Staying Frosty - MW3

Since 2007, FPS gamers have had something of an annual event to look forward to, every November, with the release of a Call of Duty game. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare started this tradition, followed by:

World At War
Modern Warfare 2
Black Ops

This years' offering is Modern Warfare 3, the final part in an impressive series of games from Activision and Infinity Ward/Sledgemhammer Games (more on this later). The game picks up where MW2 left off, with series protagonists Captain Price and Soap McTavish on the run and wounded, before the player is immediately launched headling into WW3, while at the same time attempting to stop the war, kill the bad guy and clear their names. Phew!

Impressive stuff indeed, made all the more impressive by the 18 month turnaround of the game following the ructions at Infinity Ward in late March 2010. Gamers across the planet waited with baited breath regarding the future of the franchise, which is when Sledgehammer Games stepped up to the plate to deliver...

...and deliver they have! IGN commented on the game, saying it had a largely forgettable plot, but I beg to differ; the reason they couldn't remember the plot is probably because of the sheer enormity of it.

Taking in New York, London, Paris, Prague, Berlin, Sierra Leone, Somalia, the Middle East and Siberia and featuring setpiece highlights such as storming a Russian submarine in the Hudson River, NYC, to battling terrorists on the London Underground, providing aerial cover from an AC130 for ground troops fighting their way out of Paris and fighting through the streets of a decimated Berlin, no one can deny the ambitious size and scope of this game - it's massive and stuffed full of more than just the setpieces mentioned above.

Throw into this heady mix of violence and awesomeness an interesting story (not forgettable!) that draws the series to a close, including a killer twist in the tale as well, and you have a great game. Sure, it's a little short; I finished the game on Regular mode in 6 hours and 3 seconds, but it's one hell of a thrill ride and it has the wow factor for replay as well.

Playing throught the first two acts again over the weekend gave me a fuller apprecation for the game. I must admit, the first time I played the game I was slightly overwhelmed - the 'shock and awe' factor of the game is staggering. It's less mental than MW2 but is far more intense.

And it's not just the campaign that offers replay, as once again the fabulous multiplayer returns; retweaked, retooled and rejuvenated - if you can get to play it, that is. Due to the sheer overwhelming numbers of people playing the game, the multiplayer is jam-packed to an extent it's nigh-on unplayable. As in, you can't play a game. At all. Bit of a poor show really, considering the makers were aiming for a bug free game - this major glitch has effortlessly pissed all over that ideal.

It seems a major mis-step to me to fumble so badly on the really the most popular part of the COD experience - I've got mates who buy COD simply to play online and have barely touched the campaign at all. When, a week before launch, you openly brag on your official Facebook page about the 3.5 million preorders for MW3, you hope in some way the developers are prepared for a significant portion of that audience to want to play online. So, when the game is released and thousands of people are having problems with multiplayer, the excuse "we were swamped by unprecedented demand" just doesn't cut the mustard - as you've already TOLD us how many people you're expecting!

And it gets worse, people who are on Orange broadband are having to adjust the settings on their router, just to get onto the Acitivision servers. I've heard it's something to do with the way the Elite information is gathered, though I don't recall having to fiddle with my router for Black Ops and was able to see my Playercard in quite some depth. I'm hoping there's a better reason, but Activision/IW et al are curiously tight-lipped about the whole situation, I'll stick with them fishing about on my PS3 for Elite details. For now,at least!

Thank goodness then for the welcome return of Spec Ops. This has been also been retooled to include the now seemingly obligatory 'horde mode' as featured in Treyarch's games, this time round called Survival. However the main difference here is, just for a change...it's not zombies!

Another new feature has been unveiled, incorporating a new ranking system that lets you advance in a similar fashion to multiplayer, unlocking various weapons, perks and special features that helps make things a little more interesting in the Survival mode. You can also play online with anyone in the standard Spec Ops missions and Survival as well, and jolly good fun it is too, as playing with a partner makes getting those three precious Veteran stars that much easier.

Standout missions for me in the 2011 Spec Ops include:
* Toxic Paradise - Juggernaught suits for all! Highly enjoyable level, stuffed with carnage of all kinds.
* Firewall - 2 player minigun mayhem
* Hostage Taker - the trickiest and most infuriating annoying of them all. 65 seconds on Veteran - it's actually more fun if you take your time!
* Resistance Movement - an excellent level. 160 seconds on Veteran
* Invisible Threat - Also a great level, on the same map as Little Bros. Another round in the Juggernaught suit, with Predator missiles for good measure.
* Fire Mission - 2 player mayhem, one on the ground, one in the air - raining fire from an AC-130. Easy on regular, incredibly annoying on Veteran - especially if your partner on the ground is rubbish.

In summary then, the campaign is excellent. Visual, visceral and great fun to play, it's an engaging and immersive experience. The multiplayer is good, when you can get online to play it and the changes made have been pretty beneficial. The ever-reliable Spec Ops is better than ever, and serves as a worthy replacement while the MP servers are fixed, and is something I will definitely be coming back to in the future.

Despite the glitches, it's an essential purchase. You know you want to.

Update: a series of patches have been released, at least two in December alone, which have improved the online experience considerably, though I stand by my original comments - there shouldn't have been a problem to begin with!

Walk This Ray

A recent turn of good luck yielded me a 2011 Mini Pro from the good folks at SE, and the wife managed to upgrade her handset to the Xperia Ray. As she's a fan of the Mini, having owned the 2010 model, and I'm a fan of the Ray, we both readily opted to swap handsets. This should in no way detract from the little pocket-rocket that is the Mini; sporting a 5MP camera, 720p video and a 1GHz processor, it's no slouch. However the Ray suits someone like me down to the ground as it packs a better camera, more memory, a slimmer build and numerous other gadgety things more inclined for boys and their toys. Although saying all that the Ray is being marketed more towards females...hmmm.

Anyhoo, as I've previously stated, I've been impressed this year by the way SE have managed to cram everything from the Arc into the Neo (plus a little extra) and then shoehorned the contents of the Neo into the even smaller Ray, stripping out the almost non-essential things like the HDMI-out (be honest - how often have you used it?!) but still managing to deliver the same performance as the Arc and retaining the front-facing camera introduced with the Neo. The progression is staggering, even if there are some slight problems along the way with the design and UI in this particular model.

The minimalist design of the Ray is, well, fairly minimal, right down to it lacking a camera button. All the other handsets I've seen this year have one, so it's a little strange for it to be missing here; the touch screen is now the sole reliance for using the camera. It's a minor gripe really as I use the touch capture far more than I ever used the camera button on my other phone(s), simply because the button can be irritating at times!

The build quality is pretty good. Once again the matt finish utilised in the 2010 X10 series and on this years' Mini series tops everything off, giving a decent grip in the hand, which is useful as this is a super slim phone. Even if you have a penchant for uber-skinny jeans, you'll find the Ray is so sleek and slim it's barely noticeable in the pocket, which comes in very useful when smuggling the phone about to use it discretely i.e. in the office. Of course this does make it a little easier to misplace so top tip; don't put it on silent unless absolutely necessary!

I had some reservations with the size of the screen, which as it turns out weren't completely unfounded; having had the Arc and Neo this year already and been used to the acreage of their screens (in particular the 4.3in Arc screen), dropping to the Ray screen was a bit of a pickle initially. I use things like Swype for text input, which here has been replaced by a keypad similar to 'old fashioned' phones.

Having used touch screen input for a couple years, it wasn't that big an adjustment to make to switch back to standard T9 input, but I'll be honest and admit it did initially cause some minor frustration and the occasional profanity to erupt from behind clenched teeth. Swype is probably still available to use on this phone – I haven’t checked yet – but I would imagine the keyboard for this would be tiny!

Something else that's irked me, particularly with the Mini Pro and the Ray, is the bare minimum of MicroSD memory being provided with the handset; 2GB with the Mini Pro and 4GB with the Ray. To me that just doesn't seem enough, particularly for what I use the phone for, and for a phone offering high quality music playback (coming as it does with the excellent LiveSound earphones, at least on unbranded handsets), HD video capabilities and 8MP pictures, the minimum memory provided should be 8GB. I've beefed up the memory on the Ray to 16GB, so it now offers the same sort of space as my trusty (though ailing) iPod Touch. With this improvement the Ray is now something of a powerhouse handset that delivers pretty much everything I need from a media perspective.

I loaded Tron: Legacy onto the Ray and it looked pretty handsome; vivid colours, great sound reproduction. Tron: Legacy really gave the BRAVIA engine something to work on and it's a pretty impressive experience even on a smaller screen!

If I had any other real gripes it would be with the touch response on the screen; it's a little flaky at times. Not all the time, but it can miss a touch or two here and there, mainly when using pattern protection to unlock the phone. The home button has a nice semi circle of light around it, which also acts as a notification light, but the back and menu keys are just keys, they don't light up or anything. Call me fussy but I think it would have given the handset some extra oomph if they had. Again, it's a minor gripe over a design decision I had nothing to do with, one that really was probably driven by cramming so much into such a small handset, so something had to go!

In summary then, the Ray offers the same performance and virtually all the features of the Arc and Neo from earlier this year, while coming in at a lower price. Get the phone off network and chances are you'll get the excellent LiveSound earphones included, saving yourself RRP £60! It's an excellent handset and represents SE's 2011 progression and dedication to their craft in a stylish handset at a very decent price.  

Update: after tinkering with the keyboard input settings, T9 isn't the only input option, the standard Android keyboard is also available! And comes with Ericsson's version of Swype/gesture input, which ain't too shabby!

Xperia & 2012

Judging by the stories that have been leaking out from SE the past few weeks, about the forthcoming 2012 range of Xperia phones, the coming year looks to be Sony Ericsson/Sony's biggest year yet. I shan't wade through everything that's been written, but the best of the handsets currently mooted really has the potential to be something extra special; The Nozomi, possibly to be named the Duo or Cloud on it's release, sports a veritable slew of features:

1.5GHz dual-core processor
1GB RAM
12MP camera
1280x720 HD screen
32GB of onboard memory.

I'm sure there will be other features that are just as amazing, but even if the above list is *all* we get, that's pretty amazing. Dual core has been asked about a lot on the SEUK wall really since the Arc was released and there are members of the Test Lab who have been pushing for this feature. The Arc S introduced the fastest Xperia handset ever to the market, but those of us who've rooted and booted our phones have been overclocking to 1.78GHz and beyond for months - although at a detriment to the life of the 1GHz processor. At least it shows SE are listening to their fanbase AND following market trends etc, so top marks then for the 1.5GHz.

12MP cameras were first introduced with the Satio, but sadly thanks to a shoddy operating system this phone was something of a damp squib; it should've been a lot better. A real pity; one suspects if the Symbian operating system was able to be replaced with Android we would have seen a really good phone. Though it's now faded into obscurity, it appears it's getting something of a resurrection - the 12MP camera at least - with the new phone(s).

I'm far more interested in the 32GB of onboard memory, however. My trusty 2007 1st Gen 16GB iPod Touch is really starting to show it's age this last couple months, so I've been utilising the phone music player a lot more. To this extent I've also purchased a 16GB MicroSD card so I can carry more of my library with me. Added to this I'm using the excellent Sony Ericsson LiveSound headphones and things are looking and sounding (pun intended) pretty good on the music front.

So, back to the memory; the 32GB, although probably closer to 29GB after the filing system is set up, should really give the Nozomi a chance to compete with the iPhone, allowing users to carry far more of their music with them, while still leaving room for 12MP pictures and a few other bits and pieces. It's a very, very generous allocation of memory which neatly trumps at least two of the current iPhones available.

For me it still would've been useful to have the Micro SD slot on the phone, either to utilise the extra memory as an expansion slot or to use it as a backup for pictures and things like that. Let's not forget; people don't religiously clear their phones out and if anything goes wrong with the memory, it's not like it can be removed (not that we know of) and replaced with another card - it's integrated into the phone, so the whole lot would have to go off to be repaired/replaced. Still with cloud technology getting better and better, and the likes of Box currently offering 50GB of online storage for free, there's no reason why we couldn't be backing up our photos and personal bits and pieces pretty much anytime, anywhere.

So the Nozomi should prove to be a game changer for Sony - if all goes to plan it should piddle quite handsomely all over the iPhone 4S -  and hopefully lightly tinkle on the feet of at least a couple other phone makers as well! Throw into the mix at least one other phone with similar specs, a couple more handsets at least on a par with this years' Arc...AND an upgrade for 2011/2012 handsets to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich...it's shaping up to be a bumper year and a busy one at that for Test Lab. Roll on spring 2012!

Mini Pro - A thing for rubber.

Last summer, my wife upgraded her contract phone to the X10 Mini. It's a nice little phone, with some useful features and proved a plucky little handset, given it's initial Android 1.6 handicap. A few months later, in January of this year (2011) and on the basis of my wife's satisfaction with her SE Android handset, I upgraded my contract phone to the X10i - specifically the HD variant with Eclair 2.1 on board. Also a great handset, limited again to 2.1 (or so we were led to believe) as it was SE's first foray into the broader aspects of the Android market.

Jump to November 2011 and the kind overlords at SE have furnished me with another phone; the 2011 Mini Pro...And a fine handset it is too. I first saw this little beauty back in the summer and was immediately impressed with it. Sure it's stubby and a little chunky, but it sports some considerable heft in the hand.

Fiddling with the slide-out full QWERTY keyboard, I found this to be a much smoother experience than when using the Play, which I felt had a slight 'wobble' to it, even when tucked away under the screen. No such problems here, everything tucks away where it should be with barely a rattle to be heard when it's closed. Nice. Sturdy. Solid.

The screen itself is bigger than last years X10 screen and is a very nice screen to behold. It's bright, it's vivid, it renders photos taken with the 5MP camera very well and displays video taken with the phone quite handsomely as well. The BRAVIA engine is onboard this phone so that does play a part in making things look better. The UX for this phone has improved somewhat; the corner docks can now accomodate more than just one app, I think you can have 4 apps in each corner which comes to a grand total of 16 'bookmarks' for your electronic delectation. Pressing the menu button on the homescreen now draws up the same menu as seen on other 2011 Xperia handsets, which is something of a relief as the menu on the original X10 Mini was a nightmare!

I was disappointed the phone only came with a 2GB card, personally I found this a bit mean, especially considering phones like the Arc and Neo came with an 8GB card - surely at least a 4GB wouldn't have gone amiss? Not the end of the world though, as Micro SD's are easily replaceable and I seem to have a glut of 8GB cards knocking about, so that's that problem solved

And now we come to the point behind the curious title of this post - rubber. The 2010 X10 series and the 2011 successor Mini handsets all have a fabulous matt finish which is, surprise surprise, almost rubbery in places. I personally find the finish to be of great use and value. For starters it makes the phone easier to grip. I like the look of that finish compared to glossier finish of the Arc/Neo, though I will admit they do still look nice, but the glossy finish does tend to make the phones a little slicker if your hands are wet, for example. And it does rain here in good old Blightly. A lot.

Anyway, fetishes aside, the 2011 Mini Pro is a considerable improvement on it's predecessor. I've given mine to my wife in trade for her Xperia Ray, coming on contract this week (review to follow soon!) but that should by no means suggest it's a phone for girls. Sporting a fine camera, a decent screen, sturdy build, a zippy little processor and a respectable amount of RAM, it's also running the latest version of Android - with ICS right around the corner. In short, it's a great little handset and worthy of anyone's attention.