Tuesday, July 30, 2019

Mobile Game Reviews: Super Spider Hero City Adventure

In an age where smart phones are in nearly everyone's hands (and almost definitely in the hands of people under a certain age range), mobile games are big business; Konami, Capcom, Sega and Nintendo all have a mobile game division in their companies, and they were some of the biggest game developers in the 80s and 90s.

However, if you've been playing video games as long as I have (since 1989), mobile games have a bad reputation, and for good reason.  You see, mobile games have one major obstacle to sucking in people like myself; control. Touch screens lack the precision control that a keyboard, mouse or controller have, so certain types of games are difficult on mobile devices unless they offer Bluetooth controller support.

And that's where this new series comes in; I download a game, play it for at least a week, and let you know if they're worth your time.  I'll be judging on a few criteria; control, graphical fidelity, sound, and frequency of ads, if any, and fun factor. And then, I'll round it up to whether it's worth your time and money. And with that, welcome to Mobile Game Reviews.

Today's game is something I found via an ad; Super Spider Hero City Adventure. Published by Onesoft Global PTE, Super Spider Hero had you play as Not-Spider-Man as you use a web to swing across Not-New York, dodging light posts and robots as you try to stop Not-Mysterio.  And I say things the way I did because, even though the assets fall under Fair Use, the names of the characters do not.

Control: Super Spider Hero's controls are simple and tight. You tap to leap off the starting stage, hold to shoot and swing on the web, and let go to release the web.  And the controls are so tight that you can actually build some pretty good momentum in your swings; any mistake is your fault.

Graphical Fidelity: Super Spider Hero is a modern game with chibi, or character's who are small bodied but with big heads, design.  Everything is crisp and clear, and all the text is large and easy to read.  All the colors are bright, but not so much to hurt the eyes.  And as you go on, you can unlock different skins, including Miles Morales and Spider-Gwen/Ghost Spider, as she's called now. I'm trying my best to get the Ghost Spider skin, but I've got a long way to go.

Sound:Super Spider Hero is simple in terms of sound design.  A sound for the web shot, a sound for impacts, a small explosion sound if you're hit by an exploding enemy, and a little jingle at the end when you win.

Ads: As Bricks Breaker Quest, ads are unavoidable, and are of the "pop ad" type after a few failures. However, I noticed something new recently; if you fail pretty close to the end, you're given ten seconds to tap for a viewable ad to continue on your mission.

Fun Factor: Super Spider Hero is an easy to play, difficult to master game.  The web swinging has significant momentum, and you can actually skip some of the dots you can shoot your web at if you're going fast and high enough.  The only frustrating thing is that enemy placement is random; they're always in the same place horizontally on the map, but sometimes, they can be placed in unfair places vertically, making dodging them difficult. However, it's random every time, so it's not that frustrating.

Final Analysis: Super Spider Hero City Adventure is a great game to play when you've got a few minutes to kill. Stages are quick, respawns are quicker, and the only thing that slows down the action are semi-frequent ads. Download it and you won't regret it.

Friday, July 19, 2019

Mobile Game Reviews: Bricks Breaker Quest

In an age where smart phones are in nearly everyone's hands (and almost definitely in the hands of people under a certain age range), mobile games are big business; Konami, Capcom, Sega and Nintendo all have a mobile game division in their companies, and they were some of the biggest game developers in the 80s and 90s.

However, if you've been playing video games as long as I have (since 1989), mobile games have a bad reputation, and for good reason.  You see, mobile games have one major obstacle to sucking in people like myself; control. Touch screens lack the precision control that a keyboard, mouse or controller have, so certain types of games are difficult on mobile devices unless they offer Bluetooth controller support.

And that's where this new series comes in; I download a game, play it for at least a week, and let you know if they're worth your time.  I'll be judging on a few criteria; control, graphical fidelity, sound, and frequency of ads, if any, and fun factor. And then, I'll round it up to whether it's worth your time and money. And with that, welcome to Mobile Game Reviews.

Today's game is something I actively looked for, Bricks Breaker Quest. Bricks Breaker Quest is one of many Brick Breaker games on the Google Play and iphone app stores, and its premise is simple; maneuver a ball from the bottom of the screen and use it to break the bricks above it. It requires a minimum knowledge of angles in order to get the highest possible scores, and if you manage to reach the thresh hold, you get the coveted three stars at the end of the game.

Control: Bricks Breaker Quest thrives on a mobile device; the angles are both strict and generous, creating a challenging, yet very playable, experience.  All you need to to is move you thumb around the screen, watching the white line that determines where your ball will go, and hope it does what you want it. And when it doesn't, it's no one's fault but your own.

Graphical Fidelity: Bricks Breaker Quest is a very simplistic game.  While modern looking, the graphics are simple, and that's exactly what's needed for this type of game.  All you have is a ball, a line to determine the angle you're going to send your ball, and all the bricks to break.

Sound: Like the graphics, Bricks Breaker Quest is simple in its sound design.  You hear an audible pop when the bricks break, and audible tone when you win or lose. There's no music, but it doesn't need it.

Ads: Ads are unavoidable, but unlike a lot of mobile games, Bricks Breaker Quest only displays them at the top and bottom of the screen; in my experience, there are NO pop up video ads. You CAN buy different shapes of balls to play with, but since you earn diamonds by winning, it's not necessary.

Fun Factor: Bricks Breaker Quest is a game that's fun if you're willing to put in the work for it.  Seeing that perfect combo getting you to a three star victory, or getting the highest possible score in the 100 ball and classic mode is so satisfying, and defeat in the regular mode is as devastating as it needs to be.

Final Analysis:  Bricks Breaker Quest by Mobirix is a modern take on a classic Blackberry app, and I love it.  There are hundreds of puzzles to go through, and all are appropriately challenging. Definitely a must play.

Thursday, July 18, 2019

Star Wars the Old Republic: Gaming on the low end

Welcome back, my beautiful freaks, to the Assassin's Den!

So I've been thinking about some of the technical problems I have with Star Wars: The Old Republic, and I've come to the conclusion that almost all caused by the age of my computer, a few bugs in the game notwithstanding.  This computer that I'm typing this article out on was bought in 2007, and it's still really good at everything but SWTOR and a few other games made after 2015, and I thought it's time to talk about some of the issues I have, and some workarounds.

1. Performance- If I try to run this game on any real graphical settings, the game chugs. Pop in, being frozen in place, frame drops, all that. And that's why I'm forced to play on the lowest settings, in windowed mode.  At least, that's what Customer Support has told me.  And for the most part, playing on lowest functions properly, but I still get the frame drops, pop in and being frozen in place sometimes.

2. Audio Glitches- During cutscenes with explosions, the voice and music slow down and distort. This is most glaring during KOTFE Chapter 16, when Senya goes to save Arcann and talks to Vaylin from across the room. This happens no matter what device I've got it coming from, so I think it's a conflict between the game and my aging sound card.

3. Issues with cutscenes- This game is cutscene heavy, and under certain circumstances, they seize up entirely.  Some of them get pushed along if you wait; the portion where Valkorian knocks you down the stairs during his final set of cutscenes does push forward if you wait. But there are quite a few cutscenes that refuse to do so.  The most glaring are as follows;
  • Shara Jen. Just her. All of the cutscenes that happen when she call the Agent ship freeze up entirely for me, and refuse to advance. 
  • Warrior opening of Chapter 3 of their class story.  The first time the Emperor's Hand calls the ship, the cutscene freezes and refuses to advance.
  • If Koth is dead in KOTET Chapter 4. The scene where you're supposed to talk to Vette to advance the story after a large battle with Iokath droids siezes up and refuses to advance.
  • Theron Shan Romance while siding with the Empire on Iokath.  The scene where Jace Malcom dies and Theron cradles his father siezes up and refuses to advance.
It's for these reasons why I advice the next entry in this article.

4. Get used to how to do tickets- The only way to get past those frozen cutscenes is to contact CS. And here are all the mandatory stuff you need to tell CS before you can actually tell them your problem.
  • Your current server
  • Your current character
  • The location it's happening
  • The player affected (you in this case)
 From here, you need to tell them, in great detail, what happened and what trouble shooting methods you performed in order to fix the problem, which, depending on whom is answering you, may get ignored entirely. The trouble shooting methods are as follows;
  1. Make sure you don't have any crew skill missions going on at that moment, since some CS reps will refuse to accept them on your behalf.
  2. Ensure you are playing on lowest settings and in windowed mode
  3. Reset the mission
  4. Relog into the character
  5. Relog into your account
  6. Ensure your video card is up to date (this is where the conflict lies, and if your machine is as old as mine, your most recent update is 4 years old)
  7. Flush your game's cache (you can find guides online for that)
  8.  Completely reinstall the game(Or just say you did, since that's supposed to remove any previous conflicts)
And I must stress, MAKE SURE YOU WROTE DOWN ALL OF WHAT I JUST SAID IN THE TICKET. You don't want to miss anything in the event that you get a good CS rep the first time.

At this point, you stress you don't care about what storyline bits you miss by them pushing the cutscene forward, more than once at this point, and then tell them what's happening.  And then, you hope that you get someone useful who actually does as you ask, and doesn't close the ticket unresolved.

And I want to take a moment to rant here about that; closing tickets unresolved.  You see, when I worked CS while on Active Duty, I was told you NEVER close the tickets until the customer is satisfied with the solution.  But apparently, SWTOR tickets are set so CS HAS to close tickets in order to talk to you in said ticket, resolved or not. And I'd say 70% of the time, CS Reps will just tell you to do what you already listed that you've done and do nothing to solve the problem.  You have to open a second ticket, referencing the first one, to get them to resolve the cutscene issue.  I once had to open 3 tickets on the same issue before that CS rep FINALLY did as I asked and pushed that forward. I complained on twitter about that, and it took EA saying "Yeah, this is unacceptable" before anything got resolved.  EA. One of the worst companies to work for was the one who agreed that SWTOR CS wasn't doing their job. Think about that for a moment.

Now, do I believe SWTOR is not worth playing with all these things I've just said? Absolutely not. I'm still a subscriber, and I still love the stories.  But if you don't have the money for a more up to date machine, you're going to be dealing with a lot of the same issues.  And there are some easy workarounds; Don't Kill Koth (though you can still go Dark Side in KOTFE Chapter 10), don't romance Theron if you intend to side with the Empire on Iokath.  But sad to say, the Agent story is unplayable for me, since Shara Jen calls the ship after every mission for most of the game.  I'm honestly willing to fight through the Warrior one, though, since I actually like the Warrior story too much to not do, but the Agent, which has been getting on my nerves ever since I started experiencing symptoms of my now diagnosed, and treated, mental illness, I can't even force my way through it anymore thanks to these issues.

In short, these are the important things to know if you're playing with a computer as old as mine. Be prepared for them, know the workarounds, and stay beatiful freaks!

Tuesday, July 2, 2019

Mobile Game Review: Galaxy Sky Shooting

In an age where smart phones are in nearly everyone's hands (and almost definitely in the hands of people under a certain age range), mobile games are big business; Konami, Capcom, Sega and Nintendo all have a mobile game division in their companies, and they were some of the biggest game developers in the 80s and 90s.

However, if you've been playing video games as long as I have (since 1989), mobile games have a bad reputation, and for good reason.  You see, mobile games have one major obstacle to sucking in people like myself; control. Touch screens lack the precision control that a keyboard, mouse or controller have, so certain types of games are difficult on mobile devices unless they offer Bluetooth controller support.

And that's where this new series comes in; I download a game, play it for at least a week, and let you know if they're worth your time.  I'll be judging on a few criteria; control, graphical fidelity, sound, and frequency of ads, if any, and fun factor. And then, I'll round it up to whether it's worth your time and money. And with that, welcome to Mobile Game Reviews.

Today's game is once again something I saw advertised in another game I play, Galaxy Sky Shooting. This game is a top down space shooter, pure and simple with very generous hit detection and multiple modes of play, including an endless mode, a boss fight mode, and a campaign with 210 (as of writing this) levels.

Control: Galaxy Sky Shooting is in a genre that requires precision to dodge fire and hit enemies, but thankfully, it is very generous with hit boxes. No matter how wide the ship is, only the middle section where the cockpit would be is the hitbox for you.  So, as long as you keep that section out of fire, you're good. And since the weapons autofire, all you need to do is concentrate on dodging and lining up your shots.

Graphical Fidelity: Galaxy Sky Shooting is a modern game.  All the sprites are modern looking and the background is what looks like a modern picture of satellite view of the universe.  All the sprites look good, and the text is large and easy to read.

Sound: Galaxy Sky Shooting has modern sound.  The music is modern, the sounds are modern, and the voice that you get when a boss battle is about to start sounds clear and crisp.

Ads: Unfortunately, the ad policy is extremely obtrusive; you get static ads at results screens, and the occasional ad after a win or loss that get more frequent the longer you play.  They also give you the opportunity to use ads to double your coins, which are used for upgrades and new ships from the market, and viewable ads for other things. Thankfully, if you play enough rounds, they ask "do you like the ads?" and when you say no, they offer one more viewable ad, or a microtransaction, to remove the ads for the rest of the day.  They also offer a transaction to remove ads personally.

Fun Factor: Galaxy Sky Shooting is in a genre that is mindless fun, and when you combine good control and reasonable hit boxes, a game like Galaxy Sky Shooting can be a blast. It's great for a short round or two while on the bus or train, and it's also good for "Oh, one more round" gameplay when you're on your own.

Final Analysis: This game would be perfect if it wasn't for the ad policy.  Space shooters are a perfect fit for mobile devices because they make full use of what mobile devices have to offer.  If you want to toss a couple bucks their way to remove ads permanently, that's up to you, but otherwise, it's a great free mobile experience that you don't want to miss out on.