Saturday 30 May 2009

Google Wave - nuff said

The future of the Internet is nearly here. Google has announced it's biggest product since Google Maps. Essentially Google Wave is a open source mass comunication tool. It mixes all the current forms communication into one single open source site. It will blend e-mail, instant messeging, social networking and open source development. By the time it gets fully released there should be a load of Wave apps out. The only danger is that it will get too swamped like Facebook.

We'll be keeping our views on it hidden until more is released, but it already looks awesome. It's got a huge buzz already and has pushed Microsofts announcement on Bing completely out of the limelight. Some sort of war similar to the Internet Browser war in the 1990s is likely to ensue. I'd be crapping myself if I was Microsoft. They have no hope in hell.

Final Thought Byte : Google has finaly given it's answer to everything. We'll do a review as soon as we can get our hands on it. Watch this space!

Tags : Google Wave, Internet

Monday 25 May 2009

iPod Apps - Wild West Pinball

As the name suggest, Wild West Pinball is a recreation of those old classic 3D pinball games with a Wild West theme. Sounds pretty simple. Well, overall the game itself is very simple. There's your usual flippers, your little ball ejector thing and lots of cool ways to get points. The first version of the game was a little buggy and suffered from jagged edges. The new update, however, has improved the frame rates and softened the edges considerably. The main issue, however, with high scores has not been fully addressed. You still can't see all your scores whilst in offline mode.

The major features of the game are also a little sparse. You only get one map or theme to play and the points bonuses are sometimes difficult to get. For 59p it's not bad, but it could be a lot better.

Final Thought Byte : If you have money to spare, then buy this game. It works like it's meant to and does keep you entertained, but lacks real longevity.

Tags : iPod Apps, Wild West Pinball, Games

Wednesday 20 May 2009

iPod Apps - Storm8 Strategy Guide

Since a new game has been released by Storm8, called "Rockstars Live", we thought we would give a general guide to people.

Considering that all the games are the same, this strategy guide can be applied to all of Storm8's games. So far, their list of current games is "Racing Live", "Rockstars Live", "Kingdoms Live" and "Vampires Live". Because we have already done a review on "Racing Live", we'll use the same terminology. The layout of each game is the same, just with different names for things.

1. Getting Started
When you first start the game you will be asked to type in your nickname and to chose a type of proffesion. Each profesion will give you a certain attribute. Bankroler for example, gives you more money, whereas Gearhead and Speeder gives you quicker replenishing times. The first thing you'll notice when playing Storm8 games is a lack of crew, a lack of money and a lack of levels. The first problem can be easily solved. On the main screen near the top right it will say something like "Crew Code : Z3QSP". In other games, such as "Rockstar Live" it will be your Band Code. This is the code that you need to give people to invite them to your crew. The easiest way to do this is to write down your code and then go to the "Racing Tab" at the bottom. Instead of racing people, just click on their names, scroll to the bottom and leave your Crew Code as a comment on their profile. Some people like to leave personal messages, but no one is likely to care. Try going to as many profiles as you can to get your code out. You also get 10 invite slots a day that you can use. So every time you leave your own code, make sure to take someone else's and to invite them to your crew. Over time you will get a lot of invites from people to be in their crew/band or whatever.

2. Supporting Yourself
In all of Storm8's games, making money is very important. You need money to buy new items, and to support your current items, whether they be cars, car parts, amps, guitars, weaponry and vampire sort of stuff. Being in a 'negative cash flow' is a bad idea. So whenever you get a bit of money, try to spend it on Real Estate first, or advertising in "Rockstar Live". This will create an income that can support all the items that you need later on. If you ever have a bit of money left over, always put it into your bank, this will keep it safe from other players.

3. Playing the game
The first time you begin to play, you will notice that you have a set of numbers at the top. It usually comes in the form of Money, Fuel, Intergrity and Focus. The money tab speaks for itself, but the Fuel , Integrity and Focus doesn't. They all go by different names in each of Storm8's games, but they all do the same jobs. Your Fuel is what you use to do jobs, missions or street races. Each job requires a certain amount of fuel or energy. Integrity is your health and your Focus is your energy, both which apply to racing and battling other players. The easiest way to level is to do jobs or street races to get experience points. More levels open up new jobs, new items and new ways of making money. More levels also allows you to increase your attributes. Once you have done a few jobs and leveled up, go back to the main page and click on your profile. From there it will give you a small description of what each Skill or Attribute does. The general rule is to increase the top two each by one, because they represent your Attack and Defence skills. And then you can spend the left over Skill Point on anything else. I usually spend it on Max Fuel.
Generally speaking, doing jobs is the only way to level and to make money. However, as you progress you will notice that you need certain items to do certain jobs. As you get money, buy the necessary parts to do the jobs and then buy the real estate to match. At least for the first few levels.

4. Winning the Game
So hopefully by now you have a routine of levelling, spending the skill points, buying new gear and items and supporting yourself with real estate. As your level becomes higher, you will notice that more and more people will be racing/fighting you. Doing Races or Contests against other crews is another way to make a little money and to gain some experience points. The danger of not doing this part of the game is that others, usually called 'Hunters', will find you and take all of your money. When doing races there are a few attributes you need to keep your eye on. Firstly is your Integrity, which is your health. Once this goes below 26 you have to go to your mechanic/therapist to fill it back up at a cost. Your Focus or energy is also very important. When attacking other players it will use some of your focus, but only when you are attacking, not when you are defending. To stop people from stealing all your money you need to match your gear to your crew to get the best possible attributes. What that means is that every time you get some money from jobs you should spend it on gear that doesn't have an upkeep. Each person in your crew can race one car, which in turn can use one of every corresponding item. There is one car which costs around $5,000 and doesn't have an upkeep, try to buy as many of these as possible. Add the corresponding equipment to it and you will have boosted your overall attributes. The more crew you have, the more cars and items you can buy and the less money you will lose. Having lots of cars/items will also allow you to win nearly all the races against other players. When racing others, try to look out for people that have lots of money. If you win a race you will get a fraction of they money they have. Be careful though, because people can put you on their Payback list. This will let their crew know that you have a bounty on your head.

Final Thought Byte : That is all you should really need to know for playing and winning Storm8 games. Don't forget to put your money into the bank and to spend it wisely. The games are a bit like a modernised Top Trumps. Except you can sort of cheat by getting all the cards at once. In the later levels, spending skill points on the Speed and Handling attributes doesn't really matter because your cars and items will far outweigh them. Spending your skill points on Integrity is also a bad idea because if a Hunter does find you, he will get more out of you. So it is probably an idea to boost your Max Fuel attribute so that you can do more missions at the same time. Please feel free to post your Crew/Band codes in the comments.

Tags : Storm8, Racing Live, Kingdoms Live, Rockstar Live, Vampires Live, iPod Touch

Tuesday 19 May 2009

ShoutBox troubles

Well, we recently ran into some issues. As you may have noticed, there are no more ads on the blog. We think it was due to an unhappy reader in Sheffield who spammed our ShoutBox complaining bitterly about something or other. I didn't really take notice because most of it was uninteligable. He was very clear about getting our AdSense account banned though...and a few days later we received an e-mail from Google saying our account was closed down. So my guess is that some guy in Sheffield thought it would be funny to spam click the ads and then to e-mail Google.

To be fair I don't really care. I only made a dollar on it anyway. So, if whoever did this could e-mail me with his IP address and postal address I'll be sure to pass it onto Google. If not, then I must assume you're a coward and deserve a good kick in the nuts.

There should be a guide on the Storm8 games coming soon though, to keep people happy. We've had a quite a few hits of people looking for guides to these games, so we thought it would be nice to give the people what they want.

Final Thought Byte : Google should really check their banning policies.

Tags : None

Wednesday 6 May 2009

Bureaucracy Pushes Swine Flu

As I had implied in my earlier posts, Swine Flu is not as dangerous as the Media had suggested. And guess what? The whole story has been dropped from the BBC's and Sky News' front page.

So what happened? And why is our Bureaucratic society still pumping out advice leaflets which have come much too late and are completely counter-factual?

The answer to the first question is rather easy. The reason that Swine Flu was dropped as a story is because it doesn't make money anymore. A few days ago it turned out that there were hardly any real cases of Swine Flu. It certainly wasn't a Pandemic. However, instead of the Media companies admitting to blowing the whole thing out of proportion, the Mexican Government was blamed for over-reacting. I don't think it's particularly fair to start blaming the Mexicans for getting it wrong. Since when do we hear out news from Mexico?

The interesting thing is that the 'Economic Downturn' is back in our midst. As soon as the Swine Flu story died, a new fearmongering story about the drop in house prices has burst onto the scene. And for some reason there is also a story about a woman who had a face transplant.... which is pretty cool.

So, if the threat wasn't really there and the Media companies have stopped reporting on it, why are we still getting letters and leaflets through from the Government and our Employers? I recieved a badly photocopied 'Health Information and Advice' leaflet from my University today which states that Swine Flu "has already proved to lead to deaths at a higher rate than usual". Didn't I say that normal Flu kills at least 680 people a day? The Swine Flu death toll hasn't come near that, and it probably wont. And what about the "Catch It! Bin It! Kill It!" thing? Surely it's a bit late considering it's all under control, right?

Final Thought Byte : So what does this show about our society? Well, to start with it shows that our Bureaucratic tendencies are still alive and that the old Bureaucratic Engine is still very hard to stop. Unfortunately, the recent events have also shown us the impact that the Media has on our whole society. It's a real shame that everyone, no matter who they are, are so willing to believe everything they are told on TV.

Tags : Swine Flu, Pandemic, BBC, Sky News, Bureaucracy