Showing posts with label iPhone. Show all posts
Showing posts with label iPhone. Show all posts

Monday, February 13, 2012

Wishlist: How FarmVille can take full advantage of the iPhone

Zynga's newly released iPhone version of FarmVille is a passable if flawed miniaturization of its popular PC cousin. But the move to Apple's popular mobile phone brings with it the opportunity to add some rather unique new gameplay to the familiar farming experience. Here are just a few ideas for how Zynga can take full advantage of the iPhone hardware to make a better (or at least a fresher) overall game.

Geo-location: Visiting your virtual neighbors in FarmVille is all well and good, but sometimes you want to see what's going on with your actual neighbors. With the iPhone's built-in GPS (and IP-based geo-location for iPod users), this should be easy enough to implement. Simply let players opt-in to share their locations, then let them visit other farms are being shared in a set radius (anywhere from a few feet to a few hundred miles should be available). In addition to helping people discover new FarmVille freaks in their area, this feature could also let businesses and attractions set up virtual farms that are only accessible by visiting their real-world locations.

Text message harvesting: The iPhone version of FarmVille finally brings push notification of harvesting times, a great boon for on-the-go farmers that can't keep track of their schedules. As it stands now, though, iPhone players still have to load up the game and go through the onerous process of tapping all of their crops -- a process that can take entire minutes. Who has that kind of time? This is the new millennium! Why not let people harvest all their crops with a simple text message to Zynga.

Yes, this feature would actively encourage people to neglect spending time in the game, but so do time-saving features like tractors and unwithers, and people pay good virtual money (and sometimes real money) for those features. I can just see the ads now: "Text 'harvest' to 01223 and get those pesky crops out of the ground. Texts cost 2 FV cash for the first and 1 FV cash for each additional harvest per week, plus your telephone provider's fees. Text NOW!
Tilt to plow: Some of the iPhone's best games don't use the touchscreen at all, instead letting players simply tilt their phones to control everything from spaceships to tiny ball bearings to... whatever this thing is. Surely it can be used to control a virtual tractor as well, no? Just thing of the wild farm designs that could easily be created with a few deft flicks of the wrist. Of course, as it stands the game's graphics might not be responsive enough to allow for easy tilting controls, so maybe Zynga should get to work on that problem first. It's OK, we'll wait.

Personalized photo crops: The iPhone camera has revolutionized many games, from... um... well... OK, there aren't that many great games that take good advantage of the iPhone's camera yet. But Farmville could be one of the first by letting players convert their photos into personalized crop images. Why just grow ears of corn when you could instead grow a picture of your significant other, or Barack Obama, or even Bishop Desmond Tutu (cutest crop ever!). True, there would be a small risk of visiting a friend's farm and seeing dozens of pictures of their junk sprouting out of the ground, but really, if that happens, well, maybe you need to find some new friends.

Augmented reality farming: While the personalized crops discussed above could theoretically be implemented on the PC version of Farmville, this next idea would be much harder to do without a smartphone. Augmented reality, in this case, simply means point your iPhone video camera at the nearest table, book or other flat surface and seeing your farm displayed on-screen resting on top of that surface. Just picture it -- wheat growing out of your homework! Cows mooing on top of your bedspread! A grove of trees on... the carpet! Yeah, OK, this is actually starting to sound pretty lame now that we type it out. NEXT!

Audio commentary: Letting your best friend know their farming skills are "teh lamez0rs" via a signpost comment is all well and good, but just imagine how much more fun it could be to use the iPhone's built-in microphone to actively curse out their farming skills with your own voice (or we guess you could leave a nice comment too. If you really wanted to). But why stop there? Why not let players record detailed audio commentaries that take visiting friends from your elegantly designed koi pond garden to the haybale picture of Justin Beiber. Zynga could even add complex editing tools to give your virtual tour that Ken Burns effect.

That's all we've got for now, but we're sure there's iPhone farming possibilities we've left out

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

FarmVille iPhone App Updated v.1.05

farmville iphone update
Today Zynga released an update for its FarmVille app for iPhone.

Continue reading to see what's new.
The September 1st 2010 update, version 1.05, includes fixes for the following:

    Fixed loading issues and crashes for large farms.
    Fixed "Out of Sync" error when sending iPhone exclusive gifts.
    Fixed crash when ignoring pending gifts.
    Fixed crash when visiting multiple neighbors.


This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.

Have you noticed an improvement with your mobile farming with this update?

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

FIFA Superstars now available on iPhone: Manage your dream team on the go

Electronic Arts has had a heck of a summer in the mobile gaming space, especially where its Facebook games are concerned. Via Playfish, both Pet Society and Restaurant City have taken the leap of faith to the mobile platform, and now FIFA Superstars has joined suit. For the low, low price of "free," you can now download FIFA Superstars from the iTunes App Store for either iPhone or iPad (note: the game can be played on iPad, but is optimized for iPhone-only).

Once you download the game, you'll be greeted with the mandatory EA Origin sign-up process. Origin is EA's attempt at a social network and digital download service, of course focusing solely on EA's titles, and if you already have an EA account, they're one in the same, allowing you to login and start playing. From there, the gameplay seems to have been ripped straight from the Facebook game, allowing you to collect cards containing players and various stats, and then build a team using the best-of-the-best. You'll then collect different equipment, implement new tactics to give your team the advantage, and can then take to the field to test your prowess.

As of right now, all of that sounds just fine, but the game itself seems to be running into some loading issues. We've tried on three devices to get the game to load, but it locks up after logging into Origin. We'd assume that these are just early-launch bugs, and that they will be cleared up shortly, but don't panic if the game doesn't work for you upon downloading it: You're (unfortunately) not alone.

Ready to take your chance with FIFA Superstars on iPhone? Download it here for free.

Will you try FIFA Superstars on your iPhone/iPad? Have you already tried to download the game, but are running into the issues we mentioned?

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Enslaved: Odyssey to the West PS3 Demo Impressions

Enslaved has received a fair few of positive previews in the last couple of weeks, so I decided to check it out for myself when they released a demo onto the PSN the other week. The download is a bit over 1GB.

The demo is pretty short, but I believe it does provides an overall representation of what te full game will be like when it releases next week. First up, I didn't enjoy it.

The demo is, I believe, the first level in the game. You're not set up with any back story, and have no idea who the hell you are, it just jumps right in there. The game has received a lot of praise for its use of colour. I strongly disagree with every one of those people. Sure, everything is bright, but when it's all tinted green, it may as well be brown.

You are introduced to the basic enemies, some simple mech warriors of some sort. These provide absolutely no challenge whatsoever, which is, I have to admit what let me down about the demo. Sure, it's the first level, but they should still be able to land a few hits on me. The game teaches you how to pull of some cool moves, but let’s be honest; button mashing is just as effective, which is a bit frustrating.

Enslaved is seemingly as much about platforming as it is about combat though. Unfortunately, this is a bit of a letdown as well. In the demo you really need to get to an escape pod, or you're dead. So it's not surprising the sort of risks you have to take to get to one, such as climbing on the wings of the plane you are on.
The developer has tried to make everything feel very cinematic; the comparisons to Uncharted have already begun en masse. But they just haven't nailed it. In the demo I felt completely detached from the action. Now, I didn't like Uncharted 2 that much, but one thing that Naughty Dog did really well was making the player feel like it was them pulling of the on-screen moves. However, Ninja Theory have failed big time at this, perhaps the reason for this is that everything lacks polish.

The character models for example are quite blocky, the red headed chick who they cloned from Heavenly Sword looks pretty good, but her locks do tend to go through her back on occasion. Apart from the overly green environment and blocky character models, the graphics are fairly sharp everywhere else. However, every time something explosive happened on screen, the frame rate would drop noticeably, and frame tearing came into play far more often than is acceptable this late in a consoles life cycle.

Other complaints would be that the camera is set too close to your character during combat. When I played GOW 3 early this year, I generally felt that the camera was positioned too far back. However, after playing enslaved, I see that I was wrong, it was perfect.

One last thing, there was an interview with one of the Ninja Theory developers the other day in which they claimed that Uncharted 2 had over the top animation. One of the things they mentioned in particular was facial animation. I have to say this, and I feel I am not exaggerating; I have not played a game with worse facial animation than Enslaved on PS3. At the start of the demo it's OK, but the very last thing you see before it cuts to a promo video is simply appalling.

All in all, the demo does not do a good job of convincing me to purchase the game. Its received some good previews/reviews so far from people who have played more than just the demo, so maybe it gets better. But from what I've played, I honestly wouldn't give it more than a 6/10.

Graphics: 7/10 - Overly green, frame drops, frame tearing, poor facial animation
Sound: ?/10 - Can't really comment on sound from the Demo, voice acting is decent, will reserve judgement for now

Thursday, October 20, 2011

NGP no 3D-no worry.

When thinking about Sony's NGP everyone seems to be somewhat concerned about the lack of announced 3D support, however, this decision not to include a 3d capable screen on Sony's new portable is not a mistake on Sony's part. Think about it for a second please, Sony must have made the decision not to include 3D within the NGP hardware itself along with all of the other features included in the console in order to keep the cost down. Besides that Sony has a new 3D head mounted display on the horizon that they showcased at this years CES, although it has yet to be released is not a worry to Sony, being that the NGP is not scheduled to be released till later this year. By the time the NGP is released the 3D head-mounted display should be available. also depending on the refresh rate of the NGP's screen (see link) www.trioviz.com you could purchase a pair of passive 3D glasses and still get a 3D experience without 3D being a part of the hardware itself. Even more so, if you opted to go with Sony's 3d head-mounted display, which I think is great, then you would have a virtual reality experience like no other given the innovations of Sony's NGP's technology to look around in the game world from the perspective of the on screen avatar just by moving around the NGP unit itself. so all of those concerned should not throw in the towel where Sony is concerned they are not out of this race yet.

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Angry Birds for PC

Finally, those birds that everybody likes has arrived on PC. After iPhone, iPad, Android and other mobile versions, also iPhone cases and toys, Angry Birds has finally arrived on the PC thanks to the Intel App Up store. It’ll work fine and dandy on laptops and netbooks and will cost you only $4.99 to download. Nice price for this lovely game.

Angry Birds is a global phenomenon in mobile gaming and the top grossing iPhone app of 2010. So if you’re not a smart-phone wielding hipster, you no longer have an excuse not to be part of this franchise.

Overall it’s pretty much an identical game play experience to the iPhone app, with some minor differences. It’s snappy, gorgeous, and it sounds amazing. On the netbook version you use a mouse or trackpad instead of touch. There is an open hand icon when the mouse is in hover state, and a closed hand icon when you are clicking or dragging. This visible clue when pulling the slingshot is a nice aid. It allows you to fine tune shots more than just observing the angle of the slingshot band.



Angry Birds for PC


Larger screen means more visibility in the game. On many levels you can see the target that can’t be seen on the iPhone. The previous shot trail is more easily seen, allowing fine tuning of your next shot. Overall the animations and physics seem to have more fluidity.

In terms of features, options, menu etc it’s pretty close to the original. On the netbook the replay level icon has been added to the game space. So you don’t need to pause first then replay. If you start off with bad shot, just click the replay icon, then you can start over. Saving a click is nice. There is a Menu button in the Pause menu that gets you back to the Start screen. There are some things not in play on the netbook version. The leader board and achievements are not available in the main menu. The Golden Eggs are there.

Angry Birds strikes an interesting balance of repetitive, simple tasks and challenging game play working for the many scenarios. So, if you liked this game on your iPhone or Android phone, you’ll sure like it on your big PC screen. If you are new player, don’t hesitate and join the fun now.

You must know and recognize the game from the Rovio, Angry Birds.

This game consists of seven birds with super abilities are different. By using slingshots, you can control the jump and the height of ill-tempered birds to tear down the building where the collection of green pork fat is shelter.

Where is a funny collection of birds swelled, turned into a grumpy group of birds which destroy the kingdom of lustful pigs these cunning thieves.

Angry Birds now not only for the iPhone, Android OS, PS3 and PSP. even Angry Birds has been available in Ovi Store for Nokia. And now Angry Birds have been available for Windows XP and Windows 7



Free Angry Birds for PC

Plenty of dodgy website owners want to rip off Google and push traffic towards their sites on the bogus promise of the free version of Angry Birds for PC. This is only a scam but in fact there exists a download free Angry Birds for PC nevertheless, you will need to move quickly to take advantage of that offer

Finland games producer Rovio Mobile has produced their very 1st version of Angry Birds Game for the Apple iPhone. This particular game was immediately caught by the iPhonesters, and Rovio understood that they will become successful. That has been fine. However, Rovio needed to get going by recoding Angry Birds Games for several programs, which become easier for small companies to get done.

Several weeks went by and finally, the Nokia and Android users could get themselves the Angry Birds Game. After that, the RovioMobile switched their attentions to the huge users of the PSP or the Play Station Portable and the PS3. That has been an additional huge porting project for Rovio operations.

During that time, the PC users have been reading and hearing rumors regarding Angry Birds for PC. Ultimately, in January, Angry Birds for PC was released, and downloading is not for free. However, not everybody is willing to pay for $5 for just a game, even if they will enjoy playing with it. These days, several users have grown to be familiar of getting some thing for free, so there are many who are on the lookout for a totally free Angry Birds for PC download. It can be downloaded via Windows 7 and Windows XP and Vista, or Mac support. But downloading can only be downloaded if you have an internet connection for the process to activate successfully.

Angry Birds pc is one of the well-known games that have taken the popularity with over 200 million downloads. The availability of this game is taking place in almost all of the popular platforms. In addition to playing the game online in the browser you can now download it on your laptop and take it wherever you may go to enjoy the amazing games, enabling you to play whenever, wherever you go. Take it to your workplace or even in the park, while resting and basting under the sun. Probably launching the Angry Birds for PC the wisest and the best move the game maker ever made.  This availability made for the millions of platform owners, even made the popularity of Angry Birds known to more video-gaming enthusiasts more than over.
Incoming search terms:

    * angry birds for pc
    * activate free angry birds for pc
    * angry birds FLASH SCAM
    * angry-birds-online scam
    * free angry birds games full version for window xp
    *
      - Angry Birds PC Updated

      The PC version was updated last week which we talked about in this post. This update will finally include all episodes of Ham ‘Em High and the two chapters of Mine and Dine. I’m sure this is welcome news for all the PC players who have been feeling left out. It shouldn’t have taken this long to get all the episodes out but that’s in the past now so lets just get to playing. Since all the chapters are available you also have access to all of the golden eggs. You can finally complete your collection!

      As a side note because I didn’t want to do an entire post about the subject, have you all seen the Angry Birds bra? It’s available over on etsy  you should go check it out. I personally don’t know anyone who would wear it but i’m sure there is someone out there  who would. I don’t recommend buying this for you girlfriend or wife unless she really loves angry birds.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Angry Birds for PC

Finally, those birds that everybody likes has arrived on PC. After iPhone, iPad, Android and other mobile versions, also iPhone cases and toys, Angry Birds has finally arrived on the PC thanks to the Intel App Up store. It’ll work fine and dandy on laptops and netbooks and will cost you only $4.99 to download. Nice price for this lovely game.

Angry Birds is a global phenomenon in mobile gaming and the top grossing iPhone app of 2010. So if you’re not a smart-phone wielding hipster, you no longer have an excuse not to be part of this franchise.

Overall it’s pretty much an identical game play experience to the iPhone app, with some minor differences. It’s snappy, gorgeous, and it sounds amazing. On the netbook version you use a mouse or trackpad instead of touch. There is an open hand icon when the mouse is in hover state, and a closed hand icon when you are clicking or dragging. This visible clue when pulling the slingshot is a nice aid. It allows you to fine tune shots more than just observing the angle of the slingshot band.



Angry Birds for PC


Larger screen means more visibility in the game. On many levels you can see the target that can’t be seen on the iPhone. The previous shot trail is more easily seen, allowing fine tuning of your next shot. Overall the animations and physics seem to have more fluidity.

In terms of features, options, menu etc it’s pretty close to the original. On the netbook the replay level icon has been added to the game space. So you don’t need to pause first then replay. If you start off with bad shot, just click the replay icon, then you can start over. Saving a click is nice. There is a Menu button in the Pause menu that gets you back to the Start screen. There are some things not in play on the netbook version. The leader board and achievements are not available in the main menu. The Golden Eggs are there.

Angry Birds strikes an interesting balance of repetitive, simple tasks and challenging game play working for the many scenarios. So, if you liked this game on your iPhone or Android phone, you’ll sure like it on your big PC screen. If you are new player, don’t hesitate and join the fun now.

You must know and recognize the game from the Rovio, Angry Birds.

This game consists of seven birds with super abilities are different. By using slingshots, you can control the jump and the height of ill-tempered birds to tear down the building where the collection of green pork fat is shelter.

Where is a funny collection of birds swelled, turned into a grumpy group of birds which destroy the kingdom of lustful pigs these cunning thieves.

Angry Birds now not only for the iPhone, Android OS, PS3 and PSP. even Angry Birds has been available in Ovi Store for Nokia. And now Angry Birds have been available for Windows XP and Windows 7



Free Angry Birds for PC

Plenty of dodgy website owners want to rip off Google and push traffic towards their sites on the bogus promise of the free version of Angry Birds for PC. This is only a scam but in fact there exists a download free Angry Birds for PC nevertheless, you will need to move quickly to take advantage of that offer

Finland games producer Rovio Mobile has produced their very 1st version of Angry Birds Game for the Apple iPhone. This particular game was immediately caught by the iPhonesters, and Rovio understood that they will become successful. That has been fine. However, Rovio needed to get going by recoding Angry Birds Games for several programs, which become easier for small companies to get done.

Several weeks went by and finally, the Nokia and Android users could get themselves the Angry Birds Game. After that, the RovioMobile switched their attentions to the huge users of the PSP or the Play Station Portable and the PS3. That has been an additional huge porting project for Rovio operations.

During that time, the PC users have been reading and hearing rumors regarding Angry Birds for PC. Ultimately, in January, Angry Birds for PC was released, and downloading is not for free. However, not everybody is willing to pay for $5 for just a game, even if they will enjoy playing with it. These days, several users have grown to be familiar of getting some thing for free, so there are many who are on the lookout for a totally free Angry Birds for PC download. It can be downloaded via Windows 7 and Windows XP and Vista, or Mac support. But downloading can only be downloaded if you have an internet connection for the process to activate successfully.

Angry Birds pc is one of the well-known games that have taken the popularity with over 200 million downloads. The availability of this game is taking place in almost all of the popular platforms. In addition to playing the game online in the browser you can now download it on your laptop and take it wherever you may go to enjoy the amazing games, enabling you to play whenever, wherever you go. Take it to your workplace or even in the park, while resting and basting under the sun. Probably launching the Angry Birds for PC the wisest and the best move the game maker ever made.  This availability made for the millions of platform owners, even made the popularity of Angry Birds known to more video-gaming enthusiasts more than over.
Incoming search terms:

    * angry birds for pc
    * activate free angry birds for pc
    * angry birds FLASH SCAM
    * angry-birds-online scam
    * free angry birds games full version for window xp
    *
      - Angry Birds PC Updated

      The PC version was updated last week which we talked about in this post. This update will finally include all episodes of Ham ‘Em High and the two chapters of Mine and Dine. I’m sure this is welcome news for all the PC players who have been feeling left out. It shouldn’t have taken this long to get all the episodes out but that’s in the past now so lets just get to playing. Since all the chapters are available you also have access to all of the golden eggs. You can finally complete your collection!

      As a side note because I didn’t want to do an entire post about the subject, have you all seen the Angry Birds bra? It’s available over on etsy  you should go check it out. I personally don’t know anyone who would wear it but i’m sure there is someone out there  who would. I don’t recommend buying this for you girlfriend or wife unless she really loves angry birds.