android for gamers!

There’s a lot of selection when it comes to android gaming. From the casual to the hard-core, all aspects seem to be covered. The stunningly well received Angry Birds has opened the casual market as well as other notable games such as doodle jump and fruit ninja bringing light hearted gameplay mechanics to the simple folk. I’m not going to focus on those types of games. I’m going to focus on the games to appeal to the console/Gamer market.

Gameloft seem to be doing fantastically well with mobile gaming  as well as EA taking a cut with the mobile version of dead space and the ever so popular FIFA games. Gameloft still takes the crown with their selection of amazingly detailed FPS games such as NOVA and the rainbow 6 games. Both showing good gameplay and well thought out combat systems.  konami have ventured into the market with their PES series of games (hopefully one day a metal gear!).  and glu have made a few good games such as Gun Bros. these are all fantastic games!

There is also a new wave of MMORPG’s appearing spanning from the pocket legends game. Similar themes to most pc online RPG’s. Expect massive popularity as people grinding levels on their way to work!

Another fantastic reason android is becoming an infamous gaming platform is the bewildering array of emulators to available for you to play games from the spectrum to N64 all beautifully faithful to their stone age oversized counterparts! 

playstation emulation made simple!

In a previous post I demonstrated how to emulate cartridge based systems of the 90’s. what if your time wasn’t the 90’s what if you only ever play tomb raider III on the ps1? Well in this post I’ll tell you how to get a Sony PlayStation emulator running. Lara croft will be jumping endlessly in no time! So assuming you know the basics, if not read up (link to cart emu) if you’re ahead on class I shall begin!

To make life really simple and take loads of the headache out of playstation emulation emuparadice put together a little zip file with all necessary files included! - http://www.emuparadise.me/emulators/files/epsxe160_full.7z

Download that file and unzip it in your emulators folder. Now you have a PlayStation on your pc! Now for games. Games on cartridge based machines like the snes use “roms” were as a cd based system will use a virtual copy of an original disk. A really good place to get hold of these files is - www.theisozone.com there is a wealth of games to explore!

After downloading your game and placing it in a folder for your psx games. Open up the emulator. Then click on file, then “run iso” navigate to were you placed your disk images an select a game to play! It really easy. As with any app take your time to explore the menus and options to make it run to you’re liking. Hope this gets you playing some of your old favourites again.

street fighter III: pinicle of 2D fighting

In the wake of Street Fighter IV there is a new generation of Street Fighter fans. So for all the newly introduced or for those of you who'd just overlooked this gem, here is e-sheds review!

After the massive home console and arcade smash series of games the game engine had seen its day and the people demanded more complex sprites and animation to compete with Capcom's rival SNK. Capcom's response was Street Fighter III: The New Challengers... and it was a revelation! It blew the competition out of the water, receiving good reviews across the board. Though the 2D fighting genre was sloping downwards in sales and commercial success was gradual, the game became a cult classic.

 

Street Fighter III's new character roster was creative and demonstrated a slicker art style than ever before, with familiar faces from the series to make things comfortable. Old hands would take to new characters easily with similar moves and combos to their predeceases. Standard Street Fighter fair tarted up and took to dinner... same old styles but if it aint broke?

This game shines amongst the pale washed out grim action games of our times. The cutsie Japanimation inspired characters demonstrate a plethora of visually pleasing special moves. The eye candy comes quick and with clenched fists.  All these elements make for one of the most elegant, well designed 2D fighting systems! Bravo Capcom bravo.

Available on nearly every format thinkable, it’s a very obtainable game that will supply years of enjoyment.

OnLive...Gamers heads in the clouds.

Okay so it was out in the US a while a go, and now it's available in the UK. Assuming you haven't been bombarded with the adverts on YouTube, you won't know what OnLive is. As little is said about the new service. So what is it? It's a gaming network like Xbox Live or Steam where there is access to a store and online gaming, as well as demos. What really sets the service apart is its host of streaming games from their servers, to your webbook. Meaning any game on their service is playable on any machine. a vary enticing offer! As well as it being a greedy publisher’s delight with a 0% chance of piracy, it should fly. Sadly it doesn't. I own a gaming pc and know what good games look like and unfortunately, the de-saturated and pixelated display takes all that excitement away. 

After an easy registration and a good dose of cloud gaming hype I downloaded the OnLive app. After a quick, fuss-free install and a clean log in... all seemed well as I perused though the excellent selection of games in the library. I decided to give Space Marine a try, the demo loaded sharpish and I was directly in the main menu, but as I started playing I encountered some problems. The already sandy hue of the game was exacerbated by the streaming process, the resolution seemed quite low and left a blocky pixelated mess on my HD screen. I tried some other games such as Dirt 3 and Homefront but was left feeling underwhelmed by the display and felt two steps removed from the controls. At this moment in time I'd say Steam offers the better service. That is, until the technology is in place for better resolutions and better controls within OnLive.

emulation high-end fun on low-end computers

Okay, so you have a crappy old computer or low end notebook, you're sick of Farmville and you think your computer's not much good for much more than YouTube and Facebook?

On most counts you're probably wrong! Using a process called emulation it's possible to have a retro buzz! How about some Sonic or some Street Fighter... for free?!

  Here are some easy to understand instructions on how to do just that! To make things easy for now I'll stick to cartridge based machines, but as you know your original copy of Zelda isn’t going to fit in your SD slot... To play your games you're going to need two things; an 'emulator', which is essentially an app used for mimicking the hardware of your favorite old school system. The second thing you will need is a ROM of your favorite game(s). A ROM is a virtual copy of a cartridge. So now you know what you need, this is how you get them. A good point of reference is www.emulatorzone.com they offer the best range of up to date emulators to choose from, organized by console. 

1. you decided upon the epic mega drive and fusion Download the zip or exe file (if file has a weird extension like .rar use a program called WinRAR (www.winrar.com) and then get your emulator!

2. Place the downloaded files in a nice little folder called emulators anywhere you like. Making a folder called 'roms' helps for organizations sake.

 

3. Now you need to get your games or 'roms'. I'm a big fan of www.emuparadice.com

for the sake of my example I'll download Earthworm Jim for the genesis/ mega drive.

 4. Now you have the ROM, place it in your ROM folder. Next, open up the emulator and press file-> open-> now go to were you stored your ROM. Double click and you're ready to go! ... Nearly.

 5. It's a good idea to have a little click about and familiarize yourself with the options within the emulator. You can set your own keys and if you have a USB gamepad like that of the PS3 or 360 they're easy to set up as your main controller (usually via an option menu).

Now you're all set! Hopefully my introduction to emulation got you going. if my really bad screen shots and steps dont help here is a "little watch me do it"

There's a lot of really nerdy things to play with and happy gaming memories to live over... highest score on pac-man gets after me!