Couldn't Fight The "Need For Speed"

I couldn't help myself.  I was so pissed off at EA for delaying "Need For Speed: Undercover" [iTunes link] I was planning on boycotting it until there was a price drop.  Well, I picked it up anyway.

I find it ironic that this game is more like the movie "The Fast And The Furious" than the other iPhone game "Fast And Furious: Pink Slip."

And F&F:PS is more of a racing game than NFS:U.

Unfortunately, there is no straight racing in this game.  You HAVE to follow the storyline.  With that said, a few things bugged me about this game.  A couple of events really had me livid: the one where you have to avoid maximum damage to the car you are delivering and the one where you have "catch" the car by hitting them.  As I trudged through those events, I wondered if this was really a racing game.

One thing I liked a lot is the ability to not only customize the performance of your car, but the LOOK.  I chose the Mazda Mazdaspeed3.  I customized the blue paint job, the spoiler, the rims and the racing stripe.  How do you like it?  I have to admit that I wish there were more way to customize but I hope there will be updates in the future.

NFS:U is a pretty game and the driving animation is about the same as Gameloft's Ferrari game.  But, I feel that $9.99 is a bit too much for this game.

Need For Speed: Too Little, Too Late?

Fact:  "Need For Speed: Undercover" [iTunes link] finally hit the App Store at $9.99.

Fact: I've been waiting since November 2008 for this game (which was when it was originally supposed to be released).  That's six months.

Fact: I have exactly six car racing games on the iPhone -- "Asphalt 4: Elite Racing," "Raging Thunder," "Fastlane Street Racing," "Fast and Furious: Pink Slip," "Ferrari GT: Evolution," and "Days Of Thunder."  I also have a motocross racing game called "2XL Supercross" and a cartoon-like racing game called "Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D."  Do I REALLY need another one?

Fact: I've been buying a lot of great iPhone games in the past couple of months:  "Touch Sports Tennis '09,"  "DanceDanceRevolution S," "Trivial Pursuit," "Glyder," "Assassin's Creed," "Tiger Wood PGA Tour," and "Myst."

Fact: I'm going to wait on buying NFS:U until the price gets cheaper.  I don't feel the "need" to buy this right now.  I'm just having too much fun with the other games.

Myst For The iPhone

I go WAY back with computer gaming.  I remember being really addicted to this text/graphic adventure on the old Commodore Amiga in the 1980's called "Borrowed Time."  I loved being able to explore a world and be able to solve a mystery.  It took a long time to figure out but the satisfaction afterwards is something I have not experienced for a while.

Text/graphic adventures eventually gave way to entirely graphical environments which culminated into the popular game "Myst."  As I got older, I could no longer sit at my computer for hours on end so playing that type of game was out of the question.

So, I was esctatic when I found out that Myst [iTunes link] had been developed for the iPhone.

Myst is a very HUGE game weighing in at a whopping 727 MB!  So, if you have "Assassin's Creed," "Tiger Woods PGA Tour" and "Myst" it will take up a solid GIGABYTE on your iPhone or iPod Touch!

I have to say I was a bit skeptical about the game.  I'm glad it is competitively priced at $5.99, unlike the premium $9.99 for most large games.

After experiencing a lot of the Myst world, I have to say that I'm hooked.  The learning curve is a little high, especially for those with little patience.  The great thing is that there is a link in the game that helps with hints if you are completely baffled.  I have to say that I used that for quite a bit until I got familiar with how the game worked.

One piece of advice:  have a pen (or pencil) and paper handy.  Nothing beats something you can refer to quickly.  Taking a snapshot with your iPhone also sometimes helps.

Although the graphics are nice, there is very little animation involved.  I find that to be a strength of the game since it utilizes less resources to run and getting around is faster if you're not in a totally 3D environment.

Along with the other games I bought this past weekend, this is highly recommended for those who are willing to have patience to be enveloped in an adventure.

Here's another great video from TouchArcade.com that shows Myst's gameplay.  Be warned though, it shows a LOT of spoilers!

 

iPhone Games: Assassin's Creed & Tiger Woods PGA Tour

The next generation of iPhone games is here!

Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed™ - Altaïr's Chronicles [iTunes link] and Tiger Woods PGA TOUR® by EA SPORTS™ [iTunes link] are both for sale in the Apple iTunes App Store for $9.99 each.

That may seem like a lot of money, but these games will give you the best BANG for your buck! Both of these games combined are nearly 1/3 of a gigabyte!  And I doubt either of these games will be playable on a first-generation iPhone. 

"Assassin's Creed" picks up where Gameloft's "Hero Of Sparta" left off.  "Hero" raised the bar for action-adventure games on the iPhone, and AC raises it even higher.

Not only do you fight, but you do interesting things like pick pockets and hit people's pressure points.  There is also now voice narration, which is nice touch and no doubt helped to make this game more epic.

This is, however, a much harder game

 than "Hero."  Ledges can be small and the wrong move and you're dead.  AC takes up 129MB of disk space.  If you thought that was a lot, "Tiger Woods" is a mammoth game.

I would be hard-pressed to find a larger iPhone game than "Tiger Woods PGA Tour" which tops out at 160MB.  Everything is 3-D rendered, the animation is smooth and there is even voice announcers.

"Tiger Woods" also has an innovative way to use the touch screen to swing your club.  The learning curve is high and I still suck at this game.  But, even when I'm 25 shots over par, it's still a fun game.  Especially when you're paired with Natalie Gulbis.

I'm not a real-life golfer, so I think this is as close to real golf as I'm going to get.  Once in a while, I do make a brilliant shot.

I'd recommend both of these games, depending on the type of gamer you are.  But, if I had to pick one, I'd choose the Tiger.

Here's some videos that show the gameplay of both games: