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Content
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| Quality : |
17.5 / 20 |
| Quantity : |
14.5 / 15 |
| Entertain : |
13.0 / 15 |
| Updates : |
9.5 / 10 |
| Exclusive : |
2.0 / 05 |
| Download : |
3.5 / 05 |
| sub-total : |
60.0 / 70 |
| Navigation |
| Easy : |
7.5 / 10 |
| Features : |
2.5 / 05 |
| Design : |
3.5 / 05 |
| sub-total : |
13.5 / 20 |
| Other |
| Originality : |
3.5 / 05 |
| Hard Facts : |
3.5 / 05 |
| sub-total : |
7.0 / 10 |
Scoring Criteria New
New Update!
As of Aug 15th, 07, price of a site is no longer factored into the overall score/rank. |
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1. Sites look real nice.
2. Lots of sites here, which means more content.
3. Updates are basically daily (somewhere).
1. Content doesn't seem to be exclusive.
2. Quite expensive.
3. Can't browse site while downloading videos.
"Not the best choice in networks, unless you like mediocrity in all aspects of the site." |
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Networks are always fun reviews, because you get to check out so many sites at once with your single membership. I've never heard or come across this one before today, but it looks promising with slick graphics and all the right niches. It's called Unlimited Pass, and it seems to come in unlimited language options as well (okay just nine actually, whatever). Even the graphics and URL's change when you switch languages which was pretty cool. I see two versions of English, plus German, Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch (I think), Portuguese, and one I can't recognize (Hebrew?).
A pretty standard $30 will get you in the door and your way to checking out their offerings. Once you get past the top row of ads (boo!), the other links take you to the network sites which is why we're here. I liked their tour graphics better than the screenshots they have in here, but I guess it gets the job done. One really nice feature on some networks lets you enter the underlying paysites without entering your login info again, but that's not the case here unfortunately. It has to do with how they setup their domains and directories, and I guess it wasn't a priority for them.
You'll see the same three ads on the paysites that you saw on the network page, so get used to ignoring them if you're not interested. Under that, they list the top five rated scenes from that site, and then the latest updates. Better yet, just use the menu on the left to get to the photo and video sections. The photo galleries don't appear to be anything special. Quality is decent, but the pictures are very small at 500x375 which is awful. They don't appear to be exclusive, and there are no fun browsing/navigating features either.
Videos seem to come in four quality options, and can be viewed online or downloaded. I went straight for the ultra quality, but it appears that the "high" ones are 340k. I'll stick with my ultra thank you! I started downloading a video, and it's in Windows Media format but requires that you download it first (probably because they use some javascript thing to serve it). I also noticed I couldn't browse the site while downloading, meaning they must limit you to one connection per computer or something which sucks. I was able to get to another site of theirs thankfully, but on the original site you're stuck waiting. With these huge files, downloads can take more than a few minutes which leaves you without much to do for a while. It should be unlimited, it's in the title after all lol. Once they arrive, they look good but not great at 320x240 and 700kbps. There are both picture quality and frame rate problems I can see right away. They're good, but they don't live up to the title of "ultra" if you ask me. Plus the downloading thing is quite annoying since they're WMV. To keep them looking good, you probably shouldn't zoom in at all which is a shame as well.
Updates are quite erratic across the board. Some sites are doing okay with updates on Jan 18th, and a bunch on the 14th, while others had a bunch on December 1st (almost two months ago) and nothing since. I had high hopes here, but overall everything seems a little plain. The content is fine, but quality (especially picture, and video somewhat as well) needs improvement for sure. Updates should be regular on all sites, and I think having their own content would help. For $30, you get a decent amount of content across quite a few niches, but it just doesn't excite me enough to want to stay around very long unfortunately.
| 1st Follow-Up Review |
Review: 04-04-07 |
There are two big changes to note at Unlimited Pass, as it's been quite a while since we took a look at their network. First, they've skyrocketed their cost to $40 a month which is definitely on the high side of life. Second, they've almost doubled the number of sites they offer to 39 which is much better news. Quality is a bit better all around, though I'd stick with the MPG videos over the WMV option. The upgrades around here are decent, though the price increase is a tough one to swallow. In the end they have some decent content and update basically daily on one site or another, so it can't be all bad news!
Score increased from 75.8 to 83.0.
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