A for Apple, Oh wait...what about Android? Tweet

They say this year it the year of Tablets, and maybe the next year is the year of Phablets and so on...

But then the advent of so many gadgets has caused one big problem,a really really confused crowd of money bags just waiting to splurge on them new Tabs.

So I have come up with this little, albeit aged, argument on which tab do you really want! [Bold statement].
Now for all of you out there, a tablet is in no way close to the usability one may get from a Laptop or a PC. Hence your primary usage would be browsing, media, light reading etc.

Now the market has 2 main classes of Tablets, The Apple iPad and the Android. The incoherence in the Android section can be a deterrent for many of the customers, however one may find real gold in this section. 
With the advent of the Nexus 7 tab, the interest among the gadget freaks have shifted heavily towards the Android section.
Asus have always been keen in the Tablet manufacturing and have come up with quality tabs such as Slate, Transformer. While Samsung have their own share in the tablet section with the Galaxy Tab. A late entry being Sony and many scattered local vendors.
Meanwhile in the Apple section, we have the rock solid iPad 3 [arguably,mother of Pads]

Your concerns to choose Apple:

1. Double HD screen, with 264 ppi[pixel per inch] vs 150 ppi:
The pixel density in an iPad is higher than any android tablet in the market. Very noticeable with a crisper display, way better than any other tablet can offer. With more pixels comes more clarity. And so any HD content viewed in an iPad and any other Tab would have a stark difference. 
Advantage: The video viewing experience in an iPad will be worlds apart compared to any other tablet. One of the main usage of tab being watching Hi-def movies on the go, this would be something one can't overlook.

2. Battery life: 

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The biggest concern of any Tablet owner would be the battery life. Who would want to hold on to a dead tablet? And so again, iPad beats the android Tabs hands down in this battle too. The battery life on an iPad is at least an hour and half longer than the most battery efficient android tablet in the market: Galaxy Tab. Also the new ICS has been a pain for the battery due to poor handling of background applications, until we find Jellybean in every tab, iPad rules in this aspect.
Advantage: Longer browsing, gaming, multimedia experience compared to Android. A very serious concern for tablet buyers.

3. Best of Apps:
The whole application do-hickey was launched by Apple, and so its pretty obvious Google Play is still not as populated as the App-store. Games such as Blade- Infinity, Arkham City [iPad supports unreal game engine!] and a smoother version of Temple run, fruit ninja and so on.
Advantage: Best of the games coupled with hours of battery life. Another valid concern for all those who are looking for a Tab for some serious gaming.

4. Refined software:
The iOS is a very refined software compared to the Ice cream sandwich. Android suffers from bloating due to addition of registry entries and thus becoming slow as time progresses. Comparatively, the iOS performs much better in many levels of touch and responsiveness.
Advantage: Smoother operations compared to Android and so very user friendly for casual users. 

5. Periodic update: 
Although some may find Apple's policy of yearly scheduled upgrades irritating, my view is that it is a much better system compared to Android Tablet maker's policy of upgrades then-and-there. 
Advantage: Your tablet is top of the line for almost 2 years till you are forced to change.

6. Camera: 
The Camera in the iPad is way more evolved than the cameras one may find in the Android Tabs. The closest equivalent to image clarity was Asus Transformer Prime, however one has to take into account the fact that Transformer Prime is equipped with an 8 MP cam compared to the iPad's 5 MP.
Combined with the stunning display, its a brilliant piece of technological advancement Apple has contributed to us.
Advantage: Sharper, crisper shots with stunning photo viewing experience. 


Your concerns to choose Android:

1. Customization: 
Being open source software, one no longer has any constrains in modifying the tab. This means, I can load custom ROMs and such to make my Tab more efficient and classy. Comparatively Apple looks mainstream and bland. And the user has no access to the Pad from the inside, leaving any option to improve the Tab performance. Thus alienating most of the hacker community as well as the average users enthusiastic about fiddling with such gadgets.
Advantage: Android by allowing developers into their core coding, has opened up more possibilities to make Tablets more efficient and this way android Tablets can be modified into countless ways compared to the mainstream iPad.

2. Cost: 
This one is for all my Indian people. Yes! its very obvious Android is way cheaper than iPad. Even though the iPad has awesome features, the price is sometimes unjustifiable compared to an Android Tablets. The flexibility available for a buyer is absent in the Apple section compared to the myriad of products in the Android section. However Apple has learnt its lesson and is launching the cheaper iPad mini. But it can in no way beat the price of the new Nexus 7 which is threatening even the local crowd of small time Tablet makers. 
Advantage: The pricing makes a tablet a much better deal compared to a mainstream laptop. Considering a Laptop of 40 grand could outperform a tablet any day, a cheaper tablet is a more practical option.

3. No proprietary software:
One big pain i always felt with Apple products was the "bondage" with iTunes. Not only does that program suck, but it also adds to the burden of most of the computers its running on, adding unwanted start-ups and unnecessary interfaces. Meanwhile in a different universe, the Android is light and does not require much of the shebang as one would need in connecting an iPad. Let's not forget the proprietary cables, without which one cannot the iPad to any device, not even charging, compared to the standard micro-USB in Android.
Advantage: Hassle-free connection anywhere, anytime. If your friend's PC don't have iTunes, or he does't have the Apple flat-cable, don't fret, coz you won't be needing them.

4. Google Now: 
A year back there was a huge buzz about Siri. Sadly, now it looks like a retard cousin of the much more evolved Google Now. Google Now unlike Siri can operate offline and also recognize a variety of accent compared to Siri. And also with the penetration Google has in the internet [as a search engine] it is able to provide the user with much more information than Siri, making the latter a laughing stock.
Advantage: An edge in the latest technology with one of the biggest software pioneers working behind Android.

5. PC like Multi-tasking: 
The Android OS is built on a Linux base and this gives the OS some properties very similar to a PC. One of them being the PC like multitasking system. The system works totally different from the iOS and is able to handle multitasking easier than the latter. 
Advantage: With better hardware configurations and software support, Android's ability to handle harder and more resource intensive task is improving with every update.

6. Flash!: 
As always Android supports Flash compared to Apple which obviously don't. Its a very notable strength in the Android stable and an important consideration if one is interesting in Tablets for surfing and browsing.
Advantage: Can load flash contents in websites directly through the browser and don't need separate applications. This improves usability where surfing is one of the main criteria.

And also we cannot overlook the Windows Surface [Microsoft was the first to bring tablets before Apple, however was not warmly greeted by the consumers at that period], however with a high price tag, i doubt it would be a hit among the masses, simply because a tablet can never offer the usability of a Laptop...

@/\/!

Hey Android! WTF are u doing here! Tweet

Now speaking of Android, what strikes us first! Samsung S3 [and the screwed up tag line - "designed for humans"] and HTC One X [like i need to skydive, take a picture while taking a video everyday] and the whole bandwagon of phones on steroids.

But then android is just a software... so why cant we run it on basically anything with some chips on it. And so that pushed me into hunting for devices running on Android other than phones and tablets... and its surprising where we can find android! Like roaches clambering into every nook of a room, android has somehow found its way into a crazy list of devices.

without much adieu.. 

Android 4.0 Mini PC:


This one really caught my fancy! Not because it performs like a super computer but because of its size. Although its not a stellar performer compared to the Mac Mini, its something very interesting to see [Look mom! they shrunk the computer!] 

This little bad boy is just the size of a pen-drive. For its guts - it comes with a 1.5GHz Allwinner single core processor, 512MB of RAM [It comes with a 1GB RAM too - $84] and 4GB of onboard flash storage and a Mali 400 GPU. You can get at these internals via two USB ports (which can also power the device,) and pump the result out to a display via HDMI. If that 4GB of memory isn't enough, you can expand it via a microSD slot. Well, by now one thing is clear - its definitely Chinese! Its funny they are trying to bring all the gadgets to their sizes [micro]... although ain't that a delight! 




So whats the deal with this? Now this HDMI can be connected to your TV, the USB connected to a hub through which you can connect mouse, keyboard, pen-drive, external hard-disks and voila! you got yourself a PC! As far as testing - we all had the same expression when Frankenstein created the monster - Its Alive!!

Priced at $74, it's not a rich kids toy either and available aplenty all over the internet.

Ouya!:

Now for the next surprise i found among the ever so vast online communities, is definitely a treat for all you avid phone-gamers.

The motivation for this project was pretty simple. I love the games in my phone but this fucking screen is killing me. The controls aren't as much fun as the consoles we have [which means i am getting butchered in the game] and well the whole thing doesn't feel so slick. Hmm, why not make a console to play just these games!

And so they came up with a project - Ouya! Its interesting to note that the product hasn't entered the prototype stage but managed to collect more that $8 million dollars. That's what you get when hackers and coders unite for one cause! games!!!

So what are we looking at? Its definitely not an alien tissue dispenser, its actually a phone without a screen. 

These are the technical specification:

• Nvidia Tegra 3 (T33) SoC
• Quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 CPU
• Nvidia ULP GeForce GPU
• 1 GB RAM
• 8 GB of internal flash storage
• HDMI connection to the TV, with support for up to 1080p HD
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
• Bluetooth LE 4.0
• Ethernet port
• One USB 2.0
• Wireless controller sporting two analog sticks, d-pad, eight action buttons, a system button, and 3 touchpad
• Android 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich"

Something i found online!

And here we have, ladies [if any] and gentlemen, the ultimatum for all android laptops. Priced at $99 with HDMI port to hook up to any sort of display one can find! This one can beat the pricing of any laptops in the market [Asus Transformer Prime - $679].

But then you may ask "why android man? whats the big deal with this box?". Android and iOS are fast catching up to be the most preferred platforms for game development, not just due to the ease at which one can make a game, but also the profit a developer makes compared to other consoles. The development takes very little capital and this is encouraging more developers to bring more game titles. This would ensure us an exhaustive supply of games, and that is something we can't ignore! With the PS3 and Xbox games costing arms and legs [wont someone please think of the children!]. Android games cost much lesser. 

But I am also aware of Apple already having the Apple TV out there, but heck! android is something i can control, something i can modify. Imagine one can do all the possible modding and over clocking that we usually do to an android phone. A very valid consideration. I just hope to own one of them soon...

Android Smart TV:

Imagine a whole TV running on Android, nothing plugged in.. No Ouya or the Mini PC, but switch on the TV and you are greeted by the home screen of ICS. Well, the Chinese don't have to imagine that! Coz, they got the Lenovo Android 4.0 Smart TV. Actually it makes the Samsung Smart TV look like crap [consider the fact that this one run fully on Android - Samsung owned!]. A TV with Dual core processor is commendable, but makes me wonder! Damn can I stick that chip anywhere?? But yea, with a 5 Megger cam and 2 remotes [one game pad and a normal remote with mic for voice commands] this is really rocking the base of what J L Baird first envisioned as a TV. No longer an idiot box, it has as much of computing power as your phone and can run any android game with as much as fluidity as one would expect on a premium smartphone,  except! hold on a min - rather than a 5 inch screen, here you are greeted with a 55 inch screen! 

Mother of ...!!

Android GPS System:

And now moving from the comforts of our home to umm.. comforts of our cars, the android followed us into the onboard GPS device too!

Well, it has been a pre-installed device on most high end luxury cars - BMW, Audi, Mercs.. But now we find such devices sold separately on the markets as well! I found this interesting Gizmo while trolling around the internet. 

Dynavin E-46, a basic Android based navigation system that not only tells you the way, but also serves as a media hub. Running on Android 2.2 [not the latest, but still! its android] you have all the basic access to the market [now called Play store] and all the apps you can download from that [which is needless to say - games, players, maps etc]. One may sync the device with another android phone and this just extends the practical usability. It hasn't been so popular to create any noticeable market footprint in the Sat-Nav market though. Now I can only imagine what else it can be used for. Maybe optimizing your engine with a touch of a button? Over-clock your engine?! Wow, won't that be wicked! The possibilities are endless...

And well there are a a lot more.. however not significant as to add to this list. But this mind-blowing applications are more than enough to understand that the potential of Android is not just limited to phones but beyond. And we all know why that is so... coz we have control! Unlike some other OS-es [ahem..iOS]

As more and more applications unfurls we are bound to be amazed by a much more colorful and smarter range of products like never seen before..

Go green People!!

@/\/!

Seven Habits of Highly Effective Smartphone Users Tweet

Some not-so-obvious methods to save your phone battery's health and life.

Ever wondered why your phone always disappointed you with ridiculously low battery and left you brooding when you could be listening to your favourite song, or watching that one movie on the go or share that funny video clip with your friend.

In this article, i will explain 7 non-conventional way you can save your batteries and some tips on   improving your battery life.

1. Back ground apps:

This has been a huge issue with almost all ICS phones as the back ground apps hog processor resource even after exiting them. Now Captain Obvious would have told us "...and the processor need battery". There is an app in Google Play that caught my fancy. Norton Utilities. This app works wonders in terminating useless background apps, freeing the processor of most of its back breaking work. One may have this app as a widget and terminate all running apps with just a touch. Juice defender has a setting to bring down screen brightness up to 80% below Zero brightness setting.

2. Battery Technology:

Many a times I have noticed people over looking this. There are two basic types of rechargeable batteries. Nickel based and Lithium based. 
Now Nickel based batteries are the old technology. They have the 'memory effect' which means if one charges without draining the battery completely, the battery life is reduced with every charge. Its the exact opposite with Lithium Polymer batteries. A user must charge his battery before it reaches 10%. If it does go beyond 10% please switch off the phone and then charge before you use it again.
Draining once in a month completely would be a good idea to re-calibrate the battery. Android is sometimes error prone to showing the wrong reading. And also, over charging your phone is a bad idea as this sometimes heats up the battery. The battery is sensitive to heat and phones such as HTC [which heat up a lot] may have real issues with battery life.


3. Try not to restart your phone:

Even if the world is coming to an end and the only hope to save mankind is by restarting the phone,  but you want the battery to last long... don't do it! Start-up of an OS uses maximum processor resource to sync the SD card data and index the files, run back ground checks and such. Restarting the phone would use up precious battery that could have been used elsewhere. 

4. Widgets and Ping-ers: 

Widgets for weather, news, twitter etc continuously ping for updates with their main servers. You can stop them from ping-ing [transmitting and receiving data] by disabling that in Settings-> Accounts and sync. This way you can have your 3G and 2G on while still saving some juice.

5. Tone down the colors:

This may sound absurd, but sometime solutions may sound silly. But this one sure works. If you are having difficulties with battery and you use a 3rd party theme application, then tone down on the color scheme. Tone down on vibrant and rich colored wall papers [also live wallpapers]. Using vibrant theme makes it difficult for the screen brightness to contribute to saving the battery as color reproduction takes a higher priority. Go for darker themes with more black in them [very useful for AMOLED screens]. Also turn off Hap tic feedback [vibrators need battery!].
For darker more sophisticated theme Try me!

6. If your phone is cooking..:

If your phone feels hot, don't use it. Probably the cell radio or the processor is working on some background transmission or process. Try to terminate all application and turn off cell radio with airplane mode. Let it cool and then you may resume. This definitely worked when we tested our phones [Galaxy SL, HTC One V]. Such prolonged heating effects may affect your battery's life as well. Replace battery in that case, for visible changes. 

7. Minimize the radio chatter:

Switch off unnecessary connections such as WiFi and Bluetooth when not in use. They can hog precious amps just by scanning for other devices and pinging data to them. They are also security risk.

And if nothing works, you can always have this with you. Portable USB charger
Also if your phone has heating problem and very weak battery..I would suggest you to change the battery and follow these steps. This should solve any such problem in the future.
@/\/!

Why the marriage between cheap smartphones and ICS just ain't working! Tweet

According to Miriam Webster  dictionary “upgrade” is defined as “to improve or replace especially software or a device for increased usefulness“

But in the case of HTC One V and ICS, I have no clue what the hell is going on!..

I’m wondering if some Thai dude with a sense of humor wanted to play a practical joke in the android market and released a Hotplate with a processor [I present to you proudly my phone, HTC One V]

I would have been much happier with an Ice Cream sandwich in my hand and a Nokia 1100 in the other rather than an HTC with ICS inside!

Today’s market is so fierce and volatile [look at Nokia going down!] the only way to stay afloat is by satisfying the customer needs, or whatever the mirage they are experiencing. However when that is not possible, they can always sell u a soap-box with a screen on it and a half-baked OS and yea! People would still buy it. That’s what happened to me. Pleased that I held in my hands, the phone that would push me to a certain stature, only to realize it pushed me to suicide!

It was all fine till there were no third party apps installed on it...

I started with my favorite game fruit ninja... it ran super smooth and that really impressed me. It pushed me to a delusion that my phone was better than Apple [One doesn’t simply compare a phone to Apple!]. That was the level of my confidence during the first week from the day I bought it.

Now starts the “Lament of the creamed phone”… 

2^nd week

I kept on installing more and more apps like some 30 more than the inbuilt apps.. Confident that it would take that much, considering that dual core phones support more than hundred 3^rd party apps and still run smooth..

When I reached that mark my phone literally started choking, nothing worked. I could hear it writhing as it muffled “kill me, please!”, Even the message notification popped up only after some half an hour (I’m not exaggerating). Similarly the contacts which is a built in app in HTC stopped showing my own contacts when someone called me as a caller ID. During that time I had no clue which bugger was calling me until I lifted the phone.

And then it struck me ‘what is the basic use of a phone?’

To make calls in the first place and then comes messaging which is really necessary.

Being a smart phone if my phone cannot tell me when I got a message or who’s calling then obviously it aint a smartphone no more… that word has lost all its meaning right there. I would say Nokia’s 1100 is doing a much better job that this piece of crap [I only wish it has an AMOLED screen!]

Priced at 18k rupees when I bought it ,it was pretty decent phones at my price range. And my phone couldn’t fulfill the minimum requirements for being a phone.

Pissed  off that I now became Jack who bought the beans from a hag [in this case HTC] only to find the beans never sprouted [in my case, sadly] I started removing all the 3^rd party apps except for temple run (another favorite app of mine) and still found some 15 boring and irritating apps which you’ll never use in your life time, and I couldn't remove them (the worst part!). The preloaded apps were like little douche bags weighing my phone down and slowly killing its soul.  Hmm, some would say the phone got Ice Creamed! But heck! Why is this happening to the flag ship series [the One series]?!

So as usual I got fed up with the ICS and started disabling the apps due to which it got even slower. (You can’t even imagine how slow it is).

Now that you know that it has got flaws right in the basic features,It got me thinking, is this because of the RAM I got for this phone?.. and found out it was one of the best explanations.

HTC claims the One V comes with a 512 MB RAM. I believed it…but nobody told me the accessible RAM was only 365. Whichever doomed hell the ICS sent the rest of the 147 MB to!.. And to add fire to the already burning spit, I was enraged to find the Samsung Ace came with a 420MB RAM, precious memory that could have saved my phone from such a disastrous state.  If you are reading this and you work in HTC, I would suggest you to please go sodomize yourself with a retractable baton. Cheap advertising tactics to attract market sentiments has costed your company my wrath!

Recently when I thought I could compete with Ace Plus, we started the temple run app on both the devices with all the background apps closed. It took me 30 seconds extra for my phone to show up that play page of the game when compared to Ace Plus which took only 30 seconds to start-up (which is far better).

Why did I buy this phone? God why me?

Okay now something good to make myself feel good.

From WWII till Vietnam War, the US Army had, among its plethora of personnel weaponry a very basic kit item, The M1 Helmet. Made from a single piece of steel it offered more of a morale support rather than the actual purpose of deflecting any bullets. Although the same construction enabled it to be used as cooking pot sometimes. I could say my views on the HTC One V is very similar to this. It does everything except what it was actually meant to. 

The camera –awesome it is, but if you due to some reason forget to close the app it will drain your battery in just one hour max, and because One V comes with a aluminum body (which is a good thing) it heats up to a level where you can literally have a bull’s-eye on it and that is sad. And also thanks to its so sought after aluminum body, my phone has got a knick name “pressure cooker”. Hats off to all HTC engineers out there, in which ever commie sweatshops you are assembling this piece of elegant crap!

Some of the inbuilt apps crashes which request for a feedback, I even tried that and still don’t know what they are doing with that.

And then I asked my friends with Sony Ericson and Xperia phones who recently got upgraded from ginger bread to ICS ,they complained that even the contact list is scrolling with a lag and they could readily tell the difference.

So I ask whether there is a necessity to give an ICS update for 1 GHz and 512mb RAM (actually 365 in my case). I would say no please do an upgrade only if it is necessary and if the device can hold it. [I would prefer you revisit the first line of this post again!]

And if you are still going to buy HTC One V after reading this, why don’t you kiss my ass!

Lets just hope the jellybean update for phones preloaded with ICS don't take much time...

|<\/|3

Prototype 2 - Why the bloodshed, people? Tweet

The game is a true master piece and for all you people out there who haven't played Prototype, this game is bound to amaze every single mind there.
The graphics is fluid as ever and the game is nimble on any computer. The controls are real simple although using combos needs a little practice. However, its an immersive gameplay and one can get lost in the realm of killing infected.. oh just for the fun of pulping some meat!

This game features a new protagonist James Heller, who is in a mad rage to kill the antagonist Alex Mercer (yes that's right!). At the beginning of the game, the two characters meet and Alex transfers a part of his virus onto Heller turning him into a mutant just like Alex. As he proceeds with missions he recieves assistance from certain characters such as Father Guerra and Dr Keonig and Sabrina (from Gentek). Its better I take moment here before I start spewing spoilers.

Now for all you players out there who is having their first encounter with the prototype franchise, this game is bound to rock your world. Maybe have some disturbing effects in your ethos considering all the blood and gore. However for all the people out there enjoying the massacre, I'd suggest all of you to buy a gun and shoot yourselves... ya'll are a threat to mankind.

'Nuff said, what about people who have embodied the character of Alex Mercer. Hmm well there are certain plus and minuses in the game very noticeable. 
As always let me start with the Cons:
The game prototype always gave us the god factor, the good feeling of tearing up harmless zombies just for kicks. Now, the very same is possible here however certain characters such as hunters have been removed and replaced with Brawlers. The brawlers make hunters look like pussycats. So in short, you lose the 'oomph factor'. Players now have to work harder to kill the beast after his ass.
Also the paraphernalia of mutations have been reduced in the power wheel and rather than having an exo-skeletal armor the new player is equipped with double shield that deploys with a key stoke. Here, all the loss i can think of is the 'look' of the player. However the new shields look menacing with the spike upgrade.

But its sad to notice the game got a lot more easier than the usual prototype, with all the new powers Heller acquired [the challenges are simpler as the player need not think too much tactics...his powers will help the gamer make the best moves]. However fly-kicks to the chopper and tanks feel weak and unresponsive at times. And the Hammer-fist and claw power feels weaker than earlier Prototype. But of course special combos to break them do come in handy [as shown in the video!]
And oh no! there is neither patsy nor artillery strike in this new game. But there is one new power...




But the Pros just outweigh it all. 
For beginners, He is black! I am no racist but an Afro-american character really adds to the personality. Actually, Heller makes Mercer quite a boring character. The dialogues in this game are definite keepers. 




I specifically remember one between a Sergeant and a Major

"Major: The infected are running around everywhere, I need the situation un-fucked!
Sargent: The situation will be un-fucked sir!"

The Black-watch troopers look really futuristic with their new suits [unlike their flimsy previous counterparts] while the military looks the same. The weaponry are the same except for the new TOW missile array and chain-guns and rocket pods one may break off a tank or a chopper. This greatly increases the player lethality [Woohoo!]

The absolutely mind-blowing parts are how every character one meets in the game are a mutant with their own super powers. This kinda increases the heat a player may face. And well proves my point that the gamer ain't god no more! And the hydras appear real early in the game and they can be a real pain. No more hives, you now get underground lairs which you gotta hunt for and destroy.

An awesome new feature is the "Hunt". A viral Sonar than u ping and the return ping lets you know the location of your POI [Person of Interest]. This new power also helps the player a lot in stealth kill, but reduces the challenge you feel [something that was comparable to Hitman in the earlier game]. The game just screams at you "consume me! consume me!"
Players will also be able to dismember enemies, a force that will become more useful as the game progresses.
Go-Bloody!!




New powers include Tendril which sprouts from the players hands and create something called "The Black hole". With this power the tendril bore down a victim and spread out more tendrils pulling every object into the victim in the entire vicinity. It would be a crime if i forgot about the Bio-bomb [inject the virus and throw the victim and watch him pop and devastate the whole frigging place!]. 

This is great against Tanks and Helos [not as powerful as ones we saw in Prototype]. The player also can "dodge" attacks from the monsters he encounters and this can be really handy at times. And also the new dodge move looks really cool in Slow-mo. And well the new power I aforementioned was Heller can summon and Control brawlers, which looks super cool against the Black-watch.

The player gets double air-dash right from the start and he may slowly upgrade them. The upgrades are really interesting and the combos are pretty neat compared to the earlier game. [I haven't actually finished the game properly though]. A new Black-net system is introduced in the game and once a POI is consumed his profile can be used to hack into the Black-net and start new side missions. The earlier side missions have been replaced by these new ones and are actually much more fun to play.  Also, players have a lot of collectibles such as Black-boxes which have interesting recordings and Field ops teams which you may kill to stall Black-watch's operations in Bio-warfare.

Once in a while you may find Brawlers in captivity containing DNA vital for evolution. Consuming them increases your Exp points. Also soldiers with extra talents in specific weaponry can be consumed to increase your skills. 

The new super soldiers dubbed Orion Phase 1 and Orion Phase 2 are challenging and new opponents such as Juggernauts are a real pain to kill. For all you hemophiliacs this game is definitely gonna please you.

However it gets me wondering why does a government want to try some life threatening drugs on its own citizens? Does it make sense to try some biological weaponry on its own soil and find that its gone out of control! Shouldn't they have seen it coming? This aspect makes the whole game feel like its a desperate attempt to drag the franchise. And also the comic states the virus spread everywhere and after 2 years of Mercer's relentless effort to eradicate it [which he finally succeeds] he is betrayed by his lover and to vent his anger again re-releases the virus into New York making it NYZ. God? Why!. Mercer starts a new plan for building an army of mutants to combat the Black-watch... but are they really that powerful? Are the Black-watch worth all this pain? I don't feel so...
Its a game of unquestionable and perhaps disturbing ethos, but for whatever its worth, this game really delivers what you expect from seeing the Front cover...



Now for the spoilers...