It’s been a while since ESPN’s Scorecenter app had received an interface update, and it showed. The app just felt clunky and certainly wasn’t pretty to look at. Fortunately, ESPN put some work into their latest update for the app, and it’s a great one. The interface has been completely redone to feel like a polished app that we should all expect from a company like ESPN. Navigating settings, notifications and information is easier than ever, and I’m personally glad to see the update, even if it came at the tail-end of the NFL season. Hit the link below to get the updated app.
December 21st, 2012. We all know the date, and we’ve all heard about it. It’s supposedly the day the world ends.
Regardless of what you think is going to happen, that date is approaching fast. To be more specific, the 21st is Friday. Because the date is so meaningful, I’m going to start a countdown, which will represent either the beginning of the end, or the beginning of something new. For the next five days, I’m going to examine five games that will allow you to experience what it would be like to live in a post-apocalyptic world. What better way to ready for the apocalypse than to experience it first-hand.
We don’t have much time to waste, so lets get right to it!
Today we’re going to be talking about a lovely, strategy-sim called Rebuild.
Rebuild by Sarah Northway
“Today, we begin to rebuild.”
That single sentence sums up the entire premise of Rebuild. It’s your typical simulation game, where you’re tasked with building a city from the ground up. Except this city is simply being taken back and modified section by section. The world has been destroyed by a zombie plague, and the last survivors have holed up in a strategically fortified part of a city.
In Rebuild, your primary concern is to collect survivors, expand your fortress and protect it from undead attacks. To expand your fort, you move from one building to the next reclaiming it for the living. Survivors must be managed, using their time to scavenge for food, build or reinforce new structures, and discover new technology and weapons.
Zombies aren’t the only rival in Rebuild though. You also have to watch out for costly and contagious illnesses, looters and even rival gangs.
The game is fairly straightforward. The user interface just consists of your fort, and the menus reflect your individual selections. To expand your fort, you simply click on a greyed out building, or a structure that is outside your stronghold’s boundaries. You can then choose a task for your survivors to complete at the related location from one of many options. Tasks include scouting the property, scavenging for supplies, recruiting any survivors hiding out at a site, and of course clearing the area of zombies. Once a site has been cleared of all zombies, you can then reclaim it, thus growing your fort.
As the fort grows, more survivors will join your cause. You also need to manage living conditions and food supplies. Obviously, the more people that live in your fort, the more food you’ll need to survive.
Random events happen every now and then, but you usually have time to prepare. One of the most notable events is a zombie attack. This can occur randomly, but sometimes you are alerted about a zombie horde moving your way. When this happens you just want to make sure you have enough survivors still defending the fort. If you don’t have enough defenders, and the risk is too great, survivors will die, and you will lose buildings and resources.
All of this is done in turns. After every turn, you must advance the game manually to the next day. You can assign all of your survivors to tasks, or you can leave them to protect your stronghold. It’s your choice. Of course, the decisions you make will have repercussions and that’s what makes the game so captivating.
Anything you do in the game takes a certain number of turns to complete. Most of the time you must manage which survivors are tied up doing tasks and which are not.
If you allocate too many survivors to reclaiming a building, so that you can get the job done faster, then it’s possible you will be attacked by a horde of zombies and lose resources. It’s this balance act that makes the game incredibly fun to play.
Rebuild is certainly an excellent post-apocalyptic sim, and the turn based gameplay mechanics add a touch of strategy to the mix.
If you’re looking for something fun to play, and most importantly something to ready you for the coming apocalypse, then Rebuild is certainly a good choice. As always Rebuild is available via the Google Play store.
As I mentioned in the last part of this series, you never know what the end of the world is going to look like. It could end up being a Mad Max style wasteland, a lush and desolate tropical paradise, or an infinite cover of ice and snow.
It only makes sense that after the apocalypse, advanced electricity will be gone and right along with it all the luxuries that it provides. Anyone who survives will have to find a new way to live. That includes creating makeshift machinery and tools. Personally, I like to think that it will be available thanks to several other energy sources.
This is where the steampunk genre comes in. Most of us fell in love with the genre with Fallout 3, or Fallout: New Vegas, but they aren’t the only steampunk titles around. Both of those games saw you vying to survive in a world that has been destroyed by a nuclear holocaust.
However the world ends, playing steampunk games is a good way to practice for what comes after.
Gaslight
Gaslight is a steampunk inspired strategy game that puts an emphasis on RTS style gameplay. It mixes a little bit of city-building simulation tactics with RPG elements. The bottom line is that it’s incredibly fun to play, albeit quite a bit challenging.
You’re not on present day Earth in Gaslight; instead the story takes places in a fictional world called Eastland. Your job is straightforward and unembellished, build your post-apocalyptic city the best you can while also defending it from the dangers of this new world.
You’ll need to create an empire entirely from scratch, and that includes outfitting an army. You don’t have to do it alone though because you can play cross-platform with friends on Android and iPhone devices.
This is a realtime strategy game, which means that after every structure that you build, every resource you craft, and every unit you make you will have to wait a certain amount of time for the operation to complete. This process is no different from any other city building game like Paradise Island, Smurfs Village or The Oregon Trail: Settler.
Where Gaslight differs from all of those other city building titles, is the conquest mode and individual battles. When a battle takes place, you enter a turn based strategy mode where each opposing team takes turns to attack one another. The conflict usually plays out against a visually appealing backdrop, which just adds to the atmosphere.
Keep in mind, this is the type of game you play in spurts, especially considering most of the time you are spent waiting for resources to renew or build, you won’t want to play Gaslight nonstop. It’s perfect for the times when you want to be productive in real life, and then take five to ten minute breaks.
Of course, if the world actually does end on Friday, then games like this won’t matter in the grand scheme of things.
Still, Gaslight is a excellent way to practice for the potential apocalypse. It teaches you how to handle military units, rebuild a city from scratch, and to generate resources. It’s free to play, and you can get it in the Google Play store.
Check it out, you might be surprised with what you get. In the meantime, I’m going to stock up my bomb shelter with Spam.
Gameloft is offering stellar deals on some of their most popular titles starting today and lasting through Thanksgiving (November 25th). Hardcore gaming enthusiasts can now pick up a number of games from the Google Play Store for just $.99 – a deep discount from the normal price of $4.99. The offer starts today and lasts until the 25th of November. The four games on sale are "The Amazing Spider-Man," "Backstab," "Gangstar Rio: City of Saints" and "The Adventures of TinTin– The Game."
For this price, I'm tempted to buy them all, especially Gangstar Rio, which I've heard pretty great things about. Sure we complain occasionally about the graphics in Gameloft games, but for this low price, you really can't complain:
The Road Warrior movies are fantastic. The sense of tension and dread that you feel when you watch the first film is just magnificent. The second movie, Mad Max 2 is perhaps one of the best movies with a post-apocalyptic theme ever made.
Of course, they were made in the early days before Mel Gibson was a psycho. I’m not quite sure what happened to him, maybe he fell apart as he got older, or maybe it was all the stress of the coming apocalypse. After all, he did make a movie called Apocalyptica, which actually had precisely nothing to do with the end days of humanity.
Regardless, we’re going to continue our countdown to the end, with a Road Warrior themed game. It’s not exactly an officially licensed title, but that’s okay. It will do.
Road Warrior: Best Racing Game
While I don’t totally agree with the name because it’s certainly not the ‘best’ racing game, it’s a pretty damn good mobile title nonetheless. Gameplay is straightforward, yet more difficult than you would expect, and racing is just pure fun.
The primary goal in Road Warrior is obvious, you have to race and you have to win. The more you win, or the better you rank in the race, the more money you make. As with any other racing game, you can improve your vehicle and customize it to suit your personal tastes.
Of course, this is a post-apocalyptic game we’re talking about here, so every vehicle is outfitted with an array of weapons. Clearly, you use the weapons to your advantage in order to take out opponents and gain the lead.
Your car drives automatically, so in Road Warrior you don’t have to worry about pressing any buttons to accelerate. There is a button to shoot, a button to brake and two buttons to rotate your car. The spin buttons allow you to pull off tricks in the air, and ensure your vehicle lands upright. You have plenty of chances to do this, especially considering the tracks are filled with plenty of jumps, gaps and interactive environment.
Unlike a lot of other racing games out there, Road Warrior is 2D. You essentially race from one side of the screen to the other, and the tracks are extraordinarily long.
In-between races you can outfit your car with better armor, speed boosts and several other upgrades. You’ll also be issued missions to complete, most of which include winning a series of races. Don’t worry, you don’t have to win all your races consecutively. For example, one of my missions asked me to win three races, I won my first race, lost two others, and then won two more.
There are boss battles, as well. If you happen to win one of these races and take out a boss, you unlock their car, but let me just tell you- it’s devilishly hard to beat them.
Road Warrior Multiplayer
An additional multiplayer game-mode is also offered, but first you either have to create a free account or register with your Facebook account. It should be noted that if you choose to register with your Facebook account, your timeline will be spammed with promotions and ads for the game by Mobjoy. How else do you think they get their money? Usually the game will ask you before posting, and this feature can be disabled, of course. It’s just a good aspect to take note of.
Multiplayer battles are essentially the same thing as the single player races. You participate online with groups of other players in order to win races. It’s pretty standard fanfare.
There are five different leagues to compete in, starting with the “Rookies” class for beginners and the “Warriors” level for sheer experts. You rank up as you win and place in races, and before each event you can bet a fair chunk of cash. Gambling adds a little extra fun into the mix, especially if you win.
Because this is a free to play game, there is an exclusive in-game currency. You earn money for winning races, which is entirely different from the main
currency, which is MP. You can earn free MP by completing offers, or by meeting certain objectives, like logging into the game with your Facebook account for instance. Then there’s always the option to purchase more MP with real cash.
Don’t worry though, you don’t need to spend any money to play and enjoy Road Warrior. You can play both online and offline single player without ever spending a dime.
The best part about the game is that Road Warrior is free, and you can get it in the Google Play store right now.
If the world is destroyed, and we’re thrown into a desolate universe of Mad Max like characters, and vehicular manslaughter then playing Road Warrior is an excellent way to train up. You never know what the end of the world is going to look like, might as well get ready for it now!
This game seems to have everything going for it. It has an alien invasion, destroyed cityscapes, big guns, and Tegra optimization. By all rights, Razor Salvation should be a killer game. This title isn't free and it's a big download, so you should know what you're getting into. Let's see if it's worth your time.
Gameplay
The premise of Razor Salvation is epic, but poorly explored. The gist of it is that aliens have invaded Earth, and you have to land your dropship in various locations to save as many humans as possible. As you progress, more of the background regarding the Xenos invasion and the infected human population is revealed. This is all fine, but I wasn't enraptured by the storytelling.
