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What We Still Want To See In ‘The Simpsons: Tapped Out’

Posted on December 17, 2014 by CrackingAce

EA have been pretty generous this year with the updates (after a slow start). Several of the things we were after (and plenty of welcome bonus surprises) have come through. Sometimes it felt as though they were reading our lists and checking them off.
So just in case that is what is happening, here’s an updated list including some of the stuff they missed and a bit extra.

Buildings

Burns Casino

I’m amazed this still hasn’t arrived to brighten up the Squidport. It opens up possibilities for a gambling house skin for Bart’s Treehouse, a new skin for Mr Burns, and could be another betting building similar to the Dog Track.

Hal Roach Apartment

We have Jacqueline Bouvier now, who was originally destined to be released with this building, but this, and a number of other items are in the downloaded files, but not in the game. What’s with that?

Lil’ Lisa Recycling Plant

As a sort of extension to the Squidport there could be the more industry based docks area.

Marvin Monroe’s Family Therapy Center

A setting for one of the earliest episode’s classic sequences with a character who has a lot of scope for tasks around town.

Ayn Rand School for Tots

The town needs its best daycare centre. It could potentially come with its owner Ms. Sinclair or even Maggie’s arch rival Gerald.

The Jazz Hole

Because why wouldn’t you want one of the finest entertainment establishments in your town?

Cockamamie’s

They could still make the mall into an expansion! John is a character who should have appeared in more episodes. His main task has to be to ‘ZZZAAP’ people.

La Maison Derrière

I feel that Springfield will never be complete without this building. Marge could get a job here doing ventriloquism. Owner Belle should come with it.

Lonely Arms

The apartment building where Lenny and probably some other bachelors live.

Temple Beth Springfield

And perhaps a few other of the Lower East Side’s Jewish businesses.

Generic Buildings

It would be great to have some boring buildings that can be built as many times as you like in the same way as the houses are. They can fill gaps in the town or be used to create second rows of buildings for your blocks. Generic stuff like bakeries, delis, grocers, hotels and pawn shops etc.

Characters

Maggie

The only Simpson who is a cameo appearance in the game rather than a proper character. Although it would be good to have her fully fledged, it might be strange to have a baby wandering about town by herself. She should come with her Sandbox.

Roy

Whatever happened to Roy?

Coyote

Homer’s spirit guide was as memorable an animal character as Stampy and opens up some pretty far out tasks.

Hell’s Satans

At least Meathook and Ramrod anyway.

Lionel Hutz

Everyone’s favourite useless lawyer. He should be unlocked with his law firm but can just as easily work out of a dumpster.

Troy McClure

The famous actor would be a fine addition to Springfield’s celebrity element.

Jacques

Another romantic distraction for Marge.

Sam and Larry

There’s not much these guys can do besides stumble around in a drunken stupor, but at least Barney won’t be so lonely.

Ruth and Laura Powers

The rightful owners of the much misused brown house.

Mr. Bergstrom

Lisa’s fantastic teacher. Although, the running gag that she never sees him again might get ruined.

Herb Powell

Not technically a Springfielder, but Homer’s long lost brother has been long lost again for too long.

Old Jewish Guy

One of the towns many unnamed yet hilarious residents.

The Nerds

Benjamin, Doug and Gary.

Charlie

Homer’s co-worker who often has runs of bad luck.

Rafael

This sarcastic man pops up all over the place in the show so could easily be another Moleman, Squeaky Teen odd job guy.

Medicine Woman

One of her tasks would obviously be to point in directions.

Decorations

Vehicles

Volkswagon Beetle

The only car this man could afford. (He should come with it)

Marge’s Stationwagon

Flanders’ Geo

Moe’s Sedan

Moleman’s Gremlin

Canyonero

The Homer

Willie’s Mower

Other

Gummi Venus De Milo

As it is in its display case, not stuck to a bum.

A Smaller Red Brick Wall

Like the one next to the house there.

Trampoline (Tramabopoline)

The trampoline is a vital part of Springfield lore.

Springfield Gorge

Doghouse

Wall of Fame

Elementary Jungle Gym

Tasks

Evil Homer

As Homer’s grave is a decoration, it just seems mad not to give Homer the task to dance on it.

Lenny

When the Stonecutter update dropped, I was surprised to see that it didn’t include Lenny kicking Mr Burns as he crawled on all fours.

Stonecutter table song

Currently only four Stonecutters have tasks to sing the song at the table. I realise this is because only four can fit on one side, but that shouldn’t stop Number 1 from standing at the head of it, or maybe other members sitting on the other side. Or if it is limited to four, then maybe once the table is full, the other cultists have the task greyed out.

Drederick Tatum

Maybe he could be another of the list of characters who fights with Homer. He need a 1 hour task anyway.

Skins

Bartman

Am I the only one who feels that Bart is extremely underused considering he was originally meant to be the star of the show?

Stonecutters

Kirk Van Houten, Herman, and Barney are all missing their outfits! Also, why doesn’t Hibbert have his hat?

Uncle Moe’s Family Feedbag

A facade for Moe’s Tavern which gives Mr Szyslak a task to sing and dance while wearing a hot plate of fries.

Features

Terrain

Springfield currently can be decorated with grass, roads and pavement but it could use some other things like mud, cobblestone, dirt and sand. It would be great if there could be an option to have smaller blocks of it too and maybe curves.
It would also be great to get water in Krustyland. A slightly more ambitious idea would be to have a coaster track that could be laid like road to design a unique ride.

Organised Town Census

The Census at the Town Hall is great for hunting down characters you need, but it would be fantastic if they could have the options as well as alphabetical order. Perhaps use the character collections as subcategories so you can find a member of the Simpson family quicker for example.

Increased zoom

Zooming in is fine, but the zoom out limit isn’t great.

Set All Jobs

An option that allows you to set any untasked character on the jobs that take a set amount of time. E.g. ‘Set All 1hr Tasks’ or ‘Set All 24hr Tasks’. It’ll save a lot of time and tapping for people who have other things to do.

Cancel Task

Currently the only way to cancel a task that has been set is to store the character or the building that they are in. This isn’t ideal as storing buildings resets their payout timer. It also can’t be done at all with Homer or Lisa.

Cash for Donuts

This one is always going to be a dream. Donuts are the way that the makers get money from the game and they are already pretty generous with the freebies compared to other freemium games. Oh well.

Move Characters

Just as you can move decorations and buildings, it would be great to be able to drag and drop civilians. Sometimes you just want them in a particular place so you can get a cool screengrab.

Task Schedules

It would be helpful if characters could be tasked with up to say three jobs, beginning the next one when they finish the first and auto collecting the rewards. It’s often difficult to fit playing to set times in around real life and work.

Multiplier Notifier

We have various decorations and the Conform-O-Meter that adds to a reward multiplier but we have no way of seeing the total.
(Actually there is one way. Wait for a Gulp-N-Blow payout. It is normally $100, so whatever you have on top of that is your percentage.)

Water Links To Sea

If you run a river right down to the beach, it stops there, looking a bit odd. It would be fantastic if it would connect to the ocean. Same goes for a few decorations too such as Springfield Falls and Kamp Krusty.

Export Complete Image of Your Springfield

It takes a good while to screen-grab every portion of town and stitch it together. A quick image save would be marvellous.

More Land More Land More Land

This is the constant cry of the long time Tapper. There’s no room for all this stuff! I have to tear down structures that took hours to build!

Posted in Gaming | Tagged EA Games, Gaming, The Simpsons, The Simpsons: Tapped Out, What We Want To See | Comments Off

Dragon Age: Inquisition – PS3 Review

Posted on December 16, 2014 by CrackingAce

Also available on: PS4, PC, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Released November 2014

6/10

‘Inquisition’ is a fantasy RPG from Bioware, the group that brought us ‘Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic’ and ‘Mass Effect’. We know Bioware can do RPGs. We know they can do immersive worlds and interesting characters. So what went wrong here?

The third game in the Dragon Age series allows you to play as male or female human, elf, dwarf, or qunari (horned giant). You can choose between rogue, warrior, and mage classes. Rogues and warriors also have a choice of preferred weapon. Then on to the famous Bioware character customisation which you can spend hours on if you wish, making the most beautiful, or most hideous, or anything in-between individual you like.

The game begins by having your character survive a strange magical explosion during a meeting of Mages and Templars. As the sole survivor, with a strange new glowing hand, you become a suspect of mass murder. You dive in and begin to prove your innocence by helping to fix things,your magical hand able to close the mysterious rifts that have opened and are pouring demons into the world.

It all sounds very exciting, but as the first mission is simply running along a set path and holding R2 to kill a handful of monsters as you meet a few characters who form your party, it plays out quite dull. Joining you are an angry female warrior who puts duty first – all force, no personality, an elf mage who seems like the dull person at a party who won’t stop talking about his pet gerbils, and a dwarf who thinks himself to be a lovable rogue but comes off as someone you never want to see again, but are stuck with.

After a little while, you are introduced to tactical mode, which shakes things up a little. Now instead of holding R2 to attack, you can pause the action, set up your squads next move, then allow time to progress as the action plays out. Though the inclusion of tactics sparks a rise in the interest, it actually feels like slowing down the previous dullness even more.

The first mission ends with a boss which tests your ability to handle the control system, but it feels like more of a grind than a challenge.

At that point I was ready to switch off, give a thoroughly negative review, and never return to it, but my better judgement insisted I give it a chance to redeem itself.

I’m glad I did. After a short while your team begin learning more interesting moves and abilities that makes the tactical battles much more fun. You also come across tougher enemies who require you to put a bit more thought into combat, making it less of a grind.

As a Bioware RPG, there is more to it than the combat too. Some of your actions and choices will meet with the approval or disapproval of your squad-mates and other characters, potentially changing outcomes of events later in the game. You also have political and military decisions to make that likewise will shape the story to be a unique fit for you. Quests that you complete will grant you power and influence which you can use to send agents around the world map on various tasks (similar to assassin missions in Assassin’s Creed). You can usually choose whether to send in diplomats, spies, or the military for slightly different rewards and outcomes.

Around the free roaming open areas, you’ll find various other details that add some more depth to the game. As well as the usual side quests from NPCs, there are astronomical telescopes which give you a minigame to connect the dots of constellations in order to reveal hidden treasures, and mysterious skulls that reveal secret shards that need to be studied. You can also craft armour and weapons, as well as collect various mounts ranging from horses to mythical beasts. You will also need to gather resources to brew potions and supply troops with requisition orders. Every little helps, and soon you will be armed with enchanted weapons, skill boosting accessories, and special items like bee grenades (yes, a grenade that releases a swarm of angry bees). Fans of the series will also be treated to lots of lore as readable plaques and books are all over the place and the information is saved in the player’s codex.

Despite the previously mentioned initial boredom inducement, the game does have a few other issues that affect enjoyment. Playing on PS3, I get the impression that the title should be on the PS4, as the graphics sometimes struggle to display as smoothly as they should – not to mention the odd glitches of soldiers darting across the screen randomly during cutscenes. Sound also cuts out for a moment sporadically, and sometimes the transition from tactical mode to time passing takes a little too long.
AI suffers as well. When a friend has fallen in battle, allies can revive them by running over and helping. Often after being given the command to do it, the characters will ignore it and carry on fighting. This is the same with the ‘disrupt rift’ ability unique to the player character.
Finally, even though rewards of equipment and accessories comes thick and fast, you only have space to carry 50 items (75 with a learned perk) and nowhere to store anything you want to keep but aren’t able to use.

You may want to save often, as checkpoints might not be as regular as you’d like, but that’s up to individual players. Although a well timed save could be useful in the event of a game crashing glitch (which thankfully I have only had once).

I will put here as a note that this is my first visit to a Dragon Age title, and perhaps the game will be enjoyed more by long time fans of the franchise. As I came into it expecting a fantasy version of Mass Effect, I wasn’t disappointed that it was different, but I was disappointed that the gameplay, story, and the characters in the world were just not as interesting or fun.

It’s worth sticking with, but it’s no contender to the likes of ‘Skyrim’, or even its predecessor ‘Knights of the Old Republic’.

Posted in Gaming | Tagged dragon, Dragon Age, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Gaming, PC, PS3, PS3 Review, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One | Comments Off

Why the Torture Scene in GTA V is OK

Posted on December 13, 2014 by CrackingAce

The Grand Theft Auto series is no stranger to controversy. Back in the day some people thought that one of the main parts of the game was beating prostitutes to death with baseball bats to get a refund for services performed. Clearly, they weren’t aware that although that was something people could do, it was an option that players chose for themselves, never once explained as part of the rules, or even given as a mission.

This time around though, the controversy has come from a game section that is mandatory. Beware SPOILERS AHEAD.

In a mission called ‘By the Book’, player character Trevor has to extract information from a hostage to pass on to a second character, Michael, who uses it to assassinate a target. Trevor’s tools are a variety of torture instruments, pliers to pull teeth, electrodes to shock, a wrench to whack, and a container for waterboarding. As mentioned, this is a mandatory mission for game completion. It’s not an optional side quest, it doesn’t offer you the choice to refuse to torture Mr K, or turn on the FIB agent who is making you do it. You simply have to get through it to continue enjoying the game.

It seems that for some players, this was too much. It also seems that for a lot of people who haven’t played it and heard about a game that features mandatory waterboarding, that this is an outrage too far.

Having squirmed my way through the mission, I’m not one of those people. I’ll explain why.

The mission was not fun. The rest of the game is extremely enjoyable, full of satire, and dark humour. This bit left out the humour, leaving us with dark satire.
The mission has you play as the character Trevor. Trevor is introduced early as an amoral psychopath. The GTA games generally do star characters whose morals are questionable. Trevor’s entrance scene has him stomp on the head of someone who dared confront him for sleeping with his girlfriend. He’s not a nice guy. He’s the opposite. The torture scene suits him. If the scene had been given to one of the other playable characters, Michael or Franklin, I imagine they would have had an option to back out. Backing out doesn’t cross Trevor’s mind. In this scene, as with the rest of the game, you have to role play as someone who has a faulty moral compass. It’s not like many other games where you can make decisions as you might in real life. In this game you play the bad guy and have to unapologetically.

As a note, during the rest of the game you kill, murder, steal, burgle, do drugs, see prostitutes, and commit any number of other crimes. I do find it curious that someone can play the game and be OK with all of that, but the torture is too much. I’ve heard the excuse that when it comes to the rest, they are desensitised because it’s in so many games and films, but torture is new. That’s terrible reasoning. That almost suggests that if life really were like GTA, then people would be fine with men going on killing rampages every so often just to see if they can beat their previous score. So, if you’re a GTA player anyway, you shouldn’t be complaining.

So, it’s firmly established at this point that Trevor is a bad guy, who doesn’t much care for the well-being of those around him, and even enjoys being violent. Torture is a hobby for him. As long as you can separate yourself from Trevor (as you should be throughout the whole game) you should be ok.

So anyway, this mission was not fun. It went on for a long time, it was mainly a man screaming in pain while you pressed buttons to make it happen. It wasn’t even a challenge. It was simply ‘hold R2 to cause pain’ and that’s it.
The point was to get information from Mr K. The thing is Mr K was willing from the beginning to tell everything. He kept saying “Stop, I’ll talk!” as you performed the operations, but Trevor goes on anyway, egged on by the FIB agent.

When Michael eventually finished the hit, Trevor is told to finish Mr K off as the agent leaves him alone with the victim. Trevor at this point decides to have a little mercy and let him go, even offering him a lift to the airport so he can flee the country and put it all behind him. On the journey Trevor explains that torture is a worthless way to get information.

“The media and the government would have us believe that torture is some necessary thing. We need it to get information, to assert ourselves. Did we get any information out of you? Exactly. Torture’s for the torturer…or for the guy giving orders to the torturer. You torture for the good times – we should all admit that. It’s useless as a means of getting information.”

He knew that Mr K was willing to talk the whole time, but torture is just fun for the torturer and a way to show power over someone else. He also mentions that information gained through torture is rarely reliable anyway.

What Rockstar did with this mission was simply show the pointless horror of torture. You went through a horrible several minutes of causing agony for no gain, which reflects what has happened and may possibly still be happening in real life. They were highlighting just how bad and useless torture is. They weren’t glamourising it, and they didn’t make it fun. This was probably the best way to get a message out to otherwise decent people who might not be aware that this has gone on.

It’s no reason to ban or boycott the franchise. They crossed a new boundary to give their take on an important issue.

Posted in Gaming | Tagged Gaming, grand theft auto, GTA V, Rockstar Games, Trevor Phillips | Comments Off

GTA V PS4 Review

Posted on December 1, 2014 by CrackingAce

Also available on: PS3, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Released 17/9/2013 PS3, Xbox 360, 18/11/2014 PS4, Xbox One, 27/1/2015 PC

9/10

Grand Theft Auto V is the latest installment in the incredibly popular franchise. In this edition we visit a newly reimagined San Andreas, beautifully rendered and incredibly detailed. We explore the fictional American state with three characters, Franklin, Michael, and Trevor, each with their own skills and own personalities.

You are thrown straight into the action with Michael and Trevor on a big heist that sets the scene for the rest of the game. It’s a nice change of pace from the usual opening missions which usually involve learning to walk and drive. Although once the initial excitement dies down, the game reverts back to a more manageable pace warming new players into the various aspects of the game, of which there are many. You get a bit of driving practice in a tow truck, you can walk the dog and get into a few scrapes on foot, and fit in a bit of target practice to hone your weapon skills.

Several features are back such as the sat nav, and the capability to improve your stats in a number of skills and abilities, and the multiple ways to customise your characters. You can also customise vehicles and weapons. New to GTA is the first person mode, which allows you to see through your character’s eyes rather than from a view behind them.
The new feature of having three playable characters means you can usually switch between them at any time. They all have different things to do in order to progress through the story. It brings back happy memories of ‘Day of the Tentacle’.

The characters seem to be throwbacks to earlier playable people from earlier games. Franklin is a ghetto gangster who reminds us of CJ from ‘San Andreas’, Michael is reminiscent of an older retired Tommy Vercetti from ‘Vice City’, while Trevor takes the role of amoral psychopath Claude Speed from ‘GTAIII’. They’re all different and original in their own ways, but there are definitely some parallels to be drawn.
Each comes with their own unique respawning vehicle and individual special abilities.

One of the biggest draws to the game is the huge variety of things you can do within the world. There are several vehicles to master (including a blimp!) and numerous mini-games to distract you when you want to get away from the main story for a bit. These range from dog walking and tennis to seeing if you can get away with fondling strippers while club bouncers aren’t watching (if you’re into that sort of thing). For realism you can also sit about watching tv, listening to the radio, or browsing the web including sites like Lifeinvader – a spoof of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. The detail put into the games really becomes clear when you explore these things. Hidden gems such as ‘Princess Robot Bubblegum’ a manga/hentai spoof can easily be overlooked if you just focus on the main game.
You have access to the web at any time with each character’s smart phones, which can also be used for quick saves (no more getting to a safehouse), and taking photos. I’ve never taken a selfie in real life, but I can’t get enough of them in this game somehow.

Of course the main thrust of the game isn’t lounging and socialising, it’s crime. Burglaries, assassinations, and of course grand theft auto are what you’ll spend most of the time doing. You can plan heists choosing how to approach them and by deciding to hire an expert at the cost of a bigger cut, or gambling on a rookie.
In the rest of the game, just like in the heists, some of your choices will affect how things in the game play out.

Other familiar game points for GTA veterans will be the chance to buy properties and business that may need maintenance and the rampage missions available for crazy Trevor.

GTA V is a great addition to the series. It’s thoroughly enjoyable. Essentially it’s more of the same with some tweaks and improvements here and there. There’s little in the way of original gameplay, but with GTA why fix what isn’t broken?

Posted in Gaming, Reviews | Tagged Gaming, grand theft auto, GTA V, PC, PS3, PS4 Review, Reviews, Rockstar Games, Xbox 360, Xbox One | Comments Off

Best of CA Twitter

Posted on November 11, 2014 by CrackingAce

If you’re not following us on twitter, then you are surely missing out on the experience of a lifetime.
Go on, get on to it! Have a follow!

Cracking Ace tries to bring you some of the greatest thoughts and most interesting facts from around the world to brighten your day.

Just to show how much care goes into them, here’s a bonus fact that you won’t see on the Twitter feed!
Cracking Ace is the only feed in the world to have ever used the hashtag #TitsOnThem. (True as of 11th November 2014)