Issue 17 by PhonicaMagUK

the mobile phone and gaming magazine www.phonicamagazine.co.uk

Volume 2

Issue1

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WHAT’S INSIDE VOLUME 2 ISSUE 1 2011

REVIEWS

NEWS Nokia joins forces with leading Chinese Internet Service Providers to boost its loca on based services Sony Ericsson launches the Xperia Arc on Android 2.3 Unify signs partnership with Three Mass Eﬀect 3 Incep on, the game Final Fantasy XIV performance drops Microso and Sony engage in mo on-based sales ba le

6 7 8 9 10 11 12

PREVIEWS 14 16 18

Infamous 2 Dragon Age II L.A. Noire

FEATURES IS 1 THE LONELIEST GAMING NUMBER? As the number of online gamers increases, is single player gaming beginning to fade away?

BLACKBERRY APPS o Screen Muncher o Falldown o Snake o Drive Safely o Chat on Facebook Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood A Shadow’s Tale Fallout: New Vegas Divinity II: Flames of Vengeance Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Red Dead Redemp on: Undead Nightmare Dead Rising 2 Enslaved: Odyssey to the West Medal of Honour Front Mission Evolved F1 2010 WRC: FIA World Rally Championship Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock

28 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 46 48 50 52

THE GUIDE 56

Mobile Phones

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EDITOR IN CHIEF Kevin Leonce

EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Elena Biagi

GAMING EDITOR Sco Tierney

CONTRIBUTORS Alex Russell Rob Hobson Paul Park Christopher Harris

CREATIVE SERVICES & DESIGN Sco Tierney www.sco - erney.com

PUBLIC RELATIONS Ashka Thacker

EDITORIAL editorial@phonicamagazine.co.uk

ENQUIRIES info@phonicamagazine.co.uk

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EDITOR’S LETTER TIS THE SEASON TO BE…. Thanks for ge ng another great issue of your mobile phone and gaming magazine. While some are enjoying the warmth of the ﬁreplace, and the smell of chestnuts roas ng on the ﬁreplace, others like myself have to endure coldness while being stuck on a train home…Happy Days! Luckily I have a bag full of goodies, and a great issue to preview (ha, yes I read it all before you did!) so it isn’t that bad. Apps, the thingy bobsies (as my Nan calls it) that everyone is sure to be downloading a lot of this holiday season provides a mobile comfort for the non Nintendo DS and PSP owners like moi….French indeed (there’s an App for that). We’d also like to say a special thanks to Santa’s elves, who opened a few of the gi s that were intended for the good kids, un l they were naughty, and supplied us with all the reviews for this issue. So cheers to the elves, and the naugh es for making this issue of Phonica Magazine UK possible. Appy Christmas!

Your Editor in Chief

Kevin Leonce

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NEWS NOKIA TO JOIN FORCES WITH SINA AND TENCENT, CHINA’S LEADING INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDERS, ON LOCATION BASED SERVICES THROUGH OVI MAPS Nokia has announced that it has signed agreements with China’s two leading Internet service providers, SINA and Tencent. Both SINA and Tencent services will be seamlessly integrated with Nokia’s Ovi Maps in China, invi ng millions of people to share their loca on with friends and communi es through Ovi Maps on their favorite social network. Users of SINA microblog and Tencent’s online community (QQ) will be able to share their loca on through Nokia mobile devices, check-in to loca ons and be able to upload loca on based content such as recommenda ons and comments of restaurants, shops and movie theatres. The first loca on based services for SINA and Tencent customers through Ovi Maps are planned to be available during the first quarter of 2011. “This collabora on with SINA and Tencent marks a significant milestone, as we bring together mobile internet and loca on based services in China. More than 250 million people are using a Nokia device in China and with this partnership, we can help people share their loca on with their friends and communi es through Ovi Maps on their favorite social network,” said Phil Kemp, Vice President, Services, Nokia.

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SINA Corpora on is a leading online media company and mobile value-added service provider for China and for the global Chinese communi es that provides an array of services, including region-focused online portals, MVAS, social networking service (SNS), blog, audio and video streaming, album, online games, email, search, classiﬁed lis ngs, fee-based services, e-commerce and enterprise e-solu ons.

“MORE THAN 250 MILLION PEOPLE ARE USING A NOKIA DEVICE IN CHINA.” Tencent, founded in 1998, is one of China’s largest and most used Internet services portal oﬀering Internet value-added services, mobile and telecommunica ons value-added services and online adver sing. Tencent’s leading Internet pla orms in China - QQ (QQ Instant Messenger), QQ.com, QQ Games, Qzone, 3g.QQ.com, SoSo, PaiPai and Tenpay - have brought together China’s largest Internet community, to meet the various needs of Internet users including communica on, informa on, entertainment, e-commerce and others. As of September 30, 2010, the ac ve QQ user accounts for QQ IM amounted to 636.6 million while its peak simultaneous online user accounts reached 118.7 million.

NEWS

XPERIA ARC COMBINES STUNNING DESIGN WITH SONY TECHNOLOGY ON ANDROID PLATFORM VERSION 2.3 NEWEST ADDITION TO THE XPERIA RANGE DELIVERS VISUAL BRILLIANCE AND THE ULTIMATE MULTIMEDIA EXPERIENCE Sony Ericsson recently unveiled the new Xperia Arc smartphone with cu ng edge Sony technology and an excep onal mul media experience on the latest version of the Android pla orm - 2.3. Xperia Arc is the ﬁrst of a new genera on of Xperia smartphones to be announced in 2011.

“XPERIA ARC COMBINES STATE-OF-THE-ART SONY TECHNOLOGY WITH BREATHTAKING DESIGN TO ENTERTAIN AND WOW CONSUMERS.” Bert Nordberg, President, Sony Ericsson said, “We’re star ng strong in 2011 by introducing our most exci ng Xperia product yet. Xperia Arc combines state-of-the-art Sony technology with breathtaking design to entertain and wow consumers. All on the latest Android release.”

Xperia Arc takes the stunning design language that Sony Ericsson has become known for to a new level. Super slim and light, Xperia Arc is just 8.7mm at its thinnest part and has an extra wide 4.2” mul -touch screen. Created from premium materials and with a stunning arc body, this smartphone is sleek, strong and designed to ﬁt perfectly in the user’s hand. The best of Sony technology is inside Xperia Arc. The Reality Display with Mobile BRAVIA Engine delivers excep onal visual brilliance and a crystal clear image which enhances the overall entertainment experience. Furthermore, Sony’s award-winning Exmor R for mobile sensor with the f/2.4 lens enables the capture of high quality, bright pictures and HD videos even in low light. All pictures and videos can be shared in HD on your living room TV via the built in HDMI-connector. Xperia Arc will launch on the latest version of the Android pla orm providing access to Google Mobile Services and the myriad of applica ons available on the Android market. Xperia smartphones add best in class entertainment on top of smartphone fundamentals such as apps, maps, email and fast Internet to create the most entertaining smartphone experience. Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc will be available globally in selected markets, including Japan, from Q1 in the colours Midnight Blue and Misty Silver.

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NEWS UNIFY SIGNS FULL MVNO PARTNERSHIP WITH THREE THREE, THE UK’S BIGGEST 3G NETWORK OPERATOR, HAS ADDED TO ITS LIST OF PARTNERS AFTER SIGNING A FULL MVNO DEAL WITH UNIFY MOBILE. Unify operates the fourth mobile network in Switzerland, the USA and Liechtenstein as well as full MVNOs in the Netherlands and Germany. The agreement with Three will see them extend their fast growing interna onal footprint and customer base to the UK with a complete service launch, planned in early Q2. Unify Mobile focuses on building a customer base targeted at the business and interna onal communi es, alongside tradi onal models. “We are delighted to be partnering with Three UK”, commented Unify’s CEO Bart Verkruijssen. “Opera ng Unify services on the UK’s biggest 3G Network gives us the opportunity to really diﬀeren ate and oﬀer our customers the very latest in mobile voice and data services.” “Unify’s experience in the global mobile market, combined with our leading 3G Network, will result in new and innova ve proposi ons for the end customer. The Unify Mobile deal is a strong start to 2011, with Three having tripled wholesale growth in 2010 amongst its MVNO partners.” said Lynda Burton, Director of Wholesale at Three. The announcement comes as UK customers rate Three as the number one network for smartphones when it comes to speed, overall quality, ease of use and customer sa sfac on in the latest YouGov Smartphone Mobile Internet Experience Report (SMIX) results. The operator has now also been named three mes in a row as the country’s best when it comes to mobile broadband in the YouGov Dongletracker survey while Three also comes top in the YouGov iPhone survey.

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NEWS

MASS EFFECT 3... OR NOT TO BE? MORE MULTIPLAYER FROM THE NEXT EXPECTED MASS EFFECT SPIN-OFF With the Video Game Awards set to be the stage on which Bioware reveal the next Mass Eﬀect game, rumours have been bandied around that the new tle will not be the next in series as many had predicted – cue screams of frustra on from many Commander Shepard fans.

Instead of a massively mul player online tle, the new game will focus on the niche that Call of Duty has so far carved out for itself - along with a handful of tles - with an extensive character development system to be the structure of the game. A single player game mode is conﬁrmed but unfortunately will not feature Commander Shepard.

“A SINGLE PLAYER GAME MODE IS CONFIRMED BUT UNFORTUNATELY WILL NOT FEATURE SHEPARD.”

The Video Game Awards on the 11th of December will be where Bioware plan to unveil a new game, with a teaser picture released on their Facebook page that so far has been dissected by many hardcore fans of the Mass Eﬀect series – and with surprising results.

Instead, the tle will be a spin-oﬀ from the series with mul player to be a major feature, something that will most deﬁnitely be met with a mixed reac on.

I’m Commander Shepard and I order you to watch this space (it had to be done!) Paul Park

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NEWS

NOLAN HINTS AT INCEPTION GAME IT COULD BE A TANTALISING TITLE, BUT COULD OUR BRAINS HANDLE ANOTHER MULTI-LAYERED PUMMELLING? With cinema carpets just about dry from the pints of melted brain that soaked them during the summer, it looks like our front rooms may also be about to get the same mental-marmite s cky treatment. Not only is the remarkably complex Incep on revving up for a Blu-ray and DVD this Christmas, but the ﬁlm’s director, Christopher Nolan, has also hinted that the mind bending ﬁlm could also be transplanted into a video game.

“I ALWAYS IMAGINED INCEPTION TO BE A WORLD WHERE A LOT OF OTHER STORIES COULD TAKE PLACE.” Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Nolan stated that although a sequel is not likely, a game could be a serious possibility.

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“I always imagined Incep on to be a world where a lot of other stories could take place. At the moment, the only direc on we’re channeling that is by developing a video game set in the world. A veritable massive mul player online role-playing game (as imagined by Carl Jung) would seem to be a perfect for the interac ve, non-linear dream world of Incep on”. Incep on could be the ideal template for a game, and one that would involve more than enough mental agility and finger-twitching challenge for anyone. The thought of ba ling through different characters’ minds, laying traps for their subconscious to stumble into, not to men on the concept of crea ng an en rely new dreamscape from scratch, are truly tantalising. That said, it’ll be an almigh ly challenge for any developer to get such a complex and detailed concept into a game, and s ll make it assessable and compelling enough for the gamer without popping their cranium before the first load screen. The film was, at mes, hard enough to watch, so imagine actually being involved in some of those staggeringly complicated scenarios, involving several levels of a dream and mul -faceted characters…I’ve got a headache already. Sco Tierney

NEWS FINAL FANTASY XIV NUMBERS DROP SQUARE ENIX TO OFFER EXTRA FREE MONTH’S GAMEPLAY & MASSIVE CHANGES INBOUND In the face of dwindling numbers and a declining interest in the tle since its launch in late September, Square Enix have been forced into what seems like desperate moves in order to retain its current player base in Final Fantasy XIV, and hopefully a ract a few more players. Outlining a number of much-needed changes to be made within the next few months, Final Fantasy XIV seems to be finally finding its feet in the MMO market. On release day, there were many complaints for varying reasons across the board – a weak, complicated interface, equally confusing mechanics that were never really explained, and niggly things that grated on a player’s enjoyment. Square Enix are hoping that their planned changes, such as adding new content (quests, etc), allowing the difficulty of a quest to be changed during the quest as well as before, and more beginner quests in order to smoothen the transi on from other games, online and offline, to the world of Eorzea, will help change the game’s fate. Smaller things such as improvements to the “retainer” system (FF14’s version of the Auc on House) and simple commands such as assist and drag-and-drop capabili es are also on the menu: staples in most other MMOs. It’s an extensive list of changes that Square Enix is faced with, which poses the ques on, was Final Fantasy XIV really ready for release? Only me will tell. Paul Park

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NEWS

SONY AND MICROSOFT CONTINUE MOTION-BASED SALES WAR. MOVE IS CURRENTLY IN THE LEAD, BUT KINNECT IS NOT FAR BEHIND As Crimbo approaches, this year’s gaming stocking fillers are bound to come from one of two corners. In the red corner, it’s Sony with their Move: to but it plainly, their, albeit improved, version of Nintendo’s Wii Remote. In the green-glow corner, it’s Microso , with their inven ve mo on capturing Kinect device. So, which one of these futuris c contrap ons will be the champion come Christmas morning? If early indica ons are anything to go by, Sony look to be pushing ahead, with thus far 4.1 million Moves selling since their release this autumn. To put that sta s c into some form of se ng, it roughly translates as 1 in 10 PS3 owners having a Move. Not bad at all, and Sony are more than happy to back this up: “The number not only shows clear success of the launch of the new mo on sensing controller but also indicates posi ve momentum going in to the holiday season and to the year 2011.” But Microso isn’t far behind, with 2.5 million Kinects selling in the first 25 days. Understandable, like Sony, Microso are pre y thrilled with these early figures also:

“We are thrilled about the consumer response to Kinect, and are working hard with our retail and manufacturing partners to expedite produc on and shipments of Kinect to restock shelves as fast as possible to keep up with demand,” said Don Ma rick, president of the Interac ve Entertainment Business at Microso . So, who’s going to come out on top? Well, if you were simply going to place your bets on Sony, solely because of the vast price diﬀerence between the Move and the Kinect (Kinect is approximately £130, while Move comes in at around the £60 mark), then you maybe onto a winner. With customers expected to be a li le cash-strapped this season, Move could be a more viable op on considering it’s half the price of Kinect.

“WE ARE THRILLED ABOUT THE CONSUMER RESPONSE TO KINECT.” But - and this is just a suspicion - I’ve got a feeling that Kinect will be the ul mate winner in the long run. Sony are sure to win the Christmas sales ba le, but Microso may end up winning the war next year, simply because the Kinect is a far more appealing and radical product. But hey, who knows. Let’s just refrain from peeking under the bed at the current sales stats, and wait un l Christmas morning for the surprise. Sco Tierney

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PREVIEWS

INFAMOUS 2 PUBLISHERS: SONY DEVELOPERS: SUCKER PUNCH PRODUCTIONS FORMAT: PS3 GENRE: OPEN WORLD ACTION-ADVENTURE AVAILABLE: 2011

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PREVIEWS INFAMOUS GETS RECHARGED FOR A ZAPPY 2011 SEQUEL Infamous was one of the sleeper hits of 2009, which despite receiving both cri cal and fan-based acclaim, was largely overlooked in favour of the bigger-hi ers of the year, such as Batman Arkham Asylum, Uncharted 2 and Modern Warfare 2. But, its quality and zapping-based excellence was never in doubt, and unsurprisingly, a sequel is in the pipeline for 2011. Although, this me around, things are going to be a li le bit different… If you’re unfamiliar with the plotline and basis of Infamous, here’s a quicker than lightning recap. When the central protagonist Cole MacGrath is caught-up in a vast explosion, he gains super powers that allow him to control and alter electricity. From then on, he uses his powers to become - depending on the gamers’ choice either a glowing beacon of heroism for Empire City, or a force of evil that the city’s civilians fear. With a smart mix of feisty combat and clever role-playing elements, Infamous was a comic-styled blast to play, and the second looks to have built upon this, with the plot of Infamous 2 moving on in a similar vein. This me around, Cole will have to use his mighty powers to fight evil in the New Orleans inspired city of New Marais. A er a showdown with the Beast – a character that is briefly men oned and fought in the original tle – Cole has to ba le for the control of New Marais against the grip of The Mili a, a powerful group that wants to outlaw anyone with superpowers, while he prepares for another scrap with the Beast. To take the fight to the Beast and hopefully come out on top, Cole will have to gain new powers, and hone those that he already possesses. Not to give too much away, but one of these powers will involve ice, although it begs the ques on that, if Cole is essen ally electrical and thus allergic to water, what’s he doing mucking around with ice? That’s just asking for trouble!

Cole’s appearance, much to the derision of the series’ loyal fans, has been altered in Infamous 2, to be er reflect the persona of the character. Gone is the gravel toned and grim character of first, and in is a much cleaner and more personable protagonist, with a new voice (played by Eric Ladin) and a much sharper look. In fairness, Sucker Punch have stated that they wanted to insert more of Cole’s character into the game, and for this, they needed an actor who could not only provide a fi ng voice, but could also act out the role for the sake of mo on capture.

“IF INFAMOUS 2 MANAGES TO BUILD UPON EVERYTHING THAT MADE THE ORIGINAL TITLE SO COMPELLING, THEN IT COULD BE ANOTHER POSSIBLE HIT TO ADD TO THE ALREADY TOPPLING PILE OF 2011 COULD-BE CLASSICS.” Another addi on to Infamous 2 will be the inclusion of more fist-based combat. Rather than simply zapping the baddies from afar like in the first tle, in the sequel, melee combat will play a bigger part, with Cole now having a pair of electrified batons at hand to slap the baddies around. These moments of fis c pummelling looked excellent, and hopefully, will add a bit more…punch…to proceedings. If Infamous 2 manages to build upon everything that made the original tle so compelling, then it could be another possible hit to add to the already toppling pile of 2011 could-be classics. That said, with so many excellent tles in line for a release next year, one being the return of the Batman, Infamous 2 may suffer the same fate of the original, and be squashed into rela ve obscurity by the bigger hi ers. Let’s hope not, as Infamous 2, along with its earlier original, is a tle that deserves far more. Sco Tierney

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DRAGON AGE II PUBLISHER: ELECTRONIC ARTS DEVELOPER: BIOWARE PLATFORM: XBOX 360, PC, PS3 GENRE: THIRD/FIRST-PERSON RPG AVAILABLE: MARCH 2011

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PREVIEWS WITH BOTH DRAGON AGE II AND ANOTHER MASS EFFECT TITLE ON THE HORIZON, 2011 COULD BE A BUSY YEAR FOR BIOWARE. Gameplay will undergo a number of shi s from the first Following an incredibly successful first tle in the Dragon Age series, Bioware is looking once more to draw more disillusioned fans from the online wilderness to the home and comfort of single-player RPG goodness. It’s rare to find such a well made single-player RPG only on the market, and Bioware hit the jackpot in 2010 with both Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age: Origins. Having recently announced another Mass Effect game (although a mul player-oriented one this me round) as well as Dragon Age II, 2011 looks to be very exci ng for the Canadian developers. So what’s in store for Dragon Age fans in the sequel? The storyline hasn’t been fully released yet but it was confirmed that it would not be linear, with the player making choices that would ul mately write history and change the face of the world. Taking control of a Lothering refugee, Hawke, players will be part of the rise in power of their character and their teammates. With the game spanning over a decade in-game, choices made in previous tles (Dragon Age: Origins and Awakening) will also influence the shape of the world as players progress through the game. As me goes by, players will see the effects of their ac ons right up un l their final victory in the Free Marshes. An interes ng feature is that the whole game is to be narrated by someone who had heard the myth of Hawke, years in the future, describing (and some mes exaggera ng) the feats that your character has achieved to a chantry seeker called Cassandra. This way, players can go through 10 years of game me without missing out on their choices coming to frui on or be stuck doing the same hack ‘n’ slash rou ne for literally years.

in the series, with the wheel-based dialogue system made popular in the Mass Effect series - making its debut as part of Dragon Age II. The Dragon Age engine that currently powers the games will be upgraded, with improvements in graphics as well as clarity of control – keybinds will be matched with the controller pad strengths, and players on consoles should no ce that combat is much smoother. The art has undergone an update too, from interfaces on both the PC and console ports, to enemies and spell effects. Previously, only melee classes really had scripted death anima ons – now mages can get in on the fun with fireballs incinera ng enemies, making ragdolls out of hordes of Hurlocks, and even spli ng a giant ogre in half. Possibly the most welcoming change that many players will embrace is the full voicing of the main character. Something that had been lacking in the first, Bioware have taken subtle hints and turned them into a feature that players won’t no ce right off the bat. However, during an intense skirmish, the sound of your character giving one of those trademark cheesy ac on movie quotes (insert 300 reference here) will equally have you burs ng out laughing and steeling yourself for round 136 out of God-knows-how-many. This feature also links in with the dialogue choices you make during the game, with your character’s personality affec ng the type of ba le cries and future dialogue choices players will be faced with. A kind Hawke will have similar yells and replies, while a sarcas c or evil Hawke will come up with wi y gems and put-downs during fights. It’s refreshing to know that there’s always a developer willing to take the mantle dropped by many others and develop excellent, truly groundbreaking single-player tles, and Dragon Age II looks like the pick of the bunch. Oh, and one last thing – yes, there is s ll the romance op on, and yes, those pictures of the scan ly dressed rogue fli ng around the internet? She’s in your party… Enjoy. Paul Park

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PREVIEWS L.A. NOIRE PUBLISHERS: ROCKSTAR DEVELOPERS: TEAM BONDI FORMAT: PS3, XBOX 360, GENRE: SANDBOX MYSTERY AVAILABLE: 2011

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ROCKSTAR LET THE CHARACTERS TELL THE STORY, IN THIS HIGHLY INTELLECTUAL SANDBOX MYSTERY. Rockstar have the uncanny knack of nailing a game’s ambiance. In this year’s seminal tle, Red Dead Redemp on, you could almost taste the sun baked sands of Mexico and smell the gunpowder from a recently ﬁred round. It was the Wild West - or at least how we symbolized the Wild West - in video game form, perfectly recreated and designed with an acute a en on to detail and feel. The same could be said for Rockstar’s other free roaming icon, Grand The Auto, with each tle in the series capturing the essence of their respec ve place and me, whether it be the glossy excess of the 80s, the repugnant Ghe o’s of the 90s or the aggressive nature of the 00s. When Rockstar create a world, they almost always get it spot on, and it’s a good bet that with their next tle, L.A Noire, the same will almost certainly apply. L.A Noire is a sandbox tle in the same vein as GTA, but this me around you’ll have to rely on the sharpness of your nouse, rather than the weight of your right foot. Set in the post war Los Angeles of the 1940s, you play as Detec ve Cole Phelps (played by Mad Men’s Aaron Staton), a returning war veteran who’s making his way up the police ladder. Your assigned tasks will mostly involve solving suspicious crimes, but on occasion you’ll also be asked to help out with shootouts, and also take part in vintage GTA police chases. It all sounds a bit of a laugh, but actually, it’s all very serious...

“L.A NOIRE COULD BE A FANTASTIC TITLE.” L.A Noire is predominantly a mystery/puzzle solver, and for the most part you’ll be interviewing suspects and collec ng evidence that could help crack the case. This may sound a bit tame, but there’s more to this interviewing business than meets the eye. Both Rockstar and Team Bondi have put an enormous amount of work into ensuring that the actors playing the in-game characters can get their performances across accurately, without them being ruined by some lazy character anima on.

Using a system called Mo onScan, each actor is filmed in a white room by 32 cameras, which capture every li le twitch, smirk and minute mannerism that the actor is trying to convey. This extra detail is extremely helpful, as you’ll have to judge, during the game, whether or not each character is fabrica ng their story, and and adjust your interviewing techniques accordingly . Depending on how you read the suspect’s tells, you can retort in one of three responses: believe/coax, doubt/force, and disbelieve/ accuse. You’ll have to be careful though, because if you go flying in Gene Hunt-style and lay some wild accusa ons on the suspect, they’re likely to ask you to produce some evidence to back up your claim. Once you’ve amassed enough evidence, you can then move on and proceed through the case in a way that you see fit. Although you’ll be carefully guided and gently pointed in the right direc on as you go, most of the cases in L.A Noire are open ended, so the result will always depend on how you do your homework. If you think you can nail the murderer in the case early, go for it, bust his behind in the slammer, but he may be the wrong guy, and how will that affect the rest of the game? Who knows, it’s your experience and it’s what you make of it. L.A Noire could be a fantas c tle, as it offers something that most sandbox tles (if not most modern tles) neglect: a degree of intelligent thinking. Sure, L.A Noire will s ll serve up moments of exci ng gameplay, with plenty of car chases, scan ly dressed broads and shootouts played across dimly lit backdrops, but it’s the slower and more character driven aspects that really intrigue. Will the ac ng be good enough to lead the gameplay? Will L.A Noire have enough suspense to contend with its slower pace? Will you be driven to drink by that one case you can’t solve? Personally, I hope so, as although I adore both Red Dead Redemp on and GTA IV, the lack of variety in their missions (kill all the baddies loudly/kill all the baddies quietly/chase someone) was at mes ring. If Rockstar and Team Bondi can get the mix of ac on and puzzling just right, then L.A Noire could be a massive hit. But hey, ge ng it just right is what Rockstar do best. Sco Tierney

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FEATURES

IS 1 THE LONELIEST GAMING NUMBER?

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FEATURES

IS MULTIPLAYER TAKING THE LEAD OVER THE SINGLE PLAYER CAMPAIGN? WE TAKE A LOOK AT THE EFFECT ONLINE GAMING IS HAVING ON TWO CONTRASTING GENRES – THE FIRST-PERSON SHOOTER AND ROLE PLAYING GAMES.

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FEATURES MORE BANG FOR YOUR BUCK WITH YOUR BUDDIES. A short me ago, this year’s much an cipated shooter, Call of Duty: Black Ops, blasted onto the shelves and into the homes of millions. With its mix of an engrossing single player campaign and a mul player mode literally tearing at the seams with buddy-sharing goodies, it is, if not the FPS of the year, then at least a direct compe tor to this year’s other shoo ng magniﬁco, Halo: Reach. But one thing that concerned me regarding both these tles was the emphasis both developers, Bungie and Treyarch, had put on their tle’s mul player modes. It seemed that the single player campaign had been discarded in favor of the mul player mode.

You can see why developers and publishers would be inclined to focus their tles on the mul player market, as it’s enormously lucra ve. There are around 20 million people with Xbox Live accounts, and a staggering 39 million gamers with Playsta on Network accounts: that’s a lot of poten al sales for a group-based tle. Maybe I’m being a bit of an old misery guts, as I don’t play online as o en as many, and I spend the majority of my me playing alone, bashing my way through single player campaigns and enjoying the submerging plots that only games can create. Some of my fondest memories come from the events of Half-Life 2, a tle that was superbly focused on giving the sole gamer the most exci ng, exhilara ng and enthralling experience possible, but in a way, that’s what I fear is being lost in certain games: that solo experience. That story. That blinked plot that is totally unique to each gamer.

“TODAY IT SEEMS, ONLINE IS THE PLACE TO PLAY.” And this leads me onto a ques on that has been bugging me for a while: are developers neglec ng the single player campaign and overly favoring the online mul player, all for the sake of a few bucks? The reason I ask this is not only because of how Black Ops is being hyped and perceived by its creators, but more so because of how the recent major tles have been mul player oriented. Halo: Reach has been heralded as one of the best FPSs of the year, and rightly so: it is pacey, exhilara ng and u erly beau ful. But in my opinion, the solo campaign is at mes tedious, and although it is well produced, it reeks of Halo Déjà vu. It was a similar story with Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days, which featured a campaign of barely 5 hours, but a whole host of online modes. The same point could be argued for Modern Warfare 2, which boasted some truly staggering online ﬁgures (approximately 25 million players since June this year) but had a rather overblown and needlessly fran c solo mode. Today it seems, online is the place to play.

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There are many excep ons of course, one being the divine Red Dead Redemp on, which provided a superb mul player mode without dilu ng its central plot. To me this is the perfect example of a game for both markets, as although there’s plenty of fun to be had with your chums, at its core, Red Dead is essen ally a solo experience. In a similar vein, Gears of War 2 is superb online, but its best moments come from its brutal yet hear elt plot. Mul player gaming is ge ng bigger and bigger, with more people playing online than ever before and more tles being focused toward this market. That’s ﬁne with me, as gaming is always evolving and expanding, and at present the best tles are the ones that can bring both the solo and the mul player campaigns together in harmony. But for me, I’m s ll slightly concerned that the big publishers are chasing the masses of mul player gamers, at the expense of the sole gamer. With a deep and smartly wri en solo campaign, a game can prac cally live on forever, but a mul player game cannot, and that’s my underlying worry. But hey, nearly 60 million people can’t be wrong, right? Sco Tierney

FEATURES RISE AND RISE OF ONLINE RPGS The gaming industry is a fickle market. Rewind the clocks 10 years back and the only real online RPGs that were of any notable success were Everquest (though more an MMO than a simple online RPG) and Diablo II. You were more likely to find people playing single-player games, or possibly strategy games such as Starcra , Command & Conquer and Age of Empires. Look at the online marketplace now and it is absolutely burs ng at the seams, with new RPGs and MMOs coming every other week. Strategy games have definitely been le behind and it is the recent surge in popularity for online shooters that have managed to carve a niche in the online gamers’ mind. But how has this explosion of interest in the MMO/RPG sector come about? The most obvious aspect of this development of online gaming is down to a par cular tle that has led the way across the board – World of Warcra , also known as WoW. Taking much loved characters and storylines that had been developed over a decade ago, and turning these storylines into a fully interac ve game, meant that Blizzard Entertainment - WoW developers and producers - were already looking at a strong player base to begin with. Having a triumvirate of games (Starcra , Diablo and the Warcra series) with incredibly loyal gamers in all three meant that Blizzard were able to expand WoW aggressively in a market that had recently been prospected by games such as Everquest and Asheron’s Call.

With the market having been tapped by WoW, many other developers were keen to get in on the ac on and thus we began to see similar games such as Age of Conan, Warhammer Online, Dark Age of Camelot, Lineage, and so many more begin to pop up across the world. This then raised the argument of pay-to-play (mostly a subscrip on-based business model, for example World of Warcra ) versus free-to-play, where the game itself was free but there were addi onal benefits of becoming a “premium” member, such as extra items and abili es being available in cash shops. Cash shops had already been in use in the Far East in the likes of Lineage, Dekaron and Ragnarok Online, and so many games opted to follow this route. The other major influencing factor is the simple growth and development of technology across the world – more specifically, the internet and the computer. Faster internet connec ons meant that developers had a poten ally free canvas to work with, as the download speeds would be sufficient for incredible amounts of data, while be er computers meant that with every new tle, graphics begun to get clearer, sharper and more lifelike. Such is the growth of the internet and the demand for online gaming that many developers and tles that were previously exclusive to the single-player campaigns have begun developing mul player aspects. With recent tles such as Assassin’s Creed, Mass Effect and Splinter Cell beginning to explore the online market, I believe it is inevitable that soon we will have a mul player func on in 95% of the games on the market. It’s where the money is. Just ask Blizzard, and their annual $5 billion+ net income. Paul Park

“LOOK AT THE ONLINE MARKETPLACE NOW AND IT IS ABSOLUTELY BURSTING AT THE SEAMS, WITH NEW RPGS AND MMOS COMING EVERY OTHER WEEK.”

phonica magazine uk

REVIEWS BERRY APPS FOR FREE A FEW FREEBIES TO KICK START YOUR APP COLLECTION

Apps, the new tech craze kudos to the Cuper no guys (even though Java Apps were ﬁrst on the scene). Here are a few apps available on the BlackBerry App World store worth taking a peek at….all for free. Browse, read and download what may be your new favourite apps!

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SCREEN MUNCHER

FALLDOWN

FREE DEVELOPER: MOTEK AMERICAS INC. GENRE: UTILITIES

FREE DEVELOPER: IGOR SHITAREV GENRE: GAMES ACTION

I am the sort of person who loves weird words. I very much enjoy calling out ‘NOM ‘ when I see something I wish to consume, and I like making up words such as ‘Shwale’ and ‘Fantastulus’. So when I saw an app called Screen Muncher, I was on it. Not only is this app easy to use, looks darn cute and says ‘Yum!’ when it munches your screen, but it’s decep vely useful! I ini ally downloaded it for the sheer joy of having a pink muncher on my BB, but since I’ve had it, I’ve been able to munch map screens, BBM conversa ons to send to people, browser screens, etc. There’s no end to how useful I think this app is, and the fact it makes you giggle like a pervert when it conﬁrms your munch has been completed just adds to its genius.

Like the Nintendo pla orm games of old, Falldown is addic ve, frustra ng and superb all wrapped up in pixelated simplicity. It isn’t graphically epic, nor does it have a complex plot, the aim is simply to avoid allowing your ball to move off screen and to keep going further and further down the levels. I started thinking this was going to be another app that I would find amusing for five minutes and then delete. WRONG. I was a ached to my trackpad for a good twenty minutes, my teeth gnawing at my tongue trying not to scream out in frustra on as the top of the screen loomed ever closer to the ball. It had me u erly cap vated, very much like my five year old self would have been with a cardboard box. Who says you need HD imagery and realis c character interac on? I’m happy with my ball and the threat of impending doom.

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REVIEWS SNAKE FREE DEVELOPER: SMART APPS GENRE: GAMES ACTION I remember playing Snake on my dad’s old Nokia 6210, the snazziest phone I’d ever seen before. Whenever my Dad and I went shopping, I’d make an excuse to stay in the car and then sneakily grab his phone and spend half an hour in concentrated silence as my snake grew bigger and bigger. Ge ng the top score was all I would think about, and so when the day came for me to trade in my Nokia for a Blackberry (BB), I knew that the era of the Snake was over. I was sad, but as me moved on, so did my Snake habit, and it gradually subsided into nothing. And then I found it on BB App world. Downloading it was almost surreal, and playing it, I felt like I was eight years old again on my dad’s old phone. Snake holds so many memories for me: my ﬁrst interac on with mobile technology, the ﬁrst me I beat my brother on a game other than Klonoa.

“GETTING THE TOP SCORE WAS ALL I WOULD THINK ABOUT, AND SO WHEN THE DAY CAME FOR ME TO TRADE IN MY NOKIA FOR A BLACKBERRY (BB), I KNEW THAT THE ERA OF THE SNAKE WAS OVER.” I have to say, the retro Nokia version will always remain king in my mind, but the BB version is pre y good: the Kra chocolate to the Cadbury’s. The bright colours make it appealing to look at, but aside from that, it’s pre y much iden cal to the original. And that is why this app rules in my book. Why ﬁx something if it’s not broken?

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REVIEWS DRIVE SAFELY FREE DEVELOPER: ISPEECH.ORG GENRE: UTILITIES PHONE SERVICES Now, I don’t know about you, but when my brother’s driving and starts peering at his phone to read a message, it makes me a li le unnerved. I understand his need to be responsive to his mates, but I like to think I’ll survive to see the BB Pad’s release. So as I don’t drive, I thought I’d give this app a go for him. In short, it acts like an orator for your messages, SMS or email. Albeit, it’s not the most emo ve of voices, and it grazes over jokes like a hover board, but it’s handy for when you’re going down an icy road and your mate texts you mid-concentra on. The idea behind it is simple and incredibly useful, and the fact you can reply to the messages by speaking to your phone gives it a Star Trek appeal I think my brother found very alluring. So our roads are kept safe once more by a road safety applica on. BB away!

CHAT ON FACEBOOK FREE TRIAL DEVELOPER: SMARTER APPS GENRE: IM & SOCIAL NETWORKING INSTANT MESSAGING FB Chat is a useful idea: as we tend to spend much of our me on Facebook these days, having an instant messenger just seemed logical. It doesn’t seem logical however once you’ve downloaded it onto your phone. The company who made it, Smarter Apps, say they pride themselves on making eﬃcient applica ons. Well not this one, and I for one will not be keeping this in my download’s folder. The download process is simple, and the layout is clean, easy to navigate and nice to look at. Maintaining a conversa on with your online FB friends however is arduous, me was ng, and in the end, just pointless. The app kept ming out on me within 5 minutes, and the reconnec on me either took forever or took mul ple tries. The beauty of FB Chat is that it’s a real me conversa on, but with the BB version, it took an age for my message to get through, if it did at all. What got me the most though, was when I eventually gave up and shut the Chat App down, I logged into my FB account on my laptop, to see my chat conversa on in all its stu ering, online/ oﬄine glory. FB Chat is a something I think would be amazing on the smartphone, but un l everything’s sorted out and the connec on me doesn’t resemble a wounded badger, then I’m out thanks.

phonica magazine uk

REVIEWS ASSASSIN’S CREED: BROTHERHOOD PUBLISHERS: UBISOFT DEVELOPERS: UBISOFT FORMAT: XBOX 360, PS3, PC GENRE: ACTION ADVENTURE

CUT AND PASTE This is the second sequel I’m reviewing in this edi on. You see, I got to the end of Fallout: New Vegas, and the word uppermost in my mind was “expansion”. Which is unfair and naughty, because New Vegas is a fantas c romp which takes Bethesda’s stellar 2009 offering and serves it up with extra crispy bits. Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood is not, strictly speaking, a direct sequel... it’s more of the same, with dressing. And there’s nothing wrong with this whatsoever, but if you’re looking for revela ons about the future of Desmond Miles, prepare to be disappointed. This is not AC3... more like 2.5 Ezio’s in Rome... a staggering Rome, in fact, with – there’s no other word for it – grandeur. He’s here to give the Borgias a stomping, with the same mixture of raffish charm and steel-eyed determina on that made him such a pleasant change of pace from the rather one-dimensional Altair. What Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood does, rather cleverly, is import aspects of the villa upgrade system from the previous game into the main story arc. You need to liberate Rome, and you do so by taking Borgia towers, monstrous edifices domina ng a district. Each one offers an assassina on challenge with a Borgia captain as the target, and once you’ve served him his innards you can upgrade the area around the conquered tower, spreading the joy of being Borgia-free and diver ng money into your coffers to buy stabby, killy things for your arsenal.

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All new is the chance to recruit and train assassins, giving you a shadowy gang to back you up. It’s all very well doing the parkour, jump, stalk, stab thing, but don’t underes mate the entertainment poten al of highligh ng your enemy and watching your loyal goons swoop down and do the slicing and dicing for you. The word here is polish. If the ﬁrst game was a pre y exercise in tedium, and the second a demonstra on of how just a few twists can turn an irksome chore into a joy and a pleasure, this is an expensive coat of high-quality varnish which bathes a me culously-realised world in its golden glow. Ezio’s move set has been tweaked and augmented, with in-city horse-riding and killstreaks just a couple of the new toys to play with.

“THIS IS A STUNNING GAME: VISUALLY ARRESTING, DRIVEN BY A GREAT NARRATIVE AND REALISED WITH OUTSTANDING CARE AND CLASS.” I’m s ll astonished as to how fluid and natural it all feels. If the gold standard for player sprite movement is Naughty Dog’s Drake, Ezio is certainly star ng to knock on the door and demand your a en on. The parkour, as before, is brilliant. The combat is flowing, simple if you want it to be, with plenty of complexity for those willing to experiment. And it’s all just as gorgeous as sin, with that magnificent Renaissance architecture brought to stunning life by those clever Canadians. And they haven’t forgo en the importance of mixing up the challenges, with more Assassin’s Tomb-style challenges – in this case, the hiding places of the followers of Romulus (natch) – to sa sfy your pla orming needs.

Oh yes, and the story’s pre y good too. The more me I spend with it, the more I realise what a neat li le plot device the Animus is, allowing the team to drop in exposi on without it ever seeming forced or out of place. A ﬁnal mea culpa... we haven’t had me to do a proper review of the new mulitplayer component, but once we’ve spent some me with it, we’ll bring you a proper rundown. That aside, this is a stunning game: visually arres ng, driven by a great narra ve, acted by characters you give a damn about, and realised with outstanding care and class. A bloody tour de force. Rob Hobson

PRESENTATION: 20/20 STORY: 18/20 CONTROLS: 18/20 GAMEPLAY: 18/20 DURABILITY: 17/20

OVERALL

91/100 phonica magazine uk

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We gamers are a cynical bunch of ol’ beggars. If a developer releases a tle that doesn’t quite meet our excep onally high standards, within seconds of the tle hi ng the shelves, we’ll be on the forums banging out complaints and resome whinges, se ng the gaming world to rights with our viewpoints and hindsighted wisdom. Even tles that haven’t even been released yet, with nothing more than a first dra name and a snappy preview to make their case, will be slammed by us, and judged without retort. My word, we are miserable. But, every now and then, a tle pops up that brings a li le light into our black-stained hearts, and brings a smile to our grimace-cracked faces. For me, A Shadow’s Tale is without doubt one of these rare tles. A Shadow’s Tale is a 2D (sort of) puzzle based pla ormer, where you play as a boy’s severed shadow. A er being cast off the top of a vast tower, the shadow has to climb back up through the internals of the structure, using the shadows as his only means of doing so, and collec ng the three keys in each stage in order to proceed to a rendezvous with his living partner. To make your trip a li le easier, a sylph (the typical videogame pixie) accompanies you, helping out when she can, and you can also control here via the Wii Remote. As you make your way through the many levels, you’ll encounter a whole host of shadowy monsters such as spiders; some truly beau ful landscapes, and plenty of fiendish yet compelling puzzles. Basically, it’s a pla ormer of the simplest quality. Actually, that’s mighty unfair of me. To call A Shadow’s Tale a simple pla ormer, although arguably accurate, does nothing to sum up the magic and genius that is in abundance. The whole concept of moving across shadows is a truly brilliant one, and thanks to some clever spots of game design, an enormously enjoyable one also. For instance, for a lot of the me, you’ll simply be jumping from pla orm to shadowy pla orm, hun ng down the hidden keys and slashing-down the occasional nasty. But, some mes a path in the shadows is either broken or blocked, and you’ll need to alter the light in the room to adjust the shadows. These li le moments are fantas c, as you move the light around the area, and climb the constantly changing pla orms as you do so. Genius.

To accompany the central levels, there are also a selec on of bonus stages, which add a series of diﬀerent challenges and greater prizes, such as more health and experience points. In several bonus stages, you can rotate a level en rely by spinning the light source clockwise or counter clockwise. Spin the wrong way, and you’ll be crushed as the shadows merge, but get it right and a new pla orm will appear. Again, genius.

“A SHADOW’S TALE IS UTTERLY CHARMING, BREATHTAKINGLY BEAUTIFUL AND SUPERBLY DESIGNED.” Apologies if what I’ve just enthusias cally stated is a tad confusing, but trust me, it makes perfect sense when you’re actually playing A Shadow’s Tale. The best way to describe it is for you to look at the shadows you currently see, wherever you’re reading this. Now imagine being the size of a pencil sharpener (an obscure reference, I know) and climbing those shadows, adjus ng to the gradients and surfaces as you go. It’s rare that I ever say this (although I admit I’ve said it several mes in this review), and I feel slightly awkward in using this word as it’s criminally overused in today’s society, but A Shadow’s Tale is, genius. For such a simple concept to be taken, though ully considered and delicately designed for a videogame is hugely impressive, and a testament to the excep onal piece of work Hudson So have produced. Sure, it could be argued that A Shadow’s Tale is at mes overly simple, flawed when it comes to its iffy controls and s cky combat, and nothing more than a prolonged concept that has been stretched over a rudimentary flawed tle, but that would be to miss the point en rely. A Shadow’s Tale is u erly charming, breathtakingly beau ful and superbly designed, and to me, it’s one of the few games this year that has genuinely made me smile and gasp in amazement throughout. A classic in the shadows that’s not to be missed! PRESENTATION: 18/20 STORY: 18/20 CONTROLS: 15/20 GAMEPLAY: 18/20 DURABILITY: 14/20

Sco Tierney

OVERALL

85/100 phonica magazine uk

REVIEWS FALLOUT: NEW VEGAS PUBLISHERS: BETHESDA SOFTWORKS DEVELOPERS: OBSIDIAN ENTERTAINMENT FORMAT: XBOX 360, PS3, PC GENRE: ADVENTURE RPG

AGAINST ALL ODDS GAME OF THE YEAR. BEST WRITING. BEST RPG…. AND THE LIST GOES ON! I’m talking about Bethesda’s Fallout 3, of course, which gives Obsidian’s sequel / sister game an awfully big pair of lead-lined boots to ﬁll. The Nevada wilderness has escaped the nuclear carpet-bombing more or less unscathed, which gives us a li le greenery and a li le less next-gen grey and brown, but from the moment you wake up in a one-horse town, with an eccentric greybeard doctor holding up the bullet he’s just dug out of your skull, we’re in familiar territory.

The drip-feed of loot works well too, with far more cra ing and weapon-making than before, giving you a real reason to pick up those bits of dead animal and scrap metal. And you’re not just restricted to weapon-building... ammo benches let you recycle old cartridges and enhance your iron. Put simply, this is Fallout all over again, but with bells on. There’s just more of it: more to do, more to kill, more to discover. So now we’re agreed that this is an ambi ous and sprawling tour de force, let me temper that paean of praise with a moment of apoplec c rage.

In prac cal terms, though, Obsidian have made the decision to do away with a lot of its predecessor’s emp ness. The Mojave is packed to the gills with stuff to do and folk to get into shenanigans with. Quests come thick and fast, many ed to fac ons that have a huge bearing on how you play the game. As you progress your friendship with one group, other quests are closed off to you, sugges ng a replayability that Fallout 3 might have lacked. Here, your choices really do make a difference to the world and the way it treats you.

See, Fallout 3 was buggy. It froze up every now and then. That’s ok... Oblivion did that too, and if you’ve got any sense, you’ll save every ten minutes anyway. I can appreciate the diﬃculty in making such a vast world with so many moveable things in it. Such is life. What’s unforgivable is for the game to be released with quest-breaking glitches: an accusa on levelled par cularly at the PS3 version.

All this, of course, is what a good RPG should do, and Obsidian really delivers. Society is developed here... it’s rich, complex and heavily-populated, and everyone’s got a vested interest.

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“IF YOU LOVED FALLOUT 3, OBSIDIAN HAVE DONE IT PROUD.”

Without wan ng to spoil any plot points for you, the game is divided into 3 rough sec ons: ge ng to Vegas, deciding what you’re going to do about the situa on in Vegas, and the endgame. I’d made a decision, fairly early on, that I didn’t like any of the fac ons involved, and was going to go for the (presumably) fairly risky op on of screwing them all and trying to win the thing on my lonesome.

Guess what? I couldn’t. A crucial quest never updated, meaning I was unable to complete the sec on I needed to progress the storyline. I was forced – forced, in a game which prides itself on le ng you do whatever the hell you want – to take sides. I found myself playing the endgame alongside a bunch of neo-fascist goons, who happened to be one of the few groups in the game I hadn’t completely alienated by slaughtering them on sight. My save pre-glitch sits there, wai ng, hoping for a patch so I can take my preferred op on. To date, none is forthcoming. I’ve spewed all my bile, so I’ll only give a brief men on to the creaking game engine, s ll the framework on which Oblivion was built, which gives you NPC faces that look as though they’ve been ﬂoa ng in a lake for six weeks. The game’s pre y in places, and looks good overall, but Bethesda needs to do some heavy tech work to make sure Elder Scrolls V looks as good as it should.

I know. I’ve ended a really good review on a real downer. And this is, I promise you, a fantas c gaming experience: rich, varied, complex and deep. If you loved Fallout 3, Obsidian have done it proud, keeping to the spirit of the concept and arguably outdoing their publishers in terms of the fun and mayhem to be had. Someone needs to give their Q&A a good shoeing, though. Rob Hobson

PRESENTATION: 19/20 STORY: 20/20 CONTROLS: 18/20 GAMEPLAY: 18/20 DURABILITY: 19/20

OVERALL

92/100

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REVIEWS DIVINITY II: FLAMES OF VENGEANCE PUBLISHER: FOCUS HOME INTERACTIVE DEVELOPER: LARIAN STUDIOS PLATFORM: XBOX 360, PC GENRE: THIRD/FIRST-PERSON RPG

NO MORE DRAGON NIGHTMARES As expansions go, they usually add to an already decent storyline, maybe exploring a few differing avenues or side stories that players may have wondered about during the original playthrough. In Divinity’s case, the original game, Ego Draconis, found the player in the process of becoming possessed by the “soul” - if you will - of a dying dragon. This was confusing, because it was right a er you had some early training to become a “dragon knight”: someone who goes and hunts these beasts. In any case, the player was eventually tricked into freeing an evil en ty of some sort and was subsequently frozen in order to preserve the world, alongside said en ty – opening up a huge can of worms. So having played Ego Draconis, the following add-on by Larian Studios finally eased my mind and let me sleep in peace once more. In Flames of Vengeance, the story picks up (or starts, if you haven’t played the original) with the Dragon Knight being given another chance at fulfilling their des ny. You’re presented with the neat tree of skills and passive abili es across all the theore cal roles you could take on – mage, healer, ranger, warrior – and it’s up to the player to decide which skills they take, and in which tree. There are no pre-requisites for any of the skills barring the character level requirement, so it’s perfectly fine to pick up a few points in Summon Demon for your ranger in order to have a meat shield to take some hits for you.

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Graphically, there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot different from the original tle. In all honesty, the graphics are fine, and any improvement would simply be like pain ng another layer of gold on a perfectly fine silver Bentley. Some minor art tweaks here, shadow and ligh ng tweaks there – you don’t really no ce them while you’re busy making a pincushion out of the annoying goblin shaman who was lobbing fireballs at you. The gameplay is slick as ever, with Larian Studios using the Gamebryo engine (Oblivion, Fallout 3) for both Ego Draconis and now Flames of Vengeance, and it’s great to see those pesky enemies being blasted away when you use Rush A ack, charging straight into the melee and swinging away like Tiger Woods with your massive two-hander. Cleaving through hordes of goblins and skeletons is sa sfying, with blood in sensible amounts. Divinity II is no Elder Scrolls, nor does it have the gaming history that such RPGs have held, but Larian Studios definitely seems to be on the right track to making a pre y damn good single-player RPG. Some more choice in terms of skills and perhaps the ability to train your level in caves and dungeons, much like other RPGs on the market, and we could be in for a real treat. Paul Park

PRESENTATION: 16/20 STORY: 14/20 CONTROLS: 15/20 GAMEPLAY: 18/20 DURABILITY: 14/20

OVERALL

77/100

phonica magazine uk

REVIEWS SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 4 PUBLISHERS: SEGA DEVELOPERS: DIMPS, SONIC TEAM FORMAT: XBOX 360, PS3, WII, PC, GENRE: PLATFORMER

SONIC 4 OR SONIC 2.5? Today is a big day for me. Today, a er years of wai ng, suffering, sha ered memories and worst of all, dreadful a empts at making 3D work, Sonic is finally retracing his roots. Yes, today, nearly 16 years a er the flawed yet whimsical Sonic & Knuckles, Sonic is back in 2D! So, has this updated transgression back into 2D enabled Sonic 4 to be as fast, exci ng, addic ve and u erly wonderful as the previous tles of the 90s? Well it’s hard to say, because in a way, Sonic 4 isn’t truly a new tle. Sonic 4 is broken down into four main stages, with these stages consis ng of three levels and a boss at the end. The stages are essen ally reworked versions of those that appeared in Sonic 2 (with the occasional sprinkle of Sonic 1 and 3), with Splash Hill Zone being a direct copy of Green/Emerald Hill Zone, Casino Street Zone taking the best bits from Casino/Carnival Night Zone, Lost Labyrinth Zone li ing a mix of Labyrinth Zone and Aqua c Ruin Zone, and Mad Gear Zone being an all but exact replica of Metropolis Zone. It should be said that all the stages are very good, but it would have been nice to have seen a li le originality. Unlike in the previous Sonic tles, in Sonic 4 you can now pick and choose what stage you’d like to play, without having to slog through the en re tle in one hit. So, if you wanted to try and beat your score on the second stage of the Casino Street Zone, you could go directly to that from the start menu. You can also skip levels and pick-off each sec on at a me, although this doesn’t apply to the special stages, which have to be a acked in order and can only be accessed when comple ng a level with 100+ rings. Once you’ve completed all the levels, you can access the final showdown with that pesky Dr. Eggman. I won’t spoil it, but if you’ve played Sonic 2, you’ll know what to expect.

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Thankfully, despite the disappoin ng abundance of copying throughout Sonic 4, one thing we are glad to see has been ctrl+v’d, is the pace. In any Sonic tle, speed is key, and Sonic 4 is like a liquid Schwartz propelled rocket. Thanks to the homing system (in which you can now target and a ack baddies automa cally) Sonic can really blast along the levels, which ﬂow superbly. Occasionally the level design has been overcomplicated, such as the use of cannons in the third Casino Zone and the puzzles in Lost Labyrinth, but overall that textbook pace is s ll there.

“OVERALL WE FEEL AS IF SONIC 4 LACKS ITS OWN IDENTITY.” Let’s be clear on this: we love Sonic 4, but overall we feel as if it’s lacking its own iden ty, and rather than crea ng a new tle for 2010, Sega have produced a loving yet empty remake of those classic 90s tles. Every level, despite playing well and oozing HD class, fails to oﬀer anything other than a reminder of its original blocky counterparts. Yes, it’s great to have Sonic back, and Sonic 4 is without doubt the best Sonic tle in nearly 15 years, but there’s nothing new here, and nothing that’ll ensure Sonic 4 lives long in the memory. It’s a brilliant tle, and a long overdue adventure from the prickly one, but ul mately Sonic 4 reminds us that Sonic’s ﬁnest days were in the nine es, 20 years ago. S ll, here’s hoping the next episode is fresher… Sco Tierney

PRESENTATION: 17/20 STORY: 16/20 CONTROLS: 18/20 GAMEPLAY: 15/20 DURABILITY: 12/20

OVERALL

78/100

phonica magazine uk

REVIEWS RED DEAD REDEMPTION:

UNDEAD NIGHTMARE PUBLISHERS: ROCKSTAR DEVELOPERS: ROCKSTAR FORMAT: XBOX 360, PS3, PC GENRE: SANDBOX SHOOTER

WHEREFORE ART THOU ROMERO? If you read our original review of Red Dead: Redemp on, you’ll know how much we - well, I - admired Rockstar’s take on the horse opera. Indeed, so accomplished was the world they created and so convincing the character of the lead, John Marston, that we dared to suggest it might surpass its predecessor and stablemate (sorry), Grand The Auto 4. So what will Rockstar make of that most hackneyed of pop culture tropes, the zombie apocalypse? Is it possible to wedge a single-minded appe te for braaaains into such a though ul, even mournful, paean to the passing of the old west and the ex nc on of the gunslinger? The short answer, for the impa ent among you, is... damn right they can. What you get for your rather reasonable £7.99 or 800 Microso Points (assuming you own the first game already) is an extensive new singleplayer campaign in which Marston needs to discover the source of the undead plague and find a cure for his infected family. Obviously you’re traversing the same loca ons as before, but a nice li le sidegame has been built in whereby you have to keep the towns free of undead in order to use the save points. The meat of the campaign, as you’d expect from Rockstar, is a well fleshed-out (sorry, again) series of quests and cutscenes, with the excellent scrip ng and voice ac ng that we expect from a developer that truly understands how to cra a narra ve. The quests themselves may not be anything par cularly original - fetch this, kill that - but the zombie hurricane keeps it feeling urgent and engaging.

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What’s changed? Well, forget the weaponry you’ve amassed from your original playthrough, because you’re going to have to harvest all that again. Ammo is slightly harder to come by, but never to the point of heart-freezing fear, and here’s where the trouble is in zombie paradise. You see, it’s not actually that tricky. Headshots put most of the shambling buggers down in one hit, and even zombie bears and other wildlife don’t seem much more resistant to your hail of lead than the non-zombie kind. You’ll frequently ﬁnd yourself comfortable ensconced on a roo op, laying dozens of the groaning cannon fodder to waste, hoping for a li le more challenge. Yes, you can get yourself swarmed and yes, there are hairy moments amidst the carnage, but I rarely felt the need to break out the new blunderbuss, an explosive shotgun that uses zombie ratatouille as ammo. Having said all that, there’s a delicacy of touch and a narra ve consistency here that makes Zombie Nightmare a damn a rac ve package. Great script. Plenty of knowing gags. Lovely, unhurried pacing and the chance to hang out with the sardonic Marston, who’s every bit as pleasant an onscreen companion as Nathan Drake. Throw in a few mul player op ons and there’s an awful lot of game here, even if you occasionally feel as though you’re playing Le 4Dead with a fron er accent. PRESENTATION: 18/20 STORY: 18/20 CONTROLS: 16/20 GAMEPLAY: 17/20 DURABILITY: 16/20

OVERALL

85/100

Sco Tierney

phonica magazine uk

REVIEWS DEAD RISING 2

PUBLISHERS: CAPCOM DEVELOPERS: CAPCOM, BLUE CASTLE FORMAT: XBOX 360, PS3, PC, GENRE: ACTION-RPG

IF NOTHING ELSE, YOU CAN ALWAYS RELY ON A ZOMBIE FOR FUN. phonica magazine magazine uk uk 40 phonica

REVIEWS If something has the word ‘dead’ in the tle, there’s a sizable probability that it has something to do with zombies. Braindead, Day of the Dead, Land of the Dead, Evil Dead, Shaun of the Dead, Red Dead Redemp on (it has a zombie pack, trust me): dead and zombies go together like… well… dead and zombies. So, when we picked up a copy of Dead Rising 2, we knew one thing was guaran ed, and we’re not taking about just the fun. Dead Rising 2 takes place a er the events of the first tle, although in this sequel, we follow the trials and bloody tribula ons of stunt motorcyclist Chuck Greene, and his sweet daughter Katey. Now in the Vegas-like Fortune City, Chuck is par cipa ng in a TV show called Terror is Reality, where he u lises his bike-based skills to good effect by running over a crowd of point-coun ng zombies. But as you’d expect, it all goes south from here, and when the zombies break out and cause havoc within the confines of the city, Chuck has to ba le against all manner of undead foes in order to keep his daughter safe. It’s actually quite a serious story, and although it feels at odds with the slaps ck violence and ridiculous gameplay, it does a solid job of kni ng the various missions together. The gameplay itself is rela vely straigh orward, and thanks to the many would-be weapons lying around the maps, you can make your me in Fortune City as hard or as easy as you like. If you fancy a bit of a challenge, you can make do with the simple weapons such as baseballs bats, chainsaws, chairs and the random lumps of scenery that are just begging to be connected with a zombie’s jaw. But if you like it easy, you can either mix weapons together (a broom and a chainsaw is handy for both slicing and cleaning up a erwards) or just hop on a bike and run down the crowds as you please. Whatever you choose, it’s always a pleasure to eradicate a few hundred zombies, and although it would have been nice to have been able to vary the a acks, rather than just con nuously pounding the X bu on, the eccentric ac on is always a pleasure and never a chore.

You can also liven up the plot with the use of addi onal and interchangeable clothing, which is sca ed around the maps and readily available. Personally, I dressed Chuck in green wellies, skimpy denim shorts, a revealing top and a ﬂowery hat. He may have looked a bit weird, but it livened up the occasionally dour cut scenes no end!

“DEAD RISING 2 IS FAR FROM PERFECT, BUT HEY, SO IS A ZOMBIE, AND THEY’VE SERVED UP PLENTY OF FUN OVER THE YEARS.” Despite being an absolute gut burs ng riot at mes, Dead Rising 2 can also be incredibly frustra ng. If there’s one thing Dead Rising 2 has more of than zombies, it is loading screens. Couple these seemingly never ending screens with a considerable quan ty of cut scenes, and you’ll ﬁnd yourself si ng and wai ng more than actually playing. Once you get into the ac on, you’re free to bombard around the zombie packed loca ons and do as you please, but when you’re tracing the steps of the rather dark plot, Dead Rising 2 becomes resome, and occasionally tedious. But, it’s hard to stay mad at Dead Rising 2 for too long, as nothing brings a smile back to our weary faces than mashing through a crowd of zombies with a saw blade. Sure, Dead Rising 2 is clogged with delays, numb controls, and the mul player mode is having a few problems at present, but it’s a rip roaring, blood soaked and u erly ludicrous laugh. It’s far from perfect, but hey, so is a zombie, and they’ve served up plenty of fun over the years. Sco Tierney

PRESENTATION: 14/20 STORY: 13/20 CONTROLS: 14/20 GAMEPLAY: 18/20 DURABILITY: 17/20

OVERALL

76/100 phonica magazine uk

ENSLAVED: ODYSSEY TO THE WEST PUBLISHERS: NAMCO BANDAI GAMES DEVELOPERS: NINJA THEORY FORMAT: XBOX 360, PS3 GENRE: ACTION ADVENTURE

CHARACTER DRIVEN THRILLS AND SPILLS THAT - AT LEAST FOR THE EARLY PART - HIT THE PERFECT CHORDS.

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REVIEWS If there’s one thing I love, it’s a griping plot that’s ghtly wrapped around a smartly produced game. I’m all for pointlessly shoo ng stuff in the face, in the name of unnecessary violence and bonus points, but for me, nothing beats the ebb and flow of good story. Luckily for both me and this latest post-apocalyp c adventure, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, plot seems to be the name of the game….at least to start with, anyway… Enslaved: Odyssey to the West is set in a deserted future, where the vast propor on of humanity has been wiped out by mechanical creatures called Mechs. Monkey - the well toned central protagonist, finds himself imprisoned on a gigan c flying slave ship, and during a truly epic opening level, he has to escape before the exploding cra plummets to earth. When he awakens from the wreckage, he finds that the sole survivor – a very sexy young lady called Trip – has implanted a device onto his head, and he is now under her control. This device is tapped directly into Monkey’s brain, allowing Trip to monitor his posi on and stop him from harming her. If Monkey disobeys Trip’s orders, or allows her to die, he’ll be punished with pain, or be killed. Basically, if she dies, he dies. This uneasy partnership forms the bedrock of Enslaved’s excellent plot, and also directs a lot of the gameplay as the partner’s co-op against enemies and ba les through the beau fully designed levels. Although you can only directly control Monkey, you can ask Trip to perform certain tasks in assistance, such as moving from place to place, and distrac ng enemies on command. It’s worth no ng that at no point is Trip a nuisance, and nor do you feel like an overworked babysi er. Trip will usually survive on her own without your assistance, and if anything, you’ll be the one asking for help. Enslaved’s gameplay features a well measured amount of pla orming, puzzle solving and figh ng, with the occasional moments when all three are mixed together at once. Arguably, the best sec ons are those when you’re climbing up the divine landscapes, which for the first few levels are some of the best looking we’ve seen since Uncharted 2.

That said, the puzzling is also good fun if a li le simple, and the scrapes with the many baddies are always a brutal and flashy treat. It’s fair to say that Enslaved: Odyssey to the West is predominantly plot driven, with the characters, se ngs and plot-twists taking the lead over the ac on. This in the most part is fine, as Enslaved is well scripted, superbly acted (most notably by the game’s director, co-writer, and Monkey, Andy Serkis) and for the majority of the me, u erly spellbinding and enchan ng. But, when the plot starts to drop off, so does the enjoyment, and this is the sad case for the final lazy half of the game. In this last sec on, which is announced with the entrance of Pigsy (a pork-based comic relief who’s about as welcome here as he would be at a Bar Mitzvah), the tension and sense of magic that li ed the early levels seems to fade away. Instead of being delicate with its pacing and ac on, Enslaved starts playing for crude laughs, and ignores the smart dynamics between the characters in favour of hurrying the game towards an end. I wouldn’t say this late dumbing down ruins the game, but mixed with the samey tasking and lacklustre levels near the end, and it comes very close.

“ENSLAVED IS ONE OF THE MOST MEMORABLE EXPERIENCES WE’VE PLAYED THIS YEAR.” But to be honest, we love Enslaved: Odyssey to the West. It’s stunning to look at, hugely exci ng, smartly wri en and performed, both beau ful and brutal, and best of all, fantas cally cap va ng. Sure, the camera is far too twitchy and close, Pigsy is unnecessary and infuria ng, and the game as a package seems to run out of ideas in the ﬁnal half, but overall, Enslaved is one of the most memorable experiences we’ve played this year. We just wish it could have held out a li le longer. Sco Tierney

PRESENTATION: 17/20 STORY: 18/20 CONTROLS: 17/20 GAMEPLAY: 16/20 DURABILITY: 14/20

OVERALL

82/100 phonica magazine uk

REVIEWS MEDAL OF HONOUR PUBLISHERS: ELECTRONIC ARTS DEVELOPERS: DANGER CLOSE (CAMPAIGN) DICE (MULTIPLAYER) FORMAT: XBOX 360, PC AND PS3 GENRE: FIRST PERSON SHOOTER.

IS THIS EA’S ANSWER TO CALL OF DUTY? This is a fast paced shooter based in Afghanistan, where you get to play as the US Navy Seals and Army Rangers in the fight against the Taliban. The Navy Seals’ objec ve is to find intelligence (intel) on the Taliban and make sure it’s safe for the Rangers to land and take over Afghanistan. EA has a empted to add a heavy dose of realism to the game, and it opens with a meaningful quote “They shall grow not old, as we that are le grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them”, reminding us to remember the glorious dead lost during Afghanistan war. Nice touch, now…let’s get on with the mindless killing! The game is in essence two games in one: the campaign and mul player. The whole campaign will only take around 5-7 hours depending on skill. That’s boosted by a “Tier 1 Mode” where players get the chance to replay single player missions and try and beat the set par mes and get their names onto the leader board. As you ba le your way through the campaign, you’ll find yourself in all sorts of different environments and situa ons, whether it be ba ling your way up a mountain overrun by the Taliban, or sneaking around a village placing beacons on trucks using stealth tac cs and night vision goggles. Other missions have you leading a acks on strategic points or marking targets for AC-130 Gunships to take out so you and your men can get on with the mission at hand. Once you get into the game you actually feel like you’re part of the war, par cularly when you get the chance to pilot an a ack helicopter armed with all the latest arsenal the US government has to offer.

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As for the mul player, you get the choice of 3 classes, each maxing out at level 15. You get the chance to play as Rifleman, Special Opera ons or Sniper. Leveling up your class can feel a bit tedious and slow at mes, but you get rewarded with a new accessory every me you reach a new level. Medal of Honor has also introduced kill streaks into the game play, and you get the choice to use them defensively and help your team out by showing the enemies’ loca on or offensively and strike a par cular target by guiding a mortar team. The maps and modes are very similar to Ba lefield Bad Company 2, just with different names but rather stunning new maps and weaponry on hand to use against the other team. EA has done a good job in bringing back a favorite from the past, and for me has brought back those classic early memories of figh ng back the Germans in the original Medal of Honor game. The game does get its point across and it gives gamers an insight of the real war in Afghanistan, but in many ways it’s just like every other FPS that we have played over the years, only this has to be the most up to date. There are endless hours of non-stop shoo ng and fun in the online por on of the game, but the campaign is tedious and leaves you wan ng more, and the feeling of accomplishing a mission once you have fought your way through the Tier 1 side of the game which seems to be the only challenging part due to you only having one life and no check points to help you along the way. Overall it’s OK, but it’s no Call of Duty, that’s for sure. Christopher Harris

PRESENTATION: 15/20 STORY: 15/20 CONTROLS: 15/20 GAMEPLAY: 10/20 DURABILITY: 10/20

OVERALL

65/100

phonica magazine uk

REVIEWS FRONT MISSION EVOLVED PUBLISHERS: SQUARE ENIX DEVELOPERS: DOUBLE HELIX GAMES FORMAT: XBOX 360, PS3, PC GENRE: 3RD PERSON SHOOTER

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REVIEWS

WHAT IS A WANZER? The Matrix Revolu ons was a let down. It lacked any real pace, the story was muddled and overly complex, the ac on, although spectacular, was underwhelming, and when compared to the modern masterpiece of the original, Revolu ons felt like a has ly cookedup bag of wet popcorn. But, there was one good thing about The Matrix Revolu ons: the mechas. Those impressive walking contrap ons that blasted hot steel while keeping their human puppeteer safely inside their armour plated core; they looked like a riot to control! Well, as always in this new tle in the Front Mission series, Front Mission Evolved, you get to plod around in a similar beast. That can only be a good thing…surely? Front Mission Evolved is set in the war-torn future of 2171, where the excesses of space explora on have lead to rival na ons ba ling for supremacy. When orbital elevators are created – a device that allows cargo to be transported directly into space via a heaven-reaching tube – each na on tries to gain an advantage by spying constantly from their satellites, leading to more sophis cated and intelligent warfare. When the game starts, you play as the le uce-wet Dylan Ramsey, a spunky engineer who pilots the latest in mecha technology (actually, in Front Mission, these mechas aren’t called mechas, but rather…ehem… wanzers). When Dylan’s home territory is a acked by opposing forces of wanzers (God help me!), he leaps into ac on, and puts his cu ng-edge crea on to good use in the ﬁght for survival. Wanzer indeed… Visually, it’s fair to say that Front Mission Evolved is a li le plain, and although the dreary backdrops are o en obscured by the mul tude of explosions and gunﬁre, it’s hard to get lost in the ac on when cocooned in a world of poorly cra ed graphics. To be honest, the gameplay itself isn’t a lot be er.

For the majority of the me, you’ll be pilo ng your wanzer, shoo ng other wanzers and punching them in the gizzards with your iron firsts. Although your wanzer is rather slow and cumbersome when walking, it can accelerate extremely quickly when required, thanks to short bursts from its rear facing rockets. But, despite these li le bursts of speed, and you never really feel as if the game is pounding along, and nor do you feel as if your metal beast is all that in mida ng, as it skids around like a camp and rusty surfer. The inability to cover from fire is also a hindrance, as is the needlessly up-close camera which blocks out most of the horizon and leaves you feeling blinkered to the mayhem ensuing around. Everything just feels a li le clunky, a li le bit loose, or a bit… rubbish. It’s hard to like Front Mission Evolved, despite it featuring a giant walking metal monster with a silly name such as wanzer. There’s nothing that I could honestly recommend in the game. The ac on is mindlessly tame and underwhelming for starters, and even if you can suffer the tedium of the plot, there’s no blockbuster sec on that’s worth slogging for, despite the explosive premise of the game. You just never really feel in control or at one with your wanzer, and that is arguably the biggest letdown of a very patchy and flat tle. Overall, Front Mission Evolved is just like The Matrix Revolu ons: it looked good, but ul mately, it’s a damp popcorn letdown. Sco Tierney

PRESENTATION: 10/20 STORY: 10/20 CONTROLS: 13/20 GAMEPLAY: 11/20 DURABILITY: 9/20

OVERALL

53/100 phonica magazine uk

REVIEWS

F1 2010 PUBLISHERS: CODEMASTERS DEVELOPERS: CODEMASTERS FORMAT: XBOX 360, PS3, PC GENRE: RACING

IS F1 REALLY THIS FRUSTRATING? F1 is the pinnacle of motorsport, and as such, F1 2010 should be the pinnacle of videogame racing. The bright lights, the breakneck speeds, the glamorous loca ons and the epic rewards: that’s what F1 2010 is all about, the total experience, all the way from your first prac ce session at the back of the pack to your tle winning year five hard seasons later. If F1 glory is the dream, then F1 2010 is your cket there. Well…I say cket…maybe it’s more of a permit to travel? F1 2010 a empts to immerse you in every aspect of being an F1 driver, all the way from contact nego a ons and test work, to full pedal qualifying and calcula ng your tyre choice. All the teams, drivers, tracks and criteria of the 2010 season are present, and with career modes of 3, 5 or 7 years, it’s up to you to become the World Champion, however you see fit.

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“IF WE WERE GOING TO SUM UP F1 2010 IN ONE WORD, IT WOULD BE FRUSTRATING.” Let’s start with F1 2010’s most inspiring feature; its visuals. F1 2010 is by far and away the best looking and most graphically detailed F1 game ever, with HD graphics that recreate every li le pixel of detail, and give you a clear idea of what it would be like to race an F1 car at top whack. The tracks look gorgeous in the dry, stunning in the dark, and truly terrifying in the wet. Following another car during a downpour in F1 2010 is about as intense, exci ng and as nerve-racking as it gets, and thanks to the smart cameras available, a thrilling experience whatever the angle. So, we’ve assessed that F1 2010 looks spiﬃng, and thanks to a wealth of gameplay op ons, totally immersing, but how does it actually play? Well, to be brutally honest, not all that well.

Everything in F1 2010 is a hassle, all the way from the fiddly menus to the inconsistent racing, and actually, despite the hype from Codemasters, F1 2010 is not all that detailed. Let’s say you were par cipa ng in a full Grand Prix weekend, star ng with prac ce. You do a few laps, put the car through its paces, but despite performing rela vely well, you feel as if you need a bit more front grip. “No worries” you think, “I’ll just go into the menus and add a li le front wing.” Sorry, you can’t, you can only make slight adjustments to the overall car. Never mind, you just put it behind you and qualify well in 17th; a good performance considering your car’s overall speed. So the race starts and you power away (although, for some reason you don’t get to see the star ng lights, so you have to go once everyone else does!) and drive sensibly in the middle of a pack of cars, careful to avoid contact in the first all important corner. But then you’re rammed from behind, spun around, and end up off the track and in the gravel. Curses! Then, to make ma ers worse, you’re penalised with causing an incident, and told to serve a drive through penalty. What? So you head off on the lap, now at the back, but then you realise you’re going slower that everyone else because they seem to be magically unaffected by having a full fuel tank, and your tyres are already bald a er no more than 200 yards. It’s just so unfair!

If we were going to sum up F1 2010 in one word, it would be “frustra ng”. Although Codemasters have tried to make a game that is both a hardcore simulator and fun for the novices, they’ve ended up twixed in-between, with F1 2010 feeling like neither. Sure, F1 2010 looks phenomenal, and once you’re go en to grips with the slightly numb feel of the cars, it’s not a bad racing game. But due to an abundance of basic ﬂaws, bugs (trust me, you’ve never seen so many bugs) and iﬀy gameplay, F1 2010 just ends up being a bit of a niggling tease. The pinnacle of videogame racing, F1 2010 is not. Sco Tierney

PRESENTATION: 19/20 STORY: 15/20 CONTROLS: 14/20 GAMEPLAY: 12/20 DURABILITY: 13/20

OVERALL

73/100

phonica magazine uk

REVIEWS WRC: FIA WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP PUBLISHERS: BLACK BEAN GAMES DEVELOPERS: MILESTONE S.R.L. FORMAT: XBOX 360, PS3, PC GENRE: RACING

RALLYING THAT LEAVES YOU FEELING A LITTLE COLD Ahh rallying. Cold damp a ernoons on the Welsh hillsides, watching ferociously tuned cars flash past in a mist of mud and spray. If F1 is the caviar of motorsport then rallying is the pie and gravy: simple, warming and u erly thrilling. So, if you fancy trying your digital hands at the ever changing landscape of rallying, but found the recent Colin McRae tle a wee too flashy, then WRC: FIA World Rally Championship may be just for you. WRC 2010 is the official tle of the current season, featuring all the faces, places and 4WD beasts you see on your telly box most weekends. If you fancy a quick blast around one the many stages, trying to improve your me with a new and improved setup, then single player will be your choice. But if you want to get a really in-depth feel of the ups and downs of a career in rallying, then the mul ple seasons is the best choice. The career mode is also the best way to learn the skills of the trade, as you start with the slower cars and naturally build up to the rocket ships of the top class. You can also ba le your buddies online, or if you wish, download the latest car pack via online and test your wits against the ironically lairy cars of the 80s. In a way, these tail-happy stallions from a bygone year are probably more fun, as WRC 2010 isn’t the most thrilling racer we’ve ever played. On a posi ve note, the cars all handle reasonably snappily, although we o en found them to be disconcer ngly numb, as if they were floa ng across the varying surfaces, rather than gripping/struggling on them. The stages themselves, from the greasy tarmac of France to the dusty sands of Mexico, are also very disappoin ng in both look and feel. In general, the visuals are bland at best, and although the gameplay can o en disguise them, we’d have liked to have been treated to a li le more detail and a lot more style.

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One irrita ng feature that, frankly, almost drove us face first off the nearest cliff, were the u erly despondent co-drivers. If you’re unaware of what a co-driver does, they are there to give direc ons to the driver, and also keep them mo vated and focused on the job at hand. But in WRC 2010, they seem intent on compounding your misery, especially if you’re struggling with pace. For instance, if you’re lagging behind on the me sheets, rather than give you a heartening pat on the back like any good companion should, the co-driver will grumble that they “can’t even see the pack, we’re so far behind.”, or bark “come on, this is awful!” Thanks. S ll, the female co-driver does make an immensely sa sfying scream of agony when you smash the car into a wall a high speed. That’ll shut her up… When Colin McRae Dirt 2 was released last year, although admiring its excelling visuals and superb racing, we bemoaned its needlessly flashy a tude, and the fake coolness that overwhelmed the menus and career mode. But, over WRC 2010, we’d take it any day of the week, as at least it made us feel something. WRC 2010 is OK, in the same way that a glass of milk is OK. WRC 2010 isn’t par cular exci ng, the gameplay is a bit dull, the visuals are lifeless and overall, everything from the menus to the racing feels a bit numb. We like WRC 2010, but giving the choice between a plain glass of milk, or a Dirt 2-esque chocolate milkshake with whipped cream, toffee syrup and Hundreds and Thousands, we’d take the decadent choice every me. PRESENTATION: 12/20 STORY: 14/20 CONTROLS: 14/20 GAMEPLAY: 14/20 DURABILITY: 14/20

OVERALL

68/100

Sco Tierney

phonica magazine uk

REVIEWS GUITAR HERO: WARRIORS OF ROCK PUBLISHERS: ACTIVISION DEVELOPERS: NEVERSOFT, VICARIOUS VISIONS FORMAT: PS3, XBOX 360, WII, DS GENRE: RHYTHM GAME

THE GUITAR HERO SERIES JUST KEEPS ON ROCKING. Another Guitar Hero game is upon us, and although I should be about to slam my head in the nearest vice and start turning that handle like my soon-to-be-pancaked life depended on it, I’m actually reasonably excited about this one. Sure, last year these guitar-based games seemed to be spawning faster and with less quality than ever, but Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock seems to have something else; it just seems to have a li le more intent than the previous tles. Maybe I’m ge ng all excited simply because of the glaring cover art, or due to the thrashing tunes that adorn the press release? Well, let’s strap this mudder fudger in and get rip with some serious rock! Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock is, in all aspects, a much harder entrant in the Guitar Hero series. Designed to appeal to the more skilled axe grinders, Warriors of Rock is back to basics, with more emphasis on lead guitar and more tracks that reﬂect the roots of the series: rocking. With 93 on-disc tracks (which, it should be stated, are mixed in quality at best), from the prog-rock of the six es to the clinical pop of today, you won’t be le scratching your head in confusion when it comes to that all important a en on-seeking solo. True rock fans may be spi ng their tongue piercings in disgust at the sight of Sum 41 and Neil Young, but there’s s ll plenty of the good stuﬀ, in the shape of Queen, Black Sabbath and Rush. Speaking of Rush, during the refreshed career mode, you’ll have to take the ul mate test, and play Rush’s epic 2112 in its full 20 minute en rety. But don’t panic, as you’ll be well trained when it gets to that point.

52 phonica magazine uk

Warriors of Rock’s playmodes are s ll essen ally the same as those of the rhythm-based breed. You get the standard quick play mode, where you can scroll down the list of tracks and pick the ballad of your choice; the party mode, where your chums can join in and a empt to beat your scores; and then there’s the career mode, which has been rebranded as Quest. In Quest mode, you go on a ...yes...quest, enlis ng the help of eight other rockers in order to defeat the dreaded Beast and free the enslaved Demigod of Rock. It’s a bit more of a chuckle than the standard career mode of previous tles, and overall, more compelling as an adventure than rather a dull bounce from venue to venue. So, does Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock pack that much needed punch, and was I right in ge ng excited about what could/should be just another turgid guitar game? Well it’s fair to say that Warriors of Rock is a much more honed package than the previous tles in the series, as the Quest mode is a more rewarding and interes ng structure than the standard career fair. Also, with plenty of tracks and a s ffer level of difficulty, Warriors of Rock should appeal to the lighter fingered fans of the series. But, overall, Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock’s roar of passion is more of a tepid yelp. We can’t help but feel that it’s a flat and slightly wet clone of Tim Schafer’s truly cranked Brütal Legend, and although Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock tries to come across as hard and full of rock fury and bile, it’s not convincing anyone. It’s the best entry in the series for a while, but does it stand out? Nope. Ah well, back in the vice I go... PRESENTATION: 17/20 STORY: 14/20 CONTROLS: 17/20 GAMEPLAY: 13/20 DURABILITY: 15/20

OVERALL

76/100

Sco Tierney

phonica magazine uk

REVIEWS

54 phonica magazine uk

REVIEWS

PRESENTATION: 18/20 STORY: 14/20 CONTROLS: 17/20 GAMEPLAY: 13/20 DURABILITY: 13/20

OVERALL

75/100 phonica magazine uk

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

Nokia 7230

Nokia 6730

Nokia 5530

Nokia E75

Nokia 6210

98 x 48 x 14.8 mm 100 g Quad-band/3G 240 x 320 3.15 MP 45 MB/microSD Yes/A2DP/microUSB Yes/EDGE Class 32 No Wap/xHTML/HTML Yes SMS/MMS/Email/IM Yes

112 x 46 x 12.6 mm 83 g Quad-band/3G 240 x 320 3.15 MP 48 MB/microSD Yes/A2DP/microUSB Yes/EDGE Class 32 No Wap/xHTML/HTML Yes SMS/MMS/Email Yes

104 x 49 x 13 mm 107 g Quad-band/3G 640 x 360 3.2 MP 70 MB/microSD Yes/A2DP/microUSB Yes/EDGE Class 32/HSDPA Yes Wap/xHTML/HTML Yes SMS/MMS/Email/AMS Yes

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

MP3/MP4/WAV/WMA

MP3/AAC/AAC+/eAAC/WAV/WMA MP3/AAC/AAC+/eAAC/WAV/WMA

MP3/AAC/WAV/WMA

MP3/WAV/AAC/WMA

Yes MP3 300 370 Yes

Yes Poly/MP3 600 500 Yes

Yes Poly/MP3/AAC 294 351 Yes

Yes MP3 340 264 Yes

Yes Poly/MP3/AAC 222 244 Yes

Sony Ericsson W395 97 x 47 x 14.9 mm 96 g Quad-band 176 x 220 2 MP

Sony Ericsson C903 97 x 49 x 16 mm 96 g Quad-band/3G 240 x 320 5 MP

Sony Ericsson Aino 104 x 50 x 15.5 mm 134 g Quad-band/3G 240 x 420 8.1 MP

Sony Ericsson Yari 100 x 48 x 15.7 mm 115 g Quad-band/3G 240 x 320 5 MP

Sony Ericsson Naite 108 x 47 x 12.6 mm 84 g Quad-band 240 x 320 2 MP

10 MB/Memory S ck Micro

130 MB/Memory S ck Micro

60 MB/microSD

100 MB/microSD

Yes/A2DP/USB Yes/EDGE Class 10 No Wap/xHTML/HTML Yes SMS/MMS Yes

Yes/A2DP/USB Yes/EDGE Class 10/HSDPA No Wap/HTML Yes SMS/MMS/Email/IM Yes

Yes/A2DP/USB Yes/EDGE Class 10/HSDPA Yes WAP/xHTML Yes SMS/MMS/Email/IM Yes

Yes/A2DP/USB Yes/EDGE Class 10 No Wap/xHTML Yes SMS/MMS/Email/IM Yes

MP3/AAC

MP3/eAAC+/WMA

MP3/MP4/eAAC+/WMA

Yes MP3/AAC 420 480 Yes

Yes MP3/AAC 600 400 Yes

Yes Poly/MP3 270 360 Yes

Yes Poly/MP3/AAC 600 450 Yes

Yes Poly/MP3/AAC 564 380 Yes

56 phonica magazine uk

THE GUIDE

Nokia E63

Nokia N97

Nokia 3720 classic

Nokia 5800 Xpress Music

Sony Ericsson W995

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

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

97 x 49 x 15 mm 113 g Quad-band/3G 240 x 320 8 MP 118 MB/Memory S ck Micro Yes/A2DP/USB Yes/EDGE Class 10/HSDPA Yes Wap/HTML Yes SMS/MMS/Email/IM Yes

MP3/WAV/AAC/WMA

MP3/AAC/eAAC/eAAC+/WMA

MP3/MP4/eAAC+/WMA

MP3/AAc/AAC+/eAAC+/WMA

Mp3/MP4/AAC

Yes Polyphonic & MP3 660 432 Yes

Yes MP3 570 430 Yes

Yes Poly/MIDI/Real Tone/MP3 420 450 Yes

Yes Poly/MP3 528 406 Yes

Yes Poly/MP3/AAC 420 360 Yes

Sony Ericsson C901 105 x 45 x 13 mm 107 g Quad-band 240 x 320 5 MP

Sony Ericsson C510 107 x 47 x 12.5 mm 92 g Quad-band 240 x 320 3.15 MP

HTC Desire 119 x 60 x 11.9 mm 135 g Quad-band/3G 480 x 800 5 MP

HTC Magic 113 x 55 x 13.7 mm 118.5 g Quad-band 320 x 480 3.15 MP

HTC Hero 112 x 56.2 x 14.35 mm 135 g Quad-band/3G 320 x 480 5 MP

120 MB/Memory S ck Micro

100 MB/Memory S ck Micro

ROM:512 MB/RAM:576 MB/microSD

288 MB/microSD

Yes/A2DP/USB Yes No Wap/xHTML Yes SMS/MMS/Email/IM Yes

Yes/A2DP/USB Yes/EDGE Class 10 No Wap/xHTML Yes SMS/MMS/Email Yes

Yes/A2DP/microUSB Yes/EDGE Class 10/HSDPA Yes HMTL Yes,via 3rd party SMS/MMS/Email(Push)/IM Yes

Yes/miniUSB Yes/EDGE Class 10 Wi-Fi HTML Yes,via 3rd party SMS/MMS/Email/IM No

Yes/A2DP/miniUSB Yes/EDGE Class 10 Wi-Fi HTML Yes SMS/MMS/Email/IM Yes

MP3/eAAC+/WMA

MP3/AAC/MP4

MP3/AAC/MID/M4A/WAV/WMA

MP3/MP4

MP3/AAC+/WAV/WMA 9

Yes Poly/MP3 570 430 Yes

Yes Poly/MP3/Aac 420 400 Yes

Yes Mp3 400 360 Yes

Yes Poly/MP3/WAV 450 420 Yes

Yes Poly/MP3/WAV 420 750 Yes

phonica magazine uk

THE GUIDE

Apple iPhone 3G S

Apple iPhone 3G

INQ Chat 3G

BlackBerry 8520

BlackBerry Bold 9000

11.5 x 62.1 x 12.3 mm 135 g Quad-band/3G 480 x 320 3.15 MP 16/32 GB (internal)

11.5 x 62.1 x 12.3 mm 133 g Quad-band/3G 480 x 320 2 MP 8/16 GB (internal)

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 â&#x201E;˘

109 x 60 x 13.9 mm 106 g Quad-band 320 x 240 2 MP 256 MB/MicroSD

114 x 66 x 14 mm 133 g Quad-band/3G 480 x 320 2MP 1GB/microSD

Yes/USB

Yes/A2DP/USB

Yes/A2DP/microUSB

Yes/A2DP/USB

Yes/EDGE Wi-Fi HTML (Safari) No SMS/MMS/Email No

Yes/EDGE Yes HTML (Safari) No SMS/Email No

Yes Yes Net Front Yes SMS/MMS/Email No

Yes/EDGE Class 10 Yes HTML Yes SMS/MMS/Email/IM No

MP3/MP3 VBR/AAC/WAV

AMR/AAC/AAC+/eAAC

MP3/AAC/WMA/AAC+/MP4/WMV MP3/WMA/AAC+

Yes

Poly/MP3

AMR/AAC/AAC+/eAAC/MP3/WAV

Poly/MIDI/MP3

Poly/MP3

720 300 Yes

600 300 Yes

480 170 Yes

270 408 Yes

300 310 Yes

Samsung B3310

Samsung Jet

Samsung U900

91 x 54 x 17 mm 101 g Quad-band 240 x 320 2 MP 40 MB/microSD Yes/A2DP/microUSB Yes/EDGE Class 10 No WAP/xHTML Yes SMS/MMS/Email Yes

108 x 53.5 x 11.9 mm 103.2 x 49.3 x 10.9 mm 110 g 81.5 g Quad-band/3G Quad-band 480 x 800 240 x 320 5 MP 3.2 MP 2/8 GB (internal)/microSD 80MB/microSD Yes/microUSB Yes/A2DP/USB Yes/EDGE Class 12/HSDPA Yes/EDGE Class 10 Wi-Fi No WAP/Dolphin WAP/xHTML Yes Yes SMS/MMS/Email/Vidoe/MS Exchange SMS/MMS/EMS/Email Yes Yes

LG GD510 Pop

LG GM750

97.8 x 49.5 x 11.2 mm 87 g Quad-band 240 x 400 3.15 MP 42 MB RAM/microSD Yes/A2DP/microUSB Yes/EDGE Class 12 No WAP/xHTML/HTML Yes SMS/MMS/Email Yes

109.8 x 53.5 x 12.9 mm 120 g Quad-band 240 x 400 5 MP 128 MB RAM/256 MB ROM/microSD Yes/A2DP/microUSB Yes Yes WAP/xHTML/HTML Yes SMS/MMS/Email/IM Yes

MP3/MP4

MP3/AAC/AAC+/eAAC+/WMA/AMR

MP3/MPEG4/AAC/eAAC/WMA

MP3/MP4/WMA

MP3/MPEG4/WAV/eAAC+/WMA

Yes Poly/MP3/WAV 300 380 Yes

Yes Poly/MP3/WAV 492 422 Yes

Yes Poly/MP3 210 220 Yes

Yes Poly/MP3 200 360 Yes

Yes Poly/MP3 380 450 Yes

58 phonica magazine uk

THE GUIDE

BlackBerry 8300 Curve

Samsung Galaxy S

Samsung Pixon 12

Samsung S5600V Blade Samsung Genio Touch

107 x 60 x 15.5 mm 111 g Quad-band 320 x 240 2MP 64MB/microSD

122.4 x 64.2 x 9.9 119 g Quad-band/3G 480 x 800 5 MP 8GB/16GB/microSD

108 x 53 x 13.8 mm 120 g 480 x 800 pixels 240 x 320 12 MP 150 MB/microSD

102.8 x 54.8 x 12.9 mm 92 g 240 x 320 pixels 240 x 320 3.15 MP 50 MB/microSD

103 x 56.5 x 12 mm 90 g Quad-band 240 x 320 2 MP 40 MB/microSD

Yes/USB

Yes/A2DP/microUSB

Yes/A2DP/USB

Yes/USB

Yes/EDGE No HTML Yes SMS/MMS/Email/IM No

Yes/EDGE Class 12/HSDPA Yes HTML Yes,via 3rd party SMS/MMS/Email/IM Yes

Yes/EDGE Class 10 No WAP/xHTML/HTML Yes SMS/MMS/Email Yes

Yes/EDGE Class 12 No WAP/xHTML/HTML Yes SMS/MMS/Email Yes

Yes/EDGE Class 10 No WAP/xHTML/HTML Yes SMS/MMS/Email Yes

MP3/AAC/AAC+/eAAC+/WMA

MP3/MP4/eAAC+/

MP3/MP4/WMA/eAAC+

MP3/WMA/AAC

MP3/MP4/eAAC+/WMV/WMA

Yes

Poly/MP3

Poly/MP3/WAV

240 408 Yes

803 750 Yes

180 250 Yes

120 250 Yes

480 730 Yes

LG BL40 New Chocolate

Dell Streak

128 x 51 x 10.9 mm 129 g Quad-band 345 x 800 5 MP 1.1 GB/microSD Yes/A2DP/microUSB Yes/EDGE Class 10/HSDPA Yes WAP/xHTML/HTML Yes SMS/MMS/EMS/Email/IM Yes MP3/WAV/DivX/eAAC Yes Poly/MP3 240 400 Yes

152.9 x 79.1 x 10 mm 220 g Quad-band/3G 480 x 800 5 MP 16GB/512MB ROM/512MB RAM/microSD Yes/A2DP/USB Yes/EDGE Class 12/HSDPA Yes HTML Yes SMS/MMS/Email No MP3/WAV/eAAC+/WMA Yes MP3 580 400 Yes

phonica magazine uk