The iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch Gaming |Thread4| NOT Doomed

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Any opinions on Mass Effect: Infiltrator? Can I ignore the DLC?

Dunno about the DLC, but I've found the main game to be surprisingly good. Some of the most well thought out controls for a shooter on iOS that I've seen yet. It automates things in really nice ways, while not playing the game for you. I haven't played a ton of it yet, but what I have played has me excited. Definitely worth checking out for a buck.
 
Anyone managed to complete Plague Inc. using all the different disease types on Brutal? I have just the Fungus left, but it is driving me INSANE! All my usual tactics aren't working and the Cure gets developed before I can infect even 50% of the world...
Keep the lethality on zero, if any mutations arise remove them, and keep focusing on infection. Once the entire population is infected blast the lethality to include Total Organ Failure (you require around 80 points, so retain them from earlier). It can take many years but it works.
 
Dunno about the DLC, but I've found the main game to be surprisingly good. Some of the most well thought out controls for a shooter on iOS that I've seen yet. It automates things in really nice ways, while not playing the game for you. I haven't played a ton of it yet, but what I have played has me excited. Definitely worth checking out for a buck.

Dang, not what I wanted to hear. Why won't you tell me it's complete shit?!
 
OK after reading about Miku Flick, I'll have to give it a pass. Too expensive, no iPad retina support, and I guess a sequel has been announced as well. Will wait for a better deal.
 
8 bucks for the full summoner wars bundle seems way less bad than I expected

Wow, yeah...I played the preview at GenCon last year. It was pretty awesome, but it wasn't cheap. This could be exactly what I need to jump on and give it a full go.
 
OK after reading about Miku Flick, I'll have to give it a pass. Too expensive, no iPad retina support, and I guess a sequel has been announced as well. Will wait for a better deal.

I was about to ask about that game as well. Oh well, will wait for the sequel then. Game looks fun, though.
 
Loving Ski Safari amd TheEndApp. I'm a fucking mug for endless runners.

Although I don't understand the bonuses in TheEndApp at all. :/
 
Holy crap, the new Ski Safari update is awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwesome

Yeah, they definitely jam packed it with stuff. My personal favorite addition is the shop, which contains some pretty cool stuff. That being said, it's a little bit of a drag having to do all the missions again after already having completed them all a couple of months ago.
 
got a victory in Summoner Wars. Another victory is I got my wife to try it and she likes it just as much as I do! She got a victory in against the AI as well and we went ahead and bought the whole bundle. She's trying out one of the other races right now
 
Corrupt App Store binaries crashing on launch

Marco said:
Last night, within minutes of Apple approving the Instapaper 4.2.3 update, I was deluged by support email and Twitter messages from customers saying that it crashed immediately on launch, even with a clean install.

This didn’t make sense — obviously, Apple had reviewed it, and it worked for them. My submitted archive from Xcode worked perfectly. But every time I downloaded the update from the App Store, clean or not, it crashed instantly.

Lots of anxiety and research led me to the problem: a seemingly corrupt update being distributed by the App Store in some regions, including at least the U.S. and U.K., but seemingly not all — as far as I can tell, the corrupt file never hit Australia, at least.

And this is happening to other apps, not just Instapaper, updated in the last few days.

Characterizations of this issue:
  • The app crashes immediately on launch, every time, even after a delete and reinstall as long as the corrupt file is being served by the App Store.
  • It doesn’t even show the Default.png before crashing. Just a split-second of a partial fade to black, then back to Springboard.
  • It may only affect customers in some regions.
  • If updating from iTunes, some customers might get a dialog citing error 8324 or 8326.
    Mac apps might show this dialog:
    “[App] is damaged and can’t be opened. Delete [App] and download it again from the App Store.”
  • The console might show:
    Code:
    AppleFairplayTextCrypterSession::fairplayOpen() failed, error -42110

I emailed App Review less than an hour after the update went live and yelled about it on Twitter. About two hours after the update went live, a correct, functional version of it started being distributed on reinstalls. As far as I know, the problem hasn’t recurred since then.

I haven’t yet received a response from App Review, so I don’t know whether the fix was because I made noise, or because a cache expired somewhere that forced the problematic CDN nodes to redownload the binary correctly.

The only fix for people with bad copies, once good copies are being served again by the App Store, is to delete and reinstall the app.

I’ve heard reports of this happening with numerous updates released on July 3 and July 4, including:
  • Instapaper, obviously
  • GoodReader (more info)
  • Readdle Scanner Pro
  • Threadnote
  • Please Stay Calm
  • SMARTReporter (Mac)
  • Metronome+
  • PDX Bus
  • Pair
  • Angry Birds Space HD Free
  • Gaia GPS
  • Redshift
  • Flick Soccer

Please contact me if you know of others, and I’ll add them to the list.

If you’re a developer, and you have a non-critical update pending release, I suggest waiting a few days for this to presumably get sorted out before releasing it.

Because if this happens to you, all of your most active users, the people who will install updates within hours of them becoming available, will be stopped in their tracks. They’ll think you’re careless, incompetent, and sloppy for issuing a release that doesn’t work. And they’ll leave you a lot of angry 1-star reviews.

Apple: This is a serious problem. It’s not isolated. Please fix this.
 
Swift Stitch, a game being published by Nicalis and developed by Sophie Houlden, is coming on July 5. Screen shots at the link.

http://www.joystiq.com/2012/07/02/swift-stitch-collects-shinies-on-ios-this-week-via-nicalis/

It's a "vector-style racing/puzzle/maze game."

Browser demo: http://swiftstitch.sophiehoulden.com/demo/

This is out now:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/swift-stitch/id527773750?mt=8

Edit: It's free, but there's a "purchase" option that unlocks all levels, unlocks survival mode, and bonus options. And the music is great.
 
Apparently the problems with Summoner Wars are account based. Hope they fix it soon.

Yeah, seems like an appstore/apple issue. Can't do ANYTHING with my Canadian account, but was able to download it with no problems with my US account... Then tried doing IAP's with my Canadian account, but nope, just gives me another error (this time, "item being modified" instead of "item not currently available"...) Tmrw their service team will be back from holiday and hopefully fix it.
 
Yeah, they definitely jam packed it with stuff. My personal favorite addition is the shop, which contains some pretty cool stuff. That being said, it's a little bit of a drag having to do all the missions again after already having completed them all a couple of months ago.
Huh? You don't have to redo any of them; all of the new missions are, well, new.
 
OK after reading about Miku Flick, I'll have to give it a pass. Too expensive, no iPad retina support, and I guess a sequel has been announced as well. Will wait for a better deal.

It's not really optimized well at all for non-iPhone/iPod Touch devices, since it's designed to mimic a mobile flick keyboard. iPads are large enough to not need flick interfaces. Also, the vast majority of visuals in the game are pre-rendered video, which takes a pretty big chunk of space to store - they could render the videos at higher resolution but this would literally make the app at least four times larger.

Also, a sequel is unlikely to have significant overlap in terms of song content, and given how well SEGA's Hatsune Miku license is doing I don't see there being any significant sales - I'm surprised it's even getting one now.
 
AW YEAH!

I did a gift exchange on reddit (Arbitrary Day, lol), and my gifter got me some SWEET stuff. (Clearly did a bit of research on me before buying anything.) In addition to the 8-bit Tie and Heart Container mug (for my new job at reddit), he got me two iPad stick-on joysticks!!

12W04.jpg


Here's one of 'em in action, while playing SFII on a SNES emulator.

The joysticks actually work PERFECTLY, especially for the emulators, which have statically placed d-pads. Seriously, I can pull off moves in SFII literally as easy as I can with a real joystick. These stick-on dudes are the real deal. Shoryukens with no problem.

I think you can get them at ThinkGeek (didn't look up the price yet), but they're definitely worth anywhere from $10-$15, easily. I can't think of a ton of apps that use a static d-pad/analog stick (most are free-floating based on where you first touch your thumb, and the joystick doesn't work with those), but it's absolutely perfect for any and every emulator on the device. Of which there are many.

Highly recommended. This thing is super cool.
 
Apparently the problems with Summoner Wars are account based. Hope they fix it soon.

Since I am one of those unable to download SW (grrr), I figured I'd give Outwitters a try. I'm not quite sure what to make of the game.

Outwitters plays like a cross between Hero Academy and Advance Wars. But like Hero Academy originally, Outwitters is multiplayer only. There's no AI. While there's a bit of help text when you first start and the game doesn't look too complicated - move, attack, build more from a selection of 6 (only 1 of which is unique to your team), repeat - no AI makes it hard to really get a feel for the game. I've started four games so far against random people, and so far one person has taken their turn (I'm not sure notifications are working either).

Very well done app (outside of the no AI thing), but I'm not sold on the gameplay. Whether that's because it's not my thing or I just haven't had the chance to really play it yet is to be determined.
 
AW YEAH!

I did a gift exchange on reddit (Arbitrary Day, lol), and my gifter got me some SWEET stuff. (Clearly did a bit of research on me before buying anything.) In addition to the 8-bit Tie and Heart Container mug (for my new job at reddit), he got me two iPad stick-on joysticks!!

12W04.jpg


Here's one of 'em in action, while playing SFII on a SNES emulator.

The joysticks actually work PERFECTLY, especially for the emulators, which have statically placed d-pads. Seriously, I can pull off moves in SFII literally as easy as I can with a real joystick. These stick-on dudes are the real deal. Shoryukens with no problem.

I think you can get them at ThinkGeek (didn't look up the price yet), but they're definitely worth anywhere from $10-$15, easily. I can't think of a ton of apps that use a static d-pad/analog stick (most are free-floating based on where you first touch your thumb, and the joystick doesn't work with those), but it's absolutely perfect for any and every emulator on the device. Of which there are many.

Highly recommended. This thing is super cool.
Job at reddit? Nice man, what are you going to be doing?
 
Job at reddit? Nice man, what are you going to be doing?

I'm the community manager. I actually got the job over six months ago, but then was diagnosed with leukemia right before moving to SF. I probably still won't be able to start working at the reddit office for quite a while, though. But they've been keeping a spot open for me. =)
 
I'm the community manager. I actually got the job over six months ago, but then was diagnosed with leukemia right before moving to SF. I probably still won't be able to start working at the reddit office for quite a while, though. But they've been keeping a spot open for me. =)

Fuck cancer. Keep it up. :/ But that sounds sweet by the company...!
 
I'm the community manager. I actually got the job over six months ago, but then was diagnosed with leukemia right before moving to SF. I probably still won't be able to start working at the reddit office for quite a while, though. But they've been keeping a spot open for me. =)

You fight that shit, man. Keep it up.
 
With the release of Outwitters and Summoner Wars, I'm giving Nightfall a rest (probably until some expansions are released), so apologies if I don't accept rematches. Ht me up on those two or Hero Academy and Ascension too.
 
Now that stick makes me want to jailbreak my iPad again! :P It's really that good? I'd love to use my iPad more for portable games (besides the shitload of async stuff I do play), the battery life really lasts on these things.

Maybe I'll make a video of me playing with it. I think it's excellent. It doesn't "click" or anything - it's much more free-flowing than that, like a loose 360 stick. But it returns to the middle, and there's a definite stop once it tilts all the way to the screen. With that, it feels very tactile, but more like an analog stick than an 8-way directional stick.

Here, one sec, I'll take a quick video of it...

...here you go: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vXzRH6dfc4

(Don't mind my gross chemo fingernails.)
 
hey dacvak, how do you use BT controllers for emus and stuff? Already jailbroken. Would love to do some crazy shit with quasar and stuff
 
hey dacvak, how do you use BT controllers for emus and stuff? Already jailbroken. Would love to do some crazy shit with quasar and stuff

I don't know about general BT controllers. I think the emulators are limited mostly to Wiimotes. Some use iCade, some use iControlPad, and some use JS1 as well. But ALL of them use Wiimotes. I'm not sure if general Bluetooth controllers are compatible (but I could be wrong - I just don't have a way of testing that, myself).

As far as Wiimotes go, using them couldn't be easier. It's right in the menu of the emulator - "Scan for Wiimotes". Then hit 1&2 on the Wiimote, and it'll pick it right up. You can connect up to five at once for most emus, and they also support the Classic Controller (which is really nice).

If you've got a Wiimote laying around, you're done. Just download an emulator (try SNES 9x if you don't want to pay for one but want to see what they're all like), and give it a whirl. If you're happy with it, buy the emulators that end in ".emu" - just search for "emu" in Cydia and you'll see a giant list.

So far, all of the emulators I've used have been borderline perfect. (NES, GBC, GBA, SNES, Genesis, NeoGeo, plus iMame4all. I'm going to buy the Atari and NeoGeo Pocket probably later tonight or tomorrow, and the TurboGraphix 16 one as soon as I buy some real games for it.)

As far as Quasar goes, your experience may vary with regards to how much you like it. I think it's the bee's knees, but I've got a friend who didn't like it. It's still a bit glitchy and finicky here and there, but the good news is it's extremely easy to momentarily turn off. (Just requires a quick respring.)
 
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