After crashing your pickup down a ravine you awake to find Earth is under attack from ferocious aliens. as you progress through the game you soon enter a strange temple and then venture further into an alien facility. It’s apparent these nasty beings are up no good and what’s more have your girlfriend.

Prey Invasion is a First person shooter with the pace of an action-adventure game. By this I mean; you have time to explore. Ive never been keen on games that require you to furiously pound the fire button until you die ten seconds later. On the subject of death; its something that doesn’t really happen in Prey Invasion. If you take too much damage you simply enter a spirit world where you can rejuvenate your strength by shooting a few ghost like creatures. You also have the option to cross over to the spirit world by choice; spirit walking allows you to briefly leave your physical body. This is useful, as there are certain things in the game that your physical body just cant do.

Controls for this type of game have always been a problem on the iPhone. The analogue D-pad thumb controls that are so common on this type of game don’t work in my opinion. Without having tactile feedback its difficult to know where you’re putting your thumb. Luckily Prey Invasion has very customisable controls including the option to select individual directional buttons, which I much prefer. Firing your gun simply requires tapping the screen and you can choose to use a cross hair target or simply tap the area of the screen you wish to target.

The graphics are rich and interesting. There are no real rendered reflections or shadows but the high quality of the texture maps makes up for this. I think it is unrealistic to expect an iPhone game of this type to compare to similar console versions but the makers have clearly tried to get as close as they currently can.

All up I think this is a great game and in my opinion there is little to compare with it at the moment in the app store. I would like the sound to be a little better and perhaps a little more variation to the environments and puzzles, but on the whole I think its good. The graphics are good, it’s nicely designed, the controls are ok and the general game play is a good one.

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Keep it sleeping

Make it sleep quickly.
Obvious, I know but the longer your device is awake the more power it uses. You can help minimise awake time by making sure the Auto-Lock feature is set to put your device to sleep as quickly as possible. Go to Settings > General > Auto – Lock and set it to the default 1 Minute. Don’t forget that you can also manually put it to sleep by pressing the sleep button at the top of your device.

Avoid turning it off
Unless you intend not using your device for quite a long time it is probably best to avoid turning your device off completely. Restarting your iPod or iPhone is likely to use more power than you will save. When not in use for short periods of time just use the sleep mode.

Turn off features you don’t need.

Turn Off  WiFi
If you’re not in range of WiFi or just don’t need to use it you could save a bit of juice by turning it off. Go to Settings > Wi-Fi and switch it to off. Whilst there you could also turn off “Ask to join Networks”

Turn Off EQ
Having EQ turned on uses more of your devices processor and battery power. Turn off EQ by going to Settings > Music > EQ and selecting Off.

Turn Off Bluetooth
If this is something you dont use much make sure it is turned off. Go to Settings > General > Bluetooth and turn it off.

Turn off Location Services
Decide how often you use this feature and if its not very often, turn it off. Go to Settings > General > and flick the switch next to Location Services.

Minimise the number of times your device performs automatic tasks

Reduce how often your device fetches mail.
Applications such as Mail, fetch data automatically at pre set intervals. You can save a bit of battery life by reducing how often this happens. Go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Fetch New Data and select a longer period of time in the Fetch list. Even better set it to manually. Whilst here you could also turn off Push. Rather than emails constantly being pushed to your push mail accounts they will simply be received according to your Fetch settings.

Stop your iPhone from searching for a network
If you know you are in an area where there is a very weak or no mobile network it may be a good idea to turn on Airplane mode. This will stop your iPhone from constantly trying to find a connection. Go to Settings and switch on Airplane mode.

Turn Off 3G
If you don’t require the speed that 3G offers, you may be able to save a bit of energy by just using EDGE. Go to Settings > General > Network and set 3G to Off.

Avoid bright screens

Turn down the screen brightness
The display on the iPod Touch & iPhone is a major battery drain. When its bright and busy its using lots of pawer. You can minimise its effect on your battery by keeping the brightness down as low as possible. Go to Settings > Brightness and drag the slider to the left as far as you feel comfortable with. You can also make it even more efficient by switching on Auto-Brightness.

Minimise the use of third party app’s
Using app’s that keep the screen illuminated such as games will of course drain the battery. The more you can avoid using these the more your battery will thank you. The most efficient entertainment your device can provide is playing music.

Don’t use colourful wallpapers
If you really want to take this to a silly extreme you could also make sure you don’t use any bright wallpapers. A black background requires little energy.

Avoid excessive processor use

Minimise the use of complex games
Its good to be aware that running many of the third party app’s such as games not only cause lots of battery draining screen activity, but also make the iPods processor work harder. This of course drains the battery.

If all else fails

Use a mobile charger or battery pack.
If you just enjoy using your iPod or iPhone too much to consider many of the above options, or you just need to play high octane 3D video games on your travels; you could always consider carrying an additional battery pack with you. Some battery packs also come with solar panels so you need never be without your iPod or iPhone again. Freeloader make a good range of solar and battery charging combinations. By far the most versatile and acclaimed is the Freeloader Globe Trotter. Take a look at the Freeloader range by clicking below.

Freeloader solar chargers

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Come with me on a geeky journey through time and pixels…

If like me you were born in the late sixties or early seventies you would have experienced the birth and development of video games during your childhood. The early games were simple, but it was an exciting time. Modern games are without doubt amazing and I wouldn’t want to go back to what we had then, but there was a certain magic about those first games that has now been lost, probably due to our familiarity  with technology. Remember the film Tron? Well, as children I think we really did wonder what went on deep inside the brains of those emerging computers.

The first known video game was a device called the Cathode-Ray Tube Amusement Device patented in the US by Thomas T Goldsmith Jr in 1947. It used a collection of vacuum tubes to draw the trajectory of an imaginary missile which could be adjusted with various knobs to hit a target which was a simple overlay stuck to the screen. There was no such thing as computer graphics at this time.

There followed many one off attempts at computer based amusement, mostly run on university computers but It wasn’t until 1972 that the first truly successful arcade video game with wide spread appeal was developed by a new company called Atari. The game was called PONG. based on table tennis, it sold 19, 000 machines and and kick started the games industry we know today.

If you want to relive those heady days of PONG, Breakout, Space Invaders and Pac-Man you can do so on your iPod touch or iPhone. Outlined below are the key games of the 70’s, 80’s and early 90s along with their app store equivalent. Once again you can stand proud in the knowledge that you have saved man kind from the invading armies of flickering pixels.

1972 – Atari – PONG
Pong iPhone Edition. This is quite a nicely designed version of Pong which has been presented in a retro looking frame. Sounds, 2 player mode and Landscape play to come in a future version. Also take a look at Classic Qong Arcade.

1976 – Atari Breakout
Atari Super Breakout for the iPhone wont quite give you that retro feel until you switch it to its old style graphics option. This version is really quite customisable and even allows you to set your own background picture.

1978 – TAITO – Space Invaders
Taito’s Space Invaders on the iPhone is a faithful reproduction of the original set in an arcade cabinet complete with joystick and fire button. You can even switch it to very early versions of the game which were monochrome or used a colour cellophane overlay.

1979 – Atari – Asteroids
Astro Clash is the closest thing I can find to one of my favorites, Asteroids. It was one of the most popular games of its time and has been duplicated many times for many different systems.

1979 – Namco – Galaxians
Space invaders with a bit more interest,; Galaxians presented the added hazard of kamikaze aliens. This iPhone version of Galaxians seems to be the most authentic but check out the reviews before you buy. You could also try BugHunt

1980 – Namco – Pac Man
Namco have recreated PAC-MAN for the iphone which seems to be almost identical to the original. You have a few control options with this which can make game play easier, including accelerometer mode. If you’re not ready to spend the cash you could try the free version here.

1980 – Atari – BattleZone
BattleZone was another favorite of mine. It utilised  wire frame 3D graphics to create a futuristic tank battle and is considered to be the first virtual reality arcade game. The Touch and iPhone version is called Vector Tanks and is a rather good recreation or the original.

1980 – Atari – Missile Command
In my opinion this was when games started to get a bit creative. Missile command involved deploying missiles in the path of incoming nukes to in an attempt to save several cities. The iPhone version of Missile command gives you the option of playing with the original original game or a modern, graphically enhanced version.

1980 – Atari – Centipede
A clever variation on the Space Invaders/Galaxians theme; Centipede required you to shoot advancing insects before they reached you at the bottom of the garden. Like the other Atari iPhone games this version of Centipede gives you the option of original or revamped graphics.

1980 – Williams Electronics (who?) – Defender
I had a version of this for my ZX Spectrum called Penetrator, loved it. Planet Defence is the closest thing you will get to this side scrolling classic on the iPhone. Lite version available

1981 – Konami – Frogger
Not one of my favorites but a popular game nonetheless is Frogger. Could this have been the forerunner of a multitude of platform games? Frogger on the iPhone features some pleasant updated graphics which are not too far removed from the original.

1982 – Namco – Pole Position
You know, I’m sure some months back I had a version of this on my iPod Touch that sported the original graphics. Anyway Namco’s current iPhone version of Pole Position has some updated graphics but is otherwise much the same. Prepare to qualify! Lite version available

1984 – First Star Software – Boulder Dash
Unlike previous titles this cave digging, diamond collecting game was released on multiple platforms including the Apple II, MSX, ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, and Atari 400/800 home computers. Bolder Dash for iphone features a choice of modern or original graphics.

1984 – Tetris
Tetris has complex roots but it was originally created by Alexey Pajitnov whilst working for the Academy of Science of the USSR in Moscow. Tetris has evolved in a very organic way spawning many variations over the years. Tetris for the iPhone is a recent addition to a long string of Tetris games.

1991 – SEGA – Sonic the Hedgehog
I never had a Megadrive and have never played Sonic the Hedgehog. Now on the iPhone Sonic the Hedgehog is a faithful reproduction of the original of the craze hedgehog themed shenanigans.

1992 – id Software – Wolfenstein 3D
Wolfenstein can be credited as being the forerunner of the first person shooter genre and was released on a multitude of platforms. It is said that secret level 3-10 is a replica of the maze from Pac-Man, including ghosts and power pills. Wolfenstein 3D Classic for the iPhone is is a faithful copy of the original. Lite version available

Well I’m all geeked out now so I hope you have found this brief journey back in time interesting. Please feel free to comment if you feel I have left anything important out. I now return you to the present.

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