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February 11, 2012
Lumia

Nokiapp Showdown #3



Saturday can only mean that it’s time for the Nokiapp Showdown – where we pitch two Nokia heavyweights against each other in an app challenge – this week Fakhre (of Symbian Tweet fame) and Nitish (from his own site) are driving each other to the edge.

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Need for Speed on the Nokia Lumia 800


via his Twitter profile

My mobile gaming started with Nokia’s ‘Snake’ game on Nokia 3310 and flourish with N-gage, who can forget the old days? From past to present mobile gaming has changed a lot and is still progressing with High Definition graphics as hardware is evolving. There are tons of HD mobile games available on app store nowadays, but the game with thrill gets you more excitement. ‘Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit’ is one of these game, where you can experience the thrill of the chase and the rush of the escape.

In the game you can choose whether you want your game career to be played as a police officer or an illegal racer. One side you’ll be competing in a race, struggling for first place and the cops attempt to take you down, on the other you’ll be in a squad car on an Interceptor mission, tasked with smashing racers into trackside barriers.

‘What I really like about this game is its stunning graphics, controls option – You can switch easily from automatic to manual and the option to set different camera angle during gameplay.’

As you progress in the game, more areas of the map get cleared-up, each one offering a range of new missions. There are total 3 environments (Coastal, Mountains, and Desert) with 6 tracks per environments in day, dusk, and night lighting conditions, all giving high graphic experience to the player. Winning a game means cash and cash brings leveling up with new shiny and more powerful cars for you. There are total 20 precision-performance cars – like the Pagani Zonda Cinque and Lamborghini Reventon. In game you also get option to come back on already played stage and try for better ratings and win some more cash.

The game graphics are stunning, looks almost real. Playing is easy – by default, your car auto-accelerates, and you just have to tilt your handset to steer. There are options for braking and nitro boost – Swipe upwards anywhere on screen fire boost and touching the lower left-hand area on the screen slow downs the car. The game also has support for Xbox LIVE. So, you can show off your achievements and tear up the leaderboards by just signing in with your existing Gamertags.

‘If you love car racing game ‘Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit’ is for you, the game gives you great visual experience and thrill at same time. Definitely worth checking out, as the game is ‘free to try’ over at the Windows Phone Marketplace.

Fakhre’s scores for Need For Speed:
Usability 5/5
Design 5/5
Features 5/5
Longevity (would you keep it on your phone?) 5/5
Fit for purpose 5/5

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Asphalt on the Nokia Oro


via his Twitter

I often ask the question to my friends that what they do with their phones when not doing the conventional callsSMS?

Answers always vary when the question bounces off to geeky friends a.k.a. advanced users but always get divided in two categories when comes down to n00bs a.k.a. not that internet savvy users. Music or gaming.

When comes to Gaming, then who can forget playing Snake on our old reliable Nokia 3310 (probably most of us seen/used as first mobile in our lives). Lots has changed since then. Phones have changed a lot in shape and tech used, and so has gaming (definitely when one buys a phone nowadays), and gaming quotient becomes to factor affecting the purchase decision. So here goes the question, who you think does better when it comes to gaming? Windows Phone or Symbian?

I would take side of Symbian and why so? Let’s see with one of my favourite game Asphalt for Symbian.

Apart from stunning graphics and smooth gameplay (forgive me for being a crap player anyway, check video ), there are plenty of options within the game to enhance your experience. You can choose a variety of vehicles including Ferrari, Audi etc. and even Bikes like Ducati, Kawasaki … You can define the various features related to gaming like suspension etc. and you get to earn lots of badges and even girls 😛

You will say so what, any other platform offers similar, what’s so special about Symbian? Well, check out multi-player gaming via WiFi, Bluetooth and even NFC. Are there other platforms to offer the same?

Also Symbian would be one of the only platforms to offer true multitasking that allows one to seamlessly switch to other things running in phone and then back to game. Asphalt would automatically take care of the game play saving part and restarting from the same place where I left. You won’t miss anything due any sudden call or anything done mistakenly.

Nitish even made a video!

Nitish’s scores for Asphalt:
Usability 5/5
Design 5/5
Features 5/5
Longevity (would you keep it on your phone?) 5/5
Fit for purpose 5/5

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Both rate their games flawlessly, but what about you? Which driving game makes you put the pedal to the metal? Which has you yelling at your fellow bus passengers with road rage as you scream round corners? Let us know by leaving a comment or put your 140 character thoughts together and send them to us @Nokia_Connects