007 Quantum of Solace (PC Game)

I fancied something a bit different from the run of the mill WW2/Modern Warface FPS games and a bit of James Bond fantasy
seemed a good idea, especially as most reviews seemed to suggest this was one of the better Bond-based games.

The fact that it used the same graphics engine as the Call of Duty Modern Warfare games boded well too as the graphical quality and speed of those games on my fairly low spec Pc (AMD Athlon 4200+/Radeon 4350) were remarkably impressive.

I picked the game up for a bargain price (I can't recall how much exactly now, but it was well under a tenner) and installed it.

The opening bars of the Bond theme feature in the credits and once in the game, the graphics looked good.

It opens as Casino Royale ends with you capturing Mr Green in the Italian Lakeside villa. The first level involves you fighting your way through his henchmen and familiarises you with the basic controls and the cover feature which plays such an important part in the game.

This level looked pretty good and performed well on my PC and so all seemed, initially well, as it did through most of the pursuit of rogue MI6 man, Mitchell, in Sienna, but problems started in the finale of that level, when you fight with Mitchell in the bell tower.

This level involves you moving a crosshair into a target which randomly appears on the screen during the fight. After a few frustrating hours I came to the conclusion that this was actually impossible. A check on the web revealed some others had had similar problems.

I had recently updated my PC's motherboard and processor to an AMD Quad Core processor, but was still running the 4350. I decided that the new processor deserved a better graphics card and bought a Radeon 5770.

After checking the Windows 7 performance Index, the first thing I did was try QoS again and, guess what, I was able to manouevre the crosshair into the target during the Siena fight every time, with not a single miss and progress to the next level of the game.

Once past the slow graphics Siena stalling problem, the rest of the game passed fairly uneventfully.

In many ways the 'you against the world' scenario is much more 'credible' in the context of a 007 game than a WW2 (or Modern Warfare) FPS game and the scenes were all quite faithful to the films (in fact most levels relate to Casino Royale, including one where you battle some of the African leader's henchman in the Casino, before the famous scene in the stairwell - another match the crosses 'boss' level - and a re-enactment of the Construction Site chase that featured at the beginning of that film), but after MW games the quality of the graphics, whilst not bad as such, feel a little 'old school'.



The use of cover is good aspect of the game over COD:MW and MW2, meaning you can duck down behind walls and tables whilst blinding firing at the enemy or bobbing in and out to take aimed shots. Without using this feature you will find yourself dead in short order.

The various levels are:

1. White's Estate
2. Siena
3. Opera House
4. Sink Hole
5. Shantytown (Casino Royale)
6. Construction Site (Casino Royale)
7. Science Center Exterior (Casino Royale)
8. Science Center Interior (Casino Royale)
9. Airport (Casino Royale)
10. Montenegro Train (Casino Royale)
11. Casino Royale (Casino Royale)
12. Casino Poison (Casino Royale)
13. Barge (Casino Royale)
14. Venice (Casino Royale)
15. Eco Hotel

The prevelance of Casino Royale set levels makes me wonder whether delays led to a late release for the Casino Royale game and a need to relate it to the second Craig film.

The denouement is a battle in the Desert hotel, with it exploding around you as you deal with people responsible for the death of the Peruvian agent's family and the bird from the first film.

Overall, Quantum of Solace is a reasonably enjoyable game, but I came away a little disappointed. The need for a higher spec graphics card than the COD:MW games seems odd as the graphics don't look as good as those games, despite supposedly using the same graphics engine. The odd game stopping bug (ok I only encountered one, but it meant having to replay the whole level) and stupid moments where you can't kill an opponent or move was also rather annoying.

However, the overtly run and shoot (albeit with the cover element) nature of the game seems a little at odds with the nature of the James Bond genre, there's no cleverness, stealth or problem solving involved in the game, which I think would have added a more Bond-esque feel to the game. Odd, too, that there's no car or boat chase, which is a fundamental of all Bond films.

Certainly worth picking up at a bargain price if you've reasonably good spec graphics card and like First Person Shooters, but I felt this could've been any game, rather than really feeling like a 'Bond simulator'.

e-Readers - Who do they REALLY benefit?

I'm a moderate reader.

I've usually got a book on the go and am probably also reading the latest Classic & Sportscar, Motor Trend and National Geographic at any point in time, plus the odd magazine now and then that takes my fancy.

I'm also a fan of good modern technology, although not an early adopter (or a fashion-victim), and my eye has been taken, unsurprisingly by the e-readers that people like Sony and Amazon offer.

I'm not a fan of reading on a traditional computer screen, CRT or flat screen, but I must admit the quality of e-reader screens has impressed me greatly with the e-ink which is fairly hard to tell from well printed books on the better e-readers.

The latest Amazon Kindle is only a little more than £100 and is lighter and thinner than most paperbacks - It seems a great little bit of kit and I succumbed and pre-ordered one.

However, after a couple of days thought I cancelled it. Why?

Well, one thing I enjoy doing is browsing charity shops and picking up novels and the odd non-fiction work. This benefits lots of people. The charity gets some money, I save quite a lot of money and often, when I've read it, the book goes back to the shop.

The e-reader model doesn't lend itself to that. Sure I can get free books, but that doesn't aid a charity. OK, I could just donate some cash to the charity (and indeed I do), but that's not the same experience for me. Also, the free books tend to be extremely old or extremely poor. The latest bestsellers aren't going to be free for the foreseeable future.

The second flaw is that I can lend my books to friends and family. I can't do that with a proprietary Kindle book and not everyone will like the books I do, so taking a chance on a Kindle book is an expensive option.

Look on Amazon.com and you'll find most books are available secondhand (in printed form) for much less than the Kindle price; sometimes book are cheaper than the Kindle edition new.

You can carry 3,000 books with you on an e-reader and get hold of any book anywhere with a 3G or wi-fi connection, but honestly, how often will you need to do either of those things?

Obviously, the requirement to buy a totally new edition for everyone who wants to read a book is very appealing to one group of people, the e-book sellers.

I'll continue to watch the e-reader market with interest, but at the moment it looks like a commercially driven technology which really only benefits the sellers.

Errr - No...

Spotted on Flickr...

Përshëndetje snow******!
Now you know how to greet people in Albanian!

I think it'll need a little more than the letters...!

M.

Panasonic Viera TX-P37X10B 37" Plasma TV

I've been very sceptical about flat screen TVs.

Whilst I've wholeheartedly embraced flat screen computer monitors, I've never yet seen a flat screen TV that I think compares (in SD viewing) with a traditional CRT TV.

However, our 28" JVC widescreen was obviously coming to the end of its useful life and a business trip to the US persuaded me of the virtues of HD TVs (with the right quality signal), so I started looking around.

I returned a few times to the Panasonic TX-P37X10B, because of the high refresh rate and plasma virtures, but it wasn't until I saw one alongside LCD TVs in a local Panasonic shop that I was sold.

One TV in the shop stood out as sharper, clearer and more realistic in colours and it was the only Plasma TV in the shop.

I don't have HD (I don't, and probably won't for some while, have a Blu-ray player or an HD TV receiver), so SD quality (especially for sports like Motor Racing and Skiing) was very important to me.

We get most of our TV via Virgin Media cable and the picture quality, viewed from across the room, is very good. Up close it's not as a good as the CRT, but it's still much better than any LCD flat screen I've seen.

DVDs look pretty good too and watching Blade Runner on the BBC recently highlighted the richness of the picture - I watched half on my Sharp LCD TV and half on the Panasonic and the richness and contrast of the Panasonic was so much better than the Sharp as to be beyond compare really.

There is no ghosting on sports broadcasts (I watched a repeat of the Goodwood Revival coverage I had seen previously on my JVC TV and it looked amazing!) and general programmes and films look equally good.

The TV itself is pretty good looking too, with a nice gloss black surround (I almost got the slightly cheaper matt black one, but I glad I didn't) and the sound's ok (I think sound wise the JVC was better).

The feature that lets you view images from a SD card is rather good and photos look excellent - A neat way to show your friends and family your latest photos.

There are plenty of options for connecting DVD/Bluray/AV receivers and games consoles (even PCs) to the TV, but so far I've just used the SCART connections.

Amazon list the inputs as :

CI (Common Interface) yes
VIERA Image Viewer yes (JPEG playback)
HDMI Input 3 (1 side, 2 rear) [ver. 1.3 with x.v.Colour]
Composite Video Input AV3: RCA phono type x 1 (side)
S-Video Input AV3: Mini DIN 4-pin (side)
Audio Input (for Video) AV3: RCA phono type connectors (L, R) (1 set, side)
Component Video Input RCA phono type x 3 [Y, PB, PR] (rear)
PC Input Mini D-sub 15-pin x 1 (rear)
Audio Input (for HDMI, PC, Component) RCA phono type connectors (L, R) x 2 sets (rear x 1 set, side x 1 set)
21-Pin Input/Output AV1: AV In/Out, RGB In, Q-Link (rear) / AV2: AV In/Out, S-Video In, RGB In,
Q-Link (rear)

So, is there any reason I wouldn't wholeheartedly recommend this TV?

Well, partly because of the sound quality, partly because I can't really comment on the HD quality and partly because I still don't believe that flat screens are a match for the old CRT TVs for SD viewing.

I purchased my TV from Richer Sounds (the ever helpful Guildford branch), who matched the best online price and provide a 5 year guarantee on all their items for 10% of the price (much cheaper than anyone else!).

Overall, I'm very pleased with this TV and don't think, for SD viewing anyway, that I could've got a better quality picture in a flat screen TV.

Update January 2025 : Remarkably this still our main TV - Other modern flat screen technologies have caught up with (maybe even surpassed) this old plasma TV over the years, but it still delivers a great picture, with solid blacks and really sharp images in SD (yes, there are still some channels only in SD) and HD (up to 720p anyway). The large frame of the plasma screen means it occupies the space bigger screens (42"+) need now and once in a while it seems to lose the green colour, easily fixed by switching the TV to standby and back. I sometimes think of replacing it (my elderly mother has a 50" LCD TV which delivers a good picture in HD, but, possibly because it's so big, still looks poorer in SD), but it still seems superfluous!

Snow!

Of absolutely no interest to anyone really, but we got snow in the south of England today - A rare occurrence.

I went to Belgium yesterday, supposedly for a meeting in Antwerp, but got no further than the Autoroute between Brussels and Antwerp as we were halted by snow (A RWD BMW 1 series and snow are not a great mix, but my RX8 is no better, so is sitting on the drive today!).

Today, I awoke to this:




Lovely! :)

Call of Duty : Modern Warfare 2 (PC)

I bought Call of Duty 4 : Modern Warfare a couple of years ago and was, frankly, blown away by the outstanding graphics (even on a fairly low end PC), exciting and involving narrative and intense gameplay.

I've been through the game a few times, although my few forays online have resulted in intense frustration as I was repeated killed without even having a clue where the opposition was.

I was, therefore, looking forward to Modern Warfare 2. The trailers looked good (more of the same, but MORE somehow), but the initial release price put me off (COD4 still sells for more than I paid for it - Around £15) and I imagined it would be some months before I got hold of a copy.

A chance offer of a big discount (£25 off!) changed that and I soon had COD : MW2 on my PC and was ready to go.

The PC version of the game installs Steam which forces regular updates and downloads - I could do without this personally. Some say this also means that you cannot resell the game if you tire of it, a big negative in my view (especially at the high initial purchase price) if true.

Although very much the same kind of experience there are actually a number of things I don't enjoy as much about MW2 as I did MW.



First off the colours sometimes seems a bit too vibrant on my PC (see the photo in the boat for a good example).

The washed out colourations of COD4 were different and lent the game a different feeling, but the new games is too bright for my eyes at times. This might be an issue with my oldish graphics card, but it was a negative (albeit a small one).




On the positive side, the graphics are still grand, detailed and wonderful (more on that later, though) and the performance is still outstanding even on my AMD2 PC - this is no gaming Monster PC - except on the ultimate detail settings (and you don't NEED that to enjoy the richness of the games graphics, although it does reward you if you have a high end PC and graphics card).



Secondly the game seems more manic than COD4. There's still a narrative of sorts, but it feels less convincing and coherent and the action is unrelently 'press-on', which means all too often that you can't take in the rich and amazing vistas on offer - You are rarely rewarded (except with a lot of blood spatter) for stepping back and considering the situation and the lean option has been removed, which means cover is strictly on or off and often stepping out from cover will get you killed instantly.

The game also seems rather easy compared to the original. On the Regular setting I often found levels where I really struggled in the original game (I'm not a gaming hotshot!), but I found no such challenges in MW2. Some list the Favella level and the Burger Bar level as challenging, but aside from a few brief delays (especially in the Favella) I encountered little to stop my progress through the levels and the time it takes to play through all the levels in the game seems much less than to play COD4:MW. It took me around 10 hours to complete the game (over a couple of weeks, but I've heard people claim to complete it in 6 hours).

Some of the levels seem to be almost lifted directly from TV programmes or films (Generation Kill - see image below - or Red Dawn viewers will spot the obvious influences), whereas the original game seemed, on the whole, more, well, original...



The controversial "Terrorist training" level is a bit distasteful, but you don't have to shoot civilians (I didn't, but most people I know did!) to get through to the point where the security forces engage you. That said, if shooting people in a computer game is really going to upset you, you're unlikely to buy MW2 and it does come with a prominent 18 rating (in the UK at least) and you can choose to simply skip the whole level at any point during or before it.



Finally, the end of the game is a little disappointing - the speed boat chase is out of character (a bit like a rubbish first person driving game on a console) and the final scenes involve little or no skill or control and the denoument is really just a, frankly, silly rehash of the original game's ending.



That said, the end does leave the narrative suitably open-ended, if a little obviously erring towards a "Soldier of Fortune" kind of plotline.

Overall, Call Of Duty : Modern Warfare 2 is more of the same, but somehow less...

If you have COD4:MW then you'll probably enjoy MW2, but if you only buy one of the COD : MW games make it the original and save yourself a few quid.

Handy for Bracknell

I was recently sent details of this flat, 'local' to Bracknell.



Interesting to see that it's a few miles outside the town centre...