Gameloft reveals story of Modern Combat 5; release date still a mystery

It has been nearly a year now since Gameloft unveiled a teaser of Modern Combat 5 Blackout and still not much is known. But if reports are to be believed then Gameloft might soon officially launch the game.

According to Android Central, who got a press statement from Gameloft, the game might see a release soon. Speaking about the game’s story the site quotes from an email statement from Gameloft, “Modern Combat 5: Blackout will once again take fans on an adventure across the globe, as the player engages in special counter-terrorism operations with the latest and most technologically advanced combat weaponry.”

The main protagonist of the story is called Phoenix who will be responsible for securing safe transfer of WMDs while at the same time foil a terrorist attack. The game starts off in Venice, Italy and eventually moves to different locales across the globe. With such an expansive storyline expect to see lots of different settings and action sequences.

Gameloft had tied up with chipset maker MediaTek to optimise Modern Combat for the octa-core SoC from the company. Last year MediaTek announced octa-core chipnamed MT6592, which is now being seen in devices in the market such as Canvas Knight by Micromax or the Elife E7 mini by Gionee.

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Watch A Robot Made Of Legos Solve A Rubik's Cube In 3 Seconds

British engineers David Gilday and Mike Dobson have built a robot out of Lego Mindstorms that can solve a Rubik's Cube so quickly that it crushes records previously held by both man and machine, reports The Verge.

The human record for this feat is 5.55 seconds, set last year by Mats Valk of the Netherlands. The robot record used to be 5.35 seconds (set by Cubestormer 3's older sibling, Cubestormer 2). But the new record is a startling 3.253 seconds, markedly faster than both those records.

Watch the video above to see Cubestormer 3 in action. The robot uses a Galaxy S4 smartphone as a brain, running a custom app that monitors the unsolved Rubik's Cube and sends the appropriate controls to the arms to manipulate the toy into its solved position.

While it won't exactly get you to robot speed, the video below offers some pointers on how you can more quickly solve a Rubik's Cube yourself.

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Dong Nguyen, creator of Flappy Bird, considering bringing it back, along with a warning

By now the dust on Flappy Bird should have settled, but Dong Nguyen the creator of the game has just sparked off new speculation that the game will be back on mobile devices.

Flappy Bird was taken down by Nguyen after he though people were getting too addicted to it. But in a long interview with Rolling Stone (read the full text here), Nguyen said, “I’m considering it” when asked whether Flappy would be back. But the Hanoi resident also said that if it ever comes back, the game will show a warning asking users to take a break.

In what is his first major interview after the game’s demise, Nguyen opened up about the origins of the game, the simplicity of older games and how it inspired him to make Flappy Bird. Being pulled out of app stores sparked rumours of Nguyen’s death, about the game being a botnet and also about Nguyen being sued by video game companies for copying their graphics. Most were baffled by Nguyen’s choice to abandon a project that was at one time fetching him $50,000 a day through ads, and that was before it hit it reached its peak popularity. Some left him death threats and phones with Flappy installed were being sold for close to $100,000.

As Nguyen later explained, it was simply because users were playing too much of it. In the interview he goes over this in detail, showing messages from people who were affected by their friends or family constantly playing Flappy Bird. He was more saddened by this due to his own problems with gaming addiction. It’s a very earnest chat and it goes a long way towards explaining how something simple like Flappy Bird can become a phenomenon with the right tools in the age of the smartphone.

While Flappy fans will be eagerly awaiting news of its comeback, there are a horde of apps that can fill the void in the meantime. However, not all are safe to use, and some clones have even been booted out by Apple and Google.

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Popular trivia game Quizup now available on Android

Quizup, a trivia app that lets you compete against friends and other users, is now available on the Google Play Store. Developed by Plain Vanilla Games, the app made its iPhone debut last November, and quickly became a smashing hit.

Players can choose from hundreds of topics, including sports, TV shows, music, books, and more. Each topic contains seven multiple choice questions. While the first six questions are worth 20 points each, the last question is worth a maximum of 40 points.

It's a speed-based game, which means the faster you answer, the more you score, and the best part is that you are not out until a match is over. For each correct answer, you gain an Experience Point (XP). Collecting XPs moves you up to a higher level in each topic. There are also discussion boards for each topic as well as a chat feature to converse with other players.

You can sign-in using your email or Facebook/Google+ ID. "QuizUp is a hybrid between a game and a social network, that's why having a broad audience is important to us," said Thor Fridriksson, founder and CEO of Plain Vanilla Games. He said that the Android version has been in works even before the launch of the iOS app, adding that the delay was due to the "complexity of the platform and the company's limited resources".

Although the app boasts of more than 100 million users, its popularity has declined a bit. The app is currently at the 50th spot among free apps in Apple's App Store. The Iceland-based company received $22 million in funding last year.

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5 Browser-Based Fighting Games That Are Actually Good

The simplistic player-vs-player style of Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat is easy to get addicted to. Your character is on one side, the opponent (or AI bot) is on the other, and you duke it out to see who comes out on top.

And while multiplayer games don’t focus so much on this style any more, it’s not entirely out of fashion yet. In fact, some of the best fighting games are actually available for free as Flash games in your browser. Simon didn’t include any in his roundup of the best Flash games, but don’t worry, I got you covered.

Gun Mayhem & Gun Mayhem 2

The main draw of games like Mortal Kombat was the speed with which you had to play and no Flash game replicates that better than Gun Mayhem and its sequel. You play as a character in a multi-platform world, jumping up and down and shooting at opponents with the gun granted to you. Throughout the level, power-ups and better guns will drop from the sky, and you can select special powers at the start of the level to boost your player. It doesn’t have online multiplayer, but you and your friend can use one keyboard and shoot till there’s only one man standing. The game can be a bit heavy, so you can use these tricks to improve performance on Flash games.

Flash Bash

Flash Bash is as close to Street Fighter as you’re going to get. The graphics are not as good as the original, but a lot of the elements are copied, including gameplay, player styles and even some of the moves. At its core, it’s a basic player vs. player game where you can move around, punch and kick, unleashing power moves with the right keyboard combos (like shooting a fireball with Down+Forward+Punch) — helpfully, the combos are noted in the pause menu. Best played in full-screen mode!

Also, I can’t recommend Armor Games enough as one of the best Flash game repositories on the web.

Urban Sumo

Urban Sumo’s instructions are in Spanish, but don’t let that dissuade you from playing this fun fighting game. The controls are simple: move with the arrow keys, A and S to punch or kick, and D to grab. When your power meter is full, hit Spacebar to launch a special attack. There’s no two-player mode, but the bots are good enough to challenge you while keeping you entertained at the same time.

World Boxing Tournament 2

The graphics might not be great, but the gameplay of World Boxing Tournament 2 is surprisingly addictive. It’ has just three attack buttons and a block button, but the isometric ring provides a different setting from the likes of Flash Bash and the judicious use of punches and blocks makes it more challenging too. You can’t expect to go bashing away aimlessly and win here; you’ll need to time your punches right, and slip in that massive hook to knock your opponent out. And yeah, it’s got 2-player mode for a quick office break!

Rival Rage

There’s no player-vs-player action in Rival Rage, but this has the best graphics of all the games featured here. The anime style complements the speed of the game, which has you playing as one of four characters taking on the others in a tournament. The controls are easy, as is the gameplay, as long as you don’t get cocky! I’d suggest stowing away your Special Skill move unless you actually need it.

Bonus: Cowboy Duel

While not technically a fighting game, I wanted to include Cowboy Duel in this round-up because of how much fun it is while having some of the same elements as the others. Again, there’s no player-vs-player action here, but you do get one of the best player-vs-bot games. Playing as a cowboy, you have to ask yourself if you’re the fastest gun in the West. As soon as the level starts, you shoot your rival in the duel using the six bullets in your revolver — different parts of the body have different levels of damage, so make sure you aim well!

Fighting Favorites

Needless to say, it was impossible for me to play every single fighting Flash game on the internet, so I must have missed a few good ones. What’s your favourite Flash fighter? You must know a few if you’re visiting some of the best websites for fighting game fans.

I’d also like to know, how often do you play Flash games now that there are so many great games available on smartphones?

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Japan Is The Most Potentially Lucrative Market For Gaming Apps

Mobile analytics firm Distimo just released a new report showing how the most successful apps monetize around the world. According to it, the five most potentially lucrative markets for gaming apps are Japan, Australia, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States, in that order. In addition, Japan and China were the two countries where the largest amount of revenue was generated from freemium apps.

Along with another Distimo report published last month that showed app revenue in Asia grew a massive 162% in 2013, this is further proof that app developers need to look at international markets while developing a monetization strategy.

Distimo last wrote about how apps generate revenue and make a profit back in March 2013. The firm’s latest report, which also focuses on mobile app revenues in relation to download volumes, looks at global trends that have emerged since then. It drew mainly on data from the Apple App Store and covers the two-year period from Jan. 2012 to Jan. 2014.

Previous reports have found that freemium apps already generate the majority of revenue — but there is still plenty of growth potential for that business model. In the U.S. for example, free apps with in-app purchases generated an all-time high of 81% of revenue in the U.S. on iOS in November 2013, up from just 46% in Jan. 2012 (see chart below). Last month, the revenue share of freemium apps in the U.S. was at 79%.

While the U.S. enjoyed strong growth, China and Japan saw the largest revenue share from the freemium apps, with each taking a record 94% in Jan. 2014. In comparison, just 70% of Germany’s total revenue was generated from freemium apps.

To understand how individual apps monetize, Distimo looked at the average revenue per download (ARPD). By this metric, the most lucrative countries for app developers are concentrated in the Asia-Pacific region. Japan was the leader by far. On average, one app download there is worth $5.32, “validating the enormous potential of the Asia app market,” wrote Distimo analyst Christel Schoger.

Australia and South Korea generated $3.60 and $3.40 ARPD, respectively, which points to their growth potential. The countries with the next highest ARPD — Canada, Germany, the U.S. and the UK — all generated around $2.30 per download.

On the other end of the scale is China, which generated a much lower $0.92 ARPD per download. But that number doesn’t negate China’s potential as a growth market for app developers. Rather, it means that it is especially important for developers to figure out what monetization strategy works best for their app there.

When Distimo compared revenue in different countries between three business models — paid apps without in-app purchases, paid apps with in-app purchases, and freemium apps — it found that in China the ARPD for in-app purchases from paid apps is even higher than ARPD for freemium apps.
“This indicates that Chinese users are less opposed to purchasing further in-app features after they already paid for the initial purchase,” wrote Schoger.

Distimo partnered with Chartboost, a games-only tech platform, to get deeper insight into the profitability and revenue potential of different mobile app markets for game developers.

Distimo’s partnership with Chartboost allowed it to get a better look at the cost of user acquisition in different countries. For this report, it focused only on the revenue and download volumes for the top 250 grossing games in the Apple App Store during Q4 2013. It found that the average cost-per-install (CPI) across all countries was $1.31, with that amount ranging from a low of $0.90 in China to a high of $2.59 in Australia.

When Distimo compared ARPD with average CPI, it concluded that the five markets showing the most revenue potential are currently Japan, Australia, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In Japan, where the average CPI is $1.86, it is possible to hit an ARPD of $6.34. This means that game developers can potentially make a plump profit of $4.48 per download.

See the full report here.

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