Ty’s Recommended Apps List
This Post is to help mainly my friends who have recently got an Android Phone and is written primarily for the Samsung Galaxy S2, This is not the Definite Must have list but a good start for anyone who has recently joined the Android Family for the first time. If anyone would like to see something on the list please forward it on, A must have games List will be up as soon as iv finished trying them all out.
Closes Left opened Apps which consumes your background memory and battery. Adding the widget to a home screen gives you a one button press function.
A great alternative web browser that offers faster speeds and a smoother interface. It also compresses web pages so you view them quicker and save on data usage.
This app tracks your mobile internet usage (4G/3G/Edge/GPRS) and notifies you when your reaching your limit and can even stop the continue of use saving you from going over your monthly allowances. It has lots of options to customise reset dates,allowance limits and notifications.
This is a short cut button to obliviously turn the wifi on and off. Great for lazy people. The market place page also offers buttons for other connectivity short cuts, I personally have the Wifi And 3G buttons on my main screen.
This app allows you to schedule the AirPlane mode of your phone to a start and stop at certain times (e.g during sleep) to save your battery. You can set which day of the week to turn on the mode and what connectivity to turn off when in AirPlane mode.
Go locker replaces the default lock screen with custom ones which can be downloaded from a huge library of many different styles and functions. One downside is that you have to download the Go Launcher Ex App (download here) for it to work, Go Launcher ex is an App that changes the default home screen to custom designs, you don’t have to use it just set the Samsung default home screen when you press the home button next. I personally dont like to use it but you have to have it installed to use Go Locker.
If your like me and still use the stock messaging app, then SMS Popup is a must have. Does Exactly what it says on the tin, And even has a quick reply section so you never have to go into your message list.
A great app for creating ringtones, can use sections of songs and save them to your phone.
Battery widgets are great to have on the home screen, there are many on the marketplace but I am currently using this one. All of them have some kind of % or Accurate Value of you battery life and some come with extra features to save your battery life like auto screen brightness and notifications.
Again, there are many Flash light apps out there and this one is the most popular (although they all do the same thing). A handy thing to have, shame the Samsung doesn’t come with one.
A music recognition app which identifies the song you want to find out more about like the artist,year ect. Great for when you hear a song on the radio and don’t know who sings it.
All Links on Headers are directed to:
By Ty
Review: Dead Space Extraction HD
- Developer: Visceral
- Publisher: EA
- Platforms: PS3
- Genre: Survival Horror/On-Rails Shooter
- Multiplayer: Single Screen Co-Op
Dead Space extraction first came out for the Wii in 2009 and was greatly overlooked and only sold 9,200 copies in its first week, it was praised by all the major review magazines and internet sites but the public failed to recognize it as quite possibly the best looking game on Nintendo’s little white box, The team at Visceral had made an impressive dead space experience within the Wii’s Limited Capabilities, But now we have the HD, Up scaled version to dissect, Dismember and burn on the PS3.
I was very interested how the sound and visuals would compare to the original and i was not disappointed at all, the sound has been uncompressed to its full potentials which makes the already believable voice acting sound clean and crisp, The visuals are the same story as the sound, upscaled and increased polygon count making the game world even more believable. One thing of note is the animation of all the characters in the game, the body movement and facial expressions are some of the best iv seen and makes each character real and believable but this not the same for the franchises enemies. Most all animate the same and behave with the same characteristics, with only a few enemy types it gets dull fighting each battle rather quickly.
Its not very often you find a Wii title being ported to the bigger machines but when you do, you can expect some very odd results like “No More Heroes” For example, A fantastic Wii game but on a bigger system it fails to bring over the fun controls and does a terrible job of upscaling, But this time Extraction has done everything possible to improve on what was already a great looking game.
You have alot of options with what method of control to use but it is obviously best played with the move as with most on-rails shooters you need the speed and accuracy to play the game as the developers intended. The one thing i am disappointed about with the controls is the mapping of certain buttons on the move, with the face buttons spread out around the main move button ‘~’ i found it difficult to reach my thumb up over the controller to initiate a reload with the [] button or change weapon, because as i did i was finding i was pointing away from where i was aiming which can be hugely annoying in frantic situations where the screen is literally filed with necromophs of all shapes and sizes.
As for the games set up its much like the other dead space games with long moments of atmospheric scenes building up tension to short panic filled shoot outs where waves of different types of enemies rush at you giving you a limited amount of time to think strategically about tackling each one which is a huge part about all the dead space franchise. Prioritizing and ammo management are you main concerns when finding yourself in these situations, with crazy weapons thrown in the mix along with solving puzzles simultaneously makes it very satisfying and breathless when you manage to just scrape by with little health and ammo.
I can honestly say iv never played a game like this before (apart from the wii version), it does everything right for a dead space game and everything better for a shooter that uses all the elements to create a real world with terrifying results.
You can either buy this from the PSN (£9.99) or get it with Dead Space 2 which has dropped in price to about £23.99
- + Impressive Port
- + Great Edition to the franchise
- + Believable Characters and Interesting Plot Lines
- - Controls mapping a bit of an issue
- - Few Enemy Types
- - Long sections without save points
By Ty
Kane And Lynch 2 - 360 Demo Preview
So for you lucky few out there like me who registered early on the official website, will be enjoying this much much earlier than the rest of the world. The Exclusive demo was available to the first 100 people who registered and once done so you were sent a token code to redeem. The demo consists of a single player level, 3 multiplayer modes and an arcade mode. The level available looks like an early scene set in the shanghai street where Kane and lynch are being chased down by the local law enforcements and swat teams, You first start off in a tea house, out numbered and you guessed it…out gunned. You have to fight you way out into the streets and through the alley ways while exchanging fire with the swat teams that intelligently flank and use all available cover, all the while the Shanghai civilians scream and panic amongst the hail of bullets. Playing as Lynch is allot like lynch from the split screen coop from the first game. while pinned down lynch will mutter craziness to himself while Kane will try to calm him, I didn’t see any crazy moments like in the bank level from the first game, (if you didn’t play the slip screen your really missing out on lynches ‘episodes’) but i expect they will play on this later in the game. 
The engine from the first game and all the Hitman games has been improved significantly along with the shooting mechanics which was a huge let down in the first game, now the gun play feels more tighter and more accurate. Another thing that I think needs mentioning is the internet streaming effect, when I heard the idea of Youtube style distortion and pixels spots I wasn’t sure how it would benefit the game or even feel the need to include such a style but i was surprised to find it looks and feels allot better than I imagined. The style re-enforces the gritty dark nature of the Kane and lynches world while some how making it feel more realistic. I think its a feature that has to be seen to get the feel and impact of the effects, Especially when at one point I got a head shot on one unrelenting bastard of a swat member and then realising that his head had been pixel’ed out like something from a cops episode on tv which gave me a more horrific feeling that I couldn’t see the damage than say just shooting an npc model in the face and seeing a red smudge on it. 
My experience with the multi player was brief but fun, Iv only played the undercover cops mode at the time of writing this and I felt I needed more playtime with it before I can post a preview on it. I Thought the demo was a great slice of the game and look forward on getting my grubby murderous hands on the full copy, I’m really excited with the current generation of games that have been released and being currently being developed, the last two years was all about developers starting new franchises while 2010/11 is about refining and improving on their original concepts and ideas for those games like Dead Space, Infamous and Assassins Creed.
03/07/10 - By Ty
Singularity Review
Bioshock did it, System Shock did it and Fallout did it too. All these games pull off what most cannot and thats create a world with story and a sence of presence, and singularity doesn’t fail to do so. From the very begining your drawn into the world with set peices that mach that of Bioshocks intro, Fire and awe exploding all around you. The story is slowly reviled to you via notes and tape recordings lying around the level and short audio transmissions from your partner.
The gun play feels very basic when you start but once you gain the ability to use the singularity powers it all gets very interesting an creative, Further into the game you acquire various upgrades which opens up allot of options for combat. Whether it be using a gravity type power to throw objects at your enemies much like the gravity gun in half life 2) or using your force push power to send waves of soldiers off platforms and cliffs. There are also gun and power up dispensers which you can use to buy ammo and modifications to you weapons using an element called E99 found throughout the world as various tech objects. This gives the player to set up his/her own play style where as i spent my points into the assault rifle and health upgrades, Other might invest in singularity powers to go for a more tech class.
Singularity Pull off some impressive lighting, sound and some very amazing physics which all adds to the immersion of the world and i only encountered one loading point for a huge boss battle on a falling train! , I would definitely recommend this to any shooter fan despite its cheesy box cover and lack of promotional material. Although i have yet to try outs its multilayer features so I cannot comment on that at this time. This could be lost within the hypes of E3 like Red Faction Last year!
Score: 8/10
01/07/10 - By Ty
Free Game Of The Month - ‘Tag’
I will be posting monthly write ups on free interesting games that i think are worth playing not only due to the fact that they are free but there are some amazing independent developers making mind blowing games. For the first post on ‘Free Game Of The Month’ im going to start with the cream of the crop, Tag.
Tag was developed by 7 students at the Digi Pen University of USA and was chosen from ten IGF student showcase finalists as winner of the best student game award 2009. The core concept of the game is a FPS platformer but with elements of physics and puzzling, Using the super soaker like paint gun, you paint the surface of walls and floors to transverse to the goal using 3 colour representing 3 different suface effects, Green paint will increase the players height, Red will accelerate the player to perform long jumps and Blue will allow the player to walk on any surface.
The most fitting way to describe this game would be if Portal and Mirrors Edge got together over a sea food dinner and gave birth to Tag.
Donwload Here: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&download=1506
Tag Website: https://www.digipen.edu/studentprojects/tag/
09/06/10 - By Tyron
Games you may have missed. Vol 1
AtAtReedy here, welcoming you to my first in a series of blogs on some of my favourite games which may have passed you by. First up-
Hotel Dusk - Room 215 on the Nintendo DS
Great little undiscovered game that never really got the attention it deserved, You play Kyle Hyde, An ex-cop that now works for a private detective agency. You begin the game sent to the titular Hotel Dusk to find and deliver some objects but soon you discover many of the hotels guests have secrets that seem somehow connected to the disappearance of your former partner..
At its most basic this is a cross between a ‘point & click’ adventure and a graphic novel. You hold the DS sideways and use the touch screen to move around and interact with people,objects and puzzles. The art styling is the most striking aspect of the game and is of a hand drawn style set in 1979 and taking influence from American Film Noir with lots of subtle greys and browns. Music is a range of cheesy 70’s jazz tones which suit the game down to the ground.
The characters you meet are lifelike and you really want to hear what they have to say and find out their back stories and what has brought them to Hotel Dusk, during conversations you have to wisely choose answers to their questions or complete their puzzles and tasks because ,as in real life, one wrong answer could upset them and get you kicked out, meaning Game Over, which happened to me a few times, so save regularly because these come out of nowhere.
So I say go out there and find this under loved little gem of a game and get stuck into a great crime novel like you’ve never read before.
07/06/10 AtAtReedy
BAYONETTA MADNESS
Hello
I know this will probably be the latest review ever, but I am poor and it takes me ages to buy games! I am currently playing Bayonetta and will Wright a review when I am done. Could be a while because I am also playing White Knight Chronicles. (which is amazing by the way!)
5/6/10 By Andrew
Mini Review: Bayonetta
I can see why many people are either put off by the style and art direction but given the chance the game is highly rewarding, Very over the top action and can be really satisfying to play. If your a fan of the Devil May Cry series then your right at home here and you will know what to expect, but the one thing that makes Bayonetta stand apart from the DMC series is the constant ‘Upping the action’.
You think the begging is crazy? fighting on a falling clock tower with all hell breaking loose in the background, well wait till you play some of the later stages where it just gets extremely crazy, yes in a cheesy way but the game isn’t meant to be taken seriously.
On the down side its slightly shorter than i would have liked but i was playing it on Easy Automatic, And if your into high scores and leader boards then there’s plenty of that there. Hopefully this has given a lot of over producers and companies some confidence of putting new IP’s on the map, especially what came out of EA last year (Dead Space, Mirrors Edge)
Score: 8/10
19/02/10 - By Tyron
