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Windows Phone 7 beats iPhone 4 and Android ... in a grilling contest (video)
Let's face it, it's a question the world's been dying to know the answer to: which of the T-Mobile G2, HTC Surround and iPhone 4 will withstand a (literal) grilling the longest? Well, just in time for a mildly singed breakfast today, we have the answer. As you might have surmised from the title, HTC's WP7-equipped Surround showed the most endurance, though in the end it too cashed out its Earthly credits and moved on to that great scrapyard in the sky. Video of its final moments awaits after the break.
Anti-Aliased: End of line
Yeah, it's exactly what you think it is. It's one of those columns where the writer announces that she's packing up and moving out. It's a column where the writer talks about how she's been here for two years and 199 days, and has written over 1,018 posts that have included over 534,580 words. It's a column where the writer says goodbye, wishes that she wasn't moving on, but knows that she must. Guys and gals, it's been an amazing two and a half years and it has been nothing but an honor to write for all of you. I know sometimes we all disagree, and I know I say some really insane stuff that leaves people going, "Wow, she really said that aloud?" But, I'm glad that all of you still come back to discuss gaming here on my column, despite some of our disagreements. Anti-Aliased has remained one of the most popular columns here on Massively throughout these two years and I am very grateful for your readership. As I prepare to leave Massively and say goodbye, I'd like to take one final look at the MMO genre as a whole. Plus, I have a surprise announcement to make at the end! Yay surprises!
Flickr Find: Juno's Hamburger iPhone
It's been a couple of years now, but remember the hit movie Juno, and the main character's hamburger-styled telephone? That phone made a splash with fans of kitschy art, and Flickr user Karen apparently decided to take the idea and run with it on her 3G iPhone. She's posted a nice gallery of pictures on how to give her iPhone a hamburger-style case, building out foam and plastic molds around a DVD flipcase. In the end, the prop looks pretty excellent, even if it doesn't quite work exactly the same as the phone in the movie does. But it's a cool project nonetheless. And the graphic on the iPhone is pretty funny, too.
TUAW's Daily App: Game Dev Story
Man, I love everything about Game Dev Story -- from the excellent premise to the cute, pixelated aesthetic to the great simulation gameplay. The idea is that you run your own game studio, and that idea is executed flawlessly. You hire your staff, choose a game genre (or do some contract work if you need extra cash), and then build up your game in terms of fun, graphics, sound, and gameplay, all while trying to keep your staff paid and avoid bugs when possible. Finally, you ship out your game and hope the reviews come back well, even while you're planning out your next title. It's incredible fun, and the great chiptunes and graphics bring a lot to the table. There's a wild sense of humor in the mix here, too. New consoles are released into the market, a video game magazine comes every month, and you slowly build up your own studio's fanbase. Game Dev Story is a ton of fun! It's somewhat pricey at US$3.99, but honestly, if you're a fan of the game industry at all (there's even a fake E3 where you can promote your games!), you'll find a lot of joy in this one. It's a very, very cool title.
Guest Post: 5 ways to become a master of disguise
This article has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider. We've all experienced it: You're walking into Orgrimmar or Ironforge, intent on visiting the auction house to spend that gold jingling in your pocket, when suddenly you stop dead, dumbstruck. Your jaw goes slightly slack as you /awe in wonder. A strange creature unlike anything you've encountered before is dancing in the town square and emoting kisses to everyone nearby. A crowd has gathered. People are cheering. "That's neat ... and maybe a little weird," you silently muse as you crack a smile and continue on your way. I'm talking about player costumes. When the skin of your orc, troll, gnome or draenei becomes too heavy a burden, plenty of opportunities exist for a brief stay in the body of another creature (unless you're a druid, in which case you change forms all the time). These devices, elixirs and enchantments come in many shapes and stack sizes, but one key element runs through them all: They're a blast for the light-hearted player inside each of us. Ever wondered where they're from and how to get them? Wonder no more! Without further ado, I present five of the most delightfully awesome, portable, use-anywhere player costumes of all time. With Hallow's End just around the corner, you're sure to find something here that will suit you as you strut through your city of choice, sipping from a bottle of Autumnal Acorn Ale.
Garry's Mod out for Mac
Valve has released another Steam Play Mac title, and this time it's Garry's Mod, the wild sandbox physics editor that uses assets from Half Life 2 to create whatever you want. The mod is probably most famous for its Rube Goldberg-style creations, but it's also very handy for machinima and other graphic model design as well. It's not so much a game as a way to just create all kinds of wacky machines and computer characters, and have them interact in whatever way you'd like. If you already own it for the PC, then you own the Mac version as well, so you can head into Steam on OS X and download away. If you don't own it yet, Steam has a 50% off discount up right now, so you can pick it up for just $4.99. And no, because I'm sure you're wondering, there's still no Left 4 Dead. Soon, we hope. Soon.
Raid Rx: Raid healing rotations and fun-ness
Every week, Raid Rx will help you quarterback your healers to victory! Your host is Matt Low, the grand pooh-bah of World of Matticus and a founder of No Stock UI, a WoW blog for all things UI-, macro- and addon-related. If you're looking for more healing advice, check out the Plus Heal community. Do you find healing fun? Are healing "rotations" going to be needed? I mean, obviously you find healing fun if you've been playing a healer for a while. You enjoy the challenges, the reflexive nature of the role, and the potential adrenaline rush. Hopefully, you're not being forced to play a healer because your group doesn't have enough others to do it. I know I curse myself when I screw up and let one of my players die. It's something I take seriously because I enjoy healing. As we're all aware, the switch to Cataclysm will yield a shift in healing philosophy and execution. I know some players have expressed either reluctance or caution because of fears that this new style of healing will not be fun in comparison to current or older models of healing.
TUAW preview: NimbleBit's Pocket Frogs
Since I got my new iPhone 4 a few weeks back, I've been playing more games than ever on Apple's little handheld. I just recently got back into Ngmoco's We Rule. It's probably the pinnacle of the "freemium" genre on the iPhone so far. It's free to play, very social, and very much based on timed "check-ins," where you set crops to grow and then come back in a few hours to harvest them. It puts in little blips of gameplay that move you towards a larger progress goal. The only problem is that We Rule isn't all that fun; it's a bunch of clicking and grinding. So, lately I've been wondering when someone would add a fun freemium game to the App Store. It would have to be something that was social and progressive and all that that entails, but it would also need to have a game component that was actually fun to play. Enter NimbleBit! They're following up on their great froggy platformer DizzyPad with Pocket Frogs, a freemium title that actually adds some fun to the equation and shows a lot of potential as well. %Gallery-102063%
The US online Apple Store is down, and back up
Yes, yes. We know! The store is DOWN! Thank you everyone who sent in a tip to let us know. And now it's once again time to play our favorite waiting game: Guess What's Gonna Be New In The Store Before It Comes Back Up. You know where the comments are. Let's play! Update: Back up, now with preorders for all the goodies.
Video: What if Call of Duty was a Pokemon game?
The problem with Pokemon is that it's pretty embarrassing to tell people you play it, especially if you're over the age of 13 -- just ask Griffin. They're great games, don't get us wrong. It's just that we're adults, with actual utility bills and Netflix memberships, and alive and breathing significant others. We can't risk losing all of that. That's why we want to draw your attention to this Call of Duty and Pokemon mash-up clip, available just past the break. By incorporating the two, we can maintain our adult facade, while enjoying the deep and robust RPG experience Nintendo's line of games offers without all the kiddie stuff. It's the best of both worlds!
The Girl with the Insanely Long Gear List
If you've read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (or either of its sequels), you're probably aware of the fact that its characters have a striking and awesome penchant for gadgets. The thing is, those gadgets are from... 2002. While reading through the books, we took the opportunity to jot down all that name dropped gear, and what we've got here is both a list of that gear and a walk down memory lane. Author Stieg Larsson (who was the first writer to sell one million Kindle e-books) often gives out actual lists of specs, which we find to be pretty endearing, but where he's left anything to the imagination we've tried to use context clues to fill in the gaps. Like we said, the action takes place in Sweden in 2002 (the books were published in Sweden in 2005, though Larsson died in late 2004 so they were likely written somewhere between 2002 and 2003), so the options were... a little more limited. There are some mild spoilers below, so if you plan on reading the books and don't want to know what kind of gadgets await you, then beware. Otherwise, join us, won't you?
TUAW's Daily App: Evolution Defense
Evolution Defense is a pretty good tower defense title. While it doesn't add a whole lot to the genre (there is some innovation in terms of how towers are upgraded, and support towers can be built and added in around damaged towers), it is a smooth and direct TD game that's made for the iPhone. Your job is to attack pathogens that are invading a bloodstream, and as with the usual tower defense spiel, you need to build up towers along the pathway (according to the currency that you have). It's pretty basic stuff, but a solid amount of tower choices and some excellent (if a little strange) graphical representations make for a quality game. Best of all, it's completely free. It seems like it's been a while since we featured a freebie, so head on over to the App Store, and pick it up right away. Facebook integration will add a little extra oomph to the gameplay, and there's supposed to be a pretty good multiplayer mode (that, unfortunately, didn't work on my 1G iPhone) where you put your own creations up against a friend's tower setup. All in all, it's an excellent bit of fun for the low, low price of free.
Lost's Apple II up for auction
The Apple II computer from the hit show Lost was one of the things that unfortunately wasn't really answered as the series ended. I get that the Dharma Initiative was trying to contain a leak from the source, probably because of Jughead going off, but what was up with that scene of Michael supposedly chatting with Walt? How did Walt get to a computer, and why didn't a chat ever come up any other time? I'm sure there are theories running around out there, but I don't think the show ever provided a reasonable explanation for that one. Maybe you can film your own, though -- the actual Apple II plus from those scenes is being auctioned off later next month in Los Angeles by a group called Profiles in History. If you submit the winning bid, you'll not only get the computer from the set of the show, but also an Apple III monitor to go with it, and a Disc II floppy drive, along with a printout stating "system failure" from the show's big crash of Oceanic 815. The auction page doesn't say if it still works or not (which could be a good thing -- do you really want to punch the numbers in every 108 minutes?), or what the starting bid might be. But it would be cool to own both a piece of Apple history and an object from The Island, wherever that is. [via MacStories]
The Daily Grind: Out on the town
There are an awful lot of things to do in most MMOs. Sometimes it's the diverse spread of activities available in a game like Final Fantasy XI; other times it's the tiered progression of dungeons in a game like World of Warcraft. Either way, it's all fun, but with a long-term goal in mind. Except that sometimes you wind up getting sidetracked, and the next thing you know you're rolling a new character just to participate in a massed player event, or dancing in the middle of nowhere and giving money to passersby. Everyone needs a break from the serious from time to time, a chance to head out and just do something silly but fun. One could even argue that roleplaying is by and large something unnecessary for the game itself, but still a fun diversion. In a genre that's occasionally prone to feeling a lot like work, it's good to get the option of stepping back and just enjoying yourself. What's the last activity you took part in that wasn't even remotely progress-oriented but was just fun for the heck of it?
TUAW's Daily App: Helsing's Fire
Helsing's Fire is an interesting little title with a pretty original gameplay premise. The idea is that you place torches in an area full of objects and walls, and you have to target or hide certain creatures with that light. The backstory of the game is about the adventurer Van Helsing and his fight against the undead, but it's more of a strategy title; the idea is to line up the light and shadows in just the right way in order to conquer various monsters on the playing field. While it doesn't start out very tough, more gameplay features slowly get added (eventually you have to match color attacks with certain colored monsters, and you only get a set number of attacks per stage, so you have to plan things out pretty carefully). And while the backstory is really just a frame for the gameplay, it's got a fun edge to it; it's a nice satirical spin on the old "fighting Dracula" theme, and there are a few fun celebratory fist bumps in between stages with Helsing and his assistant. For 99 cents, Helsing's Fire offers up a good bit of original gameplay that spans 90 different levels. A survival mode and full Crystal integration add some extra fun as well, so the game is well worth the buck.
Breaking: chicken came before the (chicken) egg
Don't ask us why British researchers are spending their time trying to solve the age-old "who came first" conundrum, but apparently solve it they have done. Lab dwellers from the universities of Sheffield and Warwick share the distinction of identifying the particular effects of a particular protein -- ovocleidin-17, found only in chickens' ovaries -- on the development of the egg's shell. It would seem that without OC-17 converting calcium carbonate into calcite crystals, one couldn't have an eggshell, meaning that the chicken and its special protein powers had to have developed first. How the world's going to react to having one of its favorite clichés wrestled away has yet to be determined. Update: Seems like we didn't make it clear enough that these findings relate specifically to chicken eggs. We're well aware that dragons dinosaurs have plenty of prior art on chickens when it comes to laying shelled embryo chambers.
EpicWin aims to turn your real-life tasks into a social game
Given the amount of iPhone and iPad apps coming out these days, I'm not all that interested in getting excited about an app before it comes out. There's already plenty of games and apps available now, so worrying about not-yet-released apps isn't all that important. That said, this app called EpicWin is gaining quite a bit of attention -- it's a very originally designed to-do list masquerading as a game that gives points for accomplishing things in real life. If this idea sounds familiar, it's because we've seen it before -- Booyah Society was supposed to be a game that rewarded you for real-life accomplishments, and there have been a few other apps like it poking around. Most of them haven't worked very well -- the issue has always been that there's no validation, no proof that you've done what you said you did in real-life. But EpicWin has some solid developers behind it (the folks that worked on Little Big Planet for the PS3, and MiniSquadron for the iPhone), and a very intriguing art style and tone, so maybe it'll be more intriguing than what we've seen along these lines in the past. EpicWin is "coming soon" to the App Store -- we'll keep an eye out for it, and let you know when it's out.
Anti-Aliased: When playing a bad game is just so good
This week's Anti-Aliased is great for two reasons. One, it's the antithesis to last week's topic, and two, it's completely relevant to this week's events. In short, it's about All Points Bulletin. Did I just call APB a bad game after spamming screenshots from it, hosting an event in it, and offering people what basically amounts to free DLC for their game? Yes, yes I did. Does that make me a complete hypocrite? Well, yes and no. You see, I'm having conflicting beliefs over this game. The reviewer in me wants to punt it over the Seattle Space Needle, but the gamer in me wants to sit down and play the hell out of it some more. Look, this all makes sense, ok? Just come with me after the break (yes, I'm luring you with my double-sided, purposefully vague statements) and we'll get this all settled out.
iPad arcade cabinet built out of cardboard
ThinkGeek posted an iPad arcade cabinet as an April Fool's joke this past year, but gamer Hideyoshi Moriya actually did build just such a cabinet out of cardboard and hardware -- you plug the iPad into a dock, and then you can control software with the joystick and buttons via an Arduino board. You can see a full video of the device running (along with some cute puppies) after the jump below. ThinkGeek was only kidding, and Moriya is just joking around, but there is definitely a viable demand for something like this. Sure, the cabinet form built out of cardboard is totally a prototype, but a little stand that you could just plug the iPad into and then control arcade games with buttons and a joystick? That thing would sell like hotcakes.
Google: jabs at Apple 'in a spirit of good fun' in fight for developers (video)
In case you missed it, you really should go back and check out Google's Vic Gundotra roasting of Apple during the Google I/O day 2 keynote last week. Hearing a VP from a major company in the consumer electronics industry so ruthlessly lampoon Apple was refreshing to say the least. TechCrunch sat down with the man post I/O and asked Vic about Google's relationship with Apple, particularly after the flurry of jabs Google made in the direction of Cupertino. Vic responded as follows: "It wasn't necessarily jabs at Apple, we have a deep respect for the innovation they brought. And places where Android has gone further we're very excited to show those off, we're very proud of Android. And I think in the end consumers really benefit from healthy intense competition that leads all companies to elevate their game. And it was done in a spirit of good fun." When pressed on the jabs and particularly calling Apple "closed" and Google "open," Vic responded: "We do like to draw sharp distinctions between our various approaches. But let's be clear we're two competitors competing for the hearts and minds of developers and we're trying to have some fun while doing that." We'll see how much fun Google thinks this is when Steve Jobs unleashes his RDF onto the world on June 7th. Until then, watch the TC interview after the break -- the good stuff kicks in at about 5:35. Oh, and we've also tossed in Vic's notorious "draconian future" dig for reference.
