I hate that these games are able to suck me in so. Yeah, I’m enjoying it, but my mind keeps telling me it’s an empty enjoyment, not like a good RPG or a strategy game. Heck, even a proper platformer would provide a better long term experience. Still, it uses a cheap way to achieve this, but the game is fun and perfect for short, three minute play sessions. I’ve had a lot of those sessions, though, so I managed to get quite far ahead in it.

First of all, I’ve unlocked all of the levels. I’ve also reached level 5 or further on all of them. Secondly, I upgraded the monster truck as well as the race car completely. This means I only have the jeep left, and I’m hoping this to will happen soon. All of this has happened thanks to the last level I unlocked.

Playing on The Moon almost feels like cheating. Even on my worst attempts., thanks to low gravity, I get tens of thousands on each run, most of the time more than a hundred thousand. As I said, I intend to get the jeep fully upgraded very soon.

Once I do that, I’ll consider the game completed, but I probably wont be deleting it yet. It’s definitely not randomly generated, or it doesn’t look that ways, so there’s probably an end to the levels, but I don’t see a point in getting more money when there’s nothing left to upgrade. Still, I won’t be deleting it just so I can have that “let’s go for the record” factor.

For some reason, my screenshot application messes up the screenshots I take when there’s a lot of motion. Can anyone recommend a good screenshot app for Android? I don’t mind if it needs root access.

I get that this game is a waste of time. I get that there’s no progress in it, no goals, no obstacles to pass. I get that in the long run, it doesn’t provide the same experience as  a Final Fantasy, Zelda or any other more meaningful game.

It’s fun, though. It’s also addictive. It provides short bursts of entertainment which serve amazingly well to spend those five minutes when I’m waiting for my ride, or I’m in line for something. Sadly, another thing it does amazingly well is that it drags me in past those five minutes, so I end up playing it for an hour.

For instance, I was waiting for the train yesterday. It took five minutes to get there, during which I played Hill Climb Racing. Then I continued to play it during the entire train ride, which was another fifteen minutes. Then I got out and continued to play it on the train station, instead of immediately walking home. I stood there, next to the street, like an idiot, for another 10 minutes.

During all of that, I managed to break my record on the desert and arctic stage, which got me enough money to buy the final car, which is a race car. I’m still not sure if this one is an improvement over the second vehicle, but I’ll be using it for the next while.

Anyway, then I got home and instead of playing stuff on my PC, or my PSP, I spent another half an hour on my phone, getting enough money to buy some upgrades for my new car. I’m still not sure it’s the best option for driving, but it’s definitely getting a lot better with the upgrades. It’s hard to decide which upgrades should be priority, though.

On Saturday, I got my hands on a free HTC HD2. It’s not a new phone, but it was top-notch back when it was released, so it’s holding it’s own extremely well these days. I’m not usually the type to pay a lot of money for phones, but since this one was free, I decided to appreciate it to the fullest.

I visited XDA Developers to see what I can do with it, since it’s a Windows 6.5 phone, and I was pleasantly suprised. This thing is a powerhouse that can run Windows Phone 7, Ubuntu and Android, all the way up to Jellybean (4.1). Even better, it can rune all of those at once, actually being able to dual boot, as long as your microSD card is big enough.

Mine isn’t, though, so I opted for “just” the latest Android build, since that’s the biggest market with the largest offering of apps and games. Additionally, I was thinking of dabbling in development on Android, so having a droid phone of my own would be extremely useful.

In any case, the phone is working fine and I’ve been trying out some of the free games, as well as the few I got from the various indie bundles, but was never able to play.

Angry Birds

Tried it before, it’s a fun time waster, but nothing I will play intensively or exclusively. Everyone knows what this game is about so there’s no point in writing about it.

Heroes Call

A Diablo clone. It’s decent enough, but it’s built for larger screens and tablets, so it’s a bit annoying to play it on my phone. It also runs a bit sluggish sometimes, since it’s a 3D game with pretty decent looks. The game is free in it’s base form, but you have to buy extra playable classes.

Frozen Bubble

A Bust-a-Move type of game. Nothing special. The looks are good enough but the effects are mostly basic. It does what it needs to do adequately, but nothing beyond that.

Fruit Blitz

A Bejeweled clone. It’s Time/Score based and completely basic otherwise. There’s plenty of “juice” in it, though, so it’s fun to play.

Osmos HD

I played this one on the PC already and got bored with it. As expected, it plays better on a touch screen, but I think a tablet is the best platform for it. It still isn’t fun for me, though.

Hill Climb Racing

This is the time sink I’ve spent most of my spare time on. It’s a simple game with a popular premise. If you ever played Elastomania, you’ll know what the game is about. You drive a car over harder and harder hills until you flip over. You get money which you can use to unlock more cars, tracks and upgrades and then you try again.

The game is shallow, but the mechanics work and it’s extremely addictive. I have to admit I’ve spent far too much time on it.