the mobile phone and gaming magazine www.phonicamagazine.co.uk
Issue 10
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EDITOR IN CHIEF Kevin Leonce
GAMING EDITOR Sco Tierney
CONTRIBUTORS Rob Hobson Ian Duncan Paul Park
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
WWW.PHONICAMAGAZINE.CO.UK Become a Fan of Phonica Magazine UK on Facebook & Twi er Phonica Magazine Š All material in this publica on is covered by copyright. All rights reserved. No part of this publica on may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system or transmi ed in any form electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, in whole or part without wri en permission of the publisher or the copyright owner. Please note that whilst every care has been taken to ensure that all the data in this publica on is accurate at the me of going to print, the publisher cannot accept responsibility for any errors or omissions, whether caused by negligence or otherwise, or for any loss, however caused, occasioned to any person by reliance on it; and hereby disclaims any liability for it. Opera ons and some features are network dependent; please refer to your network provider for full details.
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EDITOR’S LETTER Oh how the year is trickling...each publisher eyeing the next, wondering who’s going to break the ice with a smashing hit. Yes, yes we’ve had some big releases tlewise. But no Arkham COD type thus far, and so we wait. But every game is a hit in its own right. Some, a successful hit...and others that just deserve to be hit. So we’ve put together some hits of our own. A few apps, games, and reviews. They may or may not be your hits as well, but we thought you’d enjoy our selec on. From Spartacus: Blood and Sand to Dante’s Inferno have a read about what we think about these hits! But a smashing hit is in the air. You can feel the tension, see the eager faces of many as its name is whispered in the winds of the grapevines..so dear, so precious. Enjoy reading our hits. P.S: not much on the mobile front, too many s ll busy warning people on how not to lose your wallet and laptop in Barcelona. Your Editor in Chief
Kevin Leonce
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NEWS THE NOKIA X6 NOW AVAILABLE ON 3 THE NOKIA X6 FEATURES A 3.2 TOUCH-SCREEN THAT HAS A RANGE OF GREAT FEATURES AND APPLICATIONS THAT HAVE SOCIAL NETWORKING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND MUSIC COVERED. The Nokia X6 features a 3.2 touch screen making naviga ng through the mul ple social networking applica ons easy. Take great quality photos with the 5MP camera, share your thoughts and experiences via the intui ve Facebook and Twi er applica ons, keep on top of your emails with Email on 3 and never get lost using the free turn-by-turn sat nav. For music on the move, download the Spo fy for Symbian applica on and enjoy the hugely popular music streaming service. Don’t forget, there are thousands of other applica ons and content to be downloaded from the Ovi Store. Sylvia Chind Head of Branded Devices, 3UK “We’re really pleased to have the Nokia X6 on 3. Our network is designed for the mobile internet, this paired with the feature packed Symbian Nokia X6, will give our customers a great mobile internet experience” As with all phones on 3 you will have unlimited access Skype and Windows Live Messenger for free. For the rest of February and March it’s also completely free to use Twi er on 3’s network. The Nokia X6 is available in black from £25 a month with unlimited internet, texts and 750 any me any network minutes on a 24month contract and costs £299.99 on Pay As You Go where every top up comes with a free allowance of texts and data. Currently available online, in 3 Stores and telesales. For more details visit www.three.co.uk
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REVIEWS BIOSHOCK 2 PUBLISHER: 2K GAMES DEVELOPER: 2K GAMES FORMAT: PS3, XBOX 360, PC AVAILABLE: NOW
SWING OUT, SISTER The post-Randian moral minefield of Bioshock is all very well, but for me the real star of the show is undoubtedly the world of Rapture. There’s something of Blade Runner in its twisted, decayed neon, adver sing biological enhancements to a tribe of savage addicts. You walk into the trappings of chaos as an ingenue and walk out again as something super-powered: superhuman, even. But while you powered yourself up in classic gaming tradi on, it gradually became clear that you were merely a pawn in another’s quest for power. That you were, in fact, less than a man. The long-awaited sequel is finally here, then, and once again you’re both elevated and reduced. Elevated in the sense that you’re now a Big Daddy, as you’ll know unless you’ve been hiding under a Dreamcast for the last 6 months. Reduced in the sense that Big Daddies have, of course, only one purpose... to protect the Li le Sisters. A par cular Li le Sister, in this case. You’re looking for that special someone. Andrew Ryan may be the permanent occupant of an underwater golf bunker now, but his legacy s ll seeps through Rapture’s fe d corridors. Facing off against him this me is the collec vist Sofia Lamb, and it’s her vision of what Rapture should become that helps drive you around the city. Lamb, who sounds exactly like Nurse Ratched would sound if she’d been brought up in Oxfordshire and sent to an exclusive finishing school, is to collec ve responsibility what Ryan was to rampant self-advancement.
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To the brass tacks: combat is less twitchy, a li le more fluid, helped along by dual-wielded guns and plasmids. No more radial switching: shock and thump comes much more naturally now. It’s here that B2 really dis nguishes itself from its predecessor. Ba legrounds are grander in scape, with regular respawns to keep you on your toes. If that sounds wearying, it really isn’t. Although you’re seriously underpowered at first, B2 is generous with upgrades, throwing 3 Power To The People weapon buffs at you in the first couple of hours. It’s not long before you’re dealing death on a grand scale and, although ammo is doled out in rela vely small quan es, ADAM comes thicker and faster thanks to the new way of interac ng with Li le Sisters. Lots of other reviews have talked about this in detail, but it feels like a spoiler to me... so I’ll skip over it, simply saying that it involves a bit of protec on and offers a nice chunky gene c reward. All this is great. I struggled with the combat in the first game: it’s now much be er. The plasmids are reassuringly familiar. And it’s here that the trouble in paradise starts to loom. It’s... more of the same. Well, that’s good isn’t it? Yes, I suppose it is. And yet I can’t help feeling that a trick’s been missed. You know Rapture so well that you feel... well... comfortable. The capacity for the game to (sorry) shock has waned. It’s all a li le too familiar.
To say that Bioshock 2 is a fantas c upgrade is not in doubt. Visually it’s s ll stunning, even if it lacks a level with the unforge able panache of Fort Frolic and a character with the searing menace of Sander Cohen. Combat is excellent. The Big Sisters are cracking mini-bosses and the Big Daddies s ll have the capacity to give you the willies. But the inevitable Bioshock 3 needs some serious thinking if it’s to maintain the intellectual heritage of its progenitor. A for effort. C for innova on. Due to me constraints and the lack of players on servers pre-launch, we were unable to review the mul player mode. We’ll return to this in a later issue. Rob Hobson
PRESENTATION: 18/20 STORY: 16/20 CONTROLS: 16/20 GAMEPLAY: 18/20 DURABILITY: 16/20
OVERALL
84/100
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ALIENS VS. PREDATOR PUBLISHER: SEGA DEVELOPER: REBELLION DEVELOPMENTS FORMAT: PS3, XBOX 360, PC AVAILABLE: NOW
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REVIEWS THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE CLUMSY We’ve all wanted be an Alien, a Predator, or a gum-chomping Marine at some point in our lives. At some stage we’ve wanted to scoop someone up from above and have our wicked way with them, sneak around with a shield of invisibility and spook targets with chilly laughs, or maybe we’ve just wanted to unleash one of those machine guns with the funny firing sound (it sounded like sparrows flying into a lawnmower). Well, imagine no more, as with Aliens vs. Predator, you can do all of the above… just not very well. As with the previous AVP games, Aliens vs. Predator is split into three sec ons, with an overlaying story that runs throughout. Firstly, you get to play as a Rookie Marine, as you ba le your way around a desolate mining town overrun by those wicked Aliens. Then there’s the Alien sec on, where you play as a ‘trained’ Alien that escapes from a facility. Finally there’s the Predator sec on, where you take pleasure in the thrill of the hunt, and laugh a bit for good measure. They’re all pre y decent, but if you had to put a flamethrower to my genitals, and asked me to pick a favorite, I’d go for the Marine sec ons. They’re not amazing, but they arguably best capture the tension of the films. And you get that sparrow-mower gun!
“AVP DOESN’T PLAY THAT WELL, MAINLY DUE TO ITS DODGY CONTROLS.” Graphically, AVP is very impressive in places, and laughable in others. Although the majority of the scenery is cloaked in shadows, with only small areas receiving illumina on, it’s extremely pre y. A personal favorite is the surface sec on of the desolate mine, which looks gorgeous in the orange light. That said though, the cut-scene anima ons are very poor, and totally out of character with the rest of the game.
But sadly, AVP doesn’t play that well, mainly due to its dodgy controls. At no point do you truly feel in control of either character. As a Marine, you’ll be constantly missing baddies due to the s ff aiming system, and end up receiving a good pounding in compensa on. As an Alien, you’ll be cursing the controls as you slam into a wall or struggle to climb into a vent, and as a Predator, you’ll just be a bit bored with the red stabs and blocks. The Alien sec ons are par cularly frustra ng, as when charging along at full lt down a corridor, there aren’t many be er experiences in gaming. But simple things like dropping from the ceiling behind your prey (you’ll usually spin around in mid-air and end up facing the wrong direc on) and climbing walls are incredibly frustra ng, and to a certain extent ruins the fun. Luckily though, AVP’s mul player does save the day. When running around with a group of buddies, blas ng Aliens into corrosive chunks and ripping the heads off Marines, you’ll forget the sloppy controls and wishy-washy level design. It’s not a perfect mul player experience, but its close enough. Overall, Aliens vs. Predator just doesn’t feel like a well made piece. It’s ragged, clumsy, under worked and just a bit loose. If it was a piece of furniture, it’d be a folding table/dining set, or a bargain basement sofa bed. It does several different things, all to a reasonably good standard, but overall it’s not a quality product, and chances are it’ll fall apart at just the wrong me. Aliens vs. Predator is worth a quick play, maybe round a friends house for a brief night of Alien mu la on fun. But as a complete game, it’s just not that good. Sco Tierney PRESENTATION: 15/20 STORY: 13/20 CONTROLS: 13/20 GAMEPLAY: 14/20 DURABILITY: 12/20
OVERALL
67/100 phonica magazine uk
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