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| 23 Dec 2005 03:59:15 pm |
 King Kong - Review |
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Peter Jackson's King Kong
Developed by Gameloft
Review date: 23/12/2005
Well, you couldnt have failed to notice a bit of hype surrounding the latest movie blockbuster remake King Kong at your local cinema. The game and movie follow the story of a band of film makers and a down and out actress called Annie who travel to a secret and mysterious lost island, but they dont quite bargain on what they discover there. Here is where we pick up the game and have a play.
Initial impressions are very favourable, a nice cinematic title sequence as well as the usual bumf of options, sadly minus a skill setting, which as youll soon learn is a bit of a downer. The game follows the story accurately as you'd expect from a movie licence and this is told as you progress through each of the games 7 stages.
Cleverly, the game puts you in the roll of both Jack Driscoll (hero to Annie) and King Kong himself, levels alternating between the 2 characters as you battle through the hostile jungle and then on to New York City. This choice of gameplay will lead you from out and out platform jumping and bashing with Kong to the more laid back puzzle platform action with jack. Each style of play being very easy to control and master.
The colour and detail of the characters are extremely pleasing to the eye. Kong thumps his chest as he enters battle and leaps across the platforms true to the film. Jack and Annie are nicely detailed and add a little extra character to the game. Platform action is simple, Kong must leap and bound his way to find Annie as she runs away from the ferocious beast whilst jack must manoeuvre giant rocks to unlock doors, also aided by a trusty blowpipe to fend of any natives that get in their way. Variety in the levels really do add to the games charm and make a change from the same old repetitive nature of almost any game you can think of.
Ok, then so wheres the catch in all this i hear you mutter. Well, despite having nicely designed levels, good sound effects and good graphics, the game simply doesn't last long at all. This fact is made even worse when you consider the film is a mighty 3 and a quarter hours long! Really, that's it. Each level has a limited amount skill attached to it and before you know it you'll find yourself at the end credits. It really is one of the most simple and easy to beat games i have ever played.
I struggled to find some extra bits that i might have missed, thinking i was on training mode or something, i could not believe i had this game wrapped up inside 1 hour, incredible! I dont know if the designers intended this or whether i just managed to fluke my way through the levels, either way i did find it ironic that a long film could spawn such a short game! The average gamer should have no problem in reaching the Empire State building for the final scene let alone someone who is a hardened platform gaming fanatic. Its a real shame, what there is in this title is superbly put together but there simply isn't enough of it.
Graphics - 8/10
Sound - 7/10
Gameplay - 7/10
Longevity - 3/10
Overall - 6/10 |
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Posted By : nick
| Category : Mobile Games Reviews |  Comments[0] |  Trackbacks [0]
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| 22 Dec 2005 06:11:54 pm |
| Sony Ericsson Walkman W900 3G music phone |
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By Dan Leonoard, Pocket Lint-
The W900 is billed as the latest and greatest in the 3G Walkman phone series. Spotted at the launch in October in black and in white, the latest news is that only the white version will be released in the UK. And for the first three months, the W900 will only be available in the UK on the Vodafone network.
As with the W550, the W900 offers the user a choice at start-up - call or music only. Now Im familiar with three handsets in the Walkman family, and there are no big surprises here. The swivel is the same as the W550s, but the screen is larger and the rather odd handle that housed the antenna in the older model has been dispensed with. The exterior lacks the W550s groovy metal speaker covers, but the contours of the phone are smooth and suit the white skin. Nevertheless, the audio suffers as a result - the W900 has only one speaker, mounted on the back of the unit next to the camera.
The swivel flip opens the full 180, revealing a well-spaced keyboard, including a power button in the bottom right. This is a nice feature, preventing accidental in-pocket operation. The slide lock on the side helps too. Theres a sensible navigation control as well, and all this helps build the phones music player identity. The headphones, with a lead-mounted display and roll control, fit very well in the ear. The soft rubber collars mean the earpieces fit snuggly and seal out a lot of background noise.
Theres 470MB of available internal memory, with a MemoryStick Duo port for more. MP3 and WAV files are loaded over the air or through the included software. Annoyingly, theres no drag and drop functionality, and copying music via the built-in tool between internal memory and card is slow. To copy 100MB of music you will need approximately 15-20 minutes, so be sure to write the content direct to your preferred location.
Two cameras adorn the W900, one a front-mounted VGA and the other a rear-mounted 2mp job with flash. Theres no lens cover, like the K600is and as we were originally shown at a first-look briefing. The key-lock slider on the side of the phone doubles as a flash activator. Not too much of a problem as the keypad is covered during image capture - cameras can only be operated when the phone is closed.
One nice addition would have been a 3.5mm jack, allowing replacement headphones and the ability to output music to another device.
The screen is nice, with a 240 x 320 resolution and 262,144-hue colour depth. Its a shame that the W900s larger chassis isnt used more effectively. The buttons have been spread out which helps, but the lack of speakers lends weight to rumours that the W900 wasnt originally planned to be part of the Walkman family.
Verdict
A good phone, but not as distinctly music-oriented as others in the Walkman series. There are some good additions to the operating system, such as bookmarks to denote phone/card location, and the more spreading-out keypad helps ease of use. The navigation control and surrounding hotkeys give a second layer of control, and the earphones are comfortable, with an intuitive controller.
With the W800 the current king of the mobile music players crowd, the W900 has a tough job ahead of it if its to convince people to opt for this model over the GSM version. The key benefit here is 3G connectivity. |
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Posted By : nick
| Category : Phone Reviews | Comments[0] | Trackbacks [0]
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| 13 Dec 2005 10:09:10 am |
| Call of Duty 2 - The mobile game |
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Call of Duty 2 Mobile
Well, we have all been playing it since we launched Call of Duty 2 for mobiles on the site and the verdict is excellent. Whilst it is never going to be quite the experience of the XBOX 360 version this extremely well made version for mobiles is a must for any fan of the game.
Apparently this is something that the new 3D gaming chips for mobiles is going to be perfect for. And as soon as you start to play it, you just have to appreciate what 2006 holds for mobile gaming in general.
We are looking forward to getting some customer revies in for the game and in the meantime I think I will just get back to playing the game.
Cheers.
Admin.[/url] |
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Posted By : Admin
| Category : Mobile Games News | Comments[0] | Trackbacks [0]
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| 05 Dec 2005 04:05:07 pm |
| Use your phones camera to control gameplay |
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Marble Revolution has hit phones and it is using the phones camera as an option to control gameplay .... this is simply amazing!
Here is an excerpt from the game text:
CAMERA OR JOYSTICK STEERING
When you are in Camera-Mode, you do not fall off the tablet that easily and you have little arrows in the top left corner, showing you, in which direction the marble is going. Now slowy move the phone and see, how the marble reacts.
You can reset the camera control within the game by pressing the joystick down. You have two separate highscores for Joystick and Camera control. Note: Please make sure that the background is light and well structured, when using the camera steering.
This is a Symbian game which works on most modern Nokia models. |
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Posted By : Admin
| Category : Mobile Games News | Comments[0] | Trackbacks [0]
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| 04 Dec 2005 09:54:32 am |
| Behind The Lines - Review |
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Behind The Lines
Developed by G Media
Review date: 03/12/2005
Reviewer: Ben
World War 2 is the scenario for this latest turn based strategy title. You take charge of a squad of 8 commandos and must battle your way through the North African Jungle in order to hinder the enemy advances. Strategy games back in the 8 and 16 bit days resembled something laid-back like this game, unlike the real time frenzy of modern day PC titles.
You must first choose 4 out of your platoon to head the mission, theres 12 in all to battle through. After selecting the right equipment for the job and having read your mission briefing, its out into the humid jungle to go head to head with the enemy soldiers that patrol the area. Each squad member will have their own statistics which, after completing missions, you can improve. Attributes such as small arms handling, leadership and first aid skills can be a deciding factor in whether you're able to survive the mission in one piece.
With your soldiers armed and ready you must guide them into position, in my case via the stick, which proved to be sometimes infuriating. Options are available to look at the map of the surrounding area, exchange items between your team and even go into crouch and crawl stance. Each side has limited movement points in which to carry out their tasks, when all these are used up for each soldier the other side can make its move. You're able to flick between each team member at will and move them into position around the map easily, when you catch sight of the enemy a warning pops up on the screen and you can select which target youd like to aim for. With your chosen weapon armed a simple tap of the button will let rip a spray of fire in their general direction, you must be within sufficient range or else you'll have to find a better position to target them. Both you and the enemy soldiers have limited hit points in which you can take damage, when these drop to zero the soldier bites the dust. Tactics tend to vary from mission to mission, some require getting from point A to point B whilst some involve destroying a specific target. Along the way you can search bunkers and buildings whereby you can uncover a variety of goodies including medical packs and new weaponry, all useable in subsequent missions.
The in game graphics are not exactly where games of this genre usually excel, what there is looks nice enough but theres no variety in the enemy soldiers or surrounding maps. Each new mission just brings up the same old washed out pixels, quite disappointing. Aside from the title screen tune the only sound effects are the firing of guns within the game, thankfully at least the game makes a different noise between sniper rifle and machine gun!
I had high hopes for this game, turn based strategy titles can be great fun when they are executed in style, this is a poor example however. Game flaws include not being able to walk past other players, therefore losing out on a substantial amount of crucial movement points, weak and bland graphics which rarely inspire, boring missions that require little or no tactics to complete and the icing on the cake, a bug in one level whereby attempting to move off the top of the map brings up a series of error codes along the top of the game area. Not exactly a polished feel to this title! Die hard strategy fans will not find this game engaging enough to warrant much play due to the games lack of complexity, everyone else may well fall asleep whilst tapping buttons before they reach the end of level 2. Im sorry to say i cant really recommend this title much to anyone.
Graphics - 6/10
Sound - 4/10
Gameplay - 5/10
Longevity - 7/10
Overall - 5/10 |
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Posted By : nick
| Category : Mobile Games Reviews | Comments[3] | Trackbacks [0]
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