L.A. Noire Game Review

By: Nikhil Malankar
This is the review of the superfantabulouslyawesomelyaddictive game by Rockstar Games named ‘L.A. Noire’. Yeah! I know that was a very offbeat introduction but I just couldn’t help it!!
Initially I didn’t feel that the game would be so awesome but then it slowly and steadily made a way into my life. I feel like the game actually made its way instead of me just going and getting it. This feeling itself was very special. So, this is a review, right? Let me not waste more of your time and give you a short review of what I feel about the game.

Alrighty, so in this game you play as Detective Cole Phelps. Now this guy is a perfect combination of a war hero and a crime fighter. The gameplay is such that you are compelled to travel in the past in those golden olden times of 1940s. Old roads with less traffic, those precious old Chevys, the typical dressing style of the people and rich environment, motion capture graphics (Oh this is my favorite feature). You actually get to live the 1940s as a crime fighter.

And now for the spec-savvy guys here are some tech specs for the game:

• Operating System: Windows 7 / Windows Vista Service Pack 1 / Windows XP Service Pack 3 / OnLive for PC or Mac
• Processor: Intel Dual Core 2.2GHz to Quad Core 3.2GHz / AMD Dual Core 2.4Ghz to Quad Core 3.2Ghz
• RAM: 2GB to 8GB
• Hard drive space: 16GB
• Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT 512MB to NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 1536MB / Radeon HD 3000 512MB to Radeon HD 6850 1024MB
• Sound Card: 100% DirectX 9 Compatible
• DVD Drive

Some other requirements include:

• Initial game and DLC activation requires an internet connection.
• L.A. Noire PC requires the installation of software and components including including GameShield IronWrap & Patcher;
• DirectX, and Microsoft’s Windows .NET Framework, and Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 SP1 Redistributable Package (x86).

And beware of these unsupported hardwares for the game:

• Nvidia 8600 GT 512 MB AGP Pro
• ATI Radeon HD3870 512 MB AGP Pro
• GPU setups with less than 256MB per GPU

If the above tech specs made you feel dizzy then I apologize but it was necessary for the sake of the review. Okay well, now I’ll give you a little background of the game which will compel you to buy(or at least download ) and play this beautiful masterpiece by Rockstar Games.

The game starts to impress you from the very beginning. And by saying that I mean from the very beginning. The menu style is great and innovative. You will be really impressed by that. And then you can play in the story mode(I won’t reveal the story or else why would you play the game?? ) Just to give you an overview, you have to solve cases by finding evidence on crime locations and, believe me, this really makes you feel like a detective. And if you have watched The Godfather movie then you will be surprised to notice the resemblance between Cole Phelps and Tom Hagen.

The interrogation feature brings more life-like gameplay with motion graphics. You actually get to know if a character is lying by watching their facial expressions. (As mentioned before, my favorite part!!)

Rockstar Games has gone a step further and added a touch of its true ‘Rockstar sense’ which is the ‘Black and White’ gameplay mode. In times where Game developers are striving hard to churn out cutting edge graphics and merging 3d technology this surely was a bold step and it does add a plus point to the gameplay.

Warning for GTA fans:
Well, GTA fans might think that this is one more game from Rockstar wherein we are destined to kill every random person we see. But its quite the reverse. We have to find such maniacs and put them for interrogation and punish them. So, re-incarnations of Niko Bellic and his likes might not enjoy this game.

My verdict: Well, the ending was really disappointing but if you leave that all-in-all this is a near perfect attempt by Rockstar Games and Team Bondi.

Cheers!

Sony Ericsson Xperia Play Review

By: Nikhil Malankar

 

Just recently, as in April 2011, Sony launched it’s much hyped Sony Ericsson Xperia range of phones which includes the Arc, X10 and the Xperia Play or better known as Xplay. This post is a review of Sony’s Xplay. Xplay is a one of its kind phone with an impressive design and innovative features. This phone is PlayStation certified and can play games with graphics as good as the PSP.

Lets have a look at this phone’s features.

The Sony Ericsson Xplay has an impressive PSP type design, as you can see in the above image, it is a slider phone. The Xplay has Android 2.3(Gingerbread) OS which is efficiently integrated with the PlayStation Suite. On the portability side this phone is a bit bulky and has dimensions 119X62X16mm and weighs somewhere around175g. It’s screen size is also impressive and watching movies on this phone is sheer pleasure.

With 512 MB RAM and Snapdragon system on ship this phone offers a good speed and is very efficient. It is available in 2 colors and they are black and white. Xplay has a 1 GHz Scorpion Processor with Andreno 205 GPU which makes it more efficient to use and promises a good experience.

The camera is a 5 megapixel autofocus with LED flashlight. Record Videos in WVGA and also has a secondary VGA camera on the front side. The camera menu is also user friendly and we can easily switch to the front cam from the rear one or vice-versa.

With features like 3G, Wi-fi, Bluetooth v2.1 with A2DP, GPRS, EDGE and many more this phone is a complete package! The battery life is also impressive with 425 hours of standby in 2G and 413 hours in 3G. Talk time upto 8h 25 minutes in 2G and 6h 25 minutes in 3G. Xplay has internal memory of 400 MB and can be expanded upto 32 GB. An 8 GB memory card is included with the phone.

The main feature of this phone is its gaming side. Till date this is the best gaming phone after the ‘N-Gage’ era. It has some cool pre-loaded games like FIFA 10, Sims 3 and Bruce Lee(which is almost like Street Fighter) and you can download more from the internet. Games like Asphalt 6 HD can be played with the play panel which can be accessed by sliding the phone. Also Assassin’s Creed offers the best graphics on this phone. What else does a gamer want?

The phone is priced at Rs. 35,000 MRP and in dollars it is approximately 777$. So, if you have that money to spare on a phone then this is the best choice. As a reviewer we should also mention its downsides. So, if you compare this with the E7 you will find the only downsides are that it does not have a HDMI port and does not support HD video recording. But if you see it this way, the Android market has millions of applications compared to the thousands or may be hundreds of that of OVI store. So, Android is any day better than Nokia.

And now you can also enjoy GTA III on this phone PSP style!

Have a nice day!