Sony Walkman NW-A808 8GB - Tech Review

I was considering buying the Sony Walkman for Christmas but decided against it. But when I saw it going for under £100, I could resist no longer. I had a Toshiba F20 Gigabeat at the time and over the years had grown used to its flaws. It was too big and heavy, the battery diminished in hours, the interface and navigation was just truly appalling in every way, and getting album art onto the player took an act of God. But, by far the absolute worst thing about it was the software you had to use. It’s called the Gigabeat Room and using it is so slow, awkward and painful, I still have nightmares about it. In fact, the only redeeming feature about the F20 was its decent 20GB HDD space, which I now use solely to backup files, and to keep my window from blowing shut on windy days.

The Sony Walkman however is the opposite in just about every respect. The most immediate thing you realize is just how quick and easy it is to use. All you need to do is plug it into your computer through the USB cable, open WMP, create a Sync list, and that’s it. The selected tracks are then transferred onto the Walkman, along with all the info you could want, such as Artist, Album, Genre, Year, as well as album art, and you can create and transfer playlists as well. Choosing and browsing by the same categories is effortless and finding a song, album, artists etc takes literally a few seconds.

What’s more, the 2inch screen, while not a high enough resolution to watch anything more than a few minutes long on, for album art and browsing, everything is sharp, clear, colorful and bright. The player comes with a trailer for Spiderman 3, and it looks fine, but watching films on it would strain your eyes. But for music videos, it works very well. The player itself is slim and lightweight, comparable to the iPod Nano, although I haven’t been able to compare them side by side, they have very similar dimensions. I like the clicky buttons and don’t miss the touch-scroll seen on most players. There is a volume key on the side, as well as a hold button on the back, and the headphone input is on the underside of the player. One downside to the actual player is that it has the same glossy black finish that the PSP has, meaning that its easy to get fingerprints on, even if your hands aren’t sweaty (yes, like mine).

Sound quality is superb and crystal clear, the best I have ever heard. What helps with this immensely are the in-ear headphones supplied at no extra charge - they retail for around £40 in Argos. I’ve never used in-ear headphones before so was a bit apprehensive before shoving something that big into my earhole, I was thinking, “that’s never going to fit in…” but it did, and it blew me away. The quality is top-notch and goes louder than I would ever want it too. Something I noticed was that the sound quality didn’t noticeably drop even when it was loud, although it would be uncomfortable (at least for me) it still sounds great. While I’ve mentioned the headphones, I should point out that they are designed where one end (left earphone wire) is short and the other long; it looks a bit ridiculous, but what is worse, is that it means the whole thing will tangle and knot all the time. If you put it in your pocket, expect to spend at least two minutes untangling the damn wires. Short of using sellotape to glue it to your face or pocket, there’s not a lot that can be done about it.

Overall, it is an outstanding piece of technology, while not alone in the market, it is by some distance the best I have seen and used. I really cannot think of anything which would be a reason not to buy one; it’s a good price, compact, intuitive, looks and sounds amazing. The only reason not to buy one, is if you already have one.

Rating - 9.5/10

Eragon - Film Review

Eragon is a film from 2006 and got lots of bad press and poor reviews, most around 2 stars or below 20%. I saw it was on Sky Movies so thought I’d watch it to see just how bad it was. I was shocked, not because of how bad it was, but because of how much I enjoyed it. One of the biggest complaints about the film was how similar it was to Star Wars. Young, poor boy with a good heart has his family murdered and begins a journey to defeat an evil king. It sounds similar, but are these critics serious? You could say exactly the same about Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and countless other fantasy stories. Because of the nature of some genres, it’s hard not to have similar themes - like in horror films, you know most of the cast won’t be alive to see the end credits rolling, and in War films, there’s always a tragic death that someone has to seek revenge for. Does it make Harry Potter, Saw, Saving Private Ryan or Enemy at the Gates any less enjoyable? You know what to expect but they can still be a great watch.

Eragon is no Lord of the Rings; the budget, cast and promotion are no comparison at all. But the story about legendary Dragon Riders is compelling, and while the plot is skimmed through somewhat briefly at first, there are developments later on when the two plots comes together. This is essentially a family film (PG rating), so it’s not complex or mind boggling stuff, but it is still intriguing and should keep most people interested throughout.

The dragon Saphira (think Vauxhall Zafira and you have the right pronunciation) is voiced superbly by Rachel Weisz, and Edward Speleers plays Eragon in the lead role. John Malkovich, Jeremy Irons, Sienna Guillory, Robert Carlyle all play their parts very well, and there is a brief cameo by Joss Stone as a mysterious fortune teller. I mean seriously brief, as in less than 2 minutes, and I’m not too sure of the point really, maybe she has a bigger part in a sequel or something.

The special effects look great, particularly in the vast, sweeping battle scenes shown when swooping down from above. But it’s obvious most effort went into the dragon Saphira, and the connection between Speleers and his dragon really grows and becomes key to the film. I don’t usually care when a character is in trouble or when there is a will he/won’t he die moment, but Eragon is a film which is really good at creating atmosphere and again, the relationship between the main characters help draw you into the film.

Eragon is not LotR, and a lot of people will find it slow or will think its not edgy enough to be taken seriously. To others it will be what it is intended to be, fun, family-friendly and a nice watch overall. Well worth watching if your into your fantasy films and/or want an easy to watch film. Or if you just like dragons.

Rating - 7/10

Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix - PC Game Review

I was in Game earlier this week, and got another bargain - or at least I thought I had. I now realize why the Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix PC game was going so cheap - it’s crap.

The Harry Potter franchise has reached a new low in this game, and is the most obvious money grabbing scheme so far.Oh dear, where do I start…Well the positives first - the graphics are quite good and realistic enough, the characters voices are done by the same actors from the films, and you can explore Hogwarts as much as you want, completing side quests as you go. The school and the grounds are huge and wouldn’t seem out of place in an RPG, and there are very few loading times, which is remarkable for such a vast exploration area. But after playing 10 minutes of the game you will forget the few positives, because everything else is terrible.

The worst things are the controls and the camera angles, it’s actually quite hard to explain just how dreadful it is. You cast spells by holding down a mouse button and moving the mouse in a direction, which sounds fine in theory, except that the developers have made it so that there are different spells for the same mouse combinations. Not only this, but aiming at a specific target takes about 20 minutes because the camera is constantly jittering and spinning around like it’s had one too many Red Bulls. The camera is not fixed behind Harry, so when you change direction in game, it takes a minute of you banging into a wall to convince the camera to swing around so that you can see where you are going. So, when trying to target one object when there are twenty in front of you, the tiniest mouse or keyboard movement will mean you will spend a LOT of time just trying to point the right way. Just tapping the key to turn left ever so slightly causes Harry to turn 90 degrees so accurate aiming is just not possible.

You navigate your way around Hogwarts by using the Marauders Map, which lists all the key rooms and characters, so you set a target on the map and then you are guided to that point by footprints, which appear on the floor in front of your character as you move. The rather obvious downside to this is that you have to move in the right direction for the footprints to appear in the first place. You don’t follow a footprint trail like you might expect, but the footprints only appear as you move forwards. The footprints are also black, which doesn’t help them stand out against the dark ground.

The story is loosely related to the books, but there are too many parts which are skimmed or missed out completely. If you haven’t read the book or seen the film, then you won’t have the foggiest idea who’s who or what the plot is about. There are also too many FMV’s (videos/cut-scenes) for my liking, which break up what little gameplay there is. The ‘puzzles’ usually involve using a spell to lift or move something, so its a case of waving your wand around until something happens. I was so bored by the early training parts, which were insultingly easy, that I didn’t pay attention so couldn’t remember any spells. Still, I clicked and wiggled the mouse randomly until I got it right. So, no skill or anything else is required to play or complete the game, which incidentally, took under 2 hours to complete - minus several hours of cut scenes and FMV’s.

One of the few good points I mentioned before about Hogwarts being huge actually has a massive disadvantage - all the quests involve running around to various rooms or to find certain people. This is cute at first, seeing familiar faces in the corridor saying ‘hi Harry’ as you pass by, and there are ghosts floating around, and the staircases even move around just like they do in the film. I think you know where I’m going with this. The grand scale of the game means most of your time is spent getting from A to B and then C and onto D before settling at E. Add to this the poor navigation map, poor controls, waiting for up to a minute for a staircase to move to where you are and then another minute for the stairs to move to where you want to get to, and even the ’secret’ passageways only take a few minutes off the journey. So, the cute features I mentioned quickly become infuriating, making you wish you could set fire to anyone who says a friendly hello as you pass by.

Even Ron and Hermione don’t help. They’re constantly glued to within a few feet of Harry, getting in the way and offering advice on where to go in a really patronizing way. When you’re trying to cast a spell but can’t target the right object, they will chirp in telling you what to do, thus eliminating any thought process which might otherwise be necessary - I was frequently yelling at them, “I know what to do! Move out of the way!” In fight sequences it’s always three on two, making it ridiculously easy, and I know its aimed at kids, but you don’t actually have to do anything remotely challenging to win or advance through the game. The game is tedious, boring, repetitive, easy, frustrating, and dull. The game is essentially 80% running around and the rest is trying to remember or work out what to click and where to wiggle it. So, please avoid this game - unless you’re being forced too by Potter Terrorists - there is no excuse having read this review. Anybody want my copy?

Rating - 2/10

Blog #1

Yes, I have finally jumped on the Blogging Bandwagon, albeit a few years too late. Here, you can expect a host of reviews on music, films and anything else that tickles me the right way.

Feedback and comments are always welcome.