Call of Duty Black Ops 2 Review – Story, Gameplay, Graphics and Rating

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Windows 8 Review – Rating, features and more

Windows 8 is finally here. Microsoft’s new operating system is completely different from all previous versions of Windows. The UI is new, it’s much faster and more secure as well. This is pretty much Microsoft’s riskiest move till date, it’s changing the whole image of itself and Windows 8 is at the forefront of this evolution. But is it worth a buy? Would Windows 7 or older users consider changing to Windows 8? We tell you everything you need to know in our complete Windows 8 review!

First and foremost, even though Windows 8 is superior in performance to Windows 7 and has this general zippiness, system requirements are pretty much the same. This is good news for owners of older computers, there’s no need to upgrade, although like always it’s recommended. Still, even on the exact same hardware you’d notice that it’s much faster. This is also the first time Windows has the ability to run on ARM based processors, although that’s Windows 8 RT. Here’s the system requirements:

Processor: 1 GHz with PAE, NX and SSE2 support (IA-32 and x86-64 architectures)RAM: 1 GB (32-bit)/2 GB (64-bit)Graphics card: DirectX 9 device with WDDM 1.0 or higherDisk space: 15 GB (32-bit)/20 GB (64-bit)

The installation process is pretty quick and you’ll be at the new start menu in no time. More on the new UI in a bit. Now signing in is done via Microsoft Account, an account that ties all social networks, mail accounts and such into one so that when you log into your computer, all your information is already there. This also helps in case you want to log into another computer somewhere else, all your settings are saved and synced. There’s also an option for a local account, but there’s hardly any integration there so we recommend using the Microsoft Account.

Let’s not mince words here, the new UI is something you’re going to either love or hate. It’s funky, colorful, functional and much more personalized. Love it or hate it, by default your PC boots into the new start menu. There’s the desktop and Windows Explorer (now called File Explorer) available as well of course, you have to either click on the “Desktop” tile or right click the bottom leftmost corner of the screen. The mainstay of all Windows PC’s, the “Start” button is now gone. Instead, you can access most settings by right clicking the bottom left of the screen as mentioned. Another bunch of settings can be accessed by moving the mouse pointer to either corner of the right side of the screen. Open apps/programs can be viewed and closed by moving the pointer to the top left corner of the screen.

Sound confusing? It is. Initially it’s going to be pretty difficult to get used to, but once you’ve got the hang of it, you won’t miss the old interface. Admittedly, this change can be jarring since everyone’s used to pretty much the same interface since decades. Once you’re into the desktop mode or Windows Explorer you’ll notice that not much has changed, but it’s much easier to use thanks to the ribbon interface a la Office 2010. All file settings, views and such are accessed via a ribbon menu on the top that can be dropped down and file details have been moved to the right side. Gone is the Aero Glass effect as well, all windows now have this minimalistic matte type finish which we like.

The whole user interface takes a few cues from Windows Phone, and there’s a lot of swiping and smooth transitions that look slick. Also like mobile operating systems, apps keep running in the background unless you close them via the redesigned Modern taskbar (pointer to top left of screen). The extra bit of personalization that you get to see after all your accounts are synced is really something to behold. Live tiles constantly keep updating information, so you know everything without even opening the app. For example, the Mail app shows if you’ve got unread mails, the People app shows notifications from social networks or just a collage of pictures of your contacts and the Pictures app shows pictures on your Facebook account or SkyDrive. Other apps like News, Travel, Music and Bing also update in real time and you’re always getting the latest news or just a bunch of stuff to look at. The Start menu background and colors can be customized as well, and so can the logon screen. You can set up notifications you’d like to see on the logon screen too! Settings and search can be accessed by right clicking in apps or the Modern interface, speaking of which, the Search function performs a search within the app or Start menu so you find what you’re looking for. Overall, a fantastic interface that looks good and performs even better.

A new addition is the Windows Store, which lets you download apps, just like a mobile phone. There’s no installation and they’re usually super light and functional. Sure, the app store is barren compared to the number of Android or iOS apps available, but most of the stuff you’d need is there. You can download app versions of software like TeamViewer, Google Chrome and such which let you do most day to day things, but it’s better to use the full desktop versions of the same for the heavy duty stuff. A good example is Internet Explorer 10 bundled with Windows 8, you’ll find flash support only on the full fledged desktop version. The Music app is extremely cool and once your music library is synced, you can view artist bio, discography and pictures that automatically appear when songs are played. The Travel app has information about a lot of cities around the world and ticket booking, hotel reservations, places to visit are all integrated. You can also view photos and 360 degrees panoramas. The News app brings the headlines via Bing to your Start menu and you can view the news you are interested in like Entertainment news, Technology news etc.

There’s a lot of fun apps available too, including games like Fruit Ninja and Cut the Rope. Microsoft’s new Skype app is also sleek and functional. You can find photo apps, business apps, note apps, music apps and much more. The ecosystem is small as of now, but it’s sure to grow. The integration of some apps like the Messaging app is a boon and lets you communicate with everyone without even logging into to social networks like Facebook or Twitter. You can carry on chatting without opening up a web browser and messages sent to you are immediately notified even while you’re doing something else. For some tasks you might have to switch between the Modern interface and the usual desktop mode, it can be annoying sometimes. But apps are a great way to perform simple functions like sending mails, reading the news or catching up with friends without using programs.

A lot of the graphical whiz bang is now hardware powered. So you’re looking at smooth transitions, better colors and text that’s actually hardware rendered. All of this results in a much snappier looking interface. Visual flourishes aside, the operating system as a whole does tasks faster than its predecessors. Microsoft has come good on its promise of faster boot, and boot times are in the area of 15-20 seconds while earlier they were around 40 seconds. It’s an impressive feat and makes you feel as if your hardware got a second life. Performance across the board is much better and we’re pretty happy about it.

Windows 8 now has the option to run from USB drive, so you’ve got an operation system on the go. System developers and technicians will welcome this feature. Now, if you’ve somehow screwed up your computer, Windows 8 offers the option to Refresh or Reset itself. Refresh changes some settings to default and Reset is basically like a system restore and would fix most problems. If you want to restore just a certain file or folder, you can do so through the File History option in the Control Panel, which is a nice touch. Finally, there’s the new and updated Task Manager that gets rid of all the useless stuff, it now shows descriptions and individual component usage so you know exactly what’s eating up your resources. No more obscure filenames and such. There’s also a Performance tab that collates information about CPU, Memory, Network and Disk usage. The startup programs list also displays here along with Users logged in and how much resources they’re using. In case you want details, there’s also a tab with details of all processes and services running.

Windows 8 is a bold step forward by Microsoft, rarely have we seen companies completely reinvent themselves and their portfolio. While the drastic change might be jarring to some, we welcome it. Sales might not be all that because of initial apprehensions, but once the word gets out Windows 8 should really pick up. That’s not something to argue about in any case, since this is pretty much the future of Windows and one has to get used to it. Once you’re into it, you might never turn back, the ease of use and information at your fingertips (literally, in case of touch based devices) are hard to do without now that I’m used to Windows 8. The funny thing is, if this was a completely new product it would receive much less flak than it is now, it’s just the change that people are not able to stomach. It’s good to see another ecosystem pop up, that includes all Microsoft devices like Windows 8 computers, Windows Phone 8 devices and Xbox as well. You can read more about Windows 8 editions here.

According to us, Windows 8 is a winner. Sure it’s going to take time getting used to, and there are some shortcomings like the paltry number of apps and the confusion regarding UI, but the bottom line is that Windows 8 improves upon the desktop experience and integrates a lot of other devices into it while looking fresh. It’s got incredible personality and won’t disappoint.

Fantastic new UIMuch faster than predecessorsSo much more personalizedSome simplified functionsAppsSteep learning curveSome simple settings and functions are made complicatedConfusion between apps and desktop programsSlightly difficult to control with keyboard and mouseNot too many apps available

CoolPCTips rating: 9.1/10

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Nokia Lumia 920 Review – Specs, features and rating

The Lumia 920 is the flagship Windows Phone 8 device from Finnish manufacturer Nokia. Announced on September 5, 2012, it sure took a long time to hit stores, but there has been a lot of buzz surrounding the device. Unlike the last generation of Lumia devices which were well received but didn’t sell all that well, the Lumia 920 saw a very promising number of preorders and was sold out in many countries. This bodes well for the fallen Titan Nokia, which once ruled the mobile phone world. While it may have lost out the “signature” Windows Phone 8 device name to the HTC 8X, the Nokia Lumia 920 comes chock full of features you won’t find on any other smartphone. We managed to get our hands on an AT&T version of the smartphone, so here’s our full Nokia Lumia 920 review!

Previous Windows Phones were criticized for having only single core processors, even though they actually performed really well without much slowdowns. This was due to the fact that Windows Phone 7.5/7.8 did not support multi core processors. Windows Phone 8 however, now supports a lot of new features including multi core processors. So finally, the Windows Phone 8 range of devices come with dual core processors. While Android flagships are now touting quad core processors, Windows Phone 8 device manufacturers chose to go with dual cores because it’s more power efficient and gets the job done without any lag. I’ll get to the performance part of the review later, for now, here’s the specs:

SoC: Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 MSM8960CPU: 1.5 GHz dual-core KraitGPU: Adreno 225RAM: 1 GB RAMStorage: 32 GB, not expandableScreen: 4.5 inches PureMotion HD+ ClearBlack IPS LCD screen, 768 x 1280px (332 ppi)Camera: 8.7MP PureView rear facing camera (1080P video recording), 1.3MP front facing camera (720P video recording)Connectivity: Bluetooth v3.0, NFC, Wi-fi, MicroUSB 2.0 slotBattery: 2000 mAh

Undoubtedly the biggest feature of the phone is the PureView camera. While it doesn’t pack in a 41 megapixel sensor like the Nokia 808 PureView, the Lumia 920 has a fantastic camera that will not disappoint. The Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 SoC comes with a dual core processor clocked at 1.5 GHz and there’s 1 GB of RAM onboard, so finally Windows Phones are coming up to speed on current hardware. There’s the usual connectivity options like Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, plus there’s NFC built in. The Lumia 920 is also capable of wireless charging through the Qi Wireless standard, but you will have to buy a wireless pad, dock or cushion separately. Unfortunately there’s no expandable storage even though Windows Phone 8 supports it, in view of the unibody design.

The Nokia Lumia 920 is a gorgeous, well built device. No matter the finish, the 920 exudes quality. The polycarbonate unibody is both durable and easy to hold. Sure, if you opt for one of the glossy colors (Red, Yellow or White) you can expect more scratches and fingerprints, but the durability doesn’t take a hit. Seriously, check out one of the torture tests on YouTube and you’ll see how Nokia really does make tough devices. Of course, since it’s a unibody design there’s no MicroSD card slot or removable battery, you can find the SIM slot on the top. On the right, there’s the volume buttons, then the power button and finally the physical camera button near the bottom. It’s a different layout from Android phones, and it’s actually more convenient. The top houses the SIM card slot and a 3.5 mm headphone jack in the center, unlike other phones. Finally, the bottom part of the phone has a MicroUSB 2.0 slot in the center and it’s flanked by micro laser drilled speaker holes on each side. The tiny visible screws on each side give it a nice industrial look.

Much has been spoken about the size and weight of the Lumia 920. So much criticism has been directly towards the weight, it’s almost nitpicking. In hand, the Lumia 920 feels absolutely perfect and unless you have really tiny hands you’re not going to have much difficulty in using it, and I can say this with absolute confidence because I don’t have really large hands either and had no problem operating it. As for the weight issue, sure it’s heavier than other devices, but more than seeming ungainly, it gives the Lumia 920 a sense of solidity. The weight is distributed evenly and let’s face it, if you’re complaining about a 185 gm device seeming “heavy” and “difficult to hold”, there’s something seriously wrong with you. Most of the front is dominated by the 4.5 inch screen and there’s the usual 3 Windows function keys at the bottom. I do think that there’s a bit too much space under the 3 keys though. The back is plain save for the camera lens and dual LED flash. Overall, the Lumia 920 is really very well built and gives the impression of a premium device, and even though it’s heavier than the competition, it’s not difficult to use.

Another big selling point of the Nokia Lumia 920 is the PureMotion HD+ screen. Using a resolution of 1280 x 768, which is higher than 720P, the Lumia 920 screen ends up with a pixel density of 332 ppi, which is higher than the iPhone 5. The PureMotion name is given due to the fact that unlike other mobile phone screens which have a response time of 20 ms, the Lumia 920 has a response time of 5 ms. What this means in the real world, is that the screen updates much faster and you won’t see any ghosting or image lag. For example, while watching a video with a lot of motion of transitions, the changes of scenes are much more fluid and better looking. It really does look very good, the screen is vibrant and sharp. Colors seem to pop out and the Windows Phone live tiles look nice and bright. A video I played back looked fantastic as well.

Thanks to Nokia’s ClearBlack technology, contrast ratio is great too. The screen adjusts brightness and color levels according to external light, so even in sunlight the screen is very visible and clear. Lumia 920 also comes with a super sensitive touchscreen that can be used even through gloves, which is a boon for users in cold countries. In my trial with nails, cloth and the like, I had no problems in using the phone. This sensitivity can also be turned off, since it drains a slightly more amount of battery. Viewing angles suffer a tiny bit due to the polarized glass, but it’s really not something that should turn you off.

Windows Phone 8 is pretty similar in most parts to Windows Phone 7.5. If you’ve used any device from the previous generation, you’re not going to have any problems here. Most of the changes are actually internal, which include the shift from a Windows CE to Windows NT kernel, the same used on the desktop Windows 8. It’s a different interface from Android and iOS and is very easy to use. Now, live tiles can be customized even more and resized for a custom home screen. You can add widgets and notifications to the lock screen as well, and a new feature is live lock screen, in which you can connect an app like say Facebook, which will display a collage of your uploaded photos, so you’ve got an ever changing lock screen. On the whole everything is super fast and responsive, and thanks to the fast respone time and refresh rate, when viewed side by side with a previous generation Windows Phone device, you really understand how zippy the Lumia 920 is.

Windows Phone was always known to make the most of processing power, and even with inferior internals compared to the quad core Android behemoths, the Lumia 920 doesn’t seem slow at all. Video playback, gaming, internet browsing and everything is really fast which only cements the fact that it’s not how much power you have, it’s how you use it. Benchmarks with SunSpider place the Lumia 920 at faster or equivalent than the iPhone 5, so no complaints with regard to performance.

Like we said earlier, the PureView camera is one of the main selling points of the Lumia 920 and it doesn’t disappoint. The camera excels specially in low light conditions and the optical image stabilization is bar none. Daylight photos are crisp and clear as well, without much noise. Windows Phone 8 comes with something called camera lenses, which lets you edit and customize photos directly from the camera screen. There’s also this feature called CinemaGraph, which lets you capture a picture and decide a small area which can be in motion, so you can actually make pictures with say, only a person’s arm waving while the background remains static. It’s a fun feature and looks pretty cool. On the whole, the camera really does live up to the hype, but if you really want perfect photos, you’ll have to fiddle around with some advanced settings as the auto function often keeps taking different looking photos even if you take them immediately. Do check out the gallery for some photos taken with the Lumia 920.

One of the areas where the Lumia 920 and in fact, all Windows Phones lag behind are apps. Even though Joe Belfiore promised that 46 of the top 50 apps will be making their way to Windows Phone 8, compared to the number of apps on Android and iOS, the Windows App Marketplace seems barren. Of course, a lot of the apps in the rival stables are copies, different versions and knock offs, but a few big names like Instagram and Dropbox aren’t available on Windows Phones. However, the Nokia Lumia 920 makes up for it by including exclusive Nokia apps and services. It’s no secret that Nokia Maps is amongst the best mapping services in the world, used by many other companies as well. It covers over 199 countries and allows users to download offline maps as well. Even Nokia’s navigation system is excellent and will get you to where you want accurately.

Nokia Drive+ is a better version of the same app on Windows Phones and coupled with Nokia Maps and Nokia Transit, it pretty much covers all your navigation needs. As reviewed earlier, Nokia City Lens is an augmented reality app that uses the camera to find nearby attractions and the best part is it works wherever Nokia Maps works, which is pretty much everywhere. On the Nokia Lumia 920 you get an advanced version of Nokia City Lens which includes 3D views, turn by turn navigation and a more detailed interface. Finally, there’s an app called Nokia Music exclusive to Nokia Lumia phones that allows you to stream unlimited music for free! Since Pandora Radio is also allowing for free music streaming for 6 months, although not in India, music fans will not be disappointed.

Even with the large screen and great display, the Nokia Lumia 920 does not suffer with regard to battery life. There have been some complaints of battery issues, but apparently a couple of full discharge and recharge cycles fixes it. Even the Lumia 900 suffered from battery issues initially, but it was fixed via a software update. However, most Lumia 920's will give you a full days worth of normal to moderately heavy use without having to recharge it. Oh also, if you’re going the wireless recharge way, keep in mind that wireless charging is 20% slower than regular charging.

I’ll admit I was hooked onto the Lumia 920 ever since it was announced and have been waiting to get my hands on it. After seeing a couple of reviews that mostly complained about it’s weight and apps, I disagree on one front and agree on another. Apps are lacking on the Windows Phone ecosystem, but props have to be given to Microsoft for trying to create one big ecosystem which included Windows 8 desktop PC’s, laptop PC’s, tablets and mobile phones. For me, if the phone serves all your needs, looks great, is durable and has something different from other phones, it’s a winner. Again, a review is only subjective and I’m sure that not everyone will think this way. So do let us know what you think of our Nokia Lumia 920 Review and what you think of the phone as well!

Gorgeous screenFantastic build and designVery capable cameraFast and responsiveFunky colorsExcellent built in first party appsNo expandable storageGlossy finish more prone to damageLess apps compared to competitorsCamera has varying results sometimes

Special thanks to Raghu Kalyan Vuppuluri for letting us review his phone!

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Call of Duty Black Ops 2 Review – Story, Gameplay, Graphics and Rating

It’s become almost a routine now, a new Call of Duty game releases every year, breaks records and has a lot of people talking about it. It’s got the fair share of fans and detractors and most game forums are filled with discussions comparing one game with another. Our Call of Duty Black Ops 2 review, on the other hand is completely neutral and free from the hype. So how does the newest Call of Duty stack up? There’s been a whole lot of expectations from this game after the success of the previous Black Ops and for the most part, you won’t be disappointed.

Black Ops had a pretty good story that had David S. Goyer as a consultant, and this time around, he’s written most of it. Yes, the very same writer of The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises has penned the story of Black Ops 2, and it’s a very good story too. The story spans mainly 2 generations, the 70's and 2025 and you get to play as multiple characters. The main characters you will be playing as, are Alex Mason (protagonist of Black Ops) for the 80's timeline and David Mason, his son, for the 2025 timeline.

The story of Black Ops 2 revolves around Raul Menendez, a cyber terrorist who is hell bent on inciting a war between the United States of America and China. How he does it, why he does it, to what end and how the main characters lives are tied into it forms the gist of the story. Admittedly, there’s a lot of twists and turns and I basically don’t want to spoil the surprise. Raul Menendez makes for a great villain and he’s not your typical I-want-to-blow-up-things-for-the-hell-of-it antagonist. Once you’ve played through the whole campaign you’ll understand why he’s a memorable baddie.

Unlike previous Call of Duty games, a lot of the decisions you take during the course of the game will decide how the story eventually pans out. There are multiple endings , but of course it’s not as in depth as an RPG. There’s also a couple of Strike Force missions that affect the campaign, where you get to control a team rather than a character. These missions are optional and available only for a certain number of missi0ns. The hugely popular Zombies section of the game also makes an appearance, and for the first time it also features it’s own campaign. It’s mostly geared towards the multiplayer portion of the game and is actually a part of it.

As far as gameplay is concerned, Black Ops 2 is still a pretty linear shooter and the slightly branching storylines are as much freedom as you’ll get. We’re not complaining though, because the Call of Duty series has always been known for strong campaign portions and Black Ops 2 is no different. Of course, the story being written by an eminent Hollywood writer helps too. For the most part it’s all running and gunning, but trademark action events are littered all over the game. Speaking of which, there’s no other shooter that has amazing cinematic moments like this one. Prepare for a lot of whiz bang sections where you’re looking at big stuff happen through the first person. It seriously never gets old. As for the actual shooting and control, you won’t need to learn anything new because it’s basically the same game since a couple of years. Which brings us to one of our complaints. Yes, the model for Call of Duty games is tried and tested and it works well, but we really want to see some change. The core gameplay remains unchanged and you rarely get the feeling of a “new” game.

The Strike Force portions of the game are a break from the campaign and are pretty fun once you get the hang of it. Initially it can be a little confusing, but once you understand how to control all the units it suddenly becomes much more tactical than running and gunning. However, unlike the campaign where you reload from checkpoints, the Strike Force missions feature permanent death, so tread lightly. You don’t really gain any upgrades or such over the course of the game, so there’s no XP points or such. During some levels you can access certain safes, rooms or boxes that are slightly out of the way for more weapons or equipment though. You can also customize your kit before starting a campaign mission.

The biggest gripe I have with Black Ops 2 is the graphics. It’s been almost 4 years and Call of Duty games have been using the same engine. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a fairly good looking game, but it doesn’t really compare with games like Crysis 3 or Far Cry 3. Basically, for a flagship game and series, the engine is getting old and it desperately needs to look better to keep up. Activision really can’t squeeze out another game next year with the same engine, it’s already way past its prime. The use of the same engine is  not without it’s share of good though, even older computers will be able to play it and more computers can actually max it out. There’s a couple of new tech like self shadowing, better HDR lighting and such but it’s still pretty similar to the older games.

Voice acting and sound however, is really very good. There’s some big name Hollywood actors voicing the characters including Sam Worthington, Michael Keaton, James C. Burns and Gary Oldman in a special apperance. Explosions, gunshots, dialogues and general sound is fantastic and you’d really enjoy it on a surround sound speaker system. There weren’t any errors during my playthrough and very less framerate issues. For some reason though, in most missions the underlying line skeletons of models were showing up, although I think that’s more of a driver issue than game issue. System requirements aren’t all that heavy, check them out:

OS: Windows Vista SP2, Windows 7 or Windows 8CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8200 2.66 GHz or AMD Phenom X3 8750 2.4 GHzMemory: 2GB for 32-bit OS or 4GB for 64-bit OSGPU: Nvidia GeForce 8800GT 512 MB or ATI Radeon HD 3870 512 MBStorage space: 10 GB

Black Ops 2 is one of those new things in an old package sort of deal, but damned if it’s not a good one. The campaign is solid, the multiplayer is addictive as ever and the new Zombies mode is fun. But the fact remains that Activision is playing it safe. It’s a great game that will make tons of money, but we’re really waiting for a next generation Call of Duty, Activision, are you listening?

Pros:

Great story and campaignVery good sound and voice actingFun multiplayer and Zombies modeCinematic moments!Multiple endings

Cons:

Old graphics engineSame old gameplayCore gameplay is still linearStrike Force missions seem like an addon

CoolPCTips Rating: 8.9/10

So that was our Call of Duty Black Ops 2 review! Do let us know if you’ve played it and what you thought of it, any comments are always welcome!

P.S. Stick around after the credits for an easter egg.

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