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Final Fantasy I & II: An extremely faithful pair of ports. The original FF1 and FF2 are old enough that Square Enix decided to revamp the artwork for the iPhone, making these versions noticeably prettier than the originals. Gameplay doesn’t suffer too much on account of the touch controls because of the games’ slowish pace, and honestly, even if it did, FF these games are basically a lock for Final Fantasy fans anyway. My only reservation is that the games costs $9 each. $9 for both would’ve been more like it.

Aha: Last time we saw this app, it was a mere traffic reporter. It had big buttons, and it aggregated voice messages from other users, but still: traffic. Now Aha’s expanded its big-buttoned philosophy—that philosophy being, I think, that if you have to fiddle with your phone while you’re driving (you don’t!) then it may as well be as easy as possible—to Facebook, Twitter, local points of interest and streaming podcasts. And its voice reports system has been expanded into a full-on set of community radio stations, populated by the voices of other Aha users, who will yell about whatever they while driving, I guess? Anyway, free.

Colorbind: This one falls into that vexing category of dead-simple, dead-hard, dead-brilliant iPhone puzzle games. Extract what little comfort you can from the game’s soothing aesthetic, because until you really get a feel for the gameplay concept, it’s going to be a rough ride. As far as how it works, I’ll leave the explaining up to the video. $2, though a lite version is available.

Skeptical Science: Hey, guess what’s not fun! A discussion about a scientific issue in which both parties have access to the same data, yet still disagree, angrily and forever! If you’re frustrated by deniers, Skeptical Science offers a handy guide for debunking common claims about climate science. You’re still probably not going to change anyone’s mind, but at least you’ll feel good about proving someone else wrong on some granular point, and that’s what debate is about, right? Right.

Gibson Learn & Master: A free entrant into the category that GuitarToolKit dominates, Gibson’s app is good. It’s not great. It’s not going to replace GuitarToolKit. Here’s what it will replace, for the most part:

• Your metronome
• Your guitar tuner
• Chord charts, printed or online

Wilson, Gizmodo’s resident closeted band-haver, calls this a “classy value-added way to advertise products,” but says it’s “chump” compared to GTK, lacking varied metronome sounds and multiple guitar types, and possessed of a much less navigable chord guide, and no way to hear how a given chord sounds. A feature-to-feature comparison like this could go on forever, but that’s not the point. The point is the Gibson’s app is free.

Brothers in Arms 2: The first Brothers in Arms game had problems ranging from blocky graphics to awkward controls, which weren’t bad enough to ruin the game, but just bad enough to prevent it from being great. Brothers in Arms 2 upgrades the graphics considerably, improves the controls marginally, and opens up gameplay options immensely. If you enjoyed the first one, you’ll love this one. If you’ve never dabbled in a 3D shooter on the iPhone for fear of utter terribleness, this is a good place to start. $8.

Angry Birds: Terribly violent little casual game, to birds. A terrible addictive little casual game, to humans. It’s a bit like a cross between a scorched earth game and a physics tool—your goal is to launch an avian cartoon into precariously stacked structures. The more you knock down, the higher you score. If you’re not ready to throw down a dollar based on the concept alone, there’s a pretty solid lite version, too.

Camera Pro Plus: There’s a lot of overlap in camera apps, so interface and novel features are generally what determine the best. (I’m partial to Snapture.) But Camera Pro Plus, already a great alternative camera app, now records video, which it competitors generally don’t. Trump card, folks! (Until everyone else does it too.)

Vogue Stylist: Prancing awkward back and forth across the line that separates advertising from, you know, stuff you might voluntarily subject yourself to, the Vogue app is a sort of pocket wardrobe catalogue, compiling both pre-listed items and stuff you’ve added yourself into a toy for fiddling with outfits, which is something I can speak about with little to no authority. I will say this, though: It’s pretty.

Moto X Mayhem: Who knows why, but good trials games are hard to come by on the iPhone. This is a good trials games, albeit of a very specific type. Think Teagames-style, don’t-fall-over-but-don’t-go-too-slow type of stuff, not the crawling, puzzle-like trials you find in games like Trials HD. Tons of playability for $1.

NASA Lunar Electric Rover: Lets you simulate the various tasks and challenges involved in supporting a functioning lunar outpost. As Jesus notes, it’s also a heartbreaker:

There are over 170,000 apps available for your iPhone. Sorting through the crowded App Store to find the best downloads for your iPhone or iPod Touch is time consuming and fraught with the risk of dropping good money on a bad app. Because even though most apps cost just a few dollars or Euros, that still was your hard-earned coin. So, IGN is starting a series of Top 5s for various genres and categories in the App Store to help you make the best download decisions. If you’re new to the App Store, we hope to make the discovery of new apps and games more fun. And if you’ve had an iPhone for years, perhaps you’ll find something new and fun. Because that’s what makes the App Store such an exciting place: there is always something new behind each click.

Because the iPhone was born out of Apple’s revolutionary iPod line, it includes all of the functionality of those successful music players. But thanks to the cleverness of developers, the iPhone and iPod Touch can do so much more with music than just replay it. Now you can interact with your music, create your own sounds, and play rhythm games. Our inaugural Top 5 charts the best music apps in the App Store, ranging from a brilliant little puzzle game to a voice-altering app that turns you into the next hip-hop star.

Pandora Radio
Publisher: Pandora Media
Price (as of 2/26/10): Free
Download this app

Pandora is an unparalleled music source. This Internet radio service is one of the world’s most popular music destinations for good reason. It’s easy to set up your very own personalized stations so you listen primarily to the bands and music genres you like, but Pandora’s smart DJ pulls. I cannot tell you how many forgotten songs and new bands were introduced to me by Pandora. The free iPhone app works just as well as the website, easily streaming music through your device (as long as you have a connection) and its integration with iTunes right on your handset means you can buy new tracks with just a few taps.

Beat It!
Publisher: Glu
Price (as of 2/26/10): $2.99
Download this app

We named Beat It the best iPhone music game of 2009. And unless somebody steps up their game, it might end up coasting through 2010 as a top choice, too. Beat It is a rhythm-puzzler. You must recreate music on a grid, tapping in notes and beats until you successfully mirror the sample track. Over time, tracks grow more complex, adding new instruments to the mix. As you match the music, the backgrounds explode in color and light with a distinct 16-bit aesthetic that will please classic gamers or any fan of cubism. Glu recently updated Beat It so the music making mode now lets you share created clips with friends and other players, which was our lone sticking point with the original release. So now, it’s pretty much perfect.

Shazam / Shazam Encore
Publisher: Shazam Entertainment
Price (as of 2/26/10): Free / $4.99
Download this app

Many of the best apps are those that offer a solution to a problem that wasn’t exactly pressing, but present all the same. Shazam identifies music. We’ve all caught the back half of a song on the radio, loved what we heard, and then screamed at the DJ for not telling us what it was called or which band performed it. Quickly fire up Shazam, point your device at the speaker, and within seconds, the app tells you the name of the song and the band, as well as offering links for buying the track or sharing it with friends. Like Pandora, Shazam is about exploration. As you tag songs you like, Shazam starts offering recommendations. The Encore edition of Shazam will cost you, but it offers increased speed and additional features, like a car mode that monitors the radio and keeps a running playlist.

RjDj
Publisher: Reality Jockey Ltd.
Price (as of 2/26/10): $1.99
Download this app

Your iPhone or iPod Touch is already loaded up with your music, but why not make a little of your own? RjDj is a reality mixer of sorts. Though there are a number of downloadable songs to pull into RjDj, the thrust of the app is to using the noises around you to affect the tracks. You can also move your fingers around scene to change the song, creating new sounds. It’s a trippy little app and one that is easy to sink a lot of time into if you connect with it. You’ll bust it out when you go to new places to see how the ambient sounds of that environment affect the music. You can save the music you make with RjDj and either listen to it later or share it with friends via the usual social networking suspects. This is precisely the kind of crazy-cool app that makes the iPhone such a unique experience.

I Am T-Pain
Publisher: Smule
Price (as of 2/26/10): $2.99
Download this app

Auto-Tune is everywhere now, for better or worse. Smule’s I Am T-Pain lets you use a simple version of the voice-altering software that defines hip-hop artist T-Pain’s sound. Using the iPhone mic or an mic input on a Touch, you record your voice (either by itself or over a backing track) and then run it through Auto-Tune. You select keys to determine the results. Using freestyle mode over no backing track is a fun way to make little messages for friends, but I Am T-Pain is much more engaging when you sing over a backing track, really experiment with the Auto-Tune settings to create something unique, and then share it via Smule’s global network. (Really, there is a globe you can spin to select I Am T-Pain creations from all over the planet. And this app is indeed global.) Oh, and lest we forget: shawwty.

Although we intended to just highlight the absolute top five, we cannot help but steer you to one more music game that is also worth your attention. Though not the best in class, it has all of the elements to be one of the best rhythm games on the App Store with revision and the addition of new artists:

Riddim Ribbon feat. Black-Eyed Peas
Publisher: Tapulous
Price (as of 2/26/10): $2.99
Download this app

Tapulous is the most successful music game publisher on the App Store, thanks to its catalog of Tap Tap Revenge games. However, the Guitar Hero-like gameplay of just tapping notes as they stream down the screen is just no longer fresh. That’s where Riddim Ribbon comes in: this is a cool riff on the rhythm game. Instead of touching notes, you tilt to steer a marble through lines that represent the song. Depending on which route you take at branches, you mix the song. PlayStation 2 gamers will see hints of Frequency and Amplitude in Riddim Ribbon, but considering those were the first music games by Harmonix (inventors of Guitar Hero and Rock Band), that’s pretty good inspiration. If you don’t like the Black Eyed Peas, there are additional tracks to unlock in Riddim that may be more to your liking. Plus, Tapulous has franchise plans that will branch out into other genres and artists.

Though The Crazies doesn’t follow the “Of the Dead” series by title, it certainly does by tone, direction and style. Director Breck Eisner, son of the famed Disney Eisners, clearly took a few notes from the other modern directors that have already collaborated with writer/director George A. Romero to remake his classic 1970s and ’80s zombie titles. The main difference between this and the others is that the original Crazies never caught on with audiences in the way that Dawn and Day of the Dead did in their original releases. So Eisner had to be a bit creative with this remake, but Romero’s role as executive producer kept him close enough for inspiration, but far enough away for Eisner to make a few needed adjustments to the original and politically charged 1973 film.

The basic idea of the 2010 rendition of The Crazies is that the unsuspecting townsfolk of Ogden Marsh, Iowa, have fallen victim to some kind of outbreak that is infecting at random and turning otherwise unremarkable people into uncontrollable, crazed killers. The film opens at a high school baseball game; cheering crowds, rowdy teenagers and one unsuspecting hometown sheriff (Timothy Olyphant) are all gathered for the only excitement the town can muster. Then, out of left field — literally — comes one of the townsfolk armed with a shotgun and looking for a fight. Sheriff Dutton quickly takes the man down, but something in his eyes tells Dutton that there was more than cheap beer in his system.

The movie is non-stop from this moment on: One by one the townsfolk fall victim to the unnamed illness and we, the audience, are forced to follow each individual Crazy as he stalks and kills those most dear to him. It comes down to the few — Sheriff Dutton; his pregnant wife, Judy (Radha Mitchell); Becca (Danielle Panabaker), an assistant at the medical center; and Russell (Joe Anderson), Dutton’s deputy and right-hand man versus a town full of Crazies. Forced to band together, “an ordinary night becomes a horrifying struggle for survival as they do their best to get out of town alive.” With all that said, however, this movie didn’t take the liberties with gore that its predecessor did. Though Eisner wasn’t exactly true to his Disney roots, he certainly held back on the mutilations and blood splatters that have become the zombie industry standard. (And yes, I know that the Crazies aren’t technically zombies, but whatev.)

Timothy Olyphant, Radha Mitchell, Danielle Panabaker and Joe Anderson aren’t crazy — yet!

The previews for this movie did a good job of prepping the audience for some of the most terrifying moments without giving too much away, but that’s probably because there wasn’t much more to tell by way of gore. We all knew that Sheriff Dutton was going to get into some gnarly fights with the Crazies and that one of them was going to walk around dragging a bloody pitchfork through a hospital ward, but what they didn’t show was just how cleanly the characters got off. A pitchfork through the torso should have coated the walls in gore, but a close-up of the underside of a gurney barely hinted at the carnage we would have seen in other, similar films.

Gore is definitely a style choice, but when it comes down to it, multiple pyrotechnics with zombies… er, Crazies on fire just can’t do what a surgical saw can (and almost did). I don’t need Hostel-style graphics to get me through a horror film, but a bit of blood can go a long way to keep the audience off kilter, rather than doing a lot of slow buildups and sudden pops that end in little more than a blow to the head (followed by a double tap — thank you Zombieland).

In sum, The Crazies remake has the same taste and appeal of the other Romero remakes, but it has the privilege of going a step further as its original was not among the greatly revered original flicks. Eisner does a great job of piecing together what was good in the original, but pulls away from the overzealous political commentary that hampered it in ‘73. The Crazies, though a bit weak on the gore scale, should still be scored with at least 4 stars in the horror category as it nails the popular zombie genre, but it will have to settle with an overall 3.5 as we cannot determine a film’s quality if it is only compared to others in the same genre. The acting is pretty clean and the effects are fun to watch, but Eisner doesn’t bring anything new or edgy to the film. It will definitely do it for horror/zombie fans and it is a great Friday night pick for the average moviegoer.

It’s only been a couple of months and 2010 is already shaping up to be one of the best ever for gamers. If your wallet hasn’t already been emptied, Electronic Arts and development studio DICE have tossed yet another videogame on the pile that can’t be missed. Battlefiled: Bad Company 2 ups the intensity and visual prowess of its predecessor, while still delivering one of the most compelling multiplayer games around.

If you were to buy Bad Company 2 solely for the single-player campaign, you might come away a bit disappointed. That’s not to say it’s particularly bad in any way, but it doesn’t feel impressive enough to stand on its own as a great experience. Once again, the multiplayer game is the star of the Battlefield show.

Watch the video review.

The single player campaign follows the story of a rag-tag bunch of soldiers as they traipse around the world on the hunt for a mythical weapon of mass destruction which absolutely must not fall into the hands of the Russians. It’s a typical story of unlikely heroes as they attempt to save the world, and it will take you across a great variety of locations that range from frozen mountains to densely packed jungles.
These gorgeous locales are the first thing that will spring out at you as you begin the fight. The vistas and skyboxes look nearly photorealistic in many situations, and DICE did a wonderful job blending the particle effects and game objects in the foreground with the more static backdrops. The result is a sense of depth that few videogame worlds can offer.

Things become more impressive yet when the action kicks in. Returning from the last Bad Company game are nearly fully destructible environments. If an enemy soldier is holed up in a second story bedroom taking potshots at you, all you have to do is send a rocket at that wall and he’ll either wind up dead or fully exposed. The same line of thinking applies to just about anything you see – send enough firepower at it and you can watch it crumble.

Once you’re done ogling the smoke trails or mountain ranges in the distance, you’ll start to notice that Bad Company 2 has taken a few cues from the Call of Duty franchise. The last Battlefield game was the first to introduce a fully fleshed out storyline and it stumbled a bit in the process. The humor was goofy and over the top, the open mission design was a bit too open, and everything seemed coated in a dense fog. A lot has changed and improved for the sequel.

The backdrops are breathtaking.

The big change comes with a more streamlined and cinematic approach to the action. The dialogue is less overtly inane, though it does offer its fair share of humor, and the level design feels more straightforward. While the last Bad Company game couldn’t hold my attention, this one kept me interested and having fun from start to finish.
It shouldn’t come as any surprise that this Battlefield game has some great mechanics. The guns react well, and sound fantastic. The vehicles handle smoothly and really do a great job of making you feel like the king of the battlefield. The instant-respawns and med kit injections of the last Bad Company have been replaced by the more standard checkpoints and regenerative health bar and that makes the challenge of war feel more realistic.

To top things off, the AI squad mates at your side act like real soldiers in battle. They’ll press the attack while you flank and hold off the enemy while you duck behind cover to recuperate. Many games slap you in a squad of largely ineffective soldiers and let you do all of the heavy lifting. Bad Company 2 is a refreshing change of pace in this regard.

Of course, if you want to start nitpicking, there are plenty of instances to call out. Some of the details and little pieces of the environment stream into view a bit late. There still are no arms drawn on screen when driving a vehicle, causing a poltergeist-like steering wheel to move on its own. On the Xbox 360 version, slow loading from the disc causes the player to be locked out for as much as five seconds from throwing grenades or using the knife when picking up a new weapon or changing kits (this issue went away when installing the game onto a hard drive).

These are mostly small complaints and, for me, the campaign’s only real troubles rest with the presentation and pacing. The B-Company (known as Bravo Two in this game) squad returns with you filling the shoes of Preston Marlowe. At your side is a crew of largely one-dimensional characters who are good for a laugh every now and then. This cast exists mainly to deliver one-liners and to direct you through the battlefield to the next objective. It’s hard to even think of them as people after watching them take a rocket propelled grenade to the face and then get up and go right back into the fight.

Though the action has been streamlined, it feels like Bad Company 2 just missed the “epic” feeling that it seems the developers were going for. Part of the problem is in the direction of the cutscenes, but mostly I feel like it rests with the non-stop high-intensity approach to gameplay. In a given level, you can do everything from sniping soldiers to manning a turret on the side of a helicopter to calling in air strikes – all in rapid succession. You’re something of a Rambo super-soldier, well versed in every facet of war. With the constant action, it feels like there is very little tension building outside of the game’s opening moments. There’s tons of variety to the gameplay and all of it is a great deal of fun, but it doesn’t quite come together to be a top tier experience.

Explosions are quite common.

And with such a frantic campaign pace, it is over in short order. I blew through the game in just a few evenings of lazy play, probably clocking in under six hours. A collectible weapon system does offer a reason to go back for a second or third run, but this isn’t the kind of campaign you’ll be returning to again and again.
For many, the shortcomings in the campaign won’t matter one bit. These people come for the multiplayer online game, and that’s where Bad Company 2 delivers. Here the destructible environments of the campaign take on new meaning. Your target might be waiting inside a shack. An enemy squad may be using a tower as a staging point. This can all change with just a few well placed explosives as you literally level the playing field. It adds an extra tier of strategy to the game as you struggle to work through extended fights, adapting your approach to the fight as the world around you crumbles.

That’s just the first level of strategic planning this shooter offers those that work well together. Battlefield has long been known and adored by gamers as the franchise that offers epic, large-scale online fights and plenty of vehicles to take into battle. That tradition continues here. Personally, I’ve always held it in such high regard because of how it is inherently team-based. The very layout of the game is designed to encourage players to work together, straight down to awarding extra points for working with your teammates.

Little squads can be created, segmenting larger teams into strike forces which can each play a specific role. Then within that squad, players can choose between four load-out kits that range from the light machinegun toting medic to the heavy weapon specialist engineer. Each has its own weapons and unique tools that allow you to set yourself up as a small but integral part in the team’s success. It’s a game that requires a cool head and open lines of communication just as much as it does a deft hand, and that just makes the victories that much sweeter.

Who doesn’t want to catch a ride?

What struck me as most impressive with Bad Company 2 is how flexible the multiplayer game is. The class system allows you to choose what your approach to battle will be. It’s the maps and modes included in this package that allow you to choose exactly what kind of game you want to play. There is a huge difference between the giant and extended team Rush games – an attack and defend mode which plays out across expansive maps and features vehicles heavily — and the tighter Squad Deathmatch games which can feel just like your standard frantic and close-quarters shooter. If you care for something in between, you can just hop into a Conquest game to try your hand at the classic Battlefield fight over specific areas controlled by raising and lowering flags. Regardless of your mood, it feels like Bad Company 2 has something for you.
And if the game itself isn’t enough reason to keep coming back, perhaps you’ll find yourself hooked on the class upgrade system. New weapons and gadgets can be unlocked, as well as little perks to give you an edge in the fight. Those familiar with Call of Duty (And at this point who isn’t?) will be right at home with the system that rewards players for completing small challenges as well as winning games or simply playing well and getting a lot of kills.

Closing Comments
Those looking at Bad Company 2 as only a single-player game might come away disappointed. It’s an action packed, gorgeous, and explosive game but it doesn’t quite come together into a campaign for the ages. It more feels like an added bonus to the multiplayer game and for those in search of that, this is a great choice. Bad Company 2 as an online shooter is flexible and engaging, offering several features that the competition can only dream of. If you’re looking for a more strategic and team-based change of pace, look no further. This is the game for you.

The Canon T2i dSLR sounded extremely exciting, as it promised to bring 1080P video (with decent frame rates) to Canon’s sub-$1000 dSLR line. Photographer Dan Chung was among the first to test it out, and the results look fantastic.

As it turns out this little camera is a really competent performer and the footage I’ve shot so far looks pretty much the same as my 7D to my eye…The footage you see here is shot at 1080p/25 frames a second and not graded with only minor adjustments of gamma, sharpening and a little smoothcam in Final Cut Pro…In terms of video image quality I think it is too early to make definitive judgments…[but] I think this camera is cheap enough that there is now little reason for pros who have not yet bought a HD-DSLR to not put their toes in the water and see if they like shooting video.

Note that Chung accentuated the frame rate by shooting almost exclusively with long dolly movements.

But if Chung’s hands-on wasn’t enough, here’s another beautiful clip from another photographer named Drew Painter.

Because Jesus wouldn’t waste free publicity, Kirk Cameron issued People the following statement regarding the suicide of his Growing Pains co-star Andrew Koenig:

“It is with great sorrow to hear about the final outcome of the search for my old friend Andrew. I hope everyone will be sensitive to the Koenigs and give the family some private time to reflect and to grieve the loss of their beloved son. At a time like this, we all are reminded of the briefness of life and the importance of being ready for our eternal destination. My prayers will continue to be with Andrew’s family.”

Listen, what happened to Andrew Koenig was, no question, tragic for his family. I couldn’t even imagine. But let’s be honest, nobody cared about Boner from Growing Pains until this week and now he’s become an excuse for a bunch of people to pretend they’re hyper-sensitive human beings with their “Oh, I’m hollow inside.”; “My heart skipped a beat” and other fake sympathies. Even worse, you’ve got Kirk Cameron capitalizing on the death of “an old friend” he apparently never talked to just to push the oldest swindle known to man: Claiming to know what happens when you die.