World of Warcraft is the biggest and most popular MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) in the world. Topping nearly 11 million subscribers worldwide, all paying a monthly subscription, the World of Warcraft franchise is absolutely massive.

The basic idea behind World of Warcraft is to create a player/character and increase their level to the top level which currently is capped at 85. Along your journey you’ll explore the massive world, partake in a wide array of different quests and story lines and fight great monsters. As you become more and more powerful , you learn new abilities and gain new equipment too.

The game is divided into two factions, the Horde and the Alliance. Both have access to the same types of playing classes but differ in terms of what character types they can play within those classes.

Throughout the game you’ll meet other, real, players who can help you with those quests that require multiple players to complete. You’ll partake in Battleground fights where the Horde and the Alliance fight each other in various locations or you’ll join up with a party and complete one of the hundreds of dungeons that feature in World of Warcraft.

The game is set in the world of Azeroth, populated by almost anything your imagination can think of! The game features characters and parts from fantasy and science fiction, so you can expect to find such monsters as trolls, serpents, dragons, steam-powered enemies, goblins as well as spaceships, time travel and even alien worlds! World of Warcraft really does have it all. The environments and maps that the characters popular are equally as impressive, they can vary so much from being a nice green hilly area to a gorge full of rock shaped needles and much more.

For those who get into World of Warcraft, it can become incredibly addictive since it’s a game which you can never totally complete, there is always something to keep you playing..

Unfortunately World of Warcraft is a game where first time players are dropped right into the deep end, no matter how much you may have played other MMORPG’s. The game has so much content in it and so many things you can do that it is just overwhelming for a new player which deters some people at first.

In order to learn how to play the game and properly understand it you’ll need the help of an already experienced friend who can help and guide you through the first ten levels or so. Around level 10 you should have a basic understand of the game, its features and what you can do.

Personally I still play it now and again and even being nearly level 70 there are still aspects of the game I have never taken part in or even understand as there is no published guide line to the whole game. Nor is there likely to ever be- it’s  just far too big! Not knowing parts of the game doesn’t ruin it at all though; the great thing about the game is you can do whatever you want in it. You can level out your character how you want, make money how you want and much more.

So what is the catch for a game that offers such a massive world of content? £9 a month. You can purchase a subscription 3 months, 6 months or 12 months at a time but you’ll have to remain subscribed in order to keep playing though.

For some this is going to seem like quite a lot of money as it’ll end up costing you more and the average game you usually play online. Last year, World of Warcraft had about 12 million subscribers to its game worldwide. Ass of today that number has dropped significantly down to around 10 million. Losing 2 million subscribers is a huge loss,  and many have put it down to the game’s constant playing that is required and (perhaps surprisingly), a lack of content! For some people there’s just never enough!

There are players out there who have reached the top level, purchased all 3 World of Warcraft expansion packs and have been left with nothing to do, a fourth expansion pack is set to be released sometime this year in an attempt to get the higher level players back online.

The game has also been desperately trying to recruit new players too, running TV adverts featuring the likes of Chuck Norris and Ozzy Osbourne (lead singer with recently re-formed Black Sabbath) all over the world offering new comers the ability to play the game up to level 20 absolutely free. If you make use of the free trial to its full potential, by the time you get to level 20, chances are you’ll be hooked and will sign up for the subscription. Crafty marketing technique that!

On the other hand, the way players are dropped into the deep end is still a big issue, the developers have tried to make the game more welcoming and understanding to new players, but it is still a daunting experience at first.  Unless players really stick with it and try hard to learn it they won’t be playing it for long.

At the end of the day, World of Warcraft is a fantastic game which everyone should try to see if they like it before passing judgement on it. Whether you want to start paying a subscription is up to you but you should visit www.trywarcraft.com and download the game to get a taste of what it’s all about. If it’s not for you then it hasn’t cost you anything, if it is then it’ll bring you days upon days of playtime. See you at level 85 some day!

The WOWee One is a portable speaker device which prides itself for its patented ability to essentially share its  sound through any surface to deliver fantastic sound ­­­and bass reception. The device is powered by an internal, rechargeable battery which can deliver up to 20 hours of playtime.

Below are the WOWee One’s technical specifications :

In comparison to the X-MINI II CAPSULE SPEAKER which I reviewed last year, the specifications are similar but differ slightly yet significantly in certain areas. For example the WOWee has a wider frequency response and a longer play time. All to the good!

Check out the two charts below which compare the technical specifications between the two:

As you can tell, both devices are different in certain areas; the X-MINI for example has a larger power output which corresponds to a smaller playtime but the X-MINI does lack  “oomph” compared to the WOWee in terms of minimum frequency volume.

The two devices have unique ways to create great sounding bass which is the fundamental difference between these two devices.

• The WOWee has a patented system called the “Gel Audio™ driver” that delivers low end bass frequencies. When you place the WOWee against a surface material, that surface then becomes the loudspeaker. It works effectively against a wide range of materials, such as glass, metal, plastic, wood, composites and certain fibrous materials. (any good against a human skill??)
• The XMINI on the other hand is a more conventional speaker but it can be expanded from its original small shell to reveal a spring type system which it uses to produce its bass.

The great thing about the WOWee one is it can easily fill a whole room full of sound when cranked up to full and places on a suitable surface, such as a table. It is a great device because it delivers a fantastic sound while at the same time being small, compact and isn’t wrapped in a huge mess of wires: There is just one wire- the one you use to plug into your phone or any music device!

A problem with the WOWee’s system whereby it  turns a surface into a speaker system is the vibrations! If you put the WOWee on full, and place it on your dining room table then chances are anything small like a pen or such are going to start vibrating, causing unwanted extra sounds and ruining the experience. If you want to use the surface system effectively, you should make sure the surface is completely of anything that could vibrate and move.

Unfortunately, another area where the WOWee falls is when being use outside. I’ll explain. It’s great that it can produce these fantastic sounds when you have access to all these large flat materials but when you are chilling with your mates in the park you are stuck! The WOWee One does not produce its great bass response when being used on grass or the ground so unless you are going to be close to a perfectly flat surface that can take advantage of the WOWee, such as a park picnic table then you won’t be able to use it to its full potential.

If you are a person that wants to be able to listen to their music outside a lot with fantastic volume and bass then the WOWee One would not be for you since you will struggle to find a surface to place the device on to unleash its full potential. That said if you want a small speaker you can use around the house then the WOWee One would be perfect since the surfaces would be available and you can use it anywhere in the house. Small get-togethers in the garden (assuming you have a table!) would be great too.

To conclude, the WOWee One costs a hefty £49.99 which is a lot for a speaker, especially considering it’s pretty much useless unless you can find a surface to place it on. Specification, volume and bass wise it is extremely similar to the X-MINI 2 Capsule speaker which also produces fantastic sound and bass on whatever surface you want. The best part about the X-MINI 2 is that it costs just £11.99. You could buy two X-MINI’s and link them together with their special integrated linking system for less than a single WOWee One. If you are looking for a portable speaker then I would highly recommend the X-MINI over the WOWee since the price tag is just far too high and its patented system has turned out to be more of a problem than a useful feature.

Plants Vs Zombies is one of the latest releases from the quality famous company PopCap, known for their small, quirky and addictive games. Previous games which you may have heard of include Bejewelled, Book Worm, Zuma and many more, all of these games are extremely high quality and completely addictive because they are so much fun and have so much to offer. Plants Vs Zombies is no exception; it takes the tower defence game genre into a whole new league with unique weapons/characters and so many extra features. All with a liberal dash of humour.

The Plants Vs Zombies game made its debut on the PC but since then has been released on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Android, iOS, Windows Phone 7 and more! The game has been a huge success due to its casual game play style and standard PopCap low price.

The latest release of Plants Vs Zombies has been on Microsoft’s new Windows Phone operating system, dubbed PvZ in the marketplace, the game costs £3.99 and is described as follows: “ Get ready to soil your plants – Plants vs. Zombies is coming to Windows Phone 7! A mob of fun-loving zombies is about to invade your home, and the only defence is your arsenal of plants. Use peashooters, wall-nuts, cherry bombs and more to mulchify 26 types of zombies before they reach your front door. The fun never dies!”

The Windows Phone version features the same 50 Adventure levels as in the PC version, battling through day, night, fog, in a swimming pool and on the rooftop. With 49 powerful plants at your disposal you can use to take down 26 different types of “fun-loving zombies”. Hey- they only want to eat your brains- give ‘em a break people!

Along with the standard campaign/adventure mode the game also includes 20 Mini-Games, Puzzle mode and the relaxing Zen Garden mode where you can tend to the plants you find to earn more money. One feature missing from the mobile version compared to the PC version is the Endless game mode feature, which features standard levels which are harder which you must complete until you finally unlock the endless mode where the fun doesn’t end till you get taken by the Zombies! This game mode was a great feature on the PC and console versions so it’s a little disappointing to see it left out, likely due to the hardware constraints of mobile hardware today.

Even though the standard Endless move has been left out of the mobile version, Endless modes of the two fantastic Mini-Games “Vase Breaker” and “I Zombie” are included which will keep you entertained for ages, even after the main adventure mode is complete.

The main concept behind the game is you are defending your house from Zombies, you cannot let any zombie get past your defences otherwise they will “Eat your brains” and you lose! The standard levels are on your houses front lawn which is split up into 5 rows which the Zombies attack from horizontally. You soil your plants in each of the rows to defend against the Zombies.

In order to place your plants you need to collect sun which will fall from the sky in the day time levels but the main source of your sun will be from placing sun flowers which emit sun tokens periodically to allow you to plant. The more sun flowers you plant, the more sun you’ll get but the lawn is split up into a grid so you don’t want to fill it all up with sun flowers which cannot attack the zombies!

As you progress through Adventure mode you unlock new plants, Zombies and areas where you must plant to fight off the Zombie such as the back yard which has a pool in it and even the roof!  It’s a great campaign that keeps you coming back for more! Once you have completed it you can go through it again to collect more money or plants for your Zen garden. If you do this then 3 plants for each level you play are chosen automatically to make it a little more fun and different the second time round.

The Zen garden feature is a place to store the plants you collect where ever you play Plants and Zombies, you feed and tend to your plants as they grow bigger and bigger at which point they start spitting out money from time to time. Having lots of plants can easily keep your bank full in the game! Alternately you can sell them whenever you want, selling them when they are fully grown will give you a hefty lump sum!

Money you earn throughout the game can be used to buy new plants and awesome power-ups for existing ones bringing new strategies into the game. Supplies for the Zen garden can also be bought here.

Overall Plants vs. Zombies for Windows Phone is a fantastic game, if you haven’t played it before then it will keep you entertained for hours on end as it will keep you coming back for more. Even if you have played it before the portability is a big plus meaning you can take it anywhere you want an play casually! At the end of the day though, this game has won numerous awards for a reason and everyone should get a chance to play it.

Hate fruit? Like ninjas? Then Fruit Ninja is the perfect game for you. Fruit Ninja is a touchscreen game for mobile devices where the main object of the game is to slice fruit! You earn points by slicing the fruit and gain bonuses for multiple slices of fruit. There are different game modes available to suit everyone’s play style. It is a fun all-round addictive game that will keep you entertained for hours. Is this a successor to the Angry Birds throne?

The basics of all the game types have fruit being hurled up from the bottom of the screen and then gravity pulling it back down and off the screen. The idea is to slice the fruit in half with a swipe of your finger on the screen before it falls off.  So dang  simple yet so dang addictive addictive!

The three game modes:

• Classic: In classic mode the game is potentially endless as there is no time limit but with time it gets progressively harder. Along with fruit being hurled into the air there are also bombs which you must avoid hitting at all costs as slicing one of these bombs will end the game! You have three lives in this game mode too,  you lose a life every time a single piece of fruit falls off the screen without being sliced. It is probably one of the most challenging game modes since there is a lot to concentrate on.
• Arcade Mode: This is a quick fire game mode which you cannot fail at because there is no life to be lost. It lasts for 60 seconds and the object of the level is to get as many points as you can. This game mode does include bombs like in classic but instead they deduct 10 points from your score rather than ending the round. What’s great about this game mode though is the addition of special bananas which give  special powers such as double point modes, slow motion and frenzy modes which hurls huge amounts of fruit at the screen resulting in huge point bonuses. Grabbing a combination of these perks will guarantee you lots of points. Challenge your friends!
• Zen Mode: This is another time limit game. You have 90 seconds to get as many points as you can, the differences from the Arcade Mode are: No bombs or special power bananas.  Just fruit. Plain and simple.

The three game modes are all fantastic, but my personal favourite is the Arcade Mode (my high score is 464, can you beat it?) The smoothness of the whole game is consistent and great and complements the game play wonderfully.  The animations of the fruit being sliced are great and makes you feel like you’re really slicing it! The splat of the sliced fruit on the background is a great little asset. There’s also  fun facts about fruit at the end of the games which I found pretty interesting!

You can use up to three fingers to slice fruit on the game but I found it pretty challenging to control two fingers accurately while attempting to slice fruit. One finger can yield great results but perhaps you could play it with a friend and get them to help slice. It also depends of course on the size of your touchscreen!

There are lots of ways to customise the game as you unlock new material from achievements such as different knives which make a different slicing pattern to different backgrounds. They don’t add any tactical advantages to the game play but can make it look nicer, and stop the game from getting visibly stale

Overall Fruit Ninja is a brilliant game, it’s fun and addictive and you should definitely download the demo to see what it;s like. The game is available for IOS, Windows Phone and Android on phones and tablets. Playing the game on a tablet screen is amazing  so if you have a choice  then definitely try it on that. At £1.99 its a great price that will give you hours of fun gameplay.

As part of the worldwide promotion for its Lumia phone, Nokia have a series of weekly episodes running on the Nokia Facebook page under the title The Little Amazing Show. The idea is for each short episode to feature a different location, bringing people together for a bit of fun and play. Every Monday, a mini soap-opera episode offers a feel-good slice of life by setting up a simple scenario for passers-by to encounter and then engage with. A sort of people participation installation!

Nokia have coined a phrase “Little Amazings” to describe these small but fun occurrences that are happening all around us, that we can make happen and be part of, and of course record them and share them using the Nokia Lumia phone.

In the latest offering, Episode 3, the happening is in Madrid, where a DJ set is set up to provide an impromptu mini night club experience outdoors on the street. Here’s the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5n2amTXDhg

The first episode was set in Berlin, and the second in London. In Berlin an old piano was set up in an open urban space with a big sign “Play Me” above it.

In London a see-saw rigged to lighting effects was set up on the South Bank beside the River Thames.

You can see all three of them below, and thereafter catch the new episodes on Facebook each Monday, at http://www.facebook.com/nokia

So what’s the thinking behind the series? Well it’s clear that Nokia are pulling out all the stops to promote the Lumia phone. This is serious make or break stuff. The advertising is different from your usual “here’s the phone- look at all these features- you want it- buy it” type of promotion. Nokia’s advertising is people-centric and focuses more on life, and people and enjoying the little good things in every day. The phone is in background, as a sleeper, but it’s definitely there. There’s also a consistent thread of friendship running through the episodes- and a lot of the images are of two people, objects or images films in together and in harmony.

It’s an unusual campaign but judging by the comments to date, is effective. It sparks an interest to see where the next episode will take you, and what the next “Little Amazing” will be. The Nokia Lumia becomes not just a phone, but almost a philosophy and a way of life- engaging with other people to enjoy, record and share encounters both large and small.

Interestingly, some people have been left a little baffled by the episodes, and want a more traditional cut-to-the-chase advert that sets out what the phone can do, so a straight comparison can be made with other phones. But they appear to be in the minority, and the majority reaction is that the episodes are slick, interesting, fun and don’t insult the audience. That must be good, and a little amazing in itself!

Here are the current episodes:

Episode 1: Berlin http://nokia.ly/vTphrR

Episode 2: London http://nokia.ly/u8uj0G

Episode 3: Madrid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5n2amTXDhg

Audiosurf is a game like no other available exclusively for the PC via Steam. It is a game that looks similar to Guitar Hero or Singstar except that it offers lots of different game modes based around collecting blocks or missing them or building bonuses. The best thing about Audiosurf though is its special built in algorithm that allows you to use the game with any piece of music you want. The game builds a track where the beats in the song are converted into bumps in the track and the tempo of the track causes the games speed to increase and the colours  become more red and extreme

The effects of the game and whole experience allow you to turn any music track into a funky looking and colourful video with an awesome and addictive game play element too. The minimum hardware specifications of the game can be found below:

• OS: Microsoft® Windows® XP/Vista
• Processor: 1.6 GHz Intel® Pentium® 4
• Memory: 512 MB RAM
• Graphics: 32 MB NVIDIA GeForce® 2 (support for Pixel Shader 3.0 recommended)
• DirectX Version: DirectX® 9.0 or higher
• Sound: DirectX® 9.0c-compatible sound card

You don’t need a particularly powerful computer to play the game, but if you want to experience the game at a high resolution and with great graphics then a higher end system would be more desirable.

The great part about Audiosurf is its ability to never run out of content. Unlike on Singstar or Guitar Hero, when you get bored of all your songs you have to spend money to buy new ones. With Audiosurf the game is as big as your music library! So the content available is endless and the life of the game will last forever. The length of the game is the length of the song, the tempo of the song controls the speed of the pod/ship you control. The tempo changes throughout the song so you really feel the song speed increase visually with the pods acceleration. The game really does express a piece of audio really well, the great thing is that it works for  any type of audio track, of course low tempo, slow tracks will be easier than super fast ones. Incidentally, one of the most played tracks is “Dragonforce – Through the fire and the flames”, the final song on the popular Guitar Hero 3 PS2 game, the song is praised for being a song with (allegedly!)the fastest guitar riffs in the world.

You can buy the game via Steam or physically via a retailer. The game has a built in radio feature which is updated weekly with new tracks that you can download for free and play. They are usually funky techno type songs that are different and really cool to play. If you purchase the game via Steam then tracks from Valves popular titles are included. The soundtrack from games included are: Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode 1, Portal, TeamFortress 2 and more.

There are three different difficulty modes in the game; each difficulty level has a different array of characters which all collect points along the path in different ways so there are many different game modes. The three difficulty levels usually control the speed of the track and how fast bricks appear (speed of song is not increased). In one game mode you simply avoid the grey blocks and collect the coloured ones, this is the simplest game type but still great fun. In another, you must create chains of similarly coloured blocks, the larger the chain the more points you get so there is more thought and planning behind this game mode.

At the end of the song your score is totalled and can be uploaded online where you can see how others performed on the song. The software is very intuitive about realising which song it is that you have played even if the name isn’t in a generic form. A really great feature is the anti-cheat type feature that is implemented. Basically each song you play is converted into a line graph picture which is unique to each and every song, much like a security hash code. This eliminates people simple making a music track with a single tone and naming it “ACDC Back in Black” for example. It’s a great feature which keeps balance in the game and makes it fair.

You can choose from multiple appearance settings to customise the games graphics to your liking, there are lots of combinations to choose from which yields some interesting yet fantastic results

Audiosurf is a absolutely great game that everyone should experience at some point because it is like no other. At just $10 it’s a great price for a game that will last you forever because you can never run out of content for it! It isn’t a game that you’ll play for hours on end likely but it’s a great casual game suitable for literally anyone because it’s your music that you play!

Forget the tropical, sunny and beachy islands of the original Crysis, the new game is set in a desolate New York city in the middle of a futuristic war! And it’s not just the setting that’s changed- it has a completely new type of gameplay, with many upgrades and perks.

The original Crysis, which was only available for the PC, prided itself on its absolutely stunning graphics when it was released in 2007. And even today its graphics are superior to many new games! It really was a revolutionary game, and ahead of its time. It was later expanded with an extra chapter called Crysis: Warhead which again was exclusive to the PC.  That expansion included an amazing campaign with visuals that were stunning! So Crysis 2 had a lot to live up to and improve upon… but has it managed it?

To start with the completely different climate change from the original game offers a completely new combat experience. In the original game there were lots of open space battles and fights in small villages. In Crysis 2, we are in the heart of a gritty urban environment- New York! This means battles in the streets, subway fights and melees inside buildings.

If you haven’t played Crysis before then you’ll need to know that the game revolves around this special and top secret “nanosuit” which offers superhuman abilities to the player. The special abilities the suit offers are:

- the ability to jump really high.

-to sprint extra fast,

-super strength to kick vehicles and unleash a powerful melee attack,

-a stealth/ invisibility mode and

-an armour mode.

In the previous Crysis game you had to select between 4 different suit settings which were “Strength, Armour, Stealth and Speed” but in Crysis 2 the “Nanosuit 2.0” offers a different approach to these perks.

What’s new in Crysis 2?

• Platform: Unlike the original Crysis, Crysis 2 is available on Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 as well as PC.
• Nanosuit 2.0: Crysis two you can now basically activate either Stealth or Armour mode when you want, the Speed and Strength abilities are basically now always activated so you do not have to switch suit modes in order to do a super jump. It makes the game much easier to play and less confusing which definitely helps. The use of all these special powers requires energy however so you cannot use the invisibility for example forever! All the special abilities drain suit energy so make sure you find a quiet area to wait for it to replenish when you can.
• Modules: Through upgrades, the Nanosuit may also be equipped with passive power and tactical modules. These modules do not need any additional power and are always active once installed. In order to purchase new modules you need to collect Nano Catalyst from dead alien bodies. It adds a new collective element to the game with useful bonuses.
• Others: New weapons, a revamped HUD, power slides, collectibles , Nanovision and the Nanosuit Showroom.

Performance:

As with the original Crysis, if you are playing the game on the PC you are going to need a pretty beefy PC to experience the beauty of the game since it is very power hungry But that is to be expected with such graphics! Obviously on the PC you can lower the settings till you get a smooth outcome and still experience the amazing gameplay without such stunning visuals.

Performance issues have arisen with the console versions on Crysis with users experiencing in-game lag and frame rate Issues. The non-PC community are not happy!  I have also noticed these issues when playing the game on the consoles. The game just doesn’t feel smooth as other games out there today. The average frame rate for the two consoles is around and below 30fps, which really is fairly low for a modern video game and leaves the game feeling a bit slow and sluggish which is a shame since it can be really apparent at times! In high combat parts of the game the frame rate can drop even lower to produce real graphical lag which in a sense ruins the game because it can make combat frustrating.

But with time you will get used to the lower frame rates and it won’t be as obvious as when you start the game so it is definitely not a reason to turn away from the game. The low frame rates are a result of the amazing visuals in the game and the visuals definitely make up for the lower frame rates since they really will make you go “wow”.

Gameplay:

With all the different types of suit features there are numerous ways to approach a fight and you can decide how you do it. The game allows you the freedom to approach a battle how you want without being spoon fed about where to stand and who to shoot first etc. It really is a gameplay experience unlike any other which allows you to use new and awesome tactical approaches!

The campaign is amazing, the special effects and visuals are like no other game and you could easily play it through multiple times and not get bored because you can combat the enemy in so many different ways.

Conclusion:

You have to play this game. Everyone should experience what it is like because you can’t judge it properly until you’ve played it. The visuals will blow you away and the gameplay will be something you haven’t experienced before (in a good way). However for console gamers the low frame rate may deter you at first but with time you will get used to it and come to really like the game. It would be nice if there was the ability to lower the settings on the consoles for players who want a smoother experience. Personally my platform of choice for Crysis 2 would be the PC since there is a demo available for the game and there is not for the PS3 or Xbox 360 so you can try it before you decide to buy it. At the end of the day though, Crysis 2 offers hours of fun with its amazing campaign and online multiplayer experience complemented wonderfully by its visuals no matter what platform you decide to play on.

If you have any kind of touch screen smart phone, chances are you will have come across or heard of a game called “Angry Birds”. It is an extremely popular laws-of-physics game based on a very simple idea but such a good one.  I’ll be looking specifically at Angry Birds on the upcoming Windows Phone 7 mobile operating system since Rovio (the Angry Birds Developer) has recently released it to the marketplace.

For those of you who don’t know how Angry Birds works, basically the aim of the game is to destroy all the pigs on a given level by hurling angry birds at them with a catapult. Why? Well the pigs have stolen the birds eggs, silly! The pigs are usually defended by different types of  equipment, clothes, walls and buildings and it’s your task to break through them and destroy the pigs by knocking them off from a height or hitting them with either your bird or debris. There are many different types of birds available in the game, each having its own special attributes.

• You start out with a standard red bird which has no special powers which you just hurl at the Pigs defences to destroy them.
• The next bird you encounter is the blue bird which are smaller than the red bird so don’t pack as much punch but when you click on screen once you’ve launched it, it splits into 3 separate birds.
• Next is the pointy faced yellow bird, when clicked in mid air it instantly accelerates to a really fast speed and changes to a straight course. Really good for smashing through wood!
• The White Bird is a fat and plump bird. When tapped in mid air, an egg will come shooting out of it at high speed vertically downwards and explodes when it hits something and the white bird goes flying off into the sky! It is basically a bomber bird!
• The Black Bird is the best in my opinion! Once it touches an object it will start a timer and explode in a few seconds causing massive devastation! Alternately you can tap on the screen to decide when to detonate it. A heavyweight in the bird arsenal.
• The last bird is the Boomerang one which ones pressed will basically try and return to its original position. Good for getting in from behind!
• There are also a few other special ones such as the Big Brother bird which is essentially a bigger version of the red bird.

There are literally hundreds of levels available currently with more on their way. It is a really addictive and fun game. At the end of a level, once all the pigs have been cleared you get a star score out of 3 depending on the points you earn. It is a good feature because it allows you to have a good reason to go back to old levels and improve your technique and use less birds to gain more points. One thing you will definitely notice if you play this game is that luck plays a big part! You can be stuck on a level for ages but sheer luck usually pulls you through but the nice part is you feel as if you’ve accomplished it so it’s all good. That’s not to say that the game itself “cheats”. As I said at the start it’s based on the law of physics- velocity, kinetics and all that guff. In other words when you hit something it behaves as you would imagine in the real world.  It is also consistent, so if you find a winning way of toppling that pig in one game, then it should work again in other games with similar situations.

The game runs as smooth as it does on any other Smartphone so you know they have definitely put the work in to get it running really well. There are no signs of lag, even on some of the really big levels. The WP7 (Windows Phone 7) release currently has all the latest updates but one, the “Mine and Dine” level pack which is currently available for many other platforms. So the game is lacking in that area currently but within time an update is likely to come. There are still literally hundreds of levels anyway and it will take you a while to get through them all and by that time the update will have likely arrived.

The thing that makes Angry Birds unique on Windows Phone 7 is the addition of Xbox Live achievements within the game, from which you can earn gamerscore! So this adds new challenges to the game as you try and get all the achievements. A total of 200 G’s are available and the achievements are as follows:

• Ice Picker (10 G): 5000 Ice Blocks Destroyed
• Seeing Red (5 G): Big Brother Bird Unlocked
• Green Baron (10 G): Episode 3 Finished
• Woodpecker (10 G): 5000 Wooden Blocks Smashed
• Return To Sender (5 G): Boomerang Bird Unlocked
• The Mysterious Escape (10G): Episode 2 Finished
• Pig Popper (10 G): 1000 Pigs Smashed
• Defeat of The King (10 G): Episode 1 Finished
• Mother of All Bombs (10 G): White Bird Unlocked
• Boom Boom! (5 G): Black Bird Unlocked
• Just Getting Started (15 G): World 1 Finished
• Speed Is The Essence (5 G): Yellow Bird Unlocked
• Spit It! (5 G): Blue Bird Unlocked
• Episode 1 – Total Destruction (15 G): Episode 1: Get three stars in all levels
• Episode 2 – Total Destruction (15 G): Episode 2: Get three stars in all levels
• Episode 3 – Total Destruction (15 G): Episode 3: Get three stars in all levels
• Smash Maniac (15 G): Smash 250 000 Blocks
• StoneCutter (10 G): Smash 5000 Stone Blocks
• Block Smasher (15 G): Smash 50 000 Blocks
• Egg Hunter (10 G): Find 10 Golden Eggs

Unlike other Smartphone platforms, unfortunately there is no free, ad based version of Angry Birds available which so if you want the full version you’ll have to pay for it but at £2.29 it’s a small price to pay. Angry Birds is Rovio’s first game to be released on the WP7 marketplace and we look forward to new additions to the Angry Birds family in the future such as “Angry Birds Seasons” but Windows Phone 7 is a fairly new OS though so the developers are having to catch up a bit!

Conclusion:

At £2.29  how can you turn this game down? You are guaranteed to get hours of playtime out of it. There is a reason it is one of the most popular mobile phone games out there to date so if you’ve just bought a Windows Phone then definitely get it! Although it is lacking some content, the addition of Xbox-Live achievements definitely makes up for it and adds new life into the game once all the levels are completed. If you’re still sceptical about the game then a trial is available once you try that out you’ll see how addictive and fun this game really is.

Bioshock 2 is the latest edition to the Bioshock franchise by games publisher 2K. It takes place eight years after the events of the original Bioshock game in the underwater city known as “Rapture”. The new game includes a bunch of new and exciting features which really expand the game superbly such as new enemies, weapons, plasmids and gene tonics!

The original Bioshock was the most atmospheric game that I have ever played. The idea of a city underwater was always going to be creepy from the start but the fact that the whole city of Rapture has fallen into anarchy over a special drug called ADAM which allows for gene manipulation just adds to this unique city’s style. Both games are set around the 1960’s and the whole city of Rapture reflects the date it’ set at; the dated theme is really apparent throughout.  The game’s lighting effects and graphics do wonders for this decaying underwater Utopia.

Due to the anarchy the whole city has become almost deserted, populated mainly by drug addicts which are known as “Splicers”. The Splicers are as weird and drugged up as they always were, dressed still in their ripped up suits and masquerade style masks.  Watch out for them, they are complete freaks!

Leaks from the ocean outside are all over the place and really makes the whole world more realistic since it was inevitable that an underwater city was going to have a few leaks here and there but the disruption in Rapture has made it a whole lot worse.

It is hard to express in words how amazing the whole world is and the amount of atmosphere that surrounds it. You really do have to play it to realise what an awesome environment the developers of the game have created.  Truly believable.  The new game setting is  exactly the same as the original so the atmosphere is just as peculiar. This is by no means a game designed to scare you though, it’s not a scary game. It’s just the whole world that has been created and the atmosphere that goes with it make it really creepy but at the same time absolutely amazing. It really is like no other game.

Like the first game, through the use of ADAM and EVE, special abilities called plasmids are available to the player to approach combat in some truly unique and exciting ways. Plasmids are now upgradeable to offer extra special features and abilities.

In Bioshock 2 you play as one of the “Big Daddies” and you are on a quest to resolve the story behind your daughter and take care of the evil woman called Sofia Lamb who is trying to control and keep you from her. You spend lots of time receiving flashbacks about you and your daughter’s past while you carry out tasks for the few sane people left in Rapture to get you ever closer to Lamb. The original Bioshock involved a story line that was absolutely amazing, it had you so gripped and it was so exciting, it was always going to be hard to beat such an awesome story. So it’s not surprising that Bioshock 2’s story is fairly weak in comparison to the original. Along with the compelling storyline, the original game also had loads of memorable moments, unexpected and stimulating events throughout the game but it seems that in Bioshock 2, they don’t  occur as often which is a shame since it was a really enjoyable asset as it complimented the game’s unusual environment really well.

What else is new?
The most useful difference in the new game is the ability to equip your Plasmids and your weapons at the same time so you can use them in rapid succession or even simultaneously so as to prevent tedious switching between weapons during combat. It makes the whole game experience much easier.

You now have the option to adopt Little Sisters once you kill the Big Daddy protecting them. This allows you to use them to harvest ADAM from various dead bodies around Rapture. While harvesting ADAM you will be attacked by a swarm of Splicers, wanting in on the action. Each Little Sister can gather ADAM twice in total before you have the choice to either harvest them for further ADAM or rescue them.

The Big Sisters are a new addition to the game. Surprise surprise, they are the Little sisters when they are grown up and are armoured like that of one of the Big Daddies from the original. There is a chance you will get attacked by the Big Sisters when you use your Little Sister to harvest ADAM from dead bodies around rapture. They are really tough opponents so be prepared for them!

A multiplayer mode is also present in the new Bioshock, something which the original lacked. It includes some really good and unique game modes which can be fun. A ranking system is included too so it keeps you coming back for more. However it’s not the best online experience you can have with a game but since the Bioshock game always was about the single player campaign we’ll let it slide since we see it as just an extra feature to keep us busy till the next Bioshock instalment comes along!

In conclusion, Bioshock 2 is a really good game and if you played the original game you should definitely purchase it because it again offers a really good campaign and loads of new features which take the game to a new level. It’s just a disappointment the story of the game isn’t on par with the first Bioshock but the new features, weapons and enemies of the game make up for the story since they are enough to keep you satisfied throughout the game! If you haven’t played Bioshock ever before though then definitely purchase the original before the new one since its storyline is just amazing and is a great introduction into this incredible world.