Minecraft!
So James Fries talked me into playing Minecraft and I have to say that I now want to hurt him. I am addicted. If it wasn't for work I would probably have spent all day playing this today. Here is what I made in about 20 Minutes yesterday.
iOS 4.1
HDR of Super H-Mart
Towards the middle of last week Apple released iOS 4.1 which brought a lot of updates and new features. Some of the highlighted new features are Game Center, HDR Photos, AirPlay and Ping. Ping really was released a week earlier with iTunes 10^43 or whatever huge number we are on now. Well, Thursday morning I updated my phone to the new version and I have to say I am both excited for the future of iOS and underwhelmed with what this release brought.
First off lets talk about Ping. I have been dying for a good social site that is geared towards music. So many of my friends listen to great music that I just would never stumble across, so hopefully this would allow me to find it sooner. Everything about it on the surface seemed perfectly suited for this. It wasn't very long, about 5 minutes into using it, before I broke that surface and realized why it just won't work. It only works with music in the iTunes store. I think this is a huge mistake. I cannot "like" a song, album or artist I have in my collection unless I go into the iTunes store and find that album or what ever. Some of my favorite music just isn't in the iTunes store. The other issue I have is that there is no linking between it an other social networks like twitter or facebook. That means I have to create a whole new network of friends for Ping. They really needed to work out a deal with those companies.
I think the biggest draw for me with iOS 4 is Game Center. It was touted to be an XBox Live like gaming platform, and just like Ping, falls just far enough short to be annoying. The main reason I was looking forward to GC was the ability to play games with friends everywhere. Invite them into my game, and they will get a notification and can jump into the action. Of all of my friends I have by far the most games. Not one of them allows me to invite friends into the game unless they are on the same wifi or on bluetooth. In which case what is the point of GC, as they are close enough for me to just ask them in person. Another really huge annoyance is the achievement system. Why do achievements have points if all it shows is how many achievements you have completed? This seems like a poor design flaw.
iPhone OS 4.0
Well, today was the day Apple broke its silence on the upcoming OS for the iPhone and iPad. iPhone OS 4 has been eagerly anticipated since the iPad was unveiled, and I have to say that Apple didn't disappoint with the features. I really look forward to getting it this summer, and here are a few of the reasons why.
- Multitasking
- Enhanced Mail
- Game Center
Wow, a crazy weekend
Not really gonna bore everyone with everything I did this weekend, but I started in Augusta with my dad in the hospital and finished it with an absolutely awesome and relaxing Sunday afternoon with Kim. Overall it was a good weekend. My dad should be home this afternoon and is doing ok. Looks like a long battle ahead but one I am confident we will come out ahead in.
Links takes you to iTunes store
In other news I found a new game for the iPhone that I am really having a blast with. It is called We Rule, and it is like a sim game or I am guessing farmville for you Facebookers. You have a small kingdom and you have to build farms, houses, businesses and more. What is really fun about it is that you can actually go to your friends kingdoms and buy stuff from their shops. One of the things I really like about it is the ability to turn on and off push notifications for certain actions. Like if I want to know when a building is complete, it will alert me.
Ski Jump, aka the dumbest fun game
Wow, I think I have found the most fun free game for the iPhone. And it is stupid. It is a ski jumping game I got during the winter olympics and there is no real gamplay other than holding a button until you are ready to jump. For some reason I keep going back to this game. I have no clue why! When I get back to a computer I'll try to link to it in the iPhone store.
Guild Wars
Well, after forever of having friends prod me into playing it, I took the plunge toward the end of last week. Kim wanted to play something together so we started playing Guild Wars. So far I have to say I am impressed that it is as good as it is at being like an MMO, without a monthly fee. So far I have about 7 hours in the game and it has been pretty fun. I keep comparing it to WoW and while it falls short in a lot of areas, it is a completely different game. I really like that the world is an instance. Just you and your party with no one else to steal your mobs or whatever. I am sure I will dig more into the game and post it on here, but for now I have to say it is a much better game than I expected.
CoD and XBox Live
I got home tonight fully intent on eating dinner and then crashing. I haven't been feeling too hot, so rest seemed to be a great idea. Well, as soon as I was finishing supper James walked in and asked if I was playing tonight. At first I had no idea what he was talking about and then it dawned on me. I remembered James and Chris talking about playing the XBox on Tuesday nights. It didn't take much to convince me to play so I decided to jump in for a bit.
After some hiccups of getting mine and Jame's XBoxes working on the same network we all got in and played a few rounds of CoD:MW2. It was a blast when we got to play, but XBox Live seemed to have major issues. I have to say this really disappointed me. I pay a premium for the online service and it was incredibly buggy, and unstable. Folks would get kicked out of our party for no reason, just to come back in and we lose party chat. This was of course when we were lucky enough to get enough people to join so we could play a match. I guess we played for about an hour, yet only got in 3 or 4 rounds at best. Hopefully I will be able to play next week and it will be much better.
Anyway, my plan was to be in bed tonight by 9:30 and I am just a little past it at the moment. I had a blast with everyone on tonight and hope to see y'all online again soon. Btw, anyone know who the Haley person was? He sent a friend invite and I was just curious.