Pot The Black And Win International Snooker On Windows Phone

Having been a fan of snooker throughout my childhood, I was transfixed by Archer MacLean’s snooker game for the Commodore Amiga around 22 years ago. Endorsed by Jimmy “The Whirlwind” White, the game (Jimmy White’s ‘Whirlwind’ Snooker) somehow married functional graphics with what appeared to be realistic physics long before Half Life 2 came along.

So accurate was the outcome that it seemed as though such physics might become commonplace in the early videogame market, and the snooker matches themselves were transformed from the poor 8-ball pool emulators of the past into tournaments that could realistically take as long to finish as a real-world event.

Was snooker about to take over videogaming?

Sadly, no. As with the wider world, snooker in games is considered too niche, aimed at guys in waistcoats who hang around at snooker clubs and pay ridiculous figures for their new cues.

Over the years there have been many other snooker-based videogames (Cue Online is notable) but none has had the same impact as Jimmy White’s Whirlwind Snooker – however, International Snooker might come close.

What Is It?

For those of you unaware of any games involving a cue and some balls that isn’t called “pool”, snooker is a similar game with 21 balls and a progressive scoring system.

International Snooker (by Big Head Games) for Windows Phone is a digital recreation of the sport, real life tournaments for which regularly offer multi-million dollar prizes and take place around the world.

The intricacies of selecting a shot, an angle and power are all included in International Snooker and the game offers several modes of play including a mini tournament and quick play. Essentially this is the closest you can get to snooker without heading to your local snooker hall.

Playability

Controlled using your fingers International Snooker can be a tough learning curve as the game progresses, but early on there are various settings that can be configured to make things easier on you.

In fact, it’s fair to say that you might become addicted to the act of lining up a shot, ensuring that your positioning is perfect and rising to the challenge of recording a high break (the most number of points before your turn ends) in order to unlock the game’s various achievements. Different controls are on offer for lining up shots, with a “guideline” proving particularly useful in aiding your shots. This can of course be disabled. Taking a shot is a case of positioning the camera in the direction you want the cue ball to take, adding weight or spin, and applying power to the shot.

Several digital opponents will be blocking your way to success in this game, each with his own strengths and weaknesses, just as in the real world. They’re all beatable with practice, but your chosen skill level will make things tricky unless you first become a master at the game.

Sadly, although a premium game, International Snooker isn’t Xbox Live compatible. This is a real shame as it is easily good enough (if not better than some titles with that integration).

Graphics, Sound and Atmosphere

The problems that can face a game that is essentially about sticks and balls is that issues with motion and the representation of realistic physics can prove problematic.

Fortunately this isn’t the case in International Snooker, where the striking of the cue ball and the travel of the various other coloured orbs is convincing. Different shot strengths have different end results, as expected, as do different angles and striking the cue ball in the different ways.

Put simply, the game would fail without good graphics, and a good job has been done in this area; the visuals aren’t special, but they’re fine for a mobile game. Sound-wise, International Snooker has a theme tune which is accompanied by a modest soundtrack of in-game sound effects for things like the cue ball striking another or the sound from the audience. The balls can be a bit “clattery”, but it’s all about capturing the atmosphere of real snooker.

International Snooker: Game or Simulation?

You’ll probably be wondering – based on the screenshots and some of the elements included in the game – whether International Snooker is really a game, or if it is closer to a simulator. This is certainly the feeling of many fans, and might go some way to explaining why Microsoft has opted not to include it as an Xbox Live title.

Whatever the case, this is a fun, tactical game that can quickly turn intense. There are few mobile games better than this, but ultimate International Snooker is a game aimed at fans and enthusiasts of the sport. Additionally, the price of $2.99/£2.99 from the Windows Phone Store is arguably more appropriate for an Xbox Live title.

This shouldn’t put you off, but be aware that the game isn’t for everybody. It remains, however, one of the best games for Windows Phone, and is included in our list of The Best Windows Phone Apps.

The post Pot The Black And Win International Snooker On Windows Phone appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Swim, Don’t Drown: Tools To Help You Filter Twitter

Twitter presents you with a river of news, status updates, and all sorts of other tweets. Following a lot of accounts on Twitter can be overwhelming, especially if you want to follow your favorite websites without missing important personal tweets from your friends. These tips will help you manage the fire hose of incoming tweets without drowning in the sea of incoming content.

Included here are some of Twitter’s own tricks — like Lists and the TweetDeck application owned by Twitter — as well as third-party services and browser extensions that try to help you view your Twitter stream in a smarter way.

Lists – Organize Your Twitter Stream

Rather than following Twitter accounts, you can instead add them to a list. You can view the lists – either on the web or in a Twitter client – and see a list of tweets from all accounts on the list. This makes lists a convenient way of following more Twitter accounts without them cluttering up your main Twitter stream. For example, you could add your favorite websites to a list and unfollow them, freeing up your main stream for personal tweets. You could even use multiple types of lists for different accounts you follow, filtering them into different streams.

To add a Twitter account to a list, click the button on their Twitter profile page and select Add or remove from lists.

You can then access your lists by selecting the Lists option on your profile page. Lists and be public or private – if they’re public, other people can subscribe to your lists. You don’t need to be following an account to have it appear in your lists, so you can unfollow an account after adding it to a list.

TweetDeck – Use Columns, Filters, and Multiple Accounts

Twitter’s TweetDeck is a powerful Twitter client that allows you to sign into multiple Twitter accounts at once. In addition to managing multiple Twitter accounts, TweetDeck allows you to view your timeline, interactions, messages, and activity in columns on a single screen.

However, that’s just the default setup. Any columns can be filtered by content or users. You could add Twitter lists, searches (such as searches for an interesting hashtag) or tweets by a specific user as columns.

TweetDeck might be more overwhelming for a casual Twitter user, but Twitter power users struggling with Twitter’s web interface may find TweetDeck’s added complexity makes their Twitter experience simpler overall.

TweetDeck is owned by Twitter, so it should be safe even as Twitter tries to squeeze third-party Twitter clients out of the Twitter ecosystem. Check out our tips to help you use TweetDeck more effectively and review of TweetDeck for Chrome for more information about TweetDeck.

The Tweeted Times – View Tweets as a Newspaper

Connect The Tweeted Times to your Twitter account and it will create a custom, regularly updated “newspaper” with content from the accounts you follow on Twitter. Rather than a stream of tweets, The Tweeted Times will create a newspaper-like experience for you to read based on the popular stories or accounts you follow and tweet bout.

TwitLamp – Browse Tweets by Type

TwitLamp gives you a new view on your Twitter stream. Connect your Twitter account to TwitLamp and it will allow you to sort your stream by photos, videos, audio, and links. You can also view plain-text tweets or tweets with hashtags. If you want to view a list of the media or links from your Twitter stream, TwitLamp is a neat way to get this information at a glance.

Unfortunately, the free version offers a limited number of refreshes before forcing you to wait 20 minutes to fetch new tweets and TwitLamp tries to push you towards the paid version. If you wanted to use TwitLamp as your main Twitter client, you’d probably be unhappy without the paid version – but if you wanted to use TwitLamp occasionally to sort different types of tweets in your stream, TwitLamp could be a valuable service.

Exclude Tweets You Don’t Care About

If you want to follow someone without seeing all their tweets or you just want to filter out content you don’t care about – perhaps all those sports tweets a friend sends – you can filter out tweets containing specific content or from specific users using a third-party client or even a browser extension. We’ve covered many ways to silence annoying people and filter out tweets you don’t care about.

If you’re looking to get the most out of Twitter, be sure to secure your Twitter account, learn Twitter etiquette, search Twitter like a pro, and check out our comprehensive guide to Twitter.

How do you manage the incoming fire hose of tweets containing news and status updates from your friends? Leave a comment with your favorite tips.

The post Swim, Don’t Drown: Tools To Help You Filter Twitter appeared first on MakeUseOf.