Asteroids Online
One of the original space odysseys in video gaming, Asteroids, has reached Facebook in the much updated form of Asteroids Online. Made possible by its original publisher, Atari, Asteroids Online brings back the same gameplay you adored in the early 80s onward with a massive suite of features designed for the modern, social gaming crowds. Using the now-popular Unity 3D engine, much of this Asteroids overhaul is in 3D including its various ships and the infamous asteroids. But the overhaul doesn't stop there--this is not your average Facebook game. And that's the whole point.
"We're consciously trying to stay away from the mindless click fests," Atari's VP of Consumer Experience, Patrick Ford, told IGN. "There are millions of different types of people on Facebook. The FarmVille-playing housewives might not like Asteroids, but we're confident plenty of people will."
Find our full preview after the break.
Campaign Menu
While this is still Asteroids, nearly everything aside from the basic gameplay of steer and shoot has changed. And with that said, a detailed tutorial is in order, but don't worry--it won't be too long before you get to blow stuff up. Asteroids Online operates in Missions, like most social games, though these are far more interactive and skill-based than most . And while most of them involve blowing flying hunks of rock to bits, there are some that pit you against the clock or toe-to-toe with alien enemies.
In addition to the original combat of steering your ship via the arrows keys and firing away furiously with the space bar, the 'V' key activates an interesting ability called "Hyperspace." This new feature warps your ship into a wormhole of sorts and back out into usually a safe area, which is perfect for when you're in a pinch and need to get out fast. (Though, it does take time to recharge.) This is also useful for luring enemy aliens into asteroids, which can take them out too (and they don't have shields).
Damage report
Missions are split up into three Sectors, or rounds. Your job in each Sector is to destroy enough rock chunks to fill up the meter on the top right corner of the screen completely. However, each new round isn't exactly a fresh start as the damage to your shields will carry over into the next Sector until you complete the mission. Luckily in this version of the game, death isn't necessarily 'Game Over.' But if your ship sustains maximum damage, you will have to pay up in Credits to repair or if you're too low on Credits you may abandon the mission. Doing this will result in you losing the Energy needed to access the mission. Abort too many times and you'll be at a standstill.
Of course, Energy is what drives your actions in this game and you'll need gobs of it if you want to play for longer than a few missions at a time. In addition to Energy refilling over time, players can currently gift each other Energy in packs of 40. You can also purchase Atari Credits to pay for more Energy in packs of 400, 1,000, 2,000 and 4,000 for $5, $12.50, $25 and $50, respectively. This paid currency can also be used to speed along the timed process of ship upgrades which cost Credits regardless, the game's natural currency found through blasting asteroids while on Missions.
Galactic Map
Much unlike the original Asteroids, this update contains six ships with several different weapon and shield configurations. Believe it or not, this multitude of ships and weapons matters when it comes to dealing with the game's variety of enemies and situations. They'll also be necessary when moving onward to new star systems, which can be accessed through the game's Galactic Map feature. Each new area requires a certain amount of experience to enter and will be blocked off by a red beam until that time comes. These additional zones will certainly contain more missions and hopefully more ships and weapons, but it's too early to tell given the game just launched recently.
Keeping in mind that Asteroids Online is still in its beta phase. There are still a number of mysterious features like "Champion" and "Challenge" that have yet to surface in addition to what appears to be a worldwide leaderboard. Despite the lack of these features, Atari has come out swinging on Facebook through a massive overhaul to one of the most beloved retro games and transforming it into something relevant.
Click here to play Asteroids on Facebook Now>
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Showing posts with label FacebookGames. Show all posts
Showing posts with label FacebookGames. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Friday, January 6, 2012
Title Town Racing on Facebook: Weird, there's racing in this game
Facebook games like Title Town Football aren't exactly known for their faithfulness to the sport and neither is Gas Works Games' next addition to the franchise with Title Town Racing. However, it is a whole lot of fun. Of course, Title Town Racing is all about building a racing empire and creating the best racing venue, but what makes this Facebook game enjoyable is that it actually has a racing feature. Title Town Racing, while some might see it as just another simulator, has learned from its predecessor's mistakes by paying tribute to the sport that inspired it with a mildly fun mini game.
Players assume the role of owner of an entire racing franchise at the beginning of the game. Their mission is to take this dodgy little dirt lot and turn it into the next Indy 500 track. There are several sections of the racing venue to upgrade like the track itself, the garage in which you upgrade and repair cars and your front office. It'll cost a helluva lot of coins to upgrade all of these functional buildings, which you'll accrue over time from several sources like vendors on your track to, well, racing.
Management is boring
Look, I could spend hundreds of words detailing the litany of features in Title Town Racing, many of which are admittedly complex and, frankly, boring. So instead, how about I tell you what impresses me? Gas Works Games has finally embraced and delivered on what many seek from a sports Facebook game: At least a sliver of the feeling you would find competing in the actual sport. You're bored of maintaining your racing franchise. Tracking things like new drivers, licenses and how many nacho stands are producing on your track can become snore-inducing after some time.
So, click on the button on the bottom right corner of your game screen that reads, "Race." What a novel concept for a game to include a feature that's mentioned in its name. The races in Title Town Racing are little more than tests of your timing abilities, but that's also a huge part of the real deal, I'd imagine. Choose a friend to race against (some NPCs are provided to you at first) and start the engine.
Racing is fun
You will have to click the green button at specific times relative to what's happening on the right side of the screen whether it be trying to make a turn or shift gears at just the right time. Click too early and you won't score as many points, but click too late and you won't get any at all. Click at just the right time and you be awarded maximum points. Once the run is over, this total will be sent as a challenge to your friend. Yes, this mini game is asynchronous like most social games, meaning that you aren't racing your friend in real time. Regardless, it is surprisingly rewarding to get those clicks just right.
In fact, it's far more rewarding than maintaining yet another business. This little racing game is a fine way to break the necessary monotony of running a racing franchise. Better yet, you can score coins and fans from it. If not for this, Title Town Racing would have just been a re-skinning of a game that already exists. While surely some will find the management aspect of the game and its smoothly animated menus a pleasure, most will undoubtedly prefer going to the daily races.
Click here to play Title Town Racing on Facebook Now>
Have you tried this game on Facebook yet? What do you think of mini games like this once injected into games largely about maintaining properties?
Players assume the role of owner of an entire racing franchise at the beginning of the game. Their mission is to take this dodgy little dirt lot and turn it into the next Indy 500 track. There are several sections of the racing venue to upgrade like the track itself, the garage in which you upgrade and repair cars and your front office. It'll cost a helluva lot of coins to upgrade all of these functional buildings, which you'll accrue over time from several sources like vendors on your track to, well, racing.
Management is boring
Look, I could spend hundreds of words detailing the litany of features in Title Town Racing, many of which are admittedly complex and, frankly, boring. So instead, how about I tell you what impresses me? Gas Works Games has finally embraced and delivered on what many seek from a sports Facebook game: At least a sliver of the feeling you would find competing in the actual sport. You're bored of maintaining your racing franchise. Tracking things like new drivers, licenses and how many nacho stands are producing on your track can become snore-inducing after some time.
So, click on the button on the bottom right corner of your game screen that reads, "Race." What a novel concept for a game to include a feature that's mentioned in its name. The races in Title Town Racing are little more than tests of your timing abilities, but that's also a huge part of the real deal, I'd imagine. Choose a friend to race against (some NPCs are provided to you at first) and start the engine.
Racing is fun
You will have to click the green button at specific times relative to what's happening on the right side of the screen whether it be trying to make a turn or shift gears at just the right time. Click too early and you won't score as many points, but click too late and you won't get any at all. Click at just the right time and you be awarded maximum points. Once the run is over, this total will be sent as a challenge to your friend. Yes, this mini game is asynchronous like most social games, meaning that you aren't racing your friend in real time. Regardless, it is surprisingly rewarding to get those clicks just right.
In fact, it's far more rewarding than maintaining yet another business. This little racing game is a fine way to break the necessary monotony of running a racing franchise. Better yet, you can score coins and fans from it. If not for this, Title Town Racing would have just been a re-skinning of a game that already exists. While surely some will find the management aspect of the game and its smoothly animated menus a pleasure, most will undoubtedly prefer going to the daily races.
Click here to play Title Town Racing on Facebook Now>
Have you tried this game on Facebook yet? What do you think of mini games like this once injected into games largely about maintaining properties?
Firefox slowing FarmVille, Facebook games down? Try this quick fix
Facebook games are notorious for running like absolute junk at times. (I'm looking at you, FrontierVille.) Thankfully, our friends at Download Squad have found a potential fix to the problem with the help of Lifehacker. Well, at least while running the games in Firefox. According to Download Squad, Firefox takes a snapshot of all the browser tabs you have open every ten seconds so that in the event of a crash, or accidentally closing the browser, your tabs will be restored. Oddly enough, this is actually pretty taxing on Firefox's resources, and harvesting your 10 thousand strawberries in FarmVille doesn't help.
But you can alleviate the problem without shutting off this useful feature entirely--just change how often it saves your tabs. Here's the way to do it from Switched:
To do this, type about:config into Firefox's address bar, then in the filter box enter browser.sessionstore.interval. The default value is 10000, which is the number of milliseconds between snapshots. Setting the number to 120000 lengthens the period to two minutes, a more reasonable but still useful period. Of course, you can set it to whatever you want, as long as you keep in mind that you're dealing with milliseconds.
In other words, just change the number and Firefox should be able to handle intense games like Zuma Blitz even better than before. However, this only works for games that were created in Flash. If you're having trouble running a game like PGA Tour on Facebook, that might be an issue with your video card's age considering it runs on a 3D engine. In the event that your computer can't run a 3D browser game, I'd say it's time for an upgrade.
[Via PopCap]
[Image Credit: Meme Generator]
Did this fix work to make your games run faster? What tips or tricks do you have to make Facebook games run more smoothly?
But you can alleviate the problem without shutting off this useful feature entirely--just change how often it saves your tabs. Here's the way to do it from Switched:
To do this, type about:config into Firefox's address bar, then in the filter box enter browser.sessionstore.interval. The default value is 10000, which is the number of milliseconds between snapshots. Setting the number to 120000 lengthens the period to two minutes, a more reasonable but still useful period. Of course, you can set it to whatever you want, as long as you keep in mind that you're dealing with milliseconds.
In other words, just change the number and Firefox should be able to handle intense games like Zuma Blitz even better than before. However, this only works for games that were created in Flash. If you're having trouble running a game like PGA Tour on Facebook, that might be an issue with your video card's age considering it runs on a 3D engine. In the event that your computer can't run a 3D browser game, I'd say it's time for an upgrade.
[Via PopCap]
[Image Credit: Meme Generator]
Did this fix work to make your games run faster? What tips or tricks do you have to make Facebook games run more smoothly?
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