Game of the Week: Traps and Gemstones

Platform: iOS     Cost: $4.99 This weeks game of the week is Traps and Gemstones for iOS. This game is a great puzzler and platformer, but it has little to offer the world of education. I found the game to be entertaining to a point… the point where it became repetative. I love the fact that it is modeled after the great Indiana Jones, but it has relatively simple puzzles and controls. When it was on my iPad, I only played the game a handful of times before I moved on to other, more adventurous, games. The Video Review  

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Holiday App Guide (for iOS)

Well, it is that time of year when we all dip into our pockets a bit and give the gift of gaming and productivity to those around us (especially if you want folks to shell out the $9.99 to play Carcassone). This year, I started publishing my own set of App Reviews. I started publishing my own, when I realized that some of my favorite games were not covered by a lot of review sites. There was nothing out there to help me find the best SciFi games or games that you can learn from. There has been a lot of trial and error in my review process, but in general, I review apps in three broad...

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The Dwarves have come! (Craft the World Review)

I was just minding my own business yesterday and out of nowhere a dozen well armed and smell dwarves dropped in. They did not ask me to join them on their quest to slay an overgrown reptile, but they did hold my iPad hostage and destroy my battery. Just a short 48 hours ago, Craft the World was released on the iPad and I have done very little on the device since then.

To be honest, I downloaded the game on a whim – probably because I was in the spirit of Dwarves with the hype surrounding the next Hobbit Movie. Unlike most downloads, I got it just as I had time to play. Three hours later, I put the game down and realized that I had blown my entire day.

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Minecraft PE is Awesome! (Review)

Minecraft coming to the iPad gives me hope that we can finally get some great education games on the iPad.

If you have been living under a rock (or perhaps in a mine) for the past few years, you may not have heard about the Minecraft craze. A few years ago, a low budget production house called Mojang released an “Inde” game that allowed you to roam a made up world and create anything you want. It met amazing reviews and that small design house is now a multi-billion dollar business. Recently, it was announced that Mojang would be acquired by Microsoft.

The game itself is simple, you have blocks, and you mix those blocks together to make other blocks. That can be a forge, a table, or just the walls of your amazing Castle. There is widespread appeal in this game, since it is at heart a block creativity engine (think digital legos). Students can play the game with friends and build their favorite places. In adult versions of the game, people have created the lands of Middle Earth, Westeros, and even a replica of the Earth.

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Game Review: European War 4

This series is the most similar to a board game that I love, Axis and Allies. On each turn, you create armies, manage your economy, and make strategic battle decisions. In European War 4, you manage a span of time from the American Revolution to the French Revolution.

Each step of the game allows you to progress through more and more history. The campaign itself lets you play the major battles of the Napoleonic Campaign. You can make this game more and more difficult for yourself as you play the game in online and pass and play multiplayer or individual skirmishes.

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