Fly With Me, created by EA’s LA studio for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch, is now available on the AppStore. With a simple tap-to-flap mechanic, you’ll be helping birds navigate through 45 levels in 3 unique settings. You’ll need to dodge hazards and trees, while gobbling up bugs to keep up your strength.
You can in-app purchase, or unlock the Robot Bird, which is immune to bad stuff you may run into in your flights. Or buy the Kid Mode to make everything easier for the little ones, giving you infinite stamina and 30 exclusive levels to play through.
Magpul Executive Field Case Developer: Magpul Compatible with: iPhone 4/4s Price: $9.95 – Available Here
You probably have not heard of the Magpul. However Magpul is not a new company. If you play Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3, Battlefield 3, or any other modern day shooter then you have most likely already seen one of their products in action. Magpul is a company specializing in firearms accessories and designing concept firearms aimed at the military market. So what on earth are they doing making iPhone cases? Making great iPhone cases at an affordable price point. So is it mission accomplished for Magpul? Absolutely!
The Magpul Executive Field Case for the iPhone 4/4s is available in black, flat dark earth, foliage green, OD green, orange and pink and is made in the USA. We have the flat dark earth and the OD green cases here to review. The case is made from a rubber like plastic that is stiff yet flexible. Magpul says the material used to make their iPhone cases is the same material they used to make their first product, the Magpul loop. These loops are slid on the bottom of rifle magazines to allow the user to quickly draw magazines from pouches during reloads. Magpul loops are still used by soldiers around the world to this day and you can probably spot many video game characters sporting these on their rifle magazines. The material used for the case has some serious real word testing behind it. So what makes it so perfect for iPhone cases? The material is rigid enough that it will not lose its shape over time. It has a slight tackiness like rubber that makes it easy to hold onto even with wet or greasy hands but not sticky enough that it is difficult to take out of a tight pocket. The case itself has ribs on the edges that further aid in gripping the phone. The Executive Field Case is just thick enough to protect your phone from drops but thin enough that it will not add too much bulk to the sleek iPhone.
The case survives drops really well. I personally have dropped my phone a few feet onto concrete and tile a few times by accident without damage. I expected the case to be scratched up or damaged in some way along with a cracked screen after a particularly bad fall onto gritty concrete that landed glass corner down. Usually these types of falls are death sentences for the iPhone screen. But after dusting the grit off the case, I was surprised to find no damage on both the case and the phone.
Installation is a snap with this case, literally. Simply pop in your phone and it will snap right in. The phone fits in nicely with a little bit of wiggle room to make it easy to remove the phone. You may be doing this a lot as the case adds enough thickness to make it incompatible with most iPhone docks. Even with the slight room in the case, it will not come off without conscious effort to remove it. There is a slight lip on the front of the case that will help protect the screen from being scratched when laid on a table screen down.
The cut out for the camera works will with no flash problems. Be aware of first generation cases that have a camera cut out that look like a key hole as those have been reported to interfere with the camera flash. The cut out for the silent switch is big enough to be compatible with both versions of the iPhone 4 and the iPhone 4s. The rocker switch for the volume buttons is large and chunky. This makes it very easy to reach into a pocket and adjust the volume of the phone even with winter gloves on.
The headset jack hole is not very large. It will be compatible with cables designed for the iPhone such as the stock iPhone ear buds but others will require a headphone jack extension cable or adapter. Alternatively the plug on the cable can be carefully slimmed down with a knife. The sleep button is textured like the volume rocker switch making it easy to operate when you cannot see your phone. There are holes are cut for the speaker, microphone, and the 30 pin dock connector. The slot is big enough to accommodate the stock cable that Apple provides with the iPhone, but larger third party or older cables may need to be filed down to fit the case.
Should you purchase this case? Absolutely. For 10 US dollars this case is an absolute steal. The Magpul Executive Field Case can easily go head to head with similar cases several times its price and still come out on top. It may not be the flashiest or prettiest case, but it is extremely durable yet thin enough to be out of the way. I would easily pay up to 40 dollars for it, yet Magpul offers the case for a mere 10 dollars. If you are looking to upgrade from your poorly made case you bought for a few dollars to something better without breaking the bank, look no further than the Magpul Executive Field Case.
People looking for an MMORPG to get into may be interested to learn that the awesome MMORPG Rift currently has a Rift Lite option available to new players. The Lite version of the game is essentially the full game up through the first 20 levels.
This Lite version of the game also seems to be pretty unrestricted and is absolutely free. However, should players wish to go further, they may have to purchase a copy of the game and game time through either a creditcard or a physical pre-paid card from a gaming store.
On the Lite version of the game, Trion had this to say –
“In the past ten months, Rift has evolved at a breakneck pace, through seven massive updates that set new expectations for live MMOs, in features, in content, and in service,” said Scott Hartsman, Executive Producer of Rift and Trion’s CCO. “We think a Lite edition with no time limit is the best way for players to see what an amazing experience Rift continues to be.”
The Lite version of the game launched alongside the latest content update for the MMORPG, and I must say that the team over at Trion seem to love expanding their game with new content. This is currently major patch 1.7, which is pretty sustained effort for a game that has been out for a year. Players choosing Rift will probably never run out of things to do.
Thanks to EA and Red Bull, a small group of gaming journalisms elite had an opportunity to play through the latest instalment to the SSX series, SSX. For those that don’t know, SSX is EA’s snowboarding series of games that involve going down slopes at incredible speeds and performing stunts to achieve victory.The game is set to be launched on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 on the first of March.
Fundamentally, SSX is similar to the previous entries in the series, but also enhances the game graphically and makes some improvements to the overall control of the game. One of the features that I really loved about the game was the ability to rewind sections of gameplay, similar to the Prince of Persia games. Basically, should you miss a jump, or screw up a trick, you can rewind the game to the point before the screw-up and take over from that point – forever altering the way you undertook an event. What was even better about this feature was that you could rewind the same section multiple times so if you keep on screwing it up, you can go back as much as you need.
However, rewinds do have a cost in both the amounts you are able to do the rewind and in points. Essentially you get a small amount of rewinds per map, however you can use that same rewind multiple times at the cost of points. However, if you move too far out from that rewind, it is considered spent and you can no longer use that rewind. Think of it as extra lives, but are player activated.
There was this one level that I found this rewind feature to be essential to completing it, and that was this level where you have to navigate a series of crevices that would lead to certain death if you fell down them. This level was so tricky that it took me multiple attempts on different consoles to finish, and even then that was right at the end of the event.
While playing the game, I found that the game was pretty easy to pick up and play, but was pretty difficult to master. Thankfully, you do not have to achieve first place in every event to advance through the game, but you can go back later if you like. However, I felt that it was necessary to achieve first place in every event, so I ended up restarting a lot of the levels.
Whilst doing tricks, I found that it was best to link tricks together and build up a multiplier that gives out increased points based on the amount of tricks strung together. If you build up enough tricks, you can unlock the Tricky meter, which fills as you do more tricks until it fills out completely. I’m not entirely sure what the meter does, but you get an orange effect around the hands of your character when you get it, I also noticed that your speed increases greatly when this occurs.
I have to admit that I had a great amount of fun playing through this game, it tickles all of my interests in games. Raw speed, awesome tricks and excellent fun. I would definitely suggest playing this game when it is released, especially if you are into the extreme side of sports. Make sure you keep an eye on us in the future for more news on SSX.
Check out our gallery of the event below and be sure to check out the official site for more info.
Quarrel Developer: Denki Publisher: UTV Ignition Games Platforms: Xbox Live Arcade (reviewed), iPhone/iPad Release Date: January 25, 2012 Price: $5.00 – Available Here
Overview
You know when you’re at a party, and there are always the really loud douchebags that demand your attention?
In the gaming world, we call them Modern Warfare, Assassin’s Creed and Elder Scrolls. And yeah, they’re good fun, but you can’t spend the whole party talking to them. Not enough people go talk to the quiet ones in the corner, who slipped in unnoticed amongst the big loud ones. They may not be so vocal about getting your attention, but that’s not to say they don’t deserve it.
Quarrel is one game that I would have missed had MasterAbbott not introduced me. It’s a very unique word puzzle game, blending an unlikely partnership out of mechanics from two popular board games: Scrabble and Risk.
So how can those two very different games be combined into a coherent whole?
Gameplay
Let me say straight up – Quarrel won’t be for everyone. If you’re not particularly good with words, or just don’t enjoy anagrams, there’s not really anything for you here.
But if you love a good game of Scrabble, or continually pester people for rounds of Words With Friends, then you’ll find Quarrel to be a fantastic expansion on the genre.
A standard match takes place between two and four people, with players battling each other with their word power, in order to take over territories. It sounds weird, but it actually works pretty well.
The territories of the battlefield are divvied up between players, and a certain number of troops are assigned to each territory. On a player’s turn, they can attack an adjacent enemy-controlled territory, and their chances of victory will vary according to the ratio of defending and attacking troops. It’s all very reminiscent of Risk.
The combat however, plays like Scrabble or Words With Friends. You and your opponent are given the same eight letters, each with a value attached, and are tasked with making the highest-scoring word out of them. The catch is, the length of the word you can make is based on the number of troops you have in that territory. So if you use a territory with five troops to attack a territory where an opponent has four troops, you can only make words up to five letters long, while they can only use four.
Your words are compared, and the highest score wins. In the case of a tie, the win goes to whoever was fastest.
If you outword the opponent, you send your troops into the newly-claimed land, leaving one behind to guard the previous area. If there’s another territory bordering the new one, you can launch another attack, and keep doing so until you lose a battle or decide to hold your ground.
If you lose a battle, you’ll be sent crying back to your own land with one troop left. But here’s the clincher: if you attack with more troops than the opponent, and lose, they will take some of your guys as prisoners, equal to the difference between your troops in the battle. So, say you send seven guys against an enemy’s four, and you lose, three of yours will defect to their team, effectively strengthening the defences of the land you were attacking.
Once you’ve decided to stand your ground, you can move troops between your neighbouring territories, and when you finally pass to the next person, you receive reinforcements in all of your held territories.
All up, it means you need to be good at both sets of strategies to succeed. Your prowess in the general strategies of Risk won’t get you far if you can’t handle anagrams. Having a seven-letter territory attack a two-letter territory may drastically increase your chances of victory, but won’t guarantee it. All the letters in the world won’t help you if you can’t make a word fast enough.
Inversely, maybe you can anagram like crazy, but don’t get too cocky. Try to attack too many in a single turn, and you’ll make the fatal Risk mistake of spreading yourself too thin, making it easy for opponents to come in and clean you up.
The game combines two sets of mechanics exceedingly well, and even fixes built-in issues in clever ways. One problem with Scrabble – and by extension, Words With Friends – is that often you’ll be lumped with something like four A’s, two L’s and a Q. Those letters aren’t gonna help you, and you can only rid yourself of them slowly. Quarrel gives you a new set of letters each battle, and ensures that each set can always form an eight-letter word, meaning there are always plenty of possible words, regardless of how many slots you have. Make an eight-letter word, and you receive an extra troop, which can be saved up and called into any battle you need help with.
It also removes the traditional luck elements of strategy game combat: rather than a roll of the dice determining the victor, Quarrel ensures combat is skill-based, so having more troops is an advantage, but not an automatic duel-winner.
There isn’t much variation in how the game modes play, but it’s still good fun. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to try it online, and it doesn’t offer local multiplayer. I can imagine that if you have fellow wordsmiths for friends, or find someone around your own skill level via the random match-maker, it could be damn fun.
Sadly, playing against AI can feel unfair. I mean, how can our measly human vocabularies compete with a computer? You’ll often be bested by words you’ve never heard of, especially against tougher AI. Thankfully, there’s the welcome addition of having the definition of words scroll across the bottom, to silence cries of “But that’s not a word!”
Anyway, nothing balances a competition like human players, and although it’s understandable that you can’t have multiple players on one screen, same-room multiplayer is sorely missed. If you’ve got an iPhone or iPad, it might be better to get the iOS version for the multiplayer.
Visual & Audio
Quarrel is wrapped in a neat little aesthetic bundle, with colourful graphics and cheerful music. In fact, it’s almost too colourful and cheerful.
The visuals are a little sickly-sweet, conjuring questions of who this is intended for. Kids? They won’t last five minutes against some of that AI’s brutal tendencies. But the diabetes-inducing sugary sweetness of it all might put off some of the more self-respecting wordplay lovers.
I actually quite like the characters though – their simple designs are distinct, yet they all have a theme. Sometimes your troops will be pirates, others they might be cavemen, ninjas, soldiers, robots, Vikings, or aliens, but they’re all based on the same big-headed character model.
The music melts into the background for the most part, although you will be subconsciously humming it later. The musical stings highlight key moments, such as when presenting your words, crushing (or being crushed by) your opponents, which all add a lot of drama to proceedings.
Final Comments
It wouldn’t take much to decide if you’d like Quarrel: essentially, if you love word games, and are tired of Words With Friends, this is a great next step.
Quarrel is fairly niche, but for those in that niche, it’s a Godsent game, albeit one that may be more cumbersome to play with friends over XBLA. It does an excellent job of honing the key mechanics of similar games, while expanding into a larger meta-game for why you’re playing with anagrams.
Oh, and did I mention it’s damn cheap? Five dollars for either the XBLA or iOS version makes it impossible for English language aficionados to pass up. Let yourself move beyond the sugary sweetness of its presentation and enjoy it for what it offers.
Dungeon Defenders: Second Wave Developer: Trendy Entertainment Publisher: Trendy Entertainment Platforms: Android, iPhone (reviewed), iPad, iPod Touch Release Date: 8 November, 2011 Price: $2.99 (HERE)
Overview
When Dungeon Defenders was released for the PC and home consoles, it immediately became a critical darling for its new take on tower defence, alluring art style, and loot-grabbing co-op action. With Dungeon Defenders: Second Wave, Trendy Entertainment is attempting to bring its formula for success over to the world of smartphones. Can the game survive the transfer to a touch interface, or is this just one round of tower defence too many?
Gameplay
The warrior heroes of the land are off to fight an ancient evil and their sweet children are left home all alone. As is typical for children left unsupervised, they manage to unleash an ancient evil upon the world and must defend against it, lest the adults come back and find their homeland in ruins.
I don’t think “you’re grounded” would quite cut it.
Dungeon Defenders: Second Wave puts you in the shoes of one of four of those meddling kids: the Apprentice, the Monk, the Huntress, and the Squire. Each of these is a basic archetypal RPG character class, the Squire is a melee fighter, the Apprentice a mage, and so on. Each character can level up and upgrade their stats, collect mountains of loot, and use different abilities on the battlefield.
Whether you’re playing as a lonely little fantasy child in the solo mode, or viciously bullying goblins in gangs in the online co-op modes, each level’s objective is simple: there’s a crystal on the map; defend it at all costs.
Players are then thrust into the level and take part in a “build phase”, in which they construct, repair, and upgrade defences against the oncoming hordes and loot chests hidden around the area for mana to spend on more defences or loot to help in their hacking and slashing. Once ready, the players activate the “combat phase” and all hell breaks loose. Waves of enemies spout from several entrances on the map, headed straight for the oh-so-precious crystal. The players must work together to bash down the bigger enemies, all the while hoping the previously erected barriers and obstacles will be enough to hold the monsters at bay. When the carnage subsides, players are again taking part in the “build phase” and can gather their breath, collect some loot, and get ready for the next wave of enemies. Each level has a set number of waves to survive, and the levels do a good job of mixing up the environments so that it doesn’t feel like you’re always defending the same dungeon corridor.
Time and time again, the popularity of tower defence games has shown that it’s one of the simplest ways to have fun. Throw in some action/RPG elements and Dungeon Defenders: Second Wave has got a lot going for it. The frantic pace of the game is fun even when you’re by yourself, and the cooperative plays simply adds to the hectic nature of the game.
In fact you could say that the game is too hectic. Not that that would be an issue on home consoles or PC, but the fact is that with nothing but a touch screen acting as the primary replacement for dual analogue sticks, Dungeon Defenders feels a bit slow on the iPhone. My character could move around just fine in most instances, but when any particular finesse of movement was required he became about as easy to manoeuvre as a Mako abandoned on a forgotten Mass Effect planet. In other words, the controls can get a little wonky, sometimes to the point of frustration.
Audio & Visual
The game’s delightful presentation is marred somewhat by performance issues it experiences on the iOS platforms.
In the options is a slider for graphical detail, the higher it goes, the choppier the game gets. Even the default low setting occasionally has a few frame-rate issues and stutters. So the fact of the matter is, the game looks great on the higher settings, but doesn’t run all too well on them. In fact it might not run at all if you’ve got an iPhone 3G. The lower settings fix the performance issues, but look far less appealing to the eye, though the cartoon art style redeems all those murky textures somewhat. The game went as far as to crash a couple of times mid-level, which was endlessly frustrating. Naturally, the more recent (and therefore more powerful) an iOS device you own, the better the game will look and run.
The game sports great musical orchestration, as the various themes are powerful enough to intensify the action, but not so much that you forget your primary objective when playing Dungeon Defenders: Second Wave: relax and have fun.
Overall
The portable outing of Dungeon Defenders has a few problems. The controls can be cripplingly hard to handle on the touch screen and the visuals suffered due to the relative lack of power on portable systems.
But the fact remains that this is no cheap dime-a-dozen tower defence portable game. This is a full-fledged tower defence action role-playing game, and it never ceases to provide a fun diversion while in the waiting room or on the morning commute (not while you’re driving though, that would be dangerous). What it lacks in finesse, it makes up for in style, and so, the untold fantasy tale of Home Alone 4 is a solid addition to anyone’s App library.
Mobile game publisher and developer, GAMEVIL has just released Cartoon Wars on the Android Market, and it is absolutely free. The Android version is titled Cartoon Wars: Gunner+.
Cartoon Wars has already enjoyed a great deal of success as it reached number 1 in over 22 countries, and downloaded over 5 million times.
“As a publisher we’re very excited to bring an original hit that’s been there from the beginning, finally to Android users worldwide,” said Kyu Lee, VP and Head of GAMEVIL USA. “Our fans have made Cartoon Wars one of the most popular mobile game series in recent years, and more can enjoy it now for free from the Android Market.”
Because the Playstation Portable is still going strong in Japan, the recent anime series Phi Brain: Puzzle of God will be getting a video game adaptation for the handheld console.
Phi Brain is an anime about a group of genius teens who solve puzzles and battle against ‘givers’ of the POG organisation in dangerous sage puzzles.
No details on the upcoming game’s details have been revealed however we do know that the game will be released at the end of May 2012. It can be presumed however that players will be required to solve puzzles, considering that is what Phi Brain is actually about.
Oh and for anyone hoping this would ever leave Japan – No.
Konami have been preparing for a huge 2012, and what better way to start off the year than appointing a new president. Tomoyuki Tsuboi, who has been with Konami for over 14 years has recently assumed the position of President on November 16th of 2011, taking over the role for Mr. Shinji Hirano, who will now be assuming the role of President of Konami Digital Entertainment, GmbH (Europe).
We know, this happened three months ago, but Tsuboi decided to make a statement today to cement his new position:
“My goal is to build upon the momentum the entire Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. staff has built for our company,” said Mr. Tomoyuki Tsuboi. “We plan to intensify this momentum by continuing to innovate across our core franchises and creating those memorable gaming experiences that has been synonymous with KONAMI over the past four decades.”
So yeah, a big congrats to Tsuboi on the new job and best of luck to Konami moving forward into this year. With the big promises of improving the old with innovation being made, it will be interesting to see just what Konami offers this year.
Namco Bandai have just announced the release of the Namco Arcade, a free app downloadable for all iOS devices. The arcade will provide gamers with access to a handful of old arcade games, available for free on the basis of one day: one shot of one game. If you’re after a bit of a longer fix, then additional sessions can be purchased with the usual in app style coins, or the full games can be bought individually so you access them at any second to test out those arcade reflexes!
The arcade will include four titles to begin with, namely Xevious, Motos, Phozon, and The Tower of Druaga:
Xevious: A cult hit in Japan, Xevious is a fast paced scrolling shooter.
Motos: A 62 level game that sees players attempt to knock other bumper cars out of the ring.
Phozon: A strategy/puzzle game, Phozon takes its cue from chemistry, and players must match a given pattern whilst ensuring their atom survives.
The Tower of Druaga: Originally released in 1984, the game sees the hero Gilgamesh navigate a tower to rescue a princess from the evil Druaga. If the name seems familiar that’s because there is also a 2008 anime, inspired by the game and taking place some years after the story told in game.
Instead of the usual leaderboards, the arcade will support individual player data upload, so you can check out not only the scores of the competition, but their tricks and techniques too.
More titles are to follow the original four, so make sure and check out the app, which you can find here.
