Reviews on Gamming & Latest Gadget

Need for Speed Undercover

2009-01-18T01:01:00.000-08:00

It’s easy to forget how long the Need for Speed series has been around. The original – our first taste of driving licensed exotica from the likes of Ferrari, Lamborghini and Dodge – existed in a world before Gran Turismo, at least five years before Midnight Club and when we were still playing the very first Ridge Racer. Over a dozen games and years later, it’s an achievement that EA Black Box (developers for the majority of the series) have managed to keep the desire to move around in a car quickly so stoked for so long.

Of course, it hasn’t been an easy life. The Underground years may have been hugely successful but now look tacky and unfashionable and as for ProStreet, well… EA’s attempts to keep up with the trends in modified car culture resulted in a disappointing change of direction that was as much fun as the driving laps of a car park. So, it seems obvious that the latest game should carry on where some of the best in the series – namely, Hot Pursuit 2 and Most Wanted – left off. However, unlike the previously mentioned games, NFS Undercover is different because you will get the opportunity to work for both sides of the law. As Maggie Q and Christinia Milian will inform you during the movie-style cutscenes, your position as a ‘wheelman’ requires you to infiltrate a car smuggling ring by convincing the bad guys you’re one of them.

In gameplay terms, this mean you’ll be taking part in the usual point-to-point and circuit battles to improve your status amongst the local street racers, as well as outrunning cops in ‘damage to the state’ missions. Your criminal activities will also include ‘theft and delivery’ jobs, where you’ll get the opportunity to sample some of the higher tiered cars early on. So far, so Most Wanted. However, as you’re really a cop, the tables will turn. Much like Burnout – and with a bit of a nod to old classic Chase HQ – you’ll be instructed to take down key members of the crime syndicate by literally smashing their cars to pieces.

That’s not to say that ProStreet has been completely overlooked; both the handling and damage model have evolved from it. So, some of the arcade powerslides of old have been replaced with a slightly more simulation approach with tangible understeer and oversteer noticeable in each of the cars. For the most part, Undercover is a successful return to form. But it feels like EA Black Box have taken away more than they have added. Okay, so the Hollywood cast and FMV sections give this NFS some real narrative substance and the action movie pace is maintained thanks to your ability to ‘quick jump’ to the nearest event on the map.

But it’s behind the wheel where it counts the most and the new grown up approach lacks some of the arcade lunacy that made Hot Pursuit 2 so enjoyable. Even the modifying sections (once a huge part of Need for Speed titles) have been reduced down to little more than a handful of tuning and styling options. And anyway, if it’s over-the-top motoring madness that you’re looking for, then you’ll find that Midnight Club: LA fulfills that need. Need for Speed Undercover, then, is attempting to look back while also moving forward. Black Box has taken little in the way of risks but it’s not faultless – the streets can feel quite empty (depending on race type) and the framerate can get a bit juddery. But you can’t say that EA hasn’t given us what we asked for.

Dead Space

2008-09-22T02:51:00.000-07:00

EA's upcoming sci-fi horror game Dead Space drops you into the not-so-lucky space suit of Isaac Clarke, a member of a deep space rescue team. Unfortunately for Clarke, his own rescue team finds itself in need of rescue quicker than Corporal Dwayne Hicks of Aliens can say, "Game over, man!" The game is being developed internally at EA and has been making us jump since we got our first look some months ago. We finally got our hands on a work-in-progress version of the game for the Xbox 360 to see how the various demos we've seen all fit together.

Your core goal is to find your lady friend and get the heck out of there with your surviving teammates. Of course, because you just know things aren't going to be easy, there's also a mystery to uncover, namely what happened to the Ishimura's crew of 1,000 people. To add some urgency to the proceedings, the Ishimura has seen better days and requires you to do some repair work to get around. This is, of course, all complicated by the fact that there's all manner of unpleasant creatures lurking between you and just about everywhere you need to go.

What happened to everyone? Why couldn't your lady friend have picked a less ill-fated assignment? We don't want to spoil the plot, but we will say this: Clark eventually discovers that many of the deadly threats he finds are actually what's left of the Ishimura's crew. Exactly what happened to them is what you'll have to discover as you explore the ship. As for your girl picking a better assignment, well, you're just that lucky. You'll discover all this and more as you make your way through the massive ship--on foot and by tram--as part of what appears to be a linear story.

Dead Space's approach to gameplay should be familiar to veteran players of third-person action games. You'll run around, explore, solve puzzles, and strategically dismember the creatures you come across. Yep, strategically. Although the enemies you face do seem space zombies of some sort, shooting them in the head just doesn't get you very far. You'll have to take out the arms, legs, and other important appendages before finally taking your enemies down for good. You'll have plenty of options for how to do this as you explore the game and buy yourself more weapons. Yes, in the future, there are vending machine-style shops that sell you stuff. You'll start out with a simple cutter but find tons more if you've got the cash. You'll also be able to upgrade your suit, which is basically the only thing that stands between you and horrible death.

Besides offering functional goods, such as weapons and upgraded suits, the vending machines will also offer health and ammo. You can also increase the types of items available in the machines by finding blueprints of new items. You'll find more money and ammo with careful exploration as well. However, one of the most important items to find are special nodes that you can use at workbenches you come across on the ship. You'll be able to use these nodes to power up different attributes on your weapons or suit; this will be crucial to survival.

While all of the above may sound pretty standard, Dead Space gets a BioShock-like twist thanks to the addition of special powers you can gain, such as slowing time or moving objects. They come in handy when solving puzzles. Other elements in the mix are the space- and zero-gravity sequences, which force you to either get through areas before your suit runs out of air or figure out how to get through rooms that feel like an MC Escher painting. While it may sound like a crazy quilt of mechanics rolled together, it actually works pretty well from what we've played. There's a good amount of variety, and the story elements that are peppered throughout have been keeping the action interesting so far.

Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction (Playstation 2)

2008-09-19T03:30:00.002-07:00

North Korea is in chaos. The country's president, who was attempting to move the country towards democracy, has been assassinated; his son, General Choi Song, has taken control of the country and has expelled all foreigners. Shortly thereafter, the Australian Navy discovers a North Korean ship laden with nuclear weapons bound for a black market arms port, thus providing a casus belli for the rest of the free world. North Korea is invaded within days, and all known missile sites are quickly overrun by Allied Forces. Unfortunately, weapons inspectors reveal documents proving that Song has created another launch site at an as-yet-unknown location, and will be ready to launch his missiles within a month. That's where you come in.

In Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction, you play as an elite mercenary, sent into North Korea in the hope of claiming the open bounties that the Allies have laid out on General Song and his various generals and lieutenants. There's a whole deck of cards waiting for you: 52 separate bounties, each worth quite a bit of money. In addition to capturing these bounties, though, you'll be able to work as a soldier-for-hire for the various factions seeking to establish a foothold in North Korea. To accomplish your various missions, you'll have to take control of a number of various vehicles, ranging from civilian cars to jeeps, APCs, tanks, and even the occasional helicopter. You'll also need to master the use of support abilities, which will allow you to perform a variety of actions, from having medical supplies or weapons delivered to you, to calling down air strikes or carpet bombing.

GameSpot's Game Guide to Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction will elucidate all of the bounties and all of the missions for each faction in the game, as well as give you tips on how to raise your factional reputation levels, how to unlock the cheat codes and hidden support items, and give you maps for all of the hidden bounty items in the game. Lock and load!

Need for Speed Undercover Hands-On Need for Speed Undercover Hands-On

2008-09-19T03:30:00.001-07:00

Only in the context of video games will you hear people clamor on about how they wish they were being chased by the cops, but that's just what many Need for Speed fans have been doing since 2005's Most Wanted. Well, the boys in blue are back for Need for Speed Undercover, and so is the open-world setting that last year's ProStreet sacrificed in favor of quartered-off racing courses. But it's not as though developer EA Black Box has gone into full-on time-travel mode for the latest entry in this long-running series. For every nod to the series' past, you'll find something new like Hollywood-style driving techniques designed to help you elude the police, new events and skill-building systems, and a step toward more mature, less hammy storytelling.

Need for Speed Undercover is swapping the professional racing circuits and nighttime neon lights of the past two games in favor of an open-world Gulf Coast locale. Known as Tri-City Bay, this collection of floating-bridge freeways, dirt roads, and industrial shipping yards is set in the postsunrise, presunset time of day when the sun sits low in the sky and covers everything in a golden light. There seems to be a lot of diversity, and the race events take good advantage of that. One of the Sprint Race events we took part in--a supercar showdown featuring the likes of the Carerra GT and Pagani Zonda--took us from the highway to a high school football field to a millionaire's marble driveway before arriving at the finish line in a freeway tunnel. It's definitely a big world, too. We're told you can drive the fastest car in the game and it would take you a solid eight minutes to circumnavigate the entire world at top speed.

One of the ways Black Box is looking to expand your driving abilities without necessarily changing the way cars handle is through what it's calling the Heroic Driving Engine, a system that allows you to achieve a new level of agility on the road. One of the ways it's done this is by removing the persistent relationship between a car's direction and the perspective of the camera. If you're flying down the road, you can jam on the brakes while jerking the control stick to the side and watch as your car does a 180 at speed while the camera remains firmly in place. It's not just for show; if you've thrown your car into reverse like this, you can double-tap the gas and your driver will come to a screeching halt and take off in the opposite direction. This entails the opposite scenario as before--your car will remain facing the same way while the camera turns around, saving you a good bit of time compared to the old-fashioned three-point turn. When you successfully engage in these types of moves, you'll be rewarded with RPG-style experience points that will upgrade your driving abilities.

As a way of maintaining balance with your newfound driving skills, EA Black Box is bringing back the police to keep you challenged as you wreak havoc on the roads of Tri-City Bay. Driver AI has been enhanced so that if you do something particularly stupid like nudge someone off the road at 90 miles per hour, you'll have the cops called on you. In other situations, you'll have them on your tail at the start of a mission, like in the Driver Job event we tried that had us stealing a police cruiser (a Nissan GT-R squad car, of all things) and bring it to a shop to sell it off. No matter the origins, getting rid of the cops is the same: You need to put some distance between you and the police cars, and if there's a helicopter, you need to find a tunnel or bridge to hide under.

As you progress through the game's story--a tale about a police officer so deep undercover that only a few people know who he is--the narration will unfold in the traditional cutscene format of the Need for Speed series. This time around, there's a new focus on taking these video sequences out of the stone age and into the modern era, where games don't need to remain stuck in the trappings of the mid-'90s. What this means is cutscenes shot on a live set rather than a green screen, real actors (well, at least the main characters--we're not sure if Jessica Alba's brother playing a side role counts as a real actor), and a director pulled from the show 24. Based on the three cutscenes we saw, these ingredients have come together to form a more mature look for the series. You'll have the chance to see how well the whole package comes together when Need for Speed Undercover is released on November 17.

WWE SmackDown! vs. Raw 2009 Updated Look: Road to WrestleMania X-box360

2008-09-19T03:30:00.000-07:00

Though the WWE's premier pay-per-view event, WrestleMania, is the ultimate goal for any superstar on the roster, every path to that goal is different. That's the premise behind the Road to WrestleMania, the latest announced mode in THQ's upcoming wrestling game WWE SmackDown! vs. Raw 2009. We got a chance to see the mode in action for the first time last week, during a visit by THQ reps.

Road to WrestleMania is essentially the story mode in SvR 2009, but there are some crucial distinctions between this year's game and the story modes of SmackDown's past. For one thing, there are six stories to choose from: five single-player stories and, in keeping with 2009's focus on tag-team wrestling, a cooperative story mode. The wrestlers featured in the mode are Chris Jericho, John Cena, Undertaker, CM Punk, Triple H, and for the co-op story, Batista and Rey Mysterio Jr. Each of the stories features a unique plot and is told through a mixture of cinematics and gameplay.

We had a chance to get a taste of a few of the storylines in the game, and it's fair to say that some of the outlandish storylines that make their way onto the real WWE programming will be a part of the game as well. For example, take the Undertaker's storyline. After taking apart Santino in a televised match, The Phenom next has to take on Finlay. As the storyline progresses, the Undertaker will eventually possess Santino and Finlay, turning them into henchmen of sorts.

Other storylines of note include John Cena's, whose (currently unannounced) opponent will declare his loathing for the United States and proceed to establish his own country in the middle of the squared circle. In "Better Than Youtopia," as this newly formed 20-by-20-foot sovereign nation is called, only the laws set by its ruler apply. As a result, when fighting in Youtopia, Cena will have to win by a five-count, whereas his opponent can pin with a standard three-count. Yes, storylines such as Cena's and the Undertaker's sound silly on paper, but as any wrestling fan will tell you, you don't have to search that hard to find crazy in the WWE.

As mentioned earlier, you can expect a mixture of cutscenes and gameplay to tell the stories in Road to WrestleMania mode. From a gameplay standpoint, this can involve anything from backstage brawls with other wrestlers whom you're looking to squeeze information out of (such as in the Chris Jericho storyline), to special rules matches, as in the Cena scenario described above. Another example: After beating Santino in the Undertaker's story, you open up a challenge for the next match against Finlay that requires you to beat Finlay in less time than it took you to beat Santino. These challenges will be strewn throughout Road to WrestleMania mode, and beating them will unlock a host of content: everything from new arenas, to new characters and costumes.

Although we didn't get a chance to get our hands on the game itself, we did learn about some new in-ring improvements to gameplay, including a new guard stance that will help you avoid being attacked when trying to get up off of the mat. In past games, this has been a particularly tough aspect of gameplay, which made it all too easy for your opponent to continue kicking your butt once you were on the mat. With the guard stance enabled by pressing the right and left triggers simultaneously, your character will automatically dodge any strikes, giving you a few extra moments to get to your feet and get on the offensive.

Producers told us that each of the storylines in Road to WrestleMania mode will have about six hours of gameplay packed in, which makes all six storylines round out to a hefty 30 hours of WWE gameplay alone--and that's separate from the various other modes that will be found in SvR 2009. Though it might be the latest mode announced by the crew at THQ, it's definitely not the last surprise on the list for the game. We got a sneak peek at some of these as-yet-unannounced features--details of which we can't divulge just yet--and we can say that we like what we saw and think wrestling fans will too. Check back for more on WWE SmackDown! vs. Raw 2009 in the coming weeks, as we lead up to its release on November 9.

Super Mario Galaxy

2008-09-19T00:30:00.001-07:00

Super Mario Galaxy, uploaded by Zeoroth

The ultimate Nintendo hero is taking the ultimate step ... into space.

Become Mario as he traverses a galaxy of gravities, traveling in and out of gravitational fields by blasting from planet to planet. Players experience dizzying perspective shifts as they run upside down through wild alien worlds that need to be seen to be believed.
Controlling Mario is as simple as can be with the Wii Remote and Nunchuk. Players move Mario with the Control Stick and shake the Wii Remote to perform a spin move or cue stars that launch him to and from planetary objects. Players can even point at bits of stardust to collect them or latch onto stars to blaze a magnetic trail through the heavens.
Don't want to head into space alone? With a second Wii Remote, another player can play alongside by pointing at and collecting bits of stardust, then launching them at enemies. The second player can even sweep aside projectiles or stall enemies to help make Mario's adventure easier.

Super Mario Galaxy, uploaded by Zeoroth

Wii Music gets October 20 release date, will be sold out everywhere until 2010

2008-09-19T00:30:00.000-07:00

October such a busy month for gaming. And now, it's a busy month for making music ... yay!
Nintendo has announced that Wii Music will be finding its way to stores on October 20. The game features more than 60 instruments, including everything from a guitar to a trumpet. And a dog that makes dog noises. Not only can you wave your arms around while holding the Wii Remote and nunchuck to make music, but the game will also support the balance board for the dropping of killer beats.
Wii Music, of course, will be the ultimate music tool when it's released next month. Prepare to not be able to actually walk into a store and buy one until sometime in 2010. After all, this is Nintendo (and the Wii) we're talking about.

ON OCT. 20, NINTENDO'S WII MUSIC MAKES MAESTROS OF EVERYONE

Wii Sports™ introduced new players to the world of video games. Wii Fit™ got even more people interested in fun and fitness.

Now Wii Music™ builds on that inclusive legacy by letting people turn their living rooms into fun concert halls. It brings the experience of performing music to people who think learning an instrument is too difficult. Wii Music launches exclusively for the Wii™ console on Oct. 20 and aims to bring a deeper love and appreciation of music to everyone.

Players can improvise jams on the fly with more than 60 instruments. You will find rock favorites like the electric guitar; orchestra standards like trumpet, saxophone and clarinet; and even international instruments like steel drums, marimba and sitar. Players simply select their instruments, and then move their Wii Remote™ and Nunchuk™ controllers as though they were playing the real thing. Wii Music turns players' movements into great music, even if you've never picked up an instrument before.

Budding musicians can play along to the beat of a diverse array of more than 50 songs from a variety of genres including popular, licensed, classical and Nintendo songs. Or players can improvise by adding new beats or creative twists to the songs. The combinations are endless, and it's all for the joy of creating fun new tunes.

Once players have their song the way they like it, they can forward it to friends who are also playing Wii Music via the Wii Message Board. Those friends can then put their own spin on the tune and send it back – or pass it along to their friends.

THE iPHONE REVIEWS

2008-09-16T02:40:00.000-07:00

Apple crop announced the i Phone on 9 Jan 2007 at 0942 hours, at Mac World No,Mac World is not an MMO game. Its the annual gathering of the "community" Popularated by the Apple's Macs just to play around with heir gadget's.

ADVANTAGES

Good For Playing Videos
The Best Device To View Image On

DISSADVANTAGES

NO GPS
NO Games
OS X Sucks
iTUNES Blow
Camera Sucks
Can't Record Videos
Fragline Touck Screen
NO Custerm Ringtone
NO instant messanging
Default Dingtone Sucks
Dosent Fit In My Pockit
Quicklist Dialling Sucks
Toucksereen Keyoadrd Sucks
Can't Save Document Attach Via e-mail

Galactic Civ II Twilight

2008-09-16T02:33:00.000-07:00

Galactic Civilizations II: Twilight of the Arnor isn't just a great expansion, it's also a wonderful culmination of everything good about the series. Developer Stardock has addressed just about all of the possible complaints about both the original game and its Dark Avatar add-on. Plus, they've added impactful tech-tree innovations, a climactic campaign, and a host of other tweaks, for a superb example of what an expansion pack should be.

If you are a Gal Civ addict you'll be excited about the new tech trees provided for each of the game's 12 playable civilizations. Where the Terrans, Drengin, Yor, Thalans, and pals used to share a single tech tree that made all of the civs go about their galactic gallivanting in a similar style, each now has branching-off points that emphasize unique traits. This means that you're now able to play civilizations very differently, as well as make the good guys really good and the bad guys really bad. With the evil Drengin, for example, you're now free to indulge your inner De Sade by spending credits on such horrific goodies as Xeno slavery, slave canyons, and the always entertaining visions of agony philosophy. The murderous Drengin offshoot Korath clan is actually even nastier, with such techs as malicious bargaining, wretched cloning, and dark influence. Terrans, on the other hand, can be happier expansion-minded imperialists with such specialties as majesty, cultural domination, and stellar folding. Extra detail and history have been tossed into each tech as well, giving you insight into each civilization's identity and, in some cases, reinforcing their alien natures.

Military action has also been enhanced--at least in theory--with the addition of terror stars, which are rather familiar-looking planet busters that can blow up a world as quick as you can say "Alderaan." They're far too time-consuming and a little too easily destroyed to be a true galaxy-beater, though. Immense galaxies have been added to the list of map choices in sandbox games, providing the option of setting up epic matches that can last for weeks. This option is a bit treacherous for anyone accustomed to previous, saner, galaxy sizes because you have so much space to cover that you can easily overextend yourself early in the game and wind up in major financial difficulty. Editors now allow you to alter every aspect of the game. Numerous interface tweaks make it easier to track technologies, track finance, and even set up automatic ship building whenever new techs are revealed. About the only part of the original game design left untouched is multiplayer, which remains MIA and will probably continue to be absent until Galactic Civilizations III from the looks of things.

Adding this much new life to what should be a very familiar game is an amazing achievement. While no single addition here can be said to make this expansion, the scope of the subtle yet wide-ranging changes greatly improve the Galactic Civilizations II experience. Before Twilight of the Arnor, players could stick to the Terrans and encounter everything that the game had to offer. Now, you deal with something new each and every time you go galaxy conquering with a different alien race, which freshens up a game that was in need of exactly this kind of facelift.

Fifa

2008-09-16T02:19:00.000-07:00

Fifa

While the battle between FIFA and Winning Eleven/Pro Evolution Soccer is closely fought in the UK, it seems like FIFA has trouble even getting a look in Japan At press day at this year's Tokyo Game Show, you face a wait of more than 20 minutes to play on one of the many Pro Evo 2008 machines, while at the Sony PlayStation stand, you can walk up and easily secure a place on a single FIFA 08 console. From what we played though, it was Japan's loss because FIFA 08 offers a very playable game of football.

We played a couple of games at the stand, one as AC Milan and another as Barcelona, against a couple of different demonstrators who were manning the booth. And despite losing the first game 2-0, we have to say that we still enjoyed our two 10-minute matches. The game feels tighter this year, with fewer fouls and penalties resulting in a very flowing game. Having said that, the referee seemed to be missing from the pitch, so maybe this is one of the last features waiting to be dropped into the game.

We already covered the new features of FIFA 08 in some depth at the Leipzig Game Convention, so this was really a chance to accustom ourselves with the gameplay itself. The animation system is as polished as ever, meaning that these sporting gods move in an incredibly realistic fashion. The effectiveness of sliding tackles seems to have been toned down, and we had more luck bringing two defenders onto opposing players instead.

Arguably the most fun we had was toying around with the trick system, which is mapped to the L2 button and the right analog stick. Players now perform advanced moves with even more finesse than in previous games, and depending on their skill level, they can now be used to cut swathes through the midfield. Exceptional players, such as Barcelona's Ronaldinho, are able to perform signature moves and feints. They also seemed to be more successful at doing them at speed.

Visually, the game is looking very polished, with the best player likenesses seen in any football game yet. In particular, the cloth deformation looked extremely realistic, while the kits and billboards naturally boasted all the correct sponsorship information.

We would have loved to see more of the modes in the latest FIFA, but with the game hitting the streets at the end of September, we won't have long to wait to play the finished thing. Will it be the football game to play through 2008? We look forward to finding out.

Half Life & Counter-Strike

2008-09-12T07:42:00.000-07:00

This is the most popular and the best game or the basic game which a gamer play it has many versons.
The common short form of counter-strike is -> c.s
HOW TO PLAY CS & Half_Life
Counter-Strike is a first-person shooter in which players join either the terrorist or counter-terrorist team.
Each team attempts to complete their mission objective and/or eliminate the opposing team.
Players are generally given a few seconds before the round begins to prepare and buy equipment, during which they cannot attack or walk/move
They can return to the buy area within a set amount of time to buy more equipment.
Once the round has ended, surviving players retain their equipment for use in the next round players who were killed begin the next round with the basic default starting equipment.

CHEAT CODE FOR C.S

1)While playing game, press ` and type:
-Waypoint on noclip : Enable Waypoint
-Waypoint off noclip : Disable Waypoint
You can type bind x "Waypoint on (or off) noclip"
(x is any keys)
2)This I've send to my friend Serkan it's called "can't die" cheat.
Go to the console then type:
bind p "choosteam;menuselect 6;menuselect x;menuselect 2"

where x is the team you want 1 for terrorist 2 for counter.
When play HL if you die wait until you are in oberserver
mode then press p then you will live again.
3)To get more items/weapons/ammo:-
Buy-
-a Primary weapon+full ammo
-a Secondary weapon=full ammo
-full armour
-as many grenades as you can

Then when it says you can't carry any more, throw your
primary and secondary weapons on the floor in front of you.
Then buy more grenades until you are full. Then walk forward
and pick up your weapons.

Chinese government

The Chinese government has used Counter-Strike as a tool for tactical training.

FEAR 2

2008-09-12T07:18:00.000-07:00

The sequel to F.E.A.R. continues the supernatural suspense story of an escalating paranormal crisis that threatens to destroy a major American city.

Just after we finally broke the habit of referring to Project Origin as F.E.A.R. 2, Monolith announced that they have reacquired the original title of the FPS/Horror franchise. Fortunately all the trouble that Monolith went through in searching for an alternative title will be preserved in the game's new name: F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin.

Warner Bros. also took the time to announce the game's official release date, February 10, 2009.