Jelly Defence coming soon

Tired of the Tower Defense Genre?  Come back!!!

iDreams make some of the most beautiful apps, and I got to see and play a preview of their new Tower Defense entry, Jelly Defence, which is coming soon.  So gorgeous and has great challenge, this will get you back into the Tower Defense genre quite quickly.  I was getting sick of the whole genre until I played this.  Well done!  Bravo.  Check out the preview teaser video and the press release.

 

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Gliwice, Poland – Infinite Dreams, award-winning mobile games publisher, revealed today the first information on “Jelly Defence” an upcoming game for iOS, Android and Mac OS platforms. The game currently enters beta testing phase and will soon hit the market!

“This is a very exciting moment for us. We are now in the process of testing Jelly Defence and preparing the game for release. We are very proud that over 100 fans and journalists participate in our closed beta tests and use their experience to improve the game. We hope our new amazing product will smash everything gamers have seen so far in the tower-defense genre!” – said Infinite Dreams CEO, Tomasz Kostrzewski.
This highly anticipated project will be the third game in the “Jelly” series. Previously released “Jelly Chronicles” and “Jelly Invaders” were created for promotional purposes only to announce the upcoming tower-defence game and familiarize gamers with the “Jelly” universe. 

Jelly Defence will allow players to join Jelly forces and lead them to glory in this uneven and fierce fight against the invaders! Proper tactical skills and wisdom will be required to push back aggressors and save the Diploglobe – a planet inhabited by the Jellies.

Jelly Defence will allow players to join Jelly forces and lead them to glory in this uneven and fierce fight against the invaders! Proper tactical skills and wisdom will be required to push back aggressors and save the Diploglobe – a planet inhabited by the Jellies.

 

Ticket To Ride

Must Buy Board Game!

I mentioned it last week, I was thrilled at the arrival of Ticket To Ride from Days of Wonder who are the makers of the actual hit board game.  Now that I’ve played a few rounds, and actually won a game, I’m ready to recommend it to the world.  In terms of board games, we all know from Monopoly, Scrabble etc., well, those aside, there’s a new level of board games many don’t know about.  I had a co-worker who is a die hard board gamer, he gave me a copy of the Ticket To Ride card game, and I loved it.  I then learned the actual board game and I was hooked.  Basic premise is you get travel tickets with two destinations, and throughout a series of moves you need to complete your start to endpoint on your tickets using train tracks and laying down your supplied train pieces.  How you do it effects other players and you have a limited number of color routes available, as well as a limited number of trains to use.  There’s a ton of strategy to be learned for such a simple concept.  Should you get sick of the US map, there’s other map expansions, which are also available on the iPad version.

Would like a little more direction in this menu but it looks great

The iPad version plays and feels alot like the real game, and the graphics, and tutorials are well detailed and quite helpful to the new player.  Playing online vs. other players is welcomed and can be played vs. Mac PC or iPad players (to be honest I haven’t tried it yet because I’m not ready to play against skilled players and fear of being slaughtered has kept me back, soon, I will test that).  I found the starting interface a touch non intuitive as there’s just as series of symbols to tap and see where it takes you, but after you find where you need to go, it helps.  Some more menu wording would be welcomed but it may take away from the beautiful visual qualities that are well done.

This is not a real quick pick up and play type game so if you need that look elsewhere, but if you’re looking for a new board game experience that is relatively easy to learn and tough to master, this is the best you can get.  Some things I would love to see is player vs. player on the same iPad, because, the board game itself has tons of little pieces and to be able to bring an iPad on a trip and to the kitchen table is much easier than all those train pieces, I sure hope they update this app to include player vs. player.  Another thing I would love to see is something similar to the words with friends model where you can play vs. a friend, do a move, come back later and after your friend has moved you get to go, it may take forever that way to play but it’s a neat idea.  Again I need to play vs. someone I know online and see how the experience is.  I really love this game and hope my friends can spend the $6.99 to get this app so they can play with me.  Believe it or not, its worth more than that.

Expansions, yessir!

You can play vs. the computer up to 4 players and the AI is pretty well versed in the game.  It’s a good challenge if you’re looking for a solo outing, it took me a few times to win a game but I also chose easy routes to place my trains and playing a conservative less risky approach I got lucky enough to beat one computer AI opponent.  I’m sure I won’t be able to win with 3 computer AI opponents.

So if you need more ways for me to recommend this game let me know because its time to stop playing monopoly or scrapple and come to the other side of board gaming, and open your eyes to the new generation of classic board games, this is destined to be a classic, and if you don’t have it in your board game closet, you should at least try it on the iPad, you may end up running out to a specialty game store and getting the actual board game for some family fun.  Nuf said, I got a train to route.  I’ve got a ticket to ride….and you should care!

King of Opera

Very Unique Multi-Player Experience

I first watched the video below about this app and while intrigued, I was not inspired to play this, even though it was a very different idea and a game idea I’ve never seen before.  Intrigued enough to learn how this game is played, I gave it a shot, I must say I’m very impressed at this has a great amount of silly fun not found in multiplayer games, and even the vs. computer option is fun.  It’s clever and different from any other games, we look for this stuff but don’t find it often.  Check out the vid, but you owe it to yourself to give it a try.

The premise is rather simple, take the spotlight and keep the spotlight as an opera singer. We all want the spotlight, even in real life. So here’s your chance. The problem is the other playing opera singers are stumbling for your spotlight and they want to knock you off the stage. It wasn’t until this moment when I went back and read the iTunes description that it’s essentially King of the Mountain, the game I played on many snowbanks on the East Coast growing up. Aside from the fundamental similarity to King of the Mountain, its dressed up in a clever way that’s full of humor. I can’t wait to get 3 other friends around my iPad and have a knockdown Opera battle with this game, I see it getting some time at a party. Good stuff. It also has a nice bit of challenge in mastering how to move your opera singer across the screen.

King of Opera can be found here and is universal, and at .99 cents, a no-brainer must grab.

 

Ticket To Ride on iPad

The Day is Here Where The Best Board Game is iPad ready!

I’m just posting a press release where this game is out today, I’ve played it a little and it’s spectacular.  I will have a review up by tomorrow.  If you care about board games and want to have the best one on your iPad, spend the $6.99 and get it today!!!

LOS ALTOS, Calif. and PARIS, May 19, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Days of Wonder today announced Ticket to Ride™ for iPad, its second interactive board game designed specifically for iPad.

Elegantly simple and taking less than three minutes to learn, Ticket to Ride has been honored with over two dozen international board game awards. Millions of players have already discovered this best-selling railroad adventure where tension builds at every turn of the game, as players compete to create routes across North America, earning points as they go. Additional points are won for completing Destination Tickets between specific cities and building the longest continuous route. Over 1.5 Million copies of the board game have been sold and more than 23 million games of Ticket to Ride Online have been played on Macs and PCs to date.

Ticket to Ride for iPad uses the iPad’s innovative Multi-Touch interface and large screen to provide a polished digital board game experience. Users can intuitively pick up train cards and place trains on the board to connect distant cities, with the app automatically enforcing the proper rules, calculating the players’ scores and keeping track of their Destination Tickets, train cards and remaining trains.

Solo play allows for quick games against up to four AI players. When connected to the internet via the iPad’s WiFi or 3G connection, Ticket to Ride for iPad’s support of Game Center and Days of Wonder Online accounts lets players pit their tactical skills against up to four other opponents playing on their own iPad, Mac or PC anywhere around the world. An iPad video tutorial teaches players all the rules of the game within three minutes, with an additional interactive, turn-by-turn in-game tutorial included for those who prefer to learn while playing.

“The iPad is a revolutionary gaming platform,” said Days of Wonder CEO, Eric Hautemont. “Our very own Small World for iPad paved the way by showing off the iPad’s true potential as a digital board game platform, and we built on that experience to offer an even richer board game experience with Ticket to Ride for iPad. We look forward to welcoming iPad Ticket to Ride players into our thriving online players community.”

The Ticket to Ride App for iPad is available now for $6.99 from the App Store on iPad here. Additional maps of Europe, Switzerland and USA 1910 are available as in-game purchases at a special introductory price of $0.99 per map.

About Days of Wonder

Days of Wonder publishes top-quality, family-oriented board and digital games that are easy to learn and fun to play. Founded in 2002, Days of Wonder has a global presence, with offices in the US and Europe, and distribution in 25 countries. To date, the company has sold over 2 million board games and hosted over 23 million games online. In June 2004, Days of Wonder became the youngest publisher ever to win Germany’s prestigious Spiel des Jahres, the world’s most coveted game prize.

 

Conde Nast Subscription News


Conde Nast could be the next publisher to start offering magazine subscriptions on the iPad.

The New York Post is reporting that Conde Nast could start selling iPad subscriptions to the New Yorker as early as next week, in order to take advantage of sales fueled by interest in the takedown of Osama bin Laden.

By the end of the month, Conde Nast would reportedly sell subscriptions to seven other magazines including Wired, Vanity Fair, GQ, Glamour, Allure, Self, and Golf Digest. Year-long subscriptions will cost $19.99, the Post says.

The deal will also decrease the single-issue price significantly, down to $1.99 from the current price of $4.99 per issue for the New Yorker and GQ and from $3.99 for Wired and Glamour.

Conde Nast’s news follows Hearst’s announcement this week that it would make three of its publications, Esquire, O, the Oprah Magazine, and Popular Mechanics, available for subscriptions on the iPad starting with the July issues. Hearst was the first major publisher to announce that it will sell iPad subscriptions, but if the Post’s report is correct, Conde Nast will actually beat Hearst to the punch.

Apple introduced a subscription platform for iPad magazines earlier this spring, and publishers have been slow to sign on with the model. Most have found the terms to be unfavorable. Apple takes 30 percent of all sales and retains control of subscribers’ personal information.

“We frankly don’t want Apple to have a stranglehold on this business,” Rick Levine, Conde Nast’s director of editorial operations had said.

While it’s unlikely Apple has budged on its terms, it seems publishers are unable to resist the huge audience afforded by the iPad.

But the existence of a subscription model satisfies one of the needs for iPad magazines, which have struggled to take off due in part to the lack of a subscription option. Many publications had strong first-month launches on the iPad followed by immediate declines in sales in the following month, and sales of iPad magazines have been dismal in general.

Hearst is the only publisher to publicly announce its plans for iPad subscriptions. Earlier this week, Time, Inc. announced it would make iPad editions of Fortune, Sports Illustrated, and Time free to print subscribers, but it has not divulged any plans beyond that.

Conde Nast has not commented on the matter.

 

My Recipe Book

Very Helpful!

 

 

 

I have tons of recipes and newspaper scraps/magazine page tears in a stack in my kitchen and have been looking for a great way to put these somewhere. The index card box is so 1980, and it takes up alot of room. I think I’ve found a solution and clever way to bring my iPad into the kitchen more often. My Recipe Book is a pretty handy app for the kitchen and people that want to stay organized. Save a rainy day and transfer your recipes. This app is very intuitive, the one problem I have is typing for a long while on the iPad and slogging through data entry on this app could be quicker, I don’t know exactly how but there’s got to be a better way. It took me about 20-25 min to enter my first recipe, but I was learning the interface first.

One great thing this app offers is the ability to find recipes on the web and easily import them into your collection. sync and backup your recipes are included, which is quite helpful.

There’s kitchen timers, weight conversions, volume and temperature conversions as well which is way more than your average cookbook could ever do. Plus, like any good database, sorting and finding recipes in a number of different ways is super easy. You can also email recipes, and so much more. Adding photos to recipes with iPad2 should be quite helpful. I would love to see some more ways to integrate recipe transfer with iPad 2 moving forward. Not sure how again, but there’s got to be a faster way to input a stack of recipes, because I have a ton, but am not wanting to sit down and do it.

Overall I recommend this app, especially if u are a fast data entry person, and have recipes on the web you want to clip, and for $2.99, the amount of extras blow any cookbook away, and there’s even a few recipes included that I may try, worth the price of admission alone.

Chef Sleeves

Pretty Great Idea!

I am a foodie and am constantly looking at and using recipes on my iPad, in fact coming soon I have a recipe app to review, where if it’s the one I need I’ll be cooking with my iPad alongside me all the time.  The problem with cooking and cookbooks and whatever recipe you use, is that you always inevitably get some foodstuffs or residue on your recipe, it never fails.  I have so many grease stained newpaper clippings that usually end up thrown after 1 cooking session.  Someone came up with these cool things called Chef Sleeves which I’d imagine are as simple as putting your iPad into a big freezer ziploc bag and using it to cook, why didn’t I think of that?

They come in packs of 25 and the box doubles as a recipe stand, to hold your iPad.  Pretty nifty little product for the home chef that finds their iPad in the kitchen more than once.  I actually like this idea/product.

Link

The box doubles as a stand, pretty cool.

 

 

Great Kids Apps

Keep Em’ Busy and Your Screen Dirty!

I have a 3 year old and he loves to grab my iPad and just play on it.  It always involves more fingerprints than the average adult.  All that aside, it’s fun to watch my son integrate himself with the latest technology and learn something in the process.  The closest I came to this when I was little was a record player that I stuck a filmstrip in.  That said, there’s some amazing apps for kids out there at a few bucks each that is cheaper than any afternoon at Chuck E Cheese and far less headaches and bad food.

Finding Nemo: My Puzzle Book

Finding Nemo: My Puzzle Book is a great children’s style read along book that just has many bonuses along the way.  For $.99 you cannot say no, because kids books that do half as much stuff in the iBooks store are 10x the cost sometimes.  My son is still a big fan of the Pixar film so this doesn’t get old, even though the movie came out years ago.  Simple controls that don’t need much parental guidance, a simple story is read where kids can tap on random bits along the way to make them feel like they’re collecting things and that sense of pride and accomplishment is reached.  Some light animation and nice audio to help drive the story along is welcomed as well, holds the child’s short attention span quite well.  Every 4 pages or so is a simple jigsaw puzzle to help break things up and get the kids mind and puzzle skills working.  The interface for the puzzle section is quite fluid and even better than some dedicated jigsaw puzzle apps, with a touch of assist when the puzzle pieces snap into their proper places when they’re ever so close.  I like that.

The story won’t take more than 15 minutes or so unless there’s too much diversion and difficulty at the puzzle stage, generally my son can breeze through the puzzles but still takes some time to do so, I love to see analytic thinking this early in life.  Another welcome feature is the read & record feature which allows the parent or babysitter or whomever record their own voice reading the story, so when the kid fires it up perhaps when said parent or guardian is away they get the comfort of the familiar voice.  I haven’t tried it yet but it’s so nice to know it’s there.

This app is a must buy if you qualify for 2 things; 1-Own an iPad, and 2-Have a child.  Great stuff from Disney Digital Books.  It’s also a universal app so if you’re at that restaurant and can’t keep the kid quiet, bust out your iPhone and make sure you have this app on there for the portable fix.

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Lightning Was Here: My Puzzle Book

Another great addition from Disney Digital Books is Lightning Was Here: My Puzzle Book which pays homage to another great Pixar Flick, Cars.  It’s a bit harder to find by searching ‘Cars’ in the app store but use the link above.  If you have a male child, chances are they’re way into cars, and the movie Cars.  This is similar in every way to the Nemo app above and again, for $.99, it’s another must own app for your iPad/iPhone.  This one includes a sticker collection task along the way which my son really got into, had a gotta collect ‘em all thing going, and kept going back to grab the stickers he missed.  The puzzles in this app are a little more difficult than the Nemo one but not that difficult in terms of 12 large piece jigsaw puzzles, still lots of fun.  Another welcome distraction along the way in the interactive storybook which follows the Cars characters through an adventure.  There seems to be a little less animation in this one than the Nemo one but this one came out months before the Nemo one, not a big deal either way.  There are alot of these Disney books popping up in the AppStore so you can really find some good ones for your kids interests, and they’re all really well done and worth the value.  The Cars app has the read and record feature as well.

Really well done stuff Disney, always catering to the children and continuing to do so on the latest technology, at a fraction of the cost of those Leapfrog device add ons too.

 

 

War Pinball

Duh, Winning!

There’s tigers blood in them machines!

GameProm, makers of some of the best pinball games for iPad and iPhone, Pinball HD, Slayer Pinball, etc. have just blessed us with a 3 pack of great tables in the form of War Pinball, while it’s a sore subject for pinball machines, the game looks and plays to perfection and those looking for new tables to express their pinball wizardry, click here and click ‘buy’.

Watch this.

I’ve never been that great at pinball in real life, and on iPad, same thing, but one thing I really appreciate is a guide to each table to point out the tricks to achieve getting all the bells, whistles, and scores to actually achieve something, I never realized that pinball games have achievements to unlock and accomplish, I always thought it was about keeping the ball alive.  These tables are loaded with such achievements and stuff to accomplish.  Great graphics and design as usual, 3 tables are based on 3 War Movies that will become familiar to you upon loading.  If you are looking for a way to just kick back and enjoy your pinball desires than look no further than these guys’ stuff.  Let’s face it, its hard to find real pinball tables up and running anywhere anymore.  I’m lucky that where I live there’s a few pinball museum type places that have lots of vintage tables.  But still, in the comfort of your own iPad and living room.  This is it.

Some features include;
- gameplay with a missions system
- awesome 3D cinematic graphics
- a unique soundtrack and voices from the movies
- camera effects with different types of view
- local and high scores
- real-time tweeting of high score results on Twitter
- hours and hours of pure action in your very own hands

Albert-Free App Alert!!

Get this great app now for free!!

Albert HD is one of those whimsical childlike apps that just looks incredible on the iPad, it’s full of simple minigames that utilize all aspects of the iPad such as the microphone, accellerometer, and the graphics are just amazing.  Watch this video to get an idea.  Best of all it’s free right now, and worth a few bucks once it goes back to paid.

The stunning graphics were created by cutting 1,000 pieces of cardboard, glued and animated to create the atmosphere and game pieces. Also the sense of depth the graphic design and movement creates is like none other I’ve seen. Just a beautiful app and if you have kids, I recommend grabbing this one. Some really fun mini games like pairing socks, could be educational while being fun as well. Just incredible.