Top games to play with friends on smartphones

You may have played one or all of these popular games, but for those who haven’t, these are the casual games I play on an almost daily basis. As such, I heartily recommend them all.

There are several games on both of my iOS devices at any given time from just about every genre. But there are only a few games I go back to on an almost daily basis and that’s because they are fun, addictive, and a great way to keep in touch with friends and family.

These “casual” games are turn-based and require you to connect with a friend to start playing — there is no single-player option with this collection. They have also been around for a while, but that’s kind of the point: these are the games I continue to play because it only requires a couple of minutes to take my turn and send it to a friend. While it is sometimes a pain to go in and complete my turns (especially when life gets busy), the overall experience of competing with your friends and family is a good one and acts as a way to stay connected, even in our busy everyday lives.

This week’s collection of apps is all about connecting with friends with casual games. The first plays like an old table-top classic, with modern extras that keep the game fun. The second is a color-matching game where you lay down groups of three tiles for points. The third is a dice game where you’ll take turns with a friend to get specific dice rolls.

Scramble With Friends (iPhone|Android - 99 cents), from Zynga, has enjoyed much success in the iTunes App Store with classic Boggle-like gameplay, and it’s a game that I go back to regularly on my iPhone.

As in Boggle, the object of the game is to find as many words as you can in a jumbled grid of letters by connecting adjacent letters to form words. You can form words vertically, horizontally, and diagonally by touching a letter and swiping across more letters until youcomplete a word. You have 2 minutes to find as many words as possible. There’s nothing new here for anyone who has played classic Boggle, but Zynga’s familiar interface and social-networking site connectivity make it easy to jump in and start playing with your friends from wherever you are.

Scramble with Friends lets you sign in through Facebook, then shows you who in your friend list already has the game. From there, you can quickly invite a friend to a game and play your first 2-minute round. When you’re done, simply wait for your friend to play a turn and it’s back to you (just like Words with Friends). You play three rounds to compete for the highest total score.

As Scramble with Friends has evolved, new extras have been added to kick the game up a notch. Before beginning a round, you can select from four Power-Ups to give you a leg up, and your opponent has the same options. The freeze power-up stops time, giving you more than the allotted 2 minutes to find a few extra words. The inspiration power-up actually shows you the location of three words you have not yet selected. If you choose Scramble, you can mix up all the tiles. The latest power-up to the party is Vision, where the game challenges you to find three words, and, once found, give you 15 seconds of extra time. These bonus power-ups add a little something more to the classic game of Boggle and keep the action interesting.

Using a tried-and-true classic word game as its starting point, an intuitive interface, and easy game matching, it’s no wonder Scramble with Friends is a big success in the iTunes App Store and on my iPhone. I think anyone who likes word games like Boggle should immediately download this well-polished title.

Matching with Friends ($2.99, full version –Free, ad-supported version) is another Zynga app that lets you play a turn-based game with a friend on the iPhone only. But instead of playing a word game, this time you’ll be strategically placing matching colored blocks on a game board, then sending your move to a friend.

Like Scramble with Friends, Matching with Friends makes getting connected with people easy. Upon launch you’ll be asked to sign inthrough either your Facebook or Twitter account. Once logged in, you can search for other players from your friends list or get automatically matched with a random player.

I started up a few games when Matching with Friends was released, and I’m still playing with the same people now. Immediately when I started, I found the colors vibrant, the controls easy to understand, and the bonus alerts self-explanatory. The only difficult thing about Matching with Friends is how to describe the gameplay.

The game is a little confusing at first, but it teaches you the ropes, letting you play a short single-player game to show you the basics. The object is to use your three sets of three jelly cubes and match them with the colors of the jelly cubes on the board. You can rotate your three cubes to match up better with cubes on the board (touching more cubes of the same color) and to land on multiplier tiles for big points. When you’re done placing all three sets of three cubes and you’re satisfied with the positioning, you end your turn, sending your moves to your opponent.

Each turn plays out in the same way, but there are a few variables that add to the fun. You can swap your jelly cubes for different color variations that might work better with what’s on the board, and you also have bonus items like a bomb that can get rid of a colored cube (or group of cubes) that doesn’t fit with your strategy.

What the gameplay and bonus items amount to is a challenging strategy game that requires thought, but quickly becomes second nature as you try to formulate the best move possible for the most points in each turn.

If you haven’t tried Matching with Friends, check out the free, ad-supported version linked to above. Once you start getting the hang of matching up colors and increasing your multiplier, I think you’ll be hooked like I am.

Dice with Buddies (iPhone|Android – $1.99) is another great casual game, but this time you’re playing a turn-based game similar to Hasbro’s Yahtzee. As with the other games you can play with friends, family, or match up with a random opponent, but there is no single-player option.

The game plays almost exactly like Yahtzee. In the beginning you have a clear board that you’ll slowly fill up with each turn. The dice rolls required to finish your board are laid out with die numbers in the upper section of the board (number of threes or fives for example), and more complex combos in the lower section (four of a kind or large straight). With each turn, you get three rolls of the dice, but you can select specific dice to hold, then roll the remaining dice to get a better hand. Though it’s a little hard to explain, Yahtzee players will feel right at home, and it’s much easier to just start playing to get the hang of the game.

Dice with Buddies might be the least involved of this collection, and you’ll get through turns extremely quickly after only a couple of games. But something about rolling the dice and trying to get the best scores for each category is wildly addictive, and I think most people willagree that it’s one of the better casual turn-based games available.

Like I said at the outset, none of these games are new, but instead are old standbys that keep you coming back on a daily basis. If you’re looking for a great way to connect up with a buddy and play some casual games, I recommend all the games in this collection.

Source : CNET 

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Arcade football games for iOS

As we get settled into another NFL football season, I’ve put together a collection of games that puts you right in the action, playing as a runner, a kicker, or as the quarterback.

We’re now in the second week of the NFL football season, and if you’re a fan of the game you probably already know when and where you’re going to watch your favorite team play this weekend. But when it’s not game watching time in the middle of the week, or even at halftime, I found some great games that make you a part of the action without getting too involved.

There are full American football game options at the App Store like Madden NFL 12 and Gameloft’s NFL series, but neither are nearly as good as what you would find on a console and the touch-screen interfaces leave a lot to be desired. That’s why instead of talking about those games here, I went with easier to pick up and play arcade-like football games that won’t keep you glued to your iPhone for a long time.

This week’s collection of iOS apps let you focus on playing as specific players on a football team. The first focuses on running, letting you dodge tackles, and even showboat as you run into the end zone. The second lets you play as a kicker, sending the football through the goal posts or trying to get the perfect punt right by the goal line. The third puts you in the shoes of a quarterback as you swipe to make perfect passes to movingreceivers.

NFL Rivals (99 cents) is the NFL licensed version of an older favorite of mine,BackBreaker 2: Vengeance, a game that put you in the shoes of a football player running and dodging tackles to get to the end zone. Just like the original, beautiful3D graphics and solid animations give you the feeling of powering your way down the field. But in NFL Rivals, you now have the ability to play as your favorite team as you either run for touchdowns or prevent the other team from scoring. You start off customizing your player by picking your favorite team, and you can set the jerseynumber, and skin tone.

Once on the field, NFL Rivals adds new moves and features to keep the game exciting. In addition to the spin, juke, and sprint moves found in earlier iterations of the game, you can now jump over low tackles and objects by tapping on the middle of the screen. You also have a “trucking” move that turns your player into a power runner, bulldozing your way through high tackles and under props on the field. Having a low solid object to jump over or a low-hanging bar to “truck” under look a little out of place on the football field, but NFL Rivals is an arcade game, and the added obstacles definitely make for some complicated challenges. You also can’t help but feel a sense of accomplishment after a long line of jumping over objects, dodging tackles, and showboating into the end zone.

Don’t feel bad about Showboating, either — that’s how you get the most points. You get more points if you can showboat or high step into the end zone at the end of your run. The Showboating move slows you down, making it possible for tacklers to catch up to you, so you have to choose the right time to start showing off in order to make it to the end zone while racking up the most points. If you want to take your showboating a step further, there is an extra button that makes your showboating move even more exaggerated and quite a bit slower while doubling the points you’ll receive if you make it to the end zone. But don’t be surprised if you end up eating the turf 5 yards short of the end zone before you get the hang of it.

NFL Rivals is an excellent arcade football game that keeps things interesting with the ability to play on both sides of the ball. The game mechanic is very addictive, and as you progress, you’ll need to use every move at your disposal to reach the end zone or tackle your opponent. Anyone who played the BackBreaker games or likes the idea of an easy to pick-up-and-play football game will appreciate the challenge and polish of this title.

NFL Kicker (99 cents), from Full Fat games, lets you flick to kick a football through the goal posts using players from your favorite NFL teams, and offers tons of challenges and game modes to keep it interesting. The game gives you a brief tutorial called Basic Skills at the beginning to get you started, then it’s up to you to make precise flicks to score the most points.

NFL Kicker comes with a few game modes to cover the challenges of both place kickers and punters. The In The Zonegame mode has you line up for your kick, check windspeed, then send the ball through the uprights. But there are also colored zones within the uprights that give you more points for being more precise. Coffin Corner is a punters paradise that challenges you to kick the ball with just the right amount of power and angle to land it as close to the goal line as possible. In Time Attack mode it’s all about speed and volume as you kick as many field goals as you can in the time allotted.

As you progress through the game you’ll earn coins you can spend on equipment and even upgrade your stadium. You don’t earn coins quickly, but by being precise you’ll earn more. I mentioned that there are zones within the uprights, but the golden zone gives you the most points, which later translates into coins at the end. It’s not easy to hit the golden zone every time, but fortunately the game has after touch controls that let you swipe to alter the football’s trajectory after it’s already in the air. Each time you successfully hit the golden zone, your score multiplier goes up, which means more points and more coins. But if you miss the zone, you’ll go back down to a zero multiplier. This setup makes you want to kick it just right every time so you’ll be checking wind speed and distance a lot as you try to line up the perfect kick.

Like Flick Quarterback from the same developer, NFL Kicker has an enormous amount of polish, with excellent graphics and detailed player models that make it feel realistic. If you like the idea of playing as a the Kicker on a football team, or just want a good challenging game that doesn’t get too deep into the rules of American football, this is a great choice.

NFL Flick Quarterback (99 cents) is made by the same developer as NFL Kicker and is an excellent touch-screen game that manages to make you feel like a real quarterback as you connect with receivers. The game offers a Basic Skills level to get you started and explains how the game works: you mustcomplete passes to open receivers while accounting for both defensive players and wind speed. Hitting an open receiveralmost always results in a touchdown; there’s no defense after the catch. But you will need to make crisp passes in order to get high scores.

The game offers a few different game modes and all of them add to the experience of throwing good passes. The main mode is called Playmaker, where you’ll need to lead receivers with your passes for them to make clean catches. As the game progresses, more defenders are added, making it crucial that you flick the ball with just the right amount of force to get it to your receiver. You’ll have some help there–a circle under thereceiver turns green when he gets into open space, but you’ll still need precision, because a defensive back is often not far behind. Scores are based on how well you lead the receiver and numberof touchdowns after successful passes.

A Quick Fire game mode gives you 45 seconds to complete as many passes as possible. Completed passes add seconds on to your time and the quality of pass matters, too: with a good leading pass you can get 5 seconds added on, but with a close call catch, you’ll only get 3 seconds (and misses subtract 3 seconds). The feeling of urgency forces you to walk the fine line of getting the pass off while remaining precise.

A third game mode called Trick Shot tests your accuracy by having you throw passes into barrels. As you progress, the barrels get farther away and wind speed starts to play a role forcing you to make perfect passes to hit the target. All of the game modes are fun and different enough from each other that you’ll want to try each again and again.

NFL Flick Quarterback is an excellent game for football fans who want to make the perfect pass. With several game types and plenty of variation, this will be the perfect game to play as you wait to get through halftime.

Source : CNET 

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Fast, fun, and free: Racing games for your PC

These days you don’t need to spend a dime to enjoy some seriously adrenaline-drenched automotive action: I’ve collected five excellent racing games that you can download for free and play to your heart’s content.

Rubber, Meet Road

Games are all about make-believe, but some are more realistic than others. The first two games in this roundup qualify as simulators, and can feel almost too realistic, especially if you’re just looking for a quick rush.

Dolphinity Racer is the most hard-core of the bunch: It serves as the basis for expensive racing simulators built by Cruden, it has no installer, and it incorporates painstakingly realistic physics. Driving a car in Racer feels very much like driving a real car, and not always in a fun way: The vehicle can easily swerve out of control, and getting started driving takes quite a bit of patience, especially if you’re used to more toylike racing games.

One level away from Racer’s uncompromising realism isDriving Speed 2. Driving Speed 2 feels a bit more like a game, though your car can still easily drift and spin out of control. If your car rubs up against the sidewall as you race, you will see sparks fly. It will also collect dents as you bump into walls and other cars, but it won’t easily flip over or lend itself to crazy aerobatics. Driving Speed 2 runs only in full-screen mode, so if you have to lower your monitor’s default resolution to get it to run smoothly, the graphics may end up looking stretched and pixelated.

Racer, Meet Cop

Now that we’re covered uncompromising realism, let’s move on to games that put fun first. Need For Speed World is a massively multiplayer online racing game first released in 2010 by Electronic Arts. As befits an entry in the long-running Need For Speed franchise, Need For Speed World features beautiful graphics, dozens of cars, and copious amounts of action.

You can race against other players from all over the world, participate in single-player events in which you dodge the cops in crazy urban car chases, gain in rank, and buy new vehicles. Need For Speed World lets you buy in-game SpeedBoost for real-world money, and then use the SpeedBoost to buy cars and other items, but you don’t have to buy SpeedBoost to have fun and level up.

You will need to log in to the Need For Speed servers every time you start the game, and the game doesn’t offer to remember your password, which can be annoying at times.

Flights of Fancy

Need For Speed World doesn’t try too hard to stay in the real world, but it does feature real-world cars. The same can’t be said about the next two games, which eschew any pretense of realism in favor of magical aerobatics, otherworldly visuals, and generally awesome gameplay.

First comes Trackmania Nations Forever. Like Need For Speed, Trackmania Nations Forever emphasizes online gameplay against friends and strangers. But Trackmania Nations Forever specializes in tracks that include crazy loops, ramps that cause your car to leap for yards, and more. For people who don’t enjoy network multiplayer mode, Trackmania Nations Forever includes an addictive single-player mode with plenty of beautifully designed maps, each containing three medal achievement levels. You unlock new maps gradually, by winning medals in previous maps.

Finally, there’s Nitronic Rush. This gorgeous Tron-like racing game offers fast and furious action on neon maps that move so fast that they sometimes become disorienting. Your car can jump and even sprout wings and fly for short bursts of time. Nitronic Rush was designed to work with either a keyboard or an XBox 360 controller, but it also worked very well with my Logitech Rumble Gamepad. The gamepad vibrated whenever I hit a wall (which was often enough), and the controls were intuitive to use.

Source : PcWorld

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Hot games optimized for iPhone 5

There are still a lot of apps that haven’t been upgraded for the iPhone 5. Check out these three games that take full advantage of the larger screen.

Now that you have your iPhone 5, you’ve probably noticed that not all apps take advantage of the wider screen. I’ve been noticing that the updates have been pouring in fairly quickly, but unfortunately, I still have a lot of pillarboxed apps and games that show black spaces on each side.

For this week’s collection I put together three games that look absolutely fantastic on the iPhone 5′s larger display. The first is the latest in a popular arcade-style racing franchise and gives you more viewing area as you blaze around the track. The second is an action RPG that pits you against demonic beasts as you hack and slash your way to saving a kidnapped queen. The last is the newest version of a popular soccer series that might be the best sports game available on iOS.

Asphalt 7: Heat is an excellent racing game that’s been upgraded for the iPhone 5

(Credit: Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET )

Asphalt 7: Heat ($0.99)

Asphalt 7 has all the bells and whistles of a great arcade racing game and looks amazing on the iPhone 5. To start off, you get 60 licensed cars from manufacturers all over the world, including Ferrari, Lamborghini, and Aston Martin, all intricately detailed and great-looking on the Retina Display. There are six different game modes in which you’ll be challenged to race in 15 different leagues for a total of 150 different races. Tracks are set in real cities around the world, such as Paris, London, and Miami, with all the appropriate landmarks. You also have achievements (called Goals, in this game) for everything from finishing your first race to completing a league and everything in between.

Wild Blood uses the Unreal Engine, and I was surprised by how good it looked.

(Credit: Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET )

Wild Blood ($6.99)

Built with the Unreal Engine, Wild Blood features stunning 3D graphics as you hack and slash your way through hordes of enemies. The story is a little far-fetched, but it makes for great fun. You play as Sir Lancelot in search of Queen Guinevere who is held captive by King Arthur and his sister, here called Morgana Le Fey. Apparently in his jealousy of his queen’s romance with Lancelot, King Arthur has enlisted the help of his evil sorceress sister to open a hellgate and, with the help of demonic monsters who…well, who really cares? Though the storyline doesn’t quite match up with the more usual King Arthur mythology, the game has amazingly beautiful 3D graphics and realistic ambient sounds, along with frenetic — though fairly linear — gameplay.

Possibly the best sports game on iOS, FIFA Soccer 13 has all the features you want as a soccer fan.

(Credit: Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET )

FIFA Soccer 13 ($6.99)

Having played many of the previous versions of the franchise on consoles and all of the various soccer gameson mobile, I can say that FIFA 13 is the best soccer game on iOS, with 500 fully licensed teams to play with over 15,000 players, across 30 leagues. You can play as your favorite teams, pass to your favorite players with realistic attributes, and use new skill moves to get free and go for the goal. This game is so deep and so well-made that I can’t think of a single sports game that is better on iOS. The added screen space on the iPhone 5 really helps to see more of the field.

Source : CNET 

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4 free Android alternatives to Google Maps Navigation

If you’re not happy with the navigation app that came on your smartphone or tablet, check out these four free alternatives and leave your wallet in your pocket.

Every smartphone available today (and even the not-so-smart ones) comes equipped with some sort of GPS or A-GPS system that allows it to be aware of where it is in the world and where it’s headed. Likewise, most of these phones have some sort of mapping and navigation software to allow you, the user, to take advantage of that positioning data to get from where you are to where you want to be. In the case of most Android phones, that software is Google Maps.

Google Maps is great. We love it and we know that most of you love it–most users will probably never really see a need to use another navigation app and that’s perfectly fine. But there are a number of reasons to look beyond Google: maybe you’re a navigation geek; maybe you’re just curious; or maybe you’re just nostalgic for the days when MapQuest reigned supreme. If, for whatever reason, you would like to try an alternative to thestock Android navigation app, there are a number of free options available for you to play with.

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Scout by Telenav (HTML5)

Scout (the evolution/rebranding of TeleNav’s Navigator software) has been around for a few months now as an app available for iOSand through your desktop’s browser. An Android version was promised, but until then you can use the service’s HTML5-powered mobile navigator that will run in the stock Android browser (or any third party browser that will supply it with locationdata). Scout aims to be an all-in-one solution for users who want to take multi-tiered approach to getting from point A to B. Its true strength lies in its database of destinations, which includes aggregated reviews and an extensive listing of local events.

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Waze Community GPS (Android)

Waze is all about the power of crowdsourcing. Nearly all of the information you’ll find beyond this free navigation app’s splash screen is user generated. From the maps themselves to the traffic and incident data to the fuel prices listed when you search for the nearest gas station, nearly all of Waze’s data comes from driverslike you running the app and submitting data and corrections.

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MapQuest (Android,HTML5)

MapQuest has been around for what feels like forever. Before there were smartphones, before there was Google Maps, there was MapQuest. The old timer is still alive and kicking, delivering excellent turn-by-turn directions via apps for Android and iOS devices and an HTML5-based web app that should run in most smartphones’ browsers.

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NavFree USA (Android)

NavFree USA is remarkably simple when compared the the rest of this crowd, but it’s not without its charms. Like Waze, this free app uses crowdsourced maps (this time from OpenStreetMap.org), but it lacks Waze’s traffic and incident data layer. However, NavFree distinguishes itself by being the only app in this roundup that can store offline maps and navigate without a data connection–making it great for those who like to go off the grid or with miserly data plans.

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