The Optimus 4X HD looks to be a pretty solid contender in the high end of the Android market, shipping with some good hardware and up-to-date software. It was the latter point they missed last year, with the Optimus 2X shipping with immediately antiquated Android 2.2 (FroYo), so to launch the phone with Ice Cream Sandwich is definitely an improvement. This year, it seems like it’s Sony who made the mistake of launching first but with Gingerbread – I guess there’s always one.

The Optimus 4X HD is powered by a Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core processor clocked at 1.5 GHz and 1 GB of RAM. The screen is a 4.7” IPS unit boasting a 1280 x 720 resolution – no Pentile here. The phone comes with 16 GB of internal storage, as well as the standard 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera and 8 megapixel rear facing camera. There’s also a 2150 mAh battery.

All in all, it’s pretty standard for a 2012 Android flagship. It’ll be up to LG to differentiate itself (favourably) with a nice chassis and good software, although the IPS display is also a nice bonus over the S III. Whether LG will be up to the task is hard to say – they lost a lot of ground last year with the disastrous Optimus 2X, and many won’t want to be burned again. Whether that means they’ll be lining up with the rest for some i9300 accessories is hard to tell, but LG will definitely need to bring their A game to make the Optimus 4X a success.

As we mentioned before, this comparison is useful but shouldn’t be taken to be everything you need to know when choosing between these smartphones. The operating system and apps play a massive role too, and veterans of a given OS largely prefer to stay with what they know. The iPhone 4S is a tribute to the power of a slickly designed operating system and a rich ecosystem in attracting consumers, where the Nokia Lumia 900 and Windows Phone have had the opposite problem – the OS, while easy-to-use, isn’t familiar to most and there are still few apps available for the platform.

It’s against the HTC One X that the Galaxy S3 can be most directly compared, but even here HTC and Samsung have had rather different ideas on how to augment the Ice Cream Sandwich operating system. HTC have focused most of their efforts on styling the UI and providing an excellent camera app. Samsung looks to go further, by introducing a number of unique software features – from monitoring your eyes to keep the display lit whilst you’re reading it, to picture-in-picture videos on top of other apps and a rather clever local collaboration tool. It’s the success – or failure – of these features that will likely decide the fight between the two Android handsets.

Accessories also play a key role in distinguishing between the four handsets – there are some completely unique Samsung Galaxy SIII accessories available on launch (and many more for Android more generally), but the iPhone 4S also has a vast aftermarket ecosystem. Still, the wireless Samsung Galaxy S3 charger is a unique addition that should differentiate the S3 from its peers – although the price may limit the tech to early adopters.

All in all, the Galaxy S3 is definitely looking strong – I’ll be looking forward to providing a full review when it’s released near the end of the month!

Win an HTC One X from Mobile Fun – enter for free at http://mobilefun.co.uk/blog/win.

Warriors Orochi 3 takes place in an alternate universe created by the demonic Orochi, the antagonist of the previous games who merged the two worlds of Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors and their respective heroes for no other reason than ‘because he felt like it’. After the death of Orochi, the heroes (and villains) of the two universes begin a brief period of co-existence in this fusion of worlds. That is, until a demonic hydra appears and begins to wreck everything in its path. You start off with the three remaining generals left alive – Ma Chao, Sima Zhao and Takenaka Hanbei – as they are about to initiate a final, desperate push to defeat the hydra. This inevitably fails rather miserably, but just before the moment of their doom, the trio are saved by the mysterious Kaguya, who possesses the convenient ability to send people through time, allowing the three heroes to rewrite history by saving everyone who perished in the initial assault and build an army capable of defeating the hydra.

It’s not the deepest storyline you’ll ever play through, but it does serve to provide a structure that is less linear than is present in other Musou games. You’ll fight through battles which drive the main narrative forward, but you won’t be able to save everyone the first time round – some generals’ deaths simply cannot be stopped. However, you’ll then be able to travel a little further back to the moment responsible for a character’s death and ‘correct’ it, allowing them to survive the battle unharmed. The effects of your actions can then be seen in ‘redux’ versions of battles – for example, by freeing a besieged castle in a side mission, you’ll allow them to send reinforcements to another battle, resulting in a character being able to survive long enough for you to rescue them in the ‘redux’ version. It’s a mechanic that works well, providing a certain amount of replay value while keeping things fresh.

The core gameplay retains the formula of the previous games in the series. You control a team of three characters and are able to switch between them on the fly as you fight through swathes of enemies on the way to objectives; an addictive formula which has served the series well. Yet, beneath the surface of those flashy animations and effects lies a few changes that series fans should pick up on, such as the new ‘wonder’ class and new weapon elements. You need not worry about the ‘clone’ move-sets for the Dynasty Warriors characters either, as they are given new moves and weapons to make each of them unique. When you’re not mercilessly slaughtering thousands upon thousands of enemies, you’ll be wandering around your base camp, where you can raise the bonds between characters by speaking with them or holding parties, which enable you to unlock more missions and abilities, or go to the blacksmith to purchase or fuse new weapons with the addictive elements system.

One of the main draws of Warriors Orochi 3 is undoubtedly its incredibly large cast, featuring a whopping 132 unique characters from the Samurai Warriors and Dynasty Warriors games, as well as a few new original characters such as Kaguya and Ne Zha, who looks like he would feel more at home in the world of TRON. As if this wasn’t already enough of an unashamed display of fan service, Koei’s partnership with Tecmo bears fruit as characters from both franchises enter the fray. Many should recognise Ryu Hayabusa and Ayane of Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden fame, while others from less well known series also make an appearance, such as Nemea from Trinity: Souls of Zill o’ll. Achilles and Joan of Arc are thrown into the mix for good measure.

Visually, the game looks impressive, and is perhaps the best looking Musou game to date. Warriors Orochi 3 has been updated with the graphics seen in Dynasty Warriors 7, so characters and enemies alike no longer have that blocky look from the previous Orochi games. The heroes also now sport their costumes from the latest iterations of their respective series, and you’ll also be able to unlock costumes from previous games.

On the audio side, Warriors Orochi 3 once again features a mixture of the techno based Samurai Warriors and rock based Dynasty Warriors soundtracks, as well as remixes of cameo characters’ theme songs. One particularly interesting change is the choice to exclude English dub voiceovers from the game in favour of Japanese voices complemented with subtitles. For me, this wasn’t much of an issue, but some may be somewhat disappointed by not being able to understand their favourite corny one-liners (particularly those involving enemy generals vowing vengeance on you upon defeat).

To add to the already extensive single-player experience, the game features both local and online co-op. Most notably, Musou Battlefields mode lets you edit already cleared stages, allowing you to tweak certain factors, such as the time limit or being able to swap officers and enemy types, and upload them online for others to play through. Inversely, you’ll be able to access maps that others have shared. It makes for a decent diversion, and provides something different if you start to get bored of the regular maps and want a different sort of challenge. You can even swap all the enemy officers with Lu Bu if you’re feeling particularly suicidal.

Warriors Orochi 3 provides a large number of improvements upon the previous games, including impressive visuals, more characters and stages and a refined combat system. Those looking to get into the series, but don’t know which of the numerous Musou games to get will find that this is the most definitive version of the series, while the more hardcore fans will appreciate the deeper changes and refinements to the mechanics that they know and love.

TUS Rating: 8/10

Plot Overview

With impending doom approaching led by Loki (Hiddlestone), Nick Fury (Jackson) is forced to gather an elite squad of superheroes that includes Iron Man (Downrey Jr.), Captain America (Evans), Hulk (Ruffalo), Thor (Hemsworth), Black Widow (Johansson) and Hawkeye (Renner).

Whedon’s Magic

With such a vast ensemble, one would imagine that characterizations of the heroes would have suffered as a result. But Whedon has delivered, drawing on his illustrious directing experience, he has not only been able to deliver, but even added extra dimensions to  previously portrayed characters. Most notably would be the treatment of Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow, who gets promoted from her eye candy role in “Iron Man 2” to a total bad ass.

Whedon has even managed to add quality to cast members which have limited screen time. For example, Mr cameo-alot Agent Coulson, gets to unleash his inner geek, transforming him from a mediocre tie in to damn adorable agent. Along with Coulson, we finally also get to see Fury in action and protecting the world.

However, in some instances we lack some depth in character exploration, such as with Maria Hill. While we witness her cool demeanour and action scenes, we still don’t really know what makes her tick. But this is the limitation of such a cast heavy film. If it was a 7 hour feature, then it would have been possible. There will always be future iterations or sequels that will have the potential to do these side characters justice.

Loki is literally out of this world

In terms of stand-out performances, the credit has to go to British talent, Tom Hiddlestone as Loki. He continues his role as the tragic brother of Thor and is even more slippery and malevolent than he was in Branneth’s “Thor”. Hiddlestone manages to steal a series of scenes, from demanding masses of people to bow down to inflated ego, to a scene which is even reminiscent of Anthony Hopkin’s Hannibal Lecter. He puts the V in Villain in all respects.

One of the most impressive feats is that Avengers Assemble is the film that finally manages to do Hulk some justice. Mark Ruffalo plays Dr. Bruce Banner as down-to-earth, meek and more importantly likeable. With regards to his darker side, he does a good job in avoiding the anger management cliché, instead swaying towards the philosophical grounds of self-hate and deprecation paying much homage to the 80s TV series and a welcomed change.

Pen versus Sword

But the real magic of the film was interactions between the characters. With a plethora of dream pairings such as the intellectual bonding between Banner and Stark and the clash of values between Rogers and Stark; the tension, wit and clash of egos is a joy to behold and are worth the admission fee alone.

Action sequences and the CG was well orchestrated from start to finish. We’re rewarded with all kinds of combinations, from Iron Man blasting into Captain America’s shield to divert the attack to an adjacent foe, to Hulk shielding the fall of a plummeting Iron Man. It is the on-screen equivalent of a comic book fan’s wet dream.

Brief encounter with whom?

My only concern is that besides from Loki, the other villains take a bit of a back seat and all to focus on the core characterizations of the Avengers themselves. That said, I’m glad that they did focus on this dynamic rather than try to concoct a Transformer-esque approach to the villains.

While the film is very much the Captain America and Iron Man show, I feel that Thor’s motivation is the weakest. Following from the feature “Thor”, we don’t really witness the inner turmoil of Thor with regards to his relationship to his brother. There are some effective scenes between the siblings, but they don’t nearly amount to anything substantial. What I do appreciate though, is Thor’s role in providing comical relief.

Assemble your ass to the nearest cinema

To first time Marvel film cinema goers, they may at first feel a little out of depth. The film is packed with references to both the comic book counterparts and to the previous Marvel films. My advice would be to go out and enjoy the back catalogue first if you want to maximise your enjoyment of this flick.

Avengers Assemble is a great film and an important milestone for comic book film adaptations. Christopher Nolan is breaking grounds in making comic book films credible to the critics and cinema audiences alike. Avengers is a film that was made for the fans, it is a film that signifies what is so great about comic books; the witty banter and panel to panel action. It oozes the essence of comic books, so do yourself a favour and join the Avengers at your nearest cinema.

TUS Rating

4 out of 5

This would be the third handset the two companies have collaborated on after the ChaCha and Salsa handsets, which featured a dedicated Facebook button and OS-level Facebook integration. These earlier devices were well liked by social media enthusiasts, but were a bit handicapped with too little RAM and processing power. Could we see a Facebook phone that ships with Android 4.0 and more powerful hardware – maybe even some Beats branded HTC headphones for those young kids? These weren’t HTC One V accessories, but it still could happen as HTC looks to shore up some weak Q1 results.

This next collaboration might even by branded with the Facebook name, something that Mark Zuckerburg argued against when the first two Facebook phones were just a rumour. For that reason, it seems a bit less likely that we’ll see a Facebook phone, as Facebook will want to appear neutral and not favouring any one platform over another, but it could happen I suppose.

Now some years later, Baldur’s Gate will be making its way onto the scene once more, courtesy of Overhaul Games. The classic RPG will be released on three platforms – PC (obviously), Mac (yeah, OK) and iPad (what!?).

Each version will support multiplayer, even the iPad version, which sounds monstrously cool – it was always a hassle to get two PCs set up to play, imagine a full party just using iPads! The game will include all of the content from the original version, as well as the Tales of the Sword Coast expansion and reportedly some new content as well, possibly including some fan-made additions to the series. The engine is being rewritten to support new hardware too.

All in all, it looks like a fairly serious update of one of PC gaming’s RPG classics. The Overhaul team are also confident about their chances of continuing with other games, noting that they’ll be looking towards Kickstarter for possible future projects – including Baldur’s Gate III. Wow.

Look out for the revamped game to come out for all three platforms this summer.

This article was written by William Judd. William writes for Mobile Fun, the UK’s leading online retailer of iPad 3 accessories including iPad 3 cover and iPad 3 screen protectors.

The HTC One X is the real star of the show, so we’ll look at this One first. It rocks up with a 4.7” Super LCD display that operates at HD dimensions – 1280 x 720 to be exact. As it’s an LCD and not an AMOLED, there’s no dodgy Pentile technology to speak of – just lovely RGB as some ethereal father figure intended.

Beyond the screen, there’s loads to like about the HTC One X. Inside, for instance, you’ll find a quad-core Tegra 3 processor – indeed, the HTC One X was the first phone to be rumoured to come with one way back in 2011, when it still went by its code name Endeavour. The One X backs up this quad-core monstrosity with a full gigabyte of RAM and 16 or 32 GB of internal storage. This can’t be supplemented by a microSD card though, so you’ll have to make it last through cloud storage – thankfully, HTC have thought ahead on this one and negotiated 25 GB of Dropbox space for HTC One X owners.

The HTC One X looks rather unlike previous HTC phones, with a very clean polycarbonate finish that really sings in the white colour option. The phone’s details are well designed and add up to a very attractive proposition, from the smooth curves where the screen meets the chassis to the thin bezel and laser drilled speaker holes. It’s perhaps the nicest phone ever made, in my estimation beyond even the iPhone 4S or its purportedly more stylish younger brother, the HTC One S.

Speaking of One S, let’s have a look at what makes that tick before we go into the shared features of the two phones. The big differentiator is the screen size, which is 4.3” and the resolution, which is only qHD (960 x 540) – last year’s specs. The phone uses the more space efficient Super AMOLED display well though, with the phone measuring only 7.9 mm in thickness, about two millimetres thinner than the One X.

Inside there’s also a change, but not so much of an unwelcome one – instead of the quad-core Tegra 3, there’s a dual core Snapdragon S4. It’s a comparable processor given the lower screen resolution, and shouldn’t be at all a problem.

That’s pretty much the only differences, beyond the ceramic high-voltage-treated chassis of the HTC One S found on most colour options. Now let’s get into some of the phones’ shared features.

On the back of both phones, you’ll find an 8 megapixel camera backed with f/2.0 optics and a specialised image processor chip, which should result in excellent performance – but for some reason doesn’t. Even so, the camera app is one of the standout features of the Sense UI which has been glazed over the top of stock Ice Cream Sandwich.

Unfortunately, there isn’t much else to recommend in Sense – indeed, it seems that there are precious few ways in which it performs better than stock Ice Cream Sandwich, although it’s arguably prettier. Many changes seem to have been made just to differentiate the models as HTC phones, rather than any kind of improvement upon the base model. I suppose that’s inevitable as Ice Cream Sandwich is a stronger starting point, but still the Sense 4 UI includes too much clutter; the toning down didn’t go far enough.

Overall though, both handsets represent a very strong start for HTC in 2012. The biggest competition they face from phones released this year are the Sony Xperia S and Samsung Galaxy Nexus, and both of these are inferior to the One X – the Xperia S has worse software (Gingerbread instead of Ice Cream Sandwich) and the Galaxy Nexus has worse hardware (poor camera, old dual-core processor).

Indeed, the HTC One X with stock Ice Cream Sandwich is a good shout for phone of the year. The only true Android competition will come from phones that have yet to be released – the Panasonic Eluga, the Ascend P1 Quad, the Fujitsu quad-core, the Optimus 4X and of course the highly anticipated Samsung Galaxy S III.

If you’ve gotta buy a phone now, then the HTC One X is the way to go – the thinner One S is still good, but suffers with the qHD display. If you can stand to wait, then you might be able to find a better handset from those mentioned above – but HTC have fired a damn big opening shot, and the pressure’s definitely on for Samsung & co to reciprocate.

This article was written by William Judd. William writes for Mobile Fun, the UK’s leading online retailer of the iPad 3 screen protector, iPad 3 chargers and the iPad 3 dock.

There are three main worlds to go through, with thirty levels in each. As before, it’s usually easy to get a single star on a given level, but getting all three will require both patience and skill. The first two worlds (Pig Bang and Cold Cuts) are included, where the third (Danger Zone) costs 69p to unlock in-game. You’re also able to play five ‘Eggsteroid’ minigames in the style of retro titles like Space Invaders and Super Mario Brothers by collecting golden eggs hidden in the main levels.

The space-bound environments are a fun addition to the series, changing the mechanics behind the game without sacrificing the perfect flow developed in the first title. Accounting for the gravity of these super-dense planetoids is a satisfying endeavour and allows for deeper gameplay than ever before.

There are three new birds too: A square and blue Bomb Bird that freezes enemies and the scenery, a super-heavy Monster Bird and a grenade-like Super Red Bird. The new birds also add a little bit of tactical depth, but not as much as the new environments.

Overall, the game is certainly a worthwhile evolution to the Angry Birds lineup – away from the merchandising and DLC and in-app payments, the Rovio team knows how to craft a compelling title that will no doubt be just as popular as the previous instalments. While it’s not as long as Rio or Seasons (which shipped with 180 and 260 levels compared to 60 free ones here), more will be added over time and I can’t wait to have a crack at them.

Notes

Angry Birds Space is available for Android (on Google Play), iOS (App Store), PC (Rovio website) and Mac (Mac App Store), at price points varying between free and just under £5. The game also includes an in-app purchase of a third, extra-hard world. Space Eagles, a powerful powerup, can also be purchased in-game in bulk amounts, ranging from 20 for 69p to 980 for £13.99.

The Android version of the game is unique in being free, but also including ads. These seem a little less obtrusive than those in versions past. With the recent research into the disproportionately high power usage of Android ads, it may be worthwhile getting the 63p ad-free version if you want to save your battery life!

Google Play links: Angry Birds Space, Angry Birds Space Premium, Angry Birds Space HD

This article was written by William Judd. William writes for Mobile Fun, the UK’s leading online retailer of HTC One X covers and theSony Xperia S cover.

The benchmarks come courtesy of a handset tester for AT&T who goes by the pseudonym of PhoneGeek, who posted to the Android Central forums. The first benchmark is the Vollamo Score, which tests a phone’s web browser performance. In this, the phone exceeds even the quad-core Tegra 3 Asus Transformer Prime to take the #1 spot, with a much higher Javascript performance value and improved ‘rendering’ and ‘user experience’ values too.

The second benchmark is Quadrant, and reveals a rather impressive score of 4952 – double that of the Samsung Galaxy Tab and Samsung Galaxy Nexus, although it’s not clear how it compares to the Transformer Prime. The benchmark includes tests of CPU, memory, I/O, 2D and 3D performance, and it exceed its nearest competitors in every regard.

The tester has also written some of his impressions of the phone itself – he noted that the camera was great quality but wasn’t as quick to start up as he’d liked. He also stated that the battery life is impressive and the screen quality was top notch.

So if you were thinking about going for the Tegra 3 version – don’t be too concerned. It looks like that little dual core chip is more than capable of holding up its end of the bargain.

This article was written by William Judd. William writes for Mobile Fun, the UK’s leading online retailer of HTC One X cases and Sony Xperia S cases.

According to rumours, Draw Something creator OMGPOP is an acquisition target for social game titan Zynga, which has dominated the Facebook Connect and app stores with hits like Farmville and Draw With Friends for months on end. Apparently Zynga is already in talks with the company, and other social gaming giants like Japan’s GREE are also in line. As Draw Something brings in a six figure total in revenue each day from ad revenue and paid app sales, the deal could be worth at least $150 to $250 million. Wow.

The paid version of Draw Something is also currently on sale for $0.99 in the US and £0.69 in the UK, so if you’re a hardcore fan or a newcomer to the title, now might be the time to draw something.
William Judd wrote this article. William is a self-facilitating node writing for Mobile Fun, the UK’s leading online retailer of Sony Xperia S cases and Sony Xperia S screen protectors.