If you’ve played 
Hungry Shark on your iDevice, you’ve pretty much played Jaws Revenge. While the game is infinitely better than the first game based on the Steven Spielberg film classic, it’s not really breaking any new ground — and the game it chose to mimic wasn’t a great one to begin with. This update is admittedly better than Hungry Shark, but it, too, ultimately gets repetitive — even with the still-haunting John Williams music playing in the background.
Monthly Archives: October 2011
App Review: Monster Warrior
Monster Warrior makes 
no real effort to break new ground. It’s a proud Fruit Ninja clone, but that doesn’t make it a bad game. FIlled with monsters (that aren’t the least bit scary), it’s a nice seasonal take on the app store standard that doesn’t lose any of the fun factor. Like its inspiration, it’s a game you want to keep playing to beat your previous score. And with four different game modes, there’s plenty to keep you coming back.
Meet the best Rubik’s Cube player in the world: A robot
Last weekend, 350 
of the world’s fastest “speedcubers” gathered in Bangkok at the World Rubik’s Cube Championship in hopes of setting a world record.
None did — but even if they had, it would have been a tainted victory, as a robot invented by a pair of engineers just stole the crown.
Bunim/Murray plans vidgame-based reality show
Reality shows are 
entering the video game world.
Bunim/Murray Productions, creators of “The Real World” and “The Challenge,” have announced plans to team with CBS Interactive division GameSpot to launch “The Controller,” an online show based on Electronic Arts upcoming action shooter video game “Battlefield 3”.
Surprise! Apple has another runaway hit on its hands!
While some may 
have grumbled that the latest iPhone didn’t have a 5 at the end of its name, that doesn’t seem to have stopped them from running out to get one.
Apple reports that opening weekend sales of the iPhone 4S have set a new record, selling more than 4 million units over its debut weekend. That’s more than double the amount the iPhone 4 sold when it hit shelves.
The TV’s turn for an extreme makeover
The living room 
television set is starting to look a little long in the tooth.
With hundreds of TV channels to choose from, thousands of on-demand shows at people’s fingertips (plus thousands more from third-party services like Netflix and Hulu) and a near infinite amount of online content fighting for viewers’ attention, the way consumers interact with their sets is severely outdated.
App Review: Find My Friends
The risks that 
accompany any location tracking app are present in Find My Friends, but to Apple’s credit, the company has taken several steps to mitigate risk. That said, the app is still not a wise choice for children, unless parents want to use the iPod Touch or iPhone as a tracking device for their kids.
The free app allows people to track where their friends are, but uses a permission-based system. No one can track you unless you give your consent first. (Kids, though, might let anyone track them in an effort to build a large cache of online “friends.”) It’s easy to stop broadcasting your location, but given people’s tendencies to sometimes forget simple tasks, it’s inevitable that users will sometimes inadvertently announce where they are when they would rather not. Functionality-wise, it’s not dramatically different than other location sharing services, but it does the job well and includes enough additional features (such as temporary location sharing) and controls that it might be worth checking out — if the user is age appropriate.
App Review: FIFA Soccer 12
Previous FIFA soccer 
games in the App Store have been good, but not great. FIFA Soccer 12, though, is absolutely fantastic — and may be one of the best sports games available in the App Store. The entire game, from the controls to the graphics, has been overhauled — and the improvements are vast. The game makes excellent use of the touchscreen without slowing down the pace of the game. The graphics are quite smooth, and there’s even a manager mode, letting you experience soccer from the other side of the sidelines.
The addition of a changing daily challenge will keep core players hooked, but this is a title that even non-soccer fans will embrace. It’s a huge game, taking up over 1 GB of space, but its quality and depth indicate that’s not an unreasonable size.
Study finds violent games ‘emotionally desensitizing’
Video game industry 
critics have long held that people who play violent games become less affected by real world tragedies. Now they might have some science backing them up.
Researchers at the University of Bonn in Germany say a new study finds brain activity from heavy gamers is noticeably different than that of non-players — and that violent games could be “emotionally desensitizing” after extended exposure.
NPD: Game sales bounce back in September, hardware down
After setting five-year 
retail sales lows for the past three months, the video game industry finally showed signs of life in September — although those vitals weren’t as strong as some industry observers were expecting.
Year-over-year sales were down 4 percent overall, but game software sales (the most closely followed statistic) were up 3 percent, the first positive growth in months.
Chris Morris: Journalist 