Hasta La Gadget!

In two massively gigantic downloads out on the market right this second, the development team at Fatshark have teamed up with NVIDIA to bring on the console and PC Indiana Jones-like puzzle thriller Hamilton’s Great Adventure to Android. This game works only on devices packing an NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core processor – that including, of course, the Google Nexus 7 tablet, your best pal! Here in Hamilton’s Great Adventure THD and Hamilton’s Great Adventure THD Expansion Pack you’ll get massive amounts of puzzles to whip your way through in full-on leather jacket and next-level graphics from all directions.

This game has 22 levels, 24 puzzles, and 2 worlds per pack. There are two packs – that’s two applications, the second relying on the first to work – each of them with their own set of 22 levels, 24 puzzles, and 2 worlds. Worlds include Jungle of Amazonas, Mountains of Himalaya, Ruins of Egypt, and the Lost continent of Maralidia, and you get your bird companion Sasha the whole way through. This game takes what the original PC and console iterations brought forth and makes a miraculous re-creation here for the mobile environment.

You’ll be working with our good grave-robbing buddy and his fine feathered friend through this lovely collection of levels AS him or the bird. For bird controls you’ll be using your tablet or smartphone’s entire bulk to fly upward or downward – it’s no easy task! Avoid flying too low into the dust – you’ll get lost!

A couple things you may want to look out for before tossing cash towards this two-part beast download of a game: you need 1GB of space on your device for each half of the game. This is no small requirement, especially if you’ve got an 8GB Nexus 7. You’ll also want to be sure you have the first part of the game before you buy the expansion, as the expansion does not work without the first part. You’ll also want to be aware that this game works ONLY on devices running an NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core processor – if you don’t know if your device does, generally Google Play will tell you, but in this case it appears that it’s only after you’ve made the download that the game itself lets you know – be careful!

This game is intensely immersive, full to the max with mind-bogglingly difficult puzzles and high quality graphics you’ll be surprised your mobile device can work with. It would appear that Fatshark has a winner on their hands as far as gigantic Android games go – just so long as you’ve got the space and patience for it: you’re going to go nuts with puzzling levels of death from start to finish!

Hamilton’s Great Adventure THD Review is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

It’s time to have a peek at the next big smash gaming experience developed for the Tegra 3 quad-core environment on Android: Zombie Driver THD! This game brings on what the developers at Exor Studios make clear is “massive amounts of zombie carnage and unprecedented destruction effects.” And that it is, folks, we’ve had our own peek at this game and can readily assure you – there’s no better way to spend your late night candy-filled sugar coma this Halloween (tonight or whenever you just so happen to want do down a bunch of Snickers bars) than to slay some zombies in a destruction derby-style massacre.

Inside the game you’ll be rolling out in one of three different modes – the first is a storyline: that’s what you see above. Inside storyline mode you’ll quickly understand that you’re mission is almost always to take out the enemies, those being the undead! It’s the style with which you destroy that gets you up in the ranks! Once you’re ready to let the blood shower over you, you’ll be saving survivors left and right as you take on zombie packs and bosses like a death-dealing monarch.

You’ll drive anything from a bulldozer to a fire truck to a tank. This game brings on 7 arenas for you to dish out the insides, and in the second mode – a race sort of situation – your choices for massacre machine matter more than ever. You’ve got to balance the destruction you’re able to deal out with your ability to maneuver: it’s not just about the death of the dead, it’s about cold, hard speed as well!

The third mode is all about survival – wave after wave of puss-oozing bone-chompers making your mission to survive: with great rewards awaiting you! Each level will have you addicted to upgrading your machine and your score – more destruction each time you destroy!

Each weapon has three upgrade levels, you’ve got combo moves to make everything just a bit more interesting, and of course there’s a way to upgrade your Taxi into a Chariot of Death – their words, really! In all there’s 13 different vehicles to choose from and you’ll most certainly be having flashbacks to Twisted Metal before you murder your first 100 bodies of undead filth.

“Thanks to Tegra 3′s fantastic GPU performance we were able to use the same quality textures in Zombie Driver THD as on the PC. The outstanding quad-core CPU performance makes it possible to support Tegra game development in parallel to other high-end platforms!” — Pawel Lekki, Chief Operating Officer, EXOR Studios

The graphics in this game are made lovely by PhysX by NVIDIA and you know good and well that the physics, top to bottom, are above the line. This game will cost you just about 7 bucks on the Google Play app store through the NVIDIA TegraZone and it’s available right this very minute. It’s perfect to get some candy-less aggression out too, if that’s your aim – blast away!

Zombie Driver hits TegraZone and hands-on with buckets of blood is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

When Microsoft unveiled its Surface tablets with a flashy, top secret Los Angeles event, it didn’t just mark the beginning of a new (and utterly critical) phase for the history of the company. It marked the repurposing of a name that was already quite familiar to us — though in the guise of a big table. That device lives on as PixelSense, thus putting a period at the end of one definition of the word, a definition Microsoft kindly requests we put behind us as we move on to something that is wholly different.

This new Surface device could be said to relate more closely to the active form of the word in question. That is, the verb: to rise up — for something to appear that was not there before. It’s a very apt definition for what Microsoft is doing, attempting to go from zero to hero on the tablet hardware front in just one shot. Is this, the Surface for Windows RT, good enough to erase decades of mediocre touchscreen Windows devices? Will it help Microsoft and its latest operating systems float up to the top of the tablet hierarchy? Your answers lie just below the break.

Continue reading Microsoft Surface with Windows RT review

Filed under: Tablets, Microsoft

Microsoft Surface with Windows RT review originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Oct 2012 21:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Acer has revealed its latest Android tablet, the Iconia A110, taking on Google’s Nexus 7 with a Tegra 3 powered 7-incher for $229.99. Fronted by a 7-inch, 1024 x 600 display and tipping the scales at 0.86 pounds, the A110 has a 2-megapixel front facing webcam, 1GB of memory, and 8GB of storage.

There’s also a microUSB port supporting USB Host, MicroSD card slot for augmenting the onboard storage, and a micro HDMI port for hooking up a bigger screen. Inside there’s WiFi and Bluetooth 3.0, though no cellular wireless option, and a battery which Acer claims is good for 7.5hrs of runtime.

Like the Nexus 7, the OS is Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, and Acer slaps its own “circles” app launcher on there too. Sales will kick off on October 30 in the US and Canada, with the Iconia A110 priced at $229.99.

At that price, Acer will be in for some very strong competition, and we’re not sure whether the Iconia A110 can quite hold up to the scrutiny. Both the Nexus 7 and Barnes & Noble’s NOOK HD are cheaper out of the gate – each kicks off at $199.99 – and have better quality displays, running at 1280 x 800 and 1440 x 900 respectively.

Acer Iconia A110 wades into budget tablet waters (but is it cheap enough?) is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The Wikipad is an anomaly. It’s a 10.1-inch, $500 Android tablet aimed squarely at gamers — an expensive portal to a platform many mobile game developers have abandoned due to piracy. It’s got an IPS display with 1,280 x 800 resolution, an NVIDIA Tegra 3 T30 quad-core 1.4GHz processor, 1GB of DDR2 RAM, and Android 4.1 Jelly Bean (at launch). So … it’s not quite as sharp in the graphics department as some other tablets on the market, nor is it as pretty as its main handheld gaming competition, the PlayStation Vita. On top of that, it’s from an engineering firm that you’ve never heard of — Wikipad is also the name of the business behind the tablet, and this is the company’s first product launch. Oh, and did we mention that the main selling point is an attachable game controller that frames half the tablet in a mess of plastic buttons, joysticks, and speakers? And no, the controller won’t be sold separately, nor will it work with any other tablet.

Defying all logic, however, the Wikipad feels like a surprisingly solid piece of equipment (regardless of the fact that the prototype model we used was hand-built). From the light but solid construction of the tablet’s chassis, to its grippy molded rear — which helps both for gripping the tablet without the controller attached and assists sound amplification when the device is laid down — nothing about the device feels cheap. As a tablet, it’s speedy and responsive. Apps load quickly and smoothly, and it’s got extra loud speakers for gaming without headphones (or for David Guetta, as was demonstrated to us). The custom skin it was running felt a bit rough — the apps get reorganized with a gaming focus and slapped onto a flippable cube, which caused some visual stuttering from pane to pane. Another feature of the custom OS is a special 3D game launcher, which includes sections for Nvidia’s Tegra Zone, PlayStation Mobile games, GameStop-suggested titles, and Google Play. There are some less than exciting ad banners attached to this launcher, but they’re easily ignorable. Though Gaikai is still working with the Wikipad post-Sony buyout, CEO James Bower told us the game streaming service won’t be there at launch — he’s hoping it’ll arrive by year’s end, “but that’s up to Sony.”

Continue reading Hands-on with Wikipad, the $500 Android gaming tablet (video)

Filed under: Gaming, Tablets, Wireless, Mobile

Hands-on with Wikipad, the $500 Android gaming tablet (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 Sep 2012 14:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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