Reckoning that Pro Series Golf is everything my own Fairway could have become, and more, after extensive gameplay I pronounce myself a fan. From the great 3D modelling to the genuinely exciting online multiplayer mode, Pro Series Golf is arguably the best N-Gage game yet. Yes, it has its flaws and glitches, as detailed in the review, but there are no showstoppers.
If you've purchased the rather good Pro Series Golf, you may feel a bit confused by the controls as they're not really explained within the game itself. The method for choosing a club for example is far from obvious. However, help is at hand from two sources: the game's producer has posted a general how-to on the official PSG forum, and N-Gage Arena member ShadowSpawn has done a more extensive illustrated tutorial concentrating on swings and putts. Fore!
Astraware keep turning out superbly polished S60 games - and Big Box of Blox is no exception. Ewan's been playing it and in his review points out a few aspects (difficulty, blox detail and orientation handling) that, while not showstoppers, stop the game achieving true greatness.
Pro Series Golf, one of the most eagerly awaited N-Gage titles, is now available. If you can't see it in your N-Gage client, then 'View available games' and look down the bottom of the list. Screenshots and first impressions are below. It's 21MB and takes 5 minutes to install(!), by the way - I'll have a full review up before the weekend.
The current run of poor N-gage games is to be expected, argues Ewan. Every games platform has this problem, it's just a question of maturity and of time. The launch titles for N-Gage classic were worse and even those for the bestselling Sony PSP were comparable. What do you think of N-Gage so far and do you agree with Ewan? Comments welcome.
If you've tried out the new Midnight Pool game on N-Gage, you may have spotted that, four hours after the game being released, I'd completed it and was sitting atop the N-Gage Arena rankings. Which really isn't a boast, since Midnight Pool is simply far too easy. I explain why, with copious screenshots and comments on interface (good) and performance (bad) in my in review of Midnight Pool over on All About N-Gage.
The 3D simulator Midnight Pool is now available in the N-Gage application's showroom. If you can't see it, click on the headline for instructions on how to make it appear. You can see some screenshots and the official trailer on AAN's Midnight Pool game page.
Originally written back in March as an exercise project for the Symbian Academy, Gomoku, also known as "Connect Five" or "Pente", is now available for free to anyone with a UIQ 3 smartphone - with full source code if you're that way inclined. The game offers a rather challenging AI to play against - in addition to a mode to play against another human opponent on the same device.
The steady flow of N-Gage games titles continues, but the latest, The Sims 2: Pets, is distinctly underwhelming, with Tzer2 on our sister All About N-Gage site awarding it only 55%, declaring it to be almost devoid of gameplay and saying that it can be effectively finished in a few hours. Here's looking ahead to Pro Series Golf... (Update: We've now added a 7 minute gameplay video at the beginning of the review.)
Surely one of the most popular game genres in the mobile world is that of solitaire collections - Astraware Solitaire is the very latest and looks to be comprehensive and slick. Ewan's been reviewing the S60 3rd Edition version, but it looks exactly the same under UIQ 3 for all those of you with compatible phones, and I've included try/buy links for both platforms.
Rafe and Ewan are joined this week by Ricky Cadden as they take on the week's news and hot topics (recorded before Monday's announcements, but don't let that put you off) in Insight 29, a.k.a. AAS podcast 80. They cover the 'Evening with S60' in Boston, the LG KT610 clamshell, iGoogle and the new Google Reader for S60, Cloud Computing and Social Services, plus more N-Gage musings. Oh and they covered some new update from an American manufacturer in Cupertino...
Chinese Checkers? Rafe and I threw up our hands in horror: sounds complicated, we thought. Let Ewan review it! It turns out that the game itself isn't difficult and, moreover, is superbly implemented, with an intuitive and colourful interface. Here's the full review of Five Deers' Chinese Checkers, which gets a solid thumbs up on all fronts.
The simulation game Sims 2: Pets has now gone live on N-Gage, you can download it directly to your phone from the N-Gage application's showroom. Naturally we'll be bringing you a review in due course. Now, where did we put that dog lead?
Over at All About N-Gage, we're wondering when the Next Generation Gaming Platform is going to fully launch? With the initial roll-out of S60 v3 Feature Pack 2 phones not shipping with the N-Gage Client, phones aiming for a large user base, including the currently available N78 and impending N96 and Nokia 5320, and no sign of a compatible N-Gage client, the question is whether these devices will have the client in firmware before 2009. (Update: the official N-Gage blog has just announced the first FP1 phones with embedded N-Gage apps have begun to ship, starting with the N81. No word on FP2 yet.)
As part of the promotion for the game, Nokia's N-Gage team has designed a dedicated theme for Snakes Subsonic for any S60 3rd Edition device, to remind you of the game. What a good idea - maybe they'll do one for every other N-Gage game? Mine's the Pro Golf one in the corner...