Hard-boiled Android-toting gamers are in for a treat with Life is Crime, a new, location-based massively multiplayer online (MMO) role-playing game (RPG).
The content and feel of Life is Crime is very similar to Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto series, particularly Chinatown Wars (which you can get through that referral link to Amazon for Nintendo DS or Sony PSP). After creating your own character, you are tasked with rising in the ranks of the organized crime world in your city.
Life is Crime is Location-Based
The novelty of Life is Crime is the integration of location-based technology. Using your phone’s GPS, Life is Crime notates your location and loads a map of where you are in real-time. The maps include various shops and businesses nearby where you can participate in various criminal activities.
If the information is available, the game will load the real-life names of the restaurants, bars, or businesses in your map. While some might oppose the similarities with reality, integrating this level of detail into the game creates an unprecedented link between your life in the real world and your activities in the game. In the Freudian sense, it’s uncanny.
Because of this connection with your location, the game evolves as you move in real life. The locations and activities available when you are playing at home will be different than the ones when you are at the office or a local coffee shop.
Life is Crime Uses Location for Multiplayer Interaction
Life is Crime is not the only massively multiplayer online (MMO) game by a long shot. It is, however, the first game that I’ve seen that handles multiplayer interaction depending upon each gamers location.
As more people start playing Life is Crime in your area, there is more competition among the various locations in your city with leaderboards and player-versus-player fighting. In Life is Crime, you aren’t playing against random people anywhere in the world; you are playing with and against people in your city or neighborhood, interacting with the same real-world locations.
Life is Crime is a free download through the Google Android Market. Start your criminal career today.
For more information, see the listing in the Android Market and the official Life is Crime site.
| If you are interested in making your own Android apps, you can get started quickly with Android Apps for Absolute Beginners through my referral link. Even if you don’t have any experience programming or making apps, this book will get you started in this growing market. Click here to get it on Amazon. |   |
is a pretty fun and addictive way to kill some time. This Android game stacks hexagonal images of safari animals’ faces across the screen, and the player gets points and/or time added to the clock by making a line with his or her finger across three or more connecting animals of the same type.
There are three different game modes in Safari! HD. In “Time Attack” mode, the goal is to get as many points as you can before your time runs out. “Survivor” mode operates with basically the same concept, but you can add additional time to the clock by getting more points. The “Endless” mode lets you play for as long as you like, as the title says, without end. The only way to stop the “Endless” mode is to voluntarily quit or to play until your battery dies.
, and regular Safari!, for phones with smaller screens like the 
. There is also a free trial version available: Safari! Lite.