Archive for 2013
Samsung Galaxy S4 VS HTC One Comparison
Look and feel
If you follow popular opinion, this is no contest. The consensus is that the HTC One is one of the most gorgeous phones ever made, and the Galaxy S4 is too much like its plastic predecessor, the Galaxy S3. Is there anything to this line of thinking?
Well, like many other things, it comes down to your taste. If you equate more expensive materials with “better,” then yes, the One’s aluminum beats the GS4’s plastic hands-down.
But your own decision doesn’t necessarily have to follow that. I personally don’t mind plastic phones. The GS4’s outside does feel cheaper than the One, but it’s also lighter. It also has fun bonuses like a removable battery and a microSD card slot. The One doesn’t have either.
No matter where your preferences lie, though, it’s hard to deny that the One is quite the looker. It often gets compared to the iPhone, but I think the One’s design is in a class by itself. The iPhone 5 also has an aluminum unibody design, but it feels more familiar. It’s like a stretched-out aluminum version of the iPhone 4S (and iPhone 4). The One is both striking and not quite like anything we’ve seen before.
The One’s back might be its most memorable side ... it’s a sloped silver frame with dual horizontal seams near the top and bottom. But the front is just as impressive, with silver bookends sandwiching the screen and black bezel. Those speaker grilles add something too (more on that soon).
If you’re going for thin, the Galaxy S4 wins (it’s 15 percent thinner). If you’re going for light, the GS4 also wins (it’s 10 percent lighter). To me, the Galaxy S4 feels more like 20 percent lighter – because it’s a slightly larger phone than the One.
Holding both phones in hand, the One feels both heavier and more compact. That’s not to say it’s a beefy phone (it isn’t, by any stretch) – but you’ll know that it’s made of metal. Again, not heavy. Just more ... solid. And dense.
One thing that may or may not be an issue with you: I’m more casual about using the GS4. What I mean is that I’m almost too aware of the One’s premium build, and worry more about dropping it. I’m more carefree with the GS4 because a) plastic is less likely to get chipped and nicked if I do drop it, and b) if anything happened to its back, I could just get a new battery cover.
I don’t get too hung up on power button placement, but I’d give the nod there to the Galaxy S4. Its power button sits on the phone’s right side, protruding a bit. The One’s power button is on the top left edge, and doesn’t really extend from the phone’s surface at all. It can be a little tricky to find when blindly reaching for it.
Navigation buttons are probably more important. For the One, it’s just two capacitive buttons below the screen: back on the left, and home on the right. An HTC logo (that doesn’t do anything) sits in between. On the GS4, there’s a springy physical home button in the center, with a capacitive back key on the right, and a similar menu key on the left.
I can’t say I preferred one layout over the other. Maybe your familiarity with your current phone will dictate your favorite. But I’ve been regularly switching back and forth between these two phones, and I always adjust to each layout pretty quickly.
Screen comparison
Both screens are outstanding, so I won’t dwell too much on this. Your eyes won’t make out an individual pixel on either 1080p screen.
The GS4’s Super AMOLED screen has more vibrant colors than the One. Is that a good thing, or a bad thing? Well, if you want realistic colors, go with the One. If you want larger-than-life colors, go with the GS4.
Screen size is another matter. Both displays are spacious, at 4.7” for the One and 5” for the GS4. But you definitely notice the difference with the GS4. I like having that extra real estate. It’s big enough that I haven’t bothered much with tablets lately.
In fact, screen size joins weight as the two biggest advantages I’d put in the Galaxy S4’s column. The One holds its own in most other categories, so those might be the two main reasons for anyone to choose the GS4 over the One.
But this isn’t the time for jumping to conclusions. We’re just getting started ...
Performance comparison
On paper – including in benchmarks – the Galaxy S4 has the slight edge here. In Geekbench, it scored 3224 to the One’s 2973. In Quadrant Standard, the GS4 tallied 12066, while the One came in at 11774.
But this is a good example of why I don’t like to put too much faith in benchmarks. Despite the GS4’s higher scores, the One feels a bit faster and smoother. I chalk this up to the HTC One’s software having less bloat. Sense 5 is leaner and more focused than Samsung’s TouchWiz, and everything just purrs – without the slightest hesitation.
That’s not to say that the Galaxy S4 feels slow. On the contrary, it’s also a ridiculously fast phone – maybe faster than any mobile device you’ve ever used. It just that when you use both phones back-to-back, the One feels a bit more responsive.
On a technical level, both handsets run the same processor (Qualcomm Snapdragon 600). The GS4’s is clocked a bit higher: 1.9GHz to the One’s 1.7GHz (that explains the benchmark results). Of course there’s also that octa-core version of the Galaxy S4 that many countries get. I haven’t yet tested that version.
One area where the GS4’s superior benchmarks could play a role would be if you rooted your phone and flashed a custom ROM. At least in theory, more scaled-down software (like Cyanogenmod, which is built from stock Android) should give the GS4 the nod.
... but most of us will use the phones on their out-of-the-box firmware. And there it is advantage: HTC One.
In the grand scheme of things, the One’s leg-up in performance might not be big enough to base your decision on. But if you were completely torn, sitting on the fence? It might be just enough to push it over the edge.
Software: Sense vs. TouchWiz
Both phones, of course, run Android. You get Google Play, and its thousands upon thousands of apps. The GS4 runs on the newer version of Jelly Bean (Android 4.2). But it was a pretty minor update over the One’sAndroid 4.1, so there shouldn’t be too much to worry about there.
More important are HTC’s and Samsung’s respective skins that sit on top.
HTC Sense 5 is, as we already mentioned, leaner and simpler than Samsung’s TouchWiz. Sense is professional, sophisticated, understated. It still fits HTC’s old “quietly brilliant” motto. You’ll see lots of off-whites and grays, which provide a nice backdrop to make colors pop.
When you get animations with Sense, they’re more subtle than fancy. Ditto for the default notification sounds. The One’s menus are fewer in number and shorter in length. The essentials are there, but it’s all more concise. Sense 5 is thoughtful precision.
With the GS4, you feel like Samsung threw in as many software features as it could think of ... gimmicky or not. TouchWiz is bright, colorful, playful, and dense. You’ll see more blacks than on the One (no doubt because its AMOLED display lends itself more to deep blacks).
It would be exhausting to detail all of the GS4’s software features, but we’ll hit a few:
There’s S Health, which serves as a pedometer (and overall diet and exercise tracker) that you can easily access from your homescreen. I used it for tracking mileage on walks, but didn’t need a “life companion” for other kinds of health tracking. It’s there for you, though, if you’re into that.
There’s also Air View, which lets you preview a few select ... things by hovering your finger over your screen. I enjoyed it, but it only works in several places. Video scrobbles and Flipboard feeds were the only places I used it. Interesting and novel, but hardly worth basing your decision on.
Then there’s Air Gesture, which lets you control a few other things by waving your hand, Jedi-style, above a motion sensor (which lives on the upper right of the phone’s front face). I had fun swiping to different screens with my hand while moving homescreen icons. You can also answer phone calls with a wave – great for messy cooks.
Like most of the GS4’s features, it’s fun for a few minutes ... but isn’t something most of us will use every day.
Instead of throwing a million novelties against the wall, HTC focused more on one new feature: BlinkFeed. If you want news and social feeds on your homescreen, BlinkFeed delivers. I personally don’t need that, so I pushed it to the background (you can set a different panel as your default homescreen).
BlinkFeed is a well-made feature ... it just isn’t a game-changer for me. It also has a limited palette of feeds. I only found three tech sites that I could add. I’m obviously biased towards Gizmag, but there are also lots of other great sites that BlinkFeed won’t let you add. So much for diversity.
I’m also not sure if I agree with HTC’s decision to use BlinkFeed as one of the centerpieces of the One’s marketing campaign. I mean, it’s basically a more limited version of Flipboard ... on your homescreen. Nice enough, I guess. But we already have Flipboard, right?
One area where HTC’s lean and mean approach backfires is with quick settings ... or the lack thereof. If you want to toggle something like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or brightness on the Galaxy S4, just slide down on the notification shade and tap a button.
On the One, you have to dig into the main settings menu. It doesn't take long to get there for most settings, but it’s nice to have those settings just one swipe away on the GS4.
Camera comparison
What better way to compare cameras than to jump right into some sample shots?
First, outdoor lighting in direct sunlight:
Both look terrific. Sharp, with vivid color.
But if you crop that same shot to zoom in closer, you’ll see finer detail from the Galaxy S4:
A 13-megapixel camera will do that. The One’s camera has other advantages, but pixel count isn’t one of them. The limits of its 4 MP sensor show a little bit when you zoom in extremely close like this.
Now still outdoors, but in the shade:
Again, a good start for both. The doggie statue looks crisp and clear in both shots.
But let’s crop that to get a closeup view:
Interesting. It’s still close, but I’d give the edge here to the One. As you gradually take away light, resolution – the GS4’s biggest advantage – takes on less importance.
Now let’s move into some moderate indoor lighting:
The GS4’s shot looks a bit brighter, but its colors also look too saturated. The One’s colors are more accurate.
Now let’s take a blown-up section of that one:
Without great lighting, both have some noise. I might give the One the edge here, as it has slightly better contrast. The GS4’s shot still looks overly-saturated.
Now let’s turn the lights way down, and take a stab at some dark indoor lighting (with no flash):
The winner here is obvious. The GS4’s shot is pitch black, while the One lets in enough light to show us the subject.
Now the same setting, only with flash:
The GS4’s flash is definitely brighter. The One's doesn’t scream “flash photography” quite as loudly, but it could afford to be a bit lighter.
Overall, I’d say the One is the clear winner for low-lit conditions. It lets in more light and has better contrast under mid-range lighting. And it’s muchbetter under the worst of lighting conditions.
... the Galaxy S4, meanwhile, is sharper in ideal outdoor lighting conditions. Its flash also pumps out a bit more light. But – much like its screen – the GS4 camera’s colors lean more towards hyper-saturation. This became more evident the darker it got.
Camera software
Camera lenses, sensors, and resolution are only half the story. What about camera software?
It should be no surprise that the Galaxy S4 has a ton of camera software features ... some useful, some gimmicky. One of the most valuable is “best photo,” which takes a burst of photos and lets you immediately choose your favorite (the rest are automatically discarded). The One has its own version of this too.
“Best face” is another potentially useful GS4 feature. Take a series of group shots, and it lets you use only the best faces from everyone.
“Beauty face,” meanwhile, applies some kind of real-time surface blur to portrait shots. Basically it softens the appearance of skin, hiding imperfections (because you can’t let the world know you aren't perfect).
“Drama Shot” is good for sporting events or other shots with moving people or objects. It scatters multiple shots of the moving subject over the unchanging background.
There are other standard features like HDR and panoramas. Then it goes to the gimmicky extreme, with novelites like “Sound & Shot” (records a few seconds of audio with your still shots) and “Dual Camera” (layers a front camera shot inside a rear camera pic ... or vice versa).
Oh, and did I mention the GS4’s Instagram-like filter effects? Yes, the photography features – much like the GS4’s software features in general – are exhaustive ... and maybe exhausting. The good news: you can ignore any of them you don’t want. The bad news: well, we'll get to that in a minute.
The One’s camera software is more standard. It lets you do HDR, panoramas, night mode ... more nuts and bolts, and less gimmicky, than the GS4’s camera toolbox.
But much like HTC focused on BlinkFeed as the big Sense feature, it also honed in on one big camera feature: Zoe. HTC describes Zoes best:
- ... a simple click of the shutter button captures up to 20 photos and a 3-second video image, including the last second of images before you tapped the picture button.
BlinkFeed didn’t do much for me, but Zoe did. The short videos can be nice in their own right, but they also make it easy to capture that ideal still shot. After shooting, you can scrobble through the frames and save any (or all) that you like best.
HTC’s image gallery view is also impressive. Your Zoes and still shots come to life in animations, dramatical pans and zooms, and vintage effects. It’s much better than it sounds. It’s a software algorithm creating something that (sort of) resembles a little work of art. And it’s all about your life.
You can also upload your Zoes to HTC Share, an online service that shares your masterpieces – with a presentation that’s similar to the One’s Gallery app. I’m not really into that kind of thing. But if you are, HTC Share gives you yet another way to share your images and videos with friends and family.
I’m not sure which phone “wins” in terms of camera software. If you wantmore-more-MORE! then it’s all about the Galaxy S4. If you’re happy with Zoes and a great gallery presentation, then go with the One.
Battery life
For the battery test, I continuously streamed Netflix with the brightness turned all the way up. Mobile data and Bluetooth were off, Wi-Fi was on. GPS and location services were on too.
In this high-intensity test, the Galaxy S4 went from fully charged to empty in almost exactly five hours. The One lasted about 4 hours 20 minutes before checking out.
These testing conditions are obviously much more extreme than you'd normally have. When you’re looking at a typical day – you know, not streaming Thor for hours on end – both phones should be in great shape.
My experience of using the One and GS4 in a regular day played out similarly. Both lasted a full day with regular use (web surfing, a few calls, some navigation, streaming music, sleeping in pocket ...). I didn't notice the Galaxy S4 lasting longer, so it's possible all that crazy software sucks up a little extra juice.
If you need unusually long battery life from a phone, the Galaxy S4 has one more advantage. You can remove its battery, and swap it with a spare. No such luck with the One ... though you could buy a battery case or external charger if you got really desperate.
Speaker comparison
We normally wouldn’t bother giving speakers their own section. But one of these phones happens to have the best speakers we’ve ever heard on any mobile device.
That would be the HTC One. Its “BoomSound” speakers are louder and bassier than other phones, including the GS4. They’re front-facing too, which makes so much sense I’m not sure why other manufacturers haven’t done it.
Would you listen to Sgt. Pepper while sitting behind your favorite pair of subwoofers? No? Then why put your smartphone’s speakers on the back?
Not much to say about the GS4’s speakers, other than they’re what you’ve grown to expect from other smartphones. You know, a couple of tiny slots on the back of the phone. They get the job done. But they aren’t in the same class as the One’s excellent BoomSound speakers.
Storage
Quite the stink has been made of the Galaxy S4’s cramped storage. See, after all of TouchWiz is accounted for, the 16 GB model gives you about halfof that for usable storage.
The good news is that the GS4 has a microSD card. So things like videos and photos can move there to free up some space. But – unless you’re rooted – you can’t install apps on the GS4’s SD card. If you keep lots of huge console-like games on your phone, that 8-9 GB could fill up quickly.
One option is to pay more for the 32 GB or 64 GB Galaxy S4 (assuming they’re available on your carrier). Or you could just buy a different phone.
The base model of the HTC One – which sells for cheaper than the GS4 on many carriers – gives you 32 GB of free space. Its usable storage is around 25 GB. You can also throw down for the 64 GB edition of the One.
Many categories in this comparison are filled with gray areas, where the winner depends on what you’re looking for. Not storage. The HTC One is a better buy in that department. Period.
Wrap-up
I think these are the two best smartphones you can buy right now. Not just the two best Android phones, but the two best smartphones. Neither is perfect, but the nice thing is that their strengths and weaknesses are pretty clear.
Want a bigger screen, lighter build, and as much software as you can cram into your phone? Go GS4.
Want a premium design, better low-light photography, and the best damn smartphone speakers you've ever used? Then it's all HTC.
Of course there are about a million other factors, and we can't possibly cover every aspect of these two powerhouse phones. We could write a novel here. But this should set you off on the right foot, and at least give you an idea of the different worlds that each phone will transport you to.
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ZOE,
The Differences Between Western And Asian Cuisine
European and American cuisines typically fall under the category of Western food, although, at times, Western cooking also includes meals of other countries in Oceania like Australia. And what do food lovers instantly think about when they hear Western food? Steaks, burgers, huge servings of fries, sausages, and ribs are just some.
There are usual characteristics that differentiate Western food from other cuisines. First is the quantity of the serving. Compared with the traditional Asian cuisine, serving size of Western cuisine is essentially bigger. What is considered “jumbo” or super size in Asian food is only a regular size in Western cuisine. That’s generally speaking, of course.
In Western cooking, meat is also used in huge proportions. If in Asian cooking, meat is only part and parcel of the meal, in Western cooking, meat is the main star. Think of steaks. Thick slabs of meat are the main star of the meal. There are other players on the plate, such as mashed potato and steamed vegetables, but the meat is the only reason why the plate is readied in the first place.
The use of rice also differentiates Western from Eastern cooking. In Western cuisine, rice is rarely served and is only treated a side dish, usually to an Eastern-inspired Western food. Rice is given a similar treatment like that of steamed greens, steamed vegetables, mashed potatoes, fries and corn on the cob. In contrast, Asian meal is not complete without rice. It is a staple. Noodles can be a take the place of rice although both rice and noodles can be presented in a meal at the same time.
But just like Asian cooking, Western food also puts great emphasis on the use of condiments and seasonings. You can find catsup, mustard, gravy, and other sauces and condiments easily available in eateries specialising in Western dishes.
In Singapore, Western foods are now everywhere unlike before. Fast food restaurants serving Western food are now easy to come by. Western foods are also typically found in hawker centres, or al fresco complexes that house food stalls, so you can have access to a burger or fries should you crave for them.
The great thing about dining is that the confluence of cultural orientations has made it possible for Westerners to find Asian cooking satisfying and for Asians to find Western food a big treat. This inter-relation of tastes and preferences has given more dining establishments sufficient reason to present both kinds of meals. Thus, where west meets east, you can definitely find great food.
How To Install Windows 7 or Windows 8 Using a USB Flash Drive [100% working!]
This guide works 100% for Windows 7 and Windows 8 unlike most of the guides out there. I have seen many sites/blogs that have “Install Vista from USB guide” but either with incomplete steps or not working guide. I have also seen some guides that don’t’ use proper commands in this guide. After spending many hours I have come up with this 100% working guide to install Windows 7 and Windows 8 from USB flash drive.
I just did this method on one of my friends machine and installed Windows 7 and Windows 8 . The main advantage is that by using USB drive you will be able to install Windows 7 or Windows 8 in just 15 minutes. You can also use this bootable USB drive on friend’s computer who doesn’t have a DVD optical drive.
The method is very simple and you can use without any hassles. Needless to say that your motherboard should support USB Boot feature to make use of the bootable USB drive. And if your PC doesn’t support booting from USB, you can still install Windows from USB by following our how to install Windows 7/8 from USB drive even if your PC doesn’t support USB boot feature.
Requirements:
- USB Flash Drive (Minimum 4GB)
- Windows 7 or Windows 8 installation files.
Follow the below steps to create bootable Windows 7/Windows 8 USB drive using which you can install Windows 7 or Windows 8 easily.
Procedure:
Step 1: Plug-in your USB flash drive to USB port and move all the contents from USB drive to a safe location on your system.
Step 2: Open Command Prompt with admin rights. Use any of the below methods to open Command Prompt with admin rights.
*Type cmd in Start menu search box and hit Ctrl+ Shift+ Enter.
Or
*Go to Start menu > All programs > Accessories, right click on Command Prompt and select Run as administrator.
Step 3: You need to know about the USB drive a little bit. Type in the following commands in the command prompt:
First type DISKPART and hit enter to see the below message.
Next type LIST DISK command and note down the Disk number (ex: Disk 1) of your USB flash drive. In the below screenshot my Flash Drive Disk no is Disk 1.
Step 4: Next type all the below commands one by one. Here I assume that your disk drive no is “Disk 1”.If you have Disk 2 as your USB flash drive then use Disk 2.Refer the above step to confirm it.
So below are the commands you need to type and execute one by one:
SELECT DISK 1
CLEAN
CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
SELECT PARTITION 1
ACTIVE
FORMAT FS=NTFS
(Format process may take few seconds)
ASSIGN
EXIT
Don’t close the command prompt as we need to execute one more command at the next step. Just minimize it.
Step 5: Next insert your Windows7/Windows 8 DVD into the optical drive and check the drive letter of the DVD drive. In this guide I will assume that your DVD drive letter is “D” and USB drive letter is “H” (open my computer to know about it).
Step 6: Maximize the minimized Command Prompt in the 4th step.Type the following command now:
D: CD BOOT and hit enter.Where “D” is your DVD drive letter.
CD BOOT and hit enter to see the below message.
Step 7: Type another command given below to update the USB drive with BOOTMGR compatible code.
BOOTSECT.EXE /NT60 H:
Where “H” is your USB drive letter. Once you enter the above command you will see the below message.
Step 8: Copy your Windows 7 or Windows 8 DVD contents to the USB flash drive.
Step 9: Your USB drive is ready to boot and install Windows 7 or Windows 8. Only thing you need to change the boot priority at the BIOS to USB from the HDD or CD ROM drive. I won’t explain it as it’s just the matter the changing the boot priority or enabling the USB boot option in the BIOS.
Note: If you are not able to boot after following this guide means you haven’t set the BIOS priority to USB.
This guide works 100% for Windows 8 as well. Make sure you follow all steps correctly and launch the Command Prompt with admin rights (as given in the guide) to avoid errors. Good luck!
How To Enable & Disable Hibernate Option in Windows 7
In Windows XP enabling Hibernate option was a very easy task. One could navigate to Control Panel, Power Options and then Hibernate tab to enable or disable Hibernation feature. But in Windows 7, we have to follow a different approach to do the same job.
If you are not aware of Hibernate feature, Hibernation is a power-saving state designed primarily for laptops. While sleep puts your work and settings in memory and draws a small amount of power, hibernation puts your open documents and programs on your hard disk and then turns off your computer. Of all the power-saving states in Windows, hibernation uses the least amount of power. On a laptop, use hibernation when you know that you won’t use your laptop for an extended period and won’t have an opportunity to charge the battery during that time.
So if you are really going to use this feature then you need to enable it by doing a simple procedure as mentioned below:
Step 1: Open Command Prompt with Administrator rights. To open Command Prompt, typeCMD in Start menu and then hit Ctrl + Shift + Enter to open the Command Prompt with Admin rights.
Step 2: Next, type the below command and hit enter:
powercfg /hibernate on
Step 3: Type exit and hit enter to close the Command Prompt.
Step 4: If you can’t see the Hibernate option in Start menu then continue with the following tasks:
A. Type Power Options in Start menu and hit enter.
B. In the left pane, open the link labeled “Change when the computer sleeps” and then open the link “Change advanced power settings”.
C. Under the Advanced Sleep options, expand the Sleep tree and turn off Hybrid Sleep.
D. Now go back to Start menu to see the new Hibernate entry. That’s it!
BioShock Infinite Review 2013
There's a bit near the very start of BioShock Infinite where a travelling barbershop quartet rock up to a sunny promenade and serenade a young couple with a few verses from God Only Knows, torturing pleasant, extended harmonies out of every word before floating away on their own personal sky-barge to some other part of this giant, opulent city in the clouds. You can stand there and watch the scene for a few minutes in stunned disbelief: God Only Knows wasn't released until 1966.
But that's probably the point. The 1912 setting of BioShock Infinite is shot through with deliberate anachronisms, some subtle like a Beach Boys cameo, and some that will make no qualms about time-slapping your dumb jaw to the floor. There's a dreamy weirdness that permeates the city of Columbia that isn't explained in the few hours of playtime we had with BioShock Infinite. It riffs on chance, choice, fate, determinism and quantum physics. Coin tosses give improbable results, raffle tickets are called before they're drawn with Derren Brown levels of impunity. Something's very slightly wrong with how reality works in this universe, but nobody seems to notice.
It makes sense, however, that protagonist Booker Dewitt is happy to ignore this crease in reality and just carry on with things: his objective is uncomplicated and singular: he is to infiltrate Columbia, retrieve Elizabeth and hand her over to some debtors who shout at him in his flashbacks.
He'll do this by recreating BioShock's introduction in reverse: Infinite begins with Booker at sea, removing a gun and his instructions from a metal lunchbox before entering a storm-battered lighthouse. Here he collects his ticket to Columbia, activating a rocket-powered launch-pod that propels him above the cloud layer and reveals for the first time the scale and majesty of the impossible city. Columbia is a chunk of turn-of-the-century America, a statue-infested, puritanical town around which airships buzz, clouds creep and flags flutter. It's ruled by the unhinged, hyper-religious and self-appointed prophet Comstock, who promises salvation to Columbia's citizens by shouting at them through loudspeakers every day.
It makes sense, however, that protagonist Booker Dewitt is happy to ignore this crease in reality and just carry on with things: his objective is uncomplicated and singular: he is to infiltrate Columbia, retrieve Elizabeth and hand her over to some debtors who shout at him in his flashbacks.
He'll do this by recreating BioShock's introduction in reverse: Infinite begins with Booker at sea, removing a gun and his instructions from a metal lunchbox before entering a storm-battered lighthouse. Here he collects his ticket to Columbia, activating a rocket-powered launch-pod that propels him above the cloud layer and reveals for the first time the scale and majesty of the impossible city. Columbia is a chunk of turn-of-the-century America, a statue-infested, puritanical town around which airships buzz, clouds creep and flags flutter. It's ruled by the unhinged, hyper-religious and self-appointed prophet Comstock, who promises salvation to Columbia's citizens by shouting at them through loudspeakers every day.
It seems to work, Columbia has as much of a dark cultist mindset as Rapture ever had, and you're seen as just as much a disruptive and unwelcome agent, a unruly first-person cat bouncing around next to a meticulously constructed house of cards. It's Comstock who, having somehow been tipped off as to your identity, orders your immediate death without trial. Meanwhile a rebel group, the Vox Populi, forms the opposing slice of bread in the political sandwich Booker is desperately trying to avoid putting in his mouth during his mission to liberate Elizabeth.
Though caught in the middle of this conflict, Columbia is a resolutely civilised place to explore. More so than in BioShock, more so than in games likes Deus Ex and Dishonored, levels are filled with regular people going about their business, having conversations within earshot, being animated and human as best they can. Columbia isn't abandoned or ruined, it's thriving and you enter it during its heyday, where markets and fairs fill the boardwalks, promenades and gardens with well-attired and excited gentlemen and ladies.
It's a colourful, vibrant and interactive place: you can take part in games at the carnival, which are beautifully disguised tutorials for the game's shooting and magic-casting abilities. You can peer into what you'd expect to be a coin-operated peep show, but turn out to be mini-documentaries showing the foundation of the city. You can wander and absorb as much as the fiction as you care to, like a narrative ghost wandering a storybook graveyard. And you can listen to The Beach Boys. BioShock Infinite is proper virtual escapism, like the kind you hear about in the first line of news reports, when they try to snappily explain what videogames are.
I didn't like the shooting in BioShock, there was a pane of cognitive mind-glass somewhere between my mouse hand and the game's lazily clunking controls that made me feel removed from an otherwise welcoming world. It probably had something to do with mouse acceleration, it nearly always does, but BioShock Infinite doesn't suffer from this sluggishness. It's fast and snappy, your weapons crack loudly and headshots are fatal, movement is swift and sharp, enemy AI is clever enough to force you to move through combat arenas. Those rollercoaster rails that wind and arc between platforms are remarkably easy to use and, thankfully, it's either impossible or suitably difficult to murder yourself while grinding along them. Similarly, Irrational have recognised precisely how irritating it would be if falling into the clouds resulted in anything other resetting you at the position where you fell off. So don't worry about that either.
Your Vigor powers are partly carried over from the previous BioShock. You can summon flocks of crows to pester enemies, which is a lot like that time you summoned swarms of bees to pester enemies. The new Bucking Bronco Vigor jolts enemies skywards, another launches firebombs from your fist, while a more tactical minded Vigor can possess mechanical turrets, temporarily turning them friendly. Certain Vigors can also be placed as traps that activate as enemies walk over them, increasing your options and allowing you to play defensively when the odds are stacked against you.
Elizabeth follows you around too. On your instruction, she's able to open up 'tears' in space and 'pull through' objects from parallel dimensions. In practical terms that means she can make useful things appear at certain pre-defined positions in the game: she could conjure up a turret placement, or an ammo cache, or a sky-hook that you could latch on to in order to access a higher platform. She can only open up one of these tears at a time however, so choosing which ones to utilise can transform the course of a firefight.
Shawn Elliott told us about how these encounters play out later in the game, as the arenas become multi-tiered battlefields pocked with strategic strong points and populated by warring factions. Though it's Elizabeth who's opening and closing these tears, she's never unavailable in a gameplay sense: that is to say, if you give the order for a trans-dimensional turret to be pulled through a tear, it will happen instantly, no matter her position on the map, as if you'd just done it yourself. Your ally in Infinite is entirely helpful, not even an occasional liability. She even throws you ammo and health when you need it most.
You can now also find apparel to wear in a limited number of slots, with each item of clothing offering a new ability. There's a hat that makes you more accurate when shooting from skylines. There are some trousers that let you, erm, hurt people more. The early items were tame enough, but rare. I expect increasingly powerful trousers will be found later in the game.
This sine wave of violent, explosive peaks and peaceful, exploratory troughs are mutually complementary. After rescuing Elizabeth from her tower, you're hounded by the terrifying, mechanical songbird, a twenty-foot tall clockwork avian horror bound in leather skin and powered by arcane motors set behind glowing, staring eyes. It shrieks and trashes as it tries and fails to keep Elizabeth inside the tower: a pitiful monster, a dumb, misunderstood metal giant doing what it must to protect something it cares about. In its tick-tock brain, you're the bad guy. You're the worst guy.
The songbird is Infinite's Big Daddy, minus humanity, plus canary. In a frantic huff it destroys Elizabeth's tower (a monolithic, hollowed-out angel that dominates Columbia's skyline) as you escape, sending you both plunging into the water below. You wash up on an artificial beach, still aboard the floating city (which you only now realise boasts its own miniature seafront, a sandy shore whose fake ocean tumbles over a precipice and falls away into the vast blue sky beneath).
The pace of the game slows here. Elizabeth is missing, but not for long. Infinite bucks the "oh no I lost the person I'm looking for when I fell into the ocean" trope, and she can be found dancing on the nearby pier with fellow beach revellers. Her first experience of music outside of her prison perfectly frames both her childish naivety and Booker's grimly sober-faced approach to his task. That is to say, Booker don't dance. He does, if you want, explore the beach and poke around some bins while the heat's died down. Elizabeth excitedly scoots about, fascinated by the world around her and pelting the oddly stoic Booker with questions.
The locations you then travel to in pursuit of a means to escape Columbia are hugely varied: the city has room enough for sun-bleached gardens, churches with vast interiors, dark museums and foreboding catacombs. Some of the set-pieces feel recycled however: there's a sense of deja vu as you wander through a historical battle re-enactment while a disembodied voice monologues over loudspeaker. And whether deliberate or not, that Booker's backstory is a mystery to the player leads you to question his motives at certain points, creating a sort of cognitive dissonance between your actions as a player and his dialogue as a character. Again, like with the time-weirdness, and knowing how Irrational works, that's probably partially the point.
Also, while I'm thinking about it, looting cash registers and bins and listening to audio diaries isn't fun, it's weird and creepy and antiquated. Nobody has ever kept an audio diary at any point in history, they are the least believable part of your magical flying, crow-obsessed city.
Everything else is fantastic. Without wanting to slip into meaningless hyperbole, BioShock Infinite could easily be the best game Irrational's ever created: an intelligent collaboration of weird Jules Verne futurism, steampunk science-fiction, time-travelling soundtracks, magic hands and clockwork birds. It's a truly fascinating and original setting around which Irrational has built a vastly improved set of shooter mechanics and an ideal vehicle for a clever and intriguing story.
BioShock is out March 26.
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