Review: Mad Catz S.T.R.I.K.E.M Mobile Wireless Keyboard

Andrew Edney

-

Apr 6, 2015

Mad Catz have released their S.T.R.I.K.E.^M Mobile keyboard and here is our review.

Designed around a compact tablet sized footprint, the S.T.R.I.K.E.^M is designed for home or mobile use and can pair with up to four devices simultaneously.

Features

• Compact keyboard for mobile and desktop platforms

• Integrated OFN (optical finger navigation) cursor control, ideal of web browsing, navigation and touch games.

• Bluetooth connectivity for multi-platform wireless gaming and productivity.

• Adjustable white LED backlighting

• Rechargeable battery – 18 hours life (backlit), 45 hours life (no backlight)

• Quick switch between 4 paired devices for seamless multi-tasking

• Dedicated multi-platform media buttons

• Up to 33ft (10m) operational range

• Micro-USB port for battery charge and firmware updates

• Smart Device stand, supports devices up to 10” screens.

What’s in the Box?

S.T.R.I.K.E.^MMobile Keyboard
Smart Device Stand
Micro-USB Charge Cable
Travel Pouch
Quick Start Guide
Mad Catz stickers

A Closer Look

The S.T.R.I.K.E.^Mcomes in it’s own protective sleeve, which make it easy to carry around without worrying it will get damaged.

Here is the top down view of the S.T.R.I.K.E.^M.

On the left hand side of the S.T.R.I.K.E.M there is a volume barrel, various media buttons, mouse buttons, a backlight button and a Bluetooth button. There is also an LED display which displays details of the battery, which device is connected (the S.T.R.I.K.E.M can support up to 4 devices) and a CAPS display.

The right hand side also has mouse buttons, along with an OFN (Optical Finger Navigation) Sensor which can be used by people who can’t access their touch screen devices.

On the bottom of the keyboard is the Home button. The WASD area is also marked.

On the top of the S.T.R.I.K.E.M is the power switch and the charge port.

And here is the underside of the S.T.R.I.K.E.^M.

Final Thoughts

The S.T.R.I.K.E.^M comes in a choice of three colours – white (the one we had for review), red or black. All of them look great so just pick the one that you like the most.

The S.T.R.I.K.E.^Mfeels very comfortable to use either as a gaming keyboard or just as a normal keyboard. In fact, I am writing this review on the S.T.R.I.K.E.^M. It has low profile P.U.L.S.E. scissor keys with a 60g actuation force with a crisp click response for both typing and gaming and has anti-ghosting in the key gaming WASD area for a much better gaming experience.

The S.T.R.I.K.E.^Mcomes with its own carry case and is very lightweight. You can easily slip it into a bag ready for use anywhere on the go. There is also a small stand that will support tablets up to 10” for making your experience that much better.

Out of the box it comes with a charge so you can use it straight away and the battery life is excellent. You can get around 45 hours of use of it if you not use the backlit keyboard, or if you do want to use the backlit keyboard you can get around 18 hours, so that should cover every situation you face. When in dark room the backlight works great though.

Pairing the S.T.R.I.K.E.^Mwith a device is quick and simple, and you can have up to four devices paired at any one time making it easy to switch between devices at the touch of a button, and the LED display on they keyboard will show you will device you are paired with too. It works with Android devices, iOS devices, Windows, Mac and even Mad Catz own M.O.J.O. console.

The integrated OFN is a nice touch (no pun intended) and is very easy to use, making tasks such as web browsing so much easier – this was a really great addition, so well done Mad Catz.

If you plan on using the S.T.R.I.K.E.^Mto watch movies or listen to music then the dedicated media buttons will be very useful as well.

I really love the S.T.R.I.K.E.^M, it’s easy to use, small enough to carry, and works flawlessly with all of my devices. I never leave home without it!

If you are looking for a lightweight mobile keyboard that can work with multiple devices and that’s great for gaming on the go, then the S.T.R.I.K.E.^M is the keyboard for you – so what are you waiting for?

The S.T.R.I.K.E.^M retails for £79.99 and is available now.

You can learn more from the Mad Catz website.

Unboxing the ZBOX Retro March 2015 Box

Gaming

Andrew Edney

-

Apr 6, 2015

0

The ZBOX is a monthly geek box themed around your favourite geeky interests, from zombies and the undead to retro games and pop culture – here we unbox the Retro March 2015 box.

Each ZBOX contains over £40 worth of exclusive, licensed merchandise. Let’s take a look what was in the Retro March 2015 box.

There is a packet of Flumps sweets!

A box of Pixel Bricks – you might get the Ghost or you might get Pac-Man.

Some Sonic the Hedgehog socks to keep your feet warm when you do all that running.

A Joystick Junkies t-shirt.

The ZBOZ Magazine filled with retro articles.

A Steam key for Tango Fiesta.

A Lemmings door hanger.

And that’s it……

Each box sells for £19.99 which includes postage and packing. You can find out more from the Zavvi website.

Have you tried the ZBOX yet? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

Win The Red Road The Complete First Series on DVD

Andrew Edney

-

Apr 6, 2015

89

To celebrate the release of The Red Road The Complete First Series on DVD, we are giving three lucky winners the chance to win it.

From the creator of Prisoners comes an addictive thriller exploring the dark past of two rivals whose lines will cross once again when an unholy alliance is forged between them. Prepare to face the past as THE RED ROAD: THE COMPLETE FIRST SERIES comes to DVD on 6^th April, courtesy of Entertainment One.

THE RED ROAD: THE COMPLETE FIRST SERIES is the new original series about two warring communities and features a lethal cast including; Jason Momoa (‘Game Of Thrones’, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice); Martin Henderson (‘Secrets & Lies’, Devil’s Knot); Julianne Nicholson (‘Boardwalk Empire’,’ Masters of Sex’, August: Osage County); Tom Sizemore (Black Hawk Down, Heat); Antoni Corone (Need For Speed, Green Zone); Tamara Tunie (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Flight); Griff Furst (Focus, Now You See Me), and Lisa Bonet (High Fidelity, Enemy Of The State)

Still waters run deep in The Red Road: The Complete First Series, a gripping thriller that explores what happens when two opposing visions of the American dream collide. When tragedy forces a mesmerising ex-con, Phillip (Momoa) directly into the path of embattled local cop Harold (Henderson), both men must face their past and confront their most jealously guarded secrets. As the ghosts of the past start to emerge the consequences are terrible and both men’s lives start to unravel as hitherto forgotten mistakes destroy everything in their wake.

How to enter to win

We have three copies of The Red Road The Complete First Series to give away on DVD:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Usual contest rules apply, and the winners will be selected at random. This contest is open to the UK only – sorry!

The contest ends at 12.00AM on Tuesday 21st April, and The Red Road The Complete First Series is available on DVD now courtesy of Entertainment One.

Review: WD My Cloud EX4100 NAS

Andrew Edney

-

Apr 5, 2015

0

WD recently released a number of new NAS devices, including the My Cloud EX4100, and here is our review.

This is how WD describe the EX4100:

“Save all your valuable photos, videos, music and files on this ready-to-go, high-performance NAS solution for secure access to them anytime, from anywhere. Protect your content with multiple backup options, customize your NAS with a full suite of apps and enjoy peace of mind knowing that we’ve put our best in it, so you can put your best on it.”

Specifications

Interface

Gigabit Ethernet x 2
Power supply (DC in) x 2
USB 3.0 expansion port x 2 rear
USB 3.0 port with direct copy x 1 front

Drive bays

4 x 3.5 inch hard drive bays, hot swap capable, tray-less design

Internal hard drives

WD Red NAS hard drives

Processor

Marvell ARMADA 388 1.6 GHz dual-core

Memory

2 GB DDR3

The full specs can be found on the WD website.

A Closer Look

The front of the EX4100 has the power button, along with a information display that shows a number of pieces of information, all of which can be scrolled using the buttons to the right of the display.

The four drive bays are also situated at the front of the EX4100 and can be easily removed by pulling on the tabs. You can also see the lights under each drive showing they are functioning. There is also a USB 3.0 port along with a backup button – you can use this to quickly and easily backup the entire contents of a USB drive without the need for a PC.

The rear of the EX4100 has two USB 3.0 ports, two Ethernet ports and two power ports, plus a Kensington Lock.

Using the EX4100

Setting Up

Setting up the EX4100 for the first time is incredibly easy and quick – connect up the power and an Ethernet cable then switch on. All the configuration is done via a series of webpages and within a few minutes you are ready to go.

The Web Interface – My Cloud OS

The interface you are shown is very simple to use, as you can see below.

There are a series of tabs across the top, such as Home, Users, Shares, Storage, etc, which each having a number of different displays and options depending on what you choose.

The Home tab displays how much capacity is on the device (this review unit is the 16TB version pre-configured for RAID5, hence 11.8TB free). You can also see how many Cloud Devices, Users and Apps are configured, along with simple diagnostics and also the firmware version.

Storage

You can easily change the RAID mode by just selecting it. Just remember though that some changes are destructive to the stored data on the EX4100 so make sure you have your data backed up.

You can also check on the status of each of the disks in the EX4100, and even check the S.M.A.R.T. data too.

You can even set up an iSCSI target on the EX4100 if you need to, but I think most people won’t touch this, but it’s a nice addition for those users who might want this functionality.

Users

You can easily create and control users and groups from the Users tab.

Shares

And the same goes for Shares. Out of the box there are three top level shares – Public, SmartWare and TimeMachineBackup, but you can easily add shares and the click of a button.

Time Machine Backups

The EX4100 works as a Time Machine Backup drive so that you can back up your Mac to it. Just go into Time Machine on your Mac and select TimeMachineBackup – WDMyCloudEX4100 and start backing up. Depending on the amount of data on your Mac, the initial backup may take some time.

Apps

You can install and run apps on your EX4100 – by default there are a few already installed for you to use.

Adding an app is very simple – you just select it from the catalogue and install. For now there are not that many apps available but hopefully that will change soon!

Settings

There are a number of settings menus ranging from the name and language settings, to enabling DLNA Media streaming and iTunes. Most of them just require enabling or disabling.

Cloud Access

From here you can setup and manage any smartphone or tablet access to the EX4100.

My Cloud App

There is an app you can install on Windows or Mac that gives you access to the various Shares. From here you can upload, download, delete, create, and so on.

Final Thoughts

There are four different variants of the EX4100, for this review we had the 16TB version.

You may have noticed the number of times I used the word easily in this review – and for good reason! Everything you will want and need to do on the EX4100 is easy to do.

The My Cloud OS web front end is rather basic compared to other NAS devices on the market – that being said though everything you need to do can be done and it is presented in as simple a way as possible.

Earlier in the review we pointed out that there were two Ethernet ports and two power adaptor ports. The two power adaptor ports are used for ensuring that if one of the power supplies fails then the EX4100 will still carry on. You will need to be an additional power adaptor though as WD only supply one in the box. The two Ethernet adaptors are used for Link Aggregation, which can be configured for fault tolerance and speed improvements depending on your personal setup. What was disappointing here though was that WD don’t provide any information in either the manual or on the web front end on what each setting means, they just expect you to know. Given that some of the more obvious options have pages dedicated to them its a little surprising little is provided for a feature that can provide additional benefits.

Copying to and from the EX4100 was very quick – this was a good thing, and I initially wanted to copy a very large amount of data to the EX4100.

Setting up media streaming only involved switching it on and then all of my various devices picked up the EX4100 straight away and streaming worked like a charm. The media streaming component within the EX4100 is Twonky Media Server 7.2 in case you are wondering and is DLNA 1.5 certified

The EX4100 was fairly quiet in operation – that was good because I have used NAS devices in the past that sound like jet engines and that’s the last thing you want or need!

I was a little disappointed with the lack of available apps for the EX4100, for example there is no AV app and no surveillance app, so hopefully WD will sort this out soon as their competitors have these apps already, and for some of them for quite a while now.

You can backup your EX4100 too – options include backing up to a local USB device, another My Cloud device (local or remote), or even to the Cloud.

If you want to backup your camera images you can just connect your camera to the EX4100 and it can automatically copy the photographs off the camera. You can even set it up to move the photographs from the camera so you can have a nice clean camera card ready to use again.

Price wise, the WD EX4100 range is £359.00 for the diskless unit, £699.00 for 8 TB, £999.00 for 16 TB and £1,399.00 for 24 TB.

If you are looking for a simple to use NAS box that pretty much does most of what you need then you should look no further than the WD My Cloud EX4100.

You can learn more from the WD website.

Watch the Trailer for Season 2 of The Last Ship

Andrew Edney

-

Apr 5, 2015

0

TNT has unveiled a new two-minute trailer and key art for the upcoming second season of the blockbuster hit The Last Ship.

Based on William Brinkley’s popular novel, The Last Ship chronicles a global catastrophe that nearly decimates the world’s population. Because of its positioning, the Navy destroyer U.S.S. Nathan James avoided falling victim to the devastating tragedy. But now, Captain Tom Chandler (series star Eric Dane) and his crew must confront the reality of their new existence in a world where they may be among the few remaining survivors.

Here is the Season 2 trailer:

The Last Ship is slated to launch its second season on Sunday, June 21, with a two-hour premiere at 9 p.m. (ET/PT).

Review: Polk Striker ZX Gaming Headset for the Xbox One

Andrew Edney

-

Apr 4, 2015

0

Polk recently released their Striker ZX Gaming Headset for the Xbox One, and here is our review.

This is how Polk describe the Striker ZX:

“The Polk Striker ZX headset is the Xbox One solution for the way you like to game. Designed for Xbox One, the Striker ZX connects you with a high performance immersive audio experience that will take you deeper into games, music and movies. Moreover, its world-class design combines functional style with featherweight comfort to keep you focused on gaming. Polk has developed its own wireless headset adapter that connects you wirelessly to the Xbox One™ console and gives you complete chat functionality, as well as enables you to control both your game and chat volume mix. With a retractable mic and chat loop feature you will never have to scream to be heard in game. Any way you like to game, there’s only one way to listen. Striker ZX.”

Features

Powered by 40 years of audio heritage and tuned for heart-pounding sound quality, the Striker ZX’s sound will elevate your gaming experience by hearing all the detail, all the subtleties in the game.
Stay-focused Comfort, Our ProFit Comfort system creates a lightweight headset that helps your gaming concentration, never hinders it. ProFit Comfort is a combination of a lightweight, moulded headband with a thick cushion and two-way pivoting ear cups with Protein Leather padding, enabling the Striker headset to rest easily as it conforms to your head.
The 40mm drivers have been created using Polk’s patented Dynamic Balance driver design process. This helps eliminate resonances and creates the Striker’s game changing high-quality sound.
Wireless Headset Adapter, Polk’s exclusive Xbox One design will have higher output for gaming and chat, helping create a better gaming experience.
Retractable, Omni-directional boom microphone, with a 7cm extension, is flexible, so it conforms to the way you like to chat and slides neatly into the ear cup when you’re done. You can even take calls with it if you have it connected to your phone.
Chat loop feature listens into your mic and lets you hear your voice in the headset to avoid shouting.
Superior Build Quality means the Striker headset is a tool you can depend on to give you a gaming edge for years to come.
Strain Relief Cable connector at the ear cup ensures the 40-inch cable always keeps you in the game. Two additional split cables enable you to connect to your platform of choice.
More than a gaming headset; the Striker brings Polk’s legendary sound quality to your favourite movies, music and TV shows.

Specifications

What’s in the Box?

The box contains the Striker ZX headset, a setup guide, a cable and a Xbox One controller audio adaptor.

A Closer Look

Final Thoughts

The Striker ZX is available in Black, Blue or Orange, personally I really like the orange, it goes well with my Titanfall controller!

The headset itself is comfortable to wear for extended periods – the ear cups are cushioned as is the headband, and it is very lightweight.

The microphone is built into the headset, you just pull it out and position it however you need, and when you have finished you just push it back into the headset.

The box contains an Xbox One controller audio adaptor, this one manufactured by Polk themselves. Just plug it into your controller and connect the cable into it and away you go.

The sound quality is very good, although if you are looking for a deep bass sound you might be slightly disappointed. Voice chat works well, if that’s your thing!

My only two negative comments are that the cable that connects the headset to the controller doesn’t detach, so if anything happened to it, or it got damaged then it cannot easily be replaced. The other negative comment is that the headset feels a little plastic, however that doesn’t detract from the quality.

The Polk Striker ZX Gaming Headset is available for for under £50, so if you are looking for a good low price Xbox One gaming headset you should definitely take a look at this one.

You can learn more from the Polk website.

Here is the PC trailer for Grand Theft Auto V

Gaming
News

Chris Hare

-

Apr 4, 2015

0

Here is the PC trailer for Grand Theft Auto V

The wait is over here is the Grand Theft Auto V trailer for the PC, with the trailer running at 60fps get ready to drool big time. Whe it was announced last June, with the game having seen a few delays over the time. Get ready as the PC version is out on the 14th April are you ready.

The Grand Theft Auto V trailer shows a number of iconic scenes from the single-player campaign. You’ll see guns, cars, explosions, and mayhem all within the beautiful backdrop that is Los Santos.
With the Current gen hardware versions of the GTA V are running at 1080p, at 30 fps, on both Xbox One and PS4, which means the PC version will run at a 100% greater framerate,

Win a LeapFrog LeapPad3 Learning Tablet

News
Tech

Andrew Edney

-

Apr 4, 2015

295

We just reviewed the LeapPad3 Learning Tablet and now you can win it.

How to enter to win

To be in with a chance of winning the LeapPad3, enter below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Usual contest rules apply, and the winner will be selected at random. This contest is open to the UK only – sorry!

The contest ends at 12.00AM on Sunday 19th April, and the LeapPad3 is available now.

Review: LeapPad3 Learning Tablet

Andrew Edney

-

Apr 4, 2015

1

LeapFrog recently released the LeapPad3 Learning Tablet, and here is our review.

What’s in the Box?

The box contains the LeapPad3, a charger, a cable and some instructions and guides.

The LeapPad3 also comes with the following:

• Music Player plus 10 songs
• Pet Pad Party
• Pet Chat
• Photo Fun Ultra
• 5 Utility Apps
• Choice of 1 App Download

A Closer Look

Final Thoughts

The LeapPad3 is designed to provide a safe and fun experience for children aged 3 – 9 years old. If you had a previous LeapPad then you will notice that the LeapPad3 has been redesigned. It sleeker, lighter, has a quad-core processor and Wi-Fi and is designed to be handled by children, meaning LeapFrog have drop tested it so that if you drop it, unlike an iPad, it won’t shatter!

You get around 6 hours of constant use on the battery, and the LeapPad3 can be charged either from the charger or via USB (so you can charge it on the go).

The screen is a very clear 5” touchscreen and I found it to be very responsive.

And don’t worry about children seeing inappropriate content when surfing the web on the LeapPad3 as it uses LeapSearch powered by Zui. What that means is that only content that is appropriate is displayed, and that content has been approved by “learning experts”, so after watching that Sesame Street video you don’t have to worry about something else being shown!

There are well over 700 games and apps available for the LeapPad3, including games, eBooks and videos, so there should be something for everyone, and the games actually adapt to your child’s learning level.

You can even link up two LeapPad3’s using Pet Chat and Pet Pad Party, both of which are including with the LeapPad3, giving your child hours of fun, and you hours of peace and quiet.

There is also a 2MP front and rear camera which works well, and even the ability to record video at 480p. There is 4GB of on-board memory too.

The LeapPad3 works with both PC and Mac and is very easy to set up and use.

The LeapFrog LeapPad3 retails for £89.99 but as usual look around for a good deal. The LeapPad3 comes in either Green or Pink.

Learn more from the LeapFrog website.

Honor 6+ gets UK release date and pricing

Chris Hare

-

Apr 2, 2015

0

Honor 6+ gets UK release date and pricing

Today Honor’s new flagship device, the Honor 6+, will be going on sale on Three throughout the UK from 1st May priced at £299.99, and is available to pre-order from 6th April at Amazon.co.uk.

Fingers crossed we should be able to get a hand on with the Honor 6+ very soon, watch this space.

The Honor 6+ was unveiled at this years Mobile World Congress last month and the new premium device is the world’s first smartphone that comes with two 8 megapixel rear cameras, combining to make a 13-megapixel image, as well as a single 8 mega pixel front-facing camera.

The Honor 6+ encourages digital natives to bravely rethink technological innovation with the chance to shoot, store and share their brave moments making their memories even bigger and better.

The new mobile device is packed with powerful smartphone technology, featuring:

Unique bionic parallel 8MP rear camera providing wide aperture F0.95-F16 which can capture some of the most powerful photos – give your eyes a new visual experience and re-discover the beauty of life
Equipped with super 8+1 cores Kirin925 chipset and 3GB RAM+ 32GB of internal memory
3600mAh powered battery with patented power saving technology which lasts through two days of moderate usage
Dual SIM Dual Active with dual data usage switchable
State-of-the-art 5.5-inch negative LCD screen, offering 1500:1 super high contrast and industry high of 85% colour saturation
Fiberglass based cover, the most important material used in military helmets. The Honor 6+ has a high screen-to-body ratio, designed for easy and more comfortable one-handed use

Mortal Kombat X Briggs Family Trailer

Gaming
News

Chris Hare

-

Apr 2, 2015

0

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment released the Mortal Kombat X Official Briggs Family Trailer, which showcases cybernetically-enhanced Major Jackson “Jax” Briggs and his daughter Jacqueline “Jacqui” Briggs, who followed in her father’s footsteps in the Outworld Investigation Agency Special Forces.

The trailer shows off their dynamic father-daughter relationship and equally deadly fighting moves.

Quantum Break for Xbox One coming 2016

Gaming
News

Chris Hare

-

Apr 2, 2015

0

Today, Microsoft Studios announced that the highly-anticipated action-adventure Quantum Break will launch in 2016.

“With so many games launching this year, moving Quantum Break to 2016 extends our incredible portfolio into next year with a monster new IP,” said Shannon Loftis, Head of Publishing.

Quantum Break is created by Remedy Entertainment, the critically-acclaimed studio behind Max Payne and Alan Wake. Featuring Remedy’s highly acclaimed storytelling, Quantum Break fuses an intense action game with top-of-the-line live action elements into one revolutionary entertainment adventure.

“We’re really proud to be part of the incredible Xbox One line-up,” said Sam Lake, Creative Director at Remedy. “We thank our fans for their patience, and want them to know that the team is taking advantage of this opportunity to polish and fine tune the game to create the kind of standout entertainment experience they’ve come to expect from us.”

Featuring Remedy’s highly acclaimed storytelling, Quantum Break is a fusion of a cinematic action game and a top-of-the-line live action show. Experience the unique time-amplified action gameplay and play the game as Jack Joyce as he fights to prevent the end of time. Watch the show to uncover the schemes and power play inside Monarch, the villains who stand in Jack’s way. The game and the show ship together, and are tied together in multiple ways that the player can affect with their choices.

Review: Pillars of Eternity

phillvine

-

Apr 2, 2015

0

With a track record like Obsidian’s it’s difficult not to have the highest of expectations when it comes to RPGs. KOTOR II and Fall Out: New Vegas to name only two of a successful RPG packed history. But there are very few original titles in this list. So for Pillars of Eternity the company became one of the ever-increasing group of games successfully funded by Kickstarter. It’s becoming more apparent as time goes on that Kickstarter isn’t just for small projects to gain funding but has enough power to fund even huge projects like Pillars of Eternity. The fans have spoken and Obsidian has no shortage of fans. And so with an insanely successful Kickstarter behind them Pillars of Eternity was born.

There’s only one place to start with any respectably in depth RPG and that’s character creation. I remember the team being particularly proud of its efforts in this regard back when I saw the game in development in 2014. It was difficult in that short session to really grasp just how intricate the character creation was. Well I can confidently say now it is nothing short of mind blowing. If there is a class, ability or race that you want it absolutely will be here.

For example it’s not enough to ask yourself if you want to be a mage or wizard without a series of follow up questions. Sure there is a ‘standard’ mage with conventional spell based attacks but there’s also a mage who starts with all the spells he can have and has the ability to turn into a beast to attack enemies. And there’s a priest that works as a support role who has literally no offensive spells. And there’s a FFX-2 songstress like class who uses phrases of music to create ‘spells’.

In fact there are 11 classes in Pillars of Eternity. There are also 6 race types each with at least 2 sub options and some with more. Then there are 7 home regions for your character and then there are around 10 backgrounds to choose from depending on your other choices. On top of deciding between one of the two starting abilities and allocating your ability points. Needless to say it took me a huge amount of time to decide I would be a female, wood elf, ranger with wounding shot and a bear companion who hails from the Deadfire Archipelago and was previously a hunter.

The options available are ridiculous and given this freedom I wager there are very few instances of a character being the same. In fact the only choice that doesn’t effect your stats is your gender. Everything else matters.

Getting stuck into the game after spending far too long on creating my plucky elf hunter I was presented with my first disappointment – a great big wall of text. Despite my years as an RPG enthusiast these days my heart sinks a little when I find I have god knows how many hours of text to read. But to my surprise the narrator kindly starting to dramatically set the scene and work his way through the script. And then I actually started to read everything.

I have to admit I often pay little mind to anything outside of the main quests and do as little reading as possible when involving characters like ‘lady with dog’ or whatever. But Pillars of Eternity is beautifully written throughout. The descriptive texts are at least on par with any quality novel. Suddenly I forgot all my reservations and even looked forward to reading on about the world’s intricate lore. To my surprise most of the main characters have well recorded speech anyway. Given that the writing is so good I had no problems reading but it’s still nice to have the recorded voices.

To put it simply – the combat is tough. Pillars of Eternity has already made a name for itself as difficult and it’s well deserved. I knew this before I started and so I paid particular attention to the descriptions given to the difficulties. Airing on the side of caution I went for normal and enjoyed the challenges that I encountered. Even easy isn’t easy and I certainly wouldn’t have been overconfident. For anyone who is successful at the top difficulty, and there aren’t going to be many, there’s always Iron Man mode with the added punishment that your save is deleted if you die – which is not a rare occurrence. Ouch.

Battles are handled via a great little UI bar that takes up the usual spot a the bottom centre of the screen. It’s small but there are a surprising amount of functions available. There’s a nice big, easy to hit, pause/play button which will likely become your best friend. Pillars of Eternity uses a real time system so pausing almost all the time is a must. It’s not excessive to pause before issuing every command and arguably is the ‘right’ way to play.

Given that you can end up with quite a large group of companions pausing and managing abilities is a must, especially for the tougher fights. Leaving the AI to handle things for you might get you by for the small stuff but almost everything in Pillars of Eternity should be considered dangerous and given at least a little respect. It feels like the UI is actually there to help which stops the complex combat from becoming tedious or awkward.

What doesn’t shine is the way Pillars of Eternity looks. It’s too glaringly obvious to ignore much though I wish I could. I know it doesn’t matter as much as all the great things on offer but it really doesn’t help. Paying homage to old classics is one thing but there is no attempt at all to inject any modern effects or elements. Animations are stiff and characters don’t hold up at all. I also found the camera a little limiting and too close like the old 1024 x 768 days. I like the top down look and I’m so glad Obsidian prioritised quests, speech and in depth levelling over visuals. But rather than mimicking those titles of old Pillars of Eternity just looks exactly like them. Side by side you wouldn’t tell the difference which means Pillars looks very very old and low res.

Pillars of Eternity is the best RPG I’ve played since Wasteland 2 and another great addition to my pile of top down RPGs. The character creation and skill trees are absolutely way beyond anything most games offer. If you want to make a fantasy RPG character you can do it here without compromise. Questing is fun and creative with backing from the best writing I’ve seen in as long as I can remember. The difficulty is tough but fare and rewarding. And there’s a good 60 hours or so of content.

Obsidian knew which boxes to tick to keep fans happy and they’ve yet again created an RPG that will be one of the greats because of it. The only thing that really lets Pillars of Eternity down are its visuals. An artistic take on the genre or some higher resolution character models would have gone a long way to making Pillars of Eternity look like something from 2015. Look past the surface and an expansive and immersive world awaits – and Pillars of Eternity does make it oh so easy to forget the looks and lose yourself in its world.

Win a FAST and FURIOUS 7 Model Car

Andrew Edney

-

Apr 2, 2015

5

To celebrate the release of FAST & FURIOUS 7 in IMAX, our friends at IMAX have kindly given us a model car to give away.

Continuing the global exploits in the unstoppable franchise built on speed, Vin Diesel, Paul Walker and Dwayne Johnson lead the returning cast of Fast & Furious 7. James Wan directs this chapter of the hugely successful series that also welcomes back favourites Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Elsa Pataky and Lucas Black.

They are joined by international action stars new to the franchise including Jason Statham, Djimon Hounsou, Tony Jaa, Ronda Rousey and Kurt Russell. Neal H. Moritz, Vin Diesel and Michael Fottrell return to produce the film written by Chris Morgan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pILs567WVpI&feature=youtu.be