I hate to continue to bombard this blog with game reviews, but I feel the need to post this as it’s a rebuttal to a previous post.

I had mentioned that SimCity for iPad was a buggy piece of junk, not worth the $6.99 price tag and not worth playing. I now realize, I was half wrong.

The iPad version shares many of its features with SimCity 4, thankfully, and not the later versions which were essentially a perversion of the franchise. Some things have been changed, of course (the building selection is smaller, for example), and notably absent is any feature of SimNation connectivity (dragging a road to the city edge does nothing in the iPad version, and there are no neighbor deals).

Gameplay is smooth as silk, most of the time, except during autosaves and while scrolling in build mode. Still, these minor issues don’t detract from play. I should mention here that I play it on an iPad 2; your iPad 1 mileage may vary as far as smoothness is concerned.

The game certainly isn’t without bugs. Most notable is the water supply issue; once your city passes around 30,000 inhabitants, the game oscillates back and forth between reporting an excellent water system and a water shortage. While this can make RCI vary wildly for a minute, I found that it tends to clear up, especially if you leave auto plumbing off and draw your own water pipes.

Is it worth $6.99? No. I got it on sale for $1.99; it’s worth exactly that much until it gets bug fixes. Once it does, it would be a good buy. It’s worth mentioning that it is very similar to the iPhone version, but with better controls and less tedium from a smaller screen.

Anyway, as always, if you like strategy and specifically this franchise, see if you can grab it while it’s still on sale.

The uncertainty of life is killing me. My field is not one known for easy careers; I’m trying to stay as diverse as possible to maximize my marketability when the time comes. Still, there’s always the thought in the back of my mind that I’ll end up unemployed and unemployable — although, it’s admittedly unlikely given my circumstances.

Since I started looking at more turn-based strategy thanks to the dearth of RTS on iPad, I figured I’d post one more great game as a suggestion to all you strategy lovers out there. This one is currently on sale for 99¢, and it’s more than worth three times that. While Conquist (the game I recommended in the last post) is a Risk clone, you can think of European War 2 like super Risk. Play as Britain, Germany, USSR, Italy — European War 2 feels a lot like Axis & Allies, if you remember that classic.

The card system for purchases works quite well, and the taxation system based on site construction is a good way to profit from conquests. The AI is challenging, and the presentation is quite nice and silky smooth. European War 2 could be a five dollar game, but thankfully, it’s not.

Units are divided between armor, infantry, artillery and air. Construction can be basic (for taxes) or fortified. Construction level maximum is 5. The board is great: well thought out and visually appealing.

There are a small handful of drawbacks: the tutorials are essentially useless, but the learning curve isn’t too bad. In-game descriptors are equally bad, but once again, it’s not rocket science.

While Conquist is ultimately aimed at casual play, European War 2 is a great game for the micromanager who enjoys the subtle detail of war strategy. Sure, it could be deeper, but it would risk being unplayable. EW2 walks a fine line, and it walks it well.

If you have an iPad, and you’re a fan of strategy titles, you have probably noticed something strange — even though iPad seems quite well suited to strategy games, there is somewhat of a dearth of them available on the platform.

Part of the problem is that iOS is somewhat flooded with Farmville-esque tap and collect titles. These masquerade as strategy, but in truth they’re just time wasters. On a scale with RTS titles like Rise of Nations or Age of Empires (both PC classics), they don’t even register.

There are some real time strategy titles, of course. The one that seems closest to being decent is Settlers HD, currently $4.99. The price is alright, for a complete game, but alas, there’s no real sandbox mode. Thus, the game ends up being too story driven. There is Sim City, an RTS title of sorts, but the iPad version is buggy and annoying.

So, what is a strategy lover to do? At this point, I’d say give up the RTS and go turn-based. A game called Conquist will run you just 99¢, and it will provide hours of enjoyment.

It’s clearly a Risk clone, but it’s better than EA’s Risk branded title on iPhone. Conquist is smooth, reliable, and fun. The rules are fair, and above all the AI is challenging. It’s even got multiple game modes including Castle mode, to keep it from getting too repetitive.

Sure, it’s not RTS, but it’s the first truly decent strategy title of any kind I’ve seen in AppStore. It’s also 99¢ well spent, which is always better than $4.99 wasted.

I used to find white iDevices ugly. I thought they were trying to hard. After all, Apple had long made black and shiny their new corporate identity. They’ve got teams of designers working for them, and surely they can’t all be wrong. Then again, those same designers pushed for white to make a subtle comeback (no, it wasn’t just Steve).

So why my sudden change of heart? I didn’t understand the white before. It’s not about being better than a black iDevice; rather, it’s about thinking different. You remember Think Different, don’t you? It was the slogan of a kinder, gentler Apple Computer that was coming to market with a stunning new device — the iPod. And, of course, it was white.

The white iDevices now aren’t about flash. They’re an exercise in retro. For me, Apple was all over white when I became a card-carrying Mac user. Now, when I look at my iPad, I’m taken back to that Apple — the kinder one, before all this MagSafe iCloud Final Cut Pro X happened. And I think it’s nice to go back there.

So, buy it in white. You might think “meh, it doesn’t match the screen” or “meh, it’s too white,” but you’d also be forgetting one more exceedingly important point: Thinking Different doesn’t show nearly as many fingerprints.

Hey all.

If this blog is in your favorite reader, you’ve probably forgotten about it. Today, it shows up as a notification. Surprise! It’s not really dead.

It’s not as if there’s been a dearth of things to write about. Quite the contrary — the Tea Party has taken America hostage, ex-Senator Obama has alienated both his base and his most staunch opponents (somehow), and the United States have been thrown into an anti-government revenue kick that’s not looking to let up any time soon. At least, that is, until we have another recession. Don’t they understand party rules? Never double dip.

No no, my pseudoretirement from blogging was a result of changes in my life. I’m now a year into a graduate program, pursuing my passion. Linguistics isn’t well known for being a career builder, but I’ve put feeding the soul ahead of feeding the body. With some unique research interests and a constant link to all things computational, I’m fairly confident that all will be well in te long run.

I’ve also gotten married to a wonderful girl. We’ve known each other for the better part of a decade now; the timing couldn’t have been better and I’m quite happy. We got engaged in Europe — flat dead broke Ireland, actually — and it was wonderful. Words can’t express what that trip did. It was a full on European exploration, starting in Ireland and wandering across Great Britain, finally ending after a French holiday in Munich, Germany. We returned with a deep appreciation for other parts of the world (even more than we had before), and far less naïveté.

I’ve been biking a lot lately. It’s almost a requirement in my town, and it’s made me more fit than I’ve been in years. I did throw my back out the other day, but it’s starting to get better.

So why the writing? I’ve discovered that I miss it. There’s something quite therapeutic about sharing yourself for all to see. In a field like linguistics, uncertainty abounds for the graduate student. One has to stay hopeful and vigilant, or force oneself into a deep depression based on absolute unknowns. I’ve never been good with those things which I can’t control. Or, maybe I just don’t appreciate the control I have.

In any event, I am returning to this blog. I don’t expect it will be the same beast it used to be. When I started it, I was an undergrad with some extra time and a young political candidate to root for. Now, that candidate has won and greyed; my interests, perhaps along with many more people in newfound apathy, have changed. This will be much more personal than it was before. Sure, I’ll go political, but now it won’t be my focus. Life is.

So with that, I convert my jumped-the-shark badge into a n00b award. You can do that, right? It worked for Steve Jobs.

What is of interest is the state of discourse between the two parties, themselves further apart than anytime in recent history. Discourse can be a difficult thing to gauge properly, of course, but one can get an idea by looking at the merchandise each side is making available to the general public. For example, take a look at the “buttons” page of the Democrats Store at democrats.org.

As of the time of this posting, two buttons are available: one is the newly designed Democrat “D” logo, and the other is emblazoned with the word “Democrats.” There’s nothing negative here; in fact, there’s nothing but simple name recognition.

Now, take a look at the “buttons” page of the GOP Store at gopstore.com. “It’s not Right or Left, it’s Right or wrong.” “Annoy a liberal: work hard, be happy.” Indeed, only two of the GOP’s 14 available buttons carry a positive message or name recognition.

What does this suggest? At the very least, the Right is trying to draw support through sheer frustration and anger. At most, the GOP is clinging to the same lack of message that won them the election in 2008.

Nope, that’s not a typo.

The issue goes far beyond Fox News or News Corp, however. Corporations are large entities, and they are comprised of large numbers of people. Boards in charge of massive multi-nationals may include a mix of US citizens and foreign citizens, and yet all corporations share the same niceties with regards to electoral donation. Essentially, the United States is now in a position where foreign donors can directly influence national elections through corporate donations, but even this point is not the majority of the problem.

It’s not difficult to imagine the implications of the Supreme Court’s ruling with regards to individual politicians. Politicians who appear to be more pro-corporate (not just pro-business, but specifically pro-corporate, which is quite different) are vastly more likely to receive corporate donations, and if the News Corp offering is any indication such donations are likely to be quite large. This carries implications regarding left/right politics as well, as oftentimes pro-corporate politicians run under the GOP or other right-wing parties. In the past, such corporate connections among political groups has been shrugged off as falsity; now, the picture is all the more clearer (News Corp didn’t donate to Democrats, now did they?)

Taking corporate personhood into account, we’ve now got two groups of donors in US elections. Private donors exist as they always did, and corporate donors now have the same set of rights but often vastly larger amounts to donate and possible foreign ties.

This author is at a loss as to how this change is in the interest of the people of the United States.

Thus, what we have at the moment is the beginnings of a New America; this New America is the product of its corporations, which actually control production of nearly all goods, distribution of nearly all goods, allotment of nearly all services, and, for that which they don’t control, have the power to influence the government through monetary donations to political candidates.

Of course, the current state of American discourse (discussed in a previous post) is such that large groups of Americans are now convinced that to stand against monopolistic corporations is to stand against America itself (ironically, News Corp is largely responsible for this). Thus, the focus shifts from the corporations to anti-Americanism, ex-patriotism, and other red herrings.

Indeed, it may be that America has reached a point of no return with regards to its corporate controls. Capitalism, for all its benefits, it just as dangerous in its extremes as Communism; we Americans may be in for a wild ride, and one which leaves us not only without freedom but without wealth in any form. The most frightening part is that there will be people who support even that, because they think that speaking out against it is un-American.

It’s never un-American or unpatriotic to fight against your country unravelling itself. If we don’t stand up now against the monopolies which would control all of our interests, we will not have the opportunity later.

The governments of the world involved in the current happening want one thing: to continue to operate outside of the eyes of those who should be in full control. Everything else is smoke and mirrors.

I applaud Mr. Assange for attempting to curb the ever-wilting right of free speech and the soon-to-be-extinct freedom of information.