Friday, 30 March 2012

Bacon maths, obsessive listing, and Thomas the Tank Engine goes to heaven

Guess what!

I’ve been looking at things! On the internet! And my phone!

Let me tell you about them!

Train Conductor 2


Stop it, I can hear you snoring at the back. Give it a chance.

Train Conductor 2 has you, as you could imagine, in control of initially four train tracks going across your screen, and the trains that travel along them. When they appear, you need to create a path for them by dragging a link to the track they need to get to. It’s easy enough at first, but soon you’ll have more trains on screen than you’ll know what to do with, and you’ll be frantically redirecting trains until you miss one and SMASH! Thomas the Tank Engine goes to heaven.

I really enjoyed the game, although I think it’s a bit limited. It has ‘classic’ and ‘challenge’ modes, but it could do with either more modes or more levels. Still a lovely way of killing five minutes while you’re waiting for the bus, though.

Etsy


Yeah, I know Etsy isn’t new, but hush. I’ve only just joined up on it because I’ve started making custom ponies and I’m trying to sell the beggars. I thought Etsy would be a good place as they love them some ponies over there (as I have demonstrated on this very site only last week).

It’s very easy to get yourself set up to sell, and they have a nifty new direct pay feature, although sadly it isn’t available in the UK yet. It costs 20 cents to list an item, and you get to upload up to 5 photos for free, which I think is a nice touch.

The problem is, though, that no one BUYS on there. I’ve had loads and loads of ‘favourites’ on my items, but it seems that people just browse there. They’re probably like me, looking for the crazy. Stick to eBay.

Pinterest


The kind of thing I put on Pinterest. I probably shouldn't have an account.

Another new social networking site has a crack at toppling Facebook from it’s mighty throne. Although, it’s not trying to replace it entirely. It’s more of an ‘online mood board’, whatever that is. In practice, you sign up through another internet site (most likely Facebook), then you’re invited to create boards, and ‘pin’ items to them by entering their URL, or uploading directly from your computer.

In practice, Pinterest is really just a visually appealing way of creating obsessive lists about everything, ever. Of course, I really enjoy just spamming it with pony pictures. Shut up.

Draw Something


It’s the cool new game in town that suddenly everyone and their dog is playing (although if your dog has a phone, you need to re-examine your life). I literally only downloaded it today but so far, I’m impressed. On Android, I was given the choice of downloading the ad supported version or shelling out a whole 60p on it, then I got straight down to business. It uses Facebook (again with Facebook!) to find your friends and let you challenge them to games. Essentially, its phone based Pictionary. You draw something, they guess it, then they draw something, and so on and so forth. The twist is you’re given ‘bombs’, that do certain things like take away some of your letter choices to make your guessing easier, or change the list of items you can draw.

It’s good so far, but I can see it being very annoying for those who’ve decided they’re bored of it and then get bugged by their mates to finish a round. Time shall tell.

Drawception

Drawception is a bit similar to Draw Something, except its web based and played between strangers. It bills itself as a ‘social telephone’ game, and plays something like Chinese Whispers crossed with MS Paint. One player will begin a game by suggesting a scenario to be drawn, such as ‘An elephant on a canoe’. Then, the next player draws it. Then, the next player is asked to describe the picture, and so on and so forth, until you get something like this:



Worth looking at, but watch yourself. It’s a bloody time worm hole and no mistake.

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