You are here:

Home

Hands-On: PlayStation Vita

Details: Category: Hands-On; Created on Saturday, 14 January 2012 16:36; Written by Dean Jones; Hits: 293

During this weekend, and up until Tuesday (17th Jan), Sony have rented a shop front in Manchester and are showing of their brand new handheld - the PlayStation Vita - for all to play. I popped in and managed to get a decent play on most of the games in there, as well as getting used to the Vita console itself.

Console

The Vita itself looks fantastic - all the press photos you may have seen simply don’t do it justice. The shiny black plastic is extremely solid, the face buttons and d-pad are extremely high quality and the screen is simply beautiful. Frankly, the build quality of the PS Vita makes the 3DS feel like a toy. Sony have gone all-out to make the Vita look like a premium product. One aspect I particularly liked was the shoulder buttons - looking from the front they’re clear, but the top side of them is black, they look strange and wonderful at the same time.

Review: Mario Kart 7 (3DS)

Details: Category: Reviews; Created on Friday, 16 December 2011 16:36; Written by Dean Jones; Hits: 168

Christmas is upon us and Nintendo have granted us with a second Mario game for the 3DS, this time from a series which has graced every successful Nintendo platform since the SNES, and every single one has been well received. Does the seventh addition to the series continue this tradition, or is this a rush job made to maximise the 3DS’ sales performance this Christmas?

The biggest additions in this version of Mario Kart are the glider and underwater sections. Large jumps will cause a glider to pop out of your kart, giving you a surprising amount of control as you decide to swoop back to the course or prolong your fight as long as possible, even trying to sneakily cut out a corner or two. Weapons also work while in mid-air, and managing to get perfect aim with a green shell to hit another gliding racer is a wonderful feeling.

Review: Professor Layton and the Spectre's Call (DS)

Details: Category: Reviews; Created on Wednesday, 23 November 2011 16:36; Written by Dean Jones; Hits: 178

Professor Layton has been somewhat of a surprise success. Originally released when everyone was crazy for Brain Training games, Layton grabbed the world with his British-Japanese charm and still remains hugely popular - he even had a (straight to Blu-Ray) film, created by the same people who makes the wonderful animation for the games. The Spectre’s Call is the Professor’s latest (well, earliest) adventure, bringing about it’s own set of bizarre plot twists and lovely characters.

The Spectre’s Call is the start of a new trilogy of Layton games, and takes place before any of the previous three. If you’ve yet to experience Layton yourself, the fresh start makes for the perfect point to jump into the series. After getting a letter from his good friend Clark Triton, Layton and his assistant, Emmy, head off to investigate mysterious happenings in Misthallery. A giant spectre, supposedly controlled by a flute, has been attacking the city. Thankfully, with help from the predictions of Luke Triton, nobody had yet been hurt. It’s up to Layton, Emmy and Luke to hunt down all of the town’s secrets to find out who, or what, is behind all this.

Review: Star Fox 64 3D

Details: Category: Reviews; Created on Saturday, 17 September 2011 16:36; Written by Dean Jones; Hits: 310

Hot on the tail of Ocarina of Time 3D, Nintendo bring us another Nintendo 64 classic, this time in conjunction with Q Games (responsible for Star Fox Command). Star Fox 64 3D brings us an updated version of the on-rails shooter originally released over here as Lylat Wars.

If you’ve never had a chance to play the original Star Fox 64, it is an on-rails space shooter. The Lylat System has been taken over by a giant disembodied head (called Andross) and it’s up to Fox McCloud and his team to save the galaxy. While there are 16 levels, you only play seven in each playthrough - completing levels in different ways will send you along different paths. It doesn’t take long to complete a playthough - between 30 minutes and an hour - but it’s a game that’s built to be played many, many times thanks to high scores and medals.

Quick Review / Starter's Guide: HP Touchpad

Details: Category: Reviews; Created on Friday, 26 August 2011 23:15; Written by Dean Jones; Hits: 1105

Well, the HP Touchpad has been discontinues by HP and as a result the prices went massively downhill - as low as £89. I managed to pick one up after previously stating that I have no use for a tablet, even though I was impressed by iPad 2. I know plenty of other people have got one, so I’ll include tips on apps and making it better (or rather, include handy links to places the tips are from)

The Good

The Browser. There is one pretty important things that sets this apart from the iPad: Flash. In particular, flash videos. Sites like the BBC iPlayer, Gametrailers, TGWTG, etc all work within the browser extremely smoothly (depending on connection speed, obviously) without the need for an App to replace flash. Opening multiple windows is very easy and you can have different groups of windows. I’ll say more about this later.

Such Textiles Ltd.

Details: Category: Websites; Created on Friday, 22 July 2011 19:44; Written by Dean Jones; Hits: 417

As the IT Manager for Such Textiles, I decided that the current Magent-based website was a bit too heavy-handed on our server and was a bit too bulky for our needs. I set about working on a new one and came up with this. The new Such Textiles website is a great showcase of their main products and allows customers to ask questions or request samples of specific products via a fancy CSS3-enhanced contact form.

The Such Textiles webstie is, in my opinion, a very professional-looking website and is still being worked on. It's in a state where it's stable enough to be live, but there are still some updates in the works.

3D Space Invader

Details: Category: 3D; Created on Wednesday, 04 February 2009 22:48; Written by Dean Jones; Hits: 499