Bored Breaker–The Little Game I Made on Accident

Much to my surprise, I seem to have a new game to tell y’all about. Here’s the pitch:

An instant to learn - A lifetime to master! Break from boredom and break boards with Bored Breaker - a quick reaction game designed to challenge your reflexes complete with HD graphics and realistic physics to delight your eyes. Refine your skills with the predictable Zen mode in preparation for a real test of skill in Ninja mode.

In unprepared, marketing-free talk, it’s a tap-tastic quick-reaction game. 2x4s are being chucked at your space ninja’s head and you need to tap the screen to karate-chop them in half before being clonked into unconsciousness. (The spellchecker is okay with “clonked”? Huh, go figure).

Anyway, this one is available for free from Google Play or Amazon AppStore for Android devices. I’ll try to get a web player build up here later this week. I don’t feel that playing with a mouse does it justice, but I know you folks don’t all have ‘Droids. Also, PC FTW Anyway, watch this space for more versions “soon”. Update: Browser based version available here.

So, anyway… Yeah, made on accident. I was taking a break to learn some new skills (ie. avoiding working on some of the larger game projects I’ve got lying around here) and decided to play with IK animation in the new 5.0 release of Unity. Games are great fun to make; Content for ‘em… eh, not so much.

"I Hate Halloween” Now Available for Android & Kindle Fire Phones and Tablets | Dreams Come True

Almost immediately after release, I was hit with the inevitable question game developers must face in this age of pocket computers: “Can I get it on my phone?” What was to be the start of a much craved respite morphed into yet another crazy code-a-thon as work began on the touchscreen version of “I Hate Halloween”.

I was worth it. Both myself and The Unpaid Intern immediately agreed that the touch version of “I Hate Halloween” was THE version to play. Holding the adorable, cartoon world in your hands on the frantic holiday battle to save your home’s new paint job was true treat!

Check it out now on Google Play for Android phones and tablets running version 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) or later.

Here it is on Amazon's AppStore for all Kindle Fire Phones and Tablets except the original, 1st generation Fire.

Continue past the page jump for more on the formerly secret Project H8Hal saga!

World of Tanks Blitz | I Played That

Game Profile: World of Tanks Blitz

• Genre: Slow Motion Multiplayer Team Deathmatch Arena (Online 3rd person shooter)
• Developer: Wargaming.net
• Publisher: Wargaming.net
• Service Requirements: Online connection, Game Center or Wargaming.net account
• Available For: iOS
• ESRB Rating: Not rated. No blood (or even people) are present. No swearing.
• Price: Free
• Amount Completed: 8 hours. Tier III for all nations.
• Played On: iPad 2

 

Personal Bias:

Played a bit of World of Tanks on PC. Didn’t like it, but I could appreciate the game.

 

In a Nutshell:

World of Tanks (WoT), the slowest online deathmatch arena in the world, beloved by old men, Russians, and old Russian men, comes to mobile. The Blitz variant of WoT scales down the action to smaller (yet still large) maps, 7-man teams, and a single capture point in brisk, seven minute matches.

 

Review: FTCE Flashcards (Android) – Um… Sorry, Words Can’t Describe the Horror

When yours truly is left without a catchy title to plug in, you know we’re going to some deep, dark places.

Welcome to the world for FTCE Flashcards, an Android app designed to help teachers study for the Florida Teacher Certification Examinations. Yep, we’re going to the top of the educational food chain today with a study aid designed to help those who make the kids study study. And if you think that sentence was awkward, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet!

If a picture is worth a thousand words, this may be out longest review yet. Let us join the Mrs. on her photographic safari into the world of FTCE Flashcards as designed, created by, and sold from BH Inc, the folks behind Superflashcard.com!

Remember, you can click on any image to view a larger version or even right-click/save image to create desktop wallpapers to scare away literate folks.

First stop, Google Play where this app has 55 five-star reviews and two three-star reviews.

Free and Spectacular! Plants vs Zombies 2 is Out for iOS

I was going to wait until I got through this one and write up a full review but, judging by the player numbers, no one is really waiting for a critic’s word on this one. And you shouldn’t either! At least if you have iOS. PvZ2 will be arriving on all other platforms soon.

Plant like it’s 2009! Crazy Dave now has a talking time machine and a taco. Upon eating the taco, everyone’s favorite seed supplier wants to take a trip backwards along the timeline to eat it again. With nothing better to do, you’re tagging along for the ride to turn all new mummy, pirate, and cowboy themed zombies into fertilizer. With sharper graphics and phenomenal animation, PvZ 2: It’s About Time delivers that same addictive strategy fun that made it a smash hit with both casual and hardcore gamers alike.

Skeptical of free-to-play titles on mobile? Yeah, you should be. At first blush PvZ2 looks like just another shameless cash grab from EA. Buy buttons featuring outrageous prices are everywhere and a shop offers your old vegie buddies from PvZ1 for several dollar apiece. Folks sensitive to microtransactions are going to pop their corn over this one!

Surprisingly, none of these purchases are required to enjoy the game. There are more than enough new plants to replace the few missing from the previous title. Keys used to access side areas for bonuses and minigames are random (if rare) drops while playing. Coins used for delightfully fun and effective touchscreeny power-up moves like flicking zombies off the screen or pinching their heads drop every time you play. Only the most impatient or time constrained players will ever feel the need to trade moolah for mayhem.

It’s been a long time since the holy trinity of Sunflower, Peashooter, and Wall-nut took on the armies of cosplaying undead and It’s About Time they did it again. The plentiful weeds of cash-nags can’t drain all the nutrients from this garden of delights. Highly recommended!

Plants vs Zombies 2: It’s About Time is available now for iOS and coming soon to anything with a CPU and screen.

Review: Ultima Forever (iPhone/iPad)–Quest of the Keymaster

Boy did I oversell this title in a recent post…

While Ultima Forever does an admirable job of bringing players back to the long lost land of Britannia, the trip is fraught with the perils of laggy gameplay, repetitive dungeon grinding, and a pay-to-open-lottery boxes-and-hope-you-win scheme so offensive it could only exist on mobile.

Let’s deal with the 50-foot dragon in the room first. Ultima Forever’s (UF) economy runs on one thing: Keys. You got yer copper keys that you’ll find everywhere, silver keys that are created from crafting 18 copper keys into 6 silvers, and gold keys that represent you premium currency. Apparently in you absence from Britannia, the shopkeepers have decided that actually buying and selling items is bad for business. The only way to gain items is via treasure chests that dot every town and dungeon. What type of key you use to unlock the chest determines what loot table you’ll get goodies from. And we’re not just talking one key per chest opening. You’ll need six copper or silver keys just for a chance at mediocre gear or quest required items (yes, really), and a whopping eight gold keys for a pull on the high-roller slots for a shot at the good stuff. Get something you didn’t need or want? Your only option is to put it in the trash. No selling, no crafting, no refunds.

iOS MMO Ultima Forever: Quest of the Avatar Brings Morality Back to Gaming

EA Mythic has just launched their latest endeavor to the gaming world in the form of Ultima Forever: Quest of the Avatar. This title is notable for two very important reasons: It is an open world, MMORPG for Apple’s iPhone (4s and newer) and iPad (2nd gen and newer). Secondly, this title, the first RPG bearing the Ultima name in, well, forever, harkens back  to the legendary Ultima IV which put the players on the path not to kill, but to master the eight Virtues and become a shining example to the people of Britannia.

While there is still a good bit of monster thumping to be had, the goal of Ultima Forever is to become a role-model. Mastering the eight virtues of honesty, compassion, valor, justice, sacrifice, honor, spirituality, and humility will take players on a trip around the fantasy world to save folks with traditional ‘hit-with-stick’ methods as well as moral conundrums to challenge your ethics. Your mastery of the Virtues in turn drives character advancement. In Ultima Forever, the path to power lies with being a good person. And free-to-play microtransactions.

It’s great to see an RPG emphasize something other than mayhem and bloodshed. Although the original morality-based goals of Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar originally appeared back in 1985 on another famed Apple platform, the Apple II, its emphasis on being a model citizen rather than a thug is something very, very few games have attempted (perhaps the only recent example being the Fable series).

Ultima Forever is available for free from iTunes.

Apple’s 5th Anniversary of the App Store Means Free iOS Apps and Games for You

In case you hadn’t heard yet, Apple is giving away software for a couple more days. Click on over to this link and pick up five apps and five games in celebration of five years of destroying all concepts of what software should cost.

Inside you’ll find great stuff like How to Cook Everything, Day One Journal, and Barefoot World Atlas. If you’re feeling twitchy, there’s a selection of highly praised games like Infinity Blade II, Tiny Wings, and Sword & Sworcery. Some of these apps go for big money (in app store terms), so even if you don’t have the space to download them all now, it’s a good idea to let the download fail so they get tagged as purchased on your iTunes account and you can try them out when you get around to deleting some stuff or get a bigger iOS devices.

Review: Haunted Hollow (iPhone/iPad)–Half-Dead Monster Mash

Firaxis Games is no stranger to strategy titles. The house that Sid Meier built is home to some of the most compelling exercises in tactics known to gamers like the Civilization series and the recent reimagining of Xcom. The strategy game powerhouse has something a little more intimate in mind than a globe conquering Incan Empire or an Earth threating alien invasion for their this original foray into the iOS games space. This time you’ll be recruiting a team of Hollywood monsters and racing against a single opponent to scare to bejeezus out of the local townsfolk while battling the horror of overpriced in-app purchases.

Haunted Hollow is a board game styled experience that pits you against a friend, or a rather weak AI, in the role of the dark lord of a spooky mansion. Each turn you’ll draw and build a random monster lair from your deck and spend Fear Points (actions) as you see fit to add extra lairs to your haunted house, create monsters, move, attack, and activate special abilities. Monsters come in three types: Scary monsters used to gain ground, Fighty monsters to put the smack down on your opponent’s minions, and Special monsters that usually do both. The goal is territory control as your monsters race to Scare (claim) every house in town. As more houses are claimed and frightened townies flock to the local church, a tough, neutral third party enters the fray in the form of a torch-wielding mob that burns everything, monsters and houses, in its path.

Review: Sid Meier’s Ace Patrol (iPhone/iPad)–Strategy Versus The Red Baron

Turn-based tactical depictions of aerial combat have long been a mainstay of miniature wargamers’ tabletops for decades. Armed with millimeter rulers and protractors, armchair air commanders have fussed over tiny miniature planes on fiddly adjustable bases for decades. Strangely, this form of gaming has never garnered much attention in the digital space, and all but vanished since Windows stopped sporting double digits on it’s splash screen. Enter legendary game designer Sid Meier, whose past credits include some of the most loved flight simulators of the DOS era like F-15 Strike Eagle and F-19 Stealth Fighter, with this latest mobile title that brings the high-flying heroics of World War I aces to a touchscreen near you.

Sid Meier's Ace Patrol (SMAP!) gives you command of a squadron of pilots during the first War to End All Wars tasked with a variety of missions including bomber escort, blowing up supply trains, gunning down observation balloons, and generally furballing it up with opposing aircraft. Ace Patrol takes a number of cues from Firaxis’ recent rebooting of the vaunted Xcom franchise and features both the engrossing tactical action of the air duels themselves and a strategic metagame that sees your best pilots and planes improving while your worst ones sit grounded for healing and repairs.

Smartphones and Tables Causing Addiction in Children as Young as 4

The Telegraph cites unnamed psychiatrists in declaring that the number of people classified as “digitally dependent” has risen 30% over the past three years. The latest demographic afflicted by an addiction to our always-on lifestyle: Toddlers.

Dr Graham said that young technology addicts experienced the same withdrawal symptoms as alcoholics or heroin addicts, when the devices were taken away.

He warned that the condition prevented young people from forming normal social relationships, leaving them drained by the constant interaction.

"Children have access to the internet almost from birth now,” he told the Sunday Mirror.

“They see their parents playing on their mobile devices and they want to play too. It's difficult, because having a device can also be very useful in terms of having a reward, having a pacifier. But if you don't get the balance right it can be very dangerous.

"They can't cope and become addicted, reacting with tantrums and uncontrollable behaviour when they are taken away. Then as they grow older, the problem only gets worse. Even the most shy kids, when they hit their teens, suddenly want to become sociable and popular."

The article opens with a warning about how experts agree that babies and toddlers using tablets and smartphones for several hours a day are in danger of long-tern addiction and social dysfunction. It goes on to cite the case of a four-year-old girl for the United Kingdom that has been enrolled in therapy for compulsive iPad usage.

Dude, seriously, if your toddler does ANYTHING for “several hours a day,” you’ve got a problem.

Free App Allows PCs to Charge iPods, iPhones, and iPads Twice as Fast

Ever try charging an iPad off of your computer’s USB port. Yeah, that doesn’t work well. Usually your best bet is to bite the bullet and hook up the wall charger. Enter this great little app for Windows systems from PC manufacturing powerhouse Asus. The Asus AI Charger is a memory resident application that adjusts the amperage on computers with programmable voltage output USB ports (most of ‘em in the past several years) to double the power when iOS devices are connected.  Best of all, this little miracle worker is complete free of charge (no pun intended) and works on any PC with supporting hardware. Don’t know if you have supported hardware? Give it a shot. It simply won’t work if your USB controller is missing programmable voltage.

So, how good does Asus’s AI Charger software work? Matthew Hunt over at Scotch Tape and Duct Whisky put it through it’s paces and created the chart below showing the results.

While I haven’t done my own tests, I can tell you that my iPad 2 now displays the “I’m charging” lightning bolt when turned on and plugged into a USB port, where before it would not.

Ditch your wall charger with Asus AI Charger available for free here.

Google Glass? Build Your Own iOS Glass for About $300

Like it or love it, wearable computing is now trending on a futurist hipster near you. Trust the guy whose been wearing an armful of iOS gizmos for the past few years. Obviously the device generating the most buzz these days is the wearable webcam/Android HUD Google Glass. While the Big G has been trickling out $1500 prototype versions of the device, DIY hobbyists have taken matters into their own hands. And those hands are full of dremels and soldering irons!

Give it up for Instructables’ user XenonJohn who took a Myvu Crystal Media Viewer and combined it with a gaming headset and a whole lotta the ol’ measure-twice, cut-once to create a wearable heads-up display for his iPod Touch for about $300. While John’s “Beady-I” device may appear to obstruct the user’s vision in one eye, he claims to still have perfect stereo vision when looking ahead . The iOS display is visible only when he glances down.

Check out the full story with step-by-step build instructions over at Instructables.

Google Play Store Celebrates Its 1st Birthday with Free Breaking Bad and Android Themed DLC

Google is throwing a birthday bash to celebrate having gone one year since renaming its Android app store to Google Play. Don’t bother bringing a present, ‘cause the folks over at the Big G have this whole birthday thing backwards. They’re giving the presents to you!

So, what’s up on the gift table? How about some free tunes from The Velvet Underground? Get your eBook fix with Morgan Rice’s first novel in the The Sorcerer’s Ring series, A Quest of Heroes. Still watching TV? Pick up the pilot episode of Breaking Bad for the special birthday price of zip-dot-squat. And for our gamers in the audience, grab special Android themed DLC featuring every nerd’s favorite green robot buddies for mobile free-to-play titles such as Tiny Castle, Monster Pet Shop, Yumby Smash, and more. There are even gift cards up for grabs for those that still prefer their stuff a little more tangible.

For all these deals and tons more free and discounted movies, music, TV, and Android mobile apps, open your window to the web and check out Google Play’s 1st birthday promotion.

Flex Your Creativity Every Day With DrawQuest

Remember me, art? I’m baaack!

From the mind of Chris Poole, perhaps better known as 4chan’s moot, comes this free iPad application that challenges users to get their doodle on each and every day. In DrawQuest you’ll be provided with the challenge of filing in the blanks of a picture. For example, an empty outline of stick figure wearing a cape with prompt you to “Create your own superhero” and set you free with the app’s robust and easy to use art tools.

Unlike social games such as Draw Something, there is no scoring mechanic in DrawQuest. Eachdail picture, or ‘quest’, you complete will earn coins that can be used to unlock additional colors to paint, pen, and marker with. Drawing on tablets is always a satisfying experience, but I was genuinely surprised as to how good dialing through the color wheel feels. DrawQuest does require users to sign up with either a Facebook account or email address. Completed pictures can be shared across your social media empire via Twitter or Facebook with the tap of a button. Each quest also allows you to browse the gallery of your fellow questers’ creations. These can be starred to shared as desired. This gallery even includes the rather amazing feature of watching a playback of how the selected picture was created, stroke by stroke.

If you enjoy doodling but are daunted by a blank canvas, DrawQuest is just the creative outlet you’ve been waiting for.

DrawQuest in available for iPads running iOS 5.1 or later. Get it free from iTunes.

HP’s New Slate 7 Tablet May Be the Pavilion of the Tablet World

Lo and behold, here comes one of the earliest competitors in the tablet wars back to the ring to take another swing. Rising from the ashes of the HP Touchpad, a 10”, Palm OS based tablet known more for its $99 fire sale liquidation than any quality of the device itself, is the all new Slate 7.

Not taking any chances, the Slate 7 is a 7” 16:9 tablet that runs a stock version of Android 4.1 “Jelly Bean”. The announced model is equipped with 16GB of storage, 1GB of RAM, and powered by a ARM Cortex-A9 1.6Ghz dual-core CPU. HP’s Beats Audio sound processing is an intriguing inclusion as the audio quality on most tablets can be best described as “Horrifically awful”. Unlike most 7” tablets, the Slate 7 will come with dual cameras, a VGA quality up front and 3MP in the back. Slate 7 will be available at it’s April U.S. launch in two colors: Silver and red. The price? A very wallet friendly $169.

Priced $30 cheaper than both the Amazon’s Kindle Fire HD and Google’s Nexus 7 and a $70 less than Apple’s iPad Mini, the Slate 7 appears poised to be the perfect tablet for casual users. Moreover, HP’s long standing relationship with retailers will ensure this tablet finds a place in every retailer’s electronics department. The device may lack raw performance compared to the Nexus 7’s Tegra quad-core CPU, but many users will probably see the boon of some extra cash in their pockets compared to the extra processing power only unleashed by power hungry apps or games. The stock install of Android should ensure that system updates are delivered in a timely manner, still a sticking point for some Android devices.

HP has come back to the tablet market with a class of machine that made them one of the leading manufactures in the PC world. The Slate 7 looks like a ‘good enough’ machine with some sharp aesthetics at a reasonable price. Power users are sure to turn up their noses at the system specs (especially with Nvidia preparing to launch the next generation of their high performance Tegra chipset), but for a casual user just looking to surf the web, check email, and watch a video, the Slate 7 may very well make HP as much of a mass market juggernaut in the tablet world as it is in the PC one.

The Masses Meet Microsoft Surface Pro | Weekend Watchlist

Read along with me in a dramatic voice:

In a world of overgrown cell phones… A world where thin and light masks gimpy guts… One tablet… Aspired to be different… One tablet… Dreamed of being… A laptop!

Big dramatic music cue and-

Microsoft Surface Pro: The Ultrabook you want. The tablet you crave.

Or is it?

It was inevitable: PC power in a tablet form factor. The big surprise was that Microsoft, perhaps not the first name that comes to mind as either a PC or tablet manufacturer, was first to market with this dream hybrid. Rocking an Intel dual-core Core i5 Processor, 4 GB of RAM, 1080p display, and running the full, 64-bit version of Windows 8 Pro, Surface Pro is undoubtedly the first of a new generation in portable computing.

In this edition of the Weekend Watchlist we take a look at the first reviews and hands-on impressions of early adopters to see if Surface Pro is the third coming of the PC or just another tablet turkey.

First up, an overview of the device straight from Microsoft.

Installation Disk? Windows Key? Nokia Windows Phone Error Confounds All

Johnny Ruokokoski was playing around with re-flashing the firmware on his Nokia Lumia 920 Windows Phone when he came across a most unexpected error message.

Yup, Johnny had managed to bugger up the NT kernel on his phone. Any tinkerer of Windows machines in familiar with this unfortunate happenstance. The kicker was the stock error message still buried in the phone OS from its days running on PCs. Appreciating the irony Johnny Tweeted this picture of the error. When another Twitter user forwarded the image to Windows Phone Support they promptly responded but declined to help as modifying your phone’s firmware immediately puts you in the 'Warrantee Voided’ category. Johnny responded with “and I didn't expect any support. but thanks for fast feedback, it shows how good WP support is, I like it :)”

Source: The Next Web

AppWatch Keeps an Eye Out for Sales on Android Apps You Want

Skinflint iOS users have long had a private bargain shopper in the form of AppShopper (Whoops! Looks like AppShopper just got pulled. Enjoy your bonus news story ;). Now Android users can create their own personal computer monitored wish-lists with AppWatch.

Search for titles available on the U.S. Google Play store and add them to AppWatch using Google Play’s Share function. Once logged, you’ll be notified of any update or price changes to the titles selected. Not only is this a great way to watch for sales on new goodies, but keeps tabs on older apps to see when updates may add new features.

AppWatch is available for free from Google Play.

Nintendo Brings Official Pokémon App to iOS with a Side of Pain to the Pocketbook

Released to the Japanese iTunes store last month, The Pokémon Company’s official iOS version of the legendary pocket monster guide, the Pokédex, comes to North America for Apple’s mobile devices. This iOS version of the Pokédex supports Retina display for it’s cavalcade of 3D rendered critters, search functions using multiple criteria (Egg Group, Ability, type matchup, and learnable moves), and a ton of stats for planning your perfect party.

Sadly, this first official iOS release for a Nintendo affiliated company comes with a whole list of caveats. Pokédex for iOS, a $2 app, only includes the latest batch of Pokémon (#494 to #647). Other Pokémon are broken down by region and come via in-app purchase at an outrageous SIX BUCKS PER REGION. Want the original, classic Pokémon like Pikachu? Kanto region (#1 to #151) is $5.99. What about those Johto adventuring buddies like Togepi (#152 to #251)? You guessed it. ANOTHER $6. Want to complete your Pokedex? Duh. Gotta catch ‘em all, right? That will cost you a nickel short of $26!

Even moving past the price tag, Pokédex for iOS can’t help but be a disappointment for those expecting a real-life version of the the legendary encyclopedia prominently featured in so many games, television shows, and movies. This app eschews the traditional bright colors and personality for a bog-standard presentation that only the most generic of app construction kits could produce.

Finally, a quick warning of the system requirements is in order. This seemingly simple encyclopedia of childhood delights states that your Apple device needs to support and be updated to iOS 6.0 (or later).

Nintendo has finally brought one of their biggest IPs to a platform other than their own. It should be a joyous time for both the young and young-at-heart. Unfortunately a bland presentation and outrageous pricing scheme makes us wish they hadn’t bothered.

Pokédex for iOS is available now from iTunes for $1.99. Or you could just point your web browser at Bulbapedia.