Game Review: Grand Theft Auto 5 (GTA 5)

Less than two weeks ago,Rockstar games launched a follow up for their flagship series,Grand Theft Auto.It took the world by storm,creating record sales within less than a week.I was lucky to pre-order a copy via Fllipkart and got the games two days prior to its release.

For those who didn't watch the trailer,the game revolves around three people;Franklin Clinton-An average grove street homey who works in the vehicle repo business. Michael Townley(De Santa)-A successful bank robber who is retired with real family issues.Trevor Philips-A lunatic businessman specializing in meth and arms.The plot revolves around how they meet and solve each others problems and their ambitions to make it big.Although the number of missions are short(69 to be exact),it will still suck you into it.

First impressions were good.There is a lot of places to be discovered, from traffic infested cities,to desolate mountain tops. GTA 5 boasts of a huge map size,more than their previous games put together,so there's places to be explored if you're bored. Rockstar has also included animals in this game,so you'll never know when a mountain lion will jump on you or when a shark decides if it wants to reenact Jaws.Cars,bikes,boats and planes can be bought online(for those who want their own vehicles),properties ranging from garages to golf courses. Rockstar has really brought everything possible in the real world here.Inclusion of the stock markets,LCN and BAWSAQ(classic Rockstar wordplay) was something out of the blue.So this means that even after you beat the game,there's a lot of things to keep you interested.

The graphics on this game is absolutely stunning.From the protagonist getting wet if its raining,to glares during sunny days,Rockstar has really taken a long step from their previous games.Vehicular detail have been improved,taking styling cues from real-life brands like BMW,Jeep,Audi,Jaguar,Mini and so on.The game also features an option to lower/raise the roofs for convertibles.Also customization makes a return for GTA:San Andreas,so you can trick up your ride to stand out.

The music in the game have been carefully selected to include more of the popular songs of today.Artists from Johnny Cash to Rihanna have been featured to suit all tastes.The games also plays a certain song during some missions to build up the moment,a nice touch.

Combat has been improved,although it took some time for me to get used to it from GTA 4.Guns can be upgraded(Thank God!)The weapons range from gasoline filled jerry cans to rocket launchers,just the thing you need to cause mayhem in the city.Taking cover from shots have been improved and health regenerates to half when the protagonist is stationary.

Missions are specific for each protagonist ,but in some like heists,they join together allowing the player to switch in between.Plenty of side missions for each character to do.Random events can also be interfered by the player,like stopping a robber and to choose whether to return the stolen item or to keep it.

GTA 5 has really improved from the disappointing GTA 4 in almost every way.Cars handle better,friends don't call to hang out while you're busy trying to not get killed,the Internet is more functional,and for the guys…the strip club is gonna blow your mind!They should have put in car dealerships,who buys cars online?But it's definitely a must have game

Rating-9.5/10

This was a guest post by Stevan Thomas, our brother who was held at gunpoint to write this post!!

The Best Portable Bluetooth Speaker Today – Bose Soundlink Mini

Let me start by saying – never judge a product by its brand. Just because it’s an unknown brand does not mean it’s products will be bad, likewise just because a speaker is from Bose does not mean it’s going to be good (but in this case it is).  A quick background - I tend to listen to music on my phone when I’m getting ready for work in the morning as it’s a bit inconvenient powering on the living room speakers. Recently there have been a number of portable Bluetooth speakers entering the market so I was intrigued however they all were rather disappointing for the reasons mentioned below. I soon abandoned the thought of buying one since they were (IMHO) toys. The Soundlink Mini is one that I can, with all confidence say, is not a toy. 

What makes it a ‘great’ speaker, specifically when talking about a portable Bluetooth

speaker segment? Before I answer that let’s talk about the main challenge faced by this segment – Poor sound quality and low volume levels due to small sized speakers. There’s no getting away from this. If you want pocket-sized speakers you have to sacrifice on sound quality. You see most good portable Bluetooth speakers can go loud enough to fill a room however they cannot reproduce base notes and typically sound tinny like a mobile phone speaker, albeit louder. This is because base notes can only be produced by larger woofers/sub-woofers which move a lot more air. You can never truly get reasonable base reproduction on a set of speakers that fit in the palm of your hand … or can you?

Enter the Bose Soundlink Mini – this is one of those rare combinations of great tech, beautiful packaging and stunning performance. Not only can this almost pocket-able speaker easily fill a room with clear, crisp music but it can also hit those low notes. If you are in the market for a portable speaker to take with you on your travels, or friends parties or even take around the house – you owe it to yourself to check-out this device. I’ll be honest, it’s expensive at 200 USD. In India it retails for a bit more at 252 USD (Rs. 16,000). This is twice as much as many Bluetooth speakers in the market however I do feel it’s easily twice as good.

 
A couple of tips with the Soundlink Mini – it has base port at both front and back of the device so I get the best performance if I keep it on the floor near a corner of the room or wall. Keep about 5 inches to a foot of space from the wall for best base performance – depending on the type of music you listen to. Also play with the equalizer settings of your phone to get the best performance out of the Soundlink Mini. I use PowerAmp and I keep tweaking if for different genres. 

Limitations – 

• The Bose Soundlink cannot be used as a speaker phone
• It has a rather limited battery life of 5 hours continuous usage 
• It uses a proprietary charger (no Micro-USB)
• It cannot charge your smartphone (like some other units)
• It has limited controls on the device and no remote
• It’s rather heavy for it’s size because of its powerful magnets (for me this was a good thing but others may disagree) 

Another great alternative is the UE Boom which has none of the above limitations but cannot match the base frequencies of the Bose. 

This is a guest post by Prithvi Raj. To be more precise, all the gadget reviews in future will be done by him. :)

Camera buyers guide – DSLR Vs Bridge Camera

A lot has been said about the benefits of a DSLR to the point that many people consider themselves

professional photographers just because they own one. The truth is if you don’t know the fundamentals of photography then you are better off with a point and shoot camera. But what if you know the basics, what if you want to shoot in full manual, what if you know what shutter speed, ISO and aperture work for different scenes and what if you want prefer manual focus. Can you now go in for a DSLR? Hmmm … no!

Knowing how to use a full-manual camera is one thing, but what about the end result of your snaps? Are you the type to print your photographs into posters? Will you be cropping into small sections of your photograph? Will you be doing some heavy post processing on your photographs? OR will you simply upload your snaps to a Facebook album and wait for people to comment on them?

If you fall into that last group then I’d say a DSLR is overkill and you may get better results with a good bridge camera. Let’s do a quick comparison of the two:-

First the advantages of the Bridge camera over the DSLR:-

Bridge Camera (e.g. Fuji HS50 EXR)	Digital SLR
Cheaper (good ones start at Rs. 18K / $310)	More expensive especially when factoring the costs of additional lenses
Smaller and Lighter	Bigger, bulkier and with the added burden of carrying extra lenses
Significantly longer zoom lens (24mm – 1000mm) 42x optical zoom lens	Much shorter zoom range (18mm-55mm) Telephoto lenses are available but at a much higher cost and even then don’t come near the range of the Bridge (superzoom) cameras.
Macro to moon shots on a single lens. No hassles of changing lenses in the middle of a shoot	Changing lenses may not be difficult but it needs to be done carefully and not in dusty environments plus takes time away from the shoot
More feature rich than most DSLRs
Features include- Optical image stabilization, Digital Zoom, faster burst mode, more scene modes, panorama mode, high speed video mode, ultra high ISO (12,800)	Don’t usually pack in as many features
Look and feel of a DSLR	Is a DSLR so yea, looks and feels like one too

Now the advantages of a DSLR over a Bridge camera:-

Digital SLR	Bridge Camera (e.g. Fuji HS50 EXR)
Much better low light performance thanks to the larger sensor allowing for great night shots with no flash	While the low-light performance may have it trumped the flash does compensate to a large extent. Also in daylight shots there is little difference between the two when viewed on a web album
Shallow depth of field – especially with additional lenses – giving you much better portrait snaps	The fixed lenses of bridge cameras have a lower aperture range so you won’t usually get the same effect however you can ‘fake’ the effect through simple software solutions – Photoshop, picasa and apps like After Focus on Android
Usually faster autofocus	While this is true for many bridge cameras it’s not the case for mine (Fuji HS50) which matches and is often faster than your average DSLR at locking focus
RAW mode photography available should you need it (which in many amateur cases you won’t)	RAW mode is available in some bridge cameras as well like the Fuji HS50 though I admit I’ve never used it
The placebo effect – makes one feel that by owning it, you automatically take great photographs	The Fuji HS series looks every bit as much as a DSLR and has all the bells and whistles. They even have full manual zoom and focus rings.

I’ve given the Fuji HS 50 as an example as it’s one of the best bridge cameras on the market today (and since I own one I can attest to it's greatness). Also most of my photographs are limited to Facebook albums (yes I’m one of those) and with that massive 24mm to 1000mm lens I don’t ever need to crop into a photo so there’s never any perceptible noise in my photographs (a common issue with all small sensor non-DSLR cameras). For me a good bridge camera is the clear choice and I know that most of you out there are like me. You should know I love experimenting with challenging photography situations and this camera is a perfect tool to give me that freedom (fast shutter, amazing lens, wide ISO range, good screen, tones of useful presets, very good EXR mode (especially the pixel-binning 8MP mode), complete manual zoom and focus plus a great battery life.

A demonstration of the massive zoom capability of today's bridge cameras

I’ve owned a couple of bridge cameras and have no plans of making a switch to a DSLR yet. My bridge camera is ideally suited for long range wildlife shots, landscape panorama shots and macro shots of insects or flowers. For portrait shots I’d use software to blur the background and for night shots I’d use a tripod so in essence I don’t think I’ll need a DSLR. Do you think otherwise?

Check out this video that compares the older HS20 with a Nokon D700 -

Guest post by Prithvi Raj