henke on 10/5/2011 at 19:03
It is now a week since my iPad arrived. I have little memory of the time
before iPad. I can only speculate how I spent my evenings when I wasn't playing iPad games or pouring over freebie and "best of" lists trying to track down the next killer gem in the myriad of titles in the AppStore.
Here are 10 of my favourite games of the past week:
GTA Chinatown Wars - I am now hooked on this. I crave more of it's gameplay and am eager to find out what happens next in the plotline. Who will be the new Triad boss? That dumbass Chan or that psychopath Zhou? I like Zhou more.
Infinity Blade - plays great and looks fantastic.
Alpine Crawler (free) - I've spent numerous hours with this one. It's a 2D sidescrolling offroad truck driving game and while it may look simple it requires a careful combination of speed and precision to beat the clock. I have yet to master that last track.
Here is (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TU8m7yoc38) a gameplay video wherein the guy narrating it spends 60% of the video explaining the fucking menu-items instead of actually playing the game. The majority of gameplayvideos of iPad games do this. You know, because not everyone might know what a volume-slider does so better spend a few seconds going over that!
Mr. Karoshi - I guess this is a Flashgame as well but I never played it on PC. Laughing my ass off at the iPad version though. :D
Valet Hero (free) - a line-drawing game, you know, like Flight Control. This one is really good and features a good set of levels for a freebie.
Jet Car Stunts Lite - very Trackmania-ish. Great controls. Might have to buy the full version.
Superbrothers - Sword & Sworcery EP - dunno what to think of this one. I've reached chapter 3 and kinda run out of steam. The story isn't very engaging, the characters are mostly just annoying and - after I started playing Infinity Blade - the combat seems hopelessly simplistic. :erg:
Railroad Madness & Paper Train HD (both free) - two great train conductor games! What are the odds? Found these through Free App Hero(thanks for the tip Matthew!). :)
Perfect Cell - I just bought this one. Now here is a game TTLG would like. You play as a floating alien lifeform and you have to sneak through vents and stealthily take out scientists and soldiers in order to escape the underground research facility you're trapped in.
(
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPM00IWERbA) Trailer
Oh yes, and my Game Center username is "raindawg henke" and on OpenFeint I am "LeeMajorz" in case anyone wants to add me. :cool:
Renzatic on 11/5/2011 at 03:28
You should consider jailbreaking, Henke. I've been playing Maniac Mansion through ScummVM, and even on the tiny iPhone screen, it works beautifully. I could imagine the experience would be that much better on an iPad.
And my personal theories about touchscreen gaming have been confirmed. The iDevices are a perfect fit for RPGs, strategy, and adventure games. But for genres that normally rely on an analog stick or two, it absolutely BLOWS. I tried the Chinatown Wars demo, and couldn't even stomach 5 minutes with that fiddly faux analog BS. Same thing with a digital control setup. Even when your movement is constrained to up-down-left-right, a'la Zelda, it's still feels sloppy and unresponsive.
Maybe it's the games I played. I dunno. But for now, I'll stick to the more point and click stuff on my iPhone.
henke on 11/5/2011 at 05:37
Is that risky? Will it affect whether you can access the AppStore or anything like that? Can you reset the iPad to it's original state after you've done it?
I did see a video where someone had jailbroken their pad and was playing SNES emulators using a Wiimote. Looks cool indeed.
Also 5 minutes with Chinatown Wars isn't nearly enough to get the hang of the controls. It took me a good half hour with it before I wasn't crashing into every car on the street.
Renzatic on 11/5/2011 at 06:42
Quote Posted by henke
Is that risky? Will it affect whether you can access the AppStore or anything like that? Can you reset the iPad to it's original state after you've done it?
Think of jailbreaking as forcing administrator access to your iPad (or in Unix terms, which is exactly what iOS is, you're logging in as root). Normally, you're running under a lower level user account with limited permissions, and Apple, playing as a global admin, only lets you install what they've deemed safe. When you jailbreak, you can do whatever, up to and including getting stuff off the official app store.
And yeah, you can restore to an unjailbroken state quite easily. Due to some Cydia apps being a little flaky, I've been forced to do it three times now. It's not at all difficult to do, and only takes up a few minutes of your time if you're restoring from an unmodified copy of iOS on your harddrive (which you'll have if you've already jailbroken).
Quote:
Also 5 minutes with Chinatown Wars isn't nearly enough to get the hang of the controls. It took me a good half hour with it before I wasn't crashing into every car on the street.
I think I'm gonna wait until I get an iPad before I really put some time into it. Even if I do get used to the controls, the iPhone screen is still way too small to really enjoy the game. I mean hell, my thumbs take up a good 3rd of the screen when I'm playing it.
edit: by the way, I used Sn0wbreeze 2.7.1 to jailbreak, in case you're wondering.
Aja on 11/5/2011 at 06:44
Quote Posted by henke
Is that risky? Will it affect whether you can access the AppStore or anything like that? Can you reset the iPad to it's original state after you've done it?
No, no, and yes.
Matthew on 11/5/2011 at 09:00
Glad to hear FAH has been of some use, henke!
But you're all making me desire an iPad now. :(
henke on 23/5/2011 at 15:20
Henke's Bi-Weekly "WHAT I HAVE PLAYED ON MY IPAD"-athon
The Little Crane That CouldDo not be fooled by the name, this is one of the best simulators I have ever played on any system. Much like Tricky Truck it is a very barebones game that relies on physics to offer the challenge. Missions consist mainly of various construction, maintenance and logistics-based objectives. But also the occasional more freeform physics-puzzle. There is almost zero
gameiness to this game. When you pick up an object it does not
snap to your crane, but rather it hangs on realistically on the edges of your gripping-claw, and may well slip from your grip if you haven't done it carefully. The missions, like "transport new ballbearings to the machinery at the top of the tower and install them", or "stack all the boxes on top of eachother" sound easy but might take up to half an hour to complete.
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http://img600.imageshack.us/i/collageg.png/)
Inline Image:
http://img600.imageshack.us/img600/8030/collageg.pngUploaded with (
http://imageshack.us) ImageShack.us
Bottomline: a fantastic simulation that does not compromise realism for accessibility. Not everyone is gonna enjoy this game but I love it. The controls even work well on iPad. My only gripe is the small number of levels. 3-4 levels are available in the free version of the game(for iPad & iPhone) and about 10 more are available as an in-app-puchase. What this thing really needs is a level-editor, so the fans can keep on expanding on it.
10/10I couldn't find many gameplay videos of this but here's an (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8PHFTA4PDc&feature=player_detailpage#t=244s) an excited Spaniard not doing very well at the first 2 missions, and here's a German guy playing the game (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sR0qG2c-zrU) on an iPhone.
Tiki Totems PremiumFun and unique physics-based puzzle game. Remove all the blocks, but don't let the Totem fall to the ground or you'll anger the Volcano-Gods! Kinda like Jenga with a twist.
9/10Bruce Lee Dragon WarriorGood animations and a fighting system that actually works on an iPad. I've had lots of fun with this one, just reached level 24.
8/10Trophylite 2XL Rally HDSimple but very satisfying rally-game. The chase-cam kinda sucks so I stick with the hood-cam. The controlls are perfect and powersliding is as fun as it was in Screamer 2.
7/10Splinter Cell: ConvictionOnly bought this because it was on sale for 79 cents and I wanted to see how the controls would work on an iPad. Not very well, I'm afraid. Third and first person shooters really don't belond on the iPad. :erg: Besides dodgy controls the game doesn't look very good either and the story is boring.
3/10(
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http://img803.imageshack.us/img803/337/spiritsipadapp1.jpgSpiritsAbsolutely gorgeous-looking Lemmings-clone, but with more focus on aerodynamics than Lemmings had.
8/10(
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hk18hkQZIdY) Trailer
MystI've been meaning to play this for the past 20 years so when I saw that there was an iPad version for 79 cents I picked it up. I wish I hadn't. The graphics look awful by todays standards and the story is... I don't even know. Between this and Realms of the Haunting I'm learning that maybe it's best to just leave the games I missed out on the first time around unplayed. Not gonna put a score on this one because I'm not about to give it a proper chance and it'll just piss off the fans.
Reckless Racing HDLooks great and plays decently. Not many levels though, no Carrer-mode, and in the end probably not worth the 4 bucks I spent on it.
6/10(
http://img684.imageshack.us/i/mzlyuxnzajy320x48075.jpg/)
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http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/8559/mzlyuxnzajy320x48075.jpgTappi Bear Kung FuUse kung fu to defend your donuts! Simple as hell but so absurd and laugh-out-loud funny.
7/10Micro Pool (free 9-ball iPhone version)I am loving this but the pixelated graphics and only one game-mode leaves me wanting a meatier pool-sim. Can anyone recommend me a good one? Preferably one that forgoes fancy 3D camera-angles in favour of a simple overhead-view.
henke on 4/12/2011 at 18:55
Decided to check out what's new on the iPad gaming scene this weekend and found a couple of
wonderful innovative new things.
WildchordsThis free game is a fun way to learn how to play the guitar. Seriously if you, like me, have a guitar(that you don't really know how to play) in your house, as well as an iPad then get this thing. Here's a video explaining how (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssXCFg4CzYA) it works. I played it a bit but got stuck on the Am chord. It makes my fingers hurt! I shall try again tomorrow when the aching has subsided a bit.
Touchgrind BMXMaybe you remember that skateboarding game from the early days of the iPhone where you controlled the skateboard with two fingers? Well this is from the same company except a lot more refined. Here's (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrH6rcFdz7Q) a video that gives you an idea of what it's like. The controls work remarkably well, though there is a bit of a learning curve. For each level you have a list of challenges(much like in the Tony Hawk Pro Skater games), completing challenges unlocks more bikes and tracks. I've only made it to track 3 so far.
I've also been playing some Ininity Blade this weekend. Got the alternate ending, but not the proper ending yet. The sequel is getting good reviews but I hear it's a bit buggy on iPad 1's, so I'm holding off on getting it.
Renzatic on 29/3/2012 at 00:19
Hay guys! I've sold out, too! I'm now the proud owner of a black 16GB iPad 3.
I suck so much. :(
