Hijinks Inc.

Author: Fred Smith

  • Hijinks Reviews: Space Station: Frontier HD

    Hijinks Reviews: Space Station: Frontier HD

    Publisher: Origin8 Technologies Ltd.
    Platform: iPhone, iPod touch, iPad
    Cost: $4.99 [iTunes Link]
    Version Reviewed: 1.1.0

    Space Station: Frontier HD is the love child of a tower defense game and a real time strategy game. Understandably, SS:FHD grew up with some issues. It had upgradable towers, but not the selection of a true tower defense game. It had resource management and RTS-like mission objectives, but lacked that second layer of micromanagment that true strategy games have.  So, SS:FHD grew up with something missing, something it couldn’t put its finger on. When it made the jump to the iPad there was hope SS:FHD would mature a little bit; perhaps grow out of all the genre confusion. Unfortunately, all it did was get the standard iPad “graphical enlargement” surgery. While increasing SS:FHD’s confidence, it did nothing to improve his game.

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  • Put BP To Shame

    BP is the epitome of cooperate power and greed. Hijinks Inc. is the opposite of that. Want to stick it to the man? Want to show those money grubbing oil mongers that you won’t take their oil spewing madess? Great! Go run for president.

    In the meantime:

  • I tried to review Osmos for iPad

    I tried, I really did. I bought the game before it was even in the top 100 (its now #1 in popularity and gross sales). I beat the Odyssey campaign in about two hours, and I even logged a couple hours in arcade mode. This was the middle of last week. Since then I’ve tried to play it every day, and every day I shut it off a minute later and go play more Small World.  I get that its trippy, I get that. I also understand that if I habitually used LSD, this game would be AWESOME. Here’s the thing: I don’t, and this game gets really boring, really fast.

    The core concept is proven. You absorb things and get bigger. Yeah, like that game, and that one, also this one. I could go on. It falls apart about the time you beat the Odyssey and realize that whats left is the exact same thing you just played, only ten times harder. I don’t have a problem with challenging games, but I do have a problem with turning a casual arcade game into a hardcore puzzle game without any kind of a learning curve. I have a feeling the developers finished the core game, polished it, realized they needed to add more content, and then piled on a bunch of gameplay modes and additional levels without properly tuning them.

    I want to give Hemisphere the benifit of the doubt and believe that they will continue to update the game into a better experience. Frankly though, I doubt I’ll have the motivation to pick it up even if they do.

  • Blizzard Says No To Accountability, Yes To Anonymity

    The floor recognizes Mike Morhaime. Mr. Morhaime?

    Hello everyone,

    I’d like to take some time to speak with all of you regarding our desire to make the Blizzard forums a better place for players to discuss our games. We’ve been constantly monitoring the feedback you’ve given us, as well as internally discussing your concerns about the use of real names on our forums. As a result of those discussions, we’ve decided at this time that real names will not be required for posting on official Blizzard forums.

    It’s important to note that we still remain committed to improving our forums. Our efforts are driven 100% by the desire to find ways to make our community areas more welcoming for players and encourage more constructive conversations about our games. We will still move forward with new forum features such as conversation threading, the ability to rate posts up or down, improved search functionality, and more. However, when we launch the new StarCraft II forums that include these new features, you will be posting by your StarCraft II Battle.net character name + character code, not your real name. The upgraded World of Warcraft forums with these new features will launch close to the release of Cataclysm, and also will not require your real name. (more…)

  • Hijinks Reviews: Pocket Legends (Free Version)

    Publisher: Spacetime Studios, LLC
    Platform: iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch
    Cost: Free [iTunes Link]
    Release date: April 02, 2010
    Version Reviewed: 1.2.1

    Quick background on me. I started playing EverQuest in 2001. I switched to World of Warcraft in 2004 and have a couple 80s laying dormant right now. I’ve also played Lord of the Rings Online enough to get a max level character, and Eve Online enough to get bored ( 20 minutes). Now that I’ve established myself as a MMO junkie (or whore, in Aaron’s terms), lets begin.

    Pocket Legends is a 3D MMORPG for the iPad. Its not menu driven like everything else that calls itself an MMO on the app store, it is an honest-to-goodness massively multiplayer online role playing game. Spacetime Studios is now the Lord British of the iPad and iPhone MMO platform. If we had review scores, that would be plus five, right there. I could wax eloquent about the possibilities the game opens up for hours, but I think it’ll be better for all involved if I shut up and review the game as it stands.

    Pocket Legends is not a open world per say. There’s a hub zone (the ‘Towne’) Where all the players on the server can go and socialize (read: spam the chat channel with trade chat). The vendors are in this central hub, as well as a bank where you can stash your spare gear.  The actual fighting takes place in instanced levels that are part of a larger campaign scenario. The free version comes stock with the Forest Haven campaign, in which you rescue three orbs that protect your village from evil (but can be stolen by evil people at any time evidently). The free version is also capped at level 13.  If you want more, you have to pay for it. (more…)