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Hands On: Big Bang Board Games for iPhone
I love Freeverse's Big Brain Bang Board games for Mac so I was super excited to hear that they'd ported them over to the iPhone [iTunes link]. And sure enough, many of the great features that make the software such a winner on the Mac are there on the phone: the snarky avatars (yes, you can tap them), the adjustable gameplay levels, the great graphics, and so forth. But like many other developers out there, Freeverse has overlooked one big design principle. That principle is: Fingers big; iPhone small. Failing this reduces the game from "must have" to "your mileage will vary". The iPhone is not a desktop machine. Software needs to be re-imagined not just re-platformed. Developers need to re-design around the hardware and human factors that limit the platform. And it's there that Freeverse made some mis-steps, particularly in sizing. A couple of the Big Brain Bang games are practically unplayable. Backgammon is the worst offender, both in landscape or portrait play. Although Freeverse has done an amazing job minimizing interaction issues on a tiny screen (the legal plays are highlighted in blue and can be tapped), some game spots are nearly untouchable, leading to a dozen taps or more to advance one move in game play. Late in the four-in-a-row game, it's almost impossible to drop your pieces at the two ends of the board due to the height of the stacks. The problems comes from two sources: first, Freeverse retained its gorgeous 3D graphics in the port. That means that board areas suffer from perspective -- they lose pixels to style. Second, the platform itself only has so many pixels to offer. It's a tiny screen and we interact with fingers not styluses. Freeverse needs to redesign some of those games to make sure that the thumbfingered as well as the nimble can play. So that having been said, what works? Obviously, the flexible game play the big winner. Big Brain Bang offers Backgammon, Tic Tac Toe, Chess, Checkers, Reversi, Mancala, and 4 In A Row. Chess, Checkers, and Reversi remain the most playable and enjoyable. The audio design matches the desktop experience, which will appeal or not according to taste. Finally, Freeverse loaded up the package with options that allow you to adjust playback difficulty. So there's a lot of win in the package, even if you might be disappointed with some of the specific play features. Big Brain Bang Board Games[iTunes link] costs $7.99 and can be played on both iPhone and iPod touch, although the latter requires headphones or an external speaker to experience the sound effects. %Gallery-32063%
Big Bang Board Games come to iPhone/iPod touch
If you're looking for a collection of classic timewaster games for your iPhone or iPod touch, look no further than Freeverse's Big Bang Board Games, which includes Chess, Backgammon, Checkers, Mancala, Reversi, 4-In-A-Row, and Tic-Tac-Toe. The artwork and gameplay is taken directly from the Mac version of the game, and Chess has a portrait (3D) and landscape (2D) mode. Unfortunately, each game only has a one-player mode. It would be nice to have a two-player option, for those situations where you're waiting with your significant other for a table, or in line for a movie. Other than that, they're great games for my (sigh) favorite activity: sitting quietly through endless telephone meetings. Note to self: my clients don't read TUAW, do they? Just kidding, everyone! Big Bang Board Games is available in the App Store for $7.99.
Big Bang Sudoku
Many months ago, I posted about the free web-based iPhone Sudoku. Today, Freeverse released its native iPhone port of this game. Part of their popular Big Bang series, iPhone Sudoku retails for $4.99, offering expanded game-play and multiple language support (English, German, French, Spanish, Chinese and Japanese). It's a big step up from the web based version. You don't have to struggle with screen scrolling. The game items fit nicely on the screen. There many new features available. You can save and resume games. You can disable the "Show incorrect moves" cheat. You can enable and disable the onboard timer, and so forth. Unfortunately, I was unable to test the software on an actual iPhone so I don't know if the same touch location issues I experienced with the web version have translated to the native version. It's easy to use the mouse and cursor to play the game with its 9-by-9 grid. I can't tell if this will translate to fingers and the touch screen, but you'd sort of assume that it would--otherwise Freeverse would look pretty silly selling an unusable game. Another thing I couldn't judge directly was audio. Freeverse has added some spiffy sound effects to the game but there was no way to test that out. I listened to them in QuickTime after hacking my way down into the application bundle and they included reasonably non-annoying feedback snippets. You can disable sounds in the in-game options if that kind of thing bothers you. All in all, it felt like the equal of any other game currently retailing for $4.99 in the iTunes store. It promises a lot of satisfying game play for Sudoku enthusiasts with a well-designed interface. Freeverse's Big Bang Sudoku is available from AppStore for $4.99. It runs on both the iPhone and iPod touch. Here is the QuickTime version of the above video.
Sony Europe denies "Big Bang" PS3 announcement on the 12th
Oh, Sony, how you tease us so: first you (maybe) confirmed a PS3-related announcement on the 12th, and then we got wind of that lower-priced 40GB model, and now you just up and take it all away. That's right, Sony Europe has officially denied that any announcement -- let along a "Big Bang" -- is taking place on the 12th, thus dashing our hopes of blowing $399 the good way. We're still pretty convinced a 40GB SKU is coming -- the circumstantial evidence is just too strong -- but it looks like we'll be waiting a little bit longer than we thought.[Via Joystiq and PS3 Fanboy]
Sony Europe says no 'big bang' announcement Oct. 12
Even though GamePro France said there would be a "big bang" announcement on Oct. 12, Sony says it's not happening -- well, at least Sony Europe does. Eurogamer spoke with Sony Europe and they say there's no "press conference" scheduled for next week. We'll believe them, especially if they chose their words perfectly as to remain truthful.We have no idea about what date Sony will announce the 40GB PS3 model or if it's going to go on sale in Europe, but we are pretty sure at this point it exists -- almost positive. Could be announced next week, could be announced in a month. At this point its just fun to watch Sony keep a lid on it.[Via PS3 Fanboy]
Big Bang Brain Games released
Today Freeverse announced that it was finally shipping its new Big Bang Brain Games collection for OS X. If you recall, they released one of the games ("Reaction") for free for a couple of days last November. It's nice to see that the rest of the games are finally ready for sale. The collection includes six games in total, including familiar ones like SudokoSudoku, Memory, and MineSweeper and less familiar ones like Reaction (where you try to pop "molecules" in the fewest number of clicks) and Echo (apparently an auditory memory game a la the classic "Simon" game). The package retails for thirty bucks and should include all the normal fun Big Brain avatars like Luna and Sol, and apparently new to the galaxy, Mars. Enjoy the cosmic tacos.
