Apple iPad 64GB Wi-Fi – Convenience and Connectivity in One Sleek Design

The newest addition to the wonderful collection from one of the world’s leading electronic gadgets manufacturers has taken everyone by surprise. We might have thought that we have seen it all: video conferencing, email, touchscreen, and others; but we never expected to see that everything we want can be so conveniently compressed into a small package such as an electronic handheld device.

With the Apple iPad 64GB Wi-Fi, a completely new door of opportunity is opened to everyone who seriously takes entertainment, business, family, and leisure as their priorities in life. Arriving in the digital world in a sleek and sassy design, the Apple iPad 64GB Wi-Fi gives quite an impression. Packed with the latest features and applications, this gadget is deemed to redefine how handhelds exist in the world of electronics. Below are some of the amazing things that you might find in an Apple iPad 64GB Wi-Fi:

1) Handy Multi-purpose Computer: It’s like having your personal computer squeezed into a small pad-like case that can be kept in your pocket. The Apple iPad 64GB Wi-Fi is only 0.5inch thick and around 7inches long, which would make you wonder in awe at its capabilities and functions. You can surf the Internet, check your email, play one-of-a-kind games, use Apple applications, watch videos, listen to your favorite music, and much more. With its built-in Wi-Fi, you can be up-to-date with all the latest news or events as you stay connected through the web.

2) Superb Audio and Video Performance: Apple has been credited for their performance in creating hardware that would perform at its best. With the sound and video quality of the Apple iPad 64GB Wi-Fi, it would definitely appeal to the senses of its user and take your entertainment experience to an optimum level. Its high definition, widescreen display with a 1024-by-768-pixel resolution and 132ppi will make you feel like you are not just using a handheld device, and its audio playback features is limitless. You can even use it as your own personal TV.

3) Astonishingly Easy to Use: The Apple iPad 64GB Wi-Fi can change the mind of an anti-tech towards gadgets with its power, home, volume, and screen rotation lock buttons are so ergonomically located that would make you feel as if it is part of your hand. With its oleophobic coating that is fingerprint-resistant; touchscreens will no longer bother you as there would be no more irritating smears on the display. It can even display multiple languages at the same time, so you won’t have any problems understanding how it is operated. What’s more, it is equipped with a VoiceOver screen reader and it can be zoomed at full-screen.

4) Internet-ready and Email Support: The Apple iPad 64GB Wi-Fi has a Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1, and EDR technology that enables its Internet connectivity. Opening all your email attachments and file formats will no longer be an issue as this gadget supports almost all types of documents.

5) Large Storage Capacity: With a memory of 64GB, you can store all the data you need in one single and compact tool. The Apple iPad 64GB Wi-Fi has enough space to accommodate all your favorite games, videos, music, and even softcopies of your work-related documents. There is definitely room for all the things you need.

Aside from these great features, the Apple iPad 64GB Wi-Fi is available at an incredibly low price, which would even makes things better. Check out your local stores now and take a bite of this wonderful creation only from Apple.

From ColecoVision To iPhone Games: Some High Water Marks In Video Game Design History – Part 8

In this ongoing look at significant moments in the history of video game design, we have already taken a look at Bungie’s Halo, Bioware’s MDK2, Nintendo’s Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out and several others. The goal of this series is to go beyond simple gaming magazines and iPhone app reviews, and take a closer look at what defines memorability and quality in game design. In this seventh part of the series we will examine some more of those classic moments where video game designers undoubtedly got it right and delivered a memorable, enduring and progressive gaming experience.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Multi-platform) – Bethesda’s fourth entry in their Elder Scrolls series, Oblivion is by far the most complete. While not as large as Daggerfall or as ambitious as Morrowind, Oblivion surpassed them both in terms of functionality, playability and overall stability. Fixing much of what was wrong in Morrowind, Oblivion maintained a massive world and incredibly varied mission structure, but did so in the absence of most of the bugs that plagued the earlier entrants in the Elder Scrolls series.

As is the theme of this series, we must focus on a particular aspect of Oblivion and single out its quality as it relates to game design. Oblivion is another title that absolutely drips with impressive features, so it is a bit of a challenge to pick a single one out of the crowded bunch. Still, if we must we must, so for this article we will examine one of the less talked about aspects of Oblivion, its incredibly well thought out enemy item inventories.

Now, even the most experienced gamers may be asking themselves: What are enemy item inventories? These inventories are the items that enemies are holding on their person at any given time throughout the game. These are the items that can be pick-pocketed from unaware characters, looted from defeated enemies, or snatched from the corpses of fallen warriors and monsters. It is this system that guarantees difficult battles reward the player with sufficient loot and ensures that players are never left in the middle of nowhere without any health or means to defend themselves. Subtle, but incredibly crucial to the enjoyment of the game, this system is still flawed in Oblivion, but works well enough to merit attention.

For all of the questionable enemy inventory choices (why in the world would a ghost in the middle of an underground dungeon be carrying gold pieces), there are some incredibly valuable and memorable ones. One that stood out for this gamer involved small moments that made a huge impact on my level of game world immersion. The incident I will single out here involved a simple battle with a cave dwelling ghoul. The battle was short, as the unarmored ghoul took a couple of arrows to the chest and fell face first into his permanent resting place. After plucking my two arrows from his body I noticed that, beyond his ragged clothing, he had only one other item on his person – a wooden spoon. It was this single wooden spoon that truly immersed me in the world of Oblivion. Picturing this little ghoul scouring for food, battling critters and trying to survive…yet using a spoon to eat with rather than his bare hands, was enough for me to decide that, come hell or high water, I was going to complete this massive game and see all that it had to offer.

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Part of what makes the game so memorable is that Oblivion is absolutely filled with little moments like this one. Whether it is the riveting diary of a fallen traveler or the unique enchanted bow of an enemy archer, the game is littered with moments where battles, exploration and crimes alike are rewarded with items that push the game’s story and immersion into previously uncharted depths.

From ColecoVision To iPhone Games: Some High Water Marks In Video Game Design History – Part 7

In this ongoing look at significant moments in the history of video game design, we have already taken a look at Bungie’s Halo, Bioware’s MDK2, Bethesda’s Morrowind and several others. The goal of this series is to go beyond simple gaming magazines and iPhone app reviews, and take a closer look at what defines memorability and quality in game design. In this seventh part of the series we will examine some more of those classic moments where video game designers undoubtedly got it right and delivered a memorable, enduring and progressive gaming experience.

Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out (MTPO) (NES) – One of the only boxing games offered on the original Nintendo Entertainment System, MTPO was also by far the best. A variety of unforgettable characters, limited but memorable music and simple yet incredibly rewarding gameplay are but a few of the characteristics that make this game one of the all-time greats. However, as is requisite of this series, we must single out an aspect of MTPO to focus on and thusly compliment. For this purpose, we can quite easily and confidently point to the game’s incredibly smooth difficulty ramping and incredibly challenging – yet fair – final character battles.

MTPO starts out with a joke of an opponent, the aptly named Glass Joe. He exists purely as a tutorial tool. In this opening fight players learn how the buttons work and get a handle on the games control scheme. Just four fights later the players will be pitted against King Hippo, an opponent that could give player’s hours of fits if they were unable to figure out his particular exploit. However, the battle with King Hippo is a necessary one for the progression of the player. King Hippo is one of the game’s easiest characters to defeat, but only once his patter is identified. Up until this point in the game, players could defeat their opponents merely by keeping a steady stream of offense flowing and dodging at least some of the incoming attacks. Hippo alerted the players that, from this point on, they would have to keep their brains turned on and be on the lookout for exploitable patterns.

By the time the player battled their way to the final encounter with Mike Tyson himself, they were at least partially prepared for the championship bout. While the challenge of defeating Mike Tyson is dwarfed by the challenges that modern videogames present to today’s savvy players, in its time it was considered one of the stiffer boss battles in all of gaming. Tyson’s lightning fast punches could floor our hero, Little Mac, in a single blow. Many gamers were so committed to defeating Tyson, that they memorized the code that allows you to skip right to the final battle – 007-373-5963. Though some gamers were never able to topple the mighty Tyson, those that did were able to do so largely because of the skills they had developed in working their way up the ladder and mastering the pattern identifying and exploiting techniques required to defeat the games lesser combatants.

MTPO is such a fan favorite that it continues to be distributed by Nintendo to this day. Available through the Wii’s virtual console, and as a hidden game in the popular Nintendo title Animal Crossing, the game – now featuring Mr. Dream as the titular character – continues to entertain and impress gamers of all generations, and serves another example is classically executed game design.

From Coleco Vision To Iphone Games: Some High Water Marks In Video Game Design History – Part 2

In the first entry of this ongoing series we took a look at some memorable design moments in video game history courtesy of  Nintendo’s own Metroid on the original NES and Bioware’s MDK2 from the Sega Dreamcast. In this second part of this ongoing series we will examine some more of those moments where video game designers undoubtedly got it right and delivered a memorable, enduring and progressive gaming experience.

Halo – A launch title for the original Xbox from Microsoft, Halo: Combat Evolved forever changed the way people think of first person shooters (FPS) on video game consoles. The game had a very long development cycle, starting out as an RTS title, evolving into a third person shooter for the Mac and finally resulting in an FPS for Microsoft’s console debut.  Regardless of this much longer than average development cycle, the game released to incredible sales, glowing reviews and almost universal praise for its execution and technical innovations.

The first high water mark in game design comes at the very beginning of Halo, as the main character – the Master Chief – is thawed from his cryo-sleep. It is at this point that the player first takes control of the main character – the Master Chief. Under the guise of configuring the Chief’s on-board systems, the player is put through a short tutorial that familiarizes them with the game’s control scheme. This seamless integration of gameplay mechanic introduction into the narrative is not only incredibly slick, but almost shockingly effective. What follows is a short run from the cryo-chamber to the deck of the ship. This run involved the player moving, jumping, ducking and generally being forced to familiarize themselves with all aspects of movement. It is not until the player finally reaches their destination on the bridge, that they are finally rewarded with their first weapon and the game truly begins.

Another standout moment in this game arrives at the beginning of the game’s second level, simply titled ‘Halo.’ When the Master Chief exits his escape pod and we see the incredible size and scope of the world he has landed on and will soon explore, the player discovers that along with some progressive controls and design integration, the game will also be upping the ante on level design. Few FPS to this point featured worlds so large and lush, and none starred enemies as dynamic and engaging as the Elites, Jackals and Grunts that make-up the bulk of the enemy army. Unbeknownst to the player, they would soon be fighting alongside civilians and soldiers, driving (and being driven in) Warthog jeeps, using sniper rifles and choosing their own pathways through the level. If the opening level of Halo wowed the player with its clever integration of tutorial elements into the gameplay, the follow-up level only served to cement the promises the development team made with those innovations, and foretold of a game to come that would push the limits of what gamers would come to expect from a FPS from that point on.

From Coleco Vision To Iphone Games: Some High Water Marks In Video Game Design History – Part 1

Anybody who has been a consistent video game player over the years has had their fair share of encounters with both fantastic game design – and controller breaking, teeth gnashingly frustrating, outright broken game design.

Since the latter does not deserve our attention, in this first in an ongoing series, we will take a look at some of those moments where video game designers undoubtedly got it right and delivered a memorable, enduring and progressive gaming experience.

Metroid (NES) – When I bought Metroid for the NES in 1986 I was just a 9-year-old boy with some birthday money burning a hole in my pocket. I bought the game mainly due to the box art, but also because I had seen it on the cover of one of the few gaming magazines of the day.

This was one of the first games I had bought new, entirely with my own money, and I was very excited when I finally got home and put the cartridge in my Nintendo. The stand-out moment for this game came within the first minute of gameplay.

As you start the game, your natural instinct is to head right. This direction of movement had been instilled in players through years of playing games such as Donkey Kong, Super Mario Bros and countless other games.

Still, when the player headed right in Metroid, they were greeted by an impassable wall that required the character to turn into a ball in order to roll under it – a skill the character did not yet possess.

This forced the player to head back where they came from, and end up to the left of the start screen, where the ability to turn into the ball was found.

This simple to solve yet incredibly purposeful roadblock let the player know that their pre-conceived notions of how a video game was supposed to be played did not apply to Metroid.

After less than a minute of gameplay, the player was already being challenged and forced to re-evaluate how they approach games – all through the use of one straight forward, yet elegantly challenging design element.

MDK2 (Dreamcast) – This absolutely must play game is a sequel to the original MDK developed by Shiny entertainment and released on the PC, Mac and eventually the Playstation. BioWare took over the reins for the development of this Dreamcast based sequel and they plastered their consistent quality all over this title.

Starring three intertwined yet very distinct characters – Max the stealthy sniper, Dr. Hawkins the crazy scientist and Kurt the 6 legged dog (MDK respectively) – the game had an incredibly varied approach to gameplay that involved sections which complimented the strengths of each player.

Anyone who has played this game will know how brutally difficult it is, but this difficulty does not come without a degree of fairness. The game demands you execute very complex moves with absolute precision, and places unforgiving save points in your path that require the player to be not only perfect, but consistently perfect.

The standout game design moments in this game are delivered in a constant stream. After completing a torturous level with Kurt where you may have gunned down hundreds upon hundreds of enemies as you desperately and frantically searched for more ammunition, you are rewarded with a brain testing breather as you take over Dr. Hawkins and must solve a puzzle within a riddle.

This constantly rotating gameplay avoided the pitfalls of similar games by refusing to allow the dips in quality that often occur as character control shifts. While the game is filled with high water marks such as: the amazing boss battles and flying sequences with Kurt, Max’s free falling navigations and sniper wars, and Dr. Kurt’s epic climbing and pipe following – the game on the whole is a massive achievement in game design and stands out as one of the most challenging and rewarding games the Dreamcast ever saw, and that BioWare ever produced.

If you have not yet had the chance to play MDK2, do yourself a favor and track down a copy. I guarantee that if its merciless difficulty does not scare you away, the game will reveal itself to be one with few in the realm of high quality game design.