Infinity Blade II for a dollar

Infinity Blade II is a dollar until the end of this month. If you liked the first one, you are bound to like this one. It looks even more detailed than the first one and it's prettier to boot. Parrying is a lot easier this time and the fights are more varied and interesting. It is definitely a worthy sequel.

If you didn't enjoy the first one though you are probably going to hate this. Although it is a better experience the same things are here to annoy. Sometimes it misreads your actions, although usually when this happens to me, it actually does something better than I it meant to. This time 'round they mixed up the fights a bit more, with extra sequences to get a sneaky stab in and so on but you are still basically having the same battles over and over again. If you found this too grindy in the first one it's gonna more or less be the same here despite some slight improvements.

The story has really been fleshed out in this one and it really sucked me in with the little prologue. The whole experience is a much more solid one, it just run so smoothly on my iPhone 5, whereas the original had a lot of bugs and clunkiness. If you can get it at a dollar I say 9/10.

For more info on both games you can see my original review here. It is amazing to see just how much the graphics have improved on a damn phone.

Retro Gaming with the KiGB: Link's Awakening DX Review

You've probably heard about KiGB, it's been around for quite sometime and it is a Game Boy emulator. You can get it for windows and linux here and Mac OS here. I used the Mac OS version with the shareware enhancer which allows me to use my Logitech controller with no troubles. There seems to be no limitation on using it for free which is great as the creator wants a whopping $30 for it. I was thinking more like $5.

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX, has just been rereleased on the 3DS so seeing as I can't afford one I decided to fire it up on the emulator.

 

I really loved this game when I played it many years ago but I never had the chance to finish it, or even play it very much. There is something nice about it's simplicity and it is definitely the Zelda title to go for if you are sick of having your hand held by the modern ones. On that note I must admit I did at times use a walkthrough as a guide, because I would often find myself unsure of where to go. This is one annoyance about the game, it can at times be a bit vague. You can telephone Ulrira to get tips but he often tells you what you already know. This isn't such a big deal, as like I said you can just look it up onlin,e or spend a bit of extra time wandering looking where to go.

 

Obviously the gameboy wasn't a graphics or music powerhouse, but in this time of retro gaming it still manages to fair quite well. It only has a simple tone generator but the music is still quite enjoyable. There are some classic tunes and sounds that you will recognise, plus plenty you probably haven't heard. Graphically, it isn't so great but it has this chunky style that makes everything clear and obvious.

The thing that makes this Zelda title stand out is that it's a lot funnier, even a bit more risqué, then any other title in the series. It has silly little things like someone pretending they look like Princess Peach in their letters and all of the bizarre Mario references. Plus it even makes fun of itself. The cute girl in town Marin, decides to adventure along with Link, so what does he do? In typical Link style he picks her up and holds her above his head! I found it hilarious at the time *ahem*. The point is, it is still worth a play and why not emulate it? 8/10.

What We Want From Apple

Apple announced a lot at WWDC and I think most of it is good news. However there is still a lot left unsaid and there is plenty more they could do. 

Like a lot of people, my first reaction to iOS 7 is that it looks ugly and a lot like Windows Phone but after watching some hands on videos, I'm going to have to wait until I see it in the flesh to really make that call. The thing that really struck me were the bright colours and the adage, "cheap and cheerful" immediately popped into my head. They way the background moves in relation to the icons, as you move the device around, is super pretty but this is going to be using extra clock cycles on your cpu and gpu. So is all that translucency. What we really want here is the battery saving performance from Mavericks. In theory all of that stuff sounded great but there was no mention of such things for iOS.

Sticking with iOS 7, I would agree that most of these new features are just catching up to their competitors but I think they are going just a tiny bit further in most regards. New ways to search the app store is something that is very much needed right now and I can't think of any app store at the moment, that I would say has great app finding functionality. Most of the other functions they have taken the best of both Android and Windows and cobbled them together, which is a good thing, well until they get sued. I sincerely hope that they have thought out the automatic update feature and stolen the "only on wifi" setting from android, whilst ensuring we get unobtrusive notes on what was changed.

The final point about iOS that I want to make is, nobody wants Apple Maps in their car. If Apple wants people to be interested in Apple Maps, they have to cram it full of data like Google Maps. You can type almost utter nonsense into Google Maps and it will find the damn thing you are looking for. Apple Maps doesn't even know half of the abbreviations for street types like Pde, typing in such a thing will blow it's mind! If they want people to take it seriously they need to work away in the background, doing the boring data collection and minor tweaks that Apple infamously hate to do. Connecting your device to your car was probably Apple's biggest new feature this launch and it is kind of disappointing, that said, I am sure they are holding something back for the 5S due out later this year.

Now onto the Mac stuff. Let's get the most important thing out of the way, Mavericks is a crap name. I think Apple should move onto small cats and call it Ocelot. There is plenty of room for them to move with these names and they could even finish on Sea Cat.

Okay so now that is out of the way, onto the serious stuff. I actually really like Mavericks and I think it will be the one to update to from Lion. So this is my first issue, can we go straight from Lion to Mavericks? Mountain Lion didn't interest me at all and I think a lot of people felt the same, so I hope this is an easy process. One that doesn't involve purchasing Mountain Lion or doing a clean install. The changes to power and RAM usage sound great, though we'll have to wait to see independent tests. Better integration with iOS devices sounds good to me too but I am more excited about finally getting iBooks. There is a lot of exclusive content such as Games Workshops rulebooks available for iBooks that otherwise required an iPad. Hopefully you'll be able to get them on the Mac too.

This just leaves the MacPro. It's an interesting design and if it works as they say it does and it is priced decently, I think it will sell well but there is one problem. It isn't really expandable. You've got six whole Thunderbolt 2 plugs out the back but what are you going to plug into them? A hard drive? Fine, whatever, what we really want is a new GPU. Apple or a third party need to get GPU's that run through Thunderbolt (preferably Thunderbolt 1 so I can upgrade mine). Yes, you can do that right now but it isn't guaranteed to work. Add to this that everything is so expensive for Thunderbolt, even simple hubs, and you make this option even less desirable. But what's even worse is that Apple themselves don't really support Thunderbolt either. The latest Time Capsule as no Thunderbolt port and this is a device that is supposed to be about quick backups. 

As usual Apple try to get you with the reality distortion field and for the most part it has worked but with just a few simple improvements, they could make the whole experience enjoyable, even for cynics like me.

Get back into Company of Heroes 2 now!

The open beta is back up and there are a lot of new features. The menu UI has been greatly improved and now there are new modes available for play, including playing online with friends versus AI. You can even set the AI to easy if you are too scared.

I guess I'm going to have to pre-order this game, you can get it from ozgameshop for pretty cheap but I already know what is going to bug me about it. Pathing was better this time but I still feel it's going to be an issue, it just doesn't seem like a whole step ahead like it should be. The other thing is the general slowness of the multiplayer engine. At first the servers are probably going to be flooded and that will be a nightmare and I understand that this is a beta stress test with probably out-dated code but the original CoH also developed this problem. I sometimes find myself clicking multiple times on a unit just to select it and even when I think I have, I still move the previous unit somehow. That and the relay points you lay down from buildings are way too slow. Still, it's gonna be a great game and it has been a joy to play other than those minor niggles. With single player, online battles, skirmishes against the AI and a full 18 mission co-op mode, I think it's going to be well worth  the 42 dollars.

Games for iOS, Android and PC

Run That Town [iOS] The Australian Bureau of Statistics finally has a game! I know we've all been waiting and it's even got Shaun Micallef. You can run any town you like from Kambah right through to Thornbury and just like everything the ABS has ever done, it's as boring as hell 1/10.

Iron Man 3[iOS, Android] This one is an endless flyer and like a lot of it's endless runner counterparts it uses the ever terrible tilt controls. This game wouldn't actually be too bad if it weren't for the timers put on everything to make you pay. It does however have quite pretty visuals and interesting missions to complete but at the end of the day it's for fans only 6/10.

Reus [PC] An indie title where you play as a planet, well sorta. You control the deities that are spawned by the planet. These gods represent the ocean, forest life, mountains and swamps and these gods bring life to the planet. The highest level of life is of course humans and you will need to make them happy to succeed in this game. To level up you need to complete achievements, things like get a town to x prosperity level, or have a town with so much greed. It sounds like a cool idea and was great fun at first but the gameplay really drags on as you repeat the same steps over and over again 6/10.