Part of the series 148Apps Goes Deep on XCOM: Enemy Unknown

I’m still haunted by visions of a parallel world (classified as Xbox 360) as it wasn’t long ago that I was in charge of the XCOM project and led a squadron of soldiers against an alien army. Soldiers I grew attached too, including the first Colonel who helped lead us to many victories.

Col. Carrie “Chops” Welsh, a name that I’ll never forget.

As commander, I led her and the rest of my squadron on many successful missions as it seemed as if we had an upper hand on the enemy. However, not long after, our run of successful missions came to an end as we came across a new alien technology. And missions weren’t the only thing I lost. I had one mission where I lost my entire squadron, except for “Chops,” who had seven kills and saved a VIP all by herself. There was also a mission that had no hope for survival, though Col. Welsh made it back because of the two remaining squad members who bravely created a barrier, allowing her to escape. Those soldiers knew that there would have been no hope of winning this war without her.

Even with all the success and all the sacrifice, sadly, a couple of missions later and after a careful approach, I lost her to a surprise attack and eventually lost the war. The XCOM project was dismantled and I quickly left that world, learning a lot from the experience.

I know that my past experience will help me on this new battle that’s about to begin on this world, classified as iOS. The same thing is about to happen again, and thankfully from my past experience, I should have a bit of an edge on them.

And so it begins! Again.

 
I’m very much anticipating playing this new iOS version of XCOM after having fallen in love with the console version. It’s been quite a while since I’ve played the game, though, so a lot of things are going to feel fresh as I begin my new journey on the iPad.

I just watched the opening presentation and am now listening to the fantastic menu music that has me feeling even more excited as I write this. I’ve missed this game!

I’m presented with an option of difficulty. I won’t go the Easy route and there’s no way I can do the Impossible difficulty. So, it’s either Normal or Classic, and Classic is identified for experienced XCOM players only. I’m going to make things interesting; hello, Classic difficulty! I hope this doesn’t turn out to be a mistake, going with a higher difficulty level, especially since I haven’t played it in so long. It should provide for an interesting Commander’s Log, though!

The question of whether or not we are alone in the universe has just been answered as something comes crashing down to Earth, causing panic in the streets. And, as I have foreseen, I have now been chosen to lead the XCOM project. I am the Commander!

First Taste of Action

Here we go with the first mission, an alien sighting in Mexico. It’s my squad’s duty to sweep the area and neutralize all enemy hostiles. It didn’t take long for me to remember why I love this game so much in the first place, watching the aircraft take us to locations, seeing the battlefield and moving my soldiers strategically while hunting down the alien invaders. Also, I totally dig the intense feeling when moving forward on the battlefield without knowing the exact enemy location.

Getting back out in the field is great, even though I don’t have my best performance. I lost one soldier on my first mission while killing six enemies. I also had a nice laugh while watching three aliens come crashing onto the street by jumping through windows and then immediately jumping back into the same building that they just jumped out of. These aliens are crazy!

I’m finally getting the rundown of the XCOM headquarters and then I’m sent to the barracks to promote two of my soldiers; sniper, Holly Taylor and heavy gunner, Raul Ruiz. I think I’ll avoid using real names during my playthrough. Yes, I know. Where’s the fun in that? I still don’t want to kill my friends. Yet.

Research time! I have three projects available, including xeno-biology to learn more about the alien race, weapons fragments to better understand their weapons and help better develop ours, and alien materials to build better armor for my soldiers.

I want better weapons! Time to complete that project.

Even though it looks small, I forgot how big the XCOM headquarters feels with all the different scientific projects, engineering projects, and everything else that needs to be managed like your UFO interceptors, soldiers, and facilities. There is so much going on here and every little bit of it is extremely important to being successful. It’s almost overwhelming at times, having to carefully manage every area and making sure I bring back materials to work on further projects.

Bravery Turns To Panic

Now I’m back to mission control, scanning for activity. I’ve come across three abduction sites in Argentina, Germany, and India. Germany and India are listed as easy and moderate on the difficulty, and the panic level of both countries is low, with Argentina already showing two five panic bars. The mission in Argentina is also difficult. I could take the easier route and earn some money or engineers as a reward, or I could take the difficult route and receive 4 scientists as a reward.

Well, I’m feeling brave during this playthrough, so I am going with the difficult mission based in Argentina. Hopefully I can calm the panic there.

I’m playing the mission cautiously but my guys just don’t know how to shoot. These soldiers keep missing their shots, and the enemy simply outguns us. I’m down to one remaining soldier, who just got hit, putting him down to his final health bar. He panics and somehow shoots and kills the alien who shot him, after missing time and time again before that. Now the final alien misses and I am fed up with this crap shooting accuracy, so I charge the alien and throw a grenade at him. Boom! Mission over.

I may have calmed the panic in Argentina, but my team certainly didn’t handle the situation calmly at all. They panicked on multiple occasions and I ended up losing three of my four soldiers in this mess, with my remaining soldier down to his last health bar.

Holly Taylor, the sniper, scored a kill during this mission, but unfortunately, she died soon after. Newcomer Nick Dunn took 6 of the 8 kills in that mission and was the only one to survive. I think he’ll be around for a while, after having this type of experience, he’ll be the soldier on the field that leads me to countless victories! He’s out for 15 days, though, while he heals from his injuries.

While panic decreased in Argentina, it increased in Asia and Europe.

Shootin’ Down UFOs and Clearing The Crash Site

Now, I’m back at XCOM headquarters. Weapons research is completed and it’s time to begin a project on experimental warfare, allowing us to learn even more about the alien technology to use in our own weapons.

I’m now encountering my first UFO contact in the southern United States; time to scramble an interceptor! It’s so much fun watching my aircraft takeoff on their mission to hunt down a UFO. Also, you know what? I wish I could name my pilots! GO MAVERICK!

Anyway, I shoot down the UFO, sustaining heavy damage to my own aircraft. Another reminder of why I love this game: the control room full of cheers when the UFO goes down. Now it’s time to send a ground unit to the UFO site.

Hopefully this mission goes a lot better. I’m going to be a lot more aggressive with my approach, making sure I provide even higher percentage shots for my soldiers. I hope this pays off!

I get super aggressive with the first alien, killing him right away, forcing the second alien to fall back. I quickly gained ground on the second alien and set the two guys behind him to overwatch. The alien moves out on his next turn and my two overwatch troopers take care of business, killing it. I’m now coming across a new alien that came out from within the ship, an alien of almost pure energy. As it moves out, the two soldiers shoot it, taking it down to 1 health bar. However, it kills one of my soldiers during its next move. I finish it off right after, though.

It sucks when you lose a soldier, but especially when it comes down to one health bar on that alien and then it survives to get a shot off, taking out one of your own.

Bah, I miss on a 65% chance shot which leads to the death of another soldier. She was in a somewhat covered position, but I let the alien get a clear shot from the side. Now I’m getting aggressive again and charging both aliens who are in close proximity to each other. I pull out a grenade and say goodnight. My soldiers have killed 5 aliens and secured the crash site, but I still lost two of my team members in the process.

Elise Leroy got 4 kills in this, her first mission, and is now assigned to sniper class. I think I have a team building here, with Elise and Nick Dunn, two strong soldiers with good first missions. Let’s keep it going and not lose any more soldiers. Elise wasn’t hurt in this mission, so I think her and Nick will be active in the next round.

The Mission Where It All Goes My Way

The United Kingdom, along with most of Europe, is already at three bars on the panic meter. There is an abduction site in Manchester and so I am sending a team there now. Mission difficulty is Very Difficult, so I hope Leroy and Dunn can put together a strong assault on the alien targets. Reward is $200 dollars, which I could really use to buy more satellites, squad armor, and weapons.

It’s a windy, rainy night in Manchester, almost kind of spooky as I move my squad from vehicle to vehicle on the city streets. I come across aliens almost immediately. My lead soldier takes a hit with the first alien shot; one more and he’s done. I move him closer to throw a grenade, taking out the two lead aliens. The initial explosion only kills one, though the second alien, hiding behind a car, launched into the air as the car exploded. I don’t recall ever seeing an alien go flying quite that high! I’m going to make all you aliens become little miniature UFOs!

Beautiful! I have Leroy set up on overwatch, behind a car, and an alien comes forward into her sights, letting her snipe it from a distance! Goodbye, alien! Best shot so far from this playthrough. I love setting up snipers on overwatch. It helps better protect my frontline soldiers.

Scary moment; I’m playing it safe, keeping my soldiers back on overwatch. However, since nothing is happening, I’m pushing my soldier with low health forward and he comes across two aliens who have overwatch on his position. Thankfully, both aliens miss on their shots. However, they are lined up for a perfect shot on their next turn, so I position my other soldiers in a way to attack the aliens without giving up another turn. I launch a grenade over a truck, it lands on their position, and one alien goes down. The other alien has one life bar left, so I take another soldier to get a wide angle shot on him. Thankfully, my soldier hits him, surely saving my other soldier’s life. This is intense.

Haha, wow! I forgot that an alien snuck into a truck and has been patiently waiting there for me to move. I finally move right past it, watching it shoot because it is on overwatch. It’s an up close shot and yet it misses! So lucky! He is lined up for shots on two of my guys, including Leroy, but I’m having a soldier throw a grenade into the truck to end the round, which he does.

That’s ten aliens killed and zero soldiers lost! HOORAH!

Of course, after that successful mission, calming the panic in the UK by 2, China goes into full panic with five red bars, the highest amount. Maybe I’ll use some of my reward money to buy a satellite to send up over China to calm things a bit. I’ll need to order a few interceptors to have over there as well so that UFO’s can’t shoot down the satellite.

Stay tuned for part 2, in which even the best efforts by the XCOM team aren’t enough to save the world.

Rovio Entertainment, creators of Angry Birds, has a new publishing initiative called Rovio Stars that will see its first titles Icebreaker and Tiny Thief released soon. Kalle Kaivola, Senior Vice President of Product & Publishing at Rovio Entertainment, took the time to answer some of my questions about Rovio Stars.

Why launch a publishing initiative? What advantages will Rovio Stars have over other mobile publishers out there?

Expanding into publishing games was a pretty logical step for Rovio Entertainment to take. In the course of our work we run into a lot of interesting, fun and creative game projects – things we know our fans would love. Why not help the developers of these games to give them the final polish, and let our massive, dedicated fan base know of them? Right now it’s a huge challenge to get your game known in the avalanche of games and apps that are flooding the different app stores – it’s not enough to have a good game if you can’t get the word about it out there.

Rovio Entertainment is in an unique position to do exactly that. We communicate with our fan base directly on a daily basis, and they know they can expect quality fun from us. We also have a huge amount of know-how in creating mobile content, and we have a lot to offer to the developers in terms of helping them put the finishing touches to the project. Under Rovio Stars we do a bit more than a traditional publisher does in helping with the game project, things such as lending our expertise in QA and marketing.

When looking for titles to publish, what are you looking for in these games? Rovio has been one of the chief faces of casual gaming–will Rovio Stars largely focus on casual titles as well?

We are looking for games that have engaging gameplay, memorable characters, offbeat humour, and which are fun and addicting to play. The term casual is a bit tricky in the sense that traditionally it has connotations of simplicity and a lack of challenge, but as everybody who has tried to three star their way through Angry Birds games knows, that certainly isn’t true. It’s safe to say that we won’t be publishing FPS shooters or survival horror in the future, so the Rovio Stars games will casual games in the sense of being suitable and fun for all ages, from kids to grandparents.

Why should people ultimately care about the titles that Rovio Stars will be publishing?

The sheer amount of games on the app stores is a challenge not only for the developers, but also for the gamers – how to find the great game amongst the multitudes? This is where Rovio Stars comes in. It’s the stamp of quality that tells the gamer that the game they are about to buy has the same level of polish, engaging gameplay and quality fun as Rovio’s titles.

As a soccer fan, I’m getting twitchy. The Confederations Cup might be helping a little, but I miss the English Premier League week in, week out. This is where I sink time into FIFA 13 on my console in order to counteract the problem. What about while on the move, though? Here’s a look at my favorite 4 soccer games, each offering a slightly different take on the beautiful game.

New Star Soccer
The current King of sleep deprivation causes, New Star Soccer is a soccer fan’s dream game. Instead of managing an entire team, players focus on one person: themselves, as they build up their skills and talents, hopefully working their way up from the lower leagues to great success. The controls are simple yet rewardingly satisfying, with the winning goal consistently sweet to score. There’s life simulation included too, with the need to keep the boss happy as well as spend some hard earned money on fun leisure pursuits.

FREE!

New Star Soccer

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2012-03-12 :: Category: Games

Active Soccer
Older gamers will remember before the days of FIFA’s hold, when graphics weren’t so great but gameplay was King, courtesy of the likes of Kick Off and Sensible Soccer. Active Soccer encapsulates that spirit and brings it to the iOS format. It’s the controls that shine through most here, keeping it simple with minimal virtual buttons and a virtual joystick that allows players to curl shots in without any AI assistance. It’ll take a bit of practice to master, but it’s enjoyable stuff.

$1.99

Active Soccer

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2012-12-14 :: Category: Games

Football Manager Handheld 2013
The master of soccer management, the Football Manager series has been highly addictive for many years, and caused many a sleepless night. The handheld variety has improved year on year, with 2013 proving quite the fascinating title. Besides the full career mode, it’s possible to dive into the Challenge Mode for more bite-sized gaming, offering a clear goal. For those wanting to take on the mantle of Sir Alex Ferguson or Jose Mourhino, Football Manager Handheld 2013 is an unmissable game.

$9.99

Football Manager Handheld 2013

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2012-12-13 :: Category: Games

Score! World Goals
Ever wanted to be responsible for a match winning goal? Score! World Goals skips past all the build up play, focusing on the bit that counts. Taking players through a large selection of historical matches, Score! World Goals is part puzzle game, part arcade line drawer. Success is dictated by the player’s ability to draw the correct route between players on the pitch, in order to pass appropriately and eventually score. Things start out pretty simple, but it gets more complicated thanks to more advanced stages, as well as the quest for the 3 Star completion record, so beloved of puzzle games.

FREE!

Score! World Goals

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2012-05-17 :: Category: Games

Part of the series 148Apps Goes Deep on XCOM: Enemy Unknown

The X-Com series, particularly the earlier games, are notoriously unforgiving. Although while XCOM: Enemy Unknown has been modernized, and is therefore more player friendly, it’s no slouch either. In fact, even on the Normal difficulty there’s a good chance you’re going to get creamed if you try to breeze through it. But all is not lost. If you find that you’re losing soldiers at an alarming rate or keep getting the project disbanded because a bunch of countries freak out and leave, we’ve got a few tips you might want to consider.

Planning Tips

Facilities are essential. Your manufacturing and research abilities, as well as your satellites, all require the proper facilities to operate. Completing a terror mission to earn five engineers could be a waste if you don’t have enough workshop space to use them. And that could lead to falling perilously behind in the early game arms race.

Research, research, research. Don’t neglect your scientists! The technologies they can uncover after studying alien corpses and weaponry are essential to giving your soldiers a fighting chance. By the same token, don’t be afraid to take aliens alive. Assuming you can do so with relative safety. It allows you to recover their weapons intact, which can then be equipped on your soldiers or sold for a tidy profit.

Don’t ignore the Council. You might prefer to spend your money and resources on better armor and weapons, but if you don’t get a few satellites in orbit and ignore the Council’s requests you stand to lose immense amounts of funding. Plus you can flat out lose if too many countries abandon the project.

Check your stores often. Sometimes you’ll acquire items you don’t need for research or manufacturing, and these can be sold off in bulk for a decent price. The same goes for alien tech and specimens you’ve fully researched. So long as it isn’t Ellerium or alien alloys there’s a good chance you won’t need it for the long haul.

Build smart. Most facilities belong to one of a few different categories, such as energy production or satellite use. Whenever two facilities belonging to the same category are next to each other either horizontally or vertically (i.e. uplink next to an uplink, etc) they both get a bonus. This is a very good thing.

Pay attention to your upgrades. You won’t necessarily have the chance to develop all of them, but many of the projects you can produce at the Forge (once it’s available) can make a huge difference.

Consider holding off on major tasks. Despite all the open-endedness Enemy Unknown’s story does progress linearly. Every so often an urgent mission or task will appear, and once it’s completed the next phase of the story begins. While the alien forces will get more and more difficult to deal with over time, regardless of where you are in the story, there are benefits to keeping the plot in check. Namely it gives you the opportunity to research better equipment and gather more resources before the endgame.

Soldier Tips

Pay close attention to soldiers’ skills. Plan accordingly. Try to select skills that compliment each other, such as the heavy’s Holo-Targeting (accuracy bonus to all squad members when firing on an enemy) and the sniper’s Squad Sight (can target any enemy that other soldiers see, no matter the distance, so long as there’s a clear path to the target).

Consider having two or more of each elite class. It can take some effort but will be worth it. It enables you to create various soldiers with skills that are ideal for a variety of situations; such as a sniper that specializes in large, outdoor environments or an assault soldier ideal for cramped locations.

Upgrade the barracks. Don’t forget about the Officer Training School. Many of the upgrades you can acquire can be a huge help throughout the game; especially the ones that increase the squad size. Check in every so often as more options become available as your soldiers gain higher ranks.

Don’t ignore the support class. Having a medic on the team can mean the difference between a favorite soldier spending a few days in the infirmary or getting their own epitaph. Plus their smoke grenades can really help out in a pinch.

Sidearms can be your best friend. Pistols may not seem all that great at first, but they can mean the difference between life and death; especially plasma pistols. Make sure to give your most powerful handguns to your snipers as they can’t move and fire their rifle in the same turn unless they learn a specific perk. Otherwise, if you intend to move them at all, make sure they have rockin’ pistols. And make the effort to manufacture the pistol upgrades when you can, too. I’ve had my snipers take down enemies from quite a distance during their reaction shots using only a pistol on several occasions.

You wanna live? Get a S.H.I.V. The S.H.I.V. is a small robotic vehicle, not unlike a human-sized tank. They’re no replacement for a battle-hardened soldier but with enough research and development they can be quite devastating. Plus they’re the perfect expendable solution to filling an injured soldier’s spot on the squad during a mission.

Use the right armor. You might think it’s clever to put every single soldier in your squad into the most durable armor you can find, but it’s more likely to hinder them. For example, snipers shouldn’t be on the front lines, and therefore could benefit a lot more from armors that may not be super-tough but can help them reach the high ground easier.

Combat Tips

Cars can, and will, explode. It seems obvious but I can’t stress the importance of keeping an eye out for burning vehicles enough. Cars and trucks do provide decent cover, but once they catch fire it’s only a matter of time until they blow. And you don’t want your soldiers near them when that happens. So take a moment to see if the vehicle you plan to move to, or are currently hiding behind, is a ticking time bomb before you make a move.

Don’t take unnecessary risks. It’s often better to miss out on alien tech than to lose a skilled soldier. Take it slow and don’t spread out too much. If a soldier encounters an alien squad and no one can reach them within a turn or two, they could be in serious trouble. Splitting up into groups of two or three is usually the best way to go. At least until your soldiers reach the higher ranks.

Head for the high ground. Everyone, soldiers and aliens alike, benefits from a higher elevation. The higher up you are, the better your accuracy and the worse your enemy’s is. It’s not worth taking unnecessary risks to get to the top of a building or anything like that, but if you have the chance to take a higher vantage point then do it.

Never, ever, ever, ever, blindly rush in to a room. It doesn’t matter if it’s a UFO, base, regular mission, or terror site. It’s a sure-fire way to get vaporized. Approach with caution instead. Get at least two soldiers into good positions, preferably with one next to a door or window, and go into Overwatch. Then carefully open the door or peek in on your next turn.

Approach all newly encountered alien species with extreme caution. At least until you know what they’re capable of, and especially if you’re new to X-Com. What looks like a pushover could quite possibly decimate your entire squad if given enough of an opportunity. Just assume every new life form you encounter is the most dangerous creature you’re ever going to face and you should be all right.

Take ‘em alive. It’s not always feasible, or worth the risk, but when you can you should try to capture an alien or two alive. Not only can their interrogation lead to new research opportunities, you’ll be able to recover their weapons intact which could save you a fortune in engineering costs.

Push forward at the beginning of your turn, not the end. When you move ahead into unknown territory you always run the risk of encountering a squad of aliens. Believe me, it’s much better to discover them after only moving one or two soldiers than all of them. It leaves the entire squad incredibly vulnerable, especially in the later levels.

Keep Chryssalids as far away as possible at all times. You’ll typically see these spider-like aliens during terror missions but they can (and will) appear elsewhere. KEEP YOUR DISTANCE. Trust me.

Surprise attacks are possible. While the aliens are definitely at an advantage most of the time, they aren’t omnipotent. Use this to lure them into a trap on occasion. If your soldiers can’t see them, they can’t see your soldiers, so it’s possible to set a few up in key locations and use one of your own as a decoy to draw them into range.

Don’t underestimate Sectoids. Sectoids are the most “normal” of Enemy Unknown’s, and possibly the most common. However, while they aren’t particularly durable they can use their telepathic abilities to strengthen their comrades. However, if you kill a Sectoid while its mind is merged with another alien both will die. Keep that in mind.

The Most Important Thing

Be prepared to lose. A lot. Newcomers, especially. XCom is a fair game, but it’s also fairly unforgiving. A few wrong decisions early on could create a ripple effect that totally undermines your progress later (see previous tips about selling gear and tending to the Council). Depending on the difficulty and options selected you could also lose a beloved soldier in a flash thanks to one silly mistake. Avoiding these situations is incredibly difficult, but learning from them doesn’t have to be.

If you’ve got your own tips and strategies you’d like to recommend feel free to chime in below. With the odds stacked so firmly against us, We’ll need whatever help we can get.

OneTrack is a great app for musicians who want to take their performance to the stage (review). Here’s a quick guide to help those bands get started.

First, bounce live versions of the songs down for play. The best way to do this is to mute the vocals and any other elements that will be performed live, such as guitars or synth parts. Drums are best left in, but much of that depends on the drummer’s skill level and how much control they want over their sound. For most drummers, it’s best to leave drums in as is, especially if the music relies heavily on loud 4/4 kick beats (at the very least, leave the kick drum in). This is all done in the DAW (digital audio workstation) and depends highly on the software the band uses to compose and record music.

It’s also nice to give the drummer a separate click track to help them stay on the beat. An off-beat drummer will completely ruin the show. This is done in the bounce stage within the DAW, and depends highly on the software the band uses to create music. The person responsible for bouncing the live tracks will have to hard pan the click to the left and the music to the right.

The right channel will feed directly to the PA. This is what the audience is supposed to hear. The left will feed to the drummer’s headphones. This helps them keep the beat and lead into each song.

After bouncing all live versions of the tracks, the next step is importing the songs to the iOS device. Add all the songs to iTunes and sync them to the iOS device as if adding any artist or playlist to the iPhone or iPod touch.

It’s best to add all of the band’s songs to the device. Once imported, the band can decide on a playlist for the show. It’s always cool do make a few playlists in the app.

The screen below shows the OneTrack playlists screen. The example below shows a sample playlist in progress. The top-right corner shows the total playtime so far, which is 12-minutes in this case.

The “Austin Show” was a special show, so it had its own playlist, but it’s good to make a few playlists. Perhaps two 30-minute variations, a 45-minute one and a one-hour set.

Hit the plus sign on the top-left corner and name the new playlist. I would likely go with “30-minute set – 1.”

Select a few great songs for the band to play (30 minutes isn’t a lot!) and tap the plus sign on the right column. Selected song titles will fade to grey:

There is room for several more songs. Do keep in mind that it’s worth adding a count-in to songs (below):

The count-in is basically the quiet space between songs (It’s most useful if the band doesn’t want to be tethered to the iOS device to queue up the show track-by-track). For instance, a five- to 15-second count-in time is ideal. Don’t go too long, or there will be a long, awkward silence between songs. On stage, a few seconds can feel like a long time. It can also add unnecessary dead air to and otherwise great live performance. It’s best to make count-ins just long enough for the band to introduce the song, “This next one is called …. ” and take a sip of water if needed.

When at the venue, and ready to set up, plug into the mixer. IK Multimedia has a couple of cool cables for this: RCA Output Adapter (right) and Mono Output Splitter (below). Anything similar should work. I carry both, because I never know what the venue will be equipped with.

The mono output splitter looks something like the one below.

Mono Output Splitter

A very basic setup should look something like this:

Turn on airplane mode if using an iPhone!

I prefer for the drummer to control the backing tracks, because they are sitting in one spot for the most part, and the drum set kind of covers them. This helps keep the iPhone or iPod touch out of view. It’s not a bad thing, but it kind of takes the audience out of the show for a second if they see the band queuing up the next song.

It’s important to keep in mind which channel is which as to not accidentally feed the click track to the PA system. Otherwise, the band’s epic show will kick off with “click – click – click – click.” Not a good first impression. Check, and double-check. Ask for a soundcheck if possible (before the crowd arrives) and leave things plugged in as is after soundcheck. Bands don’t always get to do this, but it’s nice to make sure things are running smoothly. I usually have a cheesy TV theme song intro, so that the front of house person can adjust levels before my music starts.

Once the music starts blaring through the PA, the show is on. Have fun, and don’t mess up too badly!

$4.99

OneTrack - Backing Tracks for Pros

iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2011-03-19 :: Category: Music

Flatter than ever!

In This Episode:

Carter and co-host Brett Nolan talk about the big announcements from WWDC, including iOS 7. Will it be a huge change to iOS? As well, the announcement of MFi gamepad support in iOS is discussed – will it herald major things for iOS gaming in the near future?

 
Episode Cast:

• Host: Carter Dotson
• Co-Host: Brett Nolan, AppAddict.net

 
Music:

• “Beatnes7 (Theme to The Portable Podcast)” by The Eternal – Download on iTunes here:
• “Nanocarp” by The Eternal

How to Listen:

• Click Here to Subscribe in iTunes:
• Click Here to Subscribe via RSS.
• Listen Here:

  Podcast: Play in new window | Download

I’m all for game controllers for iOS devices, for what it’s worth. I’ve got a few of them, and they are all gathering dust. The issue with controllers for mobile devices is that they never get used. Not even for the games that are better when played with them. The controller is another device to carry, have batteries for, and connect. Mobile games are about immediacy, something to play when there’s two minutes of downtime. A controller in that situation is just never really worth it.

But, controllers do make sense when playing games on a TV where the user is looking at the TV instead of their device to make sure virtual buttons are being hit.

Apple knows this, that’s why their support for Made for iOS game controllers is an obvious step in their overall TV play. Apple wants to get controllers out there, and more importantly games that support game controllers out there. Then late this year, or early next year Apple will announce the next Apple TV model that supports third party apps and games and likely will come with a Apple designed game controller. It will fit nicely into the iOS portfolio and allow all of your previous purchases to carry over, hopefully with iCloud saves for your game progress too.

The importance of this for the gaming industry can not be overstated. This will be especially impactful if Apple can get this out before the XBox One and PS4 launch later this year. This will turn the Apple TV box into a $99 game console with what will likely be thousands of low cost and free to play games by then. To me this leaves micro consoles like the Ouya and the Gamestick dead in the water, if it weren’t for their $80-$100 price point. But really, who would want crappy Android free to play games when you can have all of the games your iPad plays, on your TV, without paying for each game again?

Image credit: Neogaf user humble.