Reviews and News » Noel Kuhlman

CitiesXL: Lots Of Promise, But An Incomplete Game

Noel Kuhlman — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 22:43:34 +0000

While CitiesXL makes a bunch of glorified promises, much of it remains an unrealized possibility. In fact, it looks more like a standard city builder this side of SimCity with a lot of potential for revolutionizing the genre – in the future, that is.

Like other city building simulations, you take the role of a near-omnipotent city mayor, fashioning infrastructure and other city elements. Construction efforts on the game centers around zoning, so a well-planned layout should prove best.

Gameplay, for the most part, is geared towards those inexperienced in city building games. Single player mode centers around 25 sandbox cities in five different regions, scattered all over the globe. Rather than having specific goals (like achieving certain levels of prosperity, etc.), the focus is all about laying out your cities and making them as successful as you can. Everything is unlocked from the onset, too.

The cities themselves look quite realistic, but the overall effect is rather bland, largely because there’s absolutely no life to be seen – no traffic, no pedestrians and absolutely nothing going on. Game UI is well-laid out and quite intuitive, but the lack of any real challenges (it takes time to prosper, but you’ll eventually get there) kind of makes it all feel pointless.

CitiesXL’s biggest innovation is the online component, which lets you situate your city in a huge online world. At the moment, though, it’s just like solo play – there’s nothing to do beyond build cities and explore them. There is no relationship between mayors, for instance, beyond swapping the occasional token. Developer Monte Cristo promises a lot of added components for the future, though – but it simply isn’t that enticing at its current state.

Overall, it’s a decent city builder if you like the actual construction aspect of the game. If you’re looking for more varied gameplay components, though, you best just move along – there’s nothing to see here.

Magic Mouse Looks Impeccably Gorgeous, Feels Ridiculously Uncomfortable

Noel Kuhlman — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 22:35:45 +0000

Apple’s new pointer peripheral, the Magic Mouse, resembles the rest of their product line: beautifully-designed and unusually styled. Sporting a flat design and multi-touch functionality, the wireless accessory should prove an excellent companion for portable computing needs.

While the slim profile looks elegant, it makes the device difficult to use – there’s just no way to find a comfortable finger position on such a form. The lack of physical buttons is even more irritating. More than likely, you’ll end up with hurting fingers after using this thing for an extended period. At the least, the buttonless, touch-sensitive design should take some amount of getting used to.

The Magic Mouse works strictly on Macs, with OS X version 10.5.8 or later. If you have the right OS, setup is practically automatic. Just let the hardware detect it and punch a couple of buttons.

Multi-touch is the big feature here, allowing the accessory to interface with individual applications using taps and gestures. The entire surface is touch sensitive, so you can perform your actions from anywhere on the surface. Some of the actions you can do are pretty cool, especially features like ability to pan 360 degrees and scrolling quickly (but fluidly) down an entire page.

While I love the multi-touch capability, the sheer hassle of using this mouse for conventional work is just not worth it. I mean, throw a couple of buttons in there and make life really easier, why don’t you?

NBA 2K10: Frenetic Pace, No Strategy, Interesting My Player Mode

Noel Kuhlman — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 22:35:39 +0000

I’ve long been a big fan of the NBA 2K series’ better realism compared to EA’s NBA Live. Despite our love of picks, screens and buckling down on defense (well, some of us), the overwhelming majority are just not into that. As such, NBA 2K10, the latest title from the franchise, sacrifices much of that strategy in favor of a frenetic offensive game.

That’s my first beef with 2K10 – one that most gamers aren’t likely to share, so I can’t really hold it against the game. With realistic strategy out the window, the only thing really left is to enjoy it. Touting a fast pace and plenty of high-flying antics, that part is rather easy.

A new feature for this year’s game is My Player mode, which lets you create a character that you can bring into the NBA. The creation tools are quite in-depth, allowing for plenty of customizations, including some very specific personality traits. Once your character is made, you can then bring him to camp and compete for a chance to get into the league.

While I haven’t played Live 2010, those who have say strategy is now given greater weight. I’ll admit that I haven’t touched Live since 2006, so I wouldn’t know. Given how much of 2K10 now relies on just plain driving in the paint and attacking the basket, I might actually give EA’s basketball game a try.

Microsoft: Cheap PS3s Not A Concern

Noel Kuhlman — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 19:40:12 +0000

The console wars are officially on, not that Microsoft particularly cares. In an interview with Game Informer magazine, Xbox 360 director of product management Aaron Greenberg proudly declared, “It’s not a real concern to us.”

Characterizing Sony’s anticipated PS3 numbers (over September) as a “short term bump,” he claims to be unsurprised. Given how many people held back on getting a PS3 due to the price, after all, the post-markdown heightened sales are to be expected.

Greenberg added, “What I can tell you is we remain confident that Xbox 360 will not only outsell PS3 for the full calendar year, but for this entire generation.” Strong words, considering the current-gen consoles are only in the middle of their lifecycles. With the PS3′s better and more powerful hardware, that pronouncement can actually be a closer call than he’d like us to believe.

Not for this year, though. Microsoft has posted powerful sales over the past three quarters, with consistent year-over-year increases, despite the economic downturn. More importantly, Greenberg points out the ecosystem surrounding the consoles, such as the user base of Xbox Live and the exclusive titles, as a deciding factor. Eventual success, according to him, comes down to “much more than just hardware sales…it’s about…investing in the future.”

We’ll see. Microsoft can deny it all they want, but with an attractive price point and increases home adoption for the PS3, the landscape could change drastically within the next 12 months.

2010: The Year Of The Android

Noel Kuhlman — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 19:31:15 +0000

Not robotic humanoids, but the Google-led mobile operating system that’s being primed to challenge the iPhone for its throne. “Android adoption is about to explode,” Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt claimed in an earnings conference this week. “You have all the necessary conditions.”

Those conditions, of course, being the newfound availability of Android-powered phones. With a total of twelve devices set to be available within the next month, distribution in 26 countries and plenty of buzz, it could well be true.

Why the excitement about this OS? Since Android was released as an open source platform, Google essentially saved manufacturers plenty of overhead. Rather than design a smartphone platform from the ground up, they opened it up for customizations, allowing each cellphone maker to put in changes as they pleased. It allowed them to focus on hardware and usability, rather than underlying operations.

Come Christmas season, Android will be the OS running on four smartphones from HTC, two from Motorola, two from Samsung, one from Dell, one from Huawei, one from LG and another from Acer. More importantly, that roster is continually growing, with many more planned releases for the coming year.

With Google’s non-stop improvement of the platform, the increasing number of apps and the continued support from manufacturers, 2010 will be an interesting year for smartphones. Has the iPhone Killer finally arrived and is it ready for primetime?

A Jailbreak-Proof iPhone 3GS? Not Really

Noel Kuhlman — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:26:40 +0000

Reports of updated bootroms on the latest shipments of iPhone 3GS handsets earlier this week pegged the latest versions as jailbreak-proof. Unfortunately for Apple, that’s not really true, according to iPhone Dev team member Eric McDonald.

Speaking with Wired Magazine, the hacker disclosed that the new bootrom really does disable the “24kpwn” exploit currently used in jailbroken phones. However, that specific hack is only intended to allow the phone to boot in a jailbroken state. The rest of the existing tools should continue to work on the new 3GS, as they have on previous versions.

What happens to the new batch of phones when jailbroken? According to Eric, they can’t power up on their own. If you shut off the phone or lost power on the road, you’ll have to tether it to a computer before being able to boot. Otherwise, it will remain turned off.

Is the change going to deter new iPhone 3GS owners from jailbreaking? Probably for some. Not being able to turn on my phone if I accidentally power off until I connect to a PC makes it a largely impractical device. For the greater majority, however, my guess is jailbreaking will still be rampant, especially since an update to the PwnageTool is probably in the horizon.

According to the Dev Team, the exploit to bypass the tethered boot has already been found. Of course, integrating that into the current system, along with the required testing, may take some time. I doubt it will be long, though.

MSI Wind Top AE1900 Review: Great Touch Interface, Decent Performance

Noel Kuhlman — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 19:24:37 +0000

It’s not difficult to understand the appeal of all-in-one PCs. They look good, they take up little space and, if you don’t intend to use them for demanding tasks, they work. All of those benefits, of course, apply to the MSI Wind Top AE1900, a stylish little number with a very attractive price point.

From the front, it looks just like an unusually-styled widescreen monitor, with that clear plastic bezel surrounding it. In fact, you never really get an inkling that it fits a fully-functional computer until you get to either the rear or the left side.

To keep the price manageable, the AE1900 sports what are essentially netbook specs – a 1.6GHz Intel Atom 230 CPU (with a 512KB of L2 cache and a 533MHz frontside bus), integrated Intel GMA950 GPU, 160GB hard drive and 1GB of DDR2 memory. As you can tell, it’s a good enough system for regular office tasks and web browsing. Just don’t try playing any 3D games and you’ll be fine.

Display is very generous at 18.5-inch touchscreen and a native 1366 x 768 resolution. It also offers a good range of input slots along the sides (including a DVD writer), and offers both an ethernet port and 802.11n Wi-Fi for connectivity.

On the performance end, it’s a great second PC, especially for basic multimedia entertainment. For moderate uses, it works exceptionally well. DVD playback is particularly good, especially since the touchscreen is fun to use with the menu system. While it’s supposed to manage 720p videos, I suggest you don’t push it – results aren’t always pretty.

The AE1900 comes with Windows XP Home Edition and uses a custom touchscreen interface called MSI Wind Touch. The combo works well, though MSI’s onscreen keyboard is decidedly pretty bad. You can get rid of the mouse, but make sure to keep a physical keyboard handy.

Overall, the MSI Wind Top AE1900 is an attractive-looking touchscreen all-in-one. It’s easy to use and works well enough for basic requirements.

Flip MinoHD Second-Gen Review: Good, But Not Good Enough

Noel Kuhlman — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 19:45:57 +0000

With increasing competition in the space, Pure Digital has no choice but to turn up improvements. This is especially true with competing products offering more features, while gouging them at the price point (like the outstanding Kodak Zi8). As such, we had high hopes for the second-generation of the Flip MinoHD. For the most part, the company didn’t disappoint.

We said for the most part. In terms of video quality, the MinoHD has fostered some improvements over its predecessor. While it still does the same 1280 x 720 resolution, the improved color saturation and better handling of jerky movements is highly noticeable. Regardless, it still pales in comparison to the Zi8′s considerably better recordings (1080p at 60fps).

Now that the video quality is settled (it’s still not as good as it should be), let’s look at some of the highlights for this iteration. The new MinoHD now comes with a larger 2-inch screen (compared with the 1.5-inch from before) and offers twice the memory at 8GB, which makes for plenty more movies before having to dump them onto a PC. Even better, it now comes with an HDMI jack along the side, allowing you to watch the clips on an HDTV right from the camcorder.

The gadget’s body received a tune-up, too, trading in the plastic panels for an almost full-metal armor. It even comes with an awesome-looking brushed finish, which arguably makes it the best-looking pocket camcorder around. Overall build appears to have been strengthened, including the pop-out USB, which feels extra durable while it hangs by the side of the computer. Battery life is good for nearly two hours of continuous shoots, which isn’t too shabby.

Ultimately, though, it has to stand in comparison with the Kodak Zi8. Priced at $50 cheaper than the Flip MinoHD’s $230 price tag, it remains a difficult task for Pure Digital to win us over.

Kodak Zi8 Pocket Camcorder Does 1080p, Flips Competition Over

WikiReader Lets You Browse Wikipedia Offline

Noel Kuhlman — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 19:16:38 +0000

Ever had a laugh at some of the entries in Wikipedia? Good news for you. You can now enjoy the same lack of reliable information in your pocket with the WikiReader, a new compact handheld that brings the community-edited encyclopedia offline.

Use Wikipedia much? Don’t let the frequent inclusion of misinformation stop you. Heck, I use it all the time too, referencing it without even batting an eyelash. Now, you can take the lack of drive to research a step further by scoring the single-purpose device that’s, basically, a Wikipedia database in your pocket.

The WikiReader is a handheld device that functions the same way electronic dictionaries used to do. Instead of words and definitions, however, it lets you peruse articles taken from Wikipedia. Featuring three million English language articles from the online database, all saved in an SD card, you’ll never have to visit a library again, even without an internet connection.

Essentially an e-reader that shows nothing but Wikipedia content, the device comes in a small form factor (with a durable plastic build) that literally fits in one palm. It sports a monochrome screen (yes, monochrome) with a tempered glass touchscreen directly over it. The device itself only has three physical buttons (Search, History and Random), but adds various onscreen controls for navigation and typing (including a QWERTY keyboard and hyperlinks between articles). It runs on two AAA batteries, which are good enough to last it an entire year.

The WikiReader is currently selling for $99 and comes with an SD card containing the 3 million offline articles. Users can download updated articles periodically from the site. The more technologically-challenged, on the other hand, can opt to receive an updated SD card annually for $29.

[WikiReader website]

Numark NS7 Turntable: Spin Digital Records With A Full-Sized Rig

Noel Kuhlman — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 16:22:53 +0000

Want to hone your turntable skills but can’t stand the pile of vinyl the job entails? Haul your musical ass right next to a Numark NS7 Turntable and be free from the trappings of physical records.

That’s right – it’s an all-digital turntable that puts pro-DJ controls at your fingertips. Sure, you can probably put on the same performance using just a turntable software, but having a full rig affords you a much wider range of movement. Not to mention, of course, it gives gawking audience members something to look at (face it, you’ll find it hard to attract groupies holding nothing but a laptop).

Sure, it’s a bit of a cop-out compared to those working with real records. In fact, I’d be surprised if viny veterans don’t give you flak about it. Screw them, though. Digital files are easier, cheaper and more convenient to work with that any physical media.

The NS7 uses the Itch software to communicate with your computer, managing ten times the speed you’d usually get with a MIDI-based setup. It supplies all the controls you need to mess around with WAV, AIFF, MP3 and AAC music files, with very responsive, motorized 7-inch turntables. You won’t even have to touch your keyboard to navigate files, as the rig provides for the necessary controls.

Of course, you can also throw in actual vinyls on the thing, so traditional turntablists won’t have any issue (actually, they will, since the disc mechanism isn’t the best). For strictly digital musicians, though, the thing’s as good as gold. Price is pretty fair at $1,600.

Reviews and News » Noel Kuhlman

CitiesXL: Lots Of Promise, But An Incomplete Game

Popular:

Magic Mouse Looks Impeccably Gorgeous, Feels Ridiculously Uncomfortable

Popular:

NBA 2K10: Frenetic Pace, No Strategy, Interesting My Player Mode

Popular:

Microsoft: Cheap PS3s Not A Concern

Related Posts

2010: The Year Of The Android

Related Posts

A Jailbreak-Proof iPhone 3GS? Not Really

Related Posts

MSI Wind Top AE1900 Review: Great Touch Interface, Decent Performance

Popular:

Flip MinoHD Second-Gen Review: Good, But Not Good Enough

Related Posts

WikiReader Lets You Browse Wikipedia Offline

Popular:

Numark NS7 Turntable: Spin Digital Records With A Full-Sized Rig

Popular: