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- BlackBerry OS 6.0 revealed early
- GTA 4 DLC review PS3 edition: Overall verdict
- GTA 4: Lost and Damned review PS3 edition
- GTA 4 DLC review PS3 edition: Multiplayer modes
- GTA 4: Ballad of Gay Tony review PS3 edition
- Google privacy concerns: UK signs open letter to Eric Schmidt
- iPad UK price outed?
- Farmville for iPad, iPhone, Android incoming?
- Renault Twizy Z.E electric car debuts in The Sims 3
- HTC wants you to name a new product – HTC Jovi anyone?
| BlackBerry OS 6.0 revealed early Posted: 20 Apr 2010 09:54 AM PDT
The BlackBerry OS 6.0 is still being tweaked and tinkered with inside RIM's labs, but the first screenshots have begun to leak out, showing multi-touch abilities, a super-powered browser, and an all-new media player. Snagged by the mobile mavens at Boy Genius Report, these screenshots show BlackBerry's all-new interface and what's more, they've seen it in action too. The new BlackBerry OS 6.0 browser supports tabbed browsing, so you can open multiple webpages at the same time. Tabs are shoved at the top of the screen, and revealed with a single tap. Its new media player looked decidedly iPhone-esque, with a Cover Flow-style interface you can see above. There's new system-wide touch abilities, with kinetic scrolling and "rubberbanding" where lists and pages bounce as you reach the end, as well as pop-up menus giving contextual options when you tap and hold on a touchscreen device. There are also tweaks to the BlackBerry inbox, with a "cleaner, and a bit more modern" design reported. Messages also feature new icons to make it clear whether they're from Facebook, Twitter or e-mail. RSS is also built into the BlackBerry OS 6.0 inbox. There's a new customisable homescreen too, with pages to help you separate apps, a little like the iPhone, as well as a new photo viewer which sounds suspiciously similar to Cupertino's offering. Small thumbnails, thin borders, and instant loading of your entire photo library, avoiding the wait for each thumbnail to pop up individually. Boy Genius quotes sources stating the new BlackBerry OS 6.0 will start rolling out in June / July, although it's not clear which devices will be running it. Stay tuned for more as we hear it, and head over to BGR to see BlackBerry OS 6.0 in full, they’ve got some smashing pictures of it in action! Out June / July | £TBC | BlackBerry (via BGR) Related posts:
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| GTA 4 DLC review PS3 edition: Overall verdict Posted: 20 Apr 2010 09:51 AM PDT Both GTA 4 DLC episodes, The Lost And Damned and The Ballad Of Gay Tony, crashed on to the Xbox 360 last year, but only now can PS3 and PC gamers join in on the fun. With Grand Theft Auto 4 almost past its second birthday, is Liberty City starting to show its cracks, or does Rockstar's tried and tested free roam formula still work? We fired up the ol' PlayStation 3 to find out: read on and we'll reveal all in our full GTA 4 DLC review for PS3.
Read the rest of our GTA 4 DLC review: If you've played through the GTA 4 DLC on the Xbox 360 already, move along, there's nothing to see here – other than a perfect port. It's a solid conversion, right down to the motion control support for the PS3's Sixaxis controller. Both parts, The Lost And Damned, and The Ballad Of Gay Tony, dish out a top notch storyline that casts a new light on the Grand Theft Auto 4 Liberty City setting, with the same carjack, cruise and kill routine Rockstar's already mastered. The former has you playing as Johnny Klebitz, a biker who slowly begins to feud with his former mentor and gang leader when he's released from rehab, while the latter has you take on the role of Luis Lopez, a nightclub owner with a sideline in murdering people and skydiving. The basic game mechanics and controls in the GTA 4 DLC have changed little from the original and in the conversion to the PS3: only as much the new storylines allow, with the odd new weapon that makes a different noise while splattering someone. Otherwise, all you'll have to get used to are some new colours in the menus, and more (excellent) multiplayer modes to roll through. If you got hooked exploring the vast city as Niko Bellic the first time round, you're bound to again. While fans of the series will find the new episodes like slipping on comfortable old clothes though, Liberty City's starting to fray at the edges in just the same way. GTA 4 DLC first hit Xbox Live more than a year ago, and that in itself was an extension pack for a year old game. Rockstar's essentially released two add-ons for a 2008 game in 2010, and it's starting to show. Bends in the road are more hexagonal than circular, and the short draw distance compared to beautiful newer games such as Just Cause 2 makes you wonder if Johnny and Luis shouldn't crash their car into the nearest opticians. And yet weirdly, the PS3 version still suffers from some major slowdown when the on-screen carnage gets a bit too high octane. Graphics aren't everything of course, but sometimes the GTA 4 DLC episodes run close to rehashing the same tired gameplay structure of Grand Theft Auto 4 as well, particularly The Lost And Damned. You may just find yourself rolling your eyes when it turns out it's time to drive to a building, empty it of gangsters, and drive back, again. Luckily, the addition of mid-mission checkpoints now make this much less of a pain when you die, and while the superior Ballad Of Gay Tony mixes things up with ludicrous vehicles and hijacking escapades, The Lost And Damned simply tries to hide this slightly stale structure by tossing in a few new guns. Rockstar can coast on the sheer addictive nature of the third person controls, the vast setting and its superb storylines, but not for much longer. As if to make up for this, Rockstar's being as flexible as possible in selling GTA 4 DLC on the PS3. Both parts can be found on the PlayStation Network for £13.99 each, but can also be snapped up together on an Episodes From Liberty City disc (For PC also) that doesn't need the original game to play – a smart move that gives any gamers yet to experience GTA 4 no excuse. We tested both episodes out from the disc, and while lengthy load times on the PS3 haven’t improved from the original GTA 4, the initial PS3 install for both parts is a quick 10 minute job (Around 3GB of hard drive is needed), with a split start screen giving you a large logo for each game to choose from and jump in, so it couldn’t be easier to get underway. Our only major grumble in the porting process is that you have to save over original GTA 4 PS3 saves (If you have any) rather than make fresh ones, and with only 10 slots between both parts, you’re essentially limited to five save slots for each. We'd have much preferred it had both GTA 4 DLC episodes hit every platform at the same time, but we can't complain with what's finally turned up for PS3 and PC. Both parts are fast, fun and for better or worse, familiar. Just the sort of the quick blast that should see you through until Rockstar's next full game, Red Dead Redemption, rides in to view next month. Read the rest of our GTA 4 DLC review: Related posts:
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| GTA 4: Lost and Damned review PS3 edition Posted: 20 Apr 2010 09:50 AM PDT GTA 4: Lost and Damned has finally hit the PS3 with the GTA 4 DLC launch on Sony’s console, and just as on the Xbox 360 last year, each episode is available separately, as well as on a bundled disc. But with so many brand new games on the horizon readying to eat into your social life, is either still a must-play GTA add-on? We revisited the first part, The Lost and Damned, for PS3 to find out. Read on, gorge yourself on our GTA 4: Lost and Damned review and find out how it fares on PlayStation 3.
Read the rest of our GTA 4 DLC review: Although GTA 4: The Lost And Damned chucks you straight in at the deep end, with the whole city map open to you from the start and heavy fire missions from almost the very beginning, the first GTA 4 DLC aims to be a whole new experience of its own. Niko plays just a passing cameo role, and instead you're presented with a whole new storyline that sees you take on the role of Johnny Klebitz, a biker in a Hells Angels style gang, whose (relatively) level headed approach conflicts with livewire leader Billy on his return from rehab. The narrative's certainly the most appealing part of the single player in The Lost And Damned: the voice acting is solid and the storyline is recognisable if not believable. It's no spoiler to say that the tension between Johnny and Billy only ramps up overtime, and while the conclusion seems inevitable, it's still compelling to play through and witness for yourself. The controls and fundamentals on the PlayStation 3 stay the same (your gang's clubhouse acts as a savepoint, though you'll have to save over old GTA 4 slots on the PS3), but there are a few other additions that GTA 4: The Lost And Damned brings with it to the Liberty City we know and love. New weapons (Hello grenade launcher), new radio and mini games all debut, as well as a new focus on playing as a team: ride in a pack and you'll be rewarded with replenished health, cycle repair and plenty of biker trash talk. Sixaxis tilting control for vehicles is also included on the PS3 version, and if it’s your preferred way to ride it’ll make things much easier in this episode in particular, since you’re on two wheels for so much of the time. While we've got no complaints about GTA 4: The Lost And Damned’s length for the price you pay (About 8 to 10 hours), the missions do become somewhat stale. As Klebitz, you won't enjoy any of the high flying hi-jinx of GTA 4: The Ballad Of Gay Tony's Luis Lopez. Instead you're given a few more guns and expected to slay hordes of bikers or mafioso in an abandoned warehouse. Then maybe if you're lucky, you'll have to quickly get rid of your wanted level, before rinsing and repeating. The new gang system, which sees your AI posse strengthen up as they complete missions with you, doesn't change the structure as much as you'd hope either: the fairly low difficulty level means you don't really care about keeping your brothers in leathers alive. Riding around on a motorbike the whole time can also become tiresome. Even if Rockstar has tweaked the controls, letting you aim and shoot while tearing it down the street on two wheels, being chained to your hog so much isn't so much endearing as annoying, especially since you can actually fail missions by driving back on a different chopper, which is easily done in gang missions. The Lost And Damned is still a match for its GTA 4 DLC counterpart, The Ballad Of Gay Tony, though, purely for its multiplayer modes. We've broken them down in much more detail in our multiplayer review, but the new options tick all the boxes, whether you prefer co-op play or going it solo. The team Witness Protection mode and Chopper vs Chopper (Helicopter. Bike. Fight!) particularly stand out, and the variety on offer here makes it feel like Rockstar rushed through Gay Tony a tad, throwing in some turbo boosts for car races and calling it a day. If you're not fussed about multiplayer though, GTA 4: The Lost And Damned is definitely the weakest part of the Grand Theft Auto 4 saga. It lacks the humour of the The Ballad Of Gay Tony, and even the original GTA 4, and just tries to crank things up to 11 to mask it. It's still worth playing through for fans, but The Lost And Damned on PS3 (And Xbox 360) is clear proof that the series needs a dramatic rethink before GTA number five hits the streets.
Read the rest of our GTA 4 DLC review: Related posts:
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| GTA 4 DLC review PS3 edition: Multiplayer modes Posted: 20 Apr 2010 09:50 AM PDT Both GTA 4 DLC episodes for PS3 don't just bring new characters and gripping single player storylines to Grand Theft Auto 4, but new multiplayer modes to spice up online play. After two years, we wouldn't be surprised if you've tired of roaming Liberty City with friends, but these new games make multiplayer well worth revisiting. Read our GTA 4 DLC review for the run down on the picks of the virtual litter.
Read the rest of our GTA 4 DLC review: There are no PlayStation 3 multiplayer additions compared to last year’s Xbox versions, but you can link your PlayStation Network account to the Rockstar Social Club for both episodes on the PS3 as you can on Microsoft’s console in just the same way. And while several modes for both PS3 expansion packs, The Lost And Damned and The Ballad Of Gay Tony, stick to the original Grand Theft Auto 4 formula (Deathmatch, team deathmatch) there are plenty of all new modes, as well as old ones revisited with a new spin. Here are our favourites. Club Business Chopper vs Chopper Lone Wolf Biker Witness Protection GTA Race Free Mode Read the rest of our GTA 4 DLC review: Related posts:
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| GTA 4: Ballad of Gay Tony review PS3 edition Posted: 20 Apr 2010 09:50 AM PDT GTA 4: Ballad of Gay Tony, the second and final GTA 4 DLC episode, has finally dived on to the PS3 and PC, six months after touching down on the Xbox 360. If you saw our GTA 4: Ballad of Gay Tony review for Microsoft’s console the first time round, you’ll know we loved it, but has half a year and the onslaught of many more triple A grade games dulled our enjoyment? Read on and we'll tell all in our GTA 4: Ballad of Gay Tony review for PS3 right here.
Read the rest of our GTA 4 DLC review: We'll say it upfront: The Ballad of Gay Tony isn't just the better GTA 4 DLC, but what the original Grand Theft Auto 4 should have been. It’s just a shame that the PS3 version took so long to arrive. While Rockstar carved out a fun story in a fantastic setting with Niko Bellic as the lead, all the clownish IRA bankrobbers and twitchy, roid rage car mechanics in Liberty City can't compare to the absurd cast and antics of The Ballad Of Gay Tony. You play as Luis Lopez, an ex-con who's turned his life around, and now acts as a "business partner" and bodyguard to Gay Tony, a nightclub impresario extraordinaire. While you'd have thought nightclub owners would have learned not to hatch business deals with gangsters by now, Tony's got in with the wrong crowd, and now he wants out – leaving you to do the dirty work. While the first GTA 4 DLC episode, The Lost And Damned, disappointed a tad with its repetitive gameplay, The Ballad of Gay Tony has no such problems. Said dirty work is incredibly varied, original and outright absurd, which is just how we like it. If Grand Theft Auto 4 turned the series darker, The Ballad of Gay Tony switches back to the comic nature of arguably the two best entries in the series, Vice City and San Andreas, which predate both the Xbox 360 and PS3. Instead of simply riding out to an abandoned warehouse and gunning down mobsters, you'll be pulling off all sorts of ridiculous heists and stunts. Within minutes of firing the game up (Install time on the PS3 is around 10 minutes for both episodes from a disc), you're torturing a low level thug by thwacking him with balls at a driving range, before making a hasty escape along the marina on a bouncing cart. Later on, you'll steal an entire train with a helicopter, in a nod to the movie Swordfish, for the gold obsessed playboy Yusuf Amir (Brilliantly voiced by comedian Omid Djalili), and pull off an assassination by skydiving into a skyscraper. Yes, we said skydiving. The Ballad of Gay Tony brings parachutes back to Grand Theft Auto, letting you basejump from buildings and hijack vehicles from above. It's great fun, and one of a few new game modes and features added. We prefer the new weapons, like the sticky bombs, to the nightclub management mini game, which has you throwing out troublemakers or cutting some shapes on the dancefloor, but it's an extra option we can't grumble about when the core Ballad of Gay Tony storyline is so much fun. Even these side missions are injected with Rockstar's devilish sense of fun, sending up pop culture with poor puns (One club is called Maisonette 9) and much more pointed satire (You might have to stop a rapper from being exposed by the paparazzi at a gay club). There's only one aspect in which The Ballad of Gay Tony is weaker than the first GTA 4 DLC, The Lost And Damned, and that's multiplayer: it’s no different on PS3 than it is on the Xbox 360, but the new modes lack the inventiveness of Lone Wolf Biker or team Witness Protection, as we explain in our multiplayer review. Otherwise, we can forgive any other issues we have with the Grand Theft Auto 4 setting. We'll happily play through a game with two year old graphics when it's this silly, and this addictive. Read the rest of our GTA 4 DLC review: Related posts:
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| Google privacy concerns: UK signs open letter to Eric Schmidt Posted: 20 Apr 2010 08:20 AM PDT
The letter says Google should deal with privacy issues by sticking to a set of "fundamental privacy principles" when it creates new services and says "the privacy rights of the world's citizens are being forgotten as Google rolls out new technological applications". Google Buzz, which launched to a storm of complaints, gets another bashing and Stoddard says the privacy problems caused by making contacts automatically public "should have been readily apparent" to Google. Google Streetview and the famous Google "in beta" badge come in for a kicking too with Stoddard stating: "Launching a product in 'beta' form is not a substitute for ensuring that new services comply with fair information principles…" The EU is currently gunning for Google over its dominance of the search market and Google Streetview privacy concerns. Eric Schmidt famously commented in an interview last year: "If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place." While the signatories of the Google privacy open letter have requested a response from Google, it says it has no further comments to add other than a short statement: "We try very hard to be upfront about the data we collect and how we use it, as well as to build meaningful controls into our products. Of course we do not get everything 100% right…" Do you think Google knows too much about you? Or are you willing to share that data in exchange for free Google services? Related posts:
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| Posted: 20 Apr 2010 07:30 AM PDT
Newton Systems, an Apple reseller on the British held, monkey-infested Rock of Gibraltar, says the iPad UK price will range from £599 for the 16GB WiFi model to £749 for the 64GB iPad 3G. If those figures were right that would mean a major Apple tax slapped on to the iPad UK price. But it’s likely that they’re wishful thinking by Newton Systems which says it’s an official resaler. Apple Sales Web for Europe, which releases official prices to Apple resellers isn't listing an iPad UK price yet. Official resalers are unlikely to jump the gun with prices for fear of angering the Apple mothership. Plus those prices just seem a little bit too steep. Take a look at our iPad UK price calculations which we think will be a lot near the mark and also take a look at how much all your iPad accessories will add up to. Due late-May | £TBC | Apple (via The Next Web) Related posts:
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| Farmville for iPad, iPhone, Android incoming? Posted: 20 Apr 2010 07:00 AM PDT
Clues pointing to Farmville apps for iPad, iPhone and Android were revealed by the Supererogatory blog which discovered that farmvilleandroid.com, farmvilleipad.com and farmvilleiphone.com had all been registered by Farmville creators Zynga. Now that needn't mean much as firms often hoover up related domains but Zynga has confirmed plans to launch Farmville apps outside of the sheltering walls of Facebook. Zynga says: "[We] plan to expand to various mobile platforms. We cannot provide additional information at this time." If you're addicted to harvesting vegetables and tending your animals on Facebook, Farmville on your phone or iPad is great news. However, for everyone who's been frustrated by Farmville alerts cluttering up their Facebook newsfeed, the prospect of Farmville taking root on their friends' phones will be a frightening one. Due TBC | from £free | Zynga (via Mashable) Related posts:
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| Renault Twizy Z.E electric car debuts in The Sims 3 Posted: 20 Apr 2010 06:30 AM PDT
If you're wracked with guilt about your own extravagant lifestyle, you can at least invest in an electric car for your Sims. The Renault Twizy Z.E electric car will be available as a free Sims 3 download pack and come with a bunch of other eco-conscious kit like solar panels and windmills. In a clever bit of pro-electric car propaganda, using the Renault Twizy Z.E electric car will benefit your Sims in The Sims 3 reducing their weekly bills. The Sims 3 Electric Vehicle Pack will arrive as a free download next month. Check out the videos above with a Renault executive hopping into the Sims 3 world to deliver the Renault Twizy Z.E announcement in Simlish zooming around in Sims world. We're all for adding green tech into The Sims 3 but while the Renault Twizy Z.E is nice, we think the Honda 3R-C Tron trike would make even eco-friendly virtual transport. Due May | £free | The Sims 3 Related posts:
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| HTC wants you to name a new product – HTC Jovi anyone? Posted: 20 Apr 2010 06:00 AM PDT
There isn't actually a lot of information on the mysterious new HTC product – we're not even sure it's definitely a phone – but what we do know is that it's "something new" and needs a name that shows it's "playful and full of youth." That sounds like HTC is planning a social media beast like the Microsoft Kin or an Twitter-loving INQ phone. The HTC Facebook poll offers up four options – HTC Jovi, HTC Zeal, HTC Wildfire or HTC Festi. The first one sounds like HTC's been living on a prayer and listening to the blow-dried '80s hits of Bon Jovi, the HTC Wildfire brings to mind WWE wrestlers and the HTC Festi is…well…bit bobbins. We're a little disappointed with the limited range of options offered by the Facebook poll. Plus they don't really fit with the previous HTC policy of ever more salacious handset names – the HTC Excalibur, HTC Cavalier, HTC Wings and, of course, the Android temptress that is the HTC Desire. Nothing says "full of youth" to us more than the HTC ASBO but we're pretty sure it's not going to go for that one. Hit us up in the comments with your suggestions for a suitably overblown new HTC product name capable of beating the hyperbolic masterpiece that is the HTC Incredible. Out now | £free | HTC (via Crave) Related posts:
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