Review Team Magazine Presents:Product Review~The Flip Video Ultra Series

My friend and colleague M1rasco did so much research when we decided to get cameras for our upcoming YouTube channel that it was hard to refute him when he recommended the Flip video.

Once I got it in my hands it was evident that this was the camera to have. First of all, it is so simple anyone can use it. There is a certain beauty to the simplicity of the controls, being that they are basically a few buttons and that is

it. The Flip also features a USB that flicks out like a switch

blade and is not just cool, but functional.

To top things off, the Flip also includes an internal hard drive,eliminating the need for SD cards. There are three models that range from a half hour to a full two hours of recording time.

I purchased the middle one that records for an hour. Though it seems like there isn't much space, I have discovered that one hour is heaps of time, and am yet to max out the hard drive.

All of this is great but the icing on the cake is that on the hard drive is Flipshare Software that allows you export your videos and make movies effortlessly. Flipshare is easy, convenient and fun.

There is one more thing about this camera that I have saved for last. It is inexpensive! the one hour model cost me $119.99 at Wal-Mart and I suspect you could find it cheaper online. For the price, this is absolutely an amazing deal. You could say that I love it so much i've "Flipped out" over it. (I can hear you groaning!)

Seriously though it is, for the money, the best deal around. I cannot recommend this item highly enough.

five out of five stars.

Mel

www.reviewteammagazine.com

Card Review:The Bicycle Eco-Edition Playing Cards

Being a card handler and a person trying to look out for the environment, I was really interested in seeing what the deal was with these new cards. First of all, there is no plastic wrapping and the box is made from recycled paper. But that is not the only part that is recyclable. The entire deck is.

Using starch based glues and ink that is derived from vegetables, this deck is the enviromentalist of the playing card world. Green is the theme of this deck of cards, with green pips instead of red and green garments garnishing the gallantry of the grand court cards. This deck is graced with the standard Air-Cushion finish, so they feel comfortable and natural in the hands so switching from regular rider backs isn't a problem. 

Overall I thought they felt good I really liked them, they are a good product and I recommend them to any one who is curious or wants a deck you can throw into the recycle bin when they wear out.

Review Team Magazine presents: Short story~The inward avalanche

The water was inviting, beckoning like a comely young lady. Not as hot as it was, but still hot enough to persuade me to creep my way in. My friend, Ronnie, was already in the water watching me. "I have to do this slowly.One inch at a time", I said. He laughs and starts to swim around, telling me that he was headed to the floating docks out in the water. I watch him as he swims swims toward the small Astro-turf covered platforms that kids were wrestling on and throwing each other off of.

The water slides up my legs as I shuffle down the incline of the boat landing. Cool water that takes your breath as it claims more and more of your epidermal real estate. At first you just want to rush out of the water all together;it's natural, I tell myself. Holding my body there until it passes, then I'm used to it.

By now, Ronnie is more than half way to the docks.He is a strong swimmer, bobbing up and down in breast-stroke fashion, looking a bit like a dolphin racing under the bow of a ship. I begin to make my way in the water and I notice how it feels heavy against my body, as if it were lightly trying to squeeze the air from my lungs.

Swimming has never really been a big pass time of mine. I mean, I did as a kid, in the local river on summer days gone by, but today something was different. Something felt ominous as I reached the half way point. This is when I flashed to my childhood, a repressed memory leaping forth the way a swarm of bats might leave a cave. I flashed to being helpless in the open water, flailing and sinking with the icy grip of death on my ankle, tugging me down. I recall the distinct feeling that the water, no, the lake itself wanted to keep me there forever in it's enveloping embrace.

Looking up from under the water I saw warbling images of distorted trees stretched and contracting at the whim of the liquid, then a hand bursting through and grabbing me, pulling me up and out of the water. I was lucky that day, surviving only because there was a skilled boater nearby who caught me before it was too late. There are no boats this time, just water and the docks that seem impossibly far away from me, as if they were spooling out at the same rate I swam; maddeningly out of reach.

It's an optical illusion, it has to be. My thoughts race as panic begins to creep in. I feel my body becoming vertical in the water, a sense of sliding downward, my tired body struggling to hold itself up on the water. This notion began to form in my mind, the idea that I should just quit and let the lake have me. To go easily and quietly into the abyss. To succumb;surrender. This is what terrified me the most, was I really ready to give up so effortlessly? Was my grip on life tenuous rather than tenacious? Or was it the lake, overwhelming me with it's power, trying to swallow me down into it's depths? I know now that the water, no, the lake, yes the lake was after me like so many years ago. This time it has me dead to rights as I am stranded somewhere between the shore and the docks, those goddamn green docks that seemingly won't allow me get close to them.

Around me the water begins to stir and swirl and I see small vortexes begin to manifest then dissipate, then manifest again only bigger. The only thing I can do is tread water and stare mesmerized at the event taking place before my eyes. Bigger and bigger the vortexes become joining each other and growing bigger yet.

Snap out of it! I scream at myself as I realise the water squeezing me around the chest, forcing out the air. Frantically I claw at the water, trying to swim out of the hell I now face. The water is alive! God help me the water is alive and I am it's prey! I look around and the vortex is now more like a depression in the water, like a hole dug out of the sand with me at the bottom, and maybe I've gone insane but I swear that the depression in the water looks like a the palm of a giant hand. The water begins to cave inward, avalanche like, viscus fingers cascading down into a grasping, closing fist and burying me in the water. I swim up as best I can but it feels like running as hard as you can on a treadmill;swimming in space. And now I distinctly feel a cold hand on my ankle, a hellish anchor completely unhampered by my protests. Terrified I struggle toward the surface, wavering distorted images locked in my eyes as I nearly break the surface. I want to live!I want to live!!!A strong tug on my ankle pulls me back down and all goes black and cold.

When I regained consciousness, Ronnie was over me, having just performed CPR. Weakly I asked him if he saw what happened. "You were there one second, and then gone the next. you're damn lucky I was paying attention," he paused, "you could have died."

Don't I know it.

In the days that followed I told anyone who would listen what I saw that day, what happened, and how they should stay out of the water. They all regard me like I am crazy, a UFO abducted creep, fresh from a visit by little green men. I know what I saw that day, and I know it happened, and I don't care if they don't believe me. Something lives in that water. It doesn't go after everyone, but when it wants you, it never forgets and can wait forever.

Making my way to the end of the docks connected to the shore I stare at the water, wondering what it wants from me. What could give a lake the unearthly power it wields?"You will never have me!Understand?Never!"I yell at the liquid.

Just then water splashes up from the surface, onto my leg. Horrified, I look down and see the pant leg near my ankle was wet in the shape of a grasping hand. Sprinting I reach my car, put it in gear and leave a cloud of dust and tire smoke hanging behind me as I speed away.

I'm never going to the lake again.

Ever.

Here are all the Eseries articles gathered together for your convenience.

Part 1:A scamers paradise?

Part 2:The dark side of PayPal

Review Team Magazine Presents:Video game review~Fallout 3

Gaming is something that I have done for a long time. Since the Atari 2600 came out I have been pretty hardcore about playing video games. When I was young, I used to think "wouldn't it be cool if video games were an immersive 3D experience?"

These days, they are just that. Starting with Doom, I had the chance to run down 3D corridors blasting my way through level after level. There were others preceding Doom, but they were wire frame style and not as engrossing. Then I moved on to Quake and loved it, especially Quake 2. The multiplayer in that game still is better than a lot of recent titles with options like tuning off falling damage and gravity. I had some amazing battles with my friends playing that game...

3D game play has become an industry standard and is now enhanced by High Definition and 7.1 surround sound, making video games a very realistic experience.

I thought I had reached the pinnacle of open world, 3D gaming when I played Morrowind for first time. It really blew my mind because it was exactly what I thought a 3D game should be. Bethesda softworks nailed it! You could go anywhere you wanted, even up a

mountain, all the way to the top or You could levitate up there instead if you didn't want to do it the hard way. The amount of options in the game was truly stellar.

Fast forward a few years to the Oblivion release.Bethesda really out did themselves on this one. The environments were breathtaking and everything around you seemed alive and

lucid. Sometimes I would just stare at the horizon, watching the sun set and rise. I spent hours playing this game, beating the main quest several times. At the time I thought it couldn't get better.

Until Fallout 3 released.

I had been waiting a long time for this one. And it was completely worth it! This is an increadible game. The most open world so far, the D.C. wastelands are a challenging yet rewarding place to call home. Not at first of course, it wouldn't be Bethesda game if you come up through tough times. If you stay close to safety, and don't wander out too far at first you'll be alright. But go out too far and you are dead meat.

I have been waiting to write this review for a long time, but didn't want to until all the downloadable content(DLC) was all done. Having just finished the mothership zeta DLC I finally feel ready, so here we go.

I waited for two years before this game was released. As a matter of fact, I went to the game store a midnight to pick up my reserved copy. Soon as I got home I ripped off the packaging and fired up my 360. while I waited I perused the game guide that I purchased along with the game. Did I call it guide? What meant to say was I looked through the Bible-thick book that guides you through the game. I am not a fan of guides usually, but the scope of the game is so enormous that it is easy to feel lost and overwhelmed.

The game begins in the safety of vault 101. You see, there was a nuclear war 2077. Two hundred years later D.C. and surrounding areas are a vast wasteland filled with beasts and raiders. Not to mention the radiation, but that is a given. That is where Linda was born. She came up through hard times. There wasn't a lot to do in the vault and it wasn't the most constructive time spent for her.

Seems like she had it in for everyone, maybe because her mother died in child birth. Maybe she was just mean. The only people that she anyone ever show affection toward was her father and his friend, Jonas.

When she was nineteen, her father left the vault. Nobody leaves the vault.Ever.So this caused a real panic, a fever pitch that killed Jonas, at the Overseers' order. He was normally a jerk but this time he went too far. Linda made him pay with his life, destroying the friendship she had with The Overseer's daughter.

This is the day she became Hellinda, scourge of the wasteland, and left the vault to find her father out in the vast wasteland alone.

Fallout 3 is one of the most encompassing game I have ever played. It literally ate three months of my life and I don't want them back;Time well spent. The game just draws you in and doesn't let go. It has definite ramifications if you are not careful. They all depend on if you choose to to be good, evil, or neutral. Like when the guards would come after you when they saw steal something in Oblivion, but more fully realized.

I cannot say enough good things about the game, but there are times when it will freeze up, but locking up isn't exclusive to Fallout 3. There are many games that do it and mine didn't do it too much.so you take the good, and you take the bad.take them both and there you have the facts of a video gamers life.

The DLC ranged from pretty good to really great. I found Operation Anchorage to be too linear for my taste but it was supposed to be like a "video game" in the wasteland setting. A video game within a video game might sound like a hard pill to swallow but it makes sense in context. I thought broken steel was the best one with Mothership Zeta a close second. Some people think think it was too linear but how wide open can a spaceship be? On that note, we may all find out someday.

Overall I found Fallout 3 to be an exeptional game that pushes the boundries of what a video game can be. I think back to that child who wished for a fully immersive game experience, and how lucky I am to have had his wish come true.

If you would like to read more of Linda's expoits click here.

Mel

reviewteammagazine.com