356 lines
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Plaintext
Executable File
356 lines
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Plaintext
Executable File
technology
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video-games
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3394830
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# Gears Of War 2 video game review
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## The second installment in Epic's dark and brutal sci-fi shooter justifies
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the incredible hype surrounding it.
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![Gears Of War 2][1]
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![Gears Of War 2][2]
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![Gears Of War 2][3]
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![Gears Of War 2][4]
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![Gears Of War 2][5]
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![Gears Of War 2][6]
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![Gears Of War 2][7]
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![Gears Of War 2][8]
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![Gears Of War 2][9]
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![Gears Of War 2][10]
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By Tom Hoggins 12:01AM GMT 03 Nov 2008
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[Comments][11]
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**Developer: **Epic
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**Publisher:** Microsoft
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**Format: **Xbox 360
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**Released: **7** **November 2008
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**Score: **9/10
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**Age Rating:** 18 (BBFC)
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With Gears of War 2 carrying the incredible weight of hype and expectation
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upon its impossibly large shoulders, it was always going to face a huge amount
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of scrutiny. Gamers and critics will pore over every inch of Epic Studios'
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well-oiled war machine, looking for the seams, seeing if the boughs will break
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when given a hard enough prod.
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It's a phenomenon fairly unique to video games - hell hath no fury like a
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gamer scorned - so developers often succumb to the temptation to strengthen
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the foundations by laying on extra features in an attempt to confound
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expectations. More features, more characters, more, more, more. Inevitably,
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this can lead to the game collapsing under its own weight.
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How Gears 2 avoids this problem is as subtle as a sledgehammer. Here is a game
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that pulls no punches - a brash, testosterone-fuelled, hyper-violent shooter
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that makes no apologies for what it is. Gears 2 is a sequel that remains true
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to its origins while being, in the words of Clifford Bleszinski, the lead
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designer, "bigger, better and more badass".
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As such, there is little in the way of surprises when it comes to gameplay.
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For all the pressure of being a standard-bearer for the third-person shooter
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genre and, indeed, the Xbox 360, Gears remains one of the purest video game
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experiences out there. It's you, a whole load of guns and waves of bad guys to
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shoot at. It's kill or be killed - load up, take aim and save the world.
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## Related Articles
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* [Gears of War 2: Blood, monsters and 'a little bit of heart'][12]
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30 Sep 2008
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* [Duke Nukem Forever gets release date][13]
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24 Jan 2011
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* [Gears Of War 3 Beast mode video game preview][14]
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04 Nov 2010
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* [E3 2010: Bulletstorm video game preview][15]
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14 Jul 2010
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* [Lost Planet 2 video game review][16]
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19 May 2010
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* [Dark Void video game review][17]
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18 Jan 2010
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But what makes Gears' combat such a success is its vicious, intimate
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intensity. Firefights are so up close and personal you can almost smell the
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Locust horde as they bear down on your position.
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The game's opening stage is something of a microcosm of the whole game.
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Beginning in your army's makeshift hospital base, you must stave off the
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oncoming Locust as they storm the building. Fighting your way through
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crumbling, claustrophobic corridors you must slip from cover to cover,
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overturning medical gurneys, digging in while chipping away at the assaulting
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enemies. Move forward; take out the snipers in the overlooking floor above
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with a well-placed grenade and dash up to high ground, taking the advantage.
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It's a frenetic blur of blood and bullets, an intense lesson in tactical nous.
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Eventually, you clear the hospital and reach the front door. Kicking it open,
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you are greeted with a city at war, buildings fall and helicopters buzz
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overhead while your comrades desperately fight off Locust ground forces. It's
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a heart-stopping moment and the first of many to come.
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Never has a studio's name been so apt. Epic's ability to create an astonishing
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spectacle is second to none. The first Gears was a showcase for the new
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generation and still has very few peers in terms of visual wizardry. The
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sequel takes it even further. While the "destroyed beauty" of the original is
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still the foundation for the artwork, the locations are far more varied,
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splashed with lush blues, greens and a little more life. At one point you are
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battling through a war-ravaged town that you could imagine bustling with
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residents in a more peaceful time. It's exactly the kind of character that,
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arguably, the original lacked.
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The outstanding locations are a large part of what makes Gears 2's campaign so
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gripping, not just in terms of visual splendour but in the way the gameplay is
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varied enough to hold you in thrall. While you're never far from a gun battle,
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the game is a masterclass in pacing - mixing the intimate with the epic in
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just the right dosage. One minute you'll be clashing chainsaws up close with
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Locust grunts and the next you'll be manning the machine gun on a gigantic
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tank, rumbling through a forest while mortar fire sends huge boulders
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plummeting from the cliffs beside you. Epic seems to know exactly when to have
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you holding your breath and when to have your heart thudding through your
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chest. One section in the pouring rain is the very essence of this, ramping up
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the tension to an unbearable degree before smashing it down in a maelstrom of
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tooth and claw. The campaign does get a little flabby around the three-quarter
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mark, with your mind starting to wander after you've spent just a little too
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long underground. However, any malaise is swiftly shaken in the suitably
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explosive denouement.
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Needless to say, Gears 2 is relentlessly brutal. While the gore and swearing
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can be switched off, the entire game is full of violent machismo. So much so
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that it does eventually begin to grate. Your hero, Marcus Fenix, with his neck
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as wide as a tree-trunk, is a gruff-voiced killing machine who quips things
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such as, "Ooh, that's gotta hurt", or "Look Ma, no face", as he takes the head
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off a distant Locust with a well-placed sniper bullet. It's all in keeping
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with the game's tone, but it you do eventually reach saturation point with the
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macho brouhaha and you can't help but hope for some levity.
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An attempt at this does come with the much-publicised search for Maria, the
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wife of your partner, Dominic Santiago. Unfortunately, while the plotline
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itself holds some strong, almost poignant, moments, the execution is too
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heavy-handed. Epic clearly wanted to answer the criticisms of the first game's
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lack of a human touch, but the Maria plotline, while far from being weak, does
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come across as a little forced. The story in general is a great improvement on
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the original, but tends to be a series of interesting events strung together
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with a slightly weak thread. The mythology of the Gears universe is a
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fascinating slice of science fiction, but melding it into a cogent story is
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proving somewhat elusive.
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Epic has no such problems in building its multiplayer. The campaign can be
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played in two-player co-op, both online and off, with the option for each
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player to choose their own difficulty level. The new online mode, Horde,
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allows up to five players to team up against ever-increasing waves of Locust
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in what is effectively a score attack mode. Horde is merciless, in many ways
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the ultimate test of your skills. The five human players must work together to
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somehow battle their way through 50 waves of Locust. As you'd expect it starts
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off light, but just a few waves in the amount of enemies becomes suffocating
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and the short break between waves becomes a mad scramble for weapons and ammo,
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which always seem to be just out of reach.
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The original Gears multiplayer still has its hooks into million of players
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and, with Horde, Gears 2 is looking to reel back in those who have defected to
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Halo 3 or Call of Duty 4. Maps are tightly designed, with plenty of cover and
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holdpoints. Teamwork is essential. Getting caught playing the lone ranger is
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likely to get you killed and won't win many friends in your team. Favourite
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modes such as Annex are even better in Gears 2, but the real star of the show
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for me was the new mode, Submission.
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Submission is essentially Capture the Flag, but with a twist: the flag is
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alive and fights back. Represented by one of the Stranded from the storyline,
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the "meatflag" is armed with a shotgun and you must take him down in a hail of
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bullets before you can grab him by the neck and drag him back to the scoring
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zone. As one player is dragging the Stranded, his team-mates must protect him,
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otherwise the "flag" can get loose and take out members of your team with a
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few well-placed shots.
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Submission can lead to some fraught back-and-forth encounters that can last
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for some time as each team refuses to concede the score. The intimate nature
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of the battles leads to ferocious competition in all gametypes and, for me,
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Gears 2 is one of the finest examples of online multiplayer warfare yet. It
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matches, if not beats, the frantic running-and-gunning of Halo and Call of
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Duty with tense, tactical encounters.
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Gears of War 2 doesn't claim to be any kind of paradigm shift for the medium,
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nor does it need to. In its own, very loud way, Gears 2 is still an important
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figure on the video game landscape. Sure it's uncouth at times, but it stands
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tall as an example of just how heart-poundingly exciting games can be. It is a
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game of gargantuan spectacle that grabs you by the throat and throws you
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headlong into a frantic, terrifying, exhilarating adventure, armed to the
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teeth with huge guns and one hell of an attitude.
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Bigger, better and more badass? You'd better believe it.
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* **Gears of War 2 is available exclusively on the Xbox 360**
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[X][18] Share & bookmark
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[What are these?][19]
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* Share: [Share][18] [ ][20] [ ][21]
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[Tweet][22]
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/video-games/3394830/Gears-Of-War-2
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-video-game-review.html
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Telegraph
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## [Video Games][23]
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* ### [Lifestyle »][24]
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* ### [Technology »][25]
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In technology
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[![Brink hands-on preview][26] ][27]
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### [UK video game chart 16 May 2011][27]
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[X][18] Share & bookmark
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Delicious Facebook Google Messenger Reddit Twitter
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Digg Fark LinkedIn Google Buzz StumbleUpon Y! Buzz
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[What are these?][19]
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Share:
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* [ ][18]
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* [ ][20]
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* [ ][21]
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* [Tweet][22]
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* Advertisement
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![][28]
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telegraphuk
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Please enable JavaScript to view the [comments powered by Disqus.][29] [blog
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comments powered by Disqus][30]
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[![Follow The Telegraph on social media][31]][32]
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sponsored features
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### [LA Noire Gameplay: Investigation and Interrogation][44]
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TECHNOLOGY ADVICE AND REVIEWS
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