Magellan RoadMate 2136T-LM Micro Review

Introduction

Today uryaen.com takes a fairly brief look at the Magellen RoadMate 2136T-LM. As the outcome of testing was wholly negative, this review will only be published in Micro Review format and without the usual array of images and videos. 

Read more: Magellan RoadMate 2136T-LM Review

Review

NZXT USB Expansion Device. 

This is going to be mostly a video review. Everything you need to know is in the video, and it's short, so just fire it up. 

Bottom line, does what it claims it does, without fuss. 

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Amazon Kindle Fire Micro Review

Main Idea

Read the full review here

The Kindle Fire is nothing more or less than a portable window into Amazon Digital Services. If you already own an iPad, there's really nothing to see here. The Fire will not do anything that the iPad cannot do better. If you have a fully rooted 4+ inch Android phone full of custom content, you're really not the target audience for this device. 

The Kindle Fire has no cameras, and thus, is not a "FaceTime" type of device. It's not for taking pictures of your food to post on Facebook. It's not for running GPS software while driving. It's not for most of these forms of two way interactivity. 

Paid Content Only

Fire comes with what looks like a Facebook app, but it's really just a link to the website. With Fire, accessing anything decent requires more money. 

Amazon App Store - More money

Netflix - More money

Hulu Plus - More money

comiXology - More money

Again, that's not in itself a huge issue, but when you already HAVE a lot of local content or apps, and you want to transfer them to Fire, you find that either you can't, or you have to pay for them again. 

Things I don’t like

Lack of Bluetooth -

As I've said, if my cheap off brand Android phone can have Bluetooth, surely Amazon could have wedged it in here without raising the price. Amazon is hoping you'll spend thousands of dollars on content for the device, which is why they're willing to sell it so cheap. They could have thrown Blue in the mix. 

Lack of expansion slot -

You're going to hear this from every reviewer on the web, so I won't beat a dead fish here. Amazon is really hoping you'll lean hard on its cloud service. With a public that STILL does not fully trust cloud services to begin with, and a lack of "always on" internet access, this really is an odd design decision. Where are you going to use a 7" Tablet? At home, in front of your router? Or is it more likely that you'll use it out and about?

Other Features

None. That's it. Fin. That's what the Fire is and does, comprehensively. We can hope for some firmware updates to resolve audio and gaming performance issues, but nothing is going to change the limited storage and lack of Bluetooth. 

Conclusion

The Amazon Kindle Fire. Who is it for? If you have an Amazon Prime Membership, or are willing to pay for one, and have a desire to access all of that content in a portable device, go for it, you'll find little that is easier and less expensive. 

If you are looking for an inexpensive Android Tablet Computer, don't look here. You're just going to be frustrated. 

All images copyright 2011 uryaen.com . Image credits: Amanda, Bethany, Caroline, and Audrey. 

Fallout New Vegas Micro Review

Read to full review here

I LOVE the game, and wish to see its sequels greatly improved, and less reliant on hobbled console kiddie conventions. I have put more than 400 hours into this game so far, and plan to do more. 

Main Idea

Main game - A highly flawed, bit slow console port, with a clunky and terrible UI, no PC optimization for UI, but ultimately an extremely addictive experience. 

DLC

Dead Money - Loved it. Completion time - Around 8 hours. 

Honest Hearts - Hated it. Completion time - around 3.5 hours. 

Old World Blues - Loved it. Completion Time - 9.5 hours

Lonesome Road - Loved it. Completion Time - 6 hours

First Impressions and “Draw”

I love Las Vegas the town. Seeing it in a video game is always exciting to me. Therefore an opening movie with a reimagined post-apocalyptic Vegas makes me giddy. This one does not disappoint. The fact that one starts the game FAR from the actual Vegas and on a normal play through may not see the Strip for many hours is torture. Not a negative thing, it’s just torture. I want to see the lights!!

RPGs that require an hour and a half of reconfiguring the controls JUST to be able to start playing make me want to hit “uninstall” but that isn’t the problem here. I wasn’t distracted from the initial movies and quest stuff because I had to keep pausing to go configure YET another esoteric control. ( I’m talking to you CDProjeckt ) The basic control scheme did not get in the way of enjoying the game and kudos for that! That’s pretty important to me.

Time Commitment Required

Around 100+ hours for a good complete experience, and many more if you really want to explore all that the game has to offer.

Conclusion

A resoundingly fun experience, hobbled on occasion with odd bugs, load screen crashes, and console conventions, but optimized well enough for PC to get things such as resolution, mouse look, and keyboard commands mostly right. The fact that I cannot re-bind the “Take All” and “Exit”, etc. commands is frustrating, as the game assumes WASD control, which makes about as much sense honestly as a console controller, but I digress. I love the game, and greatly look forward to any sequels. If not for the console nigs, the score would be higher, but if I had to pick an arbitrary number to represent the overall score based on the conventions of metacritic:

Metacritic friendly Score:

Final Score - 88