The world's most-read Scottish politics website

Wings Over Scotland


Archive for the ‘free stuff’


Space filler 4

Posted on June 11, 2013 by

Wordplay! Because not only is this article a token attempt at having a post on WoSland for the first time since nineteen-banana, it's about putting something on the empty shelves of the infinitely annoying Newsstand app in iOS.

newsstand

I've been delving around the App Store newsagents, and after a world of pain found a bunch of totally free publications (no time-limited trials or any of that guff) that aren't completely awful, and will stop you having to look at that ugly, undeleteable, unhideable icon. You can see them in the pic above. Links/descriptions below.

Read the rest of this entry →

When games aren’t expensive enough 11

Posted on February 28, 2013 by

(I've been meaning to write this piece for months, but – not entirely unrelatedly – have been rather neglecting WoSland in favour of another site whose readers ARE in fact prepared to pay a very modest price for journalism. But what the heck, let's do it now.)

Today has seen the much-trailed worldwide release of Real Racing 3 for the iOS platforms. The controversial "free-to-play" game has a horrendous IAP structure which forces players to have to either wait for hours and hours (and hours) at paywalls between sessions or cough up a mindboggling fortune to play it continuously.

This, contrary to what you might think, is a good thing.

Read the rest of this entry →

How to lose $210m in two seconds 19

Posted on March 31, 2012 by

If your fingers exert even the slightest amount of pressure on the pulse of the mobile-gaming zeitgeist, the image below is going to set your deja-vu-sense a-tingling.

If there's one thing you can't accuse App Store developers of, it's being slow to rip off a success story. In this case, the success story in question is the astonishing overnight smash-hit Draw Something, which exploded into the news so dramatically that notorious idea-pirates Zynga (the same company who shamelessly cloned Tiny Tower) actually opted to pay a rumoured $210m for the company who made it rather than just banging out their own hasty barefaced knock-off like they usually would.

The game in our picture is functionally all but identical to Draw Something, except with more features. You get extra drawing tools and lots more colours to play with, and there are extra game modes on top of the straightforward turn-based picture exchange of OMGPOP's No.1 phenomenon. (Which in fact barely qualifies as a "game" at all, but that's another feature entirely.) The funny thing, though, is that it ISN'T a knock-off.

It's a game that came out two months BEFORE Draw Something, is basically exactly the same but superior to it in almost every way, yet has conspicuously failed to earn so much money that its bewildered creators can do little but giggle all day at their insane good fortune. Why? Well, of course we can't say for absolute certain. But we'd be happy to wager a pretty substantial amount of money on the fact that some complete dogturd-brained demi-wit decided to lumber it with the name Charadium II.

Read the rest of this entry →

The extra mile 8

Posted on September 20, 2011 by

Videogame critics are a slightly different breed of people to gamers. The latter, partly because of the investment they've made in a product, will often be prepared to overlook a number of flaws and focus on the balanced pros-versus-cons merits of a game. Critics tend to be less concerned with such earthly matters and much more perfectionist, because they're focused on the game's place in the pantheon of artistic posterity rather than its instant here-and-now worth. The ponces.

As such, they (or I should say, we) can often be a lot angrier at games that are nearly brilliant than those that are just plain mediocre. This week's case in point: VS Racing.

Read the rest of this entry →

iOS freebie of the day 6

Posted on March 29, 2011 by

Is this extremely zippy line-drawing, trampoline-jumping game with beautiful graphics and almost limitless replay value.

Rather charmingly, it's called A Moon For The Sky. (There's a separate but equally free iPad version, A Moon For The Sky HD, too.)

Read the rest of this entry →

New ways to spell “Congratulations”, part 75 2

Posted on March 14, 2011 by

Those crazy Far East kids really do have trouble with that one, don't they?

Want some free money? 22

Posted on May 04, 2010 by

With just two days until an election that could mark either one of the greatest days in British political history or one of the blackest, we're all a bit nervous about the future. But one thing that's great for easing tension is free cash, and that's what appears to be on offer from Stan James this week.

The terrifying image above is Ladbrokes' predicted map of the UK come Friday morning. (You can find much more detail on it here.) It makes a few questionable assertions and contradicts itself in a number of places (eg Glasgow East), but where's the money?

Read the rest of this entry →

  • About

    Wings Over Scotland is a (mainly) Scottish political media digest and monitor, which also offers its own commentary. (More)

    Stats: 6,666 Posts, 1,201,494 Comments

  • Recent Posts

  • Archives

  • Categories

  • Tags

  • Recent Comments

    • Billy Carlin on How it happened: “And if Salmond had been found guilty via the lies you would have been saying the exact same thing then?…Nov 7, 22:06
    • Billy Carlin on How it happened: “You are obviously clueless re the Executive Orders Trump put into place during his first term as President re corruption…Nov 7, 22:00
    • Republicofscotland on How it happened: “I haven’t listened to it – but I did listen to a few Americans speak – and in plain language…Nov 7, 21:57
    • Mark Beggan on How it happened: “Did the Democrats think the American electorate were just going to bend over and take like Carlos Alba?Nov 7, 21:51
    • sam on How it happened: “Thanks, Fearghas. Will watch them all.Nov 7, 21:51
    • Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on How it happened: “Typo 2: FRANZ Fanon (not Frank!). Apologies.Nov 7, 21:36
    • Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on How it happened: “Typo: Prof Bill ROLSTON (not Royston).Nov 7, 21:33
    • Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on How it happened: “SCOTLAND AS COLONY – a way forward… The above webpage (posted 3 April 2024) has a number of videos featuring…Nov 7, 21:26
    • Campbell Clansman on How it happened: “They’ll accuse the “judges” not just of corruption but also of being a part of one of their tin-foil hat…Nov 7, 21:15
    • g M on How it happened: “Have a listen to his program for government RoS, sounds like he is serious to me.Nov 7, 21:05
    • g M on How it happened: “Skip, his program for government as announced via social media sounds far reaching. He might have just put himself in…Nov 7, 21:03
    • Aidan on How it happened: “Yes – it’s a total repudiation of reality, which is why this is never going to get near a court…Nov 7, 20:47
    • Campbell Clansman on How it happened: “Aidan, Alf’s blathering on the “Claim of Right” alleged constitutional “conditions” to the Act/Treaty of Union is just that–blathering. Even…Nov 7, 20:37
    • gregor on How it happened: “I was listening to Radio Scotland phone-in this morning, amusingly, while weeding a garden. I normally listen to music.Nov 7, 20:33
    • Jay on The Mandalorian Candidate: “Who are the Editors at BBC Scotland? Who actually took the decision to engage Carlos (not as respectable as jackal)?Nov 7, 20:15
    • Pipinghot on How it happened: “Fuck me. Tell me this is not the Skye bridge activist Andy Anderson please.Nov 7, 20:13
    • Robert Hughes on How it happened: “Whit ! naw , really ? ahahahahaha – man , that’s fckn priceless . Will these poor wee Trump-terrorised infants…Nov 7, 20:03
    • Robert Matthews on How it happened: “FYYFCNov 7, 20:02
    • Meg Merrilees on How it happened: “…well, anyone listening to Radio Scotland phone-in around 9.40 this morning would have heard the opinion of a Scottish journalist…Nov 7, 19:35
    • Hatey McHateface on How it happened: “To me it looks like folk didn’t believe Harris You defo have the experience and credibility to make that assessment,…Nov 7, 19:31
    • Aidan on How it happened: “There have been a number of cases heard in the Supreme Court recently specifically concerning the ability of the U.K.…Nov 7, 19:28
    • Skip_NC on How it happened: “Well, he was in New York City so it was in his commercial interests to be seen as a Democrat.…Nov 7, 19:02
    • Republicofscotland on How it happened: “To me it looks like folk didn’t believe Harris – even though she had a plethora of celebrity endorsements -…Nov 7, 18:44
    • Republicofscotland on How it happened: “We’ll get a glimpse of what direction Trump is taking when this appointment is made. So who will replace that…Nov 7, 18:39
    • Skip_NC on How it happened: “Not only is it hypocritical, but I feel it helped Trump in 2016 and again this week. The constant bashing…Nov 7, 18:29
    • Neil Singleton on How it happened: “Trump met Epstein once and afterwards stated that he wanted nothing to do with him. Epstein invited Trump to his…Nov 7, 18:26
    • Hatey McHateface on How it happened: “Western weaponry has been exposed as obsolete and ineffective… (mostly) Phew, that’s a relief. There will be no threats of…Nov 7, 18:23
    • Campbell Clansman on How it happened: “It was voted on by the Convention of Estates—NOT parliament. The “Conventione” [sic] was not, BTW, an elected body. It’s…Nov 7, 18:18
    • Republicofscotland on How it happened: “The madness continues – the hatred for Trump knows no end – of course like Harris and Biden, Trump is…Nov 7, 18:12
    • Hatey McHateface on How it happened: “a complicit native elite in Scotland, including elected Scottish representatives I’m very happy indeed to concede you have that right,…Nov 7, 18:08
  • A tall tale



↑ Top