Issue 8 by PhonicaMagUK

the mobile phone and gaming magazine

Issue8

phonica magazine uk

WHAT’S INSIDE VOLUME 1 ISSUE 8 2010

PREVIEWS

NEWS iPad will change the technology world Nokia launches million dollar innovator’s venture Nokia makes naviga on free on smartphones Sony Ericsson Vivaz The iPad arrives Broken Sword Ubiso ’s 2010 line up Q?Pid Star Trek Online oﬀers life me subscrip on Alien Vs Predator returns in 2010 MadWorld may return to Wii

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FEATURES THIRD PERSON GAMES: LOOKING OVER YOUR SHOULDER We take a look a the pros and cons of the classic 3rd-person viewpoint

GT Racing: Motor Academy Command & Conquer 4: Tiberium Twilight Bioshock 2 Legends of Exidia

VIEWS Samsung Pixon 12 LG Viewty Lite Vodafone 541 The Chronicles of Ino a 2: A Wanderer of Luone BMW Sauber F1 Team Racing 09 HomeRun Ba le 3D Sniper Vs. Sniper: Online BMW Z4 Experience Darksiders Rabbids Go Home Dark Void Army of Two: The 40th Day Vancouver 2010

REAL FRIENDS ARE FOR LIFE A look back at the triumphs of the Unreal engine

ARCADEWARFARE FLASH GAMES GALORE Lots of loverly Flash games, just begging for a play

THE GUIDE

Games: Phonica’s 20 Recommended 3rd Person Titles Mobile Phones

FORGOTTEN GEMS: OMIKRON: THE NOMAD SOUL It had David Bowie in it…..fantas c!

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EDITOR IN CHIEF Kevin Leonce

GAMING EDITOR Sco Tierney

CONTRIBUTORS Rob Hobson Ian Duncan Paul Park Charles Thompson

CREATIVE SERVICES & DESIGN Sco Tierney www.sco - erney.com

EDITORIAL editorial@phonicamagazine.co.uk

ENQUIRIES info@phonicamagazine.co.uk

ADVERTISING adver sing@phonicamagazine.co.uk

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EDITOR’S LETTER IT’S A BIRD…IT’S A PLANE… NO IT’S JUST THE IPAD! What a wonderful way to start off the first month of the year before a full moon. Those Cuper no guys sure know how to get our a en on, but are they going to keep it this me? The iPad, Apple’s latest innova on was launched a few days ago a er the grapevine gossip got the be er of many for the Christmas period. But what is it? An iReader, iBook, a superimposed iPhone or iPod Touch? I’d wait un l we get our hands on one before I reveal my opinion of this feminine sounding apple innova on. I wonder what’s next? iMoney? iWife? Drop me an email I look forward to hearing what you think they may conjure next. One thing for sure, they have done it again. The guys at Gamelo got wind that we were focusing on a few iPhone based games so they invited us for a sneak peek of what they’ve got in store for Q1. They did forget to tell us they’d have a first hand play of N.O.V.A on the iPad, which looks swell if I may add. This issue, as always we have a line up of interes ng reviews. Honestly, I can go on but I’m sure you’ve already flipped the page to start reading. Thanks for ge ng your copy of this issue and don’t forget to email your sugges ons for new Apple products. Enjoy reading. Your Editor in Chief

Kevin Leonce kevin@phonicamagazine.co.uk

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NEWS

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NEWS

iPAD WILL CHANGE THE TECHNOLOGY WORLD Phonica Magazine is normally focused on mobile and games technology. Apple is a key topic in our wri ng because of the innova ve and excep onal iPhone, the fantas cally capable touch device which revolu onised the way we view handheld technology. Now Apple has announced the iPad, a crossover device somewhere between an iPhone and a Macbook- and it’s the most exci ng piece of technology the world has ever seen. Imagine that we once used to interact with our computer with a clunky mouse, our computer stuck to the wall with wires and its monitor equally immovable. Those days are gone. We don’t even need a keyboard anymore. Apple’s iPad is a revolu onary tablet computer which enables the user to manipulate everyday workloads with their hands, browse the full internet at arms length, purchase digital books, videos and music on the move and all of this for just $499.

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NEWS

“TO ADD TO THE EXCITEMENT CAUSED WORLDWIDE THERE’S THE PROMISE OF iPAD SPECIFIC APPS- LET BETTER THAN SOME OF THE RUBBISH THA

There’s a lot to tell about the new iPad. The first thing to explain is the reason it’s appearing on a games and mobile phones magazine. As the first piece of hardware to incorporate all of the technology from one of our favourite phones, such as the 3GS, into a compu ng device- and the first piece of technology to allow usage of all the current apps on App Store on anything other than an iPhone or iPod Touch, and a product that will use 3G communica on for data. This new tablet device is directly related to everything Phonica holds dear. In fact it is a new territory and deserves its own space on the current technology landscape.

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If you haven’t already seen the release event video then you should check it out. There’s only so much we can write about and a lot more to see. This tablet is something to behold. Anyone who has a head on their shoulders will know that the app route is guaranteed to be inﬁnitely more usable than any Windows based tablet, and I’m not a fanboy- just a realist. Apple’s capaci ve touchscreen technology is brilliant, always has been. There won’t be a smoother tablet available for a long me. The 1GHz processor might sound a li le on the light side, especially as the Google Nexus One is running a processor with the same speed, but as it’s an Apple A4 processor I’ll be the ﬁrst to bet that it’s more than capable.

NEWS

BY THIS BRAND NEW CATEGORY OF TECHNOLOGY, T’S JUST HOPE THE QUALITY CONTROL ON THESE IS AT ENDS UP ON THE iPHONE APP STORE.”

Check out the iWork sec on of the presenta on to see just how powerful this device is, performing advanced presenta on and composi on ac vi es with ease. The way that the work is manipulated (with that word having a direct lexical rela on to the the La n for hand) seems like the way work should always have been. I feel par cularly retro si ng here in the oﬃce, with my backside glued to a chair and my hands glued to a keyboard and mouse when I know that I could be sat at home with my feet up in front of the television whilst I casually stroked my way through spreadsheets and word processing documents. What’s more, the individual applica ons for iWork will sell for just $9.99 each.

To add to the excitement caused worldwide by this brand new category of technology, there’s the promise of iPad speciﬁc apps- let’s just hope the quality control on these is be er than some of the rubbish that ends up on the iPhone App Store. To close, I’ll apologise for the purely devoted sound of this ar cle, I tried my best not to gush but this is Apple and they’re hardly ever fallible. This new product is sure to help them maintain their spot as the number one mobile technology producer worldwide. I can’t wait to get my manipula ve li le ﬁngers on one. Charles Thompson

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NEWS NOKIA LAUNCH GROWTH ECONOMY VENTURE CHALLENGE NOKIA LAUNCHES A MILLION DOLLAR VENTURE CHALLENGE TO ENCOURAGE INNOVATORS TO “DO GOOD” IN GROWTH ECONOMIES Good ideas are a dime a dozen, or so the saying goes. But now a single good idea could be worth a million dollars (USD). Nokia has announced a million dollar venture challenge to encourage innovators to create a mobile product or service that raises the standard of living or enhances the lives of those in growth economies. The Growth Economy Venture Challenge is part of Nokia’s global Calling All Innovators compe on announced on January 7 at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES).

The Venture Challenge will consider any submission that enhances the target growth economy and also provides a poten al return on the investment. The Venture Challenge is not limited to so ware or hardware that uses Nokia device or so ware pla orms. In fact, as many emerging markets have varying degrees of mobile and Internet adop on, submissions can also expand beyond the mobile phone. As examples of innova ons in growth economies, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo spoke about several Nokia solu ons and projects such as Nokia Life Tools, Nokia Tej and others that can be viewed at h p://theprogressproject.com/.

“WE’VE SEEN WHAT THE TECH COMMUNITY CAN DO. WE WANT TO CHANNEL THAT ENERGY TOWARD IMPROVING LIVES IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD.” Announcing the Growth Economy Venture Challenge today at the conclusion of his keynote at CES, Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo called on innovators to do good by bringing mobile solu ons to parts of the world that can benefit most. At the same me he explained that mobile solu ons can be quite profitable, but not exploita ve, leading to financial “win-win” scenarios for both innovators and consumers. “We’ve seen what the tech community can do when it focuses on problems that are also opportuni es”, Kallasvuo said. “We want to channel that energy toward improving lives in the developing world.”

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The Venture Challenge ﬁnalists will be announced by mid May 2010. The ﬁnal winner will be announced in June, 2010. The deadline for submissions is April 18, 2010. Interested innovators can learn more and enter their submissions at www.callingallinnovators.com

NEWS NEW VERSION OF OVI MAPS FROM NOKIA NOKIA MAKES WALK AND DRIVE NAVIGATION FREE ON ITS SMARTPHONES, DOUBLING SIZE OF MOBILE NAVIGATION MARKET Nokia announced plans to release a new version of Ovi Maps for its smartphones that includes high-end walk and drive naviga on at no extra cost, available for download at www.nokia.com/maps. This move has the poten al to nearly double the size of the current mobile naviga on market. The new version of Ovi Maps includes high-end car and pedestrian naviga on features, such as turn-by-turn voice guidance for 74 countries, in 46 languages, and traffic informa on for more than 10 countries, as well as detailed maps for more than 180 countries. “Why have mul ple devices that work in only one country or region? Put it all together, make it free, make it global and you almost double the poten al size of the mobile naviga on market,” explained Anssi Vanjoki, Execu ve Vice President, Nokia. “Nokia is the only company with a mobile naviga on service for both drivers and pedestrians that works across the world. Unlike the legacy car naviga on manufacturers, we don’t make you buy maps for different countries or regions even if you’re only visi ng for a few days. We offer both naviga on and maps free of charge, with all the high-end func onality and features that people now expect.”

“The large-scale availability of free-of-charge mobile phone naviga on offerings using high-quality map data will be a game changer for the naviga on industry,” said Thilo Koslowski, Vice President Automo ve and Vehicle ICT at Gartner. “Such offerings will accelerate mass market adop on for naviga on solu ons and shi innova on focus to loca on-based services that go beyond tradi onal rou ng benefits.” For Nokia, removing the costs associated with naviga on for drivers and pedestrians allows the company to quickly ac vate a massive user base to which it can offer new loca on features, content and services. This is part of Nokia’s strategy to lead the market in mobile maps, naviga on and loca on-based services. “This is a game changing move. By leveraging our NAVTEQ acquisi on, and our context sensi ve service offering, we can now put a complete naviga on system in the palm of your hand, wherever in the world you are, whenever you need it - and at no extra cost,” con nued Anssi Vanjoki. “By adding cameras at no extra cost to our phones we quickly became the biggest camera manufacturer in the world. The aim of the new Ovi Maps is to enable us to do the same for naviga on.”

“THE LARGE-SCALE AVAILABILITY OF FREE-OF CHARGE MOBILE PHONE NAVIGATION OFFERINGS USING HIGH-QUALITY MAP DATA WILL BE A GAME CHANGER FOR THE NAVIGATION INDUSTRY.”

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NEWS CATCH LIFE IN HD WITH SONY ERICSSON VIVAZ BEND IT, SHAPE IT, ANYWAY YOU WANT IT; THE SYNAPTICS FUSE TAKES IT A STEP FURTHER Sony Ericsson Vivaz, announced in January, follows on from the Xperia X10 announced in November 2009, and is the second phone in the new family of communica on entertainment phones coming to market in the ďŹ rst half of 2010. Sony Ericsson Vivaz will come to market in Q1 2010. With Sony Ericsson Vivaz communica on truly becomes entertainment, with high quality HD video allowing consumers to produce and broadcast their best experiences, with the latest video capture and sharing features. Capture - record spontaneous moments and memories in HD quality and crisp high resolu on for a real-life video experience. The dedicated video key allows consumers to shoot video instantly with con nuous auto focus for the perfect ďŹ lm every me. View - review video content in the standby panel or online via Wi-Fi on the 3.2 inch widescreen Share - upload via Wi-Fi onto YouTube and Picasa in high resolu on while s ll using other features on the handset The open pla orm also allows users to personalise their entertainment experience by downloading great applica ons through PlayNow and the Symbian Developer Community.

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NEWS

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REVIEWS

SAMSUNG PIXON 12 SMILE AND SAY CHEESE, AS THE SAMSUNG PIXON 12 BEGS TO TAKE YOUR PHOTO These days, no mobile phone is complete without a camera. Even the most basic of basic models have some form of snapping accessory, regardless of the pixel size or quality. Well, Samsung have gone all the way with the Pixon 12, and added an absolute beast of a camera. But is it worthwhile having all this pixel-capturing power, and does it affect the phone, overall? Firstly, let’s look at the Pixel 12 on the whole, and come back to the camera later. Design-wise, it’s quite nice. Not as smooth or as elegant as the Blade, and the front bu ons don’t have the same ‘quality feel’ as other Samsung products, but overall it’s perfectly welcoming and neat. The interface is exactly the same as you’d find on the Blade, and we have to say it’s one of our favourites. It’s not as good as the HTC Hero’s or the iPhone’s, but it’s s ll excellent. That said though, the screen is a bit twitchy, and it doesn’t feel as smooth or precise as the Blade. Elsewhere on the Pixon 12 you’ll find the standard Samsung goodies. There’s the excellent Wi-Fi system and internet browser (perfect for watching Whose Line is it Anyway clips on YouTube!); the always trusty video and music players; a selec on of games and a few other pointless but entertaining bit and bobs. Add to the mix an impressive screen, good calling features, solid ba ery life and sturdy build quality, and the Samsung Pixon 12 looks to be a highly impressive phone.

And now we get onto the main selling point of the Pixon 12; the almighty camera. As mobile-based cameras go, it doesn’t get much be er than this. Image quality is outstanding, with photos appearing crisp, bright, colour correct and clean. The video camera app isn’t quite of the same standard, but if you need to take photos from a phone, this is the one to go for. It’s superb. But the main problem we have with the Pixon 12 is, surprisingly, the camera. It’s an outstanding piece of kit, but we’re not happy with the way it’s been built into the phone itself. Most mobiles have the lens cra ed into the body of the handset, so all that is seen is a small hole or ny slot. But on the Pixon 12, the lens s cks out like a rampant wart. This totally aﬀects the quality of the overall aesthe c design, and makes the Pixon 12 feel cumbersome and ungainly. You know when you put a cup of tea down on a table, and there’s a bit of biscuit crumb underneath? The mug doesn’t sit right, and it wobbles around in a disconcer ng manner; that’s what it’s like when pu ng the Pixon 12 down on a desk. That lens is great, but it gets in the way of everything else. To sum up; the Samsung Pixon 12 is a great camera phone, and a great phone all-round. We’re s ll not happy with the wart-like lens, but at least it’s there for a reason, and when it’s called into ac on, you’ll thank it for being there. It may be trumped before too long, as we’re bound to see top cameras being added to phones like blades to razors (the more the be er apparently, but why do barbers use cut-throat razors?), but for now, the Pixon 12 is the best bet for all those wanna-be snappers. Sco Tierney

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REVIEWS LG VIEWTY LITE GOOD IN PLACES, BAD IN OTHERS. THIS LOOKS LIKE ONE MIXED-UP PHONE The Viewty Lite is the renamed Viewty. It’s the same phone. Although slightly perplexing in their renaming of the same phone that’s been out for more than two years, LG’s inten ons are fairly noble. As with all things, Lite implies there are a few things missing. At least this way you won’t mistake the Viewty Lite for the Viewty Smart. The Viewty Smart was released in Summer last year and is an infinitely more capable phone. The Viewty Smart is a contemporary phone whereas the Viewty Lite is ancient in mobile phone terms. There are very few manufacturers who would con nue to supply a phone several years a er its release, most of the me the handsets are outdated and lacking in the features required to make it worth the money. Before picking it up I assumed that there would be features present on this phone which contended with modern touchscreen phones (there are). The 5 MP camera is excellent, the flash is well balanced, the red eye reduc on is perfect. There’s very li le to say about the camera except that it’ll easily contend with your sensibili es and pocket space as to whether it can genuinely replace your digital camera. That’s high praise for a phone’s camera. The camcorder is equally impressive, with a maximum resolu on of 640 x 384 widescreen. It’s also got a mode which enables shoo ng of 120fps. That’s astonishing, although you’ll require a lot of light to see real performance in this mode as the exposure is drama cally reduced. When the condi ons are right though, the slow mo on will blow you away. It just shouldn’t be possible from a 2 year old phone. There are infinite se ngs for the camera and camcorder. More than you’ll use in all honesty. This isn’t a phone with a camera tacked on. It’s a camera and a phone. They have the balance right.

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And so on to the phone features. It’s a touchscreen so the most important thing is the interface. Does it work? Quite simply the answer is yes. It works very well. There is a menu bu on which presents the user with categorised menus; one for phone u li es featuring messaging, dialler and contact op ons; a media bu on for accessing the net, music, mobile TV, an FM radio and ﬁles; a u li es bu on and a se ngs bu on. It’s all laid out in a manner that’ll have you whizzing through the menus in no me. There are a few niggles, the net is just a standard WAP browser. It’s totally outdated in the age of smartphones. It o en takes a few too many clicks to access what you want, although how to reach what you want is never obscured. Worst of all the phone has a resis ve touchscreen. Good luck selec ng any op ons in the top corners of the screen without a stylus, which is absent from the Lite

“THE FINAL WORD HAS TO RESIDE WITH THE FACT THAT THIS MOBILE IS RELATIVELY CHEAP.” It’s a reasonable phone. It’s not a smart phone. The thing we all love about our mobiles in 2010 is apps. If I can’t ﬁnd and install the applica ons I want for my phone, it’s not really good enough. In an age of Facebook addicts, a phone which predates its total domina on of networking is something of a damp squib. Viewty has no real networking ability. Apart from a few things which make its text messaging manageable at best – such as the landscape keyboard and slightly gimmicky handwri ng recogni on – you’ll be hard pressed to ﬁnd anything that really sets the Viewty apart from standard £100 phones in terms of its networking capacity. But here’s the thing, the Viewty is £100. Coun ng the camera and touchscreen, it’s actually a bit of a bargain.

But if you’re used to holding a quality handset, this phone isn’t for you. It feels light and cheap. The resis ve touchscreen can’t compare to capaci ve compe tors, the colours look washed out and next to a standard HVGA screen, the 3 inch 200 x 400 pixel screen looks low quality. The call quality is poor. The speaker is weak and ny and this just adds to the cheap tacky feeling of the phone. I’m torn with this phone. On one front it’s a brilliant camera phone with a reasonable interface, that’s easily half the ba le won. Then again it’s a cheap feeling, dated, bargain bucket phone. The final word has to reside with the fact that this mobile is rela vely cheap. It’s excellent value for money for a touchscreen with such a fantas c camera. If you didn’t get broken into the touchscreen market with the first crop of phones, including this one- you’ll appreciate the simplicity of the handset and the rela on it has to non-touch phones. If you’re looking for something to compete with your mates iPhone, you’re in the wrong place. This phone can’t compete with smartphones. If you want a cheap phone which matches the iPhone you’ll need to shell out an extra £150 at least. Look into Android. If you’re sa sfied for your phone to remain a phone, don’t hesitate to grab a Viewty or check out Samsung’s rather good Omnia. This phone is a decent touchscreen with an excellent camera, usable interface and eye-catching styling. It has poor call quality and an average ba ery life. It’s lacking WiFi and apps to make it a smartphone. It’s outdated but s ll relevant in an evolving consumer market. A mixed bag Charles Thomspon

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REVIEWS VODAFONE 541 HOW MUCH AGAIN? The 541 is a very interes ng phone. It’s a genuinely useful fully touchscreen phone with a few pre y ni y tricks up its sleeve at a frighteningly compe ve price. I’d be lying if I said that the whole package feels like a good quality job- it doesn’t. The plas c doesn’t benefit from the pearlescent paint job in a way that’ll impress anyone, the presenta on of the fully capaci ve touch bu ons is a li le tacky and the camera feels like a first genera on cameraphone. But don’t let that dissuade you from reading on, this phone really is quite good at a few things. There’s the FM radio, which shows off the decent sound from the bundled headset. The bundled headset is a ached through the only port on the phone, which is a brilliantly useful mini USB- take a cue iPhone... The interfaces to the music and radio applica ons are good looking, intui ve and feature an RDS reader. Preset sta ons and can be played through bluetooth stereo headphones. Music can be loaded on through the USB and allows for lyrics to be read alongside the playing track, something I only just discovered on my iPhone. Then there’s the general UI. It’s usable, has a very similar feel to the Samsung TouchFLO UI- with sidebar widgets which slide out at the touch of a bu on and are customisable by dragging to the desktop. The responsiveness is good. You won’t be wai ng a long me to get any op on open as the basic graphical appearance of the phone allows the screens to open quickly and smoothly. There are nice addi ons which make the phone feel modern and well aware of the current app market obsessed mobiles, such as the weather widget- although it won’t be localised by GPS like most because there isn’t any GPS.

The call quality is acceptable, the biggest problem you’ll face is the cutesy size of the 541, which makes finding a spot between your mouth and ear, which isn’t a long way from one or the other, quite a job (unless you’re from the Isle of Sheppey). One major problem with this handset is the tex ng. It’s abysmal. You’ll have more luck with the included metal stylus which slides into the base of the phone, but even then it’s a job le ng it know what you want to say. The input is a basic T9 where more upmarket touchscreens use a qwerty keyboard, but pu ng one of those on the 1.5” screen would have been a real feat. To help you forget the 25 minutes you just spent sending a one page text there’s the added benefit of gesture support. This allows the user to select files or menus by swiping a thumb le or right across the phone’s main input area. The base of the front of the phone has a series of changeable lights which alter dependent on context. It is separated into three areas and allows you to control all elements of the phone, in the radio it can be used to store channels, on the home screen to stow away widgets, in the gallery to cycle through files. The blue LEDs might seem a li le garish but don’t feel en rely out of place on the slightly brash handset. Gesture support really is a shock, it’s usually only seen on handsets with a much higher asking price. Which leads nicely to the biggest surprise about this phone. It’s just £40. Let me just reiterate a few things here- this is a bluetooth stereo headset suppor ng, mini USB enabled, fully touchscreen mul media cameraphone with gesture support. It’s a breakthrough. This phone brings most of the luxuries reserved for much more expensive handsets to a very cheap phone, and what’s more it does it all well. Don’t be mistaken and believe that this will come close to touching Android or iPhone, it’s a million miles away from that. It doesn’t even realis cally stand up next to £150 alterna ves like Samsung’s Omnia, but it does pack a punch for £40. A value for money 7/10. Charles Thompson

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PREVIEW GT RACING: MOTOR ACADEMY PUBLISHERS: GAMELOFT FORMAT: iPHONE, iPOD TOUCH AVAILABLE: FEBRUARY

A GENUINE RIVAL TO GRAN TURISMO, OR JUST A CHEAP IMITATION? Do you remember those cheap, plas cky, imita on toys that you used to (and s ll do) find in pound shops? You’d have ac on figures like ‘Man of Ac on’, ‘Carley’ or ‘Rangers of Power’, that would basically rip-off actual quality toys like Ac on Man, and sell them for around a pound a pop. At first glance, this new racer from Gamelo , GT Racing: Motor Academy, looks like a Poundland version of Gran Turismo. But that would be an assump on that is extremely wide of the mark. Shame on you for thinking such thoughts. GT Racing is Gamelo ’s a empt at bringing realis c racing to the iPhone. With over 100 cars from 24 manufacturers, a massive selec on of tracks (including the car-breaking Laguna Seca) the op on to race online and against your chums, and a vast career mode, GT Racing is quite literally, packed. This is no bumper car arcade racer, with points for damage and comedy handling, this is the real deal, and only real drivers should dare to take the challenge. When I say real drivers, I mean those who know what understeer is, and have posters of Gordon Murray on their wall. If you don’t know who Gordon Murray is, hang your head in shame, for you are no racer. The visuals it should be noted are surprising good, and the frame rate was also pleasantly smooth during our playtest. The built-in tunes are a bit drab and repe ve, but thankfully you can add your own playlists. But if you’re a real hardcore racer, you haven’t the me nor concentra on for music. You are hardcore; nothing should distract you from the sound of the engine and the racing line. Grrr, hardcore….

The controls were a touch ﬁddly (as all iPhone games are to be fair) and chances are you’ll plow through a crowd of unsuspec ng spectators on your ﬁrst a empt. But a er a while, you’ll become accustomed to the lt and steer system. There’s also a range of camera angles to choose from, so you can judge your line correctly and keep control of the car. But if you can’t, there are always the comprehensive driver aids. But those are for the feeble…

“WITH OVER 100 CARS, THE OPTION TO RACE ONLINE AND AGAINST YOUR CHUMS, AND A VAST CAREER MODE, GT RACING IS QUITE LITERALLY, PACKED.” GT Racing is probably going to be the most detailed, deep, and realis c racer to appear on the iPhone. With a ﬁerce emphasis on realism, and an excellent mix of ght and compelling racing, GT Racing has warned the compe on with the back of its hand. OK, so it takes a lot of its best bits from Gran Turismo, and to be honest it probably won’t be as good as the Playsta on classic. But that’s not to say that GT Racing is a shabby piece of gaming, far from it. Hopefully when the ﬁnal version is released later this month, it’ll be snapped up by real racing fans, and not discarded as a cheap cash-in. Grrrr…hardcore! Sco Tierney

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REVIEWS

THE CHRONICLES OF INOTIA 2: A WANDERER OF LUONE PUBLISHERS: COM2US FORMAT: iPHONE, iPOD TOUCH AVAILABLE: NOW It’s been a while since I’ve played an RPG on anything but a console, since I’m not a fan of MMO and my Mac Mini is hardly a game machine anyway- I’ve had to take pleasure in the joys of the XBOX 360 and PS3. So it’ll be no surprise that when I think of RPGs, I think of Mass Eﬀect, Fallout 3 and Oblivion. Those games were full of ght plot lines, almost limitless side stories, complex and rewarding skill, levelling and customisa on systems and ﬂawless graphics. Obviously, they’re a long way from the expected output of an RPG on an iPhone game. We’ll drag it down a level, and since we always compare a game to the best alterna ves, try comparing this game with something a li le more 8bit than 8 SPEs. Ino a 2 is the only game I’ve spent more than an hour to complete on the iPhone. It’s actually a lot longer than that. Think more 40 hours than 40 minutes. This is a genuine RPG in terms of game me, and thank God for that because when it comes to this sort of game- you need the me. Not only does the me allow you to become more closely a ached to characters, but it allows for character development. Both of these elements are key to establishing a truly playable RPG, they contribute to the plot and drive the ac on along whilst providing barriers to game areas without a brick wall.

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REVIEWS

You’ll start with a character chosen from a selectable class. You can rejigger the stats and end up with some much more appreciable skills if you take your me and don’t get too greedy. You’ll wander around ge ng to grips with the game before you unwi ngly help to unleash a terrifying evil, something with which any fantasy RPG player will be well acquainted. Unlike the original game, Ino a 2 allows the player to take on further characters and appropriately vary the skills and classes. They’ll be taken on fairly early in the game, but you’ll ﬁnd that they don’t make ﬁgh ng enemies a whole lot more enjoyable or easy- although they are essen al if you want to progress.

Forge ng the many fetch missions, the gameplay is reasonable despite the small niggles with figh ng. The flow is good and missions are clearly spelled out so you won’t be lost for long periods. You’ll be sa sfied with the character progression routes and the customisability is wide enough, although a li le simplis c. The plot is standard fantasy fare and clichéd as a result but you won’t be throwing it at the wall for plagiarism- just for the cheesy intro voiceover. The artwork is decent, the anime influence is gracefully paired with a sophis cated fantasy gloss. Different enemy types are clearly iden fiable, as are important items and characters. The menu is easy to navigate and the HUD is handy enough without being overbearing.

The main issue with the figh ng is that the selec on of an enemy is carried out by touching their loca on on the screen. This can be difficult when the enemy measures less than a square cen metre on screen. More frustra ng is the disorganisa on of the party, who o en end up spread across diverse loca ons with very li le coordina on of their du es. One upside is that magic and skills can be automated to run regularly- say in a par cularly desperate fight, or to func on more sparingly in a long and simple dungeon (and there are a lot of those).

The game is rewarding in the long term, with character development and new skills in the hands of different classed team-mates helping to relieve the monotony of the missions. Ino a 2 is not something you have to pay a great deal of a en on to, which at first might seem a bit annoying. (Don’t worry, it’ll draw on whilst watching Eastenders midway through a par cularly easy dungeon) You can quite easily take this game anywhere and just plug away at it bit by bit un l the mul ple hours of gameplay are over. You’ll want to remember to save though. I think this is where the game finds its problems, an RPG is supposed to be an alternate reality which should be immersive and overwhelming. The iPla orm is a throwaway pla orm for games which don’t take up much me or energy. The two shouldn’t fit together at all. COM2US have done an admirable job of of consolida ng the two and should be commended for their efforts, but if you want to spend less than a fiver on an RPG- pick up Final Fantasy VII and drag out your PS1. A respectable but ul mately unconvincing 6/10

One problem which reiterates itself intolerably consistently in this game is the amount of mundane challenges which are given to the gamer. In fact in one par cularly honest bit of dialogue- a character oﬀers his apologies for the boring nature of your assignments. There’s just no variety. Whether you’re collec ng the toenails of a forest dwelling wench or the gizzards of a gnarly gnome, it’s just fetching. There’s no exaggera on when I say there are scores upon scores of these fetch missions and they get resome a long me before they’re over. Frustra ngly a lot of these missions aren’t side quests either, many of them are central to the story progression.

Charles Thompson

phonica magazine uk

phonica magazine magazine uk uk 24 phonica

REVIEWS BMW SAUBER F1 TEAM RACING 09 PUBLISHERS: ARTIFICIAL-LIFE FORMAT: iPHONE, iPOD TOUCH AVAILABLE: NOW

THE TEAM MAY BE GONE, BUT THE GAME REMAINS. It’s diﬃcult for a dedicated student of any par cular discipline of gaming to be converted to the half-fat handheld versions of games which are currently pouring through our iPhones, DSs and PSPs. The most disturbing reincarna ons of games are those which take the original premise and quickly strip down the original gameplay and graphics un l they have something which will run on the weak li le iPod processor and graphics chips. That’s without even men oning the frighteningly generic 1990s games, which have been spruced up to include a character from a current franchise and then had the branding slapped all over it. It’s all about money for these games. BMW F1 is not one of these games. It’s a fast, fun and gracefully executed tribute to the speed, drama and excitement of F1. High praise indeed, especially for an iPod TOUCH and iPhone game, but there are reasons why it deserves this accolade. Immediately the game’s approach to racing feels original and purpose built. A stark contract to the appalling BMW Z4 game by the same team, this game feels more natural and generally more fun (it doesn’t feature a GPS simula on for a start). The game has two op ons in the opening screen, Quick Race and Main Menu. The point behind this being to provide the op on to sit down and engage in the game, or just to waste a few bored minutes on the tube. It’s a good idea. The Main Menu features the same Quick Race op on. Quick Race lets you pick a track from the mul ple F1 tribute tracks available and jump straight into a race with your favourite BMW driver. There’s also the Time Trial and Championship modes.

Championship mode is a series of races, with prac ce and qualifying which total to a (short) F1 season. Winning a championship will unlock further tracks to a total of 8. All the tracks have references to real F1 tracks and are fairly accurate in their depic on of the general track emphases. This game is by no means a simulator, with the arcady feel to the handling and the lt control on the cornering contribu ng to that, but it’s probably as close as you’ll get to F1 on an iPhone. That is un l someone else gets a full license so you don’t have to race against made up teams and drivers like Alessandro Roversi for Squadra Italia Racing. There is one slightly tell tale sign that this game was made by the team behind BMW Z4, the boring Engineer mode reminds you that some mes fun isn’t the aim of the game. In this mode you are encouraged to become the fastest pit crew, and this requires an addi onal purchase. Not worth your me nor money. There wasn’t really any need for the addi on. The professional Championship mode features altered condi ons, pit stops and car setup op ons. The game already had enough going for it. The inclusion of the KERS bu on is a nice touch and makes the game feel more balanced if you fall behind. A close race can almost always be guaranteed and the AI is neither a slouch nor flawlessly quick. You’ll quickly get to grips with the lt steering, which is more than can be said of most iPhone racers, and the varying weather condi ons allow for a devia on from the regular track condi ons. You’ll be surprised by the level of difference between the tyres, which will change the handling and will be easily dis nguishable as displayed by the great graphics. The HUD can be a li le on the beefy side but doesn’t significantly impede the screen. This game is definitely a worthwhile purchase for £2.99 and one that’ll sa sfy your need for speed nicely on the iPhone. A pole posi on 8/10 Charles Thompson

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REVIEWS HOMERUN BATTLE 3D PUBLISHERS: COM2US FORMAT: iPHONE, iPOD TOUCH AVAILABLE: NOW

ALL THE RUN OF BASEBALL, WITHOUT ANY FAT YANKS This is a baseball game for the iPla orms, which is quite wonderfully named HR Ba le on your home screen- making it sound like the sort of game that’d have a middle aged office worker shoo ng staples at a poten al employee. Sadly there’s none of this. What is here is a very basic, but strangely sa sfying game- not unlike Sniper VS Sniper Online by the same developers COM2US. Plainly put this game is as simple as fish and chips. The aim is to hit home runs over and over and over again, with no a empt to alter the pa ern of game play- no a empt to vary; no excuses. There may be various modes but the word various takes on a very limited meaning here. Arcade only counts the number of home runs you can score, Classic counts all balls you hit by distance- plus bigger points and bonuses for home runs and Prac ce lets you play Classic mode with a less compe ve edge. All of those modes could be placed under the same Prac ce heading though, because when it comes down to it this game is made for online. Matchup mode puts you online with nearly half a million other owners of this game- there’s a reason COM2US is making this many sales. The online version of the game is epic, although the formula is almost exactly the same, except this me you’re not restricted to a set number of balls- this me it’s a race, sort of. You have to be the first of a two player match to score a set number of points, dependent on the room you enter the score to win will be different. 3000 points for the Rookie room and more for the higher levels.

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You’ll probably be ba ered the first me you go online, just like any online game. Then your compe ve streak will kick in and you’ll be desperately keen to beat the guy who just handed you a serious whooping. The screen displays a picture in picture of the rival, whose every homerun will feel like a dagger to the heart. A beat ‘em up style gauge will tally the score and you’ll have to be careful to hit all the different types of ball the virtual pitcher throws at you. Bear in mind this is easier said than done. But how hard could it possibly be anyway? Just touch the screen at the right me and the right place, pre y straigh orward. Well yes, it is when you’re ba ng 88 mph balls straight down the middle- but you try catching a right to le swinger moving at the speed of light! Well at least it feels like that some mes. Just like Sniper VS Sniper, this game is short offline but massively addic ve online. You’ll be tapping your screen for weeks trying to shi a li le further up the rankings but you’ll have to be good. It seems like the top players take this as seriously as some do for Halo or Fifa online. That means months of screen tapping. Thing is, I don’t know if I could keep at it that long and the reward is minimal with the rush being short-lived. While this game is absolutely one of my favourite iPhone online games- I’m not convinced that I’ll be playing it tomorrow let alone next year. It’s not a classic. Enjoy it while it’s hot, but I guarantee there’ll be a new game available in the near future and maybe that’ll be a classic. It seems to me that iPhone games are having a few teething problems, but games like this one help to show the capabili es of the pla orm. It’s good wholesome fun, pre y addic ve and while it hasn’t set my world alight, it’s s ll a hot game. A flaming 7/10 Charles Thompson

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REVIEWS SNIPER VS. SNIPER: ONLINE PUBLISHERS: COM2US FORMAT: iPHONE, iPOD TOUCH AVAILABLE: NOW

JUST LIKE A SNIPER, THIS IS CLEAN, PRECISE AND EFFECTIVE. The idea behind Sniper VS Sniper is fairly straigh orward. You are a sniper. You shoot other snipers. Basic principle, basic game. The first thing I thought when I picked it up was, this is great- it plays like a sniping game should. Then I wondered, why aren’t there any other sniping games around? Well there are, there are tonnes. For every console and on PC. There are even a few on iPhone. Thing is that most of the me these games also incorporate other military exploits, like walking, or walking and shoo ng. And even the sniping element (a very small part of these games) usually features moving targets. It’s all about depth. The last me I played a game which required me to shoot sta onary objects from a first person perspec ve was at a funfair. That wasn’t fun. That game featured me being mugged off by a guy with an untraceable accent and a brand new BMW. Sadly this game doesn’t feature said Beemer driving carnie. I’d pay good money to pop a few rounds off in his direc on. Although you’ll s ll pay good money (in iGame terms) with a £2.99 price tag. The game starts with you scoping out enemies at a rela vely short distance, with the enemy fire (which is incidentally, unavoidable) being sporadic and inaccurate. As could be expected, the increase in difficulty (which is also incidental) means that the li le clock in the corner runs shorter, the accuracy of the enemies is increased and the rate of fire is more consistent. It’s exactly what you expect of the game from the second you pick it up. It’s predictable.

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“SNIPER VS SNIPER MAY NOT BE GAME ON APP STORE, BUT WHA Strangely though, playing through the story mode (which took under half an hour) was sa sfying. I replayed several missions to achieve the S grade score and wondered just how they could possibly incorporate the smooth (if not slightly repe ve) gameplay into an online mode. Well I needn’t have wondered. It was just as predictable as the rest of the game. And I don’t mean that in a bad way. The same maps (or more accurately, screens) are drawn again, and instead of shoo ng several targets this me you just shoot one. It’s good. It’s actually very good. The first me you pull off a headshot to finish a round – which is between 4 and 7 shots depending on your accuracy – you’ll be ecsta c. It really is genuinely good fun.

REVIEWS

E THE MOST ORIGINAL AT YOU EXPECT IT DELIVERS.” It’s all about the controls, they’re smooth, consistent and easy to pick up but diﬃcult to master. The same idea that sits behind all great control mechanisms. If not for the online mode this game would have a very short shelf life- the single player mode really is short and fairly unchallenging. However, with the inclusion of a con guous online mode comes hours of gameplay for those who – like me – wish to be feared online and come back for revenge against the ﬁrst guy who schooled them. The balance of gameplay between single player and online mul player isn’t unlike Modern Warfare 2, obviously a slightly exaggerated compliment but one which rings true.

The final word is that Sniper VS Sniper may not be the most original game on the App Store, it’s certainly not the best playing game I’ve played this week even. But it’s a bit like Ronseal, what you expect it delivers. There are no fiddly controls to get used to, there’s a fluid and con guous gameplay mechanic which is present throughout (albeit to its detriment when it becomes resomely repe ve), and the online mode doesn’t feel tacked on- it feels like a major part of development. Don’t get me wrong, it won’t have you skipping work to play it (like Ac vision’s beast) but you’ll be thoroughly entertained when you put one between the eyes of your online nemesis on the bus. There are a few things it’s missing; moving targets in offline mode, a cover mechanic and a carnie final boss- but once you start the online game you’ll forget about these anyway. It’s a solid sniper and scores a decent 7/10 Charles Thompson

phonica magazine uk

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REVIEWS BMW Z4 EXPERIENCE PUBLISHERS: ARTIFICIAL-LIFE FORMAT: iPHONE, iPOD TOUCH AVAILABLE: NOW There’s nothing that pleases a reviewer like a complete disaster of a game. It’s a guilty pleasure which tortures whilst entertaining, like Celebrity Big Brother except with slightly less silicon. Just like Celebrity Big Brother (and Big Brother) the iPla orm is plagued with PR rubbish. It’s a sad fact, but one we’re going to have to accept, the rela vely cheap development price of iPhone apps and the universal popularity of the pla orm means that they’re a marke ng dream. There’s no end of marke ng bilge in the app store, worthless games and apps which can only be enjoyed by the owner of whichever product they promote. There are excep ons. Real Racing GTI is a game which demonstrates that racing on iPhone isn’t just l ng and hopping, its full version- Real Racing introduced the concept of the apex to iPla orm racers. Sadly there’s nothing excep onal about BMW Z4, apart from the unbelievable Naviga on mode, it really is difficult to believe but more about that later. There are some things which look like red flags when playing games, cheesy dialogue, overzealous adver sing, complicated but useless menus. BMW Z4 commits all of these crimes. During the long loading screen there are several possibly ironic and very annoying phrases which pop up, they’re supposed to be funny but I won’t even replicate them in this review for fear of offending the reader. This game is genuinely annoying. From the ground up this game plays like it wants you to stop. When I first played the Driving Experience mode I was astonished by the opening level. It was like a pass plus driving test- stressful, slow and ul mately useless.

I dodged around cones and roundabouts (when’s the last me you saw a roundabout in a driving game?) at an infuria ng 20 or so mph, all the me thinking “what kind of sports coupe spins out at 25mph?”. It’s a nightmare. S ll, I assumed that a er this ﬁrst challenge I’d be let loose on a track in the next challenge. Wrong. The next level was the same driving lesson nonsense. The car s ll didn’t want me to drive more than 20mph. This con nued for four more levels of frustra on and then ended. Enough said about the Driving Experience mode. There really isn’t anything else to say. The Art Experience mode is equally negligible and the Free Driving mode is even less worthy of page me than that. These modes recreate the BMW Z4 advert, allowing you to be the Barclays banker who drives his £30,000 car through lots of paint and creates a messy piece of artwork. It’s boring. The Art Experience mode a empts to make an arcady driving mode out of this sec on, it asks you to encircle big black bubbles in colourful paint. It’s the ﬁrst me I saw the speedo above 25 and it was s ll boring. Free driving is this without the bubbles, and allowing the gamer to change the colour of the paint on the wheels. Seriously, this is a whole mode. So on to the unbelievable Naviga on Experience. Some games are born to exist on one element of their gameplay, this game was born to give us the Naviga on Experience. The most inane, vapid and insipid mode of any game I have ever played. In this mode the game allows you to be the brain of the GPS system in the car. Honestly. You have to pick a route around a golf course, restaurant, hotel and bowling alley plus a few more bland ac vi es in the view of a GPS screen. No driving. No gameplay. Just a puzzle. It’s unbelievably boring! It’s not like I don’t enjoy a good puzzler either, it’s just not a good puzzler. Do yourself a favour and avoid this at all costs. Charles Thompson

phonica magazine uk

NEWS OVER HYPED AND OVER HERE – THE iPAD ARRIVES THE LATEST GADGET IS BEING PUSHED HARD AS A GAMING MACHINE. BUT WILL IT BE UP TO IT? We’ve paid close a en on to the iPhone’s emergence onto the portable gaming scene. So at the launch of the iPad, it was no surprise that Jobs was pushing it as a games machine too. There has been some scep cism about the device in general so it’s worth asking what it can bring to the table.

At the iPad launch Gamelo previewed N.O.V.A. while EA previewed a new version of Need for Speed. Both looked fairly impressive. iPhone games are also going to be playable on the new system - they’ll either run centred at their na ve size or in a blown up mode to ﬁll the screen. That process sounds crude but it’s reasonable to expect that iPhone game devs will quickly set about upda ng their crea ons.

The problem with the iPad is that it’s not clear what makes it much diﬀerent from an iPhone apart from the larger screen. Apart from that it’s the same touch screen, lt and shi input that we’ve already seen.

One interes ng possibility is for games that make use of the pad’s video out and turn the device into a large interac ve controller. Doing that would certainly overcome the problem of your hands obscuring the playing area and could lead to some cool hyper-DS experiences.

Not to say that a larger screen won’t make a difference. The obvious difference would be to strategy gaming. There is already a decent port of Red Alert in the App Store and with a bit more real estate to play with it could be even more fun. Imagine the feeling of sending your Kirov Airships to obliterate your enemy base with a few well-placed flicks of the finger. It would be fun definitely, but not exactly revolu onary. The other limita on of the iPad is what’s under the hood. The tablet does not have dedicated graphics processing and there’s no word on RAM. So just as the device does not have a full func oned OS, neither should we be expec ng PC quality gaming. The 1ghz processor is specifically designed to be low on power consump on and presumably to run cool. Once things to start heat up you’re going to lose ba ery life pre y quickly, another poten al limita on.

“IMAGINE THE FEELING OF SENDING YOUR KIROV AIRSHIPS TO OBLITERATE YOUR ENEMY BASE WITH A FEW WELL-PLACED FLICKS OF THE FINGER.” Like any new Apple gadget, fortune will probably favour the steady of nerve who can wait un l the second or third genera on to get their hands on one. If a loyal and innova ve community of developers springs up some interes ng things could be a foot. But it’s s ll be er to wait and see. Ian Duncan

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phonica magazine uk

NEWS BROKEN SWORD JUMPS ABOARD THE iPHONE THE CLASSIC POINT AND CLICK CONTINUES TO GROW AND EXPAND For a game that ﬁrst came out in 1996, Broken Sword has arguably had the biggest ‘second wind’ of any game in history. When it was ﬁrst released, it was not the most momentous tle to ever grace the PC, but since then it has grown. Last year it was re-released onto the Wii and DS - with unexpected success – and now it’s going to get another re-release. This ‘sort of new’ version, en tled Broken Sword: The Director’s Cut, will make its way onto the iPhone with a few new goodies tagged on for good measure. Firstly, a reworked point and click interface, similar to the one used on Beneath a Steel Sky, is expect to be enforced. The iPhone is the perfect pla orm for this form of game, and the touch screen should be able to make full use of the point and click op ons the original game thrived on. Secondly, a selec on of new cut-scenes and anima ons have been specially cra ed by Dave Gibbons (he of Watchmen and Batman: The Killing Joke fame), which should add a li le extra depth, while possibly adding a few surprises for gamers who have already played the original. Broken Sword: The Director’s Cut should be a massive success. Not only is the iPhone the perfect pla orm for the point and click genre, but Broken Sword is already a classic tle with proven quality. Hopefully this reworking will only add to the reputa on this classic already has, and introduce a few more newbie’s into the magic of point and click. Broken Sword: The Director’s Cut is expected to see the light of day some me in February.

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NEWS UBISOFT AND 2010 2010 LOOKS TO BE A GOOD YEAR FOR UBISOFT FRANCHISES, WITH A NEW ASSASSIN’S CREED AMONG OTHERS New Assassin’s Creed, Ghost Recon, Driver and Prince of Persia tles to come in 2010 have been announced during the release of their 2009 ﬁscal third quarter results A er a fairly successful 2009 where Assassin’s Creed 2 reached the 6 million mark for sales across the world, Ubiso have announced the development of other franchises across the board. Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon and Splinter Cell will both see new chapters coming out, while the highly successful Assassin’s Creed series will con nue with a third in the works. Driver will make its comeback into the market, while Raving Rabbids and Prince of Persia are also set to be extended further in 2010.

“ANOTHER ASSASSIN’S CREED GAME, EPISODES, IS CURRENTLY ALREADY IN DEVELOPMENT, AND IS SET FOR RELEASE EARLY 2010” The new Assassin’s Creed is to include the main character Ezio again, and is not to be an expansion to the current AC2. Along with the new storyline, online mul player is to be introduced into the game for the ﬁrst me, with details yet to emerge. Another Assassin’s Creed game is currently already in development, and is set for release early 2010 tled Assassin’s Creed Episodes, picking up the storyline where AC2 ended.

phonica magazine uk

NEWS

NEW GAME FOR THE LOVERS MAKE FINGER LOVE, NOT THUMB WAR Valen ne’s day is the next big over commercialised holiday on your schedule so it’s me to get preparing. Japanese app company Q entertainment might have just thing – Q?pid. The aim of the game is to trace lines on your iPhone’s screen. The trick is the lines need more than one set of hands to draw so it’s me to enlist the ﬁngers of the opposite gender. Think of it being a bit like Twister but not quite as sexy because it’s only your ﬁngers that will be entwining. According to Q’s website, “At the end of each stage, the Compa bility Diagnosis ra ng will be displayed, giving each contestant deep analy cal insights into their compa bility.”

When you successfully trace the line a “series of lla ng photos” will be revealed. So if rubbing ﬁngers isn’t doing it for your intended mate maybe some so core iPhone screen ac on will. The Japanese version of the company’s website even has a video demonstra ng how the game can be used by foreign men to seduce a rac ve Japanese ladies.

“THIS IS A TWO-PLAYER GAME. WE RECOMMEND PLAYING TOGETHER WITH SOMEONE YOU LIKE, OR SOMEONE YOU WANT TO LIKE!”

It also adds, “This is a two-player game. We recommend playing together with someone you like, or someone you want to like!”

It’s the kind of tool, er, game that I would have found invaluable as an awkward teenager. Hopefully come February 14th there will be a new genera on of awkward teenagers to take my place.

Conveniently, the lines are in pink and blue for the girl and guy respec vely. But as the developer points out that, “unless of course it’s two girls or two guys, in which case you pick whatever colour you please.”

Cheesy marke ng aside, Q’s concept is an interes ng one and the idea of ge ng two players involved on the same iPhone screen could be developed in a number of direc ons.

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Ian Duncan

NEWS STAR TREK ONLINE OFFERING THE CHANCE FOR A LIFETIME CRYPTIC STUDIOS ARE OFFERING PLAYERS THE CHANCE TO SIGN UP FOR A LIFETIME SUBSCRIPTION. Players will pay a one shot fee of $239.99 (£147 + VAT) and get access to the game for the rest of their lives (or the lifespan of the game, whichever is shorter). Cryp c are only planning to offer the deal to players who pre-order. The cost will work out about the same as subscribing month-to-month for 16 months. To sweeten the deal Cryp c are offering players who opt for life me subscrip on the chance to play as a liberated Borg, a Borg freed from the collec ve like Voyager’s Seven of Nine. The character will have some unique in game traits like health regenera on. Since the Borg will only be available with pre-orders the real benefit might be bragging rights. As the game progresses the mere presence of a Borg will indicate that the player is a veteran. If a life me seems too long to subscribe to one game or $240 seems a bit steep, there’s also a 12-month op on on offer for half the price. This op on doesn’t come with the Borg but life me and 1-year subscribers will both get two addi onal character slots. Again, the 12-month offer is only available on pre-orders. With the trend towards free to play MMOs with premium bolt-ons, Cryp c seem to be throwing their weight behind the older subscrip on model. Life me subscrip on might appeal to a few gamers but requiring a pre-order makes it a big commitment, even for the players of the beta. Players who don’t pre-order will be forced to opt for 1, 3 or 6-month subscrip ons at £8.99, £25.17 and £46.14. Star Trek Online will go live in February. Pre-orders will come with immediate access to the beta and a four day head start. Ian Duncan

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NEWS ALIEN VS PREDATOR TO MAKE ITS RETURN IN 2010 TWO OF CINEMAS FIERCEST ENEMIES COMMENCE BATTLE ONCE MORE. Originally released back in 1999, the UK-based developing studio Rebellion has taken up the mantle of resurrec ng the horror/ac on game. Now two years in the works, the new reincarna on of the 1999 hit is set for release in 2010 as a first-person shooter, with its inspira on having come from the original Alien and Predator movies instead of the previous game or 1994 movie. As part of the build-up to the launch, Rebellion have released the 1999 tle at a budget price, focusing on the single-player missions at first but adding the revamped mul player at a later date. With all three of the major fac ons involved in the original movies and games again present – the Marines, Predators, and Aliens – the planned 18-player mul player feature looks set to possibly be a huge hit with fans of the sci-fi genre. All the special moves will be present – from spine-ripping to decapita on, from climbing the walls to using the shoulder-mounted cannons. A “Hunter’s Edi on” of the game will be available as a collector’s pack, with goodies such as a hardcover graphic novel and a Weyland Yutani sleeve badge. The “Hunter’s Edi on” also comes with access to four mul player maps that will be available before being released to the public. Alien vs Predator caused quite a s r at this years Eurogamer, and if the excellent visuals, dynamics and pace of the demo version can be successful applied to the final piece, it could be one of the best tles of the year. Alien vs Predator will be available on the PC, Xbox 360 and Playsta on 3, with a release date set for late February 2010 for Europe.

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Paul Park

NEWS MADWORLD TO RETURN ON THE WII? COULD THE BLOODDRENCHED SLASHER BE MAKING A COMEBACK? MadWorld and the Wii were one of the oddest couples in gaming history. One was a cute and cuddly console that catered for the family market, and a ended church every Sunday. The other was a vile creature that went directly for the mature-audience jugular, and peed in the holy water. But somehow, when they came together, it worked, and MadWorld went on to become one of the cult tles of last year. So could we see MadWorld 2 in 2010? Well, in a recent interview with Official Nintendo Magazine UK, Pla num Games’ Shigenori Nishikawa (the director of MadWorld) had this to say: “I think MadWorld was very well received and was acknowledged for its innova ve graphical style and gameplay. We would definitely be interested in making a sequel in the future.” Not exactly the concrete evidence we were hoping for, but posi ve nonetheless. Although the Wii is a massive worldwide success, and home to some of the best tles currently available, it’s s ll revered by a strong percentage of the gaming popula on as a console for casual gamers. To a certain extent there’s nothing wrong with that, and Nintendo have captured this “casual” sec on of the market perfectly. But the sad truth is that the Wii is swamped with sub-standard games. Hopefully someone at Nintendo (and more importantly, Sega) will see the posi onal in giving the MadWorld series another crack, as it’s the type of tle that the Wii needs. Fingers crossed we see another dal wave of blood flowing our way soon, as the Wii has grown far too stale for our liking, and needs the spice that MadWorld brought to the table last year. And everyone loves an add couple! Sco Tierney

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PREVIEW COMMAND & CONQUER 4: TIBERIUM TWILIGHT PUBLISHER: ELECTRONIC ARTS DEVELOPER: EA LOS ANGELES PLATFORM: PC AVAILABLE: MARCH 2010

THE FINAL CHAPTER OF THE TIBERIUM SAGA SEEMS TO BE SHAPING UP NICELY. A er 14 years of being in the category of those games that shook the gaming world to the core and paved the way for future genera ons of mimics and lookalikes, the Tiberium storyline of the Command & Conquer franchise is coming to an end with its fourth and last instalment – Tiberium Twilight. And I really didn’t want it to end. In 2062, the world has been thrown into an environmental apocalypse due to the spread of Tiberium across the globe. With the world expected to be uninhabitable completely by 2068, the legendary NOD leader Kane makes a sudden, drama c appearance at the GDI Headquarters in order to address the GDI Council with a proposi on to counter the impending Tiberium doom – the development of the Tiberium Control Network. Fi een years later, the TCN has proved to be the miracle that saved humanity from the brink of environmental devasta on and with the Tiberium under control, all seems well. However, extremist elements in both the GDI and the NOD forces that have made it clear that they do not approve of the forced alliance have begun to s r the pot, causing unrest and upping the tension between the former enemies, culmina ng in the Fourth Tiberium War.

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PREVIEW Breaking away from previous tles, Command & Conquer 4 is set to make pre y radical changes to the gameplay. Previously, the norm was to be presented with the beginnings of a base (usually in the form of an MCV or some buildings, along with token forces) and to build up from there. This me round, players are s ll given the choice of choosing one of the two fac ons at the beginning of a ba le but are then given the choice of 3 “classes” to pick – the Offensive class, Defensive class, and the Support class. With each class presen ng the player with differing methods of defea ng your enemy, it becomes clear that this C&C is not as simple as previous incarna ons. Each class does exactly what it says on the n – the Offensive class focuses on the produc on of offensive ground troops and direct methods of victory, the Defensive class is a straight counter to the Offensive with the onus on defensive structures and shields, while the Support class works along the lines of support powers such as the Ion Cannon ability and aerial superiority. You choose between each class in the deployment stage of the mission or ba le – the prepara ons for war – and at the same me you are given the choices of choosing which unit technology and upgrades you want to take onto the field with you. These picks are purchased by ba le credits, the game’s form of currency outside the ba lefield. During the single-player campaign you are able to effortlessly flicker between classes, even during missions, although you lose out on any resources you managed to gather. In fact, losing your base or suffering impossible losses is not the end of the mission – you are able to respawn and get back into the mission straight away, making use of any units or buildings that may have survived the ini al defeat. The side bar is also gone, with a bo om bar akin to those found on the screens on Starcra and Age of Empire games, while an experience bar has also been introduced into the game. Func oning similarly to RPG experience bars, points are awarded when objec ves are completed or units are defeated, ul mately leading to game-changing upgrades that may shi your focus from one tac c to another.

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The mul player has also undergone some surgery in light of this new class system, and along with the new 5v5 and Party Leader systems, players of both the RTS and RPG genres will draw similari es between the two. Both these new developments enable teams of 5 players to gather and decide beforehand which player would play what class, in effect undertaking the same discussion that RPG players may go through – who would undertake the damage dealing, the protec on of bases, and the u lity support in a team effort to claim victory. The changes spread onto the ba lefield itself too, making the game both faster and easier to read for players of all sorts, while adding the strategic touch that hardcore gamers strive to achieve. Colouring the ammo for each side is one change – blue for the GDI and red for the NOD – while the breakdown of effec ve and ineffec ve weapons vs armour has been enhanced by the implementa on of op mum damage colours, where the ammo will change from your fac on’s colour to another one to indicate that the type of ammuni on that is being fired against par cular armour types are excep onally effec ve. For example, machine guns against infantry or lightly armoured vehicles, or rockets against air units showed up as being pink for the GDI and orange for NOD. This change is one of many that lets the player know in one glance whether their tac c or troops are effec ve against the enemy.

PREVIEW

“ADDING INCREDIBLE TACTICAL REPLAYABILITY AND LONGETIVITY HAS MADE C&C4: TT A GREAT PROSPECT.” The addi on of occasional box drops from defeated troops speeds up the ba le, reducing the need for dropping troops back to your outpost to repair and gather for another skirmish. Blue boxes provided upgrades to weapons or repaired units, while green boxes bestowed armour upgrades, adding a further layer of strategic deployment of troops to the present system of veterancy. Resource management has undergone a makeover, with refineries and harvesters being replaced by sta c rigs that harvest Tiberium at specific points across the map and providing a straight flow of currency. Much like oil derricks in previous tles, these rigs would produce a set amount of credits un l destroyed, making each derrick incredibly valuable to the war effort of each player.

Last but not least, the introduc on of the Crawler unit is one that would take many C&C veterans by surprise. The Crawler is a portable MCV of sorts, your command centre in the heat of the ba le. It produces troops and is key to your tac cs, allowing players to shi their reliance away from sta c war factories and barracks and instead having a constantly shi ing command post. In fact, the focus on mobility is so high that only the Defensive class is able to produce buildings – the other two are unable to do so, instead relying on captured outposts and their Crawler to supply the forces required to takeout opposi on armies. This shi from buildings to units is one that seems to go against the tradi onal tech tree focus of RTS games but in reality just presents a new, rather appealing and refreshing take on the whole system. All these changes and shi s from tradi onal methods of play indicate that the Command & Conquer series is taking on a new, modern look to the RTS genre. Adding incredible tac cal replayability and longe vity has made C&C4: Tiberium Twilight a mouthwatering prospect for players across the board, whether you are a novice or a professional player. Expect a massive community-driven push into ﬁnding eﬀec ve tac cs and methods of play as soon as this game comes out – bigger than, I dare say, Starcra II. Paul Park

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PREVIEW BIOSHOCK 2 PUBLISHER: 2K GAMES DEVELOPER: 2K MARIN PLATFORM: XBOX 360, PS3, PC AVAILABLE: FEBRUARY 2010

IT’S ANOTHER UNDERWATER NIGHTMARE AND THIS TIME YOU’RE THE DADDY Bioshock was one of the most highly praised games of recent years so there are big expecta ons for the sequel. For those unfamiliar with the franchise, Bioshock is set in the dilapidated underwater city of Rapture. Rapture was supposed to be a utopian haven but the residents have been driven mad by the abuse of gene c engineering. These mad residents are known as splicers and they haunt the halls of Rapture. The sequel is set ten years a er the original story. This me around the player takes on the persona of a Big Daddy, a hulking iron clad monster. The destruc ve diving bell became the iconic image of Bioshock but has undergone a few changes for the second instalment. The original Big Daddies lacked free will or the ability to think crea vely, which obviously would not make for a good player character. The role of the Big Daddy is to protect the Li le Sister, creepy girls who harvest gene c energy. It emerges early on in the sequel that despite having gained free will, you will s ll be expected to play this role of protector. The Big Daddy’s nemesis is the Big Sister, a machine designed specifically to terminate your character. There promises to be a number of encounters with her throughout the game and in the first she breaches the outer wall of Rapture flooding a large chamber. Fortunately, you are encased in a diving suit and the scene gives you an opportunity to explore the sea floor and take in stunning views of the whole city.

The Big Daddy suit is armed with a massive drill and can be upgraded with a number of diﬀerent guns. Once again you’ll be able to use plasmids, the gene c upgrades that give you all sorts of interes ng powers. An important aspect of the gameplay is working out eﬀec ve combina ons of plasmids and Big Daddy weaponry to dispatch your enemies.

“THERE’S ENOUGH THAT’S DIFFERENT ABOUT IT TO KEEP OLD PLAYERS INTERESTED. AND IT DOESN’T DISCARD THE GREAT STORYTELLING!” In addi on to the single player mode Bioshock 2 will also be introducing mul player. In a nice touch, this mode will be set a year before the original game and before Rapture had descended into chaos. As a result, the visual feel is very different and offers a chance to revisit old loca ons and see how they were originally intended to look. Players ba le to destroy one another using a mixture of weapons and plasmids and can gain access to a Big Daddy suit which will be hidden somewhere on the map. Bioshock 2 is shaping up to be a great addi on to the series. There’s enough that’s different about it to keep old players interested but it doesn’t discard the lush visuals and great storytelling that made the original great. Ian Duncan

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PREVIEW LEGENDS OF EXIDIA PUBLISHERS: GAMELOFT DEVELOPERS: GAMELOFT FORMAT: DSIWARE AVAILABLE: FEBRUARY

IT WOULDN’T BE A FANTASY GAME WITHOUT THE USE OF MAGIC AND ‘TONS’ OF WEAPONS! While reading through the pre-release overview for Legends of Exidia, I no ced that this game is targeted at ‘heroic fantasy fans’. Now, although I’m a fantasy fan, I’ve never done anything heroic. I’ve donated money to charity, I’ve opened jars for my mum, and I once carried an old lades shopping home…in the rain. But as for being heroic, that’s not me. So will I, or any other fantasy fans that shiver at the thought of a leaking tap, enjoy Legends of Exidia? Legends of Exidia is a fantasy adventure for the DS. Your character - the strapping Lois - is plunged into a world of demons, castles and damsels, and must explore the expansive world of Exidia. It’s good, straigh orward fantasy stuﬀ, with many a’ gold coin to be found and many a’ dragon to be slain. And there is an awful lot to be slain. Giant worms, Orcs, Goblins, Bats, Spiders and the hilariously tled ‘Bomb-Throwing Spider Lady’ are all begging to have a merry sword plunged into their guts. Now that sounds heroic! As expected, there are a lot of items to collect. There are ‘tons’ of weapons to be found (who measures weapons by the ton?), which includes 69 swords and other death-bringing devices, and there’s a vast selec on of spells. In addi on, there are 83 helmets, 83 body amours and 83 boots. That’s probably enough apparel, to be honest. That said, these ‘tons’ of items will be needed to progress into the later stages of the game, and the diﬃculty does climb rapidly.

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One of the aspects that really impressed us during our playtest was the clever microphone features. With a simple, well directed and performed blow, you could ex nguish flames, solve parts of puzzles and even make a bird fly. OK, so it’s not a mind-blowing innova on, but it brought a li le bit of fun to the whole proceedings. And everyone loves a good blow….what? Visually, Legends of Exidia looks OK. To be honest you couldn’t tell it apart from an old NES game, as the graphics reek of fantasy cliché and 16bit flatness. But overall, they do the job, and the DS has never been about graphics anyway.

“ONE OF THE ASPECTS THAT REALLY IMPRESSED US DURING OUR PLAYTEST WAS THE CLEVER MICROPHONE FEATURES.” If you like a good old fashioned fantasy game, with lots of slaying, leveling-up and apparel (all 83 of them!) then Legends of Exidia could be right up your street. There’s not a lot to get over excited about, but hopefully when it’s released in around a month’s me, DSi owners will have enough fantasy ac on to keep them going. Now, is there anyone out there that needs anything heroic doing? Any cats stuck up a tree? Boys trapped in a mine sha ? Nope? Sco Tierney

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FEATURE THIRD-PERSON SHOOTERS: LOOKING OVER YOUR SHOULDER WHY DO WE LOVE TO LOOK AT THE BACK OF A GAMING CHARACTER’S HEAD? Ahh, the humble TPS. Nothing beats shoo ng things while staring at the back of someone’s head, or in the case of the Tomb Raider series, a perfectly formed bo om-budge (you’ve looked, we all have!). But why is the TPS so popular, and how is it best used? The first TPS (and this is a controversial subject) was Tomb Raider. Some game historians (whatever they are?) say that Tomb Raider isn’t technically a shooter, but instead more of a 3D pla ormer. But hey, that’s for another daythird-person viewpoint could do. It had superb 3D environments that the player could observe from all angles, some clever pla orm designs, and best of all it showed how shoo ng from a third person viewpoint could work. The main principle behind (I didn’t even mean that, it just came out!) the third-person viewpoint is to give the player a be er view of the surroundings. Whereas the first-person view is a more direct approach, that is primarily designed to give the player be er accuracy when shoo ng, the third-person view lets the player see the whole ba lefield. This is why a lot of tac cal or stealthing games such as Splinter Cell and Batman: Arkham Asylum employs the TP viewpoint. It allows the player to use the surroundings with more precision, and asses a situa on with a firmer understanding of the parameters.

Another bonus of the TP viewpoint is that you get to see the character you’re playing as. In Dead Space, your health and other gauges were posi oned on your characters back, which helped keep the rest of the screen clean. The TP viewpoint also allows you to see the damage and ba le scares your character has taken. This was most notably seen in Batman: Arkham Asylum, when over the course of the game, Batman’s cape would become torn, and he’d even develop a five ‘o clock shadow. Apparently a ‘Bat-razor’ is being developed in the sequel, so look out for that…. But with every posi ve, there’s a flipside, and the flaw with the third-person viewpoint is, surprisingly, the shoo ng. Here’s a test; name five TPS tles that have allowed you to shot with precision, ease and accuracy. I can come up with about three (Gears of War, Grand The Auto 4, and at a stretch, Max Payne). The problem is that a lot of TPS’s struggle to get their aiming just right, and a lot of the me an auto-aim system will be used. Even tles such as Mass Effect, Just Cause, Uncharted, Dead Space and Kane and Lynch have been cri cised for there aiming. And here’s a li le fact; Halo was originally intended to be a TPS, but a er problems during development, it was switched to a FPS. And thus, a classic was born.

“HERE’S A TEST; NAME FIVE TP TITLES THAT HAVE ALLOWED YOU TO SHOT WITH PRECISION, EASE AND ACCURACY. I CAN COME UP WITH ABOUT THREE.”

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FEATURE

So how do you get the best of both a TPS and a FPS? Well it’s simple; you use both. Some games, such as Halo, bounce between both viewpoints depending on the situa on. When shoo ng is needed, the FP viewpoint is used. But when a vehicle of turret is being used, TP viewpoint comes in. It’s the same with Fallout 3 (which allows you to change view at any me) and Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight (in which the TP viewpoint was used when a lightsaber is drawn). Both use a system that takes the best of both worlds, and are be er games for it So there you have it, the third-person shooter. It’s got its good and bad points, but one thing is for sure; you haven’t lived ll you’ve viewed Lara Cro climb out of the water, from behind. Ahhhh……God bless you third-person viewpoint. Sco Tierney

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FEATURE REAL FRIENDS ARE FOR LIFE A LOOK BACK AT THE TRIUMPHS OF THE UNREAL ENGINE I was going to start this piece by asking a wee ques on. What do Harry Po er and the Philosopher’s Stone, Mass Effect, Deus Ex, Turok, Gears of War, Bioshock, Mirror’s Edge and Batman: Arkham Asylum have in common? Yeah, well. You’re a bright spark. You’ve doubtless spo ed the ar cle’s subhead. It’s a game engine, and it’s not called Havok. Bless you, Unreal, you piece of C++ loveliness. And bless you, Epic, for crea ng one of the most flexible, scalable, powerful pieces of gaming backbone ever. It slices. It dices. It’s moddable and works on just about any pla orm. We can even forgive it for its starring role in America’s Army, the US government’s videogame-cum-recrui ng tool that, probably more than any other single thingy, has been responsible for persuading legions of bright-eyed American youth that their future lies in wearing desert fa gues and being shot at. Where did it all begin? Well, Unreal reared its head back in 1998, with Unreal Tournament hard on its heels in Spring ‘99. 12 years on, we’re all s ll shivering from their impact. When you open up your mul player menu in Modern Warfare 2 and see all those op ons - Domina on, Capture the Ferret... you know the sort of thing - you’re paying homage to Unreal Tournament’s legacy. Before then - I know, it’s hard to believe - it was pre y much Team Deathmatch or nothing. If you’ve ever experienced the joy of lying prone by an enemy flag, desperately willing the capture bar to fill a li le bit ****ing quicker, and wondering where the hell the rest of your team are, goddamit, I’m the only one paying a en on to the flow of this bloody ba le, you guys are freaking amateurs, c’mon, c’mon, 5 more seconds, and... death. Sorry, I digress. If you’ve ever done that, thank Unreal.

Why was Unreal so clever? Why did it garner such huge support at the me? What Epic did was to sew a whole smorgasbord of features into one single package. Which doesn’t sound like such a clever innova on - in fact, it sounds bleeding obvious - but which demonstrated genuine vision on the part of the development team. 12 years ago, the humble home PC was not the processing powerhouse that it is today. Unreal’s ﬁrst itera on even needed scaling back for some pla orms... what with the AI and rendering all working together, collision detec on needed to be dumbed down, as it were, to keep the framerate reasonable. It was a gaming engine with an eye to the future. And it’s stood the test of me. We may now be on Unreal3, but the core concept remains the same. Unreal’s trac on and success has been driven by people power. Epic’s decision to create a scrip ng language has been crucial to the engine’s ubiquity. For those already nodding oﬀ at all this technical gee-whizzery, what this means is that anyone - even me, if I had the me and energy to learn it - could take the script and write my own rules for it. Or create my own levels. Or, in fact, just about anything. PC gamers may rant and rave about the “consolisa on” of games, but they’ve had it so good for so long because of innova ons like Unreal. Mod communi es run the gamut of crea vity and commitment, from tweaking shooters and running them on dedicated servers with a bunch of mates, all the way to rebuilding classic games from the ground up. And if you don’t believe me, I refer you to Sco ’s piece in our last issue, where you’ll read a li le bit about the long-running Half-Life Black Mesa saga. Sigh. I’m running out of space. To be honest, a true paean to Unreal could probably take up an en re issue of Phonica. Things to look out for this year? Unreal 3 for the iPhone. Epic’s ongoing partnership deal with Sony. And, of course, the li le ma er of Bioshock 2, coming soon to a drenched utocalyp a near you. Once again, Unreal: bless you. Frags just wouldn’t be the same without you. Rob Hobson

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FEATURE

ARCADEWARFARE – FLASH GAMES GALORE MORE GAMES THAN YOU COULD SHAKE A FLASH-BASED STICK AT! There are lots of flash game websites popping up across the internet, and arcadewarfare.com is no excep on. Filled with a huge variety of pick-up-andplay games, it fills all of those 5 minute breaks you take every so o en in front of the computer, a er slogging it out on Excel. Nicely presented and with a great selec on of flash-based games that range from your usual stuff along the lines of punch-em-ups, shoot-em-ups, sports variants and card-based games to the more niche games such as the good old Pacman and Arithme c Challenge, Arcade Warfare is perfectly designed to take your mind off things with concentrated gaming goodness.

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One slice of the gaming pie is a par cularly sophis cated side-scrolling game called Thing Thing 3. Developed by Diseased Produc ons, Thing Thing 3 is the third in a mini-franchise of games based around the Madness collec on, where ragdoll effects are used to extremely good and gory fun. Playing a character codenamed Project 154 who was an experimental weapon that was being developed, you are given the task of escaping from a city at first, figh ng off wave a er wave of similarly designed enemies with a fairly complete AI, following you around the pla orms and shoo ng brazenly at you. Thing Thing 3 quickly descends into a bloody mayhem as you blast away with rocket launchers and M16s, trying to gun through walls of increasingly tough and smart enemies that are put in front of you like cookies out of an oven. Good fun is had but some people may find it a bit excessive (my laptop began to lag a er I killed roughly 40 enemies on the screen at the same me, no complaints from me though) or rather tedious a er a while.

FEATURE

“ARCADEWARFARE IS FAIRLY NEW ON THE INTERNET BUT HAVE QUICKLY AMASSED A VAST COLLECTION OF FLASH GAMES FOR ANYONE’S ENTERTAINMENT, ALONG WITH A RATHER LARGE MEMBER BASE IN SUCH A SHORT SPACE OF TIME.” Another li le dbit I managed to sample generously is Power Driving. Stuck inside an American muscle car and racing against computer AI, Power Driving really is the essence of ﬂash gaming – a quick race before you start work with all that adrenaline from having beaten that pesky Ford Mustang right at the end with a nitrous burst; then another quick dose of fast-paced goodness by comfortably thrashing everyone across the board a erwards. Repe ve yes, but when you consider its simplicity and ease of play it’s a beau ful one hit wonder that can have you coming for more with terrifying ease.

Arcadewarfare is fairly new on the internet but have quickly amassed a vast collec on of ﬂash games for anyone’s entertainment, along with a rather large member base in such a short space of me. For those who are looking away from the usual websites for fun, this is certainly one li le hideaway amongst many from the likes of Facebook and Twi er. Paul Park

phonica magazine uk

FEATURE FORGOTTEN GEMS

OMIKRON: THE NOMAD SOUL PUBLISHER: EIDOS INTERACTIVE DEVELOPER: QUANTIC DREAM FORMAT: PC, DREAMCAST RELEASED: 1999

FUTURISTIC SCI-FI ACTION, SET TO THE TECHNO-BEATS OF DAVID BOWIE. What’s the first thing you think of when you see a film star/popular icon on the cover of a game? Firstly, you’d expect the game to be based on a film, or a direct movie e-in, so you’d use your highly refined bad-game detector and move swi ly long. Secondly, you’d just think this is one of those rubbish games that’s used an actor, possibly as a voice ar st or video captured character, and wants everyone to know about it. Again, your detector starts bleeping madly, and you wander past. But one of these games, Omikron: The Nomad Soul (or just The Nomad Soul in Europe), was actually extremely good, even though it had David Bowie’s face on the cover.

“OMIKRON HAD AN INTENSELY EERIE FEEL.” Set in a far oﬀ future, with elements of mythology and religion thrown in for good measure, Omikron was a fast paced adventure that had a li le bit of everything. At the start of the game, you are literally transported into the body of police oﬃcer, Kay’l 669. Playing as Kay’l 669, you have to ba le across the vast Cites and landscapes of a future world, solving riddles and picking up clues from crime scenes Karl has previously inves gated. It was all very complex, and far too deep to be explained fully here.

To be honest, Omikron wasn’t all that good to look at, and it wasn’t the greatest slice of gaming either. Although the visuals we’re OK for the me, they lacked a much needed sharpness, and overall the many unusual styles that developers Quan c Dream employed (who also developed the excellent Fahrenheit, which will be featured in this sec on in a coming issue) didn’t really complement each other. Gameplay-wise it was very good, with the pace rarely dropping oﬀ and the intricate mixtures of shoo ng, ﬁgh ng and puzzle solving well balanced and maintained throughout. But it wasn’t excep onal by any means, and the many bugs that plagued its coding o en raised their ugly heads. Also, the less said about the character renderings the be er. But despite all this nega vity, what really made Omikron: The Nomad Soul standout was the overall feel. It had a compelling atmosphere, which thanks to David Bowie’s input - mostly with the score but he also aided produc on and early development – the game had an intensely eerie feel. It’s hard to explain, and it’s something that can only be really understood if you’ve played Omikron, but every sec on of the game just oozed tension. So, that’s Omikron: The Nomad Soul; an excellent game that due to average graphics, buggy gameplay, poor por ng (the Dreamcast version was lazily reworked) and the stereotype that games with actors don’t work, seems to have been forgo en. So next me you see a computer generated image of David Bowie starring back at you, ignore your beeping detector and snap it up, as you’ll be surprised how good it actually is. Sco Tierney

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REVIEWS

DARKSIDERS PUBLISHERS: THQ DEVELOPERS: VIGIL GAMES FORMAT: PS3, XBOX 360 AVAILABLE: NOW

DARKSIDERS KNOWS WHAT SIDE ITS BREAD’S BUTTERED ON. Massive sword; check. A horse; check. Ghosts and Goblin-like creatures; check. Enough bu on mashing to leave you riddled with arthri s; double check! With all the major ac on/adventure bases well and truly covered, Darksiders looks to be well on its way to being a sure fire hit. But let’s dig a li le deeper, and see if Darksiders is more than just a ba ered and bruised face. The story behind Darksiders isn’t rela vely new, and to be honest it’s an almost carbon-copy of Too Human’s (it sound’s like someone must have copy-pasted the script at 5:29 on Friday). It’s a mix of mythical concepts - in this case the fight between those from Heaven and those from Hell - and a deserted future where all around has been desolated. Your character is a mixture of both the good and the bad (light and dark, black and white, City and Utd etc) and having been awoken from your slumber under suspicious circumstances, you have to fight your way around the wastelands of earth in an a empt to clear you name. But to be honest, the story is nothing more than a tramline leading you straight into the City Centre of sword-wielding ac on. All aboard! Darksiders gameplay is very basic, although the occasional puzzle is thrown in for good measure. 99% of the me, you’ll be scrapping with exceedingly large numbers of beasts, which get bigger, badder and more ferocious as the game progresses. On the whole this is excellent, as the beasts keep coming in consistent waves and you merrily chop them to pieces with the ridiculously large sword you’ve been provided with. It’s good simple Golden Axe-style fun.

But the lack of depth can become a problem, and to be honest the game never really improves or differs. For instance, there is a brief segment where you get to fly a dragon-like creature around, all the while shoo ng baddies from the sky and other angry nastys. But to be honest it’s not that good, and it just feels glued on at the last minute in an a empt to break the flow. There are other flaws that crop up from me to me. The graphics, although very sharp and flowing, do lack a certain style or direc on. There’s nothing wrong with them, but when you compare them to say a Gears of War 2 or Batman: Arkham Asylum, they just lack atmosphere and a visual punch. There’s also a major problem with screen tearing on the Xbox 360 version, but a patch should be ready and available by the me you read this. But overall, Darksiders is an excellent piece of slash and smash gaming. It’s not as well polished as its compe ons, as it’s visually flat and maybe too single minded. Also, the fight sequences aren’t the most enthralling we’ve ever come across, and the fran c bu on mashing does become resome. But apart from these niggles, there’s an awful lot to love about Darksiders. It’s exci ng, addic ve, well paced and most of all, immensely fun. A mul player addi on would have been welcome, as the game is perfectly setup for some co-op based violence, but that’ll have to wait un l the already planned sequel. Darksiders isn’t the best package around, and it’s sure to be well and truly pumped by God of War 3, but for now, this’ll do nicely. Sco Tierney

PRESENTATION: 16/20 STORY: 15/20 CONTROLS: 18/20 GAMEPLAY: 17/20 DURABILITY: 17/20

OVERALL

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REVIEWS RABBIDS GO HOME PUBLISHERS: UBISOFT DEVELOPERS: UBISOFT MONTPELLIER FORMAT: WII, DS AVAILABLE: NOW

THE RABBIDS GO IT ALONE FOR THE FIRST TIME; WITH SPECTACULAR RESULTS! You’ve got to love a simple game. A game that you can just pick up, play for a couple of hours without any real emo onal or intensifying eﬀort, and then pop back onto the shelf un l the next me arises. Well, Rabbids Go Home is the absolute pinnacle of the simple (and stupid) game. The objec ve of Rabbids Go Home is reassuringly simple; cause havoc and collect as much junk as possible. Pushing your li le shopping cart around some environments that are just begging to be torn apart, you collect and store as much junk as it is physically possible to carry. Once you reach the end of the level, all the junk is added up and thrown onto the pile, as you take another step towards building a stack big enough to reach the moon. As I said, it’s reassuringly simple, and this premise con nues on throughout the game. Rabbids Go Home is so easy to play it’s almost frightening. Anyone can pick up the Wii Remote and Nunchuck and start playing, and within minutes be up to a standard that allows the gameplay to ﬂow. Basic instruc ons are given during the game, but to be honest they’re not really needed, as you’ll pick it up as you go along. It should also be noted that not only are the controls a breeze to learn, they’re also extremely responsive and precise. To be fair, there’s not a lot to them, and they’re not at all complex or inven ve, but what they do they do perfectly.

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As for the gameplay, well guess what, it’s very simple! It could be argued that there’s not a lot of variety, and you’ll be hard-pushed to ﬁnd a more repe ve game, but to a certain extent that’s irrelevant. This is just simple gaming, with no complica ons, intricacies, diversions or hidden messages. It’s just fun. But where Rabbids Go Home really thrives is in its humour. Everything about Rabbids Go Home is funny, from the silly noises and giggles the Rabbids make, all the way through to the silly cuts scenes and loading tles. During one li le segment - where you get to customise your Rabbid - the game shows the Rabbid inside your remote. So when you swing and hurl the remote around, the Rabbid is slung from the internal walls of the Wii remote, and li le ‘eeks’ come from the speaker. These li le touches really add to the game, and make it a far more enjoyable (and funny) experience. To sum up Rabbids Go Home, this is pure gaming fun at its best. It’s hysterically funny, easy to pickup and play, fast, fran c and pleasurable. Sure, there are a few ﬂaws, such as the occasionally s cky frame-rate, and the lack of depth or varia on, but these are minor blotches on an otherwise pris ne garment. It’s just good simple fun, and for that it should be applauded and beloved. Sco Tierney

PRESENTATION: 14/20 STORY: 16/20 CONTROLS: 18/20 GAMEPLAY: 18/20 DURABILITY: 18/20

OVERALL

84/100

phonica magazine uk

REVIEWS DARK VOID PUBLISHERS: CAPCOM DEVELOPERS: AIRTIGHT GAMES FORMAT: XBOX 360, PS3, PC AVAILABLE: NOW

LOW FAT LATTE…. Nolan North is rapidly becoming the Starbucks of gaming. Yes, it’s quite nice to have him around, but does he really have to pop up on every single street corner? As an object lesson, I refer Mr North to the career of Jude Law. Once pped for Hollywood royalty, 2004 was the year of over-exposure for young Jude. Sky Captain and the World of tomorrow. Alfie. I Heart Huckabees. And look at him now: a sidekick with a receding hairline. Be warned, Nolan. Dark Void has you playing the North-voiced Will Grey, a reluctant hero with a nice line in self-depreca on and sardonic one-liners. Will gets lost in the Bermuda Triangle, ends up in an alternate universe, goes to war with some aliens called Watchers... oh yes, and gets a jetpack. I confess...I was suspicious from the off, and here I make a special plea: since Dark Sector, I’m hugely wary of games that rely on a single trope to raise them from the mire of mediocrity. A Krull-style glaive sounds great in theory, looks good in preview, and gets mind-mel ngly dull a er an hour or two. Jetpacks have a similar quo ent of intrinsic coolness, so it’s something of a relief to be able to say that Will Grey’s “thing” doesn’t get old in the same way that Haydon Tenno’s did. Controls aren’t instantly intui ve, but once you’ve realised just how quickly you can flick into a erburn, you’re powering around the skies and taking cover - ver cally and horizontally - with aplomb.

So... jetpacks slightly cooler than glaives. One point to Air ght Games. You’ll do lots of dogfigh ng in Dark Void, and it’s rather fun. Mul ple contacts, as Iceman and Slider would have it, and you demonstra ng your rather impressive manoeuvrability in the middle of all of it. I men oned ver cal cover and this plays its part too, with large industrial structures li ered with nas es for you to scramble over and around. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that air-to-structure-to-ground combat is seamless, but it’s neat and feels good. What else can you do? You can hijack Watcher ships, which is extremely cool the first me you do it. Sadly, Air ght didn’t see fit to create more than one anima on for the act of ripping a saucer cockpit open and bea ng the pilot to death, so it soon goes from a delicate amuse-bouche to a chunk of Pedigree Chum. Dark Void is a noble effort to bring a li le variety to the careworn 3rd-person shooter format. Air ght have clearly given the aerial combat plenty of thought, and it shows: controls are ght and sa sfying, Will himself certainly looks the part, and the storyline whisks you along in a reasonably engaging way. Sadly, DV runs out of ideas before the end, giving you a taste of what is almost a really notable game before whipping it away and replacing it with a plate of stodge. One to buy at a discount, perhaps, but not - for me - a full pricer. Rob Hobson

PRESENTATION: 14/20 STORY: 15/20 CONTROLS: 15/20 GAMEPLAY: 15/20 DURABILITY: 10/20

OVERALL

60 phonica magazine uk

69/100

REVIEWS

phonica magazine uk

REVIEWS ARMY OF TWO: THE 40TH DAY PUBLISHERS: ELECTRONIC ARTS DEVELOPERS: EA MONTREAL FORMAT: XBOX 360, PS3, PSP AVAILABLE: NOW

ONE OF THE STUPIDEST GAMES ON THE MARKET HAS DECIDED TO GROW UP.

62 phonica magazine uk

REVIEWS The original Army of Two, was, at heart, stupid. It was loud, brash, flashy, needlessly violent and fuelled by a flaming cocktail of adrenaline and testosterone. But although it had the charm of a scouser vomi ng on the doorstep of an orphanage, it was s ll immensely fun, and a pleasant way to kill a couple of hours. Everyone knew it was stupid, so it didn’t try to hide it; it just embraced its stupidness and was be er for it. But this new instalment seems to have grown up…... or at least tried to. Anyone who played the original Army of Two will know what to expect from The 40th Day. It’s basically two macho guys running around shoo ng baddies. That’s it. There’s the occasional sec on where you need to work together, like opening a s ff door or pushing a van down some stairs, but most of the me it’s just kill kill kill. There is the op on of tac cs, which do play a part in certain cases and do add a strategic edge to proceedings. But most of the me you both advance side by side with guns blazing, or if you’re a lazy coward like me, let him do the work while you pick-off the occasional target. Visually, Army of Two: The 40th Day is solid if unspectacular. The graphics aren’t the best we’ve seen, as they lack a certain sharpness, but at least they complement the framerate, which rarely drops off, even during the most ac on-packed of moments. There is a problem with the sound, though, as it appears to be a touch muddled. Voices and closerange SFX sound hushed, but distant gunshots and the background ambiance dominate far too heavily. This muddling also applies to the level design, as some are far too clu ered and complex, resul ng in confusion and dead-end death.

Why do you need to customise weapons? Just give me a gun and let me shoot faces with it. And why have such advanced tac cal op ons? This isn’t Command and Concur, this is shoot un l you drop. But the morality features are the worst by far. For instance, if you come across a situa on that entails any choice - say the decision to spare or kill a security guard – you are asked to make a choice. Once you decide, there’s a li le comic-style video showing the consequences of your ac ons. Also, if you save a hostage’s life, you receive special morality points. You can’t do anything with them though. Maybe they can be collected and sent away with a self address envelope, and you’ll receive an ‘I’m a nice guy’ Frisbee in 28 days? It’s a totally pointless and slightly insul ng a empt to add emo on and ethical depth to The 40th Day, and the game is worse for it. So, to sum up Army of Two: The 40th Day. If you ignore all the new morality addi ons, that do nothing but hamper the gameplay and sicken the mouth, then you’ll enjoy The 40th Day. It features some fun if uninspired set pieces, the pacing is good, the ac on rarely stops and when played with a buddy it’s a ﬁst-pumping riot. It’s just a shame this idiot of a game has decided to act all clever, as we preferred the dribbling-dummy in the dunce hat. Sco Tierney

PRESENTATION: 14/20 STORY: 13/20 CONTROLS: 14/20 GAMEPLAY: 14/20 DURABILITY: 15/20

OVERALL

69/100

But the biggest problem we have with Army of Two: The 40th Day is that it’s trying to act all grown up, and move away from its borderline retarded history. New features such as the op on to customize weapons, overly complicated tac cal concepts and morality bonuses only accomplish in clogging up the gameplay, and to a certain extent ruin the pace.

phonica magazine uk

VANCOUVER 2010 PUBLISHERS: SEGA DEVELOPERS: EUROCOM FORMAT: XBOX 360, PS3, PC AVAILABLE: NOW

WE’VE PROBABLY SEEN ENOUGH SNOW OVER THE PAST MONTH TO LAST US A LIFETIME!

64 phonica magazine uk

REVIEWS It’s strange to think that the athle cs-based sports game hasn’t really developed much since it was original released. When you compare the classic 1983 game, Track and Field (which featured the peculiar strapline ‘This is the Real Sport!’) to Vancouver 2010, there’s very li le difference between them. In both tles, you just mash the bu ons as quickly as possible and release them at the right me, resul ng in a fast me, high score of perfect throw. You’d think that a er 27 years, there’d be some difference? Of course, there is a huge amount of difference between the two games, mainly regarding the visuals. Vancouver 2010 does look extremely impressive, with the snowy landscapes beau fully rendered, all the characters brimming with realis c mo ons, and every bobsleigh crash looking par cularly painful. Also, it should be said that some of the on-board camera angles really convey the sense of speed, and do a great job of immersing you in the occasional moment of intense ac on. As already men oned, the controls for these types of games haven’t changed in nearly three decades, so there’s not a lot to say. Every event, whether it is snowboarding, downhill slalom, speed ska ng or bobsleigh, have roughly the same controls. You tap one bu on to go faster, another to slow down, and steer with the s cks. Thank you, and Goodnight. But what lets Vancouver 2010 down is its lack of depth. Although you can compete over the web with friends and other players, and also try and get your name on the online leader board, there’s not a lot else to do. Frustra ngly, you can only play single events, rather than a whole series of them. This is OK for short periods, but there’s no op on (like a career mode) to allow you to really get stuck-in for more than a couple of hours. It’s just a collec on of mini-games, and nothing more. That said though, this is a blatant cash-in, so what do you expect?

If you really hanker for some winter-sports ac on, that is fun with or without friends, then you may consider Sonic and Mario at the Winter Games, on the Wii. It’s not as well polished as Vancouver 2010, and there are a few ﬂaws with the Wii’s controls, but it’s a lot more fun. The games are mixed and varied, the mul player ac on is more compe ve, and it features a really good career mode. Plus, it’s available for around £10, which is a snatch.

“VANCOUVER 2010 IS JUST A COLLECTION OF MINI-GAMES, AND NOTHING MORE.” So, should you buy Vancouver 2010? Well, it’s certainly not a bad game. It will provide you with short periods of decent gameplay, and the visual are very impressive. But for around £40, that’s an awful lot of Queen’s faces for a very thin game. My advice, either buy Sonic and Mario’s snow based frolics, or pop down your local car boot and sniﬀ-out a copy of Track and Field. It’s ‘Real Sport’, apparently. Sco Tierney

PRESENTATION: 15/20 STORY: 6/20 CONTROLS: 12/20 GAMEPLAY: 13/20 DURABILITY: 10/20

OVERALL

56/100

phonica magazine uk

THE GUIDE

PHONICA’S 20 3RD-PERSON TITLES BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL

GIANTS: CITIZEN KABUTO

TOM CLANCY’S SPLINTER CELL

METAL GEAR SOLID 4 GTA 4

(Xbox, PS2, PC, GC)

(PC, PS2)

(Xbox, PS2, PC)

(PS3)

(PS3, Xbox 360, PC)

“The adventure is good, the gameplay is good, but the talking pigs are ace!”

“Silly. Very, very silly.”

“High-tech sneaking of the highest quality.”

“A superb slice of gaming, if you can stomach the draining cut-scenes”

“Over 10,000 pedestrians slaughtered and we’re s ll laughing!”

UNCHARTED 2

STRANGLEHOLD

NINJA GAIDEN

ASSASSINS CREED 2

FABLE 2

(PS3)

(Xbox 360, PS3, PC)

(Xbox)

(Xbox 360, PS3, PC)

(Xbox 360)

“A proper adventure game. They don’t make them like this anymore… wait a sec.”

“OK, it’s rubbish, but for brief moments it excels in it ludicrously. ”

“As hard as a coﬃn nail, but who said games should be easy?”

“Some of us s ll aren’t convinced, but a much be er product than the ﬁrst.”

“U erly charming, and packed to the seams with silly Bri sh humour.”

66 phonica magazine uk

THE GUIDE

GEARS OF WAR 2

MASS EFFECT

TOMB RAIDER: THE GREATEST RAIDS

BATMAN: ARKHAM ASYLUM

DEAD SPACE

(Xbox 360)

(Xbox 360, PC)

(PC)

(Xbox 360, PS3, PC)

(Xbox 360, PS3)

“Huge, massive epic, enormous, errrm….big? You get the idea.”

“If you like lots of dialogue and deep gaming experiences, this is for you.”

“All the classic Lara tles in one ﬁt-to-burst box. Ooo, look at her...!”

“The perfect representa on of the Dark Knight. Simply brilliant.”

“One of the few recent games that is genuinely scary.”

MAX PAYNE 2

HITMAN COLLECTION

RESIDENT EVIL 4

FAHRENHEIT

OMIKRON: THE NOMAD SOUL

(Xbox, PS2, PC)

(PC)

(PC, Wii, PS2, GC)

(Xbox, PS2, PC)

(DC, PC)

“He’s got a silly name, but don’t tell him to his face. ”

“Turned the simple act of killing into an art form. Can I say that without sounding weird?”

“Will those zombies ever stop coming?”

“Not to everyone’s taste, but a genuinely original game.”

“It had David Bowie in it. Come on, what’s not to love?”

phonica magazine uk

THE GUIDE

Size weight Frequency Screen Pixels camera resolu on memory/compa bility bluetooth GPRS WLAN Browser Java Messaging Radio Music downloadable games downloadable ringtones Ba ery talk me - mins (max) Ba ery standy - hours (up to) bluetooth carKit compa ble

Nokia 6730

Nokia 5530

Nokia E75

Nokia 6210

Nokia E63

112 x 46 x 12.6 mm 83 g Quad-band/3G 240 x 320 3.15 MP 48 MB/microSD Yes/A2DP/microUSB Yes/EDGE Class 32 No Wap/xHTML/HTML Yes SMS/MMS/Email Yes

104 x 49 x 13 mm 107 g Quad-band/3G 640 x 360 3.2 MP 70 MB/microSD Yes/A2DP/microUSB Yes/EDGE Class 32/HSDPA Yes Wap/xHTML/HTML Yes SMS/MMS/Email/AMS Yes

111.8 x 50 x 14.4 mm 139 g Quad-band/3G 320 x 240 3.2 MP 50 MB/microSD Yes/A2DP/microUSB Yes/EDGE Class 32/HSDPA Yes Wap/xHTML/HTML Yes SMS/MMS/Email Yes

103 x 49 x 14.9 mm 117 g Tri-band 320 x 240 3.2 MP 120 MB/microSD Yes/A2DP/miniUSB Yes/EDGE Class 32/HSDPA No Wap/xHTML/HTML Yes SMS/MMS/Email Yes

113 x 59 x 13 mm 126 g Quad-band 320 x 240 2 MP 110 MB/microSD Yes/A2DP/microUSB Yes/EDGE Class 32 Yes Wap/xHTML/HTML Yes SMS/MMS/Email/IM Yes

MP3/AAC/AAC+/eAAC/WAV/WMA MP3/AAC/AAC+/eAAC/WAV/WMA MP3/AAC/WAV/WMA

MP3/WAV/AAC/WMA

Yes Poly/MP3 600 500 Yes

Yes Poly/MP3/AAC 222 244 Yes

Yes Polyphonic & MP3 660 432 Yes

Yes Poly/MP3/AAC 294 351 Yes

Yes MP3 340 264 Yes

Sony Ericsson Naite

Sony Ericsson C901

Sony Ericsson C510

HTC Magic

HTC Hero

108 x 47 x 12.6 mm 84 g Quad-band 240 x 320 2 MP

105 x 45 x 13 mm 107 g Quad-band 240 x 320 5 MP

107 x 47 x 12.5 mm 92 g Quad-band 240 x 320 3.15 MP

113 x 55 x 13.7 mm 118.5 g Quad-band 320 x 480 3.15 MP

112 x 56.2 x 14.35 mm 135 g Quad-band/3G 320 x 480 5 MP

100 MB/microSD

120 MB/Memory S ck Micro ™

100 MB/Memory S ck Micro ™

288 MB/microSD

288 MB/microSD ™

Yes/A2DP/USB Yes/EDGE Class 10 No Wap/xHTML Yes SMS/MMS/Email/IM Yes

Yes/A2DP/USB Yes No Wap/xHTML Yes SMS/MMS/Email/IM Yes

Yes/A2DP/USB Yes/EDGE Class 10 No Wap/xHTML Yes SMS/MMS/Email Yes

Yes/miniUSB Yes/EDGE Class 10 Wi-Fi HTML Yes,via 3rd party SMS/MMS/Email/IM No

Yes/A2DP/miniUSB Yes/EDGE Class 10 Wi-Fi HTML Yes SMS/MMS/Email/IM Yes

MP3/MP4/eAAC+/WMA

MP3/eAAC+/WMA

MP3/AAC/MP4

MP3/MP4

MP3/AAC+/WAV/WMA 9

Yes Poly/MP3/AAC 564 380 Yes

Yes Poly & MP3 570 430 Yes

Yes Poly/MP3/Aac 420 400 Yes

Yes Poly/MP3/WAV 450 420 Yes

Yes Poly/MP3/WAV 420 750 Yes

68 phonica magazine uk

THE GUIDE

Nokia N97

Nokia 3720 classic

Nokia 5800 Xpress Music Sony Ericsson Aino

Sony Ericsson Yari

117.2 x 55.3 x 15.9 mm 150 g Quad-band/3G 640 x 360 5 MP 32 GB/microSD Yes/A2DP/microUSB Yes/EDGE Class 32 Wi-Fi WAP/xHTML/HTML Yes SMS/MMS/Email/IM Yes

115 x 47 x 15.3 mm 94 g Tri-band 320 x 240 2 MP 20 MB/microSD Yes/A2DP/microUSB Yes/EDGE Class 11 No WAP/xHTML/HTML Yes SMS/MMS/Email Yes

111 x 51.7 x 15.5 mm 109 g Quad-band 640 x 360 3.2 MP 81 MB/microSD Yes/A2DP/microUSB Yes/EDGE Class 32 Yes WAp/xHTML/HTML/WML Yes SMS/MMS/Email/IM Yes

100 x 48 x 15.7 mm 115 g Quad-band/3G 240 x 320 5 MP 60 MB/microSD Yes/A2DP/USB Yes/EDGE Class 10 No Wap/xHTML Yes SMS/MMS/Email/IM Yes

104 x 50 x 15.5 mm 134 g Quad-band/3G 240 x 420 8.1 MP 60 MB/microSD Yes/A2DP/USB Yes/EDGE Class 10/HSDPA Yes WAP/xHTML Yes SMS/MMS/Email/IM Yes

MP3/AAC/eAAC/eAAC+/WMA

MP3/MP4/eAAC+/WMA

MP3/AAc/AAC+/eAAC+/WMA

MP3/AAC

MP3/eAAC+/WMA

Yes MP3 570 430 Yes

Yes Poly/MIDI/Real Tone/MP3 420 450 Yes

Yes Polyphonic & MP3 528 406 Yes

Yes Poly/MP3 270 360 Yes

Yes Poly/MP3/AAC 600 450 Yes

Apple iPhone 3G S

Apple iPhone 3G

INQ Chat 3G

BlackBerry 8520

BlackBerry Bold 9000

11.5 x 62.1 x 12.3 mm 135 g Quad-band/3G 480 x 320 3.15 MP

11.5 x 62.1 x 12.3 mm 133 g Quad-band/3G 480 x 320 2 MP

114.5 x 61 x 12.8 mm 93 g Tri-band/3G 176 x 220 3.2 MP

109 x 60 x 13.9 mm 106 g Quad-band 320 x 240 2 MP

114 x 66 x 14 mm 133 g Quad-band/3G 480 x 320 2MP

16/32 GB (internal)

8/16 GB (internal)

120 MB/Memory S ck Micro ™

256 MB/MicroSD

1GB/microSD

Yes/USB Yes/EDGE Wi-Fi HTML (Safari) No SMS/MMS/Email No

Yes/A2DP/USB Yes/EDGE Yes HTML (Safari) No SMS/Email No

Yes/A2DP/USB Yes Yes Net Front Yes SMS/MMS/Email No

Yes/A2DP/microUSB Yes/EDGE Class 10 Yes HTML Yes SMS/MMS/Email/IM No

Yes/A2DP/USB Yes/EDGE Class 10 Yes HTML Yes SMS/MMS/Email/IM No

MP3/MP3 VBR/AAC/WAV

AMR/AAC/AAC+/eAAC

MP3/AAC/WMA/AAC+/MP4/WMV MP3/WMA/AAC+

Yes Poly & MP3 720 300 Yes

Yes Poly & MP3 600 300 Yes

Yes Poly/MIDI/MP3 270 408 Yes

AMR/AAC/AAC+/eAAC/MIDI/MP3/WAV

480 170 Yes

Yes Poly & MP3 300 310 Yes

phonica magazine uk

THE GUIDE

BlackBerry 8300 Curve Samsung Pixon 12

Samsung S5600V Blade

Samsung Genio Touch

Samsung B3310

107 x 60 x 15.5 mm 111 g Quad-band 320 x 240 2MP 64MB/microSD Yes/USB Yes/EDGE No HTML Yes SMS/MMS/Email/IM No

108 x 53 x 13.8 mm 120 g 480 x 800 pixels 240 x 320 12 MP 150 MB/microSD Yes/A2DP/microUSB Yes/EDGE Class 10 No WAP/xHTML/HTML Yes SMS/MMS/Email Yes

102.8 x 54.8 x 12.9 mm 92 g 240 x 320 pixels 240 x 320 3.15 MP 50 MB/microSD Yes/A2DP/USB Yes/EDGE Class 12 No WAP/xHTML/HTML Yes SMS/MMS/Email Yes

103 x 56.5 x 12 mm 90 g Quad-band 240 x 320 2 MP 40 MB/microSD Yes/USB Yes/EDGE Class 10 No WAP/xHTML/HTML Yes SMS/MMS/Email Yes

91 x 54 x 17 mm 101 g Quad-band 240 x 320 2 MP 40 MB/microSD Yes/A2DP/microUSB Yes/EDGE Class 10 No WAP/xHTML Yes SMS/MMS/Email Yes

MP3/AAC/AAC+/eAAC+/WMA

MP3/MP4/WMA/eAAC+

MP3/WMA/AAC

MP3/MP4/eAAC+/WMV/WMA

MP3/MP4

Yes Poly & MP3 240 408 Yes

Yes Poly/MP3 180 250 Yes

Yes Poly/MP3/WAV 120 250 Yes

Yes Poly/MP3/WAV 480 730 Yes

Yes Poly/MP3/WAV 300 380 Yes

Samsung Jet

Samsung U900

LG Viewty Lite

LG GM750

LG BL40 New Chocolate

108 x 53.5 x 11.9 mm 110 g Quad-band/3G 480 x 800 5 MP 2/8 GB (internal)/microSD Yes/microUSB Yes/EDGE Class 12/HSDPA Wi-Fi WAP/Dolphin Yes

103.2 x 49.3 x 10.9 mm 81.5 g Quad-band 240 x 320 3.2 MP 80MB/microSD Yes/A2DP/USB Yes/EDGE Class 10 No WAP/xHTML Yes

109.8 x 54.4 x 15.3 mm 112 g Tri-band 240 x 400 5 MP 100 MB RAM/microSD Yes/A2DP/USB Yes/EDGE Class 10 No WAP/xHTML/HTML Yes

109.8 x 53.5 x 12.9 mm 120 g Quad-band 240 x 400 5 MP Yes/A2DP/microUSB Yes Yes WAP/xHTML/HTML Yes

128 x 51 x 10.9 mm 129 g Quad-band 345 x 800 5 MP 1.1 GB/microSD Yes/A2DP/microUSB Yes/EDGE Class 10/HSDPA Yes WAP/xHTML/HTML Yes

128 MB RAM/256 MB ROM/microSD

SMS/MMS/Email/Vidoe/MS Exchange

SMS/MMS/EMS/Email

SMS/MMS/Email/IM

SMS/MMS/EMS/Email/IM

Yes

MP3/AAC/AAC+/eAAC+/WMA/AMR

MP3/MPEG4/AAC/eAAC/WMA

MP3/MPEG4/WMV

MP3/MPEG4/WAV/eAAC+/WMA

MP3/MP4/WAV/DivX/eAAC

Yes Poly/MP3/WAV 492 422 Yes

Yes Poly & MP3 210 220 Yes

Yes Poly & MP3 150 250 Yes

Yes Poly & MP3 380 450 Yes

Yes Poly & MP3 240 400 Yes