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May

Leviathan: Warships Review – You Wouldn't Buy A Speedboat With A Hole In It, Right?

Posted by Ryan Whitwam in Apps/Games, Games, Reviews

The seas are a dangerous place, lads. The Marauders are thick amongst the waves, and you are but an inexperienced young commander, seeking to make a name at the helm of your fleet. Your ships are heavily armed, but it's going to take more than firepower to stay afloat in Leviathan: Warships. This game is heavy on strategy, long-term planning, and attention to detail. As good as some aspects of this game are, the controls threaten to sink it before we even get out of dry dock.

Gameplay

My first impression of Leviathan was that of another top-down real-time strategy game (RTS).

Apr

Ravensword Shadowlands Review: Not Skyrim On Your Phone, But Maybe That's Alright

Posted by Ryan Whitwam in Apps/Games, Games, Reviews

Expansive role playing games are usually the realm of PCs and consoles. Experience systems, loot, quests, massive 3D worlds, and magic are too much for a puny phone or tablet to handle, right? Well, maybe not. Crescent Moon Games was somewhat successful bringing that experience to mobile devices with last year's Aralon: Sword and Shadow. Now the developer has gone back to the land of Tyreas in Ravensword: Shadowland. Is this your next RPG adventure?

Story And Gameplay

You play the part of a mysterious adventurer that miraculously survives an apocalyptic battle. It is not until you begin searching for an explanation that you discover you are part of an ancient and noble bloodline, and the beast that destroyed your comrades still lives.

Apr

Samsung's Push Service App Will Let You Use The Force, Divide By Zero, And Give You Burritos (If You Believe Reviews)

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, News, Samsung

Samsung has an app called Push Service that it uses to manage push notifications for its collection of applications found on a variety of phones and tablets. Also, according to user reviews, it can defeat the Amish Army, instantly cure your chronic depression, and raise your pets from the grave. We're not sure if many users will have a need for this, but it can probably find a niche home.

Here's just a sample of what Samsung's Push Service can do for you (note: some reviews may have some colorful descriptions):

Mar

Google Rolls Out Automated Translation Of User Reviews In The Play Store Developer Console

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Google, News

Recently, Google quietly began to test auto translation for app reviews in the developer console. Today, the company publicly announced that same feature and began rolling it out to all devs. Now, when they log in to their control panel, they can see the reviews in their preferred language, along with the original text. Neat.

Of course, this still isn't a replacement for native fluency, but it should aid developers in troubleshooting problems that users on the other side of the language barrier discover. This, coupled with replies to reviews, enables a high degree of communication between devs and users, which can only be a great thing.

Mar

Bladeslinger Review: More Than Just A Pretty Face

Posted by Ryan Whitwam in Apps/Games, Games, Reviews

Bladeslinger is one of those games that makes a splash with impressive trailers and promises of console-level gaming, but how often have we been left heartbroken by similar titles? This game sets out to tell a story, so at least it has that going for it. William Glaston is just your average cowboy with a revolver-gun and robot arm, but things get weird when he returns to his home town of Hammer's Peak to find it overrun with monsters that used to be the townsfolk. The story unfolds as Glaston wanders the seedier parts of Hammer's Peak in search of his brother, and the cause of the corruption.

Feb

Roller Rally Snake Pass Review: A Fun Mashup Of Racing And Platforming

Posted by Jeremiah Rice in Games, Reviews

It's surprisingly hard to make a mobile game, or at least, a mobile game that's worth playing. Mobile developers are still in their infancy, at least compared with their console and PC counterparts. So when someone manages to release a fun, polished game that works well on smartphones and avoids some of the more glaring pitfalls of the platform, we sit up and take notice. Such is the case with Roller Rally: Snake Pass, an Android port of a popular iOS title from MilkyTea.

The premise of Roller Rally is simple. Four animals are in a roller-skating race down a mountain, and the first one across the finish line wins.

Dec

Anomaly Korea Review: Tower Defense Is Dead – Long Live Tower Offense

Posted by Ryan Whitwam in Apps/Games, Game Reviews, Games, Reviews

You've probably played loads of tower defense games on Android. There's a reason they're so popular, though. See, tower defense games are fun and hard to screw up. Still, the same old thing can get boring after a while. So it's nice to see Anomaly Korea show up and continue turning the genre on its head like its predecessor did. In Anomaly Korea, you play the creeps trying to get past the towers.

Gameplay And Controls

The backstory is that the aliens have invaded and they are not the nice kind that want to invite us to join a galactic federation.

Dec

Jet Set Radio Review: As Funky As Ever, But Controls Are A Grind

Posted by Jeremiah Rice in Games, Reviews

Twelve years ago, Sega released a game for its brand-spanking new Dreamcast system that was so stunningly original its influences can still be seen today. Jet Set Radio (Jet Grind Radio for US gamers) became an instant sleeper hit, and has earned its cult classic status. The impressive, stylish visuals, unique gameplay and awesome music are still remember fondly by my generation. Now that Android hardware has caught up to and in many ways surpassed the old beige box, Sega has re-released Jet Set Radio for the mobile world. You can pick it up on the Google Play Store for $4.99.

Nov

Hyperwave Review: There's A Lot To Like About Lasers

Posted by Ryan Whitwam in Apps/Games, Games, Reviews

There are only so many permutations of the scrolling arcade shooter, but that didn't stop developer CatfishBlues from taking a swing at it with Hyperwave. This is a top-down game that could pass for the spiritual successor to Space Invaders. You have to pilot your lone craft against all the glowing horrors of space to defend humanity. At least that's what the backstory is supposed to be. It's really just an excuse to shoot stuff, but that's okay.

Controls

Your ship in Hyperwave is restricted to moving left and right at the bottom of the screen. Auto-fire is always on, so you don't have to stress about that.

Nov

Dexter The Game 2 Reveals Its Dark Passenger To The Play Store For $2.99

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Games, News

I hope you've been paying attention to Harry's teachings for the last six years. You're going to need the code if you hope to avoid getting caught in Dexter the Game 2, which has just been released to the Play Store today. We first heard about this one back in July, before season 7 got underway. Now it's more than half over. Right around the time the story starts to lull before ramping back up to the finale. What better time to unleash your own monster?

The free-roaming environment seems like a neat idea, and from the screenshots it looks like many of your favorite locations have been lovingly recreated.