Dwagz' Thoughts on iOS Apps (Specifically games)

I recently got an iPod Touch, and as a keen gamer I instantly went hunting for great games to play on it, and I have to say I've been kinda disappointed with the selection. To me, it seems just like the PC market - A couple of gems buried deep within a mound of look-a-likes and shameless copies, and floating in the sea of poor quality trash.

Publishers like EA are putting out pretty high quality titles for reasonable prices - I've certainly enjoyed the few hours I've put into The Sims 3, even if it's not something I'd usually play. Surviving High School, again by EA, was something a little unusual for me that's been quite a good purchase.

Activision, on the other hand, have given me nothing but trash. I bought Tony Hawk 2 for nostalgic purposes (As you do), and I felt that half of the controls didn't work. Crash Bandicoot Nitro whatever seemed a bit poor, too. I also picked up Doom II RPG, and haven't picked it up after a brief play because it seemed very sensitive and slightly annoying, and The Settlers - Despite being a game I loved years ago - just wasn't altered for the iPhone/Touch. I felt that it was 'too busy' for the screen, and you don't have the precision a mouse could give you.

One thing I've learned from my brief experiences is that for the better titles, you need to look at ones you wouldn't necessarily buy or that are from smaller companies. I bought Scarlett and the Spark of Life, the debut adventure from Launching Pad Studios, after I saw it mentioned on Adventure Gamers, and I loved it despite my concerns over the price tag. Canabalt gets a lot of playtime for me, too, and I think it's been worth every penny.

I'm also enjoying playing strategy games on it - The three I have being Civilization Revolution, Catan and Stratego. Civ Revolution is a brilliant game, and for anyone finding Civ IV (Or even V) complicated, it's a great way to get used to some of the mechanics of the game without being buried in the politics and economics of the 'bigger' games. Catan is deceptively simple, and works well, but I do think the AI is a little geared towards being anti-human (Especially in single player), and I didn't notice any difference between the AI 'difficulties' that are available (Each character has their own strengths/weaknesses). Stratego isn't that great, I felt. It's a bit cramped and there's no tutorial for it, so you can end up playing it without knowing what's going on. I'm going to get Carcassonne, but that's linked to my next point.

Prices. I don't think £6 for a game is expensive as such, but when you have a market populated almost exclusively by titles in the £0.59 to £1.79 ($1 to $3, I believe) then the £4 and £6 titles begin to look very expensive. I'll gladly say Civ Rev was worth the £4, but a £6 title could mean 10 £0.59 titles, and it begins to look like bad value. I also think that pricing for some titles in the 'average' range can be poor, too. The aforementioned Scarlett game sold for £1.79, which when compared to the length, quality and re-playability of other titles, is very cheeky. For that price I'd expect at least some original background music to continually play during the game, not the near-constant silence you get.

So, yes, basically I think the iOS market is pretty saturated with poorer titles, and finding the good ones seems to be very hard. Might get some reviews up soon, though!

Thoughts on Gaming Addiction(s)

In the UK, at least, there's a big fuss about video game addictions which has come from the release of the latest Call of Duty game (Well, not so much) and the latest World of Warcraft expansion pack, Cataclysm (No, I don't want it. But I do. Yes. NO!). Recently, the BBC did a documentary on video game addictions, and I have to say I don't fully agree with a lot of what they said. What I've got from it is that Blizzard are a great evil and created World of Warcraft to disrupt the world or something. In my opinion, a game isn't addictive in itself. It's the person and the situation that causes the addiction. I think MMOs are some of the worst culprits for it, especially with the reward mechanics they have and the social features, but they're not the great evil they seem to be portrayed as. Many games (And consoles) have parental features that can be used to dissuade this behaviour, but for a lot of addicted younger people the parents do nothing to stop it until it's too late.

I'll confess that I fell prey to World of Warcraft, and if I hadn't been bored so quickly with them, I'd probably have fallen prey to Lord of the Rings: Online and EverQuest 2. My mum, and dad, did nothing to stop me playing the game even though it was all I did. I don't know if they'd worked out I was addicted and didn't know how to stop me, or if they just hadn't worked it out for themselves. Luckily, I managed to save myself indirectly (I won't go into it, though) and I've been free since the start of 2010 (Bar two lapses that lasted days at most). My sleep cycle had been ruined, I was constantly thinking about the game, I missed classes to play it and it honestly was a case of wake up, play WoW, go to bed, wake up, play WoW and so forth. I asked my parents a number of times for time cards to play it and I wouldn't be surprised if I'd gone into my overdraft to pay for it. Yes, a year later I still think about it, but I can't (And won't) let myself get back into it in case it happens all over again.

To play an MMO, or online multiplayer game, I think you seriously need to have a good level of self control, but you also need to have someone looking out for you. If you don't have self control, then you run the risk of letting it damage your life unless someone steps in and takes control for you. I was lucky enough to be able to get myself out of it. Others have been lucky in that family and friends have pulled them out of it, but some don't have that at all. Maybe the developers (And those who run internet cafés) should put some measures in place to dissuade you playing all day. Cap the experience you can achieve, cap the amount of gold you can earn. Something, though, because some people cannot control themselves and can seriously damage their lives. I think there's too many factors for one company to be at fault, however. Why do the café owners not limit the time you can spend there? They might lose a bit of money but they won't have deaths or ruined lives staining their image.

I don't blame Blizzard for what happened; That would be selfish and stupid. They didn't create my problems, I did. WoW filled a gap that I had, that was it. I could have been addicted to Sony's EverQuest 2 or another MMO. Blame is an easy thing to throw around. Guy from the BBC documentary? Blizzard aren't at fault for you losing touch with the world. It's just the catalyst.

Dwagginz Plays... Puzzle Quest 2 (PC, Steam)

I have the original Puzzle Quest, but I'll admit I'm not great at it. I've never gotten that far in it, and all attempts to do so end up with me getting bored or fed up. I tried the later Puzzle Kingdoms, and I think I spent about two minutes on it before giving up and closing it. Later I heard Puzzle Quest 2 was on the way, and I was quite excited about it. And today I finally got it. I've put about an hour or so into it, and these are my thoughts so far.

The basic puzzle mechanics are the same; chain up three or more of the gems (4 giving you an extra turn, 5 spawning a wildcard and an extra turn) and use your abilities (Used by spending a certain amount of gems you've collected) to reduce the opponent's life force to zero. Basically, it's a cross between a fairly "lite" RPG and Bejeweled. What's different in this one is the addition of a "fist" gem (Which I believe increases weapon skill, could be wrong) and the ability to use said weapons. They function just like an attack, and (where I am currently) do comparable damage.

I wasn't impressed with the characters you can have, though. There's four classes (Assassin, Barbarian, Sorcerer, Templar) and two genders, but only one portrait per class, which is a shame as Puzzle Quest had about 2-3 per gender per class, perhaps more. The avatar you have in-game also feels slightly odd. I chose the Barbarian and her model (Whilst when you saw it from the front) looked female, it seemed as if they'd just reskinned the masculine counterpart.

It's arguably more enjoyable than Puzzle Quest. It seems to have capitalised more on its RPG features and instead of going from a vague location to a vague location (i.e. castle to tower), you go across various grids. I believe the first town is about a 3x3 square, and (at the point I'm at) it turns into a dungeon crawler with the same number of grids. The enemies are static, but it's often not possible to proceed without defeating at least one. The ones that tend to be optional seem to be located near chests which contain resources (to upgrade your weapons/gear) so it's often worth your time to clear them.

It just seems to be puzzle after puzzle after puzzle. I killed a horde of rats, then went to the next room and killed a Goblin, then I had to do the chest puzzle (to get some loot) followed by the door puzzle to bash it down. All puzzles rotate around the same theme - matching gems. It would have been nice if they'd added some variety to the puzzles instead of just them all being basically the same.

Going back to the combat, two things annoyed me about it. Firstly, it seems unbalanced at times. I killed a few goblins with no issue, killed the troll, went into the only available area and it took 4-5 goes to kill some rats. The difficulty randomly spiked for no reason, and it went back to "normal" after that fight. Secondly, weapon attacks cut away from the screen and display a "splash screen" (Can't think of a better term) which states what attack it was, how much damage it did, and a nice big image to get across what it was. That annoyed me a little as it felt unnecessary and it breaks the flow of combat, and surely a less distracting (but still unique) way to show weapon damage would have been possible?

Well, all I can do is carry on. So far I'm not annoyed I spent £8 on this.

A Break From Tradition - Phone Calls

Bit of a thoughtful post today under the title "A Break From Tradition".

We had a phone call today, and as usual I didn't answer it as it's often a cold caller or an advertising firm (Perhaps they're one and the same), and it caused me to think about how people react to these calls and treat the person on the other end of the line, and the large amount of hypocrisy often present in these rants or attitudes.

At the end of the day, the person on the other end of the line is no different from you or me. They're there to do a job, to earn a living and to get through life. They're doing what they're told to by their superiors, and you can't fault them for that. Yes, I'll agree that ringing your house after around 7-8pm is perhaps rude, but I don't think it gives anyone a right to spout such venom at the poor person on the other end.

I'll use my mum as a great example of what I mean. She comes home from work and sometimes rants about rude customers she's had, how they treat her rudely and so forth. And yet when the phone rings and it's someone doing their job, she's rude to them. How is that an appropriate way to behave? The person on the other end of the line has probably been treated like that all day, perhaps all week. They're polite to you (Well, as polite as one can be in that job) and I would say that you should be polite back to them. They're human beings after all!

I had a job that wasn't too different in nature. I was on what's called "front cover" for part of a job, and the point of that task is to approach customers who've walked into the store and ask them to sign up to something (Usually a catalogue). You get *so* many people being rude to you that it's really morale destroying. "No, I don't speak English" is a common one. Rarely a "No, thank you" or a pitying glance, just "No" or something equally blunt and rude. You quickly begin to give up hope with it because it's just this barrage of rudeness, people not being courteous and negativity.

I'm not going to pretend to be some moral arbiter who tells you how to live your life, nor how to behave. I'm not doing this post for any particular reason. I just think that a bit of courtesy is required. Imagine you're the person on the other end of the line. Would you like to be treated like you just treated them? No, I would guess not.

Oh dear, oh dear...

Yes... I finally gave in and signed up for that I'm-A-Twit lark. I'll probably be chirping once every blue moon about pointless stuff.

P.S. Buy The Book of Transformations by Mark C. Newton when it comes out. That's an order.
P.P.S. I really need GTA IV: Episodes from Liberty City. Need more beeg American tee-tees.

Dwagginz Plays... Dwagginz Plays - Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures (Part 2)

I've been a bit quiet recently, partially out of apathy for the game and partially because I've been playing other things like Star Wars: Battlefront II and Grand Theft Auto IV. But I haven't completely given up with it. So, Dwagginz, what have you done up until now?

Well, I gave in and got a one month membership...

Firstly, I was wrong. It's £3.99 for a month, which sort of changes my perspective on membership. It's a lot for not a lot. You unlock more costumes (And they're adding more) and things, but nothing ever feels like it's [i]worth it[/i].

The Tower Defence game (Republic Defender, I believe) really ramps up in difficulty once you get to the member stages. I suspect it's aimed more at the older players, but I'll admit I really began to struggle with it. You don't get a lot of time on the Daily Trivia quiz (Members Only!) to answer the questions, with the end of the question's audio being close to the end of your allotted time. If you factor in the bugs and so forth, CWA is quite a challenging game for the market it's aimed at.

Overall, I think Clone Wars Adventures is a mixed bag. The games seem a bit too difficult, and whilst it may encourage parents to join in, I think both child and adult will find themselves frustrated within a short timespan. All there is to do, beyond running around and exploring a handful of areas (With nothing to find, I might add) is play the mini-games. You can try to socialise if you like, but I'm not sure I could recommend it. I never used the chat system but if it's like FR's then it'll be very crippled and restrictive.

My honest opinion, at this moment, is to wait for more content to be added. More items to buy, more customisation options, more levels and so on. With games like Free Realms around which are arguably more accessible to younger players and which have a higher content level for free players, I think CWA pales in comparison. Yeah, it's a bit fun, but that's it. Free Realms, in my opinion, is much more deserving of your time and (If you so choose, money).

Will I continue with this game? Perhaps. Will I do so as paid? Not unless SOE give me a reason to.

Dwagginz Plays - Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures (Part 1.5)

I'm going to play more later, but I've had a bit of a sleep after playing for another hour or two last night. I tried a few more of the games on offer, including Blaster Training, Lightsaber Duel and Force Perception. I wouldn't say they're excessively buggy, but I felt that they were a bit poor quality, especially Force Perception.

Blaster Training is basically like the duck shooting mini-games at fairs. Targets pop-up and you've got to hit the targets (As long as they're droids, that is! No shooting Anakin in the face!), with "head shots" resulting in a critical hit, taking them out in one go. It bases your score on how many droids you hit and what your accuracy is at the end. For the most part it's fairly simple and I managed to get a chain of roughly 20 critical hits, but it's also quite easy to miss, especially when you're aiming in the rear rows of targets.

Lightsaber Duel is more in line with beat 'em' up games like Tekken and Street Fighter, albeit with a Star Wars twist. You have to press the arrow keys in the right combination of four (Such as Up Down Left Down) before the timer empties to execute an attack. If you do so successfully, you contribute to your combo meter. After a few attacks, your combo meter fills and if you do the correct combination then you execute a much stronger attack against your opponent. Sadly, this game is prone to bugging out. You can press the keys too fast and it seems to pause for a second or two before registering them. I've also had situations where I'm using a combo move and the opponent attacked me before I finished, although it wasn't possible for me to "type" any quicker. I would say it's one of the least forgiving games in CWA, and I only went against three opponents (Obi Wan, Ashoka, Barriss Offee) before the game reminded me to stump up some money.

Force Perception is the worst game out of the lot. It's buggy, it's very unforgiving and it's frustrating. You have to find five differences in the two images, but the two images are never the same, there's always a subtle difference. I had one of Aayla Secura, and whilst the difference in her pose was minimal, it was still there. You've also got a small area to click on for a difference, and each incorrect click docks 1000 points. Yes, if you miss by a pixel you lose 1000 points. I basically gave up with this game because it's just so infuriatingly broken.

I also played around with the SC store last night, and found an option to switch between items which are bought with SC and those with Credits. The amount of items to buy is still rather small, but I found some nice pieces that really tempt me into getting a membership.

More to come later...