Well, I guess it only took Sony a couple of hours after our Software and User Experience video to launch their official PS Store for the Xperia line-up. Currently, the store only seems to work in Europe, and only supports the Xperia S. Devices like the Xperia Play are currently only supported in Japan, but the roll-out plans to happen quick for legacy devices.
Off the bat, Sony has launched the store with 16 game titles to choose from, all priced at $5.99. To my disappointment though, Sony took the word “PlayStation Certified” too seriously. None of the games that are currently supported are PSP, PS2 or PS3 games. Instead, these are all titles from the original PlayStation that was launched back in 1994. Surely this is a treat for folks like me that were old enough to play with one back in 1994, but the problem is that none of these games were ever optimized to run on a 720p resolution display like the one found on the Xperia S. The experience is quite choppy and seriously lame in comparison to the games we can find on the Google Play store, like for example Dead Space from EA Mobile. Is this new store worthy of setting Sony’s Xperia line ahead of competition, or even worth your cash? Watch our video and share your impressions in a comment down bellow.
With the release of the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play, Sony started selling some stand-alone PlayStation games for use with the new smartphone. These titles include an emulator alongside the game image, all ready to run. Now the format Sony uses has been reverse engineered, letting you re-package the official PlayStation emulator with the ISO image of your choice.
Developer Yifan Lu debugged the emulator from an official Xperia Play title to see how it was loading its files. After figuring out how the app was expecting to see ISO data formatted, he was able to patch it to read clear game data right from a file, instead of processing encrypted data and reading it out of memory. Some other adjustments are needed to make sure the app doesn’t choke on a file that’s too large, but he’s still managed to make a tool that automates the process.
Once he makes a nice GUI, we should see the tool released, letting you create your own Play-ready PlayStation images. It’s not perfect, lacking features like multi-disc support, but it’s still a pretty neat accomplishment, and will do much towards expanding the library of games taking advantage of the Play’s controls.
We’ve already seen the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play which was announced at this year’s MWC in Barcelona, it’s already on several carriers in Europe as well as unlocked but it’s coming soon to AT&T, almost two months after Verizon.
As with any other Xperia Play, the AT&T variant sports a 1GHz Snapdragon MSM8255 processor, 1GB of ROM, 512MB of RAM, four-inch display and it is capable of 4G HSPA+ speeds. It will ship with several game titles on board (like The Sims, Dungeon Defender, NOVA 2, all optimized for the device) in order to deliver the Playstation experience on top of Android 2.3 Gingerbread. Check out our hands-on with the phone below! The phone is coming soon with no price yet announced by the carrier.
EA’s official Scrabble game (the one we first told you about last week) has just been released. (If for some reason you’ve managed to get this far in life without ever playing Scrabble, you get seven letters from which to make words on a board. Letters have different point values, and there are bonus spaces on the board. You take a turn making a word, then your opponent takes a turn. Most points wins.)
Until now, we’ve had to make do with a couple of relative good non-Scrabble games — Words with Friends and Word Feud. But this one’s the officially branded real deal.
So how’s it stack up? We’ve been playing Scrabble for Android for a few minutes now. You’ll want to turn off the elevator music, and the game animations are slower than we’d like to see. And we could really do without the between-turn ads in addition to the banner at the bottom of the screen. We can’t decide if it’s better or worse that EA’s pimping its other titles here — it’s almost better when we know we’re being served ads we’ll never in a million years want to click on.
Other than that, gameplay’s pretty good. The board scales up nicely. You’re told a word’s point title as you place the letters. There are buttons to shuffle the tiles, bring up a dictionary (nice!), or a “teacher” button that basically cheats and shows you the word you should have played instead of that four-letter noun that only bagged 5 points.
You can play against a friend who also has the app, or an anonymous opponent.
Spacetime Studios has released the beta of Star Legends: The Blackstar Chronicles, the new sci-fi MMO and Android Central has 50 beta keys to give away. You might recognize the name Spacetime Studios, as they’re the folks behind Pocket Legends — another great MMO for Android. This time around you’ll play as a hero in the 41st century, against other players and the alien race known as the Vular. You can choose from three different character classes, each with different strengths and weaknesses, for loads of exciting gaming.
If you’re a Verizon subscriber, you can find Star Legends via VCast. If you’re not a Verizon user (or if the first thing you do is yank VCast off your phone), you’ll either have to wait until the beta period is over (that’s July 20) or win one of the 50 keys we’re giving away. If you’re selected, you’ll get the beta key and download link so you can install and play while the rest of us are waiting. Have a look at some of the gameplay screens, the press release, and the official trailer after the break, and visit this link in the Android Central forums for a chance to win.
After having now completed an exclusive run on the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play, Gameloft has made BackStab available for more devices via the Android Market. The game sets you in the 18th century on a Caribbean island where you play as Henry Blake.
“My name is Henry Blake, once a proud officer in England’s Royal Navy. Now I stand a shattered man. Betrayed, imprisoned, my fiancée taken away, I have now found my freedom– and soon I shall find my revenge.”
If you’re into arcade styled fighting games with lots of places to roam and discover throughout you’ll want to give BackStab a look. A list of compatible devices and video of the gameplay can be found after the break.
Gameloft Launches BackStab for Android
Gameloft, a leading global publisher of digital and social games launched BackStab for Android devices. It is available on the Android Market and the Gameloft Store for $6.99.
“My name is Henry Blake, once a proud officer in England’s Royal Navy. Now I stand a shattered man. Betrayed, imprisoned, my fiancée taken away, I have now found my freedom– and soon I shall find my revenge.”
Take on the role of Henry Blake, a broken man whose life was stripped away, and help in his quest for justice and revenge. Climb, jump and sneak your way through diverse settings to reach your target and strike down adversaries. Use your deadly fighting skills and the combo-based combat system to defeat your nemesis and anyone else who gets in your way. Roam freely across a huge island and gaze upon its magnificent full-3D environments and experience the feeling of an immersive, realistic world around you thanks to impressive character interactions with true-to-life voice effects.
Live a dark and action-packed tail of treason and vengeance
Take the role of a broken man whose family was murdered before his eyes and help in his quest for justice and revenge.
Climb, jump and sneak your way through the environment to reach your target and strike down adversaries.
Use your deadly fighting skills and the combo-based combat system to defeat your nemesis and anyone else who gets in your way.
For the 1st time on smartphones, explore a beautiful and rich 18th century island
Roam freely across a 10km² island and gaze upon its magnificent full-3D environments including jungles, beaches, temples, a volcano and more.
Investigate every corner of 3 cities (Spanish, English and the free slave city) to find side-quests and hidden secrets.
Choose your mode of transportation to explore the furthest reaches of the island: horse, carriage, ship or simply by foot!
Compatible devices:
HTC Desire HD
HTC Desire S
HTC Desire Z
HTC EVO Shift 4G
HTC Incredible 2
HTC Incredible S
HTC Inspire 4G
HTC My Touch 4G
HTC Thunderbolt 4G
Motorola Droid X
Samsung Galaxy S Showcase
Samsung Google Nexus S
Samsung GT-i9000 Galaxy S
Samsung GT-i9000B Galaxy
Samsung GT-i9000T
Samsung GT-P1000 Galaxy Tab
Samsung GT-P1000L
Samsung SC-02B Galaxy S
Samsung SCH-i400 Atlas
Samsung SCH-i500 Fascinate/Galaxy S
Samsung SCH-i800 Galaxy Tab
Samsung SGH-T849 GalaxyTab
Samsung SGH-T959 Vibrant
Samsung SPH-D700 Epic 4G
Samsung SPH-P100 Galaxy Tab
Sony Ericsson Xperia Play
About Gameloft
A leading global publisher of digital and social games, Gameloft® has established itself as one of the top innovators in its field since 2000. Gameloft creates games for all digital platforms, including mobile phones, smartphones and tablets (including Apple® iOS and Android® devices), set top box, connected TVs and consoles. Gameloft partners with leading international brands such as UNO®, Spider-Man®, James Cameron’s Avatar™, Ferrari® and Sonic Unleashed®. Gameloft also operates its own established franchises, such as Real Football, Asphalt™, Modern Combat 2: Black Pegasus and N.O.V.A Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance®. Gameloft is present in all continents, distributes its games in 100 countries and employs over 4,000 developers.
There she be, folks — Fieldrunners HD. It’s tower defense done like never before, with excellent graphics and sounds. It’s got more than 400 levels and four battlefields, seven towers and three difficulty levels, plus two additional modes once you beat the Classic game.
Fieldrunners HD is a pretty big download at 36MB, and it’s available on Android smartphones (not tablets yet) running Android 2.2 and up. Download it from the Amazon Appstore for free today at the link below.
If you owned a PlayStation (of the original, gray variety) back in the late nineties, then the WipEout series should need no introduction. WipEout was one of the first titles to bring futuristic “kart” style racing into 3D, and was massively successful when it launched in 1995, alongside the original Sony PlayStation.
Now Sony has brought the original WipEout to Android, in the form of an official port for the PlayStation-certified Xperia Play. And like many of the PlayStation classics currently offered by Sony on the Android Market, WipEout looks and plays just as it did on the PS1 sixteen years ago. You can steer your ship using either the Xperia Play’s D-pad or analog controls, and air-breaking is taken care of by the left and right trigger buttons.
The aim, of course, is to work your way to the front of the pack by using speed pads, weapons and other power-ups to get the best of your opponents. Just like the PlayStation original, WipEout can be pretty brutal at times. There’s a near-vertical learning curve and AI which will punish you when you’re caught up in the middle of the pack, and rubber-band its way back to you if you take first place. Once you hit your stride, though, WipEout is a highly enjoyable racer, though not as newbie-friendly as more casual titles on the Market.
If you decide to pick the game up, you’ll get a fair amount of content for your £3.99. There are six tracks to play across championship, single race and time trial modes, and an unlockable seventh track if you beat the game. Unfortunately, the exceptional licensed soundtrack of the original PlayStation version isn’t included, but in its place you’ll find the alternate Sega Saturn soundtrack by Tim “Cold Storage” Wright.
If you’re unfamiliar with the WipEout series, then you’ll probably find more accessible and enjoyable casual racers elsewhere. However, if you’re a PlayStation veteran and fancy a trip down memory lane, then asking price is more than reasonable in our opinion. WipEout is currently available on the Android Market (Europe only for the moment) for £3.99. Join us after the jump for Market links and QR codes.
I know that Android usually makes us all think about little green puppies and robotic rainbows, but sometimes, things can’t always be so bright and sunny. Maybe your girlfriend just dumped you. Maybe you lost the chess tournament. Shoot, maybe you live in the South (like me!) and just wish it would rain once in a while!
If you find yourself in similar circumstances or just enjoy the doom and gloom a good thunderstorm brings, you’ve got to check out Thunderstorm Live Wallpaper.
Thunderstorm Live Wallpaper is an incredibly slick, detailed, and fairly realistic depiction of Mother Nature at her finest, and it runs really well, to boot.
Fortunately, you’re not stuck with a one-trick pony, as Thunderstorm Live Wallpaper boasts a pretty full settings menu. From there, you can set cloud count, bolt frequency, wind speed, camera speed, and bolt color. They’re all little things, but they’re the kind of little thing that helps you make your wallpaper experience both unique and totally your own.
I mean, shoot, red lightning? That’s too cool.
Thunderstorm Live Wallpaper is free in the Market, but there’s also a donate version for 99 cents, if you’re so inclined to show the developer some love. If you like lightning, storms, or are just looking for a new wallpaper to use, I’d definitely check out Thunderstorm Live Wallpaper.
A few more pictures as well as download links are after the break.
Over the past couple of years the Beer Pong scene has grown and grown and the game has become quite popular, but not everyone wants to have to drink to enjoy the fun. But now you can play right from the comfort of your Android powered device. The folks over at Codeglue have just released an extremely realistic, and feature loaded game, Beer Pong HD, that is sure to provide hours of fun to users, while allowing custom table creations, various difficulty levels and cup set ups. The game play is extremely smooth, the various views are excellent, and the best part is you don’t wake up with a hang over after a long night of Beer Pong. Be sure to head into the Android market and download your free copy today.
