There’s an unwritten rule in Stuff’s lunchtime FIFA 12 tournament: too much showboating and you’ll find yourself on the receiving end of a what’s known in the business as a reducer. There’s a time and a place for that sort of thing – it’s called FIFA Street. EA’s reboot of the flair-focused footy sim is what the sport would be like if it’d been concocted by Cristiano Ronaldo in a lab deep under Nike HQ. On these pitches, trickery is king.

Your ‘career’ mode is the World Tour, which starts at grassroots level with regional competitions all around the UK. Success on then opens competitions around the globe.

The various game modes are played on differing pitch sizes, from dingy underpasses to Olympic-style arenas the size of two basketball courts. But in each one the aim of the game is the same: to put the ball in the back of the net.

Where each mode differs (and how it differs to full-fat FIFA) is in specific match rules and team size. Panna, for example, is all about embarrassing your opponent with as many points-scoring skill moves as possible before putting the ball in the goal in order to bank them; concede before doing so and those points will be lost. Futsal, on the other hand, is much more like a standard game of six-a-side, with fouls punished as normal and no walls to stop the ball going out of play.

No matter the mode you’ll be rewarded for flair. Individual players earn points every time they beat someone on the pitch using skill moves, which are executed using various combinations of the right stick, shoulder and trigger buttons.

As players level up, these points can be turned into skill traits or spent on unlocking particular party tricks, from relatively beginner stuff such as Rainbow Flicks and Flip-Flaps, to almost balletic combos of fake passes and dummies.

To anyone who’s played FIFA 12 the game will feel fairly familiar, thanks to the inclusion of that game’s Player Impact Engine and Tactical Defending. The major controls are also the same and even the least flamboyant player can pick up FIFA Street and pull off a few basic tricks in no time. In execution, however, it’s very different. This is football in microcosm. It’s more about individual battles than defence-piercing runs or subtle teamwork.

Because the action moves so quickly and the small pitches easily get clogged with bodies, manually selecting the player you want to control can be frustrating, but the sprint button is your friend – a quick 10-yard burst can normally put you in front of the man with the ball. At such close quarters and with touches often being featherlight it can also be easy to win a 1-on-1 and still accidentally leave without the ball.

But these are minor gripes. Despite the almost constant showboating, the satisfaction of stringing together a combo of moves that’d leave Lionel Messi open-mouthed before nutmegging the keeper doesn’t wear off quickly. Equally, a last-ditch, match-saving block that wins you a 4-a-side tournament in Portsmouth is just as fist-pump-inducing as it is in the FA Cup final on FIFA 12.

For all its shared DNA, this is a very different world to FIFA 12. Pinpoint 40-yard passes have no place, there is no offside and there are only three different pre-set tactical systems. For football fans who enjoy the twists and turns of a football match, and not just the ones at the feet of its more flamboyant players, FIFA Street might feel like a stunted version of the beautiful game. But it’s certainly no ugly duckling.

STUFF SAYS

A football game that’ll divide FIFA fans like a Cesc Fabregas through ball – but one that rewards casual and hardcore players alike

Beards are, like, funny. At least to the special ops soldiers of Unit 13, who seem to divide their time between top-secret incursions into terrorist camps and taking the mickey out of their colleague’s bushy chin moss. Thankfully, while the rather forced pops at beards fizzle out fast, the appeal of this taut third-person shooter doesn’t.

Unit 13 juggles stealth and action with skill. It’s like a more action-orientated Splinter Cell but without the usual Tom Clancy waffle. Instead of convoluted tales of geopolitics Unit 13 tells players just two things. One, that you belong to an elite squad of beard-hating Americans and, two, that your targets are Middle Eastern terrorists with a penchant for Yasser Arafat headdresses. They probably have beards, too, the bastards.

While the story is paper thin, the action in Unit 13 is spot-on. Its balance is tipped towards sneakiness and fools who rush in will get turned into human Swiss cheese in seconds, but – with a little bit of forethought – there’s plenty of room for lively cover-based shootouts.

Unit 13 also does a good job of mixing up its action. The 36 solo missions come in four flavours: sneaky ‘covert’ operations; against-the-clock ‘deadline’ tasks; trigger-happy ‘direct action’ scenarios; and demanding ‘elite’ assignments where health doesn’t recharge and checkpoints don’t exist.

On top of this there are assassination missions to unlock and share using Vita’s social networking app Near and daily challenges that tempt you back day after day in the hope of stamping your name on the game’s leaderboard.

Rounding off the package is a two-player online co-op mode that shows that this precise and slick militaristic shooter is equally smart with friends despite its stealth elements.

Unit 13 won’t win prizes for innovation or for the limited brainpower of its enemies but it’s an entertaining game that comfortably outmaneuvers many of the third-person shooters available for home systems.

STUFF SAYS

Low on originality, high on quality action, Unit 13 is a PS Vita must-buy

If ninjas are supposed to be shadowy, silent assassins then clearly the creators of Ninja Gaiden 3 weren’t paying any attention in history class. For Ninja Gaiden 3, the latest in this enduring series of ninja action games that date back to the 80s, has little time for sneaking ‘em up.

Instead it’s a thrilling hack ‘em up defined by glorious yet very bloody swordplay, over-the-top boss battles and the insane acrobatics of the hero, Ryu Hayabusa.

The game starts with Ryu leaping off Big Ben (yep, that Big Ben) and straight into a battle with dozens of armed terrorists, and it rarely pauses for breath after that. In fact, it only gets more and more explosive, deadly and wild.

The action is a whirlwind of sword strikes, flips, jumps, slides and angry, fiery ninja magic. It looks and feels fantastic throughout, not just during the scripted God of War-style button pressing moments. The fast cutting camera, the blistering pace and the swarms of enemies make this a game that will pummel anyone without lightning reflexes.

As with previous Ninja Gaidens, the standard modes are rarely kind to the player and that’s part of appeal – the pressure forcing players to hone their virtual ninja skills to perfection.

But there’s an olive branch to the less skilled this time round in the form of the Hero mode, where blocking happens automatically leaving you to concentrate on slicing and dicing the enemy like you’re making sushi on MasterChef.

Beyond the nimble comic book spectacular of the story there are two online multiplayer modes. The first is Clan Battle, a team deathmatch for up to eight players enlivened by some backstabbing, while the other is Ninja Trials, a co-op challenge mode.

Variety isn’t Ninja Gaiden 3’s strongest point, though, but when the action is this furious and heart pumping it’s easy to be thankful that the developers were too busy daydreaming to listen in class.

STUFF SAYS

It isn’t realistic, but it’s spectacular fun and more welcoming to newcomers than ever before

For five years Mass Effect has been building up to this moment. In the first two games players got to fall in love with its intricate and convincing sci-fi world.

We met, chatted with, befriended, fought and even bedded its alien species. We explored a galaxy of barren Dune-like planets, 70s futurist architecture and just about everything in between. And, above all else, we moulded that world through the actions of our very own incarnation of Commander Shepherd.

But now that world is at an end. The Reapers – a race of merciless and enormous metal squids – have arrived in huge numbers to exterminate all life in the galaxy. In short, Mass Effect 3 shows us the world we shaped and grew to love being torn apart.

We meet old friends and foes, discover how earlier choices shaped events and see some of the characters who stood with us shoulder-to-shoulder in previous games meet their end. For anyone who guided their version of Commander Shepherd through the earlier games, this war feels personal. Mass Effect offers a world covered in the grubby fingerprints of its players and it’s impossible not to feel emotionally connected to it when you’ve spent so much time within it.

Not that this fight, which revolves around Shepherd gathering support from across the galaxy to defeat the Reapers, will alienate newcomers. Mass Effect 3 is a marvellous game: its urgent, powerful story is superb and its action-packed missions are downright fantastic. It’s just that if you played the first two this excellent game will be even better.

The action will also make players of the last Mass Effect feel at home, but there are plenty of enhancements. It feels more responsive than before, and the new melee attacks make hitting enemies on the noggin with your gun a viable and handy addition to the combat mix. The missions also feel less corridor-like than last time, in large part because Shepherd can now climb ladders and jump over platforms.

Mass Effect 3 also finds a great balance between the RPG complexity of the original and its super-streamlined sequel. The weight of weapons now matters and there are plenty of ways to modify your guns, which, by the way, also feel truly distinct from each other this time around. It’s a similar story with levelling-up, with new options within each of Shepherd’s abilities so that you can, for example, tailor your incineration powers towards maximum damage or larger blast radius. The addition of sticky grenades is also a welcome addition to Shepherd’s arsenal.

We’d like to rave more and more about the story, but there are simply too many brilliant moments to mention and telling you everything would only spoil it anyway. Let’s sum up with this, then: Mass Effect 3 is one of the highest gaming highpoints of the past decade. It’s videogaming at its most ambitious, and a series finale that ends with one almighty bang.

STUFF SAYS

Exceptional in every way imaginable, you need Mass Effect 3 in your life

If Syndicate is to be believed, the megacorporations of tomorrow will stick microchips in our heads and use killer cyborgs to enforce brand loyalty. It’s a future where Google would send the Terminator after you for ditching Android Irn-Bru Mushroom Pasty or whatever wacky name they’ll have for their OS in 2069.

Instead of playing a man on the run for changing his smartphone contract, Syndicate wisely casts you as the cold-hearted man-machine whose idea of corporate espionage is to gun down your rival’s employees.

Although this cyberpunk vision is in keeping with the 19-year-old PC and Amiga game that inspired it, in every other way Syndicate 2012 is unrecognisable from its ancestor. Syndicate is now a first-person shooter with a taste for brutality that is surprising even in a genre known for its morality blind spot. You stomp on heads, see people recoil as bullets pierce flesh and – darkest of all – hack their brain chips and force them to shoot themselves as they wail in fear.

These hacking powers coupled with the meaty gunplay do a great job of making the player feel as if they are controlling a Terminator-like killing machine. But it’s all wasted on the solo campaign, which is a banal trudge pockmarked by joyless boss battles and a by-numbers story that thinks it might surprise players to learn that the killer cyborg-hiring corporation they work for might be a bit dodge.

The solidity of the combat and quality of the presentation may be enough for some players to overlook some of Syndicate’s more mundane aspects, but in the painfully overcrowded FPS market, it’s not unreasonable to expect more.

Thankfully, when you switch over to the online co-op Syndicate finds its swagger. The four-player missions are feisty shootouts with challenging enemies and open-ended action that’s enlivened by the need to heal comrades, steal corporate secrets or defend equipment.

Unfortunately, Syndicate’s greatest strength is under-utilized – with just nine co-op missions and no competitive multiplayer, the thrills fade fast. If only the developers dumped the solo missions entirely and spent their time beefing up the co-op action instead, the overall experience would be more unique, more interesting, and downright better.

STUFF SAYS

While decent in places (particularly co-op), this is far from the glorious return of Syndicate we were hoping for

We weren’t actually allowed to touch this limited edition Leica M9-P today – it’s the only ‘Edition Hermes’ in the region out of a grand total of 300 in the world. And obviously we look like the kind of people to drop, drown or gun down expensive gadgets.

But we were given a quick demo of the camera’s main ’style’ features, and since we couldn’t take snaps with it, Leica kindly let us take plenty of photos of this US$29,000 digital rangefinder.

The regular M9-P sells for just shy of US$10,000 so why all the extra dollars for this one? That would be the special silver-chrome design and Veau Swift (whatever that is) calfskin leather supplied by French fashion house Hermes.

This has been wrapped around the camera’s body and used for the shoulder strap that Leica’s throwing in for free with the set.

In essense this is the M9-P in a new frock but designer Walter de’Silva (whose day job includes working on Bugattis and Bentleys) was really allowed to go to town with tweaking the looks of this special edition. He’s made the top and base plates all minimalist with new shutter speed dial, multi-function dial and shutter release.

There’s no hotshoe up top and none of the swirly Leica writing that you’ll see on the rest of the M series – the USB slot and frame selector lever have also been axed from the front and sides. You do get a dedicated serial number though and a limited edition number, just so you know you’re part of the Leica/Hermes club.

The lens has also been redesigned to match the camera’s body– this is the silver-anodised Leica Summilux-M 50mm f/1.4 ASPH lens that comes with the standard set available in May.

If you really want to push the boat out, there’s a three lens set out in June that’s limited to only 100 sets in the world – giving you 28mm, 50mm and 90mm options as well as a Hermes camera bag. But at US$58,000 a pop you might have to sell that boat, and everything else you own.

Not that we think anyone has got this far still thinking they can afford a Leica M9-P Edition Hermes but if you’re interested in the camera’s specs, look no further than the M9-P’s credentials. There’s an 18MP sensor on board, 2.5in LCD display with sapphire crystal, scratch-resistant covering round the back and compatibility with most M series Leica lenses.

Drop us a line if you get one.

[via Stuff.tv]

We’ve lavished HTC’s latest flagship Android handset with praise, which is why we feel the pain of American gadgeteers as news of a temporary ban in the USA has reached our shores, The Verge reports.

Apple’s lawyers are (perhaps unsurprisingly) wielding the banhammer, which has resulted in the HTC One X and Evo 4G LTE being indefinitely delayed at customs.

The culprit? An infringement on Apple patent #5,946,647, which outlines the basic functionality of tapping a phone number in, for example, a webpage, before selecting to either call or message it.

This isn’t the first time that Apple’s lawyers have caused a stir – just ask Samsung, whose recently unveiled Galaxy S3 handset is more rounded than its predecessors, most likely as a response to Apple’s multiple lawsuits against them.

Lets hope that things get sorted quickly, for the sake of our American Android brothers who are understandably distressed during this difficult time.

[via Stuff.tv]

The Parrot ZIK cans are the first touch-controlled wireless Bluetooth NFC headphones. But they’re great for more than just cutting-edge technology.

They look perfect, because they’re from designer Robert Stark. They feel excellent, as they’re comfortably cushioned, wireless and have active noise-canceling. And they’re even attentive with mics and a bone conduction sensor that lets you take calls with perfect mic and speaker levels.

But the kicker is their totally unique touch controls that let you swipe your finger on the earpiece to control volume and tracks. And to pause? Simply take them off, and putting them back on will resume play. On top of that they have NFC so all you need do is touch your device to the left ear and it’ll be paired instantly. And if the 24 hour battery runs down simply plug in the supplied audio cable and listen the old fashioned way (minus active noise canceling).

The Parrot ZIK headphones might be a steep US$565, but as a new technology pioneer with serious quality sound and looks, it’s not extortionate. Pick yours up from July.

[via Stuff.tv]

BlackBerry 10 OS – overview

It’s been two weeks since RIM showed off its BlackBerry 10 OS (BB 10 OS) demo at BlackBerry World and although we were impressed with the BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha phone in our hands on review, it was unfortunately only running a modified PlayBook OS at the time.

Earlier today we were treated to an intimate hands on preview of BB 10 OS running on a BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha handset and were shown its multitasking and gesture capabilities. Scroll on for our impressions…

BlackBerry 10 OS – UI

BB 10 OS’ UI looks clean and minimalistic from the short time we spent with it. Running apps are displayed as live cards/tiles on one of the homescreens, and tapping one opens up the app in question instantly. The software is still in its early stages so we didn’t get a detailed look at the menus as a whole, but it all looked clean and very finger friendly.

BlackBerry 10 OS – gestures

RIM is focusing heavily on gesture support to ensure easy one-handed navigation and aims to banish screens littered with menus and navigation icons with intuitive thumb gestures.

Swiping your thumb from the bottom right of any open app to the left will push in a notification bar on the right hand side.

Continue to slide and you’ll drag out BB 10 OS’ unified inbox in its entirety, and when we say unified, we mean it. Everything from hotmail to BBM is included here, all in one easy-to-access package.

Swiping your thumb from the left hand side of an email attachment reveals the original email, while continuing the slide brings you back to the unified inbox.

It all works really well and is certainly one of the thumb-friendliest methods of navigation we’ve seen.

BlackBerry 10 OS – keyboard

RIM’s hardware keyboards are the stuff of portable QWERTY legend, so its onscreen offering has a lot of pressure to live up to. RIM appears to have tackled the touchscreen keyboard challenge head-on and has implemented a host of features to provide one of the best-looking stock touchscreen smartphone keyboards we’ve seen.

RIM has worked with TouchType (the maestro’s behind SwiftKey) to deliver a keyboard that intelligently learns your mannerisms from your Facebook and Twitter accounts, as well as your messages and emails, to accurately predict what you’re going to type next.

Although we couldn’t test this feature to its full extent today, we were fans of the predicted words appearing on the keyboard itself, which could then be swiped up to use as the next word.

Swiping down cycles through the numbers and symbols, while swiping from right to left deletes the previous word.

Perhaps the most impressive ability is the custom keyboard feature which learns where you hit particular letter keys and invisibly adjusts the ‘sweet spot’ according to your typing habits. Over time, this will ensure that miss-hit keys are greatly reduced and that you should be able to type near fluently with little to no effort.

BlackBerry 10 OS –first impressions

Our time with BlackBerry 10 OS was brief, but it still gave us a good idea of the direction that RIM is heading into with regards to intuitive gestures and the honing of the all-important keyboard which is the portal to nearly all of a smartphone’s communication abilities.

We like what we’ve seen so far, so here’s to hoping that RIM continues to develop what is shaping up to be a promising platform so that BlackBerry can finally be thrust into the next generation, joining the iPhones and Androids of the smartphone world at last.

[via Stuff.tv]

Facebook buys wildly popular, photo-heavy app Instagram. Facebook pays millions for it. So it was only a matter of time till we saw some of the retro-styled photo app’s influences creeping in.

And here’s the first of them – on Facebook’s mobile site and in updates available to its iOS and Android apps, Facebook has rolled out a refresh in the form of photos that are three times larger than they were before.

Single photos and three photo album previews in the news feed will fill your smartphone’s screen widthways to save you time by making clicking – and waiting for images to buffer – unnecessary.

Zuckerberg’s no doubt hoping that means more time swiping through your mates’ photos, more time on Facebook and more advertisers queuing up to throw tasty new products in front of nearly 1 billion users.

[via Stuff.tv]