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This Week at 148Apps: December 9-13, 2013

Posted by Chris Kirby on December 14th, 2013

Apps For The Holidays


The holidays are upon us! How do you know what apps are worth your time and money? Just look to the review team at 148Apps. We sort through the chaos and find the apps you're looking for. The ones we love become Editor’s Choice, standing out above the many good apps and games with something just a little bit more to offer. Take a look at what we've been up to this week, and find even more in our Reviews Archive.


Seagate Wireless Plus 1T Wireless Hard Drive

We’ve previously looked at the Sandisk Connect Wireless Drives. Wireless storage is something that many companies are trying out. Seagate takes things to an extreme; giving us a one terabyte drive capable of holding 500 HD movies, then making it portable and wireless. The drive comes with wireless N, which allows much quicker transfer, and also includes a USB 3 connection for the fastest transfer of data when not in wireless mode. In testing, moving media to the drive in wireless mode was nice and speedy. Regular USB was rapid as well, although I could not test out the USB 3. With the terabyte of space, it stored everything I threw at it. --Jeff Scott


Band Stars

Limber up those fingers and start humming vocal exercises, because developers Halfbrick and Six Foot Kid are ready to help indulge everyone’s inner rock and roll superstar. Their newest release, Band Stars, puts players in control of a budding ensemble on the verge of breaking it big. Can this new music management title strike a chord with its audience, or will it simply get lost in the roar of the crowd? Step aside Game Dev Story fans, because there is a new management game in town. This time around, instead of trying to produce fictional games the product is melody. Each band consists of a collection of characters who have different skills that help contribute to the song sculpting experience. Tunes are produced in three stages: writing, recording, and mixing. One musician with high lyrical and creative abilities is assigned to writing a base track while the entire group performs it and a single member polishes the final mix. There is even an option to highlight solos in each performance, just to give the future smash hit a little bit more juice. --Blake Grundman


The Room Two

A year after the runaway success of the original The Room, we find ourselves with a new set of puzzles in the appropriately titled The Room Two. Can it stand up to the exceptional quality of the original, though? Well, yes. It does exactly that. It’s required that I write more than that of course, but fans of the original should stop here and immediately start downloading The Room Two. It’s everything one could hope for from a good sequel; building upon what worked so well for the original. --Jennifer Allen


Olloclip 3-in-1 Macro Lens for iPhone 5

I’m a huge Olloclip fan. I have been so since their first model for the iPhone 4. As an amateur photographer for many years, I’ve gone from film to digital very early on, to a killer DSLR, and now to almost exclusively the iPhone 5. In that time I’ve lost a little bit of the options for creativity on the hardware side, but slowly they are coming back. This latest 3-in-1 Macro lens set really plays to my interests. I love taking creative macro photos, and this lens set will be a great addition to my camera bag. Like the other Olloclip lens sets, this one has three different lenses; all of them macro on this edition. A 7x, 14x, and 21x lens allow varying levels of magnification on the subject. The Olloclip macro set also includes light diffraction hoods for the lenses. This allows the camera to be placed right on the subject but still allow light in. --Jeff Scott


Angry Birds Go!

The latest in the series of games from Finland-based studio Rovio Mobile that took the world by storm with its creation of the Angry Birds franchise, Angry Birds Go! arrives as a casual racer that still has that unmistakable Rovio touch. Starting out, players can choose to jump right into the race or visit “Toons.tv” – Rovio’s animation service that aims to bring the Angry Birds characters to life in a 52-episode marathon. Jumping in will see one go through a short tutorial consisting of a single solo race, and later having those pesky pigs join in for the ride. --Arron Hirst


The Wolf Among Us

The Wolf Among Us is the latest title from Telltale Games, bringing a story of fairytale fables who live in secret within the real world. This is a five-episode series based on a mature graphic novel series known as Fables. Players take the role of Sheriff Bigby Wolf, previously known as the big bad wolf – a character that is feared and disliked by many. The mood is set early on as players venture into an altercation with another Fable. The decisions made affect the entire story and outcome, so each decision comes with consequences. The story is very intriguing and pulled me in at a hundred percent. It’s a story that turns players into a detective as they try to discover the mystery behind a murder. It definitely takes a dark turn into this world of fairytale characters, and that’s one of the factors that makes discovering what happens next so intriguing. --Andrew Stevens


Other 148Apps Network Sites

If you are looking for the best reviews of Android apps, just head right over to AndroidRundown. Here are just some of the reviews served up this week:


AndroidRundown

Any.DO Cal

Any.DO is the development house behind one of the most respected task utilities on Android, and its Android calendar app, Cal, is definitely one that needs to be looked at. Forgive the slobber; this app is gorgeous. It comes in with bright colors, pictures and live animations to complement the default white look of the calendar information. the app automatically pulled information from my selected calendars, and presents them in a slick day-in-week view that can be pulled down to expose a monthly date look. Swiping to the left gives the previous day, while the right predictably brings the next day up, and so and so forth; months can similarly be manipulated in the cal1month view. Events on the calendar are ever so gently color-coded. --Tre Lawrence


Tower Madness

Tower Madness is a tower defence game that looks like a lot of things at the same time. Of course, it’s not exactly easy to stand out from as numerous crowd as tower defence, and it’s not like Tower Madness isn’t trying, but I still found myself drawing parallels to other similar games, and especially Fieldrunners, quite a bit. The story is laconic and ridiculous. Aliens need your sheep, all eight of them, and you need to stop them. The stopping power includes about a dozen different kinds of defences, all of which can be upgraded, and should probably be a lot more interesting to aliens in the first place. The aliens come in waves, being delivered by UFOs, and heading straight to the sheep’s pen, with their walking routes being marked by arrows. When the player places a tower in their way, the aliens find a new path, around it. Thus, playing with tower positions, the player eventually creates a corridor of death that can eradicate even the most resilient of otherworldly scum. --Tony Kuzmin


Aztec Antics

Aztec Antics is an interesting platform-based thriller from Bouncing Ball Games that celebrates the golden days when arcade games ruled the roost. It had a decidedly retro look, with an eye-pleasing array of 2D pixelated graphics making up most the background. The characters are itty bitty things, full of vigor and hungry to move. Blocks form platforms and naturescapes set against a soft background denoting jungle and temples. --Tre Lawrence

And finally, this week Pocket Gamer reviewed The Room Two, GTA: San Andreas, and Angry Birds Go!, picked out the top smartphones you can buy right now, went hands-on with Trials Frontier, and started its complete walkthrough to The Room Two. All that, and loads more, at the Pocket Gamer Week in Review.

The Wolf Among Us Review

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
By Andrew Stevens on December 9th, 2013
Our rating: starstarstarstarhalfstar :: INTRIGUING MYSTERY
The Wolf Among Us lures players into a fairytale-based murder mystery that has them hooked throughout the entire first episode of a five episode series.
Read The Full Review »

Telltale Games Prepares a Busy Schedule with Back To The Future, Puzzle Agent 2, The Walking Dead, Fables, and Many More

Posted by Rob LeFebvre on February 18th, 2011

That headline could have gotten quite a bit longer. Don't say we didn't warn you! The fine, upstanding folks at TellTale Games, purveyors of such fine games as Sam & Max, Monkey Island, Wallace and Gromit, and Puzzle Agent, have decided that they just don't have enough to keep them busy. They announced a metric ton-load of games coming our way soon, on iOS and other gaming consoles you may or may not own.

First up, Back to the Future - it's out now for the iPad, it's $7, and it's a BRAND NEW storyline, episodic style. TellTale worked with the actual writer of the movies to come up with this all new adventure, then created a video game around it. The Mac/PC version is up to Episode 2, and they're releasing it on the iPad, starting now. Says iTunes: "Play as Marty in a cinematic adventure true to the films, [in a] collaboration with Bob Gale, Film Trilogy Co-Creator/Co-Writer. New Back to the Future story in 5 monthly episodes."

Next is Puzzle Agent 2. Yes, you heard us right - the sequel to the award-winning puzzle game featuring artwork by comic artist Graham Annable is coming to the iPhone and iPad as well as the PC, Mac, and PlayStation Network. Nelson Tethers is again featured in an all new tale and set of puzzles set in the MidWest, scheduled to release this spring. "In the second Puzzle Agent game, ace puzzle investigators will return to the snowy mid-west to help Agent Tethers solve the mystery haunting the realm."

Add to the above a new game - Hector: Badge of Carnage: "a lewd, crude and gritty law enforcement comedy, featuring tough-talking, soft-bellied Detective Inspector Hector – a flawed, misanthropic anti-hero with an unhealthy taste for all things criminal, corrupt or smothered with curry sauce. " Telltale will bring the first installment (currently on iPhone), ‘We Negotiate with Terrorists,’ to iPad, PC and Mac this Spring, with two more installments planned for later in the year. We can't wait, to be honest - the title alone is worth checking this one out.

Finally, Telltale Games is partnering with two hot comic book properties as well.

Fables, the award winning comic series created and written by Bill Willingham, is coming to gaming consoles near you. The press release boasts, "Fables is one of DC Comics’ longest-running series published under its Vertigo imprint. The series received over a dozen Eisner Awards including for Best Writer, Best New Series, and numerous wins for Best Serialized Story, and was a 2009 Hugo Award nominee for Best Graphic Story." Fables is a graphic novel that concerns the exiled characters from the world's storybooks -- big Bad Wolf, Pinocchio, Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White, and many others -- as they fight a mysterious Adversary and learn to live in the very real mundane world of New York.

In addition, Telltale has inked a deal with Robert Kirkman and Image Comics, writer and publisher, respectively, of The Walking Dead, another hot property in the graphic novel and television industries. The Walking Dead games are promised to be coming to "PC, Mac, console, handheld, mobile and social gaming media." We checked with Telltale PR, and they said, in essence, to keep an eye out around comic con time for further announcements.

On a quick end note, here, Jurassic Park the game is also being announced for Mac and PC, with a $5 pre-order discount. At the press event, Telltale did say they were bringing it to Mac, PC, "and other platforms," according to our man on the scene. If past release history tells us anything, though, the iPad is probably one of those other platforms, though nothing specific has been announced. We'll try and follow up on this one as well, because, c'mon - Jurassic Park!