It's well known that Square Enix has a habit of biting off more games than they can chew, and now following the announcement of Final Fantasy VII G-Bike's cancellation news has broken that another Final Fantasy spinoff is also getting the axe prematurely. Final Fantasy Agito was a mobile tie-in game to Final Fantasy Type-0, confusingly enough bearing Type-0's original name. Despite being a mobile spinoff Agito was actually a full-on RPG and visual novel in its own right, even borrowing many assets from the original PSP version of Type-0 and further fleshing out its bigger brother's convoluted story and myriad characters. It launched in Japan as a free-to-play title in May of 2014, and at E3 a month later it was announced for a western localization alongside the Type-0 HD remaster for PS4 and Xbox One. A premium Playstation Vita port titled Final Fantasy Agito+ was also planned for both regions.
Though it's not available in the west and Square Enix has not announced any intentions to make it so (though it probably will—just look at Chaos Rings 3), yesterday I had the opportunity to go hands-on with Mobius Final Fantasy, recently released in Japan on iOS and Android. The game was pushed as a full-scale console RPG on smartphones, but in the end it looks and plays more like a tech demo for the new Unity 5 engine than a direct companion to previous entries in the Final Fantasy series. The combat is fun enough—the controls are simple enough to execute with one hand (which is the intention—the entire game is designed in portrait orientation) and yet it doesn't sacrifice depth in being easy to maneuver. Of the Final Fantasy series it's most like Final Fantasy XIII's battle system, except it actually feels quite at home on a smartphone. The problem is...that's about all there is to the game. Despite its pretty visuals, Mobius Final Fantasy is more akin to Record Keeper than a console experience. At times it does try to convince you otherwise with excellent cutscenes, but the illusion is only ever very short-lived. Most of the time you'll just be watching Wol (or whatever you name the protagonist) walk from checkpoint to checkpoint, only to be interrupted by waves of enemies each time.
Then again, this is a free-to-play title; the base mechanics are designed to leave you wishing for more so that you will shell out some cash (yen, in particular) on in-game goodies that range from purely optional to completely essential. To be fair, you can play Mobius without spending a dime (err, yen), but the in-app purchases run deep enough to actually limit your daily time with the game if you don't pay up sooner or later.
The question is: will anyone even hit that limit? Yes, probably—this is Final Fantasy we're talking about—but it's abundantly clear Mobius was designed with a Japanese audience in mind. Despite the Final Fantasy XIII analogy, Mobius is heavily based on card battling and social features as well (which grants the player their actual abilities and equipment sets), and number systems abound, all appealing to that "gotta catch 'em all" style of mindless addictiveness.
That's not to say Mobius isn't engaging at all, though. It does have a story that is delivered at a reasonable pace in episodic form, but from what I grasped in my basic understanding of the Japanese language it's nothing very deep. Final Fantasy XIV's main plot came to mind on more than one occasion—which is good, but not the real reason anyone plays and loves Final Fantasy XIV. Does Mobius have that certain other element somewhere in being a combat simulator? It's hard to say. What I can say for sure is that this is the most wildly divergent game to grace the Final Fantasy series yet. It's surprisingly unfriendly to a western audience, and is the sort of game I only see myself playing on occasion to kill some time, not make a concentrated effort to actually clear. Again, this is an episodic game, so it could certainly get 'better' with time...but does it need to? This isn't exactly a case of a bad game in need of improvement. Rather, Mobius knows exactly what it's trying to be, and it plays the role well. It just isn't the Final Fantasy adventure most gamers probably had in mind. Coming off a strictly first-impressions basis, my recommendation is to anticipate Puzzle and Dragons and you won't be disappointed. Otherwise there's not much reason to give Mobius a go other than as a benchmark for your smartphone.
It was almost a year ago that we got our first look at Chaos Rings III, the latest in Square Enix's most popular series of smartphone games, and a pleasant surprise for everyone circulating rumors that the third numbered entry in the series would be reduced to a social card battling game. Considering every previous Chaos Rings game was localized (with the exception of voiceovers) the expectation was that Chaos Rings III would be as well, however as the months went by it gradually slipped into the background and called into question whether a localization effort existed at all.
Well, it's that time of year again: Google I/O time, where one of the most important companies of the 21st century takes to the stage to talk about what's next for their many properties—most importantly to some, Android. While rumors have circulated predicting the cessation of Google-branded Nexus devices and it's unlikely we'll see any new entries to the product line over the next few days, there's still plenty to love about the most recent Nexus products, specifically the Nexus 6. Following a troubled launch and Android 5.0 bugs that had to be patched out, it seemed at first this giant-screened phone (I refuse to use the word 'phablet') was just not destined for greatness. But time has passed, the Nexus 6 is now readily available, and Android 5.1 has mostly solved the performance issues of its predecessor. Even with new Nexus devices potentially on the horizon later this year, is it finally the Nexus 6's time to shine? I say yes.
Although it’s been a while, I was a bit surprised by the popularity of past reviews on points-for-cash smartphone apps and services like FreeMyApps, AppBounty, and FeaturePoints. I suppose I shouldn’t have been—the prospect of earning a little cash on the side for performing simple tasks on a smartphone or tablet is certainly enticing, and considering there’s usually the most money to be made in simply referring other people to use these services, it makes sense that word would get around. Now, back when I first started reviewing these types of things, the apps I chose to review (or—full disclosure—was approached by a company to review), were basically the only options out there. Today the Android and iOS app stores are flooded with them, most promising high and delivering very, very low. There’s no easier way to scam people than to promise money for little to no effort, and while most of these points-for-cash apps genuinely do offer redeemable gift cards or direct payouts, you’d be hard-pressed to earn $5 in any reasonable amount of time and effort with them. In fact, if you’ve got a PC handy, you might be better off using a slightly different service, Amazon Mechanical Turk, to pad your wallet a bit.
Customizing devices of all sorts to look like other devices is nothing new. Heck, I used to be fairly active on a forum board that specialized in theming a modified version of Windows 98, oftentimes to mimic other operating systems. As time has gone on software developers have grown increasingly unfriendly towards this kind of customization, and in general the latest technology looks pretty decent to begin with, but one bastion of personalization that practically everyone is familiar with is Android. And yet, while Google’s ubiquitous platform is ripe as can be for some pretty radical modifications it can be rather difficult to find any significant change of pace that isn’t a joke app or a step down from the spartan usability of the default Android launcher.
Remember when Square Enix teased the next installment in the Chaos Rings series of Japanese role-playing games would be Chaos Rings Sigma, a F2P card-based social RPG? Well, they lied (thank goodness). And not just because the latest trailer for Sigma, shown at TGS 2013, shows that Square Enix has dropped the card-based genre. Supposedly Sigma is still happening and will be released TBA 2014, but now, after a long period of silence regarding the popular mobile series, Square Enix has come forward with even bigger plans. That’s right, Sigma won’t be the next Chaos Rings game—that honor will belong to Chaos Rings III, titled Chaos Rings III: The Prequel Trilogy on Vita.
While officially LucasArts may be down and out, anyone who experienced the studio’s earlier works will undoubtedly bear fond memories for many years still to come. In particular, many of us will remember the adventures of Kyle Katarn in the beloved Dark Forces/Jedi Knight series–LucasArts’ most popular, until Battlefront came along. Now I don’t know about you, but back in the day it was something of a dream of mine to see those games running on Palm OS or PocketPC. Of course they ran just fine on the PC, but the thought of having a full Jedi Knight game in my pocket was just unbelievably cool. At the time I was dreaming big just to think I might ever see Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight and its follow-up, Mysteries of the Sith running on some kind of pocket device. Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast and its follow-up, Jedi Academy, though? That was downright science fiction.
Well, it finally happened. Back at E3 2013 when Square Enix unveiled the next installment in the long-running Deus Ex series would be a mobile game, I said I would buy it if—and only if—they released the game on Android. How very fanboyish of me—I know. For six months Deus Ex: The Fall remained iOS-bound, but last week an Android port of the game was relatively quietly released to the Google Play store, and of course I wasted little time in living up to my end of the bargain. While a mobile game is certainly not what fans of Deus Ex: Human Revolution were hoping for, Square Enix promised from the get-go that it would live up to that game’s high standards despite not being a console title. Did they succeed?
Is your Android device rooted? If so, then you’ve got access to a relatively under-publicized feature of Google’s popular OS: the boot screen animation. Contrary to what you might expect, this boot animation is extremely versatile and it’s completely safe to tinker with as well. The worst thing that can happen is you get a blank screen instead of the animation you desire, but the device will boot normally in the background all the same. And the best thing that can happen is you get a snazzy new boot screen to smile at every time you turn on your device for the day, and that’s worth the ‘risk’, right? If that sounds interesting to you, then proceed on with the tutorial below.
As Android is based on a Linux kernel, it has long been the dream of fans of Google’s mobile OS to see desktop Linux applications running on portable devices. In the early years of Android, hardware limitations prevented this dream from becoming a practical reality, but these days things are not so difficult. Many of us regularly use tablets and smartphones with quad-core CPUs running in the 1.5GHz range, a gig or two of RAM, and a capable GPU, whether that be based on NVIDIA’s famous Tegra platform or otherwise. Android devices are becoming more and more like their bigger Linux brethren all the time, and so at last we’re beginning to see some solid ports of Linux software to Android. While many of these ports are little more than interesting experiments at this point, there is one particular project that deserves some serious attention: AndrOpen Office.
You might have seen that after being staunchly anti-tablets, I decided to get one for myself. My choice? The current Android flagship tablet device: the Google/Asus Nexus 7. There are already dozens of Nexus 7 reviews out there and I agree with their general consensus, so rather than reiterate what has already been said so many times I intend to unbox the Nexus 7 and to give my impressions on having and using a tablet in general, speaking as someone who used to be against the product category. Let’s get started.
If you’ve been reading this blog much at all lately, you’ll have noticed that points-for apps services seem to keep on rolling in. You may have also noticed that these mobile websites will only work for users who are in the US or otherwise able to operate off of US-based iTunes accounts. Enter AppBounty. Not only does it add yet another points generating website for those of us in the USA, but it also opens the door to all of you fine folks in other countries as well! But with the competition rising, how does AppBounty stack up? Read on to find out!
UPDATE: AppBounty is now available on Android as a free app from the Google Play Store. As of the time of this writing it is still in the testing phase though, so anticipate your user experience accordingly.
If you’re like me, you’ve probably found yourself frustrated by the recent lack of sponsored apps available on services like FreeMyApps and FreeAppSlots. Hey, no worries! They’ll get apps again eventually, but in the meantime it sure would be nice if there was yet another points-for-apps/cash service to start racking up some points on. Well it turns out there is, but don’t necessarily expect as much out of it as the other two aforementioned websites.
UPDATE: FeaturePoints is now available for Android as well!
Many of you that read this blog have taken advantage of a service I wrote about a while back called FreeMyApps. How it works is that companies sponsor their iOS app on FreeMyApps, you download the app being sponsored, and FreeMyApps shares the profits with you in exchange for trying the app out. What with FreeMyApps doing so well, you know other companies are going to want to get in on the fun. That’s precisely what we have with FreeAppSlots.
Now before I get into FreeAppSlots, I want to make one thing abundantly clear: this is not a gambling site. The slots do play an interesting part in you earning rewards, but don’t be confused by the name. I can assure you that ThinkBoxly would never get behind a company that openly ruins people’s lives to turn a profit. Now, on to the review…
Many of you will remember that back in June I ran a post on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk program, which allows users to complete simple tasks given by various requesters and earn anywhere from a few cents to a few dollars a pop. However, the vast majority of Mechanical Turk HITs can only be completed on a laptop or desktop computer. What about when you’re on the go or just don’t feel like pulling out a full computer? Wouldn’t it be nice if you could rack up a few bucks on your iPhone or iPad while riding the bus to work?
Well, with FreeMyApps, a website (not an app, mind you) by Fiksu Inc, you can, and with less effort…but is it as favorable an option as Mechanical Turk?
Aside from the artificial limitations placed upon the iOS software by Apple, my biggest frustration with all iPods, iPhones, and iPads has been that they’ve born the very frustrating physical limitation of far too little RAM to comfortably run a good deal of intensive apps, or alternatively to run a healthy selection of simpler apps simultaneously. Although jailbreaking can solve the majority of software woes, in the process it only contributes to this hardware problem by adding more processes for iOS to handle in the background in order to run all of the essential tweaks.
Thankfully, while there is no true solution to this issue aside from Apple finally waking up and adding sufficient RAM to complement their OS, there is something of a workaround for jailbroken iDevice users that can significantly increase stability in situations where a lack of RAM might result in heavy lagging or an outright app crash. Better yet, the solution is free, and you probably won’t even need to install any additional software!
Recently I had the opportunity to try out the latest model in a popular Android tablet series, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (7-inch). At just $250 for the WiFi version of the device, it is a bargain in comparison to the accepted industry standard, Apple’s iPad, and even several competing Android tablets. But can such a comparably affordable tablet live up to the demands of customers expecting a $500-700 tablet experience?
(Note that this review was based off of the 8GB, WiFi-only model of the Galaxy Tab 2 7-inch Tablet)
Love Angry Birds games or hate ‘em, Rovio’s success with the franchise is undeniable. Since the original game’s debut in December of 2009, its creators have seen millions upon millions of downloads head their way on iOS, Android, PC, and Mac platforms alike. And just in case you’ve been living under a rock and have yet to play the game, last year it became available for free online, playable right in your browser. Numerous iterations have entered the series, such as Angry Birds Rio and Angry Birds Seasons, but to this point all have possessed essentially the same gameplay as the first game: pull back slingshot, fire bird, hit enemy, score points. Levels featured different decorations across games, but needless to say it was all beginning to feel a little stale for some of us. Can the latest addition to the series, Angry Birds Space, stand out on its own well enough to be truly deserving of a play, or will its only claim to fame be riding on the coattails of the first game’s success?
Chances are if you happen to be one of the millions of Mass Effect fans out there, you’ve heard about Mass Effect Infiltrator, a mobile tie-in game for iOS and eventually Android as well. Chances are also high you’ve heard that the game is no good, and in fact is bad enough to rival Mass Effect Galaxy, the last mobile title for the series which performed so horribly that it was eventually removed from the iOS app store completely. But after playing Infiltrator myself, I am inclined to disagree with critical opinion that this is not a title worth your time.
