Archive for the ‘GPS’ tag
‘Pocket God Comics’ Now Available, Plus an Avalanche of New ‘Pocket God’ Info
The long awaited comic app for the iPhone sensation Pocket God [99¢], which we previewed way back in February, has just been released on the App Store. Titled Pocket God Comics [99¢], it follows the hilarious (and often destructive) antics of the pygmies from the Pocket God universe. It's a universal app, and has been designed with higher resolution artwork for running on the iPad, although it looks quite sharp and colorful on the iPhone. The initial app purchase comes with the first issue of the comic, which was created by Ape Entertainment, that runs inside of a reader shell that was developed by publisher iVerse Media. This allows future issues to be bought directly from inside the app, and the shell even features a GPS comic book shop locator to find your nearest local retail outlet for purchasing the physical version of Pocket God Comics.
Also forthcoming is the latest episode to the Pocket God game titled “A Pygmy a Day Keeps the Ape Away”. This 33rd episode was inspired by the comic content creators Ape Entertainment, and features a mountain top with an altar where you can sacrifice pygmies to a gigantic ape, as well as a number of other interactive elements. There is also a new skin pack available in this new update, which developer Dave Castelnuovo has . The update has been timed to (sort of) coincide with the launch of Pocket God Comics, and should be available sometime this morning or early afternoon.
The iPad version of the game, titled Pocket God: Journey to Uranus, is a much different game than the iPhone version, most notably by partially taking place in an outer space environment. We previewed the game in early July, but Dave has also dropped some new info on us regarding some of the mini-games planned for the release. The first is called Volcano Blast and takes place on the new high def version of the original Pocket God island, and is an expanded take on the “flick pygmies into the volcano” mechanic. Multiple volcanoes will be present and you must flick as many pygmies into them as you can without missing. A retooled flick mechanic and brand new wind element make the task at hand more challenging this time around. As Dave puts it, “think Paper Toss with burnt pygmies”. Sounds good to us.
Here's a new screenshot from Pocket God: Journey to Uranus (click to enlarge):
The other mini-game mentioned hasn't received a final name yet, but takes place in outer space and is an homage to the title (which was a personal favorite of mine as well). Expect to be shooting pygmies at enemies as they advance up different styles of wormholes from the middle of the screen. Pocket God: Journey to Uranus doesn't have a firm release date set yet, but should be available sometime this year and you can follow along for the latest information.
Pocket God Comics is available now, and the printed versions will be arriving in comic book shops in September. The physical books will also contain 4 page mini stories that won't be available in the digital versions, and if you happen to be attending the August 19th-22nd then you'll have a chance to meet Pocket God creators Dave and Allan and possibly score a limited edition of the Pocket God comic book. They will also be running a contest for $1000 Apple gift card starting today, which is detailed on the .
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Live Bloggin’ The Apple iPhone OS 4.0 Keynote
Apple's surprise media event unveiling the iPhone OS 4.0 is set to begin shortly. We'll be providing live updates, and focusing on things that specifically pertain to iPhone gaming or things iPhone gamers might be interested in like all of our other keynote coverage in the past.
Steve Jobs just took the stage, and started things out by talking about the sales figures of the iPad. On Saturday they sold 300,000, and as of today they've sold 450,000. Apple apparently is making them as fast as they can, but notes that Best Buy is already out of stock. On the first day, 1 million paid apps were downloaded, and since then 3.5 million have been. (In addition to 600,000 eBooks.)
Photo courtesy of .
Jobs also mentions that there are over 185,000 apps in the App Store, with over 3,500 iPad apps. He then took some time to show off the more impressive iPad apps in the App Store currently such as the ABC app, Netflix, the Marvel comic book reader, and others. Shifting gears to talk about the iPhone, Steve mentions they've won three JD Power awards for customer satisfaction, and currently holds 64% of the mobile browser market share. Apple has sold over 50 million iPhones, with 85 million combined devices between the iPod touch and iPhone.
iPhone OS 4.0 is coming this summer, with a developer preview available today.
Photo courtesy of .
Photo courtesy of .
Among the seven "tent pole" features of iPhone OS 4.0 is multitasking. Steve goes on to demonstrate how multitasking is going to work. With multiple apps running, double clicking the home button raises a window that looks a lot like the bottom dock of the iPhone showing what apps are running. Tapping an icon instantly switches to that app.
Photo courtesy of .
To explain how this all works while preserving battery life and performance, Steve hands things off to Scott Forstall, SVP of iPhone Software. iPhone OS 4.0 will provide seven multitasking services. The first of which is audio streaming, and Forstall specifically cites Pandora as an example of an app that will shine with this functionality. Developing applications to utilize this functionality is apparently extremely easy, as it only took the Pandora developers a day to make the app background aware. Skype also works fantastically with this new functionality, even allowing you to accept calls while running in the background.
Doodle Jump spotted:
Photo courtesy of .
The next multitasking function is background location. Apps that use the GPS functionality such as TomTom will be able to continue routing while in the background. This raises obvious privacy concerns, and a new settings menu will be available to enable and disable location services per application, as well as showing a small arrow icon next to the battery indicator.
Moving on to push notifications, Forstall mentions they've sent over 10 billion notifications since the service went live. Building on push notifications comes local notifications, done entirely on the phone to see alerts from apps you have running in the background. One example mentioned was a popup when a photo was finished uploading to Flickr.
Photo courtesy of .
Steve takes the stage again and announces folders to organize apps. The interface seems an awful lot like the various jailbreak app organization solutions. So far Apple is really knocking it out of the park with this keynote.
Photo courtesy of .
The iPhone mail client is also getting enhanced, with a unified inbox for each email account on the device along with a threaded email view for reading conversations. Unsurprisingly, the iPhone is also getting the iBooks app which will sync pages and bookmarks with other devices that have the app.
Forstall just announced "Game Center", Apple's own gaming social networking service that seems to handle everything Plus+, OpenFeint, and others do with presumably one unified login tied to your iTunes account. Matchmaking, leaderboards, and achievements are all part of it.
Photo courtesy of .
Also mentioned was Apple's own iAd advertisement services, which we expect to see making appearances in many free games that have historically relied on AdMob and other advertising networks.
iPhone OS 4.0 will be coming this fall, and sadly, multitasking will not be supported for the iPhone 3G and second generation iPod touch. That's it folks, Steve is taking questions now.
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‘Alice in Wonderland’ Released – First Impressions and Lite Available
Disney has pulled a proverbial rabbit out of its hat (or hole?) by surprising us with a timely Alice in Wonderland [App Store] puzzle-platformer to tie-in with the upcoming film release.
Our early impressions from playing through the first few levels are definitely positive, with a range of puzzles providing some fresh if challenging gameplay elements. Alice in Wonderland – An Adventure Beyond The Mirror, the game's full title, pits you in the shoes of Alice who finds herself back in Wonderland on another inane adventure. By tapping on Alice you are able to change between four other characters including the White Rabbit, the Cheshire Cat, the Mad Hatter and the March Hare; each with their own abilities to help Alice navigate through the various puzzles you'll encounter each level. The game's write-up and feature list as provided by Disney is as follows:
Play as Alice and solve a series of puzzles with help from the Mad Hatter, White Rabbit and other memorable characters from the movie. Explore a world filled with whimsical settings, optical illusions, challenging puzzles, and formidable adversaries.
Master unique abilities with the help of Alice's friends:
- Freeze time with the White Rabbit
- Make objects appear or disappear with the Cheshire Cat
- Use the power of Telekinesis with the March Hare
- Transform objects from one world to another with the help of the Mad Hatter
- Unlock Hidden Objects in Alice's Journal with your GPS, Camera, Photo Library, and by playing the game!
- 100's of puzzles and challenges to complete
The graphics in Alice in Wonderland are a rich, cell-shaded affair that bring out the child-like madness of Wonderland beautifully. In a way they remind us of the hit multi-platform indie game Braid (most definitely a welcome thing), which is fitting as some of the gameplay elements are very Braid-esque too, with stopping and starting time and objects featuring heavily from the get go.
Our review is still cooking but we'll have it hot out of the oven for you shortly. In the meantime, be sure to check out the Lite version which offers up a brief tutorial level to give you a taste of the gameplay.
App Store Link: Alice in Wonderland – An Adventure Beyond the Mirror, $4.99, Alice in Wonderland Lite, Free.
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‘Noby Noby Boy’ – We’re Not Sure What to Make of This
Keita Takahashi, game developer and apparent , is best known for Katamari Damacy and its sequel We Love Katamari. Both games are extremely creative and have spawned an incredibly devoted fan following, there's even an iPhone game– I love Katamari [$4.99 / Free]. Takahashi kicked things up a notch with his next game, Noby Noby Boy which was first revealed at a Sony event in 2007, and didn't make it to the PS3 PlayStationNetwork store until 2009.
In the PS3 game, you take control of a multicolored worm character that the game refers to as "BOY". With the analog sticks you can move BOY around the 3D environment filled with various buildings and animals. You can also stretch BOY, and points are accumulated by making BOY grow as long as possible. As players stretch their respective BOYs, points are collected by an online character called GIRL which causes GIRL to stretch through the various planets of our solar system as more points are submitted by everyone playing Noby Noby Boy.
This surreal sandbox PS3 game saw , but there was a clear division between those who absolutely loved the game for how crazy it is and those who hated it. For instance, said the game "inspires creativity, curiosity and simple, careless glee" while said "Noby Noby Boy has no point, or fun".
In honor of the one year anniversary of Noby Noby Boy's release on PSN comes Noby Noby Boy [$1.99] for the iPhone. So far reactions to the game seem extremely polarized, with people either absolutely loving the game, or not understanding why anyone would waste their time with it. In the iPhone version, you have access to a full toolbar of toys for you to play with. BOY can be stretched across maps utilizing the iPhone's GPS, you can write and store memo's using BOY's body for a notepad, use BOY as a clock, and oodles of other crazy things ending in you submitting your BOY's length to GIRL online.
Here is made showing the various features of Noby Noby Boy:
I'm not sure there's much point in attempting to "review" this game, as Noby Noby Boy is just a collection of toys that you will either love, or not understand at all. If you're among the group of people who were crazy about Noby Noby Boy for the PS3, chances are you will like the similar insane sandboy play of the iPhone game. If you've never heard of Noby Noby Boy, you can attempt to watch the previously mentioned series of videos to try to make some sense of it, but I expect the reaction to this story is going to be similarly split between people who are excited the game exists and people who don't know why we would bother posting about it.
App Store Link: Noby Noby Boy, $1.99
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‘1000: Find ‘Em All!’ – Remember to tie your shoelaces!
Undoubtedly we are all quite fond of our iPhones. After all, never has it been easier to bring our favourite games around with us wherever we may be. But how would it be if the roles were reversed– if our games instead brought us around with them? That is the question on which Glu Mobile has rested the success of its latest foray into the AppStore.
1000: Find 'Em All! [App Store] is as much an abstract as it is the title. You are tasked with simply finding and collecting 1000 items– that is the extent of the what, but it's the how which really sets 1000: Find 'Em All! apart.
The first method of collecting items is the easiest. You navigate your character by dragging him around a lifeless but gorgeously crafted in-game world; leaving a trail of sunshine, rainbows and lollipops behind you. Well, maybe not lollipops, but your very presence injects color and life into your surroundings– flowers will sprout, grass will turn green, objects will animate– for anyone that's tried their hand at De Blob [$3.99 / Free], you'll know what I'm on about. And every now and then you'll stumble across a sparkling item and tapping on it may or may not reveal an item to collect.
This is all well and good but still largely derivative. It's the second and third means of discovering items that really bring something new to the table. Making use of the iPhone's in-build GPS and in partnership with Google Maps, 1000: Find 'Em All! will populate your neighbourhood and surroundings with virtual items simply by the press of a button. A map of your area will download and presents will pop-up all over the place; Christmas only coming early to those willing to physically move to the highlighted locations. In a similar fashion the third and final means of collecting items also interacts with the real world; virtual 'Gifters' appearing at different WiFi hotspots that you may come across to bestow presents on you. At this point you may be thinking what I was– if only Glu Mobile were in league with Starbucks or McDonalds we could be gifted some serious rewards for our exertions.
In any case, 1000: Find 'Em All! comes packaged with a raft of achievements, not only to do with the number of items collected and the percentage of the game world colored, but also concerning how items are collected (presumably to encourage players not to just sit at home). Collected items can only be interacted with as far as their tooltip, and whilst they can be quite funny or informative, they really serve no other purpose than as trophies.
Whether this worldwide scavenger hunt will appeal to you is really quite up to you as an individual. I can see how some may rally to the idea of having something interesting to distract them while they're out. Personally, I could not depart from the feeling that it was too gimmicky and ultimately superfluous– that it demanded too much from you for it to be worth your while. If anything, it seems more suited to those with kids, to encourage a little out-and-about time whilst still whetting the little monsters' insatiable appetites for technology.
It's disappointing that finding and collecting items is really all there is to do in 1000: Find 'Em All! though, as the game world is rich and detailed and screaming for further interaction. But for all you budding treasure-hunters out there, finding 1000 items is sure to occupy you for a very long time, and you may actually take something from 1000: Find 'Em All! if you're willing to brave the elements to do so.
Please note that only the iPhone is supported due to the GPS requirements, and only if you have OS 3.0 installed.
App Store Link: 1000: Find 'Em All!, $2.99.
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‘1000: Find ‘Em All!’ Teaser Trailer Released
A trailer was recently released for Glu's exploration and collection game, 1000: Find 'Em All!. In the video, Chris White, head of Glu's London studio, reveals the three different ways the game can be played. First off, with a GPS-capable device, you can wander around in the real world visiting locations shown inside the game with presents to be found. Travel there, and the game awards you with one of the many items available.
If you don't have a device with GPS, or the thought of wandering city streets to collect virtual goods doesn't appeal to you, there are two other way to collects in-game presents: Exploring in-game, coloring the black and white landscape in the process or finding random WiFi hotspots. Item generation based on WiFi data sounds a lot like for the PlayStation, a game that used data from music CD's inserted in to the system as the seed for the random monster generator.
The idea behind the game seems cool enough, and there's no doubt that there are people out there who love games with tons of things to collect and unlock. I just can't quite decide if the GPS functionality and the exploration Glu asks you to do with the game is going to turn out to be a really neat gameplay element, or a gimmick players will ignore, choosing instead to just run around in-game.
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‘Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars’ Review
Back in 1997 when the first Grand Theft Auto hit the PC, I doubt anyone at Rockstar (known as DMA Design at the time) expected it to spawn a series that would span ten different games and four expansions over the next thirteen years. Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars [App Store] for the iPhone is an excellent adaptation of a game previously only available on the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP. These prior versions of the game were met with universal acclaim, and according to Chinatown Wars for the DS holds the title of for the platform. On the PSP, , beaten only by God of War: Chains of Olympus by a single point.
The recently released iPhone Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars seems to be a hybrid of both the , with graphical quality that lies somewhere in between the two games, tutorial elements that reference PSP buttons, as well as some of the cell shaded graphics and all the stylus mini games from the DS. The main difference is how the controls have been adapted to the on-screen virtual joystick and buttons of the iPhone. Like other games that use a similar control scheme, there is always an inherent lack of precision without physical buttons that take a little getting used to, but this didn't hamper my enjoyment of Chinatown Wars in the least bit.
While on foot, a virtual joystick controls character movement, with a button for using whatever weapon you have selected (or your fists) as well as buttons to kick and leap over short fences. When you approach a car, a button appears on the bottom of the screen that you can touch to get in. If you're stealing a parked car, this will often trigger a timed touchscreen mini game where you need to turn a screwdriver in the ignition, twist some wires together, or even insert a PDA and crack the car's security system in order to get the car running without triggering its alarm.
These sequences are pretty neat the first few times you do them, and do an excellent job at adding suspense to police chases as you hastily hotwire a car before the cops converge on your location. Once you're in a car, one of five in-game radio stations start playing and the on-screen controls switch to buttons for accelerating, braking, firing your gun, and by default two buttons to steer right or left. Also available is an analog stick for steering, configurable in the game's options.
The biggest control hurdle new players will come across is learning how to cope with Chinatown Wars' driving assist system, which will automatically keep your car going straight down a road. This can be disabled, but without it perfectly lane splitting on a motorcycle seems to be nearly impossible. I've found myself preferring the default steering buttons over the optional joystick because very little control is required when driving. You really only need to hold a direction to turn, or just tap a direction to make minor adjustments to your position on a road. It feels a little strange at first, but after you make it through the tutorial missions you will be flying through Liberty City without issue.
The plot of the game is classic Grand Theft Auto, with an asian spin, made obvious by the game's title. You play as Huang Lee, the son of a recently murdered Triad boss who comes to Liberty City and unsurprisingly enough winds up knee deep in gang drama. Initially you complete tasks assigned by your Uncle, but it doesn't take long for you to meet other contacts who also require your services. The game continues like any GTA game with missions that involve killing people, stealing cars, driving people around, and other often illegal activities.
Of course, like other games in the series, once you complete the short array of tutorial missions you can disregard the main storyline entirely and instead spend your time roaming around the city, completing the various submissions, seeing how long you can survive with a high wanted level, and dealing drugs to increase your net worth.
Chinatown Wars is packed with a surprisingly fun and full featured drug economy that is highly reminiscent of the Texas Instruments calculator game Dope Wars (Originally a DOS game released in the mid-80's.) that I spent an embarrassing amount of my teenage life playing. As you drive around the city you will meet drug dealers, who are all selling or buying various drugs at different prices. Prices change depending on whose turf you're in, but you have to exercise caution because if you get busted with a car load of coke, you lose it all.
Drug dealing is just one of the many other activites that exist inside the game. Of course Chinatown Wars also has the standard taxi, ambulance, firefighter, and other driving games along with tons of secret items and locations to find. There are scratch off lottery tickets you can try your luck on, and random encounters with pedestrians who will also have various things to ask of you. The amount of depth in Chinatown Wars is unbelievable.
Since the inception of the App Store, quite a few developers have tried their hand at making an open-world crime game. Without much serious competition, most of these games seemed quite good– But even the best pre-Chinatown Wars iPhone games pale in comparison to a real Rockstar Grand Theft Auto. The level of depth is completely unmatched, but most importantly, Liberty City feels alive.
Games like Gangstar are far too sterile, with spotless city streets, stereotypical characters with no personality, and very little to make the environment the game takes place in feel like anything more than a basic sandbox. The streets of Liberty City are filthy, filles with cars, pedestrians, trains, people fighting, and emergency vehicles racing through the streets responding to randomly spawned traffic accidents. The mood and lighting of the city changes with the clock in-game, and even though the story and characters you come across aren't really anything revolutionary compared to other Grand Theft Auto games, the people you meet are usually amusing and of course the game is absolutely loaded with expletives and other racy material that the GTA clones haven't dared come close to.
There are a few issues with Chinatown Wars, the most serious being the lack of a solid targeting system. When you hold down the attack button to shoot or punch, you simply attack whoever you're facing. There isn't a way to cycle through targets, and the only way to stay locked on one target is by holding the attack button which often results in quite a few wasted bullets. It seems like there is a lot of lost potential in not having a touch-based targeting mode.
Chinatown Wars also doesn't have any kind of save state system to save your progress if you get a call or need to answer a SMS when you're in the middle of a mission. Instead the game just quits, and the next time you launch it you're back at your apartment. This can be annoying, but thankfully Chinatown Wars was designed to be a portable game, and as such the missions are usually never more than a few minutes long so the amount of progress you lose is fairly minimal.
One of my favorite things about Grand Theft Auto games is the soundtracks, but the radio stations in Chinatown Wars are fairly limited and it seems that all the pedestrian chatter was also cut. However, once you get sucked in to the game these problems fade away as you immerse yourself in Liberty City.
Chinatown Wars is a massive game, so much so that the few things I've mentioned in this review barely even scratch the surface of what there is to do and all the different features that help you to do them. An excellent in-game GPS system guides you around the city, periodic email messages tip you off to new missions and other things to do, safehouses scattered around Liberty City can be purchased once you're wealthy enough, and there's even multiple save slots so more than one person can play the game on a single device.
Performance on my iPhone 3GS is absolutely outstanding, and according to forum members, Chinatown Wars also runs without issue on the entire iPhone and iPod touch product line. The game is restricted and won't install on the first generation iPod touch, but apparently can be played just fine. Something worth mentioning is while the download itself is only 188MB, Chinatown Wars requires a little over 600MB free on your device to install.
There is so much to do in Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars that completing the whole thing will likely necessitate a trip to to consult the various guides and maps to find every hidden object and complete every mission– A task that will likely take days of concurrent playtime. For $9.99 App Store gamers can get their hands on a game that sells for two to three times as much on other platforms, representing a substantial value even at a price point reserved for "premium" games on the platform.
Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America's vice president of sales and marketing described Chinatown Wars' sales on the DS as "", and sadly the PSP version didn't perform any better. In less than 24 hours following its release on the App Store, Chinatown Wars is already the #1 top-grossing app– Something that hopefully other giants of the gaming industry are noticing, as I doubt I'm alone in hoping even more of these "full" console games make their way to the iPhone.
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If you're at all interested in open-world crime games, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is by far the best available on the platform and simply cannot be passed up. The sheer amount of content, the amazing graphics, and gameplay that will keep you coming back for more whether you choose to follow the story or rampage through Liberty City on your own is absolutely fantastic.
Now, if you'd excuse me, I've got $50,000 worth of heroin to unload.
App Store Link: Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, $9.99
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‘Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars’ Out in U.S. Too – First Impressions and Video
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars [App Store] was quietly released into the App Store this evening. Chinatown Wars for the iPhone seems to lie somewhere in between the in regards to graphical quality, but as far as pure GTA gameplay, everything so far seems intact. (Complete with an awful lot of swearing.)
Much like other versions of the game, screenshots barely do it justice. Liberty City in motion on the iPhone is amazing, and all the jagged edges in the screenshots quickly fade away when you're racing down a street, under elevated train tracks, and through alleys as you escape the police. The realtime clock in-game also changes the lighting of the city, shifting from the orange glow of a sunset to the street lights turning on at night. It really looks awesome.
The basic premise of the game involves a man named Huang Lee, the son of a Triad gang boss who was recently sent to sleep with the fishes. He flies in to Liberty City with a heirloom sword his father won in a poker game, deciding to deliver it to his uncle. Of course things never go as planned, and not long after landing Huang finds himself in the middle of a gunfight and winds up getting kidnapped. After stealing the sword, the assailants assume Huang is dead, and looking to dispose of the body drive the car he's in off the side of a pier. In the same vein of other GTA games, story isn't really anything revolutionary, but it gets the job done.
Chinatown Wars is controlled very similar to Gameloft's Gangstar, with virtual buttons and a joystick that handle all the driving, running, shooting, and other activities in game. The iPhone port of Chinatown Wars retains the stylus minigames that filled the DS version, appearing in a little popups where you do things like tap to smash the window of the car you were trapped in at the beginning of the game, slide your finger around to turn a screwdriver to start a car you're stealing, etc.
When the Nintendo DS version was first released, I devoted hours to playing through the game. So far the iPhone port seems like a faithful reproduction with quite a few expletives. I obviously don't have the full text scripts of both games to compare, but everything I've come across so far has fit with what you would expect out of a GTA game, and it would appear that very little if anything was actually censored for the App Store release.
Chinatown Wars seems to be a complete GTA experience. You have your apartment that serves as your character's hub with a "Fruit" computer you can check emails on, a garage you can stash a car in, and when you're on the road there is a full GPS system with a map of Liberty City that you can plot your destination on to easily get from one side of the city to the other. There's all kinds of stat tracking that will tell you everything from how many bullets you've fired to how many fish you've fed and in-game options that offer all kinds of different tweaks to the interface and gameplay.
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We weren't initially sure if this release was intentional, as we expected some amount of pre-release fanfare from Rockstar, but we are going to be working on a full review of this version of the game.
App Store Link: Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, $9.99
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