Infinity Blade II Update:Vault Of Tears
The Vault Of Tears update for Infinity Blade II came out this morning and I am pretty excited. I could go on and on about how great the Infinity Blade series is but most of you already know that. As of yet I’ve only gotten about fifteen minutes into the update but changes are obvious. The characters now have a more fluid movement and even sound effects have been improved along with color and graphic quality. Their are now maps you can earn or purchase though as of yet I haven’t been able to figure them out. Different pathways are clearly marked but are currently blocked to, so we’ll see where those go. Right after my victory as my character approaches the courtyard I noticed a shifty little character moving about the rafters though who or what that is I’ve yet to find out. As I said I am only 15 minutes into it but will update my review more later. Right now as always expected from Chair the graphics and game play are amazing and only just got better.
What DrawSomething Lacks Could Be Fixed Overnight
Many are speculating on Zynga’s decision to buy OMGPOP during the overnight success of their Draw Something app and they should. Draw Something is a great game; it’s fun, easy and you can play it with friends. To most it sounds like the perfect casual gameplay app, which currently is what the games on the app store are thriving on. Games like Angry Birds and Cut The Rope you grab your iPhone play a round or two smile at your 3 star success and go on about your day. Something like Zombieville USA or even Infinity Blade you run a level or fight a battle for five minutes of gameplay and reap the rewards from your success, whether it be new weapons or abilities something is gained and that’s what keeps you coming back for more. Something gained is the one thing Draw Something is missing, in the iPhone version you’re limited to only a handful of colors and bombs, you think no problem I’ll win 5 or 10 rounds and be able to get more, right? Wrong, new colors cost 249 coins to purchase and most of them are shades of colors at that aren’t even full palettes. That means if you’re doing 3 coin rounds, which can be tough and time consuming, you have to go a total of 83 rounds to be able to get more colors or shell out cash for coins. OMGPOP missed a key component here, all this casual gameplay on these devices from iPod’s to iPad’s makes just about everybody from your little sister to grandmother a gamer and in true gamer fashion they feed off those rewards and goals. A gamer wants the goal to be something you have to work for but not something you have to spend your life on, except for Skyrim and WOW gamers but that’s another story, which means a casual gamer like grandma isn’t going to want to go 80 plus rounds for a reward nor shell out an extra buck for a shade of colors. The games greatness is right there on their fingertips they just need to step back take a note from others and make a few changes.
Source: forbes.com
Let’s Talk Mobility Series: iPad and Kindle Fire in Gaming
So let me say this first, I recommend two tablets and only two right now the iPad and the Kindle Fire. If you don’t like that well, oh well stick around for the cool Star Wars pictures I post then. The Kindle Fire is the simplest and easiest to use of all the Android tablets and it’s cheap. As I’ve said before overall the iPad wins every time with simplicity, form, speed and price that just can’t be beat.
I’ll start off with the Kindle Fire in gaming. One word “Simple” they’re going to be your basic games, think Angry Birds or Plants vs Zombies. Both games play well on the Fire and don’t require overstraining the CPU anything along those lines is a great matchup for it. Do get this if you want Words With Friends, Draw Something and some casual gameplay while you read an eBook. Don’t expect to play a ported version of Doom on this or hook up an external controller, that’s not what this is for. Think more Moms, your 12yr old or a community tablet at the house.
Next is the iPad yes it does Angry Birds and more but come on how about a fully immersed, graphic intensive, multi-player game, oh yeah it does that to. For the casual user things like Draw Race, Smash Cop and Zombie Ville USA bring not only easy to use arcade style game play but highly detailed and graphic immersive games. Before I go on you need to know what “Arcade Style Game Play” is, for those of you not familiar with going to an arcade or have never been its pretty simple. You go pick out a game and drop your coin in, you might play for just a few minutes, you might play for 10 or 20 minutes and even some of you might do an hour or two but you can put it down walk away and comeback. Unlike a FPS where your immersed deeply in the game and story you pick the iPad up run a few laps on Draw Race and kill 10 or 15 minutes on your break. It was fun, quick and your scores and achievements are kept there for you in the Game center. That’s “Arcade Style Game Play” and for those of us who were kids in the 80’s and 90’s we can remember those old cabinet’s that inhaled our quarters. The iPad offers you the same thing and then some. Now on top of that you also have something you can play graphic intensive, highly immersive multi-player games on. Games like Shadow Gun give you that immersive FPS gameplay much like that of Gears of War. Infinity Blade I and II along with Sky Gamblers Air Supremacy give you multiplayer interaction with hours of online play. The iPad lacks one thing though to propel it forward to be a competitor against your XBOX 360 or PS3 and that’s a controller. The processing and computing capabilities are there and we might soon see this change if we go by what the rumor mills say. That aside it’s easy enough to spend hours on the iPad locked in on a multiplayer game or even killing time with some of the more casual ones. Don’t grab this hoping to replace your home console. Do grab this if you’re looking at tablets as an option whether it be for a media device or work the iPad is a great pic and a capable gaming machine.
Some Of The Best GameBoy Accessories Of All Time
The GameBoy Printer And Camera Our First Instagram
Game Genie The Original Game Hacker
Handy Boy (Night Play? Yes! Bigger Screen And Sound? Heck Yeah! Longer Battery? Oh Yeah!)
The Carry All GameBoy Travel Case
Relive Some Of Your Greatest Video Game Moments In This Montage And Be Surprised At How Aww Inspiring It Feels. Game On My Friends!
12” Version Of Atari’s Star Wars Arcade Cabinet!
I am rather speechless right now, though I don’t know if its because I am actually old enough to remember playing this in the arcade or because this handmade Atari cabinet is a nearly flawless mini reproduction of the original. I’ll let Le Chuck explain the build as you drool over the pictures.
Source: forum.arcadecontrols.com
Yoshi by Wednesday Wolf on Etsy
Stupid Addictive Games
I recently finished reading the article in the NY Times “Just One More Game” by Sam Anderson and it is beyond accurate. It came out yesterday and I passed over it as the title just made me role my eyes but I bumped into it again and sat down to read the whole article and I am glad I did. I am not going to even try to summarize it I will give a couple inserts from it but the link is here at the bottom click it and take a minute to read it.
“Games, he told me, are like “homebrew neuroscience” — “a little digital drug you can use to run experiments on your own brain.” Part of the point of letting them seduce you, as Lantz sees it, is to come out the other side a more interesting and self-aware person; more conscious of your habits, weaknesses, desires and strengths. “It’s like heroin that is abstracted or compressed or stylized,” he said. “It gives you a window into your brain that doesn’t crush your brain.”
Lantz told me that the deepest relationship he has ever had with a game was with poker, to which he was almost dangerously addicted. “Somehow teetering on the edge was part of the fun for me,” he said. “It was like a tightrope walk between this transcendently beautiful and cerebral thing that gave you all kinds of opportunities to improve yourself — through study and self-discipline, making your mind stronger like a muscle — and at the same time it was pure self-destruction. There’s no word for that in English, for a thing that does both of those at the same time. But it’s wonderful.”
I asked him if he knew a word for that in another language.
He said no, but then he thought for a minute.
“I think it’s ‘game,’ ” he said. “I think the word for that is ‘game.’ ”
Source: The New York Times
Air Supremacy is Fantastic! I’ve only engaged in the quick online multiplayer rounds so far but the controls are smooth and just what you would look for in a game like this. Whether you prefer to twist, tilt and yank your iPad or an onscreen joystick theirs a set up for that. Controling with the accelerometer quickly became my preferred choice up to go up, down for down and left or right for left or right. In a dog fight its crucial to keep track of your lock ons and using the guns when in close. When your decoys light up, use them and roll out as that means you have a bogey on your tale. Even on my iPad 2 the graphics where great, controls smooth and absolutely no lag even in multiplayer. Right now it’s 4 out 5 but I’ll update more after playing career mode. At $5 bucks it’s well worth it just for the multiplayer.
Update: I finished career mode and put in about an extra 5 hours of multiplayer and I am itching for a Wi-Fi connection to get more air time in! The game defiantly gives a nod towards Ace Combat X but controlling this type of game using the accelerometer just feels right. I knocked out career mode pretty quickly using the casual accelerometer mode and had a blast. However I recommend checking the tutorials out before you play, something I did not do. During game play there is a manual/auto option which allows you to toggle between full control of the plane and having the computer do it for you as you launch the missiles. For beginners it’s a great feature but not a flawless one especially in low flights you’re apt to crash. I used it a few times during heavy dogfights but quickly switched it off as targeting is completely reliant on the computers decision. Career mode is great for both a casual gamer and some one more experienced it all depends on the control modes you pick.
Before going in to do multiplayer to bump up my rankings I decided to take a few minutes to run through the tutorials. Several tutorials are offered though not all are needed. Take the time to do both the casual and full control tutorials to see which works best for you. (Side note after doing the full control tutorial the game defaults to it, so if that’s not the control scheme you want make sure to change it in the settings.) Lastly and I can’t urge this enough take the time to do the maneuvers and squadron commands tutorial. This is the key to learning evasive maneuvers that’ll help you during a dog fight and also teach you how to execute them. This is where Sky Gamblers really impressed me with the control interface, to execute say a loop it’s as simple as swiping upwards twice on the screen. Similar to the motions you use in Infinity Blade. Swiping to the right allows dodging right and the same to the left. A swipe down allows you to kill your speed and execute a cobra strike, very useful when a bogey is at your six. Once mastering the maneuvers the game is only that much more fun. At the end of career mode it says updates are to come so we’ll see what that brings. In the meantime multiplayer mode should keep you busy with its six different game options. If you see ICEMAN2POINT0 pop up in multiplayer watch your six! Sky Gamblers Air Supremacy is 5 out of 5 and well worth the $5.
Source: itunes.apple.com
Air Supremacy is Fantastic! I’ve only engaged in the quick online multiplayer rounds so far but the controls are smooth and just what you would look for in a game like this. Whether you prefer to twist, tilt and yank your iPad or an onscreen joystick theirs a set up for that. Controling with the accelerometer quickly became my preferred choice up to go up, down for down and left or right for left or right. In a dog fight its crucial to keep track of your lock ons and using the guns when in close. When your decoys light up, use them and roll out as that means you have a bogey on your tale. Even on my iPad 2 the graphics where great, controls smooth and absolutely no lag even in multiplayer. Right now it’s 4 out 5 but I’ll update more after playing career mode. At $5 bucks it’s well worth it just for the multiplayer.
Slide To Play is claiming that Infinity Blade Dungeons will be playable on all three iPad’s.
Source: slidetoplay.com
Wallpaper Wednesday brings you Star Wars The Old Republic the Sith!
Lego Game Boy Transformer
On a geek scale of 1-10 this is hitting nuclear in the 100’s anjoy the pics all you crazy nerds! Oh sweet, sweet nostalgia in the morning.
Source: mocpages.com
The New iPad As The Next Gaming Console
To deny the iPad’s gaming capability would be more than ignorant whether referencing the” New iPad” or the iPad 2. The graphics for games such as Infinity Blade are precise and crisp the latest iPad’s CPU only adds to strengthen that. With graphics processing capabilities to rival that of the current XBOX 360 and PS3 the iPad is both a mobile and console gaming platform to be recon with. At least it could be as it currently stands it’s missing a couple key elements.
The lack of physical controls is a huge one, though Epic Games has done a great job with the Infinity Blade Series and innovative touch controls, it’s still not the same. Now there are a few developers out their working on that, the problems they run into is getting the App programmers to integrate the controller code into their games. Though the codes are often free they require extra programming and the decision of which controller to pick. To get that actual controller in your hands for an iPad is really going to require one of two things. One Apple could make a physical controller and honestly I don’t know if that’s just a dream or not it would at least give game developers one controller platform to work with. The other option is the creation of an app similar to Joypad but done by Apple which would turn your iPhone or iPod into a controller for the iPad. The other key element lacking are console quality games however Mike Capps President of Epic Games said “Apple is definitely building their devices as if they care a lot about ‘triple-A’ games” and if anybody would know he would. If that’s true than drawing game developers or games already in the works to deliver that console quality probably won’t be a problem for Apple.
Source: reuters.com
VentureBeat did a great piece on what Tim Schafer is doing with the funds raised for Double Fine. Let’s just say, it involves a little more than just making a new game.
