I had no interest in picking up Osmos when it first rocketed to the top of the iPad charts. Having only seen screenshots and read the game’s description, it did not sound like anything I wanted to play. However, the strong buzz and sale price a few weeks ago of $0.99 made it hard to refuse. When I first played the game, I was totally turned off by the game’s simple concept and initially awkward controls. But then…it clicked.
Continue reading
(iTunes)
If you’ve never played this game, seen video of it or had someone explain it to you, it can be hard to comprehend what the heck is going on in the image above. For over a year now, I’ve heard the gaming press talk about how amazing this Wii Ware release is, but just by looking at images of it, I couldn’t comprehend what this was or why it was so cool.
Since it’s on sale right now for both iPhone and iPad, I decided to give the iPad version a go. If you’re interested in finding out what this game is all about, read on.
Over the last few months, I haven’t done too much in the way of iPod Touch/iPhone gaming. Most of my gaming time of late has been dedicated to my PlayStation 3 when I’ve have time to spare. However, my car recently broke down, which meant I’ve spent a lot more time on public transportation over the last few days. It’s been a great opportunity to catch up on Castlevania Puzzle: Encore of the Night, which is worth grabbing at regular price, but is on sale right now for a limited time.
Speaking of sales, iTunes has a bunch of games on sale right now. I grabbed a few games that have gotten a lot of positive buzz. Here’s what I got:
Continue reading
Resident Evil 4 still stands as one of my favourite video games of all-time. When it came out on the GameCube, it featured hands-down the best graphics on any console game and basically gave birth to the third person shooter. I’ve played through this game at least three times and it will always hold a special spot in my heart.
The iPad edition of Resident Evil 4 is a weird product. It tries really hard to be just like the original version, but in some cases, to a fault. What you’re left with is a game that feels like a hollow shell of its former self.
Predators is a universal iDevice game that I’ve actually had for a couple of weeks now. I’m sort of a fan of the Predator franchise, and judging by what I had seen in trailers, I thought it looked pretty good. It also didn’t hurt that it was a $3 game that worked with both the iPhone and iPad. I just past half way through the main campaign, so I don’t feel comfortable enough to pass final judgment on it. But I have played enough to at least share some thoughts on my experiences so far.
Continue reading
Ever since I wrote the Top 5 All-Time Most Viewed In Third Person Posts post, I’ve been kind of a metrics junkie. I’ll frequently log in with the sole intention of viewing the numbers and picking out the trends. I don’t envision a day where I’ll ever give away all my numbers to you, but I think it could be a neat exercise to talk about how you, the readers, use In Third Person. I’ve already covered the Top 5 Most Viewed In Third Person Posts of All-Time and now, I want to talk about the three topics that In Third Person readers can’t get enough of within the last month or so.
As someone with no affinity towards the Castlevania series, picking up Castlevania Encore: Puzzle of the Night seems like a weird move. Up until I played it, I wasn’t even sure if I was going to regret the discounted price I paid for it.
While I haven’t played enough to pass a final judgment on it, I’m really digging this so far.
The first Super Monkey Ball caught everyone by surprise when it was ported to the Gamecube from the arcade. This evolution of Marble Madness was simple to learn, hard to master and featured a fun to play campaign mode and mini games. Thanks to the success of that first game, Super Monkey Ball has grown into a profitable franchise for Sega. However, the steady flow of sales has not led to a steady improvement in quality. In fact, I would go as far as saying that none of the Monkey Ball games since the original have surpassed the quality of the first. Some of the entries in the series are flat-out bad.
Prior to my impulsive purchase of Sakura Edition on the iPad, I had been burned twice by Super Monkey Ball sequels. I caved on the iPad version because I was still starved for new iPad-specific games and it was on sale for $5. Is this the game that brings the series back into top form?
Continue reading
I’ve been waiting a long time for Risk to hit the iPhone. During my childhood, one of my best friends used to always get board games from garage sales, which we would then play on his picnic table throughout the summer. One of those games was Risk. For weeks, we were generals, battling over control of the world through the strategic placement and movement of troops as well as a few lucky dice rolls.
This latest release may be a bit late on the iPhone, especially for those who have dabbled in other, arguably better, dice-rolling strategy games. I can’t speak to its competitors, as I haven’t tried any of them. However, I have put in a number of hours into Risk since it came out a few days ago, and I’m more than happy to share my thoughts on the game with you.
Music might be the most overlooked aspect of video games by game creators and game players alike. Unless its the star of the show in a music game, music is often perceived as audio wallpaper. Game makers generally aren’t as successful in implementing music as they are with other elements of their products, such as graphics and gameplay. Nowadays, licensed music and slapped-in “Hollywood-like” orchestral scores are the norm. With the advent of voice chat, custom soundtracks and other diversions, game players in general I think are paying less attention to game music than ever before, too.
I’m still paying attention though. I grew up in an era where video game music had its own distinct sound due to technological limitations. An era when the Super Mario theme was still hot and new. Where the awesome work of game composers shone through the primitive beeps and bloops. Game music has evolved dramatically over the years, but we as gamers have had our ears blessed with some truly great music.
I wanted to take the time out to write about some of my favourite pieces of video game music in a series of posts. There are some amazing tunes that have not only had an impact on my gaming, but my life as well in some way or another. There were more obvious choices I could have gone with to start this series, but I wanted to give credit to a game that has recently eaten up a lot of my time (and my brains). Besides being super fun to play, it has some of the best video game music I’ve heard in a while.
In Third Person 