best-of-2009
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Talkcast this evening at 10pm EST: Best of the year
Our weekly talkcast (so called because you yourself can call in and talk with us live) is back on the virtual airwaves again this evening at 10pm Eastern, and the topic of the day is the topic of the year: we'll take a look at our top posts of 2009, from all the news surrounding last year's WWDC to our most popular tip of 2009 and all of the other stories on the site that floated your boat this (wait, we mean "last"!) year. And we'll of course talk about the year in apps, discussing both our favorite apps overall and our favorite games of the year. Should be fun, so join us, won't you? To participate on TalkShoe, you can use the browser-only client, the embedded Facebook app, or the classic TalkShoe Pro Java client; however, for maximum fun, you should call in. For the web UI, just click the "TalkShoe Web" button on our profile page at 10 pm Sunday. To call in on regular phone or VoIP lines (take advantange of your free cellphone weekend minutes if you like): dial (724) 444-7444 and enter our talkcast ID, 45077 -- during the call, you can request to talk by keying in *-8. If you've got a headset or microphone handy on your Mac, you can connect via the free Gizmo or X-Lite SIP clients; basic instructions are here. Talk with you then!
Our favorite iPhone games of 2009
The first full year of the App Store is coming to a close, and so let's take a look back at our favorite games of 2009. Note that these aren't best-selling, most important, or even the best games of the year -- we'll leave those lists to other sites. But these are our favorite games -- the games we played this year that we feel stand out as our favorite experiences on the App Store. The list begins after the read more link below, and be sure to agree, disagree, or share your own favorite games as usual in the comments.
[1.Local]: The best of 2009, January-June
Reader comments -- ahh, yes, the juicy goodness following a meaty post. [1.Local] ducks past the swinging doors to see what readers have been chatting about in the back room over the past week. The story's not over 'til [1.Local] has picked it to bits and pieces ... So what did the local denizens have to say about the world of WoW during the first half of the year? In fact, the [1.Local] scene itself became the news back in June, as [1.Local]: The epic rap battle comment war edition hit readers' screens: "Players disagree over Blizzard's upcoming badge changes. Rap battle ensues. Site is left terrified and confused." epsilon343: Ahh yes, the rap battle. Nothing like mad rhymes to cool off tempers. Higher on Killchrono's list of memories, though, was all the commotion about scamming: Aaah, I remember that run of articles about scamming. The best (and simultaneously worst) part about them were the numerous comments by phishers and scammers who tried to justify their actions by saying non-security savvy people deserved to get hacked and how they were 'doing them a favour' by showing them how stupid they were. A testament to how deplorable and vile malicious scammers truly are.
Touch Arcade picks their favorite iPhone games of 2009
Our friends over at Touch Arcade have put together their list of the best iPhone games of 2009, and if you happened to unwrap an iPod touch or an iPhone yesterday, that's as good a place as any to start hunting for your favorite games. Spider: Secret of Bryce Manor [$2.99, iTunes link] topped their list, and we agree that it's an excellent showcase for original iPhone software (there's also a promo version if you want to try the gameplay for free). Other than that, there's a few of our favorites missing from the list (no Ramp Champ? No Galcon Labs?), but there are plenty of terrific games to download and play on into 2010. It's been a fantastic year for iPhone gaming -- if you haven't yet jumped in and checked out some of the best the platform has to offer, what are you waiting for? Get downloading!
Best iPhone games of the year picks start to roll in
Gamasutra wins the award for being the first (that I've seen) to pick awards for their best five iPhone games of the year, and the list is respectable, if a little short for such a huge set of possibility. Unfortunately, they don't win any TUAW points for going with Skee-Ball over our preferred Ramp Champ, but Rolando 2 was a worthy sequel to a worthy game, Edge (now Edgy) and Eliss are both great games (too bad you can't play the former, but the latter was underrated for sure), and Space Invaders Infinity Gene deserves to be on almost any end-of-the-year iPhone game list. Good picks in there for sure. DigitalTrends also has a long list, though strangely, they tend to stick to big names and brands. There are a few gems in there -- Spider, UniWar, and Vay may be a couple good choices that you haven't heard of yet. And here's another top 10 list with some repeats from the ones above and a few more nice picks. I guess with the end of the year upon us, we'll probably have to choose TUAW's favorites of 2009, too, eh? Stay tuned.
