Introduction
When you “borrow” heavily from two of the most popular and highly acclaimed games in recent history, you have to be prepared for the inevitable comparisons. If your game does not do the things those games did at least as well if not better, your audience can’t help but notice. So does Singularity hold up to the big boys it tries to emulate?
Introduction
Xbox Live’s Summer of Arcade kicked of this week with the highly anticipated black-and-white puzzle platformer LIMBO. Yes, it’s spelled with all caps… I have no idea why. And having no idea why sums up a lot about this game.
Things have been kinda quiet here on the APPraisal front, but not because there’s a lack of great iPhone / iPod Touch apps out there. Whether about apps or music or life, I generally only post when I have something to say. I don’t post just to post. For APPraisal, that means using an app enough to be able to talk about it meaningfully and give an honest opinion, and while I’ve downloaded and dabbled with several apps over the last few weeks, I haven’t used most of them enough to talk fairly about. However, if the lack of APPraisal posts just makes you want to fling a bird at a brick wall (or even if it doesn’t), you may want to know more about Angry Birds.
Introduction
Of the recent main series of Final Fantasy games, I really enjoyed Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XII. I didn’t play FF XI very long, mainly because after a certain point you were pretty much required to group with people to advance, which really didn’t suit my playstyle or available time. Final Fantasy XII took me two years to complete, though I mainly played it in two large blocks, with years in-between. I loved the style and most of the gameplay mechanics.
I tried to avoid a lot of news or info on Final Fantasy XIII before playing it, but it looked to be similar to both of those titles, making it a must-get game on release day. But games like FF XIII require quite a large time investment. You could probably play Halo 1-3 and ODST in the same time it’d take you to finish FF XIII. So was it worth the time and effort, or will it be my Final Fantasy? (I had to go there. It’s over now.)
I only do APPraisals on apps I personally found interesting or useful enough to try. I don’t always end up liking every app, but I don’t buy or download something just to review it. I was hesitant to discuss the SIRIUS XM Premium Online app, though, because it requires a subscription on top of the app which can be a bit pricey. But given how much I use the app (a spoiler to what I think of it below), I figured a discussion of it and the ways I use it might be appropriate. Someone else out there might get some tips or have some for me as well.
Introduction
Few games make an actual lasting impression on me. I may enjoy them immensely at the time, and remember them fondly, but press me for details and I won’t be able to produce many. The original Bioshock is one of those rare gems that captivated my imagination and has stuck with me. I love the concept, the art deco look, Big Daddies and Little Sisters and madness and mayhem under the sea. I think my appreciation of it actually rose from the time I wrote the Game Impressions on it to present. So it was with both longing and trepidation that I approached the release of Bioshock 2. Could the Electro Bolt plasmid strike twice?
Introduction
By description, Heavy Rain is the type of game to which I would naturally gravitate. Developer Quantic Dream describes it as interactive drama, which smacks of my love of interactive fiction, choose your own adventures, and point-and-click games. The game uses a unique control scheme that uses context sensitive actions and quick time events to tell the story of four characters and the mystery of the Origami Killer. So what’s my take on this new interactive drama?
I feel immersed in all things Mass Effect lately. Aside from playing Mass Effect 2 on the Xbox 360 and playing Mass Effect Galaxy on my iPod Touch, I’ve been reading the Mass Effect: Ascension audiobook. Author Drew Karpyshyn was the lead writer on the first Mass Effect game, is co-lead writer on Mass Effect 2, and also wrote the first Mass Effect novel, Mass Effect: Revelation. I read and reviewed that novel. How does this one stack up?
When I first got my iPod Touch, I was dumping apps onto it like crazy. Free apps, apps that made top 10 lists, just about anything. Many of those have been long since deleted. Weber’s On The Grill, however, has made the cut, and definitely falls into the category of “there’s an app for that.”
ZarkSeven has this cool segment on his blog called “APPraisal”. It’s his weekly…or mostly weekly…review of various iPhone/iPod touch applications. Since Zark doesn’t use Google Voice and I’m addicted to it, he asked me if I would take a look at the new Google Voice mobile site and give a review for his APPraisal segment. I’m new to this…but I love new stuff…so here goes!
I’m a huge fan of Google. I use a lot of their services as my primary way to communicate. From Gmail for my email to GTalk for my IM needs, Google just seems to “get it” when it comes to stable communication tools that just work.
One of their most amazing services is Google Voice. If you don’t know what GV is, check it out here. Google does a much better job explaining it than I do.
Read the rest of this entry at justinriggle.COM. Thanks Justin! »
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