one better

I was checking in some places on MyTown (iTunes) tonight and decided to browse the store. And what I noticed was that the first item listed are functionality items. The interesting part about this is that they’re not functions who’s current exclusion hinders the app.

MyTown - upgrades.

For example, to collect rent on your properties, you have to select the my town then collect, then you have to scroll to the next property so you can press collect on that screen.  Not a difficult process – especially for me with my 2 properties…  But, for someone who owns a large amount of properties, I can see how this would be a longer process.  So, for $4.99 you can buy a button that collects it all, 10,000 times.  Awesome.

I’m curious – as I’m sure a lot of people are – what percentage of users purchase items from the store.  Regardless of the number, it’s an evergreen revenue stream.  I’m really liking what Booyah! is doing.

iTampon is trending ahead of #apple right now.

shouldn't that be iPad?

The internet triumphs even over the best marketing in the world.

MadTV called this over 2 years ago.

Somewhere a marketing executive is reconsidering pushing for this name.

Go get this now.

i died shortly after this.

Touch Arcade already did a nice writeup.

Go to iTunes – now (link).

I’ve posted the trailer after the break.

Read more…

After having spent 2d 01h 25m on MW2 so far, I think I’m getting a hang of it.  I’m by no means great – my current k/d is .82.  It would be higher – but I can’t do hours & hours every night.

That said, I think a friend (credit where credit’s due) has figured out a great killstreak combination.  Especially when combined with the Hardline Perk.  With the use of this killstreak-hardline combination I managed the best k/d of my 2d 01h 25m career.

mmm... samsung...

These are the best stats I’ve had in a game: 36-3-8

It’s not the greatest ever – but that’s not the point.  The point is that it improved my k/d ratio.

What’s often difficult is getting enough kills to use any of the higher killstreaks.  It’s not every game I get 8 kill streaks.  The nice thing is that some of the killstreak rewards increase the number of consecutive kills you’re getting.  So use those, silly.

Here’s how I’ve got it set up.

predator missile

The first killstreak reward to enable is the Predator Missile.

This has a 5 kill requirement.

Try to get a double-kill with this one.

pave low

The second killstreak reward to enable is the Harrier Strike.

This has a 7 kill requirement.

Getting a double-kill with the predator missile enables this killstreak.

harrier strike

The third killstreak to enable is the Pave Low.

This has a 9 kill requirement.

This means your Harrier Strike will only need to get 2 kills.

What I’ve listed, without Hardline means you need to get a 5 kill streak.  Then, you can either get a double-kill with the Predator or get one kill & another with your gun.  Then, you just hope the Harrier does it’s thing & unlocks the Pave Low – or you can get the next 2 kills.

With

Hardline, you’ll only need to get 4 kills to start this whole chain of events.

Thanks to:

My Girl.

I’ve been playing a lot of Borderlands lately.  I really like it – but there’s one big issue I see with it.  Multiplayer is effed unless you and the people you’re playing with are all at the same level.  Here’s why…

First – you cannot complete any main missions if the party leader is a higher level than you.  This makes sense since the game is very linear – there’s a story you have to follow.  The only way this could have been different is to make a more GTA-style storyline, and then we’d be left with a very different gameplay experience.

Second – and this is really the game design choice that grinds my gears…  If I join a friend who’s a higher level – say 5-6 levels – than me, the following things happen:

1. My weapons do little or no damage against most enemies.
2. One hit will at best drop my shield & the majority of my health & at worst drop me to a second chance.

Those two issues alone make it almost impossible to have an enjoyable experience online in a party of mixed levels.  The above mentioned things happen because the game ups the difficulty of enemies when there are multiple players.  This is compounded by the fact that Borderlands makes enemies that are outside a certain level impossible to kill regardless of your level.  This means that if you run across an enemy, even by accident, and when you have it in your cross-hairs, a skull appears, you better haul your ass out of there – because you cannot kill it.

All of these design choices (with the exception of the enemy difficulty) make sense from a design standpoint when taken individually.  Unfortunately, when combined, and put in a real world situation where not everyone  progresses through the game at the same speed they make the online experience not nearly as enjoyable as it could have been.  That said, I understand why the choices were made the way they did.  The game could have just been that much more.

Picture from (ign.com)

The new Hotness.