Every week a few of us from team TiPb, bloggers and forum crew alike, will bring you our current favorite, funnest, most useful App Store apps, WebApps, jailbreak apps, even the occasional accessory, web site, or desktop app if the mood strikes us. As long as they’re iPhone (or iPod touch) related, they’re fair game.

So who’s on deck this week and what are our picks? Find out after the break!

Chad’s Pick: Eliminate Pro

This week’s has to be Eliminate Pro by ngmoco:) The iPhone community has been yearning for a solid FPS for a while and ngmoco:) delivers. There is debate as to how the energy system works, but at the end of the day, Eliminate is free and you can frag with your friends over 3G and Wi-Fi. What more could you want? [Free + in-app purchase - iTunes link]

Chris’ Pick: iMac (Late 2009)

My pick of the week is the new iMac. We just got one for my wife, and the added functionality combined with the iPhone is great. Adding in the MobileMe account, my wife is ecstatic with the iMac/iPhone combo, and I have to admit I am more than a little jealous. [$1,999.00+ - Web link]

[I got one as well. Phenomenal. - RR]

James’ Pick: AppleTV 3.0

When Apple announced the iTunes LP and movies extras, I hoped the functionality would be rolled out to AppleTV and the iPhone. With AppleTV 3.0, it has. The previous 2.0 OS was getting a little long in the tooth, so having a fresh UI and some new features has breathed some new life in Apple’s “hobby”.

Leanna’s Pick: Touch Pets Dogs

Touch Pets Dogs is absolutely adorable and my new addiction. The idea behind this game is that you have one or more virtual puppies that you must take care of by feeding, playing, training, etc. Touch Pets Dogs is very creatively made and your puppies respond great to your gestures. Want to pet your puppy? No problem, just rub your finger on his little body and he’ll respond by pushing his neck toward you just like a real dog would. This game has a similar feel to The Sims in that your puppies have various attributes you must keep up or else your puppy will get sad. Touch Pets Dogs also runs live, so if you go too long without playing with your puppy, you will receive a push notification telling you that you have a sad puppy! Touch Pets Dogs also uses the Plus+ network to meet other puppies, go on play dates, and possibly find a love interest for you puppy! If you pick this one up, look up llofte and meet my puppies! [Free/1 bowl of food - iTunes link, $0.99/10 - iTunes link, $1.99/20 - iTunes link, $9.99/120 - iTunes link, $29.99/400 - iTunes links]

Matt’s Pick: Trip Cubby

I recently began a new job for a production company and found myself driving all over Texas for commercial shoots. I soon realized that I needed an app to keep track of my trips. While I sifted through several apps, I finally came across Trip Cubby and haven’t looked back. Trip Cubby has a nice and easy workflow for entering data. It remembers recent locations, your last mileage entry, displays graphs, exports as CSV attachment and even has an online sync. If you are one of those people that need to keep track of mileage for deduction reasons, then this app is for you! [$6.99 - iTunes link]

Rene’s Pick: Astonishing X-Men Motion Comic

Joss Whedon didn’t bring his A game to Dollhouse, not the way he did with Buffy, Angel, or Firefly. For Astonishing X-Men, assisted by the amazing art of John Cassaday and the gorgeous (and uncredited!) colors of Laura Martin, he brought the A+. It was simply the best X-Men I’ve read since the original Phoenix Saga (yes, I’m that old). If you didn’t catch the comics, trades, or omnibus, Neil Adams’ company and Marvel Studios have brought it — at least the first chapter of it, Gifted — to Motion Comics life. 2 episodes of 6 are available now. I hope they do all 24 + the Giant Sized conclusion. Grab it from iTunes, sync it to your iPhone. Watch it now. With beer. [$10.99 Season Pass - iTunes link]

Your Pick?

You’re part of team TiPb too, so what’s your pick? What app was your absolute fav last week? Let us — and everyone — know in the comments!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Eliminate Pro, iMac, Apple TV 3.0, Touch Pets Dogs, Trip Cubby, Astonishing X-Men – TiPb Picks of the Week

Pocket Tunes Radio Forum Review by cjvitek For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum!

Coming from a Palm Zire/Treo background, I am familiar with Pocket Tunes (or Ptunes) – the default media and streaming audio player that came with both my Zire 72 and my Treo 680. So when Pocket Tunes came out with a streaming audio player for the iPhone, I said sure, I will review it.

Just a quick note, Ptunes (as I will refer to it) does not actually play media files on the iPhone – that is the exclusive domain of the iPod aspect of the iPhone (don’t touch Steve’s dock!). But it does act as a streaming media player. Also, although I briefly used a few of the other streaming media players for the iPhone, I haven’t used them exclusively – so I won’t be comparing Ptunes to those, but instead looking at Ptunes by itself.

Ptunes starts you off with a genre list of streaming music – Country, Funk, Comedy, Metal, etc. When you choose a genre, you are then presented with a list of stations in that genre to choose from. In the 5 days that I have had this program, the station list has been updated twice, so I think they will update the list fairly frequently. One thing I liked is that they include a featured, aacplus, and hi speed network stations as categories. I do wish they included a few more – like sports talk, for example.

One problem I had was there was no description of the radio stations themselves. For some stations, it was obvious where they were from, but some stations just included the call letters, so you don’t know where it is broadcasting or in some cases, the content of the radio station. As I said, I wish they broke down the “other” or the “talk” categories more – maybe sports, news, politics, etc. Simply listing radio stations under talk doesn’t really tell you what kind of talk radio there is.

On the bottom of the screen, there is a tab for favorites – you can add favorites to this list, including stations that may not be listed. You can also use the “search” tab to search for radio stations. Unfortunately, the few general searches I tried (sports) did not reveal any result, but search for call letters or station names directly can yield hit or miss results.

You can also use the web tab to go to web stations directly. This is useful to go to a specific website for a station and add it directly to your favorite list. Also, the Ptunes website lists some search sites that are good places to start looking through the stations. The web browser can also be used for “normal” surfing while listening to the radio.

Lastly, the now playing screen shows you the current station that is playing. On that screen you can add the current station to your favorites, you can pause, fast forward, or rewind. It also tells you the current song/artist that is playing. You can use the iTunes button to search iTunes for the current artist/music. That is nice, because you can go directly to iTunes to purchase music or albums if you like.

This is a nice interface for streaming music. According to the website, Pocket Tunes will recognize a large variety of streaming audio formats, including MP3, AAC, WMA, and more. The sound quality was nice – I didn’t have any stuttering and hiss, nor was there any interuption of the station while I was listening. Of course much of this will depend on the radio station and the quality of their stream. I tried using a 3G connection, and the quality of the stream still was quite good, but using edge I had connection difficulties (mostly connection time itself and time to buffer the station).

Pros:

• Easy to use and add stations,
• remembers radio stations,
• easy to create a favorites list

Cons:

• Can not skin the player,
• a little expensive,
• some radio station descriptions could have more information

Conclusion

All in all, this is a nicely designed program, and the quality shows. Unfortunately, at $9.99, it is priced significantly more than other streaming audio programs (many of which are free). The interface, program quality, and sound quality may justify some of the cost, but I am not sure how many people will purchase the $10 app when there may be a similar option that is free (even if the sound quality is somewhat worse). Because of the high price point compared to other apps, I would rate this app as four out of five stars, but if you are willing to pay for the quality, it might be worth it to you (and the few other issues were minor).

Forum Review Rating

[Pocket Tunes Radio is available from the iTunes App Store.]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Forum Review: Pocket Tunes Radio for the iPhone

Hero of Sparta by msbaylor. (Visit the thread for video and more pics. For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum!

While this app came out some time ago, I have been meaning to write a review for this app, but I always end up getting distracted playing the game, then running out of time. So finally I have distanced myself from my iPhone to bring you this review.

This is easily one of the most addicting games I have come across. ngmoco:), the developer of this game has undoubtedly created a unique gem of a game.

The point of Rolando is to roll the Rolandos (characters) around the screen and move them from one point to another while avoiding deadly monsters, fire pits, etc. In order to get them through you might find that you have to push things around, climb across boulder, drop bombs, build bridges, etc. The easiest way to describe the app is to say that it is a cross between Touch Physics for the iPhone and the old Lemmings game.

Controls:

The game utilizes the accelerometers to maneuver the Rolandos on the screen – you tilt in the direction you want to move,. You can also make your Rolando jump by swiping your finger from the bottom to the top of the screen. When selecting your Rolando, you can tap on one of them to select it or draw a box around several Rolandos to select multiple ones. While tilting the iPhone in a certain direction controls the Rolandos, you might also find yourself using your fingers to pull back catapult, flip switches, dropping bombs, drawing bridges and other awesome little things.

Layout:

The game begins with a segmented screen- 9boxes that are black and then “unlocked” when you beat certain levels, within this main screen you can basically just play around with the different Rolando characters. I thought this was a neat little touch as its not really part of the game, but great way to get the user involved in the game – before the game. After tapping on the menu item to begin the game, you will be taken to a “story-book” map that basically lists the levels along you way to the Rolando City. You select the level you wish by tapping on a white circle and then again when the white balloon appears. The map is separated into 4 quadrant, or to say, 4 worlds. Each one having its own theme. Within the levels themselves you have to get the Rolando(s) from point A to point B winding your way around beast trap doors and catapults. While all levels require that you exit through the magic door at the end, you might also find that you must save the sleeping-prince-Rolando, in which, he is bigger than the other Rolandos and also uncontrollable, making the level quite difficult to an extent, but very addicting.

In the game screen, in the top left-hand corner, your are given a time limit and given extra points if you complete the level in the allotted amount of time, if not, then you don’t get any extra points. Underneath the times is a counter #/# meaning, the first number is how many Rolandos you have gotten through the door and the second number is how many you must get though the level to complete it. If you tap on either of these icons a menu will appear to allow you to restart the level, continue, or quit.

If you decide to quit, don’t worry, your game will be saved (iSave). Some levels have “checkpoint-balloons” so that you begin from the point of the balloon in case you are to die. If you push the home key in the middle of a game (without dying) you will resume from that position.

Sound:

There is music playing in the background and in games I tend to reduce the music over the sound effects to reduce noise confusion, in doing that, I enjoyed the music within the game and did not feel that it ever annoyed me. There are multiple sound effects that each animation gives off in the game and makes the game all the more interactive. The Rolandos themselves will “talk” to you via text bubbles and making a unique sound (reminiscing of the old Nintendo 64).

Overall:

I found this game extremely addicting. It is one of those games, if you just happen to have a couple of minutes to kill, then you can play this game then save your progress and continue later or if you have a bunch of time to kill, then by all means, play longer. I have played about halfway through the game and have found it very enjoyable and one of the best games I have purchased. I go though so many apps that I barely have time to complete each game before I move onto the next, but this one just has me coming back no matter what my time limit is.

Replay-ability I am not quite sure of. Once I complete the game, I am not sure I’ll go back to play the levels again. However in having that timer, you can go back and attempt to complete the level with that time slot. If you are one of those people that like to get every little point, then the replay ability is high, otherwise, it going to be low.

This is probably the only game I haven’t found anything negative to say about it and that in itself is outstanding.

One of the other games that ngmoco:) has made, Topple, I found in that game, that the blocks facial expressions reacted to each other and I found that so cool, and Rolando is no exception. Rolando is sure to please any puzzle-lover or adventure-game lover of any type! At $9.99, this game is a must and easily one of the best.

If you happen to find yourself near the “credits” button, under the options menu, you might want to take a look at it. It’s probably the most creative and well-done credit sequence I have seen i an iPhone app.

Pros:

• Unique game play
• Characters faces interact with each other
• Addicting game play
• A combo of Touch Physics & Lemmings = addictive

Cons:

• I can’t really think of any.

Forum Review Rating

[Rolando is available from the iTunes App Store]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Forum Review: Rolando for the iPhone

Hero of Sparta by msbaylor. (Visit the thread for video and more pics. For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum!

Hero of Sparta came out a few weeks ago around the time of Brothers In Arms and it is also done by gameloft. I’ve come to realize that gameloft has really been putting out some awesome games and this is no exception.

Hero of Sparta brings the “Hack n’ Slash” genre to the iPhone.

Note: I showed this game to one of my non-iPhone friends while at his apartment and throughout the day he played it. So his input is also included in this review. He actually ended up beating the game on Easy and then began playing on Heroic difficulty level.

Controls:

The direction you move is controlled by the “directional pad” in the bottom left-hand corner and you attack methods are controlled by “2 attack pads” in the bottom right-hand corner – shield & attack. In the top right-hand corner you can change your weapon as you progress through the levels.

The controls I found very easy to adapt to. The only problem I ran into (as well as my friend did) that after playing the game for about 30 minutes or so, the “directional pad” doesn’t pickup your finger movements very well. I sometimes stopped to wipe my hands dry (as my hands began to sweat due to the heat these iPhones produce.) and began to ply again, it seemed to be fine after that, however I again seem to happen quicker into game play the longer time-ago that I restarted my iPhone. In other words I think that it has to do with the iPhone’s RAM.

The different attacks and blocks are mostly dependent on the two buttons and the “directional pad” But for certain special moves, you’ll have to tap buttons on the main part of the screen, if you take too long, well, you won’t last much longer…

After my friend completed the Easy level and he began playing the Heroic level and he said that he didn’t find any difficulty difference, however, I found it much more difficult; although, I didn’t play all of the Easy level.

Throughout the game you won’t just be hacking away at mythical beasts, but you will be also be dodging arrows, jumping from rock to rock, and collecting crystals. Collect 5 green crystals and you increase you life bar, collect 5 blue crystals and increase your energy bar.

Graphics/Animations:

Um, wow… at first I didn’t think much of it, but after I began playing I found myself more interested in the cinematic cut-ins and the cinematic special attacks. I’ll talk more on cinematics later. The graphics themselves are pretty good, not superior, but very good, as the special moves and the 3D animations make up for the lacking of “superior” effects (in my opinion). Frankly I assume that if the graphics were better, the iPhone would have troble rending the animations and eventually crash. So I guess that is just how it has to be.

In the top left-hand corner the green-bar is your health, while the blue-bar is your energy. Your energy drops as you do special attacks or moves.

Sound/Music:

Music works well for the game, I never got annoyed nor tired of it, depending on the level of difficulty, you’ll have a different soundtrack. The actual sound f/x I didn’t find as impressive and somewhat of a let down. They seem to be somewhat cheesy and very repetitive. It was really the only thing that bothered me in the game. The soundtrack will stop during certain parts on the game such as cinematic cut-ins or special attacks.

Cinematics:

Cinematics is a big thing to me. And I was very impressed with the cinematics to say the least at what this iPhone game could do.

The above screen shot isn’t really in the game, it’s the trailer before the movie, but still, the lighting in the trailer is pretty awesome. Okay so back to the actual game…

The above image was taken shortly after I was supposed to tap certain buttons to do a special move, but failed to do so, so hence – it’s me getting my butt kicked.

Again like I said, the special moves are pretty much like 3D cut-ins, but you have to do certain things in order to have them progress, I think it’s one of the best things within the game.

Overall:

I highly recommend this game; it provides game play unlike any other game does in the app store – namely the cinematics. While the controls can be tricky at time, it may take some time getting used to, but it’s worth it. Game play is about 5 or 6 hours for easy, and possibly a little longer on heroic (not sure haven’t finished playing through it. The replay ability is high due to the fact that all the weapons you gain on Easy or Normal difficulty level, you can use in heroic level.

Pros:

• Great game play
• Awesome Cinematics
• Good Cut-ins
• Multiple weapons

Cons:

• Control Touch screen can become fickle over time.
• Sound f/x are repetative

Forum Review Rating

[Hero of Sparta is available from the iTunes App Store]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Forum Review: Hero of Sparta for iPhone

Touch Physics Forum Review by cjvitek (For msbaylor’s take on it, check the link. For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum!

Touch Physics is a strategy/puzzle game, where the goal is to get the purple circle to touch the yellow star. As the game progresses, you are presented with an increasing array and diversity of obstacles in your path that you need to navigate the purple circle around. The circle is moved by forces of gravity, friction, and elasticity. For example, if a large object falls on the circle on the left side, the circle will move/roll/bounce to the right.

So how do you get the large object (or planks, or whatever you want)? Simple – you draw them. You get to add the objects that interact with the circle (and the rest of the obstacles, for that matter). You can draw straight lines, you can draw cirlces or polygons, just about any shape you have in mind (with a few exceptions – see below). These object are subject to the same laws of gravity, friction, and elasticity as the rest of the object in the game.

One especially cool feature of this game is that you can also adjust the various physical interactions. Increasing or decreasing gravity will influence both your objects and the movement of the circle, for example. Because of the various ability to actually adjust the physical parameters of the world, this becomes a much more interesting game – you can replay the same game multiple times with various changes to the physical constants.

This is an interesting concept for the game, and I like the interface. It looks like you are working on a simple paper background, and the images you “draw” look like they were drawn with a crayon. Settings can be changed in the settings menu (not within the game itself, one minor complaint), and there is a nice musical background that is playing as well.

My main problem with this game is the interaction – specifically, dawing shapes. Unfortunately, the game engine does not allow for the drawing of any sort of complex shapes (with multiple obtuse or acute angles, for example). If you try to draw one of those, the game “simplifies” it for you, often times negating the strategy you might have had when drawing the shape.

Other than that, however, the game is fun, and can be quite challenging. I like the interaction between what you draw and the obstacles in the way of the purple circle. I do wish you could save you progress within a level, instead of simply starting the level over, but that is a minor flaw. Shaking the iPhone to start a level over is a fun way to vent frustrations and begin anew.

Pros:

• Nice interface, good game concepts

Cons:

• Complex shapes not allowed

Conclusion

All in all, this is a cool game for the money, and if you like strategy puzzle games, this might be worth your money. The interface is clean and simple, the controls are easy to learn, and the game play can be radically alterred by adjusting the physical parameters of the “universe”. For $1.99 (on sale now for $.99) it is worth the money.

Forum Review Rating

[Touch Physics is available from the iTunes App Store.]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Forum Review: Touch Physics for iPhone

Guitar Rock Tour Forum Review by msbaylor. (Visit the thread for video and more pics. For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum!

In the game you play a “guitar” or a “drum set” along with songs. There are a total of 17 different songs, some of which are fairly recent, but also include songs such as “Smoke on the Water.” Each song can be played within three different difficulties and of course on each instrument.

Game/ Layout & Controls:

When loading the game, it takes about 20 seconds (as all gameloft games do.) Also it takes about 15 seconds to load after selecting a song. To reply the song there is little or no wait time. After the song though, in returning to the menus, you’ll have to do a bit of waiting.

In the game there are two modes – Quick Play & Tour. In quick play you choose your difficulty, instrument and a song to play. You can only play songs that have been unlocked in Tour mode. When beginning for the first time, the first three songs are already unlocked.

In Tour mode, you create a profile (up to 3,) you select an avatar and an instrument. Then you select a place on the world map to play at. You have to play 3-5 songs to continue to the next location. As you progress across the map, you will have to replay some of the songs that you have already beat, but from what I could tell, it seemed that the note pattern was different and a little more difficult, which in the end made it better instead of repetitive.

Whether you are playing in Tour or Quick mode, the guitar and drum layouts are the same. Firstly the guitar – the screen shot above shows the guitar layout. At the bottom, you have four fret-tap-areas, so as the correlating notes come to the bottom you tap them, usually in rhythm of the song or the strumming of the guitar in the song. If a colored note has a “wavy-line” coming out of it, it means you will have to “hold-the-note,” otherwise, it’s just a simple tap.

On the left –hand side of the screen, you have, as I like to call, your death-meter – the more notes you miss the lower the meter drops, if it drops to far, then you fail the song. In the top left-hand corner, you have the “star-multiplier.” The more notes you get in a combination without messing-up, the higher the combo and thus higher your multiplier. To the right of the multiplier is your score.

On the right-hand side of the screen is you have your “pyro power” meter, through each multiplier you get, you increase your pyro power meter. It’s like the “star power” in another related game, you “flip” the switch and your current multiplier can double up to 8x. Above this meter, you have a “home” icon, this take you to the pause menu.

As for the Drum set layout:

You have four tap areas as well, but usually the cymbals (yellow notes) are normally played together. The blue notes are for the left drum and the purple notes are for the right drum. Everything else on the screen is the same, however, in order to get the pyro power, certain notes will “be on fire” and if you hit these notes, you get a “full pyro meter” to use. When using pyro power, all the notes will turn orange-yellow.

Issues in Game & Layout:

Most of the issues I had in the game had to do with this section. As you can see by the screenshots, the game is played with the iPhone held vertically. It would’ve been nice to have a horizontal mode as it is hard to hold the iPhone, but you will get used it, however, if you play with the Hard difficulty – good luck, I had trouble holding the iPhone while my fingers flew across the screen.

When you hold the iPhone, I hold mine so that I play with my thumbs, my pinkies support the bottom, my pointer finger hold the top and my other fingers cradle the under-side of the iPhone. In doing this I found it was the best way to keep from covering up the speaker. I suppose if you use headphones, this isn’t really an issue. Gameloft also added a feature that allows you to flip the iPhone 180 degrees so that the speaker is at the top. The main problem I found was that the accelerometer that is used to rotate the screen was too fickle in the optional rotation. It’s somewhat hard to explain, but basically, it just doesn’t work.

In the guitar playing area, you have to flip the switch for pyro power; however, it is extremely hard to flip it while play on any difficulty, thus messing up your multiplier. I don’t see why gameloft couldn’t have the user shake the iPhone for this or something. Another side-affect I encountered was in attempting to flip the switch; I’ve also accidentally hit the men/pause button. Coming out of pause, can be difficult as it begins without warning exactly where you left off.

The death-meter with both instrument, I thought, fell to fast when missing notes and made my overall experience when playing the drums extremely frustrating. So there is really no way to practice the song even on easy.

In the drum layout when the pyro power is on, obviously all the notes turn orange, well whether the cymbals come up together of the two drums at the same time is impossible to determine due to their color.

I found the drum set very hard to play in Easy and soon failed the song miserably

Animations:

The animations follow closely like similar games. I really like he notes and the frets that they pass over – easily identifiable. I noticed that when you taped and note or when you had to hold down a note, that the path (or I guess you could say the “string”) vibrated as if it had been strummed. You’ll notice that when playing a guitar, you’re actually playing on the neck and the body of a guitar this adds a nice touch (sorry I am a bit ignorant of guitar vocab.) The animations that play in the background a very good and I‘ve noticed that the animations, that is the avatars, move to the beat on the song. Although sometimes the drummer animation got off a bit. If you are playing on tour (and depending on what song your playing in quick mode) the background scene will change (On top of a bus in London, Concert Hall, pool party, etc). The band does stay in constant motion while you are playing and if playing in Tour mode, the avatar you have selected, is also in the animation as well. Now as for the crowd, they are just black silhouettes moving about. When you tap on a note, the note literally explodes into flames. I thought this was nice at first, but I think it is a little overdone. Overall the animations are very well done. This is a major load-bearing app.

You MUST restart your iPhone in order to play this game. I also highly recommend that you turn Airplane mode on as when my iPhone would check for e-mail, the app would lag, and I would end up failing the song…very annoying to say the least.

Sound:

Other than the song playing, you’ll have the crown cheering when you begin 50-note streaks or more and on the other hand you’ll hear boo-ing if you start to mess up. Also when playing, if you do miss a note/beat, the drum or guitar will drop out of the song also, you will hear a miss-strum or drum-hit. I found this to be a very nice touch and greatly added to the realistic nature of the game.

Overall:

The game is pretty cool. My main complaints basically had to do the way the game is laid out and how awkward it is to hold the iPhone vertically rather than playing it horizontally. The replay-ability is very high as it has 3 levels of difficulty, with each layout being different per difficulty. Having airplane mode on is nearly a requirement in this game. I however found that turning on Wifi, sometimes helped. Not sure why…maybe faster data connection? I think the little things that make this application annoying (at time) could be easily fixed. I knew I could not goive this game a 5 stars, not even 4, because I knew the main thing keeping me from playing this game was that I could not turn my phone on Airplane for extended periods during the day and also playing on the harder levels, in finding the iPhone hard to hold, made me just give up on the game. So as much as I want this game to have a higher ranking, I am giving it a 3.5/5

Pros:

• Realistic playing – miss notes/beats, correlating instrument is not heard in song.
• Good, even great animations at times
• Backgrounds change
• Avatars ‘rock’ with music
• Replay-ability is very high
• Very east to “get into the game”

Cons:

• Notes hard to detect in drum pyro mode
• Smooth-playing only in Airplane mode
• Pyro-power is really hard to turn on and can end up screwing up your score.
• Death meter falls to quickly in my opinion – no practicing the song
• Airplane mode a requirement

Forum Review Rating

[Guitar Rock Tour is available from the iTunes App Store]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Forum Review: Guitar Rock Tour for the iPhone

Frenzic Forum Review by cjvitek (For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum!

A new game….just what the iPhone needs!

Actually, a little side note. I approach my iPhone as mostly an entertainment device. So while I will find, use (and review) useful productivity, utility, or lifestyle apps (or other categories) by far the category I am most interested in is games. I would guess that at least 70% of my downloads are games. Anyway, on to the review.

Frenzic is a frantic, fast paced strategy game, simple in concept, but one that can provide lots of enjoyment (frantic + frenzy = frenzic!). In Frenzic, your goal is to put little pie-shaped wedges into various circles, filling the circles. For anyone who has played Trivial Pursuit (where is that game for the iPhone?) the shapes look just like the pie pieces from there!

Anyway, the pie pieces come in three colors – orange, green/yellow, and purple. As you move along, you can try to organize the pieces by color, but you aren’t required to (Thank GOD!). If you do fill a circle with pie pieces that are the same color, you get more points, an extra life, and a power-up (more on that later). If you fill a circle with mixed colors, you just get some points.

The game starts off slow – presenting you with one piece of a pie, and 6 empty circles to fill. A timer (around the center) indicates how much time you have left to move that piece. If you run out of time, you lose a life. Lose all your lives and the game is over.

As you progress, you have less and less time to use a piece (at least it felt that way, I didn’t actually time it). Eventually (trust me, it will happen) you will get to frazzled to find a place to put the piece, and you will lose your last life.

As I said, when you fill a circle with pie-pieces that are the same color, you get a bonus life, more points, and a power-up. The power ups have to be manually activated, and come in three varieties – double points, slow down, or nuke. Double points give you, as you might expect, double points for a limited time. Slow down simply slows the timer down for a while. And nuke simply clears some the board. Unfortunately you are not given the choice of which power up you get, nor can you stockpile them to save up (I know, I tried). Although you can’t stockpile them, you can pick up a powerup while you are currently using one.

In the settings, you can control the various aspects of the game – sound, music, vibration, etc. You can also activate “advance piece” which allows you to move to the next piece costing you a life (but not having to wait for the time to run out).

You also have the option of uploading scores, which I didn’t participate in, but some people may enjoy. It would be nice to see a head-to-head match ability via wifi, giving people the same pieces and seeing how they do with them (or people using the same board, filling each other’s spaces to foil their moves!). There are lots of options for a multiplayer, and I would hope to see something in that vein in the future. There is also no difficulty setting – it would be nice to be able to choose easier (with only two colors) or harder (with four colors).

This is a fun game. The graphics are simple but crisp and clean, and the background sounds and music work well with the game. The responsiveness is great, and while it is not a game to play to relax, it certainly is one the shows a high level of replay-ability.

Pros:

• Nice graphics,
• simple concept,
• addicting

Cons:

• No multiplayer

Conclusion

All in all, this is a fun game, and may very well make its way onto the first three pages of my iPhone (where I keep “my apps” as opposed to apps I am reviewing). It is fun, fast paced, and easy to pick up. It is currently on sale for $1.99 (during the “holiday season”) but it is normally $4.99. My rating is based on the current price – for the “normal” price, people may consider it overpriced.

Forum Review Rating

[Frenzic is available from the iTunes App Store.]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Forum Review: Frenzic for the iPhone

The Weather Channel Forum Review by cjvitek (For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum!

Okay, I am sort of a weather junkie. I didn’t used to be, but when I moved to Florida (with hurricanes), and the weather was directly related to my research activities, I became a little but of a junkie. Not as bad as some, but definitely more than most.

That’s why I was a little disappointed with the iPhone default weather application. Sure, it gave you temperatures…but what if I wanted more! I tried the Weatherbug program, and that was okay…but I still found myself going to the Weather Underground site often. Then I found The Weather Channel program.

Read on for the review, after the jump!

The Weather Channel program has just about most types of weather information you could want. So let’s go through what it offers.

First, you can customize your locations. I don’t know if there is a limit to how many locations you can include, but I added five with no problem.

When you access the weather data, the screens are divided into “weather”, “explore map”, “video”, “severe”, and “more”. They are navigated by hitting tabs at the bottom of the screen. The weather tab is the first you see, and you can get current conditions, hourly, 36 hour, and 10 day reports. The current conditions data includes temperature, cloud cover, “feels like” temperature, wind, humidity, UV index, and visibility. The only thing lacking are the sunrise and sunset times.

The hourly screen reports the anticipated changes on an hour by hour basis. Rather than just settle for a 60% chance of rain, you can determine when it is supposed to rain, and plan your activities accordingly. The 36 hour forecast if just that – what it will be like for the next day and a half. And the 10 day forecast is a long term look at the weather (temperature and precipitation).

The Explore map tab allows you to look at a radar map of the area. However, you are not limited to just radar – you can also look at cloud cover, radar AND clouds, temperature, “feel like” temperature, 24 hour rainfall/snowfall, and UV index. You can include cities, schools, parks, golf courses, or lakes on the map.

The video tab gives you a short (about 2 to 3 minutes) local video forecast – basically what is played on The Weather Channel station on TV. The severe tab gives you any severe weather forecasts, and the “more” tab is a help screen, an about screen, and links you to more videos (worldwide weather).

All in all, a pretty full featured weather program.

I am not sure how it would do with out of the ordinary weather items – hurricane tracking, for example. Presumably a hurricane warning would show up, but I don’t know if you would have detailed access to the prediction cones, anticipated landfall, strength data, etc. I am don’t know if it shows you the cycle of the moon (I looked last night, but I was tired and now I can’t remember). But for a casual weather junkie, or people who just are really looking for detailed information for event planning, this application covers most of the bases. It would also be nice to be able to customize a screen to show the information you want specifically.

Of course, you are still relying on the report of the weather man, but that is another issue entirely.

Pros:

• Very complete data set,
• easy interface

Cons:

• Information can almost be TOO much

Conclusion

All in all, if you want a complete weather program, this is one of the best I have seen. And to top it off, it is free.

Forum Rating

[The Weather Channel is available from the iTunes App Store, though some may need to search for the "international" version. iSigh.]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Holidaily Double Forum Review: The Weather Channel for the iPhone

[Confession: I've been a little slow in getting the usual twice-weekly Forum Reviews up, and cjvitek and msbaylor, as if sensing my slacktivity level, put their production into turbo mode. So what's an editor to do? Come up with an angle, of course! So, from now until we catch up -- or I mess up again -- we'll be presenting lots more Forum Reviews. How many more? Well, we're calling it our Holidaily Double, so howzat for a clue? - Rene]

SimCity Forum Review by msbaylor. (Visit the thread for video and more pics. For more Forum Reviews see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum!

My main concern before getting this application was – would it be able to handle all the animations on the screen, or would it just be an expensive crashing app? After a brief setup and I selected the tutorial, I got a white screen. I thought this was a glitch (First thought – “NO, Not the white-screen-of-death!”), but after about 15 or 20 seconds, the main Sim-screen came up and walked me through the controls and what everything meant. That alone was very nice to have – major kudos for the help explanations.

Read on for the review, after the jump!

Issues:

The first thing it caught me was – how to add roads. I immediately had problems with this, laying it exactly where it wanted me to. I felt that an offset feature would be nice, so that I could see exactly where I was laying the road instead of covering it up with my finger. I later realized I could zoom in to be more accurate, however, this might prove difficult if you want to lay down a long line of road – pave > pan > pave > pan, etc. Also if you are off when you place something, you have the ability to move it around before confirming its location (a type of “post-offset.”)

Another issue I noticed was under the help menu (not the in game help,) that the buttons are very short and a bit hard to hit if you have fat fingers.

Animations:

Other than that, the game seemed to run just fine. I like how it adjusted some of the imagery to keep from eating up too much RAM without taking away from the game play. For instance – as you zoom out, animations will stop on the structures and just become static images. If you zoom in, all the way – in, you can see you Sims in transit (vehicular movement), however the images become fuzzy and less-sharp in detail as you zoom it. This was a bit of a let down, but I guess it has to happen to keep your handy-dandy iPhone from crashing… After all if viewing one or two structures on the screen, the structures animate, i.e., smoke stack on the oil factory puffs smoke.)

Controls:

The controls are fairly intuitive, incorporating the pinch/zoom, double-tap to zoom, and other features that you would normally use in the Maps.app are implemented into the application when viewing the map.

Tutorial/Help:

If you have question regarding anything on screen, just tap the question mark in the bottom left-hand corner, then tap the area/item that you have a question about and you will be given an explanation. This app has very helpful feature if you are new to this type of game.

Display:

There is a news ticker at the bottom of the screen that alerts you to things that are going on in your Sim’s world. If it is green text, then it usually means something good or something that needs to be fixed soon. This leads me to Advisors – depending on the “news stories” that show up, you have different “advisors” That will advise you on what to do in order to make your city better.

Conclusion:

This game exceeded my expectations in how the game handles and the depth of play, however, I was a bit dismayed on how hard it has to simply lay road down and how the images deteriorated when you zoomed in (I expected more from EA on image quality). If you’re a fan of SimCity or other God-view Sim games, then you should love this game.

Pros:

• Intuitive & Familiar controls
• Numerous features
• In-depth game play
• Great help menu
• Numerous map views to help you during the game.
• Several difficulties of play.

Cons:

• Some of the menu buttons are hard to tap on.
• Laying road or other narrow landscaping accurately can be difficult & frustrating.
• Images aren’t as detailed (noticeably when zoomed into the region).

Forum Review Rating

[SimCity is available from the iTunes App Store, though some may need to search for the "international" version. iSigh.]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Holidaily Double Forum Reviews: SimCity for the iPhone

Brother’s In Arms: Hour of Heroes Forum Review by msbaylor. (Visit the thread for video and more pics. For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum!

This new game from Gameloft has raised the bar yet again on their games. After finding out that this game has in the App Store I immediately downloaded it and started to play it. The graphics are that of Nintendo64, but the detection, Audio and AI are better than that of the N64. For those of you that remember the ‘ol N64, do you remember shooting the wall and the bullet holes didn’t show up? Or when you would attempt to run over someone with a tank and they wouldn’t die? Well unlike the N64, you can do that in this game, as well as get run over, bombed, shot, or punched in the face.

After having played Brother In Arms I found that this game really sets it own standard. There is nothing like it in the app store.

There are 4 operations from which there are 5 missions in each. I think there is a fair amount of game play, not necessarily a great amount, but a fair amount. Now to leverage that, I found that if I replayed a mission, I played a different soldier in that mission. I’ve also found that the outcome in not always played out the same way each time. So on that note, the game play can seen as quite significant (the video does not explain this)

The controls in this game are my main complaint. But let’s face it, these controls are for the most part the best and really the only way to control the type of game.

First to control your direction, you place your thumb on the yellow dot in the bottom right corner and slide your thumb in the direction that you want to go. This is basically the same as ASDWZ on a keyboard for a PC game.

To face a certain direction and ultimately where you aim, you use your right thumb, and move your line of sight around on the screen. To shoot, you press the button in the bottom right corner.

To throw a grenade, you press the grenade image in the upper right-hand corner, then you tilt you iPhone in the direction that you want to toss the grenade. Finally you press the “shoot” button to throw the grenade.

To operate one of the guns on the ground, you press the usual fire button, but you use the control in the bottom-left corner to control your aim. This control I’ve found ultimately difficult to operate.

To control a tank, you use the same controls as if you were walking. The direction you go and the direction you fire can be controlled independently.

Finally to drive a jeep, a steering wheel will appear in the bottom left corner and a forward and reverse buttons in the bottom right corner. I found driving the jeep extremely difficult. Having bought Asphalt 4 from Gameloft, I am hoping they can implement the same controls for the jeep as are effective in Asphalt 4.

This game uses more methods of control than I have ever seen in any app. While at first you might find it hard to control the game, but as you continue to play, you’ll get used to the controls.

Like Asphalt 4, there are a few (3) control schemes – the one mentioned above, another that is like using two “virtual” joysticks, and another in which the direction you move is the same but to control your sight, you tap in the direction that you want to view. I recommend control scheme 1 or 2.

As for shooting the enemy, your gun sight will turn red when you get near an enemy. The gun-sight utilizes snapping so that it is easier to hit your targets. However this is not true (snapping) if you are using a sniper rifle.

You have the ability to hold up to 3 weapons (from what I’ve done so far) and by tapping on the current gun icon in the top left-hand corner you can change your weapon as well as numerous other options.

Price: This game only came out a few days ago and if you love FPS shooters or a fan of the Brothers In Arms series, then you shouldn’t wait to buy this game. However, if you are a little hesitant in buying this game, then wait a week or two as the price tends to drop on Gameloft games after about two weeks

Pros:

• Awesome graphics
• Unique controls offer unique game play
• First-person shooter
• Multiple mission roles
• Audio is awesome (including the ringing-ear effect when a bomb explodes nearby)

Cons:

• Controls can seem awkward or hindering during game play as it might block your line of sight.
• Small amount of missions.

Conclusion

Overall I definitely recommend this application. I would like to see some better handling of some of the vehicle controls and like some of the other popular Gameloft games, Wifi connectivity…maybe a co-op or a death-match of some sort…. well maybe not a death-match, that would make another good game altogether… I’d also like to see some more missions added (or the multi-player)

Forum Review Rating

[Brothers in Arms: Hour of Heroes is available from the iTunes App Store]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Forum Review: Brothers in Arms: Hour of Heroes