Rating:

I can’t even express how happy I am with this phone. It is sooooooooo much better than the BlackBerry! It has just about every function you could wish for and is so easy to use and navigate.

I was able to sync it easily with my Mac using Bluetooth – I was going to get a new cable to sync it that way, but found that it was very easy to do wirelessly. I did have to look up how to get it to sync with Mac Entourage (Outlook) because it is only set up to sync with iCal, but it was easy to find the setup instructions and it worked without a glitch. I love that it has FM radio because I can listen to music wherever I am, I can also surf the web without a data plan, which is super fantabulous!!!

If you are looking for a new phone that can help you manage your life, I highly recommend the Nokia E63 – especially in Ruby Red because it’s just beautiful!

Oh, and I think the keypad is easier to use than the BB, the only strange thing is that the zero is not at the bottom of the number area like it usually would be, it is on the right side – but I haven’t had trouble getting used to it at all (I thought I would).

Oh, and one more thing… my crappy t-mobile coverage is MUCH improved… I don’t know how, but I am getting higher signals everywhere and am able to use my phone in areas where I couldn’t before – and not on other networks either (I checked by setting it to use only t-mobile for a while rather than picking up the stronger networks).

Rating:

I’ll keep this short by giveing the good points and bad.

Bad points first. There are frame rate issues if you have the auto cinema feature turned on they can get really bad when a lot of people are on the screen attacking you at one time. If you turn it off you probably won’t see a problem with frame rates again.

Second problem is the camera, this can be a problem but you can manually adjust or speed up the auto adjust rate in the options menu and this helps a lot.

Graphically speaking it’s a little inconsistent. The particle effects are great but at the same time some of the backgrounds are pretty bland. It’s kind of a mixed bag but due to some of the things they’ve done regarding retaining chopped body parts long after you’ve left a room in the game it takes a toll on memory usage and thus taxes the 360 quite a bit. Add that to the size of the environments, the number of characters on screen at once and this game pushes the 360 pretty hard.

The other problem though not really a problem, but more of an annoyance is that the enemies are a little on the cheap side this time so you are forced to be a little more creative.

Now for the good:

Believe it or not they have actually improved the gameplay. You start off now with a long list of moves as opposed to hardly any in the original. Countering has been refinded so that you can properly time it. Weapons are now very varied and don’t overlap in terms of usage. Enemy AI is incredible you can actually notice the enemies adjusting to your attack patterns. Granted this makes things more difficult but ultimately more satisfying when you win. The level design has gotten rid of a lot of the platforming and focuses much more on the fighting aspect of the game. Secondary weapons are chargable and are actually useful, can anyone actually admit that they used the bow much in the first one?

The story is actually a little more coherent now and makes a bit of sense, though not much. Last but not least It’s a great game but a new Missions mode and a little more refinement of the default settings would have made this a classic.

Rating:

From what I hear, my brother’s family has been playing the game almost daily since my nephew received it. What better reception could there be for a game?

This game is money well spent. I believe that it will help my nephew develop logical thinking skills and strategy development. The fact that he is smiling all the while, is icing on the cake.

Rating:

1) Upgrading from an XTi or higher will be very easy for you — same lenses, many similar controls

2) Don’t expect wonders from the kit lens. It is noisy, cheap-feeling, has a primitive and slow USM, uses a plastic (not metal) bayonet, and hunts hopelessly when autofocusing in anything but ideal light. It is altogether not worth the $100. Getting the camera now, is.

3) ISO response really is amazing. ISO 800 with my XTi is like ISO 3200 with the T2i. ISO 12800 is entirely usable in a pinch. It is not the horror story you might expect. You can also push it two stops further to the equivalent of 51,200, though I can say the results are ugly. They are the same kind of ugly that an XTi pushed two stops results in, with its ISO6400 equivalent push. These comparisons are based on visual comparison between non-noise reduced images. When you apply even mild NR using the DPP software, ISO12,800 quickly becomes a viable tool, rather than the butt of jokes.

4) Auto-ISO is finally here! Canon implemented it right, where you the user can limit the auto-selectable range.

5) Adobe has not caught up to the latest .CR2 RAW file format as of this writing (3/17). The latest ACR is 5.6, and we really really need a 5.7 patch for CS4. Until that is released, you’ll need to scrape by with other plugins or programs.

6) Video capabilities meet high expectations. Do however follow the booklet instructions and use at least a SD class 6 card (class 10 preferable). I’m using a class 6 and get some jerkiness at 720p. It just can’t keep up. So don’t blame the camera until you give it a big pipe to write to.

7) Remote control? Impressively, yes. If you have a long USB cable, you can make some use of the EOS Utility software’s remote control functionality, which includes controlling not only the normal features of the camera, but as well, you can schedule photos to be taken periodically (think time-lapse). You also use this software to register your name and copyright statement, if you wish, as imprints on every photo’s EXIF.

Overall a great purchase, well worth its price for ISO response and 18 megapixels, but it offers quite a bit more. I’m very pleased.