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Thanksgiving Sales Leftovers - Some Of The Best Deals Still Out There

Tuesday, November 29, 2011 11:08 AM

Posted by best

If your iPhone or iPad's memory still isn't full after you gorged on the various Cyber Monday and Thanksgiving deals, know this: most of the celebratory sales are still active on the App Store. In fact, we've discovered a couple more that we couldn't fit in before the holiday break. That's what this post is all about -- the leftovers.

For example, Telltale Games has lowered its games' prices 55-80 percent from the usual. The savings began on November 23, but will continue until tomorrow, November 30. Arghata Studio also bashed the prices of its 1112 series in honor of our Turkey Day, and those sales are still continuing, too, well into this week.

Here's a short list of some notables:

Odds And Ends

Agharta Studios

Telltale Games

�

Cool deals, right? As a side-note, if you feel like you've been left out of the initial extravaganza, App Shopper [Free] remains an incredible tool to keep on the up and up. You can read more about it here.



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Chair Releases 'Infinity Blade 2' Finger Work Out - Yes, This is Real

10:38 AM

Posted by best

There's hype building publicity stunts, then there's hype building publicity stunts. Pre-release excitement for Chair's upcoming Infinity Blade 2 is already at an all time high, which apparently has left Chair's PR department scratching their collective heads to come up with what else they could do to promote a game that's already on cruise control for greatness.

I'm guessing this eureka moment coincided with late night fitness-centric infomercials, resulting in a promotion that's so silly we couldn't help but post about it. Anyway, Chair has partnered up with musclebound bro Nate Green who is known for The Hero Handbook, a free fitness-oriented self-help eBook. Nate (who can be seen above working out at the local playground) put together a list of exercises which should help prepare even the weakest of hands for Infinity Blade 2.

So, without further ado, we present to you, the unedited Infinity Blade 2 workout in its entirety:

1. Rubberband Splay: This is the reverse movement of gripping something. Train the reverse muscles in your hands and wrist to strengthen them.

Take a rubber band and place it around your thumb and fingertips. Touch all of your fingers together. Splay your fingers as far as you can stretch them and fight the resistance of the rubberband. Touch all of your fingers together again. That's one rep. Do 20 on each hand.

2. Book Grip: Test your grip endurance. Can you hold for 20 seconds with just your index finger and thumb?

  • Beginner: Grab two heavy books, hold them together, and grip them with your thumb and all of your fingers. Shoot for 20 seconds.
  • Intermediate: Grip with your thumb and only your middle and ring finger. Shoot for 20 seconds.
  • Hero: Grip with your thumb and index finger. Shoot for 20 seconds.

3. Quarter Toss: Improve your reflexes and hand-eye coordination.

Grab a quarter, lay your hand flat, and place it on your fingers. In one motion, flick your wrist, sending the quarter flying through the air. Grab the quarter mid-air quickly. That's one rep. Perform 10 reps on each hand.

4. Sandbag or Tennis Ball Dynamic Grip: Strengthen the muscles in your hands, fingers and wrists.

Hold a hot pad (shown) or a tennis ball in your hand with an underhand grip. Squeeze as hard as you can and hold for 2 seconds. Release your grip and repeat. Go for 30 reps on each hand.

5. Wrist and Forearm Stretch: After all that hardcore hero finger training, stretch your muscles in your wrist and forearms before you play Infinity Blade 2.

Put your hand flat in front of you. Grab the fingers of that hand with your other hand and gently pull your fingers toward your body, keeping your arm straight. You should feel a pull in your forearm and wrist. Hold for 30 seconds. Do 1 set for each hand.

Neat, right -- and all in the name of fun. Regardless if you're into pumping up your fingers and hands, Infinity Blade 2 hits in the next couple of days at $6.99. If you haven't yet, give our preview a look, and chat with fellow finger-working buddies in the Infinity Blade 2 forum thread.

Meanwhile, we're putting the finishing touches on our review which will go live with the launch of the game. Spoilers: It's awesome.



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'Bullet Time HD' Review � Post-apocolyptic Freemium Dual Stick Shooting At Its Finest

8:37 AM

Posted by best

Like it or not, more and more games in a wide variety of genres appear to be taking the freemium route in an effort to be more profitable. Rather than simply taking a binary stance as to the merits of freemium, I'd prefer to look at each game on a case by case basis to see if the developers manage to strike that balance of freemium elements versus playability and, most importantly, fun. Bullet Time HD [Free], the latest title from Kiloo Games, hits that balance perfectly and leaves me hoping that future developers will create freemium games like this.

Set in a post-apocalyptic world, Bullet Time follows John Irish, a man out to rescue his family from the mutated creatures inhabiting the land. You'll lead John through a variety of locales that look striking and definitely give off a Borderlands sort of vibe. The game looks great and runs amazingly well on an iPhone 4S, although there was some minor slowdown on a 4th generation iPod touch.

Control-wise, Bullet Time plays like your standard dual stick shooter, with no significant positives or negatives to the standard formula. In addition, from a gameplay perspective, you'll always have a primary mission to accomplish, but the game also throws a few side missions and secret locales at you if you're willing to look for them. Bullet Time also features a lot of excellent ambient sounds and hard rock music that do a great job setting the tone of the game. From a presentation standpoint, Bullet Time simply rocks.

One of Bullet Time's strengths is in the wide variety of weapons, armor, and upgrades available to help on your quest for mutant destruction. Mr. Irish can take two different weapons into battle at any one time, and each weapon can be outfitted with powers that range from increased damage and critical change to enemy slowdown.�Weapons also have various special abilities, such as rapid-fire or piercing, which add an additional strategic element. In addition, there are three pieces of armor you can upgrade, along with five different short-term boosts that you can use during play. Add all this together, and there is a ton of room for customization and replayability.

The freemium elements come into play with Bullet Time's currency system. As you journey through each mission, you'll primarily earn silver, which is the main currency in the game. In addition, you'll also occasionally find crystals, the 'premium' currency (you will earn crystals with each level up, too).�While a lot of the gear you can buy requires silver to purchase, the top gear for each level typically requires crystals, which can also be purchased via IAP. While you do earn a decent amount of crystals during normal play, there are items that are simply unobtainable unless you purchase extra crystals.

This will undoubtedly irk some folks, but I thought the developers did a great job optimizing the gameplay for equipment obtainable via silver. While some games implicitly require the freemium items for players to simply succeed, Bullet Time instead treats them as premium items that make the experience easier, and maybe a little more fun, which is my ideal view for these sorts of items.

In addition to the single player campaign, Bullet Time also has a survival-based multiplayer mode with up to three gamers playing simultaneously. Players can elect to be paired up randomly with other folks or they can start/join games with their Game Center friends.�Unfortunately, I had a lot of trouble trying to start a randomized game, but I was able to try a few Game Center ones. Once I was able to get a game going I found survival mode to be incredibly fun, particularly when I was able to play with folks in the same room as me. You also earn experience and silver while playing survival sessions, which makes multiplayer even more worth it if you're able to get a game going.

Simply put, Bullet Time gets a lot of things right when it comes to dual stick shooters. The controls, presentation, customization and replayability are all well done. Sure, it would be nice to be able to acquire all the items without IAP, and the multiplayer lobby system had some issues, but those are not game breakers.�Add in the fact that the game is free and that the freemium elements are nonintrusive, and Bullet Time becomes a must-play for any fans of the genre. I only hope other developers take note, because this is how freemium should be done.

TouchArcade Rating:


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'Gua-Le-Ni' for iPad Review - An Amateur Taxonomer's Dream

6:37 AM

Posted by best

Have you ever secretly wanted to live the life of a taxonomer, pouring over the details of new species to discover their histories? No? How about blocks -- do you like to play with blocks? You might need to fall somewhere within that spectrum to really appreciate Gua-Le-Ni [$4.99], my new favorite taxonomic game. It's a rapid-fire puzzle game with a fantastical approach to the vagaries of animal kind.

From moment to moment you're tasked with the categorization of brand new animal hybrids. While you might be familiar with the dreaded CA-MEL or TI-GER, would you recognize a RAB-HOG on sight? How about a WART-DOR-PUS-STER? Anything goes in Gua-Le-Ni, and you'll need to be quick enough to go along with it.

You do this with a collection of blocks, like children's alphabet blocks. Each face of each block possesses one syllable of an animal's name, and a section of that animal to go with it. So a "Ti" block face would have a tiger's head, and the "Ger" would have its rear.

The blocks can be turned, spun and moved around to form whatever fantastic beast steps across your screen. You're given two to start, a reasonable number for learning, but when you're tired of the fifteenth variation of "Lob-mon" or "Rhi-ster" it will be time to move on.

You can do so at your own pace, more or less. In Fiction mode, you can add or remove blocks at will. Four-sectioned creatures may strain your taxonomic talents (and your speedy fingers), but they're a worthy challenge after some practice. Once you've practiced to your heart's content, you can move on to Non-Fiction mode.

Non-Fiction is no less imaginative than Fiction mode, but the beasts are more beastly and hungry. Some are herbivores, some carnivores, so you'll need to be on your toes to feed them correctly. There are meals to be made with each combo of three feedings, and bonus points to be earned for them. Feed the animals the wrong foods, however, and it will ruin your combinations.

An odd bit of extra-terrestrial muck can be fed to the animals as well, mutating them into bigger and odder forms. But you must choose to do this -- difficulty is not generally forced upon you. The developers at Double Jungle apparently tested the game for biometric reactions in order to ensure that the difficulty curve was appropriate and the cognitive challenge was always sufficient, and this attention to detail shows. Gua-Le-Ni is difficult enough to keep players strung along without indulging in pointless frustration.

Or at least that's mostly true. The controls are just shy of perfect, and I have found myself occasionally stymied in a playthrough by a block refusing to turn or rotate as needed. The two-fingered twists and lifts are intuitive, but when they don't register correctly the joy of playing is lost. Hopefully this will see a tweak or two in the days to come.

Despite that bit of friction, though, I find myself continually drawn back into Gua-Le-Ni. Much of its appeal is aesthetic. The scrap paper creatures are partly horrid in their combinations, but partly gorgeous too. The sound is catchy, and the tome-like interface is elegant and entirely usable. The narration particularly stands out, delightfully dotty as it is.

But the gameplay is no slouch, either. Part of the challenge lies in memorization -- the blocks you use are always the same, so once you know where to find the "Ti," you'll likely never lose it. But managing meals complicates matters, as does the growing speed of the beasts that pass by. Your speed matters too -- you earn more points for an animal classified quickly than one that takes time.

Your successes add up into high scores, ranked on two Game Center leaderboards. One is for total score, as could well be expected. But one is cleverer: the time it takes you to earn a Two of Four. That's two full animals classified with four blocks each in Non-Fiction mode. It's good inspiration to move up to four blocks as quickly as you can -- lingering at fewer blocks slows down your scoring, and knocks off any chance you have of ranking on that leaderboard. There are also a selection of achievements to earn, some clever, but a few too many focused on sharing or rating the game.

Many players will find Gua-Le-Ni a bit steep for what it offers, the rather simple puzzle game at its heart. But for those of you who, like me, are drawn in by its gallimaufry of nonsense creatures, the game will be nearly impossible to resist. Give in -- Gua-Le-Ni follows through with charm and plenty of fun. The joy of taxonomy may fade in time, but you'll always have the knowledge that you were the one to identify the humble Lob-hog-bit, and that's a memory that will last. Share it in our discussion thread.

TouchArcade Rating:


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