Posts by tag: android
The Dark Knight Rises: This One Should Have Stayed in its Cave.
Back in the heyday of gaming (and by that I really mean my heyday) there were two seemingly universal rules to gaming. One was that if you couldn’t beat anyone else in a game, you could still beat your dad. The second was that licensed games always suck; but like Moore’s law, there has been increasing evidence that both of these rules no longer hold water. Gamers are getting older and for the past decade or so there have been an increasingly large number of quality games based off of beloved franchises. Batman games in particular have been a bright spot for gaming and it hasn’t hurt that this Renaissance has coincided with a string of Batman movies directed by Christopher Nolan. The Dark Knight Rises for Android, however, is a good first attempt but doesn’t quite live up to the level of its inspiration.
Built ostensibly as an open-world adventure, The Dark Knight Rises is frustratingly linear. There simply isn’t enough for the Caped Crusader to do besides progress the main story by dutifully obeying the commands of Commissioner Gordon and Lucius Fox in pursuit of Bane, the dastardly villain of both the game and movie. This issue is further magnified by a battle system that sacrifices depth for accessibility and a story line that does little to make the player want to keep playing. That isn’t to say that there aren’t positives to The Dark Knight, there is a solid base to an entertaining game here, it just needed to ramp everything up one more level.
Quick Review: Active Soccer – Kick, Pray in this Scrappy Football Game
I’m not a fan of soccer even though the Philippine Azkals are pretty popular around here. That’s why I had second thoughts when I saw Active Soccer in the Top 25 New Paid section of the Play Store. This Android game from The Fox Software boasts the first online cross platform football game and could be likened to Sensible Soccer.
Blitz Brigade – Locked and Loaded Multiplayer FPS Action
Gameloft is no stranger to First-Person Shooter (FPS) games. I’m sure you are familiar with Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance (N.O.V.A.) 3 and Modern Combat series. This time, you have to choose sides, either Axis or Allied forces, in their new Android game, Blitz Brigade, an ultimate multiplayer FPS face-off that seems to pay homage to Team Fortress.
Before diving in the action immediately, it is best advised to work on your skills in Training Missions. It has 120 action-packed missions which allow you to master different skills. You could also navigate a helicopter and fire off enemies on the ground. Further, you could even control a tank and flatten your opponents.
OUYA Controller Update:The Developer of the Code that Fixed OUYA’s Controller Talks, and so does OUYA
UPDATE: The Head of communications and PR for OUYA has contacted us to reiterate and confirm that the launch delay was completely unrelated to the current controller issue, and was only to meet increase demand.
On Tuesday we told you about problems that developers have continued to have with the OUYA controller since the first backer units started shipping in March. In that article we told you that Eric Froemling, who goes by the name efroemling on the OUYA developers board and created BombSquad for OUYA, has developed a few simple lines of code that developers can put into their games and fix the issue. Today Eric was kind enough to take some time to clarify for us what exactly the problem is, where he thinks the problem resides and how his code fixes it.
According to Froemling (and many other developers on the OUYA forums) the problem is that not all of the stick is accessible. In some areas the console will only pick up stick movement 60-70% of the way to the edge, while in other directions there is no detection at all. This can negatively affect aiming and movement, making certain games unplayable.
News: Nvidia Shield Sets Price Point, Launch Date
Today, Nvidia, well known for their graphics processors and cards have finally announced the price point and launch time for their Android handheld system, Nvidia Shield. The Nvidia Shield priced at $349 is available for pre-order on it’s website starting May 20th, with an anticipated shipping date sometime in the later part of June.
This device will not only play all of your beloved Android titles, but will also play titles from Steam as well, and can project those games onto your television via a HDMI cable. The device also comes pre-loaded with the Jelly Bean Android OS, along with an impressive hardware arsenal including the Nvidia Tegra 4 chip, 4 CPU cores and can output its display at 720p.
The company states they are hoping to compete with the likes of Nintendo and Sony in the handheld market and also claims that gaming on the Nvidia Shield will be a better gaming experience than gaming on your Android phone or tablet. The device does come equipped with wi-fi capability, speakers and a 5″ HD screen.
The device will also come with Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode 2 and Expendable: Rearmed pre-installed, along with Hulu Plus and TwitchTV. Users also have access to the Google Play store, but can search for games through the Nvidia TegraZone gaming library, a similar approach users of the Moga controllers have.
Retailers who will be carrying this device include Newegg and GameStop.
Check out Nvidia’s Shield website for more details.
Sources: VentureBeat, PCWorld
Quick Review: Flick Golf Free – Drives Short, Misses the Pin
Full Fat released the new and improved free to play version of their smashing hit, Flick Golf. This Android game has the same tagline of “Golf. Reinvented.” Unfortunately, I believe it’s a little half-baked. The proclamation of having reinvented golf when you just have to drive the ball close to the hole is not reinvention, IMHO.
Anyway, Flick Golf Free is an under par golf game that features incredibly responsive controls. Aside from not having to select clubs or worry which type of shot you should play, there is no more typical swing meter or power bar as you just have to swipe to drive the ball. You also have the ability to add spin on the ball up to its third bounce just by simply swiping to your preferred direction. It is undeniably creative and adds a nice touch. Though this Android game includes pins, greens, flags, bunkers, water, sands, clubs and balls, it does not present a total golf experience. Each hole has a par of one and you score points when you hit the ball inside a radius within the pin. Sink a hole-in-one and you get bonus points and additional time.
Baseball Hero – Strikes Out on Three Pitches
I have been a fan of baseball ever since I was a kid. Fell head over heels with St. Louis Cardinals’ brand of baseball. Followed the game through the internet and I have been fond of the players from Mark McGwire and Darryl Kile to Albert Pujols and Chris Carpenter. I once wore number 57 in one of the basketball summer leagues here in our village as a tribute to Kile who died that year. I also played various baseball video games from text-based simulation on the desktop (Out of the Park Baseball) or via console (MLB: The Show). That’s why I was happy to see a baseball game – Baseball Hero – on the Top New Free section on Google’s Play Store. That cloud nine feeling easily faded as soon as I play the Android game.
Baseball Hero features 3 distinct game modes; quick play, career and practice. The quick play mode lives up to its name as it allows you to play a quick three innings without having to worry about your roster. This could also serve as your guide on how to use the controls. During career mode, you’ll also play the same number of innings. After each game, you’ll get coins depending on the result on the field. Get the W and you’ll collect more in-game currencies. You can use the coins to increase your team’s abilities like power, contact and speed. It can also be used to avail of various boosts in your next game like upgrade the contact, speed or power, increase the likelihood of Quick Time Events (QTE), add more chance of hitting in the game, score one more point for hitting a homerun and a coin doubler. Finally, in practice mode you could run-through hitting drills to improve your timing.
Leviathan Warships: Take A Good Hard Look at this MotherF@!*ing Boat!
War drives innovation. For all the hardship, blood, and horrors of war, the silver lining for humanity has been the innovation and the progress it has, for better or worse, provided technologically. So what happens when you take thousands of gamers across four platforms, give them tools to innovate and then set them loose on each other in turn based naval warfare? Leviathan: Warships is what happens.
Strategy games are a dime a dozen on the Android platform. Everything from real time strategy games to reverse tower defense games to RPGs have been done seemingly hundreds of times on the mobile platform. That is why it is a pleasure to find a strategy game on Android that is as refreshingly unique, deep and balanced as Leviathan: Warships is.
It has been a while since I have been as obsessed with a game as I became with Leviathan: Warships over the past few weeks. While it does include a short single player campaign, the real fun in Leviathan comes from jumping online and battling friends or strangers. The amount of shit talking that has been going on between me and my friends these past few days has hit a level I haven’t seen since the long nights of Starcraft and Battle.net.
Creating a completely Interactive and then jumping online with it and either winning or losing would cause me either great shame or pride that few games can match. Its not just that I won or lost, its my creation, the thing I spent hours perfecting, beating or getting beat by something someone else spent hours perfecting themselves. When someone out flanked me and destroyed my flagship before I even got a chance to implement my strategy, I felt as dumb as Alonso Perez Guzman in 1588 (look it up kids!). When things went according to plan, on the other hand, I felt like Chester Nimitz after the battle of Midway. custom fleet using the very robust tools provided by developer Paradox
Quick Review: Daddy Was a Thief – Big Daddy Robs Banks Then Your Time
After being fired from work, Daddy planned to rob a bank to provide for his family. Help him navigate down the building to escape by smashing various obstacles like floors, walls, TVs, refrigerators, washing machine and other furniture. This Android game is an arcade, high-score chaser that you could just pick-up-and-play with tons of achievements to earn. Your goal is to gain as much coins as you can without getting caught as the police are just waiting below. Some has baton while certain forces have guns. Look out for the old lady, bullet-firing turret which turns you to the size of your baby and the missiles darting from either side. If the missile hit you, the game is over as well.
Riptide GP: Ripping and Roaring Through the Seas is Not as Fun Alone.
Racing games need multiplayer. Ever since the original Mario Kart on the SNES, multiplayer has been an absolute requirement for any game that includes a start line, finish line and some sort of motorized vehicle. That is why it is such a shame to see a game that has so much going for it, like Riptide GP, throw it all away by completely ignoring the most crucial game mode for its genre.
First, what Riptide GP does have going for it, which is a lot. It is the best 3D jet ski game currently available on the Google Play Marketplace. Partially because it is the only 3D jet ski game on Google Play, but also because everything about the game, from the graphics to the water effects to the level design to the sense of speed is extremely solid. All of the elements needed for a great racing game are here.
Furthermore, by the nature of racing on water, this is the first racing game I have played where I found the tilt controls to be tolerable, and the game was still a lot of fun without physical controls. Less precision is needed when controlling a jet ski going over wakes than a car drifting through streets and it felt a lot more natural making a character lean on a jet ski by tilting the device than it does trying to simulate driving a car.
