4shared Podcast upload notice

Due to PC problems I am presently only uploading New content to 4shared. Once the problems are fixed I will be uploading once again to mediafire and posting links to the blogs asap.

In the meantime a brand new episode of That Android Podcast, Episode 6, is now up and available to check out at 4shared.

That Android Podcast now on 4shared

Presently Blogger is acting up, making it hard for me to update my podcasts. Reported it and waiting for some help, but while we are waiting I put all the new podcasts, including That Android Podcast, up on 4shared for you to check out. Update on podcasts here soon hopefully.

That Android Podcast Episode 5 now available.

Episode 5 of That Android Podcast is now available. First of a series of RPG, MMO and otherwise reviews as well as my review of Asphalt 8 Airborne as well as a whole new batch of random so check it out.

Next week is more RPG, more random, and my review of the HD upgrade to the Comixology app.

That Android Podcast Episode 4 now available

Now moved to it's new day of Wednesdays, and back to being weekly, we have an all new episode of That Android Podcast up and available to check out. See you next Wednesday!

Podcast Updates 9/20

That Android Podcast Episode 3 is now up and available, check it out. No new podcasts next week but we'll return with another That Android Podcast at the start of October.

Podcast Update 9/16

All new That Android Podcast now up and available. New episode coming next week so see you then!

Podcast Update 9/12

All new weekend is upon us, and once again that means New podcasts.

That Android Podcast Episode 2 - 33%
Saturday an all new That Android Podcast is coming, and since I'm moving Equestria This Week to Fridays th a t means That Android Podcast will be running weekly for awhile.

All new gaming podcast now available

Since I have been reviewing from the Android format for awhile now I finally released a new cast covering Android apps and games. In this episode we look at The Simpsons Tapped Out, Jurassic Park Builder, Order Up To Go, Batman Arkham City Lockdown, the Comixology app and more.

Coming soon is a revival of 3DS coverage with 3DS Lives... and we start that off with coverage of the... urgh... 2DS.... because apparently the people on the Square Enix forum boards were right all along, and Nintendo really was planning on going backwards with a non 3D handheld... wow. Painful memory. Stay tuned for that in the future as well as new episodes of That Android Podcast.

New Episode 1 details

Update on Episode 1 coverage

Kamen Rider Gaimu
That's the new series for 2013-2014... So what's Kamen Teacher?!? A movie? An unrelated series? What... anyway Gaimu, New multiple riders (5), New sunshine belts, New stuff. More details upcoming.

Mega force update
Has any progress happened with Power Rangers? Let's check!

More updates upcoming as I begin planning the new opening. Stay tuned.

That Android Podcast coming soon

New gaming cast covering gaminjg on android devices coming soon. Presently still in development stages  but I hope to have Episode 1 out before the end of the month. Stay tuned for updates.

Follow me over at Voice of Damnation over at WordPress

Recently I got picked up by Android Parlor, doing Android app and game reviews. To settle into my new home I have been piling content into my WordPress page. Anyway since hopefully I will be making Android Parlor a long term home I will be blogging about Android stuff over there. So please file this into your browser

http://www.voiceofdamnation.WordPress.com

Follow me over there. Have lots planned for this tablet review wise!

Minor Tablet Review : iTreeGamer' Marble Saga

Short and sweet this and its sequel are unapologetic Zuma clones, one of the game apps for this game even goes so far as say Marble Saga (Zuma). Same look, just weaker in design and graphics. Same gameplay (large snaking rows of multicolored marbles are rolling at you, match 3 or more to make them vanish). Touch screen controls with accuracy issues when shooting at hard turn areas of the rows, making it likely you'llyou're misplace a sphere. Same power ups from Zuma, Marble Saga not even trying o innovate even here, a non existent story to motivate you, basically down and dirty freeware Zuma. Fills a need for Zuma style gaming, but ultimately no replacement for the real thing... Still a good decent time passer in small bites. A middle of the road 3 out of 5. It's not much, but fills out a puzzler collection decently all the same.

Data Mining Alert : Blyts' Quiz of Seers

If you thought the Android app store only skimmed on checking adult game apps apparently they also fail at checking Game Show style games.

According to reviews of the title on the app store this title, plot concerning you being Imprisoned by a wizard that challenges you to quizzes for your very life, apparently data mines your personal info... but wait, wouldn't Amazon ban that? No, in fact today it's the Free app of the day... why? Well that's the thing, in this day age the most precious commodity is your personal info, but not only for identity theft. Companies can use your info and sell it to every company that might cater to your likes, who in turn shill you endlessly pushing their product to improve their bottom line.

Long story short always read the low star rating reviews to see why people are down on an app or game before downloading. A data mining Jigglypuff for an insta-fail. Just add internet.

Tablet Reviews : Feelingtouch's Zombie Frontier

Ah, zombie games, haven't seen enough of those yet... except in a good way, of course. Free Walking Dead game? Not quite, less game and more interactive comic. A good top down monster shooter akin to old school game Zombies Ate My Neighbors? Haven't seen anything like that yet. This game? No exception. With rather uninspired though admittedly pretty graphics, your presented with a challenge to fight zombies... with menu screens that, oddly, made me think of a mafia like game but no particular mafia game on Facebook, with small bites of levels akin to zombie duck hunt with touch screen controls.

In first person shooter mode zombies wander at you, and all you have to do us shoot them, tapping to one side to reload... all this by the way earns you money that you spend on weapons and ammo... that you use to earn more money... to buy gear... to kill more zombies... that's it. Take on missions to kill zombies, buy gear, kill zombies, rinse off the blood and repeat... well, try as the game makes the dual mistake of throwing hardy sturdy zombies requiring multiple shots at you, then throwing way too many at you meaning your always overwhelmed. With a game like this you should be able to quick clear zombies with a good headshot or through the heart, except these zombies are too fortified so even headshots take several bullets which is absurd.

And did I mention the game seems to be a shoddy ripoff of Resident Evil 5 with not Chris Redfield fighting through Generic Town? Yup. All that combined and this is an recommendable pass. There's got to be better zombie games out there, and I will find it... this isn't it. A 2 out of 5.

Check out Raise This Village for village building sims reviews.

Go d own to the link list and click on Raise This Village, where all the village building SIM coverage is headed. Just reviewed Jurassic Park Builder (Ludia) and Fantasy Town (GameLoft)so check them out please.

Minor Tablet Reviews : Glass Bottom Games' Jones on Fire

As platformers go some devices play them better than others, and I tried them all. All the Game Boy types, DS and 3DS, PSP... and now the tablet. In this case it's Jones on Fire, from Glass Bottom Games.

When it comes to Jones on Fire I sincerely question the reviews left on the android app store partially praising it. For me I just don't see the appeal, honestly. In this rather blocky old school 3Desque environment 2D side scrolled you play as Jones, a firefighter with a love of cats. For some reason fire threatens to kill cats, stationary floating cats who only follow you when you touch them, so it's up to you to save them... by running through a sidescrolling burning environment, outrunning a tidal wave of fire by jumping and double jumping and speed sliding.

Gameplay is basic. Save the cats, outrun the fire, use the points you earn to upgrade yourself, rinse and repeat. Graphics is OK and gets the job done, gameplay is repetitive, and abilities are hard to level up requiring grinding in order to raise your stats... something you're only going to do if this game interests you... and it's not too bad, though I m still getting used to virtual controls, in this case virtual thumb tapping (tap left side to jump, tap right side to speed slide). If down and dirty simple platforming is your passion this should pry the prerequisite $1 or 100 google coins out of your pocket... if not? Skip it. This isn't the kind of game that will grow on you over time, you either s already love the genre or you don't, simple as that. A middle of the road 3 out of 5.

Minor Tablet Review : EA's Monopoly Hotels

From EA, voted worst company two years in a row, comes a tycoon SIM of Monopoly. An ultimately mind numbing repetitive slow grinding micro transaction free to play game... joy.

Mind you this could have been a fun game, but with only so so graphics your given empty hotel frames to install rooms into, earning money so you can buy hotel after hotel representing each space on the Monopoly board... and yes, that is as boring as it sounds.

You should be able to customize each hotel, but you will quickly find yourself repeating rooms in each hotel, the ability to buy new hotels hitting a roadblock as new hotels become very expensive very fast. Add to that an overuse of Premium currency room buys, a pointless grab the falling money mini game that randomly happens every minute, and slow level progression accentuated by short quick unfulfilling gameplay and this game just ain't worth it even if it is free. A 2 out of 5.

WIPR : Pocket Gems Paradise Cove

Sometimes you find a good village building game in the most unlikely places... then GameLoft goes and screws it up. This... is an OK game, heavily burdened by incentives to send real money on Premium currency, and now plagued by occasional severe freezing issues that forces you to completely reboot your tablet.

The game is OK, but is severely grind intensive as you have to save up larger and larger sums of gold just to pass simple tasks early on in the game, as well as unlocking sections of jungle to clear to expand your your village, a task that quickly becomes expensive very fast. Alot of this is to encourage spending real money in order to progress quicker, and while you dont have to spend real money that makes gameplay a long slow grind of money gathering and level building.

Full review coming soon, as well as an update once the crash issue is resolved.

Tablet Gaming Update - 6/8

So updates to tablet gaming off the android store...

GameLoft/Learning Center's Oregon Trail American Settler
Good news! The game now only occasionally suffers crash issues when loading.
Too bad bad news outweighed the good.

- Now you need to build multiple vet centers in order to grind ingredients to heal sick animals. Good thing this build, like the medical tent and workshop, is cheap and affordable.

- The sudden appearance of Premium buildings, which require an infusion of Premium currency in order to operate. Constant infusions. More and more this game is demanding Premium currency, which can be bought with real money, in order to avert disaster... what a bunch of crock.

The game has come down with a massive case of Premium currency addiction.
So far and I don't like it, not one bit.

GameLoft's Fantasy Town
For awhile the game was suffering slowdown slash brief freezing issues, and while it still suffers that a bit it's not as problematic anymore. The game however suffers from slow progression, requiring long hours to grind levels in this game, progression of your village a slow going chore.

Glu's Tavern Quest
As I reach upwards towards Level 30 unless New content appears it looks like the game is going to be all but done with only 24 hour recipes to grind in order to finish the game with as close to 100% completion as possible. Sad, but true.

More updates coming soon, stay tuned.

Tablet Review : Kiwi's Shipwrecked : Lost Island

Since we are on a roll with bad games how about a Sims Castaways meets Farmville clone which falls short, aka Shipwrecked.

My first exposure to this game was in one of the in game ads shoved down your throat while playing Order Up To Go (if you are a Sony gamer and ever wanted to know what in game advertising looks like... this is in game advertising, here in Order Up To Go). The ad looked interesting, but like a great many ads it was deceptive and left out vital details.

So set sometime in... I don't know, the romanticized age of pirates not from Somalia... well you have two survivors of a shipwreck (hunky man and strong female female character) building a colony on this lost island with the help of other people you meet as you play... and already we run into the first problem with this game, people.

This is one of those rare games where people act as the cursor, requiring one person free to do tasks like clean up debris for resources (a common chore you will partake in in this game), gather stuff from all the buildings and stuff you put on your limited space, perform tasks involving expanding into the forest around you and expanding into the forest around you. Sounds simple enough... but it isn't.

Just doing simple tasks is alright, but when it comes to building or uncovering task items from the wilderness it ties up a single character for a few hours, and you start off with only three characters. So, once all three are tied up in long tasks unless you are willing to pay in spirits/potions your stuck... So where are all the other characters hinted at in the trailer? Oh you can find them... in the game store, being sold for Premium currency that is impossible to come by! Translation the first three are free, the rest cost real money.

But wait, that is not all! A major part of the game is clearing away the jungle surrounding your tight small landing spot, to do this you use swords in order to clear the jungle one small section at a time and it seems OK... until you run out of swords. No problem, that'll regenerate right? No. No they don't. Well then maybe you just need to buy the right building to earn or craft swords. And that seems like a logical idea, only none of these so called stores give you an option to craft anything, and not even the ones related to swords yield swords. You only gain swords by leveling up, at a disgustingly slow rate only to earn a very low yield if one or two per hard fought leg e l up (earned doing the aforementioned endless chore of cleaning and building tending). The only way I figure you can earn swords? Buying them with real money. What utter rubbish! Making the two most vital elements of the game, people and swords, a Premium currency item. Unforgivable! That insures the only way you will get full use out of the game is by spending real money on said game! Rubbish! It's one thing to love a game so much you are willing to make the investment, but quite another to be forced to invest just to progress! That is not a good way to motivate you to drop money nor should you on this game.

Too bad too, it had nice graphics a decent story and had potential. Potential squandered by a lack of interactive shops or the ability to craft vital elements like swords, a tight stranglehold on survivors (a problem I have with another Castaway/Farmville clone I will be reviewing shortly), and again that stagnation of game development unless your willing to spend real money for that progress. Rubbish. A 2 out of 5. Go play Oregon Trail American Settler... before GameLoft updates the game into the ground and an early grave.

Broken Review? GameLoft's Men in Black 3

Is it me or is broken GameLoft games slowly becoming reviewing norm around here? First the glitchy failure to loads of My Little Pony, then the game update that turned Oregon Trail American Settler into a glitch ridden mess that now can't even load properly without crashing, and now this. This game couldn't even download properly! It suffered cataclysmic fail the instant I tapped its icon for the first time! How broken is that!

I would like to say that maybe it's just me, but given the broken nature of GameLoft Live and its useless friend system... if you can call whatever they have a system... to past failures reviewed on 3DS Life and PSP DLC Life episodes past? This is all par for the course as far as I am concerned but this... whatever.

For being dead on arrival Men in Black 3 gets a Jigglypuff aka a Zero. Stupid game.

WIPR : Gameloft's Oregon Trail American Settlers Review

I thought it was a pretty rare treat getting my hands on this game, a rare Gameloft release that, yes, while cloning a popular series (the Ville series from Zynga) it turned out to be a pretty good and addictive game all in all.

Leave it to GameLoft though to shoot themselves with their new game update, ruining what was a pretty good game in the process. Mind you it is not yet completely ruined, and can be fixed... but right now it makes me want the previous version of the game back.

Besides small cosmetic changes here and there several bigger changes have been made, starting with an annoying game synching which seems to crash the game half the Times you try to play it. What a tripe, especially since this was the rare game that played offline well, unlike My Little Pony that suffers constant crashes loading if it's not online.

Disasters are changed. While you have less devastating disasters you also can't use food, wood or money to minimize the damage... you also lose the three choice option for a short pay premium currency or suffer this effect. The worst is building damage has your buildings now burst into flames and you have to craft... get this... paper and fire to fix it. Paper and fire! Also it used to be you could use wood to repair buildings. Can't do that now.

I only just started grinding into this new version, but the rampant crash issue really burned my butter... reminds me of my stupid router... anyway more notes to come as a full review is coming soon. Stay tuned.

Minor Tablet News : Doctor Who on your Tablet

Ever since this morning when I found out about the June 1st announcement from the BBC concerning Matt Smith leaving Doctor Who at the end of 2013 I went on the android store looking for this Doctor Who app game I heard of once... the first two things I found were not the game.

WhoNews Lite
This app is actually pretty darn useful. It corrals together all things Doctor Who from across  the net, be it news, BBC stuff, blogs, podcasts or fan art. All at your fingertips in one easy to access app. A 5 out of 5.

Doctor Who Adventures
Bleck. An app to shill a pointless kid magazine about the Doctor. Do not want. Will find time later to delete this. A Jigglypuff aka a 0 out of 5... first order of business once I am casting once again, find the Jigglypuff song for zero reviews.

Hmm... one good app and one magazine shiller... trying again... what? Seriously? Past that there is an app about Daleks, and one about jelly babies?!? And each go for $0.99 a pop?

Do not want?

Anyway WhoNews Lite, great spp, give it a spin.

Minor Tablet Reviews : TeamLava`s Story Franchise

Be it as much I love cafe Sims, the Sims of TeamLava are short term low key easily cranked out cloner games with short term appeal, and no permanent place in my collection.

I reviewed a grand total of 3 TeamLava games. Two being Cafe World clones (Restaurant and Bakery Story) and a different clone where you run a nightclub (Nightclub Story). The games are ok but lack a severe amount of depth and content. All the games do their job, they fulfill that need to run a diner or nightclub, but only at the most basic level. Where games like Cafe World excels, in that your options and possibilities grow as you play, this game quickly stagnates and falls apart.

Besides the minimal graphics you find almost from go your grinding hard with little e reward for all your efforts. Working hard to keep counters filled, and diners happy, it takes a long time to level up, much less unlock New machineslike ovens, stoves, drink makers and do on so you can grind out more and more recipes at a time. Worst, certain devices suck in terms of quick recipes that only take a few minutes making it longer waits to keep your counters stacked, which is made worst by the inability to stack recipe items to keep certain foods stocked on your counters. The idea of one cook item per counter is counter productive, but TeamLava went there not just in early releases but seemingly in every release. Why they went there, especially when Glu got it right with Tavern Quest, boggles the mind.

But wait, that is not all. Besides hard level progression it's hard to keep your counters stocked. Not only because of the one cooked item per counter limit, but also because the diner ai (underwhelming forgettable ai) eat like animals, quickly depleting your recipes. Also? Restaurant Story has an unforgivable very early task (2nd or 3rd) which cannot be completed no matter how long you play, tasking you to cook an item none of the cooking devices prepare. What a quick and early fail!

And if that is not enough, and Lord knows it should be, but the game is heavily dependent on three broken facts.

- One. The games are heavily dependent on premium currency in order to progress as a few later missions can't be completed or skipped without it.

- Two. The games are heavily dependent on making friends on either Facebook or the game site TeamLava uses. And you know what a pain that is especially since a few of these company owned things (looking at you GameLoft) are impossible to work with.

- Three. The games have too many long term items that take too long to finish, and not in so called game time mind you as most of the games we will be looking at play in realtime, and having far too much time heavy recipes to wade through (especially to complete early tasks) is such a pain.

Combine all that with lackluster gameplay and graphics and TeamLava really need to go back to the drawing board, and instead of grinding out 100 sad inferior games work on making 10 games, and making them well. Otherwise these games barely meet your needs, but will ultimately disappoint. A 2 out of 5 times 3.

The Village Idiot : Gameloft`s Ice Age Village

When it comes to tablet gaming a lot of the reviews in these early days will be casual games. Yeah, I got The Bard`s Tale to review sure, but for the most part a big chunk of reviews is in the category of casual. Specifically Cafe World clones, Farmville clones, and the on the go quick gaming experience here and there... and the occasional T for Teen content Adults Only game. Seriously have we become so sensitive that games that used to easily get a T rating is considered too Adult even if said game has ZERO adult content? Boggles the mind.

But this is The Village Idiot, and as you guessed the name of the game is village building Sims and what better way to start then to take a trip to the marketing tool of DreamWorks Animation and Ice Age Village... actually there are far better trips we could be taking, I wad bring sarcastic.

Released by Gameloft and set in the world of Ice Age, but not tied to any particular movie or plot, you build a village... and that is that. There is no attempt to even create a story here, but then again even the best of these Sims lack a real narrative so cest la vie. Your progress is not hampered by limited energy that measures out how much progress you make each day, but you really don't discovery satisfied with progress you make either. You go through the motions, you build a village, and that is that.

The highlight of the game, if I dare call it that, is an unlockable theater that runs promotional trailers and clips of Ice Age Continential Drift, aka Ice Age 4. It's nice and all, even if a bit dated given how long ago that movie came out, but that gimmick is just not enough to recommend this... almost. If I am to recommend this one it would be to young children or for the casual gamer looking for a lite bite of village SIM without the grinding needed to play a good village SIM. It is a taste, but not a burden to grind through so it gives you the experience without the constant working at the game to progress. Some people thrive in games like that yes, but for those who don't you have Ice Age Village, a 3 out of 5.

Next time...

The first of two going native island Castaway Sims that had promise, but fell short somewhere along the way. First off we look at Pixonic`s Robinson, a slow grind of a game where true progress is hard to achieve, and the most difficult thing to unlock is human companionship on both the virtual and real sense.

Next time. Stay tuned.

Summer 2013 Day Zero : Starting Off

Well as my summer begins I begin working on summer content... even as Microsoft works on its own summer project, which seems to consist of digging their own grave. Seriously could a new console reveal be greeted with anymore revile and hatred than that which greeted the reveal of the badly named third generation XBox One? I kinda doubt it... maybe this would be a good time to completely bail out of reviewing Microsoft once and for all.

So handhelds are the focus of reviews this summer. Covering the 3DS from Nintendo, as well as tablet gaming, we have a bit to cover during the summer... sadly the whole thing about whether I am doing work in the Fall is still up in the air so I am going to be browsing job search sites and look for reviewing work during the summer. Hopefully once I am all set working wise I can refresh my PSP tech down the road. Updates coming soon.

Well more to come as the summer begins so watch the blogs as summer kicks off.

Tablet Update 5/14

If you are an Android user you probably got your free 500 coins yesterday from Amazon promoting their new coin system (you use real money to buy coins which can be used to buy apps, games and stuff from the app store). Yesterday I used up most of my coins to buy two titles for review as well as pick up a few free titles.

I bought Plants vs Zombies (my second time reviewing it) and The Bard`s Tale (loved the PS2 version... too bad this IS the PS2 version). Free we are looking at Fantasy Defense, the much beloved tower defense game in Asia... because who doesn't like brief glimpses of women with Tohru Nishimaki (Blue Eyes) sized breasts, and enemy female chibi characters with breast bounce animation mechanics... I kid you not.

Order Up has a tablet version... looking at that... too bad it's the 3DS version with changes made to encourage free to play micro transactions... ugh. Also looking at Robinson, yet another SIM city builder with flavors of Sims Castaway.

Reviews coming soon, stay tuned.

WIPN : Jurassic Park Builder

WIPN, or "Work In Progress Notes", covers notes on games I am presently reviewing,both good and bad.

I was going to call this "Reviews In Progress Notes", but that would have been RIPN for short and it sounded like I was dissing the game already... which I am about to do by the way.

In this case the game seems to have a sometime failure to auto save when you leave. Usually as these are casual games you can pop in for a few minutes and pop out, the game auto saving as you leave. However the last two times I popped in I had to repeat two actions over that I finished off with last play. Thankfully your money reappears if your last act was doing a purchase or clearing land or doing research, and that is good as making money in this game takes FOREVER!

Just a few of my numerous complaints I will have in the full review coming soon.

Waiting To Recharge 5/12

Soo... gimmick, gimmick, who got the gimmick? Guess I do.

In this case the recharge we are waiting for is virtual in nature as Game On becomes the blog for Antisocial Gamer. Subsequently we will talk about tablet gaming, and later Facebook games as well once that laptop comes in.

I will start off by covering games I rejected, and why I don't recommend these titles to you. After that games I am playing right now like...

Bakery/Restaurant Story

Not much of a Cafe Worldesque SIM but it's a freebie and OK... if you remember a fee things about the game that limits its full potential.

Kingdom and Lords

Damn underwhelming Age of Empires lite social game... but I needed a review item that was not Spielberg or ponies so... here you go.

Jurassic Park Builder

My first thought was that line from Jeff Goldblum from the first Jurassic Park about marketing and selling without any real thought put into it... there, I said something about you that didn't involve me kicking you Goldblum! Happy?!?

Tavern Quest

A surprisingly good mix of Cafe World SIM and low key RPG. Good work, Glu!

My Little Pony

Yes, pony city building SIM. A game that requires lots of patience in order to keep from spending money on rechargeable and premium currency gems. Too bad Hasbro marketed this to kids with zero patience. Fun... in small manageable doses... hide your credit card!

So stay tuned!

Getting back on track

Well lots to do if I am going to get back on track, sorry things were so slow for so long.

Let's see...

First off what to cover? (the topic of upgrades won't come up until I know if I am returning for another year at my present job, stay tuned)
Console - Wii
Handheld - 3DS, GB/GBC/GBA, PAP
Tablet (NEW)

Podcasting wise I am presently halted while I trade for a used laptop to help get that back on track again full speed ahead. Hope to get that resolved soon. Casts coming soon for this blog? 3DS Addict, Antisocial Gamer and Pocket Gamer. Working on upgrading to the PSVita, stay tuned.

So next step? See about posting daily here so stay tuned for content.