Day 11 - Games

One of the main uses for gadgets like the Galaxy Tab is of course to play games, and i'm sure those of you who have a smartphone spend a fair percentage of your time playing with these momentary distractions when you have a moment. I know I do. So I thought I would take a few minutes of your time to chat to you about what games I have been playing.

I have to admit with the Galaxy Tab I have been a little disappointed at what the options are when it comes to games. There seems to be an awful lot of games for Android phones but not for the tablet. Most of these will work on both but there are a few that just don't scale well. An example of this is the Pac-Man Championship edition which looked horribly pixelated on the bigger screen and was totally unplayable. One of the better games which is clearly designed for the tablet screen is Air Attack HD. 

Air Attack HD

This comes in 3 parts with the first of which being free and the others being £1.79 and £1.19. Its a simple game where you have to shoot down attacking planes and other artillery on the ground. This is makes it easy to pick up and play and the graphics are very good as it shows off all the best qualities of the Galaxy Tab's screen. I found this one quite addictive and would certainly recommend it. 

The next game I want to mention is of course Angry Birds. Now I'm sure your all familiar with it so I'm not going to go into detail about it. What I will say though is it scales reasonably well, I do find though that to get a complete view of the stage you do have to zoom out a little bit otherwise you can't see either the pigs or the birds themselves.

Angry Birds

The Angry Birds RIO seems to scale much better and although you still can't see the whole stage there does seem to be much more of it in view and you feel that you don't need to zoom out to play the level. If you like Angry Birds then these 2 are a must but I know for some people its not their cup of tea.

A classic game that I think I must have played on every device I have ever owned from Windows 3.11 and Windows CE all the way through now to Honeycomb. It is of course everyone's favourite card game of Solitaire HD. I have the standard Solitaire app on my Android phone and its always ran well the with tablet edition being no exception. It looks good on the bigger screen and it certainly makes it easier to play as your fingers sit on the cards much better than the phone edition of the app. 

Solitaire HD

This app will also let you play several other card games including Spider Solitaire, Freecell and Forty Thieves. There isn't much else to say about it really, if you want a card game app, for me this is it.

My final game has been adapted from a Facebook game and you may have played it on there. Thankfully its not Farmville but its just as bad. Its called My Country, I installed it because I have always been addicted to the likes of Sim City and Transport Tycoon.

My Country

 To start with I wasn't convinced by it and it is one of those games that always keep prompting you to go and purchase some sort of credits to build everything faster. The graphics are very good and its well suited to the tablet format giving you lots of space to grow your town (once you have paid for the land), and also the controls are well laid out and respond well to touch. It is a little frustrating as you have to collect certain items to employ certain people but I have to confess though that it has grown on me. Its nowhere as good as the likes of Sim City or as complex but if your into your God complex games (or town planner in this case) then its not a bad one to install on your tablet.