Monthly Archives: October 2005
Atari – Fahrenheit
It’s a sign of the times, really: we’re growing accustomed to games coming with rolling credits over their opening titles. In Fahrenheit’s case the final one reads ‘Written and directed by…’ It’s as if we’re watching a movie. Because, for all intents and purposes, we are. Fahrenheit is most tidily described as an interactive adventure,…
Sony – Vaio VGN-T2XP/S
In an ideal world an ultraportable notebook should be not much bigger than a handheld PDA, be easy to type on and have much of the functionality of a full-size notebook. Unlikely, we know. More often than not these smaller sized ultraportables have to make so many compromises that a system which looks good on…
Corel – WordPerfect Office 12 Student and Teacher Edition
WordPerfect is an intimidating title for a program. It sounds like the sort of word processor that only Shakespearian types should be using; those who can craft perfect sentences and paragraphs. As opposed to journalistic monkeys bashing randomly on keyboards in the hope that something printable emerges. But WordPerfect is anything but demanding or intimidating;…
Creative Labs – Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro
We’ve become used to the regular release of new graphics chips but it’s a far rarer occurrence when a new audio chip comes to market, and it’s no surprise at all that Creative Labs is the company behind the new Sound Blaster X-Fi. This is its first new audio chip since the Audigy 2 in…
Genius – G-Shot DV 610
So, you want a digital camera and an MP3 player, but you’d rather not carry two bits of kit around with you. There are several options that offer ‘all in one’ solutions to this dilemma. One route is to carry a phone with a camera and music player, while another is to look at devices…
Konami – Pro Evolution Soccer 5
For producers of any long-running franchise, eventually there’s a conundrum to face. Do you take the road marked ‘EA Sports’ and gradually move your games on a little each year, without trying anything you’d consider as a serious risk? Or do you try something different, knowing damn well you could alienate the fan base that…
Toshiba – Libretto U100
You may recognise the Libretto name from the distant past, when handheld PCs were all the rage, but while this Libretto U100 may look and feel like the 90s original (a laptop PC about the size of a VHS cassette, to use the marketing vernacular of the time), under the skin it’s a completely different…
GSP – Retro Gamer Classic Games
Tying in with the currently-in-administration Retro Gamer magazine, GSP has launched a selection of classic game compilations at a tenner apiece. Each of the packs has at least four games on it for your money, and we’ve got three of them here for a quick round-up. Let’s start, illogically, with Retro Gamer Classic Puzzle Games…
GeCube – X850XT
At the time of writing the GeCube X850XT uses the most powerful ATI graphics chip that money can buy, the Radeon X850XT. This is all about to change, of course, as any day now ATI will launch the Radeon X1800 to regain the ground that it has lost to Nvidia and its mighty GeForce 7800GTX….
Freecom – DVB-T USB Stick
So you want Freeview, the 35+ channel digital TV service we’ll all have to switch to by 2012. You can either buy yourself a £40 set-top box to plonk on top of your TV, or this neat little USB stick, which plugs into any USB 2 port on a desktop or notebook PC. The device…