Richard Gomez | Page 27 of 55

Oppo R7 Lite Review 2026

February 17, 2016 Richard Gomez 0

It's been a couple of years since Oppo entered the Indian market and since then, the company has managed to capture the attention of buyers with unique smartphones, right from the swivelling camera on the Oppo N1 to India's first Quad-HD display on the Oppo Find 7. Its most recent launch is the brand new Oppo R7 Lite, a mid-range offering priced at Rs.18,000.

This is a tough segment to compete in, as we have the recently launched OnePlus X, the Gionee Elife S7 (Review | Pictures) from earlier in the year, and the crowd favourite Motorola Moto X Play (Review) – all hovering around the same price point. The R7 Lite is the smaller sibling of the Oppo R7 Plus and our initial impressions of both the phones were on the positive side. Let's find out if our initial thoughts hold true once we've put it through the grind.
Look and feel
The build and finish of the R7 Lite is quite impressive thanks to quality materials used in the construction. The body is made up of a sin..

Mortal Kombat X 2026

February 17, 2016 Richard Gomez 0

Mortal Kombat is a series that needs no introduction. It's been around since the early 90s as a competitor to the incredibly popular Street Fighter games, except gorier and much more bizarre. Quirkily designed characters, over the top storytelling, and gruesome finishing moves known as fatalities – all of the franchise's trademark pillars – make a return in Mortal Kombat X. It's the tenth instalment of the series and it's on PlayStation 4 (PS4), PC, and Xbox One.
The game is running on a modified version of the Unreal Engine 3 – the same technology that powered many last-generation console and PC games – but despite the old engine, Mortal Kombat X looks fantastic. Developer NetherRealm Studios appears to have eked out every last bit possible from Unreal Engine 3 to realise its vision of a strange world teeming with possibilities. From the many withering corpses to small details like spikes of ice, Mortal Kombat X is gorgeous game, especially in motion.
Speaking of ..

Final Fantasy Type-0 HD Review: Bad Looking, but Great to Play

February 17, 2016 Richard Gomez 0

This generation of consoles has seen many high definition remasters of games, from heavy hitters like Grand Theft Auto V to scrappy indie titles like Guacamelee. If you're playing a game on your Xbox One or Playstation 4 then chances are that you've heard of it before, if not experienced it already. Final Fantasy Type-0 HD fits into this category. It's a remaster of a PlayStation Portable (PSP) game that never made it out of Japan until now. Much like the recent games in the series (except Final Fantasy XIV), its a heady mix of futuristic technology and magic.
The game is set in the world of Orience. Its four kingdoms are at war and you control Class Zero, an elite group of fourteen student soldiers who can wield weapons and magic. Each member is named after a card in a pack such as Ace, Seven, and Jack. After the prologue, you'll find yourself in an academy that is reminiscent of Hogwarts in the sense that its essentially a school for magic. There's a definit..

Bloodborne Review: Death is Only the Beginning

February 17, 2016 Richard Gomez 0

The world of Bloodborne (created by Dark Souls and Demon Souls makers From Software) is a hostile place. Everything in its fictional city of Yharnam – where most of the action in Bloodborne happens – exists with the sole purpose of making your time in it miserable.
From axe wielding madmen to hulking, brutish monstrosities that take great delight in pummelling you to death, there's very little solace to be had. Even the city's crows and dogs were dangerous, and waste no time in tearing the bones from our flesh. It is the video game equivalent of having a bad day. The kind of bad day that begins with you losing your wallet, and ends with you getting fired. Along with getting disowned by your family, socially ostracised, and being dumped by your significant other.
Early in the game, we faced hordes of lunatics and beasts that fill up this once decadent city and barely made it by the skin of our teeth. Just when we thought we'd have a moment's respite, we were pitted ..

Asus ZenFone 2 Deluxe 2026

February 17, 2016 Richard Gomez 0

If there's one thing we have too many of, it's ZenFones. Asus's popular range of smartphones has so many variants and different configurations that it's hard to keep track of everything that comes out of the Taiwanese manufacturer's stables. The company's 2015 product range varies in price from as low as Rs. 7,999 for the Asus ZenFone Go to Rs. 29,999 for the top end 128GB variants of the Asus ZenFone 2 and Asus ZenFone 2 Deluxe.
Speaking of the latter, it's our review product of the day. Asus announced the ZenFone 2 Deluxe in August this year as its top-spec variant. It's essentially a ZenFone 2 with cosmetic changes, and is only available in the two highest configurations here in India: 4GB RAM with either 64GB or 128GB of storage. In fact, it's priced the same as the ZenFone 2 for those same two variants as well. Is there more to the Asus ZenFone 2 Deluxe than meets the eye? Let's find out.
Look and feel
This is the only department i..

Micromax Canvas Selfie 2 Review 2026

February 16, 2016 Richard Gomez 0

Indians, like many others, are obsessed with the selfie and smartphone makers are only happy to oblige. While some feel this menace should be banned, there's no denying that the trend has given birth to niche market for gadgets and accessories to fulfil your selfie appetite. After our recent outing with the Asus Zenfone Selfie (Review | Pictures), which happened to be a pretty decent phone, we have the second generation of Micromax's offering based on the same theme, the Canvas Selfie 2.

Unlike Asus, Micromax is targeting the cash-strapped individual for whom pouting in front of a lens is almost a religion. At Rs. 5,999, it's one of the cheapest 'selfie' smartphones in the market, but is it worth it? Let's find out.
Look and feel
The build and finish of entry-level smartphones have certainly improved over the years. The Canvas Selfie 2 actually has decent construction quality and the plastics used don't feel overly cheap. Micromax has borrowed some..

Micromax Canvas 5 2026

February 16, 2016 Richard Gomez 0

As expected, Micromax on Wednesday took the wraps off its much-awaited “Canvas flagship” smartphone, the Canvas 5. The company has this time priced its premium new smartphone at Rs. 11,999, which is interestingly Rs. 6,000 less than the price its predecessor, the Canvas 4, was launched at. Buyers will also receive free double data on 4G for six months from Airtel on the purchase of the handset.
Arriving more than two years after the launch of its predecessor in 2013, the Canvas 5 is a definite upgrade. However, the specifications are not that ground-breaking by today's standards. The device is likely to appeal to media users more than power users, or those who wish for a superior smartphone camera at this budget level.
The Canvas 5 has its own pros and cons in each department, most of which we will discuss here. The 4G LTE-enabled Micromax Canvas 5 sports a 5.2-inch display. Above the screen, you have a speaker grille along with the front-facing camera on one side and the front-..

Battlefield Hardline 2026

February 15, 2016 Richard Gomez 0

Before music transformed itself into a streaming, digital entertainment behemoth, there were simpler conventions that aficionados stuck to. One such term was the B-side. Most artists would stack the A-side – the one you would hear when you first put in the record – with all the tracks they consider strong contenders to be hits. The B-side referred to the second section of the record, one that usually contained tracks least likely to be appreciated by the masses.
What does this have to do with Battlefield Hardline? Surprisingly, a lot. The Battlefield series of first-person shooters (FPS) has been under the purview of Sweden-based developer, DICE for most part. The studio has been responsible for a string of hits in the franchise such as Battlefield: Bad Company, Battlefield 3, and Battlefield 4. All of these were set in modern or near future war scenarios and combined fantastic gunplay, exotic locales – and in Bad Company's case, dark humour -to make for compelling gameplay.
Mea..

Mad Catz C.T.R.L.i Review: Console Quality iOS Gamepad

February 14, 2016 Richard Gomez 0

Purists always argue that gaming on a smartphone is inferior to console or PC gaming, and quite a big chunk of their argument has to do with the unintuitive nature of touchscreen controls. In a way, they are right. Racing, fighting, and first-person/third-person shooter titles are the most affected by the placement of on-screen buttons. For example, the original Bioshock on iOS was panned by critics for its poorly implemented virtual buttons.

However, there is a solution in the form of game controllers that either plug in to smartphones or work as standalone Bluetooth accessories. Apple opened this avenue to third-party manufacturers with iOS 7, albeit with a long list of conditions.

The Logitech PowerShell, MOGA Ace Power and SteelSeries Stratus are a few examples of gamepads made for iOS devices and certified by Apple. However, all these controllers had some flaw or the other; if one had tiny analogue sticks another was too expensive. Mad Catz, a gaming peripherals manufacturer t..

Ori and the Blind Forest Review: Style Over Substance?

February 14, 2016 Richard Gomez 0

There are video games that you play, and there are video games that play you. Ori and the Blind Forest is the latter. Its prologue weaves a heart-wrenching narrative about life and loss that leaves you close to tears. We'd go as far as to say there's not been an opening sequence this good in the current generation of video games.
Without spoiling much, the opening sets the tone for what lies ahead in spectacular fashion. The game takes place in a dying forest steeped with strange creatures and old mysteries, and you don the role of Ori – a woodland spirit who is propelled into an adventure to save his home. Along the way, you'll defeat treacherous foes, solve a host of puzzles, and explore gorgeous looking environments.
Once the emotional joyride of the initial ten minutes is over you're left to your own devices for most of the proceedings, until the end of the game which does a little more to expound on its powerful opening. The game does leave you slightly short..

ScreamRide 2026

February 14, 2016 Richard Gomez 0

Here's something you may not have known: prior to returning to its roots making space simulation games with the critically acclaimed Elite: Dangerous, UK-based Frontier Developments was responsible for a host of amusement park management games such as the RollerCoaster Tycoon and the Thrillville series. And while Elite: Dangerous is the company's biggest draw what with an impending Xbox One release, if ScreamRide is any indication, Frontier Developments has not forgotten its expertise in letting you make roller coasters and tear them down.
Created to bolster the Xbox One's waning indie catalogue, ScreamRide lets you engineer devious roller coasters, ride them, and, well, turn them into rubble. Unlike the RollerCoaster Tycoon series, there's absolutely no management of anything whatsoever. It could be best described as a four-in-one set of puzzles to play.
All of these sections are presented in a barebones manner, with the game simply showing you these options. The..

Sony PlayStation TV 2026

February 14, 2016 Richard Gomez 0

Microconsoles are an interesting lot. They aren't meant to replace your traditional, high-end consoles like the PlayStation 4 (PS4) and Xbox One; they're designed more to give you a taste of big-screen gaming at a relatively low price.

While devices in this category have existed since 2009, what with the ill-fated 3G-enabled Zeebo, competition in the category only heated up in 2012. That's when the Ouya, a microconsole powered by Android, entered mainstream consciousness thanks to a surprisingly well-received Kickstarter campaign.
It's reached a point where Sony has decided to enter the fray with its PlayStation TV. Dubbed 'PlayStation Vita TV' in Japan and parts of Asia when it released in late 2013, the company felt it wise to rechristen it to PlayStation TV (PSTV) — wisely so, given that the Vita hasn't exactly been Sony's most popular console.
Fast forward to February 2015 and the firm has deemed it fit to release the PlayStation TV in I..