Posts Tagged ‘10’

The Top 10 Video games of 2009

2009 was a great year for gaming and so after being asked by a member of the community I put together this video showing, in my opinion, the best games of 2009. Any missed out? Some you thought shouldn’t have been there? Let us know in the comment box below!  Btw these games are in no particular order!

Assassins Creed 2

Sequel to the award winning Assassins Creed from 2007, this time the setting is renaissance Italy. The game offers a wider variety of mission types and new RPG elements like purchasing armour and weapons.  A must buy from 2009.

DiRT 2

Growing on the new engine from DiRT 1, DiRT 2 in my opinion, gives the best rallying and off road driving experience available.  Stunning graphics combined with an amazing cockpit view make you feel right in the action.  A lean towards a more arcadey feel may not please everyone but it sure makes this title a lot of fun!

Batman Arkham Asylum

A huge surprise from 2009, Batman Arkham Asylum renovates fighting mechanics and is arguably the best Batman game to date.  Take on the power of the dark knight as you complete objectives inside the Asylum either by stealth or just brute force.  Definitely worth a try for everyone interested in action games!

Dragon Age: Origins

Developed by Bioware, who have huge experience in the RPG market with the successful Mass Effect, Dragon Age is a dark heroic fantasy story.  Create your character and lead him/her to victory.  If you love RPGs and like the fantasy slightly magical world, then you’ll be interested.

Left 4 Dead 2

Coming only a year after the acclaimed original Left 4 Dead, the quality of this release comes as a surprise.  The sequel is still set during the aftermath of an apocalyptic pandemic as you and three survivors fight throughout the city to defeat the endless hordes of zombies.  The game is a great laugh both offline and online with mates.  Take all your anger out on those zombies right now!

Resident Evil 5

Now running it’s seventh game, Resident Evil continues to involve you.  The survival horror third person shooter looks great graphically as Chris Redfield and Sheva Alomar investigate a terrorist threat in Africa.  If you’ve ever played any of the Resident Evil games then put this one right up there.

Killzone 2

Even after that controversy about rendered/actual gameplay showed on a teaser a few years ago, Killzone 2 manages to beat the original easily.  You fight on the home world of the Helghast and lets just say the graphics are mouth watering accompanying a frenzied campaign.  Oh and don’t forget the addictive multiplayer.

The Sims 3

Still going strong, The Sims 3 brings the series its strongest version yet.  We’re still obsessed with controlling our little Sims lives and this version is no different.  A nice UI overhaul and a good focus on travelling around a town makes the game feel less narrow and more than just watching your Sim watch TV in one house.

Halo 3: ODST

Although it runs on the Halo 3 engine and also the name, don’t expect ODST to be as easy a ride as it was with Master Chief.  This time you play a soldier who is more vulnerable and you have to play this game more tactically.  Navigating the streets of New Mombassa provides a wanted change to galaxy moving Master Chief.  And for a great multiplayer experience don’t forget Firefight mode.

Modern Warfare 2

Undoubtedly the most anticipated and deserving game of 2009 is the successor to Call of Duty 4. Modern Warfare is brilliant all over and for the most part satisfies the hype.  Yes the single player is captivating and really makes you feel in the thick of it but multiplayer rocks.  Amazing.  No other words.  If you don’t at least try this game this year you are missing out!

Peace out.

FIFA 10 Review for the iPhone or iPod Touch

photo.jpgFinally EA’s FIFA has made it onto the iPhone and the first attempt has done a real good job of bringing the FIFA experience to the mobile platform. There are some control issues but the game is jam packed with teams and data to keep you occupied! It’s available for £5.99 and out now!

So obviously as you’d expect from a FIFA title, there are 30 official leagues, 570 teams and 12,620 players. You won’t miss anything and I’m really surprised at how much data EA managed to sneak into this game.  You get all the stats for the players like you would on the console versions and obviously the only limitation is the iPhones control interface for you to read all this data.  The music, graphics and menus all shout out that FIFA feeling and they’ve done a good job of bringing the experience over to the portable platform.  Also don’t forget the amount of modes you have and a Manager Mode is great.  It was what I missed with Real Football 2009 and now with a transfer hub and customisable team management there is a lot to do here!

Now obviously the biggest argument against FIFA 10 (and most iPhone games) is the touch screen interface.  It is hard to do a sports game on the device and EA have gone for the D-pad and two button approach similar to Real Football.  But to pull off the more complicated moves like low cross you have to swipe from one button to the next.  It’s not perfect and from my experience isn’t always picked up which can lead to frustrating gaming. Also the “A” and “B” buttons are too small and too close together which EA need to address. Now they do offer 3 presets of moving the buttons around and this can help but it doesn’t make the buttons bigger which would be a godsend.  A minor problem is that the latest transfers don’t seem to be up to date but this should be easily fixed in an update. Other than that there are no little other bugs in the game and I have had no slowdowns or crashes.

So with EA’s first FIFA game on the iPhone platform, they have shown they have a major interest in the mobile gaming market and if they continue to develop the series -- it will continue to be a winner. If you’re interested in football games and have spare time on the go, then why not have a look at FIFA 10 for the iPhone or iPod Touch and take your team to glory!

Fifa 09 Allowed goal stolen from Goalkeeper?

I recorded this a while ago but forgot to upload it…Why does this happen in Fifa 09? Never happened in any of the others, the Goalkeeper should be free to kick without having the opposition striker score. That doesn’t count in real life! Better sort it out for FIFA 10

Canon FS100 different quality settings? Differences examined

Most camcorders come with a countless number of confusing settings for consumers to fiddle with, one of these is the video quality.  My Canon FS100 has three variations -- SP,LP and XP. These each use different bit rates with SP at 3mbps, LP at 6mbps and XP at 9mpbs. Obviously the bigger the bit rate the better quality video. Ever since I had it I have stuck it at XP because I am a firm believer in good quality video but I have wondered how much of a difference it really makes.

To test this I have shot the same footage with the camcorder simply changing the quality setting each time, I have labelled each video so you can compare them like by like and see the difference.  After I looked at the footage, which must be seen in High Quality on Youtube otherwise it’s not that good, I struggled to see any massive difference between each one. You can just make out the slightly sharper image of the XP compared to the rest but I’ll leave you to decide.  I’ll still carry on using the XP setting because it will make me feel better but whether it really makes a difference -- at least on a small screen it doesn’t.  It may make a bigger impact on a 40″ LCD TV but for my needs that is not important.

Does your camcorder have different settings? Do you ever change between them? Let us know by commenting below and helping the community.

Using the Canon FS100 in photo mode?

Like many electronic gadgets today the manufactures are trying to cram as many items into them as possible and that’s why we have FM radios and cameras on mobile phones when all their real purpose is is to make contact with the outside world.  However these unnecessary items can help clinch sales as people then don’t have to carry them all round separately and I’m all for that.  A couple of years ago I used to have an ipod,phone,wallet and other stuff in my pockets so when I bought an o2 XDA it made sense. And I was grateful as it meant I only had to look after one gadget from fear of losing it so it makes sense.  On the other hand some added items are not worthy and that leads me to camcorders having the ability to take photos.

Now in theory you would think “oh that’s easy and they should take great photos with those expensive lenses” and I would agree.  Why can’t they make the photo modes any good? The one on my old Sony was dire and couldn’t beat my 3.0 megapixel camera on my Samsung D900i. I was disappointed and never took photos with it again.  Now step over to my new Canon FS100, once again I was sceptical but thought I’d test it and show you the results.

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In my opinion they’re not too bad, better than the Sony and nearly if not on par with my camera phone. If consumers are after just a quick look and snap camera feature this will do them fine and with the good zoom focus on the camcorder it makes the zoomed in photos nice as well.  It even has a nice continuous shoot setting so you can capture fast moving objects in multiple frames.  Canon have done a god job but as a message to all camcorder makers if you’re going to add a camera feature make it worthwhile. We’re not at that step just yet when separate digital cameras can be phased out.

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As a result I’ll definately be using it if I don’t have my other cameras on me but I wouldn’t rely on it for a long trip.  If you’re looking for something a bit meatier or with better options (there is no manual control of ISOs or anything) then its probably better not to sell off that dusty digital camera you have lying around.