Gladget Magazine November 2013

SteelSeries loves South Africa

iOS7 safety tips

Be Eye-Wise

Free

Protecting your vision with Gunnar Options for saving more data

R evie w s inc luding M SI, Canon, L ogit ech, S ams ung, Raz er, T rit t on and more. . .

Mobile Security

I S S U E 3 7 / Vo l . 4 November 2013

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Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag Batman: Arkham Origins Beyond:Two Souls Skylanders: Swap Force Battlefield 4 and more...

Modern Conflict

Fighting for domination in Battlefield 4

Topsy-Turvy

Swapping body parts with Skylanders: Swap Force

Cowl & Cape

Back to the beginning with Batman: Arkham Origins

The High Seas Living the pirate’s life in Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag

Free Online Mag

Taking fun seriously!

www.gameccamag.com

Inside 6 From the Editor 8 Relax Your Eyes

Fighting eye-strain with Gunnar 14 Who’s Rocking SA Broadband?

The best of the best 16 Breaking the Mould

Razer is bringing something new to the table 22 Solid Steel

SteelSeries focuses on what’s important...

30 iOS 7: Protect Thyself

Tricks for keeping the new Apple OS safe 32 Who Needs More Storage?

Looking at the clouds 34 I Text, I Don’t Call

Three apps for habitual texters 36 All’s Well That Haswell

Intel’s new technology examined 38 Lookng Back: 1975

The birth of personal computing 40 Reviews

Hardware you want 62 Did You Know?

More fun facts from the world of technology

This Month’s Cover

64 Tshabablabber

Getting all Indie...

Keeping your eyes healthy is simple with Gunnar Eyewear.

See our feature on page 10...

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Reviews

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Acer Iconia W7 Tablet

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Canon PowerShot SX170IS Camera

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Tritton Pro + True 5.1 Surround Headset

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Logitech G510s Gaming Keyboard

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Samsung ATIV Book 8 Notebook

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Samsung NX300 Camera

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Razer Orbweaver Elite Mechanical Gaming Keypad

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GLADGET Volume 4 Issue 36 October 2013

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

MSI GTX780 Lightning Graphics Card

Competition Entries: competitions@gladgetmag.com

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Mad Catz MLG Pro Circuit Controller for PS3

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SteelSeries 5H V3 Gaming Headset

Design & Photography: 1337 Media

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Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag (PS3)

Marketing Contact: Katia Taliadoros katia@1337-media.com

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Battlefield 4 (X360)

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Batman: Arkham Origins (PS3)

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Beyond: Two Souls (PS3)

Newsletter Subscriptions: www.gladgetmag.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.

GLADGET is published by 1337 MEDIA

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Copyright Š 1337 Media CC 2009 - 2013

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ReaderAdapt

by Katia Taliadoros

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From the Editor

couple of days ago I received a letter from reader giving his compliments to both Gamecca and Gladget Magazines. He continued to write that he enjoyed the digital aspect as it became part of his routine of reading material on his business trips. He then proceeded to ask why we don’t print our Magazines as they are “good enough to go print”.

As someone who adores print and has been in the design and publishing industry for over twenty years, this comment struck a chord with me. Does print reserve the right to excellence and merit? Do online magazines have a reputation for producing quantity and not quality?

What defines a “good enough” magazine?

Marketing has certainly changed more in the past three years than it has in the previous fifty. Presently, most marketers don’t have formal digital training and readers are still adjusting to the mentality of these

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new forms of magazine consumption and lifestyle changes.

Ever since the iPad boosted the tablet market in 2010, digitally distributed magazines, ranging from beautifully enhanced interactive monthly issues to repurposed print PDFs, have transformed, developed and grown.

Digitally produced magazine brands on computers and touch screens (with more devices, more app stores and a constantly growing set of potential readers) are all creative challenges. One has to ask: what’s coming next in this field?

It intrigued me that even though we are catching up with the changes in technology, our mentality and traditions are somewhat still in conflict with these new forms of media consumption. On a personal note, I am afraid that with the increase of digital convenience, the question will one day arise if printed magazines will

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be good enough to be transferred to a digital medium. The sad thing about this is that it probably won’t have anything to do with quality but more to do with figures. But that is just the humble opinion of one editor.

As publishers we have definitely seen a drastic difference in the way people read publications over the last four years; how the market has adapted to the exponential growth of this techno-mania. And yet it seems to me that we are still in a transitional phase, one of adaptation. The most basic of answers to our loyal reader is this: within the context of our industry, we believe that the readership and marketing benefits of a free digitally distributed magazine outweigh the benefits of a print publishing platform.

It is a conscious decision that has been made, rather than on a whim, in which we have chosen this particular format in order to progress, adapt and evolve.g

RELAX YOUR EYES Feature

Gunnar presents a great way to c

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combat computer-related eye-strain‌ gladget37

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Feature

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t’s painfully clear … your eyes aren’t set up to look at a screen all day.

The problems with long term computer viewing are easy to identify but hard to solve.

However, through extensive research and testing, Gunnar created a solution through innovative and revolutionary technology. By reducing stress on your eyes and creating an enhanced and more comfortable visual experience, Gunnar helps sustain focus and alertness during extended computer or gaming sessions.

Whether you work on a computer for endless hours a day

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or engage in prolonged gaming sessions on a computer or digital display screen, it’s common to experience some visual symptoms such as eye strain, blurred vision, headaches and red, dry, scratchy eyes. These symptoms might be isolated or combined making you fall victim to a new occupational health disorder, called computer vision syndrome (CVS).

Computer Vision Syndrome has been defined as eye or vision problems associated with “near work” performed during computer or any visual display screen use. It’s a temporary condition resulting from focusing gladget37

the eyes on a visual display screen for uninterrupted periods of time.

Using a computer or engaging in gaming sessions for even two hours or more a day can cause symptoms of CVS. These symptoms occur in approximately 75% to 90% of digital screen users. This translates roughly to one in every five digital screen users who are affected. Some optometrists and eye specialists have even referred to CVS as a possible occupational epidemic of the 21st century.

The symptoms of prolonged digital screen use and CVS can be divided into 4 main

categories: visual, ocular, general and musculoskeletal and can include: • Headaches • Blurred Vision • Neck pain and back pain • Red, dry, tired eyes • Fatigue • Double vision • Difficulty refocusing the eyes • Poor concentration Gunnars are high tech computer and gaming eyewear designed to address the symptoms associated with prolonged computer work and gaming by protecting, enhancing and optimising vision.

The visual demands of computer work and digital display screen

exposure are unlike those associated with most other activities. Because computer work or gaming occurs at a shorter working distance, the eyes are constantly forced to focus. The eyes are in their most relaxed position when gazing objects of six metres or further.

When gazing these distances, the axes of the eyes are parallel and the tension in the eye muscles are equal. Also, the intra ocular lens, responsible for changing focus, is in an entirely relaxed state.

When viewing objects closer than 6 metres however, two visual systems are at work to ensure focus. gladget37

Accommodation refers to the visual process by which the eye changes optical power to maintain a clear image or focus as the distances of an object varies. This is accomplished by contraction of the cilliary muscles (muscles controlling the intra ocular lens) so that the intra ocular lens change shape, maintaining a clear image on the retina.

Convergence is the action of the eyes undertaken when the eyes must rotate inward toward the nose so that the eyes can focus properly. The closer the object the more the convergence demands on the eyes when

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viewing objects, resulting in eye muscle fatigue. As with any muscle in the body continuous stimulation results in muscle strain and ultimately temporary breakdown.

On paper, words are made of solid lines. On computer or digital display screens words are made of tiny dots called pixels.

Due to the constant change of colour and pixel density as the image on the computer or digital display screen changes your eyes have to constantly adapt and adjust to the continuous changes. This consistent adjustment and adaptation causes strain on the visual

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system, ultimately resulting in visual fatigue.

The above mentioned strain and adaptation of the visual system further creates a staring situation. Staring at the computer or digital display screen for prolonged periods without blinking causes increases in the evaporation rate of tears, which causes dry, irritated and red eyes.

Gunnar’s Fractyl lens geometry includes a specifically tuned focusing power to focus light before reaching the eye, allowing eye muscles to relax, and a high degree of curvature that wraps closely to the face to form a gladget37

protective barrier from drying air currents while trapping humidity close to the eye. This enhances detail and increases comfort, allowing longer sessions at the computer and game console without eye muscles straining as hard.

Eyes feel less tired and the dry, scratchy, irritated feeling goes away. In independent third party studies, alleviation of dry eye irritation ranked as the number one improvement brought on by use of Gunnar eyewear.

As hours of prolonged computer work and gaming go by, your eyes are subjected to harsh, high intensity, short

wavelength blue light and glare from the screen. Artificial light from energy efficient computers and overhead fluorescent lighting contains small bands of high intensity energy instead of equally balanced, full spectrum light the human eye prefers to see. The unbalanced, high energy light waves cause visual strain, headaches and visual fatigue.

Gunnar’s Ionik Lens Tints filter and balance the transmitted spectrum, reducing high energy visible light and warming the overall view. With harsh, high energy light reduced, more sensitive parts of the eye engage, increasing perceived contrast.

Reducing the overall amount of light from a self-illuminated screen helps visual recovery and reduces “after image” effects.

Improper office or room lighting can also induce symptoms of computer vision syndrome. Most offices are equipped with too much light, often in the form of bright overhead fluorescent lights.

Overhead lighting can cause glare on computer screens. These reflections and glare causes visual noise, requiring extra strain to mentally sort between the desired image and non-desired light.

Gunnar ‘s i-Fi Lens Coatings have anti-reflective properties that reduce reflections and glare. gladget37

By reducing and eliminating these distracting reflections, the screen appears crisp and clear. While some prescription eyewear has anti-reflective properties on the front portion of the lens, reflected light from the eyeball shows as a distracting element on the backside of the lens. GUNNAR uses the anti-reflection coating on both sides for a crystal clear view.

Gunnar Eyewear is also prescription compatible. The prescription lens program is supported and administered by Carl Zeiss Vision, the worldwide leader in precision optics for the last 160 years. g

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by Suvesh Arumugam Feature

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he highlight of the South African Broadband community’s year is generally the MyBroadband conference, this year held on the 9th of October in Midrand. The conference focuses on broadband developments in the local industry, from new technologies, to the roll out of broadband infrastructure to South Africans in all areas of the country. This includes Mobile, Fixed DSL and Fibre Broadband news from the major telecommunications players in South Africa.

The big highlight of the conference is usually the awards sections, with the ISP of the Year usually being the cream of the honours awarded. Although the pool of nominees doesn’t change from year to year much, it’s still a coveted prize amongst ISPs as symbol of who is dominating the market that year, and raising the bar for others to follow. Some of the categories are a little lame.

Fixed Broadband Provider, for example, might as well be called the Telkom award, because no-one else is really ever in the running. So Telkom’s multiple wins are more an indication of a lack of competition than a great performance.

This year’s big winner was definitely Afrihost, scooping the prestigious ISP of the Year Award (which has also been retitled from ADSL ISP of the Year for broader scope), with runners up FNB Connect and Axxess (also owned

by Afrihost). Afrihost have now won the award for the three years in a row (having only entered the market in 2009) and it’s a sterling indictment of either how well they have performed, or how their competition have underperformed.

However you choose to look at it, no other ISP has won the award three times in its nine year history, let alone three years in a row, which is bound to have their competitors plotting and scheming.

Afrihost’s CEO Gian Visser also bagged the IT Personality of the Year, edging out last year’s winner - Cell C CEO Alan Knott-Craig. Visser has become a spokesman for the common

man through Afrihost, calling for cheaper access to broadband, whilst spearheading innovation in the industry through client service & technological innovation. And he tweets about cool stuff. Definitely a well-deserved award.

Afrihost rounded off their dominance by winning the Forum Company Representative of the year, for their MyBroadband team, beating Mweb’s reps who have won for several years in a row. The triple victory meant that Afrihost swept three out of four eligible awards, and the fourth, Mobile Broadband, is a market they only just entered (probably as voting was well underway. So that one went to Telkom.

Despite Afrihost’s unprecedented dominance of the awards section, the real talk of the conference was undoubtedly Telkom. The beleaguered operator is often slated for their lack of inspiration, not only by consumers but other ISPs. And probably with good reason, as Telkom do control a fair bit of how ISPs are allowed to operate and how much they can charge their clients (based on how much they charge them for IP Connect fees and bandwidth).

Telkom wowed audiences this year with a demonstration of their new 200Mbps LTE service, with Mobile Executive Manager Amith Maharaj clocking an incredible 160Mbps demonstration live at the conference. Along with other aggressive market campaigns to strengthen their mobile market share, Telkom seem to have re-strategised and come out fighting to remain relevant in the broadband sphere.

Another talking point, though probably less dramatic, was Vodacom’s proposed deal with Neotel. The flailing fixed broadband operator was in deep trouble since the beginning of the year when rumours of a sale hit the news. Those same rumours put Vodacom, MTN, Dimension Data (owner of Internet Solutions) and other players in a major bidding war for the company. However, the competition is less for Neotel’s market share or brand, but more for its assets. Aside from the lucrative fixed installation network gladget37

to offer fixed fibre broadband to businesses and private individuals, Neotel also owns ICASA licences for frequency spectrums which could set Vodacom ahead of the competition for next-gen LTE/4G services. So aside from the estimated 15,000km of fibre optic infrastructure in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town (which Vodacom will now be able to invest in expanding) they will also control a very significant frequency spectrum in the South African telecoms space – which is an incredible broadband footprint.

From that point, it was mostly the usual yada yada, with not much more of interest to general broadband junkies. The conference was closed by a panel discussion comprising of Gian Visser, Leon Staphorst from Sanren (South African National Research Network) and Broadband Infraco’s Peter Mafagana.

However, this may have well been the Gian Visser show, as the bulk of the audience’s questions (as well as panel chair) were directed at Visser and Afrihost’s domination of the conference and the broadband space in 2013. Big Hairy Scary Balls, said Visser, is what was required to take the risks that led to Afrihost’s success. Their formula of aggressive pricing through subsidy, over traditional marketing, put them at the centre of a broadband revolution in 2009 and is the same thinking behind their Mobile Data offering, which is already gaining a lot of attention in the few months it has been on offer.

After the dust settled on the conference, and the delegates were absorbed in their cocktails and small talk, there was plenty for the bloggers and pundits in the broadband community to chat about, though ultimately there are still many questions that were left unanswered regarding Telkom Fibre to the Home (FTTH), Naked DSL and the future of Fixed Broadband in the wake of a growing mobile subscriber base and consumer spend. Let’s hope next year’s conference will start asking the right questions that will bring us these answers. g

Who’s Rocking SA Broadband?

Winners and losers in the local internet scene‌ gladget37

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BREAKING T Feature

Changing the way we game

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THE MOULD gladget37

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t’s painfully clear … your eyes aren’t set up to look at a screen all day.

Razer, as a peripheral designer and manufacturer, has earned itself a hard won reputation for innovation, with products such as the Switchblade prototype attempting to redefine the way we game. Recent years has seen an explosion in popularity for the company, both in South Africa

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and abroad, and thus rAge 2013 saw Razer come out to our little corner of Africa to show off the latest and greatest they have to offer. Jan Horak, PR Specialist for Razer, sat down with Gamecca to talk about the company’s latest forays into the world of gaming hardware.

First on display were the Blade and Blade Pro, the new series of gaming laptops from Razer.

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With both versions housing a 3.4 GHz Core i7 Haswell quad core, NVidia GeForce GTX 765M and 8 GB DDR3 dual channel RAM, these machines are serious pieces of gaming equipment, and are only differentiated by the screen size (the Blade features a 14” screen while the Pro version has a 17.3” display).

What’s more, for those that care about aesthetics, both seem

impossibly thin, with the Blade Pro having a height of 2.24 cm while the Blade is even thinner.

Given the hardware specs this already seems virtually anorexic, but according to Jan, “The thing is, you have to choose between power and portability. We tried to bring both of these together.

We could have made it slimmer, but then we’d be taking a step back in power.” Both versions

also look fantastic, with a clean cut style backed by Razer’s trademark black matte finish and green backlighting. Currently the Blade is only available in America, but Jan assured us that the laptop would be making its way to our shores, saying, “They’ve been sold out twice in the US now, which is the confirmation we needed to expand to Europe and Africa.”

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When they will arrive he couldn’t say, but given the right price point, the Blade could become a first choice laptop for gamers across the country.

As impressive as the Blade is, the Edge and Edge Pro, the new line of gaming tablets from Razer, were easily the highlights of the presentation. The Edge Pro in particular was jaw dropping, with a 10.1” display powered an i7

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dual core, NVidia GT 640M and 8 GB DDR 3 RAM. The Edge, while not as powerful as the Pro version, is certainly no slouch either, with the same graphics card but housing instead an i5 dual core and 4 GB DDR3 RAM. “It’s taking the power of a desktop to mobile”, as Jan says, all the while demonstrating a visually flawless playthrough of

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Dishonoured. While the product might seem extremely niche, there’s method to Razer’s madness, as Jan explains, “For the several years there’s been a strong trend towards mobile gaming, but there hasn’t really been a real gaming tablet. If you take an iPad for example, you can play Angry Birds and that’s it. So this is why we came up with the Edge gaming tablet.”

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With both iterations featuring a full version of Windows 8, any PC application, be it gaming or business, should be able to run on the Edge. Simply load up Steam or Origin, download any game in your collection and game to your heart’s content.

For those that are worried about the control scheme, Razer have launched three different accessories, namely a gamepad

for console style gaming, a home docking station that will allow for HDMI output and gamepad controllers, and even a keyboard dock that converts the Edge into a legitimate laptop. The tablet won’t be upgradeable, meaning that in a few years the hardware will become obsolete, but Jan assured us that should the Edge be a success, Razer will definitely be releasing future versions.

Considering Razer’s history as a peripheral manufacturer, the push towards laptops and tablets might seem a strange move from the company. The idea is simple though, and put succinctly by Jan, “The company policy and goal of Razer has always been and will always be to be everywhere that gaming is taking place, no matter if it’s PC gaming or mobile gaming.” The

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Blade and the Edge are already proof that Razer is forging ahead with this plan, shattering accepted standards and pushing boundaries wherever they can, and wherever they see a need.

What this entails for the future is uncertain at present, but given the company’s history of innovation no doubt exciting times lie ahead, for Razer and gamers alike. g

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Solid St

Interview

Focusing on core principles and essential

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teel

l values

Ever since its inception in 2001, SteelSeries has been known as a company dedicated to producing quality peripherals, and has become a first choice for many gamers worldwide.

Having chosen rAge as the venue to launch the new Rival mouse, which had gamers and press alike itching to try it out, Gamecca found itself privileged enough to sit down with Flemming Gyldenhammer - Sales Manager for Emerging Markets- and Dan Sønderskov - Regional Marketing Manager for Emerging Markets – to discuss new tech, the South African gaming scene and eSports in general. gladget37

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Interview

GM: Emerging markets seem to be a very interesting arena to play. What is SteelSeries’ view of South Africa, specifically as an emerging market?

FG: That’s a good question actually. We are very interested in emerging markets, so we are monitoring what is happening in the gaming community all the time, of course, and what is happening on the political scene and the economic scene.

And then we suddenly just realised, within the last nine months, that something is happening here in South Africa, that it’s growing and the community is more noisy, and we said hey, we have to look a little further in to what is happening here.

The economy looks good, the expo [rAge] seems to be growing, the community is more active, our brand seems to be mentioned online more, and so we had to look into this country. So the reason why we actually had a global launch of a product in South Africa is that, right, now we see that South Africa has good growth for SteelSeries.

GM: With that global launch for the Rival, what can

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you tell us about this new mouse peripheral that we should be excited about? Why should we be rushing to the store to buy it?

FG: Right! (Laughs) I mean, it could sound a little like I should gush here, but honestly we were a little tired of all the games about specs and price point and stuff like that. So one day we sat down with the development team and asked “is it possible to do a no bullshit mouse, with the best specs, for the best price?” And that was basically the task for development.

So we went for getting the highest grade specs for every component, and we tried to hit a really good, aggressive price point so we could compete with everything, be a competitor in every respect. That’s why we named it the Rival.

GM: There seems to be a very strong design philosophy in SteelSeries, that we’re not seeing the bells and whistles. These are products that are no-nonsense products that do the job and don’t have extraneous bits that we don’t need. Is this a trend that we are going to continue seeing in the future?

FG: Yes, it is. We have been on a mission to go back to our basic philosophy. It is that we are going to make honest products that are authentic to the gamers’ needs, in terms of being a better gamer and having a better gaming experience.

What we were seeing from ourselves is that we were drifting away from that, in terms of having too many publisher related items, instead of our generic products, because we saw that they were easy to sell.

So we were sliding a little way from that.

Last year we made a decision that we were going to take a little step back, to be honest and authentic to gamers’ needs again. So what you’ll see is that we’ll come out with products where functionality will be first priority. But we also have learned that gamers also want be sexy, they want to have lights in the headphones, or lights in the mouse.

It doesn’t make you a better gamer, though.

But we have to adapt to it, we have to go in that direction, so that we will not only offer functionality, but good design as well.

GM: There have been some moves among your competitive peripheral

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manufacturers that have taken them in slightly new directions, particularly things like notebooks and tablets, that kind of thing… are there any plans like that for SteelSeries, or are you guys just really going to work on the peripheral market and perfect the peripheral market?

FG: We have, of course, been looking into this, and what they are doing looks exciting, but we are not ready to do this kind of investment with our assets. We’ll be more focussing on the peripherals that help you in gaming.

Saying that, those could easily be things that you haven’t seen so far. It could be voice recognition, so that you can give a command through your headset and get an action, it could be iris or eyeball tracking, that means you can maybe move your cursor through your eyes, or even other things, and we’ll be looking into that. So we’ll be more involved in the peripherals controlling the game, and not so much into the electronics or the laptops and things like that. We have been staying away from that for a while now.

GM: Talking about that

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Interview

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emerging technology, there have been a couple of exciting projects that have been launched through Kickstarter and what not, the Oculus Rift for example. Are you guys seriously looking at developing that sort of technology?

DS: I think we are looking into everything that can improve gaming. Being gamers, I think that’s the most important thing. But what I think what Flemming is saying is right, so if it helps a gamer, yes we will look into it. But we are not electronic laptop experts. We have partnerships with people who are electronic laptop experts. So I think we need to perfect what we’ve got.

We are of course evolving, because people demand it, but the main focus will be helping people to win. We are doing a sponsorship with eSport teams to promote eSports, and to let them try our products, get feedback from the gamers.

Doing the Rival, we intended to have professional gamers here who helped us develop these products to tell the true authentic story, I think that is the most important part. With

that said, you know, we will of course look at the opportunities, but it will be to help your gaming, and that will be our main focus.

GM: You’ve actually mentioned two things that I need to ask you about. First of all, most partnerships that you have, for example with MSI on their G-Line, such as the GT 70 with its SteelSeries keyboard… how important is that sort of partnership to the overall SteelSeries picture?

DS: In gaming, you know, I think when you look at the gaming environment as a whole, not only PC Gaming or anything like that. We have a partnership so that we can publish our products together with Blizzard for Diablo products or mice for World of WarCraft.

We’re into the gaming.

We do products for them, and it’s very important for us to be in touch with them, involving us, and those partnerships make us work harder. That makes us improve on everything we do and that’s really, really important to us. It’s one thing to create the mouse but it’s another thing to elaborate afterwards.

FG: Regarding MSI, just a side

note, basically you see the laptop manufacturers or any other manufacturers, they often use an audio company to do the audio inside and so on, and basically what MSI did here was to ask us is if we could help them on the keyboard. If they use SteelSeries in the marketing and it’s mentioned on the retail box they just realised that the gamers, the hard-core gamers, are looking to that product more readily than if it’s just an MSI. So basically, this is not an intention for us to go into laptops through MSI at all, it’s just that we were used as a marketing tool for MSI. DS: And to put our technology into it.

GM: Are you ever going to look at the broader market, or is it always going to be gaming focussed?

DS: I think that’s what Flemming mentioned before, I think we want to step back from that. We want to perfect the peripherals that we do, to create better products, and if we try to go into mass market I think we will lose the authentic DNA of what we do. We need to evolve and be better.

So again, towards new technology, there are a lot of options, everybody knows that. So what is the next thing you can do

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on a mouse? You can maybe do fingerprints, like on the iPhone, so that it’s only your mouse… there’s a ton of options. But will it help you be a better gamer? I don’t know, it might do, but if it’s something people wanted we can do it. But going lower price to suit another segment, I think we would rather focus in general on having high quality products and evolving these products.

FG: Of course we’ve discussed that many, many times, it’s very tempting and it’s probably pretty easy to pick up that fruit because we’d generate some revenue very fast probably. But we believe it will dilute our brand and the values at our core.

GM: Now does that count from the other direction? Because we’ve seen some peripheral devices out there that are extremely niche and extremely specific for game type A and not really appropriate for other types of games. But from SteelSeries we’re seeing stuff that’s more generalised. Is that the case, that you’re not going to get specific on devices?

DS: I tend to agree,

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Interview

with ambidextrous mice and that sort of thing, like USB on headsets.

But then I tend to look at publishers, we do specific products for specific games with publishers, so I actually think that we’re very specific and very general at the same time. You know, having the full portfolio, if you’re really specialised into World of WarCraft and you buy the World of WarCraft mouse, it’s a mouse made for that, it has a hook into the game so you can control the game with the mouse. Not a lot of people know that, but it’s actually a very close collaboration with Blizzard. We have other mice where we’re doing that, for example Diablo. We did that together with the publishers but it’s very specific and we can do very specific things.

GM: How important are sponsorships to you at SteelSeries?

DS: It’s so much embedded in our DNA. We started out in that way. We love eSports, and I think that it’s just a part of the company and the people working in the company. I can’t see us not having it.

We have a lot of teams across the globe, and not everybody can be a pro-gamer, but I think that we can help along the option of going pro-gaming, if

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you understand what I mean? So that’s what we want to further, and there’s a huge variety. What is that?

What is being a progamer, and what is pro-environment and what is eSports? Live stream from home is also eSports, right?

So there’s just things happening in that environment now, so in general having sponsorships is very, very important us.

FG: We have that in several levels. We have of course high tier, like Na’Vi and Fnatic. These teams, I compare them to situations like soccer or football; they are like Barcelona, Manchester United and such teams. And then we have lower layers, down to local teams and cities or to smaller countries like Czech or Bulgaria, so we sponsor them and fund them, like we do here in South Africa as well. We know that the community looks at it, they get a role model and they get the stars in the country, so it’s very important for our marketing.

GM: How different are you finding it marketing to an African market, as opposed to European or North American?

DS: If you look, apart from the economic side, there’s a very scattered market

in terms of buying power. In Europe it’s easier to target gaming in general because everybody has a certain standard, and we have a pretty firm price policy across the globe. In emerging markets the products, compared to in the Nordics and Europe, can be pretty expensive. So having the new products come out, you know we have the (Siberia) Elite and the 9H, compared to normal headphones in emerging markets are quite expensive.

Then we did the Rival, right, which is actually different because we want it to be the best mouse and it’s righthanded. It’s not the first right-handed we did, but it’s unique for us to do a generic mouse that is righthanded. So again, we’re trying to follow up and saying, ok, we will of course evolve in everything that we do, and we need to products that are true and authentic, and that’s really a part of our DNA. FG: Slightly away from the question, I guess!

GM: Now I think, just in closing, from each of you, just a comment on your favourite aspect of SteelSeries. What is that you love, and that makes you passionate about your product?

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FG: For me it’s the fact that we’ve managed to come back on track after a slightly confused period, as we mentioned before. That we are authentic, that we really, really want to use the knowledge from the gamers, the pro and amateur gamers’ input, in our product development, and try to make sure that happens for real.

I’m so proud that this is actually not just something we say, but this is a fact. We have focus groups, we invite people and ask them a lot of questions, they test the products, and that makes me proud.

DS: Yeah I think mine is similar, but I really do feel that we have a deep seated love for eSports and gaming. I think that is we build on. If you look at the history, starting out with the mouse pad in 2001, and then evolving gaming, we’ve always been true to this, we still stick to what we believe in, and that has to be something I’m really proud of as a gamer myself.

I think that’s really important to help gaming along in the world, because we all need gaming.

FG: And I believe, just as a final note on this, I believe that if we basically maintain to be honest to what we do you’ll see us in thirty years as well. g

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by Iwan Pienaar

M

any pundits believe that Apple iOS7 represents the biggest evolution in the company’s mobile operating system since it launched the iPhone in 2007. And with such a substantial change, there are some security and privacy features to be cognisant of as you try and minimise malicious attacks on your device. We give you a rundown of the most important ones:

Activation Lock

Activation Lock integrates with the well-known Find My iPhone app. In iOS7, turning off Find My iPhone will require your AppleID and password details. So if someone has physical access to your device, you can still track and remotely lock it. If a person tries to restore or erase the device, once again, they will need your AppleID details. If the device is locked, and a thief enters the device into recovery mode, the device can be restored, but the original AppleID will be required to activate it.

So it boils down to the fact that if you are not the device owner you won’t be able to use it. Of course this also means that you should never forget your AppleID details.

Also remember that if you end up selling your device, you will need to turn Activation Lock off. To do so go to ‘Settings > Find My iPhone/iPod/iPad’.

Move the slider to ‘Off’, and you will be prompted for your Apple ID and password. Enter those and again tap to turn off.

Virtual keychain

Feature

Another feature worth playing with is iCloud Keychain. This lets users store the passwords for their various iDevices in the iCloud and sync these passwords across trusted Apple devices. It is also able

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to store credit card data as well for those handy online purchases you need to make.

The passwords and other information will be stored in a strongly encrypted format (256 bit AES encryption).

In addition, the password management feature also issues recommendations for users on how to create stronger passwords.

Microphone say what?

Added to the list of GPS, photos, and calendar, iOS 7 will now ask if a user wants to allow apps to gain microphone access. As such, Microphone now has its own Privacy Section under Settings. To monitor which apps do have microphone access granted head to ‘Settings > Privacy > Microphone’. You never know who might be listening.

Browse in private

While the Safari app already provided private browsing previously, it is a lot easier to access in iOS 7. Tap the two stacked boxes icon in the bottom right of the screen in Safari, and then select ‘Private’ at the bottom left of the screen to activate it. You can keep open or close any non-private browsing tabs before entering Private mode.

Limit ad tracking

Apple has also introduced a function with which users can limit targeted ads, based on your Web and app preferences. Apple provided a new ‘Identifiers for Advertisers (IDFA) system in iOS 6, but some users were frustrated it was not more obvious how to opt out. In iOS 7, users can now find the optout option under ‘Settings > Privacy > Advertising’. Here the ‘Limit Ad Tracking’ option can be turned on or off.

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Location services

Similar to the ‘Limit Ad Tracking’ option, iOS 7 also introduces the ability to opt out of the collection of frequently visited location data. This data is collected anonymously, but users may not wish it to be collected at all. The opt-out function can be found under ‘Settings > Privacy > Location Services’.

On the ‘Location Services’ screen choosing ‘System Services’ will display locations that are frequently visited.

Mobile data

Okay, while strictly speaking not a security tip us South Africans are all too aware of mobile data costs. Certain apps such as YouTube and other streaming apps use a large amount of data. Some of these apps include a Wi-Fi only option that restricts them from using your precious mobile data and keeping control of your budget.

However, you can manage the data access for all your apps in the Settings app.

To restrict cellular data access open the Settings app, tap ‘Cellular’ and scroll down to the bottom. There you can turn off any apps that you do not want to use mobile data.

Reach out and touch something

If you are lucky enough to have a new iPhone 5s, remember the Touch ID fingerprint identity sensor in the Home button is there to scan your fingerprint to unlock your iPhone, removing the need to enter your passcode every time you unlock your phone.

As with anything, there are hacks around to bypass it but it does add an additional layer of security.

So go out test your settings, and be safe out there. But most important have fun! g

iOS7 Protect Thyself Navigating your security options

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By Michelle Marais Feature

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isualise packing for a trip to the Bahamas. You have one (small) suitcase, and a week’s worth of clothing to pack in. What do you do? Your first option is to cut back on the amount of clothing you’re prepared to pack in, but what happens if you need that raincoat on the beach? Option two is to purchase additional luggage, with the cost of the bag and the additional freight costs factored in. This can, however, be a bulky option.

There is an additional option – fly with friends, and share luggage space.

To translate the analogy, when saving your documents and multimedia becomes an issue due to space constraints on your available storage solutions (ie. hard drives) you can a) delete the data you have collected, which you may need at a later stage, b) purchase additional drives, which can become cumbersome dependant on the amount of data you may require storage for, or c) transfer your data to a public or private cloud.

According to Wikipedia, cloud computing is “a colloquial expression used to describe a variety of different types of computing concepts that involve a large number of computers connected through a realtime communication network such as the Internet.” This definition of cloud storage means storing, uploading and accessing your data via an off-site data centre such as Dropbox or Amazon Web Services (AWS) in a public cloud computing environment, where there are potentially real risks to your data security, despite redundancy measures, like

saving your data on multiple servers, put in place by the service providers in the event of a server failure.

Wikipedia goes on to say “The phrase is also more commonly used to refer to network-based services which appear to be provided by real server hardware, which in fact are served up by virtual hardware, simulated by software running on one or more real machines. Such virtual servers do not physically exist and can therefore be moved around and scaled up (or down) on the fly without affecting the end user – arguably, rather like a cloud.” A private cloud can be generated with a device like the Thecus NAS. NAS or Network Attached Storage is a system consisting of one or more hard drives, an Ethernet connection and an operating system. Companies looking for the best and most reliable data storage methods often choose network attached storage.

NAS enables companies and home computer networks to store, retrieve and share data in bulk amounts and is the most efficient data management tool available.

Instead of connecting directly to an individual desktop or laptop computer, a NAS server connects to your wireless router.

This effectively allows multiple users from multiple computers to access and share the content and files stored on it. File sharing can be extended into your home environment - store all of your media in one place and access it from anywhere in the home. You can have a media player in every room of the house and have them all simultaneously access

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files from just one NAS device. That means you don’t need to constantly move drives around the house or keep numerous copies of the same content.

So what are the tangible benefits of NAS-based cloud storage for home and business users? Because the NAS is separate from your network server, you can comfortably avoid bandwidth bottlenecks and you can retain accessibility to your data at all times.

NAS servers are also easy to upgrade, by simply adding additional drives to an existing unit if you require more storage space.

Access speeds to a NAS server tend to be faster than standard connections to an external hard drive.

Added benefits include sophisticated, yet easy to use backup options, encryption software which protects your data, and the ability to share data across a variety of client computers running various operating systems.

Ryan Martyn, Director of Syntech and the President of EO Cape Town (Entrepreneurs’ Organisation) comments: “With just a few clicks, you can access all your files in the cloud but also know it’s saved safely on your Thecus NAS at home. Imagine listening to your favourite playlist or streaming a movie from anywhere in the world.”

The Thecus range of NAS devices is distributed

by Syntech, and is now available for purchase via resellers. You can contact Syntech via e-mail on info@ syntech.co.za, on the Twitter handle @syntechsa, or via Facebook – www.facebook. com/Syntech.co.za. g

Who needs more storage?

Looking to the cloud for solutions

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I text, I don’t call.

Feature

Apps to avoid speaking to people

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by Pippa Tshabalala

O

ne of the less appreciated apps in the smartphone users vast repertoire is the text messaging app. We don’t appreciate quite how versatile it is, and how awful it can be when it doesn’t work properly.

Having now switched between iOS and Android platforms on a number of occasions, I am beginning to truly appreciate the value of a good messaging app that works efficiently and consistently across platforms.

If we disregard the native text apps such as iMessage for example, we are left with what I see as three primary messaging apps that appear to be the most popular in the smartphone market: WhatsApp, Viber and the newly iOS/Androidified BBM. WhatsApp up until now has been my messaging app of choice, but increasingly I find myself, for a variety of reasons, exploring other alternatives.

WhatsApp Messenger allows you to text without incurring SMS charges, instead making use of data charges.

You can only text people who also have the app installed, both within your country and internationally. It works over WiFi as well as 3G so at times you won’t even be incurring data charges. The downside of this is if your recipient has no airtime, they won’t receive you message unless they’re connected to a WiFi network.

I use this app a great deal, especially because it allows group chats between friends, sharing of images and even voice memos but you can’t make actual voice calls. The other downside apart from no calling is that you can’t send files of more than a certain size, but it’s an understandable limitation as you don’t know if the recipient will be able to receive them.

WhatsApp is available on iOS, Android, Nokia S40, Symbian, Windows Phone and

Blackberry and although many of them began with different pricing structures, it seems that they’re all slowly reaching a standardisation.

Depending on when you downloaded it from iTunes you might have picked it up for free, or paid a standard $0.99c. Android users could download for free, and received a year’s free service, but thereafter were asked to pay a $0.99c yearly subscription fee. Likewise Blackberry has followed this same model, and it was introduced to iOS users this year. On the flipside, the equivalent of R10 a year isn’t exactly a steep charge.

Next up is Viber, which I really only installed to communicate with family members, especially since this is one of the services you can make calls with as well. While I might not personally use it a great deal, I have many friends who form a part of the Viber fanbase.

Viber is essentially a VOIP and messaging app that, like WhatsApp, allows you to text using Wi-Fi or 3G, but it takes it a step further and allows you to make calls as well. Again, this is only between users who have the Viber app installed, but it’s also cross platform on iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Blackberry, Nokia, Bada and even on your desktop machine, both Windows and Mac. It’s extremely versatile in that regard, and whenever I read through the features I always wonder why I don’t use it more. Ultimately I guess it comes down to the fact that again, your friends must have this app installed, and I know more people using WhatsApp as opposed to Viber to make this truly useful to me. Perhaps I should begin campaigning…

Anyway, moving on lastly to the new kid on the smartphone block, BBM or Blackberry Messenger. Now obviously Blackberry users have had this for ages, and while I

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completely understand its usefulness, particularly in the African market, after finally installing BBM on my iPhone, I am at a bit of a loss to see what the fuss is all about. After an interminably long setup process I’m left wondering why I bothered. I have never owned a Blackberry before, which means it’s not like all my friends are on BBM. Almost everyone I know has migrated to iOS or Android, which means that in order to capitalise on the BBM messaging system, they need to install yet another text messaging app.

BBM shows you when a text message has been delivered and read. So does WhatsApp. It allows you to broadcast a message and set a status.

So does WhatsApp. Avatars don’t consistently update for me. I don’t find the interface particularly intuitive but I suppose it works. Apparently (and I had to do a quick Blackberry user survey here), it’s vastly different to the BBM of old, being modelled more now on the new BB10 operating system look and feel, with the sliding panels that I personally just find annoying.

You can’t share video on BBM however, or contacts.

There are no voice calling options or video chats and the PIN number, while an understandable carry over from the original BBM system, is really just time consuming when it comes to adding contacts.

It seems that BBM might be a little too late to the party.

All the cool kids have already garnered the attention, and unless BBM offers something game changing, it’s likely they’ll fade into insignificance on every platform.

I’m currently conducting a social experiment to see if I can be bothered to have BBM installed for more than a couple of months. If it’s lucky it will make it till the end of the year but I don’t hold out much hope.

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By: Lein Baart Feature

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n the world of CPU manufacturing, indeed in the world of electronics, few companies can match the sheer force of presence that Intel commands. Not even AMD, Intel’s closest competitor, has come close to toppling the king from its silicon throne, and through a combination of brilliant marketing and superb engineering, Intel has created a brand awareness that is the envy of the semiconductor market. As such any announcement from the behemoth tends to turn heads, and with the release of Haswell, the latest generation of CPU’s, excitement is running rampant through the industry to see just what bag of goodies Intel has packed for us this time.

Considering that Intel made its name through desktop computing, it’s only appropriate to start with the desktop line. Haswell follows the “tick-tock” model that Intel has utilised since 2007, where one release (the tick) shrinks the die size while the subsequent series (the tock) modifies the architecture.

Haswell is in the tock phase of the current development cycle, and as such features the same die size as Ivy Bridge (22nm) but changes the microarchitecture, which is generally an exciting stage as this is where new features are introduced. However this also usually entails an overhaul of the socket design, meaning that anyone looking to upgrade to Haswell is going to have to purchase a new motherboard. Depending on your current computer specs this might not be a bad idea though, as not only does the new chipset design (Z87) feature improved support for a whole gamut of tech, such as USB 3.0 and SATA 6G, but

it’s worth remembering that the next generation should use the same socket as well.

CPU’s, especially in the desktop space, are all about numbers though, and in this area Intel may have left many PC gamers and enthusiasts feeling a little underwhelmed.

The flagship of the series is the i7-4770K, which has four cores running at 3.5GHz with an 8MB L3 cache. It sounds impressive, until you remember that the Ivy Bridge i7-3770K had exactly the same specs. That’s not to say there haven’t been improvements, with a whole of host of tweaks that will definitely give you a performance boost, it’s just that the gains aren’t as substantial as one would expect. The one area that the Haswell chips do shine though is in the graphics department, which is clearly where Intel have spent a significant portion of their time. All the desktop CPU’s, with the exception of the budget Pentium range, will come equipped with the Intel HD 4600 integrated graphics processors. These are markedly better than their Ivy Bridge counterparts, and with the ability to play the latest titles at decent resolutions, graphics cards no longer appear to be quite the necessity they were before.

Don’t be fooled however as even a mid-range card will give noticeably better performance, and anyone looking to get the best out of their computer will be well advised to keep this in mind.

So while Haswell isn’t exactly going to dazzle the desktop crowd, things are looking vastly different for mobile computing. The whole series features a frankly staggering level of integration, all of which is designed to

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make Haswell a dream come true for laptop and tablet users. The name of the game here is power efficiency, and Intel have made some incredible boasts, claiming up to fifty percent improvement in battery life, with some devices able to achieve up to 9 hours of continuous, active use. The integrated graphics in the chips, while nothing great for desktops, suddenly gain new meaning, as laptops, All-In-Ones and tablets have traditionally lacked the space to include high level graphics cards. Certain top-range mobile and laptop CPU’s even feature enhanced versions of the GPU known as the Iris and Iris Pro, allowing the mobile market to finally expand into the gaming sector.

Intel has its eye on more than just graphics and battery life however, and nowhere is this more evident than in its promotion of 2-in-1 devices, such as its own series of Ultrabooks.

The concept behind it is fascinating, having both tablet and laptop capability in one appliance, and Haswell seems to have been designed specifically to enable 2-in-1’s to become a major product in the market. Touch, face and voice recognition and even gestures (where you flap your hands about like an idiot in front of the screen) have all received increased support as part of Intel’s effort to promote what they call “perceptual computing”, allowing an extraordinary level of interaction. Coupled with the low weight and thin form factor which results from the integration of so many components, and Haswell’s true purpose becomes clear: this is a generation meant to usher in a new age of computing. g

All’s Well that Haswell At least if you’re into mobile… gladget37

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By Lein Baart

1975 The Birth of the PC

Looking Back

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s far as global events go, 1975 marked a relatively quiet year for the world. With the end of the Vietnam War, which had raged for just shy of ten years at that point, the nations of the world once again took to tersely glaring at each across the eastern/western divide. That wasn’t to say this was a year devoid of horror though, with the IRA bombings in London and the start of the civil war in Lebanon, but by and large it was mostly confined to movie audiences watching the first Jaws release, or parents despairing over the massive popularity of rock and metal, as Led Zeppelin, The Who and Alice Cooper continued to lead errant youths astray.

With the first moon landing only six years past, space exploration was still a top priority for the scientific community, both in the USA and the USSR, as it would continue to be for the rest of the decade. 1975 saw the Viking 1 launch, which would become the first operable probe on the surface of Mars. During its six and a half year mission the Viking collected invaluable data,

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including the possibility of living organisms in Martian soil, and contributed immensely to the study of human habitation of the Red Planet.

1975 also marked the first joint international space mission with the launch of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. While undoubtedly a political manoeuvre to cement fragile relations between the superpowers of the time, the ASTP also involved some remarkable technological and scientific achievements, being the first time that two spacecraft from separate nations linked up. Using the APAS-75 (Androgynous Peripheral Attach System) as a means to dock two distinctly different spacecraft, the mission resulted in a number of scientific discoveries, such as the detection of ultraviolet sources outside our solar system, and the first artificially created solar eclipse which allowed the Soviets to photograph the sun’s corona.

Closer to home, this was the year that saw Sony release Betamax to the public, and was the first salvo fired in the now infamous VCR format war. Despite

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its early release and superior recording quality, it was soon evident that JVC’s VHS (Video Home System) cassettes, released the following year, were set to win the war, being both cheaper and capable of longer recording times than the standard Betamax videotapes. While Sony were slow to capitulate at first, by 1988 they were actually producing their own VHS units, pretty much bringing the format war to a close.

This year marked an upheaval in the world of computers, brought about one event: the release of the Altair 8800. Created by MITS (Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems) the Altair was the first ever commercially successful microcomputer, a set of systems that were the early forerunners to the modern personal computer. Despite this, the Altair would be utterly alien to the most of today’s users, as early models shipped with no screens, and required the user to load programmes by flipping a series of switches on the front panel.

Powered by the Intel 8080 CPU, which ran at a powerful (for the time) 2 MHz, MITS sold thousands of user-assembled kits in the first few months alone (much to their surprise), and essentially created the age of personal computing.

An equally enduring legacy of the Altair though is the creation of a company that has become the unrivalled behemoth of the computing world, namely Microsoft. The story of the company’s creation has become legendary in IT circles, but for those who have never heard it, Microsoft (then known as Micro-Soft) came about when two childhood friends, Paul Allen and Bill Gates, read about the Altair and decided to call MITS with regards to selling an interpreter for the system, despite the software being non-existent at the time. Nevertheless, after a successful demonstration a few weeks later, Micro-Soft’s first product, Altair BASIC, was launched on the Altair, paving the way for a company that has since come to dominate the world of PC’s. g

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Reviews Highlights 46 Tritton Pro + True 5.1 Surround Headset Surround sound everywhere!

50 Samsung ATIV Book 8 Notebook A power player 52 Samsung NX300 Camera Bridging the gap 56 MSI GTX780 Lightning Graphics Card A real big gun

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n this issue we bring you more of our hands on reviews, looking at a variety of products that will enhance your life and improve your tech experience.

Whether you’re after some great gaming peripherals, powerful notebooks or a great way to take digital photographs, we have something for you - and more - to take a look at‌ g

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Hy

Review

Acer Iconia W7 Tablet

he idea of hybrid products – pulling together concepts taken from notebooks and smart tablets, in this particular case – is becoming more common. Taking great ideas from both device types and lashing them together to create a third, possibly more exciting kind of product is all about good intentions and capturing the market’s attention. As yet, though, there aren’t many devices that find just the right kind of balance. In the case of the Acer Iconia W7, the designers have erred on the side of being a little too much like a notebook in many aspects, while sacrificing one of the key ideas behind tablets: ease of transportation.

That statement may make it sound like the W7 isn’t portable. That’s not the case at all. But it weighs more than double the average tablet weight at just over a kilogram. That, combined with a bigger than standard 11.6 inch screen, means that the W7 is not really all that easy to carry around – certainly not when compared to other tablets. This idea is further reinforced by the idea that the W7 ships with a dock (which allows for both portrait and landscape configurations) and a wireless keyboard. So, in essence, as far as being a tablet goes, it isn’t the greatest option.

But then you have to take a step back and look at the areas in which the W7 beats other tablets. It sports an i3 Dual Core CPU, supported by 4GB of RAM. It also features a 64GB SSD for storage. Those specs might not beat out notebooks, but it certainly does trounce other tablets when it comes to raw power. Instead of feeling like a tablet, it feels more like a PC. The tablet itself is a solidly built piece of equipment. It features a mini HDMI output, as well as a USB 3.0 port, in addition to the expected audio and power ports. Sim and SD ports are conspicuous in their absence, though.

While the tablet feels well built, the dock does not. It seems like more of an afterthought, despite the fact that it expands the USB 3.0 port on the tablet into three USB 3.0 ports when docked. It simply doesn’t carry the strong design of the tablet through. The keyboard is a bit better, but it also doesn’t feel like part of the same package.

Being what it is, the W7 may prove to be impractical for some. But those that want a more powerful tablet certainly will get that from this device. It has a greater versatility out of the box, too, which is a welcome change. But certain aspects, including the lack of cellular connectivity, may raise a few eyebrows.g

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Striking a balance between Noteb

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ybrid

by Alex Scanlon

book & Laptop

Summary

Tech Specs:

The W7 is a niche product – it’s hybridity balance is not quite what it should be, but it is very powerful none the less.

M a nufa c turer Distributer: O nline:

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Powerful Good screen USB port

Dual Core i3 CPU 4GB RAM 64GB storage 11.6 inch screen Docking station Wireless keyboard

A c er A c er www.a c er.c om

Pros • • • • •

• • • • • •

Cons • • • • •

Heavy Flimsy docking station

Score

78 43

by Walt Pretorius

Covered Canon PowerShot SX170IS Camera

every taste th r o es era f m a ed c a s ays…

Canon ha

C Review

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anon seems to be producing a camera with every conceivable combination of features – something for every taste. We have, over the last few months, seen a lot of new offerings from this photography giant – and they just keep coming.

The PowerShot SX170IS offers the user a 16 megapixel option, with a rather nice 16x zoom. This zoom can be extended to 32x using digital zoom, as an added bonus.

The SX170 IS manages to present a very user-friendly set of controls, despite being possessed of a host of special features and utilities. The sensible control system is well placed, considering the diminutive size of the camera body.

This is another good quality camera in Canon’s ever growing stable. It allows all expected functionality and speed, and delivers great image quality… exactly what one would expect. Choosing it would come down to personal preference and requirements, when all is said and done.. g

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Summary

Tech Specs:

The SX170 IS is another addition to Canon’s ever growing stable, and offers the quality and functionality expected from this leading brand.

M a nufa c turer Distributer: O nline:

Quick Good image quality Decent optical zoom

16 megapixel 16x zoom 3 inch LCD Full HD video 32 Smart Auto scenes

Ca non Ca non www.c a non.c o.za

Pros • • • • •

• • • • • •

Cons • • • • •

It’s getting difficult to pick the Canon you want...

Score

80

Review

Tritton Pro Plus True 5.1 Surround Headset

All Who needs stereo?

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Surr

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round

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by Rob Edwards

I

f you’re after serious personal audio – particularly for gaming – then you need to get serious about your set up. And many people will say that the way to get really serious is to go surround. But that can be problematic for certain gaming platforms. When it comes to PC, a USB connection will do nicely, but for consoles… well, the common component cable hijacking system simply won’t cut it for surround sound. And seeing as you cannot split off of HDMI signal, that leaves only one truly viable option – optical.

Mad Catz seem to know this, which is why the Tritton Pro+ headset does just that… and only that. Inputs into the control box for this headset are USB and optical. That’s it. No component, no 3.5mm jack. This means that the headset is immediately limited to being used with devices that offer USB audio out, or optical audio out. You won’t be catching tunes off of your phone with these. But they’re about gaming, essentially, and to that end they work with virtually any version of PC, Xbox 360 or PS3… anything that can send out an optical or USB audio signal.

When headphones have a control box, they are generally wireless. That’s not the case here, either.

The Pro+ headset is wired, with a specialised plug that interfaces with the control box. The box offers two ports, so two sets of headphones can get audio at the same time – a nifty idea, but it does require the purchase of a second headset.

The headset itself looks the part. Bold colours and design ideas make it stand out visually, as does the funky, full function in-line remote. This remote offers full surround audio control, as well as independent game and voice controls, and a Selectable Voice Monitoring system. All the buttons are backlit as well, which is a nice feature.

And the sound? Well, each headset uses four drivers – one 40mm, two 30mm and one 23mm.

These independent drivers help to create an extremely good surround sense. And the overall audio performance is really excellent.

Mic functionality is provided via a removable boom mic, which can be unplugged when it is not needed.

The ear-cups and headband are generously padded, and provide a snug, secure feeling fit. The Pro+ is a little heavy, though, and the snug fit may get a little uncomfortable after really long periods of use. That shouldn’t be a problem, because we all know about taking regular breaks, right?

Overall, this is a great option for those who want excellent levels of surround sound in their personal audio. They’re a bit pricey, but they are certainly worth the expense. g

Summary

Tech Specs:

This is a truly great headset, but it’s strong focus on surround means that it isn’t as versatile as some others.

M a nufa c turer Distributer: O nline:

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Awesome sound Comfortable Multi-system compabtible

Optical input 4 drivers per ear cup Inline independent volume controls Removable mic Extra headset support PC, Xbox 360, PS3

M a d Ca tz Comet Computing www.c ometc omputing .c o.za

Pros • • • • •

• • • • • • •

Cons • • • • •

Pricey Very focussed

Score

90 47

The Logitech G510s Gaming Keyboard

Brand new blast from the past...

Wa

L Review

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ogitech are working hard to regain lost ground in the gaming market. Once a top contender as a gaming oriented peripheral manufacturer, the company seems to have slipped a little in the face of some very stiff competition. Still, their attempts are valiant, although they do seem to be a little anachronistic from time to time. Where the products that Logitech once produced were close to revolutionary, they now tend to feel like they haven’t always moved forward enough in the right directions.

The G510s Gaming Keyboard is one of those products. It isn’t a bad keyboard, not by any means. But it doesn’t feel entirely like the design has progressed all that much when compared to the gaming keyboards in the Logitech stable were the ones to beat. In fact, the only things that feel significantly different is that the backlighting of the

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keys can be customised, and that the keyboard allows for a few more macros to be recorded. The inclusion of an LCD panel, for example, is a great idea, and provides the player with useful information. But it’s a monochrome panel, which just feels too old fashioned.

There have been keyboards made by competitors that have offered full colour, variable program, touch sensitive LCD panels. Sure, it might be a little like comparing apples with oranges, but these ideas are pervasive in Logitech’s latest gaming products.

Even though it may feel old-fashioned in many ways, the G510s is not a bad gaming keyboard. It delivers great performance, and has a number of features that benefit the gamer – like the gaming mode switch.

When toggled, this switch will deactivate the Windows key, as well as any other buttons that may cause an interruption in games if accidentally depressed. It has

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by Alex Scanlon

mic and headphone mute buttons built in, to go with its integrated audio jacks. And it offers 18 macro buttons, with three memory sets – that makes a total of 54 macros, which may seem a bit excessive, but could come in handy for those that like a lot of automated control.

The design of the keyboard is also good. It I well built, and opts for down toned colour combinations; black, grey and blue-grey. The WADS and directional keys are coloured grey, for easy reference, and all the keys have a comfortable solidity to them.

Essentially, what this all comes down to is that Logitech are producing good gaming products these days. But their level of innovation needs some work if they are going to achieve their goals in trying to get back into that top tier of peripheral manufacturers. For those that want dependable devices without some of the more modern flash, they’re a decent bet. g

Summary

Tech Specs:

Logitech produce dependable peripherals, like this one... but they feel a little behind the times.

M a nufa c turer Distributer: O nline:

gladget37

Dependable

54 macros Backlit LCD screen Gaming mode Integrated audio

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

Pros • • • • •

• • • • • •

Cons • • • • •

Feels anachronistic

Score

79 49

Samsung ATIV Book 8 Notebook

N Review

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otebooks are becoming increasingly popular as computing solutions – the move to mobile and smart devices is all fine and well, but every now and then you need something that is more powerful than the average tablet, while still being portable. Samsung might be champions of smart devices, but they also realise that there are limitations to those that notebooks overcome. And so they produce products like the ATIV Book 8.

This is a powerful machine, all said and done. So much so, in fact, that Samsung hint at gaming on it.

Quite frankly, it doesn’t measure up to some of the gaming notebooks we’ve seen from companies like MSI and Asus, but it is perfectly possible to do some gaming on the ATIV Book 8. That’s simply because the specs are high enough to withstand the demands of most games – although some of the latest ones may be

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a little too much for this notebook to handle effectively.

If that’s not a problem, or if you’re not necessarily looking for something that’s going to be used for gaming, the ATIV Book 8 offers a very impressive spec list. At its heart is a 2.4GHz i7 CPU that can be boosted up to 3.4GHz. This power is given manoeuvring room by a standard 8GB of DDR3 RAM, which is fairly generous.

Storage comes by way of a 1TB HDD – the lack of an SSD is a conspicuous omission, and something that pulls the ATIV away from being an Ultrabook… something that, at first glance, it tries to be.

But despite its sleek lines and lack of optical drive, the ATIV Book 8 outstrips virtually every Ultrabook in terms of capability. It’s very portable, sure, but it packs much more punch. And it’s a bit bigger, too, with a 15.6 inch LCD panel (10 point capacitive touch screen, of course) dictating much of its dimensions. The visuals are

gladget37

Wicked!

A powerful alternative to Ultrabooks…

by Rob Edwards

delivered to the screen by a Radeon HD 8770M chipset (supported by 1GB of dedicated graphics RAM) which, once again, suggests the gaming ability of this notebook.

On-board audio comes by way of a pair of 4W JBL speakers that deliver surprisingly good sound.

IN terms of ports, the ATIV Boox 8 offers somewhat standard fare; headphones, HDMI, VGA and LAN ports are all present. In addition, it offers two USB 2.0 ports and two USB 3.0 ports, and a 3-in-1 multicard reader.

While the almost all-metal finish of the ATIV Book 8 doesn’t show a great degree of innovation in aesthetics, the device is still good looking and solidly built. Of particular note is its rather nice backlit keyboard, which is full size and features well space, chicklet style keys.

If you’re after the look and feel of an Ultrabook with more power under the hood, this is a very decent option to consider. g

Summary

Tech Specs:

This is a dcent sized notebook with impressive specifications – a great alternative to sometimes underpowered Ultrabooks.

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

gladget37

Nice specs Sturdy build

2.4GHZ i7 CPU 8GB RAM 1TB HDD Radeon HD 8770M GPU 1GB VRAM 15.6 inch screen

Sa msung Sa msung www.sa msung .c o.za

Pros • • • • •

• • • • • •

Cons • • • • •

LNo SSD

Score

89 51

Samsung NX300 Camera

Everyon

S Review

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amsung may not be a name that one immediately associates with photography, but the electronics giant have managed to carve a niche for themselves in this market, too. With innovative products like the Galaxy Camera (which is a camera with 3G connectivity and armed with an Android OS) Samsung have shown that they understand the ideas behind digital photography, and perhaps more importantly, how people wish to produce, share and consume digital images. But their photographic offerings aren’t restricted to camera-smart device hybrids. As an example of Samsung taking a more “serious” approach to photography, we have the NX300.

This 20.3 megapixel camera is, essentially, a simplified version of a DSLR. By simplified, we mean that the NX300 doesn’t throw a truck-load of potentially confusing controls and options at the user. Rather,

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Samsung have kept things relatively simple with this particular camera. In fact, they have taken in further. Using the camera in full manual mode, for example, results in tool tips popping up on the 3.31 inch LCD screen. This means that it goes beyond being simple; it is instructive, too.

Sure, it’s not quite the same as a full-blown photography course, but the explanations are enough to at least inspire the user to take things a bit further.

The NX300 uses a mirrorless system, which helps keep it smaller and sleeker than the average DSLR. It also offers a wide range of interchangeable lenses, allowing the user to get as much out of their NX300 photography as they want.

With simple controls and a retro look (that is perhaps a little too common these days) the NX300 offers a nononsense photographic solution. But it is also a powerful camera. The aforementioned 20.3 megapixel images are

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huge, to start. In addition it offers full HD video recording (obviously with the versatility of the interchangeable lenses). And it’s quick – not only in operation, but in its ability to capture fast moving subject matter, or low light images. With a wide aperture range (f3.5 to f22) an ISO range from 100 to a staggering 25600 and shutter speeds of up to 1/6000, the NX300 is a versatile and powerful performer. It even offers things like high speed burst photography. Those that want absolute control over their images will have RAW functionality available, while those that want to have an easier time can rely on full auto and a wide array of Smart presets.

The NX300 straddles a divide between power and easeof-use rather gracefully. It may still be too complex for some, or not complex enough for others, but it does cover a wide range of tastes and requirements. It’s easy to use, quick, versatile, and produces great images. g

y… t i l i f use and versat

Summary

Tech Specs:

With retro looks, versatility, power and ease-of-use, the Samsung NX300 enters the mirrorless market as a very strong contender.

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

gladget37

Very versatile Awesomely fast Easy to use

• • • • • • •

20.3 megapixel Standard 18-55mm lens High speed burst RAW Full HD video 3.31 inch LCD screen Wi-Fi

Sa msung Sa msung www.sa msung .c o.za

Pros • • • • •

by Walt Pretorius

er ,e as eo

Cons • • • • •

Looks more intimidating than it is

Score

95 53

M M

Review

Razer Orbweaver Elite Mechanical Gaming Keypad

ost PC peripherals that are aimed at gaming serve multiple purposes. You can, for example, buy a gaming keyboard and still use it to type emails and troll forums. There are very few devices that are truly gaming specific.

Game pads spring to mind, allowing the user a console-style control experience while playing a PC game. But using a mouse and keyboard configuration always allows the player more versatility… particularly if the keyboard allows macros to be recorded.

Razer’s Orbweaver falls into a gaming-specific category as well. This peculiar looking device replaces the keyboard with an ergonomic option for those who still want a wide degree of control, but who perhaps crave more comfort.

Basically, it is a stripped-down keyboard fitted with a palm rest. It offers the user 20 fully programmable keys, as well as an eight-way programmable thumb switch. And it saves unlimited gaming profiles, with an added ability to instantly switch between up to eight key configurations.

Add to that the fact that it can store macros of unlimited length, and you have a device that is truly beneficial to serious gamers.

The keys are mechanical, and require minimal force to activate. This means that the player should get lightning-fast response in any conditions.

Additionally, the wrist and palm rests can be configured to best fit the user’s hand.

Herein lies as issue with an otherwise remarkable device. It is intended for people with larger hands.

Small handed folks will battle to reach the topmost keys easily, making the Orbweaver a little less effective for them.

This is something intended for serious gamer types. You’re not going to get hold of one of these remarkable devices unless you aim to improve your gaming. It takes some getting used to, and users will no doubt have to train themselves to get used to the very different feel that it provides. If they take the effort to do so, however, they will not only be granted access to very responsive controls, but also to an added degree of comfort that will prove invaluable during long gaming sessions.

Users will also no doubt get a kick out of the response that the Orbweaver will elicit from others.

It certainly looks the part of a professional gaming device, and its solid construction goes hand in hand with a great, menacing aesthetic.

It might seem redundant to say this, but the Orbweaver is extremely specific. It will not replace a keyboard as primary input for any PC system.

Rather, it is a true peripheral; it’s not a vital piece of equipment (like a keyboard) but those who choose to make use of it will certainly notice the difference. g

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Key

by Alex Scanlon

gamers

Summary

Tech Specs:

This is a true peripheral – not essential, but highly beneficial to own.

M a nufa c turer Distributer: O nline:

gladget37

Fully customisable Comfortable

20 programmable keys Programmable thumb switch Unlimited profiles Unlimited macro length Adjustable writs rest Backlit Mechanical keys

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

Pros • • • • •

• • • • • • •

Cons • • • • •

Very niche Not ambidextrous Not for small hands

Score

80 55

Heavy

Review

MSI GTX780 Lightning Graphics Card

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eeping up with PC upgrades can be quite a challenge these days, as the component industry seems to be in ultra-high gear in terms of new product releases.

And the people that take advantage of these advancements (mostly video game developers) keep consumers on their toes by following trends closely. So it often becomes a case of either buying more affordable components more often, or making a more expensive purchase in the hopes of staying current for longer.

There are no components more affected by this upgrade spree than graphics cards.

These essential pieces of equipment are being constantly improved, and their vital role in certain operations – once again with a strong emphasis on gaming – means that the user will inevitably find that choice staring them in the face.

If you’re prone to choose the second option, then MSI’s new GTX780 Lightning is an awesome option, This graphics card truly is a monster; it offers the user a ton of power, at the cost of being a really massive, heavy component.

One of the biggest improvements that MSI have made to their graphics card range with this particular device is new cooling technology.

They’ve moved on from the TwinFrozr II system to what they are calling TriFrozr. The obvious visual change is that the card has three fans.

The first two cool the GPU, memory and power module, while the third (central) fan is dedicated to keeping the PWM frosty. The cooling ability of this system is enhanced by increased heat sink areas, as well as more airflow directed towards the card’s seven 8mm heat pipes.

The end result is a card that, despite the power delivered by the GTX780 chipset and 3GB of VRAM, runs remarkably cool. The fans even spin in reverse for 30 seconds after start-up, blowing dust out of the card. That means that heat due to dust build-up is also minimised.

Armed with Military Class 4 components, this particular card delivers quite a punch. To indicate the level of work that the card is doing, a side-mounted LED displays different colours, ranging from red for heavy load through to green for a light load. This requires a box with a clear side panel to take advantage of, and it may only appeal to tweakers and overclockers. But it is still handy to have.

Speaking of overclocking, the GTX780 Lightning is very effective for that end. The improved PWM allows for more precise and direct control, with faster response times.

Everything can get set via MSI’s Afterburner software.

This card costs a lot, but the expense is well worth it. Here we have a powerful graphics card that will certainly outlast smaller models in the current generation. If you’re willing to pay the price, it will serve you well for (theoretically) many years to come. g gladget37

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Summary

Tech Specs:

AN expensive but awesome option for those wanting a powerful, effective graphics card.

M a nufa c turer Distributer: O nline::

gladget37

Very powerful Runs surprisingly cool Good theoretical longevity

GTX780 GPU 3GB VRAM Military Class 4 components TriForzr technology Dust Removal technology

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

Pros • • • • •

• • • • • •

Cons • • • • •

Expensive Big and bulky

Score

95 57

Cont ga

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Review

Mad Catz MLG Pro Circuit Controller for PS3

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by Walt Pretorius

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hen it comes to gaming, customisation is a great thing. We do it with our PC gaming rigs all the time, and getting a device that allows us to access a more comfortable and enjoyable experience is always a big bonus. Customisation options are everywhere for PC. The same cannot be said for console gaming, sadly, and often people mention controller configuration first when they list reasons for not liking a particular console. Mad Catz, being the innovative company that they are, have a solution to that particular complaint, in the form of their MLG Pro Circuit Controller range.

There are Xbox 360 and PS3 options. We’re looking at the PS3 specifically here, but the same counts for both units.

What makes these wired controllers so unique is that they allow the user to change the positions of their analogue sticks and D-pad. Popping off the face of the controller reveals unlockable controls that can be changed around. So if you want your PS3 controller to feel more like an Xbox controller, for example, you can switch the positions of the analogue stick and D-pad on the left hand side of the controller. That extends even further, though – if you like the concave feel of Xbox analogue sticks, the controller comes with a set of those – as well as a set of convex PS3 style ones.

The same counts for the d-pad, which can be changed out according to user preference as well.

In addition, the weight of the controller can be varied by up to 70 grams, thanks to a weight cartridge in the base of the controller. Actually, it can only be varied in 35 gram increments, because there are only two weights… but the choice is still there, and a great added extra.

Lastly, out of the box, the face plates of the controller can be switched between glossy and matt.

Additional face plates can also be bought separately.

Overall, the controller feels more like an Xbox controller, even with a PS3 configuration. The placement of the home, start and select buttons are also a little odd, but one can get used to that. The build is very tough, though… you can rest assured that this controller can take a hammering and keep on going.

Equally as important as the high degree of customisation that the MLG Pro Circuit Controller offers is its performance… and it delivers here, too. It is at least as responsive as any first party controller, with the added benefit of the user being able to choose controls that feel best for them personally.

Honestly, it’s not the cheapest third-party controller around. But those that take their gaming seriously may well want to expend the cash it will take to get one of these; the enhanced and often improved experience it provides is almost priceless. g

Summary

Tech Specs:

Although it’s pricey, this is a wonderful addition to the arsenal of any serious console gamer.

M a nufa c turer Distributer: O nline:

gladget37

Extreme customisation Great response

Customiseable controls Customisable weight Customisable face plates Wired

M a d Ca tz Comet Computing www.c ometc omputing .c o.za

Pros • • • • •

• • • • • •

Cons • • • • •

A bit costly

Score

90 59

Simply Effec SteelSeries 5H V3 Gaming Headset

Good audio, great c

S Review

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teelSeries have a reputation for a no-nonsense approach to designing their peripherals. Why deliver a whole bunch of things that users don’t need (the company seems to ask) when excellent functionality will do? It is this approach – something of an uncompromising desire to build devices that aren’t flashy, but rather work extremely well, that has made tons of people sit up and take notice. Sure, they don’t have lots of flashing lights and extraneous knobs and levers, but SteelSeries manage to deliver where it counts: performance.

This is particularly true of their headsets. While one might be able to find reasons to not want to use a SteelSeries mouse or keyboard, there are very few arguments against their top-notch personal audio solutions. And they have some new ones on offer…

The immediate difference between devices like the

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SteelSeries 5H V3 and previous headsets is apparent in the looks of the unit. It is less flashy than previous products, opting for a sleeker, more mature look. The entire unit is black, with orange trim in the speaker mesh and thread used for the generous ear-cup padding.

There’s a bit of orange in the long braided cable, too.

The 5H V3 is a stereo headset, which should suit most users just fine. This buys further into the idea that this isn’t necessarily a gaming headset per se… rather, it is a multifunctional headset that can also be used with smart-devices and other gadgets requiring a 3.5mm audio jack. Not that it isn’t great for gaming, mind you – the 5H V3 is endorsed by a number of clans, and delivers crisp, clear audio of all kinds.

This is largely due to the dynamic 40mm drivers that the headset makes use of. The bass tones are rich, the highs are crisp, and everything in-between is clear and

gladget37

by Alex Scanlon

ctive

comfort combined in a simple design

clean. Volume can be controlled with a simple in-line controller, which also features a mic mute button. The mic itself is retractable, housed in the left ear-cup.

Although this is an over-ear headset, the ear-cups are quite compact. This helps with portability, as does the fact that the unit can be disassembled for easier (and safer) transportation. The ear-cup arms easily unclip from the generously padded headband. In addition, the cable can be swapped and “modified” to best suit the user’s needs.

While SteelSeries have a definite gaming focus in their product lines, the 5H V3 is a great example of a headset that is at home anywhere. Whether in the heat of battle or catching some tunes, this headset offers excellent levels of comfort and audio quality… without the flashing lights and complicated extras. Simple yet effective, it is a good bet for all occasions that require

Summary

Tech Specs:

The audip is great and the comfort levels are superb – this is a great headset for a wide variety of audio occasions.

M a nufa c turer Distributer: O nline:

gladget37

Very comfortable Great audio quality

Stereo 3.5mm jacks 40mm dynamic drivers Interchangeable cable In-line control

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

Pros • • • • •

• • • • • •

Cons • • • • •

Some may prefer surround sound for gaming

Score

88 61

Did You

Know?

1…that Facebook has 728 million daily active users?

Social media giant Facebook recently released their earnings for the quarter, and while they are still make a steady profit, the company also revealed statistics for their users. Facebook unveiled that they as of September 2013, they currently have 728 million daily active users, which is an increase of 25%. In terms of monthly users, they saw an 18% increase – pushing the monthly active users to almost 1.2 billion. The user base on mobile devices are slightly less, clocking in at 874 million monthly active users.

2

…that personal electronics will be allowed during take-off and landing?

Everybody who has flown on a plane in the last decade or so will know that flight attendants ask passenger to switch off their mobile devices and all electronics for the take-off and landing parts of a trip. Well, the Federal Aviation Authority in the US has ruled that airlines can now allow travellers to keep their tablets, eReaders and other Portable Electronic Devices (PEDs) on during all phases of flight, and is immediately providing the airlines with implementation guidance. No word yet as to when it will be branched out to other international airlines though.

3…that Grand Theft Auto 5 has

sold over 29 million copies?

Regular

Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto 5 has shattered almost all records this year in terms of sales and revenue, and now the company has released some interesting sales data. According to Rockstar, it has already sold nearly 29 million units to date. “The extraordinary success of Grand Theft Auto V illustrates the positive momentum in our business and consumers’ enduring appetite for the highest-quality interactive entertainment,” said CEO Strauss Zelnick. But this is definitely not that last from the record-smashing studio, as more titles will be released with the next two years. “We currently have more than ten unique titles planned for nextgeneration consoles, including multiple releases slated for fiscal 2015,” he concluded.

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Social media, messaging, tweeting in-flight and celebrity endorsements...

by Charlie Fripp

4…that BBM for Android and iOS

has been downloaded more than 10 million times?

Troubled mobile device manufacturer BlackBerry is well-known for the social messaging service BBM, which was until recently exclusively for their devices.

But the company released the service for iOS and Android devices, and in just 24 hours BBM has been downloaded over 10 million times by Android and iPhone users. This equated to one of the best single-day openings for a mobile app to date. “BBM also quickly rose through the rankings on the App Store to be the number one free app in more than 75 countries in the first 24 hours, including the US, Canada, the UK, Indonesia and most of the Middle East,” the company said in a statement.

5…that the PlayStation 4 won’t

allow MP3 playback?

It might not be a function that many PlayStation users make use of, but Sony rather unceremoniously announced that listening to MP3 files and audio CDs on the PlayStation 4 won’t be supported. In an official blog post titled PS4: The Ultimate FAQ, the question was asked “Can I listen to audio CDs using PS4?” with Sony giving a rather blunt “No, PS4 does not support audio CDs” without further explanation. To make use of the Blu-ray functionality, users will also need to download and install PS4’s day-one system software update 1.50, and then activate the Blu-ray Disc video capability with a one-time activation.

6…that Lenovo appointed

Ashton Kutcher as a product engineer?

Known for his semi-funny and often slapstick films, actor Ashton Kutcher was recently employed by electronics maker Lenovo as a product engineer and will work with the company’s engineering teams around the world to develop and market the Yoga line of tablets. “This partnership with Lenovo brings together my love of technology and design that makes your life better. I can’t wait to dig in and help Lenovo develop future mobile computing products, starting with the Yoga Tablet,” he said. g

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The Go-To Indie Girl Pippa Tshabalala

I

Tshabablabber

t appears that I have become the go to indie game girl. I’m not quite sure how that happened.

Don’t get me wrong I’m not complaining, I absolutely love the indie game scene, but I was somewhat surprised when I began getting emails from international indie developers telling me they’d been given my name and would I like to review their game. Normally if you want review code from indie devs you need to contact them directly as very few have dedicated PR agencies like the bigger publishers.

If you are on the receiving end of an email it’s often a smaller, little known developer looking for publicity (nothing wrong with that, who isn’t?).

So imagine my surprise when I began seeing emails from rather big name indies in my inbox.

Contacting me.

Not the other way around. I was lucky enough recently to not only be offered an email interview with Finnish developer Housemarque, but also a Skype chat with their Marketing Manager, whose game Resogun is one of the launch titles

Author’s photograph by Adrian Louw

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for the upcoming Playstation 4.

It’s very flattering, primarily because it’s something that genuinely interests me, but I also suddenly feel this immense pressure to play every indie game everywhere.

There’s something incredibly satisfying about playing a really good indie game, and while I love being able to play on my computer, I equally love the fact that there are a number of rather cool indie games coming out on mobile platforms.

I’m not a developer so while I could take a guess at the reasoning, I don’t have any stats to back it up.

Regardless, I’ve taken quite a shine to mobile gaming and there are some pretty awesome titles being released – enough to keep me coming back repeatedly to both iOS and Android.

Most mobile games are generally played in rather short bursts, so it’s a real art to be able to maintain the attention span of distracted users for a substantial amount of time and locally there are more and more developers going the mobile route, from Tasty Poison’s

incredibly successful Pocket RPG (they now have additional very cool titles!), to Thoopid’s rather addictive Snailboy, currently topping the iTunes charts.

Smaller, innovative indie games are the flavour of the moment and rightfully so. With fewer restrictions from publishers, developers can focus on being truly innovative and creative and the capabilities of a touch screen allow for some unique gameplay systems that wouldn’t be found elsewhere in the gaming market.

What’s more is that mobile gaming open up a whole new world to indie developers, and provides them with a unique and easily accessible market that perhaps might not go and buy a gaming console or a high end gaming PC, but who think nothing of spending money on a smartphone and then downloading apps for it. The lower cost of apps compared to console games also gives this more casual market incentive to continue buying mobile indie games.

And while I love my AAA console games, I’m loving and buying indie more and more. g

Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag

The Golden Age For pirates, and for the franchise…

by Walt Pretorius

A

far less focussed on the lofty goals and world-changing aims of the Assassin Brotherhood as he is on lining his own pockets with ill-gotten gains.

That’s not just a hollow concept – AC4 allows the player to indulge Edward, as well as their own pirate fantasies, by providing them with a massive map full of nooks and crannies to explore. The game world is almost a character in itself, with beautiful tropical islands to explore, savage storms at sea to navigate, and lots of ships to attack, board and plunder.

There is so much for the player to do in this massive and visually beautiful setting that ignoring the main plot is easy. Why go poking about in the story when you can do so much else? Hunting for animals to create new pieces of equipment (using a crafting system that is pretty much directly out of Far Cry 3), seeking buried

Review

dherents of the Assassin’s Creed franchise may well have wondered what could possibly come next as the credits for Assassin’s Creed 3 rolled. But by ending certain plot elements the way they did in AC3 didn’t tie the developers down… it freed them. The severing of certain connections has allowed Ubisoft to literally follow the second part of the creed: everything is permitted. And so we see the series move in a direction that, plot wise at least, is a bit different from previous Assassin’s Creed titles.

In Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, the player taken on the role of Edward Kenway, the father of Haytham Kenway and therefore grandfather of AC3’s protagonist, Connor. But where Connor was the emo kid of the franchise, Edward is the rabble-rousing rebel.

He is an aspirant pirate as the game starts off, and is

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treasure, exploring ship-wrecks at the bottom of the ocean, unravelling mysteries left behind by the Mayans, taking on assassination contracts, shamelessly hunting Templars... all that and more can keep the player busy for hours. And that marks a significant difference between AC4 and AC3. This story is almost less about the war between the Assassins and the Templars, and more about Edward himself. The lofty goals and ideals of virtually every other game in the franchise have been replaced by a tale that is more personal, more about an individual than an organisation. Therefore the player can feel free to spend time building up their own personal trading fleet, or improving their personal ship, the Jackdaw. The only times that the player needs to return to the plot is when they cannot do certain activities because they become available as plot points (there aren’t many of those) or if

they feel that maybe they should get on with the story a bit.

Even within story missions, the player is granted a lot of freedom, enabling them to handle kills and other missions is whichever way best suits them. That said, the main plot is a little weak, and the main missions involve too many annoying “follow and eavesdrop” type missions… particularly when you consider that the conversations being spied upon are generally a little… well… boring.

They’re a good challenge, sure, but they can also be awesomely frustrating.

Another frustration arises from the fact that Assassin’s Creed’s long-standing control bugbear makes an appearance again: tight turns and close environments may result in Edward starting to climb or similar things when the player doesn’t want him to. It is something that

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jungles. Each city has its own character, and the tropical setting means that the proliferation of foliage has made it possible for Edward to move around unseen by hiding in clumps of bushes. The expected may piles and other hiding spots are also present.

Another nod to AC3 is Black Flag’s naval combat system. This makes up a massive part of the game, and has been trimmed beautifully. Never before has a game with a pirate theme presented such a sensible and enjoyable naval battle system. Combining ship battles with hand-to-hand combat during boarding sequences (on objects that move independently of each other, no less) leads to a very enjoyable experience. Upgrading the Jackdaw means that the player will be able to take on tougher foes, even facing off against a number of the enemy’s toughest ships at a time. But it’s hard work to

Review

has been around for the whole franchise and while it is frustrating, it certainly isn’t a deal-breaker.

That leads nicely into the kind of environment the player can expect. AC4 has a lot on offer when it comes to places to explore. Like AC3, climbing trees and the like is once again an option – in truth, a necessity when it comes to some of the wilder sections of Black Flag’s world. But the game world is not as flat as it was in AC3 – buildings feel taller, and taking a leap of faith from the top of a man’o’war’s main mast is a heartstopping plunge. The game isn’t quite as vertical as the cities of AC2’s Renaissance Italy, but there certainly is a lot more climbing and rooftop running to be done here than in AC3. The game presents players with three main cities (Kingston, Nassau and Havana) as well as tons of other places, including towering Mayan ruins and dense

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get there, and the player will need to attack, board and plunder many ships to get the money and resources that are required. Ships that have been captured can also be sent to Edward’s fleet, which can be sent on tons of trading missions to generate more cash.

The control system is also an improved version of that in AC3. The combat system takes on the same “block and parry” approach of the previous game; the player activates a parry when attacked, and the action slows down for a split second while the player decides what kind of move they counter with. It’s a great system, and it makes for some impressive – even epic – fight scenes.

While AC3 may have been a slightly disappointing game, Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag more than makes up for it. It provides the player a massive map to explore, and peppers it with tons of things to do, find and collect.

The freedom granted the player in the beautiful and varied environment is greater than we have ever seen before in this franchise, and the player will likely spend a huge amount of time achieving their own goals, in addition to those set out by the narrative.

There’s multiplayer, too, using the same ideas that were introduced a while ago. Sadly, there are no naval battles available in multiplayer, but the Wolf Pack and other modes are still enjoyable, if not the mainstay of the title.

With so much to do and a rich setting to do it in, Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag will thrill fans and newcomers alike. With the expected attention to detail, historical accuracy and host of “famous” characters to meet, in addition to compelling game dynamics, it easily rivals AC2 as the pinnacle of the franchise. g

AT A GLANCE: Adventure

Reviewed on:

A massive environment, tons to do, great presentation and awesome action all combine to make this one of the best Assassin’s Creed games ever made.

Similar to: MaxPlayers Developer: Publisher: Distributer:

Assassin’s Creed 2, Assassin’s Creed 3 Local

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Network

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8

Ubisoft Ubisoft Megarom

Parental Advisory

18+ gladget37

0

Violence Language Sex Drug Use Prejudice

Accessibility Hard-Core Medium Casual

PS3 Platforms

Genre:

PC X360 X0 PS3 PS4 Wii U PSV 3DS AND iOS

Score

93 69

Battlefield 4

All Out War! Battlefield sticks to its multiplayer roots...

by Walt Pretorius

I

tried to ramp up the delivery of the single player story in Battlefield 4.

The result is a short campaign that sees the player cruising through various hotspots in a bid to take out the bad guys intent on… yada yada yada. It’s the same old thing we have seen time and again from these kinds of games. Only Battlefield 4 still manages to have the single player game feeling like it’s a tacked-on afterthought, rather than an important part of the overall experience.

It’s not quite as bad as the brutally linear tale told in Battlefield 3, but it isn’t that much better, either. It’s crammed with set pieces that Michael Bay could take notes from, and the characters that help tell the tale are stereotypical military types that have been found in virtually every piece of wartime-oriented entertainment since movies got sound. They’re a bunch of brash, bravado

Review

t seems, these days, that multiplayer is what it’s all about. This can be doubly emphasised for modern combat games. The two big kids on the block, Battlefield and Call of Duty, both vie for the valuable attention of online multiplayer fans, both with varying degrees of success. But while the COD series has its roots firmly set in the single player campaign, Battlefield has always been a multiplayer franchise.

Even when titles like Battlefield: Bad Company came along, with a stronger campaign on offer, multiplayer was always key.

But multiplayer isn’t all there is to a game, and DICE, the makers of the Battlefield franchise, are well aware of this. Faced with opposition that delivers campaigns that are not necessarily strong in narrative, but yet are compelling single player experiences, they have

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driven folk who spew clichés and overblown statements like it’s going out of fashion, and do little to add depth or meaning to an overall lacklustre single player experience.

And yet, graphically (on consoles, mind you) this is where Battlefield 4 shine. The Frostbite engine does a great job in capturing the atmosphere in overcrowded warships and decrepit buildings alike, with effective lighting and great animations. Still, the experience just doesn’t deliver. The AI is thoroughly thick, in the way that AI characters will push the player out of cover, and a squad engagement command (point and click orders, pretty much) is the only thing that will make them be even slightly effective against throngs of enemies. The voice acting and dialogue is more hammed up than a side of bacon. And the action follows the same pace throughout – fast, fast, fast.

Those that are not going to give multiplayer a good long go should probably wait to see what Call of Duty: Ghosts brings to the table in terms of single player. Battlefield 4 just doesn’t deliver in that regard.

But, once again, this is a game that has multiplayer in its very DNA… and it shows. The multiplayer aspect of Battlefield 4 is really why you would want to play this game. It offers numerous game modes, some of which are new, while still generally sticking to the massive degree of variety that made the series great since Battlefield 1942 was first released.

The battles, should you choose the right modes, are still massive and possessed of a chaotic nature that makes then equally intense and enjoyable. As always, the player has a wide variety of options, in terms of soldier classes and vehicles. The fight really in on land, in the air and at

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modes, and Battlefield 4 delivers. It features nine multiplayer game modes, ranging from the all-out-war of Conquest (which demands that teams hold strategic points in order to win) through to the tense, more personal Rush (with one team defending strategic points and the other attacking). One of the new game modes is Obliteration, in which teams are assigned targets that need to be demolished. A bomb randomly spawns on the map, and it is up to players to collect it and deliver the payload to their target, while the opposition tries to do the same.

There have been tweaks, too, to the way the game handles. Knifing someone from the front, for example, is not as easy as it used to be. That might be sad news for many, but it does create a more level experience overall.

There are lots of different ways to enjoy the

Review

sea in this iteration of the franchise, but the balance of power doesn’t necessarily lie with those who are great at piloting vehicles. A careful balancing act means that infantry can be as effective.

One of the biggest changes that a player will see this time around is that the destruction of the environments has been ramped up from Battlefield 3. Getting your cover destroyed makes quite a change in the game dynamic. On top of that, the multiplayer maps in Battlefield 4 demand a lot from the player, because they are fantastically built to do just that. Players will need to keep their wits and actions sharp in these maps, which have been designed to not give easy advantage to anyone.

Great maps, awesome destruction and wonderfully chaotic warfare demands a solid selection of game

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multiplayer, as always, as well as tons of vehicles, different weapons and other kinds of equipment. This is the way that the Battlefield franchise is meant to be played; not everyone’s cup of tea, but there you have it.

The strong concentration on multiplayer begs a question, though – why have the console multiplayer versions of the game got the short end of the visual stick? While the single player campaign has lots of eye candy and visual flash, the multiplayer game simply does not look as good. It doesn’t look terrible, mind you, but there is a definite difference.

Those wanting to play on Xbox 360 also need to be aware of the fact that the game demands a hard-drive.

Even if they have space for the obligatory 2GB install, Battlefield 4 won’t install to anything but an internal hard drive. That means that those who own a 4GB Xbox 360

are out of luck – that particular SKU uses flash memory, and Battlefield 4 will have none of it.

In the end, a lot of people are going to be comparing DICE and EA’s modern shooter to Call of Duty: Ghosts when it arrives. Whether this comparison is fair or not will remain to be seen. The games may be very similar, but the differences are enough to mean that a direct comparison is not necessarily the best approach.

Battlefield 4 follows its roots, though, delivering a solid multiplayer experience, even if the visuals on console leave a little to be desired. It is unfortunate that the single player campaign is rather weak… had it been a bit stronger, Battlefield 4 would have been a great allrounder in the modern shooter category. As it stands, though, it is a good option for those that prefer their warfare in the multiplayer variety. g

AT A GLANCE: First Person Shooter

If you’re after a good multiplayer modern warfare option, this is a solid bet. But the single player campaign feels like a tacked-on afterthought.

Similar to: MaxPlayers Developer: Publisher: Distributer:

Call of Duty, Battlefield 3 Local

1

Network

Online 24

DICE Electronic Arts EA South Africa

Parental Advisory

18+ gladget37

0

Violence Language Sex Drug Use Prejudice

Accessibility Hard-Core Medium Casual

Reviewed on:

X360 Platforms

Genre:

PC X360 X0 PS3 PS4 Wii U PSV 3DS AND iOS

Score

80 73

Batman: Arkham Origins

From Whence He Came

Batman goes back to basics, and skips Christmas dinner.

by Pippa Tshabalala

I

Origins as well.

It’s not a complete disaster however, as there are some wonderful insights into the psyche of both villains and our Dark Knight, along with a few useful gameplay changes that add to the detective experience overall.

The story follows Batman as he intervenes in a jail break at the Blackgate Penitentiary on Christmas Eve. The story is set about five years before Arkham Asylum, so he is not quite the crime fighting hero we know from the other games. The segment of the Gotham that is later to become Arkham City is not yet walled off. When Batman arrives at the prison, he sees Origins’ new villain, Black Mask, execute the police commissioner, and while Black Mask escapes, Batman meets Killer Croc for the first time. Other super villains also put in an appearance in this game including Batman’s nemesis, the Joker, at this point

Review

was a very big fan of the first Batman game in this series, namely Arkham Asylum. It was one of the best, most exciting superhero games of its time, with intuitive, yet challenging combat (most of the time anyway), a rich and interesting story, and fantastic character development.

I was only slightly disappointed by Rocksteady’s second Batman game, Arkham Asylum, which felt a little disjointed in comparison to Asylum’s masterful storytelling and awesome combat system, and it introduced a much more open world environment in comparison to Asylum.

It was with trepidation then that I learned of the switch in studio from Rocksteady to Warner Bros. Montreal, as a change in studio rarely results in an improvement to the franchise, and sadly this was to be the case with

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a newbie on the Gotham City scene.

Without giving away too much of the story, Batman spends the majority of the story chasing down Black Mask as well as a variety of associated thugs. Of course there are twists and turns as is to be expected, and due to a bounty on his head we also find our hero being chased by a variety of skilled assassins, including the infamous Bane, while at the same time playing the part of super detective.

The open world environment, which didn’t contribute to Arkham City in any meaningful way, makes a return and has been expanded yet again in Origins, which to be honest I think was a mistake. The city is sprawling and disjointed, and although you can now fast travel to locations, you need to unlock each area by destroying GPS jamming signals before being able to do so.

While in many ways the game-play remains unchanged,

the combat system is still in essence the same – combo attacks that you attempt to chain together, coupled with counters when foes attack you from behind and so on – somehow it feels less challenging and more like a timed button basher than the previous games.

Every fight is more about routine and going through the motions and whereas before you might have tried stealth to bypass fights you didn’t feel up to, now it’s unlikely you’ll die and have to repeat them. If you do, you really just weren’t paying attention and made a stupid mistake while countering. Even the boss fights aren’t particularly challenging overall.

The real issue I think is that this is game-play we’re used to, and in order to remain interesting and challenging, there should be new features added to it in order to make it feel less routine. Sure, a couple of new weapons here

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Moving on to enemies - as a part of the thugs that roam the city, a new martial arts enemy has been introduced which brings a more challenging new aspect to fights, and will force you to pay a bit more attention when it comes to countering attacks.

As in Arkham City there are a variety of side missions, from stopping random crimes that happen around you, to unblocking control towers so you can fast travel around the city using the Batwing. The side missions are fun if you’re not looking for hours of serious gameplay, but as in Arkham City, ultimately they can get a bit tiresome. It’s unlikely you’ll bother to go back and finish them at any point.

Luckily the story is not awful, although I couldn’t say I became particularly invested in it on any level. It often feels as if the story is simply a mechanism to move you

Review

and there are great, but it’s still punch, punch, counter, stun, punch, punch, counter, counter, stun, takedown and so on. Same old, same old. You still feel the thrill of hanging upside down waiting for an enemy to pass by so you can execute an inverted takedown, but it seems as if every environment is similar to the last. In this case predictability is the order of the day and very little feels new and fresh.

Wait, that’s not entirely true. The detective mode has been enhanced and expanded, and Batman can recreate crime scenes in order to uncover clues as he goes, a pretty awesome new feature that really brings the detective element to the fore. This was probably my favourite new feature as you can go forwards and backwards almost frame by frame, uncovering clues as you go.

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from place to place around the city. The introduction of certain villains we’ve come to know in earlier games, and the background of many of them is contextualised here however, and we gain insights into the mind of the Joker, the origins of Bane as we know him from Asylum, and a more comprehensive background on Killer Croc which adds to the franchise as a whole.

Narratively the dialogue scripting is stilted and unimaginative. Alfred seems full of pointless statements, and the addition of a “Press X To Talk” seems likewise meaningless. Only rarely does this seem to lead to worthwhile information when conversing with characters, and I’m at a loss to understand why Warner Bros introduced this feature into a game in which the mechanic wasn’t broken. In previous versions, any information you needed to know was imparted immediately by the

characters you were talking to. Now it seems that you need to continue talking to them in the hopes that they will provide you with more than merely drivel.

Visually it looks slightly dated. Character models are stiff and walk awkwardly, frame-rates lag on occasion and the textures don’t look quite as clean as expected. It is in line with the look and feel of the previous games however, and while it might not be cutting edge, it’s not awful by any stretch of the imagination.

Arkham Origins is by no means a bad game, and if this was the first game in the franchise as opposed to the third, I would have been way more forgiving. Unfortunately WB Montreal didn’t quite fill Rocksteady’s shoes and Origins will disappoint fans of Asylum and City. Likely you’ll still play it however, which you should, if only for some background on the awesome villain line-up. g

AT A GLANCE: Action Adventure

Reviewed on:

Not an awful game, but uninspired in comparison to its predecessors. Still worth the play, especially if you feel the need to be the Batman.

Similar to: MaxPlayers Developer: Publisher: Distributer:

Batman: Arkham Asylum, Batman: Arkham City Local

1

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8

Warner Bros. Games Montreal Warner Bros Ster Kinekor

Parental Advisory

16+ gladget37

0

Violence Language Sex Drug Use Prejudice

Accessibility Hard-Core Medium Casual

PS3 Platforms

Genre:

PC X360 X0 PS3 PS4 Wii U PSV 3DS AND iOS

Score

75 77

Beyond: Two Souls

Unbreakable Bond Too much story, not enough game?

by Lein Baart

I

that they’ve created a genre for themselves, the so-called interactive drama. It’s a niche in gaming that is definitely not for everyone, but for those that value the plot in the games they play, Quantic Dream has become a champion of narrative in an age where spectacle is the order of the day. Thus Beyond: Two Souls, the latest release from the French developer, has high expectations to meet, especially considering their last release is deemed by some to be the finest game of the PS3 generation.

To begin with the more superficial aspects, graphically Beyond is flawless, with a visual authenticity that is simply stunning to behold. The likenesses of Ellen Page, Willem Dafoe and Eric Winter have been captured spectacularly, creating a game that practically breathes with life. The world around them has been paid equal attention however, as random NPC’s stamp their feet and breathe into

Review

t is the peril of any game to place emphasis on one aspect above all others. While this may seem obvious, plenty of titles (both indie and triple A) have taken this approach, putting a premium on one outstanding element and hoping it will carry the rest of the game through. Not only will such a title almost certainly divide its audience, for instance adrenaline junkies will quickly become bored playing a game laden with cut-scenes, the balance between gameplay, plot and presentation becomes vastly more precarious, and should even one facet be out alignment a potential gem will quickly disintegrate into a haphazard mess.

Quantic Dream, developers of Fahrenheit and Heavy Rain, are no stranger to this juggling act, and have indeed built a reputation on nailing games crafted almost exclusively around their plot, so much so in fact

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their hands when cold, or cry out in astonishment at the numerous inexplicable events that happen around Jodie (the main character). Likewise, uncounted small additions to the various scenes you’ll encounter, from graffiti on the streets of a city to posters and pin-ups in Jodie’s room, all combine to render you completely immersed in the game. This is aided in no small part by the magnificent soundtrack that accompanies Jodie’s travails, which was actually the final project of Normand Corbeil, the award winning Canadian composer and long-time collaborator of Quantic Dream.

Beyond plays as an over-the shoulder third person adventure (with a first person view when controlling Aiden – more on that later), and it’s in the control scheme, which has continually been a contentious issue with Quantic Dream titles, that the first problems creep in. The idea has

always been to replicate as far as possible the actions on screen with the controller, bridging the abstract divide that exists between the player and the game. In light of this, the QTE (quick-time event) mechanism that featured so predominantly in previous titles has largely been replaced by a system in which the right analogue stick serves as both the camera control as well as the action trigger.

The innate flaw in this design though is that frequently actions are unintentionally triggered when trying to move the camera, which can be especially frustrating when you are unaware that there is an object in Jodie’s immediate vicinity. The combat, which requires you to move the right analogue stick in the direction Jodie is moving, plays much more like a conventional QTE scene, though awkward camera angles can make it difficult to see exactly how you should respond. Downloading the Beyond App, which

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the choice that caused it, and for this reason chose to make the game’s narrative non-linear. It’s an intriguing concept, and films, which the developer strives so ardently to emulate, have put it to great use in the past, creating twisting tales that warp the mind. The trouble is though that in an interactive medium, especially one with variable outcomes, having the consequences already determined robs the player of whatever the choice was in the first place. What this means for Beyond is that most decisions are essentially reduced to minor events, and the game becomes far more linear than what would otherwise be the case if it was told chronologically. More dilemmas abound though, especially in terms of Aiden, who is meant to be a major character in the game. Unfortunately, lacking both a voice and face, he is reduced to little more than a floating prompt outside of cut-scenes, and thus becomes more of a

Review

is available for both Android and iPhone, does simplify the controls, but experienced gamers will still find the regular controller far more comfortable to play with.

The main focus of Beyond though will always be the plot, and it’s here that the game shines and disappoints in equal measure. Following the life of Jodie Holmes, played by Ellen Page, from the age of eight through to twenty three, Beyond tells the (non-sequential) story of woman born with a mysterious connection to an incorporeal entity known simply as Aiden, who acts as her constant companion. As is usual for a Quantic Dream title, choice lies at the heart of the game, allowing the player to make decisions that will drastically affect the direction of the story. Or at least that’s the theory. David Cage has been quoted as saying that he wanted to show the consequence of an action before

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tool than an actual individual.

That’s not to say the plot is without its merits, though.

The talents of Ellen Page, Willem Dafoe and the rest of the cast are put to great use, and while the game can feel disjointed on occasion due to the jumping narrative, individual scenes are brilliantly constructed. At times Beyond can be genuinely agonising, as you watch a shy young girl being tormented at her first party, or otherwise heart lifting as Jodie triumphs over all the adversities she’s faced. There’s a genuine emotional connection to the characters, a rare quality in modern gaming, and you’ll find yourself utterly enmeshed in Jodie’s tribulations. Likewise the plot, once you played through enough for it to start making sense, is fantastically written, though detractors of fantasy and sci-fi may find it somewhat overblown. The unknown of death, the horror of abandonment and the joy

of redemption are all themes that are strongly interwoven into the story, but above all else this is an account of Jodie’s struggle for acceptance, both from herself and from others, and what choices you do have go a long way to shaping how it plays out.

Beyond: Two Souls then is a game that will undoubtedly leave more than a few gamers rather unsatisfied, even fans of previous Quantic Dream titles. From its somewhat unwieldy control scheme to a chaotic plot that lacks in choice in comparison to its predecessors, this is perhaps an experiment in game design that went slightly off track. For those that have the patience to ride out its foibles though, Beyond: Two Souls can be a magnificently engaging, immersive experience that, once the hook finally takes, we keep you transfixed and compelled to see it through. g

AT A GLANCE: Third-person adventure

Reviewed on:

While definitely not a title for everyone, fans of Heavy Rain and the like should find Beyond: Two Souls a fantastic, if slightly messy, experience Similar to: MaxPlayers Developer: Publisher: Distributer:

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1

Network

Online

0

Quantic Dream SCEE Ster Kinekor

Parental Advisory

16+ gladget37

2

Violence Language Sex Drug Use Prejudice

Accessibility Hard-Core Medium Casual

PS3 Platforms

Genre:

PC X360 X0 PS3 PS4 Wii U PSV 3DS AND iOS

Score

74 81

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