Manhunt 2 Banned in the UK
Manhunt 2, the sequel of Manhunt has been banned in Britain, this ruling means that the game can not legally be supplied anywhere in Britain. Because of its “unrelenting focus on stalking and brutal slaying” according to sensors.
The developers of the game Rockstar developed the controversial Manhunt and Grand Theft Auto series.
This is the first computer game ban in 10 years that the The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) has dished out, because it would cause “a range of unjustifiable harm risks” to adults and children.
“Manhunt 2 is distinguishable from recent high-end video games by its unremitting bleakness and callousness of tone in an overall game context which constantly encourages visceral killing with exceptionally little alleviation or distancing. There is sustained and cumulative casual sadism in the way in which these killings are committed, and encouraged, in the game.” David Cooke, Director of BBFC
Apple releases Safari browser for Windows
Apple’s CEO has announced that its Safari browser has made the jump over to the Windows operating system, up until now Safari was only available to Apple computer users.
“the fastest browser on Windows” Steve Jobs
We decided to put this new browser to the test
Upon opening the Safari installer we were greeted with this window, we decided to keep both options checked and started the installation.
…36 seconds later the safari installation completed, Safari did not automatically start and I noticed that Safari added a desktop shortcut without asking. we ran the program and it did not start up for at least 15 seconds, then it took another 10 seconds to load up Apples startpage.
The interface similar to the firefox interface, with tabbed browing. with the bug report button taking the place of the Home button(I am not sure this browser even has one!) and the Tools is called Window.
We randomly visited a few websites using Firefox, Internet Explorer & Safari, we found the page loading time was pretty much equal to Firefox’s loading time, so faster then Internet Explorer.
An annoyance with apples Safari window is that you have to resize it from the bottom right hand corner, which half the time manages to get covered up by the windows task bar.
Something we stumbled upon was that you could drag and image or link from the Safari browser in to Firefox, we like this feature a lot as it saves you copying and pasting all the time, but a key thing is missing, you cant drag an image directly from the browser on to your computer at all it seems, not to your documents or to an image manipulation program such as photoshop or the gimp as you could with IE for Firefox, hopefully this feature will be included in later updates.
Personally I am going to stick to Firefox for now, it is the little annoyances which are holding back this browsers potential, we will however be looking out for updates of Safari.
Download the Safari Beta here
Download Firefox here
Church of England threatens Sony with legal action
The church of England has threatened legal action against Sony for the use of Manchester cathedral in Resistance Fall Of Man, a popular PlayStation 3 game which has sold more then 1 million copies.
A spokesman for the Church of England said a letter will be sent to Sony on Monday and if its demands for an apology and withdrawal of the game are not met the Church will look at legal action.
“For a global manufacturer (Sony) to recreate one of our great cathedrals with photorealistic quality and encourage people to have gun battles in the building is beyond belief.” Rev Nigel McCulloch
“It is game-created footage, it is not video or photography. It is entertainment, like Doctor Who or any other science fiction. It is not based on reality at all. Throughout the whole process we have sought permission where necessary.” David Wilson, a Sony spokesman
This has taken a while for them to clock on to, the game has been out in the UK since the PS3 launch, it will be interesting to see where this goes.
Diablo 2 - Review
Blizzard deserve a pat on the back for Diablo II, it has everything you look for in an adventure game. The longevity, the action, the characters all amount to making this one of those games you end up playing long into the night.
The depth of this game is crazy; each realm seems different to the last with its new creatures and scenery. You find yourself battling through lush jungles, dry desserts, and of course those dark, eerie dungeons. At each point you are completely captivated by these surroundings. This is helped by the lovely graphics, but the sound really has to be mentioned as well, it is obvious Blizzard put a lot of effort into the voices, sound effects and epic music.
After completing each ‘Act’ you are awarded with watching a cut scene, pulling you deeper into the storyline. These are really great and I’ve watched each of them multiple times. The gameplay is incredible, never a dull moment in the world of Diablo. Fighting your way through rooms full of numerous big things has never been so fun.
This game will give you hours of fun and I highly suggest getting it.
Techie Web Rating: 8.5/10
Diablo 3 has now been announced - http://techieweb.co.uk/2008/06/diablo-3-preview/
Nokia N95 Review
The N95 includes a wide range of features, we couldn’t possibly review every single one, so we are going to look at the best features.
5 megapixel (2592 x 1944 pixels) flash camera
The N95 is a true camera phone, it includes a camera worth taking photographs with thanks to its 5 megapixel resolution.
The camera saves images in JGEG/EXIF format, and will Auto focus, Auto exposure.
The camera software includes:
- Scene modes: close up, portrait, landscape, sports, night and night portrait.
- Self-timer - 2 seconds, 10 seconds or 20 seconds - useful if you’re taking a picture of yourself!
- 20x digital zoom (5 megapixel up to 6x zoom)
- Sequence mode, for taking a particular amount of photographs in a sequence.
Unlike other Nokia phone models this one comes with a manual sliding shutter, so the camera lens is protected from damage when you are not using it, this is a feature which Nokia & other mobile phone manufacturers should have implemented in to camera phones a long time ago, there is nothing worse then having a scratch on the lens which could have been avoidable.
Today I took a few snap shots with the N95, this one has to be my favourite:
Garden Frog - Close up mode - N95 (this image has been resized)
Frog Image © Techieweb.co.uk
GPS
The N95 includes a built in GPS receiver and is preloaded with map software which can download maps as you are going along to conserve memory, over the 3G connection or even a Wifi connection.
Out of the box the software will allow you to find your location accurately and find text directions to a location, if you would like navigation capabilities & voice instructions however you will need to purchase a license for the region you are in, the prices do vary according to region, we here at Techie web are in the UK region, so therefore we have the choice of:
- 3 year license £47.53
- 1 year license £40.74
- 30 day license £5.43
- 7 day license £4.41
The GPS software also allows you to search for places by category, including places to eat, transport, shopping, leisure, sights, people, accommodation & services. we noticed that if a place had a phone number included in its details, you can select to ring the number, this is a very useful feature for when you are out and about.
We would like to add that due to the drain on the battery, we advise you to use an car charger, especially if you are downloading maps as you are going along.
Internet
The phones web browser and various applications including the GPS software can make use an internet connection which can be made via a local WIFI network or a mobile networks 3G/GPRS internet connection.
Audio
The N95 supports MP3/AAC/AAC+/eAAC+/WMA/M4A audio formats, you can play these formats natively via the cameras memory/memory card or streamed over a network or Internet.
The N95 features FM radio capability, this requires that you plug in headphones, which act as an aerial.
Memory
150mb of internal memory can be used to store photographs, videos, audio and other such files. In addition the N95’s microSD card slot takes memory cards up to 2gb in size, we picked up a 2gb memory card for £15 on ebay.
The image on the left shows the size comparison between a regular SD card and a microSD card, as you can see a MicroSD card is considerably smaller.
We give Nokia’s N95 a rating of 9/10, we would give it 10/10 if the battery did not need to be charged up so often
For more information about the N95’s technical specification, check out Nokia’s site.
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