All Entries Tagged With: "Simulation"

Dimensions. Adventures in the Multiverse in Review – Ambient noise app meets foursquare and Farmville

As we all know – life can be stressful. And one way to make it a little bit more bearable is using an ambient sounds app to block out the annoying noises of everyday fuss. Whether in the office or outside they allow to, at least temporarily, shift your mind to someplace peaceful. Not content with only providing a listening experience, the developers behind Inception – The App released Dimensions. Adventures in the Multiverse, a unique app that adds some original gameplay elements to make it even more part of your routine.

SpellCraft School Of Magic in Review – Hogwarts has some competition

I’ve never been a fan of the freemium model employed by so many games on the App Store these days, but ever since I’ve had my iPad I’ve been hooked on two of them.  The first is Mystery Manor , which I reviewed just before Christmas, and the other is Appy Entertainment’s latest release, SpellCraft School of Magic.  Like everything else in their portfolio it’s different from anything else they’ve done, and it’s also not quite like any other dungeon crawler I’ve played.  In addition to the combat you actually have to grow your own ingredients to cook your own spells, and you can even get a pet to care for that will help protect you in exchange.  This may be a dungeon crawler “lite” in some regards, but it offers enough to keep me coming back for more on a daily basis.

Touchgrind BMX coming Spring 2011

Remember Touchgrind, the excellent skateboard simulator? My fingers still dance awkward steps across my iPod when I’m looking up hard dictionary words like ‘cluster’ and ‘shill’ ’cause Touchgrind rocked them to the memory core. It made this crappy sk8tR into something special, and kept my hands busy in the best ways possible. Well, come this Spring, Illusian Labs will release its sequel, Touchgrind BMX. The same sort of free style physics will get things going on pipes and over rails from the relative safety of your iDevice. That means no more pinchin’ the biscuit. For now, enjoy the above video. We’ll have more as it comes.

Wanna get prepped for Touchgrind BMX on one of the iDevice’s first truly innovative titles? Check out Touchgrind now!

Illusion Labs, Touchgrind (TMA Review), 6.87MB – $4.99

Carnivores: Ice Age in review – Not Your Modern Stone Age Family

Deer hunting simulators have always seemed kind of silly to me.  I can’t believe real hunters would find any exhilaration in simulated game, and people who don’t normally hunt won’t get anything near the real experience on a computer.  That’s why I think Tatem Games is on the right track with their Carnivores series, since it’s not like I’m going to be able to step out my door any time soon and hunt real life dinosaurs.  The game has held my attention much better than any deer hunting affair to date, but the extreme difficulty winds up frustrating me more often than not.

Star Wars Arcade: Falcon Gunner in Review – It’s the ship that made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs

One of the more underpopulated genres in the App Store is still the augmented reality variety. Despite having been introduced shortly after release of the iPhone 3GS (almost a year and a half ago) it still features barely a handful of noteworthy titles. Nevertheless, slowly but surely it’s starting to pick up steam. In September, we saw an original proof of concept action-shooter title ARDefender (TMA Review). And just recently THQ released their own view on the concept with Star Wars Arcade: Falcon Gunner.

Galaxy on Fire 2 in Review – This galaxy ain’t big enough for the both of us!

Quality space-sims are far and few between even on the PC, especially if we’re talking about the open-world variety. There is the classic Elite, Origin’s Privateer series and the fantastic X-series. That’s about it. Of course one might say it’s a bit of a niche genre, but I say – to hell with that, it’s just so much fun! So after spending a considerable amount of time with FISHLABS’ sequel Galaxy on Fire 2, I can attest that we finally have a worthy entry in the genre on the iDevice.

Zombigotchi in Review – Love ‘em or abuse ‘em, it’s still a zombie

The appeal of the Tamagotchi has always been a mystery to me.  People have a hard enough time taking care of physical pets, so why would you want to be bothered with such things in the digital world, aside from the fact that they can’t really die?  Thanks to Zombigotchi, however, I’ve developed a slight appreciation for the whole concept.  Granted it’s a lot harder to feel guilty about torturing a zombie than a little puppy, but I’m sure the principle is the same.  I still rather be playing a game, but I can easily see this being a nice diversion while waiting in line at the supermarket or something.

Heroes Of Kalevala in Review – Virtual Villagers meets match 3?

The App Store is littered with match 3 games, so one would think we’ve had enough of them by now.  The truth is that there’s always room for another match 3, as long as that game either plays exceptionally well or brings something new to the table.  Fortunately, Heroes of Kalevala does both, making it a refreshing addition to the genre – or is it a village simulator that just happens to use match 3 boards as its means for resource gathering?

Virtual City in Review – SimCity for the less ambitious…

Whenever people speak about a city-simulation game the first one that comes to mind is, of course the SimCity franchise: SimCity™ Deluxe (ChiffaN’s SimCity™ Deluxe review, shigzeo’s SimCity™ review). And stunned by EA’s glory, they often forget that the SimCity franchise, while the best known, is far from being the only city-building simulation out there.

Zombie Wonderland in Review – Need some undead guts cleaned up?

So what would happen if one day John Gore of Minigore (TMA Review) fame woke up and decided to go zombie hunting? I’m pretty sure you’d end up with Zombie Wonderland. With the whole “protect the building” scenario ripped right from the Evil Dead movies, and a main character whose witty comments could rival those of the master zombie slayer Ash himself, Zombie Wonderland is an amusing jaunt in the zombie killing genre that actually works quite well, despite not being a line drawing, dual stick wielding or 3D person perspective action game.