Archive for the ‘Tech’d Out’ Category
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Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles [VG]
Game Title: Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles
Developer: Cavia and Capcom
ESRP Rating: M
Genre: Rail Shooter
System: WiiDarkside Chronicles is a rail shooter for Resident Evil series. A chronicle series similar to Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles. . Starts out in South America with Leon Kennedy and Jack Krauser before going into flash back stages of the Raccoon city story line with Leon and Clair Redfield which recaps the plot of Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil Code Veronica.
Controls are simple enough, as to be expected with a rail shooter, mostly point and shoot. You can use the nunchuck or the D pad to quickly change between weapons. I personally preferred the nunchuck for this, I kept hitting the middle of the D pad and switching to the wrong weapon.
The camera movements mimic the movements of the characters as if the game were played in first person. You don’t actually control the movement yourself and this can be a bit awkward for aiming but gives it a more realistic feel.
In game graphic are pretty good, consistent with no glitches in the in the background or game play that i have noticed so far. Response time with the controls is very accurate. The quality of the cut scenes were excellent as well, on par with many CG movies I have seen. Including Resident Evil Degeneration. I have always been a fan of the music and sounds of Resident evil games. The sounds fit the game well without drawing your attention away from the game play.
Darkside can be played one player or two player co-op. In the first 2 hours that I played you always had the option to choose between 2 characters at the start of each stage. With two players you play with both. Haven’t tried two players yet, I’ll need to find someone to play with for next time.
You can collect gold through out the game to power up your weapons. I started with powering the shot gun. The short gun is one your most useful tool against the undead and mutated….. once you power it enough that it not so damn slow. It is able to push back multiple attackers within range which is very useful if you are playing solo and don’t have backup. You can also shoot at random items in the background of the game play (recommend using handgun with unlimited ammo for this) to uncover more gold and hidden files with extra information about the characters and story line. But really its about the random destruction.
Probably about 90% of the time I was shooting at something. There are longer higher quality cut scenes are the start and end of every stage and usually a few short cut scenes during the stage, but they are blended well into the game pay as not to be distracting.
As much of a fan of the series as I am, this is a Chronicle game so I wouldn’t call it original. The resident evil series is great for pouring out side games to go along with the main story that re-introduces past story lines and story lines mentioned in other games. Resident Evil 4 mentions the Kennedy report which I believe is based on the South American mission that Darkside chronicles starts with. I personally like all the side story games, they easy to play and is a great refresher for the main story line.
If I wasn’t wasting my time shooting Zombies I would probably be wasting it with Smash Bros Brawl. Resident Evil Darkside Chronicles is what it is, a straight forward rail shooter. Not much decision making is needed you just point and shoot. Personally after work this is what I look forward to. I don’t have to worry about anything except getting that next head shot. I wish the realistic movement was toned down a bit, it’s frustrating to miss a shot because your character suddenly turned and ran the other way, otherwise this is a fun game to play if your are looking for something quick that does not require a big commitment. Given another 2 hours and 2 minutes I think I might be able to finish the game.
I would give this game a 4/5 as it is one I would play over again and would like to own.
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TRON Hoodie
I don’t know about you, but I don’t really care if sky blue is my color or not, this TRON Hoodie would be the coolest thing to wear (and it glows in the dark!)Feel free to buy it for me. You know, only if you really love me…or something like that. Hell. I’ll let you buy it for me even if you hate me. We can have a love-hate-purchase relationship.
[via Gizmodo via Threadless via TheDailyWhat via DVICE]
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FlyScreen [App]
Fly Screen is a new type of App, that is located in a place that not many app developers fear to go: The lock screen.
What Fly Screen does is allow you to put widgets on your lock screen, to save you time from having to unlock your phone, go to the screen with the widget on it, then see what you wanted to see. Right now there is built in access to e-mail, text messages, twitter, facebook, foursquare and many news sites. You can also add native android widgets.I love the idea, but it could still use some work. They are heading in the right direction though which is important. I’d like to see them implement this but then put a password protection on the lock/options. This way you can give your phone to somebody else to listen to music, or surf the net without worrying about them reading your e-mails.
- Pros:
- Can make use of the empty space on the lock screen and fill it with stuff.
- Haven’t seen this done much before.
- Can be better:
- Can only put one widget on each screen. I’d like to be able to put my music player, bluetooth on/off and volume on the same screen.
- Loads a little slow, as it seems to load my default lock, then switch each time.
Fly Screen is available for Android (1.6 and higher) in the market, as well as Symbian (Nokia).
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Breaking News: NY City destroyed by pixels!
If you’ve ever wanted to see New York city completely taken over and taken apart by your favorite 8-bit characters, now is the time to do so. Patrick Jean did an amazing job on this, I’m astounded and in awe.
PIXELS by PATRICK JEAN.
Uploaded by onemoreprod. – Arts and animation videos.[Via Mashable!]
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Dr. Horrible in 8-Bit
I don’t know what to say other than ‘Holy crap’ and ‘I want to play this game!’. A guy (or gal) going by the name DoctorOctoroc redid the first act of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. It’s NPH in Nintendo form, that’s totally and utterly badass! I don’t even want to get into how incredibly epic the soundtrack is. It makes me feel all warm and squishy inside. Watch it, love it, then go buy me the DVD off Amazon kthx.
[Via Mashable]
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Personal Assistant: Makes good coffee [App]
Sorry to lie, this app doesn’t actually make you coffee. It does do everything else a good assistant does though. Today I’m talking about Pageonce‘s cross-platform Personal Assistant application.
Personal Assistant allows you to access your bank accounts, credit cards, bills, shopping wishlists, social networking sites,e-mail, travel schedule (and more!) through your one application.I use mine currently for my checking account and credit card, as well as my internet and phone bills. For bank accounts, it shows your your balance and all your transactions. For credit cards, you can see your spending limit, how much of it you’ve used, your minimum needed payment as well as when that is due.
My Internet bill shows when it is due and how much. My monthly phone bill shows me when my payment is due, how much it’s for; as well as how many minutes, text and data I’ve used this month. My prepaid phone just shows the balance remaining and when it expires.
PageOnce also has an transactions section, which lets you see changes and updates at a glance. This is a nice thing to check daily, just to make sure nothing happened during the day that you didn’t authorize. Personal Assistant also monitors your bills for you, and send you out an e-mail a few days in advance as a ‘change that might interest you’. This serves a great purpose when you get an e-mail letting you know that your bill is due in 5 days, there is more chance of remembering to pay it.Did I mention this is free? Well it is. There is a premium version which offers unlimited accounts (I believe free is 10) and they are working on allowing multiple updates daily as well. I’m tempted to buy the premium version just to support the developer because I love how simple and affective it is. Having all of my finances (or lack there of) right at my finger tips at all times makes me almost feel like an adult! Come to think of it, not so sure I like that.
- Pros:
- Free
- Has all the services I need
- Great interface
- Easy to set up
- Can Be Improved:
- Would like to see a widget
- Only updates once a day with the free version
Personal Assistant is available on all major mobile systems: Android, Windows Mobile, Blackberry and iPhone.
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Cubed Music Player [App]
Myself, like 99.9% of all Android users, are disappointed and honestly hate the lack of originality and horrible sorting in the default stock music player in Android 2.0. Well maybe not hate, but I wouldn’t say that I’d vote for it any any contests anytime soon. I want it to be not only functional, but pretty as well. Cubed ( “3″ ) does that and not only makes it look easy but actually makes using it easy.
What Cubed (formerly known as Rock On) does is takes your entire library, downloads the Album covers for it and turns it into a giant…well cube. You can then spin in horizontally to pick the artist by letter, or flick it vertically to just let it spin through them all the albums. Tapping on the facing cube will list you the songs from that artist, on that album. It’s pretty sweet, has no lag while flicking and is fun to just spin the cube around.
This app features all the required functions: Next, back, random, repeat. It also throws in themes (effects to the cover art) and three different sized widgets that all show cover art. They also have a ‘concert’ app attached, though it doesn’t seem to work too well in my location.
- Pros:
- Better interface than stock app
- Album covers easily downloaded
- Fun to play around with
- Supports search
- Good Widgets
- Cons:
- Can’t spin cube from widget
- Did mess up on some of the album covers
- Auto-flip back to current song if you pause too long while browsing albums
I’ve yet to find something that can compare in quality, and I think that it holds a lot of promise as it progresses through it’s beta. For anybody who uses their music player on a regular basis, Cubed is my suggestion for your music app.
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Wrist Power [Gadget]
A few months ago (actually a year come to think of it) there was a new product that came out called Wrist power (or Wrist Band Portable Battery), a universal battery recharger that you wear on your wrist. Within 24 hours of me reading the article on Boing Boing, they were sold out. Last month, they came back in stock, and I’m sure I was first in line to get one.
To be honest, I had a hard time getting it from the post office, but I can’t regret the extra effort. Wrist power charges up using as micro USB to USB cord, takes about 4 hours to fully charge and holds a fair amount. I was able to charge my Motorola Milestone from 50% to 100% in just over an hour (this while I was using it with GPS turned on, so I’d say it gave it about an 80% charge). It was well worth the $27 bucks it cost me (including S&H).The Wrist Power bracelet came with a Nintendo DS, PSP, mini USB, Ipod, a ‘Nokia plug’ and a ‘Samsung connector’ (no idea what it’s called). It connects using pin, so most recharger ends will work. I ended up having to pick up a Motorola car charger kit from The Source to get mine, works fine with the bracelet.
- Pros:
- Cheap price
- Charges quickly
- Holds a good amount of power
- Recharges device quickly
- Not that bulky
- Cons:
- ‘Universal’ didn’t have the micro USB connector I needed
- Strap has 2 snaps, but only 1 snap hole (so the 1st snap sticks out if you have small wists)
- Rubber grip on the outside tends to make taking off long sleeve shirts a hassle
- Fear of being Luke Skywalker’d if it blows up.
Overall, I like this product. It does what I wanted it to do, and does it pretty easily. I like the idea of knowing that when my phone dies because I’ve checked in to 20 places on Foursquare and watched 50 youtube videos I have a backup. Oh, and it makes me look cool…right?
You can buy it for as low as $22 CAD at ChinaVasion in either black or White.
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Urban Spoon [App]
On today’s menu, we’re featuring a lovely Urban Spoon with a side dish of multi-device support topped with a light glaze of amusement. It’s like Shake n Bake, without the Baking.
Instead of arguing about what to have for dinner, why not leave it to chance? Urban spoon provides you with a fun roulette that will tell you quick where, what and how much you’re going to pay to eat with just one quick wrist gesture. You pick the location, then give your phone a slight shake and it will randomly pick what kind of food you’re eating tonight and find a restaurant in that category. The price option is a big help too so you don’t end up buying a $70 steak with rent money (Which is awesome if you’re totally broke like me). When it finds the restaurant, it gives you info on where it is, the phone number, if it has delivery, and often some reviews.My city currently only has 140 restaurants, which leave a TON of room for improvement. Given how many placed to eat there are around here, this app has almost inspired me to actually travel around my town to new places I haven’t been to before just so I can add some more restaurant onto the list. I’d advise you to do the same, it’s not only a good way to contribute, but this can prove to be a good marketing platform for local businesses.
Urban Spoon is available through their website or mobile site if you just want to do some browsing. You can get Urban Spoon’s addictive little app on Android (2.0+), iPhone, or Blackberry.
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Gowalla & Foursquare: LBS smackdown [Apps]
Everybody loves doing something else while doing something boring. At least I do. Lately, this is where Location Based Services (LBS) are filling my void. My current loves are Gowalla and Foursquare.
Both of these services allow you to travel around town, and using your GPS you can ‘check in’ where ever you are. I honestly can not figure out why it’s so cool, since nobody actually is looking up where I am, but it’s fun to think that somebody can.
What intrigues me is that it’s been made into a game in a few different ways. For instance, checking in at the mall, then the coffee place, then at work; I will get 3 points for having 3 check-ins plus a bonus if it is the first time checking in to that location. You can also get ‘badges’ for accomplishing various tasks or at random. They don’t do anything, but you can show them off to your friends.
An added feature is ‘mayorships’. If you’ve checked into a certain place more than anybody else, you become the mayor. In this sense, when somebody else checks in to that place, they see that you’re the mayor. You can also see how many people have been at each place, and who is there now.
What is putting Gowalla above Foursquare in my mind right now is graphics and items. Foursquare is mainly text, where as Gowalla has nice pictures beside it and actually requires you to be within range of the location to check in. Once checked in on Gowalla, you can also pick up items (if there are anythere) or drop an item. When you take one, you need to drop one. The next person that checks in, can then choose to take your dropped item if they want. It’s a fun way to feel connected to those who you don’t know, as it shows the history of an item when you look at it.
I would love to see these become more popular, and it seems to be here in Kingston. I’d love to see 3 of my coworkers checked in at work, to feel connected in suffering. I’m just waiting for a beta invite to Check.In, where I can check-in on both applications at the same time.Gowalla is available on Android, iPhone, Palm OS (I’m shocked too) and mobile site for those out of the loops.
Foursquare is available for Android, Iphone and blackberry.Do you use LBS? If so, what ones do you like using, or why not?
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