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Some of the greatest time wasters on the PC involve sitting your digital tank on the side of a hill and trying to launch ordinance at the opposing tank on the other hill. Iron Crusade is one of those games, and it's a good one, and I might actually play it again someday.
As I said before, this is a game where you and the computer have tanks and take turns trying to blow each other up. You can move your tank for a better angle or to collect crystals (more on those in a moment). You aim your shot by dragging your finger along the path you want your shell to take. That sounds easy, but it's more challenging than you would think. Combat is fun and engaging, and while its not complicated, youll have to put in some effort if you want to win.
The hook is that as you progress from battle to battle, youll need to upgrade your tank with new guns and armor and stuff, and you do that by collecting them during battles or paying real dollars for them. They arent necessar ily just laying around on the battlefield, though. Usually, you have to blow holes in the ground to get to them. So, fights become an attempt to balance gathering crystals and taking out your enemy. Spend too much time gathering and you might just find yourself blown up.
Unfortunately, there is no multiplayer in Iron Crusade. It would have been fun to be able to battle your friends as we did in similar games on the computer, but alas.
Iron Crusade is free if you dont throw down cash for crystals, and its definitely worth the space on your phones hard drive, because itll stick in your head enough that youll want to keep coming back to it.
Download the Appolicious Android app
Via: Iron Crusade is an obsessive tank battler
Well, this is easily the most interesting app released all week. It takes social networking and makes a philanthropic contest out of the whole thing, encouraging people to do good wherever they can for a small monetary reward. Essentially, you and everyone else using the app are given points that you can distribute to people f or various accomplishments and achievements that they post. Anything from losing weight to quitting smoking to running a marathon to working a soup kitchen can count, and you then redeem your points for coupons and discounts from various retailers, such as Skull Candy or The North Face. It's social networking for a better you and a better tomorrow.
This is a voice-over-Internet app specifically aimed at people looking to make international phone calls or general phone calls while traveling, without spending a small fortune on roaming fees. You simply buy the pay-as-you-go credits, then make calls over your cellular data or Wi-Fi. While the app isn't totally free, its still cheaper than long distance fees. The app is also generally easy to use, letting you access your devices contact list. It's a high quality alternative to communicating worldwide, and while it isn't the only alternative, it's a well-designed one.
Kicking off todays apps worth downloading is Banjo, a social networking app that locates nearby friends by gathering information from social networks. Planwise is next, bringing fresh financial strategy planning to your Android tablet. Finally, Old School Defense melds the comedy movie Old School with tower defense genre. Youre my boy, Blue!
Whats it about? Tablet-optimized financial app Planwise helps you to plan your finances, helping you to save money over time and keep track of your debt and income.
Whats it about? Old School Defen se, devleoped by Big Blue Bubble, is literally a tower defense game based on the instant classic movie Old School, starring Will Ferrell, Luke Wilson, and Vince Vaughn. That ought to be all the description you need.
In Rage of Bahamut you first chose a side: man, god or demon. Once you have done that, then you must go through the tutorial. In the tutorial, you will get one card and the basics on how to play and advance. Overall, the game does provide a lot of explanation about things. In general the game has two main modes: quests and battles. The quest area is where you build up experience and obtain more cards. As you collect cards, you can combine them to create customized and more powerful ones. In the battle mode, you can create custom decks that you will use when you battle other players online. The game encourages you to play with (and against) others online. There is a lot to the game and it will keep you entertained. In addition to earning items via quests and battles, you can purchase cards with in app purchases.
Cabals is another cross-platform trading card game. You can play on your Android device or online. Another nice feature of the game is you can play offline on your Android without having to log-in or create an account. Here you can try or practice the game without any commitments, but you will not get any experience points. Within the game, you can have an online match, friend match, or single player game. Cabal is also a bit difference in that in uses a game board in addit ion to the cards. To win you can either conquer your opponents stronghold (position on the game board) or collect 60 domination points. The game board and cards are nicely done and easy to read. As with the other games, you can earn more cards via playing or in-app purchase. The website does have a forum and help section if needed.
The greatest strength of this gam e is probably the ability to create tension. Using a very effective soundtrack, the danger set pieces really absorb you into the story, having you root for the handful of dudes you never really see or hear in any meaningful way. Unfortunately, the way the levels are set up, you'll often run into dangerous segments after a long period of relative safety exploring a long, labyrinthine tunnel. If you can look past the few level design issues, there is a veritable feast of a game to dig into.
Whats it about? PushBullet allows you to push things from your computer to your phone for later access like documents, websites, phone numbers and more.
Whats it about? Android game Ironfell combines real-time strategy with massively multiplayer online elements, and lets you play in a universe that stays persistent, reacting to your actions (and those of others) over time.
Whats it about? There are dungeons to explore, clear out, and loot in Dungeon Quest, a top-down dungeon-crawling role-playing title devloped by Shiny Box.
Meanwhile, there have been engineers working to fix this problem, and they've come up with the most obvious solution. They built a Bluetooth-compatible gamepad that attaches to your phone. I recently obtained one of PowerA's MOGA Mobile Gaming System controllers to see what the fuss is all about, and whether or not a mobile gamepad could fix control issues with some of the aforementioned Android games.
I've always wanted to like the N.O.V.A. series, as it features a pretty compelling story and production values that are unrivaled in the mobile. The recent addition of tilt aiming went a long way to making the experience gameplay palatable, but it still felt off, as this control scheme wasnt as precise as it needed to be.
Gameloft's hack and slash title about Lancelot destroying demons was always good enough, as its controls weren't too complex. The main downside to playing Wild Blood with touch controls was rotating the camera angle. While playing, I often got caught up in hitting the wrong buttons while fighting and would end up with my camera facing away from the action. In addition, controlling the camera with touch is usually a bad experience anyway, as folks who play shooters on laptops will tell you forever.
When I first played Gameloft's most recent Batman game, I wanted so badly to love it, because it is more or less a version of Rocksteady's console games Arkham Asylum and Arkham City. When I played, I kept struggling with the controls, and I couldn't force myself enjoy the experience. It was, to put it mildly, far too complex for touch controls.
Whats it about? LifeKraze is an interesting social network thats all about posting your achievements as they happen and voting on the great things other people do. Those interactions earn you discounts from various online merchants.
Whats it about? Gogobot provides lots of information about different places in the world that you might travel, which comes in handy when planning a trip.
Whats it about? In arcade title Super Knights you collect gems by moving your character around the screen using a rope to swing from various anchor points.
Every kid loves to color. Toddler Coloring Book is a easy to use coloring app, and the free version comes with four different pictures: spider, snail, cat, and butterfly. To unlock more pictures, you will need to upgrade to the pro version. This free version doesnt have any ads, so the whole screen is dedicated to coloring. If parents want to upgrade to the pro ver sion, then they will need to push buttons in the proper order (written on the screen), which is nice way to keep kids from accidentally making in-app purchases.
Preschool and Kindergarten Learning Games, developed by Kevin Bradford, is a very popular Android game. The free version of the game comes with three levels, while the pro version provides another six. The three game modes--Basics, Language, and Math--will adequately test your preschoolers skill sets.
Whats it about? Simply put, MyScript Calculator is a calculator app that recognizes handwriting, allowing you to write out equations that the app can solve using your devices touch screen.
Whats it about? Hushed allows you to make calls and send texts from your Android device from disposable numbers, allowing you to hide your real number and protect your information should you ever lose y our phone.
Whats it about? Making the jump from Xbox Live Arcade to Android, Ikaruga brings its crazy bullet-hell shooter action to the small screen.
The Temple Run cloning was more rampant on Android than it was on iOS, with plenty of fake sequels and releases. I can tell you that not only is this Temple Run sequel real, but its also pretty fantastic. It expands on the last game by adding mine cart segments, zip lines, a tweaked upgrade store, and pathways that actually bend, if you can believe it. At its core, its still pretty much the exact same game, and will likely bore anyone tired of running games, but as its free, you should probably give it a shot anyway.
They may be absolutely everywhere, but theres just something about charming puzzle platformers with cute little creatures that keeps you coming back for more long after youve sworn off of them forever. Tupsu is a little monster with tentacles that you can move separately and attach to various surfaces to get around and solve puzzles. The gameplay is pretty good, though its rarel y difficult, so those looking for a challenge should look elsewhere. Its also very similar in visual style to the excellent Contre Jour, and feels like it was inspired by it heavily.
Whats it about? As the name suggests, Yelo is a voice-over-Internet app great for making international phone calls without breaking the bank.
Whats it about? The latest of developer Outfit7s talking creature apps lets users chat with anthropomorphic cat Angela in Paris.
Whats cool? Temple Run 2 does a great job of tweaking the formula Temple Run fans know and love, creating a game that feels fresh and challenging without being radically different. Just as last time around, players control their adventurer from a behind-the-back perspective and are charged with jumping over, sliding under, or slipping past obstacles. The game takes place on a mountaintop littered with ruins. The game looks great and there are new elements in play to trip you up and kill you not the least of which are visual cues like beautiful vistas that you dont realize are actually deadly cliffs until its too late. New power-ups and objectives have been added, and theres a new power system that lets players charge up some protection against obstacles as they grab coins.
I decided to start this list off with something a bit more useful and practical, despite being less glamorous than the apps below. Simple is about the all-too-boring but incredibly necessary task of money management and budgeting. Using Simple you can check all of your transactions, know how much you can afford to spend with Safe-to-Spend, set memos for yourself, and even find the nearest ATM in a pinch. The interface is well-designed and easy-to-use, and the Android version is just as good as the iOS version. This is a great way to bank.
Despite sharing its name with the wonderfully ridiculous and completely insipid movie that I've seen way too many times, this app is just all around useful. It's the latest in a long lin e of car location apps, for all of us with poor short term memory or a bad sense of direction. This app stands out with a ton of cool features. You can take pictures of the surrounding landmarks to help identify the area, share your spot with friends and family, and even set reminders for yourself if you're parked at a meter or a garage, saving yourself some money. There is a free version of the app as well.
Whats it about? As the name suggests, Dude, Wheres My Car? is for finding your car after youve parked it, and not a belated tie-in for the movie.
Whats it about? Keep track of everything thats going over at the massive Internet forum Reddit with Reddit Now.
Whats cool? In Djor icks Curse, players have to cast spells and use abilities against enemies, and in order to do that, they have to match different icons on a grid to gain access to those abilities. Matching the right icons can heal you, unleash devastating magic and more. You can also gather things like weapons and armor to upgrade your character as you play, and the latest big update to Djoricks Curse has added an entire new class of hero for you to utilize, which adjusts your strategy and play style.
As difficult as Machinarium is, the developers throws you a bone in a form of a two-tiered hint system. One is a thought bubble on how the little robot completely concludes the area. The second system acts as a journal, a visual step-by-step guide on how players can solve the puzzle. To access the journal is a little more difficult: the developer puts the player into a shooter mini-game. This get very tedious, and once youve opened the book, youll be prompted to play again, even in the same area.
So youve discovered which types of ale you truly enjoy. Before you jump head-first into brewing your own, its a good idea to take some time to tour local breweries to see how the experts do it. BreweryMap is a relatively new app which is like having a beer guide in your pocket. With 3,000 breweries mapped out offering 8,500 beers, it shouldnt be too hard to find somewhere close by. Developers promise better search capabilities and more breweries listed in future updates.
Heres where things get a bit more sophisticated and complicated, but homebrewers will find this app to be highly useful. Depending on the ingredients you have around, youll be able to design beer recipes on the go. It handles all the hard work and tricky mathematical formulations usually required and even includes a timer. It can calculate the OG (original gravity), FG (final gravity), IBU (bitterness), color and the estimated alcohol content of your concoction, supporting both metric and U.S. imperial units.
Whats it about? Both slick-looking and full-featured, 1Weather provides tons of weather information.
Whats it about? Keep your finances clear and organized with the help of Simple, which is designed to monitor your spending habits.
Whats cool? The timer is always running in Trid. The goal is to get through as many patterns as you can, as fast as you can, and with each successful transposition, you get a little time back on the clock. The patterns tend to rotate, so youll need to think fast in order to keep your score high. Trids newest update added four new game modes, plus performance enhancements and Google+ integration.
Thumb Keyboard is an excellent keyboard and comes in one version for all Android devices. This is the only keyboard that does not have a demo edition. The main draw for Thumb Keyboard is the split keyboard feature, which allows easy typing with your thumbs. This is a great option when using an Android tablet.
Smart Keyboard is a very nice, simple keyboard. It comes with one version for both phone and tablets, with a demo and paid edition. This keyboard will not wow you like some of the others listed here, but it will provide you with a solid typing experience.
Catholic Droid is a simple app that provides users with the basics. The main section of the app is The Bible. In this section, you can choose from over a dozen translations in various languages. For English speakers there is the King James and Revised Standard Versions. There is a Daily Readings section that will download the daily Mass readings. In addition, there is a second section for the Ten Commandments, Sacraments, Way of Cross, and the Rosary, just to a name a few.
iMissal has been a very popular app for iOS and is now available for Android devices. This app is very well done, providing the daily Mass readings in one app. When you open the app you are presented with four option s: Missal (the readings), My Daily Bread (daily Bible verse which you can share and/or save), Prayers (a selection of prayers, including the Rosary), and Catholic News (RSS feed from various Catholic sources). In addition to these, you can purchase the Saint a Day app/add on for $1.99. All information downloads to the phone, so no Internet connection is needed.
If youre headed to the Sundance Film Festival this year, the official app is full of information to help you get around the festival and learn about the competing films. Weve also got EPSNs companion app to the Winter X Games, which has all the info and highlights you need. Finally, the fast-paced arcade title Super Hexagon has made the jump from iOS and PC to Android.
Whats it about? The companion app to ESPNs coverage of the Winter X Games provides stats, plus information on athletes and events.
Whos it for? Super Hexagon is for those who enjoy pick up and play titles that are highly challenging. Its for mild-tempered players of all ages.
I realized last week that I incorrectly use the term "core gamer" within the context of mobile gaming. As we all know, home gaming and mobile gaming are drastically different beasts. Home gaming is, in general, geared toward keeping you occupied for hours at a time, while the majority of mobile gaming is geared toward keeping you occupied for mere minutes at a time.
There is evidence that either traditional core gamers are starting to gravitate more to the mobile world or that mobile core gamers are starting to become traditional core gamers. That evidence is the success of Minecraft: Pocket Edition. Minecraft, a game where players build custom block-worlds out of materials found in the environment, started out as a freewheeling PC game for the extremely core set that managed to be wildly successful despite a lack of marketing. So in 2011, developers Mojang ported the game to Android, followed by an iOS release, and we learned on New Year's Day that nearly six million copies of Pocket Edition had been sold to date across Android and iOS. Mojang does not provide a breakdown of mobile numbers, and so I don't know how many of those came on Android, but Google Play says one million+. However, they do provide a running counter on how many PC/Mac copies they have sold, which as of today approaches 9 million. The next sales tier that Google de clares is five million+, so it's somewhere in there.
If I had to venture a guess as to what this means, I would say it is a slowly growing acceptance of more involved mobile experiences, ones that empower players to be the sole creator or their gaming experience. Judging by Modern Combat 4's numbers, I'd say we aren't to the point where most people are ready to jump all over high profile games that are niche. It has to be encouraging for mobile developer to discover that the ceiling for these types of games could be much higher than they previously thought. 
