4shared notice for podcasts

For the immediate present I am only capable of uploading New casts onto 4shared for listening and download. PC problems and all that.

New episode of That Android Podcast up and available at 4shared, presently working on Episode 7 as we speak. Stay tuned.

That Android Podcast Episodde 5 now available

That Android Podcast Episode 5 is now up and available. First part of reviewing RPGs, MMO and otherwise, my review of Asphalt 8 Airborne, and more randomness coming at you.

Talking about the new HD upgrade to the Comixology app and more RPGs next week, stay tuned.

That Android Podcast Episode 4 now available

Now moved to it's new day of Wednesdays, and back to weekly, That Android Podcast has a new episode out so check it out. Next week we'll start covering longer term RPG and MMO RPG games in the cast starting with Battlestone, so stay tuned.

Podcast Update 9/20

That Android Podcast Episode 3 is now up and avaiklable for download. Check it out.

Next week is no new game podcasts but we'll be back at the start of October with an all new episode.

Podcast Update 9/16

Sorry it's a bit late but new That Android Podcast is out and available. No village sims this week but stay tuned as I will have some coming up in upcoming new episodes.

That Android Podcast Episode 1 now available

Every episode we'll take a look at a different village sim. And in the first episode we look at The Simpsons Tapped Out, as well as tycoon building game Jurassic Park Builder.

Other stuff reviewed includes Order Up To Go, Batman Arkham City Lockdown and the Comixology app.

New episodes coming soon, stay tuned!

Level Grinder update June 15th

I don't have many on my play list right now, but here is what village Sims I am reviewing now.

GameLoft/Learning Center' Oregon Trail American Settler
The longest village SIM I have been grinding, now reaching towards Level 80, I kinda wish I reviewed it prior to the last update, especially since it added elements that disappointed me greatly. Still play it, still recommend it, but now with warnings and  lower final score included.

GameLoft' Cosmic Colony
A bit innovative, but also a so so grind. Not Paradise Cove level slow but at times you will be grinding for coins, resources and levels fairly hard. Should score rather well... speaking of Paradise Cove...

Pocket Gems Paradise Cove
Yes, reviewing now. Somewhat interesting, a slow long term grind all about... and presently featuring a bizarre pirate Batman character fighting the Joker... review coming soon.

Game Insight' Tribez
Pretty animation, solid gameplay and just the right amount of difficulty. As long as it doesn't go the way of Oregon Trail American Settler it should review well.

GameLoft/Hasbro' My Little Pony
Even with the new Equestria Girls inspired update, whenever GameLoft finally launches it, I will tell you why only Pony fans should apply for this one.

Handy-Games' Townsmen
Just started reviewing it, but I have a good feeling about this one.

Full reviews coming soon, stay tuned.

Summer 2013 Day 20 - Raise This Pageview Count...

One of the goals of working continuously on these blogs is as an active reference source to send Editors to showing off my work. To that end I need to push up page views, and presently this blog has the lowest view count so I am working on this first to bring its count up. So working on making sure to post at least once daily to hopefully build up page views, and hopefully followers. Stay tuned, next review is middle ages level slash coin grinder Lords and Castles so check it out coming shortly!

Tablet Reviews : GameLoft's Fantasy Town

While there are some ideas in this village dim that work, there are alot more that fail. Apparently the story is humans used to live alongside elves, dwarves, fairies and so forth until some great evil attacked and scattered everyone. So your rebuilding a world... or village in any case... where everyone lives together. Unlock land, build and stuff... and almost from the word go we already run into trouble.

A lot of this game's tasks all revolve around building. Building houses, building shops and specialty buildings, building decorations, building building building. Subsequently you will quickly run out of space and have to expand... only expansion quickly becomes expensive, and that would be OK if not for the fact your buildings only rarely yield anything above mediocre returns. So you end up grinding alot just to expand, then grinding alot to buy specific buildings to complete specific tasks. Yes, that compels you to buy Premium currency with real money, lest you have to patiently spend hours grinding to make any progress.

Speaking of tasks this is one of those games that insists NPC characters walk around with voice bubbles detailing a quest on your task list. Usually I find that annoying but mostly harmless, except in this game practically all your villagers are walking about with task voice bubbles, and due to the limited space they prove to be an annoying blockade to gathering funds and experience from your buildings. Annoying as all heck, even moreso than in most games that use this gimmick, I wish game developers just stick to leaving tasks in their individual button or assign one NPC apiece per task. One. NPC. Per. Task.

There are a few unique tasks, like raising baby creatures and a few interesting mini games, but even this becomes time grinding tasks that compels you to spend real cash to speed things up. Also while the idea of using specialty species for tasks (fairies for farming for instance) that means you must buy enough of a species for the job, which again runs afoul of the whole lack of building space problem.

Ultimately this game is a long, slow grinding slough that tries to innovate but ultimately becomes a shallow lackluster dull grind. There are better village makers from GameLoft, Cosmic Colony and Oregon Trail American Settler on my recommend list, go try those. Fantasy Town, however, gets a meager 2 day laborer fairies out of 5.

Tablet Review : Ludia's Jurassic Park Builder

It's now 100 years old if not a bit older by now, and Jurassic Park? Not nearly so old, 20 I think if I remember right. So how to celebrate two such mutual events? Apparently you do that by derailing work on Jurassic Park 4.

Oh well. At least you have Builder.

Ok, not so much a village builder (unless you call building a theme park of enslaved dinosaurs a village) as a tycoon game, Jurassic Park Builder gives you your own little South American island to meddle with the natural order all you wish, building a giant mega park of dinosaurs, support shops and decor... yeah, that is kinda limited compared to other theme park building games, but it is par for the course as the game revolves around the cycle of dinosaur creation akin to a simplified version from the first movie. Oh, and unlike the movies (unless it's a gimmick of Jurassic Park 4) this game features an underwater version of Jurassic Park, unlocked once you reach Level 10.

You start with a few dinosaurs, but the rest has to be made, that means finding amber (or ice chunks with aquatic parasites in the underwater version). Amber is scattered across the island, found as you clear away the jungle creating park space one section at a time... how the heck is that possible considering they had to find amber in mines in the first movie... ahh, too much thought. Unlike that, however, finding aquatic samples means sending expedition subs out every 9 hours looking for samples. There is a free option for this, and if your patient you can find all your samples just on free trips but you can expend a few Premium currency dollars on these trips if you can spare it for a greater yield on returns.

After that it's research time, on which you will grind thousands of dollars in order to unlock New dinosaurs, grinding even more just to buy them or to clear land to expand your park or fulfill missions by buying stuff or feeding animals or shipping food... that in s nutshell I'd the game, grinding endlessly to build the park up. This is slow going, especially since level progression is really really slow going. Still putting effort into the game is rewarding as your dinosaurs become more and more profitable as you build up dinosaurs levels and evolve them (they gain a star with each evolution up to 4 or 5 stars), making money grinding easier as time goes on, which is good since dinosaur research and buying becomes more and more expensive as you go. So... actually that is a bit of a vicious cycle, yeah, but still good all the same.

Missions are handed out by a few characters from the movies, which I suppose ihs the logical choices representing each movie... kinda.
From the original most of the characters come from, but for simplicity sake let's say Santa Claus... I mean Hammond and Asian Research Guy represent Jurassic Park 1.
Creepy stuttering guy... I mean Jeff Goldblum and his mysterious Gymkata daughter are here representing Lost World... why the creepy Gymkata daughter is here other than to push the youtube video series theme missions boggles my mind... Oh, yes, there is a batch of stories stringing all these missions together, too bad these stories are just filler to move you from one level to another and progress gameplay, easily forgettable in its own right.
Finally, though he is from the first movie representing Jurassic Park 3 is married with recreational vehicle dead Red October commander guy... I mean Dr. Grant.
The only downside is zero voice acting, but I can live with that all things considered.

The most important thing to know is that you can play this just fine without ever spending real money on this game. Yes, event and holiday dinosaurs suck as they're specifically geared to require spending real money to acquire. Also the game is long slow slogging if you grind nonstop for cash, but ultimately fulfilling for all your hard work. Pith the game doesn't support an online community or the ability to visit other players parks, especially since this is one of those you must be online to play games (so you might want to pass if you don't have a reliable wireless internet connection), but all in all I am rather fond of this tycoon game, and its not often I am pleased with a tycoon game. A 4 out of 5.

Upcoming Reviews : What villages am I raising (GameLoft edition)?

Much like how Zynga seems to dominate Facebook social gaming, GameLoft (aka that cloner company) dominates the Android app store.

Oregon Trail : American Settler
When I first started reviewing this I thought Gameloft actually did something right for a change... but they soon updated it and down the slippery slope of wrong it went.

Cosmic Colony
The newest thing I am reviewing. Presently has potential but kinda lacks the personality and charm of Oregon Trail American Settler... also lacks the new pitfalls too so I am still hyped about this review.

FOX/Blue Sky' Epic
Another game slapped together to shill another movie. I didn't come into this review with much expectations, so I wasn't too disappointed with the results.

Fantasy Town
Short stack of repetative grinding for coins and levels with little payoff... joy.

Jurassic Park Builder
Jurassic Park 4 may presently be getting no love, but I am going to tell you why Jurassic Park Builder is worth your time and effort. It's not perfect, but it is good.

My Little Pony
To be honest? I am most conflicted on this one. I like me my pony, but honestly it's the Brony in me talking so... how will you like the game if ponies ain't your thing? Let's find out.

And that is my present GameLoft village SIM checklist. Though it's shorter next time we'll look st upcoming Pocket Gems reviews.

Raise This Village (a new direction and name)

Now that I advanced my tech, and added new reviews, we're looking at casual games anew. Featuring content for tablets (Android), Nintendo's 3DS, and more as time goes on. So, changing the info and getting to work.

Getting Up To Speed Once Again (got new work)

Sorry I've been neglecting my reviews here lately. I'll get back on it right away. In the meantime new jobs reviewing for...

AroundHawaii.com
First time I got work with a Hawaii site, so that hopefully is a rather good thing. Working on it all weekend, and should be up first week of September. Stay tuned.

GameSyndrome.com
Still waiting on my permissions. Already wrote up articles for my first week of submissions. Hope to hear something soon.

New reviews and that name change coming up shortly.

Puzzle Quest for Sony PSP and Nintendo DS

When a good game takes two game genres and merge them together it either succeds or fails. In the case of the original Puzzle Quest (PSP and 3DS) it is succeess without a doubt.

Combining a RPG fantasy world with a character (male or female) that levels up as you go along, the ability to acquire new gear, mounts if I remember right, allies and even your own little castle with a whole bunch of rooms to maintain (with their own match 3 games with their own goals).

The match 3 gameplay is easy to catch onto, but is presented with several variants which each has it's own goal. Fighting opponents and enemies, creating gear, learning the enemy's magic, etc. That takes a simple addictive game idea, and expands it several times over to make it ultra addictive. So much so I logged in about 50-70 hours (around that much) before my PSP UMD copy finally died. Hopefully my next copy (3DS dlc) lasts way longer. A 5 out of 5.

Stand O Food (Sony PSP)

Unlike Nintendo the amount of food and cooking games are few and far between in the land of Sony. One Cake Mania game compared to four from the DS, one Diner Dash compared to two and spin off Wedding Dash on the DS, and alot of cooking games only appear on the DS. This is one of the rare stand oits on the PSP, and its pretty good.

Working your way across a giant map of diners you pick up ingredients from a chain of conveyor belts, filling out orders of customers in order to pass. Can't find enough ingredients? Place down ingredients on hold plates to shuffle stuff about, or pick up a large stack of stuff to find the ingredient you need and put it on the hold plates (which you buy as part of ipgrading your diners). Got the order of ingredients jumbled? Throw it into an order box to ship (again something you'll buy). Need more time? Buy and upgrade a jukebox and air conditioner to keep your customers patient. Need to do it faster? Buy and upgrade a coffee pot to speed up. Finally need a way to make more money and can handle remembering extra detail? Buy condiments to add money to what you make (though I beat the game several times without ever buying condiments).

An overall good game, but abit short. Also it's a simple casual game, just filling orders, and while I liked it you might not have the same experience with it.

So like it, hate it, its up to you. I'm giving it a nice 3 out of 5, pretty nice, and it's cheap so try it out for yourself sometime.

First Look at Cale Mania Main Street

One of the longest running food themed games in terms of series length, Cake Mania was originally going to end after Cake Mania 3 only for the game creators to stretch it out by two games... this game, Main Street, and Lights Cameras Action!... but what happens next remains to be seen. As for this version, on the DS, it may suffer the sa,e singular flaw as previous versions but we'll see...

So now Jack and Jill are now married... oh, just noticed the horrible pun in his name.... bad game, bad... anyway they return to Jill's hometown only to realize that it's in even worst shape in before as another mega corporation (no doubt owned by the cake making madman from Kamen Rider OOOs) is running the community into the ground driving the small businesses out of business. So the entire game has Jill (running the Evans Bakery), Jack (running a burger shop), Risha (flower shop) and Tiny (sushi shop) helping save the town... how? Well as you play all the money you make is split in half. Half the money you use to update each store in different ways, amd their two game styles. For the traditional Cake Mania style (Jill and Risha) you buy new equipment for your shops, but for the rather Burger Island style of gameplay (Jack and Tiny) you purchase new recipes, recommended you unlock one at a time so you have a chance to master each in turn, as well as a TV and cookie maker since your playing zone is dar different than what your used to to date from Cake Mania... however if you played Burger Island these two won't phase you one bit. As for the second half of the money it goes into the town where you use it to improve the four shops (though that doesn't seem to do anything for them at all except increase the amounts earned each day when your not playing the four businesses). The rest of the money you spend buying tourist sites to improve the visibility of your town attracting more tourists, though again it doesn't seem to impact gameplay any.

The only possible problem is once again the size of the game on the DS. Remember this is a port of a PC game series so this game, like all the others on the series, are far more comfortable on larger screens, which is made even more awkward as the series creators only went so far converting the games for the DS over time (one major consession not taken yet is a change of the mini games to make them more DS friendly, also cake orders should be displayed on the top screen with the customers so they're larger and easier to see.

All in all while the problem with screen size might be a concern, I still have good feelings about this, the fourth game of the series. Hope to review it in the Fall. Stay tuned.

Bejeweled Blitz (Nintendo 3DS)

Recently I started work on a year long preview podcast called Wii U Life, covering 2012's release of the Wii U... and one of the things I learned was that the Wii U is at last the next gen entry by Nintendo, looking to win by core gaming fans who left Nintendo for HD pastures.

At first I was worried this would mean Nintendo would be throwing casual gaming fans under the bus, but that shouldn't be a fear I think... though at least casual gamers will always have the 3DS. And games like Bejeweled Blitz.

Blitz is a simple addictive match three game. You can raack up matches, make challenge matches to speed up the match meter which turns a board piece into a mega fruit which clears the entire board of that color as well as add time to all on screen bombs. Match four for a fire piece that explodes when matched. Match five for a lightning piece that clears a giant cross section of pieces. Finally the ultra rare supernova piece, matching 7 and up pieces.

Game ends whwn you fail to disarm bomb pieces... and that's it. Otherwise the game can last 1 to 2 hours a play, and can become super addictive before you know it. A 5 out of 5 for a game you'll have a hard time putting down... yes, bells and whistles are non exsistant but who cares when the game is this addictive.

Next time - Speaking of addictive come back Thursday for the rare food game on the PlayStation Store... Stand O Food. See you Thursday!

This week's reviews

Ok since we had no comments, no spam, no nothing let's start reviewing... casually.

Tuesday - Bejeweled Blitz (3DS)
Thursday - Stand O Food (PSP)

Casual Gaming?

My first thought for the revisioning of this group is the coverage of casual gaming, but what is everyone's thoughts on it? Casual gaming is popular and quite abit genre wise is covered by casual gaming. Thoughts?

New home for RPG and Strategy reviews http://rpgunite.blogspot.com