Everyday Gamers – Handheld Features

Modern Combat: Sandstorm

14 September, 2009 by Patrick Reviews No comments

I’ve always been longing for a solid First Person Shooter on my iPhone and never have I truly been satisfied. A lot of the FPS games I downloaded were horrible. Not just the controls but the polish and graphics. The FPS on the iPhone was not something that was looking too good, until Modern Combat arrived. I knew that with Gameloft being the developer this game was going to be something different from the rest, not necessarily different from First Person Shooters in general but different from the ones I had seen on the iPhone.

Gameloft has done a great job with Modern Combat, first off, the controls work great. There are three control options and the only problem I had with them was the fact that all of them worked so good and this made it hard to just choose one and stick to it. I decided to stick with the default control scheme. This control scheme has a left virtual thumbstick which you use to move forward, backward, strafe left, and strafe right. The way you look around, what would normally be the right thumbstick, is by touching anywhere on the screen, the best place to touch is right by the cross-hairs, this is where you get the most accuracy. Then you touch a button located on the right side to shoot. There are other actions like crouch, throw grenades, zoom to cross-hairs, reload, and switch weapons. All of these controls feel great and never once did it feel like I was struggling (like when playing an FPS on the PSP). My only suggestion is to turn the sensitivity the whole way up. This was the only way I could play.

Modern Combat is an FPS similar to the console versions, everything we’ve seen before but nothing we’ve seen on a mobile device. I was playing it on a 3GS so there was no lag at all, everything ran smooth, the graphics looked great. The gameplay has a lot of variety, at one point I was using a sniper rifle to take down enemies on a ledge in an underground passageway, the next moment I was defending a palace from tanks and RPG’s. The gameplay definitely gets switched up and it’s easy to get sucked in. There are 10 levels total and most of them are completed in 15 minutes on average.

Overall Modern Combat: Sandstorm is a must buy for FPS fans. Gameloft put a lot of effort into the game and it came out very polished. Not only is it a lot of fun but it’s a great game to show off to people and say “Yea, my phone can do that.” The thing is though, this phone doesn’t really feel like a phone anymore. With games like these the iPhone is a tough competitor to the handheld gaming market. Modern Combat is currently $6.99 in the app store and I also hear there is a multiplayer mode in the works as a future update.

Check out some footage of the game below:

Manomio’s C64 Emulator for iPhone Now Available

5 September, 2009 by Patrick Uncategorized No comments

After making some final adjustments Manomio’s C64 Emulator has now been approved by Apple and is available now for $4.99. A total of 5 games come included with it. Those 5 games are Dragons Den, Le Mans, Jupiter Lander, Arctic Shipwreck and Jack Attack.

App Store Link

World Domination? There’s an App for That.

10 August, 2009 by Laren Hawkins Uncategorized No comments

Ever wanted to claim cities, attack countries, build up a massive army and make advances in tech all from your iPhone? Well now you can, this weekend marked the release for Civilization Revolution for the iPhone. I have played the 360 version and I have to say it was really the first strategy game I ever played! It caused me to fall in love with the genre. It appears that everything is in tack from the console versions minus the graphics. There is a paid version which is avaible for $5 and a lite-version for free. In the lite-version, you can choose from 3 countries and play up to the Middle Era. So what are you waiting for, go conquer the world!

Wordulous (iPhone)

2 June, 2009 by Patrick Uncategorized 1 comment

99Games, makers of the popular Wordsworth are at it again with another word game by the name of Wordulous. Wordulous is a word creation game similar to Wordsworth. The object of the game is to spell as many words as you can with the letters you are given.

There are three different modes. The first is Practice where you can practice making words without a time limit. The second is Examination where you are to complete as many words as possible within the time limit of 3 minutes. You can choose to move onto different letters if you like after you complete a certain amount of words. The last of the modes is Challenge where you can challenge other people on Facebook via Facebook connect. You can also challenge people on your phone’s contact list by signing up to the 99games server. Wordulous also supports Local and Global high scores.

Wordulous is a lot of fun if you are into word games. If you enjoy Wordsworth then I suggest you pick this one up as well. At the writing of this review Wordulous is a mere $0.99 which is well worth the money.

EDGE removed from iTunes?

30 May, 2009 by Eric Bouchard Uncategorized No comments

This is really bad news. Kotaku is reporting that EDGE has been removed from the iTunes App store. Why? Can we say frivolous lawsuit?

Turns out there was this old gaming company called Edge Games owned by Tim Langdell. He claims to have copyrighted the word Edge as far as it’s use in gaming goes. This is not the first time he has forced a company to change it’s name. Remember when Soulcaliber used to be called Soul Edge? Namco was forced to change it for the same reason.

The biggest joke in all of this is Edge Gaming has not released a game since 1994. So just how is an iPhone/iPod Touch game made this year going to be confused with that company?

Now the makers of EDGE are in negotiations to get use of the name back, but my question is why should they need it? Did I judge really rule they needed to change the name? Or did Apple just see someone claiming to have a copyright and remove the game without further evidence?

Either way, all this is doing is depriving gamers of a great game.

Source

Eliss (iPhone)

14 May, 2009 by Patrick Uncategorized No comments

I had first heard about Eliss from a friend suggesting it to everyone but I was still a little skeptical after seeing some screenshots of the game. From the screens it seemed too complicated and I wasn’t really even sure what the game was about. I even late saw a video of it and wasn’t sure what was going on.

As with most iPhone games I just decided to get it on a whim. I wasn’t sure if I would even like it but I trusted the people who suggested it so I went ahead and purchased it for the wonderful price of $2.99.

The main concepts of Eliss are actually very simple. It may look intimidating but it’s really not. The object is to combine the circles that randomly appear with each other to make bigger circles. Once a circle is big enough you drag it into a “pod” that also appears at random. The pod then disappears. Each level has a specific amount of times you are to do this and once you do that amount the level ends and you move on to the next. The second concept in the game is splitting the circles to make them smaller. There will be smaller pods that appear so you must split the large circles by using two fingers and dragging them apart.

The way you die in this game is when you let the different colored circles touch each other. The longer they touch the more your life goes down. In the later levels there is a lot going on on the screen so it can be very hard to keep the circles from touching. I even found myself holding my iPhone in ways I didn’t know where possible just so that I could use four fingers.

I’m currently on the 10th level and there is 25 levels total. One last thing I want to mention is the art-style of Eliss. It’s very plain and simple but this plain and simple look is what makes Eliss so appealing.

Overall I love Eliss and I highly recommend it. Don’t be intimidated, you will get the hang of it no later than 5 minutes in.

Check out the video below for the first 3 levels of Eliss:

Make sure to check out EDGvideos.com for more videos

Updated: Edge (iPhone)

28 February, 2009 by Patrick Uncategorized 2 comments

I first heard of Edge from all the hype it was getting over the internet. Anytime I would hear anything about it I would go check it out, whether it was via the appstore or iTunes. Admittedly I was not impressed by just looking at the screenshots. Why is this game getting so much hype, I wondered. It didn’t seem like anything that impressive to me. Then I heard a comment from Patrick Klepek at MTV Multiplayer saying that he would choose this game over Fieldrunners for best iPhone game or something along those lines. I then decided I needed to give it a try.

Too many times do I find myself downloading an iPhone game, playing it for a day or two, and then totally forgetting about it. I even had trouble getting into Rolando. Edge is unlike any other iPhone game I have played thus-far. It is that one game that I keep coming back to, it’s levels are short and sweet and it has that addictive gameplay that Echochrome should have had, but didn’t.

Edge is a very basic looking game, with some pretty bare colors and a cut and dry look, Edge is not exactly the greatest at first impressions. Do not judge Edge by the way it looks, this cut and dry look fits perfectly with what Edge is all about. I was instantly impressed with the amount of polish Edge has, as soon as you play a level you will understand. It is a pretty basic platformer and the controls are very basic as well, just slide your finger in the direction you want the cube to roll. Edge has 26 levels that you must navigate through by pushing levers and rolling across moving platforms and it will keep you busy for a fairly long time.

Overall I think Edge is a game that can work on any platform and I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw it come to XBLA, PSN, PSP, or DS. I do hope that someday it will come to that. Edge was released at the end of December so it is considered an ’08 game. If that’s the case then Edge is my iPhone GOTY hands-down.

Mobigame recently released an update for Edge. Some of the new features include:

-17 New Levels

-5 New Tunes

-Global Ranking

-New Controls

From what I’ve played, the new update really adds a lot to the game. The 17 new levels aren’t just tacked on at the end, they are spread throughout the campaign. I’m also really enjoying the new control option, this option is the one I choose every time. I find these new controls easier and more precise than the other two options. Overall, the new update is great. I didn’t think it was possible to make this game any better but they did so right now I’d say Edge is at about 5.5 stars, if that was possible.

Below is a video of the new control option for Edge:

New Metal Gear Solid Touch Trailer

22 February, 2009 by Patrick Uncategorized No comments

WordsWorth

18 February, 2009 by Patrick Uncategorized 4 comments

WordsWorth is a word puzzle game brought to us by 99 Games.

The object of WordsWorth is to link letters together to create words. The longer the word, the more points you receive. Some letters are worth more than others creating an even higher score.

WordsWorth has two modes, one being “Classic” and the other being “Timed.” In the Classic mode you aren’t timed and you can go at your own pace but once a timed letter falls into the mix you must use that letter before the time runs out, if you fail to do so it will end the game. In the Timed mode you must reach a certain amount of points before the timer ends. If you reach that amount of points before the time is up, your time is extended and you move on to the next level. In both of these modes there are “buzzwords” which are shown in the starburst at the bottom of the screen. If you spell the buzzword you will receive even more points.

To make the game more interesting there are a few different tiles that come in to play. Green tiles are worth more points, Gold tiles are earned by creating words two letters longer than the minimum word size required, Blue tiles are also known as “wild cards” and they can be used as any letter in a word, and lastly there are Auto Shuffle tiles which will shuffle the letters without penalty or without decreasing the shuffle count.

My Thoughts:

I being a fan of word games really enjoyed WordsWorth and still come back to it regularly. It’s easy to pick up and play and highly addictive. WW is very polished and pleasing to the eyes. If you like Scrabble or any other word puzzle games then WW is a must have. WordsWorth is available for a mere $1.99 which means there is no reason not to download this one.