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February 23, 2010

Review: Air Control

by Anthony Clauser @ 7:07 am. Filed under Android Reviews, Games

App Name: Air Control
Developer: Logisoft Games
Version: 1.05
Price: Ad Supported- Free Full £0.60
Type: Game
Rating: 8/10
Android Market URL: http://market.android.com/search?q=pname:dk.logisoft.aircontrol

So Air Control is the second “Flight Control” clone that I’m going to review.  This game is much like all the other games.  More so then “Flight Director” because this one uses the same basic cartoon images while “Flight Director” chooses to go with a more realistic look to the images.  I should start off by saying that this game crashed for no apparent reason the last time I tried to open it.  It could very well have been a fluke.  I’m not sure.  While I was writing up this review it crashed a second time when I tried to start a new game.  Not sure what caused that either.

One of the nice features of this game is that it tries to make things more interesting by adding “Cargo” mode which in short adds a puzzle element to the game.  In this mode the color or plane type has to be the same as the last one in order to land on the runway.

To start off this clone has some major differences from “Flight Director”.  Some of them I like.  Others I don’t.

In this one all the runways look the same even though they don’t all take the same kind of aircraft.  In the short term this stinks.  In the long term it may not matter to most users.  However even when you have established which runway is for which plane as the game gets hectic I could see brief confusion that would lead to crashes.

In this game when a plane is on a landing course it changes to a white color which is nice when you start to have tons of lines on the map.  I can’t tell you how many times I thought I have had a plane ready to land in “Flight Director” only to be disappointed.

This game has a fast forward button to speed up the planes a play button to return the game to the normal speed which I love.  It also has a pause button.

The flight control seems to be a lot better then “Flight Director”.  Other then when the line flat out stopped being drawn (which I blame on my dirty screen) the lines almost always “connected” with the runway.

Bottom Line:  I like the real life airports in “Flight Director” and the planes are easier to tell apart in that game, but I think I like “Air Control” more.  I paid for “Flight Director” but I think I’m going to also pay for “Air Control”, and depending on my mood play both.  This game gets a 8/10 – If you have to buy one or the other buy this one, but both are great games.

February 22, 2010

Android Reviews – Game Plan

by Anthony Clauser @ 9:07 pm. Tags:
Filed under Uncategorized

Yes I’m going to be adding more then one review.  In fact I have 3 apps in the pipeline, and one is another “Flight Control” clone.  The other two are the same type of app also.  Not “Flight Control” though.  After that I have a ton of potential apps that I want to review, but I’ll have to figure out what order I want to review them.  I figure I’ll do about 10 awesome apps, before I start semi-randomly reviewing apps.  The exception potentially being the 3rd and 4th app reviews.  Honestly I really have not even decided a basic score I’m going to give them.

So look for more reviews tonight.  Of course tonight could be anytime between 10pm and 5am for me ;)

February 21, 2010

Review: Flight Director

by Anthony Clauser @ 5:19 pm. Tags: , , , , ,
Filed under Android Reviews, Games

App Name: Flight Director
Developer: Camel Games
Version: 1.2.1
Price: Lite – Free Full $1.99
Rating: 8/10

Flight Director is a “Flight Control” clone.  Flight Control of course is for the iPhone, but since Flight Control is not made for Android (yet) this is one of very few choices.

Now let me start off by saying that I have never played Flight Control on the iPhone.  I have played clones of this game however.

Lets start off with what this game does and has.  This game has satellite images of real airports.  I think this adds just a little bit more fun that other clones are lacking.  Beyond that the game is simple.  You drag aircraft to runways and helicopters to helipads.  There are two different runways and 4 different planes.  There is only one helipad but it takes 2 different helicopters/airships.

I like this game a lot because while most other clones offer 2 different planes and one helicopter this one offers 4 different planes and 2 different helicopters of different speeds which adds to the fun and/or frustration.

The game does have some control issues, but the developer is well aware of them and continues to try and fix them.  I would say that he is close to getting the control issue ironed out, but that it will take at least a couple more tries as this pace.  The control issue is kind of a game in itself.  The developer fixes it, then breaks it trying to fix it then fixes it even better then before and then the cycle repeats.

The game has 3 different difficulty levels.  Easy, medium and hard.  I like to start on medium because easy is just to slow when it starts off for me.  There is a pause feature which has just recently been added which is of course very nice.

The game has 6 different airports all with different layouts.

Really the game could only be improved on in 2 major ways.  First would be fixing the control issue.  It’s good.  Just not great.  The second improvement would be adding a online high score system so you can know just how good or bad you are doing.  Then of course adding new airports is always nice, but this already happens a fair amount.

Rating: I give this game 8/10 with huge potential for a higher score as the game is developed more

Android Reviews – 1 out of 10 System

by Anthony Clauser @ 2:05 pm. Filed under Android Reviews

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Okay.  Allow me to explain the 1 out of 10 rating system.  Well as I see it which may or may not be slightly different then reality.

Now when I talk about the system I call it a “1 out of 10 system”.  When you see the ratings they will be much more simple.  1 out of a 10 is 1/10.  10 out of 10 would be 10/10.  5 out of 10 is 5/10.  Hopefully you get the idea.

Lets start from the bottom then go to the top then go to the rest of the system.

First of all 1 out of 10 – If you get this rating here is what happened.  You got drunk one night.  No…  Hammered and went to bed.  The next morning you find this app you created.  How on earth you created a app while hammered and drunk no one knows, but you did.  This is a 1/10.

Then there is the elusive 10 out of 10 – Nothing should ever be able to get this rating.  Frankly the only way a app should be able to get a 10/10 is retroactively – Like a year after the fact.  Like I said.  10/10 is elusive.  Is it possible to get a 10/10 from day one?  I suppose.  I just highly doubt I will ever do it.

2 out of 10 – This isn’t much better then 1/10.  Typically the only difference is the developer knows the app is garbage and for some reason still decided to publish it.  Actually the app may not even be published to the Market yet.  In that case the developer has saved face – At least for the time being.

3 out of 10 – This is where app can start to show their face.  But hardly.  If you get a 3/10 there is some serious work that needs to be done.  By serious I mean short of a beta this shouldn’t be seeing the light of day.

4 out of 10 -This is why I dislike this system.  Good, bad or indifferent you shouldn’t get this.  If I give this rating either I’m feeling nice, or I’m playing a joke on someone.  They really should call this the “1 out of 6 plus 8 out of 10 system”.  Really.  4/10 has no place in this system as far as I’m concerned.

5 out of 10 – If you get this you are on the right path.  Somehow.  But you just found the right path and you still don’t know it.  You could easily relapse at this point.  That’s the bad news.  The good news is someday your app could be a 10/10.  This is highly unlikely but anyone can dream right?

6 out of 10 – This is kind of like a  4/10, but on the better half of the scale.  It’s a lot easier to get a 6/10, but still doubtful.  The difference between a 5/10 and 6/10 and 7/10 is in the grand scheme of things very small.  Yet to get from a 5/10 to a 7/10 is massive………  If that makes any sense.

7 out of 10 – This is pretty much average.  Ya it’s a high number, but this is where decent apps are going to fall.  It is a lot easier to get then you may think.

8 out of 10 – If you get a 8/10 you know what you are doing.  You have vision.  You have the ability to program.  But most of all you listen to the people using the app.  This app isn’t what you want in a app.  It’s what everyone else wants in a app.

9 out of 10 – A lot more apps will get this rating then they should.  That’s just life.  It still will be a very exclusive club though.

10 out of 10 – You are not paying much attention huh?  We already covered this.

Android Apps

by Anthony Clauser @ 1:36 pm. Tags: ,
Filed under Android Reviews

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So I just got to thinking.  There are many Android phone sites.  Why can’t I have one?

I mean why not?  I have a Android phone.  I love my Android phone.  It’s the second most powerful Android phone so it’s not like I’m ever going to not be able to use a app because my phone doesn’t have the guts.  Android phones kick major butt…  Which may or may not be a good reason, but who cares?

So I think I’m going to do a Android app review site.  Sounds kinda cliché huh?  Oh well.  That doesn’t mean its a bad idea.  Maybe cliché isn’t the best way to describe it, but that’s fine.  You get the idea.

Frankly I think this is either my second or even very best idea for this site yet.  My first idea…  Well I didn’t have a idea.  I just wanted a site.  Then came forums.  Ya.  When you decide to have forums you have to have something – users.  Guess what.  They don’t just come because you hope they will.  I know this.  Didn’t seem to stop me from making forums.  Guess what.  They did just come because I hoped they would.  We call that a “internet miracle”.

My second idea was to do a software review site.  I think I got two reviews up and they stunk.  Oh well…

My third idea was a rebranding of such of my forums.  It didn’t work at all.  I did learn something though.  As much as I disliked phpNuke up to that point – Clearly I didn’t dislike it enough because I still used it.  Honestly if I didn’t have such a close knit group of users that would have killed the site.  As it was I had to move thousands of posts by hand…  Which is only slightly better then flat out losing them.

So what killed that idea of the site?  Myself if I remember correctly.  You see.  I had took users from my favorite site, and as egotistical as this may sound I think I was killing my favorite forum, so I killed my forums.  Looking back I still think I was killing the other site.  Sadly I didn’t know that no matter what I did the site would die on its own in less then a year.

So this is going to be a app review site for Android apps.  I’ll do a 5 star system.  Mostly to make it easy on myself.  You see I’ll rate them in the Android Market and then just carry that over.  No reason to try some crazy conversion.  I do think a 1 out of 10 system is better…  You know what?  It’s going to be a 1 out of 10 system.  Why?  Because while it is easier to rate with 5 stars it is easier to find gold with the 1 out of 10 system.  The only problem is 10 out of 10 is elusive and I don’t think many people quite get that, but I do, and you do so it’s all good right?

I hope this review site idea works, because I would love to have a visited site again, and frankly this could just be lots of fun.  I like finding new apps, and maybe this will help me find some buried gems, plus I would have a site again.

The only problem is promotion.  Well after 7 years of having this site the good news is that “PhaseDMA” is very engrained in Google.  Even if it always asks if you mean “phased”.  Really Google?  Phased?  After 7 years you can’t figure it out?  8k+ hits is not enough to make you learn its a established word?  Do people really type phasedma when they mean to type “phased”?  I highly doubt it.

See the review guide here: Android Review – 1 out of 10 System

January 8, 2010

Test from Motorola Droid phone

by Anthony Clauser @ 8:08 pm. Filed under Uncategorized

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This is a test from my phone. This is pretty cool.

January 7, 2010

Something is still wrong

by Anthony Clauser @ 7:45 am. Filed under Uncategorized

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Ugh.  Something is still fundamentally wrong with this site (or rather the host).  Something very funky is going on and it’s making me very very mad.

January 5, 2010

I’m so over this…

by Anthony Clauser @ 6:05 am. Filed under Uncategorized

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I’m so over this.  I imported old posts and everything worked.  So then I tried to upload even older posts.  It killed the site.  So I tried again.  Tried to figure out the issue but couldn’t so I gave up.  Whatever.  I’m used to it.  I have lost so many posts from previous host shakeups it isn’t even funny so I’m not worried.

So I tried to do what I did before and now it’s now importing all the posts it imported before just fine.  As above I don’t actually care so much about the posts as much as the fact I know not only that it should work, but that it had worked.

Whatever.  I’m going to try and figure it out later Tuesday, but at this point at least the blog is back up and that’s was my desire.

Now I just need to update the theme and such…  This site is just about back in business.

September 12, 2008

Favre Bomb As A Jet

by Anthony Clauser @ 2:45 am. Filed under Uncategorized

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Every time I see this play it just looks better and better.

http://www.nfl.com/videos?videoId=09000d5d80ab84b7

September 9, 2008

Buffalo Bills

by Anthony Clauser @ 3:48 am. Tags: , , , , , ,
Filed under 1

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The Bills have managed for many seasons to do something I suspect isn’t easy no matter how hard you try, and how much money you have to spend – Deliver a top 10 special teams unit year after year after year.  Actually I don’t think they have been in the bottom 5 in the last half decade.

Now in a year where I thought they finally could make the playoffs before Tom Brady got injured they continue to dominate in special teams.  Kickoff returns for touchdowns…  Forced fumbles on a kickoff…  Fake field goal for a touchdown (and a perfect QB rating for Brian Moorman to boot)…

Those are just the highlights from the game.

I won’t pretend that the Buffalo Bills are my favorite football team, but they are my second, and if they keep this up their going to give my favorite team a hard time 2 times this year.  I’ll chear for the Buffalo Bills all year (as I always do) except when they face the Jets.  I’m also cheering for the Packers this year, but should the Bills face the Packers…  It’s the Bills all the way with out question.  Buffalo deserves a Super Bowl much more then Rogers, and not because Rogers doesn’t deserve a Super Bowl in his first year, but because the Bills deserve it much sooner rather then later.

Oh…  And just to point out special teams was not the only part of the team that showed up.  The Bills have only one bad stat for the entire game…  A single sack…  Although the defense answered that with 5 sacks so who cares?

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