iPhone/iPod Touch Apps

169000. At present there 169000 published apllications that you can put on your iPhone/iPod Touch. Are there actually decent ones in between the thousands of useless ones? Here's a selection of some of the ones I have encountered..

DoodleJump
Incredibly simple game, in which you aim to jump your little green fella up a never ending tunnel of platforms and enemies, using various power ups to help you. Sounds simple, and is. But has a great lifespan in it, and you find yourself coming back time and time again. Would the Chilean Miners had this game, I could have seen some real injuries coming.
Rating - 7/10













Flight Control


Another simple little game, where you have to direct planes onto their correct runway by drawing flightpaths with your finger. Starts simple, gets incredibly challenging. Less of a want to go back to the game after a few times though.
Rating - 6/10

Field Runners


Absolutely amazingly addictive game. Building your own defence system, you buy different weapons, and they will do their best to stop the runners reaching your base. Can quite easily lose an hour at a time on this game.
Rating - 7/10

Monopoly



Handheld version of the popular game - very nicely set out, very good interface and all the money working out is done for you. Really enjoy this game. Good multiplayer too.
Rating - 8/10

Angry Birds



Quite simply - the most addictive, the best game you can own on a smart phone. So so simple - all you have to do is catapult birds into various flimsily made castles, in the hope of getting to the green pig monsters inside. Hundreds of levels, a game that will frustrate you, and elight you in its simplicity. Simply put - its superb.
Rating - 9/10

Cut The Rope



Cut The Rope is an extremely nice little game, where the aim is to cut ropes, in the hope of giving a little green dude some candy. The levels switch in difficulty quite frequesntly, which is one of the only real faults with the game. Although no iPhone game is really diverse, sometimes you are left longing for something else with this game. Still a good buy though.

Rating - 7/10



To end, I should mention that I play all thse on an iPhone 4G. I bought all apps from the iTunes app store. There are many many other apps avaliable - theres Flick Football, Flick Fishing, Paper Toss, Stone Loops - all great games, that are worth 59p. Please feel free to comment and let me know your favourites!

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11

Birdie or Bogie?



The standard playing interface, but still looks great..


Tiger Woods didn't exactly have the quietest of years..

A woman emerged as the golf stars additional piece on the side. Then 2 did. Then a handful. A dozen. Before you knew it, the women who alleged to have Tiger in their bunker could have filled the empty seats for a Manchester City home game (I know, I know, a slight exaggeration, I doubt Hugh Hefner's exes could fill those empty seats).

It all became public in a bizarre, yet ironic way. After much covering up, it emerged that when Tiger's wife found out about his other ladies, she chased him out the house, followed his car, and smashed the cars window to get to him with a golf club. The irony, for those wondering, is that the swing taken by his wife, was probably the best swing taken by a Woods family member this year. Since, its been no secret that Tiger has struggled to retake his form which saw him become a cover star for his own brand of computer game.

EA Sports now had to decide whether to continue with the now disgraced golfers franchise of videogame, or whether to start afresh. They obviously took a while deciding this, as it doesn't appear alot of time went into game testing.

The game (I know, I finally get onto the game bit, hip hip hooray), isn't necessarily bugged or faulty.. but it is just ridiculously hard. My lasting memories from previous Tiger Woods games, has been the pick up and play ability of it. For the amateur or pro, the game could be played relatively easily. The console controller analogue stick way of playing was easy to grasp - and allowed minor faults to go unpunished in the interest of a smooth and non frustrating game..

This year however, the game has the learning curve of diving with sharks wearing a suit made of bacon. Even on the easiest setting, you find yourself increasingly frustrated as you start off in your career. I am sure this is how hard it would be in real life - so congratulation must go if that was their plan. But the slightest movement in the wrong direction of the analogue stick feels like it results in a far too harsh movement of the ball. To start off with, the game lacks fun.

I moved therefore onto a quick round, playing as Tiger Woods. Same issue. Extremely sensitive stick, and an exaggerated swing adjustment to match it. It is possible of course to change this, which is a nice feature, but requires you to be consistently good or bad with your swing - something I apparently can't do. I should mention that after around 20 or so events, I was no longer getting a double digit bogey round, but it just seems like Tiger Woods 11 takes far too long to get into - especially for the career mode, a mode which is normally the top of my liking list on a game.

Aquiring skills on "your" player has always been the first challenge on any Tiger Woods game and for some reason EA Sports seems to think that they have to change the way to do this for every single installment of the series. They had it spot on for the 2004 version, unfortunately the 2011 versions take on it is in my opinion the worst yet. Why? You now earn XP points very, very, very slowly....
Lester Freamon, www.redcafe.net

The link for Lester's full thoughts on the game, the link is at the bottom of my review.

As Lester Freamon mentions about slow XP building, EA has a plan - along with Ultimate modes in Madden or FIFA, to grab even more money off you after you have forked out in the game. To gain XP, you can now purchase it. Very disappointing.

The graphics can't really be faulted - the courses look superb, and with the additional camera views the play looks extremely realistic. Banana shaped club and egg shaped ball aside, the physics engine is improved - and after a while, the necessity of saving "focus", (the thing which gives you the ability to power up a shot, or put spin on a ball) becomes a real drawing feature to the game.


Courses from all over the world, including the Ryder Cup match at Celtic Manor

So the game is good. Apart from the most fundamental part of it. With quite a considerable amount of practice it becomes easier though, but I still think that Tiger Woods 09 was the most enjoyable of the series, and now for less than a tenner in some shops, I don't see Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 as a £30 improvement..

Rating - 5.5/10
Fair Price - £20



O and Chile - absolutely brilliant. Congratulations, the best story there has been in years. Gives hope to alot of people. Felt sorry for the rescue worker standing there unharnessing one of the workers while he screamed "I am only alive because of god" in his face. Irony.


http://www.redcafe.net/8754677-post50.html

Recent Games.. Red Dead Redemption and Just Cause 2

During my rather long gap from reviewing, I missed a fair few “top” games. Heres 2.


Red Dead Redemption

The big named release of the year. From the same people who bring us GTA, Red Dead Redemption (RDR) was always going to be open to criticism. In the main, the 14 year olds (who wrongly play GTA anyway)were going to be at the forefront of complainers.



“Theres no cars, no rocket launchers, its just a poor, old version of GTA”.

In a way, that is correct. The only cars are driven by the police agents who are blackmailing you. There are no rocket launchers. You make money by completing missions, for less than respectable characters. You own and use guns, you kill people. You make choices that affect your story..

But a poor GTA? Not a chance. For what its worth, I didn't really “get” GTA IV. I thought it took for too long to get into the fun aspect of a sandbox game that most look for. I thought you immediately lacked freedom in the game, and that the missions were not fun. The characters were annoying... It just was not a game I enjoyed. For this reason, I started off slightly apprehensively on RDR.

Within an hour, any doubts were well and truly cast aside.

Red Dead Redemption is amazing. And it gets better the more you play it.

The game looks.. just fantastic. Despite playing in the desert, and desert looking towns, there is a distinct feel to different areas. The towns are all set out differently, look differently, and have individual parts to them. The map is huge, it can take about 25 minutes to travel from 1 side of the map, right to the other.. But you don't mind doing it. Choosing, catching, taming and then riding your horse is a real intricate part of the game. Invest in horses, you will need them later. And you will get a bit cut up when your first long term horse collapses unexpectedly..

Missions are varied (but, as for all great games, missions are not the forefront of your experience), gameplay is natural and enjoyable, and most of all – the game is fun, and sucks you in.



Well played Rock Star. Now hope Cowboys come back into fashion..

Rating – 9.5/10
Fair Price - £40.99

Just Cause 2

Computer Games should be fun. They should put a big smile on your face, like you slept with a coat hanger in your mouth. Just Cause 2 well and truly does this.

The main reason for the fun in this game, comes from your dual ended grappling hook – meaning you can attach anything, or anyone, to anything. A car to a lamp-post so it pings back. An enemy to a plane you then fly around. A jeep to a helicopter. A rival gang member to a gas canister which you then propel into the air..

Just.. look at this..



And the beauty of this game? It is so, so fun. There really is no big deal made of not completing missions. Its simple, its easy to just dip in and out of, and you have around 120 hours of gaming until you achieve 100% completion.. And even then, I was tempted to play it all over again.

Just type in “Just Cause 2 Stunts” into youtube. If after watching a few of those videos you don't want to buy this game.. well then, um, I really do not know what more you want out of a game. Watching videos is worth so much more than me writing about the game..



The designers have actually pointed out they wanted “Rag doll and insane physics” in the game, and they did a fantastic job in putting them in.

Rating – 9.5/10
Fair Price - £40.99

FIFA 11

As the game gets another year older, how is it maturing? Not too well..



FIFA has reached the difficult adolescent years. Since the vastly underrated World Cup game was brought out in May, I have been extremely excited by this years FIFA offering. The gameplay in WC was superb, graphics, as per usual fantastic, and a pretty seamless game.

After a fair few days spent attempting to immerse myself in FIFA 11 however, I am unbelievably disappointed. The game is nowhere near seemingly finished. Even a true FIFA purist/fanboy, must acknowledge the cheek of EA to put out this game, especially promoting it with promises of improvements from FIFA 10, which, in my opinion was the best club football game released in a long, long time. The hard truth though, is that this game is a drastic step back.

It almost feels like it is not actually you playing the game, the reaction speed and response time of the players is often comparable to a dead slug, and even worse online. Players often disappear, and will sometimes reselect who you are controlling for no real reason.

The career mode is a welcome highlight – no longer stuck in a 4 year cycle, there is more depth to the mode now, with more choice over your playing, or now managerial life. The Virtual Pro mode, as many will discover is extremely addictive, but the fact that gameplay is so slow, means it can be incredibly frustrating. Starting off at Bradford, my first season was a mixture of lows and other lows. Its hard to level up your pro, when you cannot pass (although that's just the game in general, not just my player), cannot shoot, and seem to care about the game as much as Tevez cares who he plays for.
The other main edition is the ability to play as the goalkeeper. Some will turn this into an art form, but I got bored extremely quickly with waiting endlessly to do something.

I always harp on about realism in games – and in effect, I am sure this game is extremely realistic to real life top flight football, but the fact that passing is so frustratingly inconsistent is a painful reminded that FIFA, and all computer games are supposed to be fun and enjoyable. Is this game? In the most, not at the minute. Is it too realistic?

Player growth in career mode makes career mode unplayable for me. Its random, and despite getting emails that your players are improving, they dont. I've been on the forums and EA have listed it as one of the things they are fixing for the next patch. Apparently if you play the career mode till players are like 25+ the growth speeds up... But what of younger players until then? You can play 2 or 3 seasons without them improving at all. Who wants to do that? And how does that make sense anyway? - Ekeke, www.redcafe.net

As for online, I can only really speculate how good it is/will be. Out of my 12 attempted online ranked games, I have managed to complete 2 of them (other friends have a lower %), and I am 0/9 on completion of the Pro Clubs online version. Its appalling. As mentioned earlier, the lag makes the game unplayable too, sometimes a full 4 seconds after pressing a direction, will your player make that move. Its just not good enough for a game which so many look forward to.



To be honest, I could continue to look at the bugs, glitches and canyons of faults with the game – but I fully expect EA to provide us with multiple patches to fix these at some point or another.

Maybe we have just been spoilt with FIFA's last few years releases. Few would argue that FIFA is sitting on top of the football sim pile over the last few years, but with Pro becoming a little more well respected this year, next years releases will be extremely interesting. I also fully expect to get a torrent of abuse about this review - but as always, it is my personal opinion. I do not enjoy this game the the minute, and cannot see it being worth the RRP of £44.99. Nowhere near.

Get working on your patches EA, then bring us something memorable next year please.

Rating – 4/10
Fair Price - £14.99

(Rating and Price will change, dependant on patches)

Madden 11

Good game for American Football rookies, or just for seasoned vets?



As with most sports games, there is a point where you wonder... where else can this game go? FIFA, PES, NBA, NHL etc, have all managed to keep there appeal and freshness, despite obvious limitations. It's often a hard choice whether a years improvement is worth upgrading and parting with your hard earned money.. So how does this years Madden fare?

The main feature that is new to this years game is the inclusion of "Gameflow", a smart play calling feature, that acts like your co-ordinators during the game. Depending on how you play, and what works against your opponents in games, so your given play will adjust. In the most, it has to be said that I love this feature. True, sometimes it makes an error and gives you an odd play, but it really makes the game quicker and easier for anyone who isn't a tactical master at American Football. I am a Wide Receiver for an American Football team in the UK, but I have as much clue about the defensive side of the game as Katie Price has a clue about how to be a mother.

For some reason however, there seems to be a different movement mechanic for offence and defence. Running backs and receivers seem to be able to make turns tighter than the New York Jets salary room when the cap comes back in. But the covering corners, linebackers (think Waterboy) and other defensive players seem to be as agile as a Robin Reliant without wheels. Or without wheels. I don't think there's a great deal of difference. The movement just seems sluggish for the defence, which can be frustrating.


The 2 main offline modes are Franchise and Superstar modes, each offering different challenges. I have mentioned before how I really approve of customisable difficulty settings, and with a individually tailored Madden difficulty to set yourself, the game really fits around you. I am brilliant at my running game, as well as air game - but struggle to defend against air targets. Therefore I am a significantly higher difficulty setting for Offence, than I am for my poor Defensive skills. Working your way through seasons of franchise can be a long challenge, but extremely rewarding too.
Superstar mode allows you to create, or take control of a Rookie in the NFL. Similar to Be A Pro in FIFA, you can improve skills based on your effectiveness in matches. The game engine is faultless in this mode, you really feel part of the action, but it's nard not to feel a little left out by the lack of off the field interaction. After being able to talk to the press, train on certain areas, negotiate contracts etc, slipping back to the only options of "Complain about Coaches", "Ask for a trade" just seems extremely basic.

Some may disagree, but I feel this game lacks a little personality. Sure it's not what it's job is, but you still feel a little let down. However, the gameplay is addictive as per usual, the difficulty settings are brilliant, and the inclusion of the Gameflow play selection system is quality. It lets you play the game, even if you are not entirely sure what is going on. Just like Nigel De Jong.

Rating - 7/10
Fair Price - £27.99

Crackdown 2

Agent or Failgent..? (Sorry)



The first Crackdown was an unsung hero of the Xbox 360. With its slightly cartoon graphics, many actually wrote the game off before it had even been released.

I was actually thrilled though to see that this game hadn't updated its image too much. The look of the game is superb, and fits perfectly with the setting. In the same way you wish your sports team wouldn't change its image – generally classy players, great academy set up, controllable egos, strong work ethic – since turning into a bunch of ruthless mercenaries/thugs for hire who love a dive more than anyone over 16 on facebook despises the “like” button on there. (A heads up for Manchester City fans around before 2006) – I wished this game would stick to its style.



Crackdown 2 is just really, really fun. The game itself is simple, some say repetitive, but theres no real frustration. The large (without comparison to Fallout, Red Dead Redemption, Far Cry 2 etc) open world map is actually pretty easy to distinguish between different areas, and landmarks add to this – meaning you, with enough game time, can actually feel like you know the neighbourhoods. There is so much to do – as you increase your characters abilities, different areas become open to you, and different challenges too. There is a real difference in the abilities of individual agents too, your character will very quickly improve in areas you excel in (for me it was explosions and agility), and the other areas, that maybe you don't use as much, will take more time for you to level up on (for me it was driving and firearms).

As well as fighting the criminal underworld, Crackdown 2 also features the surge of mutants to deal with. As well as taking over Criminal strongholds, you must now also clear mutant pits, using the Agencies technology. Whilst some will no doubt criticise the games lack of variations in missions, I rarely played more than a couple of missions in a row.. I was far too busy just mucking around. Picking up and throwing cars, blowing pretty much everything up, driving around and ploughing down mutants, this game is extremely personalised. Its often only that you are reminded that you remember that you have to do some missions. The game is as engrossing as Angry Birds.

Online, the game adds another dimension. With so many games pushing towards the main emphasis of itself to online play – its refreshing to see a game that could be pushed down the similar path.. not. Online was an afterthought, not that that statement is meant negatively. With a good group of friends, the game is extremely good online. Crackdown 2 is just pure fun. Sure, if you so choose you can run around killing the other players, but for the most, its more fun to much around with the environment. (However Tim, Kieron and John may have a duck grenade heading there way for forgetting to text me when they were playing!)



In conclusion, I am extremely impressed by the game. Would I want a few more and varied missions? Absolutely. Would I be pleased with a few more weapons? Of course.. But it is just a fun, exciting, great game. Highly recommended.

Rating – 9/10
Fair Price - £42.99

Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. 2

Take Off or Crash Landing?



The second of Tom Clancy's aerial warfare games was always going to have a tough act to follow, after the suprise success of HAWX 1. The storyline follows a fairly predictable storyline – Crack team of fighter pilots, best in the world. For hire. Good vs Evil.. Nuclear threats and bombs. Giants mutant snowmen. Ok, fine, I made that last one up.

Unfortunately, the game fails to deliver in many areas – the graphical content of the game looks somewhat 10 years ago, the soundtrack is.. well, a standard plane game. The game controls are too twitchy, and extremely slow to react in some areas. The weapons promise a wide range of abilities, but deliver very little. Some longer range ones are virtually impossible to effectively use, due to the twitchy and unsmooth controls of the game.

The game however, is pretty fun. During the (short as a lifespan of a Premier League manager), single player mode – there is a wide range of missions for you to deal with – as well as on plane gun turret shooting, there is actually different types of missions, as well as a compelling last mission too. But, as I always find with most warfare games – the game is just far too short. By the time you feel involved in the game, its over. And to me, there is very little want to replay the game, even on a more difficult setting. I am not highly interested in planes, so had no determination to unlock different planes.



Online, despite having promise of an open ended dog fight, the game is poorly designed in the online aspects. The default plane is a slow bomber, and its not always at the forefront of your mind to change your plane type, There is no prompt, which inhibits the want of people playing online, who have to constantly quit back out of the game to re choose a plane that is faster then the snail in prit-stick , and manoeuvrable as Rik Waller on a segway default. I played 1- games online, and enjoyed about 2 of them. There is just something decidedly unfinished about the online game.

All in all though, it would be a lie to say I didn't enjoy the game at all. It has its charms, and it will no doubt delight the hardcore plane enthusiasts... until the next Ace Combat comes out.

Rating – 6/10
Fair Price - £18.99

F1 2010 - Finally released, but still not finished.

The game that has had more delays than a train into London finally came out.. But it's still not finished.



F1 2010 finally makes it's first bow onto the large stage of joint Xbox, PS3 and PC, after a long running saga involving separate companies playground squabbling, F1 fans patiently waiting, and a release date that was changed as often as the Sugababes lineup.

The game aims to get you into the life of an F1 driver. In the driving seat, when flying around at 200mph, the only communication you have is with your race engineer. There is no commentary on the game, which for some is an added bonus. You can now change various settings on your car whilst driving, similar to real life F1. Wing settings, engine power and even commands for your next pit stop can be adjusted whilst on track, which is a very nice touch, and helps immerse you into the game.

Immersion

Whilst there are many issues at present with the game (which I will get to), immersion certainly isn't one of them. I started my career with Lotus, the historic team which has returned, and I was determined to be their saviour. Which I did.. Sort of, finishing my first race for the team in 14th. Now, to people who have not played the game, it may seem slightly irrelevant - not in the points, not on the podium, not important. But I was extremely pleased. I had been having an epic (as epic as a 14th-15th place battle can be) 5 lap battle with Rosberg, and finally managed to overtake him on the last corner, literally standing up and punching the air when I did so.
Of course, with assists on, down to easy modem, I probably could have won the race. But when a game has truly immersed me, I prefer to make it realistic. And as my next race finishes were 12th, 8th, DNF, 19th, I would say that is pretty much in line with the real Lotus. But then to my greatest hour. Pitting late at Spa, I had managed to outwit the rest of the drivers in waiting for the rain to come. I saw the darker clouds, radioed to the pits for wet tyres, and then made my stop. Then the rain came. Every other driver had to re pit, which pushed me up the field, and the pack trailing in my wake. Sensing Hamilton right behind me, and now with the correct tyres, I increased my engine, lowered downforce to combat the rain... And proceeded to fly off on the next corner. However, I finished the race in 2nd place.

As you can tell, the game sucks you in. You feel a real part of everything. The game looks fantastic, feels amazing, and the sounds are individual to each team. The small details are fantastic on the game.. But there are certain, rather large, glaring errors which stunt this games amazingness.

Bugs, bugs, bugs. Theres a bug which delays you leaving a pit stop if there is a car in the vicinity of you – vicinity being nearest mile.. The cars on track do not match their lap times. You have no way of knowing if you are gaining on the person infront. The cars randomly turn into ghosts, allowing you to crash into them, with no impact.. But then you are on the gravel. Fans of the game are hopeful that this will obviously be rectified via a patch.. But its pretty ridiculous the game was allowed to be released with these ridiculously large and glaring errors.

But weirdly enough.. the game is just brilliant. You really have a sense of acheivement gaining a place tht means nothing, and you have to work for it. The various assists and difficulties mean that you can really tailor this game to exactly whats right for you.




By no means is this game perfect, the glitches are ridiculous, but should a magic patch fix everything.. its going to be pretty close.

Rating – 8/10
Fair Price - £30 (£40 if no issues!)