New phone

I recently picked up a Samsung Galaxy S2 and I have to say so far I'm impressed. Although I prefer HTC's sense UI Samsung have definitely done something right with the S2 and touchwiz. Its speed and smoothness makes it simply a joy to use, no fumbling around with missclicks or annoying waiting while it loads. From what I've read it's the best Android phone on the market and I certainly wouldn't argue with that.

The 1.2 GHz processor realy shows through with everything you do. From streaming movies to web browsing everything is just so darn fast. The AMOLED screen is crystal clear even outside and the battery life is more than acceptable for me - I found the battery to be lasting around 2 days with moderate use.

You might be wondering why I chose Android over the increasingly popular iOS on the iPhone 4. The reason is that, as far as I'm aware, you cannot develop apps for the appstore unless you have a Mac, whereas Android apps are Java based and allow me to develop for the platform on my Windows computer. This, along with the slightly-larger-than-most 4.3" screen, is what made up my mind.

Now I haven't owned an Android based phone before so don't have many apps yet. Does anybody know any must-have apps that I should be getting? It seems like it's got everything I could possibly need already installed, but I'm sure it will have double that installed on it by the end of the week!

Counter Strike: Global Offensive announced

The rumours about the next game in the Counter Strike series have been confirmed by Valve. The game will be entitled Counter Strike: Global Offensive and will be on PC, Mac, Xbox 360 and PS3.

"CS: GO promises to expand on CS' award-winning gameplay and deliver it to gamers on the PC as well as the next gen consoles and the Mac" says Valve's Doug Lombardi.

Little is currently known about the game but it will be multiplayer focused and we will be seeing some remakes of classic maps; 'de_dust' has been confirmed for the game. I am certainly excited about this news but the fact that it will be appearing on the Playstation Store and  Xbox Live Arcade (typically the home of smaller releases) might mean that it won't be competing with the heavyweight shooters, on console at least.

I'm back!

Hi all, after a long rest due to uni exams and my holiday I am now back and ready to roll out some fresh content! I will be trying to post daily with news, reviews and opinions on all things related to gaming and technology.

I've started playing Starcraft 2 again and have gotten pretty hooked. Got placed in diamond 1v1 this season and slowly making progress on my quest for masters. My plan is to play a lot of custom games to get back into shape then go on a mass laddering spree when I'm in tip top form.

My current progress:

I'll be putting up my thoughts on Starcrat 2 soon. See you in master league!

Minecraft?

I'm sure most of you have at least heard of minecraft by now, and if you havn't, you can check it out at www.minecraft.net.

I am still yet to jump on the bandwagon and buy the game and am wondering if i should. I've played the free sandbox online (not even sure if thats still available) and although it was pretty fun, it got boring after a while.

Just wanting to see what peoples opinions on it are. Have any of you bought the alpha/beta? Played it? Still madly addicted?

Some of the things people have made are truly amazing. Heres a fully programmable 8 bit CPU! I can't immagine what else people will create!

Keyboard / Mouse

I've been thinking about getting a new keyboard and mouse soon and have been looking around quite a bit. I've taken a liking to the Steelseries 7G for its mechanical switches and the Razer Deathadder as i've read countless times it's an outstanding mouse. They are so tempting but i'm just not sure if i can justify spending that kind of money on a keyboard and mouse (close to £100 just for they keyboard).

Does anybody recommend a good keyboard and mouse for heavy gaming use? Whats your opinion on this kind of overpriced 'gaming' equipment? Anybody got either of these and think it's worth the money?

CSS

I recently stumbled across an old gameplay montage from counter strike source that sparked up my interest in it again. The vid is called Synced 2 and I love just about everything about it - the music, the editing, the slomo effects timed with the tune. I've been playing a bit of CSS again thanks to this video. Anybody else watch videos that realy inspire them to play an old game again?

Magicka

I was persuaded to buy a game on Steam called Magicka earlier this week and I have to say it's pretty good considering the price. It's a third person top down RPG with 4 player co-op, but what makes this game super sweet is the spell casting system.

The player has 8 basic elements to cast spells with (water, life, protection, frost, lightning, arcane, earth and fire) with which he/she can press combinations to cast a huge variety of spells. Each spell combination has a targeted version and an area of effect version and some elements combine into others (water + frost = ice). The co-op allows players to combine beams for extra power and beams containing opposing elements crossing cause explosions. On top of this you can unlock special spells throughout the game like teleport and raise dead.


A personal favourite of mine is to soak all enemies with a water AOE and then use a lightning-frost spell to chain-freeze them all in place. The game is a lot of fun and I still don't think i've seen all the spell combinations yet. It's definitely worth checking out.