Price: Approx $700.00 (Price variable $0-$399 with a Cell Phone Contract)
Score: 8/10
Product Website: http://www.apple.com/iphone

This is an updated review of the new iPhone 3G.  There are some improvements and there are still things that suck about this smartphone that I hope to cover. For a more comprehensive review on iPhone’s base functionality see my previous review on the iPhone 1.0.  I’ll also cover my thoughts about the firmware update 2.0 and the big enchilada for Apple - The App Store.

What has improved?

3G: Let’s get the obvious out of the way. 3G is much faster then Edge technology and very close to Wifi speeds. Makes web surfing more bearable.

GPS: The global positioning system is pretty accurate and it’s integration with Google Map is a great addition. And with the use of location services you can let the entire world triangulate your position with your favourite social stalking application.

New Design:  The iPhone form factor is much slicker- the use plastic and reduced weight are good improvements for the mobile user. The iPhone 3G has also fixed the there stereo inputs. I can now use my regular stereo headset rather then have to by a special adapter to listen to my iPhone audio.

A little faster: I find the controls are more responsive and its quicker to navigate around.

The App Store: With the update of firmware 2.0 it is now possible to purchase applications from Apple for a reasonable price. I found many of the app store apps of better caliber then there jailbroke progenitors.

However, there a number of large gaps that I don’t think which will be filled: MMS, Video Recording, Customize (an amazing jailbreak app).  I have yet to find a decent RSS feeder - the ones that are available in the App Store are either broken or terribly developed. I miss smartRSS <tear drops>.  All in all the App Store is a big plus and will ensure the continued longevity of the iPhone.

What blows about the iPhone 3G?

Accessories no longer charge the iPhone: So here it is I have a Pioneer deck in my car which also has an iPod Adapter integrated with the deck that I paid $100 for. On my old iPhone 1.0 my stereo would play and charge the iPhone. However, the iPhone 3G will still play in my car but it will not charge. Apparently Apple has moved away from using 12v (firewire) to 5v (USB) to charge the iPhone 3G. However, there are 3rd party companies like Ridax that are selling converters that will allow you to play and charge with your current car deck.

Inheritance of Issues from the Old iPhone: What you hated about the iPhone 1.0 makes a spectacular return in the iPhone 3G: No native MMS, No copy/paste,No video recorder, Limited bluetooth, Battery is still soldered,  No Outlook tasks (there is the iDo application but it is broken).

Bulk Deletion: In my previous review I mentioned that Apple would implement bulk delete features. However this feature is limited to email only. What about SMS? SMS is a ubiquitous means of communication these days. But guess what? I have to manually delete each single goddamn message. The most basic cellphone nowadays can bulk delete SMS what developer fell asleep at the wheel this time. Or maybe there going to release it in the next version of there iPhone. No bulk delete for SMS=FAIL.

iTunes still sucks: iTunes still has a disastrous number of syncing issues. With the addition of the app store it take near 5 minutes to backup my iPhone then move on to regularly syncing (although you can exit out of the backup process and continue syncing). At times backing up will stop for no reason 3/4 of the way for no apparent reason other then to tick you off. You have to reboot your iPhone prior to syncing to ensure that the syncing will work properly. Probably because the iPhone does a terrible job of polling applications in the background - who knows? Repeated crashes, mis-syncs, unknown errors - I despise iTunes with a passion.

Bottom Line

The iPhone 3G is what the 2G iphone should have been if the Apple had got its act together. However, it still lacks some of the most basic features that are readily available in nearly all cellphones. Even with the inclusion of the App Store, I am still inclined to get my iPhone jail breaked for some sorely missed applications.

Wireless

Intro

Despite Rogers history of evil towards there customers I decided to get an iPhone 3G mainly because I sold my old 2G iPhone and was antsy to get the new iPhone. Even though I hate Rogers with a passion,  I have to use them since they are the only GSM service provider in Canada, that carries the iPhone. I figure in 3 years the GSM market will be mature enough with new entrants here in Canada to permanently ditch Robbers wireless.

Anyhow, this post covers my story about how incredibly moronic Rogers customer services representative (CSR) are and how a simple sales call could lead to an incredibly frustrating situation. By the way, I am recalling the entire call from my aged memory but I think you can the gist of it.

I’ve broken down the call into chapters for easier blog consumption. The <> brackets denote inner thoughts and external action.  C76 is me your friendly neighborhood blogger.

The Call

Chapter I:  Your call is important to us…

<C76 call Rogers; Chooses wireless>
IVR: If this call is related to the iPhone please press “1″
<C76 presses 1>
iPhone CSR: Hi <insert greeting script here>
C76: Yes I would like to purchase the iPhone 3G and alter my current plans to include data.
iPhone CSR: I’m sorry sir you will have to call customer service.
C76: <inwardly annoyed, aren’t I dealing with iPhone related customer service mentioned by the IVR?> ok so you can’t help me with purchasing an iPhone.
iPhone CSR: No I’ll have to transfer you to customer service. Is that ok?
C76: <Do I have choice?>
C76: <sighs> ok

[waited for 20 minutes on hold]

Chapter II: Your Approved

CSR: <greeting script>
C76: Yes I would like to purchase an iPhone 3G and alter my current wireless plan.
CSR: <long pause>
C76: hello?
CSR: Yes sorry sir, what can I help you with?
C76: Uh I’d like to purchase an iPhone 3G, add the 3G data plan for $30 and maybe add one of the iPhone value packs.
CSR: Yes sir. Actually you can purchase the new 3G data plan…<he proceeds to read the plan off the Rogers website>
C76: <good grief, did’nt I just say that>
C76: Yes I’d like that plan also I want to add the $20 iPhone Value pack.
CSR: Yes I can certainly help you with that.
CSR: Ok I’ll see if you are qualified for a hardware upgrade. I’m check your revenue growth model (sic).
C76: <Revenue growth?>
CSR: Whoa it looks pretty high. You have qualified.
C76: <Hold on a sec did he just approve me for a loan?>
C76: Ok, Can I get the iPhone, now.
CSR: Sure. I’ll just put in your information.

[He asks me questions about what type of iPhone, specs, plans, etc. I answer]

Chapter III: Of Data Plans and Value Packs

CSR: Sir I you can’t get the iPhone data plan until you receive and activate your phone.
C76: What?
CSR: Yes sir
C76: That does’nt make any sense. This is a data plan that can be applied to any smartphone.
CSR: I don’t think so sir.
C76: I’m looking at your website and it says that I can apply this data to any smartphone.
CSR: Oh…hold on sir

[2 mins later]

CSR: I confirmed with my supervisor you have to activate your phone then you have to call us back to add the plan.
C76: <wow this is retarded>
C76: Ok I guess I’ll have to wait then.
C76: But you can still add my iPhone value pack right.
CSR: Sure…sure sir. I’ll add it.
C76: Now this $20 iPhone value pack covers early weeknights at 6pm.
CSR: Yes it does
C76: You know my current voice plan includes early weeknights already. Will I need to buy this plan to get those early weeknights?
CSR: Uh yes sir that would no longer apply with the iPhone. You have to buy the $20 (iPhone) value pack.
C76: <furrows brow..umm something does sound right here…I’ll have research but I’ll get it for the time being>
C76:  ok sign me up for it then.

[Intermission: 5 mins of clicking on the keyboard]

C76: Ok, sir your ready to go!
C76: <I don’t buy it. I have heard a litany of mess ups these CSRs commit on a regular basis>
C76: Can you read back my entire wireless plan: voice, data and everything else.
CSR: ok….Um…I’m sorry sir I can’t add the value pack.
C76: … <wtf?!?!>
CSR: You will have to call back to get that activated when you get your iPhone in the mail.
C76: So my plan has not changed at all.
CSR: Yes sir.

C76: <hammers fist into chair - not audible to CSR>

Chapter IV: Bonus - The iPhone comes bricked!

CSR: Now sir one thing. I’ll need to tell you is when you get your iPhone. You’ll have to unbrick your iPhone with iTunes 7.6
C76: <your selling me a bricked iPhone. Heartbeat increases by 25%>
C76: My phone will be bricked?
CSR: Yes sir you will have to ‘unbrick’ the iPhone with iTunes 7.6
C76: Did’nt Apple just release iTunes 7.7?
CSR: oh yes sir - iTunes 7.6 or higher.
CSR: ok so you will have to ‘unbrick’ the iPhone with iTunes 7.6 or higher
C76: <I desperately want to throw a brick at this guy>

Chapter V: Adieu

C76: …ok that’s fine. When should I receive the phone?
CSR: In 3-6 business days through UPS.
C76: <United Package Smashers? Oh joy. Hope my iPhone comes in one piece.>
C76: ok
CSR: Ok sir is there anything else I can help you with. <Hurriedly>
C76: No. <I think I need an Advil>
CSR: <ending script>

Final Thoughts

I realize that Rogers CSRs don’t receive much in training for there trade and it can be a pretty crappy job with a high turnover rate. But, Cmon! This CSR was not trained by Rogers to handle this call - at all! He misled me a number of times and he was clearly ill informed about the product he was selling.  Also, I don’t think he really understood the vivid connotation the term “bricked” refers to.

I’ve worked on a help desk before and there is no excuse for this kind of sub standard service.  Through out the call I was afraid this guy would screw up my account information, send me the wrong phone or worse, create a situation where if I called back some mistake would occur that would not be reversible. I am really wary of Rogers customer service as it is and this call does’nt really inspire my confidence.

I sincerely hope I don’t receive a brick in the mail.

Update: Thankfully I didn’t get a brick.  I got my iPhone. I managed to speak to another CSR who seemed to have half a brain this time. And I found out 2 important things: If your current voice plan already had early weeknights you don’t need to buy the $20 iPhone Value pack to get it. Secondly, you can’t buy the $20 iPhone value unless you purchase one of Rogers ripoff iPhone plans (voice/data). And add to all this servitude you have to pay a month in advance on your first bill. So for your first bill your double billed. Thanks again Robbers!

I’m sure by now you’ve heard about Rogers nefarious plans to gouge more money out its current group of wireless customers. To crystallize all the costs I have setup a table which covers all the plans and includes the system access, emergency 911 fee and taxes (calculated at 14%).

The table displays the base plan, base plan with $15 pack and base plan with $20 pack. You’ll probably need to get one of the value packs because most social people like to have caller id and more then a petty number of SMS messages. As you can see each plan/package is a massive ripoff.

The Plans

Plan Details

$15 monthly value pack: Caller ID, Who Called, Caller Ring Trax, 2,500 Sent Text Messages and 2,500 Call Forwarding Minutes.
$20 monthly value pack: Caller ID, Who Called, Caller Ring Trax, 10,000 Sent Text Messages and 6:00 p.m. Early Evening Calling and 2,500 Call Forwarding Minutes.

Update :

Rogers has updated there data plan as an addon to your current voice plan this available to iPhone and  smart phones as well. It will cost you $30/month for 6GB. The catch is you have to add it by the end of August 2008.

I am sure Rogers strategically designed this limited time offer to drive people into a purchasing frenzy to offset the negative consumer reaction regarding there unfair data plans for the iPhone.  It does make you curious though - how can Rogers, so quickly drop the price of the data plan, which for years has cost $100/month to $30/month.

Smells like greed to me.

I’ve received a number of emails about questions related to the iPhone whether it is jailbreaking, good iPhone sites or other useful iPhone related knowledge.

To address these questions, I’ve setup a iPhone Arcana page with basic information on extending iPhone functionality. I hope you find it useful. If I find more info I’ll be sure and add it.

Enjoy!

Price: $400.00 (USD) (Price variable)
Score: 7 /10
Product Website: http://www.apple.com/iphone

I thought I would change gears a bit and talk about a much publicized smart phone that is being touted as the titan of smart phones. To see what the fuss was about and also since the inherent obsolescence of my V3 RAZR was showing. I decided to purchase my own iPhone (1.0). In this review I will highlight my opinion and polar ambivalence for this smart phone - I both love and hate the iPhone. Its an amazing media player but a sub standard smart phone.  I’ll make some comparisons to my old V3 - as its my only logical frame of reference at this time.

Why I love the iPhone?

Graphical Powerhouse: Graphics on the iPhone are astounding. Vibrant colors and very clear text, its looks gorgeous.

Virtual Keyboard: Many reviewers complain about iPhone’s virtual keyboard. Personally i think its great and once you get the hang of it you can type really fast.

Super iPod: The media component is the real hallmark of this device. Allowing you to access your favourite music files and video (although video media will need to be converted to MP4 format first or downloaded off the iTunes store). The iPhone delivers the unparalleled sound quality you would expect from an iPod device.

Intuitive Touch Display:  The touch display allows easy navigation with a finger (or two). Allowing you to pan, zoom and select with ease. So easy to pick up that even my eight month old niece can scroll through pictures on the iPhone.

Web: Web navigation/rendering is dead on. Web surfing is an enjoyable experience because pages are rendered as full page then allow you the means to zoom in and out with a simple pinch gesture. You can also adjust orientation to landscape view making the news web pages a lot easier to read.

Phone: The reception on the phone is crystal clear. Much better then the V3 by far. The iPhone also comes with earphone headset that doubles as a wired headset solution. Alternatively, you can probably get yourself a mic adapter to transform any headset/earphone into a wired headset for use with the iPhone.

WiFi: The iPhone is an amazing WiFi device. To me this a huge plus, I like the mobility of surfing the internet without the encumbrance of lugging around a laptop around my home. I haven’t used EDGE for surfing, mainly because of my mobile (Rogers) provider’s egregious data plans.

It is Jail Breakable:  Not a feature per say but I am elated that hackers found a way to create 3rd apps for the iPhone. If this was not possible, this phone would be nothing more then a gloried iPod Touch (although in many ways it is). If you have the means to jail break your iPhone - I highly recommend it.

iPhone is chic: Before the iPhone becomes a commodity which I am sure it will after iPhone 2.0 is released to the remainder of the general populace, the cool factor is very high for this phone. Of course this depends where you rank on Abraham Maslow’s pyramid of needs.

Why I hate the iPhone?

Bluetooth File Transfers: iPhone offers a very limited implementation of bluetooth. You can only pair a device for hands free use. Prominently lacking is the stereo audio and file transfer stack. This is inexcusable - my legacy V3 has the ability to upload contacts, why can’t the iPhone do it? Lame.

Here are list of things you can’t do unless you have jail broken iPhone. These are standard on most cellphones:

• MMS
• Voice Recorder
• Video Recorder
• Voice Dial

Stalling and Crashing / Task Manager: For the 3 years I’ve had the V3 it has never crashed. The iPhone will crash infrequently - but it does crash.  Hey Apple, I thought the bulletproof OS X never crashes like Windows? Well it does and it should not particularly on a smart phone. Users want to have reliability  - knowing that their phone never crashes. In case of an emergency I might not have the luxury of rebooting.

During the last keynote address at WWDC Steve Jobs sardonically pointed out problems with using background task manager (ie Windows Mobile) which he claims chews up battery life for push email.  However, if an application on Windows Mobile crashes it can be shutdown by a convenient task manager and I can continue to use the mobile device unfettered.  If an application crashes on the iPhone I have to reboot the iPhone and wait for 30 seconds, this an in efficient waste of time. The next time someone argues that the Apple Operating System is far more stable OS then Windows be sure to point out the instability of the iPhone which is built on Apple Core OS layer.

Replacing the Battery: If your one of those unfortunately souls that blows out there battery - which will eventually happen on a long enough time line - you will need Apple to replace the battery and have to pay them for it. That’s right - you have to put you business and personal life on hold so that you send in your iPhone for a week to have your battery replaced. You see Apple in it’s infinite wisdom decided to solder the battery to the device’s mainboard and also made it difficult to open the iPhone case without proper tools.  Nearly every smart phone that is sold on the market has an easy mechanism for you - the paying customer to replace the battery yourself.

Quick Notes: In the V3 you could use quick notes that you could be used in SMS messages without having to type out the same stock message again and again. Such as, “I’m inside the restaurant”, “I’m in a meeting call me back later”, etc. This is a convenience feature, but it is sorely missing in the iPhone.

Outlook Tasks: You can sync contacts and calendars but not Outlook tasks. I don’t know about you, but if Apple wants to win the hearts and minds of the corporate users, having syncable tasks is invaluable. Again another letdown, I had to download a 3rd party “Todolist” to write down and check off my tasks (although this applet is pretty limited compared to Outlook tasks)

Enslaved to iTunes: My most hated feature of the iPhone, iTunes is the sole application used for syncing files, contacts, etc to the iPhone. I don’t know how stable iTunes is on the Mac but on Windows XP it is a piece of garbage. I hate iTunes with a passion, it crashes for no apparent reason, it will quit in the middle of sync for no apparent. There a no alternative, but to use this ill conceived application. I want the ability to copy files directly to my smart phone device with directories I don’t need the added overhead of sub standard application with its DRM and instability issues. I don’t like being locked so do many other users.

No Native File Manager: Related to my previous point. iPhone is designed to lock the user from accessing the inner directories. That’s ok for old Aunt Ethel but for power users a native file manager is must for storing and accessing files.

No Copy/Paste: A small but extremely useful feature is MIA on the iPhone. One of the selling points of the iPhone is the use of text - SMS, email, etc. It is only logical that copy and paste feature would be an integral part of the iPhone but I guess Apple didn’t care for user convenience.

Lack of Customization: Again Apple has locked out the user from customizing sound on the iPhone. You must buy from a limited selection of their tunes from their store and add them as ringtones. In contrast, mobileTools allows you to update ringtones for free on the V3 Razr and other cellphones out there. Besides the ringer you can’t change any of the system sounds for the iPhone. Unless your phone is jailborken and are using the awesome “customize” applet.

No Native IM Client:  As primarily a consumer device it would have been valuable to have a decent chat application so users can connect to the popular Instant Messaging servers on a dedicated connection.  Using web chat like meebo, fring or ebuddy often causes the connection to drop off as soon as you lose focus on the Safari browser.

Other Crap:

Apple Autocomplete- You can’t shut it off and  it gets in the way of ruining your text based expository denouements.
Quick Time Centric - No support for the widely used Flash but ample support for Quick Time streams.
Bulk Delete Features - Lack of bulk delete features in email, SMS. Supposedely rectified in iPhone 2.0.
No Native Gaming - The iPhone comes with no games. Even the old iPods came with preinstalled games. The iPhone has none.
Ringer Volume - Very easy to miss a call even when the ringer is on full blast it is barely loud enough to hear.
Expandable Memory - Locked in for 8GB, 16G. Nowadays, it is a standard that smart phones have expandable memory, “why not iPhone?”

The biggest problem is the lack of flexibility and this relates to inherent avarice in companies like Apple or Microsoft. There mantra quite succinctly is, “Lock down the user, control Content and make users pay for features/services on a fixed or preferably on a subscription based model”

Bottom Line

For the average consumer who texts, surfs and wants access to an iPod media player I would say this would great phone for you. But for the business user or power user the iPhone has much to be desired. I would recommend going for a more dependable smart phone like a RIM Blackberry Bold, Motorola Q or Palm Treo.

Mercenaries 2 is the game I have been waiting for anxiously since it was previewed back in E3 2007. Why is this game so awesome?

1. Sets things on fire
2. Blow stuff up using gunfire, airstrikes, carpet bombs
3. Online Co-op
4. PMCs
5. and Making Money (ok its virtual money)

Check there website for more details. Mercenaries on the original XBOX was my favourite game and I recommend you pickup a copy when it comes out.

Product Website: http://www.ea.com/armyoftwo/
Price: $49.99 (CDN)
Rating: 6.5/10

Introduction

I had very high hopes for Army of Two and heard a lot of the negative pre-hype about the game but tried to filter it out and hope for the best. After playing it I have mixed feelings about how to review this game. The concept of Aggro seemed novel and cool. However, it’s not too different then the suppress and flank mechanic which is reminiscent of the Brother in Arms series. The gameplay and coop hi jinks are fun assuming player 2 knows what there doing (more on that later).

The Good

Co-op is Central to Army of Two

Co-op is implemented well in this game and I wish that more games would follow suit. Co-op can be played over Split Screen or XBL- making this a great buddy-buddy game. Despite some of the drawbacks of the gameplay, working together with a partner to overcome a lot enemies using back to back, co-op snipe and using a car door as a riot shield is uniquely enjoyable.

Props Bro

During gameplay you can give positive/negative affirmation to your partner in crime by either giving him a high five or a smack upside the head. A minor feature but I think its cool because you get an opportunity to interact with your comrade on a more personal level in game. That level of camaraderie seems to be a missing component in a lot of the co-op games that our out there these days.

The Bad

Gameplay - Aiming

Although lack of auto aim or aim magnetism (the extent to which your reticle ’sticks’ to your target) is not as bad as Turok. It is noticeable enough to by annoying at times. I feel that they should have added some scopes to your standard weapons to increase there magnification and assist your aiming. Fighting long distance can be frustratingly difficult. Which means that most of your battles will be mid to close ranged limiting your choice of weapons.

Aggro needs Repair

From the initial training movie that comes up when you first start of Army of Two it seem almost formulaic that aggro will make you nearly invisible to the enemy. However, there are number of occasions where aggro did’nt seem to work at all. My AI partner would gain all the aggro and when I flanked an enemy he would immediately see me. Which lead me to go back to cover warfare - poping in and out of cover hoping to get a headshot.

Weapons

The weapons in Army of Two are lopsided. The PVM (Light Machine Gun) fully upgraded and the DAO-X are the main weapons you should rely on to beat the game on Professional difficulty. The DAO-X can knock an armoured enemy on his ass if your close enough to him. MP7 is the only decent secondary weapon that is effective in your arsenal as a accurate killer of tangos. The sniper rifles are good if you manage to hit anything. The Stinger with its lock on capability will down most helicopters in two shots and is quite effective in taking down armoured enemies (if you can get close enough to them).

The remaining weapons are generally useless and make you wonder why they were even put in the game, there inaccurate and inflict little damage to your enemies. For example, M134 (mini-gun) is completely pointless its slow, loud, inaccurate, and an aggro leech.

Lack of Good Co-op Players on XBL

I don’t know if it’s just me but I could not find a single player on XBLM who was willing together with me. Most of the players I met with treated Army of Two like a game of Lone Wolves on Halo atacking from cover and completely ignore the Aggro system of suppressing and flanking enemies. Which made the co-op piece really frustrating. I actually played better with AI character. Just because I could manage what he did better and rely on him more.

Multiplayer

I saw nothing really enticing about the multiplayer that made we want to replay it. Generally you can find only a few people playing multiplayer and just like in co-op, most likely you’ll get teamed up with a knuckle head of partner running and gunning and ruining the co-op fun.

Story

The plot is linear and fairly predictable. Simple betrayal and simple revenge.

One thing that was a let down was that that game was so short. I would have like to played the missions that were in the cutscenes rather then just watch them.

Conclusion

Army of Two has been crucified by reviewers as unplayable - I think this is a little unfair. I agree the controls are annoying but in contrast Kane and Lynch there far more playable. Army of Two is a fun co-op game but needs a lot more polish and shine to make it great game. More content, variation in weaponry would have been an improvement.

Again, comparing Army of Two to Gears of War or a Call of Duty 4 would be mistake. Army of Two is really a great second tier gaming experience in a multi-level universe of gaming.

If you seem to be wasting a lot time when your waiting for players to join your hosted game of Team Deathmatch, Attack or Defend on RSV2. Since Ubisoft won’t be update the hosting system into an efficient party based system in the interim I can alleviate your boredom and maintain your sanity with this super list of things you can do to keep yourself occupied.

1. Read a book

I’ve really gotten through a good portion of my copy of, “Blackwater: The Rise of the world’s most powerful mercenary army”. It gets me in the mood to play RSV2. Although I wish they would have pictures, so I can create a replica PEC characters based on a real life private military contractors.

2. Find Celebrity mugshots for your face mapped character on the Internet.

I was really inspired by the face mapping for George W. Bush as a playable character in RSV. So what better photos are out there then celebrity mugshots? I mean all you need is the front and side portraits of your favorite star to add there likeness to your character’s face. I’m sure you can find a recent mugshot of Paris Hilton. Please don’t blame me if people are using the sniper rifle more often on you.

3. Criticize kids who buy an M rated gaming and are playing on your host

So your waiting for people to join your game and you have some snot nosed brat starts yaking away about nothing. Ask him, “if it was his mom or dad that bought him his copy of RSV2?” And after a good lecture - kick him. Everyone else will thank you for it and you to there friend list.

4. Start a trivial discussion with your nearest sibiling.

No sibiliings? Call you friends. No friends? Send an message to your XBL friends. No friends on XBL? Buy yourself a PS3.

5. Stare at the wall

Hey its always there and you can stare at it. If your getting bored stare at your ceiling.

I had an opportunity today to play some games of RSV2 with the RSV2 developers. They played reasonably well. I’ll admit I was mostly gunning after them. I got one of them pretty good a number times. And got owned by the another dev in a different game. We played DM, Team DM and Leader.

One the Ubisoft players was a Marketing Product Manager and was nice enough to answer questions relating to RSV2. I pushed him on the unfair T-Hunt and he said he couldn’t really comment on it other then saying he would pass my comments along to the devs (gee I wonder if that’s gonna happen). ne Dev refused to answer any questions and said he only wanted to play which is cool I guess.

The one nagging question I heard from players were around the PFC achievement. And the answer to this was simply, “we are looking into it as well as number of there other bugs.” - mainly multi-player issues.

Other question focused around how much money you can make in the gaming industry, sound track composition, including melee attacks in RSV2.

All in all it was good time and people were well behaved.

For the last couple of weeks Call of Duty 4 (CoD4) is the most played game on XBOX Live, beating out Halo 3 as top online champ.

So, why is Halo 3 with a plethora of features: map making, online stats, replaying video and co-op losing the battle consistently? I believe there are number factors that are contributing to this phenomenon

The Factors

Call of Duty 4 is noob-friendly: The learning curve involved in Halo 3 is much higher then CoD4. There are far more seasoned players playing Halo 3 then in CoD4. Making it difficult for newcomers to get a handle of the game play mechanic.Halo 3 is more tactical then CoD4 with setup locations, call outs, focusing more on accurate gun fire versus run and gun action.

Call of Duty 4 is fast paced: Call of Duty 4 is about being on the offensive and being aggressive all the time - that means running from place to place with aggressive flanking maneuvers. In contrast, Halo 3 is based on differing modes of attack - you can play defensively or offensively. In CoD4 you plant your feet and shoot.

Perks: One of the really cool features of CoD4 is all about getting perks - which can really change the tide of battle. For example, one of my favourite perks is, “Deep Impact” which is an effective perk to deal with campers and lodged snipers. In Halo 3 you can hide behind a wall and recover your health. In CoD4 hiding is not always going to be helpful. In Halo 3 games there is a strong reliance on the motion sensor. In CoD4 the UAV jammer is useful perk to walk into enemy footholds and release a surprise attack. The inclusion of perks in CoD4 creates a variety of gaming experiences that is not there in Halo 3.

Time based vs Skill Based ranking: Call of Duty 4 has a ranking system that is based on the amount of time you have played the game vs how skilled you are. In Halo 3 to move up the officer ranks you need to continually beat people who are more skilled then you. In Call of Duty 4 experience is rewarded for kills, passing challenges, winning and even losing.

In Halo 3, I’ve observed seasoned players move from Skill 1 to Skill 50 within a week. Not everyone is going to make it to skill 50 and most players will plateau at a level below 50. In order to move up another 5-10 points you need to play a lot and/or play with people that are really good as well. That is a lot of commitment and sucks some of the fun out of leveling up.

In CoD4 the faster you gain experience by kills, challenges and winning, the faster you rank up. Therefore, playing more invariably means you gain more experience. I hear the counter argument - your fooling yourself in believing that you are getting any better. And that you are not gaining skill because you are not really competing against the best. So what? Its a faulty assumption to suggest the more challenging competition translates to a more enjoyable game play experience.

Customizable Classes: One of key factor in winning a game of mutiplayer Halo 3 is power weapon control. If your team can get to power weapons like Rocket Launchers, Spartan Lasers and Snipers you team will have reasonably good chance of winning. In Call of Duty 4 you start off with weapon you want and play the way you want. If you like long range fire you choose a sniper rifle and perks that complement your skills. If you like running and gunning then you can pick up a shotgun and UAV jammer and run ballistic on the map.

Rewards for playing well: CoD4 is game which has more opportunities to turn the tide of battle in your favour. You initially don’t start off with a radar. If you get 3 kills in a row you are rewarded with UAV (radar), 5 kills let you call in an air-strike, 7 kills nets you a chopper. You can save your UAV, air-strike or chopper to use at later time during the game. So if your team is losing, you can tactically use a well placed air-strike to turnover a potential loss. In contrast, if you have season players on the other team that dominate the map and have command of the power weapons there is not much you can do about winning.

Challenge thine own self : Call of Duty 4 has a number of challenges that you can complete which allow you to gaining bonus experience and help you to rank up faster. For example, calling in the UAV 3 times. CoD4 has specific achievable goals rather then blanket goals in Halo 3 where ranking up is the only validation you can get.