I know what you’re thinking, the perfect zombie survival horror game would be a huge open world, perhaps an MMO with millions of players from around the world, simply moving from city to city just trying to survive, either by finding food and drink to eat, and a place to stay. Or looting from passers by to get weapons and ammo to put a bullet or crossbow arrow through the brain of a few undead. Unfortunately even though we’ve pretty much had the technology (for the past two years) to pull off something like this, it’s never been done… Until now.

I present to you, Day Z! Yes, I already told you it’s a MOD for Arma II. It requires you have the game and the expansion pack Operation Arrowhead. This means, if you were to buy it on Steam, you’d be paying $30… For a MOD that it’s in alpha stage. On top of that it’s built on top of a game that already has a pretty clunky interface and control system. Installing the MOD isn’t that hard, but it’s a bit more clunky than it needs to be. But that’s all the bad stuff out the way for now, let me tell you about this sweet MOD!

It’s set on the 25km x 25km island that comes with Arma II. Yes, it’s huge. It supports up to 60 players online and from what I’ve seen, it’s surprisingly not that laggy. Although it does take a while to join servers because it looks like it has to connect to one master server to retrieve your data. What data? The persistent data about where you left off from last time. That’s right, it’s a persistent world – you can join any server and it will save your health, ammo, what weapons you had, location etc. However, you may want to choose your server carefully. I decided to try out this MOD at close to midnight and the servers have a 1:1 time ratio. This means that it was midnight in the game too and in Arma II, that means pitch black. Which quite frankly was one of the scariest moments I’ve had in a FPS recently.

You start off along the south cost of the island. I couldn’t see anything until I threw a flare down, the bright red glow helped me find my way to a main road. So far all I had to get a sense of direction was the stars and the moon. Armed with this knowledge – I was absolutely useless, because I have no idea how to find the North star -_-

So I just headed down a road, occasionally throwing another flare. Eventually I learned you could pick them up, which I thought was a much better idea, since I only had 10 flares to start with and who knows where I might find some more. Although, since it was pitch black it would mean if anyone, or anything was near me I would be the only thing they saw. That might not be a good thing, because you know, zombies, but also if certain players kill other players too much, they become bandits and their player model changes appropriately. I really didn’t want to be seen, but at the same time, I needed light, so I decided to risk it until I could get to the nearest town or something. What happened next, would be the consequences of my decision…

The whole time I was actually on Skype talking to friends. I was trying to explain that I was just following a road and some railroad tracks to see where they’d lead, but all of a sudden I just stopped talking. I heard a noise, like a moan. The next thing I know, out of the pitch black dark a zombie comes running towards me! I panicked and it made me jump! I really felt a mix of fear and excitement as my adrenaline kicked in. The clunky control system didn’t help either but I managed to pull my starting pistol out and put a few rounds in him! Then, before I could calm down, more moaning! More of them! I had very little ammo so I decided to run. But where to? I headed in the opposite direction on the road that I was on. I also decided to drop the flare, as that would probably bring more, but unfortunately this meant running into the dark into who knows what!

So I kept running and running and they were still chasing me! I think I ended up around some docks and decided to try to find somewhere to hide. I tried to throw a flare far away from me and I’d hoped that it would draw them away and I could escape. Unfortunately, you make a lot of sound when you run too and the zombies heard me. I was surrounded and then the inevitable happened – they ate me! Munch!

Game over – meant I had to start again, respawn with 10 flares and about 2 Makarov pistol clips. This time I managed to avoid more zombies and found a barn. I got really lucky with this barn, there was a shotgun, a sniper and a crossbow. I could only hold one weapon, in addition to my pistol. I went with the shotgun – the other players had told me that there is more ammo for the shotgun, the only drawback is that it makes noise. The crossbow is silent, but you don’t get a lot of ammo and you have to reload after each shot – not a good thing when ten zombies are running towards you. The sniper seemed cool, but I don’t think it would have been a good idea because I’d be screwed if any zombies got close. I also found food and water in this barn, which was good for obvious reasons. You need to eat and drink. Drink comes in the form of pepsi cans and you can visit a river or ocean to fill up your water bottle. Food comes in cans, but I also heard you can kill animals and cook them.

If I were to increase my chances of survival I thought it would be best to meet up with my friend. Fast forward to him installing and finally getting in game we decided we’d find a place to meet. This was a bit difficult for us as we had no map. To use the map in game you actually have to find one first. We cheated a little and used a map online as well as road signs and landmarks to figure out where we are. We never met in game, because I got tired a left (2am), but getting to another city isn’t that easy when you’re avoiding zombies. It doesn’t help that if you actually wanted to drive there, you’d need to be able to get the tools to fix up a vehicle first, not to mention refueling it. Moving slowly and watching the zombie’s path is the key to avoiding them. They seem to have about a 30 degree field of vision so sometimes you could feel like you’re a real Sam Fisher (side note – Sam Fisher > Snake).

Overall I think this MOD has the groundwork for something potentially amazing. It’s unfortunate that it’s built upon a game that sometimes feels really clunky, but hey I don’t care, because it’s enabling something awesome to happen. Maybe the clunkyness is a good thing, after all, just look at the success of Resident Evil! If you ever needed a reason as to why PC gaming is better than console gaming, Day Z is your answer. It may be in alpha stage, but from what I’ve seen, it’s better than than any CoD clone to date and it’s all made by gamers who enjoy games, not want money. I think it would be years before something like this ever comes out on a console. I really hope development for this MOD continues, especially now that it’s getting more publicity. Looking forward to the apocalypse!

However right now is a weird time because I am about to be playing a bunch of RPG’s, something I don’t think is a good idea. I’d rather only play one at a time, but there are three that I really really like at the moment. The first is Witcher 2. With the release of the enhanced edition I actually decided to start playing it and I really like it. The second is Diablo 3. After playing the beta  I really want it, but luckily I don’t think there is a penalty for not getting it right away. Unlike the third game – Guild Wars 2. Since it is an MMO, I want to get in on the action before the community dies. Games like Witcher and Diablo can be played at any time, though I’d like to play the co-op on Diablo 3 with my friends when they get it.

I have played a couple of hours on the beta for Guild Wars 2 and so far I like it. Having said that, I don’t think it has lived up to my expectations. The main reason I am playing it because it’s not supposed to be like other MMO’s, there’s no monthly fee, there’s no grinding and the battles and quests are supposed to be more fun. I didn’t really enjoy WoW, I felt bored most of the time which is why I was attracted to GW2, but the gameplay is very similar to WoW, but something about it isn’t exactly the same… It’s as if they tried to attract everyone to the game.

For a start the combat is similar, but it’s more fast paced. I like it, and I like the dodging and special abilities, but it’s not impressive. The quest system is weird – you have a main quest but on your way there, there are ‘events’ which are like mini-quests that all the other players around you take part in. They’re interesting except too many players try to do it at the same time. Imagine this, you’re walking along the street and you see a shop that interests you. The next thing you know, everyone on that crowded street is also interested in that shop and you all walk in there, exploring and buying and what ever it is you do in shops and it just becomes a clusterfuck of people doing things. Then at the end of it all, you didn’t really felt like you took part. I still like the idea of dynamic events, but it really needs tweaking.

As with most RPG’s it takes a little getting used to and I’m still in that stage of course, but I think if you have played enough WoW, it won’t be any more complex than that. In fact if you liked WoW you might actually like GW2 =/

The system they have in place for temporarily leveling you down is a bit annoying. I think they should only do it when you are in a party, not when you’re on you’re own. I hate entering a low level area and having to spend longer than usual getting through it because my abilities have been nerfed. I understand wanting to create balance but this definitely needs to be tweaked.

As far as performance goes, the game runs great on my PC, just areas with lots of action and towns really lower my FPS. But my biggest issue is the connection – there are so many people playing right now, logging into places takes a while and the server load is suffering. I’m sure these will be fixed when the game comes out and I am looking forward to it. So far, so good.

So as I was shopping for a headset I decided to look for a mouse too. I’m not sure what are the ‘good’ mice manufacturers (outside of gaming mice manufacturers), but I’ve always liked Logitech’s mice, so I decided to see what they have. I decided on the M510 because it has two side buttons. Not entirely essential but I always like having them and my gaming mice couldn’t live without them. It should be noted, this mice isn’t going to be used for gaming and I don’t really recommend wireless mice for gaming.

First thing I’d like to say is that this isn’t a tiny laptop mouse, it’s simply a regular sized mouse, except with no wires. I honestly didn’t know this before I bought it, however, tiny mice are pretty annoying, so having a regular sized one is actually quite nice. Installing the mouse is incredibly easy on Windows 7. You simply plug in the tiny RF receiver and that’s it. Once you switch the mouse on it will automatically detect it and it works within seconds (from the time you plug in the receiver). No software was packaged with the mouse, there was a manual with it, but I never opened it. It works flawlessly out of the box! I imagine Logitech’s web site might have some configuration software, but out of the box works perfectly fine.

The mouse is also for right handed people. Well, a left handed person could use it, however the side buttons are on the left, which are easily accessible by thumb if you’re right handed, but I would imagine pretty awkward to do so with your little finger if you’re left handed. I suppose if you’re left handed you’re pretty used to being screwed anyway The mouse has great ergonomics for us righties though and feels perfect. The laser tracking is pretty good too, as long as the batteries are full. The ones that it came with seemed to be depleted (almost) so I replaced the two AA batteries with fresh ones and it works flawlessly.

Finally, I am not sure if this is a “couch mouse” and I have no intention of finding out. Overall I think this is the perfect wireless mouse for a PC and in my case, for my laptop. Some people might prefer something smaller (heheheh) for their laptop, but if you don’t mind a regular sized mouse, this one is great.

I thought there has to be something out there for gaming headsets that’s better than the G35, and I looked at some reviews of some gaming headsets, the other two I considered were the Astro A40 and the Sennheiser PC 360. Both of which are stupid expensive, the Corsair on the other hand was on sale at $70 (usually $100) and I bought it the same time I got a new laptop mouse (Logitech M510, which will arrive later, in “Wine Red” [it was the cheapest color]).

Taking it out the box and looking at it, it looks okay. One thing is that the headphone thingies (go away) are made of this soft velvet like material and putting them on feels like putting your head between two pillows, it’s really comfortable, they clearly thought about their users when developing it.

So far I’ve had no complaints about the mic, I seem to be coming through clearly and no one has complained on Skype. The controls for the headset are inline, which feels so archaic after using the G35′s controls which are on the side of the headset. Another thing is the volume is REALLY loud. On half volume the G35 sounds fine, but hurts my ears with the 1500′s. I have to be on about 25% to feel comfortable.

I did my usual test with Battlefield 3, I played from the beginning and ended the FA-18 level. Although this lacks the bass the G35 had, sounds are more clear and crisp on the 1500 and overall, for that session it sounded good to me. However I’m not sure I got the right experience, as the software is confusing. It has 3 buttons for default stereo mode, 5.1 Dolby Surround and a 3rd button for 7.1 virtual surround. None of this was obvious at first and the only reason I know all this is because I Google’d it.

I am going to play some more games to test it out and when I can watch some decent TV shows I’ll write a proper review. So far I like it, much more than I did an overpriced DJ headphone that I once tried -_-

First off, being a beta I am not judging it as a final product. However, Valve have Source and maybe even 1.6 to base the game off. They have to know what players want, and a lot of us don’t want Valve to mess with our precious baby. But since this is a beta, now would be the time to do crazy things and judge the reaction, such as allowing hats or in game purchases or endless DLC. Who knows what they might come up with.

Now before you say something like “oh it’s just Source but with better graphics”, immediately when you start playing you’ll forget that, if you’ve played Source enough. I literally only just got the beta but I’ve just played cs_italy for at least an hour and I tried the two maps on “Aresenal” mode. I decided to write this after ending the pistol round on de_dust2 against some bots. Here are some things I’ve noticed:

New Buy Menu - It’s this circle thing that’s actually pretty easy to use and each category is assigned a number, just like the menu in CS. Honestly, it’s pretty much the same thing, except for one small difference – categories in red mean that you can’t afford any items in that category. A nice addition.

Weapons - Oh man, where to begin. The UMP among other guns are insanely under powered, at least I felt that way. The Sig and the Aug are quite powerful too, maybe a little more than Source, but it’s not bad. But the big thing that’s going to be hard to fix is the spray patterns. It isn’t Call of Duty where you can run around like a twat and get headshots, you have to aim. Except you can’t spray like you could before with weapons like the AK and the M4 – there doesn’t seem to be any set spray pattern, you just have to take short controlled bursts at range. Although I didn’t play for too long, you could see tracers from your guns and I don’t know how that will help with learning where the bullets go, but for the most part, it seems fairly random to me. Now I know it’s not finished, but all the guns sounded way too generic, but of course it’s no where near close to finished.

The maps - I played a lot of cs_italy. I am glad they brought back the chickens, except they brought them back in full force. They are running around EVERYWHERE! Seriously, I thought I saw an enemy at one point – it wasn’t, it was a bloody chicken! I think they did this to make up for the fact that they changed italy. There’s no hidey hole in the long hallway, that needs to come back. And the alleyway is now intricately linked with the wine cellar somehow. If you’ve ever played cs_italy_extended you’ll sort of understand what I mean, just not quite as elaborate. Remember I said earlier that I played dust2 for a bit? Well, I went to short A and that cinder block that’s on short that you can hide behind – it’s short so that you can’t hide behind it anymore. WTF Valve?! I know you’re trying to make a new game but please put that back, that was a tactical position! Not a big one, but at least it was a jokes place on pubs! I didn’t look around any more because I needed a break, but if Valve are going to mess with things like that, I’m going to have to write an angry e-mail

Graphics/Presentation - The game doesn’t look that good. Not ugly, but not what you’d expect in 2012. I think Valve can do better, but maybe it’s too early to tell. One of the most annoying things was the bloom – everything was shiny and bright and I hated this! There were no advanced options to turn this off, maybe in the full game I hope there will be. Another annoying thing was the dust floating at the ground level in some places. Maybe it’s just me but I found certain places hard to look at. Character models were nowhere near as distinctive as Source. Which brings up my next point, the character models and identifying team mates were annoying. I mean the map is useful but it takes me a split second to decide sometimes if someone is an enemy or not. Doesn’t help that friendly fire is on by default. Maybe I need to get used to it, I did only play for an hour. The mini map is nice though, doesn’t seem cluttered. It shows your team mates, spotted enemies, and places where enemies were seen last and even your FOV. It also shows the bomb area, so overall I think the mini map is a good addition to the game.

Once thing Valve seem adamant about shoving in all their games is their cinematic like kill cams. I am hoping this is a server option and they turn it off because it’s the most useless and annoying killcam I’ve ever seen. Valve are usually pretty good at user experience, but this one is just plain out of character for them. Overall I see that they are trying to make the game more appealing to a broader range of players, but please don’t be stupid, EA and Activision will forever hold the crown for stupidity, we don’t need Valve as another competitor.

Sound - As I said before, the weapons sound too generic and I didn’t get to listen carefully for sounds such as footsteps and distant reloads because whilst I was playing, I was on Skype with a friend who wouldn’t stop jibber jabberin I’ll report back when I get to fully experience the sound properly. One thing to note, even though you can turn it off, music is on by default. Again, trying to appeal to broader range of players, I get it Valve, but that doesn’t mean turning it into Halo or Call of Duty. Counter-Strike was the number one multiplayer FPS for a reason – because it was CS. Don’t destroy that.

Game modes - The two classics de_ and cs_ (bomb defusal and hostage rescue) return, but there seems to be a new mode called “Arsenal”. These are quickie rounds where there’s no buying of weapons – you’re given a gun with limited ammo (btw I felt I was going through ammo like a fat kid goes through a box of chocolate) and it seems to be a de_ map. There are two new maps I played on – both small, I guess to facilitate the quicker rounds and both seemed fairly well designed. When you get a kill in Arsenal, your weapon is downgraded. I don’t know how low it goes (no limbo jokes please) and whilst it seems fun, it’s probably not gonna stick. It seems like a mode for casual players, but still doesn’t have enough appeal for it to be long lasting. Still though, it’s really simple and easy, which means it has the potential to be addictive. What they should do is add gun game, can’t go wrong there!

In conclusion – from a competitive point of view, there’s still a lot of work to be done. I mean lots of tweaks to the gameplay mechanics, but of course, that’s to be expected. As a new game in general, there’s some potential there to make it appealing, but Valve has to walk the tricky tightrope of balancing the game to make it appealing for more casual players whilst still retaining the interest of the competitive gamers. Even though I think Valve are a talented bunch, I’d say this will be one of their toughest challenges yet, and I can’t wait to see what they come up with.

P.S. I got my key from a friend, if you’d like one, try here.

One of the reasons to buy this game is for it’s story, so in writing this review I’ll assume you’ve played the first two, but if you haven’t, you really should. I think it’s essential to really appreciating the story and how far the gameplay has come since the first game. On top of that, your saves carry over from the previous games. This  continuity is rare in games and I don’t think I’ve ever seen another game do this, as in, continuing a story as well as remembering all the choices the player made in the previous game. There are three different ways the game allows you to play, which I personally don’t think should have been included, but I guess they were trying to appeal to a more broader range of gamers.

The first is combat – the story choices are pretty much made for you and you focus on the gameplay and fighting. I hate, hate, hate this option because the choices and the story are what make this game stand out and there are few other games like this. Alternatively there’s the story mode, where the combat is made easy and you get to focus on the story more, as the name suggests. Whilst this is better than combat mode in my opinion, you still don’t get the full experience. For the real ME experience, I recommend RPG mode, which is a blend of both combat and story mode.

The gameplay in the third has once again improved. In the previous game, in between missions, you went from planet to planet mining, which was incredibly dull. Now you have a scanner attached to your ship, where you go into various zones and scan for artifacts. These help boost your “galactic readiness level”, which goes up to 100%. I’m still unsure what this actually does, but mine was 100% when I played through because I played a lot of the multiplayer when I played. In fact, multiplayer is just one way to boost your readiness, the other way is doing various side missions that gets certain people on your side to fight against the Reapers. Some can be small, such as allowing a news reporter to interview you (and not punching them in the face -_-), and some big, like getting the Batarian fleet on your side. There appears to be a minimum level in the game, which can easily be achieved by playing the game, so it’s not a burden. Besides, it’s an RPG, don’t you want to do the side missions?

The gameplay in ME 3 remains mostly the same, but I feel it’s even more streamlined. One example is the use of the spacebar key… This key is used for pretty much everything and whilst that seems like it would be simple, it is, but it’s also incredibly annoying. I have a beef with this because it’s the fault of console gamers. The game had to be designed so it was easy to play with a gamepad, which I understand, but I wish developers would consider that PC gamers have more buttons to work with than a gamepad. One example where this is aggravating is in multiplayer. The spacebar is used to get behind cover, but it’s also used to heal fallen team mates. What can end up happening, and it happens all too often, is that you run over to a fallen comrade getting there in the nick of time, only to find that when you press space, instead of reviving him/her, you get behind cover. This issue would be solved if they had a use key. I recommend ‘F’, since it really isn’t used for anything. Throwing grenades and using certain powers could be done better too. The Z and C keys aren’t used for anything either and it would make the game a whole lot smoother if these keys were assigned something like grenades and powers. The number keys are fine for certain things, but sometimes in the heat of battle, stretching your finger over to the C key is a lot easier than using the number 6 for throwing grenades. There is one improvement that I like however, and that’s the in game map. It’s so much easier to find important characters now as when you pull up the map, they are listed to be in certain areas, so there’s no time wasted hunting them down.

Besides the controls my other big complaint was the endings. To be honest, this is a difficult task – I’m a huge fan of Deus Ex, Deus Ex: Human Revolution and I enjoyed the previous two ME games. What these games have in common is that the story and character and the world around you is shaped by player choices. However, with the exception of the first two ME games, all those choices simply funnel you into one of three endings, where none of them are any good. Human Revolution especially, because all you did was walk into a room and press one of three buttons. There was a fourth button that made you do something but not much more than pressing more buttons. The same is in ME 3. I won’t spoil what those endings are, but you essentially walk into whatever platform you want for whichever ending you want. And to be honest, none of them bring that much closure. Without spoiling the endings, all three are very similar and none of them really are a good, evil or neutral ending, which is baffling to me since you work hard during the whole game series to make your character either renegade (evil, or really just rude) or paragon (goodie two shoes).

However the good thing is, if you really play the game to it’s fullest it should take you at least a week to finish. There are lots of hours to be had with the singleplayer alone and is one of the most enjoyable games I’ve played in a while, despite it’s control flaws. Eventually you notice there are three different types of enemies – Cerberus, Geth and Reaper. Each has their own types of minions and big bad powerful mobs, and each requires a different tactic for taking down different enemies. Eventually you figure out what works best with the character class you’ve chosen, of which there are the same six classes from the previous games (Adept, Soldier, Engineer, Sentinel, Infiltrator and Vanguard). Each class has it’s strength and weakness. In general I’m mostly an FPS gamer, so I went for the soldier class, however the others are fun to play with too and I recommend experimenting in multiplayer.

The multiplayer contributes to your galaxy readiness rating, the more games you complete the higher it gets until it reaches 100%. You can still continue playing after it reaches 100% of course. Each class has different races within them. It seems you can have as many characters as you like and once one reaches the maximum level of 20, you can promote them to the singleplayer, which resets the class rank , adds 10 points to your N7 rank (some pointless leaderboard thing) and adds to your singleplayer galaxy readiness… Something I still don’t even know what it does.

The multiplayer is simple really, it’s just survival. On round 3, 6 and 9, there are some objectives to complete, such as killing a target enemy, holding a particular area while some data downloads or downloading data of a somewhat randomly placed computer. It makes it a little varied but in the end, it’s still predictable. Again the three enemy types reappear, Cerberus, Geth and Reaper, and again you have to use the strengths of you and your team to defeat them. There are also not that many levels and although they vary in theme, their designs aren’t really too different and you get used to them really quickly. Despite all that, the multiplayer is a challenge. There are three difficulty levels – bronze, silver and gold. Bronze is fairly easy once you get used to the game but silver is pretty challenging. I have yet to win a gold challenge too. Again, it’s simplicity doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing, after all, the most popular online shooter ever has only two game modes (Counter Strike – bomb defusal and hostage rescue… Unless you want to count VIP mode -_-). This simplicity paired with the class variations makes the multiplayer quite addicting and in all honesty, I think they may of added it as an afterthought, but it’s turned out to be a nice addition to an already great game.

In conclusion, despite the script writing for the last 15 minutes of the game, the game itself is brilliant. It has all of the solid gameplay you’d expect from a Mass Effect game despite a few control flaws and the multiplayer is a surprisingly good addition to the game. Upon completing the game you get a message inferring that there is more DLC to come. Perhaps this DLC might explain the endings a bit more, but beyond that, who knows. The game by itself is worth your money. It’s early in the year, but I think this is definitely going to be one of the best singleplayer games this year and it’s going to be hard to beat.

Long story short, Horizon is a spin off (lol car puns galore) of the series being developed by Playground studios. Playground employs talent that created games like Colin McRae, DiRT, TOCA and Grid. Whilst these games are pretty good, they mostly have an arcade-ish feel to them overall (with the exception of the CMR games). Using this knowledge my guess is that Horizon is going to be more like Need for Speed in terms of gameplay and presentation. And this is what pisses me off.

I mean, isn’t Forza 4 accessible enough? The difficulty settings can be tweaked to make this a somewhat a realistic sim, all the way down to an arcade racer that’s easy for anyone to play. What could they possibly add to Horizon, that shouldn’t be a feature in FM4? Kinect only? Sad. Rally? I’d be disappointed in Turn 10 if they did, this should be on FM4 anyway.

I feel like it’s going to be just another money maker  and you know what? Chances are I’ll buy it, being  a Forza fanboy -_- I’m mostly writing this post because it hasn’t even been a year since they released FM4, I still haven’t got all the DLC, which by the way you have to pay for and now they’re trying to milk the series to get more money. I’m just worried that this will turn into the Call of Duty of racing games, but we’ll see.

Seriously, on the start up screen when Windows is loading, where you’d normally see an animated Windows logo, they have this instead. This is also the default desktop background. I’m sure there is some complicated reasoning behind it but I thought it a bit weird. I don’t think many people would understand what it means and to be honest it looks a bit silly. At first I thought I had downloaded some sort of virus!

The start menu has been replaced with the big grid thing that takes up the full screen. I think it looks nice, but honestly, I’d rather have the desktop, which by the way is an option. I only opened the thing once, installed Skype and Steam, played one round of a game on Steam and that’s it. Drivers for graphics and Logitech keyboard and headset installed perfectly.

My only issue is turning it off/restarting. You have to go to the start screen (you can get to it by pressing the Windows key), click on settings and then Shut down/restart. A whole lot less semantic than the old “Start -> Shutdown” and I really hope they fix this. I spent almost a minute trying to find it!

Finally, I don’t know if I will upgrade to 8 when it comes out. Windows 7 supports Direct X fully and it’s still a solid operating system. 8 seems more like a visual upgrade. Of course I haven’t seen everything, so a purchasing decision won’t be made until after it’s been released. I know I will definitely never use Mac OS though -_-

For some reason, the rubber casing of the Otterbox would expand, leaving a gap at either the top or bottom of the phone. This was bad for two reasons. The first, it makes the rubber part, which is supposed to absorb the shock from falls pointless (almost) and second, it’s annoying to press the power button sometimes. The reason I mention this is because the Seido Surface Case doesn’t come with a rubber case, just the hard plastic shell. This means that it’s mostly going to protect the phone from dirt and dust, but offer little protection from fall damage. I’m okay with this since I tend to treat my phone like it’s my baby (no, I didn’t put it in a blender). Upon taking my phone out of the old Otterbox case, it seemed to be full of crumbs anyway… I guess you could say I replaced it because it was… Crummy -_-

Another thing the Surface case didn’t come with is a screen protector. I kept the original screen protector that came with the Otterbox though. It’s just an invisible/clear shield, which can be bought for cheap anyway. Whilst we’re talking about cheap, I got mine for only $27 from Amazon. I think the Otterbox is a little bit more, but they’re the same retail price on their respective web sites. I actually got the Surface case with the kickstand, which is nice to have. My only issue with it, is that it makes a loud “snap” sound whenever you open and close the kick stand. The first time I opened it, I thought I had broken it already! It seems to work fine for portrait as well as landscape too.

The hard plastic case is easy to put on. It comes in two parts and seems very solid. On the Otterbox, the mini USB port thingy, volume, power button and camera button were covered by the rubber case. This is not the case (no pun intended…) with the Seido Surface. It’s no big deal to me, I never had any problems with my previous phone, which I never even bought a case for. In fact, it makes the camera button much easier to press, which I like (still my favorite camera button on a phone ever).

Finally I want to say that the Otterbox was designed in such a way, that if you placed the phone on a table (or other flat surface) the rubber casing would be lifted slightly so that the screen doesn’t actually touch the surface. The Seido Surface doesn’t have this. Not really a big issue, I mean I don’t intend to place my phone, screen side down on anything, but it’s nice to have. Overall I think the Surface somehow feels slightly heavier than the Otterbox too. Again, not a big deal for me.

In conclusion, the Surface mostly protects the phone from dirt and dust, but didn’t come with any screen protection. I also wish it had a rubber case too to further protect against fall damage. A somewhat redeeming feature, and the only reason why I don’t dislike this case, is the kickstand on the back – I like having this. I could tell you to save some money and get the one without the kickstand, but what would be the point? Assuming Otterbox fixed the rubber case issues with the Commuter case, I’d recommend that over the Seido as far as features go. If you’re looking for better protection, the Otterbox, on paper seems like the better choice (again, assuming the rubber case fits), but for cheap protection against dirt, the Seido is probably the better choice.

Having said that, I’d still shop for alternatives to both. Specifically for cases that have a rubber casing, if fall damage is your primary concern.

The second thing that made this year great was gaming. This year was amazing for gaming, especially if you’re a PC gamer. I felt like the last two years were awful, and I even bought some awful games too, mainly because there was hardly anything else. Talks of the death of PC gaming were starting up again, but as usual, it was nonsense! The year started off a bit slow, but ended really well. Here’s my take on the ups and downs of gaming in 2011:

January was a slow month, but that’s normal. Dead Space 2 was released, which seemed like a good game, though I never got around to finishing it. I’ll have to give it another shot when I get the time.

February gave us

• Test Drive Unlimited 2 - I looked forward to this game because I liked the concept. I didn’t like the first game because the driving model was awful. I got in to the private beta for this game and unfortunately, the same thing as the first – great concept, awful driving model.
• Bulletstorm - Before this game came out, the developers made a fake game, mocking how Call of Duty is just another run and gun corridor shooter without any thought. They said that Bulletstorm would be different and of course I was interested. Unfortunately the game ended up being an immature disappointment and just like the Call of Duty series it mocked, another corridor shooter. Normally I don’t mind simple shooters, after all, why mess with something that works? But they tried to make the game feel different and failed miserably. It just felt like a Halo game with magic tricks.

March actually had some promising titles. Some were disappointments and some were better than expected.

• Dragon Age II - first off, I’d like to mention I haven’t actually played this game and I never finished the first one because I never had the time to. When I finish the first game, I’d like to try Dragon Age II but I’ve heard many fans of the original express their disappointment (how many times will I use this word in this post?) with the sequel.
• Homefront - I was skeptical about this game because I was still salty about Black Ops being a terrible game after it promised so much. And that was BEFORE I take into consideration the performance bug that they took 4 months to fix. Unfortunately Homefront wasn’t that great either. The multiplayer looked fun, but I didn’t want to spend my money. The singleplayer was terrible. I felt like the game treated me like a baby all the way until the end. I can only image they were trying to instill a feeling of teamwork, but they failed at pulling that off.
• Crysis 2 - I enjoyed the singleplayer of this game. I think the multiplayer tried to rip off Call of Duty a bit, but it seemed fun anyway. But the singleplayer was the best part for me. It was one of those fun shooters where you get from A to B and kill everything in your way. I like originality, don’t get me wrong, but sometimes sticking to a fun formula is just as good.
• Need for Speed Shift 2: Unleashed - The original Shift wasn’t that bad. It had better graphics than Forza 3 and a slightly more realistic driving model. The same applies to Shift 2. The graphics are nice (important for a simulation) and the driving model leaned more towards realistic, as opposed to arcade-y. Overall I probably wouldn’t recommend it to a casual racer or a hardcore sim racer, but somewhere in between.

The only game worth mentioning in April is Portal 2. Can you believe this game came out in April? It feels like only yesterday. If you liked Portal 1 you’ll like the second one. For some reason I felt Portal 2 was the perfect length. I got tired of it towards the end, no idea why, but it ended just as I was about to say “I can’t be bothered”. Strange.

In May the most disappointing game was Brink… I know I wrote a good review on it, but I think I wrote it too soon. The game was very promising, I loved the movement system and it seemed fun… Except it was lame. The maps didn’t make any use of the movement system, the A.I. was horrible, no one played it online, the weapons all felt the same… The list goes on. If I’m allowed to take back one review per year, I’ll take back this one. The Witcher 2: Assasins of Kings came out as well, and it seems like a great game, but the controls and the way it teaches you to play sucked. I still want to finish it though, it looks like a deep RPG experience with a great storyline, which is always appealing to me.

June brought Alice: Madness Returns (looks fun, but I never spent the time to finish it) and F.E.A.R. 3 (boring and short). But of course, in the spotlight was Duke Nukem Forever. It finally came out and I know it wasn’t going to be the greatest shooter of all time. In fact, I had pretty low expectations of it – I just wanted it to be a fun corridor shooter. Couldn’t even pull that off. The game was awful, with poor level design, weak feeling weapons and stupid A.I.

July didn’t have anything that interested me, so on to August where the most important game (for me) this year was released. Deus Ex: Human Revolution. I actually had high expectations for this game. I mean, if you’re going to make a Deus Ex game, why bother unless you’re going to do it properly? I was a bit worried that it would be ruined because they wanted to make it for all platforms, which meant pleasing those console kiddies, but in the end, the game turned out fantastic! My only two complaints were that the boss fights were unnecessary and lame and all four “endings” were awful. Otherwise the game stays true to the original in both story and gameplay.

In September we had:

• Dead Island - I was skeptical at first, but I’m glad I bought this. First off, don’t compare this to the Left 4 Dead series. Second, the game isn’t that much fun without friends, so get some friends. After about 2 hours of gameplay, I didn’t really care about the story and the game was a bit buggy at first. But you learn to love this game anyway because it’s actually a lot of fun to play, despite its flaws. I have to admit this was one of the pleasant surprises of this year.
• Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad - I never played the original much, but I knew what I was getting in to if I were to buy this game. It’s a challenging tactical shooter that I wish I spent more time on, but I didn’t purely because of college, work and another multiplayer game that I’ll mention later (though I know you know what it is).

October and the rest of the quarter was really good. Here’s what stood out for me October:

• Rage - I don’t know why some people are disappointed with this game. I didn’t expect much from it and I really enjoyed playing through it. I could see areas where it could of been improved, such as graphics and it’s open world concept, but honestly, it wasn’t that bad.
• Forza Motorsport 4 - I’m sorry, but as the owner of both, any argument as what is the better game between this and Gran Turismo 5 has been decided. Forza 4 I feel is the better game, I always feel compelled to play it, it feels like a much more complete experience and anyone who likes cars can pick it up. I love GT5 but it feels like it’s missing that ‘spark’. I’d be friends with GT5, but Forza 4 has a much more varied personality and she looks great too, which is why I’d be in a relationship with her. (Sorry, but if you’ve made it this far in this post you deserved that).
• Battlefield 3 - This is the reason I’m not playing any other multiplayer game. I can’t get enough of it and despite my hate for Origin, EA’s greed and the way Battlelog works, this game is amazing. The singleplayer and co-op seem ‘meh’ but the multiplayer is why you buy this game. After the pile of crap called Bad Company 2 I was worried this would end up being terrible as well. Fortunately, it ended up being a real PC game and dare I say it, it might even be my Counter-Strike replacement.

November was hit and miss for me. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (or, if it were an Apple product, Modern Warfare 2S) was one that I didn’t bother with and won’t be missed. You have to be a real pubeless fanboy to buy this game at full price and then say it’s good. They made no effort at all to make this game any different. Skyrim was a hit for me. I finished the main story but there are still so many side quests to complete. My only complaints about this game is the combat feels clunky, the interface sucks (on all platforms) and it seems a bit repetitive at times.

I also played Need for Speed: The Run. I think it took me about 4 hours to complete. So yeah, don’t get that. Serious Sam 3: BFE I got for around $25. It was the worst Serious Sam game ever made, but playing the co-op with friends was still fun. Definitely worth $25, but I don’t think I could play it more than once. The game didn’t have that many enemies in the beginning and a lot of times we were running around trying to find where to go next, which isn’t really Sam’s style. Also didn’t get any cool weapons until later in the game.

December didn’t have anything new but that’s okay because the rest of the year had some great titles and gave me loads more games that I need to finish. Overall I’m happy with the way everything turned out. Of course I didn’t mention every game that came out, you can find a list on Wikipedia, I only mentioned the titles important to me. With that being said, I think 2012 has it’s work cut out. I’ll be amazed if 2012 ends up being another great year in gaming. I can’t think of anything that I’m looking forward to except Guild Wars 2 but I don’t even know if that will be released this year. Either way, I have enough to keep me occupied for the rest of the year anyway.

If you made it to the end of this post, then happy new year to you