obstacles

Shoot rag dolls out of a cannon

Ragdoll Blasters 3 is the third installment in the popular physics puzzle series, and this sequel is a solid offering with plenty for puzzle gaming fans. Like the first two Ragdoll Blasters, the game concept is simple: on each level, aim your cannon and fire the rag doll to hit the target. Of course it's never quite that easy; you'll also want to grab buttons for extra points, and maps provide plenty of obstacles to make it hard to get a perfect three-star score.

As the third game in a popular series, you would expect the game to … Read more

Funny and fun, this stunt bike game is worth your money

Bike Baron is a stunt bike game for both iPhone and iPad that might be the best we've seen yet for iOS. Made by an all-star developer team with folks from the groups that made Minigore, Death Rally, and Aqua Globs, this well-designed game really shines. Even the musical score is from the same person that made the music for Angry Birds. In other words, there's a lot of talent behind this game.

Unlike many of the games in this genre, you get just one set of controls for Bike Baron: arrows for tilting on the left and … Read more

Stunt bike racer with one big glitch

Xtreme Wheels is a stunt bike racing game that offers nice-looking graphics (with one extremely notable exception), but it's still somewhat lacking. You get a few options for controls, but like most games of this type, gas and brake will always be on the right. On the left, you get the option to use a slider, arrow buttons, or you can use the accelerometer to tilt. The controls feel solid mostly, making you feel in control as you navigate past obstacles.

The graphics in Xtreme Wheels look great mostly, with one very noticeable problem (at least in our testing). … Read more

Stunt bike racer is fun, but needs work

MotoTrialz is a side-scrolling stunt bike game that's a fairly good remake of the game Trials, but it's not the best in the genre. Like other games of this type, you're challenged with riding a motorcycle over several obstacles in the least amount of time possible. You have a couple of different options for controlling your bike in MotoTrialz: you have gas and braking buttons on the right and you can choose between a slider on the left or the accelerometer for tilting your bike. You'll need to pick one and get comfortable quickly; these stunt … Read more

Flying disc fun

Frisbee Forever is the fully licensed flying disc app that lets you guide a Frisbee disc through colorful obstacle courses. Against a cartoonlike 3D backdrop, you start by flicking your Frisbee onscreen, then guiding the disc through rings and around obstacles, all the while gathering stars as you go. You have the option to use onscreen control arrows, but I found the tilt controls to be much more fun. If you gather all the stars and make it through all the gates to the finish line, you'll be awarded a gold medal along with experience points and Star Coins. … Read more

Dangerous deliveries

Mirror's Edge was already available for iPad, but it now makes its debut on the iPhone as probably the best of the running/escaping genre on iOS devices. Based on the popular 3D first-person running game for consoles and desktop computers, Mirror's Edge for iPhone manages to keep the overall aesthetic of the 3D versions, but with a side-scrolling 2D (2.5D?) variation. Even with the lack of first-person views, Mirror's Edge for iPhone manages to be very fun and visually intense (especially on the iPhone 4's Retina Display) as you run through increasingly challenging levels … Read more

Video game maze

Maze-O-Rama isn't going to win any awards for its graphics; however, this simple game proves to be fun and easy thanks to a great story, simple design, and excellent tutorial.

With a very flat, two-dimensional design, the creatures, gems, players, and mazes in this game might remind some users of the simple graphics of an Atari video game system. Luckily, the program makes up for this antiquated design by having simple controls that are a lot of fun to learn, thanks to the silly tutorial, taught by a dragon through text boxes. Gameplay could not get much simpler, which … Read more

Radar for your car?

Greater availability of silicon germanium chips and better reliability in bad weather will make radar technology favored over other automotive obstacle detection technologies, according to an ABI Research report released Wednesday.

There are four major types of obstacle detection technologies currently used in vehicles for applications like blind spot detection and parking assistance. Radar will probably win out over sonar, lidar, and cameras, said David Alexander, principle analyst at ABI Research, who specializes in telematics and automotive research .

"Lidar and radar were a couple years ago on a few cars and they were the competing systems...There are lidar … Read more