The original Walking Dead was a fantastic adventure game. It was well written, tense, memorable, and had amazing characters. The dialog choices kept the game moving, and you always felt like you were in control of every moment. Season Two adds to this while taking place moments after the end of the first game.
This time around, you play solely as Clementine. Right off the bat, I can tell you that your choices from the first season hardly impact Season Two. I imported my save, but I didn’t see many changes or choices I made from Season One affect anything here. We get an all-new cast, setting, and goal for Season Two that kept me going until the end.
Clementine is a child, but her raw character shows this season thanks to what she went through. Going from an innocent child to a hardened killer isn’t easy, and it makes Clementine such a likable character. Adults respect her for how mature she is; she can make adult decisions, but she still has some vulnerabilities that a child would have at her age. The new characters come across as strong, just like in Season One, but I felt a slight disconnect from them. Something about these new characters didn’t quite click as well. A lot is introduced early on, so this might be the reason.
Throughout the game, we are seeing Clem get to a word-of-mouth safe haven called Wellington as she meets new friends, makes new enemies, and has to escape dire circumstances. I feel that this time around, the game is more of an interactive movie than a game. There are hardly any gameplay moments, and there is zero puzzle solving. The action sequences are somewhat entertaining, but the horrific moments of terror are far and few this time around. The few spots where you can walk around an area feel pointless, as all you do is go to the only interactive object to progress. The gameplay is seriously lacking here, but that’s not really a bad thing.
The dialog options are still strong, and many choices had me wanting to go back and change my choice, but that’s good. I always thought about what would happen if I chose something else, as some choices are designed to unfold later and some are immediate. The pacing of this game is also slower and less balanced. There are many slow moments of downtime and dialog build-up. Sometimes 20 minutes would go by with nothing but dialog options, which is a stark contrast to the first game.
I did notice the visuals are slightly improved with better lighting and more detailed textures, but overall the game engine is seriously aging and doesn’t hold up to other games. Season Two is still a memorable game with great characters, excellent writing, and tense moments. If only it were paced better and had more gameplay.
Game of Thrones is one of my favorite TV shows of all time, and for good reason. It had memorable characters, well-written scripts, fantastic actors, and so many gripping plot twists that will make your head spin. How do you copy this in a 5-hour game? Telltale somehow managed to do it, with some flaws, and I left wanting more.
You play House Forrester, who are aligned with the Starks in the North, not seen in the show. They are trying to come out from under Roose Bolton’s foot, as the Boltons were assigned as wardens of the North after Ned Stark died in the first season. Ramsay Snow is constantly coming back to the house to “babysit” them, and this is some of where the major turning points happen.
You follow five characters in the game as our viewpoints change. Mira Forrester is in King’s Landing, trying to gain Lady Margery’s favor before she becomes queen. Then there’s Ethan Forrester, who is the new lord of House Forrester after his father dies in the hands of Frey’s ambush. Then there’s Edward Tuttle, who was the original Lord’s Steward, and he gets sent to the Wall. Asher Forrester is off in Essos, trying to gain Daenarys’s favor for an army. With all these different viewpoints, it feels just like the show with everyone spread out.
This is a much more story-driven Telltale game, and I know that sounds silly, but there’s maybe 5% gameplay here and not even any puzzles. There are some combat quick-time events, a few times where you walk around an area looking at things, and then the many, many dialog options, with some being meaningless and some having a full swing of the entire story.
I won’t get into details about the story as that will spoil it, but I was kept in for the whole game. The acting from the original characters who do appear is nice, as is the acting from the new characters. The new characters are memorable, hold their own, and feel like they would fit right into the TV show. As the episodes pick up, you spend less time with each character as all the choices you make culminate in the finale. Some choices were rather difficult to make as you decided who lived or died or how you acted towards someone. This was especially brilliant, as I thought I was doing the right thing sometimes, but it turned out it was hurting me more.
In the end, the point of the game is to gather a large enough army to fight back the Whitehills, whom the Boltons assigned to watch over House Forrester. All your choices will mean the difference between a house that lives or dies. I didn’t find the game really dull, but the scenes where I had control felt pointless. Rarely did it ever feel relevant, such as in a scene where Mira is searching for a letter in Tyrion’s office and guards are running down the hall, and she was trying to not get caught.
The game does end with a sequel in mind, but I don’t know if that’s ever coming; not all the characters’ stories were fulfilled, which is a shame. The visuals are downright ugly and still use Telltale’s decade-old engine, which needs an overhaul. The mobile version of the game is still riddled with bugs and poorly optimized, with frequent slowdowns, crashes, freezes, and bugs. The audio was terrible, as in the last 2 episodes it was somehow compressed to sound like PS1 audio. Overall, though, the game is well worth a playthrough for fans of the show; just don’t get the mobile version.
Monument Valley is one of the most memorable mobile games I have ever played. The game helped show that mobile games have a place with many of the great console games. It was smart, beautiful, unique, and a blast to play. It felt like a mix between Echochrome’s (PSP) gameplay and Journey’s (PS3) art style.
With Monument Valley 2, I got really excited to play this. I expected more and something new at the same time. That’s not entirely what we got. We just got really new. MV2 is an extremely short game and not very challenging. The MC Escher-style puzzles were a breeze to get through, which is a shame, as the first game had a few head-scratchers. Using various switches, you push, pull, spin, and align the various platforms through optical illusions to get the character to the door. At the end of each stage, the player can swipe their finger around to create a star that goes into the heavens; the meaning of this is unknown.
In the first game, we understood it was a journey, but this time around, all I know is that the character is a mother who is seeing her child off for her adventure, and they reunite. That’s it. I like subtle stories, but this one was too subtle. At least a few new elements are thrown in, such as controlling two characters at once, which creates a tad bit more of a challenge.
The game still looks amazing, with gorgeous art direction, music, and heartwarming colors. It’s just a shame it’s in such a short package with no challenge. I still recommend playing this game, but I sure did want many more puzzles than the dozen we got.
Samsung has been one of the top leaders in the mobile department for a long time, and for good reason. They continue to push their products with new ideas and reinvent them. They aren’t scared either, as every 2–3 generations we see an entirely different device. While the Note7 was a fantastic piece of hardware, it was seriously flawed, and the Note8 is already a huge jump forward from that device. It shares similarities with the S8+ that was released earlier this year, and that’s actually a good thing.
You will notice it looks identical to the S8+ outside of the more rectangle edges, and the screen is a smidge bigger. It features the same galaxy black design and gorgeous infinity display. From this point, it seemed not much different than the S8+ I had earlier, so I wasn’t too surprised, but new owners upgrading from older phones will be more amazed.
It’s still quite a beautiful-looking phone. However, the key feature of the Note series is the S-Pen. It hasn’t changed at all from the Note 7, and that’s not a problem at all. It still feels light and easily fits in the hand. The Bixby button is located a little further down, but if you hated it on the S8, you won’t like it here.
Note8 using Live Focus
The Note8 does feature the same Snapdragon 835 chipset as the S8, but it has 6GB of RAM instead of 4, so apps do load a bit faster, but the biggest addition to this phone is the camera this time around. It features a 12MP dual-lens setup that allows Bokeh to focus on fantastic-looking images. It’s the first time Samsung has had a dual-camera setup on their phones, and it’s the best smartphone camera around, hands down.
Outside of what we saw with Nougat on the S8+, the UI is the same, and there’s only one extra software feature, and that would be Live Messages using the S-Pen. When you write, you can choose between glowing, sparkly, or other inks that turn into a GIF as you write. It’s a neat feature and a great piece to add to the Note 8’s S-Pen suite. Bixby is also rather used this time around, being a little more of an AI assistant and not an obtuse nuisance. Most people may still prefer OK Google over this, but I liked being able to hold down a physical button and ask Bixby questions. It just seemed faster and more reliable.
The screen is one of the main reasons I stick with Samsung, and they don’t disappoint, with this screen being slightly better than the S8 screens. 4K content looks fantastic at 60FPS on here, and playing games never looked better.
Bottom line: you can’t go wrong with the Note8, especially with the great battery life I have been getting. It has only needed one charge in a single day, even for heavy use. From the camera, screen, S-Pen, larger RAM, and many other features packed in here, the Note8 is a beast of a phone and the best you can get on the market right now.
Obscure Asian horror games are something I’m a sucker for. I know the gameplay and controls will probably be awful, but you’re in for one scary ride, and that’s what matters the most. Detention is a 2D adventure game that takes place in Communist China in the 1950s. You walk around solving simple puzzles and unraveling a somewhat confusing and convoluted story. The atmosphere is very surreal, and the slow pace of the game helps drive this home.
The game begins with some strange images and wandering back and forth through classrooms in a school, trying to get to the top floor. The game involves finding items and then figuring out where to use those items. Like most adventure games, it’s best to wander through the entire area first, pick up all the items, and then place them where they are needed. There are three areas that are like this, and then the final area is actually just walking around making story choices. It’s kind of strange, as the pacing is really broken up throughout the entire game. There will be some chase sequences, a tense atmosphere, and enemies you need to avoid by holding your breath and walking past them slowly, or even turning away so as not to stare into their gaze. It’s an interesting concept and puts you on the edge of your seat with the amazing sound effects and disturbing soundtrack.
A lot of the sound effects and music remind me of Silent Hill. The pounding heartbeats, screeching static, and urgency were felt throughout. The game isn’t so gory, but just overall weird and disturbing, which is just fine. I enjoyed the gameplay and scares quite a bit, but the story was definitely lacking. I could tell there was something about the main character being involved in a forbidden book club, her inner torment of her parents fighting, and some sort of guilt about being responsible for a death, but it never worked together or meant anything. There’s a lot of poetry and ancient proverbs thrown around the game, but all this accomplished was confusing me more as to what was going on. As it is, the game can be beaten in less than 4 hours, so it’s important to get the story across as strongly as possible since you can’t drag it out.
With that said, Detention is a must-play for horror fans or anyone who likes 2D adventure games. You’re going to have to go into this expecting a lot of scares and simple puzzle-solving rather than a memorable story or characters. The art style is fantastic, and the music and sound effects all jive together to create a disturbing experience that you really can’t get in most Western horror games.
Well, this is a bit awkward. Here we are, barely 6 months after the Note 7 fiasco, and we have the all-new Galaxy S8 series that can be claimed as the final iPhone killer. The Note7 was the biggest cell phone disaster in history, and yet somehow Samsung was able to slingshot around all of this over a corruption scandal, exploding batteries, and a well-thought-out but failed recall. Relying on sales of the S7 and S6 phones, Samsung poured all the Note7 features into the S7 Edge and called it a day. It kept everyone busy while LG and other manufacturers stole the Note 7 market. The Galaxy S8 isn’t just a new and slightly updated Galaxy phone; it’s practically all new in terms of design and hardware. There are more features than the iPhone could ever imagine; it’s sleeker, slimmer, and more robust than the iPhone 7 ever could be. Did Samsung really create such an amazing phone in the span between the S7 and Note 7? Let’s find out.
The Design
Let’s start with the unboxing of this thing. It’s similar to any recent Samsung box with a SIM tool, instructions, charger, cable, and if you had the Note 7, two converter plugs. When you hold the phone in your hand, it feels heavy but so sleek and beautiful. The Midnight Black color is by far one of the most beautiful phones to ever be made. The entire phone is glass, which is a far cry from the plastic backs and aluminum bodies of the Note 4 and beyond. The entire phone is pitch black, and I mean pure black. It looks like you’re looking into the sky on a clear, dark night. Gone is the front physical button, replaced by a pressure-sensitive home button on the screen. The volume rocker is thinner and sleeker, along with the power button. The new Bixby button (later) is smaller than the power button and underneath the volume rocker, which takes getting used to. There’s a fingerprint sensor on the back next to the camera, as well as a heart rate sensor. Now I have to tell you that the fingerprint scanner feels natural, as your finger is already resting in that area. LG phones have had their scanners on the back for a while now, so it’s nothing new. It’s just a small rectangle in the back and is more responsive than ever.
The camera is virtually flush with the phone this time, and yet Samsung was able to make the phone more powerful. Long gone are the typical Galaxy designs of flat edges and round corners. The entire phone is a seamless piece of glass, and the edges are perfectly rounded and blend in with the edged screen. When I have my phone sitting on a surface, it looks like a beautiful piece of black onyx, as the AMOLED display only turns on the pixels it needs for the Always On Display (introduced in the S7). The phone is as dark as the screen; it’s a seamless color, which is something that’s never been seen on a phone. Sadly, this illusion is broken on other colors of the phone, which is why Midnight Black is my favorite color. The loss of a physical home button and the lack of a front logo allow Samsung to create a much larger screen without making the phone larger in scope. It’s a smart design choice that Apple needs to get on board with.
The Engine
The Galaxy S8 is the first phone to be powered by Snapdragon’s new 835 SoC, an eight-core CPU that isn’t a first for a Samsung phone. 4 cores run at 2.4 GHz, while the other 4 run at 1.9 GHz, allowing for ultra-fast speeds. We get the latest GPU, which is the Adreno 540, allowing for games that would cripple the Note 7 to run at 60 fps. This is an ultra-powerful SoC, and that makes the Galaxy S8 the most powerful smartphone on the market. We still have 4GB of RAM, but this is faster LPDDR4X RAM, which allows for faster bus speeds and loading between apps. The only downside is that Samsung phones are stuck with 64GB of internal ROM, but the upside is that this phone supports up to a 256GB microSD card and has UFS 2.1 ROM, which means lightning-fast read and write speeds.
The Experience
First and foremost, Samsung is the frontrunner in security, and new biometrics have been implemented. While we saw an iris scanner in the Note 7, it was slow, buggy, and made the phone run hot. There was also the issue that it took forever to line up correctly. The new iris scanner is lightning fast, has a brighter red LED light that flashes, and doesn’t slow the phone down. In addition, there’s a new face recognition scanner that works wonders, as nothing shows up on the screen to unlock your phone. When you try to unlock it, the camera recognizes your face instantly and just unlocks it as long as you are looking at your phone. It works well, and Samsung seems to have gotten these biometric scanners down pat this time around.
Along with all these security features is an updated Samsung Pay, which works like you would expect, a new edge screen, and an overall notification setup that is amazing and the least intrusive I have ever seen. Rather than a card that pops down on the drawer or on the screen, a small strip pops up with just the right amount of information. The entire edge of the phone has a rolling color that flashes, and it looks so beautiful and amazing. Samsung seems to roll major gimmicks like palm mute, swipe to capture, and various other gestures as standard features, being more creative and having these gimmicks actually be useful for everyday use. There are still some very minor issues present, however, but they don’t really hold anything back. There is still only one mono speaker, but it does sound a little better than previous phones. With this phone’s 18.5:9 aspect ratio, you’re going to get some stretching in some games and videos. You can make the content full-screen by choice, but ultra-widescreen monitor owners will understand this problem. It’s very minor, but still noticeable.
I hope that the biggest issue with Samsung phones being constantly slowed down over time is eliminated with the more powerful SoC. I have yet to have any slowdown in the three days I have had this phone, and with previous phones, it would start immediately. The last feature I want to discuss is Bixby, as many people are confused as to what it is. This isn’t your average AI that you can use voice commands with. You can’t say “Hello Bixby” and have it search things for you; Google Assistant is still there for that. Bixby is used to exploring the phone’s actual features. It’s just an app that pops up that gives you a summary of your Samsung apps, cards, and highlights, and that’s about it. It’s very basic and not too fancy, but it does do one thing that Google does not, and that’s the Bixby assistant on the camera. Aim it at an object, and Bixby can search on Amazon for the product or similar pictures online. I’m sure this will expand over time, but right now it will be useless for most people.
Overall, the Galaxy S8 is the finest phone I have ever used. Samsung continues to push the boundaries that Apple once did and refuses to do in today’s times. The smartphone business is a vicious one, and you must constantly and always evolve, or you will be left in the dust. I wouldn’t be surprised if Samsung steers toward their own Tizen OS at some point to finally have a proprietary OS that can be tailored to their own hardware, like iOS.
While this is my third smartwatch, this is my first non-Android Wear watch, and I have to admit I was very skeptical and unsure. For one, all my apps and watch faces I bought on Google Play are now gone as Samsung uses their own OS called Tizen to power their watches. Why would I plunk $400 down on a watch and be so unsure? I don’t really have a choice. A lot of smartwatch brands, like Huawei and Motorola, have paused their smartwatch lines until Google can improve and build upon Android Wear. Remember, we’re still on the first version of Android Wear, with only a couple of watches getting 2.0 as of the last couple of months.
What attracted me to the S3 was that it was a 4G watch and looked like an actual watch. It’s rugged, well-built, and fast, unlike some other watches. While Android Wear performed fairly well on the Moto 360 2nd Gen., it still wasn’t enough and felt like it didn’t evolve. Samsung’s own Galaxy App Store is full of useful and fun apps and watch faces. I didn’t really have to worry there, and surprisingly, there’s even quadrupled the number of watch games on the Galaxy App Store compared to Google Play. Before we get there, though, let’s talk about the actual watch.
The actual body is a bit heavier than my Moto 360 2nd Gen. It’s made of military-grade material and is actually water- and dust-resistant, with an IP68 rating, which is amazing. You can wash your hands or do some dishes without worrying about ruining your watch. The silicone bands feel well built and much better than the cheap leather Motorola uses on their watches, which deteriorates in about 2 weeks of use. The clicking dial on the watch face feels great to use and is very responsive. I was afraid it would feel cheap and flimsy, but it doesn’t. The touchscreen feels nice and is extremely responsive, which is a must for something like this.
This watch has two physical buttons, one being a back button and one for power. The way Tizen works software-wise is much more convenient than Android Wear, and I was shocked and also relieved because, for now, I’m done with Android Wear until they can make some major improvements. You can swipe to change your watch widgets, which is much better than having an app drawer. One of the biggest fallbacks of Android Wear was that it felt like Android OS mushed down into a watch. All the Samsung apps have their own widgets that operate a certain way on the face at a glance, and then when you press the widgets, you go into the full app on the watch. The scroll wheel just smoothly flies around the watch and makes finding your widget a breeze, and it beats having to rely on the touchscreen and swiping a lot.
If you don’t want to scroll all the way through your widgets, you can go to the app carousel, which has the icon on the face, and you can scroll around to find what you want. It is still very fast and easy to use, and I love this feature. If you scroll all the way to the left, it will show your last-used app one click past the watch face, which is useful. The watch is equipped with Samsung Voice, so a simple “Hey Gear” will bring up a very responsive voice command to call or text anyone. This is made easier with a mic and speaker on the watch, so all calls can be done through your watch, which is a major step up over Motorola’s watches, which only contain a mic and all calls must be done on the phone. This leads to the watch having call forwarding, which is the best feature of this entire phone. You can leave your phone somewhere and still get calls on your watch. This is great if you forget your phone somewhere or don’t want to carry it around. This is only for the 4G watch and not the Bluetooth-only versions.
Surprisingly, this watch doesn’t have the insane hardware to be responsive and quick. The screen has a 360×360 resolution and is running on only a dual-core 1GHz CPU, which is Samsung’s own Exonys 7270. The screen is gorgeous, and it would be with Samsung using a Super AMOLED display, so it is the best-looking watch screen on the market. It only has 768MB of RAM and 4GB of ROM, but it seems to be enough as Tizen is hand-tailored to this hardware. The watch also never gets hot, unlike Android Wear. Snapdragon SoCs are notorious for burning up when pushed really hard, and that is what was in the Moto 360 2nd Gen.
The Gear app is fairly robust and has more features than Android Wear, which hasn’t really been updated since day one. The only thing I can’t change is waking the watch up when you bring your arm up. This is a feature that will never 100% work, as the watch can’t tell if you’re making gestures or looking at it. There is also no dim mode on this watch, which Android Wear does have, and that is probably why you can’t disable the feature. When you aren’t looking at the watch, the screen is off. You can also find your gear through the app and lock it if it is lost or stolen, which is easier to use than Android Wear. One of the best features is the native Samsung Pay that Android Wear has yet to implement. Just long-press the back button, and up comes Samsung Pay, which is really handy if you are into that. One thing that is actually quite simple that I love is that the Gear S3 connects immediately to Bluetooth without any fiddling or errors. Android Wear watches can only be connected properly if you turn on Bluetooth through the Android Wear app. If you just connect through the phone, it won’t connect sometimes. Frequent disconnects were common with my original Moto 360, but I’m happy to say the Gear S3 just connects and stays connected. It even seamlessly transitions from 4G to the phone without any problems.
Overall, this is the best smartwatch I have ever owned, and Samsung has Tizen down just right. My fears weren’t that Tizen wasn’t as good as Android Wear, but now knowing that Android Wear is so far behind Tizen, it makes me want to never go back. Naysay what I’m telling you all you want, but I loved my Moto 360 2nd Gen, and I was also very frustrated with the bugs and problems with Android Wear and Motorola’s watches brought on. If you want one smartwatch, the Gear S3 is the way to go, without a doubt. This is the watch to directly compete with the Apple Watch, not Android Wear. Samsung has the streamlined, robust, and easy-to-use OS and design that Android Wear seems light years behind on.
So, this is my fourth Samsung phone, and this company has come a long way. After dealing with the Note 7 disaster, I switched to the LG V20 while awaiting the next Samsung phone, thinking the S7 wasn’t worth it. I recently decided to switch back as the Galaxy S8 is around the corner and the S7 Edge is pretty much the same as the Note7 without the S-Pen and a smidge smaller. The OS is identical, and I really missed the fantastic screen and OS experience from Samsung.
Thankfully, I picked up an S7 Edge after the 7.0 Nougat update, and I have to say it is just a beautiful update to the already great 6.0 that the Note7 shipped with. The S7 Edge has a 2K screen (2560×1440) with a 12MP rear camera and a 5MP front camera. The S7 camera is rated as the best phone camera around, and you can really see just how fantastic it is. The full glass body is sleek and gorgeous and feels great in your hand, and the much-improved fingerprint scanner works great.
The phone has a Snapdragon 820 SoC, which is currently the fastest available for a smartphone and is lightning fast. 4GB of RAM and 32GB of UFS 2.0 memory allow for speedy transfers and writes. The addition of a microSD slot is welcome, and the Adreno 520 GPU allows you to play the latest and greatest games. There’s nothing faster out there right now. However, this phone did tend to run very hot when I did the initial setup. It was so hot it made my hand sweat, but after this setup, I have yet to have the phone get that hot again.
The OS experience is wonderful, and Samsung has implemented so many features over the years that it can be overwhelming. From being able to transfer your files from your old phone via WiFi or USB to advanced security features, excellent power-saving technology, and features for gamers, there’s a lot packed into this tiny brick. Samsung’s Game Tools and Game Launcher are awesome to use, and I have been a fan since day one. Being able to launch a game from the Game Launcher allows you to keep your phone at maximum performance, or you can turn it all down for smaller games that aren’t graphics-heavy. Game Tools allows you to customize each game individually if you want as well.
Samsung’s themes and icons are nice to see on the S7 and make the phone feel unique and personable. Samsung is the only phone maker right now that has this feature, but LG is trying to catch up, but their theme updates are slow going. Samsung has other things packed in here, like Samsung Gear, VR, Pay, and many other proprietary apps that are robust and work well with their own products.
I really can’t pick this phone apart from the Note 7, as it’s exactly the same—same button placement and feel, same style, same screen, same everything. If you were screwed by the Note 7, this has all the exact same hardware but in a slightly smaller form factor. It still has some of the same issues that have plagued Samsung smartphones forever, such as the occasional slowdown if you don’t constantly keep up on optimizing your phone, and it does run hot if the CPU is pushed too hard. Hopefully, this eventually goes away with the next phone, and I don’t know if the OS can’t keep up with the CPU or the other way around, but as time goes on, this issue should not exist.
Horror games don’t really work well on mobile devices, as it’s hard to get someone to sit down with a phone in the dark with headphones and drag them through a slow-paced atmospheric adventure. Thankfully, Dark Fear manages to do just this thanks to its catchy story and quick-moving gameplay.
You start out in a cabin in the middle of the woods, not knowing who you are or why you got here. The dark and macabre 8-bit visuals and music help bring this game to life in a very nostalgic way. Tapping on everything in sight is the best way to find what objects you need, but thankfully most are in plain sight. Each area has only one screen, so getting lost is actually quite hard. Once you get out, you learn to fight with the strange but fun battle system. Like a typical 8-bit RPG, you just press your command and try to kill your enemies. However, Dark Fear’s combat is strange, as in, it’s almost scripted. Certain weapons and armor unlock at certain points in the game, allowing you to do only so much damage to the minute number of enemies present. This leads me to believe that there’s a simple strategy or just not missing your shot, and the numbers calculate to you winning.
Outside of battle, you can hunt, which is mainly used to gain currency to buy items in the game. Hunting is rather tedious, as it’s a power-meter mini-game where you just tap when an arrow is inside a green box, and the same goes for fishing. Going from place to place will help you solve puzzles and riddles and get one step closer to who you are and what your goal is. My favorite part about the game is that there are some damn scary moments. One of which was a little girl inside a mansion that appeared out of nowhere, and then, after some dialog, she popped up right in my face with a blood-curdling scream that made me jump and pause the game. There are several moments like this, and they’re great.
Once you start unraveling the mystery and get through about 2 hours of the game, the backtracking gets very tedious, as you will visit most areas over a dozen times only to finish a part of the puzzle from much earlier in the game. Some puzzles are obtuse and obscure, requiring a guide, and some are downright easy. It’s a mixed bag, but the game is still great for what it is. I honestly enjoyed every minute of this game and felt the 4 hours of play-through were well worth it. Any old-school RPG fan will get a kick out of this game.
With that said, the visuals and audio experiences are one of a kind on mobile devices, and Dark Fear is top-notch. The battle system feels rigged, as does the equipment upgrade. Hunting is tedious, but the story and unique puzzles will keep you glued.
LG has come a long way with its Android phones. With their flagship G series phones, they were pushed up near the top of the Android phone sales and have gone head to head with Samsung. The LG V10 sparked their new flagship phone that was larger, bigger, and more innovative than their G series phones. These were to grab the attention of Android power users and phablet fans, however, they didn’t have phablet hardware or battery life. The LG V10 was a smash hit with its one-of-a-kind second screen and kept all the features that fans of Android, and LG, phones loved. With the LG V20, LG perfects its new flagship while also helping move the Android phone market along.
I’m just going to come out with it, the LG V20 is expected to do very well because of the downfall of the Note7. While I personally felt Samsung’s flagship phablet was the perfect smartphone, the whole battery fiasco killed it. I was dragged through both recall processes and landed myself with the LG V20. I have to say that this phone has a lot of features I wish the Note7 had, and it is a great first impression from LG for me.
For phablet owners, this phone has the latest and greatest Android has to offer with an LG flavor. For starters, the screen is gorgeous with a 2K (2560×1440) resolution and uses LG’s own IPS LCD technology used in their monitors and TVs. I have an IPS LG monitor for my PC and it’s beautiful, and it really shows on the phone. In comparison to Samsung’s much-loved AMOLED display, it’s less saturated and feels more true and warm while still being crisp and clean. For an LCD display, this one looks fantastic. Next, is the secondary screen. It’s a little larger than the V10 and is just as responsive as the bigger screen. This screen is used to pin favorite apps, most recent apps, a signature, control shortcuts, and favorite contacts. It also shows notifications when the screen is off conserving battery life.
The second is the camera. The LG V10 was the greatest smartphone camera around until the Note7 was released. The LG V20 sports a 16MP dual-lens camera and a front-facing 5MP camera. The photos on the LG V20 impress quite a bit, and while I won’t do a detailed breakdown, I can say they are on par with the Note7. The camera can record 4K video, 1080p video at 60FPS, and 720p video at 120FPS. With the LG software, you can take short 15-second clips to easily share them, and clip videos together among other things.
The rest of the exterior only has a small volume section and a button to pop the backplate off to access the battery, microSD card slot, and SIM slot. LG is well-loved for its removable batteries and the V20 does allow this for spares and larger third-party battery packs. The V20 is also the first smartphone to allow a 2TB microSD card. That’s an insane amount of space, but it’s there. On the back is LG’s famous home button with a fingerprint scanner. I personally feel this is the best placement of that button as it’s unique to LG phones only and many users will have to get used to this. It feels natural on the V20 and I honestly didn’t have to think about it much.
The last thing about the physical design of the V20 is that it’s much different from the V10. I didn’t quite like the design of the V10 and it felt kind of cheap, but the V20 is made of all aluminum and is kind of a dark gray rather than black. It looks thinner, sleeker, and much more like a premium phablet than can compete with Samsung and Apple. This is LG’s finest-looking phone yet.
Internally, the V20 sports the same hardware as the Note7. A Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 with a quad-core CPU running at 2.15Ghz and an Adreno 530 GPU. With 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage. The reason why the LG V20 runs faster is it’s using Android 7.0 Nougat; the very first Android phone to do so. I’m not joking about the speed of this phone. After a while, the Note7 slowed down quite a bit and became laggy. The V20 unlocks with the touch of the fingerprint sensor in less than a second. Apps open much quicker and everything feels snappier and speedier.
Android 7.0 has better notification features but is mostly a speed improvement like Marshmallow was. Software-wise, LG has an amazing custom Android ROM here. It’s very impressive and more streamlined than even Samsung’s. They’re not as many bells and whistles as Samsung’s ROM, but there’re some nice touches here. For starters, the whole UI design is clean and smooth and looks amazing. I almost prefer this one over Samsung’s and it’s easier on the eyes; less is more here. The V20 can use UI themes from the LGWorld app, but as of this review, there aren’t many themes available yet. There are unique Ringtone IDs that the phone will create for every number calling in, screen filters for reading, and various other features that are unique to Android. While most are standard they are done well and any bloaty features are cut out. I do appreciate that LG allows you to transfer data from your old phone via SD card which makes transferring so much faster. LG also has software that allows you to transfer files to your phone and to PC via LG Bridge which is great. It creates a drive on your PC so every time you connect it acts like it’s plugged in via USB.
The LG V20 just has a whole personality to it that doesn’t make it feel generic or like another manufacturer’s Android phones. The V20 actually has my favorite haptic feedback and vibration. I don’t really like Samsung’s as it feels too rough and “buzzy”. The V20 has a softer deeper vibration and feedback as well as satisfying system sounds. From the lock screen sound to typing on the keyboard, the V20 delivers second-by-second enjoyment that most people don’t think about. You’re always feeling vibrations and feedback on your phone as well as hearing chimes and beeps. The V20 is the most satisfying feedback experience over any smartphone I have previously used.
The V20 is also being advertised as the go-to phone for audiophiles. With the quad-DAC Hi-Fi chip, this is the best phone to listen to music with. If you are looking specifically for a phone that does a lot of audio then look no further. With that said the phone doesn’t come with headphones which are kind of ironic, but LG does offer some nice headphones.
With all that said, the LG V20 is a fantastic phone. In lieu of the Note7 disaster, this is my recommended go-to phone that isn’t a Samsung phone. LG has really stepped up to the plate and has offered everything an Android power user has on their wishlist. While there’re a couple minor gripes they are minor at best such as no water resistance and this phone has mono speakers. There’re no major issues with the phone at all and this is very close to the perfect smartphone both in design, and software.
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