GearWERKZ TechBlog

Pencil's down. It has been one of my roughest semester's in school, but it is over. Time enough to lick my wounds and reflect on why I am subjecting myself to this pain. Six weeks before the Spring session starts. Time enough to play games in something less than the grey blur that I saw them through in the waning weeks of this past semester.

Yep; you read that correctly. Despite getting my can kicked up and down the academic avenue, I was able to find time to squeeze some gaming in. The sessions were mainly just study breaks to keep me from becoming completely demoralized. And they were short. And because of those two points I just made, they were mostly mobile.

The last few months while I have been incognito on the interwebs have seen some significant changes in my thoughts on gaming. Here is what went down and how:

* Most of my mobile gaming had been on the iPad. It quickly supplanted my PSP as my primary mobile gaming device. However, it died a few months ago, and I was unwilling to replace it. So, into the power gap rushed all of my Android devices.

* And I realized that I had been sleeping on Android, or maybe compeling games just happened to come to the fore at the moment that my iPad died. I have two of those Android devices sitting next to me now as I type this; my primary cell phone, which is an HTC Evo 3D, and my #4 tablet, which is a Kindle Fire. There are 32 games loaded on the Evo, and 8 loaded on the Kindle, which I do not use as a gaming device primarily

* the explosion in Android titles has been fueled not only by an improvement in quality, but also by a spate of great sales. Google's $0.10 celebration run this month, and the daily free apps available on Amazon, made for some early self-gifts

* I love PC gaming and console gaming, but I sometimes go for weeks not getting any gaming done because I feel like if I cannot sit and invest at least an hour in gaming then it is not worth doing it at all. Enter mobile gaming, or maybe I should say, Enter mobile gaming to the top of my gaming priority list. The experiences may not be as deep, complex, or fulfilling, but I will be hitting the mobile gaming scene before just going for weeks without gaming at all

A few of these titles really helped me get through finals. It was just not possible to leave my study and take breaks in the Media Room or in the basement Home Theater; if I was going to give my cramping brain a little rest, I had to do it in a medium that would not snag me for more than 30 minutes at a time. Over the holiday break and periodically from now on, I will post a few notes on the mobile titles that keep me coming back for 5 minutes of joy. Here is the first.

Fieldrunners: I first encountered this title as an iOS game. It was one my first significant forays into the Tower Defense sub-genre, and it had me hooked from the beginning. I play it now on Android, and it is one of my go-to titles on the Kindle Fire. My only gripe about the Kindle Fire version is that, with its smaller screen, it is much easier to wind up hitting an undesired control when placing or upgrading units in the lower left-hand corner of the screen where the systems controls are for the game.

That being said, there is precious little fault I can find with this game. With most games on any platform, there are a few bugs or design choices that make me absolutely irate, evern if I love the game overall. Fieldrunners, and any other mobile title, are, by definition, limited in their scope, so I hesitate to call the game flawless. That would invite an unbalanced connotation when considered in the same category with PC and console games. Still, what I can say is that there is no one aspect of the game design that makes me feel like poking myself in the eye. Maybe the start game menu could be a little cleaner; I am not sure that the goofy carousel effect for selecting maps really adds any value, and it can make just jumping into a game quickly less than optimal, but that is a small nit.

The graphics positively drip with eye-candy. A lot of times I just enjoy sitting and watching my erected defenses wreak havoc with the would-be invaders. While I was skeptical about its ability to render the game well, the Amazon Kindle Fire makes beautiful imagery out of exploding waves of enemies.

As well as the game looks on the Fire, it is that much more beautiful on a 10" tablet. I put a few rounds in on the Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet as well on the walk-up to final exams. Good stuff. Quite honestly, I do not think you can go wrong with the game on any platform on any device. It is pure fun, and a welcome challenge in geometry. I am sure that gamers truly steeped in the Tower Defense genre will have strong feelings on the title, both good and bad. There seems to be a very deep and passionate community engaged in this gaming type, and they all speak and critique titles at a much more granular level than I. What I will say is that, for someone who is new to the genre, Fieldrunners is a wonderful experience that keeps me entertained on the go, or when time is short.
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