Archery sims are fairly rare beasts in the gaming world, 
but when they’re done right, they can be a lot of fun. SplitApple has that essence of fun, but it lacks many features that seem natural to the genre, ultimately making it fall short. There’s no GameCenter integration at the time of this review, and the tournament mode feels stunted (taking place in just one location). Moving targets would also seem a natural part of the game. Thankfully, developer MKO Games recognizes this and is promising an update in the future. The graphics are quite smooth, though, and aiming your bow is just challenging enough to stay interesting, but not frustrating. Right now, this is an overpriced app, but if developers follow through on their promises to add more game modes and target types, it might be worth a look.
Author Archives: Chris Morris
App Review: Asphalt 6: Adrenaline HD
There are plenty of racing games in the iTunes 
App Store, but the Asphalt series has always been near the top. Asphalt 6: Adrenaline HD is another winning installment, offering a fun, fast-paced experience with plenty of tracks, cars, and detailing options. It’s also a long game that lets users feel they really got their money’s worth from the app’s reasonably high cost at the time of this review. The problem is, this sixth version of the series is pretty close to the fifth. Aside from the ability to get an acceleration boost by collecting nitro symbols on the track and the elimination of unlocking “girls,” it’s a virtual clone, in fact. And the multiplayer is so-so at best. That puts the series at risk — and developer Gameloft will need to shake things up if it wants the inevitable Asphalt 7 to stand out from the crowd.
‘Q’ up: Scrabble expands its vocabulary
Scrabble, one of the last bastions of grammatical 
purism in a world overrun by cell phone text abbreviations, is capitulating to the times.
The board game plans to add 3,000 new words to its official dictionary, including several slang terms like “thang” (9 points) and “grrl” (5 points) as well as pop culture touchstones, like Facebook and MySpace.
Google unveils new Android version, cloud storage system
Google’s planning to get more aggressive in 
the mobile and tablet markets – and it’s looking to pick a fight in the digital music space as well.
At its I/O developer conference, the search giant announced the next iteration of its Android operating system, codenamed “Ice Cream Sandwich,” which should hit the market by the end of the year. Google also announced its long-awaited cloud-based music storage system, which will compete with Amazon.
Activision: Call of Duty: Black Ops used more than Facebook
Every day, the average Facebook user spends 
55 minutes clicking through the popular social networking site. That’s an impressive time sink — but players of Call of Duty: Black Ops have them beat.
Activision says since the First Strike downloadable content pack was released on February 1, players have averaged 58 minutes per day playing online. Given that the game itself is now over six months old, that’s a seriously dedicated fan base.
Opinion: The Video Game-Home Video Disconnect
[Gamasutra editor-at-large Chris Morris looks at the odd 
disconnect between video games and the film industry, discussing the ins-and-outs of “transmedia”, and how publishers could potentially take advantage of the system.]
Video games and Hollywood have always been the Woody Allen and Soon-Yi of the entertainment world. They’re together forever, but the fit has always been an odd one — and a little creepy at times.
Yet, for all the talk of film and video game synergy, you don’t see a lot of real world applications. Typically, the drill goes something like this: Studio wants to extend the reach of its upcoming nerd-friendly film; reaches agreement with game publisher; crappy game ensues (usually due to severely restricted development windows).
Groupon, Ticketmaster team for bargain ticket site
The parent company of Ticketmaster and one of the hottest 
startups around have partnered together for a new site that will offer limited-time deals for concerts, theater and other live events.
Live Nation and Groupon today rolled out GrouponLive. The site will act much like the main Groupon service, offering bargain pricing on a variety of events, targeted near where customers live. The service will begin offering deals at some point before the summer concert season.
Massachusetts town votes to keep arcades illegal
Don’t look for a Pac-Man machine in 
Marshfield, Mass. And forget finding a place to play Golden Tee as well.
Located 25 miles southeast of Boston, the small city of 4,297 is the only town in America where arcade games are illegal. And it likes it that way.
Five game accessories you don’t need
The video game industry is littered with 
terrible gadgets. But while the gaudiest gear — Nintendo’s ROB the Robot and PowerGlove, or the original Xbox’s massive Steel Battalion setup — score headlines, it’s the smaller bits and baubles that can really make you crazy.
Intended to make your gaming experience smoother, easier, smarter, or prettier, the worst extras often wind up spending more time in a drawer than your hands. Here are a few pieces of gaming hardware you should probably play without:
App Review: PAC-CHOMP!
Pac-Man and Bejewled might seem an odd mix, but 
they blend quite well together in PAC-CHOMP! The game is nearly as addictive as the PopCap Games’ classic Bejeweled, but still retains the charm of Pac-Man, a beloved arcade standard. Matching ghosts of the same color earns bonus items, which eliminate scores of ghosts when Pac-Man eats them. Match enough ghosts and you’ll earn a power pellet, which triggers a bonus stage when eaten. The real fun is in the ability to rotate parts of the screen to move elements around. Determining when that’s appropriate adds another layer of strategy to the game, elevating it beyond a simple clone. One word of warning to colorblind players: The ghosts can be hard to discern if your eyes have trouble with shades of blue. That won’t affect most people, but it’s maddening for those it does.
Chris Morris: Journalist 