Destiny Alpha Impressions

The Destiny Alpha is out and I have to say it all looks pretty good to me, reminds me a lot of the Halo multiplayer experience that we've all grown to love. Since its from the original creators of Halo we can all expect a quality game. This is still the alpha version of the game so its still subject to tons of changes and should in no way be thought of as a finished, polished final product.

Windows Phone 8

So I've been all over the place in terms of mobile operating systems. Right from Symbian on the old Nokia's, to that Linux based Nokia N900 which I actually loved followed by BlackBerrys and ios and finally Android. But now I've started using a Nokia Lumia and I have to say that this is by far my favourite one yet. Now I've used all the above operating systems for seriously long periods of time and I've only been using this Lumia for a little over a week and despite the lagging app store (I've got all the apps I had on android on my Lumia so I'm a happy guy) I am absolutely loving Windows Mobile.

The UI is refreshingly different, everything is so simple and user friendly, you can customise exactly where you want each and every tile and even how big it is. Make apps you use often big and place them right next to your thumb for easy access. Everything is responsive and feels quick and snappy, the start screen is literally alive and constantly changing and updating its look based on your notifications from social networking sites and photos you take yourself. Everything is integrated and more often than not you can find everything you need from inside a single app without having to switch apps for example, the music and videos app gives you access to the Nokia music store, your phones radio and if you've downloaded the 8tracks app you can get to it from inside this one app. This holds true even for the camera app with the snapchat and instagram cameras located in the camera app for quick and easy access.

In conclusion i just have to say that Microsoft have really outdone themselves with this and with the update coming out the 24th of June its just going to get better and more robust. The lack of apps on the store isn't really that much of a problem cause you can just download a third party application and still get all the same functionality as on any other platform.

After using Windows Mobile, the other operating systems just seem lack luster to me and this whole thing was just my impression of the os and i know lots of you disagree with my opinion and that's fine, as for me i don't see myself moving back to ios or android anytime soon.

Watch Dogs

So I just got Watch Dogs, and by far my favourite thing about the game is the distractions. I mean when you can do shit like this, what more could you ask for? In all honesty though, the game is loads of fun and you should definitely play it. It is a little over hyped and I am kind of let down by it, the missions can at times feel repetitive and the supporting NPC characters are so under utilised and one dimensional, even the character you play as, Aiden Pearce is just a another protagonist and that's all he feels like to the player, this is where Watch Dogs could have learnt something from GTA V, they got us to care about the characters there, they had so much more depth and were so relate-able and when it came to the last mission where you had to choose whether or not to kill one of them, I'm willing to bet that most of you went with the third option. In Watch Dogs if I were faced with that sort of situation where I had to kill off one of the characters, I probably wouldn't even think twice about it.

It's not all bad though, one thing I did love about this game are the meme references and the profiler. The profiler is such a fun mechanic and gives information like people's profession, income, their rap sheet and a one liner to describe them. For the most part they're pretty damn funny. 

I love these little titbits of interwebs culture they've added to the game. it makes it a lot more enjoyable in my honest opinion.

Don't get me wrong, there's quite a few things Watch Dogs does well too, the hacking is fun and such a useful mechanic, focus gives you those precious few seconds to score that perfect hack and neutralize everyone. In a gun fight focus makes you such a bad ass and gives you a fighting chance when you're faced with a group of enemies. The AI is intelligent and adaptive, they're a challenge and stealth is a big part of the game, there are missions where brute force and fire power just wont cut it so you have to be stealthy and use cameras and the environment to distract enemies while you sneak around and get to where ever it is you need to go. There are also those missions where being stealthy isn't a big deal so you can go in guns blazing and absolutely destroy everyone. 

The crafting system adds a little more with the ability to collect items so you can craft special one time use items like IED's (Improvised Explosive Devices), Frag Grenades, Blackouts and Lures that really help you out with missions. 

The Digital Trips are a seriously fun and refreshing distraction if the game ever starts to feel a little stagnant. Also, if you're connected to the interwebs and have a PlayStation Plus subscription, another hacker (player) can get into your game at any time and wreak havoc and you'll have to find him before he can install a back door or steal information!

As with any other game, this one has it's strengths and weaknesses. For instance, the online multiplayer is so much fun I spent loads of time on it and the driving mechanics are horrible, I found it quite a daunting task to drive around the giant map but thankfully, they added in a fast travel system so as I said earlier, there are pros and cons to this game just like any other game out there. If you're thinking about buying Watch_Dogs, go for it, it has a few problems and I feel like I was being a little nit picky but for the most part it's a fun game. Dynamic and fun, if you can live with the few problems the game has its a good buy. 

Spider Tank Digital Trip

iPhone 6 Release Date, Features

Just a quick update on the iPhone 6. We've got quite a lot of news and rumors from the WWDC (world wide developers conference) in San Fransico, some of which reveal that Apple is working on improving the battery life of the iPhone 6. The iPhone 6 will also be the first phablet in Apple's history and will also be the first to feature a no bezel display, not sure just how true that is yet. The screen will be a 1704×960 display for better gaming and multimedia. Its going to be incredibly slim with a protruding camera.

In other news Apple's stock is at an all time high at $644.17 this mostly is resulting from the anticipation of their new flagship smartphone.

Destiny Launch Date Confirmed 9th September!

We finally have a launch date for Destiny, its going to be the 9th of September! After the relaunch of the Destiny website we've been give all new content and another piece of information that's got gamers going nuts is the fact that Destiny will be released for PC as well as PS4, Xbox One, PS3 and Xbox 360.

The release date for the PC version of Destiny will be announced at E3 this year.

Star Wars Episode 7 - Lupita Nyong'o and Gwendoline Christie added to the cast

Episode 7 is shaping up to have one hell of a star studded crew, in addition to Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher to name just a few, J.J Abrams has added 12 Years A Slave's Lupita Nyong'o and Game Of Thrones' Gwendoline Christie who plays Brienne Of Tarth. No word yet on what role the actors will play though.

Lupita Nyong'o

Gwendoline Christie

7 inch Samsung Galaxy W

Samsung just came out with their biggest phone yet, the 7 inch Samsung Galaxy W with its 7 inch HD screen is a phone-tablet, a phablet as the internet has taken to calling big phones. Only released for South Korea at the moment, the device supports LTE for 4G speeds.

It comes with a 7 inch screen with a 16:9 aspect ration and a 1280×720 resolution. The back is made of leather like the Galaxy Note 3 and like the Galaxy Note 3 it has many of the same features such as the app in app feature. It is powered by a Quad-core 1.2GHz processor with 1.5 gigs of RAM and 16 gigs of storage with an 8 mega pixel camera, all of which draw power from a 3200mAh battery the phone also comes pre-loaded with Android 4.3. The 7inch Galaxy W will cost around $490.

Game Of Thrones Season 4 Episode 8

Spoilers, turn back if you don't want the episode ruined.

This was one of the best episodes of Game Of Thrones I have ever seen, there is just so much going on in this one episode I found it pretty darn cool that they could fit all of it into a 52 minute episode. Right from the letter that says Ser Jorah was spying on Dany (which is as I believe a forgery) and the fact that she sends him off instead of killing him, I mean I was so damn sure she was going to kill him but that's just me. You can see the anguish he is in when they're in the throne room and she's sentencing him.

Ramsay snow's use of Reek to earn the trust of the Iron Born just so the Bolton soldiers can kill them with no effort was a brilliant piece of strategy by one deranged son of a gun. Also what's with the eyes in this episode? Two people lost their eyes.
Later after that scene when Ramsay meets with His father Roose Bolton, we see that he legitimizes Ramsay. Ramsay Snow is now officially Ramsay Bolton. Actually gave me a warm fuzzy feeling inside, which is weird seeing as it came from this show.

Back at the Eerie, the Lords of the Vale are in the process of questioning Littlefinger about Lyssa's death and they call in Sansa Stark who tells them everything, her true identity, how Little finger was her only friend and how and how he saved her, except for the part where Littlefinger pushed her out of the moon door. Later on Sansa shows up and she's dyed her hair black and is dressed in all black, a hint that she's finally figured out how to play the Game Of Thrones.

Back in King's Landing, Jaime and Tyrion are talking about beetles being crushed and a "special" Lannister boy being kicked by a mule and dying. (I pity that Mule. Lannisters would've killed it in the most brutal way no doubt) after all that, its time for the trial by combat, Oberyn was dressed in extremely light armor because he wanted to be able to move around and be light on his feet, seems reasonable. He also uses a spear which would give him a decent range to attack the mountain from relative safety. Also he was drinking literally just before the fight and he was so damn confident. Can't say the same for Tyrion. The mountain shows up shortly after completely coverd in heavy armor and wielding a giant two handed sword. After one of the best fight scenes ever, Oberyn stabs the mountain and the behemoth falls on his back, at this point I was so happy but I knew deep down that this was far from over and that it wouldn't end well for Oberyn, who is so obsessed with getting a confession out of the mountain that he lets his guard down and is quickly brought to his back, then with one single punch the mountain knocks a hand full of Oberyn's teeth out, he then mounts him and crushes his head to the point where bloods squirts out of his eye sockets and his head explodes. Ouch. One of the most spectacular deaths I have seen in this show. Tywin grabs this opportunity to sentence Tyrion to death. And roll credits.

This episode was amazing and this cliffhanger ending makes me wanna freak out. I can't wait for the next episode! The show is really starting to heat up and this season just flew by.

Destiny - What We Know So Far

We have a lot of info on Bungie's latest project Destiny and at E3 we can expect a whole new flood of information. So here's a little compendium of what we know so far.

GAME MODES.

Destiny is set to have 5 unique game modes;

PATROL - This game mode is the free roam mode where in you can explore the map, do quests and take part in public events.

CAMPAIGN - This is the story mode that you can solo or do cooperatively.

STRIKES - These are three man co-op missions kind of like dungeons where you fight mobs and kill a boss for guaranteed loot.

RAIDS - These are hard core co-op missions for six players, Bungie has called these end game missions that only the experienced Guardians can handle. Also, they're set to be anywhere from two to four hours long!

SKIRMISHES - Destiny's PvP system. It will only unlock after you play the actual game for a few hours so you know the basics and you unlock your "super".

FACTIONS.

there are five distinct factions in Destiny. Factions also give you faction missions which you can complete to unlock faction specific rewards.

The factions are;

Future War Cult
Dead Orbit
New Monarchy
Osiris
Seven Seraphs

Bear in mind that not all of these have been confirmed.

CUSTOMISATION.

Destiny is offering players a deep and comprehensive player customisation system. There are two "Focuses" per class and each focus has a core ability called a "Super". Factions also have unique looks that can be applied to your character based on what faction you align with.

TITAN - The Titan class has an offensive focus called the Striker Codex and a defensive focus called the Defender Codex.

HUNTER - The Hunter class has two offensive focuses called the Gunslinger and the Edgewalker

WARLOCK - The Warlock class has an offensive focus called Order Of The Void and a support focus called Order Of The Sun.

Focuses can be upgraded in the game as you progress.

GUNS.

Destiny comes with a huge variety of weapons, ranging from manual, to fully automatic weapons. Each weapon can be upgraded by using components you get by breaking down gear you don't need. You can customise nearly every aspect of your weapon. The best part of this is that the more you use a weapon, the stronger you will be able to make it.

ARMOR.

There's going to be tons of armor in the game as well and each character will four armor slots, head, chest, arms and legs as well as a class specific armor slot and vanity slots.

The class specific armor for each class will be;

Capes for hunters.

Decorative cloth tied around the waist for titans.

Bonds that go on the wrists of warlocks.

There will also be Engrams which are unidentified magical items that give you attribute boosts that can be found on in the game world.

There are also mounts which are called sparrows and somewhat resemble speeders from Star Wars that can be summoned at any time. Players will also have their very own Personal Starship.

Some other tidbits of information we have;

Ghosts - support device that helps you out on your adventure.

Vault - the player's storage much like a bank.

There will be easter eggs from other Bungie games including Halo!

Bungie has announced that there will be new content added daily! Players will have something new to do everyday and to accomplish this, Bungie has said that they will have a team working shifts 24 hours a day, 7 seven days a week for the next 10 years!

iPhone 6 - Release Date, Price etc

Since the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C didn't really bring anything new to the table, there's a ton of pressure on Apple with the iPhone 6. As with any apple product, in the time leading up to the launch, it manages to become the most anticipated product ever and that holds true this time around as well.

2014 is shaping up to be one hell of q year for smartphones, with things like the Samsung Galaxy S5, the HTC One M8 and Sony Xperia Z2, the pressure is on Apple to give us something we have never seen before.

iPhone 6 Release Date.

The iPhone 6 will be released this year. Since Apple always seems to launch things in September, the way it did with the last few iPhones, I'm willing to bet that they're going to stick with that tradition this year as well.

We've all heard the rumors that we might be getting two different versions of the iPhone 6, a 4.7 inch and a 5.5 inch version. I have no word her on exactly when the these two will be launched but its a safe net that the 4.7 inch version will be launched this year and the 5.5 inch version somewhere towards the end of this year or early next year.

iPhone 6 Price.

I have absolutely no idea how this phone is going to be priced. Its certainly going to come with a big price tag, it could possibly cost as much as or a little more than the iPhone 5S. The 5.5 inch version however will most definitely cost more owing to the larger display.

If it is priced like the predecessors, the 16GB model would be £549, the 32GB model would be £629 and the 64GB model would be £709. As I said earlier, a bigger screen means a bigger price.

Nexus 6 Will Not Be Released Nexus 8 Will Be And Android Silver.

The only vanilla android device being released this year will be the 8.9 inch Google Nexus 8 Tablet, the successor to the Nexus 7, leaving the highly anticipated Nexus 6 nowhere to be seen. According to pretty much every report out there, the Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 won't be refreshed this year but, will instead be retired entirely. In other news, it's been confirmed that the Nexus 8 will be made by a collaboration between Google and HTC.

circling back to the Nexus 6, Google is working on a new project called Android Silver which will most probably be the successor to the Nexus line. Android Silver is like the next step in the direction after the Nexus programme, but instead of having just one device, Android Silver will be a programme consisting of different devices from different manufacturers all the while being highly controlled by Google.

The Nexus 8 release date is expected to be in the early third quarter of 2014 or in the immediate weeks following this year's Google Developers Conference on June 24 and 25.