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My grandma is stuck in bed pretty much permanently now, so I bought her an iPad and I'm looking for some games to put on it. She used to spend hours and hours on Pogo every day so I'd like to find games similar to what Pogo offered, there's a Pogo app but it's poo poo. I'd also like to find an app that has a good collection of card games, but there's so much poo poo to sort through that I haven't had much luck with that. Any recommendations?
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Nov 14, 2013 18:37
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| # ? Jun 6, 2024 07:31 |
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Don't listen to the whiners Eli, they'll spot something on the store in the next six seconds that grabs their attention anyway.
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Nov 14, 2013 18:38
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io_burn posted:
I can't say I always agree with reviews, but I appreciate the fact that there are websites out there which at least highlight some of the better / more notable games. With how much garbage is on the App Store, chances are I'd never have found some of the quality games on the platform if it weren't for sites like TouchArcade. People who whine about that are literally getting mad at how much fun someone had playing a video game. Lowest common denominator, there.
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Nov 14, 2013 18:52
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io_burn posted:There are hundreds of games that are approved for sale on the App Store every day. On a very busy day we'll post maybe 15 stories. Of those 15 stories, at most half will be reviews, and that's on a week where my freelance staff is running on all cylinders. We largely operate as a filter to highlight good games from the poo poo games, so things typically tend to score higher because we're skipping things that aren't worth anyone's time. High ratings would be incredibly rare if we reviewed every game that got released. Go throw a linksys router into a river over it you big baby.
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Nov 14, 2013 18:55
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io_burn posted:I really don't know how to satisfy score whiners, as it almost seems like they just enjoy being miserable and hate video games. Why we're getting so much flak for rating Oceanhorn highly is beyond me. It's an incredible game. Is it perfect? Hell no, but in a sea of horrid games that aren't even worth talking about, it's something everyone who vaguely identifies as an iOS gamer should have. If that doesn't make it a five star game, I don't know what does. I really respect that you are standing behind your scoring. One thing I have always wondered about game reviewing in general is why is there seldom room for perfect games? Once in a blue moon you might see a game that is truly perfect for what it is and what it tries to be. *IF* I were a game reviewer, I would think I would have some sort of special way to distinguish something of that nature. Maybe not even with normal scoring, but *SOME* way to show people reading my reviews that there is a different echelon of gaming that exists. When I used to read gaming magazines back in the day, I used to skim to the 9/10 or better reviews, mainly because I knew that the reviewer was going to gush about this game, this pinnacle of creative design, that they could barely rip their eyes away from long enough to write the article. Maybe its because I'm older, maybe its because the game industry is older, but that excitement and fanatacism seems lost. We say a game is great for meeting our expectations, but we don't even have a way to quantify a game that exceeds them because everything else has gotten top marks.
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Nov 14, 2013 19:03
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io_burn posted:There are hundreds of games that are approved for sale on the App Store every day. On a very busy day we'll post maybe 15 stories. Of those 15 stories, at most half will be reviews, and that's on a week where my freelance staff is running on all cylinders. We largely operate as a filter to highlight good games from the poo poo games, so things typically tend to score higher because we're skipping things that aren't worth anyone's time. High ratings would be incredibly rare if we reviewed every game that got released. Perhaps if you don't know how people thinks scoring works you should first find out and then use that method. You basically briefly said 'yeah, it's a lot like zelda' then went on to make most of the rest of the article a list of negatives before capping the whole thing off with a five star rating. It comes across as pretty drat arbitrary.
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Nov 14, 2013 19:07
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Oceanhorn is great on my Mini, I just make sure I've quit out of all apps and run that cMemory app to clean up RAM; afterward it's as smooth as a pearl. I do see polygon seams in some underground scenes but I pretend it's lava. I'd say it's a miracle it runs in 256 MB on iPod Touch 4th Gens at all. It may be a 'clone' game but you know what? It's a quality clone, it's smooth and never crashes on me and the allowances they made for touch screen are quite acceptable. It works, it holds my attention, and I haven't run into any bugs in six hours of play. The control scheme almost makes me not miss having a controller yet. Comparing this to Star Command when it first came out is like comparing an SR-71 to a 2-channel toy copter. The music is unreal and gets me in the Zelda mood. Until emulators get a dozen times better I have no problem with Oceanhore.
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Nov 14, 2013 19:09
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Sad lions posted:Perhaps if you don't know how people thinks scoring works you should first find out and then use that method. Reading comprehension may not be your strong suit; he explained fairly clearly how scoring works.
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Nov 14, 2013 19:11
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Sad lions posted:Perhaps if you don't know how people thinks scoring works you should first find out and then use that method. Review scores are arbitrary. It isn't possible to objectively score something, that isn't what a review is.
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Nov 14, 2013 19:11
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Personally I think it has a lot to do with the broader trend that our way of thinking about assessed performance in general - be it grades in school or scores assigned to video games - has shifted to where the top mark is considered the benchmark and anything below that is inferior and flawed, rather than the top score indicating a truly exceptional product that rises above all expectations. It's no longer a situation where the immediate question on seeing that something got 9/10 is "wow, how did they produce something so exceptional?" but "wow, what did they gently caress up to not be perfect?"
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Nov 14, 2013 19:15
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io_burn posted:Review scores are arbitrary. It isn't possible to objectively score something, that isn't what a review is. You're supposed to check Metacritic, that's how you get the objective review.
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Nov 14, 2013 19:15
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I don't really care about scores, but my real problem with that review is how uninformative the written portion of it is. I think IO Burn's post kind of points put why I don't get it - reviews on the site operate on the basis that people always want to have a new iOS game to play, so as soon as something passable and somewhat fun comes along it gets a high recommendation. I guess I'm more interested in a review that doesn't assume I will want the game if it's not really bad. Not trying to insult anyone, just realizing that the metric is different from mine. No need to jump to ad hominem attacks as soon as someone points out a potential issue with the writing in a review, though.
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Nov 14, 2013 19:26
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Regardless of review theory, Oceanhorn is still a very bland clone of a series that is in dire need of revitalization. The Zelda formula barely works for Zelda anymore, much less clones that offer absolutely nothing new. I give it 3 nimblebits out of 100 stars. And yeah, it's dumb to write mostly about the bad parts of a game then give it your highest rating. Bottom Liner fucked around with this message at 19:31 on Nov 14, 2013 |
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Nov 14, 2013 19:26
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io_burn posted:Review scores are arbitrary. It isn't possible to objectively score something, that isn't what a review is. Well your score put there for people who don't like to read is somewhat confusing to someone who actually does read your article and wonders why your overall tone and final score don't marry up (especially when so very little time is put into explaining why it's considered good). Is it really worth slapping a worthless number on it just to seem like all the other review sites and satisfy the lazy? Hell of a thing to whinge about metacritic scores while practicing a good chunk of the same BS I swear, what is it about people in the games industry and thinking they're immune to criticism? Bottom Liner posted:Regardless of review theory, Oceanhorn is still a very bland clone of a series that is in dire need of revitalization. The Zelda formula barely works for Zelda anymore, much less clones that offer absolutely nothing new. I give it 3 nimblebits out of 100 stars. I haven't played it so I give it 15 thumbs of indeterminate direction.
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Nov 14, 2013 19:30
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You mean to say I can't get a triple AAA title for £6 on iOS and have to make do with an extremely well produced homage to a classic game series 
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Nov 14, 2013 19:31
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You can get plenty of AAA titles, but they're often ports. There are plenty of really fun and original low(er) budget games though.
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Nov 14, 2013 19:39
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superh posted:You're supposed to check Metacritic, that's how you get the objective review. An average of subjective scores does not create an objective score. There is no such thing as an objective review. It doesn't matter if you're talking about movies, painting, books, video games, or anything else that can be construed in some way as art. This isn't to say that you can't have a good and bad art, but that whether it's good or bad depends on the criteria you're judging it by.
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Nov 14, 2013 19:56
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I think the problem people are having is not so much the score as it is the way the review was written. It's possible to write a review that says "here are some issues, but overall here are things that make it super worthwhile" but that review seemed to be written with a lot of negative focus that didn't seem tempered enough with the positives to explain the high score. It's possible to give a game 5/5 or whatever if it's not perfect, but a review that ends with "it's a flawed, blatant rip-off" doesn't give off a 5/5 vibe.
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Nov 14, 2013 20:03
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Okay, I went ahead and reread the drat thing. You do list a bunch of positives in the beginning (mostly about the zelda appropriation and production value) but I think the main issue is that you just put out a slew of negatives for the last third of the article before ending on a top rating. The pacing of it comes across as weird and jarring once the stars hit because it feels like we're watching you grow increasingly disenchanted with the game as you write on. Also probably refrain from whining about devs telling you playing badly in your quick look in another quick look (and probably arguing with readers over the quality of your reviews) if you want to keep up your veneer of professionalism.
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Nov 14, 2013 20:03
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oceanhorn sounds like a pass because I don't like zelda. In modern zelda the combat's brainless, the puzzles are brainless, and the world is a boring place to me since I don't have nostalgia for it. I have enjoyed rip offs, but they usually address things I have a problem with. Ittle Dew has great puzzles and nonlinearity. Anodyne hasa brilliant, crazy world with so much variety and some difficult combat situations. You rescue princesses in neither game.
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Nov 14, 2013 20:32
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Nickoten posted:I guess I'm more interested in a review that doesn't assume I will want the game if it's not really bad. To be fair, Eli is in the unfortunate position of writing about games on a platform where 99% of the games are utter trash, and the other 1% is, basically, not that bad. There have been, in my opinion, no games on iOS that would be exceptional, oh my god 5 stars! games on any other platform. A 5 star iOS game is a completely different beast. I think that review made perfect sense if you look at it that way: "its a clone, its got problems, it's not that great, but hey, this is iOS. Its an actual game, and you should really get this if you like gaming on your iPad enough to read a blog about gaming on your iPad" 
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Nov 14, 2013 20:35
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Jake Armitage posted:A 5 star iOS game is a completely different beast.
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Nov 14, 2013 20:38
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I imagine it would be tough to get any sort of pay (i.e. advertising dollars from iOS publishers) to review iOS games if you had an explicit disclaimer of "5-star iOS games are really 3-star PC/console games" in every review.
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Nov 14, 2013 20:38
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Jake Armitage posted:To be fair, Eli is in the unfortunate position of writing about games on a platform where 99% of the games are utter trash, and the other 1% is, basically, not that bad. There have been, in my opinion, no games on iOS that would be exceptional, oh my god 5 stars! games on any other platform. A 5 star iOS game is a completely different beast. I can think of a few exceptional games on iOS, but there aren't many. Sword & Sorcery is great, for one. (And it started on iOS and then was ported, rather than the other way around.)
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Nov 14, 2013 20:47
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robodex posted:I can think of a few exceptional games on iOS, but there aren't many. Sword & Sorcery is great, for one. (And it started on iOS and then was ported, rather than the other way around.) Year Walk and The Room are good candidates too. I think those that excel are games that attempt to make the most of the touch controls and aim to be slightly more than just a time waster. There's definitely a lot of potential but it gets swept away under a mountain of poo poo
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Nov 14, 2013 20:58
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JazzFlight posted:I know everyone's gonna go bananas for Oceanhorn tonight, but I'll alert you to some recent rhythm game news if that's your thing: Hey, this is pretty great and seems to have an insane amount of content for a free game. Thanks!
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Nov 14, 2013 21:00
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Jake Armitage posted:To be fair, Eli is in the unfortunate position of writing about games on a platform where 99% of the games are utter trash, and the other 1% is, basically, not that bad. There have been, in my opinion, no games on iOS that would be exceptional, oh my god 5 stars! games on any other platform. A 5 star iOS game is a completely different beast. Yeah, this is a pretty fair and accurate assessment, I think. I'd argue that genuinely good and unique iOS games do exist, though. I adored Sword and Glory, for example, and its style of play perfectly suited something you'd play on a phone. Same goes for King of Dragon Pass, which was a PC port but still perfectly suited to this platform. Plus I can't even run the PC version anyway.
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Nov 14, 2013 21:04
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io_burn posted:Review scores are arbitrary. It isn't possible to objectively score something, that isn't what a review is. Arbitrary and subjective aren't the same thing. I think most of the complaints come from the fact that you keep saying Touch Arcade is a discovery site, but having five star reviews doesn't mesh with that. If five stars just means "hey, you should play this" then it's completely pointless to have the stars at all and you should just use a simple "not recommended," "recommended," "highly recommended" kind of system.
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Nov 14, 2013 21:13
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Rita Repulsa posted:You rescue princesses in neither game. To be fair: there's no princess in Oceanhorn.
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Nov 14, 2013 21:15
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I don't understand how, in TDS, the emperor can say, "Have 30 bitizens move in," I grow my population up to 31, and that doesn't make him happy.
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Nov 14, 2013 21:19
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Dont worry, he dies when Vader throws him down the shaft. (its a bug and its meant to be 35)
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Nov 14, 2013 21:21
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Ah, okay, thanks. I was afraid it was actually meaning "30 MORE than when you got this quest" which would mean like 50 total in my case.
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Nov 14, 2013 21:23
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I have a sneaking suspicion the elevator shaft will lead to an exhaust port at the top. Luke's not very nice...sending torpedoes down my busy elevator shaft.
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Nov 14, 2013 21:23
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Paradoxish posted:This is right alongside FTL and Panzer Corps at the top of my most anticipated iOS games list. Can't loving wait. Whatever happened to Panzer Corps? Went into the abyss.
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Nov 14, 2013 21:29
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SynthOrange posted:Dont worry, he dies when Vader throws him down the shaft. Ugh, I've seen this before and it's driving me nuts. I'm up to 35 and I've cycled out many bitizens and this still isn't triggering for me. I guess I'll try building yet another residential level and see what happens.
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Nov 14, 2013 21:35
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Evil Sagan posted:Ugh, I've seen this before and it's driving me nuts. I'm up to 35 and I've cycled out many bitizens and this still isn't triggering for me. Same, I had 35 citizens when I got that goal, cycled some out and had new ones move in and ended up just having to pay the bucks to get past it. Finally got the communications level built too, only took building half the imperial levels first.
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Nov 14, 2013 21:41
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It's amazing how quickly iOS games have evolved . It's been what, maybe 4 years from the real off?
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Nov 14, 2013 21:45
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So when does that controller thing come out anyway?
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Nov 14, 2013 21:52
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robodex posted:I can think of a few exceptional games on iOS, but there aren't many. Sword & Sorcery is great, for one. (And it started on iOS and then was ported, rather than the other way around.) It's not this, I can tell you that much for sure. I used to trust Touch Arcade because it was the only game in town, but now if I see a 5-star review I have to put it through the "hype" filter. I mean, you should probably do that with most reviews, but more so on TA.
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Nov 14, 2013 22:04
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| # ? Jun 6, 2024 07:31 |
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Samara posted:Whatever happened to Panzer Corps? It's in late beta, Pocket Tactics previewed it a while back: http://www.pockettactics.com/features/previews/hands-preview-panzer-corps-ipad/
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Nov 14, 2013 22:04
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