Welcome to the new TBRE

Hello again all, I'm just posting to let you know that, no, you haven't gone colour blind, and yes... This is the new look for TBRE... Give me your feedback.

Thanks...

Curzo

Wolfenstein 3D shoots its way to the App Store

The classic FPS, Wolfenstein 3D, is now available in the App Store at a reasonable £2.99. There are several sets of controls to choose from, although I prefer the "twin stick" style one. The graphics are crisp and clear and the game runs as smooth as the iPhone 3G's curves.

Modern Warfare 2 - First Teaser Here

Here's the first Modern Warfare 2 Trailer... enjoy!!!

Also has anyone else noticed the lack of Call of Duty in the title??

Discuss...

Wii Storage Solution Released

For a while now, many Wii owners (including myself) have been crying out for a Wii Hard Drive to keep all of our Wiiware and Virtual Console games on and stop it from clogging up our Wii's tiny 512MB memory.

Nintendo responded with "Why dont you just delete them and redownload them?". Yeah, sure nintendo, I'm just gonna wait to redownload my games before I can play them each time? Fans weren't impressed... And thankfully, Nintendo listened.

Last night at GDC, Nintendo unveiled that a firmware update was live for the Wii, enabling storage of Virtual Console, WiiWare, and Wii Channels onto SD Cards up to a whopping 32GB. So now we can quit moaning about it and get back to playing all things Nintendo...

Curzo out.

Handheld Heaven this week!!!

This week saw the release of three big handheld releases for the 3 big platforms... First up is Metal Gear Solid Touch for the iPhone/iPod Touch which is like a shooting range-esque game which uses animated sprites from the insanely awesome PS3 title, Metal Gear Solid 4; Guns of the patriots...

Secondly, on the subject of insanely awesome PS3 titles, Resistance 2's little brother Resistance Retribution saw the light of day on PSP this week. RR is a third person shooter based in the Resistance universe and follows James Grayson, Major Cartwright and Rachel Parker from the previous Resistance:Fall Of Man on Playstation 3.

Last but certainly not least is Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars on Nintendo DS. In Chinatown Wars you play as Huang Lee and you are avenging the death of your father... While in the city you can also kill, steal & drug deal as well as try your luck with SCRATCH CARDS!!! (*Curzo's nan runs off to buy a DS & GTA: CW*)

I've got all three and I'm loving them! GTA the most... If you have a DS, BUY IT, and if you don't... BUY ONE...

If you have a PSP, Buy RR, if you don't... Why haven't you got a PSP yet??? LittleBig-Freaking-Planet has been announced for it... yup thats right... Buy one right now...

Anyway, that's all I have to say... A review of the excellent Nokia N96 is coming soon. Curzo out...

PSN Gamercards with Trophy information out now!!!

Yup, a long requested feature on the Playstation Network is here... Not really much to say though... see above image for details...

SNAAAAKE!!! Metal Gear Solid Touch out NOW!!!!

Konami's main man Solid Snake has snook his way into the app store. Metal Gear Solid Touch is now available to buy for £3.49.

From what I've played so far it's good, but awkward and difficult... Not 100% what to think yet... but is it worth £3.49? I think so...

I've took some screenshots to help you decide...

this screenshot not in game...

REVIEW - Nokia N96

For years now, Nokia have been the frontrunners of the smartphone scene, and when you own a Nokia smartphone, it becomes clear why. You can't imagine going back to a normal phone, and when you do, the new phone feels plain, boring and featureless.

This is how it was for me. When the gaming keys were destroyed on my Nokia N81-8GB leaving a big gap in the casing where you can see the insides of the phone, as well as blinding bright lights which usually add a subtle backlight to the gaming buttons, I knew it was time to upgrade, so I went and bought a Samsung G600 and as nice as the phone was (as was the interface), it felt very boring. Poor java games, poor browser and poor functionality.

So, when I was looking to upgrade from this, I looked towards my old friend Nokia and after a bit of looking around, I took the plunge with their new flagship phone... The Nokia N96.

Section 1 - Hardware

The N96 is a beauty, a lovely glossy black finish, with an excellent 2.4" QVGA screen (which could've been a higher res really, come on nokia!)great for watching movies, with the help of the integrated kickstand on the back of the device which fits into place around the excellent 5 megapixel camera. The sides of the device are silver and the keypad is flush and looks great with the phone.

The left side of the phone features a micro SD memory card slot, to expand the internal memory of 16GB up to an iPhone crushing 48GB! On the right we have speakers at the top and bottom of the phone which seems odd until you put the device landscape making it stereo. On the face of the device is an excellent directional pad, surrounded by multimedia keys, a small silver multimedia key on the right of the directional pad, left and right soft keys and call and end call buttons.

It also features and extra set of multimedia keys when the two-way slider is slid down, and when slid upright, the number keys are revealed.

Section 2 - Interface

The UI for Symbian OS 9.3 (S60 3rd Edition) is as great as it's ever been, but now thanks to the accelerometer features a landscape mode. The landscape mode works very well rearranging web pages, menu's and the gallery effortlessly and is a welcome addition to the already excellent platform.

The menu's look great and the default themes that come with the phone work really well with the device and don't really need changing. However, if you are not happy and you'd prefer something else, then there's a mass of themes out there for you to download and applying them couldn't be easier.

The menus, although sometimes sluggish, are user friendly and easy to navigate. This phone shouldn't really give you any problems. A full screen wallpaper option would've been welcomed but it's no biggie! Especially, with the ease of creating themes on the device itself with third party applications.

Nokia's new N-Gage platform is also well presented and looks very appealing to the eye. You can chat with friends, download games and trials, and compare N-Gage points (which closely resemble microsoft's gamerscore system)

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Section 3 - Multimedia

The N96 was clearly built for multimedia, featuring a DVB(H) TV tuner for watching TV broadcasts on the go, 2 sets of mutimedia keys (one for portait, one for landscape) a kickstand around the camera for watching movies hands free and excellent quality music playback!

The quality of the 5 mega-pixel camera is great! It's no N82 or Cyber-shot quality camera but it does a great job. A xenon flash would've topped it off but sadly, only a typical LED flash.... But it's a dual LED flash and seems to do a great job in poorly lit areas. The camera well outshines the one of it's biggest market rivals, the iPhone 3G and the T-Mobile (HTC) G1.

Video capture could've been better. I mean, I know I migrated to Blu-Ray from DVD a while back but the DVD-like quality video capture doesnt seem so DVD like... But it is pretty damn good quality for a phone and is captured at VGA (640 x 480) resolution.

The N96 is overall excellent for multimedia. The DVB (H) broadcasts are not available in the UK so, to make up for it, Nokia have pre-installed the BBC iPlayer to the device... Video's from iPlayer can be either streamed or downloaded with a 7 day license key. Watching TV programmes on the device is great with the kickstand allowing you to just sit back and enjoy... However, if the kickstand is not enough for you... The N96 comes packaged with a TV out cable.

Music playback is crisp, clear and loud but can be a little tinny at times. This little annoyance is fixed by the 3.5mm headphones slot allowing you to plug in your fancy headphones for a great listening experience.

Section 4 - Gaming and Internet

Whether it's playing the latest N-Gage releases or running Genesis and SNES emulators, the N96 is a great phone for gaming, sporting a fantastic D-Pad and dedicated gaming keys that only light up during games, it's easy to use and rules out the awkwardness of the iPhone and G1's "virtual joypads". There's easily enough buttons to go around for the core games on the N-Gage platform, and for the more casual users... The typical A & B buttons... What more could you need...

The N96 also uses a fantastic web browser supporting flash, java, and whatever else you'd like to throw at it. Files are easily downloaded with the download manager and .zip files can be unpacked on the phone itself.

File sharing via Ovi, Flickr and more is also available out of the box as well as Mail for exchange.

Section 5 - Overview

So, it seems as though Nokia have done it again, it may not be as powerful as the N95-8GB yet it still packs a punch. The N96 is great for all of your needs, reading .pdf's on the go, browsing the web, handheld gaming, snapping high-quality 5 megapixel photos and and of course, calling and texting... Overall, the N96 is a truly fantastic phone!

An apology....

Sorry for the lack of updates recently, but there's been reasons...Firstly, my internet speed has been ridiculously slow recently since i downloaded Season 3 of Heroes. Secondly, my in-laws usually take the kids while I'm blogging and recently they haven't. So... I'll try to update more when I can.

iPhoneish.com - New iPhone news site recently opened

A friend of TBRE.co.uk recently sent me a press release for his new site, iPhoneish

iPhoneish.com - Your Daily Source for the Latest iPhone News

For iPhone lovers, by iPhone lovers


February 26, 2009 -- iPhoneish Launches New and incredibly exciting Website

At last you have found the website you have always been dreaming of. Imagine having all the latest daily news on iPhones and then being able to use this information to improve your iPhone experience and get the most out of this very popular brand.

You have the opportunity to surf lots of tips, tricks, ideas, and much more all in one place. You will no longer need to search Google for hours again!

iPhones are still a pretty new concept and some still don’t know what it is all about. If you are new it is a perfect learning curve, otherwise why not help others and reap the rewards at the same time.

iPhoneish is an user generated website that collects all the iPhone information you could possibly need and store it all one place.

iPhoneish would like to announce the launch of iPhoneish.com, a central point dedicated to collecting all the best iPhone news, hacks, rumors, applications and much, much more on the World Wide Web.

On iPhoneish the community members make all the decisions. The users add the stories, decide which of them should be published, and most importantly which should remain unpublished. Think of it like you now own a part of an amazing new forum and you can really get into it and tell people what you really think.

This is done by way of our voting system, where the bigger the vote, the higher up on the published page the story will be displayed.

Viewing PS3 trophies online!

UPDATE: Online Trophies are now LIVE!

ORIGINAL ARTICLE BELOW:

As of this evening, PS3 Trophies you have earned from playing trophy enabled PS3 games are viewable online. just sign into playstation.com with your PSN ID and your trophies are viewable online, as are (i'm guessing) your friends trophies... See the vid for more info.

Video Source: Playstation Blog

Tap Tap Revenge 2 out NOW + Mini Review

The sequel to Tapulous's killer iPhone/iPod touch app, Tap Tap Revenge, has appeared on the App Store... I've spent a bit of time with the app now I love it.

New gameplay mechanics add more of a challenge to the game, features such as double taps and hold notes have now been added making it a miles more fun experience.


Tap Tap Revenge 2 has improved on the seemingly perfect music game for iPhone/iPod Touch. All that remains to be asked is, what will they do next?

Mortal Kombat FOR SALE!!! Could you buy it for me plz?

Today, documents published by NetDockets has revealed that a crumbling Midway are looking to sell the Mortal Kombat License.

Mortal Kombat is now nearly 20 years old and I've been playing since the start (even though I'm 21) and this is bad news for the franchise... or is it? Maybe Capcom could pick up the license to make the Mortal Kombat vs Street Fighter games we've all been craving, doubtful, but I can always dream right?

I can actually see EA picking it up if anyone does. Don't know why...

Here's hoping this isn't the last we've seen of Sub Zero & the gang...