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Big Buck Hunter Pro pulled over WP8 incompatibility

3 Nokia Exclusive WP7 games released

Off to get my Lumia 920!

The HTC Arrive is extremely heavy as well. I kind of like it.

Paul, I figured out what's driving me nuts about the new WPC format. When you go to the homepage, the picture is above the headline, which is backwards to me. When you go on to page 2, 3, 4, the headline is above a smaller picture, which is really nice looking (to me).

I'm sure this has mentioned plenty of times before, but [headline over picture] is way better than [picture over headline] in my book. Just wanted to share.

Originally Posted by benjamouth If it's $4.99 I'll be waiting for a sale, have the XBLA version which I've barely played anyway.

If that's the case, then why buy it again?

Originally Posted by eastx Big Buck Hunter Pro pulled over WP8 incompatibility 3 Nokia Exclusive WP7 games released

1. I can still download Big Buck Hunter just fine. I don't know why I feel like mentioning, but I thought I would.

2. Is there a list somewhere of the Nokia exclusives?

3. I know there are separate achievements for WP8 and Windows 8 games, but what about WP8 and WP7? Do the two phone versions have separate achievements as well? I'm just curious about how they're handling this.

Got my new Lumia today! Unfortunately it didn't come with the free charging plate :/. Looks like they are on backorder. Also unfortunately I haven't been able to do anything with it because I'm sick as a dog. Hopefully tomorrow.

Also, as someone upgrading from 1st Gen focus, man that thing is heavy. It doesn't bother me, but the weight is a little more noticable than what I expected.

All these Nokia exclusives are starting to piss me off. :(

Really want to try/buy all of them.

Hopefully they will all be available to all wp7 users some day.

Can someone tell me what the update for Risk does?

I really love my 920, but the verdict is out if I have a defective battery or not. It's not holding that much of a charge. On Saturday, It went from 7:50am - 2:30pm with light to moderate use. Today a little better, 8:40am-5:30pm with light to moderate use. People online are saying they're using their phones a LOT and it's barely using the battery. I'll give it till Friday.

After having some time with my new Lumia 920, I thought I would post some impressions if anyone was interested. I'm encasing in spoiler tags so as not to take up a ton of space if you aren't interested.

Spoiler alert: I'm slightly underwhelmed.


First of all, I should preface this with the disclaimer that I had a really crappy weekend. I was sick as a dog with vomiting and explosive diarrhea, my laptop broke, and my hamster died. I'm trying to be as subjective as possible, but I'll admit I might be a bit affected.

Size
I originally posted that it felt huge to me. While it is a noticeable step up in both size and weight from my focus, I'm used to it now and it really is a non-issue. It actually feels pretty sturdy, which is good. I do find it difficult to move from the back/home/search buttons to the volume buttons when holding it with one hand though. Perhaps too big?

Battery
First of all, my free charging plate was not in the package. Apparently it is on backorder. This was pretty disappointing to me because this was one of the key features I wanted to try out. I am a bit disappointed in the battery life. I realize I am using it a lot more than normal and I have practically every feature turned on, but I had to charge it twice yesterday. Actually, the battery didn't seem to last any longer than my old Focus. I didn't perform any kind of benchmark, but I'm betting/hoping the battery life gets better once I break it in to a normal usage cycle.

Camera
Awesome. The camera is by far my favorite thing about the phone so far. A big improvement over the one I had in the Focus. It is just a bunch more user friendly. They even included more options to control the way it syncs to Skydrive, and some of the available Nokia apps (or lenses) really make it versatile. More about how I love the Nokia apps later.

Screen
The screen size it good and the resolution is great. Much easier to see small print than on the Focus. I was a bit disappointed in the brightness and viewing angle though. IMO the Focus still beats the Lumia on both. As far as WP8 specific upgrades go, the addition of many more theme colors is very welcome. Finally a decent looking orange. Also the resizeable tiles really save screen space and make organization easy. I have had some issues with live tile compatibility with older apps though.

Apps
I've messed around with some of the Nokia exclusive apps. I'm not sure if they are all new or if some were around for WP7 since I never had a Nokia Windows phone, but most are great. I uninstalled all of the ATT junk that comes on the phone but I found myself keeping all of the Nokia ones, and then downloading and keeping more. There are some really neat ones (and I haven't even tried any of the exclusive games yet). I have experienced some compatibility issues with some of the apps I had on my old phone though, and some aren't even able to be downloaded on WP8. Fable Coin Golf is one and I can probably forgive it, but Skype is another. That's right, one of the super hyped features isn't even available yet. If you go to the marketplace it just says check back soon for our WP8 version. I was super disappointed at this. So currently no way to do a video chat. Another minor concern of mine - my phone got pretty hot while playing Zombies!!! Could be perfectly normal, but my Focus never did that. The game did run silky smooth and looked great though

Music sync
Another feature I find severely lacking is the new syncing software. We no longer use Zune to sync music and videos. It's been replaced with the "Windows Phone App," which is basically just a white screen with a list of your songs. There are checkboxes next to each one that you can sync, or you can hit the checkbox at top that says sync all. With a 32 gig phone this is pointless. It is pretty hard to navigate. There are 3 panes: playlists, which I rarely use, Songs, which lists every song you have alphabetically (also pointless), and artists, which is the most useful but barely. I say barely because when you choose artist you have to choose by album, not by individual song. This is all far less user friendly than Zune, and boy do I miss it.

So if you'll notice so far I mostly have experience with the stuff that was available in my old phone. I haven't tried out the rooms yet (waiting for my wife's WP8 to arrive next week - she had to have the yellow one ) but overall the WP8 experience at launch feels pretty similar to the way 7 felt - slightly half baked and not quite ready for prime time. But then again most of us understand that is the price of being an early adopter. I'm confident most of the kinks will get ironed out and the experience will get better. Also I'm sure I will come across even more new features that I love. In the meantime I'm trying to finish up Crimson Dragon Side Story on my now WiFi-only Focus, because there is still no way to transfer save files and there is no way in hell I'm starting that game over from the beginning.

Thanks for the impressions, Feeni! One thing to consider about battery life is that the 920 has both a larger screen and more horsepower than the Focus, so it pretty much has to use more power. You can always disable cellular data while on Wi-Fi and vice versa to help.

WPCentral's official Nokia Lumia 920 review - finally went up on Friday

I don't get my blue 920 until later this week, so I'm asking for a bit of help. If you discover any WP7 Xbox games that don't work right on WP8, please post them here. I'd like to run an article on those compatibility issues.

ZombieToast, AFAIK the Nokia exclusive Xbox WP7 games are:

1. Mirror's Edge
2. Connect 4
3. Risk
4. The Game of Life
5. Jet Set Go
6. Parking Panic

I'll be doing an article on the lot of them (in addition to separate reviews) in the next few weeks. If a game is identical between WP7 and WP8 (i.e. you bought it on WP7 and you're redownloading to WP8 or whatever), it won't have different Achievements. Separate WP7 and WP8 versions (as we're promised with Angry Birds Star Wars) will have their own Achievements lists and be stackable.

Paul, I was JUST about to suggest that.

Here are some I noticed.

- Poker
- Tentacles
- Splinter Cell
- Orbital
- Oregon Trail

Originally Posted by seanr1221 Paul, I was JUST about to suggest that. Here are some I noticed. - Poker - Tentacles - Splinter Cell - Orbital - Oregon Trail

All of those crash when launched, or what?

Not even on the marketplace :/

I will say some intensive games load SO fast now.

Plants vs Zombies and Assassin's Creed for example

Maybe I just haven't looked hard enough, but I haven't seen definite confirmation of whether or not gamesaves can be transferred to WP8. I didn't even see any mention of it in the WPC upgrade guide. I'm assuming that we're not able to do this, but it sure would be nice, especially since my lovely wife is offering to get me the Lumia 920 and take my old phone (I probably won't let her, but it's a sweet gesture nonetheless).

Originally Posted by eastx ZombieToast, AFAIK the Nokia exclusive Xbox WP7 games are: Mirror's Edge Connect 4 Risk The Game of Life Jet Set Go Parking Panic I'll be doing an article on the lot of them (in addition to separate reviews) in the next few weeks. If a game is identical between WP7 and WP8 (i.e. you bought it on WP7 and you're redownloading to WP8 or whatever), it won't have different Achievements. Separate WP7 and WP8 versions (as we're promised with Angry Birds Star Wars) will have their own Achievements lists and be stackable.

Awesome, thanks for the clarification.

AFAIK, no game saves can not be transfered. Even using the cloud backup utility. Maybe Paul can clear this up especially because I might need to exchange my Lumia for another due to a sub-par battery life.

If anyone upgrading to a WP8 handset is looking to get rid of their WP7 set, drop me a PM. I thought I was going to be upgrading and got rid of mine, but it looks like I won't be for another year at least.

Originally Posted by seanr1221 AFAIK, no game saves can not be transfered. Even using the cloud backup utility. Maybe Paul can clear this up especially because I might need to exchange my Lumia for another due to a sub-par battery life.

Guy at work today had one, said the battery life wasn't great.

After taking a look at it I don't think the weight would be an issue, but TBH I just don't like the phone. I think it's a Ativ-S for me or I'm gonna stick with my Focus for now.

Am still awaiting an announcement on pricing and all for the Lumia 810 on T-Mobile. Just saw the other day that it's expandable up to 64gb (supposedly) just don't wanna have a short battery life. I have the Samsung Focus from launch with a 32gb micro sd card and so far it's been fine and doing good for me. The only thing of course is that I don't get the fastest data connection since it's unlocked and am using it on t-mobile. Other than that, no complaints.

Originally Posted by seanr1221 AFAIK, no game saves can not be transfered. Even using the cloud backup utility. Maybe Paul can clear this up especially because I might need to exchange my Lumia for another due to a sub-par battery life.

Yeah, I figure it's pretty unlikely, but I haven't actually seen anyone verify it yet. I need to upgrade because I need at least 32 GB, but I'm so not cool with losing all of these saves.

Originally Posted by benjamouth After taking a look at it I don't think the weight would be an issue, but TBH I just don't like the phone. I think it's a Ativ-S for me or I'm gonna stick with my Focus for now.

I like the Lumia 920 because it has some great features and you get all of the Nokia exclusives (although they are supposed to eventually come out for everyone). Most importantly, Nokia has been doing a great job of supporting the platform. But I'm also really leaning toward the ATIV S because of the expandable memory (not including this doesn't make sense to me) and...I know it's probably stupid, but the Home button is pretty important to me because it's the primary way I wake up my phone, especially in the dark.

Just a head's up, if you are a reward zone member, they are offering 5000 points($100) if you upgrade this week (can be any phone). Orders have to be placed through rewardzonemobile.com. If you can combine this with the $50 amex credit (Halo 4 acheivement) and then try to get them to pricematch Walmart's $50 price for the Lumia 920, you can get paid to upgrade. Not to mention the $50 gift card for those of us that signed up for Choose Phone Freedom

Just got the lumia 920 and I have xbox 360. Can you get Xbox live game on console or on phone and also get the game on the other? Searched but couldn't find answer.