Jailbreak: Voice Onrush is based on a Nintendo DSi Ware game (Escapee GO!) and is ported over to the iPhone and iPod Touch. The game has a very simple storyline to it and it goes something like this: You wake up in a cell with no memories of your own. All information of yourself is unavailable and you are being hunted down by an unknown enemy for god knows what reason. You have to run away from these people, escape and save yourself. With the aid of new found powers along the way, you have to succeed in escaping from the enemies’ hands.

It plays like a pacman survival escape game. You are being chased by these people in different levels and all you have to do is to not get caught by them and find the exit. Levels are designed in a way of a puzzle. You basically get routes all over one particular level and enemies within certain parts of the routes. If spotted by the enemy, they will start giving chase and you try your best to twist and turn to lose them. Within each level, there might be some objects (triggers) that you have to obtain before you are able to escape and proceed on to the next level. Level designs are rather interesting and exciting, especially when you don’t know what is coming right ahead of you.

The game has a view range system where you can only view routes where are not blocked by walls. This means that before you reach a “T” junction, you have no idea what lies at the right or left. You only get to see paths that are unblocked by objects. This creates the anxiety and exciting atmosphere. I mean this also meant that you have to strategize the way you plan your path as well. You don’t want to walk into a junction attracting the attention of the 2 guards left and right of you. Sometimes you would want to walk slowly and find paths with less than 2 openings, leaving yourself secure to run away should there be someone in front of you. Nonetheless, a great system implemented which makes the game a whole lot more fun and thrilling. There are also different types of enemies present within the game, each with their own ability. There are the basic guards who only give chase, agents who can chase really quickly, soldiers with range abilities (shooting trap nets) and the hunter whom you want to avoid at all cause.

There are power-ups within the game which are extremely vital in your progress to escape from the enemies. There are power-ups that increase your movement speed, give you unlimited stamina for a certain amount of time and also power-ups that give a wider visibility range. All of these are important for using one of them might change the situation when you get caught between two enemies or so. For example if you meet a dead end and an enemy is fast approaching onto you, use the teleport power-up (if you have it) and teleport to safety. The power-ups are a nifty addition to the game.

There are 3 control schemes that you can choose from. One is by flicking, second a d-pad and thirdly the tilting controls. The d-pad and tilting scheme did not work smoothly enough for me. D-pad felt rigid and clunky, tilting simply doesn’t work when required. Nonetheless, the flicking control scheme works perfectly well (in my opinion). Flicking is done simply by flicking the direction you want to move in that direction. Tap on the screen once to make your character stop moving. That is simply all there is to it. Works much better than the d-pad and tilting controls.

There is the option to run as well. Running is extremely important for survival and escaping. When unintentionally catching the attention of the enemy, running allows you to out pace your chaser. When not running, you are often caught in the situation where the distance between you and the chaser getting shorter and shorter every second. There is just one problem to it though; you cannot run forever in the game. This is due to the stamina bar which limits how much you can run between a stipulated period of time. Depleted stamina bar results in your character not being able to run. You have to rest and wait till the bar refills before you can run again. This again makes the game more realistic and much more fun to play. I mean who wants a game where you can simply outrun every single opponent you see? It’ll be way too boring and easy.

There are a total of 3 game modes that you can choose from; Story, Free and Survival. Story mode is simply the main storyline where you play through all the different levels with the ability to choose from 3 different difficulty levels. Free mode allows you to replay those exciting levels and try for a new completion time record. Survival mode is unlocked once the story mode is completed. In survival mode, you simply have to survive within a level as long as you can and set the highest record time possible. You cannot stay in one corner and not move though since time has to be replenished by collecting orbs. In search of the orbs, make sure you do not run into any of the hunters or guards!

The game graphics are that of the retro pixel styled graphics. I love pixel styled games so I might be biased in saying that the game looks great. But overall I bet it’ll be pleasing enough for the general public. The level environments are well designed and the themes of each levels are brought out strongly with the objects and setting design within the game. The atmosphere for once is dark gloomy and definitely provides the anxiety in escaping within the player. The only problem I have though is sometimes the paths within the game are not well defined. Sometimes you might mistake a path being able to move through but when doing so, getting stopped by an object. I mean with closer inspection you will find out that indeed there is an object blocking the way by how do you do that when you are being chased by a guard. Other than that, environments and atmosphere are well done. Not spectacular but definitely great in terms of matching the aspects and gameplay of the game.

Music and sound effects helps a lot in bringing up the mood and atmosphere as well. Music creates an exhilarating feeling among the players and sound effects give you the needed shock whenever you caught the attention of an enemy. I do hope however for an option to turn the sound off and listen to my own music at times. I mean yeah the music and sound effects are cool but listening over and over again might simply be too much of a bore and eventually turn annoying.

The only suggestion I have for the game to make it one hell of a great one would be that of online multiplayer. Maybe a mode where some players play as the guards and one guy escaping? Or maybe even cooperative levels where two players have to work together in order to escape? Wow, think of the possibilities! Simply mind blowing. Multiplayer online gameplay will take this game to a whole new level when executed right. Just think of all the fun chasing another real life player and so on. Global high score record boards will also be a nice add-on.

Though there are not a whole lot of levels to play from, the replayability is there with the survival and free modes. Replay the fun and it never dies off as you compete with your friend to see who is the fittest of them all. For $0.99, Jailbreak: Voice Onrush is a great game to get for almost everyone and anyone.

Gameplay Video:

Official Site: OmniXtudio

Itunes Appstore Link: Jailbreak: Voice Onrush $0.99

In past years I loved the IT Show. Not because they had great prices or deals, but simply the sake of going somewhere with so many people browsing and shopping for gadgets and technology. I hate the crowd, how ironical and paradoxical to say that. I mean yeah the people is cool but yet I hate squeezing too much, makes me want to puke. This year I went to the IT Show to get myself something, a tablet input. I do have a tablet laptop bought 5 years back but it was way too troublesome to operate on that and my desktop. Therefore I decided to purchase a tablet input for my desktop.

After reading up on the net, I come to know that Wacom has finally introduced a new series of consumer priced tablet inputs. Wacom is famous for their tablet products for professionals and seldom do any of their products come in cheap priced packages. However, a year or 2 back did they introduce the so called normal consumer line of products, the bamboo series. Yeah, so I got myself a Wacom Bamboo Pen at a normal price of $120 (Same price as everywhere else in Singapore I hope.) Purpose of getting a tablet input? Studying, making notes on the computer and mainly because I want to learn how to do some digital art. Ain’t that great in art but I do want to try learn how to draw. I mean I guess it’ll be fun. Who knows I might have talent in it? (Not too sure though, art for me during my lower secondary school years ain’t telling me that I have the hidden talents). Drew something up following a tutorial in around 20 mins or so. Horrible but please don’t laugh. It is my first ever try.

Besides getting the tablet input, my Dad also got himself a new laptop, not breaking his trend of at least 1 new laptop a year. However, this time he does have a reason in getting a new laptop. He accidentally destroyed the screen of his previous one. I mean the whole screen cracked due to heavy object on it or something in his workplace. Don’t know much about the details but the damage done is rather bad. So he had gotten himself an i5 laptop, Asus and rather good specs in my opinion. Price wise, yeah probably reasonable but not say extremely cheap or a must buy. I did hear that there are some good deals in the road shows held by the polytechnic, never mind though what is bought cannot be refunded.

With that said, IT Show 2010 is like any other IT Shows/Fairs, the same products at prices similar to that without the show or even higher. Yes higher and not lower, how ironical. Still, I did see some new stuff in this show for example the 3D stuff by Sony (never really went to see since it was way too crowded) and the Roccat peripherals, extremely cool and awesome looking mices and keyboards. Other than that, everything else is as per normal, crowd is still there, show girls still there so on and so forth.

March Holidays will be busy for me. Not because of homework, in fact I have close to no homework at all, but due to the extra curriculum activities such as the student publication and hockey. Have hockey trainings on three of the days and a 2 day camp yet to decide to attend (compulsory but I do have reasons not to go). Hope it’ll be fun especially the trainings for hockey. Really want to get my skills better within this year. Competition is tough, very tough.

With all that said all I have to do is remind myself to do my reading and finish my reading by the end of the holidays. If not, I’ll be facing loads of trouble in English. Term 1 passed rather quickly, not too busy and the pace seem to be slowly picking up. Hope I’ll be able to cope with the fast paced chaotic style should it turn out to become like that in the weeks to come.

The game consists primarily of a series of puzzles that must be solved by teleporting the player’s character and simple objects using the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device (“ASHPD”, also dubbed the “portal gun”), a unit that can create inter-spatial portals between flat planes. The player character is challenged by an AI named “GLaDOS” to complete each puzzle in the “Aperture Science Computer-Aided Enrichment Center” using the portal gun with the promise of receiving cake when all the puzzles are completed.

[image by Volpin @ flickr]

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Cocoto Magic Circus has a simple storyline behind it. A mysterious and evil clown kidnapped Pixie, the fairy. You guessed it right; it is your mission to aid Cocoto and his friends to save Pixie. Unfortunately, things are not that simple for you will find yourself trapped inside the evil circus. As such, shoot your way through different stages to finally reach the evil clown and save Pixie. The story is told with animated scenes for the beginning and end; a very nice touch to the game.

There are two ways to play the game, online and offline. I’ll talk about the offline part of the game first. Basically you have the options to choose from the main arcade mode or the training mode. Training mode allows you to practice the different mini shooting games that you will be facing in the arcade mode. There is not much need to do so since instructions are extremely straightforward and will be given before each stage starts. Nonetheless, you can specifically play and perhaps challenge your friends in some of the challenges that are of better fun and uniqueness.

With that aside, the arcade mode simply proceeds through stages. You get to choose from 4 different characters to play with and there are 5 main stages with around 7 mini levels within each. There are a variety of mini games but most of the objectives are repeated with just different enemies and environment. Still, the fun still maintains throughout the whole game as you shoot your way through the stages. There are levels where you have to shoot enemies approaching the fairy, shoot cards that matches whatever the computer wants you to shoot, timing shots to shoot enemies when they are near a certain object etc. The freshness of the game is done by adjusting and modifying little bits of the stages. Therefore even when the objectives are similar, you will always find something new for example some enemies walk in a manner that is rather hard to shoot in the later stages etc.

You get to face a boss at the very end of each main stage. The bosses aren’t particularly hard to kill. The simple skill is to spam shooting at him whenever possible. This however results in lower accuracy and thus lesser points in that particular aspect. Nonetheless, you will be able to clear the boss in no time. There are power-ups/downs within the game as well. These come in balloons where you can shoot within the level. Some gives you bonus multiplier to your score and others might alter the game to make it more difficult for example re-orientating the whole level upside down etc. There are 3 difficulty settings you are able to choose from: easy, medium and hard. Basically the harder the difficulty the more you have to shoot within a shorter time frame.

You get points at the end of each level adding to a main total when you finish the game. Not sure what the score is for since there is no highscore board of any sorts for the offline mode I believe. You are given a certain number of lives and can be increased by scoring well n the bonus stages after every main stage. Shooting is done by the simple tapping of your finger at the spot where you want to shoot your dart gun at. Controls are responsive and smooth, making the game a whole lot more enjoyable.

The online mode pits you against other players competing to see who can get the highest score possible after a series of mini-games. You get to play the same few mini-games from the offline mode but instead of simply playing against yourself, you are now competing with another live opponent. For example there is a mini-game that its objective is to shoot as many enemies as you can. You and your opponent is placed in the same field thus if he shoot that same particular enemy you are shooting and he does it in a quicker manner, you will be losing out in that enemy and thus your points. At the very end the person with the highest points wins. The online multiplayer is very fun and competitive, taking the game to a whole new level.

I tried the online multiplayer a few times and all I have to say that it is superb. There isn’t much lag to the point where it makes the game unplayable. Everything seemed to run smoothly and fine. I have one question however is perhaps to have some kind of statistics implemented into the game which would make it a whole lot more complete.

Graphics and sound effects are great as well. The 3D graphics are fantastic for me and pleasing to the eye. The colours used, environments and atmosphere created is simply magnificent. I love how the sound effects are used as well. It gives you the kind of arcade feeling like as if you walked into an arcade hearing all the bleeps and bloops. Everything matches very well to emphasize the overall theme of the game. Kudos to the animated videos added in at the start and the end of the whole game; a very nice touch that is well appreciated.

The major flaw of the game is the repetitiveness. Though it may be fun, the fun doesn’t last if you were to go for a second play-through in the single player mode. There ought to be much more variety in the game modes and though I did say the tweaks were rather good, it is better to have completely different concept/objectives for it keeps the game ultimately fresh throughout. Other than that, there isn’t much more to complain about.

It is currently priced at $0.99 for a limited time. If you love those shooting mini-game styled games, get Cocoto Magic Circus while it is still at that fantastically cheap price. If you’re looking for generic fun, get it as well. For such a price and such a quality game it is extremely hard to resist. Who knows that they might add in add-ons in future which might include much more new levels and types of mini-games?

NOTE: There is some lag present when playing the game with a 1^st generation iPod Touch. The lag comes whenever the screen gets clotted up with a certain number of enemies etc. It is bearable and does not make the game unplayable.

Gameplay Video:

iTunes Appstore Link: Cocoto Magic Circus

Meet John Freeman, a young boy from the town of gm_pallet. Now that he is old enough to get a Garrymon lisence, he will get his first Garrymon as they will both have to journey on to a world full of adventure, mystery and secrets that they will have to unfold, In the world of Garrymon!

Garrymon is made using garry’s mod and it is rather impressive seeing how the whole episode being made using such tools. The content is hilarious as well and it is a bonus for those who love the source engine since garry’s mod is based off that as well.

If you’re still wondering what exactly the video is about, it follows the concept of pokemon, just that now its a whole new world and the cute little creatures are called garrymons.

So yeah, got ta catch them all!

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You play as a character within a team of special operatives. You are sent to an island to investigate a deadly cult activity held in an ancient monastery. You learn that the cult is planning on destroying LA. You get the idea, stop them from doing what they are planning to do and save the day. For that you will be killing and destroying your way through to save the other millions of lives. You can choose from 5 different characters to play with in different difficulties. Different characters have different abilities for example some can move faster while another can take more hits before dying.

For a FPS game to be successful as an iPhone game, the controls have to be smooth. It is extremely vital for such a game for even if you have an endless range of weapons, fun enemies what so ever, poor controls would simply frustrate players and thus making the whole game boring and unplayable. RoTT has several control schemes. Sounds fantastic at first but really all of them don’t work well at all. There are several methods to control your character from that of using 2 dpads or 1 so on and so forth. The smoothest of all the control schemes for me is the control method called Advanced Scheme 1 I think. It basically uses 2 dpads, one for movement and the other for aiming. Shooting is done by pressing anywhere else on the screen. This seems to be the best however it does has its own flaws. For one, I find shooting terribly annoying for the space of the dpads seem to be taking up almost 3 quarters of more of the screen, thus when shooting I often find myself tapping the dpad instead. Other aspect such as the aiming itself isn’t that smooth even with a sensitivity setting available. Overall there is quite some room for improvement for the controls.

I seldom talk about the game controls at first but I do have to say that because of the controls, the gameplay of the game becomes less fun. I mean the game overall is fine. Enemies come at you, shoot them kill them and so on. There are hidden switches at walls and activating them result in additional power ups and weapons. There are several weapons that you can pick up later on and some of them are rather interesting for example god mode where you start shooting out homing magical balls at enemies and vaporize them, killing them instantly.

Levels are quite open in the sense that there is one definite path you have to follow but there are choices to explore certain areas if you want to do so. A minimap is available to guide you in case you are lost within a level. Within each level you get to face enemies of different types. The unique thing that surprised me and made me smile is the fact that some of them will pretend to play dead or beg for mercy. When you lose your focus or turn your back on them, they start shooting you; A rather nice touch to the game.

The difficulty of the game can be felt right from the start even when played on the easiest difficulty. In some rooms, enemies appear to be in groups and start shooting you. Before you can kill them you will have already taken quite some damage to yourself. Replenishing health with food etc is available but far from enough and this might turn off some of the new beginners in such games.  Dying will be frequent and if you don’t save occasionally, you will have to start from right at the beginning of the level. There is no checkpoint system of any sorts and you will have to rely on constantly saving if you do not wish to replay the whole level upon death.

What I loved about the game is how smooth it runs. I’m not talking about the controls but how the game doesn’t have long load times or jerky frame rates. Even with the 1^st generation iTouch, RoTT ran as smooth as silk. Now only if the controls were a little better. Other than that the retro graphics are as retro as ever, sound effects and music bring back old memories. The game concept itself is fun, presentation in terms of graphics and sound effects are there already. All it lacks is the final touch up in the controls and perhaps some kind of checkpoint system where it doesn’t punish players too hardly when they die. I would love to see other game modes present as well such as multiplayer and maybe some kind of survival mode etc (If I remembered correctly there were more than one mode in the original version).

There are certainly many other FPSes for the iPhone that are much better than RoTT. For players completely new to that of such retro FPS games, I would suggest you stay away and look at other options first. RoTT for the iPhone is there mostly for the fans and players from the old days.

Gameplay Video:

iTunes Appstore Link: Rise of the Triad $4.99

For those wondering what subjects I actually take, they are Physics, Mathematics and Computer Science (Yes, give me that blank face. I get that all the time) for the Higher Level subjects or rather H2 subjects in A Level terms, English, Chinese and Business and Management for my Standard Level subjects or H1 in other words. I’ve great goals and aims for the subject combination I’m taking. I mean from the way it seems, if I had the school’s average for each individual subject, I’ll be on my way to a rather good university in 4 years time (yes, an additional 2 years due to wonderful and fabulous time wasting activity called National Service). Maybe the subjects are easy? Not too sure about that but so far I think Computer Science and Physics would be the subjects for me to score while Mathematics at least a distinction would be perfect.

English is another subject that I worry about. I mean in the first lesson the teacher came in and said “Guys, be prepared to get 8 – 13 out of 25 for your assignments. It is normal.” Well, okay, maybe I need some acclimatization to such marks. I’ve had my fair share of terrible marks and god knows why last year, but I don’t think getting 8 out of 25 normal. If she say so, I guess I’ll just have to accept it. English has loads of books to read (English in IB is more of literature stuff), and I’ve yet to read a thick thick book that the teacher is about to go through within a month’s time. Oh well, I guess I’ll leave it to the holidays to rush through *procrastination detected*.

Computer Science is weird; there is a total candidature of 4 students including me. 3 others are scholars with previous experience and I’m the only one there being clueless when one of the student goes rambling on about computer related stuff (which to be honest sounds total bullshit and had no substance within it at all. Well he might have experience but he is talking way too much crap that his potential has. No offense but just shush for a while.) I hope that my passion and interest of the subject will pull me through the boring and tedious parts where we study things I feared most when considering the subject, the hard facts for example the Software Development Life Cycle.

Everything else is fine I guess, manageable so far with my other activities still ongoing. Didn’t continue serving the NPCC Squad (Might be one of my regrets? Damn, I sure do miss those days even though I whine a lot and that there are certain politics that wasn’t too favourable). I joined Hockey and some student publication thingy. Yep, Hockey as in field hockey, not ice. Always wanted to join a sports activity for I think sports is fun. It is tiring no doubt after each training and I’m aiming towards the school first’s team by next year. Really hope I can get in but competition is tough with all the other new comers as well as the current year 4s.

So far I’ve made some more friends, not too many but just some. Hope I’ll be able to make much more within the coming months and best before the overseas trip. Looking forward to the rest of the year.

[image by cflee via flickr]

Zordon is a powerful wizard and mentor to the Power Rangers franchise, appearing in the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers television series and many of its subsequent incarnations.

Although the Power Rangers had, in the continuity, predated Zordon, Zordon is generally credited with creating the first group of modern Power Rangers, as well as coining many of the phrases that are still used today. Among the most notable of these terms is the “Zord”, a term for the various building-sized mechanical or biomechanical robot machines used in the series, and the “Megazord”, a term for any arbitrary merger of Zords into a bigger, usually humanoid Zord.

A very funny power ranger parody. As you can tell from the information I gave above, Zordon is the creator of the power rangers. This parody shows how it is actually done and why the colours are assigned as such.

GO! GO! Power Rangers!

[image by Travis Hornung via flickr]