Wednesday 29 May 2013

New Space MOBA: Wingmen

GoD Factory, Wingmen is a competitive space combat sim MOBA with extensive customization options. The vivid space game offers extensive ship customization where players can create unique ship hulls, cockpits, wings, power cores, shield generators, special ability devices, weapons, thrusters and more. Nine Dots Studio has been making this over the past few years and is finally able to showcase the game to the public. The game is currently on Steam Greenlight seeking support for it’s impending release on PC in 2013.

Idea for a Pokemon project and Best Ink opinions

       Today, May 16th, I was watching Best Ink on Oxygen and they were doing animated tattoos. This reminded me of a project I was looking into for visual basic. The idea was also influenced by an augmented reality app for Budweiser and Blip I had encountered through Gametrender.net. Although I've stopped tinkering with the pokemon project, I will be posting up on article on it in the future.

An example of DJ's work.

    Now back to the show(or at least some of my viewpoints of the show). After a couple of episodes into the 2nd season of the show Best Ink I honestly believe that DJ Tambe deserves to win. Teresa would clearly be a second. Her work on average is like a 10 out of 10. However I feel like on average DJ's work is beyond a 10. His creativity and extra detailed put into the artwork really shows. He is a natural. His artwork tells the story and captures your attention without having to be explained. Storyline and meaning doesn't mean much to me if it doesn't look cool and awe inspiring too. Again his art pieces do look awesome. I know I am no authority in terms of tattooing (or anything for that matter) but I am just stating my honest opinion. Third place would go between Jerod and Brittany. Brittany has a little more consistent with her quality, but lacks that touch of creativity and originality and meaning that Jerod has over her. The top two does work that surpass any tattoo that I can really think of to put on myself. Throughout the season I felt that a possible third or fourth place was Derek. His lines and quality was always there, however it lacked creativity and life a lot of the times. (A fine exception would be when he worked with DJ and made the Harry Potter looking wings.)




P.S. I am hesitant on putting anything permanent on my body (especially if its going to get me a negative image/vibe/stereotype). To me it's like a desktop wallpaper. I usually change my wallpaper in less than a year. Also, the Official Best Ink website on Oxygen is very very very annoying!!! Every webpage automatically plays the same current loud skin story video. This is worsened by the fact that my internet is slow and my baby brother is watching Barney and Friends on Youtube so I cannot mute the sound. The site should also have a more organized gallery of their final tats by episode. I can't find Tylors tat with the cross and stars.

Teresa's work

Late update. Brittany was eliminated due to the rules of the competition. Her being eliminated instead of Allie wasn't due to having less skills. On average her tattoos were better. However that week she had a jellyfish tattoo that was suppose to look real (and good?). This is a very difficult and stupid task. And she shouldn't had gotten points taken off for that one week when she did a tattoo next to an existing tattoo. It was the skins request. Jerod's wedding photo tattoo was incredibly impressive. Allie is okay with colors but she is definitely not one of the top 6. In my opinion she had gotten through the cracks by tie-ing or not being the worst each week.

Other thoughts:The animation for the tattoos could had been better. However the animator did only had one night to work on all of the animations. The black light episode could had been a lot better with something anime inspired. Thanks for reading my rant.



Have a nice day.



Coin Wish - a twist on Plinko


       Looking for a fun and beautiful app? Try Coin Wish. Although the gameplay is very similar to Plinko, it's a lot easier to win then the Price is Right game. You also get more chances. The easiest aspect of the smartphone app compared to the game show is getting to play in the first place. It's Free on Google Play. The android app is developed by Unicorn Infinity LLC. It's beautiful and vibrant graphics are detailed. The menu's and buttons and in game store all look well designed and smooth. Another difference from the game show game is that it's portable.


Need a recap on how to play Plinko?
       Select a world and a level. Once the level starts tap a location on top of the screen to drop a coin from that location. The coin will make it's way down the play area while bouncing off objects(similar to pinball machines). Once it reaches the bottom it will land into a slot with a certain value. You will get those points towards your score. Each level requires a certain amount of points to get an improved rating. Like many other apps with lots of levels, Coin Wish gives you a rating of 1 to 3 stars for each level. Some levels are unlocked by obtaining a certain amount of stars. I'm guessing that according to the game your "wish" is to pass the level. That's why when you get one star while in a level it says "Wish granted".

     Your chances are also better than in real life because the app probably controls how likely your playing piece (coin) will come in contact with the peg. When a coin comes in contact with a peg, the peg will change color for the next peg level. Once all the pegs on the stage have changed colors, the values of the slots on the bottom of the screen will double and your pegs will then be ready to change color again.

     Some video game and pinball obstacles that make appearances are axes and spikes that chop and demolish your coins. These two are usually gray. Wormholes will move your coin to another location and spit them out in a random direction (although I don't think they shoot up). For help and extra advantages there are plenty of boosts and bonuses in the store.



     I will have to admit that I have not had time to thoroughly test more aspects and features of the app as it does have a lot. I am unaware of a lot of the official names and terms of things in the app. These observations are based on lower levels on the first world. I do however have a few small suggestions for the app. First off I think a detailed tutorial of "how to play" in the main menu would help the game feel friendlier. The tutorial would explain the A glitch I found in the game is that if you press "buy more coins(10)" but close the google play window from buying, then a text saying "failed purchase" will pop up and the games will continue to wait for you to play with more coins. The problem is that you have no coins. This was fixed by restarting the app. Luckily the app doesn't like to stay in your RAM memory when you exit the app so when you start the app it reloads from the beginning. However I wish the app did stay in my RAM IF the glitch is fixed.



     One interesting aspect of the smartphone application is that even it's advertisements have cool animations. They slide onto the screen like a box instead of your typical popup up or banner on the screen. Coin Wish is a fairly new Android application that I think deserves more attention than it is getting. It has an average rating of 4.5 on Google Play you should try it too. Download it for FREE HERE.




Enjoy


Thursday 23 May 2013

Fruit Worm - harmless

      Some old classic games can really use a little retouching. One developer takes an aim at such a thing. A more free roaming version of the classic snake game, Fruit Worm lets you move in more than just an up, down, left, right direction. Although you can only turn left or right, it's in varying degrees and from your current direction of movement. The smartphone app retains a few of the same characteristics of the classic game. These include a game over if you run into yourself or hit an obstacle or wall.


     The sound effects sound like old Final Fantasy menu sounds. The music and graphics look to be from a similar era. Although well designed, the colors are a bit outdated and not vibrant enough. They remind me of old Sega Genesis games although they don't quite match up to Sonic the Hedgehog. Of course not all games need need high bitrates to be enjoyable(the obviously rare example is Minecraft). The rotating green star that pops up after a selection takes a while to finish it's animation. If the application isn't using this animation time to load then I feel/believe that the animation slows down the pace of the game a bit. A small suggestion would be maybe the worm's head could be more distinct. It's not important and I should already be aware of where it's head is but I'm just saying.



   Fruit worm is brought to you by Bitoxic. It has between 10,000 and 50,000 downloads on Google Play and an average rating of 4.0. That's pretty good. You can download it for FREE HERE. Loading times are extremely short and don't worry, this worm is a lot safer than the one found in snow whites poisonous apple. 



Now get to collecting those fruits.

Tuesday 21 May 2013

Rediscovering Classical Music

There's still a lot of love for classical music and it definitely has its place in the modern world of apps. Beethoven would be pleased to know that his music is still bringing pleasure to many in the form of the currently trending app: Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.
Lovingly crafted the initially free app will be much loved by music enthusiasts who can look forward to four versions of the ninth, a classical scoring and stunning user interface.

Fun with Dots - and Loops

     Having fun with dots is hard to do. One smartphone app tries to make this easier for you to accomplish. It's called Loops (formerly Dots Dots Dots). It isn't your typical connect the dots and reveal a picture game.



How to Play:
         Once the dots (two minimum) are connected they disappear. If you connect more than 4 you get a bonus per extra dot on top of the regular point per dot. Connect four in the form of a square and you get 3 extra seconds. Whenever you do this special move the dots reset on the gameplay area. A good thing about the app is that it doesn't just start when you press play. It starts when you press the start button. A timer is clearly displayed near the top center of the screen. You best score is also displayed at the bottom of the game. It's a fresh new app is seems to be only getting better with new additions coming in. There can also a bit of strategy involved as connecting smaller targets could open the options for bigger moves and bonuses. Then again, you don't really have all the time in the world to think of your next move(s).




         There are three power ups. (the Google Play screenshots are at least a day old as they haven't been updated to display the power ups on the bottom of the screen so I captured my own). 
The Shuffler -reshuffles the board.
The Popper - double tap a dot to pop it away(this doesn't have to be activated with the corresponding icon on the bottom of the screen.)   
The Yin Yang - reshuffles the board into two colors only.
These power ups can be bought with coins. Coins can be bought or earned. Luckily the game does give you a decent amount of coins each time you play.




Suggestions for future updates:
             I suggest adding a background or menu music to the main menu just to give it a little more life.  Maybe take the candy crush saga route and make another special along with the current one. (I'm kinda sure that the developer is working on this as the description already says "power ups". For example, the Google Play description had stated a leaderboard was available and it wasn't integrated into the app until it's recent update). Just to be picky, D.D.D. could also have levels to contain requirements to give a sense of accomplishment. Not sure how this next one would affect the game and coding but allowing diagonal connections to be made is a thought. This would allow triangles and parallelograms and (theoretically) hexagons and pentagons and octagons etc. to be created. Another suggestion would be to increase the length of the app's description.




     The Android app can be downloaded here for FREE. It's brought to you by the developers at Bonfire Media, Inc. It currently has rating of a 4.5 out of 5 on Google Play. Android 2.2 and up is required. The game loads fast and has really clear and well outlined graphics. The user interface and directions are easy to read and understand. Simple and clean. In fact the game's layout and smooth animations of the menu's feels like something I would expect from an iOS game. For such a new app it shows a lot of potential.




Enjoy.


Monday 20 May 2013

Samsung Galaxy S4 Wallpaper


Don't have a Samsung Galaxy S IV but would like and want it's wallpaper? If so there is a way for you do have it via the

Galaxy S4 - Digital Clock LWP app for FREE. 

    The developers behind the application are Android.daddy. A nice feature of the app is it's large digital clock that includes the day of the week and the date. Personally my (older) Android phone doesn't have a large enough digital clock with that information. The smartphone app only requires Android 2.2 and up to work. Look newer and refreshed with this addition to your phone. The characters are also not in plain font of course. Extra nice touches include customizations to the live wallpaper including the Rainbow particles, frames per second, speed, text color, and font type.


       The only minor thing that bothers me is that I'm not used to the way the background slides. It doesn't glide a little like large backgrounds do or slide across like a picture. Whenever you slide your screen the picture becomes centered on where your point of contact is. This causes some jittery looking background. Another issue that the background picture has a lot of white or light areas that make it a little bit harder for me to see the name of my apps on the homescreens from a distance.   

Disclaimer: I haven't had any experience with the Samsung flagship device so I can't compare the real thing to this app. 
 This apps opens windows of opportunities for you to discover other apps. It has a recommendations section in the settings that gives you names of two affiliated wallpapers. Download the FREE app here from Google Play.

 
    

Easy-To-Learn Math Apps On iPhone For Kids


Easy-To-Learn Math Apps On iPhone For Kids

Is your kid fussy about learning math? Stop worrying, here is a collection of easy-to-learn math apps to help out your kid enjoy math rather thinking it as a nightmare. Keep your iPhone ready to pick up your choice.
Lets your toddler make the first move to learn numbers. Magic Paint With Math app is best suitable for kids of age 4-6. As the name says, it is more functional by providing the child with a coloring book and math related components which helpto learn math from preschool time. There are three basic gaming styles for this app; Triplets, Training and Coloring. In the first mode, kid can learn and memorize addition and subtraction within ten digits where kid creates a math case using three digits and two operators by his/her own. The next mode Training, guides the preschooler how to master basic math skills like addition, subtraction, division and multiplication. Here kid can see the simple graph and check the errors made. The Coloring game mode helps little one to color numbers and have fun playing arithmetic. Get the ultimate math game on your iPhone and watch your little mathematician mastering skills.
Cool Ninja math app comes with a blend of action and easy-to-practice math exercises with fun. Here, kid is the Ninja who protects the treehouse from evil Tomato-San, Cat-bots and Dog-bots. Ninja protects the house by battling using weapons by just tapping the screen. Once your kid has defeated the bots, there comes math problems which should be solved before Tomato-San appears. You can take up any math skill like addition, division, subtraction or multiplication. As your kid develops skill, he/she could carry out all tasks at the same time. Reaching higher levels would earn more money which could be wisely used in the app. Don’t you feel it’s a fun math app for your kid to love math?
An app combining fun and indepth features to explore. Your tot maybe a slow learner with math or gets irritated to even hear math, but with no doubt I would say this app can make your kid love math by helping his/her brain sharpen to take up math skills in fun wayThe app comes with plenty of activities with kids’ friendly themes, easy and difficult learning skills, a clever calculator which teaches out kid subtraction and addition with the help of different items, etc. Once your kid gets in touch with this app, you could go surprised seeing your kid doing math without any help.
One of the most rated math challenge app at appstore. The main attraction of this app is that, kid doesn’t know he/she is actually learning math as it’s full of fun and challenge that keep kids’ on toes with the app. You could say it’s an awesome playtime math combined tool which plays a major role in education. It helps kid to solve arithmetic problems with a challenge game put in front of them. In this game, kid has to complete all rows and columns which finally show up tiny puppies peeping out behind each bingo finished column making the app much cute! A complete free app!
An action packed math free entertainment app for kids! The 5 levels starts from easy to much harder challenges where kid should aim up catching the correct balloon and solve the problems before it flew away. With enough encouragement, your kid can fully get into the game and learn math just by floating with the numbers. This app would definitely help to boost up speed in learning math andsame time adding excitement by collecting points on the go! Whoa! Don’t you think your kid would enjoy and learn the skills in jiffy?
A colorful counting app for all kids! This friendly app allows little ones to learn counting as well understand colors. Best app to make toddlers go merry counting, categorizing and observing candies! Every time the right answer pops up, a bright star shows up on the screen making kid more stirred up to play. Lets tots enjoy ultimate fun in learning math with favorite candies around!
This article was written by Mary Roberta from Case-Mate. If you want a great case then check on iPhone 5 cases from case-mate to make your dream smartphone more impressive and let it stay safe from impacts.

Tuesday 14 May 2013

Potentially Life Saving App

      We've seen fun apps come and go and change lives. How about an app that can SAVE your life or the life of a loved one? Introducing RoboChek Life Sentry. It does routine checks (set up by you) and if it doesn't get a response to indicate that the user is doing fine by the time the notice is set to be sent out then your emergency contacts will be notified. Your close friends and family may not have the time to check up on you very often. Nobody means to ignore you. Life can be very busy. With this they can make checking up on a loved one easier.



      It's simple and easy to set up.  If you want directions you could see them here at http://www.robochek.com/.  You can customize the time when the alarm (checking) goes off. And you can also choose when your contacts will be notified. The notification message to your designated people contains a personal message and the location of where you are ( if you have your gps enabled). That way they can find you. You can have up to 3 people to be contacted by the app. This should be more than enough. The default message is in grey text. That is a suggestion or template of what you could write. It is not already a set up as a message. It can be very useful for you to update the message and include more details as to where you are going and why. For example you can include who you are meeting up with. That way it will be easier for them to track your whereabouts if you should become lost, missing and/or have an accident.


      If you are busy and don't have your phone on you then the notification will be scheduled to tell your contacts. I believe if you check in on the next hour then it will be okay. This is geared towards elderly people who have routine schedules, although people of all ages may use it. If something bad does occur and you fail to respond then it will check on you every hour after that until your send out time. Most smartphones suffer from poor to average battery life that only lasts a day with very light use. We don't have GPS enabled very much. However you don't have to have GPS tracking turned on for the app to do it's job.



      Another great thing about this app is that it's only $2.99. You can't put a price on life. It's also available in Spanish. You can download it here from Google Play.

Wednesday 8 May 2013

Slot Machine App - Slots of Fortune



     Want to go to the Casino but don't want to lose too much money? Well you can do just that and save yourself some gas with the FREE Slots of Fortune - Slot Machine - smartphone app. There's no fancy cartoon to try and catch your interest. However that doesn't mean the app isn't visually appealing. No giant pixels are present to discourage you from playing. The buttons are distinguishable. It's so easy to play you don't even have to put up your hand or your head. You don't actually collect a ticket, your phone is your ticket.

    On the left side on top of the buttons there is a location bar that shows your current rank. Hover over it to display what is required for you reach the next rank. Settings let you toggle the music and sound effects. Not sure why you would want to turn the bonuses off (perhaps you just want a classic style gameplay). Above the slot display is a realistic reward chart. The chart looks just like something you would find on a slot machine. Above that is something that resembles wheel of fortune. Both of these are viewable via scrolling or sliding your screen up and down.


         I usually find slot machines with some sort of obtainable bonus to be more interesting and involved. This is where the (wheel) Spin Bonus comes to play. In order to qualify for the spin bonus you have to place the max bet. There are three ways to do this 1)Press the circle in the center of the play area. 2)Press "Bet Max" 3)Press "Bet One" until the current bet reaches the maximum of 6. An odd and funny thing actually happens with the third one. When you reach 6 by pressing that button, the machine automatically enters the bet without you telling it to place the the unlike when the betting value is below 6. When you get a Wheel bonus spin the screen takes you quickly to the top (skipping the chart) to watch the action. This happens smoothly and is a nice touch.


  On my 2nd or 3rd bet I press the circle button and got the spin wheel bonus. That bonus led to a big pot. I believe it was 100,000 give or take a zero. Reading the Google Play reviews reveal that this begginers luck phenomenon might be a common occurrence with new players. Within thirty more tries I got another spun wheel that rewarded me with 650.  Unlike toys that don't really keep track of how much you have, the free Android app does that and more.With my short time with the app it often awarded me and not just take my currency while leaving me with nothing.

A few suggestions for the free casino app
     First there needs to be a cool sound played when I press a button. Possibly include background music. Maybe let the user choose between a background that sounds like a casino, or some elevator music. This will probably engage the gambler more or keep them more stimulated. A possible addition would be to add sparkles across the screen sometimes. However, this would be straying away from the apps realistic approach. Six credit seems a bit small for a maximum bet, especially when the app is rewarding you so much that you want to raise the stakes. Oh and the Google Play screenshots we're uploaded twice...So there are 4 different pictures but 8 total. Delete the doubles.


You can download the free application here for Android OS. According to it's Google Play video the app is also trying to make it's way to iOS so stay tuned if that applies to you.


Thanks for reading. Have a nice day.

Sunday 5 May 2013

Bringing life to your old gaming CD's

Sega CD Wonder Dog
Rare gaming CD-Wonder Dog (no I've never heard of it either!)
On the brink of Project Durango and Orbis coming our way (if you've followed gaming's biggest stories you'll know what I'm talking about), you might still have a lot of older games lying around. Now we're willing to bet that a lot of those are on CD, whether you're a PS One or Two fan or even going down the Mega Drive route or elsewhere.

I remember FF IX fondly, but the disc format is just so notorious for scratching up and getting unreadable that despite the best intentions many great gaming collections go the way of the skip.

ROM finding and emulation on Android and other devices with open OS's seems to be a great solutuion, and we can't wait to see how well the unconsoles implement this. But if you really want a true saviour of disc based gaming and want the awesomeness of a great CD based retro game collection then cd replication services are a great route to explore

Saturday 4 May 2013

Free Hidden Object Puzzle Game: Where's My Stuff?


      Did you like playing "I Spy" as a child? I remember those books and they were fun. Skip forward to more modern times and we have Apps to do that now. Play on the go with the FREE app Hidden Object Adventure Game: Where's My Stuff? However you'll probably need just about the full four minutes to play each round. Objects are really detailed and crisp and disappear in a poof when you collect them(find them when you're suppose to). The items are amazingly realistic although extremely cluttered. Play as Edward who has an insane amount of items. Some things will be easier to find and some will get you frustrated. Often I am thinking "Did they make a mistake? Is the object really in this level?" (and a newer type of excuse and doubt that comes with technology) "Maybe there's a glitch?"


     One great feature of the FREE Android app is that if you repeat a level, your lists will be different. New objects may even appear on the lists because there are more objects in a level than the number of items required to pass that level. It's a bit disturbing that objects camouflage and look so natural-like in odd places. It's very interesting how detailed the graphics for the objects, levels, and character artwork are. The storyline so far is acceptable, not extremely cheesy like a lot of apps.

     You start out with 3 hints and gotta pay money for more if you want some. I don't really see the point in using hints but we all have our own style(I rarely use game cheats). On top of the screen you have your three lists of items to get/tap/collect. I said three because if you find all the items in the a column, it would had run out of items and be blank while you only have two items displayed with more than 2 items left.


     I would have to admit that there is a downside to playing the I Spy puzzle game on an Android smartphone. The screen will most likely be a little small at times (compared to a book). As with any puzzle or I-Spy type of game it gets easier with practice. You'll memorize where some objects are located. At later levels you have to repeatedly complete levels about 3-4 times to move on to the next level. It would be better if a player could choose any previous level to play (to earn points/gold).



    The distinct user interface makes it easy to see the timer, menu, and list of items to get along with style. The digital clock look, notepads with paperclips, and veneer wood touch are some nice touches. It's cool how items go away. To see if for yourself download the app here from Google Play.  Get some good brain exercise.





P.S. I tried the game before paying attention to the developer, Jarbull, and its logo. On the first level, as I was observing the details I noticed the poster on the wall of a red bull. I thought to myself "That's not a real world object, so was that work and detail really put into a logo/poster just for a level in this game?" Turns out it was their logo. So it makes sense it would be that well designed.


 Thanks for reading

Friday 3 May 2013

App for Finding Singles

    Using the internet as a means of finding a mate has been a growing trend. From online dating sites to dating apps that try to help you increase your chances of finding your special one. These methods introduces you to individuals that you would probably not meet using traditional methods. One example is the app FlirtyLocal - MeetLocalSingles.



Although the Pickup Lines section and Dating Tips seem to be made for guys to target females, the app works for everyone. Plenty more features are said to be coming in future updates for the app. But by that time you may have already found your other half. No this app isn't just used for permanent partners, temporary relationships are allowed too (and will be further supported by the app in updates to come). Using the chat feature takes you to the ihookup.com website where you can search with a variety of filters or criteria. You can download the FREE app here from Google Play.


Good Luck!


Iron Man Theme for your Phone

      I'm a big fan of Iron Man. Not that I find everything fine with the movies. It took me a while and a few tries but I finally got an Iron Man theme thing going on with my smartphone. I'm bringing this information as Iron Man 3 comes out in theaters today May 3rd (depending on what part of the world you live in). It's sort of my way of celebrating it's release. With the help of the AnimGIF app (AnimGIF Live Wallpaper 2 Lite) you can have animated wallpapers with the sacrifice of image quality. This time around I chose to create an Iron Man theme with some pictures and gifs that I've found from some time consuming searches. 


      With plenty of customization options I was able to tweek it the way I wanted. You can adjust the speed with intervals relative to the GIF's default speed. You could even have a different lock in background screen. I haven't seen anything change the lock in screen wallpaper yet. (Well, there are plenty of features in this app that have never before been seen by me.) The smartphone application automatically detects your recent downloads(possibly any images added after the apps installation). This makes it easier for you. If you happen to need to search other folders, the app lets you explore and navigate your folders and sd card quite well too. The "Top Margin" feature leaves the background of your notification bar from being covered by the images if you should choose to use the feature. Another important feature is that the Android application has different settings for Image Fitting Mode. Think of it's usefulness and friendliness as good as that on your wallpaper settings on your desktop PC . That's so much more than I could have imagined or was asking for.

There is a downside however. Using animated gif images and an app to run your homescreens takes up some power juice from your phone.

The Gif Image(s) to the left were collected screenshots I tried to put together to emulate how it looked like on my phone. That's why they have scattered time stamps and icons in the notification bar.




 Here are the images in original size and their links to the files I used:


The Must Have smartphone app: AnimGIF LWP 2

You don't have to use the app for an Iron Man Live Wallpaper, you can create and use your own wallpapers. You just gotta find a GIF that's worthy.




My browsers have issues displaying GifNinja.com but a google search of the saved files names led me directly to the page.

Image Files: http://gifninja.com/animatedgifs/85882/ironmanholog.gif   (source and credit goes to http://gifninja.com/animated-gifs/85882/ironmanholog)

 I used this one for the Lock-Screen.

I was looking for something like this forever. So glad somebody made one.

















I couldn't find the url anymore of this so I uploaded the file here. Sorry I can't give the gif creator(s) credit where it's due.












  I don't know the differences between the FREE Lite version of the app and the full versions. I don't care to look into it. I got what I wanted and I am still enjoying the plenty that it has done for me. It's probably mostly for donations. Okay maybe it's not a true theme, but it comes close. The rest of your phones windows aren't affected. There's probably too many settings to alter those.



 Here are some honorable mentions for images:
This one seemed a bit laggy or jumpy for my taste for a live paper. source
Clean and cool looking but a bit plain and the white areas make my icons harder to read.



Yes I've shown it off and you can too. Add some Avengers character to your phone. You can't have Iron Man's phone, but you can add him to your phone. An exciting example of customizing an Android (for me anyways).



Suit Up your phone and Enjoy

Wednesday 1 May 2013

Taking a Break from Candy Crush Saga

    Ever since I first played Candy Crush Saga I've been addicted. It's been fun but it's also been very hectic and helpless to run out of lives and receive lives from Facebook notifications but not in the app. Other migraine causing features the uncontrollable fate of losing and not being able to do much (as oppose to the freedom in racing games and action adventure games). I don't know when I started playing the app, but I was approximately level 35 when I wrote my original review on Candy Crush on April 16th. I overdosed on the game causing my phone to drain and heat up during playtime.  I played by the wall and spent a lot of time there(putting myself through the torture of being timed out like a child). It's time I relieve some stress by announcing my break up from the King.com app.  I may get back together with it sometime or completely in the future. More likely I will still respond to requests from friends through the app. Either way, you have defeated me level 100.


Candy Crushed Joshua





CSR Racing finally makes it to Android (Best looking FREE Racing App)

        I like cars. Although not a mechanic I am slightly a sports car enthusiast. This brought out some frustration in that since day one of owning my first smartphone I could not find a great racing app besides the one that came included with my phone (Asphalt 6).  For me, a game collection isn't that impressive or complete if it doesn't have a really good racing game. Plenty of crappy graphics or horrible controls or cars that were made up usually plagued my search. Yes I understand licensing can be an issue. One decent and almost short game was Drag Racing back in 2012. It was simple and fun....but the graphics were a bit too simple and after a while it became too hard for me to play (soon after the early stages of the game). Twice I saw CSR Racing on iPhones in 2012 and was saddened yet again that I could not find anything close besides Asphalt 6. The words "Do you have this on Android?" made me lash out at Android. "No, there isn't a great FREE racing game for Android. iPhone has a lot more quality apps and development support than Android. Most great Android apps are available first on iOS...sometimes by a long time".  Fandroids may burn me for saying that but I still believe in that statement.

Enter CSR Racing onto Android. According to Wikipedia the smartphone app was released on iOS
Apple App Store on June 28.[2] It was revealed that the game made over $12 million in a month shortly after launch,[3] making it one of the top 10 grossing iPhone games of 2012.[4]


 CSR racing was finally made available for Androids on On April 15, 2013. That's almost a whole year behind. By graphics and technology standards a whole year is a lot. 365 days probably consists of two new iPhones or two new Samsung Galaxy S flagship phones and two new Call of Duty games. Okay beggars shouldn't be choosers. I'm just being a crybaby. I'm still happy that we get something. I will be looking forward to testing and playing this app. I'm so happy and glad celebrating the release of CSR Racing onto the Google platform that I even wrote an article after trying just two to three races. Thank you NaturalMotionGames Ltd! On another note, it's gotten between 1 and 5 million downloads in just 15 days with an average rating of almost 5 out of 5 stars(4.6).

Enjoy

Yeah Baby! Transform and Roll Out!
Details to Decals




IDK what screenshots I will use when I do review the app.





P.S. Now I need  a cool Jet simulator. Although that's mostly accomplished with Mupen63Plus Android Edition and Star Fox 64. BTW to be a bit more fair Drag Racing seems to have come a long ways in terms of graphics ever since I tried it out. I might need to retest it.



Impending Doom (Game Review)

    

     Most games or superhero movie involves saving the world from perish. This next game also has you preventing the earth from it's demise. Although it's unclear how you got your "cosmos power" (weapon) to stop the chunks of space debris its still fun. The name of the game is called Impending Doom and it's FREE for Android Devices. Use your force field (although it's more like a weapon) to get rid of threats coming our way. The Earth has three healthpoints which in a way also acts as a rating system for how well you do for each level. Can you step up to the occasion and avoid the three strikes?



Yeah that's really a model of Earth. I see Austrailia and Asia.

    Sometimes my finger got in the way of the screen. Maybe a lead feature where the laser is actually a little higher to the left (right handed) than the point of contact on the screen. A left handed feature to change that point to the left of the finger would be a good extra tough. The swiping game plays a little like fruit ninja games. It may also be easier for you if you have experience with cut the rope and a tablet. A large Samsung Note or Galaxy S phone or half tablets will probably be acceptable too.

   Not bad for Quick Fix Inc's first app. This is an incredible first step in terms of graphics and smooth execution. The main menu was well thought of. It's also the mission select screen at the same time(very interactive). The Google Play video/trailer is well done. The logo is also something that good artwork was put into. The Earth (our planet) and the asteroids (meteors) are in detailed 3D and they rotate. There is nothing to complain about in the music and sound effects category. They can also be changed via a sliding bar in the settings(not just on and off). However I have some friendly...

Suggestions for possible future updates

- I'm stuck on level 5 out of 10. The number of levels don't bother me it's just that I'm stuck.
- The nonexistent introduction could have a little more story. This would just make the app larger but feel more completed and depends on the developer's choice to use CGI or voice overs and text(caption). The power of the players finger on the touch screen could be explained. It could be that the green space junk is getting sent from an alien race. Or both blue meteors and green meteors are sent by different races that kinda have the same color as their rock.
- Other explaining that would probably help is include in the tutorial that different color lasers destroy different color rocks. For example the current tutorial just says tap the earth to change the color of lasers. I thought this was just a custom coloring for the laser but it took me a few tries to realize it was necessary to change color to destroy those green rocks. I felt the game should had explained this.
- Maybe include a special move. Large laser with lighting perhaps. Or just a blowout possibly flash bomb to clear the screen of harm. 
- Other extra ideas would be to include a kiddie or easy mode. Differences would include larger lasers and enable multitouch (at least two touches). A possible cheat is draw a star for a special effect or instant special. Maybe have some objects be collectables (such as health, temporary larger laser, or more destructive laser, a robot buddy, or automatic changing lasers for several seconds).
-Make the Sparrow-Bot purchasable with real money purchase. Just a thought. And maybe make it earnable. As of now I believe the only level it's available before level 5 is the one level where it's introduced. Maybe the flying or floating mechanical invention can talk to you a little(I just saw Disney's Blubber not that long ago). 
-The latest update adds the use of the return button to quit the game. I could also include a third button to go to the main menu or level select. 





       All in all it's a very good first app. And though that list of suggestions is long, none of them are vital or critical changes. I have an immature imagination and can get carried away. Maybe I just didn't know what else to write. Either way it had to spark my imagination. You can download the FREE Android app here and see what it does to you. 




Toys 3D Parking (App test) First Impressions

      I've tried a few parking apps before (planes included). And parking was extremely difficult due to odd controls. One app that doesn't have that problem is Toys 3D Parking. Practice parking with different toy vehicles in a toy obstacle course. It's levels(stages) definitely reminds me of Andy's room from the Toy Story franchise. You get up to three crashes per try. The amount of crashes takes away from your rating out of 3 stars for each level. I haven't thoroughly tried the app so I'll call this a test instead of a full review. Use your accelerometer to steer. Shift between drive and reverse. Control a RC Monster Truck and an RC Schoolbus.


    One interesting aspect of this Android app is that you don't just drive slightly different vehicles that look slightly different. According to the Google Play app description there will be a larger variety of non gas guzzling forms of transportation in future updates coming soon. I've only tried the car and bus. They drive differently in terms of handling and where their buttons are on the screen. This altered button layout contributes to each type of vehicle having it's own feel and giving you a different driving experience. At first I wanted the car(truck) to have Xperia Play Optimized controls, however I'm not sure how that would work for the other machines.The camera features are neat but I've always liked my behind the shoulder type of angle. Directional arrows on the floor are well placed. Parking spots are clear and established.


MY SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE UPDATES
    The smartphone app doesn't have a sensitivity setting (although it's set to a pretty well rounded one already). A suggestion I would have for future updates would be to include background music to give it more liveliness. Perhaps some voices cheering you on as you pretend to be a toddler maneuvering toys around. The main menu is quiet...too quiet. Something should tell the ears of the users "Welcome to our amazing app!" (maybe not those words exactly but music with a similar theme or message). Another very small improvement I could see is making the Gray text (in the title screen and logo) stand out more. Currently there are no sounds when making a selection (at least have one for the level selection). A sound effect should also convey "finish" or ta-da or mission complete up a successful park. Although it is an RC game perhaps a Hot Wheels type of racing or stunt track could be added.The Crash/ Game Over menu could be in a frame with borders. Just for fun maybe include an option between using the current realistic motor sounds and an RC toy type of sounds. If things get crazy then an RC Helicopter can drastically change the playing field. A less crazy change would be to add headlights and taillights that light up.


Don't get any wrong ideas with my long jibber jabber of suggestion ideas. That's just how I am.  I see a lot of potential in the already good app. The smartphone application is very well designed and polished for such early versions of the app. The developers at Studio 3wg look like they are listening and working on improving the app even further. "Test" out this app and maybe you can give them an idea or two of what you look forward to. Download the FREE app HERE from Google Play.