Range Rover Evoque

Range Rover Evoque*

Summary
Range Rover Evoque (shown left) is a new compact SUV that began production in July 2011. The Evoque was created to appease increased CO2 requirements and increased awareness of fuel efficiency by consumers. The Evoque is based on the Land Rover LRX (concept model). The Evoque has kept its off road capability recognizable in the Range Rover brand, however in a smaller and eco-friendlier package.

The Evoque doesn't use the body on frame design (basically, body on frame means is a method of constricting automobiles in which a separate body is mounted on to a rigid frame), instead it uses a Unibody (where the body and chassis are integrated into a single piece), this improves handling and the quality of the ride. This is more appealing to drivers who prefer to stay on the road.


Models
The Range Rover has two different models, the three door Evoque Coupe and the five door Evoque. Each type has levels of trim. The Pure as the base version (although they call it minimalistic), the Prestige, the more luxurious model, and the more performance focused Dynamic.

Engine
There are three different types of engines available to the Evoque.
1. 2.2-litre turbodiesel producing 148 bhp (110 kW; 150 PS).
2. 2.2-litre turbodiesel producing 187 bhp (139 kW; 190 PS) (Europe only)
3. 2-litre turbocharged petrol engine 237 bhp (177 kW; 240 PS)

The 2.0Litre turbo achieves a 0-60 in 6.7seconds.

Interior
Range Rover has followed the rest of the 'range' by making it as luxurious and high quality as its predecessors. The Evoque comes with a cabin length sun-roof and an entertainment system (touch screen) which can simultaneously display to both the driver and passenger seat. There are a possible 12 choices of interior colour with a variety of wood and metal trims as well as three different choices for roof treatment (optional).

Body
Thanks to the engineers who used advance weight saving techniques, this is the lightest Land Rover built at a kerb weight  of 1,670kg. (the total weight of a vehicle with standard equipment, all necessary consumables eg. motor oil and coolant with a full tank of fuel but no passengers or cargo). Aluminium is used for the bonnet and the roof, and composite plastic for the tailgate. The Evoque can be equipped with up to five exterior cameras, which assist the driver in off-road maneuvers and that make-up for the limited rear view (due to sloping roof).
The Evoque has a choice of 12 different body colors, 3 different roof colors and 5 optional wheel choices.
The Dynamic model has a more aggressive body work with a different fascia (the front end look including headlights, grill and front bumper) and it has a lower suspension.

My Own Opinion
I find this car has an extremely elegant and stylish body, and the engine although not as powerfull as the Range Rover Sport, achieves similar acceleration etc. And all while maintaining an eco-friendly car albeit not the most eco-friendly around.

Thats all for know leave a comment below giving your opinions on the car :)

UK

Need for Speed World

Need for Speed World is the 15th release of the Need for Speed series, published by Electronic Arts (EA). It was co-developed by EA Black Box and EA's Singapore branch. It is the first free to play game in the Need for Speed series, however although it is a free game, players can pay to enhance and customize their car's, in addition to buying better cars in-game. Need for Speed World was released worldwide on July 27th, 2010.

NFS World, is bases its gameplay on Need for Speed Most Wanted and Carbon (in other words you street race illegally, try and escape from the cops in free roam and focus on customizing and tuning your car).

Timeline:
1. Game Released July 27th, 2010
2. Performance Customization of cars. Released sometime in December 2010.
3. Visual Customization of cars. Released middle of March 2011.
4. New game mode called Team Escape*. Released end of March 2011.
5. New game mode called Treasure Hunt**. Released July 26 2011.

*Object of Team Escape is to co-operate with up to 3 more drivers, to drive from point A to B whilst avoiding a large amount of cops/police cars, spike strips, road blocks and more!
**Treasure Hunt, the object of this mini-game in free roam is to collect 15 gems per day to get rep boost and cash. (Rep is needed to level and cash...obviously to buy stuff ).

The game features Powerups that can be bought with speed boost (real money) or won in game, these cards can provide a variety of bonuses and boosts during races, cop chases, team escapes etc. Each powerup has a certain cool down period before you can re-use the powerup.

List of Powrupss:
1. Nitrous - This provides a Nitrous boost for a small period of time, increasing power, but only if you're below your top speed :).
2. Juggernaut - This causes an increase in your car's wieght and speed however it is at the expense of handling.
3. Traffic Magnet - Any traffic close to the race leader will attempt to crash into whoever is leading the race at the time the Powerup is used.
4. Slingshot - Causes a large increase in the performance of your car, depending on how badly you are trailing.
5. One More Lap - Only usable in cicuit races, this powerup allows you to increase your chances of catching up in a race by...you guessed it, adding another lap.
6. Shield - Protects your car from powerups that specifically target it like Traffic Magnet.
7. Ready - Refreshes your powerups, allowing them to be re-used.
8. Emergency Evade - Flings the cops away, allowing you to escape!
9. Run Flats - Run over a spike strip? Then use this to re-inflate your tires!
10. Instant Cooldown - Allows you to immediately terminate a cop Pursuit assuming you are in evade mode (no cops can see you).

In addition to this there are two 'Team' pwerups, these are only useable in Team Escape, they are Team Evade, and Team Slingshot, and do the same thing as their standard powerups, except they affect you're whole team.

Last but certainly not least, I find one of the interesting features the ability to voice chat with people in your clan, although this will not be very useful, it may assist players in team escape.


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UK

Battlefield Play4Free

Battlefield Play4Free is a FPS (First Person Shooter) which has been developed by EA and Easy. Based heavily on Battlefield 2 and Battlefield: Bad Company 2. It uses the Battlefield 2 Engine- however improvements have been made with the game using higher res. artwork and also requiring lower specifications.As you can probably tell from the name tbe game is available for free download from their website, and can be played entirely for free with benefits and perks given to those who pay for premium guns, other weapons and armour etc. (In other words it uses a micro-payment system where you can buy Battlefunds {same currency used in Battlefield Heroes} which can subsequently be spent on the above mentioned items and much more.)The game was announced in November of 2010, closed beta began by the end of November. Currently the game is out of open-beta (which began some time in early april). To play the game, players must download a browser plugin and a game client.The game has a leveling system, where people earn experience points depending on how many points they earned per game (points can be earned by capturing enemy and neutral flags, killing enemies in addition to many other methods). Currently the only game mode is Conquest (where players must take and hold the enemy flags and defend them as long as possible), and the game features 5 playable maps:

1. Oman

2. Dragon Valley

3. Sharqi

4. Karkand

5. Basra

Currently the games can hold a maximum of 32 players where players either play as Russian or the United States.

Battlefield Play4Free has the same Classes as its predecessor Bad Company 2:

1. Assualt, equipped with assault rifles and ammo boxes these guys are the main attacking force.

2. Medics armed with light machine guns and medic boxes that heal team mates, these guys are a must for supporting the other classes, in addition the defibrillator can be acquired to revive recently fallen teamates.

3. Engineers, this class specializes in destroying vehicles with their RPG-7 and repairing their own teams vehicles with their repair tool. They also have a sub-machine gun for taking down other enemies if needed.

4. Recons utilise sniper rifles and use motion sensors to detect enemy where abouts and show them to their team mates.

All classes have pistols (if u run out of ammo you will need this :P), tracer guns (help engineers and other seeking missiles to take down enemy vehicles) and the ability to buy shotguns (good for close quaters).

Thats all for now :) leave a comment below on your experiences on battlefield :)

Lego Universe: Game Over!

Its official, Lego Universe will be shutting down by the end of January, with a buy 1 get 1 free membership offer in December, and refunds paid to existing members who's  membership would've lasted past January.

Read the Official Post here

I'm sure many people out there are wondering what the Lego game devs did which caused their 'Universe' to catastrophically  explode...

I believe there are a number of reasons why:

1. Bad design of the F2P (free to play) version of the game which was only released earlier this year (2011) and the overall game play as well.First and foremost non-members are very limited in the amount of things they can do. For instance there is a gold limit of 10000gold, which is very easy, even for a newcomer/noob, to obtain. This limits all F2P from buying more expensive items and from saving up gold to splurge when they became a member in future.

 Furthermore the inability to talk unless you are a P2P member (desperation? o.O) limited the amount of socialising that could occur which is a major attraction in most Multi player games, and almost a necessity when playing team-based games where discussion of tactics before and during mini-games might be extremely useful and advantageous. Moreover it may have lead to new players quitting if they couldn't understand certain aspects of the game and were unable to ask questions (I know forums do exist but they are infrequently used especially by non-hardcore gamers.) I also believe that a lack of PvP (Player vs. Player) may have contributed to a feeling of boredom and eventually have lead to quitting the game. After all once beating the computer becomes so easy its boring the occasional challenge is welcome and can even help you improve.

2. Limited or no advertising.Seriously Lego, unlike many other games out there, I saw no advertising at all taking place outside the Lego chain eg. Their website, magazines and stores. (there may have been some, but nothing that I noticed...) How do you expect new people to discover your game if you don't advertise properly and spread as much news as possible all over the web.

3. Specifically targeting kids, now I don't blame Lego for doing this, but this is a relatively small market compared to a much larger market of teenagers and adults who play multi player online games, I'm not saying you compromise on the child friendly atmosphere, but maybe not labelling it- or giving the impression of labelling it- as a children's game would be a  better marketing method, I mean how many kids want to be labelled as 'children'...

4. Bad planning from the start, many people are complaining that they bought the game from stores when it was released for free only a few weeks later for free download. With no refunds given to those who purchased it...c'mon Lego, why bother releasing the game as a CD (albeit with a months membership but with a much higher price compared to credit card purchasing of membership)  if you were gonna make an F2P version anyway.

5. Relatively expensive compared to other MMORPGs like Runescape or ClubPenguin. IMO this was the least of the reasons the game failed, but it would not hurt to bring it inline with competitors pricing, at least initially. In addition to this I believe that giving free Lego Sets as prises for competitions was a bit excessive- Lego sets are fairly expensive...A better method might have been a free week of membership (given to non-members obviously ;)), I think this is a good plan as it will give non-members a teaser of how membership will be, and who knows they may therefore by membership permanently, or an exp boost etc. for those who do have membership. Certainly not something that costs more than a months membership.

What do you think were the reasons behind the end of the Universe? Pls leave a comment below.

UK

War Of Legends

War of Legends is a Multiplayer Stratergy game, developed by Chinese Company Ultizen and released in English by Jagex Games Studio. Ltd a UK based game developing and publishing company, on 19th January.

This was the first game to be published by Jagex instead of being produced by them. Furthermore it was written in Flash not in Java (another first for Jagex :O), it was also the first Online Stratergy game published by Jagex, and the firms first microtransaction game. While the game is free to play, players have the ability to purchase items to improve their legends, their cities and a lot more with WolCash- the games virtual currency. Therefore those players who do spend large amounts on the game, are at a definite advantage over those who are free to play.

The game is based in ancient China where each player takes the position of the ruler of a small city, which is subsequently expanded, buildings built and skills trained. You initially start off with one 'Legend' - the character which leads the army into battle- however more can be obtained through in-game tasks or by capturing a legend in Battle.
There are two types of buildlings, the cities buildings- which contain almost everything from your palace to your valuable garrisons and much more, and the outskirts which contain the resource producing buildings. There are 5 types of resources, food, wood, stone, copper and gold. All of them except gold can be produced in the outskirts, whereas gold is produced by taxing your villagers. All the city buildings go up to level 20 and the outskirts buildings go up to lvl 25, however in a famous city, the buildings can go up to level 25 or 30, depending on the type of Famous City owned by you. (There are three types, Shang, Zhou and Barbarian).

The players cities are always visible in-game and thus you can be attacked even when you are offline. Players can attack NPC wildlands, Special Paradise floors and Buzhou Mountain or PC cities our famous cities.

As Players advance they can create new sub-cities, with a limit of 6 cities in total, 1 being the capital city. Players can loose sub cities to other players, however the capital cannot be stolen.

Players can join or create their own alliances to team up with other players and this in addition to offering increased protection will also allow you to socialise and meet many new friends.
Did/ Do you play War Of Legends? How was your experience, leave a comment below.

UK

Blackberry Torch Review

The relatively new mobile phone from RIM (Research In Motion)- A Canadian based company founded in 1984, which released its first blackberry in 1999. the Blackberry Torch 9800 smartphone was released in 2010.

It is the first ,  (and as of yet, the only) Blackberry Slider (you have to slide the screen up to access the keyboard/number pad- thus giving it its name). Furthermore it actually has a pressure sensitive screen, meaning that it responds at the slightest touch (unlike the Blackberry Storm which senses temperature and will most likely mean that you have to hold down for a longer time...). In addition to this it is the first Blackberry to get a 5.0 megapixel camera, not very good compared to some smartphone, but the highest quality camera on a Blackberry so far. Moreover it is the first Blackberry to receive a software makeover- it was the first Blackberry to get O.S. 6, this brings in a great bunch of features, including the new WebKit rendering engine.


Specifications:
BlackBerry Torch 9800 Key Features and Tech Specs
Size (LxWxD)Closed: 4.4" x 2.4" x 0.57" / 111mm x 62mm x 14.6mm
Open: 5.8" x 2.4" x 0.57" / 148mm x 62mm x 14.6mm
Weight161.59 g / 5.7 oz (includes battery)
Operating SystemBlackBerry 6
CPU Speed624 MHz
Memory
- 512 MB internal flash memory
- 4GB built-in storage memory
Expandable Memory
- 4GB microSD card included
- Supports up to 32GB microSD card
Battery
1270 mAhr removable/rechargeable cryptographic lithium cell
Display
High resolution touch screen
Half-VGA+ display (360 x 480 at 188ppi)
3.2" (diagonally measured)
Camera
5.0 MP camera, flash, auto focus, face detection, image stabilization, scene modes, 2X zoom, video recording
Video Camera
Normal Mode: 640 x 480 pixels
MMS Mode: 176 x 144 pixels
GPS
Integrated GPS with A-GPS (assisted GPS) ready
WiFiWi-Fi Band: 802.11b/g/n, support for UMA (carrier-dependent)
Bluetooth
Bluetooth v2.1; Mono/Stereo Headset, Hands-free, Serial Port Profile, Bluetooth Stereo Audio (A2DP/AVCRP) and Bluetooth SIM Access Profile supported
Headset
3.5mm stereo headset capable
Network
SKU1 UMTS: 2100/1900/850/800 MHz (Bands 1,2,5/6)
SKU2 UMTS: 2100/1900/900 MHz (Bands 1,2,8)
GSM/GPRS/EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900MHz GSM/GPRS networks

My own personal review:
Its a great phone for socialising with as it has Blackberry Messenger- for those who don't know, its like a free chat (as long as you pay for the Blackberry Enterprise Server) of Blackberry to Blackberry, facebook, Google Talk etc. An interesting feature is the social feeds app that came pre-installed with my phone, it shows activity on all of your social connections, including BBM (Blackberry Messenger, Facebook, Twitter feeds etc.)

The web browser is a great improvement to the old Blackberry web browser, the most appealing function is  that when you zoom in on some webpages, it automatically arranges text so that you can read all the text in a line without having to keep moving accross the page as well as down.

The phone itself looks extremely beautiful, while at the same time retaining its classic Blackberry look. The phone fits perfectly in the palm of your hand. It takes very little effort to slide the screen up and down. An extremely useful feature is the lock button, which allows you to quickly lock the screen, not the old way of holding down the silent button- a definite improvement in my opinion. For those who are wary about touch screens, I also disliked touch screens due to bad experiences with other older phones of mine, but very rarely do I tap the screen incorrectly, surprisingly it is easy to use the touchscreen. With that said I will say that I prefer using the keyboard, which is very easy to use, comfortable to type with, to using the on-screen keyboard.

Hope this helps :)
How about leaving a comment below telling me on your experinces with this and other smarphones.
UK

P.S. The Blackberry Torch 2 is out now.