TouchArcade.ru

I used to think I had a knack for strategy games. Then I checked out RoboHero [Free], a turn-based tank puzzler from Bravado Waffle Studios. Now, I’m not so sure if I have the chops to handle a game of this difficulty. While the game incorporates relatively simple (and slow) gameplay, this is buttressed by a wide variety of weapons and puzzles, along with a difficulty that’ll either keep you coming back for more or giving up in frustration.

RoboHero places you in the role of Blue Robo, the last defense for Earth in its fight against an evil robot army. As a last resort, you’re sent to the robot ship in order to infiltrate and destroy all the forces. As you progress through the game’s story mode, you’ll unlock new weapons and face new enemies and obstacles. However, the goal of the game is always to either get to the other side of the level or take out a certain amount of enemies.

You’ll accomplish this by planning each move for Blue Robo 15 turns in advance. Every turn, movement, shot, and even weapon change counts as a turn. Once you’ve planned everything out, you hit the start button and your robo executes its actions while the surrounding environment (and enemy baddies) executes theirs. There’s a lot of timing, predicting, and planning involved with each set of turns, much more than I think most players are used to.

The game is also quite unforgiving with planning turns – mistiming a turn or shot can spell doom for that entire set of turns (or even worse, put you in a position to get destroyed). Also, you have to plan out 15 turns; if you try and start the round sooner, your robo will simply stand still for those turns you don’t plan anything, effectively wasting precious moves.

RoboHero’s biggest strength is also its potentially biggest weakness. When all is said and done, this game is hard. You better have some pretty damn good timing and analytical skills if you want to completely finish this game by collecting all the level stars (three stars for each of the thirty missions).

Each level lets you earn up to three stars by accomplishing three different criteria. You can earn a star by collecting all the stars in a level, by keeping your health above a certain threshold, and by passing the level under a certain amount of turns (every individual action counts as a ‘turn’). Normally, I can do well enough to earn one of those at any one time, and if I tried pretty hard, I could probably handle both the health and collectible stars.

However, if you want to land all three, you’re going to have to do a lot of work analyzing your moves, the movements of your enemies, and creating the most streamlined route that takes out only the necessary enemies and gets you where you need to go without coming to harm. It’s an exercise in patience and planning that I rarely see in games these days.

It’s important to note that the difficulty is mostly restricted toward earning stars. In the case of simply wanting to pass a level, RoboHero is a little more forgiving, especially since Blue Robo has the ability to glimpse the future movement of the surrounding enemies and environment. However, you only have a limited amount of foresight, and it doesn’t really make it any easier to time some movement.

Regardless, later levels will still test both your reactive and puzzle solving senses. Annoyances such as the fact that you have to start over if you die make the later levels more annoying to complete (especially considering the latter half of the levels will take some time to actually run through and complete).

In addition to the Story Mode, RoboHero also features an Arena Mode and Multiplayer. I found Arena Mode far more enjoyable than the story mode, as you’re simply tossed into a small level with a bunch of other computer opponents with the sole purpose of kicking the crap out of everyone else. It’s very reminiscent of Bomberman and I think RoboHero does a great job capturing that frenetic feel in a turn based game.

Multiplayer is restricted to pass and play, which I think loses a lot of the excitement that might have occurred with Bluetooth or Wifi modes (asynchronous might have been interesting as well).  Thankfully, online multiplayer is supposedly on the horizon.

If you’re on the fence as to whether a game such a RoboHero is for you, here’s some good news: The game’s first ten levels (as well as Multiplayer and Arena) are offered for free, with IAP covering the other 20 story levels. In this regard, I suggest picking it up if you’re even remotely interested. Its slow, turn-based gameplay is a much different take than most tank games I’ve played on iOS, and it’s bound to turn some heads, but only for pretty hardcore puzzle or strategy fans.

TouchArcade Rating:

[source]

On this week’s episode of the TouchArcade Show, it’s a fascinatingly huge struggle to stay on topic. At the top, we discuss Paula Dean’s latest problem, why Eli is across the ocean, and several other things that are increasingly more offbeat. However, we do eventually dig into the world of iOS in order to bring you the latest, hottest, and best-est in iOS news and coverage. Games like Pocket League and Raid Leader, as well as Smash Cops all make an appearance, as well as a hearty discussion on buying habits and the Vita.

If you’d like to listen, go ahead and do so via the handy links below. Our favorite dudes subscribe to us on iTunes and Zune, though. Both are fantastic ways to get our episodes the very second they’re available on our feeds. Definitely consider it.

iTunes Link: The TouchArcade Show
Zune Marketplace: TouchArcade.com Podcasts
RSS Feed: The TouchArcade Show
Direct Link: TouchArcadeShow-035.mp3, 46MB

One note before our show notes: Eli’s going to be in Europe for a bit, but we expect that some of the issues from this week’s podcast (caused by horrible hotel WiFi) will be addressed by next week. You’ll catch some audio burping and stuff from time-to-time and we’re sorry about that.

GAMES

• Pocket League Story [$2.99]
• Raid Leader
• Helsing’s Fire [$.99 / HD / Lite]
• Geometry Wars Touch [$.99]
• Smash Cops [$2.99]

JARED’S KITTY KORNER

• Candy Ninja-Cat [$.99]

NEWS

• ‘Adventure Bar Story’ Coming to iOS
• TouchArcade At MacWorld
• Man Makes iCade NES Controller

[source]

The first batch of new game releases in 2012 last week was relatively quiet, but Lunar Racer [99¢] from NoodleCake Studios (the makers of Super Stickman Golf [99¢/HD] ) have got things off to a positive start by releasing a new lo-gravity racing game with plenty of jumps, heaps of flips and a couple of weapons.

Lunar Racer starts with a basic driving test, to secure your lunar license. During your rookie training, you learn that tapping the left half of the screen activates “gravity assist” to pull your vehicle towards the ground, while tapping the right side activates nitro boosters for a burst of speed. There’s no steering controls, as this game is all about timing your speed-boosts and jumps to beat your opponents.

Once you’re airborne, tilting the device left or right does a backwards or forwards flip. These flips are essential as each flip replenishes your nitro tanks, allowing you to pass opponents, jump higher, flip more and hopefully win. But if you don’t land safely on your wheels, you’ll crash, incurring a slight delay. The further you turn the device, the faster your racer spins and the more nitro you earn. There are also coins (MoonBux) to collect, both on the ground and floating, which is another incentive to go aerial.

You can use the MoonBux you collect to unlock 16 different vehicle chassis and a similar number of wheels, canopy colors or nitro styles (eg: perhaps you want pretty stars or a green flame shooting out when you turbo?). I believe that adds up to 16 x 16 x 16 x 16 possible combinations, which equals… a lot! The customizations don’t actually improve the attributes or performance of your vehicle, but it allows you to personalize its appearance.

The racing, jumping, flipping and customizations are all fun, but there are also weapons. You can use mines or missiles to attack your three opponents and deploy bubble-shields to protect yourself from their attacks. Once you pass over a generic power-up icon, a specific upgrade is randomly chosen and appears as a button to activate. Some users found this button uncomfortable to reach on the larger iPad screen, but it works fine on the iPod touch or iPhone.

The first race occurs on a space-station near Earth, but by winning races you gain the stars needed to unlock additional moons around Earth, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. The developers plan to release more moons in future, to cover off the rest of our Solar System. The last two moons currently require local multiplayer wins to unlock, which isn’t ideal for those playing alone, but the developers plan to remedy this in an update, perhaps by allowing those levels to be unlocked by stars just like the other levels.

Lunar Racer currently has single player mode (racing against  3 AI-controlled opponents) and local multiplier mode (Bluetooth or WiFi for up to four players). The developers are already investigating the feasibility of an online multiplayer mode, however there’s issues with all the flipping and lag to deal with and NoodleCake told us they won’t release it unless it runs flawlessly, so it’s still an investigation in progress. They also revealed that they’d like to add an ‘endless’ arcade racing mode, where the terrain on the moon is generated procedurally.

Once you win a race with three stars, it unlocks a PRO tour mode for that moon with harder competitors.
This gives you an opportunity to earn three more stars for unlocking new moons. There’s also three specific goals listed for each moon, like: “Do 10 or more back flips”  or “Get 15 perfect landings”. If you complete all three goals for a level, you get to play a special bonus round which focuses on collecting as many MoonBux as you can, without any opponents. Game Center and OpenFeint are both integrated for high scores and achievements.

Lunar Racer is already a fun title which I’ll be playing for a while, but it feels like it could be much more. Here’s hoping for more levels coming, an extra game mode planned & the possibility of online multiplayer mode. If they’ve got any spare time, perhaps they can put iCloud synching on their to-do list too.

TouchArcade Rating:

[source]

Ticket to Ride is a popular board game created by board game gurus Days of Wonder. Back in May, Ticket to Ride [$6.99] was digitally converted into an iPad game, one which we thoroughly enjoyed in our review. Ticket to Ride had an excellent computer AI to play against, but the real fun was in playing another real life person. The iPad version contained a slick online multiplayer mode for up to 4 players, but was criticized for not having a local pass-n-play mode, something that should be a core element of any game based on a real life board game. Thankfully, pass-n-play did eventually come in an update a couple months following release, and there was much rejoicing.

Yesterday, Days of Wonder has gone and released an iPhone version of Ticket to Ride, dubbed Ticket to Ride Pocket [99¢]. Many iPad gamers, and of course non-iPad owning gamers, have been clamoring for a portable version of Ticket to Ride, so this release certainly should make quite a few people happy. However, Ticket to Ride Pocket has almost the exact opposite problems that its iPad counterpart had on release. It does contain a pass-n-play mode along with its single player, but does not contain an online multiplayer mode. Days of Wonder has stated this was a conscious decision, as they didn’t want to compromise the online experience with interruptions that are inherent to phones like incoming calls and spotty network coverage.

Besides lacking online play, Ticket to Ride Pocket also nixes the extra Europe and Switzerland maps from the iPad version, instead focusing on just the American map. This was another conscious decision by the developer, as they felt that the additional maps contained too much detail to be sufficiently playable on the smaller screen of the iPhone and iPod touch.

While Ticket to Ride Pocket is a more limited experience than the iPad version, it doesn’t make it a bad game at all. In fact, quite the opposite. The single player AI is quite good, and pass-n-play is adequate for when you have a friend close by. There’s also multiplayer over local WiFi or Bluetooth if you’re close by friend(s) happens to have their own device and copy of the game. Perhaps best of all is that the pocket edition is just 99¢ as of this writing.

I still think it would be nice to see online multiplayer and the additional maps added into the game, despite the developer’s concerns, and that may happens sometime down the line. But for the cheap price of entry, Ticket to Ride Pocket is a great mobile take on the board game that’s worth having a look at.

[source]

We’ve still got our massive weekly traditional “coming tonight” post in the works, but the fanfare surrounding Mojang’s official (and universal) Minecraft Pocket Edition [$7.99] building on our forums is too great to ignore. Initial impressions seem positive, although some have noted disappointment with how limited the game feels compared to the “full” version. There’s no online play, for instance, only local WiFi, and your portable Minecraft worlds are devoid of both animals and creepers.

Like all of these mid-week release games, Minecraft Pocket Edition should be available for download at 11:00 PM Eastern, or potentially much earlier if you live east of North America. We’ll get a review up as soon as we can, but in the meantime, swing by our forums.

International App Store Link: Minecraft Pocket Edition, $7.99

[source]

Big Pixel Studios, creators of the adorable physics puzzler Land-a Panda [99¢/HD/Lite HD] and the cat-tastic dual-stick shooter Meow Meow Happy Fight [$2.99/HD], have temporarily dropped the price of one of their other major titles, Piyo Blocks 2 [Free]. A sequel to the original Piyo Blocks [99¢/Lite] that was released in 2009, Piyo Blocks 2 takes everything that was great about that first game and improves upon it, resulting in one of the most enjoyable match-3 games around.

I know what you must be thinking, “A match-3? Seriously? I am like, SO over that”, and normally I’d totally agree with you. Except that Piyo Blocks 2 just happens to be my personal favorite match-3 out of them all (just slightly ahead of Gemmed! [$1.99/Lite], in case you were wondering), and if you don’t already own this game then downloading it while free is a mandatory action. There really isn’t a more feature-rich match-3 game available on iOS.

First off, you have 6 different modes for your single-player pleasures, each utilizing a slightly different set of rules or visuals based on the core match-3 mechanics. Each mode is quite fun in its own way, and there’s heaps of Game Center/OpenFeint achievements and leaderboards to keep you occupied as you get your match on while solo.

However, one of the coolest things about Piyo Blocks 2 is that it contains multiplayer. You can go head-to-head against somebody close to you by way of Bluetooth or a local WiFi network, or you can jump online and play people from across the globe. In fact, that is part of what spurred this freebie promotion, as Big Pixel wants to enlarge the player pool for online matchmaking. There’s really no better way to do that than to lower the barrier of entry to free.

This trailer is a bit outdated as far as listing some of the features, but it should give you an idea of what you’re in for after you download Piyo Blocks 2:

In addition to all of the above mentioned features, Piyo Blocks 2 was also just recently updated with Retina Display support. This is something I had been hoping for for a long, long time and it pleases me to no end to see all the little Piyo blocks in such crisp resolution. Big Pixel Studios are known for their wonderful sounds and visuals, and Piyo Blocks 2 is no different. In fact, I would suggest downloading the game for the soundtrack alone, as it is dangerously catchy and gets stuck in my head on at least an every-other-day basis.

I understand that there are a ton of match-3 games out there, and with so many options which one ends up being your favorite largely depends on personal preference. That said, Piyo Blocks 2 earns top spot for me, and I really can’t recommend it enough. Make sure to snag it while it’s still free, which should be at least another day or two.

[source]

Highline Games have released W.E.L.D.E.R. [$1.99] which stands for ‘Word Examination Laboratory for Dynamic Extraction and Reassessment“, The amusing game trailer (below) suggests that words are at risk of becoming extinct, but that’s not really part of the gameplay. It’s just more interesting than saying: “Move letters around to form words”, which might sound dull and done-to-death;  but this intriguing word game is neither of those things, it’s unique and will activate your brain.

The game features an 8×8 grid which is full of letter tiles. The idea is to form words with four or more letters, by moving letter tiles around in various ways. The “Basic Swap” involves tapping any two neighboring letters (horizontally, vertically or diagonally adjoining) so they swap positions. The words must be written from left-to-right or top-to-bottom, much like a crossword puzzle. There’s no time limits (thank goodness), although a certain number of words must be formed to complete each level.

As you play, you can unlock three other types of swap:  A “Reverse Swap” is done by selecting a bunch of letters, then double tapping to reverse their order. “Group swaps” involve selecting some letters, then dragging them over one space. And finally, the useful “Jump swaps” let you tap any two movable letters on the board (even if not adjoining) and they’ll exchange places, as if teleporting. But you only have a limited number of each swap type.

When you form a word, those letter tiles disappear, and any letters above cascade down to fill the gap, including some new letters. Therefore, it’s wise to form words near the bottom of the screen, so more letters fall from above, increasing the odds of creating another word by luck. Although, this is definitely a game of skill, where a puzzle-loving wordsmith will triumph.

At the start, you’re only given 25 basic swaps to achieve the target number of words for the level. Once your swaps are depleted, the game ends. But if you form valid words, you earn points, and receive more swaps, allowing you to play longer. Five basic swaps are given for each 250 points, with special swaps given each 500 points. Little on-screen meters display how close you are to receiving the next batch of swaps.

There’s also some special tiles: Words which incorporate gold tiles double the score, there’s diamond encrusted 3x score multipliers plus a 4x multiplier. Blank wooden tiles can be stamped permanently with any letter by double tapping, but this costs one swap and scores no points. Red-hot letter tiles are apparently too hot to touch, so you can’t swap them, but they fall like regular tiles if you form words below. Broken tiles can’t be moved either, but these don’t fall. The un-moveable tiles can be removed by forming a word around them.

Like Scrabble, each letter has a different point value and bonus points are awarded for forming multiple words in the same turn. At the end of the level, bonus points are also awarded for any unused swaps. Final scores are fed into five Game Center leaderboards, along with a healthy 47 achievements. The game also supports iCloud game saves, allowing players to switch devices and resume playing.

The dictionary word-set seems reasonable, although some valid words are declined. Rude words are not permitted and this extends to some body parts. And the word “Mens” (with a diamond M) was declined. But overall, the game has correctly identified almost all of the words entered. If you’re not familiar with a word formed, you can tap it to view the definition. And the developers plan to add support for additional languages  in future. And you can submit words to the developers.

The in-game music is unusual, yet strangely soothing and deserves a mention. It sounds more like ambient background noise; almost a mixture of white noise, an old fashioned oxygen machine, with the occasional fan.  At first I thought the music was faulty, then I wondered if it was using monotonous sounds to hypnotize me into a trance, to hold my attention …and if so, it’s working, because the more I play this game, the better I become and the more enjoyable the experience.

There’s a couple of things to watch out for.  As soon as a word is formed, it’s scored and removed, so if you plan to make the word “Toaster”, and form it from left to right, the game would recognize “Toast” as a word and the letters would disappear before you wrote the full intended word. Therefore, long words should be formed from the outsides in, to avoid accidentally spelling any small words.

It’s also easy to move letters unintentionally. Firstly, because the “C” and “G” characters start looking similar after a while. Or secondly, by tapping the screen without realizing another character’s already selected, wasting a precious jump swap. These recurring human mistakes are frustrating since one bad move can end your game. Lastly, the game rules button takes you to a website, which is fine …providing you have WiFi access.

W.E.L.D.E.R. has twelve levels, which grow longer and use more challenging tiles as you progress. The games become quite slow and considered once your supply of swaps dwindles and you search for an elusive swap, but that’s a good thing because this game challenges you. The developers advise other gameplay modes are planned, so we’re curious about what comes next. For this initial release however, W.E.L.D.E.R. is one word game that has captured my attention, and is worth checking out.

TouchArcade Rating:

[source]

First there was Modern Combat: Sandstorm [$4.99 / HD] which we described as one of the most impressive gaming experiences on the App Store at that time.  Next came MC2: Black Pegasus [$6.99 / HD /  Free], which we called ” A new standard in online multiplayer”. Now, Gameloft has released their much anticipated third installment, MC3: Fallen Nation [$6.99], which although not revolutionary, is easily one of the best first-person shooters available for iOS devices.

This release is named “Fallen Nation” because America is under attack. The enemies are KPR (Korea, Pakistan and Russia), who have declared war on America and invaded US cities, reportedly destroying Chicago. Anyone familiar with the earlier games will find more of the same non-stop action in this military shooter, but Gameloft have extended their previous efforts to ensure this latest release is the best in the series.

Because this game has so much going on, we’ll focus primarily on highlighting the new features. If you’re not familiar with the earlier games, you might want to read the review links above.

The single player campaign has 13 missions and four levels of difficulty, with combat in different vehicles, settings, and six different countries. There are plenty of cinematic cutscenes between gun-fights to shape the story-line, some of which require swipes when directed. The voice-over acting sounds good considering Gameloft’s previous efforts, and the graphics and level of detail in the levels is already being praised as “better than MC2” in the games busy discussion thread.

The highlight for many players will be the expanded multiplayer mode which is available via local WiFi or online via Gameloft Live. It now supports up to 12 players, compared to 10 previously, and delivers six much larger maps, which is more maps than MC2 had at release. Bluetooth multiplayer mode, which was available in MC2, has now been removed. Some users have experienced lag at times, which has caused stuttering graphics, but the general indication is that it’s nothing unreasonable.

Seven multiplayer modes are provided. The four MC2 modes are still present (Battle, Team battle, Capture the flag and Defuse the bomb), but now there’s also “Manhunt”  where you hold a flag for as long as possible, “Zone control” where you capture and hold locations, and “Destruction” where one team defends multiple devices from an attacking team. Multiplayer mode also has a list of challenges to complete, like achieving a certain number of head-shots, beating each game mode, and achieving the required number of kills with each weapon / attachment.

By killing other players and completing objectives and challenges, you’ll gain the experience points (XP) necessary for promotions to higher ranks. This is important because your rank now determines which new weapons, attachments, equipment, and skills are available in the armory.

In multiplayer mode, you can pick one skill per weapon kit. A gun expert loads his weapons quicker, an athlete runs faster while an anatomy scientist heals in half the time. The meanest skill is “One more thing”, which drops an incendiary grenade upon death, as a good-bye present to anyone nearby, like the person who shot you.

The expected diverse arsenal of weapons is available, plus equipment like remotely activated C4 explosives, sensors to display position of enemies, radar jammers, mines, and camouflage to avoid satellite scans. However, the process for unlocking weapons has changed, with guns being unlocked progressively once your character reaches certain levels while in-game currency is used to buy ammunition or attachments. That’s right, you can now add various attachments to customize your weaponry, like: Red dot sights, thermal scopes, and suppressors, which help you stay invisible on enemies radar while shooting.

There are two forms of in-game currency: Blue credits are used to buy or upgrade items in the single player shop, or to unlock items in WiFi multiplayer. Gold credits are used in online multiplayer, to unlock items in the online armory. You can buy additional credits as an In-App Purchase, but this is not really necessary as playing the game can yield the same results without extra cost.

Kill signatures have been added, so you can unlock and choose a message, picture, background and sound to be displayed to your victims after you kill them.  So when your opponents die, they might get a message like: “PWNED!” or “Would you like fries with that?”  along with a flatulence or baby crying sound effect. It’s a final slap in the face for your dead opponent.

Gameloft has added rewards for killing sprees this time around as well. In multiplayer mode you can earn “kill-chains” by killing multiple enemies without dying. These kill-chains can be used to buy military support. For example, three kill-chains will get you a satellite scan, showing all hostiles briefly. You can also request air strikes, turret deployments or helicopter / bomber support. With 20 kill-chains, you can obtain the much coveted nuclear missile and drop this WMD to end the conflict in 15 seconds.

There are three different control options, including “Classic Controls” like MC2 (but with a new sliding move by pressing crouch when running), but this set-up is not the default.  You can adjust the sensitivity of the controls, which was handy as I didn’t like the default controls at all, finding them too fast and floaty and the sprint button was in an uncomfortable position. Fortunately, there’s an option to customize the position of each control individually, although this is hidden away in the pause menu. It’s worth taking a few minutes to get the controls right for you.

Your progress and ranking is stored on Gameloft’s servers, so even if you delete the game, you can re-install it and resume without needing to start over. This means you can login from another device if the game is installed. And a multiplayer headquarters menu now presents all your stats, leaderboards, challenges, match history, and military support options. Finally, there’s now an online armory where you can save your weapon sets (primary, secondary, weapons attachments and extras like equipment or skills). Additional weapon kit slots can be unlocked. This isn’t as good as having direct access to all weapons, but it’s still nice to have this ability.

A few teething issues have been reported, with some ranks being listed incorrectly / inconsistently or progress being lost altogether. This is a major inconvenience which Gameloft is likely to investigate as a priority. And if you have a hyphen in your Gameloft Live login (as one of our editors does) you may have trouble logging in for online multiplayer, so avoid using dashes if you’re signing up.

This Universal game is larger than most and requires additional room for the install process, so gamers all over the world are busy deleting other large games to free up a couple of gigabytes. If you want to play first person shooters on your iOS device, Modern Combat 3: Fallen Nation is a must-buy game, so start making room for it.  Although, with Gameloft  reportedly committed to releasing frequent updates sooner this time around (in contrast to previous versions), we may have to delete even more games for the future updates.

[source]

The original Zombieville USA [$1.99 / Lite] hit very early in the life of the App Store and was one of the many initial indie success stories that helped to spur the whole iOS development gold rush. Heck, it wasn’t even called iOS back then. Since then, Mika Mobile has gone on to release OMG Pirates! [$1.99] and the absolutely fabulous Battleheart [$2.99]. In fact, if you haven’t played or heard of Battleheart, you really need to take a time out and our review of it.

Anyway, Zombieville USA 2 [99¢] seems to be a great sequel so far in every way. It takes the formula from the original, adds tons of unlockable content, full Game Center integration, iCloud support for cross-device syncing… And best yet, co-op multiplayer either locally via Bluetooth or online via WiFi.

We’re going to give the game a thorough once over in our upcoming review, but our initial impressions are remarkably positive, folks on the forums like it, and the developer is already talking about tweaks for the first update.

[source]

If you were among the group of people who scooped up the Parrot AR.Drone when it was first released (Check out our review) and have since gotten bored of the few apps/games that Parrot has put out since then, here's an idea for you: Aerial WiFI hacking rig. Appropriately named, SkyNET takes the Parrot AR.Drone, and trades the protective shell for a tiny Linux computer, a 3G card, GPS, and two WiFi cards.

The idea, in a nutshell, is once you've got your SkyNET drone all set up, you fly around in urban environments loaded with WiFi networks controlling the AR.Drone via 3G. It looks for networks it can break into, breaks into them, and attempts to compromise any vulnerable computer on the network. From there, these infected machines can take orders from SkyNET with no traceable ties back to the hackers running it, as everything is coming directly from an aerial drone connected directly to your WiFi network.

Pretty creepy, right? This seems like the stuff out of science fiction, but with the right technical know-how can be done today for approximately $600. So, if you haven't yet, now might be a good time to secure your wireless network. Personally, I'm just blown away that a device that was originally sold as a fun iOS-controlled quadricopter with some augmented reality games can be used for such crazy things.

[via Gizmodo]

[source]