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Daily iPhone App: Hackycat makes kicking the cat fun
Stick with me on this: Hackycat is basically a game about kicking cats. In real life, of course, I love cats, and would never want to kick one. But Hackycat, designed by a very talented artist named Ken Wong, is all about playing hackeysack with a bevy of cartoony, colorful and surprisingly serene cats, kicking them in mid-air by tapping on your iPhone's screen to keep them up ... and letting them grab cheeseburgers along the way. Yes, as you might have figured already, Hackycat is a silly game, but it is a lot of fun. The gameplay itself is relatively simple, as all you'll need to do is tap the screen to keep the cats bouncing where you want them to go. If any of them falls to the bottom of the screen (or if you hit a bird bomb as it flies by), it's game over. The game's progression system is very well-designed, however: as you collect cheeseburgers, you can use them as currency to unlock more cats to play with, open up new heroes or powerups, or help yourself to completing certain goals. And since the game uses Wong's great art, all of the designs are very slick and fun. Hackycat is not extremely complicated, but then again that's part of the charm. It's a solid game with an unlock system that will keep you playing for quite a while if you want to open up everything. You can grab a universal version on the App Store now for just US$0.99.
Encrypted Text: Let's get kicking
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Encrypted Text for assassination, combat and subtlety rogues. Chase Christian will be your guide to the world of shadows every Wednesday. Feel free to email me with any article ideas or questions you have! You've all seen my arguments for having rogues top the DPS meters. We're the only pure melee DPS class, meaning we have the most specific role. Yellow is a great color, and so having a nice patch of it at the top of Recount is awesome. You get the idea. The fact is that rogues are known for their DPS, so doing lots of it becomes pretty important in succeeding. Even with this huge focus on DPS, we do have one other trick up our sleeve. Back in the days before balance, the developers had to find a way to ensure that every class was brought to a raid. Hybrids could bring powerful buffs, bosses would use debuffs that required certain healers, and there was always a boss per tier that you needed a warlock to Banish. Even the DPS-focused rogues had a special niche to keep them getting invited: Kick. A boss would be designed with an ultimate ability that needed to be interrupted, and there was nobody better at that job than a rogue.
Bulletstorm preview: Just for kicks
Writing about games always comes with a peculiar kind of self-defeating dissonance. This morning, I might have grabbed a metaphorical megaphone and shoved it in some ebert's ear, right before laying out why Shadow of the Colossus is such a magnificent meditation on loss and sacrifice and etc. "Games involve and encourage and inspire!" I'd say. "It's for grownups, you know." And then, just a few hours later, I'll write about a game that's awesome because it lets you kick people to death. %Gallery-103112%
Drama Mamas: Too sexy for your group
NSFW warning: Video may be slightly NSFW (bikinis and shirtless guys). Drama Mamas Lisa Poisso and Robin Torres are experienced gamers and real-life mamas -- and just as we don't want our precious babies to be the ones kicking and wailing on the floor of checkout lane next to the candy, neither do we want you to become known as That Guy on your realm. Does Right Said Fred hold the answer to the latest WoW drama? This week, the Drama Mamas help a frustrated player who can't figure out why so many of her groupmates seem to feel they're simply too sexy for their groups. To my dearest Drama Mamas, In a random heroic I did earlier, I kept getting prompted to kick members of my party. I saw nothing wrong with the way these players were performing, and I always voted against it. After it happened again, I asked my party why there were so many random kick attempts. I was told by a hunter in my party that the tank, who was in a guild with the hunter, was being an ass and that it was funny, after which the tank sent a smiley face in party chat. I did not say anything further and continued healing, only to be kicked a minute later. Oh, did I mention we were in the middle of Falric? Was I right to question why there were so many kick attempts? Is there anything I could have done to avoid this situation? It seems like kick abuse is happening more and more frequently. It is not uncommon for me to be in a party where a tank or DPS will start a vote simply because that player won a piece of gear they wanted; I have even been in groups where a member has started a vote to kick a player who is pumping out higher DPS.
Drama Mamas: When the boot feels like Das Boot
Dodge the drama and become that player everyone wants in their group with the Drama Mamas. Lisa Poisso and Robin Torres are real-life mamas and experienced WoW players -- and just as we don't want our precious babies to be the ones kicking and wailing on the floor of checkout lane next to the candy, neither do we want you to become known as That Guy on your server. We're taking your questions at DramaMamas (at) WoW (dot) com. Das Boot is the story of a U-boat crew: the adrenaline of battle and the tedium of the hunt. The film shows what IMDb calls "the claustrophobic world of a WWII German U-boat; boredom, filth and sheer terror." If the words "boredom, filth and sheer terror" bring to mind your most recent PUG raid, there's something wrong. And if even the act of getting into and then successfully staying in a PUG raid makes you feel more like a U-boat crewman than a PUG raider ... Well, we've got some drama to torpedo.
When to kick
Sometimes as tank, you're asked to be party leader in order to mark targets for CC, establish a kill order, and so on. One of the problems of this position is, at times, you're forced to use it to remove problem members of a party, especially when it's a pick up group. I don't do all that many PuG's for this and other reasons, but Monday I made an exception on my tauren warrior for an old friend who has just started playing again. She wanted to finally finish Black Morass for her (now unnecessary) Karazhan key, and I decided that completing content instead of skipping it warranted some help. Plus, like I said, she's a friend, and a good player. We formed up a group... myself as tank, her as hunter DPS, another old friend as priest healing, a warlock to help with both main and add DPS thanks to those wonderful DoTs, and a fury warrior to be main add killer.Unfortunately, the fury warrior came with enough baggage to crush ten porters.
An absolutely mammoth Madden interview [update 1]
IGN's got the goods, folks: this seven-page interview reveals more about Madden Wii than every past publication on the game combined. The interview covers the exact passing controls, special moves with the Wiimote, defensive manuevers, graphical capabilities, the kicking game...it's quite a read. Of note is that the Wii version won't be "dumbed down" as the initial 360 version was; it contains every single mode and feature that long-time fans of the franchise have come to expect. It also contains some new features, such as the "two-on-two" minigame, which re-enacts the classic quarterback/receiver vs. rusher/safety playground game complete with "Mississippi" counting. It truly is a goldmine of information on the game, and the interviewee is extremely candid on most everything...except, strangely enough, online play. He absolutely refused to speak a word about it. Hmmmm.[Update 1: Fixed a small typo.]
