Doodle News: Chinese New Year 2013 Doodle

Google celebrated the Chinese New Year on February 10, 2013.

• Date: February 10, 2013
• Location: Brunei, Singapore, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, China, Thailand, Taiwan, Hong Kong
• Tags: National Holiday, char siu bao, ingot, mushroom, dumplings, tea, coins, envelope, game, Animation, snake, jiaozi, money, medicine, lantern, Interactive

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Game Review: Infinity Blade II - The Next Chapter in Mobile Gaming

The breathtaking visuals and addictive gameplay made the Infinity Blade II the best selling original hit. It further expands the franchise as it continues to raise the bar for AAA mobile gaming. Developed by Epic Games’ award-winning studio Chair Entertainment, Infinity Blade II will challenge gamers to journey further into the world of the Deathless tyrants and their legion of Titans, building skills and upgrading characters in new ways as they delve deeper into the story of this mysterious, timeless adventurere.

 Specification:

Release Date:	December 1, 2011
Genre:	Fighting
Publisher:	Epic Games
Developer:	Chair Entertainment
Supported Functions:	Online
	System Link / LAN
Good Points:	Beautiful visuals
	Exciting combat system
	Compelling role-playing elements
	Lots of content to unlock and explore
Bad Points:	Confusing narrative

The Story:

There's an old Klingon proverb that says, "Revenge is a dish best served cold." In the case of Infinity Blade II, it's not so much a dish as an all-you-can-eat buffet of revenge-fuelled sword combat, dressed with some of the most beautiful visuals to grace an iOS game. It's a game that plays to the platform's strengths; there's no battle so long that you can't finish it on a bus, and no unwieldy touch-screen analogue sticks to get in the way of the action. It takes just a few swipes of your finger to execute brutal slashes and stabs, all with a precision and intuitiveness rarely seen in games played with a traditional controller. Role-playing game elements and an imposing sense of scale combine with the excellent combat to create a beautiful, compelling experience that's a shining example of how to make a superb iOS game.

You play as Siris, a knight who's on a quest to find the mysterious Worker of Secrets and avenge his father's death. To do so, you must battle your way to the top of a tower known as The Vault of Tears, where you face off against various enemies and eventually battle the God King. Most of your time is spent in combat. You're armed with a sword and a shield, as well as a range of magic spells, all of which are controlled via the touch screen. This isn't your standard hack-and-slash fare, though--think Nintendo's Punch-Out!! rather than the likes of Diablo or Dark Souls. Your opponents have a very specific set of moves they perform, such as sword strikes, kicks and punches, or magic spells. Anticipating those moves to block, dodge, or parry them is the only way to succeed.

Thankfully, your opponents have a number of tells that aid you in identifying their next attack. Sword swipes might be preceded by a long swing, while long run-ups usher in punches and kicks. If you're faced with a sword attack, your best option is to parry it by swiping in the direction of your opponent's swing. Kicks and punches are best avoided with dodges by pushing to the left or right of the screen, while blocks work as a last resort when you have failed to anticipate a move and need to defend a follow-up combo. Successfully defend yourself, and you can unleash an attack of your own, swiping at the screen to perform different types of strikes. By swiping smoothly back and forth you perform combos, which deal more damage. Or, if you're on the ropes, you can perform a magic attack that can't be blocked by replicating a specific swipe pattern, depending on the spell.

It's an elegantly designed system that works extremely well, with the direction of your swipes accurately replicated by Siris. Each enemy has unique moves, ensuring there's variety to the combat. Plus, battles are just the right length for a quick fix while you're on the move, letting you chip away at the game in smaller chunks. For each opponent you defeat you're rewarded with experience points, with bonus XP on offer for performing different challenges such as executing 10 combos in a row, or dodging five attacks. That XP is used to level up Siris, so you allocate points to your attack, defence, shield, or health to increase his effectiveness in battle. You also earn money, which you can use to buy stronger weapons and armour.

Different weapon types affect your abilities, so if you buy a heavy weapon such as an axe, you lose your shield and dodging ability, replaced instead by buttons that let you block with your weapon. Choose to dual-wield, and you become much more nimble, but you lose the ability to block entirely. You can also place gems you earn from battles within your weapons for extra bonuses, such as increasing the amount of gold you earn or the number of gems that are dropped by enemies. These RPG elements give the game depth, making battles all the more compelling.

They also go hand in hand with the game's structure. While you might manage to make your way to the top of the tower to battle the God King early on, his high level ensures that you're unlikely to defeat him on your first encounter. Your experience points and items remain intact, however, so you can work through the tower again, gaining new items and levelling up until you're finally ready to take him down. Each time you do so, the enemies change, so you're never faced with the exact same adventure twice. Not only that, but reaching higher levels unlocks different paths to the God King, with all-new areas to explore. There are also keys to find scattered throughout the tower that let you unlock new paths, or chests that contain upgrades and money.

Even when you defeat the God King, the battle system is so fun that you're still compelled to jump in and take down the many enemies that litter the tower. There's also Game Centre support, so you can share your high scores with friends, as well as unlock achievements. Infinity Blade II doesn't just nail the gameplay either--it's a beautiful-looking game. Breathtaking environments such as a Japanese temple surrounded by pink blossoms and the huge monolithic tower set amid mountains are stunning. The characters themselves are also striking. The bulging muscles, evil eyes, and ornate armour of your opponents have a detailed steampunk style that's a treat for the eyes, along with the sparks and streaks of light that accompany your attacks. 

Infinity Blade II is a real showcase for iOS, bringing a full gaming experience to the platform that isn't simply a shoehorning of existing ideas onto a touch screen. It has an identity of its own, successfully straddling RPG depth with an experience that can be sampled in small chunks in a way that few other iOS games can match. Plus, like the first game, it should be heavily supported postrelease, with new bosses, environments, and rewards promised for future updates, all for free. Infinity Blade II sets the standard for big experiences on the go, and is an essential purchase for any iOS-toting gamer.

Features

Skycages

​Delve further into the story of the Deathless, as new areas are unlocked and relics from the past come to light.

• Jump into battle to defeat all-new enemies - featuring the Headsman, the Petrified Noc, Xyloto, Ryth, and more.
• Master a completely new weapon type: the Solar Transport Energy Blades. Now you can harness the power of the sun to become all but unstoppable.
• Collect and sell more than 30 new items, including magic rings, weapons, shields, helmets, and armor.
• Find out what new surprises await you with all-new Achievements, gems to forge, and treasure maps.
• Experience exclusive ClashMob challenges.

Recommended: Update your device to the latest iOS version, and restart your device before playing.


Vault of Tears
DISCOVER LOST SECRETS OF THE VAULT OF TEARS

 

Unlock new locations and delve further into the mysterious past of Siris in this single-player campaign update
 

• Find your hidden ally and discover secret items and rewards with the all-new Treasure Map feature.
• Jump into battle with new enemies, featuring the Moss Golem, Lunpun, Dark Fiend, Bog Giant, Acolyte and more.
• Collect, master and sell more than 50 new items, including magic rings, weapons, shields, helmets and armor.
• Experience new achievements and forge unique gems, as well as numerous other surprises.
• Update also features enhancements to the globally social battle mode, ClashMob.

ClashMob
JUMP INTO THE NEW, GLOBALLY SOCIAL BATTLE MODE: CLASHMOB
Featuring dynamic challenges that will test your strategic mettle
 

• Recruit friends and team up together in MyMob and earn special perks as well as unlock new achievements & rewards!
• Upgrade your weapons by crafting the most powerful gems available in the all-new Gem Forge.
• Collect more than 24 new weapons, magic rings, gems and equipment to wield and master.
• Dive into fully re-mastered, high resolution gaming enhanced to support the new iPad.
• Experience full support for iOS 5.1, with gameplay enhancements and updates for overall optimized gameplay.

The Story Continues
THE AWARD-WINNING INFINITY BLADE STORY CONTINUES.

The God King has been defeated, an unlikely hero has emerged and now you must discover the truth behind the secrets of the Infinity Blade. The continuing journey of young Siris unfolds as you delve deeper into the world of the Deathless tyrants and their legion of Titans. Can you unlock all the mysteries and successfully wield the power of the Infinity Blade in this timeless adventure of champions and villains?
 

New Combat Styles
FEATURING 3 ALL-NEW STYLES OF COMBAT.

Now you can choose from multiple classes of weapons, armor and spells, each with specialized capabilities such as Dual Wielding, Two-Handed and the standard Weapon & Shield class. Learn each discipline by using Infinity Blade II’s intuitive pick-up and play game play style that is easy to use, yet difficult to master!

Character Customization
INFINITY BLADE'S TRADEMARK CHARACTER CUSTOMIZATION EVOLVED.

Create and forge even more powerful weapons with mystical objects you discover and collect along your journey, expanding your overall arsenal with all-new elemental powers & capabilities!

Secrets Revealed
THE SECRETS OF YOUR PAST REVEALED.

Delve deeper into the fantastical story of Infinity Blade as your journey leads you to the realm of the mysterious Deathless Saydhi and discover the truth about the Worker of Secrets and the powers he holds.

Latest iOS Features
THE LATEST IN iOS FEATURES POWERED BY UNREAL TECHNOLOGY.

The definitive visual experience in mobile gaming, complete with all-new iCloud support and HDMI output.

Screenshots:

Some of the screenshots are given:

Updates will be posted soon.

Source:

Infinity Blade Official Site, IGN

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Game Review: Sparta God Of War for Android

Introduction:
Your Majesty! Your people needs you!
Xerxes, the king of Persia has amassed his darkness forces against Greece! Your solemn duty is to defend Greece at all costs! We will make our stand at Thermopylae, where we will engrave in eternity the bravery and name of SPARTA!

What's New

What's in this version:
version 1.04
Game crashed on some device fixed.
Tapjoy offerwall enabled.
Fixed that sometimes can't receive coins when succeed an offerwall mission or iap purchased.
version 1.03
Fixed white screen on some device, especially the screen size 320*240,480*320
version 1.02
In-app purchased bug fixed.
Some devide force close bug fixed.

Description:

My King, fight against the monsters! Let’s kick their ass!
☆Your Majesty! Your people needs you!
Xerxes, the king of Persia has amassed his darkness forces against Greece! Your solemn duty is to defend Greece at all costs! We will make our stand at Thermopylae, where we will engrave in eternity the bravery and name of SPARTA!
☆Features
100 levels
More Spartan types (Another historic hero characters)
8 skills (4 active, 4 passive)
RPG style level-up system
Fantasy history game
Automatic hack & slash
Combination of strategy + defense
Defend your own camp and destroy enemy’s

Screenshot Apps:

Source:
Google Play,

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Game Review: Need for Speed Most Wanted for iOS and Android

Make Trouble. Get Wanted…

Buckle up, hit the gas, and hold on tight; you’re in for the ride of your life. Outrun cops, outsmart rivals – and outdrive your friends – in the most dangerous Need for Speed yet. Do you dare to be the Most Wanted?

After taking the arcade racing genre by storm with the original Need for Speed Most Wanted back in 2005, EA rebooted the series this year and put the steering wheel in the able hands of Criterion Games, makers of the popular Burnout games as well as Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit.

This time, however, the action won’t be limited to the big screen. A mobile version of the game has been released for iOS and Android and although it’s not exactly the same game as the console version, you will find similar races, cop chases and a great roster of cars in what promises to be one of the best racing games on the mobile platform. We put our seat belts on and decided to take it for a test drive.

Touch or tilt to steer as you evade a relentless police force while clashing with street racers. Drive and customize 35 of the world’s most exciting cars, like the SRT Viper GTS, Porsche 911 Carrera S, and the Hummer H1 Alpha. Use Mods to enhance your car and get ahead of the pack in style. Feel the intensity of no-brakes-allowed street racing with realistic full-car damage for the first time on mobile.

Let us see ‘NFS Most Wanted’ in short:

Gameplay

The original Most Wanted included open world racing combined with frantic cop chases. The story of the game involved competing against expert drivers from a blacklist and racing to the top to get your car back. The new one is somewhat similar although for the mobile version, the open world has been dropped. You have a map where race events appear for you to play. As you win more races, more events get unlocked. After a handful of regular events, you will get to race against one of the blacklist members. Defeat all the ten racers on that list and you beat the game. You can of course go back to playing the unlocked events, of which there are plenty.

Race events are of multiple types. You have the simple races where you have to come first to win. Checkpoint races make you go around the track reaching checkpoints before the timer runs out. In some races, you have to finish the race before a specified time. A variant of that involves taking as little damage to your car as possible otherwise you get penalized with extra seconds added to your time. In one type of race, you need to have an average speed above a specific value. Depending upon how you do, you get gold, silver or bronze medals. These medals are at times separate from the actual race results. So, for example, you may win the race but if you did not finish within a specified time you will still get a bronze medal. Ultimately, it’s the medal that counts, not the race positions.

In every level you will have cops to give you company, along with other drivers. These are some of the most ruthless opponents that you will find in any game. Their sole objective is to stop you and they’ll do anything to make that happen. Their most popular trick is to tap the rear corner of your car, which at high speeds, is enough for your car to fishtail out of control. They also try to pin you to the side of the road to slow you down. At times they also drive in front of you and brake to slow you down.

As you unlock more races, the police opposition gets tougher. They bring out faster cars to take you down and you will have multiple cars on your tail at times. But their best trick is using the spike strip. Yes, the infamous spike strips from the original Most Wanted makes an appearance here and the cops are not afraid to use them. When things get out of hands the cops will deploy spike strips on the road while the cars are moving, similar to the way they did in Hot Pursuit (Most Wanted had stationary strips fixed to the road). These are harder to avoid, particularly at high speeds and unless you are careful you will drive over them.

Fortunately, the damage that happens to your car is minimal. You slow down a bit but you can still continue if nothing happened. It takes a bit away from the health of your car but it’s not the show stopper that it was in the original 2005 game.

The cops in Most Wanted are so relentless that they are often the reason you lose a race because they hold you back while everyone else is free to go. I have never understood the logic behind this, which has been the same since the original game. The other racers are breaking as many laws as you are but the cops only have eyes for your car as if it has ‘FREE DONUTS INSIDE’ written on its side.

One of Most Wanted’s most impressive features is basic vehicular damage for the cars. This adds a touch of realism to the game as cars no longer look like they strolled out of a showroom even after hitting a tree at 200mph. It’s not quite as extensive as you find in some console games but the basics are all here. Bumpers come off, windshields crack, mirrors break, the body gets scratched after you scrape against the side of another car, the works. The cars you drive have a health bar so you see how much more damage you can take. Performance is unaffected by the damage, so your car goes from working perfectly fine to out of commission instantly once you run out of health, which is weird.

Funny thing is, Codemasters nailed the vehicle damage model on their cars in Colin McRae Rally for the N-Gage back in 2004, with cars that had full body damage and actual deterioration of performance per part and it’s been years since then but no one has either surpassed or come close to matching the level of complexity of that game, which is quite sad, actually.

In terms of driving, the cars more or less feel the same. The muscle cars and SUVs are a touch lethargic but it’s not nearly enough to drastically change your driving style. What I found a bit lacking was a sense of speed that is so important in racing games. The sense of speed you get from the screen doesn’t correlate well with the speedometer readout. The most you get is some blurring around the edges of the screen as you go faster. It’s not bad but it fails to convey the visceral sense of speed that some of these cars are capable of delivering in real life. Asphalt 7 does this better and things like nitro boost in that game actually make you feel like you’re going faster and not just make the speedometer count increase.

I was disappointed with the limited control options available in this game. There are just two options: in the first one the acceleration is done automatically and you steer using the accelerometer and brake by tapping the left side of the screen. The second option places a virtual steering wheel on the left on which you slide your thumb, along with a brake button on the right. I’d have liked to see an option with manual acceleration so I can lift off the throttle when I want so I don’t go face first into the side of the road (braking is slower and bleeds a lot more speed). The second control option is just bad because the onscreen steering is terribly imprecise and makes finer steering inputs impossible. The first one is a bit better, especially with finer inputs but dial some more effort and your car ends up inside a coffee shop on the side of the road.

Speaking of the actual cars, EA has once again come up with an impressive roster. It’s not quite in the league of the 60 cars that Asphalt 7 has to offer, but the 35 ones that are here are all good. You have your usual variety of Lamborghinis, BMWs, Audis, McLarens, Aston Martins, Mercedes, Porsches, Chevrolets, Fords, Jaguars, Nissans, Bentleys and Mitsubishis here. Then there is a Hummer, Land Rover, a Lotus and an Alfa Romeo. There is also a Tesla Roadster, an electric car that somehow has Nitro Boost. Racing in this, you don’t just break street laws but also those of chemistry and logic.

There is plenty of variety in the game in terms of vehicle options and should please most people. Cars get unlocked as you win races but you will have to buy them using the money you earn from the races.

There is also a customization option available for vehicles but it comes with its own restrictions. First of all, you can only make three modifications per car before every race and one of them is the paint job. The other two can be any of the item from a list of customizations, including stronger body to withstand damage, better tires, faster engines, better or longer nitro boost, etc.

Since you can only choose two you have to carefully consider what you want to use for the race. The best thing to do is just get the more powerful engine and nitro options as they give you the biggest kick in the back while driving and that’s often all you need while racing. However, they can be quite expensive at times, depending upon the car, often nullifying the money you’ll be earning after winning the race. Assuming you do win the race.

Now here’s something funny. The customizations are not permanent and are limited to a race. After the race is over the car gets reset (except for the paint). What’s worse, if you lose a race and you choose the restart option, you will have to pay for the customizations again or else choose to play without them (as if that’s going to increase your chances of winning the second time). If, however, you restart the race before it’s over, you can replay without having to pay extra, so that would be the best thing to do if you think you’re going to lose a race.

As many options you have in terms of cars, you don’t get nearly as much in terms of tracks. The tracks are surprisingly few and what’s worse, most of them look quite similar. The game does throw in a new track every now and then but the number of times it makes you go around the same ones in every direction makes it seem like it only has one track to offer.

I’d like to make a note of the traffic in the game, which is ridiculously annoying. The traffic cars are placed so that you only see them at the last moment. They’ll often spring up on you while going through a blind corner. What’s more, they are placed so that they only appear in the exact line you place your car while going around the corner, making them even harder to avoid. Unless you go out of your way to screw up your corner, you will find yourself staring down the headlights of a lorry and eventually getting intimate with its radiator. Fortunately, crashing into traffic does not total your car immediately but it does slow you down considerably.

The game has a multiplayer element courtesy EA’s Autolog feature, which requires an Origin ID. You will need friends with Origin IDs to play multiplayer against. You can see each other’s rankings and race against each other. Since it uses Autolog, you can also play against someone from a different platform. I couldn’t find anyone with an Origin account and a copy of the game and the game doesn’t let you play against strangers so I can’t say how good the multiplayer experience is.

The Android version of the game still uses the archaic installer method of downloading the game. You download the installer through the Play Store, and then when you launch the game it downloads the rest of the files, all 560MB of them. Problem with this system is that unless you have a ridiculously fast connection, there is no way you can download all the files and still have time left to refund the game, if, say, it does not work well on your device. This method may have made sense when the Play Store did not allow files over 50MB but now it can take up to 4GB so there is no excuse to not use that space and scam users out of the refund option.

Graphics and Sound

Visually, Need for Speed Most Wanted is one of the best games right now on the mobile platform. The game just looks absolutely stunning. The cars in particular look incredible and almost photorealistic at times, save for the usual aliasing. The tracks look impressive at first, especially the wet streets, which have been captured perfectly, but then you realize pretty much every street in the game looks wet and start wondering if you accidentally drove off into Mawsynram. Still, the game looks fantastic and is almost as good as its console counterpart.

Unfortunately, the visual quality comes with a framerate penalty, which oscillates between “This is not bad.” to “Is that you, Crysis?”. The framerate is never super smooth and this could be one of the reasons for the less than impressive sense of speed (the view out of actual cars isn’t at 20fps). I must note here that I tested the game on a Galaxy Note 10.1, which has one of the most powerful hardware around, at least on Android. Asphalt 7, in comparison is very smooth on this hardware, even though it does not look much worse.

Don’t get me wrong, the game is not unplayable by any stretch of imagination. In fact it’s quite playable. Just don’t expect a silky smooth framerate, at least on Android (I can’t speak for the iOS version).

As for the audio, Most Wanted sounds great. First of all, there is a decent collection of licensed tracks, something you often see on EA titles, which makes it feel that much closer to the console gaming feel. The tracks are pretty great, most of them at least, and don’t leave much to complain about.

In terms of sound effects, the vehicles all sound loud and powerful, especially the thrumming of the muscle cars with their big engines. However, the engine notes often sound off compared to the speed they were doing. When you are racing down the highway, pedal to the metal with the car running close to its limit, you don’t expect it to sound like you’re cruising down the road on a lazy Sunday afternoon. The engines sound unnaturally relaxed even when taken to their limit and the exhaust notes don’t carry the fierceness that they should have at those claimed speeds, which makes a frantic cop chase sound like a trip down to the store to buy a loaf of bread.

Verdict

Need for Speed Most Wanted is not without its flaws, but none of them is tragic enough to prevent you from enjoying the rest of the game, which is one of the finest racing games right now on the mobile platform. The races are fun, the graphics look great, there is a large variety of cars and a ton of replay value. And if you find someone with an Origin account and a copy of the game, you can also play multiplayer. At $6.99, the price is a bit on the higher side and although I can’t say it’s worth every penny, it is worth checking out if you’re feeling a bit indulgent.

Rating: 4.2/5

Pros: Enjoyable gameplay, excellent visuals, impressive roster of cars, good list of licensed soundtracks, tons of races and plenty of replay value
Cons: Needs more control options, unimpressive framerate, not much variety in tracks, visuals lack a sense of speed, engine notes inconsistent with the speed, silly vehicle customization restrictions, Android version uses archaic installer method to download additional files.

Source: Google Play, EA Games, Prasad

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