Next Gen Toys

TALES OF TECH LOVE

2011-08-06T18:38:00.002-04:00

After getting a HDTV but never using it to his full potential and with my PC getting not powerful enough for the latest games, I decided to buy an Xbox 360. It was close to the launch, I went to FutureShop but they were sold out. I checked their web site and ordered it there. A week later I got a nice box from the mail with my Xbox 360. I connected it to my HDTV and tried a bunch a demos. After trying a few demos, I decided what game I wanted to buy and got a few. It was the begining of a love story and 85k gamerscore later I still love that console as I loved it on the first day!

TALES OF TECH WOE

2011-08-06T14:57:00.002-04:00

It was Saturday morning, after a week of hard work when I finally had time to continue to play to Assassin's Creed 2 on Xbox 360. I was right in the middle of the story, exploring a new city I just discovered when the image frooze and I saw the red ring of death on my Xbox 360. After 5 years of loyal service (launch console) and 75k gamerscore later, my unit finally left me in the middle a session. I tried waiting a bit, check the Microsoft tech customer but I had to conclude that my console was finally dead and would not be coming back!

To make matters worse, I went to FutureShop to buy another one but they were out of stock. I had to wait 1 week before FutureShop would get more but it was worth it and I could finish Assassin's Creed 2 and add another 1k to my gamerscore!

LEFT 4 DEAD review

2009-06-21T16:18:00.063-04:00

Left 4 Dead is the latest FPS developed by Valve. It is available on Xbox 360 and PC. Valve announced the sequel at the last E3. It made a lot of noise since Left 4 Dead is not old but if it is as good as the first one, why complain?

Story
The story of this game is pretty simple. There is a zombie infection spreading and you must survive. It is as simple as that. No explanation as to how it started. What matters it that you must survive to escape those zombie hordes. It is a fast paced gory blood bath zombie massacre! Sometimes you simply don't need more to make an awesome FPS.

The atmosphere that Valve created is really awesome. It feels like you are in a movie. It reminded me of Robert Rodriguez's Planet Terror (great movie by the way). They paid attention to small details and added humor. For example when you start a campaign you will see a poster of the "movie" with the cast using the player names (ie "Player 1 as Francis") and a catchy line (ie for the chapter/movie "No Mercy", the line is "Curing the infection... one bullet at a time."). When you complete a chapter you will see credits like you would at the end of a movie. If a player died but the others made it, it sill start with "In Memory of Player1". At the end the number of zombie killed will be displayed as "X zombies were harmed in the making of this film". They really paid attention to details.

Gameplay
In campaign mode you play as one of the 4 survivors (Zoey, Bill, Francis, or Louis) and other players (if you are playing online) or the AI control the 3 other characters. The goal of the game is quite simple, as a group you must survive. There are 4 campaigns available containing 5 chapters. You must get to the safe room to continue to the next chapter and in the fifth chapter you must defend a zone against zombie hordes before the transport arrives to rescue your group.

You can also play versus mode. This one can only be played in multiplayer (online or split-screen locally). Up to 4 people play as the survivors and up to 4 people play as zombie specials (more details to follow, for now let's just say their are über zombies). So you play a chapter as one of the team, then it switches to the other side (if you were survivors you become zombies) and so on until the end of the campaign.

While playing you will usually fight (read massacre) "normal" zombies. But sometimes you will face special zombies. There are 5 special zombies, 4 of them being available in versus mode. The witch (which is not available in versus mode) looks like a child crying in a corner. Make sure you do not disturb her or she will run at you and likely kill you (turn off your light and don't make noise). There is also the hunter that jumps before making his kill. The Smoker has a tongue that can strangle survivors. The Boomer can vomit on the survivors and it will attract an horde of zombies. Finally the Tank is like a giant gorilla (for the lack of a better term...): very strong, can throw stuff at you, can jump and climb. Moreover the zombies never spawn exactly at the same places so even if you play the same level multiple times, it will never be exactly the same.

A third mode was added via the free DLC (downloadable content) that is called survival mode (including a new map: The Last Stand). In this mode you must survive against horde of zombies for as long as you can. It might seem easy but it isn't. Sometimes your team won't last more than 30-45 seconds! This FREE DLC puts to shame other DLCs, such as the one from the other zombie game, Resident Evil 5 (which is not even free and should have been included on the retail disc anyway).

Sounds and graphics
The graphics are good, they do the job well but they are not impressive like Gears of War 2 for example. On the other hand it isn't as important since the game takes place at night so everything is dark. Furthermore the game is very fast paced and you will see a zombie head exploding in front of you without having time to analyze it (unless you want to die). There are many zombies and the framerate on the Xbox 360version is always good (for PC it will depend of your computer performance obviously).

The sound and specially the music are very important in the game. Audio is used as it would be in a movie. Based on the audio you can know if a horde is coming to you or a special zombie.

Multiplayer
As described earlier in the gameplay section this game supports multiplayer. I would go even as far as saying that it REQUIRES multiplayer. It is so much fun when you play with other players instead of the AI. If you plan on buying the Xbox 360 version and you don't have Xbox Live, I would almost suggest that you skip this game (you will be missing one great game though).

Conclusion
If you like fast paced FPS and you are not afraid of a zombie blood bath, Left 4 Dead is the perfect game for you. I recommend it, I finished the campaigns a bunch of times but I still have a lot of fun. The only negative aspect I need to point out is that it would need more campaigns. The game is so fun but with only 4 campaigns you still want more. Of course you can try them on Easy, Normal, Advanced, or Expert but it still takes about 35 (on easy) to 95 (on Expert) minutes to complete a campaign. Left 4 Dead: A simple idea executed perfectly!

Score: 9/10

GUITAR HERO: METALLICA review

2009-05-03T16:34:00.057-04:00

Guitar Hero: Metallica is the latest Guitar Hero game from Activision featuring the famous band. It was released a few weeks ago for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii. It isn't sold with instruments since all/most instruments from previous games are compatible depending of the platform. On Xbox 360 any guitar/drum/mic from Guitar Hero 2, Guitar Hero 3, Guitar Hero: World Tour, Rock Band, and Rock Band 2 are compatible. I tested the game on Xbox 360 but from what I read the same can be said for the PlayStation 3 version (except for the guitar from Guitar Hero 2 since the game was never released for PS3) but not all instruments released for Wii are compatible.

Story
The story of this game is pretty simple. You are a young band playing the first part of Metallica concerts. Another band ("hair metal", quite funny) is trying to steal your place but you stand your ground.

Gameplay
If you have played to previous Guitar Hero/Rock Band games you know what to expect. This game is based on Guitar Hero: World Tour so it has the same gameplay features. The major difference from previous games is that this time the music really rocks. While many songs from previous games are good, you are often stuck with Bon Jovi and other crappy groups (no offense to Bon Jovi fans... but I doubt school girls will read this blog anyway ;p).

Most of the popular Metallica songs are available (Master of Puppets, Enter Sandman, One, Battery, Fade to Black, Orion, The Unforgiven, Seek and Destroy...). I still think that some important songs are missing though such as ...And Justice For All, Ride The Lightning (ironic since this was the subtitle used for the game), Call of Ktulu, Blackened, and Four Horsemen. Some of these were available as downloadable content for Rock Band so maybe there was some sort of exclusivity :(. If you bought the Death Magnetic album downloadable content from Xbox Live you'll happy to see that it can be used in Guitar Hero: Metallica (as well as Guitar Hero 3 and Guitar Hero: World Tour). On top of the Metallica songs, the game also includes songs from other artists that are somehow related to Metallica. Unfortunately in my opinion most of them are not as good as Metallica so I think more songs from Metallica should have been available instead.

A new difficulty level was added for the drum (not available for every song, only when justified). This mode is called Expert+ and pretty much requires a second drum pedal to match the drumming style of Metallica's Lars Ulrich. This mode is simply crazy! The game also contains live performance videos and facts about the songs. When the song is not from Metallica you can understand how it is related to Metallica by reading the facts.

Sounds and graphics
As you would expect, audio quality is important in a music game and the quality is really good. The graphics are the same as Guitar Hero: World Tour. They are great and the Metallica characters look quite good. Motion capture was used with the band members to recreate the on-stage experience. The character models are nice since they look like the real Metallica members with a bit of a cartoony look to match the other Guitar Hero characters. Don't expect to see previous members of the band in the game, only the current members are available. On the other hand 3 models can be used for each member: current, classic and zombie.

Multiplayer
The game supports many multiplayer modes (the same as Guitar Hero: World Tour). You can play 1 vs 1 (battle, face off, pro face off), 2 vs 2, coop (2 guitar/bass or whole band), band vs band (this mode is really fun)... Of course you can play these different modes with friends in front of the same screen or over Xbox Live.

Conclusion
If you like Guitar Hero/Rock Band games and you are a Metallica fan this game is a must have. Guitar Hero seems to be taking over Rock Band (across all platforms, US sales for 2008 stand at 3.4 million for Guitar Hero: World Tour and 1.7 million for Rock Band 2) and I am not sure how Rock Band can make a comeback. I don't believe they are heading in the right direction with Lego Rock Band. Personally I would take a Metallica music game over a Lego music game any day. Don't get me wrong I think the Lego Star Wars/Indiana Jones/Batman games are fun games but a music game featuring Lego characters? Shouldn't they be concerned about the music?

Score: 8.5/10

STAR WARS WITH D-BOX MOTION review

2009-04-12T19:38:00.048-04:00

As you might have noticed from my previous reviews, my D-BOX SRP-120 Motion Platform, along with my Xbox 360, is one of my favorite gadgets. Since there aren't many people with that cool toy yet, it makes my motion reviews quite original. So far I only reviewed games but if you look at the D-BOX web site, you will notice that they support over 800 movies on DVDs and Blu-Ray discs. The same motion platform can be used for both movies and games (you do need a different controller unfortunately).

Is there a better movie to benchmark a system than Star Wars? Of course not! More than 30 years since its release, Star Wars is still the reference. The influence the Star Wars movies had on the whole cinema industry are still felt today. But haven't I already fully experienced Star Wars? I have seen these movies at least a hundred times (no kidding!). I watched them in pan & scan (when I didn't know better) and widescreen. I heard them in the original language and dubbed, in mono, stereo and Dolby Digital 5.1. I have seen them on Beta, VHS, analog TV (with ads), Laser Disc, DVD, digital cable, standard theater (1997 Special Editions and the prequel trilogy), IMAX theater (Episode 2), digital theater (Episode 3). And more precisely, what about the classic trilogy? I have seen the original 1977, 1980 and 1983 editions, the 1997 Special Editions and the 2004 DVD Editions. Yes I though I had seen them all... but I was wrong!

So here it is, a review of the Star Wars DVDs with D-BOX Motion Code!

Star Wars: Episode 4 - A New Hope
I don't think I need to describe the movie. Unless you lived under a rock for the last 30 years, you know the story. It's the one that started it all! Luke Skywalker begins his Jedi training with Obi-Wan, rescues princess Leia with Han and Chewbacca and finally blows up the Death Star. Simple yet effective!

What about the motion though? I only have one word to say: AMAZING! I had chills down my spine when seeing, I mean feeling, the Tantive IV (rebel ship) being shot by The Executor (imperial destroyer) at the beginning of the movie. The motion and vibrations really add a whole new experience to Star Wars. You will feel effects about everywhere you would expect them (and won't be disappointed). You will also have some surprises but you will never feel inappropriate motion and vibrations when there shouldn't be any.

The best motion effects are experienced when you are aboard a space ship. The Millenium Falcon steals the show here when leaving Mos Eisley and being attacked by Star Destroyers, arriving to the destroyed Alderaan and being pulled by the Death Star tractor beam and finally fighting TIE Fighters while escaping the Death Star. The final Death Star battle also includes very nice motion effects. Furthermore, vibrations effects are also used effectively for gun shots (every gun shot feels different), massive explosions (Alderaan, Death Star) and subtle Sandcrawler (vehicle used by the Jawas) movement. There is also an interesting mix of motion and vibration when Luke is using its Lanspeeder, it makes you feel like you are floating. The final fight between Vader and Obi-Wan also uses a good mix of motion and vibration.

I expected these effects and I wasn't disappointed. On the other hand, I felt some unexpected, but very cool, motion effects. I felt like I was being thrown when Vader throws Captain Antilles at the beginning of the movie. Same thing when Chewbacca throws an imperial officer trying to reach the holding cells to free Leia. I think only 1 effect was missing: it would have been great to have a subtle effect of back pitch when a stormtrooper hits his head when entering the control room where C-3PO and R2-D2 are hiding (the fans obviously know about this but the casual viewer probably never even noticed this).

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Star Wars: Episode 5 - The Empire Strikes Back
The best movie ever made. Could it be even better with motion? The short answer is yes! This one is about Luke meeting Yoda to continue his training, Han being captured by Boba Fett and, of course, Luke learning that Vader is his father.

As soon as I felt the motion effects of the probe droid pods being dispatched from the Star Destroyer to find the rebel base at the beginning of the movie, I knew this one was going to be as awesome as the previous one.

As expected, the motion effects of the ships are really great. The battle of Hoth with snowspeeders is amazing, you feel like you are part of the action, flying alongside the rebel team. The same can be said about the multiple scenes of the Millenium Falcon, including the famous escape through the asteroid field! Furthermore, there are many scenes screaming for extreme vibrations and we are being served (the scene where imperial troops are blasting their way through the rebel base on Hoth and the one where the giant worm is getting pissed after Han shot him from the inside).

The fight scene between Vader and Luke also benefits from the D-BOX system. It starts with many motion effects that make you feel like you are doing a lightsaber duel. As the fight goes on and the intensity gets stronger, you will really feel the, once subtle, vibration effects upon lightsaber impacts. There is also a nice subtle "floating" effect when carbonite Han is being moved to the Slave-1 (the ship used by Boba Fett) cargo hold.

This proves that the best movie ever made can be even better...

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Star Wars: Episode 6 - Return of the Jedi
Return of the Jedi is a good movie to end the original saga. Basically, as you know, Luke and his friends rescue Han from Jabba the Hutt, the rebel alliance destroys the second Death Star and the emperor and Vader die.

The first part of the movie seems to have less motion effects than the previous movies. This is perfectly fine as the on-screen action isn't suited to motion effects at the beginning. The first major scene featuring many effects is the scene where Luke fights the Rancor. Even though it is not a scene including ships, I was impressed at how effective it is. It makes the Rancor seem even more massive, you feel like you are being part of the action, fighting with Luke. Another awesome scene is the one where Luke escapes on Jabba's Sail Barge near the Sarlacc Pit. Many vibrations reproduce the multiple gun shots. The motion effects are also great as there is a lot of moving and jumping around from Luke as well as the flying barge moving.

The fights on the moon of Endor and in space around the Death Star also don't disappoint. Extensive use of motion is done, as it should be. Furthermore, a more subtle, but effective, use of motion and vibration is felt while Luke fights Vader in the final confrontation. The question you are probably wondering now is which scene is the coolest one with motion effect... The Endor speeder bike chase or the navigation through the Death Star tunnels? I have been thinking about this and can't decide, you'll have to feel them to make your mind. As Han said to Lando, "Good luck, you are going to need it" if you want to decide :).

The 3 movies from the classic trilogy are awesome with motion but, while it is a pretty close call, overall Episode 6 has the best motion effects.

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Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace
The Phantom Menace is the first movie of the prequel saga. This is obviously the story of Anakin Skywalker but the important part is that it is the beginning of the rise of Palpatine as the supreme chancellor which will eventually lead to the birth of the Empire: while saving Queen Amidala from the Trade Federation, Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan meet Anakin Skywalker who is to be trained to become a Jedi. A special note about this DVD is that the image quality is not very good. This was the first Star Wars movie to be released on DVD and it shows. Unlike the other movies, the picture is plagued with edge enhancement.

As you would expect now, the motion effects are put to good use in every space ship scenes. Very similar motion effects are also played when Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon and Jar Jar are using the Bongo (Gungan submarine). On the other hand, when the same group first goes to the underwater city, a very cool motion effect (new to me) is used to simulate the action of swimming. I was also impressed by the subtle mix of motion and vibration when the first droidekas (Destroyer Droids) attack Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon at the beginning of the movie. You feel them rolling, deploying, putting their shield on and then starting to shoot.

The final battle of the movie is very impressive motion wise. You get a great range of motion and vibration effects since you've got space ships flying, shooting and exploding, hoovering tanks moving and shooting, a Gungan army and a small militia group from Naboo shooting and, of course, the final lightsaber duel between Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon and Darth Maul. The motion and vibration effects are as diversified as the on-screen action so it really adds to the whole experience.

Although this is a really great scene for motion, my favorite scene is the famous pod race. It seems it was designed for the D-BOX motion system. When the race is about to begin and all the pod racers start their engine, you feel the vibration of every engine. This is not a "generic engine effect" used for every pod, it is different for each one and matches the specific sound and visual of the pod. Once the race starts, you feel the acceleration as if you were in the pod turning left and right and even jumping.

The only disappointment I had related to the motion rendering of this movie is that I expected some effect when Jar Jar is pushed by Sebulba when they first meet in Mos Espa. This is a very minor observation but after what was done in Episode 4 (Vader throwing Antilles and Chewbacca throwing some stomtroopers) I expected a similar result.

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Star Wars: Episode 2 - Attack of the Clones
Now that the bases are established for the new trilogy, it is time for some action. The story is about the rise to power of Palpatine and the beginning of the clone war. After an assassination attempt on Senator Amidala's life, Obi-Wan investigates a bounty hunter called Jango Fett and discovers the creation of the clone army while Anakin starts to fall to the dark side.

The motion and vibration effects impress almost as soon as the movie begins. We can feel some great effects while Anakin and Obi-Wan chase Zam Wessel (the bounty hunter hired by Jango Fett) through Coruscant. The other effects in the first part of the movie are more subtle, as it should be, following the on-screen events but it doesn't mean these effects are weak. For example, when Zam programs and sends her droid to kill Amidala, we can experience a nice effect as the droid leaves to reach its destination.

On the other hand, the last part (specially the last third of the movie) is quite the opposite. So far, it is the most intense experience I have had with the D-BOX motion system. It starts with the fight between Obi-Wan and Jango Fett on Kamino. This fight is a good opportunity to discover "new" effects since it doesn't really involve flying ships and lightsabers. Then there is non stop action resulting in multiple motion and vibration effects. The space fight where Jango Fett and the Slave-1 drops seismic charges is enhanced by some impressive motion. Motion seems to add even more to the scene as there is no sound when the charge is dropped but it is followed by a high volume explosion, creating an even more dramatic effect. Basically, this scene is followed by the arena fight, leading to the ultimate Jedi battle involving clones, droids, chases and, of course, duels (Anakin, Obi-Wan, Dooku and Yoda).

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Star Wars: Episode 3 - Revenge of the Sith
This is the best movie from the prequel trilogy and I think it is the Star Wars movie that benefits the most from the D-BOX motion system. You know the story: Anakin becomes Darth Vader and the Emperor executes almost every jedi. The only hope of the rebel alliance is the offspring of Anakin, hidden from him.

I don't have much to say about the motion and vibration effects of this movie except that they are awesome. From the beginning to the end you will feel them since there is almost non-stop action. I would have to describe the whole movie to highlight the strong parts :). This is the movie that should be used as a demo of any D-BOX system!

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Conclusion
As you noticed, I made movies to show some of the motion effects (you can't see vibrations unfortunately, you need to sit on the chair to feel them). I chose some of the scenes with the most intense effects that are generated continuously through the whole sequence so that it is easier to see. Remember, if you haven't seen the Star Wars movies with D-BOX motion code, you haven't seen them at all!

TOP 5 REASONS WHY ONLIVE MIGHT FAIL

2009-04-04T11:04:00.059-04:00

The OnLive service was revealed last week at GDC 2009 (Game Developers Conference). This service looks very promising. It will allow you to play games using a simple web browser on your computer or using their MicroConsole on your TV. And no, despite the fact that they named their service OnLive, similar to Microsoft's Xbox Live service and they named their console MicroConsole, similar to Microsoft, this company has nothing to do with Microsoft. I am not into the whole lawyer stuff (pretty much hate it in fact) but I can smell the lawsuit coming...

The way I see it, this service has 1 great advantage over our current gaming setups. You would need to upgrade your expensive high end PC every month to be able to play to the latest games with decent graphic settings. While I don't think it it likely to happen, if consoles were to be supported, you would not have to buy an Xbox 360, a PS3, and a Wii to be able to play to all the exclusive games: a simple OnLive account would be enough.

Sadly this is the only advantage I can see. On the other hand, I can find many negative consequences that are, in my opinion, deal breakers. So here are my top 5 reasons why OnLive might fail.

5. Stability of the Service
I don't really like to rely totally on an external service. If you have a problem with your internet connection, OnLive will not be available. If OnLive is down for maintenance or technical reasons, you will not be able to play to any games. OnLive will probably require a complex infrastructure to run (you need high processing power to run all these games and do real time HD video encoding as well as major bandwidth to send all this data) and it is likely to go down a few times. If you look at major multiplayer games like Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4, you will remember that at launch, so many players wanted to play that the servers of Microsoft and Sony were slow (Microsoft and Sony are not small companies with crappy servers...). And these servers only handled the game connections, they didn't run the entire games and stream 5 mbps video to every player...

4. Video Quality
Everybody likes high video quality (except Wii players...). The current consoles (Xbox 360 and PS3) and PC can deliver awesome HD graphics. They deliver it directly and uncompressed to your monitor or TV. OnLive cannot do that. It has to compress the video (5 mbps rate for HD) and it has to do it in real-time so the quality cannot be as good. Furthermore it seems that HD will be limited to 720p so no support for 1080i or 1080p. If you were lucky enough to compare HD cable or satellite video quality to Blu-Ray or HD-DVD, you noticed that while both are HD, the quality is far from being the same: cable and satellite are not as good.

3. Limited Games
Don't get me wrong, the list of games available for a new service such as this one is really impressive. Major developers support OnLive and the list includes games such as Burnout Paradise, Tomb Raider Underworld, Hawx, Fear 2, GRID, Crysis Warhead, Lego Batman, Unreal Tournament 3, Mirror's Edge, Bioshock... Unfortunately, that is still a very small list if you compare it to every game available on PC. If your game is not supported, you are pretty much stuck and will have to forget about it. Otherwise you would also need a gaming PC on top of the OnLive service, which pretty much defeats the whole purpose of having an OnLive account...

You are also likely to get a limited experience with those games. Many games support user software content (mods) and hardware add-ons such as my D-BOX Motion Platform or Philips amBX. I highly doubt you will be able to install those cool Unreal Tournament 3 mods or use you D-BOX motion system in GRID or Crysis Warhead if you use the OnLive version of these games.

2. High End Internet Connection
OnLive allows you not to need a high end PC but it replaces that requirement for a high end internet connection. You will need a very good internet connection (not something that every gamer has or even has access to) to be able to use the service. For HD gaming you will need a connection that can receive 5 mbps continuously. You also need an internet provider that doesn't impose crazy download limits since OnLive swallows 2.5 gig of download for each hour of play.

1. Unresponsive Controls
Controls are a major element of any game and responsive controls are very important to appreciate the game. On the other hand unresponsive controls can really frustrate gamers. How annoying would it be in a FPS to shoot an enemy but to be killed because of the delayed controls? You probably already experienced a similar effect in a multiplayer game if your connection was bad... and you likely left the game. This issue is even more obvious with games such as Guitar Hero and Rock Band. These types of game would definitely not be possible on a remote service like OnLive. I don't care what algorithm you use to try to diminish the effects of lag: you will experience delays, even using a good internet connection. You cannot tell me that the control response on a system that will be a few miles away from me can be as good as the response on my PC or console that are a few feet away from me... You also need to add to that equation the fact that the service needs to encode video before streaming it. This will add another delay because of the processing time required to encode it.

Conclusion
In the end, will the OnLive service be worth it? Only time will tell. If it works perfectly (which I don't believe is possible with the current hardware and connectivity) and gets support from game developers, it could be awesome for PC players that have great internet connections.

But on the other end, if you simply want to play without having to spend a fortune upgrading your PC every month you can simply buy a console. It costs between $200 (Xbox 360) to $500 (160 gig PS3) and is supposed to last 5 to 10 years... No need to dedicate your internet connection to it, no need to worry about availability of games, no need to worry about unresponsive controls...

THE LAST REMNANT review

2009-02-28T10:26:00.092-05:00

The Last Remnant is an RPG developed and published by Square-Enix. It was released on November 2008 for Xbox 360 and will make its debut on PC this month. A PlayStation 3 version will be released eventually but no date have been announced so far.

Story
Last Remnant tells the story of Rush Sykes, a young man (obviously effeminate looking since this is a Square game) who is looking to save his sister from an evil wizard. Rush will discover that a bigger evil plan is behind this kidnapping and he will try to save the world. The story is alright, it is not awesome but it is far from being mediocre, it is a classic story of good versus evil. Unfortunately you might get lost in the main story because you are likely to forget the major events. The reason for that is that you will spend most of your time doing sidequests instead of the main quest. There are about 75 sidequests in the game. For each progression event you accomplish in the main story you unlock 2 to 5 sidequests. Most of these sidequests have no link to the main mission so they are pretty much irrelevant story wise. On the other hand, the characters of The Last Remnant are diversified and adds a nice touch to the story. Futhermore, the world in which these characters evolve is also interesting and well developed.

Gameplay
The combat system is fun but it will frustrate some players as you don't have full control over your party. Characters are called units and parties are called unions. You create unions from available units and then you are ready to get into a fight. You cannot control specific units, you can only control the general actions a union will execute.

It seems Square developed the game quickly since the different locations are pretty basic. There is no 3D world map where you can walk to go to different places. There is only a 2D map where you chose a specific location and you are automatically teleported there. Even the cities are not fully rendered. You have a city map and you can chose between 2 to 5 areas to go in the city. The use of invisible walls to stop you from going to certain places in the cities feel really cheap in 2009. Furthermore the same dungeons are used again and again and again: you can have up to ~6 quests in the same location.

The biggest flaw in the game mechanic is the way Square designed the character leveling. It is the worst system I have ever seen and it almost kills the game. Basically you have 2 choices. You can play normally, fighting monsters as you encounter them. You might have fun but you will not be able to fight the god-like bosses. The other option is to run away from every single monster (a lot of fun...) until you reach specific areas with strong monsters. You fight them over and over to level up and then continue to run away from the weaker ennemies... The reason this works is because you characters have attributes/skill points as well as a general battle rank. The goal is obviously to have more points but a lower battle rank. Strong monsters increase your points more than weak monsters. Fair enough. But your battle rank increase pretty much the same if you fight weak or strong monsters. The higher your battle rank is, the less points you get for each fight. The only way to maximize your points is to avoid normal (weak) monsters at all cost and only fight strong monsters.

Sounds and graphics
The Last Remnant uses the Unreal 3 Engine. The battles look really good. While most games don't benefit a lot from installing them on the Xbox 360 hard drive, this game does. I would go as far as saying that this is mandatory for this game in my opinion. If you don't install it, the battles will not be fluid. This solves the problem in the first part of the game but on the 2nd disc (OMG you will have to change disc after ~30 hours of gameplay!!!!11111 OMG!!!!! Multiple discs = Epic Failure, think of Final Fantasy 7! ;p) with multiple unions, you will get slowdowns in big battles.

The environments, even if they are simple and lack some details, also look good. On the other hand, Square was really lazy when it came down to polishing the game. The game uses cheap tricks to try to hide, miserably, the lack of animations. For example, in the big battles with reinforcement troops, instead of seeing the reinforcement units arrive you will get the following: an animation of doors opening (from a fortress or castle), black screen for 2 seconds (Uh?...), units magically appearing on the battle field, animation of doors closing. But wait, it gets even more pathetic at the end of disc 1. When you reach the end of disc 1, you really completed the first part of the story. The game could end here and the second disc could be labelled as The Last Remnant 2. Instead of having a nice little ending with a cutscene you get a freaking black screen (not even static 2D pictures) and you hear a narrator explaining the events since the next part of the game takes place later. I have never starred at a black screen for so long. Weak!

I also need to talk about the loading times. Even after installing the game (this is on Xbox 360 so this means the WHOLE disc is copied to the hard drive, you cannot get faster than this) the loading times are terrible. They completely kill the rhythm of the game. Let's take a classic example. You are in the city, you want to see your map since it is the only way possible to move around, so you press the button and you are greeted with a short loading screen (yes, a loading screen for loading a simple 2D static map...), press the button again to go to the world map instead of the city map and you will see another short loading screen. Chose a destination on the map. Long loading screen. Move your character around and encounter a boss. Long loading screen. Cutscene. Long loading screen. Fight. Long loading screen. Cutscene. Long loading screen and you are finally ready to play again. It completely kills any momentum the game could have, it is that bad.

Multiplayer
This game doesn't support multiplayer. You can't blame Square, I don't know how they could come up with an interesting multiplayer mode for this game.

Conclusion
This game is more than a deception. It has some major flaws and it feels cheap. This looks like a budget title, not the type of game you would expect from a major company such as Square-Enix. In my opinion, it is obvious that Bioware (Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Mass Effect...) is now, by far, the leading company for linear RPG games, a crown that Square once owned but started to lose with Final Fantasy 7 (to their defense, Final Fantasy 6 was so awesome, how could they do better?). The big battles are quite fun though, I had one that lasted about 1 hour and it was really great. Square-Enix released free downloadable add-ons for the game but unfortunately it is far from being enough to redeem it.

Score: 4/10

MICROSOFT FLIGHT SIMULATOR X WITH D-BOX MOTION review

2009-02-08T17:30:00.095-05:00

Microsoft Flight Simulator is probably the most known PC flight simulator. I suspect almost every PC user tried it at least once. However I highly doubt many of them experienced it with a motion system. I will review the latest version of this simulator, Flight Simulator X, using a D-BOX SRP-120 Motion Platform (see my previous review for details).

The installation process of Flight Simulator X is done via a standard Windows Installer. The same can be said about the D-BOX motion add-on. Many options are available through the D-BOX motion settings to adjust and enable the motion features that you want. You can even chose the way the motion is rendered (gravity and G-Force, gravity and pitch or body accelerations). Unlike the previous D-BOX games I tried, you have an option in the configuration settings to enable or disable the use of the add-on. I simply enabled motion in this panel to experience motion automatically every time Flight Simulator X was started.

Flight Simulator X has many options that you can configure to your preferences. The display section allows the user to configure the settings related to the graphics. A powerful computer is required to achieve the highest quality with a decent framerate even though this is an old game. Another section is used to configure the audio settings. Every control available in the game can be customized by assigning it to a specific keyboard/mouse/joystick input. Finally a section is dedicated to the realism options. This allows the user to adjust the difficulty level.

There are 2 types of activities in the game: free flights and missions. Missions involve performing a specific task and allow you to learn the basics (and more) of piloting. The missions are ordered by difficulty. On the other hand free flight mode doesn't have any goal, as you would expect. It lets the user chose his airplane/helicopter, location, time of the day and weather conditions. Flight Simulator X (Deluxe) includes:

24 airplanes/helicopters
45 high-detail airports
38 high-detail cities from all over the world
50+ structured missions

I am not an expert at flying (as you can easily see in my videos) but you don't need to be a real pilot to enjoy this game even if it is a simulator. You can play seriously and might even learn some key information about flying. On the other hand you can adjust the realism level to your likings and do some air stunts!

I won't lie to you, I cannot really talk about the realism of the motion rendered by the D-BOX system. It seemed good to me but I can't compare it to the real thing since I have no idea of what flying should feel like. I can get an idea of what it might be to be in a real race car even if I don't drive one but it is not as easy for a plane. What I can say about the motion though is that it adds a lot of fun to the whole experience. When you are about to take off, you can feel the texture of ground surface based on your speed and the ground type through the vibrations generated. Similar to driving games, you can also feel the vibrations of the engine. The motion you experience while flying is unlike anything you could experience in a driving game. You know if you go left or right, up or down, simply by feeling the motion effects. I noticed in the configuration settings of the motion panel that many effects can be enabled or disabled. I can conclude that many realistic effects are implemented. I experienced the stall effect and it added a nice touch of realism (I guess). My favorite effect is when you are about to take off and you feel the bumps on the ground. As soon as you take off everything is smooth and for a moment you almost feel like you are flying. My only disappointment is the rendering of the helicopter vibrations. It seemed too smooth to me but I might be wrong as I have never been in one.

To conclude, I made some videos to give a rough idea of what it might feel like. Unfortunately you can only see the motion and will miss the vibrations. Please notice that when it comes down to flight simulations, I am more of a stunt man than a real pilot :).

video 1 direct link

video 2 direct link

INTEL E7300 AND OVERCLOCK review

2009-02-07T13:05:00.077-05:00

Intel is the world leader in the microprocessor market. Its main competitor, AMD, managed to steal the performance crown on a few occasions in the past but currently Goliath wins against David. Today I will review the intel Core 2 Duo E7300 processor and explain how you can achieve a better performance if you are willing to overclock it.

DISCLAIMER
Overclocking is not for the faint of heart. The performance benefits come with a cost. Overclocking could DAMAGE your processor PERMANENTLY and it VOIDS your warranty. Do not attempt anything unless you understand the risks of what you are doing.

It is important to warn you about the danger of overclocking but on the other hand, I don't want to scare you. Overclocking isn't an underground practice anymore reserved to the self proclaimed computer elite. Major motherboard manufacturers such as Asus provide whole BIOS configuration pages dedicated to overclocking.

Basically overclocking is having your processor clock run faster than the standard frequency proposed by intel or AMD. Obviously this makes your processor faster and if you are a technology enthusiast, chances are you want to get the most out of your components. You have to keep in mind that every processor is unique. The results I achieved with my E7300 are likely different that the results you would achieve with another E7300.

Before talking about overclocking, let's see the intel Core 2 Duo E7300. As its name implies, that is a dual core processor. The official specifications (directly from the intel web site):

sSpec Number: SLAPB
CPU Speed: 2.66 GHz
PCG: 06
Bus Speed: 1066 MHz
Bus/Core Ratio: 10
L2 Cache Size: 3 MB
L2 Cache Speed: 2.66 GHz
Package Type: LGA775
Manufacturing Technology: 45 nm
Core Stepping: M0
CPUID String: 10676h
Thermal Design Power: 65W
Thermal Specification: 74.1°C
VID Voltage Range: 0.85V – 1.3625V

The specs in bold are the most important ones to check and I will explain them in this article. The E7300 comes with a basic HSF (heatsink fan) that will do the job if you want to run it at stock speeds but you will need a better cooling unit if you want to overclock, such as the OCZ Vendetta 2 (see my previous review). The reason is a higher clock (and often a higher voltage, more on this later) will generate more heat. To dissipate that heat and ensure the stability of the system, you need a good HSF. When buying a new HSF, make sure that it supports the package type you have (LGA775 for a E7300). Most HSF support multiple types while others support only one specific type.

To overclock you need to go to your BIOS and change some settings. Motherboards have different names for these options. On my Asus P5Q Pro motherboard, the section is called Ai Tweaker. You will see options such as multiplier and FSB (names can be different, it can also be a ratio instead of a direct FSB option). A stock E7300 runs at 10 (multiplier) x 266 Mhz (FSB), resulting in a 2.66 Ghz frequency. To achieve a higher frequency you can increase or decrease the multiplier and the FSB. For example, I run my E7300 at 3.8 Ghz with a multiplier of 9.5 and a FSB of 400. Unfortunately, overclocking is not as simple as that. With a higher frequency, your system might become unstable. To avoid that, you need to increment the voltage of the processor (maybe the Northbridge and Southbridge) and make sure your temperature is not too high. As you can see from the official intel specs, you should not exceed 1.3625V. For my overclock, I had to increase the vCore to 1.3625V to be stable. I didn't need to increase my Northbridge and Southbridge (I don't recommend it unless you use a better cooling system for these and find the official safe voltage specifications).

You want to use the lowest voltage possible while having a stable system. You need to start low and do some tests. If the tests fail you increase the voltage and start over until you are satisfied. As you can see, it is impossible to prove that your system is stable, you can only prove that it isn't. To check your system stability I recommend a few utilities (all of them are free). To check your temperature (remember, a E7300 must not go higher than 74.1°C) you can use Speedfan. The main stability test I use is Prime 95. I execute a torture test (it is the actual name of the test in Prime 95) of 15 hours straight. If no errors are detected, I consider my system stable. If you are running a 64-bit version of Windows, make sure you use the 64-bit version of Prime 95 as it will push your system to its limits even more. Another stability test I use is Intel Burn Test (also compatible with AMD now). This is an EXTREME test, make sure you monitor your temperature since it will go about 20°C higher than it would have after running a few hours of Prime 95. Again you should use the 64-bit version for a better test of your system. Finally I also use Memtest86+ to check the stability of my memory. The easiest way to use it is to burn it on a CD-R/RW and boot from the disc.

To conclude I'll simply say that this article is a simple introduction to the concepts of overclocking. If you are serious about overclocking, before attempting anything you should read more in-depth articles. Remember, this could DAMAGE your processor and it VOIDS your warranty. You should not consider this solution to save money as it is time consuming, I only recommend it to fellow computer enthusiasts. And please, don't try it on a $1k processor... Doing it on a $120 processor is alright, doing it on a $1k processor is just crazy. Sorry if you got a $1k processor, my $120 processor has a higher clock than yours ;p (intel doesn't make Core 2 or Core i7 processors at 3.8 Ghz yet).

ARCA SIM RACING WITH D-BOX MOTION review

2009-02-01T13:34:00.085-05:00

ARCA Sim Racing is a stock-car racing simulator for Windows developed by The Sim Factory LLC. This simulator is based on the rFactor engine since The Sim Factory licensed it from Image Space Incorporated and modified it to be more accurate for oval racing. It is officially licensed by ARCA Incorporated, Ford, GM (Chevrolet, Pontiac), Chrysler and Toyota. I will review this simulator using a D-BOX SRP-120 Motion Platform (see my previous review for more details) to experience motion.

Don't be fooled by the first impression you might get from this simulator! Once you receive your package from the mail (you order it online), you will notice that the box art is pretty basic: while it gets the job done, it still looks home made (see my pictures). The installation process is straight forward and standard. Then you should install the patch to get the latest version. I managed to find the update page on the official web site but the download links for the patches are invalid... I did a search on Google and found the patches on other web sites. The Sim Factory did not digitally sign the patches and you don't download them from the official site so you have to hope for the best and have your anti-virus software running. Right now, 3 patches need to be installed. One to get to version 1128C, one to get to 1128D and one to get to 1128G. These patches are not cumulative so you have to install each of them separately. The first 2 patches need to be ran from the folder where ARCA Sim Racing is installed but the third one asks you where the simulator is installed (they are getting better!). You are finally ready to play but if you are running Windows Vista, the configuration window will pop-up forever without letting you start the game... You have to right-click on the shortcut and select "run as administrator". At last you can start the game and create your driver profile... Not so fast, first you need to exit the game then you can use your profile! The D-BOX Motion Code add-on installation is standard and you'll notice the now familiar motion/vibration configuration settings to tweak the effects.

Many consider this simulator to be the best stock-car simulator on the market since Nascar 2003 and I have to agree. My first impression was not so good but overall these problems are minor and are likely to be fixed in the future. ARCA Sim Racing only needs more polishing on the user friendliness side. On the other hand, the game delivers when it comes to racing and that is what really matters!

All the different events are simulated starting from the practice, qualifying session, warmup and the race. Furthermore all the major tracks (oval and road course) are included: Daytona International Speedway, Duquoin State Fairgrounds, Iowa Speedway, Kansas Speedway, Michigan International Speedway, Montréal Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Nashville Superspeedway, Pocono Raceway, Rockingham Speedway, Salem Speedway, Talladega Superspeedway, The Milwaukee Mile, Toledo Speedway as well as USA International Speedway. While the graphic engine is not the most recent, you'll notice that all the tracks are nicely detailed. All the official cars (Ford, GM, Chrysler and Toyota) are available and look like the real ones but their most impressive feature is the sound coming from their engines. On top of that, many settings are available to tune the handling of your car.

The physic engine is really good, which is not a surprise coming from a modified version of the rFactor engine. It probably has a direct impact on the D-BOX motion rendering which is, again, awesome. The whole experience really benefits from the motion system since you can feel the acceleration, even taking into effect the shifting of the gears. I felt the lateral G-Force when turning left or right as I would probably feel driving a real stock-car. And I told you that the sound of the car engine was impressive but when you add the simulated engine vibration produced by the D-BOX system to that, it is even better.

I tried to explain the motion effects as best as I could but it is not easy to describe them until you try a D-BOX motion system. I made 2 videos to show the motion in action (unfortunately you cannot really see the vibration in these videos, you would need to sit on the chair to feel them). Oh and don't worry, as I wrote earlier, the oval tracks are available but I chose the Montréal road course for these videos:

video 1 direct link

video 2 direct link

FABLE 2 review

2009-01-25T10:50:00.088-05:00

Fable 2 is an action RPG developed by Lionhead Studios and published by Microsoft Game Studios. It was designed by one of the most known game designers, Peter Molyneux. While he might be famous for his overenthusiastic description of the first Fable game, he is still one of a kind game designer. There aren't many designers that were honored by the English government with a title of officer in the Order of the British Empire and Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government. But the question is, how does it affect Fable 2? While not revolutionary, Fable 2, like its designer, is one of a kind game.

Story
Like every other RPG, the bottom line of the story of Fable 2 is good versus evil. You start as a child in the fantasy world of Albion and witness a tragic event that will change your life forever (I mean the life of your character, not your real life of course). To achieve your goal you can be good or you can be evil. I don't want to say more about the story as I feel this would ruin the game. I will simply say that the story itself is good but not amazing.

What makes this game really shine is the attention to details. As I said earlier, you can be good or evil. How you handle quests will have an impact on your environment and the story. For example, at some point in the game, you will have an quest to help a farmer get rid of bandits and you will have another quest to help the bandit organisation recruit more members. Obviously you can't do both. If you help the farmer, when you come back later in the game (the story takes place over the lifespan of your character, this is not a continuous one event time line) you will see and interact (including doing quests) with the farmer that now has an industrial farm. On the other hand, if you didn't help him get rid of the bandits, you will see the ruins of his small farm as the bandits took over the region.

The choices you make in the game usually have a permanent impact so make sure you chose wisely.

Gameplay
You have to accomplish quests to progress through the story. You can do the available quests in the order that you want but some quests need to be completed before others unlock. There are quests that are part of the main story and there are side-quests. Some side-quests are available only after you have completed the main story so keep playing if you want to see everything. On the other hand, some side-quests won't be available anymore after you have completed some main quests. If you don't want to miss any quest, make sure you do the side-quests once they get available before doing the main quests. Usually when you are doing a quest, a line will guide you to get you where you need to go. You can turn it off if you want more challenge instead of being told exactly where to go.

The combat system in Fable 2 is interesting. It is not a button mashing system but it isn't a complex one either. You use the X button to do melee attacks. Pressing X the first time will draw your weapon and each subsequent press will make your character swing his weapon. Holding X will block any frontal melee attack and charge your next melee hit. You can also use the left analog stick to execute some specific directional melee hits. Pure button mashing won't work because enemies will block most of the basic hits. The ranged combat system is similar. You will get your gun or crossbow out the first time you press Y and each subsequent press will fire a shot. When doing this you are in auto aim mode. If you hold Y you will get in free aim mode and shoot exactly where you want. You can also target specific body parts like hands to make your enemies drop their weapons or head to go for single shot kill. The other possible attack is done using magic. You hold B to charge your magical attack and it will be executed once you release the button. The longer you charge, the more devastating your attack will be. If you don't use the left analog stick, your magical attack will do damage to all the enemies around you. If you use the stick to target a specific enemy, it will do massive damage to a single enemy. You don't start with all these combat abilities, you need to earn experience to unlock them. When you kill enemies, you get global experience as well as specific experience based on the attack type that you used. You get more experience if you deliver your fatal blows with style.

You also have a dog to help you on your journey. This pet is quite useful as it can find treasures and dig spots as well as help you fight. You can watch it to see if it detects upcoming danger. Many activities are available when you visit towns. You can buy houses to rent and stores to earn money. Furthermore special attention was given to the interactions with the people you meet in towns. Depending on how you interact with them, how you completed your quests and how they perceive you, they worship you or fear you. Lionhead definitely spent a lot of time to implement this part of the game because there are lots of details. Since the game was published by Microsoft and Lionhead is owned by Microsoft, I was surprised to see how far they went with the "not politically correct" attitude. You can truly be evil (or be a saint, it is your choice). If this was a Rockstar game I would not have been surprised but this is coming from one of the console makers. Holier-than-thou Nintendo would never have green lighted this game without censorship (you can't forget that this is the company that censored games such as Mortal Kombat back in the SNES days even if they were *not* the publisher...) and I am not sure about Sony after the more than politically correct Little Big Planet delay. Furthermore these "features" (while very minor parts of the game), are not hidden and some are even given achievements recognition. There are also multiple interactions with items. I don't want to spoil the fun by listing them but to give you an example, if you eat chocolate and drink beer, you character will recover life points but he will also get fat. All these minor details add a nice touch to the game.

The time required to complete the game is average. If you use the guiding line and only do the main quests it won't be very long. On the other hand if you do all the quests, it will take quite some time before you complete it. Unfortunately the game is on the easy side. I completed all the quests and I didn't die a single time. Furthermore when you die you simply lose experience and get a permanent scar on your face. You get up and continue your fight were you where.

Sounds and graphics
The graphics are nice. They have a cartoony style that fits well with the theme of the game. I didn't notice slowdowns, even with multiple enemies on screen. The music and the sound effects also fit the game perfectly. The entire dialogue is spoken and the actors that voiced the main characters did a great job. Some of the less important characters might sound a bit cheesy but I think it was often on purpose as it makes them funny.

Multiplayer
The multiplayer mode of this game is really good and it almost feels like a MMORPG without the monthly fee. If you turn it on (you can turn it on for everybody on Xbox Live, only the people on your friend list or no one) you will see orbs. They represent other players in their own Fable world so you will see them moving and hear them if they use their mic. When you get close to one, you can send them an invitation to join their Fable world. If they accept, you will follow them as they do their quests. You have to remember that you are in their world, not in yours so the environment will reflect the choices that they made. The only annoying part of the multiplayer mode is that you cannot control the camera position. The camera is positioned so that you can see both player on screen.

Conclusion
Fable 2 is an excellent action RPG. The attention given to details make this game quite interesting. Furthermore, this is one of the few games were your choices really have an impact. While I don't think that it is as good as Gears of War 2 and Grand Theft Auto IV, it still makes it into my personal top 3 of 2008.

Score: 8.75/10

OCZ VENDETTA 2 HEATSINK review

2009-01-11T18:55:00.101-05:00

When building a new computer, the processor heatsink and fan is a component that is often neglected. The purpose of this heatsink is to dissipate the heat produced by the processor. Most of the time, a fan is fixed to the heatsink so that it dissipates even more heat. Processors made by AMD or intel are usually bundled (retail) with a heatsink and a fan. To keep cost down, the bundled heatsink and fan (HSF) are the bare minimum to accomplish the task, which is probably enough for most users. On the other hand, if you have higher expectations, you need to buy a separate HSF. There are 2 main reasons to use another cooling system then the one provided by AMD or intel. You might want a HSF that will give you a better cooling performance (usually needed if you want to overclock) and/or want a silent system. With a bigger heatsink, it is possible to use a fan that will have to move less air which means that it can spin slowly, producing less noise. It is even possible to buy a heatsink that doesn't require a fan at all but it is often only designed for low consumption systems.

Today I will review the OCZ Vendetta 2 HSF. This is a mid-range HSF that offers one of the best cooling performance/price ratio. It uses 3 cooper wall heat pipes that are in direct contact to the processor. These pipes are connected to multiple large light-weight aluminum fins. A 120 mm fan is attached to the heatsink. The air flow of this fan is 65.1-81.3 CFM and the noise level is 20-32 dBA. My first impression when I received the box is that this HSF is huge! It is obvious that a stock intel or AMD HSF cannot compete in the same league.

Even if aluminum fins are used, it is a bit heavy because of its size. The problem with many HSF, such as the OCZ Vendetta 2, is that they use the standard mounting kit. I definitely would not trust the plastic push pin system of intel to hold this beast (I don't think it was designed with these type of HSF in mind). I would be afraid the HSF would fall (even if it is unlikely) and it would not apply enough pressure to make a good contact with the processor. To secure this beast to my motherboard, I also bought a Xigmatek ACK-I7751 Crossbow Mounting Kit. Thermalright also offers a similar kit called BOLT-THRU (and after seeing some pictures, I would say that they look very similar). These mounting kits are not expensive and I don't understand why most HSF don't come with one of these.

The installation process is quite simple. The first step is to screw the mounting clips to the base of the heatsink. Then you need to apply the thermal paste to the base of the heatsink. Unfortunately the second picture is supposed to show how to apply it but because of the flash it is kind of a failure. Drop some paste on each of the pipes and then spread it (don't touch it directly, use something to spread it).

The next step, while simple, is not easy to achieve. You have to put the heatsink on the top of the motherboard (remember, thermal paste is on the heatsink, you cannot "move" it around), put the back plate on the back of the motherboard and screw it. There is some sort of glue/tape on the back plate. You could remove the sticker and glue it to your motherboard. Installation would be easier I guess but if you want to change your processor or your motherboard, it won't be easy to remove. So I decided to go the hard way and not use that glue (I am hardcore, I am no n00b). On my first attempt I tried to do it without any help but I failed (OK I am not that hardcore). So I removed the thermal paste and started over with someone holding the motherboard and the back plate (you need to put some pressure on the back plate) while I held the heatsink and fastened the screws. While fastening the fourth and last screw I noticed that I installed it so that the fan would blow air to the top of my case instead of the back! Let's go for a third attempt (which has to succeed as I won't have enough paste for another try). This time it worked perfectly. Good thing I am no n00b! ;p Here is the result from both sides of the motherboard.

The last step is to install the fan to the heatsink. The fixation mechanism of the Vendetta 2 is quite cool as it uses rubber fasteners to avoid any vibration. You simply need to attach the 4 fasteners to the fan and then slide them into fins of the heatsink.

To conclude, I simply want to say that because of its size, this HSF may not fit on every motherboard. I don't have any problem accessing my RAM slots but some people reported that their first RAM slot could not be used because the fan was too close. You could also have a problem to fit it in your case. There is less than 1 cm between the tip of the heat pipes and the side panel of my case. I highly recommend this HSF if it is compatible with your motherboard/case. Don't forget to buy a mounting kit with a back plate to fix it though!

SAMSUNG YP-U3 MP3 PLAYER review

2008-12-22T19:20:00.038-05:00

This review is about the portable Samsung YP-U3 MP3 player. I bought mine last Summer as I was looking for a small MP3 unit to listen to when I cycle. Of course I made sure to boost the volume to the max and burn red lights (eyes closed)! I am kidding. If you want to listen to music while cycling, make sure the volume is low so that you can still hear everything around you and only use it on cycle lanes (you have been warned, I am not responsible if natural selection does its work... ;p)

Back on topic now. The MP3 unit I chose is the Samsung YP-U3. It is a 2 gig player with a small LCD display. The screen is not very big and obviously won't show videos but you can easily chose the song you want to listen to. The name of songs and artists scroll if they are too wide to be displayed at once. The sound quality is great. I tried other devices in the same price range and they didn't sound as good. On the other hand you must keep in mind that this is a low cost unit, this isn't a high end player so while good, the quality is not awesome nor impressive. Furthermore the quality of your MP3 files will also have a major impact on the sound quality. The headphones bundled with the player are good and won't need to be replaced unlike many other players in this price range.

The navigation through the menus is intuitive so there is no need to read the manual. As you can see on the picture below, the navigation buttons are on a flat surface, giving the unit a simple and classy look. The other buttons are placed on the top and bottom of the unit. Basic options are available such as play songs randomly, repeat mode, play by songs/artists/albums/genres/playlists. Transferring music from a PC to the device is quite easy. You can use the Samsung software or simply use it as a USB drive and copy files and create folders using Windows Explorer. You don't even need a USB cable since you can press a button to have the USB connector pop-out.

As an extra feature, the unit can record 64 kbps files. It could be interesting if you want to record stuff on the spot. It can also be used as a FM radio. To recharge the unit you have to plug it into a USB port. The charge doesn't last very long, I would estimate it to last between 8 and 10 hours. I was expecting it to last longer.

Here are some pictures of the YP-U3 (CD used to show relative size of the unit):

To conclude I think that the Samsung YP-U3 MP3 player is a nice player. The sound quality is nice and the features are useful. The marketing department didn't do a good job with the name but the engineering one did and the price is right on (unlike the micro products of some fruit company).

GRAND THEFT AUTO IV review

2008-12-13T11:23:00.046-05:00

Grand Theft Auto IV is a sandbox game developed by Rockstar North. It was released last April for Xbox 360 and PS3. Although it was released some time ago, I decided to make this review because the PC version was recently released and the exclusive X360 downloadable content The Lost and Damned will be available early next year (February). Furthermore, since this is the end of the year, many articles will be written about which game should be considered game of the year. I believe that Gears of War 2 (see my previous review) is no doubt the game of the year (sorry Wii gamers and Little Big Planet mini-game fans, we are talking about real games here ;p), GTA4 is still one of the bests.

Story
The story begins with Niko Bellic (the character you control), an Eastern Europeen war veteran with a troubled past. Hoping to start a new life in America, he is greeted by his cousin Roman as he jumps out of a boat. Is he really trying to start a new life or is he still haunted by the demons of his past? Without giving too many spoilers, I won't surprise anyone if I say that the later is the answer... As you progress through the story, you will learn more about the past of Niko and will make choices about how he will deal with this past.

The story itself is quite good. The missions make sense and make the story progress, unlike similar sandbox games like Saints Row. The missions are used to introduce many interesting characters. These friends and enemies are well developed and really have a unique personality. Some characters give the story a more dramatic twist while others are there for comedy (Brucie is the coolest!). Furthermore there are many possible interactive activities that you can do at any time with your friends besides the more "scripted" missions of the main story.

Another great aspect that really makes GTA4 shine is the attention to details. Rockstar created a universe within this game. A special attention was applied to every TV/Radio shows and commercials. While not always politically correct if you only understand them literally, they are really funny and are thrown jabs at different aspects of our current societies if you can think for a second.

Gameplay
Basically GTA4 is a 3rd person shooter game with important driving parts. You can pretty much do the missions in the order that you want but some missions will unlock new ones. Sometimes you will also be given some choices as to how to complete a mission. I completed the game twice to see every possible scenario and while the latest choice will have an impact on the last mission and the ending, the other choices have very minor consequences. While doing the missions you will, of course, hijack cars, kill people, escape from cops, deliver packages, protect allies, pursue enemies, race sport cars...

The game can last for a long time if you want it to. On my first run, I did absolutely every single possible thing (100% completion in the game statistics). This includes finding the 200 hidden pigeons (which nets you a cool military helicopter), doing the 50 unique stunt jumps (the ones that require you to jump over a river are simply crazy, not easy but so much fun!), doing all the friend side-missions, stealing all the exotic vehicles, doing all the assassin missions, finding all the special people... I spent about 80 hours to do so. If you want to go quickly and simply do the main missions as I did in my second run, you can spend less than 10 hours to complete it.

The controls are generally good but sometimes they don't feel right. The aiming and cover system when you are on foot is effective. On the other hand, running feels clumsy. Unlike other games where you use the left stick to control your speed, in GTA4 the left stick is only used to control your direction. You have to hold another button to run and if you want to really sprint you need to press the same button for every step you take. When you try to run and shoot/take cover at the same time, this control scheme is not very intuitive. The controls used for shooting while driving are good. The only annoying aspect of driving is that the brakes are not very effective, you will pretty much always need to use the hand brake. Once you are used to it you won't have any problem driving around.

Sounds and Graphics
The sounds are good. The music available from the different radio channels is quite diversified. The graphics really get the job done but they could have been better. I played the Xbox 360 version which runs natively at 720p and I found the image to be really soft. It looks even more blurry on the PS3 as the native resolution is 630p (so much for FULL HD Sony... ;p). Still, you have to keep in mind that GTA4 is played in a wide open area and to get a good framerate Rockstar probably has to decrease the visual quality of their engine. Bottom line is the graphics are not amazing but they won't annoy you.

Multiplayer
For the first time GTA can be played with other people. Rockstar developed many multiplayer modes, they implemented pretty much every possible idea (from the simple death match to the rival gang missions). While it looks good on paper, when playing it it falls flat. I can't really explain why but it seems something is missing. In my opinion the best multiplayer mode is not the versus modes, it is the 4-player cooperation mode. These coop missions (only 3 are available) play like a big single player mission but with allies controlled by other people instead of AI. This mechanic makes it really similar to the single player mode but it simply works well and it is a lot of fun. You can also try to beat the time required to complete the mission and you will be rated on how much time you spent. Beating the Rockstar times is quite a challenge as often you will get 1 or 2 players in your team that are clueless as to what to do or they are simply bad at the game ;p.

Conclusion
GTA4 generated a lot of hype before its release but it delivered. It is one of the best game of 2008 and if you haven't played it you are missing something.

Score: 9/10

NEED FOR SPEED UNDERCOVER WITH D-BOX MOTION review

2008-12-01T00:05:00.013-05:00

In 1994 Electronic Arts released the first Need for Speed game for the Panasonic 3DO console. Almost 15 years later, followed by many sequels on different platforms, EA releases Need for Speed Undercover. While the technical quality was greatly improved and the legality of the (virtual) racing activities modified over the years, the essence of the series remains: speed! This new entry in the series marks the first time motion is used to add to the gaming experience.

Many reviews for Need for Speed Undercover have been written so far but unless I am mistaken, none of them reviewed the entire game, which includes video, audio AND motion! So remember, you read it here first! :) I will be using my D-BOX SRP-120 Motion Platform (see my previous review for more details).

The installation of the game and the motion configuration panel is standard. As you would expect in any PC game, you can set your video, audio and control options through the in-game menus. The motion configuration panel allows you to change the intensity of the motion effects.

The graphics are good: they are not stunning but they are still high quality. The video sequences between the playable parts are also high quality. Furthermore, the story (presented by these video sequences), while basic, is a nice touch for a racing game. And that is where the Undercover title comes from... Many different cars are available, ranging from the basic Ford Focus to the classic 1967 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500, a personal favorite of mine! You can win money to upgrade your cars to give them better handling, more power or a cooler look.

Many activities are available to earn money and progress through the story. You can do standard races but you can also do races without a fixed track where you need to reach the end line taking any street you want in the city. Other races require that you outrun an opponent for a fixed amount of time or distance. You have to race against time in time trials with check points events. You also have missions where you need to escape from the cops in a stolen car. On the other hand, in some events you have to actually take out some police cars. As you can see, there are many event types and lots of fun to be had with these.

Since the previous games I played using my D-BOX SRP-120 Motion system were simulations, I was wondering how it would perform with an arcade game. Simply put, it works wonderfully! Of course the physic engine is probably not as advanced but when you jump, ram other cars (opponents and police) and use nitro, it is awesome to have motion. You can feel the engine vibration, the shake effect of a nitro boost, the acceleration of your car and the impacts against the other cars or the environment. You even feel the motion and vibration when you take off from a jump and even more when you land! The only minor disappointment is that motion is available only when you control your car. There is no motion during the video sequences and the event introductions.

I have said it before but I will say it again: explaining motion with words is not an easy task so I made some videos. Unfortunately you cannot really see the vibration. You may also notice that I am starting to get better at video editing :). The first video shows the D-BOX SRP-120 platform. At the beginning of the race I ram the cars to show the motion effects, then I get serious and play to win the race (I let my pride speak... and ended up with a domination time on top of that!). The second video shows the general gaming system!

video 1 direct link

video 2 direct link

rFACTOR WITH D-BOX MOTION review

2008-11-22T23:42:00.046-05:00

rFactor is a racing simulator for Windows developped by Image Space Incorporated. This simulator can be downloaded from the official rFactor web site as a demo which can be converted later to a full version if you buy an unlock code from the same web site (a DVD version is also available). I will review this simulator using a D-BOX SRP-120 Motion Platform (see my previous review for more details) to experience motion.

rFactor as well as the D-BOX Motion add-on have a standard software installer. Once rFactor is installed, you can execute a configuration setup to chose your basic video card options. The other options (controls, advanced graphics, audio...) can be accessed through the in-game menus. The D-BOX add-on also installs a configuration panel to tweak the motion options to your likings. The main settings are related to the engine vibration, road texture, acceleration motion and skid vibration. You can do custom configurations or use a preset matching the car you want to drive. You do not need to restart the game for these settings to take effect.

Image Space Incorporated developed tools to create cars and tracks. On top of the dozen tracks and dozen cars (ranging from F1 to rally) shipped with the game, many vehicles and tracks created by other users can be downloaded. Some of these user created elements are high quality while others are pretty bad (ie a track where your car can get stuck).

rFactor has a career mode where you can earn money to customize the visual appearance of your car and upgrade its performance. rFactor supports multiplayer and it has an interesting statistics tracking system. The key aspect of rFactor is the handling of the cars: the physic engine developed for this simulator is great. That handling really shines when using a motion system. With the D-BOX system I could feel the acceleration, even taking into effect the shifting of the gears, while driving a car around the track! When taking a turn I was pushed to the left or the right as it would feel driving a real car. Sometimes (very often in fact!) a vibration was also produced as a skid effect. Furthermore the D-BOX system reproduced the engine vibration, which varies related to the current RPM. I also felt a subtle vibration based on the current speed and the road surface but when I left the road, that vibration was far from being subtle... as you would expect!

Explaining motion effects with words is not easy so I made 2 videos to show the motion in action (unfortunately you cannot really see the vibration in these videos, you would need to sit on the chair to feel them):

video 1 direct link

video 2 direct link

LOGITECH HARMONY 550 review

2008-11-21T18:59:00.019-05:00

Logitech acquired in 2004 the Harmony line of universal remotes, originally created in 2001 by a Canadian company. A universal remote is a remote that allows the user to control multiple devices with a single remote. While the benefits may not have been important in the past, the increasing number of audio/video devices in home theaters today makes this product attractive to consumers.

I am reviewing the Logitech Harmony 550 but many features apply to other Harmony remotes. The difference between the Harmony remotes and the other universal remotes is the approach taken to control the devices. With standard universal remotes you select which device you want to control and then you can control it. With the Harmony remote you select which activity you want to do and then you control any device related to that specific activity. Let's say that I want to watch a DVD movie. With a standard universal remote I would select my TV to power it on and set it to the right input, then I would select my audio receiver to power it on and set it to the right input, then I would select my DVD player to power it on and start playing the movie, then I would select my audio receiver because I want to adjust the volume which is not loud enough for this movie... Most remotes do have more advanced features but that is how a basic universal remote works. The same activity is different with a 550. With the single touch of a button to chose my activity (watching a DVD) the remote will power on my TV and set it to the right input, power on my audio receiver and set it to the right input and power on my DVD player. Pressing on the arrows allows me to navigate through the DVD menus while pressing the volume buttons changes the volume on my audio receiver. Then if I want to use my Xbox 360 I can press the Xbox 360 activity button and the remote will power off the DVD player, change the inputs on the TV and audio receiver and power on my Xbox 360. It's as simple as it can get and you won't need to provide technical support next time someone tries to watch a DVD but doesn't know which input to use on the TV and audio receiver!

As you may expect all those features take some time to set up before the first use. Fortunately Logitech developed an easy to use software to program the remote. The remote comes with a USB cable so that you can plug it to your PC. The first configuration step is to select all the devices that you own. Logitech built a major database online so it is very unlikely that you won't find your device. However if it does happen, the remote has a learning mode that you can use to program the device and then automatically upload the results to the Logitech database so that other users can benefit from it. Any device that has an IR port can be controlled by the Harmony 550. IR is standard for controlling low end to high end home theater devices: digital cable terminal, DVD/BR player, audio receiver, TV, Xbox 360 (unfortunately, while Sony advertises the PS3 as a game console and a BR player, it cannot be controlled because it lacks a simple IR port). The next configuration step is to create activities and associate devices for each activity. You can even add custom actions to each activities. To fully use your remote you can expect to spend 2 hours configuring it (that is how much time I needed).

The remote has backlit controls and a LCD display which can be useful when watching a movie in a dark room. Unlike some higher end Harmony remotes that have color displays to show pictures, the 550 has a monochrome display for text. In my opinion this is a benefit since having a bigger color LCD screen isn't very useful but does eat batteries more quickly. The batteries that came with my 550 lasted about 6 months before I had to change them. The 550 also has a "help" feature. This button can be used when you start an activity but one of your devices is not set correctly (ie something was in front of a device so it didn't registered the command).

The Logitech Harmony is not an essential device, it doesn't allow me to do things I could not do before. However it allows me to do the same things much faster using a single remote instead of 6!

LIVE FOR SPEED WITH D-BOX MOTION review

2008-11-15T19:10:00.043-05:00

Live for Speed is an online racing simulator (also available offline against AI controlled cars) for Windows. I will review this game with the D-BOX motion addon using a SRP-120 Motion Platform (see my previous review for more details).

Installing Live for Speed is quite simple, you simply unzip the files into any folder on your hard drive. The D-BOX motion addon is as simple to install, you execute the setup file and follow the instructions displayed on screen. The D-BOX installer will create a Live for Speed with Motion shortcut that you can use to start the game with motion support. It will also create a Live for Speed Motion Panel where you can tweak the settings of your D-BOX system for this game.

Since Live for Speed is a racing simulator and not an arcade game, it could seem overwhelming for a new player but it isn't the case. There is a training mode which allows the player to do lessons, each of them having a specific learning objective. When you are done with the training (you can skip it if you don't want to do it), you can do offline races against AI controlled cars or do hot lapping (you try to get the best time on a specific track with a specific car). You can chose the level of difficulty of the AI ranging from Newbie to Pro (5 levels are available). Finally the most interesting mode is the online mode where you race against human opponents. The game includes 7 circuits and these circuits, except for one, contain between 2 to 7 tracks. The game also includes 20 cars, ranging from compact cars to the BMW '06 F1. No editors are available to create tracks and cars.

Live for Speed has many configuration options. You will likely be able to set any option you could think of. Unfortunately, there are so many options that you could be lost at first. For example there is a Screen, Graphics, View and Display sections in the configuration menu. Knowing where to go to change the resolution for example isn't obvious. As I mentioned earlier, you can also use the D-BOX Motion Panel to tweak your motion settings. You can enable or disable various effects or modify the intensity and threshold values of these effects. The default configuration was good but I increased the intensity of the effects a little bit.

I am not a racing simulator expert but the physic engine seems really good to me. It is not easy since this is a realistic physic simulation and there aren't any steering or breaking aids but you can display the racing line to guide you. This is a good simulator but I have to admit that I didn't notice major differences in the game itself with other racing simulators (which is probably a good thing otherwise it would not be a simulation). The major difference to me was the D-BOX motion system since it really improves the experience. You can feel the engine running, the acceleration, the shifting of the gears, the skid and, of course, the impacts! The rendering of these effects is realistic. The motion and vibration effect intensities are proportional to what is happening in the simulation. They are also very responsive. This is probably as close as you can get to the real feeling of racing a car into the comfort of your home.

The motion element is not easy to describe, you need to try it to understand how it feels but I made some videos to help you see the benefits of motion in a racing simulator.

video 1 direct link

video 2 direct link

D-BOX SRP-120 MOTION PLATFORM review

2008-11-15T11:12:00.086-05:00

D-BOX Technologies is a company that designs products which add motion experience into home entertainment. These products have been mainly aimed at home cinema, supporting DVDs and Blu-Rays (you may have seen a D-BOX Motion Code logo on the back cover of some Blu-Ray movies).

This technology also supports gaming, which is the reason why I acquired a SRP-120 Motion Platform. The D-BOX web site lists 3 games that are supported (rFactor, Lunar Championship Racing and Flight Simulator X) but more games are supported on the installation disc bundled with the system:

A press release was also released this week announcing the support of the upcoming Need for Speed Undercover game from Electronic Arts. Also, while browsing the web I noticed that the D-BOX Motion Code logo is on the front page of the official Nitro Stunt Racing web site. I guess we can also expect upcoming support for this game.

The SRP-120 comes with a free Motion Gaming Controller. As you can see on the pictures, it is well packed (the white box is the Motion Controller and the brown box is the SRP-120 Platform). I started with the Motion Controller. As you can see, it includes the Motion Controller itself, a USB cable, a power supply and an installation disc.

The installation is quite easy as you may expect:

Insert the installation disc into your CD/DVD-Rom drive to install the drivers and software
Connect the Motion Controller to your computer using the provided USB cable
Connect the power cable to your Motion Controller

You can see the Motion Controller (front and back) on these next pictures:

The next step is to build the SRP-120 Platform. As you can see in the following pictures, everything needed is included, even the tools to assemble the platform.

Finally the most interesting component is probably the actuator control module. This module contains 2 electrical motors used to make the platform vibrate and move. There are no hydrolics involved, this is one of the reasons why this system is very interesting for a regular gamer like myself. I won't need to do extra maintenance and I won't have to smell oil every time I use my computer. Basically, the 2 white parts on both sides of the module will rest on the ground and will make the whole platform go up and down. As you can see in the second picture, the connections are quite simple: you plug the power coord into the top connector and you plug the CAT5 cable (the grey cable shown in the previous picture) into the "KineLink" port (there are two ports, I am not sure why but I tried both ports and it worked). The other end of the KineLink cable is plugged into the Motion Controller (see the previous pictures) in any of the A, B, C or D port. From what I have been told, you could plug 4 SRP-120 platforms into 1 Motion Controller to have the 4 platforms move at the same time.

The next step is to build the platform. It can be easily customized to fit your needs. A plan is provided and based on the actual size of the seat you want to use, there are multiple ways to assemble it. As you can see in the second picture below, the seat will rest on the four "square" components. You don't even need to use these "squares" since you could use some wood for example and build yourself a nice platform. I might do this later as it would allow me to have my pedals (from my wheel gaming controller) directly on the platform so that they also move and vibrate. With the plan and the tools provided, building the platform is quite easy. Unfortunately, I still experienced a minor problem building it. I had some problems inserting the front right "square" component. It was too tight and I could not make it go all the way into the front structure. I had to use a small hammer to make it fit.

The last step is to move your chair on the platform and enjoy your new gaming experience! As you can see in the second picture, you can easily move back your "favorite motion seat", leave the platform there and use your "working chair" when you are done playing games. Depending on the chair that you want to use, you can also always leave it on the platform even if you are not playing a game. I would recommended using a seat that is not too stuffed as you will lose some vibration intensity.

The D-BOX SRP-120 Motion Platform is a very interesting product for any gamer and movie enthousiasts. It also supports over 800 movie titles (DVDs and Blu-Rays). Unfortunately, while the SRP-120 platform supports it, you still need another motion controller if you want to experience motion when watching movies as the Gaming Motion Controller doesn't support movies.

GEARS OF WAR 2 review

2008-11-14T21:54:00.023-05:00

Gears of War 2, developed by Epic Games and published by Microsoft Game Studios was released on November 7, 2008 for Microsoft Xbox 360. After spending so much time on the first game, I was eagerly waiting for this one, feeling the hype like every other gamer. In the end, it was worth the wait...

Gameplay
Why fix something that isn't broken? That is exactly what was done: the basic elements of the first game are still there but some nice new features were added. The effective cover system is the same as before but you can now do some mobile covering since you can use downed Locusts (not dead) as meat shields! You can also use metal shields dropped by some Locusts. While using a shield, you can only use a one-handed weapon, which is of course the pistol. The weapons we all used to known in the first Gears of War are still available but many ones were added like the flamethrower and the mortar. While the berserker and the krill are gone, many different Locust classes were added. I won't say anything about them as it could be considered a spoiler but there is a lot of variety. I have not completed the game yet but the story is better than the first one.

Graphics
Not much to say about the graphics except that they look awesome. Epic developed the Unreal Engine and they obviously know how to use it on the Xbox 360. This is a dark post-apocalyptic world, so don't except bright colors like you can find in a Mario game... (who would anyway? :-D)

Multiplayer
The simple way to resume the multiplayer modes in Gears of War 2: a strong campaign coop mode, a diversified versus player mode and a new versus CPU mode. The story mode in coop is a lot of fun. It was designed to be played in coop, they didn't simply throw an additional player in a single player story mode. The new horde mode is really awesome. You play as a member of a team of 5 humans that need to survive against endless waves of Locusts (there are actually 50 waves). The Locusts get stronger after each wave so you should make sure to regroup with your teammates and don't waste your ammo. Finally, the versus human modes consist of you standard war zone, execution, and annex but Epic also added Wingman, Guardian, King of the Hill and Submission. Basically, about every team versus mode you could imagine is available. The only disappointment is that unlike the first game, you cannot chose your specific mode and map in public games on Xbox Live. You can chose your general mode and then the players will vote for their favorite mode and map (2 random modes and maps are available for each game). That means that you cannot spend a complete afternoon in Gridlock (which is back as an updated version!). Also, the weapons are more balanced. The shotgun is still a great gun but it probably won't be your cookie-cutter gun.

As a meaning to reduce the sales of used games, Epic bundled in the box a code which will allow you to download for free (as Epic always did for Gears of War maps) a flashback map pack (updated versions of the most popular maps in the first Gears of War). Even if you are willing to pay, you cannot buy these maps so make sure you buy a sealed game if you want to enjoy the classic maps once more. This isn't a problem right now since no one has bought a used copy yet but could be annoying in the future if you don't have these maps and want to play with your friends that do (a warzone on Gridlock is always fun).

Conclusion
The reviews gave great ratings to Gears of War 2 and once you play it, the reason behind these scores is obvious. If you liked the first game, you will like this one: the best elements are still there and enhancements were added. A recommenced game for any serious gamer (even for casual gamers), this is Game of the Year material!

Score: 9.5 / 10