Game Review

The Spiderwick Chronicles, too difficult for kids?

Nintendo DS, The Spiderwick Chronicles is clearly designed with the younger audience in mind. The controls are simple, as is, the artistic appearance at the game, the tasks easy to work your way through.

Even as an adult, it seems this game may be a little complex for its intended audience.  After just a few minutes play, a set of goblins nearly always overpower the player, sending them back to the game over menu, time and time again. Perhaps children are more adept at this kind of game, but it seems far too challenging for its intended age group.

The explorative sections of the game flow, nicely.  Touch screen controls allow the player to move around, click on objects, and move freely to the hints, to allow the player to go through the story line from the first Spiderwick, which was a successful recent movie, The player wanders about looking for items to unlock doorways and finding monsters to help you. 

Tapping on the screen allows you to move through the woods searching for fairy spirits. These spirits assist the player by clearing the path of rocks and thorn trees, and can help in battle.

In true fairytale style the meadows and forest around Spiderwick are full of waiting goblins and ogres.  When you come across these creatures, you move to a battle screen to ward off attacks in a turn-based action sequence.

Your characters named Mallory, Simon and Jared attack first, then, as many as 6 opposing fighters retaliate until a winner is found.

There seems like an obvious flaw here, as the players slide who appears to be far more likely to be defeated. There is always a lack of help, and the player is usually outnumbered by the other side who are capable of inflicting disproportionate damage.  And if that wasn't enough, if you lose a battle, which you inevitably do, most of the time, you then go back to the beginning of that section.

It is unfortunate that the battle sequences are relatively harsh, without that it would be an interesting game, pushing children to stretch their limits. Much the set dialogue is amusing, the characters background look like they are hand drawn. The background music is spooky, appropriate for the game and the audience.

The only real problem is the constant flashing back to the game over screen, which makes it just too difficult for the children it is aimed at.

Laptop Review

Powerful new Samsung X22 laptop

Samsung have launched their new lightweight X22 laptop. The new kid on the laptop block has impressive multimedia capabilities, combined with good all-round performance and excellent connectivity.

The casing of the X22 is a vast improvement over the company's Aura model, which seemed to scratch with incredible ease. The X22 has a more attractive chassis than previous models, with a durable matte finish.

One poor feature of the new laptop is its very short battery life at only 120 minutes. The new model is however portable, weighing in at only 2.2kg’s.  Even though the new model is compact, Samsung have managed to utilize a keyboard that is nearly full-size.

This larger keyboard allows for ease of typing and combines with responsive and reliable mouse buttons, and touch pad.  The screen is also fairly large at 14 inches and gives a sharp and bright image.

The colors however, are not as well-defined, as they perhaps could be sharper. On the whole it is more than adequate for general home use.  There is an integral camera above the screen for video messaging or photos.

There is a dedicated ATi graphics card, giving an excellent 3-D effect. Gaming with basic content is practical; the unit also has a HDMI-out port for connection to large high-definition screens.

The unit’s performance in the home office field is very good. The laptop carries 2048MB of memory, and an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, this combination makes it practical for side-by-side running of applications.

The global storage is not a huge at just 160GB. The X22 utilizes a 5-in-1 media card and a dual-format DVD rewriter.  The DVD drive includes LightScribe compatibility, which allows the design and burning of disk labels directly onto DVDs and CDs.

Connectivity for the laptop is by means of 802.11n Wi-Fi and Gigabit Ethernet, producing the fastest available wireless and wired speeds for sharing data.

The X22 is a fine combination of design, with flexibility and quality features, with only a low battery life as a drawback, but for static and occasional mobile use this as an excellent tool.