Plants Vs. Zombies Review - Even More Fun than it Sounds

I don't usually like this kind of game. I didn't like this developers previous release "peggle" and I have to admit, I was surprised. More than surprised, I was blown away.

This game is fun. It's fun to play, it's fun to listen to and it's criminally cheap for the amount of content you get. I bought this for ten euro and I've already got at least two hours out of it, at the rate which I get through games these days that is very very good value for money.

So what's the game like, here's a screenshot.



Right so, see those plants. You plant those using the cards at the top. Then those zombies start walking over to your house and the plants do things to stop them. Some plants fire peas, others will eat the zombies, freeze them, whatever. It follows the basic tower defense formula loosely. Simplified in that the zombies approach along a single lane into your plants.

Most of the challenge comes from having the right plant in the right place. Well, what challenge there is anyway, but I'll get onto that in a moment.

I just want to make a mention of the animations in this game. It really looks great, a highlight is one particular type of zombie which walks onto your lawn reading a news paper. The paper will block a few of your plants shots before being torn to pieces. This causes a huge question mark to appear over the zombies head before he flies into a nerd rage. "I was reading that".

The plants look similarly excellent, the sunflower bopping to and fro, the doom shroom increasing in size dramaticaly before exploding into a mushroom cloud. After a man eater eats a zombie it can be seen chewing contentedly while a limp arm dangles out of it's maw. There's always something fun to look at.

Another very welcome addition is an "almanac" which contains details of the various plants and zombies you encounter. Each has a humorous description and it's always fun to refer to the almanac once you encounter a new enemy or plant.

This is an excellent product and if anything above appeals to you I advise you to pick it up. Anyway, let's get back to the issue of challenge.



This game starts off easy and stays easy for a long time. I have yet to lose once. (That one time I forgot to pick an essential plant doesn't count). I have a feeling this was geared towards a more casual audience, which is fine but I would have really liked to be able to put up the difficulty a few notches.

I'm half way through the third stage and things are starting to heat up slightly but I've had to simply stop playing a few times because I was not being challenged at all.

Another issue is the resource mechanic. You get "sun energy" both from the sun and from your sunflowers. The issue here is that there is no limit to the number of sunflowers you can have so it's very easy to end up with a near limitless supply of energy at which point it becomes a cake walk. It's a pity because it is something that it would be very easy to limit. The tutorial mentioned that I should have at least three but I never build less than twelve. This also hurts the gameplay because the early part of every level is spent just building sunflowers. Limiting it to three would have made decisions about what to build much harder and improved the gameplay a lot.

Still, the difficulty is increasing and it is becoming more fun, not to mention there's a load of mini games and challenge modes I haven't even tried yet. So, it's hard to give out about this game too much. A definate recommendation for anybody looking for a laid back game to unwind with.

So, check out the great (I have a soft spot for this kitchy stuff) music video they made, and take the plunge. It's got zombies after all.

Bose In-Ear Headphones Review - Glass Cannons

I didn't even want to buy a new pair of earphones but it was a good sales man.

"Try them out", he said. "If you don't like them, don't buy them."

I liked them, and I bought them. These things sound amazing, whatever way the sound enters your ear it acually sounds like it's coming from all around you. Listening to these on the bus is not too far away audially from having your legitimate sound system on the seat beside you.

Of course, they still fail where all earphones fail, despite the "In-Ear Headphones" label. The bass is weak and the volume you'll get with an average strength media player's output is about medium.

Sounds good, these things really are cannons. But now comes the glass aspect.

Like most earphones they produce these days the earphones have removeable rubber sections where it plugs into your ear. I'm not sure who thought these were a good idea as I've never found a comfortable fit with these things yet. However the problem in this case goes much further than comfort.

They just won't stay on. Used to wrapping your earphones around your player before shoving into your pocket? Well, forget about that little "feature" because if you are using these, the earphones that emerge from your pocket when you need them again will be unusable.

They fall off, they get lost. And when they are gone you are just left with a short spike on each earphone which is unusable for anything beyond impromptu self defence. For me, this renders these earphones useless for their intended purpose and is a massive design flaw.

I considered glueing them on but my common sense decided that "glue" and "my ears" are two things that should never meet. So I've thrown these aside for the MX60's reviewed below.

All in all, a massive disappointment. Great sound but zero usability.

PS3 Impressions - Welcome to proper HD

Finally I got crazy enough and splashed out 410 Euros on a PS3, the 80GB version bundled with Big little planet and Killzone 2 from Gamestop. Boy what a surprise. Not only do I currently like it better than my XBox360 (could be just the freshness of the PS3) but its actually a very solid piece of technology.

First the integrated WiFi is something X360 really should have since the start, Second the controller being both Wireless and Wired (when charging via USB cable) is just awesome, big improvement over my X360 controller where its either a permanent USB controller or one that drains the AA as if there is no tomorrow (apparently there is a controller I once saw for the X360 which can be wired and wireless, but haven't seen it since).

Another thing I really liked about the PS3 is its OS, almost identical to the PSP menu system (in a good way), it also allows multi threading (folding while gaming) and is very easy to navigate.

But truth be told the above are thing that I only noticed after I opened up the box, what really got me buying this piece of amazement is even more amazing after seeing in person. One word: Wipeout HD (well technically 3 words)


One thing let me be absolutely clear, no other game (including GT5) is as sublime as this when it comes to pure high def-ness, everything is high def, even the sound is high def! The result? 10/10? Absolutely. There is no words I can use to describe the feeling of playing this on a 40+ inch HDTV, so I won't just make sure you do it before you die.


The PS3 also comes bundled with one of my favorite application: Folding@home, this will effectively mean my PS3 will never be turned off lets just hope it last longer than my third X360 in 2 years...

Samsung NC10 Review - Writers Paradise

I bought one of these for 400e a few months ago and I've since realised something.

I love the NC10, I literally think it's the greatest technological marvel in a long time. Not for any particular technology it incorporates but the face that it does everything so damn well.

The size is perfect for writing or web browsing around the house. Not too big and not too small. The led screen is also very bright and will have a good life time.

The keyboard is perfect for writing on, almost full size and comfortable as hell. I write a LOT and the keyboard never hurts my fingers like the keyboard on my R70 is doing right now. The travel is good and there is a cushioned effect. Additionally the keys incorporate some kind of nano-technology to keep bacteria from multiplying on it. I've been using the NC10 religiously for over four months now and it is still as pristine as the day I bought it.



The battery life on this is amazing. You will easily get five hours with heavy usage. This is realistic figure, full screen brightness, running word and a web browser constantly, this is the battery life you will get. And it's just enough to use all day on and off without having to recharge.

Anecdote time. I had a trip to Birmingham recently for a fencing competition. I used the NC10 while waiting to board my plane and then took it onboard with me as hand luggage. I was using it on and off all day until the time came for me to fly back.

Well, my aer lingus flight got delayed by two hours. With me in the plane. It was cramped, there was a baby going mental behind me and I was VERY glad I my NC10 with me. Messing around with chess and minesweeper was the only thing that kept me sane. A lesser battery would have died long before I had even got to the airport.

The look. Well, this is the one subjective point but I thought I'd include it anyway. I love the look of the NC10, it's like a miniature R70 so if you are a Samsung fanboy like myself it'll look right at home.

Okay, enough love. What is there to hate about this thing?

Well, there is a little plastic cover that goes over the leds at the front of the netbook. This is made from really cheap plastic and kind of detracts from the feel of quality. One icy day I slipped and fell on my NC10 which was in my bag at the time. The NC10 was unharmed but that piece of plastic broke. Sure, it's never a good idea to fall on top of your netbook but it still shows how that thing is the weakest link.

I also replaced the hard drive with a 20gig SSD. I'm not sure if it made a diference at all battery wise but it did cool the laptop down a bit and made it pretty much 100% silent. Not really a necessary upgrade but I felt it was worth it. Upgrade guides are easy to find online and getting the thing open was easy enough. (You have to give it at a bit of pressure and at first it seems like it's not going to open without breaking though.)

Well, all in all it's an excellent purchase. And I think it is ESPECIALY good if you intend to do a lot of writing with it. I'm not sure if there's a writers netbook of the year award... Sure I'll make one myself.

The NC10, THE BINARY REFINERYS - WRITERS NETBOOK OF THE YEAR 2009.

Sennheiser MX60 Review - Sounds Awesome

So I was able to trade a baguette for Alan's old Sennheisers following his recent defection from Germany to Austria.



First thing I did with these babies was rip off the fuzzy stuff that was covering them. This removed the low volume problems that Alan was having and really let them shine. Bass on these is reasonable but overall sound quality is excellent. They are also very comfortable in my ears.

Sennheiser dominate the mid range in ear headphone market with their products having excellent cost to quality ratio. And if you can pick one up for cheap like I did I recommend it.

One thing they really need to work on however is their numbering system. They have like 15 diferent products in the MX series with no identifiable diference between "lanyard included", "attached cable winder." This is the kind of thing that puts you off as it is obviously Sennheisers way of attempting to attract the casual audience as opposed to people who actualy appreciate their music. The fuzzy things over the ear phones were more evidence to this. (Would anyone leave these on?)

Sennheiser make excellent audio equipment but they really need to have their marketing department shot.

AKG K319 Impressions - Pure Fidelity

Had these AKG K319 Earphones for the past few days now, despite having my reservations when the sales person told me these are the best earphones just cause the numbers on the box for frequency response is higher than all the others I must admit, the hippy was right.

These earphone are actually much louder than the Sennheiser MX60 earphones it replaced, it also features nice bass response (for in-ear earphones) and a incredible acoustic fidelity only limited by the piss poor bit-rate of my mp3, I shall have to try out some flac track in the coming days.

The looks of these earphones is also very cool in my opinion, they are rock solid which leads me to believe that it may not be plastic, but some alien alloy. There is no flex at all no matter how hard I tried to bend it.

Of course, speaker (in this case earphones) without a matching player is not much use, and this is where my Sony Ericsson X1 (a.k.a. SEX1 -wtf?) also did its part in contributing to the best in-ear experiance I have had in a long time. Window mobile media player certainly does the job if a phone to you is something that allows you to run sql servers (yes I meant the compact edition).

So in a nut shell, SEX1 and AKG K319 is the combo to beat for my next adventure in techno land, which let me assure you is very soon.

Until next time, remember there is only 10 options in life, on or off.