is already live a er a spell in open beta this summer. Developed by Cryp c Studios, the game promises a more ac on based combat system than other MMOs offer. Cryp c have run into some early teething problems and the final beta patch weakened many players’ characters promp ng complaints on the official forums. Perhaps even worse, the much-vaunted combat system has been cri cised for being too complicated.
It is Aion, from well-established Korean company NCSo that has the best shot at the WoW crown. Players will play humans who at reaching level 10 sprout wings and are able to fly. Aion is now in open beta if you want to have a crack at it – the client is a he y 9.10GB so expect it to take a day to come down over BitTorrent. A presale special edi on has already racked up massive sales ahead of the game’s release on September 25.
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Further on the horizon is Star Trek Online. Sign up for the close beta has already been opened and a playable demo at PAX gained reasonably posi ve feedback. Set in the ‘future’ of the Star Trek universe, players will be able to command their own Federa on ship and lead away teams.
Not much is known about Blizzard’s future plans but they have announced that their new game will not be in direct compe on with WoW. They’ve suggested that they’re planning something radically different but it also suggests they see a long future for their established tle.
NEWS
IT’S ALL ABOUT MOTION AT THE TOKYO GAMES SHOW
Big hopes were pinned on this year’s Tokyo Games Show, the industry’s last chance to show its wares before the Christmas season hits. Right off the bat, Nintendo – which doesn’t even par cipate in the show - swooped in and trumped Sony by announcing a price cut for the Wii during company president Kaz Hirai’s keynote. The bad news for Bri sh gamers is that we won’t be seeing cheaper consoles as Nintendo have decided to hold prices and offer bigger bundles to try and lure customers in.
Microso also had their mo on controlled offering, project Natal, on display. Natal will work with the Xbox 360 and is possibly the most immersive mo on control system in development because it doesn’t require the player to hold anything and works en rely by tracking the player’s body movements. Project director Kudo Tsunoda showed off a version of Space Invaders where you are the tank. To shoot you li your arms above your head. Leave your arms up there and you’ll keep shoo ng un l all the blood drains out of them.
Sony’s keynote speech to open the show was very sketchy on details. Hirai was more interested on focussing on what had happened this year than plans for the next. He showed off the PS3 mo on controller which was unveiled at E3 earlier this year but didn’t give any indica on of any games that would be using it. The controller itself has no name and no price as of yet. It looks a lot like a Wiimote with a light bulb on top. The mo on controller should be on sale next spring.
Sony did have one big trick up its sleeve, though. Final Fantasy XIII was unveiled and ordinary punters were given a chance to get their hands on the game, provided they were cool with wai ng in line for two hours for the privilege. FFXIII (yeah it looks stupid doesn’t it?) will feature two new fast paced ba le modes to liven up the fights between story sec ons. The game will be out on 17 December in Japan with spring 2010 worldwide releases being hinted at.
“RIGHT OFF THE BAT, NINTENDO TRUMPED SONY.”
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PREVIEW
BOADERLANDS MAD MAX MEETS STARSHIP TROOPERS Borderlands pits players against hordes of alien enemies on a tumble-down fron er planet called Pandora. Marketed as ‘the child of FPS and RPG’, it will feature four player co-op and stupid numbers of guns to play with.
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The RPG elements make Borderlands par cularly exci ng. There are four characters to choose from, each with different skills. As you progress new skills are unlocked and the characters can be customised and adapted. In co-op mode you can make a balanced team but there’s nothing to stop everyone playing as the berserker-like Brick if they want. Online play is drop-in, drop-out so if you need to go and eat a pizza mid-way though a session, there’s no problem. The game will also adapt so that your former comrades aren’t le facing overwhelming odds.
PREVIEW
The adventure system is influenced by Diablo and the game will take place in randomly spawned environments clustered around a central town area. In the town will be quest givers and vending machines so you can stock up on ammo and power-ups before heading into the wastelands. Enemies will drop randomly generated special weapons, another nod to Diablo. It’s been claimed there are up to 3,000,000 possible gun combina ons but it’s likely many of these will feel similar and only be differen ated by their stats.
Graphically, Borderlands is a refreshing move away from the hyper-realsim of most modern shooters and gives off a dis nct classic arcade vibe. There’s a lot of visual feedback in the playing area and damage and experience awards are expressed numerically burs ng from enemies. Borderlands might face tough compe on from Modern Warfare 2 but the unique visual style and frene c gameplay should be enough to set it apart and mark it out as one of the autumn’s big releases. Borderlands :: Gearbox :: October 20 on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.
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PREVIEW
SCRATCH: THE ULTIMATE DJ SCRATCH LETS YOU TAKE CONTROL DEVELOPER: BEDLAM GAMES RELEASE DATE: EARLY 2010
Just as the DJ was created by technology, so today’s modern DJs have learnt to exploit that technology. They now have the ability to have complete control over every aspect of music in their sets. Since the days of Vinyl, right through to today’s CDJ’s and digital mix masters, DJs don’t just provide music as recorded by the original ar st, they actually transform what they play into something new and innova ve, using mul ple sources at once, adding beats and samples to re-mix on the fly.
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With the ever growing genre of rhythm based games and controllers on the market it’s ge ng harder to find something that doesn’t just appeal to the guitar driven rock fans out there, but help is at hand. Now it’s your turn to become a Hip Hop DJ superstar with a new rhythm based game Scratch: The Ul mate DJ. This project is a collabora on between Numark, the industry standard DJ equipment manufacturer, and Bedlam Games who have assembled a team of experienced developers, including talent from Rockstar Games, Ubiso , and Electronic Arts. It not only presses all the right bu ons with me, but as I helped run a club in the 90’s, and ran my own club nights, I also know a few DJ’s friends who would love to get their hands on it!
PREVIEW “Scratch: The Ul mate DJ offers a revolu onary take on the exis ng music/rhythm genre. The combina on of the game and the proprietary Scratch Deck controller will bring the art of DJing to the masses,” said Trevor Fenco , CEO of Bedlam Games Inc. “The Scratch Deck combines a touch sensi ve turntable from Numark with the drumpads from the iconic Akai Professional MPC. This combina on delivers an authen c music gaming experience unlike any other. We are thrilled to embark on this venture with Scratch, and can’t wait for this exci ng tle to hit store shelves.”
“THE 60+ TRACK SET LIST COMPRISES OF ARTISTS SUCH KANYE WEST, RUN DMC, NELLY AND THE GORRILAZ.”
The team has also enlisted Mix Master Mike from the Beas e Boys for technical support ensuring that the hands on experience will be as true to life as possible. Scratch: The Ul mate DJ will also feature music from Mix Master Mike’s upcoming album, set to be released late in 2009.
“I’m honoured to be featured on the Scratch: The Ul mate DJ setlist, alongside some of the most talented ar sts in hip-hop,” said Mix Master Mike, legendary Scratch DJ for the Beas e Boys. “ It’s exci ng to work on a project that gives fans the opportunity to create their own music using the turntable and sampler.” The 60+ track set list is important to a game like Scratch and comprises of ar sts such Kanye West, Run DMC, Nelly and the Gorrilaz, and has been collated by Quincy Jones III, CEO and chief crea ve officer of QD3 Entertainment. “As a music producer for some of the biggest ar sts in hip-hop music, I can’t stress enough the importance of having a credible playlist in a music game such as Scratch. Also as a long me fan and par cipant of hip-hop culture, I am very excited about the range of ar sts and various me periods represented in the game, from old school hip-hop to today’s ho est new talent. It’s been great having so much freedom in picking music that is true to the genre.”
The game and controller will be available in early 2010 on the Xbox 360 and PLAYSTATION 3. Here at Phonica I will be reviewing the game in full very soon and le ng some real life DJ’s feed back their impressions of the Numark Scratch Controller. Un l then check out: - h p://www.scratchvideogame.com/ for further informa on and further addi ons to the impressive set list. This is one tle I’m eagerly awai ng to get my hands on… Peter Gray
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FEATURE
BATS
... THEY’RE GREAT SURVIVORS Earlier this month, Rocksteady produced one of the high watermarks of superhero gaming with its excellent, immersive Batman: Arkham Asylum. But the Bats had plenty of other forays into the world of disc and cartridge... and DC and Marvel, among others, haven’t been afraid to milk their other assets when it comes to superhero gaming. S ck an extra pair of pants over your trousers and prepare yourself for Phonica’s late night shuffle down Amnesia Avenue: the good and bad gaming moments of the costumed crimefighter. BATMAN: THE VIDEO GAME NES, 1989 A er years of Adam West’s campery, Tim Burton made the Dark Knight cool again. This pla ormer for the NES handled fluidly, and had the requisite colour pale e and mood to suit Michael Keaton’s brooding turn in the movie. One of the NES’s finest hours, with 5 chunky environments leading up to the final Joker showdown. SPIDERMAN: THE VIDEO GAME ARCADE, 1991 Spidey, li le flirt that he is, has starred in nearly as many games as the Bat. The first I remember was this coin-op from Sega... a side-scrolling beat ’em up with pla orm sequences. Alright, so everything moved a li le slower back then, but that didn’t stop me burning money on it. You could play as Hawkeye or Sub-Mariner but Spidey was the connoisseur’s choice. Eat web, Venom.
SUPERMAN 64 N64, 1999 At the request of the editor, mild-mannered writer drags his protes ng neurons back to one of the most unpleasant gaming experiences of the 90s: Superman for the N64. A mixture of beat ‘em up and med flying challenges, this buggy, visually uninspired, unresponsive, poorly-voiced yawn-a-thon made me saw my own skull open in an ill-advised a empt to excise my own cortex. It didn’t work. I can s ll remember. And it burns. Oh, how it burns. JUSTICE LEAGUE HEROES PS2, XBOX, DS, PSP, 2006 Superman. Batman. Mar an Manhunter. (Deep breath)... Flash Zatanna Green Lantern Brainiac Wonder Woman Darkseid Aquaman Huntress Green Arrow I give up. The clue’s in the tle. Designed as a mul player, although if you couldn’t buy any mates you could switch between the two on-screen characters at will. It wasn’t bad, although the combat le a li le to be desired and the generic robot baddies were... er... pre y generic. WATCHMEN: THE END IS NIGH PS3, X360, PC, 2009 I couldn’t pass up the chance to talk about Alan Moore’s game-changing universe, even if the wild-haired recluse writer refuses to have anything to do with it. A cash-in on the 2008 movie, it’s an episodic fighter originally available for download. Ignore the book / film universe and has you cast as Rorschach or Nite Owl marmalising iden kit hoodlums in the 70s. Looks good. Plays ok. Repe ve as buggery, though, and lack of online co-op is criminal. So many we didn’t have me for. Hey, I’ve got a word count to keep. No room for the horrors of Hellboy: The Science of Evil, or the painful Superman Returns, or the cute but on-and-off Lego Batman. My advice? If it’s a film e-in, run. Run like hell. Rob Hobson
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FEATURE
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FEATURE MICROTRANSACTIONS IN GAMING
So, you’ve just started your character on RPG Game X and you’re looking around like the newbie you are, marvelling at the sights and scenes before you, drinking in the graphics and a uning yourself with the music and sounds. Within minutes, you’re already slowly but surely dreading the long grind ll you hit the level cap, if there is one and you’re lucky to have chosen a game with one. You already know what it’s like – you’ve played a hundred other games before and you know the drill. Rescue him/her/ it; gather x amount of herbs/rocks/guts; kill Mr Y because he’s scary and fairly big but not really that hard. What are the solu ons to your misery? Thankfully, now there seems to be a lot!
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FEATURE Microtransac ons in gaming has taken root since the days of Lineage, where there was a flourishing, player-driven marketplace that dealt in all sorts – items, characters, armor, po ons. One could browse for an hour with a loaded credit card and come out with a hole in their wallet but a bulging inventory of useful bits of kit and gear to help aid you in your objec ve to become top dog on your server. Nowadays, the influence it exerts on the gaming industry has become so varied and diverse. Want to buy another set of uniform for your soldier while you ba le the terrorist forces? Feel like ki ng your football team out in dresses and flamenco hats? All of this could cost you a li le extra but make it that li le bit more fun.
“MICROTRANSACTIONS IN GAMING HAS TAKEN ROOT SINCE THE DAYS OF LINEAGE, WHERE THERE WAS A PLAYER-DRIVEN MARKETPLACE.” Many companies have used the micro-transac on business model and ran the marathon with it. Microso are par cularly good at running with it – just take a look at the features on the Xbox 360. Many of its games come fully loaded with content but the companies make those few extra dbits of customizable features, meaning those willing to fork out a minimal sum could see Batman flying around in a white suit rather than his black one, if they wished it.
Even the Xbox 360 is customisable, with your li le on-screen avatar yearning for various bits and bobs that you can purchase through their in-built marketplace. Asian companies such as NCSo and Nexon have since embraced the possibili es of another source of income, by opening virtual shops on their websites adver sing mostly consumable items that were available to people who paid for them. These items would enhance gameplay by increasing stats, the experience points gained per monster kill, or by increasing the chance of rare item drops from kills. Some mes, the items that are sold are just for aesthe c purposes – costumes or clothes that could turn your avatar into various different people altogether.
It’s a poten al stash of cold, hard money for many gaming companies and everyone seems to be buying into the idea. However, what people do not realise is, that with people willing to pay and pay for more and more content, game developers are being encouraged to release less and less of the actual game for the retail price, and instead put features of the game up as “buyable extras”, meaning that soon, games will be no more than a loading screen, menu, and a link straight to the marketplace to just buy what you want the game to be. And when that day comes, we know we’ve gone too far. Paul Park
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FEATURE
WHAT IS PLAY?
Eat the pips and dodge the ghosts. Jump the barrels and save the princess. Fight the Helghast hordes and take the planet. Finish him. Avoid missing ball for high score. I’m guessing that pre y much every game you’ve ever played has had an objec ve. It might be u erly straigh orward... score more goals than the other team. It might be vague and nebulous... find out how and why Lucas Kane has brutally murdered someone. It might be deliberately misleading... what am I doing here in Rapture? It might be whimsical and weird: collect pollen and spectra and grow a garden.
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FEATURE
It’s not very o en that your goal is simply to play. Keita Takahashi is the man who created Katamari Damacy and its successor, We Love Katamari. The game had one rule... get bigger. It was gleefully odd and, although not everyone’s cup of java, rather compelling. Takahashi-san followed that up with something that’s arguably even more freeform: Noby Noby Boy. There’s some debate about the precise meaning of the Japanese word “nobi”. I’m told it can mean “stretch”, with “nobinobi” also transla ng loosely as “taking it easy”. Apologies to Japanophones if I’m savaging your language here. Anyway, the idea is that your Boy stretches his way around a stylised, brightly-coloured world with... er... stuff in it. Do what you like: there are no rules. There are a few (secret) PS Trophies available. At the me of wri ng, I have no idea what any of them are. Obviously there’s more to this game than just moving around and stretching, but the online components - contribu ng to a user-generated Noby Girl to open new levels – strike me as less important than the precept. Just play. Don’t let us tell you what to do, or how to do it, or even why you should be doing it. If it feels good, play. If it doesn’t, stop. That’s all. NNB, then, is an extreme example. But what about Flower? Created by superbly-named developer thatgamecompany, it’s a whimsical PSN tle that casts you as the wind blowing a delicate string of petals around a rural landscape. Breeze past a flower and it will bloom, adding more petals to your tail. What’s the point? Well, some might say it’s just pre y. Others – and I’m inclined to agree – would suggest that it tries to reshape what we as gamers perceive to be “progress” or “achievement”.
For someone who spends much of their gaming life racking up a body count of which even the most psycho c of dictators could be proud, I find this more than just a welcome change of pace. It carries a carefree, open spirit which even the most flexible sandbox games can’t hope to match. It’s not that it’s not linear – there are objec ves to complete, a er all – but it plays into a different part of the brain than the one I normally use. My target-oriented synapses may be tuned to a reasonably high-pitch in the heat of a close Call of Duty marathon, but there are mes when another bit of the cranial blancmange needs tending to. And there’s the kicker. We live in credit-crispy mes. If you work, you’ve probably found that people around have lost their jobs and you’re doing more slog with less me. Crea vely, the brain needs to be nourished. The value of play - the simple, unadulterated joy of doing something because it’s pleasing, because it makes you feel good – can’t be underes mated. As children, we learn through play: we test our limits; we use our ini a ve; we take risks; we dare to fail. As adults, though, play is just as important. Think of fearless creator Google, whose offices are famously crammed with “so areas”, games, and other ideas and devices to s mulate crea ve thought (h p://www.flickr.com/search/ ?q=zurich+google+office). Or consultancy Ideo (h p://ideo.com/), who specialise in radical solu ons to design problems. They understand that the brain needs new experiences to keep it fizzing with ideas... and that those experiences can’t always plug into the logic-based part of your head. Some mes you need to... well... just play. Rob Hobson
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FEATURE FORGOTTEN GEMS
BLADE RUNNER (PC, 1997) There are a number of reasons why Blade Runner, the 1997 point and click, is a memorable tle, and why it should be included in the Forgo en Gems sec on. Firstly, it is one of the few games to be based on a film that was actually any good. 99.999% percent of games that are centred on a popular film are poor at best, due to them usually being nothing more than an adver sing e-in to make a quick buck off the back of a summer blockbuster. Secondly, Blade Runner was the first point and click adventure game to feature real me 3D graphics, a major feat at the me. But thirdly, and most importantly, Blade Runner was one of a group of excep onal point and click games that were released just as the genre was unceremoniously killed off. Let’s look at what made Blade Runner such a great piece of adventure gaming, before studying the chain reac on that led to its downfall. If you’ve ever seen the 1982 film Blade Runner, directed by Ridley Sco and starring a rela vely fresh-faced Harrison Ford, you’ll be fully aware of what a seminal piece of cinema it is. Not only was it a complex study into what cons tutes as ‘alive’, or the relevancy of a soul, it was also visually stunning and totally apart from anything of the me. Set in the perpetual midnight world of a future Los Angles, with every aching building draped with neon lights and damp with acid rain, Blade Runner was a jaw-dropping sight. So, making a game to match the film was obviously going to be a massive task, but Westwood studios pulled it off to a tee, crea ng a world that perfectly represented every dark aspect of the film.
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As for gameplay, Blade Runner was the classic point and click mix of problem solving and crime bus ng, with the occasional blast of ac on thrown in for good measure, but there was also a clever feature that allowed for repeated play. Depending on the manner you played Blade Runner, and how and when you chose to make your decisions, the ending would alter to compensate for this. So if you decided early on to rebel against authority, instead of playing by the rules, the ending would differ. This was a monumental addi on, giving Blade Runner (unlike a replicant) an almost unlimited lifespan; more than 10 years prior to Fallout 3 using the same technique. Sadly though, when Blade Runner was released in 1997, games publishers were knee-jerked into thinking of the point and click genre as dated. With the advent of new consoles such as the Playsta on boas ng be er graphics and pursuing more ac on-packed style of gaming, publishers such as LucasArts considered the methodical, slow-paced gameplay of the point and click game as having had its day, and slowly started to reduce their produc on. Due to this, excellent and cri cally acclaimed games like Blade Runner, Grim Fandango and The Curse of Monkey Island were quietly released without any major adver sing or support. Luckily though, the point and click genre is currently having a mini renascence at present, so these tles can finally receive the accolades they deserved, and the a en on they were unfairly robbed of. So, if you get a chance, get yourself a copy of Blade Runner and get sucked into a world of neon lights and angry shadows, with a game that was years ahead of its me. You won’t regret it! Sco Tierney
FEATURE “WHEN BLADE RUNNER WAS RELEASED, GAMES PUBLISHERS WERE KNEEJERKED INTO THINKING OF THE POINT AND CLICK GENRE AS DATED.”
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REVIEWS
BATMAN: ARKHAM ASYLUM (PS3, PC, XBOX 360)
There’s something reassuringly human about Batman. Yup, he’s a perfect physical specimen and yup, he has that irrepressible urge to fight injus ce, but we can all relate to that. Who hasn’t wanted to bench press a Peugeot 206 and then beat up a mugger? It’s in our DNA. Batman: Arkham Asylum is Rocksteady’s take on a character that’s fronted at least a dozen execrable games in his me. It’s surprising, because the Frank Miller / Grant Morrison / Chris Nolan image of Batman – brooding, tortured, and driven – is pure fantasy gold. Industrial gothic styling, angst-driven ultra violence…all the ingredients are there, but hardly anyone has ever got the gaming mix right. Take a bow, Rocksteady. You’ve done it. The premise is inspired, loosely, by Grant Morrison’s graphic novel of the same name. The Joker’s free in Arkham with Harley, Bane, Poison Ivy, the Scarecrow and several hundred muscled henchmen. What’s he up to? Can Bats get to the bo om of it? Will he beat down a lot of bad guys en route? I don’t need to answer these ques ons, do I?
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Arkham Asylum’s greatest achievement might well be that it makes Batman feel human. You sense every broken bone, every snapped sinew, as Batman spins from knucklehead to knucklehead blocking a acks, bus ng heads and just generally figh ng the good fight. Unarmed enemies are a breeze, with one bu on for a context-sensi ve a ack and another to block and counter incoming punches. Right from the off, controlling the Dark Knight in melee is fluid and joyous, with large squads of hired muscle offering no match to your ninja street figh ng.
REVIEWS “THE JOKER’S BEAUTIFULLY VOICED BY MARK HAMILL, WHICH IS HANDY. HE TALKS AN AWFUL LOT.” At the same me, Bats is vulnerable. You’re not impervious to bullets and, as the game progresses, your foes get ever more lethal. Faced with a room full of 5 gun-to ng sociopaths, you’ll need to take the stealth route. Grapple up to a handily-placed gargoyle then glide down and introduce boot to face. Spray explosive gel on a wall, hide round the corner, then set it off and watch the thugs tumble. Did I men on Batarangs? Obviously there are Batarangs. Then there’s Detec ve Vision. With a flick of the shoulder bu on you’ll be able to see through walls, analyse crime scenes and track clues. It’s beau fully done and plays to the measured, tech-driven side of the Bat. He may be on his own, but he’s got a billion dollars worth of crime-bus ng gear with him. It’s not perfect. It’s fundamentally a linear narra ve: you’re driven from one sec on of Arkham to the next. You can explore to find Riddler trophies, which will enhance XP and unlock power-ups, but you don’t have to: just keep an eye on the map and follow the hints. The Joker’s beau fully voiced by Mark Hamill, which is handy. He talks an awful lot. So nothing ground-breaking here, except the simple fact that this is an outstanding superhero game with real polish and sa sfying gameplay. Even with very few other pretenders to that plaudit, it delivers. Rob Hobson
OVERALL
9.5/10 phonica magazine uk
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COMPETITION
BATMAN: ARKHAM ASYLUM IN THIS ISSUE ONE LUCKY READER WOULD WIN A COPY OF BATMAN: ARKHAM ASYLUM
THIS GAME COULD BE YOURS! ENTER FOR YOUR CHANCE! Compe on Rules Join our group on Facebook; search for Phonica Magazine UK. Follow Us on Twi er: @PhonicaMagUK. Email your full name, address, email and mobile contact, along with your Twi er username to phonicacompe ons@phonicamagazine.co.uk One entry per person
Terms and Condi ons (1)The prize is one Batman: Arkham Asylum game. (2) No cash or other prize alterna ves are offered. (3) All entries must be received no later than 23rd October 2009. The winner would be no fied within 7 days of this date and would be published in the following issue. (4) The Editor’s decision is final. (5) Compe on open to UK residents only, except employees of Phonica Magazine.
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REVIEWS KEEP A CADDY IN YOUR POCKET, WITH TEE SHOT LIVE FROM EA SPORTS EA sports have released a new app for the iPhone, that’ll turn even the worst golfer into a Saturday morning Tiger Woods. Well, actually it might not make you the best player in the world, but it’ll at least tell you where you’re going wrong. Tee Shot Live is a clever li le app that allows the player to judge his next shot to perfec on. From your iPhone, you can bring up an overview of the hole, see a suggested route to the pin, and even see how other players have shaved valuable distance off the hole. Obviously, you’ll have to make the final swing yourself, as the iPhone is currently not a very good golfer (give it me!), but every li le helps in a sport where even the slightest frac on can make the difference. From then on, you can keep count of your score via the interac ve score card, calculate stats such as total drive distance or an hole by hole average, and show you’re best scores off to your friends “Golfers are always looking for an advantage to enhance their game and this innova ve applica on provides them with all the tools and informa on they need to succeed and share their accomplishments with others,” said Execu ve Producer Mike Taramykin. “Tee Shot Live is another example of how EA SPORTS is working to infuse our franchise exper se and technological innova ons and applying it to real-life environments that enhance the way that people see and experience their favorite sports.” Once back at home a er a long days pu ng, users will be able to access the EA SPORTS Tee Shot Live website that will allow them to store and share sta s cs and scorecards, organize custom groups and events, create virtual tournaments and upload, review and compare various equipment and gear with their friends and the community. The EA SPORTS Tee Shot Live website is available at www.teeshotlive.ea.com. With over 9,000 golf courses currently available, and more to follow, Tee Shot Live looks a like a cracking li le app, and at present it’s a bargain at only 99cents. But be quick as it’ll goes up to $9.99 a er the first week. FOUR! Sco Tierney
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REVIEWS
HALO 3: ODST (XBOX 360) This game has a lot to live up to. Not only is it the natural successor (or prequel) to the hugely praised Halo 3, but it IS also the last game before the hotly an cipated, Halo Reach, is released next year. But, judging by the hugely posi ve reviews Halo 3: ODST has received; you’d think Bungie had pulled another laser blas ng gem out of the bag. Well, let’s take a look, and see if all the hype is truly deserved. Instead of playing as the Master Chief, the noble and all concurring hero that took centre stage in the three previous games, in Halo 3: ODST, you play the roles of a group of average solders (the ODST or Helljumpers), as they try to cope with the events that take place a er a disastrous drop into enemy territory. Obviously, these soldiers don’t have the strength or speed of the Master Chief, so you’ll have to employ different tac cs to take down your enemies.
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The game takes place in two main sec ons. Firstly, as a rookie; who a er being knocked unconscious during the drop, finds himself alone in the centre of a war torn city, hours a er the main ba les have taken place. As the rookie, you have to piece together what happened to the rest of your squad, by following your squad’s footprints and finding clues that have been sca ered around the city. When you find a clue, the second part of Halo 3: ODST takes place, as you find out what happened to a member of the squad, by playing through their sec on of the story. It’s a very clever way of playing, and it gives a much needed depth to what could have been a very dull story.
Gameplay is a bit up and down though, and at mes very dull indeed, mainly due to the lackluster rookie sec ons. The other sec ons involving your lost team mates are superb, with a classy mix of theatrical set pieces and explosive ac on, but once each is finished, you’re back into a dull Rookie sec on, as you trudge across the deserted city finding clues.
The mix of two stories con nues into the visual side, with the rookie sec ons taking place in the city at night (with a style reminiscing of Blade Runner) and the other sec ons mainly taking place during the day, over a variety of levels and environments. It’s a well balanced mix, and although the nigh me rookie sec ons all look the same, Halo 3: ODST does look fantas c. There are some superb set pieces also, with one of the best being the destruc on of the bridge later on in the game. Not to be missed, I assure you!
Overall, Halo 3: ODST is hit and miss. If the dull rookie sec ons were a bit more exci ng, or at least had some surprises or variety, Halo 3: ODST would have been a classic, and a great stop-gap un l the eagerly awaited Reach. But sadly, Halo 3: ODST is a bit of a let down, and nowhere near as good as some reviews have made out.
“THERE ARE SOME SUPERB SET PIECES THAT ARE NOT TO BE MISSED, I ASSURE YOU!”
OVERALL
Sco Tierney
8.0/10 phonica magazine uk
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REVIEWS
THE BEATLES ROCKBAND (XBOX 360, PS3, WII) YOU’LL HAVE BLISTERS ON YOUR FINGERS!
I love The Beatles, so this review will have a touch of the rose- nted-spectacles about it. Hey Bulldog, Taxman, Helter Skelter; all classic tracks that s ll sound as fresh today as they did over 40 years ago. So, what is it like playing these classic tracks yourself, and is The Beatles Rockband a fi ng tribute to the best band of all me?
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I don’t need to explain the premise of a Rockband game, as I’m sure you’ve either played a version yourself or seen one in ac on. You either love these guitar games or you hate them, but it’s hard not to love The Beatles Rockband; it’s just so buoyant and charming. Whereas the Guitar Hero games (although superb in their own right) occasionally came across as a tad brash, and maybe wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea, The Beatles Rockband appeals to all ages; and if there’s not one tune off the list of 45 that you don’t know, we’d be very surprised.
REVIEWS “THE BEATLES ROCKBAND IS STUNNING, AND EVEN ON THE LESS POWERFUL WII, IT STILL LOOKS GORGEOUS.”
The Fab Four have been lovingly recreated in a style that is reminiscing of the Yellow Submarine film, but in 3D. It’s a fantas c mix, and some of the background music videos are superb. One that springs to mind immediately is the While my Guitar Gently Weeps video, which is a beau fully subdue montage of endless fields and the Fab Four in ac on. Visually, The Beatles Rockband is stunning, and even on the less powerful Wii, it s ll looks gorgeous. The whole presenta on is first class, and you can really feel the love that has gone into the produc on.
There are a few downers though, namely that The Beatles Rockband is quite short. Although the game offers almost unlimited playability via quick play, as you struggle to master every song, the career mode doesn’t quite li off. It’s great fun, and as you only have to play each song once to progress to the next, unlike the dour repea ng of songs in Guitar Hero, it gives a great insight into The Beatles as you watch them grow. I just wish
Gameplay wise, The Beatles Rockband is fun when played alone, but when played with a group of friends, it really comes into its own. With the choice of three playable instruments (base, guitar and drums) and the added bonus of the sing along mode, there’s a place in the band for everyone. Even the most bu er-fingered of gamers can have a quick blast, with the difficulty se ngs accommoda ng all variants of ability. To be honest, the easiest se ng is VERY easy, but once you move up, the challenge is immense.
Overall, The Beatles Rockband sounds as good as it plays. It’s fantas c fun, tremendously enjoyable and most importantly, a fi ng tribute to the best band in the world!
there were a few more environments to perform in, or a few different challenge modes; just something else to give it a bit of a extra punch.
OVERALL
Sco Tierney
9.0/10
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REVIEWS
NEED FOR SPEED SHIFT PS3, XBOX 360, PSP, PC) The Need for Speed series has taken a re-shredding drive up every avenue since the first game arrived back in 1994. What started out as simple thrash-about arcade racer has gone on to become a high speed pursuit game, a highly technical sports car racer, a rally game, an underground racer and then back to high speed pursuit game. So, what is Need for Speed Shi , arcade racer or simulator? To be honest, I haven’t the foggiest. Need for Speed Shi has a lot in common with the TOCA race driver series, or the current Colin McRae game. You start out as a novice driver, compe ng in minor warm-up races against weak opponents, picking up prize money to upgrade your car and gain entrance to higher prized events. As you get be er and gain recogni on within the motorsport community, you are given the chance to move up to bigger and faster vehicles, culmina ng in the NFS World series. It’s a simple and much used format, and to be honest it hasn’t been put to its fullest use in Need for Speed Shi , but it keeps the game rolling. An odd absence though is the quickplay op on. On start-up, you can only select the op ons of start/con nue the career mode. Very strange… Just as in previous NFS games, you pick up bonus points depending on how you drive. If you drive like a nu er, smashing into other drivers and generally being a crash on wheels, you’ll pick up points in this category. But if you drive smoothly, you’ll pick up these points. These point tallies make for interes ng reading a er the race, although it is irrita ng when you win a perfectly driven race, but only receive half the points than if you’d smashed your way through the grid and finished third. Oh well, it’s not the winning that counts.
Visually, there’s nothing in Need for Speed Shi that’ll blow you away. The cars and tracks all look reasonable, and the effects - such as re smoke – are well detailed. The crashes are quite impressive though, and when you injure a par cularly server shunt while using the on-board viewpoint, you’re vision become blurred on impact, making for a highly realis c experience.
The thing that stands out the most though, is Need for Speed Shi ’s peculiar handling; it’s neither delicate nor precise. Each car seems to handle in a way that feels like an oil tanker, on ice. The steering is heavy and numb, but also uncontrollably twitchy. It’s really hard to describe, and it brings us back to the original ques on; is this supposed to be an arcade racer or simulator? The controls aren’t realis c, far from it, but they’re not accessible or direct either. They’re an odd, incomputable mix of both, and this makes racing a truly infuria ng experience. To answer the ques on of what Need for Speed Shi is, a racer or a simulator, the answer is neither and both; it’s confused. On one hand you have the realis c damage models and ‘realis c’ handling, but then you have the rewards for smashing other drivers off the track and the comical car control. It’s very, very odd. What this game really is though, is a quick racing snack un l the main course arrives in the shape of Forza 3 and Gran Turismo 5. Now those two games aren’t confused!
OVERALL
6.0/10
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Sco Tierney
REVIEWS “NEED FOR SPEED SHIFT IS A QUICK RACING SNACK UNTIL THE MAIN COURSE ARRIVES IN THE SHAPE OF FORZA 3 AND GRAN TURISMO 5.”
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REVIEWS
DEMON’S SOULS (PS3) It’s at about the 6-hour mark that I realise: Demon’s Souls doesn’t hate me. It loves me. It wants me to be happy. As the gigan c dual katana-wielding skeleton slices my face off for the second me in quick succession, it becomes clear. This is tough love. You have to learn (thunk). You have to grow as a person (k-thwang). It’s not you, it’s me (fsshhhh, argh... thud). Demon’s Souls is a brutally absorbing PS3 exclusive. At the me of wri ng, we Brits can only import it from Japan or Korea (the la er is advised, unless you speak Japanese). It’s a bleak, pared-down, swords ‘n’ magic RPG from King’s Field developer From So ware. You get five worlds, each divided into three or four chapters. Everything in them will try to kill you the moment it lays eyes on you. This may be without warning. Even rela vely low-powered enemies can scrape a frighteningly large slice off your health bar. Bigger, more in mida ng opponents can despatch you with a single hit. And at the end of each chapter, there’s a boss. Usually a really, really big one.
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The upshot of all this is that you die. You die a lot. The game’s currency is the souls of the nas es you kill, and when you die you return to the beginning of the level as a soul with half your health, everything respawns, and you have to fight your way to the point where you were despatched to regain the souls you’d collected. If you don’t make it, those souls are lost forever. You’d think this would provoke regular bouts of controller-throwing rage, and you’re not wrong. But Demon’s Souls loves you. It wants you to be a be er person. It encourages you to learn, to see which techniques work best for which enemy. And for a game with this many varie es of nasty, that’s quite an undertaking. So your character can exist in two states: body or soul. If you’re in soul form, there are only 3 ways to get your body back. You can carve your way through a level and slay the mega-beas e at the end, which can be tricky with only half your health bar. Or you can jump into someone else’s game, either to help them or to try to murder them. Yup, you heard that right. You can break into someone else’s world and hunt them down…like a dog.
REVIEWS
It’s a simple, elegant mechanic. Search for your prey using a ’black stone’. Once found, you ‘break’ into that world to track down and kill the player. It can be tricky: a er all, you’re in soul form, so your health is handicapped. But you can be sneaky. In fact, you have to be. Choose your moment, a ack from the shadows... pistols at dawn this ain’t. You can also get and offer help. Plant a ‘blue stone’ in certain parts of a level. Online players will see these blue markers on the floor, and can use them to summon you into their game. Helpers can’t pick up loot, but get a share of the souls harvested. It adds a lot to the game to be able to navigate these dark corridors with a buddy or two. Voice chat isn’t possible - the game only lets you emote - but even so, a sidekick in boss ba les makes a huge difference. Playing alone, the instant kill a acks of the bosses will have you backtracking and rolling like a capoeira-fixated gymnast but, as a team, you can pull Goliath’s a en on from one to another, giving much needed healing me.
Oh yes... something I should have men oned earlier. The astute amongst you may be wondering how, precisely, this drop-in gameplay works if you’re pausing to heal, buff, or whatever. Guess what? You can’t…pause, that is. If you’re down to your last sliver of health, the only way out is to run like hell. Demon’s Souls gives me the shivers. It’s haun ng and relentless. Occasionally, it’s just unfair. It’s also the most compelling game I’ve seen this year, and undoubtedly the most criminally unsung PS3 exclusive out there. If Assassin’s Creed merited the marke ng kerfuffle that it got, then by rights this piece of wizardry would have its own TV channel. It has gameplay that grabs you by the throat and never, not for one second, lets up. The moment you get cocky or careless, Demon’s Souls will kill you. Just remember: it’s all for love. Rob Hobson
OVERALL
9.0/10 phonica magazine uk
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REVIEWS
COLIN MCRAE: DIRT 2 (ALL FORMATS)
The Colin McRae series has changed significantly over the past 10 years. What was originally a highly sophis cated, straight-faced rallying simulator, has now become a wild-eyed, tongue and cheek arcade thrill-fest. But is this a bad thing, and is the latest offering from Codemasters, Colin McRae: Dirt 2, any good? Straight off the bat let me just say that, Colin McRae: Dirt 2, is visually stunning! There are some good looking games out at present, and the current crop of racers (Forza 2, Gran Turismo, etc) are s ll extremely sharp, but this is something else. It manages to capture a delicate mix of precise photo-realism, while s ll going all out for outrageous thrills. A er a par cularly fran c race, you’re treated to a reply of you mud based exploits. With most games, chances are you’ll skip the instant replay with a casual dismiss, but in Colin McRae: Dirt 2, the replay quality is so good, even the dullest of races is made to look epic. Mud and gravel fly through the air, leaves fall from trees when fran cly passed, and all the vehicles are beau fully cra ed. It’s stunning, simply stunning. So, to look at and admire, Colin McRae: Dirt 2 is a visual masterpiece. As a game though, it’s a hard one to call.
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Codemasters have unashamedly gone straight at the jugular of the MTV genera on with the game, making parts of it feel like the inside of a teenage brat’s bedroom. All the music is very current and – I use this word loosely – edgy; there’s a lot of words like ‘dude’ and ‘bro’ being hurled around by painfully cool drivers and the whole design of the menus are funky.
“STRAIGHT OFF THE BAT LET ME JUST SAY THAT, COLIN MCRAE: DIRT 2, IS VISUALLY STUNNING!” Codemasters have tried everything to make it cool, and to a certain extent Colin McRae: Dirt 2 is so. But sadly it’s cool in the same way as a student loan leaflet from the bank, wri en by a commi ee with an average age of 57. It’s trying to be cool, but it just comes across as awkward and fake. Luckily though, once you’ve dug through all this corporate coolness, you’ll find that Colin McRae: Dirt 2 is a fantas c game.
As with all the Colin McRae games, the central core is the racing; and in Colin McRae: Dirt 2, it’s superb. Once you’ve thrashed through the beau fully tropical jungles of Malaysia at 170mph, bouncing your car off the gravel and power-sliding through the dense undergrowth, nothing else but the racing ma ers. As you splash through a massive puddle, coa ng your turbo-charged 4x4 with mud while you power past another compe tor, you forget all the loading screens and the cringe-worthy coolness; it just doesn’t ma er. The gameplay is so strong, that you’d forgive Colin McRae: Dirt 2 anything. To sum up, Colin McRae: Dirt 2 is a brilliant racer that’ll excite and delight the causal gamer, while s ll providing enough realism and challenge for the hardcore racer. It’s just such a shame that all this quality is coated in a slimy layer of presumptuous coolness; Dude………. man…………..what? Sco Tierney
OVERALL
8.5/10 phonica magazine uk
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REVIEWS
GUITAR HERO 5 (PS3, WII, XBOX 360, PS2) ’85 songs by 83 ar sts’ reads the bold strap line across the rather bland front cover. The makers of Guitar Hero 5, Ac vision, have gone out of their way to publicise the fact that this new entry in the Guitar Hero series has more songs from more ar sts than any other version. Whether it be posters in tube sta ons or semi naked ladies dancing around a crumbling Hugh Hefner, Ac vision have le no stone unturned in their efforts to promote this new game. So, is Guitar Hero 5 any good? Well it depends on what you’re looking for.
Gameplay is s ll the same, with the quickplay op on for those who want a quick jam before bed me, and the carrier mode for those who want to conquer the world with their band. Playing as a group at a party is a lot of fun also, as with a new feature players can leave and rejoin the fun midway through songs, without any loss of points of concentra on. The controls though, when compared to those of Rockband, s ll feel slightly numb. No ma er how you dial in your makeshi instruments, accommoda ng for the delay from your TV, they s ll don’t have that crisp edge. They’re not bad by any means, but every now and then you’ll miss a note that felt as though it was med perfectly. So, is this ‘amazing’ track list that Ac vision has been banging on about any good? Well there’s certainly something for everybody. With playable tracks by ar sts such as Blur, Nirvana, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones and Johnny Cash, there’s bound to be at least a couple of tracks you like. The major problem with having all these tracks, and trying to cater for such a broad audience, is that you won’t like (or even know) a lot of the tracks. Yes, you’ll love some, but chances are you’ll have a selec on of 5-10 tracks that you’ll consistently play, and the rest you’ll ignore. When compared to The Beatles Rockband, which is a far more focused package, Guitar Hero 5 just feels like a confused expansion pack that reeks of filler.
First off, let’s have a look at the game itself. As expected, Guitar Hero 5 is essen ally the same as its younger brothers, though with a bit more polish. The graphics have been sharpened up considerably, and the character anima ons look as good as they’ve ever looked, with custom characters and rock-god recrea ons moving with rhythm induced grace. Also, the custom creator tool has been refined and upgraded, so now you can create a spookily life like recrea on of yourself, with op onal codpiece.
Guitar Hero 5 is a great game and the perfect party plaything when you’ve had one to many. If you don’t own a Guitar Hero game, then this is a perfectly good version to start with. But, Guitar Hero 5 feels less like a complete game and more like a half finished downloadable song pack. The reason Ac vision pushed the publicity so hard and made such a big deal about the massive song list, is because that’s all Guitar Hero 5 has going for it; lots and lots of new tracks and not a lot else. And for £50, you’d expect a lot more.
OVERALL
7.5/10
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Sco Tierney
REVIEWS “WHEN COMPARED TO THE BEATLES ROCKBAND, GUITAR HERO 5 JUST FEELS LIKE A CONFUSED EXPANSION PACK THAT REEKS OF FILLER.”
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REVIEWS
CHAMPIONSHIP MANAGER 2010 (PC) Being a big football management game fan myself, I was hopping to and fro in excitement as Championship Manager 2010 was announced by Eidos. The features looked great – the 3D matchday view looked impressive and would add that touch of realism that was oh-so-lacking in the previous tles. The first impression you get from CM2010 is that the developers have spent a lot of me polishing the game and stripping as much dead wood as possible. The anima ons are much more responsive, the menus are clearer and easier to use, and there is a fair amount of detail in a number of areas including scou ng (which I’ll get onto later) and tac cs. However, as soon as you pick a team and prepare yourself for another grueling yet oddly enthralling 8-hour s nt in front of the computer swea ng blood and tears to push your chosen team to the very top, you start to see the li le fault lines that begin to creep up the walls of the game. Li le oddi es such as watching your goalkeeper save shots while facing the other way, and very very VERY dubious refereeing decisions (I had one of my centre backs sent off for intercep ng a pass too close to the forward) start to leave an impact on your gaming experience. All these li le things do add up, but the bright points of this game seemingly faze them out. The scou ng feature has been heavily reworked, with the ability to control the budget you want to put into scou ng each country in the world for the next Henri Saivet, while there is an in-built filter to remove the really unlikely players that scouts some mes come up with.
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REVIEWS
For example, say you are playing as Cardiff City, and you request your scouts search Spain for some hot new talents – they won’t suggest players like Xavi or David Silva, because the chances of you actually managing to bring players like that to Cardiff are incredibly low. What they will give you though, are players that are suitable for the level of football you are playing and (hopefully) those who can fit into your style of play, whether it is long ball, counter a ack or total football.
“THE PROBLEMS DO ADD UP, BUT THE BRIGHT POINTS FAZE THEM OUT.” Another notable highlight is the detail put into the tac cs screen, where you can adjust and fiddle around with almost every aspect of a player’s game – you can make your very own Cris ano Ronaldo and get your flashy winger to dive at every chance he can throw himself into! Set pieces are also available for customisa on, and there is nothing more sa sfying when you score a lovely team goal from a well placed and taken set-piece. Having been two years in the making, much was expected of Championship Manager 2010, especially since its chief rival, Football Manager, has gone from strength to strength. CM2010 looks like a well-made game with a lot of detail and thought put into it, but it lacks that edge that would have seen it become one of the true greats. What it does do for Eidos, however, is set a pla orm and the founda on for a greater game to be produced. Hopefully, CM2011 (or even 2012) will be on a similar scale but with the flaws and imperfec ons of CM2010 ironed fully out.
OVERALL
Paul Park
7.0/10 phonica magazine uk
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THE GUIDE
PHONICA’S 20 RECOMMENDED RPG’S FALLOUT 3
THE LEGEND OF ZELDA
WORLD OF WARCRAFT
DEUS EX
LANDSTALKER
(Xbox 360, PS3, PC)
(NES)
(PC)
(PC, PS2)
(SEGA MD)
“A jaw-dropping world of endless terror and possibili es; simply epic.”
“Link isn’t just a videogame character, he’s an icon for a genera on, and this instalment was the first and one of the best.”
“The most successful online RPG to date, World of Warcra con nues to amaze players with its rich lore and sa sfying gameplay.”
“The great cyberpunk se ng and conspiracy theory storyline makes Dan Brown look like a reliable historical source.”
“So much more than just Sega’s version of Zelda Aside from the Sonic series, this is arguably the Mega Drive’s finest hour.”
DIABLO II
NEVERWINTER NIGHTS
POKEMON RED AND BLUE
FINAL FANTASY X
FABLE 2
(PC)
(PC)
(Gameboy)
(PS2)
(Xbox 360)
“Swarms of enemies, randomly generated dungeons, a million magic items and manic bu on mashing: that pre y much sums Diablo II up.”
“The Hordes of the Underdark expansion brought in incredibly powerful ‘epic-level’ player characters capable of taking on whole hordes of enemies. And a singing kobold.”
“Back when there were only 150 Pokemon (plus Mew) and not a thousand crazy li le cri ers. The go a catch em all tag line made this a game with real bragging rights.”
“We could have picked from any of the tles from what was voted as the best series ever. This is just about the best though; it’s mind-blowing.”
“With a style of humor that only the English could create, it’s a thigh-slapping tale of epic merriness.”
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THE GUIDE
MASS EFFECT
STAR WARS: KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC
GRAND THEFT AUTO 4
(PC)
(PC, Xbox 360)
(Xbox, PC)
(PC, PS3, Xbox 360)
“A fantas c instalment in one of the greatest single-player RPGs. Open-ended gameplay has never before been so fascina ng.”
“Almost crushed under the weight of its astonishingly dense story, but s ll an incredible journey.”
“ This may well be Bioware’s finest hour to date, with a sa sfying Star Wars backdrop for even the nerdiest of us. Plus you got to wield a lightsaber.”
“Stab someone in the face, then run there disfigured corpse over in their car. What a game, and what a test of ones morals.”
BALDUR’S GATE 2
ELDER SCROLLS III: MORROWIND
(PC)
“Maybe the best story of any computer game ever with great NPC dialogue. All this is set in beau fully rendered, hand drawn isometric environments.”
DEMON’S SOULS
ICEWIND DALE II
GOLDEN SUN
ARCANUM OF STEAMWORKS AND MAGICK OBSCURA
(PS3)
(PC)
(Gameboy Advanced)
(PC)
(PS2)
“A console-exclusive RPG might seem like heresy to some, but this fiendish sword and sorcery epic is brutally exac ng and a gob of phlegm in the eye for anyone who says that games are too easy these days.”
“Outdated DnD combat + character system, with a weak plot and at- mes confusing gameplay. S ll very enjoyable once you realise the amount of detail in the game.”
“A classic turn-based, team-building adventure game. Simple to pick up but with surprising depth and enjoyment.”
“Unique steampunk se ng where magic and Victorian technology mix, badly. Ever wanted to be an Elf with an elephant gun? Or a dwarf in a top hat? Then this is the game for you.”
“A game with a wonderful storyline and well-known characters, a must play for Disney and Square Enix fans.”
KINGDOM HEARTS II
phonica magazine uk
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THE GUIDE
Size weight Frequency Screen Pixels camera resolu on memory/compa bility bluetooth GPRS WLAN Browser Java Messaging Radio Music downloadable games downloadable ringtones Ba ery talk me - mins (max) Ba ery standy - hours (up to) bluetooth carKit compa ble
Size weight Frequency Screen Pixels camera resolu on memory/compa bility bluetooth GPRS WLAN Browser Java Messaging Radio Music downloadable games downloadable ringtones Ba ery talk me - mins (max) Ba ery standy - hours (up to) bluetooth carKit compa ble
Nokia E75
Nokia 6210
Nokia E63
Nokia N97
Nokia 3720 classic
111.8 x 50 x 14.4 mm 139 g Quad-band/3G 320 x 240 3.2 MP 50 MB/microSD Yes/A2DP/microUSB Yes/EDGE Class 32/HSDPA Yes Wap/xHTML/HTML Yes SMS/MMS/Email Yes
103 x 49 x 14.9 mm 117 g Tri-band 320 x 240 3.2 MP 120 MB/microSD Yes/A2DP/miniUSB Yes/EDGE Class 32/HSDPA No Wap/xHTML/HTML Yes SMS/MMS/Email Yes
113 x 59 x 13 mm 126 g Quad-band 320 x 240 2 MP 110 MB/microSD Yes/A2DP/microUSB Yes/EDGE Class 32 Yes Wap/xHTML/HTML Yes SMS/MMS/Email/IM Yes
117.2 x 55.3 x 15.9 mm 150 g Quad-band/3G 640 x 360 5 MP 32 GB/microSD Yes/A2DP/microUSB Yes/EDGE Class 32 Wi-Fi Wap/xHTML/HTML Yes SMS/MMS/Email/IM Yes
115 x 47 x 15.3 mm 94 g Tri-band 320 x 240 2 MP 20 MB/microSD Yes/A2DP/microUSB Yes/EDGE Class 11 No Wap/xHTML/HTML Yes SMS/MMS/Email Yes
MP3/AAC/WAV/WMA
MP3/WAV/AAC/WMA
MP3/WAV/AAC/WMA
MP3/AAC/eAAC/eAAC+/WMA
MP3/MP4/eAAC+/WMA
Yes MP3 340 264 Yes
Yes Poly/MP3/AAC 222 244 Yes
Yes Polyphonic & MP3 660 432 Yes
Yes MP3 570 430 Yes
Yes Poly/MIDI/Real Tone/MP3 420 450 Yes
HTC Magic
HTC Hero
Apple iPhone 3G S
Apple iPhone 3G
INQ Chat 3G
113 x 55 x 13.7 mm 118.5 g Quad-band 320 x 480 3.15 MP 288 MB/microSD Yes/miniUSB Yes/EDGE Class 10 Wi-Fi HTML Yes,via 3rd party SMS/MMS/Email/IM No
112 x 56.2 x 14.35 mm 135 g Quad-band/3G 320 x 480 5 MP 288 MB/microSD ™ Yes/A2DP/miniUSB Yes/EDGE Class 10 Wi-Fi HTML Yes SMS/MMS/Email/IM Yes
11.5 x 62.1 x 12.3 mm 135 g Quad-band/3G 480 x 320 3.15 MP 16/32 GB (internal) Yes/USB Yes/EDGE Wi-Fi HTML (Safari) No SMS/MMS/Email No
11.5 x 62.1 x 12.3 mm 133 g Quad-band/3G 480 x 320 2MP 8/16 GB (internal) Yes/A2DP/USB Yes/EDGE Yes HTML (Safari) No SMS/Email No
114.5 x 61 x 12.8 mm 93 g Tri-band/3G 176 x 220 3.2 MP 120 MB/Memory S ck Micro ™ Yes/A2DP/USB Yes Yes Net Front Yes SMS/MMS/Email No
MP3/MP4
MP3/AAC+/WAV/WMA 9
MP3/MP3 VBR/AAC/WAV
MP3/MP3 VBR/AAC/WAV
AMR/AAC/AAC+/eAAC
Yes Poly/MP3/WAV 450 420 Yes
Yes Poly/MP3/WAV 420 750 Yes
Yes Poly & MP3 720 300 Yes
Yes Poly & MP3 600 300 Yes
AMR/AAC/AAC+/eAAC/MIDI/MP3/WAV 480 170 Yes
62 phonica magazine uk
THE GUIDE
Nokia 5800 Xpress Music
Sony Ericsson Yari
Sony Ericsson Naite
Sony Ericsson C901
Sony Ericsson C510
111 x 51.7 x 15.5 mm 109 g Quad-band 640 x 360 3.2 MP 81 MB/microSD Yes/A2DP/microUSB Yes/EDGE Class 32 Yes Wap/xHTML/HTML/WML Yes SMS/MMS/Email/IM Yes
100 x 48 x 15.7 mm 115 g Quad-band/3G 240 x 320 5 MP 60 MB/microSD Yes/A2DP/USB Yes/EDGE Class 10 No Wap/xHTML Yes SMS/MMS/Email/IM Yes
108 x 47 x 12.6 mm 84 g Quad-band 240 x 320 2 MP 100 MB/microSD Yes/A2DP/USB Yes/EDGE Class 10 No Wap/xHTML Yes SMS/MMS/Email/IM Yes
105 x 45 x 13 mm 107 g Quad-band 240 x 320 5 MP 120 MB/Memory S ck Micro ™ Yes/A2DP/USB Yes No Wap/xHTML Yes SMS/MMS/Email/IM Yes
107 x 47 x 12.5 mm 92 g Quad-band 240 x 320 3.15 MP 100 MB/Memory S ck Micro ™ Yes/A2DP/USB Yes/EDGE Class 10 No Wap/xHTML Yes SMS/MMS/Email Yes
MP3/AAc/AAC+/eAAC+/WMA
MP3/eAAC+/WMA
MP3/MP4/eAAC+/WMA
MP3/eAAC+/WMA
MP3/AAC/MP4
Yes Polyphonic & MP3 528 406 Yes
Yes Poly/MP3/AAC 600 450 Yes
Yes Poly/MP3/AAC 564 380 Yes
Yes Poly & MP3 570 430 Yes
Yes Poly/MP3/Aac 420 400 Yes
BlackBerry 8520
BlackBerry Bold 9000
BlackBerry 8300 Curve Samsung Jet
Samsung U900
109 x 60 x 13.9 mm 106 g Quad-band 320 x 240 2 MP 256 MB/MicroSD Yes/A2DP/microUSB Yes/EDGE Class 10 Yes HTML Yes SMS/MMS/Email/IM No
114 x 66 x 14 mm 133 g Quad-band/3G 480 x 320 2MP 1GB/microSD Yes/A2DP/USB Yes/USB Yes/EDGE Class 10 Yes HTML Yes SMS/MMS/Email/IM No
107 x 60 x 15.5 mm 111 g Quad-band 320 x 240 2MP 64MB/microSD Yes/microUSB Yes/EDGE No HTML Yes SMS/MMS/Email/IM No
103.2 x 49.3 x 10.9 mm 81.5 g Quad-band 240 x 320 3.2MP 80MB/microSD
108 x 53.5 x 11.9 mm 110 g Quad-band/3G 480 x 800 5MP 2/8 GB (internal)/microSD Yes/A2DP/USB Yes/EDGE Class 12/HSDPA Wi-Fi Wap/Dolphin Yes SMS/MMS/Email/Vidoe/MS Exchange Yes
Yes/EDGE Class 10 No WAP/xHTML Yes SMS/MMS/EMS/Email Yes
MP3/AAC/WMA/AAC+/MP4/WMV
MP3/WMA/AAC+
MP3/AAC/AAC+/eAAC+/WMA
MP3/AAC/AAC+/eAAC+/WMA/AMR
MP3/MPEG4/AAC/eAAC/WMA
Yes Poly/MIDI/MP3 270 408 Yes
Yes Poly & MP3 300 310 Yes
Yes Poly & MP3 240 408 Yes
Yes Poly/MP3/WAV 492 422 Yes
Yes Poly & MP3 210 220 Yes
phonica magazine uk
63