Showing posts with label games xperia play. Show all posts
Showing posts with label games xperia play. Show all posts

Thursday, 24 May 2012

Six Guns (Cowboys and Monsters?) - FREE


Gameloft, Gameloft, Gameloft. If you've been keeping up with my articles recently you've heard that developer before. That's because they make stunning games. Take Six Guns for example. The graphics presented are close to detailed, almost HD, PC games. Sometimes I forget for a split second that I'm on my phone. Other games may have one scene or one arena that is this detailed, but this game has a world of dungeons, abandoned buildings, caves, fields, and mountains. Okay, you don't really go onto the fields or mountains, but they are there for you to see. If you love Red Dead Revolver and it's Necromantic Follow Ups then this App is really going to blow you away.
 One unexpected feature of this Android application was the inclusion of monsters such as vampires and zombies and gargoyles. Western Sound effects are present, from your horses footsteps, gunshots, wild animals, wild wild west background music and haunting noises. FREE. To offer an app of such similarity and quality to Red Dead Revolver for free is amazing.  I don't think we will see the end of Gameloft any time soon.

Race them horses. No grooming is necessary.
Quick Rundown
At first glance, the look of the game reminds me of the popular Red Dead games. I haven't played them but, I've seen a few tortures. Unfortunately this game doesn't have much you can do to the roaming cowboys besides shoot them (and their horses). Don't try this in real life.
What you can and Can't do in 6 Guns
No Lasso, grabbing, cutting, or choosing which part of the body to shoot.

What are the missions in Six Guns?
 However, the Android App has plenty of simultaneous MISSIONS to keep you busy. Some of these missions are COLLECTING MISSIONS, where you collect items across the games environment. You ACCEPT QUESTS or MISSIONS by pressing on your minimap to open a bigger map. Icons representing missions will show up on the map. Press on them to see the details of the mission and choose whether or not to accept. Once you accept, you can click on an icon below your minimap to go directly to the mission(instead of running or riding to get to that location). This is a really helpful and neat feature. A cowboy game wouldn't be as complete without the option to ride a horse. Press the horse's icon outside of battle and it will walk up to you in a second, unless it is already on your screen. Reminds me of the old Zelda Games from Nintendo 64. (I haven't played a newer one.)

These monsters and 3D environments are detailed.

The main protagonist occasionally whistles the theme song of the Die Hard Movies, The Ants Go Marching.

Wolves, Bears, Condors, Foxes and more roam their habitats, oh and monsters too.

Change your looks with new clothing.
 
 Screenshots don't show the easy to see HUD.

 The startup screen (top of article) kinda looks like Clint Eastwood. Not a bad person to look like when trying to be a cowboy.


Although these ghosts looks scary now, they are even scarier with the volume up.
Guide to Six Gun's Monsters
Those "ghosts" might actually be vampires, but those seem more ghostly to me.  The ones in the caves pictured above looks more vampire-like and zombie-like to me. Although the scenes are uncommon, the screenshots aren't captured rare glimpses in the game(or intro or concept art) to fool you into thinking the game looks better than it really does. The addition of supernatural or unnatural creatures is a really great twist that I wasn't expecting in a cowboy game. Sometimes the camera is on the side a like in the Batman Arkham games.

These are great screenshots, taken right from Google Play.
Finally a Cowboy Game that uses the  Xperia Play Controls
I personally found the physical controls really hard to master on my Sony Xperia Play. For those who aren't using the Xperia Play Optimized controls, maybe you will have a better time. Playable, but uncomfortable. Using touch screen controls is still an option. One minor issue thing I noticed about the game was that pressing the physical "back" button in the menu's work, but if you can't go back anymore instead of closing the menu the games asks if you want to exit the game. In a 3rd person roaming game, camera controls are important. Luckily the right touchpad has your back on that one. Aiming can be difficult without joysticks or a mouse. The auto-aiming helps out a lot.

On one of my last missions, I was in a cave with multiple levels. This is nice that not everything is on one level, however the ghosts weren't really sure what level they were on. Adds less of a platform controlled feel though and more of a "realistic" feel, which is nice. I do wish it has some more Oregon Trail features like getting money for hunting. It is quite difficult to get good amounts of money to advancing your items in the game, unless you're talking about advancing very slowly or taking the FREE out of the game. Although the game combines same quest items, it doesn't combine bullet packages. Also, as far as I can tell(I've only gotten the 2nd weapon with upgrades on my first), there aren't many interactions with other people or characters in such an open world. No words are exchanged between you and a sheriff except one line when you shoot em. All in all, this game is an Editor's Choice on Google Play for more than one reason. Experience it for yourself. Giddy up Cowboy...or Cowgirl.



Gametrender

Tuesday, 18 October 2011

Freemium games :Not quite free

The English language is amazingly adaptable with lots of new words being added every year. Well one of particular interest to gamers which I’m sure we will be seeing in a dictionary soon is Freemium. Freemium Games On Android and iPhone are becoming the norm.Do you see what they’ve done there? Free and Premium surely two good things. This is an increasingly popular business model that app developers are turning to to generate cash. In app purchase and Gameloft's cunning videogame marketing strategy of calling their app free plus games are other ways we've seen of this game genre being referred to.
 Rather than having in app adverts to help pay for their games (more on that in another article) app  developers will charge for extra features such as specialized items, new levels and extra game modes. There's lots of variation that developers can put on this theme and so far its proving quite effective with recent hit freemium games for Android, such as Robotek, generating capital this way.
Robotek: Freemium game or free plus app?
Robotek is a strategy game with the eventual aim of liberating all the world's “nodes” from evil androids. Every node you liberate gives you more energy but every time you lose, your energy is depleted. While possible to complete the game without paying it will be very, very difficult, so the freemium model lets you purchase energy with in app purchases. 
It's this mobile phone revenue stream that allows what could easily be a purchased game be free for the casual gamer. When is it worth making purchases like these, well thats why you need to help get Gametrender up and running because thats our business-getting the best apps into the hands of gamers!
Some other top free games:
Gunbros goes Freemium
Excellent multidirectional shooter taking on the legacy of past arcade games such as Smash TV , GunBros is a lot of fun with or without in -app weapon and upgrade purchases.
Gt Motor Racing from Gameloft
Really Gameloft are you actually fooling anybody by calling your Freemium racing game a free plus game? Nevertheless GT Racing:Motor Academy Free+ is another excellent car racer with some good licensed vehicles from Gameloft.


The Sims Freeplay

Just released and storming up the iPhone and iPad charts is the latest Sims offering: Sims Freeplay . The Sims have always been popular on mobile phones with brilliant outings in games such as The Sims 3 and it's only natural that the virtual avatar sim is taken to the next financial level with a freemium version of the Sims. (Note EA's clever branding of the app as Freeplay). This EA app is available online only for the moment (ie. your phone must be connected to the internet to play) Now you can have the pleasure of spending real money to get simoleons (Sims currency) to make your levelling up in the game faster.

So Freemium, freeplus or Freeplay call it what you will but this seems to be the en vogue way to make money through apps at this time. Let us know what you think are some of the best and worst Freemium games out for Android and Apple.