PixlBit

Happy Monday Pixlbit! This morning while finally deciding to read through the sports message board for SDSU Sports, just when I thought the yahoos who regularly post there couldn’t get any lower, they found a new floor. The “geniuses” that seem to live there want everyone fired, and all the players cut. Yes grown ass “men” take sports way too seriously because they know more about the game they pretend to love more than the folks who are pulling in a paycheck or scholarship. These are the same folks who a couple of years ago felt that the basketball team needed a new coach (2 Sweet 16s, beating the likes of Arizona, Kansas, and Gonzaga all on their home courts, and having a 30+ win streak within the state of California), and don’t even get me started on what they thought of about Tony Gwynn’s baseball team. Sometimes I do question the thinking of the vocal part of our fanbase.

Blah, anyways since this is a video game site, guess what I actually played some games this past weekend. Shocking isn’t it? After not firing up any console for a week, I went with the PS3 and Destiny was in the system. I popped it out and played some MLB The Show. I was just not in the mood to shoot aliens, and empty numerous clips getting through a level. I wanted something relaxing, moving players over, keeping Video Game Chris’ batting average over .400, and trying to win some games. I lost my 20 game win streak because I got walked twice, and flied out twice, and with the start of the series in San Diego, I got three hits in three games.

I’m still on the fence about jumping back into PS+. Like I said last week, my membership ended and I don’t know if I want to go back right now, because I’m not playing my consoles as much. Since I got back from my trip, the Wii, and 360 haven’t been powered on. I have a bunch of games that I should play, but when I do want to play something on the consoles, it’s the usual handful games. Earlier in the year when Disney Infinity 2.0 was announced I was already to go, drop a bunch of cash on getting all the characters and playing my way through a cartoony world. Fast-forward to today, and the game is going to be released tomorrow, and most likely I won’t buy it.

I think I’m going through a phase where console gaming isn’t a big priority right now. I spend more and more time playing stuff on the tablets. I like that they are more on the casual end, with some multiplayer aspects. If I have 15 minutes free I know I can go into a Plundernauts beat down some bad guys and then go back to whatever I was doing. With console gaming it require more time, and right now I would rather do other things with that block of time. 

So I did find, and by find I mean I checked out my downloaded games on the iTunes Cloud and decided to give one of them a spin and to see if I really liked it.

 

Beach Buggy Racing – iOS and Android

 

Beach Buggy Racing is another racing game made by Vector Unit, the good folks who made the Riptide GP games have their own Mariokart Clone. After a quick tutorial you are led into this screen where you can upgrade your car and pick a series you want to play.

 

The game is laid out like many racing games where you pay one ticket to enter a race and you race against AI, trying to collect powerups to each other out so you can win the race. If you win a race get a ticket as well as prize money. There is also a turbo button you can use once which is good for the final straightaways. Think of it as cartoon Nos, so you too can get your Fast and Furious going.

 

There are a wide range of powerups, from a James Bond like oil slick, to rockets, and my favorite Moon Gravity. The one unforgiving thing is that if you are hit a couple of times by the AI, there is no way of you coming back to win the race. Kind of frustrating but at the sametime if you can hit enough people, you can have a comfortable win. This seems to be true in the early races so I’m not sure if it still applies to later more difficult races.

 

Just like Riptide GP, the graphics in Beach Buggy Racing are really nice for a tablet. I’m using the default tilt steering where tapping on the right side of the screen is to brake, and actually I don’t know what the left side is set for. Maybe it’s to brake as well. I haven’t tried playing this on the Apple TV like Riptide, but I can imagine that it is similar to Riptide where the mirroring is fine with maybe an occasional hiccup.

 

While checking to see if this game is also available on Android I spotted this game

 

I haven’t downloaded it yet, but I will give it a try during lunch to see if it’s worth playing.

 

Gummy Drop – iOS

 

At first glance this game seems to be a Candy Crush clone with some story aspects.

 

It’s the usual match X games set on a Candyland type board. You have to complete the board objectives within a set number of moves, and any moves left over are turned into bonus points. The setup is the essentially the same to other match X games.

 

There are also bonuses you can use within the game to make your board easier, and they can be purchased with in game currency and I’m assuming actual money if that’s your thing.

 

As you progress you unlock more things about this Candy town, like helping the lighthouse get new lights if you complete boards 1-10 and other goodies like that. I wish I could give you a better answer but I was skipping through the story so I could play through more boards.

 

Spider-Man Unlimited – iOS and Android

 

I found that this game is available in the Google Play Store. Last night I unlocked this guy

 

I also went against my word because they had a crazy one-time offer of 40 gems for $1, and I went for it. The shame is real, but I wanted to level up the special Spider-man I was using…and unlock another spot so I could add a new Spider-man to my team. I wish I was able to sell off the Spider-man characters I don’t use or have copies of. It would make things a lot more manageable.

I also finished 69th (teenage laughter) in a weekend tournament. I was 23rd but fell within the last ten minutes but within the Top 100 out of thousands isn't bad.

 

Star Wars Commander – iOS and Android

 

I also saw this was finally available to Android and I thought about checking out the Rebel side of the game. After a couple of minutes I realized I already put too much time into the Empire side to be playing both versions, so I will most likely stop playing this version unless I get a need to finish off the Rebel storyline.

 

This past weekend I was supposed to charge up my Nexus 7 but I couldn’t find the power block so I didn’t get to do it until a couple of hours ago. While it was charging I got a reminder to do some cleaning on the loose files and other randoms that apps leave

 

I had close to 1GB worth of crap. I think I should do some further cleaning up, of my tablets before the year ends. Get rid of games, and apps I don’t use, and other good stuff.

 

That’s all for now, more later!

-Chris