October 2017 |

Battleborn 2024 Preview

October 13, 2017 Richard Gomez 0

Of all the games we played at Gamescom 2015, Battleborn stood out the most. After all, how many games put you in the shoes of a bowler hat and monocle-wearing robot that lets you bombard your foes with owls? Dubbed as Marquis, he's one of the 25 playable characters (or heroes as the game calls them) in Battleborn.
From a mushroom-like creature that wields poisoned knives to a birdman toting a rocket launcher, Marquis isn't the only unique hero in the game. The variety of characters is explained in Battleborn's backstory. All the stars in the galaxy have been destroyed and only one remains. This resulted in every species in the universe sending their chosen warriors to do battle against the Varelsi – the monster-like race responsible this calamity. It's a premise that allows mushrooms, robots, witches, and elves to go to war together.
Battleborn has been made by Gearbox Software, which is famous for developing the Borderlands games, and bears the companies hallmark..

Elite: Dangerous 2024 – Lost in Space

October 13, 2017 Richard Gomez 0

Space simulation games have been in the news of late, and not for good reasons either. Be it Star Citizen's long drawn and very public development controversy, or the underlying sigh that punctuates every display of No Man's Sky, the fact is that these are games of grand ambition and scale, that want to put you inside a vast galaxy to explore and immerse yourself in. The sheer scope and size is quite frankly why they have no firm release date.
And then there's Elite: Dangerous for the Xbox One. Much like the aforementioned games, it too, is a space simulator. There isn't much of an underlying narrative or sweeping story. You're thrown into a vast open galaxy with a small ship and very little money with the objective of surviving and perhaps even thriving in space. You can resort to piracy, assassinations, trading, and bounty hunting among other means to get by. And you won't be alone: depending on how you decide to play, you'll occupy the same space ..

Forza Motorsport 6 Review: Taking Pole Position

October 16, 2017 Richard Gomez 0

Most racing games that take a realistic approach are notorious for tough controls, a steep learning curve, and general inaccessibility with issues ranging from poor menu design, to no explanations of crucial features. That's why many of us prefer arcade-style games like Need for Speed over racing simulators like Gran Turismo.
Forza Motorsport 6 tries its hardest to make you a fan even if you don't like racing simulators. It has a well thought out tutorial that explains all the important facets of gameplay. The user interface is a fun to use and easy to understand. But most of all, Forza Motorsport 6 is a joy to play.
It's here that Forza Motorsport 6 saved its best efforts. A slew of gameplay options smartly arranged for maximum visibility mean that you can tweak and toggle almost every aspect of the game. From choosing the difficulty level and car damage, to how aggressive the AI should be, it does everything in its power to keep you playing. Combined with responsive,..

Microsoft Surface 2 and Surface 2 Pro: First impressions

October 22, 2017 Richard Gomez 0

Is Microsoft's Surface a tablet or a laptop?
I'm not quite sure, but it is a lot easier to type on than an iPad.
The software company unveiled updates to its Surface tablet computers Monday at an event in New York, where I had a short amount of time to try them out.
It almost seems unfair to categorize the new Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2 as tablets. Although they have touch-screen keyboards like regular tablets, they work best when attached to an optional cover with a keyboard on the inside.
The better one I tried was the Type Cover 2. In addition to coming in four fun colors – pink, purple, blue and black – that cover has backlighting, silent keys and a typing feel similar to that of a laptop keyboard. At $130, it is just $10 more than a Touch Cover 2, which doesn't have movable keys like real keyboards.
The slick wireless mouse designed for the tablets is helpful, too, as is the docking station created to go with the Pro version of Surface.
The result is something that..

Amazon Kindle Paperwhite 3G – 2024

October 26, 2017 Richard Gomez 0

Amazon announced an updated Kindle Paperwhite in September last year. The refreshed ebook reader comes with various improvements including a higher contrast display, a faster processor, improved touch technology, and several software enhancements.
While the Wi-Fi variant started shipping in US the same month, the Wi-Fi + 3G variant became available closer to the holiday season. The Kindle Paperwhite 3G (2013) was listed for pre-orders in India last month, and is now available via Amazon.in as well as offline retailers across the country.
Does the new Kindle Paperwhite come with enough improvements to stay ahead of the likes of the Kobo Glo? We spent a little over three weeks with the ebook reader in a bid to find out. Let's dig in.
Look and feel
At first glance, you'll be hard-pressed to find a difference between the Kindle Paperwhite 3G (2013) and its predecessor. The two have identical dimensions (169x117x9.1mm). While the current model (222g) is marginally heavier than the..

Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 Review | Black Ops three Assessment

October 30, 2017 Richard Gomez 1

Listening to user feedback seems to be a recurring theme for video games this year. Be it grandiose statements from game makers at events like E3 or posts on Steam, it appears to be the buzzword of choice at the moment, on par with “micro-transactions”, “free-to-play”, and “open-world” as one of the more overused words in gaming today.
But what does this have to do with Call of Duty: Black Ops 3? Well, the game's developers at Treyarch have actually listened to what the fans were saying and there's no greater testament to that than Black Ops 3's campaign. Most games in the series limited the campaign to a quick five to six hour romp, meant to be a tutorial for the multiplayer, but Black Ops 3 has a much more engaging campaign for you.
(Also see: Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 – Everything You Need to Know)
The story missions are bigger than what we've come to expect from a Call of Duty game, and our playthrough lasted 15 hours. On finishing it, we were greeted by a ..