Mission Mars is played through several different missions, each mission requires you to flatten the city skyscapers, in order to land your UFO, and the amount of buildings and their heights increase, thus making the game increasingly harder. After every level, you will see the UFO descend, and then you have completed that mission.

As you can see from this image above, the game play and controls are very simple, the only control for this game, is the space bar for firing missiles. The UFO travels from the left of the screen, to the right, each time getting lower and lower, you must make sure you don’t hit any buildings. Mission Mars is played through levels, each time, the buildings get higher, and higher, thus becoming harder to beat the game.

During the game, the UFO transitions from left of the screen to the right gradually, and after each of these transitions, the UFO descends slightly, a good tip here, is to destroy the larger buildings first, then move onto the shorter ones, when you are getting very close to the ground. You also need to time your bombs as you can only drop one at any time.

For a modern styled game of this nature, Mission Mars is extremely fun and addictive, if you were a fan of the original space invaders and want to get revenge, or are just bored at work or school, then Mission Mars is the game for you!

Game: Protect The Planet With Mission Mars is a post from: eggnchips.com - cracking good technology

Upon loading the game, you are presented with this screen. If you are a new player to Storm the House, it may be a good idea to either read the instructions, or play Storm the House 1, to be more acquainted. On the left, are the difficulty modes, Easy, Medium, Hard, and Why God?

The ‘Why God?’ mode was added to spice up the games playability, and give the player a slight challenge.

Through each mode, the amount of men to Storm the House, and the damage they can take increases. On Easy mode, a swordsman dies after getting shot once, on ‘Why God?’ It takes up to 5 or 6 shots!

Above, is the upgrades screen, after every day/stage, this is shown.

As you can see in the image above, there are plenty of ways of keeping those pesky Stickselvanians out of your home! My advice, is to use either the Machine Gun, (highlighted in green), and increase the clip size, or use the missile launcher, both are great fun!

Tips on success in Storm the House 2

• Clip Size – On the image above you can see that you can increase the clip size of your weapon, this means you have more bullets to fire, until you need to reload.
• Gunmen – Start to buy gunmen at day 3 or 4, gradually increase that amount each time, i suggest about 20 – 30 Gunmen at Day 10 at least.
• Craftsmen – Just in case one Stickselvanian gets to your house unharmed, it’s best to have Craftsmen, ready to deal with the damage it’s caused!
• Increase your Fort, and Wall – Best ways to keep Stickselvanians from destroying your house. Works well with a good amount of Craftsmen, i suggest about 5 – 10 at Day 20 at least.

Storm the House 2 is a great sequel to it’s predecessor, I for one really enjoyed this game, and if you also enjoyed Storm the House 1, then Storm the House 2 is for you!

An Introduction To Storm The House 2 is a post from: eggnchips.com - cracking good technology

Unlike many other games of this variety, you have a save option, to do so, you must first create an Xgen account, but believe me, this is a good idea. Motherload is extremely hard to beat in just a day, persistence is the key in this game!

When you proceed into the game, you are briefed by Mr. Natas, your boss, throughout the game, he will brief you at certain intervals. When you first land on Mars, you must first fuel up, and get ready to go!

Controls are simple for Motherload:

• Up – Activates propellers to fly
• Down – Activates drill to dig
• Right – To move right
• Left – To move left

Note – Upgrades can be used, such as dynamite, reserved fuel tank, but this comes later in the game, and must first be purchased from the upgrades store, see below.

There are a number of stores on the map, for various items, such as -

• Refuelling Station – To refuel after mining
• Refinery – To place your mined minerals for refining
• Repairs Shop – Repairs your machine when it gets damaged while mining, can also buy extras, such as reserve full tank, dynamite, and plastic explosives.
• Upgrades Store – Can upgrade various parts of your machine, such as Hull, Drill, Fuel Tank.

Tips on Success:

• Dig in a straight line downwards – Better yet, have your hole a few squares across, this makes it easier to show where you last were mining.
• After mining, remember how many feet you were down – by doing this, you can start to slow down your decent, thus, stopping your machine from being damaged from impact on the ground.
• Make Silver, Gold, and Platinum ores, your priority – By doing this, you are maximising your money load, but for the first 100ft or so, try to mine all that you can see, so you can maximise your cash to upgrade.

If you think you have what it takes to tackle the perils of Mars, go thousands of feet under the surface, to extract the rarest of minerals, then Motherload, is for you! Take the challenge today!

An Introduction to Motherload is a post from: eggnchips.com - cracking good technology

We’ve all seen those people on television spinning plates on the end of sticks in order to keep them in the air haven’t we? Well, with Spinning Streak you can experience the thrills of delicate balance and practice great judgement for yourself with plates replaced for tricky coins. All you have to do is keep the coins spinning until the end of the level.

If you have what it takes you could make it all the way to the in-game Spin City – Las Vegas where you can bedazzle the audience with your skills.

Whatever you do – don’t lose your balance or it’s curtains!

To experience the game for yourself visit the iTunes Appstore for Spinning Streak.

Go On A Winning Streak With Spinning Streak is a post from: eggnchips.com - cracking good technology

The ultimate aim is to move up through the rankings – we are currently placed way down at rank 1732 (update: we are now ranked 718!) after a few days and we are still under the auspices of the “Newcomer’s Protection Status” which keeps you safe for the first seven days of play, during which time you need to ensure you have sufficient defences in place to avoid being attacked by other players – once the protection expires.

As the game tells us, it is real-time, which means many of the actions you take need a defined amount of time to take place in real time hours, minutes and seconds. This could range from building a barracks or university to training your hero. Time can be accelerated by applying various statues and acroliths you may find or be awarded but almost every aspect of the game can be accelerated through the purchase of gold – available for purchase with real money which turns into in-game money.

To keep you motivated there are a large number of quests to achieve – from building basic buildings, through researching technologies, to expanded your military. Successfully completing quests brings its own rewards – typically crops, lumber, stone and iron but also jobs, taxes, prestige, and luxury items such as spices, diamonds, and furs which you can use to keep your heroes happy and contribute to building your empire.

There are many more aspects to Caesary which we’ll talk about once we’ve played through the game a little more. To experience the game for yourself visit Caesary on Kongregate.

Hail Caesary, Et tu, Brute? is a post from: eggnchips.com - cracking good technology

So how OCD are you about your music? All your CDs filed by artist name and then by date of release? If that’s the case then you should probably sign up for last.fm.

Let me tell you why…

For a start it is probably the best online radio service you can get, provided you are either in the USA, the UK or Germany. Those three countries have free access to the basic radio service. Any other countries get a free 30 track trial, after which a subscription is required. It’s not a huge amount of money – here in Ireland it would cost me EUR3.00 per month.

Once you have registered, downloaded and installed the player (more of which later), the service starts to learn the kind of music you like and will play you things that you may never have heard before. It is a nice way to expand your musical horizons a little. If you are a subscriber you also get access to stations of music that you’ve "loved" and music that you’ve "tagged" as a certain genre. The website also appears without any ads.

Of course, the radio service may throw up something that is a little strange once in a while as it discovers what you like but it soon learns, thanks to the dual nature of the Last.fm player. Besides being the radio player for their service it also sends ("scrobbles" is their word for it) any song you play on your computer using your media player to their servers and logs that as well. And it will do the same for your iPod so you can be sure that what you are listening to currently is taken into account.

Your profile page at Last.fm will display not only your recently listened tracks but your top artists for the last 7 days, 3 months, 6 months, 12 months or overall and your top tracks for the same periods.

If you are the same kind of musical obsessive that I am, being able to look back at what you have been listening to is likely to delight you as much as anything the radio service can offer.

Last.fm – The Last Word in Online Radio is a post from: eggnchips.com - cracking good technology

One of the difficulties of online multiplayer gaming, using a portal, is coaxing your friends and family to sign up for a particular service out of the thousands that are available. Even more unlikely is the chance of stumbling upon someone you already know in order to challenge them with online games.

The best aspect of social gaming on a social network site is that your friends and family are probably already members and as many networking sites open up their back-end systems through easy to use API – taking advantage of them for social gaming is on the rise.

There seems to be no distinct formula for games either, with a range of member demographics on offer, pretty much any game genre from short lived casual games to massive online pervading worlds are reaching out to provide something for everyone.

Already, diverse games like FarmVille, Mafia Wars and Bejeweled Blitz, are undergoing huge increases in popularity simply because they are so accessible and the friends network is already established.

The future for social networking is in gaming – social gaming.

Social Gaming Leads The Way For Social Media is a post from: eggnchips.com - cracking good technology

Above you can see Cairo, a city you must infect during the game.

The game starts with a tutorial showing the basic elements of the game play elements, pay particular attention to upgrades as they are key to success in this game.

Upgrading is a must, as you cannot complete levels with ease without upgrading, for example, in Cairo (image above) you must kill 30 people to proceed to the next level. It would take a good amount of skill in the game to be able to complete this particular level without upgrading in any way. However, upgrading cannot be done at any time, you get coins when your Zombies infect someone and when they die you can pick up these coins by scrolling over them with the mouse. When you wish to begin upgrading, go to the main menu, and there is a ‘LAB’ button on the bottom right corner.

Upgrading can mean the game becomes that little bit easier, but it can also mean that a lot more blood and gore can be added, especially with bombs!

Upgrades include:

• Lifespan – This is the amount of time your zombie will stay in the game, upgrade this for a prolonged zombie attack.
• Speed – This is very important and also can be very fun! Upgrading the speed will enhance the possibility of more people being infected, thus more money accumulated each level.
• DMG Resistance – Through many levels, Damage, or DMG will be dealt onto your player, like a soldier in Cairo (see above image). Soldiers or later in the game, cops, men in black etc, can shoot your zombies, upgrading this will mean your zombies will have a higher level hit points and won’t die on the first shot, I highly recommended you buy this upgrade.
• Attack – Pretty simple, the level of attack your zombies have when attacking people on the game, e.g. Citizens, Soldiers, etc.
• Infection Chance – This is the rate of which your zombies can infect the non player characters in the game; very important and a recommended upgrade.

The Upgrade screen

Tips for success

• Upgrade your DMG resistance – The higher your DMG resistance, the more people you can kill in a quicker time which means successful progression throughout the game.
• Lifespan – Definite must have upgrade, the longer your zombies are in game, the more coins you can accumulate.

Infectonator: World Domination – Fantastic game, so far one my favourites on Kongregate!

Online Casual Game – Infectonator: World Domination is a post from: eggnchips.com - cracking good technology

Read PONG backwards and you get GNOP – which entirely sums up this cool, nod back to the retro genre, game. Of course, it’s the classic game of PONG turned on it’s head as you play the role of the ball. Think it’s easy – think again. GNOP is from Bit Battalion, “two guys who like to make flash games.” and if you like GNOP you can also give their other games a run – Mr. Runner and Spacetacular Voyage.

The aim of the game is to progress through the levels (clues are given at the top of each screen). Early levels are relatively easy but the complexity soon picks up as you find the ball taking you back levels if you make one false move.

The only keys required to play the game are the UP and DOWN arrow keys – the rest is down to strategic thinking. Are you up to the challenge of GNOP? Go on, give it a go, it’s great fun.

To play GNOP visit Bit Battalion GNOP.

Play PONG Backwards With GNOP is a post from: eggnchips.com - cracking good technology

You start by viewing a small optional tutorial in which the hermit of the story will tell you all about his life, and tell you what you need to achieve. I suggest you watch the tutorial if you are interested in knowing the background to a game or want to eke some clues as to what to do.

For added ambience, there is an almost sinister theme to this game which is portrayed through the use of music, which could have come right out of a Hollywood horror movie.

The controls for this game are simple:

• Arrow Keys – Move (Up arrow to Jump)
• A – Use switch
• R – Restart Level
• Spacebar – Create Shadow/Enter Level

On each level there will be a small riddle which acts as a hint on how to proceed through that level, an example of this can be found in the image below, which tells you “Even from back here, I can tell that ledge ahead it too high for me to jump.” – perhaps if you had some help?

The game eases you in gently with a bit of running, then jumping, but quickly introduced locked doors, force fields, multi-coloured switches, and of course the company of yourself. If you get really stuck, there is a ‘Help Me’ button, which takes you to the game website which will give you further hints on how to complete each  level. There is no penalty for doing this but the game is more fun when you do it yourself.

Tips for success

• Be patient – remember this game is a challenge, it requires a good knowledge of solving puzzles. I got stuck a number of times before completing this game.
• Think outside the box – whilst each level can be tricky – each one can be completed quite easily once you figure out the right sequence of actions
• If you find you or your shadow constantly falling to your doom – remember sometimes it pays to stand still on someone else’s shoulders.

The Company of Myself is a great little game, particularly when you want to give your brain its daily dose of problem solving. Play The Company of Myself here.

Online Casual Gaming – The Company of Myself is a post from: eggnchips.com - cracking good technology