pabosher

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Yeah.. I'm holding off on anything with a virtual control stick until they all inevitably support that MFi controller stuff.

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So I'm on a fitness kick because a) I'm pretty overweight, B) there's an awesome new waterpark opening up in my city this summer and c) exercise is important for keeping me sane apparently. I have been playing Zombies, Run! and I'm reasonably sure it's one of the few gamification things that feels motivating and fun instead of creepily coercive. (The only other one I can think of is Stack Overflow, mostly because its gamification is so light and in the background.)

 

It is a zombie thing, but it has some thought put into the setting as opposed to just being a thing you can shoot that's not going to kick up a fuss. During a run, it plays a radio drama with you involved as 'Runner 5'; as fuel is not exactly abundant, the most effective way for the town to gather supplies is for runners to go out and grab things. In the regular game, as you run you gather supplies semi-randomly, and it'll intercut your playlist with the storyline. You can also set it to randomly trigger zombie attacks, which require you to move faster to get away from them. When you finish, the supplies are used for a relatively simple base-building game to expand the town (and apparently add new beats to the storyline).

 

I'm doing the 5k training thing, which takes place just before the regular game and has a different storyline more closely tied to a training program. Because there is still a story, the prompts will reflect what's going on - you'll be told to start running, but sometimes it just so happens that there's a zombie on the radar so you really should try and run as much as you can, or someone you're escorting will have toddled off in another direction and you'll have to catch up to them. The workouts have more variety than the typical couch-to-5k apps, with stretches and freeform running to let you adapt to variable weather, fitness and energy. It's a fair bit buggier, I've found - some prompts fire way too late, and I can get it to reliably crash if I unlock my phone during a workout. Nevertheless, what I got it for is present and correct so that's good.

 

Honestly I feel a little thrill when the game's telling me there are zombies behind me that is completely irrational but the idea that it makes running fun by playing a little story that matches up with what I'm doing in real life instead of trying to make it fun by giving you points to grind is one that I feel way more engaging.

 

Edit: apparently Margaret Atwood has a cameo in it. Yeah, that Margaret Atwood.

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You would have to convert all the references to running in the in-game narrative to references to biking, but otherwise it should work fine... it isn't connected to a specific route or a specific speed... you just gather gear as you proceed through each episode.

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I'm currently _still_ slightly hooked on the iOS Injustice: Gods Among Us, which will maybe be replaced by the Arkham City game. It's basically a very beautiful screen-tapping game disguised as a beat-em-up with an energy mechanic and a collectable card system, which I had largely weened myself off until a one-day sale of the Red Son pack (containing the communist alternate-universe Superman, Wonder Woman and Solomon Grundy oh God kill me) meant that the pack had a lower cost than the sellback value of the three characters in it, which allowed me to go on an orgy of conspicuous consumption after a lengthy process of superhero arbitrage.

 

Right now I'm also thinking about the alpha of Out There, by a French games company, Mi-Clos, which I played at Eurogamer Expo. It's a kind of combat-free FTL-meets-Captain-Blood, where instead of fighting aliens you jump from system to system trying to keep your levels of oxygen, hull strength and fuel up - if any of them drops to zero you lose - by mining planets, bartering with aliens and negotiating FTL-style multiple-choice random encounters, while also finding new technologies, gathering rare metals and crafting devices to make life slightly easier.

 

From what I've played it's _incredibly_ hard - in part because the things that might smooth out the violence of the universe (or make sure you don't find you have followed a path of stars to a dead end, since doubling back is functionally impossible over more than a few star systems) have not yet gone in, and it is also currently quite repetitive, but there's definitely _something_ there... it feels lonely and sad and weird in a way that mobile games generally don't.

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Would Zombies, Run work with a bike as opposed to running? If thought about getting it before, but I bike more than I run.

 

The only thing that would be a bit weird are the race missions, which track how far you've gone, not how long you've been out.

 

And, of course, the assumption in the game narrative that you're running, scooping up supplies as you go.

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Okay, it's maybe a bit niche, but if you like

a) stories with gimmicky typography (think House of Leaves)

B) room escape game style puzzles

 

Simogo's new Device 6 is bloody amazing

 

http://simogo.com/games/device6/

https://itunes.apple.com/app/device-6/id680366065

 

 

I concur whole-heartedly.

Completely stuck at the moment though which is quite infuriating :P

 

I really like how the use the text in the game to actually build the environments you are traversing.

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I just picked up an iPad Air, and I've been playing a lot of games on my iPhone for the past few years.

 

Anybody have any recommendations for games that are way better on iPad?

 

For example, Pit droids was awful on iPhone, but the controls totally work on iPad.

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Device 6 was a neat little morsel, but only a morsel.

 

I tried Rayman Fiesta Run, and surprisingly it is not bad! They added a bunch of platformer verbs: punches, wall jumps, gliding, so it kind of feels like an actual game.

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Just got an android (I know/ not "iOS") and I've been looking for anything to play. I plan on picking up S&S and The Room now that I have a decent sized screen, but I can't find any bus stop/ on the toilet games outside of ninjump and doodle jump (both of which I've already played to death on my last phone)

Any suggestions for simple 'pick up and play' games potentially available on Android?

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I really like endless runner style games for pick up and play. I've been playing Time Surfer and Punch Quest lately, which I got off one of the recent Humble Bundles. Rayman Jungle Run and Wind-up Knight are also pretty good; I've played both of them to completion.

 

Also, Nachimir mentioned A Ride into the Mountains a few pages back. Get it. It's a beautiful game. Probably my favorite mobile game I've played this year.

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I think my two favourite Android games (that I hadn't already played to death on iOS) are Ending and Dungelot. Ending is a puzzle game with a procedurally-generated roguelike-like mode, and Dungelot is somewhat similar to (though much simpler than) the recently-released Desktop Dungeons. They're both cheap, have free flash versions, and are turn-based and therefore playable in short bursts.

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Sweet. Thanks guys =D. I'm not a huge fan of runners (though I guess tiny wings is something of a runner) but ending, Dungelot, and A ride look great. Hopefully one will fill my requirements.

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I tried Rayman Fiesta Run, and surprisingly it is not bad! They added a bunch of platformer verbs: punches, wall jumps, gliding, so it kind of feels like an actual game.

 

All those things are in Jungle Run, too!

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Jungle Run was great. Didn't know they made a new one! Might buy! It's one of the few mobile games I actually like.

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Ending is fantastic so far. I've been playing for a bit, but I think there is a little less content than I was hoping for. Either way, thanks for the rec. Laco

Also: I hadn't seen it mentioned so I thought I should bring it up... Osmos is absolutely incredible.

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I know why it is how it is, but it bums me out to no end to read the King of Dragon Pass blog. Almost all of the developer's posts are about how i) he'd rather update the current iOS version than "waste" time and effort porting it to Android or PC, and ii) he doesn't really think there's a market for his game outside of impulse buys on the App Store and nostalgia buys on GOG.

 

At least we're past the point where he'd regularly argue with people in the comments about whether Steam would even have the infrastructure to distribute his two hundred-megabyte game online, but it's still frustrating to see the developer of an excellent game limit his market so drastically because of assumptions almost a decade out of date. I sometimes wonder how he was convinced to update a fifteen-year-old game to release on iOS in the first place.

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I'm completely stumped on a puzzle in Device 6. If someone could give me a hint or two I would really appreciate it.

 

Stuck on accessing the "Men's restroom" in chapter...5?
I'm sure it's obvious, but I'm just completely blocked here.

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surveillance routes...map

how full spoiler do you want me to go here?

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Oh man I finally got it :P Had been staring at those routes and the map for so long, but wasn't able to figure it out.

That was a really clever puzzle. Thanks :)

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Device 6:

I don't want a hint yet, I just need some faith. The language-test in Chapter 4, is it significantly harder than everything else so far? Or do I just need to take a nap and look at it again?

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Just keep at it and pay attention to everything in that "level".

I got stuck for a while at that part as well, but once I found the clue I needed everything clicked.

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I give up. I gave it a lot of time and thought. I have no idea how to solve the link test in chapter 4. I give up.

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