Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Pocket Legends BETA makes its debut on Android: WoW Gameplay meets Portability


Back in 2004, Blizzard changed the gaming world by introducing the mega popular hit, World of Warcraft.  MMORPGs began to take the spotlight. I admit, I was addicted to WoW. I remember many on occasions where I would hastily finish my homework so I could join a guild run of Molten Core (Only played until Burning Crusade). I stayed up hours and hours hoping for an epic drop from Onyxia. Although it was fun and all, WoW burned a hole in my pocket. With the advent of high end mobile phones, I began to wonder when would a MMORPG hit the scene.

Fast forward six years. Spacetime Studios, LLC broke new ground in the mobile world by releasing Pocket Legends for the iPhone and iPod touch this past April. It was considered the first ever mobile MMO. With rave reviews, Pocket Legends took the mobile MMORPG genre by storm. Only time would tell when Pocket Legends would hit Android. Android definitely needed a nice MMO for it's 100,000+ library of apps.


Finally, that day has arrived. Pocket Legends finally arrived on Android. Spacetime Studios has taken the liberty of porting the hugely popular game to the Android Market. Let it be known this app is still in the Beta stage so things can change before it's release version. I have been playing with this app for hours and here are some impressions.

At first glance this game has somewhat of a WoW-like feel. In the beginning, you take up the role of three unique animal classes; a bear-like warrior, mystical elf, and a bird-like archer. The warrior can be considered a close combat character while the elf is a caster and the archer is a long range attacker. You accept quests and complete them to acquire powerful weapons and some nice pocket change. You also battle bosses while level skills and attributes along the way. As your character grows in strength, you become worthy enough to take on even stronger bosses. If you're bored, you can duel some people on your downtime (player versus player).

Some of the features found throughout the game include (sorry I can't remember all the features but these are some of the many):
-Leader boards
-Customizable characters
-Capture the flag arena play
-Various open worlds and towns
-Many quests and events
-Ability to trade, sell, or give loot as gifts
-Stash loot away for safe keeping
-PvP (player versus player)
-In game chat
-Ability to make friends and quest with them
-In game store for paid items (Special items you can buy with real money)

Stats Page
Special Skills Page
In Game Market (Buy Items Here With Real Money)
 Pros:
-Quite addicting
-Reminiscent of WoW
-Quick continue feature (It's easy to continue by loading from a quest)
-Nice graphics and sound especially for a MMO on a phone
-Catchy storyline
-Customizable characters
-Controls are pretty responsive and concise

Quick Continue Feature

Cons:
-Surprisingly large file (almost 14mb after installing to SD card. 40mb in total)
-Depending on what phone you have, controls may feel cumbersome (Trackballs should be implemented)
-Lag in some areas due to high populations (Just like WoW)
-If you die, you start from the beginning of the level
-No in game saving feature (when you load a quest, you start at the beginning though all attributes are saved)

Gameplay Screens
Other Players Chilling
Casting Spells
Quest Dude
 Overall, Pocket Legends seems to be a quite competent MMORPG even in the Beta stage. The mechanics of the game seem similar to WoW but instead you have pocketability. You also have a pretty interesting story line in an enchanted world. The graphics look rich and detailed. I was actually surprised my HTC Aria handled this game quite well. I have not experienced any lag whatsoever except for crowded areas (possibly due to servers). The user interface is fairly easy to use especially when casting special spells/attacks. I do enjoy playing this game and I am happy it finally made it's way onto Android. Oh yea I must not forget, this game is a MMORPG so it's an online game. You need internet connection whether it be 3/3.5/4G or Wifi to play this game. If you have a limited data plan like me, I suggest playing on Wifi because it is quite easy to rack up bills especially if you don't have an unlimited plan.

If you enjoy WoW and want a cost effective alternative or just want an exciting app to pass some time, definitely check out Pocket Legends especially since it's FREE!! Beware Pocket Legends is quite addicting =P

Edit: From what I understand, there have been quite a few fixes after I posted this. Consensus shows rating have improved since then.

Here is the .apk for the game. A moderator on the Spacetime Studios, LLC posted this apk for people who can't access it on the market.

http://www.4shared.com/file/JnzwMQ7I/PocketLegends.html









Opera Mobile 10.1 for Android: Not bad for a beta.


EDIT: Opera Mobile had a few updates. I'll post information about the updates later =)

Opera Mobile 10.1 makes its way onto the Android OS (Released November 9th). Personally I'm a fan of the Opera browser so I decided to give this iteration a go. I tried it for about a day and I have several impressions. Let it be known that this is only a beta version. The release version will be coming out in the near future.

All of the niceties from  Opera mini 5.1.1  are present such as tabbed browsing and webpage optimizations (fits screen much better), and synchronization to name a few. You can also backup your bookmarks and search engines then sync them to your computer. The one thing I find very nice is the "speed dial" feature where you can assign bookmarks to a 9 entry speed dial. It's like a speed dial for bookmarks. This browser is also quite speedy compared to the stock browser. After all Opera is known for their great compression which results in substantial increases in page loading speed.

Tabbed Browsing and "Speed Dial"

 Though there are a few noticeable differences in Opera Mobile 10.1:
-Default full screen (You can change it to mobile view in the settings)
-Rendering of images (Uses a rendering engine now. Before images looked fuzzy)
-"Opera Turbo" (Compression feature found in Opera Mini. Uses less data and faster loading)
-Pinch-to-zoom (Probably the best implemented feature. Works responsively)

Opera Turbo and Mobile View Options
Full Website View

Promotional Vids


There are a few things I don't really enjoy:
-Large download file (20mb total but if you move it to your SD card, it is still 13mb)
-No flash support yet (It'll be implemented in the final release)
-Issues with proxies (An error still pops up if you're trying to hook up to a wifi connection)

No Flash Yet
Overall even though it's an app still in the beta stage, I enjoy using it. The image clarity is quite a difference from Opera Mini. Both iterations run at about the same speed but if you turn the "Opera Turbo" option off, the pages load a little slower because of the sharper image rendering. I hope Opera makes the file size smaller because 20mb is quite a lot for our internal memory.  Apparently flash will be implemented in the final release so it's something to look forward to. I am praying they will fix the proxy error so this can be used as a stand alone browser. With these issues aside, it's pretty good for a beta. It's got all the nice features from Opera Mini and it still has a nice interface. The difference between the two iterations comes down to practicality. If you want a quick, lightweight browser, opt for the Opera Mini app. If you want a content rich browser, opt for the new Opera Mobile 10.1 app.

The links to appbrain are below.








Tuesday, November 9, 2010

So I was bored today


Decided to flash a font on my HTC Aria for the first time. I tried a bunch and was stuck between the Ubuntu font and Neotech. I decided to go with Neotech because I liked the bolder look and it seemed a bit easier to read. It's very easy to flash on your rooted Android phone. Here are some pics:
Stock Font Screens

Neotech Font

Ubuntu Font



Here's the thread with the various fonts and a "How to" section:
If you have any questions or need help, let me know =)