sprites & bites

With the iPhone’s all singing, all dancing features, I thought I would do a series of my top apps available to users. Some are not downloadable apps but links to direct services.

So in no particular order:

Sky+

The Sky+ app is your sky guide in your hand.  Link your mobile phone number to your sky account and you will have the ability to send a remote record request to your sky+/HD box when you are away from home and you have forgotten to record something. If the programme has already started you cannot record it though. Sky+ app has recently had an update and now it is faster, easier to use and has a better navigation layout. The Sky+ App is free to download and use from the app store.  UK only.

TV Catchup

TV Catchup is not an app but a service you can use directly through the browser. The name TV Catchup gives the impression that you can catch repeats online but actually this service is LIVE television as it is aired.  It is not some cheap crap service showing weird Japanese or minor US channels, these are top UK channels being aired live. Channels include BBC1, BBC2, BBC 3+4, ITV1+2+3+4, Channel 4, Channel 5, Five USA, Fiver, E4, More4, Film 4, BBC News 24, CBBC and a few others, plus the +1 hour versions of the above channels.

It is a fairly substantial service and it is entirely free, no catches and is 100% legal (you need a TV license of course).

This is a great package on the iPhone, but if you want more channels (50+) then you can alternatively watch it on a proper computer.

The iPhone version uses wifi or your 3g connection. On 3g the streaming is excellent and in my experience no buffering issues at all with an excellent picture.Although this is dependent on your local mobile network.

To view on iphone point your browser to iphone.tvcatchup.com and to make it easy to access you can set a shortcut link on your home screen.

To view on home computer point your browser to www.tvcatchup.com

Both services require a signup login, but they do not ask for email address or other details, just chosen name and password. How this service manages to be free I do not know, maybe they plan to charge in the future but for now, enjoy your free TV.

BBC iPlayer

The original TV catchup service. Again, not an app but a direct service, really the iplayer needs no explanation other than it works extremely well on the iphone through 3g or wifi.  Point your browser and make a direct link to http://www.bbc.co.uk/mobile/iplayer

TuneIn Radio

Tune In Radio is a new live radio app from the app store. It costs only £1.19 and is the best radio app I have found on the web so far.  There are many live radio apps on the app store but two things make this app stand out from the crowd.

1) The ability to browse the web while the radio is on.  They have included a web button on the radio interface which brings up a new web page for you to carry on browsing while radio is playing, whether this is a first or not I do not know but it is something all radio apps should have due to the inability to have radio playing in the background.

2) The ability to record live radio, pause rewind and forward. Yes its dab in your pocket.  The record works very well and you can record as long as you have space on the iphone, there is no restriction. This is great but a point to remember, do not forget you are recording something as you may find you run out of space if you leave it recording for a few days.  I did a test record and a 2 minute record took up about 2mb space, so this gives you an idea of what to expect from recordings.  Recordings can also be played without a connection in airplane mode, this is useful if you wish to record a bunch of programmes to take away on holiday with you.

There are hundreds of radio channels and you can browse by location, language and genre.

There is one thing about having thousands of cheap choices on the app store – and that is that you can easily on a whim in a few clicks download an app for only 59p, £1.19 or as much as a few quid.  The wallet does not think about that 59p at the time because it is only the price of a chocolate bar but because it is so easy to make purchases, it is easy to rack up a far larger bill.  I bought an itunes voucher as I hated all those little 59 pences appearing on my credit card but the upshot of that was that I spent the voucher far quicker than I normally would as I had this big credit on my account.

Now the problem is that I am finding most of these apps I buy I never use more than once.  I have over 75 apps which sit there doing nothing but taking up screen space.  When I remove them I want them back ‘just in case’ I may want to use them.  This is a silly situation. Not only is it a waste of money but it is a waste of my time downloading, uninstalling and so on.

Take word games for example. I have about 10 or so word games on my iphone. I play two of them regularly and the others I do not bother with because normally something else is slightly better. Other games I just buy because the screenshots look pretty but I end up not playing them

I want a GTD (getting things done) application but most of these are around about £5 or more each and it would be expensive to buy them all. Granted, some of them have lite versions, but the very features I want to try out (like push notifications) are disabled in the lites so I do not get to try them at all.

I have a number of apps I use regularly, most notably…

Sky News, ITN News, Reuters

Tweetie, My O2

Accuweather, Weather Pro

Bejewelled 2, Boggle, Moxie

The rest I have are just sitting there winking at me wondering when they will be pressed.  I think I need to stop buying.

I have been playing video games in some form or another for about 20 years or so now.  I have played a zillion and one games in all sorts of genres from action to sports and platforming to horrors.

Every once in a while a game comes along which is attempting to redefine video games and their genres and maybe even create a new genre.  Heavy Rain on the Playstation 3 is one such game and expectations are high that this game is going to have a positive impact in the way future games are constructed.

Heavy Rain is not just a game, it is also an interactive thriller based around 5 main characters who you get to play. These characters are actually real people alive today and they all centre around a fictional story of a serial killer – The Origami Killer. Your actions and reactions to events in this game will determine how the game plays out, in fact your actions are so important to the gameplay that a wrong decision may lead to the death of that character and once dead they are dead for the rest of the game and you continue with the remaining characters so you may have to think hard about your actions before committing to them.

The developer, “Quantic Dream” wants to play with our emotions. They want the gamer to feel real emotion when playing the game and to feel what the characters are feeling. If they succeed with this then maybe it may change some games forever. If they fail, then it will only be remembered as just a game in gaming history.

Heavy Rain is an adult game and not suitable for children. It has mature content and is designed solely for a mature audience. Kids need not apply on this one. Think Patricia Cornwall or James Patterson.

Heavy Rain will only be available on the Playstation 3 and is due for release at the end of February. Check out www.youtube.com for lots of trailers and preview videos.

Rated 18 years and over.

I have found some great applications on the app store, some free and others pay for but I feel I am missing out on some amazing apps.  I go on my iPhone or load up Itunes and maybe I might see the top 50 but there are a million more apps out there which never even reach the top 50.  I want to see more than that and scrolling through pages and pages of categories really does not appeal to me as it is time consuming.

So here is a plea to everyone, if you have a recommendation for a game or useful app then please post about it here or even if you have a recommendation for good website listing decent apps it would be helpful.  There is so much out there it is hard seperating the wheat from the chaff and I am sure there are loads of excellent apps out there which get forgotten about.

Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat but your wallet is getting smaller and Christmas might be crap. Of course you do not need to spend hundreds of £££’s to make someone happy this year or even choose a small pressie for yourself.  Here are my top 5 gaming gifts to please someone this year.  Young or old, male or female, there should be something here to please.

In at number 5 is Professor Layton & Pandoras Box. The successor to Professor Layton & the Curious Village, this game brings you more mind bending puzzles than you can flick a baked bean at and is recommended for all ages although may be quite hard for younger gamers.

RRP £34.99

At 4 is Singstar Volume 2 on PS3. Old and young there are songs to sing for everyone.  The bundle comes complete with two microphones so you can further deafen your deaf great grandma.

RRP £49.99

In at 3 is the Xbox 360 Messenger Kit. An unusual gift maybe, this pack is a mini keyboard and headset which attaches to an Xbox 360 controller. Today Microsoft released an update which allows for Twitter and Facebook on the 360 so this mini keyboard can be a thumb-saver for typing messages over Xbox live.

RRP £24.99

Number 2 is Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City. This standalone disc contains the two downloadable add-on packs which were released for the original game on Xbox marketplace – The Ballad of Gay Tony and The Lost and the Damned.. The great thing about this is if your boyfriend/wife/husband has sold/traded/lost their original disc, they do not need the original to play this game. Available on Xbox 360.

RRP £34.99

At Number 1 slot I do recommend an Xbox 360 4200 points card for the marketplace.  On the face of it, it looks like a boring pressie but believe me this will give hours of fun to the internet connected Xbox 360 gamer.  For those not in the know and are shopping for others, a points card is like a voucher which a person can spend online via their xbox 360 to buy games, movies and additional content for games.  Games range typically between 800-1200 points each so they can choose for themselves what games they wish to download. This is very useful when buying for someone when you know they have an Xbox 360 but you have no idea what to buy them.  Ultimately they get a valuable gift for them but they can choose the real prize

RRP £34.99

If you decide any of these products might be a good gift or even want to browse for other products, www.vouchercodes.co.uk can offer you some money saving vouchers to try and help ease the Christmas spending burden, every penny saved is an extra tot of brandy or nibble of a mince pie (with cream)! Go directly to the link above or below are some handy links direct to a few video game retailers discounts.

Game – www.vouchercodes.co.uk/game.co.uk

Play.com – www.vouchercodes.co.uk/play.com

Amazon – www.vouchercodes.co.uk/amazon.co.uk

These are just a few of the stores who offer discount vouchers from free delivery to money off, bogoffs and so on.

Merry Christmas!

2010 – the year when 30 years ago when I was at primary school we used to think was going to be full of robots and people living on space stations and walking around in astronaut suits. That did not quite happen but in 30 years I have seen video games go from small pixelated square blocks to full blown graphics which also look cinematic.   I remember playing a text adventure on the Commodore 64 and I remember being in awe of the graphics, there was a shot of the outside of a cave and there were only 3 colours – green for the grass, brown for the cave rocks and black for the inside of the cave.  I do also remember saying to my Dad back then that it was so amazing then I could never imagine graphics getting better than that ever.  Of course at 7-8 years old at the time I never realised that computers would get better and that programming skills would get better and over time use different softwares and better softwares to create those worlds around us.

I feel honoured to0 be this age (36) that I am now.  I have seen computer games from birth to the present day and all their incarnations and have enjoyed the excitement and amazement that every new games generation console has brought me and assuming I live another 50 years, I cannot wait for the next generation of consoles and then one after that and that etc.  I could see 5 more generations of consoles and be 86 years old playing Call of Duty: Gulf War 10 and having 10 year old kids telling me they are going to kill my mother when she will probably already be dead by then. I really cannot wait for what is to come and how game graphics will be seen in future generations.

That is all too far into the future though and right here and right now we have a slew of games coming out in the first quarter of 2010 which are beginning to excite the games playing audience. This is not an exhaustive list and some dates may slip further.

Bayonetta – devil woman attacks peeps with her long hair.  Xbox 360, PS3 – 8th January

Alan Wake – Been in production for many years, will it make it? – Xbox 360 exclusive – 29th January (let us at least pretend)

MAG Massive Action Game – First MMORPG for the PS3 (exclusive) 29th January

Mass Effect 2 – It has to be played, its the law. Xbox 360 exclusive, 29th January

Dead Rising 2 – More millions of zombies causing claustrophobia and dirty pants. Xbox 360, PS3.  29th January

Bioshock 2 – Needs no description of this awesome game.  Xbox 360, PS3 – 9th February

Dante’s Inferno – More horror/evil/hell/demons/devils.  Xbox 360, PS3.  26th February

Dead to Rights: Retribution – Will the dog be in it?  PS3 only.  26th February

Final Fantasy XIII – Not my cup of tea but worthy of a mention. Xbox 360, PS3.  9th March

Splinter Cell Conviction. Its a pretend date really…  Xbox 360.  26th March

Mafia 2 – Bring on  the Mafia in the cars going at 20mph! woo.  Xbox 360, PS3. 26th March

Red Dead Redemption – Cowboys and Indians go open world and free roam. Xbox 360, PS3 26th March

Max Payne 3 – Please no more dream sequences. Xbox 360, PS3 – sometime next year maybe

Borderlands just released last week has to be one of the best games I have played this year.  It is an RPG shooter along similar lines of Fallout 3 but with a unique cel-shaded cartoony look and a more comical side to it.  From the moment I started playing Borderlands I just knew it had something special about it.  It’s whole feel is very sarcastic and tongue in cheek and is a joy to play amongst the more serious games out there.

It started out as a game with more realistic graphics but over time the developer decided to scrap the realistic look and go for a cel-shaded cartoon look.  This does actually fit in very well with the games humour and sometimes it feels akin to a comic book.

The weapons system is quite unique and the developer wrote a program which randomised weapons and gives you a theoretical hundreds of thousands of guns, although when playing through the game it did actually feel like only 100 guns, this is because even though there may be a sniper rifle made lovingly of plywood, it has a number of them with different tweaks to make it seem like there are lots when really it is just the same gun.  There are still many guns you just only get to see a few types with lots of combinations.

The missions are quite repetitive but when playing them the game does not give that air of repetitiveness at all, each mission feels unique with it’s own personality but really deep down it is like 10 tins of beans made by the same company but with different labels, it does not feel that though and that is good game design.

I actually got hooked on this game and played it from start to finish in almost every available moment and I finished it at around level 34 in 36 hours.  I had so much fun it was such a shame when the game ended and I knew there were no missions left to play.

This game definitely gives great value for money.  It has a large world, tons of missions and has a funny storyline.  If you love RPG games and shooters then this is an excellent mix and I doubt anybody would regret buying it.  Lots of games being released this time of the year so if you cannot afford it now, do rent it or wait for it to drop in price because it is an excellent game.

It is rare, but I give it an EXCELLENT/10