Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare coming spring 2014

Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare was unveiled during E3 2013 this week, but unlike the first Plants vs. Zombies and the sequel coming July 18, Garden Warfare will be a third-person shooter themed after the series, which makes sense, seeing how the title of the game is a play on the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare series.

The game will be headed exclusively to the Xbox One and the Xbox 360 at launch sometime in the spring next year. However, it’ll be making its way to the PC and other platforms afterward. This will be the first time that the series will depart from its tower defense roots in favor of a third-person shooter approach.

The game will feature up to 4-player co-op, as well as 24-player competitive modes. There will also be new characters, and it looks like you’ll be able to compete on both the plant side and the zombie side and play as practically any plant you want. There are even flying onions that mimic helicopters, although we’re not sure what they do yet.

Both plants and zombies can be customized with hundreds of unique items and customizations. Details on what kind of upgrades and items that you’ll have at your disposal isn’t said, but hopefully there will be different weapons and armor of sorts, as well as different perks just like in the Call of Duty games, but we’ll have to wait and see.

We already know that Plants vs. Zombies 2 will be coming July 18 exclusively on iOS at first (with more platforms to come). That game will essentially be the same genre as the first title, but it will come with more plants and new zombies to try and kill off before they reach your house. Needless to say, Plants vs. Zombies 2 should be enough to hold us over until next spring.

VIA: Toon Zone

Galaxy S 4 Gold and Platinum-plated editions suggest Goldgenie’s faith in Samsung

The Samsung Galaxy S 4 has seen its fair share of editions since its launch earlier this year, but none come close to the extravagance of the Gold, Platinum, and Rose Gold versions appearing customized by Goldgenie. This company is known for their hyping-up of devices of many types, making it clear with each choice of pre-customized model that they’ve got enough faith in its popularity that they’ll make their mark on a broad scale. With the Samsung Galaxy S 4, the first non-Apple, non-BlackBerry device comes to the goldsmith.

This isn't, then again, the first run through the association has gold or platinum-plated an apparatus outside of Blackberry or Apple. They've additionally made with the plating on the definitive Nintendo Wii, the definitive Nintendo Ds, and the Xbox 360. They've not endeavored with any Playstation models or the Wii U thusly. 

In a deliberation to be as novel as would be prudent, no doubt, this group has made some iphones plated in gold and additionally a "strong gold" iphone passing by the name Solid Gold Superstar or Superstar Ice iphone 5. This unit works with either 200 grams of strong 18ct. gold on its own or – if the client chooses they have to go more distant than this – the gold in addition to 364 jewels, equalling out to be 5.5 carats in sum. The precious stones can additionally be exchanged out for "any valuable stone you require", as its been said. 

The Samsung Galaxy S 4 will run right around seventeen hundred British pounds, otherwise known as two thousand, six hundred dollars here in the Usa. That is the expense of the telephone without the gold plating numerous times over: in the mean time those brilliant and precious stone encrusted iphones will run in the six-digit extent. 

This isn't the first we've become aware of deceiving out cell phones as being what is indicated – Goldgenie is additionally absolutely not the main association that makes peculiarities, for example this. Fruit allegedly spoke with the association Vertu quite recently about how conceivable it would've been to function with Sapphire Crystal Display glass on the iphone (its not, as you may have guessed). 

The crew at Vertu carries machines, for example jewel encrusted iphones moreover – that one taking a toll a cool 15 million bucks. 

Resemble a sensible kind of scenario to you? Do you suppose it an exceptional thought to make your cell phone (or tablet, or whatever available gadget) worth much more than its weight in gold, so to talk? There's just no close to the plausible outcomes regarding the matter of applying fine metals to the metals we utilize each day – that is for sure. 

ZTE Open with Firefox OS shows up at the FCC, User Manual included

Officially announced by ZTE and Mozilla back in February, the ZTE Open has been approved by the FCC a few hours ago. In case you don’t know yet, the Open is the world’s first smartphone to run Mozilla’s Firefox OS.

It comes with WCDMA 850 / 1900 MHz connectivity according to the FCC, so it will be usable on AT&T’s 3G network. Of course, AT&T probably has no plans to sell this handset, but that’s another story.

Sporting a 3.5 inch HGVA (480 x 320) display, the ZTE Open features a single-core 1GHz Qualcomm MSM7225A Snapdragon processor, dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, 3.2MP rear camera, 256MB of RAM, MicroSD card support, and a 1,200 mAh battery. If you’re interested in checking out its User Manual, the FCC has posted it here.

Spain, Venezuela and Colombia are three of the markets that are certainly going to get the ZTE Open, as Telefonica will release the smartphone there. Sales should start in the next few months. Needless to say, the Open will be cheap (although we don’t know just how cheap).

Alcatel has a Firefox OS handset, too: the OneTouchFire, which – like the ZTE Open – is an entry-level device.

LG, Huawei, Foxconn and Sony are also getting ready to launch products running Mozilla’s Firefox OS (with the Japanese company probably not doing it this year).

Alcatel’s OneTouch Firefox OS phone also hits the FCC

ZTE’s Open smartphone was approved by the FCC, and today Alcatel’s Firefox OS-based smartphone – theOneTouch Fire – has been also approved.

Just like the ZTE One, the Alcatel OneTouch Fire is an affordable, entry-level device. It features a 3.5 inch HVGA display, HSDPA, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0, A-GPS, 3MP rear camera, 1GHz single-core processor, 256MB of RAM, MicroSD card support (up to 32GB), and a 1,400 mAh battery.

As it has done in the case of ZTE Open, the FCC has posted the User Manual of the Alcatel OneTouch Fire, too.

Telefonica will launch both the ZTE Open and Alcatel OneTouch Fire in select markets starting the next few months.

In the US, Firefox OS handsets will be released only starting 2014. Sprint could be the first carrier to do it. There’s no word on what companies will manufacture Firefox OS phones for the US market. It could be not just ZTE or Alcatel, but also LG, Huawei, or even Sony.

Mercedes-Benz CLA 220 CDi Sport pictures

On paper, some ideas seem great. For instance, you can see how the following would seem like a good idea if you were Mercedes-Benz: take one, front-wheel drive, A-Class platform. Give it a footprint and space inside that’s roughly the same as a C-Class saloon and then mix together with a body that uses the bigger, much more exotic four-door coupe style of the CLS. Et voila, it’s the Merc everyone should want. It costs less than a C-Class, but offers a lot more pizazz than most three-box saloons. A sure fire winner? That’s the theory anyway.

Opening the door, we’re immediately not so sure. The CLA uses the A-class’s dashboard architecture and much of its interior is similar. Yet while in the A-class it felt generally fine, in the slightly more premium positioned CLA, it feels a little cheap and plasticky. It’s not bad, but it’s not exactly signing the cheques the exterior purports to write, put it that way.

And is it our memory, or are we sitting higher than we were in the A-Class, even with the seat on its lowest setting? You seem to be sitting on the car, rather than in it. It could be to do with this car’s (overly) extensive spec, which includes electric seats – notorious for not going as low as their manually moving counterparts due to all the gubbins that needs to sit under your bum.

Merc’s COMAND interface is a two-grand option that you must choose, however. Here it’s presented to you via a 7-inch tablet-ike screen – nice apart from when you glance behind it and see how it’s attached to the dash. If you don’t option COMAND, you do still get a tablet screen, albeit a 5.8-inch job. But it’s the feature set you lose that you’ll really miss as opposed to the physical size of the screen. Once acquainted, it’s just as easy to toggle through and pull up vast amounts of information with this interface as it is on any of the company’s bigger machinery.

The seats - while set too high for us - are otherwise great. Most models come with big wing-back units as standard, which have the headrest wrapped into the body of the seat. And while we find the exterior design really quite fussy and busy, it’s an aesthetic we’re sure will appeal to many. It certainly gives the CLA an edge in this class if you’re looking for something different.

But it’s out on the road where the CLA truly starts to fall down. Mercedes’s "220" cdi engine always seems to have plenty of punch and is pretty linear and coupled to the 7-gear automatic box it makes for easy progress. But it has always been a slightly agricultural-sounding unit - in truth, a criticism of most modern direct-injection diesels. Here, subjectively, it’s an ever-present background mill, and is certainly more intrusive than we remember it being in the C-class.

Our biggest gripe is with the ride. We’re used to modern cars riding relatively firmly. The atrocious, pot-holed state of many UK roads still shocks many car company chassis development guys we speak to and it shows when you drive their cars here. Pair that with the designer and customer-driven trend for bigger wheels and a "sportier" experience and you’ve a recipe for a bone-rattling time. Which is the context for telling you that even on (not the biggest available size) 18-inch wheels of our CLA, it is at times uncomfortably hard-riding. It never truly settles, jiggling around on anything but perfect surfaces. Potholes and ridges can really crash through the structure too. Shame. Mercs used to be bastions of comfort.

On the positive side, you can expect great frugality from all the diesel engines offered (there are three) and the flip side of the ride situation is that it offers really impressive levels of grip and quite neutral handling for a front-wheel drive car. The steering feel is meaty and pleasant, too. Plus, you can option all of the leading safety-related kit (Distronic, Lane-Keep Assist and so on) that is available on the firm’s bigger cars.

It’s a little cheaper than the equivalent C-Class too (£29,355 for this model). Combine that with the low CO2 engines and it should make a decent option if you’re a company car driver and it’s aimed squarely at the Audi A3 TDI crowd.

We expected the CLA to be great, a car that shook up a couple of sectors because it’s effectively invented a new one. The reality is that we’d say test drive one and see what you think, but for our money the C-Class is a nicer place to sit and better to drive.

The caveat, of course, is that we were able to drive only this car – the C220 CDi in Sport spec. Somewhere in the CLA range, we suspect, lies a spec and engine combination which might show the car in a more favourable light.

Until we’ve driven a few more variants, we’d suggest that if you’re being swung by the CLA’s looks, stay away from the options list (our car was £40,845 as specced) and keep the wheels as small as you can cope with, aesthetically.

Mad Max gameplay preview, trailer and screens: Eyes-on epic open-world title, due 2014

Mad Max is due to land big in 2014. In addition to the movie - starring Nicolas Hoult, Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron - there's going to be an open-world game. But one isn't connected to the other: the game, which Pocket-lint saw in an early gameplay preview at this year's E3 expo in Los Angeles, is independently produced by Avalanche Studios. And it looks epic.

Open-world seems to be a theme of this year's E3, with stacks of titles offering huge explorable worlds. There's a risk that it'll all get stale quickly, but Mad Max has a fresh appeal to it thanks to scavenging, vehicle upgrade systems and a desolate landscape which looks barren but gorgeous. If anything this title looks to be one of the stand-out games of this year's show.

We're treated to an in-game preview of Mad Max seeking out a vehicle part in order to upgrade bullbars to battering-ram proportions in order to advance through a giant gate, known as the jaw. Initially it looks very much like one man and his car, with not much going on.

But that changes quickly as we're thrust into a pursuit through the desert. The vehicles have the dusty, dirty appearance of those found in the classic movies - a mish-mash of salvaged parts assembled to their best. With a shotgun in tow the on-the-go battle is full of slow-mo and glistening "shoot here" moments that see fire and metal spill onto the sandy floors. Bad guys jump from vehicle to vehicle, resulting in some close-range shotgun dispatches from the roof of your own motor. It's looks like a lot of fun.

Enemies dispatched, we alight the car to salvage loot from bodies and vehicles. Here's where things feel a little bit Grand Theft Auto meets third-person Fallout 3. It's possible to explore the landscape on foot if you choose, whereby you can access more intricate areas your vehicle may not be able to get to.

That exploration aspect includes various scary folk typical of Max style among the desert landscape. At this moment in time their artificial intelligence isn't quite there - but the game's a long way off - as the sneak-up stelth scenes don't take into account explosions and various sounds that would definitely be heard. This needs to be put right for the game to feel more natural.

But the hand-to-hand melee combat that we saw looks akin to a more blood-soaked Batman: Arkham City meets The Matrix. Stacks of slow-mo, including close-ups of special kills such as a thunderstick embedded in one bad guy's chest delivering an explosive finish, make for a fairly gruesome game. There are guns too, but with bullets a rarity in the wastelands you'll need to use these more sparingly - a well-placed sniper bullet to an oil barrel results in a rain of fire, while the trademark sawn-off shotgun can get you out of some sticky close-up situations

.

But it's the vehicles that seems to be the stars of the show. With over-the-top physics everything looks exaggerated in its bounce and movement, in that off-kilter Max kid of way. The game's upgrade system allows for engine, armour, bullbars and other additions to be built up throughout the game. Each element adjusts the way the car will handle, we're told, with weight distribution and different suspension and tyre interactions subtly shifting the feel of the controls.

Available in 2014 on Xbox One, PS4, Xbox 360, PS3 and PC, Mad Max - despite being a franchise - looks to us like it has bags of promise. There're many months of development time left and if Avalanche get this one right then we'll all be in for a treat.

The Evil Within gameplay preview: gruesome survival horror due 2014

The Evil Within. Its title ought to be clue enough that it ain't gonna be pretty, at least not in the traditional sense. Then there's the image of a brain shrouded in barbed wire used as a promotional image that goes one step further to drop a bigger hint.

Billed as a survival horror, The Evil Within could at first glance be accused of being the video game adaptation of the movie Saw meets The Evil Dead. Gameplay has an immediate look of Resident Evil, albeit one that's been extra charred on the fires of hell.

Japanese developers Tango Gameworks take the helm in creating a dingy, detailed yet - somehow - lo-fi gaming world. Details such as added digital image noise to give those dark, low-light scenes the effect of being shot on a struggling camera give it distinct character.

Behind closed doors at Bethesda's show stand at this year's E3 show in Los Angeles, California, Pocket-lint was treated to a couple of live-action scenes from the game. Well, we say "treat" but the gruesome content really won't appeal to all - it's one of the bloodiest games we've seen in a long time and quickly succeeds in delivering a feeling of unease (particularly when viewed in a blacked-out theatre).

The game opens with cops called to a mental asylum to follow up an unknown incident. Upon arrival they encounter dozens of dead bodies and witness a flashy, near-invisible killer dispatch some cops before then capturing the lead character - that'll be you then.

What unfolds gets gristly very quickly. Your character awakens, strung upside down, blood dripping into a pool beneath. In a Texas Chainsaw moment there's a brawling maniac cutting up human bodies for no apparent reason and it looks as though you're about to be next.

Escape is the goal, but stealth is the essential tool. But with stealth comes lots of plodding about. From what we've seen it looks as though at least half of the game is likely to be spent limping around, frustrated and trying to escape from scary monsters reminiscent of The Thing, or zombies that, despite still being nasty looking, are so commonplace in TV, movies and games these days that they didn't cause the biggest gasp.

Note that this catalogue of movie citations seems to show that The Evil Within does seem to enjoy residing in those classic yet often cliched moments. Perhaps that's what will make the title work, or perhaps it's this slow pace that will see its success crawl (again, just like The Thing).

We've only had the chance to witness scenes being played by the game's producers, not play the title ourselves. For now that means it's hard to know exactly how it handles and how big the frights will come. If one thing's for sure it's that the ghoulish enemies are nothing short of terrifying - and that's a pretty big deal in a video game, irrelevant of whether we're yet convinced by the game's shock tactic concept or not.

Possibly among the last of a dying breed, albeit one doused in an extra large serving of the crimson stuff. Family friendly? We think not.

The Evil Within will be available for Xbox One, PS4, PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 in 2014 - no exact release date has been penned in as yet.

Huawei increasingly teases Ascend P6 ahead of 18 June event

Huawei confirmed the Ascend P6 in May via Facebook, where the company's chairman dubbed it a "sweet spot", and now it has all but revealed the Android device on its own Twitter account.
Just a few days ahead of Huawei's Beauty event, where the P6 will officially unveil, the company has published a few images of its thinnest Ascend handset yet. Huawei is touting the beauty and the thickness of its upcoming P6 via tweets - but without providing any specific measurements.

However, the usually spot-on leakster @evleaks claimed earlier this week the P6 would boast a 6.18mm thin body. It will also allegedly sport a 4.7-inch 720p display, 1.5GHz quad-core processor, 8MP BSI rear-facing camera with a 4cm macro lens and a 5MP front-facing camera with a feature called Face Enhance.

Earlier leaked press shots of the Ascend P6 revealed it offers a metal body with a brushed appeal, as well as volume rockers on the right and a camera on the back positioned to the left with flash. The recently posted images from Hauwei confirm all of these physical features and further give a glimpse at the smartphone's packaging.

As for more official news from Huawei, the company sort of hinted on Twitter which markets will soon see the P6. It recently tweeted that its 19 June event is actually “global launch event". 

• Source: Twitter - Huawei

Samsung Galaxy Ace IIe

The Samsung Galaxy Ace IIe doesn’t have the latest specs and it’s a far cry from being a flagship device, but the price is solid for an entry-level smartphone. Both Quebec-based Videotron and Halifax-based Eastlink have added this Android Jelly Bean device to their lineup. The specs of the Ace IIe have it powered by a 1GHz dual-core processor, 3.8-inch display (480 x 800), 5MP camera that captures 720p HD videos. If you’re considering this on Eastlink you’ll have LTE speeds and the prices range from $249 outright, or $29 on the EasyTab. Over at Videotron, the Ace IIe is free on a 3-year reduced plan or $299.95 outright, with 4G HSPA+ speeds.

Source: Videotron, Eastlink

CPU-Z beta goes live on Google Play Store

CPU-Z, perhaps the most popular PC software to find out all the details regarding your computer’s CPU (and more), has officially launched its first beta for Android.

CPU-Z is the Android version of the popular PC tool that allows to get detailed information regarding the CPU (and more) inside your computer. This free application, launched in beta, is now available on Google Play Store.

CPU-Z for Android lets you know the following details regarding your Smartphone:

- SoC (System On Chip) name, architecture, clock speed for each core ;
- System information : device brand & model, screen resolution, RAM, storage.;
- Battery information : level, status, temperature ;
- Sensors.

The app is just under 200 KB in size and requires Android 3.0 Honeycomb or upwards to run (sorry Gingerbread users). Go ahead, download (source link) and install it now and find out about what’s under the good of your lovely smartphone. Note that the app might not display the correct information for all phones as the app, as of now, is in beta stage.

Source: CPU-Z for Android on Google Play Store