PixlBit

Another week begins and it’s time to update you good folks about what has been going on. Actually nothing really has been going on with the exception of a few game related items, and for the first time since buying my Nexus 7, I’ve decided to change the screen’s appearance from the stock launcher to something new.

I do love tablets. In fact I love them so much I have three and might get a forth when the new Nexus 7 is released. People love phones, I really like tablets. The one thing that bugs me about Tablets is that there too many screens. I don’t use them all, and I rarely leave the home screen. When the Nexus was first released I tried to use all the screens but it became a pain. Why should I scroll to other screens to check my calendar, play a game, check out YouTube, etc. I like having three main folders, and having things I use everyday on the dock. Well after checking out what’s new in the Google Play Store, I decided to go with a launcher called Nova Launcher.

I have Go Launcher on my rooted Nook Color (The NOOKie Tab) and wanted something different so I went with Nova Launcher. I decided on this after watching a coupe of YouTube videos, and checking out the freebie version. It had everything I liked so that is what I’m running with

 

This is my homescreen. I have two different readers on there because I like what both of them provide. Feedly syncs to my Google stuff, and Flipboard is connected to my social apps along with a couple of other places and it is setup like a magazine. The first folder opened is my Everyday Folder. Everything I use is in there (yes I like the tabloid TMZ app)

 

The second folder is my Media Folder. It has the streaming apps that I like to use when not connected to my iPod Touch. The final folder is my Games Folder. Everything I play will be on there. I’ve been slowly cleaning out the games on my tablets because it seems I’ve become a bit of an app hoarder. The little toolbard everything sits on can be scrolled through but I really don’t do that because everything I like is right there. If I scroll up I bring up some Google app that gives me scores/news/weather/ and other randoms.

When not trying to make my home screen of my Nexus 7 pretty I have been playing some games

 

 

I know you’ve wondered why there isn’t a game that takes elements from Temple Run, and Fruit Ninja, throw in some generic character voices, and slap on a movie tie in with a Super Hero. As a bonus throw in only a handful of backgrounds for this game, and it could be gold. Well if you thought about this, Iron Man 3 is for you.

Iron Man 3 is another tablet game that can be found on both Android and iOS, and is free to play. I played the game Nexus 7 version and I have about three days to play it.

 

At first glance the game itself is pretty simple: collect Stark coins, swipe the enemy to destroy them, move Iron Man left and right to avoid enemies coming at you, and earn experience points. Sound fun? It is. You start out with the Iron Man suit from the first film (sorry comic book fans I don’t know the names of the different Mark suits). You go through a tutorial just like Temple Run and you’re on your own. You can either tap on an enemy or swipe across them like they are rogue watermelons.

 

When your character dies, your run ends, and you have a choice of either spending blue jewels to extend your run, or you can let it end and Pepper Potts updates your missions and if you earned any rewards. Also there is a daily mission where you can earn extra stuff.

 

The generic Pepper Potts and Tony Stark

 

After every run you can check your trophy status and see what you earned and what type of rewards you unlock. Your suit also goes through a repair phase and it usually takes about 20-30 seconds. You can upgrade your Special, Weapon, and HP up to three bars each. Each bar has a certain cost in Stark Coins and usually takes around 2-3 runs to earn enough coins to fill up one bar on each. You can also upgrade to different versions of the Iron Man suits but that costs Experience points, and so far I have the first movie suit, and the suitcase suit.

 

For the folks who have money to burn you can buy a ton of those blue jewels to speed up the process, and you can connect your game to Facebook, so you too can fill up your friends timelines with randoms.

I like the game, and I’ll probably be playing this game for a little while before I get burned out or lose interest.

The next game I spent a lot of time playing is Candy Crush Saga. Yep I got sucked into it like many people, but I’m a recent player and a couple of my friends are really deep into the game. I’m currently stuck here

 

And I have to admit, I H-A-T-E this level. I think I’m stuck on it for a couple of days now, and the closet I’ve gotten was one jelly square was left before I ran out of moves.

 

 

 

In Real Racing 3 I’ve finally unlocked a Pro Race Car, and after a couple of days of earning cash I’ve upgrade it to make some noise in the races. I’ve played a lot of it, and I’ve decided to take a couple of days off from playing it, because I’m starting to get burned out, and one day I fell asleep playing it (I ran into a wall which really sucked).

 

 

Of course I’m playing this game, but I’m not paying as much attention to it. I really do hand out jobs to my people in the game as much as I should. I also tried out a new program where you can play Android games on your laptop. It’s still in beta, and from what I’ve tried it’s a little slow, but it works. I only tried Tapped Out, but if you want to give it a whirl it’s called Blue Stacks App Player

 

Some funny dialogue from the game…and yes I am a Dallas Cowboys fan and I find this funny.

 

I unlocked some new characters. Fat Tony got a reboot, and now they added Legs and Louie with Fat Tony’s home.

 

The makers of the game also added a new level

 

My favorite line from Lisa when the El Chemistri restaurant was built.

 

Whacking Day is in full force and you can leave snake eggs in your friends Springfield’s. One nice user left a message. Very cool.

 

Once you unlock all the rewards for Whacking Day, you there is a bonus section where you can earn a ton of cash. The first box I think was 1,000 bucks.

 

The next two games I played a couple of times, lost interest and quickly removed from my tablet.

 

I saw Vector and it sounded interesting. It reminded me of the PSP Mini game Must Run. When the first cut scene kicked in reminded me of the Ridley Scott Apple commercial

 

 

 

The game menu is pretty straight forward, and the object of the game is to run away from the man. While on the course you can collect stars, and you save them for different moves.

 

If you don’t want to wait, you can pay for the deluxe version, which is cool for some but if the only difference is saving some time for a casual game, and having no ads is it really worth it? After a couple of games I was over it, and it left my Nexus 7.

 

Jewel Quest is another color jewel games but instead of flipping jewels to create a match 3, you select groups of at least two jewels that are touching and they disappear. The board doesn’t refill, and when you exhaust all the touching jewels the game is over. This isn’t a game I like to play so again another game leaves the tablet.

 

That’s the beauty with a lot of these tablet games. You don’t pay for them, a lot of them are quality games, and if you find a game you don’t care for, just uninstall it. These games remind me of shareware games way back when I first got my first computer.

 

 

In non tablet gaming news

 

 

I got my highest score in Treasures of Montezuma Blitz. This game gets the most playing time on my Vita. I seem to play this game almost daily. See Sony, your Vita games don’t have to use every bell and whistle on the handheld, just use the ones that it needs, and do it well.

 

On the PS3 I took down a game from Mount Backlog!

 

Spec Ops is well…let’s call it different. This is game where at first it comes off as your typical shooter, but the story quickly becomes important (every shooter I’ve played comes down to someone did you wrong, and you leave a path of destruction on your way to take down bad guy) These games I usually just listened to podcasts or music, but this one sucked me in.

 

I’m not gonna give away the story but at the end, you have one of those WTF moments. Kind of like a good mystery movie, where everything was there all along, you just didn’t see it. I liked the game, but I knew I wasn’t going to play it again so after I completed it, I uninstalled it from my hard drive. If it wasn’t for Playstation Plus, I would have never given this game a try, and I’m glad I got to experience it.

 

Another game I tried that is nowhere near as good is Deadliest Warrior: The Game.

 

Yeah I bought this ($5) and yeah I played a bit of it, and well, if Sega Genesis playing 14 year old me got his hands on this game, he’d think it was full of awesome. 30+ version thinks its okay. If you like simple fighting games, that remind you of a generic Mortal Kombat with fighters that are really uneven, then this game is for you.

 

Ok the game really isn’t that bad. You have a list of something like 8 or 9 fighters from different periods, and they have generic sayings like “I Wanna Stab You In The Face” said by the Centurion. *I’m pretty sure this saying is historically accurate.

There are actually two games on the game disc, but instead of playing it on the disc, you install it on the hard drive. Not a fan of this, but the game is under a 1 Gig so I guess it isn’t that bad.

 

I started Bulletstorm, and this is just mindless blow sh*t up fun. I think there’s a storyline to it, but after a couple of minutes of trying to listen to it, I went to listening to my podcasts. I’m not very far into the game, but I do like the feature where I can throw the enemy into the air, and then unload a clip. #SimpleFun

In NCAA Football news, I’m having fun using Arizona State as my team. One game that sticks out is a game I played against Kentucky. It was the home opener and the for the first half the Senior QB threw two int’s, and couldn’t move the ball. I decided to bring in a freshmen (the only freshmen QB I didn’t redshirt) and just before halftime threw a Hail Mary Touchdown to give us a 10-3 lead.

The second half was more lively scoring wise when with under a minute left I scored a go ahead Touchdown. Kentucky drives down the field and scores a TD with 20 seconds left. We get the ball and bring to around our 30. Had two incomplete passes, and with 3^rd Down with 5 seconds left went for the Hail Mary again, and hit it. I needed the extra point to tie the game, and we went to overtime.

In overtime had a big run to get the team to the 10 yard line, went no huddle, slant pass to the left for a game winning touchdown.

Heck of a game, and it became #1 in the in game list of greatest games.

 

The minute I knock one game off of Mount Backlog I add another.

 

When this game was first released, I said I’ll buy it when it hits $10 bucks. A couple of years later, GameStop had a deal for their Rewards members, and my cousin let me use his card and I am a proud owner. Props to him for knowing the people there, and finding me a sealed copy (if you’ve shopped at GS for a number of years, you know sealed games are like GOLD)

 

Before I call this a blog, the NFL Draft happened last weekend, and every year since college I sat and watched the entire thing. Why? I have no idea, but I find it interesting, and at some point I like to think every NFL War Room has a bunch of names in a hat, and they just start pulling and that’s who’ll they draft. San Diego State had three players drafted, and a number of other players picked up via free agency. My favorite team AMERICA’S TEAM, drafted Gavin Escobar, TE, from SDSU. Yeah I’m getting a jersey

 

 

Thanks to the Dallas Cowboys for use of this pic from their press conference.

 

Well that's all for now, more later!

-Chris