UNKILLED

MADFINGER Games, the folks behind Dead Trigger 1 and Dead Trigger 2, have now released Dea… er, UNKILLED, a new and completely different kind of first-person zombie shooter. In it, you blast your way through New York City streets during the onset of a zombie apocalypse, using the left side of the screen for movement and the right side for aim.
Because your weapon fires automatically once something is in your sights, the controls of the game feel incredibly smooth. There’s a cheesy storyline to follow, but the real fun is in blasting through undead hordes with extras like rockets and bullet-time buffs. If you want to see what the latest tech is capable of, you need to check this game out.

Need for Speed: No Limits

Need for Speed: No Limits is almost the complete opposite of Prune. It’s big and loud, and is the latest game in a long-running race series. EA has pushed out a number of these titles on Android, and this latest installment sees you competing in races in order to improve your reputation and your car.
The game takes place in an urban setting and the races are often short and sweet – some take less than a minute to complete – making it ideal for short sessions. EA nails the look and feel of the cars and environments, and the game is undeniably polished, but do expect in-app purchases.

download from google play

Color Switch

Color Switch might be the most popular game on Android right now and if you play it you'll immediately see why. You tap the screen to bounce a ball upwards through a series of obstructions. Each of these obstructions is made up of four colors, and your bouncing ball will only pass through it if it is the same color. The tricky part is that the obstruction is also moving. Each time the ball passes, it changes color and faces a new moving obstacle.
It sounds more difficult in theory than it is in practice: it plays like a minutely more nuanced Flappy Bird. The key difference is that, unlike Flappy Bird, you progress at your own pace: it’s possible to keep the ball aloft without actually moving through the next goal.
You are forced to be patient and wait for the right moment, before pushing through the next goal. Rushing ahead regularly results in an early demise – and it's a painful experience. Color Switch is another one of those frustrating, just-one-more-turn, "tap tap tappy" titles which are great for comparing high scores with friends.  

Download Color Switch from Google Play

Dead Effect 2

 

This is another not-so-original Android title (even its name is a cross between two other games, Mass Effect and Dead Space). It’s a free-to-play first-person shooter that takes place onboard a zombie infested space station and sees you killing mutants and solving some light puzzles in order to survive.
Dead Effect 2's major strength is that it looks incredible – the graphics are really pushing boundaries. The movement controls are a little floaty by default but, thankfully, they’re completely customizable. What it lacks in gameplay depth, Dead Effect 2 makes up for in polish. If you want something that feels like a console FPS on Android, this is it.
Dead Effect 2
download now from google play and enjoy 

Dying Light: The Following Review

Discerning gamers often view downloadable content (DLC) with suspicion: they believe that too often, it exists solely to give games publishers a means of making an extra buck on the back of once-popular games. However, there are signs of a recent shift in attitudes, resulting in slabs of DLC which conform to what gamers actually want – rather than what publishers want to sell them. The Following, a substantial piece of DLC for last year’s excellent open-world zombie game Dying Light, is a case in point.
For a start, it’s huge – its map, developer Techland reckons, is twice as big as that of the original game, and that feels like a plausible claim. The action begins with protagonist Kyle Crane outside the city of Harran, in a mountainous region, from which he descends to find farmlands. Most of those are overrun with either zombies or bandits, but Crane comes across pockets of survivors, who apparently owe their continued existence to a shadowy cult run by the mysterious Mother. Intrigued, he sets out to find their secret. But first, he must gain the locals’ trust, which he achieves by performing story and side-missions.
Gameplay-wise, there’s a big twist on top of the original game: because The Following is set in a rural area, rather than a city, Crane gets to drive around in a buggy – which can be upgraded (for which you must scavenge parts and fuel from abandoned vehicles) and has its own skill-tree. The buggy is great, and since you gain experience points for mowing down zombies in it, it adds a welcome whiff of Carmageddon to proceedings. Localised driving challenges also often crop up, and as in the original game, you often come across random location-based missions, and – after dark – nests of Volatiles you can clear out.
The story missions are, if anything, better-written and more imaginative than those of the original game, and the same can be said of the side-missions. There are points at which the story comes to a halt and you’re forced into side-missions, in order to build up your local respect, but that never feels like an imposition. You come across new weapons – such as an excellent crossbow – and enemies, such as Freaks, which are essentially bosses which you must approach in highly strategic ways. Often, it’s worthwhile finding a co-operative partner in order to take them down.
On the PlayStation 4, at least, The Following also looks notably better than the original, which itself was by no means a bad-looking game. Overall, it’s a prime example of how DLC should be done: it returns you to a thoroughly enjoyable and beautifully fettled game-world, with plenty of welcome additions and nearly as much substance as the original game. If you played Dying Light but have recently neglected it, The Following is pretty much a must-buy. And if you didn’t, you might want to check out the just-released Enhanced Edition of the game, which includes The Following and other items of DLC such as The Bozak Horde. A rare treat for those who love to slice and dice the undead.

Gears of War: Ultimate Edition PC Requirements Revealed

Gears of War: Ultimate Edition - a remaster of the 2006 Xbox 360 classic released on the Xbox One last year to rave reviews. Prior to the third-person shooter hitting Microsoft's latest black box, the company announced at E3 2015 that the game would be coming to Windows PCs. Since then though, we haven't heard much else. That is, until now.
Perusing through the Windows 10 Store led us to a listing for the game. It's unavailable for purchase at the moment and there's no price either, but we won't be surprised if it isn't long before it will be. Most importantly though, the page indicates what kind of machine you'd need to play it.

Gears of War: Ultimate Edition minimum requirements: 

• OS: 64 bit Windows 10 (v. 1511)
• Processor: Intel Core i5 @ 2.7Ghz / AMD FX 6-core
• Memory: 8GB RAM
• VRAM: 2GB
• GPU: AMD R7 260x / NVIDIA GTX 650 Ti
• HD Space: 60GB
• DirectX12

Gears of War: Ultimate Edition recommended requirements:

• OS 64 bit Windows 10 (v. 1511)
• Processor: Intel Core i5 @3.5GHz+ / AMD FX 8-core
• Memory: 16GB RAM
• VRAM: 4GB
• GPU: AMD R9 290X / NVIDIA GTX 970
• HD Space: 60GB
• DirectX12As per the store page, the above configuration is the "recommended system requirements for 1920X1080P", what this means is, you should ideally be able to play the game at full HD/1920x1080 at 60 frames per second without much trouble. There's a third configuration that's even steeper.
  Gears of War: Ultimate Edition ideal requirements:
• OS 64 bit Windows 10 (v. 1511)
• Processor: Intel Core i7 @4GHz+ / AMD FX 8-core
• Memory: 16GB RAM
• VRAM: 6GB
• GPU: AMD R9 390X / NVIDIA GTX 980 Ti
• HD Space: 60GB
• DirectX12

With a Windows PC of this calibre, the listing claims it is the "recommended system requirements for 4K", so hitting 3840x2160 at 60 frames per second should be of little worry.
Much like Quantum Break it appears that you'll need a superlative Windows PC to get the most out of it. Perplexing considering how underpowered the Xbox One is in comparison to the average gaming PC these days.
As with all Microsoft first-party games, this will be exclusive to the Windows 10 Store, ruling out Steam and other digital storefronts. The Redmond-based firm is hosting an Xbox One and Windows 10 event on February 25 so don't be surprised to see more information, including a potential release date soon.

How to speed up your Android smartphone

Though the hardware of smartphones is steadily becoming more capable it can't be utilised to its fullest potential without the software to tap it. This is personal technology's modern hurdle - the optimisation of both hardware and software to ensure a fast and seamless user experience.

The effects of this optimisation are most tangible for smartphone users, who in today's fast-paced world become impatient and frustrated if their smartphone starts slowing down, hanging, or otherwise impeding their productivity.

The slowdown of Android smartphones can be caused by several reasons, and usually starts becoming noticeable after several months of using them. Here are a few tips for users that feel their Android smartphones have slowed since they purchased the devices.

1.    Install a third-party app launcher
Most Android smartphone manufacturers customise the OS on their devices, with specially-designed skins, launchers or UIs that sport widgets, layouts and other custom features in addition to the vanilla OS offering. While some users do find these customisations and added features useful, they can potentially slowdown the smartphone.

A simple workaround is to install a good third-party launcher (simpler than rooting or installing a custom ROM on the smartphone), which should remove most of the custom features, whilst also providing personalisation options. Some of the best launchers available in the Google Play store are 'Nova Launcher', 'GO Launcher EX', and 'Apex Launcher'.

2.    Remove extra apps, wallpapers, widgets
If users have a significant number of apps installed, it could slow down their smartphones. Users need to ask themselves if all the apps they have installed are being used, and then uninstall unused ones. Some apps cannot be uninstalled (especially bloatware apps from smartphone manufacturers), so users will have to settle for disabling them.

Live wallpapers, and an excess of widgets on home screens, can also slow down smartphones, and if users are experiencing performance issues they should consider using static wallpapers instead, and removing any non-vital widgets.

3.    Disable non-vital background processes, check syncing appsSome apps start up with the phone, while others are constantly syncing with online services. Both of these can dramatically slowdown users' smartphones. To check which apps are running in the background, users should visit the Apps section in Settings, and swipe to the 'Running' tab. If there are apps running in the background that are not being utilised, users should try uninstalling the apps, or disabling them, in case the apps can't be removed.

Another thing to be checked is if there are apps that are syncing in the background, and if the benefits of syncing are being utilised by the user. If not, users can turn off synchronisation, saving both data and system resources. To do this, visit Settings>Data usage (could be a separate section called 'Usage' under 'Wireless & networks' menu, depending on your Android version), and scroll down to see which apps are using data.

Users can then either visit individual app settings to turn off synchronisation, or visit the 'Data usage' section's context menu, which has the 'Auto-sync data' option (not present in all Android versions), which can be turned off.

To do the same for any Google app or services, users will need visit Settings>Accounts>Google>UserProfile. Here they can turn off sync settings for individual Google apps and services.

A must-install for Android smartphone users is Advanced Task Killer, which allows users to kill any apps that are taking too much memory (RAM) or slowing down the device for other reasons, such as instability.

4.    Clear app cache
Much-used apps will build up a cache that can slowdown an Android smartphone, and users can delete each used apps' cache regularly to speed up their devices. Unfortunately, this will have to be a rather regular process, as apps will start rebuilding their cache from the moment they are launched. To individually delete each app's cache, users will need to visit Settings>Apps, select the relevant app, and then click on the 'Clear cache' button.

To bulk-delete multiple apps' cache, or to set up scheduled cache-clearing, users can download a third-party application called 'App Cache Cleaner' from the Play Store, which can delete cache for multiple apps, and allow users to set up intervals for regular cache cleaning. Users can also delete cache data for all apps via a native Android option, found at Settings>Storage>Cached data.

5.    Disable animations
Animations are usually graphical transitions between menus, app drawers, and other interface locations. They use system resources to be generated, and occur quite regularly when navigating through a smartphone. They serve no purpose apart from beautifying the smartphone experience, and if users find their devices are slowing down, it is a good idea to turn off animations with no adverse impact on day-to-day use.

Turning off animations unfortunately is not very easy, with the option usually hidden behind the 'Developers options' section. To access 'Developers options', users need to visit Settings>System>About Phone where they can find the 'Build number' of their phone. Once they tap the 'Build number' seven times, users will then see 'Developer options' in the system menu. Here, they turn off all types of animation.  Users should be careful not to turn on or off any other option in this section.

6.    Clean out built-in storage
If the built-in storage of a smartphone is nearly full, the device will slow down quite dramatically. Between 10 and 20 percent of the total built-in storage should be available or free to avoid slowdowns. While a simple solution could be to simply delete all unused apps and clear cache data to save space, ideally users should be looking at a longer lasting solution. Most smartphones come with the option to expand built-in storage via microSD card.

If users' smartphones feature microSD card storage expandability, they should move all media to it, such as pictures, music and videos. Apps can also be moved from internal storage to SD card, by visiting the app's settings via Settings>App and navigate to individual apps. Some older versions of Android don't support this feature, and users will have to download an 'Apps to SD card' app from the Google Play store.

7.    Update firmware
While certain updates can have adverse effects, the general rule of thumb is that a firmware update for a smartphone will bring improvements of various types, usually including performance optimisations. Users experiencing reduced performance on their smartphones should check if the manufacturer has released a firmware update for them.

To do this, users should visit Settings>System>About>Software Updates and check if an update is available over-the-air. If not present here, users can also check by connecting their smartphones to the PC suite software provided by the manufacturer, and check for updates there.

While most updates do not require users to back up their smartphones before the update, we recommend users do so just in case something does go wrong - it's better to be safe than sorry.

8.    Root phone, install custom ROM
While we don't recommend this method to anybody but a power user, the problem of a slowing Android smartphone is often solved by this method, with the user installing a custom ROM that is lighter and less-resource intensive than the manufacturer-customised UI and firmware. The method is similar to installing a third-party app launcher (Tip 1), however, has a much wider effect, essentially replacing all the software on the phone.

There are several guides and resources available online that can help users root their devices, and install custom ROMs from a database of independently developed firmware. XDA Developers Forum is one of the best resources for this, and users are recommended to read in detail the instructions and discussions about the specific custom ROM for their particular smartphone before going ahead. You can also visit CyanogenMod's website, which provides several easy installation tools and walkthroughs for its ROMs.

Please note, rooting smartphones or installing custom ROMs on them is usually (there are some tools also available) a rather complicated task, and a risky one that can see users lose all their data, or end up with a bricked device. Rooting or flashing smartphones also usually voids manufacturer warranty.

9.    SSD TRIM
Smartphones utilise solid state drives for their storage needs, and an inherent flaw with such a storage device is that when data is deleted from flash memory cells, the cells need to be completely wiped before they can used for a write process again. This requires the OS to issue a TRIM command to the drive to specific which cells are unused and should be wiped.

Google reportedly fixed this problem in Android 4.3 and higher, but if you are running an older version of Android, a solution does exist that will allow users to issue TRIM commands to the SSD. Users will need to root their smartphones, and install LagFix from the Play Store. Once again, rooting smartphones is a risky process and we recommend caution.