Hauppauge Colossus is an internal PCI Express HD-PVR. In simpler terms, it is an internal card that is fixed within your computer that records high-definition footage from a video source. As such, the name HD-PVR stands for, High Definition Personal Video Recorder. I am mainly using the Colossus to record gameplay footage from my PS3 as well as my PC. This review will thus revolve around mainly my experience in using the Colossus for gameplay recording rather than other types of recording such as TV footage and others. If you’re in the market looking for a new capture card, read on for my review and some test footages of the Colossus.

If you’re more interested to be visually and aurally pleased, you can see my very brief and short video review of the Colossus (contains test footages as well. For a more detailed review please read on. The video does not cover in depth and simply gives an overview):

To start off, here are some technical specifications of the Colossus:

• H.264 AVCHD video encoder
• AC-3 recording from AC-3 source
• AAC audio encoding from PCM source
• Recording datarate: from 1 to 20 Mbits/sec (user selectable in the ArcSoft ShowBiz application)
• Recording format:
• up to 1080i from component video (YCrCb or YPrPb)
• NTSC: 720p60, 1080i60, 480i60, 480p60
• PAL: 720p50, 1080i50, 576p50, 576i50, 480p50, 480i50
  Note: the video input format determines the recorded format. For example, 1080i input records at 1080i, 720P records at 720P, etc. Any other format conversions needs to be done with the MediaConvert program (supplied).
• NTSC or PAL supported

Here are the input and output of the Colossus:

• A/V cable input adapter with:
  • Component video input
  • Left/ Right RCA audio input
• A/V cable output adapter with loop through audio and video:
  • Component video output
  • Left/ Right RCA audio output
• Optical audio input and loop through output
• HDMI input (Note: for use with un-encrypted HDMI video sources)
• IR Blaster output

Let us talk about the specifications of the Colossus. Firstly, since this is an internal PCI-E card you will have to open up your computer to fix it in. Now, that can be a problem for some mainly because of warranty reasons (warranty for some prebuilt computers are void should the case be open) or simply because you don’t really know how to. Well for the latter, I will say that it is pretty simple. Obviously if you own a custom built (that perhaps you have built by yourself or have some knowledge in building one) computer you should know how to plug in the card rather easily. However, if you are still unsure, there are several tutorials and help online that you can read or even watch (on youtube) that will show you the process. To put it simply, open the case, find the correct slot (PCI-E X1) and slot in the card. If you are still worried and not willing to learn, I suggest that the Colossus as a capture card is not the right option for you.

Do note that since this requires a PCI-E X1 slot (Or X4, X8, X16. They are all theoretically compatible but depending on how your motherboard implements the different slots results might vary), you must have such a slot available on your motherboard and you should anyways. To check if your motherboard does have this slot, simply do a search online for your motherboard’s model and read its specifications. Otherwise, you can simply open your computer case and see inside for any available PCI-E slot. If you’re not sure how it looks like just do a google image search, it is basically the shortest PCI-E slot. Another thing to take note is that this is a full height PCI-E card and thus this can have compatibility issue with your cases especially if they are of the smaller form factors (e.g mini-itx, matx). They do not have any low-profile brackets available so do check first before considering the Colossus.

Putting the technicalities aside, the Colossus input options for recording is versatile. The ability for recording either via HDMI or Component covers almost all kinds of devices. Do note however that the HDMI input only accepts un-encrypted sources, meaning you cannot use the HDMI input to record PS3 that outputs via HDMI. It is not so much so of a problem as Component output do support up to 1080p. However, because of the protection stuff put into place, the device output may be of resolution of 1080i or lower. This also brings us to the point that the Colossus only accepts a maximum resolution of 1080i, not 1080p. It isn’t so much of an issue as the quality difference between 1080i and 1080p can hardly be differed. The Colossus also accepts optical audio in and has a slot to allow for the use of the remote.

The Colossus output options are less desirable though. You only have the choice to output via component and optical audio. Now this can be a huge problem especially if you’re using a computer monitor as a display. Most computer monitors do not have any component input, and by logical reasoning most people use a computer monitor with a computer rather than a television set with a computer. Of course if your display does accept component inputs then you have nothing to worry about. However, if your display doesn’t (like mine) have component input, you may have to get an additional signal converter (the most common one being component to hdmi). This can set you back by roughly $30 for a cheap brandless one and can go up to $100 for a more competent and higher build quality one. The price may vary from country to country so do consider this additional cost should you need to spend. The audio video pass through requires that the computer is turned on so say if you’re using a PS3 connected to the Colossus, you must have your computer powered on as well even if you don’t plan on doing any recording. There is no input lag whatsoever by using the pass through. However, there is long unplayable delay should you want to view the display through the software that does the recording.

Input wise the Colossus is on par with the rest of the products in the PVR market. Its output however, disappointingly lacks a very important HDMI option which their direct competitor, the Blackmagic Design Intensity Pro (another internal HD-PVR), delightfully provides. It can get really troublesome especially when the availability of the converter and pricing vary in different countries. There is much to consider in order to ensure that the Colossus is fully compatible with whatever setup you have in mind. Sad though that such a minor issue can cause that much problems, and no I’m not making a mountain out of a molehill. However, overlook that and everything else is great.

The softwares that come bundled together with the Colossus are WinTV and ArcSoft Showbiz. Both are adequate enough for both TV and gameplay recording. For me (and most of you probably), I’ve used Showbiz to do most of the recordings and will continue to do so. It is a simple little program with sufficient enough options to ensure quality recording. Setting it up is fairly straightforward if you’re recording from your console or another video device. It gets a bit more complicated should you plan to record from your PC (Will have a series of How-To in future to explain more of my setup should you need additional help). Otherwise the software does its job well. There are some video encoding options that you can play with for example the aspect ratios and more importantly the encoding bitrate. Playing around with that will allow you to balance between file size and video quality. So far I’ve left it at default settings and everything seems to be working just fine. It is important to take note that recording at higher bitrates will result in larger file sizes. The HDD that you are writing to (saving the video recording) should have sufficient sequential writing speed to allow smooth recording.

The quality of recording of both the video and sound is great. I am unable to tell you the difference between perhaps recording via the Colossus as compared to perhaps say the Intensity Pro as not only do I lack the different devices for comparison, I also lack that awesome photographic eye to tell the difference. What I strongly believe though is that with similar settings (say same bitrate encoding etc), the quality will be pretty much the same. Anyways here are some recording of PS3 and PC footage with the default settings. I simply plug in the Colossus, installed the different drivers and went on to record the different footages:

The thing about uploading to youtube is really complicated when considering the quality before and after. Videos uploaded to youtube will undergo their very own encoding and compression. It is thus vital to find the optimum settings for your original footage before uploading to youtube to ensure that quality is maximized. I have yet to dwell much into that but will experiment and research more in the near future. You too can read up the various discussions over the internet about what contributes to the best final outcome after uploading to youtube. Should you plan to upload to other sites or merely use it for personal use, you too can read about the different encodings and compressions to optimize the quality.

There is just one problem that I have encountered when recording 1080i footage from my PC. There is this blue line at the left side of the video. Not sure if you’ve noticed it in the youtube video but it seems to be a common problem when recording 1080i footage through HDMI input. Did a simple search and came across various people with such a problem. Not sure of any solutions or any workarounds besides not using HDMI input to record 1080i but if you do find or know of any please do contact me and let me know.

Overall, the Hauppauge Colossus is a fantastic product and serves its purpose well. The lack of HDMI output is rather disappointing but other than that it is one of the better HD PVR in the market. Specifically for gameplay recording the Colossus does a fantastic job. The only problem is that since it is an internal PCI-E card you might have a little trouble installing it into your system. Get past that and you have one great solution to start your gameplay recording.

I will be writing several other articles (and perhaps videos) explaining the setup I am using, the benefits of using a capture card to record PC footage and whatever that comes into mind. Do let me know if you want me to discuss any other things that you might be confused or concern with.

Skyrim is the fifth instalment to the well acclaimed The Elder Scrolls series and is set in a time roughly two hundred years after the previous game Oblivion. Skyrim is not a direct sequel to Oblivion but do have some references here and there as it takes place in a similar world but at a different part and time. The land of Skyrim is facing two major problems at this particular time. Firstly, the dragons seem to have returned and secondly, there is a civil war between the Empire and Stormcloaks. How exactly does Skyrim fair in terms of it being a game, a product of Bethesda Softworks as well as being part of the Elder Scrolls series? Read on for my review of the game (based solely on experience on the PC version)

The main story behind Skyrim is not too complex but is enough to keep things fresh and interesting. To put it simply without any spoilers, you play as a Dragonborn, a legendary breed of man that has the soul and blood of a dragon but the body of a mortal. At this very time, there seems to be a crisis. The dragons have returned! As the story develops you learn of the greater evil and it is your duty to stop it. The main story is set in a time of a civil war between the Stormcloaks, the rebels, and the Empire. With that, you do face some complications here and there with choices to make. It is these choices that make the story even more enjoyable and interesting as it challenges you to think for yourself and make your very own decisions. Besides the main plot you do have several other sub-plots that you can dwell. You have your regular guilds and other mini-stories that you will come across along the way. All the different stories that you will be engaging in are backed with the rich lore and history of both the land of Skyrim as well as the very world that it takes place in.

Skyrim, as all the previous Elder Scrolls games, is an open world non-linear RPG. What this means is that you are free to explore and embark on your very own adventure without giving a damn about the main story or anything else. It is practically a game where you can do whatever you want whenever and wherever. If you’re into exploring you can just go ahead and wander off, no one will stop you. There are some very minor restrictions put into place in order for you to not accidentally break the game. For example, there are some characters that are vital in the main quest and thus they are practically immortal. There are also some areas that I have passed that you cannot access unless you proceed on with a particular quest as it requires a particular item to unlock the area. With that said, the game is still extremely opened and allows you to play it as you want to.

It is this aspect of a very open world non-linear gameplay that attracts much attention and interest. Rightfully so as the enjoyment and fun that comes from being able to choose what you want to do is immense. With the genre being a RPG, the open world non-linear gameplay accentuates the point about role playing. It is all about who you want to be and what you want to do.

There are several different types of quests. There are the main storyline quests, sub-plot quests and the infinitely generated miscellaneous quests. Let me explain: Main storyline quests are simply quests that are directly related to the main story of the game. Sub-plot quests are those that are related to mini stories that you can embark on for example the thieves guild, the Companions, Dark Brotherhood and the civil war. There are also short mini storylines that you can encounter as you are exploring and adventuring for example the daedric quests. Lastly, the infinitely generated miscellaneous quests are often the most boring and pointless and it mainly gets you doing stuff like going to a location to kill the leader. This is supposedly the “Radiant quest system” but seriously it gets boring and tiring real fast. There are also other types of miscellaneous quest such as finding a particular item for a person. On a positive note, it brings you to locations that you may not have yet explored. All the sub-plots are fairly interesting and fun to play with. There is also no need to worry that your character “class” doesn’t fit the particular guild. At most you will face a little bit more challenge at times but other than that it is all good. For example, I’ve completed the mages guild without spending a single point or effort in any of the magic skill trees; same applies to the thieves guild. My character was that of a head on warrior using melee two handed weapons and yes I’ve completed most if not all the different factions quests.

Level design is fairly simplistic in the sense that almost all places you go to work out in a similar fashion. It works in such a manner: You will first face several weaker enemies in various rooms. You have a few rooms that are locked with hidden chests. Before the end you will usually meet a “boss” or a much stronger enemy as compared to the previous ones you have already disposed. Kill the boss, grab whatever treasure left behind and head out. There is usually a shortcut out of the place which I really like as it keeps the pace of the game moving fast. There is an occasional simple puzzle that will never ever require much thinking and that is about it. Indeed, when compared to the exploration and free roaming, the level designs are that linear and can get a little dull. However, the combat and backing story (if available for that particular place) makes up for the lack of creativity in such an area of the game. With that said, most quests have you go through such a sequence with the exception of a few other unique ones such as placing items into people’s inventory to frame them or to stealth around and steal something. Else, it will be pure hacking and slashing (or magic, or stealth, or shooting whichever applies) your way through and then turning in the quest.

Moving on to character builds. This has been one of the most discussed and debated aspect of many of the elder scrolls games (or rather many RPGs). There is always the problem of balancing the game in the sense that perhaps for example melee is often more powerful than magic. It is amusing seeing all the different people debating over how the different stats stack and how in the later part of the game some builds are often always more overpowered than others. For Skyrim at launch, what I’ve seen most people talked about is mainly how magic users are at great disadvantage as their spells do not scale according to the level or something like that. Well, I have to admit that my one playthrough was just purely melee with a bit of stealth and ranged combat so I do not have much ground to make any comments. However, from my observation of magic players they are doing just fine in the normal difficulty. Perhaps some of the skill traits under the melee category can make it a little be less favourable to the magic users but nevertheless the fun is still there, trust me. Using magic is awesome looking and seriously, the higher level spells simply look and sound brilliant. Stealth is more of the one hit KO and melee is the more common standard combat. Each has its own gameplay style so simply choose one that suits you the best. Do not worry about whether being melee will be better or not. It is more of choosing something that you will enjoy rather than choosing something that is more powerful. Come on, it is an offline single player game! Why get overly frustrated and worried over such things? Oh and yes, whatever you choose will do well.

Each skill has a skill tree that you can place trait points in. When I say skill I mean for example Two-Handed, Destruction Magic, Ranged etc. Each of these various skills has their own separate skill tree. You improve the skill simply by applying it in the game. For example using destruction magic will increase your destruction skill, using a one-handed weapon will increase your one-handed skill. An increase in each of this skill will contribute to the main level of your character. A total accumulated level of several skills will result in your character levelling up, giving you a skill point to use as you see fit. There are some skills that are more useless than others but all in all they do have an impact on the game and the way your character turns out to be. Each time you level up, you get to choose from adding Health, Stamina or Magicka. Yes they’ve dumbed down the attribute system but it still works great.

Skyrim introduced a more in-depth crafting aspect to the game. You have Smithing, Alchemy and Enchanting. All of these are individual skills that you can improve and by doing so you can make really good items for yourself. For example, improving your smithing will allow you to create and improve weapons and armor by quite a bit. Enchanting allows you to put several skill and damage modifiers that will make your life in Skyrim so much easier and much more fun. Alchemy will allow you to make potions that will help you in all aspects of the game whether is it health potions or potions that buff a particular skill. They do add another dimension and depth to the game and is certainly great fun to have them available. This time around you too have other activities that you can perform such as mining, cooking, cutting wood, grinding the wheat etc. Cooking isn’t much of a skill and the bonuses you get from consuming food are pale in comparison to what potions can do. And of all honesty the rest of the activities seem pointless (besides mining) but nonetheless, it is these little things that make the whole game and world so much more believable and engrossing.

The combat system works great whether is it ranged, magic or melee. The combat system is action based, meaning it isn’t like your typical MMOs where you click an enemy and wait for your character to kill it. Instead, you have to time your swings, aim your shots and charge your spells at the right time in order to effectively and efficiently dispose your enemies. With all such combat systems we always have people finding ways to beat it. Oh yes, the usual hide in a place where it is inaccessible to the enemy while slowly shooting them down with a bow and arrow is present in Skyrim. Still it is great fun and is easy to pick up whichever style you are looking to play. You will get the hang of it quickly and you will find yourself destroying your enemies soon enough. Oh and do look for more ways to exploit the system as I strongly believe that such an activity is also part of the fun in the game.

For all characters whichever class you choose to play as have the ability to use Shouts. As a dragonborn, you can use dragon shouts (called Dovahzaan in dragon language) after you learn them. They are fairly interesting and they can be found and learned throughout Skyrim. To learn these words you have to find and go to specific locations where they have a particular word that you can learn to use. After learning the word, you have to unlock it with dragon souls which can be acquired after killing a dragon. Each Shout have 3 words to it and by knowing all 3 words and unleashing all of it can result in unleashing a devastating power. The abilities are very interesting for example you can Shout at time to slow things down (with the third word allowing you to move at normal pace) and then strategically charge a spell or start swinging your weapon before they can even retaliate. Shouts do have a bit of a cool down time especially when using all 3 words of it. They are cool though both in terms of the visual effects and the effect in game.

There are several different kinds of enemies that you will face in the game. The strategy to deal with each type does vary, making combat much more interesting and fun. For example you have mages that can do real damage should you let them hit you with their spells. They can hurt especially if you’re melee facing a mage that uses ice spells that can slow you down and prevent you from reaching them. They do hit hard as well in the early stages so do be sure drink the right potions or wear the right equipment as you see fit. There are also some bosses at the earlier parts that can be quite difficult to kill. However, by poisoning your blade or arrow with a paralysis poison and then hitting the boss with it can make the battle a whole lot simpler. To put it simply, there are many ways to go about with dealing with your enemies and the variation keeps things fresh and engaging. There is just one main problem about the game though. The dragons are way too easy to kill. In fact, enemies get way too easy when you’re supposedly reaching the end of the game. Maybe it is the difficulty that I am playing that resulted in this (I play at Adept, the “normal” difficulty. You can choose from 5 different levels of difficulties). I guess there needs to be some balancing of the enemies for instance perhaps making some bosses way harder as compared to the other normal enemies and perhaps some rarer monsters to be as hard to kill as they are to find.

Travelling around Skyrim can be done in mainly two ways. The fast travel or the conventional walk/ride a horse. The fast travelling helps to keep the pace of the game moving at a considerate pace and the conventional walking and riding allows you to explore and find new places to adventure into. Each has its own merits and they blend together perfectly to allow you to fully enjoy the game. On a side note, I strongly suggest you get a horse as it is way too useful to be omitted in any adventures.

Getting around Skyrim is really easy with the fast travel as well as the presence of the compass and map. The compass will notify you of any nearby point of interests and the map ensures that you will never ever be lost. It might take a little realism away from the game but I strongly believe they are there to improve the general player’s gaming experience. You can choose to disable the compass if you want a more immersive and realistic playthrough. It should be fun and much more exciting to find places purely through exploration and experimental adventuring rather than following the compass and a map. Yeah so go ahead and disable it if it should make your playthrough a much more enjoyable one. My recommendation to most gamers though is to simply leave it there and use it; less hardcore but equally satisfying.

Major cities all have a distinct unique feeling to it. The only problem however is that the ratio of land to population of people is appalling. There are simply too little people to make the cities feel believable. As much as they look great, feel great and are all filled with their own personalities, a denser living population will top everything off. Putting that aside, there is opportunity for you to own a house in some of the major cities. Houses are great places to store all that loot that you have acquired through your adventures and to rest and relax. It is also unsurprisingly satisfying to display all that epic weapon and armor that you’ve got by putting them up on the display stands. It is a nice touch to the game and the main function of these houses in my opinion is simply a place to store stuff.

The freedom you get in Skyrim is accompanied by stunning visuals and amazing sound. The visual effects and the general look of the game in terms of its environment simply make exploring and adventuring in Skyrim a joy to behold. Weapons and armors are done in great detail and you can really feel the power of your character as you equip the end game items. The way weapon glows when they are enchanted and how powerful the spells look when casted simply creates a sense of satisfaction and achievement. The ability to choose either first or third person perspective to play the game is welcomed as each has its own benefits. Playing in first person view allows you to admire and adore the beauty of your weapons and for third person view you get to drool and go crazy over your characters outfit.

The sound effects in the game are fantastic as well. Voice acting is very much improved as compared to Oblivion with not only more voice actors but of higher quality as well. You can feel the character’s personality oozing out from the way they speak. Other sound effects such as the way the waterfalls sound, enemies’ growl and how your Shouts shout is just brilliant. The backing soundtracks are a treat to the ears. It fits in perfectly with the theme and genre of the game, making everything feel so epic. The visual, sound and gameplay simply complements each other and blends in so well to make Skyrim such a complete game.

With all that said, Skyrim isn’t perfect. It does have some negatives mainly with the glitches and bugs that come with it. You may experience crashes to desktop at times or weird things such as dragon bones popping out all of a sudden and then sinking back into the ground and all that nonsensical stuff. It happens, and it isn’t to anyone surprise. Putting all the glitches and bugs aside there are too some minor irritants in the game for once people butting in when you’re having a conversation. It is fairly disturbing to have your main conversation be drowned with some miscellaneous nonsense that another NPC is saying. The level design as mentioned previous could do with a bit more variation and complication. Other than that Skyrim is just great.

It gets even better though once the mods start flooding in. The creativity and intelligence of the modding community is simply fascinating. The fun simply never stops. If you want an even better looking game, do wait for some high resolution texture packs that I am sure would come out soon enough. New weapons, armors and all kinds of amusing stuff will be released no doubt. It is just a matter of time. As such, do keep hold of your game as you will want to get back to it whether is it having another playthrough in vanilla version or another playthrough with additional tweaks and toppings on top the already tasty game.

The bottom line is, if you like RPGs you must give Skyrim a try. For all the issues that people are pointing out, fret not as the positives simply outweigh them by a huge margin. Come on, the complainers are probably enjoying Skyrim as much as they are complaining. As mentioned, nothing is perfect so there are surely molehills to make mountains of. For everyone else, do give Skyrim a go as it is one of those titles that are to be remembered in the times to come. For now, have fun and be prepared for even more fun once the mods start being released.

Rage is a first person shooter game which takes place in a post-apocalyptic world, a world similar to the likes of Fallout, Metro 2033 etc. You play as an unknown protagonist with almost no background knowledge or information about your past except that you are an Ark survivor. The Ark is basically a movement which took significant people and froze them underground so as to rebuild a new world. You being a survivor merit yourself with special attention from everyone, and that of course place you on course of an adventure and quest to help save the world.

The story is average at best. The whole idea about the creation of a new world isn’t that new or unique. Rage doesn’t do much that sets itself apart from the norm. Within this world that the game takes place, you have several different groups of people. They are mainly the Authority, the Resistance and various other bandit groups. Of course you have the other normal people that make up the population of the world. What the Authority is trying to do is to create an “ideal” world as defined by the Authority leader named General Martin Cross. This ideal world doesn’t benefit anyone except Cross himself, and can you guess what you’re supposed to do? Stop him. Simple. In order to do so, you come in contact with a rebel group called the Resistance. Together with them, you join hands to stop the evil from further spreading and controlling the world.

With the lack of any twists or anything different, the story of Rage is well, average as mentioned earlier. Yes, it is an acceptable and believable story to keep the game moving, however it doesn’t do much to engage the gamers or do anything to surprise them. At least for me, it felt simply passable. The world however, is well constructed and formed, the different bandit factions all have a unique attribute to them and along the way you meet some interesting characters as well. The different major cities and areas all have a distinct feel and theme to them. They are beautifully crafted and varied to give each of them their own character and personality.

The characters that you meet are well designed to be believable and likable. Both the minor and major characters are well voiced and the way their scripts are written, it gives each character their individuality and uniqueness. Due to the length of the game as well as how the story progresses, it is a shame that the major characters met are a hit and miss. In the sense that before you can even start liking them or as you get slowly attached and engaged with the interactions of a particular character, it is time to move on and say goodbye as you proceed further into the game.

There are two major components to the game, the driving and the shooting. Each of them are complemented with some RPGish elements such as upgrades, looting and items. Rage plays fantastically well as a shooter. The different guns feel great, sounds powerful and everything else is well polished. The pure shooting action and fragging of enemies is fun and rightfully so since that is the major part of the game. There are several different kinds of guns, some more effective them others and each has its own advantages and disadvantages. However with the level design of the game, some weapons are definitely much more favoured as compared to the others. You can basically get through the entire game with just 2 weapons out of the whole range of arsenal that you can choose from; sniper rifle, rifle, pistol, crossbow etc. There is also the ability to use a melee attack in the form of your fists. Each of the different weapon have different types of bullets that you can choose from. For example the shotgun has the normal kind of bullets, explosive bullets and pulse bullets. Each to its own effectiveness with the normal bullets dealing the least damage of the rest but is the cheapest and easiest to obtain. The different bullets do help you as you progress through the game as the different enemies require different styles of treatment. With that said, the enemies that you face are smart and varied enough to keep things interesting.

There are several different kinds of enemies that you will face throughout the game. Each of them has their own style of fighting. For example, we have the mutants who will rush towards you to kill you while on the other hand we have the Authority soldiers hiding behind covers shooting you from afar. All the different enemies’ movement and way of fighting feel and look great; fights do get interesting and the challenge and difficulty is there to keep you engrossed and engaged. The enemy AI, when working well, is great. The human type of enemies seek cover and if you camp for too long they will start tossing grenades at you. The mutants run around mindlessly, jumping here and there to keep your crosshair aiming and body moving. Each of the different categories of enemies consists of different types within them to keep things varied and exciting. For example, the Authority have heavily armoured soldier that holds machine pulse gun and also the normal armoured soldier that holds a normal rifle. The variety is there and is significant because of the need to respond accordingly to the subtle difference that is present. All in all, the enemies are well designed and do their job in making Rage an entertaining shooter. In addition, there are occasional boss fights and in order to not spoil your fun, I can only say that they are all fantastically fun. The only problem though is that there are way too few of such encounters.

The driving part of the game takes place mainly when travelling between locations or if you’re taking part in the different races. The races are mainly side missions that don’t really matter. The vehicles that you drive all handle well. Controls are simple and effective, keeping the driving portion not too simplistic yet easy enough to keep the action going. There are races that you can take part, most mainly are side missions that can be overlooked if you’re not interested. Vehicles in the game are installed with weapons that allow you to kill any enemy vehicles along the way during travel or in a race should it permit weapons. The vehicle fights feel like mini games but do take up significant portion of your game time as you will find yourself travelling from mission to mission using your very own vehicle. Each vehicle has several upgrades that you can purchase using racing tickets (they are awarded in missions or completion of races). Vehicles are given to you as you proceed throughout the game. There isn’t much of a choice except to use whatever is best that is given to you at that point of time. The driving does give some diversity to the game and is welcomed especially when taking breaks in between the shooting and fire fights.

It is great that the focus isn’t so much so on the driving and is more emphasized in the shooting. The balance is just right for me and together, both components do give a sense of completeness to the game. They are both well thought out of and smartly executed. To keep things a little more interesting, there are RPGish elements that I mentioned earlier on. Though subtle, it does give a sense of progress and improvement to the player. Weapons have upgrades that improve their performance, you have the ability to buy armour upgrades to make your character much more secure and vehicles have upgrades to make them faster and stronger. All of the different upgrades weapons and items are purchasable at shops within the different cities that you visit.

There is also a small crafting part to the game where you can craft yourself some useful items such as bandages, adrenaline boosts and so on. Different parts and materials are obtainable either through buying them or looting them throughout the different places you visit. That brings us to the looting part of the game. Though minor, looting enemies provide you with necessities such as money and bullets that are vital in surviving in the game. You also have special collectible cards that are littered around the different locations. As small as these different RPG elements are within the game, they do blend well with the rest of the game and by doing so takes the game to a higher level of enjoyment.

There are side missions within the game and there are only three different types of them. One of them is to drive around destroying bandit vehicles. Another is to escort or oversee a particular deal from a vantage point, sniping any intruders and threats. Lastly is to visit places to basically kill a bunch of enemies due to whatever reason they tell you. The first few feel alright but as you proceed it gets dull and boring because of the way they are. The side missions within the second city are basically a replica of the missions within the first city, just with different locations. There are no real benefits other than the additional money that they reward upon completion. If you’re thinking of perhaps better weapons or special items, you will be thoroughly disappointed. This applies to the main missions as well; there is the lack of variety in missions and they are all simply killing all enemies then press the action button to perform a particular action and return.

There are several other mini-games present within the game that severs nothing more than distractions that you will overlook very quickly. There is the gambling mini game where you can do nothing more than you choose the amount of money you want to bet and leave it to luck as you roll the dices to see if you can clear a wave of mutants or something. There is the stabbing finger game where you have to press a key (spacebar I believe) at certain intervals in between your fingers. There is also a simon-says game. And lastly you have the card game which is the most interesting among the rest. All of the mini-games are there for you to earn some extra cash but other than that, it is just plain distraction that is fun for just the first moment you try it. The card game though is alright. You have several different kinds of collectible cards that are scattered across the lands and locations. The different cards have certain attributes. There isn’t so much so as a strategy to the game as cards are pre-picked (each card has a point value to determine its value. Different match allow a different total amount of point value of cards) and the way the cards come out is totally random. The only strategy is to have some of the best cards for its point value and pick them, hoping they come out in a way favourable to you. It is fun in short bursts, and it is also kind of exciting whenever you find new cards along the way. Other than the card game, the rest are just meh.

The game being somewhat open-world is true only to a certain extent. Yes you get to drive around and do stuff, but the stuff you can do as you drive around the place are very limited. Most locations require you to activate a certain mission so as to allow the scripted events to take place. Other than that, there are no real benefits in exploration. In fact there isn’t much to explore in the first place. Not a big problem though since the game isn’t supposed to be a Fallout type of game or GTA style of sandbox open-world. It is very linear and there isn’t much of a choice or any form of morality system put in place. One ending and that’s it. Just play through and follow whatever is instructed of you to do so. Kind of like old school shooters where you go level to level, just that this time you have more modernized elements (or gimmicks if executed poorly) implemented in the game.

The presentation and graphics of the game is great when working well. Many people including myself face graphical glitches and bugs that are somewhat fixed with a patch but not completely. Textures pop in and out almost always whenever you enter a new area or rather view a new area. Textures look horrible close up but are fine when viewed in a distance. High resolution textures can be enabled with a simple modification to the game and definitely makes the game look sharper and of course better. You do need a decent graphics card to play at full HD resolution with the mod, but it sure is worth it. Overall, when omitting the glitches and bugs, the game looks great. The different environments and locations have a distinct and unique feel to them. Character models are well designed and all look good. Enemies are distinguishable not only by the way they behave, but also the way they look. For example, the different factions of bandits can be identified from the way they look. Graphical effects such as explosions, bullets etc do add to the overall feel of the game in a great way. There are some minor details as well such as leaking pipes that livens up the game especially during fire fights. Character animations are fantastic as well and the quality is most noticeable when you face the mindless mutants.

As for the sound aspect of the game, it is decent enough to complement the game as a whole but not to the point that it stands out from the rest. The weapons sound great when firing, explosions do sound powerful and enemies give out the occasional battle cry or tactical commands for the mutants and humans respectively. It does help make it more exciting especially when you have guns firing all over. There is also the presence of exciting background music at times when fighting and they all sound decent and appropriate for the situation at hand. Voice acting as mentioned earlier is decently done.

With all that in mind, there is also the multiplayer side of the game. There are a two main online modes that you can play with. Firstly there is the Road Rage mode which plays like a racing game with objectives such as capture the flag and all your other common game types. There is the presence of a levelling system which allows you to unlock other cars  as you proceed higher in level. The other online mode is Wasteland Legends which plays like a co-op mode. You and another person will take on different levels and points are awarded as you kill the various enemies. Try to get as much points as possible to win your partner. It is simple pure fun, especially so when the shooting elements of the game is so well polished and executed.

Overall the game is average and is certainly so thanks to the fun shooter it is. The driving aspect of the game does give some variety and the graphical prowess the new engine provides is definitely worthy of mention (besides the fact of the glitches and bugs). The story is sadly huge let down with nothing new or interesting to help complement the old but fun shooter formula. The gameplay is well polished and the new game engine shows huge promise for future developments. Rage being a pure shooter will certainly fair well but in this generation of games being a pure shooter itself isn’t going to cut it. Rage is a highly action packed and fun shooter but if considered as a game in a whole package, it feels lacking of that punch line to make it memorable.

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NZXT is a brand that is a brand that often is associated with sleek design and simply eye pleasing stuff. Don’t judge a book by its cover right? Exactly, not only does NZXT produce stuff that are great on the outside, the inner performance of their products shine as well. Take for example the recent NZXT Phantom as well as their other great cases such as the Lexa S, simply gorgeous and not at all lacking performance wise. Today I have with me a rather new product from them, the NZXT FX Enthusiast Fans. If I’m not wrong this is one of the few reviews out there at this point of writing. Read on for my take on the fans.

Introduction

If you do like not like reading walls of text, you can simply watch the video below or scroll down for the simple benchmark I’ve done on the fans. My bad for stuttering so much as I’m just not too experienced with such unboxing and video reviews. Nevertheless I hope to ride on this and gain more experience and confidence for future video related stuff. So yeah go ahead and watch the video, it covers everything this review would cover plus some live action of the fans as well.

Okay, so if you’re the reading type of person, let us move on. What we have here is the contents of the NZXT FX 120mm and 140mm fans. Both have similar accessories provided, but one of the packet of black case screws is missing most probably accidentally being left out by my local distrobuter or something. Nothing to fret, what you will receive will be a 3pin to 4pin molex adapter, double sided rubber mounts and 4 black case screws. But before all that, here are the specifications of the fans:

FX 120LB:

FX 140LB:

Packaging and Contents

The fans have an amazing look to it with its beautiful and clean white blades screaming for attention. There are not many white colour blade fans out there so this is one of the few that will stand out when used in a case. I’ve noticed recently that many NZXT products follow a white colour theme (their power supplies, cases and heatsink fans) and it sure looks refreshing. You can simply go with a whole range of NZXT products for your rig and it will simply look gorgeous. The fans also come with a sleeved cable that is of rather high quality and is certainly a nice to have.

What is really interesting of this fan is the integrated fan controller within the fan itself. You are able to select between 3 different speeds; low medium and high. It is something unique to fans as you seldom see such integrated speed controllers even in your highest ends of fans. Although it is nice of NZXT to implement such a feature within their fan, one have to question the practicality and functionality of it. The cable for the fan controller is way too short for it to be routed out of the case for external controlling and there is no other way of controlling it other than opening up the case to switch it to the desired setting. It thus defeats the purpose of controlling the speed, an external fan controller would be preferred. But of course if you don’t mind the hassle and don’t want to spend the extra money on a dedicated fan controller the integrated fan controller works as it should.

Performance Evaluation

I don’t have any professional instruments for measurement of the specs of the fans so all I can do is provide some really simple benchmark that I have done. I’ve basically kept everything fixed in my case as well as the pull fan of my CPU heatsink and varied the push fan for comparison. Don’t have many fans to choose from but I do have one of the better premium fan to say that performs great as a heatsink fan, the Noctua NF-P14.

Here are the specifications of my system:

CPU: Intel i7 920 D0 @ Stock Settings

Motherboard: Gigabyte X58-UD3R Rev 1.0

RAM: 3 x 2GB Kingston DDR3 1333mhz

CPU Heat Sink: Prolimatech Megahalems Rev B with push-pull config. (pull fan is fixed)

Graphics Card: MSI GTX 480 Lightning with auto fan settings

Hard Drive(s): 640gb Western Digital Caviar Black

Power Supply: FSP Aurum CM 650w

Phantom casing mounted fans:

Front: 1 x 140mm fan (Intake)
Side: 2 x 120mm fan (Intake)
Rear: 1 x 120mm fan (Exhaust)
Bottom: 1 x 140mm fan (Intake)
Top: 1 x 200mm fan (Intake)

Here are the results (varying push fan):

As you can see the NZXT FX 120mm and 140mm does extremely well, beating the likes of the Noctua NF-P14, Aerocool shark fan and the Arctic Cooling F12. The catch? The noise produced. Yes, the fans are rather loud at the max RPM for both the 120mm and 140mm fan. They push a huge amount of air to be fair but for those people that are allergic to noise, you might want to decrease the speed of the fan else you might have to look for other alternative. I haven’t try out the medium speed (set by the integrated fan controller) on the heatsink but the amount of air pushed is reduced rather significantly. Yes I know static pressure is more important blah blah, but you cannot deny that there is still a relationship between the amount of air push and the pressure of it. With the drastic decrease, I’m thinking that it will perform rather badly to be honest, but the good thing? The noise is almost totally gone. So in terms of noise produced, from loudest to softest to my ears is: 1. NZXT FX 120/140mm 2. Aerocool Shark Fan 140mm 3. Arctic Cooling F12 4. Noctua NF-P14

Conclusion

So yeah for highest performance to noise ratio the Noctua NF-P14 wins out hands down. For best performance the NZXT FX is a clear winner. The NZXT FX series of fans will work well both as a case fan and as a heatsink fan, with the case fan being a more preferred choice. The amount of air pushed is simply fantastic and will definitely help in bringing that cold fresh air into your case from the outside. I was told that the fans will be sold at roughly $25 and $28 SGD for the 120mm and 140mm fans respectively. Internationally it should go in the range of perhaps $14.99 USD. For this price range these fans do pack a lot of performance to go with it. Perhaps it is a tad bit on the higher side but they are great fans, certainly good enough to fight with fans of the premium pricing range.

Pros

• Great aesthetic appeal
• Pushes a huge amount of air
• Sleeved cable
• Decent performance as a heatsink fan. Great as a case fan.
• Integrated fan controller

Cons

• Integrated fan controller is too short to route to the outside of the case and thus hinders the practically of using it.
• Quite a bit of noise produced when set at max RPM.

[credit and thanks to Hydra Distribution for the fans]

Here I am typing up a post when I should clearly be starting on my exam preparations. Yes, analyse the choice of words carefully and feel sorry for me. Anyways, I have gotten hold of a new case for my computer. When I first saw the case, I was really pleased with the design. I thus decided that it is about time to get rid of my previous not-so-good-looking case and migrate my stuff over to a sleeker looking one. The case I am talking about is the NZXT Phantom. It recently reached the shores of my fine country and I had just purchased it. With the SwiftWorld in mind, I decided to venture into hardware reviewing and yes this is my first time reviewing a computer case so do spare me if I covered something inadequately.

I have to admit that I am not too prepared for this review as evident in the lack of proper photos to showcase the case. All I have is a fully built computer and photos to try show the different parts of the case. But anyways without further ado let us proceed on with the review. (Do use the table of contents below to jump to specific areas of the review)

Basic Information: Specification, Pricing and Retail Packaging

The price of the NZXT Phantom varies from country to country. Here in Singapore, you can get either the special edition or the normal one at a recommended price of $239 SGD. A quick search in newegg gives me the price of $139.99 USD. It is good to note that some of the versions are exclusives for that particular retailer for example the Black-Green edition cannot be purchased at newegg.

Let us now take a quick look at the retail packaging of the NZXT Phantom:

Case Exterior

The aesthetic of the case is simply gorgeous. The glossy finish on the top and front really makes the case a beautiful and modern piece that stands out from the rest of the other casings. The white version does not really attract much finger prints and even if it does have a few prints on it, it is easy to clean off. I am unsure about the black version but I am thinking it would probably not be that much of a problem.

As you can see, the front houses kind of a door that hides your external bays away when not in use. It uses a magnetic latch system that is strong enough so that the door provides some resistance to prevent it from swinging open at will. The bottom also features a mesh opening that allows air to move in or out through the use of a front installed fan.

Here you can see the mesh areas which allow the movement of air via the 200/230mm fan or the 2x120mm fans at the bottom. The mesh panels can be seen through rather easily but the choice of a clear panel would be greatly appreciated as well.

At the back you have 4 opening for tubes if you wish to run an external water cooling system or whatever you may see fit. The unique thing about the phantom is the button at the top left hand corner. This button is for you to turn off and on the LED of the top 200mm fans.

At the top you have your usual I/O panel. It features two USB 2.0 ports, one microphone and headphone port and lastly the esata port. A pity though that NZXT did not implement a USB 3.0 port even though at the time the case was manufactured, USB 3.0 is getting more and more common already. Nevertheless you can still have your USB 3.0 slots but other means of additional devices.

The phantom does have a competent fan controller built in. It allows control of 5 different areas of the case, mainly the front fan, the 2 side 120mm fans, the side 200/230mm fan, the two top 200mm fans and lastly the rear 120mm fan. However, this is not the limit of the number of fans you can control. You can use cable splits and so on and categorize whatever fans you want to control per switch. The fan controller is rated at 20W per switch and that is quite a bit of fans to put in order to overload the fan controller.

Case Interior

The inside of the case is spacious, very spacious. If you are like me and only run a air cooling system, there is plenty of room left after you fully load up your system. With that said, you can also run a decent water cooling system within the case as it provides many options and with slight modification here and there you can house an extremely cool system.

Here you can see the drive bays of the phantom. It features a tool-less design for both your hard-drives and your external bays.

You cannot really see how the tool-less design hold your external device within this picture but I can tell you it is something that you would most probably have not come across before. You simply unlock it and then push up. Not sure how to explain it but it works really well.

Another tool-less design for mounting on your hard drives and should you have the luxury of owning a SSD, you can use screws to mount it on the slot as well. Once you are done, simply slide it in.

You can mount an additional fan here in the external bay slot should you not fill it up already. It is useful I heard but that is only if you open the front door. Nevertheless the phantom allows for quite a bit of customizability and the installation of the fans here at the top and the front is really easy.

At the back the phantom features a rather spacious area for you to route your cables and hide them away from the eye. As you can see there are many rubber holes for you to push your cables through and I must say that managing cables in the phantom is extremely easy. The options are almost limitless with so many strategically placed holes and openings for cables to be passed through.

The Complete Build

Installing the different parts was really simple and easy. I have spent a mere hour or so to get everything in place. Cable management as mentioned previously is almost a breeze in the park with the amount of stuff I have within the system. It should not be a problem should you fully load the case with the maximum number of hard drives and so on as the case is simply huge inside.

The fan controller is really easy to use as the wires leading to the different switches are clearly labeled with awesome looking logos. You might, however, need to refer to the manual as some of the logos, as awesome as they are, are rather ambiguous. The fan controller works well and is definitely a pleasant feature to have. Whether is it controlling the fans to run at full speed in the hot afternoon or awaken the phantom at night, the fan controller gives you the ability to do so easily.

Here I have some pictures of how the phantom might look like when it is completely filled in with the necessary parts to run:

Simple Performance Tests

I am not so much of a professional hardware reviewer or tester thus the results you see here are simple tests that might be superficial and subjective to several factors. All I did was run full load of the different components to see how they fair. The room condition is “maintained” using an air-conditioner set at 26c. Tests run are Prime95 (smallfft) and Furmark burn in test. Each test will run for a minimum of 20 minutes to allow the case to reach the maximum heat exchange.

Here are the specifications of my system:

CPU: Intel i7 920 D0 @ Stock Settings
Motherboard: Gigabyte X58-UD3R Rev 1.0
RAM: 3 x 2GB Kingston DDR3 1333mhz
CPU Heat Sink: Prolimatech Megahalems Rev B with one Push fan
Graphics Card: MSI GTX 480 Lightning with auto fan settings
Hard Drive(s): 640gb Western Digital Caviar Black
Power Supply: FSP Aurum CM 650w

Phantom casing mounted fans:

Front: 1 x 120mm fan (Intake)
Side: 2 x 120mm fan and 1 x 140mm fan using PCI Slot Add-on (Intake)
Rear: 1 x 120mm fan (Exhaust)
Top: 1 x 200mm fan (Exhaust)

All fans are running at max speed.

Here are the results:

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

Overall the NZXT Phantom is a fantastic case with an exterior that is simply magnificent. Looks however, is highly subjective so I would suggest that if possible, take a look a few more pictures that others have captured or best, look at case in person. I really like the shiny glossy finish on the case and it gives a more modern kind of feeling. I know of people liking cases with industrial rugged looks and if so, I do not think the phantom might be suitable for you but who knows? The phantom might just change everything.

The option of a clear acrylic panel at the side is something I hope will be given as an option in the future. I really like looking into the computer and it also allows for people to showcase some really awesome components or beautiful lighting features. The built in fan controller is a really nice feature to have and even more so as even with all those high-end looking fan controllers, you will not be able to appreciate it as the phantom’s door is always closed by default. The LED lights add up to the appearance of the case and in the night with proper additions to the case it will be one mean looking phantom.

The major problem of the case is the side panel fan and the Heat Sink fan clearance. It is a huge problem to the point that it is a design flaw to me (according to some reading there is a newer revision that adjusts the mounting of the side fan to allow for bigger coolers to be installed at the same time). Why? The side mounting holes are specific for the NZXT 200mm fans. What this meant is that you cannot mount other 200mm fans without slight modification such as the use of the rubber screws or zip ties. And if you were to mount a 200mm fan there (with the fan filter), the CPU heat sink fan clearance is slightly less than 160mm. Go figure what that means. It is terrible, simply terrible and I do hear that the side fan does do quite a bit in terms of bringing down the temperature for the case especially the graphics card. You either sacrifice your CPU heat sink fan or the side panel fan. I really do not know what NZXT engineers were thinking then. They either give the option of a smaller fan, or simply push the 200mm down. Did they ever think about how little the clearance is with their 200mm fan? I have no idea.

Other than that the case is near perfect for me. Cable management is really very superbly easy whether you have a modular or non-modular power supply. The graphics card clearance is huge enough for the top-end cards to be installed within the system. The stock fans provided are really quiet and push a decent amount of air to allow the flow within the system to be optimum. Lastly, I have to complement the aesthetic of the Phantom again and again and all over again. It is gorgeous and really beautiful. Pretty on the outside, awesome in the inside.

Pros:

• Beautiful modern appearance
• Excellent cable management options
• Spacious interior
• Decent built-in fan controller
• Tool-less kits work well

Cons:

• Restrictive CPU Heat Sink clearance with side 200mm fan (and the fan does help in reducing temperature)
• Glossy finish does attract some fingerprints
• Plastic might not feel right for some
• Lack of USB 3.0 ports

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12►

Ongaku means music in Japanese. Ongaku, like the name itself, is a music rhythm game created by indie developers Smashmouth Games. Think along the lines of guitar hero, rock band and of course dance dance revolution back then that started it all (at least for me). Notes come flying and you tap the different keys accordingly as you listen to the music that is being played. This genre is proven to be great fun for all types of gamers and of all ages. Ongaku is played with no additional gadget but your old good keyboard. How does it fair among the heavy guns that have taken over this generation of music rhythm games? Read on to find out more.

Ongaku does have a little storyline that explains the theme, graphical choices and so on. Alright here is what it is all about. You take on the role of a magical crystal which is named Ongaku. There is this evil musical deity called Discord that brought chaos and trouble throughout the land. What you have to do is to simply travel through the kingdom of Melody to help restore the world back into its former state. Do you actually have to care about it? No no no… as in really no.

Ongaku is like all music rhythm games. You play through a specific song while hitting the right keys whenever the notes come into view. However, there are a few modifications here and there that do make the game feel a little more refreshing. Firstly, instead of a vertical scrolling manner, it does it horizontally. What this means is that notes come to you in a horizontal manner. The indication of when to hit the keys is whenever your little musical note character goes touching these specific notes. The notes are in the form of a circle with a directional arrow within it indicating what keys to press on your keyboard.  The other modification is that these notes appear to be of different heights. In order to reach them, you have to move your musical character up and down accordingly. This thus makes you coordinate both your hands with one of them controlling the main keys pressed and the other to control the movement of your musical character. (see the gameplay video below for a clearer understanding).

You are given the choice of two main modes to choose from. One is the main campaign like mode where you spend your time playing through some really good instrumental music pieces while reading through the story if you really care at all. The other mode is whereby you can play your own music, letting the game auto generate the notes, or other custom creations by yourself or others. The auto generation works well, generating mainly according to the beat as well as the pitch or something (I think). At least it does have some relevance to the music that you choose rather than just randomly playing notes here and there. It does have some resemblance to that of AudioSurf (another indie music rhythm game). You can also download other users created content should there be any and simply load it up to play it.

There are several difficulties to choose from ranging from easy to very hard. What this does is simply flooding each level with more notes and notes of complicated directional buttons to press. For example, at easy you will seldom if not never see notes of two directions say up-right (diagonal direction that is). There is also lesser holding of keys and so on. It works great, allowing users of all skill levels to be able to enjoy the game at their own pace and time.

There is also the in-built builder that allows you to create your own musical pieces. It does allow you to enable the auto generation and then you editing specific portions to your liking later on. It is great and does save a lot of time should you bother about creating levels that are extremely specific to the beats and so on. The creator itself seems to be complicated at first but after using it for some time and getting used to it, it does actually work pretty well and serves the purpose good enough. However, it still is rather time consuming and many people wouldn’t have the patience to go through it especially when the auto generation gives sufficient fun and joy. If you do make some custom content, do feel free to share with the world by tipping us or simply going onto their main forums and leave a little note.

Where sound effects are concerned, there are these occasional effects that pump you up whenever you do well in that specific piece of music. There is this crackling noise of the witch and just a broken sound that sounds like the shattering of a glass whenever you hit a wrong note. It does get irritating sometimes especially when you missed too many, but yeah it just reminds you to do better. Other than that, there isn’t much more to say.

Overall the game is fun, especially if you love music rhythm games. The only downside might be due to the usage of the keyboard as sort of the musical instrument. I mean yeah, you have to admit that playing on a “guitar” or perhaps a “drum” would be much more music like and does allow you to live the dream of a rockstar. However, that does require more money as well. Ongaku is great itself, and the edge that it has over its other competitors lies within the game’s functionality to play your own custom music easily and readily. There is the trial version for you to get familiar with the gameplay and should you actually like it for its gameplay, get it as the song choice is completely up to you. You can get a digital copy of the game of GamersGate or GameStreamer at the price of $10.99. Want a music rhythm game or simply a fun way to hear music? Ongaku is a must grab. There are few  music rhythm games that are made for the PC, Ongaku, however, is one of the few that do the genre justice on such a platform.

Campaign Mode:

Auto Generated Tunes:

Official Site: Smashmouth Games Ongaku

The Great White Destroyer is an Indie PC game developed by independent developer Backyard Ninja. It plays as an arcade action game, something to that of a beat’em up (more of eat’em up in this case) where the main objective is to simply destroy and eat whatever that is in your way. You play as a great white shark and like the title of the game states, you are a destroyer. Yes you destroy everything and anything that pisses you off along the way land or sea.

You control your shark by mainly using just the mouse. For movement, you point your cursor to anywhere you want your shark to move to. For speed control, the left and right mouse buttons are there to vary the speed the shark moves towards the cursor, left being of slowest speed right being medium and both being of the fastest speed. Neat control scheme and really effective for the game I must say. It is simple, easy to pick up and definitely helps players get right into the eating and destroying without much hassle.

Great controls scheme help players get into the game very quickly. The starting few levels teaches the basic concept of the game mechanics while the later few levels introduce slight strategic elements especially within boss fights and the other various enemy types as well. This gradually increase in difficulty makes the game feel new at every instance, allowing players to enjoy themselves while not getting too overwhelmed. These added few strategic elements and gameplay concepts certainly help make the game much more fun and challenging, allowing players to play for a long time without getting bored. I myself got hooked on playing as the levels constantly seem to change and add a new feature every time I proceed further.

The primary objective of most levels is to simply fill up a meter that is supposedly tracking the shark god’s happiness. To do that, you have to simply eat all you see and destroy whatever there is to destroy. There are different kinds of fishes and humans present that require different treatment. All of which being eaten or destroyed results in the meter being slowly filled up. The different enemy types will be slowly introduced in the different levels, keeping the game fresh at all times. For example there are first humans that are simply swimming at the surface but later on you will face divers that will constantly try to shoot their harpoons to kill you.

There are occasional boss battles as well and these battles add variety to the game. Bosses often require more strategy and careful treatment, most of which usually have some kind of pattern that you have to learn in order to defeat them. These boss battles definitely add some challenge to the game and are welcomed after eating those harmless useless swimming humans.

There is this frenzy mode that your shark can get into as well. In this frenzied mode, your shark is somewhat in god mode where everything you touch immediately gets shattered into pieces and bodies getting ripped into nothing but blood. You cannot get hurt within this mode and like it says, you are in frenzy mode and you move like some madass shark on drugs.

There is a score system in place for those competitive gamers as well. The scoring system really makes it an arcade game and to get high scores you simply chain up combos within the levels. Combos can be started in several different ways, the simplest of all is to eat the same types of enemies at one go while others is destroying two enemies in one and those kind of thing. I haven’t actually take notice of how it exactly works but all I know is that during levels if you see that you are on a killing spree, the way your score increases certainly reflects on the situation. Nice feature to add to give it more of an arcade feel and a reason for people to replay as well.

Graphics are simplistic and may seem a little unpolished at first. However, the quality of the graphics are not in whether or not they are in high definition or whether it is of extremely high polish but instead in the style that it has. It definitely gives the kind of stereotypical indie feeling (that of lower budgets) while also adding up to the arcade feeling as well. I’m not sure why but even though I know that it doesn’t really look appealing, it just doesn’t matter at all when you start playing the game. Heck I even started to feel that it is rather good as I got hooked on with the gameplay. With that said, there is this gory blood effect as well that gives you the sense of power as you eat your way through. Really really nice to see the waters filled with the blood of stuff you have killed. Sound effects are on the supposedly arcade style where there isn’t really any voice narrative of any sorts but simply high quirky sounds to represent people talking and several other effects to represent wreckage and so on. Works well and definitely blends in with both the graphics and the gameplay.

There are two modes to choose from, one being the main story and the other being a challenge mode, each having individual fun value to it and definitely worth a play through. There are many different kinds of enemies to keep you entertained and levels to keep playing. A highscore keeps competitive gamers replaying each level and difficulty settings to allow all kinds of players to enjoy the game. For the price of $6.00 USD (around $8 SGD), this game is certainly worth it with all the fun you can get.

p.s hope the developers will get to do a mobile edition of the game, would be real awesome and can certainly make good use of the trend of touch screens as well!

The Great White Destroyer Official Page

It is the time of the year again, the time when gamers who love the beautiful sport of football get to enjoy both the sport itself in a virtual gaming context. Yes, the release of the next Fifa game by EA Sports is just round the corner. Year after year since 2007, EA Sports have effectively tweaked and refined the gameplay and graphics of the Fifa video game franchise, raising the bar each time it releases a new title. However, this wasn’t the case for PC gamers. PC gamers were simply treated to the same old disgusting gameplay and boring graphics repackaged into the new boxes time and again. Next-gen was the cries of the gamers, the PC couldn’t support the engine was the supposed reason by the developers. The PC is less powerful than the consoles? I highly doubt so. I believe it is just a mere excuse for laziness or simply them not wanting to invest in the PC market. This time round, things are about to change. Fifa 11 PC version is about to hop onto the next-gen engine console gamers have enjoyed for the past 2 to 3 years. This is it.

This article is solely based on the experience while playing through the Fifa 11 PC demo version. Fanboys might say that I am biased due to my previous reviews of the PC versions: Fifa 10 and Fifa 09 but what I wrote was all facts that fanboys don’t want to listen, comparisons within were made by playing both the console version and the nonsense pc version. Some people just don’t understand the difference between next-gen gameplay and nonsense gameplay. But I strongly believe this will change with Fifa 11.

PC Fifa 11 is going to be next-gen. That’s right, took me long enough to say it. I played the demo and yes indeed it is next-gen. The smoothness and sleekness of passes, the miraculous curlers that bend like bananas; the beautiful emulation of football has just taken a huge leap. Rejoice fellow PC gamers, you can finally experience what it is like to play Fifa on the console. Be prepared to embrace the finest of tweaks and tunings that made next-gen Fifa so enjoyable, fun and exciting. The whole engine is just that fluid and sleek. Compare that with the nonsense you get with all your previous versions. Fanboys, stop saying that Fifa 10 has better gameplay than Fifa 09 simply because they are the same game. However, you can say that Fifa 11 has better gameplay than Fifa 10/09/08.

You have to try it to experience for yourself the game engine. Why I wanted it so badly and why people who enjoyed the console version smirks and laughs at the PC version. The demo does just that, and it is here to curb and satisfy the 2-3 year wait for the next-gen engine.

It is however, good to note that the Fifa 11 PC game engine is very similar to that of Fifa 10 console game engine (that means you have no be a goalkeeper, personality plus etc). Yep, they’ve done it again, a step back from the console version. Why on earth can’t they just port over the latest one? That, I have no answer to. But at least they decided to start working on the porting/reconstruction of the engine rather than focusing on the box art and where to find the cheapest place to print their covers.

Try it, or watch the gameplay footage I uploaded below to understand.

P.S Select 720p for HD quality.

Console version is amazing yet again. Passing felt weird and hard to get used to and the auto locking of players to pass to seems broken. It might be just be but simply playing the same way I used to do with Fifa 10 or the World Cup 2010 seems to not work efficiently anymore. There are also some nice few features added such as the Be a Goalkeeper and stuff. I won’t be doing an article on the demo since you probably can find a thousand of them on google (not the case for PC. Search pc, you get console impressions, and those don’t apply to PC one single bit).

Anyways, did you enjoy your experience with the PC Fifa 11 demo? I sure did, it is great to see improvements or rather it is great to see them releasing a proper game after that many years. If you’ve hated the gameplay, I have no idea what to say but to ask you to play Pro Evolution Soccer. Since Fifa gameplay has evolved so far and to date it is one of the finest versions of the engine itself, if you can’t enjoy it you probably should look for a change in gameplay style, PES might just fit the b

Mafia, a secret criminal organization operating mainly in the United States and Italy and engaged in illegal activities such as gambling, drug-dealing, protection, and prostitution. With that definition in our head, Mafia 2 is basically a third-person action adventure game that revolves around such an idea. It is the sequel to Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven (the first Mafia game) and is out for the PS3, Xbox 360 and the PC. (All experience based on playthrough on PC version) There might be some spoilers in the review so do read with caution.

The game is set from 1943 to 1951 in Empire Bay and you play as Vito Scaletta, a person who slowly works his way up the ranks of the mafia family as well as going through several different kinds of life events. You start off with you and your best friend Joe Barbaro robbing a jewelry store. The sad thing is that you got caught while Joe managed to escape. As such, you are given the decision of whether to serve the Army or go straight to jail. Vito decides to enlist in the army and takes part in Operation Huskey. In 1945 Vito got injured by a bullet and thus temporarily transferred back to Empire Bay. Upon meeting with his best friend again, Joe helps him to avoid going back to the army through forged released papers by his friend. Of course this is where your adventure into the dark violent side of the mafia families begins, with the simple overarching goal of not wanting to walk the same path as your father did.

The plot is above average, with some twist and turns here and there that gets you sitting on the edge of your seat. Why not excellent? Well, it can be said that many of the twists and plot is kind of cliché and somewhat predictable. It is not the kind of mind blowing story that makes you think through and through to come out with different ideas and stuff like that. Rather straightforward but it is still nicely done. What should be commended however is the execution of the story.

Storytelling is excellent. Great believable voice actors that give life and personality to the different characters present as well as well placed cut-scenes with good animation that helps in making the story progress smoothly. I have to say though that as much as the story is not too bad, it is way too short. I am thinking that they might come up with a few more Downloadable Content that helps extend the story or some kind of expansion in future, else seriously it is way too short. As soon as the characters slowly grow onto you, the game ends. It is really unsatisfying for me, was starting to get myself immersed in the story and boom, the credits start rolling up, just great; spent nearly just close to around 10 hours or so to complete the game?

Core gameplay components such as gunfights, melee hand to hand combat and driving so on are not too bad. I have to specially mention that I love the gunplay. Shooting, taking cover and moving from one point to the other felt smooth and fun. I also loved how when spraying your machine gun you start to see the environment playing a huge part. The chips of wall flying all over the place, glass pieces shattering so and so forth. It is nice, the scene of gunfights that is. The different guns feel great; handling, damage and accuracy differs from one to the. All in all they did a great job in the gunplay aspect. Hand to hand combat is alright, not too deep but it serves the purpose. It is a bit too easy though since you can simply automatically dodge by holding down the dodge key and counter back. Finishing moves are nice to see at first, but boring later on as they are simply just repeating themselves over and over again. Driving is alright, handling of cars differs from one to the other. Sounding the horn gets cars to drive to the side a little, speeding gets the cops to chase you, weather affects the turning etc.

With the core done right, the game should be good right? Yes it is “good” but definitely the fun that you can get really is limited. I would first like to talk about the open world component. Do note the game revolves around a somewhat open world that of Grand Theft Auto and Just Cause. However, what you can do within this world is limited to the main storyline. There are no extra things to do besides robbing stuff and crushing cars to get cash that does not matter, buying outfits that are limited to varieties less than 10 and buying food that does nothing but replenishes your health which automatically does by itself. Other than that, the world is there open with nothing to do. Actually I would not call it “open”, it is “open” in the sense you get to move around however you want but you can only do so within a main mission. There is no free time or to say exploration time besides that you get from driving during the story or before you get to a meeting point etc. The game is too linear, maybe for its own good to get the story going but look at Grand Theft Auto, open sandbox game amazing story as well.

As I said earlier, the game is linear. There are no side missions, no side objectives nothing at all. Just the main story and that is what you will get. Now with that said, we shall talk about the main missions within the story. The variety is there at first, you get to do different tasks from stealth mission to selling contraband goods etc. The developers are smart in tweaking the style and objectives of some of the missions to make it seem as though you are doing something completely different. They did succeed to a certain extent but the main playing style doesn’t change. It is just gunfight, gunfight cut-scene and then you go back home. There are times when stealth comes into play and escaping so on and so forth but that is it. Sometimes this variety backfires as they are simply so mundane and boring tasks such as picking coloured goods to sell and stuff like that.  There are not many of such instances but of course they do make the game just a little more interesting.

We now move on to the A.I. The A.I is stupid, police and enemies alike. Enemies are dumb because they simply do not know anything about fighting or killing etc. You hide in one spot and they’ll just keep trying to shoot you when you are under cover or simply not move. At least make them throw a grenade when you are camping for too long or something. The enemies also like staying in one similar covering position and not move from it. As such, you simply place your crosshair there and fire away once they come out of the cover. This however does not mean that you can simply go charging in like superman and not die. Gun wounds hurt badly especially shotguns when at near range. One shot and you are so dead. At least the A.I’s aiming ain’t so bad.

The police are as stupid as they can get. You cannot imagine how dumb they are. Escaping from the police is as if you are running away after you stole a candy from a kid. Talk about escaping from a minor infringement let’s say a speeding ticket. You simply stop wait till the police officer gets out of his car and you start ramming your engine and go away. What about killing an innocent passerby and getting caught red-handed? Fear not as you can simply drive and make a simple turn to escape from the chasing police car. What about when the police start using sub-machine guns and stuff? Simply start running away from sight and into a clothes store to change out of your clothes. It is funny that the police recognize you by your clothes and not your facial features etc. Though the A.I of the police is stupid they do have some nice concepts behind the law system such as the speeding limit and the ability to change the car license plate to evade the police. Now all they need is to get the police to go through some basic intelligence course or at least let them complete their high school education.

There are also some minor concepts within the game to make it more realistic and perhaps interesting. Such examples are the refueling of petrol of cars (though I never ever get my fuel tank empty throughout the whole game), the food, clothes, modification of cars, gunshops etc. The sad thing is, since they actually have such concepts in play, why do they not explore them further to make them more impactful? At the current point of time, having them there or not does not actually matter. It is as if they just chuck in that piece of code since they already programmed it or something.

The graphics look good, great in bringing out the atmosphere and feeling of the time period the game was situated in. The attention to detail is good, making the city much more believable and real. This thus gives the only incentive for enduring the driving from one location to another throughout all your missions and that is the beautiful scenery. The scale of the world is also rather remarkable, but it definitely backfires since the world is there empty, bare and boring. When the fights get started, the degrading and damage to the environment is fantastic. The implementation of Nvidia’s PhysX is simply flawless as you see chunks of debris fly everywhere etc. It is simply a beautiful scene whenever you are fighting and killing people with guns. The sound aspect of the game is rather well done as well. As said voice acting is great, gun effects are adequate and what I want to commend is the soundtrack backing the game. It simply livens up the atmosphere and complements the environment and graphics perfectly.

My major complaint probably narrows down to the length of the game and perhaps the overall execution of it. Everything seems so touch and go: While I want to know more about a character, he is gone or not into play already. While I want to like a character more, the game ends. While I want to be soaked into the city and gorgeous environment more, the game does not do any good in that since it does not make use of the detail world created to great effect. While I suddenly get excited over the storyline, the next moment is extremely cheesy and clichéd. The game just has so much potential to be great and excellent, but of course this potential has yet to be realized. Maybe a few DLCs will do the job? I really hope so for I love the world the game creates and I do not want it to just go like that.

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Alpha Protocol, a game that was hyped up by many and after it’s released disappointed many. I myself actually did not hear much of the game or rather, was unaware of it (not sure if it is good or bad). From some researching it seems as the situation is that the game is under development for quite some years, around the year 2006 or so. Long development means better game? Perhaps, perhaps. Anyways, back to the review. This review is based on experience playing through the PC version. Do note that the game is out for the X360 and the PS3 as well. Without further ado, let us move on to the review.(p.s the review is pretty long. scroll all the way down for the round-up of the pros and cons)

Storyline

You play as Michael Thorton, or Mike like many of the in-game characters call him, a field agent for the secret United States Government agency named “Alpha Protocol”. The plot begins as soon as you are sent to your first convert mission in Saudi Arabia. Things did not go the way it ought to go and soon you find yourself figuring out the reason and cause of a huge global conspiracy.

That is the gist of the whole story within the game. Not too bad, I mean even if it is like the ordinary hero saves the day kind of story, it does have its moments through the plot twists and turns along the way. The story is one of the stronger parts of the game. Storytelling is believable with characters with character and personality that are convincing to the player. It is as though you can understand and know one character after a few dialogues or so. There are several characters within the game, good and bad. Interaction with these characters is important and the way as to how you go talking and treating them results in different paths within the game.

The story cannot be said to be linear. I mean yes it seem as though you have to play through the same few missions go through the same few things but the thing is you have multiple paths and routes to take. Each route taken might eventually lead to the same outcome but it is worthy to note that there are other endings and conclusion as well. According to your actions and your approach to the different missions and characters, the story seems to effectively evolve around your character, making each of your decision count. You might regret later on not doing this or that, but that is the beauty of the game. One play-through is never enough, at least for the story.

Gameplay

I first have to admit that some of the gameplay concepts and mechanics implemented are rather unpolished and unbalance and I guess that is what hurts the game the most (as noted by several other reviewers). The overall gameplay works almost like Mass Effect 1. The similarities are quite obvious in the sense that after completing a mission, you go back to your headquarters and you move on from there. This cycle repeats itself within Alpha Protocol as it does in Mass Effect (completed mission, spaceship, mission, spaceship, you get the idea). You have the ability to purchase new weapons and stock items required before proceeding on. All in all it is not too bad, it makes the game a little more structured and easier to follow.

Mission selection is done simply by your own will. After the starting Saudi Arabia mission, you get to choose from 3 different locations with a choice of different missions within each location. Which and how you want to complete each individual mission is up to you. This comes one of the flaws of the game, the difficulty. The game itself is not very hard but some missions and bosses are. The very fact that enemies within the game do not scale with your level means that if you approached a harder boss at the start of the game, you are practically going to suffer and cry. If that really happens to you, do go for another mission first before returning back. I do know that some missions are relatively much easier than others and it is advisable to start from the easier ones.

Intel – Yay or Nay?

This brings us to the next flaw of the game, or rather one of the unpolished aspects of the game. There is intel within the game that you can buy or find. There are three types, one on characters, one on the different organizations and another one for missions. The intel acquired for characters and organizations helps unlock different routes and choices to make upon meeting some of the characters. For example knowing some of the facts about one character opens a dialogue option at a stipulated meeting and time. Intel for characters are the most valuable of all, as in it seem to have the most impact and effects on your game. Intel for organizations on the other hand is merely there for you to understand and know the background of the story better (at least for me, I mean I did not find much difference with knowing more or less). Intel for missions is almost unnecessary as it does not help you much. I tried buying some intel before proceeding on to a mission and then completing the mission without it, there is not much difference in terms of difficulty or story wise. Yes some of these intel bought allows you to have different takes on the mission but none really affect your overall story or gameplay much.

Weapons and Firefights

It is nice to have such an aspect (intel) but I hope to see more impact on the gameplay as it is simply as if it is not there at all. Speaking of completing missions, there are mainly two ways to complete one mission. One is killing them all and two is to sneak your way through, grab what you want and leave. Both approaches give you a different experience as well as outcome but both have some rather dubious and weak gameplay elements to it. First the gunplay is rather inconsistent and imbalance. There are 4 types of guns and only one of them works best (assault rifle). The others like pistol, shotgun and the sub-machine gun are as if they were not needed. Yes shotgun works better closer range, sub-machine gun good for spraying but when compared to the assault rifle they are practically useless. Pistol is great only for stealth as you can use a silencer with it, but other than that it is just the assault rifle.

The balance within the weapons is a must to encourage players to take different approaches. Those wanting a challenge can go for other weapon types but the thing is not with what approach you want to take, instead it is how these approaches work. It is similar to that of a class system within the game without obviously stating it but if one class is a huge ass monster and the others small tiny ants, who would want to try the others? Yes you might but it simply does not feel as if you have been fairly treated. A balance is greatly required for an impact to be seen within the game. There are also gadgets within the game such as radio interceptors to trick enemy into shutting off alarms, the usually grenades and stuff like that. Not really required as you can complete missions with or without them.

Stealth – Hardly seen or felt

Stealth within the game is yet another unpolished aspect. There are basically no ordinary stealth elements like hiding within the shadows and stuff. All you do is use a skill, make yourself invisible and then go kill somebody head on. The only stealth element, besides the skill to make you invisible or run without noise, is sneaking behind the enemy’s back. Other than that there is not much else to do. You cannot drag bodies, dispose bodies to prevent enemies from alerting etc, none of that. You do however have the ability to use certain objects to create distraction or so but it is definitely a hit and miss for most players. It simply does not work well enough as it is way too simple and forgettable.

Minigames

There are 3 different types of minigames within the game. One a lock picking minigame, two differently styled a hacking minigame (one is matching numbers with numbers and the other selecting numbers in sequence). The minigames are a nice addition to the game and it makes the game setting and atmosphere a little more believable. With you being a secret agent, you do have to do some computer decryption, hacking and stuff like that right? The rewards of completing minigames are rather insignificant except for the ones where they give you intel or so. Of course there are the compulsory ones where you have to complete in order to complete your objective.

Stupid Enemies – The Case of Terrible AI

The next and major let down to the game is the enemy AI. With poor or rather terrible AI, stealth already being disappoint becomes even worse. Enemies move and fight as if they dropped their contact lenses. One moment they engage in a firefight and the next you see them running around in circles for no particular reason. Some even start climbing ladders and let you openly shoot them. Boss fights seem to have certain perhaps glitches or exploits which allows you to easily kill even the hardest ones. The most irritating of all is how you can simply wait in one corner as you alert the enemy and see them flowing in through the door letting you shoot them down one by one. There are times when the enemy is smart (like throwing a grenade into the room if you are hiding there) but they are simply too far and few in between. The AI being inconsistent and horrible for most of the time makes the fight a little more unsatisfying.

Character Development and Skills

Character development within the game is alright. You get to choose from different active and passive skills from different categories. There are some skills that are much more useful than others and some not having much justification to even have them there in the first place. The sense that your character is growing more powerful as you progress is there as the skills given at the later stages are rather powerful. Hit critical shots and do damage as you active some of the skills make players feel the sense of achievement towards the end of the stage. It is as though you play through the life of the character, growing and learning together with him. This growth results in him becoming one of the best agent within the game, and the ability to able to identify this growth is certainly satisfying.

Dialogue System and Reputation

The dialogue system is pleasing and great. It really helps in the storytelling and exploration of the different paths. There is basically a timer that comes up with choices for you to choose from. Choices differ by the way and style you wish to reply to the character you are talking with. For example you can reply in a “suave” manner or “aggressive” whichever fits your style. You can also choose according to the personality of the character you are talking to. Choosing the right and acceptable manner to reply will result in the other character liking you more. There is a timer which makes it kind of more realistic since you do not take 10 over minutes just to reply to one question. The problem with this however is that sometimes non native language speakers find it hard to choose. The good side is the smooth transitions between dialogues and with that it continues to uphold the high quality storytelling.

Reputation within the game is gained or lost mainly by the way you talk to the different characters as well as the way you carry out your missions. Killing civilians will result in a loss of reputation with a particular handler while replying in an aggressive manner gets some people to like you even more. Sneak your way through missions and gain the liking of those that loves the low profile style of action. The reputation system rewards users with perks within different missions. Missions also vary accordingly to whomever you are friends and ally with.

Graphics & Sound

I decided not to separate both because I only have one comment on the graphics: dated. Textures and animations in the game are one of its weaker points. Considering the length of development, I believe more details should be done. The sound effects, music and voice acting helps to lift the game up. Atmosphere and setting is made even more believable with the music and firefights being already quite frustrating is made slightly better with the believable sound effects such as gun fires and explosions. The voice acting makes the storytelling enjoyable and seriously the story is what drives the game through.

Value

The game story alone is worthy to be played at least once. Playing more times results in more surprises as you find out the different consequences that come from the different decisions you make.  Once you get through the horrible AI and imbalance aspects of the game, the game is really not that bad.

Conclusion

Rent it or buy it, whichever it is at least try it. The gameplay mechanics might put off some, but for me it was not great but passable. It is sad to see a game of such great potential under the guidance from a rather reputable developer go to waste. I mean it is average when it could have been a lot better. As to which version to grab, choose whichever you are comfortable with.

Pros

• Great storytelling with believable characters
• Choices play a part in the ending and your gameplay experience
• Dialogue system is fantastically smooth for me, might require lengthening of time though
• Character development feels personal and grows onto you
• Story has multiple routes depending on choices. Makes it rewarding to have a second play-through.

Cons

• Unrefined weapons and skills result in some being totally omitted
• Stealth mechanics unpolished and not satisfying
• Terrible AI results in a game about secret agents and stuff a little less believable. Results in poor firefights and stealth
• Dated graphics

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