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!
Saturday, June 22, 2013
Saturday, June 15, 2013
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.
Thursday, June 13, 2013
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.
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.
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.
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
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.
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
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.
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.
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.
Sunday, June 9, 2013
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.
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.
Saturday, June 8, 2013
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.
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.
Thursday, June 6, 2013
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.
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.
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
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.
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.
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.
Sunday, June 2, 2013
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.
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.
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