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Most of us would probably remember Lord Jeffrey Archer as a criminal, having spent time in jail for perjury. However, if one were to look behind such an ignominious history, you would have to agree that he has a knack for spinning a long tale, as seen by his earlier successes, specifically, Kane & Abel.

Having read most of his other books, I can easily describe to you the style of which he writes. He takes two characters which seem to have next to zero relationships with each other, and follows their trials and tribulations from birth to adulthood seperately. Then, in this period of time, the lives of these two characters who were thought were seperate would somehow be deeply entwined with each other, causing drama and tension for both characters who we have been following. It is no different in Kane & Abel.

William Lowell Kane is the son of a rich Boston millionaire, whilst on the other hand, Abel Rosnovski is a poor Polish immigrant. Both only have one thing in common, their birth dates. In the span of the book, which covers a life to death story spanning nearly sixty years, we see both of these men grow up in their respective homes and countries, before their goals bring them together as partners and eventually, enemies. We will learn about both their families, their loves and even their children, all brought up in juxtaposition to each other.

The story begins in World War I, where Abel is trapped in invaded Poland, while William Kane sits comfortably at home in Boston. Both their lives and difficulties are different from each other, one trying to survive in a dangerous situation that he is in, the other trying to survive in a different environment, his school, his business relationships. Only when Abel finally immigrates to the States, his goals change that of a monetary one, where now both of them now sharing the same goal, conflict each other.

Despite the interesting and long drawn out story given here, some might be simply disgusted at the sheer length of the story. Some readers would prefer to jump straight into the action, rather than go to through a long drawn out life story of both characters, no matter how interesting it is. Furthermore, Jeffrey Archer writing style of using Chekhov’s Gun where certain characters or events early in the story may seem unmeaningful and unnecessary, only to be brought up later in the story, causing the reader to flip back to investigate it’s meaning, having not paid proper attention to it just now. In addition to that, the story also lacks a major climax. Indeed, it has a number of tense moments at different parts of their lives, a childhood crisis, a teenage nemesis each character might face. This results in a fluctuating tension which does not climax well. In fact, come to think of it, I personally feel that some earlier events might have put me on the edge more so than the final ending of the story.

Kane & Abel, however, is still a decent read to avid readers who are looking for a good, moderate length work of fiction. If you do not mind a fully fleshed out story, perhaps Kane & Abel would be a good choice for you. Even if you are done with this book, the stories of these families actually continue in two seperate “sequels”, “The Prodigal Daughter”, as well as “Shall We Tell The President?”, further following into the lives of these two families in the near future.

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With the newer higher end models of notebooks coming up the market these days, the average computer user who would hard pressed to find a notebook model which can strike a fair compromise between performance and price. Most people who have a preference for mobile gaming would have to deliberate between choosing a cheaper notebook with a poor integrated graphics card, such as the Macbook or force having to fork out more money in for a higher end machine such as a Macbook-pro or an Asus Lamborghini, sacrificing mobility at the same time. Having been through the same search for find such a notebook, I would like to mention the Asus F9S, which is able to pack some power, yet not cost a bomb to buy.

The Asus F9s is really what I would call a jack of all trades, a middle man. It comes as a middle end notebook, balancing performance, mobility, utility and price all at the same time. A gaming device, a web surfing notebook or even a lightweight business equipment, it is able to fulfill all those needs to a certain extent. It comes with the technical specifications of the usual modern notebooks, a choice of a Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor from a range of 1.6ghz to 2.2ghz, a hard drive space reaching up to 160GB, in addition to a memory of up to 3GB of DDR2 ram. Coming in with a 12.1″ screen also, you can check all the other specifications of this model here.

However, the main highlight of the notebook would be it’s NVidia GeForce 8400M G graphics card, with 128Mb of dedicated video memory, in addition to a Turbo Cache of up to 896Mb. This is basically the main difference it has between the cheaper notebooks which have identical processor speeds or memory size. Taking the lower end Macbook as an example, most lower end notebooks utilise integrated graphic cards in their system, which, to put it frankly, are very weak. With a dedicated video card, it’s what sets the F9S apart from other computers around it’s price range, being able to run more graphical intensive games such as this year’s Call of Duty 4 and Command and Conquer 3, albeit barely, setting it apart as a mediocre gaming device. Another unique feature of this device would be a 1.3 mega pixel web cam located above the screen of the laptop, fully functional upon boot with a 240 degrees swivel function for those frequent internet chat users.

However, it is not without some flaws. Having just switched from an older laptop, there are several nitpicks which annoy me personally. Firstly, the general layout of the keyboard is extremely cramped up, especially at the right hand side, with several of the function keys(For example, home, page up, etc) squeezed together. Furthermore, I find the lack of a scroll button at the touch pad another minor hassle, something which I myself felt as a necessity on my older notebook. In addition, the notebook lacks a latch of sorts when you close the lid, which might cause some accidents if one were to not be careful. Still, others might consider such an idea fresh, and “zen”.

All in all, the Asus F9S is a decent choice if you’re looking for something which is able to run more efficiently than the lower end notebooks. As a jack of all trades, it’s a notebook suitable for all uses, just do not expect too much from it in terms of power.

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If I were to describe this game in one word, it would be gorgeous. Released only recently in September by Massive Entertainment, this real-time tactical (RTT) game has flown through the charts with it’s unique gameplay which I have personally experienced myself. The backstory of World in Conflict is simple enough. What if the USSR did not collapse in 1991? What if they decided stop fighting a cold war and start real one? The answer is in this game, where in 1989, USSR forces invade both Western Europe as well as Western America.

The gameplay itself is a chip off the old block, as previously seen in Massive entertainment’s older games, such as Ground Control. They exclude the usual doldrums of having to collect resources and build troops, instead jumping straight into the action. Before you start a multiplayer game, you choose a role between the Infantry, Armour, Support or Air, each having a different selection of units to choose. In the game, you are given an amount of Reinforcement points over time, in which you are expected to utilise these points fully to purchase troops, which are then flown into the battlefield for your usage. You start at a certain amount of tactical points, in which you cannot be given anymore. As you lose troops, the cost of those troops are slowly given back to your pool of Reinforcement points, allowing you to bring fresh units back into the fray sooner or later. This way, the game limits the number of troops one could be able to bring into the battlefield, as well as to keep a constant supply of them going. Thus, in this game, there is really no way a force could outnumber another, making the emphasis on proper tactics, rather than overwhelming numbers, a usual strategy in most generic RTS’s. As a RTS gamer myself, this new system is a breath of fresh air from the collect-build-attack styles of traditional RTS’s, such as Command and Conquer 3.

In addition to the usage of “Reinforcement points” to bring fresh troops into the battlefield, there is also an important aspect of the game called “Tactical Aid”. In this case, anytime you do a positive action in battle with your troops, for example, killing an enemy unit, or capturing command points, you gain a certain amount of tactical aid. With this type of currency, you are able to purchase a handful of out-of-screen help. For example, with a certain amount you can call in an airstrike to pulverise a bunker which has been stalling your forces for quite some time. Tactical aid in World in Conflict is powerful enough to make or break a push, with arsenals ranging from simple paratroopers and punishing artillery strikes, to the devastating tactical nuke.

The graphics are no let down either, forming a beautiful environment to battle in. Even on my computer, which I admit is a lower end one, the visuals are spectacular, mostly the endless barrage of explosions on screen. One of the few sights which visibly impressed me was the tactical nuke. At first, you note a small missle heading towards the targeted area, which, upon impact, would result in a blinding white flash completely enveloping your screen. Following that, a visible mushroom shaped cloud would now loom over the targetted ground. Even the aftermath is nothing to overlook, trees would become blackened, the ground scorched, buildings disintegrated. All in all, it provides a destructive battlefield, one which could quickly turn from a peaceful city or plain, to a land of ashes from a few minutes of battle.

One thing which appeals to me, is the fact that World in Conflict, especially in multiplayer games, has a strict limit of Reinforcement points, resulting in a limit of troops one could control at any point of time. Essentially, this creates World in Conflict as a game which relies mostly on teamwork between the players, rather then an experienced player being able to be a soloist and single-handedly wipe the opponent. All players and all roles have to work together if they were to achieve victory in large 8 v 8 games. The focus on controlling a small section of units, rather than an entire army portrays the player but a small actor in the war or enormous proportions, another major difference from traditional RTS’s, where players preferrably pit themselves against each other, one on one.

In addition to a strong multiplayer, there is a 14 mission single player campaign which documents the defense of the Allied Nations against USSR during the outbreak of war, where you play a Lieutanent who has to fight back against these invaders with his comrades. This single player campaign also shares the same quirks as multiplayer, where it puts the player in a position where he is merely fighting only a small portion of the battle constantly, in full view of elsewhere in the map, where another fight is going on between the player’s allies and the opponent.

From France, to Seattle in single player, as well as a moderate variety of maps in multiplayer, I feel that World in Conflict is something any serious strategy gamer should put on his list for this year.

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