Unrelated news. Gaming on the old app store is in a period of transition. I'd ask all you newcomers with their shiny I-Pad Minis, I-Phone 5's and new I-Pads, not to be too down about some of the games. The in-apps are out of control but hopefully Apple will rein in the developers before Rome burns. I was just playing a game called Contract Killer 2. It has the potential to be a really cool game. You accept contracts to perform hits for a shadowy employer. As usual, you upgrade weapons and buy new ones, grenades, knives to throw etc. You run and cover, similar to Shadowgun, in a limited way. You only get to play a few minutes before you either pay quite a bit of cash or you can't advance. I think the least you can spend is $4.99. Well, that wouldn't be bad for a good shooter game and I've paid it a multitude of times. But, on the page that lists the in-apps there are purchases of $49.99 and $99.99. So, if you paid the $4.99, it is a safe bet that you would play a little farther and have to spend more. So, I just deleted it.
Another game and one which I've talked about before, is called Wild Blood. This Gameloft offering is $6.99. A friend of mine bought this game and played it for only a few minutes before he was confronted with the need to buy stuff. Bad enough on a freemium game but extremely hard to smile about when you just plunked down $6.99.
Blood and Glory 1 and 2. I really enjoy these two games. But again, you quickly have to shell out the old green stuff to win. I deleted both. Let me say again that if I enjoy a game it doesn't bother me at all to buy a reasonable in-app, if it is apparent that doing so will ensure that you can, by working at it, complete the game or come close to doing so.
Death Dome is another cool game which I have deleted for these reasons. Oh, well. Transitions are not always smooth. I can see Apple calling in the developers who have games on site and just having a heart to heart. "Hey, guys. We have a pretty nice cash cow here. Let's not try to feed it wild onions, okay? State, up front, an approximation of how many in-app dollars will have to be spent to play your game. Or, don't have any in-apps. If there is a $99 in-app, then that is what you think will be required? If you put out an update with any thing in it to screw up a game someone has paid for already, (like putting ads in it or causing the game to mess up purposely so that they will have to buy another game) then we're going to start kicking you off the store, because the folks who buy these games are our livelihood."
One of my favorite games recently started having a word or two repeating itself over and over, like a record skipping.( A record was a plastic thing with grooves that you'd set a phonograph needle down on and it would produce music, sort of like a stone-age I-Pod.) Anyway, this game which I've enjoyed for over a year, I now have to play with it muted. Many companies, in their paranoia about pirates, have taken to producing updates that do odd things. I have lost game progress and even whole games, at times. Most of this stuff and a lot more, I have mentioned in posts like Apple Plays Violin While App Store Burns. Hey, Apple is a great company, overall, and I think they'll straighten things out.
I bought a game Friday called Blackwater. It is $1.99 and has a western theme. It is okay. At least you can play it and not get mad. You are a Deputy who has to go out and have a shootout, here and there. You recover goods from an ambushed wagon train, for instance, while ventilating Indians and raiders of all types. The graphics are not eye-popping, but again, you can actually play it.
I found myself going through some of my older games and re-installing ones without in-apps and ones that were playable, even if they were not earth-shaking in excitement and graphics. I put on several match threes and other puzzle games. Stuff like Topple, for instance. I went back this week and played oldies like Shadowgun, 9MM, Carnivores: Dinosaur Hunter, Warm Gun, Megatroid, Shellrazor, Bookworm, Chicktionary, Rage, Razor: Salvation, Treasures of Montezuma, Trigger Fist and others. I have one game called, I think, Gunner, or Space Chicken, I forget. It is simple, with a chicken in a space ship blasting meteorites that look like potatoes, but I like it and it is fun, and simple. Besides, I really like potatoes. I like to dig them up, out of the soft ground, like finding treasure.
I don't know if it is my internet company, or a combination of things, but the app store has really been slow lately. Everything related to the web seems to be acting crazy. Hope I haven't picked up a bug...
Well, I am winding down and ready for bed. I hope that you have a nice week. May all your problems be as insignificant as games.
I'm CE Wills.
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