Tuesday, December 23, 2008

iPhone App of the Year: Rolando

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Possibly the wisest investment of 10 dollars this year on Apple's App Store is best spent on a game called Rolando. Rolando is an app in the vein of the popular PSP title, Loco Roco. In Rolando, players will find themselves taking advantage of the accelerometer of the iPhone, tilting the cute Rolandos through physics-based puzzles, platforming, and occassional time-based puzzles. Rolando succeeds largely as a platformer due to its non-intensive playing style, and its carefree atmosphere, especially considering how progressively the difficulty between levels slowly ramps up. I think Rolando can be aptly defined as a game that is 'challengeing, but not difficult', even with regards to casual 'non-gamers'.


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Loco Roco



As the Rolandos are little balls, the player tilts the iPhone from side to side, rolling the Rolandos closer to reach the end of each obstacle-filled level. Each level has a minimum requirement of Rolandos to reach the end of the level -- although it can at times be easily surpassed, given the amount of Rolandos granted by the beginning of each level.


Where Rolando and Loco Roco differ though is quite a point of contention. In Loco Roco, players are granted the ability to smash their Loco Roco into smaller ones, and in Rolando, each character remains the identical size throughout the entire game. The comparisons between each game are somewhat justified, due to each game has a very similar art style, is accompanied by cute, charming characters, and the user's input to each world, both Rolandoland and the Loco Roco planet is the tilting of gravity.



Sunday, December 14, 2008

Education versus Intelligence

Before fully understanding each side of what the words educated and intelligent imply, allow me to go about defining each word.

Educated obviously denotes the undergoing of some sort of learning, as the word intelligent implies a sizable mental capacity, or even an immediacy in one's mental acuteness.

Also, it may render vital to have the definition of stupidity into the mix as well. The word stupidity expresses little or no keenness in intelligence, or a dullness in one's mental depth.

Now the purpose of all these definitions I've compiled is to differentiate the slight connotations each word possibly holds by the perception of the common people. Also to make note of how I my words were either terribly misconstrued in the post 'My Gripe on School' or I didn't understand an objective perspective of school.

I think now I can logically come to grips with schooling and 'the typical student' I went heralding about as being 'uneloquent, unexpletory of articulate thought, and unimaginative', as now I've turned on school and apparently as my grades have as well.

But to fully gain an understanding of my perspective, I think it's necessary to note I currently attend a rather prestigious school in Chicago -- one that I've never been so rigorously abused by, and got 'the short end of the stick' in terms of my experience and grades. As I mentioned in the post 'My Gripe with School', I expressed a somewhat strong dislike for what school has to offer, and school's restrictive technique of teaching, and how that directly correlates to students' linguistic abilities or disabilities -- as well as how I feel linguistic ability is possibly the absolute most essential proficience in virtually any industry.

I think I can fully admit to a sense of failure and a slight self-rebellion -- as that is evident due to my wild, un-methodical, and largely illogical style of writing in that post. I think there's a balance to intelligence intensity in expression and to deliberate, sound education. (Now we're full circle)

Education is led by another individual, or possibly many, and in that post, it was not the slightest of my intention to imply individuals educated by others are inherently stupid. But what I did intend was what I felt about typical students' lack of imagination -- and obviously I'm generalizing, as there's very little likelihood every single student in the world is uncreative, and relies on his or her teacher for vocabulary and various word manipulations.


TO BE CONTINUED...

Monday, December 8, 2008

How I get through my week

Here's a step-by-step process, displaying how exactly I, Michael Lenoch, get through my tumultuous work week.

First, I start my Mondays by listening to some Photobucket (If the show is available to download -- sometimes the guys at 1up delay the show until Tuesday, but it's still an entertaining show)


Then my Tuesday drowsiness is met by the comforting Photobucket and the energetic Photobucket podcast.

Then my Wednesday is accompanied by an episode of Photobucket

On Thursdays, there's no podcast released, and I can then catch up on all the other podcasts that I may have been inundated with.

And on Friday, comes the long anticipated Photobucket, (although I'm currently saving all the 1up Yours episodes to listen to during Christmas break). The IGN Games podcasts are construed throughout the week.

And as the name implies, on a daily basis, I listen to Photobucket.


I highly recommend all of these podcasts if you're interested in Video games, Soccer or simply enjoy laughing. All of these podcasts are what aid me in my arduous week, try them out, and tell me what you think!


By Michael Lenoch-

Brought to you by, the guys at 1up

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