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X Invasion 2

$2.99, Games, Reviews, X Invasion 2
Developer: Viderea
Price: $2.99
Version Reviewed: 1.0
Reviewed on: iPhone 3GS

Gameplay Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Controls Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Graphics and Sound Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Re-use / Replay Value Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Overall Rating: 3.25 out of 5 stars

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Personally, I’ve never been a fan of flight simulators … But X Invasion 2 is a little more than your bog-standard flight simulator. As part of the arcade-style flight combat genre and serving as the sequel to X Invasion, the game centers around the city of San Francisco. As you join the game you’re informed that hostile aliens and UFOs have invaded the entire the city. You are the city’s only hope.

As with most flight simulators, the game initially plays out in two modes. Campaign and Arcade, with a third, Tour thrown in for giggles. In arcade mode, you’re thrown up into the skies with one sole mission objective; destroy as many UFOs as humanly possible. The aim of this mode is to gain the highest score in the shortest amount of time possible. Campaign mode on the other hand is quite a bit different. In this mode you take the role of the planes pilot as you fly through 16 unique missions aimed at getting you from rookie to professional. These missions will include performing a number of air-borne flight tasks, including: bombing runs, helping support cargo drops, follow the leader and ariel roller-coaster. The real test comes when you and left to face the alien mothership .. and once you do, your training is complete. Tour mode however steps out of the ‘gaming’ box to take you on a virtual tour of the San Fransisco bay area. Find something of interest, simply take a photo and share it with friends.

To my surprise, the tilt controlled flying was fairly easy. Usually, with accelerometer based controls, I tend to hit some sort of snag … but in my experience and short time playing the game, X Invasion 2 controls are fairly accurate. In the top left hand corner is your radar navigation system. This depicts your current virtual location on the game map, as well as your enemies. In the bottom right of the screen you’ll see your altitude meter. This measures the height at which you are flying, and increases as you tilt your device further up or down. Getting close enough to one of your enemies will cause your arms system to lock onto that target. This is signified by a yellow diamond encapsulating your target. Once you’re happy you’ve got your target in your sights just tap the missile button located on the left of the screen.

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Graphically, X Invasion 2 looks pretty much the same as we’ve seen from other flight simulators. While the game does claim to use photo-realistic environments, obviously moving closer to the landscape will reveal that these are ‘bitty’ and ‘pixelated’ 2D environments, with only the points of interest like, for example, airports being rendered in further, clearer detail. While this didn’t seem to detract from the gameplay itself, considering the game is focused around this underlying landscape, I do think a little more time could have been well spent on making this landscape feel more realistic.

That said, moving back to positives, the graphical explosions seen both when destroying enemies and crashing are extremely realistic. The sounds are a little off in my honest opinion, but nothing an update couldn’t sort I’m sure.

Overall, X Invasion 2 is a fun flight simulator with a quick and entertaining sideline gameplay. While its probably not as graphically exciting as perhaps some other flight simulators like F.A.S.T, its still a respectable punt at providing the simulated flying experience you might be looking for.

Iphone Media
3G iPhone Downloads!


GeeTasks

$2.99, Productivity, Reviews, geetasks, google tasks, to do
Developer: Memengo
Price: $2.99
Version Reviewed: 1.11

iPhone Integration Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
User Interface Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Utility Rating Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Re-use / Replay Value Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Overall Rating: 3.63 out of 5 stars

gmail_106237a_enProcrastination is probably my biggest problem. I mean, it’s easy for me to think about the things I’ve got to do…but actually doing them is another story. I’ve used a lot of different to-do apps to try and cure me of my laziness, but it’s too easy to waste time organizing you list of to-do’s instead of getting things done. GeeTasks takes a different approach, utilizing Google’s bare-bones Tasks pane from gmail. What GeeTasks lacks in features, it makes up for with ease-of-use and simplicity.

If you’re a gmail user, you may have seen the Tasks link that resides just under “Contacts” in the gmail interface. Clicking on this brings up the Tasks pop-up, which is a minimizable overlay that provides a simple to-do list. I’ve taken to using this instead of more complicated iPhone apps or websites, because I’m always in gmail. Having my to-do list constantly staring at me is the perfect way to stop procrastinating! That’s what I tell myself, anyway. The only flaw with this method is that I can’t take my Tasks offline, or even onto another platform.

Mobile Photo Mar 8, 2010 5 24 19 PMGeeTasks fills that void. It’s simple, and the service it provides isn’t a huge one: it lets you download your gmail Tasks, as well as create new ones for later syncing. When you create a task, you can add notes, set a due date (which will be synced with Google Calendar), and place it in a pre-existing list from Google Tasks. The app also has a badge pop-up showing you how many tasks you have outstanding, and you can “purge” your list of completed items or sort it by date. The only feature “missing” is the ability to create a new list, which is a confusing ommission. It’s not as though I like managing multiple lists (this is a simple app!), but it’s a native feature to Tasks.

Of course, if by “missing” you mean “standard in other apps,” then you’ll find quite a few things gone. There are no tags, custom backgrounds, repeating tasks, or syncing with services like Outlook or iCal. But then, wasn’t the whole point of this simplicity?

As for the user interface, it does a delightful job of getting out of your way while still providing functionality. While it doesn’t quite have the look of a native app, GeeTasks still sports a clean, sensible aesthetic. Little touches like showing red checkboxes instead of green for unsynced tasks go a long way towards making it as user-friendly as possible. Landscape mode is also fully supported, which is another good feature.

So, is GeeTasks the to-do app for you? That depends. It’s nothing fancy—indeed, few apps are quite as simple. It won’t work if you’re a power user. But if you’re a person like me, who just needs to be bothered into getting her tasks done, the simplicity of GeeTasks will force you to stop procrastinating and simply get to it. After all, isn’t that what we all need?

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3G iPhone Downloads!


Hellemental

$2.99, Dirty Edge, Games, Intersog, Reviews
Developer: Dirty Edge
Price: $2.99
Version Reviewed: 1.0
Reviewed on: iPhone 3GS

Gameplay Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Controls Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Graphics and Sound Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Re-use / Replay Value Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

Overall Rating: 3.13 out of 5 stars

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Hellemental is one of those titles that on first impression, you can’t quite work out what it is. The game plays out the story of Elija, a powerful wizard who arrives in the strange but magical country of Norlisk. With the use of magical scrolls you aim to summon the most powerful of storms that call on each of the four elements: Earth, Wind, Water and Fire, defending each city from attacking monsters.

At its heart though Hellemental is a tower defense title. The game plays out on 16 battlefields over 3 difficulty settings. As you progress further, you’ll encounter various different types of monster set on destroying your land. Each of these monsters are assigned a certain class and overall there are 5 classes of monster you will encounter. Moving in-game and describing the actual playing screen, in the top right you’ll find all your controls for your spells. In this section you’ll see three circle type orbs. The center and larger orb represents your spells current charge. If you don’t have enough charge, you won’t be able to cast it. The top orb is a number which represents the remaining casts you have left for the currently selected spell. To the right-hand of the screen you’ll see your spells inventory. To select a new spell just tap on the one you wish to use next. To cast a sepll on-screen you just tap and hold that ancient symbol in the bottom left and BOOM! .. (as Steve would say).

Turning on the ‘Magic Eye’ option in the top right of the screen will immediately give you an auto-panned view of the paths you must protect. This helps the title’s gameplay immensely as you can step out of the rigid camera view for a few minutes, and take a look at your surroundings. Towards the top of the screen you’ll see a depiction of the level gate. This shows you how much damage your gate has withstanded, and how much more beating it will take. Throughout the game you’ll meet a whole host of weird and wonderful creatures ready to attack your land. These are dubbed elementals .. and as you progress further through the game, you’ll unlock the ability to buy spells to defeat them. Starting off, the game will offer you 4 types of spell each corresponding with the elements of life; Earth, Fire, Water and Earth. Overall there are 20 purchasable spells which can be purchased with the games virtual gold currency.

These spells include:

Windmill – Spins down the hurt on an attacking elemental
Tornado – Whips an elemental up and into oblivion
Celestial Sphere – Blows down the enemy with the fury of the Gods
Lord Hurricane – Lifts a marauding gang off their feet
Air Seal – Helps protect the gate against air attacks

Fire Blast – Punches out an attacking elemental
Fire Ball – Knocks them down like bowling pins and lights them on fire
Wings of Fire – This scouring attack sends groups of elementals back to their maker
Fire Beast – A monster attack that obliterates all before it
Fire Seal – Helps protect the gate against Fire attacks

Water Blade – Drops an icicle into the skull of an attacker
Geyser – Pours frozen death on elementals
Acid Rain – Wipes a group of attackers off the map
Frozen Tsunami – Shows down death on whoever is beneath it
Water Seal – Helps protect the gate against Water attacks

Stone Bomp – Smashes an elemental, especially effective on air elementals
Volcano – Buries enemies under hardened stone
Anger Earth – Swallows a group of attackers
Meteor Shower – Obliterates all that happens to be beneath it
Earth Seal – Helps protect the gate against Earth attacks

Visually, this title definitely has something about it. While they’re not the best graphics I’ve seen on the iPhone, they sure are charming. My only little caveat on the visual side of things is the ‘wave notification’ located at the top of the screen flashes up red, and due to the game being set on highly coloured green grassed battlefields, and being colorblind myself, I found it a little hard to work out what numbered wave was coming next. Making this notification black would further increase its visibility, in my opinion.

Overall, Hellemental is a respectable tower defense title. For its gaming genre its visual look and 3D feel makes a change to flat 2D offerings. While Hellemental didn’t hold my attention for as long as I would have liked to it, it definitely has promise. I’ve filed this one under worth a quick look!

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3G iPhone Downloads!




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