I’ve been pondering the merits of Google+ recently, especially in light of the fact that Facebook has made some changes to their interface recently. Note that I said, “changes” and not any improvements. In fact, I think what they have done is more than a nuisance more than anything and serves to suggest that maybe Google+ is a viable alternative social network.

But enough about Facebook. One of the key elements that I have always found intriguing about Google+ is the fact that the idea of Hangouts is something that Facebook is unable to compete with right now. Indeed, the new Google+ Hangout Check will even indicate for you if anyone is actually hanging out.

Maybe I don’t have enough Hangout-centric people in my Circles, but it seems to me that the whole concept has petered out. Although I must say, the Hangout Check extension is actually quite useful because when you are not focused on Google+ you can still have an idea if there are people you want to chat with face to face.

Is Google Hangouts a linchpin of Google+ and the overall Chrome space? It’s too soon to tell. Something suggests to me that many people are still a bit uncomfortable with the idea of videoconferencing with friends, despite the fact that many companies already use some form of it for long distances meetings as well as for hiring people remotely.

Once people do use Hangouts and find that they are not uncomfortable or perhaps embarrassed in any way, however, when they use it maybe there will be potential. But there is going to be that hurdle that needs to be overcome, and it won’t be that easy.

via Chrome Story

“A writer always writes.  Always.”  Billy Crystal said that in “Throw Momma From The Train.” Wasn’t the most sane character in the movie, but good advice nonetheless.   Cloud Computing enables one to access their work/workspace from any computer.  In some cases, even a cell phone. Cloud computing makes it easier than ever to follow that advice.

Composting:

An essential component of the writing process is the composting of your ideas.  I have two tools that help me do this:  A Moleskin (yes, those expensive things) which I use to keep scribblings of random thoughts and ideas and Penzu, an online journal which I can access through any computer, preferably my Chromebook. (You can only do this via Penzu Pro.  More on that later.)  Personally, I do like to put pen to paper for the shorter thoughts so I use a Moleskin, but one could use a program like Simple Note to “capture” one’s random thoughts, and in some ways, could be a bit more convenient, especially if you have the program on your smartphone.

I use Penzu for everything from writing “longer” scribblings I’m compelled to put to digital format to longer ramblings which I may or may not share with the world later on.  My moleskin scribblings frequently become seeds for my Penzu entries that usually run over 500 words per entry, which is the quota I try to keep.  “A writer always writes.  Always.” — Billy Chrystal, Throw Momma from the Train.

So, you now you ask:  an online journal.  Couldn’t you use just any blogger platform for that?

I suppose you could, but there are several features Penzu offers which sets it apart from your standard blogger app.  Penzu is designed to be used as a private journal rather than a means to publish articles on the Internet.  “Private” is its default mode, meaning every entry you write will not be seen by others.

Penzu’s interface seeks to emulate a journal page and it succeeds beautifully.  In full screen mode, this is especially evident.  There is a room for the title, the date is automatically entered for you and can be modified.  As you write, a draft is automatically saved which is very helpful when you are in the heat of your rhapsodising.  You can concentrate on your inspiration and just getting those thoughts down.

Photos can be easily uploaded from your computer or Flicker and links can easily be embedded on the page.  All entries are search-able and can be tagged, utilizing the benefits of digitized text.  Helpful for bringing together the free-flowing ideas you have recorded previously that may be related.

You can use Penzu for free.  Just sign up and start writing.  However, a yearly subscription of $19 will get you a Penzu Pro account which will add some features that you may find very handy like interface customizability and other features like the ability to e-mail an entry to your journal.  One recently added feature is the “Help” button which can give you some writing ideas if you need inspiration.  Remember writers:  consistency is key, just keep those words flowing even when the well of ideas feels like it’s gone dry.  Being given a topic to write about can aide in this.

Penzu Pro allows for a user to keep multiple journals.  All your journals can be downloaded to your computer.  There is no question:  the data you keep in Penzu is yours and can do with it what you wish.  If you have another digital journals, these can be uploaded.

Besides the fact that you have a password to log into your Penzu account, there are additional privacy features that one may utilize in Penzu Pro.  You can encrypt your journal and even specific entries.  No more worrying about whether someone will take a peek at your ramblings and jucy confessions when you are away.

Penzu is available via the Chrome App store.

You can say, Penzu offers the benefits of both a paper journal and a digital one.

Distraction Free Writing:

Having all those great ideas, rambling floating around in your moleskin and/or “cloud” journal isn’t enough to produce.  I think of those things like making clay.  A “mass” of thoughts, ideas, impressions have been created.  Now it’s time to shape them into a definite statement, a first draft.

For this stage, I use a “Distraction Free” text editor that lets me focus on the writing at hand.  To paraphrase Brittany Spears, it’s just me and the words, baby.  There are many such editors out there.  Some of them cost money, but the good news is The Chrome App Store carries a selection and most are free!  Just do a search for “writing” and they’ll pop up.  My favorite is  Pillarbox.  This is the best one I’ve found so far, and yes, it is one of the free ones.  I love typewriter scrolling and Pillarbox is the first Chrome App to offer this feature. (That I know of anyway.)  You just type and the text scrolls up as you stay focused on the line at hand.  If Heminway could do it, so can you!  Another plus is that Pillarbox requires no internet access.  If you by chance close your browser window, your text will still be there the next time you open the application.

You can’t — as of yet — save documents in Pillarbox.  It’s not that big of deal really.  When I’m done with my first draft, I just cut and paste it to Google Docs for further editing to the final draft.  An on-line based word processor is probably what you want to use for editing anyway.  One thing to keep in mind is that Pillarbox doesn’t sync text between browsers even you have enabled the “sync” in Chrome, at least not yet.  This is likely to change in the future.  Until then, you will want to cut and paste your text and save it in Google Docs or the like if you plan to access this draft from another computer.

Final Draft:
This is the stage where I use Google docs exclusively.  I know there are other online office suites out there, but Google Docs does fine by me.  Not really much more I can say about it.  Not really a fancy office suite, but Google really knows how to provide the essential features the majority of people which results in a nice, clean interface.So there you have it.  A Cloud Based Workflow for writers.   Happy writing!

Many people complain that the Chrome Web Store is just full of book marks.  I guess you could see it that way, but I do find it handy to have a source of these apps which are available in one place for my perusal.

I’m sure there are a number of want-to-be adopters out there just waiting for the day when all of these services will be also be available offline.  And yes, it is only a matter of time before that functionality will be available.  Right now, there are a few applications that are available in the web store that don’t require web access to perform their designated function. One of the best I’ve come across is “Pillarbox.”

Pillarbox is an application that gives you a customizable full screen text editor that aides in creating a distraction free writing environment.  You write words, and they appear on the screen.  As you write, you get a word count on your bottom left corner, and on the bottom right, you have a clock.  Move your mouse cursor to the bottom of the screen and you have the option of setting a timer.  This allows for a frequent practice of writers:  the “Timed Writing” in which you just write what’s on your mind for a designated amount of time.

For me, the stand-out feature of this little — and free — application is typewriter scrolling. Every line you type scrolls up when you finish, with the new line remaining at the same eye level.  follow your cursor down to the bottom of the screen.

Pillarbox saves the text you’ve been working on for the next launch, so it’s a bit like having your document being backed up automatically.  One thing to keep in mind is that Pillarbox doesn’t sync text between computers even you have enabled the “sync” in Chrome, at least not yet.  This is likely to change in the future.  Until then, you will want to cut and paste your text and save it in Google Docs or the like if you plan to access this draft from another computer.

With Pillarbox, it’s just you and the words.

In an effort to see what the Browser Gamer world had to offer besides Angry Birds, I checked out a game called Realm of Mad God, a MMO shooter. “MMO” stands for “Massive Multiplayer On-line” Game” which means many, many people are playing along with you. While you’ll find many playing in this world, in the form of pixilated sprites scurrying around, you won’t find jaw dropping CGI here. Realm of Mad God’s look is a throwback to those old Nintendo games. The websites motto is “It isn’t a game unless you can see the pixels.”

Oh, and it is free to play!

In this Retro-Fantasy Realm you too are a little pixilated sprite — a warrior, wizard are among your many choices for your character — that traverses a 2D environment populated with scorpions, snakes, evil archers and the like. You move around this land with the A,W,D,S keys and you shoot by clicking your mouse in the direction you want to shoot. That’s basically it, but who said fun had to be complicated. There are many levels in this game, many lands to explore.

You have the option of teaming up with other players to fulfill quests and battle evil, or you can go at it solo. Before you go off to strange lands via portals, you have the option of trading with others or buying weapons, potions, armours, and rings you may need on the rough lands you will encounter.

A big dynamic in this game is “PermaDeath.” In Mad God’s Realm, dead is dead. When you die, that’s it, you can’t take up where you left off as in games like Diablo. You start over with an new character. The point is to improve on the amount of fame points you accumulate. While your dead character may not have the benefits of the knowledge you accumulate through play, hopefully, your next character will.

Realm of Mad Dog is a casual game, which allows for much flexibility. You can play for as little as five-minutes or adventure on for hours. For each session, you try and pick up as many “fame” points as you can before your inevitable demise. If you decide to make a Mad God account, your fame score will be kept in memory for you to beat the next time you play.

There is the opportunity for some rich game-play here, especially if you interact with others to fulfill quests. I was quite amused and recommend trying this game out.

Just yesterday, Google announced that Google Docs will now support the .zip and .rar archive file formats. Decent, no? Now, there’s actually a problem with this announcement- thing is, in order to actually open one of the formats, you needed to download them first- which is true of pretty much any file you want to add to Google Docs, really. That’s all well and good if there’s .zip or .rar files you’ve got saved on your computer that you want to upload and share on the cloud; but what if there’s an archive file online that you want to open? The whole process of download-upload-unzip-access seems a bit redundant, doesn’t it?

Overview

A fellow by the name of Arpit Kumar’s come up with a solution; developing an extension known as “Open ZIP and RAR With GDocs.” Basically, on installing the extension; whenever you see a direct link to a .zip or .rar file, you can simply right click and select “Open in Google Docs” from the context menu. At that point, you’ll be taken directly to Google Docs, which will open the archive and show you the files inside.

Interface: -/-

There’s really no interface to speak of here. All the extension does is add an option to the context menu that appears when you right click a link to a zip or rar file.

Utility: 5/5

Eminently useful. Believe it or not, opening the files directly in Google Docs-rather than having to go through the download-upload process- actually ends up saving a lot of time; particularly in the case of larger archives. Kumar’s app basically cuts out the middleman-which is always a good thing. Ease of use is another point in its favor- all you really need to do is click.

Final Score: 5/5

The “Open Zip And Rar With GDocs” extension pretty much does exactly as promised, and thus far I’ve found no problems with it. If you’re planning to do any work whatsoever with archived files in Google docs, I’d say this extension is a must-have. My one complaint is that in the case of a file where the direct link is not readily apparent (say, it has a ‘click here to download’) button, the extension can’t really do much. A minor concern- and ultimately an irrelevant one. I’m sure that if the need arises, the extension could potentially be updated to access those types of files as well. This extension can be found free on the Chrome Webstore.

Are you a fan of  old school puzzle games?  If so, I’ve got a treat for you today. Here, for your enjoyment, is The Secret of Grisly Manor. Developed by Firewalker Games, The Secret of Grisly Manor casts you as the nondescript grandchild of a famous, eccentric engineer who’s recently gone missing. You’re tasked with entering your grandfather’s mansion and unraveling the mystery of his disappearance- as well as how he was able to send you a letter in spite of having apparently vanished.

So basically, you’ve got a vanished relative and a creepy mansion filled with intricate puzzles and odd clues all in all, pretty standard fare for a puzzle game, right? The question is whether or not it holds up to the old conventions, and does them proud. Let’s find out.

Summary:

The Secret of Grisly Manor-originally designed for play on mobile phones- is a point and click adventure game in the spirit of Sierra’s old titles like Lighthouse or Phantasmagoria. The game starts with a simple headline detailing how your famous- if a bit touched in the head- grandfather has vanished. Gramps was an eminent inventor and mechanical engineer who lived along Grisly Road, (personally, giving a street such an ominous name is simply asking for trouble, in my books) and a rather reclusive chap, to boot.

Imagine your surprise when you (naturally) receive a letter in the mail from the old fellow, which starts with a slightly misappropriated Mark Twain quote; “News of my disappearance has been greatly exaggerated!” The old man then implores you to come and visit his manor, insisting he’s got something to show you. He promises it’ll be exciting. Naturally, you make your way to the manor, somehow slipping past the police lines that have no doubt been erected around the missing old man’s home.

What follows is a simple point and click puzzle/adventure game.

Game Mechanics: 3/5

Pretty standard stuff, here. You click on doors, entrances, and stairways to move to other areas of the map. You can click a ‘back’ arrow that pops up on the left of the screen to move to a previous area- though it doesn’t always pop up, strangely enough. Your inventory can be accessed by clicking a small pack on the bottom left corner of the map, and you can access the menu by, well…clicking the menu button. Items in your inventory can be used by clicking on them and then clicking an area of the environment. Very simple and intuitive; most people should have no trouble picking it up. The interface works well enough, but there are a few issues I noticed with it.

One rather glaring problem is that the game seems to have a mite of trouble when it comes to being restarted. Should you happen to close the game with the notion of restarting it later…you might run into a few problems. I myself had to go to the options menu and reset my saved game several times as a result of the game black screening on me when I tried to continue. What’s more, restarting can also mess with the sound, as well.

In closing, the mechanics for Grisly Manor are well-designed and easy to use, but a number of glaring technical issues prevents this application from receiving a perfect score.

Graphics: 5/5

While the graphics would be considered low-end in terms of modern computing, they’re actually not all that bad in terms of Chrome. The fact that they look identical to the old “interactive movie” style games of the 90s lends an air of nostalgia. It really does feel like I’m playing one of the old point and clicks, which lends the game a unique sort of charm. As such, I’ve no real complaints about the graphics.

Soundtrack: 4/5

The soundtrack for this game bothers me. It’s not that it’s bad, or grates on my nerves- nothing like that. What bothers me about the soundtrack is that I know for a fact that I’ve heard the primary song in Secret of Grisly Manor somewhere before. For the life of me, though…I can’t actually place where I’ve heard it. Anyone have any ideas? I’d be rather grateful for your help in the matter.

Anyway, the soundtrack’s good. The music fits the atmosphere, and the sound effects are reasonably high quality…well, when they work and don’t glitch out as a result of some bug in the game.

Final Score: 3/5

Secret of Grisly Manor is a reasonably fun puzzle game, and a decent way to pass the time. Unfortunately, some considerable technical issues prevent this game from receiving a perfect score. Glitches with the sound effects as well as black-screen errors on restart bring down what might otherwise be a rather excellent- if brief- diversion.

Also, I swear I’ve seen this game somewhere before. And not just on the iPhone, either.

You can download The Secret of Grisly Manor for yourself on the Chrome Web Store.

Designed by Halfbrick Studios(you might remember them as the guys behind Fruit Ninja) Monster dash is a game about running really fast. And shooting monsters. And…that’s about it. Believe it or not, those are they only things the game really needs to work. And hey, their best known game is about attacking pieces of fruit with a katana, so this premise is actually a bit of a step up, if you think about it.

Summary

In Monster Dash you take the role of Barry Steakfries, a manly man with a sawed off shotgun, a ripped up business suit, a five o clock shadow, and a penchant for teleporting to random areas of the world without warning. Your goal…is never really explained. Presumably, you’re aiming to run as far as you can, killing as many monsters as you can along the way. Honestly; for all we know Barry could be an escaped mental patient, and the monsters hapless tourists and locals. Also, I think he might be Bruce Campbell.

Anyway, with those lovely thoughts in your head, let’s have a look at the game.

Game Mechanics: 5/5

Like Fruit Ninja that came before it, Monster Dash is wonderfully simple. You don’t actually control Barry aside from telling him when to jump and when to shoot. Instead, he moves forward with the sort of single-minded determination one only tends to see in Rambo films and a stampeding buffalo. Somehow, he also manages to pick up speed every time he teleports to a new area.

So, eventually, you could very well find yourself howling along the Great Wall of China or barreling through the Himalayas with a monster-slaughtering maniac who just broke the sound barrier.

Of course, there’s more to the game than just slaughtering everything that happens to cross your path. Occasionally, you’ll find weapon pickups scattered around the world in crates of various sizes. These could be anything from a rocket launcher to a lightning gun to a motorcycle to a jetpack-machine gun. Unfortunately, virtually all of these new weapons have limited ammo, so you’ll eventually find yourself back to using your trusty boomstick to forcibly remove the facial areas of supernatural entities the world over.

The interface is simple, but it’s nothing to write home about. Your health is shown in the upper right corner, along with the distance you’ve traveled. You can take three hits from monsters or spikes before biting the bullet; though a pit will spell instant death for Mr. Steakfries. Along the left of the screen are bars that let you access your statistics and achievements, see the leaderboards or return to the main menu (which doesn’t really serve any particular purpose).

All in all, pretty standard fare.

The only thing I don’t like is the fact that you need to give the game access to your Google account in order to actually play it. Even though it generally relates to achievements and leader boards, why not just let a few folks play the game without giving up their information?  I’m always a little leery of games that require one to do these sorts of things.

Maybe I’m just paranoid.

Soundtrack: 5/5

I actually like the soundtrack for this game. The title music is catchy and easy on the ears, and each stage has its own background music, all of which fit the stage they’re arranged for almost perfectly. Granted, most tracks in the game are remixes of other songs, but just the same, the music sets the stage quite nicely, and is a nice change from some other Chrome games where I ended up muting my speakers after a few minutes because the game’s single track was too bloody irritating to tolerate.

As for the sound effects; no complaints here. The sound Barry makes on jumping can get a touch irritating, but aside from that, the game sounds pretty damned good.

Graphics: 3.5/5

This is probably where Monster Dash runs into its greatest flaw. I noticed a small amount of graphical lag when playing the game, and many of the sprites do, on closer inspection, look a touch blurry or out of place- almost as though they were copied from another game. Some stages, too, don’t look as vibrant as they should- the city stage, in particular, is a rather poignant example of the game’s graphical issues.

It’s not that the game looks bad, it’s just that it doesn’t look as good as it could- and believe it or not, it does actually tend to get a bit hard on the eyes after extended periods of play.

Additionally-although I had no trouble with it on my own system- I’ve heard that the side menu is either difficult or impossible to see on some systems/resolutions. The only remedy for this is to play the game in full screen mode.  Not a major problem, but potentially a very annoying one just the same- since starting a new game without being able to see this menu is pretty much impossible outside of restarting the application.

Final Score: 4.5/5

Monster Dash sets out to be an entertaining, temporary diversion. A time-waster, basically. I’d say it does a rather excellent job of achieving that. If you’re looking for a fun, simple, reasonable fast paced game, this is definitely worth trying out. While it might suffer from a few graphical hiccups, the easy to grasp mechanics and reasonably pleasing soundtrack more than make up for that.

You can grab Monster Dash, as always, from the Chrome Web Store

If you’ve been looking for some entertaining puzzle gameplay, but coming to the sad conclusion that it might just be an itch you’re unable to scracth…I might be able to help you out. Introducing Hiive Game’s Creatures & Castles. Originally developed for smartphones (I believe it made its debut on iOS) Creatures & Castles follows a very simple premise.You’re a kid who snuck out of their parents place in the dead of night to steal treasure. There is a castle. It contains treasure. You want that treasure. You’re not in the habit of asking nicely though- and in the case of this castle, it probably wouldn’t do a whole lot of good anyway.

What follows is a mildly entertaining- and, at times, somewhat challenging- puzzle game.

Summary:

The game isn't always so helpful. Usually, it laughs gleefully as you fail.

In Creatures & Castles, you control either Timmy or Susie. There is, to my knowledge, absolutely no difference between the two characters, aside from their appearance. The goal is to guide them to the treasure in each room, and then to the exit- often-but not always- right beside the treasure. You do this by drawing a path for them to follow, then clicking on them so they follow it. At any time, you can stop their movement- but doing so cancels the move. The goal is to get to the treasure in as few steps- and using as few powers- as possible.

Now, here’s where it gets complicated.

As you can see, some puzzles are more difficult than others.

See, this castle happens to be rife with guards- knights, priests, and wizards- who don’t particularly appreciate you stealing their loot. What’s more, traps abound throughout the place, and in many cases you might need to use a bomb or other such implement to clear a path. Don’t worry, though- you gain magic powers in later levels to help facilitate Timmy or Susie’s escape- with everything in the castle that wasn’t nailed down, naturally.  A lot of the game eventually boils down to knowing exactly when to start your character along the path you’ve chosen- too early or late, and they might fall victim to one of the castle’s traps or denizens. There are 64 different stages to choose from, each one more difficult than the last- you know the drill by now.

It’s a rather simple concept, and I daresay it’s rather brilliantly executed.

Game Mechanics: 5/5

The game’s simple- move the mouse to draw a path- note that there needs to be an unbroken line between one point and another. Left clicking on the character sets them along the created path, and clicking them again stops them from moving any further. Right clicking undoes your last action- you can do this as many times as you please, right back to the beginning of the level. A particularly nice touch is that you can hold down the right mouse button to eventually erase the entire path you drew out.

Though it’s pretty clear the game was designed for a touch screen, they did a rather excellent job of porting it over to Chrome. My one gripe is that it can occasionally be difficult to set exactly the path you want- you can only move the character in straight lines, so zig-zagging…requires a lot of clicks. A minor issue; one which can be chalked up to the fact that the game’s being run on a platform it wasn’t designed for.

Graphics: 5/5

Gotta say, this is a rather visually impressive game. The characters look good, their animations are dead on, spell animations are just flashy enough that they impress without irritating…There’s not much else to say here. To be honest, I find the style very remniscent of the sprite sheets Enterbrain uses in their RPG maker series. Specifically, they resemble the graphics from RPG Maker XP. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. And while this graphical style may not be everyone’s cup of tea; I personally think it gives the game a certain charm. Hey; to each their own, I suppose.

Soundtrack: 5/5

The main theme song for Castles & Creatures is subtle, quiet, and slightly foreboding- in other words, the perfect music to plunder by. The brass ‘game over’ music(coupled with the sinister laugh when you’re caught by an opponent) is also a nice touch. Ultimately, I found nothing to complain about as far as Castles & Creatures’ soundtrack was concerned. If it’s not to your liking, you can turn down the sound, the music, or both from the options menu in the top right.

Final Score: 5/5

As you can probably tell, the developers didn't really think this game over screen through.

If you’re a fan of puzzle games; chances are you’ll enjoy Creatures & Castles. It’s blend of a simple interface with often deceptively complex game mechanics is, at the core, the same sort of thing which made Angry Birds as popular as it is. Granted, Castles & Creatures is a rather different beast from Rovio’s smash hit- and at the very least, it could prove a nice diversion if you’re tired of flinging rage-filled avians at pigs.

You can download Castles & Creatures for free from the Chrome Web Store. Enjoy.

If you’re a member of more than one social network, managing your connections and feeds can sometimes feel a touch overwhelming. Having to visit each site separately in order to view your feeds and updates can be rather tedious.  What’s more, keeping track of multiple RSS feeds….it tends to get downright bloody confusing What’s more, if you want to share something to each of the networks you’re part of…chance are, you’ll have to visit each one individually.There are some applications that exist to facilitate inter-network sharing, but much of the time, they aren’t quite enough.

Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a dashboard from which you could view your social networks?

Ladies and gentlemen, meet Layers. 

Summary:

Layers is pretty much what I just described- it’s a dashboard application for Google Chrome from which you can view both your Facebook and your Twitter feeds, as well as any RSS feed you happen to add in to the application. You can view and reply to all your messages straight from the application. Essentially, it’s designed to make keeping track of social media far, far simpler.

Interface/Aesthetics: 4/5

The interface for Layers is pretty near top notch in design. Along the bottom left of the screen, you’ll see two tabs: All, and Channels.”All” is basically just what it sounds like- you’ll see a livestream of every single social network and RSS feed you happen to be keeping track of all mashed into one. In other words, Tweets will be right next to Facebook updates will be right next to Mashable posts.

Consequently, “Channels” lets you  select a particular channel to focus on.Click on the channels tab, and you’ll see every social media channel you’re currently keeping track of- your Twitter stream, your Facebook news feed, and any other feeds you’re following. Each one will show one of the most recent updates to that particular stream. Clicking on one of the boxes will bring a up a new tab, containing updates for the feed. To the left of the feed will be a sidebar containing relevant icon shortcuts- messages, notifications, and latest news for Facebook; Timeline, Mentions, and messages for Twitter.

Now, here’s where the app gets kind of awesome.

Clicking on an individual item in the stream will display the item in the center of the screen. If there’s a link within the content, it’ll show the original post on a sidebar, and the content towards the center. It’s a great interface, and I’ve got no complaints about the layout.

To the bottom left is your settings menu and a “compose” button. Basically, it’ll let you post a message to one of the social networks registered with Layers.

Functionality: 3/5

That arrow? Doesn't work.

The application functions more or less as advertised- you can keep track of all your RSS feeds and two of your major social networks from one place. All in all, pretty handy- but it’s not without its problems.

While the interface is rather excellent, it’s not without its problems. I noticed occasional lag while using the program, and the stream doesn’t scroll properly- the arrows that pop up on the left and right do nothing, meaning you’ll have to move through your updates with the mouse wheel. Don’t have a mouse wheel? You’re out of luck.

Usefulness: 3/5

You’re probably wondering why I gave Layers a 3/5 here, aren’t you? After all, it sounds like it’s a pretty damn handy application to have around, doesn’t it? Well…yes and no. The fact that you can’t add other social networks/their logins to the application  is, to me, a rather crippling flaw in the application. Yes, it’s a handy tool to keep track of all your RSS feeds, but it’s not the ‘one stop social networking solution’ that it makes itself out to be.

Also problematic is the lack of an out-of-app notification system. There’s no icon on the top to let you know when a notification specifically pertaining to you has surfaced on one of your networks- you’ll basically have to keep the application open at all times if you want to have a constant eye on what’s happening on your networks.

Futhermore, you’ll need to manually import RSS feeds. So if you’re using, say…Google reader, and you have about thirty or more feeds? Yeah, you’ll need to add each one individually. Ouch.

Final Score: 3/5

Don’t get me wrong- Layers isn’t a terrible application, and could most certainly prove useful for folks ingrained in social media. The interface is well-designed, and the idea behind the application is rather brilliant. Just the same…they could have done a lot more with it. The scrolling bug is rather annoying to deal with, and the fact that you can’t import multiple RSS feeds into one stream is something that could be considered a rather crippling flaw.

What’s more, the fact that it’s limited to Facebook and Twitter for social networks will be problematic for anyone who’s established on social networks other than those two (Google +, for example) and wants to follow -all- their social networks in one place. Further, some form of out-of-app notification system would be nice- the lack of one seems to be a pretty significant oversight.

I’m hoping they update it to add more features in the future- because for the time being, I think I might sit this one out.

You can download Layers from the Chrome Web Store.

“The Battle of London- October 15, 1940. The Axis’ flying armada are en route to London. The Allies are outnumbered 1,000 to 1. You cannot save the city, but you can stall the Axis long enough for London’s citizens to evacuate. Good luck, pilot, and Godspeed.”

That’s how the game Steambirds: Survival, the sequel to the eminently popular Steambirds, opens. It’s pretty obvious right off the bat that this game’s set in something of an alternate timeline World War 2-I suspect the setting is vaguely steampunk in nature- where the Allies are losing the war- severely. Guess which side you play on?

The game touts itself as a turn based, aerial dogfighting strategy game in which you face off against wave after wave of increasingly deadly foes. There’s also 24 distinct planes-each with their own unique style- to choose from.

Summary:

Emphasis on the “survival.” in the title. The goal of the game is to last as long as humanly possible against the incredible might of the German air force. I’m not actually certain how many waves there are-I’d assume the game basically goes until you die. What’s more, you’re actually given a storyline reason as to why you’re doing this, as well, which is actually a rather nice touch, in my opinion. Anyway, you start with a paltry few allies on your side, but they usually fall rather quickly to your foes’ superior weaponry, meaning it’s pretty much you against the world.

The game grants you no illusions about what will eventually happen to you, either. If you try to exit out to the main menu, you’ll see a lovely little message asking “Do you really want to go?” and continuing with “I mean, I’m going to kill you soon anyway. If you leave now, you’ll ruin my fun.”

Yeah.

Anyway, at the beginning of each wave, you’ll see a little blurb giving a little bit more insight into the backstory of Steambirds, or informing you of what’s currently happening in London. For example: ” This is actually a very nice touch, and in my mind it sort of elevates the experience of the player that much more. Or maybe I’m just being overdramatic- it is just a flash game, right?

Game Mechanics: 5/5

Steambirds: Survival actually tends to be rather deceptively deep. As I said before, there are 24 different planes for you to choose from, and each one has its own play style and stats. All but one of those planes (two, if you sign up for the newsletter) are locked to you at the start. To unlock new planes with which to cause havoc and mayhem, you can purchase them- eleven can be bought with copper earned from missions, and the other eleven are purchasable through an ingame microtransaction.  Each plane available- and indeed, each aircraft in the game- is given a score out of ten in four separate categories: Weapons(how much damage they do), Speed(how fast they move), agility (How well they turn and maneuver), and Armor (how much damage they take). Knowing what your craft can and cannot do is integral to surviving in this game.

Generally, each separate plane starts with its own repertoire of powerups- thus far, my favorite is The Looper, a fast, maneuverable plane modeled after a fighter jet whose unique power is the ability to spin around in a circle and unleash death in a three hundred sixty degree area. It has one of the most powerful guns in the game, but also one of the narrowest firing ranges.

Each plane also gives a different percentage bonus to the amount of copper you earn- anywhere from one hundred to seven hundred fifty percent. Oh, and did I mention there are also achievements?

Anyway, at the beginning of each turn, you can look around the map(by clicking and dragging) in order to see where enemy units are situated, and to determine where you should move next. Enemies that aren’t visible onscreen are indicated by an arrow showing what direction they’re in. Here’s where the game runs into its first(for me) minor stumbling block- some form of minimap would be a rather nice touch, no?

Once you’ve decided what you want to do, you can click and drag an arrow in front of your plane to determine what direction it will fly in once you start the next turn. You can also select power ups by mousing over and left clicking them from a context menu that pops up around your craft’s directional indicator. Your plane will fire automatically when it comes within range of an enemy craft. When an enemy is destroyed, they will drop a retrievable powerup. The ability to toggle health bars on enemies would be nice, since it’s not always immediately clear whether or not an opponent is dead.

All in all, it’s simple, intuitive, and a lot of fun.

Graphics: 5/5

Graphics aren’t too complicated, but neither are they so simplistic it’s impossible to tell what’s going on. Each plane has its own unique look. If I had one complaint, it would be that sometimes it’s a bit difficult to tell what a powerup is-particularly if you zoom out. Other than that, though…the game looks pretty damn good. The colors definitely match the period it’s supposed to be set in, in any case.

As for sound effects…guns sound like guns, aircraft make a lovely popping sound when they crash, and each powerup has its own unique sound when activated. Not much else to say there.

Final Score: 5/5

Steambirds: Survival definitely isn’t the deepest strategy game you’ll find, and I’m sure there are better games out there. But as far as what can be found on Chrome…I daresay it’s probably in the upper echelons..  There’s virtually no learning curve. It’s simple. It’s addictive. And it’s downright fun. If you’re into gaming on Chrome at all, I cannot recommend this game highly enough. The fact that the company behind the game is working on a multiplayer version of Steambirds only sweetens the deal.

Grab it from the Chrome Web Store.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go back to playing. I almost have enough copper to unlock the Neverslow-36D.