Tag: Review

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App Review

App Review: Peggle

Busting some Peggle Moves
Busting some Peggle Moves

I heard about Peggle (buy Peggle on iTunes) several times before I actually tried it.  Being Scottish I can be a bit of a cheapskate when it comes to paying for apps.  There a re a good number of high quality apps available for free and the price (£2.99/$5) seemed quite high to me and ignored it.  I had even read about the Peggle pricing experiment, found it interesting but not the game itself.

Then I was in an electronics store waiting (quite a while)  for something to be brought out to me and they had Peggle running on a PC.  I played it without really knowing what it was and became addicted.  So i ponied up the money and bought it.

The aim is to knock out all of the orange pegs on the different boards. There are a majority of blue pegs which help your ball to have something to bounce off and the occasional purple score multiplying peg.

The most interesting pegs are the green ones, which offer new “special powers” depending on which level you are on and which of the 10 Peggle masters you are studying under.  Among the powers are:

  • Super Guide – showing you where your ball will go after its first bounce
  • Space Blast – lights up all nearby pegs
  • Fireball – blasts its way through pegs instead of bouncing off them.

There is a collector barrel moving from left to right on the bottom of the screen then you are able to re-use the ball (useful when you’re running out)

I’ve played it for hours since I downloaded it and am re-playing it.  It’s a great “quick” game, to play in spare minutes, but you could also play for prolonged periods and it’s well recommended.

It does behave very well when I’m listening to my own music, keeping the sound effects but dropping the music (although the “Handel’s Messiah” music when you finish the level is fabulous)

(8/10)

Categories
Great Games

Great Games: Day of the Tentacle

Hoagie meets the founding fathers
Hoagie meets the founding fathers

“Day of the Tentacle” is one of my favourite games of all time.  I played it through as a teenager and I loved the 3 streams of play.

The basic concept is that you play as 3 friends, all separated by 100 years (Laverne in 2176, BerNARD in 1976 and Hoagie in 1776) and you have to co-operate to make sure that you can all get back to 1976 and defeat the evil Purple Tentacle (as opposed to the good natured Green Tentacle)

For example you Bernard has to retrieve a “help wanted” sign from the present, send it to Hoagie in the past so that he can get a job and deliver a battery to Laverne in the future.

It’s very complicated but wonderfully humourous.  you play havoc with time (adding amendments to the US  constitution so that everyone has a vacuum cleaner in the basement, just so that you’ll be able to use one in the future) and it can be a bit frustrating trying to work things out but the game is so cleverly written that it’s a joy to play.

I’ve been playing it again recently thanks to my jailbroken iPod.  ScummVM is available via Cydia and it has been great playing through this and “Flight of the Amazon Queen”  (now available for free!) Next up is “The Secret of Monkey Island!”

Categories
App Review

App Review: Guitar Hero World Tour Mobile

1_Axel_Guitar_Dazed_Venue2

I’m under no illusions that android is not (yet?) a gaming platform.  I’ve found precious few games which are worth keeping on  my phone.  However I do have some standards and Guitar Hero World Tour Mobile (Demo) fell far below those standards.

The game weighs in at around 7mb which, for a phone with only 74mb for all applications and operating system, that’s a sizeable chunk.  I could forgive this rudeness if it weren’t for the absolutely useless gameplay.

I’ve played Guitar Hero on the PS2 and the Wii, as well as Tap Tap revenge on the iPod Touch so I know what the deal is.  The problem with this version is that it’s so jerky and jumpy that it’s impossible to be in time.  I tried several times and never made it past 30 seconds into a track.  I’m no genius at Guitar Hero but I can usually complete a track on the first few difficulty levels.   I made sure that I had nothing big running in the memory and went back to try again – to no avail.

I’d much rather shell out on independent games that are more fun (and significantly cheaper)

Do yourself a favour and don’t bother with this turkey.

(1/10)

Categories
App Review

App Review: Sentinel

Zapping the aliens on Mars
Zapping the aliens on Mars

I’m a big fan of Tower Defence games.  I’ve played quite a few over the years and I have to confess that Sentinel is one of the best I’ve played (buy Sentinel on iTunes.)

In a tower defence game you face waves of enemies, slowly increasing in difficulty while you build up your defences against each wave.  There are usually waves with different characteristics (i.e. some can fly so are immune to ground based weapons) and weapons to match lots of characteristics.  The idea is to build up a mixture of defences to defeat al enemies.

The premise here is that you are defending the Mars base from invading alien hordes.

One of the things which hits you immediately about Sentinel is the high quality visuals and sound effects. Of all of the games in this genre which I’ve played this is by far the best produced.  It’s also one of the most addictive.  There  are 4 separate layouts to defend, in either assault (90 waves of attack) or endurance (unlimited waves.)

Since the release of Sentinel 2 (review coming soon), Sentinel has been reduced to 99c – well worth the money.

My only bugbear with the game is that it stops whatever you’re listening to when it starts but you can get around that using the double-click trick.

(7.5/10)

Categories
Music Review

Music for Geeks

coulton
JoCo in Concert by Mild Mannnered Photographer

I am probably the last person to blog about Jonathan Coulton. Not that there won’t be more to hear from him, just that I’m so late.

I’ve been a fan of Coulton’s ever since February ’06 when escapepod used one of his songs as an outro song. As soon as I heard “Skullcrusher Mountain” I knew I had found something exciting.

He writes comedic songs for the most part, many of them off-kilter lovesongs. “Skullcrusher Mountain” is a ballad sung by an evil genius in his mointaintop lair to a woman whom he is holding captive. “Codemonkey” is a song of the unrequited love of a programmer for the company secretary.

I went to a concert which he performed in Glasgow last year and it was just great.  He was all on his own but he was clever, accomplished and funny.

Coulton also releases his music under a ccreative commons license which has allowed his fans to go wild on YouTube.

If you like witty songs and haev some time to spare i’d heartily recommend checking him out. (Buy Jonathan Coulton’s Music on iTunes)

Categories
App Review Review

App Review: Flood It!

Me on an advanced level
Me on an advanced level

One of the first really good free puzzle games I found for the iPod was flood-it (free iTunes download).  It’s a simple concept.  Your aim is to make all of the board one colour by changing the colour of one segment.  For example if the first square is green, and the one next to it is red then you make the first square red and the blocks become a whole.  On your next colour change any squares of that colour directly next to your block are added to the whole and it grows and grows.

I may not have explained it very well but it works very well,  It’s also a good one handed “thumb” game.  the only section of the screen you use is the six coloured circles at the bottom, and there’s no real speed. you can play it while walking around, or sitting on the bus and not worry about jostles and other issues.

It was also one of the first games available when I got my new G1 phone, and it’s just as addictive there.  Some people have found it frustrating at higher levels but the easier levels are enough to keep me quiet.

The game is ad supported but there is a premium version available for the iPod for 79p (buy from iTunes), which I bought having spent so much time playing the free version.  The pay-for version allows you to undo a move, upload online scores, retry a board, etc.  Of all of these features I only really find the undo useful and it’s a pity that it doesn’t import the play history form the free version.

If you’re looking for a simple but deep strategy game to while away a couple of minutes (or even a couple of hours, then this comes highly recommend.

Categories
Film Review

Film Review: Terminator Salvation

Terminator Salvation Logo
Terminator Salvation Logo

I was fairly law abiding growing up so the first 15 rated film I saw in the cinema was Terminator 2. That was 18 years ago now and there have only been two terminator films since then. Terminator 3 didn’t really make the grade although it wasn’t awful.

I was much more optimistic about this latest installment given its casting of Christian Bale as John Connor. I’ve been a fan of his for quite some time. Remembering his performances in American Psycho, The Machinist amd the 2 latest Batman movies.
What I hadn’t realised before I went was that it was directed by McG who I principally know as the director of the Charlies Angels films.

My overall impression was that it was a very loud film.  Lots of the sound effects were similar to those in the first Transformers film and it was a constant aural assault.  What I hadn’t expected was the number of  “Jump” moments, where I got frights.  There were wuite a few scenes wehre something unexpected happened and I jumped – not something i usually enjoy but it worked here.

I think it’s a film worth seeing.  Not as good as 2 but better than 3.

Categories
Review

Something New is Coming

G1
G1

Well technically it arrived last week.  My phone contract came to an end and I called up to see what my options are.  I’ve had a qwerty keyboard on my past 2 phones and really like it so I’ve plumped for a T-Mobile G1.  I’m not sure what I think of it so far.  I’m enjoying geting used to it but I feel that it’s still in “beta” – not quite finished. Anyway, we’ll see what happens

Categories
App Review

App Review: Kingdoms Live

Kingdoms Live Logo
Kingdoms Live Logo

Kingdoms Live was one of the first games I downloaded from the App store and it’s one that I still play a couple of times a day.

It’s an MMORPG which follows a medieval theme. You choose your character type and their strengths then work to build them up using quests, battles and upgrades.

The first game of this type which I saw was the Facebook game “MobWars”  which I played for a few weeks before getting bored of it.

Mobwars on Facebook had 2 major problems:

  1. You could only add actual Facebook friends as “army” members, so recruitment was slow
  2. The barriers in certain parts of the game were ridiculous (having to upgrade 100 levels to acquire new property types)
Level Up
Level Up

Neither of these problems exist in Kingdoms Live.  You can easily add people and there’s no downside or privacy issue.  You can easily trawl other peoples comments looking for “friend codes” and grow your army to the necessary size.

The only problem I have with Kingdoms live is that it can only be played online – perfect if you have an iPhone, not so great if you’re reliant on WiFi, as I am.

It’s a familiar concept, and one that’s been duplicated by the company themselves several times, with rockstars, vampires and space traders all getting the same treatment.  Personally I couldn’t play more than one of these games but I like this one and I’ll be sticking with it (My army code is 4VRSU).

  • Price: Free
  • Rating: 8 shields
Categories
App Review

App Review: AirportMania

Airport Mania Screenshot
Airport Mania Screenshot

My name’s Brian and I’m an addict.  I can’t seem to stop playing Airport Mania. It’s a fairly simple game concept but it’s beautifully executed and highly addictive.

You are the controller of an airport and you have to land planes, disembark passengers, repair and refuel aircraft and send them on their way again.

You guide the aircraft around by touching their destinations in order.  In that way it’s possible to set up a series of movements, waypoints if you like. IT sounds very simple, and it is, but there’s a definite art to it and the scoring system encourages you to reach for airport handling perfection.

You can upgrade the airport, adding runways, gates and other facilities.  This makes life easier but every 6 levels or so  you move airports, which means starting from scratch, or close to it.

There are around 50 levels to play, and there is the challenge of re-playing difficult levels to aim for the “supreme score”. I’m on my second play through, trying to work win all of the trophies and awards, and trying to complete every level with the highest score level.

The graphics and sounds are perfect and make the gameplay so much more entertaining.

I bought  AirportMania on a whim, and I’m glad I did.  I hadn’t realised that there was a lite version which you can get to try it out.  This has fewer levels but will give a good taste of what is in the full version.

  • Price: 59p
  • Rating: 9/10 Shields