• Quick note.  Look likes it US phones only running the Qualcomm chip for now.

Some games seemed to have a glitch the first time I would try them.  I tried Fallout Shelter first.  Did not load the first time, but worked fine after that.  Not sure what the story is here. Same with Pokemon Go. Did not work the first time, then works fine.  However,  it locks to portrait and when using AR, the camera does not display correctly.  I turned AR off and it was fine after that. few other games seemed locked to one view port or another, but that was not too much of an issue after I got used to it.  I would make the window a bit smaller for portrait games, larger for landscape.

I then tried Monument Valley, a favorite of mine.  This took 3 tried, but again, seems to work after that.  That game play was even nicer with the view port set to the largest setting despite portrait mode.  I have it smaller in my screenshot.  It took a little bit of effort to get used to the controller, but I got it down soon enough.  I do not like this screenshot that much, but for some reason, screen capture and video capture are iffy with PhoneCast.  There is a video of this at the bottom of the post as well.

What was really cool was trying ARCore apps in PhoneCast.  It ‘mostly’ works, and when I say mostly, that is because the viewport is not locked to the head. If you check out the video below you will see what I mean.  Still, VERY cool! I tried the first ARCore app that was released, ‘Atom Visualizer‘ from Signal Garden.   I contacted the good people involved in this project and made a request, we’ll see how it goes.  If they can lock the view port, this would be really fun!  Have a look for the video at the bottom of this post.

Here is a Pro tip for you.  The controller takes a bit of time to get used to, so don’t get put off.  Keep working at it.  BTW, there is not pinch to zoom.  Something I found out on Fallout Shelter.  Hopefully they will find a work around.  I suggested they should map something on the controller for zooming and zoom around the center view.  That could take some work though.

So there you go!  Enjoy.

BTW, many of these mods are unsupported to use with cation once you find them.

 Offline is coming as a free download with Update 10 to all SimCity players. When we launch it, all of your previously downloaded content will be available to you anytime, anywhere, without the need for an internet connection. We are in the late phases of wrapping up its development and while we want to get it into your hands as soon as possible, our priority is to make sure that it’s as polished as possible before we release it. … In Update 10, you can still play solo in Regions on your own, or in Multiplayer with people from around the world. What’s new is the Single Player Mode, which allows you to play the game Offline by yourself. And because your saved games in this mode are stored locally, you can save and load to your heart’s content. Our team will be delivering a follow-up blog that will outline the full details in the near future so stay tuned.

Now what happened to all those statements that SC could ONLY work in the cloud?  Well, they seem to have fessed up that it as just for storage and network games features.  The comments from the post have your normal rants, but I thought this was interesting.

Submitted by yeomen1987 on Jan 13, 2014

Regardless, now that offline is coming, I will look into buying a copy.  Something I never thought I would say.

The maps look really nice!  True to the RISK design framework. If you are at all interested in seeing to come to reality, head over the kickstarter page and give them your support!

Check out the Vid below

Source http://i.imgur.com/eALiJPm.jpg

I have not bought SimCity2013 and do not plan to till there is a hack that will allow me to play offline. The main time I would play is on the train or stuck at the airport or other times when I have down time. I do not always have access to the web during these downtimes, so no SC2013 for me.  Will be very curious what the next iPad version of SimCity will be like.  Based on the video, there is a lot of data and graphics power needed to run this.  Could be the first major game that cannot play on all iPad.  Well see..  Anyway, check out the vid.  The graphics are nice.  BTW, cant wait for the day SimCity supports roundabouts.  As a past UK driver, I totally see the value in these.  The I forgot how to roundabout is from reddit.  Thank you Reddit!

As for cheat codes. I have not personally verified these, so let me know.

These only work in sandbox mode.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gXBfzL7cZw

The biggest change in multiplier.  What you can do now is invite a few friends (or enemies) into your game and you can all go at it.  Multi-player is asynchronous, but like the online version, you still better move fast. Also there are cool new option to pick up new units, new buildings, new wonders, and other new content. Each of the packs is available for just 99 cents, or you can get the “Master Bundle” for $3.99.

It may seem weak to force you to put out new IAP money to get these new features, but considering how long this has been out, I guess its not that bad.  However, if you act fast, you can get the game now for .99c!  Its worth it.

Here in Jason Craft’s “Portal: Terminal Velocity,” a bunch of guys hang out in a house and use the Portal gun for some fun afternoon hijinks.

The object is to match ice cream scoops of the same color by firing them from a moving truck, and watching them vanish in a shower of particle effects. Each level is completed by collecting all the cherries, and performance is graded from 1-3 stars depending on how many rows remain onscreen. There are 90 levels in total, and later levels include powerups, hazards and obstacles like bombs, color-transforming scoops, and freezer-burned ice cream. (see YouTube trailer here).

Bubble Scoop is polished and kid-friendly, and from experience I can say that the soundtrack will be stuck in your head for days. It includes achievements in Game Center (iOS) and OpenFeint (Android), so players can compete worldwide.

The game is currently available for $0.99 in iTunes as a universal app for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, and in Amazon’s Appstore for the Kindle Fire tablet and other Android devices.

Most of the images are pretty good quality so you should be able to take these guys to the printers, laminate, and your are good to go!  Dice and Beer not included.

Now, a few random ones I grabbed for your drunk gaming pleasure.

For those not familiar with location-based services, the Playingmondo app, available for iPhone and Android, uses the built-in GPS in the mobile phones to allow users to interact with digital content created around real world locations. This content can be viewed in a variety of ways including augmented reality.

Already there are numerous Playingmondo playgrounds all over Denmark and in other countries, and even though a majority of the experiences are games, there are also experiences focused on health, education, tourism, and cultural heritage.

The Playingmondo website is where you can join a community to find virtual playgrounds near you, meet up with your team mates, see where they are playing, and even challenge them. MondoBuilder, a feature on the site, allows you to build your own playgrounds, buy games others have created, or make a game from available templates. The best thing about MondoBuilder is that you don’t need to know any coding to create an experience or game. It is a perfect tool for teachers, curators, or others with no programming skills.

A very nice feature of the platform is the variety of POIs (Points Of Interest) that can be created. In addition to displaying traditional media (images, text, sound,video), these 2D or 3D geo-located action points can link to documents, utilize the phone’s accelerometer so you can punch enemies, and even connect to Lego Mindstorms NXT via bluetooth for interaction and gaming with real world robots. Pretty cool huh?

Even though Playingmondo goes beyond what a lot of other location based gaming platforms offer, these folks have decided to push the boundaries even further. On my last trip to Copenhagen, I got a chance to visit the Playingmondo offices and got a firsthand look at an exciting new feature they will be releasing here in the U.S. very soon, the first ever mixed reality gaming platform.

That is right, a platform for creating mixed reality experiences. But what does this mean? It means that Playingmondo now connects a browser based web3D environment of a real world location (mirror world) with onsite mobile devices to allow virtual and onsite users the ability to interact with digital content and each other for a ‘mixed reality’ experience. To go one step further, the web3D environments can be controlled using the Microsoft Kinect.

I can’t go into detail yet on some of the cool mixed reality examples they have coming out throughout the year, but I will definitely continue to cover this innovative platform that is going to make the year unlike any ever before for web3D, mirror worlds, and augmented reality. Like Google’s Body Browser, you heard it here first folks, the world is now our mixed reality playground.