A new football game instigates yet another opening paragraph proclaiming the state of sporting video game nation. With FIFA 10 being so damn brilliant, Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer series has a whole heap of catching up to do.

Most immediately striking are those almost unnervingly accurate player likenesses. Obviously a lot of time has been spent lavishing graphical goodness on some of the world's greatest players, as a chunky number of them look ridiculously close to their real life counterpart. Players like Steven Gerrard, Fernando Torres and Lionel Messi appear almost identical to the players they’re trying to mimic.

Unfortunately things take a phenomenally rapid plummet downwards when these superstars of the footballing world decide they fancy a jog around. The straight backed sprinting remains intact, and continues to look comically terrible and startlingly unrealistic.

Similarly, while the 360 degrees of movement introduced in FIFA 10 was implemented with an incredibly high level of success, in PES 2010 things aren’t quite so impressive. Though more movement variations are possible, there’s no doubt whatsoever that the full 360 degrees simply can’t be explored to the maximum. Something certainly not helped by the computer's insistence to stick to the traditional 8 directions we’ve contended with for many years.

While in control of things out on the pitch, things continue to be hit and miss. Dribbling feels stilted and on rails, and passing still has the continued obsession with aiming towards a player nowhere near your chosen intention. Yet shooting, coming from someone who has extensively played the FIFA series over the last few years, feels fantastically weighty and packed with inertia.

The pace of each match up certainly feels a lot faster than its FIFA opponent, with local multiplayer games in particular absolutely jam packed with frantic penalty box action.

The AI however doesn’t exactly give a helping hand to proceedings, with some particularly dodgy goalkeeping spoiling the party. A number of long range efforts right at the keeper were simply "kneed in" by a flailing ‘keeper, seemingly oblivious that he has the opportunity to utilise his hands in stopping the ball.

Similarly, your fellow pros on the pitch aren’t too bright either. They’ll refuse to make the obvious runs, neglect to mark the opponent in their area of the pitch, and simply try and make it as difficult as possible for you to score.

It’s an odd situation for a series that always offered a decent single player experience, thanks to the (still included) Master League. All the options remain to really test your gaming metal long-term, but the AI you’ll come up against is so random, awkward, and seemingly lacking in any real quality and skill that Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 is essentially a multiplayer-only title.

Which makes the online problems all the more damning. Despite promises that this year we’d be back to the kind of smooth online experience the series enjoyed back on the original Xbox, lag still regularly ruins games and makes almost every online experience fraught with frustration.

?

Verdict:

One day we’re sure that Konami will once again come up with the magic footballing formula, but once again we’re left lacking a next generation Pro Evolution Soccer experience that anyone could recommend.

AI is universally poor, animation is sometimes laughable, and every facet of the entire game is at least a step behind the FIFA series. A real shame as this year had looked to be a tight call.

Tags: Gaming Sports games PS3 Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 Konami

Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 - PS3 originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:01:44 +0000

Video-on-demand (VOD) is all the rage in TV and games. The BBC’s Project Canvas should initiate open platform set-top boxes in 2010 with elements of IPTV and video on demand streaming services. Sky needs a plan.

Similarly, Xbox bosses desperately need to combat the PlayStation 3 upcoming movie on-demand service that will sit alongside its existing BBC iPlayer interface. It’s expected to include streaming and downloading of 2000+ movies and many more TV shows.

Step forward the ultimate solution: Sky Player on Xbox 360. You’ll find it in the Video Marketplace on your Xbox 360. Once downloaded and various subs paid, (though it will let you watch a random live TV channel as a demo), the interface works in exactly the same way as its host’s dashboard.

That is, quite brilliantly. Spacious and uncluttered, ducking between the live TV channel slots and those for on-demand content is so easy, and so familiar. There’s rarely any delay, save for an occasional wait for the movies homepage to load.

As for live TV, if you pay your subs and go for the entertainment and sports packages, respectively, you’ll get Sky Screen 1 and Sky Screen 2, and ESPN, ESPN Classic, Sky Sports 1, 2, 3 and Xtra.

However, it’s unlikely viewers of the basic package will make much use of the live channels provided; iPlayer-envy is sure to set in. Sky channels include only Sky Real Lives, Sky Arts 1, Sky News and Sky Sports News (so no Sky One), plus third-party channels – GOLD, MTV, Eurosport UK, Nat Geo, Nat Geo Wild, History, Eden, Cartoon Network, Boomerang, Nickelodeon, Nick Jr and the Disney Channel.

The video on demand library is just as easy to navigate, and includes material from Sky One. As usual with Sky, content goes from the sublime to the ridiculous. On one hand there’s exclusive Premiership football and rugby aplenty – as on-demand re-runs, too – while a few flicks away are a stack of Gladiators episodes that cost 98p each. And a lifetime’s worth of Ross Kemp-related material.

For live TV only, it’s possible to watch in a virtual living room. Your avatar, along with your friends’ avatars (if you’ve invited them), sit together on a huge couch staring up at a bigscreen that shows the action. Get a headset and you can talk to your chums, or just click the Emote and you can make your feelings known, albeit in a rudimentary way; for sports TV your avatar can wave, shout, clap or remonstrate over a bad decision, while for movies can express love, fear, or even boredom. Pointless, yes, but fun.

The service works well on a 2Mbps broadband line, though if others are using the bandwidth live channels and VOD do buffer and cut out. There is an option to watch in medium or low quality too if your broadband line is shaky, but this is a last resort; make sure your broadband line is well over 2Mbps meg – 3Mbps should be fine – before considering Sky Player on the Xbox.

Content-wise, Sky subscribers get a similar service to their satellite feed, plus VOD. And if you’ve no Sky subs, there’s a taster trial before you commit to paying a considerable sum: for ?29.99 you an get a Sky Player retail bundle pack that includes a month’s access to Sky Sports, a media remote and a 3 month Xbox LIVE Gold membership card.

Verdict:

For non-Sky converts, you get what you pay for; an expensive though an excellent IPTV solution that fits seamlessly into the Xbox experience. For existing Sky subscribers, it’s a must-have no-brainer; grab yourself Sky in the bedroom, or even in another property, for the cost of Xbox LIVE Gold.

?

Tags: Gaming Home Cinema Sky Microsoft Sky Player Xbox 360

Sky Player on Xbox 360 originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:16:03 +0000

The PSP Go comes in as another reworking of Sony's handheld gaming platform, the PlayStation Portable. As such it is quite a drastic reworking on the original format, but in essence little has changed.

The biggest shift is the placement of a sliding 3.78-inch screen where previously the PSP saw a straight slab-like device. The screen retains the same resolution at 480 x 272 pixels, so despite the change in size, it still looks sharp. The changes mean the unit can shrink down to approx 122 x 66 x 15mm, meaning it is easily pocketable, where the previous versions weren't.

The PSP Go is dependent on the sliding screen which has a precise sliding action with plenty of pop. It feels like a quality device and is free from twist of lateral movement: when open, you don't need to be scared it is going to break off. The same goes for the rest of the build – it feels well constructed.

The exterior finish is mostly glossy, which will attract fingerprints, whilst the inner deck is a matte finish, where you'll find the main controls. These controls are ringed in silver, matching the edge of the unit, giving it a distinctive and premium looking finish. It's a fetching design for sure, and one we like.

One of the effects of moving the controls around is that the bumper buttons now sit behind the screen, with the screen brightness, volume control and mute buttons sitting right behind the screen so in-use they are more difficult to get to. It perhaps doesn't matter, but it does at least keep the device looks clean on the front.

Otherwise we found that we preferred the new layout of controls, with the PSP Go lying in a different grip on the hands, we found it easier to play for longer periods without feeling the thumbs cramp up, which was always a problem for previous editions. But this will come down to personal preference, the size of your hands on so on.

The new design also sees the removal of the UMD drive, so it no longer accepts the discs of previous versions. If you are already a PSP owner, this may be a serious consideration if you are looking at an upgrade – you won't just be able to slap in your existing games.

Those upgrading don't get left totally in the cold – there is an upgrade reward scheme that lets you register your old and new PSP on PSN, then you get access to three reward downloads to get you started. Three? Yes, that's right. Your past loyalty is rewarded with three downloads, rather than the conversion of every UMD you already have.

The move to download also kills the secondhand market so for those on a budget who like to play the trade, you are effectively stuffed.

Sony instead are moving gamers over to a download system using PlayStation Network. It's relatively simple in truth and something that people are now familiar with, especially on the music front. Here you simply visit the PlayStation Store, either on the device itself, your PS3 or a PC (using Media Go) to download games and install them on the PSP Go.

It's not a great process however, especially as you can't download in the background on the console itself, so you'll be sitting there looking at it slowly dripping in, rather than listening to music or playing something else.

To accommodate these games you now have an internal "16GB" of memory, although brand new out of the box you only get to use 14GB of it. An M2 card slot lives around the side for further expansion.

The PSP Go offers the same Wi-Fi as it did previously letting you connect to the Internet, now a core concern for the PSP. The Wi-Fi also lets you dive into Remote Play of your PS3, so you can access content, configure PlayTV or whatever whilst you are on the move. Wi-Fi on the PSP has never been great, compared to the simplicity of modern mobile phones, which will happily dive in and out of connections intelligently, something the PSP Go doesn't seem to want to do.

The new PSP Go also rocks out with Bluetooth, so you can connect to a Bluetooth device, or a new PS3 controller. This means you can tether your PSP Go to a mobile phone to access the Internet on the move using your phone's data connection, or simply go for Bluetooth headphones. We tried the data connection, but it didn't work, so don't get too excited.

There is a standard 3.5mm headphone jack sitting on the bottom of the PSP Go, alongside a new bespoke connector. In the box you'll find a new USB cable, providing your power and PC or PS3 connection. It's a shame to see another bespoke connection, as you'll have to carry around yet another bit of cable.

The PSP Go, with its new format really lends itself to being a PMP, albeit an expensive one. The screen looks fantastic and with the 16GB storage capacity, you can fill it with music and movies to take with you on the move. You'll be more likely to slip into a pocket for listing whilst on your commute, something that the old PSP didn't really excel at.

But in terms of overall functionality, the PSP Go isn't a revolution. Little has changed from previous versions. You still get the XMB interface which makes it easy to get around, but essentially the PSP Go offers you an external format change and little else. For this reason, it is unlikely to appeal to existing users, who will still be able to download games and can use the memory card slots on their existing device to expand storage.

The overall gaming proposition of the PSP Go remains the same as before, which might come as something of a disappointment for some. With the PSP Go closed it is begging to be tapped on the screen, but there hasn't been a move to touchscreen here.

Purists will argue that the screen looks better without touch which is probably true, but with the iPhone and Nintendo DSi enjoying successes in gaming with a touch-interface, it seems like Sony is holding back on something.

Verdict:

Overall we can't fault the handware on offer with the PSP Go. It looks excellent and is a pleasure to play with. The compact format means it slips into a jacket pocket more readily than before, but the removal of UMD means a whole stack of games are sitting in the corner, unloved.

And then there is the price. Launched at ?225, you can pick it up for just under ?200, but it is seriously undercut by the Nintendo DSi, with the iPod touch also offering an alternative. Sure, the PSP Go may be better for pure video, but from a gaming point of view, the Nintendo DS range has been storming.

For those who were just about to put a PSP on their Christmas list then overall they get a better looking device, with expanded memory, but for us we'll be sticking to the old hardware and our old games.

?

Tags: Gaming PSP Go PSP Gaming hardware Sony

Sony PSP Go console originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:21:37 +0000

After Infinity Ward’s sublime Call of Duty: Modern Warfare astounded all with its representation of up-to-date combat, expectations have continuously soared for the always inevitable sequel. With predictions of multi-millions day one sales (which incidentally proved to be perfectly correct) a raised RRP, and a mass of gamers desperate to get their grubby mitts on the final game, these talented developers have had a lot to ponder.

The single player campaign unsurprisingly fails to deviate too far from the path trodden by its elder sibling. The campaign lasts a mere 6-8 hours; the breakneck speed that the majority of this time flashes past, due to the hectic action on screen, leaves it feeling much less than half that.

Once again you flit between two intertwined stories, one involving US Army privates fighting in their own backyard, with the other starring the group of British favourites you’ll remember from the last Modern Warfare. In terms of an overall story it’s certainly affecting and brutal. But it does force you to take a few liberties with what’s actually possible in the real world.

It plays from the same first person perspective as before, and retains the obsession with cover from the last game. The pace is almost universally set to absolutely frantic, and even on the Normal difficulty settings you’ll regularly find yourself in an area where you suddenly seem completely surrounded, the screen a horrible red blur (with what appears to be strawberry jam smeared on screen in an awful design decision) as you take hits, and achieving an untimely death in order to give it another try. If you tired of the previous game's addiction with urging you to learn enemy routines a few times before passing through with life intact, then you’ll suffer the same fate here.

Though things may not sound as stellar as we’d expected, they’re no better or worse than the original Modern Warfare. With the rose tinted specs removed, even the last game packed a certainly solid single player campaign with some stunning set pieces (which are multiplied tenfold in Modern Warfare 2) but didn’t offer enough to let that offering sell a game all on its own. That was left to the multiplayer component.

Safe to say that Modern Warfare 2 is an absolute joy online, at least on the Xbox 360. The PC version is, by all accounts, obliterated by the lack of dedicated server support, and the PS3 iteration is already approaching its third patch. But for Xbox 360 owners, we’ve had an absolute riot.

Not much has changed but instead multiplied to offer more depth, more customisation, and a whole new level of fun. A large number of your favourite perks from the last game remain, to be added to be a whole new fresh batch looking to spice up the battlefield. Kill Streaks remain with included new flavours, but new Death Streaks, allowing the frequently killed a chance to immediately bite back, really do add a lot to proceedings for both newcomers and rubbish gamers alike.

The 16 new maps are unsurprisingly a mixed bag, with early favourites already obvious with those who’ve already settled in for the long play. All, however, seem to pack much more in than the counterparts. Even for us, who have spent a quite unhealthy amount of time with the multiplayer component already, we still keep finding new nooks and crannies to hide, exploit, and be killed from.

One major new addition is the Spec Ops missions. Played in either single player or two player cooperative, well over 20 short missions are offered up to play through. These are all wildly different, ranging from holding a tower against waves of enemies, through to slowly and methodically sniping your way through great snowy landscapes, and award you stars after completion. This isn’t a last minute gimmick, as it could certainly keep a whole lot of people away from multiplayer for quite a while as they attempt to bag every last star.

As for the mission that’s been so heavily publicised in the mainstream press, we’ve little to add to the debate that hasn’t already been said. Playing through that particular 5 minutes did become a touch difficult, and it’s certainly not something you’ll come back to once you’ve had a go yourself. But the sheer fury levelled towards the game itself and its developers has been on such a ridiculous level, that you’d believe that violent games/films/music/books hadn’t ever existed before. More violent things have appeared in the past, and they will in the future.

Verdict:

While the multiplayer component does deserve a full score (on the Xbox 360 at the moment, anyway) the single player campaign is a step below that level.

It’s a rip-roaring ride while it lasts, but it’s a touch too short, too hectic, and overly reliant on forcing you to learn enemy routines in order to bag the best piece of cover right away. But the multiplayer is by far the best in the business, and it’ll keep you hooked until well into next year.

?

?

Tags: Gaming Action Xbox 360 Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare 2 Call of Duty Activision

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 - Xbox 360 originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:24:09 +0000

Sony's PlayStation 3 hadn't quite enjoyed the success it deserved, thanks to lofty launch prices for the original version and strong competition on the gaming front from the Xbox 360. Both consoles have evolved over time, with the PS3 Slim following Sony's trend of trimming down.

The PS3 Slim now measures 290 x 65 x 290mm, so it is more compact overall, especially in height. The overall design is still instantly recognizable as a PlayStation 3, but it is leaner and meaner. The construction materials have changed too: gone is the elegant glossy, to a matte black finish. It is perhaps less showy than the previous edition, but you don't have to spend your time polishing it either.

The redesign brings with it a new price point, which some will credit with its success: a 120GB PS3 Slim retails at ?249, a new entry point for the console. Considering what the PlayStation 3 offers you, it is something of a bargain in its new guise. Those wanting more storage can opt for a 250GB version, currently available for around ?285.

Those who jumped in for the original console will find changes: the lift-up flap housing and array of memory card readers is gone, as are the four USB connections, the PS2 emulation and the ability to install a different OS. These niceties are perhaps not worth premium prices that the older PS3 model asked: whatever you are trying to do, the two USBs on offer will pretty much handle it.

Internally the big guns are still here. You have a Blu-ray disc drive and you have Wi-Fi built-in, something that the Xbox 360 cannot boast. Perhaps this accounts for the current price contrast: the Xbox 360 120GB version comes in at under ?200, but you don't get the benefit of a Blu-ray player, and you'd have to fork out for the Wi-Fi adapter too.

This is one area that makes the PlayStation 3 look like a tempting offer. Now you have your high-definition TV wall-mounted in your lounge, it deserves to be fed a diet of HD content. Blu-ray looks fantastic on the PS3 and it is widely regarded as one of the best Blu-ray players out there, thanks to the easy updatability and connectivity that the rest of the box offers. If nothing else, the PS3 Slim saves you buying a standalone Blu-ray player, which might be ?100 alone.

Before you even approach gaming, the PS3 slim is screaming in with media from all corners. Connect it to your home network, either by Wi-Fi or through the Ethernet connection on the back and it opens a world of media possibilities. It not only lets you take advantage of BD-Live functionality on Blu-ray discs, but it will also find media servers (or other DNLA devices) on your network so you can stream media into your TV. We hooked it up and it instantly found our Cisco Media Hub to stream video, music or photo content into the TV, or you could stream direct from a PC or Mac.

It's blissfully simple, and again, it saves you forking out for some sort of media bridge. File format support isn't fully comprehensive with MPEG4/H.264, MPEG2, AVI (MJPEG), AVCHD, DivX and WMV video support. If you have a diverse collection of video you'll find that there are holes in codec support for some of these file types, but some sort of conversion software will cure those evils and save you repeated "This file is corrupted" messages. Music support gives you WMA, AAC and MP3. The PS3 now offers BBC iPlayer access direct from the XMB too.

In terms of connectivity, besides the networking features we have mentioned, around the back you get an HDMI connection, which will satisfy most users, an optical out, for connecting into your AV receiver to take advantage of the PS3's Dolby True HD and DTS-HD Master Audio decoding. Finally you have Sony's AV Multi connection which, with the cable bundled in the box, will allow you to hook up to TVs which don't have HDMI.

All that, and we haven't yet mentioned games. For many people gaming is the PlayStation 3's primary calling, but it stands its ground as a home media hub in a way that the Xbox 360 really can't compete with. The PS3 is a hulking great power house of a gaming machine and now is a better time than ever for PlayStation 3 gaming, with the likes of Uncharted 2 receiving rave reviews.

The PS3 admittedly beats the Xbox 360 on raw power, but we've seen over the last few years that this hasn't manifested itself in a mass of better gaming titles. Graphically, there is little to separate the two once you get into big name titles and there is little difference between loading times or response either: both offer a sublime gaming experience.

Exclusive gaming titles will always be a consideration the aforementioned Uncharted 2 being an example. With many big titles coming out cross-platform, exclusives are the exception rather than the rule in many cases, but the toughest decision you might have to make is which camp to set yourself in. There are some great exclusives on both sides and ultimately, if you are going to dive into online multiplayer, the decision might come down to what consoles your friends have.

Control of the PlayStation 3 now comes in the form of the DualShock 3 controller, which adds a little extra oomph over previous versions. The controller is, ironically, one of the points that divides the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3; when it comes to the crunch, we prefer how the Xbox 360 controller feels. This is common among those who have both consoles and if you are lucky enough to be in this position, you'll probably find yourself doing most of your gaming on the Xbox and almost everything else on the PS3. As we've just said, this has nothing to do with how the games look or play, it simply comes down to choice of controller.

Sony's XrossMediaBar lies at the centre of the PS3 and offers an easy to navigate interface. We like the Xbox interface, but the PS3 is more accessible overall. It also gives you access to the PlayStation Network, which isn't as slick as Microsoft's Xbox Live, but at least you don't have to fork out for membership to get full advantage, another cost of ownership that needs to be considered.

One of the biggest changes you'll notice with the PS3 Slim is volume. Not in terms of audio output, but purely in terms of fan noise. This is one area that the PS3 and the Xbox 360 both struggled in the past. The Xbox hasn't improved dramatically, but the PS3 Slim has overcome the heat and noise problem. It is perhaps a little louder than your average Blu-ray player, but it is no longer a distraction. You don't feel like it is pumping out heat into your room like a fan heater either, which makes it much better suited to slipping under the TV. It is more energy efficient too.

?

Verdict:

The PS3 Slim makes a number of changes over its forebear, making this the best PlayStation to date. Being more compact and quieter makes it more appealing as a home media hub, reinforcing the solid performance that it delivers.

The new price, though, is really the killer blow. It is more affordable than ever and with stores pushing out game bundles with the new PS3 Slim, if you have been holding off, now is the time to step out and buy one.

The PlayStation 3 Slim is an accomplished piece of home entertainment hardware, with something for everyone from streaming media, to high-definition movies, to adrenaline fuelled gaming, and we love it.

Tags: Gaming Gaming hardware Sony PS3 PS3 slim

Sony PlayStation 3 (PS3) Slim console originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:00:00 +0000

Damn you, Sports Interactive. We’d just about managed to wean ourselves off FM09 and re-emerge into civilised society, one that doesn’t care about how well our under-18s did in the Youth Cup or whether a 4-2-3-1 formation is the way forward, when along comes the latest update of the footy management classic to again make its needy demands on our personal lives.

As football has its fierce rivalries, so too does football gaming. With FIFA and PES just having had their annual cockfight for supremacy, this year saw the renewal of the management sim scrap, with Championship Manager moving back into the market after an absence of 3 years.

Without any competition during that time, the FM series coasted a bit, with the only upgrades feeling only cosmetic or tweaky; only with the introduction of the 3D game engine last year did there seem to be a truly weighty improvement that piqued any curiosity beyond wondering what the new stats for FM legends Carlos Vela were.

So with CM to contend with again, the onus is on Sports Interactive to stay on top of their game and keep the franchise fresh. Having already revamped the graphics on such a grand scale last year, any changes this time round could have inevitably seemed less impressive in comparison.

One thing we like about SI is that they tend to leave what works and tinker with anything that could improve the package. FM10 sees a major attempt to overhaul the interface, aiming for a more intuitive experience that improves the flow between the vast number of aspects, and the gameplay itself, adding new touches and expanding key ones.

The interface is now less reliant on breadcrumb icons, which could have been harder to navigate for newbies, and instead uses a more logical tab system that allows each page to branch of into a number of other sections. For example a player’s page now has clearly visible links to his training, transfer, contracts – though stylistically similar to previous years, visually it packs in more info and links.

Perhaps the sheer weight of customisable views is a tad overwhelming, but it doesn’t hamper the basics. One of the neater customisable aspects is the newsfeed – this can now filter out unwanted mail, after all, updates on the England squad are of little use when you’re toiling away in the Blue Square leagues.

The tactics have also had a going-over. There’s now a tactics wizard that’ll help you set-up how you play and players can now be assigned more specific roles – strikers can now be poachers, deep-lying forwards, among others, hell, keepers can even be sweeper keepers. This really does make it easier for those who have neither the time nor the inclination to get ball-deep into it and prefer a less demanding game. Possibly the suavest tactical addition is the touchline instructions, which allow you to pick a number of standard tactical instructions which can be done without stopping the match.

The geekier gamer will heart the new post-match analysis, which offers a thorough Opta-stlye breakdown of each player’s performance, allowing you to pinpoint weaknesses. The backroom staff advice, introduced in FM09, has been made more humanistic too – your coaching team offer up handy suggestions, from tactics to scouting, meaning that you don’t have to be mindful of the myriad of tactical aspects the game has to offer.

That’s the key success to this version of FM – they’ve added a bewildering degree of new depth to a number of parts of game, but have also matched that with an attempt to make it as user-friendly as possible. Even last year’s improvements have themselves been improved. Neat touches have been added to the 3D match graphics – the crowd responses are more lifelike, while the state of the pitch is rendered in greater detail. Nothing, it seems, has been to chance in the fight to remain market leader.

Verdict:

Despite seemingly being less of a trumpets-blaring upgrade than last year’s 3D engine, this is actually the better version – the changes are more fundamental and positive, making the game more logical and realistic. The gamer is at the heart of the changes – as SI both expands the game while making it more enjoyable at the same time.

It may feel like the default setting to praise the series and others may have been playing it longer than this reviewer's 5 years, but due to the significant changes they’ve made and the ease with which they’ve been integrated, this very well may be the best Football Manager yet.

Tags: Gaming Sports games Sports Interactive Football Manager 2010 PC games Mac games Sega

Football Manager 2010 - Mac originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:22:29 +0000

Of all the bands that have a difficult relationship with digital music, The Beatles stand above AC/DC, Metallica and Pink Floyd as the most troublesome. Apple Corps has a long-standing dispute with EMI that prevents the Fab Four's music from being available on services like iTunes, Spotify and Last.fm.

But after George Harrison's son Dhani met MTV's president, Van Toffler, in 2006, and suggested a Rock Band game based around The Beatles' catalogue, both parties worked to overcome logistical difficulties and the cult of protectionism that surrounds any use of The Beatles' image.

Harrison worked to win over Apple Corps, talking to McCartney, Starr and Ono about the idea. Toffler went off to convince Harmonix. In the end, following the production of a five-song demo, and an agreement that songs from the entire career of the band would be showcased, a deal was signed.

During development of the game, McCartney, Starr, Ono and Harrison all provided feedback on various aspects of the title, even down to demanding that The Beatles' hair blew about in the wind more when they perform on the roof of the Apple Corps' HQ, as it did on the day in 1969.

That sense of careful control of the image of the band is everywhere in the game. At no point is it possible to make The Beatles look bad, or affect the songs in any way other than to quieten a single instrument temporarily if you miss a note.

The ability to play drum beats before the start and after the end of a track are gone. So too is the ability to do wildcat drum solos in the middle of tracks to active "Overdrive" for extra points (which happens to be renamed "Beatlemania" in B:RB). The control is over every tiny detail, even down to the fact that attaining an extra star doesn't make the little "ding" sound it does in Rock Band 2.

But in its place is boatloads of extra content for Beatles fans. Attaining three and five stars on an individual track will unlock a photo and anecdote about the recording of that track. Each song is bookended by real studio chatter from the original recordings, all the way down to Ringo shouting "I've got blisters on me fingers!" at the end of Helter Skelter.

One benefit over previous versions of the game is that all 45 songs are unlocked from the start. You don't have to play through "Story" mode to get access to every track. If you do, however, you'll find an artfully crafted chronological journey through the band's history, starting at the Cavern Club, and ending on the aforementioned rooftop.

Between each chapter of the band's career, you get a lovely little animation depicting record sleeves, and covering famous episodes that occurred in that timeframe. The game is visually stunning, especially on a big HD display, and very in-keeping with the legacy of the band - particularly when it comes to the "Dreamscapes" that accompany several tracks from The Beatles' studio years.

In terms of features, though, there's very little difference between this game and last year's Rock Band 2. The only major addition is that of harmonies, which you'll need multiple USB mics for, along with a mic stand for singing and playing at the same time. Headset mics won't work, unlike in previous games.

The harmonies aren't easy. In fact they're doggone tough, unless you're a practiced vocalist in real life. Luckily, a trio of vocalists can sing any of the harmony parts without having to worry about who's singing what. As long as you're in tune with at least one of the melodies, you'll score well.

The enhanced plastic instruments are pretty awesome too. Well, the guitars are. The Rickenbacker 325, Gretsch Duo Jet, and Hefner bass are all fantastic representations of the original instruments, and will look great even if you're playing another game in the Rock Band range.

The Ludwig drum kit isn't quite as good, though. It's the same kit as from Rock Band 2, but has a big Beatles logo that stretches across the back of the set, mimicking the bass drum skin, and new pearl-edged drum pads. It looks flimsy and fake compared to the quality of the other Premium instruments.

Difficulty is reasonable throughout - it's easy to see how tricky a particular song is and adjust accordingly. One criticism that could be levelled, however, is that the game is relatively short. The 45 songs can be played through in a couple of hours, making this more suited to perfectionists who'll want to 100% every single song.

More content is on the way, including songs left over from Abbey Road, Sgt Pepper and Rubber Soul that didn't make it into the game. The slow approach is due to the difficulty of splitting apart the content from the old 2-track and 4-track master tapes at Abbey Road. Music from The Beatles' various solo projects will not be included.

Verdict:

The Beatles Rock Band is a fantastic reminiscipackage of musical and visual content that should be firmly in the collection of any Beatles fan. But a question mark hangs over the value of this title for people who aren't so passionate about the band's catalogue.

Little niggles, like not being able to put in your own drum fills, grate considerably when compared to the relative freedom of Rock Band 2. The controlled, and relatively brief, experience puts a slightly bitter aftertaste on a game that is - in every other regard - fantastic fun.

The Beatles Rock Band is an absolute must for Beatles completists and Rock Band completists, but a music fan who hasn't yet dipped a toe into the world of music videogames like Rock Band and Guitar Hero would be better off starting with the excellent Rock Band 2 instead.

Tags: Gaming Xbox 360 Music games Beatles The Beatles Rock Band Rock Band Harmonix EA

The Beatles Rock Band - Xbox 360 originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:00:00 +0000

Valve is widely regarded as one of the best videogame developers active today. As creators of Half-life, Half-life 2, and Left 4 Dead, and buying up the mod teams responsible for Portal, Counterstrike, Team Fortress and Day of Defeat, the company has established itself a firm place in the pantheon of game creators, as well as in the hearts of gamers.

Valve launched its co-operative zombie shooter, Left 4 Dead, to a rapturous reception in late 2008. Gamers loved its balance, the way the game adapted to good or poor performance from the players, and its visceral combat. However, earlier this year, Valve pulled out a surprise - a prequel, less than a year after the original was released.

While many gamers welcomed the news, a minority were incensed. Why was Valve building another full-price game, when this was content that could have been put into a cheaper expansion? Or free downloadable content for the original? A full-scale boycott was called, with Valve eventually quelling the riots by flying out the leaders of the boycott to their offices to play the game.

It's not clear what happened to those kids in Valve's HQ, but they returned with smiles on their faces, gushing about how incredible the prequel was. Despite initial disbelief from their followers, eventually the mob subsided - trusting Valve to get things right. But was their trust misplaced? Is Left 4 Dead 2 more of the same, or a genuinely different title worth shelling out the extra cash for? Read on to find out.

Left 4 Dead 2 has a totally different setting to its predecessor. The original game was set all over the place - airports, farms, hospitals, and towns. L4D2, on the other hand, is set firmly in the Deep South, in the swamps of Georgia and Louisiana. We were able to get hands-on with a couple of levels of one of the campaigns - The Parish, which takes place in New Orleans - on both the Xbox 360 (including some co-op action) and the PC.

The environments seem to be better constructed than the original's. There are multiple routes to wherever you're trying to go, and you'll uncover extra rewards by exploring rather than hurtling full-pelt towards the exit. More difficult paths will be rewarded with better equipment, including new ammo types. Also of note is that there's now daytime settings - torches aren't as compulsory as they were in the first game.

As well as a different setting, there is a whole new set of "Survivors" who you can play as. There's Rochelle, a news reporter for a TV station, Coach, a high-school football coach who bears somewhat of a resemblance to Uncle Phil from the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Ellis, a white-trash mechanic, and Nick, a professional gambler and con-man who mistrusts the other survivors totally.

One of the delights of the original game was the banter between characters that matched the situation you were in. That system has been expanded considerably, and your avatars - when not in the middle of combat - will joke, argue and snipe at each other with an alarmingly realistic uneasy tension.

But the real stars are the new zombies. In addition to the original game's cast of Hunter, Boomer, Smoker, Witch and Tank, there's now the Spitter, the Jockey and the Charger. The Spitter is a long-range attacker who shoots acidic phlegm that splatters over an area and hurts anyone standing in it. Not good when half your team are lying incapacitated on the floor.

The Jockey a tiny, dwarf-sized creature that skitters around emitting a horrible giggle. If it manages to leap on you, then you lose all control of your character - it takes over and steers you around - into traps and hordes of common infected. Lastly, the Charger is a mini-tank that moves very quickly, knocking you down, and can grab a survivor and slam them into the ground.

On their own, they're relatively trivial to deal with. But the problem is that they come in groups. A hunter might pounce on one survivor, while a charger grabs another, before a spitter then covers the ground with acid so that the other team members can't reach their buddies.

The regular infected have had a graphical upgrade too, and location-based damage has been added. If you shoot off an arm or a leg, that zombie's going to still be coming at you. Headshots are imperative, and when a particular infected goes down, you're never totally sure that they're not going to get up again.

As a result, battles seem considerably more intense. Instead of staying back and keeping the hordes at bay with assault rifles, it's now difficult not to get drawn into a scrabbly melee that you only just survive every time - and sometimes you don't survive at all. But it never stops being fun, even after the fifth or sixth attempt. The stories where you don't make it are almost more fun than the ones where you do.

Thankfully, the survivors get a few new tricks. There's the aforementioned ammunition types - incendiary rounds can set zombies on fire, and explosive rounds deal more damage. You can also pick up Boomer bile to throw on enemies (very useful against the tank) and resurrect fallen survivors with the defibrillator.

There's also a much wider range of weapons. AK-47s, scoped assault rifles, Uzis, silenced submachine guns and Desert Eagle pistols are available on the ranged front, and a whole pile of melee weapons can replace your pistol. Those deal considerable damage up close and include saucepans, baseball bats, machetes, and even, quite ridiculously, a guitar.

Verdict:

But, despite all the changes detailed above, Left 4 Dead 2 is still the same game as Left 4 Dead 1. There's piles of new content - weapons, enemies, levels, survivors, but if you didn't enjoy the first version then you'll almost certainly not enjoy the new one.

That said, it seems like everything that was great about the original (the characters, the pace of play) has been enhanced, and a few of the little niggles (like being able to stand in a corner meleeing and survive anything) have been removed. It's most definitely a better game than the already-excellent original.

It'd be even better if the two games were merged somewhat and you could get the original's maps with the new zombies and weapons, or the original characters in situations with the new ones, but it seems like Valve wants to keep the experiences separate.

Is it worth a full game's price tag? From our play-throughs so far, we'd umm and ahh, and probably come out on the side of yes - but only just. It's clear that Valve hasn't rushed L4D2 - it's just been able to build quickly on the successes of the original to create an even better zombie-slaying game. There's a whole tonne of new content, and a more focused experience, but this doesn't seem, in our time with it so far, to be a revolution. Just a (very large) content pack.

Tags: Gaming Xbox 360 EA Left 4 Dead 2 Horror

Left 4 Dead 2 - Xbox 360 / PC - First Look originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:15:30 +0000

While most gamers have pinned all their Holiday gaming hopes on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Uncharted 2, despite the mass hype, had slipped a touch below radar, until reviews started appearing that is.. The sequel to Nathan Drake's Tomb Raider-esque exploration seemingly expected to be decent enough, but not quite hitting the heights of the Call of Duty juggernaut.

Uncharted 2 starts out with a cliffhanger. Literally. You begin with a stunning set piece, with Indiana Jones-a-like explorer Nathan Drake clinging onto the remains of a half obliterated train that's precariously hanging over a huge cliff face. Slowly and methodically you pull yourself up and finally come to rest on solid ground. Only for all hell to break loose.

This supremely bombastic opening does its level best to show off right at the very start every major asset that Naughty Dog have crammed onto a Blu-ray disc. Most obviously there's the huge attraction that are arguably the greatest visuals witnessed in a video game thus far. Everything from eye popping vistas, through to incredible character animation, via stunning lighting effects. It all culminates in quite a stunning visual spectacle.

Similarly high levels of production have been plunged into the aural experience too. The voice acting – in part due to the hefty quality of the script – is absolutely top notch, with none of the usual hammy over the top, or bored sounding individuals simply eager to grab their pay cheque. This helps bring about the almost unimaginable; cutscenes that you will want to witness multiple times.

The high quality continues with some superb physics, more obviously helping make Drake's regular climbs and jumps seem all that more real, but also enemies that perish and move in stunningly realistic manners. We spotted one recently blasted enemy caught on a high railing, and couldn't resist giving him a nudge off his precarious resting place and watch him land bone-crunchingly hard on the rocks below. Yet another sign that some real love has been fed into this game.

Enemies also show a huge amount of intelligence in the way they duck behind cover, try to flush you out with grenades and flank your position, rather than wait to be slowly picked off one by one. With combat outnumbering exploration/platforming by a factor of about 2:1, it helps make the most of every single level of the game.

Drake's adventure isn't quite the new Tomb Raider that some might have you believe, with gunplay playing a major part to proceedings. Weapons are well powered and sound wonderful, and the cover system is as fluid as any other title out there. But when you do get the chance to climb, Uncharted 2 makes it feel so incredibly fluid when compared to Lara Croft's still somewhat stilted nature. There's no slow methodical lining up of jumps required, and you can easily cover huge distances in seconds. It just feels so natural.

Spread throughout the entire game there are a number of fantastic set pieces coming your way. Where some titles may keep the most spectacular experiences for passive cutscenes, Uncharted 2 sets you as the star, allowing you to frantically run from a truck, or swiftly jump across a crumbling bridge. You can always assume that one more breathtaking moment is only a few minutes away.

The single player experience described above lasts a solid 8 to 10 hours of game time, and certainly contains enough to keep you coming back time and time again. There are a few less than stellar moments however. While the latter enemies who can soak up a number of bullets are explained away, one earlier human who can withstand clip after clip of ammo is a strange anomaly.

And then there's the online multiplayer. All the usual standards apply, with the usual Deathmatch and Capture The Flag options made available. But they've been crafted with the same unnerving brilliance that the single player story offers, culminating in something which might not be brand new, but you can't help falling in love with.

Verdict:

Uncharted 2 is just an incredible package. One of the most stunning single player outings in years is fantastically complimented by such an impressive multiplayer offering that all PS3 owners can't pass up this opportunity. It might not have the hype of Modern Warfare 2 behind it, but Activision have got a real test on their hands if they want to be sure of being the PS3's Christmas must have.

Tags: Gaming PS3 Sony Uncharted 2 Among Thieves Action

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves - PS3 originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 21 Oct 2009 16:42:28 +0100

War. Every gaming platform does it and each year a new pretender steps up to try to take the crown. Operation Flashpoint – the PC original – left fond memories of a true sandbox combat sim, with freedoms that aren't always found in other combat games, then and now.

Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising picks up the action in the not to distant future, weaving a neat historical timeline to set the scene before pitching you into the action. But action of the Operation Flashpoint variety doesn't mean a baptism of fire: you are broken in fairly gently, although the tutorial-style hints soon drop off and you are left to figure things out for yourself.

As Operation Flashpoint is a combat sim, you are given command right from the off: as a sandbox game, you can walk off and do what you like how you like, but your mission objectives have to be completed. Before starting a mission you are given these objectives and a map to peruse, a map which you can access at all points during actual gameplay.

Some missions will suggest you don't engage the enemy at all and with command and control playing a large part, you may find yourself completing objectives without actually firing your weapon at all. Mission objectives will be relayed to you over the radio, but it's easy to miss them. On normal difficulty it perhaps doesn't matter, as you can just follow the waypoints.

Commands are accessed through a menu on the right bumper button, leading you through a series of options to the final order. There are a range of things, some you might never use and some which become frequent occurrences. Setting the rules of engagement (through ROE) can be useful, to stop your men blatting off at hostiles as you move around the area of operations. There is no point in alerting them to your presence when you can just box round them and get on with the mission at hand.

"Heal wounded" is a command you'll find yourself using perhaps more often than you want, to force team members to patch up wounds, rather than just walking around bleeding out. But be warned, your medic and the injured party will often walk off to find some a tree to stand under, rather than just doing it where they are, so often expose themselves to the enemy. You can patch yourself too with a field dressing, but if you take a serious injury, you'll have to call the medic as you writhe on the ground.

You won't find yourself soaking up bullets however: one well-placed shot will kill you and if you take a leg wound you might find yourself unable to run or sprint. Mortars are especially irritating, but fortunately the enemy fire a spotting round first, giving you the chance to get out of the target area. But this is what you expect from a combat sim and it is often the case that if multiple members of your team are walking wounded, you need to re-think how you are going to achieve your objective.

Waypoints are provided to guide you in and out of the mission (until you move up to a higher difficulty level) and being sandbox, you'll find yourself doing a lot of walking and running around. Some might not like having to spend 10 minutes simply traversing the countryside, but it's inherent to how Operation Flashpoint works, and if you can find a vehicle, you can often steal it.

In some cases, waypoints will guide you straight into the enemy, so it is well worth making use of the binoculars in your inventory to recon the route before you step into the open. And that's the great thing about Dragon Rising – you can view the map, look for topographical features and use them to your advantage, as you would in real life.

But the game does show its hand far too often with autosave. You'll be walking along, approaching a ridge line and you'll notice the autosave symbol. Step over the ridge and the enemy engages you. It means that if you mess it up you can reload from that point, yes, but the nature of the game doesn’t always make this as smooth as it is in other combat games.

Because of the open nature of the game, you might arrive at an objective and get your autosave point in a position that you can't survive. After you try various tactics to extricate yourself from your predicament, you'll realise that restarting the mission is the only way you'll get through it, remembering, of course, not to barge straight back to the same spot again.

Graphically Dragon Rising is impressive. Time has been spent on character models, weapons and equipment to make things realistic. The terrain too contains plenty of detail, although once you are on your belly in the grass, you might find it is a little blocky. Settlements can be a little bland compared to some of the on-rails FPS titles out there, with the island of Skira looking like an awfully boring place to live, devoid of almost all life except the odd PLA solider and the occasional tractor.

But you probably won't notice, because I'll spend most of the time scrutinising the terrain looking for PLA adversaries. Missions hang together loosely along the plot, but do feel as though they sit in isolation. Special Forces do one thing, the Marines follow-up with something else, but really they could be totally disconnected events. It is also irritating the game selects your weapons load out and dumps you on the ground, not always best equipped to do your job. Still, half of the fun here is stripping your enemy of their weapons and rolling on with something different. Scoped weapons give you a distinct advantage as sniping enemies will make things much easier.

You also get access to vehicles which you can command or drive yourself although they don't play much of a part in the campaign itself, which is dominated by grunts on their feet.

Playing through the campaign in normal mode will only see you through a weekend of gaming, we spent perhaps 8 hours getting though it. Going back to complete the missions on more difficult levels may not appeal so much, as you already know what you have to do and more or less where it is, so if you fancy a challenge, it is perhaps worth avoiding the normal level altogether and setting out in a higher difficulty level.

Unfortunately the game is littered with the bugs, none that stopped us progressing, but making us keen to get the forthcoming patch into place. Shoot someone and you get a satisfying red mist (with a red cross on normal difficulty to indicate a kill shot), but sometimes you'll put a couple of slugs into someone and they just freeze, standing, lying, kneeling, without dropping down dead. We're also annoyed that corpses disappear after time, taking their weapons with them, so back-tracking to get more ammo doesn't always work.

AI is also a bit of a let down too. You fire team members will often walk right into the line of fire, or crouch on the wrong side of cover, meaning that despite your stalwart leadership, your team isn't always dependable. Things are much better, ironically, when playing as special forces, where your team seem to be able to fight and move without taking so many hits.

Online cooperative modes let you pair up with real teammates and ditch your AI buddies. There are also Annihilation and Infiltration online gaming modes, letting you battle it out with real people, which is fearsome, and really the scope for longevity as the game stands.

Verdict:

To be fair we were slightly disappointed with Dragon Rising. Having loved the original PC version, we expected a longer campaign, or more out of the box options. Multiplayer is great, yes, but we can't help feeling that Dragon Rising is really about opening the door for extending the game via downloadable content, which is rumoured to be coming soon.

Despite the bugs in the initial playable content, Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising will entertain, but won't quite leave the impression that the original did.

Tags: Gaming Xbox 360 Action Codemasters Operation Flashpoint Dragon Rising Operation Flashpoint Dragon Rising

Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising - Xbox 360 originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:00:00 +0100

EA's Rock Band has been rocking the gaming world with its four player band action on the PS3 and Xbox 360 for some time now. EA is clearly hoping that success will translate to a mobile phone version available on the iPhone and iPod touch with the launch of Rock Band for the iPhone and iPod touch. But will it be any good, are you going to strum your way to success on the train, and what about the vocal elements? We managed to get a sneak peak of the new title before its official launch in the App Store.

If you are wondering where you are going to plug in the guitar, bass, drums and microphone, don't. That's right, this is a mobile game designed for a touchscreen phone rather than something on your console. That means there are no accessories, and no having to drag a guitar on the bus or train to work. Instead everything is controlled via you tapping your fingers in tune to the music at the relevant moment, like Guitar Hero on the DS.

As you might expect the game's core values and approach are still here and that means you get to choose up to 20 songs initially to "Rock" to.

The game itself is broken down into a number of different elements; quick play, world tour, multiplayer and a music store that allows you to buy additional songs to play. All are self-explanatory, but the one you will be attempting to play the most is the Multiplayer mode.

Here you get to play up to three other players (four in total) just as you can in the console version. You can connect to other iPods or iPhones via a Bluetooth or wireless connection although for the Wi-Fi they have to be on the same local network.

Players can then grab an "instrument" and start tapping away in tune to the music that blurts out of the speakers or your headphones.

With three difficulty levels and the ability for players to choose different level settings, you should be able to cajole other mates in on the action as long as they have bought the game as well. Disappointingly the vocal selection doesn't require you to sing into your phone or iPod (something to do with EA not believing people would be happy doing that on public transport - what do they know?), but it's still good fun.

Graphics are basic but effective and in our multiplayer gaming session with a spokesperson from EA the game played with zero lag across a Bluetooth connection.

On it's own Rock Band is fun, but short-lived. While our play was brief you could see that unless you like the repetitive nature of tapping on a screen then you'll soon get bored. That said, the multiplayer element is much more fun. While you don't get the bonus of real instruments, you still get to play with you mates on the back of the bus, helping each other out, and generally knowing that you have a better fingering action than your mate.

Verdict:

With pricing details yet to be confirmed, but confirmation from EA that it is likely to be in line with other "premium" games they offer, if you're a Rock Band fan who has an iPhone this will allow you to take the action on the road.

There is no connection with the console version, i.e., you can't share songs, but with 20 to get you started and the ability to buy more from a dedicated music store, this should give you plenty of entertainment, especially when you get your mates involved.

Rock Band for iPhone is expected out at the end of October.

Tags: Gaming Phones Mobile phone games iPhone EA Rock Band iPhone apps Rock Band for iPhone

EA Rock Band for iPhone - First Look originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 15 Oct 2009 18:33:27 +0100

Tony Hawk: RIDE is looking to break new ground when it launches next month, thanks to a newly developed controller. We were lucky enough to get our hands and feet on the new game at a recent preview event, and here is what we thought.

Let's start with the controller, after all, that's the novel aspect. Designed to look and feel like a skateboard, the controller is wireless, giving you complete freedom of movement, and packed out with sensors so it knows what you are doing.

The first concern about any controller you stand on would be build quality: it is going to support a fully grown man wobbling around on it? Most certainly yes: it didn't complain or creak underfoot when we started playing, although it has a max load of 21 stone, which hopefully won't be a problem for most.

It isn't just the size and shape of the controller that resembles a skateboard, it has also been finished with grip tape, so it feels like a skateboard too. The bottom has been sculpted to give you the motions you'd expect, with a central ridge allowing left and right tilting of the board like you'd get out of the trucks on a skateboard. You also get raised ends, so moving onto the nose or tail is possible, with the tail playing a fairly large part in proceedings here.

Down the left-hand side of the controller you find your conventional Xbox controller buttons (although stretched out in a line) with the most significant being the large Start button which will reside under the heel of your right foot (if regular) and can easily be kicked with your toes when you want to start a game.

In our session we didn't use the other controls at all, so at this point it isn't clear exactly what they'll be used for, however, some might want them to navigate menus without having to use the regular controller, or the menu motion controls.

That's right, you can navigate the menus using the skateboard too, moving it left and right to move up and down menus, and an "ollie" to select (stepping back onto the tail to raise the board up). It can be a little fiddly at first, but you can easily hop off and do it with one foot, rather than whilst standing on it.

We played through a couple of levels which saw us riding down an LA storm sewer and another through a trick park. There are various game modes available (not all were available for us to play), with the time trial, challenges, free ride and so on. There are also various difficulty settings which makes it much easier to pick-up and play. Some game modes are very much on-rails, with your movements making very little difference to the route you take. In these modes you have to concentrate on tricks and timing.

We found the first few times we played through a level it felt a little unnatural, but you soon get a feel for it and can begin to explore the range of possibilities on offer. Balance stops being an issue pretty quickly, but your physical involvement in the game can see you moving around a fair but - we started off in front of the screen, but over the course of a level drifted off as we moved across the floor.

The controller is equipped with two accelerometers which can detect pitch, roll and yaw, so it knows how you are moving the deck around. This is accompanied by IR sensors on both sides and the top of the nose and the tail.

These IR sensors detect movements around the controller and will detect when you swipe your foot past to push off or gain speed once moving. It will also detect your hands when you move them into range, which is how it knows you want to perform various grabs. Obviously, you can't just stick your arm out, you have to crouch and get your hand into the right place. It feels a little weird, but saves you having to actually grab the deck.

Performing tricks does take some practise and longer than we in our play. One thing is clear though, and that's that you have to be positive in your actions. You will look a little stupid, but once you see the results on-screen no one will be mocking you any more.

Ollies and grinds are easy, especially on the casual skater mode, with a simple lift of the nose of the controller popping you into an ollie. There were plenty of edges to grind around the course we were riding too, so even as a novice you can dive right into some basic tricks. Kick flips are pretty simple too to mix up some of the jumps and dismounts along the way.

There is a fair amount of branding in the game which some like and some dislike, but many of the main controls take place in a T-Mobile Sidekick frame, a decision that might be regretted considering the recent data loss.

Verdict:

It is a real blast and hugely addictive. If you like existing skate games with a handheld controller then Tony Hawk: RIDE takes things to a new level. Yes, you do have to get off the sofa. Yes, there is more to the game than carefully timed button presses. But it makes it completely different to games in the past.

But being different doesn't always mean better. Of course there is a premium to pay for this controller, and at ?99 it is double or nearly three times what you might pay for a rival title. It might also price some gamers out, especially when the future of the controller is an unknown. Will there be future titles for the controller? Will it branch into snowboarding too? We have asked Activision these questions and will update if we find anything out.

Is it like skateboarding? No, it isn't. You don't actually have to perform the tricks you start pulling off on-screen, but no doubt there will be some who will try to. The learning curve seemed to be just about right to, with the free ride offering the chance to just skate around and try stuff out. We liked the game during our preview session, but we'll reserve final judgement until we've lived with it for a while.

PHOTOS: Tony Hawk: RIDE skateboard controller

Tags: Gaming Xbox 360 Tony Hawk Tony Hawk Ride Activision Sports Fitness

Tony Hawk: RIDE - First Look originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 12 Oct 2009 12:00:00 +0100

It's easy to think of on-ear phones when choosing a computer headset, but the Sennheiser PC 300 G4ME solution proves that in-ear isn't only for your MP3 player. The first major advantage is that the canal-tight buds make for an excellent noise isolation, which not all headphones can produce. Closed cup headsets are usually pretty good at this but even they don't always provide that complete seal between you and the outside world.

For people with their games consoles and PCs tucked in away in a quiet corner of the house, that might not be a problem but. if you have to share the room with other people - perhaps watching TV or using the phone or just clanking about in the kitchen - then the PC 300s are something seriously worth considering.

As with headphones of all levels, they do the job, so it's really a case of measuring up just how well they do it compared to the money you're asked to spend. If you look hard, you can find them at around the ?60-?70 mark and the short answer is that they are indeed well worth the outlay.

They're made of a standard, light-weight, black cable material of 1m in length running from the green and purple colour coded 3.5mm plugs at one end through a volume control, then a microphone and finally to the ear buds set at different lengths with the shorter going to your left ear and the longer heading round the back of your neck and into you right. And, at 7g of weight, there are simply no comfort issues at all.

If that's not long enough for you, the PC 300s come with a 2m extension lead which should span the distance between most console and sofa setups. The build is light but strong, the volume control is smooth and easy to use and the choice of three sets of simple, rubber, black ear sleeves will fit any lug holes they meet. The buds themselves are a sturdy, good looking and not too heavy or cold mix of black plastic and metal with a well-chosen protective gauze over the drivers.

One of the best parts of the design, though, is the unassuming looking professional standard microphone that hangs comfortably away from your face. It has a frequency response of 18-15,000Hz which in real terms means that it effortlessly picks up the full details of whatever instructions you maybe muttering to your Call of Duty teammates and just how you feel about their style of play.

The audio coming in the other direction is no disappointment either. The noise isolation means you get don't get any distortion of the sound from over-amplification and the sound scape is very complete. Although a balance, it doesn't sit right in the middle with all the sections equally represented. It's not supposed to. The majority of gaming noises are at the mid-range and at the bass and, accordingly, it's those that are by far the best represented in the PC 300s. The top end may be a little quiet and without personality but the middle is dead on the money and the bottom end is huge, dramatic, if slightly on the spongy side, but are guaranteed to make you jump out your seat when the in-game action hots up.

You aren't just restricted to computers and consoles either. The phones work perfectly well with an MP3-player by using just the one 3.5mm plug. You'll get better sound quality than a pair that came free with your iPod, but the less interesting top notes mean that a dedicated set of buds of equal value would probably offer a better experience on the move.

To top it all off the Sennheiser PC 300s come with a nifty rubber travel case with a magnetic clasp that you can't help but open and close over and over, so satisfying is the action. Lovely touch, just a shame it's not big enough to comfortably fit the full 3m extension.

Verdict:

They're not the world's cheapest gaming headphones and there's something a little weird about going in-ear at home but the experience is a very, very, good one well worth the ?60-?70 outlay. Lots of positives here with not a bad word to say about them at all.

The PC 300s are perfectly acceptable for just listening to your audio tracks too but, if that's a main point for you, then you'd best buy a pair better suited for pure music audio rather than in-game sound scapes. You'll get more bang for your buck on something specialised for that purpose.

The only real question mark above this in-ear headset is whether or not people really want a wired set of phones for gaming and Skype. Regardless of how many metres long the cables are, you're still tethered to a console or PC and ultimately it just means more tangling and more chance of tripping people up. On the plus side, you'll never have forgotten to charge them or run out of batteries during gameplay. So, if you want to go in-ear and you're happy to deal with the cables, then these Sennheisers are most heartily recommended.

Tags: Audio Headphones Headsets Sennheiser Gaming Sennheiser PC 300 G4ME Sennheiser PC 300 G4ME

Sennheiser PC 300 G4ME headset originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 08 Oct 2009 12:00:00 +0100

After FIFA 09 did such an incredible job at astounding football gamers worldwide with its brilliance, the arrival of this year's iteration appeared with more than just a hint of caution. Change too little and we'll be back in the bad old days when everyone loved to hate EA and their seemingly obscene addiction to ripping us off. Fiddle too much with the core gameplay however and we might be right back to the times of the FIFA series being stuck in mid table obscurity.

The biggest shouting point for this years update is surely the inclusion of full 360 degree dribbling. In comparison, football games previously have been stuck to rigid 16 directions (at best) of movement, making the kind of free flowing and multi-directional dribbles witnessed with the likes of Christiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi almost impossible to replicate.

When running merely with a prod of the left analogue stick, your players now pack incredible freedom. For the first time in almost a decade, a football game arrives with the opportunity to go on wickedly tricky runs in the exact manner you desire. Upon sprinting, things do drift back in to the old directional methods due to obviously hampered control and body flexibility, but that's something you'd hope to be included rather than a flaw. Now you can finally curve your runs properly without having to force your player to make slow changes to their body shape and ball control.

Another major inclusion is the Virtual Pro. Fans of last year's version will remember the Be A Pro mode, which allowed you to embark on a career as a created footballer. This has been expanded in a number of ways, making for much more organic development of a footballer.

Firstly, you can, using an uploaded picture, give the player your own face. Not a game changing option, but one that stops you fiddling with the options in order to give your Pro a somewhat vague resemblance of yourself.

Second, this player is available in the squad of your favourite team in all options. Which means that simply playing an exhibition match allows you to increase your player's stats and abilities. There's a huge number of Achievements to unlock using your Virtual Pro, some of which will take a ridiculously lengthy amount of time to unlock, with each affecting your players abilities.

Getting 100% of them seems to be impossible at first glance, particularly as a number are striker/defender centric. But only a number of months with the game will show if this adversely affects this particular option. You can even use your player online, and sign-up to online teams to play as a part of huge leagues and competitions. A real treat, especially as your stats are constantly updated so you can easily see just how impressive you truly are.

The last, and probably not quite fully realised addition, is the chance to design your own set pieces. In the Arena, you can set-up and test out your own designed free kicks and corner routines. You can set runs for specific players in order to create holes in the defence, or simply send your big lumbering centre halves to attack the far post for a lofted free kick. It initially feels unwieldy and complex, but after a few minutes it dawns on you just how little there is you can play around with other than simply creating curved runs for your attacking players. It's a shame a little more time hasn't been spent making sure this options is an essential piece of the FIFA jigsaw, but its still worthy of your time.

Other than those major additions, things aren't that much different to last year. The usual exhibition and tournament modes remain, as do the usual wealth of multiplayer options both on and offline. There does seem to be much more in the way of setting options for online play in order to avoid constant fixtures against gamers obsessed with playing as the top teams, and points are alleged to be rewarded for performances and not just results, but at the time of writing the servers are yet to be populated.

On the pitch, the ball physics have undergone huge improvement. Cross-field passes now are much harder and flatter, and not the lofty interception-waiting-to-happen offerings included last year. Crosses into the box too are much more curved and appearing much closer to the whipped-in versions we see in real life. Similarly, player physics have also been ramped up, with much more weight and jostling between players fighting for the ball.

Verdict:
The best football simulation game ever? We'd say so. The additions have hugely improved what was already a stunning title, and the new Virtual Pro options will surely keep many a gamer addicted as they attempt to be the best in the world.

If Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 is to better this, Konami have really got a lot of time on the training pitch ahead of them.

Tags: Gaming PS3 Sports games FIFA 10 EA Sports Fitness

FIFA 10 - PS3 originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 30 Sep 2009 16:43:01 +0100

Wireless charging is one of the buzzwords around gadgets at the moment, promising to do away with the hassle of having to connect a wire to charge your device, or even worse, remove the battery and place it in a separate charger.

With the Xbox 360 controllers not coming with built-in battery packs as standard, one of the first logical upgrades is to get some form of rechargeable battery, with plenty of options out there. Exspect bring wireless charging to the Xbox party meaning you don't have to remove the battery or plug in any cables.

In the pack you get a battery pack, which slots neatly into your controller battery bay. This battery is capable of wireless charging from the charging pad. It is simply a case of plugging the charging pad in to the mains and placing the battery on it.

So there is no confusion, the charging pad is edged with two LED strips. It glows red when there is nothing on it (or your battery is incorrectly placed), it flashes green whilst charging and turns solid green when the battery is fully charged. There are two charging zones on the pad, so you can charge two batteries at the same time.

We tried it out with a spare Xbox 360 controller - a pink one no less - and found that it did exactly what it said on the tin. Sit your controller on the rough patch of the pad and it is charging, ready for your next gaming session.

You only get one battery in the pack, with additional batteries available for ?9.99. You can use the same pad to charge Xbox or Wii batteries, so if you have both consoles, you'll only need to fork out for one mat and then all the batteries.

The construction is solid enough and in terms of looks there is little to criticise. The pad itself measures 13 x 15cm and has foam feet at each corner to stop it sliding around.

So it all works well enough, but you'll find that the battery is only rated at 900mAh, giving 8 hours of play before it needs charging again. Compare this to rechargeable batteries out there offering 25 hours of play and you've really got to want to go wireless for this to seem like a fair trade-off.

Charging takes about 4 hours, compared with 2 hours for higher capacity Quick Charge Kit from Microsoft, so isn't that fast either.

Verdict:
The Drop 'N' Charge does exactly what it claims, but in the pursuit of a flash solution, you might find yourself with only a third of the battery life of cheaper alternatives.

Tags: Gaming Charging Exspect Wireless Exspect Drop n Charge

Exspect Drop 'N' Charge for Xbox 360 originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 29 Sep 2009 09:00:00 +0100