![]() ![]() ![]() Someday I’ll invest in a crème brûlée torch to melt the sugar on the banana slices with a bit more precision, but until then, a broiler will have to suffice. Not that it was a whole lot of ‘work.’ In the time it takes to pre-heat the broiler, this flatbread recipe can be completely prepped up, and ready to go. I shooed him out of the kitchen and set to work. ![]() He didn’t even know what was coming, but he readily agreed. I had been wanting to broil some banana slices for some time, so I offered to make him a little something special on which to slake his sweet tooth. And one night after we had salads for dinner, I noticed him cruising around the kitchen looking for something sweet. So confounding!Īnyways, my better half loves food that makes him feel like he’s on a tropical island: coconuts, bananas, mangoes, you name it. ![]() (Come on, you know you do!) Even our dog, who loves banana, won’t eat a piece if it’s even a bit too ripe for him. I’ve noticed that absolutely everyone has a very specific level of banana ripeness that they prefer. Our life is a constant juggle of banana ripeness. When they get too soft, into the freezer they go, destined to be a smoothie, and even that bag is getting bigger by the week. What is it about bananas and ripeness? It’s as if they’re a hair underripe when you buy them, then by the time you get them home, they’re about to turn soft. I made this flatbread for my better half for dessert one night, mostly just to use up a couple bananas that were about to turn one degree too ripe in the next five minutes. SO much better than ground up chicken in the shape of a dinosaur. Make one to share with your favorite adventurous child, or keep it all to yourself and wash it down with an icy pilsner. Capicola is glorious and even in small amounts makes a delicious, salty impact. Salty olive tapenade, cured capicola, fresh mozzarella, and crispy flatbread: all big flavors that pack a serious tastebud punch. When that time comes, then this flatbread pizza is bound to please any adult or adventurous kid. Except for some reason, not many adults can eat a lemon as if it were an orange. As we age, those taste buds develop fully and we start enjoying a wider range of flavors again. Science tells us it has something to do with developing taste buds, a mechanism built within us to protect ourselves and keep us from eating things that aren’t meant to be eaten. I know one little girl who can eat an entire jar of olives, if her parents let her, as well as a little guy who knows his way rather well around a menu at his parents’ favorite Thai restaurant. Only a few “lucky” parents end up having kids who still eat adventurously all through childhood. Some kids seemingly never outgrow this phase, and others do. Maybe a piece of broccoli sneaks under their toddler radar, but that’s it. Or cheese pizza, without so much as a speck of oregano. This leaves parents shaking their heads, confused, wondering what happened, what did they do wrong? All of a sudden their little one will only eat pasta and butter. But they also love to eat a whole range of unusual foods that, predictably, ends when they become a toddler. I’ve heard that babies love sour food like plain lemon wedges (typing these words makes my salivary glands overreact!) and can eat whole lemons with glee. My sister’s kids loved those! They’d eat them like popcorn they loved the seaweed snacks, too. In other words, as babies, they’ll eat almost anything: olives, capers, lemon wedges, even those tiny dried fish from Japanese grocery stores. Most of my good friends who have children describe their eating habits as adventurous, up to a point. ![]()
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![]() ![]() ![]() Plunging camisole tops by Irene L with vintage flower prints and loads of beads ($134) would look great on her, as would all the jewel-toned silk camisoles ($56). With her husband trying to stay out of jail, Gabrielle needs to make her money spread further, so I advise her to leave her couture gowns behind and go to Purple Poppy in Mashpee Commons. Petite Eva Longoria plays the ex-runway model Gabrielle Solis, a gold digging, young-gardener-lovin' housewife struggling with her nouveau-riche life. If you are a caring man reading this, think Valentine's Day. Susan's neck is almost always adorned with a little something, so while your arms are loaded with goods, wobble your way over to the jewelry cases and pick out delicate necklaces, earrings and rings from Wasabi ($78-$225), Hannah Clark ($198-$400) and Jamie Joseph ($800 and up). I know they’re flattering as fuck, so maybe keep these in the back of your closet in case they make a comeback.Weekend, on Main Street in Orleans, is the perfect outfitter (minus the jeans) for a person like Susan with melon and tarragon (Gold Hawk) silk camisoles ($78), Park Vogel and Christina Lehr soft T-shirts ($50-$70), Tibi pinstriped pencil skirts (currently on sale) and poncho and wraps made by Ashya ($125). Nobody dresses up this much for clubs that actually lives here, and bandage dresses peaked when BeBe was still cool (and in business). Ugh, I know this is a hard one to let go of, but please refrain from wearing a bandage dress (or skirt) for your girls’ weekend in NYC. They’re not comfortable either, and definitely not more comfortable than a pair of Adidas sneakers which would actually be on trend. And unlike other trends from the era, they’re not predicted to make a comeback anytime soon. Honestly, how are people still wearing these horrible things? They haven’t been the rage since, like, 2006. We will, however, judge you for wearing anything with a visible Michael Kors logo. If you can’t afford a designer bag, just don’t get a designer bag, nobody’s judging you. As soon as every Marshall’s and TJ Maxx in the suburbs started stocking MK like liquid gold and suburban moms started buying it up, the brand’s cool factor immediately got killed. Remember when Nicki Minaj rapped about Michael Kors? Yeah, that was when the brand peaked. READ ALSO: This Lingerie Brand Just Launched A Cute AF Bralette For Bigger Boobs 9. ![]() In fact, it’s way more trendy to walk around with no bra at all and let your natural boobies fly free. If you must enhance your lady lumps, go for something booty-hugging instead. It’s no longer cool to walk around with your boobs so high they look like they’re about to hit you in the face. Vogue weirdly declared boobs “not on trend,” and while that’s pretty psycho, they kind of had a point. With jeans taking a looser fit these days, the painted-on effect of jeggings just makes you look like a desperate housewife. You could always tell they were leggings and not real jeans. While jeggings were jeanius in theory, they never actually looked legit IRL. This might be because these are just so overdone, or maybe people are mad that yoga pants are polluting the seas? 7. It’s strangely cooler to wear sweatpants (or joggers) than it is to wear yoga pants these days. READ ALSO: Fashion Insiders Claim Kitten Heels Are Cool Now 6. Kitten heels might be allegedly having a comeback, but keep the bedazzled Nina shoes in your parents’ house. Metallic and glitter are glam, these sparkly strappy prom shoes are not. I know these are socially conscious or whatever, but instead of buying these fugly shoes, just donate money to a good cause. Skinnies are losing their domination on the denim scene, and flares are coming in hot, but these in-between MILF jeans are still a no-no in the big city. READ ALSO: The 2000s Beauty Items We’ll Never Get Over 3. A city girl is way more likely to buy a $5 pair of thrifted jeans than spend $200 on name brand denim. Logos may be coming back, but save the bougie denim pockets for your 2000s themed birthday party. READ ALSO: 9 Hair & Makeup Trends That Scream “Suburbs” 2. They just scream “preteen horse girl that spends all of daddy’s money at Jamba Juice.” ![]() Thigh-high boots may be everywhere and slightly overdone, but that doesn’t mean you can get away with rocking your old calf-high boots. ![]() ![]() ![]() What’s unique in Flesky is support for custom extensions, fastest typing with a world record, Beautiful design with support for themes and pictures. Flesky Keyboard:įlesky Keyboard is claimed to the world’s fastest Keyboard with smooth typing and workflow. Just a few weeks ago it was introduced on Android platform and has become a really grossing one. The Grammarly app is now available on Android and IOS platforms. Now the company has released an app for Grammarly. You can use it at every website wherever you write. It is very helpful for bloggers in posting the correct articles. This was available as a tool first for Google Chrome. It was just a Chrome extension available to PC only. Grammarly was not a Keyboard before the year 2017. Other features include Simply swipe-to-type with SwiftKey Flow, improved Autocorrect, Always learning your slang, nicknames, and phrases, 70+ colors, designs and themes, Emoji keyboard – learns and predicts your favorite emoticons, Bilingual autocorrect across 150+ languages and much more. With SwiftKey Keyboard, you can type freely because it has support for AI that makes corrections whenever required. SwiftKey Keyboard comes just after the Google Keyboard (GBoard) in the list of beat Keyboard apps for Android OS. Another feature is Google search that is embedded into the keyboard which lets you search for Nearby stores and restaurants, Weather forecasts, News articles, Sports scores, And anything else that you’d search on Google. Glide typing is also supported that lets you type by sliding your fingers on the alphabets. Let’s start with few important features of GBoard, it comes with voice typing from the keyboard itself. It comes with a bunch of new features and options. It was previously known as Google Keyboard but then later in 2016, the search giant renamed or it to GBoard. GBoard is by far the best and most fluent Keyboard app out there on the Android platform. We will list them below for you to try out. We saw some great keyboard apps in 2017 on Android platform. Android and iOS platforms give you the freedom to install third party Keyboards. Today we will be talking about the best substitutes to the default Keyboard apps on an Android device. ![]() ![]() Whether it is through having them interact with your game, playing side games, or setting up challenges for you, their interaction can lead to a very successful broadcast.Įxtensions can also be used as valuable tools that celebrate your viewership (such as leaderboards), let people know when you are streaming, or give you further monetization strategies to your stream. One way to do this is by engaging with them through interactive extensions. It is essential that you entertain and interact with your viewers in order to grow or monetize your channel. The Streamlabs Leaderboard is a way that you can celebrate your followers and subs by showing a list of those who have supported your channel the most. ![]() Most streamers remain amazed by the support they receive from random strangers who love their content and join their community. Content can even include videos or images and could potentially be used to grow other social platforms. You can upload custom content or create it with their content builder. It allows you to set up a Twitch panel that only your subs can see. The Exclusive Content for Subscribers extension is exactly how it sounds. This notification is sometimes all it takes for people to use their prime on your channel, allowing you to earn from them. The Prime Sub and Loot Reminder extension is an overlay that sits on the side of your screen that notifies viewers that have a free prime subscription. While it isn’t perfect (just as most automated captioners), it is fairly accurate and has helped many viewers enjoy the platform more. Stream Closed Captioner is an extension that allows your viewers to read what you’re saying live. Many Twitch viewers are hard of hearing and have to strain to hear what’s going on during the stream. Bit revenue is split between the streamer and the widget developer. You can set prices for your own sounds or available clips uploaded by other users. SoundAlerts Widget is an extension that allows your viewers to pay bits to play specific sounds on your stream. Your entire community is turned into a guild and each player can work together to build a town. StreamLegends is a viewer interactive game that they can play while you stream. You dictate which items are displayed and you receive a commission off of anything purchased by your viewers. Amazon BlacksmithĪmazon Blacksmith is an extension for your profile that displays products sold by Amazon. You do share the bits you earn with the developer. There are over a dozen supported games and you can set the prices for each feature. Crowd ControlĬrowd Control allows viewers to interact with you through sending you help or challenges in your game if they pay bits. Want further customization? You can upload your own pixel art characters for your viewers to use. Your followers and subscribers can choose their character and interact on your stream by doing actions or even battling each other. Stream Avatars is an extension that shows up at the bottom of your screen while you stream. In addition to the above, Streamlabs also has two multi-tooled extensions (they are essentially the same except that one requires bits to use) that offer a variety of options that encourage viewer engagement, including mini-games, giving them information about giveaways, polls, and allowing them to redeem channel points.Īs you can only choose a total of 6 extensions for your channel, having one that does so much allows you to prioritize your other spots for other tools that excite your viewers. Many streamers have utilized their cloudbot to moderate their streams and keep their viewers entertained. ![]() ![]() Streamlabs has been responsible for many different tools including producing two of the best streaming software in SLOBS and Melon. ![]() ![]() If I install this - the printer doesn't work. macOS seems to know that there's an attached printer - I get a choice of USB - but when I try and select software for it, it just gives me a choice of unrelated/different brand printers - the closest is the HP laser jet Series PCL 4/5. Tried to add a printer from within the MacOS printer settings. Went to as suggested, but there are not other drivers suggested for this printer on this OS.ħ. ![]() Tried to find the right driver in HP Easy Start and its sees the printer, but when you hit continue I got a message, "We were not able to automatically locate any software"ģ. Colour White Connectivity USB + Bluetooth + WiFi Functions Print Print speed black (ISO, A4) Up to 35 ppm 1 1 First page out black (A4, ready) As fast as 6.9 sec Duty cycle (monthly, A4) Up to 80,000 pages (Duty cycle is defined as the maximum number of pages per month of imaged output. Launched HP Easy Start from this page: - ensuring I select OS 11.0.Ģ. ![]() However, on the new M1 chip MacBook Pro the HP LaserJet P1102 drivers won't work.ġ. My previous device was running the same OS namely Big Sur (11.0.1) and printer worked fine. HP printer setup (Mac built-in driver) Use AirPrint or available basic drivers to set up and use an HP printer on a Mac computer. I've recently changed to the new M1 chip MacBook Pro. Business PCs, Workstations and Point of Sale Systems.Printer Wireless, Networking & Internet.DesignJet, Large Format Printers & Digital Press To see if HP Utility is installed on the Mac, open Finder, click Go in the top menu bar, click Applications, double-click the HP folder, then double-click HP.HP Color LaserJet CM6040f 233/326 Detailed Mac OS X installation. Type the IP address on your web browser to obtain the printer EWS page on your computer. Open the HP Printer Utility i n Mac OS X V1 0.3 and V10.4. Contacts Forum Ask a Question snippets.langs. 2.400 OCR software ScanSoft TextBridge ScanSoft TextBridge 0mniPage SE HP. ![]() This HP Utility for Mac will help you to monitor and. Windows 98 or later Mac OS 8.5 or later Mac OS 9.1 or later Mac OS 8.6 or. Contacts Forum Ask a Question snippets.langs. HP Color LaserJet CM6040f Open the HP Printer Utility Open the HP Printer Utility in Mac OS X V10 2 8 1 Open the Finder and then click Applications 2 Click Library an. The HP Utility app is a potentially unwanted browser hijacker variant developed for macOS systems. Printing Errors or Lights & Stuck Print Jobs HP Color LaserJet CM6040f Operating system Print Center Printer Setup Utility Print Fax Mac OS X V10 4 x x Mac OS X V10 5 and later x x Detailed Mac OS X installation. FreeBSD 4.4, xix FTP Access option, 86 FTP software, 304 Full Keyboard Access tab, Keyboard preferences, 186, 187-188 Full Membership.Notebook Hardware and Upgrade Questions. ![]() ![]() ![]() The new Synology Photos app is awesome, and it’s probably the closest self-hosted photo management (if not editing) solution you can find to Apple’s Photos.The company makes the most popular NAS devices, which means they’re well documented and it’s easy to get help.Other than supply chain hiccups, I chose Synology for the following reasons: Plus, I hate how every QNAP app starts with a Q. But again, the QNAP model I wanted wasn’t in stock. Wirecutter says that some of their units perform better than Synology’s, and QNAP has a feature called QFiling that acts like the Mac app Hazel, which automatically reorganizes files based on your specifications. QNAP also has some advantages over Synology. I wanted something that would work out of the box with minimal fiddling. Since TrueNAS is open source, I could have built my own server or repurposed some hardware, but with three kids and a farm, I don’t have time for yet another project. However, the TrueNAS Mini X model I wanted was out of stock, and TrueNAS units are more expensive than Synology’s. I would have preferred a TrueNAS setup since TrueNAS is open source. Why did I choose Synology over the other options on the market, namely QNAP and TrueNAS? The primary answer is that the DS 920+ was in stock when I was shopping, while comparable QNAP and TrueNAS units were not. A NAS makes even more sense for a small office where multiple people might be running into the same problems with needing easy access to a centralized set of files. Your files are right there in your home and you don’t have to transfer them over the Internet to carry over your work to another device. It’s still a big investment in both money and time, but it’s well worth it if you have a lot of data you access from multiple computers. Running a home server isn’t for everyone, but Synology makes doing so about as accessible as possible, and you can be up and running within an hour. The entire setup cost about $1000, but after a month of usage, I think the investment has been well worth it, even though I’m still in the process of transferring decades of data to the DS 920+. A NAS is a big investment, but what finally kicked me into action was the recent iCloud outage, when I realized that my Mac had offloaded many of my important documents to iCloud and I couldn’t access them for about 2 hours.Īfter some research, I purchased a Synology DS 920+ and four 6 TB WD Red hard drives. ![]() I knew I needed a home server, specifically a networked-attached storage (NAS) device, but I hemmed and hawed for years. I needed a better solution for local storage for this effort because my old system consisted of multiple external hard drives attached to my iMac, which was messy and made it hard to access files from other devices. 1646: Security-focused OS updates, Photos Workbench review, Mastodon client wishlist, Apple-related conferencesįor a few years now, I’ve been wanting to move more of my data out of the cloud and onto my own local storage.1647: Focus-caused notification issues, site-specific browser examples, virtualizing Windows on M-series Macs.#1648: iPhone passcode thefts, Center Cam improves webcam eye contact, APFS Uncertainty Principle.#1649: More LastPass breach details and 1Password switch, macOS screen saver problem, tvOS 16.3.3 fixes Siri Remote bug.#1650: Cloud storage changes for Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive quirky printing problem. ![]() ![]() ![]() Another map had me locating and securing my friendly convoy units, instead of giving me the option to buy them, which meant I had to be very careful with some limited resources throughout the map. Or missions that restrict you to a five minute time limit, where you need to move quickly from location to location in an effort to knock out a number of enemy generators. Instead you’ll have different objectives tossed your way, like escort missions that become trickier due to a set path of the unit you’re tasked with protecting. It’s not always about moving across the map to an end goal, which would certainly grow old after a while. The best part of Anomaly: Warzone Earth is the sheer variety given to the maps you’ll encounter in the single player campaign. There is a hard limit on how many units you can have at once, and using the right mix is certainly key to getting the job done. You can speed up time so you’re not waiting around for a fight to happen, and can upgrade, scrap, or buy new units at any time provided you have the cash to do so. You can plan your route and unit selection at the beginning of the map, but change your route at any time with the press of a button. Some maps involve just moving from point A to point B, while attempting to survive the run. The strategy angle comes into play in a variety of ways. As the commander you can make use of certain tools which give your convoy added benefits, like healing, smoke screens and more. But having direct control is certainly more useful than the automated path that the convoy moves on. You can be fired upon if you get too close to the enemy, and can even be incapacitated if you take too much damage. The commander is an actual person, dwarfed in size by the convoy he’s directed to protect. One unique element is that you’ll have direct control over a commander unit. You’ll typically have the option of selecting between a handful of units, upgrading them with earned cash, and can even plan your route through multiple streets on the fly in order to take the safest or most direct route to your goal. Most stages involve working your way across a number of city blocks, where the enemy has positioned defensive units that will fire on your convoy once they’re in range. The gameplay follows a group of soldiers, represented as a convoy of vehicles on screen, as they make their way across a war-torn Earth fighting off alien invaders. There’s still a lot of buying, selling, and upgrading going on, but this turn of events allows for a bit more variety than you might see in a standard top-down tower defense game.ĭeveloped by 11 bit Studios, the game is actually a port of versions that appeared on the PC, Mac, iOS, and Android platforms. Instead of buying up towers, upgrading them, and sometimes scrapping them, all in an effort of keeping an invading army past a particular threshold, you’ll now take on the role of the actual invading army. Anomaly: Warzone Earth has a nice little spin on the typical “tower defense” formula. ![]() ![]() ![]() As mentioned above Inca isn’t searching for romance but rather wants Shinra the hero’s baby, which he rejects. At this time Shinra makes it clear that he has Iris, meaning that the two have finally gotten together. In the epilogue chapters, we can see Shinra hunting down Inca and cleaning up the mess she keeps making. The demon is now the hero of this brand-new fun world. You know what they say, always save the best for last! As we all know from the end of the main Fire Force series, Shinra has saved the planet and recreated it, without despair. Could this be one of Arthur’s kids? I guess we’ll never know… Shinra KusakabeĪnd lastly, we have the main character of the series, Shinra Kusakabe. This could also mean that the “King Arthur” Excalibur claims he served in Soul Eater is actually the loveable idiot Arthur.Īlthough we don’t get to see a proper look at Arthur after the time skip we do see a younger character that looks almost identical to him. Arthur’s sword Excalibur is also there alongside him, now with a physical manifestation, much like his form in Fire Force. Together they seem to be hunting a dragon-like creature, alongside the World Heroes Force, making Arthur feel some nostalgia. We last see him in the first epilogue chapter alongside his pals Shinra and Ogun. Since then Arthur has been brought back and is now a part of the weird world that Shinra has created. That’s right it’s Arthur Boyle, the Knight King! In the last arc of the series Arthur gained some major power-ups and after a long fight with Dragon, he managed to defeat the creature, while also “dying” himself. Here we have another fan favourite character who may or may not have died earlier on in the series. So if you haven’t read the latest chapters, go do that and come back! Tamaki Kotatsu & Takeru Noto So let’s break it all down and see what every major character is up to in the newly Shinra-created Soul World! Also, please keep in mind that there will be heavy spoilers ahead. However, we do get a brief glance of what they’ve been up to post-finale thanks to the above-mentioned epilogue. ![]() Sadly, we don’t see any of our favourite Fire Force characters in Soul Eater. These two chapters served as an epilogue to the Fire Force series and proved once and for all that Fire Force is a prequel to Soul Eater. ![]() There is plenty of evidence throughout the series that the two are connected but it wasn’t officially confirmed until the last two chapters of Fire Force. This bombshell would of course be the recent revelation that two of his famous works, Fire Force and Soul Eater, are connected! But before leaving the manga industry for good, (presumably), Ōkubo dropped one last bombshell on all of his readers. That’s right, as stated himself multiple times, Ōkubo is officially retiring now that his latest series, Fire Force, has come to an end. Fire Force has officially concluded and ending alongside it is the career of the famous mangaka Atsushi Ōkubo. ![]() ![]() ![]() Real-time filter effects (Vintage, Nashville, Green Pop, 1977, Lomo, Early Bird, Valencia, Amaro, Hudson and more) It containts a fully featured photo editor that allows to edit effects of existing photos and to undo effects of photos that have been taken by OneShot OneShot combines real-time photo effects with photo editing. Apply a change, such as a filter, and you can see the difference on your screen in real time. OneShot is a professional mobile camera app and offers high quality filters in a lovely user interface that is overlaid on top of your viewfinder. Dictionary works on tablets and phones and is refreshingly free from annoying ads and paid upgrades. There is also a "word of the day" with our pick of the most interesting and entertaining words in the English language. And we managed to keep data offline without needing a massive app download. It also works well if you only have an intermittent network connection because the definitions are stored offline, locally on the device. You can see your word history and revisit definitions, or make your own list of favourite words to help build up your vocabulary. The speech function helps provide the correct pronunciation. ![]() ![]() Definitions include synonyms and antonyms which allows the dictionary to also serve as a thesaurus. Wildcard characters can be used to help with word games like crosswords and scrabble where only some of the letters are known, or you have to find an anagram, or with spelling. Then you can follow the links in the definition page to get more word definitions. As you type, Dictionary homes in on the word you are looking for. ![]() The home page contains a randomly selected word cloud which will pique your curiosity and help you improve your vocabulary, while the search box allows you to find specific words easily. The dictionary definitions are stored locally, and because it's ad-free there's no need for a network connection. Dictionary is ideal for both native English speakers and English learners or people studying the English language. But if you play the game, you're sure to have fun!ĭictionary is a free offline English dictionary containing over 200,000 words and definitions and no ads. Success in playing this game does not imply your success in a similar real-money casino game. The game offers no possibility of winning real money or anything of value. This game is only available to people of legal age. Subscribe to the game's official Facebook page and be the first to learn about the latest news and special offers: * SINGLE ACCOUNT – Start playing Pokerist on your smartphone or tablet and continue playing any of our Social Casino games on mobile or on Facebook without losing your progress. Use the tutorial mode, which shows you winning combinations and the rules of the game. * LEARN TO PLAY – Are you new to poker, but always wanted to try it? We'll help you take the first step. Don’t worry, your profile and balance are saved and kept safe. * NO REGISTRATION – Jump right into the game! Use guest mode to play without the hassle of registration. * SLICK & INTUITIVE INTERFACE – Simple and smart design which enables you to call, fold or raise the stakes with a single tap. * GET REWARDS – Up the stakes, win hands, go all-in and unlock achievements. * LOTTERY cards - Scratch beautiful cards to win FREE chips! * CHAT WITH OTHER PLAYERS – Use the convenient chat and message system to discuss hands you've won and get even more fun out of the game. * PLAY WITH FRIENDS – Invite your friends to the game through email or Facebook and get bonuses as a reward. The more you play the more FREE chips you get. * FREE CHIPS – Come back to the game every day and get FREE chips. * TOURNAMENTS – Play in Sit'n'Go and Shootout tournaments and master your skills. Bluff your friends and raise your bets, improve your skills, gain experience and become the best player ever! Play poker with tens of millions of players from all corners of the world! Join The Pokerist Club! Immerse yourself in a world of excitement, bets and victories to prove that you are a true winner. ![]() ![]() ![]() The music plays a big part too, normally quite bouncy and jaunty, but gets progressively more tense and oppressive as the marbles creep ever closer. The graphics of the balls and the courses are quite simple, but some of the effects are very pretty and add to the atmosphere. The presentation of the game is a lot better in this iteration, which sees a more mature tone to the map screen, and an overall less cartoony vibe to the game. These power ups can be the difference between succeeding and failing in a level, so you'll need to choose wisely. Once the shooter is fully charged, you can choose various effects to use, such as Butterflies, which causes a flock of magical butterflies to appear (we're not making this up, honest!) and destroy the first few orbs in the chain. The shooter has also undergone a bit of modification this time, and can be charged up by matching balls and collecting pick ups, which give it a Runic Charge. ![]() These range from Purple Flame, where every 20th orb will be a Purple Flame shot - which is extraordinarily useful as Purple Flame shots wipe out an area of the chain of orbs - to simple enchantments such as Tar, which slows the orbs down a bit on their relentless march. There is a twist this time around, in that there are enchantments that can be unlocked to power up your mystical orb shooter and make your life a bit easier. After ten rounds or so, you'll get the hang of where the shooter is aiming anyway, so the point is probably moot. ![]() We did have our differences with this marker on a couple of occasions, with the ball not going where it seemed to be indicated it would, but overall the system works well. If you hold down the "A" button (the default shoot button), it will put an arrow on the screen to show where the shot is going to go, and in a nice touch, colours it to the hue of the orb that is going to be fired when you release it. In addition to the new powerups, 10tons have introduced another little tweak to the aiming system of the game this time around. A well timed "Backwards" power up (which stops the forward momentum of the queue and gets it rolling back) has saved us on more than one occasion, for sure. However, bear in mind that if you shoot for a power up and miss, this counts as the end of your chain and you have to start building it again, adding a nice bit of risk/reward tension to the gameplay. As long as you can keep the chain going, there will be these power ups spawning. These range from the relatively ineffective Fireball, that allows you to shoot three single orbs, through to Firefly and Colour Splash, which both enable orbs to be re-coloured to make matching easier. When matching the orbs, every third successive match will spawn a power up onto the field of play, which must be shot with an orb to collect. There is a bit of variation with the introduction of Survival and Challenge modes that can be unlocked as you go, so once the main campaign is completed there is still more to do. This, then, is pretty much the whole game, for the next 90 levels or so. After you reach this point of interest, you're magically transported back to the fork in the road and sent on your merry way, popping balls as you go. These scenes are lovingly drawn, with just enough animation in them to make them interesting to look at the first time you see them. ![]() As you progress around the map, there are forks in the road to be navigated and at the end of each fork there is a beautifully rendered scene with a voice over, explaining what you see and what, if anything, you find. If nothing else, this review should give our brains a bit of a work out as we try to come up with new synonyms for "balls." First developed for mobile platforms, can the simple gameplay work a second time on Xbox One?Ĭompared to last year's offering, the presentation this year is much slicker, with an actual story set up that sees you searching for five mystical keys. Said orbs are delivered at high speed with a mystical orb shooter (our phrase, not theirs) that can insert the spherical objects into the queue of similar balls, causing them to vanish. Sparkle 2 is a follow up to last year's Sparkle Unleashed, both developed by 10tons Games of course, and it's fair to say that they to have been working on a policy of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." This year's offering could be termed an evolution of the original game, rather than a revolution (pun definitely intended), featuring as it does the central premise of matching three orbs to make them disappear. ![]() |
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