Sunday Times InGear Games of the Year

Here are the Sunday Times InGear Games of the Year:



and here is a YouTube promo of Crysis:



here is a YouTube promo of Wario Ware, Smooth Moves:



and here is a YouTube promo of Project Gotham Racing 4




(Please note that Half-Life 2 is multi format - and that the link below is to the PS3 version.)



Here is a Half Life2: The Orange Box YouTube promo



Here is a World in Conflict YouTube promo



and here is a Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass YouTube promo



Amazon reckon you should be able to get your stuff by Christmas if you buy from them before the 18th (Standard Delivery), the 19th (First Class) or the 22nd (Express) - though, as in life generally - there are no absolute guarantees.

Today's Telegraph suggested these Presents for Petrolheads.

..so I'll provide you with some links for those, for a book that was recommended in today's Times and I'll suggest a couple of my own.

In his Telegraph column James May recommended the Dyson DC16 for cleaning the car (which is a brilliant suggestion), The Times recommended "Chapman's Car Compendium" and I've added a Top Gear DVD - because it is easily my favourite programme on TV at the moment. I've also included Bruce Springsteen's new LP - because I've never meet anyone who likes cars a lot who doesn't like Broooce, and because I'm going to see him on Wednesday at the O2.





The Maplin Self Heating Gloves Are Available from here.

Booze Cruze and Crap Trumps are available from Amazon (as are the remote control Ferrari and the Clarkson book)



The Modnwld tee-shirts are available here:
The Pretty Taxing discs are available here:

Sega Rally is available from Amazon: (for Xbox, PS3, PSP and PC).




Hope it was useful - and because it's my blog and I can do what I want I'm going to post a YouTube video of Springsteen doing Thunder Road.

Navman S Series

The "Navman S Sat Nav" series range from the S30 entry level Sat. Nav. to the high end S90i Sat. Nav.



I'll try to point out some of the differences between the various models.

The S30 is a very nice entry level model that is not bad value at under £130. It's a good model for regular day to day use - (by families for example). It is straight forward to use, the verbal instructions are clear and precise and it comes with maps of Ireland and the UK

The S70 (£165) has a few more feature than the S30 - some of the main ones being that the screen is slightly larger, it has Western European maps and it has bluetooth. It is a useful model for people who regularly visit the continent - or who drive for a living.

The S90i (£235) is the high end model in the range and a lot of reviews have questioned whether the cost is worth it. It does come with a lifetime subscription to real-time traffic information and "voice to text" which can read out the road and place names as well as giving instructions. It's very good - but I'm not personally convinced it's good value.

Finally it is worth mentioning that the Navman series use TeleAtlas to provide the maps for their SatNavs. Some people are critical of TeleAtlas and argue that Navteq provide better maps, but in fairness there are just as many people that argue that TeleAtlas maps are better. My conclusion is there are some small flaws in both sets of maps and people's opinions are shaped by whichever system has let them down.

Higher end models in this range (the S70 and S90) have the NavPix- navigate to pictures feature - which is very clever - but I think that whether you like it or not depends somewhat on whether you regard your SatNav as a tool to do a job - or whether you like your gadgets to be clever.

Hope this was useful. Some of the reviews at Amazon do make interesting reading.

Here is their advert.



and here is another one.

Still time to shop online

..and here are some of the best selling electronic goods - which should still be in stock

IMPERIAL WIRELESS AND LEISURE

These are Some of the Gadgets that were on this week's Gadget show

..for those that did not catch their names. Hope it's useful.



Unfortunately the Pleo has sold out at Amazon (and pretty much everywhere else it seems). I think you can buy them on E-Bay - but they are from American dealers so as well as paying through the nose - you are going to have to be quick to get them shipped over here to the UK for Xmas. Also the Dr Who Talking Head thingy also comes as a Cyber Man.












And this is a round up of what they thought were the best televisions.



If you click on the links you can read reviews at the Amazon site - (Apologies if some of the products are out of stock)

Silverlit Picoo Z Sky Challenger- A review (of sorts)

This is not me and my family but I like this video of what you can do with a Picoo Z Toy Helicopter. A friend of mine has one (or at least his 6 year old has) and despite our combined age being about 80 we had great fun playing with it (it was certainly better than watching England lose to Croatia - the reason why I was round his house).

So clearly the helicopter was better entertainment than England under Steve McClaren. However tonight's "Gadget Show" on channel 5 featured the Silverlit Picoo Z Sky Challenger- which comes with two helicopters that can dog-fight each other and I reckon that would be more entertaining than England under two Steve McClarens - or maybe that should be half a Steve McClaren. I know what I mean - and if you don't then you can read another review at the Amazon page at the link above.