GameSpasm

The 3DS is no graphical slouch. Aside from the glasses-free 3D feature, the console can kick out some impressive scenery, and it did so with last year's Resident Evil Revelations, a well-made little horror shooter in a series that's been looking for a lifeboat lately. After launching Resident Evil 6 fewer than six months ago, Capcom seems to think HD platforms need even more Resident Evil love, and so this week Revelations hits Xbox 360, PS3, Windows PCs, and the Wii U.

Playing it uprezzed on an HD console, however, feels just a little goofy. The textures do look excellent, but the game's models are clearly made for a more lightweight graphics engine, which means you get characters with hair frozen in place and enemies with just a few animations to use over and over again. Revelations was made for a handheld machine, and its designers cut corners that the other platforms would have let them curve around more gracefully.

But Revelations' saving grace is that it's Resident Evil game, and it's a good Resident Evil game at that. For that reason, fans of the series who missed out the first time around will probably appreciate the chance to see it for themselves.

Continue reading Resident Evil: Revelations review: Any port in a storm

Resident Evil: Revelations review: Any port in a storm originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 20 May 2013 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments Tags: Consoles, Handheld, microsoft, Nintendo, Nintendo 3ds, PC, Playstation, port, PS3, resident-evil, resident-evil-revelations, Review, wii-u, Xbox

Loop plans to reinvent the customer-experience survey with its launch today to help businesses get customer feedback in the moment.

Loop is an iOS app that presents customers with a quick survey about their experience at a business. Loop captures the responses then and there, and founder Rajit Marwah said that this could result in up to 30 times more responses, as compared to traditional methods or user-generated sites like Yelp.

 ”Feedback and reviews are everywhere,” he said in an email. “They are at the bottom of your receipt, the check at the end of a meal, and in your inbox. Businesses want to know how they are doing so they can improve and many consumers want to share their experiences, good or bad. But when was the last time you (or anyone) bothered to fill out one of those cards or go to their feedback site? Everyone is in a hurry and just moves on.”

Marwah said that Loop’s main value is its immediacy. Surveys only contain five questions, so very little is required of the customer. It was founded by Marwah and his former Stanford classmate, Mike Liu. The two were working on a different project creating iPad menus for high-end hotels and restaurants, and he saw how challenging it was for these businesses to get feedback and reviews despite their efforts to do so. They saw the potential for mobile technology to improve upon this.

“The existing solutions are a bit intimidating,” Marwah said. “I know many people that don’t want to fill out 15 minutes surveys or write a long essay to review a place. We wanted to create a lightweight experience. Plus, companies like SurveyMonkey and Yelp are billion-dollar companies, so it told us that value can be created around this area.”

Gaining a glimpse into consumers’ minds is a hot ticket at the moment and scores of venture-backed data and social media analytics startups have cropped up to offer insight. There are also competitors like Vision Critical, Qualtrics Mindshare Technologies, and Tello (acquired by Urban Airship) that also collect customer feedback through surveys. Loop is a simpler alternative to these products, but sometimes simple is better, particularly for small businesses.

Loop is “global on day one,” meaning it is available in 34 languages and in 155 countries. Archimedes Labs in Palo Alto led a seed round for the startup, which is based in San Francisco.

Photo credit: Loop

Filed under: Business, Deals, Entrepreneur, Mobile Tags: business, customer feedback, deals, entrepreneur, Mobile, Review, survey

Loop is reinventing the customer experience survey. Loop launched today to help businesses get customer feedback in the moment.

Loop is an iOS app that presents customers with a quick survey about their experience at that business. The responses are captured then and there and founder Rajit Marwah said that this could result in up to 30 times more responses, as compared to traditional methods or user-generated sites like Yelp.

 ”Feedback and reviews are everywhere,” he said in an email. “They are at the bottom of your receipt, the check at the end of a meal, and in your inbox. Businesses want to know how they are doing so they can improve and many consumers want to share their experiences, good or bad. But when was the last time you (or anyone) bothered to fill out one of those cards or go to their feedback site? Everyone is in a hurry and just moves on.”

Marwah said that Loop’s main value is its immediacy. Surveys only contain five questions, so very little is required of the customer. It was founded by Marwah and his former Stanford classmate Mike Liu. The two were working on a different project creating iPad menus for high end hotels and restaurants and saw how challenging it was for these businesses to get feedback and reviews, despite their efforts. They saw the potential for mobile technology to improve this system.

“The existing solutions are a bit intimidating,” Marwah said. “I know many people that don’t want to fill out 15 minutes surveys or write a long essay to review a place. We wanted to create a lightweight experience. Plus, companies like SurveyMonkey and Yelp are billion dollar companies so it told us that value can be created around this area.”

Gaining a glimpse into consumers’ minds is a hot ticket at the moment and scores of venture-backed data and social media analytics startups have cropped up to offer insight. There are also competitors like Vision Critical, Qualtrics Mindshare Technologies, and Tello (acquired by Urban Airship) that also collect customer feedback through surveys. Loop is a simpler alternative to these products, but sometimes simple is better, particularly for small businesses.

Loop is “global on day one,” meaning it is available in 34 languages and in 155 countries. Archimedes Labs in Palo Alto led a seed round for the startup, which is based in San Francisco.

Photo Credit: Loop

Filed under: Business, Deals, Entrepreneur, Mobile

Tags: business, customer feedback, deals, entrepreneur, Mobile, Review, survey

Death has always been an integral part of Dragon's Dogma. From the intoxicating notion that it could come at any time while travelling the world of Gransys to the corpses that litter an area once you've torn through it, death permeates the narrative like a foul odor. The punishing difficulty ensures defeat in most cases, making it an absolute certainty that a restart will be necessary at least once. That same frustration, however, is what attracted the droves of players to Capcom's open-world RPG in the first place.

Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen ups the ante by introducing Death personified. Your first sighting could end up being your last, though with persistence, even Death itself can be cheated. And that's just one small piece of this sprawling hunk of supplemental content. The austere world of Dark Arisen is a meaty expansion pack that serves up a substantial amount of new material, opening up welcoming arms to veterans and enticing new players with what will inevitably be billed as the definitive Dragon's Dogma experience.

Continue reading Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen review: Cheating Death

Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen review: Cheating Death originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 23 Apr 2013 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments Tags: Capcom, dragons-dogma, dragons-dogma-dark-arisen, DragonsDogma, DragonsDogma:DarkArisen, microsoft, Playstation, PS3, Review, Xbox

It's not easy to find an endless runner that offers something fresh while staying true to the simplicity of the genre, but Nickelodeon may be on to something with the first TMNT game for iOS. "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Rooftop Run" interestingly mixes running and jumping with combat, scaling walls and quick-time events.

At it's core, "TMNT: Rooftop Run" is your basic side-scrolling endless runner. The game starts with you picking your favorite character – Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael or Michelangelo – and then your off to the New York City, jumping roof-to-roof in true Turtle fashion.

As you progress, you'll start running into members of the Foot Clan and other TMNT villains, which in turn will introduce you to combat. In all honesty, the basic attacks remind me of the dash attack in recent Sonic the Hedgehog games. Whether you're in the air after a jump or just running along, enemies will be highlighted by a red target. When it appears you'll tap the screen until you've gotten by or defeated the evil doer.

Like any other endless runner you're goal here is to keep moving, and you'll have plenty of ways to do it. After a few runs you'll start to figure out your double-jumps and wall-runs. When everything comes together you'll realize the importance of planning out your Turtle's next move, setting up chains between enemies, walls and the higher rooftops you'll discover on along the way.

To keep the Turtle train rolling you'll also need a whole bunch of energy orbs. The only reason your Turtle is running to begin with is because he's got a Kraang Scout Ship on his tail. The green energy orbs floating throughout the game keep this ship away from you. If your energy meter runs out, your run is over. On the contrary, when the energy meter is completely full you'll be thrown into Turtle Time, a quick-time combat event where you'll be given a chance to kick the crap out of a bunch of Foot soldiers and rack up some coins.

Every time an enemy is put down you'll earn coins that can be spent on in-game items including gear, gadgets, boosts and weapons. Gear gives your Turtles a different look, while boosts help you do things like climb faster and collect more coins. Gadgets, however, are one-time use items such as the Laserbot, which follows you and clears out enemies in your path. Weapons are just what you'd expect, upgrades of the weapons used by each Turtle. It will take some time to earn enough coins to make all the upgrades you want, but in-app purchases are present if you want to speed things up.

In addition to unlocking items and upgrades, coins will also be needed if you want to play with more than one character. For instance, if you start the game with Donatello you'll need to earn and save coins to unlock the other Turtles. Dogpound is also playable, but you'll need a lot more coins to unlock him than you will for the Turtles.

If you're ready to give another endless runner a try "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Rooftop Run" is definitely worth your time. The Turtles brand makes it a standout in the App Store as it is, but it's the gameplay and fresh ideas that really bring it home. Add to that the excellent visual style and voice actors from Nickelodeon's animated series, and it's a mobile game that's pretty hard pass up at just $1.99.

Related posts:
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Rooftop Run Giveaway
'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Rooftop Run' Available Now On iOS!

--

Follow @MTVGeek on Twitter and be sure to "like" us on Facebook for the best geek news about comics, toys, gaming and more! And don't forget to follow our resident gadget geek @hatfieldy!

Tags: ipad, iPhone, iPhone / iPad, nickelodeon, Review, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Rooftop Run, tmnt

It's not easy to find an endless runner that offers something fresh while staying true to the simplicity of the genre, but Nickelodeon may be on to something with the first TMNT game for iOS. "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Rooftop Run" interestingly mixes running and jumping with combat, scaling walls and quick-time events.

At it's core, "TMNT: Rooftop Run" is your basic side-scrolling endless runner. The game starts with you picking your favorite character – Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael or Michelangelo – and then your off to the New York City, jumping roof-to-roof in true Turtle fashion.

As you progress, you'll start running into members of the Foot Clan and other TMNT villains, which in turn will introduce you to combat. In all honesty, the basic attacks remind me of the dash attack in recent Sonic the Hedgehog games. Whether you're in the air after a jump or just running along, enemies will be highlighted by a red target. When it appears you'll tap the screen until you've gotten by or defeated the evil doer.

Like any other endless runner you're goal here is to keep moving, and you'll have plenty of ways to do it. After a few runs you'll start to figure out your double-jumps and wall-runs. When everything comes together you'll realize the importance of planning out your Turtle's next move, setting up chains between enemies, walls and the higher rooftops you'll discover on along the way.

To keep the Turtle train rolling you'll also need a whole bunch of energy orbs. The only reason your Turtle is running to begin with is because he's got a Kraang Scout Ship on his tail. The green energy orbs floating throughout the game keep this ship away from you. If your energy meter runs out, your run is over. On the contrary, when the energy meter is completely full you'll be thrown into Turtle Time, a quick-time combat event where you'll be given a chance to kick the crap out of a bunch of Foot soldiers and rack up some coins.

Every time an enemy is put down you'll earn coins that can be spent on in-game items including gear, gadgets, boosts and weapons. Gear gives your Turtles a different look, while boosts help you do things like climb faster and collect more coins. Gadgets, however, are one-time use items such as the Laserbot, which follows you and clears out enemies in your path. Weapons are just what you'd expect, upgrades of the weapons used by each Turtle. It will take some time to earn enough coins to make all the upgrades you want, but in-app purchases are present if you want to speed things up.

In addition to unlocking items and upgrades, coins will also be needed if you want to play with more than one character. For instance, if you start the game with Donatello you'll need to earn and save coins to unlock the other Turtles. Dogpound is also playable, but you'll need a lot more coins to unlock him than you will for the Turtles.

If you're ready to give another endless runner a try "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Rooftop Run" is definitely worth your time. The Turtles brand makes it a standout in the App Store as it is, but it's the gameplay and fresh ideas that really bring it home. Add to that the excellent visual style and voice actors from Nickelodeon's animated series, and it's a mobile game that's pretty hard pass up at just $1.99.

Related posts:
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Rooftop Run Giveaway
'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Rooftop Run' Available Now On iOS!

--

Follow @MTVGeek on Twitter and be sure to "like" us on Facebook for the best geek news about comics, toys, gaming and more! And don't forget to follow our resident gadget geek @hatfieldy!

Tags: ipad, iPhone, iPhone / iPad, nickelodeon, Review, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Rooftop Run, tmnt

In music theory, there's a series of notes called a tritone interval. (I'm a writer and a Rock Band player, not a musician, so bear with me, band members.) The tritone consists of three different whole tones: The first sets the stage, marks the spot on the musical scale that our ear can attune itself to. The second note is actually dissonant - it throws off the harmony, and introduces new elements so distasteful that the chord used to be called "The Devil in Music."

The third tone, however, finishes off the chord in exactly the right way, and brings resolution to all of the dissonance. Leonard Bernstein famously put the tritone to great use in the song "Maria" from West Side Story: "Ma-" is the beginning tone, "-ri-" shakes things up with some disharmony, and "-a" resolves the melody, justifying the lead couple's forbidden love.

Now, using that theory to talk about Blizzard's StarCraft 2 trilogy is a little unfair. The second campaign, Heart of the Swarm, isn't anywhere near "distasteful." But it does introduce plenty of new elements to the series, spinning off the RTS classic into places that Wings of Liberty never dared to go. And like that second note of a tritone, it makes sure to leave plenty of ambiguity and promise out there, making sure we're all ready for the big finale in Legacy of the Void.

Continue reading StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm review: Zerg rushing towards resolution

StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm review: Zerg rushing towards resolution originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 18 Mar 2013 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments Tags: activision, activision blizzard, blizzard, blizzard-entertainment, four-stars, Heart-of-the-Swarm, kerrigan, kerrigaynor, legacy-of-the-void, PC, Review, starcraft 2, starcraft 2: heart of the swarm

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow: Mirror of Fate brings the series back to Nintendo's portable systems, where it thrived for a decade, after a lengthy hiatus. Unfortunately, the game suffers from a single glaring problem: It's not very good. 

Tags: Review

There is no getting around the similarities between Urban Trial Freestyle and the Trials series. The former, being a brand new game coming after several Trials titles, including two extremely successful XBLA games, is invariably going to attract cries of copycat. Part of that might be due to ignorance over the fact that motorcycle trials are a real thing, albeit something that isn't especially popular in the U.S. Regardless, being based on the same sport or activity means sharing a lot in common. Beyond those basics Freestyle does make some effort at distinguishing itself, although it fails to do so in any way that truly makes it superior.

Just like Trials, Freestyle is a game all about balance. You race trials bikes through 2.5D environments while shifting your weight forward and backward and exercising control with the throttle in an effort to avoid falling off. Not every event is a race to the finish, as in Trials; those do exist, but you'll also spend time on each level completing objectives located at specific points like high jumps, long jumps, speed checks. You're never required to exceed a certain benchmark; you simply do the best you can on each stunt as you make your way to the finish, which has to be reached in less than five minutes. The sooner your make it to the finish the more bonus points you'll receive, but the allure of returning to a checkpoint and retrying a stunt can be hard to resist when each one has an accompanying leaderboard and an in-level indication of its top player. It's easy to blow several minutes trying to top yourself on a stunt, which is a calculated risk as returning to the most recent checkpoint means forsaking the score you've already set.

Tags: Review

There is no getting around the similarities between Urban Trial Freestyle and the Trials series. The former, being a brand new game coming after several Trials titles, including two extremely successful XBLA games, is invariably going to attract cries of copycat. Part of that might be due to ignorance over the fact that motorcycle trials are a real thing, albeit something that isn't especially popular in the U.S. Regardless, being based on the same sport or activity means sharing a lot in common. Beyond those basics Freestyle does make some effort at distinguishing itself, although it fails to do so in any way that truly makes it superior.

Just like Trials, Freestyle is a game all about balance. You race trials bikes through 2.5D environments while shifting your weight forward and backward and exercising control with the throttle in an effort to avoid falling off. Not every event is a race to the finish, as in Trials; those do exist, but you'll also spend time on each level completing objectives located at specific points like high jumps, long jumps, speed checks. You're never required to exceed a certain benchmark; you simply do the best you can on each stunt as you make your way to the finish, which has to be reached in less than five minutes. The sooner your make it to the finish the more bonus points you'll receive, but the allure of returning to a checkpoint and retrying a stunt can be hard to resist when each one has an accompanying leaderboard and an in-level indication of its top player. It's easy to blow several minutes trying to top yourself on a stunt, which is a calculated risk as returning to the most recent checkpoint means forsaking the score you've already set.

Tags: Review