This isn’t just a DS version of GTA; this is a fantastic game that advances the series by introducing a number of great new features.

The Good

* Doesn’t feel like a compromise compared to other GTA games
* Improves upon previous games with new features
* The massive Liberty City from GTAIV is instantly recognizable
* Intuitive controls make great use of touch screen
* Lengthy story, loads of optional activities, and fun multiplayer modes.

The Bad

* Multiplayer supports only two people
* Camera doesn’t always afford you a clear view of action.

Score: 9.5/10

At first glance, Chinatown Wars could be mistaken for a return to the Grand Theft Auto series’ humble 2D beginnings. The action is viewed from a more or less top-down perspective, and of course you still spend much of your time driving stolen cars and causing trouble with firearms. But the similarities between this superb Nintendo DS game and its ’90s progenitors pretty much end there. Chinatown Wars actually has more in common with GTAs III and IV than it does with earlier games, and, remarkably, it even adds to and improves on the formula that made those games so successful. That’s a bold statement for sure, but Chinatown Wars really is that good.

Liberty City is almost as impressive on the DS as it is in GTAIV.

Set in the same instantly recognizable Liberty City as GTAIV (minus one island), Chinatown Wars tells the story of a power struggle within the Triad gangs from the perspective of Huang Lee, whose crime-boss father has recently been murdered. Huang flies to Liberty from Hong Kong to avenge his father, and predictably becomes embroiled in the war between those hoping to step into the dead man’s shoes. As Huang, you advance the story–which should take you about nine hours to play through–by undertaking missions for a number of different characters within the Triad organization, as well as for one or two people outside of it. Many of these missions involve the usual mix of driving fast, killing people, and not getting caught by the cops, but there are plenty of varied and memorable missions as well, a number of which put the touch screen to great use.

For the most part, Chinatown Wars plays just like any other GTA game, which is an achievement in itself. Basic controls for movement and car-jacking are mapped to the same button positions that they are on other platforms. The uncomplicated on-foot and vehicle controls are largely the same (sprint becomes accelerate, shoot is still shoot), so even those of you with no prior GTA experience should have no trouble picking them up quickly. There are some great options to make the game even more user-friendly as well, such as autotargeting for drive-by shootings and a subtle steering assist that automatically straightens up your vehicle so that it’s parallel with the road that you’re on. There’s even an option to superimpose GPS directions directly onto the street, which works a lot better than having to look down at the map on the bottom screen.

One downside to Chinatown Wars being so uncompromising in its attempt to replicate the GTA experience is that, because the DS has fewer buttons than other systems, you’re occasionally required to use the touch screen at inopportune times. It’s not a big problem, but despite the fact that it’s implemented well, having to use the touch screen to both switch between weapons and to throw projectile weapons such as grenades, Molotov cocktails, and flashbangs is a little unwieldy. It’s unfortunate, because elsewhere in the game the touch screen really adds to the experience, with minigames that let you take a more hands-on approach to tasks that otherwise wouldn’t be interactive at all. For example, when you attempt to steal a parked car, there’s a good chance that you’ll have to complete one of three minigames to get it started: rotating a screwdriver in the ignition, entering an immobilizer PIN, or unscrewing a panel on the steering column and hot-wiring. More imaginative touch-screen minigames include making your own Molotov cocktails at the gas station, tattooing gang recruits, searching Dumpsters for weapons and discarded food, and using a salvage boat’s sonar to search for drug shipments lost at sea, to name but a few. What all of these minigames have in common is that they’re quick, fun, rarely challenging enough to halt your progress, and are mandatory only once.

Story missions are also mandatory only once, but Chinatown Wars is the first game in the series to let you replay any mission that you’ve beaten previously in an attempt to achieve a higher score or a faster time. Another great addition for missions is the “trip skip” option that, if you choose to retry an eligible mission immediately after failing it, lets you bypass the road trip at the start of the mission and get right back into the action that killed you on your last attempt. None of the missions are so difficult that you should fail them more than once or twice, but this is a welcome feature nonetheless, and one that will hopefully be implemented in other GTA games down the road.

There are dozens of different vehicles and they all handle differently.

When you’re not carrying out missions handed to you by central characters and by random pedestrians that you encounter, there are an impressive number of other things to do in Liberty City, some old, some new. For example, stealing a cop car, an ambulance, a cab (you can hail these by whistling into the mic if you really want to), a fire truck, or a noodle delivery van will give you the option to make some money impersonating those vehicles’ rightful owners. And if you successfully steal a delivery van that’s being used to transport drugs or weapons and get it back to one of your secluded safe houses, you get to keep its contents. Weapons can be tricky to obtain this way because the Ammu-Nation drivers are invariably well armed. But stealing drugs is far less challenging, and if you get them for free then making a profit is inevitable when you meet with any of the 80 dealers who, once you find them, can be traded with to make relatively easy money. That’s provided that there are no police in the immediate vicinity, because they’ll either spook the dealer before you can make the deal or wait for you to close it and then move in to make arrests. Interacting with a dealer in any way adds him to your GPS system’s database for future reference, so anytime you see a telltale blue dot on your map, it’s well worth a quick detour to check it out.

Other things to look out for in Liberty City include parked vehicles that initiate checkpoint races and delivery missions when you climb into them, unique stunt jumps that are set up so that you can crash through billboards, a go-kart race track, and 100 security cameras that can be destroyed using grenades or Molotovs. Chinatown Wars also sees the welcome return of Rampage missions, which are against-the-clock killing sprees that challenge you to kill a certain number of enemies using a specific weapon, sometimes with an AI-controlled henchman or two at your side.

Incidentally, weapons are in plentiful supply, and can be ordered from Ammu-Nation’s Web site using your in-game PDA. There are more than 20 different weapons to play with in Chinatown Wars, including everything from fists, flashbangs, and flamethrowers to swords, shotguns, and sniper rifles. Most weapons fall into either the ranged (lock on and hit A), melee (lock on and hit A), or thrown (determine range and direction with touch screen) classes as far as controls go, and all perform their jobs admirably. The sniper rifle is unique in that it comes into play only in specific missions, must be assembled via a touch-screen minigame before use, and turns the entire top screen into a crosshair. Proximity mines that you drop at your feet are also a fun addition to the GTA arsenal, though they remain armed for only a few seconds before they explode without provocation. The most powerful weapons become readily available only toward the end of the game, which is just as well because as soon as you get your hands on a flamethrower or an armful of flashbangs, they make subsequent missions much easier.

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Resident Evil 5 is a fun and frantic evolution of RE4′s breakthrough gameplay and the series’ horror themes.

The Good

* Beautifully detailed graphics and character animations
* Having a partner enhances the fun and excitement while adding tension
* Real-time menu system keeps you immersed
* Plenty to do once you’ve beaten it.

The Bad

* Frustrating hurdles to leap when joining an online game
* Slow, deliberate movement and gunplay may not appeal to everyone
* Can’t swap weapons with a human teammate online.

Score: 8.5/10

Thirteen years ago, Capcom helped revolutionized the action-adventure world with Resident Evil, a game that would define an entirely new genre dubbed “survival horror.” In the years that followed, the series continued to build upon the standards set by the first game, until 2005, when Resident Evil 4 radically departed from its predecessors and broke new ground as a more action-oriented game. Resident Evil 5, the latest offering in the long-running series, expands on the action-heavy formula of its forerunner and is built from the ground up to support cooperative gameplay. Though it can no longer be considered a survival horror game, Resident Evil 5 manages to retain and effectively translate the most important aspect of that genre–tension–into its new mechanics, crafting a fun, collaborative experience that will keep you on your toes the entire time.

Hey Sheva, is there a vet around here? 'Cause these pythons are sick!

Ten years after the destruction of Raccoon City, former S.T.A.R.S. Alpha team member Chris Redfield is an agent of the B.S.A.A. This paramilitary anti-bio-organic weapon organization travels the globe to seek out and destroy Umbrella’s creations, which have fallen into the hands of terrorists following the collapse of the multinational pharmaceutical company. When Chris gets a tip that a known weapons dealer will be making a big deal in the remote African nation of Kijuju, he heads there to put a stop to it and learn what he can about the mysterious doomsday project known only as Uroboros. Chris is joined by Sheva Alomar, a local B.S.A.A. agent, and together they battle wave after wave of infected villagers, horribly mutated monsters, and even series archnemesis Albert Wesker.

The core combat mechanics haven’t fundamentally changed since Resident Evil 4–the action still unfolds from an over-the-shoulder perspective, certain battles or cutscenes are accompanied by brief quick time events, and you still have to stop moving to fire your weapon (though you gain a bit more mobility thanks to your newfound ability to walk sideways). Resident Evil 5′s slow movement and gunplay take some time to get used to, and folks expecting a run-and-gun game may find the action too sluggish for their tastes. Fortunately, this slowness isn’t really an issue within the game, because enemies are deliberate with their attacks and are better handled with a cool head and steady aim.

Regardless of how similar the combat in Resident Evil 5 is to its predecessor, the addition of a second character makes encounters feel quite different. Teamwork is necessary to take down more-powerful enemies and bosses, and having someone there to watch your back goes a long way toward keeping you alive. Furthermore, there have been radical changes to the inventory management system. The immersion-breaking briefcase from the previous game is gone, and enemies no longer politely wait for you to rummage through your things because bringing up your armory doesn’t pause the action. At any given time, you can store up to nine items per character, four of which are bound to the directions of the D pad for easy access. This new system works extremely well and successfully conveys a sense of urgency whenever you go through your gear. It’s often necessary to trade items with your partner, and keeping track of who has what at all times is crucial, because rummaging through your things while a boss beats on you is painful.

It's tough to stay frosty in the sweltering heat, but Chris always manages to keep a cool head.

Sheva’s artificial intelligence makes her a competent companion, though her degree of skill seems to rely more on her armaments than anything else–she is extremely good at using burst fire with a machine gun, for example, but tends to waste ammo when equipped with a handgun. That said, at no point does she feel like extra baggage that needs babysitting (unlike some of the series’ previous companions), and she can hold her own in a fight. Sheva really shines when there’s someone else controlling her. Resident Evil 5 supports both split-screen and online co-op play through Xbox Live and PlayStation Network, and exploring Kijuju with a friend greatly enhances both the experience and the fun factor. Every game has the potential to go multiplayer, since split-screen is as simple to initiate as hitting Start on a second controller, and other online players can join in on a free-for-all or invite-only basis if your game session is set up to allow this from the get-go.

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This strategy sequel is incredibly deep, broad, addictive–and a bit rough around the edges.

The Good

* Impressive and ambitious historical scope
* A huge amount of content, online and off
* Both land and naval battles are fun to play and fun to watch
* Addictive gameplay will keep you glued to the monitor.

The Bad

* An array of artificial intelligence issues
* Numerous bugs and performance hitches.

Like diving into a murky lake from the rocky cliffs looming above, plunging into Empire: Total War is an intimidating prospect but an exhilarating experience. As with previous games in this strategy franchise, there’s an overwhelming amount of content to unearth, though now the clock has been spun forward hundreds of years. Technological advances have made bows and arrows weapons obsolete, the British colonies strive for independence, and major empires approach their inevitable collapse. These historical waters are deep, but also a bit turbulent. Empire is the biggest and broadest Total War yet, and like an aging historical parchment, it’s brilliantly ambitious in scope but somewhat tattered at the edges. Nevertheless, the game’s historical breadth, turn-based tugs-of-war, and enjoyable real-time battles (both on land and at sea) will transfix series fans and newcomers alike.

You'll put a lot into Empire: Total War, but it gives a lot in return.

The grand campaign is the meat of Empire: Total War, and it’s there where you’re likely to spend the most amount of time. The game stretches across the 18th century and lets you choose from a number of world powers, from Great Britain and Russia to fallen domains such as the Maratha Confederacy and the Ottoman Empire. Once you choose an empire, you can select from a few different campaign types that determine victory conditions and campaign length. Whichever you decide, be prepared: Even a short, 50-year campaign can take a good amount of time to complete, given that each turn requires strategic thinking on multiple fronts. Battles usually determine how regions are won and lost, but diplomatic relations, economic strangleholds, assassinations, and many other subtleties must be tweaked and considered at each turn, and they have noticeable impact as the years progress. If this sounds overwhelming, or if you’re an American history buff, you’ll want to check out the Road to Independence campaign before jumping into the grand one. This is essentially a long American tutorial that slowly introduces you to the basics and culminates in a grand campaign of its own.

The factors you must consider run the gamut, starting with an important new feature: the technology tree. Three areas of research and multiple subtrees let you improve your military, industry, and philosophy; in turn, your choices may benefit your economy or your success in battle. The benefits may seem minor at first, but as the campaign wears on, their effects are more noticeable, and your choices within these trees must be informed by the strengths and weaknesses of your particular empire. Do you concentrate on industry and use sheer numbers of troops to overwhelm your enemies, or do you focus on naval improvements and reap the ensuing benefits of successful trade-route blockades? As your campaign wears on, your needs may shift, whether because enemy blockades require a stronger navy, because you are spreading quickly across land, or because your economy is unable to sustain your growing army. Technology is also a limited diplomatic option, given that it’s a commodity that you can not only trade during negotiations but also steal from foes. Additionally, it’s not easy to convince a friendly nation to offer technology. Even when offered multiple technologies or monetary compensation, your closest allies rarely accept a request to share even a single technology, which makes it a limited political tool. In Empire: Total War, knowledge is more easily stolen than shared.

In fact, your more successful political dealings are the underhanded ones. Your agents may differ between nations (for example, gentlemen and rakes for the British, scholars and hashishin for the Ottomans), but the tasks are similar: covertly disrupt the affairs of your enemies and potential enemies. Religious agents such as missionaries will slowly but surely convert the populace, staving off potential rebellion in newly captured regions. On the other hand, the impact of religion is not as deep or impactful as in the Europa Universalis series, in which social and diplomatic events are more fully explored. Regardless, it’s great fun to cripple whole economies, especially when your strategies work in tandem with each other. Sending in a naval fleet to seize enemy trade supplies, sending another directly into an enemy’s port (and therefore obstructing incoming goods), and dispatching an agent to sabotage commercial ports can have profound effects. In cases like these, an angry, resource-deprived public and cash-strapped armies then ease the way for a quick triumph.

The puny Austrians are no match for the might of the Ottomans.

Nevertheless, this is Total War, and though assassinations and sabotage lighten your wartime load, there are no diplomatic, religious, or technological victories. Might is right, and as such, your armies and navies drive the quick spread of your domain–and if you want to meet the campaign’s success requirements, you’ll want to be aggressive, right from the start. The artificial intelligence doesn’t always take sensible steps; smaller countries may declare war, only to be quickly steamrolled, whereas major foes can seem almost oblivious to your spread across their regions. However, campaign AI is good enough to keep you occupied across multiple theaters, and minor nations and rebels can often keep your hands full, leaving room for major foes to invade. You will review every fleet and army at every turn, and now that army recruitment, resource production, and other aspects of play are spread across multiple locales within a region, mobility (and therefore, roads) is an important strategic asset.

Unlike with most turn-based historical games, battles can be played out in real time, and though the autoresolve option may look tempting, you should, at least on land, manage any battle in which you have a reasonable chance of winning. The most obvious reason is that they’re enjoyable to command and enjoyable to watch. Thousands of units clash in a dizzying mass of artillery and bullets, camels and swordsmen, and as in prior Total War games, it’s more about position, formation, and geography than about unit micromanagement. Garrisoning musketeers, and taking heat off of cavalry by keeping enemy gunmen occupied with melee infantry, are just a few of many possibilities to consider. Once armies clash, these prebattle decisions generally have far more impact than any midskirmish choice, and it’s as enjoyable as ever to zoom in close to your troops and watch them engage. The landscapes are on the bland side, but soldier animations and the general amount of model detail make for a wonderful visual treat.

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We’ve already welcomed the W595 at the proto stage, but this time it’s the real deal – we have a retail unit on our hands and we are ready to put it through its paces. The differences from the preceding model, the W580, stretch further than a design overhaul. A 2.2-inch QVGA display and the 3.2 megapixel camera will surely make it a tasty treat even without all the Walkman goodies on board. With its modern looks and intriguing specs list, it’s about time we saw what the Sony Ericsson W595 brings to the Walkman party.

Key Features:

* Quad-band GSM and 3G with HSDPA support
* 2.2″ 256K-color TFT display of QVGA resolution
* 3 megapixel camera
* Bluetooth (with A2DP) and USB v2.0
* Accelerometer sensor for display auto-rotate
* 40MB of internal memory and M2 memory card slot (2GB card included)
* Walkman 3.0 music player with Shake control and SensMe
* FM radio with RDS
* Multi-tasking support
* Smart dialing
* Comfortable keypad, nice sliding mechanism
* Stereo speakers
* Dual 3.5mm Stereo Share jack on the headset cable

Main disadvantages:

* Relatively smallish screen
* The camera has no autofocus
* Poor video recording capabilities
* No lens protection
* No office document viewer
* Cheapish battery cover

Sony Ericsson W595 at ours

The Sony Ericsson W595 is currently retailing for about 200 euro – which seems like a reasonable price – but a true evaluation demands a little digging and some comparisons.

Strangely enough, the Sony Ericsson W760 is really close sibling of W595. It currently sells for a bit less than the W595, but outperforms it with tri-band HSDPA support and of course, the built-in GPS receiver. The way the prices currently are, the W595 doesn’t seem to stand a chance to the W760.

Sony Ericsson W760

Again surprisingly, you can get the capable Sony Ericsson C902 Cyber-shot for the same price as the W595. It’s got a nice slide-up cover over the 5 megapixel snapper, a bunch of touch-sensitive camera shortcuts and pretty similar multimedia capabilities. It’s not a slider, but not every phone has to be, right?

Sony Ericsson C902

Having said all that, the Sony Ericsson W595 Walkman phone simply seems a bit overpriced right now. Once the situation changes, it would perhaps turn out to be a rather attractive package.

Meet us on the next page, where we’ll go through its looks, handling and ergonomics.

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No one could have suspected that the sequel to 2004′s Killzone would be this good. Killzone 2 is a tremendous package, offering an exciting campaign and terrific competitive online play, neither of which create new paradigms for first-person shooters, but rather set new standards in subtle but significant ways.

From groundbreaking visuals to well-crafted multiplayer maps, most of Killzone 2′s individual elements stand out in a crowded genre, making its meager attempts at storytelling easy to ignore. PlayStation 3 owners looking for a shooter to keep them busy for the rest of 2009 and beyond need look no further: The fierce action will keep you glued to your television screen for some time to come.

The M82: Is there nothing it can’t do?

What makes Killzone 2′s single-player campaign so much fun? First and foremost, the weapons are a lot of fun to shoot, even the standard assault rifles that form the core of your loadout. The M82′s effective scope makes zooming in on your target a breeze, yet this rifle is effective at close range as well, establishing itself from the beginning as a formidable firearm. The LS13 shotgun is also powerful and rewarding to fire; though you may only shoot off a foe’s helmet with other weapons, you’ll watch entire heads explode with a single blast from this close-range powerhouse. The bolt gun is another favorite, skewering enemy soldiers onto surfaces and exploding a short moment later. Though you’re traversing a sci-fi setting, your weapons are decidedly modern-day, from the sniper rifle to the vicious flamethrower, with one exception: the lightning gun. This mighty instrument showers enemies with overpowering jolts of electricity, and though it’s not available for long, it makes short work of robotic and humanoid foes. Each of these weapons feels just right; fantastic spurts of blood, outstanding animations, exquisitely detailed weapon models, and explosive sound effects fuse seamlessly and give a satisfying sense of impact every time you land a shot.

Although there’s a great variety of weaponry, you won’t encounter that many different kinds of enemies as you fight your way across the war-torn landscapes of the planet Helghan. As in the original Killzone, your enemies consist largely of Helghast soldiers, yet though this limited selection led to monotony in the past, an assortment of factors in the sequel hold tedium at bay. The action is constantly pushing forward, leading you from one quality scripted event to the next and pitting you against bright AI opponents that have a remarkable grasp of battlefield tactics. These soldiers put up a fight and exhibit authentic behavior as you rain bullets on them. If you set your sights on a soldier peeking from behind cover and fire off a few rounds in that direction, he’ll patiently wait until all signs of fire have vanished. Helghast will flank you and shoot blindly from behind cover, and should you toss a grenade in their direction, they’ll quickly scatter. You’ll normally be fighting alongside a computer-controlled teammate or even entire squads of fellow infantry. Enemy AI is just as concerned with your comrades as it is with you, so you’ll never feel as if you have a bull’s-eye plastered on your forehead, as is common with many other team-based shooters. As a result, Killzone 2′s thrilling large-scale battles unfold dynamically and offer a legitimate challenge while rarely feeling unfair–a frustrating rocket-heavy final battle serving as the only exception.

Some excellent turret sequences and other segments also provide welcome variations on the shooting theme. At one point, you’ll climb into a robotic shell and mow down infantry and tanks with machine gun fire and rockets. The way your transparent protective shield exhibits cracks as you take damage and the remarkable fire and smoke effects that light up the screen add to the excitement of the level. In another fun and visually stunning sequence, you’ll use an antiaircraft turret to take down squadrons of enemy fighters. Even operating a standard turret is more appealing than you would expect, which is a result of great map design and well-scripted enemy entrances. If you’re just using your standard arsenal, missions are diverse and engaging. You’ll take aim at tanks (and in one boss fight, a hovering aircraft) using Killzone 2′s potent rocket launcher, and you’ll fight your way through a besieged air base in which winding corridors and intersecting passages have you battling multiple enemies on multiple levels.

Most levels take their cue from the usual first-person shooter formulas, and though it takes place in the spacefaring future, Killzone 2 feels more akin to a modern-day day FPS by way of its standard weapons and mostly humanoid enemies. It’s an interesting blend of two disparate sensibilities that works far better than in the original, and it’s further ripened by gameplay touches that feel authentic within that framework. Movement and turning speeds have a real feeling of weight, which is appropriate considering the heavy armor burdening you. This can make the controls feel somewhat sluggish at first, given that you take a moment to gather momentum. It doesn’t take long to get accustomed to this sense of overall bulkiness, though, and it’s consistently delivered across multiple mechanics. For example, when you jump, the way that you bend into the leap and cushion the landing with another slight crouch feels surprisingly realistic. That weight also informs movement in and out of cover. Killzone 2′s cover system is solid, and it never removes you from a first-person viewpoint. Though some objects can obscure your view if you try to take potshots from behind them, sticking to cover and leaning out from behind walls is generally effective and intuitive.

This armored suit is the ultimate death machine.

Whether you go for a pop-and-shoot approach or just gun your way through, the mission design keeps you constantly moving from one objective to the next. The quick pace is one of Killzone 2′s finest facets; battles don’t wear on too long, and they aren’t so brief as to be anticlimactic. Like many other shooters, mission objectives often involve turning a crank or pushing a button. In Killzone 2, this may mean rotating the controller to simulate the onscreen activity. These moments feel unnecessary and ironically disrupt the sense of immersion, but as tacked-on as they are, the actions are too brief to be especially annoying. You’ll also use your gamepad’s motion sensitivity to stabilize the sniper rifle, though the implementation here is subtle and therefore relatively harmless.

It’s a real pity that there is so little context for the exceptional action. If you’re familiar with the original Killzone, you’ll at least have an idea why the ISA (International Strategic Alliance) is attacking the Helghast homeworld; if not, it’s clear that as Thomas Sevchenko, you are on the side of the good guys–just not clear why they are the good guys. The dialogue is rudimentary (a discussion regarding sandwiches jumps immediately to mind), the characters forgettable, and the plot serves purely as a thin framework to move you from one environment to the next. Yet the cutscenes are top-notch, and unlike their counterparts in fellow PS3 shooter Haze, there’s nothing intrinsically offensive or wearisome about the fist-pumping grunts at the core of the story. The story isn’t deep or involving–it’s just there, neither enhancing nor diminishing Killzone 2′s action.

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The first question that you might ask yourself as you play Dawn of War II’s lengthy campaign may very well be: Where does the strategy come in?

It’s certainly not your typical RTS experience, putting you in control of up to four squads of Space Marines (and only Space Marines) and sending you off to exterminate your Ork, Eldar, and Tyranid foes.

You won’t be building a base or churning out units, but rather maneuvering your few commander-led squads around the map (likely as a single group) and beating up the beasties that stand between you and your mission objectives. Your goals may entail capturing a particular structure, recovering a stolen object, or even defeating an end-level boss(!). How’s that for defying genre conventions?

This relatively simple gameplay is not what you’d expect from a strategy game, and strategy fans, including those who adored Dawn of War II’s illustrious predecessor, will be disappointed that the “S” is missing from “RTS” in this instance. That’s because the campaign is more akin to an action RPG, and if you look at it from this perspective, you’re more likely to enjoy the journey. The game isn’t going to dissuade you from that approach; the elements of a role-playing game are all accounted for. You will level up your squads and earn new abilities and bonuses, collect items and loot on the battlefield, and spend time between battles equipping your commanders with the various armor sets and weapons that you earn. With these RPG mechanics come the usual addictive loot-hoarding and unit personalization, what with various skill paths from which to choose and usable items that your commanders can equip.

Thus, Dawn of War II’s single-player campaign isn’t really strategic at all, but you will make tactical decisions that move beyond simple mouse clicking. In a mechanic pulled from the developer’s own Company of Heroes, some squads can lay down suppressive fire, which slows your targets and hinders them from a quick escape. Units can be garrisoned or take cover behind certain objects, a mechanic easy to implement thanks to a slick interface and simple but effective visual feedback. However, the most important facet of a successful battle is your familiarity with each commander’s unique abilities. Whether it is one’s rally cry or another’s jump-pack-powered stomp, effective use of skills (along with items such as grenades and satchel charges) is not only your key to victory, but also a visual and sonic delight. Seeing a dreadnought squash a ripper swarm, or a lictor alpha yank a powerless assault marine with its lethal flesh hooks, is enjoyably violent and makes battles fun to watch.

The campaign may be limited to one race, but it sends you to three different planets, including Typhon Primaris.

It takes a while for the campaign to rev up, but even once it is in full swing, some tedium will eventually set in. You’ll visit the same maps many times and fight the same enemies, and though the prospect of loot and new abilities will keep you pushing forward and trying out new options, you’ll long for some more traditional RTS gameplay to mix things up. You’ll also wish for a stronger tale to glue it all together, but in a surprising move by a developer known for great storytelling, the yarn unravels one or two interesting threads (including the surprising origins of your dreadnought commander) but is little more than a reason to throw a bunch of Warhammer 40K units together and watch them tear each other to bits.

Dawn of War II’s multiplayer component couldn’t be more different from its single-player campaign. For those interested in the joys of online competition, you’ll find an exciting, brutal, and highly competitive strategy experience awaiting you online. It’s more traditionally structured than the campaign, in the sense that you will manage some resources and churn out some units of your own choosing from a base structure. It’s also more strategic, as is obvious from the moment you enter the multiplayer menus. You have four races to choose from: Space Marines, Orks, Eldar, and Tyranid. Once you’ve selected a race, you choose from one of three commanders, each with a particular role to play in battle. A Tyranid ravener alpha can dig tunnels, granting your units quick travel when you most need it; an Eldar warlock will embolden the front lines with its powerful spells. Not only does each race come with its own strengths and weaknesses, but your choice of commander (and the accompanying abilities) will further determine the appropriate play style. There are a lot of different ways to play, and many of the different strategies make themselves obvious in just a few hours of play.

The hive tyrant’s halitosis is even more pungent when you equip seismic roar.

Those strategies are incredibly important, because Dawn of War II strips away the base building of traditional RTSs and puts the burden of success directly on how well you manage your units and how efficiently you exert control over the moment-to-moment proceedings of the match. You’ll still queue up your units at a home structure, but resource gathering is inextricably tied to the action, given that you must capture control nodes scattered around the map to generate power and requisition. Actually, you might say that there are three resources: to activate certain global powers, you must fill a gauge by slaying enemy units.

This structure forces you immediately into the thick of action, and you might even encounter your foe in the first minute of play, should you both rush for the same node. Knowing the strengths of your squads is the only way to survive. A shielded hive tyrant and ripper swarm can soak up a lot of damage, so it might be best to capture the node first before assaulting units jockeying for the same position. On the other hand, Eldar enthusiasts may want to off the enemy with a few fire prisms before attempting capture. Throw in equippable skills and items for your commander and squads, and you’ve got a recipe for intense action spread across the entire map. Indeed, Dawn of War II’s multiplayer matches are insanely fun even when you’re on the losing side because you’re constantly engaged with every facet of gameplay at any given moment.

This is especially true in the game’s awesome six-player team battles because triumph comes by way of Dawn of War II’s victory nodes, which must be captured in addition to those that contain resources. Like in the Battlefield series of first-person shooters, capturing one of these positions causes the opposing team’s point total to diminish. The more victory points you hold, the faster your foe’s points bleed away, and you win the match by stripping them down to zero. A closely fought match retains its powerful vigor for the duration, and the longer you fight, the more likely you’ll see some of the game’s most impressive units and abilities. A lumbering carnifex sporting a venom cannon is a sight to behold in the fury of battle, and the looming sight of a looted tank covered in makeshift spikes is both imposing and amusing. The well-designed maps are the perfect size for these skirmishes, though the small number of maps–seven in all–is disappointing. Likewise, there aren’t any large-scale free-for-alls: At release, Dawn of War II’s multiplayer maps support only one-versus-one and three-versus-three matches. Fortunately, the unpredictable nature of the gameplay keeps the maps feeling fresh, as does the keen artificial intelligence, should you limit your fight to computer-controlled commanders.

You can paint your online army. Remember: The Tyranids prefer color coordination.

Dawn of War II’s impressive production values enhance the intensity of your encounters. The game looks great across the board, from its outstanding destructible environments, to shimmering ambient lighting, to remarkable unit animations that make every battle look as though the entire war hinges on it. Although zooming in close to units isn’t very helpful from a gameplay perspective, doing so reveals a wealth of terrific details, such as the rusted plating on dreadnoughts or a hormagaunt’s chillingly sharp talons. Explosions, warp blasts, and other special effects not only look great, but also sound absolutely phenomenal. A barrage of intense battle sounds will burst from your speakers, but individual touches such as the way Orks call out “dakka dakka dakka” as they fire their weapons emerge with clarity. Assisted by a cinematic orchestral soundtrack that swells with drama without overreaching, the sound design provides a constant stream of audio feedback that puts you in the thick of the action without crossing the lines of good taste.

How you approach Dawn of War II depends on what you’re looking for in a real-time strategy game. If you’re looking for an incredibly fun and intense multiplayer and single-player skirmish experience, few RTSs provide combat this exciting and dynamic. If you were hoping for a similarly dynamic campaign mode, you’ll find that the strategy has been mostly stripped away in favor of role-playing elements. This divide may help the game appeal to a wider audience, but it also leads to an identity crisis that Dawn of War II never comes to grips with. Regardless, this is a game that real-time strategy lovers should play, if not for the loot-happy leveling of the campaign, then certainly for the constantly enjoyable online component that will keep you glued to the screen for hours at a time.

source: gamespot.com

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Apple just launched the new iPhone 3GS (for Speed), but is this new iPhone worth the upgrade? – We see how it stands up against its older brothers.

Introduction

The iPhone has become an icon in popular culture. The iPhone, along with its sibling, the iPod, are woven into our view of the world. As a device it is sleek and sexy. It has a great sense of style and shows that while Apple may do many things wrong, they at least do them with style and flare.

From its launch the iPhone has been poked at and prodded, reviewed and tested. The latest launch is nothing new; there have been all kinds of comparisons of the iPhone 3GS and individual tests ran to determine how much better it is than the older iPhones.

We will take a look at the new iPhone 3GS as a first time purchase and see how it compares to its older brother, the iPhone 3G with the same software. So let’s dive in to the new iPhone 3GS and see if it is worthy of your money and time.

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When Intel pushed the Core i7 out the door it was not to top its rival, AMD, but to top its own Core 2 CPUs. We saw the i7 simply trounce on just about all other single socket systems (and some multi-socket systems as well).

Intel did not sit back and relax, though; they took the C0 stepping and tweaked it to give it an extra edge. Soon everyone was talking about the D0 stepping of the i7; it had better headroom, better thermal tolerance and even seemed slightly faster than the same clocked C0 CPU.

Again Intel did not stop there. Instead they pushed out another flagship CPU. This is the i7 975, a D0 stepping monster that looks like it can take on all comers.

We managed to get our hands on one and take it for a spin against the current champ, the i7 965 C0 stepping CPU. Let’s see if it really is worthy of the crown.

What’s New?

Since the D0 has been out for a little bit now I am not going to bore you with the details here, but will simply say that the i7 975 has a couple of differences.

The first is the increased multiplier. Where the 965 has a multiplier of 24(x133 for a 3.2 GHz clock), the i7 975 gets a bump up to 25 (x133 for a 3.3 GHz clock). The voltage is slightly reduced on the 975 as well.

Core i7 Test System

CPU: Intel Core i7 975 XE (D0 Stepping Engineering Sample)

CPU (For Comparison): Intel Core i7 965 XE (C0/C1 Stepping Engineering Sample)

Motherboard: GIGABYTE X58 Extreme Mainboard (BIOS Version F5)

Memory: 6GB Qimonda Aneon DDR3 1600 (CL9) Kingston DDR3 1600 (CL9) for overclocking

Graphics Card(s): 2x Zotac GTX 280 AMP! Edition 1GB GDDR3 GPUs (in SLI)

Storage: LSI MegaRAID w/ 2x Seagate Cheetah 15k RPM 147GB SAS Drives (RAID 0)

Power Supply: Cooler Master UCP 1100

Cooling: Swiftech H20 220 Apex Ultima Kit (with Apogee GTZ for i7)

Case: Cooler Master ATCS 840 Enclosure

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate RC1

Let’s now dive in and see what the new i7 can do.

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The Phenom IIs in quad and three core variations are in the market for quite a while, and after months of wait AMD is ready to replace the old Athon X2 series, which latest incarnations are the 7750 and 7850.

The 7750 and 7850 were the last of 65nm K10 derived cores that sticked with us for quote a while but it was the time to replace Kuma with 45nm Rana. We were happy with the performance of the old ones, but power-consumption of Kuma 65nm dual core parts was sky-high. Now it’s time to check if that has changed with 45nm parts.

The Athlon X2 250 is actually Phenom II but crippled by disabling the L3 cache. It looks that Athlon X2 250 will have all four cores inside and you will have to try to find the way how to enable them. This time, instead of 512kB per core as you get with every other Phenom II, this little bugger has 1024kB on each of the two cores.

The TDP is rated of 65W, which is now at the same level compared to Intels E5, E7 and E8 series. The Phenom II 550 is quite the same as every Phenom II but with only two cores enabled, the VCore has been reduced to 1.3000V and the TDP also lowered to 80W. Phenom II 550 is based on Calisto, yet another harvested quad core where AMD dissabled two cores but it didn’t deactivated 6MB of L3 cache. Both CPUs are suited for AM3 and AM2+ boards.

Testbed:

Motherboard:
MSI 790GX-GD70 (AMD 790GX/SB750 based mainboard)
MSI DKA790GX (AMD 790GX/SB750 based mainboard)
ECS Elitegroup A790GXM-AD3 (AMD 790GX/SB750 based mainboard)

CPU:
AMD Athlon X2 4850e
AMD Athlon X2 7750
AMD Athlon X2 7850
AMD Athlon II X2 250
AMD Phenom II X2 550
Intel E7200

CPU-Cooler:
Scythe Kabuto

Memory:
Kingston 2GB Kit PC2-9600U KHX1200D2K2/2G
CL5-5-5-15 CR2T at 1.90V

Graphics Card:
MSI R4850-2D1G-OC

Power supply:
PC Power & Cooling Silencer 500W

Hard disk:
Western Digital WD4000KD

Case fans:
SilenX iXtrema Pro 14dB(A)
Scythe DFS122512LS

Case:
Cooler Master Stacker 831 Lite

OS:
Since we are still not fans of Vista, all tests are performed with XP SP3. As 64-bit software is still not very common, we stick with the 32-bit version.

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OCZ’s CrossOver flash drive was introduced in December last year, and back then we taught that integrating a microSDHC card reader into a flash drive is a really clever idea, and that it’s a practical concept.

Flash memory prices might be raising lately, but USB flash drives are still dirty cheap and have became an every day gadget that you either use for storage or quick transfer of files.

When you take into account the fact that today most mobile phones use a microSD/microSDHC card for its storage capabilities and that some of those same mobile phones come with a weird cable, the CrossOver sounds like a great thing to have in your pocket.

The CrossOver is a plain and normal USB flash drive that comes in 2, 4 and 8GB capacities. It is packed in a well built dark gray aluminium chassis, and it is pretty compact. It’s not bulky as some other flash drives, but it’s not very small either.

Despite the fact that this one targets the value part of the market the build quality is still high. Thankfully, OCZ decided to go with aluminium on this one, no cheap plastic to be seen here.

The card reader is well hidden on the end of the flash drive, just below the lanyard hole. The card does not slide all the way in, but it feels solid, so we doubt that you will have any problems if you consider using it as an expander for some additional storage.

OCZ targets mainstream market with this one, so practicality, value and low price are the key points for this drive. This means that transfer speeds are mainstream as well. We decided to put OCZ’s CrossOver against some flash drives which we had around, and we simply included the Patriot Xporter to show the advantage of SLC based flash drive, which are much more expensive.

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