Call Of Duty: Black Ops video game review

With Call Of Duty: Black Ops, developer Treyarch has finally stepped out from Infinity Ward's shadow by producing one of the best games of this year. 

The hype starts here: Call Of Duty Black Ops is one of the best releases of this year

Formats: PS3, Xbox 360 (version tested) and PC
Developer: Treyarch
Publisher: Activsion
Released: 9 November 2010
Score: 10/10 

Unfairly or not, when it comes to Call Of Duty, Treyarch has long been seen as the stand-in developer for the franchise. As Activision's military shooter title shot to world stardom, Treyarch was called upon to pump out place-holder games while Infinity Ward toiled away on the next triple A COD release. The COD titles that Treyarch produced weren't bad – indeed, Call Of Duty: World At War was an engrossing and enjoyable shooter. But the Santa Monica-based developer's COD games were always considered by fans to the equivalent of straight-to-DVD movies when compared to Infinity Ward's blockbuster releases. With the release of Call Of Duty: Black Ops, those days are now well and truly over. 

To put it simply, Call Of Duty: Black Ops is superb. The experience of playing the game, thanks to the modified World At War engine, is comparable to the best in what the franchise has had to offer up until now. The meaty kick of the guns, the blistering pace of the action and the sterling soundtrack of explosions, gunshots and whistling bullets all serve to quicken the player's pulse and tighten their grip on the controller. Once again, introspective considerations and achievement concerns (at least on the initial playthrough) are dumped to one side as Black Ops' gameplay plugs directly into the player's primal need to make it out alive. The controls will be familiar to anyone who has ever played COD (millions of players by the last count) or indeed any shooter in the last ten or so years. The game also earns every ounce of its 18 rating with some particularly grisly violence, although this is confined to the single-player experience.

There is nothing gratuitous about the violence in the campaign, however. While it contains its fair share of graphically violent scenes, there is nothing on the level of the cheap theatrics of the 'No Russian' level of Modern Warfare 2. All the violence, however eye-watering it may be, is used at the service of the campaign's plot – and what a rip-roaring piece of work that happens to be. The player takes on the role of a soldier, who at the beginning of the game, is strapped to a chair in a makeshift torture chamber, with shadowy figures barking questions at him about his chequered past. The plots unfolds in flashback with the action moving around different theatres from the Cold War such as (amongst others) U.S.S.R., Vietnam and Cuba. The writers do just the right amount of drip-feeding plot details and twisting the narrative that the story maintains a lethal degree of intrigue and tension. When all is finally revealed, they're also deft enough tie up campaign, while not spoon-feeding the player by closing out every loose end. It's top notch stuff and it has the edge over Black Ops' predecessor in that it actually makes sense. 

The level design matches the plot's strength neck and neck. Granted, awe-inspiring set pieces have always been Call Of Duty's stock in trade as a franchise, but Black Ops ramps up the intensity while tossing in a lot of variation. Beyond the overwhelming, chaotic action in the game's major gun battles – during a charge up a hill in Vietnam or a frantic rooftop chase in Hong Kong – Black Ops offers a slow crawl through corpse-filled foxhole in Laos and a stealthy infiltration of a substation in the snow-capped steppes in which the slowdown in action is compensated for by nail-shredding tension and creepy atmosphere. There are also a couple of vehicle sections; one standout moment involves laying waste to enemy positions along a river in a helicopter gunship. Throughout the campaign, Black Ops offers an engrossing plot with epic shooter action to match. The only downside to the campaign – as has almost become standard in COD games – is that it's rather short. On easiest setting, most players will blaze through it in around 6 to 8 hours. However, many consumers won't be too bothered by this aspect, because they'll be purchasing Black Ops for the online multiplayer mode and it's here that Treyarch's hard work and creativity truly pays off. 

The multiplayer is just as robust as its predecessor, with the only shortfall being that the 20 killstreak rewards have been reduced to 15 and the deathstreaks, which gave the less skilled online players a bit of help, have gone completely. To compensate for this latter omission, Black Ops contains a mode called Combat Training which pits the players again the game's AI in multiplayer maps and match-types. This can be played solo or with friends (in local and online co-op) and the difficulty level can be toggled according the player's skill level. It doesn't completely replicate the experience of online – the AI doesn't camp for example – but over all this mode should give players a good introduction to the style of play in the multiplayer, and make them confident enough to test their mettle against human opponents. 

Veterans might view with Combat Training as a fun, if disposable exercise. However, the wealth of content in the multiplayer is sure to set their tongues wagging – and not just because Black Ops's multiplayer has dedicated servers. First off, the customisation options are mind-boggling. Players can customise nearly every aspect of their in-game avatars, build their own character classes (picking out weapons, tools and perks), design their own clan-tags and emblems and even customise the appearance of their weapons. Fancy having your clan name scratched into your gun with a purple smiley face on the reticule of your sights? Well now you can; and in the kill cam, every one of your victims will know it was you that tagged them. There's also Theater (sic) mode in which players can play back matches they've taken part in, chop together a highlight reel and share moments from their greatest battles online. 

Players have a large selection to choose from in the arsenal in Black Ops, which is era-specific to the Cold War, and there are some new perks and killstreaks (some which make returns from previous games with new names). There's also some new equipment in the game which mixes up the gameplay a bit – camera spikes act as a localised radar when deployed, and SAM turrets mean you don't need to carry a rocket launcher to take down attack helicopters. There's a lengthy list of match-types which will be familiar to COD veterans and the maps themselves offer and the selection of maps offer varied environments to shoot mates in, while ticking the usual boxes for COD games – narrow streets, sniping points and rooms with multiple entries.. 

Black Ops has the same levelling up system as previous COD instalments, but this time round, experience points (XP) are augmented by COD Points (CP). Players gain both in every multiplayer match they play and while XP unlocks weapons, perks, skins and equipment CP offers them the option of buying them. Players have a second option to earn CP in the brand new Wager Matches, in which players all ante up CP and compete for a pot in a selection of match types. The players who end up in the first three positions will take home a share of the pot, while the rest get nothing. To prevent players from cheating, all of the Wager matches are free-for-alls, so players can't charge in with a couple of mates and farm CP. 

There are four Wager match-types and all of them offer very different, if equally thrilling experiences. The first is One In The Chamber, in which players are given a handgun, one bullet and a knife. If they kill another player, they receive another bullet, although each player can only carry one bullet at a time. These are tense, exciting affairs made all the more nail-biting due to the sums of CP involved. The second match type is Sticks & Stones in which players are armed with a tomahawk, a spring-loaded knife which fires blades, a crossbow and a couple of exploding bolts. Players win the match by dispatching foes over a set time limit. However, adding a little spice to the match is the fact that if a player manages to hit an opponent with their tomahawk, they bankrupt the player in question of all their CP. Third up is Gun Game, an absolutely ridiculous match in which players are handed a succession of increasingly powerful weapons with each kill. The winner is the player who either scores the most kills or manages to cycle through all of the weapons on offer. Fourth and last, there's Sharpshooter, in which players start off with the same weapons, and then their guns are cycled at random intervals. There's a certain manic energy to all of the Wager Matches and they're by far and away one of the most satisfying aspect of Black Ops. 

Finally, fans of World At War will be pleased to hear that the zombies are back. This time, players take on the roles of John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Robert McNamara, and Fidel Castro who have come under attack at the pentagon. Up to four players can take part in online battles, while two can play together in local split-screen co-op. It's a zany entertaining mode in which players dash madly around a series of rooms, blasting the stumbling undead who are trying to break into the map at four entrance points. As they rack up kills, players can spend points to unlock more weapons scattered around the map, and also barricade entry points to staunch the never-ending flow of zombies. It never stops being silly, infectious fun. 

If Treyarch felt they had something to prove with Call Of Duty: Black Ops, then the developer can give itself a well-deserved pat on the back. They've really hit one out of the park with Black Ops; this COD entry is easily the gold standard for this franchise now. This is a game that will silence any naysayers and beat off any competition. Activision will doubtless be pleased, although any other developers tasked with following Black Ops will probably be wondering how they can improve on Treyarch's work here. Call Of Duty: Black Ops will be a tough act to follow as it's easily one of the best games of this, or any year. 

It is even, dare we say it, better than Modern Warfare 2. 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/video-games/8102582/Call-of-Duty-Black-Ops-launch-trailer.html

Trailer link above. 

Google Chrome: comparison of operating systems

Google has unveiled its new operation system, Google Chrome. Here is a comparison of the main operating systems: 

Google Chrome is now available for computers running Linux and Mac OS X Photo: GOOGLE

 

What is an operating system and what are the options?

An operating system is the software that makes your computer work. It uses programs and data to run the computer, and to make simple tasks work. It acts as an intermediary between your computer's hardware – the keyboard, mouse, monitor, hard drive, processor etc – and the applications or programs you want to run.

Operating systems:

Linux: This open-source operating system – that means the code it's built on is publicly available, and can added to and improved upon by users – might not be a household name, but it will be familiar to a lot of people. If you were one of the first people to buy a netbook computer, such as the Asus Eee PC, then chances are that machine will have been running a version of Linux. Firefox and OpenOffice are both built on the Linux kernel, while Android is based on this code. Dell even briefly offered its customers the option of having the Ubuntu version of Linux installed on their new computer. Linux, though popular with computer geeks, is not really considered to be a mainstream computing platform, and few device makers write drivers for their peripherals that are compatible with the operating system. That means that the Linux user community relies heavily on one another to identify and resolve problems and issues, and fill in the gaps left by other manufacturers.

 

Apple Mac OS X: Microsoft might dominate the computing market, but Apple's OS X operating system is widely considered to be the finest computing platform currently available. Each version of the Mac OS X software range is named after a 'big cat' – the first incarnation was Cheetah, and the forthcoming operating system will be called Lion. Apple's operating system boasts a number of innovative visual features that differentiate it from its competitors. The floating 'Dock' is used in place of a more conventional nested Start menu, while 'Spotlight' allows users to search their whole computer for files, documents or applications. The 'Expose' function allows users to see all their open windows at once, while 'Quick Look' means users can preview a video, PDF, or spreadsheet from directly within the Finder window, without having to first open the associated program. Apple prides itself on having built an operating system that "just works".

 

Microsoft Windows: Microsoft scored a rare own goal with Windows Vista, the operating system launched in 2007 to a chorus of complaints from critics and users alike, who found it bloated, buggy and hard to use. The company's newest operating system, Windows 7, couldn't be more different – cleverly designed and well thought-out, it is, by and large, a joy to use. You can see all your open programs in the Live Taskbar, while Snap To allows you to easily arrange two open windows side by side and use them at the same time. Improved home networking and printer sharing makes it easier for multiple computer users in the same household to access documents and connect to peripherals, while top-notch security and parental control features make Windows 7 an excellent choice for families.

Google Chrome OS: With Chrome, Google is attempting to reimagine the operating system, severing the traditional ties between individual computers and the installed operating system, and instead, placing the OS in the cloud, so that users can have the same kind of computing experience on any machine. Computers running Chrome OS will be almost instant-on, meaning they will start up and connect to the internet, ready for use, in just a few seconds. The platform is based on web applications that give users access to common desktop computing tasks usually handled by a traditional OS, such as email, word processing and photo editing and management.
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Web searches for HTC phones outstrip iPhone

Shoppers are more likely to search for HTC’s handsets when researching new phones than Apple’s flagship handset, research reveals. 

 

The research, conducted by mobile phone comparison site Good Mobile Phones, revealed that HTC’s Wildfire, Desire and Desire HD were the three most searched-for phones on the site, with Apple’s iPhone 4 in sixth place.

More searches were also carried out over the 30-day period for Samsung’s Galaxy S handset and Nokia’s flagship N8 than for the iPhone.

The BlackBerry Curve 8520, Samsung Tocco Lite, BlackBerry Torch and Sony Xperia X10 Mini made up the rest of the top 10 most searched-for phones.

Five of the best HTC phones

Three years ago, few had heard of HTC, but the Taiwanese manufacturer now enjoys an excellent reputation. Here, we pick five of its best handsets: 

 

 

HTC Desire HD 
 

Super-fast 1GHz processor means surfing the web, tapping out an email, or playing a game all run smoothly on this well-designed device, which boasts a pin sharp 4.3in screen.

 

New broadband satellite offers hope to rural areas

Rural areas could get connection of up to 10mbps early next year thanks to Hylas, a new broadband satellite.

 

 

High speed broadband connections could finally extend to remote rural areas thanks to the launch of a new satellite. The “Highly Adaptable Satellite” (Hylas) will launch this evening and offer up to 350,000 connections across Europe when testing is finished in early 2011.

Originally planned for last year, Hylas’s launch, from French Guyana, will be the first of a new generation of satellites that offer users speeds of up to 10mbps for fees that are likely to be around £25 per month. A larger version, Hylas 2, is planned for launch in 2012.

David Williams, chief executive of Avanti, the company that owns British-built satellite, said services will be available through 60 providers across Europe and will offer a similar level of service to that available from most fixed broadband providers. Power can be switched from one area to another, allowing maximum use of the satellites resources around the clock.

FACEBOOK CRITICISED

 

Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the world wide web, has criticised social networking sites, such as Facebook, for limiting the web’s openness, ahead of the twentieth anniversary of the first webpage.

He specifically criticised Facebook, LinkedIn and Friendster, for limiting the flowing of the freely available information across the web.
"Facebook, LinkedIn, Friendster and others typically provide value by capturing information as you enter it: your birthday, your e-mail address, your likes, and links indicating who is friends with whom and who is in which photograph," he writes.
"The sites assemble these bits of data into brilliant databases and reuse the information to provide value-added service—but only within their sites. Once you enter your data into one of these services, you cannot easily use them on another site. Each site is a silo, walled off from the others. Yes, your site’s pages are on the web, but your data are not. You can access a web page about a list of people you have created in one site, but you cannot send that list, or items from it, to another site."
Facebook is coming under increasing pressure to open up access to its social graph, arguably its most powerful asset. The site’s founder and chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, resisted these calls at the Web 2.0 Summit, refusing to commit to a date when Facebook would open up its data set to the rest of the web.
Earlier this month Google banned Facebook, and other companies, from extracting Gmail user data, unless they make their own data available to Google. Facebook has so far refused to cooperate.
Berners-Lee, in his piece, also warned against cable companies which may also prevent information flowing freely on the web.
He writes: “Cable television companies that sell internet connectivity are considering whether to limit their internet users to downloading only the company’s mix of entertainment.

Cargo plane bomb plot: Explosive fears could spell end of in-flight Wi-Fi

Passengers could be prevented from using Wi-Fi devices on flights amid fears they could be used to detonate explosives. 

 A mobile phone was found alongside explosives in the failed cargo plane bomb, sparking fears that terrorists could use mobile devices and in-flight Wi-Fi services to remotely detonate bombs.

 

Plans to install in-flight Wi-Fi on aircraft could be thrown in to disarray by last week’s failed cargo plane bomb plot, say industry experts. 

Mobile phones have long been used by terrorists to remotely detonate explosives, by calling or texting the handset, and there are concerns that allowing people to use mobile devices during flights could enable terrorists to easily activate a bomb. 

In-flight Wi-Fi gives would-be bombers ample opportunity to contact explosive devices hidden on an aircraft, said Roland Alford, managing director of an explosives consultancy firm.

"If it were to be possible to transmit directly from the ground to a plane over the sea, that would be scary," he told New Scientist. "Or if a passenger could use a cellphone to transmit to the hold of the aeroplane he is in, he could become a very effective suicide bomber."

Experts discovered mobile phones packed in with explosives in the printer bombs that were discovered on cargo planes last weekend. It is not yet clear whether the phones would have worked as timers, or whether they would have been activated remotely by terrorists calling or texting the phone.

But companies who have invested heavily in developing in-flight Wi-Fi systems have defended the technology.


“There are many ways of coordinating an attack without using a mobile phone,” said Aurelie Branchereau-Giles, a spokesman for OnAir, which makes in-flight Wi-Fi equipment.

“The position of our security experts is that the use of mobile phones on planes does not constitute any additional security threat.”

Sony breaks silence over ‘PlayStation phone’ rumours

A Sony executive has hinted that it will be bringing a PlayStation phone to the market, following leaked photos of such a product appearing online last week. 

 

 Leaked photos have appeared online, purporting to show the fabled 'PlayStation Phone', which could be launched next year.

The photos, which were leaked onto Engadget’s site, purported to show a Sony Ericsson handset combined with a PlayStation Portable games console. 

The blog speculated that the device will run the upcoming version of Google’s Android operating system, known as Gingerbread, along with a custom-made “Sony Marketplace” that will enable people to download games designed specifically for the device.


Engadget expects the device to be launched officially next year, and an announcement about the so-called PlayStation phone’s availability could be made at Mobile World Congress in February.


Last week Sony refused to comment. However, Masaru Kato, Sony’s chief financial officer, hinted it may launch a PlayStation phone product on an earnings call over the weekend.

He said, through an interpreter: “As for the new PSP product, as mentioned, I know that you are not asking me to tell you when we will be coming out with a new product, but there is a gaming market based on [the] cellphones, and there are many changes that are being seen [with] Nintendo, as well as ourselves, in the field of the product for the gamers. And there are smartphones and others or even cellphones gaming markets are very popular here in Japan. So the market itself is very... expanding.”

He stopped short of talking about specific products, but also mentioned the company’s interest in tablet computers.

“Of course, we can't talk about specific products, but smartphones and tablets... it is difficult to tell you how we can put the games on them, but they are not going to be planned in different parts of our company. 

“When we organized ourselves last April, we introduced network services, and within that umbrella, network services, all of these products are handled. Therefore, the planning and the prototypes for various content [are] all carried out within this... one umbrellas. So we are trying to figure out what we can do as Sony in this market. I think this is as far as I can tell you regarding these products at market," he explained. 

Speculation has been rife for some time that Sony would license its PlayStation brand to the Sony Ericsson mobile arm of its business. In July last year, Nikkei, a respected daily business newspaper in Japan, reported that Sony was considering such a product. 

Sony was said to have set up a dedicated team to work on the handset, that would bring together the Sony Ericsson division with the multimedia and gaming team behind the PlayStation Portable handheld games console. 

Sony is said to be concerned by the threat posed by Apple’s iPhone. Dozens of major games studios, including Capcom and Electronic Arts, are developing games for Apple’s touch-screen device, potentially pitting the iPhone and iPod touch directly against Sony’s PSP console and Nintendo’s hand-held device, the DS. 

However, gaming fans will not be getting their hopes up – rumours of a PSP phone first surfaced in 2007, when Sony filed a patent application showing a portable games device with phone capabilities, while in January 2009, Sony was said to have refused to sanction the use of the PlayStation brand by its Sony Ericsson telecoms arm.

Apple iPhone 5 ‘to feature NFC support’

The next model of Apple’s iPhone range could feature built-in Near Field Communication technology, allowing it to double as a mobile payment system, and a way of replicating your home computing experience on any Mac, according to reports. 

 

Apple could build NFC in to the next iPhone, turning it in to an e-wallet, and allowing people to carry their Mac settings with them to use on any computer

 

 

Apple’s next iPhone could feature built-in Near Field Communication technology that will turn the device in to an electronic wallet, and allow Mac users to have exactly the same computing experience on any machine, according to the latest rumours.

Cult of Mac reports that an unnamed source informed them of the purpose of the NFC chip that is expected to be built in to the next-generation iPhone.

The technology blog reports that the chip will turn the iPhone in to an “e-wallet”, allowing owners to wave their iPhone over a contact pad in order to pay for items such as coffee, books or CDs in participating retailers.

But the source also claims that Apple has other plans for the NFC chip, and is exploring ways of using the technology to enable users to store their personal Mac computer settings on their iPhone, and then transfer those settings to another Mac with a flick of the wrist.

“For example, an NFC iPhone will allow users to carry a lot of their desktop data and settings with them, and load that data on to a compatible Mac,” reports Cult of Mac.

reports Cult of Mac. “If users wave an NFC-equipped iPhone and an NFC-equipped Mac, the Mac will load all their applications, settings and data. It will be as though they are sitting at their own machine at home or work. When the user leaves, and the NFC-equipped iPhone is out of range, the host machine returns to its previous state.”

The source told Cult of Mac: “The system would essentially turn any Apple computer in to your own, like you’re actually working on your own computer; same settings, look, bookmarks, preferences. It would all be invisible. Your iPhone would be all you needed to unlock your Mac.”

Apple has refused to be drawn on the claims, and said it did not comment on rumours and speculation.

However, Apple has recently recruited a number of NFC experts to its engineering ranks, and is said to be considering the acquisition of Vivotech, a company that specialises in contactless payment and Near Field Communications technology.

Apple has also built a huge data centre on the east coast of the United States, fuelling speculation that it is to expand its cloud computing offerings.

Panasonic to cease production of Technics turntables

Decline in demand for analogue kit blamed for the demise of the DJ’s favourite. 

 The iconic SL-1200 Technics turntable is one of a number of analogue music devices that wil be discontinued by Panasonic.

Panasonic has confirmed that it will cease production of devices in its Technics range of audio equipment, which comprises turntables, mixers and headphones beloved by a generation of DJs. 

The Japanese company said it had seen a slump in demand for the analogue devices, as more and more musicians move towards digital downloads and track mixing. 


“Panasonic decided to end production mainly due to a decline in demand for these analogue products, and also the growing difficulty of procuring key analogue components necessary to sustain production,” a spokesman for Panasonic told The Tokyo Reporter.

Technics turntables have long been essential kit for DJs. The SL-1200 model, in particular, was one of the most popular, with 3.5 million sold since its launch in 1972.


Panasonic has not yet announced whether it will retire the Technics brand, or simply cease production of analogue devices and instead turn its hand to purely digital equipment under the Technics umbrella.

The announcement comes just days after Sony revealed that it would no longer be manufacturing and selling its iconic cassette Walkman in Japan.