What I’ve Been Playing

One game that I’ve been getting into recently is Beat Rider for iPhone/iPod touch. Here’s the iTunes link. While it’s somewhat a competitor to Tapulous’ Tap Tap Revenge 2, since both make you tap to music, it has an advantage and/or disadvantage: You can use what ever song you want. Because of this freedom, the gameplay resulting from songs isn’t always very good. On the other hand, there are some songs that shine. Try out Coldplay’s Viva La Vida. It works surprisingly well.

Another game that might be worth checking out is Chris Sawyer’s Locomotion for Windows. It’s not new but it’s pretty fun, if a bit demanding at times. You connect with trains, boats, road vehicles, planes and trams, cities, factories and resources to make money. It’s not bad for $10. Plus it’s from the guy who brought you RollerCoaster Tycoon.

Just When You Thought PC Couldn’t Outdo Himself…

I though Apple would have to make a new series of ads after Microsoft’s “I’m a PC” ads. They were useless in making Vista seem better but they showed that Apple’s ads were missing some “real” humans.

And then this happened. I will never again doubt Apple’s ad agency. To all those working on “Get a Mac” ad, I salute you. You are all amazing.

Screw Obama vs McCain. The computer industry is where you’ll find the best attack ads.

Guitar Hero Has Met It’s Match

I just stumbled upon an amazing game. Ever heard of Phase? It’s a rythm game from Harmonix (makers of the extremly popular Guitar Hero and Rock Band). Phase is for the iPod and lets you play using your own music. Well meet AudioSurf : The equivalent for the PC (Yes, as in “for Windows”). It let’s play with your music (including iTunes Plus DRM-Free music) in a kind of space-shooter/Tetris-stacking enviroment that changes with the beat of the music. It’s amazing and you can try it out for free by visiting their site (Steam and Steam account required – both are also free). But the true wonder is the price : $9.95. So test it out and go nuts.

Duke, Who, Peg n’ Chuz

It’s a triple dose of “About time”s!First off – A teaser for Duke Nukem Forever will come out tomorrow. If you don’t know about this game, let’s just say it should be called Duke Nukem Takes Forever. According to Joystiq, it’s been in the works for over 10 years.Second – It’s official : After rumors and speculations, the truth is out. There is a Doctor Who game in the works for PC, PS2 and DS. As much as licence-based games usually suck, I’ll keep my eye on this one.Finally, third and fourth – both Peggle and Chuzzle, Popcap games I was addicted to and the latter I bought for PC, are now available on Mac. It has been a while since Chuzzle came out and Peggle for Mac has been announced for months. I’m glad that both are available and at 50% off as all Popcap games are now until January 3rd, I doubt I’ll resist getting at least one.

The Rock Gods Hate Me

I’m convinced that my Mac can run Guitar Hero. That’s not the problem. It’s the fact that if I buy GH III from Apple Canada, the only way I can make sure I get a Mac-compatible version, Apple will overcharge me by 20$ compared to their own American price. That is ridiculous and unfair. And it plain sucks since I don’t know where else I can get the Mac/PC hybrid version online in Canada.

Another addiction? and Review News

I’m looking around for a good pick-up-and-play DS game. I convinced myself that I shouldn’t buy Sim City Societies right now. It was a painful decision since I am a huge fan of the series and I really wanted to know what it was about. But, I’ve concluded that It’s not a perfect game and there are chances I won’t get hooked on it enough to make it worth $50. So now I’m looking for a game I can enjoy during those times when I don’t have much else to do. That game seems to be Puzzle Quest. I tried the PC demo yesterday and I like the game play. Think of it as an RPG with 2-player Vs. Bejewled as battle gameplay. I got hooked on it. I’m not yet sure if I’ll like it like I like Elite Beat Agents (which I started playing again a bit) but since it’s been out for a while, I hope to be able to get a nice discount compared to it’s launch price.And now, the review. I’ve worked on it a bit tonight. Started doing the voice recording and I’m already well into it. I don’t expect any major delays this weekend (although, I haven’t bought Puzzle Quest yet) so if all goes well, it should be done by Sunday.

Wow.

It might just be Japan, but it’s still shocking. In the month of October, OS X, and I can’t believe I’m going to write this, had a larger marketshare OS-wise than Windows in Japan. That is simply amazing.

Oh, I got a call from my EB Games : Super Mario Galaxy’s in and I’m leaving soon to get it! 

AIR Rocks

Adobe AIR is an Adobe platform that let’s people create apps that run both in Windows and on Mac. One of these apps is called Bee.

I’ve always been having formating problems with posting in my blog under Safari : I need to use HTML to do the formating all the time. But now with Bee, built with AIR, I can use this ‘lil app to post on my blog. Hopefully it works.

No spell check, though. Sorry far ne speeling erores

Welcome to Windows! How May I Piss You Off?

I finished re-installing Boot Camp yesterday… or so I thought. I had to call MS since I passed the set number of installs. Two long series of numbers and a “No, I do not have it installed on another computer” later, I’m up and running. I then set up Parallels. The last thing I installed was the free Kapersky Internet Security that came with Parallels. It was not a smooth install – everything kept failing with it. Apparently, it decided to trash the whole XP install, too. I repaired a Vista install a few days earlier so I tried my luck using XP “Repair” option. Unlike Vista’s, XP repair option only gives you the tools to do it yourself. Not being a computer tech, I decided to forget about the “Repair” option and visit the XP support site. The error I was getting, according to Microsoft, only comes if I installed 98 or ME before XP or if there is no OS installed; obviously, nether option fit my case. So, I’m reisntalling XP now… and will stay the Hell away from Kapersky.

Osu! : The Revenge of the Agents

I’m addicted to Elite Beat Agents. To paraphrase the Pringles slogan, “Once you tap, the fun don’t stop.” I literally need to fool myself and press the POWER button quickly before I realize it to stop playing. Well, thanks to an article on Joystiq, that feeling that drove me nuts during the last Holidays is back in the form of Osu! – an EBA/Ouendan PC version. I just downloaded it and the “beatmap”, as they call it, for Vertigo (I bought the song so I say it’s ok ) I think I’ve just wasted one to two hours already on it… and I still didn’t beat it. But the truly wonderful thing about Osu! is that there’s a track editor : You can make your own levels! I might try later. It’s a good thing it doesn’t work in OS X or under Parallels; you wouldn’t be able to keep me away!