Gladget Magazine December 2012

The latest cybercrime trend will cost you

Is social media dehumanising business?

Held to Ransom

Faceless

Three years after the Alienware invasion

Aftermath‌

R e vie w s inc luding R aidm ax, AVerM edia, O lympus , Raz er, L ogit ech and m ore ...

Free

Bright Future

Make your move to LED

I S S U E 2 6 / Vo l . 3 December 2012

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Inside 6 From the Editor 8 Did You Know?

Facts and conversation starters from the tech world 10 Pure Brilliance

Brightlux offers energy saving LED lighting solutions 18 Tshabablabber

Oh, those kids...

20 Out to Ransom

Kidnapping your computer 22 Tsunami

Is social media all it’s cracked up to be?

26 After the Invasion

Three years of Alienware in SA 30 Play Store App ULTIMATE!

The good, the bad and the nasty...

32 Lookng Back: 1986

Mir, Challenger and IBM...

34 Reviews

Some awesome hardware and gadgets for all tastes 92 DVD Seen

Some to see, some to skip...

This Month’s Cover Keeping a balance is good for the planet. Read about Brightlux LED lighting on page 10.

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Competition 35 Brightlux Lighting

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Reviews

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MSI FM2-A85XA-G65 Motherboard

38

Razer Black Widow Ultimate Keyboard

40

Raidmax Raptor PC Case

42

SteelSeries Sensei Pro Grade Laser Mouse

46

Razer Electra Essential Gaming and Music Headset

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Belkin Play N600 DB Router

50

Brightlux Lighting

52

AVerMedia Live Gamer HD

54

Razer Megalodon 7.1 Surround Sound Gaming Headset

56

Logitech G600 MMO Gaming Mouse

58

Raidmax Super Viper PC Case

60

Logitech Solar Keyboard Folio

62

Epson EB-1860 Projector

64

Audiomotion Nanobeat 10W Bluetooth Speaker

66

Plextor M5 Pro 256GB SSD

67

Raidmax Super Hurricane PC Case

68

SteelSeries Kana Mouse

70

Olympus TG-1 Tough Pocket Camera

74

Far Cry 3 (X360)

78

Halo 4 (X360)

84

Hitman: Absolution (X360)

88

Need for Speed: Most Wanted (X360)

90

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 (X360)

GLADGET Volume 3 Issue 26 December 2012

Editor: Katia Taliadoros katia@1337-media.com Writers: Alex Scanlon Andy Taliadoros Charlie Fripp Iwan Pienaar Lein Baart Pippa Tshabalala Rob Edwards Suvesh Arumugam Walt Pretorius Letters: letters@gladgetmag.com Competition Entries: competitions@gladgetmag.com Newsletter Subscriptions: www.gladgetmag.com Design & Photography: 1337 Media Marketing Contact: Katia Taliadoros katia@1337-media.com

technology. simply.

All rights reserved. No content may be reproduced, copied or transmitted without the express permission of the publishers. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the editors and publishers. All Trademarks and Registered Trademarks are the sole property of the respective owners.

GAMECCA is published by 1337 MEDIA

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Copyright Š 1337 Media CC 2009 - 2012

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Ballance A

From the Editor

llow me to start off by introducing a new writer who has been involved with 1337 Media from the very beginning, maintaining a low profile as a silent partner. Brother, friend, savvy businessman and ardent supporter of 1337 Media, Andy Taliadoros will be playing a more hands-on role by exposing is unique wit in his writing skills in both Gladget and Gamecca magazines.

Our cover model for this month’s issue is highly respected in the automotive industry; gorgeous Christene Giltides makes an enchanting and elegant appearance on our December Gladget cover, illustrating the concept of balance between technology and environment.

Speaking of technology and balance in our environment, German born theoretical physicist, Albert Einstein once said, “a human being is a part of a whole, called by us ‘universe’, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest... a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and

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to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”

We all live in our own worlds, microcosmic perceptions in which our actions are the reactions of our thoughts, desires and life’s goals. We focus on our dayto-day lives without stopping for a moment to consider the bigger picture. We tend to forget the obvious of how we are intertwined and integrated in this global existence that we call a macrocosmic reality. We forget how interconnected we are in our environment and collective experiences.

I will be the first to admit that I am not an active environmentalist, but even a little research and basic common sense will convince anyone that our situation, our environment, our global balance is in jeopardy.

A lack of awareness, responsibility and education regarding technology can lead to harmful chemical compounds and heavy metals - present in all electronics - being incorrectly disposed of all the time. The impact on our macrocosmic reality is

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by Katia Taliadoros

growing and manifesting into our microcosms.

Because we get so caught up in our own small, egotistical realities, we do harm to the greater good without realising it. It is very simple and seemingly irrelevant when an individual disposes of a cellular handset every two years, but when over 5.6 billion devices potentially get added to landfills, that is quiet an overwhelming thought.

What will it take for us to become more responsible?

Albert Einstein was not wrong when he said, “technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal.”

Finding a balance between our appreciation for technological evolution and our responsibility towards our environment is a matter of education, understanding and discipline.

Awareness is nothing more than a decision to change our attitudes to become more conscientious.

With that I will close off by wishing you all a very peaceful, joyful, delightful, exulted, intoxicated, overjoyed, blissful, ecstatic, tickled and gratifying festive season… and all that jazz!

Have a blast; just watch where you throw your trash. g

DID YOU

KNOW? 1

…that the Internet has a Patron Saint?

In the Catholicism religion, there is a patron saint for almost anything – from occupations to animals. Just so, the internet also has a patron saint - Saint Isidore of Seville. But internet users might wonder why he specifically is the saint. Well, Isidore wrote a 20-book collection called Etymologies, or The Origins, and in it he attempted to record everything that was around him and known at the time – just like the internet.

Considered by some as an encyclopedia of all human knowledge, it was published after his death in the year 636.

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…that the ESRB was created by the gaming industry itself.

The gaming industry as we know it today wasn’t the same industry from the early ‘90s.

In that period there was no ratings board to attach age restrictions to a game, so publishers were pretty much free to publish, develop and distribute whatever they wanted. But one game caused such a commotion in the industry that government officials in the U.S thought action had to be taken. The game? Well, it was the first Mortal Kombat, of course. The game made use of 16-bit technology, which made blood look more fluid and real, which led to the US government forcing game publishers to create a system of ratings within a year. If they failed to do so, it would be taken into the governments hands. And that is how the ESRB (Entertainment Standards and Ratings Board) came to be.

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Regular

…that the Xbox was first to provide HDTV support Microsoft’s gaming console is one of the big three video game consoles (the others being Nintendo’s Wii and Sony’s PlayStation 3), but the graphics weren’t always as good as they are today. While there have been many consoles in the past, Microsoft’s Xbox was the first to provide full support for HD televisions. By the same comparison, Sony’s PlayStation 2 was the first console to be more powerful than the best computer at the time, and it was also the first console to use DVD technology.

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More fun facts from the world of tech, with some holiday gaming flavour...

by Charlie Fripp

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…that most users play mobile games at night Gaming has not been confined to television rooms for a long time, and with the growing technology in mobile phones, a vast number of users have taken to their phones to play the occasional game on the go. But according to an Ericsson survey, 28% of mobile gamers in the U.S play their favourite titles in the evening, with 20% doing so in bed. Also, the time spent playing video games in the U.S was 131 hours per person in total, according to a Veronis Suhler Stevenson survey. At the time of the survey, it estimated that number would rise to 142 hours by the end of 2012 – more than double the amount from 2002.

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...that the word Atari comes from a Japanese game Atari was synonymous was producing video games and consoles in the ‘80s and ‘90s, but few know where the name comes from. Well, the word Atari comes from a very old Japanese game called Go, and literally translated it means “you are about to be engulfed.” It is something that ancient gamers would have said, similar to “check” in chess. Speaking of Atari, the first colour portable video game system was the Atari Lynx, introduced in 1989 and priced at $149.

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…that the microwave was invented by accident Science has taught us many things, one of them being that experiments can sometime have unintended consequences which can lead to marvellous discoveries. That was just the case with the invention of the microwave when Dr Percy Spencer was working near radar equipment in 1946. He was testing a new vacuum tube and noticed that the chocolate bar in his pocket melted. Trying something different, he placed corn kernels near the tube and watched them pop into popcorn. Just to make sure his theories were correct, the next item they fried was an egg, which promptly exploded in the face of a curious colleague. From there, the discovery was contained, commercialised and sold as what we know as a microwave oven. g

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Interview

Pure 10

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T

he world is not what it used to be. Temperatures are climbing, resources are dwindling, and the environment is straining under the pressure that we place on it. As a result, the move towards eco-conscious technology consumption is stronger than ever, and we are learning about better ways to do things every day… from watching our power consumption to disposing of waste more effectively and using products that have a lower environmental impact when discarded.

Brightlux is a young company with aspirations towards getting every South African to act more environmentally responsibly. We recently spoke to the Brightlux team, to learn how even light bulbs can make a big difference to improving our planet’s future.

Brilliance

Shedding light on LED technology…

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Interview

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There are many individuals out there that feel the entire eco-conscious movement is little more than a marketing ploy.

What are your views?

BL. The ecoconscious movement is definitely not a marketing ploy.

However there are many companies out there who are exploiting the movement in promoting their services and products, many of which are not eco-conscious. The world is rapidly running out of resources, many of which are not renewable. There’s a reason they are called scarce resources! We owe it to our children and future generations to conserve what little resources there are that are left and to look at new advancements that provide sustainable solutions for our world.

What in your opinion are the

biggest contributing factors to the global ecological situation?

BL. Least Cost Solutions. Humanity makes and builds and grows and disposes of in the easiest way possible as a way of basic survival.

We as a species have populated the planet to such an extent that we have reached critical mass in affecting the planet.

In one word, greed. The world is no longer run on the basis of basic survival. There are the haves and have-nots. It is run by corporations and government.

Governments have to support corporations as they drive the economy and keep them in power.

It’s an unfortunate reality that we live in that it is about the money. We have lost sight of what truly matters.

What can people do to help improve the situation as individuals?

BL. To be fair,

I have seen more and more individuals already adopting a sustainable and ecological approach in their day to day lives.

This is anything from recycling to turning the lights and air conditioner off when you leave the office to adopting new green technologies in their homes. The mind-set is what needs to change.

Education is key.

Then individuals will understand the impact of their actions or inactions.

Does changing light-bulbs really make that much of a difference?

BL. Most definitely. Lighting accounts for about 20% of the global electricity consumption.

Electricity comes from our power stations. Not all of our power stations run on renewable energy sources.

We still use a substantial number of coal stations.

Coal, while being abundant, is being

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used up rapidly and in addition, the emissions from the plants are adding to the global greenhouse effect.

2012 has seen the highest recorded global average temperatures.

Why is it important for people to get involved in activities that contribute to a better environment on an individual level? Why should they get involved?

BL. Everyone should adopt the “If it’s to be, it’s up to me” attitude.

That’s the only way in fact to turn around the damage caused thus far.

The world will not change by itself.

The world that we leave behind will be for our children and their children.

Corporates produce what consumers want. As more consumers being conscious of their actions, the more demand there will be for greener products.

We do not own this world, we are

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Interview

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merely looking after it for our children.

How does LED technology differ from other energy saving lighting solutions?

BL. LEDs (an abbreviation for Light Emitting Diodes) are solidstate semiconductor devices. LEDs create light when their semiconductor crystal is stimulated. This technology has been around since the 1960s and was first used in traffic lights and alarm clocks. LEDs are much smaller in size than traditional light bulbs and fit easily into electrical circuits. Recent technological advancements have led to LEDs being desirable for home, office and commercial lighting spaces.

Their extensive benefits include long life, superior energy efficiency, generate very little heat, have low maintenance, low environmental impact, instant light, easily

dimmable, silent operation and low voltage power.

CFLs (commonly called energy savers) utilise mercury in their design. This is very toxic and must be treated with care. In fact, many governments around the world have set up special recycling schemes to ensure its safe disposal.

LED technology is mercury free and all other heavy metal free. So there are no problems with its disposal when it does eventually fail.

Aside from lessening the user’s environmental impact, what other advantages are there to using LED lighting solutions?

BL. LED technology has proven to be the most cost efficient technology It draws the least amount of power. LED lighting draws one tenth of the power that traditional incandescent lights do.

LED lights do

not emit any UV radiation, there are no heavy metals like mercury used and the significant long life make them an ideal replacement in any setting. LED lights can last 25,000 hours and longer compared to 1,000-2,000.hours of incandescent lights. This means that there is less to recycle.

Furthermore , LED’s longer lifespan will drastically reduce the maintenance costs and time of replacing burnt globes in difficult to access locations.

Places that come to mind are double volume ceiling down-lights and high up floodlights to mention but a few.

Are LED lights safe and reliable?

BL. Due to there not being any heavy metals used in LED light construction, they are completely safe. In addition, there is no ultraviolet radiation being emitted from LEDs. LEDs are

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extremely reliable but we are reliant on the stability of the power grids in Africa.

Power surges are a reality and these compromise all electronic and electrical appliances and products. The Brightlux LEDs have been constructed to provide protection from these power surges and although they are officially rated to 230V , we specially designed them to handle in excess of 250V to take into account these irregularities.

What kind of environmental impact do LED globes have in terms of waste? Are they recyclable?

BL. As there is no mercury used in LED lights, they are recyclable. If you look at the materials used, the chassis is often made of aluminium, the lens (where applicable) is plastic and the LED chip itself is made of silica, sand.

Based on lifespans

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Interview

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ofofdifferent differentlighting lighting technology: technology: If an If anlight Led Led light lasted lasted 25000 25000 hrs (which hrs is (which very conservative), is very conservative), that’s avoiding that’s 5 CFL lights avoiding (@ 5 CFL lights 5000hrs each) (@ or 25 5000hrs each)bulbs incandescent or 25 incandescent (@ 1000hrs) having bulbs (@be to 1000hrs) disposed. having toWhat be disposed. steps are Brightlux What steps planning are Brightlux educating towards planning towardsabout people educating the people about the environmental environmental situation? situation?

BL. We have found BL. We thathave the found lack ofthat education the lack of education around LED lights around is preventing LED lights its is preventing mass adoption itsin mass the market. adoption There in thejust is market. a lack There of is justreliable good a lack of good reliable information on LED information and its benefits. on LED and have We its benefits. also found We have that due to also thefound that of lack due education, to the lack ofare there education, many there old generation are many old generation LED lights flooding LED market our lights flooding that our market are dissuading that are dissuading consumers from consumers as converting from they converting are not seeing as they the are not seeing claimed benefits. the claimed We want benefits. toWe provide want all to provide with consumers all consumers the tools and with the tools and knowledge so that

the best decision knowledge so that the best can be made decision for the can be made individual andfor their the individualIfand families. youtheir look families. at our website, If you look at our you will website, see that youhave we will see set that up a we have set “Lighting 101” upthat a “Lighting the provides 101” basics that provides and ecological the basics and ecological benefits of LEDs. benefits What are of LEDs. your goals Whatinare bringing your goals in these products bringing to these products South Africa? to South BL. Our Africa? mission isBL. to bring Our mission the best is totechnology LED bring the best to LEDconsumers all technology atto all consumers affordable prices at affordable while providing prices whileinformation clear providing clear on itsinformation workings and on its workings benefits.

The more and benefits. that are educated, The more thatquicker the are educated, we the quicker will see thewe ecowill see the conscious revolution ecoconsciousWe starting. revolution want starting. to show that We want new to show thatcan technology new technology have old world can have old values : Robust, world values Built to: last.

Robust, Built Howtodoes last.

Brightlux How does differ from Brightlux other brands differonfrom the other brands on the market? market?

BL. As I mentioned earlier, BL. As we I mentioned are earlier, we offering theare latest offering the latest technologies and technologies at the best prices and at the best We available. prices are available. not traders We but are

we want not traders to but add we want back to economy. to add back It is our to economy. intention It isestablish to our intention an to establish assembly plant an assembly in the nearplant future in order the near to create future in order jobs andto improve create jobsquality the and improve of life. the quality Watch this space, of life.

Watch we arethis herespace, to we are here to stay! stay!

Does Brightlux offer Does a full Brightlux range of offer a full range of lights? lights?

BL. We would like toBL. offer Weawould full range like to LED of offerlighting a full range of LED lighting solutions.

That is solutions. our goal and That ouris our goalWe vision. andcurrently our vision.down-lights, stock We currently stock down-lights, candles, bulbs candles, and tubes. bulbs From and 2013 the tubes.first From the 2013we quarter, first will quarter, be expanding we will be expanding our range to our range tohighfloodlights, floodlights, bays and panel highbays and panel lights. lights.

Will Brightlux products Will Brightlux be readily products be available in readily South available in South Africa?

Africa?

BL. We are in the BL.process We areofin the process our developing of developing our distribution and distributionnetwork wholesaler and wholesaler across Southnetwork Africa. across This development South Africa.

This be will development on-going will be until weon-going have until we have Brightlux in all areas

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in South Africa Brightlux in all areas and in South Africa and Africa!

Africa!

Does the range extend Does beyond the range extend beyond lighting solutions? lighting If so, what solutions? else can If so, we look what outelse for?can we BL.look Weout have for? debated BL. We the have debated the extension of the extensioninto business of the other business into other eco-conscious eco-conscious areas but we have areas butthat decided we for have the decided short to medium that for the short to term, wemedium will focus term, on delivering we will focus on delivering the best lighting the best lighting solutions to South solutions Africa andto Africa.

South Africa Whatand do Africa. you believe What do theyou next believe the evolution in next lighting evolution will be? in lighting will BL.be?

This is a very difficult BL. This question is a veryto difficult question answer.

I cannot to answer. say but what I cannot I can say you tell but what is thatI can the tell you next generation is that the next of LED generation lights will of LED lights provide morewill provide more efficiencies than efficiencies the ones you than see the ones you currently.

I have see currently.mentioned already I have already that LEDmentioned lights that LED draw onelights tenth draw of theone power tenth that of the power that incandescent lights incandescent do.

How doeslights one do. How does twentieth sound? one twentieth This is the sound? reality This is the that almost reality upon thatgis almost upon us.

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Some Parents!

Pippa Tshabalala

“

S

Tshabablabber

eriously, people who allow their kids to play with their phones are just asking for trouble!”

Yes, I might have thought these words on occasion. Before I had children. For those of you without kids, you might have thought the same thing, especially when you see the sticky covering of food that is evident on the phones of so many parents. Or the cracked glass where the little bundle of joy has thrown the phone to the floor in a temper.

The real problem is that it actually sneaks up on you.

I used to be much more paranoid about my phone when my child was putting it in his mouth (thoughts of water damage or some such). As soon as he learnt how to unlock my iPhone (at less than a year old I say with a mixture of both pride and horror) I relaxed a little.

And then one day I picked up my phone to discover that the screen didn’t feel quite as it should.

Why? Because it was covered in dried food.

Author’s photograph by Adrian Louw

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The worst part about this is that I didn’t freak out.

I merely rolled my eyes, cleaned it off and continued on with my day.

At another point I discovered a nice big crack right across my screen that I got upset and shouted about, but which I still haven’t fixed.

Somehow spending R1500 to fix the screen pales into insignificance beside doctors’ visits and crèche fees. Yes, ok I’ll just put up with it until I get around to fixing it, but to be honest I only really notice it in rare moments now.

It gets worse when of course you start downloading apps for your kids, because then you are consciously giving them permission to play with your phone.

A colleague recently complained that he hadn’t received any of my emails regarding a particular job. While talking to me he discovered that this was because his two year old daughter had been playing with his Blackberry and had managed to delete over fifty emails. Did he freak

out and shout about it? No. He merely rolled his eyes and said, “Well at least I found them in the trash.”

You think it will never happen to you. You think you’ll be strong when it comes to your own children. “My children will never be allowed to play with my phone,” you think to yourself as you read this.

Any parent will tell you that once upon a time, they thought that as well.

Until a combination of sleepless nights and toddler rage sapped their will to resist.

My not yet two year old child can move around icons on my phone, and has managed to delete WhatsApp on more than one occasion – not entirely be accident either, I’ve watched him figure out that the little cross in the corner of the icon means it disappears.

What’s more is that I’m vaguely proud of this fact.

And horrified that I’m proud. And yet still proud.

For all those yet to be parents reading this… Just you wait…g

by Iwan Pienaar Feature

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I

t’s that time of year when shopping centres are bedecked with Christmas decorations and Little Drummer Boy gets put on what seems like an infinite loop. Most people are getting ready to relax and recharge their batteries for the year to come.

And in the digital age of today, they are often doing so with their favourite tablet or mobile device in hand.

In our first article a couple of months ago, we touched on several bits of interesting security jargon.

This month, we’ll focus on a new type of malware (malicious software) that is increasingly targeting online users the world over – ransomware.

Ransomware disables the functionality of a computer in some way and, as the name suggests, demands a ransom in order to restore the computer to its original state. Quite sneaky really. Recently, variations have used logos and other images from law enforcement agencies such as the FBI to add legitimacy and an extra layer of intimidation to the warning messages.

The malware uses geo-location services to determine the location of the computer it is running on and then, after locking the computer, it displays a message appropriate to that country. The message usually claims that the user has broken the law by browsing some illegal material.

The message states that in order to unlock the computer, “a fine” must be paid using one of several pre-paid electronic money schemes. The fines can range from €50 to €100 in Europe, to up to $200 in the US. So far, there have not been any specific examples in South Africa but it is only a matter of time before we have local versions charging in Rands.

Despite become the malware flavour of the month this year, ransomware has been around since 2009 initially targeting users in Russia and Eastern Europe.

Since then, it has spread around the world with at least 16 different versions identified in the past 18 months. What makes this different to other bits of malware is that each variant is unique and associated with a different gang or cartel. With many of these criminal organisations not new to cybercrime, ransomware has been particularly profitable for them earning some of them up to $33,000 a day.

Almost three percent of compromised users are paying out. An investigation into one of the smaller players in this scam identified 68 000 compromised computers in just one month, which could have resulted in a fraudster obtaining up to $400,000.

Given the number of different gangs operating ransomware scams, a conservative estimate is that over five million dollars a year is being extorted from victims. The real number is, however, likely to be much higher.

So be wary of the sites you access online and always keep standard security practices in mind (see box). Remember to never pay out on any of the ransomware warnings and do not be intimated by them. Keep your virus and security definitions up to date and apply common sense to what you do online. g gladget26

R

Out to

Ransom

How to make $33,000 a day

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by Suvesh Arumugam

Tsunami

Feature

S

or Drop in the Ocean

ocial media is something I write about often, as it’s a topic I find extremely interesting. And let’s face it, the large majority of the world is in communication via one social media or another, whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Google +.

Even countries where there is little or no freedom of expression have social media. In China the government launched Weibo, similar to Twitter, which is controlled by their propaganda engine – but it’s still the number one digital medium for people to stay in touch with over 300 million subscribers. In fact, users have already flouted the microblogging service as better than Twitter, with features like rich media searches, microtopic pages and it’s gaming like rewards system. Facebook still remains the global leader with over 900 million monthly users. In fact, researchers say that if Facebook was a country it

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would be the third largest in the world (after China and India). And most of this is using mobile phones. 75% percent of the world’s population has a mobile phone.

In countries like the US, up to 50% of those people use smartphones that are Facebook (or social media) capable. 57% of global Facebook users are accessing their profiles using mobile phones. In South Africa, while only an estimated 35% of the population has internet access, research indicates that about half of those are using mobiles broadband, mainly for accessing social media. Many of the mobile services use Facebook and Twitter access as a selling point by zero rating bandwidth.

So this leads us to believe that social media is powerful. About 75 percent of companies have Facebook pages (many of whom do not have traditional websites).

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With the average person spending about 8 hours per month on FB, there is great competition for companies to get into newsfeeds and to gain as many Likes as possible. In the real world, brands are controlled by a few multinationals. Whether you use Skip or Omo, Stork or Rama, you’re still buying from Unilever. Whether you prefer All Gold, Koo or Colman’s, you’re still buying Tiger Brands. Do you really have a choice about what you like?

Depends on what you local store decides to stock, and what you can afford. So many are starting to feel that the digital world is the only real world. No matter what your budget or circumstance, the idea is you’ll only Like or Follow brands you really like. And companies are desperate to win that digital approval.

But is it real? Let’s look at this from a few angles. From the individual’s perspective, social media is specifically

designed to make the individual believe that the playing fields are completely level. Any person can be as powerful as a company, or a celebrity or politician. If you have something to say millions will hear it. Even though you may create a profile with real details, whether it’s abuse or acclaim, there is the safety and anonymity of being a voice in the crowd. No need to censor yourself, wear the guise of diplomacy, you can say what you need to say from an untouchable place - immune from reprisal (except maybe from other individuals). Companies are cornered to fight hard for your favour (negative social media is the ultimate no-no), and no demand is unreasonable (especially if you get a few Likes and +1’s).

From the corporate perspective. Facebook recently admitted that at least 83 million profiles on their social network could be fake. Some created in jest, for pets and

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Feature

even others created for more nefarious purposes.

Does it really matter who likes their page and what is being said? I’m starting to think not. Now SEO specialists and social media consultants (who there are a lot of these days) will jump in and say this not true, social media brings your brand closer to your customers, and so on and so forth – and it reminds me of the social-speak that you read on most corporate pages. A quick scan of Google Analytics or Hootsuite statistics (if you use those as social media trackers) will show that while sentiment is important, what everyone really wants to know is how many people are talking about their brand, what is the total reach, what did they do recently that generated the most reaction and how does it measure up to previous “successes” in reaching as many people as possible.

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Two things come to mind, the old adage “There’s no such thing as bad press” and something my best friend in high school used to tell (though it was in reference to girls at the time. He would say that he’d rather have a girl hate him openly, than not care either way about him. Hate was easier to turn to love, but either way, at least the pretty girls were talking about him.

Lastly for the social media platform, it’s all about getting their cut from being the middleman. The recent buzz about Facebook’s IPO listing and the declared billions of dollars in revenue from various initiatives from gaming to selling apps, shows that the people making the real money are neither the vendor nor the buyer, but the fixer. And their job is simple - bring everyone to the table. Convince individuals

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that to not be social media accessible is akin to death, and convince business that not being accessible to their customers (and potential customers) will sink their business. In a nice way of course through brightly coloured info graphics that make them feel good about it all. The result, more and more platforms are using the social media model to channel feedback. We get the likes of Hellopeter, Amplicate, Tune It, Brand Watch and a host of other platforms, who themselves integrate into social media networks to create a platform to insert themselves between companies and their clients.

Noble – maybe, until you find that most of them are hitting up the very same companies for ad revenue or some, like Hellopeter, brazenly charge thousands of Rands for the right to reply to complaints.

So in the end has anything actually been achieved?

Are companies listening more to their customers than ever before? I don’t believe they really are. Customers dehumanise the brands they interact with (which not necessarily a bad thing from the companies point of view) and companies are counting numbers and not individuals (the very thing social media is supposed to be opposed to). At the end of the day, both companies and customers are moving further away from each other as they communicate through more and more layers of digital filters, social media ambassadors behind their laptops and customers off their mobile phones, from behind only God knows what. There’s just no hint of the humanity of the old days of walking into your local corner shop, being recognised by the local business owner, and recognising the humanity in each other first and foremost. g

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After the

Interview

Invas

26

Three years later...

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sion Three years ago, arguably the most prominent range of gaming PCs landed in South Africa. The Alienware brand, with its distinctive looks and carefully trimmed performance, is managed in the country by Dell.

We recently caught up with Gavin Slevin, Dell’s South Africa and developing countries retail manager, and chatted to him about Alienware, Dell, support, strategies and why everyone should have an Alienware PC.

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Interview

Alienware has been in South Africa since 2010. How is the brand doing?

GS: We have increased our awareness a lot.

We have managed to sell a number of units as well, we’ve done well from that perspective.

We currently have one retailer carrying the products: Incredible Connection. One of the problems with retail is shelf space, so to that end we only have three products on display at IC. What we’ve done to try and showcase more of the technology and increase awareness of the products is create

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a local transactional site. This has all of the currently available configs for South Africa.

You can order them from there and, most importantly, see what’s available. That launched in October. It’s got all the top hardware and peripherals available here. And we offer a 72 hour turn-around time anywhere in the country.

That means that we’re only able to offer fixed configs, but there is a lot of choice.

How are South African reacting to the idea of a pre-built, branded desktop PC, as

opposed to the more traditional home built system?

GS: There are mixed responses, so it’s hard to say. But we do try to keep the systems reasonably priced, and the options are very upgradable. There’s a lot of customisation that can be done – it’s not like the configs are locked down and people don’t have options. They can change and reconfigure the machines.

And what about support?rt?

GS: All systems ship with a three year onsite warranty, which is managed by Dell. We

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take customers through a fault finding exercise on the phone, analyse what is wrong, and then dispatch a technician to fix the machine on-site.

Doesn’t matter where it is.

Does South Africa feature strongly in Dell’s overall strategy?

GS: Absolutely. It’s one of our top three emerging territories. It’s up there with territories like Russia, Nigeria and Kenya.

Is Dell’s position strong in Africa overall?

GS: We have a presence, but as far as

we’re concerned, it’s not strong enough. We are doing everything we can – we have around fifteen countries on the list for setting up technical centres, which will be our stepping stone into those countries. Once we have a technical infrastructure in place we can go and transact competently in those countries. Being able to support the product that you’re selling is a very important part of doing business in Africa, and it’s a challenge that all vendors have. We have identified this as a mustwin, something that you have to get right to be

successful in a country.

We do it well in South Africa and we want to expand that into the rest of Africa.

So who is the market for Alienware specifically?

GS: Gamers are an important part, obviously.

But the products are not only built for gamers.

The reality is that many of the customers who buy Alienware products are professionals doing design, content creation and the like. And they often game as well.

We do rAge, and also sponsor the Telkom Do Gaming League, to help access those markets.

What can we expect in the future from Alienware in South Africa?

GS: We are looking to expand the range of peripherals, including a 23 inch high performance monitor. Monitors are a very big part of Dell’s business.

Why should anyone wanting to buy a high performance PC consider Alienware?

GS: There are a couple of reasons. First off, performance: the products are designed for gaming, so they deliver an exceptional level of performance.

Secondly, they are

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cleverly designed. Not only do the products look good, but they are designed to do things like run cooler, which helps with performance as well.

Third, Alienware is an aspirational brand. It’s like the Ferrari of the gaming set. It provides a lot of bragging rights. And the fourth point is support. If you have problems we will come sort them out at your home, your office… wherever you may be. There are several good reasons for customers to spend a little more for an Alienware machine. g

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Play Store App The Good, The Bad and the Downright Fake.

Feature

C

onsidering the multitude of apps out there you’d think it would be relatively easy to constantly find new ones to review – unsurprisingly however there are a very large number of absolutely rubbish apps on both the iTunes store as well as the Google Play store, and whilst some might accuse me of being an Apple fan girl (just a note that I’m currently using an Android phone, I moved from iPhone recently) I find that not only is the Apple Store better laid out, and more user friendly (although interestingly this does not apply to purchases) but as is the case with many Apple products, less prone to viruses.

I’m not going to go into that whole discussion over anti-viruses because thankfully to date I have never had a need for one on my phone, and I’ll admit I honestly don’t know too much about it. There is a reason I mention it however, so just bear with me for now.

Since I am now on Android on a day-to-day basis, and always in search of new things, I’m going to do a quick rundown of some of the recommended apps on the Play Store that I browse through when I’m not looking for anything specific.

On more than one occasion the thought occurs to me – “These are some of the top apps? Really?”

Before I move on to I want to give you a quick breakdown of the Play Store.

Log on. Top Charts on your left, Staff Picks, Recommendations and Trending Apps on your right.

Charts are as follows: Top Paid, Top Free, Top Grossing, Top New Paid, Top New Free.

So firstly, Finger Print Scanner Unlocker. The worst part about this app is that it actually sounds feasible to a certain extent, when you consider that Android has face

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recognition to unlock the phone.

Until you come across this in the explanation - “Trick your friends that your phone uses finger print to allow access to the home page”.

Appalling grammar aside, my initial reaction is why?

Maybe if I was ten years old this might have been funny, but even most ten year olds nowadays are far too tech savvy to find this more than vaguely amusing. I’m not sure if the 113 people who rated this app as five stars were planted there to boost ratings however I suspect this might have been the case.

Anyway, moving on to Marriage Calculator. You must be incredibly desperate to even consider downloading this app. “A special new algorithm was developed to find out what’s the date of your marriage”. A special new algorithm you say? Oh yes, that makes it sound completely legit.

The fact that people still bothered to rate this app (both positive and negative) is beyond me – I would never even admit to downloading it. I didn’t by the way in case you’re thinking of calling me out on that one!

Another mind-boggling app is Fake Windows 8. It’s FAKE people - it even says that in the title.

Another app that I don’t understand why people think it would be funny to trick their friends with - surely that is way too much effort? If I wanted a Windows phone I would have bought one, not pretend to have one.

Lastly, an app that I think is just asking to transfer a virus to your phone, WiFi Hacker ULTIMATE. Because adding ultimate to any app automatically increases it’s potential value a thousand fold. The premise of this app of course is that it will scan available wifi networks,

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and exploit security holes in order to grant you access to said network.

Perhaps it works, although judging by the reviews that I’ve read so far this doesn’t seem very likely (there are again a number of positive reviews that appear to balance out the negative ones), but even if it does work, do you not perhaps stop to think that any app that allows you to exploit security weaknesses in other people’s networks, might perhaps open up a few in your own?

I’m just saying… Call me a sceptic but it somehow seems too good to be true.

Luckily of course, for every really rubbish app on the Play Store, there are some damned good ones, including the first ever app I bought with actual money.

I’m also grateful that it seems that many people actually do have a fair amount of good taste, as the top ten rated apps in many of these lists are often decent apps.

SwiftKey 3 Keyboard for example, rated Number 1 in Top Paid Apps, is far superior to the Samsung keyboard on my Galaxy S3, and I only wish that the default keyboard was as intuitive and slick as this.

Angry Birds Star Wars is also rated as the Top Free app, which says a great deal for Star Wars fans. Or Angry Birds fans. Or both.

The Staff Picks are also often quite good, although I’m not sure if I can say the same for the Trending, which are mostly a mixture of good and really stupid apps. I’m not sure how they measure the trends either, but on the whole they’re no more terrible than the iTunes store.

The point of this feature can be highlighted in these last thoughts on the subject – As in life, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is, so don’t download stupid apps, even if they are free. And definitely don’t pay money for that s***! g

ULTIMATE!

by Pippa Tshabalala

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1986 A year of firsts

By Lein Baart

Looking Back

1

t was supposed to be a time of peace for the world.

The Cold War was finally winding down, and with it the threat of nuclear devastation. Things were not to be however. Terrorist attacks began to spring up all over the world as Arab-American tensions flared, while in South Africa a national state of emergency was declared, as the dying Apartheid government sought desperately to cling to power. In Russia the Chernobyl power plant exploded with horrific results, and in America the Space Shuttle program was brought to a shattering halt after the Space Shuttle Challenger was ripped apart after take-off. All in all 1986 was a volatile year.

Thankfully though, this was largely not the case for technology. 1986 saw Voyager 2, the space probe launched by NASA in 1977, come within 81500 kilometres of the top clouds of Uranus. This still remains as the only (relatively) short distance investigation of the planet, and revealed some remarkable discoveries. 10

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of Uranus’ 27 moons were discovered in this flyby, with another revealed in 1999 by studying the photographs sent back, as well as two additional rings. Voyager 2 also revealed that Uranus has a unique corkscrew magnetotail (energy released from a planet’s magnetic field that is ejected into the solar wind), which was caused by the tilt of the planet.

1986 also the USSR finally launch the Mir space station. Having been in planning and production since 1976, Mir was the first modular space station, and was only completed three years after its initial launch.

Serving as a microgravity (near weightless) research laboratory, Mir held the record for the longest continually inhabited presence in space (3644 days) until it was deorbited in 2001, and only in 2010 did the International Space Station best this. Mir also saw the longest single human space flight (437 days) and in its time was crewed not only by Russian cosmonauts, but also North

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American, European and Japanese astronauts.

IBM released its first true laptop, the IBM PC Convertible. While it was not the first laptop released, that honour belongs to Epson with the HX-20, it had some surprisingly advanced features given the time. The power button did not actually switch the laptop off, rather putting the Convertible into a “suspend” mode, similar to the modern day sleep mode, in order to making booting quicker. The Convertible could be upgraded by purchasing modules for video output, serial/parallel ports and even a small printer, and the LCD screen could be detached so that the Convertible could be plugged into a CRT monitor.

Despite all this, the unit did not sell well due to a host of problems. The LCD monitor was criticised as oddly shaped and difficult to read, while a lack of an internal hard drive meant the Convertible ran MS-DOS through one of its two 3.5” stiffy drives.

1986 was a genesis of sorts, though not of a good

kind, for this year saw the creation of the first computer virus: Brain. Ironically, Brain was written in an attempt to prevent the pirating of medical software created by two Pakistani brothers. Despite being labelled as a virus, Brain was actually relatively harmless as it only affected floppy disks, completely ignoring the hard drive, and really only caused slow access speeds. Brain even gave the contact information of the brothers who wrote the virus, inviting the user to contact them “for vaccination”, further evidence that Brain wasn’t meant to be malicious.

This year also saw the creation of the Interim Mail Access Protocol (as it was known then), or IMAP. Created as a counterpoint to then POP (Post Office Protocol) standard, IMAP was a large step forward for email clients, and together these two protocols are the dominant industry standard today. IMAP offered several advantages over POP, though it wasn’t until the introduction of IMAP2 (Interactive Mail Access Protocol) that it was released. g

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Reviews Highlights 42 SteelSeries Sensei Pro Grade Laser Mouse Bright and shiny 48 Belkin Play N600 DB Router Easy has never been so simple!

52 AVerMedia Live Gamer HD Want to record those awesome feats?

70 Olympus TG-1 Tough Pocket Camera A cmera for all rough occasions...

2

012 is almost over. There are just a few days left to this year, which has been interesting to say the least. And with the year winding down, there are more than a few people thinking seriously about their leisure time. That’s why there is a strong gaming flavour to our reviews this month.

It isn’t all gaming, though; we have lots of other interesting stuff for you to look at, and maybe include in those last minute Christmas shopping lists… g

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com p eti t io n • c o mp eti ti on • c om pe tit ion • com pe t ition • com pe t it ion

Bright Future!

WIN

R8000 worth of Brighlux Domestic Lighting Products!

Courtesy of Brightlux TO ENTER: Send an email to competitions@gladgetmag.com Tell us what technology Brightlux products use Insert Brightlux in the mail’s subject line Subscribe to www.gladgetmag.com Become a fan on Gladget’s Facebook Page

Competition closes 31 December 2012. Gladget subscribers only. South African residents only.

Prizes may not be exchanged for cash. Competition closed to employees (& employee’s family) of 1337 Media CC and Brightlux. The judges’ decision is final.

Every Ta Review

MSI FM2-A85XA-G65 Motherboard

A board for every season

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W

ask

W

by Walt Pretorius

W

e see many motherboards that are focussed on high end performance. These, quite often, have a distinct gaming flavour. However, there are a great many motherboards out there that perform just as well, without that particular slant. They are more versatile all-rounders. But, with that said, they aren’t slouches in the gaming sphere either.

It’s one of the features of the AMD based FM2A85XA-G65 from MSI, in fact. The on-board graphics processor works in conjunction with any installed graphics card to boost performance. That’s a nice feature, particularly when you consider that the FM2 is a more general-purpose motherboard. The board also allows for overclocking, which is another power-user concept. Using OC Genie II software, the board can easily and safely be squeezed for that extra bit of power. In fact, quite a substantial increase in performance was found during testing.

As its name implies, this board is intended for Socket FM2 AMD processors. It supports A4, A6, A8 and A10 chips, so it’s pretty versatile in that regard.

Aside from good performance, the FM2 also offers great stability and longevity, thanks largely to the components that MSI have used in creating the board. As with almost all of their current products, this board sports Military Class III components. These include highly-conductive polymerised capacitors, super ferrite chokes and solid capacitors.

The built in I/O options include four USB 2.0 ports, and two USB 3.0 ports, with further front side extensions also available. The number of USB 3.0 ports could have been a little higher, but two is better than many boards have on offer. Additionally, outputs for VGA, DVI-D, HDMI and DisplayPort are also available, for those connecting a monitor directly to the motherboard. Surround sound outputs are supported by on-board THX TruStudioPro technology, while an optical S/PDIF output is also available for those so inclined.

The I/O ports are a further nod to the fact that this board is less focussed and more general in nature. That, though, doesn’t seem to make much of a difference, even under the heavier loads of video games; the FM2 performs admirably. In fact, apart from hectic overclocking and supertweaked performance boards, you probably won’t notice any difference in this device. It’s at a nicer price, though, which is a very noticeable difference. And it’s perfectly capable of being overclocked, delivering a good degree of stability under those circumstances, too.

Unless you’re an ultimate gamer who pedantically adjusts and measures every aspect of motherboard performance, the FM2-A85XA-G65 is a superb option as far as motherboards go. It has a lot of bells and whistles in terms of software and facilities, too. It might not have some of the higher end, gaming focussed features, but you won’t miss them unless you really need them. In the end, a great option. g

Summary

Tech Specs:

MSI have another great product in this motherboard, which supports a range of Socket FMS AMD processors.

M a nufa c turer Distributer: O nline: RRP:

• • • • • •

M SI Corex www.c orex.c o.za R1695

Pros • • • • •

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Well rounded Reliable Good performance

AMD Socket FM2 4 x USB 2.0 ports 2 x USB 3.0 ports Military Class III components HDMI output DisplayPort output

Cons • • • • •

May lack some tweaks power users want

Score

88 37

On The Fly Get gaming faster

rds

Edwa

Razer Black Widow Ultimate Keyboard

ob

by R

T Review

T

he mechanical keyboard has proven time and again to be a very pleasant and effective way to input data or, in this particular case, play games.

The enhanced tactile feel of a mechanical system means that you are always certain of your key-strokes. On the downside, a mechanical keyboard also has a longer distance for the keys to travel, and they tend to make a lot of noise when used. Neither of those tend to be big issues, though, particularly not when the device in question is made by a company that really understands what is required from a keyboard aimed at gaming.

The Razer Black Widow Ultimate is that kind of keyboard. Keeping with Razer’s trend to name their devices after nasty creatures, the Black Widow is an extremely effective keyboard to use for playing games… which, by extension, means that it is great for anything you would need a keyboard for.

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What’s important here are the added extras that the keyboard presents the player with, because those are what is really important in these cases. Aside from being mechanical, which delivers a faster response time (we tried) the keyboard also features minimal ghosting, thanks to an optimised key matrix. It also features audio jacks to help keep cables under control, and allows easy access to multimedia keys, too. A USB pass-through is also provided, which turns the Black Widow into something of a “cable control hub”… never a bad thing.

More importantly, it features ten customisable profiles with on-the-fly switching, making the task of switching games that much easier. As part of these profiles, the Black Widow has five specific gaming keys, which can store macros that can be recorded on-the-fly. We would have liked to see a few more of these dedicated gaming keys, in all honesty, but five is better than nothing.

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The keys are individually back-lit too, for easy identification. This backlighting has five brightness levels, too, which can be set by the user as required. And they have a reduced travel distance of only 2mm, which is great for a mechanical keyboard.

In keeping with Razer’s carefully crafted image, the Black Widow’s keys feature a font that is not standard.

This takes a bit of getting used to, because some of the letters are a little hard to recognise initially. In a time when most people are familiar with keyboard layouts this isn’t too big a problem, but if you do need to visually identify a key, you need to know what to look for.

The very few issues that this keyboard has are far outweighed by its performance.

It is reliable and sturdy, and will allow the player to enjoy many hours of customised gaming, thanks to good ideas and solid design.g

Summary

Tech Specs:

A reliable gaming keyboard, with sensible ideas to enhance the overall experience.

M a nufa c turer Distributer: O nline: RRP:

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Good performance Solidly built Responsive

Full keyboard 5 programmable game keys Audio jacks USB line-through Mechanical Backlit

Ra zer Corex www.c orex.c o.za R1399

Pros • • • • •

• • • • • •

Cons • • • • •

Noisy Odd font ?

Score

84 39

Review

It’s all flash and sharp edges…

Raidmax Raptor PC Case

Eye

40

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by Walt Pretorius

A A

computer case is a form of expression, to a large degree. The type of case that a user chooses to put their rig in says something about them, because they went out to choose that box. The days of heavy case-modding have died out a little, but box makers have taken it upon themselves to create cases that are more varied in design, allowing a greater degree of expression right off of the shelf.

What exactly the Raidmax Raptor says I am not sure. It is as overstated as a case can get, without having actual moving parts strapped to the outside.

Large areas of this case are accentuated with bold additions which serve no purpose other than to add to the box’s appearance. These include large fins running down either side of the front of the case, complete with a shiny black plastic finish and dramatic bright red trim. The easily removable optical drive bay covers also feature red trim, as do the plates covering expansion slot access at the back og the box. Even the interior has red accents and sections.

The top of the case is finished with “airfoil” panels to hide the extraction fan ports. The sides of the case are contoured, with the left side sporting a large grill behind which a fan can be fitted.

In terms of looks, it is decidedly over-the-top, and many people may shy away from the case because of that. This is a pity, because the box really is a good one. It allows for six fans, of which four are provided. It also has removable, screwless HDD bays that allow for easy fitting of drives, as well as a specialised SSD bracket and 25mm of cable control space behind the right side panel.

Front inputs, which are mounted at the top front of the case, include audio jacks, 2 USB 2.0 ports and a USB 3.0 port, as well as a fan controller that will adjust the speeds of up to three fans, and an LED dimmer (if those case lights get too much for you.)

The massive case is easy to use, offers watercooling support and will handle a motherboard of up to 12 inches by 10 inches – a full ATX board, in other words. The removable HDD cages also help improve air-flow and add room, if you need it.

Overall, this is a really good case. It’s just… well, not to put too fine a point on it… ugly. It really is overstated on the outside, which is a big downfall here. Sure, it will look impressive to some, but most will find it garish. Still, a good case… perhaps this one can be modded in a different direction? g

Summary

Tech Specs:

A great case, even though it is on the wrong side of garish in terms of looks.

M a nufa c turer Distributer: O nline: RRP:

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Very roomy Easy to work with Great air flow

2 USB 2.0 ports 1 USB 3.0 port 5 HDD bays 2 SSD bays 3 Optical drive bays 6 fan slots

Ra idma x Pinna c le A fric a www.pinna c le.c o.za R990

Pros • • • • •

• • • • • •

Cons • • • • •

A bit hard on the eyes

Score

82 41

The Mast SteelSeries Sensei Pro Grade Laser Mouse

…of simplicity and performance.

O Review

O

n the packaging of the SteelSeries Sensei Pro Grade Laser Mouse they make the claim that it is the world’s most customisable mouse. That’s quite a statement to make but, as numerous pro gamer types can attest, it’s pretty accurate. When combines with downloadable SteelSeries software, the Sensei becomes exactly the mouse you need it to be.

That claim, though, does bring to mind a mouse crammed with buttons and special knobs and doodads.

That’s something that the Sensei is not. While it does offer more buttons than the average SteelSeries mouse, it still holds with the companies ideas of simplicity. To that end, it features a sum total of eight buttons; the left and right buttons, scroll wheel, sensitivity switcher and two support buttons on either side. The perfectly symmetrical design means that it is an ambidextrous mouse, which is always a welcome sight. It does mean,

42

though, that two of the buttons need to be accessed with the little finger, no matter which hand you are using. The buttons are designed in such a way that this is possible, but it does take some getting used to. In all honesty, more serious gamers will probably just disable the offside buttons, leaving them with a still-sufficient number of inputs.

The Sensei also allows for a wide variety of DPI settings, although the player will only be switching between two.

Using the software, the player can squeeze as much as 11 400 CPI out of this mouse, which makes it extremely sensitive. This is done using a system called Double Counts per Inch… that also means that the standard sensitivity of the mouse is 5 700, which is still an excellent number. Five programmable profiles can be stored as well, which makes switching games a snap. The active profile is displayed via an LCD screen (which supports custom bitmap graphics)

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by Alex Scanlon

ter

on the base of the mouse.

Even the LCD display of the logo (on the rear of the mouse) and the illumination around the scroll wheel and sensitivity display LED can be changed to suit the user’s desires.

In short, yes, it is an extremely customisable mouse. It’s comfortable design also make it a versatile option, and great for left handed folks, who often battle to get the right mouse at all, never mind a high performance gaming option.

The package is rounded off with a generous 2 meter cable and a rather stylish, flashy finish. While it might look simpler than many of the other options out there, performance is what matters, and the Sensei has that in spades. It might not be a highly specialised mouse, but as a great gaming all-rounder, it certainly is up there among the better devices. g

Summary

Tech Specs:

Although it looks simpler than some, the Sensei is a superb all-purpose mouse, with great gaming performance,

M a nufa c turer Distributer: O nline: RRP:

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Ambidextrous Very sensitive Looks great

Up to 11 400 DCPI 2M cable 8 buttons 5 profiles Programmable colours Ambidextrous

SteelSeries M eg a rom www.meg a rom.c o.za R899

Pros • • • • •

• • • • • •

Cons • • • • •

Long term savings No fax capabilities

Score

90 43

With dwindling resources and soaring energy costs, making the move to more efficient solution is not only smart, but also essential. At Brightlux, we understand this. That’s why we offer you lighting solutions that consume as much as 90% less power while delivering improved performance all round. And our bulbs will last much longer than conventional incandescent and CFL products, and do not make use of mercury and other products that are harmful to the environment.

Saving the planet one globe at a time.

Green!

N

ot all headsets are created the same, quite simply because not all headset users have the same needs. While a product like the Razer Megalodon has a very strong PC gaming focus, Razer do understand that to remain strong in the marketplace, they need to do more than make such focussed devices.

Enter the Razer Electra, a simpler. More versatile headset solution that works with more than just PC gaming.

There are a couple of downsides to the Electra – let’s get them out of the way right now. First off, it doesn’t feature an integrated microphone. There is an option for one, but we’ll get to that later. Second, it is a stereo headset, rather than a 7.1 surround sound device like the Megalodon. That, quite honestly, is not a major problem. People that would make use of this headset wouldn’t really be after a surround sound experience, so that’s all good. Thirdly, well… it’s a little bright in the lumo-green sense of the word. The padded headband, speaker cover mesh and cables are extremely green, as are the triple snake Razer logos emblazoned on the outside of each ear cup. If you like green, that’s not a problem. At very least, they make for a visually striking set of headphones.

On to the microphone question. The Electra comes with two detachable cables. Each end of both is fitted with a 3.5mm jack. On the headset side, these jacks lock securely into the device, while the other end plugs into anything that handles a 3.5 mm jack: PCs, handheld gaming devices, MP3 players, and so on. The one cable has an integrated microphone, which works with mobile phones. Just mobile phones, actually, although any device that uses headphones and microphone through the same cable would work. So, mobile phones, then…

The 40mm drivers are housed in comfortable, large ear cups, which are in turn lushly padded. That, combined with the head band, makes the Electra comfortable to wear for fairly long periods. The sound delivery is also excellent, from pretty much any source. The headset has no dedicated volume controls, though, so keeping volume in check via the device it’s plugged in to is essential.

When you get down to the bottom line, the Electra is a great headset, almost despite the fact that it is so simple. Maybe it’s because of that fact. It’s comfortable and produces good sound, without the frills and fancy bits that help drive prices up and are often unnecessary.

These are extremely versatile, but that versatility does have some costs – all those fancy things that have been omitted. Still, if you’re looking for great sound that works with virtually any device, here’s your answer.

Hope you like green. g

Review

Razer Electra Essential Gaming and Music Headset

N

Really, really… green.

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by Rob Edwards

Summary

Tech Specs: • • • • • •

This is an extremely versatile headset, at the expense of a few bells and whistles... like a boom mic.

M a nufa c turer Distributer: O nline: RRP:

Ra zer Corex www.c orex.c o.za R599

Pros • • • • • gladget26

Easy to use Versatile Good sound

40mm drivers Detachable cables Stereo Multi-device compatible

Cons • • • • •

No frills

Score

80 47

Sleek & Slick Belkin Play N600 DB Router

No nightmares here…

W Review

W

hen I was asked to do a review on a router, I smiled and put on my best enthusiastic look.

“Yeah..that sounds...great!” said I and off I went home to plug and play.

Or should I say plug and pray! My experience in setting up my own router was frustrating to say the least and I was not looking forward to another session of pulling out more of the little hair I still had left on my head.

Once out of the box my first impression on the design was surprisingly pleasing.

Slim, sleek, no external antenna, with a glossy black finish that made my Telkom Router look old and tired.

Bringing up the rear, the router features an ADSL port, four ethernet ports (10/100 LAN) one USB 2.0 port, a reset button and a power socket. The USB 2.0 port can be used to plug in a printer or a hard drive for file and video sharing over a network.

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The N600 DB features Multibeam antenna technology which gives good coverage despite having an internal antenna, but its main feature is that it is a dual-band router which works on both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands simultaneously.

It also comes with four easy to use apps: Self Healing automatically detects and resolves network issues; Video Mover lets you share video and other files through your home network; Print Zone prints to your USB printer from any computer wirelessly; and Memory Safe automatically backs up important files to an external hard drive.

The software disc supplied by Belkin (for both PC and Mac) makes it easy to manage the router and once installed a system tray icon shortcuts you to the firmware page where you can setup the router and browse for files on your USB hard drive.

The N600 DB’s interface is straightforward and what I did like under the wireless settings was something called

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by Andy Taliadoros

‘Guest Mode’, which you can use when you don’t want to share your primary Wi-Fi access with another guest and have them just access the printer, for example.

The router will also allow you to manage your bandwidth and has an update section for firmware updates.

In 5GHz mode it managed some impressive speeds.

I6 turned on channel-bonding turbo mode and saw connection speeds of up to 60Mbit/s at a distance of 10m . File transfer speeds were decent enough, between 7MB/s to 8MB/s on both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands.

Belkin have a real winner here as far as I am concerned. With great looks, easy to set up functionality, reliable performance, additional features and being one of the least expensive dual-band routers you’ll find on the market, I was sold.

Now...back to my old router...I hate review units!

Especially good ones! g

Summary

Tech Specs:

A great buy with powerful features.

M a nufa c turer Distributer: O nline: RRP:

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Dual Band Reliable Reasonably priced

Multibeam Technology Simultaneous Dual Band (2.4GHz/5GHz) USB 2.0 Device Support WPA2 MIMO Turbo Mode

B elkin Tudortec h www.tudortec h.c o.za R1489

Pros • • • • •

• • • • • •

Cons • • • • •

Not wall mountable No WDS Support No Gigabit Ethernet Switch

Score

87 49

T

by Walt Pretorius

T

Review

Brightlux Lighting

he idea of environmentally conscious consumption of technology is a good one, for many reasons. Even if you are a sceptic, there is logical sense in using devices that consume less power to get the job done, thanks to the apparently ever escalating electricity pricing here in South Africa. And when a product offers a longer lifespan, it makes even more financial sense.

Brightlux are a new brand of LED light solutions to arrive on our shores, and they bring with them (in addition to a range of bulbs) lower power consumption, a very long lifespan and a number of other perks that make them an excellent choice for illumination.

The claim is 35 000 hours of use. That’s a lifespan of 24 years, at four hours a day. We didn’t really have four years to test the product, but the facts surrounding LED technology support this statement, leaving little room for doubt.

Even though the initial cost is higher than that of conventional lighting, the savings over that time period do add up. Add in the fact that they will consume less power and are less prone to light quality degradation, and you start to see why Brightlux make a lot of sense.

But what of performance? We focussed mainly on the products that mimic traditional incandescent globes in design, but found that the following is applicable across all of their bulbs.

First of all, the light emitted by the globes is bright and clear. A variety of light colour temperatures allow you to find the best fit for your environment, and ranges from 2500K to 6500K. With a brightness of around 440 lumens, they certainly do the trick. And, best of all, a 6W LED globe produces around the same amount of light as a 60W incandescent option.

In addition, they turn on very quickly – certainly faster that fluorescent bulbs and older incandescent globes. And they don’t get anywhere near as hot, either, thanks to clever implementation of heat dissipation (and the fact that LEDs run cooler anyway.)

On the downside, fitting these globes can be an expensive exercise. They aren’t the cheapest lighting products around but, with that said, the long lifespan means that the expenditure is largely initial, and savings will eventually mount up.

Brightlux offer a wide range of lighting products, from recessed to bayonette and screw-mount options. In other words, there simply isn’t a light fitting that won’t comfortably house one of their products. They’re good quality, when compare to other brands, and make sense in the long run. And, if it’s your thing, you can feel all environmentally responsible when using them, too. g

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gladget26 4

Making sense in all kinds of ways

Summary

Tech Specs:

The Brightlux range of lighting products makes sense, from environmental matters through to longrun cost-effectiveness.

M a nufa c turer Distributer: O nline: RRP:

gladget26 4

Long lifespan Good light quality Low energy consumption

LED Low heat Low energy consumption Long lifespan All fittings catered for

B rig htlux B rig htlux www.brig htlux.xo.za Va ries

Pros • • • • •

• • • • • •

Cons • • • • •

Pricey ...initially

Score

89 51

AVerMedia Live Gamer HD Review

52

by Walt Pretorius

E E

veryone loves earning bragging rights, but simply telling people how great you are doesn’t cut it in this digital age. People expect proof, what with the proliferation of media these days. And gamers are most likely the worst of the lot. It’s one thing to be told about an impressive gaming session, but it is something totally different to be shown evidence of it. Bragging right need, after all, to be properly earned.

The best way to show off your video gaming prowess is, quite simply, with video. But historically, recording video of games in full flight has had problems, not least of which is the lag created by video capture software. While PC gaming hasn’t had this issue for a while, the growing number of console gamers have struggled with solutions. Sure, there are capture cards out there that allow a line out to a different visual source and while this mitigates the problem, it isn’t always the best solution.

There are, however, video capture devices out there that are practical and eliminate the nasty lag often encountered while recording video from console games… and the AVerMedia Live Gamer HD is one of them. Through a combination of good hardware and intuitive software, the system allows gamers to capture video without lag. They can even stream it live to the internet.

That’s pretty awesome.

What makes the system great is that it doesn’t have to be lined out. Connecting a console to the capture card with an HDMI cable will allow the gamer to effectively game using the view provided by the recording software itself. Aside from a slight degradation in graphic quality, everything runs beautifully. Those that want to avoid the degradation (which, by the way, does not show up in captured video) can use a second HDMI cable to connect a secondary viewing device, which performs perfectly.

Audio can also be captured live while recording video, which is something of a bonus if you want a by-the-second commentary of what’s going on.

If you’re recording from the PC, you will also need to use HDMI cables – the secret here is that the card operates separately from the graphics processor. That does mean that you will need to make the right connections, though, with cables.

One of the more fun features is the big red record button that comes with the device.

It allows the user to quickly start and stop recording. Sure, keyboard shortcuts will do the same, but this system is just easier.

In terms of software, the whole thing is rather user friendly. Combined with a good video editing suite, this device and the associated software makes recording video game footage and absolute breeze. Go on… fame awaits! g

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For

Now you have proof!

the Record

Summary

Tech Specs:

A simple, yet extremely effective way to capture footage... with no lag!

M a nufa c turer Distributer: O nline: RRP:

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No lag Easy to use Big Red Button

Full HD Live streaming Simultaneous audio capture Screenshot capabilities Low CPU consumption Dedicated record button

A VerM edia Corex www.c orex.c o.za R3395

Pros • • • • •

• • • • • •

Cons • • • • •

PC capture still requires cables

Score

96 53

54

Review

You can set everything just so‌

Razer Megalodon 7.1 Surround Sound Gaming Headset

Fr

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reak!

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by Rob Edwards

T

he Razer Megalodon Headset is one of those devices that manages to turn the ‘bigger drivers are better’ argument on its head. Even though it uses slightly smaller drivers than competing brands (40mm as opposed to 50mm) the Megalodon manages to produce audio that is superb. But it’s not just the drivers that influence the good sound quality; Razer know a thing or two about what gamers need, and so they have created a system that fills those requirements quite nicely.

If you use this headset, people will know. Not because of the headset design, mind you – the build of the headset is a bit anachronistic. It looks a little odd, with its exposed extension tracks and generally sparse design. When all is said and done, the Megalodon is certainly not the prettiest headset around. Rather, people will notice the comparatively massive in-line control that the unit sports.

This unit shows Razer’s understanding of what gamers require. But before we get to that, it is important to note that I keep making reference to gamers because, quite frankly, this headset is extremely focussed on them, rather than being a more versatile device. It requires a USB interface, too, which means that PC gamers, specifically, are the people that will be using the Megalodon.

Back to the inline control unit. It’s big – so big, in fact, that it sits on the desk top, rather than being suspended from the headset’s cord. It allows for the expected volume and mic controls, but also allows for a number of other things. For example, the player can turn Razer’s audio enhancing Maelstrom software on and off with the press of a button. It also allows the player to set the level of noise cancellation that the boom mic performs. And, very impressively, it allows the user to adjust volume levels for the device’s different audio fields. Just being a 7.1 surround sound device is not enough for Razer, apparently; this feature allows the user to focus their audio signals to exactly what they want it to be. Even bass levels can be adjusted. That, by itself, makes the Megalodon a headset that is well worth investigating.

The comfortable Megalodon features generous ear cups and a padded headband, in addition to all the other really rather nice features it has on offer. In fact, the only weakness here is its extremely focussed nature. Then again, gamers really are the only people who would want to buy this headset… using it for anything other than fine-tuned, high quality audio in games is simply a waste of money and effort. That weakness is also the unit’s greatest strength, ironically, because the focussed nature of the device means that it does what it was intended for superbly. g

Summary

Tech Specs:

A headset that is extremely versatile despite its focussed nature, the Megalodon is a gamer’s dream for excellent audio.

M a nufa c turer Distributer: O nline: RRP:

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Very adjustable Great degree of control Good sound

40mm drivers 7.1 surround sound Individual channel volume control Adjustable noise cancellation

Ra zer Corex www.c orex.c o.za R1499

Pros • • • • •

• • • • • •

Cons • • • • •

Looks a little flimsy Very focussed on gaming

Score

90 55

Click, Click Logitech G600 MMO Gaming Mouse

Buttons, buttons & more buttons!

H Review

H

ow many buttons does a mouse need?

Well, that really depends on what you’re using it for. If, for example, you live your life surfing the web and reading email, you can get away with two buttons and a scroll wheel quite nicely. If, on the other hand, you are an MMO junkie and you want to remove functions and hotkeys from your keyboard, well… you’re going to need all the mouse buttons you can get.

If that’s the case, Logitech have a great solution in the form of the G600 MMO Gaming Mouse.

Here’s a device that offers twenty buttons for the MMO junkie. That’s a vast number and while so many buttons are necessary for other kinds of games, MMO fans will certainly get a kick out of being able to trim their experience and improve reaction times, thanks to this device.

If that’s what you’re after, the G600 makes a lot

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of sense. The nature of MMO games, and the way that they work, means that having easy access to a lot of preprogramed keys is a sensible thing. And the mouse can naturally be used for other games, too, with programmed inputs mapped to the various keys and stored in one of three on-board profiles.

These come pre-programmed, but tweaking them via software is easy.

So, twenty buttons… that’s three standard (yes, one additional clickable button on the top, to the right of the ‘right click’ button), a scroll wheel (which counts as multiple buttons, because it can be clicked and tilted) and twelve buttons in thumb range. A G-shift mode doubles the functionality of the thumb buttons, which are backlit with the colour of the user’s choice. And a D-shift option allows on-the-fly DPI alteration, up to a rate of 8 200.

It really is an impressive looking device. All those

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k… Click...

by Walt Pretorius

buttons make for quite a visual impact. But they also add to the problems that this mouse presents.

First off, if you’re left handed, forget it. This mouse is nowhere near ambidextrous in design. Also, the thumb buttons, while easily identifiable, are not always easy to reach. The rear-most three, particularly, require some thumb gymnastics to get to. It’s not the worst button configuration we’ve seen, but it will take some getting used to.

Still, when considering its purpose, the G600 is a great solution. It is sensitive and highly customisable, and brings MMO players specifically a device that can greatly enhance their game play.

Other gamers can also benefit, of course, and the three profiles can make switching games a snap. It really comes down to how the user wants to interact with their game. The G600 provides a lot of options in that regard. g

Summary

Tech Specs:

A good MMO mouse offers lots of buttons...

20, in this case, combined with great performance all round.

M a nufa c turer Distributer: O nline: RRP:

gladget26

Very customisable Comfortable Good performance

Up to 8 200 DPI 20 buttons 3 On-board profiles G-shift Variable DPI

Log itec h Log itec h www.log itec h.c om R1999

Pros • • • • •

• • • • • •

Cons • • • • •

Not ambidextrous Buttons take getting used to

Score

84 57

Review

Still a bit flashy‌

Raidmax Super Viper PC Case

The Midd

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dle Box R

by Walt Pretorius

R

aidmax certainly are taking on the PC gamer market with their range of cases.

This means that the external look of the cases ranges from garish to cool, depending largely on individual tastes. In general terms, the Raidmax Super Viper falls somewhere between the two extremes. It is less overstated than some of their cases, but still manages to employ some design ideas that might not appeal to more conservative tastes.

The first impression that the case creates is a fairly aggressive one, with sharp angles mixed with curved lines, accentuated in orange on the front of the box. Generous venting accentuates this feel further, while allowing for a high degree of air flow. A large Perspex panel accents one side of the matt black box.

The front panel can be opened to reveal optical drive bays (of which it has four) as well as front side ports. The usual audio ports are complemented by a single USB 3.0 port and one USB 2.0 port. That’s not a lot of front-side USB options, as things go, but they are protected by the front panel, at very least, and the inclusion of a USB 3.0 port is a nice touch.

The panel itself is made of plastic and, while it closes securely, it feels a little on the flimsy side.

In fact, with so many cases using aluminium fronts as part of their heat dissipation ideas, it is unusual to see plastic making up the front of a box these days. It does keep costs down, however.

Inside, the case is fairly roomy and makes use of a screwless system for fitting the four HDDs that it has space for. Six fan vents are provided to allow for good cooling – two in the front, two in the top, one in the rear and one at the side. In addition, the bottom mounted PSU bracket also has a vent, to allow the very hot air generated by the power supply to be vented right away.

This case falls into a middle segment of the market; it is neither feature-rich, nor is it cheapand-nasty. In terms of the interior, it provides a solid and fairly roomy space to house PC components with a good degree of air flow to ensure that they stay cool. In other words, you could do worse than getting the Super Viper.

The only thing that may put people off here is the look of the box, which may just be a little too much for some, as said before. But in terms of performance, there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. It might not suit a power user, but a more “everyday” PC user will certainly have no complaints. g

Summary

Tech Specs:

A decent, well priced case option – roomy enough, and with good air flow.

M a nufa c turer Distributer: O nline: RRP:

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Good air flow Protected front side port

1 USB 3.0 port 1 USB 2.0 port 4 Optical bays 4 HDD bays Screwless 6 fan slots

Ra idma x Pinna c le A fric a www.pinna c le.c o.za R499

Pros • • • • •

• • • • • •

Cons • • • • •

A little overstated for some tastes

Score

79 59

Logitech Solar Keyboard Folio Review

60

by Alex Scanlon

T T

Tablets - like the iPad and Samsung Galaxy range – are extremely popular.

Here in South Africa they are extremely sought after aspirational items, and the world over the demand for tablets is growing by leaps and bounds. So, therefore, the industry surrounding tablets, the peripheral industry, is growing right along with it.

Arguably the biggest part of this peripheral industry is for devices that protect the tablet.

Slip cases and folders can be found easily, but getting the right one can be tricky. Some even have enhanced features, and it becomes even harder for the buyer to make the right choices.

Logitech have a good option for iPad and iPad 2 owners who want not only to protect their tablet, but who also want to be able to make use of some of its functions with greater ease.

The Logitech Solar Keyboard Folio is a stylish folding case for the iPad, armed with a chicklet style keyboard to allow easier typing input when using the tablet. The keyboard is built into the unit, so when opening it the keyboard is immediately available and ready for use. Thanks to a clever design, the folio can also be used as a tablet stand – the final configuration of tablet and keyboard is not unlike an open notebook computer in positioning.

A second position places the iPad at a more comfortable viewing angle, but obscures part of the keyboard. It is handy for viewing files and other uses (like touch screen functions), as long as the keyboard is not required.

Using a Bluetooth connection to the iPad, the folio adds other handy functionality. When it is closed, it instantly sends the iPad into sleep mode, which helps preserve battery life.

Open it up and the iPad becomes immediately responsive once again.

Aside from that, it also offers the iPad the desired protection. It is ruggedly built, while still remaining attractive. It is finished in black synthetic leather, with a mid-grey interior that extends to the keyboard as well.

Also on the outside of the folio is one of its strongest selling points: two large lightsensitive panels. These panels provide power, and are sensitive to all levels of light. The packaging makes a claim that, if fully powered, the battery life is around two years. That’s an extreme claim, and one that we were unable to test. However, the light response was better than we have seen in other light-powered Logitech products, so keeping the battery charged is fairly easy.

The folio is slightly heavy, thanks to the integrated battery, but it also comes with a reassuring solidness. It is easy to use and complements the iPad really well. It’s a little on the expensive side, but it is a good investment for iPad owners who want functionality and protection.g

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On

the Go Keeping your iPad safe

Summary

Tech Specs:

A stylish and functional folder, with a lightpowered keyboard built right in.

M a nufa c turer Distributer: O nline: RRP:

gladget26

Sturdy Handy Good keyboard

iPad / iPad 2 compatible Bluetooth Two display positions Light-powered

Log itec h Log itec h www.log itec h.c om R2499

Pros • • • • •

• • • • • •

Cons • • • • •

iPad only

Score

80 61

Just Enough Epson EB-1860 Projector

Function over flash…

A Review

A

s human beings, we sometimes lose sight of what is practical. We are easily dazzled by devices that have all the bells and whistles, and forget to think about what it is that we actually need. We are easily swayed by the bright and shiny, and are enthralled by the idea that we can have a better toy than the Joneses. And so we spend too much money on a device that offers great functionality that we will likely never use.

It happens in all spheres of technology, of course, but when it comes to phrases like “full HD” we are especially susceptible to our natures. There is such a thing as having “too much TV”, or having “too much resolution”. Does an office projector need to be full HD, for example? If it is going to be used for more functional purposes, does it need to have high grade

62

video and audio output? Probably not.

It is in that space that devices like the Epson EB-1860 projector fit rather nicely. You’re not going to set up the most awesome home theatre ever using this projector, because that’s not what it is intended for. This is a functional device, rather than a flashy one, and a device that will serve an office environment rather well.

However, with a maximum resolution of 1024 x 768, the device does feel a bit anachronistic. After all, even office machines have moved away from this resolution standard, and users may well want a little more visual punch than the EB-1860 offers.

On the other hand, it does what it does well, with a brightness of 4000 lumen. This means that it works even in fairly bright environments. Power-conscious users (and who isn’t these days?) can turn the

gladget26

by Rob Edwards

Summary

brightness down to 3 200 lumen, too. Visuals are provided by Epson’s 3 LCD technology, which gives good colour depth and clarity. Sound is delivered via an internal 5W speaker. Once again, not a lot of punch there, but for the purpose the device is intended, that should be fine.

Another big plus point for this particular device is that, if it meets your requirements, it is relatively inexpensive. That’s never a bad thing, provided the user is not selling themself short.

Devices like this are essential at the end of their run, and will likely be replaced by models capable of delivering a little more before long. But it does offer a cost effective, reliable and generally good performance at this time, so if you’re in the market for a functional projector, it still is a rather safe bet. g

Tech Specs:

It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles, and it has a lower resolution... but you might not need more than what it offers.

M a nufa c turer Distributer: O nline: RRP:

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Inexpensive Small Good quality image

1024 x 768 5W speaker 4 000lm Password protection 3LCD technology

Epson Epson www.epson.c om R14999

Pros • • • • •

• • • • • •

Cons • • • • •

Low resolution

Score

75 63

Review

Audiomotion Nanobeat 10W Bluetooth Speaker

Audio Anyw More than meets the eye

64

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where

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by Alex Scanlon

E

veryone loves gadgety-type stuff. Often, though, things that appear to be a little gimmicky actually offer the user a great experience. That truly is the case with the Nanobeat 10W Bluetooth speaker. Here we have a device that offers more than one might expect, thanks to a few great ideas built in.

The unit itself is rather small, comparable to a number of other, similar speaker that we have seen in the past. But there’s more here than meets the eye.

Created by Audiomotion – the same people that made the funky speaker-light bulbs we looked at a few issues ago – the device has some very clever ideas built in.

It’s obvious function is to play music, and it does so well. The sound is crisp and clear, although the single speaker means that it’s going to be mono, rather than stereo. Still, it serves a purpose, particularly when placed on a flat surface. Using technology similar to that of the WOWee system, the Nanobeat turns virtually any surface it stands on into an augmented speaker, thanks to vibration technology. That means that the device delivers a better performance, particularly as far as bass notes are concerned.

Being Bluetooth, it can be paired with any device using the same technology, for wireless music playback. It offers a wired option, too, for those that don’t have Bluetooth devices. When used with Bluetooth it has an operating radius of 10 meters.

In addition, it doubles as a table-top hands-free device for use with your phone, complete with an integrated microphone. That, in itself, makes it handier than your run-of-the-mill extension speaker.

It delivers 10W of clear, omni-directional audio, managed by a set of simple controls. Power is supplied by an internal lithium battery that is recharged via USB and offers a fair battery life.

We did pick up a little bit of distortion towards higher volume levels, but this is also dependant on the surface that the device is used on. It’s also not really pocket-friendly in terms of size (it’s a little too big), but it does fit into a bag or rucksack with no hassles.

On the whole, this device is a useful and reliable portable music solution. It doesn’t have the power to really blast away at a party, but it is loud enough to be impressive. It also makes for a good talking point, if that’s something you look for. The rechargeable battery means it is usable virtually anywhere that there is a flat surface, and the Bluetooth implementation results in fewer wires to clutter the place up. If you’re looking for a portable sound solution and don’t mind the lack of stereo, this device will serve you rather well. g

Summary

Tech Specs:

A really handy device that produces decent audio, and has a few other features hidden about it as well.

M a nufa c turer Distributer: O nline: RRP:

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Easy to carry Rechargeable Wireless

10W Omni-directional audio Vibration system Rechargeable Bluetooth 2.0

A udiomotion Rec tron www.rec tron.c o.za R795

Pros • • • • •

• • • • • •

Cons • • • • •

Not stereo Performance surface dependant

Score

82 65

Plextor M5 Pro 256GB SSD

SSD tech is speeding ahead

Even More

by Alex Scanlon

S Review

S

olid state drives are, without any doubt, part of the future of computing. It’s an undeniable fact. So it is little surprise that a great many companies- both traditional hard drive manufacturers and memory experts – are producing SSDs at an almost alarming rate. The technology is moving fast, which means that bigger drives for lower prices will be a reality very soon.

Plextor has also joined the race. The M5 Pro is comes in a variety of sizes (we tested the 256GB flavour) and uses SATA 6GB/s technology to ensure fast and reliable performance. The metal-encased SSD uses several other ideas and techs to keep things running smoothly and, above all, quickly.

This certainly is one of the better SSDs we have seen, and with sizes up to 512GB, it offers a great solution to those wanting to make the leap to this new storage technology. g

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Summary

Tech Specs:

An excellent SSD option, with speed enhancing technologies built right in.

M a nufa c turer Distributer: O nline: RRP:

Slim Fast Power-saver

Up to 512GB SATA 6GB/s 7mm high True Speed technology Shock resistant

Plextor Rec tron www.rec tron.c o.za R3699

Pros • • • • •

• • • • • •

Cons • • • • •

Expansive

Score

86

The Little Guy With a big name

by Walt Pretorius

Raidmax Super Hurricane PC Case

T T

gladget26

Summary

Tech Specs:

HP’s good intentions at producing a more cost effective printer seem to be realised in the 5525.

M a nufa c turer Distributer: O nline: RRP:

Small Good air-flow Cool blue side panel window

1 USB 3.0 port 1 USB 2.0 port 4 optical drive bays 4 HDD bays 6 fan slots

Ra idma x Pinna c le A fric a www.pinna c le.c o.za R469

Pros • • •

• • • • •

Cons • • • • •

Needs screws More USB ports would have been nice

Score

78 67

Review

he Super Hurricane enters the market as one of Raidmax’s lower end cases, making it less feature rich, but also more affordable.

But when one compares it to the Super Viper, the differences really only come down to two things: the Super Hurricane has no front panel that opens and closes, and it requires the use of screws inside. Other than that, the spec for this case is virtually identical to the Super Viper.

If you don’t mind using screws to build your PC, the Super Hurricane is a great option.

Although it has an ‘aggressive’ front panel design, it is not a particularly overstated case at all. We would have liked to see more front side USB support, but other than that, there really is nothing to keep someone on a tighter budget from getting great use out of the Super Hurricane.g

Fair SteelSeries Kana Mouse

…gets the job done!

T Review

T

he SteelSeries Kana is the third SteelSeries mouse we have seen of late. It fills the gap between the Sensei (reviewed in this issue) and the Kinzu (reviewed in the last issue). The real difference is the side button. In fact, the side button configurations are the only real difference between any of these mouse devices, because they are all very similar in shape. The Sensei has two buttons on either side. The Kinzu has none. This Kana has one on each side.

While it does have less buttons, the off-side button (the one that sits under the user’s little finger) is actually easily usable – at least more so than the two buttons of the Sensei. I use the term “off-side” because, like most of SteelSeries’ new range of mouse products, the Kana is ambidextrous. This is another plus for the device, and for the range as a

68

whole. The side buttons are also large, meaning that they can be accessed easily from a variety of hand positions.

While the look and feel of this particular device is very similar to other SteelSeries mouse products, the inner workings are quite different. For one thing, it is less sensitive than the Sensei, with a CPI of 1 600. This can be doubles up with a Double CPI system, making the potential sensitivity of the mouse 3 200 CPI. It also lacks the on-board profiles of the Sensei, which is a pity, but it still performs admirably.

The Kana is one of the more fun SteelSeries products, in terms of looks. The black, non-slip surface is accented with an illuminated orange scroll wheel and orange DCPI button. The scroll wheel illumination also indicates whether the DCPI is active or not. Even the 2 meter cord is a bit cheerier, with orange worked into the

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...

by Walt Pretorius

mostly black length of it.

Perhaps the biggest obstacle that SteelSeries face with their mouse range is the fact that they ascribe to a simpler approach. The Kana looks like a fairly nondescript mouse, despite the bright orange accents.

Because of this, many people may not realise that it is a rather fine gaming mouse, and a great mouse in general. It is comfortable to use – designed for a wide variety of grip styles – and glides beautifully across any given surface. The tracking is really good, thanks to a good laser unit, and the whole thing feels well built, without resorting to being overly heavy. As something of a mid-range option, the Kana is a great mouse.

It might not have a million buttons or customisable everything, but as a functional device it serves its purpose beautifully. And that, when you get down to it, is what really counts. g

Summary

Tech Specs:

It might lack a few bells and whistles, but the Kana is a very effective mouse for all kinds of uses.

M a nufa c turer Distributer: O nline: RRP:

gladget26

Very comfortable Good sensitivity Ambidextrous

3 200 CPI 6 buttons Ambidextrous 2m cable Adjustable CPI

SteelSeries M eg a rom www.meg a rom.c o.za R499

Pros • • • • •

• • • • • •

Cons • • • • •

Fewer buttons than the Sensei

Score

80 69

E

by Walt Pretorius

E

Review

Olympus TG-1 Tough Pocket Camera

xtreme lifestyles aren’t for everyone; many of us prefer to experience the sometimes crazy activities that enthusiasts get up to in a more vicarious manner, from the safety of our homes rather than out there in the action. In order to help those of us who are too scared to try these things for real – as well as those that want to capture their insane exploits – Olympus has the perfect camera. The Olympus TG-1 Tough camera is exactly what its name says. This device is build to take a beating and keep going.

It’s waterproof up to 12 metres, can resist falls of up to two meters, and can handle temperatures as low as -10 degrees Celsius.

That’s pretty impressive, and allows users to confidently take the camera wherever they go.

It captures still images at 12 megapixels and captures full HD video. It is further armed with a 4x optical zoom, which can extend to 8x if you’re willing to suffer the quality loss of digital zoom.

It does not offer a wide range of manual settings, but in the conditions it is likely to be used, there may not be time for that anyway.

With an ISO rating of up to 6400 and highspeed burst-fire, it allows for quick images to be captured, which is great for capturing all the action. Images can be previewed on a generous rear mounted LCD screen, too, as well as GPS tagged.

There are numerous features that make this a great pocket camera for the ind of person that needs their photographic device to be tougher than most. But some aspects of the TG-1 leave a little to be desired. The controls, for example, are not very sensibly arrayed. They are mostly on the back of the camera, including the zoom controls.

This can make zooming a little tricky, but you can get used to it.

Also, the lens does not have a built in protection system. It’s fine and well having a camera that can survive falls, but whether the lens will take a knock and make it through is a good question.

Still, the TG-1 is tough and versatile, and comes complete with a system for mounting various lens enhancements and adaptors. It is very user friendly, too, and menus can be accessed really easily, making it simple and quick to use. It may not be the perfect everyday pocket camera, but it is great for the function it was designed for – excitement and action. The user can confidently use the TG-1 in virtually any environment without worrying about whether the camera will survive the experience. And that’s what this one is all about. g

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…

Nails!

It’s as tough as they come.

Summary

Tech Specs:

While some design elements are a little odd, the TG-1 manages to fulfil its task as a rugged camera perfectly.

M a nufa c turer Distributer: O nline: RRP:

gladget26

Very rugged Easy to use Large LCD screen

12 megapixel 4x optical zoom Full HD video 12m water proof 2m shock proof GPS enabled

O ly mpus Tudortec h www.tudortec h.c o.za R4999

Pros • • • •

• • • • • •

Cons • • • • •

No lens protection Some oddly placed controls

Score

81 71

I S S U E 4 2 / Vo l . 4 December 2012

w w w. g a m e c c a m ag . c o m

Far Cry 3 Halo 4 Hitman: Absolution Need for Speed: Most Wanted Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 Skylanders: Giants Dance Central 3 and more...

Future-Fight

Call of Duty looks to the future

Silver-Baller

In the Jungle

Hitman seeks Absolution

Lose yourself in Far Cry 3

The End? Zombies attack on the Wii U...

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Far Cry 3

Best.

Vacation. Ever.

Take a trip to the Rook Islands today!

by Walt Pretorius

W

who is still discovering his place in the world. And, through the course of the game, the effects of the situation on Jason’s psyche are explored. He is forced to kill. He is forced out of his well-established comfort zone, and to fight fire with fire. This is the basis of Far Cry 3’s plot, and the result is a powerful and compelling tale that drives the experience to great heights.

This is supported by excellent presentation. The voice acting and performances for the non-player characters are top notch, from the seductive Citra through to the thoroughly insane Vaas. In addition, great sound effects and music help draw the player in, with a character animation set that makes the experience extremely immersive. You can easily get lost in the beauty and savagery of Far Cry 3. The world is visually compelling and wonderfully believable. In short, the game looks, sounds and feels excellent.

Review

hat would it be like to actually pull a trigger when there is another human being on the receiving end of the bullet? As gamers we ‘shoot people’ all the time, albeit with virtual guns shooting virtual bullets at virtual foes. It doesn’t equate to the actual idea of taking a human life. And this is something that very few games ever address –players are generally thrust into the roles of super-soldiers and simply, blithely blowing away bad guys. The consequences of these actions are never really taken into account. The effects of taking another person’s life are ignored.

Far Cry 3 takes a different approach. This question is central to much of the game. When a group of young Americans is kidnapped by a group of savage pirates, it is up to one of them – Jason Brody – to rescue his friends and family. But Jason is not a warrior; he’s a young man

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The setting for the game is a fictional archipelago in the South Pacific, called the Rook Islands. The single player campaign takes place on the largest two islands, while multiplayer games – like an extensive four player co-op experience – is set on other islands, and follows other storylines.

The Rook Islands offer a wealth of activities for the player.

Aside from the long single player campaign, activities like side missions, hunting quests, delivery missions, assassination missions and side quests abound. In addition, there are a large number of collectables to be found, so the player can spend ages simply exploring and treasure hunting. And the player is allowed a large degree of freedom and self-sufficiency.

Part of looking after oneself in Far Cry 3 is the crafting system. The player can hunt animals and harvest plants to

create a variety of things: medical syringes, larger holsters, bigger backpacks, special arrows and more are all available, provided the player has the right ingredients and has progressed sufficiently in the game to unlock the crafting formulas. But, within that, the player is afforded a massive amount of control, too. Some formulas are unlocked by crafting a previous version of an item – I had made the best holster, allowing the carrying of four weapons, before the end of the first chapter.

Speaking of weapons, there are several kinds to choose from. There are more than 40 weapons available in Far Cry 3, including specialised Signature Weapons that become available later in the game. Once again, the majority of the weapons are available from the start, providing the player can afford them, and upgrades can be applied to almost all of the weapons on sale. This is once again made possible

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bases to secure areas and get advantages? That sound a little like Assassin’s Creed, doesn’t it? The truth is that Far Cry does borrow ideas from other games, but instead of just cloning concepts, this remarkable game makes them its own. There is never a time when this kind of borrowing leaves a sour taste in the player’s mouth, simply because the ideas implemented in Far Cry 3 never feel tacked on.

From doing an assassination through to playing a game of poker, everything feels like it belongs in this vibrant, lively and deadly world.

The amount of freedom the player is afforded is almost intimidating. There are obviously a variety of difficulty levels, and the player can take on any mission as either a stealthy assassin or a gun-crazy tank. There are skills that can be purchased, as well, in one of three trees. This is one of Far Cry 3’s very few weaker points. The skills are unlocked as

Review

through a simple, effective purchasing system.

Weapons and other advantages can also be found while exploring the island. Say, for example, that you loot an SVD sniper rifle from a fallen enemy. Picking it up means that you own it. You will no longer have to buy it, and can unequip and re-equip it at will, provided you are at a store.

Exploration is mainly done by discovering coms towers and disabling the blocking devices pirates have placed on them. Doing so will reveal new map areas and give the player access to certain weapons for free. Each tower has weapons associated with it, so the patient player may never have to pay for a gun.

Once areas are revealed, they can be secured by liberating pirate strongholds – a simple case of taking over an enemy base. It… wait a minute, this all sounds familiar.

Climbing towers to reveal the map? Capturing enemy

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the story progresses, and the player may, at one point or another, feel that they are being forced into taking skills that they would normally not have considered. But that’s a really small thing, and chances are that even those last-choice skills will prove extremely useful in turning Jason into a warrior.

Another weakness is that the multiplayer, while fun, has not received the same attention as the single player campaign. It is good, but it doesn’t live up to the greatness of the rest of the title. Still, the excellent map editor is back, so players can keep amusing themselves in multiplayer games even after their inevitable multiple single player playthroughs.

There are some non-invasive bugs that creep in, too, from time to time – the result of this game’s massive ambition.

But none of them are ruinous, and they are extremely rare

and don’t necessarily effect the experience adversely.

Far Cry 3 has been receiving rave reviews, and with good reason; a game that is this beautifully presented, this engaging and this entertaining is an extremely rare thing.

The absolute freedom and compelling story line, not to mention the dangerous environment (complete with animals that will attack and enemies bent on your destruction), is awesome. It is a game that the player can get lost in, exploring, discovering, crafting and fighting their way through some excellent environments and fantastic script writing.

We are loathe to describe any game as a ‘must-play’ or ‘unmissable’. But both of these concepts are perfectly applied to Far Cry 3. It really is a gamer’s paradise, and any FPS fan – actually, any gamer – should experience it, no question. g

AT A GLANCE: First-person shooter

Absolute freedom, awesome presentation and a brilliant plot. Far Cry 3 has all of these, and more. It’s a ‘must-play’ for sure.

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Far Cry 2, Fallout Local

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Ubisoft Ubisoft Megarom

Parental Advisory

18+ gladget26

0

Violence Language Sex Drug Use Prejudice

Accessibility Hard-Core Medium Casual

Reviewed on:

X360 Platforms

Genre:

PC X360 Kinect

PS3 Move

Wii PSV DS 3DS

Score

98 77

Halo 4

The Chief is back, baby!

by Christo van Gemert

by Walt Pretorius

G

want. Star Wars sequels have things that George Lucas wants.

That brings us onto the subject of this review, Halo 4.

After the original trilogy, developed by the much-loved Bungie, we were left with Master Chief floating off into space on the wreckage of a ship called Forward Unto Dawn. Since that was, at the time, the last official sequel in the series, it was a poignant ending. Something that did what few other games manage to do: evoke emotions.

Here we were, three games into an epic space opera, and the 8-foot-tall protagonist was given the “forgotten hero” treatment, after saving the day.

After Halo 3 we were given the mediocre Halo Wars, Halo 3: ODST, and Halo Reach. Wars was a mediocre real-time strategy game, not developed by Bungie, but a supplement to the existing Halo story. ODST let us play

Review

ood things happen in threes. The Back to the Future trilogy. The Lord of the Rings trilogy. The first three Alien movies. The first three Indiana Jones movies. The original Star Wars trilogy.

Actually, those last two introduce an interesting caveat that, for the most part, seems to hold true: the original three are usually the best three. Anything after Aliens 3 sucked. Ditto for the newest Indy movie, and let’s not get started on Star Wars Episodes 1 – 3.

When it comes to gaming, though, things usually only get better. The game creators are usually the ones in charge of creating the story, so there’s no disconnect between storyteller, screenwriter, director, and producers, which the film industry suffers from. There’s also the fact that a vocal audience – you, the game – is heard. Game sequels usually have things that people

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as regular human soldiers during the events of 3, and Reach was a prequel. Both of the latter were developed by Bungie, but aren’t really part of the original Trilogy.

Bungie did not develop Halo 4. It’s the product of 343 Industries, a new studio inside Microsoft, with some members from the original Bungie team. We propose, then, that this is the start of a new Halo trilogy, because while it is inherently Halo, it is different, and very, very good.

It starts with Master Chief, now in cryogenic stasis, on the Forward Unto Dawn. It’s been floating through space for four years. Cortana, Chief’s AI sidekick, has been awake, and notices that the ship is being scanned. She wakes our hero to let him know that things are gonna go down - after all, this might be their ride home.

Except, it’s not. It’s a Covenant ship. Those pesky aliens

from the previous Halo games haven’t had enough Spartan ass-kickings given to them, so they’re back for more.

Unfortunately timing is not on anybody’s side: the Covies have stumbled upon Chief and the Dawn right as they’re about to get sucked into a gravity well from a nearby planet – Requiem. And it’s at this mysterious Forerunner planet where the game really starts.

While in space – a short segment that lasts only about half an hour – things seem like good old Halo, but the action is too thick and fast to pick up on subtle changes.

Only after you, uh, “touch down” on Requiem will new Halo rear its gorgeous head. 343 Industries has pulled off something marvellous, graphically. For a game to look this good – while being as expansive as it is – on 7-year-old hardware, is amazing. Halo’s always been a game with huge vistas and progressively lush environments,

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audio that make this better. In playing, it just feels better.

Things feel more solid. The tweaked AI make you work for a kill, and you really have to use strategy when you enter a fire fight. This is made easier with new armour abilities, too. There is a sprint button (Halo purists will cry) that makes all the difference. Then there are optional armour abilities that can be swapped out during the game.

These include a light shield, jetpack, and invisibility cloak – to name a few. There are new weapons, too – but their origin is a plot spoiler we’re not willing to divulge. Most importantly, you get to control a robot mech at a later stage in the game, and it’s as awesome as it sounds.

These new additions all make it to multiplayer, now called Infinity. This makes sense, since the possibilities and number of matches you can play in multiplayer are now effectively communicated in the name. The new

Review

but 4 knocks it out of the park. The colours have been adjusted to give the game a more serious tone, making it feel less cartoonish. The lighting has been tweaked.

Things are no longer as shiny, again giving it more wartime grit.

At the same time, the sound has also been overhauled.

Play this game on a home theatre with proper speakers (and a subwoofer), and the standard assault rifle will sound like a proper machine of death. The visceral thumping as rounds go off is far removed from the pewpew peashooter gun audio of previous Halo games. The vehicles sound superb, with the UNSC Warthog actually resembling something that has a snarling V8 under the hood. Even the gattling gun on the back of it sounds truly, honestly scary.

But it’s not just a slick veneer of new graphics and

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maps feature some remakes of old ones, and we’ll get newer ones as downloadable content. There’s a weapon unlock system, a class system, and a perks system – more scoffing from Halo die-hards, but effectively integrated, and a natural extension of the series’ ability to let you customise your armour.

And finally, there’s Spartan Ops, a co-op multiplayer campaign that has episodic content. Basically, a new branch of the Halo story that you can continue playing for as long as they produce episodes. It’s free - and could very well be a big deal. No game before this has had regular, weekly episodes to play.

With a new developer at the helm Halo 4 has taken some brave steps, in the right direction. It feels more complete. It feels different. But most importantly it still feels like Halo. g

Forward, unto YouTube!

Leading up to Halo 4’s release, Microsoft gave the fans something more: a short, 5-part web series set in the Haloverse. Forward Unto Dawn, parts 1 – 5, were published on YouTube, in collaboration with Machinima (www.youtube.com/machinima). The series centres around cadets at a UNSC training facility, and gives us a glimpse of life before the Covenant invasion, and before the Spartan program was official. It’s a superb way to spend 90 minutes and we can highly recommend it. Those who purchase a collector’s edition of Halo 4 will have the entire series as a single 90-minute movie on a separate DVD.

AT A GLANCE: First Person Shooter

A worthy new developer has taken the series to a new high.

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Parental Advisory

16+ gladget26

Online 16

Violence Language Sex Drug Use Prejudice

Accessibility Hard-Core Medium Casual

Reviewed on:

X360 Platforms

Genre:

PC X360 Kinect

PS3 Move

Wii PSV DS 3DS

Score

95 81

Hitman: Absolution

The Return of an Icon One target, so many ways to die

by Lein Baart

S

lost none of his touch, indeed he has gained a few new abilities, but the core gameplay central to the appeal of the franchise has remained largely untouched. To start with though, and maybe to the dismay of the purists, 47 is a lot more capable in combat than he was in previous titles. There’s a new cover system, somewhat resembling the system used in Gears of War, and 47 is more durable than he was before, meaning that for those possessed of an incurable bloodlust, or who found the previous titles too slow, gunning your way through each level is a definite possibility. In addition 47 now has an instinct ability, enabling him to enter “point shooting mode”, a Max Payne styled slow motion that allows you to annihilate a room full of bullet fodder. Close combat has also seen a change, employing a QTE system reminiscent of Witcher 2 that lets 47 quickly incapacitate anyone who is foolish enough to

Review

tealth gaming, as a genre, has been relatively quiet these past few years (Assassin’s Creed doesn’t count as stealth.) Many games have incorporated stealth elements, but up until recently there has been a dearth of legitimate, honest-to goodness stealth games.

The development of Hitman: Absolution didn’t exactly inspire hope that the genre was making a comeback. The trailers released showed an altogether more aggressive, gung-ho 47 than what fans remembered, and speculation ran rampant that one of the godfathers of stealth had lost his touch and was now more a mercenary than an assassin. Put your fears to rest though, as Agent 47 is back and as deathly silent as a garrotte around the neck.

Long standing fans of the series will feel instantly at home with the gameplay in Absolution. Agent 47 has

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challenge out shiny domed anti-hero.

Yet despite all of the new enhancements to 47’s combat prowess, Hitman remains very much a stealth game.

Nowhere is this more evident in the rating system, which will ply ample rewards on the player who uses caution, patience and innovation. In fact the system actively discourages any attempt at overt action. Being spotted in a crowd, knocking out a guard or killing anybody who is not a target will cause your score to drop, and anyone of these actions will put the Silent Assassin rating out of reach. As the game puts it, the master assassin “leaves the world around him untouched”. 47 is not without his tricks however. The aforementioned cover system has been put to good use here, allowing 47 to flit between cover, and he has access to standard tactics like throwing objects to create distractions. Disguises, as always, are integral,

though not fool proof, as anyone who is part of the group you are trying to impersonate, say for instance a guard or a police officer, will quickly see through the disguise. This is actually one of Absolution’s weaker mechanics, because at times the A.I. will see through your disguise in a flash, even at relatively far distances. Instinct can be used to mitigate this, but seeing that this is a finite resource and all 47 does is obscure his face, it seems somewhat illogical, especially when you walk right past a commanding officer with your cap pulled below your jaw line.

Another welcome return is the level specific assassinations, especially the “accidents” introduced in Contracts. There’s always a certain grim satisfaction watching a bullet rip through your targets head, or pulling off a perfect strangulation with your garrotte, but by far the most gratifying kills are those that use the environment

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and around missions, there’s a near tangible sense of cinema and flair that makes the story both a pleasure to traverse and emotionally engaging. This is backed up by flawless voice acting performances that bring both 47 and the characters around him to life, even if some scenes border on the ridiculous. The biggest flaw in the plot is the characters that drive it forward. From the main antagonist, a poisonous greedy wretch called Blake Dexter, to his psychotic hitman to the corrupt Agency official, all the personalities that one would expect to find in a B grade Bourne rip-off make an appearance, though they’re more caricatures than actual characters.

The world that 47 find himself in, and the various maps that make up the game, practically breathe with life.

It’s almost spell-binding to stand in a crowd, listening as people chat amongst themselves or on cell phones,

Review

to create what appear to be “freak accidents”. In the early levels these assassinations get somewhat generic, but as the game goes on it opens up to allow all sorts of “acts of god”, from gas stove explosions to poisoned fast food. Pulling off these hits can be really challenging to get right, but are definitely worth the price paid in patience and exploration.

Absolution wastes little time throwing you in to the thick of things, with the first mission being one of the most talked about twists of the franchise: the assassination of Diana Burnwood, your sultry voiced handler since the start of the series. With her dying breath she begs you to protect Victoria, the girl that she left the Agency to save. It’s not terribly original, but what the plot lacks in punch, it more than makes up for in drama and impact. Driven by cut scenes in

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completely oblivious to your presence. There’s never a generic line repeated, nor do casual encounters ever feel scripted or forced, culminating in a world that almost seems to exist independent of you and your actions. In a game where the whole idea is to remain anonymous, it’s a fantastic feeling that adds to the whole concept of Hitman.

Technically, Absolution is a game that shines, and the flaws that do exist tend to go mostly unnoticed. The levels are brilliantly designed, allowing multiple paths and choices, and the visuals are stunning no matter what level you’re playing, from the packed streets of Chinatown to the small town of Hope, South Dakota.

The much touted musical scoring of the game deserves the praise that it has received, adapting to fit whatever situation 47 finds himself in, creating an atmosphere of almost palpable tension. The A.I. is unfortunately

prone to making daft decisions, but these are generally few and far between, and 47 could be more mobile, for instance able to hang off ledges, but these are small complaints really. Perhaps the most controversial of the design decisions is the use of instinct to navigate levels, as it instantly highlights nearby enemies, targets and objects of interest, though those wishing for a more authentic experience can choose a harder difficulty, which either restricts its usage or eliminates it altogether.

Absolution is a game that will likely have many fans of the series divided. No doubt the game has evolved since the franchise’s last outing, and probably not to everyone’s tastes, but what made the series great still remains, and the undeniable truth is this: you wouldn’t want to mess with 47 on your best of days. g

AT A GLANCE: Third Person Stealth Action

Reviewed on:

Personally, I found Absolution to be a true testament to the series, and welcome return to the days of silenced silver-ballers and garrottes Similar to: MaxPlayers Developer: Publisher: Distributer:

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Violence Language Sex Drug Use Prejudice

Accessibility Hard-Core Medium Casual

X360 Platforms

Genre:

PC X360 Kinect

PS3 Move

Wii PSV DS 3DS

Score

86 87

Need for Speed: Most Wanted

Mayhem!

Freedom… over and over again.

by Walt Pretorius

W

arcade-style approach to Need for Speed. Whatever the case may be, that is where Most Wanted finds itself; it’s not serious, it’s not deep, and petrol-head racing game fans will find a number of reasons to denigrate the title. But it’s not about that, not in spirit. It’s about speed, mayhem and fun.

The player is placed at the wheel of a number of really awesome cars and charged with becoming the most wanted street racer of a large, free-roaming city. The free-roaming is important in the single player game because that’s how the player finds new cars. There are no car dealerships here – rather, the player drives around until they find a fancy set of wheels parked at the side of the road, and jacks it.

The new car will then be added to the playable cars at the user’s disposal.

Each car has a series of races that unlock broad upgrades

Review

hen Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit came out a while back, everyone gave the thumbs up to Criterion for revitalising the series to a large degree. Then The Run came out, which wasn’t developed

by Criterion, and people complained about it. The good news is that Criterion are back again, this time with Need for Speed: Most Wanted. While this is a definite reboot, though, many of the elements that made the original Most Wanted such a popular NFS title are missing here.

Rather, this is a game that feels more and more like the franchise that made Criterion famous… Burnout.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it does take the NFS franchise even further away from any aspirations towards ultimate driving realism. Maybe the publishers have realised that competing with heavy hitters like Forza is not the best idea, and have embraced a more casual,

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for the vehicle. These can be further upgraded by earning speed points. To do so players need to do well in races, perform stunts, evade cops and act like a general hooligan.

In an attempt at a story, speed points also allow the player to compete with a ladder of most wanted racers.

The truth is, though, that the player can get through the ladder without ever taking on a single one of these challenges. The special cars they unlock are nice, though.

Most Wanted is all about competition, and has leader boards for virtually everything. It is surprising, then, that the multiplayer aspect of the game seems a little underdeveloped. Players gather to compete in a series of events, which include stunts, races and other challenges.

These earn speed points, which are the only way to get vehicles and upgrades in multiplayer. But it gets a little old

rather quickly.

Most Wanted is fun to play, but it isn’t free of problems.

Chief among these is navigation, whether free-roaming or in races. Route indicators are extremely rare. The player has to keep an eye on the mini-map to follow the route.

This becomes quite a challenge when driving fast, avoiding cops and slamming into other racers. Frustration is pretty much guaranteed.

Need for Speed: Most Wanted is a fun game, but it doesn’t really come close to Hot Pursuit. Restricted multiplayer modes, odd design decisions and general quality just aren’t where they should be as a successor to a really great game. Still, it’s fun to play, but is probably best in relatively short bursts. Most people will likely enjoy the freedom and craziness of the game, but that might not be enough to make it compelling. g

AT A GLANCE: Arcade Racing

Reviewed on:

Lots of cars and lots to do... but Most Wanted may not be serious enough for some, and feels more like a Burnout sequel than a NFS title.

Similar to: MaxPlayers Developer: Publisher: Distributer:

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, Burnout Local

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Criterion Electronic Arts EA South Africa

Parental Advisory

7+ gladget26

0

Violence Language Sex Drug Use Prejudice

Accessibility Hard-Core Medium Casual

X360 Platforms

Genre:

PC X360 Kinect

PS3 Move

Wii PSV DS 3DS

Score

75 89

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2

Junior…

Two heroes for the price of one… sort of.

by Walt Pretorius

T

to numerous hotspots of the 1980s, including Angola and Afghanistan, while his kid… well, that’s where the biggest change in the game comes in. Playing as Mason Junior, the player gets to experience near-future warfare.

Set in the year 2025, these missions introduce new technologies and gadgets that modernise the battlefield.

Thankfully we’re not talking laser rifles and that kind of stuff. The future-tech is all viable stuff, much of which is supposedly already in development. In other words, the sci-fi is low grade. That keeps the experience believable and engaging. The player doesn’t have to go through any form of unreasonable paradigm shift, which could have seriously jeopardised the experience.

The question still remains, though, as to whether the whole affair is just a copy-and-paste shooter. To a degree it is, but the decent story-line, as well as references to

Review

he Call of Duty franchise has become a little… well, repetitive. Rising from its World War II shooter roots, it really hit its stride with the release of Modern Warfare. After a few of those, Black Ops arrived, bringing with it a much needed breath of fresh air. Now, with the release of Black Ops 2, that freshness continues. It serves well to consider these titles as a sub-branch of the Call of Duty franchise, because they really do stand out. At the time of its release, I thought the original Black Ops was great, thanks to a solid story line, controversial subject matter and awesome, varied action. That trend continues with the sequel.

Black Ops 2 continues the tale from the original, with the player bouncing between Mason and his son as main characters. The Mason missions take the player

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real world people and events, gives the game an edge over other Call of Duty titles. It retains the great graphics, awesome sound and host of weapons, too, and also gives the player variation in combat styles. These aren’t often huge, but firing a rocket launcher from horseback or piloting a ultra-modern VTOL fighter do add some spice to the mix.

Another variation comes in the form of tactical missions, which task the player with not only taking on the bad guys, but also ordering a squad of soldiers and mechanised units around. It’s a nice addition, but there are simply too few of these missions for them to make much of an impact.

Multiplayer is pretty much what one expects from a Call of Duty title, with various game modes affording players the opportunity to take on other humans around the

globe. It’s fun, but there is nothing truly revolutionary on offer here.

And then, of course, there are the zombies. Zombie modes have a few changes to them, making them more enjoyable, for the most part. They’re tough levels, and this mode adds a lot – not only to the multiplayer experience, but also for the solo operator brave enough to take it on.

In the end, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 does amount to being another Call of Duty game. But it brings a bit of freshness in the form of the future tech missions, and – in all honesty – the Call of Duty formula works. It provides first-person shooter fans with what they want, which is why it likely won’t change much in the near future. And that’s OK, because the game is good fun, challenging and engaging. Which is what a game should be, in all honesty. g

AT A GLANCE: First Person Shooter

It sticks to the Call of Duty formula, but Black Ops 2 introduces enough freshness to still be entertaining, challenging and engaging.

Similar to: MaxPlayers Developer: Publisher: Distributer:

Call of Duty: Black Ops, Battlefield 3 Local

4

Network 18

Treyarch Activision Megarom

Parental Advisory

18+ gladget26

Online 18

Violence Language Sex Drug Use Prejudice

Accessibility Hard-Core Medium Casual

Reviewed on:

X360 Platforms

Genre:

PC X360 Kinect

PS3 Move

Wii PSV DS 3DS

Score

87 91

DVD Seen

DVD S

Movie of the month 92

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SEEN Being Flynn Based on a true story, Being Flynn assembles an excellent cast to tell a poignant story about people finding themselves. Jonathan Flynn (Robert De Niro) claims to be the next great American novelist. The only thing is, he has never had anything published. He left his young family years ago and survives as a cab driver, while still working on his masterpiece. But when Flynn’s life takes a turn for the worse and he loses everything, he decides to make contact with his estranged son, Nick (Paul Dano).

Nick has been drifting through life since the death of his mother (Julianne Moore) and is surprised to hear from his dad. What unfolds is a moving story about loss and self-discovery – it’s sometimes shocking, and will occasionally have you not sure whether to laugh or cry.

Being Flynn unfolds skilfully as both Flynns spiral out of control, and afford the viewer an extremely interesting look at a family dynamic gone horribly wrong. Director Paul Weitz and the rest of the cast and crew tell a masterful story here, but it is not one that everyone will appreciate. The mix of comedy and tragedy, with a healthy dose of drama, may prove a bit heavy for some viewers. g

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DIRECTOR: Paul Weitz DISTRIBUTOR: Ster Kinekor

FPB Rating: 16LSDP Score

STARRING: Robert De Niro Paul Dano Julianne Moore

88

93

Take Shelter

Here’s a film that’s not sure what it wants to be… it pretends to be a romantic comedy, and then tries to be a sort-of snobbish, high society comedy too. Two kinds of comedy, then, without being very funny at all.

A rich industrialist has aspirations at singing opera, so he spends considerable money to put on his own show.

He hires the best, but some people in his employ are not who they claim to be.

First Night offers some good singing and pleasant music, but the premise barely holds together. The cast members are a mixed bag, with Richard E Grant rubbing shoulders with Sarah Brightman. Grant can act; Brightman should stick to singing.

It’s not an awful movie, but it really does very little for the viewer. The dialogue feels forced, the humour is rather droll, and the entire thing feels like some rich industrialist wanted to make a movie, so…

The end result is a film that is forgettable. And that’s a pity, because some of the cast members really are better than all that. The film suffers from a lack of strong direction, and the results of that oversight are obvious. g

94

DIRECTOR:

Christopher Menaul

DISTRIBUTOR: Ster Kinekor

FPB Rating: 13L Score

STARRING: Richard E Grant Sarah Brightman Mia Maestro

60

When you first start watching Take Shelter, you’re not quite sure where the film is going. It doesn’t seem to be heading in any direction in a hurry. However, at the film’s conclusion, you realise how cleverly every element of the film plays into the finale, and that what you’re just watched is indeed a powerful film.

Curtis (Michael Shannon) is an everyday kind of guy, with a beautiful wife and daughter. But he starts having mysterious dreams that tell him about the coming of a horrific storm. He decides to fix up the storm shelter in the back yard, but his hobby soon turns to obsession. His mission begins affecting every area of his life, and many people think he has lost his mind. Even he isn’t sure that he isn’t going crazy.

Take Shelter is skilful in the way that it keeps the viewer guessing right until the end. It’s a slow film, more drama than anything else, but it manages to become gripping almost despite itself.

Great performances, particularly from Michael Shannon, make Take Shelter worth watching. And the clever plot, full of hidden hints and details, is rather entertaining. g

STARRING: Michael Shannon Jessica Chastain Shea Whigham

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DIRECTOR: Jeff Nichols

DISTRIBUTOR: Ster Kinekor

FPB Rating: 13PGLV Score

First Night

82

Hellraiser: Revelations

The unique Tilda Swindon heads up a cast that includes John C Reilly and the up-and-coming Ezra Miller in a BBC film about a family torn apart by a boy’s utter contempt for his mother. It is clear that, from the minute be is born Kevin dislikes his mother intently. Even though she apparently wasn’t ready to be a mother, Eva does her best to raise Kevin right.

But the boy’s apparent sociopathic tendencies lead them down a path that results in a tragedy that affects Eva for the rest of her days.

Although the cast was excellent in this film, special mention needs to be made of Ezra Miller, as well as the other youngsters that portray Kevin at various ages.

These guys are truly creepy, and lend a disturbing edge to this film that makes a massive impression on the viewer.

We Need to Talk About Kevin is a creepy film, to say the least, and it investigates the whole ‘nature vs nurture’ debate with a harsh eye. And, as such, it is great, although it may be a little far-fetched from time to time. Still, it’s well worth the effort of watching. g

DIRECTOR: Lynne Ramsay DISTRIBUTOR: Ster Kinekor

FPB Rating: 13LV Score

STARRING: Tilda Swindon John C Reilly Ezra Miller

83

For years, Pinhead has been played by the perfectly cast Doug Bradley, but when an actor as loyal to the Hellraiser brand as Bradley turns down a new film and refuses to be related to it, it is blatantly obvious that it is going to be a shocker. This film is a last ditch attempt by Weinstein Company prior to losing the rights to the franchise; it was made in eleven days with a measly US$300k and the production value is as subpar as expected. When Clive Barker heard about the film, he had this to say on Twitter “Hello, my friends. I want to put on record that the flic out there using the word Hellraiser is no F**kin child of mine. I have nothing to do with the F**kin thing. If they claim it’s from the mind of Clive Barker, it’s a lie. It’s not even from my butt-hole.”

This movie is badly written, poorly acted and the design is seriously below the Barker style. It is one cliché after another and, as a Hellraiser fan, I was nauseated to see the concept tortured, ripped apart and shamed for all to see. Avoid at all costs..g

STARRING: Steven Brand Nick Eversman Tracey Fairaway

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DIRECTOR: Victor Garcia DISTRIBUTOR: Ster Kinekor

FPB Rating: 18LSV Score

We Need to Talk About Kevin

30 95

DVD Seen

DVD SEEN DVD S

Collectables 96

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SEEN DVD SEEN Perfume This pitch-perfect art movie is the kind of film that reminds us of what cinema should be. It tells the story of a young man who can smell better than any other human being. In his obsession with smell, he learns how to make perfume from a master. But soon his experiments in creating the perfect scent turn murderous.

What makes Perfume such a wonderful film- well, one of the things, actually – is the way that the film almost lets the viewer experience the smells themselves, even though it is a purely visual and audio medium.

The cinematography is beautifully crafted, supplying the viewer with images that are strong and stimulating.

Add to that superb acting from a cast that includes the likes of Alan Rickman and Dustin Hoffman, and things get even better. But the true artistry in this film comes from the plot. It is, on the surface, rather simple, but it is riddled with messages and subtext for those that want to find it.

Perfume is an art house film that doesn’t feel like one. Strong imagery and awesome production values turn this movie into one that anyone can enjoy. It is a must-have movie for avid film collectors. g

Robert De Niro Christopher Walken Meryl Streep gladget26

DIRECTOR: Michael Cimino DISTRIBUTOR: Nu Metro

FPB Rating: 16LV Score

STARRING:

90

97

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