Not everyday you get a game developed using Unreal Developloment Kit (UDK) and Unreal Engine, so I was generally excited when I received the almost completed build of Flashbike Arena from the guys over at Two Gear LLC for the iPhone. The game is basically a clone of TRON lightcycles experience. While I’m not unfamiliar with the concept, I was curious to see what the Unreal Engine would bring to the table.

Honestly, I was a little disappointed when I didn’t see much of graphical bling-bling, I think that’s the first thing that comes to a consumer’s mind whenever someone says “I’ve made a game using Unreal Engine”. According to the developers the game features next-gen shaders and rigid body physics, but if this translates to more of the same kind of experience already available on the App Store, or it’s just uninspired enough to warrant a “Meh..”, then such terminology are only good for marketing speak.

The proof, however, is in the pudding, and when it comes to games, it would be in the gameplay. So how does Flashbike Arena match-up in this aspect? If you’ve seen a Tron-inspired lightcycle game, then you would have a clear idea on what’s happening in Flashbike Arena. Players steer futuristic motorbikes that leave coloured walls in their wake. Crashing into one of these walls (be it your own or the opponent’s) and you’ll lose one live. Opponents drop energy orbs when destroyed and collecting these will add a nice bonus to your score.

But having said that, the gameplay doesn’t amount to much. And even as a tech demo, it’s very hard to appreciate since there’s not much of the visual bling-bling usually associated with Unreal Engine-based games in Flashbike Arena. Word of advice, drop the UDK selling point and the Infinity Blade name-dropping, and concentrate on some really compelling gameplay. Just ask the guys behind Hard Lines (review here), now those guys didn’t need Unreal Engine.

Hardcore gamers are pretty easy to identify. They are normally the ones that play COD:MW regularly online or have wiped the floor clean against AI opponents on Street Fighter IV. The rise of casual gaming in recent years on the other hand have raised another kind of hardcore gamer, the hardcore casual gamer.

What was used to be unlikely gamers sitting in front of their PCs playing web-based Bejeweled has given way to tower defense addicts, completists obsessed with 3 stars for each level, and game developers who have no choice but to fill their games with countless of levels despite the selling price of USD 0.99.

With the prevalence of smartphones and tablets, be they iOS or Android or even Windows Phone 7 devices, it’s safe to say that hardcore casual gamers may even outnumber traditional hardcore gamers, making them a market segment that is really hard to ignore and one that is readily an amazing source of income for any savvy video game developer out there.

The current casual gaming scene on iOS devices seem to be dominated by indie game developers, resulting in hits such as Angry Birds, Plant vs. Zombies, the Zenonia series, Cut The Rope and many more. Some of these developers have been bought over by much bigger companies, but there’s still plenty of innovation on this exciting segment of the video games industry. And that’s the reason why Nine Over Ten 9/10 covers it

The London Riots of 2011 was an interesting event to follow even in a year in which we have seen the Arab Spring. This was simply because the scale and the looting that followed was unprecedented in what we acknowledge as a developed nation.

While I think the general cause of the riot and looting were due to individuals hijacking what was initially a show of displeasure against the police shooting of a black guy (which itself is a rare thing in the UK, unlike the police force of a certain former colony which happens to be my home country), I’m surprise at the levels of participation and thuggery.

It seems like greed and consumerism are the main drivers behind the looting, it’s just scary looking at these yobs making off with flat panel TVs, sport shoes, cell phones, all those things that are desirable in live but perhaps this class of people are too impoverished to have them all. And with that greed came madness, as if it’s not enough to strip a store dry, they would raze it to the ground!

I found it even more interesting to see initially how the authorities were trying to explain the cause for these riots. Both popular culture and social media were place in the forefront, cast as the cause and instigator to the riots. Gangster movies (this is a new one) and video games (well, ok, this is an old one) were blamed for the thuggish behaviour displayed by these offenders. Messaging services such as BBM were fingered as the method used for coordinating the mobs.

Perhaps what we are witnessing is the breakdown of the British family unit due to social/economical/political factors, considering the majority of these looters are teenagers (a.k.a. yobs a.k.a teenage/young hooligans)? One guy even mentioned that this is a rise of a “more menacing underclass”, basically “a new generation of disturbed and aggressive young people due to repeat and amplify the social breakdown disfiguring their lives and others around them”.

Scary isn’t it?

Youtube user (that would mean content provider), animator, special FX artist and from the looks of it, avid Konami fan, rickonami has done up some really cool remakes of intros to Castlevania, Gradius 2 and Gradius 3, among other games. He has also come up with the following Mech Fight space battle animation, which I think is pretty cool:

Check out the rest of his creations:

I had an interesting reply the other day when I approached an indie game developer/publisher on whether he would be interested to buy up some ad space on Nine Over Ten 9/10 to advertise his game. His reply came in the negative (which I’m ok with), explaining that his company prefers to focus on free-app-a-day kind of promotions.

I gave that answer some food for thought, and since the game isn’t one that relies on in-app purchases, how does it make money then? Sure you’ll get all the exposure but does that translate to sales? Businessweek came up with an article just recently detailing the fact and an actual case study, titled The Cost of Being Amazon’s Free App of the Day.

Basically the guys over at Shifty Jelly had their game Pocket Caster featured as the free app of the day on Amazon’s App Store. Purchases of the app increased from 20 a day to more than 100,000 on the day it went free. Note that last bit as the company didn’t earn anything and right after the promo period ended, sales went back to normal levels, but customer support demands rose. So much for a buzzmaker.

Here’s what the developers had to say:

“Did the exposure count for much in the days afterward? That’s also a big no, the day after saw a blip in sales, followed by things going back to exactly where we started, selling a few apps a day. In fact Amazon decided to rub salt in the wounds a little further by discounting our app to 99¢ for a few days after the free promotion. All we got was about 300 e-mails a day to answer over the space of a few weeks, that left us tired and burnt out.”

This is a pretty interesting real-life case. Any developers out there would care to share their experience in slicing the price of their apps down to “FREE”? Check out the full article over here: http://www.businessweek.com/technology/the-cost-of-being-amazons-free-app-of-the-day-08032011.html

I’ve not done this ever, but my fiance and I watched two movies at the cinema in the course of a single week (most of the time we’re just too busy with work to do this). We caught both Captain America: The First Avenger and Rise of The Planet Of The Apes.

Lets start with the good stuff first. Rise of The Planet Of The Apes is, IMHO, a pretty smart re-boot of the original series and it serves as a reminder that the road to hell, is indeed paved with good intentions. James Franco’s scientist character, Will, develops a cure for Alzheimer’s disease and tests the cure on chimpanzees.

This ultimately leads to the creation of Caesar, a super-smart chimp, no thanks to the cure (a virus really) being passed to him in-vitro by his mum, Bright Eyes (heh…the movie starts fast with the references to the first film in the original series). A stronger cure created by Will results in even smarter apes but proves to be fatal to humans, killing them off, resulting in the titular “Rise of the Planet of the Apes”.

The film however suffers from one fatal storytelling flaw, Will isn’t cast as the bad guy and he gets off easy (no tragic death by gunfire, helicopter, virus or ape), with just a longing look in his eyes that the ape he raised can now talk and is now “free”. The film relies on the likes of Brian Cox (yup…Hannibal Lektor) and Tom Felton (yup…Draco Malfoy) as two really bad zookeepers who give Caesar a really hard time in an ape sanctuary he was interred in, to deliver the goods.

That’s pretty “Meh” as the two sideshows prove to be lightweight and I seriously thought that Will should had have it coming (you know, as a poster boy for animal testing and generally for killing off the human race). I did enjoy the movie (like I said, it’s a smart re-boot), and fans of the original Planet of the Apes movie are going to love the references to that film. Lines like “It’s a madhouse” and “Get your hands off me, you damned, dirty ape” somehow managed to show up in the script. This movie is a MUST WATCH.

Okay, now, the bad stuff. I became a fan of Captain America when Marvel’s Ultimates line-up helped create a jumping-on point for new comic book readers back in the year 2000. Yup, the first books I collected were The Ultimates by Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch and this was basically a revamped version of The Avengers.

You can tell that the books are pretty influential, their particular version of Nick Fury, and to some extent, Hawkeye are what you see on the silver screen today. And this brings up the problem I have with the movie. The Ultimates version of Captain America is pretty damn bad-assed. He’s a master tactician and field commander, jumps off planes without a chute, and has no qualms about kicking ass (basically killing people) and taking names.

Chris Evan’s potrayal of Cap on the other hand reminded me of a cute puppy…that was something I highlighted ever since I saw the trailer to the movie. My fiance mentioned that the movie made her laugh. And that sums up Captain America: The First Avenger. It has its moments, but it’s ultimately a joke.

I had a very interesting weekend, which surprisingly didn’t involve video games. I took part in two runs, one on Saturday night, before taking part on a Sunday morning run several hours later. The former was the Men’s Health/Shape Run 2011 that took place in Putrajaya with a distance of 12.3 KM.

The run was a very nice one, it took us on a scenic route through 3 different bridges that connected Precinct 3 with the rest of the administrative city of Putrajaya. You can’t believe how beautiful the bridges are at night and the rest of the course was a mix of flats and inclines.

The race itself was pretty well organized, although I wished there was a staggered start. The turnout for the 12.3 KM event was massive and that made for a really cramped and slow start. The second water station was a bit of a mess.

The thing about short distance runs is that there’s always a huge number of runners going through any given water station (like a round of Lemonade Tycoon…there..my first video game analogy in a while) so it pays to be prepared.

Anyways, I managed to clock a 1 hour 18 minute time but I felt I could have gotten faster…which I did several hours later with a personal best for a 10 K at the Klang Admiral 5A Charity Run 2011. It was held at the Sultan Sulaiman Stadium, with the route taking us past the Istana onto the highway to Port Klang, before turning back past Harbour Place.

One thing about about these Klang runs…there’s plenty of food at the end. Not only that, the race was well organized, with a staggered start, a couple of water stations and a damn straight route with a couple of inclines.

OK, it looks like this whole War of the Green Lanterns thing seem to have dissipated just like that and any form of closure is replaced just with air. At least the re-boot is not too far away, this whole Flashpoint thing is throwing spanners into everything as well.

It’s suprising that the most “normal” book that I like this week happens to be one of the more “unhinged” ones. Jim Gordon’s son has been creeping people out in Detective Comics, and things look to be coming to a head in #880. The Joker takes great pains in pointing out the differences between Dick Grayson’s Batman and Bruce Wayne’s Batman and for once…he’s not really the bad guy in this. (check out the cover, it’s awesome).

Like I’ve mention earlier, the Flashpoint titles are making reading comics a headache (at least for me). Project Superman #2 is meh, whereas I’m still getting used to seeing Hal Jordan without a ring in Hal Jordan #2. I wonder how DC plans to consolidate this universe with the current main one to form up the re-boot, it has to be an event of cataclysmic porportions.

On the Marvel side of things, Venom #5 doesn’t disappoint at all despite taking away the guns early in the story to let Flash Thompson deal with daddy and drink issues. I wonder what will happen when Peter Parker finds out that Flash is wearing the symbiote… I mean, having the former lose his spider senses in the Spiderman books was a stroke of genius, otherwise, he would have found out at the drop of a hat.

X-Men: Legacy #252 should probably be renamed as X-Men: Legion #n whereby n = the number for the particular split personality that Legion is battling in this issue. He gives up without much of a fight to the big bad personality he has been hunting, but we can only see the repercussions in #253.

X-Men: Schism #2 is interesting, but the art kinda steals its thunder a bit. Just take a look at Rogue’s costume, and how Cyclops looks like a malnourished Somali or something. Before I get to the next title, it seems that the X-books are really having their cake and eating it, if you’ve got a limited budget, buy any of the X-titles mentioned here today….including this one: Uncanny X-Force #12.

It’s bloody good as it asks plenty of What-If worthy questions like What-If mainstream Wolverine meets AoA Jean Grey…and better still…sets up the stage for the former to face his AoA counterpart, the supposedly dead one-armed Canuck revived as one of Apocalypse’s heralds! FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT!

I took a snapshot of IO-Interactive’s (the makers of the Hitman series) job ad on this month’s issue of EDGE as I couldn’t help but notice the focus on FOOD as part of the job perks. I wonder whether it is the same everywhere else? I hope they have comprehensive health care and gym memberships considering what they are feeding their guys:

The Mac App Store is a treasure trove of stuff waiting to be discovered. I was browsing around the other day (can’t really recall what I was looking for), but I bumped into Dejal Systems’ Simon Free, a website monitoring tool for Mac OS X. The app checks websites and servers for changes or failures, and it is what I use to monitor Nine Over Ten 9/10.

Another interesting app that I downloaded is Atomix Productions’ VirtualDJ Home. I’m still dabbling with it, but according to the developer, it’s the most widely used DJ software and uncontested leader of non-timecode digital DJing.

You know what’s the best part about these two apps that I downloaded? Both are available for free on the App Store! Check them out over here:

• Simon Free: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/simon-free/id402359480?mt=12
• VirtualDJ Home: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/virtualdj-home/id417934534?mt=12

So what interesting apps have you found on the Mac App Store recently?