Tuesday 28 February 2017

zero horizon dawn review

Available exclusively on PS4 (with PS4 Pro HDR and 4K support)
Guerilla Games has been synonymous with Killzone for well over a decade. It’s a series I’ve personally loved since it debuted in 2004, even though it’s been considered by many to be overshadowed by its competitors. For a developer to make a single series for 13 years and still deliver a title such as Horizon Zero Dawn is incredible. Not only is it comfortably the most gorgeous-looking game on PlayStation 4, but it’s also brilliant fun to play – and often verges on masterpiece levels of game design.
Let’s start with those visuals. Ahead of launch in carefully chosen gameplay footage, you’ll no doubt have seen just how stunning this game is. What’s surprising is how it remains consistently beautiful through every frame. Playing on PS4 Pro, this adventure is easily the best example of 4K and HDR I’ve yet to experience. If you’ve been looking for a reason to justify purchasing either the Pro or an expensive new TV, Zero Dawn is it.
When running around completing missions it can be easy to forget that Horizon offers beauty in every landscape. Taking the time to stop and take in the view never fails to disappoint. The lush greenery that Aloy, our flame-haired heroine, sneaks through to hunt animalistic machines, the sun-kissed desert that whips up sandstorms as she rides through the mountains or the snow-covered trees – every frame is a painting with no detail spared.

It kept me invested because this is a story unlike any other in video games. There are clear inspirations – Zero Dawn’s map structure is reminiscent of Game of Thrones, except with robots instead of White Walkers and incestuous royalty. The Nora – Aloy’s adoptive people – represent the Northern tribe, and as such are treated as savages. As the story slowly peels itself away, you’ll only become desperate to find out more. It is why my attempts to play for just 30 minutes often led to several hours of solid gameplay. The extended sessions were aided by an incredibly satisfying combat system, too.
Zero Dawn was announced at a time when it seemed every game needed a bow and arrow. Rise of the Tomb Raider and The Last of Us did it to good effect, but Aloy’s use of wood and string is the most enjoyable of the lot. Her freedom of movement on the battlefield, coupled with a vast arsenal which only grows larger, makes every encounter incredibly tactical.
Aloy must focus on stripping these vast machines of their armour, exploiting weaknesses to elemental damage or vulnerabilities in their structure to take them down. There aren’t any easy fights, either – Aloy is often the weakest dog in the fight. This is why taking on multiple enemies at once is usually futile, and in many cases it’s wiser to either avoid confrontation or stick to stealth. I’ve died plenty of times in battles, no matter how much I improved.
This doesn’t become frustrating, but what is annoying is a problem Guerilla carries over from Killzone: the lack of clear damage indication during fights. When Aloy is hit, it’s very hard to tell how close she is to death in the heat of battle. After one hit, a quick look at the health bar tells me she’s lost around 15%, so I carry on, only for her to die from seemingly innocuous attacks seconds later. It becomes incredibly annoying during the more crucial encounters, and no matter how aware you are of the problem, the act of spinning plates is too much at times. Even Call of Duty’s heavy breathing or blood spatter would be more informative.
Between fights Aloy will need to forage for resources. Horizon teeters on the brink of becoming diet Diablo with its approach to gathering everything in sight, particularly in the early hours of play, but soon you’ll become accustomed to the myriad items you must utilise. Hunting not only robots, but also the animals of the world to create health potions, new weapons, traps and more are vital in order to remain well equipped for what lies ahead, and it’s not long before you’ll be crafting plenty more and resources you believed to be plentiful quickly become empty.
Related: Prey preview
This is why running from location to location isn’t such a chore. While there may be several miles between objectives, quick-travel isn’t always the most viable option, as gathering materials is often a necessity. It also helps that there’s a huge number of side missions to do along the way.
Guerilla has put as much thought into its side quests as the main missions, meaning I want to collect each of them and keep them in my to-do list, ticking off as many as possible before moving on to the next main campaign mission. Each has its own self-contained narrative, much like a tale in The Witcher 3, and speaking to inhabitants of the world once again is great because of the great visual design and voice acting.
In terms of what Aloy must actually do, the game doesn’t offer much variety: go here, use Aloy’s Focus to discover a track, follow it, fight the enemy. That’s more often than not the pattern of most side missions, but that’s fine as the gameplay loop is satisfying and again the stories keep me invested.
The problems arise more in the menus and UI. The waypoint system means it can often be tricky to actually get to the objective, as the marker is often all over the place. The marker that’s placed in the centre of the screen tends to follow the main pathways, whereas the marker that’s placed on the compass atop the screen is as the crow flies, meaning they’ll contradict each other, especially when Aloy ventures off the beaten track. There have been many times I’ve resorted to opening the main map and using that to guide me instead, as the in-game guide is useless and sometimes sends me on the longest route possible.
Related: For Honor review





Another issue is with the selection of active quests. Aloy can only select one quest at a time, but this also includes tutorials which can often be completed during a main or side mission. For example, after obtaining a new weapon, its tutorial might instruct you to “kill five machines” with it. This tutorial, and its rewards, will only be earned while the quest is active, but doing so will deactivate all other quests. It’s a minor issue, but it is annoying that I can’t simultaneously complete overlapping missions.

VERDICT

I didn’t expect Horizon Zero Dawn to be this good. I doubt I’ll be the only one saying they were surprised that the Killzone developer has been able to deliver a game with such breadth, depth and consistently rewarding gameplay.
Couple all of that with a compelling story led by an engaging lead protagonist and you have a brilliant game, an absolute must-buy for all PS4 owners.
Those with a PS4 Pro and an HDR TV will find an even more beautiful experience on offer, but everybody who plays Horizon: Zero Dawn is in for an absolute treat.

Read more at http://www.trustedreviews.com/horizon-zero-dawn-review#oOSjgezh0E0ojvJI.99

Man found dead in creek had ditched a jail release program

LOUISVILLE — Three days before a Louisville man was found dead Monday in a Valley Station creek, he had ditched a temporary release program at a Louisville Metro Corrections facility, jail officials confirmed Tuesday.
Authorities do not suspect foul play after Sean W. Shoemaker, 21, was pronounced dead just before 5 p.m. Monday. A passerby had spotted him just below the surface of the creek near a cluster of homes in the 5000 block of Woodbridge Lake Boulevard, Deputy Coroner Eddie Robinson said in a statement.
Shoemaker was placed at Louisville Metro Department of Corrections Community Corrections Center on Feb. 14, according to Metro Corrections spokesman Steve Durham. On Feb. 22, by court order, he was authorized for temporary releases to look for work. Two days later, on Feb. 24, he didn't return at the end of the day.

"At approximately 4:00 p.m., inmate Shoemaker was classified as AWOL and at that time Corrections officials applied for an Escape Warrant based on Inmate Shoemaker’s failure to return to custody within the time allotted after his authorized departure," Durham wrote in an email.
An autopsy was performed on Monday and the cause of death is pending additional results. No lethal injuries were found at the time of the autopsy, according to the coroner.
Louisville Metro Police spokesman Dwight Mitchell said Tuesday morning that investigators did not see any obvious signs of foul play. However, they were waiting for the coroner before making any official decisions about his manner of death.
A Louisville Metro Police Dive Team and the Pleasure Ridge Park Fire Department extracted the body from underneath a footbridge that spans the creek. It is about a 9-foot drop from the bridge to the creek.
Neighbor Robin Siegwald said her friend made the initial 911 call after a homeless man knocked on her friend's door and said he had found the body. She called the death "devastating."
Mitchell said that the incident is considered a "death investigation." There are no suspects. No other information was immediately available.
Shoemaker had been booked at the jail about 10 times on charges that included possession of drug paraphernalia, Durham said.
The CCC is located on Chestnut Street near the hospitals, and typically houses minimum custody inmates with work-release court orders who are allowed to go to work, see doctors or go to substance abuse programs, Durham said. He said such escapes are "not ordinary, but not rare" and couldn't provide exact figures.
"We set parameters about when they have to be back, and we manage the flow of individuals in and out of custody all the time," he said. "If you don't return to custody ... you're going to be charged with an escape charge."
Follow Chris Kenning on Twitter: @chris_kenning

Top 5 Worst Movies of All Time

"Battlefield Earth" (2000)

Smart Rating: 7.23
Inflation-adjusted U.S. box office gross: $29,551,600
Starring: John Travolta, Barry Pepper, Forest Whitaker
A young man (Barry Pepper) takes a courageous stand against an alien leader (John Travolta) and his cohorts hoarding natural resources on Earth in the year 3000.
Battlefield Earth
"Disaster Movie" (2008)
Smart Rating: 7.92
Inflation-adjusted U.S. box office gross: $15,603,100
Starring: Matt Lanter, Vanessa Minnillo, Kim Kardashian
During a fateful night, a group of impossibly attractive 20-somethings must dodge a series of man-made and natural disasters.

"The Hottie & the Nottie" (2008)
Smart Rating: 8.5
Inflation-adjusted U.S. box office gross: $30,487
Starring: Paris Hilton, Joel David Moore, Christine Lakin
Hoping to spend more time alone with his dream gal (Paris Hilton), a guy (Joel David Moore) tries to find a boyfriend for her unremarkable friend (Christine Lakin).
"Rollerball" (2002)
Smart Rating: 8.52
Inflation-adjusted U.S. box office gross: $25,018,100
Starring: Chris Klein, Jean Reno, LL Cool J
A businessman (Jean Reno) wants to see more violence in a dangerous sport where athletes (Chris Klein, LL Cool J) already risk their lives.
"BloodRayne" (2005)
Smart Rating: 9.2
Inflation-adjusted U.S. box office gross: $1,880,950
Starring: Kristanna Loken, Michael Madsen, Michelle Rodriguez
A half-human, half-vampire woman (Kristanna Loken) joins a team of vampire slayers who must kill the evil lord of the undead before he can fulfill an ancient prophecy.

Thursday 24 September 2015

Apple released the first bug fixes for iOS 9

Just a week after releasing iOS 9, Apple is today issuing the OS's first bug fix update. iOS 9.0.1 fixes a handful of problems for the new platform, including one issue that broke alarms and timers and another in Safari and Photos that caused paused videos to appear distorted. Download it now if you haven't already.
Apple is clearly doing everything it can to ensure upgrades to iOS 9 go as smoothly as possible, especially especially compared to iOS 8's rocky release last year. All told, though, new OS has enjoyed a relatively smooth debut, seeing iOS' fastest adoption rateto date. That consumer enthusiasm was not at all deterred by people having issues downloading the OS on the first day.

The Apple Watch is an extraordinarily small and personal device. It is designed to participate in nearly every moment of your day, but almost never directly interact with anyone else. It knows when you’re wearing it. You can talk to it. You can poke it — and it can poke back.

Every so often, the Apple Watch thinks about your heartbeat.
But the Apple Watch is also an enormous device. It’s the first entirely new Apple product in five years, and the first Apple product developed after the death of Steve Jobs. It’s full of new hardware, new software, and entirely new ideas about how the worlds of fashion and technology should intersect.
It’s also the first smartwatch that might legitimately become a mainstream product, even as competitors flood the market. Apple has the marketing prowess, the retail store network, and the sheer determination to actually make this thing happen.
It just has to answer one question: would you actually use the Apple Watch instead of your phone?