th the presidential campaign closing next week winter drawing ever near, we suspect that some fresh distractions could come in hy right now. No problem: we’ve got an array of new Android apps games worth a look on the ay Store this week.
Asphalt Xtreme is the new off-road entry from the popular racing series, it delivers a lot of free, glossy fun, while DC gends lets you comm a superhero ( villain) squad as you battle an unfamiliar threat. If games aren’t your thing, we also have a trio of new Adobe apps—otoshop Fix, otoshop Sketch, Comp CC—to help you flex some creative muscle, along with Amazon’s kid-focused Rapids reading app Microsoft’s IFTTT-esque automation app, Flow.
Asphalt Xtreme
Gameloft’s latest racer is much more rugged than usual.
Gameloft’s Asphalt 8: Airborne is easily the best arcade-style street racer on Android today, even after a few years, now the developer has taken the concept off-road with Asphalt Xtreme. ke its blacktop-treading sibling, Asphalt Xtreme is all about super-fast racing, now with rally cars, buggies, SUVs, monster trucks, other rugged vehicles zipping through canyons, across ice slicks, over massive gaps (as usual).
Despite the shift in terrain, Asphalt Xtreme seems to keep everything that worked so well with the last main series entry. It looks fantastic on a phone screen, is loaded with campaign content live eight-player online races, has a fairly hs-off free-to-play model that isn’t too aggressive with its purchase prompts for boosts.
Adobe otoshop Fix, otoshop Sketch, Comp CC
otoshop Fix (left) Sketch exp Adobe’s sizable mobile suite.
’re doing a three-for-one here, since Adobe unleashed a big trio of new apps upon the ay Store this week. Two of them are extensions of its popular otoshop suite: otoshop Fix, the first, brings some heavy-duty photo editing tools, letting you use features like Heal quify to transform images. Meanwhile, otoshop Sketch shifts away from image editing, instead giving you sketching tools to doodle to your delight then bring the results into other Adobe Creative Cloud apps.
stly, Comp CC is an app that lets you quickly create design layouts for print or digital use, it includes several common template sizes brings in gestures for making easy additions. ke many of Adobe’s other Android apps, all three of these newcomers are best utilized with a Creative Cloud subscription are targeted at professionals, but they’re all free downloads that you can fiddle with as you please.
Amazon Rapids
They’re mostly text-based stories, but you’ll get little photo bursts from time to time.
Here’s an interesting experiment in storytelling from Amazon: its new Rapids service offers up hundreds of original short stories all delivered in conversational bursts. Instead of participating or interacting in any significant way, however, you’re simply watching the dialogue unfold between multiple parties. For example, the clever sample story is an amusing exchange between a human boy an alien invader, who is trying to disguise the fact that he’s both alien invading.
It’s a neat format that is very much built for today’s smartphone tablet-wielding kids, all of the content is focused on the 7-12 age group. They can also have the stories read out loud, or use the built-in glossary to look up any word’s meaning. You’ll pay $3/month for unlimited access to the growing library, although there’s a free two-week trial available.
DC gends
Heroes villains form an uneasy alliance in DC gends.
Hot off of last week’s Android release of Batman – The Telltale Series is another DC Comics game— this one works with a much larger slate of devices. DC gends is a turn-based combat game set in the wider DC Universe, it sees heroes villains alike teaming up to defeat Nekron the Manhunters. Inspired by the “Blackest Night” comic arc, the game lets you pair the likes of Superman, nder man, Batman, Harley Quinn, Doomsday, more.
DC gends plays out a lot like Star rs: Galaxy of Heroes, as you’ll build a team of a few fighters then face down an opposing squad in streamlined skirmishes. It’s a freemium grind through through, with an energy system, paid perks, heroes to unlock upgrade, but hopefully the sharp graphics comic trappings help smooth over any rough spots along the way.
Microsoft Flow
Flow isn’t as fully-featured as IFTTT, but with Microsoft’s backing, maybe it can get there.
IFTTT (If This, Then That) is a spectacularly hy invention, as the free service allows users to create share applets (previously called “recipes”) that connect different services together. It’s a way to bridge the gap between cloud services, smartphone apps, connected home devices, more. And now Microsoft Flow is here to try challenge that established market with its own solution for linking up disparate services devices.
Right now, Flow has a strongly business-centric angle, but it’s free to download tinker with. You can browse the existing workflows or modify make your own, with the ability to connect services like Office 365, Twitter, Dropbox, Slack, Instagram, more. For now, Flow doesn’t seem to have as much value as IFTTT for anyone not entrenched in Microsoft’s business ecosystem, but that could change as the service becomes better established.
