iPhone Review: Hook Worlds

iPhone Review: Hook Worlds

Posted on 16th Dec 2010 at 11:39 by Joe Martin with 3 comments

Hooks are a recurring motif for Rocketcat Games, it seems - as 'Cry' is to Crytek, perhaps. It's a motif that has taken center stage in both of Rocketcat's previous titles, Hook Champ and Super Quick Hook.

Now, it shows up again in Hook Worlds - albeit under three different guises.

You see, there are three games in Hook Worlds. The first of these, Curse of the Watcher, doesn't anything new or wholly unfamiliar to fans of Rocketcat's previous games. A cross between Super Quick Hook's endless Avalanche mode and Hook Champ's story-driven levels, Curse has players using rocketboots and a grappling hook to flee a pursuing ghost. The controls have changed about since Super Quick Hook, but it's still super accessible; a tap on the left or right is all you need to whip through the scenery.


The second and third games are a slightly different affair, however, and offer a radical change of pace. The first of these, Bounty Gunner, is more action-orientated than the others and casts players as Zelle, a DLC character from the original Hook Champ. Tasked with cleansing a haunted cove of the ghost pirates that possess it, Zelle constantly charges forward automatically and uses her rifle to dispatch enemies and knock down barricades. There's nobody chasing Zelle, but as she gains speed the game gets much more difficult.

The final game, Cybergnome 202X, brings another change of pace and is by far the hardest of them all, though. Set in a dystopian future where it's illegal to be a gnome, Cybergnome couples the usual grappling hook controls with the ability to invert gravity as you try to dodge the police. It's a difficult feature to get to grips with, especially when you hit a stretch of the level that forces you to grapple across the city upside down, but it's also one of the most fun and rewarding.


Unfortunately, while Hook Worlds brings some welcome changes, it's also noticeably lighter on character and charm than the previous Hook games. The dialogue that introduces each game is even lighter than it was in Hook Champ, while none of the items that players can buy with their points bring anything but cosmetic tweaks. Most of all, we miss the ability to converse with other characters in the in-game store, a feature introduced in Super Quick Hook.

The upside to this, however, is that Rocketcat has already assured fans that there'll be plenty of updates in the future - including a fourth, retro-inspired game mode and a variety of unlockable endings that will bring more humour to the game. Normally we'd hesitate before praising a game based on nothing more than promises, but Rocketcat has a history of supporting titles, so it's a safe bet.

Conclusion: Hook Worlds lacks the aesthetic variety and scope of previous titles in the series, but it compensates for these failings with it's extra game modes. We wouldn't say it's as essential as Super Quick Hook, but that could easily change after a few updates.

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Where are my gaming spin-offs?

Where are my gaming spin-offs?

Posted on 17th Dec 2010 at 10:12 by Chris Pickering with 22 comments

The world of television has always featured spin-offs. The long running Frasier starred a character created in the world of Cheers. The Day Today brought us into contact with the comedy stylings of Alan Partridge. Even Hollyoaks found itself giving birth to a late night ?adult? variations of its tea-time teenage themes.

Yet the video game world seemingly doesn?t wish to join in on this potential cavalcade of excitement. Recently the fantastic Red Dead Redemption was infested with zombies in Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare, which has John Marston attempt to stop the zombie horde. It?s really quite blooming good fun and you can only assume it was pretty bloomin' cheap to produce too.

So, it makes you wonder why so few successful series aren't seemingly eager to do the same. The superb Mass Effect 2 has received all kinds of plaudits for its deep, realistic characters that populate your crew. Wouldn?t it be fantastic if you could play the back story to the deeply troubled Jack? What about Captain Anderson and his murky past? Wouldn?t this be a fantastic way to expand a world we?ve all fallen in love with? These areas are explored more in books admittedly, but we want games!


Sadly, the type of spin-offs we're made to cope with are more along the lines of Mario Party or Sonic Spinball; games that take the central characters and simply put them in a new setting. Most of these games have no real need for such a famous and well known character, other than the bonus of an additional few copies sold at the tills due to their big name status.

Personally, I'm desperate to see 'proper' spin-offs, along the same lines as Undead Nightmare. I?ve got a little hope that, due to ever rising cost of modern game development, publishers will be eager to see expensively created locales and art used multiple times.

And if that means that Bioware allow me the chance to play out the years of Jack?s life before Commander Shephard came into her life, I?ll be a very happy chap indeed.

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Video - Taking Apart the Microsoft Kinect

Taking Apart the Microsoft Kinect

Technology Review's I.T. Editor, Erica Naone, demonstrates how the Microsoft Kinect works and then hacks it apart.

12.21.2010
Video by by Brittany Sauser and Erica Naone, edited by JR Rost - Read the Article

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iPad, iPhone and BlackBerry devices to be allowed on Capitol Hill [TNW United States]

House Republicans are set to break some longstanding traditions and soon permit the use of iPads, iPhones and BlackBerry devices on the House floor, as long as it doesn?t ?impair decorum.?

John A. Boehmer, the Republican Member for Ohio, is to relax measures impacting the use of electronic devices, keeping the ban in place for matters that weren?t House-related like phone calls or internet shopping, their use being both greener, able to help inform Members of different pieces of legislation and also allow them to receive communications.

Brendan Buck, spokesman for the Republicans notes:

?Mr. Boehner has deep respect for the institution and its traditions.

This is not free license to Skype or pay bills online. But we recognize that people consume information electronically these days. It?s just silly that the House wouldn?t accommodate that.?

It seems lawmakers are beginning to see the uses behind the use of technology with their institutions, only last week the Chief Lord Justice removed the ban on using Twitter in courtrooms in England and Wales, allowing journalists to report on trials as they happen.

The move has come in for some criticism whilst being lauded for bringing the House into the modern age. As long as House Members use technology to remain updated on matters, using it to research and not using it to distract themselves from proceedings, it help influence more informed decisions.

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/us/2010/12/26/capitol-hill-to-allow-ipad-iphone-and-blackberry-devices/

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What is on that screen?

What is on that screen?

Posted on 18th Dec 2010 at 12:30 by James Gorbold with 88 comments

One of the first things I do when proof reading an article that is about to be published on bit-tech or Custom PC is check whether the URL at the top of the review does correctly link to the product manufacturer's homepage.

So while proofing the review of the MSI X58A-GD65 motherboard I came across this image which I just had to share with you. It's an advert admitedly, but the artwork is so bizarre that I thought it worth a caption competition.

What is on that screen? *What is on that screen?

To get things started, this is what some of the bit-tech/CPC editorial's team suggestions:

1. MSI has installed fans in the screen.

2. He's just seen a video of his parents having sex.

3. He's just seen the first benchmarks of a LGA2011 CPU.

Over to you...

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How to: Blizzard Proof Your iPhone [TNW Apps]

The Northeast is about to get 14-20? of the white fluffy stuff and 60mph winds. As I race home south on the Merrit Parkway in Connecticut, preparing to hop on a train to New York City I?ve put together a lovely guide for you to turn your iPhone into your best blizzard buddy.

Best snow related apps for the iPhone

Since the iPhone?s pre-installed Weather app may as well be made up of smiley faces, I recommend downloading these useful weather apps for the iPhone to help you plan for today?s Post-Christmas storm.

Accuweather

Accuweather and Weather.com are the two most popular weather apps, but after years of personal use Accuweather is slightly more accurate. Plus the app just got a sweet aesthetic update on December 18th. The current app includes 15-day local forecasts, 15 hours of hourly forecasts, forecast videos and can store up to 15 locations. What the app says: For Brooklyn today: Blizzard this afternoon! Download it here. (Free)

The Snow Report by The North Face

One of the most trusted brands in snow gear, The North Face made an app called ?The Snow Report? which provides a simple data set in one of the prettiest looking interfaces I?ve ever seen. The app provides a single download of all local trail maps, so download them once and you?ll have them whenever you want. Data such as map directions, resort sites and full weather details from NOAA all open external applications. Basically, the app provides simple coverage with a pleasing aesthetic, just like their jackets. Download it here. (Free)

Happy Hours

If you?d prefer the pub to hanging at home with your sweetie and ordering a bottle of wine, finding the nearest Happy Hour spot may be just what the doctor ordered for your post-Christmas comedown. Download it here. (Free)

Best Cases to waterproof your iPhone

The DryCASE

The DryCASE is a vacuum-sealed, flexible, clear waterproof bag that provides complete use of your phone, tablet, MP3 player or camera while keeping it dry and clean. The DryCASE by Dry Corp has been named a Top 25 finalist in the ?Last Gadget Standing? competition at  this year?s CES. The DryCASE also inclues a headphone jack so you can listen to music as you shred the gnar gnar. The DryCASE is 4.25 inches wide and 6.5 inches long and will fit almost any phone, camera or MP3 player. A larger iPad, Kindle and PC tablet version is also available. Buy here. (US $39.99) The company is offering 20% off orders right now, use coupon code: ?DRY2010?.

The H2O Audio Amphibx Armband and Waterproof Earbuds

If you are super active, this waterproof iPhone armband case will protect your phone in any snowball fight. You can also use it for swimming laps in the pool. It?s lightweight and comfortable and allows you to easily operate the device through the case. Buy it here. (US $64.15) Check out their waterproof earbuds too. (US $36.19)

Don?t feel like going outside? *lame* Have a snowball fight with your friends on Facebook.

Know any other cool ways to use your iPhone in a blizzard? Let me know!

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/apps/2010/12/26/how-to-blizzard-proof-your-iphone/

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Facebook passes Yahoo, becomes world's third largest website

It was only a matter of time, and now it's finally happened. Facebook has passed Yahoo in traffic to become the third largest website in the world, according to recent numbers from Comscore. Facebook only just surpassed Yahoo, grabbing 648 million visitors compared to 630 million for Yahoo in November 2010, but the overall trend is the impressive part.

The top two spots are still held by Google (970 million worldwide visitors) and Microsoft (869 million worldwide visitors), respectively, though Facebook is rapidly gaining on them. Microsoft has clearly been growing much more steadily in recent months; Google's traffic seems to be flattening out. Facebook is undoubtedly growing the fastest while Yahoo simply isn't growing at all. It looks like the top three spots are going to be changing in the next few months. How and when they change might end up shocking some people.

Three months ago, Facebook passed Yahoo to become the second largest video site. Two months ago, Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz admitted that Facebook could one day become Yahoo's number one competitor.

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Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/41725-facebook-passes-yahoo-becomes-worlds-third-largest-website.html

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VLC for Android Coming ?In A Matter Of Weeks? [TNW Mobile]

The popular video streaming application VLC is coming to Android and will be released in ?a matter of weeks? according to Lead VLC developer Jean-Baptiste Kempf, with the developers suffering setbacks as they try to port over the applications multimedia libraries to the platform.

VLC has been available on iPad since September 20, with iPhone functionality coming less than a month later. The app can help smartphone users stream video formats traditionally not supported by iOS and Android, providing ways for users to watch videos on their devices without having to covert or transcode them first.

GigaOM spoke with Kempf, who mentioned the VLC team had been working on an Android VLC app for a number of months but were initially hampered by the fact that Google chose to offer its multimedia output libraries in Java. Now that Google has updated its NDK, which allows developers to use native code for Android apps, two basic modules for audio and video output have been coded using the new NDK.

With most VLC libraries already ported to Android, one of the main issues that remains is how VLC will work on different devices. With different Android devices running different firmware, the VLC team need to make sure it can run on specific versions of Android before it is released.

GigaOM notes that the progress of VLC?s Android app can be tracked on the teams Git page.

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/mobile/2010/12/26/vlc-for-android-coming-in-a-matter-of-weeks/

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Happy holidays from the TechSpot team!


The TechSpot Team
Julio, Jose, Erik, Matt, Steve, Per, Shawn, Emil, Adonis, Jessica, Robinson, Ivan, Mike, Mario & Clara

Our moderators and tech support experts:
Bobbye, Broni, crunchie, Leeky, LNCPapa, mailpup, Mictlantecuhtli, poertner_1274 & SNGX1275

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Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/41727-happy-holidays-from-the-techspot-team.html

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Where are my gaming spin-offs?

Where are my gaming spin-offs?

Posted on 17th Dec 2010 at 10:12 by Chris Pickering with 22 comments

The world of television has always featured spin-offs. The long running Frasier starred a character created in the world of Cheers. The Day Today brought us into contact with the comedy stylings of Alan Partridge. Even Hollyoaks found itself giving birth to a late night ?adult? variations of its tea-time teenage themes.

Yet the video game world seemingly doesn?t wish to join in on this potential cavalcade of excitement. Recently the fantastic Red Dead Redemption was infested with zombies in Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare, which has John Marston attempt to stop the zombie horde. It?s really quite blooming good fun and you can only assume it was pretty bloomin' cheap to produce too.

So, it makes you wonder why so few successful series aren't seemingly eager to do the same. The superb Mass Effect 2 has received all kinds of plaudits for its deep, realistic characters that populate your crew. Wouldn?t it be fantastic if you could play the back story to the deeply troubled Jack? What about Captain Anderson and his murky past? Wouldn?t this be a fantastic way to expand a world we?ve all fallen in love with? These areas are explored more in books admittedly, but we want games!


Sadly, the type of spin-offs we're made to cope with are more along the lines of Mario Party or Sonic Spinball; games that take the central characters and simply put them in a new setting. Most of these games have no real need for such a famous and well known character, other than the bonus of an additional few copies sold at the tills due to their big name status.

Personally, I'm desperate to see 'proper' spin-offs, along the same lines as Undead Nightmare. I?ve got a little hope that, due to ever rising cost of modern game development, publishers will be eager to see expensively created locales and art used multiple times.

And if that means that Bioware allow me the chance to play out the years of Jack?s life before Commander Shephard came into her life, I?ll be a very happy chap indeed.

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