Tag: App Store

App Review: 9 Colonies

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Hello. As anyone who goes to OVS knows gaming has been banned in the dorms. There is a grayish area however (More of a ignorable area). iPhone Apps, more specifically iPhone Games can be amazing.

A great strategic game for iOS is 9 Colonies. 9 Colonies is a simple real time strategy game developed by XOR Gaming.

It is the year 2180 and humanity has expanded to all nine planets in the solar system.  Each of the nine planets vies for control of the solar system and the rest of humanity. Your job is simple, join a planet, conquer other planets, and unite the solar system.

 9 Colonies has an interesting mechanic to keep track of players progress. Although the date of 9 Colonies begins on 2180time moves forward via an in game weekly calendar.

For example if a player wanted to research a STARBASE, a planet defense upgrade, that research might take the player five weeks. Or if a player needed to invade another planet it might take them ten weeks to travel there. XOR Gaming put in place this clever mechanic to make the player understand there is a price to every ship they build, every structure they construct, and every technology they research.

The more advanced your colony and technology is the more likely you will be able to defeat your enemies. However as you upgrade your arsenal and planet’s defenses your enemy does the same. To make the game more difficult XOR Gaming implemented three critical attributes that the player must manage.

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Plague Inc.-Fun but Deadly!

backinphilly2 Comments

While reviewing my most recent blog, I came to the mindset that maybe I should write something that’s got nothing to do with sports!

I know you’re all surprised but this is pretty cool. I recently downloaded a new app on my iPad called “Plague Inc.”. This simulator enables the player to take control of their very own disease and attempt to infect and (end result) completely annihilate the entire human race. Imagine sending the humans into complete extinction.

Considering I’m not human (ha), I see literally no controversy of any kind with this game. It’s not like you’re running around with guns and blowing the heads off of zombies. There’s no gore whatsoever. There’s no blood. The only thing possibly traumatic about this game is the principle that you are, in fact eliminating everyone on the planet.

There’s nothing wrong with that. I’m gonna talk a little bit about some problems I see with the game.

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App Review: Civilization Revolution

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Hello. As anyone who goes to OVS knows, gaming has been banned in the dorms. There is a grayish area however (More of a ignorable area). iPhone Apps, more specifically iPhone Games can be amazing.

The game we will be looking at today is Civilization Revolution, an IOS spin off of the critically acclaimed Civilization series.

In Civilization Revolution you are given an open goal, build a civilization and mold it into a world dominating empire. One of the standout features in this game is the variation in victory. There are four ways to win Civilization Revolution; you must achieve a Technological victory, a Domination Victory, an Economic Victory, or a Cultural Victory.

Upon starting a new game the player must choose a leader for their nation, selectable leaders are drawn from great (sometimes bad) rulers from history. These leaders are not drawn from any one-time period but are as varied as Abraham Lincoln to Cleopatra. The leader you chose effects which city you start in and also gives you a unique ability.

After selecting your leader you are dropped onto a randomly generated continent. You are given one warrior and a city (what you are given varies with difficulty). You are then free to research the basics of civilizations such as writing or pottery (Yes I know the game starts rather slow). As you research more technologies, new technologies become available at a extremely fast rate. It will not take much time (or skill) to be begin researching advanced technologies such as gunpowder or flight. You must choose your research carefully, not necessarily because of the in game time limit, but because of the threats of other nations.

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Collages

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I’ve decided that I really enjoy making collages.

There’s a free app for the iPhone called InstaCollageFree that lets you make super cool compositions.

Electing to exercise my assembling talents on my friends, I made a series of Catalina Sea Camp collages to pass time.

Sonia Grunwald, Melissa Ballard, Ursula Granirer, Isabel Kirk, Alex Dierking, Brooke Browning, Kimmery Galindo, Roxi Harvey, & me

The app gives you a bunch of different frames you can just load your pictures into.  I personally like the one that looks like a postcard, with a stamp reading, “True Love” in the corner.

You can adjust the background color and the color of the lines between the pictures.Read More »