April 2017 |

Fable Legends Shows You Don’t Have to Kill to be a Hero

April 4, 2017 Richard Gomez 0

In most video games, support heroes – the ones that keep the others alive to do the actual fighting – are usually side characters that are usually ignored. Team Fortress 2 is one of the few games where the support characters are a treat to play.
NDTV Gadgets chanced upon Fable Legends on the Xbox One at Gamescom 2015, at Microsoft's showcase and think this action driven take on the RPG series might stand out in this regard as well.
(Also see: Fable Legends to Be Free-to-Play on Windows 10 and Xbox One)
Fable Legends features four heroes versus one villain. The heroes have to face waves of enemies and traps set by the villain. All the main characters are playable through online multiplayer, but you can also play alone with AI partners.
In our preview session we were thrown into the role of Celeste, one of the support classes in Fable Legends, along with two other human players and a third person playing the role of the villain.
Our mission took place in a forest, where we foun..

The New Hitman Game Hasn’t Changed Much, and That’s Good

April 10, 2017 Richard Gomez 0

The newest game in the Hitman series is simply called Hitman, with no subtitle or number. Until now, not much was known about the game, which is due in December. Developer IO Interactive has decided that instead of releasing the entire game in one go via both physical and digital distribution, Hitman will be out digitally first. According to the developers, the world of Hitman will be ever-changing, with a regular stream of content pushed out to keep players in a “live and ever expanding world of digital assassinations.” The ambiguity of the phrasing led many a gamer wonder if this would end up like some games in early access, with features stripped out until the final update. It's a move that would have compromised gameplay completely.
At Gamescom 2015, Square Enix walked us through a level in Hitman allaying our fears and showing us what lies ahead for series protagonist Agent 47. The mission we played saw us assassinating Viktor Novikov, an spymaster-oligarch. The level place ..

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain Is Real and It’s Spectacular

April 16, 2017 Richard Gomez 0

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain has been in the news for everything but the game itself. There have been allegations of mistreatment of staff and a soaring development budget of $80 million; the spectacle behind series creator Hideo Kojima's final game at Konami is palpable.
In a way, it's kind of tragic to see a game like this being overshadowed by the real life drama surrounding it. At Gamescom 2015 NDTV Gadgets managed to get a lengthy hands-on with what appeared to be a final build of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. From what we experienced, this could very well be the best game you play this year.
Play your way, no matter how ridiculous it might be
The mission available for preview involved infiltrating a base in the desert. We had to find the commander of the base and kill him. The first time around, we played the mission like rank newcomers, running towards the base at the speed of sound. Obviously, alarm bells went off and we found soldiers surrounding us..

Asus Strix Radeon R9 Fury DC3 4G Review: AMD’s Big Bet Almost Pays Off

April 18, 2017 Richard Gomez 0

AMD's exotic Radeon R9 Fury series was unveiled with much fanfare a short while ago. It's no secret that AMD's entire product portfolio has been pretty stagnant for years now, but this was the company's – if not the entire industry's – most interesting announcement in a long time. While most were expecting one or two launches, AMD showed off four products: the top-end Radeon R9 Fury X with its industry-first integrated liquid cooler, an air-cooled equivalent called Radeon R9 Fury, a compact variant for small-form-factor PCs called the Radeon R9 Fury Nano, and an unnamed dual-GPU monster that will not be available for some time yet.
The Fury X was the first to launch internationally, followed by the less expensive Fury a few weeks later. However, the latter card has arrived first in India. Notably, board partners such as Asus and XFX will not be able to customise their Fury X cards with different coolers, but they can with the Fury. As a cost-sensitive market wi..

Need for Speed Preview: Great but for One Major Concern

April 22, 2017 Richard Gomez 0

It's hard to believe that the Need for Speed franchise has been around since 1994, debuting on the short-lived 3DO console. Fast forward 21 years and almost as many games later, the title clearly isn't the force it once was. With the last few entries being lacklustre, Electronic Arts (EA) has rightfully taken it back to the drawing board.
This meant taking 2014 off from the yearly release cycle, with the next title in the series slated to release this November simply titled as Need for Speed. We got to play a demo of the PlayStation 4 version of the game on the show floor at Gamescom 2015 to see if it is worth the wait. Here's what you need to know.
(Also see: Top 5 Racing Games You Should Play Before the New Need for Speed Is Out)
Need for Speed not just in name
It's what you feel when you take control of a car in the game. The sense of speed was exhilarating and addictive. Sure, Need for Speed may have turned into a simulation over the years with titles like N..

Kindle Fire HD 2023 review

April 25, 2017 Richard Gomez 0

Amazon launched the Kindle Paperwhite ebook reader and Kindle Fire HD range of tablets in India recently. Kindle Fire HD, a 7-inch tablet, and Kindle Fire HD 8.9, its 8.9-inch avatar, sport very similar looks, though they differ under the hood. We spent over a week with the smaller sibling and were quite impressed. Read on for the full review.
Build/ Design
Kindle Fire HD is a 7-inch tablet, but seems even smaller when you see it at first. It fits well in your hand, and feels just the right weight as well. The high quality plastic that the tablet is made of gives it a premium finish.
The Kindle Fire HD looks pretty plain from the front, with the screen surrounded by a thick bezel on all four sides. There are no buttons or sensors on the front of the tablet, with only the presence of the camera module at the top breaking the monotony. The back is bare as well except for a strip that runs across the length of the tablet about two-thirds from the top. The strip sports Kindle branding a..

Pac-Man 256 – 2023

April 27, 2017 Richard Gomez 0

What happens when Crossy Road meets Pac-Man? You get one of the smartest takes on the classic game, bringing in elements of an endless runner without losing out on that which is quintessentially Pac-Man.
We've described Crossy Road as either the best or the worst game out there, and included it in our 10 favourite mobile apps and games of 2014. Crossy Road was a smart take on the oversaturated endless runner genre, bringing in some fresh concepts to a type of game that hadn't really evolved since Subway Surfers hit our screens.
On the other hand, everybody knows Pac-Man. Launched in 1980, Pac-Man was one of the first video games you probably played – on an arcade machine if you were old enough, or on a computer or home console. In its 35 years, the game hasn't changed much, despite multiple iterations, including Pac-Man Championship Edition, which first released in 2007 for the Xbox 360 and PS3 consoles, but is now also available on iOS and Android. In 2010, for the 30..

Dreadnought Is Team Fortress 2 With Giant Spaceships

April 30, 2017 Richard Gomez 0

With Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft having a gargantuan presence at Gamescom 2015 and grabbing most of the attention, it's easy to forget that the PC can hold its own. One such game that bears testament to this is Dreadnought. It's a space combat flight simulator by Yager, the developer known for Spec Ops: The Line.
The game puts you in the role of a captain of a variety of ships, ranging from nimble corvettes all the way up to the titular dreadnought, which is slow but deathly in the hands of a capable player. We spent some time with Dreadnought's deathmatch mode demo at Gamescom 2015, and came back impressed.
(Also see: Gamescom 2015 Day 5: Super PCs, Dreadnought, Video Games Live, and Retro Fun)
One of the biggest pain points in space games is allowing for vertical movement, and letting the player ascend and descend at will. The first thing that hit us when playing Dreadnought was how easy it is to control the ships. In addition to this, each class of ship is easy t..