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.
It’s surprising that over the last 10 years, it’s the indie game that has had the most touching and memorable stories. Even with AAA games’ million-dollar budgets, they can’t seem to get a decent story with armies of writers and directors. What Remains of Edith Finch may be called a “walking simulator” by the younger crowd, but these slower-paced adventure games are usually the most touching and memorable. You play as a girl who is slowly unlocking the mystery of why every member of her family died in a large house built from the ground up on the oceanside.
The game starts out simple enough: you walk down linear, winding paths, and the character narrates along the way. The text floats along where you walk, and it’s an immersive way to tell a story. Once you enter the house, you will eventually find your way through mysterious rooms through secret passageways, and in each room is a piece that will bring you into their story. The most unique part of this game is that each story is so different and is told in unique ways. One story has you playing as several animals in the first person as the boy tells his story. In one story, you are just trying to swing as high as you can so you can fly. One story towards the end has you cutting fish heads in a factory, and you play a 2D RPG on the side while still trying to cut the fish heads. As the story goes on, it gets more detailed and expands in your view. The game is very imaginative, with my favorite piece being a 1960s horror comic, and the panels come to life with you playing a character in some of them. The game never gets boring or old, and the short length helps keep the game from overstaying its welcome or doing too much.
My biggest complaint is that there’s not much to interact with outside of initially entering the house. Once you get through the first few rooms, you just go from room to room and find the main story piece. The pacing is great, as it doesn’t get too fast, so you feel the rest of the game is too slow. There are also different themes throughout the game, such as horror, adventure, happiness, and sadness, and the house itself is haunting, empty, and lonely. This game oozes atmosphere, and you get different feelings from each room as you discover the fate of each family member. There’s so much detail in this game, and the visuals are quite nice for an indie title in this manner.
Sadly, due to this type of game, it won’t be played by many people, which is a dying shame, as What Remains is probably one of the best games to come out this year. The story is memorable, the game has plenty of atmosphere and character, and there’s so much to love about the game. If you’re a fan of Gone Home or just great stories in general, then you will love this game.
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.
Atmospheric side scrollers became popular thanks to Limbo. With no story but an entire tale told through the atmosphere, puzzles, and platforming, this became a great way to show gamers that the platforming genre can be a little more mature. Inside are all the aspects that Limbo created and perfected.
The game starts out with a little boy stumbling out of some trees and running through a forest. In the background, you can see soldiers in masks searching for something, but you’re never quite sure if it’s the boy or something else. Who this boy is and his purpose are never explained, but that’s kind of okay, as it’s up to the player to interpret this. The game has no tutorials, as there’re only two buttons to use: jump and an action button. You slowly get introduced to the game’s puzzles by pulling objects to ledges to reach greater heights, learning to keep switches open, etc. The game’s main focus is the art style and atmosphere. This game has an Uncanny Valley militaristic dystopia theme with everything in gray. It really grabs your attention, and the game can get quite tense.
Some of the more memorable scenes are when dogs are chasing you, as there’s no music but just the panting of the kids and raging, aggressive dogs at your heels. Most chase scenes actually require skill to finish, as they require precise timing of jumps and even quick-on-your-feet puzzle solving. The game is very well-paced, as I wanted to play through the whole thing without stopping. While there wasn’t a story being told, I wanted more chase scenes and sections where the boy had to sneak by these adults. The game isn’t just a flat plane, either, as the world turns and pans in accordance with the 2D playfield. It never feels like you’re going just left or right in a world that has been cut in half. There’s depth in the foreground and background, which is something that’s not done often in side scrollers.
There’s something strange going on in this world, as it seems most humans (or slaves) are mind-controlled and are being sold to other humans or possibly some type of alien. I couldn’t really tell, and again, that’s the point. Your job is to keep this boy out of danger and to keep pushing forward. From swimming, using a submersible, climbing, running, jumping, and puzzle-solving, there are quite a lot of games here for such a short length. Inside also has amazing animations and physics—some of the best I have ever seen. The way the boy runs and the people in the background interact with your every move is jaw-dropping. The boy would sneak across a floor and open a grate while everyone was starting inside some vat in the background. As soon as that grate dropped, all heads looked toward you. It’s creepy and fantastic all at the same time, not to mention the boy’s gruesome death animations and scenes.
I was amazed all the way through this game, despite the ending making zero sense and just being so abrupt. I wanted more, and hopefully we will get more. I can see that this could be a vastly expanded universe with an amazing story, but these atmospheric indie games tend to never have sequels. The game’s art style is just some of the best this year, and the graphics are also technically impressive, with amazing textures, lighting effects, and shadowing that would put some big-budget games to shame.
Overall, Inside is a wonderful must-play game. It’s oozing with atmosphere, tension, and pacing that will keep you glued during the whole 4-hour play session. When it’s over, you will sit back and remember most of the scenes and wonder what’s going on in this game. I felt more like a spectator who jumped into the middle of a movie, and I’m just watching what’s happening next, hoping to catch on. This is a unique way to tell stories and can be very hard to pull off. Thankfully, Inside will have you thinking about it long after it’s gone.
Adventure games are always hit or miss, as they have many classics to live up to. There are the occasional crazy and interesting adventure games like Neverending Nightmares that are quite fascinating. Bulb Boy is one such game where you play as a, well, bulb boy who must defeat a monster to save his grandfather. There’s not much of a story here, as it’s all about atmosphere and visuals. The game is rather short, and it’s not the most cerebral adventure game out there, but it’s worth a purchase.
Like in a typical adventure game, you can tap on areas for the character to move to and examine items. Bulb Boy is very straight-to-the point so there’s not much exploring here. There’s only so much to click on and very little inventory. The game has bosses on each stage that you must defeat, but the puzzles are very easy and not really puzzles. You find an object, and it can only go in one direction, as there’s no backtracking or exploring involved. I would love to see this universe expand, as Bulb Boy is grotesque, beautiful, and full of atmosphere. It’s a horror adventure with a cartoon flair, guts, and everything disgusting all over the screen.
There’s a lot of green in this game, and the cut-out art style is just fantastic. I enjoyed playing through the whole game, despite only taking a couple of hours. Bulb Boy’s death animations are brutal, there’s a lot of variety, and the game has a nice, quick pace to it. Some of my favorite things about this game are the extreme closeups of areas, as they show the sickly detail of everything around this character. It’s nightmarish for sure and definitely one of the most artistic games this year.
It’s a crying shame that this is an indie game and won’t get much attention. I hope for a sequel that’s more expanded, but we’ll see. In the meantime, just feast your eyes on the beautiful art, despite how straightforward and simple the gameplay is.
thebinarymessiah.com 
Yeah, it's pretty damn awful. Notoriously one of the worst games on the PSP. A 4 was actually being generous.…