PixlBit

Happy Tuesday Pixlbit! Sorry this week’s blog wasn’t written or uploaded yesterday but I have a good excuse, I was coming back from Arizona. I got invited to go watch some good ol’ football here

 

It was going to be a quick 24 hour trip where we left on Sunday Morning, catch the game with family, hang out at my uncle’s house, and then back on the 10 Freeway back to Sunny (but cold) Southern California…it was cold in Arizona too but it’s an hour ahead so it made it cold and dark a lot earlier. So the Saturday before I was going to leave I decided to stock my various portable devices with things for me to play/watch/listen to.

 

On the iPod Touch it was my usual along with an expanded podcast playlist, New Holiday Music, and my favorite Holiday Playlist. In the other iPod (I call him iPod Smallz) it was full of mixtapes that I was adding from my old iTunes library to my current one. You can go wrong with free music, and some of the songs are actually pretty good. As for the good ol’ Nexus 7, I added some new games to the lineup, and updated some of the ones already on it.

 

The two new albums in the “New Holiday Music” playlist.

I also brought the Vita, but I wasn’t sure if I was going to actually use it, so I brought it just in case.

Early Sunday Morning we made our way through the desert and to Glendale Arizona home of the Fiesta Bowl, and Arizona Cardinals. We met up with my uncle and cousin at his house, had a quick lunch, and then off to the stadium.

 

We waited in front of the home of the Phoenix Coyotes (snickers, all about the ANAHEIM DUCKS!) waiting for my other cousin. I do like this complex because there is a nice outlet mall, tons of bars and restaurants, and both arenas are close to each other. Some of the folks we met walking towards the giant snake like shaped stadium were really nice, and finally we get to the stadium.

 

We get our programs and hey a familiar face (my brother got me his Raiders jersey for my birthday, and a month later he gets traded. Tip for people who ever venture to Oakland for a football game: wear either Raiders jerseys or a blank shirt especially if you root for another team.)

 

These were our seats. We sat in a pod of Rams fans, but they were all respectful and cheering on their team. I wore my Dockett jersey so I was the red spot in the sea of blue and white. The game was fun, we talk to the folks in front of us, good people, but there was a guy sitting in front of them who was kind of an ass. During the game he was rocking his Arizona State pullover and a Cardinals beanie, but told everyone in earshot he wasn’t a fan, the beanie was keeping his ears warm. Whatever. Anyways during halftime they had a Arizona Cardinals Flag Football team made up of kids, versus the mascots from Arizona, ASU, and the pro teams. When they announced Wilbur and Wilma Wildcats dude stood up and boo’d like it was a real game. When Wilbur caught the ball, Sparky the ASU mascot tackled him and he was cheering like they won the National Title. My uncle and I were saying things like “too bad he couldn’t tackle the Stanford tree”, and “this is the closest ASU will get to the Fiesta Bowl”, and other anti Sun Devil things, loud enough for the guy to hear. Guy calmed down after that.

The Cardinals won, the Rams fans were bummed but they Cards fans around us were gracious until we left the stadium when the usual drunk a-holes tend to be the loud fools (more on this later), anyways here are some interesting things I saw at the game

- There was a “Will You Marry Me” sign on the jumbotron. C’mon now. Later on during one of the many many TV timeouts, there was the Biggest Fan Cam, and this lady was going nuts, and her man got down on one knee, tried to get her attention, but I guess she really wanted the giftcard to random eatery so she kept going.

- While walking out random guy yelling about how the Cardinals are #1, you can’t can’t come into our house blah blah blah. If you’re going to talk trash to another team make sure you have actual Championship banners hanging in your barn, especially to a team who’s won a Super Bowl.

- Then there was this guy. While walking out he was talking junk, a female Rams fan was giving it back, and dude hit her. Her man gets pissed, they square up like they don’t want to fight but will do “the dance” and swing. As we walk passed him the cops show up, and we think break it up. As we hit the parking lot, we see dude running up beside us, and cop tackles him (it was a clean tackle, didn’t lead with the head) and genius decided to swing at the cop. Yep Good Luck with that. Within seconds 4 Cops show up and assist the first Cop.

 

In the car I asked my 9 year old cousin what was his favorite point during the game, and his response was “When the Police tackled that guy”.

As for gaming, I actually didn’t play much on the ride to or from Arizona but I spent some time showing my other younger cousins the new games I found, and they also downloaded them to their tablets.

 

 

This is the first game I showed them, and I think I mentioned it in my Quick Hits blog. Rail Rush is basically another Temple Run clone, but this time you’re in a runaway mine cart. Same controls tilt the tablet to make the cart lean, swipe left and right to jump onto the different tracks and swipe up and down to avoid various obstacles. Collect jewels and Gold nuggets to purchase different character skins and power-ups.

 

What I like about this game is that there are different themed levels including different holidays. I’m currently playing the Christmas level and I’m trying to save enough nuggets to buy the Santa player skin.

 

Presentation is nice, but there are ads above and I think after a couple of games it’ll play a commercial. You can also connect your game to social media so you too can bug your friends on Facebook and Twitter.

 

 

This game they really liked because they know who Sonic is…even though the youngest, a 4 year old said “That’s Sonic, he’s on the Wii” That broke my heart a little bit, until he said “I run like Sonic” and then put his arms behind me and ran around the house making a whistling sound.

 

Sonic has the same controls as Temple Run, and it’s many clones, so it’s easy to jump in and play. There were no commercials that I remember within the game, but there are some in-app purchases, which you don’t really need, and hey it’s Sonic. There are tons of powerups and the environment is modeled after the one you see in the Sonic game on the Dreamcast.

 

There is also a social media aspect to the game where you can login with your Facebook, and it will keep track of your score versus people on your friends list.

 

 

I think I played this on iOS, but I found it a little awkward because I thought the iPad was a little bit to holding up while playing. Riptide 2 is like what Jet Moto could have been if it was on the PS2 with updated graphics.

 

It’s a Jet Ski racing game where you take on futuristic courses and try to beat the opponent by doing tricks to earn turbo boost.

 

The controls are simple, tap on the corners of the screen to brake, hit the flame icon to use boost, and tilt to turn. When you hit the ramps to do tricks you a two finger swipes to make the player do tricks and earn boost. The response is really good, and while doing tricks the two finger swipes don’t get in the way. I tend to do the swipes with my thumbs on the opposite ends of the tablet.

 

At the end of the race you earn experience, and stars depending on how well you did. You also earn in game cash so you can upgrade your jet skit or buy a new one. If you like Jet Moto, and/or arcade racing, give this game a try.

 

The next two games I didn’t show my cousins because they would either be bored, or try to fight each other (they’re all under 10)

 

 

I started getting back into this game again. It’s the same as the iOS version but I like playing it on the Nexus7. I logged into my account and all my trophies synced right up, but I didn’t get my upgraded characters from when I would play this game on my phone.

 

 

This game I think I saw in the best of section of the Google Play Store. The point of the game is simple, connect as many same color dots as you can within 60 seconds. Only drawback is that there is no diagonal swipes.

 

The board is simple and there is a switch you swipe to turn it into the Christmas board.

 

At the end of every round you can see your score and the leaderboard. I have no idea how some people can hit 700 when I am hitting 120-130.

 

Within the game there are power-ups but I don’t know if I’m supposed to activate them before starting a new round, or during, but that’s what I get for jumping into the game without paying attention to the quick tutorial. I thought this was just a causal game but before we left for California, I spent almost an hour trying to hit at least 150 dots (I think I really need to learn how to use the power-ups). Dots is another fun game worth trying out.

 

I thought this was cool. Before I fired up Dots, I checked my Humble Bundle app, and there were a bunch of updates for my games. I also noticed my tablet had no idea what time it was so it had both Arizona, and Pacific time. 

The one console game I wanted to hit on quickly was that while listening to Cheapassgamer podcast, I was made aware of a Forza Rewards (I really need to start looking through the manuals). It turns out I qualified for some rewards

This is from Forza 4 and Horizon. I need to fire up Forza 3 and see what I got. Awesome move Microsoft!

 

Before we end this blog, I wanted to share a gift my cousin made me. She’s into duct tape, and makes wallets, and I usually give her a couple of bucks for supplies, and she’s made some awesome wallets and Nexus case for me before, but this time she made one heck of a wallet.

 

 

She got a hold of some Dallas Cowboys Duct Tape, and made me a Cowboys wallet, and she did a really great job. Her construction skills have improved, and she was telling me the little details she did like place it under a bunch of books so it will stay flat, as well as sealing up the bottom of the pocket where paper money goes so they won’t stick. Looks like I’ll be getting her some duct tape for Christmas.

 

Well it’s time for me to get back to graphics. I need to finish a poster concept today so we shall end my blog.

 

That’s all for now, more later!

-Chris