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Started your Geek Pumpkin yet? Maybe this will help…
Fable 3 review
Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare review
Samsung Galaxy Tab versus iPad: head to head photos!
Best Windows Phone 7 games
Our Samsung Galaxy Tab Reader Inquistion happens tomorrow!
HP Slate 500 aimed at work not play
Alan Sugar reviews the BlackBerry Torch 9800
The Cloud brings wifi and 3G to Glasgow underground
Notion Ink Adam Android tablet to offer iPad-crushing battery life?

Started your Geek Pumpkin yet? Maybe this will help…

Posted: 25 Oct 2010 11:25 PM PDT

We’ve thrown down a challenge to carve the geekiest Halloween pumpkin. You’ve got just under a week left to show us your efforts, so should be buying your big orange beauty any day now. Not sure how to approach the project? Our buddies at Activedad have some great advice. Read through their tutorial on picking the perfect Halloween pumpkin, then enter our creepy compo!

Fable 3 review

Posted: 25 Oct 2010 09:00 PM PDT

Set 50 years after the events of its immensely popular predecessor, Fable 3 charts the player’s meteoric rise and struggle to overthrow a tyrant king, before being thrown into the majestic hot seat themselves. Its creator, Peter Molyneux reckons it’s an experience like no other. Is he right? Read our Fable 3 review to find out.

The once-friendly townsfolk are calling for your crowned head, your former allies are castigating you for your broken promises, and you haven’t even got enough cash in the treasury to sort the city’s sewage problems out. You’re the most hated person in town and you know it. Is this what being in power is really like? That, of course depends on what sort of ruler you are. It’s that very scenario that forms the crux of what Fable 3 is all about.

Fable 3 is in that rarity of games that doesn’t come to an abrupt end once you’ve beaten the end boss. Back in July, its maker, Mr. Peter Molyneux hinted to us that parking ones royal bottom on the throne was only just the beginning of a game he said will make players go “Wow.” Speaking of which, check out the stunning opening sequence right now for some jawdropping of your own:

Story

The journey to rule is where things start, and for the first hour it’s all very tutorial-like as you get introduced to the tools that will turn you from a prince, into a hero and one day, a king. You start off with nothing in your arsenal, before picking up your first Guild Seal to open a hidden passageway and start your quest. You eventually earn more of these by defeating enemies, engaging with townsfolk and completing tasks. They’re also used to unlock treasure chests granting you abilities such as increased melee power, spells, new conversational gestures and skills such as becoming a mean lute player, or pie maker to increase your chances of earning gold. And who doesn’t like pie?

But even before all of this you’re forced to make a game-changing life or death decision under orders of tyrant king, Logan, who is also your brother. Actually, being a tyrant, the decision he forces you to make is more death or death. But it’s the first of many major choices you’ll be forced to make in Fable 3, and as we discovered, a sign of things to come.

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You’re soon introduced to all you need to know by Jasper, your doting butler, voiced by the somewhat typecast but magnificent John Cleese, making every encounter and word of advice worth listening to as he guides you through some of the earlier tutorial missions. These missions introduce players into the world of Albion with baby steps – these switches are activated by hitting them with your sword, these switches are activated by using magic, here’s how to engage enemies in combat, etcetera etcetera. They’re very linear but do an excellent job introducing you to the controls, as well as your dog, who once again plays an important role in alerting you to treasure, hidden items and occasionally biting enemies.

Combat and controls

Combat in Fable 3 is simple to get to grips with. The X button is for sword attacks. Tap X repeatedly to unleash a flurry of swings, or hold down for a second before letting loose a powerful swing to knock enemies to the ground in order to stab while floored for quicker kills. Y is for your firearm. Again tap Y to fire a shot or hold done Y for a more accurate shot. Hold down the left trigger while doing this and you’ll switch to first person mode and occasionally get treated to a nice slow-mo of your handiwork. Spells work in a similar fashion. During the course of the game you’ll be able to purchase new magic such as ice spells that rain down shards of icicles at your enemies, ones that fire blades at your foes and more.

It’s not the most complex or deep combat system, but what it lacks in depth it makes up for in intuitiveness. You always know which button does what, making it easy to string firearm, sword or hammer and spell attacks in a single sequence.

More noticeably tweaked is the map and menu system. As you’d expect the map tells you where to go, and where you are. You can see each village and town in greater detail by magnifying the view, or mark which townsperson you want to see, and which town you want to visit, with the option of fast traveling. Walking to destinations lets you explore Albion to its fullest, but being able to almost teleport to your destinations is a handy option when you become sick of lush countryside.

Later on in Fable 3 you’ll have plenty of missions and tasks to do – from the main missions through to the myriad side quests including locating missing children, locating statues, delivering parcels, stopping criminals and more. One of the best ways to tick them off is to hit up the map and select anyone you wish, in any order you like. The missions and tasks are fairly linear, but the freedom to do whatever task you wish, when you want is always welcome.

The biggest change in Fable 3, would you believe, is the pause menu. No, really. Playing the game for yourself you’ll notice nothing bar the action on screen. There’s no energy bar, no stats, nothing – they’ve all been shunted into something called the Sanctuary, which you access by pressing hitting, erm, pause. Changing outfits is as easy as walking into an MTV Cribs style walk-in wardrobe and pressing a button. It’s the same for choosing weapons and gauntlets for spells. It’s also here where you’ll see how your weapons change the more you use them.

It’s part of the visual leveling up system that Lionhead Studios has implemented. Instead of leveling up bars you’ll see the weapons changing, and your progress charted via a gated world called Road To Rule – a grassy pathway dotted with treasure chests, with a number of sections shielded by tall majestic spiked gates, which you open as you get closer to becoming a king. Starting the game for the first time you can just about see the castle in the foggy distance. Opening each brings you one step closer to your goal as you literally get closer to Bowerstone Castle and the throne that awaits. Players have been promised a real sense of achievement, and that’s what you’ll get with that constant feeling of “nearly there” after each step closer to becoming king.

Kingship

We’ve still yet to touch on taking the crown. The first half of Fable 3 has you attempting to gain followers so that you can mount a battle against the king and his armies. This means engaging with the townsfolk and fighting their battles. Rather than just talk to people you literally touch them with a range of actions including dancing, whistling, posing and farting on the folk you meet. Lionhead’s aim was to increase player intimacy with the characters. While ambitious, it can get a little annoying, as you have to wait until an action is completely done. Choose the right action and they’ll like you enough to give you a Guild Seal, choose to fart on them when you should have been friendlier and they’ll be indifferent. Intimate, yes, but engaging? That’s open to debate.

Once you’ve got the following of the town they’ll let you know that they’ve got your back in amid scenes of jubilation and cheer, before making you promise and sign a declaration that when you’re king, you’ll keep to your word to make things better. As you’ll find later on, it could come back to haunt you. What ensues is a bunch of core missions that has you fighting battles before taking on an end of stage boss. Each level, or core task is similar to the one that preceded it. Fight waves of enemies, make your way to the end and open a gate to take you closer to becoming king, while getting to meet some of the most charming characters ever seen in a video game. With a cast including Stephen Fry as an evil businessman, John Cleese as your butler, Sir Ben Kingsley as the king of Mist Peak and more including Brit stars Simon Pegg, Naomie Harris and Jonathan Ross, exchanges between characters are never dull.

Without trying to spoil things you’ll be asked to make a lot of promises by the gatekeepers of each town you free of enemies and troubles. It’s the core theme underpinning everything in Fable 3 once you take the throne. It’s at this stage, halfway through the game when things change almost entirely. It also comes quicker than expected. From the off you’re expected to make difficult decisions that will change the course of the game, including the most difficult you’ll make for the entire game. We won’t even hint what that is here. Others have you balancing the wants and needs of the town in a position that’ll put all the evil deeds that Logan undertook into perspective to the extent that you’ll almost find yourself in the unlikely position of empathising with the actions of a tyrant dictator.

When it comes to running Albion you’ll find yourself having, and wanting to make decisions for the best, even if it means making yourself more hated than George Osborne. Some decisions just have to be made. The success here is that you’ll genuinely take time to think about the choices you make. Not many titles out there will leave you tinged with a sense of guilt, or responsibility of your actions as Fable 3. You soon discover that being at the top isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, as your schedule takes its toll on your reputation as a tyrant or hero leader depending on the choices you make and the effect your decisions have on the town. Whichever decisions you make, someone always loses out. Everything soon becomes about managing the disequilibrium in the city as judgement is passed on you as ruler of Albion.

Verdict

As with Fable 3’s combat, players will get what they put in. Participate in every task on offer and there’s tonnes to do. From the menial tasks such as running errands for townsfolk, having meaningless sex with townsfolk, raising children and more – there’s much to do for hardcore RPG fans determined to immerse themselves in the world of Albion. On the flipside, focus on the core missions that bring you closer to becoming a king and Fable 3 will last you little over six hours until you become king (or queen).

Take your time with it and Fable 3 is one of the most lovingly created RPG experiences around. Fable 3 looks and feels great in almost every department. The new additions and tweaks are still genuinely refreshing. The map is a godsend, the sanctuary a revelation, the visuals warm and welcoming, the story, well told and the characters the most charming you’ll come across. The experience is as plentiful as you want it to be, yet short for others. That doesn’t stop it being a must-have for Fable fans. Fable 3 is still one of the best RPG experiences around.

Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare review

Posted: 25 Oct 2010 04:01 PM PDT

Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare is the final serving of downloadable content for Rockstar’s five star rated Wild West adventure. Undead Nightmare adds a brand new zombie-filled single player campaign and two extra multiplayer modes, including a zombie survival mode. If you’ve read our Undead Nightmare preview you’ll know we were impressed. But after more play time is it the DLC thriller we expected it to be? Or did it make us scream in horror? Read our Undead Nightmare review to find out.

Undead Nightmare will be the last Red Dead Redemption DLC. According to Rockstar, Undead Nightmare was the culmination of fan demand. Red Dead fans wanted zombies, and Rockstar delivered. Undead Nightmare arrives simultaneously on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network for 800 Microsoft Points and £7.99 respectively.

But before you take the DLC plunge, how does the package rate? Read on for our verdict on the Undead Nightmare single player and new Undead Nightmare multiplayer mode.

Single player

The Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare single player campaign sees the main game’s protagonist and gunslinger, John Marston return to to his loved ones. Before starting the campaign the intro sequence sets the scene. Marston “was ready for anything. Well almost anything,” the narrator tells you.

The scene is a cold dark, damp night with bellows of ominous thunder ruffling the sky. You can tell John notices something is amiss. His uncle bursts through the door. “You don’t look so good,” Marston asks his bloodied elderly uncle. After bashing his uncle on the head and escaping, Marston’s wife ends up getting bitten, who in turn bites their son.

Marston sets off for Blackwater in search of a doctor, only to soon learn that zombie hell has broken loose. “The dead are risen and a virulent plague is turning people into flesh-eating crazies,” Marston’s old buddy Seth informs him. Out to find a cure, Marston begins his quest.

What follows throughout is typical Red Dead Redemption, with added zombie stylings. Initially you’ll be sent on missions to set fire to numerous coffins around the haunted looking graveyards scattered across your map in order to prevent further zombie break out, before dashing off to the next set.

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Killing zombies is an entirely different experience to nailing sub-standard human fare. For one these enemies have no guns. They just run at you as they do in the movies (what else did you expect), but they’re far from sitting ducks. They come at you in huge numbers and are some of the quickest bloodthirsty zombies you’ve ever seen. Think more 28 Days Later than Shaun of the Dead and you’ll get the idea. It makes Dead Eyeing them even more satisfying. Only a shot to the head kills them, hence the extended Dead Eye time you get in Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare. You’ll need it as you come across different classes of zombies, from the speedy Bolter zombies to the slow and cumbersome, but powerful Bruisers that push you to the ground with ease.

In Undead Nightmare you’ll be doing all sorts of zombie related missions. A recurring one is having to save nearby towns, and its survivors from zombie attacks. Do so and you’re granted a safe house. You’ll notice the weather changing according to the local zombie count. It’s just one of the neat touches adding to the intense, eerie atmosphere, right down to the burning trees and shrubs that illuminate the night sky.

Without spoiling things, other missions and side quests have you kidnapping zombies, yes, kidnapping them, saving random townsfolk, looking for ingredients for a cure, locating missing persons and killing mythical creatures.

Speaking of which, zombies aren’t the only undead plaguing the map. You’ll come across zombie cougars, bears, bats and the Four Horses of the Apocalypse. Lassoing each horse lets you ride them around town whilst being able to take advantage of their unique abilities. War is a flaming horse that burns zombies when they come in contact, Death explodes the heads of nearby zombies, while Famine and Pestilence have infinite stamina and are nearly impossible to kill.

There are new weapons to combat Marston’s new found troubles, including Holy Water, which is basically blue fire, zombie bait to lure zombies, Boom Bait, which as you might have guessed is exploding bait, a flaming torch for a melee weapon and the Blunderbuss, which kills zombies in one hit and shoots zombie body parts.

If there is a stumbling block in Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare, it’s that some players won’t be patient enough to use Dead Eye to aim bullets into zombie heads, but even those players can attempt to get by without Dead Eye for an added challenge, or simply resort to the more explosive weapons on board instead.

Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare’s single player is a real feather in Rockstar’s Red Dead cap. To the developers credit it has crafted a zombie mode that doesn’t feel like an add-on at all. From the off the presentation is superb – typical Rockstar, if you like. it feels more like a warped extended version of the full game, complete with new unlockable outfits and Undead Nightmare specific challenges. All the effort, personality and lovingly created cinematics from the full game are carried over in what is a meaningful and worthwhile campaign worthy of being a download in itself. The fact that you get multiplayer too is a bonus. Speaking of which:

Multiplayer

Adding to the enjoyable zombie single player mode is Undead Overrun – a 2-4 player co-op zombie survival mode in which players work together to fight off continuous waves of living dead. On first impressions it’s not the most original concept (See Gears Of War 2 and Halo 3 ODST/Halo: Reach for recent examples) – it’s literally been done to death. But as players will find, that doesn’t make it any less fun this time around in Red Dead Redemption’s Western setting.

Each map takes place amidst a deserted plain with the odd shelter, cemetery or deserted churchyard dotted with moss-covered gravestones and surrounded by overgrown shrubbery – typical zombie horror settings then.

Before beginning a game, yourself and three other players chose their weapon set from four preset categories: Ravager, LongShot, Overkill and Mauler. Each does the job, packing a shotgun and pistol/rifle, but for those looking for something a little more explosive, Ravager and Overkill pack a wad of dynamite for dispersing zombie crowds back to hell.

Dispatching the first few waves is hardly taxing. They’re rather slow and bumbling to begin with, but later waves get increasingly tougher and present a real challenge. By the time you reach wave six helping your teammates becomes essential. Go it alone and you’ve got no chance.

The game ends when all players have died, or the timer runs out. Luckily coffins pop up after every round with a new weapon inside. Cue each player rushing to the coffin in the hope there’s a box of Boom Bait inside, which is essentially exploding bait. Lobbing one of these onto the map lures all zombies to that point before they get blown sky-high. It lends a strategic approach to more difficult waves.

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When things get too hectic, tossing some bait, explosive or otherwise is essential to grabbing a few valuable seconds to revive your teammates (you can do this too) before they bleed to death. Again, work together or you won’t get past wave 10. Throw in different classes of zombies (fast ones, strong ones, ones that projectile vomit at you) and the challenge is all the more rewarding when you’ve made it past yet another wave. And if you all do die a zombie death, you can always try again. If you’re playing with mates, the ‘just another go’ syndrome is sure to hit you.

Undead Overrun is hardly original, but it plays beautifully, delivering addictive zombie killing goodness in waves. Play it with mates and the fun multiplies. As we mentioned in our preview, there’s a reason Rockstar went with zombies. Everyone loves zombies. Mostly. If you’re one of them, you’ll love this.

Verdict

If you’ve read this far you’ll have realised that both the Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare single player campaign and Undead Overrun multiplayer mode combine to form a fantastic farewell to the game. Undead Nightmare is the final bit of downloadable content for Rockstar’s Wild West foray, and what a way to go. As the single player mode goes there’s plenty of hours worth of gameplay to keep players satisfied for £8 in a DLC campaign just as lovingly crafted every area as the full game. Thrown in an addictive multiplayer mode, especially when played with mates and there’s little reason to dissuade anyone from downloading Undead Nightmare.

At the time of reviewing we were unable to test out the Land Grab multiplayer mode – a zombie-less mode where players defend patches of land to gain XP. Read more about Land Grab in our multiplayer preview.

Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare DLC is available today for £7.99 (PS3) or 800 Microsoft Points (Xbox 360)

Samsung Galaxy Tab versus iPad: head to head photos!

Posted: 25 Oct 2010 09:46 AM PDT

We’ve updated our Samsung Galaxy Tab review with some new photos showing how Sammy’s Android slate stacks up against the legendary Apple iPad. Come have a peep at them and see how they stack up!

As you can see, the similarities between the Samsung Galaxy Tab and the iPad are remarkable despite the differing proportions. Either Samsung was cribbing from Apple’s notes, or both companies found that a big bezel was necessary to stop accidental touches when gripping a tablet, but even the eerily similar docks are in exactly the same place on the shorter side.

There are a few differences though – Samsung’s put a microSD slot on the side, and while it is a challenge to prise open, it does let you bolster storage yourself, something not feasible with an iPad.

Then of course there’s the screen. Samsung’s is sharper because it’s smaller, but both are delightful to read for reasonably long periods of time (say, your morning commute), and both suffer from serious smudging, and glare when directly under a light bulb.

Last but certainly not least, there’s the size: the Samsung Galaxy Tab is actually only about half the size of an iPad. We reckon that puts it in uncertain territory for a lot of people (It’s just too similar to a phone you might already own), but we do love a tablet at home, and if you absolutely can’t bear iOS, this is your best alternative.

Anyway, enough talk – click on through to our Samsung Galaxy Tab review to see all the new pictures.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 16GB is available for pre-order at eXpansys now.

Best Windows Phone 7 games

Posted: 25 Oct 2010 09:20 AM PDT

We’ve been busy digging up the best Windows Phone 7 games currently available in the Marketplace for your brand new Microsoft mobile. We say that like it’s a chore, but it hasn’t been: Windows Phone 7’s already proved itself worthy of an Xbox Live hub, with some seriously polished pick up and play titles. Want to know what they are? Read on and check out the full list of Best Windows Phone 7 games to the right of the full post.

Cast your eyes over to the right of the page and you’ll see our Best Windows Phone 7 games Top 5 in full. We’ve been testing these out, and can assure you that none of them have tested our patience – they’re engrossing.

Naturally, with new titles hitting the Marketplace all the time, our Best Windows Phone 7 games list is kept bang up to date – if any new ones come along and knock a game off its perch, you’ll be the first to know.

Disagree with our Best Windows Phone 7 games Top 5? Anything else you found on Xbox Live that’s insanely addictive? Let us know your finds in the comments below!

Our Samsung Galaxy Tab Reader Inquistion happens tomorrow!

Posted: 25 Oct 2010 08:47 AM PDT

Don’t forget, our Samsung Galaxy Tab Reader Inquisition goes down tomorrow lunchtime in London’s West End. If you can make it in for 1pm on Tuesday 26 October, drop us a line at editor@electricpig.co.uk with your full name and phone number for a chance to play with the brand spanking new Android tablet first. We’ll do our best to accommodate everyone, so see you there!

HP Slate 500 aimed at work not play

Posted: 25 Oct 2010 08:30 AM PDT

HP has finally released the Slate 500 and – as revealed here back in July – the Windows 7 tablet is aimed at the business market rather than the consumer friendly territory occupied by the iPad.

The HP Slate 500 is now on sale and is definitely not the entertainment-focused iPad rival it was suspected to be when first announced. Instead, HP is aiming the Slate 500 at the corporate user.

The tablet runs Windows 7 and has a 1.86GHz Intel Atom Z540 processor with 2GB of RAM. A 64 GB SSD provides storage for apps and data. The screen is slightly smaller than the iPad at only 8.9 inches, and although it has a capacitive screen the tablet does come with a stylus so you can have a bit more fine control and use handwriting recognition without feeling like you are fingerpainting into your documents.

If you like the idea of an HP Slate, but don’t fancy wage-slaving for The Man to get one, stick around a few months – HP is still planning to go after the consumer market with a different tablet, which runs WebOS rather than Windows.

Available now | $800 | HP Slate 500

Alan Sugar reviews the BlackBerry Torch 9800

Posted: 25 Oct 2010 08:15 AM PDT

Lord Sugar likes a good outburst on Facebook, and his latest one is a surprisingly in depth review of the BlackBerry Torch 9800 touchscreen slider. Lord Sugar’s worn down the trackball on many a ‘Berry before (“the bloody roller ball kept conking out”) and he’s got generally positive things to say about this model, praising the battery life, trackpad, camera, and keyboard. Have a read of the salt-of-the-earth gazillionaire’s two cents, then check out our own BlackBerry Torch review and let us know who you think is right.

(Via Facebook)

The Cloud brings wifi and 3G to Glasgow underground

Posted: 25 Oct 2010 07:30 AM PDT

Mobile wifi provider The Cloud is now providing commuters on the Glasgow Underground with access to wifi and 3G.

The great thing about mobile internet is the way it can make your morning commute more bearable. The less great thing is the way you have to stop listening to Spotify or reading your newsfeed when the train you are on goes into a tunnel. Thanks to The Cloud and their infrastructure partner Arqiva, commuters in Glasgow should be able to check their tweets even when underground.

Strathclyde Partnership for Transport’s Chief Exec Gordon Maclennan said of the new service "This is a real breakthrough for us as it opens up new lines of communication for our customers. We're delighted to be the first UK Subway to offer Wi-Fi on the go."

You will need to pay to use The Cloud’s service although the company is offering the first 15 minutes free as a taster. O2 customers with iPhones can download the FastConnect app to gain free access to the network.

We have contacted The Cloud for comment to see if there are plans to bring wifi to any other UK underground networks. *cough* London *cough*

Available now | £varies | The Cloud

Notion Ink Adam Android tablet to offer iPad-crushing battery life?

Posted: 25 Oct 2010 07:28 AM PDT

The iPad has a pretty incredible battery life of 10 hours per charge, but the forthcoming Notion Ink Adam tablet, which runs on Android, is attempting to beat Apple at the longevity game. According to the company blog, the Adam gets a “minimum of 15 hours” of use per charge.

In fact, the blog claims that the Adam tablet can even manage “more than 2 full days” of use on a single charge. It even goes into detail of which of the tablet’s components use the most power: in order, the top five is the LCD screen, Wi-Fi, 3G, speakers (in full owe mode) and Nvidia Tegra 2 processor. Apparently the processor uses no power for Open GL, which keeps the battery life lengthy even when playing games.

Of course, we’ll take all these lofty claims with a hefty pinch of salt until the first Notion Ink Adam tablets start rolling off the production line. When that is we don’t know for certain, but it seems likely to be before the end of the year.

Out TBC | £TBC | Notion Ink (via SlashGear)