One of the downsides of a touch screen device such as the iPhone is that it often doesn’t lend itself well to typical game control schemes.  Prime example – Marble Blast, a game which I am a huge fan of on the Xbox 360, is awful on the iPhone primarily due to its controls.  On the flip side, one of the great things about the iPhone is some of the unique games that appear on the platform that make great use of touch screen controls.  One such game is Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor.

The idea is fairly simple – you take the role of a spider exploring a rather eerie mansion and you must spin webs with the goal of trapping insects for you to feast upon.  Once a certain percentage of the insects in the level are eaten, a portal opens to the next level.  However, it won’t take long before you realise that, as suggested by the title of the game, the manor holds a dark secret.

The game’s controls are simple yet elegant – touch the right side of the spider to move right, touch left of the spider to move left and flick in a particular direction to jump and weave your silk.  Once you connect up a closed shape with your silk lines, it will form a web which insects can get caught in.  Moving around in this game just feels right and really makes the game play very well – its great to finally see a platformer that actually controls this good on a touch screen.

The graphics have a nice hand-drawn style and provide a graceful and polished environment.  The twinkly ambient music furthers this grace and gives the game a very artistic shine throughout.

The game contains 28 levels with various types of bugs which must be trapped in different ways.  It may feel a bit short in length to some, but for me its pretty much the ideal length a mobile game should be and is definitely replayable.  The gameplay can become somewhat repetitive if played for a long period, however since I only tend to play mobile games in short bursts I rarely found the game tiring. Overall, the game is enjoyable and at its low price point of £1.79 (less than a bottle of beer) it is an essential purchase for any iPhone owner. Highly recommended.

A pretty excellent post from Cracked.com, with pictures showing what games would be like if they followed the rules of reality a  bit more closely…

Read the full post at Cracked.com to see more hilarious Photoshops.

Yesterday was an absolutely beautiful day, one that seems so far removed from the absolutely crap weather we had for most of the summer.  Clare and I travelled up the coast to the Giant’s Causeway.  I took a few snaps – the place is gorge-ous as always.

More rocks.

I thought I’d post a few clips of some bands I’ve been really enjoying recently using embeds from Youtube (so a somewhat limited selection of tracks).  It was hard to keep this list down to a mere few.

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Brand New – “At The Bottom”
from the album “Daisy“, out late September 2009.

Brand New have long been a favourite band of mine ever since the classic Deja Entendu in 2003, followed by the dark and harrowing (and also a classic in its own right) The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me.  I’ve often seen them written off as just another teeny emo band, but the imagery and quality of the songwriting Jesse Lacey provides is more often than not something to behold.  Really looking forward to the new album at the end of this month.

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Frank Turner – “The Road”
from the album “Poetry of the Deed“, out now.

I’ve been lucky enough to see this guy play acoustically live twice now and looking forward to seeing him with his full band in October in Belfast. English singer/song-writer Frank’s songs are often down-to-earth musings of life on the road, banter with friends and generally trying to be a better person and then decided “fuck it, lets just get drunk!”.  His new album isn’t (in my opinion) quite as good as his previous album Love Ire & Song, but its still a very enjoyable listen.  Its well worth checking out the full video for this track (his latest single), where Frank toured and played 24 different shows in 24 hours – fair play!

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Saxon Shore – “Bar Clearing Good Times”
from the album “It Doesn’t Matter“, out now.

Saxon Shore are an instrumental rock band (or post-rock if you must) who’ve been around for a while but whom I’ve only discovered recently.  Their albums are extremely consistent and a must for anyone who enjoys the likes of Explosions in the Sky.

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Dananananaykroyd – “Some Dresses”
from the album “Hey Everyone“, out now.

Scottish band Dananananaykroyd are as crazy as their name would suggest, said to put on a highly energetic and enjoyable live show (including the ‘wall of hugs’).  Their first full-length Hey Everyone is a great album and this is possibly my favourite track from it.

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Maybeshewill – “Accept and Embrace”
from the album “Sing The Word Hope in Four Part Harmony“, out now.

Another instrumental band who put out consistently great records.  This is the highlight from their latest full-length.

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For a full run-down of what I’ve been listening to both recently and not so recently, check out my Last.fm page.