• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Review Round-up

    // Gradly // blog, Consoles, Games, Poster, Rants & Raves, Reviews No Responses

    Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

    Here’s what everyone had to say about the game:

    • OXM UK: 9/10 – Like it or not, it’s heartening to know that the most popular game on the Xbox 360 is also one of the best.
    • Edge: 9/10 – Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare trilogy stands as this generation’s defining FPS series – and Modern Warfare 3 is an emphatic, feature-packed and sometimes stunning final act.
    • OXM: 9.5 – When everything here is this well-executed and offers so many enduring thrills, it’s hard to knock it too much. MW3 absolutely delivers.
    • GamesRadar: 9/10 – If you’re looking for a new kind of shooter, look elsewhere. Modern Warfare 3 succeeds by doing more – much, much, much more – of what’s always worked spectacularly for the series. We still can’t get enough.
    • Guardian: 5/5 – The Infinity Ward engine is far from cutting edge – the overall look of the game has not moved on enormously since MW2. But the vision, the choreography, the sense of scale and detail – they are awe-inspiring at times.
    • Telegraph: 5/5 – Modern Warfare 3 is a shining example of refinement and improvement. It’s familiar, sure, but here familiarity doesn’t breed contempt, just respect and reward for those who’ve dedicated so much time to the series. And for new players, it’s the perfect starting point, more accommodating and encompassing than ever.
    • AusGamers: 9.6/10 – Don’t go hating on this because it’s Call of Duty. This is Modern Warfare 3 – the final chapter in an epic tale, and part of a series that changed the first-person shooter landscape forever. It’s an absolutely solid title, the best entry in the series and something that should keep you playing for some time to come. More than worth the investment.
    • Destructoid: 9.5/10 – Whether you like what it does is a matter of personal taste, but the skill and experience brought to the table is hard to refute. Modern Warfare 3 gets it done, and it gets it done damn well.
    • GameTrailers: 9.3/10 – If you’re expecting a huge departure from what’s come before you’ll be disappointed, but fans will get exactly what they’re looking for. World War III shouldn’t be this fun.
    • 1UP: A- – I’m glad to say the multiplayer remains addicting and is more balanced than ever.
    • VideoGamer: 9/10 – Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 doesn’t do anything new, but it also doesn’t do anything wrong. For better or worse, this is a slick and well-metered trio of modes that make an entertaining package, but Sledgehammer Games and Infinity Ward are simply looking to augment previous games rather than expand the series into pastures new
    • Joystiq: 4.5/5 – Modern Warfare 3 is a great Call of Duty game, just as every other entry in the franchise is a great Call of Duty game. However, it shares more than quality with its predecessors – it, like its forefathers, leaves you waiting for something perfect.
    • IGN: 9/10 – Despite its flaws, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 takes the fantastic series we’ve come to love over the years and iterates on it with great success. The multiplayer is hands-down the best it has ever been, with more features, more modes and a ton of new levels and ways to interact via Call of Duty Elite. The singleplayer campaign and Spec Ops mode add value to the overall package, creating something that may not be perfect, but is too damn addicting to pass up.
    • GameInformer: 9/10 – When it comes down to it, Modern Warfare 3 meets expectations. The core elements of multiplayer and the campaign remain fundamentally unchanged, but the game serves as a great example of how many subtle tweaks can add up to an improved overall product.
    • GameSpot: 8.5/10 – This is some of the best online shooter action around, and with the daunting challenges of Spec Ops and the exciting, globe-trotting campaign, Modern Warfare 3 stands tall as another great descendant of the game that changed a generation.
    • GiantBomb: 4/5 – Modern Warfare 3 feels split between the great excitement of its time-tested multiplayer and the feeling that this whole style of game has just gotten old.
    • Eurogamer: 8/10 – That the single-player story brings the Modern Warfare saga to a fairly definitive end is, then, cause for celebration. Whatever next year’s entry brings, some measure of reinvention will be essential. For now, its exuberant blend of testicular bravado and blockbuster gloss ensures that Call of Duty retains its crown as the shooter genre’s biggest, boldest rollercoaster ride for at least one more year.

  • Apple’s iOS 5 Tops Windows Phone ‘Mango’ in HTML5 Performance

    // Gradly // Apple, blog, Featured, Gadgets, iPhone, Microsoft, Mobile, News, Rants & Raves, Reviews, Tech. No Responses

    Microsoft recently launched a mobile IE9 testing site that allows web developers to test the HTML5 abilities of Windows Phone Mango

    Last month the software giant Microsoft demoed the Mango update with 500 new features, including a mobile version of Internet Explorer 9. In a preview video, Microsoft vice president Joe Belfiore ran a test between phones running Windows Phone 7, Android, BlackBerry OS and iOS and declared Windows Phone the winner. Microsoft’s device rendered HTML5 content at 24 frames per second, compared to 2 frames per second on the iPhone 4 and 11 FPS on the Android Nexus S device.

    But what about an iPhone 4 running the beta release of iOS 5? As noted by winrumors, it has reached 31 frames per second on the test. However, a screenshot demonstrating the test results still lists the iOS 4.3 version of Mobile Safari.

    Windows Phone 7 and iOS 5 are both scheduled for a fall release, though Microsoft and Apple have yet to set specific release dates.

    Apple unveiled iOS 5 earlier this month at the WWDC with over 200 new user features and 1500 APIs.

    Meanwhile, Microsoft has teamed up with Nokia, reportedly paying billions to Nokia in exchange for the company’s commitment to Windows Phone 7. In February, Nokia announced plans to ditch its Symbian mobile operating system and begin making smartphones running Windows Phone. Nokia confirmed last month that the first of its devices to run Windows Phone 7 will feature the Mango update.

    Research group IDC predicts the Microsoft and Nokia partnership will help boost Windows Phone market share from 3.8 percent in 2011 to 20.3 percent in 2015, while Apple’s share of the worldwide smartphone market is expected to dip from 18.2 percent to 16.9 percent during the same period.

  • Transformers: Dark of the Moon First Review Hit the Web

    // Gradly // blog, Featured, Movies, News, Poster, Reviews, Superheroes 1 Response

    Here is the first review for the upcoming action-packed flick Transformers: Dark of the Moon and it proves that the movie will have around 2.5 hours of excitement. The review written by Capone over at AICN, saying that this is the best Transformers movie yet. Be ware of possible spoilers for sure.

    Here’s some of what he had in his review:

    The first hour and a half of DARK OF THE MOON focuses primarily on story (with brief fight and chase sequences pepperd in), but it’s actually a cool story about the Autobots finding out that the technology that was supposed to save their race and planet has been sitting on the moon the entire time they’ve been on earth and nobody bothered to tell them; Optimus Prime is not amused.

    It was in the final hour of this TRANSFORMERS chapter that I simply forgot to breathe; there isn’t a spare second to do so. For a solid hour, Bay and his CGI-created robot buddies decimate Chicago. And I won’t lie: seeing it so realistically and utterly leveled was almost more than I could handle.

    The clever script manages to find new ways to place Transformers into world events.

    I have to admit, I’m genuinely surprised what a strong effort this film is, not just in terms of its scope, but also in its pacing, performances, and ideas. This one dares to go dark from time to time, and that helped me find the often-lacking component of many Bay films: emotion. You probably won’t shed any tears watching DARK OF THE MOON, but you will care when certain lives are lost or in peril. This one might actually rock you a little to your foundation; get excited about that. The summer keeps getting incrementally better from where I’m sitting.

    To read the full review click here.